THE arts are being removed from school curriculums, grants for further studies are being axed, London theatres are constantly criticised for exorbitant ticket prices, pros are being precious over pronouns and diversity box-ticking is rampant. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that the importance of amateur dramatics is ever more current, and that the brilliant Ian…
THERE are so many conspiracy theories about the composition of Cosi fan Tutte that they would make the basis of the plot for an opera in their own right. Was it the Emperor Joseph II, who died shortly after the first performance of the opera in 1790, who suggested the idea to Mozart, or since…
EVEN lifelong opera-lovers can sometimes feel dispirited. Opera survives on the support, generosity and love of a generation born within 20 years of the war – anyone looking around them in the stalls, or the grand tier, or the balcony or, frankly, even the amphitheatre of the Royal Opera House might be forgiven for wondering where…
PLAYWRIGHTS Ian Hislop and Nick Newman took the script that they part-wrote for the Hollywood film A Bunch of Amateurs, starring Burt Reynolds, and turned it into a stage play, which has been chosen as the spring production for Frome Drama Club, at the Merlin Theatre from 25th to 27th April. The two hugely talented…
THOSE of us of “a certain age” who remember Arthur Penn’s iconic 1967 film of Bonnie and Clyde, starring a never-better Warren Beatty and a brilliant Faye Dunaway, are bound to look forward to the award-winning musical version – coming to Bath Theatre Royal from 30th April to 4th May – with a mixture of…
NOEL Coward’s Still Life, better known as the stiff-lipped weepie Brief Encounter, focuses on genteel star-crossed lovers Alec and Laura, thrown together when she gets a sooty smut caught in her eye on a railway station. In the film, their love is a tragically doomed affair, but in this more nuanced adaptation by Dorchester Drama…
THE summer 2024 exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral explores our relationship with the earth at a time of environmental crisis and change. Opening to coincide with World Earth Day (22nd April), the exhibition runs to 6th October and includes works inside the cathedral, in the cloisters and on the lawns. The background to Our Earth, curated…
BATH Gilbert & Sullivan Society pays tribute to a great British tradition in its spring show, an Old Time Music Hall, at the Mission Theatre from Wednesday 24th to Friday 26th April at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Much-loved for their regular G&S productions, the multi-award winning Bath society has also staged popular…
ONE of Alan Ayckbourn’s most popular plays, A Chorus of Disapproval, comes to Salisbury Playhouse from 30th April to 18th May, with previews from 25th April. Directed by Gareth Machin, the artistic director of Wiltshire Creative, the large cast features Damian Humbley as the hapless central character, Guy, and Robert Bowman, seen last year in…
SALISBURY Cathedral has a week-long festival in May to mark the centenary of one of the major figures of late 19th and early 20th century English music, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. The festival, from Monday 6th to Sunday 12th May, will include concerts and music by Stanford within the cathedral services. Nowadays, Stanford is largely…