Latest news with #EverymanTheatre
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Stones In His Pockets review: Production at Everyman includes appearance from Derry Girls star
Stones In His Pockets, Everyman, Cork, ★★★☆☆ First performed almost 30 years ago, Stones In His Pockets by Belfast playwright and actor Marie Jones has been an enduring success, its story of a Hollywood production taking over an Irish village resonating with audiences at home and abroad. This revamped production by the Barn Theatre from England is something of a family affair, directed by Matthew McElhinney, Jones' son, while she and her husband, the Derry Girls actor Ian McElhinney also make a surprise cameo appearance. This is a play within a film, so to speak, with Charlie (Gerard McCabe) and Jake (Shaun Blaney) as extras portraying peasants in fictional drama The Quiet Valley, a typically twee and condescending screen version of Ireland. Ian McElhinney. Charlie is cheerfully optimistic, hoping his own film script will bring him fame and fortune while cynical Jake has already had his dreams dashed. The actors play over a dozen roles, from an annoying production assistant to leading lady Caroline Giovanni, McCabe morphing into the actress with one flirty flick of an imaginary mane. While often billed as a comedy, a tragic event, referenced in the title, is at the heart of the play and it also deals with themes including the socio-economic effects of rural decline and depopulation. In this iteration, the play works best in the lighter moments, and doesn't quite manage the tonal shift to pathos, coming off as maudlin rather than affecting. The script has been tweaked from the original but the language used gives it the feel of a period piece — the characters' constant lewd remarks about the lead actress are particularly jarring while a Kerryman joke draws a few half-hearted titters. Inserted references to Amazon Prime also sit oddly in a play that features a wise and kindly Christian Brother teacher still using a blackboard, leading to a feeling that this vision of Ireland is as anachronistic as the Hollywood one the play is poking fun at. Contrary to the more minimal early stagings of the play, the use of digital projection backdrops here allows it more cinematic scope but otherwise the cluttered set lacks polish. The production as a whole is lifted by the bravura performances of McCabe and Blaney who, contrary to their Quiet Valley billing, are stars of the show. Their Hollywood ending is garnished with an impressive final flourish — a trailer of their own movie featuring a few well-known faces, which proves a hugely satisfying pay-off. Stones in his Pockets is at the Everyman Theatre, Cork until Aug 10
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
A different casting call for Cork's famed Everyman as theatre recruits executive director
One of Ireland's leading producing theatres, the Everyman in Cork, has begun a different kind of casting call as it seeks to recruit a new executive director who will also work as co-CEO. The new executive director will work in close partnership with the famed theatre's artistic director Des Kennedy. The executive director will provide strategic and operational leadership, ensuring the theatre's financial sustainability, legal compliance, and commercial vitality. As joint chief executives, both roles report directly to the theatre's board and will share responsibility for delivering The Everyman's artistic vision and social impact. 'We are so proud to have just completed our first Everyman Made season and we are thrilled to be looking ahead to our next exciting chapter on MacCurtain Street,' said artistic director Mr Kennedy, who took on his role earlier this year. 'Since moving to Cork, 10 months ago, I have had the privilege of working with the most passionate and dedicated team of staff, artists, and theatre-makers. We look forward to welcoming a new executive director to join, and co-lead, this team, as we continue to make world class theatre, made by The Everyman, for Cork, and beyond." The 650-seater Everyman Theatre is a Victorian architecture jewel on Cork's MacCurtain Street, which opened at the end of the 19th century. The theatre is in the middle of a hectic summer season, with the Barn Theatre's production of the award-winning play Stones in His Pockets running until August 10. Later in the month, two Irish personalities better known in different arenas will grace the stage, with Imelda May starring there in Mother Of All The Behans from August 12 to August 16, while broadcaster and TV persoanlity Laura Whitmore will star in The Girl on the Train at The Everyman from August 19 to 23.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Ellen DeGeneres' stunning Cotswold farmhouse with its own pub for sale
The TV host swapped her life in Beverly Hills for the Cotswolds cobbles just last year, but now her impressive farmhouse is back on the market, and it is a sight to behold The famous talk show host left the Hollywood Hills behind to make a new life for herself in the English countryside, along with her wife, actor Portia de Rossi, but now the two are selling their Cotswolds home. Ellen reportedly moved into the home in November 2024 but is already on the hunt for a new pad again a short-term stay turned into a full-time homestead. After hearing the US election results, the couple decided they weren't quite ready to go back to the States, and what was supposed to be a break turned into a new lifestyle. Although, after appearing at a one-off show hosted at Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre, the Daily Mail reported Ellen opened up to fans about her plans to sell up. The 67-year-old explained: 'We decided we needed a different house, and now we are selling that house. So if anyone wants a house, it's a beautiful stone farmhouse." Now, the pair have settled into a new home nearby as they anticipate the