Midlands Cover - Sept_Layout 1 27/08/2013 19:46 Page 1 MIDLANDS WHAT’S ON WHAT’S MIDLANDS THE MIDLANDS ESSENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE ISSUE 333 SEPTEMBER 2013 SEPTEMBER www.whatsonlive.co.uk £1.80 ISSUE 333 SEPTEMBER 2013 4 SQUARES WEEKENDER EIGHTEEN-PAGE GUIDE INSIDE THE DEFINITIVE LISTINGS GUIDE INSIDE: INCLUDING BIRMINGHAM Welcome Home! WOLVERHAMPTON WALSALL The REP’s back in DUDLEY COVENTRY Centenary Square STRATFORD WORCESTER feature inside REDDITCH MALVERN SHREWSBURY TELFORD Mark Ravenhill STAFFORD STOKE brings Voltaire’s Candide to the RSC interview inside The Show:Ten Mollie King at Bullring more inside PART OF MIDLANDS WHAT’S ON MAGAZINE GROUP PUBLICATIONS GROUP MAGAZINE ON WHAT’S MIDLANDS OF PART What’sOn Emma Willis MAGAZINE GROUP showing off her Style... feature inside ISSN 2053 - 3128 - 2053 ISSN (IBC) R1_Layout 1 27/08/2013 13:59 Page 1 Contents September_Layout 1 27/08/2013 19:05 Page 1 September 2013 Editor: INSIDE: Davina Evans [email protected] 01743 281708 Editorial Assistants: People Brian O’Faolain Alan Bennett play shows [email protected] 01743 281707 at The REP p31 Adrian Parker [email protected] 01743 281714 Sales & Marketing: Jon Cartwright [email protected] 01743 281703 Chris Horton [email protected] 01743 281704 Subscriptions: Adrian Parker [email protected] 01743 281714 Managing Director: Paul Oliver [email protected] 01743 281711 Publisher and CEO: Martin Monahan [email protected] 01743 281710 Graphic Designers: Lisa Wassell Chris Atherton Accounts Administrator Julia Perry [email protected] Mark Ravenhill 01743 281717 Emma Willis hosts Style Birmingham Live AW13 - page 75 brings Voltaire’s Candide to Website Development: Stratford-upon-Avon p8 Jim Pallett Contributors: Graham Bostock: Theatre TO GET THE VERY James Cameron-Wilson: News p4 Film; Anita Champaneri: LATEST LISTING Eating Out; INFORMATION, Alev Dervish: Music Music p15 Eva Easthope, Kate VISIT: Evans, Jessica Matthews, Patsy Moss, Jack Rolfe, whatsonlive.co.uk Comedy p28 Jan Watts, Reggie White INCLUDING Head Office: BOOKING ONLINE 4/5 Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Theatre p31 Shropshire. SY1 1EN The Midlands’ most Tel: 01743 281777 Fax: 01743 281744 comprehensive Festivals p43 e-mail: info@whatson- entertainment website 4 Squares live.co.uk Weekender Film/DVD p47 This publication is Follow us on... celebrating the new Library printed on paper from a of Birmingham p56 sustainable source and is p53 produced without the use Visual Arts of elemental chlorine. twitter.com/whatsonlive September 2013 We endorse the recycling Events p79 of our magazine and MTWTFSS would encourage you to Like us on... 1 pass it on to others to p89 read when you have Eating Out 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 finished with it. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 facebook.com/whatsonlive ’ 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 WhatsOn 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 MAGAZINE GROUP All works appearing in this publication are copyright. It is to be assumed that the copyright for material rests with the magazine unless otherwise stated. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in an electronic system, transmitted in any form or by any 30 means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recording or otherwise, without the prior knowledge and consent of the publishers. News September_Layout 1 27/08/2013 12:25 Page 1 News A ROUND-UP OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Where light in darkness lies... A light-tastic event has been added to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s autumn cal- endar. Fusing a 3D lightshow with theatrical performances from resident acting troupe Shakespeare Aloud, The Shakespeare Birthplace Lightshow sees some of The Bard’s most dramatic scenes performed out- side Stratford’s popular venue, with visitors also invited to tour the Birthplace by candle- light. The shows run from 22 November to 19 December, each day taking place at half- hourly intervals between 4.30pm and 7.30pm. For further information, visit www.shakespeare.org.uk. Shakespeare Aloud actress Jen Stone Niki Evans prepares to play one of the witches in Macbeth at the Shakespeare Birthplace Lightshow Niki Evans to star in musical’s debut tour West Bromwich arts Following successes as Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers and Paulette in Legally centre to close Blonde, Tamworth lass Niki Evans is set to hit the road again, this time to appear alongside Darren Day in the first-ever UK tour of the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee. The West Bromwich arts centre The Public is to Tony Award-nominated show is based on the lives of six quirky adolescents who’ve entered into close. The venue, which opened in 2008, the ‘Bee’ - a competition in which contestants are challenged to spell a variety of words. Niki stars cost £72million to build and is receiving