THE first major revival of the musical version of Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman comes to Bristol Old Vic from 29th April to 16th May, and to Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre from 2nd to 6th June. Set in an Argentinian prison, Molina, imprisoned for his homosexuality, is put in a cell with political prisoner…
BRIDPORT’s atmospheric Electric Palace continues a season celebrating a centenary of cinema on Thursday 30th April, musician and film historian Neil Brand marks the centenary of Laurel and Hardy’s 1926 movie debut, 45 Minutes from Hollywood – the following year they became an official comedy partnership.
WHEN Stephen Moffatt’s play The Unfriend opened at Chichester’s Minerva Studio in 2019, Joe Biden was the US President and Trump was a ghastly memory, subject of conversations on cruise liners between Peter and Debbie, British parents of teenage children, and Elsa, a charismatic Coloradan with a rather peculiar past. Mark Gatiss made his stage…
PERFORMANCE poet Luke Wright has taken his own story of adoption and turned it into a show that is part stand-up and part poetry. Later Life Letter, an evening of warm and honest thoughts, with poems, jokes and some music, returns to the south west from 23rd April to 25th April. Luke shares the story…
THE new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Sarah Mullally, made a classic pilgrimage from London to Canterbury before her recent installation as the Anglican church’s first female archbishop. Hopefully she had some entertaining moments amid the serious intent of her journey, but it’s doubtful she had quite the rumbustious time that Chaucer’s pilgrims enjoyed…
JUST a year on since the first beavers were released into the wild at Studland, the natural eco engineers have been transforming woodland, dramatically reshaping part of the local landscape and turning a previously dense area of woodland into a thriving wildlife-rich wetland. The pair have built an extensive dam which has slowed the flow…
HUNGARIANS love music and the whirling rhythms and passionate fiddlers Budapest Cafe Orchestra, with the charismatic violinist Christian Garrick, is on tour this spring, with local gigs at Sturminster Newton Exchange on Thursday 16th April, Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday 17th and the Mowlem theatre at Swanage on Saturday 18th. Founded in 2009 by Garrick,…
THE sea in all its beautiful, dangerous and unpredictable drama is the focal point of the New Waves Festival, two reimagined classics and a new piece, performed by students of Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School at the theatre’s Egg space, from Friday 10th to Saturday 18th April. Brimming with imagination, energy and creative ambition, the…
PHIL Beer, multi-instrumentalist and best known as half of the hugely popular folk duo Show of Hands, is currently pursuing his own musical thing, with gigs in the south and west between 18th April and late October. The world-renowned instrumentalist shares the roots of his musical life in the show, Phil Beer Trio, Blues and…
IF you put the names Alan Bennett, Nick Hytner, Ralph Fiennes, Roger Album. Simon Russell-Beale … and Elgar … together and give them a good shake, you would probably come up with The Choral, a quintessential English film, with charm, music, love lost and found and a soul-stirring musical backdrop. Add in the First World…
ROGER Fry, painter and member of the Bloomsbury Group, is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Museum of Somerset,Taunton, on until 4th July. A Life in Art: Roger Fry is a major new exhibition exploring the life, work and influence of one of the most important figures in 20th century British art. The exhibition…
WHEN audiences gather for Hurn Court Opera’s La Traviata on 18th April at the Coade Hall at Bryanston School and on 20th at Winchester Theatre Royal, they will see striking and original costumes designed by students at Arts University Bournemouth. The new creative partnership between the opera company, a Dorset-based arts charity and the theatre…
THE new exhibition at Salisbury Museum, in the Cathedral Close, is Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex, runs to Sunday 10th May. Celebrating the rich folk art, traditions and seasonal customs of Wessex, the exhibition explores how folk culture has been shaped by communities past and present. Created by and for the people, folk culture…
GOODNESS, life is complicated these days, isn’t it? Increasing numbers of people question their identities, finding much on-line support for dual, triple or even multiple personalities. Theatre goers support horror rom coms that give that extra live edge to the oft-viewed favourite movies. And we all have to face the issues that social media and…
TWO popular small touring theatre companies have got together to produce a new comedy, General Medical Emergency Ward 10, which continues at Tacchi Morris Arts Centre at Taunton on 21st April. Award‑winning Dyad Productions and Company Gavin Robertson have reimagined the worlds of Holby City, Casualty, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Doctors and many more in this…
VETERAN actor,David Westhead, takes on the challenge of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, in a new production coming to Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bedminster, Bristol, on 27th and 28th April. Krapp’s Last Tape is a journey through an old man’s life, filled with hilarious memories and hopes for the future, coupled with the mourning of…
RICHARD Brinsley Sheridan’s timeless comedy The Rivals was given the One Man Two Guvnors treatment by Richard Bean for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and now the updated version comes to Frome’s Merlin Theatre from 16th to 18th April. Frome Drama is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and the play by Bean and co writer…
SHOW of Strength, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is “making an exhibition of itself,” with 40 years of posters, fliers, photos, films, recordings, programmes and more – and possibly a performance or two – in The Pit at Totterdown from 17th to 19th April. The company started in 1986 with Double Vision, aboard MV…
BATH Comedy Festival runs until Sunday 19th April and its lineup has included more than 100 shows, featuring well over 300 performances, with big names at Bath Forum including Dead Ringers, Paul Merton and Suki Webster, Harry Enfield and Troy Hawke. The festival also brings a host of acts to its intimate upstairs room at…