WHAT is it that every woman wants? That’s the central question posed by the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It’s something that less-enlightened men think they instinctively know. It is also the framework for the Rude Mechanicals’ 2026 summer tour, The Wife. Writer Pete Talbot, an MBE recipient in the King’s Birthday Honours for…
THE summer 2026 exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral is Joyful Noise, contemporary art works by internationally renowned artists, on show until 25th October. The show brings together painting, sculpture, text, video and sound artworks to explore how joyful noise can affirm presence, belief, community, and care. The exhibition includes works by Denzil Forrester, Christine Sun Kim,…
IF you know anything about the early years of rock’n’roll, the names Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley will be top of anyone’s list of performers. Add in the unmistakeable voice and charisma of Johnny Cash and you have a recipe for … Million Dollar Quartet, returning to Cirencester’s Barn Theatre for a…
ONE of Thomas Hardy’s great Wessex novels, The Return of the Native, is rarely adapted for the stage, unlike Tess of the D’Urbevilles, Far From the Madding Crowd or The Mayor of Casterbridge. But it is one of the most powerful and atmospheric stories. Hotbuckle Theatre is touring a new stage version of the novel,…
THE play that skewers the brittle, materialist, class-conscious spirit of the 1970s, Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party is on a national tour, in a new production starring Tamzin Outhwaite, coming to Bath Theatre Royal from Monday 22nd to Saturday 27th June. A ferocious satire on suburban life, the play is set in the Essex home of…
A GOUDA-style extra mature goat’s cheese made by Killeen Farmhouse Cheese in Co Galway, Ireland, was named Supreme Champion at the 10th annual Artisan Cheese Awards, which were held in Melton Mowbray. There were a record breaking 643 entries into Britain and Ireland’s largest cheese competition, and the coveted top trophy was presented during an…
A NEW Shaftesbury Food Festival organising committee had plenty to celebrate as this year’s weekend celebration attracted more than 12,000 visitors to enjoy Dorset food, drink, culture and community, with a programme that ranged from the famous Gold Hill cheese race to MasterChef winner demos and a new food trail. This was the most ambitious…
BEST-selling novelist, playwright and scriptwriter Chris Chibnall is one of the big draws at this year’s 29th Beaminster Festival. One of Dorset’s prettiest towns has an eclectic and stimulating programme, from 27th June to 5th July, including Chris Chibnall, superstar folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, actress and singer Lucy Stevens as the great…
THE Emma Rice Company will be coming to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio this Christmas with a delightful staging of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Adapted and directed by Emma Rice, the play was a sell-out at her company’s Frome base last year, and fans will be delighted to get a second chance…
SOME of the reviewers of this sparklingly sexy and imaginative production have compared it to David McVicar’s famous Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne – and found David Alden’s production lacking in subtlety. Having seen both, (which I’m guessing the other critics have too), I think this Egyptian-themed production, with its fabulous singing, inventive sets and convincing…