FOR the majority of people, the years between the two world wars were full of financial depression and mass unemployment, and could hardly be described as times full of glamour and luxury. If you could afford it however, it was a time when sophisticated glamour and luxury travel reached a height never to be surpassed….
HISTORY, it is often said, is written by men about men. It is also said, with equal truth that history is written by the victors. A group of creative women in Dorchester and the surrounding area are confronting these sexist tropes with an exciting new community play project – Women of Dorset. The play, which…
BONFIRE Radicals, described as a “proper folk melting pot,” bring their blend of Balkan, African, French, Scandinavian, Irish and British musical influences to the Somerset Take Art circuit. coming to Roadwater village hall on Friday 28th March and Caryford Community Hall at Castle Cary on Saturday 29th. With a front line of recorders, fiddle, clarinet…
CONOR McPherson’s extraordinarily atmospheric play The Weir, set in a small bar in remote community in County Leitrim, is the next production by the Street Theatre Company, on stage at Strode Theatre from 19th to 22nd March. Directed by Dennis Barwell, it runs for around two hours without an interval – to keep the tension…
STUDENTS from Arts University Bournemouth are heading for the Palace Court Theatre from 20th to 22nd March for the first production of 2025. Director David O’Shea has chosen Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Visit, but updated its setting from the original post War German to a post Brexit Britain drowning under the cost of living crisis. Set…
FORMER Royal Navy officer Nigel Chambers is the guest speaker at North Cadbury’s parish church, on Saturday 15th March at 7pm, a fund-raising event organised by the Friends of St Michael’s. Nigel will describe various challenges from his career, including yacht racing across the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn, service at sea in ships…
A STARRY film adaptation of Raynor Winn’s best-selling memoir The Salt Path is to open at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre as part of its national release on Friday 30th May. The film stars Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and her husband Moth who, following his terminal diagnosis and the devastating loss of their…
MILBORNE Port Opera’s witty and delightful production of The Drowsy Chaperone took two awards at the recent Somerset Fellowship of Drama David Beach Awards. Lloyd Davies took the award for Best Male Lead for his performance as the Man in the Chair, the wry narrator of the hilarious story. The second award was for props….
BILLED as “Roald Dahl’s amazingly weird and wonderful stage musical”, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the choice of Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society for the spring show, on stage at Westlands from 17th to 22nd March. Directed and choreographed by Martyn Knight, the musical director is Gill Merrifield. The music, by Anthony Newley and Leslie…
LAURA Wade’s first published play, Colder than Here, was first produced 20 years ago. It was championed in the south west by the Sturminster Newton-based Taboo Theatre, with tours from 2006. Laura and her partner Sam West came to see a Taboo show in an open sided, and very cold, tent. Now the versatile Swan…