The wait is over: a feast of music, culture, arts is served up on a platter in the Canterbury Festival 2014.

Here is our pick of some of the best events of the fest, which runs from Saturday, October 18 until Saturday, November 1...

Arguably the biggest name at this year’s Canterbury Festival is an actor who, even for a thespian of his vast experience, is taking on the role of his life.

Simon Callow has starred on stage in everything from Shakespeare to panto, has tackled TV from Dr Who to David Copperfield and has made movies from Four Weddings And A Funeral to Street Fighter.

He’s willing to take on anything, and The Man Jesus proves it.

The play by Matthew Hurt comes to the Marlowe Theatre on Tuesday, October 21, in what will, for many, form the highlight of the Canterbury Festival. The one-man show, starring Simon, tells the story of Jesus’ life from the point of view of 10 eye witnesses.

The 65-year-old legend of stage and screen told What's On his most ambitious part yet.

“There are 10 characters in it. Of course, I don’t play Jesus, I play these 10 other characters – people who knew him, like his mother, his brother James, Judas, Simon the fisherman, Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate – and tell the story of Jesus through their eyes: what it was that they felt about him, what they hoped for from him, what they got from him, and what they didn’t get from him.

"That’s the play that Matthew’s written and I think it’s wonderful and remarkable, but it’s jolly hard to do I tell you!” said Simon.

He added: “The play is set in Palestine and the Judeans and the Galileans had a real north/south divide there. So all the Judeans have Scottish accents and the Galileans Northern accents of one sort or another, so it’s very recognisable.

"You feel you kind of know these characters, they’re not like figures from a Biblical picture that you see on the wall at Sunday School, they’re real people. Matthew’s cleverness has been not to diminish or demean them by doing that, but to make them more vivid.”

DETAILS
The Man Jesus with Simon Callow is at the Marlowe Theatre on Tuesday, October 21, at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £25. Visit www.marlowetheatre.com or call 01227 787787.

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HUGH MASEKELA

This horn player is hailed as Africa’s most important musician.

Rising from the early 1960s jazz scene in New York tutored by Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, he has played with Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Paul Simon.

Five decades later and sounding better than ever, Hugh’s over-riding passion is to show the world who Africans really are through marvellous music.

DETAILS
See Hugh at the Marlowe Theatre on Wednesday, October 22, at 7.30pm.
Tickets cost from £10. Visit www.marlowetheatre.com or call 01227 787787.

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THE UNREMARKABLE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE

Overdosed on pills, the woman behind the icon unravels her remarkable life and bares all, revealing a biting intelligence, a frustrated talent and an imperfect body.

Dyad Productions returns to the Festival with this stark confessional: DiMaggio, Gable, Miller, Hyde, her mother, it’s all here.

This show offers a radical interpretation of the Hollywood legend that was Marilyn Monroe.

DETAILS
The play is at St Mary’s Hall Studio Theatre on Wednesday, October 22, at 7.30pm. Tickets from £12. Visit www.canterburyfestival.co.uk

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GENTLEMEN OF FEW

This popular band, from Canterbury College, will be performing an unmissable set on the penultimate day of the festival.

Gentlemen of Few have been lauded for their talents both locally and nationally; earlier this year, their blend of bluegrass and youthful energy earned them a place in the finals of BBC Radio 2’s Young Musicians’ Folk Award.

Three of the band are currently studying music performance at the college.

DETAILS
Catch Gentlemen of Few in the Festival Spiegeltent at the St Lawrence Ground on Friday, October 31, at 9.30pm Tickets cost £10. Visit www.canterburyfestival.co.uk