THE dividing line between real emotion and sentimentality can be very narrow, and in a play, maintaining that division comes down to the insights of the director and the understanding of the actors. Never act with children or animals, they say, so you might think that David Wood’s Goodnight, Mr Tom, with children, animals and…
THE National Trust has announced plans to release Eurasian beavers[at two sites in the south of England next spring to help with flood management and to improve biodiversity. The beaver reintroductions will be the Trust’s first, linking to its ambitions to create priority habitats for nature and to increase the diversity of species and wildlife…
CHRISTMAS is a time when most cheese-lovers enjoy some special treats, whether it’s a great Stilton (with or without port) or one of the country’s finest traditional Cheddars, for which we are spoiled for choice! Among the best are the three great Somerset traditional farmhouse Cheddars, from Keens near Wincanton, Montgomerys of North Cadbury and…
THE Merlin Theatre Productions Christmas show this year is a community presentation of a new version of Cinderella, written and directed by Claudia Pepler with new music by Joseph Church. Making full use of the wide, deep stage, with a 45-strong cast, this is a fresh reading of the original story that inspired the world’s…
THIS year the posters advertising Christmas shows are jostling for space with those pushing candidates for a general election. Both have their pantomime elements, but if it’s fun, good humour, slick jokes, colourful costumes and a large dose of love that you want, I’d suggest Salisbury Playhouse’s Robin Hood. It’s Good Good Good! It was…
SO successful was last season’s production of A Christmas Carol at Bristol Old Vic that they decided to bring it back again for 2019/20, with some new music and a substantially new cast. This time John Hopkins is at its centre, a more vulnerable Ebenezer Scrooge than Felix Hayes’s sonorous curmudgeon last Christmas, and more…
JUST how difficult IS it to sleep on the night before Christmas, when you’re waiting for the sound of Santa’s reindeer in the sky? You can find out in the studio theatre at Bristol Old Vic until 5th January, when Travelling Light brings its favourite show back to the historic venue. This time the performers…
IF you want the perfect alternative Christmas show, look no further than Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, where a wonderful new version of Snow White is on stage until 19th January. Adapted by Mike Tweddle and the company, and directed by Alex Byrne, it manages that gargantuan challenge of being woke, politically aware, plant-based and very, very…
THE 21st of the 80-plus plays written by Alan Ayckbourn Ten Times Table comes from the 1970s, one of the most prolific and successful periods in his writing career. No fewer than 17 of his plays were successfully professionally produced at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and London’s West End during this decade. This…
AFTER five years of turn-of-the-year touring, Bumblefly Theatre has built up a tradition of opening on a Saturday afternoon at Greyfriars in Ringwood, and this year is no exception. The 2019/20 show is David Haworth’s new version of Little Red Riding Hood, peppered with the company’s usual selection of fairy stories and folk tales from…