The Arts Section

All at sea with Our Star Theatre

IF you enjoy the clever Mischief Theatre productions (The Play That Goes Wrong, etc) look out for Our Star Theatre’s new play, Death(s) At Sea on a lengthy national tour with local dates at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 19th and Seaton Gateway on Friday 20th. The play, a comedy murder mystery, is when Our…

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Neverland on Portland

OPEN-air theatre company SISATA is back on home ground on Portland on Sunday 8th September, nearing the end of a lengthy national and local summer tour, with a production of Peter Pan, in the setting which inspired this retelling of JM Barrie’s famous tale. The performance, next to Portland Bill lighthouse, features four local professional…

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An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical, Bristol Hippodrome

IT is common practice nowadays to take a successful musical film or a drama (some with a minimum of music involved), and adapt it for the stage as a musical. A few have benefitted from the transfer, others, like Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, have fallen by the wayside despite good reviews and audience reaction….

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Art, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

ART, Yasmina Reza’s award-winning hit play, is a very odd thing, when you think about it. It is a play by a French woman dramatist, about three men (the women are only referred to as peripheral characters and frankly get a pretty bad rep), about male friendship and about art. These are very French themes…

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Die Fledermaus, IfOpera, Belcombe Court

THE words of Simon Butteriss and the lyrics of the late, great, John Mortimer – with a few of the greatest hits of Johann Strauss – is a recipe for comic opera heaven, and that is what audiences at IfOpera at Belcombe Court in Bradford-on-Avon enjoyed this season. Simon Butteriss was a favourite in the…

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Marine’s global music month finale

FANS of global music have had a treat at the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis during September, and the final event comes on Sunday 29th. The focus moves to South America, when Jazz by the Sea welcomes in Alvorada, a Brazilian instrumental quintet introducing their latest album, Faz Tempo. It is a bold and rich…

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Mela Quartet open CIW season

CONCERTS in the West, the charity which brings rising stars of the chamber music scene to the West Country, opens the autumn season with four recitals by the Mela guitar quartet, bringing a “festival of music” to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 6th September at 11.30am, for the shorter coffee concert, that evening at Ilminster…

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The History Boys, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

ALAN Bennett’s play The History Boys, first seen at the National Theatre in 2004 and later filmed, launched the careers of several young actors and quickly embedded itself as a favourite Bennett work. It was seen at Bath Theatre Royal in 2007 as part of its first national tour, and again in 2010 and 2011….

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Art – and the price of friendship

ONE of the most popular plays of the past three decades, Yasmina Reza’s Art comes to Poole Lighthouse from 29th to 31st August, and at Bath in a new 30th anniversary production at the start of the Theatre Royal’s autumn season, from Tuesday 3rd to Saturday 7th September. The play is directed by Iqbal Khan…

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Forty years on – the Bourton Village Video

FORTY years ago community activists Sue and John Holman and Trevor Bailey decided to make a video about the North Dorset village of Bourton and its people. In the intervening years the film has been largely forgotten, but now the original tapes have been digitised by Windrose Media Trust, which was founded by Trevor Bailey,…

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