Present mirth hath present laughter What’s to come is still unsure In delay there lies no plenty WHAT is it about the febrile post-referendum atmosphere that makes us find pertinent references everywhere we turn? Bristol Old Vic’s powerful King Lear resonates with them, and even Noel Coward’s gloriously frothy comedy of luvvies and their hangers-on…
WATCHING Shakespeare’s great tragedy King Lear in the aftermath of the referendum and Jeremy Corbyn’s confidence vote was an extraordinary experience. When the Fool’s prophecy reached the line: … Then shall the realm of Albion Come to great confusion there were gasps in the audience, many of whom were fighting back tears. Not the reaction…
ALAN Bennett’s brilliantly constructed Talking Heads started with A Woman of No Importance, written for the BBC in 1982 for performance by Patricia Routledge. Its success with audiences led to the commissioning of two series of Talking Heads, now recognised as masterpieces of the monologue form. The Dorset-based ImpAct Theatre has a happy relationship with…
IT may be hard to think of a man who died more than 320 years ago as “one of the most forward-thinking English composers” – but Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was a daring innovator and the man who introduced Italian-style opera to Restoration England. Conductor David Gibson delighted the audience at the biennial Winchfield Festival’s opera…
FOR the past six years, Jo Puttick’s Wessex Actors Company has been entertaining increasingly large audiences across Dorset and beyond every summer, in all weathers, in the open air and occasionally indoors. This year’s offering is the company’s second Coward, Hay Fever, that farcical comedy of manners set in the country home of the highly…
TUCKED away in the windy lanes west of Wincanton, the new Piggery Barns at the Queens Arms at Corton Denham are the perfect base to explore the peaceful countryside of rural Dorset and South Somerset.. The newly converted accommodation in the former pig barns is a natural extension of the snout-to-tail ethos that lies at…
THIS week’s recipe and travelogue from our resident private chef Philippa Davis combines three of our favourite things – Scotland, salmon and food in the open air. We’ve known Philippa for years. She comes from Shaftesbury and we first sampled her delicious and inventive cooking at the Mudchute Kitchen on the city farm in an unexpected…
SO far the forecast is fine for Iford on Friday 24th June, which is good news for Peto Prommers. The first of three annual proms this year features jazz singer and pianist Anthony Strong and Brass Hysteria, playing in the Casita. The Opera Cloister Bar returns, serving cocktails and more in the beautiful cloister while…
HOT on the heels of the announcement of worldwide audience pressure and clever cast negotiations securing a fifth series of Nashville after the bean-counters had tried to pull the plug, four of its stars are on a worldwide tour, with UK dates including a Bristol stop. This was nearest to home for Sam Palladio, who…
MOST of us are familiar with the idea that some of our best-loved “natural” landscapes are man-made – and many know the name of the man who changed the face of England, but we know little about him. Lancelot “Capability” Brown was responsible for a revolution in garden and park design which is still admired…