A Streetcar Named Desire set to call at His Majesty's Theatre
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SCOTTISH Ballet’s hugely popular, award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire returns to Aberdeen for the first time since 2015 this week.
This astonishing take on Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece is narrative ballet at its very best, with stunning dance, devastating drama, pitch-perfect period design and a sizzling score used to tell the iconic story.
In steamy 1940s New Orleans, fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois moves into her sister Stella’s apartment. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley sees that Blanche is not what she appears to be, and sets out to destroy her.
Scottish Ballet’s stylish production breathes new life into the classic tale, with graceful waltzes at the DuBois family home, electrifying lindy jives in a Louisiana nightclub, and intense duets in the caged heat of Stella and Stanley’s apartment.
Running from Thursday through to Saturday at His Majesty’s Theatre, the shows get under way 7.30pm. Ticket range in price from £21.50 to £48, available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
Thursday will also Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi in town. Acclaimed musician Giddens uses her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present. A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, she co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator.
She was most recently nominated for her collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other (2019). Giddens’s forthcoming album, They’re Calling Me Home, is a 12-track work, recorded with Turrisi in Ireland during the recent lockdown; it speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical 'call home' of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the Covid-19 crisis.
Giddens’s lifelong mission is to lift up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been erased, and to work toward a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins.
The performance will be at the Music Hall from 8pm. Tickets cost £25, available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
There's a touch of the Emerald Isle the following evening at the Music Hall the following evening when Seven Drunken Nights brings to life the music of Ireland’s favourite sons – The Dubliners. Telling the story of a career spanning 50 years and evoking the spirit of Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna, Jim McCann, Ciaran Bourke and John Sheahan, this hugely talented cast of The show gets on the road at 7.30pm. Priced between £23.50 and £29.50, tickets are available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
The same evening over at the Lemon Tree will Blue Rose Code's Ten Years’ Grace Tour stop off in the Granite City. Blue Rose Code is Edinburgh-born songwriter Ross Wilson.
At the edge of contemporary alt-folk, Wilson’s music evokes a meeting of Van Morrison and a young John Martyn, both shipwrecked with a bunch of motown records.
Starting at 8pm, tickets cost £22 from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
A busy Saturday starts off with the Beltane Mind Body Spirit Fayre at the Music Hall. Try some healing, a psychic reading or buy gifts and candles to accentuate your home. The hayre runs over Sunday as well, then again June 24-25 where unusual and specialised gifts will be on sale for all your spiritual needs.
The event runs from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and 11am to 4pm on Sunday. Entry is free.
Family fun is the order of the day at the Family Open Mic event. All ages and abilities are welcome to come along share, music, poetry and so on. If the stage isn’t your scene, come and enjoy a listen.
The Music Hall from 3pm is the place to be, with free entry.
There's a touch of classical music on Saturday evening when the SCO perform Beethoven’s Fifth. Arguably the most famous symphony ever written, and justly one of the most admired, Beethoven’s Fifth celebrates victory over the forces of fate in an unforgettable journey from struggle and conflict to blazing affirmation.
Even if you feel you already know all there is to know about this iconic piece, inspirational conductor Mark Wigglesworth is just the figure to reveal new depths and splendours that might just make you think afresh.
Now an established international figure following her BBC Young Musician win in 2012, brilliant British cellist Laura van der Heijden is the soloist in Shostakovich’s dark, dramatic and deeply cathartic Second Cello Concerto. A profoundly moving experience for all who hear it. The playful innocence of Britten’s Simple Symphony—based on tunes he’d composed as a young child—complete the concert of darkness and light.
Hosted by the Music Hall, the concert begins at 7.30pm. Tickets cost between £13 and £30 from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
Aberdeen’s very own nine-piece soul band Silver City Soul Revue return for their annual visit. Bring your dancing shoes to party the night away on the dance floor, or just come along to enjoy the nostalgia of vintage soul at its best!
Taking place in the Lemon Tree, the party starts 8pm. Tickets are £11, available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
Award-winning pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock joins the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra for the premiere of Release on Sunday at the Music Hall. It promises to be an uplifting musical experience, with emotion at the forefront, written to transport you to another place and give the listener a precious and glorious distraction from everything else.
The SNJO, directed by Tommy Smith and featuring Welsh wizard of music Gwilym Simcock on piano, offer Release as a means of escape, finding new pathways through joyfully expressed improvisation and spectacularly composed orchestral jazz.
The performance gets under way at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £25.50 from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.
