THE winter 2024 study day at Springhead, the environmental arts centre at Fontmell Magna, focuses on the ways our ancient predecessors dealt with death. Grave Concerns, on Sunday 17th November, features three experts, including the archaeologist and television presenter Julian Richards, who lives in North Dorset. Grave Concerns, which runs from 10am to 5pm, follows…
MILLSTREAM, the Wimborne-based theatre group for learning disabled and neurodivergent adults, is seeking urgent financial support from individuals, businesses or organisations, to be able to continue running regular drama workshops and creating annual productions. Tam Gilbert, co-director of the group which has its home at the Museum of East Dorset, says: “Although we are starting…
LUCY Kirkwood’s powerful play The Welkin had its premiere at the National Theatre early in 2020, where its intended run was cut short by the first COVID lockdown. Now the students of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, directed by Emma Callander, have taken on the play and are performing it at the Weston Studio at…
Bath Mozartfest 2024 – take 2 PLAYWRIGHT, composer and actor Noel Coward and American entertainer Danny Kaye come to mind when summarising the 34th Bath Mozart Fest. Coward was a great one for finding the right venue for his plays, sometimes delaying an opening night until the right theatre was available, and festival artistic director…
DORSET has a lot of Iron Age hill forts. Locally-based theatre company Dorsetborn is touring a highly praised new play that uses this atmospheric setting for a play that asks deep questions about the meaning of friendship. The tour is at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Tuesday 12th and two Artsreach dates, Langton Matravers village hall…
THE 11th Celebrate Voice festival in Salisbury was another record-breaker, founder and artistic director Lynsey Docherty (covered in a black “flashers” mac) told the packed audience at the final event, the last performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love at the Guildhall. Lynsey (pictured right) was all ready (under the voluminous raincoat) to go on…
CLOSE your eyes and you are listening to Dolly Parton – every note, every inflection, every accent in both the songs and the dialogue performed by Tricia Paoluccio in Here You Come Again, the show she co-wrote and is now touring the UK until spring 2025. It is a truly remarkable performance. And the story,…
… that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of the most delightful and witty novels ever written. It also lends itself to endless, inventive reimagining, and they don’t come funnier or more original than Pride and Prejudice (*sort of), which comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre from Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd November. If…
THE Armonico Consort and actor Julian Glover come to Westlands entertainments centre on Monday 11th November, the anniversary of the day that the guns fell silent in 1918. They Shall Grow Not Old, which begins at 7.30pm, is an inspiring and moving commemoration in music and words. The critically-acclaimed choir will perform poignant and much-loved…
YEOVIL-based Lost Lady Society brings The Saviour, a new comedy musical on a tour which continues at Ilchester Town Hall on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th December. The play is set in a struggling family-run chip shop that faces an unexpected crisis — no potatoes This heartfelt and hilarious musical has been cooked up through…