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Sept-Dec 2014
“And The Wall became the world all around.” Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)
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Life in the Fast Track: a home-grown world premiere, plus a host of solos showcase the power of one
Delve into Delia Derbyshire’s back catalogue, plus folk music from topical troubadour Chris Wood
Put on your detective hat, tip-toe through the deep, dark jungle, and dive into a magical underwater world
Art
An international festival of photography plus work inspired by a childhood in Africa and a meditation on the Line.
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Programme design: white space | www.white-space.net The North Wall photography: Colin Willoughby, Philip Vile
Welcome to our autumn season.
Every summer, the North Wall runs an outreach project that plants the seeds for future work. We audition and interview nationally, and bring aspiring and talented young artists together with arts professionals to explore new ideas.
This autumn sees one of those projects taken to its next stage. Fast Track is an exciting new play by a young Oxford writer, Catriona Kerridge. Two years ago, Cat joined the outreach as a student writer. During the residency, she wrote the first draft of a play about young people facing the economic uncertainty of modern Britain. Since then, the Arts Council has funded further development work and High Tide Festival took Cat on as one of six new writers mentored over a year.
If they are to learn and grow, writers need to see their work brought to an audience. We are delighted to be able to give Cat’s play a full production and equally delighted that the cast of six actors and the designer are also alumni of our summer outreach. To be able to offer them paid work and a step on to the first rung of the ladder is very satisfying. I hope you will come and see a performance.
The season is full of thought-provoking work - radical re-imaginings of classics (a four man version of Wuthering Heights and ATC back with a Hamlet turned on its head by Iran’s leading playwright Nassim Soleimanpour) sit alongside the best of new writing - the Gate Theatre’s production of Grounded is a fascinating portrait of a female fighter pilot brilliantly performed by Lucy Ellison. We’re also delighted to welcome The Tiger Lillies who are kicking off the season with their anarchic Brechtian cabaret
I hope to see you here in the months ahead.
Lucy Maycock Artistic Director
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Callout for Families Come and learn new songs and rhythms in a mad carnival-esque style music-making jamboree at the end of the half-term holiday.
A wonderful weekend of song, percussion, instrument-making and carnival head-dress making, that is absolutely intended for all the family. Tambourines, bells, whistles and kazoos will augment a band of more traditional instruments, to create a performance which will form part of the Christmas Light Festival (21st / 22nd November).
Inspired by street bands around the world and our own traditions of outdoor music making and celebratory noise, band-leader Tim Hill has bags of experience running the street bands Tongues of Fire and The Big Noise, and creating music for outdoor shows, carnivals and celebrations with Welfare State International, Rag and Bone and many others.
Cost: Just £20 per family group (2-5 people) – including all materials (and a kazoo!)
This project is in association with Oxford Contemporary Music, and is part of the nationwide Family Arts Festival (17 Oct-2 Nov) and Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival (21-23 Nov 2014.)
www.familyartsfestival.com www.oxfordschristmas.com
The North Wall in association with OCM presents
A Little Rough Musicpart of the Family Arts Festival
SATURDAY 1 – SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER
Saturday 1st November 1.30-2pm “The Island of Noise” – fascinating illustrated talk on English traditions of outdoor music-making – with live music and song
2 – 5pm Workshops for All (aged 4 – adult): Song and music-making; Head-dress making
Sunday 2nd November 10am-12.30 Instrumentalists Workshops (aged 9 – adult): For those who play or are learning to play
1.30 – 5pm Full band and song rehearsal – for everyone culminating in a small Summertown Parade
Friday 21st or Saturday 22nd November Rehearse and perform as part of Christmas Light Festival (exact times and locations TBC)
One morning the phone rings at the Amazing Kitamura Detective Agency. It is a boy called Nicholas, but on the screen, we see a picture of a cat! Detective K is confused. Nicholas is confused. He needs help, fast!