sale of Kitesbridge Farm, a 43-acre farmhouse they renovated from six bedrooms to seven and an additional two-bedroom guest cottage. The farmhouse is made up of a gym, an indoor pool, a games room, private offices, and, of course, in true celeb style, a helipad. No swanky Cotswolds escape is complete without its very own pub, even for an American like Ellen. Initially, the couple was thought to have paid a sizeable £15 million for their idyllic home, but following their personal touches and expansions, it is now on the market for an eye-watering £22.5 million. The heart of the home is the spacious farmhouse kitchen and breakfast room on the ground floor. Sharing the floor is a principal bedroom suite, fit with two luxurious dressing rooms, a marble ensuite, and beautiful French doors leading out to a private space in the greenest of gardens. Sitting comfortably in the small village of Asthall in West Oxfordshire, this vast estate is just a 10-minute drive from Burford and is surrounded by plenty of famous spots. This includes the likes of Asthall Manor and Jeremy Clarkson's much-loved charming country pub, The Windmill. Further explaining their eccentric move to the countryside, the TV star explained it was the day before the US election that the two moved to the UK. After hearing the news about Trump, they decided to stay put for a while, and that little while quickly turned into eight months and an entire house revamp. Ellen shared: "So we bought a house that we thought was going to be a part-time house. Then we decided we needed a different house, and now we are selling that house. So if anyone wants a house, it's a beautiful house. It's a beautiful stone farmhouse. To clarify, I'm not selling the new one. I'm selling the old stone farmhouse." Touching further on her time here in the UK, she said: "I really like the people. Fish and chips are delicious too. The UK is beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful. We are just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. Even in the villages and the towns, I love the architecture and houses. Everything you see here is charming. It is a simpler way of life," The Daily Mail reports. It was reported in April that the comedian had swapped her idyllic home in Asthall for an alternative mansion on the outskirts of another Oxfordshire village. The move seemed to be handled with discretion, but House & Garden has unveiled that their new, more modern pad spans 10,000 square feet and is no more lacking in luxury, with an infinity pool, theatre, and gym.
Spectator
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The Cotswolds is a Potemkin England
Have you heard the one where the vice president of the United States and a lesbian former talk show host walk into a farm shop in Gloucestershire? No, it's not the set-up to a joke – it's just another Tuesday in the Cotswolds in 2025. Ellen DeGeneres has confirmed that she's staying put in the Cotswolds, where she's been holed-up since the 2024 US presidential election. JD Vance – now vice president under Donald Trump – is also planning on spending part of the summer there too. Two Americans, worlds apart, wind up in the same tiny sliver of England. One wants to grow heritage carrots. The other wants to dismantle the administrative state. Both think they've found something pure in the Cotswolds. They're just the most high-profile arrivals. The landscape is changing fast – not with tweedy old money, but with something slicker, richer, and often flown in by private jet from Jackson Hole or Montecito. US applications for UK citizenship hit a record 6,100 last year – up 26 per cent, with a noticeable spike around Trump's re-election. Not all of them are settling in the Cotswolds, but the symbolism is hard to miss. I live a few miles from all this, though not quite in it. My Wiltshire town sits at the bottom edge of the Cotswolds – included in old guidebooks, left out by the tourist board. Not an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, just a place of roundabouts, new-build estates and modest aspiration. The fantasy starts a few miles up the road – but you can feel the changes even here. Not long ago, the region was the playground of the Chipping Norton set – tabloid editors, minor royals, and David Cameron-era politicians, knocking back magnums of rosé behind the Big Green Egg. Today, that world looks parochial beside the star power and deeper pockets of the new arrivals. 'We got here the day before the election,' Ellen (net worth £300 million) told a thrilled audience at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham last week. 'And we woke up to all these texts with crying emojis. I was like, 'He got in.' And we're like, 'We're staying here.'' She's far from the only one. The area has become a sanctuary for the globally famous and fabulously rich – drawn not just by the scenery, but by the curated serenity on offer. Nowhere captures that better than Soho Farmhouse: less country club than lifestyle hallucination. Alongside Daylesford Organic and Estelle Manor, it forms a triangle of soft-focus luxury that now draws in everyone from Ryan Reynolds to Meghan Markle. This weekend, Eve Jobs's £5 million wedding took place there, attended by Kamala Harris, Olympic showjumper Jessica Springsteen, as well as Sofia Abramovich, daughter of former Chelsea owner Roman. Ellen, like a few celebrity Cotswolds transplants before her, treats the countryside as an Instagram backdrop – part Marie Antoinette fantasy, part photo op. Her foray into rural life mirrors that of Jeremy Clarkson's gentleman-farmer routine. Meanwhile, the real countryside is being hollowed out. More than 6,000 agricultural businesses shut down in the past year alone, many facing pressure from Rachel Reeves's planned inheritance tax reforms. Family farms – already battling drought, debt, and wafer-thin margins – now face the prospect of selling off land just to