The Tolmen Centre is at the heart of village life in Constantine, Cornwall. Many residents and friends enjoy events here; a wide and loyal audience has developed for the varied arts programme including music, theatre and cinema, and the Centre has built up an excellent reputation in the Cornish arts community. Miracle, Cube, Cscape, and Pipeline theatre companies are regular visitors both to perform and to develop new work.
The Café Tolmen is often open for meals when there’s an event at the Centre. Please call us on 01326 340630 to pre-book your meal from 6pm.
The Tolmen Centre is a not-for-profit organisation entirely run by volunteer help – no-one gets paid for their time. This creates a rather special ethos around the place – and allows us to be ambitious in what we promote and undertake.
If you would be interested in volunteering in any capacity, please get in touch with member of our team. Volunteers receive free tickets to events at which they help.
What’s on in the Tolmen CommunityWe’ve introduced a new section on our website showcasing events in and around the Tolmen that sit outside our official programme. These activities might not appear in the main calendar, but they’re very much part of the vibrant community around us. Simply click the button to explore what’s on and see what else is happening locally. |
|
|---|---|
Loading…Gallery
Friday January 9th - Sunday February 15th
THE YOUNG ART SHOW – Tolmen Gallery
Sunday January 4th – Sunday February 15th
The Young Art Show Tolmen Gallery
An exhibition of work by young artists living in and around Constantine. This is the Big Show for Medium People!
Viewing during scheduled Tolmen events between January 4th and February 15th
Celebration afternoon January 25th 3-6 – to include a demonstration of the puppets made by young people with puppeteer Deborah Maurice . . . .
(look out for Deborah’s own puppet show matinee at the Tolmen: “A Brush with the Emperor” on Sunday Jan 18th at 3pm, with Kin Thiessen’s live accompaniment!)
Family
Sunday January 18th
3:00 pm
A BRUSH WITH THE EMPEROR
A BRUSH WITH THE EMPEROR
The Chinese legend tells of a child’s dream of becoming a painter and his encounter with the greed of an evil emperor. Liang travels a long way to achieve his dreams and gain his freedom.
For the original version of a Brush With the Emperor Deborah Maurice worked with the renowned Czech theatre designer, Petr Matàsek. For her set she sourced silk, bamboo and inspiration while working in Pakistan. A tiny pagoda transforms into a vast arena of bamboo forest, a palace, a prison. Sounds and shadow theatre mingle with the dreams as Liang paints what the people need! The musician Kin Thiessen, with his range of instruments and voice is present and visible throughout the show creating an atmosphere of enchantment. Chinese lullabies, market atmospheres, the splendor of the imperial palace with its gong sounds; the viscous atmosphere of prison, drums densely fill the show and then Liang’s flight from the emperor’s army on the back of a dragon … magic!
Since its creation this show has toured and enchanted audiences in International puppet festivals,the Highland and Islands of Scotland, The Lake District, France, Switzerland and Madrid in Spain.
GET TICKETS
Music
Saturday January 24th
7:30 pm
Moscow Drug Club
The band known as Moscow Drug Club, self described as ‘Transcendent Troubadours of Gypsy Latin & Swing’ hail from Bristol, not Moscow, and provide exciting musical entertainment from balkan folk to gypsy jazz to blues and cabaret.
Those who have experienced a gig with Moscow Drug Club – and they have played at the Tolmen Centre twice before – will be sure to remember the excitement they generate.
They are a tricky band to describe as they take music from a wide variety of musical genres: you may hear anything from Berlin cabaret from the 1930s: Hot Club Gypsy jazz: Tom Waits ballads; Jacques Brel: and much more.
They deliver a wonderful mix of numbers, built around the theatricality of vocalist Katya Gorrie and driven by the brilliant musicianship of Jonny Bruce (trumpet) Mirek Salmon (accordion) Andy Bowen (guitar) and Andy Crowdy (double bass).
Like all the best bands, together they are sometimes more than the sum of the individual solo parts – as they suddenly take off into irresistible, swinging jazz ensemble playing folded around Katya’s powerful vocals.
Once experienced, MDC are not easy to forget.
