THE historic State Theatre in Auburn, California is one of those art deco cinemas we don’t have in the UK, resplendent with its original “marquee” –the colourful neon frontispiece (pictured) and it is now the headquarters of the city”s burgeoning arts association. It has recently had a refit, the central wall inserted to create a…
STURMINSTER Newton Amateur Dramatic Society’s annual pantomime Sleeping Beauty was everything a community panto should be. It was slick, the songs were well chosen, well sung and (above all) nice and short, there was some clever choreography and, with a talented company of about two dozen performers covering the whole age range, there were opportunities…
SINCE I often feel like a dinosaur, I don’t mind confessing that I remember when Fanny Hill was eventually published in 1970 and what a deliciously wicked thrill it was to read it. After DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the truly shocking Last Exit To Brooklyn, it was the most explicit book most of…
JUST as the media is abuzz with questions like “are you brainy enough to see a Stoppard play,” Blanche McIntyre’s new production of one of his greatest – Arcadia – comes to Bath’s Theatre Royal. I find it rather depressing that the country is being asked to criticise Stoppard for writing work that is a…
JAMES Roose-Evans’ international hit play 84 Charing Cross Road started its life at Salisbury Playhouse in 1981, before a triumphant transfer to the West End (and then to Broadway) and an award-winning film. Now it’s back on stage in Salisbury, again directed by Roose-Evans– and it’s a sheer delight. I must be one of the…
MIKE Bartlett’s dystopian play Earthquakes in London was last seen in the region in 2011 when Rupert Goold’s Headlong production came to Bath. Set mainly in the capital, it dashes from a prescient past to an oddly promising future. Using that much-visited framework of three sisters and a disappointing father, its siblings are variously a…
WHEN total strangers leaving a show are so excited and happy that they talk to each other, you know the performance has been something special. And this was an exceptional show that had the audience – of all ages – buzzing with delighted admiration. Juggling and contemporary dance don’t have an obvious or immediate connection…
A ROUNDELAY is a circular dance, or a song with a line repeated as chorus, or anything circular, and this new work from Alan Ayckbourn is certainly at least one of those three; an evening of circular entertainment. Part of the Brechtian nature of Ayckbourn is that he sometimes likes us to see the scaffold,…
TISBURY Arts Group moved back from Nadder Hall to the more intimate surroundings of the Victoria Hall in the town centre for this year’s pantomime, Peter Pan, and the Saturday matinee packed every seat in the house, balcony included. This home-written version of the famous story (by an uncredited author) has Nana as a human…
THERE are three essential ingredients for a successful village pantomime – a good script, talented performers and a strong sense of community. If you get all three coming together well you hit the jackpot, which is pretty much what Tarrant Valley Players did with Treasure Island at Tarrant Keyneston’s Ann Biddlecombe Hall. The Tarrant villages are…