Arts & Entertainment

Sounds of a songwriting legend

THE music of Simon & Garfunkel is coming to Shaftesbury Arts Centre next weekend with the Sounds of Simon.

The two-hour show covers all Simon & Garfunkel and Paul Simon’s hits over a 30-year period, starting with The Sound of Silence, released in 1965, through to Simon’s experiments with world music from Graceland and beyond.

The performance is accompanied by archive footage of Simon and Garfunkel, allowing the stars to tell their own story.

Ben Bowden and Adam Ellis, who play the duo on stage, recently released their new live album, American Tunes. Adam enjoys the challenge of playing the songs. “It’s great to take a songwriter as brilliant as Paul Simon and then track his development over 30 years,” he said. “The evening will show how a songwriter practises and develops his craft.”

Ben recently featured on BBC’s The One Show, performing as Paul Simon and talking about the songwriter’s visit to England in 1965. It was on this trip that Simon reputedly wrote his hit Homeward Bound.

The Sounds of Simon are celebrating their 15th year of touring but this will be the band’s first appearance in Shaftesbury. “It’s great to come to new places and make old friends,” said Ben.

Tickets for the new show, Old Friends Together and Apart, on Saturday December

The Sounds of Simon will be playing Simon & Garfunkel’s and Paul Simon’s hits

Casting call for community choirs

THE West End cast of Back to Bacharach are searching for a local community choir to join them on stage at The Octagon Theatre, Yeovil, in the new year.

Back to Bacharach perform the songs of Burt Bacharach, who is behind one of the greatest American songbooks of the 20th century and a legend of popular music. He has won six Grammy Awards and three Academy awards with more than 70 top 40 hits in the USA and 50-plus top 40 hits in the UK.

To apply to join the West End cast of Back to Bacharach submit up to a two-minute video of the community choir with up to ten singers performing That’s What Friends Are For and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.

The closing date to submit videos is Friday 16 December – forward video links in the first instance to info@

Although it is not currently a legal requirement, please consider wearing a face covering to protect yourself and others when visiting the Tivoli. PLEASE KEEP CHECKING OUR WEBSITE

BEN WATERS BIG BAND

Rock’n’Roll with 10 Saxophones

Sunday 27th November 7.30pm Tickets £25

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) THREE DAY MILLIONAIRE (15)

28th November 7.30pm Matinee 29th November 1.00pm Tickets £8 adults evenings, £7 matinee, £6 U16s

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) CHRISTMAS WITH BLAKE

Tuesday 29th November 7.30pm Tickets £22.50

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) THE UPBEAT BEATLES

Wed 30th November 7.30pm Tickets £23, Concs £21

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee)

MARTY WILDE & THE WILDCATS

Thursday 1st December 7.30pm Tickets £27

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee)

TALON: BEST OF THE EAGLES

LAST SEATS REMAINING

Friday 2nd December 8pm Tickets £27 THE COUNTERFEIT STONES

LAST SEATS REMAINING Saturday 3rd December 8.00pm Tickets £27.50 NEVER THINK TWICE (12)

Filmed on location around Wimborne and surrounding areas 4th December 12.30pm Tickets for this screening: £10 ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE TIVOLI LIVING (12A)

5th & 6th Dec 7.30pm,

Matinee 6th Dec 2.30pm

Tickets £8 adults eves, £7 matinee, £6 U16s BALLET THEATRE UK PRESENT BEAUTY & THE BEAST

Wednesday 7th December 7.30pm Tickets £20 & £18 Concs £15/£14

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Arts & Entertainment Familiar faces in panto

PANTO season will soon arrive at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil with what promises to be one of the most fun-filled pantomimes seen at the theatre in recent years – Dick Whittington.

Once again, the production will be written by Paul Hendy and produced by Evolution Productions – the same creative collaboration celebrating ten years with the theatre.

Familiar faces are being welcomed back with the brilliantly funny Jack Glanville, Thom Bradford, Kathryn Nash and Gordon Cooper set to tread the boards at The Octagon. Jack and Gordon are well known at the theatre; Thom and Kathryn were both in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Nurse Nellie Saves Panto, so will be familiar faces to some.

This year the theatre welcomes to the stage for the first time the delightful Javana Forrest playing Alice and the dashing Daniel Parkinson playing Dick Whittington. Completing the principal cast is locally-born James Bamford who is Tommy the Cat.

Tickets start at £16 with family saver offers for some performances. The theatre is

staging 42 shows, which are selling out fast, some having already sold out. Martin Hacker, marketing manager for The Octagon Theatre and Westlands Entertainment Venue, said: “We are really excited to welcome Evolution Productions back for its tenth production here at The Octagon this year and we expect it to be the best yet.” Dick Whittington runs from Friday 9 December with the last show on Sunday 1 January 2023. Tickets can be purchased online at www.octagon-theatre. co.uk, by calling the box office Game of Thrones star in Chekhov

CHEKHOV’S play The Seagull will be screened at Shaftesbury Arts Centre this weekend as part of the National Theatre Live programme.

The new production stars Emilia Clarke, best known as Daernerys Targaryen, the Dragon Queen, in Game of Thrones, who gives a fragile, almost childlike turn as Nina in her first West End performance.

The play is directed by Jamie Lloyd, soon after his hugely successful production of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Other standout performances include Daniel Monks as the tortured and

Emilia Clarke is in the National Theatre’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull

failed playwright Konstantin, and by Indira Varma, who plays his successful actress mother Arkadina. Her cunning and layered performance leaves the audience disgusted yet intrigued simultaneously.

Tensions boil over between Arkadina’s friends and family, gathered in a dizzyingly hot Russian country house by a lake, as they discuss their failed ambitions and doomed desires for love.

The play is being screened on Sunday 27 November. Tickets priced £10 are available from Shaftesbury Arts Centre on 01747 854321 or visit www.shaftesburyarts centre.org.uk

Pianist’s festive concert

PROFESSIONAL classical concert pianist Alex Wilson will be bringing the spirit of Christmas to St Peter’s Church, Shaftesbury, in the run up to the festive season.

He has sourced piano works written by composers across Europe, telling Christmas traditions and stories from different countries.

The concert will include a carol sung by Sussex ‘mummers’, Romanian songs from the pagan winter solstice and a retelling of the Christmas story using traditional French carols.

Alex will also perform a Ukrainian shchedrivka, a New Year song that tells the story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of the wealth and happiness that will come with the spring.

The concert is on Friday December 9 at 7.30pm with tickets sold on a a ‘pay-whatyou-feel’ basis –with a suggested donation £10. Tickets are available on the door or at www.alexwilsonpianist.com

JOIN US FOR... MUSIC THIS AUTUMN

26TH NOV FROM GOLD TO RIO A nostalgic journey back to the New Romantic era which ruled the charts for over a decade

THEATRE DANCE MUSIC COMEDY

Art Classes

3RD DEC LOS PACAMINOS - starring Paul Young

CINEMA

The Perfect Gift for Art Lovers Learn all the fundamentals of drawing and painting in fun and friendship. New terms start Jan 2023. Tues 13:15 -15:15 / Weds 13:30 - 15:30 or Saturday 10:00 - 12:00 £175 for a 10 week course in East Coker For more information visit eleanorfarr.gallery 07745216811 or email enquiries@eleanorfarr.gallery 9TH & 10TH DEC CHRISTMAS AT THE OPERA Join the London Festival Opera for a night of wonderful arias.

14TH DEC CHRISTMAS MEMORIES Join Neil Sands for an amazing festive afternoon