by Simone Sekers WE’ve just had a swift shot of French life – 24 hours in Cherbourg via the fast ferry from Poole – which reminded me of just how traditional France still is. We stayed in the charming Hotel Régence overlooking the old port, way up under the roof, no lift to help our…
IT’S 50 years since American singer and songwriter Tom Paxton first came to the UK. He came sporting a collection of his own songs including one he had written as an engagement present for his then new wife, Midge. It was My Lady’s A Wild Flying Dove, and it has remained one of his and…
JEAN Anouilh’s satirical play Invitation to the Castle was first performed in France in 1947, and adapted three years later by Christopher Fry for a Peter Brook production in London. For many years it was a favourite with touring rep companies and amateur dramatic societies, but now it is something of a rarity. The extraordinarily…
OK is the postal abbreviation for the American state of Oklahoma, and the beginning of a few of the lines of the title song of this Rogers and Hammerstein musical, staple of amateur companies the world over and regularly revived by professionals, including Trevor Nunn’s National Theatre production of the late 1990s, featuring Maureen Lipman…
DORSET’s Ridgeway Singers and Band with Tim Laycock and Phil Humphries joined the celebrations of two major anniversaries in glorious spring sunshine at Kimmeridge Bay. The singers sang traditional songs of the sea from the West Country as part of the Landmark Trust’s 50th anniversary golden weekend and this year’s 25th anniversary of Artreach, Dorset’s…
FOLIO Theatre is a new company set up last year to connect theatre in London and the West Country and to create plays set in the region. Its first full length play Unearthed, written by Alys Metcalf and currently on tour, is set in the Quantocks. It tells the story of an estranged brother and…
LARGELY overlooked by the holiday brochures and travel writers, Abruzzo is arguably one of the least known regions of Italy – and that’s a crying shame. This sizeable territory, midway down the ‘calf’ of Italy’s shapely leg, has much to offer visitors and could certainly use a healthy injection of tourist currency. Abruzzo borders Le…
EVERY Spring the newest batch of students at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School introduce themselves to the public with a touring show, and it has built up an eager following among audiences across the south west. This year those audiences are in for a treat and a half. Paul Clarkson’s production of Farquhar’s…
“PERHAPS we all despair of politicians – but David Hare had special cause,” begins the programme note for the Headlong/Sheffield Theatres/Rose Theatre Kingston production of his 1992 play, The Absence of War, at Bath until Saturday 9th May. It was one of Hare’s trilogy that looked at the British establishment, along with Murmuring Judges about…
DEBBIE Isitt’s play The Woman Who Cooked her Husband was first published and performed in 1993, and when it was revived nine years later, national newspaper critics were at pains to point out that feminism had moved on in the decade and it seemed dated. Fast forward to 2015 at Poole Lighthouse’s studio theatre, where…