WHAT does the word “wild” mean to you? Is it standing at the edge of a raging sea or being lifted up and spat out of a whirling tornado, running for your life through the streets or coming face to face with a wolf; the animal within that can’t always be tamed or the wilderness…
AS I entered and exited Bristol Hippodrome, there was an eerie feeling of the ghost of the clergyman who organised a protest when Gracie Fields, on a visit to Bristol, closed her show with a version of The Lords Prayer. What he would have made of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone’s irreligious satire…
KEN Ludwig has a literary CV that most authors only dream about, and as he has already shown with his adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, he knows how to create those well- known and much-loved Agatha Christie characters on stage. In this touring production he is aided and abetted by his production team….
THE first version of Candide, with a book by Lillian Helman, met with little success on Broadway and in London’s West End, but, rather like Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the show refused to die. Gradually, with a reworked book and lyrics, it has developed into a classic opera. I doubt if any production since…
DAPHNE du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now, a haunting story of loss and mystery, mainly set in Venice, was memorably filmed with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. Now a stage adaptation, by West Country writer Nell Leyshon, comes to Salisbury Playhouse from 29th October to 15th November. This co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre at Ipswich…
THE West front of Salisbury Cathedral is one of the glories of Western architecture – and it makes for an astonishing backdrop as Luxmuralis return from 4th to 8th November with a breathtaking spectacle of light and sound – Sarum Lights: Lost Worlds. This innovative light and sound show will take viewers on a journey…
CIRENCESTER’s exciting little theatre, the Barn, is making a name for its adventurous programming, with new plays that go on to tour the region or nationally. Now the Barn’s hilarious production of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister is headed for the West End, and will be at the Apollo Theatre from 30th January to 9th May…
A MASTERPIECE of silent cinema, set in one of the world’s greatest cathedrals, will be screened in another – Salisbury Cathedral, on Saturday 15th November, when The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be shown, with a live organ score. Jonathan Hope, one of the most dynamic organists of his generation, will improvise a live organ…
A NEW stage adaptation of the hugely popular film The Greatest Showman comes to Bristol Hippodrome next year, from 15th March 2026 to 10th May, with a cast led by Oliver Tompsett and Samantha Barks. Based on the 20th Century Studios motion picture with story by Jenny Bicks, songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul…
ANNE-Marie Casey’s vivid, energetic and passionate adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic story Little Women comes to Salisbury for the first showings of the second leg of its 2025 tour, with a largely new cast and all the atmosphere and delight of its Pitlochry debut back in 2022. A judging colleague of mine says nothing…
CELEBRATE Voice, Salisbury’s exciting autumn music festival, returns this year, from 22nd October to 1st November, with a programme that ranges from a new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to the golden era of Hollywood, from a singalong Mikado to the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and his quest to retrieve his wife from the…
YEOVIL Literary Festival, now in its 12th year, has become one of the most eagerly anticipated book events in the region. This year the festival runs from 17th to 27th October, at venues including Westlands, Yeovil Library and St John the Baptist Church. The line-up of best-sellers, Booker Prize-winners and exciting new and established writers…
GALLOWS humour is a curious aspect of the human psyche – laughter is the best antidote to fear, probably. The laughs are dark and the subject matter even darker when Ha Hum Ah Theatre brings its new play, Making A Killing, on tour locally, with dates starting on 28th October at Taunton, and coming to…
DORSET’s much-loved folk duo Ninebarrow are releasing a new album at the beginning of October, a celebration not only of the vocal harmonies of the two musicians but also of the joy of choirs singing together. The Hour of the Blackbird marks a departure for Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere, who have worked with two…
TANGLE Theatre brings its unique African-Caribbean style to a new Shakespearean production on tour this autumn, continuing this exciting company’s commitment to presenting classic dramas in new and surprising ways. This year’s tour bring Julius Caesar, to theatres across the region until 25th October. With a cast of five, this fast-moving production drives through the…
SOMERSET artists James and Kate Lynch, who live on a hill overlooking the Somerset Levels, have both had work selected for The Life of the Fields, a major exhibition at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington, one of the most adventurous and prestigious galleries in the area. The exhibition runs to 10th January…
GREAT Expectations is a book that you could say lives up to its title – an epic story of damaged lives and shattered illusions. Despite its scale it lends itself to the intimacy of theatre as the audience will discover when Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s music and drama group stages the story, from 22nd to 25th…
TWO of Dorset’s best-known folk musicians, Tim Laycock and Alastair Braidwood, have recorded a new album of folk songs, readings and storytelling, Friends & Neighbours. They also have a short tour, including a performance at the Drax Arms at Bere Regis on Tuesday 28th. A much-loved and critically acclaimed folk musician, singer, actor and historian,…
JAMES May, the television presenter who owns the Royal Oak pub in Swallowcliffe between Shaftesbury and Salisbury, will be taking audiences through time and across thousands of miles in his new stage show, coming to Southampton Guildhall on 23rd October. The Top Gear and Grand Tour star is presenting a very different – and generally…
WELSH storyteller Shon-Dale Jones is back on tour with a new show, Stories From An Invisible Town, with dates until 18th November across the south and west. Shôn is first and foremost a storyteller. He’s honest, inventive, and deeply human … curious, restless, wide-eyed, offbeat and resonant. His work combines heartfelt, funny and insightful stories….
