The lyricist Lorenz Hart’s collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers are the stuff of legend. Yet, in 1943, only months before he died from pneumonia, Hart’s partnership with Rodgers was on the rocks. Rodgers had first paired up with Oscar Hammerstein II, and their musical Oklahoma! had reinvigorated and reinvented narrative musical theatre.

Richard Linklater’s luminous, erudite drama imagines a loquacious Hart (an astonishing tour de force by Ethan Hawke) on the night of Oklahoma!’s premiere, holed up at Sardi’s and moving through various stages of grief and acceptance when faced with Broadway’s new world order. Also featuring stellar supporting work from Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley and Bobby Cannavale, Blue Moon is a surprising yet entirely fitting addition to the Linklater canon: a film about the inevitable passage of time and the feeling of being left behind by those stuck in its folds.

The magician Herr Drosselmeyer needs to save his nephew. Hans-Peter has been transformed into a Nutcracker; the only way to save him is for the Nutcracker to defeat the Mouse King and find a girl to love and care for him. A flicker of hope comes in the form of the young Clara, whom Drosselmeyer meets at a Christmas party. With some magic, a cosy Christmas gathering turns into a marvellous adventure.

Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker has enchanted audiences since its 1984 premiere by the Company. Featuring Tchaikovsky’s most familiar melodies and brought to life by Julia Trevelyan Oman’s exquisite designs, The Nutcracker is sure to be a festive firecracker for all ages.

Cast:  

To be confirmed

Creatives:

Choreography PETER WRIGHT after LEV IVANOV

Music PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Conductor KOEN KESSELS

Original Scenario MARIUS PETIPA after E.T.A. HOFFMANN

Production and Scenario PETER WRIGHT

Designer JULIA TREVELYAN OMAN

Lighting Designer MARK HENDERSON

Production Consultant ROLAND JOHN WILEY

A new documentary by Suffolk-based filmmaker Tim Curtis delves into one of Britain's most enduring Second World War mysteries.

Backed by decades of research from James Hayward and Ron Clayton, the film examines rumours of a foiled German invasion attempt, burning seas, and bodies on the beach along the wartime Suffolk coast.

The film also features former East Anglian Daily Times reporter Henry Creagh, who recounts a 1992 call from a source claiming to have seen secret MOD files describing a deadly friendly fire incident. This gripping documentary takes viewers deep into Suffolk's wartime history, and attempts to unravel a mystery that refuses to fade.

Following the screenings there will be an on stage discussion with director Tim Curtis, former East Anglian Daily Times Reporter Henry Creagh and our manager, Neil.

Ralph Fiennes leads an excellent ensemble of new and established talent in this funny and moving First World War drama by beloved writer Alan Bennett.

A Yorkshire village’s choral society finds its ranks depleted as men head off to war. With the annual performance looming, the society is forced to change its entry rules to enlist some unlikely teens and the musically gifted but socially scandalous Dr. Guthrie. Brimming with humour and hope, Bennett and Nicholas Hytner’s (The Madness of King George, The Lady in the Van) latest triumph celebrates the power of community in the darkest of days.

Friend of The Riverside, Edgar Wright, and star Glen Powell team up for a spirited take on Stephen King’s dystopian life-or-death gameshow thriller.

Edgar Wright’s film is a high-octane, fast-paced and thrilling adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian take on future TV entertainment. The Running Man is a top-rated show, attracting an audience of millions, who watch the spectacle of contestants running for their lives as they’re hunted down. Blue-collar worker Ben Richards signs on, hoping to raise the money for his sick daughter’s treatment, but it soon becomes clear the game is rigged and he must do all he can to survive.

Join Cinderella, Buttons and some funny new characters for a story that celebrates finding your thing! Sparkling with CBeebies’ stars,
this unique adaption of a pantomime classic is full of music, magic and festive fun for all the family - plus a song exclusive to cinemas!

A young boy is at the age where he's beginning to doubt the existence of Santa Claus. However, one Christmas Eve he hears a thunderous noise outside and, on investigating, finds it's being made by a huge train - the Polar Express. A kindly conductor asks him aboard and soon he and some other children are on a rollercoaster ride north to see the big man himself. Director Robert Zemeckis honed the use of "motion capture" technology when filming The Polar Express, and the technique perfectly suits this charming, fantastical nature of a film about the magic of Christmas.

Screening as part of our "Six for £6 Christmas Films Season"

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a magnificent performance in the highly anticipated screen adaptation of Max Porter’s award-winning Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.

A mother dies, leaving two primary school-aged children and ‘Sad Dad’. Before long, ‘Crow’ emerges from the pages of the book Sad Dad is writing, to peck at the open wounds and shepherd them through their grief, in the only way it knows how. Dylan Southern employs great visual flair to soulfully explore the chaos, pain and redemption of our most-feared emotion.

Todd Haynes’ homage to Douglas Sirk’s style of social critique by way of melodrama, masterfully tells the story of a well-to-do suburban couple in 1950s America, straitjacketed by convention, yet desperate to lead lives they are seemingly denied. In the autumn of 1957 in the affluent small town of Hartford, Connecticut, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is a beautiful but sober mother of two, married to Frank (Dennis Quaid), a ruggedly handsome, former naval officer, now go-ahead executive at a television company. It is a blissfully happy family scene into which drama and tragedy have yet to intrude. It’s shattered when Cathy surprises Frank at work and finds him in the arms of another man. Unable to tell anyone in her social circle, she finds solace in their African-American gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert). However, when they are seen alone together by Cathy's best friend - a social taboo in that era - the gossip begins, threatening to reveal all of the Whitaker's secret life.

The final film in our Melodrama Season.

Joe Dante's hilariously overblown comedy horror cheerfully pits man against beast in a cosy suburban setting. Zach Galligan is the hapless teenager who receives the oh-so-loveable Mogwai, Gizmo, for Christmas, completely disregards the instructions not to get it wet or feed it after midnight, and watches, along with his girlfriend Phoebe Cates, the mayhem unfold when the goggle-eyed cutie starts birthing evil sprites as a result. Played almost totally for laughs (even Cates' monologue on how she found out there's no Santa Claus has a vein of pitch black humour in it), this serves as a delightfully offbeat reminder of how inventive and witty blockbusters seemed when you were a kid.

Dante’s critters-run-amok-in-snowbound-Spielberg-suburbia satire takes the Christmas milieu of It’s A Wonderful Life (Screening as part of this season on 18th December) and splatters it with cartoony carnage, anarchic comedy and a stripe of gleeful subversion a mile wide.

Screening as part of our 6 for £6 each Christmas Films Season