SUB-TITLED The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, this show reminded me of those Hollywood “biogs” of famous musicians which professed to be an accurate account of the subjects life, but owed as much, if not more, to the efforts of a script writer as the facts. Although we learn about Francesco Stephan…
WATER is as indispensable to life as air –it is intimately connected with birth, but it is also linked to death … all themes which surface during the extraordinary sequence of films, dance and music that makes up Bodies of Water. The latest collaboration between two Somerset artists – dancer and physical theatre practitioner Melanie…
MIKE Leigh’s play Abigail’s Party has become a byword for monstrous behaviour and tacky 70s culinary and decorative trends. Thanks to Alison Steadman, who made her name in the role of Beverly the hostess from suburban hell, Leigh’s brilliantly cruel look at aspirational housing estate life has become known as a star vehicle. So Douglas…
LAURIE Lee is as inescapably linked to the Cotswolds – and specifically to the dramatic valleys around his home village of Slad – as Thomas Hardy is to Dorset or the Bronte sisters to Yorkshire. And we got a real understanding of the profound connection between the great poet and writer and his home place…
LA CENERENTOLA is a retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella. A real showcase for vocal virtuosity, this vibrant and colourful revival of the production first staged by WNO in 2007 was sung and played with impeccable precision. An absolute delight from start to finish, last night’s performance was, without doubt, one of my musical and…
SIR David McVicar’s staging for WNO of Verdi’s La Traviata, first seen in 2009, is revived by director Sarah Crisp under the youthful baton of James Southall for the Autumn tour. Based on Alexander Dumas’ novel The Lady of the Camelias, it tells the story of French courtesan Violetta and her affair with Alfredo, a…
RONA Munro is one of Scotland’s most prolific writers, in television (Dr Who), on film (Oranges and Sunshine, Aimee and Jaguar), on radio and for the stage, for which she has produced epic works like The James Plays and tiny, intimate dramas like Iron. It was this tense four-hander, first seen in 2002, that director…
TALL Tree Theatre delighted audiences last year with Shackleton, an adventure story inspired by a lost dog. The company is back with another exciting tale, this time all at sea with an albatross, playing to Artsreach audiences at Buckland Newton and Bourton. Written by Anna Harriott, it’s the story of three people, a rackety old…
SALAD Days, by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade, is one of those shows that can hardly fail to delight. Written in the early 1950s as a summer musical for the Bristol Old Vic, the show has enchanted audiences for over sixty years. Indeed, not only does word have it that it was this show more…
HOW do the legends of the Native Americans and the lives of villagers in rural North Somerset come together in a big fun night out aimed at saving the local pub? You need to see Rina Vergano’s play Horses! Horses!, written for Wassail Theatre, to find out, and luckily for you, there will be a…