Shropshire Cover Online.qxp_cover 05/08/2015 10:12 Page 1 THE MIDLANDS ULTIMATE ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE SHROPSHIRE ’ Whatwww.whatsonlive.co.uk sOnISSUE 356 AUGUST 2015 CHESNEY HAWKES THE ONE AND ONLY AT HENRY TUDOR HOUSE ROBERT POWELL gets regal playing King Charles III at The Rep interview inside... TOM KERRIDGE celebrity chef cooks up a treat at Shrewsbury Flower Show INSIDE: FILM COMEDY THEATRE LIVE MUSIC VISUAL ARTS DICKENSIAN FUN EVENTS FOOD & DRINK join the Artful Dodger and his gang at Blists Hill & MUCH MORE! Style Birmingham (FP-August).qxp_Layout 1 24/07/2015 11:06 Page 1 Contents August Region 2.qxp_Layout 1 23/07/2015 16:56 Page 1 August 2015 Editor: INSIDE: Davina Evans [email protected] 01743 281708 Editorial Assistants: Step back in time Brian O’Faolain at Drayton Manor p59 [email protected] 01743 281701 Lauren Foster [email protected] 01743 281707 Adrian Parker [email protected] 01743 281714 Jamie Ryan [email protected] 01743 281720 Sales & Marketing: Lei Woodhouse [email protected] 01743 281703 Chris Horton [email protected] 01743 281704 Subscriptions: Tom Kerridge Adrian Parker [email protected] at Shrewsbury 01743 281714 Flower Show p55 Managing Director: Paul Oliver [email protected] 01743 281711 Publisher and CEO: Martin Monahan [email protected] 01743 281710 Graphic Designers: Lisa Wassell Robert Powell talks about playing King Charles III. Interview page 8 Chris Atherton Accounts Administrator Julia Perry [email protected] TO GET THE VERY 01743 281717 News p4 Contributors: LATEST LISTING James Cameron-Wilson: INFORMATION, Film; Graham Bostock, Music p13 Chris Eldon Lee, Heather VISIT: Time travellers Kincaid, Jessica Aston, whatsonlive.co.uk in Ironbridge p57 Katherine Ewing, Helen Comedyp19 Stallard, Steve Adams INCLUDING Head Office: BOOKING ONLINE 13-14 Abbey Foregate, Theatre p21 Shrewsbury, SY2 6AE The Midlands’ most Tel: 01743 281777 comprehensive p35 e-mail: [email protected] entertainment website Film/DVD Follow us on... Festivals p41 This publication is printed on paper from a sustainable source and is Visual Arts p51 produced without the use August 2015 of elemental chlorine. Wolverhampton Events p55 We endorse the recycling & Black Country MTWTFSS of our magazine and @whatsonwolves would encourage you to 1 2 Staffordshire p65 pass it on to others to Eating Out 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 read when you have @whatsonstaffs finished with it. Shropshire 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ’ @whatsonshrops 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 WhatsOn 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 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 31 means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recording or otherwise, without the prior knowledge and consent of the publishers. News August Region two.qxp_Layout 1 24/07/2015 08:43 Page 1 News A ROUND-UP OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Theatre seeks young local talent Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn is on the look- out for talented young girls aged between eight and fifteen to be part of its Juvenile Ensemble, performing in Dick Whittington over the festive period. Auditions will take place at Priory School, Shrewsbury, on Tuesday 8 September at 3.45pm. Successful applicants will be required to give total commitment to the pantomime for the rehearsal period and the full run of the production, from 21 November to 10 January. Looking to the future in Southwater Telford’s recently opened Southwater development is hosting an internationally renowned Sophie Ward to star in Aldous work of art over the August bank holiday weekend. A spaceship-like installation sited on the grass area outside Wildwood and Mimosa will house Huxley’s Brave New World the Mirazozo luminarium. The luminarium has been created by Nottingham-based company Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre has Architects Of Air, who describe the artwork as ‘a dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring announced that Land Girls actress Sophie domes where Islamic architecture, Archimedean solids and Gothic cathedrals meld into an Ward is to star as Margaret Mond in a brand inspiring monument to the beauty of light and colour’. new stage adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The futuristic, inflatable and interactive walk-in sculptures are part of a wider group of works seminal novel, Brave New World. created by Architects Of Air and designed by Alan Parkinson. First published in 1932 and considered to be Since 1992, the company’s creations have been viewed and experienced by more than two one of the finest dystopian novels of the million people in forty countries across five continents. twentieth century, Brave New World is set six hundred years into the future, when human life has been