The best of stage and screen in and around the Marshwood Vale
The good, the bad …
Bridport
ENGLISH is the language of Shakespeare, Austen, Keats and Dickens—but it is also peculiar, illogical and sometimes downright baffling, as comedian and wordsmith Melanie Branton demonstrates in her new show, The Full English, coming to Bridport Arts Centre, on Thursday 24th September at 7.30pm.
Have you ever wondered where the word ‘hoo-ha’ comes from? Why there ain’t no party like a double negative party? Why ‘bead’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘bread’, ‘machine’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘nine,’ and don’t get her started on ‘yearly’ and ‘early’?
From gangs of gung-ho Anglo-Saxons and smelly Vikings to Covidiots and Instagram influencers, from enormous vowel movements to katsu curries self-isolating in the Twitterverse, this solo show by spoken word artist and linguistics nerd Melanie Branton explores the history of our lovely language through the media of performance poetry, silly hats and dad jokes.
You’ll be invited to heckle Vikings and play Simon Says with a bossy bishop, but the show doesn’t shy away from the more unsavoury chapters of the past, in a celebration of the good, the bad and the downright bizarre in the history of our glorious, multicultural tongue.
“It’s a bish-bosh, wish-wash, car crash mishmash!”
Music by the sea
Lyme Regis
THE Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis starts the autumn with an exceptionally busy month of music, beginning with This is the Kit, aka Kate Stables, on Friday 4th September. The folk-rock singer-songwriter will be supported by her band, Rozi Plain, bass, Jamie Whitby-Coles, drums and Neil Smith, guitar.
The following evening, Saturday 5th, the mood turns Latin, as the Sambroso All Stars perform the Buena Vista Social Club, celebrating the sounds of Cuba’s golden age.
On Friday 11th, the Marine hosts Mark Chadwick, in a special solo gig by the frontman and chief songwriter of the Levellers.
The regular Jazz by the Sea series brings Opa Rosa to Lyme, on Sunday 13th. Deeply rooted in Balkan traditions, this energetic band has a line-up of violin, clarinet, accordion, double bass and percussion.
The following week has three typically eclectic gigs, Yann Tiersen, playing a solo piano and electronica set on Thursday 17th, featuring work from his new album, Rathlin from a Distance, followed by a live DJ set on Friday 18th by Daddy G. And on Sunday 20th, the clocks go back 50 years (metaphorically) with Martin Turner, a founding member of Wishbone Ash, returning with his band to play classic Wishbone Ash music.
The month ends with two more legends of the music scene. On Thursday 24th, there is a gig by John Bramwell, singer with I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014; and Friday 25th brings Andy Featherweather-Low and the Low Riders.
I am Kloot had a Mercury Prize nomination for 2010’s The Sky At Night, and Top 10 chart position for 2013’s Let It All In. Now touring as a solo artist, Bramwell will perform heart-warming songs for his fans.
Andy Fairweather-Low was the lead singer of Amen Corner, who had many 1960s hits. He went on to work with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and many more.
Nice to see you
Bridport
THE hugely popular and best-selling children’s author and poet Michael Rosen comes to the Electric Palace at Bridport on Saturday 5th September, with two performances of his show, Nice! at 11.30am and 2.30pm.
The event is part of Michael’s 80th birthday celebrations this year. He says: “I’ll be looking back at a lifetime in poetry, performing favourites such as Hot Food, No Breathing and Chocolate Cake, along with never-before-heard poems from my upcoming collection, 80 Years Young.”
And appropriately, Nice! is a show for all ages from very young to young at heart.
He has published more than 140 books, and has 800,000 subscribers and 150 million views on his YouTube Channel, Kids Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen.
September chanson
Concerts in the West
THE charity that brings stars of the chamber music scene to the West Country opens the autumn season with three concerts by violin-piano duo Sophie Rosa and Ian Buckle, starting with the regular coffee time recital at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 18th September at 11.30am, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and the Dance House at Crewkerne on Saturday at 7.30pm.
The programme for this Concerts in the West series features Elgar’s Salut d’Amour and the Chansons de Matin and de Nuit. The other works are Mendelssohn’s violin sonata in F minor and Grieg’s violin sonata no 1 in F major.
Sophie Rosa is in demand as a soloist, director and chamber musician. She has performed at venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Bridgewater Hall and has appeared as soloist with several leading orchestras. She is the leader of Sinfonia Viva and appears regularly with the orchestra as soloist and director. She also guest leads orchestras throughout the UK and is a member of Pixels Ensemble. She plays on a Joseph Gagliano violin dated 1795 with a Claude Fonclause bow made available through the generous support of the Stradivari Trust.
