First Word

News from around the region

A busy November for Leamington Music

Leamington Music certainly has a busy November, presenting a programme of five concerts in five very different musical fields. Performers include leading viol consort Fretwork, all-female Anglo-American quartet Eusebius (see Classical Music section), this year’s Leamington Music Prize winners Felicite Piano Trio and popular klezmer band She’Koyokh (pictured). A Remembrance Sunday concert sees three champion brass bands present a programme featuring works by Ralph Vaughan Williams... For more information, visit leamingtonmusic.org

Festive fun at FarGo

Coventry’s FarGo Village is getting in the festive spirit this month with two themed Christmas markets. The hugely popular Winter Chocolate Market makes a welcome return on Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 November, complete with an impressive array of tasty treats from artisan producers. Then, the following weekend (the 26th & 27th), the Winter Vegan Festival combines ‘handcrafted animal and planetfriendly gifts to fill stockings’, with ‘the finest plant-based treats to enjoy on the day’. Looking further ahead, FarGo’s December attractions include the Village’s biggest-ever Christmas market, taking place on 3 & 4 December and then again two weeks later, on the 17th & 18th. For more information, visit fargovillage.co.uk

Alex Kingston to star in The Tempest for the RSC

Alex Kingston returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) after Christmas to star in a brand-new version of The Tempest. The award-winning actress, who’s best known for starring alongside George Clooney in long-running US medical drama ER, will play the part of Prospero. The show, which runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Thursday 26 January to Saturday 4 March, forms part of a new season of productions at the RSC that also includes Julius Caesar and Cymbeline. For more information about all three shows and to book tickets, visit rsc.org.uk

Elvis on screen outdoors

The UK’s largest touring outdoor cinema will next summer present a screening of Baz Luhrmann’s hit movie, Elvis, at popular Warwickshire visitor attraction Coombe Abbey (Friday 25 August). Adventure Cinema’s Elvis Open-Air Cinema Tour ‘will bring together Elvis fans, film enthusiasts and family & friends to provide an unforgettable outdoor experience’. To find out more, visit adventurecinema.co.uk

Behind The Scenes at British Motor Museum

A car owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, and a vehicle that helped to launch a range of Barbie toys can be seen for the first time in years at Coventry Transport Museum. Thirty vehicles, many of which were made in Coventry, have been brought out of the venue’s storage collection. They can now be viewed in a new gallery called Behind The Scenes: Wheels And Workers.

Strictly out on tour again

The live tour of Strictly Come Dancing will be foxtrotting its way around the country again in the new year - and for the first time ever, Anton Du Beke will join fellow TV judges Shirley Ballas and Craig Revel Horwood for the on-the-road version of the show. The Strictly Live Tour will also feature the welcome return of Janette Manrara as host. As usual the tour kicks off in Birmingham (Utilita Arena) in January (20th to the 22nd). For more information and to book tickets, visit StrictlyComeDancingLive.com

Sir Ian McKellen to star in Mother Goose at the Wolverhampton Grand

Celebrated star of stage & screen Sir Ian McKellen will take the title role when a pantomime version of Mother Goose stops off at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre early next year (Wednesday 22 - Sunday 26 February). Sir Ian, who is perhaps best known globally as Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings movies and Magneto in the X-Men films, will be joined in the show by John Bishop. To find out more and book tickets, visit grandtheatre.co.uk

New tour dates for Romesh

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan will be hitting the road again in 2024 with a brand-new show entitled Hustle. The ever-popular laughter merchant’s UK tour will include a stop-off at Birmingham Utilita Arena on 30 May. For more information and to book tickets, visit the venue’s website.

Seasonal singing at Rugby venue

Local vocalists will next month join a 50-strong choir to present a brand-new Christmas event at Rugby venue The Benn Hall. Taking place on Sunday 18 December, the concert will be led by The Big Sing Choir, who will be performing songs from their established repertoire as well as a selection of festive favourites. Word has it Santa himself will be putting in an appearance too! To find out more about the event, search for Benn Hall Rugby online.

