Make ’em Laugh

Chamber music with bells on

IF you think a chamber ensemble is all about serious string quartets, solemn musicians in evening dress playing beautiful but often quite austere music, you haven’t met Bowjangles. This is the quartet that puts the swing into strings. They are back in Dorset, at Litton Cheney community hall on Thursday 23rd January, Lytchett Matravers hall…

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An adult feline frolic

BATH’S Ustinov Studio opens its 2025 season with three performances of CAT the Play, performed by Richard Kieswick as a man who dreams of fame in one of Lord Lloyd Webber’s most popular musicals, based on the work of T S Eliot. Described as a comedy drama with a dark twist, CAT the Play was…

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Comedy = Tragedy + Time

MARK Twain’s famous quote about comedy provides the title for Ed Byrne’s current tour, which is coming to Weymouth Pavilion on Sunday 19th January. One of the UK’s favourite television comedians, Ed Byrne has extended his nationwide Tragedy Plus Time tour, winner of British Comedy Guide’s Best Comedy Show 2023 – and his most personal show…

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A tale of food and typhoid

LIVING Spit’s autumn recipe is on its way to a theatre near you. Mary Mallon is an Irish immigrant, an amiable host … and a killer? A talented cook in New York City in 1906 takes a job preparing delicious meals for yet another high society family, and yet again they begin to fall ill…

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Howard Coggins

THE hilariously funny, cuddly, wry and inspired Howard Coggins, best known in the south west as co-founder of Living Spit and nationally for his Lottery adverts, has died at the age of 52. He was diagnosed with cancer late in 2022. Frustrated with playing bit parts in other people’s shows, Howard and Stu McLoughlin started…

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