Archives for Arts - Page 12
From Commedia to Tragedy
VICTORIA KINGHAM talks to Jenny Miller about Barefoot Opera’s new project, La Traviata Jenny Miller is taking Barefoot Opera from strength to strength. She is also taking it from comedy…
Arts and social hub opens at Stella Dore
MERLIN BETTS Some of you will have wandered into St Andrews Mews of an evening only to stumble across a bustling night of art, performance and music, dripping with delectable…
Folk By the Sea
HARRY HAWKINS A banner depicting a fabric sun shining above a denim sky adorned the Stade Hall. This was the main signpost for the Queer Ass Folk event, set up…
Stables Monthly
STUART BAILLIE It’s fair to say that the last few weeks have demonstrated what a significant range The Stables provides. There’s been everything from a well-supported craft fayre to a…
A Curious Town Grows
The immersive arts festival A Curious Town Grows takes place next week between 24 May and 2 June across venues in Hastings and St Leonards. It’s the creation of Curious Agenda,…
Knotty
Knotty, Hastings’ celebration performance, returns following the success of 2022’s outdoor festival. For 2024, Knotty is bigger and bolder than ever, showcasing inspiring artists and events in familiar and unexpected…
Plunk at the St Leonards Social
KATE SHAW I have to admit I was feeling a little tired and lacklustre when I popped into Oscar’s on the Square - the new venue for the St Leonards…
AKA at The Beacon
STEWART RAYMENT To say Hastings is more than blessed with the number and quality of musicians within its bounds is an understatement. Wednesday 24 April saw AKA, a number of…
The Spirit of Invention
JUDE MONTAGUE and CHRIS SIMPSON on Electro Studios’ latest art venture One hundred years ago a young John Logie Baird was recovering from his chest condition in Hastings. He went…
Joy at the Museum
The Arts and social justice organisation ‘Playing The Race Card’ launched their latest exhibition Black Joy! Up Close and Personal at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery over last weekend…
Chekhov, Chairs, Complexity
ELIZABETH ALLEN on the multi-faceted Cherry Orchard Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is a slippery play, mood and perhaps genre shifting within the same scene: farce and frivolity jostle with pain…
J JAZZ and Japanese Culture
A unique new book explores Japanese jazz and cultural shift In recent years, there has been a surge in interest in archive and contemporary music from Japan. Several Japanese record…
Two Ships Come Sailing Back
BEN THOMPSON Following on from last year’s joyful event at The Nest, Hastings improvised music trailblazers Two Ships have programmed a second ambitious international festival, this time at The Beacon…
McNiff: Everything’s a Song
Local singer/ songwriter Jason McNiff launches his 9th album, Everything’s a Song, at The Stables Theatre in Hastings on 2 June. He will be joined by talented musicians and writers…
Murals Matter
Focus on legendary local muralist, Drew Copus Drew Copus’ creations can be seen all over walls and surfaces from Bexhill through St Leonards to Hastings and beyond. They are fine…
Hot Stuff at Kino-Teatr
TOM BLASS Mastery of the gypsy jazz guitar style is, for many guitarists both ‘pro’ and ‘am’, seen as the pinnacle of the art of six stringed playing. The ‘creator…
Trash Cannes Alternative Film Festival
ANITA JARDINE The challenge of the Trash Cannes festival is to write, shoot and edit a three-minute film in five days, and the Hastings section screened at The Printworks on…
Pearls of the Sea: The Sea and Me
SIMON ANTHONY HOBSON Pablo Picasso famously observed “Every child is an problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” With this in mind, stroll along to the…
Hastings Book Festival Update
Events Two different recent notable events were recently organised by the Book Festival: Nathan Evans gave an interview at The Forbidden Fruit on Grand Parade, St Leonards, about his recently…
Jen Painter Auction
ANN KRAMER Opening on Saturday 4 May will be an exhibition and fund raising sale of paintings and drawings by artist and lifelong pacifist Jen Painter, who died in early…
