THE 2016 season opened at the Tobacco Factory in Bedminster with Andrew Hilton’s production of Hamlet, with young Irish actor Alan Mahon at its heart. This is the first UK appearance for the 23 year old Dubliner who graduated as a Bachelor of Acting just 18 months ago. And of course it is the biggest…
ALAN Ayckbourn is a theatrical phenomenon. This is his 79th play, yes, his 79th, and he is still only 76 years old. His last work, Roundelay, was one of his clever games with five short plays linked by common characters and performed in random order each time, the order being decided by a member of…
WHAT a treat for folk fans in the south west when Fay Hield and her Hurricane Party band blew into the Wiltshire Music Centre at Bradford-on-Avon on the night after the launch of their new album, Old Adam. Still elated by the excitement of the launch party, the band was in high spirits for a…
WHEN Strode Theatre director Liz Leyshon’s mother watched By Our Selves her reaction was a baffled “It’s bonkers.” In many ways, she was right. It is a puzzling, strange and sometimes almost incomprehensible film. But it is also beautiful and moving and somehow gets to the heart of John Clare’s remarkable poetry and of the…
PRIVATE chef Philippa Davis ended her Asian travels back in Singapore preparing a variety of meals for clients including an amazing feast … DESPITE the mass splattering of red decorations over every street in Singapore in readiness for Chinese New Year my focus for the week was on preparing a party feast for Russian New…
MOST amateur theatrical companies put on an annual pantomime … it’s what we do in England and it is usually a sure-fire banker, attracting all ages and often entire families along for the fun. But everything is getting more and more expensive these days. Hiring halls, renting scripts, costumes, sets … the list goes on. …
IF there’s one thing we like to while away the long winter nights, it’s a good murder. And since we are engaged with the subject at one remove – on the television screen or across the footlights – we are quite happy to have a laugh as well. So Ira Levin’s comedy thriller Deathtrap hits the…
DAVID Mynne is a master at his craft, and his craft is acting. That craft includes all aspects of acting, including verse-speaking, singing, whistling, mime, oral sound effects, character playing, accents, physical representation, dramatic interpretation and countless other skills, all brought together to tell a tale familiar to most of the audience, in a style…
YESTERDAY afternoon’s recital by Gemma Rosefield and Tim Horton was the third in the current Shaftesbury Chamber Music series. The series always promises music of the very highest calibre and artistic director Ruth Rogers is to be congratulated once more in her choice of artists. Cellist Gemma Rosefield, justifiably described by the Evening Standard as…
THERE was great excitement in the dance world when Mark Bruce launched his latest production at Frome’s Merlin Theatre. After taking critics and audiences by storm with his Dracula in 2013, expectations were high for his version of The Odyssey, and they were not disappointed. This first tour opened in Bruce’s now home town and…