FOLK duo Coates and Cotterell, whose influences range from Shetland and around the British Isles to Quebec are coming to Dorset with Artsreach with gigs at the village halls at Shipton Gorge on Thursday 27th February, Milborne St Andrew on Friday 28th and Woodlands on Saturday 1st March. Arthur Coates and Kerran Cotterell are an…
ONE of the most highly-praised and popular television shows of all time, Alan Bleasdale’s BAFTA-winning Boys From The Blackstuff visits Bath in James Graham’s powerful stage adaptation, from Tuesday 25th February to Saturday 1st March. Directed by Kate Wasserberg, the show brings to the stage the 1980s Liverpool of Chrissie, Loggo, George, Dixie and Yosser…
FOR all its psychological trappings, this is at heart a true whodunit thriller, as five characters have reason and motive to be the killer. In true Agatha Christie style, all the clues and red herrings are laid out before us, leading us down one false trail after another. The big difference in this skilful stage…
IT may be some years before Bond fans get another film to enjoy, but at Cirencester’s adventurous Barn Theatre, you can enjoy the challenges of casting the world’s most famous spy. As Jordan Walter, writer of A Role to Die For, puts it, “It’s no laughing matter.” But that’s what audiences are doing as the…
DORSET-based writer Ed Viney’s play Pot Licker is on a tour of Dorset with dates in Exeter and Bath, having its premiere at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, where it first saw light at a new writing event, on Wednesday and Thursday 12th and 13th March. The play looks at what happens when three teachers decide…
WHAT do we do with the kids? It’s the perennial school holiday question, and as usual, Dorset’s rural touring charity, Artsreach, has some fun events to fill a few colourful, crafty, musical hours. Sam O’ Shanty has lived his whole life at sea, ever since he first stowed aboard ship when he was just a…
A SOLO play that tells the true story of a young performer’s struggles with health problems, The Magical Screentest, comes to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Wednesday 19th February. This is the disarmingly honest self-portrait of aspiring actor Isobel Jeffery: the inspiring tale of how she has worked to overcome learning disabilities and…
ONE Anglican archbishop has already resigned after questions about his failure to investigate and act on reports of abuse within the church. Many other leading church figures, in both the Church of England and the Catholic Church, have been embroiled in allegations of abuses dating back decades and cover-ups that have continued. The General Synod…
SCOTLAND has Robert Burns, Yorkshire has the Brontes, Hampshire has Jane Austen, London has Charles Dickens (and many Moore) – but Dorset, quite small in comparison, has two great major figures who are rooted in the county – Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, who will be celebrated at a gathering to enjoy his poems, with…
HOWARD Phipps, the distinguished wood engraver, who lives near Salisbury, is the featured artist in the 87th annual exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers, at Bankside Gallery, on Thames Riverside, London, from 4th to 23rd February. The exhibition will be opened by Hal Bishop, the writer, curator and administrator of the Golsoncott Trust, the…
A NEW lighting system at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre is expected to pay for itself in little more than a year, with savings forecast of almost £10,000 and nearly eight tonnes of CO2e*. The Lighthouse management has recently completed essential improvement works to enhance energy efficiency, reduce environmental impact and ensure the long-term sustainability of…
DORCHESTER Arts has a packed programme for February ranging from tribute shows to half-term fun – to a one-woman entertainment celebrating opera and triathlon! Next up is a delightful twist on classic stories in Fairytales, Fables & Other Assorted Nonsense on Thursday 20th February. Take your musical pick with the Irish House Party, the joy…
BRIDPORT Arts Centre features the second of two outstanding folk duos in its Spring programme when Miranda Sykes and Jim Causley come to the Dorset coast on Saturday 22nd February. Well-known in the West Country and beyond as outstanding folk musicians, they have come together as a duo and will be touring a new album…
FOR the second year running, Folde nature bookshop at Shaftesbury has been named as a regional and country finalists in the British Book Awards. Last year the shop, at the top of Gold Hill, got through to the finals of the awards, which are known as the NIBBIEs. The awards are organised by The Bookseller…
DAVID Copperfield, Betsey Trotwood, Mr Micawber, Peggotty, Steerforth, Uriah Heep … it is a roll call of some of the most famous characters in literature, all from the same novel by the multi-talented story-teller David Copperfield. And local actors of all ages have a chance to be involved when Bath Theatre Royal stages its David…
IT would be hard to imagine two artists whose work is more different than landscape painter Anthony Garratt and wood engraver Howard Phipps, but their very different styles – Garratt’s massive colour-saturated canvases and Phipps’ intricately detailed tiny prints – are oddly complementary. Both are artists at the top of their game – and they…
SINGER-songwriter Cole Stacey comes to St Michael & All Angels Church, Stockland in East Devon, on Friday 21st February, at 7pm, to launch his debut album, Postcards From Lost Places. The Dartmoor-based musician has a repertoire that ranges from British folk and 80s pop to spoken word and ambient electronics. With explorations into traditional song…
VISITORS to the National Trust’s world-famous Stourhead landscape gardens, near Mere in Wiltshire, can now discover the history of the property as they walk around the gardens. A new audio introduction brings the history of this masterpiece of 18th century landscape creation to life through narration and storytelling, with professional actors and an original score….
THE National Trust is restoring areas of wood pasture on Purbeck, as part of a project to amplify nature’s chorus. Wood pasture is a prime habitat for our much-loved songbirds, like this beautiful thrush. One of the UK’s most biodiverse habitats, wood pasture is a mosaic of grassland, scrub, hedges and trees. It provides important…
THERE is quite a trend currently for films to be adapted for the stage but there have been few book-to-film-to-stage versions that are better or more entertaining than Patrick Barlow’s inventive and hilarious staging of the John Buchan classic thriller, The 39 Steps. This brilliant play opens the in-house production season at Salisbury Playhouse, running…
IF you are a fan of Ian McKellen – and surely most of us are, who admire great acting and infinite versatility – you will probably enjoy The Critic, Moviola’s most screened film for February in our region. It’s a good, old-fashioned melodrama, a period thriller with some colourful characters, a slightly creaking and at…