A Kind of Brooklyn Blue
NICK PELLING takes a look at our latest piece of street art You may not have noticed but there is a new mural in town. Head down London Road in…
An Uplifting Experience
LISA PETTIFER Matt Bristow Photography A dream to create a Banksy-style mural to decorate the blank wall of a Hastings care home has come to life, thanks to a collaboration…
Two Audiences with Simon&thePope
ROD WEBB Volunteering sometimes comes with rewards. Last year, after a long meeting, some of the local allotment committee members retired to the nearby Marina Fountain to watch Simon&thePope. It…
The Cherry Orchard Comes to The Stables
ELIZABETH ALLEN Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard may be one of theatre’s better known dramas, but there has always been dispute over what kind of play it is and how it…
AKA & Friends play the songs of Anthony Moore
KEITH RODWAY, aka one-third of AKA, sees Anthony Moore and band return to the Beacon for another adventure in sonic wonderment. Visitors to the venue for last year’s show will…
23 Fields
STEP ADAMS Alternative folk group 23 Fields released their latest album To Follow This Years Fashion on 1 April. The album’s lead single is Berlin, a powerful yet jaunty track…
Obituary: Michael Short 1937 – 2023
VIV WILSON Michael Short was a composer and musician and a lover of jazz and poetry. He was well known locally as a performer, pianist and composer. He was born…
ARTS DIARY
Black Joy! Up Close and Personal Long Gallery, Hastings Museum 4 May – 25 August Hastings Museum is proud to present a thought-provoking exhibition, Playing The Race Card. Curated by…
Laetitia Yhap
An Ending to a Beginning Now over 80, Laetitia Yhap is something of an institution in Hastings and St Leonards. The opening of her recent exhibition, on 6 April at…
The Elixir of Love
JOHN RYCROFT Opera South East are to stage a production of Donizetti’s comic opera, The Elixir of Love, at the White Rock Theatre. The story is, like that of most…
The Stables: Saluting the volunteers
STUART BAILLIE’S monthly theatre news Next up at The Stables is Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. It was his last play and takes place on a Russian estate at the turn…
A Night in the Death of a Pugilist
NICK PELLING gets a glimpse of a boxer’s tale Unless you are a boxing aficionado, the name Sonny Liston conjures up only a vague idea of a heavyweight slugger from…
Three Bloodaxe Poets
Three poets will read at Hastings Bookshop at 7pm, Saturday 13 April 2024. All three, visiting Hastings, have new collections out in Bloodaxe books. MATTHEW CALEY Matthew Caley is a…
Irish Film Week at the Kino
VICTORIA KINGHAM on a new film by Irish Director Pat Collins This afternoon 45 or so people went to the Kino-Teatr in St Leonards to see a major film premiere.…
Eregata
VICTORIA KINGHAM at Hastings Contemporary’s new Spring show The spring and summer seasons at Hastings Contemporary promise to be the best yet both in terms of exhibitions and participatory activities.…
Neighbourhood Rock
One of Hastings’ biggest musical names returns home after a busy week following the release of There Goes The Neighbourhood. HARRY HAWKINS takes in Kid Kapichi’s fine performance at the…
Hastings International Piano Concerto Finals and Results
VICTORIA KINGHAM So it’s done. A whole year of organisation, ten days of one-after-another performances by some of the world’s finest young pianists. An extraordinary event, a glittering array of…
The Politics of KABARETT
VICTORIA KINGHAM takes in Kabarett, a one-night-only presentation at The Stables The word cabaret (meaning ‘small room’) has been used since the thirteenth century. It has eventually come to describe…
EASTER ORATORIOIN ST LEONARDS
The Hastings Philharmonic Choir will perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion accompanied by the baroque Ensemble OrQuesta. The concert takes place at Christ Church, Silchester Road, St Leonards, on 6 April,…
Hastings Sinfonia Spring Concert
Hastings Sinfonia will be giving a concert at St John’s Church on 13 April. The Sinfonia is a local, inclusive orchestra. Founded in 2012 by Hastings composer Polo Piatti (now…