Upcoming Events

James Norton (Happy Valley, Grantchester) stars in the ‘utterly compelling’ (★★★★★ Daily Express) theatrical event of 2023 as visionary director Ivo van Hove (A View from the Bridge) stages the English language premiere of A LITTLE LIFE. 

Filmed live at the Savoy Theatre, London, during its West End run, this record-breaking and ‘beautifully acted’ (★★★★ The I) production of the million-copy bestseller by Hanya Yanagihara comes to the big screen for a limited time only.

The critically acclaimed five-star play also stars Luke Thompson (Bridgerton), Omari Douglas (It’s A Sin), Zach Wyatt (The Witcher), Elliot Cowan (The Crown), Zubin Varla (Tammy Faye), Nathalie Armin (Force Majeure) and Emilio Doorgasingh (Best of Enemies).


A LITTLE LIFE follows four college friends in New York City: aspiring actor Willem, successful architect Malcolm, struggling artist JB, and prodigious lawyer Jude. As ambition, addiction, and pride threaten to pull the group apart, they always find themselves bound by their love for Jude and the mysteries of his past. But when those secrets come to light, they finally learn that to know Jude St Francis is to understand the limitless potential of love in the face of life.

​18+
Runtime: approx. 220mins

Pre-Recorded Performance
 
*Certificate 18: This production includes strong language, nudity, sexual violence, physical and emotional abuse, self-harm and suicide. It is intended for mature audiences and viewer discretion is advised.*
No one under the age of 18 may see this event.

Blackeyed Theatre in association with South Hill Park Arts Centre
presents
The 60th Anniversary tour of

Joan Littlewood's Musical Entertainment

Oh What A Lovely War  

 by Theatre Workshop, Charles Chilton, Gerry Raffles and members of the Original Cast

 Director - Nicky Allpress
 Musical Director - Ellie Verkerk

More than a century on from the Armistice, Oh What A Lovely War remains a classic of the modern theatre and a powerful reminder of the atrocities of a war that cost twenty million lives. A journey from joy to despair and back again, it’s a deliciously satirical attack on the military incompetence and inconceivable disregard for human life the First World War has come to represent and a chilling reminder of man’s inhumanity to man.
 

Wildly satirical, visually stunning and deeply moving, Oh What a Lovely War is a theatrical experience like no other; a fusion of live music, movement, songs and sketches bringing to life the folly, farce and tragedy of the First World War. Now, more than ever, it holds a mirror up to the world and speaks to us all.

Reviews of Blackeyed Theatre’s 2011 production of Oh What A Lovely War:

 “A splendid revival that does the original production proud”
 Brian Murphy, from the cast of the original 1963 production of Oh What A Lovely War
  
“Magnificent...Extraordinary...As haunting as it is harrowing...Astonishing power... Any assumption that Oh! What a Lovely War is a period piece is shot to shrapnel. Forty years on, we need Littlewood’s vision more than ever. Blackeyed Theatre restore it to us with astonishing power. Catch it if you can”
The Stage
  
 “One of the most innovative, audacious companies working in contemporary English theatre” The Stage

"Fast, energetic and immaculately choreographed. Joan Littlewood would have been delighted by this production... A remarkable evening”
Hexham Courant

Suitable for age 11 upwards
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes approx (including interval)

Join the critically acclaimed Kidenza Orchestra for a swashbuckling concert of fun for all the family!  Featuring fabulously feel-good music, this event will bring joy across the generations.  Always, fun and engaging, our players, conductor and presenter interact with the audience for a wonderful introduction to orchestral music.  Whether your family has never heard an orchestra perform or whether they are budding musicians themselves, families come again and again to enjoy the unique Kidenza experience.

What a wonderful year it has been for the fantastic Heart of Kent Show Choir. Based in Tenterden, Kent, they were founded back in 2009 and continue to grow, wooing and delighting their audiences with increasingly sparkling, polished and diverse performances. Earlier this year, they even sang at the London Palladium!

The Hearties (as they are fondly known), are a group of sixty amazing woman, from all walks of life, who love to get together, sing together, and put on shows to raise funds for local and national charities. To date, the choir has donated in excess of £250k to a variety of causes, focused this year on charities dealing with cancer and research.October for the Hearties means it’s time to ‘Think Pink’ and raise vital funds for Breast Cancer Now!On 20th October, they will present the ultimate Girls’ Night Out, 'The Great Think Pink Show,' at Hemsted Theatre, Benenden. A not to be missed feast for your ears and your eyes, including a fab catwalk show by Mint Velvet! With bespoke arrangements of popular songs by Adele, Billie Eilish, Pink, Sia, Marisha Wallace and many more, this evening has something for everyone; gents, it’s for you too! A truly joyous and immersive experience, join the ladies of the choir, sing, dance, sparkle...lots of laughs, surprises and prizes along the way.

Raise a glass, raise your voices, raise money and help this wonderful choir continue to support Breast Cancer Now! Why? Because it will be fun, but more importantly because every ten minutes, someone in the UK is told they have breast cancer. Together, we can make a difference. The Hearties would like to thank sponsors, Le Grys Estate Agents and Mint Velvet for joining us in 2023.

