Category: entertainment and leisure news

OXFORDSHIRE County Council Trading Standards Service is warning ticket holders for the Bocelli concert at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford this weekend that the event has been cancelled.

The concert, scheduled for the evening of Sunday, July 10 and organised by a company calling themselves VIPCO, was actually cancelled in June. However, calls to Trading Standards Consumer Advice line this week have indicated that many ticket holders may still think that the event is going ahead and could be planning to travel to the venue.
Ticket holders should contact their local Trading Standards service for advice on how to seek a refund.

THIS Brendan Behan play is to be presented at the Thame Players Theatre, in Nelson Street, Thame, from July 5 to 9, at 7.45pm each evening.

Farce? Musical? Tragedy? Comedy? Theatre of the Absurd?

The Hostage by Brendan Behan almost defies description, but it is magnificent entertainment, even though the basic description of the plot at first seems somewhat daunting.
Written in 1958, the play concerns the fate of a young cockney soldier, taken hostage by the IRA in Northern Ireland and brought by them to an old house of doubtful reputation in Dublin. This is where the action of the play takes place and here we meet an assortment of characters from Colette, a young blonde whore, Patrick, who runs the house and is a veteran of the 1916 uprising, to Monsewer, the kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing, Anglo-Irishman, a real eccentric.

Brendan Behan based all his plays and characters on real events and people. He held court in the bars of Dublin and was always ready to entertain everybody with stories and songs, even dancing a jig.

Tickets for this Thame Players production of The Hostage can be obtained from Thame?s Tourist Information Centre in North Street, or by telephone on 01844 212834.

“A TERRIFICALLY powerful start to our fair trade festival,” said Festival Chairman Bob Davies after seeing “Black Gold” (Working Title) at Thame Cinema.
“Nick Francis’s account of the various stages in the development of a documentary film, about such an important subject, was fascinating. I’ll think about it before drinking in a coffee shop in future,” added Bob, echoing the response of many others in the audience.
This Saturday, June 25, Thame Cinema is showing “Vera Drake” (15) at 8.00, doors open 7.30. A film that will probably need little introduction, Vera Drake has enjoyed international critical and popular acclaim, hailed as Mike Leigh?s best film yet, and with exceptional performances from the esteemed cast. Imelda Staunton?s Vera is the backbone of family and community, doing what she can with the little she has, enjoying the security of a loving family. Without her family?s knowledge, she also performs illegal abortions, taking no money, but seeing it as a service to those she recognises are in a desperate situation. Set in a meticulously created 1950?s London, the film is intimate and personal at the same time as it is political. On the one hand Leigh captures the warmth and dignity of everyday life: the devastation for the family when Vera?s illegal activity is discovered, is heartbreakingly rendered. On the other hand Leigh even-handedly tackles the issue of illegal abortion, the class discrepancies, the risks and the consequences for all concerned. It is not often that a male writer / director manages to create such a sensitive and insightful portrait of a peculiarly feminine realm of experience. All involved are worthy of applause.

Thame Cinema 4 All’s AGM is being held first at 6.30 in the cinema, all members are invited. Free membership at door, all tickets

FOR those who missed Patrick Collins’s masterpiece the first time around, ‘Polarities’ will be performed by Boken Lace Theatre, but with a completely different cast.
The play investigates what makes explorers face the unknown in some of the harshest conditions on earth, usually discovering more about themselves than the physical goal of their efforts.

Polarities will be performed at The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, on Friday, June 13, at 7.45pm.

Tickets cost

A LOCAL musician is on a Mission to create a regular Concert Jazz Venue in Thame, at the Players Theatre, in Nelson Street.

The first ‘Concert Jazz’ concert, featuring guitarist, Luis D’Agustino and special guest, is planned at the theatre for July 20.

Eddie Fowler, from Watlington, told ThameNews.Net:”We are really kean to build up a network of Jazz enthusiasts in the South Oxfordshire area for support and would love to hear from any Jazz fans out there who would like to register their interest.
“Concert Jazz presentation is the first interest but if there is sufficient support, a Vocal(ese) night alternative may assist to promote more regular events as most jazz lovers have an interest in this alternative genre.
“There is a wealth of exciting young Jazz Talent in Oxfordshire and The Players Theatre would provide a good platform for Concert Jazz as opposed to these accomplished artists performing in Pubs to indifferent and noisy audiences.

