Category: entertainment and leisure news

THAME TOWN MUSIC Festival has today announced that BBC Introducing will be part of the next festival on Saturday, July 11, 2020.

This year, 2019, the free festival, held in Thame town centre and eight other venues around the town, attracted an estimated 12,500 visitors. In 2020 the organisers are adding a special dedicated BBC Introducing stage overseen by radio presenter, Dave Gilyeat and his team at BBC Introducing in Oxford, to highlight young, emerging talent.

Dave commented: “We are really happy to get involved with Johnnie and Thame Town Music Festival. I’ve always noticed how they’ve given slots to several bands we’ve supported over the years, which has been great, so we’re delighted to become part of the cause! There are some fantastic new acts coming through and we are dedicated to helping achieve the opportunities, recognition and success they deserve.”

Festival Director, Johnnie Littler said: “We are thrilled to be working with Dave and his BBC Introducing Oxford team to help showcase great new music from the area. It is part of our mission to give emerging talent a platform to perform, and to reach a new and wider audience. We have found a kindred spirit in Dave who has long been a vigorous champion of new acts and the best of the new breed.”

BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, Tom Robinson, who was an early supporter of TTMF added: “I’m delighted this great festival is going from strength to strength.”

Well done Thame Town Music Festival and BBC Introducing – a great partnership!

SCREENING in association with Thame Art and Literature Festival, this is an affectionate, wry and slightly melancholy contemplation of the later life of William Shakespeare.

It is 1613, and the Globe theatre has burned down during a production of Henry the VIII (All is True) because of a misfiring canon. Will decides it is time to pull up stumps and return home to reflect on his long career and spend more time with his family. But what he imagines as a peaceful retirement is, instead, a process of reckoning with long neglected familial tensions and regrets.

A mixture of fact and fiction, and written by Ben Elton – whose Upstart Crow for the BBC also goes behind the scenes of the domestic life of Shakespeare – this film eschews all-out bawdy comedy of that programme in favour of a more wistful and poignant take on late middle age, regret, and grief. The emotional heart of the narrative is the death of Anne and William’s son, Hammet Shakespeare, 17 years earlier at the age of 11, a loss that William has never confronted and from which Anne has never recovered. Also at stake is the question of parenting, and the consequence of one parent’s pursuit of fame and glamour at the expense of those left behind, notably Dench’s Anne Hathaway, and their cranky and resentful daughter Judith.

You really cannot go wrong with a cast of this calibre, and Branagh’s film delivers all that you might expect of great writing, masterful storytelling, and exceptional performances. And you might learn something about Shakespeare’s celebrated 2nd best bed. View trailer .

Saturday October 19, 8pm – All is True – UK, 2018, 100 minutes, 12A certificate – Director Kenneth Branagh; Starring Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen
Please note: Tickets for this event must be purchased from the TAL website or box office: for details of how to buy a ticket visit https://talfestival.org/box-office-details/

IN just nine days’ time, Thame Art Crawl returns for a third year, running alongside the ever popular Thame Arts & Literature festival – celebrating its own 10th anniversary.

This pop-up art exhibition will showcase a wealth of creative talent in specially selected venues and windows around Thame’s Town Centre. Visitors are invited to pick up a map of the Art Crawl from Thame Town Hall, or one of the participating venues listed below, and stroll around the town of Thame, enjoying the opportunity to discover the work of local artists.

The artists exhibiting are:
*Lindsay Dutton and Andrea Brewer exhibiting at White Stuff
*Stuart Feurtado with a promenade exhibition in the shops along Greyhound Walk
*Mandy Bennet exhibiting at The Deli at No 5
*Gerry Coles and Rebecca Rason Flor Ferreira exhibiting at Pretty Like Pictures
*Debbie Farrell, Janet Dunkley and Kerry Newth exhibiting at fitch & fellows
*Liz Dury and Satnam Bains exhibiting at AGA Thame
*Cate Wise and Muffat Prague exhibiting at FROM
*Derek Witchell exhibiting at Fat Face
*Jackie Birchall exhibiting at Robert Stanley Opticians
*Janine Philips and Henry Castle exhibiting at Priestend Farm Barn

More details about each of these fabulous artists can be found on the Thame Art Crawl website at www.thameartcrawl.com

As well as the artists above, the event will also include the work of James Ward RA 1769 – 1859. Ward was a prominent painter of his time and today pieces of his work can be found hanging in galleries including the Tate Britain. This small exhibition has been curated from a private collection, owned by members of his family who have been living in Thame for many years. This will be displayed at Thame Museum www.thamemuseum.org

Throughout the Saturday and Sunday (The event runs from 17 – 19 October) along side the Art Crawl trail there will be additional exhibitions by Thame Art Group and Sally Evans events, as well as workshops hosted as part of the Thame Arts & Literature festival including calligraphy and sculpture for adults, and three exciting workshops for children. Details about these and everything else that’s going on over this exciting weekend, visit: www.thameartcrawl.com

TO celebrate its 60th year of singing, Thame Choral Society has chosen two very different items for its Christmas and Spring concerts in this anniversary year.