Come and join Detective K as she sets off on an exciting and hilarious adventure, full of manga clues and mysterious events. But will she solve the mystery and return Nicholas to his own body in time?
www.athousandcranes.org.uk
Recommended age: 6+
Performances: 11am & 2pmTickets: £7
On the beach the man hesitates and dithers - he is afraid of water. Yet the woman who was beside him a split-second ago has just dived among the folds of the waves...
Overcoming his fear, he plunges in and dances with the storm, discovering what is under the surface: a new world teeming with wild fish, juggling mermaids and dark creatures in the abyss…
Dare to Sea is a Franco-British collaboration bringing together dancers, circus and visual artists. Dive in to indulge yourself in a magical and moving adventure of waves, acrobatics and magnificent images.
www.peutetretheatre.co.uk
For families with children of all ages from 4+
A Thousand Cranes in association with Arts Depot presents
Me and My Catby Satoshi Kitamura
Peut-être Theatre & La Manoeuvre present
Dare To Sea
SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER
FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER
4 5
Performance: 2pmTickets: £7
Performances: 1.30pm & 6.30pmTickets: £10 (concessions £7)
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SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER
Indigo Moon Theatre presents
The Jungle BookFearless and free, Mowgli the
‘man-cub,’ finds fun and friendship as he learns to live by the Law of the Jungle.
Mowgli’s wild adventures in the dangerous world he inhabits are brought to life
with inventive shadow theatre, powerful original music and
colourful digital projections. Indigo Moon Theatre brings you a story inspired by the poetry & spirit of Rudyard Kipling’s original books.
www.indigomoontheatre.com
Recommended age: 4+
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com // Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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Family Origami
Workshop 3.15 – 4pm
Learn the ancient oriental skill of
paper-folding... make an origami
cat to take home, or even a mystery
detective box to put some clues in!
Cost: £3
(all materials
included)
Shadow Puppetry Workshop
3.30pm – 4.30pmMake your very own
shadow puppet and have
a go at animating it on stage!Cost: £3
The Tiger Lillies in Concert
Anarchic Brechtian Blues for a quarter of a century!
The Tiger Lillies were formed in 1989 and a quarter of a century later they remain one of the most unique, provocative and genre-defying bands one could come across. So they might be twenty five years older in 2014 but they are definitely none the wiser and that’s something they intend to celebrate in this concert.
The world of The Tiger Lillies is dark, peculiar and varied, with moments of deep sadness, cruel black humour and immense beauty. This unique “anarchic Brechtian street opera trio” tours the world playing songs about “anything that doesn’t involve beautiful blonde girls and boys running at the meadow” to quote their founder Martyn Jacques.
Conjuring up the macabre magic of pre-war Berlin cabaret, echoing the voices of Bertolt Brecht and Jacques Brel, the band performs a savage fusion of anarchic opera and gypsy music. The Tiger Lillies continue to shock, amuse and entertain with their postmodern, vaudeville performances.
www.tigerlillies.com
FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER
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Age guidance: 16+Performance: 8pmTickets: £16.50 (concessions £14.50)
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“ A decadence that touches on the divine” The Telegraph
“ A Tiger Lillies gig is a journey into wild emotion that passes right through melodrama and out the other side into bizarre beauty” Evening Standard
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
THURSDAY 18 – FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
Age guidance: 14+Performances: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
ATC presents
Blind HamletBlind Hamlet transforms Shakespeare’s tragedy into an interactive theatrical
battle and reimagines the bloody struggle for Hamlet’s Elsinore.
Volunteers take to the stage to outwit each other as a different power-struggle unfolds at each performance, with Hamlet turned on its head and every spectator now a Player.
Written by Iran’s leading playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour, Blind Hamlet reveals how nations and individuals trap each other, and themselves, in their frenzy to tell friend from foe.
