Preview By Gay Pirrie Weir

November

PREVIEW

Evita

AXMINSTER Evita was a legend in her own lifetime and since her death in 1952, the legends have increased. By the end of the twentieth century she had been immortalised on stage and screen and is now regarded as one of the strongest, most idolised female icons of the last century. Evita tells the real story of this enigmatic popular heroine, a village girl who rose to stardom first as an actress, then as the mistress of General Peron and finally as the world’s most powerful presidential wife.

Axminster Musical Theatre presents Evita, the worldfamous stage & film musical sensation from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Without doubt, one of their best known collaborations, it is pure entertainment from beginning to end, brimming with some of the musical world’s most memorable and well-loved songs, particularly the standout Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.

Evita is this year’s must-see Axminster Musical Theatre’s show, an irresistible and exciting production that should pack theatregoers into The Guildhall for its five night run, from Tuesday-Saturday, 16th to 20th November at 7 30 pm. Tickets can be purchased on line from axmt.co.uk or from The Community Waffle House, Trinity Square, Axminster. Opening hours 9am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday (cash or cheque). For further information, ring Rose on 079672 05302.

An amdram prodigal returns

BROADOAK AND PIDDLETRENTHIDE HANNAH Maxwell’s family has a long heritage of amateur dramatics until Hannah broke the chain. And then she returned as she recounts in her one-woman show, I, AmDram, coming to Piddletrenthide and Broadoak village halls with Artsreach on 10th and 11th November.

The show, described as “a story of return, reconciliation and rehearsals with mum”, takes an embarrassing moment as its starting point: “My voice cracked on the high note. I saw my Nan wince. The blood rushed to my cheeks—and a century’s lineage lay shattered on the floor.”

This is a play about the hidden history of many a performance artist. From four generations of leading ladies comes one queer Londoner, sharing a story of return and reconciliation—with her hometown, cultural inheritance and secret love of musical theatre.

A former slave’s story

HALSTOCK MARY Prince was born a slave but she survived the brutality of a Bermuda plantation to become a powerful voice for the abolitionist movement. Her story is told in Sold, by awardwinning Kuumba Nia Arts, coming to Halstock village hall on Friday 26th November.

Sold won the Best Ensemble award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 and was named Show of the Week at VAULT

Award winning show ‘Sold’ at Halstock in November

Festival in 2020.

Born into slavery in 1788, Mary Prince told her story in an autobiography which had an electrifying effect on the abolition movement. With the abolitionist Thomas Pringle, who took her into his household, Mary told her story in The History of Mary Prince, the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. It was reprinted twice in its first year.

Through theatre, song, music, drumming and dance, Sold, an outstanding example of Black British theatre, is inspired by the storytelling traditions of the West African grit.

BBC 3 comedy star

LYME REGIS BBC 3 comedian Tez Ilyas, star of the multi-award-winning Man Like Mobeen, is coming to the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis on 13th November.

In 2015 Tez Ilyas achieved fame with his debut stand up hour TEZ Talks. A sell-out run at the Soho Theatre and his own Radio 4 series based on the show followed.

His other successes include The Tez O’Clock Show (Channel 4) and his debut novel The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13 3/4, a teenage memoir, was a bestseller.

Storytelling with sitar

VILLAGES STORYTELLER Emily Hennessey and sitar player Sheema Mukherjee get together for three dates with Artsreach, with their show, Ganga—Tales of the River, at Wootton Fitzpaine village hall on Friday 19th November at 7:45pm. Powerstock Hut on Saturday 20th at 7.30 and Shillingstone’s Portman Hall on Sunday 21st at 7.30.

When the River Goddess leaps from the skies, only Shiva’s hair can catch her wild torrents. But still she roars, surging

from mountains to sea, leaving no stone—or ego—unturned as she washes illusion from the truth. In the heavens, bored brothers steal the holy cow and face a terrible punishment—a life on earth!

A king has more sons than space, but taking a fancy to the Sky God’s palace is never going to end well. A woman journeys deep into the kingdom of death to demand the impossible. And when a tiny fish flips out of the river, a young girl holds the end of one world and the beginning of the next in her hands.

Emily Hennessey and Sheema Mukherjee have been fusing storytelling and music for many years, specialising in Indian mythology, with music that draws on both Indian classical and contemporary traditions.

New play asks: Who cares?

