IF you buy a stick of Blackpool Rock you would find the town’s name running through the heart of the sweet. And in a similar vein, Blood Brothers and the two men most associated with the show, author/composer Willy Russell and director/producer Bill Kenwright, have Liverpool running through their hearts. Born within a year of…
SHERLOCK Holmes arrives at Bath Theatre Royal, from Tuesday 16th to Saturday 20th April, in an adaptation of one of Conan Doyle’s original tales, in a production that marks the 20th anniversary of Blackeyed Theatre Company. Blackeyed Theatre’s production of Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear is in Bath before its London premiere at Southwark…
HAROLD Pinter almost single-handedly invented the “theatre of menace”, and his successors took up the idea and ran with it. Watching his early 1960s television play The Lover again, in the brilliant production by Lindsay Posner currently on stage at the intimate Ustinov Studio in Bath, I couldn’t help but feel that he had invented…
BRITISH Museum curator Sophia Adams will give a talk about the important Iron Age and Roman finds from a grave on Cranborne Chase, at the Dorset Museum in Dorchester on Thursday 18th April at 7pm. “Traditions and Transitions: The Story of the Chettle Grave Group” will discuss the 2003 discovery of a locally made bronze…
DORSET’s much-loved folk duo Ninebarrow – James LaBouchardiere and Jon Whitley – are almost as well known for their love of walking as they are for their beautiful harmonies and charming original songs. For some years they have been leading walks and writing books to introduce their fans and fellow-walkers to different areas of their…
DORSET artist Gary Cook has spent much of the past year sketching in the landscape around the Daylesford estate on the Cotswolds, and the results can be seen in a new exhibition, ReWolding, at Daylesford from 16th to 29th April, capturing the unique atmosphere and beauty of this area of sweeping hills, wooded valleys and…
THE iconoclastic Living Spit, led by Stu McLoughlin, now sadly without the late Howard Coggins, tackles one of the greatest stories of all – The Passion, in their latest show, touring this spring, with performances continuing at Exeter’s Barnfield Theatre on 21st and 22nd May. The Passion of Living Spit, is the company’s hilarious and…
THE Urban Folk Quartet – four musicians who have played with many of the biggest names on the contemporary folk scene – come to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 13th April. Known to their many fans as UFQ, this exciting group has a repertoire which has much less to do with the traditional idea of…
THREE musicians with very different backgrounds who perform together as Coracle come to the David Hall at South Petherton, on Saturday 13th April at 8pm, for a concert that brings together both traditional and contemporary music. The spring tour also comes to the Arts Centre at Shaftesbury on 12th May. The trio are Paul Hutchinson,…
THE distinguished conductor Mark Wigglesworth has been announced as the new chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He will take up the role at the start of the orchestra’s 2024-25 season in September, when Kirill Karabits, the BSO’s inspiring chief conductor for the past 15 years, becomes Conductor Laureate and artistic director of the…