A chance to explore the question Is Opera Boring? is coming to The Phoenix Theatre and Arts Centre in Bordon on February 10 and 12 at 7.30pm.
Poet W H Auden didn’t think so. He said: “No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”
The audience will be invited to join two local musicians who are never sensible if they can help it – Whitehill born-and-bred pianist Mark Hoare and Southampton opera singer and comedy writer Lucy Mellors.
Showing how the genre is based on “love, murder, passion and pineapples”, they promise a unique mix of magical singing, belly laughs, anecdotes and emotions behind the scenes of a “not so glamorous” life in opera. There will also be some touching moments as Lucy and Mark take the crowd through the music that means the most to them.
For tickets, priced £12, visit www.phoenixarts.co.uk
Afternoon cinema comes to the Phoenix on February 7 at 2.30pm with a screening of The Lost King (12).
In 2012 the remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a car park in Leicester. The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian, Philippa Langley, whose unrelenting research had been met with incomprehension by her friends and family and with scepticism by experts and academics.
The Lost King is the life-affirming true story of a woman who refused to be ignored and who took on the country’s most eminent historians, forcing them to think again about one of the most controversial kings in England’s history.
The film stars Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Shonagh Price and Helen Katamba.
For tickets, priced £6 (£5 concessions), visit www.phoenixarts.co.uk
People with disabilities or special educational needs can enjoy a Dragonfly Accessible Screening of Toy Story (PG) on February 10 at 11am.
Toy Story is about the secret adventures that toys go on when people aren’t around.
When Andy gets a new toy, space ranger Buzz Lightyear, he takes Woody’s place as Andy’s favourite toy. Woody doesn’t like the situation and gets into a fight with Buzz, and Buzz accidentally falls out of the window.
The other toys accuse Woody of killing Buzz, so he sets out on a big adventure to rescue him so they can both return to Andy’s room. But while on the outside they get into all kinds of trouble while trying to get home.
For tickets, priced £5 (free for carers), visit www.phoenixarts.co.uk