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…

CELEBRATIONS to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta are happening all around the country, and at Salisbury Cathedral one of the four originals is on display. So it was natural that the city’s prestigious arts festival should snap up the chance of a visit from the Shakespeare’s Globe company performing King…

LAST year French writer Florian Zeller’s play The Father had its UK premiere at the Ustinov in Bath, and went on to a sell out run in London. Now the studio’s artistic director Laurence Boswell has chosen the companion piece, The Mother, to end the spring season. It brings Gina McKee to Bath for the…

THIS year’s Bath International Music Festival has discovered some hidden gems – and for the 200-plus who turned out on a slightly damp Sunday morning none was more enjoyable that the Red Note Ensemble at Cleveland Pools. This delightful event brought a renowned Scottish ensemble which specialises in new music to the country’s only surviving…

THE final weekend of the very successful 2015 Bath International Music Festival started in style with the concert by Stile Antico in the beautiful Abbey Church. The 12 members of the ensemble, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, perform without a conductor. They have built up an international reputation for the freshness and accomplishment of…

ALL too often we think of silent film as a vehicle for slapstick – and certainly some of the greatest slapstick performances are on the silver screen, where soulful expressions, doleful eyes and astonished gasps at the latest mess they have got into provide plenty of laughs for the audience. But those same characterists of…

SANDY Wilson’s musical confection The Boy Friend opened in London in 1954, and has been a staple ever since. Its Wikipedia entry somewhat dismissively says: “Its relatively small cast and low cost of production makes it a continuing popular choice for amateur and student groups.” That might be true, but judging from the simply sensational…

TWENTY one years after the Coen Brothers’ film The Hudsucker Proxy hit the big screen, it has been adapted for the stage, starting at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton, in a joint production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Complicite. It is the first time that a Coen Brothers films has been staged, and designer…

IT’S 50 years since American singer and songwriter Tom Paxton first came to the UK. He came sporting a collection of his own songs including one he had written as an engagement present for his then new wife, Midge. It was My Lady’s A Wild Flying Dove, and it has remained one of his and…

JEAN Anouilh’s satirical play Invitation to the Castle was first performed in France in 1947, and adapted three years later by Christopher Fry for a Peter Brook production in London. For many years it was a favourite with touring rep companies and amateur dramatic societies, but now it is something of a rarity. The extraordinarily…