BRIDPORT THE bell sounds, you take a breath, and then it starts ... Matt Woodhead’s play Who Cares, co-produced by LUNG theatre and the Lowry, brings the hidden stories of young carers to the stage at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 12th November.

Sitting at the back of the bus, skipping the lunch queue and skiving lessons—three young people, Nicole, Jade and Connor, are just like everybody else at school. But when they get home, things are very different.

Nicole started caring for her mum when she was four. Every morning Nicole helps her get washed, put on clothes and eat breakfast. Jade has always cared for her brother, but she never expected to look after dad as well—now she juggles two lots of appointments, two lots of prescriptions, two lots of assessment forms. Connor cares for his mum. But he doesn’t like to talk about it.

Adapted from real-life testimonies, the play examines the impact of austerity, our failing social care system and what happens when a child becomes the parent.

Winner of several awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, Who Cares was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021. WEYMOUTH JOSHUA Nash, one of the country’s leading Krump performers brings a double bill, Blacklist and Fig Leaf to Weymouth College’s Bay Theatre on Wednesday 10th November at 7:30pm.

Krump is a form of street dance characterised by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement. It’s the heavy metal of the dance world, a way Joshua Nash brings street dance to Weymouth Collegeof expressing difficult emotions, the ones that get you all twisted up inside.

Blacklist is an explosive piece asking how we cope with inner conflict? The piece delves into brotherhood, isolation and friendship explored through hip hop, krump and theatre.

Fig Leaf asks what does it mean to be a man? And when does masculinity become toxic? Swinging from love and support, to anger and aggression, the dancers fight the urge to compete with one another and instead attempt to create a support network, brotherhood and community bond.

Etheridge and Garrick on tour

VILLAGES TWO of Dorset’s favourite jazz musicians, guitarist John Etheridge and violinist Chris Garrick are coming for a short tour with Artsreach, on Friday 12th November at Broadmayne village hall, Saturday 13th at Winterborne Stickland’s Pamela Hambro Hall and Sunday 14th at Drimpton village hall, all starting at 7.30pm.

Etheridge and Garrick have performed together for many years. Back with a new show, this world class duo provides a feast of interplay, improvisation and eclectic repertoire, with music ranging from Peter Gabriel to Richard Rogers via Dollar Brand and Alison Goldfrapp.

Using looping and other effects, the two musicians create exotic tapestries of sound, switching seamlessly to a pure acoustic, with rollicking renditions of Hot Club swing, evoking the spirit of Reinhardt and Grappelli.

Old rockers and a new dream

HONITON VARIETY is definitely spicing the programme for November at Honiton’s Beehive centre, from patriotic nostalgia to a new take on Shakespeare’s Dream via some great bluegrass and a loud night with a classic rock band.

The month’s calendar kicks up its heels on Thursday 4th with Happy Days are Here Again, an afternoon show celebrating the anniversary of VE Day, full of nostalgic merriment and song.

All Is Mended, on Monday 8th, also at 2pm is described as a repurposing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Living Room Theatre, turning the woodland fantasy of mistaken identity, forest fairies and star-crossed lovers into a poignant

and witty tale of love and life in a care home. The everyday traumas, problem pets and mischievous squirrels that inhabit Tim Dowling’s Guardian column are replaced with a banjo as he heads to Devon with Police Dog Hogan, coming to the Beehive on Friday 12th November at 8pm. The eclectic sevenpiece band, playing-fiddle, trumpet, mandolin, drums and guitars with four-part harmonies, fuse country, pop, folk and urban bluegrass.

Wishbone Ash have been rocking around the country for more than 50 years, and they’re still on the road, hitting Honiton on Saturday 13th, showing that they deserve their reputation as one of the most celebrated bands in the history of rock.

Local performers get their night at the mic in the Beehive folk cafe on Wednesday 17th. You can go along and sing or play or just listen, with folk cafe host Sue King.

The November diary ends on Friday 26th with a remarkable one-man show by Gareth Armstrong. Shylock explores the tragic, funny and often unbelievable life of fiction’s most famous Jew.

Syrian pianist & peace activist

TOURING THE Syrian-born pianist Riyad Nicolas, a dedicated campaigner for peace and awareness of the plight of his country, will give three concerts with Concerts in the West on 5th and 6th November.

