Category: entertainment and leisure news

Due to unforeseen circumstances, it has  been decided, with regret to postpone until the Spring of 2014 the ‘Evening with Chinnor Silver Band’, in aid of Thame and District Day Centre. Originally, this was planned to be held at St. Mary’s, Thame, on Saturday November 2.

Those who have bought tickets already may, if they wish, retain them for the Spring Concert or refunds will also be available from where the tickets were purchased.

30/10/13

THE Cornerstone Baptist Church in Thame  is organising a pop-up community space at Christchurch in the Upper High Street. ‘The Hub’  as it is known, has been running from Monday,  October 21, and will stay open up to Saturday,  November 9, with lots of activities for all ages.

“The Hub is our way of showing that God cares about community and relationships,” said Paddy Harris, Pastor at the Church. “We’ve been thrilled in the past to have been called on to be a part of community activities in the town and are always looking for opportunities to help. Based on an on-street questionnaire about needs in Thame, our survey found that there is a real desire for a place where different ages and stages in life can come to meet as well as for support during those tricky half term holidays.”

The Hub is open to everyone, from those looking for a space to bring their babies to a place where the elderly can find a friendly face and warm welcome. Half term provides good opportunities for interactions with children, teens and families too.

The Hub features ‘Café Refresh’ offering free coffee, Wi-Fi and cake, and is open from 9 – 5:30pm. There is also a range of activities from the Toddler Disco held today,  to three Master classes where adults can learn IT skills, knitting and watercolour.  Half term week has two activities a day at 10 am and 2pm. On Thursday morning, October 31,  The Hub will feature its  inaugural Jolly Pumpkin competition, and is inviting people to take in  pumpkins they’ve carved at home, by 10am, for judging and prizes for best overall, best under eights and best under 16s will be awarded. The challenge is to make the pumpkin as jolly as possible!

For more details visit  ‘The Hub in Thame’ on facebook or visit the ‘what’s on’ section of Cornerstonethame.org.uk.

This year’s  Thame annual firework display will take place on Saturday,  November 9,  at Lord Williams’s School (Lower site) at 6.30 pm and aims to be a major fundraiser for the town’s three primary schools.

The event, jointly organised by St Joseph’s, John Hampden and Barley Hill schools attracts over 1,500 people each year with a guarantee of an amazing 20-minute firework spectacle.

With gates opening at 5.30pm, spectators will be able to purchase a range of refreshments including BBQ fare, mulled wine, and hot and cold drinks.

All money raised through the ticket and refreshment sales on the night go directly to the schools.

“The Thame firework display has been one of the highlights of the town’s diary for over ten years now and will be as impressive as ever,” commented Kim Littlefair, (firework team spokesperson). “Support from the parents, schools and local businesses through their sponsorships have made it possible to not only provide great family entertainment but also to help our schools significantly.”

Tickets can be bought from Thame Town Hall as well as directly from the three primary schools with presale tickets costing £5  adult / £2.50 child, or on the gate,  tickets costing £6  adult/ £3 child (children under 3 years are free).

For more information, please see www.thameschoolsfireworks.co.uk .

THE  Thame Charities Pre-Christmas Fair,  this year  involving 18 local groups,  will  be held on Saturday, November 9,  at  Thame Town Hall.

It will be open to the public from 10am until 1.30pm.

On offer during the day will be stalls selling gifts and other Christmas essentials as diverse as Floral arrangements, plants, preserves, books , cards, toys etc.  There will also be tombolas and raffles for adults and children. Refreshments will also be available.

If you would like to support some of your local charitable organisations and shop early for Christmas, then drop in and take a look.  Admission is free.

THAME Cinema 4 All will be showing ‘Behind the Candelabra’, on FRIDAY, October 25, at the Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, at 8pm. The doors will open at 7.30pm and there is a licenced bar.

FILM DETAILS: USA, 2013, 118 minutes, 15 Certificate; Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds and Dan Ackroyd.

Sensationally flamboyant, the very definition of camp excess the like of which has never been seen before or since, Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world when he met 17 year old Scott Thorson. It is pretty difficult to imagine more innocent times, times when people really believed that Liberace was heterosexual, but such times there were, and the man himself rigorously and successfully defended himself against claims about his sexual preferences (famously ‘crying all the way to the bank’) at the same time as he pursued a prodigious number of young men, an entourage of lovers employed under the guise of chauffeurs and houseboys and paid companions.

After meeting back stage in Las Vegas in 1976, Scott became Liberace’s lover for a tempestuous five years, and Soderbergh’s final movie tells the story of their consuming and volatile relationship, based on Thorson’s memoir of the same name. It is very funny, furiously paced, riotously entertaining. The humour is often on the dark side, in particular the story of Thorson’s extensive plastic surgery, paid for by his lover in an alleged attempt to make Scott into a younger version of Liberace himself. Rob Lowe as the wonderfully macabre plastic surgeon is a real treat, and a universally brilliant cast is led by Michael Douglas’ career-defining turn as Liberace, which is quite awesomely fabulous. And aside from the theatre of his love life, the film also manages to pay tribute to the effortless genius of a performer who never needed to practice, and who could thump out a virtuoso piano performance at formidable pace, technically flawless, often with only one hand.

A winner with audiences and critics alike – one not to miss.

THE film showing this Saturday, October 19, at The Players Theatre, Nelon Street, Thame, will be the Canadian film, Stories We Tell, Directed by  Sarah Polley.  It is 108 minutes long and is a  12A Certificate

“I’m interested in the way we tell stories about our lives, about the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down,” Canadian actor turned director, Sarah Polley, has said.  She lost her mother to cancer when she was 11 years old.

Diane Polley was a once famous television personality, a beautiful, free spirited and vivacious woman who enchanted everyone she met. Then, 23 years after her mother’s death, Sarah decided to make a documentary to piece together the unknowns about her mothers’ life – part memoir, part memorial, and part excavation of her own back story. Sitting down with relatives and friends and encouraging them to talk about what they remembered of Diane, the project soon turned into a far more complex excavation of myth, rumour and the unique intricacies of family relationships and recollections accumulated over years. Using a mixture of her father’s Super-8 footage, faux home movies, interviews and archive material, Polley’s film unfolds like an increasingly compelling mystery, and is her most complex and poignant film to date, sophisticated, beguiling and gripping.

It is an absorbing meditation of the persistence of the past in the present, and the unknowability of other people’s lives. Occasionally there are gems that sneak into the cinemas without fanfare, get universal rave reviews and then disappear before you have a chance to get to the nearest cinema during an inexplicably brief run. This is one of those films, so catch it while you can.

SOURCE: By Catriona Gilmour Hamilton