AS he approaches his 75th birthday, Alan Ayckbourn proves with his latest plays that his extraordinary powers of observation are undulled, but perhaps his lengthy period of disliking most of the human race is at an end. His own ensemble from the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough is currently on a UK tour, prior to…
FRENCH playwright Marc Camoletti’s farce Boeing Boeing, first performed 50 years ago, has become a staple of touring and amateur companies across the English, French and German speaking world, and a West End revival a couple of years ago packed them in again. As a professional tour traverses the country, newly fledged company Stab in…
BASH Street Theatre, in Dorset this month on a short Artsreach tour with The Last Illusion, has a great reputation in Cornwall, where the company has been based for 22 years. Inventive and multi-talented, performers Simon Pullum and Jo-Jo Pickering have won street theatre awards and have toured extensively, around the UK, to 18 European…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, chorus master Gavin Carr Conductor: David Hill Lisa Milne, Soprano Jennifer Johnston, Mezzo-Soprano MAHLER: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, “Resurrection” THE word ‘apocalyptic’ was used in the BSO’s publicity for this concert: this sounds like hyperbole, but the word is precise and accurate….
HAPPY is exactly how the audience felt at the end of the first night of this brand new musical in Bristol, based on the television series of the same name and written by its creator Garry Marshall. The title song appears reassuringly early in the show, crops up as part of another song along the…
WHEN this Original Theatre Company touring production of Sebastian Faulk’s famous First World War novel opened last year, a friend who is a big fan of the book said she thought it was more powerful and intense than the television adaptation. She was right. It is grittier, darker, noisier, more urgent, more passionate and more…
ROSIE King has not only directed this year’s Community Pantomime at Motcombe, but has also written it, crafting a script that includes all of the required characters, plus a few others, along with jokes old and new and many favourite routines, from the fragile parcel ruined by the actions of the comedy team, via the…
WITH some brilliant cameos, jolly songs, corny jokes, colourful costumes and a very stylish set, COMPACT’s production of Sinbad the Sailor at Child Okeford sparkled from start to finish. Even the safety regulations (together with the inevitable reminder to turn off our mobile phones) were part of the act and helped get the audience in…
FINALLY, I am convinced by Terry Pratchett on stage. I knew that as a writer he was witty and clever with an endlessly inventive storyteller’s imagination. I knew that he had millions of fans. I live in a town that is “twinned” with his fictional city of Ankh Morpork and has a Discworld Emporium with…
THERE is one essential element for a village pantomime, and that is that everyone – the cast, the crew and the audience – needs to be involved. And it’s impossible to think of a more successful example of the genre than this year’s Cinderella from Buckhorn Amateur Theatrical Society at Buckhorn Weston Village Hall. Alison…