Out and Out by Joy Beresford Frye is the winner of the first Play Lottery Competition and will be performed at the Mercury Theatre Studio on Thursday 18th April at 7pm.
The Play Lottery is a unique competition in which the winning writer has been chosen at random. Joy has been awarded this chance to have her work developed at the Mercury alongside feedback from playwrights Sarah Grochala (Intelligence, S-27) and Hannah Maxwell (I, Amdram, Unexploded Ordnances).
Out and Out portrays the stories of women whose lives were decimated by dismissal from the armed services solely because they were gay. This practice came to an end in the year 2000 and yet still they await reparation.
Hearing their stories and honouring these veterans should be high on society’s radar, particularly as these people fought for the freedoms we now enjoy. The scenes in the play are set in 1995 and 2005 and feature three women from different ranks and backgrounds.
One performer plays Private Mary Archer, Sergeant Marian Marsh and Lieutenant Colonel Caroline Montagu in this fast-paced drama inspired by the true story of gay veterans.
English Touring Opera returns to Cambridge Arts Theatre with two captivating operas about love and loss– each brimming with comedic finesse and gripping tragedy: Manon Lescaut and The Rake’s Progress.
Jude Christian, fresh from a critically acclaimed Titus Andronicus at London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, brings incisive direction and a sharp, poetic translation to her radical new production ofManon Lescaut, while English Touring Opera’s Music Director Gerry Cornelius conducts.
The Rake’s Progress is helmed by Polly Graham, Artistic Director of Longborough Festival Opera, and the up and coming conductor and composer Jack Sheen
Manon Lescaut is a devastating depiction of a woman wrestling with her desire for love on her own terms, and the rigid double standards imposed on her by society. The opera was a breakthrough hit for its composer, Giacomo Puccini, packed with memorable music and heartbreaking drama.
The Rake’s Progress
Igor Stravinsky’s brilliantly inventive The Rake’s Progress charts young Tom Rakewell’s journey from an unexpected riches to ruin at the hands of his own naivety and a devilish new friend. One of Stravinsky’s crowning achievements in his pioneering career, the opera is a cynical but humanistic depiction of loss, love and how the devil finds work for idle hands.
English Touring Opera has been touring outstanding opera around the UK since 1979. Alongside operas, English Touring Opera has brought more education and community projects to towns across the country than any other companies. With a reach of over 50,000 people through their audiences, English Touring Opera put on five mainstage operas a year, two of which are specifically aimed at children and young people with special educational needs.
Cromer’s popular music festival ‘Folk on the Pier’ returns to the town’s Pavilion Theatre on 10, 11 and 12 May once again with a line-up of some of the UK’s most loved folk and roots music artists. What started as a toe in the water 26 years ago has grown into one of the UK’s most enduring and notable annual events, attracting some of the best known artists on today’s folk-rock music scene and beyond.
Headliners this year include festival favourites While and Matthews who have appeared at the event in a number of incarnations over the years including Daphne’s Flight and Blue Tapestry, as well as just the two of them as a duo. The six piece Sandy Denny Project on Friday evening features Sally Barker, a finalist on the popular TV programme ‘The Voice’ and honours the music of Fairport Convention’s late female singer. Joe Topping another ‘Voice’ finalist also appears earlier in the afternoon concert.
Medieval ‘progressive’ band Gryphon close the Saturday afternoon concert, their appearance re-scheduled from 2023 due to unfortunate illness, and a raucous energetic finale to Saturday evening is on the cards with the return of festival favourites Truckstop Honeymoon and ending the night, the mighty Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, which features around fifty young, talented and somewhat energetic Birmingham Conservatoire musicians!