Blind Hamlet is produced by Actors Touring Company, winner of a 2013 Fringe
First Award with The Events, which was also voted ‘Best Play of 2013’ by critics in
The Guardian.
www.atctheatre.com
The Arches & Peter McMaster present
Wuthering Heights
TUESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER Featuring high drama, romantic violence, a touch of Yorkshire bleakness and a few alternative endings, Peter McMaster’s award-winning, all-male performance revisits and re-imagines the landscapes and characters of Emily Bronte’s classic novel.
Focusing particularly on Heathcliff’s mysterious disappearance from the moors, and his subsequent return as “a man”, four performers explore what it means to be a man living in the world today and consider how the lives and aspirations of men have changed since the book’s publication 200 years ago.
www.petermcmaster.org
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
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£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
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Age guidance: 14+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
“The acting, the writing and the choreography of the piece are all beautifully prepared and crafted… a strikingly graceful and well-crafted show” ★★★★ The Scotsman
THURSDAY 2 – SATURDAY 4 OCTOBER
Age guidance: 14+Performances: 8pm, Saturday matinee 2pmTickets: £12 (concessions £10)
Age guidance: 12+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
The North Wall presents
Fast TrackWritten by Catriona Kerridge
Six characters, one park: Fast Track follows a life-changing day in the lives of 6 young city-dwellers.
Characters run, cycle, walk and hurtle past each other. Strangers confess, love and judge each other. They have one thing in common: they are all stuck in a relationship - a relationship with money. They are trying to find ways to handle it: save it, steal it, exchange it, make it or get rid of it.
And as the sun sets and night falls, this park becomes an altogether darker place...
Fast Track began its life during a summer outreach project here at The North Wall. The writer, actors, designer and composer are all alumni of our outreach programme which works with talented young and emerging artists. We are proud to take this work to its next stage and present this premiere.
This production is kindly supported by Arts Council England.
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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WEDNESDAY 8 OCTOBER
Show And Tell present Tortoise in a Nutshell in co-production with Cumbernauld Theatre
FeralCombining puppetry, immersive soundscapes and multimedia technology, the multi award-winning company Tortoise in a Nutshell build an entire world in front of the audience’s eyes. With barely a word spoken, Joe looks back at his childhood home and traces its journey from idyllic seaside town to community gripped by anarchy.
Feral is a Fringe First Award winner, Total Theatre Award nominee and Edinburgh Festival sell-out show.
www.tortoiseinanutshell.com
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
“Sophisticated and highly entertaining. The level of detail here is extraordinary.” ★★★★
The Times
“Mesmeringly inventive… technically, visually, aurally and politically, it’s a tremendous show.” ★★★★ The Scotsman
£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITY
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OCM presents
Delia DarlingsNew commissions and creative responses to electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire
Manchester-based new music collective Delia Darlings present Delia Derbyshire Day 2014, a follow-up to their sell-out 2013 event on the same theme. They honour the fascinating work and archive of this pioneering electronic composer (who died in 2001), best known for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and her original 1963 theme for Dr. Who.
In her use of soundscapes, robotic hymns and oscillating electronics (using salvaged acoustic equipment such as the ‘wobbulator’) Derbyshire was a powerhouse of musical creativity, now credited as inspiration by genre-defining artists such as Aphex Twin, Orbital and The Chemical Brothers.
This event will feature a new commission from composer/musician Daniel Weaver, and digital visual artwork from new-media artist Andrea Pazos, both created in response to the Delia Derbyshire archive in Manchester. The evening will also feature an immersive audio-visual collage of the archive, a screening of award-winning documentary ‘the Delian Mode’ by Kara Blake, and performances of last year’s acclaimed commissions from Caro C (experimental electronics) and Ailís Ní Ríain (contemporary classical/free jazz).
www.ocmevents.org
THURSDAY 9 OCTOBER
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Performance: 7.30pm Tickets: £14 (concessions £10)
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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SATURDAY 11 OCTOBER
A Boeing 777 begins its descent towards Heathrow. The wheels unfold out of the belly of the plane. The frozen body of a stowaway is tipped out and cuts through the clear morning sky
In the car park of B&Q, Andy looks up. Something is falling out of the sky. A man crash-lands on the ground in front of him.
