A big week of film and events are welcomed at Pontio in Bangor this week, with highlights including Licorice Pizza and Welsh folk band Alaw.
Weekly drama workshop Blas gives local children the opportunity to discover the arts, develop confidence, stage presence, performing skills and have fun.
Dance For Parkinson’s is a fun and informal session, proven to develop confidence and strength, whilst temporarily relieving some participants of symptoms in everyday life.
Caffi Babis creative hour for new parents and their babies.
Lunch on the Fly – Monday 31 January – is a fun session in which you can have a go at vertical dance!
Cinema: Book Here: https://www.pontio.co.uk/online/article/ffilm all other events find out more here: https://www.pontio.co.uk/
NT Live: Leopoldstadt (12A)
Tom Stoppard / Patrick Marber, 2022, 140m
Cast – Sebastian Armesto, Aaron Neil, Ed Stoppard
Sunday 30th January 2pm (Encore)
Recorded live
£13 / £11 / £10
Tom Stoppard’s Olivier Award-winning new play Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. But Hermann Merz, a factory owner and baptised Jew now married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world.
We follow his family’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. A company of 40 actors represent each generation of the family in this epic, but intimate play.
Filmed live on stage in London’s West End, ‘Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is magnificent’ (Independent) and should not be missed.
Licorice Pizza
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021, 134m
Cast – Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Alana Haim
Friday 28 January – Thursday 3 February
£7.50 standard / £6.50 over 60 / £6 student / £5.50 child (under 18s)
“Licorice Pizza” is the story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around, and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ( Phantom Thread, Magnolia, The Master), the film tracks the treacherous navigation of first love. Starring Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Benny Safdie, Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman this promises to be another joyful Anderson masterpiece.
Shepherd (15)
+ Director Q&A
Russell Owen, 2021, 103m Cast – Tom Hughes, Kate Dickie, Greta Scacchi
Tuesday 1 February, 7pm
£7.50 standard / £6.50 over 60 / £6 student / £5.50 child (under 18s)
Eric Black is lost after the mysterious death of his adulterous wife. Running from his past to a new job as a Shepherd, he finds himself trapped alone on a majestic, weather-beaten island with an ominous secret. One man’s spiralling madness meets a vengeful supernatural force. What starts as the perfect wind-swept escape becomes a race to save his sanity and his life.
As part of the delayed celebrations for Coleg Menai’s 40th anniversary we are so proud to welcome Coleg Menai Arts Foundation alumni and the writer/director of SHEPHERD – Russell Owen to the cinema for a post screening Q+A to discuss the film and his career.
Titane (18)
Julia Ducournau, 2021, 108m
Cast – Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle
Wednesday 2 February, 7pm
£7.50 standard / £6.50 over 60 / £6 student / £5.50 child (under 18s)
This extraordinary Palme D’or Cannes winner by Julia Ducournau is not for the faint hearted. Controversial and daring, violent and hallucinatory, erotic, horrific, shocking and very, very weird. This is a nightmarish trip into the heart of chaos and it takes no prisoners. Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) has a titanium plate in her head, the legacy of a childhood car crash. She makes a living as a dancer and is forced to take extreme retributive action against an abusive male fan. Disguised as a boy, she goes on the run, where she falls under the tender protection of fire chief Vincent (Vincent Lindon).
The Souvenir II (15)
Joanna Hogg, 202, 107m
Cast – Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Joe Alwyn
Friday 4 – Thursday 10 February
£7.50 standard / £6.50 over 60 / £6 student / £5.50 child (under 18s)
Hogg’s critically acclaimed sequel to The Souvenir is a truly unmissable cinematic event that has already won the prestigious Sight and Sound magazine’s best film of the year award. In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction. Joanna Hogg’s shimmering story of first love and a young woman’s formative years is a portrait of the artist based on her own personal autobiography.
The Battle at Lake Changjin (15)
Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, Dante Lam, 2021, 176m
Saturday 5 February, 3pm
£7.50 standard / £6.50 over 60 / £6 student / £5.50 child (under 18s)
This Chinese War film was the highest grossing film of 2021 and the most successful non-English language film ever released. Epic in all senses of the word, this historical depicts the story of Chinese soldiers defeating American troops despite great odds in freezing weather at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in 1950 during the Korean War. Commissioned as a film to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party it would be the most expensive motion picture ever produced in the Republic.
Part of Confucius Institute (Bangor University) Chinese New Year Celebrations
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Events:
Bangor Art Foundation 40+1 Exhibition
Location: Public spaces
Date: 21 January – 2 April 2021
This is an exhibition in collaboration with Storiel and Coleg Menai, celebrating 40 years of the Bangor Art Foundation course. We’ll be showing works by past students from the programme, including a sculpture by Angharad Pearce Jones, a commission by Niki Cotton and film screenings by Bethan Huws, Bedwyr Williams and Russell Owen.
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Vertical Dance Kate Lawrence and Pontio presents
Lunch on the Fly – Monday 31 January
This is a fun session in which you can have a go at vertical dance. Starting with an easy warm up, you will then try to stand on and jump off a vertical floor using waist harnesses. You will be guided through some simple positions, and then you will fly!
Try it for 1 session or pay for the 4 for a lower price!
Wear comfortable clothing with snug layers around waist and top of legs.
Age: 16+
Limited capacity – space for 12 people only.
No experience necessary
Covid-19
You will need a Covid Pass to attend this event. Read our Covid-19 guidelines here.