Another energetic end is on the cards for Sunday afternoon when ever popular Gerry Colvin brings his unique blend of poignancy, humour and anarchic antics to the stage and on the final evening of the festival, the stage will be handed over to the now legendary duo Show of Hands. They will not only close the 2024 festival but will be performing ‘Full Circle Part II’ in its entirety, one of their last shows as a duo. Their appearance at Folk on The Pier is part of a final tour that will mark the end of an era, performing as the duo they started out as at the beginning of their thirty year career. Before the final show there will be a short set from this year’s Folk on the Pier showcase winners John and Pauline Pearce.
Show of Hands
Supporting the headliners is a wide choice of acts, from soloists, duos and trios offering a stunning selection of musical styles. Everything from heavy folk-rock from Blair Dunlop’s new band and Celtic/Irish fusion from Lagan who are visitors from Brittany, to traditional airs and reels from Elizabeth-Davidson Blyther and Daniel Quayle from the Isle of Man, to Americana and acoustic singer-songwriter plus a good dose of anarchy and comedy featuring Keith Donnelly as well as the now traditional visit from the one and only Richard Digance.
The Sunday night has seen one of the fastest sell-outs since the event began, however a modest amount of tickets for the other five concerts are still available to order online or directly from the box office. There are also a very limited number of six concert discounted season tickets available to order only by contacting the box office on 01263 512 495 or by email boxoffice@cromerpier.co.uk
Folk on The Pier Fringe Events
As always there will be free fringe events in town running in tandem with the main event on the pier which will once again be curated by 1.3 East. There will also be a new series of ‘formal’ concerts at Cromer Community Centre arranged by Folk on the Pier producer Scott Butler, which will attract a modest charge of £5.00 per concert; they will however be free entry to anyone who has a full weekend Pavilion Theatre festival wristband pass.
More information about the fringe events will be available at www.folkonthepier.co.uk in the coming weeks.
Comedian, actor, author, and TV personality Joe Pasquale, who has been showing off onstage for more than forty years, returns to the live arena thisyear with his longest comedy trek ever withThe New Normal – 40 Years of Cack – Continued! Having impaled himself on the antlers of a prop Moose during his tour last year, one might have thought that Joe would be looking for a quieter life – but no, the much-loved comediancontinues to ‘live on the edge’ and will be entertaining audiences across the UK from 19 April – 23 November 2024.
If, like many, you have ever asked questions such as – can a vegetarian get a job as a Beefeater? If beauty is relative, why are all my relatives ugly? If an Eskimo has a house-warming party, will his igloo melt? Why is it that dead people get to ride in such posh cars? If a nudist spilt beetroot soup in his lap, would he have a stain on his character? And why don’t chicken breasts have nipples? Then this is the show for you!
Joe Pasquale delighted audiences in 2023 with The New Normal and he will be dragging out his favourite things for another airing and no doubt a few more, to prove that nothing has ever been really normal. Audiences are in for an extra treat this year as they will have the chance to ask the great man some questions of their own!
Before heading out on the road with The New Normal – Joe will be sharing the stage at The Palladium on 30March with a very special show Bradley Walsh and Friends which will see Joe perform alongside Bradley, Brian Conley and Shane Ritchie celebrating their decades- long friendship.
In recent years Joe has been wowing audiences and critics alike with his many TV appearances, the most recent of which saw Joe crowned as the winner of The Masked Singer: I’m A Celebrity Special for his performance as ‘The Dunny’! In 2018 Joe also revived the much-loved TV character, the hapless Frank Spencer with the hit theatre show Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em, based on the 1970s TV sitcom.
Since being crowned King of the Jungle in 2004 in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, Joe has voiced characters for films like Garfield 2 and Horton Hears a Hoo and has made appearances on TV shows such as Tipping Point,Pointless Celebrities,Celebrity Chase, Tonight At the London Palladium, Total Wipeout and many more. Joe has appeared as King Arthur in the West End production of Spamalot and played Leo Bloom in the touring production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers.
Joe Pasqual’s very individual comedy style has seen him remain at the top of his game for more than four decades. Admired by his peers and audiences alike, recent years have seen Joe perform sets at London’s Comedy Store and at the annual Balham Comedy Festival.
