THERE really is something special about Somerset, as indigenous families will know and Taunton Thespians’ original summer 2024 play encapsulates the county’s myths and legends in a most delightfully informative and humorous fashion. Now on tour, Lorna Evans’ play Here Be Dragons tells the tales of the fears and fancies of generations of Somerset dwellers,…

IT is more than 60 years since Tom Stoppard, working as an occasional theatre critic and reporter on the Bristol Evening World, wrote his short play The Real Inspector Hound. The rest is glittering theatrical history. But perhaps strangely, out here in the sticks (and I suspect anywhere outside the confines of the M25), it…

THERE are no makeweight roles in Don Giovanni. Every one of the eight characters is important to the story and each has his or her moment or more of operatic glory. The central partnership is that of the Don, woman-chasing, arrogant and domineering, and his servant Leporello, quick-witted and loyal (up to a point). But…

SIX decades ago, rock and roller Tommy Steele decided to turn his attention from Singing the Blues to the stage. Composer and lyricist David Heneker and Beverley Cross (book) were commissioned to write a “vehicle” show for him, and the HG Wells 1905 novel Kipps was chosen. In 1963 Tommy opened at the Cambridge Theatre as…

WHEN stoically British audiences go to “summer’ open air performances, they are weighed down with food and drink for picnics, camping chairs, tables, and in some cases rugs, snuggle-suits and pillows as they set off from the car park to the auditorium, ready to spread out and relax. Then comes the play, and most of…

THE always polished professional Disney stage productions put you in mind of modern day packaging of chocolates and sweets, beautiful presented giving the impression that there is far more of the product within the wrapping that there actually is. When you finally get over the shortage of the product on offer and sample the sweets…

NOEL Coward wasn’t called The Master for nothing, and up until the end of his long and prolific writing career he continued to produce wise and witty plays with an inimitable style. The last of these was a collection called Suite in Three Keys, all set in the same suite of a Swiss lakeside hotel,…

IN the old days of classic Whitehall farce, the set designers had an easy job. They built a classic box set and put in as many doors round the sides as possible. Then the actors dashed at break-neck speed through them, often changing not just direction but costume and character backstage. And then of course the…

IN the show Cowardly Custard you will find a song entitled Why Must the Show go on, which makes it rather appropriate that it was from the stage of the Noel Coward Theatre that Sir Ian McKellen fell a couple of weeks ago, making it impossible for him to finish the run of Players Kings…