“Our target is to build up a circulation list of about 500 and also a snail mailing for those who are unable to connect to the Internet.
“The music will be first class modern/progressive jazz played by Trios and Quartets until such time as larger groups can be supported.
“We have the support of the Thame Players Theatre Chairman and an interactive Website for promotion could be arranged if there is sufficient response.”

Interested parties who would like to be on the group’s information list can forward their email address to: fusion@jazzeddie.f2s.com or write to:
Eddie Fowler
2 Plowden Park,
Aston Rowant,
WATLINGTON
Oxon.
OX49 5SX
01844 353117 (BT Answer Service if absent)

Thame Cinema 4 All welcomed film star, Danny Dyer,on Saturday, to what was a sell-out evening of film which included his Oscar winning short, ‘Wasp’.
Danny has also starred in Mean Machine, Human Traffic and Football Factory.
Co-founder of TC4A, Margie Barbour, said: “The audience was deeply moved by the film, which included extraordinarily natural performances from very young children. Danny told us they had been picked out when playing in the local streets by the director Andrea Arnold. Danny’s friendly and informal manner invited lively questions from the packed house; he told of being auditioned in Hollywood in a restaurant and hair raising stories about the filming of Football Factory.”
After the showing, the audience had a chance to meet Danny in the foyer before he and his family went to eat at The Pizza House in town.

On Saturday, June 11, Thame Cinema is showing “The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan “(PG) directed by Phil Grabsky, and Black Gold, a Sundance award winning short about Ethiopian Coffee trade, followed by a Q and A with director Marc Francis. Black Gold is shown as part of Thame Festivals “Fair Trade” theme.
The award winning feature tells of how in March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan’s foremost tourist attraction, the 1600 year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan. This film follows the story of one of the refugees who now lives among the ruins, an energetic and inquisitive eight-year-old boy named Mir. This critically acclaimed documentary describes contemporary Afghanistan through Mir?s story and that of his extended family. They dwell in a cave with no possessions, inadequate water and scant sustenance. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, though much has changed and is changing, there is no guarantee that Mir will survive, yet his engaging story is not one of gloom and doom but that of a normal child who takes life as it comes and finds entertainment wherever he can, against the inevitable backdrop of post 9/11 militarisation. This is not a film you will have many chances to see, so don?t miss out. Described by the Guardian as “?a compelling documentary? Watching it is a reminder that you don’t necessarily need massive budgets to be a distinctive, public service… But you do need mavericks who are brave.”
The film starts at 8.oo with doors opening at 7.30. Free membership for all. Thame Players theatre is in Nelson Street, in Thame.
Thame Cinema 4 All is supported by SODC UK Film Council and Screen South.
Photo: Danny Dyer meets Committee Members Catriona Hamilton and Chris Savory.

Thame Cinema 4 All welcomed film star, Danny Dyer,on Saturday, to what was a sell-out evening of film which included his Oscar winning short, ‘Wasp’.
Danny has also starred in Mean Machine, Human Traffic and Football Factory.
Co-founder of TC4A, Margie Barbour, said: “The audience was deeply moved by the film, which included extraordinarily natural performances from very young children. Danny told us they had been picked out when playing in the local streets by the director Andrea Arnold. Danny’s friendly and informal manner invited lively questions from the packed house; he told of being auditioned in Hollywood in a restaurant and hair raising stories about the filming of Football Factory.”
After the showing, the audience had a chance to meet Danny in the foyer before he and his family went to eat at The Pizza House in town.

