What's on in pictures

Come From Away, Merlin Theatre Frome

I HAVE been struggling to find superlatives that adequately describe Frome’s Merlin Theatre production of Come From Away, on stage until Saturday 19th July. It is breathtakingly marvellous, powerful, poignant and astonishingly skillfully and soulfully done by both the 12-strong cast and the musicians in the ten-piece band. We will never forget the worldwide impact of…

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Alice in Wonderland, Athenaeum Warminster

NEVER out of print since it was first published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best known stories ever written. Although thought of, and usually described as, a children’s novel, full of symbolism and surreal twists and turns, it has also found itself dissected and interpreted in literally hundreds…

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If(ord) Opera moves again

AFTER six years in its second venue, Belcombe Court in Bradford on Avon, Iford Arts’ If Opera moves to the beautiful surroundings of Church Farm, Wingfield, south of the town, for the 2025 season. This year’s festival runs from 7th to 17th August. The Clare Teal picnic prom on Sunday 10th August is now sold…

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A seat in history

SCOTTISH sculptor Nigel Ross developed his art practice during his early career in forestry on the Isle of Arran. Now based in Perthshire, he is a regular exhibitor at Roche Court, the New Art Centre at Winterslow near Salisbury. This piece, dating from 2021, has the evocative name Pictish Oak, and is both a beguiling…

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Witty fools and foolish wits

MIRACLE Theatre, Cornwall’s most prolific touring theatre company, returns to Dorset for its summer 2025 open air tour, with a new production of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, Twelfth Night, coming to Ibberton village hall on Thursday 31st July, Kimmeridge Bay on Friday 1st August and Higher Orchard at Sandford Orcas on Saturday 2nd, all…

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The Queen celebrates with Wiltshire Community Foundation

WILTSHIRE Community Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of our Deepest Wiltshire book sales, is 50 this year. It was the country’s first community foundation and the golden jubilee was celebrated at a sunny party at Wellington Barn near Calne, below the beautiful north Wiltshire downs and the Cherhill White Horse. The special guest at the…

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The blue grass valleys of Wales

THE Welsh valleys are a world away from the misty storied blue grass mountains of Virginia, but the five musicians of Taff Rapids have created their own musical genre – Blwgras from Wales. They have a short tour with Artsreach to village halls at Milborne St Andrew on Wednesday 23rd July, Halstock, on Thursday 24th…

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Time Team’s geodome at Corfe Castle

THE famous Time Team geodome will be set up in the grounds of Corfe Castle during the weekend of Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July, with exciting, interactive activities for all ages, as part of the family fun, walks, talks and film screenings that make up the Festival of Archaeology. The festival is a UK…

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All the fun of the fringe

SHAFTESBURY Fringe, three days of every kind of entertainment imaginable, returns to the historic Dorset town from 18th to 20th July, with a programme of more than 300 events (a record number) spread around 37 venues. As director Rob Neely says, it’s all about Shaftesbury: “From its very creation, Shaftesbury Fringe has acted as a…

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The Frankenstein Experience

THE ever-inventive Show of Strength theatre company continues its occasional series of theatrical walks, drawing on the history of Bath or Bristol, with The Frankenstein Experience, exploring Bath’s connection to Frankenstein and his creator, Mary Shelley. The two hour-long show, which includes a one-hour walking tour and entry to Mary Shelley’s house in Bath, is…

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Celebrating choral music at Salisbury Cathedral

THE peripatetic Southern Cathedrals Festival comes to Salisbury this year, from Wednesday 16th to Saturday 19th July, with a programme of services and concerts that celebrate the beauty and power of choral and organ music. The annual festival brings together the choirs of Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester Cathedrals to present choral music at its finest….

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Dreaming round Somerset with the Thespians

TAUNTON Thespians head out on the road on Tuesday 15th July for their summer tour, this year taking William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights’ Dream to ten venues around Somerset. Directed by Bob Corwin, the big-cast company will tell the ever-popular story of capricious young lovers and their dictatorial parents, a group of local workmen putting…

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Noises Off, Studio Theatre, Salisbury

I MUST have seen Michael Frayn’s enduringly hilarious play Noises Off more than a dozen times during my reviewing life, with TV stars, leading West End actors, the Number 3 touring professional companies that it sends up, and by amateurs. I have never seen a production so wonderfully inventive and brilliantly performed as that by…

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Grace Pervades, Bath Theatre Royal

THE first performances of David Hare’s new play Grace Pervades offer a unique opportunity to theatre lovers – to sit in one of the country’s most beautiful theatres learning fascinating facts about Victorian theatre legends Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, from a stage on which they actually performed. And, for these days of breathless star-struckery,…

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Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Bristol Hippodrome

IF you have reached the stage when you think “O no, not another juke box musical”, think again – because this stage version of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film leaves the rest of them trailing in its wake. Practically every number, from the spectacularly-staged The Sparkling Diamond to the haunting Nature Boy, fits the storyline, which…

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Sidmouth – home of the oldest rep

SIDMOUTH’s Manor Pavilion theatre hosts its annual summer season of plays in repertory from Monday 23rd June to mid-September. The season, at the seaside town’s Manor Pavilion theatre, is now said to be the longest running continuous summer rep in the country. Over 12 weeks, local theatre-goers and holiday-makers are entertained with a programme of…

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Gentle Harry’s Farm, The Rude Mechanicals at Abbotsbury, and touring

