Category: entertainment and leisure news

CHOICE GRENFELL by Kick in the head Productions 18th January 2020 at 7.45pm – Kick In The Head are following up their hugely successful productions of Old Herbaceous, Fagin? and Three Men in a Boat with a wonderful production dedicated to one of the country’s best loved comediennes, Joyce during the 40th anniversary year of her death. As Joyce would have said “We request the pleasure of your company” in the company of one of Britain’s best loved comediennes

THREE MEN IN A BOAT by Kick in the head Productions 24th January 2020 at 7.45pm – Join Jerome as he recounts the hilarious story of his boating holiday along the magnificent River Thames with his two companions and Montmorency the dog. Come and join in the fun as Giles Shenton expertly takes the helm and pilots you through the ridiculous tale of men behaving badly while messing about in boats!
 
SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN Friday 24th January 2020 at 7.45pm – The past, the present and the future – The chilling announcement of Leonard’s passing truly marked the end of an era. He has been challenging us to listen more carefully, speak more thoughtfully, and think more deeply. Come and listen to his words once more through Keith James.

VIVA NEIL DIAMOND – Celebrating 50 years of hits! 2nd February 2020 at 7.45pm – In 1966 Neil Diamond’s first hits smashed into the world’s music charts. To celebrate the icon’s 50 year recording career the UK’s very own ‘voice of Neil’ Bob Drury (‘The Neil Diamond Story’) takes to the road with ‘Viva Neil Diamond’, a brand new one-man stage show simply bursting with Neil Diamond gems!

CELTIC HEARTBEAT Sunday 16th February 2020 at 2.30pm – Local modern folk band Celtic Heartbeat take you through their repertoire of traditional and new songs about soldiers, sailors, ploughboys, love, broken hearts, disaster and joy. Blending music, harmony, images and film the band will transport you back to a time of exploration, immigration, shipwrecks, hardship and the celebration of life.

Thame Players present Dial M for Murder 10th to 14th March 2020 at 7.45pm – Tony Wendice has married his wife, Sheila, for her money and now plans to murder her for the same reason. He arranges the perfect murder but unfortunately for him, things don’t quite go to plan. But things don’t stop there. Tony still sees a way of getting himself out of this mess and getting rid of his wife at the same time. How can justice prevail? Will he succeed?
A timeless classic set in the 1950’s when tennis players were penniless amateurs and murder was punished by hanging.

All tickets at various prices available from Thame Town Hall, Information Centre, High Street, Thame OX9 3DP Tel 01844 212833 or online from www.thameplayers.co.uk

KICK In The Head are following up their hugely successful productions of Old Herbaceous, Fagin? and Three Men in a Boat with a wonderful production dedicated to one of the country’s best loved comediennes, Joyce during the 40th anniversary year of her death.

The family of William Blezard (Joyce’s musical director and pianist) have also given permission to use material from previously unheard rehearsal tape recordings and personal letters sent from Joyce to William. The show will therefore provide a completely unique view into the life of Joyce Grenfell.

Act 1 – The Rehearsal
The production opens with a completely blank stage except for a piano. Joyce and William arrive as if they are turning up at an empty theatre for a rehearsal before the performance. As Joyce rehearses songs and monologues, the dialogue between the characters provides the opportunity for us to learn about Joyce Grenfell’s life, the type of lady she was and her relationship with William Blezard, her longstanding and trusted pianist and Musical Director.

Act – 2 The Performance
The second half of the show is the performance! The stage is now set, make up is on and the audience are now given the full Joyce Grenfell performance.

Our aim with the show is celebrate the life and work of a great lady. In order to do this we have been given access to personal letters and hours of interview recordings of the man who knew her as well as anyone.

At Kick In The Head we didn’t want to produce just another show trotting out songs and monologues in a ‘tribute band format’. We wanted to produce a piece of theatre that gives people an understanding of the lady herself as well as celebrating her marvellous work.

Tickets available online at www.thameplayers.co.uk or from Spear Travels on 01844 217228

The Players Theatre, Nelson St, Thame – Saturday, January 18, 2020, 7:45PM

DEPITE a few last minute cancellations, extra tables had to be found on the night, when ten teams took part in a Quiz Night, hosted by Thame’s Twinning Association on Friday (08/11/19), with the Saturday Strollers once again proving that they are the team to beat!

The annual quiz night is one of the biggest fund-raisers for Thame Twinning, this year’s raising a total of £261. Some members will be travelling over to Thame’s twin town of Montesson, in France, to sell homemade cakes and other Englist produce at Montesson’s Christmas market over the weekend of December 6, to further boost the coffers.

Thame Twinning Committee Member, Sue Mottram, said: “Everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable evening answering the remarkably varied questions posed by our Quiz maestro, Sue Boyle. Thank you to those twinning members who came along either individually or with a team – this is a great start to our fundraising for the May visit next year.” (Visit of Thame’s twinning counterparts from Montesson, to Thame).

