Here’s what to see this week

Johnny Cash Roadshow

JOHNNY Cash Roadshow is back at the Corn Exchange tomorrow (Friday, 7.30pm) with an all-new production of their much-loved show, this time set on a Folsom Prison style stage. Award-winning Clive John pays homage to Cash in his warming unique way, alongside his iconic wife June Carter (Meghan Thomas) and some of the best musicians in the world playing double bass, fender telecaster and acoustic guitars, drums, piano, trumpet and four-part vocal harmonies. You will experience the versatility and depth of these timeless songs as all the hits are delivered such as Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, Jackson, Orange Blossom Special and Boy Named Sue, alongside some of the darker more troubled material from the later American Recordings such as Hurt. The show is an emotional rollercoaster through Cash’s career, packed together in one fantastic, unforgettable evening of entertainment. With standing ovations every night, Johnny Cash Roadshow is the longest running celebration of Johnny Cash. https://cornexchangenew.com

Ghost story

SHOWING at The Mill at Sonning to November 16, The Whistling, a ghost story to send shivers down your spine and haunt your dreams. A world premiere and original adaptation of Rebecca Netley’s bone chilling Novel. Writing duo Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, who have brought two of the best selling books of all time to the stage, The Girl on the Train, The Da Vinci Code, have adapted this spine tingling story for the Mill. When Elspeth arrives on a remote Scottish island to become a nanny to a young child, she hopes to bond with her. Until she learns that, for reasons no one will explain, Mary has not spoken for months. And the girl’s silence is not the only mystery. Hypnotic lullabies drift down empty corridors. Strange dolls appear in abandoned rooms. And the nights draw in, darker questions arise… What happened to Mary’s late twin, William? Why did their previous nanny disappear so suddenly? And is the whistling Elspeth hears at night just the storm outside? Or is somebody coming for her? Alll tickets include two-course meal before the show. Restaurant open and serving dinner from 6.15pm-8pm. Performance starts 8.15pm. https://millatsonning.com/shows/the-whistling

Science & Ideas Festival

THE IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival is in full flow in Oxford, and at the Playhouse tomorrow night Dr Monty Lyman, Academic Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, discusses the fascinating cases and exciting new research that inspired his new book and Radio 4 miniseries, The Immune Mind. For most of medical history, it was thought that the immune system had little to do with mental health. New science is now turning this assumption on its head. The Immune Mind: the curious new science of mind, body and microbe starts at 8pm. https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com

Specials’ Roddy Radiation

A MEMBER of The Specials plays a special night of ska-rockabilly at Reading’s Face Bar on Saturday, courtesy of Club Velocity and New Mind. Roddy Radiation Byers was the lead guitarist and a writer for The Specials, penning hits such as Concrete Jungle, Rate Race and Hey Little Rich Girl – the latter covered by Amy Winehouse. Now, he’s heading up The Skabilly Rebels, a fusion of the driving rhythm of ska and the gritty, hard edge of rockabilly. The group comprises Joe Harcourt (second guitar), Lee Pratt (drums), Connor O’Connor (bass) and Adrian R Lee (sax). Their collaboration has led to the 16-track album Blues Attack!, with songs including cajun-edged Black Zodiac, breezy-ska song Desire, and roots-rock flow of Judgement Day, to the blues anthem Another Rusty Nail. Byers has penned each song. The music starts at 8pm, tickets at www.wegottickets.com/clubvelocity

Black History Month drama

WINDRUSH Secret, a one-man drama by Rodreguez King-Dorset, comes to the Corn Exchange on Wednesday (October 16, 7.30pm). Set in 2018, it is about a young white far-right racist party leader, a black Caribbean diplomat and a white Oxford educated Home Office government official who are giving speeches on the same day, at different times, in separate locations about a million people who migrated from the Caribbean to Britain between 1948 and 1973 (The Windrush Generation), and the British political scandal which began in 2018. One of them has a dark secret that he struggles to come to terms with during his fiery speech – it will change his life forever. https://cornexchangenew.com/events/windrush-secret