Category: entertainment and leisure news

A CHAINSAW wielding chicken is the star of a fabulously updated traditional nursery tale created for children and their parents and running as part of this year?s Towersey Festival.

THE LITTLE RED HEN is the hit family-friendly puppet show from Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company performed by Helen Day and Adam Fuller and directed by Marc Parrett. Featuring a Pig with an iPod, a Rat with a mobile phone and a lazy Cow with a fake tan, the star is a hardworking Red Hen who wants to make her own bread but can?t get anyone to help her. Cutting the corn is a particularly big task for such a small bird and she has to use a variety of amazing tools, including a pair of garden shears and a crazy puppet chainsaw to achieve her goal.

The hugely loveable puppets are created and directed by puppet maestro, Marc Parrett, who has worked with Bristol Old Vic, Aardman Animations and The RSC.
Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company has teamed up with leading early-years performance expert Niki McCretton to create an enormously entertaining show featuring live music, ingenious puppets and a fantastically eccentric threshing machine. The show also uses simple British Sign Language.

?I wish I was five again. Then I could let out unselfconscious whoops of hilarity and yelps of excitement??. A truly enchanting hour for children – and their parents.?
Roger Malone, The Stage newspaper

Towersey is a truly local Festival (based just outside Thame) that prides itself on being the best holiday experience for families. As well as one-off shows like The Little Red Hen, our unique ?Festival Experience? ticket to our Showground offers all the buzz, atmosphere, magic and colour that you would expect from any major festival and it does it all just down the road and for only

THE line up of guests and events for this year?s TAL (Thame Arts & Literature) festival is taking shape. With over 30 authors, journalists and writers already booked, this year’s festival promises a packed weekend of talks, concerts, plays, poetry, workshops and art.

The festival will take place over the weekend of October 14 to 16, 2011, and with schools and children?s events too, this, the second TAL Festival, looks as though it will be every bit as exciting as the first Thame Arts and Literature Festival which took place last June.

The main venue this year will be Christchurch in Upper High Street Thame but various events will also be staged at Thame Museum, The Players theatre and other establishments around the town.

This year’s festival quiz at the Barns Centre will be bigger and better than ever, especially as the questions will be posed by expert question-master, Andrew Cameron. Andrew lives in Chinnor and is renowned for his charity quiz nights.

For more information about talks, workshops, exhibitions, concerts and everything else you need to know about TAL, visit: http://www.talfestival.org/

NICHOLAS Newman, a long-time contributor and friend of ThameNews.Net, went to see the Oxford Theatre Guild?s performance of Macbeth at Trinity College gardens last night and felt moved to send us this review:

LAST night?s Oxford?s Theatre Guild?s performance of Macbeth combined full-on percussive bashing of swords and Shakespeare?s magical language to make this this two and a half hour performance simply come alive!

Macbeth, played with passion by Peter Malin, is the man who would be King of Scotland, who struggles with ambition, doubt and his conscience as he takes the treacherous path to kill King Duncan and many of his family and supporters.

Oddly enough, the machinations depicted in the play reminded me of recent political coups in distant lands.

The setting the play in Trinity college gardens was simply magical and much appreciated by the audience was the care Oxford Theatre Guild had taken in providing blankets and hot drinks to keep out the summer evening chill.

The direction by James Reilly and Jessica Welch was exceptional; the acting was superb and the work of the backstage team simply excellent. I especially appreciated the makeup design by Becky Brown, and the dripping blood by Cherry Mosteshar – it looked very realistic!

Whether you love Shakespeare or tempted to try it for the first time, this production is certainly something to see!

The play runs until July, 22, 2011

www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/
www.oxfordtheatreguild.com

Outdoor summer Shakespeare Macbeth12-22 July

THAT was the message from the organisers of the Towersey Festival, the village fund-raiser that forty seven years later, has become an international event.

After welcoming visitors to the festival launch last night at the Phoenix studio in Thame, Steve Heap, one of the original festival organising team, explained how the festival had grown away from the locals to some extent, but was now determined to involve local musicians, artists and anyone else who wants to be a part of the festival.

In 47 years, the Towersey Festival has raised around a quarter of a million pounds for local good causes, including the original raison d’etre of the first festival, the rennovation of the Towersy sports pavilion, and repairs to the village church.

This year’s Towersey Festival promised to be bigger and better and more opportunities for local musicians will include a busking square where anyone can just turn up and – well, busk.

For full details about this year’s Towersey Festival and the full line-up of acts and activities, visit:

www.towerseyfestival.com/

PHOTO: One of Thame’s up-and-coming young musicians, Wilber Sears plays for last night’s guests.

AN authentic Italian Food Market, Italia in Piazza, will arrive in Thame for the first time, on August 11, for three days. The market will be located in the area around the Town Hall and will run from 9am through to 5pm.

There will be 18 mouth-watering stalls selling all the wonderful tastes you would expect to get in Italy, such as Parmigiano, Reggiano, Prosciutto, salame, olives, extra virgin olive oils and much more.

Simon Faro, owner of Italia in Piazza says, ?The market offers my customers a truly Italian experience. All the quality produce you expect to find from Italy is brought to your doorstep by professional Italian stall holders who will offer you high standard customer service and a vibrant atmosphere.?

THE Cross Keys Pub and micro brewery in Thame will be hosting the great debate on real ale versus lager, lead by one of the world’s leading beer writers, Roger Protz.

