January PREVIEW
The Kindness of a Stranger
BUCKLAND NEWTON WRITER Bernadette Russell was so shocked by the UK riots in August 2011 that she set out on a mission to be kind to a stranger every day for a year (plus one). The result is 366 Days of Kindness, a unique performance which Russell is bringing to Buckland Newton village hall on 30th January, at 6.30pm. This show, part stand up, part storytelling, charts this amazing year, which began with burning buildings, and ended with the flame of the Olympic torch. It attempts to answer the question: “is it possible to change the world just by being kind?”
Community dance project
BROADMAYNE AND HALSTOCK TAUNTON-based aKa Dance Theatre Company brings a collaborative new performance to Broadmayne village hall on Friday 21st January and Halstock on Saturday 22nd, both at 7.30pm. A Real Fiction, which has been co-created with the community for the community, is filled with fun, funk and foam bananas! The core theme is collecting memories and the resulting work ranges from current affairs to childhood nostalgia. aKa Dance was co-founded by Jen Grant and Joe Garbett in early 2014. Based in Taunton as company in residence at Tacchi-Morris Arts
Centre, aKa creates works that are adaptable for a variety of performance surroundings, indoors and out.
Stories across six centuries
LITTON CHENEY MULTI Story Theatre Company explores stories from the land across six centuries in Hefted, coming to Litton Cheney village hall on 29th January, at 7.30pm. Hefted is a play told through nine stories embedded in the landscape, history, and psyche of rural life, presented by four actors who conjure a score of characters between them, interspersed with song and a spectacular soundscape. Wryly funny, emotionally absorbing, the play asks big questions about our relationship with the land. The narrative sweeps across 600 years, starting in 1475 with a supernatural birth and moving through nine stories to an imagined 2075 in which tales from the past are retold to heal the present. Some stories are fantastical, others dramatise real events: all explore the notion of being ‘hefted’—deeply connected to the land. Hefted is also at Blandford on 30th January at 7pm.
Meet the regulars
DRIMPTON HAVE you ever sat in your local and wondered about the people who sat in your seat or at the bar before you, a
Bernadette Russell in 366 Days of Kindness
34 The Marshwood Vale Magazine January 2022 Tel. 01308 423031
