Welcome to Birchvale

 26th Apr, 2024

Film

An absolutely beautiful film about the thrilling true story of Bernard Jordan, a World War II veteran who in the summer of 2014 sneaks out of his care home to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Sadly this was Glenda Jacksons last film before she passed away last year (2023).

Tickets £5

Rated 12A

1hr 36mins

10th May  2024

Film

There's just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes. With a little benevolent interference from their local priest, a group of close friends get their ticket of a lifetime.

Tickets £5

Rated 12

1hr 31mins

 24th May 2024

Film

Despite resistance, Clarice Cliff persisted in suggesting her ideas while working on the factory floor in potteries. Instead of mastering one skill to improve her earnings, she started one apprenticeship as an enameller, and then another as a lithographer at another factory to learn different aspects of production. Although supporting her widowed mother and her sister, she risked destitution by changing jobs so often. All of the potteries still had Victorian perceptions of what women wanted in terms of design. Cliff then got a job at another pottery as an apprentice modeller, a role rarely taken by a woman, and became apprenticed to designer Fred Ridgeway. The factory owner, Colley Shorter, appreciated her talent. Because of the 1926 general strike, there was not enough material to make new ceramics. Cliff knew that there was a huge stock of undecorated sub-standard ceramics held in the pottery. She covered up the imperfections on them with bright Art Deco-style patterns, thereby creating her Bizarre range. The sceptical head salesman for the pottery took the ceramics to a shop in Oxford because it had a female buyer. The shop bought the entire stock. Shorter and Cliff subsequently carried out marketing aimed at women, with celebrity endorsements to make the range fashionable. During the Great Depression, the factory survived because of sales of pottery carrying Cliff's designs. She embarked on an affair with Shorter, and eventually they married after his wife's death in 1940.

Tickets £5

Rated 12A

1hr 48mins

29th May - 1st Jun 2024

Theatre

Amanda Wingfield is a faded remnant of Southern gentility who now lives in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura, who has a physical handicap and debilitating shyness. the father has left home; Tom supports his mother and sister with a shoe factory job he finds unbearable. when Amanda convinces Tom to bring home from his workplace a "gentleman caller" for Laura, the illusions that Tom, Amanda, and Laura have each created in order to make life bearable collapse about them.

Starring Julie Rain , Stephen Carruthers, Rebecca Richardson and Leon Pipe

Please note that this production contains discriminatory language which some viewers may find offensive. 

 Tickets £12.00

Doors Open 7.00pm

07th June 2024

Film

Grenoble, France. With eloquent lawyers nitpicking and hypothesising for hours in a nearly silent courtroom, unapologetically successful novelist Sandra Voyter stands accused of killing Samuel Maleski, her husband. As the impartial judge, the inscrutable jury, and the ruthless public prosecutor sift through the evidence, plausible theories invite new possibilities that accommodate even more interpretations of the steep, fatal fall. But Sandra's grieving son, Daniel, has the right to know. What led to Samuel's untimely demise? Was it a frigid emotional void or undeserved misfortune that decided his fate? Or was it a malicious human hand that claimed Dad's life?

Tickets £5

Rated 15

2hr 32mins

21st June  2024

Film

Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

Tickets £5

Rated 18

2hr 21mins

29th June 2024

Fundraiser

Do you know your Anne Boleyn from your Katherine Parr? The height of the shard in cm? or just for fun what colour is a Malteser packet? Who is Thomas Carlyle?

A great variety of quiz questions to bring fun and laughter to all.

Bring your own bottle. Cafe will be open if anyone requires anything. Raffle at The interval.

Taking place in the marquee this time.

6 rounds of 10 questions in total.
 

 Tickets £1.50 per person Teams up to 4

Doors Open 6:30pm

12th July  2024

Film

Torn apart from her sister and her children, Celie faces many hardships in life, including an abusive husband. With support from a sultry singer named Shug Avery, as well as her stand-her-ground stepdaughter, Celie ultimately finds extraordinary strength in the unbreakable bonds of a new kind of sisterhood.

Tickets £5

Rated 12A

2hr 21mins

26th July 2024

Film

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.

Tickets £5

Rated 15

2hr 13mins

5th & 6th September 2024

Live Theatre

It is 1929. An androgynous figure cuts a haunting shape in the shadows of Oxbridge. Scorned, ordered off the path; then refused entry to the library. Why? Woolf demands answers.

Woolf prowls the streets of London at dusk. A thousand thoughts consume her. Who can measure the violence of the poet's heart when tangled in a woman's body? What if Shakespeare had an equally gifted sister?

 Woolf unflinchingly interrogates the crushing injustice she encounters. Witty. Relevant. Provocative. Woolf slices through notions of gender disparity with an incisive mix of integrity and visceral charm. Be afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Best Female Actor for Room - Buxton Fringe 2023

Tickets £12.50

Starts: 7:30pm

Age Limit: Suitable for 12+

75 Minutes (no interval)

25th 26th & 27th September 2024

Live Theatre

Set on Christmas Eve in 1862, the story revolves around the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Their father is away on the frontline of the American Civil War, leaving the sisters to navigate the challenges of growing up. Each sister is determined to carve out a life on her own terms, but this journey involves contending with love, loss, and the myriad twists of fortune that shape their destinies.

Tickets £12.00 Adult £8.00 Under 16s

Starts: 7:30pm

2 Hours 30 Minutes with Interval 

12th October 2024

Touring Theatre

The case of the Enfield Poltergeist in 1977 has long captured the public's imagination. Arriving at Birchvale Theatre as part of their Autumn 2024 tour, The Enfield Poltergeist is a dramatisation of those events focusing on the very human stories behind the lurid press headlines.

After the tragic death of his daughter, Maurice Grosse joins the Society for Psychical Research in London. But while investigating the Enfield Poltergeist in 1977, he is haunted by coincidences surrounding paranormal activity that appears to be centred around one particular girl.

Based on the true events of the infamous Enfield Poltergeist case, this is a journey of redemption, and the chance to lay old ghosts to rest. Kiera Rhodes and Paul Voodini portray troubled characters, thrown together within the walls of a supposedly haunted council house in Enfield, who must not only solve the mystery of the poltergeist, but also find peace with their own tragic pasts.

Age guidance: This performance is recommended for ages 15+

Content warning: This performance contains strong language; themes surrounding death and the loss of a child; one instance of strobe lighting and several loud noises.

Duration: This performance is 50 minutes long with no interval.

Tickets £12

Doors open 7:00pm

2nd November  2024

Touring theatre/Music/Dance

THE SWAN OF SALEN

On a small tidal island on the shore of Loch Sunart lie the ruins of the iron age fortress of Dùn Ghallain. It was here that our story took place.

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Eala Shàilein/the Swan of Salen is a small-scale folk ballet created in collaboration with Ballet Folk and Thistle Ridge Films. It's an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's iconic Swan Lake, retold through the lens of the Gaelic tale of Eala Shàilein, blending traditional music from the Loch Sunart area with the classical score. The performance features a film of the brand-new choreography by Deborah Norris, projected behind the three harpists performing a live-synced score. Tradition bearer Mary Ann Kennedy consulted us on Gaelic culture, music, language and history throughout the project - we are incredibly grateful for her sharing her wealth of knowledge.

We intend to bring the Swan of Salen to rural communities. The small footprint of the live show means the ballet can be performed in venues as small as a living room, requiring only a power socket. The show balances Gaelic arts and the classical, creating a seamless piece that is intended for everyone to enjoy.

Tickets £12

Doors open 7:00pm