AS the audience flooded out of the Coade Hall at Bryanston School on Saturday afternoon, a universal smile of happiness on their faces, it was clear that the 2015 production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore was a triumph. It was one of those productions where everything gelled, a delight for the ears and the eyes and…
THE Soil and Culture series of events at Bristol’s Create centre continues on Saturday 25th July, with a day focusing on living soil and healthy food. Part of the continuing Soil and Culture programme of the Exeter-based Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW), the Create series runs every weekend, with an exhibition…
A WIMBORNE-based business has become Dorset’s first producer of micro herbs, a nutritious super-food that packs a real punch in terms of flavour. Nine different varieties of micro herbs are being produced by chefs for chefs and are being supplied by HydroPhoria to restaurants across the UK. They are also available to consumers exclusively from…
PHILIPPA Davis is still in Boston, still cooking lobster and other things and still having a good time. This week she shares some insider information about why Americans keep their eggs in the fridge and why you should be very scared of large tanks of molasses. Who knew! I must say I have had a…
STOOPING to conquer is definitely the 2015 play of choice, and Michael Gilbert’s touring production for Taunton Thespians is the most traditional, and hilarious, of the four I have seen in recent months. The company performs at various locations in Somerset, and I caught Goldsmith’s classic comedy in a perfect setting, against the backdrop of…
COUNTRY house opera is a long-established feature of the British summer – but when Matt Brady brought his new Covent Garden Dance Company to a walled garden in south west Wiltshire six years ago he was doing something completely new. He was not only giving dance lovers in this rural area a chance to see…
I FIRST heard of the Buffalo Gals through their facebook page, and was intrigued enough by the snippets of American musical history and dance to go along to their Frome Festival gig. I was anticipating a night of American Old-Time String Band tunes but was totally unprepared for the sheer diversity of styles in this…
TAKE four energetic and versatile actors, an adventure story by John Buchan, an iconic Alfred Hitchcock film, a buffed-up adaptation by the National Theatre of Brent and a hardworking backstage team, and you just might have a sensational version of The 39 Steps. Sean Driver, Chrissy Mumford, Mark Payne and Ben Woof, are on stage…
IT’S many years since Salisbury’s Studio Theatre company has left its Ashley Road base to perform a summer show alfresco … or at least, nearly! This year Tamsin Jacson has taken her troupe to the old barn at Dog Kennel Farm, part of the Hulse estate at Breamore, to perform Keith Dewhurst’s adaptation of Flora…
ALAN Ayckbourn’s twin plays House and Garden are set simultaneously in the sitting room of the house and the lawns of the garden on the day a government advisor is coming to offer a top job and the village fete is scheduled. Like most of the writer’s works, these are stories of ordinary people in…