The cast of the New International Encounter company are clearly out to have some fun with characters and plot and go to it with relish and invention. The on-stage piano, for example, doubles as train and elephant and the various stages in the race, from Suez to New York, are drawn with elegant economy. The balloon stage of the race is a little gem. The international cast (they tell us) are an ensemble and not credited with particular roles (fair enough), take a fairly broad brush approach to the characters.

Part of the CHELTENHAM MUSIC FESTIVAL. Satie was a true eccentric who meticulously catalogued his life and thoughts in words and so it was an easy, and maybe obvious, choice to combine the writings with the music. Meurig Bowen who devised and wrote the show took us chronologically through the composer’s life and times and the presentation was itself, befittingly, a little eccentric.