Events marked '§' indicate a Student Show Card may be used.
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§ Friday 3rd October • Auditorium
Wenlock Books presents
Gillian Clarke National Poet of Wales
7.30 p.m. £7.50
Writer Gillian Clarke will be talking about her recent appointment as the new National Poet of Wales, and reading from her own work. Her latest publication is At the Source, A Writer’s Year.
www.wenlockbooks.co.uk

§ Monday 6th October • Auditorium
Monday Cinema: Lust, Caution (18)
Ang Lee 2007 157 minutes
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
The versatile director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain turns his attentions here to Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War Two. Tony Leung is Mr. Yee, a Japanese collaborator set to be trapped in a carnal snare by Wong Chia-Chi (Tang Wei). “There are no wasted motions. Exquisite beauty and barbarous intent are all caught in the lens of the great cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Much has been made of the sex scenes. For Lee, it goes further, into areas of control. Yee approaches sex with the sadistic relish he’d use to torture a suspect, while Wong Chia-Chi acts the role of subservient vessel. When they both drop the masks and yield to grander passions, the effect is devastating. The actors deserve the highest praise.” (Rolling Stone)

Thursday 9th October • Auditorium
WBS Music presents
Xpress Club
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
Tonight’s Music Xpress features WBS students who are developing their own styles in rock and contemporary music. Band and performer line-up will be announced shortly. 

Saturday 11th October • Auditorium
Jazz Notes at The Edge
African Drumming Workshop
2.00 p.m. £6
Appropriate for adults and children (aged 7+).
Percussionist Andy Richards leads this enjoyable and stimulating djembe drumming workshop, exploring the roots of Western popular music through African drumming rhythms and techniques. Our African Drumming Workshops are now a regular part of our programming, allowing developing drummers to extend their range whilst still being welcoming to newcomers. Places are limited, so book early!

§ Monday 13th October • Auditorium
Monday Cinema: The Savages (15)
Tamara Jenkins 2007 114 minutes
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
Writer director Tamara Jenkins’ drama of domestic crisis stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as a brother and sister who decide to place their senile father in a home. “Linney and Hoffman spar like disgruntled strangers, but the weary, ancient intimacy between brother and sister is terrific. It’s no great surprise why Linney has earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination. She wears every one of her loveable failings with a professional sense of doom. Jenkins’s solemn comedy may be 389 jokes short of a Woody Allen classic, but there is a tenderness about these flawed heroes that is profoundly touching.” (Times)

Saturday 18th October • Hall
Dyad Percussion Duo
with Shropshire Youth Percussion Ensembles
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
When Toby Kearney reached the final of the Young Musician of the Year competition in 2007, he was the second Shropshire percussionist to achieve this – Adrian Spillett won in 1998, the only percussionist ever to do so. Both musicians trained with the Shropshire Youth Percussion Ensemble, under the auspices of Shropshire Music Service. Toby now studies at the Royal Northern College of Music where he met Dan Jones, with whom he performs as the Dyad Percussion Duo. Their repertoire includes the hugely popular Japanese composers Minoru Miki and Keiko Abe, alongside music by the marimba virtuoso Eric Sammut and music from the US by Wayne Siegel, Steve Reich and Chick Korea. The evening will be completed with performances from the Shropshire Youth Percussion Ensemble and Training Ensemble.

§ Monday 20th October • Auditorium
Monday Cinema: Persepolis (12A)
Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
Compelling animation that tells the story of a girl’s journey through pre-revolutionary Iran, the fundamentalist revolution and her life in Europe. “Any stragglers still unconvinced that animation can be an exciting medium for both adults and kids will run out of arguments in the face of Persepolis. Like the four-volume series of graphic novels on which it’s based, this autobiographical tour de force is completely accessible and art of a very high order. The first-person tale of congenitally rebellious Marjane Satrapi who was 8 years old when the Islamic Revolution transformed her native Teheran, boasts a bold lyricism spanning great joy and immense sorrow. In both concept and execution, this hand-drawn animated film is a winner.” (Variety)

§ Thursday 23rd October • Auditorium
Jazz Notes at The Edge
Bobo Stenson Trio
8.00 p.m. £12/£10
Bobo Stenson piano
Anders Jormin bass
Jon Falt drums
After last year’s performance from the Tord Gustavsen Trio, we are delighted to present another ECM artist, Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson with his acclaimed trio. Their new CD, Cantando, is released this Autumn. Stenson has worked with Jan Garbarek, Charles Lloyd and Tomasz Stanko and more recently has made albums under the By Five banner, honouring the work of Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus. Witchi-Tai-To, his album with Jan Garbarek released in 1973, has been described as one of the greatest European jazz recordings. “Over the course of a 35-year association with the German record label ECM, Bobo Stenson has earned a reputation for subtlety, sonority and a gently shimmering kind of abstraction. Yet Mr. Stenson, Sweden’s pre-eminent jazz musician, has always been an adventurer, with a more dynamic approach than his recordings might suggest.” (New York Times)
“His ECM trio albums place Stenson among the greatest living jazz pianists.” (JazzTimes)

§ Monday 27th October • Auditorium
Monday Cinema: Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (18)
Tim Burton 2007 116 minutes
7.30 p.m. £5 / £4
Burton’s wholly cinematic adaptation of the Sondheim musical is faithful to the original whilst abandoning the comic distance utilized in Hal Prince’s stage production. Johnny Depp plays Todd as a man consumed by revenge. “…his Sweeney, from John Logan’s adroit screenplay, is an up-close-and-personal tale of blighted passions and dark obsessions. It has an emotional intimacy that allows you to see the work with fresh eyes. No one will claim this is the most beautifully sung Sweeney Todd, but that’s not the point: they act the songs with hair-raising conviction. …Depp is such a soulful presence he gives you a glimpse of this maniac’s pain and pathos. Bonham Carter is extraordinary. She reinvents Mrs. Lovett from the inside out..” (Newsweek) The film won the Oscar for Best Art Direction Oscar for Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo.