23 things to do in Bristol this week, February 19-25 2024

Monday: Grindhouse Cinema Club: A Dim Valley, Sidney & Eden
The weekly showcase of low budget/indie/generally crap movies continues at the Gloucester Road cafe/cocktail bar – this time screening the surprisingly touching yet hilarious indie flick that combines a journey through Appalachia with stoner comedy-esque meditations on love.

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Monday-Saturday: Old Vic Theatre School: A Very Expensive Poison, Circomedia
Award-winning playwright Lucy Prebble untangles the surreal and shocking events of Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination on Bristol soil. Based on Luke Harding’s novel, this rich, theatrical spy drama – seen profoundly through the eyes of Litvinenko’s grieving wife Marina – will leave you questioning where fact ends and fiction begins.

A Very Expensive Poison – photo: BOVTS

Tuesday: Nigel Toon – introduced by Sue Turner, Design West
Nigel Toon, The CEO and co-founder of tech “unicorn” company Graphcore that designs silicon chips for AI usage, hosts a talk at the bar/business events space on the harbour. He has just released his first book “How AI Thinks: How We Built It, How It Can Help Us, And How We Can Control”, and will go into more detail surrounding this hot button topic.

Design West building on harbourside – photo: Design West

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Every Wednesday: Producer Wednesdays, Watershed
From 10:00 – 17:00 every Wednesday, anyone working as a Producer or in a producing role is welcome to join us in Pervasive Media Studio. Whatever your background, whatever art-form you work in, you are invited to set up camp on a hot desk for the day. We want this to be an opportunity for you to share what you’re up to or allow us to help facilitate conversations within the resident community who might be able to support you with your work. Studio staff will be around to chat, answer questions or tell you more about what we do.

Producer Wednesdays – photo: Watershed

Wednesday: Jonathan Pie: Heroes & Villains, Bristol Beacon
You might know him as the newsreader who “forgets he’s on air” and goes on long rants about the state of UK politics on social media. But there’s more to Pie than his viral online content, and he’s going on tour to show the world what he’s really about. Catch him on the Bristol leg at the newly renovated Bristol Beacon.

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Thursday: Royal Northern Sinfonia with Dinis Sousa, Bristol Beacon
Bristol Beacon’s Orchestral Season continues with Mozart’s sparkling Clarinet Concerto sitting at the heart of a trio of classical favourites from North East-based chamber orchestra Royal Northern Sinfonia, their Principal Conductor Dinis Sousa and celebrated clarinettist Julian Bliss. Also featuring is Prokofiev’s witty 20th century take on the Classical style, and Beethoven’s epic, ground-breaking Eroica symphony will bring the evening to an action-packed conclusion.

Royal Northern Sinfonia – photo: Bristol Beacon

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Thursday: Keith James – The music of Yusuf Cat Stevens, Redgrave Theatre
Keith James is a long standing, well-respected and inventive concert performer who specialises in playing intimate, carefully researched biographic style concerts of those he has studied. He weaves the story of Cat Stevens’ life from his early pop career, life threatening illness and spiritual journey around a performance of his beautifully crafted and memorable songs.

Cat Stevens by Keith James – photo: Redgrave Theatre

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Thursday-March 9: Dear Young Monster, Bristol Old Vic
Struggling at the beginning of his medical transition, a young trans man catches a midnight screening of Frankenstein. Pete MacHale’s (Doctor Who) debut solo show pulls apart fear, otherness, and what it means to embrace being the monster that the world keeps telling you that you are.

Dear Young Monster – photo: Bristol Old Vic

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Until Thursday: Your Fat Friend, Watershed
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay (Seahorse, Sound It Out) follows the journey of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon, who went from being an anonymous blogger, sharing her honest experiences of navigating life as a fat person, to a New York Times-bestselling author and podcast host.

Your Fat Friend – photo: Watershed

Thursday: Catwalk 4 Calais, Bristol Beer Factory
Care4Calais are a charity specialising in providing on the ground support to asylum seekers and refugees both at home and across the channel in Calais. The Bristol branch of the charity is holding a fundraising event this Thursday in collaboration with Bristol Beer Factory. You can expect a fashion show/catwalk using some of the clothes donated for asylum seekers, along with a raffle, updated from the C4C team, and of course the chance to have a few fantastic BBF beers.

Catwalk 4 Calais – photo: Care4Calais

Friday: Alternate presents Ben UFO, Joy Orbison & SP:MC, Mantra & more, Central Warehouse
A quite frankly insanely large lineup from Alternate, as they invite down a who’s who of UK bass music. The Hessle audio frontman Ben UFO heads things up with a no doubt mind bending effortless set, followed up by an already proven stellar combination of Joy Orbison and SP:MC, a lesson in drum & bass from Mantra, and much more heavyweight bass goodness.

Alternate presents Ben UFO & more – photo: Alternate

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Saturday: Simple Things Festival, Bristol Beacon
Simple Things returns to Bristol after four years to celebrate its landmark 10th edition. The programme will be centred around a full day of music on Saturday, February 24th, featuring a separate day and night programme filled with some of the most eclectic and groundbreaking names in music today, all performing in some of Bristol’s best-loved venues including Bristol Beacon. The line-up includes Max Cooper, Warmduscher, Les Savy Fav, Gilla Band, Wu-Lu, Flowdan, Jeshi, Giant Swan, Spectres and much more – Simple Things’ 10th edition is set to be its most expansive yet.