Sue continued: “As promised we donated £70 to the British Stroke Association as a way of saying thank you to Sue for providing yet another amazing quiz. We should also say thank you to Carl for donating the champagne for the Champagne Treasure Trail, which nearly sold out and contributed £94 to our profit.”

Follow Thame Twinning on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThameandDistrictTwinningAssociation/

SHOWING this Saturday – November 9, 2019 – MAIDEN
UK, 2019, 95 minutes, 12 certificate – Director Alex Holmes
IN order to sail around the world, apparently, “you have to be different from the normal bloke.” Or perhaps you don’t have to be a bloke at all. Now, this might not seem like a revolutionary idea in 2019. But it was in 1989.

It was then that 24 year old British woman Tracy Edwards, hitherto a deck hand and on-board chef, decided to put together a crew of women to comprehensively challenge the received wisdom that women were just not cut out for this sort of thing. They would enter a serious race. And not just any race: they would take part in the Whitbread Round the World yacht race, a gruelling 33,000 nautical mile sprint from Southampton, around the globe via Uraguay and Australia, and back again, a race that until then no female skipper was permitted to enter. They would compete aboard a vessel appropriately christened The Maiden, a boat that had, to say the least, seen better days.

Needless to say they were insulted and jeered at, the breathtaking sexism of the media dubbing the Maiden ‘a tin full of tarts,’ and their every set back subject to ridicule. But gradually, Edwards’ crew began to look like real contenders, and the pundits were forced to eat their words, fundamentally changing the sport from thence forward. Holmes’ rousing documentary, a huge success with audiences and critics (scoring a rare 98% ‘fresh’ rating on the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes) is a thrilling ride that will enthrall even those of us who don’t know our port from our starboard, a crowd pleasing and uplifting yarn about putting sexism in its place, but also a white knuckle account of treacherous and potentially overwhelming combat with an ocean ‘that is always trying to kill you’ – awesome challenges regardless of your gender
View trailer here.

Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm start. Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – Film tickets are available on the door or online- Click here

FORGET the crone! Don’t miss this brilliant one-woman show 
by 5-star review-winning actress Alison Skilbeck!  It’s on at the 
Players Theatre, Thame, 7.45 pm, Sunday, November 10th! 
 
Alison plays Prof. Artemis Turret who sets out to prove there are 
first-class parts for older women in Shakespeare’s plays. Artemis does 
this by revealing her own amazing theatrical talents, playing seven superb 
Shakespearean roles for older women during the evening. 

The Power Behind the Crone opened the 2016 RADA Festival and played the Bloomsbury Festival. Alison’s one-woman shows have received great acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, in London, and on tour throughout the UK. Other highly successful shows including Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London and Are There More of You? Television appearances include Midsomer Murders, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes.

Alison is an actor, director, teacher, and trainer who combines a busy and varied career in theatre, on radio, and on television with teaching and directing. She is an Associate Teacher at RADA and has performed and taught Shakespeare at many American universities on tour with Actors from The London Stage, and at European universities on tour for the British Council.

Tickets £12 – from Spear Travels, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 01844 217228, or online www.thameplayers.co.uk.

JUST prior to the release of this film in February of this year, a US court found Assad’s regime guilty of the extrajudicial killing of Times correspondent Marie Colvin.

She was in Homs in 2012, in the first year of the Syrian civil war, intent on revealing the fiction that the Syrian regime did not deliberately target the civilian population.

Heineman’s film is an impassioned portrait of Colvin and her career immersing herself in bloody conflicts, putting herself in places that were off limits, and – crucially – ensuring that the voices and stories of ordinary people made it into the official record of military brutalities.

Based on a Vanity Fair article about the conflict between Colvin’s work and her troubled private life, it is a gripping portrait of someone ruthlessly dedicated to telling the truths that governments take lengths to obscure.

Rosamund Pike is outstanding as a deeply convicted but also vulnerable woman, addicted to the dangers of a job that always means putting her life at risk, but also coping with the fallout. She attempts to reconcile her need to remain at the peak of her game – and the pressure exerted by her publishers – with what that pursuit has cost her: post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, loneliness in her relationships. A cracking portrait of an exceptional woman with an outstanding supporting cast.

Saturday November 2nd, 8pm “A Private War”

UK 2018, 110 minutes, 15 certificate

Official trailer HERE

Top film but we don’t expect to sell out. Tickets on the door from 7.30pm

Directed by Matthew Heineman, Starring Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Jamie Dornan, Stanley Tucci, Faye Marsay, Greg Wise

Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – Doors Open 7:30pm _ Licenced Bar

RED Kite Radio, the only community radio station for Haddenham, Thame and the villages, want to increase their community links by broadcasting live from events across the area, but need the public’s help to raise funds for outside broadcast equipment.

