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…
THE New Hardy Players, who were founded to mark the 100th birthday of Norrie Woodall*, the last surviving member of the original Hardy Players, this year celebrate their own big birthday – their 20th anniversary. They marked it with a return to touring their summer production for the first time since the pandemic, with a…
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…
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…
BIRDSONG has been an inspiration to composers and musicians for centuries, from the trills of Vivaldi’s Goldfinch Concerto to Beyonce’s cover of the Beatles’ Blackbird. Now, the Lark Music-Making Competition, launched this week in association with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, encourages today’s amateur instrumentalists to take flight with their own interpretations. Open to anyone over…
ONE of the best-loved plays of the past 50 years, Educating Rita, comes to Cirencester’s tiny but adventurous Barn Theatre from Friday 16th May to Saturday 28th June. Willy Russell’s two-hander, originally staged in 1980 with Julie Walters in the title role, and three years later filmed with Walters again and Michael Caine as the…
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…
…. 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…
THIRTY years ago, two writers, Simon Corbie and Nobby Dimon, adapted John Buchan’s famous story of spies, derring-do and pre-war tension in London and the Highlands, into a play. It had been a successful Alfred Hitchcock film, updated from 1915 to 1935. Ten years later, Patrick Barlow took the play, shook it up and gave…
IF you are among the many people who have been waiting for the latest episode in the Bridget Jones saga to reach your village hall, good news! This is the month when the hapless heroine, once again played by Renee Zellweger, tops the Moviola list, with screenings at Hawkchurch, Membury (Devon), Bourton, South Petherton (David…
SINGERS from several Dorset choirs have been working with Anglo-Chilean band Quimantú on a project that ends on 15th, 20th and 22nd June with concerts at Sturminster Newton and at London’s “Actors Church”. The collaboration, organised by rural touring charity, Artsreach, has brought Misa de los Mineros (The Miners’ Mass) to audiences across the county….
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…