The Kindness of Strangers’ will be at Cox’s Yard at 8pm on 10^th June as part of the Stratford Fringe Festival

Excellent piece of new writing. Catherine Edwards, SCRIPT

A funny and moving play featuring a superbly judged performance by Robert Lister.

Peter Leslie Wild, BBC Radio Drama

On the edge of my seat throughout the entire play (…) It was a tour de force performance from Robert Lister and a superb script from Vanessa Oakes.

Theatre Student Stratford upon Avon College

A devastatingly convincing portrayal of a man in crisis.

Debbie Moody, Director of Studies, Stratford upon Avon College

 Compton Verney, Warwickshire (stratford district) CV35 9HZ

 27 March - 20 June 2010
 Preparations are well underway for the opening of our forthcoming exhibition of work by Francis Bacon, who is hailed as one of the most important British figurative painters of the 20th century.
 The inspiration for many of his paintings came from his interest in film and photography. This groundbreaking exhibition displays this source material alongside his paintings for the first time, allowing you to gain a unique insight into the inspiration for some of his well-known works.

 Other Event highlights 2010

Here is a preview of some of the events you can look forward to in 2010;

Easter at Compton Verney

Fri 2 – Fri 9 April

Take our Easter trail around the gallery and join in with our activities for all ages.

Spring sounds at Compton Verney

Sat 29 – Mon 31 May

Listen to live music in the galleries, join in with our creative activities for all ages and follow our storytellers as they bring our Naples collection to life.

Warwickshire Artsweek

Sat 3 – Sun 18 July

See and buy art for your home by local artists as we host Warwickshire Artsweek at Compton Verney.

Folk Art weekend

Sat 17 & Sun 18 July

Inspired by our Folk Art collection, come and celebrate folk traditions through music, dance and craft.

Summer school holidays

Tues 27 July – Sun 5 September

Our ever-popular Summerspace is back – with a great range of creative activities for all ages to enjoy.

1960’s weekend

Sat 13 & Sun 14 November

Step back in time as we celebrate the 1960’s and the finale of our three year Memories of Compton Verney project.

Four young women told us about the experience they had when they visited the RSC to see a Comedy of Errors ……….. they will be using these reviews as part of their Arts Award portfolio . If you fancy doing a review or an arts award just get in touch !

Review of Comedy of Errors

Before we went in When we stood in the que to go into the performance, I felt very out of place because lots of primary school children were there and I felt to old to be watching this particular play. And then when the doors opened to go in, I noticed that the staff were very helpful to the primary school teachers but when they saw our group of teachers, they wasn’t as pleasant. For example they said hello to the school but they only smiled at us. I thought this was very rude. They also didn’t offer to take us to our seats and when I had been to that theatre before, they did take us to our seats.

The actors were all talking to the children when we went into sit down. I thought this was really nice as the children were all excited, however they never made any effort to come over and say hello to us, and they had to walk past us to say hello to the other children. Again I think this was because we were a group of teenagers. Although we were too old to be excited that the actors might come up to us and say hello, it would have been nice for them to smile to us. I also found this very disappointing.

I thought the theatre was quite nice, seeming as it was only temporary. It was nice and airy and every seat you sat in, you know that you would be able to see very well. The only criticism I had about the theatre was that it was very cold and I had to put my jacket on because it was so cold.

 Watching the Play

Whilst watching the play, I noticed that it was a very good play for children (primary) because there was a lot of childish humour. Personally I found that the plot was extremely difficult to keep up with and halfway through I was already lost. The children were laughing their heads of but I just found myself very confused.

The actors did interact with the audience by pretending to hide behind peoples seats and talking to them, saying things like “ shh don’t tell him im here”. The children found this hilarious but yet again they did stay away from us when they was doing that. Why was that? And also they pulled a child out from the audience which was a really nice thing to do. I thought that the actors were really good.

Overall, I think that the play was very childish and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Even after our youth worker ringing up the RSC to see if it was suitable for teenagers, and them saying yes it was perfectly suited, I thought it was very childish and defiantly not suited to teenagers. I liked the theatre and would go to that same theatre again to see something different but defiantly not “Comedy of Errors” again. The main reason for this is because it was very complicated plot and even after half an hour it lost me.

-Morgan