Stowaway is a story about a man from India who finds himself far from home and adrift from everything he knows. He hides in the wheel arch of a commercial airliner bound for the UK, in a bid to change his life.
Stowaway details an extraordinary journey in search of an impossible future.
A brand new show from two-time Fringe First winners Analogue, the “bright young things of British theatre” (Observer).
www.analoguetheatre.co.uk
Analogue presents
Stowawayby Hannah Barker and Lewis Hetherington
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
The Paper Birds presents
BlindCo-commissioned by Theatre in the Mill & The Marlowe Studio
Supported by The Lowry, The ARC and The Albany
TUESDAY 14 OCTOBER
A beat-boxing theatre show unlike any other; UK beat-boxing champion Grace Savage explores what young people are hearing in the world today, from motherly advice to what we learn in the school playground and the music charts. An interrogation into the influences on young people today, this energetic and powerful show will have you on the edge of your seat.
“Staggering beat-boxing” The Metro
“Savage is mesmerising” The Guardian
“The Paper Birds are expert theatre makers” Total Theatre
www.thepaperbirds.com
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITY
£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITY
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Age guidance: 14+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
Age guidance: 15+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
Lakin McCarthy in association with Traverse Theatre presents
CuckooedWritten & performed by Mark Thomas
Directed by Emma Callander
Mark Thomas tells the true story of how Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer came to spy on a comedian. A tale of hubris, planes, demos and undercover deceit told by an award-winning performer. Ten years ago an activist and close friend of Mark’s was exposed as a spy for BAE Systems, infiltrating the Campaign against Arms Trade (CAAT) movement. Now Mark
wants to find him and has some questions to ask…
The show picks up from where the award winning ‘Bravo Figaro’ left off, using
interviews from friends, colleagues, activists and journalists to examine the
impact of betrayal.
As usual plenty of laughs, some weird characters, probably a tear or two and the vague possibility that Mark might get beaten up in the making of it as he tries to find out if he wants revenge or if he can forgive a friend.
www.markthomasinfo.com
WEDNESDAY 15 – THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER
Performances: 8pmTickets: £15 (concessions £12)
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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Shakespeare Schools FestivalThe North Wall is delighted to help mark Shakespeare’s 450th birthday by throwing him the biggest party ever seen. This Shakespeare Schools Festival is the largest to date: 35,000 young people taking to professional stages across the UK, from Southampton to Inverness, from Londonderry to Norwich.
The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the UK’s largest youth drama festival and enables over 1,000 primary, secondary, and special schools to stage abridged Shakespeare productions in their local theatre.
Each night three schools will perform three different Shakespeare plays. Come and party with Shakespeare and celebrate the achievements of your local schools in a wonderful evening of entertainment.
www.ssf.uk.com
Stepping In: Making a Difference to Our Library “Closing public libraries is the equivalent of doing a furtive lobotomy on the national brain” John Sutherland
BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz comperes an evening of readings and talks from acclaimed authors Margaret Drabble, Mark Haddon, Barbara Trapido and Tim Pears, with a musical interlude from international opera star Christopher Purves.
In 2011, the Friends of Summertown Library (close neighbour of The North Wall) campaigned against the closure of the library – and won. The Council agreed to keep it open, but without the funding for desperately needed improvements.
This event is to raise funds to update and modernise Summertown Library.
www.friendsofsummertownlibrary.org
TUESDAY 21 – WEDNESDAY 22 OCTOBERSATURDAY 18 OCTOBER
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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Performances: 7pmTickets: £9.50 (concessions £7.50)
Performances: 8pmTickets: £15 (concessions £12)
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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Seabright Productions presents
An Instinct For KindnessWritten and performed by Chris Larner
Directed by Hannah Eidinow
TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
In November 2010, Chris Larner accompanied his chronically ill ex-wife to Dignitas in Switzerland. He returned home with an empty wheelchair and a story to tell.