Venue Opens: 18:00
Event Starts: 19:30
Tickets £18, £15 (no children’s tickets)
GET TICKETS
Moscow Drug Club (the band is named after the song) is a curious musical place where certain elements of 1930s Berlin Cabaret, Hot Club de France, Nuevo Tango & Gypsy Campfire meet, have a few to drink and stagger arm in arm into the darkness of some eastern European cobbled street on a mission to find the bar where Django Reinhardt & Tom Waits are having an after hours jam with the local Tziganes. Combining their original material with songs by the likes of Jaques Brel, Leornard Cohen, Tom Waits & Eartha Kitt. Moscow Drug Club provide an intoxicating & intimate musical experience. You are cordially invited to share a wry smile with us as you enter the darkly comic world of Moscow Drug Club…..this way please & mind the stairs!
A few audience responses:
- “Absolute Knock Out Performance!”
- “Evocative, Beautiful & Inspiring!”
- “Best Music Entertainment We’ve Ever Seen!”
- “Heady & Intoxicating”
Film
Wednesday January 28th
7:30 pm
The Eight Mountains
Tolmen Movies
An epic journey of friendship
and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains follows over four decades the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno.
Movie Café 6pm. One pot supper, no booking.
Tickets £5 on the door
ImageTMDB
Music
Saturday February 7th
7:30 pm
Budapest Café Orchestra
Back Again!
Legendary jazz violinist Christian Garrick returns with his four piece cafe orchestra to bring us an evening of dazzling virtuosity in a repertoire of Eastern European and gypsy jazz tunes, leavened with wit and showmanship of the first order. This will be the band’s fifth appearance at the Tolmen, and we expect another full house.
Advance booking required for cafe meals, via Barbara on 01326 340630.
Venue Opens: 18:00
Event Starts: 19:30
Ticket price £18
Concessions £15
Children £8.75
Film
Wednesday February 11th
7:30 pm
So Long, My Son
Tolmen Movies
So long, My Son is an epic generational drama of two families in China, from the 1980s to the present day; directed and shot with clarity and calm, audaciously structured in terms of flashback and flashforward – and acted superbly. poignant, profound masterpiece
Movie Café 6pm. One pot supper, no booking.
Tickets £5 on the door
ImageTMDB
Theatre
Thursday February 19th
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Theatre
Friday February 20th
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Theatre
Saturday February 21st
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Gallery
Sunday February 22nd - Sunday April 5th
AMONG THE WATERLILIES – Tolmen Gallery
Helen, a member of the Cornish Arts Charity Shallal enjoys exploring a variety of media including her new favourite – collages of recycled materials.”
Open View: 7th March 1100 – 1500.
With a pop up performance by Shallal 2.
Theatre
Thursday February 26th
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Theatre
Friday February 27th
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Theatre
Saturday February 28th
7:00 pm
NO ANGEL – Tolmen Theatre Company
February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th 28th 7.00pm
November 1940: At the height of the Blitz, two young girls meet on a London underground platform, sheltering from the bombs. And their two lives are changed forever. February 2026: Fourteen year old Maddy reluctantly opens a battered suitcase full of diaries and notebooks – the only personal effects of her recently departed great-granny. And the hidden truth of a whole life spills out.The company that brought you ‘Before the Flood’ and ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ presents ‘No Angel’: an epic, bittersweet, cross-generational detective story of love, loss, and the long shadows of war.
Age guide: 10+
Tickets £7, Children £4
February 19th GET TICKETS
February 20th GET TICKETS
February 21st GET TICKETS
February 26th GET TICKETS
February 27th GET TICKETS
February 28th GET TICKETS
Film
Wednesday March 4th
7:30 pm
The Ballad of Wallis Island
An eccentric lottery winner living alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favourite musicians to perform at his home.
Tolmen Movies
Movie Café 6pm. One pot supper, no booking.
Tickets £5 on the door
Theatre
Saturday March 14th
7:30 pm
LUKE WRIGHT presents LATER LIFE LETTER
Later Life Letter tells the story of Luke Wright’s adoption – the life he leads, and the one he might have done. What’s it like to stumble across your birth mother on Facebook? How do you honour the parents who have raised you while satisfying a curiosity about where you came from? Is it telling that you married a social worker?
Wright navigates his audience through a warm and honest hour of poems and stand-up with the wit, pathos, and silliness that has made him one of the most popular live poets in England.
