Thatchers launch community orchard project

COMMUNITY groups and charities keen to plant or extend community orchards this spring can apply for help from Somerset-based Thatchers Cider. The Somerset cider-maker’s Community Orchard Project is being launched this month, with 250 apple trees to be donated to groups either undertaking new planting this year, or looking to extend a community orchard they…

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Mrs Delgado, Ustinov Studio, Bath Theatre Royal

Mrs Delgado, Mike Bartlett’s isolational, observational solo play, opened in Oxford in December 2021, and comes to Bath in the very week that the nation has been focused on the rules that accompanied the arrival of Covid-19 and how we kept them. Set in a small section of an urban street, it’s all about those…

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Di and Viv and Rose, Swan Theatre, Yeovil

LITERATURE, mythology and the stage are peppered with depictions of male friendship, and undoubtedly it can be heroic and special. But female friendship is also special, and much less shown. Di and Viv and Rose is just that – a play about female friendship which looks at this relationship with kind but honest eyes, unflinchingly…

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The Play What I Wrote, Bath Theatre Royal

DECONSTRUCTION has become a bit of a fad this century – specially among chefs and playwrights. Mostly I find menus offering deconstructed trifle, Black Forest Gateau, cheesecakes and chicken pies prove that the original classic was famous just because it was “constructed” to go together. Theatrically it has been a more successful enterprise. Brilliant re-workings…

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Dreamgirls. Bristol Hippodrome

With 27 numbers, many of them containing lyrics that continue to tell the story, and the minimal of dialogue, this fast moving glittery show could be described as a Rhythm and Blues opera rather than a Musical. It is indeed a feast for those who love the R&B music of the 60s and 70s and…

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Five Children and It, egg theatre, Bath

ONE hundred and twenty years after it was first published, a  bright new adaptation of E Nesbit’s classic children’s tale Five Children and It comes to the egg in Bath, late due to Covid but on until 16th January. To the delight of the audience, it all starts as the purple sand fairy, the Psammead, tries…

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A “gert lush” delight from Feltham’s Farm

THE ever-inventive Marcus Fergusson at Feltham’s Farm near Wincanton has produced an enticing addition to his range: a bloomy, white-rind organic cheese called Gert Lush, which came out just in time for Christmas and New Year cheeseboards. As any Somerset person knows, “Gert Lush” is a dialect phrase meaning “really lovely” (lovely as in attractive),…

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Cinderella, Theatre Royal Bath

PANTOMIME is the most British of entertainments, traditionally staged over the Christmas period and aimed at all the family. Its essential elements are magic, laughter, colour, baddies getting their come-uppance and a happy, romantic ending. They REALLY don’t come better than Bath Theatre Royal’s Cinderella. We might have been delighted by Jon Monie in Bath…

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A Christmas Getaway, New Old Friends, Bath Ustinov Theatre

TAKE 18 characters in the entrance hall of a country house on Christmas Eve, a cocktail tray, illicit romances, true love and the best laid plans, throw in four actors, sleight of hand, fleet of foot and versatile of voice. You have the perfect recipe for an evening of astonishing fun and frolics, served up…

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