Newbury theatre guide
Find out about theatre events coming up in and around
Newbury and West Berkshire, reaching out to Oxford, Basingstoke
and Reading. Follow us on
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Posters of forthcoming productions are here.
In the spotlight
See What's on for a list of everything. |
Oh dear, here we go again
The new lockdown means that all theatres and cinemas will be closed until 3rd December. This is a huge blow for our theatres, who were just starting to get on their feet again. They will continue to rehearse their Christmas shows and pantos, and we must hope that some relief will come in December.
Newbury Theatre and Penny Post
Newbury Theatre has joined up with Penny Post to give updated theatre information, and it will also appear here. Penny Post is a great source of local information - if you don't know it already, I can thoroughly recommend it, particularly now when a lot of us will be stuck at home.
Podcast
There’s a new podcast – Seeds – in eight episodes from No Stone Theatre. The final episode is available on 25th November but all previous episodes are available online. Seeds is based on the incredible true story of the world’s first seed bank. Established in St Petersburg in 1921 by Nikolai Vavilov, it contained vital samples of crops and plants from all over the world to guard against famine and preserve the future of biodiversity. The podcasts are available here.
Audiobook
Mortimer Dramatic Society have released The Snow Goose as an audiobook. For some years they have produces pieces for the hospital radio service at The Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. One of these is a four-part presentation of Paul Galico’s novella. This beautifully poetic story, written in simple lyric prose, tells the story of Philip Rhayader a lonely hunchbacked artist who lives alone in an abandoned lighthouse on the desolate Great Marsh of Essex. One afternoon, a hauntingly beautiful child, Fritha, visits Rhayader, bringing with her an injured snow goose. At first Fritha is scared of Rhayader, with his sinister hump and crooked hand, but he is gentle and kind and Fritha begins to visit regularly. When the snow goose departs for home, Rhayader is left alone again. The following winter, the snow goose and Fritha return to the lighthouse. Time passes and one year Fritha is frightened to discover her feelings for Rhayader. But this is 1940 and Rhayader is setting sail for Dunkirk to help the soldiers trapped on the beaches. Fritha never sees Rhayader again. But the story of the saviour with the snow goose passes from soldier to soldier and into legend…
You can listen to the episodes now on the MDS web site, at www.mortimer-dramatic.org/the-snow-goose-audiobook.
Online theatre
The
Show Must Go Online has weekly readings of the Complete Plays of
Shakespeare (Wednesdays, 19:00) in the
order they were believed to have been written. It uses global casts,
including professionals and amateurs, and you can either watch the plays or
apply to read a part. You can stream previous readings of the plays,
starting with Titus Andronicus.
The Tempest, 18th November
You can search for reviews of previous productions - there are more than 900 pages of them in the Archive!
| Date | Item |
|---|---|
| 25 Oct | Reviews of the Watermill's Lone Flyer ("gripping, informative and completely absorbing" - Newbury Theatre; "a great evening, atmospheric and gripping and done with panache" ★★★★ - Theatre Cat; "lyrical and fun" - Wokingham Today; "the play holds its power right until that final crash, and all the hope of a magnificent, adventuring life in it" - ★★★★ - The Guardian; "Ade Morris’s two-hander about aviation’s answer to Gracie Fields packs in a lot of information about an extraordinary life" - ★★★ - The Times; "an extraordinary story that is worth telling" - ★★★★ - Pocket Size Theatre; "uplifting story" - ★★★★ - The Stage; "pacey and enchanting show" - ★★★★ - The Spy in the Stalls; "zings with energy... a slice of history, beautifully performed by a superb company" - Newbury Weekly News; "our imagination is borne up, up and away" - ★★★ - Daily Telegraph). |
| 14 Oct | Good news: the Newbury Corn Exchange has received £240,045 as part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. Bad news: the Watermill didn't qualify for Recovery Fund money. Because of the limited seating available under the government's social distancing rules, the Watermill's income has been very significantly reduced. They have launched a FULL HOUSE appeal to help them keep running. |
| 11 Oct | Oxford Theatre Guild have two productions in November at the Old Fire Station. Baggage and It's True, It's True, It's True. |
| 11 Oct | The Mill at Sonning are back in business with songs from musicals in Some Enchanted Evening and father and son Simon and Tam Williams taking a look at their great love of theatre in Just Williams. Both at the end of October. Theatre proper gets going next March with Relatively Speaking. And all performances as usual include a meal beforehand. |
| 4 Oct | More theatre productions from Newbury Corn Exchange including the panto Aladdin. |