HERE are 36 productions featuring 24 traditional pantomimes and Christmas stories on offer in the south and west region this year, and the first one, Arthur, starts at Bath’s Egg on 19th November and runs to 3rd January. Again the line-up is a mixture of the familiar and the new, with several book and film…
WE are accustomed to murder mysteries where all the characters have motives for murder, but Rick Abbot’s play But Why Bump Off Barnaby?, chosen by Mere Amateur Drama Society for the next production, comes at the dastardly deed from a different angle. When Barnaby Folcey is murdered at the Marlgate Manor family gathering, it really is…
THE country’s favourite poet, Pam Ayres, comes to Weston super Mare Playhouse on Sunday 21st November, with her latest collection, Doggedly Onwards – a Life in Poems. From an appearance on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1975 to performing before the late Queen Elizabeth II, Pam Ayres has become a genuine national treasure,…
A REVIVAL of TS Eliot’s theatrical masterpiece, Murder in the Cathedral, has attracted rave reviews – the Evening Standard described the production as magnificent and star Sir David Suchet’s performance as “spell-binding”, and the Daily Mail called it “hugely impressive”. The Orange Tree Theatre production at St John the Divine Church in Richmond is coming…
STU McLoughlin wasn’t the one who was the Living Spit of Henry VIII – that was his co-founder the late Howard Coggins. And Stu isn’t the average idea of Shakespearean hero Hamlet either, though an average is difficult to envision. But nothing ventured, he thought, and finding an obscure reference to an eggshell in Act 4…
IT could be the slogan of any local newspaper or website, but “Every story matters” is also part of the subtitle of a Dorset-set novel by the journalist Margery Hookings – Plashy Fen: In a Place This Small, Every Story Matters. Set in a fictional coastal West Dorset village, this is an affectionate and beautifully…
THOSE of us who live in Dorset and Somerset are so lucky. Not only do we live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country – relatively unspoiled, too – but we live in part of the richest food regions. The south west is justly famed for its traditional local produce – apples,…
“BEECH leaves, that yellow the noon-time, Float past like specks in the eye; I set every tree in my June time, And now they obscure the sky …” … wrote Thomas Hardy in his poem, Beech Leaves. Join folk singers and actors Tim Laycock and Alastair Braidwood at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday, 15th November,…
WHEN Ayub Khan Din’s play East is East first hit the stage in 1996, it surprised audiences not only with its vivid depiction of the lives of a working class immigrant family in Salford, where seven mixed-race children, all born in the UK, battled with their Pakistani father’s dictatorial insistence on Muslim traditions, but also…
THE most infamously famous person in the world, Donald J Trump, arrives at the Ustinov Studio at Bath Theatre Royal on Friday 5th November, where he will be talking until Saturday 5th December. This entertaining portrait of the man behind the myth and his relentless quest to become the most winningest winner in history is…
IMAGINE a heady and provocative blend of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel and Eartha Kitt … an Eastern European jazz club in the dark decades after the Second World War and the Cold War … That’s the aura created by the brilliant Moscow Drug Club, who have several local dates on their autumn tour,…
THE autumn colours are still gorgeous, but there is a real chill in the air and winter is fast upon us. Top Moviola choices for local villages and arts centres for November and December are The Christophers and My Mother’s Wedding. The Christophers, starring Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Cole, is a black comedy directed…
MANY consider the 1985 film Back to the Future the greatest, and certainly one of the most successful, films of that genre ever made. With music from the 1950s (The Power of Love, Johnny B Goode, Earth Angel, Back in Time) to help accommodate the story going back to that period, the film – and…
FOLLOWING the closure of Taunton’s much-loved Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton Thespians have moved heir production of The Haunting of Hill House to the Queens Hall Theatre from 12th to 14th November where local theatre lovers can look forward to the spine-chilling experience of this critically acclaimed adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s gothic ghost story. Director Phil Turley…
ROMESH Ranganathan, star of countless television comedy series and and presenter of The Weakest Link, is back on the road from November with a new show, and a massive list of dates and venues, including Yeovil’s Westlands. In this new stand-up show Romesh Ranganathan promises to “Change Your Life.” He is here to help, he…
DORCHESTER Drama tackles one of the masterpieces of the great Norwegian dramatist, Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, updated and reimagined from 1882 to 2009. The group’s autumn production is at the Corn Exchange on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st November at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. The performers are having fun with the generally serious…
THE hugely popular Dorset folk duo Ninebarrow have a gig with Dorchester Arts at Thomas Hardye School theatre, on Saturday 14th November. The show focuses on their recent studio album, The Hour of the Blackbird, a collection of beautiful original songs. Ninebarrow – Jon Whitley and Jay La Bouchardiere – consistently delight audiences across the…
WRITER and activist Siobhan Dowd died in 2007 from breast cancer, before she could complete her novel A Monster Calls. It was taken on by Patrick Ness, published in 2012, became an international best seller and was adapted for the stage by Adam Peck and Sally Cookson, opened at Bristol Old Vic and won the…
SOMERSET-based, certified organic cheesemaker Feltham’s Farm is producing its first organic cheese hamper for Christmas, bringing together some of the UK’s finest organic artisan cheeses and accompaniments to celebrate nature-friendly festive food and the farmers and makers behind it. Curated by Marcus Fergusson and Penny Nagle of Feltham’s Farm, founders of the Organic Cheesemakers’ Network,…
TWO years after featuring the work of painter Lawrence Arthurs, the Slade Centre at Gillingham has an exhibition by his late wife, Susan Williams: A Distinctive Eye, running through October and November (with a three day break to allow for a Hallowe-en event) and into December. The summer 2024 exhibition of Lawrence Arthurs’ paintings and…
FLO and Joan combine music with comedy and they are back with a new show, With Feeling, trying to take up as much of the stage and as little of your patience as possible as they use a “real band’s” set-list to write their own show – ruminating on themes such as “what is music?”…
IT’s that time of year! Sandwiched between the summer open-air shows and the increasingly early Christmas season come the literary festivals. This region has several outstanding events, ranging from the long-established with stellar line-ups to the more local, which often have delightful gems that you won’t want to miss. Some high profile authors, politicians, historians,…
SLADERS Yard, the contemporary art gallery and cafe in West Bay, continues its 20th anniversary celebrations with a major exhibition of paintings, drawings and etchings by David Inshaw, one of the great contemporary painters of landscape, an artist who has been showing regularly at the gallery throughout those years. The solo show, At the Still…