THE traditional antidote to the joy and happiness of Christmas is a good old ghost story, perhaps some MR James, or a little Gothic Poe, or even some Dickens, so it seems highly appropriate for Helen Watts to bring her directorial talent to a more recent work, the thriller Stone Cold Murder, by James Cawood,…
ARTS University Bournemouth is setting new – and enviably high – standards in collaboration between acting and design courses. And nowhere has it been better shown than in the pre-Christmas production of Laura Wade’s Alice, a thoughtful and interesting new version of Alice in Wonderland that incorporates elements of The Wizard of Oz and applies…
DISNEY might have been the original inspiration for Bea Roberts’ new version of Little Mermaid. But the mesmerising show this Christmas at the egg, Bath Theatre Royal’s dedicated children’s performance space, is a world away from the sentimental blockbuster. The award-winning playwright has incorporated the story of the Selkie and the legend of the Mermaid…
THERE are few things that are more quintessentially British than The Christmas Pantomime. You only have to sit next to an American or mainland European in an audience and you quickly realise just how unique panto is, no matter how much the Italians might claim it as the child of commedia dell’arte! From those earliest…
IT’s that time of year when audience participation is as much part of the entertainment as the mincing Dame and the thigh-slapping principal boy – and it doesn’t just have to be in pantomime. Audiences love singing carols and at Trowbridge Chorus’s joyous Christmas concert, they were also invited to join in the Twelve Days…
FOLK music is, by its very nature, an oral tradition, often linked to storytelling, as with the great ballads of the northern Borders. They would be handed down by singers and within families, and because repetition is a great aid to memory, they often contain repeated lines, couplets or choruses. And then there are the…
IN the six years since Paul Hendy and Emily Wood took over the creaky, clunky Octagon panto-mimes, they have transformed the Yeovil Christmas show into something that any professional theatre in the country could be proud of. And this year’s Cinderella, on until 7th January, is a fantastic show from beginning to end, with not…
FROME’s Merlin company has built up an eager audience for its multi-media Christmas shows, and they have reached new heights this year with Claudia Pepler’s adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. With an enviable number of young men and women with good singing voices, a powerfully relevant story and some anthems that deserve to have a…
WHAT do you need for a terrific pantomime? There could be lots of answers but I suggest a strong and familiar story, lots of songs, colourful costumes and sets, an exuberant Dame, a witty knockabout, an attractive central couple and a really hissable villain. Perform it in what is probably the prettiest theatre in the…
IF you are holding out for a hero, you need go no further than Salisbury. The Playhouse’s Jack is everything you could want – handsome, brave and he sings like an angel (not surprising when you read that actor Sam Harrison is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music). Mind you, he doesn’t impress…