This week | Leisure | Homepage - Herald Series

The Lovely Bones and The Last Station

3:42pm Wednesday 17th February 2010

There is life after death in Peter Jackson’s visually stunning interpretation of The Lovely Bones, the best-seller by Alice Sebold, which proves to be one adaptation too far for the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong.

The World's Wife; Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot, March 4

9:00am Wednesday 10th February 2010

WHAT women through the ages might have thought of their famous husbands is the premise of a one-woman show coming to Didcot’s Cornerstone Arts Centre.

• Have your say

Mystery at Talbot Manor; Drayton Players, Drayton village hall, Feb 19-20

9:00am Wednesday 10th February 2010

DRAYTON Players are giving you the chance to play detective and identify the killer in their latest murder mystery play.

• Have your say

A Single man

3:14pm Wednesday 10th February 2010

If the Oscars were truly awarded on merit rather than the baubles of a popularity contest then Colin Firth would be collecting a golden statuette as Best Actor in a Leading Role on March 7. However, the British star’s mesmerising portrayal of a gay professor torn apart by grief in A Single Man will inevitably be overshadowed by Jeff Bridges’ showy portrayal of an alcoholic country and western singer in Crazy Heart. Nuance and subtlety are apparently underrated, and the aching emotion conveyed in a single silent gaze will be completely overlooked by audiences and voters, who need to be instructed how to feel every step of the way.

Invictus

3:19pm Wednesday 3rd February 2010

On February 11, 1990, when Nelson Mandela walked free from Robben Island after more than a quarter of a century of incarceration in his eight feet by eight feet cell, he discovered a country divided by apartheid. His release lit the touchpaper on civil unrest as he worked together with President de Klerk to end apartheid and begin the difficult healing process.

The Life and Poems of Sir John Betjeman; Lance Pierson, Wallingford Corn Exchange, Feb 20

9:00am Wednesday 27th January 2010

A ONE-MAN show celebrating the life of the late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman is heading to the Corn Exchange theatre at Wallingford. Actor Lance Pierson will perform The Life and Poems of Sir John Betjeman on Saturday, February 20, at 7.45pm.

• Have your say

Edge of Darkness

3:51pm Wednesday 27th January 2010

Award-winning, meaty British television dramas are providing plentiful food for thought across the pond in Hollywood. Last year, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams headlined an accomplished distillation of the Bafta award-winning 2003 mini-series, State of Play. Now, we have more political intrigue and corporate skulduggery in Martin Campbell’s slick reduction of the 1985 BBC mini-series, Edge of Darkness.

Aladdin; Didcot Phoenix Drama Group, Didcot Civic Hall, Jan 28-30.

9:00am Wednesday 20th January 2010

IT’S time to flex those chuckle muscles again as members of Didcot Phoenix Drama Group stage their annual pantomime.

• Have your say

Brothers

3:42pm Wednesday 20th January 2010

All’s fair in love and war. In Jim Sheridan’s English language remake of Susanne Bier’s celebrated Danish drama Brodre, love is war as two siblings – polar opposites – are divided by their deep bond to the same woman.