Archive for the ‘Category #2’ Category
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Denver’s House of Windsor hosts an evening presentation of historic English touring destinations by British Tours by Tristan.
Tristan will speak about Great Britain tour destinations while tea and cookies are served by the House of Windsor, located at 1050 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Lakewood, Colorado 80226, 303-936-9029, (http://www.houseofwindsor.net). British Tours by Tristan specializes in custom tours for seniors to locations otherwise inaccessible by larger tour companies. British Tours by Tristan explores quaint fishing villages and hidden away thatched villages of literary history that can only be accessed through small, winding roads flanked by English hedgerows offering glimpses of green rolling pastures and endless fields in full bloom, with tolling bells and church spires jutting from the villages inviting one and all to visit and enjoy. Please join House of Windsor and British Tours by Tristan for an evening of information, including photos and stories about touring the lesser known locals in Great Britain. House of Windsor is open Monday – Friday 10:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday 10:00am – 4:30pm; and closed Sunday. Please look for scheduled dates soon!
Tags: LOOK FOR FUTURE TRAVEL EVENINGS AT THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR!
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The National Theatre’s repertory productions continue to be the best around. A guest production from Sheffield, Brassed Off, plays until 17th June, and a classic Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, finishes 20th June to make way for a new production of a grand old favourite on 6th July–Oklahoma! If it is as popular as previous American musicals by the NT it will be a sell-out. It plays non-stop until 5th September. In the Lyttelton there are final performances of
Shakespeare’s Othello until 13th June, and a 300-year-old comedy, The London Cuckolds, plays through July. A new production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starts previews from 19th June with Fiona Shaw. Several new plays occupy the experimental Cottesloe. Tel: 0171 928 2252.
Patrick Marber’s saucy and louche comedy Closer is at the Lyric (tel: 0171 494 5045) through June, after a season at the National. It’s a very contemporary play about two couples, and it’s very funny–but be warned, it’s also very rude!
Alan Ayckbourn is as prolific a playwright as Neil Simon, and he keeps batting them out. His latest is Things We Do for Love, playing at the Gielgud, tel: 0171 494 5065. Barbara (Jane Asher) is a brittle landlady. Nikki (in a wonderfully fresh performance from Serena Evans) trusts her too well and gets crushed in the process.
The much-acclaimed production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband is now at the Albery until mid-July. Tel: 0171 369 1730. As well as those cunning quips and gilded aphorisms, it has all the glitter of the belle époque in its exotic costumes and sets, allied with ultimately stylish English acting.
If you like wonderfully sung, full bodied songs (’Old Man River’, ‘My Bill’, ‘Cotton Blossom’, and more) then a West End revival of a classic American musical will be for you. Showboat, paddling along the river with all the romantic trappings, has sailed into the Prince Edward, tel: 0171 447 5400.
The best news for London theatre is that the Peter Hall Company repertory project has been re-launched. This bold new idea involves a large band of actors working in plays presented in rotation. That way you may see several shows in a week with actors in contrasting roles. Currently playing are Moliere’s Le Misanthrope, a shimmering view of 17th-century Paris, and Shaw’s Major Barbara. There is some inspired casting–Elaine Paige as the flighty Celimene, for example. The company now has a vast space to work with in the Piccadilly (tel: 0171 369 1734). Ask for special bargain offers the box office.
At the Apollo Hammersmith that queer old codger Doctor Dolittle (Phillip Schofield) is prancing around with a lot of odd animals. Characters from the much-loved books of Hugh Lofting, were created for this show by Jim Henson. It previews from 29th June, incorporating a lobby full of Lofting’s loony creatures before you even reach your seat!
In Late Joys at The Players’ Theatre (tel: 0171 839 1134), an all-join-in crowd sings along with the show at this traditional theatre-and-restaurant under Charing Cross Station.
The English National Opera’s exciting opera season continues with productions of Carmen and Falstaff until 4th July at London’s Coliseum. ENO productions are often fullly staged and sung in English. Note that operas change nightly, so check ahead. Tel: 0171 632 8300. It might pay to check for bargain seats at the Coliseum.
The peripatetic Royal Ballet has been wandering around London since the Opera House was closed for repairs, but you can catch up with it at the London Coliseum from 7th July to 1st August. Several big ballets such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty will be trotted out, as well as programmes of divertissements, including a new work by Christopher Wheeldon.
The English National Ballet is at the Royal Albert Hall from 18th to 30th June. This vast Victorian edifice is a theatrical sight in itself. Circular, with an arena stage, it wouldn’t normally seem natural for ballet (aside from the old quip that it’s so vast you get it twice) but re-staged and with a cast of more than 100, Romeo and Juilet should be quite something. The stars are international–Tamara Rojo who dances Juliet on the opening night is from Montreal and trained in Madrid, her Romeo, Roberto Bolle, is an elegant Italian. Tel: 0171 632 8300.
Last but not least, check the lobbies of the Festival Hall for free shows in summer–art, dance, cabaret, music, there is a lot going on and you can have lunch or a drink as you participate.
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Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The centrepiece of next year’s Homecoming will be a gathering of the clans to be held in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park in July 2009.
The organisers of the event expect it to be the biggest of its type. However, as The Scotsman’s photographs of the famous 1951 Gathering show, it will have to go some distance to fulfil this expectation.
Taking place between 16 and 19 August, the 1951 Gathering was organised as part of the Festival of Britain and brought together clansmen from all parts of the world. The event was the first official gathering since 1822, including as it did the “March of the Thousand Pipers” through the city centre and the biggest ever Highland Ball, which had 1,200 guests.
It was one of the first events to be televised around the world and was seen by 50 million people on cinema newsreels and television.
At the time, The Scotsman wrote of the gathering in Murrayfield for the Highland Games and world pipe band contest: “Its appeal was greatest for those who had personal connection with the score or so clans officially represented.
“But even to the stranger its splendour might bring to mind the history-book accounts of the sixteenth-century ‘field of the cloth of gold’ at Calais.
“The great banner of the chiefs and their clans floated proudly above the tents, ranged facing each other round a great square, or were planted at their entrance. Each tent bore a name famous in Scottish history, and the various clans vied with each other in their displays.”
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