HISTORY will come alive at Great Yarmouth's Elizabethan House Museum tonight when a group of performers play music from the time of Charles 1 in the very room where its claimed his execution was plotted.

HISTORY will come alive at Great Yarmouth's Elizabethan House Museum tonight when a group of performers play music from the time of Charles 1 in the very room where its claimed his execution was plotted.

It's part of this year's Norfolk and Norwich Festival which has teamed up with SeaChange Arts and the Museums Service for this rare opportunity to present a concert in the richly panelled "Conspiracy Room" overlooking the South Quay on Friday, May 15 at 7.30pm.

The five member group, Rare Theatricall, specialise in music from this period. The 17th Century was a time of conflict and change, with both the English civil war and the European Thirty Years' War, taking place, as well the successful plot to remove Charles 1st from the throne and abolish the monarchy.

Composers in this country and Europe wrote battle pieces and laments for lost leaders and friends. They also wrote songs for the court of the King. The concert is called "The Triumph of Peace" and they will perform some of the music as part of the lunchtime series of concerts for the Festival at the Assembly Room in Norwich.

But Yarmouth - and this special setting - will be treated to a longer version in the evening.

"It was just too good an opportunity to miss" said Joe Mackintosh, the director of SeaChange, the Yarmouth charity which provides arts events for the borough. "It's not a huge room so seating will be limited to about 40 people. But its one of those places where you can honestly say 'if only these walls could speak'. It's going to be something quite special hearing this music performed in this room where the fate of the King may well have been sealed"

It's part of the attempt to get Norfolk and Norwich Festival events taking place in other areas. For the past two years chamber operas have been staged at the Hippodrome Circus. Yarmouth's Elizabethan House Museum is a fine example of a Merchant's residence. In the 1970s it was feared it might be lost but the National Trust stepped in and saved it in a joint arrangement with the council.

Since then it has been a popular tourist attraction, especially for some of its recreations of historic events.

Tickets priced �7 are available on the Norfolk and Norwich Festival box office number 01603-766400 or at the door.