Comedy with Isma Almas - Friday 28 June

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       COMEDY WITH ISMA ALMAS

       About a Buoy – Adventures in Adoption

Stand-up comedian Isma Almas gives a full preview of

her show before it reaches the Edinburgh Festival.

Isma is British multiculturalism at its best. In her down

to earth and engaging style, she explores transracial adoption, 
gender, religion, sexuality, race, one

homophobic mother and Freddie Mercury.

As seen in BBC2’s The Big Asian Stand Up

‘A one-woman antidote to Islamophobia’ Leeds Guide

            7.30pm Friday 28 June 2019,

HEART Centre, Bennett Road, Leeds LS6 3HN

Tickets £5 from 0113 275 4548 or on the door

A message from Amit Dhand

Am

Amit Dhand, crime writer and Headingley pharmacist, writes: One Way Out  - Opening chapter below...

And. Here. We. Go! He's back and this one is BIGGER than ever! Harry Virdee returns for the 4th book in the series.

Prologue THE OUTDOOR CINEMA SCREEN in City Park cut out. The children’s movie went black. Most of the thousand-strong crowd didn’t notice, too busy playing in the fountains, a welcome respite from the sun’s inhospitable rays. Then a message started to flash on the screen, bold and threatening: IMMINENT SECURITY THREAT. LEAVE CITY PARK IMMEDIATELY. No ‘please’. No hint that this was optional. Confusion rippled through the park. People stared at one another, wondering if this was some sort of joke. The screeching of car tyres and the overhead roar from two helicopters answered their doubts. Police officers jumped from their cars with megaphones, screaming for the crowd to disperse. They did not enter the park but kept to the perimeter. At first, the shift was slow but the domino effect didn’t take long to come into play and the few became the many. Bodies jumped from the pool and ran, some barefoot, others holding their shoes. Parents grabbed their children as the stampede began. Bradford was under siege.

Preorder NOW.

Crime writing workshop and meet the agent. I will be hosting a crime-writing workshop with award-winning author, Abir Mukherjee and literary agent, Simon Trewin, on Saturday 29th June, at Bradford Literature Festival. Last year, this event sold out quickly, so this year, we have expanded on it. Abir and I will focus on writing, craft, pace and structure and Simon will provide a session on publishing, agents and take any questions. Early booking is advised for this event.

Pirandello in the Salumeria - glimpses of genius

Gli attore - Richard Wilcocks e Simone Lomartire

Conrad Beck reports: 
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934 for his powers of psychological analysis in dramatic writing, Luigi Pirandello is now more a staple of the curriculum in drama schools and on acting courses, along with the likes of Konstantin Stanislavki, than a name which triggers recognition amongst the non-specialists in the population. For most English people anyway. Some of them might have heard of Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) but practically no educated person in England is aware of the fact that it was not just Shakespeare who wrote a play entitled Henry IV.

Not so in Italy, Simone Lomartire told the substantial audience at their tables in Salvo's Salumeria, which has hosted so many events connected with Italian writers thanks to Headingley LitFest. Pirandello is well-known (and taught in schools) as a prose writer, who produced many short stories and novels. He was fascinated by Freud and by the masking and pretence which is basic to the theatre.

Simon and Richard Wilcocks performed extracts from Six Characters and Henry IV both before and after the audience dined (the main was pasta alla norma), which resulted in considerable applause. Some of the author's genius was revealed in glimpses. It was script-in-hand, mostly in English with a sprinkling of Italian, without costumes and acted in a very small space between tables, but it worked! It was a little audacious too - attempting to put a large number of characters into the minds of those present in less than an hour when the plays would have taken much, much longer in their full versions. 

One of them that still sticks in my mind did not have any lines, and was simply described in English and Italian - Madama Pace, who runs a bordello. She appeared before our imaginations, a grossly fat old lady wearing a ludicrous red woollen wig with a red rose stuck in it.

This appears to be an annual event, with Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and the popular Montalbano already in the bag. So what comes next?

Pirandello at Salvo's Salumeria

An Evening with Luigi Pirandello

Monday 29 April 7pm

Following the sell-out success of ‘Dinner with Montalbano’ last year, Headingley LitFest in partnership with Salvo's offers diners an entertaining evening with the great Sicilian novelist and dramatist Luigi Pirandello, whose plays include ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ and 'Henry IV'. 

Simone Lomartire and Richard Wilcocks will present and perform extracts from his works, script-in-hand, mainly in English but with a sprinkling of Italian as well. Dishes served for the dinner will, of course, be in the Sicilian tradition.

Salvo's Restaurant & Salumeria  Leeds LS6 3PX   (See map)

 

£20  Booking essential

Online www.salvos.co.uk   or   0113 275 5017