WILLIAM Hooker Gillette was America’s foremost actor-manager at the turn of the last century, and when Arthur Conan Doyle was looking to extend his own income from Sherlock Holmes by transferring him to the stage, Gillette was an obvious choice for a collaboration, as writer and actor. The resulting play, Sherlock Holmes, ran for many…
by Simone Sekers TRYING to play the glad game about leaving Brexit, I wondered whether, instead of all those smug Wrecksiteers going on about “getting our country back,” it might be possible to think about getting France back instead. This would restore the magic of that descent from the ferry in to the very heart…
“Welcome to Scotland, Its -6 °C”! the cheerful staff at Enterprise car hire chirped. I think if they had looked closely at my five layers, hat, gloves, fur lined boots, hunched shoulders and hopping around moves, they would have been well aware that I had totally sussed that part of the situation out. Winning top…
THE revolving set for the Regent’s Park Theatre production of Simon Reade’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s best-loved book might look a little like the ironwork of New Orleans rather than Regency rural England, but it cleverly frames the action in this beautifully choreographed show. Neither as deconstructed as the current Jane Eyre tour, nor conventionally…
AMERICAN writer Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles play had its UK premiere in Bath four years ago, and now Peter Fernandez brings the four hander to the stage of the Swan in Yeovil. There is nothing easy or comfortable about this four-hander, set in the New York apartment of nonagenarian Vera Joseph. She’s a card-carrying Communist…
THIS year (2017) marks the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s 124th year of bringing high quality live music to the south and south west. Last weekend, as part of their commitment to deliver music to rural communities in more intimate venues, their new music ensemble, Kokoro, returned to Bridport with a diverse programme entitled Fantasia – music…
I FIRST met Margaret Thatcher in the ballroom of the King’s Arms Hotel in Christchurch, the week before she became leader of the Conservative party in early 1975. The research chemist and barrister was a blazing light among the stodgily familiar Tory faithful. Interviewing her after her speech, she was direct, what we now call…
RAMIN Karimloo, in Yeovil? Surely not? Last year he sold out two iconic venues in Islington, Union Chapel and the Assembly Hall, and also the London Palladium, so those of us within an hour or so of the Octagon were very excited when this tour was announced towards the end of last year. Karimloo is…
AFTER the success of Hansel and Gretel last year, Bumblefly in collaboration with Forest Forge have been touring the region, bringing, as their publicity tells us, storytelling, magic and a splash of mischief, to their take on one of my favourite stories, The Elves and the Shoemaker. David Haworth’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm story…
TRANSPORT Secretary Chris Grayling has announced that a tunnel is to be built to take the A303 past Stonehenge, to help to reduce the notorious traffic bottleneck on one of the major routes to the West Country. The tunnel would be 1.8 miles long, and would form part of a £2 billion programme for road…