Ian Buckle has a varied freelance career as solo pianist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and teacher and is artistic director of Pixels Ensemble, which he formed in 2016. He enjoys longstanding associations with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the John Wilson Orchestra, and has played concertos with the Royal Philharmonic, Opera North and Sinfonia Viva. Ian teaches at the University of Liverpool and is artistic director of Stapleford Granary Arts Centre in Cambridge
Wyrd and wonderful
Dorchester
RIDDLESTICK Theatre comes to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 19th September with a new musical comedy, Barleycorn, telling tales of folk intrigue, ‘wyrd’ happenings and inebriated villagers.
It’s been raining all summer. But that’s not going to stop the residents of Hopley Drew gathering in The Barleycorn Inn for their annual village show and one final knees-up before the pub closes its doors for good.
As the villagers show off their soggy crops, share songs and tales of local lore and wait with bated breath for the results of the raffle, a wild storm rages. Some say it’s just typical British weather, but others say it’s something much more sinister … Can this drenched and disenchanted community band together to overcome whatever lurks outside?
Barleycorn is inspired by English lore, folk horror and ‘wyrd’ 1970s telly, and features traditional and original music and dance.
Riddlestick Theatre is a troupe of actor-musicians who draw on folk theatre traditions to tell weird and wonderful stories through playful performance and enchanting live music.
Graceful delights
Dorchester
A PIANO trio that includes cellist Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, who is married to fellow cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, comes to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 24th September with a programme of music by Beethoven, Bach, Donizetti, Vivaldi, Ennio Morricone, John Williams and others.
The Three Graces are pianist Tamara Konstantin, violinist Barbara Gasior and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, all individually and as a trio renowned for their originality and artistry. The concert will also feature original compositions and arrangements by Tamara Konstantin.
All three musicians have achieved significant success in their own right as recording artists and live performers. A 2022 tour with Aled Jones on his hugely successful tour of British cathedrals and abbeys brought the name of The Three Graces to the wider audience they richly deserve.
Tamara Konstantin, an International Ambassador Of Georgian Classical Music & Culture, is a leading figure in Georgian classical music and culture and received a Medal Of Honour from Eduard Shevardnadze, president of Georgia. A classical pianist with a hugely impressive portfolio, Tamara has won an international audience with her mesmerising compositions and has released three critically acclaimed albums, Inflections, Reverie and Resilience.
Jiaxin Lloyd Webber graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music and received her Masters Degree at Auckland University in 2001. Now based in the UK, Jiaxin and Julian Lloyd Webber have performed together for BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, CNN Global TV and BBC television.
Barbara Gasior studied at the Academy of Music in Cracow and as a postgraduate in Warsaw. Her career as a violinist has spanned almost all musical genres, from classical to electric to folk, and has taken her all over the world including performances in the USA, Canada, Scandinavia, Japan, South America and Europe.
Friendship and connection
Yeovil
ONE of the most popular new musicals of recent years, Dear Evan Hansen will be performed by one of Yeovil’s talented amateur theatre and music groups, Beatnik Theatre Company, at Westlands, from Wednesday 16th to Saturday 19th September.
Dear Evan Hansen is a powerful contemporary story that explores the need for connection, honesty and the longing to be seen, following the experiences of Evan, an anxious high school student who struggles to find his place in the world.
Featuring an award-winning score and compelling storytelling, (book by Steven Levenson, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), the show has themes of friendship, mental health and the importance of reaching out. Deeply moving and ultimately hopeful, it reminds audiences that even in the most difficult moments, no one is ever truly alone.
Because of its themes of anxiety, mental health and discussions around suicide, Dear Evan Hansen is recommended for audiences aged 13 and above.
Medicine and misogyny
Dorchester
HISTORY … her story … hysteria—there is more to this sequence than mere word play as theatre company Fish in a Dress demonstrates in The City for Incurable Women, a fascinating solo show coming to the Bay Theatre at Weymouth on Tuesday 15th September and Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange, on Thursday 17th.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you feeling a little upset? Have you tried hypnosis, psychoanalysis, smelling salts … and it just doesn’t work? Try The City for Incurable Women!
Paris, 1880s … in a psychiatric hospital, female patients performed ‘hysteria’ for the public. The doctors went to extraordinary lengths to prove their theories about the four stages of madness. Today, in the 21st century, storyteller Kae begins to explore this history, tracing the echoes to the present, lingering in the body, but perhaps getting a little too caught in the story.
