Get Ready to Step into Theatr Brycheiniog’s Red-Hot Autumn Season!
Autumn Season at Theatr Brycheiniog is the busiest season of all, with over 50 shows, events and workshops taking place at the bustling canal-side venue. With the launch of live screenings, talks, live music, and plenty of family entertainment, the venue prides itself in having an event that will appeal to everyone this autumn!
Brecon Town Concert Band have a string of concerts in autumn, the first in September Last Night of the Proms, (Monday 10) is their annual concert, which incorporates the 2018 PromArt Competition for schools. Other musical offerings include Bringing On Back the 60’s, (12 September) featuring New Amen Corner, Mike D’Abo and Nancy Ann Lee, and traditional Welsh instrumental and vocal sextet Allan yn y Fan (14 September).Matt Monro JNR will celebrate the music of ‘the singer’s singer’ in The Matt Monro Story: The Final Tour (Saturday 29). Two bands return following sell-out previous performances, The Blues Band (Thursday 20), and Talon: The Best of Eagles (Sunday 30). Fresh from appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe is Hijinx Theatre’s anarchic and slightly rude The Flop (Saturday 15), and science has never been so exciting as Dawns Powys Dance’s playful and interactive Flying Atoms (Wednesday 19), featuring high-flying aerial dance.
October begins with an interesting and insightful talk on the Amazon by adventurer, Pip Stewart (Monday 1), followed by award-winning West End and Broadway star, John Owen Jones (Friday 5). Wales and Welshness is celebrated through poetry and music from the sixth century to present day in Made in Wales (Saturday 6). Ballet Cymru presents a timeless interpretation of a Dylan Thomas classic, complete with music by Welsh icon, Cerys Matthews, in A Child’s Christmas, Poems and Tiger Eggs by Dylan Thomas (Friday 12). Fresh from his latest expedition in Papau New Guinea, ‘ultimate explorer’, Benedict Allen, tells the unvarnished truth of his headline hitting expedition (Saturday 13). The 2018 Brecon Baroque Festival (Friday 19 – Monday 22) explores the theme, Angels and Archangels, with concerts and events at Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon Cathedral and The Plough Chapel. Described as being full of ‘lightning fast athleticism,’ James Wilton Dance’s The Storm (Wednesday 24) will blow audiences away with acrobatics, break dancing and martial arts. Nye & Jennie (Thursday 25) is the first of two powerful pieces of drama. It explores the lives of Aneurin Bevan and his wife Jennie Lee, in this, 70th anniversary year of the NHS. Heart-warming drama, Exodus (Saturday 27), is a Valleys adventure set in Aberdare, which makes anything seem possible. The music of Pink Floyd is celebrated by exciting tribute What the Floyd? (Friday 26); Brecon Town Band give their second concert, a Combined Concert (Monday 29), with the Salvation Army Band. To round the month off, Coast presenter, Neil Oliver, gives a talk on The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places (Wednesday 31).
The voice and face of Squeeze himself, Glenn Tilbrook (Friday 2) drops by the theatre in November, followed by a special Bonfire Night concert by some of the finest young jazz musicians studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama: Big Band: Smoke Gets in your Eyes(Sunday 4). The first children’s shows of the season come from Arad Goch and their Welsh and English production all about storytelling and learning through play: Slip Stones | Cerrig yn Slic (Monday 5). After a spectacular sell-out show last year, The Russian National Ballet return with the greatest of all romantic ballets, Swan Lake (Wednesday 7). Diverse music comes from international Classical stars, Brodsky Quartet (Thursday 8), winner of Best Newcomer at the National Tribute Music Awards, The Lionel Richie Songbook (Friday 9), and a multi-award winning collaboration between Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player, Seckou Keita (Thursday 22). Black RAT Productions return with Loot (Saturday 10), a wickedly delicious, original version of playwright, Joe Orton’s dark comic masterpiece. Doug Scott CBE and Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite will take to the stage to give a mountaineering talk on ‘The Hard Road to Everest’ (Sunday 11), and to celebrate the 200th birthday of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, Cascade Dance breathes new life into the ultimate gothic creation story, Frankenstein (Tuesday 13). Young talent is showcased in Shakespeare Schools Festival (Monday 19); childhood passion is also at the forefront of Humours of Bandon (Tuesday 27), a coming-of-age story for anyone who had a childhood passion that threatened to overwhelm their life. Bringing the month to a close is Ventoux (Wednesday 28), the sensational story of Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani during 2000’s drug fuelled Tour de France.
In December, the theatre takes a very interesting and gross look at history with two amazing Horrible Histories shows: Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians (Tuesday 4 – Saturday 8)! Just like fairy lights, attention is then firmly switched on to Christmas. Enjoy a festive sing along Christmas Celebration concert from Brecon Town Concert Band (Monday 10), and a magical evening of entertainment from The West End at Christmas (Wednesday 12), which includes hits from musicals and the best of Christmas song. In a production that all the family will love this Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge is whisked away on a terrifying journey in a stage play of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol (Friday 14 – Sunday 16 December). Bringing the season, and indeed the year, to a close in style will be Only Men Aloud (Friday 21). The exceptional Welsh male voice choir are back to celebrate the last decade with some of their favourite songs.
Monthly events will continue into the Autumn Season: talks from The Arts Society Brecknock will now take place on the second Tuesday of the month, and this season will cover topics including Kyffin Williams (11 September), The Treasures of Far Cathay (9 October), Music & Art in the Age of Vermeer (13 November), and the History and Art of the Nativity Crib (11 December). Following the last sell-out club in June, Comedy Club will return on the last Friday of the month. Comedians this season will include Colin Hoult (28 September), Tom Wiggleworth (26 October) and Sam Fletcher (30 November).
The Andrew Lamont Gallery will house more high quality exhibitions this season. In September, the shortlisted artworks from the PromArt 2018 (7 – 23 September) competition will be displayed. The works respond to Prokofiev’s Peter & The Wolf. October’s exhibition will be Canalworks by Penny Hallas (5 October – 11 November), which explores natural processes and human activity, centred on a section of the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal near Llangattock. The final exhibition of the year, From the Beacons to the Sea, (21 November – 22 December) is a ceramics exhibition from the South Wales Potters group.
Theatr Brycheiniog continues to offer a range of classes and activities throughout autumn, including Mid Wales Dance Academy, Chorus Line, Brecon Town Band, University of the Third Age and Pilates classes. The theatre has partnered with Beat It Percussion to offer more participatory, Dementia friendly, music making sessions for older people, Drums for All. New for Autumn Season are Lunchtime Uplift Choir Sessions, run by Tanya Walker of Alive & Kicking Choir. The sessions aim to inject participants’ weeks with a dose of wellbeing, health and happiness through singing.
The Waterfront continues to open for evening food service Tuesday – Saturday, serving a menu of delicious, freshly cooked cuisine. To book a table for pre-show dining, contact the theatre’s Box Office directly on 01874 611622. The Waterfront is also open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, light bites and coffee.
For any details on performances, activities or anything else, please visit brycheiniog.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01874 611622.
