THERE is nothing light and humorous about Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, and its overt racism poses a problem for some theatre companies. So it might not be seen as the ideal choice for an open air play, where the audience wants action, fun and laughter to go with their picnics and (in this heatwave) increasing consumption…
YOU probably don’t think much about oranges – juicy, full of vitamin C, useful in salads or with roast duck … But in a time before instant gratification and international food miles, oranges were a treat, an exotic delight to titillate the fancy and palate of the great, the (possibly) good and the wealthy. And…
WHEN I was about to be married, my future Father-in-Law, with great wisdom, steered me towards buying a house about to be built as part of a 40-unit development. This was around the same time that Mike Leigh wrote this play, and being the first to take up residence I watched newcomers arrive. Thinking back,…
WHAT is it that every woman wants? That’s the central question posed by the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It’s something that less-enlightened men think they instinctively know. It is also the framework for the Rude Mechanicals’ 2026 summer tour, The Wife. Writer Pete Talbot, an MBE recipient in the King’s Birthday Honours for…
SOME of the reviewers of this sparklingly sexy and imaginative production have compared it to David McVicar’s famous Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne – and found David Alden’s production lacking in subtlety. Having seen both, (which I’m guessing the other critics have too), I think this Egyptian-themed production, with its fabulous singing, inventive sets and convincing…
THE Marquise is a very unusual Noel Coward play, written in 1927 as a star vehicle for his friend, the singer and actress Marie Tempest, but set in 1735. Bookended by his smash hits Hay Fever and Private Lives, it is rarely performed, perhaps because it lacks the welter of wit and bon mots of…
HOW many actors does it take to perform Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, dramatis personae of 15 plus extra? The answer is five – and you hardly miss a thing. The Festival Players, formed in 1986 and an all-male troupe since 2014, has chosen the hilarious play of identical twins, mistaken identities, lost love and…
WHEN Laura Wade decided to rework W Somerset Maughan’s highly successful 1926 play The Constant Wife and look at the story through modern eyes, whilst keeping the same storyline she based her script on Maughan’s concept rather than using the original text. Lyric Hammersmith’s associate director Nicholai La Barrie, who directs this joint production with…
A RARELY performed Noel Coward comedy is coming to Bath Theatre Royal – The Marquise, starring Juliet Aubrey, Simon Shepherd and Tristan Gemmill, is on a national tour and will be at Bath from Tuesday 16th to Saturday 20th June. This romantic comedy, originally set in 18th-century France and now given a 1930s updating, was…
BADGER’S Drift will get a bit of a break from homicide when the curtain comes down on Midsomer Murders at Bath on Saturday 14th June – but not for long. The success of this first staging of the popular TV series on its opening UK tour, which started in November 2025, means it has 14 more…