This extraordinary solo performance has been acclaimed by press and public alike. The production premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe 2011, where it won the Scotsman Fringe First award before transferring to the West End for an acclaimed season.
Powerfully moving, Larner’s show is by turns funny and heart-rending. His brilliant script and performance draw us inexorably into the haunting, human story of a woman making the ultimate decision about her own life.
www.aifk.co.ukwww.kickingthebucket.co.uk
“ Fantastic. A show that reminds us that how we die is as important as how we live.” ★★★★ The Guardian
“ A wonderfully subtle and deceptively understated performance. This is story-telling of a very high order.” ★★★★★ The Times
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER
Babakas presents
Our FathersAward-winning ensemble Babakas present a moving and funny journey through fatherhood past and present.
Three performers share their own real-life stories. Mike has received an email asking him to be a surrogate father for a woman he has never met. Bert’s evangelical father believes dance school is to blame for his son’s sexuality. Meanwhile Sofia needs to find a man before it’s too late, but her dad keeps getting in the middle.
This inventive and critically-acclaimed show draws on stand-up comedy, dance and cinema to explore the universal relationship between father and child.
www.babakas.org
“ A young, international company with both talent and great ideas.” ★★★★ Daily Telegraph
“ A bright, funny, moving hour.” ★★★★ Time Out
“ Unforgettable” The Observer £5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITYAge guidance: 14+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
Age guidance: 14+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
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A Festival of Living and DyingIn and around Oxford 12 September - 13 November
www.kickingthebucket.co.uk
SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER
Performances: 6.30pm & 9pmTickets: £14 (concessions £10)
OCM presents
BreathWe can’t live without breathing. We certainly can’t sing without breathing.
In this new piece of musical theatre, composer Orlando Gough explores breath through the voices of Rebecca Askew, Anna Dennis and Melanie Pappenheim, who sing about breath from birth to death, supported by a chorus of respiratory patients.
Thought provoking and playful, Breath looks at the complex, fundamental process of breathing through the lenses of science, medicine, and literature, highlighting its profound emotional implications. It is directed by Emma Bernard, with lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan.
“ Moving and arresting. A wonderfully playful, provocative piece” (Flam by Orlando Gough)
Orlando Gough has developed Breath through dialogue with staff and patients in the Churchill Hospital Respiratory Medicine department. Breath forms part of the Breath Festival of talks and events which will take place on 1 November.
Breath has been developed by artlink in conjunction with OCM and the Sound Resource project Singing for Better Breathing. It is supported by ORH Charitable Funds, The Radcliffe Trust, a Wellcome Trust Arts Award and Arts Council England.
www.ouh.nhs.uk/artlink/breath
Metal Rabbit present Dalton Trumbo’s
Johnny Got His GunAdapted for the stage by Bradley Rand Smith
WEDNESDAY 5 NOVEMBER When the call came, idealistic Joe Bonham eagerly volunteered for the trenches of World War One. But as he wakes in a strange world and attempts to piece back together the fragments of his past, he realises he has paid a price he never expected.
Metal Rabbit brings the UK premiere of Dalton Trumbo’s award-winning novel to the stage in the form of Bradley Rand Smith’s Obie-winning adaptation, starring Jack Holden (War Horse, Minotaur) and directed by Evening Standard Outstanding Newcomer Nominee and Fringe First winner David Mercatali (Dark Vanilla Jungle, Tender Napalm).
Jack Holden gives a stunning performance about one young man’s fight for life, the extraordinary strength of the human spirit, and the sacrifices the military asks of those who serve it.
