Montacute House on 25 June and The Plough at Torrington on 19 August, and Much Ado About Nothing to Montacute on 1 July and Torrington on 7 July. Quantum Theatre also has two productions, both of which are performed on the same day at each venue. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, for a family audience, is at Brympton D’Evercy near Yeovil at 4pm on Sunday 26 June, followed in the evening by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The same pattern is followed at Buckland Monachorum Garden House on 9 July. Peter Rabbit is out on his own at Davey Fort, Lyme Regis at 2pm on Saturday 23 July. One of the most unusual shows this year is Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer, performed by the weather blind company Rain or Shine. See this hilarious comedy at Beaminster Manor on Sunday 26 June, at Cullompton Corn Barn on 11 August or Swanage on 15 August. The all-male Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company famous for its music and singing as well as versatile acting, has Hilarious comedy in Beaminster in June chosen Shakespeare’s As You Like It, coming to the new venue of Octagon in the Country Park, Yeovil on Wednesday 29 June, and to Killerton House on 26 July. The long-established Chapterhouse has three shows on offer. Romeo and Juliet is at Holme for Gardens on the Purbecks on 7 July, followed by Pride and Prejudice on 8 July. The Jane Austen classic will also be performed at Octagon Theatre in the Country Park on Saturday 27 August. The third Chapterhouse show is Cinderella, coming to Powderham Castle on Sunday 31 July. Three productions are on tour with the Heartbreak companies this year—Awful Auntie, Jane Eyre and Much Ado About Murder. Jane Eyre is at Killerton House on Thursday 14 July. Much Ado About Murder, a Shakespearean murder mystery skit, is at Athelhampton House on 21 July, and at Rosemoor Gardens, Torrington on 28 August. And Awful Auntie, the show for all the family, is at Killerton House on Saturday 6 August and at Maumbury Rings, Dorchester on 13 August, both at 6pm. Not just a classic comedy, but tea (with cucumber sandwiches) are on offer from Slapstick Picnic, a branch of the Handlebards company. See their The Importance of Being Earnest at Lyme Regis Marine on Friday 15 July or Taunton Brewhouse on 22 July. The Last Baguette has adapted some of the immortal tales of King Arthur for the 2022 summer tour, coming to Bridport, Millennium Green on Sunday 24 July and Lyme Regis Marine on 28 July, and to Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre in the Country Park on Saturday 6 August. Folksy Theatre has chosen two classics of the open air repertoire, Much Ado About Nothing and Alice in Wonderland, for the 2022 tours. Much Ado is at Burrow Farm Gardens, Axminster on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28, July, at Forde Abbey near Chard on Tuesday 2 August, Lyme Regis Marine on 4 August, Cannington Walled Garden on 13 August, and Hestercombe Gardens on 14 August. Wonderland comes to Hestercombe on Thursday 28 July, Forde Abbey on 29 July, Burrow Farm Gardens on 2 August, Cannington Walled Garden on 3 August and Lyme Regis Marine on Friday 12 August—all daytime performances for younger audiences. The final company, Three Inch Nails, is another troupe recruited as musicianactors. They will perform two shows this summer, Twelfth Night and The Gunpowder Plot. The second show has only one outing in the south west, at Powderham Castle near Exeter on Sunday 14 August. The Shakespeare play can be seen at Mothecombe House near Plymouth on 20 August, Stone Lane Gardens at Chagford on 24 August and at Powderham Castle on 18 September. Visit the company or the venue websites for more details, book early and hope that the weather gods cast a kindly eye on the night you have chosen.
The Young Lit Fix MIDDLE GRADE REVIEW Wilder than Midnight by Cerrie Burnell Penguin Children’s Books. RRP £7.99 Reviewed by Antonia Squire ‘AT the edge of a fathomless forest, in a castle grey as cloud, a baby was born at the stroke of midnight. But, alas, all was not well.’ So begins a the thrilling adventure of Wild Rose, the girl born with the mark of the witch, handed to the Huntsman to drown—but saved instead by the good hearted man who in turn left the castle to become a humble woodcutter. Raised by the wolves of Silverthorne Forest, and by the forest folk themselves, Wild Rose knows she can never be seen by anyone from the outside. In the village, on the outskirts of the forest, lives another young girl, daughter of a humble woodcutter who knows the legend of the wild girl in the woods. Saffy, a kind hearted girl who does her best to help others, sets off to visits her grandmother in the woods. But she has forgotten the cardinal rule— never wear red in the forest if you want to be safe from the wolves. In the castle there is a princess, Aurelia, under a curse and locked in a tower for her own protection but desperate to escape and live her own life. The forest calls to her but first she must break free. How then are these three girls brought together to take control of their own destinies? Wilder than Midnight is a richly drawn adventure, weaving images from classic fairytales into something wholly original, something like the origin stories of superheroes. I loved it!
10% off for Marshwood Vale readers at The Bookshop on South Street, Bridport. 01308 422964 www.dorsetbooks.com
GPW
Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June 2022 47
