Category: entertainment and leisure news

MUSIC for Mind – Friday,May 23, 8pm – 1am, Exeter Hall, 1 Oxford Road, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2EN (At the top end of Cowley Road, past Majestic Wine, but before the petrol garage).
Entry

THERE’s still 17 days left to book your 2008 Towersey Festival tickets at the special discounted Early Bird rate.
By booking your tickets before June 31, you can save over 10% on your Full season tickets. What?s more, remember that if you buy nine tickets of any one type we?ll throw in one more ticket absolutely free!

Why not get a group of your family and friends together ot make the most of this great offer. To book your tickets online simply click here
. Alternatively, you can call the Festival Box Office on 01629 827016.

PETER Rabbit will be in residence at Cogges Manor Farm in West Oxfordshire over the May bank holiday weekend to welcome visitors and tell some of the tales made famous by Beatrix Potter.
There will also be an opportunity to discover Mr McGregor?s Garden, decorate biscuits and meet the Cogges Farm bunnies, which come in all shapes and sizes.

This is in addition to all the regular activities at the Oxfordshire County Council farm museum, including animal handling from 11am -12pm, pig feeding at 12.15pm and hand milking at 12.30pm and 4pm.

ON Sunday, May 18, there is a programme of events at traditional butter making at 2pm and on Monday 26 the bread oven will be fired up.

Half term programme

Parents looking to keep their children occupied and entertained over half term will find a wide choice of activities on offer between 27 – 30 May. On Tuesday there will be a children?s recycling workshop, with rag rug making from 11.30am -12.30pm and 2.30pm – 3.30pm. Wednesday is baking day, with sessions in the Victorian kitchen between 11.30am to 12.30pm and 2.30pm – 3.30pm (advance booking is required as numbers are limited).

On Thursday it?s farm fun, with animal-handling, animal bookmarks to make and story-telling at 11.30am – 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 3.30pm and on Friday there will be family crafts, with printing from 11.30am – 12.30pm and 2.30pm -3.30pm.

On a different note, Cogges will be hosting a Music Weekend on 28 – 29 June and will be open in the evenings for a Victorian Music Hall performance on the Saturday and barn dance on the Sunday.

Councillor Jim Couchman, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for social and community services, said: “Busy parents trying to find activities over the half term need look no further than Cogges Manor Farm.”

St. MARY’S church in Thame is holding a flower festival next Friday and Saturday, May 16 and 17, between 10am and 7pm, and on Sunday, Mary 18, between 1pm and 4pm.
Choral Evensong will follow at 4pm on Sunday.
On the Friday, Roselle Collins will hold a concert between 1pm. and 2pm in the church and again on
Saturday at 3pm for an hour. Roselle will be accompanied by a pianist and an oboe player.

Admission is free and programmes will be on sale for

SOME tickets are still available for some performances of this year’s Long Crendon Mystery Plays, Medieval banquets and Pub Suppers, between May 15, and May 17.
Call the box office on 01844 201503 or email: sgb@dsys-plus.co.uk.
The banquets include drinks and the Pub Suppers are two courses but do not include drinks.

10am to 12 midday. More info: 01844 279334

?BENEFITS for Better Mental Health? Launch – The Benefits for Better Mental Health launch will be at The Mill, 46 Cowley Road, Oxford, on Friday 16th May 2008, from 12.00 ? 1.30pm. There will be a speech and presentation by John Jackson, Director of Social and Community Services, Oxfordshire County Council. A light lunch will be served. Please let Stuart Reid know if you would like to attend on 01865 310830 ext 24 or stuart.reid@oxfordshire-mind.org.uk.

Music for Mind – Friday, 23rd May 2008, 8.00 p.m. – 1.00 a.m., Exeter Hall, 1 Oxford Road, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2EN (At the top end of Cowley Road, past Majestic Wine, but before the petrol garage). Entry

FOTHERGILL’S BRASSERIE, at the Spread Eagle, Thame, is running a special, event during the festival week in June, to support the Food festival.

THAME PLAYERS will be presenting John Osborne’s masterpiece, The Entertainer, on between May 8 and 12, at the Players Theatre, Nelson Street.

The Entertainer was first performed in 1957 at The Royal Court Theatre, with Laurence Olivier in the role of Archie Rice which he made famous, both on stage and on film. At the time Olivier was living with his wife, Vivien Leigh, at Notley Abbey, just outside Thame. He was at the same time having an affair with Joan Plowright, who later became his wife, and who played the part of Jean in The Entertainer. Osborne sent the first act of The Entertainer to Olivier who accepted the Archie Rice part as soon as he had read it.

Osborne took many of the characters and situations from life, chiefly his relatives. He said of his research for the play, ?Music Hall was on its last legs but there were still a few halls in and around London for me to visit, and not yet quite defeated by grey, front parlour television.?

The original production had trouble with the Lord Chamberlain. On Britannia he said ?Nudes are allowed provided they are motionless and expressionless in the face of the audience.? He also required the song ?The old church bells won?t ring tonight ?cos the vicars got the clappers? to be changed to ??.the vicar?s dropped a clanger. How times change!

Thame Players will perform The Entertainer, the story of an ageing, second rate stand up comic as their next production. The play is being directed by long serving member of the Players, Bernadette Tildesley and the demanding Archie Rice role, with its stand up routines and comedy songs, is to be played by Peter Sawyer.

Performances will begin 7.45pm each evening and the tickets, which cost

21st-27th April Bike to School Week. Car drivers are warned to look out for more cyclists than usual on Haddenham roads next week. Haddenham Cycle Training is promoting next week?s Haddenham Bike to School Week, to encourage children and parents to cycle to school at least once during the week. They are hoping to organise cycling activities at all 3 village schools including an organised ‘cycle snake’ to Haddenham Junior School next Thursday from various meeting points in the village, followed by a free Bikers’ Breakfast and raffle, sponsored by Haddenham Cycle Training, for all the children who cycle or scooter to the school on that day ? even if they do not take part in the cycle snake.

Sat 26th Come and Sing. Ring Sheilagh Armitt (291720) to book a place (