THE forecast for the next couple of weeks is cold, cold, cold – snow in some places, and bitter winds everywhere. Definitely batten-down-the-hatches weather. But as soon as the sun comes out, the depths of winter are a wonderful time to go for a walk, and there are few parts of the world more beautiful…
WHEN I worked at the Evening News in London, my friend Laine and I used to spend all our spare money on tickets for the National Theatre (at the Old Vic) and then we’d put out all our clothes on the beds in the flat we shared and perform our favourite plays, grabbing the costume…
BERLIN Cabaret came to Castle Cary last night in the form of singing duo Sasha Herriman and Tami Tal, aka The Bluebirds. The show, which is on a short tour, was co-promoted by Take Art, Somerset’s enterprising arts charity, and hard-working local promoters Judi and Oliver Morrison. With the Caryford Hall suitably transformed for the…
by Simone Sekers WE had our Christmas feast well on into the New Year, for various complicated reasons. It was hard work waiting for it, as we had splashed out on a free range goose from my favourite poultry supplier and we knew how good it was going to be. There it was in the…
BACK in 1972, Shaftesbury Arts Centre performed a version of Edward Lear’s famous nonsense poem, adapted for the stage by Sheila Ruskin and David Wood. And in their audience were Sue and John Cadmore and their young son, who was delighted by the show. So when Sue was invited to direct this year’s “Christmas” show,…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra leader Amyn Merchant Andrew Litton: Conductor Alexei Volodin: Piano ELGAR: Cockaigne Overture RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 1 VAUGHN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 2 “London” THE popular English pieces in this well-attended BSO concert form an obvious pairing. Both were inspired by London, and both are rooted in the expansive Edwardian era when the…
SOME of us spend our leisure time in the darkness of theatres, some of us on the terraces of the local football club. They are two different worlds, and they are brought comically, poignantly and brilliantly together in Wassail Theatre’s first play The Giants, which started a tour of the south west at the David…
THE cast of the Watermill Newbury touring production of Calamity Jane are so full of infectious energy that the audience clearly wanted to join in the hoe-down finale. The company that specialises in mounting shows in which the cast plays the music live on stage is at Bath Theatre Royal this week at the start…
I KNEW nothing about this play before I went to see it, apart from recognising the title, and was expecting a Ray Cooney style political farce, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was no farce, but a comic satire; a commentary on the dire state of politics in the early 21st Century….
SUMMER Lodge, the luxurious country house hotel at Evershot, is closed until 25th January for major renovations in the restaurant, spa and kitchen. It is the first time for many years that the hotel, part of the Red Carnation group and a member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux, has been closed. When it reopens…