SAMUEL Beckett, according to the Amateur Players of Sherborne programme, wrote “Art has nothing to do with clarity, does not dabble in the clear and does not make clear,” … and there’s me thinking that the present government doesn’t understand The Arts. Sherborne’s open air production of Beckett’s masterpiece was the result of a happenstance…
WITH the ten minutes notice in which our leaders specialise, the intrepid alfresco theatre companies of England were told that they could go ahead with outdoor performances. Illyria was one of the first four to take up the challenge, creating a Covid-secure bubble in which to tour a delightful, satirical, hilarious three-person retelling of Kenneth…
WHAT more perfect way to celebrate a return to live performance than a concert in the beautiful gardens of Springhead at Fontmell Magna – and that’s how conductor and Dorset farmer John Eliot Gardiner reconnected his singers and musicians with their audience. Testing Springhead’s Covid arrangements, an invited audience was led to separated blocks of…
OUR diaries, like those of many thousands (millions) of people, have been empty for weeks. Suddenly, we had not one but two events to go to, both on the same day – a private view at The Art Stable and a sale and tasting at preserve maker Ajar Of’s “Jammery” at Hazelbury Bryan. Small steps, but…
THE story of Nicholas McCarthy’s young life so far has been one of challenge, determination, tenacity and success. He shot to fame in 2012 at the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in London where he joined the likes of the band Coldplay. It was apt that a pianist of just 23 years and born…
THE description in the programme of Les Vepres Siciliennes is that it is a Grand Opera in five acts, and this production direction by Sir David Pountney is befitting of that description. Virtually everything about it is on the grand scale, not least of course Giuseppe Verdi’s towering score varying from the highly dramatic to…
FRIDAY 13th and the world in chaos – what better antidote than an Austrian evening of classic Rodgers and Hammerstein with Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society? This is the third time that the hugely versatile and talented company has produced the musical, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, and the first time that renowned choreographer…
CONTINUING their theme of revenge, which runs through the three productions WNO are touring this spring, Mozart’s delightful comic opera followed the dramatic Carmen into the Bristol Hippodrome. Presented and costumed on much more traditional lines than Carmen, director Max Hoehn’s The Marriage of Figaro (recreating Tobias Richter’s original) sets out to explore and exploit…
CHRIS Bush’s new gender-swapping take on Marlowe’s Faustus, on at Bristol Old Vic until 21st March, is a play for anyone who has inexplicably real, vivid and terrifying dreams, is worried about a global pandemic or has seen their computer freeze, and in its icy state eat up all their work and throw it who…
PINK is the colour that dominates this show, and “In the Pink” are the words that describe Steve Blackmore’s silky smooth production for Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society. Not only do costume coordinators John Cousins and Anna Fraenkel pick up the colour in the costumes, the sets and accessories on view are equally colour coordinated…