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Blas
BLAS is Pontio’s arts participation project offering children and young people various experiences of the arts. There are three aspects to BLAS, firstly, weekly drama workshops for children and young people, from school year 3 to 13. Secondly, health and well-being arts projects with children and young people. Thirdly, youth arts projects in conjunction with professional companies that visit Pontio.
BLAS was launched in January 2013 following a successful bid for funding from Arts Council of Wales, and since then it has gone from strength to strength undertaking a number of projects with inspiring practitioners and Bangor’s enthusiastic children and communities.
The project is run by Pontio Arts Development Co-ordinator, Mared Elliw Huws and is funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Widening Access programme at Bangor University
Weekly Drama Workshop
The weekly workshops are returning to Pontio Studio!
Weekly drama and performance workshops to develop confidence, stage presence, performing skills and have fun!
Where: Studio, Pontio
When: Every Monday and Wednesday night – Term Time
Monday: 5:00pm – 6:00pm – Years 3 and 4, 6:15pm – 7:15pm – Years 5 and 6,
Wednesday: 6 :30pm – 7:30pm – Years 7, 8 and 9 – 7:45pm – 8:45pm – Years 10 – 13
Cost: £25 (discount code available for residents of LL57 1 area)
Workshops are held mainly in Welsh. It is not essential to be fluent, and we welcome everyone of all language ability.
For more details email Mared: m.huws@bangor.ac.uk
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National Dance Company Wales host Dance For Parkinson’s
Dance for Parkinson’s classes are fun and informal.
Dance has been proven to develop confidence and strength, whilst temporarily relieving some participants of symptoms in everyday life. Classes are creative and promote feelings of freedom from the physical and social constraints of having Parkinson’s.
We are an Affiliated hub of English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s programme.
Classes are 90 minutes long, and all you’ll need is a chair.
English National Ballet’s Dance for Parkinson’s programme has been running since 2008. We are proud to be part of the Dance for PD membership, to support Dance for Parkinson’s Partnership and People Dancing and to have an affiliation with Parkinson’s UK. ENB’s national Dance for Parkinson’s programme enjoys close links with Parkinson’s UK and the European Parkinson’s Disease Association EPDA.
Dates
ONLINE: 25 January
ONLINE: 1 / 8 / 15 February
IN THE STUDIO: 1 / 8 / 15 / 22 / 29 March
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Heb Ffiniau
Suitable for all movement workshops led by dance practitioner Sarah Mumford. Book a ticket for the ‘live’ sessions at Pontio’s Studio or a different ticket to take part online through Zoom (February 3rd session only).
During the lockdowns of 2020 a string of workshops under the title ‘Heb Ffiniau’ were held and led by Sarah Mumford. The culmination of these workshops were a series of short videos which are available to watch on our channel on the AM website and app.
Now, we’re opening the workshops to everyone, movement workshops, that encourage you to relax, move and exercise from our Studio Theatre (or online through Zoom on 3rd February). The workshops are suitable for everyone aged 18+, and encourage you to move through improvisation and dance – but all within your ability on the day of the workshop. Sometimes, we want to move and exercise and on other days, not so much.
The workshops aren’t strenuous, open to all and in our Studio and online (3rd February only). We’ll ensure that there is time for you at the end of every session to socialise and meet new people, we hope this is an opportunity for you to move and socialise.
The workshops are held bilingually, please ensure that you have plenty of room and that you wear comfortable clothing.
Details
– Around 50 minutes long
– 18+
– £3 a session
A warm welcome to all.
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Cabaret Pontio presents
Alaw
Nia Lyn – voice / harmonium
Oli Wilson-Dickson – fiddle / voice
Dylan Fowler – guitar / voice
“Welsh musicians don’t come more sensitive, accomplished and exploratory than this crew”
Described by Songlines magazine as a “Welsh supergroup”, ALAW is three leading musicians who bring a wealth of experience to a shared passion – the traditional music of Wales. Nia Lynn’s exceptional voice and harmonium dance with the dazzling fiddle of Oli Wilson-Dickson, interwoven with Dylan Fowler’s sparkling guitar playing. Whether unearthing rare gems or reimagining a well loved song, they treat their music with a deftness and sensitivity that is thoroughly absorbing. Combined with powerful song writing and original tunes, this makes for a musical experience that will stay with the listener long after the performance ends.
In August 2018 they collaborated with the BBC Concert Orchestra for a televised Prom at The Royal Albert Hall, alongside Julie Fowlis, Jarlath Henderson, Sam Lee and The Unthanks. ALAW’s performance was described on BBC Radio 2 as “Show-Stopping” and in the Times as “a sparkling collision of Celtic traditions”. In 2019 they won a Wales Folk Award after be nominated in 3 categories.
Oli and Dylan have a long history of working together, sharing projects including The Devil’s Violin and The Ian McMillan Orchestra. Oli is well known as the fiddler in Jamie Smith’s MABON. Nia has an international reputation and has sung at the Barbican and The Albert Hall. From stirring songs to driving jigs – they communicate their music with relaxed humour and a genuine affection that is truly infectious.
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Caffi Babis
Siwan Llynor and Angharad Harrop
Caffi Babis is a new session that we offer for new parents and their babies. This last year has been challenging for all, but for new parents, it’s been particularly challenging without the support of family and friends. Bringing a generation of lockdown babies.
This is a creative hour with Siwan Llynor and Angharad Harrop that gives new parents the opportunity to meet other parents, as well as to relax with your baby for a while. An hour to bring parents together, in a safe space. Every session will last around half an hour, with the opportunity to have a panad and a chat afterwards.
The session is most suitable for children up to 24 months, however, older children are welcome to join.
Only one ticket required for adult and child
