The Arts Section

The Girl on the Train, Bath Theatre Royal

FOR all its psychological trappings, this is at heart a true whodunit thriller, as five characters have reason and motive to be the killer. In true Agatha Christie style, all the clues and red herrings are laid out before us, leading us down one false trail after another. The big difference in this skilful stage…

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Be part of Bath’s community play

DAVID Copperfield, Betsey Trotwood, Mr Micawber, Peggotty, Steerforth, Uriah Heep … it is a roll call of some of the most famous characters in literature, all from the same novel by the multi-talented story-teller David Copperfield. And local actors of all ages have a chance to be involved when Bath Theatre Royal stages its David…

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Restless Earth at Sladers Yard

IT would be hard to imagine two artists whose work is more different than landscape painter Anthony Garratt and wood engraver Howard Phipps, but their very different styles – Garratt’s massive colour-saturated canvases and Phipps’ intricately detailed tiny prints – are oddly complementary. Both are artists at the top of their game – and they…

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Shaken, stirred and helpless with laughter

IT may be some years before Bond fans get another film to enjoy, but at Cirencester’s adventurous Barn Theatre, you can enjoy the challenges of casting the world’s most famous spy. As Jordan Walter, writer of A Role to Die For, puts it, “It’s no laughing matter.” But that’s what audiences are doing as the…

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Half-term fun with puppets and sea shanties

WHAT do we do with the kids? It’s the perennial school holiday question, and as usual, Dorset’s rural touring charity, Artsreach, has some fun events to fill a few colourful, crafty, musical hours. Sam O’ Shanty has lived his whole life at sea, ever since he first stowed aboard ship when he was just a…

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A play about neurodiversity

A SOLO play that tells the true story of a young performer’s struggles with health problems, The Magical Screentest, comes to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Wednesday 19th February. This is the disarmingly honest self-portrait of aspiring actor Isobel Jeffery: the inspiring tale of how she has worked to overcome learning disabilities and…

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Postcards from lost places

SINGER-songwriter Cole Stacey comes to St Michael & All Angels Church, Stockland in East Devon, on Friday 21st February, at 7pm, to launch his debut album, Postcards From Lost Places. The Dartmoor-based musician has a repertoire that ranges from British folk and 80s pop to spoken word and ambient electronics. With explorations into traditional song…

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Folk duo launches debut album in Dorset

FOLK duo Coates and Cotterell, whose influences range from Shetland and around the British Isles to Quebec are coming to Dorset with Artsreach with gigs at the village halls at Shipton Gorge on Thursday 27th February, Milborne St Andrew on Friday 28th and Woodlands on Saturday 1st March. Arthur Coates and Kerran Cotterell are an…

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Doubt – a parable, Ustinov Studio, Bath

ONE Anglican archbishop has already resigned after questions about his failure to investigate and act on reports of abuse within the church. Many other leading church figures, in both the Church of England and the Catholic Church, have been embroiled in allegations of abuses dating back decades and cover-ups that have continued. The General Synod…

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Dear Evan Hansen, Bristol Hippodrome

ADOLESCENCE is probably the most difficult period in anyone’s life. Ideas of advice on how to handle this period may change and some psychiatrists even believe you can by-pass it and go straight from childhood to adulthood. In an era where self-examination is encouraged far more than it was in previous times, and in which…

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