On December 7, at St Mary’s Church in Thame, TCS will be performing the Mass in D Major, Op. 86 by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, together with some Christmas carols and seasonal songs. Then on April 18, 2020, again at St Mary’s in Thame, they will be singing one of the most popular works in the choral repertoire, Handel’s Messiah, last performed at their 50th anniversary concert with Director Colin Spinks. Hence so fitting to revive this iconic work, this time with orchestral accompaniment, for the choir’s 6oth.

Then, in a complete change of style and following the success of their In the Mood concert this summer, TCS members will be presenting A Night at the Movies on Saturday, June 20, 2020, possibly making a return visit to St Mary’s church, Haddenham, although this has yet to be finalised.

Three fabulous, top notch concerts for appreciaters of good quality choral singing, to leave these three diary dates free for!

To discover more about Thame Choral Society, visit their Facebook page HERE the website here LINK 

** If you would like to become a Friend of Thame Choral Society, and receive regular news letters, ‘early bird’ ticket offers and other perks, or become a sponsor to help with orchestra and Conductor fees, programme printing costs etc, please complete the email form HERE

AFTER many hours of deliberation, the adjudicators have announced that the winner of Thame Chamber Choir’s 20th anniversary Choral Composition Competition is Alison Willis, with her setting of Yeats’s poem The Everlasting Voices.

Chosen from no less than 62 entries from around the world, Alison’s piece impressed the judges with its “Enjoyable and well written vocal lines, evocative piano part, thoughtful response to the poem and clear structure….”. It will receive its world première at Thame Chamber Choir’s concert, ‘Poetry in Motion’, in St Mary’s Church on Saturday, October 19, as part of the 2019 Thame Arts and Literature Festival. 

The concert, compèred by TV star Bruce Alexander, takes us on an eclectic journey, not only by plane, train and automobile, but also by sea and on foot. The journey includes music by Brahms, Vaughan Williams, John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, as well as an unusual and truly remarkable piece with words by a Somali refugee – believed to be receiving its first performance in the UK.

Tickets for the concert are available from the TAL Box Office and on the door.

www.thamechamberchoir.org

THE Unbound Sketchbook is coming to the Players Theatre, Thame, on Friday, September 27, with the very best in rib-tickling skits from a formidable repertoire of comedy sketches.

The Unbound Sketchbook is Aylesbury’s very own home-grown comedy team which, having built up a repertoire of all-original comedy, is now touring across the country with a fast-paced show.

Have you ever wondered what might happen if a self-service checkout developed a conscience? Or fancied finding out who’d win a ‘Battle of the Accents’ between a farmer and a pirate? Well, here’s your chance…

This is a fantastically funny night out with a wide variety of comedy ranging from superbly silly visuals to witty wordplay and even a dash of mirthful music.

The Unbound Sketchbook is the perfect evening out for comedy fans who appreciate comedy that isn’t afraid to be silly when it wants to be.

“Truly my sides hurt from laughing so much!”
“A fabulous show – highly recommended!”

Tickets are £10 or £8 concessions from Spear Travels, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 01844 217228, or online from https://www.thameplayers.co.uk

The Unbound Sketchbook is the comedy team of Unbound, the in-house production company at Aylesbury’s Queens Park Arts Centre https://www.qpc.org/, founded in 2014. The Sketchbook produces and tours new material every year and has performed at fringe festivals as well as commercial venues across the country.

A Come and Sing event at St Mary’s church in Thame this coming Saturday (28/09) will raise funds for two charities, including Sharing Life Thame, which tackles food poverty.

The all-day Come and Sing, with the theme of ‘Hope and Love’, will involve learning ten songs with a mixture of genres including folk, pop, classical and musical theatre, will also benefit Wycombe Homeless Connection. In the evening singers will perform in front of an audience. Helen Swift, Musical Director of Thame Choral Society, the Oxford Welsh Male Voice Choir and Towcester Choral Society will teach and conduct throughtout the event.

