The Play’s the Thing

Gothic thriller at Arnos Vale

ONE of Bristol’s most atmospheric locations is the setting for a production of one of Edgar Allen Poe’s classic macabre stories. Red Rope Theatre will be performing The Fall of the House of Usher, in the Anglican chapel at Arnos Vale Cemetery, from 14th November to 6th December. It is a dark tale full of…

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A ghostly hit comes to Bath

ONE of the best-loved films of all time has been adapted as a hit musical, which is coming to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 19th to Saturday 23rd November. Ghost the Musical has been a huge success around the world, capturing all the romance and magic of the film, which starred Demi Moore, the late…

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The mysterious appeal of a Dorset hill fort

DORSET has a lot of Iron Age hill forts. Locally-based theatre company Dorsetborn is touring a highly praised new play that uses this atmospheric setting for a play that asks deep questions about the meaning of friendship. The tour is at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Tuesday 12th and two Artsreach dates, Langton Matravers village hall…

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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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Chips with … no chips!

YEOVIL-based Lost Lady Society brings The Saviour, a new comedy musical on a tour which continues on Saturday 23rd November at Ilchester Town Hall, where it is also being performed 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…

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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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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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Here we go with Dolly

A MUSICAL celebration of the music of the one-and-only Dolly Parton comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 5th to Saturday 9th November. The cast of Here You Come Again includes Tricia Paoluccio, who co-wrote the show, as Dolly, and Steven Webb as Kevin. The show includes many of Dolly’s biggest hits – Jolene, I…

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A commotion in the West

THE middle of the 16th century was a turbulent time – a fevered period in the bloody history of the Reformation in England. A new play, which gets its world premiere at Exeter Northcott Theatre on Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd October, looks at the dramatic events in Devon in February 1547, soon after the…

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