I DIDN’T believe it was possible to make Iford MORE magical, but Timothy Nelson’s sparkling new performing edition of Purcell’s A Fairy Queen has done just that. Of course the work, composed in 1692 to be performed interwoven with Shakespeare’s already popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has magic at its heart. But the Renaissance talents…
ANOTHER popular film makes its way to the stage, with another chance to hear some classic songs performed live, and to experience the story of the celluloid in real life action; this time it is the 1984 film Footloose, which became a stage musical in 1998 and tells the story of a young man, Ren,…
“THAT is how it should be done” was just one of the comments I overheard at the end of the most delightful, authentic, entertaining, musical, and funny evening in the garden of the Bishop’s Palace at Wells, in the company of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Named after one of the main acting companies of Shakespeare’s…
THIS is a big year for Shakespeare – and many of the 400th anniversary celebrations involve the Scottish Play, a timely choice. Personally we’re rather in danger of being Macbethed-out with another still to come at Shakespeare’s Globe, but first it’s Verdi and the very different stagings possible at Iford’s magical but tiny cloister and Dorset…
MIKE Leigh’s savagely funny play Abigail’s Party, set in London suburbia in 1977, might be a period piece but it’s as hilariously fresh as ever, as Motcombe Community Players proved to two sell-out audiences at the Village Hall. Five people get together for drinks and nibbles, while the 15-year-old daughter of one of them has…
FIFTY two years after its opening, Brownsea Open Air Theatre celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with its first performance of one of his earliest plays, the difficult Two Gentlemen. It sets the scene for many of its successors, with snatches of the story reappearing in many guises, and also introduces its audiences to…
AFTERNOON Tea Week, this year from 8th to 14th August, is an excuse to indulge in cake, and scones and cream, and wonderful jam and, well, cake! And you get them all at The Queens Arms at Corton Denham. The award-winning pub will be serving afternoon teas brimming with berries, Battenberg and bubbles, offering an…
WHEN Tchaikovsky decided to adapt Pushkin’s beloved verse novel Eugene Onegin, it gave him not only an opera but a ballet, both of which continue to move, enthral and delight audiences the world over. The opera has provided Dorset Opera Festival with its finest moment at Blandford, bringing tears and cheers from the packed Coade…
THE Americana-country scene, based in Nashville Tennessee, spawns a seemingly endless supply of singer-songwriters, many of whom tour the UK visiting everything from the stadium circuit to county and town-fringe pubs as they make their names. Some, like Gretchen Peters, made an immediate hit with British audiences who have remained faithful over the years. She’s…
by Simone Sekers CAN you judge the standard of food at a place by what the chef is wearing? And if there isn’t a chef, then who will give you the clues you seek? You can give a good sniff around the area of the extractor fans and give the place a wide berth if…