City Buzz: Kicking off the season of Matilda

The community cinema will host three workshops at the library in the coming weeks, responding to the classic novel through art, music and creative writing. The series will culminate with a large interactive cinema screening of the 1996 film at The Jubilee Centre on April 1.

The series kicks off this Saturday with a launch party at Broomhill Library, from 11am to 2pm, when author Berlie Doherty will be reading an extract from Matilda. There will also be musical storytelling and plenty of book-themed crafts.

On March 18, Quentin Blake will be usurped when children will be led by local artist Hannah Vonroast in illustrating elements of Matilda, from 2pm to 4pm.

Roald Dahl himself will be challenged on March 25, when the creatives of the future try their hand at penning their own stories with Sarah Christie, co-founder of Edge of the Universe Printing Press. This will run from 2pm to 4pm. The season of events also includes a Writing Is Magic! short story competition for children aged 6-11, which closes on March 18.

The Matilda season will draw to a close, from 2pm to 5pm on April 1, with a large immersive screening of Danny DeVito’s timeless film, complete with decorations, refreshments and interactive activities.

Ahead of the film screening, at The Jubilee Centre just off Ecclesall Road, children will be invited to try out magic tricks, eat a slice of Bruce Bogtrotter’s chocolate cake, plait their hair like Amanda Thripp, drive Mr Wormwood’s dodgy car, buy new stories from independent bookseller Rhyme & Reason and craft a bookmark for Matilda’s books.

Handmade Cinema creative director Ellie Ragdale, who launched the award-winning community cinema in 2013, said: “Matilda is full of magic; however, it is also about feeling lost in the world and discovering comfort, escape and happiness through reading – something which I think we can all relate to!

“In Matilda, the library is a wonderful space, full of hope, mystery and tales of far off lands. So, it was a bit of a no-brainer when it came to choosing a collaborator for this project. Broomhill Library is a volunteer-led space where reading and learning is accessible to anyone in the community, and we think that is brilliant..”

All Matilda workshops throughout the month will run on a pay-as-you-feel, drop-in basis at Broomhill Library.

Sessions at Broomhill

Broomhill Library also runs a ‘Music Storytellers’ session every Thursday during term time. The session is held between 3.30pm and 4.30pm, for young beginners, aged four to six years.

The idea? Every instrument is an animal! £4 per session per child, of which £1 will go to library funds.

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