TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury has crossed the Atlantic for her latest project – and has had some uncomfortable company at night … But she is “happy as a clam,” she says. Arthur kept me up for most of the night, boisterously crashing around and showing off and with repeated spectacular flashes I began to…
AT the beginning of the 20th century, Cecil Sharp collected hundreds of folksongs from working people in Somerset and inspired many other composers and collectors, including Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams, to do the same in other parts of the country. In Dorset, brothers Henry and Robert Hammond were similarly inspired, travelling around the…
ALAN Bennett’s 1986 play Kafka’s Dick not only predates the British writer’s position as national treasure but allowed him to explore both his fascination with the Czech’s work but his views on intellectualism and pretentiousness. It is one of his least performed works, but audiences in the south west have a chance to catch up…
BURRINGTON Combe should surely benefit from a few extra visitors this week, as the place which inspired the original Rock Of Ages, in 1763.The hymn, by the Reverend Augustus Toplady, was written after he sheltered from a storm in a cleft in a rock in the Somerset village, a rock since renamed the Rock Of…
SHAKESPEARE’S final play, The Tempest, set on an island full of magic and strange noises, is the perfect vehicle for Miracle Theatre’s special brand of open air performance. Director Bill Scott has cleverly adapted and abridged the original so the whole thing can be performed by just six actors. The touring set is made up…
IFORD Manor near Bradford on Avon may well be the most beautiful setting for “garden opera” but it is also the smallest, with performances in a cloister that seats about 100 around a tiny acting space. So it’s not surprising that Jeff Clarke, founder and artistic director of Opera della Luna, said a resounding NO,…
IN 1992 Crazy for You, a “new” Gershwin musical comedy, hit the stage, incorporating some of the songs from the original Girl Crazy and other Gershwin shows with a sort of mix-and-match story influenced by Anything Goes, Calamity Jane etc. Set in Deadrock, Nevada (instead of Deadwood, South Dakota) and involving a young man who…
NOEL Coward’s classic marital comedy Private Lives retains its appeal and enchantment 84 years on from its first appearance, only proving what a keen observer of human nature The Master was. The setting (in Deauville and Paris) and the language may be a bit dated, but the more people change, the more they stay the…
“I’M sure it’s here somewhere,” said my friend, gazing hopelessly at a dog-eared map. We were looking for the pepper shop, a shop my friend had told me about so often, and now here we were, or rather, weren’t. “It must have closed down,” she said resignedly. We are all resigned to our favourite small…
THE Apple Tree Farm Shop at the Gardens Group’s Brimsmore Garden Centre in Yeovil has passed a Horticultural Marketing Inspection with flying colours. The annual audit, which checks that the fruit and vegetables on sale in the Farm Shop are honestly sourced and labelled, was carried out by the Rural Payments Agency on behalf of…