GIACOMO Rossini was only 20 years old when he wrote his short comic opera La Scala di Seta (The Silken Ladder) and while its story is full of youthful fun, there is no trace of the beginner in the music. It was brought to the intimate surroundings of the Brownsword Hall in Poundbury by Opera…
William Congreve wrote only five plays, the best known of which was the last, The Way of the World. Love for Love, written in 1695 and famous for the line “O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell”, is a complicated story of sexual encounters and true love which students from Bristol Old Vic…
OSCAR Wilde’s classic The Importance of Being Earnest has been described as the “perfect comedy” and is certainly one of the most enduringing popular shows on the English-speaking stage. Edith Evans is thought to have nailed Lady Bracknell for all time with her iconic interrogation “a handbag?” and directors and actors have sought in vain…
EVEN on a sunny June evening, the waves crash against Portland Bill, the wind whistles along Chesil Beach and the white horses dance and race in the blue-green sea. The seas on the night that the Earl of Abergavenny, an East Indiaman out of Portsmouth, foundered and sank off Portland in 1805 were huge and…
IT’S a rare treat to see a “new” play on an amateur tour, and althought Joao Bethencourt surreal comedy is 30 years old, it is new to audiences in the south west. As it says in the title, it’s about the kidnapping of the Holy Father – on this occasion by an eccentric Brooklyn taxi…
WHEN the National Theatre of Brent’s Patrick Barlow got his hands on John Buchan’s The 39 Steps (as reimagined by North Country Theatre for performance by four actors) the result was an instant, and worldwide, success. And now Lesley Bates and Studio Theatre have brought it to the stage in Salisbury, with even more nods…
THE 2015 Iford Festival has opened in glorious style with a production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, The Masked Ball. Timothy Nelson’s production, brilliantly choreographed by Jo Meredith, brings the dichotomy of this story to the fore. Updated to 1920s England, complete with Union flags and the Charleston, King Riccardo is surrounded by the…
THE Maltings carpark in Salisbury is not a thing of beauty. It’s a two-storey brick edifice, with heavy columns, dingy corners and low ceilings, dark and unwelcoming. What better location for a murder? So what more imaginative setting for a reinterpretation of the life and music of Carlo Gesualdo, one of the most remarkable composers…
THE scope and versatility of the amateur actors who use the Swan Theatre in Yeovil is legendary, far beyond the confines of South Somerset. And if the Swan Theatre company is known for its drama and innovative programming, the most regular “guest users”, Civic Players, is usually praised for amazingly detailed sets and light comedy….
MOST fairy tales are grimmer than Disney and pantomime would have us believe. Those sugar-coated versions of Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood and Snow White are a long, long way from the dark northern European origins. Researchers into folklore and legend, and particularly the work of feminist writers such as Marina Warner and…