And in contrast to his ‘comedy bones’ Joe is a huge fan of the horror genre In 2018 he published his first book Deadknobs and Doomsticks a collection of horror stories. This was followed up by a second volume of spine chillers and in 2023 Joe’s most recent horror tome Of Mice And Wolfmenwas published by HellBound Books. Joe is currently writing his first novel.
A bona fide ‘gym bunny’ with a six-pack to prove it, Joe has run a London Marathon, qualified as a pilot, made frequent trips across The Channel and if he ever has time – he will complete his degree with the Open University! Oh, and he’s currently fascinated by ghosts!
Big Special have released ‘Black Dog / White Horse‘, the latest single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues, out 10th May via SO Recordings. It’s their first official single since they revealed ‘Dust Off / Star Again’, which remains on the BBC 6 Music playlist.
‘Black Dog / White Horse’ showcases Big Special at their most brooding and contemplative, walking a tightrope of deliberation as lead singer Joe Hicklin brings his stirring vocals to a song that charts the path from fear to salvation. Of the new song he says: ‘Black Dog / White Horse’ is about fear, about rumination, intrusive thoughts and cycles of depression. It’s about trying to figure out how to reach out when feelings of guilt and shame take hold. It’s about recognising these things in others, noticing the lost and undervalued, and their increasing numbers.
It comes from a thing I wrote years ago, about a burning snake traveling in the hot sun and a small wren flying high above it to block the heat and give it shade, taking the burden of the sun, because the little bird loves the snake and won’t see it defeated, for whatever reason.”
Continuing about the album he says: “Postindustrial Hometown Blues is an album about depression. It’s about the different shapes it takes; personal, social, generational… and it’s about coming face to face with those ghosts and what we do or how we feel when that happens.
The album offers no answers, it is just an honest expression of a working-class experience in modern England through the eyes of ill mental health, a pursuit of art and political disenchantment; a story of rumination, realisation and reaction.
Postindustrial Hometown Bluesis about learning that we are connected by our common struggles and though dark and rageful, the album holds a quiet sentiment of love and hope. It’s about laughing at the face of the void, recognising its oppressive weight, holding hands and moving forward.”
Catch Big Special on tour – including Latitude
03 Apr – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, UK (DIY Now & Next tour)
04 Apr – Bullingdon, Oxford, UK (DIY Now & Next tour)
05 Apr – Yellow Arch Studio, Sheffield, UK (DIY Now & Next tour)
06 Apr – Green Door Store, Brighton, UK (DIY Now & Next tour)
07 Apr – Joiners, Southampton, UK (DIY Now & Next tour)
12 Apr – New Century Hall, Manchester, UK (supp. Antony Szmierek)
13 Apr – Lafayette, London, UK (supp. Antony Szmierek)
07 May – District, Liverpool, UK
08 May – The Key Club, Leeds, UK
09 May – XOYO, Birmingham, UK
10 May – King Tuts, Glasgow, UK
12 May – Strange Brew, Bristol, UK
16 May – Jazz Café, London, UK – SOLD OUT
17 May – Horatio’s, Brighton, UK (The Great Escape 2024)
18 May – Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
20 May – Kasbah Club, Limerick, Ireland
21 May – Workman’s Cellar, Dublin, Ireland
22 May – Ulster Sports Bar, Belfast, Norther Ireland
24 May – Netherlands, Den Haag, Zwarte Ruiter (Sniester Festival)
26 May – Bearded Theory Festival, Derbyshire, UK
27 May – Paradiso Upstairs, Amsterdam, Netherlands
28 May – Effenaar, Eindhoven, Netherlands
30 May – Block Party Festival, Paris, France
31 May – Vestrock, Hulst, Netherlands
01 Jun – Dauwpop Festival, Hellendoorn, Netherlands
