La Boheme Dutch National Touring Opera PUCCINI’S La Boheme, certainly the most accessible of all grand operas, has been brought up to date and shortened to barely 75 minutes for a production by young singers from the Dutch National Opera, currently touring our region under the auspices of Dorset Opera Festival. The UK premiere of…

Wessex Actors Company on tour OSCAR Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people,” The Importance of Being Earnest, is a perennial on the open air touring circuit, but you won’t see a more sparkling or convincing production than Linsey O’Neill’s for the east Dorset based Wessex Actors Company. Ingeniously devised for a circular performance area that…

The Last Days of Mankind BOVTS at Bristol Old Vic SATIRIST and journalist Karl Kraus wrote The Last Days of Mankind while he was living in Vienna during the First World War, watching as the popular press convinced the population of the “true” situation in Europe and that God was on their side of the…

The Merry Wives of Windsor Taunton Thespians on tour TAUNTON Thespians have returned to the classics for their 2013 tour of The Merry Wives of Windsor, after last summer’s drenched tour of Terry Pratchett’s Lord and Ladies. The Shakespearean romp opened at Bishop’s Hull on Tuesday, with the emphasis on the “Carry on Falstaff” aspects…