It’s a varied week at the Swindon Arts Centre, says BARRIE HUDSON writes

FROM sexual healing to cultural satire, a truly varied few days beckons at the Arts Centre.

Tomorrow at 8pm, the Devizes Road venue presents Robin Ince: Happiness Through Science, in which the veteran stand-up and writer asks whether it’s possible to be rational and happy at the same time. The cost of accompanying him during his explorations is £12, with concessions available at £10. The show is not suitable for people aged under 14.

On Saturday, Frisky and Mannish will be back in Swindon with another dose of peculiar pop punditry. The duo are Matthew Floyd Jones and Laura Corcoran, who met at university and realised there was a niche for a desperately serious exploration of pop music and its vital themes. Strangely, they aren’t seen as desperately serious at all, with some critics even suggesting that the whole thing is a huge joke at the expense of the pretentious. Delighted audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and countless other venues have shared this opinion.

The show, which is unsuitable for under-14s, starts at 8pm, and tickets cost £14 with concessions at £12.

On Sunday at 6pm, the Stage Struck Cabaret 2012, almost entirely put together by members of local musical theatre group Stage Struck, promises to be an evening full of surprises. Tickets cost £10 and can be booked by calling the special Stage Struck hotline on 01793 840757.

On Tuesday at 8pm, folk legends Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick will take the Arts Centre stage. Both men are celebrated for their vital roles in shaking up the folk music scene in the 1960s, making it more accessible to new audiences while not alienating the existing one.

Tickets for their performance cost £16, with concessions available at £14.

The following evening at 7.30pm, the centre’s FoSAC studio hosts Sex...With Pete Searles, in which stand-up comic and raconteur Pete talks about the Emotional Freedom Technique therapy he embarked on after a girlfriend left him.

Tickets for the show cost £12, with concessions available at £10.

Information about all Arts Centre performances can be obtained on 01793 614837 and via www.wegottickets.com/swindonartscentre