Two remarkable women
Ilminster and South Petherton
A NEW play at the David Hall, South Petherton, on Thursday 15th October, and a talk with music at Ilminster Arts Centre, on Friday 27th November, will shed light on two remarkable West Country women who deserve to be much better known.
Rosalie, presented by Pleasure Dome Theatre at the David Hall, is inspired by one of Exmoor’s most remarkable women, Rosalie Chichester of Arlington Court (1865-1949). She was a scientist, photographer, explorer, collector and unapologetic eccentric—the play explores female identity and familial responsibility in Victorian England. She bequeathed all of her property to the National Trust—Morte Point, Devon in 1911 and Arlington Court on her death.
She had a fairly standard upper class youth, educated at home by a governess and trained in etiquette and genealogy. She was presented as a debutante in 1885. She never married, but gave time and support to local charities and events and held positions in a number of local clubs. Her father died when she was 16, leaving the family in serious debt, but she kept the estate debt-free though it took from 1881 until 1928 to do so.
A keen photographer, who won awards for her photography, she was also an artist—some of her paintings are on show in her home. She was a lover of wildlife, and the estate was a sanctuary against hunting and shooting. In the First World War she served on the Devon War Agricultural Appeal Tribunal and supported the Women’s Land Army. She joined the suffrage movement in 1913 but was opposed to violent actions.
Rosalie is written and performed by Helena Payne, artistic director of the Somerset-based theatre company.
Wadham is a familiar name in education circles, locally with Wadham School at Crewkerne, and nationally with Wadham College, Oxford, the first college at Oxford or Cambridge to be founded by a woman who was not a member of the royal family.
The life of Dorothy Petre Wadham, 1534/1535 to 1618, will be explored in a talk, Ilminster’s Great Foundress at Ilminster Arts Centre on Friday 27th November, by Dr Matthew Spring exploring her early life, musical connections and legacy. The evening will also feature a concert by Sirinu performing Elizabethan and Stuart domestic music from Dorothy’s childhood home, historic Ingatestone in Essex.
Dorothy was the second and eldest surviving child of the very wealthy Sir William Petre, who acquired substantial property after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was Secretary of State to four successive Tudor monarchs—Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I. He also received grants of land from Queen Mary, including property formerly held by Lady Jane Grey and forfeited to the crown.
Married to Nicholas Wadham in 1555, Dorothy was a recusant (a Catholic when it was illegal to practise the religion), but was granted a formal pardon in 1615 under a 1593 Act of Parliament. The couple lived at Nicholas’s ancestral “noble moated seat” of Merryfield, in the parish of Ilton, near Ilminster. They did not have any children.
Dorothy was the sole executor of Nicholas’s will, which provided a bequest “for such uses and purposes” as he had “requested her and she hath assented to”. His wishes included the founding of a college in Oxford University, and this Dorothy accomplished, noting that “it would greatly offend my conscience to violate any jot of my husband’s will”. She added substantial funds from her own great inheritance to the funds left by her late husband in order to finance the building and establishment of the college.
Dorothy died on 16th May 1618, at the Wadham dower house, Edge, in the parish of Branscombe, Devon. Her body was taken to Merrifield and was buried alongside that of her husband in the Wadham Chapel inside the Church of St Mary, Ilminster. The brass on their imposing monument is said to be “the finest post-Reformation brass in England.”
Tales of courage
Dorchester
A VERY special double bill of films presented by Dorchester Arts on Tuesday 6th October at 6pm, at the Corn Exchange, will be focusing on the neurological condition, Parkinson’s disease, and raising funds for a local Parkinson’s project.
The World’s Toughest Drive follows former Army colonel Guy Deacon on a solo journey across 25 countries from the UK to South Africa. Armed with determination, 3,650 pills and a VW van, his remarkable adventure is a powerful testament to courage and refusing to let Parkinson’s define him.
Kinetics, adapted from Sue Wylie’s acclaimed stage play and inspired by her own experience of early-onset Parkinson’s, tells the moving story of Rose and Lukas, whose unlikely friendship transforms both their lives. Honest, funny and deeply affecting, it celebrates the strength found in human connection.
Sue Wylie, formerly a drama teacher in Dorchester, directed Kinetics, based on her personal story of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 50, exploring the daily impact and acceptance of living with the condition. It traces her unlikely friendship with a rebellious and lonely teenage parkour runner. The film had its premiere in Dorchester in 2018.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition. People with Parkinson’s don’t have enough of the chemical dopamine in their brain because some of the nerve cells that make it have stopped working. Around 166,000 people live with Parkinson’s in the UK. The condition is on the rise. In the UK, someone is diagnosed every 20 minutes. By 2050, it is estimated that the number of people with Parkinson’s worldwide will double to 25 million.
