Reviews

The Ladykillers at Yeovil Swan Theatre

THE 1955 Ealing comedy classic The Ladykillers found a new lease of life in 2011 on stage in London, where a theatrical version by Graham Linehan ran for several years. Now released for amateurs, it has several productions in the region in coming weeks, the first of which is now open at Yeovil’s Swan Theatre….

Read more...

Rare Twentieth Century Classics, BSO at The Lighthouse

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Kirill Karabits: Conductor Vadim Gluzman: Violin RAVEL: Mother Goose Suite GLAZUNOV: Violin Concerto PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 4 (1947 version) FINDING the correct balance between the safe crowd-pleasers and the less well-known and unjustly neglected parts of the classical repertoire must be a constant headache for the BSO’s management. In…

Read more...

Henry IV Parts I and II, RSC at Bath Theatre Royal

LIKE a slightly drunk man trying to retain his dignity, Antony Sher’s rambunctious Falstaff carefully enunciates each word, bringing Shakespeare’s larger-than-life “fat knight” to even more vibrant life. His performance is the centrepiece in Greg Doran’s touring Royal Shakespeare Company production of the Henry IV plays, on stage at Bath Theatre Royal to 8th November,…

Read more...

Ben Glover on tour

THE singer and songwriter Ben Glover, who has been opening for Mary Gauthier on her 2014 UK tour, moved from his native Ireland to Nashville, home of a thousand songs. He was brought up on the staple diet of Irish traditional music in his home village of Glenarm, but his parents also loved American country….

Read more...

The Cool Web and The Edith Cavell Story, Bath Abbey

THE Cool Web, created to commemorate the centenary of the Great War, had its triumphant premiere on Thursday 30th October, when baritone Edward Grint was joined by the Philharmonia Voices, the Melody Makers of Bath Abbey (a children’s choir from local schools) and the Endymion Ensemble under the distinguished baton of Robin O’Neill. Composed by…

Read more...

Ottone, English Touring Opera at Bath

HANDEL’S rarely performed 1723 opera Ottone, the 15th of around 50 studiously recycled operatic works, is part of the current English Touring Opera programme, and was seen at Bath Theatre Royal on 28th October. For this tour, ETO is accompanied by The Old Street Band conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny and the production is directed…

Read more...

Macbeth at Shaftesbury Arts Centre

TOMORROW, and tomorrow, and the day after, are the only two chances left to see Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s fifth Shakespeare production. Following A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1990, The Tempest in 2007, the variety-show S Factor in 2012 and last year’s Much Ado About Nothing, this is the first of the tragedies to grace the…

Read more...

Separate Tables, Salisbury Playhouse

IN the post-Princess Diana era, when people deluge flowers at shopfronts, road verges or school gates after the death of someone they didn’t actually know, and sob at every sentimental soap opera, the idea of restraint and quiet desperation can seem rather strange, almost subversive. In the age of social media, where Twitter trolls and…

Read more...