Posts Tagged ‘Summer Holidays’
Norwich-based arts writer, Tony Cooper, highlights the summer season at Norwich Playhouse.
When it comes to comedy one thing’s for sure that the Norwich Playhouse situated in leafy St George’s Street will stand up and deliver! For its summer season they’ve got some of the country’s best heading to Norwich adding greatly to the Playhouse’s bright and varied programme of events running to the end of September.
Bo Burnham. At Norwich Playhouse this summer.
Never one to take the easy option, award-winning comedian and activist Mark Thomas can be enjoyed over two nights (Monday/Tuesday, June 6/7, 8pm) in his new show, Extreme Rambling, Walking the Wall – the one separating Israel from the Palestinian side.
Hot on Thomas’ heels come Simon Evans (Wednesday, June 15, 8pm), on his first UK tour. A popular act on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, he’ll take the audience on a journey through modern Britain and all that makes it grate!
Comedy accelerates along the ‘not-so-straight’ with the critically-acclaimed Des Bishop (Friday, June 24, 8pm) in his thought-provoking show, My Dad Was Nearly James Bond. Hold your breath and then you’ll be bombarded over two nights by Dom Joly – Thursday/Friday, July 28/29, nightly at 8pm. Since his multi-award-winning international TV hit, Trigger Happy TV, he has led an extraordinary life. In this ‘laugh-out-loud’ show, he’ll muse on the perils of travelling the world. Comedy decelerates with Jason Byrne (Thursday, September 8, 8pm) touching your funny bone with his unrivalled comic sense of timing.
Dom Joly. This season at Norwich Playhouse.
A huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, Hot Mikado (based on the original show by Gilbert & Sullivan) gets a staging by the Norfolk & Norwich Threshold Theatre Company, running from Wednesday to Saturday, June 1-4, nightly at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. A sophisticated and witty tale of courtship and manners, the action’s set in 1940s America and features a high-energy mix of jazz, hot gospel, swing, jitterbug and lindy hop.
The uplifting rib-tickling one-woman show Big Pants and Botox - from the pen of award-winning writer, Louise Roche - plays on Saturday, June 11 (8pm) while award-winning Sell-a-Door Theatre Company make their Playhouse début with the first-ever UK tour of Spring Awakening, a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1891 German play by Frank Wedekind. The cult show - winner of eight Tony Awards - runs over two nights on Friday/Saturday, June 17/18, nightly at 7.30pm.
Spring Awakening. Coming soon to Norwich Playhouse.
Barry and Stuart – stars of BBC1s The Magicians – can be enjoyed for a night of devious, jaw-dropping magic, on Saturday, June 25, 8pm and Adam Buxton can be equally enjoyed with his Bug Music Video show on Thursday, June 30, 8pm. A new arrival to the St George’s Street premises is Montreal-based puppeteer, Jeff Achtem, who’ll transform bits of junk into surreal shadow puppets – flying chickens, brain transplants and sneaky Ninjas! – in his award-winning show running on Friday July 1 (7pm) and on Saturday July 2 (2.30pm).
One can enjoy the stage skills of young local talent exploring the triumph of Heroes over Villains in Fear No Evil, running for two performances on Sunday, July 3, at 3pm and 6pm. Through music, novels, theatre and film, Norwich’s Theatretrain students use a combination of song, dance and drama to reveal the true nature of good and evil embodied in characters as widely different as Mack the Knife to heart-throb 007.
Norwich-born dance-master, Neil Smith, stops off at the Playhouse en route to Edinburgh and the Fringe with Agnes and Walter (A Little Love Story) playing on Thursday July 7 (7.30pm). A story of secret wishes, suppressed desires and a garden shed, the show – set to a soundtrack of cinematic scores and popular songs and a cast spanning three generations – is inspired by movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Les Enfants Terribles can be seen in The Infant by Oliver Lansley on Wednesday, July 13 (7.30pm), Livewire Opera’s back with Johann Strauss’ The Gypsy Baron (Friday/Saturday, July 15/16, nightly at 7.30pm) and The Ukulele Project (Friday/Saturday, July 22/23, nightly at 7.30pm) will entertain with a microtastic mix of musical mayhem and dizzying entertainment featuring pop, hip-hop and classical.
Family entertainment comes to St George’s Street with Hairy Maclary and Friends – Saturday July 30 (1.30pm/3.30pm) and Sunday July 31 (11.30am/1.30pm) – following a sell-out run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. The show features many well-loved characters including Hercules Morse, as big as a horse, Bottomley Potts, covered in spots, Schnitzel von Krumm, with the very low tum and Scarface Claw, the toughest tomcat in town.
