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Ready Player One stars Tye Sheridan (“X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Mud”), Olivia Cooke (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “Bates Motel”), Ben Mendelsohn (“Rogue One – A Star Wars Story,” “Bloodline”) and T.J. Miller (“Deadpool,” “Silicon Valley”), with Simon Pegg (the “Star Trek” movies, the “Mission: Impossible” movies) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies,” upcoming “Dunkirk”). The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger. Spielberg directed the film from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. The film was produced by Spielberg, Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah; with Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Chris DeFaria and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers.

Peng is a freewheeling bachelor goose who'd rather do anything than practice for the upcoming migration. He thinks he's better than everyone else and spends his time attempting crazy stunts at even crazier speeds. In one such stunt, Peng flies too near the ground, hits a flock of ducklings and separates brother and sister, Chao and Chi, from the rest. In this unlikely meeting, Peng will begin a journey that will break his wing and nearly break his heart as he grows to understand the power of unconditional love in the form of two ducklings, who likewise grow to see him as the best father they could ever have.

ISLE OF DOGS tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, 12-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When, by Executive Decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbagedump called Trash island, Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo prop and flies across the river in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly found mongrel friends, he begins and epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture.

Manon’s brother Lescaut is offering her to the highest bidder when she meets Des Grieux and falls in love. They elope to Paris, but when Monsieur GM offers Manon a life of luxury as his mistress she can’t resist. With the Lescauts’ encouragement Des Grieux cheats at cards in an attempt to win Monsieur G.M.’s fortune. They are caught. Manon is arrested as a prostitute and deported to New Orleans, followed by Des Grieux...

Kenneth MacMillan’s source for Manon was the 18th-century French novel already adapted for opera by Massenet and Puccini. The premiere was given on 7 March 1974 and quickly became a staple of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, and a touchstone of adult, dramatic dance. 

Designs by his regular collaborator Nicholas Georgiadis reflect this, depicting a world of lavish splendour polluted by miserable destitution. MacMillan’s spectacular ensemble scenes for the whole company create vivid, complex portraits of the distinct societies of Paris and New Orleans.

Please note that Manon contains scenes of an adult nature, including sexual violence.

Running time 2 hours 35 minutes, including two intervals

It is less than fifty years since women in Switzerland secured the right to vote. The Divine Order offers a thrilling, hugely entertaining sense of this defining moment through the lives of the women in a small Swiss village. Housewife Nora (an award-winning Marie Leuenberger) lives with her husband, two sons and father-in-law, but if she wants to work she would require her husband’s permission. Fighting such an outmoded notion, she starts campaigning for women’s right to vote in a crowd pleaser of a film that has delighted audiences and become Switzerland’s Oscar contender.

Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy, directed by Rufus Norris (The Threepenny Opera, London Road), will see Rory Kinnear (Young Marx, Othello) and Anne-Marie Duff (Oil, Suffragette) return to the National Theatre to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

The ruined aftermath of a bloody civil war. Ruthlessly fighting to survive, the Macbeths are propelled towards the crown by forces of elemental darkness.

Please note that Macbeth may contain scenes of a violent nature.

Phillip Goodman, professor of psychology, arch-skeptic, the one-man ‘belief buster’ – has his rationality tested to the hilt when he receives a letter apparently from beyond the grave. His mentor Charles Cameron, the ‘original’ TV parapsychologist went missing fifteen years before, presumed dead and yet now he writes to Goodman saying that the pair must meet. Cameron, it seems, is still very much alive. And he needs Goodman to find a rational explanation for three stories that have shaken Cameron to his core. As Goodman investigates, he meets three haunted people, each with a tale more frightening, uncanny and inexplicable than the last.

Exit Stage Left by Geoff Bamber

Catstrand Youth

Comedy all the way as a High School Drama Group arrive to rehearse their latest play to discover that their teacher Mrs. Finnegan is indisposed and she has nominated one of the group to take over the session. His efforts to conduct things sensibly are constantly undermined by his cast and the revelation that Mrs. Finnegan might be a serial killer!

The Beach Hut by Mark Rees

Crossmichael Drama Club

Vera and Geoffrey have been going to the same beach hut on holiday for the last forty years. A lovely beach, a summers day, those forty glorious years of memories, what could possibly go wrong!

These are the first plays in 'The Drama' - our proposed season by local groups.
An outline of 'The Drama' can be found here.

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artefacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment - the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

Lily James plays free-spirited journalist Juliet Ashton, who forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during the occupation of Guernsey in WWII. Directed by Mike Newell, the film also stars Glen Powell (Everybody Wants Some, Hidden Figures), Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game, Downton Abbey), Jessica Brown Findlay (Victor Frankenstein, Downton Abbey) and Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, The Boat That Rocked) with Tom Courtenay (45 Years, Doctor Zhivago) and Penelope Wilton (The BFG, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).

Global megastar Dwayne Johnson headlines the action adventure “Rampage,” directed by Brad Peyton. Primatologist Davis Okoye (Johnson), a man who keeps people at a distance, shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.

PLEASE NOTE CORRECT DATE IS SUNDAY 20TH MAY.

‘Funny Cow’ charts the rise to stardom of a female comedienne through the 1970’s and 1980’s. It is set against the backdrop of working men’s clubs and the stand-up comedy circuit of the North of England. From her troubled childhood to her turbulent adult relationships, the Funny Cow uses the raw material of her life experiences to bring her unique style of comedy to the stage. A stand-up comedienne in an all-male world, ‘Funny Cow’ delivers tragedy and comedy in equal measure. Maxine Peake plays the role of a lifetime as ‘Funny Cow’ with Tony Pitts as her violent soul mate ‘Bob’, Paddy Considine acts as her middle class lover ‘Angus’ and Stephen Graham plays her brother ‘Mike’.

To try and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, an older lady decides to climb a mountain in Scotland.

The Leisure Seeker is the nickname of the old RV used by Ella (Helen Mirren) and John Spencer (Donald Sutherland) to take vacations with their children in the 1970s. On a summer morning, desperate to escape a destiny of medical care that would have kept them apart forever, the couple astonish their meddling adult children by hopping on board that dated vehicle and dashing down Old Route 1 towards Key West for a new adventure. Their trip through an America they no longer recognise – mixing hilarious moments with others of pure terror - is their chance to retrace a married life nourished by passion and devotion, but also by secret obsessions that abruptly resurface and cause surprising revelations right up to the very end.

A new production of the Rolls-Royce of English comedies, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, will be broadcast live to cinemas from the Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End. This entertaining and still topical play brings an act of political sin into the heart of the English home. As an ambitious government minister, Sir Robert Chiltern’s smooth ascent to the top seems assured until Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning proof of his previous financial chicanery. This is the third play from the Oscar Wilde Season, a year-long celebration of the brilliant Victorian playwright being staged by the Classic Spring Theatre Company.

Cast
Edward Fox (Earl of Caversham)
Freddie Fox (Lord Goring)
Frances Barber (Mrs. Cheveley)
Nathaniel Parker (Lord Chiltern)
Sally Bretton ( Lady Chiltern)
Susan Hampshire (Lady Markby)

Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. This Season The Royal Ballet creates a new production with additional choreography by Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.

Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night. Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score. Given its status today as arguably the best loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky’s score, but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa’s royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.

Running time: approximately 180 minutes
Four acts, including two intervals