SOMERSET theatre company Wassail launched its new “community” play, Apples and Angels, at the evocative and atmospheric setting of Burrow Hill. It’s headed for a major production in Yeovil in the future. It’s a magical journey through folklore and legend, orchards and expectations, disappointment and regeneration. In some ways it helps to be an old…
THE Proms are always special. They are unlike any other concert series, partly because of the venue with its unique acoustic and atmosphere, and partly because this truly is the world’s greatest music festival. This year’s Proms, back with an audience (albeit not full capacity) after 2020’s weird empty hall, were always going to be…
THERE are few things about the stresses and strains of Christmas that Alan Ayckbourn hasn’t chronicled. Our most prolific playwright has used the traditional gathering as the setting for many of his plays, and the first one was Absurd Person Singular, now almost 50 years old and on tour in a production by London Classic…
IF there is one thing that we can probably all agree on at present, it is that we need to laugh. So huge thanks to the ever-inventive New Old Friends for their latest show, a delicious send-up of the classic Hollywood golden era film noir. You’ve got the hardbitten private eye, the ditsy scared blonde,…
… a walk along the River Otter WE can’t fly anywhere and all our favourite places in Scotland are booked up into 2022, so it’s day trips for us this summer. When we read about guided walks to see beavers on the River Otter, we booked up for one immediately. The best holiday we…
WHAT is a three-inch fool? According to Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew, it’s anyone of small stature, but that’s not a requirement for membership of the touring theatre company that takes its name. Founded in 2015, the Fools have built up a keen following around the UK with their unique Shakespearean productions, concentrating…
MISCHIEF Theatre, best known for their hilarious plays that go wrong, branched out into non-spoof in 2019 with Groan Ups, just in time for the start of the lockdown season. Now the show is out on the road and in Bath until 21st August. Following in the footsteps of Dennis Potter and Denise Deegan, Mischief’s…
AMATEUR Players of Sherborne was the first non-professional company in our region to mount a show following the first lockdown of 2020, and their Waiting for Godot in the Paddock Gardens was such a success that they decided on the same venue for a Shakespearean compilation this year. Dress rehearsing on a beautiful Saturday afternoon,…
WEST Dorset charcuterie specialists Capreoleus have added to their long list of awards by taking a gold double in this year’s Taste of the West Awards, the Special Edition Pannage Ham, a slowly matured, air-dried ham using rare bread pigs from the New Forest, and Venison and Green Peppercorn Salami. David and Karen Richards have…
AN unusual friendship has developed at Longleat where an emu chick which was rejected by its parents and a flock of farmyard chickens. The two-month old chick is being reared by keepers who have named it Bueno. It is the first to have been successfully reared at the Wiltshire safari park. Keepers initially cared for…