Twelfth Night, Swan Theatre, Yeovil

YEOVIL’s versatile and accomplished Swan Theatre Company has gone back to Shakespeare for the first time in 33 years – a long gap, but worth the wait, for this well-directed and often hilarious production of one of the Bard’s most accessible and popular comedies. Twelfth Night, directed by the experienced Ian White, brings some new…

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Fallen Angels, Salisbury Playhouse

“POSH feminists in drunken orgy” – doesn’t sound much like Noel Coward, does it? Obviously it’s a bit of a stretch to call Jane and Julia “feminists,” although they are undoubtedly posh – and drunk they definitely become in the hilarious second act of this early Coward comedy. In his portrayal of two still youngish…

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The Cheeseboard

If you were among the thousands of cheese lovers who headed to Sturminster Newton for this year’s record-breaking Cheese Festival, you probably bought a selection of the delights on offer, took them home and put them in the fridge. Wrong! Here’s how to do it … Dude, where’s my cheese? THE size of fridges has…

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Flare Path, Theatre Royal, Bath

THE  works of Terence Rattigan have been widely revived in the past few years, triggered by the 2011 centenary of his birth, and one such play, Flare Path has survived this spate and is currently touring the country, visiting Bath this week. It is a period piece, set firmly in the Second World War, in…

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Soul Music, Wellington Theatre Co at Wellington Arts Centre

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” (‘Hamlet’ Act 2, sc 2) Late lamented, Sir Terry Pratchett’s ‘madness’- as expressed in his magnificently hilarious ‘Discworld’ novels, disguises his comprehensive knowledge of our serious, so-called reality. Terry’s method was to turn his wealth of learning to good account, by exposing the fun that lurks…

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A taste of Ibiza

IBIZA hasn’t had the greatest press over the years. It’s not that the island isn’t lovely, with dramatic scenery and a glorious climate. It’s more to do with the notorious wild partying that tended to put off many who might otherwise enjoy this island in the sun. Philippa Davis says, forget your preconceptions: Let me…

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Annie, Bristol Hippodrome

  UNTIL this evening, the name Waldorf meant a salad and a hotel to me, but now it is also the team name for seven of the girls playing Annie and her fellow orphans in this dynamic and thrilling production of this all-time favourite which spends this week at Bristol as part of a major tour…

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Japanese cuisine with a taste of Dorset

JAPANESE chef and cookery teacher Teruko Chagrin, one of the regular Japanese and Thai food tutors at White Pepper Cookery School at Lytchett Matravers, shares her recipe for delicious a Japanese-style omelette with Dorset sweet Kombu seaweed. Teruko was inspired to create this and some other recipes using a small piece of local dried seaweed…

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Mulberries and other dainties

by Simone Sekers IT’s raining again, and so I am searching through my collection of tattered recipe books for something to do with the glut of mulberries we are enjoying. These are fruit about which much is written in terms of flavour, but little in terms of what to do with them. Many people don’t…

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Mrs Henderson Presents, Bath Theatre Royal

BATH Theatre Royal ends its summer season in triumphant style with the world premiere of a new musical set in and around the Windmill Theatre in London between 1937 and 1940 Based on the film Mrs Henderson Presents, the show has a new collection of songs by  with lyrics by Don Black and music by…

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