CLAUDIO Monteverdi wrote at least 18 operas, only four of which remain, and most were “lost” from their first performances in the 17th century for hundreds of years. Although the fashion for “early opera” had a resurgence in the late 20th century, it is a rare treat to hear his Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria,…

A POLITICAL prisoner lies in chains in the darkest deepest dungeon of a forbidding prison. His name is never spoken; the prison governor has ordered that he is given less food each day. He will shortly be murdered in his cell and the body hidden in a well. It is a scene that has been…

BRISTOL seems to be the place for guarantees in the midst of uncertainty recently, especially in the theatres: to guarantee England’s victory in the soccer World Cup, all you had to do was go and see the excellent World Cup Final 1966 at Bristol Old Vic, and to combat the vagaries of the British climate…

BROWNSEA Open Air Theatre has a first for its 51st season on the island in Poole Harbour, an adaptation of two of Shakespeare’s history plays by director Denise Mallender. The event is part of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s Open Stages project, for which professionals from Stratford on Avon work with amateurs around the country on…

IN a year when the focus is on war – the centenary of the start of World War One, the continuing and escalating conflicts in the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Ukraine – Dorset Opera has chosen a battle themed opera for the first production of its 40th anniversary season. Verdi’s Aida, first performed in…

THE Studio Theatre company at Salisbury is giving the first regional performances of Amanda Whittington’s comedy Ladies Day at their Ashley Road headquarters from 21st to 26th July. It opens in a fish packing factory in Hull, where four friends decide to “celebrate” one of them leaving by going to the races. It is 2005,…

ALAN Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce is one of the most frequently performed of his huge back catalogue, and the latest comes from the versatile Swan Theatre company in Yeovil. Directed by Beryl Snadden with a clever set designed by Geoff Kneller, it is the story of how one selfish and infuriating couple (Trevor and Susannah) can…

AS we move closer to the centenary of the start of the First World War, the Dorchester-based New Hardy Players pay a timely tribute to Thomas Hardy’s own thoughts about war … the Napoleonic War, that is. Extraordinarily, the programme for this touring production, directed by Tim Laycock and Emma Hill, notes that at the…

AT the beginning of the 20th century, Cecil Sharp collected hundreds of folksongs from working people in Somerset and inspired many other composers and collectors, including Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams, to do the same in other parts of the country. In Dorset, brothers Henry and Robert Hammond were similarly inspired, travelling around the…

ALAN Bennett’s 1986 play Kafka’s Dick not only predates the British writer’s position as national treasure but allowed him to explore both his fascination with the Czech’s work but his views on intellectualism and pretentiousness. It is one of his least performed works, but audiences in the south west have a chance to catch up…