Olly Murs heads to the Midlands

Olly Murs will stop off at Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena next spring as part of a UK tour to promote his new album, Marry Me, which is released early next month (2 December). Olly will be joined at the Thursday 4 May show by Scouting For Girls. To find out more and book tickets, visit resortsworldarena.co.uk

First Word

Disney’s roar-some musical returns to the Midlands

Disney’s The Lion King will return to Birmingham Hippodrome next summer. Showing at the venue from Thursday 6 July to Saturday 16 September, the hit musical has thrilled a combined global audience of more than 110 million people since premiering on Broadway in 1997. For more information and to book tickets, visit birminghamhippodrome.com

A Christmas classic at the cathedral

Coventry Cathedral will this Christmas host a special screening of much-loved animated film The Snowman. First televised in 1982 and inspired by the late Raymond Briggs’ 1978 picture book of the same name, the film will be accompanied by a live orchestra (Saturday 17 December). As an extra-special treat, the event will also feature The Flight Before Christmas - a new Shaun the Sheep film which is being staged with a live orchestra for the first time. To find out more about the event and book tickets, visit coventrycathedral.org

Escape to adventure at Worcester visitor attraction The Commandery

Worcester visitor attraction The Commandery is this month launching a brand-new Escape Room (Saturday 5 November). Commandery Quest is based around the venue’s role as the Royalist headquarters in the English Civil War. The Escape Room will see teams of two to six players become museum curators. Battling against the clock, they will need to solve a series of puzzles to find King Charles II’s lost treasure before infamous thief Arty Snitch catches up with them. To find out more and book a session, visit commandery-quest.co.uk

First Word

Make a date for Danny’s final installment...

Veteran broadcaster Danny Baker will make three February stop-offs in the Midlands with a brand-new show. At Last… The Sausage Sandwich Tour is the final part of a trilogy which has also featured Cradle To Stage and Good Time Charlie’s Back! Danny visits Stafford Gatehouse on 8 February, Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent three days later on the 11th, and Walsall’s A3 Arena on the 24th. He then returns to the region in the spring, appearing at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, on 15 April. For more information and to book tickets, visit DannyBakerLive.com

Christmas craft-away with Dragons’ Den’s Sara

Dragons’ Den star and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Sara Davies is heading for Birmingham next month - complete with a cornucopia of quality Christmas crafting tricks and tips. Covering everything from gifts and garlands to cards and crackers - all via ‘a peek inside the Den’ and ‘a sprinkling of Strictly sparkle’ - Sara’s show will feature practical demonstrations, creative ideas and a healthy slice of down-to-earth know-how. The Queen of Crafting stops off at Birmingham Town Hall on Tuesday 6 December. For more information and to book tickets, visit bmusic.co.uk

News from around the region

Big festive programme on offer at Compton Verney

Visitors to Compton Verney can celebrate the magic of Christmas in traditional style next month (1 - 24 December), courtesy of ‘a packed programme of festive delights’. Highlights include a market of hand-made Christmas gifts, a concert of carols performed by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, a Warwickshire artists’ advent calendar, abridged performances of The Nutcracker and The Snowman, and the chance to meet Father Christmas and follow a ‘reindeer trail’ through the grounds... For more information about what’s happening and when, visit comptonverney.org.uk

Get ready to run...

Birmingham’s NEC will play host to The National Running Show in January (Saturday the 21st & Sunday the 22nd). The biggest community meet-up of the year, and perfectly timed for runners who are training for events in the spring, the show features ‘inspirational speakers, cuttingedge technologies and the best in nutrition, all under one roof’. For more information, visit nationalrunningshow.com

A contemporary Romeo & Juliet at the Belgrade

A critically acclaimed contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet will stop off at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre early in the new year. Sabrina Mahfouz’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses explores the subject of forbidden love in a society suffering from racial and social divides. The production is presented by Pilot Theatre and runs at the Belgrade from Tuesday 24 to Saturday 28 January. For more information and to book tickets, visit the venue’s website.

New kids’ festival offering springtime ‘fairytale’ fun

A brand-new event for children under 12 years of age will take place at Staffordshire Showground next spring (Sunday 12 March). Organised by a female-led team with firsthand experience of parenting, The Kids’ Festival is described as an ‘immersive, fairytale experience bursting with a wide range of thrilling and enjoyable interactive activities’. To find out more, visit thekidsfestival.co.uk

With Britain seemingly on the verge of a return to Dickensian times, the RSC’s revival of its acclaimed version of A Christmas Carol could hardly be more opportune. Three of the production’s key players reveal why the enduring tale of redemption and compassion is more relevant than ever this festive season...

