MOIRA Buffini’s hit play Handbag ged, which ends its 13-venue 2015 UK tour at Bath on Saturday 5th December, is the hilarious imagined story of the meetings between Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher between 1979 and 1990. It’s such recent history that most members of the audience have bits of…
ALAN Ayckbourn is one of Britain’s most popular playwrights and probably the favourite living writer with amateur groups (run a very close second by the other Alan – Bennett). Warminster’s Athenaeum Limelight Players chose his Seasons Greetings for their December show at the atmospheric old theatre – a black comedy that tarnishes the tinsel on the…
ALAN Bennett’s charming stage adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s tales of the riverbank is the ideal family show if you want to avoid pantomimes or even the mention of Christmas. Ed Viney directs the show for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School students this year, and his message throughout rehearsal was to have the sort of fun…
DRAMA students at the Arts University Bournemouth are performing a devised version of Charles Dickens’ masterpiece Bleak House at their studio theatre this week. It is an ensemble piece directed by the mime expert David Glass, and the students have the good fortune to be working with his mercurial inspiration to bring this tumultuous melodrama…
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 Elgar: Symphony No. 2 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Vassily Sinaisky: Conductor Kirill Gerstein: Piano RADIO 3 listeners, as well as a full audience at the Lighthouse, were treated to a concert in which Russians were in charge both on the podium and the piano stool. Standing as it…
SO many of the phrases from Fawlty Towers – now incredibly celebrating its 40th anniversary – have found their way into everyday language that we feel we know the staff and customers at the Torquay guest house as well as we know our own friends. In Yeovil, where the Civic Players have been entertaining audiences…
MIKE Bartlett’s play King Charles III is half-way through a 20-venue UK tour, and filling Bath’s Theatre Royal until Saturday 28th November. The prolific 35-year-old playwright who brought the climate change play Earthquakes in London to the National Theatre, was commissioned by Rupert Goold to write this 2014 play, which sold out at the Almeida…
IN these days when “soshul meejah” rules many lives and the importance of celebrity seems to depend more and more on appearance, Bec Applebee’s clever take on the story of Cinderella is a timely tale. Ella has been brought up on the farm by her devoted parents and a chicken for a chum. When her…
IT’S an incredible 11 years since Yeovil Youth Theatre burst onto the scene with an unforgettable production of Les Miserables at The Gateway, and during the intervening years the company has introduced many young performers in a challenging variety of roles. This year’s show, at the Octagon Theatre last week, was Annie, a perennial favourite…
FRANCE is currently in the news for such terrible reasons that it is a welcome pleasure to be reminded that for most of us French culture is synonymous with sharp intelligence, wit, style and romance. French drama is particularly renowned for its sparkling romantic comedies, often satirical, frequently sexy. From Moliere via Marivaux to Feydeau,…