Las Vegas comes to Norwich, too, with The One and Only Rat Pack Show (Friday August 12, 8pm) featuring Anthony Adams (from BBC’s The One and Only) as Frank Sinatra, together with stalwart Rat Pack regulars Neil Duncan as Dean Martin and Jim Whitley as Sammy Davis Jr. The show’s followed by The Floyd Effect (Saturday, August 13, 7.30pm) – an authentic live tribute show featuring lasers and projections to the music of Pink Floyd – spanning the complete Pink Floyd canon, including much-loved material from Wish You Were Here, Animals, Meddle, The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell.
The evergreen Jimmy Tarbuck swops the London Palladium for the Playhouse (Friday, August 26, 8pm) in a rare solo outing. After more than 40 years in showbiz, Tarby is still at his very best in front of a live audience, combining his trademark quick-fire wit with a lifetime of unashamedly name-dropping anecdotes, from sharing a school classroom with John Lennon to playing golf with Bing Crosby.
A breathtaking tribute to Neil Diamond (Saturday, September 3, 8pm) will take the audience on a nostalgic trip through his illustrious song-filled career, featuring timeless hits and classics such as Hello Again, Cracklin’ Rosie, America, Love on the Rocks and Neil’s unforgettable signature tune, Sweet Caroline.
Canadian actor, Charles Ross, returns to the Playhouse (Friday, September 9, 7.30pm) appearing in his solo show, One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, in which he single-handedly plays all the characters, sings the music, flies the ships, fights the battles and condenses the plots into just 60 minutes!
The intimate surroundings of the Playhouse makes it an ideal venue for small/middle-scale drama productions and award-winning London Classic Theatre returns to the theatre on Tuesday/Wednesday, September 20/21, nightly at 7.30pm, offering Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play, Equus.
The scenario surrounds a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious/sexual fascination with horses. He was inspired to write it when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who blinded six horses in a small town near London.
He set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any of the details of the crime. The play’s action is something of a detective story, involving the attempts of the child psychiatrist, Dr Martin Dysart, to understand the cause of the boy’s actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose.
However, numerous other issues inform the narrative. Most important are the religious and ritual sacrifice theme and the manner in which the character Alan Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the supreme godhead, Equus.
Alan sees horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his ‘God’ with sexual attraction. Also important is Shaffer’s examination of the conflict between personal values and satisfaction and societal mores, expectations and institutions.
The season’s completed by Norwich-based Indian dance troupe, Natyapriya, presenting Shyama on Saturday September 10 (7.30pm); Chris Bailey’s annual Jazz and Cabaret Show for Breakthrough Breast Cancer on Sunday September 11 (7pm); The Demon Barbers (winners of Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2009) on Saturday September 17 (8pm) and Mixed Voice presenting A Night at the Musicals running on Friday/Saturday, September 23/24, nightly at 7.30pm,with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.
Words: Tony Cooper.
Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones at Norwich Playhouse.
Playhouse box office is situated at Norwich Theatre Royal. Tel: 01603 598598.
Along with the children’s library at the Millenium Library in Norwich, the Castle Museum is one of Little Man’s favourite hang-outs. He loves things to do with Knights and he really, really loves the massive stuffed Polar Bear in the Natural History section.
Little Man in the Keep Basement.
At £6.60 entry (which includes access to any ‘special’, temporary exhibitions), and free for under 4s, it’s a decent way to spend a day, especially in poor weather.
Obviously, Norwich Castle itself is massively impressive. Almost 1000 years old and founded by William the Conqueror himself shortly after the Norman Conquest of England, the keep (the squarish stone building we think of as the ‘castle’ today) has been amazingly well-preserved, providing a really classic, fairy-tale-esque castle to dominate the Norwich Cityscape.
Little Man in the Keep Basement.
Inside the Castle are various galleries and displays, including fine art and a large natural history section (some of the content of which I distinctly remember from my own visits as a child). Older children will (probably) find the Ancient Egyptian section (complete with a real bona-fide ‘Mummy’ – try explain that to a toddler…umm…) interesting, while Little Man loved the virtual Chariot Ride in the Boudica Gallery (we had to keep revisiting it – ended up going on it about 6 times).
Chariot riding ala Boudica.
Despite the fact that, like most museums, Norwich Castle clearing doesn’t receive the investment it deserves (some of the exhibits are looking a bit tired and some of the more recent ‘interactive’ bits, which are obviously well-used, clearly need replacing), they really are trying to engage the younger, even pre-school audience, which is great to see. The recent introduction of buckets and an eclectic selection of toys including plastic models of animals and toy binoculars, magnifying glasses and rulers to measure stuff near the entrance is a great idea. Young children will love finding something they can actually identify with (toys) and it not only helps maintain their attention, but provides a connection to the rest of the museum by offering the opportunity for discussion and interaction (“How big is that? – Lets measure it”, “Lets pretend we’re bird-watching with our binoculars”, etc. etc.).
Little Man has long been a fan of the special small-child corner of the main keep. With a cushioned area, books, dress-up stuff and toys relating to castles and knights, he always makes a bee-line here.
