THE Cool Web, created to commemorate the centenary of the Great War, had its triumphant premiere on Thursday 30th October, when baritone Edward Grint was joined by the Philharmonia Voices, the Melody Makers of Bath Abbey (a children’s choir from local schools) and the Endymion Ensemble under the distinguished baton of Robin O’Neill. Composed by…

THE centenary of the start of the First World War and the final departure of British troops from Afghanistan have kept war and the grim business of soldiering in the forefront of the news for many months. The First World War commemorations will continue for four years, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will…

HANDEL’S rarely performed 1723 opera Ottone, the 15th of around 50 studiously recycled operatic works, is part of the current English Touring Opera programme, and was seen at Bath Theatre Royal on 28th October. For this tour, ETO is accompanied by The Old Street Band conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny and the production is directed…

TOMORROW, and tomorrow, and the day after, are the only two chances left to see Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s fifth Shakespeare production. Following A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1990, The Tempest in 2007, the variety-show S Factor in 2012 and last year’s Much Ado About Nothing, this is the first of the tragedies to grace the…

IN the post-Princess Diana era, when people deluge flowers at shopfronts, road verges or school gates after the death of someone they didn’t actually know, and sob at every sentimental soap opera, the idea of restraint and quiet desperation can seem rather strange, almost subversive. In the age of social media, where Twitter trolls and…

DENISE Deegan’s 1983 play, a parody on life in a girl’s private school steeped in the Angela Brazil tradition, is a lasting joy, and one that provides the average amateur dramatic society with a first class script and many many parts for women. Motcombe Community Players have chosen Daisy for the autumn production, and I…

RETURN to the Forbidden Planet, the rock and roll Shakespeare musical by Bob Carlton, first came to my attention in 1989, when it had arrived at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End and was selling out at all performances, with long standing (and dancing) ovations. What was completely innovative was not the use of…

AS the population lives longer and new miracle foods and anti-ageing remedies are proclaimed daily, the effects of dementia are increasingly familiar to us. And as medical research discovers new causes and effects, it’s hard to be unaware of this irreversible, unpredictable encroaching state. French writer Florian Zeller’s award-winning play Le Pere has been translated…

WHEN actor and playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (better known as Moliere) discovered his brilliant talent for writing comedic satires on life in France in the 17th century, he became the darling of the court and the people. Many of his plays have stood the test of time, and now Richard Bean (the man responsible for the…

SHOW Of Hands are and remain one of the most entertaining, most thought-provoking, most durable and, simply, best folk bands on the circuit. Their concert at Taunton’s recently reopened Brewhouse Theatre – a preliminary to a national tour – could hardly have been bettered. For the benefit of the uninitiated, Show Of Hands consists of…