A NEW scheme by the National Trust aims to return rivers to their natural path to reduce the impact of climate change, flood risk and to make space for nature, including the endangered water vole. Allowing rivers to meander like ‘the branches of a tree’ rather than along a single channel will slow river flow,…
IT’S 20 years since Andrew Hilton took the ambitious and risky step of establishing a theatre company to perform Shakespeare – for five years – in the former Imperial Tobacco factory in Bristol’s Southville. In the intervening years the area has seen a resurgence of popularity, and the company, now known as stf, is a…
A MALE koala has been flown from Osaka in Japan to join Longleat’s koala programme. The 12-year-old marsupial was flown from Osaka Tennoji Zoo and accompanied on the flight by his Japanese keepers and vet who are helping him settle in to his new home. His arrival means Longleat now has what is believed to…
EDMOND Rostand’s 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac draws its inspiration from the true story of a Gascon hero and poet, and its swashbuckling romance continues to excite and delight audiences in theatres and cinemas across the world. It is currently one of the flavours of the year, with new several new stage productions and…
IF the story contained in this opera was to appear on one of the film channels on television it would undoubtedly has a pre showing warning that it contains racially discriminatory language and out of date social images that might be offensive to some viewers. The producers of this show did not think it was a necessary to print such a warning in…
AMATEUR theatricals are the butt of many jokes but the best amateurs often bring a level of professionalism to their productions that stands comparison with many professional companies. Ian Hislop and Nick Newman used this well-known fact to great comic effect in their screenplay, A Bunch of Amateurs, but despite terrific performances by Burt Reynolds…
MOST people know this play from the glossy 1944 MGM film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, with the 18-year-old Angela Lansbury (making her film debut) gaining an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Nancy the cheeky maid and the role of Rough, the policeman, somewhat glamourised to accommodate the actor…
Strauss Metamorphosen Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Stephen Barlow: Conductor John Lill: Piano WE sometimes fail to appreciate how startling and revolutionary some of Beethoven’s earlier works would have seemed at first hearing in the context of what had been heard before. Just as the rather neglected…
WHEN, in 1948, the Oldfield Park Rangers Company presented their first shows, Hiawatha and The Pirates of Penzance, no men were allowed in the cast. Three years later, under the banner of the Bath Youth Operatic Group, they let the boys into the company. It was five years after the club’s first presentation, in 1956…
WITHOUT Alan Turing, it is arguable that we would all be living under the Nazis with no computers. Hugh Whitemore’s play ‘Breaking the Code’ dates from 1986, a time before the fame and reputation of Alan Turing were firmly established. We now know that the eccentric mathematical genius masterminded the history-changing breaking of the German Enigma code…