Playing in the toy Castle in the Keep.
The Castle also has ‘Little and Large’ booklets, encouraging you to seek out various artefacts throughout the museum – a huge teapot, lucky charms in the shape of beetles, a cluster of small chicks…, and a print out of suggestions of ways in which Parents and their pre-school offspring can enjoy the museum together. It’s a good thing for visitors and museums alike that they are trying to be more alive – interactive, noisy, in short, enjoyable. After all, they are not meant to be tombs and their very future depends on capturing the interests of future generations of visitors, who will, in turn, bring their children to visit.
Playing in the toy Castle in the Keep.
From an adult perspective, the temporary Restless Times exhibition of wartime and inter-war Art In Britain 1914-1945 (now finished I’m afraid) was excellent. One word of warning – if you’re serious about perusing the exhibitions yourself, a return visit sans pre-schooler might be required…
Playing in the Keep Basement.
We Love: Good toilet/baby change facilities. Lots on offer for pre-schoolers – just add imagination (see above). Good buggy store/cloakroom and site is buggy friendly with plenty of lifts. Can eat own lunch in picnic room.
Not Crazy About: Cafe could do better, as could gift shop – choice/offerings a bit limited and not very imaginative. In similar destinations such as York, residents receive free or reduced entry to the City museums – while I am aware of the Museum Pass, this might also encourage us ‘locals’ to visit whats on their doorstep more often.
Barely outside Norwich City Centre, Whitlingham Country Park offers 35 hectares of ancient woodland, trails and meadows around and alongside the Great and Little Broads that were created as a result of gravel extraction.
Steps up into the woods around Whitlingham.
Superb for walking (with or without dogs), jogging and cycling, it is a great place to spend a few hours outside in the fresh air and sunshine without having to travel miles.
We’ve walked the circular route around the Great Broad many times (its about 2-3 miles long – nice to run around) so this time we parked further up Whitlingham Lane and set out to explore the area designated a ‘Prehistoric Park’, which we’d not explored before. This area of woodland is thought to have been a prehistoric flint-works. Large numbers of flints have been found here, along with the tooth of a mastodon (a large mammal-like creature). Being quite into Dinosaurs and Mammoths (as many little boys are), Little Man was excited at the prospect of maybe encountering one…
Ascending the steps in the Prehistoric Park.
The ‘park’ has properly constructed trails throughout, providing a walk that links back round to the car park. The route we took involves quite a few steps, so is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. The trail travels up to provide a nice view over the surrounding woodland with the Broad in the near-distance. En-route are a few handy wooden benches where you sit and eat a picnic, catch your breath or soak up your surroundings. You wouldn’t know you were so close to the A47, so peaceful and seemingly rural is this place.
Bench and woodland views.
The paths are well marked and offered Little Man the chance to stretch his legs in relative safety (at certain points some of the trail does slope off quite steeply beyond a very basic fence, however).
Little Man stretches his legs.
On our travels we came across an old Lime Kiln built into the hillside. Now a home for bats, we were quite surprised that the entrance was not locked so one can actually venture inside. It looked a bit boggy of floor however, and not entirely hygienic, so we gave entering in a miss on this occasion.
Peering in to the disused Lime Kiln.
Travelling back around towards the start of our walk, we encountered an assault course. Designed more for older children, Little Man still had a bit of fun on the swinging and climbing obstacles.
Hanging around in Whitlingham...
Stretching his legs again...
In all, we had a good couple of hours out in the spring sunshine, exploring the woodland paths that flank Whitlingham Broad. Combining fun and exercise with the opportunity to expose Little Man to a bit of nature and history for the price of a pay-and-display car parking ticket, can’t be bad really.
Wood carving near to where we parked.
Afterwards we drove back up the lane to the larger car park to grab a bite and use the facilities at the café (cafecafé). Marvellous.
Outdoor assault course at Whitlingham.
We Love: A low-cost, good value Family day out.
Not So Crazy About: Toilets in visitor centre lean more towards the ‘outdoor education centre’ element that the ‘toilets adjacent to a cafe’ in their presentation. Slightly rough & ready. And muddy. Oh well. Better than a bush I suppose.
Entry is free, but parking charges often apply (and we’re told that checks for proper paid-up parking is getting increasingly more strict after being quite slack for a long time).
The Country Park is open all year round but probably best enjoyed on dry days.
For information about activities, times and prices contact the Outdoor Education Centre on 01603 632307, www.whitlinghamoec.co.uk
- 18/05/2012 - Victorian Shell Artistry May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Shipwrecked! Back to 1897 May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - A Walk Through Time: The Victorians May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Norwich 20 Group – Looking into 20 – paintings and sculpture at The Forum May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Tony Foster Paintings/Angela Harding Prints May 18, 2012