What’s to see this week in and around Newbury
Folk season kicks off again at ACE
ACE Space starts off its 2025 programme of gigs on Saturday with a double headliner bringing folk artists from opposite sides of the planet: Malcolm MacWatt from Scotland and Isabel Rumble from Australia. MacWatt hails from the Highlands and spent time working off-shore and as a newspaper journalist before moving to London as a full-time musician. Steeped in Scottish folk tales and traditional music but with a fascination for music with transatlantic connections, his songs tell tales of real life and injustices and explore contemporary issues. Isabel Rumble is not only making her first visit to ACE Space, but it will also be her first appearance in the UK. She brings an indie-folk flavour to the evening. Her music speaks to the heart of womanhood, love and change, with a voice that captures the dynamism of Joni Mitchell and writing reminiscent of the tenderness of Laura Marling. Her debut album Bird be Brave was nominated for Folk Alliance Australia Award. Doors open at the St Nicolas Road venue at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Tickets are £16 and available from www.WeGotTickets.com or direct by contacting events@acespace.org.uk or 07891 176940.
Dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws
A smash hit in the West End and on Broadway, The Shark is Broken celebrates movie history and peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster. Catch it this week at Oxford Playhouse (until Saturday). FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed... again. The lead actors - theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider - are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic... if it doesn’t sink them all. Step aboard the Orca and into The Shark is Broken, a dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws. Short tempers. Short circuits. 95 minutes, no intermission.
Stand-up Miles Jupp bangs on
Stand-up comic Miles Jupp is back at Basingstoke’s Haymarket with On I Bang tomorrow night (Friday, 7:30pm). after a previous sell-out performance. Miles Jupp is back. Since his previous tour finished at The London Palladium in 2017, he's been in The Full Monty on Disney Plus, The Durrells and Why Didn't They Ask Evans? on ITV, as well as a heap of episodes of Frankie Boyle's New World Order and Have I Got News for You. He's made an award-winning radio series, and published a novel, and played the Emperor of Austria and Europe in a Ridley Scott's Napoleon. Yet one sunny day in the middle of all this, he suddenly suffered a brain seizure. This led to the discovery of a tumour the size of a cherry tomato, and a rather pressing need to undergo major neurosurgery. Obviously, one doesn't wish to make a big deal of it, but the experience has left him with a story to tell and a few things that he'd like to share with the room. So, that's exactly what he's doing in On I Bang – a tale about surprise, fear, luck, love, and qualified medical practitioners. Please note: this is the same show that played at The Haymarket in Jan 2024. https://www.anvilarts.org.uk/events/miles-jupp
Players reenact inquiry that resulted in Newtown Rd cemetery
Resurrection Players production In The Beginning… will re-enact sections of the 1847 Inquiry that determined whether an Act of Parliament would set up a company to create a municipal cemetery in Newbury. It will be performed in the Chamber of the Town Hall where it originally took place. It was first presented to packed houses in 2011, and seven of the current cast were in the original production. They are covering up the newly displayed portrait of King Charles III with an 1847 portrait of the young Queen Victoria, painted by Winterhalter, copied for the Queen by William Corden the Elder, whose son is buried in Newtown Road Cemetery. The performance illustrates the desperate public health situation and the local politics surrounding surveyor George Hammond Whalley’s decisions that were presented to Parliament, resulting in the Act of July 1847 which established the Newbury Cemetery Company, which we now know as Newtown Road Cemetery. Performances take place at 7.30pm tonight (Thursday), tomorrow and at 4pm on Saturday. Tickets £7 can be reserved to pay in cash on the door. Telephone (01635) 48070.
Last weekend of GENerate student show
Your last chance to marvel at the next GENeration of artists' creativity at The Base, Greenham. Featuring artworks created by students from local schools, sixth forms and colleges, this curated exhibition showcases and celebrates the imagination and creativity of young artists. Participating education settings include: Basingstoke College of Technology, Cheam School, Downe House School, Elstree School, iCollege Alternative Education, Mary Hare School, St Bartholomew's School, St Gabriel's School, Trinity School, University Centre Newbury, Brockhurst and Marlston House Schools, The Castle School, Didcot Girls’ School, The Hurst School, Kennet School and Prior’s Court. Open to Sunday, 10am - 5pm. Free entry. https://thebasegreenham.co.uk/
