THE 2026-27 season for Amateur Players of Sherborne starts on 7th September with a production of The Good Doctor, a play based on short stories by Anton Chekhov. Directed by Richard Culham, the sold-out production is described as “an evening of laughter, longing and wonderfully human absurdity.” Neil Simon reimagines the Chekhov’s stories with wit,…
GLORIOUS, Peter Quilter’s play about the later life of Florence Foster Jenkins, comes to Ilminster Warehouse from 2nd to 5th September. Florence, an American socialite whose one ambition in life was to sing opera, had enough money to finance concerts at the great opera houses of the country, but little idea how to make one…
THE Billings, a dedicated community venue at the heart of the Theatre Royal Bath, will open in spring 2027. This will be the fourth and final public and performance space within the theatre’s historic city centre site. The project, funded with support from more than 4,200 donors, has been fully approved, and work is now…
THE Commandery Players are returning to their summer retreat at Ansty, near Tisbury, to perform Shakespeare’s The Tempest, from 4th to 8th August nightly at 7.30pm. The company is an offshoot of Tisbury Arts Group, and has been staging plays at the beautiful Elizabethan banqueting hall since 2016. This year they have chosen the play…
LAURA Wade’s colourful satirical play Home, I’m Darling comes to the stage of the Swan Theatre in Yeovil from 20th to 25th July. Judy and Johnny live in 50s bliss in their carefully-curated dream home. She has given up a lucrative job to become a perfect housewife in a house (almost) free of modern technology,…
THE traditionally pantomime and comedy company Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society (aka SNADS) has been growing a reputation for new, challenging and experimental works in recent years, largely thanks to the Taboo company and Toby Greenfield. This July the company takes a further step, producing two striking and uncompromising works by dancer, comedian and pioneer…
FROME celebrates the 25th anniversary of its multi-arts festival this year – and the festival opens on 3rd July, just two days after the funeral of Martin Bax, the actor, former town and district councillor and mayor, who became one of Frome’s most loved and valued citizens. A former actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Martin…
A NEW play by Stephanie Dale, writer of two of Dorset’s successful community plays, uncovers stories of some of the remarkable women from Dorset’s past. Unearthed has its premiere with Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July, followed by two more performances at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Friday…
DORCHESTER has a record-breaking history of community plays … and now the work is starting on number eight. What will its theme be? The Dorchester community play phenomenon began in 1985 with Entertaining Strangers. In the ensuing 40 years, local residents, with professional writers including Ann Jellicoe, David Edgar and Stephanie Dale, have created an…
WE all love a good sit-com. Think of some of your television favourites – Gavin & Stacy, Car Share, Porridge, The Likely Lads, Dad’s Army … Most of these comedy classics, and many others, were written by partnerships of talented writers. This is the starting point of Situation Comedy, the summer production by Yeovil’s Civic Players,…