Food fit for a president in “our nation’s capital”

WHENEVER American broadcasters or politicians talk about Washington DC they always call it “our nation’s capital” and they don’t walk they “power strut,” as Dorset-born travelling chef Philippa Davis discovered on her recent visit to this beautiful city on the Potomac river.   In all my travels I have never seen so many dashing three-piece…

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Happy hour at Pythouse

HIDDEN in a peaceful corner of south west Wiltshire, Pythouse Kitchen Garden is sometimes compared with the famous Petersham Nurseries at Richmond. It’s not an unfair comparison – both are restaurants serving contemporary, seasonal and local food in beautiful gardens. If you haven’t visited this lovely spot, at Hatch near Tisbury, it’s worth a visit,…

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The Magnificent Three, Miracle Theatre on tour

WHO wants to be trapped in a small town in Colorado where the most exciting thing to happen is the tumbleweed blowing down Main, when there’s a chance of global big business on the horizon. That’s the American Dream, and its one that nasty Nate Milton has every night. But his double-crossing ways don’t fool…

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Faust, Winterbourne Opera at The Chapel Night Club Salisbury

THE devil, as they say, gets all the best tunes, and in Ben Occhipinti’s production of Gounod’s Faust, he also gets the best makeup, best movement and most charisma. In the person of young Scottish bass-baritone Colin Brockie, it’s all too easy to see the attraction of Mephistopheles’ promises, and setting the updated but timeless…

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Talking Heads at Bath Theatre Royal

THREE of Alan Bennett’s brilliant monologues from the Talking Heads series make up the second show of the Bath Theatre Royal Summer Season, and on until Saturday 8th August. Lady of Letters, which starts the performance, has Siobhan Redmond as the lonely busybody Miss Ruddock. Trapped in her bare flat and alone after the death…

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Dreamboats and Miniskirts, Bristol Hippodrome

HAVING had such success with Dreamboats and Petticoats, the “juke box” musical written by sitcom experts Marks and Gran (Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart) full of songs from the 1950s which has spawned seven hit albums of such music, producer, and, for this show, director, Bill Kenwright has now worked with the same writers…

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Dorset Opera Festival 2015 at Bryanston

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…

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Living soil, living food at Create

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…

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