WE have such a damaged, tragic image of Baghdad these days that it is good to be reminded that once it was a city of dreamers, poets and story-tellers, glittering minarets, camel caravans bearing the riches of the Silk Road and turbanned merchants in swirling robes … the land of the Sultan and Scheherazade and…
PICTURE pink mist … tiny droplets of blood and flesh filling the air … shot to smithereens, we used to say. The definition of the title doesn’t come until late on in poet, novelist, presenter and teacher Owen Sheers’ first play, currently back where it started at Bristol Old Vic for a third time, at…
SOON after my sixth birthday, way back in the year when Prince Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales and when the first decimal coins were in circulation, I was taken to the old cinema in Shaftesbury, with mum, dad, and four-year-old sister, to watch a magical film, where a car flew and people…
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Kirill Karabits: Conductor Valeriy Sokolov: Violin DURING his time at the helm of the BSO, we have seen Kirill Karabits expand his repertoire enormously, but conducting the works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, the twin giants of Soviet-era Russian music, has…
HIJINX is a professional theatre company based at the Wales Millennium Centre. What makes them just a bit different is that their productions involve actors with learning difficulties working alongside those who face no such challenges; they pioneer, produce and promote inclusive theatre, making much use of the skills and raw talent of people who…
WILLIAM Hooker Gillette was America’s foremost actor-manager at the turn of the last century, and when Arthur Conan Doyle was looking to extend his own income from Sherlock Holmes by transferring him to the stage, Gillette was an obvious choice for a collaboration, as writer and actor. The resulting play, Sherlock Holmes, ran for many…
THE revolving set for the Regent’s Park Theatre production of Simon Reade’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s best-loved book might look a little like the ironwork of New Orleans rather than Regency rural England, but it cleverly frames the action in this beautifully choreographed show. Neither as deconstructed as the current Jane Eyre tour, nor conventionally…
AMERICAN writer Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles play had its UK premiere in Bath four years ago, and now Peter Fernandez brings the four hander to the stage of the Swan in Yeovil. There is nothing easy or comfortable about this four-hander, set in the New York apartment of nonagenarian Vera Joseph. She’s a card-carrying Communist…
THIS year (2017) marks the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s 124th year of bringing high quality live music to the south and south west. Last weekend, as part of their commitment to deliver music to rural communities in more intimate venues, their new music ensemble, Kokoro, returned to Bridport with a diverse programme entitled Fantasia – music…
I FIRST met Margaret Thatcher in the ballroom of the King’s Arms Hotel in Christchurch, the week before she became leader of the Conservative party in early 1975. The research chemist and barrister was a blazing light among the stodgily familiar Tory faithful. Interviewing her after her speech, she was direct, what we now call…