THE horrors and tragedy of war are never far away but for the quiet towns of rural France in 1940 they roared right into the peaceful squares and battered down the doors of farms and townhouses, as the Nazi invasion extended its iron grip over every aspect of life. Suite Francaise, which had a charity…
HELEN Edmundson’s play The Heresy of Love is set in a convent in Mexico City in the late 17th century, and based on a true story. The Spanish were by that time well established in a New World they sought to conquer and to proselytise. Juana de Asbaje y Ramirez was born to unmarried Spanish…
JOAN Littlewood was born in 1914, right at the start of the Great War. Fifty years later, established as a writer, activist and director, she and her team at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, created a satirical musical play about the war, performed by a Pierrot troupe. The power of its impact was immediate, and…
ARTS University Bournemouth’s latest production, the 1930s comedy classic Once in a Lifetime, was the first of eight collaborations by Moss Hart and George Kaufman. Three less-than-successful vaudeville actors decide to leave New York and head for Hollywood to try their luck as voice coaches to the vocally challenged stars of Tinseltown; it is the…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra leader Amyn Merchant Ion Marin: Conductor Gerhard Oppitz: Piano MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491 MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 in D major ION Marin was a new name to me, but it is one that I will not forget. Stepping in at very short notice to replace the indisposed…
POLINA Kalinina’s terrifying, passionate and heartbreaking production of Romeo and Juliet, for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, has introduced a new element to the company which has been presenting plays at the former cigar packing factory in Bedminster every spring for the past 16 years. Company founder Andrew Hilton invited the rising star director to…
KNEEHIGH’S brilliant new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, at Bath until 14th March, is a perfect illustration of how the art and craft of live theatre can come together to leapfrog expectations and make unforgettable magic. The novel was published in 1938, followed two years later by the Hitchcock film whose images were…
PLAYWRIGHT Benedict Barrett’s play The Biscuit Tin was premiered this week in Salisbury by the Studio Youth Theatre. Benedict himself is a fourteen year old student from Bishop Wordsworth’s School and the play was commissioned, although I strongly suspect without any fee, by the director of a previous SYT production. In The Biscuit Tin, Benedict…
THE eyes of the entertainment world might have been on Hollywood last Sunday night but THE place to be was a few miles west in Topanga Canyon, where Gidget Zapata was celebrating her birthday. She runs Los Angeles’ favourite vintage shop, Hillbilly Hip, and she’s a keen fan of alt country, folk and Americana. So…
UK Premier for Penderecki at The Lighthouse Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra leader Amyn Merchant Kirill Karabits: Conductor Akiko Suwanai: Violin BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No.3 PENDERECKI: Symphony No.4 “Adagio” BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto THE BSO has a proud historical record of UK premiers of works by composers of the stature of Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss. This tradition was maintained at…