Patrick Comerford
All this week, the church railings in Stony Stratford have edlook like the railings of a college or church in Cambridge Oxford – without the bicycles – covered with notices for the inviting programme for this year’s StonyWords festival, which begins tomorrow evening (Friday 16 January 2026).
For a market town on the edges of Milton Keynes, Stony Stratford has a lively arts scene, with theatre, music, readings, vintage car days, and art shops and exhibition. One of the starting points in the arts calendar in Stony Stratford is the StonyWords programme, and it’s back this year with StonyWords 2026, from Friday 16 January to Sunday 1 February.
This year’s programme includes at least 38 events organised by 16 groups or individuals within the town, making it a real community festival, all run by volunteers, and with something for everyone.
StonyWords begins tomorrow evening (Friday 16 January 2026) with the Drama Llamas production of Orlando at 7:30 pm in York House, London Road.
The beautiful, aristocratic Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West, lives across the centuries, experiencing love and lust, heterosexual and same-sex relationships, fluidity of gender and growth of self-awareness. In this production, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel by Fran Leighton and the Drama Llamas company, Orlando’s adventures unfold in a world of colour, movement, humour, poetry and song.
Orlando is also being staged on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.
I have been working with Stony Playreaders for some weeks now, rehearsing for an evening of three new short plays by members of the group exploring the themes of communication and miscommunication, which are being presented Upstairs at the Library on Church Street on two evenings, at 7 pm on Sunday 25 January and Thursday 29 January.
It’s Good To Talk is a new play by Emma Luckhurst in which I have the role of Richard III – without the hunchback. Talking may be good for you, but it is also a risky game, loaded with approximations, misunderstandings and pitfalls for the unwary.
The two shorter plays are Stony Magic by Peter Stone, in which I have the part of ‘The Widower’, and Marmalade at the Palace by Claire Kemp, a slightly longer short play for grown-ups with a fondness for dry wit, diplomatic disasters – and small talking bears – when I have try to be a footman or equerry of impeccable behaviour.
Admission is free on both evenings, but donations will be welcome, and light refreshments are being offered.
An example of the varied programme over the next fortnight includes a lecture by Professor Catherine Fletcher of Manchester Metropolitan University, ‘The Roads To Rome’ Upstairs at the Library at 1 pm on Saturday 24 January.
We are all familiar with the old question, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ Well, the road network is one answer. Roman roads transformed the cultures and fates of a vast collection of people across Europe and beyond. Her book The Roads to Rome is the first book to explore 2,000 years of history through one of the greatest networks ever built as we travel from Scotland to Cadiz and Istanbul to Rome.
In his presentation, ‘The Golden Throne’ (The Library, 7 pm, 26 January), the writer Christopher de Bellaigue reconstructs the world of Suleyman the Magnificent, the most powerful ruler of the 16th century, from Paris to Transylvania, Buda to Basra, and the Crimea to India.
Tim Skelton talks in the Library next Monday evening (19 January, 7 pm) on ‘The Milton Keynes That Never Was’. He explores some of the proposals for Milton Keynes that never made it past the architects’ drawing boards, from the towers of Wolverton in 1945, and the 1960s schemes of ‘Bletchley-on-the Water; and Pooleyville, to the mystery of the unbuilt Italian hillside of Great Holm, Richard Branson’s ‘Bright Lights Area’, the mysterious Willen Water Organ, and many more.
Four events in the StonyWords programme take place in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church or in the church hall:
• Kieran Salter talks about ‘Bread’ and its story bread and provides samples in (Parish Hall, Saturday 17 January, 12 noon) … come early for soup and a roll!
• Ray and Jenny Rowlson recall their time in Vietnam (Parish Hall, Saturday 24 January, 10:30 am), and look at Vietnam’s city streets bustle with mopeds, rickshaws and even trains, ancient traditions and cultures the inspire modern education and fashions, and timeless farming ways and flourishing cottage industries.
• Anna Page invites her audience to ‘A Road Trip to the Owl House of Helen Martins’ (Parish Hall, Saturday 31 January, 11 am), looking at the garden of sculptures in Nieu Bethesda created by the South African sculptor who inspired Athol Fugard’s play The Road to Mecca.
• ‘Shake, Rattle and Sing’ is an afternoon concert for children, parents and carers with Saint Mary and Saint Giles Band (Sunday 1 February, 2:30 pm), with songs that are familiar from television, school and the folk tradition.
The full programme and more details of StonyWords 2026 are available here.
