Never too much – 45 years of The Specials
Lyme Regis
THE Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis celebrates the 45th anniversary of the release of Too Much Too Young, when the Specials Ltd come to the venue on Saturday 15th March, re-creating the energy and enthusiasm of the legendary two-tone and ska band that formed in Coventry in 1977.
The band, which included Terry Hall and Neville Staple, was also known as The Special AKA. The lead track of their 1980 The Special AKA Live! EP was Too Much Too Young, which reached No 1 in the UK singles charts.
The Specials Ltd aim to show younger fans what they missed.
March at the Marine also includes General Levy, a veteran of the UK Urban Music scene on 1st March, chill out duo The ORB comes to Lyme on Friday 7th, Adrian Cox Trio explore an alternative ragtime repertoire on Thursday 13th, Jamaican DJ and MC Congo Natty is at the Marine on Friday 21st, folk rockers Mad Dog Mcrea return on 22nd and Oisin Leech, the Irish folk singer and songwriter will be introducing his music to Dorset fans on Wednesday 26th.
Brit pop singer songwriter John Power is at Lyme Regis on Friday 28th and Bristol MC and songwriter Gardna on Saturday 29th and the very musical month of March finishes with Jazz by the Sea with Opa Rosa, who play the music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe to the Dorset Coast on Sunday 30th.
Surviving Sexual Abuse
Bridport
A FEMALE-led dance and theatre project called WomanEwer comes to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 21st March with a challenging performance of I Have a Bruise.
The company’s productions are based on real-life stories performed by five professional dancers who are all survivors of sexual abuse. Although the work deals with difficult subject matter, it also celebrates womanhood, survival and strength.
First seen in France as J’ai un bleu, I have a Bruise is choreographed and directed by the company artistic director Laura Kenyon.
Fifty years of music in the museum
dorchester
THE Dorset Museum Music Society celebrates its 50th season in 2025, with a full programme of concerts performed in the beautiful setting of the Victorian Hall on Wednesday evenings.
The anniversary season, which began in February with a performance by Californian-born and Lithuania-raised pianist Ignas Maknickas, continues on 26th March when Pocket Sinfonia brings a programme of works by Mozart and Beethoven to Dorchester. The four musicians perform classical orchestral works as they would have been experienced in 19th century provincial England.
They are followed on 23rd April by violin/piano duo Amber Emson and Leah Nicholson, who have chosen Beethoven’s Violin Concerto No 3, Brahms Violin Sonata No 2, Lili Boulanger’s 2 Morceaux: Nocturne and Cortege, and Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano.
The season continues on 21st May with the Trio Archai Piano Trio, winners of the 72nd Royal Overseas League Competition of 2024, who will play works by Mendelssohn, Block and Schubert. On 25th June Lumas Wind Quintet comes to Dorchester to play music by Coleman, Shostakovich, Nielsen, Reicha, Milhaud and Lalo Schifrin and the Fibonacci Quartet will give the July concert, on 23rd, with a programme of Haydn, Janacek and Smetana.
The Victorian Hall seats only 120, so early booking is recommended. All concerts begin at 7.30. For more details visit the website, https://dorsetmuseummusicsociety.uk/
Mark Steel and the Leopard
Dorchester
MARK Steel is coming to Dorchester, but this time he will be poking fun at himself. His new show, The Leopard in My House, details his battle with throat cancer. It’s a battle he is winning, but only his rapier wit could make a comedy show out of it.
Cancer has done nothing to dull his acute political observations or quash his “frankly bonkers” energy. See him at the Thomas Hardye School Theatre on Friday 7th March, starting at 7.30.
He is followed on Saturday 8th by the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, still re-creating the sounds of the golden era of music from the 1920s and 30s. They have been delighting audiences with music from Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and hot jazz for the past 50 years.
The school hall next hosts a tribute to music of a more recent era, when Awake My Soul – The Mumford and Sons story comes to Dorset on Saturday 22nd March. Four musicians in tweed waistcoats and skinny jeans recreate the music and story of the stomping folk rock band.
On 29th March, Dorset favourites Ninebarrow are back with Dorchester Arts at the school, Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere combine beautiful vocal harmonies and melodies, performing songs inspired by and rooted in the landscape and history of the British Isles.
A Comic Twist on Dickens
Touring
ARTSREACH favourites Gavin Robertson and Nicholas Collett return to Dorset for three performances of The Ghost of a Smile, two of Charles Dickens’s creepy tales given a comic twist.
“Like The Woman in Black, but funnier and with fewer people,” says adaptor/director Gavin.
The Queer Chair, from The Pickwick Papers, tells the story of Tom Smart, who, sheltering from a storm for the night, gets more than he bargained for from a wizened and debauched piece of furniture. In The Ghosts of the Mail, after a well-lubricated supper in Edinburgh Old Town, Jack Martin climbs into a compound containing the derelict skeletons of old coaches, and he falls asleep. He wakes up as a passenger on an 18th century mail coach, with three creepy companions.
The Ghost of a Smile will be at Sandford Orcas Village Hall on Friday 7th March, Powerstock Hut on Saturday 8th and Shillingstone’s Portman Hall on Sunday 9th March, all starting at 7.30pm.
Dorset playwright’s Pot Licker
Touring
DORSET-based writer Ed Viney’s dark comedy Pot Licker is on a tour of the county in March. The play, which began life at Poole’s Lighthouse Arts Centre at a new writing event, looks at what happens when three teachers decide to bend the rules after coming across a bag of drugs in their school’s lost property. Rich, Kris and Zara should report the drugs straight away, but the school faces imminent closure, so is there another way to deal with the bag?