This is the second year Come and Sing has taken place to benefit these two charities. Promoter of the event, Ralph Westby, said: “Last year we raised money to help people in need through singing, which was enjoyed by singers and audience alike. Our charities were SharingLife Trust, Thame (food poverty) and Wycombe Homeless Connection. We want to do the same again this year. Will you help us achieve that goal, please?

“We will learn 10 songs, many in four parts, on the theme of Hope and Love, songs including items from well-known shows and films, as well as from Karl Jenkins, Morten Lauridsen, Howard Goodall (Thames’ own), Eva Cassidy, Leonard Cohen and John Rutter’s arrangement of a Somerset folk song.  There will also be two guest items, reflecting both musically and emotionally the highs and lows of the human condition.

“This is a fun event, which we expect to be entertaining as well as thought provoking. We still have space for more singers – just £25 for everything including music (yours to keep). Audience tickets are a bargain at £10! The day for singers starts at 10.15 am for registration and the concert is at 7pm.”

Contact Ralph on 07790 498718 or email comeandsingthame@gmail.com to take part: book now to secure your place. Audience tickets
available at all times, including on the door.

A new Children’s Cinema is launching in Thame next weekend and the first screening will be Mary Poppins Returns, on Sunday, September 29, at 2.30pm.

The following week, Sunday, October 27, The Secret Life of Pets 2 will be shown, with further dates planned for the new year. Tickets are £5 each (for adults and children) and are available now from: www.redkitefamilycentre.org/events.

The films will be shown at The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, and refreshments will be available to purchase.

Email info@redkitefamilycentre.org to be added to the Thame Children’s Cinema mailing list to receive the latest news including about future film screenings.

The Children’s Cinema is supported by Thame Town Council, Thame Cinema 4 All, Thame Players and 21st Century Thame, who all raise funds for the Red Kite Family Centre.

Bingo !

Don’t miss out on the Red Kite big Bingo fundraiser on Friday, September 27.

DIRECTED by Carl Hunter, Starring Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter, Tim McInnerney, Louis Healey, Alexi Sayle, this new season of films at Thame Cinema 4 All, kicks off with an overlooked, bittersweet and whimsical British gem.

Bill Nighy brings his characteristic deadpan wit to his portrayal of Alan, a retired Merseyside gentleman’s tailor who has never recovered from the disappearance of his beloved son Michael many years earlier. Michael stormed out following an argument over a game of Scrabble – a passion that is shared by the family, who pride themselves on a rare mastery of obscure words. Alan’s other son, Peter, is now an adult with a son of his own. He has had to live in the shadow of his missing and unimpeachable sibling, living with the repeated stinging reminders of his status as the second favourite, while attempting to cope with his increasingly eccentric father and the endless search for the missing brother.

Meanwhile Alan, becomes convinced that Michael is trying to reach him when he sees a rare word being used in an online Scrabble forum – a word that he imagines few outside his own family could know.

Scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce, this is a sensitive, poignant and very English film about fathers and sons, about ordinary families enduring loss and sadness, and with an exceptional cast of top drawer British acting talent. One to leave you smiling but with a tear in your eye. View trailer here.

Saturday, September 28, 8pm – UK 2018, 91 minutes, 12A certificate

Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame

PEOPLE who live in Thame and the surrounding area have been invited to spend a unique ‘Evening with the Joneses’.

Ian Jones will relate stories of his time as a Bomb Disposal Officer and his author wife Catherine, will tell of her experiences writing and publishing novels.

Ian Jones said: “I thoroughly enjoyed most of my time in bomb disposal and am delighted to have this opportunity to tell my story in support of local charities.”

You can read about Ian’s book, London: Bombed, Blitzed and Blown Up: The British Capital Under Attack Since 1867 HERE  and Catherine’s extensive back catalogue of books (including Romantic fiction written under the name of Fiona Field) HERE

Tickets cost £10 each for this unusual event which is on Wednesday, October 30, at the Players Theatre on Nelson Street in Thame. Tickets available online at thameplayers.co.uk, from the box office and at Spear Travels in Greyhound Walk,Thame on 01844 217228.

The event has been organised by Cllr David Bretherton, Chair of South Oxfordshire District Council and all the proceeds will go towards his chosen charities – the Red Kite Family Centre in Thame and the Earth Trust based at Little Wittenham.

Cllr Bretherton said: “It’s a great honour to be Chair of the council and being able to raise funds for two very worthy local charities has spurred me on to do as much as I can during my serving year. I’m very much looking forward to welcoming everyone to this, what promises to be, an entertaining event.”