Submitted review by Harriet Still SONGS and stories of migration echoed around the Georgian courtroom of Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum in Matthew Crampton and Jeff Warner’s show, Human Cargo. The two folk performers used humour, poignancy and hard-hitting facts to tell the tales of individuals who have moved across continents. The thought-provoking stories…
THEBES is emerging from a long civil war, ten years of unspeakable brutalities, particularly against children and women. Think Bosnia, Congo, Sudan. Years of massacres, starvation, the total breakdown of civil society. Now there is a fledgling government, led by a small group of brave women – widows, women who have survived rape, watched their…
JOHN Crabtree took on the task not only of directing and designing the first public production in Amateur Players of Sherborne’s new Studio Theatre in Marston Road, but also taking one of the least enviable roles in the play, that of the tyrannical father Egeus. He didn’t want a flimsy, whimsical take on Shakespeare’s story,…
SASHA Regan’s version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe is quintessentially English fun, expanding the original wit and energy into the 21st century. First seen in London in 2010, it starts as a group of excited young men find themselves in an old theatre, clamber onto the darkened stage, and get lost in the history of…
PURBECK is becoming a hot spot for outstanding chamber music and vocal ensembles, with Purbeck Chamber Music Festival in the late summer, and the exciting series of concerts during Purbeck Art Weeks in May and June. Some of the country’s leading classical musicians and singers, including cellist Natalie Clein, artistic director of the chamber music…
TONY and Gill Horitz, founders of the Wimborne-based State of Play, devised The Gathering from letters collected from local families. Performed to a packed audience in the north transept of Wimborne Minster, after its premiere at Holtwood Church earlier in the year, it tells the stories of two Dorset soldiers who died in the conflict. …
AUDIENCES at Bristol Old Vic can see the world premiere performances of A Monster Calls until 16th June, when it moves to London’s Old Vic. Directed by Sally Cookson, this first stage adaptation of the book started by Siobhan Dowd and completed by Patrick Ness is the story of 13-year-old Conor and how he deals…
DIRECTOR Paul Clarkson has chosen the inventive and challenging Helen Edmundson version of The Mill on the Floss, made for Shared Experience, for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School summer tour. As with all Shared Experience productions, the story is told on many levels, transporting the audience into the mind of heroine Maggie Tulliver as…
THE “Summer Show” genre has all but disappeared, but its demise doesn’t stop an audience richly enjoying a feel-good, lightweight summery romp – and that’s just what they get with Love on the Links, a new play adapted from the words of PG Wodehouse, on in Salisbury until 23rd June. After a week of violent…
CHARLES Dickens’ classic tale of hope, disappointment and love, Great Expectations, is a favourite for stage adaptation, and you won’t see a better one than the Malvern Theatre/Tilted Wig current tour. Ken Bentley has worked with Katherine Senior (best known as actress and writer with Creative Cow) on bringing the story of Pip, Estella, Miss…