LIKE most of Alan Ayckbourn’s 90-plus professionally presented plays, Just Between Ourselves started life at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, before going out on tour, with the author in tow continually tweaking the text, before finding its way onto London’s West End stage. I caught up with Alan Ayckbourn in Bridgwater Arts Centre when, in…
OVER the last quarter of a century, performance poet Luke Wright has built up a reputation as one of Britain’s most popular and entertaining performers, winning a host of awards along the way. His 2025 tour continues at Poole Lighthouse on 15th May and East Quay at Watchet on 16th May. During his long career,…
BRAM Stoker’s iconic Count Dracula takes centre stage at Salisbury’s Studio Theatre in Ashley Road from 19th to 24th May, when the award-winning company moves en masse to the Transylvanian castle where the story begins. English lawyer Jonathan Harker is invited to the castle, but he returns a changed man … Linda Hayman directs Richard…
LONDON Classic Theatre comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Monday 5tyh to Saturday 10th May with its 25th anniversary production, Alan Ayckbourn’s Just Between Ourselves, directed by the company’s founder and artistic director Michael Cabot. Set in 1976, the play features five birthdays, two unhappy marriages and one possessive mother. Dennis tinkers in his garage,…
A PROJECT to find new plays for small professional companies to tour rural areas has been launched in the South West by Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity. The aim is to discover a new piece of touring theatre from a South West based company or artist as part of a national arts scheme called…
A TRIO of harp, viola and flute players, who met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama nearly 20 years ago, come to Dorset and Somerset on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th May, for a series with Concerts in the West, at Bridport, Ilminster and Crewkerne. Trio Anima are Rosalind Ventris, viola, Anneke Hodnett,…
DEVON Opera’s young singers will tackle one of the most popular – and vocally demanding – operas for their spring production – Puccini’s La Boheme, which will be staged at the Barnfield Theatre, Exeter, on 15th and 16th May. It is so well-known that it is easy to overlook just how vocally and emotionally demanding…
ANYONE who has followed the growing success of peregrine falcons finding lofty nest sites on our ancient cathedrals and other high buildings will probably know that Salisbury Cathedral now has a long-established peregrine roost on the tower. This year the peregrine pair had four eggs and for those who keep an eye on the peregrine-cam…
IF you were asked to identify a grave-digger in literature, chances are you would remember Hamlet, and that blackly comic scene by Ophelia’s grave when the prince picks up the skull of the clown he remembers from childhood and proceeds to ruminate on the fragility of life. This provides the inspiration for the new Ridiculusmus…
ONE of the few criticisms of the Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes 1968 screenplay of Ian Flemings children’s fantasy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with music added by the Sherman brothers, was that it was too long at, 2 hours 25 minutes. This new production, which draws a long tour to a close when, after leaving…