Whose Life Is It Anyway? APS at Sherborne Studio Theatre

BRIAN Clark’s play Whose Life Is It Anyway? was first performed on television in 1972 and adapted for the stage six years later.It was controversial at the time – discussing assisted suicide but winning many awards. Fifty years on, the climate surrounding the debate might have changed, but the questions stay the same, and the…

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Masque Macabre, AUB students at Pavilion Dance, Bournemouth

FRENCH writer Guy de Maupassant, who died in 1893 at the age of 43, wrote more than 300 short stories, and is widely regarded as the master of the genre. Performing Arts students at Arts University Bournemouth have taken over Pavilion Dance for the world premiere of a new musical, which adapts a handful of…

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The Way Old Friends Do, Theatre Royal, Bath

OBSESSIVE fandom is a weird phenomenon, very useful in Mastermind, very competitive and totally absorbing. And it’s something that ABBA seems to have magnetised and intensified, if Ian Hallard’s play The Way Old Friends Do (a song from 1980’s Super Trouper) is anything to go by. Always a favourite with the LGBTQXYZ+ community, long before…

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Sample delights at the Bath Vegan Festival

AS more and more people reduce their meat consumption and explore vegetarian and vegan food, the Bath Vegan Festival on Saturday 3rd June provides a great opportunity to learn about what is available, not only in food and drink, but skincare, homewares, crafts, clothing and a healthy lifestyle. The event, at Bath Pavilion, will feature…

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The Tempest, Churchill Gardens Salisbury

IT might be a nightmare to find yourself walking through the side of a massive wooden galleon into a landscape of plastic detritus and abandoned furniture – or it might be a journey of magic and enchantment. You’ll have to decide when you join the Tempest team in the beautiful Churchill Gardens for the opening…

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Dracula, Civic Players, Swan Theatre, Yeovil

IF someone told you that the Civic Players were performing Dracula, you would immediately assume that the company would do its usual highly entertaining and excellent job with the hilarious spoof The Dracula Spectacular, and look forward to an evening of laughter. NOT SO! This time the long-established company has taken a leap into the…

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Good news on nightjars

NIGHTJARS, one of our most mysterious and elusive birds, are making a comeback, according to the latest report from the RSPB – numbers across the bird charity’s reserves in England and Wales hit a record high in 2022, up 11 per cent on 2021. RSPB Arne in Dorset, where the number of territorial male nightjars…

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The Lion King at Bristol Hippodrome

THIS is the fourth time that the Disney corporation has taken over Bristol Hippodrome to present probably its most spectacular production, The Lion King. Although the production has been scaled down a little from its first visit – when the theatre had to be closed for nearly two weeks to prepare it for opening night…

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Stumped, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

THERE are all sorts of reasons to see Shomit Dutta’s play Stumped. You might be a cricket fanatic: you might be expert in the plays of Samuel Beckett and/or Harold Pinter: you might be a fan of Stephen Tompkinson and/or Andrew Lancel. You might just want a very entertaining evening at the theatre. You do…

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A Doll’s House, Studio Theatre, Salisbury

IBSEN’s A Doll’s House is a powerful drama about a woman with an adoring but controlling husband –and a big secret which will change her life in ways that none of the characters can imagine. Deeply shocking in its day, it is sometimes described as a proto-feminist play – with its famous finale of Nora…

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