There are still a few tickets available for tomorrow afternoon’s (2pm) performance of Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. Contact the Box Office on 315 2151 to snap these up!
Congratulations to Mr P Cairns of Wester Drylaw, who correctly identified Robert Tressell as the author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Mr Cairns wins two tickets to the evening performance.
Enjoy the show!
North Edinburgh Arts Centre is the place to be next Saturday (21 April) when it stages the only Edinburgh performances of the classic ‘Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’.
This hilarious, fast-paced adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic book shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate ‘The Cave’, a three-storey town house, for Mayor Sweater. It traces their hardships and struggles for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England. These workers are the ‘philanthropists’ who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.
This enduring and absorbing classic story is brought to life by Neil Gore and Rodney Matthew, two hugely talented and experienced performers, using comedy routines and entertaining songs of the Music Hall, with a few surprises along the way!
Robert Tressell’s book has become a classic of working-class literature since its first publication in 1914. The themes and style of the piece are eternally relevant and provoking as it puts life and politics into sharp focus in an entertaining and accessible way.
Stephen Lowe’s version of the story was first seen in 1978, when Joint Stock Theatre Company toured the country playing to packed houses. The play was revived at the Half Moon Theatre, London in 1983 and again for a touring production by the Birmingham Rep in 1991.
Townsend Productions’ ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ excellent cast features Rodney Matthew who joins the production straight off the back of ‘Jerusalem’ in the West End. He has worked at many of the leading repertory theatres, including West Yorkshire Playhouse where he worked for a year and at Dundee Rep where he spent a memorable five years performing in classical, musical and new work around Scotland. Matthew is joined on stage in the two-hander by the talented Neil Gore (Song of Singapore, Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End). The production is directed by Louise Townsend, with the creative team including designs by Fine Time Fontayne and lighting by Jo Dawson.
The play has had the Backing of the unions RMT, Unite, Unite, Scotland, TUC, SETUC, GMB, PCS, Wales TUC, NUT, Accord, UCATT NASWT and the FBU.
Tickets for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (performances at 2pm and 7pm) are priced at £10.00 Conc. £5.00 and can be purchased at North Edinburgh Arts Box Office: 0131 315 2151.
STOP PRESS
Tickets for the evening performance are already sold out and tickets for the matinée are going fast. However you can win tickets for the play – North Edinburgh Arts has two tickets to give away for the matinée and NEN has to more for the evening performance. Check out April’s NEN to find out how to win tickets to a must-see show!
CORE (Community Organisation for Race Equality) is inviting you to a music group event this afternoon in North Edinburgh Arts Centre from 3.30pm.
CORE Youth and Children’s Development Worker Hazel Lyons explains: “CORE started a music-making group last December at North Edinburgh Arts Centre and children from the Greater Pilton area have been focusing on music making and discovering different types of music. Throughout the sessions youth workers have been working with the children to explore new forms of music and improve their music skills, with the help of different guest musicians coming along each week.”.
She adds: “The children have been working towards putting on a performance and would love to show you everything that they have learned. CORE would therefore like to invite you to this event on Saturday 31 March at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. The performance will last from 3.30-4.30pm and there will also be refreshments. The children have worked so well together, learned new skills and had lots of fun – we are all really looking forward to the performance”.
Around eighty people attended North Edinburgh’s first ever Dosh Day at North Edinburgh Arts Centre this afternoon, taking the opportunity to find out how they can cut their costs and maximise their household income.
The event was organised by the Lottery-funded Money Matters project. Castle Rock Edinvar’s Head of Neighbourhood Regeneration Heather McNaughton explained: “A group of Housing Associations in Edinburgh work together with the Citizens Advice Edinburgh to help tenants to access debt advice and to encourage people to use support to maximise their income and remain out of unsustainable debt. As part of the project we had previously co-ordinated a “Dosh Day” in Craigmillar which was very successful and we are now bringing the concept to North Edinburgh with the kind support of local organisations and agencies.”
Citizens Advice Bureaux, Granton Information Centre, Community Renewal, JobCentre Plus, Cyrenians and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh were among the organisations attending on the day, so there was no shortage of sound financial advice.
Young people from Muirhouse Youth Development Group (MYDG) will be staging an art exhibition at North Edinburgh Arts Centre next week.
The Arts Cool and Urban Arts exhibition opens with a launch event at the arts centre on Thursday 29 March from 5.30 – 7.30pm, and everyone’s welcome!
