The Arts Section

The call of the sea

THE sea in all its beautiful, dangerous and unpredictable drama is the focal point of the New Waves Festival, two reimagined classics and a new piece, performed by students of Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School at the theatre’s Egg space, from Friday 10th to Saturday 18th April. Brimming with imagination, energy and creative ambition, the…

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If you go down to the woods …

… on Friday 10th April, look who you may meet, at Westlands entertainment centre at Yeovil. Last Baguette will give two performances at 10am and 11.30, of A Woodland Wonder, a play-along theatre adventure. Join Ratty as she learns about the environment and plant your very own seeds! There’ll be silliness, play-acting, games and music…

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Blues and beyond with Phil Beer

PHIL Beer, multi-instrumentalist and best known as half of the hugely popular folk duo Show of Hands, is currently pursuing his own musical thing, making seven appearances in the south and west between 12th April and late October. The world-renowned instrumentalist shares the roots of his musical life in the show, Phil Beer Trio, Blues…

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The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

CHRISTY Lefteri’s bestselling book The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a story of our times – a chronicle of the lives of a handful of Syrian and other refugees seeking asylum in the famously civilised and welcoming United Kingdom. Now adapted for the stage by Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler, it is in Bath until Easter…

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Still relevant – Fred is back

HIJINX Theatre, one of Europe’s leading inclusive theatre companies, is coming to Taunton Brewhouse on Tuesday 7th April and Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 9th April, with Meet Fred. The company is marking the tenth anniversary of this darkly funny satire, following the experiences of Fred, a puppet fighting for his independence as his Puppetry…

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Safe travelling with writers

SHERBORNE Travel Writing Festival has never felt more important than this year, when our international travel possibilities seem so fragile and risky. Over the weekend 10th to 12th April, speakers at the Powell Theatre in Abbey Road will take audiences on journeys of adventure, history, nature, deep into today’s fractured and dangerous world. Curated by…

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Moviola in April

IF you put the names Alan Bennett, Nick Hytner, Ralph Fiennes, Roger Album. Simon Russell-Beale … and Elgar … together and give them a good shake, you would probably come up with The Choral, a quintessential English film, with charm, music, love lost and found and a soul-stirring musical backdrop. Add in the First World…

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Sheridan in the Battle of Britain

RICHARD Brinsley Sheridan’s timeless comedy The Rivals was given the One Man Two Guvnors treatment by Richard Bean for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and now the updated version comes to Frome’s Merlin Theatre from 16th to 18th April. Frome Drama is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and the play by Bean and co writer…

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Look who’s coming to stay

HOW many of us have met someone on holiday who we have hit it off with? We exchange addresses or emails, and probably never hear from them again. Or perhaps you do go and visit them – and it all goes swimmingly and 30 years on, you are still good friends. That’s the positive story…

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Milborne Pork, via Bennett’s Betty

ALAN Bennett’s 1984 film A Private Function has become a icon of British comedy, delighting successive generations with its gentle but unflinching look at life after the war and petty small town cliques and jealousies. In 2011, Cameron Mackintosh commissioned George Stiles and Anthony Drewe to create a musical from the tale, and Betty Blue…

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