“A stunning tour de force” ★★★★ Independent
“Entirely gripping… Jack Holden is superb” ★★★★ What’s On Stage
www.metalrabbitproductions.com
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITY
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OCM presents
Ivo Neame’s Escape HatchWith special guest Julian Argüelles
OCM last brought MOBO-award winning pianist Ivo Neame to Oxford when he played a sold-out show with Phronesis. For his new project Escape Hatch he is joined by Italian double bass virtuoso Andrea di Biase and drummer of the moment Dave Hamblett, plus, as special guest on saxophone, Julian Argüelles of Loose Tubes.
Escape Hatch combines compositions by both Neame and di Biase, with influences from Messaien nestled alongside polyrhythmic structures reminiscent of Vijay Iyer’s joyful intensity. The band’s name is a tribute to music’s power to transport both listener and performer alike, and their music is beautifully immersive: delicate, yet exuberant and powerful. Tracks from Neame’s octet record ‘Yatra’, released to critical acclaim, will also feature.
Argüelles joined much-acclaimed Loose Tubes in the 80s, leading with them one of the most exciting movements in British jazz history. They “made a rare dent on popular consciousness, [with] the brashest, brightest sounds” (The Times).
A co-promotion with The Spin.
www.ocmevents.org
SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER
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Performance: 8pmTickets: £14 (concessions £10)
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
“ A virtuosic artistry at play” Jazzwize
“ One is left almost speechless with admiration” The Independent on Julian Argüelles
IN2
house presents the Gate Theatre
GroundedWritten by George BrantDirected by Christopher HaydonPerformed by Lucy Ellinson
SATURDAY 29 NOVEMBER
She’s a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot. She’s pregnant. Her career in the sky is over. Now, she sits in an air-conditioned trailer in Las Vegas flying remote-controlled drones over the Middle East. She struggles through surreal 12-hour shifts far from the battlefield, hunting terrorists by day and being a wife and mother by night.
Grounded is a gripping new play that challenges our assumptions about war, family, and what it is to be a woman.
www.gatetheatre.co.uk
“ Lucy Ellinson’s performance…is nothing short of mesmerising. There is nothing that is not top-notch about this production.” ★★★★★ The Telegraph
“ A searing piece of writing.” ★★★★ The Guardian
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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£5 STUDENT TICKETSLIMITED
AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY 27 NOVEMBER
Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
Chris Wood: None The WiserSongwriter of the Year – Spiral Earth Awards 2014
Criticised by an art school lecturer as having “a remarkable eye for trivia”, Chris Wood’s love of small things has made him one of England’s most vivid and arresting song writers. With gentle intelligence he weaves the tradition with his own contemporary parables.
Joan Armatrading presented Chris with the 2011 BBC Radio Two Folk Singer of the Year award before inviting him as special guest onto her Autumn 2012 tour. They played 51 cities and Wood found himself eavesdropping on conversations from pound shops to tea rooms, army recruiting centres to hotel saunas collecting the poetry of recession. His response is None The Wiser, a fourth solo album released in Summer 2013. With humble hymns and sweeping statements from Alzheimer’s to William Blake, Wood lovingly takes the pulse of his homeland in what could be his best album yet.
www.chriswoodmusic.co.uk
“ The title track alone is a masterpiece” ★★★★★ Independent
“ Wood has honed his songwriting to perfection here… heartbreaking purity” ★★★★★ Express
“ Remarkable for the settings as much as the lyrics” ★★★★ The Guardian
// Booking: 01865 319450 or www.thenorthwall.com
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Age guidance: 14+Performance: 8pmTickets: £13 (concessions £11)
Adapted from the original work by Kenneth Grahame
Written and Directed by Gari Jones
Warm your feet by the fire, toast yourself a crumpet and let us thrill you with the daring adventures of Mr Toad, as his friends try to put him off his latest scheme while the seasons turn on the riverbank.
Creation Theatre returns to The North Wall to transform it into the banks of the bubbling Thames, country inns and the open road as we bring Kenneth Grahame’s family classic to life with music, fun and laughter.