Every year, they attend dozens of events, from village fetes to beer festivals, but none can be broadcast live at present. So, Red Kite Radio are looking for local support with their campaign on Aylesbury Vale District Council’s Our Vale platform, used for turning project ideas into reality through crowdfunding. They want to raise £5,000 from the public to fund outside broadcasting equipment, so they can broadcast from events as they happen in real time.

When Red Kite Radio presenters go to events now, they have to record interviews with the public and those involved in running them. They’re recorded for later transmission because there is no outside broadcasting equipment. For example, last year they put together a full show from behind the scenes at the Players Theatre Pantomime in Thame – but it was recorded. How much better would it have been if broadcast live!

In the last year Red Kite Radio have covered fetes, festivals and fun runs in Kingsey, Oakley, Cuddington, Brill and many other places. They’ve taken part in events such as Haddenham Summerfest, the Florence Nightingale Midnight Walk in Aylesbury, Thame Carnival, the Kop Hill Climb and Haddenham Feast Festival. They’ve even walked across hot coals in aid of charity.

Red Kite Radio can broadcast from events the same day but recording has to be an hour in advance so that the software can build interviews into the broadcast playlist. That’s time-consuming – and it’s not live! Outside broadcast equipment would make it much easier to transmit from events as they happen. Outside broadcasts will be far more interactive because Red Kite Radio will be able to play requests on the spot and invite people in the audience to take part live.

To help Red Kite Radio provide us with a better service, so go to https://www.spacehive.com/redkiteradiolivebroadcast and make a pledge! They need to raise £5,000 by November 25, in order to be able to purchase the equipment, and any pledge is welcome – from just £2 to larger sums.

Award?

Red Kite Radio has been shortlisted in the annual national Community Radio Awards 2019 https://communityradioawards.org.uk/. The shortlist was whittled down from more than 425 entries submitted from community radio stations representing communities from every corner of the UK. Red Kite Radio has picked up nominations in three categories for their work providing a first-class radio service for Haddenham, Thame and the surrounding villages.

THAME Primary Schools’ annual community fireworks display is one of the best displays around and is organised by PTFA volunteers and parents of the three local Thame primary schools, St Joseph’s, John Hampden and Barley Hill.

The spectacular fireworks display raises important funds for the schools to enhance the education of Thame’s primary school children. It takes place at Lord Williams’s Lower School, Towersey Road. Refreshments, including beer and mulled wine, are served in the Sports Hall from 5.30pm and the fireworks display starts promptly at 6.30pm. Tickets are available in advance from Thame primary schools PTFAs, Wally’s Toy Shop and Thame Town Hall, or available on the gate.

In the event of bad weather on the day or unforeseen circumstances information will be posted on the website address and the FaceBook pages.
Website: www.thameschoolsfireworks.co.uk

This year’s FaceBook pages: Thame Fireworks Display 2019 and
Thame Primary Schools Fireworks

Tickets are available in advance from Thame primary schools PTFAs, Wally’s Toy Shop and Thame Town Hall, or available on the gate.

SOURCE – Contributed

THE Players Theatre and Thame Museum have come together to jointly hold an Open Day, offering a golden opportunity to visit the main arts and heritage venues of Thame and see what goes on behind the scenes.

Discover the secrets of running a busy museum and find out what it’s like to stage a play at Thame’s only dedicated theatre. At each venue, visitors will be shown around and hear about what goes into putting on a museum exhibition or a theatre production. There will be short presentations in each location every hour, on the hour, between 11 am and 3 pm. At the theatre, there will be informative sound and light demonstrations, while at the museum you’ll discover how an Elizabethan merchant got a complete make-over – and so much else besides!

You might be amazed to learn that both these well-regarded venues are registered charities, run entirely by volunteers, and the services they provide would not be possible without the help of volunteers who involve themselves in tasks both large and small. As well as increasing awareness of Thame’s precious arts and culture venues, the organiseers hope to whet the appetites of new volunteers who would like to help with duties ranging from running front of house to creating sets or installing exhibition displays.

If you’re thinking about taking up a career in the arts, you’ll learn much that will give you practical insights and an appreciation of the work involved in making small theatres or town museums successful attractions. If, on the other hand, you’ve retired and fancy contributing to the cultural life of our community, Saturday, October 26, 2019, is the day to find out how you could help.

There’ll be complimentary soft drinks or tea and coffee at both venues, and you’ll receive the warmest of welcomes!

Thame Museum held their first Open Day in July, and it was a great success – so it is hoped that, on this joint Open Day, there’ll be lots of people walking up and down between the Players Theatre and the Museum.

A spokesperson for the event said: “It’s going to be a fun day, so please join us any time between 10 am and 4pm!”

• Thame Museum, 79 High Street, Thame, OX9 3AE, www.thamemuseum.org. For more information contact info@thamemuseum.org.
• The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, OX9 2DP, www.thameplayers.co.uk. For more information contact thameplayers@gmail.com