PLAYWRIGHT Tabitha Hayward, who is about to start a new job at London’s famous Royal Court, was surprised when she left her Dorset home for Oxford University and the working world to find that the hill forts she regarded as ordinary landscape features were not widespread across the country. Now she has returned “home” to…
SOME years ago we visited a remote castle in Scotland, as a possible choice for a big family holiday. Within minutes of entering the ancient stone tower we were chilled and alarmed, wrapped in a an insidious sense of misery that only grew worse as we went through more rooms. Later, we learned that for…
AN aged raw sheep’s milk, Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado from the Portuguese maker Quinto do Pomar, has been crowned world champion at the 2024 World Cheese Awards. The washed rind cheese from Serra da Gardunha is a soft, buttery ivory-coloured cheese with a mild flavour. It is made with vegetarian rennet that comes from a…
THE Grange at Oborne, one of Dorset’s most attractive small country house hotels, has taken the top award in the 2024 Taste of the West Awards. The hotel, run by Jon and Jenny Fletcher, was named Best Hotel in the South West. Jenny and Jon were delighted and gave “an enormous thank you to all…
THIS new musical production of one of the world’s most popular stories, with seven new numbers by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe happily blending with the Sherman Brothers iconic original score, is big, bold and beautiful. It has lavish sets with costumes to match, by Bob Crowley, that change with the precision of co-director Matthew…
YOU would do well to come to this the second stage play version of an Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus novel never having read any of his 25 Rebus novels, or seen the character depicted on TV by John Hannah and/or Ken Stott. If you have done either of these you probably have a very firm…
ONE of Bristol’s most atmospheric locations is the setting for a production of one of Edgar Allen Poe’s classic macabre stories. Red Rope Theatre will be performing The Fall of the House of Usher, in the Anglican chapel at Arnos Vale Cemetery, from 14th November to 6th December. It is a dark tale full of…
WORK is under way to restore and re-wet peatland at Holt Mire near Wimborne, to protect a rare floating spider and flesh-eating sundew plants. Holt Mire is an important peatland habitat on Holt Heath National Nature Reserve, one of the largest areas of lowland heath in Dorset, cared for by the National Trust. The restoration…
MILLSTREAM, the Wimborne-based theatre group for learning disabled and neurodivergent adults, is seeking urgent financial support from individuals, businesses or organisations, to be able to continue running regular drama workshops and creating annual productions. Tam Gilbert, co-director of the group which has its home at the Museum of East Dorset, says: “Although we are starting…
LUCY Kirkwood’s powerful play The Welkin had its premiere at the National Theatre early in 2020, where its intended run was cut short by the first COVID lockdown. Now the students of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, directed by Emma Callander, have taken on the play and are performing it at the Weston Studio at…
… 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…
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 return to the Redgrave Theatre in Clifton for their Christmas show, Treasure Island, on from 23rd to 30th November. Always popular in Bristol, where Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have written the original novel at the Llandogger Trow, this re-imagining by Bryony Lavery follows the adventures of the…
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…
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 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…
ONE of the most enchanting stage stories for children, Snow Mouse returns to Bath’s Egg theatre this Christmas for the tenth consecutive year, from Friday 29th November to Sunday 5th January. This “delightful” (The Stage) seasonal tale for the very young, performed in the Roper Room, is perfect for children aged six months to four…
ON Friday 22nd November composer Jenny Bliss will be at Wells Cathedral with a programme of baroque and contemporary works for St Cecilia’s Day. Her new compositions, Let there be light and O Cecilia, will be performed by some of the best known players on the baroque music scene, including Joanna Lawrence from the Orchestra of…
FIONA Ross’s production of Romeo and Juliet for the students at Arts University Bournemouth in their Palace Court Theatre pares the action and the story back to its bones, convincingly underlining the timelessness of Shakespeare’s greatest love story. With daily news full of knife fights and teenage deaths, this is another story of gangs and…
BLITHE Spirit, one of Noel Coward’s most delightful comedies, is the winter choice for Dorchester Drama, at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Novelist Charles Condomine wants material for his next book, and rather hopes that a séance with the village’s eccentric medium…
KAZUO Ishiguro’s 2005 science fiction novel, one of several descriptions of this thought-provoking work, is not the sort of bedside book you pick up and casually read a few pages before going off to sleep. With its frightening images of the lives of children cloned for the sole reason of providing human organs in order…
ONE of the best-loved films of all time has been adapted as a hit musical, which is coming to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 19th to Saturday 23rd November. Ghost the Musical has been a huge success around the world, capturing all the romance and magic of the film, which starred Demi Moore, the late…
Bath Mozartfest 2024 – take 2 PLAYWRIGHT, composer and actor Noel Coward and American entertainer Danny Kaye come to mind when summarising the 34th Bath Mozart Fest. Coward was a great one for finding the right venue for his plays, sometimes delaying an opening night until the right theatre was available, and festival artistic director…
THE 11th Celebrate Voice festival in Salisbury was another record-breaker, founder and artistic director Lynsey Docherty (covered in a black “flashers” mac) told the packed audience at the final event, the last performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love at the Guildhall. Lynsey (pictured right) was all ready (under the voluminous raincoat) to go on…
YEOVIL-based Lost Lady Society brings The Saviour, a new comedy musical on a tour which continues on Saturday 23rd November at Ilchester Town Hall, where it is also being performed on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th December. The play is set in a struggling family-run chip shop that faces an unexpected crisis — no potatoes…
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…
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…