Well-known people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease include the late and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali and MASH star Alan Alda. Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt and Carly Simons have all talked of their diagnosis, and famous British figures with the disease include Sir Billy Connolly, actors Sir Ian Holm and Pauline Collins, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and broadcasters Jeremy Paxman and Rory Cellan-Jones.
All proceeds from the Dorchester evening will support Dorchester Arts’ Parkinson’s Dance classes in Dorchester and Sherborne.
From slavery to abolition
Bridport and Exeter
FREDERICK Douglass is one of the great names of the campaign on both sides of the Atlantic to abolish slavery. His story is told in a powerful new play, The Ocean Can Be A Bridge, by Dave Samuels and Richard Bradbury, coming to Bridport Arts Centre on 6th October, after opening at the Cygnet Theatre in Exeter on 1st October.
The global campaign to end slavery mobilised tens of thousands who were appalled by the brutality of a system in which human beings were regarded as property, to be used, sold and bought like rolls of cotton and sacks of sugar. By 1845 the last remaining major site of chattel slavery in the northern hemisphere were the southern states of the USA.
The outrage against this was fuelled by a series of slave narratives—including the autobiographies of escaped slaves. In 1845 Frederick Douglass published his scathing description of his experiences and in an unprecedented and brave move named names and identified places.
This act placed him at danger, not only from bounty hunters hired to hunt down runaways but also from the many—with something to lose (wealth, power, etc)—who called him a liar and fraud. To avoid all of this, he crossed the Atlantic to Britain and for 18 months he toured the length and breadth of the country, speaking to crowds numbering thousands and mobilising public sentiment against slavery again.
The abolitionists in Britain had a wide network of friends and supporters, who sustained his visit. But they were divided in their views on the way to end slavery—by radical measures or by more moderate approaches. Douglass plunged into these debates, trying to unite the divisions while remaining true to his convictions.
Piano landscapes
Tincleton
MILANESE pianist Alberto Dalgo comes to the Old Schoolhouse at Tincleton, on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th October, to give a concert programme he calls Northern Landscapes.
The musical journey begins in the woods. Schumann’s intimate Waldszenen takes us into a forest that defies explanation: a few steps, a glimmer of light between the trees, a barely perceptible movement. The Waldszenen are fragments of a place that reveals itself in hints, like a memory that refuses to be grasped.
Then comes the water. Liszt, through his transcriptions of Schubert’s Lieder, draws three aspects: the wide sea, a stream that speaks softly, a calm surface that reflects the light. Three simple images, three breaths. The landscape changes again for the third piece, Grieg’s Ballade Op. 24, taking the audience to a more rugged, bare land. This is an ancient theme that returns, transforms, rises again.
Finally, there is an opening as Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise bursts in—direct, luminous, affirmative. And so the journey ends: forest, water, rock, light. The north, reduced to its essence.
Alberto Dalgo studied at the Imola International Piano Academy as a pupil of Leonid Margarius. He graduated with top grades and honour mention in piano performance from the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali in Pavia, where he also earned a Master’s Degree with honours. Success in many piano competitions included first prize and Grand Prix CMF at the Concours Musical de France, first prize at the Imka International Piano Competition in 2017, at the Bellagio (Como Lake) International Music Competition 2015, and at the JS Bach Competition in Sestri Levante.
He has performed as a soloist, in trios and with orchestras in concerts and at festivals throughout Italy and other European countries. He founded the Hopper Piano Trio, with whom he has recorded pieces by Smetana, Shostakovich and Castelnuovo-Tedesco for the Da Vinci Classics label.
Absolutely with feeling
Bridport
BRIDPORT’s Electric Palace provides a charismatic backdrop for two shows that bring outspoken and hugely entertaining women to the stage—Ruby Wax with her new show Absolutely Famous on Friday 16th October, and comedians Flo and Jo and their With Feeling on Saturday 17th.
It’s almost easier to say whom Ruby Wax DIDN’T meet, interview and coax fascinating insights from in her TV shows Ruby Wax Meets and Full Wax—the very long list includes Donald Trump, OJ Simpson, Pamela Anderson, Madonna and many more.
Her provocative, abrasive style was—just about—kept in check by lifelong friend and A-list producer, Clive Tulloh. Now together again, live on stage, they review clips from the shows, tell scandalous stories never before heard—and take the audience along for the ride.
