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…
WHEN you try to arrange a party a year ahead, a party which depends on good weather too, you are running a huge risk. It’s madness, really, and most of us, as we get older, play safe by celebrating big birthdays by going on cruises, or holidays-of-a-lifetime. I am never certain about either; supposing I…
SOMETIMES we envy Philippa Davis for her varied life as a travelling chef – and sometimes we are just in awe of the skillful way she deals with every unlikely request, demanding client or latest fashion and food trend … I have had a very exciting (manic) week cooking for a fashion shoot involving one…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Kirill Karabits: Conductor Sunwook Kim: Piano Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 THE packed audience at the Lighthouse burst into prolonged and enthusiastic applause last night before a note was played. This was at the announcement that the newly-designated Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits had agreed a…
GILBERT and Sullivan, doyens of Victorian society, created the ever-popular The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, all full of swashbuckling seafaring naughty sons of nobles, a bevy of daughters of a Major General and incompetent bobbies. Since then it has been a staple of the English-speaking stage, with professional and amateur productions around the world….
OUTSIDE Mullingar is a play about Ireland. It’s a play about love. It’s about the land and the love of the land. It’s about how we communicate – and how we don’t. About truth and lies, about knowing who we are and finding our way through a dark and puzzling world. It comes on a…
SALISBURY Playhouse’s latest big show is a co-production with Colchester Mercury Theatre of Howard Ashman’s and Alan Menken’s ever popular musical Little Shop of Horrors. As the author himself writes, the show satirizes many things: science fiction, B movies, musical comedy and even the Faust legend. There is, therefore, a real temptation to play it…