PROFESSIONAL drama in Newport has been notable by its absence for the last few years, with only the occasional touring production for the city's theatregoers to savour.

But this weekend Newport will move from famine to feast with the opening of the new Riverfront centre on the bank of the river Usk.

Following this weekend's opening gala with Katherine Jenkins, the main theatre premieres its first Shakespeare production on Friday October 29. The Bard's last play, The Tempest, is certainly one of his stranger works but remains a classic.

The story of Prospero, a sorceror marooned on an island of his own magical creations, and his confrontation with the powers who left him there, it contains some of the best poetry in the English language. This new production by the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds combines music and drama in a spellbinding performance.

The Tempest is at the Riverfront from 7.30pm on October 29 and 30. Acclaimed Welsh theatre company Clwyd Theatr Cymru bring a play about failed memory and uncomfortable truths to the Riverfront from November 11 to 13.

Stone City Blue, by Ed Thomas, begins in a Cardiff hotel with a man, a woman, and a lot of blood.

How did they get there? What happened? The answers will surprise you. On November 18 to 20 South Wales' premier playwright Frank Vickery makes his Riverfront debut with Love Forty, a play about marriage and the past.

The Circus of Horrors rolls into town on November 29, featuring sword-swallowers, voodoo acrobats, freaks, and death-defying trapeze artists in one bizarre spectacular.

Be warned - it contains material that may be found offensive. And on December 4 the Hijinx theatre company perform Paul Robeson Knew My Father, a play set in the heart of the 1950s in the Rhondda Valley about a boy obsessed with two things: Robeson's Welsh film Proud Valley, and his missing father who once sang with the great man himself. A fusion of live theatre, music and film, the play was rapturously received when it was first toured by theatre company Hijinx in 1999.

Tickets for all shows are available from the box office on 01633 656757.