ACTOR and musician Alastair Braidwood is undertaking a marathon live audiobook reading of one of Thomas Hardy’s best-loved books, Far From the Madding Crowd, starting on Tuesday 17th February and running for seven weeks. Alastair, well known from the New Hardy Players and their band and ceilidh band Tatterdemalion will be reading the book to…
THE annual SNADS pantomime has always been a big part of the society’s year, the large cast and crew meaning that almost every member is involved in some way to bring the February show to the audience. This year experienced director Craig White joined debut director (and principal boy) Jessica Allen to lead a 34-strong…
FEW theatregoers around the world have seen Scottish playwright David Greig’s 2002 play Outlying Islands, but a lucky few in and around Salisbury now have a second opportunity. The play was staged on a short tour in 2004 after its premiere in Scotland, and it featured Sam Heughan, now a global superstar as the leading…
TOM Stoppard’s play Indian Ink, first seen in 1995, comes to Bath after a short season at the Hampstead Theatre. Directed with a meticulous and playful eye by Jonathan Kent, it once again stars Felicity Kendal, the actress for whom the central character, avant garde 1920s poet Flora Crewe, was written. Now she plays Flora’s…
EXETER’S Northcott Theatre and Phoenix Arts Centre are collaborating on a Scratch Night partnership, on Monday 23rd February, to support established and emerging artists and performers across the South West. Following the huge success of Scratch Night during the 2025 Elevate Festival, the second Scratch Night will take place at Exeter Phoenix auditorium offering artists…
OPERA at Oborne and Opera Cameratina get together over Valentine’s weekend to celebrate the distinctive music of America, with an evening of three short operas on Saturday 14th February, an open workshop and song recital on Sunday. The performances are at the village’s lovely St Cuthbert’s Church, the venue for the summer Opera at Oborne…
THE next concert in the Shaftesbury Chamber Music series at Port Regis School brings the Carducci String Quartet back to North Dorset for an evening of varied works on Sunday 15th February at 5pm. The quartet, violinists Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, violin and cellist Emma Denton, will play Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, Shostakovich 4…
I ARRIVED at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre in the apparently unique situation of never having watched the TV series (mostly because I am not a fan of one of the leading actors). So, with a not just open but totally uninformed mind, I approached Simon Nye’s stage version, set on the night of the Millennium, shunted…
MOSCOW Drug Club are hard to pigeon-hole – but hugely popular, appealing to lovers of gypsy jazz, Berlin cabaret and French chanson. The late winter tour continues with four Take Art dates starting on 19th February at North Curry village hall, 20th February at Norton-sub-Hamdon village hall, East Quantoxhead on 21st and Caryford Hall at…
HUNT for Book Witches, discover your wild side and have fun with Viking gods this half term, as Dorset’s rural touring arts charity Artsreach brings a varied programme of theatre and adventure for children of all ages over the February half term, from Sunday 15th to Saturday 21st, with live music, magical puppetry and more….