THERE was a world premiere at Strode Theatre in Street on Saturday, but one that arrived without fanfare and played out to a sadly small, but wildly enthusiastic audience. Baroque opera lends itself to fun interpretation, and for 40 years, ever since Nick Hytner’s indelible Xerxes at ENO, directors have included quirky elements to inventive…
TAKE three mazurkas and a polonaise by Chopin, a Neapolitan tarantella by Liszt and six Romanian folk dances – and you have a recipe for a whirlwind of fiery dancing, flying fingers and virtuoso musicianship. Italian pianist Giovanni Lonati returned to The Old Schoolhouse for two concerts that showcased his brilliant playing – and thrilled…
STORY Weaver Becky Burchell is inviting women (and men!) to take part in one of a series of four Dark Skies walks on Cranborne Chase, between 25th October and 15th November. The creative arts producer originally created Women of the Dark Skies “to invite women to walk in the footsteps of the female ancestors of…
WELSH National Opera’s A Night at the Opera should not be confused with the Marx Brothers’ first film, made in 1935, when they left Paramount Pictures to join the always high production value studio of MGM. But WNO’s show has one major feature in common with the Marx Brothers film – it sets out to…
EXETER’s Northcott Theatre has announced its first 2026 Made By Exeter Northcott production – Forever Young by Erik Gedeon is a musical play that blends big laughs, heartfelt moments and iconic songs. The cast will include South West actors from past Northcott productions and pantomimes and the production will be the first musical play to…
NOEL Coward’s timeless comedy Blithe Spirit was just the thing war-ravaged Londoners needed in 1941, and it might just provide the lift we need in these crazy, frightening days 84 years later. Anthony Banks’ new production is played out on a stylish set designed by Terry Parsons, an opulent Art Deco drawing room with its…
THERE is apparently a powerful connection between medicine and comedy – look at the number of doctors and other medics who have combined stand-up with their work, or moved over entirely from the operating theatre to the performing theatre. Take Georgie Carroll, a nurse who has been playing to sell-out audiences for some years and…
THREE leading local galleries all have exciting exhibitions for the autumn – The Art Stable at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, has a retrospective on the work of the late David Gommon. Sladers Yard at West Bay celebrates mother and daughter Marzia Colonna and Fiamma Colonna Montagu, and the Slade Centre at Gillingham looks…
THE most popular films with Moviola audiences for October continue to be Mr Burton, the story of the young Richard Burton and his inspirational teacher (whose name he took), and The Penguin Lessons, with a third in-demand film, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. This is a spy thriller, written by David Koepp, starring Cate Blanchett and…
GLOBAL Majority artists take centre stage at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre throughout October in We Rise, a vibrant group exhibition showcasing award-winning and emerging artists across painting, printmaking, installation, textiles and sculpture. The exhibition is part of Black History Month 2025 and highlights the creativity and contribution of artists whose voices are often underrepresented in…
FROM a history of Afghanistan to new books inspired by Jane Austen, whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year, Wells Festival of Literature’s 2025 line up is as exciting and eclectic as ever. Running from 17th to 25th October, the festival features some hot-off-the-press books, none more so than Entitled: The Rise and Fall of…
PORTLAND, that mysterious, craggy, romantic island of rock that is barely attached to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, is a constantly inspiring place for artists, and a new exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in Easton Lane and Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve, explores the responses of a group of sculptors to its geology, history…
IF you are a fan of the wonderful Natalie Haynes and her standing up for the classic radio shows, the names Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo et al are probably familiar. This autumn, the West Country’s favourite comedy theatre company takes up the challenge … but have Living Spit bitten off more than they can…
AN exhibition, at Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, from 27th September to 10th January 2026, A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor, offers a new appraisal of the work and life of the Exmoor writer and artist. Created in partnership with The Exmoor Society, which cares for The Hope L Bourne Collection, the exhibition considers…