LAUNCHING the St Albans Festival at the Maltings Arts Theatre on Saturday is a performance of In A Thousand Pieces by The Paper Birds Theatre Company.

The multi award-winning show returns to the UK following an international sell-out tour. Ice creams, suitcases, floorboards and buttons tell the tale of a young Eastern European girl and her journey to England.

A patchwork of accounts, misunderstandings, movement, text and live original music, it depicts the violent, isolated and brutal world which is home to thousands of women forced into the British sex trade.

The play, which was a Fringe First award winner in 2008 and has been shortlisted for three other awards, begins at 8pm and is suitable for ages 13 upwards. Tickets are �12 with concessions �10, available from the box office on 01727 844222.

Film replaces live theatre next week when the arts theatre holds a Kubrick Film Festival celebrating the work of the film director who lived at Childwickbury between Harpenden and St Albans until his death.

Spartacus – the story of the rebellious Thracian born and raised a slave before being trained as a gladiator – is being shown at 1pm next Wednesday, June 16, with Barry Lyndon, the Irish rogue who wins the heart of a rich widow, at 7.30pm the following night, June 17.

The seminal film A Clockwork Orange, set in a future Britain where delinquent Alex DeLarge symbolises society’s crime problem, is being shown at 7.30pm next Friday, June 18, and at 10pm next Saturday, June 19, the arts theatre is hosting a screening of The Shining, the Jack Nicholson film of evil in the past and future.

Tickets are �5 with concessions �4.50 and a special deal available if more than one film is booked.