THE weather this week has been so grim – cold, wet, windy, November going out like a grumpy hippo – so we thought we could dig into our archives and find something bright and sunny to cheer us all up. What better than a late summer visit to Provence with our friend, chef Philippa Davis from…
Mozart Piano Concerto No 23 in A Bruckner Symphony No. 8 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Conductor Kirill Karabits Piano Robert Levin MUSIC certainly keeps you young! I had a double-take when checking the biography of 70-year-old American pianist Robert Levin, who from his platform manner I had assumed to be a sprightly 50-something. …
STEELEYE Span has been the fulcrum of traditional folk rock for decades, and a new line up (again with Maddy Prior at its heart) is ploughing a new furrow for the band. Out on tour playing the first ever Steeleye album, Hark the Village Wait!, in its entirety as well as a second half selection…
THE festive season is all around us, with pantomimes, Christmas lights and carols coming from every speaker – but the mood is more bleak midwinter than merry Christmas at the Ustinov studio where American playwright Will Eno’s award-winning play follows Daniel Kehlmann’s disturbing Christmas Eve. Eno describes the play as a comedy and it certainly…
MAYBE the rotund and irreverent Bristol-based actor Howard Coggins is not EXACTLY how you picture God the Father. Maybe Stu McLaughlin is not your perfect image of the Archangel Gabriel. But suspend your disbelief and set off for Nazareth and Bethlehem in the company of Living Spit, to enjoy the familiar Christmas story in a…
I FIRST saw this show at the Edinburgh Fringe on its second visit there in the mid-90s, after its international life had started with a stint at the Hackney Empire, gradually entrancing audiences and eventually winning an Olivier Award. It is hard to describe the emotion and effect of the show itself, but mention it…
THE Nuffield Theatre has done it again. They are renowned for the quality of their Christmas shows, and always manage to offer something that appeals to adults as much as children. This year it is the story of young Victorian foundling Hetty Feather as she finds her way through her early life, mainly at the…
THIS is the year when the word on the Edinburgh Festival was that unless your show featured at least one transitioning character and was gender neutral, you didn’t stand a chance. So when actor and renowned director Seb Harcombe was asked to direct for the final year of the AUB three year acting course, what…
RICHARD Harris’s 1979 Outside Edge was the play chosen by MADS to mark their 70th anniversary. The popular and much-performed cricketing comedy is the story of a cricket club whose members are trying to win a match at the same time as sorting out their marital machinations. It’s played in real time with a scorer…
SCOTTISH band Skerryvore is fast building an international reputation for the energy and power of its music. From its beginnings 12 years ago on Tiree as a ceilidh band, this year’s eight-man version includes a second piper, and the result is electrifying – as a lamentably small but noisily participatory Octagon audience would confirm. From…