WE wouldn’t exist without the sun – but how much do most of us know about it? Installation artist Luke Jerram asks visitors to come and discover the bright star that gives us light and life in his new touring project, Helios, which will be at Dorchester Corn Exchange from Saturday 28th March to Monday…
THIS is the third review on the Fine Times Recorder for Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The first two productions were at Bath in 2015 and 2017, both on professional tours of the UK after sell-out seasons in London. This review is of…
PROFESSOR Sir Ghillean Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is one of the world’s leading tropical botanists and rainforest explorers. He is also the founder of Dorset’s Help Our Planet project and HOP talks. On Thursday 26th March he will be talking at Sladers Yard gallery, West Bay, about Brazil…
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, including a gig with his trio on Thursday 26th March, at Bridport Arts Centre. The world-renowned instrumentalist shares the roots of his musical life in the show, Phil Beer Trio, Blues…
FORTES Ice Cream, a Swanage-based family business that opened its first creamery in 1926, has had a rather special centenary celebration, winning Best Chocolate Ice Cream at this year’s UK and Ireland Golden Scoop Awards. Hosted by the Ice Cream Alliance, the UK and Ireland’s only trade show focused on ice cream, the awards crowned…
ROGER Fry, painter and member of the Bloomsbury Group, is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Museum of Somerset,Taunton, from Saturday 28th March to 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…
TWO former pupils of Wells Cathedral School return to Wells Cathedral on Friday 27th March to take part in a performance of Bach’s masterpiece, the St Matthew Passion, with the Armonico choir and baroque orchestra. The ensembles are conducted by their founder Christopher Monks. He and tenor soloist Nathan Vale were organ and choral scholars…
THE Olivier Award-nominated, international smash-hit musical The Choir of Man is coming to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th March, as part of its first UK and Ireland tour. Direct from the West End, the feel-good, foot-stomping show will be visiting more than 35 venues. Set in on-stage pub The Jungle, a…
PRIMARY school aged children in around the south west have a chance to experience live music, when the BSO’s Explore the Orchestra tour visits Bristol Beacon on 27th March and Poole Lighthouse on 19th and 20th May with a series of free Explore the Orchestra concerts. With the addition of a digital concert, broadcast live…
BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra regularly includes music with a lighter touch in its programmes, alongside mainstream and more serious works. John Williams Blockbusters comes to Bristol Beacon on 27th March, Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre, on 29th March. The series of concerts features music from some of the greatest blockbuster films of the past 40 or so years,…
IF you loved Game of Thrones – or maybe never saw it but still couldn’t escape its omnipresence – don’t miss A&E Comedy’s brilliant spoof, Game of Crones, making its last appearance in the south west at Exeter’s Phoenix arts centre on Wednesday 25th March. Sharpen your swords and fill your goblets – the dragons…
WHAT do you do if your cinema is planning to show all three Lord of the Rings films in one epic screening – but you only have the sound-tracks? Find out at at Exeter’s Northcott Theatre on Monday 23rd March. You improvise. All three parts of the saga – all those hobbits and heroes, elves…
SHAFTESBURY bookshop FOLDE Dorset, which specialises in nature writing, has been named as the best independent book retailer in the South West for a second time, just two years after taking the regional prize in 2024. Affectionately known as The Nibbies, the awards are organised by The Bookseller magazine and judged by a prestigious panel…
RICHARD Harris’s comedy Outside Edge is next on stage at Studio Theatre’s base in Ashley Road, Salisbury, from 23rd to 28th March. Directed by Colin Hayman, this very English story is all about summer, the sound of leather on willow, cricket teas, assembling a team each week, the constant threat of rain, and of course,…
WEST End stars Lisa Pulman and Joe Stilgoe bring movie musical magic to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio from 23rd to 25th March. The two versatile and popular performers have put together a delightful mix of some of the best-loved songs of our movie-musical lives– from The Wizard of Oz to Wicked, West Side Story…
PHOTOGRAPHER Lucy Sewill has exhibited and published widely and has work in the National Portrait Gallery. Her portraits of leading actresses are currently on show at Dorset Museum and Art Gallery in Dorchester, until 28th April. Visible Women is a striking and timely series including Juliet Stevenson, Dame Harriet Walter, Dame Meera Syal, Julie Graham,…
