“WHO runs the world?” ask the fearless and brilliant dancers of the Turkish company Ceyda Tanc, when they come to Buckland Newton village hall on Sunday 1st March. Their answer ;is “Girls.” The performance, at 3.30pm, is the only Dorset date for the company, and is presented by the county’s rural touring arts charity Artsreach….
AFTER the mysterious disappearance of a world-famous magician disappears, the great Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate in Holmes and Watson: The Curious Case of The Masked Magician comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Saturday 7th March at 11am and 2.30pm and Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday 15th March at 2.30. 1t’s 1906…
TWO great artists met their deaths by gun-shot. Vincent died in 1890. John died in 1980. What might have happened had the two great artists met? Discover a possible answer in When Vincent met John at Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 7th March. Vincent van Gogh was a 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among…
SALISBURY International Arts Festival, running from 16th to 27th June, takes two very different looks at the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, with a community production of Shakespeare’s play, from 24th May to 7th June, and a dance version, Lost Dog’s Juliet & Romeo, which imagines this enduring tale of love turned upside down….
ICELANDIC cellist Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir, with accompanist Antoine Préat, joins Concerts in the West’s for the March series, starting at 11.30am on Friday 13th March at Bridport Arts Centre, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday 14th at 7.30. The duo will play a programme of cello…
WHEN one of Dorset’s finest painters persuaded one of the region’s most exciting sculptors to be painted at work in her studio, the results were bound to be exciting. And they are. Journey: Binny Matthews and Clare Trenchard, Paintings of the Sculptor’s Studio, is at Sladers Yard, West Bay, until 7th March. Inspired by Moroccan…
IF you loved Game of Thrones – or maybe never saw it but still couldn’t escape its omnipresence – don’t miss A&E Comedy’s brilliant spoof, Game of Crones, coming to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday 27th February at 7.30pm. Sharpen your swords and fill your goblets – the dragons have returned … Abigail Dooley and…
SOUTH West Heritage Trust has received a £993,345 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for an ambitious two-year project to celebrate the Chew Valley Hoard and mark the 1,000th anniversary of William the Conqueror’s birth. Comprising 2,584 silver coins, the Chew Valley Hoard is the highest-value treasure acquisition on record and comes from the…
I ARRIVED at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre in the apparently unique situation of never having watched the TV series (mostly because I am not a fan of one of the leading actors). So, with a not just open but totally uninformed mind, I approached Simon Nye’s stage version, set on the night of the Millennium, shunted…
CHALKE History Festival, the UK’s leading celebration of history, will return from 22nd to 28th June to bring the past vividly to life through a rich programme of top-class talks, wide-ranging discussions and dynamic living history experiences. The line-up includes classicist Mary Beard, radio presenter and journalist James Naughtie, commentator Anne Applebaum, former White House…
TWO of the region’s leading theatres are collaborating on an autumn production of the darkly funny and popular musical Little Shop of Horrors. Opening at Exeter from 1st to 17th October, this will be the first full production of a musical at the Northcott in more than 20 years. The show will be moving to…
THE Royal Bath and West show ground hosts the Bath & West Food & Drink Festival over the weekend 21st and 22nd March, as well as the 30th anniversary British & Irish Cheese Awards, on Friday 20th. Featuring talks, markets, demos, tours and more, the third annual Food & Drink Festival will be staged around…
WHILE it is a truth universally acknowledged that we all love Jane Austen (well, most of us do), we probably wouldn’t call ourselves superfans as best friends Charlotte and Ellie do, and they want you to join them at their exclusive Jane Austen Fan Club, on tour until 5th March. Hilarious and heartfelt, an evening…
THE 2026 programmes of Banff Mountain Film Festival screenings are touring the UK, and local dates continue throughout the year. The short films range from extreme climbing and kayaking to mountain biking and other dazzling adventures in wild places. With extreme climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and the one of the world’s most gruelling races, the…
THE return of a grand family and a modern family falling apart – the themes of the two most in-demand films in Moviola’s February programme. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale manages to be a reassuringly comfortable way to pass a couple of hours, while not offering anything challenging or unexpected. The Roses, on the other…
THE new exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury is Legacy in Making, running until 10th May. Presented by Somerset Art Works in partnership with the South West Heritage Trust, it celebrates the legacy and future of the Somerset Craft Guild. It shows the remarkable breadth of contemporary and historic craft in Somerset,…
A NEW free exhibition at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, RNLI: Stories of Courage 1939-45, running until 28th February, explories the way the volunteer lifeboat crews saved lives at sea in dangerous conditions, including a lifeboat that was one of the famous “little boats” that rescued soldiers pinned down on the beaches at Dunkirk. The exhibition…
TWO popular small touring theatre companies have got together to produce a new comedy, General Medical Emergency Ward 10, which starts an Artsreach tour at Halstock on 4th March, followed by Sydling St Nicholas on Thursday 5th and Winterborne Stockland on Friday 6th. Award‑winning Dyad Productions and Company Gavin Robertson have reimagined the worlds of…
THE king of boogie-woogie piano Ben Waters is joined by his son, the brilliant saxophonist Tom, for an evening of boogie and blues at the Beehive Centre at Honiton on Saturday 7th March. From the moment he first danced his fingers across the keys, Dorset-born Ben Waters has been on a mission to capture the…
ONE of the reasons that Adrian Brendel has slipped so seamlessly into the charismatic shoes of the late Amelia Freedman as artistic director of Bath’s Mozart and Bach Fests, is that he, as he pointed out when introducing The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra’s splendid closing concert in the Abbey, he is fully aware what a…
THE new exhibition at The Art Stable at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, features the work of 20th century painter and film-maker Humphrey Jennings and his daughter Charlotte. The work is on show in the main gallery and upstairs until 21st March. Best-known as a documentary film-maker, Humphrey Jennings (1907 to 1950) was described…
THE new exhibition at Salisbury Museum, in the Cathedral Close, is Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex, runs to Sunday 10th May. Celebrating the rich folk art, traditions and seasonal customs of Wessex, the exhibition explores how folk culture has been shaped by communities past and present. Created by and for the people, folk…
WHEN Cirencester-based Rave Coffee got together with Lacock’s Coco Chemistry the result was destined to be delicious – a treat for sophisticated chocolate lovers – a big, blonde, crunchy, caffeinated Easter egg that you won’t want to share with the children (or anyone else!) Over the years, Rave has developed a reputation for its exciting…
ONE of the most critically acclaimed stage performances of recent years comes to Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th February. Jodie Comer stars in Suzie Miller’s solo play, Prima Facie, an emotionally charged and challenging drama about a young barrister who is forced to confront the limitations of the law. The play…
STU McCloughlin shows his versatility when he takes on one of the greatest challenges in theatre, the title role in Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy, Macbeth, at Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bedminster, from 19th February to 28th March. The much-loved star of comedy theatre company Living Spit is familiar to audiences around the West Country, both with…
EXPLORE the free-spirited era of the 1960s – the so-called “swinging” decade – through boutique fashion alongside fabulously creative homemade garments at Blandford Fashion Museum. The museum is housed in the Georgian, Grade II-listed Lime Tree House in The Plocks, built by the Bastard brothers after the great fire of 1731. It houses collections that…
JENNIFER Saunders returns to Bath Theatre Royal in October to star in The Sea, Edward Bond’s masterpiece. It is the first revival in nearly 20 years of the play, which is a blend of wild farce, high comedy, biting social satire and bleak poetic tragedy. The star, best known as half of French and Saunders…