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
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See What's on for a list of everything. Things are up in the air again with theatres thinking how to go back to online-only productions as well as outreach activities, including some that are specifically theatre related. |
Online productions
Online Murder Mystery ‘The Curse of Queen Nefertiti’s Necklace’
Still a few seats left for this great online 'Egyptian Murder Mystery',
in aid of the October Club, Wantage, which cares
for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
The Murder Mystery is at 19:00 on
Friday 22nd January and enquiries/tickets (just £10 a screen through
zoom) to
. Why not get the drinks and snacks ready as well! The production is being provided
free of charge by local company
Teams Unpuzzled
and the cast includes local professional actress Jenny Johns.
Strangers is the new online film currently picking up critical acclaim at the online festival theSpaceUK. Written by local writer Nick Card and starring local actors Emily Browne and Steve Schollar it tells a dark tale of when two strangers meet by chance. Desperate circumstances lead to desperate action that result in a shocking revelation with disturbing consequences. Can things ever be the same again?
Reading’s Progress Theatre have got one production in the pipeline: The F Word, a live comedy drama on Zoom for adults (you probably guessed that from the title) from 27th to 30th January.
The Show Must Go Online are back with a performed reading of Pericles: Shakespeare’s globe-trotting tale of shipwrecks, zombies and pirates. It's live on Wednesday 10th February at 19:00, but you now have to make a donation to watch it.
Outreach activities
In Newbury, the Watermill are offering weekly Zoom Classes from 11th January for children and families and for young people 11+ and adults. Improve your acting skills with these interactive online sessions led by industry professionals. Together you will build skills, create characters and improvise! Also in Newbury The Corn Exchange have weekly online drama sessions for infants, primary and secondary children. They are on Thursday afternoons from 14th January.
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.
Mortimer Dramatic Society
Mortimer Dramatic Society are at the forefront of amateur theatre in the area with a new audio presentation, available online, of Joyce Grenfell monologues, performed by members of the society, directed by Kerry Thomas and narrated by Tom Shorrock. This selection features the classic Joyce Grenfell monologues, Free Activity Period, read by Phil Collins; The Committee, read by Mark Auckland; A Terrible Worrier, read by Neil Johnson; Shirley’s Girlfriend, read by Paula Stenson.
They have also 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 National Theatre
are making their NT Live recordings available online. You can subscribe for
£9.98 a month or rent individual plays for £7.99.
The
RSC are offering Tales for Winter: From our place to yours. A series of stripped back events throughout December and January, celebrating the essence of live theatre: an actor, a stage and a story. Tales For Winter will be streamed live from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon,
to watch live or catch up within seven days.
You can search for reviews of previous productions - there are more than 900 pages of them in the Archive!
Latest news
Date | Item |
---|---|
17 Jan | Creation Theatre presents Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People, a deliciously dark and twisted set of fairy tales, online via Zoom, performed LIVE by a five-strong cast from 28th January to 14th February. |
17 Jan | Online Murder Mystery ‘The Curse of Queen Nefertiti’s Necklace’. Still a few seats left for this great online 'Egyptian Murder Mystery', in aid of the October Club, Wantage. It's for an organisation which cares for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The Murder Mystery is at 19:00 on Friday 22nd January. |
12 Jan | Strangers is a new online film from theSpaceUK. Written by local writer Nick Card and starring local actors Emily Browne and Steve Schollar it tells a dark tale of when two strangers meet by chance. Desperate circumstances lead to desperate action that result in a shocking revelation with disturbing consequences. Can things ever be the same again? |
Online now
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