Cathedral peregrine finds her own parish

FLO, one of the 2021 Salisbury Cathedral peregrine falcon fledglings, has set up home in the centre of Hertford, 90 miles from home as the crow (or the falcon) flies. British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ringer, Nigel Jones contacted the Cathedral peregrine team to let them know that Flo (named for Florence Nightingale to mark…

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The Comedy of Errors, Studio Theatre, Salisbury

SHAKESPEARE’S ninth play, The Comedy of Errors, is a gift for a director keen to play with perception, time and identity. Set in Ephesus, it starts in a flashback as Egeon, imprisoned and under sentence of death for breaking the immigration laws, tells of his earlier life. He was happily married when his wife Emilia…

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Friendsical, Bath Theatre Royal

DURING the many years that my father trained greyhounds, he had quite a few of them taken from his charge because he gave their owners a too honest opinion of their abilities, and prospects of winning a race. “It takes” he said, “just as much time and effort from me and financial support from you,…

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Legally Blonde, YAOS at Yeovil Octagon

THE first big song in Legally Blonde – The Musical, is Omigod, and it’s reprised repeatedly throughout the show. I found myself wondering how America, with its massive Bible Belt, had reacted.  A quick read of Wikipedia showed that the musical version of the book-turned-smash-hit-film had been less than successful on the other side of…

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Chinese drama at Tollard Royal

TOLLARD Talks return to the village on Cranborne Chase on Friday 14th October with an unusual and exciting event, Chinese Boxing, a performance by Mark Kitto, an expert on the vast but mysterious country. The play is also being performed at Martock’s beautiful parish church on Thursday 13th October, at 7.30pm. The event is organised…

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Beauty and the Beast at Bristol Hippodrome

THE Walt Disney Company maybe one of the biggest and most powerful names in mass media entertainment, with theme parks, travel companys and television studios among its interests, but at heart it is still the film company that introduced Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio to the world….

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Girl from the North Country, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

THE momentum of Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s moving play with music, Girl from the North Country, was cut short by the pandemic. Those who managed to see the show at the Old Vic in 2017 have been waiting for a revival ever since. Now the 24-venue tour comes to Bath, and once again stuns…

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Noises Off, Theatre Royal Bath and touring

MICHAEL Frayn’s uber-farce, Noises Off, had its premiere 40 years ago, since when it has never lapsed in its popularity – on stage somewhere or other in the English-speaking world. Now the anniversary tour, starring Felicity Kendall and Matthew Kelly opens at Bath Theatre Royal. Directed by Lindsay Posner with a set by Simon Higlett,…

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Revealed, Bristol Tobacco Factory

REVEALED, the new play by actor and writer Daniel J Carver at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory until 8th October, is a shattering experience for both its actors and audiences, astonishingly intense and immediate. The three-hander is directed by the venue’s associate director Jay Zorenti-Nakhid, set in the rundown cafe owned by Sidney’s family, in which his…

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