THE programming at Messums West, the gallery and art centre in the ancient tithe barn at Tisbury, gets ever more adventurous, with a collaboration this year with Salisbury International Arts Festival and a two-month sound installation, created by Orlando Gough and Alastair Goolden, which draws its inspiration, in part from the river Nadder.

Running from 4th May to 1st July, De Nadder / di -næd.ər is “a season of no things” – a soundscape and performances that are inspired both by the flow of the Nadder and a play on the word “nada” meaning nothing. De Nadder is an invitation to contemplate creativity in the presence of a soundscape commissioned for the building.

Composer Orlando Gough says: “I want to bring a river into the gallery, its sounds, its geography, its history, to make music from those sounds, to consider the flow of the river through space and through time, to create something which emerges from nothing and is constantly evolving.”

As part of De Nadder, Messums West has a Salisbury Festival weekend, from Friday 24th – Sunday 26th May, of emerging, experimental theatrical events that celebrate the word in walks and talks through theatre, and the voice.

A Stranger Comes to Town on Sunday a26th at 11am is described as “a sculptural collage of stories dragged from the sea.” It has been written and created by Wiltshire’s own award-winning playwright and novelist Barney Norris. It is inspired by the work of ceramicist Charlotte Mellis at Tin Shed Gallery on the island of Mull.The gallery provides a uniquely lit shed which allows natural light to pour in through the transparent roof.

Brother Witch, also on Sunday 16th, at 3pm, is the true, remarkable story of the trial of France’s last witch, Catherine Cadière. This performance is the international debut of Lucy Hayes’ new play.

Other events over the weekend are a poetry and nature walk, accompanied by actor Pippa Haywood, on Sunday from 4pm; and on Saturday at 5pm there is a reading of the wartime letters between the actress Celia Johnson and her husband Peter Fleming (brother of Ian) read by their daughter, Lucy Fleming, with Simon Williams.

On Saturday morning at 10am, there is a performance for children when the Storystock duo present a story set in the English countryside.

Pictured are the cathedral-like interior of the 700-year-old Tisbury tithe barn, and the beautiful image for A Stranger Comes To Town.