YES, that’s Greece, not Grease … the award-winning Mischief company comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th May with the latest stage mayhem, a musical comedy which offers an (unlikely) explanation for the origins of acting. Thespians, packed with comedy, chaos and choreography sure to have the audience aching with laughter,…
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…
WHILE the Bloomsbury set – Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell et al – is most frequently associated with their unconventional and creative lives in London and Sussex, the Bloomsbury Group also had strong Wiltshire connections, which are celebrated in the summer exhibition at Salisbury Museum in the Cathedral Close, and in a commissioned play, which will…
SINGER-songwriter Sarah McQuaid is touring again, featuring songs from the new album which she will be recording at the studio at her home in the far west of Cornwall. She will be at Crediton Arts Centre on 5th June, Holy Trinity Church at Westward Ho! on 12th, Parracombe Village Hall on 19th and at Torquay’s…
SIXTEEN days of visual arts celebration, exploring the galleries, studios and arts centres of Dorset, begins with the return of the biennial Dorset Art Weeks, this year from 23rd May to 7th June. More than 290 venues, from Highcliffe to Monkton Wykd, will have work by painters, potters, printmakers, photographers, sculptors, textile artists, makers and…
PAULINE Eyre was a line judge at Wimbledon for 20 years. Now as a stand-up comedian she takes her experiences on the road, coming to Shaftesbury Arts Centre on 27th May, Bridport Arts Centre on 28th, Swanage’s Mowlem There on 29th. In her new show, Anyone for tennis?, Pauline spills the Pimms on tennis gossip,…
“THE ship is in her trim; the merry wind blows fair from land*” – exactly the message you need as you’ve packed the picnic basket, stowed the chairs in the car, checked your tickets on the phone (?) and set off for an evening in the open air, surrounded by trees and hedgerows, all ready…
FORTY years ago, actors Roger Rees and Rick Elice wrote the “romantic-thriller” Double Double, in the same year that the film Down and Out in Beverley Hills was released. Both feature a rough sleeper who comes into a family home and upends the status quo. But Double Double, revived at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre until 28th…
A FALCON, a contemporary take on a Shakespearean tragedy and a celebration of one of the greatest singer-songwriters provide the picks of spring and early summer for Moviola audiences. Laden with awards, the film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 acclaimed novel, Hamnet, focuses on William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes, an unconventional Tudor woman, with a mysterious…
JUST a year on since the first beavers were released into the wild at Studland, the natural eco engineers have been transforming woodland, dramatically reshaping part of the local landscape and turning a previously dense area of woodland into a thriving wildlife-rich wetland. The pair have built an extensive dam which has slowed the flow…
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,…
BATH’S Egg theatre has a delightful show for children and their families over the May half term, from Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st May, when Let’s All Dance Ballet Company presents Alice in Wonderland. This magical ballet is recommended for children aged two years and over. Come and join Alice as she enters the curiouser…
ACCLAIMED baritone Roderick Williams has concluded his year-long tenure as Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-residence, with a concert with the orchestra, and a song recital, both at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre. He also visited Longfleet CE Primary School at Poole, where he joined an assembly and shared in a workshop with pianist Simon Gilliver and music…
ANYONE who has visited the great Tisbury tithe barn, now home to the Messums West contemporary art gallery, will understand why the word “cathedral” comes to mind – and the new installation, Forest Cathedral, takes this as its inspiration, creating a powerful experience for visitors to the 700-year old building, with its awe-inspiring, soaring timber…
ROGER Fry, painter and member of the Bloomsbury Group, is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Museum of Somerset,Taunton, on until 4th July. A Life in Art: Roger Fry is a major new exhibition exploring the life, work and influence of one of the most important figures in 20th century British art. The exhibition…