BLUE Chapter, Market Road, Canton, Cardiff, Wales, CF5 1QE Tuesday 5th – Saturday 16th February 2019 P

Image  courtesy of David Wilson Photography.

And every so often I find something. Washed up on the shore. Something lost. Something old. Something broken. Something in need of repair. And I’d bring it back here. I’d bring it home.

With their first foray into new writing, Chippy Lane Productions present the world premiere of BLUE – the debut play of young Welsh writer Rhys Warrington. BLUE shines a light on the current state of innumerable families across Wales, one of the most pressing issues facing the UK as vital medical and NHS services are cut. It focuses on the negative impact on those struggling to care for the vulnerable without funding.

One evening in Carmarthen, an old acquaintance comes back into the lives of the Williams family, forcing them to face their reality as a family that feels trapped, isolated, and unsupported after their recent loss. This powerful and thought-provoking play explores the concept of ‘home’, the intricacies of grief, and asks how can you grieve someone who is still alive but no longer present?

BLUE’s incredible cast features Nia Roberts (The Crown, Netflix; The White Princess, Starz; Hidden, S4C/BBC Wales, Pobol y Cwm, S4C), and Sophie Melville (Iphigenia in Splott, Sherman Theatre, National Theatre, Edinburgh, New York; Blackbird, The Other Room; The Divide, Old Vic; Low Level Panic, Young Vic; The Missing, BBC).

Joining them are Jordan Bernarde (The Sea Plays, Old Vic Tunnels; Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Waking Exploits; The Passion, National Theatre Wales; Da Vinci’s Demons, Starz; The Hanged Man, BBC) and Gwydion Rhys (The Village Social, National Theatre Wales; To Kill a Machine, Scriptography; Hinterland, Hidden, BBC).

BLUE is generously funded by Arts Council Wales. The production is also supported in kind by Chapter, Dementia UK, Older People Wales, Tŷ Hapus, and David Wilson Photography.

Performance Dates Tuesday 5th – Saturday 16th February 2019 Tuesday – Saturday, 7.30pm 7th, 9th, 14th, 16th February, 2.30pm BLS performance, 12th February, 7.30pm Q&A talkback performance, 13th February, 7.30pm

Running time 1 hour 20 minutes

Age Recommendation 14+

Location Chapter, Market Road, Canton, Cardiff, Wales, UK CF5 1QE

How to get there Chapter is situated in Canton, behind Cowbridge Road East, between Llandaff Road and Market Road. Bus numbers 17 and 18 buses (Chapter Arts Centre stop) from Cardiff Central, and Chapter has its own car park.

Box Office Tickets are available priced from £14 (£12 concession) from thee box office, (0)29 2030 4400 or online at www.chapter.org/blue

Twitter @chippylaneprod, @chaptertweets, #ChippyLanesBLUE

In this crazy modern life where we lurch from high-pressure work to frantic leisure, no-pain-no-gain workouts, and don’t-forget-the-social-media-photo, we sometimes forget about that little person inside us.

Which is why we need to schedule ‘me’ appointments.  Yes, actually put them in our diary, because if we don’t, we won’t.

Mindfulness means switching off your phone, TV, Spotify etcetera, sitting comfortably and using the following simple routine.

You just need yourself for this, but Scentered Aromatherapy balms can really enhance the experience and help you focus, particularly if your brain is still in overdrive. They are 100% pure sticks of moringa mixed with shea butter, each containing up to 25 essential oils and botanicals. The first thing which hits you are the amazing smells – they are quite addictive.

Make yourself comfortable – if it’s easy, sit in lotus, but if your hips are screaming, use a floor cushion against a wall, or a firm chair. Mindfulness isn’t a competition.

Now choose the Scentered aromatherapy balm which best suits your needs – your choice includes Be Happy, De-stress, Focus, Escape and Sleep Well. Dab it on your pulse points – temples, neck and wrists – and inhale long and deep, noticing your tummy rise and fall.  Count your breath 1 in, 2 out, 3 in and so on until you reach 20.

As you focus and observe your breath, relaxation will melt through your body. Notice how you feel – really feel. Any pain? Any tension? What thoughts are coming into your head? Just notice and let them go.  Then back to your breathing.

This will take about a minute – surely you can find a minute for yourself? And if you want to make more time, your whole being will thank you.

Scentered are committed to using only the finest natural ingredients and therapeutic grade essential oils. Each balm has been tested and retested for quality.  No parabens, petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances, colours, or other nasties are used.

Visit the Scentered website for a list of their essential oils, and how they can help mind, body and spirit. The balm sticks, beautiful scented candles and gift sets can be purchased there too.

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co,uk

Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.

