The Market Place Theatre in Armagh has just released its new Spring | Summer 2018 programme packed full of the best in entertainment including shows, workshops and exhibitions to keep audiences flooding back time and again. If you’re stuck for the perfect Christmas gift, then why not give the gift of entertainment this year!
January will see The Rock ’N ’Roll Years and Dance Hall Days show back with a brand new show featuring George Jones, Clubsound and four wonderful singers. The show will transport you back to the nostalgic days and incredible music and artistes of 50’s and 60’s, with over forty classic songs. Combining evocative love ballads with the greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll hit songs of the era, this show will carry the audience back to a time when dance halls were full and the youngsters danced, jived and rocked to The Four Seasons, The Shadows, Neil Sedaka, Dean Martin, Patsy Cline, Elvis and many, many more!
For more musical enjoyment, Shane Nolan & The Four Seasons star in ‘Oh What A Night – Jersey Guys’. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons ultimate homage show celebrates their greatest hits including ‘Oh What A Night’, ‘Sherry’, ‘Walk Like A Man’, ‘Bye Bye Baby’, ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’, ‘Let’s Hang On’, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’…and many more! This celebration features fantastic vocals, harmonies, dance routines and stars of The West End and leading UK theatre tours.
Jake O’Kane, Northern Ireland’s top comic and star of the BBC panel show ‘The Blame Game’, is back in February with a brand new show. Jake will be casting a satirical eye over the preceding twelve months, combining stories and pictures from The Irish News with the madness of the internet to debunk the great, the not so great, and himself. From Jake feeding his voter registration card to a goat, Martina Anderson having a fit at the European Assembly, or the never-ending RHI scandal, Jake mixes hard news with harder comedy to guarantee a night to remember.
The Ulster Orchestra will be coming right to your doorstep in February with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, a giant amongst concertos. The Ulster Orchestra is delighted to bring international star Sergey Khachatryan to perform this piece. Renowned as one of the great modern interpreters of this concerto, Khachatryan’s performance will be spell-binding. To open the concert, Ulster Orchestra Music Director Rafael Payare will conduct Brahms’s richly romantic Third Symphony.
Younger audiences will be delighted with ‘Gruff’, the much loved fairy-tale brought to life with a pinch of Banyan magic. As part of the Family Super Saturday series, ‘Gruff’ will include an hour of fun activities including themed craft workshops, face painting, balloon modelling and fancy dress competition.
April will see the staging of ‘We’ll Walk Hand In Hand’, a new play by Martin Lynch marking the 50th anniversary of the Northern Ireland civil rights struggle. The play charts the story of Vincent and Louise, two young working class kids from Woodvale and the Lower Falls who start Queen’s University on the very day the shocking television images come through of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Becoming embroiled in the heady world of student politics, whilst back home their families see civil rights very differently, Vincent and Louise are confronted with decisions that will mark their lives forever.
Then it’s time for the return of ‘It’s Wine O’Clock’, telling the story of the most whacky and wonderful wedding of the year. South Armagh farmer’s wife, Vera, is thrilled that her son, Seamus, is getting hitched. But – surprise, surprise – not everything is going to plan. A riotous rabble of larger-than-life [yet strangely familiar] characters will be joining Seamus and his blushing bride for a shindig that’s slosh-a-block with champagne and slippery with slap-and-tickle shenanigans. Meanwhile, ‘Keep ‘er Lit’, Ireland’s greatest wedding band [in their own minds, at least] have arrived to provide a tune or two on the dancefloor.
For details of all events can be found online at www.marketplacearmagh.com, and tickets for can be booked by contacting the Box Office on [028] 3752 1821.
And to keep up-to-date with the latest news at the Market Place Theatre, you can follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/marketplacearmagh) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/mptarmagh) where you will find all the latest information, special offers and video previews.