This is a frank account of what it means to be someone’s child told by a performer who really knows what he’s doing. Expect raucous laughter, tear-stained cheeks, and a little smattering of drum n bass.
“Witty observation and rollicking acuity”
★★★★ Guardian
“His poems shoot arrows through the heart.”
★★★★★ List
“A sharpness and wisdom that lifts the soul and soothes the battered heart.”
★★★★ Scotsman
“A streetwise panache and a sardonic comic verve to rival Stewart Lee.”
★★★★★ Telegraph
“Honesty, humour, ire and wonder. He is at the peak of his powers.”
★★★★★ Stage
Event Starts: 19:30
Tickets £15.98
GET TICKETS
Film
Wednesday March 18th
7:30 pm
The Lighthouse
Tolmen Movies
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Movie Café 6pm. One pot supper no booking.
Tickets £5 on the door
ImageTMDB
Music
Saturday March 21st
7:30 pm
BOB FOX – An evening with the War Horse songman
BOB FOX
For more than fifty years, Bob Fox has been recognised as one of the truly iconic voices of British folk music. Deeply influenced by the working-class culture and industrial heritage of his native County Durham, he is a master storyteller through song.
Emerging from the vibrant folk revival of the 1960s and 70s, Bob has toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand – both as a solo performer and alongside artists such as Ralph McTell, Richard Thompson, Jethro Tull, and Fairport Convention. His debut album with Stu Luckley, Nowt So Good’ll Pass(1978), was named Melody Maker Folk Album of the Year, while his solo release Dreams Never Leave You (2000) was chosen as The Daily Telegraph’s Album of the Year.
Renowned for his warm, rich voice and accomplished guitar style, Bob has received numerous nominations for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and remains a much-loved figure on the live circuit. His collaborations include work with Billy Mitchell, The Pitmen Poets, and the BBC New Radio Ballads series. He also portrayed the Songman in the National Theatre’s multi-award-winning production of War Horse in London’s West End and on its acclaimed national and international tours.
More recently, Bob has reunited with Jez Lowe and Julie Matthews for New Radio Ballads Live and joined Home Service as lead vocalist. Expect an evening of songs of love, work, humour and humanity – from War Horse and New Radio Ballads to well-loved favourites from across his long and distinguished career.
“As soon as I heard him sing, I realised that Bob Fox must have one of the best voices in England.” – Ralph McTell
“Your voice and playing are undiminished in quality and expertise.” – Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)
“Pure and unadulterated folk music at its finest.” – Australian National Folk Festival
“Possibly the most complete male artist in English folk.” – The Daily Telegraph
Event Starts: 19:30
Tickets £17.50, £15, £7.50 (children)
GET TICKETS
Music
Saturday April 18th
7:30 pm
Dalla Duo and Rough Island Band Duo
Traditional and original music from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Dalla Duo and Rough Island Band Duo come together for a unique performance, celebrating decades spent exploring the idea of hyper-local music. Dalla pioneered the Celtic music of Cornwall, exploring and reinventing powerful traditions along the journey: Rough Island Band embarked nearly twenty years ago on a mission to set the islands to music.
Pre show supper is available from Cafe Tolmen – book in advance with Barbara on 01326 340630
Event Starts: 19:30
Tickets £15
GET TICKETS
Music
Saturday April 25th
7:30 pm
CLIVE CARROLL
Sensational Instrumental Music That Knows No Boundaries
This will be Clive’s third appearance at the Tolmen Centre
Award-winning guitarist, Clive Carroll, is widely known for his unmistakable sound, compositions, and versatility. He has toured across five continents, bringing his signature blend of warmth and humour to breathtaking, genre-bending live performances.
Carroll made his musical debut at age two as a banjo-strumming cowboy singing nursery rhymes, and went on to earn a 1st Class Honours Degree in Composition and Guitar from the famed Trinity College of Music in London. Upon graduation, he was taken on the road by the legendary “folk-baroque” pioneer, guitarist-composer John Renbourn, with whom he also collaborated over many years. He has also worked with guitar greats such as John Williams, D’Gary, Tommy Emmanuel, Xuefei Yang, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Ralph Towner.
Carroll has released five solo albums to wide acclaim, and has composed music for film and television. He most recently performed ‘Pete Seeger’ banjo parts on the Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown”.