Incognito Theatre Company, winners of the Les Enfants Terribles’ 2018 Greenwich Partnership Award, will be making their debut at VAULT Festival with Tobacco Road from 13^th to 17^th February.

Image courtesy of Tim Hall

Based in the murky underworld of 1920s south east London, in the shadow of the Great War, this unique gangster story explores the stories never told in history books with every character being based on a real person or people.  By shining a light on gang activity, this fast-paced production investigates how young people find themselves embroiled in gang culture while exploring the necessary violence of an implacable female gangster rising through a male-dominated society.

Five resourceful young men and women try to find fame and wealth even as staying alive poses problems in a cutthroat society of thugs and conmen. Incognito’s explosive physical choreography takes the audience on a fast-paced and thrilling journey from pickpocketing in murky back streets to fixed boxing matches in dark basements.

Every character is based on a real person or people. Elsie and Freda are inspired by the ruthless female gang, Alice Diamond and her followers. Tommy Carlisle is based on the bare-knuckle boxers of Lambeth, Alfie on the thousands of young men left deeply tormented by the effects of World War I, whilst the ambitious Felix is inspired by the bloodthirsty young men who were driven to succeed by their unerring determination.

Interrogating a strait-jacketed experience of gender, this thrilling production considers the complex and impossible standards of traditional masculinity while exploring the necessary violence of an implacable female gangster rising through a male-dominated society.

Tobacco Road is a magnified examination of the real people who forged a life for themselves in a world that had scorned them as disposable. By shining a light on gang activity, Tobacco Road investigates how young people continue to find themselves embroiled in gang culture and why it can sometimes feel as though there is no other option.

Performance Dates Wednesday 13th – Sunday 17th February 2019 Wednesday – Sunday, 6.15pm Saturday matinee, 3pm

Running time 60 minutes

Location VAULT Festival, Network Theatre, 246A Lower Road, London SE1 8SJ Box Office Tickets are available priced £15 from vaultfestival.com

Twitter @incognito107, #TobaccoRoad

Ages 14+, mild swearing and use of strobe lights

, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ Tuesday 8th January – Saturday 2nd February 2019

Liv Warden’s debut play at the Old Red Lion explores a different perspective of the Time’s Up movement. The provocative and timely Anomaly will star Natasha Cowley (Othello, Shakespeare’s Globe; Connections 2018, National Theatre; The Last Days of Anne Boleyn, The Tower of London) and making their professional theatre debuts Alice Handoll and Katherine Samuelson.  Post-Weinstein, Anomaly is a story that is ready to be told.

It’s 6am.  News has just broken that Phillip Preston, media mogul and film-industry powerhouse has been arrested for assaulting his wife.  His three daughters, who lead separate lives, are left with the fallout.  As they battle the world’s press, the board members of Preston International and each other, they soon find themselves not only fighting to save the Preston dynasty but to protect everything they know to be true. What happens when a family, under the most intense scrutiny of the public eye, is faced with unbearable pain?

In our Kardashian-soaked culture of sensationalism, victims’ testimonies are finally being taken seriously. This play is not about men like Harvey Weinstein. Anomaly is not about the perpetrator or the politics of he said / she said. It’s about the furore, the collateral destruction and the family stood by the right hand of the accused. It’s about children carrying the black spot of their parent’s name. Anomaly is a war cry for the women who have been left to pick up the pieces.

Alice Handoll (Polly)

Image courtesy of Alishia Love

Katherine Samuelson plays Penny

Image courtesy of Samuel Black

 Natasha Cowley plays Piper

Image courtesy of Ruth Crafer

Performance Dates  Tuesday 8th January – Saturday 2nd February 2019 Monday – Saturday, 7:30pm Saturday and Sunday, 3pm

Running time   75 minutes

Twitter @ORLTheatre, @WildChild_UK, @LiviaWarden, #Anomaly

Location Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ

Box Office Tickets are available priced £17 (£15 concessions). Available from Old Red Lion Theatre Box Office and www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk or 0333 012 4963.

Ages 14+

It’s one of my personal end of year treats to pick out some Independent Authors whose books I have enjoyed – to the hilt.

This year it’s a fabulous clutch that can easily be wrapped (do we really have to use plain brown paper because the other can’t be recycled? But being good, I have two HUGE rolls) and given to relatives, and friends, and they’ll thank you for it.

Entertaining Angels by Anne L Harvey is a collection of short stories of everyday angels. We’ve all met them – those good ‘uns who inspire us by their understated actions, actions that can change lives, or make us do better. This will do the same. Uplifting, absorbing, well written. Atta girl, Anne. Perfect for a Christmas stocking or for any time of year.

Entertaining Angels by Anne L Harvey: ebook 99p and pb £2.99  www.tinyurl.com/y6w6a5ss

The Martyr’s Scorn – a Harry Somers novel by Pamela Gordon Hoad.