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s festive production could hardly be more pertinent. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ tale of poverty, social inequality, compassion and redemption, was written in 1843 but resonates louder than ever at the moment, with Britain in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis and economic recession. The contemporary context isn’t lost on any of the key players in the new production, which is a revival of David Edgar’s socially conscious adaptation that played to packed houses in Stratford in 2017 and ’18. This year’s version features a new cast, led by former Young One Adrian Edmondson as Scrooge and TV regular Sunetra Sarker as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Both are acutely aware of the story’s depressing relevance in 2022. “A Christmas Carol is an extraordinary book,” says Adrian, who returns to the RSC after starring in Twelfth Night five years ago. “It’s been in print continuously since 1843, so it must be saying something very important that catches our imagination. A lot of people think it’s about Scrooge and ghosts, which of course it is, but at the heart of it, it’s about poverty and our individual reaction to it. So it couldn’t be more relevant today than it has been in the past 30 to 40 years - not since rationing really. Actual poverty in our streets, people at food banks. That’s the driving force of it for Dickens - he’d read a report on poverty and was considering writing this as a dry pamphlet, but wrote it as a story because he thought it would connect more. And, of course, it does. So it’s hard to find a play that’s more relevant, especially one you might enjoy.” Playwright David Edgar talks of it being a “universal story of how benevolence is stronger than greed”, and of his determination to keep “Dickens and his ambitions” front and centre in the adaptation. Sunetra, meanwhile, sees the importance of telling a tale that remains so relevant. “Heating and eating are all we see in the newspapers, and the energy crisis is the first headline we’re reading about, hearing about and talking about,” says the actor familiar to millions via roles in TV shows such as Casualty (where she spent 10 years as Dr Zoe Hanna), Cold Feet, No Angels, Ackley Bridge, Sherwood and The Bay. “The state of society, the way the world ignores and neglects what the real wants and needs are, and how ignorance plays a role in that - it’s all tied up in this story. So without realising it, we’re right on the button.” The production represents Sunetra’s RSC debut (“it’s an honour to be able to tread the boards where so many great actors have been before”), as well as her first time on stage in nearly two decades. And the likeable scouser - the accent remains strong - is loving every minute of it, even when I point out that she could hardly have chosen a more prestigious or high-profile arena in which to make her return. “I hadn’t thought about it like that, but now you say it, maybe I should! But it’s been more of an honour really - it’s such a gift to be invited to be part of the company at the RSC. It’s always been a big deal - even coming from an Indian family, everybody knew about the Royal Shakespeare Company.” She says her return to the stage has largely been prompted by her children getting older the long, inconvenient hours and the travel involved would have been too big a commitment when they were young. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do more stage everyone wants to do more stage because you get that immediate intensity and reaction from the crowd that’s just joyous. You can’t bottle that sort of stuff because it’s so real. It’s like having a really good night out with your friends - you can’t pretend to have a really good night out with your friends! “So it feels like I’ve missed out on some wonderful moments on stage, but I’m here giving it my best. It’s a big show, there are a lot of set pieces, and I’m just getting my stage memory back in shape. But I’ve never felt more welcomed or supported by a company of strangers before - they’ve been absolutely delightful, and I’m just trying to keep up because they’re all so very good.” Sunetra also acknowledges the importance of her character in the play; the Ghost of Christmas Present is widely regarded as the mouthpiece for Dickens’ own views. “I’ve chosen to make her a Northern, grounded, earthy activist. She’s like a nosey news reporter going ‘Look, Scrooge, this is what’s going on in the world today, not yesterday or tomorrow, but today.’ I’d like to say she’s got a sunshine and brightness about her, but she’s also weighted in the reality of ‘You need to get your act together, shape up.’” And Adrian can’t wait to get his act together as the old miser at the heart of the story. “I’m really looking forward to playing Scrooge. Why, you might ask, would you watch a show about a really horrible person? You watch it because you’re cheering him on, urging him to become a better person. You’re on his side, you want him to turn. I think that makes him one of the most fundamentally interesting characters in literature, and a great part to play.” And as much as we’ve been talking about the disheartening timeliness of the show in terms of the current prevalence of food poverty and economic hardship in society, there’s plenty of positivity to be found throughout the production, as well as in its redeeming denouement. Sunetra is “loving the magic that a show like this brings - the set design, the music, the dance”, while David Edgar is quick to praise director Rachel Kavanaugh’s “wonderful production - combining a glorious set with dazzling choreography and musical score”. He also believes the tale shines a light on the positives that can be found while living in darker times. “When we premiered the show in 2017, millions were already relying on food banks, and beggars haunted city streets. Covid and the cost-of-living crisis have made economic inequality - and raw poverty - an even more pressing reality. And yet - in the way the nation came together around the NHS to combat the pandemic - we have been reminded of the selflessness and generosity of spirit which lies at the heart of Dickens’ enduringly optimistic story.”

A Christmas Carol shows at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-uponAvon, until Sun 1 January