Open mic nightACE Space kicks off the year with their open mic night Unplugged tomorrow (Friday) at 7.30pm. Go along for a smorgasbord of music, comedy and poetry and the occasional uncategorisable act…Doors from 7pm, performer sign up, nominally 7pm but many come earlier. https://acespace.org.uk/
Newbury musicians HendrickxRoy at ACE Space
Chinese New YearCelebrate the Year of the Snake at the Chinese New Year Festival on Wednesday (January 15) at Oxford Playhouse. Touring across the country to celebrate the biggest festive event in the Chinese calendar Jinlong Culture and Performing Arts return to the venue with incredible brand new acts in a unique festive spectacle showcasing the best in Chinese performing arts. From the lively fun of the Lion Dance to an amazing Kung Fu display, the show is a fantastic showpiece of Chinese cultural tradition. Witness the daring stunts of Chinese acrobats alongside the magnificent 18-metre long Dragon Dance – and much more. https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/
Clay ClubCHILDREN’S weekly Clay Club begins on Tuesday (January 14 ) and runs to March 25 at The Lookout Studio, The Base, Greenham. From hand building to wheel throwing, kids and teens can explore and apply a range of inspiring pottery techniques, including pinching, coiling, slab rolling, throwing and glazing, with Susie Oates from Pots of Hope. From age 7+. Duration: 4pm-5pm. Full details at https://thebasegreenham.co.uk
Hampshire Hospitals Pantomime PlayersCINDERELLA, Dr Charming, and The Ugly Blisters… Hampshire Hospitals pantomime is here again. Go along and see some of your local doctors, nurses, and support staff – Hampshire Hospitals Pantomime Players – perform on stage at The Haymarket, Basingstoke, on Saturday (2.30pm, 7.30pm). All proceeds will go to Hampshire Hospitals Charity, so do please go along and support them for another fun show. Details at https://www.anvilarts.org.uk/events/hospital-panto
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat JOSEPH and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat plays live at New Theatre Oxford until Saturday. The smash-hit London Palladium production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat features much loved pop and musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph. Book your dream ticket quick before the tour moves on. The multi award-winning show has been performed hundreds of thousands of times including multiple runs in the West End and on Broadway, international tours in over 80 countries worldwide and has become one of the world’s most loved family musicals. https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat/new-theatre-oxford/
Chinese New Year
Coming soonArts lectureThe Arts Society Newbury’s next lecture at Arlington Arts on January 21 is Peder Severin Krøyer: Painter of Northern Light given by Kathy McLauchlan. Looking back on his work towards the end of his life, Peder Severin Krøyer recalled his work at Skagen, the Danish artists’ colony at the northernmost tip of Denmark, and expressed his particular love for that time “when the sun is going down, when the moon is rising over the sea, hanging there, crystalclear, and the water, smooth as glass, reflects its light….” Krøyer was referring to the ‘blue hour’ of northern Scandinavian summer nights, when sea and sky appear to merge into a single luminous whole. This lecture explores Krøyer’s life and work in Skagen, and evaluates the paintings that made him into one of Europe’s most celebrated artists by the end of the 19th century. A lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, Kathy is currently a course director at the Victoria & Albert Museum, organising courses and study days on the history of art and design. She teaches at several institutions, including Art Pursuits. Kathy is a graduate of Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute, with a PhD on French 19th-century painters in Rome. Book through the Arts Society: info@theartssocietynewbury.org.uk
The Autobiography of a CadIan Hislop and Nick Newman return to the Watermill with a hilarious new adaptation of A.G. Macdonell’s satirical masterpiece The Autobiography of a Cad opening on Friday, February 7. It runs to Saturday, March 22. Chronicling the rise of self-proclaimed political titan Edward Percival Fox-Ingleby from Eton to Oxford and then on to Parliament, the Cad’s story contains all the hallmarks of success: university escapades with friends taking the blame, courageously signing up to be on the administrative frontline of the First World War effort and doing the decent thing and joining the Tory party in the 1920s. Committed to ploughing his own way through life, righting the wrongs of his unforgivably liberal parents and armed with a universal disregard for the rules, the truth, and the women in his life, this is Edward Fox-Ingleby, a man who no-one loves as much as himself. This happily fictitious memoir about serving the nation bears absolutely no relation to any politicians past, present or future. https://www.watermill.org.uk