stage


CARDIFF OPEN AIR THEATRE FESTIVAL Sophia Gardens, Cardiff Thurs 23 June-Sat 30 July


After being interrupted by the pandemic and a small tour last year, Everyman Theatre’s Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival returns to Sophia Gardens for the first time since 2019. Launched 39 years ago and with its home in Sophia Gardens since 2013, this year the main programme is a diverse list of theatre, a classic sitcom, Shakespeare, a cult musical and a specially adapted Disney musical.


Everyman’s first staged version of BBC sitcom Blackadder Goes Forth first played in Chapter Arts Centre in 2018 as part of the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. The stage version will be based on three episodes of the original TV version, with additional material from the other episodes. Meanwhile, if the poster aesthetic is anything to go by, a 1960s-themed Twelfth Night is on the bill. We’ll have to wait and see what Everyman has in store for Shakespeare’s most famous comedy, featuring


cross-dressing twins, love triangles and the iconic Sir Toby Belch. And what better surrounds for Little Shop Of Horrors than the floral surroundings of Sophia Gardens, even if none are likely as dangerous as Audrey II….


Produced by Cardiff’s Go Theatre dance school, a specially adapted one-act version of Disney’s High School Musical, running for approximately one hour, should be perfect for young families. Other events featuring in the programme include an outdoor cinema showing of Pride; standup comedy from four acts including Carl Donnelly and Eleanor Tiernan; and choir night featuring South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus and Affinity Female Voice Choir.


Tickets:£10-£20 per event. Info:


cardiffopenairtheatrefestival. co.uk


CHRIS WILLIAMS


THE GREAT GATSBY New Theatre, Cardiff Tue 7-Sat 11 June


Get ready to attend one of the most glamorous parties of the 20s... the 1920s, that is. The Great Gatsby is one of 13 full-length ballets created by choreographer David Nixon OBE in his 20-year tenure as Northern Ballet’s artistic director. With the company’s repertoire including 1984, Wuthering Heights and Dracula, Northern Ballet clearly has a knack for its literary adaptations.


The ballet is the story of the great American novel of the jazz age by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby throws legendary parties, while his new neighbour Nick Carraway gets drawn into his world of wealth, class, love, tragedy and the decline of the American dream.


Gatsby is ripe for a ballet interpretation, featuring a cinematic music score by BAFTA-winning composer Richard Rodney Bennet (Murder On The Orient Express) and with dancers in Chanel-inspired costumes portraying the sadness behind the glitz.


twenties and dance, combined, can only result in some classy theatre.


Tickets: £13-£45. Info: newtheatrecardiff.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


32 The roaring


JINKX MONSOON &


MAJOR SCALES Sherman Theatre, Cardiff Fri 10 June


Jinkx Monsoon and Major Scales are Together Again, Again!... finally. Another repeatedly delayed show – the tickets have been on my shelf for a year or two – thankfully, we haven’t quite had to wait until 2065, the year this drag comedy drama takes place. Forty-plus years in the future, and “Jinkx is drinking. Major is balding. The world is collapsing. And reptiles rule the planet. In other words: not much has changed.”


Drag Race Series 5 winner Monsoon is an expert cabaret artist who makes the old-school entertainment she loves both modern and filthy. Scales, an accomplished musician and straight man of the duo as it were, have been in a comedy partnership for some time: expect their improv to be as good as the script.


Anyone who saw their last show, The Vaudevillians, at Cardiff’s Sherman will know to expect some hilarious chaos – sometimes unintentionally, such as when Monsoon admitted she thought Wales was part of England. Oops.


Tickets: £22.50-£47.50. Info: shermantheatre.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


MIGRATIONS Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay Wed 29 June, Fri 1 + Sat 2 July


Written by six writers of diverse backgrounds and influenced by their own personal experiences, including


Sir David Pountney, Welsh National Opera’s new work Migrations explores the theme of an inevitably momentous decision – to leave one’s home and start a new life.


former WNO Director


Six corresponding stories range from the religious migration of the American settlers of the Mayflower, to the experiences of Indian NHS doctors in 1960s Britain. Along the way parallels are drawn between the migrations of birds; and colonisation and British migrants; to migration with no choice – an Afro-Caribbean slave in 18th century Bristol and refugees and asylum seekers gathering to learn English in their country of arrival.


Directed by Pountney and an associate team, the opera will feature an expanded WNO Orchestra and a cast of 100; a gospel choir, children’s chorus,


soloists. Its three summer showings at the WMC precede a UK tour in autumn.


Bollywood


Tickets: £15-£51. Info: wmc.org.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


dancers and


SNATCHED Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Wed 29 June


Having your intimate photos leaked must be a terrible thing to happen, but something like that must be extra mortifying when those photos are uploaded to a disability fetish website. This is exactly what happened to actor Melissa Johns, who has since taken ownership of that negative experience and turned it into a one-woman show.


Johns is known for her TV roles in Grantchester and Coronation Street, making her West End debut earlier this year in Henry V alongside Kit Harrington. Born without her right forearm and hand, Johns already had a history of body dysmorphia when her iCloud was hacked. Snatched, then, is a young woman coming to terms with her private image becoming public property.


While evidently a serious subject, the show emphasises its humorous side and uplifting message, not to mention a “live 90s/00s soundtrack”. Fighting back against body shaming and the taboo of disabled sexuality, a Q&A and panel discussion on disability in the arts will take place after the show.


Tickets: £14/£12. Info: chapter.org CHRIS WILLIAMS


Emma Kauldhar


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