“A truly festive occasion, perfect for all the family”
Oxford Times (Aladdin and the
Magical Lamp, 2012)
The weasels are in toad hall! Toad hasn’t been seen since the most recent of his escapades backfired, Badger doesn’t react well to visitors in the winter and Ratty and Mole have tucked themselves away eating sardines and telling tales of sunnier days. How will we drive the wild wooders back where they belong?
Performances: Evening shows 7.30pm, selected evening shows 6pm. Selected matinees 10am and 2pm. Full schedule at creationtheatre.co.uk.
Tickets: £13.50-£30 (concessions available, ask at the Box Office.) Special offers for groups of ten or more.
Book now at creationtheatre.co.uk or 01865 766 266
“If you are looking for an alternative to pantomime, then this take on a children’s classic is recommended.” The Stage (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2013)
FRIDAY 5 DECEMBER - SATURDAY 10 JANUARY
Creation Theatre presents
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Amarjeet Nandhra, Andrea Tierney, Susan Stone, Lucy Baxandall and Noel Dyrenforth:
Where Does The Line Take Us? Five artists team up to give their individual interpretations of the most essential of all visual expressions – the Line. Line as language, capable not only of recording natural fact and defining character, but also of conveying the idea of movement and force, of action and repose.
The artwork features media as diverse as watercolour, oil, acrylic, batik, stitched textile, screen and monoprint, as well as charcoal, ink and pencil. Paper, canvas, wood, silk and found objects are the raw material for creative flights of the imagination.
Art
// Gallery: Mon-Fri: 10am-4pm, Sat: 12pm-4pm // www.thenorthwall.com // Gallery: Mon-Fri: 10am-4pm, Sat: 12pm-4pm // www.thenorthwall.com
Photography Oxford Festival 2014: Photography Oxford’s international festival of photography is the first of a series of biennial festivals in the city, and brings together the best photography from around the world, from fine art to the edgy realism of photojournalism.
Wendy Sacks, Angelo Merendino, Adam Hahn & Jon Brett:Photography and Healing
Modern medicine could not function without a whole range of imaging techniques – x-rays, scans, tiny cameras that probe the inner workings of our bodies, and so on. The extraordinary pictures of retinas that form part of this show are just one example of how photography plays a direct part in the healing process.
But the work of Sacks, Merendino and Hahn shows that photography can play a much wider, and sometimes unexpected, role. This show, which promises to be one of the highlights of the festival, will be entertaining, challenging, informative and at times very moving – an illustration of the uses and power of photography in one of Oxford’s foremost galleries.
Panel Discussion: The Role of the Critic in Contemporary Photography 14 September 2014 5.00 – 7.00 pm Tickets: £5 A panel of critics, journalists, lecturers and photography experts will discuss the importance of criticism in moulding attitudes to photography. Are online blogs and websites taking over from printed journalism as the main influences on the way the general public respond to contemporary photography?
SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER– SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER
Heather Gulliver: Big AfricaHeather Gulliver was born and brought up in Zimbabwe. She studied in Paris and Cambridge before setting up her first studio near Bath, moving subsequently to Canterbury and then to Gloucestershire, where she is now based.
Etching gave way to oils on canvas, and after a period of abstract work she chose to reflect her roots by painting African landscape and natural history, the theme of this exhibition. Numerous visits to southern Africa have reinforced her fascination with the rocky terrain and striking plants and trees, set against the intense blue of the African sky.
WEDNESDAY 8 – SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER
WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER – SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER
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Claire McDermott and Johannes von Stumm: Joint
Claire McDermott and Johannes von Stumm join forces in a sculpture show inspired by nature, combining transparent and opaque materials. Both exhibit nationally and internationally and are members of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in London.
Von Stumm’s choice of media and instinct for experimentation is rooted in his childhood and adolescence at the foot of the Alps, with long winters, ice and rocks. He works in stone, glass and metal, fusing these materials to create symbols of a finely balanced and fragile unity.
