IF the story contained in this opera was to appear on one of the film channels on television it would undoubtedly has a pre showing warning that it contains racially discriminatory language and out of date social images that might be offensive to some viewers. The producers of this show did not think it was a necessary to print such a warning in…
AMATEUR theatricals are the butt of many jokes but the best amateurs often bring a level of professionalism to their productions that stands comparison with many professional companies. Ian Hislop and Nick Newman used this well-known fact to great comic effect in their screenplay, A Bunch of Amateurs, but despite terrific performances by Burt Reynolds…
MOST people know this play from the glossy 1944 MGM film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, with the 18-year-old Angela Lansbury (making her film debut) gaining an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Nancy the cheeky maid and the role of Rough, the policeman, somewhat glamourised to accommodate the actor…
Strauss Metamorphosen Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Stephen Barlow: Conductor John Lill: Piano WE sometimes fail to appreciate how startling and revolutionary some of Beethoven’s earlier works would have seemed at first hearing in the context of what had been heard before. Just as the rather neglected…
WHEN, in 1948, the Oldfield Park Rangers Company presented their first shows, Hiawatha and The Pirates of Penzance, no men were allowed in the cast. Three years later, under the banner of the Bath Youth Operatic Group, they let the boys into the company. It was five years after the club’s first presentation, in 1956…
WITHOUT Alan Turing, it is arguable that we would all be living under the Nazis with no computers. Hugh Whitemore’s play ‘Breaking the Code’ dates from 1986, a time before the fame and reputation of Alan Turing were firmly established. We now know that the eccentric mathematical genius masterminded the history-changing breaking of the German Enigma code…
AS yet stage adaptations of popular children’s stories have not come up to the classic film versions that have been made of L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, E Nesbit’s The Railway Children or Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Whilst not putting this production in that category it has to be said that the Birmingham…
HEADED by Heather Westwell and Feargus Woods Dunlop, who founded the company in 2008, Frome based New Old Friends have spent the past 11 years honing their comedy skills presenting their own original creations to a wider and wider audience. This production which set off on its travels in the Spring of last year under the title…
THOMAS Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge famously begins with Michael Trenchard, an angry drunken young farm-worker, selling his wife and baby daughter at an auction. It would be easy to think this is a brilliant and shocking plot device by a great writer, but the story is based on a real life event, the…
HAVING conquered television playing juveniles in Outnumbered and Cuckoo, before writing documentaries on sexuality, online dating and porn, Tyger Drew-Honey has now decided that it is time to use the talent that brought him success on the small and large screens and radio to show that he can be equally effective live on stage. The…