COMPANIES across the FTR core area have taken the top awards in this year’s Rose Bowl contest, and leading the way was Claudia Pepler’s astonishing production of Come From Away (pictured right) at the Merlin Theatre in Frome in July, which took the Bristol Evening Post award for best musical production. Sarah Nias (right) won…
THOUGHT the dastardly Captain Hook had met his watery fate at the end of Peter Pan’s adventures? … think again. Perhaps unsurprisingly he found a way to stay alive in the water at the end of the plank he was forced to walk, and, after desolate years of fury and plotting, HE’S BACK! And when…
BRISTOL’s historic Old Vic breaks with its usual non-celebrity tradition this year, bringing in local star, comedian, actor and singer Jayde Adams to lead a terrific cast of actor-musicians in a musical retelling of a story that started its life at the Llandoger Trow, just yards down the street. It’s 15 years since King Street…
JUST across the road from the stage door of Bristol Hippodrome is a public house which until recent times was called The Bunch of Grapes, where you would very often encounter stars appearing in the Hippo enjoying a pre, or post show, drink. With the pub’s change of name to Smoke and Mirrors, those days…
WHEN a novel is adapted for the stage, then a TV film and finally for the big screen, there are bound to be arguments about which format the story is best told in. Having seen them all, and with the support of most of those who have all seen or read the story in all…
THE children whose first view of live theatre was watching Little Bulb perform Antarctica at Bristol Old Vic in 2013 are in their late teens now, but possibly are still theatregoers, thanks to that magical experience. Now a new generation is watching a new cast perform the play again, and it is just as enchanting…
SHAFTESBURY Chamber Music Series founder violinist Ruth Rogers returns home to Shaftesbury on Saturday 13th December for a sonata recital. She will be joined by pianist Simon Callaghan at the Farrington Hall at Port Regis School on Saturday 13th December for a recital that begins with Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in D, Op. 12 No. 1…
THE story of Rapunzel, the girl imprisoned in a high tower by a possessive witch, dates back into the mists of time, but it has lost neither its appeal nor its impact, as the new version by Sharon Clark for the Tobacco Factory Christmas show proves. The five-strong cast of actor-musicians excitingly demonstrate that there…
PANTOMIME is a very English thing – you only have to try an American version and you would know what I mean. It is enormously versatile, and the fairy stories on which most pantos are based are open to almost endless interpretations and updatings. There are a few essentials, forming a sort-of skeleton without which…
THE Merlin Christmas show is traditionally a feast of fun and talent, featuring a huge number of performers, technicians and back stage supporters – and this year’s show, on until 13th December, is no exception, with a regular cast of 25 and two alternating teams of ten leading players and dancers as well. Roald Dahl’s…