WHAT do you do if your cinema is planning to show all three Lord of the Rings films in one epic screening – but you only have the sound-tracks? You improvise. All three parts of the saga – all those hobbits and heroes, elves and orcs, dwarves and wizards … Parody of the Rings comes…
CABARET should always have a frisson of wanton wit, a hint of burlesque, some risqué songs … and even a pinch of decadence. In the capable hands of Charlie Bicknell and Louise Innes it also has balls or claws – or Claus, if you will. The always in-demand duo picks up its tour in on…
WHEN Janet Street-Porter first hit the newspaper stands, and then the airwaves and television screens, there were many who didn’t like her accent, her voice or her take-no-prisoner attitudes. Opinionated as a fashion journalist, confrontational as a broadcaster and fearless as a campaigner, over time she has become a national treasure, and now she is…
GEOFF Norcott is that very rare thing in the UK comedy scene – he is a Conservative! But coming out as a right-winger hasn’t impeded his career too badly, and he is now on a new tour, Basic Bloke 2 – “There’s no Bloke without Fire” – coming to Salisbury Arts Centre on 31st January,…
LIVING Spit are back on tour in January with their own unique take on one of the best-loved fairytales – Beauty and the Beast. Written by co-founders, Stu McLoughlin and the late and much-missed Howard Coggins, this playful, updated version of the 18th century French fable is at the Princess Theatre at Burnham-on-Sea on 8th…
When two members of Living Spit are overheard bragging about how good they are, Zeus, up there on Olympus, is enraged by their hubris and decides to teach them a lesson –join them as they bring Too Many Greek Myths to Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, and find out how the king of the Greek gods…
THERE is apparently a powerful connection between medicine and comedy – look at the number of doctors and other medics who have combined stand-up with their work, or moved over entirely from the operating theatre to the performing theatre. Take Georgie Carroll, a nurse who has been playing to sell-out audiences for some years. Her…
WELSH storyteller Shon-Dale Jones is back on tour with a new show, Stories From An Invisible Town, with final dates in the area at Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio on 17th and 18th November. Shôn is first and foremost a storyteller. He’s honest, inventive, and deeply human … curious, restless, wide-eyed, offbeat and resonant. His…
THE hilariously funny, cuddly, wry and inspired Howard Coggins, best known in the south west as co-founder of Living Spit and nationally for his Lottery adverts, has died at the age of 52. He was diagnosed with cancer late in 2022. Frustrated with playing bit parts in other people’s shows, Howard and Stu McLoughlin started…