almost entirely industrialised. include a flypast from the Battle of Britain The stage adaptation has been written by Memorial Flight Spitfire, live music, wartime Mark Wright to host award-winning playwright Dawn King. games, re-enactments and storytelling ses- Style Birmingham Brave New World shows at Wolverhampton sions... For further information, visit, rafmuse- Essex celebrity and TV presenter Mark Grand Theatre from 3 to 7 November. um.org.uk Wright has announced he's to appear at this year's Style Birmingham Live. The Only Way Is Essex star will host all eight Celebrating the past and catwalk shows at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery's Gas Hall on Saturday 26 and present and future at BMAG Sunday 27 September. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) A platform on which to showcase the latest has announced a series of celebratory autumn/winter styles and collections from events for the venue’s one hundred-and-thir- the city's high street retailers and shopping tieth anniversary in November. centres, Style Birmingham also offers tips The BMAG team will share a different pre- and fashion advice from experts. cious object on Facebook and Twitter for Commenting on his participation in the one hundred-and-thirty days leading up to event, Mark said: “I’m a big fan of the main event. A request has also been Birmingham, and the people have always launched for visitors to tweet photographs of been so welcoming. It’s changing so much Make a date to mark themselves next to their favourite items, and I can’t wait to be there to host Style Britain’s ‘finest hour’ using hashtag #BMAG130. Birmingham Live and see the The programme of celebrations for the latest looks from the city’s Details of the RAF’s plan to commemorate museum’s birthday on 28 November so far the seventy-fifth anniversary of Britain’s amazing line-up of shops.” includes live music, a raffle, entertainment Tickets to Style Birmingham ‘finest hour’ have been revealed. for all ages and the chance to sample a slice Considered the most important event in the are now on sale and include of birthday cake in the Edwardian Tearoom. entry to the show, a drink on history of the Royal Air Force, the Battle of A time capsule for future museum-goers to Britain will be marked at the Cosford site by arrival and exclusive goody explore will also be assembled during the bag, and access to retailer a nostalgic weekend of themed events and course of the day. activities (12 and 13 September). Highlights offers and activities. 4 www.whatsonlive.co.uk News August Region two.qxp_Layout 1 24/07/2015 08:43 Page 2 Programme announced for Birmingham Weekender Organisers behind the biggest free outdoor event ever to grace the streets of Birmingham have announced its programme of entertainment. Birmingham Weekender (25 to 27 September) will see the city become a hub of creative activity, hosting pop-up perform- ances, a musical picnic, participative events, workshops and much more. Highlights include: Compagnie Transe Express' Maudits Sonnants - an orchestra of baroque bell-ringers playing from a musical chandelier suspended above Centenary Square; physical theatre from Motionhouse; circus theatre from RoguePlay Theatre; and interactive performances from Vamos' octo- genarian campaigners, the Crimplene Crusaders. New commissions will be presented by Birmingham Repertory Theatre in associa- tion with Mem Morrison Company, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Birmingham Opera Company, Corey Baker Dance, Sampad Arts with poet Amerah Saleh, and Barbara Nice in association with Women & Theatre. The weekend will also see the transforma- Exciting season of dance announced tion of Centenary Square and Victoria A double bill of ‘emotive and spiritual works’ from Birmingham’s ACE Dance and Music is to Square. While Centenary Square hosts a launch DanceXchange’s new season of productions at the Patrick Centre on 1 October. Mexican day-of-the-dead block party, Directed by Gail Parmel, Mana: The Power Within comprises A Thousand Shepherds - chore- Victoria Square will present a music ‘festival ographed by Jose Agudo - and Vincent Mantsoe’s Mana - a piece rooted in the Sangoma within a festival’. tradition of ‘evoking the spirit and earthy ambience of African dance and Shamanic beliefs’. Other DanceXchange season highlights include Scottish Dance Theatre’s critically acclaimed YAMA (pictured above) and James Cousins Company’s Without Stars/There We Have Been. The line-up also includes the world premiere performance of Gary Clarke Company’s COAL - a show which takes a nostalgic look at the realities of life at the coal face. The performance ties in with the thirtieth anniversary of the miners’ strike. Arthur Pita’s acclaimed production of The Little Match Girl makes a welcome return too (on 14 November), following sell-out performances last year.