Clive Carroll’s 2026 solo concert programme features newly composed music that fuses his Irish musical heritage with contemporary vision; the darkness of a untamed landscape, wild dances of abandon, and the resonance of ‘home’.
2000 – “Probably the best and most original young acoustic guitarist/composer in Britain.” – Acoustic Guitar Magazine USA
2009 – “Clive Carroll looks set to become the latest acoustic guitar hero” – The Guardian, UK
2021 – “…arguably the most accomplished fingerstylist in the world today…” – Total Guitar Magazine
2024 – “one of the finest fingerstyle guitarists and instructors working today. His knowledge, technique, and passion for the art form are unparalleled” – Acoustic Guitar Magazine USA
Event Starts: 19:30
£17.50, £14(discount) £8.75(children)
GET TICKETS
Music
Saturday May 23rd
7:30 pm
Catrin Finch NOTES TO SELF
Catrin Finch performs Notes to Self, a series of reflective and deeply personal new tracks she has composed for Katy, her 13 year-old-self, and her first album of solo compositions in a decade.
With accompanying letters underscoring the profound stories of her personal journey, Notes To Self weaves together Catrin’s experiences, emotions, and introspections. Through her music, she explores themes of vulnerability, expectation, transformation, and the unpredictability of a life played out under the public eye. Each composition draws from her past; a 40-year career as one of her generation’s most adventurous and pioneering artists. Her enduring honesty and bravery resonate, inviting listeners to connect deeply with her story, as she translates her struggles and triumphs into sound. Notes To Self not only showcases Catrin’s evolution as a musician, but charts a remarkable career shaped by her experiences as a gay woman, a cancer survivor, a sister, daughter and mother.
Notes To Self is a step into a new creative dimension for this extraordinary harpist, whose career takes new turns with each new project.
Pre show supper is available from Cafe Tolmen – book in advance with Barbara on 01326 340630
Event Starts: 19:30
Tickets £15 £12
GET TICKETS
Music
Saturday June 20th
7:30 pm
SONS OF TOWN HALL
Welcome to the mythic world of Sons of Town Hall, the international, waterborne duo of George “Ulysses” Brown (UK) and Josiah “Chester” Jones (US). The pair transcends time and space, dressed in threadbare Victorian outfits, they meditate about the ocean, and sing songs that beg you to sing along. Their songs are masterful in their own right, poetic turns of phrases sung with voices so perfectly matched it is impossible to tell them apart, harmonies so sublime they will seem the work of witchcraft, and intricately finger-picked guitar parts worthy of Apollo himself. But it is Sons of Town Hall’s presentation that sets them apart from every other guitar-slinging songwriting team out there.
The show is three-parts concert, one-part theater and unlike anything most have ever experienced. George and Josiah’s between-song repartee is unique and absolutely hilarious, as they share their tales of traveling the world on the water and roaming the frontier looking for work. The affection they feel for each other is contagious, and audiences leave in love with both of them, with each other, and with life in general.
You will laugh. You will cry. You will be transfixed and transformed, drunk on adventure and the tragic beauty of the human condition.
Highly, highly recommended.
“Seamless vocal harmonies…stories of sea voyages, betrayal and desolation… a more coherent concept you’ll be pushed to find” – The Observer
“Amazing…Equal parts care and craftsmanship, joy and sorrow, it is a splendour to behold….They simply exist on a different plane than everyone else, as does their album” – Folk Radio UK
“A study in beautiful storytelling through song” – RNR Magazine
“It’s part balladry, part performance art, and totally cool. … Think Simon & Garfunkel lost at sea, and you get a sense of the mythic world at play here.”
– Philadelphia Inquirer“Sensational!” – John Platt, WFUV
“Nothing short of stunning” – Lisa Schwartz, Director Philadelphia Folk Festival
“Unique and beautiful…unforgettable.” – Phil Collins (Austin, TX)
“Purposely timeless yet anachronistic, a sort of aural steampunk”
– Santa Fe New Mexican
Event Starts: 19:30
£17.50, £15.00, £8.75
GET TICKETS
In July 2024, Constantine Enterprises company received a grant of £13,500 from Cornwall Council’s Good Growth fund. Together, with £1,500 of our funds we have used this grant to make acoustic, audio and lighting upgrades at the Tolmen Centre.
Read more here