“It’s about what happens when good, respectable people do something bad with inevitably disastrous consequences,” says Ed.
Ed Viney took Pot Licker to the first Pipeline Session for new writing at the Lighthouse in January last year. An excerpt was rehearsed and read by actors. “I was relieved when it was well received, and afterwards, in the theatre bar, between Lighthouse and Dorchester Arts, we started a plan of how this might work. The rural touring network Artsreach came on board.
“For me as a writer, to hear the words lifted off the page and spoken aloud by performers is invaluable. That’s when I knew I had something worth developing, and now, a year later, we are getting ready to go on tour.”
Ed has worked with theatres across the south west and nationally, including the RSC, Bath Theatre Royal and Bristol Old Vic.
You can see Pot Licker at Poole Lighthouse (12th and 13th March), Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on 14th and 15th March, Weymouth College Bay Theatre on 18th, The Royal Manor Theatre on Portland on 19th, Halstock Village Hall on 20th, Barnfield Theatre in Exeter on 21st and 22nd March, Bridport Arts Centre on 26th and Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio from 27th to 29th March.
March’s Concerts in the West
Touring
THERE will be a warm welcome for Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson when he returns to Dorset and Somerset for the March series of Concerts in the West, starting, as always with the coffee concert at Bridport Arts Centre, on Friday 14th at 11.30am.
The tour continues at the evening at Ilminster Arts Centre at 7.30, and the final recital is at Crewkerne’s Dance House on Saturday 15th, also starting at 7.30. The programme includes Eight Variations of a Theme of Beethoven by Ferdinand Ries, Faure’s Theme and Variations and Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata in F Minor.
Beatson is renowned for his wide repertoire on both modern and historical instruments, from Classical, early Romantic and French music and contemporary composers. He is also a regular member of chamber ensembles and quartets.
Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir
Athelhampton
ON Saturday 5th July, Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir will be travelling west to Athelhampton House for a special musical event, Athelhampton: a Musical Portrait will take its strictly limited audience on a musical journey exploring the house, its gardens and its fascinating history.
The Great Hall was built in 1485, and remains largely unchanged as generations have moved through the house and its beautiful grounds.
The performance starts at 5.30pm. For more details, visit www.bschoir.org.uk
Multi-instrumental Cornish trio
Touring
JACLARABAG is a new collaboration between three of Cornwall’s best known theatre musicians, from Kneehigh, Miracle and Wildworks, among others. Artsreach is bringing them Dorset in March.
Jim Carey on accordion, trombone and guitar, Giles Kings on clarinet, bagpipes, whistle and saxophone and Claire Ingleheart on fiddle and clarinet, combine music and vocals to combine eclectic folk songs from across the world, with a generous dose of original material. The trio is at village halls at Buckland Newton on Friday 14th March, East Stour on Saturday 15th and Corfe Castle on Sunday 16th, all starting at 7.30.
Tenebrae at St Mary’s
Dorchester
THE beautiful acoustic of Dorchester’s St Mary’s Church sets off the exquisite sounds of Tenebrae on Sunday 23rd March at 7pm.
The programme spans Renaissance choral works to contemporary masterpieces, including works by Lassus, Gibbons, Tallis, Weelkes, Byrd, Britten, Chilcott and Judith Weir.
After the 39 Steps
touring
IF you loved The 39 Steps, look out for Hannay Stands Fast, the sequel on a national tour with Our Star Theatre and coming to Honiton’s Beehive Centre on 1st March at 7.30.
Adapted by David Edgar from John Buchan’s tale, Hannay Stands Fast sees our dashing hero on a mission to thwart a deadly threat to England. Like The 39 Steps, the show is performed by four actors playing a total of 53 characters in countless locations, created with trunks, crates, suitcases and ladders.
It will be back in the area at Teignmouth Pavilions on Saturday 22nd March, Taunton Brewhouse on 25th, Swanage Mowlem on Thursday 8th May, Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday 9th and Sidmouth Manor Pavilion on Saturday 24th May.
Chris Chibnall launches new book
Bridport
THE acclaimed writer of Broadchurch and show runner of Dr Who, Chris Chibnell, is on home ground when he launches his new book, Death at the White Hart, at Bridport Arts Centre on Monday 24th March.
The story is set in the picturesque Dorset village of Fleetcombe, which has two pubs, a small playground and enough charming cottages to keep a thatcher in business. It’s the last place you’d expect a grizzly murder.
A body is discovered tied to a chair in the middle of a nearby road, with a stag’s antlers on its head. The victim is soon identified as the landlord of the White Hart pub. Detective Nicola Bridge is not short of suspects. In a small village, the pub landlord knows everyone’s business but beneath the idyllic surface, the residents of Fleetcombe have plenty they want to keep hidden.
He will be talking to Jennie Godfrey, the author of best-selling The List of Suspicious Things.
Sleepless in
Dorchester
THERE are plenty of doctors who have had second careers as comedians, but Ed Patrick may be the first anaesthetist to make the leap. His show, Catch Your Breath: The secret life of a sleepless anaesthetist, comes to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Friday 21st March at 7.30.
Ed has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and hosts the Comedians’ Surgery Podcast, where he speaks to fellow comedians about their health stories. He has also appeared on Have I Got News for You?
His show is also at Portsmouth Guildhall on 28th March, Forest Arts in New Milton on 29th March and at Bridport Arts Centre on 5th April.
GPW
