The annual screening of new films by members of the Abingdon Film Unit is a unique and popular event. The AFU's 2017 screening sees Abingdon's young filmmakers exploring as wide and varied a range of subjects as ever.

Admission is free but we ask that you book your tickets in advance.

When Rodolfo, a penniless poet, meets Mimì, a seamstress, they fall instantly in love. But their happiness is threatened when Rodolfo learns that Mimì is gravely ill.

Acclaimed director Richard Jones (Boris Godunov, Il trittico) directs a new production of Puccini’s La bohème. Irresistible in its witty, passionate blend of comedy and tragedy, the opera focusses on the lives of a group of young artists as they eke out an existence on the bohemian fringes of Paris. Jones brings his characteristically acute insight to this much-loved classic, visualized in Stewart Laing’s spectacular setting.

Puccini’s romantic depiction of bohemian Paris, with memorable music and a love story drawn from everyday life, has captivated audiences around the world, making La bohème one of the best-loved of all operas. It was first performed in Covent Garden in 1897 and has had more than five hundred performances there since.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

The first solo concert platform is preceded by the brief AGM of ASMS, Abingdon School Music Society, the parental group that supports the work of the music department by serving refreshments at concerts and raising funds for our many activities. This is a great opportunity to hear some of Abingdon's musical talent in solo performance.

Admission is free.

Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, The Imitation Game) takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy.

Now seen by over 750,000 people worldwide, the original 2015 NT Live broadcast returns to cinemas.

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Posh, Chimerica) and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

For more information about the performance, please go to the National Theatre Live website.

Don't miss the award-winning Musical Youth Company of Oxford as they bring 'Something Wonderful' to the Amey Theatre this autumn.

Featuring the best of stage and screen, this talented group of Oxfordshire teenagers (including boys from Abingdon School) will delight audiences with Songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, as well as West End and Broadway shows such as West Side Story, Billy Elliot, Matilda and Hamilton.

Renowned for their highly acclaimed performances, MYCO's 'Something Wonderful' guarantees a night of pure musical entertainment.

'Musical theatre at its very best' (Oxford Times about The Hired Man, 2017)

'Richly entertaining and immensely impressive' (Oxford Times about 42nd Street, 2016)

Tickets: £12 & £8

For more information and to book, please visit the Musical Youth Company of Oxford website.

ASPA’s Annual Italian Night for 3rd Year Parents will take place on the 7th of October starting at 7:30 pm for a glass of something sparkling in the Charles Maude Room (at Abingdon School) followed by an Italian themed dinner in the School Dining Room, suitably bedecked Italian Style!

This is a very relaxed event which is usually a great night and a fantastic opportunity for parents to meet other parents and, for parents who are not new to the school, to catch up with friends after the summer break.

The menu for the night is available here.  If you have dietary restrictions, please let us know about these on the Google form when booking, which needs to be completed by all parents.  

Seating at the dinner is usually at tables grouped by 1 or 2 Houses so that you can either spend dinner reacquainting with old friends or meeting new ones.

We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions about this event, please contact us by email at: aspa@abingdon.org.uk.

Dress: Casual/Smart

A cash bar will be available in the Dining Room.

A full-throttle war play that revels in the sweat of the battlefield, Coriolanus transports us back to the emergence of the republic of Rome.

Caius Martius Coriolanus is a fearless soldier but a reluctant leader. His ambitious mother attempts to carve him a path to political power, but he struggles to change his nature and do what is required to achieve greatness. In this new city state struggling to find its feet, where the gap between rich and poor is widening every day, Coriolanus must decide who he really is and where his allegiances lie.

Rome Season Director, Angus Jackson, completes the Royal Shakespeare Company’s collection of Shakespeare’s Roman plays with a visceral production which sees Sope Dirisu (One Night in Miami, Donmar Warehouse, 2016) take on the title role.

For more information about the performance, please go to the RSC website.

Wildlife presenter and cameraman Gordon Buchanan has spent 20 years filming in some of the most remote parts of the world.  Having a developed a reputation for taking on tough and dangerous assignments he’s behind some of the most memorable wildlife scenes in recent years; from filming the night-time leopard hunt in Mumbai for Planet Earth II, to coming face to face with a polar bear in the highly-acclaimed “The Polar Bear Family & Me” series.

