Category: 5. Entertainment

The Moving Story of Enduring Friendship Will Mark Its 10th Anniversary on the High Seas

VALENCIA, Calif., Sept. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Cunard will bring Come from Away — the Tony Award and Oliver Award-winning show — to sea for the first time ever in an exclusive production in collaboration with Music Theatre International.

The highly anticipated revival during Queen Elizabeth‘s maiden Caribbean voyage on October 16, 2025, comes as the heartwarming production celebrates 10 years since its debut.

The globally acclaimed show, written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein*, depicts the remarkable true story of the 6,579 air passengers grounded in a small Canadian town in the wake of 9/11, and the Newfoundland community that invited these ‘come from aways’ into their lives. A reflection on friendship, hope and gratitude, it has captivated sold-out crowds – including on Broadway and in London’s West End.

After a decade of moving audiences worldwide, Cunard is now bringing this uplifting display of resilience and understanding to the high seas. At a time when its message rings truer than ever, this special production promises to be an unforgettable experience.

Katie McAlister, President of Cunard, said: “We are very excited to bring Come from Away to Queen Elizabeth for her maiden Caribbean season. It’s a show that resonates deeply with audiences, celebrating compassion and connection – values that we share at Cunard. We are incredibly passionate about the power of timeless storytelling, and our long-standing affiliation with London’s West End and Broadway in New York ensures that unparalleled entertainment is at the heart of the Cunard experience. Our 2026 Entertainment Residencies will build on this commitment, offering our guests unforgettable access to the very best live performances at sea.”

John Brant, Producer of Come from Away, said: “Even after ten years, it’s still incredible to see the impact this show has on people. Now more than ever, we believe it’s important to gather friends and family to see it together, with the hope that it inspires them to find common ground in their lives. This partnership with Cunard is a meaningful opportunity to bring our story to new corners of the world, and we can’t wait for passengers to experience it for themselves.”

Come From Away will be performed in Queen Elizabeth’s majestic Royal Court Theatre twice during each voyage, with matinee and evening performances available. This exclusive production has been specially crafted for the stage at sea, featuring one hour and 40 minutes of powerful storytelling, music and an ensemble of 12 talented stage performers. New and returning Come from Away fans will be wowed by a fresh perspective that remains true to the magic of the original production.

For more information about Cunard or to book a voyage, travelers can contact their Travel Advisor, call Cunard at 1-800-728-6273, or visit www.cunard.com.

For Travel Advisors interested in further information, please contact your Business Development Manager, visit OneSourceCruises.com, or call Cunard at 1-800-528-6273.

About Cunard
Cunard is a luxury British cruise line, renowned for creating unforgettable experiences around the world. Cunard has been a leading operator of passenger ships since 1840, and this year celebrates an incredible 185 years of operation. 2025 is a momentous year in Cunard’s history, which will be marked with several iconic land-based events and special Event Voyages. The Cunard experience is built on fine dining, hand-selected entertainment, and outstanding White Star service. From a partnership with a two-Michelin starred chef, to inspiring guest speakers, to world class theatre productions, every detail has been meticulously crafted to make the experience unforgettable. A pioneer in transatlantic journeys and round world voyages, destinations sailed to also include Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, the Far East and Australia.

There are currently four Cunard ships, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and new ship, Queen Anne, which entered service in May 2024. This investment is part of the company’s ambitious plans for the future of Cunard globally, with the brand now boasting four ships in simultaneous service for the first time since 1999. Cunard is based at Carnival House in Southampton and has been owned since 1998 by Carnival Corporation & plc. www.cunard.com (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE:CUK).

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Media Contact: 
Cunard: [email protected]

SOURCE Cunard

LONDON — A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel has appeared outside a London court.

The mural depicts a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard while a judge in a traditional wig and black gown beats him with a gavel. Banksy posted a photo of the work Monday on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”

While the artwork does not refer to a particular cause or incident, activists saw it as a reference to the U.K. government’s ban on the group Palestine Action. On Saturday almost 900 people were arrested at a London protest challenging the ban.

Defend Our Juries, the group that organized the protest, said in a statement that the mural “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by the government ban. “When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not extinguish dissent, it strengthens it,” the statement said.

