MANY intellectuals pick over and dissect JM Barrie’s fantasy fable Peter Pan, just as they continue to do with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland – and find dark hidden meanings within the text. The American writer, composer and lyricist Jim Steinman, sometimes described as the Wagner of rock music, certainly found some very dark, violent…
SAMUEL Beckett’s black comedy masterpiece Endgame comes to the stage of Bath’s Ustinov Studio from 4th September to 4th October. The new production is directed by Lindsay Posner, and stars Douglas Hodge and Mathew Horn as Hamm and Clov, with Selina Cadell and Clive Francis as the wildly eccentric parents. In a bare room, Hamm,…
THERE was a world premiere at Strode Theatre in Street on Saturday, but one that arrived without fanfare and played out to a sadly small, but wildly enthusiastic audience. Baroque opera lends itself to fun interpretation, and for 40 years, ever since Nick Hytner’s indelible Xerxes at ENO, directors have included quirky elements to inventive…
BLACK Hound Productions was formed in 2016 at Frome, by a group of young friends who had met in various productions at the Merlin Theatre. Now the company comes back to its home theatre with three performances of at the Edge, a new play co-written by BHP artistic director Patrick Withey and writer Melissa…
DANCE is one of the oldest forms of story-telling, right back there with the ancient bards of legend – a simple but meaningful way to communicate feelings, tell tales and make connections. It is inherently musical, inviting us to share in the experience. Yeovil-born James Bamford, the inspirational young choreographer and director who founded…
WE all have our favourite shoes – they may be red carpet-worthy, six-inch high Jimmy Choos or comfortable if unglamorous Allbirds, but shoes follow the footprints of human history. Fashionable or functional, delicate or dependable, shoes are an essential part of our lives. And while other brands may come and go, one name remains proudly…
THERE are often depressing reports of the declining numbers of children and young people who are reading books – but the popularity of the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, on until 5th October, does give ground for hope. There will be fierce competition for tickets to the amazing line-up of children’s authors and favourite illustrators and…
“A FIDDLER on the roof, sounds crazy no?” are the opening words of Joseph Stein’s adaptation of three stories from Tevye and his daughters, short stories set at the turn of 20th century Tsarist Ukraine by the Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem. The story, that follows the life of poor milkman Tevye (Matthew Woodyatt) as he…
SHAKESPEARE’S blueprint doom-scroller, a character who has won the name of “melancholy” Jacques over the centuries, is getting a new look and a blindingly incisive interpretation at Bath Theatre Royal this summer. Harriet Walter, no stranger to gender-blind casting, proves again how potent it can be with her interpretation of the Seven Ages of Man…
SOMERSET Opera has joined with Valley of the Rocks-based Pleasure Dome Theatre to create a Handelian delight for audiences this Autumn. Between 30th August and 25th October, they will tour a reworking of Handel’s classic 1724 Giulio Cesare, this time set in the villages and towns of Somerset where the protagonists are Cesare, chairman of…