McDermott’s art derives from microscopic studies on spent flowers for their dark contorted forms. Her artwork often begins as a representation of nature, later transformed from traditional botanical paintings into contemporary sculpture.
WEDNESDAY 19 NOVEMBER – SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER
Oxford Printmakers: Presenting PrintsOxford Printmakers Co-operative was formed 38 years ago in 1976 by a group of ex-Ruskin School of Drawing students and staff, who were determined to keep the art of printmaking alive and well, by creating accessible and shared facilities for carrying on their own practice, as well as teaching.
This vibrant new show consists of work by current members of Oxford Printmakers; featuring collagraphs, etchings, monoprints, screenprinting and relief printmaking.
WEDNESDAY 10 DECEMBER - SUNDAY 4 JANUARY
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www.thenorthwall.com The North Wall is part of St Edward’s, Oxford: charity number 309681
Booking Information
Groups One ticket is free with every ten purchased.
Concessions Where indicated, these apply to schoolchildren, full-time students, UB40s, over 60s and registered disabled. The carer for a wheelchair user receives a free ticket.
Students Special £5 ticket offer for some shows. Contact box office for availability.
Make a meal of it with Cibo! (at 4 South Parade, just a step from The North Wall) On performance evenings North Wall audience members can enjoy a pre- or post-show meal and receive 25% off their bill. Dated ticket or other proof of attendance on the night must be shown.
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The North Wall Arts CentreSouth Parade, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7JNBox office: 01865 319450Open: Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm and until curtain-up on performance days. Saturdays 12pm – 4pm. Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays.Online booking: www.thenorthwall.com Email: [email protected] fees: Cash Payment: no booking fee. Card & Online Payments: £1 per transaction.Parking: Two public car parks are five minutes’ walk from the North Wall (see map). There is limited on-street parking in South Parade.Park and Ride: from Pear Tree or Water Eaton until 11pm, Mon-Sat.By train: Oxford rail station is 2 miles from The North Wall.By bus: Buses run frequently to Summertown from Oxford City Centre. The bus stop is South Parade.For more info on travel and parking visit www.summertown.infoAccess: The North Wall has full disabled access and facilities. We also have infra-red and audio-loop systems for people with hearing difficulties.
DATE EVENT CATEGORY PAGESept 12 The Tiger Lillies Music 6Sept 18 - 19 Blind Hamlet Theatre 8Sept 23 Wuthering Heights Theatre 9Sept 27 Me and My Cat Kids’ Theatre 4Oct 2 - 4 Fast Track Theatre 10Oct 8 Feral Theatre 11Oct 9 OCM Delia Darlings Music 13Oct 11 Stowaway Theatre 14Oct 14 Blind Music/Theatre 15Oct 15 -16 Cuckooed Comedy/Theatre 17Oct 18 Summertown Library Fundraiser Community 18Oct 19 The Jungle Book Kids’ Theatre 4Oct 21 - 22 Shakespeare Schools Festival Community 19Oct 25 Our Fathers Theatre 20Oct 28 An Instinct for Kindness Theatre 21Nov 1 OCM Breath Music 22Nov 1 - 2 A Little Rough Music Community 3Nov 5 Johnny Got His Gun Theatre 23Nov 7 Dare to Sea Kids’ Theatre 5Nov 8 OCM Ivo Neame Music 25Nov 27 Chris Wood Music 26Nov 29 Grounded Theatre 27Dec 5 - Jan 10 Wind in the Willows Theatre 29
ExhibitionsSept 14 - Oct 5 Photography and Healing 30Oct 8 - 26 Big Africa 31Oct 29 - Nov 15 Where Does The Line Take Us? 31Nov 19 - Dec 7 Joint 32Dec 10 - Jan 4 Presenting Prints 33
See page 34 for special offers and full details of concessions.
At a glance event guide