Winter is coming …

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…

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Lottery grant for Chew Valley Hoard

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…

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Jennifer Saunders to star in The Sea

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…

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Bringing Thomas Hardy’s novel to life

ACTOR and musician Alastair Braidwood is undertaking a marathon live audiobook reading of one of Thomas Hardy’s best-loved books, Far From the Madding Crowd, starting on Tuesday 17th February and running for seven weeks. Alastair, well known from the New Hardy Players and their band and ceilidh band Tatterdemalion will be reading the book to…

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Mother Goose, The Exchange, Sturminster Newton

THE annual SNADS pantomime has always been a big part of the society’s year, the large cast and crew meaning that almost every member is involved in some way to bring the February show to the audience. This year experienced director Craig White joined debut director (and principal boy) Jessica Allen to lead a 34-strong…

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Counting birds on a Scottish Island

FEW theatregoers around the world have seen Scottish playwright David Greig’s 2002 play Outlying Islands, but a lucky few in and around Salisbury now have a second opportunity.  The play was staged on a short tour in 2004 after its premiere in Scotland, and it featured Sam Heughan, now a global superstar as the leading…

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Indian Ink, Bath Theatre Royal

TOM Stoppard’s play Indian Ink, first seen in 1995, comes to Bath after a short season at the Hampstead Theatre. Directed with a meticulous and playful eye by Jonathan Kent, it once again stars Felicity Kendal, the actress for whom the central character, avant garde 1920s poet Flora Crewe, was written. Now she plays Flora’s…

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Exeter venues’ scratch night

EXETER’S Northcott Theatre and Phoenix Arts Centre are collaborating on a Scratch Night partnership, on Monday 23rd February, to support established and emerging artists and performers across the South West. Following the huge success of Scratch Night during the 2025 Elevate Festival, the second Scratch Night will take place at Exeter Phoenix auditorium offering artists…

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An American musical journey

OPERA at Oborne and Opera Cameratina get together over Valentine’s weekend to celebrate the distinctive music of America, with an evening of three short operas on Saturday 14th February, an open workshop and song recital on Sunday. The performances are at the village’s lovely St Cuthbert’s Church, the venue for the summer Opera at Oborne…

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Carducci plays Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich

THE next concert in the Shaftesbury Chamber Music series at Port Regis School brings the Carducci String Quartet back to North Dorset for an evening of varied works on Sunday 15th February at 5pm. The quartet, violinists Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, violin and cellist Emma Denton, will play Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, Shostakovich 4…

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