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Preview By Gay Pirrie Weir

September

PREVIEW

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Three days of folk

LYME REGIS

Folk fiddler Sam Sweeney comes to Lyme

LYME Folk Weekend returns, from 2nd to 4th September, with a stellar line-up including Sam Sweeney and his band, Seth Lakeman and the brilliant quartet Ranagri.

The festival includes free gigs, shanty singing, storytelling and Morris dancing along the seafront. as well as four headline concerts at the Marine Theatre, beginning on Friday 2nd with the Sam Sweeney Band. Sam first played at the Lyme festival in 2019 when he gave the last ever performance of his Unfinished Violin show.

The 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Musician of the Year returns with his band to play music from the acclaimed album Unearth Repeat. The new band brings together Sam’s unique fiddle playing, the double bass of Ben Nicholls and the keyboards of Dave Mackay, with guitarist Jenn Butterworth, voted Musician of the Year at the 2019 Scots Trad Music Awards.

Ranagri, at the Marine on Saturday 3rd, are four Irish and English musicians, combining voices, guitar, bouzouki, flutes, whistles, harp and percussion. They were described by BBC Radio 3 and BBC Proms presenter Katie Derham as having “a sound that’s completely new, which has great energy and immediately makes you want to dance.” Opening the Saturday show will be Lyme Folk favourite Steve Dagleish.

On Sunday there are two concerts, starting in the afternoon with the Dorset-based duo songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Bob Whitley and cellist Lee MacKenzie. They will be playing Whiteley’s Magellan Circumnavigation, a blend of theatre and musical storytelling, bringing to life the story of the greatest voyage of human exploration, at a time when sailors believed in gigantic sea monsters, demons, boiling seas at the Equator and magnetic rocks that drew the nails out of the timbers.

In the evening the singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Seth Lakeman will play songs from his new album Make Your Mark, written during his enforced 18 months off the road. He will be joined by Alex Hart who was the first ever singer at the festival, when she performed with her band on the opening night of the inaugural event in 2013.

Welsh comedian on tour

DORCHESTER COMEDIAN Kiri Pritchard-McLean, who moved back to her native Anglesey during lockdown, is on tour this autumn, with West Country dates including the Corn Exchange at Dorchester on Sunday 11th September, and Plymouth’s Barbican Theatre on 19th November.

Praised by the Sunday Times as “very dark, very funny... [with] masterful timing,” her show covers topics that range from skinny jeans to learning Welsh and white supremacy!

Kiri has appeared on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Would I Lie to You. She hosts her own show on Sunday afternoons on BBC Radio Wales, has created a popular true crime podcast with Rachel Fairburn and a new podcast, Who Are You Wearing, during which she chats to celebrities about their relationship with clothes, with guests including Jonathan Ross and Rosie Jones.

Ravilious—a life cut short by conflict

BRIDPORT

The Westbury White Horse by Eric Ravilious, private colllection, Towner Eastbourne Photograph © www.foxtrotfilms.com

A NEW documentary film being shown at Bridport’s Electric Palace on 23rd September, explores the life and work of the watercolorist and wood-engraver Eric Ravilious, who disappeared over Iceland in 1942, during the Second World War.

Directed by the BAFTA winner Margy Kinmonth, Eric Ravilious—Drawn to War, features contributions from writer ...cont p. 43

Literary Highlights Ahead

While the heat of the summer eases there are many exciting literary events to look forward to in and around the Marshwood Vale.

Budleigh Salterton—celebrating books by the sea

COVERING a wide variety of topics, including current affairs, best-selling authors and leading debut novelists, as well as events for families, the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival runs from 14th to 18th September. It promises to be a highlight of the cultural calendar.

