The Arts Section

Living Spit, Beauty and the Beast, Sturminster Newton Exchange

HOWARD Coggins was a comic genius, a versatile actor with a vivid, surreal imagination, and in their company Living Spit, he and Stu McLoughlin created something uniquely funny, charming, wacky and endlessly entertaining – reinventing history with their two-person take on the lives of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, telling the story of real life…

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Celebrating Somerset makers

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,…

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Sale at Nick Andrew’s studio

MANY of us would love to have paintings, drawings or limited edition prints, but can barely afford them in these cash-strapped times – well-known Wiltshire artist Nick Andrew is offering work from some of his drawing projects at reduced prices on Saturday 7th February. On view at Nick’s Bull Mill Studio at Crockerton, near Warminster,…

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Pipeline masterclass with Alison Steadman

ALISON Steadman, one of the best-loved and most versatile actresses of her generation, will be the special guest at the Pipeline masterclass at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 11th February. Acclaimed for her stage, television and film roles, Alison first came to prominence in television plays Nuts in May and Abigail’s Party – she…

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Mining a year of political turmoil

ANYONE old enough to remember the year of the Miners’ strike will be fascinated by Danny Mellor’s Undermined, a solo show coming to Piddletrenthide Memorial Hall on Friday 23rd January and West Stafford village hall on Saturday 24th, both at 7.30pm. Described by one reviewer as “an excellent dramatisation of an immensely important period of…

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A perfect show for bad times

THE public’s appetite for ghost stories, macabre thrillers and supernatural drama is boundless – and few people have tapped into that zeitgeist more than Uncanny creator Danny Robins, whose hit play 2:22 – A Ghost Story returns to Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 19th to Saturday 24th January. Premiering in 2021, 2:22 is a chilling…

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Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, Swan Theatre Yeovil

SOHO legend Jeffrey Bernard, drinker, womaniser, racing fanatic, writer and raconteur, was still alive when Keith Waterhouse’s play about his life made its way to the London stage, with the even-more-famous Peter O’Toole in the title role. And he lived for another eight years, flying in the face of medical wisdom and what seemed like…

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Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story Theatre Royal, Bath and touring

WHY does this romanticised telling of the short, highly successful life of American rock’n’roll legend Buddy Holly – it only lasted around three years before he was tragedy killed aged 22 in and air crash – conjure up images of TV’s The Good Old Days from the City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds? The answer lies…

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Remembering Dunkirk and one of the famous “little ships”

A NEW free exhibition at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, RNLI: Stories of Courage 1939-45, running until 28th February, explories the way the volunteer lifeboat crews saved lives at sea in dangerous conditions, including a lifeboat that was one of the famous “little boats” that rescued soldiers pinned down on the beaches at Dunkirk. The exhibition…

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Panto audiences dig deep for charity

PANTOMIME audiences at Theatre Royal Bath raised more than £12,600 over the festive season during 14 post-performance charity collections between Thursday 18th and Friday 26th December, after matinee and evening performances of The Further Adventures of Peter Pan. Audience favourite Jon Monie – who wrote the script and starred as pirate Smee – made an…

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