THAME Chamber Choir’s next concert, billed as My Delight and Thy Delight – a princely line up of poets set to the
best of British composers, will include music by Parry, Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Britten.
Thame Chamber Choir with Richard Bannan baritone and Elizbeth Burgess on piano. Sunday 16th October
5.30pm in Lord Williams’s Upper School Hall.
MYRIAD PRODUCTIONS PRESENT GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens at the Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, at 7.45pm on Saturday 15th October
Myriad Productions last performed to a packed house at the Players Theatre in Thame with their production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame last October. The company is returning with another adaptation of a classic novel. This time it is the Charles Dickens masterpiece, Great Expectations. This adaptation by Connie Stephens is a faithful interpretation of the book and will be performed right in the middle of Thame?s Art and Literature Festival, which will include an appearance by Claire Tomalin speaking about her latest biography of Charles Dickens.
In this classic story, Pip, has been brought up by hand. Orphaned as a baby, his childhood has been spent at the mercy of his wrathful sister; a situation sweetened only by the presence of her angelic husband, Joe. One day Pip meets the extraordinary Miss Havisham, a wealthy, embittered woman who lives amongst the relics of a wedding day that never happened. Thrust into a world of wealth and deceit, Pip abandons his humble origins and falls helplessly in love with Miss Havisham?s beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. But Estella has been bred for a special, sinister purpose, and his acquaintance with the two women sets him on a course that promises to jeopardise his future character and devastate his great expectations. Packed with intrigue, convicts and other delightful characters, Dickens? masterly ode to youth, hope and the resilience of the human spirit is brought vividly to the stage in this stunning new adaptation.
The performance will be at 7.45pm on Saturday 15th October. Tickets cost
THAME Craft Fair from 10am-4pm, featuring products, gifts and cards from local crafts people and designer makers.
The event is run by Sally Evans and more details can be found on http://www.sallyevansevents.co.uk/
IMAGE: Rumplestiltskin Art Print by Sam Osborne, from her A4 Fairy Tale Series. Sam will be exhibiting and selling her work at the craft fair.
THAME Players presents an exclusive preview to Peter Egan’s one man show about playwright John Osborne, prior to his national tour with the show, at 7.45pm the Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame.
Tickets
TONIGHT – Comedy Vocal entertainer, Micky John Bull will be appearing at the popular Racquets Comedy night – 7.30pm.
This man will have you spilling your beer with laughter! Full details: http://www.racquets-fitness-centre.com/menus/main.asp?PN=Events
THIS weekend sees the second Thame Arts and Literature festival take over the town, beginning tonight (Thursday) with a very special treat. Coull Quartet is a very special group of musicians who are in demand all over the world.
The group includes Rose Redgrave and Nicholas Roberts who both live in Thame. This promises to be a wonderful evening of excellent music with an inspiring programme including Dvorak – Quartet in F ‘The American,’ Beethoven’s Quartet in F and Shostakovich’s Quartet 13 in Bb minor.
A feast of talented writers from Romantic novellists, Gothic, humour and motoring journalists will be appearing at various venues around the town; Truly something for everyone including the children.
Visit TAL’s website for the full programme, and background to the visiting authors and contributors.
PHTO: Popular Romantic fiction author, Fiona Harper, who will be appearing at Thame library on Saturday morning.
WITH only six weeks to go, the excitement is mounting for the eagerly awaited Thame?s Got Talent (TGT) 2011 event – with 15 acts already signed up to take part in next month?s spectacular showcase for local talent in aid of the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC).
Street Dancers, singers, Rock and Roll groups and magic acts are set to go head-to-head on Sunday, November 20, in a battle to win some fantastic prizes including a day in a recording studio and a cash prize of
SATURDAY, October 1, 2011 -THAME Cinema 4 All presents: SUBMARINE UK 2010, 96 minutes, 15 certificate –
Directed by Richard Ayoade, Starring Craig Roberts, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins, Yasmin Paige
BRITISH Director Ayoade?s directorial debut is a coming of age teen love story set in a perennially damp, down-at-heel 1980?s Swansea. Heavy on deadpan irony and Wes Anderson-esque visual style, it is also distinctly British, laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely moving.
