Rona Kelly - Page 7

WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) kicks off their second day taking over the River Stage at the National Theatre. Saturday's lineup features performances and workshops, from a range of artists and for a range of ages. Kids as young as three crowded the stage to learn how to beat box from UK champion Grace Savage. Grace joined us just after to share her experience and reveal why that's the perfect age to start.

The River Stage Festival returns this summer to the National Theatre. Different companies and groups takeover the South Bank, from The Glory to Rambert and the National itself. This weekend, WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) took over with a stellar line up featuring Afro Cluster. Band members Russell Evans, Sam Robertson and Hugh Parry spoke to us about their influences, WOMAD and the touring life.

Forget your troubles and venture into the woods. Now in its twelfth year, Latitude Festival 2017 is a magical, musical and (surprisingly) not too muddy weekend.

At a festival with more Waitrose Bag for Lifes and recycling bins than toilets, Timberlina proves to be a fitting end to Latitude. Tackling the "impending environmental catastrophe", Timberlina is an alt-drag act come eco-warrior come role model.

What do you do with a BA in Anthropology? Become a stand-up comedian. Armed with the knowledge of how to analyse the history of the human race, Tessa Coates examines the phenomenon that is modern day man, woman and Billy Elliots in Primates.

Following a sold-out run at the London International Mime Festival earlier this year, Theatre Re played to yet another full crowd in the Theatre Tent at Latitude Festival. Telling a story of love and loss through memory and movement, The Nature of Forgetting is a visually stunning production you won't soon forget.

Returning to the Edinburgh Fringe for their second year, Lola and Jo want to try out some of their new sketches. Having recruited market research company FocusOn, Latitude Festival seems the perfect focus group. Experimenting with the form of sketch comedy, the focus group and audience response was not overwhelmingly positive.

So far, coverage of Latitude Festival has included theatre, music and comedy. At this point, a change of pace was needed. In the Speakeasy, poet Simon Armitage made for some easy (but also hard for others) listening. Reading from The Unaccompanied, this poetry collection explores 'a world on the brink'.

Check in for an eclectic evening of entertainment with Goodbear. Playing the Cabaret Tent at Latitude Festival, we met a whole host of characters in this hotel based sketch show. It's like American Horror Story: Hotel meets Fawlty Towers: scarily funny.

Mumford & Sons makes a triumphant return to Latitude Festival, having first played in 2010. After all these years, audiences proved that they would wait, they would wait for them. An evening full of fun and friends, Mumford & Sons proved that they indeed are worth the wait.

'Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you: trippingly on the tongue.' Without uttering almost a single word until the final scene, Dickie Beau speaks volumes in his latest show. Mixing mediums, lip synching and Shakespeare, Dickie Beau: Re-Member Me is an eclectic Hamlet mixtape.

'If I could turn back time, if I could find a way…' Well, now you can. Hot Dub Time Machine is a touring musical event of theatrical proportions, bringing the songs of yesteryear into the 21st century through DJ-ing and digital media.

Award winning actor Dickie Beau is a man of a thousand faces, but one voice. The lip synch maestro brought Dickie Beauo: Re-Member Me to Latitude Festival, following an extended run at the Almeida. Combining recordings of Hamlet with quotes and stories from actors and creatives, it's a Hamlet mixtape.

What an introduction to Latitude: entering a world unlike anything you've seen or heard before. And I'm not even talking about the Faraway Forest. From Sister's Grimm, Voices of the Amazon immerses audiences in the sights and sound of the Amazon. However, despite stunning choreography, the production doesn't shout so much as whisper

The line between the dramatic world on stage and the real world off stage can seem very thin. Shows written hundreds of years ago speak to today; others hit even closer to home, depicting actual events happening right now. The latest offering from the Donmar Warehouse speaks to the latter. Setting the high drama of the Kids Company scandal against an operatic score, Committee... (A New Musical) is a bold endeavour but one which doesn't quite hit the right notes.

There are only a few days until the 12th edition of Latitude Festival, and this year's line-up promises to set the bar high. Festival-goers can experience over 750 acts across 15 stages; from cabaret to comedy, there's something for everyone.

Almost two and a half hours in a theatre with no talking. You might think you're at the ballet (and you may be, given one of the skits). Returning to the London stage, Sam Wills dons his signature mouth tape once again. He may be silent, but audiences are screaming for Tape Face.

The Menier Chocolate Factory is no stranger to transfers, both in the West End and beyond. The Color Purple notably made the jump, and now here's Trevor Nunn's Love in Idleness moving to the Apollo Theatre. But while the love is still palpable, there is a certain idleness to proceedings.

After an absence of almost a decade, tick, tick…BOOM! bursts back onto the London stage at the Park Theatre. There's plenty of energy, a natural spark among the three leads, but little emotional impact in this revival. It ticks, ticks along, but lacks the boom.

Written by Bertolt Brecht during World War II, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui serves as a parable for Adolf Hitler. Germany becomes Chicago, Hitler becomes gangster Arturo Ui, as we witness his sociopathic rise. Today, this play proves 'all too current'. Immersive, Simon Evans' production breaks down the fourth wall as the titular character endeavours to build one up.