PREVIEW April

Afrobeat and electro-funk

Lyme Regis

ONIPA, an afro-futurist collective, bring their high-octane live show, featuring Afrobeat, high-life and electronic funk to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis, on Saturday 8th April at 8pm.

This supergroup features Tom Excell, the man behind Nubiyan Twist, and is fronted by singer and percussionist Kweku of Ghana (KOG). Born out of deep collaboration between these long-time friends, Onipa represents an electrifying coming of together of some of the most exciting players on the UK live scene.

The five-piece band features KOG on vocals, balafon and percussion, Tom on guitar, percussion and electronics, Dwayne Kilvington (Wonky Logic) on synths and MPC and Finn Booth (Nubiyan Twist) on drums.

Their debut album, We No Be Machine, was released in March 2020 via Strut Records. The record combines deep afro grooves, electronics and fierce energy. Its release was followed in September 2021 with Tapes Of Utopia, a mixtape full of dance-floor fire released on Boomerang Records.

Viking fun for all the family

Taunton And South Petherton

THE Vikings, generally portrayed as some of the most violent (if colourful) invaders of the Dark Ages, get a vivid reimagining from Jack Dean & Company, who bring Vinland to Taunton’s Brewhouse Arts Centre on 6th April, and the David Hall at South Petherton on 11th April.

Vinland is described as a family-friendly Viking saga adventure show that merges history and mythology with storytelling, animation, and live music, written by Jack Dean and directed by Ellie Taylor. Founded by Jack Dean in 2020, the company is a disabled-led non-profit organisation set up to help tell stories of how things could be. They collaborate with inspiring and exceptional artists to create new work across many artforms.

Combining animation, visual and audio media, storytelling and live music, the show tells the little-known history of Erik the Red. and the Vikings’ final voyage to North America, where mankind lived for a brief period in the early 11th century, nearly 500 years before other Europeans “discovered” the New World.

The show, which is suitable for ages eightplus, brings the audience into a world where myth and history collide with ghosts, monsters, and wild gooseberries. Young audiences will set sail with Freydis and her son Snorri, joining her crew of explorers as they find out they’re not alone in this strange new land, and follow Snorri as he confronts an ancient spirit set on revenge, while learning the truth about himself.

Jack Dean said, “What fascinated me about the sagas was the way they blend historical events with things we would call fantastical. Battles and cattle trading are reported alongside demonic possessions, ghostly apparitions and giant sea-beasts. For the Vikings, all of these things were equally real. It is this world of unreliable narrators and mythical histories that we try and evoke with the storytelling, animation and music of the show.”

The Taunton Brewhouse performances are 12.30 and 3.30pm, and 2.30pm at the David Hall at South Petherton.

Reclaiming the last taboo DORCHESTER

RIDICULUSMUS, the powerhouse duo of director-creator-writer-actors David Woods and Jon Haynes, have been pushing theatrical boundaries for decades. Now they tackle the final taboo—getting old. They bring their latest show, Beautiful People, to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday 26th April.

Since they first burst on to the British theatrical scene in 1992, Ridiculusmus has demonstrated that it is possible to put very serious subjects on stage and make people laugh. But can they do it with that most perilous of processes, moving towards the exit?

We live in an age when death and grieving are medicalised out of existence. We can’t live for ever, but there are many—from some in the medical profession to tech wizards—who keep trying to find ways.

Woods and Haynes reclaim humankind’s last taboo from imminent eradication in a painful, poignant and ludicrously laughable portrait of a timeless trio cursed to eternal life without eternal youth.

Amid fumbling, daily rounds of coffee, call centres and cat food, their rants, dribbles, pills and cough bombs litter an ambling blend of symbolist mysticism and synaesthesia that has the fear of an ageing world population in its sights and oozes with the positivity of elderhood and making a good death.

Baroque quintet on tour CONCERTS IN THE WEST

ENSEMBLE Moliere, the first ever Radio 3 New Generation baroque ensemble, will perform the April series of Concerts in the West, starting at Bridport Arts Centre with the usual coffee date on Friday 21st April at 11.30am, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm.

The quintet, Flavia Hirte, flute, Alice Earll, violin, Catriona McDermid, bassoon, Kate Conway, viola da gamba, and Satoko Doi-Luck, harpsichord, will be at Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday 22nd at 7.30pm, and on Sunday 23rd at the Church of St Roch at Pendomer near Yeovil at 3pm.

Founded in 2014, Ensemble Molière has established a reputation as an outstanding and adventurous early music group, performing throughout the UK and Europe. Their unique combination of historical instruments provides memorable and creative programmes from the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, at venues and festivals including the Bruges festival fringe in Brugge and the London Festival of Baroque Music. They recently premiered their first cross-art opera project Pygmalion, a work with words, music and puppetry. first performed at Stroud Green Festival.

The Concerts in the West programme, entitled Theatrical Tastes, features works by Campra, Couperin, Rameau, Charpentier and Lully, including music composed for plays by Moliere and other theatrical performances of the baroque period.

Sharing rural myths and music

LYME REGIS AND TOURING

TIDAL Tales Collective comes to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Friday 14th April at