What's on where around Luton: listings, February 24 edition

WEDNESDAY

Adults with learning difficulties arts and craft sessions. Every Wednesday 10.30am to 12.30pm and Saturdays from 11am to 1pm at Arttrend, Arundel Road, Luton. Social and creative activity for adults with learning difficulties, engaging in all types of art and craft work such as painting in acrylics, papier mache, salt dough, cross stitch, rug making etc. Please see the website www.arttrend.co.uk and go to Art ALD, then see the gallery of work already done. Tel 07794 987796 if you would like more details. 10.30am to 12.30pm Wednesdays, 11am to 1pm Saturdays – but you can come and go at any time. £6 per session including materials and refreshments.

Luton Irish Forum holds a weekly Tuesday and Wednesday Club from 11am to 1.30pm at 102 Hitchin Road. This is a great chance to meet old friends and make some new ones. Refreshments are all included along with soda bread, scones with jam and monthly chicken and chips. Entry costs £1, plus optional £3 for two games of bingo and a raffle.

The Wednesday Club holds a monthly tea dance, quiz, weekly dominos, cards and needle craft. Tel: 01582 720447.

After selling several million records, winning two Brit Awards and the Mercury Music Prize and performing across the globe, Heather Small has become one of the most successful female recording artists of recent years. Since her success with M People, she has released two solo albums and also branched out into the world of television, regularly appearing on a wide variety of entertainment shows. Spend an evening in the company of a musical star at The Stables, Wavendon from 8pm. Tickets: £39.50. Call 01908 280800 or visit www.stables.org to book.

The Omnibus Society (Herts & Beds Group) meets at Challney High School for Boys, Stoneygate Road, Luton, LU4 9TJ at 7.30pm. All interested in road passenger transport are welcome to attend. Call Graham Smith on 01582-574903 for more information.

THURSDAY

Keep fit for the more mature. Luton Irish Forum’s keep fit class meets at 102 Hitchin Road, Luton, LU2 0ES, Thursdays from 10am to 11am. The class is ideal for anyone who wants to get active and it’s great fun too at £2 a session.

West Side Story comes to the Grove Theatre, Dunstable in a community performance from RARE Productions, the UK’s largest youth musical theatre production company. Set in New York’s Upper West Side, the story explores the rivalry between teenage street gangs in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Tickets cost £16, £14, £13 or £11. Call 01582 60 20 80 or visit www.grovetheatre.co.uk to book.

Fresh off celebrated performances in Germany and the USA, London-based Single Shoe Productions present Crazy Glue at the Hat Factory, Luton.

The play is inspired by award-winning author Etgar Keret’s short story of the same name, and features show creators Filipa Tomas and Bradley Wayne Smith communicating solely through sound effects and their own invented language as they tell a universal story of love and loss. Tickets cost £10 or £8 for concessions and are available from www.thehatfactory.org or 01582 878100.

Danny Bryant + Red Butler perform at Harpenden Public Halls at 7.30pm. Europe’s leading Blues & Rock publication, Classic Rock’s The Blues Magazine, called Danny a “National Blues Treasure”, a title that he has worked tirelessly and passionately to earn. Riding high on the European blues scene for over a decade, yet still only 35, Danny has carved a name for himself the old-fashioned way having played over 2,000 club and festival shows to his many fans around the world and is acknowledged by those in the business as one of the cream of the crop. Support comes from Red Butler Tickets: £13. Call 01582 767525 or visit www.harpendenpublichalls.co.uk to book.

FRIDAY

Luton Irish Forum’s Baby and Toddler group meets at 102 Hitchin Road, Luton LU2 0ES, every Friday from 9.30am to 11am during term time. Recommended a donation of £1 per adult and 50p per child. A drink and a healthy snack is provided for your child(ren) around the middle of the session. Tea, coffee and biscuits are available for the adults throughout the morning. Telephone 01582 720447.

Lewis Shaffer brings his highly individual act to Harpenden Public Halls at 8pm. He is said to combining the comedy genes of Joan Rivers and Jackie Mason with the pathos of Tommy Cooper. Find out why comedy fans go to see Lewis Schaffer over and over again, why PhDs have been written about him, why documentary makers follow him around London and why the one word that is most often used to describe Lewis Schaffer, besides funny, is “different”. The show lasts 55 minutes. Tickets: £10. Call 01582 767525 or visit www.harpendenpublichalls.co.uk to book.

SATURDAY

Luton Poetry Society host their annual Valentine Poetry reading with a very special guest – the Mayor of Luton Cllr Dave Taylor. This event will take place at the Luton Central Library (Conference Room) at 2pm. It will include a reading of love poems, some classical music and love games. All poetry lovers are invited and encouraged to bring along love poems to perform on the day. Classical music instrumentalists are also welcome to contact the group for a chance to play some music on the day. The poetry society regularly meets on the last Saturday of each month at the Central Library at 2pm and more information can be found at www.lutonpoetrysociety.com

T.Rextasy have been performing around the world for over 20 years, a career that ironically out lives Marc’s very own T.Rex. The band are now accepted as the world’s only official live tribute band dedicated to Marc Bolan & T.Rex, and the only band endorsed and approved by Marc Bolan’s family, estate, original ex-members of T.Rex, and Bolan’s catalogue management. They play at Harpenden Public Halls at 7.30pm. Tickets: £18. Call 01582 767525 or visit www.harpendenpublichalls.co.uk to book.

TUESDAY MARCH 1

Circus of Horrors presents Welcome To The Carnevil at Harpenden Public Halls at 7.30pm. The show that stormed into the finals of Britain’s Got Talent and& now a West End smash is back tin spectacular style. The latest incarnation is set in Victorian London in 1899 where Jack the Ripper is still at large. In the age of the freakshow a young girl dreams of running away to join the circus, only to see her dream become a nightmare in a decrepit and corpse-ridden Carnevil, plagued by a swamp of Killer Klowns, Sword Swallowers, Demon Dwarves, Death Defying Aerialists, A Guinness World Record holding ‘Hairculian Diva’ swinging solely from her hair, back flipping & fire limbo-ing acrobats and more. The story twists and turns with grisly murders and sensational shock’s – all interwoven with some of the greatest and most bizarre circus acts on earth. Tickets: £19.50. Call 01582 767525 or visit www.harpendenpublichalls.co.uk to book.

THURSDAY MARCH 3

Encore screening of As You Like It from the National Theatre, presented at the Grove Theatre, Dunstable at 7pm. With her father the Duke banished and in exile, Rosalind and her cousin Celia leave their lives in the court behind them and journey into the Forest of Arden. There, released from convention, Rosalind experiences the liberating rush of transformation. Disguising herself as a boy, she embraces a different way of living and falls spectacularly in love. Tickets: £15. Call 01582 60 20 80 or visit www.grovetheatre.co.uk to book.