The sub title is: Physician and Investigator Harry Somers struggles to secure his future. The story?

To avoid imprisonment in 1450 Harry Somers accepts the protection of the Church and a challenging commission in Winchester. The acquaintances he makes there lead him to investigate distasteful allegations. What’s more he has to make a choice which will have consequences for his future. Long standing enemies menace him, former supporters loyalty is uncertain. I’m not telling you more. Why spoil a good novel.

Written in the first person the author clearly loves this period, and invests in the characters, always a good sign. The dialogue leads one straight into how I imagine that period of time to sound. Lots happening, the pages keep turning. Absolutely give it a go.

The Martyr’s Scorn by Pamela Gordon Hoad pb £8.99 (prime) and kindle

Wonders will never cease by Judi Moore, winner of the Words for the Wounded Georgina Hawtry-Woore Fiction Award with the fabulous and unputdownable Little Mouse

This author’s writing is extraordinarily good, her breadth of vision remarkable as she draws us fluently into Fergus’s world. The understated dry humour runs beneath, sharp as a lemon in a dry gin (and tonic) with as much fizz. Love it, love it.

So what’s it about. Fergus Girvan, a Classicist at Ariel University, world weary, perhaps cynical, (what’s more he has piles and shouldn’t sit on plastic seats – ouch) What’s more he has a right to be cynical, as there’s a bloke who not only snaffles his work, but is intent on doing the same with Fergus’s daughter. How very dare he? But is Fergus as hard done by as we think? Is he perhaps as Machiavellian as his opponent? I’ve no intention of telling you but there’s a lot more going on that at first we think.

Ah, Judi Moore, God bless your talent. Enjoy this everyone – keep it for yourself, eh?

Wonders will never cease by Judi Moore available pb @ £7.99 and kindle.

And yet two offerings from the Words for the Wounded Young Adult Georgina Hawtrey Woore Award with The Kelpie’s Eyes.

Walls of Words by Oliver Eade

This is a collection of short stories inspired by Eade’s travels and connections across the world, and fascinating it is too. The structure is sound, the change of rhythm and dialogue keeps us totally in tune with the area in which he is writing. A book to take on a journey, one you can tuck away when you reach your station, and then start another story further along in your travels. Great stuff, Oliver Eade. I took it with me to London, and on and off tubes, and heaven knows what. It was a good companion. Bravo.

Walls of Words by Oliver Eade. RRP £10.99

And finally a lovely touch.

Stories for Children from Olivia Ruiz Eade and Oliver Eade. A family production, skipping a generation – Gramps and beloved grand-daughter. Ages 7 – 77. The mix gives a vibrancy and immediacy to the writing and subject matter. Olivia’s artwork is a joy. (apparently she takes after her great grandfather; Edward Eade – he’d be proud of you,  Olivia)

Lovely, lovely gift for an oldie, or a youngie, and those in between.

Great stuff, you two. Fabulous cover.

Stories for Children – Olivia Ruiz Eade and Oliver Eade.  pb £10.99 (prime)

image credit: Max Webster

Chivaree Circus and Upstage Creative present CRASH Winterville, Clapham Common, London 28th, 29th November and 12th, 13th, 19th 20th, 22nd December 2018

“I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was wholly lost and gone.”  – Dante

CRASH is a tale of love, danger and mystery, featuring heart-stopping acrobatics, astounding aerial dance and eerie balletic pieces to a lyrical electronic soundtrack.  Inspired by the 19th century French ballet La Sylphide, CRASH is a retelling of this European folktale through impressionist, mixed media pop-conceptual circus.

This new show in the round comes from the award-winning team that brought Becoming Shades to VAULTS earlier this year.  Audiences will be taken on a journey through a compelling emotional landscape of circus, dance and beautiful atmospheric soundscapes.

Image credit: Max Webster

Setting the pace in the London circus scene this is a show that demonstrates Chivaree will not rest on their laurels and will continue to push boundaries in circus (London Theatre 1).

CRASH is a shadow blinking at twilight, the hint of a love that was never meant to be, where shadows breathe and dance amongst the trees.  When a mysterious woodland creature appears to a man on the morning of his wedding day, he can’t resist following her.  Their love is immortal for true love conquers all.  Or does it?  When the forest comes alive, who is to say what is real and what is not?  Who can you really trust in the moonlight?  Who is the hunter and who is the prey?

This promises to be a spectacular combination of high impact circus, dramatic aesthetics and powerful visual narratives. Their last production was a sell-out and Frost Magazine is willing to bet this will be too.