For further informaiton email joanne@mydg.org.uk or telephone 332 3356.
Following on from the success of December’s ‘Yes We Can Can’ community cabaret, community theatre is returning to North Edinburgh Arts with director Stephanie Knight .
Stephanie told participants: “I had a meeting with Kate, Director of NEA, last week to discuss how we can go forward after your tremendous achievements last year, and I would now like to meet on Friday 16th March at 6pm at NEA to plan what you would like to do next and how we can take this forward. There are already a number of great ideas and workshops will start on Friday 13th April 6 – 8p.m. in the theatre at NEA. Please get straight back to me with any queries and ideas in the meantime – it will be great to see you again!”
New members will also be warmly welcomed – for further information contact Stephanie on + 44 [0] 1578 750694 + 44 [0] 7817 359703 or email stephaniejaneknight@gmail.com
North Edinburgh Arts Centre will be the venue for North Edinburgh’s first ever Yummy Food Festival next month, and it promises to be very tasty event indeed! With demonstrations, workshops, cookery competitions and theatre performances organisers are hoping the festival will attract a healthy attendance too!
Pilton Community Health Project’s Community Healthy Lifestyles Coordinator Lisa Arnott (pictured above) is a member of the steering group organising the big event and she’s looking forward to seeing as many local people attend as possible.
She said: “The festival has been developed by local women from Muirhouse and West Pilton in partnership with Pilton Community Health Project and Forth Community Learning and Development team. This festival is full of exciting cooking workshops and food demonstrations, theatre performance, home baking, arts workshops, Zumba and a whole host of healthy food activities.”
She added: “Free goody bags, recipe cards and tasters will also be given out on the day but numbers are limited at the demonstrations and workshop so these will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Step into Spring 2012 and come along to the healthiest festival in North Edinburgh, the Yummy Food Festival!’
Forth CLD worker Sara Low is also a member of the steering group and she’s equally enthusiastic about the event. “This will be a great day out for local people but also a great opportunity for community groups, campaigns and organisations to give out information. It’s a really good programme and we’re really looking forward to what we hope will be a very exciting Festival”.
North Edinburgh’s Yummy Food Festival takes place on Friday 16 March from noon until 5pm. For further information call Lisa at Pilton Community Health Project on 551 1671 or email admin@pchp.org.uk
What is your favourite creative activity? What creative skills do you wish you had? What would your ideal community garden look like? North Edinburgh Arts wants to know what you think about the state of the arts in Muirhouse and beyond.
This Saturday, 18th February, North Edinburgh Arts will host its first annual ‘Have Your Say’ day, an event chock-full of fun, creative activities for the whole family, and a fantastic platform for you to tell NEA what is important to you.
Activities will run from 10am – 2pm, and will include drama with Lyceum Youth Theatre and North Edinburgh Theatre group, DIY Muirhouse with Community Renewal, dance with Charan Pradhan, creative play for under 5s, and take your own portrait. There will also be graffiti walls, breakdance displays, drop in arts and crafts and the opportunity to speak to Big Brother in our own Diary Room – a full programme of activities will be available to pick up on the day.
Kate Wimpress, Director of North Edinburgh Arts, said: “The ‘Have Your Say’ Day will do exactly what it says on the tin. NEA is a great asset for Muirhouse and for North Edinburgh, and it is vital that we, as an organisation, know how to make the most of this fantastic resource for the many people who already use it, and for those who will use it in future”.
So why not go along and see what North Edinburgh Arts has to offer, grab a bite to eat at the café and chat about how to make the arts thrive where you live?
For more information on this event, visit http://www.northedinburgharts.co.uk or follow their page on Facebook.
Come and join us down at North Edinburgh Arts for the fabulous fairytale of Princess Paris Pilton, the beautiful girl who falls under the spell of the Wicked Fairy of Ferry Road, who puts everyone in Muirhouse to sleep for a hundred years!
See what happens when they all wake up in Edinburgh one hundred years in the future! Has Scotland gained independence; have we solved global warming; are the trams running yet? We’ll only find out if handsome Prince Barry can fight his way to her and kiss her awake again!
The show, brought to you by Edinburgh’s Telford College promises to be packed full of fun and Christmas cheer. We are offering our email friends reduced price tickets at £1 per person.
If you would like to come along and make the most if this offer please contact Box Office on 0131 315 2151 quoting this unique offer codeNEAXMAS11
We look forward to hearing from you
The NEA Team