Crossing between the past and present, Babi travels across Europe; from bon bons in Germany to the smell of the sea in Margate, she discovers how tiny acts of kindness can change the course of a person’s life. 

Joyful, moving and poignant, Kinder features beautiful table top puppetry and cinematic shadow play, as Babi tries to assemble the parts of her broken identity, to find peace in her future. 

Kinder is a multi-award winning show, from puppetry and visual theatre company Smoking Apples. Inviting you to take a seat inside an immersive set, the story unfolds through a series of playful hatches and openings. 

“Unmissable” – ✮✮✮✮✮ Everything Theatre 

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and Enterprise Arts Trust.

Let's All Dance is delighted to return with this much-loved ballet for the whole family. Dazzling dancers, Tchaikovsky's sumptuous score and gorgeous costumes bring this glittering classical ballet to life.
 
A good fairy turned evil by jealousy casts a bad spell on a young princess. But an act of pure love will undo her magic, restoring her heart and bringing peace and harmony to the whole kingdom. 
 
From the company who brought you Alice in Wonderland, The Nutcracker, The Ugly Duckling and many more, this shortened classic introduces children to the wonder and magic of live dance. Character and narrative led stories engage boys and girls from start to finish and are loved by all ages.
 
Photo opportunity with the dancers on stage after every show!
 
Suitable for: perfect for the whole family, especially 2-14 year olds
Running time: 50 minutes
 
A superb introduction to ballet. It was my little girl’s 5th birthday and it was the perfect way to celebrate and with a chance to meet and get a photo with the dancers.
 
Absolutely loved it!!
 
An absolutely beautiful and magical performance. 
 
Delightful enchanting ballet.
 
Lovely!
 
Perfect.
 
This is the third Let’s All Dance show we’ve been to and our favourite so far!
 
We loved it!
 
What a beautiful introduction to ballet for young children! My daughter was enthralled from start to finish and then begged us to take her to see Alice in Wonderland in February!
 
Wonderful ballet productions for younger children. It makes the art form accessible in it's scale and duration. So happy they return to the Marlowe regularly with new productions, my daughters love it.
 
Audience members, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, 2018

One of the most sought after joke writers in the country and longstanding Mock the Week special guest, Gary has been through the laughing glass and he’s ready to bring you a brand new show with hit after hit of the kind of one-liners only a master could craft. If you’re hunting for snark, Gary’s got it covered!

★★★★ ‘A cavalcade of brilliantly inventive puns’  Guardian
★★★★ ‘More quality jokes in one hour than most comics have in their entire careers...Quite brilliant’  Scotsman
★★★★ ‘A master craftsman’  Times 
★★★★ ‘One of Britain's grandmasters of the one-liner'’  Chortle 

Event Details

Doors Open at 7:00PM
Starts at 7:30PM

In a kitchen, in a theatre, two storytellers and their audience find something remarkable — a very old man with enormous wings. 

After consulting with the neighbour – who’s an expert on all things magic – the couple decide to shelter him in the chicken coop and feed him with food scraps. A wise woman says he’s an angel. The priest says he’s an imposter. Pilgrims flock to see him.

Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez's darkly comic tale, the show taps into both the best and worst of mankind, wryly examining the human response to those who are weak, dependent, and different.

Using a combination of music, puppetry and live video projection this magic-realist gem is brought to the stage with beautiful, strange, emotional richness.

“Brilliantly, wittily, inventively told” - The Wee Review ★★★★

Age rating 8+

As part of its tour in the UK the prizewinning Czech piano trio, Trio Bohémo, will perform at Hemsted Park on Thursday 16 November at 7.30pm.

In 2021 Trio Bohémo won the International Parkhouse Award in London at Wigmore Hall and have since won the Haydn Competition in Vienna, plus a special prize for the best interpretation of a work by Haydn. 

Tonight you can hear them perform Haydn’s Piano Trio in C major, Hob XV:27 together with Dvořák’s Piano Trio known as the ‘Dumky’. 

Both works are a celebration of their Czech heritage that they interpret so well and with such deep understanding. 

The programme ends on a completely different note with Café Music by Paul Schoenfield. Born in Detroit, he is known for combining folk, popular and classical music forms all of which are evident in this brilliant heart-lifting piece.’

In September 2016, Hewitt began her Bach Odyssey, performing the complete keyboard works of Bach in a series of 12 recitals. The cycle was presented in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y, and in Ottawa, Tokyo and Florence, concluding in 2022. After her performances of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival, the critic of the London Times wrote, “…the freshness of Hewitt’s playing made it sound as though no one had played this music before.”

Hewitt’s award-winning cycle for Hyperion Records of all the major keyboard works of Bach has been described as “one of the record glories of our age” (The Sunday Times). Her discography also includes albums of Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Fauré, Debussy, Chabrier, Ravel, Messiaen and Granados. The final CD in her complete cycle of Beethoven Sonatas (Op.106 and Op.111) was released in February 2022, and the first of three Mozart albums, dedicated to the composer’s complete sonatas, is released in November 2022. A regular in the USA Billboard chart, her album Love Songs hit the top of the specialist classical chart in the UK and stayed there for months after its release. In 2015 she was inducted into Gramophone Magazine’s ‘Hall of Fame’ thanks to her popularity with music lovers around the world.

