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Thousands set to take on the UK’s first ever women-only night cycle ride

London will play host to the UK’s first ever women-only night cycle event on Saturday, May 31.

Women V Cancer

Over 2,000 women have registered to take part in Women V Cancer Ride the Night, in support of Breast Cancer Care, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and Ovarian Cancer Action.

Aiming to raise over £750,000 for women’s cancer in a single night, the 100km cycle starts and finishes at the Royal Windsor Racecourse, with the first group of cyclists setting off at 9.00pm. The course then follows a circular route taking in some of the capital’s most famous landmarks including Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace

A competition for ‘best dressed bike’ will ensure the London skyline is awash with fun and colourful bicycles through the night with the winner taking home a brand new Pendleton bike.

Ann Frampton
Ann Frampton

Ann Frampton, Director of Action for Charity and Dream Challenges, said: “In the UK 55,000 women and men annually are diagnosed with breast cancer whilst every day three women die from cervical cancer and 12 lose their lives to ovarian cancer. Ride the Night provides a fantastic opportunity to both raise funds for three amazing charities but also awareness of these diseases which devastate the lives of thousands of families every year.”

To date just over £4.2 million has been raised by Women V Cancer which is divided equally between Breast Cancer Care, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and Ovarian Cancer Action. It is expected that the Women V Cancer franchise will have raised £5 million for the women’s health charities by the end of 2014.

For further information, CLICK HERE:

Actually choirs to join forces with award winning teacher to fight homophobia in schools

Actually Gay Men’s Chorus and Actually Gay Women’s Chorus are teaming up with anti LGBT bullying champion and homophobic bullying survivor Shaun Dellenty to raise money for Inclusion For All (IFA).

Chris Jessop from Actually and
Chris Jessop from Actually and Shaun Dellenty

IFA is an award winning training strategy working to prevent homophobic,biphobic and transphobic bullying and language in schools across the UK.

Through joint fund raising endeavors over the next twelve months, money gathered by Shaun and both Choruses will support ongoing work, helping to reduce negative damage to the lives of countless children and making schools safe places for all children.

Shaun Dellenty, already an ward winner for his anti-bullying work in schools, has also been nominated Positive LGBT Role Model in the National Diversity Awards 2014 and the Excellence In Diversity Awards 2015. In both 2012 and 2013 Shaun featured on the Independent On Sunday Pink List of 101 most influential LGBT people in the UK.

Shaun, who is very excited to be working with the Choruses this year, said: “Through the privilege of working with the choruses I hope to draw attention to an issue which continues to damage the lives of so many young people in our education system. The vast majority of schools lack the training to be able to make children safe from bullying related to sexual orientation and gender; the funds kindly being raised by Actually will enable IFA to provide vital teacher training across the UK. I am extremely grateful for this partnership, Actually!”

The partnership kicks off at the Actually Gay Men’s Chorus Pride performances of I Feel Love on Friday 18 and Saturday, July 19 with Shaun addressing the audience on the Friday evening. Shaun will also be available after the performance to chat about the important work which he does.

For further information regarding ‘Inclusion For All’, CLICK HERE:

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What: I Feel Love

Where: St Andrews Church, Waterloo Street, Hove

When: July 18 and 19

Time: 7.30pm

Tickets: £12 (£10 concessions)

To purchase tickets, CLICK HERE: or from the Bulldog on St James Street, Brighton and the Iron Duke, Waterloo Street, Hove.

Regulated entertainment returns to Manbar!

Manbar, the iconic independent gay bar on Charing Cross Road, has been granted it’s regulated entertainment privileges back by Westminster City Council.

Manbar London

All its nights including the DJs and entertainers return starting tonight.

In April 2014, Manbar lost a £50,000 court appeal against a Westminster City Council tribunal decision which resulted in two conditions attached to its licence including: “There shall be no regulated entertainment at the premises until the noise nuisance at the premises has been investigated, diagnosed and resolved to the the satisfaction of Environmental Health.”

As a consequence all of Manbar’s nights were cancelled including DJs, entertainers, singers and drag acts. Staff numbers were reduced as Manbar fought for financial survival as revenue fell by 40%.

