GREAT Expectations is a book that you could say lives up to its title – an epic story of damaged lives and shattered illusions. Despite its scale it lends itself to the intimacy of theatre as the audience will discover when Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s music and drama group stages the story, from 22nd to 25th…
TIME travel and the Scottish play … you might not think a time-travelling romantic series of novels and television adaptations, one of Scotland’s best-known actors making his Royal Shakespeare Company debut and a comedy about three school-kids have much in common. But the clue is in the heading – the Scottish play, as you have…
BY any stretch of the imagination, Dracula – or Nosferatu – is the most famous horror story of all. Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel has spawned films, plays, ballets, puppet shows … even pantomimes. Now it is back on screen, coming to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday 15th October, in the FW Murnau silent film…
THREE leading local galleries all have exciting exhibitions for the autumn – The Art Stable at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, has a retrospective on the work of the late David Gommon. Sladers Yard at West Bay celebrates mother and daughter Marzia Colonna and Fiamma Colonna Montagu, and the Slade Centre at Gillingham looks…
TWO of Dorset’s best-known folk musicians, Tim Laycock and Alastair Braidwood, have recorded a new album of folk songs, readings and storytelling, Friends & Neighbours. They also have a short tour, including performances at Athelhampton House on Friday 3rd October and Bere Regis Folk Night at the Drax Arms on Tuesday 28th. A much-loved and…
THERE is precious little good that came out of 9/11 – but one heart-warming, true story from those tragic, desperate days was turned into a great musical, Come From Away, which has been chosen by Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society for its autumn 2025 show, from 14th to 18th October at the Westlands entertainment centre. One…
THE early years of the Second World War may have seemed an inappropriate time to stage a comedy about the ghosts of people recently dead, but Noel Coward was a shrewd man. When he wrote his great farce, Blithe Spirit, he reasoned that the story would be thoroughly heartless – “You can’t sympathise with any…
THE October tour of Concerts in the West, at Bridport and Ilminster on Friday 24th October, and Crewkerne on Saturday 25th, brings the exciting female vocal trio Voice to the West Country with a programme that ranges from Hildegard of Bingen to new music by British composers. Victoria Couper, Clemmie Franks and Emily Burn will…
THE most popular films with Moviola audiences for October continue to be Mr Burton, the story of the young Richard Burton and his inspirational teacher (whose name he took), and The Penguin Lessons, with a third in-demand film, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. This is a spy thriller, written by David Koepp, starring Cate Blanchett and…
GLOBAL Majority artists take centre stage at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre throughout October in We Rise, a vibrant group exhibition showcasing award-winning and emerging artists across painting, printmaking, installation, textiles and sculpture. The exhibition is part of Black History Month 2025 and highlights the creativity and contribution of artists whose voices are often underrepresented in…