THE Rude Mechanicals, that endlessly inventive commedia dell’arte touring company, first performed Pete Talbot’s play Gentle Harry’s Farm in 2011, and now the story of a green and pleasant England in the 1950s is on the road again. Performing in the open air is always a gamble, and one that didn’t quite pay off at…

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Fire and Dust, Reg Meuross at Bridport Arts Centre

THE attention of new generations of music lovers has been drawn to Woody Guthrie with the success of the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and it is fortuitous timing for Somerset-based singer and songwriter Reg Meuross, whose brilliant new song cycle, Fire and Dust, was ready at much the same time. The release of the…

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Gorgeous and gourmet, the Glyndebourne of dance at Hatch

THE walled garden at Hatch House near Tisbury is a beautiful place at any time of the year, but it is at its most magical in July when the Covent Garden Dance Company brings its mini-festival, Ballet Under the Stars, nicknamed the “Glyndebourne of dance”, this year from 25th to 27th July. Founder-director Matt Brady…

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Dorset Opera Festival’s 20 years at Bryanston

DORSET Opera Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary at Bryanston School’s Coade Hall this year, following its move to Blandford from its original home at Sherborne School. This year’s festival will run from 22nd to 26th July, and will include two formal dinners in Bryanston House. The opera programme is thrilling, with Verdi’s cruel but musically…

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Blockbuster musicals

The three largest theatres in the south-west region, Southampton Mayflower (seating 2,300) Bristol Hippodrome (1,951), and Plymouth Theatre Royal (1,320), are the places to see the big touring musicals, and their 2025 schedule includes major national tours. The Mayflower will stage  Cameron Mackintosh and Disney’s new production of Mary Poppins production from 27th August to…

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5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, Street Theatre Company

THERE is an understandable degree of secrecy surrounding the meetings of The Susan B Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, and, as the audience at Strode Theatre in Street is invited to attend the annual celebration, that sense of mystery must prevail. The year is 1956 and the Sisterhood meets in upper New…

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The Artistry collective opens at Shepton Mallet

A COLLECTIVE of artists and makers from the Shepton Mallet area is opening a gallery and shop in the town centre, with a launch on Thursday 17th July. The Artistry, showcasing the work of more than 30 local artists and makers, is at 37 Town Street, Shepton Mallet. The project is part of Shepton Mallet…

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Songs of the sea and the salt

THE acclaimed folk band The Salts has a special concert at Honiton’s Beehive centre on Saturday 26th July, an evening of sea shanties and songs from the sea, at which they will be joined by West Country folk multi-instrumentalist and legend Phil Beer, half of the famous duo Show of Hands.. The five-strong band, whose…

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Sidmouth 70th anniversary

SIDMOUTH Folk Festival, one of the biggest events in the folk and traditional music and dance calendar, is 70 this year. It is not the 70th festival (Covid and other factors intervened), but this seaside celebration of folk music, dance and song began in 1955, and it’s back this year from 1st to 8th August,…

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Celebrating Dorset’s composer

DORSET-based composer Rick Birley is celebrated in a chamber concert at St Mary’s Church, Dorchester, on Saturday 19th July, at 7.30pm. The concert will showcase some of Birley’s chamber compositions, brought to life by some of the county’s finest musicians. Leora Cohen (violin), accompanied by Duncan Honeybourne (piano), will play three of Rick’s striking works…

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Dreaming in Bath Abbey

ANTIC Disposition returns to Bath Abbey on 8th August with a Shakespeare’s ever-popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the company creating visually striking productions in historic buildings and unusual non-theatre spaces. Building on the success of last year’s award-winning Romeo and Juliet, the production features nine professional actors – all with…

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From Oklahoma to the North Pole

YEOVIL’S Swan Theatre welcomes a newcomer next week, when Amy McIntosh joins the talented company to play the role of Aurora (Rory to her friends) in Tatty Hennessy’s play A Hundred Words for Snow. Mark Payne directs the play, which had its premiere in London in 2018, and Amy is known to Yeovil audiences for…

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La Traviata, Bath Opera, Wincanton

SINGER-actor, chairman of the company, set mover … first-time director – John Clark certainly took on a lot of roles for Bath Opera’s summer tour of Verdi’s La Traviata. An experienced director of plays and musicals and regular performer, John has this year also tackled the challenge of directing one of the best-loved of all…

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Cerne’s small but perfectly formed festival

  CERNE Abbas has long hosted one of the West Country’s most delightful music festivals, for years featuring the Gaudier Ensemble, but now scaled back to just two days, 19th and 20th July at the beautiful and historic St Mary’s Church, and nearby Ashton Farm. Still one of the musical jewels of the summer, the…

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Moviola in July and August

POPULAR films with Moviola in July and August are the latest Bridget Jones (Mad About the Boy) and the courtroom drama Juror No 2. These films are at Moviola venues across the region: July – Bridget Jones (Mad About the Boy) is being shown at Codford St Peter (Woolstore Theatre), Highcliffe (community centre), Charlton Marshall,…

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Summer rep returns to the Marine

THERE will be a second and longer season of summer rep at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, following last year’s successful inaugural season, with five popular plays on from 23rd July to 27th August. There’s something for everyone with comedies, thrillers and classic drama, including a Jane Austen adaptation, celebrating the great novelist’s 250th anniversary…

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Cross your fingers, pack up your picnic …

…. stow the chairs – and it’s off to the show THOSE glorious few days of warm sun before Easter were the perfect precursor to the open air theatre season, which will this year get under way in May and bring comedies, tragedies, classics and new stories to audiences across the country until mid-September. While…

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