SHEILA Hannon is a phenomenon – a one-woman theatrical powerhouse, who for 40 years has been creating theatrical events in Bristol and Bath with her Show of Strength Theatre Company. This year she is one of the 10 finalists for Visit England’s Tourism Superstar award. Sheila has been nominated by Visit West and thoroughly deserves the…
DORSET writer and actor Ed Viney follows his successful play Pot Licker with a new black comedy, Stolen Ram, coming to Bath, Swanage, Weymouth, Exeter, Southampton and Shaftesbury between now and 27th March. Working in association with Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre and Dorchester Arts, the Ed Viney company has created a sharp, fast-moving play that…
ONE of the most spectacular, and difficult to stage, moments from Shakespeare’s Macbeth is to bring the forest of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane castle, and you might think it would be too big an ask in the intimate confines of Bedminster’s Tobacco Factory Theatre, with a cast of only ten actors. Think again. By blending…
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…
THE new exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury is Legacy in Making, running until 10th May. Presented by Somerset Art Works in partnership with the South West Heritage Trust, it celebrates the legacy and future of the Somerset Craft Guild. It shows the remarkable breadth of contemporary and historic craft in Somerset,…
DORSET’s county town has many things going for it, but theatrically it is a national record-breaker. There have been seven community plays and now Dorchester Community Plays Association is looking forward to an eighth. Meanwhile, there is a nostalgic weekend ahead, from 27th to 29th March, with a look back at the fifth community play,…
AN outstanding sheep’s milk cheese, White Lake’s Pavé Cobble, is now back on cheese counters following huge demand after the Somerset-produced ash-coated cheese was placed 12th overall in the 5,244 entries for the World Cheese Awards. Produced at Bagborough Farm by third generation farmer Roger Longman, Pavé Cobble is White Lake’s take on a classic…
ONE of the masterpieces of the silent screen, Cecil B DeMille’s The King of Kings will be screened at St Gregory’s Church, Marnhull, on Tuesday 31st March, at 7pm, as part of the parish’s Holy Week events. The film is being shown again, by popular demand, and will be accompanied by improvisational music from the…
SOUTH West-based theatre company Pipeline has been awarded funding to develop a new play, George and the Drag Queen, for a national tour this autumn. The company has been commissioned to develop the project by the Create Tour Connect partnership. The Falmouth-based company won the commission after a competitive application process. The selection process for…
A WEST Dorset choir specialising in music that Thomas Hardy sang has just launched a new website and is keen to attract more singers and instrumentalists to join. Broadwindsor Gallery Quire is a community ensemble dedicated to exploring and performing the rich tradition of West Gallery music – vibrant hymns and anthems that once filled…
WHEN audiences gather for Hurn Court Opera’s La Traviata on 16th April at Christchurch Regent Centre, 18th at the Coade Hall at Bryanston School and 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…
AVALON Archaeology, at the Avalon Marshes Centre on Shapwick Road, Westhay, has completed the construction of a replica Iron Age roundhouse, which will be officially opened on Saturday 21st March, by Charlie Taylor from BBC Radio Somerset. Visitors will be able to explore the building and learn more about Somerset’s prehistory with themed activities taking…
BATH Comedy Festival returns from 21st March to 19th April with 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 the Ring…
TEN years after Brexit, the British and Irish Cheese Awards, which take place at the Bath & West Food and Drink Festival, over the weekend 20th to 22nd March, have received a record number of Irish entries, with 48 Irish cheeses to be judged in a field of more than 600 entries. The cheese award…
ARTSREACH, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity, has been selected to be part of this year’s Big Give: Arts for Impact campaign. From midday on Tuesday 17th March to midday on Tuesday 24th, every pound donated to Artsreach through the Big Give platform will be doubled – meaning twice the support for the charity’s work across…
RALPH Fiennes, who must be one of the world’s hardest working actors on stage and screen, stars in the most-requested Moviola film in March – The Choral. Co-produced and directed by Nicholas Hytner, the film is written by Alan Bennett. Set in 1916, during World War I, in the fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, it…
WHEN Cirencester-based Rave Coffee got together with Lacock’s Coco Chemistry the result was destined to be delicious – a treat for sophisticated chocolate lovers – a big, blonde, crunchy, caffeinated Easter egg that you won’t want to share with the children (or anyone else!) Over the years, Rave has developed a reputation for its exciting…