Security officials outside the courthouse covered the mural Monday with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being guarded by two officers and a CCTV camera.

Banksy began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His paintings and installations sell for millions of dollars at auction and have drawn thieves and vandals.

Banksy’s work often comments on political issues, with many of his pieces criticizing government policy on migration and war.

At the Glastonbury Festival last year, an inflatable raft holding dummies of migrants in life jackets was unveiled during a band’s headline set. Banksy appeared to claim the stunt, which was thought to symbolize small boat crossings of migrants in the Channel, in a post on Instagram.

The artist has also taken his message on migration to Europe.

In 2019, “The Migrant Child,” depicting a shipwrecked child holding a pink smoke bomb and wearing a life jacket, was unveiled in Venice. A year prior, a number of works including one near a former center for migrants that depicted a child spray-painting wallpaper over a swastika were discovered in Paris.

Banksy has also created numerous artworks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years, including one depicting a girl conducting a body search on an Israeli soldier, another showing a dove wearing a flak jacket, and a masked protester hurling a bouquet of flowers. He also designed the “Walled Off Hotel” guesthouse in Bethlehem, which closed in October 2023.

Last summer, Banksy captured London’s attention with an animal-themed collection, which concluded with a mural of a gorilla appearing to hold up the entrance gate to London Zoo.

For nine days straight Banksy-created creatures — from a mountain goat perched on a building buttress to piranhas circling a police guard post to a rhinoceros mounting a car — showed up in unlikely locations around the city.

Devendra Banhart, singer, songwriter, guitarist

I wrote I Feel Just Like a Child when I was 18, but it wasn’t until I was 23 or 24 and making the Cripple Crow album that it made sense to record it properly. As a teenager I’d thought of myself as an old blues guy and demoed it on an unplugged electric guitar as a slow blues. When we recorded it for Cripple Crow I’d found my musical family, people like [producer-musicians] Andy Cabic from Vetiver, Noah Georgeson and Thom Monahan. Along with the likes of Joanna Newsom and Adam Green from Moldy Peaches, we were doing a sort of anti-folk that was labelled “freak-folk”.

We were living in Woodstock in upstate New York in our own mini 60s world, a utopian bubble where it felt like music from any period was up for grabs. We spent a lot of time in record stores and the music library, grabbing soundscapes, electronic music, the Fugs, the Band or Basement Jaxx, trying to gain influence from everything we could.

We recorded in nearby Bearsville, a legendary studio that had been set up by Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman when Dylan lived there. We had a hippy ethos about pacifism, sisterhood and egalitarianism, but also I was very aware that this wasn’t the 1960s – it was the leather jacket, Strokes period of music – so there was a parody element to it all. However, I Feel Just Like a Child was genuine. It was about how I could get away with being myself – naive and idealistic – without shame.

When I returned to it for Cripple Crow, I wrote more lyrics. “From my womb to my tomb” is my little homage to Marc Bolan – a direct reference to T Rex’s Cosmic Dancer. Otherwise I wrote from the perspective of a kid, seeing the world with fresh eyes. It’s partly a bricolage of childhood memories: “I need you to help me blow my nose and I need you to help me count my toes.” The line “I need you to please explain the war” comes from the idea that the adults ruin everything. “I was born thinking all under the sky didn’t belong to a couple old white guys” is about how most of the world is owned by so few people.

I was listening at the time to a lot of Fela Kuti, so the Cripple Crow version became more of a groove. In the studio we were like kids in a candy store with all this equipment, and wanted to do something more interesting than a key change, so in the middle of the song it sounds like everything goes underwater. And when someone walked past with a husky I said: “Do you want to howl with your dog?” – so there’s a dog credited on the album.

One night some friends were filming, which ended up being the video and captures how we were then. Most of the time I was wearing only tiny shorts. I remember using the loo at a gas station and forgetting to lock the door. Somebody walked in and saw this scrawny, trembling, big-bearded, Charles Manson-looking guy sitting on the toilet. I owe that person a lot of therapy.

