THE role of Rachel Marron, the superstar singer threatened by a stalker, is one that any actor/singer would give their eye teeth for. Involved in 12 song and dance numbers, and some delicious dramatic and romantic moments, Rachel can really take the show by the scruff of the neck and dominate scene after scene. Like…
THE first stage adaptation of former spy John Le Carre’s 1963 novel The Spy Who Came In from the Cold starts with an introduction to the settings and the characters. It is 1961, the audience is told in Jeremy Herrin’s Chichester production, which is ending its lengthy UK tour at Bath, until 22nd August. The…
IT is more than 20 years since George Bernard Shaw’s anti-war satire Arms and the Man was seen on the professional stage in the west country, and Su Gilroy’s new production for her summer rep company at Lyme Regis underlines the question “Why has it been so long?” Shaw might be known for his rather wordy,…
ONE of the pleasures of the original Iford Festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary, was the one-off events, separate from the opera which was the principal focus of the festival in the gorgeous Harold Peto-designed gardens at Iford Manor. Now happily settled in the calm and gentle setting of Church Farm, Wingfield, If Opera…
IN the course of a summer, we reviewers get to see many plays in fields, on coasts, in the grounds of stately homes and in beautiful private gardens, performed by intrepid actors and singers who brave the elements to entertain their loyal and devoted audiences. The summer touring open air theatre season has evolved into an…
IT is ten years since the musical version of Adrienne Shelly’s film Waitress made its way to the stage, and during that time it has amassed fanatical audiences across the English-speaking world. At Bristol Hippodrome this week, theatregoers are able to see one of our leading musical performers, the delightful, unusually subtle, endearing and totally…
WOMEN’s hidden histories have become a fertile area for study, for musical and artistic discovery, and for theatre. Community playwright Stephanie Dale draws on the many women of Dorset who made remarkable contributions to the lives of women of their own time, and down to ours, to create a play that explores their legacy and…
AS Lord Mountararat informs us in Iolanthe: “When Wellington thrashed Napoleon Bonaparte, As every child can tell, The House of Peers throughout the war, Did nothing in particular, And did it very well.” Those last two lines could well be applied to the sterling work done in this play by three actors, Jo Patmore, Sophie…
THE psychological thriller The Late Edwina Black was first performed 77 years ago, a drawing-room play that followed the then-current fashion for isolated houses, moody weather and unexplained deaths, set in 1895 long before the days of DNA but as policing was already becoming increasingly scientific. Of course it is “old fashioned”, but the trick…
IF Matt Brady drank a bottle of good champagne and danced until dawn on the third and final night of this year’s Ballet Under the Stars, the celebrations were totally justified. The last night of the last year of Covent Garden Dance Co’s summer residency in the 17th century walled garden at Hatch House was…