With remarkable stories from around the globe, Gordon’s talk delves into his world of weird, wild and wonderful wildlife all illustrated with his own film footage and photography.

More information available on the Horizon Lectures Website.

Please note that this event is sold out.

An evening of Arabic dance to raise funds for WWF's vital conservation work around the world, organised by local dance teacher, Loreley Rice. There will be a varied programme of dance performances given by Loreley Rice and her student groups, Negoum El Leyl and the Star-hip Troupers, as well as other local dance groups and solo performers.

To order tickets, please contact Loreley Rice, either by email or by phone (01367 710652).

October 2017 will see Sister Act come to the Amey Theatre in Abingdon. Featuring original music by Tony and 8-time Oscar winner Alan Menken (Disney’s Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, and Enchanted), dazzling dance routines and songs inspired by Motown, soul and disco, Sister Act is the funniest and funkiest musical around.

Based on the 1992 movie of the same name and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act tells the hilarious story of Deloris Van Cartier, a disco diva whose life takes a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder. Under protective custody she is hidden in the one place she won’t be found – a Convent! Disguised as a nun and under the suspicious supervision of Mother Superior, Deloris helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. A sparkling tribute to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music.

Tickets can be booked through the AOS website, or by calling 01235 834383.

BAFTA award winning animator and director Geoff Dunbar presents a very special screening of The Cunning Little Vixen, a visually stunning feature length film based on the opera by Leoš Janáček. Geoff explores the complexities and delights of the world of animation, followed by a screening of the film in the Amey Theatre auditorium.

Come and enjoy an array of jazz talent as well as contributing to the funds of The Abingdon Bridge - a charity supporting local young people as they manage their challenging lives.

The concert will start with the Abingdon School Big Band, under the direction of Simon Currie and featuring special guests, including Tom Richards (OA). Tom is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music jazz course and maintains a busy schedule as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is the musical director and saxophonist for Jamie Cullum. Other arranger and saxophonist credits include Gary Barlow, Tim Minchin and Joe Stilgoe.

After the interval the concert will feature Joe Stilgoe, internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and song writer. His live shows are a mixture of virtuosic musicianship, breathtaking theatricality and witty interaction with the audience, combining on the spot improvisation and the quickest of wits.

Whatever your taste in jazz music you will be enthralled by the line up for this charity concert.

Tickets are £10 with all proceeds going to support The Abingdon Bridge.

Now in its third year, the senior solo competition pitches together the best of Abingdon's senior solo talent. Previous winners have been pianists, Leon Wu (2015) and Didier Delgorge (2016). Former Principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire and OA parent, George Caird, is our illustrious adjudicator and we fully expect this to be an exciting evening of music making.

As our thoughts turn to our First Orchestra and Big Band Tour to Japan, the Abingdon Music Society are combining their fund-raising activities with a social event, a meal and a musical quiz. The quiz will embrace music of all genres, and from classical to pop and it is rumoured that our quizmaster could well be a member of Abingdon Royalty, perhaps even the King!. This event is sure to be great fun - please join us!

Join us for a trip down memory lane to relive the neon decade! An 80’s inspired welcome drink will be served in the Charles Maude Room at 7.30pm followed by dinner in the Abingdon Dining Room. A great opportunity to meet with old friends and make news ones whilst listening to some familiar tunes and testing your brain with some trivia quizzes.

The menu will be inspired by 80’s “cuisine” and a cash bar will be available for wine and soft drinks.

Dress Code: A Touch of Neon (or feel free to dress as your favourite 80’s idol if you wish!)

Tickets are £22 each, which includes a welcome drink, three course meal and tea and coffees.

As a young adult Karen Darke filled her time with adventures in the outdoors – running, climbing and exploring as much as she could.  At the age of 21 Karen was paralysed from the waist down in a climbing accident and was told she would never walk, climb or cycle again.

Despite this, Karen kept her love of adventure and - with the help of friends, perseverance and a little creativity - has gone on to hand-cycle across the Himalayas, traverse the Greenland ice cap, climb El-Capitan - and even win a Gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics...

More information available on the Horizon Lectures Website.

Our second Solo Platform provides a new batch of our performers, ready to perform their latest pieces.

Admission is free.

Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre and broadcast live to cinemas.

New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.

Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, it’s directed by Dominic Cooke (The Comedy of Errors).

Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

For more information about the performance, please go to the National Theatre Live website.

Our JCS, Joint Schools' Choral Society, comprises boys, girls, parents and staff from both Abingdon and the School of St Helen and St Katharine in a large choir and orchestra under the baton, this time, of Dr Jason Preece. Dr Preece has chosen a balanced and contrasting programme of Mozart and John Rutter, which we feel sure our performers and audience will enjoy. Please join us!

Half a dozen of our most able woodwind players will each be "taught" in a 20 minute lesson in front of a public audience. Always a fascinating insight into the learning process, and in the presence of a leading member of the woodwind performing and teaching profession, this is a must for a woodwind players and their parents.

A young girl's enchanted present leads her on a wonderful Christmas adventure in this beautiful classical ballet, danced to Tchaikovsky's magnificent score.

The young Clara creeps downstairs on Christmas Eve to play with her favourite present – a Nutcracker doll. But the mysterious magician Drosselmeyer is waiting to sweep her off on a magical adventure. After defeating the Mouse King, the Nutcracker and Clara travel through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy treats them to a wonderful display of dances. Back home, Clara thinks she must have been dreaming – but doesn’t she recognize Drosselmeyer’s nephew?

Peter Wright’s nigh-on definitive production for The Royal Ballet ranks as one of the most enduring and enchanting versions of The Nutcracker. With its festive period setting, dancing snowflakes and enchanting stage magic, Lev Ivanov’s 1892 ballet has become the perfect Christmas entertainment, with Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous, sugar-spun music the most recognizable of all ballet scores.

Our two Christmas Concerts constitute the musical highlight of the Michaelmas Term and bring together the best of Abingdon's larger ensembles in a programme which is repeated on consecutive nights. All the senior bands, orchestras and choirs will be singing, including the entire First Year, in music of an often Christmas flavour. Come and join us for a celebration of musical talent at the end of term!

The Kinecroft Academy of Dance are very excited to make their debut appearance at the Amey Theatre for their annual show!

Rory Kinnear (The Threepenny Opera, Penny Dreadful, Othello) is Marx and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night, Green Wing) is Engels, in this new comedy written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London, the production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and reunites the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors.

1850, and Europe’s most feared terrorist is hiding in Dean Street, Soho. Broke, restless and horny, the thirty-two- year-old revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, invective, satiric wit, and child-like emotional illiteracy.

Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there’s still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx.

Please note that this is an Encore Screening of the Live Performance on 07 December 2017.

For more information about this performance, please go to the NT Live website.

David McVicar's acclaimed production of Verdi's potent and tragic opera is conducted by Alexander Joel, with an excellent cast led by Dimitri Platanias, Lucy Corwe and Michael Fabiano.

The corruption of innocence is at the heart of Verdi’s potent tragedy in David McVicar’s production for The Royal Opera. Rigoletto, court jester to the libertine Duke of Mantua, is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims for his irreverent laughter. When the Duke seduces Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, it seems the curse is taking effect...

David McVicar’s production highlights the cruelty at the heart of the court of Mantua. Richly dressed courtiers engage in orgies and revelries to Verdi’s heady, spirited dances. The opera’s many musical highlights include the ebullient ‘La donna è mobile’, in which the Duke boasts of his disregard for women; Gilda’s exquisite, plangent duets with Rigoletto and the Duke; and the gorgeous Act III quartet that beautifully weaves the voices together as the story quickens to its shattering conclusion.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

The Sons of Pitches, the award-winning and reality TV winning a cappella sextet give a one hour singing workshop ahead of their concert at the Amey Theatre on the evening of 3rd February 2018.

The multi award-winning a cappella sextet The Sons of Pitches follow up their critically acclaimed SOP TV tour with a visit to the Amey Theatre hosted by the Arts and Sports Community Interest Company.

Drama, passion and fabulous music - Puccini's operatic thriller is one of the great opera experiences. Dan Ettinger conducts a star cast led by Adrianne Pieczonka, Joseph Calleja and Gerald Finley.

