Reviews

Maskers Theatre Company  Maskers Studio, Shirley, Southampton Darren Funnell 9 December 2024 Winter Sparkles – Maskers Theatre Company As the frosty air bites and twinkling lights brighten darkened streets, local theatre groups are warming hearts with charming anthology shows that celebrate the season. Blending vignettes, poems, witty jokes, and carefully chosen excerpts, these performances evoke the joy and whimsy of the holidays. Accompanied by the comforting aroma of mulled wine and the sweetness of mince pies, these intimate productions create a festive atmosphere where laughter and nostalgia are delivered in the style of a rehearsed reading. It’s theatre at its most

SUSU Theatre Group  The Annex, University of Southampton, Southampton Darren Funnell 30 November 2024 Launching a new group of actors into the SUSU Theatre Group with Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro at the Annex Theatre feels like a modern-day initiation – more fittingly, a “marriage initiation game”. Talk about challenging. Love the ambition. Make no mistake, the play is long and layered, with an edgy point for its time. That point is rooted in Figaro and Susanna’s defiance against the Count’s feudal abuse of power, particularly his attempt to assert the “right of the first night” with Susanna, Figaro’s bride-to-be.

Redlynch Players  Redlynch Village Hall, Lover, Salisbury Philip & Julie McStraw 30 November 2024   The latest production by the Redlynch Players in the charming Redlynch Village Hall is Visitors – the first full length play written in 2014 by Barney Norris, the well-known author and playwright who has strong personal connections to Salisbury and the surrounding area. The play received widespread acclaim from theatre critics, when it premiered in London, and won Norris a Most Promising Playwright award. It is a celebration of the lives of an elderly couple, Edie and Arthur, as they struggle in their twilight years to

Poole & Parkstone Productions [P&P Productions]  Barrington Centre, Ferndown Renée Claude  29 November 2024 Poole and Parkstone Productions have outdone themselves with That’s Snowbusiness, currently showing at the Barrington Arts Centre in Ferndown. The festive atmosphere hit me as soon as I walked through the doors, with a live band playing Christmas jazz and a raffle for a huge chocolate hamper setting the tone for a night of holiday cheer. The show began with the company’s performance of ‘That Christmas Morning Feeling’, which set a high bar for the evening. The harmony, costuming, energy, and dazzling choreography were impeccable, making for

Cheriton Players  Cheriton Village Hall, Cheriton Anne Waggott 27 November 2024 What an enjoyable and genuinely laugh-out-loud evening of comedy from Cheriton Players! Not only that – we were treated to the world premiere of a brand new play, written by a brand new playwright… who is no stranger to the Cheriton Village Hall stage. In Grave Concerns, Mark and his family are on holiday in a hired villa, overlooking the shores of Lake Como, Italy, celebrating his father’s 80th birthday. However, when Mark trips and bangs his head, he meets an ethereal Spirit who has been charged with escorting

Double Act drama group  Corfe Castle Village Hall, Corfe Castle Anne Waggott 23 November 2024   Wartime preshow radio-style music, along with appropriate period posters dotted around the village hall walls and a ‘NAAFI Café’ sign over the serving hatch, all combined to perfectly set the tone for this original WW2 production, set in a Wareham pub during 1942. Written and directed by Peter Smith, this was a collaborative collection of fictional characters depicting real life factual local events, with a dash of dramatic licence thrown in for good measure. There was so much content in this narrative story –