REPORT after report is published detailing “systemic” or “structural” racism in some of our major institutions. Fears of anyone “whose skin is a different shade” (as Hammerstein put it in South Pacific) fill some sections of our media, and fear of ultra right-wing action against them inform others. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird…
STUNNING is the only word to describe Martyn Jessop’s performance as The Creature in the Street Theatre production of Nick Dear’s riveting adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Director Adam Lanfranchi chose this play, first seen in 2011 at the National Theatre, with no thought of caution. His programme notes underline that its exploration of the…
IT is never a good idea to take over a job when the previous incumbent has been highly successful, but there is always an exception to every rule and Amelia Freedman well and truly proved that when, just over 30 years ago, she took over the role of artistic director of the Bath Mozart fest…
DORSET has a special connection with Jane Austen, and what better way for theatre groups in the county to celebrate her 250th anniversary than with a production of Persuasion, with its famous and critical scenes in Lyme Regis? Dorchester Drama is staging Persuasion at the Corn Exchange on 21st and 22nd November. This book, Austen’s…
SHAFTESBURY Arts Centre hosts an exhibition, Droves and Downs, until 18th November, featuring work by four artists who were awarded bursaries by Dorset Visual Arts to create a body of work inspired by the Cranborne Chase National Landscape. Via an open call, artists were invited by DVA to submit proposals to explore the different facets…
MAJOR national annual dates these days are at least as much about selling as they are about celebrating – and that’s certainly the case in Terry’s: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers, and Selling Cars to Customers, coming to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Thursday 13th November. Memorial Day weekend … the US-of-A….
YES, you read that right – “ice (not nice) music”. Pioneering Norwegian musician Terje Isungset is bringing his mesmerising ice quartet to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 19th November, with two more dates in our region, 21st November at St George’s, Bristol, and 22nd at the Turner Sims hall at Southampton University. Also known…
MERE Amateur Dramatic Society will be taking audiences out of the seasonal baking and present-packing frenzy to the far-from-festive setting of Occupied France for the winter production – ‘Allo ‘Allo 2, “The Camembert Caper” at the Lecture Hall from 19th to 22nd November. Based on the hit TV series, this sequel to the popular stage production…
AFTER months of building work, the Swan Theatre in Yeovil is re-opening on 17th November with a production of Ted Tally’s Terra Nova – the story of Scott’s famous expedition to the Antarctic between 1910 and 1913. Officially it was the British Antarctic Expedition, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and with various scientific and…
WRIGHT and Grainger are two men who met at school and both became obsessed with the Greek myths and their timeless relevance, which is certainly having a moment in these days of divided nations at war, very silly people who think they are gods and mindless people who bolster those delusions. The duo has developed…