Flo and Joan combine music with comedy and they are back with a new show, With Feeling, trying to take up as much of the stage and as little of your patience as possible as they use a “real band’s” set-list to write their own show – ruminating on themes such as “What is music?” And “How do you be a band?” in their trademark sharp-tongued, deadpan way.
By the pricking of my thumbs
Honiton
THE late great Terry Pratchett not only had a genius imagination—he was also a genius plunderer of other geniuses. In the case of Wyrd Sisters, the autumn production choice for Honiton Community Theatre, he drew on three of the greatest Shakespearean tragedies—Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear.
On stage at Honiton’s Beehive Centre, from 29th to 31st October at 7pm, with a 2pm Saturday matinee, Wyrd Sisters has a story that does seem familiar—there’s a murderous Duke, the ghost of a King, soldiers, peasants … and three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, on a lonely heath.
A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin, a child heir and the crown both missing—witches don’t have these kinds of leadership problems themselves, in fact, they don’t have leaders but in Pratchett’s darkly comic world they take centre stage and try to change the story, with help from a fool, some strolling players and a touch of magic.
Granny Weatherwax is the most highly regarded of the leaders they don’t have. But even she finds that meddling in royal politics is a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe. Particularly when the blood on your hands just won’t wash off.
A woman against fascism
Poole and Dorchester
SARA Wesker may not be a name you are familiar with—but a critically praised play by Blue Fire Theatre, Chopped Liver and Unions, coming to Poole Lighthouse on Thursday 8th October and Dorchester Corn Exchange, on Thursday 29th, tells her story and why you should know more about her.
History, we are told, is written by the victors. More often, it is rewritten by the forgetful (and generally male). Chopped Liver and Unions resurrects a voice that has been almost lost—Sara Wesker, who led the singing strikers of 1928, stood against fascists at Cable Street and devoted herself to the Trade Union cause.
Yet, behind every banner and battle cry lies a personal cost. Love, loyalty, and legacy—what endures, and what is sacrificed?
Sara was an inspirational speaker, a political activist and trade unionist who never stopped fighting to improve the lot of her fellow workers. She inspired her nephew Arnold’s play Chicken Soup With Barley—but nobody knows her name.
Set against the global tremors of 1956, the year Arnold Wesker’s powerful political play had its premiere, Chopped Liver and Unions reminds us that the world is often changed by the women who are pushed too far.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street and the centenary of the General Strike—it is a good time to meet Sara, to remember her and what she achieved … and to ask was it worth it?
A magical place
Bridport
DEEP in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, lives the Story Collector … M6 Theatre brings All The Small Things, an enchanting new spin on fairytales to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 10th October at 2.30.pm
The Story Collector has drawers, cabinets and cupboards brimming with baddies and goodies, hopes and wishes, once upon a times and far, far aways. It’s a magical place of possibilities.
On the turn of the snow globe, the enchantment begins. A stranger, lost in a blizzard, finds their way to the Story Collector’s door. This often happens.
Too busy to have fun, the stranger’s even forgotten that today is their birthday. And stories? What a waste of time!
For one miraculous moment, new beginnings, better endings and all the adventures in between help the lost traveller discover which direction to take and appreciate All the Small Things along the way.
M6’s beautiful design and heartwarming storytelling combine with singing, puppetry, and physical comedy to create a delightful entertainment for children from four years and up, and their families.
Tales from Abrahamic traditions
Buckland Newton and Burton Bradstock
THE perception has long been that the three great Abrahamic faiths—Christianity, Judaism and Islam—are constantly at loggerheads, but the traditions run very deep and the shared stories underpin much of our culture. Storyteller Hugh Lupton and cellist Sarah Moody explore this powerful legacy in a gripping show, When The Morning Stars Sang, coming to Buckland Newton and Burton Bradstock on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October respectively.
Lupton and Moody interweave tales that draw from Christian, Jewish and Islamic sources—Adam and Eve, Solomon and Sheba, Tobias and the Angel, Job and his Comforters … these are stories that underpin so much of Western and Middle Eastern literature, art and wisdom, told here with vigour and humour, rich language and deep magic.