Andy Cabic, producer, musician

We were all broke, so we stayed at Devendra’s place. His family home in Poughkeepsie, New York, was always full of people. It was winter and really cold, so we were always at the house or in the studio working on things. He was writing so many songs that he would call his answering machine and leave melodies on there for himself. Everything was recorded live, and he’d gather us all in to do backing vocals.

Devendra’s original demo of I Feel Just Like a Child is a solo live performance of the kind he did a lot in those days. The version on Cripple Crow has a dancier arrangement and absorbs the possibilities of a proper studio and a roomful of musicians. I played acoustic guitar and the percussion is a combination of Devendra, Greg Rogove and myself. We were recording at a very fast clip and decisions were being made very quickly as we went along. It was a period of such furious activity. Devendra had at least 30 songs that he wanted to record, even if some of them were a minute-and-a-half things. They were pouring out of him.

New work by street artist Banksy has appeared on the wall of the Royal Courts of Justice in London – showing a judge attacking a protester with a gavel – in an apparent reference to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators.

The artwork, which is on the Queen’s Building at the courts complex, has already been concealed by large sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers.

The artist, whose identity is the source of constant speculation, posted a photo of the work on Instagram before it was covered up.

He included the caption: “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”

A protester is seen on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard, while the judge, in a wig and gown, looms over them wielding a gavel.

The mural is being seen as a possible reaction to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators at the weekend supporting banned group Palestine Action.

Responding to Banksy’s work, a spokesperson for campaign group Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday’s rally, said it “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed by Yvette Cooper on protesters by proscribing Palestine Action”.

They said: “When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not extinguish dissent, it strengthens it.”

On Monday, security officials stood guard alongside the barriers concealing the art in an area which sits under a CCTV camera.

Banksy’s stencilled graffiti often comments on political issues, with many works critical of government policy, war and capitalism.

Last summer, he made headlines with his animal-themed collection of nine works in the capital.

They concluded with a gorilla appearing to lift up a shutter on the entrance to London Zoo.

Other notable work included piranhas swimming on a police sentry box in the City of London, turning the box into what looked like a giant fish tank.

Read more from Sky News:
At least six killed in shooting in Jerusalem
Archaeologists find large Roman burial chamber

Another included the silhouette of a howling wolf, painted on a satellite dish on the flat roof of a shop in Peckham, south London.

The satellite dish was stolen hours after the artwork was unveiled.

Prince William and Catherine have paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II on the anniversary of her death, as Prince Harry laid a wreath on his return to the UK.

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited a Women’s Institute event in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to meet members of an organisation with a long association with the late Queen.

Elsewhere, Prince Harry – who has arrived back in the UK for the first time in five months – privately laid a wreath and paid his respects to the late Queen in Windsor, where she is buried.

The prince has flown from California and will appear at the WellChild charity awards later on Monday, the first in several planned engagements this week.

Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest reigning monarch, who died at the age of 96, had been president of the Women’s Institute branch in Sunningdale.

Over tea and homemade cake, Prince William and Catherine heard about the sense of community and support created by the Women’s Institute, which the late Queen had belonged to for 80 years.

“Three years ago my grandmother passed away, I know she was a big part of the WI and she used to talk about it a lot, so this is a huge honour for me,” said Prince William.

“I can’t quite believe it’s three years already,” he said.

Guests were reminiscing about the late Queen’s interest in racing and he said that she used to follow racing news on an iPad.

The prince chatted to guests about the value of meeting people in person rather than using social media. “It’s not the same as face to face with a cup of tea and a cake and having a chat,” he said.

The royal visitors also faced questions about their own children, saying they were at an age when they could “wind up” each other.

Prince William was wearing a dark jacket and tie, at a time of royal mourning for the Duchess of Kent, who died last Thursday.

This is also the anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Charles, who is spending the day in Balmoral in Scotland, where the late Queen died.

There has been speculation about whether Prince Harry will meet his father during his UK visit, with the two not having met face to face since February 2024, soon after King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer.

Prince Harry’s wife Meghan and their children have remained at their home in California.

On Tuesday, Prince Harry will be in Nottingham where is expected to announce a significant donation to a Children in Need project and on Wednesday he will be at Imperial College London, to visit the Centre for Blast Injury Studies.

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