PETE Machale, who graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth’s acting course in 2017 with a memorable performance as the White Rabbit in Alice, is back, but now as a playwright commissioned to create a new play based (loosely) on a bit of the history of the Palace Court Theatre, where students on the course now…
MICHAEL Morpurgo was more than a little sceptical when in 2007 the National Theatre decided to produce a stage version of his 1982 anti-war novel War Horse. Not surprisingly in that the story followed the adventures of a thoroughbred horse from foal to becoming one of the 62,000 (out of one million) horses taken over…
THIRTY years ago, two writers, Simon Corbie and Nobby Dimon, adapted John Buchan’s famous story of spies, derring-do and pre-war tension in London and the Highlands, into a play. It had been a successful Alfred Hitchcock film, updated from 1915 to 1935. Ten years later, Patrick Barlow took the play, shook it up and gave…
THE New Hardy Players, formed to celebrate the work of Dorset’s greatest writer, celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, touring A Few Crusted Characters from 6th to 15th June. The new play has been created from a series of short stories, and willl be performed at beautiful open air venues including Abbotsbury Swannery and Maumbury…
A NEW play that examines the unique relationship between the late Queen Elizabeth II and her dresser, Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment, has its world premiere at Bath Theatre Royal, from Thursday 5th to Saturday 14th June, before a UK tour. The play stars Anne Reid as the Queen and Caroline Quentin as The Dresser,…
IF you are among the many people who have been waiting for the latest episode in the Bridget Jones saga to reach your village hall, good news! This is the month when the hapless heroine, once again played by Renee Zellweger, tops the Moviola list, with screenings at Hawkchurch, Membury (Devon), Bourton, South Petherton (David…
ACTOR Anton Lesser could hardly have been a more appropriate choice to read the words of Thomas Hardy, a man with whom he shares qualifications as an architect, and a subsequent and far more successful and famous career. And on an unforecastly beautiful evening, just west of the world famous Stonehenge, Mr Lesser joined actress…
ALFRED Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest, the story of mistaken identity in the frozen depths of the cold war, is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all times. But it WAS 66 years ago, and many of today’s audiences will be entirely unfamiliar with the plot or its background. So…
PURBECK-based writer Georgie Codd will host her first live night out in Dorset on Friday 13th June. In aid of Dorset Mind, it is based around her second book, Never Had a Dad: Adventures in Fatherlessness, which was published in 2024. The book attracted millions of listeners when it was previewed on the hit US…
BATH’S annual music festival, still struggling to retain its former glories, ended the 2025 event at the beautiful St Swithin’s Church on Sunday afternoon with a concert by Ensemble Moliere, celebrating the life and work of the remarkable dancer Marie Salle. Born to fairground tumblers in 1707, Marie transformed the then rigidly formal world of…