… that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of the most delightful and witty novels ever written. It also lends itself to endless, inventive reimagining, and they don’t come funnier or more original than Pride and Prejudice (*sort of), which comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre from Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd November. If…
CLOSE your eyes and you are listening to Dolly Parton – every note, every inflection, every accent in both the songs and the dialogue performed by Tricia Paoluccio in Here You Come Again, the show she co-wrote and is now touring the UK until spring 2025. It is a truly remarkable performance. And the story,…
THE Armonico Consort and actor Julian Glover come to Westlands entertainments centre on Monday 11th November, the anniversary of the day that the guns fell silent in 1918. They Shall Grow Not Old, which begins at 7.30pm, is an inspiring and moving commemoration in music and words. The critically-acclaimed choir will perform poignant and much-loved…
EDUARDO de Filippo’s classic comedy Filumena comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 12th to Saturday 16th November in a new production starring Felicity Kendal and Matthew Kelly, and directed by Sean Mathias. The production uses the translation by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Set in the balmy heat of Naples, this sparkling comedy-drama, full…
IT is 40 years since Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band first teamed up for their annual Christmas tour of the UK, singing ancient carols and capering about. They mark the anniversary this year with a finale tour, and it starts at Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre on 2nd December. The 16-venue schedule, which ends at Bradford…
BRISTOL Old Vic Theatre School students will be taking their audiences back to Suffolk in 1759, as they perform Lucy Kirkwood’s courtroom drama The Welkin in the Weston Studio of the Old Vic theatre from 9th to 16th November. It is the explosively emotional story of Sally Poppy, whose fate will be decided as Halley’s…
NOVEMBER is here and the pantomime season is approaching fast. Theatres and arts centres around the country have announced their shows and their stars, hoping to ensure the bums-on-seats that ensure their financial viability for the rest of the year. Pantomime is a peculiarly British institution, rich in tradition and full of expectation for younger…
THE November choice from Moviola is dominated by the film Vindication Swim, based on a true story. There are also a number of screenings of the rockumentary Swede Caroline, filmed in Somerset, and of the documentary Wilding, inspired by Isabella Tree’s story of how she and her husband saved his family estate by turning to…
AN unprecedented hoard of 2,584 silver coins from the time of the Norman Conquest, found by metal detectorists in the Chew Valley, has been saved for the nation, and will have a permanent home in the Museum of Somerset, after being exhibited at the British Museum and in museums across the country. The acquisition of…
OLIVIER Award-winning theatre company Papatango comes to Dorset with a new version of Robert Wentall’s classic ghost story, The Watch House, ending its run at the Barnfield Theatre, Exeter on 5th and 6th November. “There’s a legend about the Watch House. Scrape beneath the whitewash and you’ll find terror. You’ll find him.” Once a coastguard…
THE brilliant and award-winning National Theatre production of War Horse, adapted from Michael Morporgo’s novel, was a massive hit at the National, in the West End, on Broadway and around the world. Now a new production of this beautiful and deeply moving story is on a national tour, coming to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 26th…
THE spectacular late 19th century Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre provided an atmospheric and spacious setting for this year’s Golden Fork Awards, the climax of the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste Awards. And there was a great success for the West Country with the New Forest-based Lyburn Cheese winning the Golden Fork for…
THE Surrey-based Blackeyed Theatre celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic epistolary novel Dracula, 100 years after it was first brought to the stage. The production, adapted and directed by Nick Lane, is on a UK tour until May next year, so if you miss it at Bath Theatre Royal, where…
IF you like chills, thrills and ghost tales, the new play at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre will really hit the spot. Room 13, by Duncan Abel and Rachel Wagstaff, is inspired by the famous ghost stories of MR James and is definitely proving a hit with audiences in the run-up to Hallowe’en. The production runs to…
FORTY years ago community activists Sue and John Holman and Trevor Bailey decided to make a video about the North Dorset village of Bourton and its people. In the intervening years the film has been largely forgotten, but now the original tapes have been digitised by Windrose Media Trust, which was founded by Trevor Bailey,…
YEOVIL-based Lost Lady Society brings The Saviour, a new comedy musical on tour in November, starting at the David Hall, South Petherton, on Thursday 7th November, and continuing at Stoke sub Hamdon working men’s club on Saturday 9th (more dates below). The play is set in a struggling family-run chip shop that faces an unexpected…
TILTED Wig theatre company comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre this week with an enthralling new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein. The play is at the theatre from Tuesday 4th to Saturday 9th November. Séan Aydon’s reimagining of this classic Gothic horror, which comes to Poole as part of a six-venue tour, has an…
A CHAMBER group of musician friends, who got together in a spirit of adventure to bring music to new audiences, come to Dorset and Somerset for the November series of Concerts in the West. The Berkeley Ensemble will be at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 15th for the usual coffee concert, at 11.30am, and Ilminster…
SEVERAL people used to tell the late, great Howard Coggins that he was the spitting image of Henry VIII, and some of them phrased it “living spit.” So when, in 2012, he and his longtime friend and fellow actor Stu Mcloughlin cobbled together a script about the much-married king to enter Bristol Old Vic’s Ferment…
ONE of Somerset’s finest traditional unpasteurised farmhouse Cheddar makers, Keen’s, based at Moorhayes Farm near Wincanton, has been named as the first People’s Cheese Champion, after three rounds of public voting in a new award organised by campaigning group The Real Cheese Project. Keen’s Extra Mature Cheddar was one of four finalists, voted in the…
A LOT of Hollywood and television stars seem to be drawn to the world of spirits – Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt and Emma Watson all have their own gin brands, and Outlander star Sam Heughan has a malt whisky. Now former Top Gear presenter James May has launched his own gin, made in Wiltshire, where…
THE Sou’ Sou’ West gallery at Symondsbury, Bridport, hosts Elemental, an exhibition of sculpture and installations by three environmental artists, from 19th October to 10th November. The concept of the elemental is an ancient one, and this new exhibition is grounded in ideas and exchanges about the terrestrial and materiality. The elements – earth, water,…
SALISBURY’S Celebrate Voice festival, this year from Wednesday 30th October to Saturday 9th November, once again brings a treasure chest of widely ranging music to the city. There is choral music and jazz, cabaret and opera, theatre and comedy and more packed into the 11 days, and no-one needs to feel left out – it…
CATHEDRALS are some of our most remarkable buildings – ancient, up to 800 years old in some cases, beautiful, spiritual and often located in remarkable positions. Durham immediately leaps to mind and St Paul’s in the Blitz is truly described as iconic. But perhaps the most extraordinary is Salisbury, not just for its undeniable beauty…