Simple Things Festival – photo: Bristol Beacon

Saturday: Pangea ~ Soundsystem music from across the globe, Lost Horizon
A celebration of all things global soundsystem music. With DJs spinning everything from bassline to bhangra, it’s no surprise that Pangea has cemented itself as the go to night for those that want diverse selections, big vibes, and one rule: leave your preconceptions about raving at the door.

Lost Horizon hosts Pangea this week – photo: Lost Horizon

Sunday: The Reparium, Sparks Bristol
There’s almost nothing more frustrating than having a household appliance fail on you – just when you really fancy a cup of tea or using your air fryer. The Reparium is a weekly community drop-in at the central Bristol arts hub that aims to ease your woes by fixing your broken appliances, so that you don’t have to buy a brand new one.

The Reparium – photo: Sparks Bristol

And coming soon…

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February 27: The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Film and Live Orchestra, St George’s
An epic experience that combines live orchestra with film! Watch the original Hunchback of Notre Dame film with live symphonic score from the Bristol Ensemble at St George’s Bristol.

Celebrating 100 years since the film was first released in September 1923. Flicker Alley restored and mastered this edition from a multi-tinted 16mm print struck in 1926 from the original camera negative.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – photo: Bristol Ensemble

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February 29-March 30: Starter For Ten, Bristol Old Vic
Adapted from the hilarious novel by David Nicholls and the subsequent film, Starter for Ten is a bright, big-hearted new musical. Featuring an irresistible ’80s-inspired original score, this coming-of-age comedy is about love, belonging and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Starter for Ten – photo: Bristol Old Vic

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March 1: Radio 2 Sounds of the 80s: The live tour, O2 Academy
Legendary DJ Gary Davies brings the UK’s most popular 80s radio show live on stage! Party along to specially curated Mastermixes, dance to your favourite 80s anthems and watch as our brilliant Sounds of the 80s dancers recreate classic scenes from 80s films and videos.

Sounds of the 80s – photo: BBC Radio 2/O2 Academy

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March 1: The Rat Pack – Swingin’ At The Sands, Redgrave Theatre
Take three great singers, add a dash of comedy and rousing camaraderie with a pinch of the greatest songs ever written and what do you get? A perfect night’s entertainment with ‘Rat Pack – Swingin’ At The Sands’.

The Rat Pack – photo: Redgrave Theatre

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March 9: Einaudi meets Richter by Candlelight, Trinity Henleaze URC
This will be a hypnotic evening of music performed by the Bristol Ensemble, featuring mesmerising works by Ludovico Einaudi, and Max Richter’s engagingly refreshing reimagining of Vivaldi’s ever-popular Four Seasons:

• Einaudi Divenire; Primavera; Petricor; I Giorni; Full Moon
• Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Reimagined

Einaudi meets Richter by candlelight – photo: Henleaze Concert Society

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March 9-16: Old Vic Theatre School: Tiger Country, Tobacco Factory Theatres
Take a glimpse inside a hospital at Christmastime: Exhausted A&E staff power through gruelling shifts, caring for patients and navigating relationships whilst management cracks the whip. Tiger Country spotlights the hectic days of NHS heroes as a witty and moving portrait of embattled frontline workers soldiering on whatever the season.

Tiger Country – photo: BOVTS

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March 14: MISHIMA, Arnolfini
An hour of contemporary music for string quartet, exploring timescales in human memory and the natural environment. String Quartet No.3 by Philip Glass forms the core of the programme, with the mesmerising cross rhythms and hypnotic quality for which the composer is so well known. Based on music Glass wrote for a film based on the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, this short quartet references moments in the writer’s life.

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s work is deeply inspired by the elemental landscapes of her native country. Her work for strings explores primordial textures, combining emotional intensity with glacial stasis.

A pioneer of interdisciplinary art, for over five decades, Meredith Monk has worked across composition, performance, choreography and direction. She has developed a unique style which links the archaic with the experimental. Stringsongs was written for the Kronos Quartet in 2005, and has been described by critic Tom Service as having a ‘mysterious mythic power’.

MISHIMA – photo: Bristol Ensemble

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March 23: Ritual Union, multiple venues
With a variety of top-notch live acts, on Saturday 23rd March music fans will be able discover the next wave of upcoming talent, alongside performances from some old favourites and international guests, across multiple venues in one of the UK’s most vital musical cities.

Ritual Union lineup poster – photo: Crosstown Concerts

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May 11: Blown Away, Trinity Henleaze URC
A great programme of music for wind instruments performed by players from the Bristol Ensemble:

• Mozart Serenade for Wind in C minor K.388
• Dvořák Serenade for Winds in D minor Op.44

We’ll hear the powerful and characterful C minor serenade by Mozart, a four movement work full of ingenuity, twists and turns. And also, Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds in D minor, unmistakably Czech, an homage to music-making in Czech palaces and stately homes.

Blown Away – photo: Henleaze Concert Society

Main photo: Rebecca Cleal

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