Headlining the packed programme is legendary actress Dame Sheila Hancock, the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, the broadcaster Simon Reeve, poet Pam Ayres, gardening expert Joe Swift and BBC Antiques Roadshow presenter Ronnie Archer-Morgan. Baroness Floella Benjamin will be delivering the annual Susan Ward memorial talk in memory of the Festival’s founder. The leading brain surgeon, Henry Marsh, will share his own experiences as a patient; acclaimed behavioural scientist and author of Sway, Pragya Agarwal, explores the myth of gendering emotions. The man at the centre of the Jeremy Thorpe scandal, Norman Scott, reveals the impact it has had on his life and explorer Benedict Allen whisks us off to undiscovered places, while MP Andrew Mitchell blows the lid off life inside Parliament in a very febrile climate.

There is also a wealth of other diverse events from Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland sharing his extraordinary new account of an escape from Auschwitz to Riverford veg box founder Guy Singh-Watson talking about food miles with food writer Orlando Murrin.

‘We are so excited by this year’s programme,’ says Sue Briggs, Festival Committee Chair. ‘There is something for all interests and all ages, and we are looking forward to welcoming audiences back to the Budleigh and the Festival.’

The Festival, which has a hub marquee with café and pop-up Waterstones bookshop, is strongly supported by local businesses and donors, and is recognised as a partner by Exeter City of Literature. Tickets are on sale from budlitfest.org.uk.

Dorchester Literary Festival—celebrating literary passions and country pleasures

ROBERT Harris will discuss Act of Oblivion, Max Hastings will talk about Abyss and Ben Macintyre will discuss Colditz. These are just some of the fantastic events available at this year’s Dorchester Literary Festival from 15th to 22nd October.

During the same week you can delve into the lives of our Queen and the Royal family; learn about Marine Commandos; discover The Celts; the life of artist John Constable or Josephine Baker’s life in espionage with Damien Lewis.

The festival also features a range of memoirs as well as highlighting the world of nature and animals.

Details of all the events on www.dorchesterliteraryfestival.com Tickets are available online or from Dorchester Waterstones.

Bridport Literary Festival—exciting events to brighten the winter days

MELVYN Bragg and Chris Patten add their weight to an incredible line-up for Bridport Literary Festival which runs from 6th to 12th November this year. The line-up also includes awardwinning novelists Maggie O’Farrell and Kit de Waal, travel writer Colin Thubron, environmental activist George Monbiot, war correspondent Jeremy Bowen, Today presenter Justin Webb, gardener and novelist Alan Titchmarsh and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

‘It’s an exciting programme, fitting for our coming-of-age year,’ said festival director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart. ‘The team is really looking forward to bringing together these high calibre speakers to Bridport.’

Highlights this year include Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville in conversation with Julian Fellowes, Sheila Hancock’s gloriously irreverent memoir and Dorset’s own PJ Harvey on her book Orlam, a poem-sequence of light and shadow and written in Dorset dialect.

Debut novelist Joanna Quinn, whose Dorset-based novel, The Whalebone Theatre, is receiving rave reviews, joins a stellar line up of authors.

For more information and to buy tickets visit www.bridlit.com.

and playwright Alan Bennett, artists Grayson Perry and Ai Weiwei and landscape and nature writer and poet Robert Macfarlane. The director chose artists to talk about Ravilious rather than curators or journalists. They bring an engaging creative energy to the narrative.

The narrative thread, largely drawn from Ravilious’ many letters, recounts a life as compelling and enigmatic as his art, set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspired him. Actors Freddie Fox and Tamsin Grieg provide the voices for Ravilious and his wife Tirzah Garwood, who was also an artist. As well as the private correspondence the film includes previously unseen archive material. Two other actors taking part are Jeremy Irons and Harriet Walter.

Margy Kinmonth says: “As a filmmaker and artist myself, I am telling the story of an artist whose life was cut short by conflict. Ravilious was a brilliant painter whose art portrays a very British way of life, creating his unique point of view at a particular point in history, my film asks what his life and art might tell us about the elusive concept of Englishness.”

