STUDENTS from Arts University Bournemouth are heading for the Palace Court Theatre from 20th to 22nd March for the first production of 2025. Director David O’Shea has chosen Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Visit, but updated its setting from the original post War German to a post Brexit Britain drowning under the cost of living crisis. Set…
FORMER Royal Navy officer Nigel Chambers is the guest speaker at North Cadbury’s parish church, on Saturday 15th March at 7pm, a fund-raising event organised by the Friends of St Michael’s. Nigel will describe various challenges from his career, including yacht racing across the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn, service at sea in ships…
DORSET-based writer Ed Viney’s play Pot Licker is on a tour of Dorset, with dates in Exeter and Bath. After its premiere at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, where it was first seen at a new writing event, it continues at Weymouth College Bay Theatre on 18th March, The Royal Manor Theatre on Portland on 19th,…
A STARRY film adaptation of Raynor Winn’s best-selling memoir The Salt Path is to open at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre as part of its national release on Friday 30th May. The film stars Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and her husband Moth who, following his terminal diagnosis and the devastating loss of their…
MILBORNE Port Opera’s witty and delightful production of The Drowsy Chaperone took two awards at the recent Somerset Fellowship of Drama David Beach Awards. Lloyd Davies took the award for Best Male Lead for his performance as the Man in the Chair, the wry narrator of the hilarious story. The second award was for props….
BILLED as “Roald Dahl’s amazingly weird and wonderful stage musical”, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the choice of Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society for the spring show, on stage at Westlands from 17th to 22nd March. Directed and choreographed by Martyn Knight, the musical director is Gill Merrifield. The music, by Anthony Newley and Leslie…
LAURA Wade’s first published play, Colder than Here, was first produced 20 years ago. It was championed in the south west by the Sturminster Newton-based Taboo Theatre, with tours from 2006. Laura and her partner Sam West came to see a Taboo show in an open sided, and very cold, tent. Now the versatile Swan…
A PLAY that began life at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, where it won awards and critical acclaim, comes to Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio from Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd March. Described as “folk horror”, Birdwatching is a drama about the female experience. Black Bright Theatre Company present Madeleine Farnhill’s play which places female, queer…
The three largest theatres in the south-west region, Southampton Mayflower (seating 2,300) Bristol Hippodrome (1,951), and Plymouth Theatre Royal (1,320), are the places to see the big touring musicals, and their 2025 schedule includes major national tours. The Mayflower will stage Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop American history musical Hamilton (pictured below) , from 18th March to…
DORSET Opera Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary at Bryanston School’s Coade Hall this year, following its move to Blandford from its original home at Sherborne School. This year’s festival will run from 22nd to 26th July, and will include two formal dinners in Bryanston House. The opera programme is thrilling, with Verdi’s cruel but musically…