ROBERT Louis Stevenson spent some years living in Westbourne, then an affluent suburb of Bournemouth, and it was here that he wrote the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. So it is appropriate for the town’s Palace Court Theatre to be the venue for a striking reimagining of this famous thriller,…
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…
IN these febrile days of international wars, covert communications and the popularity of The Traitors and its spin-offs, Hugh Whitemore’s 1983 play Pack of Lives will seem frighteningly relevant. It has been chosen for the next Amateur Players of Sherborne production, directed by Adrian Harding and on stage at the APS Studio Theatre from 9th…
DAVID Copperfield: A Life is an exciting new re-telling of Dickens’ classic, brought to the stage of Bath Theatre Royal, from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd February in an epic community production. A cast of more than 100 people is led by award-winning director Sally Cookson and writer-adapter Mike Akers. This new version asks the…
FEW theatregoers around the world have seen Scottish playwright David Greig’s 2002 play Outlying Islands, but a lucky few in and around Salisbury now have a second opportunity. The play was staged on a short tour in 2004 after its premiere in Scotland, and it featured Sam Heughan, now a global superstar as the leading…
IF you would like to be part of Yeovil Swan Theatre’s production of The Unfriend, due on stage from 18th to 23rd May, there are auditions on Sunday 8th at 2.30 and Tuesday 10th February at 7.30. Director Sarah Ambrose is hoping for a good turnout. The play is all about what happens when a…
LYME Regis has two famous literary connections – Jane Austen’s Persuasion and The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the best-known novel by long-time Lyme resident John Fowles. There was a 250th anniversary production of Jane Austen’s Persuasion at the Marine Theatre last year, and this year, from 11th to 14th February, the mysterious cloaked woman returns in…
COMPANIES across the FTR core area have taken the top awards in this year’s Rose Bowl contest, and leading the way was Claudia Pepler’s astonishing production of Come From Away (pictured right) at the Merlin Theatre in Frome in July, which took the Bristol Evening Post award for best musical production. Sarah Nias (right) won…
“A stage where everyone’s story can be told” BATH’s Theatre Royal has received planning permission for Venue 4, a new community studio theatre for the public on St John’s Place. Subject to a fundraising campaign, Venue 4 will be a new home for the theatre’s Engage adult participation programme and will offer a range of…