What's On: Oh yes there is far more to do than sit at home
It's Christmas Eve and the sound of Slade will be ringing in your ears by now. Nick Ahad reports on where you can go to escape Noddy Holder between now and New Year.
Another mince pie? A turkey sandwich? Believe it or not, after tomorrow and during the next week there will be better questions to ask and be asked.
Avatar? Secret Garden? Bront Parsonage Museum? Henry Moore Institute?
Here is our guide to the things to see and do between now and the new year.
Stage
Secret Garden: Ian Brown has grown used to an audience with high expectations.
In recent years, the Christmas show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse has become a festive institution. Critically acclaimed productions of The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have earned the theatre a reputation for quality feel-good family entertainment without a "He's behind you!" in sight, and given its artistic director a large mantle to carry. This year Brown has gone back to the classic children's novel The Secret Garden. With so many film versions, plus a well-known Broadway musical, he knows many will have their own ideas of how the story should be staged. Our reviewer said the production: "Has all the ingredients of a perfect Christmas show," and it: "Refuses to shy away from the dark elements of the novel, from the boy pushed away by a father struggling to cope with the death of his wife, to the adults unable to admit that they might not know best, this is a complex production, but one which engages from start to finish."
There are performances every day next week, apart from Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Tickets on 0113 2137700.
Jack and The Beanstalk / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Our crack team of pantomime reviewers have been trawling the county to see this year's pantomimes so you don't have to. In times like these, if a trip to the panto is a family tradition,
it's tough to know which one to pick.
Our reviewers handed out two five-star reviews this year to Jack and the Beanstalk at the Bradford Alhambra and Snow White at Sheffield Lyceum.
According to our reviewer, Billy Pearce in panto in Bradford can raise a belly laugh from the most miserable misanthrope (I'd like him to try it with this one) and she claims "this is still probably the best panto in Yorkshire". There's a counter-claim from the south of the county, where our reviewer saw Toyah Willcox in Sheffield take on the role of the Wicked Queen and Damian Williams as the dame, stealing the show.
Both shows are on every day apart from Christmas and New Year's Day.
Peter Pan: Annoyingly, there seems to be scant theatre aimed at adults at this time of year, rather there are shows aimed at kids with parents a briefly considered afterthought (which is what "family show" says to me, I'm afraid). The Playhouse had a short-lived tradition of putting on an adult stage play in the Courtyard over the festive period, but since even that stopped, no-one seems to have taken up the mantle. The closest you'll get is with Northern Ballet Theatre's Peter Pan which, although described as a "family show", might be the sort of thing you could go and see as a grown-up couple, without children, and not feel a bit weird.
Dec 26, 27.
Art
Graves Gallery, Sheffield: Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe: Sheffield born collector Anthony d'Offay is a very generous man. In 2006 the National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate Gallery bought d'Offay's private collection, worth over 100m, for a snip, paying just 26.5m for the works. Parts of the collection then went out under the name Artist Rooms – works by a single artist which are to be displayed in a single room. The legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the artists with his own room and his exhibition has come to d'Offay's home town. The collection has been curated for the Graves Gallery exhibition by Liz Waring, who says the controversy that sometimes dogged Mapplethorpe is easily overlooked when you see the sheer quality of the photographer's work. Open Monday to Thursday next week.
Bront Parsonage Museum: The moors. The snow. The Bronts. What better time of year than right now to visit the literary museum, former home of the Bronts? Over the past few years the museum has been building a contemporary art strand and, under the guidance of Jenna Holmes, has brought some interesting exhibitions to the museum. The current exhibition at the museum is the provocatively titled Sex, Drugs and Literature – The Infernal World of Branwell Bront, a new special exhibition focusing on the troubled brother of the family, Branwell. The museum is closed this weekend, but open all next week until Thursday, Dec 31.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park: What is there to do at Yorkshire Sculpture Park? What isn't there to do, is the question. It's a perfect place to burn off some Christmas calories with hours of walking available – and there's the added bonus of no less than four different exhibitions currently at the park. They are: Rob Ryan: You Can Still do a lot with a Small Brain: Imaginative paper cuts and screen print on display throughout the Visitor Centre. MADE 2009: YSP's annual Christmas contemporary craft show plays host to four recent graduates who are showing 2D and 3D work in a mixture of materials. James Lee Byars: The Angel, due to be down by now, but extended until Jan 3, is an artwork comprising 125 Murano glass spheres, each one hand-blown using just a single breath, and arranged in curves based on the Japanese Kanji character for "angel". Peter Randall-Page: The most extensive exhibition to date by one of Britain's leading artists. Showcasing over 100 works in the gallery spaces and open air. Open every day except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Leeds City Art Gallery: It might seem a strange time to suggest a trip to a gallery, but think about it: everyone else will be in a stupor at home, watching TV through a haze of turkey, mincemeat and mulled wine.
So if you do drag yourself to Leeds City Art Gallery, you'll get the space more or less to yourself, and you'll get the chance to spend some real quality time wandering around the work of the four artists shortlisted for this year's Northern Art Prize.
While you're there you could also have a look at Corinne Silva's powerful Wandering Abroad, a moving image installation based on the story of David Oluwale, a stowaway from Nigeria who was hounded by police and eventually found drowned in the River Aire.
Open Tues 29 to Thursday 31. Closed New Year's Day.
0113 247 8256 web: www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery
National Media Museum: Joanna Quinn: Again, in the spirit of finding something you can take the kids to, but enjoy yourself as well, this excellent exhibition of the work of one of the country's most recognised illustrator/ animators is one that
should please the whole family. Quinn is the woman behind the Charmin (toilet paper) bear adverts and her work is at once subversive and cuddly.
There is also a great video of her work which the kids will enjoy because it's cartoons and adults will enjoy because it is very impressive work.
Open every day except Christmas Day, 10am to 6pm.
Cinema
Avatar: You can read all about this week's big release, Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, in today's Culture, but the other big must-see movie out now is Avatar. James Cameron spent a very long time and a huge amount of money making his futuristic and, he hopes, groundbreaking latest film. So, to experience it how he hoped you would, get along to the Imax cinema at the National Media Museum in Bradford, where it's being shown on that massive screen in glorious 3D.
Where the Wild Things Are: If you have kids, then you have to find a way to entertain them (that's my understanding of the rules). The combined dark and brilliant minds of Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze could be the best way to do so in the cinema.
Jonze, the director behind indie hits like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, brings his unique take on life – and way of making films, to the slim story written by Sendak. It may unnerve the very young, with its big monsters, but don't forget how much you loved slightly weird and spooky movies when you were a kid and take your own along.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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