MacGillivray, Laura Cannell, Harpoon Group, Colchester Arts Centre, Church Street, Colchester, Tuesday doors 7.30pm. £7, £6 concessions. 01206 500900.

AN EXCEPTIONAL night of melodic, atmospheric music from writer, performance artist and musician Kirsten Norrie, who performs under her Highland name of MacGillivray.

She has worked with the likes of The Fall and Thurston Moore, as well as graphic novelist Alan Moore and actor Toby Jones in the film By Our Selves, which she also contributed two songs to the soundtrack.

Support is from Norfolk-based Laura Cannell and Colchester's very Robin Alderton playing as the Harpoon Group.

All The Little Lights, Mercury Studio Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester, until Tomorrow, 8pm. £13.50 plus concessions. 01206 573948.

FIFTH Word and Nottingham Playhouse present Jane Upton's play about three girls slipping through the cracks of society.

Georgia Mancio's Quadro, Colchester Arts Centre Jazz Club, Colchester Arts Centre, Church Street, Colchester, Sunday, 7.30pm. £12 to £14. 01206 500900.

AS well as the singer who has proved herself one of the UK’s most original, adventurous and multi-faceted new artists, Georgia's Quadro consists of much lauded pianist Frank Harrison and one of the country's finest bass players, Andrew Cleyndert.

The History Boys, Headgate Theatre, Chapel Street North, Colchester, Tuesday until March 11, 7.45pm. £12, £10. 01206 366000.

MAD Hatter Productions return to where it all started - putting on cracking plays.

This time it's Alan Bennett's tale of a group of schoolboys vying for the attentions of their various teachers as they try and get into Oxbridge.

In Search of England, Mercury Studio Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester, Thursday until March 11, 8pm. £13.50 and discounts. 01206 573948.

Well if you can't plug your own play then what is the world coming to.

Following a short run in London, the addition of some cracking local actors, as well as Will Parrick making his directorial debut, this is a story about identity, love and terrorism.