Margy believes that Ravilious is one of Britain’s greatest landscape artists: “He is much loved and very popular. He should be widely recognised alongside Turner, Nash, Constable and Hockney. But Ravilious is not a household name. I want my film to bring him wider recognition and not just around the UK.”

One reason that Ravilious was relatively forgotten for many years after his death was that the existence of many of his paintings was unknown until his children discovered them under the bed of his great friend Edward Bawden.

People may not have heard of him but nowadays they certainly recognise his art, she says: “Since he went out of copyright, his work is to be found on every dishcloth and handkerchief—but who wants to be Britain’s favourite mousemat?”

Dorset artist, Robin Mackenzie, one of the country’s youngest and finest wood engravers, was commissioned to make the little wood blocks for the tiny engravings seen in the film—Ravilious’ own wood blocks were lost in the war.

Mini tour for talented trio

BRIDPORT, ILMINSTER, CREWKERNE CONCERTS In The West begins its autumn season on Friday, 2nd September, with a violin-cello-piano trio playing works by Schubert, Faure, Dvorak and the young British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Fenella Humphreys, violin, Cara Berridge, cello, and Libby Burgess, piano, have all played for Concerts in the West before, but not as a trio until now. They will begin their mini-tour in Bridport Arts Centre with a coffee concert, on Friday morning, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening, and Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday evening.

Winner of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award, Fenella Humphreys has won critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her playing. One of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists, she has a busy career

Festival Treats

b-side returns to land

The Gig Portland Parade comes to b-side Festival Leading arts festival, b-side, is making its return to the Isle of Portland, Dorset, for 2022 between 8-11th September, with an exciting lineup of diverse artists. Under the uniting theme of Common Lands, visitors will be exploring their relationship with the land through the various artworks and activities on offer. Visitors can expect to engage with a wide variety of activities across the weekend. For more information, please visit the b-side website https://b-side.org.uk/

Bridport Hat Festival

Hank Wangford plays at the Bridport Hat Festival The 2022 Bridport Hat Festival will be held on Saturday 3rd September 2022, 10am – 4pm. The festivities will be opened by the Mayor Ian Bark at 10am in Bucky Doo Square. This will be followed by a programme of music by young local musicians until the mass photo at 1pm – followed by the judging of the various ‘Best Hatted’ competitions. The HatFest Garden Party also commences at 10am at the Millennium Green where there will be folk music from local musicians, Hat Hurling, Best Hatted Dog competition and other attractions. Hank Wangford is returning to the Electric Palace 8pm. Visit www.bridporthatfest.org.

The trio on the September Concerts in the West Series—Cara Berridge, Libby Burgess and Fenella Humphreys

combining chamber music and solo work, performing in prestigious venues around the world.

Cara Berridge is a founder member of the multi-award-winning Sacconi Quartet who have performed at all the major London venues including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room.

As well as being a busy solo pianist and chamber musician, Libby Burgess runs the New Paths festival in Beverley and the Beverley Chamber Music Festival. For Concerts in the West, she is standing in for Daniel Grimwood who is suffering from an arm injury.

The programme for the three concerts includes Schubert’s Sonatensatz in B flat major, My Fleeting Angel by Frances-Hoad, and piano trios by Dvorak and Faure.

West country bands at the Beehive

HONITON HONITON’s Beehive Centre hosts a band that is making a name for its energetic live festival and stage performances. Drop In the Ocean are playing a gig on Friday 30th September.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2017 Drop In The Ocean have been winning fans with their infectious blend of reggae, ska and dub fusion that is sure to get you moving.

They are supported at The Beehive by another West Country band, The Dillyboys, who play original and traditional folk songs and tunes, using banjo, accordion, guitar. Like the headline band, they are known for getting their audiences dancing.

Other September live music events at The Beehive are The Alter Eagles on Saturday 10th and Albert Lee and his band on Saturday 24th.

