The Arts Section

Word Perfect on stage

SUSIE Dent, well-known from her television quiz appearances as the ultimate walking dictionary, is as entertaining as she is erudite. She is currently on a national tour, coming to Dorchester Arts at Thomas Hardye School theatre on Sunday 8th March, at 3.30pm. Following her previous hit show, The Secret Life of Words, Britain’s best-loved wordsmith…

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Variety is the spice …

FARNHAM Maltings, much-loved on rural touring circuits, returns to Dorset and Devon with a new play, touring the region until 22nd March. All For Your Delight is a celebration of the world of variety, with a dazzling mix of comedy, songs and games – plus some spectacular roller skating! The show is with Devon’s Villages…

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Moviola in March

RALPH Fiennes, who must be one of the world’s hardest working actors on stage and screen, stars in the most-requested Moviola film in March – The Choral. Co-produced and directed by Nicholas Hytner, the film is written by Alan Bennett. Set in 1916, during World War I, in the fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, it…

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Elementary magic, my dear Watson

AFTER the mysterious disappearance of a world-famous magician disappears, the great Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate in Holmes and Watson: The Curious Case of The Masked Magician comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Saturday 7th March at 11am and 2.30pm and Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday 15th March at 2.30. 1t’s 1906…

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Vincent and John – a meeting

TWO great artists met their deaths by gun-shot. Vincent died in 1890. John died in 1980. What might have happened had the two great artists met? Discover a possible answer in When Vincent met John at Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 7th March. Vincent van Gogh was a 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among…

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New medical comedy

TWO popular small touring theatre companies have got together to produce a new comedy, General Medical Emergency Ward 10, which starts an Artsreach tour at Halstock on 4th March, followed by Sydling St Nicholas on Thursday 5th and Winterborne Stockland on Friday 6th. Award‑winning Dyad Productions and Company Gavin Robertson have reimagined the worlds of…

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Boogie and blues at the Beehive

THE king of boogie-woogie piano Ben Waters is joined by his son, the brilliant saxophonist Tom, for an evening of boogie and blues at the Beehive Centre at Honiton on Saturday 7th March. From the moment he first danced his fingers across the keys, Dorset-born Ben Waters has been on a mission to capture the…

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Romeo and Juliet or Juliet and Romeo?

SALISBURY International Arts Festival, running from 16th to 27th June, takes two very different looks at the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, with a community production of Shakespeare’s play, from 24th May to 7th June, and a dance version, Lost Dog’s Juliet & Romeo, which imagines this enduring tale of love turned upside down….

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Turkish girls on top

“WHO runs the world?” ask the fearless and brilliant dancers of the Turkish company Ceyda Tanc, when they come to Buckland Newton village hall on Sunday 1st March. Their answer is “Girls.” The performance, at 3.30pm, is the only Dorset date for the company, and is presented by the county’s rural touring arts charity Artsreach….

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Icelandic cellist with Concerts in the West

ICELANDIC cellist Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir, with accompanist Antoine Préat, joins Concerts in the West’s for the March series, starting at 11.30am on Friday 13th March at Bridport Arts Centre, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday 14th at 7.30. The duo will play a programme of cello…

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