Out & About May 2017

Arts editor Trish Lee picks four of the best events on the arts scene in April. Reviews of all of these – and for more arts news – see N2 in the Newbury Weekly News each week May dates for your diary

Plunge into a world of visual vernacular & physical theatre Cirque VV Arlington Arts www.arlingtonarts.co.uk Cirque VV is a cabaret show that seamlessly integrates physical theatre, comedy clowning and British Sign Language and it’s one of the first British productions to be fully-performed in visual vernacular – encompassing elements of poetry and mime to create a theatrical art form of physical expression and storytelling, based on body movements, iconic signs, gestures and facial expressions.

Feast for music lovers Newbury Spring Festival www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk

Newbury Spring Festival (May 6 to 20) is a glorious fortnight of world class music in and around Newbury, with some 45 events in 18 venues, where international symphony orchestras, ensembles and soloists rub shoulders with jazz legends, world music artists and the stars of tomorrow – Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and Moscow Philharmonic, plus Britain’s finest choral company, The Sixteen. Stephen Hough, Alice Coote, Alison Balsom, Sir Thomas Allen, Tasmin Little, Noriko Ogawa, John Lill and Susan Bullock are some of the greatest classical

musicians of our time returning this year. But there’s more than classical music: trad jazz Dutch Swing College Band, Black Dyke brass and Indian-style Bollywood Brass Band; sparky comedy with sensational piano playing by Worbey & Farrell and Ghanaian drumming and dancing from Kakatsitsi. Plus more… Pick up a programme or visit the website for full details.

It’s being presented at Arlington Arts, on May 10 (8pm) by D-Live!, a company that aim to make theatre of a high standard for deaf audiences, at the same time being fully accessible for any audience. Great stuff – pushing the boundaries – just what you’d expect from the arts centre at Snelsmore. Tickets are Pay What You Think. For more information, visit the website. All profits from Arlington Arts go directly to Mary Hare, a school and national charity supporting deaf children.

And back in the house House and Garden by Alan Ayckbourn at The Watermill www.watermill.org.uk

Step into the garden At Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames www.bohungallery.co.uk Head out to Henley’s Bohun Gallery, one of the leading ‘out-of-London’ art galleries since 1973, which regularly exhibits work celebrating the British garden, and this May is no exception. A joint exhibition of paintings opens on May 6, featuring the popular Scottish artist Shona Barr who, using luscious colour and texture, explores the flora and fauna of her native isles, accompanied by Clare Bigger, one of the UK’s leading sculptors, whose work in stainless steel and bronze has featured in several award-winning RHS Chelsea show gardens and numerous commissions, including Priors Court, Hermitage. This is a cracking little gallery and you can catch this

What better way to celebrate The Watermill’s 50th year – yes really – than with the work of national treasure Alan Ayckbourn. House and Garden is a pair of comedies performed simultaneously by the same cast between the theatre and covered seating in its beautiful gardens. With hilarious consequences, one character’s entrance to House in the theatre is another’s exit outside from Garden in this fast-paced duo of plays. House and Garden ’s storyline can be enjoyed through the eyes of different characters in either setting. Both are complete plays with an interval. You watch either House or Garden or both on separate occasions – it doesn’t matter in which order.

This will be the first time that Ayckbourn’s plays have been performed both inside and out, promising to be very special productions, epic and intimate in equal measure. The production opens on May 25 and runs to July 1. It’s what the Watermill does so well…

spring show right through to June 3. Why not make a day of it and picnic along the picturesque riverbank that is home to the world- famous Royal Regatta later in the summer. 15 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1AB; Telephone 01491 576228.

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