Tosca is one of the great evenings of opera, and from its strident opening chords conjures up a world of political instability and menace. Jonathan Kent’s production for The Royal Opera captures the dangerous political turbulence of Rome in 1800. The Chief of Police, Scarpia – one of the most malevolent villains in opera – ruthlessly pursues and tortures enemies of the state. His dark, demonic music contrasts with the expansive melodies of the idealistic lovers, Tosca and Cavaradossi, who express their passion in sublime arias, including ‘Vissi d’arte’ and ‘E lucevan le stelle’.

Puccini’s meticulously researched score is infused with the same authentic detail, from distant cannon fire during the Act I Te Deum to tolling church bells and the sounds of a firing squad.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

A fantastic night of dance! Promises to be a fun filled night for all the family.

Tickets can be purchased through the Step 2 Dance website or by emailing info@step2dance.co.uk.

'I am all the daughters of my father's house,

And all the brothers too.'

Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love – hilarious and heartbreaking. Two twins are separated in a shipwreck, and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolised by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister...

Christopher Luscombe, Director of the ‘glorious’ (Daily Telegraph) Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (2014 and 2016), returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, a brilliantly bittersweet account of "the whirligig of time".

For more information about the performance, please go to the RSC website.

Tennessee Williams’ twentieth century masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof played a strictly limited season in London’s West End in 2017. Following his smash hit production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Benedict Andrews’ ‘thrilling revival’ (New York Times) stars Sienna Miller alongside, Jack O’Connell and Colm Meaney.

On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell. Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out?

For more information about the performance, please go to the National Theatre Live website.

Please note, this is a recording of the Young Vic’s production captured in front of a live audience.

Shakespeare's tale of love and loss becomes compelling dance drama in Christopher Wheeldon's ballet adaption, with music by Joby Talbot.

The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret – and after a seemingly miraculous return to life – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.

With powerful designs by Bob Crowley and atmospheric music by Joby Talbot, The Winter’s Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet.

Bizet's classic French opera stars Anna Goryachova in Barrie Kosky's intense production.

Carmen is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet, and one of the most famous operas in the entire art form – numbers such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song have permeated the popular consciousness as little else has.

This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky’s highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world’s most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich’s The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera’s endlessly fascinating central character.

Sung in French with English surtitles.

Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London.

Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital.

Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

For more information on this performance, please go to the NT Live website.

The Royal Ballet celebrates the centenary of Leonard Bernstein's birth with an all-Bernstein programme from choreographers Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarkett and Christopher Wheeldon.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the first classical composers in America to achieve both popular and critical acclaim. He was eclectic in his sources – drawing on jazz and modernism, the traditions of Jewish music and the Broadway musical – and many of Bernstein’s scores are remarkably well suited to dance.

He was particularly associated with Jerome Robbins, their credits together including Fancy Free and West Side Story.

To celebrate the centenary year of the composer’s birth, The Royal Ballet has united all three of its associate choreographers to celebrate the dynamic range and danceability of Bernstein’s music.The programme includes two world premieres by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon, marking each artist’s first foray into Bernstein. At the heart of the programme is the first revival of Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett’s The Age of Anxiety, created in 2014 to Bernstein’s soul-searching Second Symphony. Both symphony and ballet are inspired by W.H. Auden’s masterful modernist poem, itself written in response to the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty that followed the end of World War II.

Verdi's opera on Shakespeare's tragedy is conducted by Antonio Pappano, with magnificent cast including Anna Netrebko, Željko Lucic and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

Verdi’s life-long love affair with Shakespeare’s works began with Macbeth, a play he considered to be ‘one of the greatest creations of man’. With his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi set out to create ‘something out of the ordinary’. Their success is borne out in every bar of a score that sees Verdi at his most theatrical: it bristles with demonic energy.

The warrior Macbeth fights on the side of the King of Scotland – but when a coven of witches prophesy that he shall become king himself, a ruthless ambition drives Macbeth and his wife to horrific acts. Murder makes Macbeth king, and intrigue and butchery are the hallmarks of his brief, doomed reign. The witches make another prediction, which also comes true: Macbeth and his lady lose their lives, and justice is restored.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

The Royal Ballet presents a new production of Tchaikovsky's magnificent classical ballet, with additional choreography by Liam Scarlett and designs by John MacFarlane.

Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. This Season The Royal Ballet creates a new production with additional choreography by Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.

Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.