survive. Reflecting on her own foray into farming, DeGeneres told an audience in Cheltenham: 'We built a fence – and it was so ugly it ruined everything. Then I had to pay to take the fence down. The sheep just walk and go to the bathroom. That's all they do. I had to keep cleaning it up because our dog kept trying to get in it.' Mistakes like this are easily corrected. Ellen and her wife, Portia de Rossi, have already put their first Cotswolds home – Kitesbridge Farm, bought for £20 million in 2024 – back on the market for £30 million. Not because they're leaving, but because they've found something grander just up the lane. Behind the limestone façades lies a very different Cotswolds. Coventry University's 2023 Hidden Hardship project – based on diaries and interviews with residents of the North Cotswolds – found that experiences of deprivation were often concealed. Life can be a daily struggle: limited transport, insecure work, unaffordable housing – not crisis, but slow attrition. Stigma was a recurring theme. 'It's embarrassing,' said one participant. 'In the area that we live in…to say, 'I'm really struggling here.' You feel judged.' So is this what brings the vice president to Stow-on-the-Wold? The elegist of rustbelt decline, in search of England's own lost rural soul? Perhaps. But the real clue came last year, when on the campaign trail he declared that, 'London isn't English anymore.' Maybe the former tech bro is seeking the real England – rooted, white, orderly – and he thinks he's found it here. But the countryside he's holidaying in is no more secure than the one he left behind. England's rural communities, like America's, are hurting – not just from the pressures of global capital, but from the slow attrition of services, jobs, and meaning. As This Country creator Daisy May Cooper put it, reflecting on her Cotswolds upbringing: 'It's hell if you've got no money.' The Cotswolds still looks like England – hedgerows, pubs selling Sunday roasts – but what it offers now is something different. This is England as lifestyle product. A rural fantasy for the fundamentally dislocated – not from the land, but from the lives most people actually live. For the wealthy American visitor what you find here isn't Englishness. It's familiarity. I grew up in partially in California – not the redwoods, but in one of those lush southern California canyons, all eucalyptus, bougainvillea and discreet driveways. The kind of place where the private security approach if you go on a walk but forget to take the dog. Now, when I'm feeling nostalgic, I just drive a few miles north – and I've never felt more at home. The same green tea lattes. The same facile wellness speak. The same small-batch kimchi, turmeric kefir, locally sourced honey, and artisanal nduja nobody asked for. For some, it's a retreat from American dysfunction – a place that feels slower, safer, somehow more 'real.' For others, it's a postcard from a vanished past: tradition, order, a countryside untouched by modernity. These days, the Cotswolds offers a fantasy of England – perfected by borrowing from a certain vision of California. A Potemkin England, not alien exactly, but sealed off from reality. Not Oxfordshire so much as Napa with pubs.
Sky News AU
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
'Concrete and glass monstrosity': Ellen DeGeneres' newly-built home in UK roasted following her departure from US to avoid Trump presidency
The new home of Ellen DeGeneres has been dubbed a "monstrosity" following the former daytime television star's move to the United Kingdom. After only moving to the UK in 2024 with her wife, Australian actress Portia de Rossi, the couple have now put their $20 million (£15 million) Cotswolds farmhouse on the market and have moved into a hilltop mansion in Oxfordshire. The single-storey home was built by a UK-based developer, describing the glass-fronted house as an attempt at redefining "rural modern living". The monolithic building has been described by businessman and utility industry expert Steve Loftus as a "concrete and glass monstrosity" while another described the design as a "genuine hate crime". Others took aim at the new home, which the couple ultimately moved into following a series of reported issues at their farmhouse, including flooding. "The inside of Ellen DeGeneres' home in the Cotswolds is totally devoid of any I mean... Not only did she likely pay a fortune for the build, she also probably paid an 'interior decorator' for this. It looks like a prison," one said on X. "She had total control over the design and she went with 'unfinished bunker but with more grey and less functionality'. Says a lot about her personality (or lack thereof)," another wrote. "I'm struggling to see any 'farmhouse roots'! It's a brutalist bunker," a third said. Another compared the residence to that of a home of a villain in the James Bond film series. The home is about a 30-minute drive from the farmhouse, and fans of the celebrity couple got a glimpse into the view from their house in April when Ellen posted a photo of de Rossi who was photographing a rainbow from their front yard. The criticism over DeGeneres' new home comes after she confirmed she and her wife permanently relocated to the UK after Donald Trump's return to the White House. The 67-year-old comedian made the candid admission during a live conversation with BBC broadcaster Richard Bacon at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham on Sunday. DeGeneres explained the pair initially planned to spend just a few months each year in the UK and purchased what they believed would be a "part-time house" in the Cotswolds in 2024. But the couple decided to stay put after Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the latest US election. "Everything here is just better," she said of the UK. "We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in'. "And we're like, 'We're staying here'."
