Presented by New Perspectives
By Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon

Extra, extra! Read all about it! £10,000 prize for the first ever non-stop transatlantic flight! By any standards, it’s a classic tale of plucky British pioneers – Captain John Alcock, dashing WW1 fighter pilot, and Lieutenant Arthur Whittam Brown, navigational genius with a gammy leg, huddled together against the elements in the tiny cockpit of their converted Vickers Vimy biplane, made almost entirely of wood and canvas – talk about winging it!

Now critically-acclaimed comedy writing duo, Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon, have turned the story of the race to conquer the skies over the Atlantic into a fast and furious comic tour-de-force. Thrill to the sheer adventuring spirit of our unlikely heroes, marvel at their daredevil aerial antics, and wonder at how the whole bally thing is told with just two actors and a crate full of funny props.

Age Guide: 12+

Post Show Discussion (Friday)

www.newperspectives.co.uk

Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons have come to together to play the rich tradition of fiddle and banjo music of Carolina's Piedmont. Under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, said to be the last black traditional string band player of Mebane (NC), they strive to carry on the long standing traditional music of performers like Odell and Nate Thompson, Dink Roberts, John Snipes, Libba Cotten, Emp White and countless others who have passed beyond memory and recognition.

“You start seeing things in sepia tones and even though the music’s being played right in front of you, you expect to hear crackles and hisses as if the sounds were being torn from a salvaged 78.” The Independent

www.carolinachocolatedrops.com

Barb Jungr accompanied by the virtuosic composer and arranger Simon Wallace. The Men I Love is a collection from The New American Songbook - a repertoire Jungr has pioneered in the UK and the USA in her many award winning performances.

This show premiered at New York’s prestigious Cafe Carlyle and blew the city apart, winning rave reviews and new fans. With her characteristically startling arrangements, Jungr delights in the songwriting of Cohen, Dylan, Diamond and Simon among many more, her stunning singing and wit taking her audiences on a roller coaster ride.

"One of the very best nightclub singers in the world" - Time Out New York www.barbjungr.co.uk

Presented by Gomito Productions

Join five adventurous storytellers as they embark on a journey back in time. In a mysterious museum, Maggie stumbles through a magical dustbin into a secret wing full of strange creatures. Can the museum’s Night Keeper convince Maggie that history is more than a load of old rubbish?

Striking visuals, puppetry, live music and a lot of mess bring to life the final part of Gomito’s trilogy for children. Following on from Little Red Things and The Sun Dragon, The Night Keeper is a show that will capture the imagination of the whole family and is not to be missed!

www.gomito.co.uk

Fiona Bennett and Oliver Williams and the Harmony Singers present Songs from around the world.

Fiona and Oliver will perform their usual blend of show songs, unpronounceable Welsh folk songs and ballads, and Fiona will entertain with some of her stories and (terrible) jokes, and the Harmony Singers will sing songs from various countries.

All proceeds will go to the West Berkshire branch of The National Autistic Society as Fiona's son, Zachary, has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Fiona is trying to raise awareness of the condition and funds for this very worthy charity.

Devised, compiled and directed by Miss Helen Watson

Miss Helen Watson’s 23rd production guaranteed to make you titter! Forget your winter woollies, come and warm the cockles of your heart, put a ‘spring’ in your step and pep up your parts! Join us for some comedy capers, magical mayhem and scintillating songs. A show for all seasons and a season for all shows!

Audience participation encouraged. Some familiar faces and exciting new talent will brighten up the New Year with laughter a plenty. Make a date in your diary to start 2010 with a bang – it’s Seasonal Sauce!

“It’s a great night of live entertainment, a trip down memory lane and a feast of fun for everyone.” Newbury Weekly News

Moist von Lipwig is a con artist, a fraud, and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal service back on its feet. Assisted by Stanley the pin collector, Junior Postman Groat and a golem who has been at the bottom of a hole in the ground for 200 years, he has to see the mail gets through, avoid the plot to kill him and defeat the evil Chairman of the Grand Truck Semaphore Company. Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too...

Looking for some entertainment to cheer you up in these dark January days and take your mind off the weather? Then look no further than Progress Theatre's production of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal which runs from 28th January to 6th February.

With a cast of 23 bringing nearly 40 of Pratchett's fabulous characters to life on the Progress stage, this is a very funny, very entertaining production suitable for all the family. Brought to you by the same team who staged the highly successful production of Mort some years ago, Going Postal will delight newcomers to Pratchett as well as his faithful fans.

The story cracks along with plenty of humour on an imaginatively designed set populated by a plethora of colourful characters - good, evil and somewhere in between - as well as a handful of wizards, a smattering of golems, a couple of mad roof dwellers, a mysterious assassin and a cockatoo.

You might even spot one or two Pratchett characters from some of his other books if you keep your eyes open....