Roberts plays Oliver Tate, not one of the crowd at school but with ambitions for elevated social status and a detached contempt for the foibles of his peers. He secretly loves the troubled Jordana, who has pyromaniac tendencies and a capacity for cruelty, but who nonetheless eventually warms to Oliver. The two enjoy an unconventional but mutually comforting relationship, a refuge from troubled lives at home: Jordana?s mother is seriously ill; Olivers parents have hit the marital doldrums. Dad Lloyd (Taylor ? wonderful) is a biologist who struggles to engage with anyone lacking postgraduate level understanding of marine species; Mum Jill (Hawkins) is lonely and unfulfilled. The situation is exacerbated by the return of Jill?s erstwhile sweetheart (Considine), now an appalling self-help guru clad in black leather and specialising in unleashing colour auras. For all its dazzling visual swagger and knowing self-confidence, the film is nonetheless very tender towards its misfit protagonists and has great sympathy for lives that don?t always measure up to expectations.
One of the best British movies of 2010.
FILM critic, Mark Kermode, was at the Oxford Playhouse last week, for the screening of William Batty’s classic film, The Ninth Configuration, and to talk about what he sees as, what’s wrong with cinema today.
Friend and supporter of ThameNews.Net, Nicholas Newman, who runs The Oxford Prospect website, was there and reviewed the event:
Mark?s performance, last night (13 September 2011) at the Oxford Playhouse was what you expect from an accomplished and professional performer. It is clear he really loves his work. He certainly has a passion for film. It is not surprising this film critic is a popular guest for BBC Five Live and the Culture Show. Mark certainly provides value for money.
Yesterday, he was in Oxford to show one of his favourite films The Ninth Configuration, followed by a talk about his passion for the film together with a debate he led on what is wrong with modern movies and the decline of the cinema. This was all part of his nationwide book tour to promote his new book The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex.
As for the film, it is certainly thought provoking; in a sense, it is based on the idea of putting a lunatic in charge of a military asylum to cure the inmates that are suffering from battle fatigue and stress. The film is set in a Dracula like castle; action hero Stacy Keach, cast as the new mysterious psychiatrist, plays the leading role. What becomes clear is that the inmates and the staff are playing a theological game of cat and mouse whilst madness rages all around them. The film raises many issues about the existence of god, good versus evil and sin. It is a very dark and entertaining film, which I will certainly recommend my friends to see. Something I have not done this year from seeing such Hollywood blockbusters as Harry Potter, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean.
However, Mark?s opinion about the film and the decline of modern movies and local multiplexes was fascinating. He said today it is very unlikely that such an intelligent film as The Ninth Configuration would be made today. There is a common belief in Hollywood that successful films must be designed for the brain dead. Yet, this year?s $1bn grossing Inception proved them wrong. It was relatively cheap to make, and at the same time a very thought provoking and challenging film. It is clear from what Mark says a film fails in terms of poor box office results, not because it receives a poor review from some critic, but because it was a poor film that failed to entertain and satisfy the needs of the paying customer. So it is unfair for the makers of Pearl Harbour to blame critics like Mark when such a film does badly at the cinema.
However, what I did find surprising was that the popularity amongst filmmakers for 3-D was ending. He mentioned several major film producers that indicated that they would not be making new 3-D from next year. Mark observed that the popularity of 3-D came in roughly forty-year cycles. Ticket sales had indicated most people want to view films in traditional 2-D.
Lastly, Mark made some valuable points about how poorly we cinemagoers are treated, despite the exorbitant ticket prices we pay when we go to the local multiplex. He commented on the lack of customer care and concern about getting the film set up right for projecting. Today, going to the cinema is more like going to the pub than going to see a performance.
Image source: http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/
Mark Kermode (born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo’s Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons.He also co-presents the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show and discusses other branches of the arts for the BBC Two programme Newsnight Review. Kermode writes and presents a film-related video blog for the BBC and is a patron of the Phoenix Cinema in North London.