IT would be hard to imagine a more perfect setting for baroque opera than the Italianate cloister in the beautiful Harold Peto-designed gardens of Iford Manor near Bradford-on-Avon. Over the years, the cloister and the gardens were the setting for operas from every period, jazz, folk and world music, picnic proms and more. It was…
THE new dance theatre creation by choreographer and storyteller Matthew Bourne will be coming to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre and Bath Theatre Royal in November as part of its world premiere tour. Bourne’s New Adventures company is bringing The Midnight Bell, described as “intoxicating tales from darkest Soho,” to Poole from Thursday 4th – Saturday…
MORE than 300 members of Somerset Art Works are taking part in this year’s Somerset Open Studios, running from 18th September to 3rd October. With work in more 200 studios and spaces, it will be one of the largest Open Studios events to date. Visitors have the opportunity to go behind the scenes and meet…
AFTER their triumphantly lockdown-busting production of Waiting for Godot last summer, Amateur Players of Sherborne return to the Paddock Gardens for two performances of a Shakespearean miscellany on 15th and 22nd August. Shakespeare In (and out of) Love has been written (with a little help from William Shakespeare) and edited by John Crabtree and Martin…
THEATRE-lovers have been relishing the chance to see their chosen art form in open air venues all across the region – even if they have had to dodge downpours and withstand winds. This summer has a record number of companies with more than 25 productions touring the south and west until early in September. Illyria…
SIR David Suchet, one of this country’s most loved actors, best-known as Agatha Christie’s Poirot on television, but acclaimed for his many stage roles, looks back on his long career in a live conversation at Bath Theatre Royal on Monday 22nd November. Poirot and More, A Retrospective will tour to more than 20 theatres in…
POOLE’s Lighthouse arts centre has scored a notable success for music fans with a date on Nick Cave’s autumn tour. The constantly innovating and sometimes controversial musician is performing with Warren Ellis. In their first tour as a duo, Cave and Ellis will play 20 shows across the UK in September and October, following the…
THREADS through Creation, opening at Salisbury Cathedral on 17th August, is a stunning exhibition of 12 enormous embroidered panels that explore the story of the Creation. Inspired by the verses of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, textile artist Jacqui Parkinson reimagines this ancient story in a vibrant combination of eight million stitches, layers…
THE past and future of Yeovil will be celebrated in public areas of the town centre through art concepts created in collaboration with community groups interested in the arts and their role in the future of the town. After interviews with a number of artists, South Somerset District Council appointed YOU&ME Architecture with community poet…
THERE are two ways you can launch a festival. You can spend years planning, booking the acts and preparing the events, securing sponsorship, getting the funding in place, hiring venues and making sure you have an army of volunteers and a core team of committed professionals to manage every date and detail. Or you can…