As of today, Manbar is back with a full entertainment programme and the show goes on!

Manbar owner Chris Amos says: “I would like to thank all those who have supported Manbar. I am so thrilled for Manbar, for our amazing team and most of all, for the gay community and entertainers. We work very hard at Manbar to provide entertainment every day of the week, so there is always something to do late night in Soho. I am grateful to Westminster City Council for allowing us this opportunity to demonstrate Manbar can provide good quality entertainment and keep peace with our neighbours.”

Manbar is located at 79 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0NE. Below are Manbar’s weekly events.

For this weekends events, CLICK HERE: 

 

 

 

 

LETTER TO EDITOR: Thank you Camelford Arms

The Camelford's very own Conchita
The Camelford’s very own Conchita

“I would like to thank Mark Flood and his staff at the Camelford Arms for their support in allowing us to be the beneficiary of their ‘Eurovision Evening’ on May 10. Thanks to the hard work of Mark and his team the evening was very well received with many people commenting on what a great time they had.

“Peer Action raised £230 during the evening, from the sweepstake and the raffle, which for a small charitable organisation is a big boost to our funds.”

“We look forward to developing our relationship further with the Camelford in the future.”

Mike Nelson, Chair of Trustees at Peer Action

 

 

Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables jointly take West End Eurovision crown

Director, Andrew Keates bravely reveals his own true story about HIV.

Westend Eurovision

A celebrity-studded West End Eurovision returned to the Dominion Theatre this week for its seventh and final year in support of The Make A Difference (MAD) Trust. Mamma Mia! and Les Misérables jointly took the Winners Trophy.

With over 200 performers, West End Eurovision is one of the biggest and most exciting late night events in the West End and the evening was a huge success.

The most profound part of the evening for many came in a speech given by multi-award winning director Andrew Keates, about his experience directing a revival of the first ever AIDS play, As Is by William M. Hoffman and how this affected his own life:

West End Eurovision

He said: “My cast and production team wanted to know why I wanted to do this play. I explained I thought it was a beautiful story of one person reaching out to another and asking them to take to accept them “as is”.

“Secondly, I wanted to respect all those that we had lost, and lastly, I wanted the younger generations (who didn’t live through the horrendous 1980s AIDS epidemic), to be inspired enough to get tested. Then, if one person did find that their status was positive, they could receive treatment in good time.

“You can imagine my surprise when, after the show, I discovered that actually I was that person. I was HIV+… Anyone who knows me, would know that I have never been anything more than proud of who I am. And why shouldn’t I be? Tonight isn’t about raising money for ‘those with HIV’ but raising money for our friends, colleagues and fellow artists that may fall on hard times. One day that could be me. One day that could be you.

“In many ways I feel like I am coming out for a second time… The best advice I can give anyone, whether they work in theatre or not, is to get tested, stay safe and not to be ignorant of those of us who are positive. This business is hard enough. Let’s all look after each other.”

Andrew’s honesty marked the night like nothing else. Celebrity judges – TV and radio personality Graham Norton, X Factor favourite Rylan Clarke, comedy actress Caroline Quentin and Birds of a Feather’s Lesley Joseph – plus host Richard Gauntlett also made the evening a night to remember. I’ve attached a press release about the event and it would be great if you’re able to post a news story.

The MAD Trust works with the British entertainment industry and its audiences to raise funds to offer care and support to people living with HIV, AIDS and other chronic illnesses, who are unable to work and are facing hardship.

To support The MAD Trust all people have to do is text MADT £3 to 70007 to give just £3.

Final accounts show that West End Eurovision 2014 raised in excess of £66,000 for MAD, enabling them to continue expanding their support network to those living with, and affected by, HIV.

David Pendlebury
David Pendlebury

David Pendlebury, chairman of The MAD Trust, said: “We are so grateful for the continued support of the theatre industry; so many people giving their talent and their time to Make A Difference. We would also like to thank Andrew for a lesson in being positive about being HIV positive. It highlights the importance to getting tested and proves we’re all in this together.”

