SHEILA Hannon is a phenomenon – a one-woman theatrical powerhouse, who for 40 years has been creating theatrical events in Bristol and Bath with her Show of Strength Theatre Company. This year she is one of the 10 finalists for Visit England’s Tourism Superstar award. Sheila has been nominated by Visit West and thoroughly deserves the…
IT hardly seems more than a month since the 2025-26 pantomime season ended, and already theatres around the country are looking forward to the 2026/2027 season. This early press release will be good news for fans of the festive show at England’s prettiest theatre, Bat Theatre Royal. Nick Wilton will be back as the Dame…
BATH Comedy Festival returns from 21st March to 19th April with more than 100 shows, featuring well over 300 performances, with big names at Bath Forum including Dead Ringers, Paul Merton and Suki Webster, Harry Enfield and Troy Hawke. The festival also brings a host of acts to its intimate upstairs room at the Ring…
ARTSREACH, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity, has been selected to be part of this year’s Big Give: Arts for Impact campaign. From midday on Tuesday 17th March to midday on Tuesday 24th, every pound donated to Artsreach through the Big Give platform will be doubled – meaning twice the support for the charity’s work across…
CHAMBER folk trio Three Cane Whale are familiar to West Dorset audiences with their occasional gigs at Sladers Yard, West Bay. Starting on Thursday 12th March at Ibberton village hall, the Bristol-based trio are on a short Artsreach tour, continuing at Powerstock Hut on Friday 13th March, and the village hall at Woodlands near Verwood…
IT is not unusual for directors to take liberties with the setting, and costuming, of what is arguably Shakespeare’s most endearing and popular comedy. After nearly three centuries of turning the actors out in traditional Athenian costumes, and placing them in the Forest for most of the production, Harley Granville-Barker swept all that away in…
CELLIST Adrian Brendel, now the director of Bath’s Mozart and Bach festivals, comes to the Farrington Hall at Port Regis near Shaftesbury on Saturday 14th March to perform works by Beethoven, Faure and Prokofiev. He will be joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson, who has stepped in following the withdrawal of Viv McLean, as advertised. The…
SIMON Stephens’ play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has been hailed as the most popular murder mystery of the 21st century. Now the play comes to Strode Theatre in Street in a production by Street Theatre, from 18th to 21st March. Based on Mark Haddon’s novel of the same name, it’s…
ACTOR and writer David Haig wrote his third play, Pressure, in 2014 for Chichester Festival Theatre. It has its Somerset premiere from 16th to 21st March at Yeovil’s Swan Theatre, in a production directed by Mark Payne. The date is June 1944. The Allied forces are poised for D-Day, and the lives of 350,000 Allied…
PAGODA Project brings its unique blend of contemporary folk and improvisation to Bradninch Folk Club at the Guildhall, in Devon on 17th March at 7.30pm. This adventurous trio is Paul Hutchinson on accordion, Shaftesbury-based composer and clarinettist Karen Wimhurst and Hannah Cumming, fiddle and voice. The Project is inspired by the folk traditions of the…