IF there’s one thing that Ray Cooney’s 1987 farce, It Runs in the Family, proves, it is  that life in hospitals was a lot more fun in those days. Set in the doctors’ common room at St Andrews Hospital, it’s a big day for Dr David Mortimore.  For the rest of the staff and patients,…

TWO hundred years ago a boy was born in Frome who would put this small Somerset town on the world map, with iconic sculptures including Justice on top of the Old Bailey, Boadicea on the Embankment and six lions in Cape Town. The youngest of five children, John Webb Singer was only three when his…

OSCAR Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people”, The Importance of Being Earnest, might be 124 years old, but its observations on the English class system are still as true as they were then, whatever anyone might say to the contrary. Surrounded by the warm stones of Cleeve Abbey, Taunton Thespians delighted a packed audience with…

THE sublime silliness of the Pythons sings through their musical, Spam­a­lot, the very freely adaptation of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And the members of Shaftesbury Arts Centre Music and Drama group are enjoying every minute of it in Steve Pocock’s inspired production, on stage in Bell Street. With Tim Trenchard conducting…

WELSH National Opera’s made a triumphant debut at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, with their witty, up-to-the-minute adaptation of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Most of the eager audience was delighted by the lively and colourful show, with its on-stage band (doubling at moments as a chorus of sorts) and its very Welsh approach to the story…

THE real events that led Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi to write the script for the highly acclaimed 2003 film Calendar Girls, later adapted by Tim Firth into an equally successful play, are dramatic enough in their own right, needing nothing added to capture the public imagination. On the opening night at the Bristol Hippodrome…

THE delightful comedy Heroes, adapted by Tom Stoppard from Gerald Sibley­ras’ original play, is set on the small rear terrace of a home for veterans in rural France, where three old men meet every day. Phillipe has a piece of shrapnel lodged in his head, and regularly passes out. Gustave, a former officer, has all…

FOUR new plays from Frome’s adventurous Nevertheless Productions is always an intriguing prospect – even in July when the pub theatre space at The Cornerhouse will be like an oven. The description of “quirky morality plays for the 21st century” certainly added to the appeal of the Frome Festival event. So what is a morality…

THE Cornish-based Miracle Theatre celebrates 40 years of open-air performances this year, with Bill Scott’s new play A Perfect World. It is the ideal play for the company, full of invention, fun, speedy costume changes, silliness and thoughtful ideas. Set in the 1930s, it revolves around exploration, steam punk, magical lands, peculiar people and lots…