A BRAND-new professional performance season is getting underway at Harpenden Public Halls this new year with funding from St Albans district council.

The season will feature a mix of cabaret, theatre, dance and film with the Public Halls hosting one event each month from the new programme, starting next Thursday, January 19, with Rogue Theatre’s Dancer and the Devil.

Set in a secret bar, a nightclub hidden in the forest, it tells the story of those displaced by war who have had to hide and run away from their past lives.

Dancer and the Devil blends showmanship and poetry against a background of live music.

The next performance will be on Friday, February 3, when 7 Day Drunk by Bryony Kimmings is performed.

A new one-woman show it explores the links between artists and mind-altering drugs and was created by Kimmings in states of intoxication during a seven-day scientific experiment – but it is performed sober.

On Thursday, March 15, the foyer of the Public Halls will be transformed by the installation of a dance film by State of Flux called A Blank Canvas.

It blends the mediums of dance, film and animation in a 13-minute film which can be experienced throughout the day from 3pm until 9pm.

The first season closes with Ballad of Unbeatable Hearts by Richard Fry. The third verse monologue of Fry’s trilogy, it addresses the central theme of young gay suicide and attempts to reverse the trend.

Tickets for all the shows, with the exception of the dance film installation, are �9 with concessions �6.