THE Merlin’s Christmas community show has built up a reputation for invention, spectacle and energy, and the eager and talented performers were, like so many others around the country, frustrated and disappointed by last year’s prohibitions. So there was great delight and anticipation for the 2021 show, a production of Julian Fellowes’ 2016 version of…

MIKE Akers, well known for his work at Bristol Old Vic, wrote his new take on the Snow White story, first seen in 2018, for a cabaret audience and a girl band in London. Now it reappears on stage at Salisbury Playhouse until 31st December, picking up the pastel delights of the Wiltshire theatre’s wonderful…

WHILE it might be a bit of an exaggeration to claim that the last line if the title (The Finest Panto in the Land) is 100% true, this is certainly a production that sets out, and does leave a lasting impression. There are two reasons for making that claim. One is the visual effects created…

YOU wouldn’t call Agatha Christie an obvious feminist, but in Witness for the Prosecution, which she considered her best play, she does a great job puncturing the pompous superiority of her principal male characters. It’s classic Christie – more twists and turns than an Alpine mountain pass. It’s not so much red herrings as unpredictable…

A FULL-fledged pantomime is back on stage at the Octagon in Yeovil this season, once again starring those local favourites Gordon Cooper, Jack Glanville and Lizzie Frances, and giving the audience a chance to join in – even behind the advisory masks. It’s Paul Hendy’s new version of Mother Goose, the timeliest of pantomime stories…

MIKE Kenny’s adaptation of E Nesbit’s classic story The Railway Children has been packing audiences in to railway stations, first at York and then at Waterloo and King’s Cross, since 2007 – and now it’s come to Salisbury’s intimate Studio Theatre. And it is an absolute delight. It’s a huge risk to take a cherished…

SAMUEL Beckett, Nobel literature laureate and best known as the writer of the iconic Waiting for Godot (among many other plays) is well known for his bleak look at the world and its inhabitants, increasingly minimalised as he grew older. He was born in Ireland and lived most of his life in France, where he…

PENELOPE Christopher, who has directed Athenaeum Limelight Players in their first play since the onset of the pandemic, has been a fan of Jeeves and Wooster for many years, so Perfect Nonsense seemed an ideal choice. The basic requirements – given the constraints of social distancing and the need to give audiences confidence to return…

MATTHEW Bourne’s  The Midnight Bell, inspired by the writings of novelist Patrick Hamilton and set in central London in the early 1930s, is a febrile investigation of love and how to find it, as well as a nostalgic plunge into a barely-remembered time. We know, looking at the era from the next century, what was…

ON the face of it, Hairspray is just a lightweight bit of fun – especially a production like this one, that fully captures the feel of the 1960s, with back-combed beehive hair styles and clothes to match. But lurking just below the surface are the prejudices of racism that prevent black dancers even auditioning for…