Top comedian supports hospice
Poole
MICHAEL McIntyre, one of Britain’s best-loved comedians and television stars, is coming to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre with his charity show, in aid of Julia’s House, the children’s hospice, on Sunday 10th May.
Michael will be performing his greatest hits and new bits, all in aid of the hospice. The show, which is strictly for audiences 14 years and over, begins at 8pm.
Julia’s House provides specialist care for children with life-limiting conditions and support for their families.
The dark side of a storyteller
Lyme Regis
MOST people think of The Railway Children if they hear the name E. Nesbit. But Edith Nesbit had a dark side, which is explored in an evening of horror story-telling at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 15th May at 7.30pm.
Following the success of The Masks of Aphra Behn, actress Claire Louise Amias returns with another one-woman show, Haunted Shadows: The Gothic Tales of Edith Nesbit. This gripping insight into the other side of a famous author is directed by a renowned horror expert Jonathan Rigby.
An expert at chilling the spine and curdling the blood, Edith Nesbit (Amias) relates three of her best Gothic tales while recalling her own childhood terrors. The Shadow finds a repressed housekeeper meeting an abominable entity. In The Pavilion, the shade of a long-dead necromancer envelops a social gathering. Finally, a deranged young woman harbours a deadly secret in a rediscovered story called A Strange Experience.
West End to Hollywood
Honiton
THE audience at Honiton’s Beehive Centre will be taken on a magical, musical journey from the West End to Hollywood via Hogwarts and the Paris Opera, on Saturday 9th May at 7.30pm, with a 14-piece ensemble from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The programme of film and stage music includes some well-loved favourites alongside hidden cinematic gems. The pieces include John Barry’s James Bond theme from From Russia With Love, a Rodgers and Hammerstein Sound of Music medley, Rachel Portman’s theme from Chocolat, favourite music from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, Hedwig’s theme from John Williams’ Harry Potter score, themes from favourite Western movie composer Ennio Morricone and a Mary Poppins medley.
Dutch folk singer in the foyer
Bridport
LINDE Nijland, who has been described as “the best folk singer in The Netherlands”, gives a foyer concert at Bridport’s Electric Palace on Tuesday 26th May at 7pm, with multi-instrumentalist Bert Ridderbos.
In the UK Linde is best-known for her renditions of Sandy Denny songs. She has sung with Fairport Convention many times, including an all-star reunion concert at the Barbican in 2009. Producer Joe Boyd said: “Linde has given Sandy Denny’s music the respect it deserves, and made a lovely record that shows off her beautiful voice as well as her good taste.”
Linde started out as a part of popular Dutch female harmony singer-songwriter duo Ygdrassil. She has been collaborating for many years with Bert Ridderbos, “seemingly a one-man orchestra,” according to fRoots magazine, who is skilled on guitars, cittern, accordion, banjo and dobro.
Game, set … laugh!
Bridport
PAULINE Eyre was a line judge at Wimbledon for 20 years. Now as a stand-up comedian she takes her experiences on the road, coming to Bridport Arts Centre on Thursday 28th May at 8pm.
In her new show, Anyone for tennis?, Pauline spills the Pimms on tennis gossip, from the fragrant royal box to the musty locker room, and explains why line judges are OUT!
Fresh from a sold-out run at Edinburgh Fringe 2025, she brings smashing stories, ace anecdotes and a 40-love letter to the game. And there’s nobody to say ‘quiet please’. She can’t be serious … can she?
Mozart on Gibraltar
Dorchester
OPERA Anywhere returns to Dorchester Arts and the Corn Exchange on 29th May at 7.30pm with a delightful new adaptation of Mozart’s satire Cosi Fan Tutte.
The pocket opera company has already delighted local audiences with productions including The Magic Flute, HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. Now they tackle the wickedly funny “Thus do all women” story of two flirtatious young women, two jealous (and rather stupid) young men, an old cynic and a very smart maid.
Directed by Tristan Stocks, edited and adapted in English, and performed in just two hours, the story is moved from 18th century Italy to early 20th century Gibraltar.
The plot revolves around a bold bet between Don Alfonso and the young men, Ferrando and Guglielmo. Don Alfonso wagers that he can prove their girlfriends, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, are unfaithful, like “all women.” What follows is a comedic exploration of love, fidelity and deception.
Lessons from life
Dorchester
A NEW play by Dorset writers Vince Jones and James Cuthill, explores the truth behind the well-known saying “All life is here”—probably nowhere is this more true than in a weekly art class, the setting for Life Class, which gets its premiere with Dorchester Drama at Dorchester Arts on 1st to 3rd May.
This thought-provoking comedy drama explores the ways friendships grow, confidences are shared and lives are changed, often unexpectedly. As the title suggests, it is set in an art group run by artist Julien Valentine who has left London and moved to a small Dorset village. His students Veronica, Christina, Frankie and Mabel—are ostensibly there to draw and paint, but over time they find their lives expanding as their artistic talent grows.