The international theatre collective, Fish in a Dress, follows the thread of the history of hysteria in this critically-acclaimed show, which was given four stars by The Guardian and The Stage, as the audience becomes complicit in an outrageous tale of medical misogyny.
The performer is Charlotte McBurney, daughter of Simon McBurney, founder and artistic director of the pioneering and acclaimed Complicite theatre company.
The City for Incurable Woman is also at Shaftesbury Arts Centre on Friday 18th September and the Mowlem theatre at Swanage on Sunday 20th.
Luke looks at his life
Bridport
PERFORMANCE poet Luke Wright was adopted—a fact he only discovered by accident. In his new show, Later Life Letter, coming to Bridport Arts Centre on Thursday 10th September at 8pm, he tells the story.
What is it like to stumble across your birth mother on Facebook? How do you honour the parents who have raised you while satisfying a curiosity about where you came from? Is it telling that you married a social worker?
As he examines the life he leads, and the one he might have done, Wright navigates his audience through a warm and honest hour of poems and stand-up with the wit, pathos and silliness that have made him one of the country’s most popular poets.
This is a frank account of what it means to be someone’s child told by a performer who really knows what he’s doing. Expect raucous laughter, tear-stained cheeks, and a little smattering of drum n bass.
Exploring identity in dance
Bridport
YORKSHIRE-based artist Akeim Toussaint Buck comes to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 25th September with his powerful solo show, Windows of Displacement.
Drawing on Akeim’s own history, this dance piece reflects on universal ideas of migration, home, border and identity, integrating a richly expressive physicality with spoken word, tender folksong and visual image created in collaboration with cross-disciplinary artist Akeelah Betram.
Toussaint is an award-winning interdisciplinary performer and maker, born in Jamaica and raised in England. He began making his own work after graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, launching his own company, Toussaint To Move, in 2016 as a vehicle to create moving, thought-provoking, accessible and free-spirited projects.
The aesthetic of Toussaint’s work combines dance and other art forms including creative writing, film, poetry, beat-box, singing and acting. His movement is informed by many different forms of physical expression, including kick-boxing, yoga, capoeira, Caribbean dance, hip hop and contemporary dance.
An afternoon of harp and poetry
Dorchester
ACCLAIMED poet and performer Chris Tutton is joined by harpist Tara Minton for a fascinating entertainment, Imaginary Landscapes: Poetry and Harp, at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday 27th September at 2.30pm.
Tutton is an acclaimed author, performer and raconteur, who was described by the late Ned Sherrin as “the master of the short poem”. The performance features his words with dazzling, semi-improvised harp by the Australian-born and internationally renowned harpist.
Together they have appeared on stages from the Hay Festival to the Royal Albert Hall, delighting audiences at sold-out shows across the UK.
Chris Tutton is the award-winning author of eight collections of poetry. His debut novel, The Failing of Angels, was published in 2020.
Tara Minton is a harpist, vocalist and composer. She has worked with Bjork, Eska, Stan Sulzmann, Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, Opera North, the Royal Ballet and the Australian World Orchestra, and appeared at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. She is professor of jazz harp at London Performing Academy of Music.
A modern take on soul
Honiton
A SINGER whose sound is described as a modern take on the rich traditions of soul, jazz and blues, Joanna Cooke comes to Honiton’s Beehive Centre on Saturday 5th September.
With a voice that transcends genres, Joanna is increasingly acclaimed for her soulful, emotionally charged vocals, with airplay on BBC Radio 1 and millions of streams . She was described by Martha Reeves as a “baby girl singing the blues,” with echoes of Aretha Franklin’s early 1970s classics.
Channelling the essence of artists like Eva Cassidy and Joss Stone, she crosses musical boundaries. This year she is creating new material for her own releases.
Surviving the 21st century
Lyme Regis
HOW do we defend ourselves against the countless challenges that the 2020s are throwing at us? That’s the question asked (and answered, perhaps) by comedian and novelist Rob Newman in his solo gig at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Saturday 26th September.
Hot on the heels of his new novel, Intelligence, the “funniest comedian I have ever seen” (The Sunday Times) offers a 21st Century Survival Guide.
How can we protect ourselves from oil shocks, chatbots and billionaire tech bros inciting civil war? Or stop AI stealing half our water, and stop water companies poisoning the rest? From retrofitting our towns and cities for the climate of the future to proposing a national maximum wage, Rob Newman explores what clues history offers us for when the rich and powerful go ape.
The Scotsman said: “If this world could be saved by a superhero whose superpower was comedy, that hero would be Robert Newman.”
GPW
