CONCERTS in the West, the musical charity which promotes rising stars of the chamber music world, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025. The first concert series of the year, on 14th and 15th February, brings the period instrument quartet Ensemble Hesperi to Bridport Arts Centre, Ilminster Arts Centre and the Dancehouse at Crewkerne. Ensemble Hesperi,…
THE Neil Maya Quartet, popular throughout the region through regular gigs and tours with Dorset’s Artsreach, is touring with a celebration of the music and tragically short life of one of the greatest jazz musicians ever – Charlie Parker. The Charlie Parker Story continues at Nether Compton village hall on Friday 14th February and Sturminster…
BATH’s award-winning and talented Operatic and Dramatic Society has chosen the timeless Rodgers and Hammerstein musicalOklahoma! For the spring production at Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 4th to Saturday 8th February. Full of wonderful and memorable songs, the rousing score features the famous title number Oklahoma!, alongside Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’, The Surrey With…
ONE of the finest British actresses of her generation, Maxine Peake comes to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio in a production of the powerful drama Doubt. Ben Daniels, an Olivier Award-winning actor and well-known from many television roles, co-stars in the production, which runs from 7th February to 8th March. Doubt, A Parable, by John…
THE three Ghost stories that Dr Goodman, Professor of Parapsychology, uses to illustrate his lecture to the audience on the power of the paranormal have been greeted by some people as being “harrowing, 80 minutes of nightmare thrills”, and by others as being “as substantial and troubling as the fake ectoplasm manifested by a dodgy…
SOME of the most recognisable characters ever to be created on TV appeared in one of the 64 episodes (plus Christmas specials) of Only Fools and Horses. And as each new one, faithfully and accurately recreated, first appeared in this musical adaptation, they raised a cheer and a laugh. How tempting it therefore must have…
EVERY year when the pantomime season comes around, friends ask “how CAN you bear to see so many again?” and I tell them, very seriously and hoping not to sound too preachy or pompous, “Well, it is the first theatre show that most people will see, and that is the moment that they will first…
A WORLDWIDE cult play and West End hit, Ghost Stories comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 28th January to Saturday 1st February. The drama, created by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, stars Dan Tetsell, David Cardy and Clive Mantle. Described as a truly terrifying theatrical experience, Ghost Stories was created by The League of…
THE inventive Spitz &Co return to Dorset’s Artsreach touring circuit with a new comedy, looking back to the early years of the King of rock’n’roll. Elvis in Blue Hawaii, with comic mayhem and audience interaction, plus all your favourite Elvis songs, comes to Studland village hall on Wednesday 5th February, East Stour on Friday 7th…
IT is more than 60 years since Robert Bolt’s play A Man For All Seasons became a hit in London, on Broadway and as a film that garnered many awards and made an international star of Paul Scofield – who also played the protagonist, Sir Thomas More, on stage. Now, in 2025, the glittering, paranoid,…