Conducting from the piano, Hewitt has led the Toronto and Vancouver Symphony orchestras, the Hong Kong and the Copenhagen Philharmonic orchestras, the Lucerne Festival Strings, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the Swedish and Zurich Chamber orchestras, the Salzburg Camerata, the orchestra of RAI Torino, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, and in 2019 made her debut playing and conducting Bach with the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna’s Musikverein. The upcoming 2022/23 season sees her performing with orchestras in Finland, Denmark, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria BC, Prague, Germany, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York. Recitals take her to, among others, Barcelona, San Francisco, Seattle, Vienna, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Leipzig, and the famous Teatro La Fenice in Venice. She is also an artist-in-residence at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Born into a musical family, Hewitt began her piano studies aged three, performing in public at four and a year later winning her first scholarship. She studied with Jean-Paul Sévilla at the University of Ottawa, and in 1985 won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition which launched her career. In 2018 Angela received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2015 she received the highest honour from her native country – becoming a Companion of the Order of Canada (which is given to only 165 living Canadians at any one time). In 2006 she was awarded an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, has seven honorary doctorates, and is a Visiting Fellow of Peterhouse College in Cambridge. In 2020 Angela was awarded the Wigmore Medal in recognition of her services to music and relationship with the hall over 35 years.

Angela lives in London but also has homes in Ottawa and Umbria, Italy where, eighteen years ago, she founded the Trasimeno Music Festival – a week-long annual event which draws an audience from all over the world.

@HewittJSB

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-Hewitt/201013549988366

Featuring
 

The Lindy Hop Dance Company

&

The Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra

Take a step back into 1920s & ’30s New York City and through the doors of Harlem's hottest nightclub, 'The Cotton Club'!

‘Swinging at The Cotton Club’ is the action-packed show celebrating the music and dance of the Cotton Club – New York’s most celebrated nightclub of the 1920s and ‘30s. 

Performances by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Fats Waller would have had the club swinging - whilst dancers such as Bojangles Robinson and the Nicholas Brothers lit-up the stage with their breathtaking routines.

In the show the exhilarating dance and music of the Cotton Club is recreated by the fabulous Lindy Hop Dance Company, alongside The Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra, featuring American vocalist Marlene Hill and compere/vocalist Megs Etherington.  

The Jazz Sapiens Big Band is an exciting new collective made up of London's finest jazz musicians. Between them they have played with a Who’s Who of leading contemporary music artists including Jamiroquai, Incognito, John McLaughlin, Laura Mvula, Gregory Porter, Steve Winwood, The Brand New Heavies and the James Taylor Quartet.

The band was brought together by composer, Michael J McEvoy to record his original score for the Peabody Award-winning documentary, The Jazz Ambassadors.

Their first album, Remembrance:1955-1963 will be released in October 2023, featuring a collection of original themes composed for the film and expanded for live performance.

The music is an eclectic mix of contrasting moods: from reflective to intense, the spontaneity and virtuosity of the band’s live performances will keep you enthralled.

Plus included in the ticket: See the documentary screening of The Jazz Ambassadors at 7pm before the gig.

The Jazz Ambassadors Film Screening 60mins | 12A
Tells the extraordinary story of America’s plan to win hearts around the world and counter the Cold War with the USSR in 1956 with the help of America’s most influential jazz artists. Over a period of ten years, performers including Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Dave Brubeck, along with their racially-integrated bands, travelled the globe to perform as cultural ambassadors and became ‘America’s coolest weapon in The Cold War’. Followed by Q&A with Peabody Award-winner director Hugo Berkeley & composer Michael J McEvoy.

Nothing says Christmas like Bing Crosby, Michael Bublé and the classic sound of a big band. 

This year, the Len Phillips Swing Orchestra is back to celebrate in style. A seasonal family favourite show, it's packed with some of the best loved Christmas tunes of all time like Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and many more.

The LPSO’s Christmas Sky TV concert was a big hit last year, with special guest Mica Paris. It followed on from their much celebrated “100 Years of Big Bands” Sky Arts show, live from Cadogan Hall. 
The band’s diary over the last two years has included the Royal Albert Hall, Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom, an appearance in Dubai and the first ever live-streamed big band concert from Abbey Road Studios. Their 2021 single made the top 40 in the UK Singles Chart and number 1 in the iTunes Jazz Chart.

Star of the West End’s “Rat Pack”, Gary Williams has performed worldwide, from New York's Carnegie Hall to Buckingham Palace, Birdland Tokyo to The Royal Albert Hall. Described as "The UK's leading standard bearer for the supercool era" by the London Evening Standard, he wrote the performers’ bible ‘Cabaret Secrets’, has recorded at Abbey Road, presented for BBC Radio 2 and was profiled in the Sunday Times' ‘Fame and Fortune’ section.

This really is the most wonderful time of the year, so get your friends together and bring in the holiday season with the Len Phillips Swing Orchestra. - Dame Joan Collins