YEARS ago, when the Bible, including the often gruesome Old Testament stories, were part of the curriculum, most of us knew a bit about the more colourful characters – Abraham, King David, Daniel (with all his torments), Judith (murdering the enemy general Holofernes), Jonah (in the whale), Noah (and all those pairs of creatures) ……
DONIZETTI’S comic opera L’Elisir d’Amore is usually set in the heat of an Italian summer … but why not in the heat of a Dorset one, thought director Andy Martin, back to the county of his birth from Australia to direct for the company where he had made his first foray into the world of…
ON the evening of 16th December 1912, Bristol Hippodrome opened its doors for the first time with the spectacular production of The Sands O’ Dee, featuring a 100,000 gallon water tank, diving horses and a variety bill headed by Eugene Stratton singing his signature song, Lily of Laguna. The costs of mounting a modern production…
CO-INCIDING with the school summer holidays, John Godber’s popular comedy Teechers returns to the Theatre Royal Bath, from Tuesday 28th July to Saturday 1st August, in a new post-Covid version. Originally written in 1987, Teechers was first performed by the Hull Truck Theatre Company at the 1987 Edinburgh Festival. It rapidly became an audience favourite,…
THE third summer rep season at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, begins on Thursday 23rd July, with the thriller The Late Edwina Black. Meanwhile, about 25 miles west along the Jurassic Coast, Sidmouth’s Manor Pavilion Theatre is already well into its three-month summer season. The repertory theatre programme, often in a seaside theatre, used to…
PAST and present staff, trustees and village partners of Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity, gathered at Buckland Newton village hall to bid farewell to Yvonne Gallimore, who retired from the organisation at the end of July, after nearly 30 years. Former director Ian Scott led the tributes, praising her “massive contribution to Artsreach and…
AS I write this, I have no idea whether the planned production of Claire Dowie’s late 1990s double bill of All Over Lovely and Easy Access (for the boys) will be going ahead at The Exchange at Sturminster Newton tonight and tomorrow. If it does, the audience is in for a brilliantly performed and deeply uncomfortable…
THE King and Queen visited Blandford Forum on Thursday 16th July, to see the newly restored Corn Exchange and meet representatives of various cultural and charity groups, including Dorset Opera Festival and Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre. The Lighthouse team, led by chief executive Elspeth McBain and creative engagement manager Martha Earley, were among representatives of…
FOR the first time in 30 years, there has been a confirmed sighting of a puffling on the vertiginous Purbeck cliffs. The news of the puffin fledgling gives hope for Dorset’s dwindling puffin colony, says the National Trust, which manages the Dancing Ledge area. The sighting follows monitoring by 13 volunteers who spent 150 hours…
YOU know what they say – if you remember the 60s, you weren’t really there. It is probably also true that if you remember the 50s, you wouldn’t want to go back there. But romantic Judy and her husband Johnny love the 50s. They love the music, the clothes, the home decor … Johnny obviously…