FROME-based actor, playwright (and now film director) Pip Utton has an extraordinary knack of inhabiting his characters, so that their familiar tics and expressions become part of his face and body. His solo shows are now the stuff of theatrical legend, after many years packing houses on the Edinburgh Fringe, and touring to venues large…
PETER Wintle first saw Peter Shaffer’s play Equus in 1976, three years after I saw the first production at the National Theatre. It has always been one of the most controversial plays among Shaffer’s extraordinarily varied body of work, recently in the public eye again with Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe in the leading role of…
ANYONE who has ever had dealings with amateur musical or dramatic societies will recognise the set-up in Alan Ayckbourn’s brilliant comedy, A Chorus of Disapproval, Frome Drama Club’s autumn production at the Merlin in November 2014. There is the endearing old couple, company stalwarts who are slightly despised by the younger (but not necessarily more…
YEOVIL Youth Theatre’s “Grease” was chock-a-block with energy from the word go. As the fact packed programme informed us: “The watchword with a production like “Grease” is FUN” – and fun it certainly was. As one of the few people there with a bus pass, it was a treat to witness the eager anticipation and…
VERDI’s great opera was brought to the Pavilion for one night only by the Chisinau National Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra in a new production directed by Ellen Kent. Perhaps the most popular of all Verdi’s operas, Aida is the tragic story of a beautiful Ethiopian slave girl and her love for the Egyptian battle hero…
THE Freight and Salvage in the centre of the university town of Berkeley in California is described as a coffee house, but its fame is for much more than serving a latte or a frapaccino. This community run venue not only offers weekly classes in banjo, fiddle and guitar but attracts some of the world’s…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Chorus Master Gavin Carr Conductor: Kees Bakels Elizabeth Watts, Soprano, Jennifer Johnston, Contralto Joshua Ellicott, Tenor David Stout, Bass Mozart Don Giovanni Overture Mozart Symphony No.38 “Prague” Mozart Requiem Amsterdam-born Kees Bakels, the BSO’s former Chief Guest Conductor, has remained a regular visitor to Poole since…
THE Swan in Yeovil is rather like the Menier Chocolate factory in Southwark, London: a safe bet for high quality work; whatever they choose to produce, the standard of acting, direction and overall production value will be top-notch, and Disposing of the Body is no exception. Written by Hugh Whitemore, whose work for television, stage…
PAGODA paid their third visit to Shaftesbury at the weekend playing music in their typically eclectic style – hard to define but delightful to listen to. The linchpin of the ensemble is accordionist Paul Hutchinson who immediately established a warm rapport with his audience, MC-ing the proceedings in a suitably relaxed, informal style. The other…
CARYL Churchill’s 1987 play Serious Money was a smash hit when it opened at the Royal Court, and now, quarter of a century later, it is just as powerful now when audiences can see how weirdly prophetic it was. Set in the time when the London money markets exploded in coke and insomnia fuelled mania,…