PROFESSIONAL mime, drama, jazz and folk music feature alongside pupil productions, concerts and two attractive exhibitions in the new Bedales arts programme.

The season at the school at Steep, near Petersfield, opens on January 22 with a performance by international mime artist Nola Rae in the Olivier Theatre.

In Elizabeth's Last Stand, Nola Rae is Betty, whose life has passed relatively unnoticed until now.

Overtaken by absurd delusions of grandeur, Betty seeks to recreate in her bedsit the court of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I once stood for 15 hours for fear that, should she give way, she might not rise again. Betty has often stood for 15 minutes waiting for a Number 31 bus.

This original production was developed with Simon McBurney of Theatre de Complicité and is an established part of Nola Rae's repertoire, toured to acclaim around the world.

Her unique combination of mime, clowning, puppetry, dance and foolery has been seen in some 60 countries since she trained with Marcel Marceau in Paris.

She formed the London/Mime Theatre with Matthew Ridout in 1974 and was the co-founder, with Joseph Seelig, of the London Mime International Festival.

For jazz lovers, the programme includes the Theo Travis Quartet. In the folk and blues series, Bedales is one of the British venues for the month-long tour Blue Tapestry, a tribute by Chris While and Julie Matthews to Joni Mitchell and Carole King.

A favourite with audiences, the Youth Dance Platform returns in March and pupils from Dunhurst and Bedales will perform works by Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn plus a dramatic portrayal of poet Sylvia Plath.

Actresses Amanda Waldy and Jenny Tarrant will play Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf in the Not The National Theatre Production of Vita and Virginia by Eileen Atkins.

Bedales Gallery hosts two exhibitions, opening with Dewss Code: RCA which provides a fascinating glimpse into the work of MA students in their second year in the School of Fashion at the Royal College of Art. The exhibition will include clothing, millinery and accessories.

Phone (01730) 304237. Tickets for professional productions are sold at One Tree Books, Lavant Street.