a as judge and former Bee champion Rona Lisa Peretti, who’s caught the eye of the senior judge, £30,000 per week subsidy from Sandwell Vice Principal Patch, played by Day. The show is touring to eleven UK venues, including Council. The council has now decided it can Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre, where it stops off for one night only on 14 October. no longer justify subsidising the attraction. A petition calling for the centre to be saved has been signed by approximately five thousand The former nineteenth century residence of the from Arts Council England’s PRISM Fund. people. The curtain falls at The Public on 30 Duke of Sutherland, the centre has been trans- EX135 was the first 1100cc-engine car to November, with scheduling being honoured formed into a modern space which can facili- exceed 200mph, Major ATG ‘Goldie’ Gardner until that time. tate up to three hundred-and-sixty delegates. claiming the record in Germany in 1939. Of The venue boasts thirteen conference and the new acquisition, Stephen Laing, Curator meeting rooms, a one hundred-and-sixty-six- of HMC, commented: “It’s fantastic to re- seat lecture theatre, an exhibition hall, four-star unite the model with EX135, adding another campus-style accommodation, and full dining piece of the story of MG’s record-breaking and hospitality facilities. Taster Days are being achievements. It’s also great to return the organised to enable people to preview the model to the Midlands, as it was made not facilities. To find our more, visit www.lille- so far from here, by Wilmot of Birmingham.” shallnsc.co.uk Lilleshall National Sports Centre Birmingham venue to host BBC comedy award semi-final The semi-final of a prestigious competition to The Public, West Bromwich unearth the UK’s best up-and-coming comic talent is to take place at Birmingham’s Glee Major investment for Club in November. Hosted by Patrick Kielty, the BBC Radio New Comedy Award aims to Shropshire venue ‘find the best new stand-up talent throughout An award-winning Centre of Excellence in the land’. Previous finalists have included Shropshire, used as a training facility by many Alan Carr, Peter Kay of the UK’s elite athletes, has been turned into and Sarah Millican. a multi-million pound state-of-the-art confer- New acquisition for Gaydon... The semi-final will be ence, meeting and exhibition venue. Funded filmed at the Hurst by Sport England, the £6.9million refurbish- Gaydon’s Heritage Motor Centre (HMC) has Street venue on 26 ment of Lilleshall National Sports Centre will acquired a unique model of MG’s record- November and broad- enable the Telford venue to compete with some breaking EX135 car. The acquisition has cast live on BBC Radio been made courtesy of a generous grant of the country’s top conferencing providers. Four Extra. Patrick Kielty 4 www.whatsonlive.co.uk News September_Layout 1 27/08/2013 12:25 Page 2 Street performers needed... An annual festival which celebrates Ironbridge’s status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is on the lookout for people to perform at this year’s event. The Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Festival, supported by Telford and Wrekin Council, is appealing for local buskers, street entertainers and community bands to get in touch if they wish to perform at the event on 21 September. Anyone interested should con- tact Traci Dix-Williamson on 01952 435900. The Rizzle Kicks pop-up in Birmingham Brighton hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks (Jordan ‘Rizzle’ Stephens and Harley ‘Sylvester’ Alexander-Sule) are winging their way to New Birmingham landmark opens its doors. Birmingham this month, appearing at the This month sees the long-awaited opening of the iconic Library of Birmingham (on 3 Great Western Arcade on Colmore Row on September). Standing proud in Centenary Square, the multi-million pound development is 6 September to celebrate the launch of their Europe’s largest public library, and a significant addition to the cultural landscape of the sec- much-anticipated second album, Roaring ond city. Expected to attract in excess of three million visitors each year, the library will be 20s Imaginarium. And the pair have certain- home to Birmingham’s world-class collection of archives, photography and rare books - ly devised an innovative way of promoting including four thousand books available on the venue’s public floors. A Discovery Season, their latest release! On the morning of the featuring numerous events inspired by the archives and collections services, marks the open- 6th, fans can pick up a copy of Roaring 20s ing of the library, as does 4Squares Weekender, a cultural event taking place in the city centre from their nearest HMV shop and take it from 6 to 8 September (see pages 57 to 73). along to the duo’s pop-up Imaginarium The opening of the new library coincides with the reopening of the adjacent Birmingham store on Colmore Row, where exclusive Repertory Theatre.