THOMAS Hardy was famously shy, even occasionally slipping out of the back door when people arrived at the front of Max Gate, his home in Dorchester. Now the National Trust has replanted part of a hedge in front of the house, which formerly shielded the writer from prying eyes. Ahead of Thomas Hardy’s birthday on…
MATILDA Temperley, an accomplished professional photographer who now runs Somerset Cider Brandy and Burrow Hill Cider, the businesses her father Julian founded, is the new patron of Somerset Art Works. This year the visual arts festival in September will be celebrating Somerset’s rich history and diversity under the theme of “cultural connections.” Matilda knows the…
A PAINTING by John Constable, which has been unseen in Salisbury for more than 60 years, is finally going on show at the Salisbury Museum in a landmark moment for the institution. View of Salisbury from Harnham Ridge, a major discovery in the artist’s catalogue that has been hidden away in a private collection since…
SIX adult performers Richard Hurst, Tessa Kadler, Rebecca Thornhiil, Adam Stafford, Ryan Lay, and Esther Niles brought a considerable amount of dramatic, vocal and dance talent to the roles of (respectively) Miss Trunchbull, Miss Honey, Mrs and Mr Wormwood, Rudolpho and Mrs Phelps, and thoroughly deserved the warm reception they received when taking their final…
DYLAN Thomas’s masterpiece, Under Milk Wood, originally written for radio, has had an equally successful life on stage, often as an ensemble piece, but occasionally as a solo show. And the exemplar of solo performers of this poetic and magical work is Guy Masterson, who comes to Bridport’s 100-year old Electric Palace, on Thursday 11th…
JONATHAN Lynn’s “final chapter” in the story of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, now simply titled I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, is back in Bath this week, as part of a summer national tour. Bringing the two old adversaries from the ever-popular TV sitcom up to date, the play opened in Cirencester in 2023. The…
THE Irish seem to have a closer relationship with the mystical, the spiritual … the “other side” than many nations. All the Celtic peoples have their mystical side but the Irish have held on to their mythology more, perhaps because the Romans never conquered them. Maggie O’Farrell was born in Coleraine, in Co Londonderry, and…
SITTING in a darkened room, where the preparation for an act of religious worship is mixed with the visceral fear of discovery, suddenly there’s a pounding at the door … This is a sensation that those who practise banned religions have known for millennia, often with violent, sometimes fatal, consequences. We are warlike animals and…
TWO films dominated the awards season this year – and they could hardly be more different. Both are among the most popular for Moviola screenings in this early summer period. Hamnet has been and remains the most-requested, but Paul Thomas Anderson’s action-comedy-thriller film One Battle After Another is also winning village audiences across the region….
A NEW play by Stephanie Dale, writer of two of Dorset’s successful community plays, uncovers stories of some of the remarkable women from Dorset’s past. Unearthed has its premiere with Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July, followed by two more performances at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Friday…