The Arts Section

Celebrate Voice 2024

THE 11th Celebrate Voice festival in Salisbury was another record-breaker, founder and artistic director Lynsey Docherty (covered in a black “flashers” mac) told the packed audience at the final event, the last performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love at the Guildhall. Lynsey (pictured right)  was all ready (under the voluminous raincoat) to go on…

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Here You Come Again, Bath Theatre Royal and touring

CLOSE your eyes and you are listening to Dolly Parton – every note, every inflection, every accent in both the songs and the dialogue performed by Tricia Paoluccio in Here You Come Again, the show she co-wrote and is now touring the UK until spring 2025. It is a truly remarkable performance. And the story,…

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A truth universally acknowledged …

… that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of the most delightful and witty novels ever written. It also lends itself to endless, inventive reimagining, and they don’t come funnier or more original than Pride and Prejudice (*sort of), which comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre from Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd November. If…

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Remembering at Yeovil

THE Armonico Consort and actor Julian Glover come to Westlands entertainments centre on Monday 11th November, the anniversary of the day that the guns fell silent in 1918. They Shall Grow Not Old, which begins at 7.30pm, is an inspiring and moving commemoration in music and words. The critically-acclaimed choir will perform poignant and much-loved…

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Chips with … no chips!

YEOVIL-based Lost Lady Society brings The Saviour, a new comedy musical on a tour which continues at Ilchester Town Hall on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th December. The play is set in a struggling family-run chip shop that faces an unexpected crisis — no potatoes This heartfelt and hilarious musical has been cooked up through…

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From sunny Naples to wintry Bath

EDUARDO de Filippo’s classic comedy Filumena comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 12th to Saturday 16th November in a new production starring Felicity Kendal and Matthew Kelly, and directed by Sean Mathias. The production uses the translation by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Set in the balmy heat of Naples, this sparkling comedy-drama, full…

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Reimagining Mary Shelley’s masterpiece

TILTED Wig theatre company comes to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre this week with an enthralling new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein. The play is at the theatre from Tuesday 4th to Saturday 9th November. Séan Aydon’s reimagining of this classic Gothic horror, which comes to Poole as part of a six-venue tour, has an…

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Making music with a spirit of adventure

A CHAMBER group of musician friends, who got together in a spirit of adventure to bring music to new audiences, come to Dorset and Somerset for the November series of Concerts in the West. The Berkeley Ensemble will be at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 15th for the usual coffee concert, at 11.30am, and Ilminster…

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Long John Silver returns to Bristol

BRISTOL Old Vic Theatre School students return to the Redgrave Theatre in Clifton for their Christmas show, Treasure Island, on from 23rd to 30th November. Always popular in Bristol, where Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have written the original novel at the Llandogger Trow, this re-imagining by Bryony Lavery follows the adventures of the…

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Alerting all dames – your time is nigh

NOVEMBER is here and the pantomime season is approaching fast. Theatres and arts centres around the country have announced their shows and their stars, hoping to ensure the bums-on-seats that ensure their financial viability for the rest of the year. Pantomime is a peculiarly British institution, rich in tradition and full of expectation for younger…

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