 

 

REVIEW: Cosi fan Tutte: ENO

Cosi fan Tutte: W.A. Mozart at:

English National Opera

London Coliseum, St Martins Lane, London WC2N 4ES

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Full of flirtatious passion and with a real sense of revelation and surprise from the very first moments as the front of curtain antics of the circus performers delight over the sprightly overture, designer Tom Pye’s evocative and surreal British travelling circus interpretation of a Coney Island fairground was a feast for the eyes. It also allowed this most silly of operas to detach itself from reality enough to relax and have fun with itself.

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The set looked fantastic, really cool and atmospheric with endlessly colourful and engaging bits and bobs going on, the fairground signs looked amazing and had been commissioned by the ENO from a world famous Carnival sign painter Joby Carter, who’s done the opera house proud. With rooms that revolve, love boat rides in the shape of swans, a Ferris wheel and bunny girl bars this is jokey, sexy opera at its most flirty and although some of the more unpleasant aspects of this opera were dropped off the end of the pier, the frothy concentrations of visual fun kept the narrative pace alongside the sprightly and energetic music from conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. There was loads of visual jokes, physical puns and some super energetic choreography too, all very tongue in cheek but also superbly timed from a comedic perspective.

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The ENO orchestra were crisp, sharp and wove the required delicacy of shade and harmonic precision that Mozart demands while still allowing a sense of fun and good humour into the music and this is both the joy and the flaw in this opera. By keeping it all ha ha ha and tra la la we lose sight of the mean heart of this opera, the greasy sexist thug that lurks behind the side shows to rob us of our dignity, hopes and dreams and show us that the intoxication of Mozart is all candyfloss. I’ve always been creeped out by Cosi Fan Tutte with its misogynistic reach but this smoother, all together more modern version leaves the wolf at the door and the only real chills it gives us are from the acrobats and carny folk in front of the curtain and the good chills down the spine as the superb singing gets into gear.

Read the synopsis here

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Roderick Williams as Don Alfonso was a convincing wide boy with the wiles and smarmy charm to lead everyone astray, his voice was less substantial than his acting but he still kept the audience’s attention each and every time he was on stage.  

Mary Bevan’s Despina shone with a brilliant luster and made my evening and was simply perfect (and also very, very funny indeed as her bewigged Dr giving out electro shock treatments) Bevan is always good, tonight she was utterly perfect, worth going just to see her sing Despina with such grace.

Kate Valentine’s Fiordiligi seemed strangely off form and lack luster, although this might have been to do with the fact that she spent most of the second half in a balloon.

Marcus Farnsworth’s Guglielmo felt right vocally and his voice has great reach and speed but he didn’t convince from a sexy seductive perspective, pretty essential for this role but he developed as the night went on.

The sheer electric perfection of Christine Rice’s Dorabella was great.  Rice seems to live and breathe Mozart in a way some other performers only grasp at and her presence lit up the stage as much as her voice thrilled the Coliseum. She was exquisite.

Overall this production was fun, frivolous and silly and perhaps this is the best way to enjoy the frothy confectionary of this classic Mozart and not peer too closely into its workings. I doubt it would have held up to much scrutiny on its original opening night and the modern eye must cast aside post-feminist ideas of integrity and just let the music wash over.

Improbable’s inspirational Director Phelim McDermott has woven his usual magic on this stunning successful reimagining which although not wholly original in its setting is inventive in its re-visioning, and by giving everyone an equal amount of blame at the end, removes some of the murkiness of the original.

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With a fun twist and a colourful engaging set this seriously silly ENO production gives us an exciting evening out with some colourful visual distractions that feel modern, thrilling and over all FUN. Afterall this opera is all about fun, it’s thrill, it’s brevity and the consequences of indulgence. With some great singing from the ladies and such care and consideration of this fantastic set Cosi Fan Tutte burst into new life on the ENO and I would recommend dragging yourself out to see this most familiar of opera one more time and enjoying this frothy fun production.

Until July 6, 2014

For more information or to book tickets, CLICK HERE:   

London Coliseum

 

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