Going out out? Here’s our pick of this week’s events
Improv whodunnit
ON this, World Theatre Day (Thursday) Degrees of Error presents Murder She Didn't Write: Improvised Murder Mystery at the Corn Exchange so don your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass and get your ‘finger of suspicion’ at the ready! The Edinburgh Fringe favourites bring back their multiple sell-out show for your sleuthing pleasure. They’ll create a classic murder mystery on-the-spot in this ingenious improvised comedy. You, the audience, become the author as the cast act out your very own Agatha Christie-inspired masterpiece live on stage. At each show this extraordinarily talented company use audience suggestions to create a unique, original and extremely comical murder mystery just for you. All you have to do... is solve it! Ms Gold poisoned at a synchronised swimming gala? Dr Blue exploded by cannon during a hot air balloon race? Professor Violet crushed to death at a Love Island recoupling? You decide! But will you guess whodunnit before the killer is revealed? www.cornexchangenew.com
YoungStars Sister Act Jr
NEWBURY YoungStars are performing Sister Act Jr a feelgood musical at the Arlington Arts tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. Based on the beloved 1992 hit film and Broadway musical, Sister Act Jr follows Deloris Van Cartier, a disco singer who witnesses a crime and is placed in witness protection at a convent. With the help of the convent’s struggling choir, Deloris inspires the nuns to find their voices, breathing new life into the church and the community. This production is especially exciting as it marks a milestone for Newbury YoungStars, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary. The group has been honoured with a prestigious NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) Award for two consecutive years, showcasing the exceptional talent and dedication of its members. The talented young cast, aged 9-16, will perform a dazzling array of gospel and disco hits, accompanied by lively choreography and unforgettable moments of comedy and heart. https://arlington-arts.com/
NOW That's What I Call A Musical!
RELIVE the soundtrack of your youth at NOW That's What I Call A Musical! currently running at New Theatre Oxford until Saturday. Celebrating 40 years of iconic and chart-topping compilation albums, this brand-new musical comedy has an unbeatable 80s soundtrack and show-stopping direction and choreography by Strictly Come Dancing's Craig Revel Horwood. This fun-filled evening is bursting with some of the greatest hits from the 80s: Gold, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Tainted Love, Hey Mickey, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves and many more! It's Birmingham, 1989. Gemma and April, two school friends, are busy with very important business - planning their lives based on Number One Magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley! Fast forward to Birmingham 2009, and they're confronted with their worst nightmare: the school reunion...! As friends reunite, drama unfolds, and old flames reappear... So dust off your spandex, crimp your hair and get ready to press play on the rest of your life.
Watermill youth theatre
The excellent Watermill Youth Ensemble are in action again this week with Emil & The Detectives by Erich Kästner adapted by Carl Miller. A train carriage, somewhere outside Berlin, 1929. Emil has a shameful secret and pocketful of money. Opposite him is a mysterious stranger with a cunning plan. A slice of apple and a cut finger later, Emil’s missed his stop, his pocket’s empty and he is pursuing the suspected thief, Mr Snow, across Berlin. Joined by a detective crew including Toots, Pony the Hat, the Professor and Tuesday, Emil’s frantic dash across the city takes him to the heights of the hotels, through the lengths of the alleyways and to the depths to the sewers to try and keep a promise. this Watermill Youth Ensemble production promises to be an action-packed, race against time to right this dastardly crime, and will prove why you should never trust a man with a moustache! It runs from tonight (Thursday) to Saturday. https://www.watermill.org.uk/events/emil-and-the-detectives.
Oxford Literary Festival
THE Oxford Literary Festival and Freedom of Speech literary festival – an incredible cultural event – kicks off on Saturday. Renowned for its talks by a host of distinguished voices from around the globe framed by the heritage and dynamism of a world-class university, the festival has also become known as a champion of free speech and is currently the only festival in the UK to have a freedom of speech statement. Visitors can meet and listen to authors and experts from dozens of countries discussing every imaginable subject from literature, history, biography, politics, science, technology, medicine and economics, to philosophy, poetry, ethics, religion, the environment, travel and culinary traditions. Hosted at beautiful historic university and college venues across Oxford city centre, director Sally Dunsmore has created a line-up of more than 350 events to nurture intellectual curiosity, a platform where the big ideas of the day are freely debated in an intellectual, congenial atmosphere that values both evidence and excellence. The 2025 programme runs to April 6. Supported for a second year by their media sponsor The Telegraph, leading journalists such as Simon Heffer, John Kampfner and Zoe Strimpel will be making appearances to interview speakers or sit on panel discussions. Speakers include Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dr Iain McGilchrist, Robert D Kaplan, Miriam Margolyes, Dame Joanna Lumley, Dr Sailesh Rao, Dr David Starkey, Prof Philippe Sands, Prof Simon Armitage, Lionel Shriver, Lord Tony Sewell, Dame Harriet Walter, Wendy Cope, Rev Richard Coles, Val McDermid, Alexander McCall Smith, Cressida Cowell and Alexander Armstrong. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/
Rave DJ turned artist
CURRENTLY showing at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore, until April 25 is the exhibition Pilgremage. Rennie Pilgrem, from East Sussex, was in a rave band in the early 90s and played a many of the huge raves that swept the country at that time. He owns the dance music label TCR, widely recognised as the most important in the world for its genre: Breakbeat, based on funk/hip hop/ reggae. He still makes music, DJs in the UK and abroad, but now spends most of his time creating visual art. “When music became available digitally people stopped buying music and it became (is) stripped of its value. Shortly after I began doing art quite seriously. I like the idea that people could own a piece of your work that was physical (like vinyl had been). I found could easily transfer my music-making skills over to digital art.” He entered and had work accepted at the Royal Academy Summer show and for the next 10 years started making art professionally. His art is graphic and often witty, and he’s equally at home with painting, making sculpture or creating photographic/digital limited editions. Visit https://renniepilgrem.com/allart Free entry, but you must book for this show https://arlington-arts.com/