Inspired by the music of all three Abrahamic traditions, the show reminds us that at the core of these cultures, despite the misunderstandings, prejudice, persecution and wars of much of the last millennium, there is a shared mythology. This is a chance to hear these ancient tales with fresh ears…
Hugh Lupton is an award-winning storyteller, author, poet and lyricist whose work spans myths, folktales, epic narratives and contemporary stories. A leading figure in the UK storytelling revival, he has performed at venues including the National Theatre, the Barbican and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Sarah Moody is a cellist, composer and multi-instrumentalist known for creating atmospheric music for storytelling, theatre and film. Formerly with The Devil’s Violin storytelling company, she collaborates widely with storytellers and theatre-makers, blending folk, classical and world music influences.
When the Morning Stars Sang is brought to Dorset by Artsreach, with two performances, on Saturday 17th October at Buckland Newton village hall at 7.30pm and on Sunday 18th at Burton Bradstock hall at 7pm.
A nice cup of tea
Bridport
PROFESSOR David Olusoga brings his wit and academic rigour to that most British of traditions, a cup of tea, in his new book, which he will be talking about in The Global History of the British Cup of Tea at Bridport Electric Palace on Saturday 10th October at 7.30pm.
The BAFTA-award-winning producer, author, historian and presenter uses art and photography, history and humour to uncover the strange and unexpected history of our national drink.
There is nothing more British than a cup of tea. Tea is a national obsession. Yet the history of tea is the ultimate global story. It links more than 350 years of British history to the histories of China, India, the Caribbean and the United States. It encompasses the Boston Tea Party, the Opium Wars and the history of the British East India Company. It is a story that involves industrial espionage and a vast forgotten migration within India, and the creation in Britain of a whole new world of domestic traditions and even consumer household goods.
David Olusoga has become a household name over the years, more recently interviewing president Barack Obama while also reaching the finals of the BBC hit series, Celebrity Traitors. His other television programmes include Union and he has been back on BBC 2 with the Empire series, and most recently a new series of A House Through Time.
David is the author or co-author of eight books including the award-winning Black & British: A Forgotten History, The World’s War, and The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide.
He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, a columnist for The Observer, and also writes for The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Voice and BBC History Magazine.
A recipient of both the British Academy’s President’s Medal and the Norton Medlicott Medal For Services to History, David is a Fellow of the British Academy, The Royal Society of Literature, The Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Historical Society.
A Q&A plus book signing will follow the presentation, offering a chance to meet one of the UK’s foremost public historians.
An everyday story of village fetes
Broadmayne and Sydling St Nicholas
GEORGE—he of the Dragon—may be the archetype of heroic Englishness but perhaps drag offers a colourful alternative. Pipeline Theatre comes to Dorset with Artsreach, from 9th to 11th October, with George and the Drag Queen, described as “a bittersweet, bonkers cake mix of the epic and the geo-political, beaten together with the everyday and the plain silly, and all set within a typical village fête.”
We all know what to expect at the village fête—bunting, cakes, outsize veg, and wasps. But, as regular listeners to The Archers will know, these days you need something extra to pack in the punters …
The scene is set with two bantering first-aid volunteers setting up their tent—George, a stand-in grandpa for Maddy, and Maddy, a stand-in granddaughter for George. And then there is the Lebanese drag queen, Eliana Sultana, who has been booked to do the raffle, getting changed in the corner.
In a ‘twist of fête’, their stories entwine with explosive results. Why has a drag queen been booked for a village fête? What is Maddy’s connection with Eliana’s boyfriend? Where has George seen Eliana’s face before? And just how allergic is Eliana to wasps?
Best served with an open mind. Warning—may contain traces of empathy and kindness!
Pipeline Theatre will be at Sydling St Nicholas village hall on Friday 9th October, Stalbridge hall on Saturday 10th and Broadmayne village hall on Sunday 11th, all starting at 7.30pm.
Widdershins and round again
Piddletrenthide
WIDDERSHINS, an old word that roughly translates as counter-clockwise, is the title of the latest one-man show from the infinitely versatile and talented David Mynne, ex-Kneehigh, and now one of Cornwall’s most popular theatrical exports. He brings this new story to Dorset for three dates with Artsreach, beginning on Friday 23rd October at Piddletrenthide Memorial Hall.
In a solo show that has been described as “a masterclass in solo performance, by turns funny, weird and ever so slightly creepy,” Mynne takes the audience to a long-forgotten village buried deep in a dark, wild corner of Cornwall. Here, Bob Droll (local raconteur, folklore enthusiast and village-hall caretaker) will take you on a tour of a place where mystery lurks about every corner.
You won’t believe the shocking tales of poor ‘“Pity Me” Jose, or of Cryer Bledstone, the sea captain afraid of death … and then there’s Sci-Fi Sally, desperate to leave this world for life beyond the stars. But beware—the deeper Bob leads you into his forest of far-fetched fables, the more lost you might get.
