Reviews

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Frome Drama at the Merlin Theatre

THE versatile and talented Frome Drama company has chosen Christopher Hampton’s 1985 play Les Liaisons Dangereuses for its first show of 2022 at the Merlin. Loosely translated from the epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos in 1982, it is a story of love, sex, revenge, jealousy and sophisticatedly complex plotting. It requires enormous skill both…

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Jenufa, Welsh National Opera at Bristol Hippodrome

THIS Katie Mitchell production dates back nearly a quarter of a century, first seen in the pre-Millennium Centre days when the New Theatre Cardiff was WNO’s home base. Now re-imagined by co-director Eloise Lally and staff director Sarah Crisp, it has lost none of its power to capture the hearts of an audience as the…

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The Thrill of Love, Studio Theatre Salisbury

THE cast at Studio Theatre in Salisbury waited for two years to put on their production of Amanda Whittington’s 2013 Ruth Ellis play, The Thrill of Love – and the result proves that it was well worth the wait. The facts that led up to the 1955 murder, which resulted in the last woman in…

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Beautiful – the Carole King musical, Bath Theatre Royal

TO say that this show only scratches the surface of the life and work of composer/singer Carole King would be putting it mildly. With more than 100 pop songs that found their way into the charts and 25 solo albums, many written for some of the top musical artists to emerge in the later part…

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Educating Rita, APS, Sherborne

EDUCATING Rita burst on to the national consciousness nearly 40 years ago in a film which made a star of Julie Walters – but Willy Russell’s play was first staged three years previously, and it is as a play that it really works its magic, as it does once again in this production by Sherborne’s…

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Wonder Boy, Bristol Old Vic

THERE are so many good causes associated with the writing, production and presentation of this play that a desire to support them can take over your emotions. leaving you almost incapable of looking at the production as a piece of theatre. As someone who at a young age spent hours rolling my Rs in order…

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Go Back for Murder, Swan Theatre Yeovil

DIRECTOR Rachel Butcher brings a cinematic vibe to her production of Agatha Christie’s Go Back for Murder, on at the Swan Theatre in Yeovil until 19th March. This is the one where Christie began with Poirot in the novel version, but changed him to young solicitor Justin Fogg for the stage, and the Swan was…

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Kinky Boots, YAOS at Yeovil Octagon Theatre

KINKY Boots, the film, came out in 2005, and was followed by Cyndi Lauper’s multi-award winning musical of the same name in 2012. It has arrived at Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre, performed by the versatile, plucky and very talented Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society – now known more modernly as YAOS Productions – and it’s on until…

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Blood Brothers at Bath Theatre Royal

AFTER Everton’s crushing 5-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspurs in their last Premier League game, oh how Bill Kenwright must be wishing and hoping that his beloved football club, of which he is a lifelong fan and previous Chairman, will follow in the footsteps of this production and burst into life, performing at the top of…

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Schubert’s Great

Dove        Sunshine Mozart    Piano Concerto No. 22 Schubert    Symphony No. 9 ‘The Great’ Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Mark Wigglesworth, conductor, Imogen Cooper, piano CURRENT tragic events in Ukraine are impossible to ignore, especially for an orchestra whose chief conductor for the last 13 years is the Ukrainian Kirill Karabits. Kirill was not…

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