Vince says: “I joined a local art group and was fascinated watching all the interactions and different characters, so I contacted James and said ‘I have an idea for a play’. People don’t just paint, they chat and tell their stories. All life is there and it’s ready-made for a story.”
Life Class is not the first collaboration for James and Vince—their plays Tipping Point and This Christmas have already been staged at Dorchester Arts, and this production is a fund-raiser for the venue.
All the cast are well-known local performers; the role of tutor Julien is played by Rod Lewis, and his four students are Lynn Cockerill, Laura Jane Parsons, Barbara Proctor and Dee Thorne.
James says: “They are a strong cast and strongly experienced, so it’s been a joy to bring the play to life. The play isn’t all comedy, there are poignant moments and serious events in all their lives, and there isn’t a neat ending with everything tied up.”
“Some things are left unresolved,” says Vince. “I like that because it gives our audiences something to think about as they head home. I hope they leave wondering what the characters did next, and where their lives took them.”
Life Class is at the Corn Exchange on Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May, at 7.30pm with a 2.30 Sunday matinee. Tickets from dorchesterarts.org.uk or 01305 266926.
Two Dorset composers
Bridport
CELEBRATING their 60th year, West Dorset Singers have a concert with the Broadoak Choir at Bridport United Church on Saturday 16th May. This event will bring together the two choirs, two Dorset composers and two cantatas.
West Dorset Singers’ musical director, Matt Kingston is an internationally established composer who works under the name Matthew Coleridge. His cantata, The Breath of Life, is an uplifting celebration of the world around us. The music moves from ethereal stillness, through rhythm, drama and warmth as it takes the audience through thoughtfully selected text ranging from the sacred to the scientific.
Chris Reynolds, a composer who sings with both choirs, composed Aldhelm’s Bridge as a tribute to St Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne. Legend has it that he would sit on the bridge (thought to be in Sherborne) singing songs of the Gospel to passersby in their own language to reach out beyond the less accessible Latin sung in the Abbey.
The concert is at 7pm. Tickets are available from Bridport Music Centre and online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/wds
Legends of Scottish music
Dorchester
FOR nearly 50 years, the Tannahill Weavers have been bringing the traditional music of their native Scotland to audiences all over the world. On the eve of releasing their 20th album, the Tannies come to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 16th May.
When they appeared at Glasgow’s famous Celtic Connections festival, they were described as: “Formed from a Paisley pub session in 1968, seminal trailblazers the Tannahill Weavers now also rank as national treasures.”
One of Scotland ‘s premier traditional bands, they have a diverse repertoire that spans the centuries with fire-driven instrumentals and songs, and original ballads and lullabies. They have that unique combination of traditional melodies, driving rhythmic accompaniment and rich vocals that make their performances unforgettable.
Over the years they have been international trailblazers for Scottish music and their tight harmonies and powerful, inventive arrangements have won them fans from beyond the folk and Celtic music scenes. Members of the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame, in recent years the Tannahill Weavers have been joined by piper Iain MacGillivray, who has featured in many productions including Outlander and Men in Kilts, and fiddle player Alistair McCulloch, who teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland when not on tour.
From reflective ballads to foot-stomping reels and jigs, the variety and range of the material they perform is matched only by their enthusiasm and lively Celtic spirits.
Piano trio on tour
Concerts in the West
THE May series of Concerts in the West brings the Greenwich Trio to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 15th May at 11.30am, Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday at 7.30.
Formed in London in 2006, and marking their 20th anniversary this year, the Greenwich Trio brings together Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovšek, Canadian cellist Heather Tuach and Japanese pianist Yoko Misumi.
They made their mark quickly—described by one reviewer as the “New Beaux Arts Trio”—and come to Concerts in the West with an exciting programme that includes some less familiar works.
They open with Beethoven’s Piano Trio op 1, no 1, followed by Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Trio, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Piano Trio, op 11, and Elegy Half Erased by Robert Humber, a composer from Newfoundland, a singer-songwriter, producer and sound explorer, who releases alt folk and rock music under the name R Sheaves and experimental and contemporary classical-ambient music under his own name.
Music meets art
Purbeck Art Weeks
MUSIC meets art and literature in a unique concert at Lady St Mary Church at Wareham on 24th May, as part of this year’s Purbeck Art Weeks.
The early music collective Parnassus Ensemble will be joined by artist Jeremie Queyras for a programme of cantatas by Pachelbel, Kuhnau and Bach, with the painter responding to the music on large canvases behind the musicians. The concert also features readings from contemporary texts to reflect on the themes of the music.
The programme is called 3 in 1, and features cantata settings by the three composers of Martin Luther’s hymn Christ lag in Todesbanden—Christ lay in death’s bonds—which celebrates the resurrection and victory over sin.
