10 things coming up in the Chichester/Bognor area!

Things you won't want to miss
Marin AlsopMarin Alsop
Marin Alsop

1 Music. Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms will be conducted in Chichester Cathedral by Bernstein’s great protegee, the American conductor Marin Alsop. Marin will be reunited with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – for which she was principal conductor from 2002-09. The concert on Saturday, November 24 in Chichester Cathedral comes as the great highlight of the city’s Bernstein in Chichester Festival.

2 Theatre. Shakespeare In Love plays Chichester Festival Theatre from November 20-24, based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, adapted by Lee Hall. Young Will Shakespeare has writer’s block... the deadline for his new play – a comedy called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter – is fast approaching, he’s struggling to finish the first line of a sonnet and he’s in dire need of inspiration. Then he meets the beguiling Viola de Lesseps, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant. Viola is prepared to do anything – including risking the frosty disapproval of Queen Elizabeth I – to fulfil her illicit dream of performing on the London stage and pursuing a passionate affair with the greatest playwright of the age.

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3 Art. Chichester Camera Club: A Celebration of People and Places opens on Saturday, November 24. Admission is free, with donations gratefully received. Further information on community submissions and the exhibition will be available online www.thenovium.org/cameraclub or by calling 01243 775888.

4 Music. The team behind ChoirFest are bringing a festive edition of the popular event to Bognor’s Alexandra Theatre. Choirfest at Christmas will see five community choirs come together in a festival concert perfect to get audiences in the Christmas spirit, promises co-organiser Will Hackett. “It takes place on Saturday, November 25 at 7.30pm, and the evening concert will feature many popular – and a few less well-known – festive songs.”

5 Art. The Moncrieff-Bray Gallery winter exhibition near Petworth runs from Saturday, November 3-Sunday, November 25 and by appointment until Christmas. Elspeth Moncrieff, who set up the Moncrieff-Bray Gallery in 2005, is promising a stunning collection of paintings, print-making, sculpture and ceramics.

6 Theatre. The University of Chichester’s musical theatre students take to the Alexandra Theatre stage in Bognor this week Anything Goes. Anything Goes opens on Thursday, November 22 and runs every evening at 7.30pm until Saturday, November 24, with a 2.30pm matinee on the Saturday. Tickets on 01243 861010.

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7 Theatre. Written exclusively for the stage, Ian Rankin’s Rebus: Long Shadows comes to Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre from Monday to Saturday, November 19 to 24 starring Charles Lawson, Cathy Tyson and John Stahl.

8 Music. Will We Ever Have Sex Again? That’s the question posed in song by American singer-songwriter Amy Rigby – a question which instantly became a coffee-shop discussion topic coast to coast across the USA where she lives. Married to UK musician Wreckless Eric, Amy plays Emsworth Sports & Social Club on Friday, November 24 at 8pm. Tickets: Bookends (Emsworth), and www.wegottickets.com.

9 Art. Behind The Mask by Philip Jackson offers an exhibition at Augustus Brandt in Petworth running until November 24. Philip is one of Britain’s most respected and commissioned sculptors and has produced some of our country’s best-known public works.

10 Theatre . Nicci Pennicott is directing A Bunch of Amateurs for the Midhurst Players. Nicci’s production of Ian Hislop (below) and Nick Newman’s play runs from Wednesday, November 28 to Saturday, December 1 at The South Downs Centre Memorial Hall.

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