Leisure

More on events to be enjoyed in St Albans (May 2011)

Yes the circus is in town! My kids may be teenagers, but I knew they would still enjoy a trip away from their PlayStations and laptops – and so it proved! We went on the first night and although the crowd was a little sparse, the performers did not let it affect their enthusiasm and energy. The days of animals at circuses are long gone, so the show had to rely on human performance, in particular clowns, acrobats and trapeze artists, and they did not disappoint.

The stage is set, the countdown has started, stand by everyone because Roald Dahl’s splendiferous swizzfiggling story George’s Marvellous Medicine is arriving any minute on the Abbey Theatre stage. The Company of Ten’s gloriumptious Christmas show is a feast of eye-popping feats, outrageously funny situations and hilarious characters as only the master storyteller himself could come up with.

St Albans Festival 2010 has something very special to celebrate this year; the 'The Magna Carta'! Our city has played a central role in the drafting of this important document in 1215. This theme will be echoed in the Festival performances, museum activities and street events. The Rt. Hon.Lord Bingham and TV historian Dan Snow will be speaking and our own Mayor will lead the celebratory procession through the city centre.

Next Saturday, I will be enjoying 'old meets new' when the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, performs a musical journey under their new conducter Bjorn Bantock. The orchestra will play well-known and loved pieces like Dvorak's Symphony No 9.....