Is real ale posher, better for you and nicer than lager? Is real ale for toffs and lager for chavs? Explore this beery conundrum with Roger Protz, at 6.30pm this evening, Thursday, July 7.

The question will be explored with a tasting during the evening guided by Roger, of the latest cask ales available at the Cross Keys and two great Czech lager conditioned beers, Budvar Original and Budvar Dark. Personally sourced by Oak Taverns MD, Simon Collinson in Southern Bohemia, you will also find out how they blend together into what has been described as ?a beer and a half.?

Participation is free but numbers are limited so be sure to reserve your space by Emailing your acceptance to: trudiandpeter@btinternet.com

This promises to be a stimulating evening both for the mind and the taste buds.

NOTE

Roger is one of the world’s leading beer writers and tasters. He is the author of 20 books on the subject, including the World Guide to Beer, The Ale Trail, The Taste of Beer and the best-selling 300 Beers to Try Before You Die (revised edition January 2010). He has also edited 20 editions of the annual Good Beer Guide.

PHOTO; Quiz night at the Cross Keys, featuring special visitor last night, Annie Ashurst (on the right), the first woman to win Mastermind. Annie joined regular quiz team, Norfolk and Chance.

YEH! Its that time of the month again! The Thame First Thursday Music Club Open Mic night is on Thursday, July 7, at The Stables (behind The James Figg, Cornmarket, Thame).

And they’ve gone multi-media! Those of you at the May FTMC will have noticed a suspicious tall guy stalking around the club with a very impressive looking camera and obligatory all black t-shirt and jeans outfit. That was the very talented Gary O’Brien who was making the new club video (which we hope you have already clicked on and watched?). We think it looks great and that Gary has perfectly captured the brief to convey the friendly, buzzy atmosphere and the quality and variety of the music we have. The idea is that if you are inviting someone to come down and watch, or even play, they can have a look at what we do and get a sense of how it feels.

LINK

Clubfounder, Jon Littler, says: “Do Come down next Thursday; I think we have some great players coming up form Bristol who we met whilst running the acoustic stage at Music in Elms Park Festival. As usual we are hosting a totally free night of varied music (15 minutes per performer – you never know who your gonna get) at the Stables behind the James Figg Public House, 21 Cornmarket, Thame (Go through the Arch besides the pub!) OX9 2BL.”

Mon 4th Haddenham Parish Council. The council?s last meeting before the summer break will be in the Walter Rose Room (7.30pm). Parishioners are welcome to attend.
Wed 6th Simply Walk. Meet at Banks Park car park (10.30am) for a walk lasting about 1

WITH the date of this year?s Bucks Open Studios art extravaganza fast approaching, artists and makers across Buckinghamshire, including many from Haddenham, are no doubt beavering away, creating beautiful, unique, inspirational paintings, sculptures, collages, ceramics, drawings, altered books and a whole lot more.

Bucks Open Studios takes place from 18 June to 3 July 2011 and is the largest visual arts event in the county. In the last two weeks of June every year over 480 artists and makers, in over 182 different venues across Buckinghamshire, open their studios and run exhibitions and events for the public to visit. This year is the biggest ever with a record number of participants, venues and new entrants.

For two weeks Buckinghamshire turns into a celebration of art. The Directories for this year?s Bucks Open Studios are now out so make sure you grab your copy. It?s yellow and blue in colour and really stands out head and shoulders above other leaflets and programmes on display. It?s taller than the others so no excuse for not spotting it. This year Haddenham seems to be a real hub of artistic activity with over 19 artists and crafts people taking part. If you have a directory check numbers 175 to 192. You?ll find everything from painters, jewellery makers, basket weavers, photographers, patchwork and stitchers, woodturning, sculptors, book makers… I could go on.

It?s almost impossible to pick a few from this amazing collection. However, of note are:

Alison Court ? Recycled hand-made bags. Alison makes by hand bags of all kinds from recycled and reclaimed fabrics. The whole ethic of her bags is that virtually nothing is new – everything comes from friends’ attics, charity shops, and her own cupboards. She wants them to be virtually zero carbon bags – bags for our time, when at last we are all being a bit more environmentally-minded! She is part of a group who are showing ceramics and jewellery; Rachel Craft, Tiny van der Velde, at the Baptist Church in Haddenham.

Heather Hunter and Jean Mould Hart ? Paper, print and book makers. There is always something happening in Heather’s small studio. Visiting artist Jean, new works, garden access for a small charge each day. No 186 in the directory.

Ed and Jenny Bullimore ? husband a wife team exhibition photography on canvass to enthral the eye, ceramics and sculptures. (No. 183 and 184 in the directory)

Anne Ratnarajh who is a basket weaver and also works with other mixed media. She?s the only one I?ve got a good high res image for.

Click HERE for a full list of the Haddenham artists taking part, and HERE for full details of the Bucks Open Studios event.

CURRENT Exhibition: Silly Stuff 2 ? an amusing exhibition of cartoons by our local resident cartoonist and artist, Robert Duncan. Robert?s exhibition will be running until 20th July, during museum opening hours: Tues. Wed. & Sat. 10am-4pm. Sun.noon-4pm

Calling all you budding junior artists: Learn how to draw cartoons. Robert will be running cartoon workshops at the museum on Saturday 2nd July and Saturday 9th July, from 10am-noon Price: