The Arts Section

Unearthing Dorset’s remarkable women

A NEW play by Stephanie Dale, writer of two of Dorset’s successful community plays, uncovers stories of some of the remarkable women from Dorset’s past. Unearthed has its premiere with Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July, followed by two more performances at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Friday…

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What history can tell us

WITH each day and each latest horrifying news item, the war in the Middle East becomes more worrying and spreads ever further. It is, for those who take the “long view” as Jonathan Freedland calls it in his BBC Radio 4 programmes, a war that was always on the cards, in a region that has…

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Juggling your life

CONFESSIONAL comedian Suzi Ruffell brings her new show, The Juggle, to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Friday 5th June and to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre the following evening, Saturday 6th. It’s hard to be good all the time, says Suzi. A good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good friend, a…

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Mozart satire on tour

OPERA Anywhere  is touring with a delightful new adaptation of Mozart’s satire Cosi Fan Tutte. The company will be performing the wickedly funny “Thus do all women” story of two flirtatious young women, two jealous (and rather stupid) young men, an old cynic and a very smart maid. Directed by Tristan Stocks, edited and adapted…

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Jeneba at Dorchester

JENEBA Kanneh-Mason, the fifth of the seven remarkable Kanneh-Mason musical siblings, returns to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Tuesday 2nd June at 7.30, welcomed back after her Dorchester Arts debut in 2023. Her programme for this return visit features works by Bach (Partita No 5), Beethoven (Sonata No 17, Tempest), William Grant Still (Summerland), Debussy (La…

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Sumer is icumen in

HISTORIC performance duo GreenMatthews are touring arts venues with their new show, Midsummer Revels, with local dates at Pound Arts, Corsham, on 6th June, the Museum of Rural Life at Glastonbury on 17th June and the Corn Exchange at Dorchester on Sunday 21st June. Chris Green and Sophie Matthews are modern-day balladeers, specialising in telling…

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Summer concert at Axminster

AXE Vale Orchestra, conducted by Walter Brewster, gives its summer concert at the Minster on Sunday 7th June at 3.30pm. The afternoon programme includes Bizet’s Petite Suite: Jeux d’enfants, Dvorak’s Romance for violin and orchestra, with soloist Jane Bultz, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The audience can enjoy tea and cake after the concert. The Axe…

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Harriet Walter at Lyme Regis

ONE of this country’s most distinguished and critically acclaimed actresses, Dame Harriet Walter is coming to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, for a fund-raising evening on Sunday 14th June. A star of stage and screen for 40 years, Dame Harriet has a long and illustrious relationship with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National…

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Romeo and Juliet, Salisbury Playhouse and environs

THE flagship event of this year’s Salisbury International Arts Festival is a challenging new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, set in and around the brutalist 50-year-old Playhouse and the adjoining car park in the timeless hinterland of tribal feuds and retributions – and it is an astonishing achievement. This really IS what immersive theatre…

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Hacker’s back – older but no wiser

FANS of Yes, Prime Minister may sometimes have wondered what happened to the Right Hon Jim Hacker when he left No 10 – or to his nemesis, the inscrutable and indefatigable Sir Humphrey. Well, now you can find out, as the pair return for one final theatrical outing in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, at Theatre…

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