The Play’s the Thing

Celebrating Sarah Bernhardt

HILARY Tones takes the lead in her own play, C’Est La Vie, Sarah Bernhardt and Me, at Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May. The play tells the story of the celebrated and pioneering 19th century French actress who performed worldwide, becoming the first global superstar. An actress nervously awaits…

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Puffling Percy wants to stay put

MEET Percy, the very appealing star of his own show, coming to the Front Room at Weston-super-Mare on 17th May Percy is a puffling who loves his burrow a little too much. What he doesn’t realise, however, is that his entire flock are about to migrate south for the winter. If he doesn’t learn to…

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A long theatrical heritage

CAROLINE Harker, who is at Salisbury Playhouse in a dark ghost story, The Croft, from 9th to 17th May, will be a familiar face to local audiences. Her previous appearances at the theatre have included Moira Buffini’s Maggie Thatcher-Queen Elizabeth II comedy Hand-Bagged, Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking and Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code. Arriving in…

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Silver jubilee production for London Classic Theatre

LONDON Classic Theatre comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Monday 5tyh to Saturday 10th May with its 25th anniversary production, Alan Ayckbourn’s Just Between Ourselves, directed by the company’s founder and artistic director Michael Cabot. Set in 1976, the play features five birthdays, two unhappy marriages and one possessive mother. Dennis tinkers in his garage,…

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New plays for rural touring

A PROJECT to find new plays for small professional companies to tour rural areas has been launched in the South West by Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity. The aim is to discover a new piece of touring theatre from a South West based company or artist as part of a national arts scheme called…

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Gravedigger’s story – brought up to date

IF you were asked to identify a grave-digger in literature, chances are you would remember Hamlet, and that blackly comic scene by Ophelia’s grave when the prince picks up the skull of the clown he remembers from childhood and proceeds to ruminate on the fragility of life. This provides the inspiration for the new Ridiculusmus…

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When women took the stage

APRIL De Angelis’s Playhouse Creatures is a marvellous, funny, touching and convincing imagining of the lives and experiences of the first women to act on the public stage, during the Restoration monarchy of Charles II. A new production,starring Anna Chancellor and Katherine Kingsley, is coming to the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 28th April to…

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A 90s take on a classic black comedy

CRUEL Intentions, The 90s Musical, comes to Bath Theatre Royal on its first UK tour, direct from the West End, from Wednesday 23rd to Saturday 26th April. The show is based on the film of the same name, and is inspired by Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the infamous epistolary novel about sex, social mores and cruel…

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