Parkinson’s, parkour and a lottery of life

DORCHESTER ACTRESS, film-maker and Parkinson’s sufferer Sue Wylie invites you to roll up for the Parkinson’s Lottery in her new film, which will be shown at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday 14th September, in a double bill with her first, Kinetics. Both films explore the experience of living with Parkinson’s Disease.

What A Load of Balls: The Parkinson’s Lottery, which is also available on YouTube, is a follow-on from Kinetics and looks at the hidden symptoms of Parkinson’s and the randomness of it all.

Anyone who has seen Kinetics—the film or the live performance—will know that it is an entertaining and moving story of the unlikely friendship that developed between a recently diagnosed Parkinson’s sufferer and a rebellious student.

Sue Wylie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s more than a decade ago, and decided to use her writing and acting skill to express her intimate knowledge of the condition through films made by her production company, DT2.

Kinetics follows the experience of a woman called Rose as she tries to come to terms with her diagnosis with early-onset Parkinson’s. An unlikely friendship develops when Lukas—a Parkour-obsessed student—comes tumbling into her life.

10% off for Marshwood Vale readers at The Bookshop on South Street, Bridport. 01308 422964 www.dorsetbooks.com

Art Weeks IN SOMERSET

Bronwen Coe has created a series of work on the theme ‘Theatre of trees’

ARTISTS across Somerset will be responding to the theme of ‘Sanctuary’ for this year’s Somerset Art Weeks.

More than 300 artists will be hosting exhibitions and events in over 100 venues, including loft spaces, tithe barns, stables, museums, churches, farms, libraries and a prison.

Members of Somerset Art Works and commissioned artists will be showcasing their work, giving local people and visitors to the county the opportunity to discover high quality shows and exhibitions in unique and inspiring locations across the county.

Artists have interpreted the theme of Sanctuary in many different ways, such as with paintings of the natural world, mindful mark making and a poetic sanctuary.

Somerset Art Works recently declared a Climate Emergency, and reflecting this, the event has a focus on sustainability. Many of the artists have been inspired by our relationship to the natural world. Others have responded to shared experiences of the pandemic, often highlighting positive changes or allowing visitors to contemplate.

A full event programme includes talks, walks and workshops focussing on making art, wellbeing and a return to nature. Each weekend will be Family Friendly, with arts activities for families of all shapes and sizes, encouraging everyone to join in.

Somerset Art Weeks runs from 24 Sept- 9 Oct 2022. For more information visit https://somersetartworks.org.uk.

Isata Kanneh-Mason playing at The Thomas Hardye School in September

The new film, What A Load of Balls, is a funny and hard-hitting short film that combines live action with animation to explore the hidden symptoms of Parkinson’s in a truly original way. Every ball in the Parkinson’s Lottery reveals a symptom!

Funds raised from this evening will be used to support Dorchester Arts’ Parkinson’s Dance classes and to further the work of DT2 Productions.

Star pianist from famous family

DORCHESTER THE Kanneh-Mason family has been making musical headlines for years, with awards showered on the two older siblings, cellist Sheku, the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year, who played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and his older sister Isata, who comes to Dorchester Arts at the Hardye Theatre at the Thomas Hardye School, on Thursday 29th September,

Isata Kanneh-Mason won the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award, a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist and, as a member of the Kanneh-Mason family, the 2021 best classical artist at the Global Awards.

She has released two albums, Romance—the Piano Music of Clara Schumann, and Summertime, a journey through the piano repertoire of 20th-century America.

During the 21/22 season, Isata is one of the European Concert Hall Organisation’s Rising Stars, giving recitals at some of the continent’s most illustrious concert venues.

Her programme at Dorchester includes Schumann’s Kinderszenen and works by Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn, Debussy, Clara Schumann and Chopin.

When Winnie met Adolf

DORCHESTER YOU know what to expect when Stu Mcloughlin and Howard Coggins—better known as Living Spit—tackle a serious subject. Mayhem. But also laughs—and their latest foray into world history promises plenty when they bring Adolf and Winston to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday 28th September.

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