ALAN Ayckbourn loves a good idea, such as playing with location, as in RolePlay, a former choice by Dramatic Productions one of three otherwise-unrelated plays set in the same Docklands apartment, or with character, as in last year’s new work Roundelay with five main characters in their own half-hour play, whilst all featuring in the…
IT’S quite a coup for Bath Theatre Royal to get Phill Jupitus in his first Shakespearean role for the summer season, but in Laurence Boswell’s stylish production the charismatic comedian is one of a strong ensemble rather than the star turn. New audiences, drawn by the promise of the Jupitus Bottom, walk into the beautiful…
CORN not only grows tall, as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Curly sings in Oklahoma!, it is also big business in the USA. Private chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has been working on the millionaires’ summer resort of the Hamptons, north of New York and learning about this multi-billion dollar staple of American food and farming ……
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…