Widdershins—‘tis hard to find but even harder to leave…
Expect stories told with a sting, poetry cracked and darkly comic, unforgettable characters and physical theatre, alongside the usual irreverence, wit and silliness. It will be dark, delirious and delightful. Under Milk Wood-ish, sort of… only way, waayyy weirder!
Widdershins is an exciting original work, scripted specifically for David by renowned writer Carl Grose (also ex-Kneehigh) and directed by Olivier Award winner Simon Harvey.
- The word widdershins comes from the Middle Low German word weddersinnes, which means “against the way”. Moving widdershins was often viewed in European folklore and pre-Christian traditions as unlucky, magical, or unnatural because it went against the sun.
David Mynne also brings this irresistible show to Langton Matravers village hall on Saturday 24th October, and Shillingstone’s Portman Hall on Sunday 25th, both at 7.30pm.
Animal fun and facts
Cerne Abbas
ARTSREACH brings the Cornwall-based and much-loved Squashbox Theatre to Dorset for half-term, with Curious Creatures, coming to three venues, including St Mary’s Church, Cerne Abbas, on Tuesday 27th October at 10.30am.
Curious Creatures is set in a wildlife park, established by world-renowned explorer, zoologist and animal collector Jeremiah Johnson. Nobody knows more about animals than him. Unfortunately, Jeremiah is lost in the African jungle, so the park has been handed over to his nephew Craig … and things don’t quite go as planned!
Meet performing fleas, skateboarding snails, gymnastic gerbils, irritable alligators, over-excited elephants and a very intelligent orang-utan! Learn about how animals evolved, how their amazing adaptations help them survive in the wild and how animals can help us learn more about ourselves. Using puppets, comedy and live music plus lots of amazing facts, Squashbox uncovers the mysteries of the animal kingdom.
Performances are on Saturday 24th October at 2pm at Stalbridge hall, Sunday 25th at 3pm at Cranborne’s Cecil Memorial Hall, and Tuesday 27th at 10.30am at St Mary’s Church, Cerne Abbas.
After the show, there will be a puppet-making workshop where children can create their own articulated card puppets of amazing animals from around the world; suitable for ages four-plus, places are limited and children must be accompanied.
New life in old stories
Cerne Abbas and Broadwindsor
A TRIO of talented folk musicians, Jon Doran and The Northern Assembly, draw on their varied backgrounds to create an evening of traditional folk with a contemporary edge, on a short Artsreach tour, including Cerne Abbas village hall on Thursday 22nd October and Broadwindsor’s Comrades Hall on Saturday 24th, both at 7.30pm.
With striking vocals from Jon Doran (BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Finalist 2019), combined with the virtuosic playing of instrumentalists Heather Ferrier (accordion) and Jordan Aikin (whistles and pipes), the trio create dynamic songs that combine exhilarating contemporary arrangements with the much-loved traditional folk canon.
This ground-breaking collaboration seeks to capture the excitement that lies within traditional song and breathe new life into old stories from the British Isles by injecting the energy they feel these narratives deserve.
Consciously moving away from the conventional folk song performance style, the three musicians rely upon their dissimilar musical upbringings and experiences to conjure emotions and communicate a story that is deeper than the words of the song.
Jon Doran and Northern Assembly are also at Marnhull village hall on Friday 23rd October, at 7.30pm.
Ancient tales for modern times
Villages
PEOPLE have always loved stories—and there have always been story-tellers. From Odyssey and Beowulf to East Enders and Outlander, stories grip us … Now contemporary storyteller George Attwill comes to three Dorset villages, from 2nd to 4th October, with an evening of myth, mirth and magic.
In ancient times people would come together on nights very much like this, in a place not so different from this, a gathering place for the community, as the wind whistles around and we huddle by the fire. They would come together, perhaps even get a little rowdy and tell stories…
Mixing audience participation with carnivalesque revelry, George Attwill shares a selection of ancient tales … stories of gods and goddesses, witches and wizards, wise men and fools, great giants, precious treasures and forbidden knowledge.
Expect to laugh and gasp and even join in “voluntary” audience participation. Feel free to take part OR simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the show…
Lung and a Half Full Theatre brings Tales for an Unruly Audience to Milbourne St Andrew village hall on Friday 2nd October, Corfe Castle hall on Saturday 3rd and Child Okeford hall on Sunday 4th, all starting at 7.30pm.
GPW
