AUDIENCES at Bath Theatre Royal will see the first performances of By Royal Appointment, a new play by Daisy Godwin, starring Anne Reid and Caroline Quentin, from Thursday 5th to Saturday 14th June. The production will be directed by Bristol-born Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe. Booking opens to Theatre Royal Bath members…
THIS musical by Swedish pop composer Max Martin and friends, with book by David West Read, takes no prisoners in its spectacular production and presentation of strong feminist and non-binary sexual themes, as it turns Shakespeare’s classic romantic story of Romeo and Juliet on its head. With virtually every modern staging aide and lighting effect…
THE Neil Maya Quartet, popular throughout the region through regular gigs and tours with Dorset’s Artsreach, comes to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 23rd January, with a celebration of the music and tragically short life of one of the greatest jazz musicians ever – the Charlie Parker Story. The quartet’s Charlie Parker concert has dates…
IF you think a chamber ensemble is all about serious string quartets, solemn musicians in evening dress playing beautiful but often quite austere music, you haven’t met Bowjangles. This is the quartet that puts the swing into strings. They are back in Dorset, at Litton Cheney community hall on Thursday 23rd January, Lytchett Matravers hall…
A STARRY line-up of celebrities, including the Queen’s son, food writer Tom Parker-Bowles, singer-songwriter Toyah Willcox and Lord Michael Grade, will take part in a special edition of The Weakest Link, chaired by the TV programme’s founder presenter Anne Robinson, at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre on Saturday 18th January. The charity event is raising funds for…
BATH Theatre Royal’s dedicated children’s theatre space The Egg welcomes Midnight Mole back from Friday 10th January to Sunday 9th February. No sooner has the team said goodbye to Snow Mouse than they return with this Chekhov-inspired show, by popular demand. Described as a heart-warming adventure for the very young, it is full of puppetry…
THE music of the baroque is some of the most engaging, moving and enjoyable of any classical music era. Shaftesbury Arts Centre celebrates this colourful musical genre at a festival which runs from Wednesday 22nd to Sunday 26th January, with a programme of recitals, talks and film. What and who do you think of when…
WE all have our image of Miss Havisham, the jilted bride, bitter in her dark, cobweb-filled mansion, in her ageing wedding dress with the wedding breakfast crumbling on the table … but what really happened? Actress, writer and producer Heather Alexander brings one of Charles Dickens’ iconic characters from Great Expectations to life in her…
ONE of the great mysteries of the inter-war years is the death of TE Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – in a motorcycle accident not far from his Dorset home at Clouds Hill near Wareham. On Saturday 18th January, Bridport’s Electric Palace has a screening of a fascinating documentary, Who Killed Lawrence of Arabia? is…
WORLD-famous Scottish actor Brian Cox is coming to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on 28th January for the launch of a new cinema programme. The actor, currently playing the composer Johann Sebastian Bach in The Score at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, was most recently the fearsome Logan Roy in Succession, and has starred in…
MARK Twain’s famous quote about comedy provides the title for Ed Byrne’s current tour, which is coming to Poole Lighthouse Theatre on Thursday 16th January and Weymouth Pavilion on Sunday 19th. One of the UK’s favourite television comedians, Ed Byrne has extended his nationwide Tragedy Plus Time tour, winner of British Comedy Guide’s Best Comedy…
IF you are inexperienced in the ways of children … when a little girl in the audience leaps into her parents’s arms seeking safety and comfort, after Nigel (Joey Hickman), one of Hansel and Gretel’s parents, driven crazy by lack of food, tries to eat some of the audience … you could well question whether…
CIRENCESTER’s adventurous independent Barn Theatre opens the 2025 season with a new comedy featuring a casting director facing the challenge of casting an actor for the world’s most famous spy. Jordan Waller’s A Role to Die For, running from 30th January to 15th March, stars Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee, and is directed by another Olivier…
HOT on the heels of the triumph of Wolf Hall on television, Bath Theatre Royal takes audiences once again into the dark corridors of power and the dangerous glamour of the court of Henry VIII, with a new production of Robert Bolt’s great drama, A Man for all Seasons, running at the theatre from Thursday…
YEOVIL’S Swan Theatre starts it 2025 season with a production of Diane Samuels’ 1993 play Kindertransport, on stage from 20th to 25th January at 7.45. Evelyn is happily settled into middle aged, middle class England. But when her daughter Faith discovers some old documents in the attic, she is forced to confront her past –…
SHAFTESBURY Arts Centre’s music and drama group will be stepping out on the yellow brick road for this year’s pantomime, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. at the Bell Street venue from 23rd January to 1st February. Written by Nigel Holmes and directed by Sophia Ruel, the show follows the original book by L Frank Baum,…
ONE of the most influential and high profile scientists in the country, Prof Tim Spector, is coming to Bath Forum on Tuesday 28th January for a give a talk, as a special guest of Bath Festivals. Tim Spector, the author of bestselling books, including The Diet Myth, Spoon-Fed, Identically Different and Food for Life: Your…
THE New Year opens for Moviola in our area with two films which are distinguished by the remarkable veteran actors starring in them – Thelma and The Critic. Thelma is the most requested film of the month, with more than 30 screenings across our region. Amazingly, it is the first action movie leading role for…