The concert begins at 6pm. It starts with the 11th century plainchant Victimae paschali laudes, which was “reimagined by Bach, Kuhnau and Pachelbel in service of their communities,” says Oscar Holch, the British-German viola player and conductor who co-founded the ensemble in 2022, with Xeniga Gogu and Victor García García.
The project brings together 13 singers and instrumentalists who perform throughout the UK and Europe as soloists and principals with leading historical ensembles.
There is a pre-concert talk by Bach scholar, violinist and BBC Radio 3 contributor Dr Mark Seow, who will also chair a post-concert Q&A session with Oscar Holch and Jeremie Queyras.
Diverse roots
Broadwindsor
SINGER Diyet has a fascinating background with First Nation, Japanese and Scottish roots, which influence the music she sings with her band Love Soldiers, who come to the Comrades Hall at Broadwindsor on Saturday 16th May at 8pm.
The music of Diyet and The Love Soldiers is alt country, folk, roots and traditional, with catchy melodies and stories deeply rooted in Diyet’s indigenous world view and northern life.
Connected by land, transformed by language, Diyet’s songs are natural, genuine and a reminder to listen to the world around us. Born in a tent, raised in a cabin on the shores of a glacial lake in the Kluane region of Canada’s Yukon Territory, she embodies her Southern Tutchone, Japanese, Tlingit and Scottish roots with a musical presence that is diverse and unique.
The music expands across the width of Canadian music with a focus on lyrical stories that take the listener on a journey through land and time. Inspired by vast landscapes, clashing and embracing realities, Diyet’s lyrics paint a picture of wildness, truth, hope, reconciliation, history and the community that surrounds her.
She sings in both English and her traditional language, Southern Tutchone, and plays bass, backed by Love Soldiers—husband and collaborator Robert van Lieshout (acoustic guitar, drums and percussion) and Bob Hamilton (electric guitar, pedal steel and mandolin)—This trio has a sound that can fill a big stage or capture an intimate room..
The concert is one of two dates with Artsreach—the first is at Cranborne’s Cecil Memorial Hall on 15th May, at 7.30.
The great fossil-hunter
Dorchester
FOSSIL Mary, a new one-woman play, written and performed by Elizabeth Blake, comes to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Thursday 14th May at 7.30pm.
Looking back at the years when famous men came to buy her fossils and enrich themselves with her unique expertise, Mary Anning said: “These learned men have sucked my brains.” Ignored in her time, celebrated in ours, this new play gives Mary the spotlight she deserves
Fossil Mary is the story of Mary Anning, pioneering palaeontologist and the world’s greatest fossil hunter. Born in Lyme Regis in 1799 and known as “the lightning girl” after surviving a lightning strike as a baby, Mary found her first dinosaur fossil at the age of 12.
Her incredible discoveries revolutionised the way people thought about the evolution of life on earth but because she was a poor, working class woman she was spurned and patronised by the men of science who took the credit for her extraordinary work.
In 2010, the Royal Society recognised her as one of the ten most influential female scientists and her finds, now attributed to her, can be seen in museums around the world. She has even made it to Mars—NASA named one of its drilling sites after her as, like Mary, it revealed details of an ancient environment.
Fossil Mary is also at Swanage’s Mowlem Theatre on Friday 15th May.
Conversation with a leading actress
Lyme Regis
DAME Harriet Walter, one of this country’s most distinguished and critically acclaimed actresses, is coming to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, for a fund-raising evening on Sunday 14th June.
A star of stage and screen for 40 years, Dame Harriet has a long and illustrious relationship with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Later this year she will reprise her role as Julius Caesar, heading an all-female cast in Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy at the RSC and on a schools tour.
She won awards and played to sell-out audiences at the Donmar and on Broadway as Queen Elizabeth I opposite Janet McTeer as Mary, Queen of Scots, in Schiller’s Mary Stuart.
Her many television appearances have included roles in The Crown, Downton Abbey and Killing Eve; films have included Sense and Sensibility, Denial, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Last Duel. She showed her comedy side as Professor Compton Chamberlayne in the folk song and dance-inspired mockumentary Morris: A Life with Bells On.
For this special fundraiser, she will be in conversation with Paddy Magrane. The money from this event will be used to help with the Marine’s community and artistic programme, including the Marine Youth Theatre, technician training and the rep theatre.
A shared secret
Dorchester
DORSETBORN, the local theatre company which previously brought the impressive new play Fort to local venues, is back with a new solo show, Lessons From Teacher x, coming to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange, 21st May at 7.30pm, and on 23rd May to Taunton Brewhouse.
Cam is a hopeless romantic, a secondary school teacher falling for a handsome stranger. Crystal is an online model, punishing men for money.
One has pupils, the other only fans. But they share a shameful secret…
Barbara Smith, who has been a regular member of the EastEnders cast, brings 15 characters to life in a gripping new play from Erin De Frias and Dorsetborn.
Lessons from Teacher x is a romcom-thriller about love, suspicion, and the warring roles we play in adult life. Who do you trust to see the real you?
GPW