Born in Aleppo in 1989, Riyad’s first appearance with an orchestra was in the city at the age of ten. He came to Britain in 2005 on a scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music and later, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, receiving several prizes and distinctions.

He has performed in many countries including France, Spain, Germany, and the USA as a soloist with orchestras, as a recitalist and chamber music player at numerous festivals and music societies.

Works by Schubert, including two sonatas, form the core of his solo programme, plus Liszt transcriptions of two Schubert songs and an Étude by Scriabin. His Concerts in the West dates are Friday 5th, 11.30am at Bridport Arts Centre and 8pm that evening at Ilminster Arts Centre, followed by The Dance House at Crewkerne on Saturday 6th at 7.30pm.

Through music Riyad has been promoting peace and raising awareness for the plight of the Syrian people and performing for organisations including the UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee. PICTURE BOOK

There’s a Bear on My

Chair and There’s a

Mouse in My House By Ross Collins

Nosy Crow Publishing RRP £6.99 Recommended for Ages 3+ REVIEW BY

Antonia Squire

MAYHEM in rhyme abounds in these hilarious, rollicking stories of a mouse and a bear who simply don’t understand boundaries!

In There’s a Bear on My Chair, Mouse is driven to distraction as he finds Bear in his favourite chair. Trying everything to get him to shift, Bear simply will not move until finally Mouse storms out of his house in a bit of a huff.

There has to be somewhere else Mouse can find a comfy place to sit. Right???

Oh No!

Mouse has found Bear’s house in the hilarious follow up There’s a Mouse in My House! Fully rested in Mouse’s favourite chair, Bear heads home to find his own house has been invaded by the pesky rodent. Causing chaos around the house, Mouse is getting his own back and Bear is desperately frustrated by the Mouse in his House. But what goes around does seem to come around.

Will Mouse and Bear ever be able to get back to normal and live in peace? There’s only one way to find out… MIDDLE GRADE

Nell and the Cave Bear

Written and illustrated by Martin Brown, Piccadilly Press RRP £6.99 Recommended for readers aged 7+ REVIEW BY

Nicky Mathewson

NELL is an orphan (her mum got sick and her dad got frozen!) so her only real friend is Cave Bear who is also an orphan. She found him when he was a tiny cub and nursed him back to health. The two of them live with the rest of the Cave Clan as part of one big family. They are preparing for the annual trip to the hunting grounds and a rare visit from their seaside cousins; the Sea Clan.

It’s a big deal for everyone and the elders are worried that they won’t have enough gifts to offer their cousins. The suggestion is made that the small pet bear that Nell plays with would make an excellent offering to the Sea Clan. On hearing this, Nell is horrified, Cave Bear isn’t any old pet, he’s her beloved friend and she would do anything to protect him.

She makes the decision to run away and follow the river flowing away from the cave, it too is running away. With Cave Bear by her side she encounters danger and many surprises on her journey further and further away from home.

Martin Brown is best known for illustrating the fabulous Horrible Histories series and I’m thrilled that he has now written and illustrated his own book for younger readers. Nell is bold, brave and caring and she makes a wonderful heroine in this delightful historical, and also humorous, adventure. Perfect for independent readers and also a lovely read aloud.

TEEN

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Macmillan Children’s Books RRP £6.99 REVIEW BY

Nicky Mathewson

BRIAN has spent his whole life in Boston, Massachusetts, but when his parents divorce his dad moves to the wilds of Alaska to work for a logging company. Staying in Boston with his mum, Brian is eagerly looking forward to the summer holidays when he can visit his dad.

As the only passenger on the cargo plane heading out to the logging area from Boston, Brian has his backpack and the hatchet his dad gave him before he left. Everything is fine until the pilot has a heart attack midflight and the plane crash lands in a lake in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

Completely alone, with just the clothes on his back and his trusty hatchet, Brian has to figure out how to build shelter, make fire and find food. Unsure whether he will be rescued Brian has no one to rely on except himself and city boy against the elements are not odds he relishes.

First published in 1986 Hatchet has remained a staple of young adult adventure fiction for 35 years. Especially loved by boys who are ‘reluctant readers’ (many of them reading it over and over again) it is a brilliant book about resilience and resourcefulness. I’ve been handselling this title for years, but decided to shout about it again with the news in October about the death of Gary Paulsen. What an extraordinary legacy to leave behind, I cannot recommend it highly enough!