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Coloured lights: Giffords Circus at Chiswick House and Gardens

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Giffords Circus tours England annually and has arrived in Chiswick for the next week with its current show, Waterfield. Some circuses nowadays are stripped-down affairs focusing on a few circus elements or minimising costumes. In contrast, this show takes the old-time circus and gives it a modern twist. There’s wonder and whimsy, incredible costumes and staging, plus some spectacular acrobatic acts. The show is set to music performed by a live band, with an eclectic set of songs sung by Jenna Dearness-Dark. It feels both familiar and new at the same time. Animals are part of the performance, including a goose that spreads its wings on command. What’s not to like? The show is simply irresistible.  The mood is set as you arrive. After passing under the A4 and entering Chiswick House and Garden via a nondescript car park, you are instantly transported. The dystopian, traffic-clogged London suburb becomes another time and place. Reddish circus wagons ring a large tent. Music plays. A c...
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Adventures in the Lake District: Local at Finborough Theatre

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I found myself at my local theatre, The Finborough Theatre in Earls Court, watching a play called Local. This is a play about childhood memories, home in the North, and belonging. But when you live between towns, cities or countries even, perhaps you never feel at home in any of them. Welcome to the life of an outsider, not a local. And this is at the heart of Liz Richardson’s solo show about growing up in West Cumbria and how returning home, meeting again people from her past. We go with her on a journey to discover who she is and where she is going. It’s currently playing at the Finborough after touring Cumbria and other parts of England. Richardson takes us on an engrossing and personal journey as she opens the show. Who she is and where she was from was how she always introduced herself. Except that she never said that she was from West Cumbria , but from the much nicer sounding Lake District . Ooooooooooh. Well she admits she was always a storyteller, and a life as a writer in th...
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Write it down: The Sequel at King's Head Theatre

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Attending a late-night play during a public transport strike may sound unwise—certainly the choice of a diehard theatre fan, especially since it meant walking London’s streets at midnight to get home. Yet, as I recounted this on Friday to explain my tiredness, I found myself laughing about how funny The Sequel was. Lucas Closs, an emerging writer, fills the play with enough intrigue and absurdity to keep you enthralled—even as you wonder how you’ll get home. It’s currently part of the late show at the King’s Head Theatre. The premise is that Grace (Nisha Emich) returns to the cafe where she wrote her first book, which became wildly successful. The cafe has become a small museum, or shrine, to her work. It is completed with marzipan figures of the main characters. John (Jim Findley), who was a central character and poet in her book, is now a crusty old tour guide.  Some years have passed since the novel first appeared, and business isn’t what it used to be. Fewer tourists are making...
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