KLEZMER, the music of Jewish Eastern Europe and the Balkans, is haunting and poignant, but it can also be infectiously energetic, urging you to join in with its fast and furious dance rhythms. Catch the Zeffe klezmer band at the Beehive Centre at Honiton on Saturday 31st January at 7.30pm. It’s just the thing to…
WE all know the identity of Sherlock Holmes’s arch-nemesis, don’t we – but what if the real “killer” was the great detective’s creator? Find out more when Sherlock Holmes: The Death and Life comes to the Ustinov Studio at Bath Theatre Royal on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st January. The premise of this witty one-man…
THE creative ferment of Frome, Somerset’s most artistically active town, has produced a new play which draws on the writer-performer’s own experience as a taxi driver. Rank, by Dan Gaisford, is coming to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio on 2nd and 3rd February and the Bay Theatre at Weymouth College on 5th February. The play…
THE Boxer Rebellion is remembered as a frightening episode in China’s history – but partisan Western reporting means we have a very one-sided view of the insurrection. An unusual solo show, Chinese Boxing, coming to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio from 27th to 29th January, gives the Chinese side of the story. The play, written…
YES, we know, it’s mid-winter – but right now we all need something to look forward to, and we’re looking ahead to the end of July when Poole Harbour Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary, and the Kaiser Chiefs headline the main stage. So, in this gloomy, cold, wet January, let’s try to imagine long summer…
HOWARD Coggins was a comic genius, a versatile actor with a vivid, surreal imagination, and in their company Living Spit, he and Stu McLoughlin created something uniquely funny, charming, wacky and endlessly entertaining – reinventing history with their two-person take on the lives of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, telling the story of real life…
THE new exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury is Legacy in Making, running until 10th May. Presented by Somerset Art Works in partnership with the South West Heritage Trust, it celebrates the legacy and future of the Somerset Craft Guild. It shows the remarkable breadth of contemporary and historic craft in Somerset,…
MANY of us would love to have paintings, drawings or limited edition prints, but can barely afford them in these cash-strapped times – well-known Wiltshire artist Nick Andrew is offering work from some of his drawing projects at reduced prices on Saturday 7th February. On view at Nick’s Bull Mill Studio at Crockerton, near Warminster,…
ALISON Steadman, one of the best-loved and most versatile actresses of her generation, will be the special guest at the Pipeline masterclass at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 11th February. Acclaimed for her stage, television and film roles, Alison first came to prominence in television plays Nuts in May and Abigail’s Party – she…
ANYONE old enough to remember the year of the Miners’ strike will be fascinated by Danny Mellor’s Undermined, a solo show coming to Piddletrenthide Memorial Hall on Friday 23rd January and West Stafford village hall on Saturday 24th, both at 7.30pm. Described by one reviewer as “an excellent dramatisation of an immensely important period of…