Magic, music, and fantasy feature in this week’s selection from Reva Klein
Equal ops for knights
Music Theatre Wales’s tour of Gwyneth and the Green Knight, in partnership with the Royal Opera House, brings the musical about a feisty girl desperate to be a knight to venues around the UK. When Gawain mistakes Gwyneth for a boy, she’s taken on as his squire and her wish for Arthurian adventure comes true. Children’s television writer Martin Riley has written the libretto, and the music is by Cardiff-based composer Lynne Plowman.
Royal Opera House, London, from May 1-4 (020 7304 4000); The Anvil, Basingstoke, May 13 (01256 844244); Sheffield Lyceum, July 8 (0114 249 6000); Oxford Playhouse, July 10 (01865 305306); Cheltenham International Festival of Music, July 12 (01242 227979); Buxton Festival, July 16 (0845 1272190); MusicFest Aberystwyth, July 22 (01970 623232).
Bradford Film Festival 2003
The ninth annual Bradford Film Festival runs from March 14-29.
A lifetime achievement award is being presented to Jean Simmons, whose career began with the role of Estella in David Lean’s 1946 production of Great Expectations. The film will be screened in the first retrospective of her work. UK premieres are Drift, a raw coming-of-age movie about a 15-year-old girl being raised by her crooked older brother, and Minoes, a magical adventure about a cat transformed into a girl, who holds on to her feline behaviour. For Dylan Thomas fans, the festival is hosting a season of films about the Welsh poet, including the UK premiere of Dylan on Dylan directed by Andrew Sinclair, who filmed Under Milk Wood in 1972.
Tickets:0870 7010200; www.bradfordfilmfestival.org.uk.
Collateral damage II
War on Iraq is the theme of a series of free events in the National Theatre’s Lyttelton circle foyer (020 7452 3000). Artists including Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman present their responses to the global crisis through theatre, poetry, prose and music. March 21 and 28 at 5.15pm.
Visionary art
An exhibition to commemorate the centenary of artist Richard Eurich’s birth is on show at Southampton Institute’s Millais Gallery until April 26. Eurich was one of Britain’s leading figurative artists until his death in 1992, with a career spanning a century of British art, alongside contemporaries Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland and John Piper. His appointment as an official war artist in 1940 resulted in highly acclaimed paintings valued for their realism and understatement. Details: 023 8031 9916; www.millais.solent.ac.uk.
Got myself a living doll
Chicken Shed, the inclusive theatre company, brings its energetic ensemble work to Love of Seven Dolls, a musical based on Paul Gallico’s novella, writes Judith Palmer. Set in the world of Parisian street performers, this all-sung piece reveals the story of Mouche, a young girl about to throw herself into the Seine when she is saved by a puppet.
Sixty young adults from Chicken Shed summon up the bustling atmosphere of a travelling puppet show. Wednesdays to Sundays from March 27-April 13 at the company’s theatre in London. Tickets: 020 8292 9222; www.chickenshed.org.uk.