On Saturday, June 11, Thame Cinema is showing “The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan “(PG) directed by Phil Grabsky, and Black Gold, a Sundance award winning short about Ethiopian Coffee trade, followed by a Q and A with director Marc Francis. Black Gold is shown as part of Thame Festivals “Fair Trade” theme.
The award winning feature tells of how in March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan’s foremost tourist attraction, the 1600 year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan. This film follows the story of one of the refugees who now lives among the ruins, an energetic and inquisitive eight-year-old boy named Mir. This critically acclaimed documentary describes contemporary Afghanistan through Mir?s story and that of his extended family. They dwell in a cave with no possessions, inadequate water and scant sustenance. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, though much has changed and is changing, there is no guarantee that Mir will survive, yet his engaging story is not one of gloom and doom but that of a normal child who takes life as it comes and finds entertainment wherever he can, against the inevitable backdrop of post 9/11 militarisation. This is not a film you will have many chances to see, so don?t miss out. Described by the Guardian as “?a compelling documentary? Watching it is a reminder that you don’t necessarily need massive budgets to be a distinctive, public service… But you do need mavericks who are brave.”
The film starts at 8.oo with doors opening at 7.30. Free membership for all. Thame Players theatre is in Nelson Street, in Thame.
Thame Cinema 4 All is supported by SODC UK Film Council and Screen South.
Photo: Danny Dyer meets Committee Members Catriona Hamilton and Chris Savory.

FROM the first bars of Britten?s Simple Symphony, it was clear that the first Thame Music concert on Saturday by the Orchestra of St. Johns (OSJ) had found a tremendously exciting matching of players and place.
Just 14 string players, cleanly underpinned by a single double-bass and two cellos, but with the eleven violins/violas standing ? and leaning enthusiastically – to give added energy, edge and shape to the phrasing.

Here was playing of great quality and clarity, reaching out to fill all corners of the space ? and the building gave back with a warm and full acoustic, just enough to enhance the precision and chamber quality of the strings, without ever getting muddy.

Neatly framing the programme were two stalwarts of the string-orchestra repertoire ? the Britten is a lighthearted reworking of themes invented in his childhood, played here with vigour, attack and enjoyment ? playful pizzicatos and all. And, to close, Tchaikovsky?s Serenade for Strings is by turns serious, lilting, thoughtful and rumbustuous, the highlight for me being OSJ?s quiet, lovingly lingering phrases in the Elegie.

In between were two extracts from William Walton?s music for the 1944 Laurence Oliver movie of Shakespeare?s Henry V ? film music, yes, but excellently crafted: a Purcell-like Passacaglia (for the death of Falstaff) and the gently dancing, wistful ?Touch her soft lips and part?.

The complete curiosity of the evening was a setting by Respighi (in Italian) of Shelley?s The Sunset (Il Tramonto), for which OSJ were joined by the mezzo Christine Cairns, who sang with great conviction and involvement. This strange, often dark work weaves a twilight stream-of-consciousness reflecting on illness and death, but with occasional atmospheric string-evocations of the night sky and faint stars ? a fine balance between depth and delicacy.

John Lubbock conducted the whole evening with drive and energy, encouraging the ensemble along towards the peaks and holding everyone back where appropriate, to make the most of those quiet, thoughtful moments.

Barry Gibson

ON Saturday, May 21, after years of organising fund-raising quizzes, popular quiz master Simon Witney and his wife Joanne will be holding their very last quiz at Haddenham Community Junior School.
All the proceeds will go towards research into vasculitus – inflammation and eventual blockage of blood vessels – a disease which tragically killed Joanne’s brother Peter last summer at the age of 42. Call Simon on 01844 290640 to book a table (

A YEAR of festivals and special events is being co-ordinated by Oxford Inspires, the cultural development agency for Oxfordshire, a thousand years since the county’s origins.
Oxford Inspires aims to enhance existing events taking place across the County and to develop new ones. To that end, it has organised a series of public meetings across the county to hear views and ideas on how Oxfordshire can be made to stand out as a leader in culture, learning and sustainable development during 2007. Areas to be discussed include Festivals, Food and drink, Sport, Public engagement with Science, wordpower, Three thousand years of Oxfordshire and Places for People.
The next meeting is at 3.30 pm on Monday,May 9,at Thame Town Hall; tea will be served from 3pm.

These meetings are primarily intended for people who organise events and are active in their communities, but all will be welcome and there will be time for networking.

Please let Liz Gresham know by email if you will be attending, at: liz.gresham@sbs.ox.ac.uk, stating which
theme(s) you would particularly like to discuss. Also, pass on details of this meeting to anyone you know who might be interested.