CRASH: Performance Dates  28th, 29th November and 12th, 13th, 19th 20th, 22nd December 2018     Variable times

Running time   1 hour

Twitter    @Chivaree_Circus

Box Office Tickets are available priced from £20 (plus booking fee).  Book online at https://winterville.co.uk/attraction/chivaree-circus/

The Frost Magazine team were talking about Christmas presents – rather desperately it must be said –  and ways to ring the changes. Someone mentioned personalised gifts. ‘But so expensive,’ said I. Then we came across PersonalisedgiftsShop.co.uk

‘Let’s give it a try,’ came the cry. (Have I produced a bit of a rhyme there?)

So we did. And here is the result. A personalised gin flask – mine. For ‘Him Indoors’ to give me, though he doesn’t yet know it.

It was simplicity itself to order from this 100% UK owned and family run concern, and the ‘personalised’ turn-around is immediate. This fabulous stainless steel flask with my own message on my own present arrived in about 36 hours, (they say between 24 – 48 hours)

The word GIN sits in the centre of the flask with the personalisation set around it.  In my case, Marg’s GIN and tonic. Don’t touch, which rather shows that I am not a sharing person – in some respects.

A fabulous product that I will be thrilled and surprised to unwrap on Christmas Day and Him Indoors will bestow it with pleasure, as it only cost him £14.00 plus £2.99 for the funnel. (What’s the point of a gin flask if the gin splashes on the way in. Such a waste and would lead to me licking the table – not a good look) I will of course, have bought myself, from him, a bottle of gin.

For a family the Prosecco Hamper would be a good idea at £29.99. What’s not to like. The personalised prosecco hamper includes a 20 cl miniature bottle of prosecco and a personalised prosecco glass to sip from. The hamper includes other goodies, including a Prosecco Made Me Do It bottle stopper and a bag of prosecco gummies. There’s a card for a personalised message.

This company, offers over 14000 gifts, all of which can be personalised ranging from gifts for a one year old to – well my age – let’s just put grumpy granny. And their are gifts for all occasions: birthday, wedding, anniversary … and next day delivery is available for last minute presents. They have been awarded the feefo gold award for the last three years for a plethora of great reviews.

We don’t often gush, in fact, never so I won’t this time. But from the evidence, I do feel PersonalisedGiftsShop.co.uk is a thoroughly excellent concern, and I just love that it is British and family run.

Personalised Prosecco Hamper – £29.99

Personalised Round Pink Hip Flask – £14

PersonalisedgiftsShop.co.uk

Michael Rowan hopes to say goodbye to socks and ties and hello to Gingle Bells when he discovers the true spirit of Christmas

As Julie Andrews never sang, ‘Christmas and Gin are two of my favourite things.’ so, Pickering’s Gin Baubles should be the perfect gift to find under or indeed hanging from, the branches of my Christmas Tree. (hint to my wife).

I do find that Christmas can be a bit hit and miss on the present front, so should these gin filled baubles be on my naughty or nice list?

In fairness these would make a very welcome gift in the box of 6 (hint to my wife) or even as singles or pairs in my, I mean, anyone’s Christmas stocking.

Gin fans across the country can now deck their Christmas trees with these tasty baubles, marking the start of the festive season with a fun twist – mixing up the traditions of gold, red and tinsel with a burst of gin-filled fun.

Available in a rainbow of colours, the gin-filled baubles come in pink, blue, purple, yellow, red and green with a rose gold screw lid and a silk red ribbon, sure to add a splash of Christmas joy to trees and households across the land.

Pickering’s Gin Baubles are sold in a gift pack containing six differently coloured plastic baubles, each containing 50ml of Pickering’s Gin (RRP: £30.00). (hint to my wife)

Pickering’s Gin is based on an original Bombay recipe dating from 1947. The marvellously mixed gin is spectacularly smooth, refreshing and flavoursome and is handcrafted at Summerhall Distillery – the first exclusive gin distillery to be established in Edinburgh for over 150 years.

So far so good, but how does the gin taste? As a seasoned gin drinker, I can happily report that it is perfect for the Christmas Season (hint to my wife). Fresh, light with bold flavours of citrus and juniper giving way to intense warming spice of cardamom, coriander seed and clove.

Try it with Ice, tonic and a slice of pink grapefruit.

Should my wife be reading this and succumb to my subtle hints, I promise to help take the tree down, starting with the baubles of course.

These baubles are sure to sell out fast so I strongly suggest that you pick yours up from Pickering’s, Selfridges, Sainsbury’s (Scotland only), John Lewis, 31dover.com, GettingPersonal.com and over 200+ retailers across the country.

Pickering’s Gin Baubles are sold in a gift pack containing six differently coloured plastic baubles, each containing 50ml of Pickering’s Gin (RRP: £30.00). (hint to my wife)

Images courtesy of Michael Rowan