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…
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…
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…
THERE is quite a trend currently for films to be adapted for the stage but there have been few book-to-film-to-stage versions that are better or more entertaining than Patrick Barlow’s inventive and hilarious staging of the John Buchan classic thriller, The 39 Steps. This brilliant play opens the in-house production season at Salisbury Playhouse, running…
SHAKESPEARE’s dark drama The Merchant of Venice may have one of the most famous speeches in the whole canon, but it is a difficult play for modern audiences. We struggle with the arrogant anti-semitism of Antonio and most of us surely squirm at the twin horrors of Shylock’s merciless revenge and the humiliation he suffers…
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…
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…
AUDIENCES at Bath Theatre Royal will see the first performances of By Royal Appointment, a new play by Daisy Godwin, starring Anne Reid and Caroline Quentin, from Thursday 5th to Saturday 14th June. The production will be directed by Bristol-born Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe. Booking opens to Theatre Royal Bath members…
J B Priestley wrote the 1912-set An Inspector Calls in 1945 as the second World War was drawing to a close and shortly before the start of the First World War. The hypocrisy, greed, abuse of power, particularly towards the working classes, that he saw in Edwardian society, had, he felt, helped trigger that conflict,…