Shell's Belles

From the Echo, first published Friday 17th Oct 2003.

STEPHANIE Cole stars in a new stage adaptation of Rosamund Pilcher's bestselling book The Shell Seekers.

The play which runs at Lighthouse in Poole until tomorrow is a story of love, courage, determination and family troubles set in London and Cornwall between World War II and the present day.

Tel 01202 685222.

CAMERON Mackintosh's West End and Broadway blockbuster Miss Saigon continues its three-month run at Southampton's lavishly-refurbished Mayflower Theatre.

This multi-million pound production, a poignant love story set against the background of the dying days of the Vietnam War, seems a fitting first show for the new-look theatre.

Tel 023 8071 1811.

SALISBURY Playhouse's revival of Simon Gray's touching but hilarious comedy Quartermaine's Terms is continuing its three-week run.

The play, which is set in 1960, focuses on a kind-hearted but bumbling teacher in a Cambridge language school.

Baffled by modern life, he is rapidly losing touch with the changing world around him.

An intriguing and witty dissection of the English middle classes.

Telephone 01722 320333.

GEOFFERY Chaucer and Co bring their version of The Clerk's and Merchant's Tales to the Regent Centre in Christchurch tomorrow night.

Brilliantly bawdy stuff from this Californian-based theatre company dedicated to the works of Chaucer. This is their first UK tour. Telephone 01202 499148.

REJECTS Revenge Theatre Company has returned to Dorset with its new melodrama, Peasouper.

Described as "a Victorian tale of love, greed and man's inhumanity to camels", this bizarre show was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and has now been performed at more than 500 venues.

The independent described it as being like Fawlty Towers meets Theatre de Complicite.

Peasouper is at Sturminster Newton School tonight and Portesham Village Hall tomorrow.

Telephone 01258 472642 (Sturminster Newton) or 01305 897948 (Portesham) tomorrow.

ONE of the few people who can claim to have been employed as a resident poet in a tattoo parlour, Patience Agbabi is guest performer at the latest Poetry Café night at Dorchester Arts Centre tonight.

Agbabi, who has written two collections - R.A.W. and Transformatrix - and has performed worldwide, is a lecturer at Cardiff University.

Telephone 01305 266926.

SINGER Duncan Breeze fronts the all-singing, all-dancing touring show A Night at The Musicals which plays Salisbury City Hall tomorrow night.

The fully-costumed and choreographed production pays tribute to the big box office successes of the West End and Broadway. Telephone 01722 327676.

JIM Davidson brings his X-rated stand-up show to Salisbury on Sunday.

The outrageous funnyman delivers an evening of live and uncensored adults only material at the City Hall.

Think of a taboo subject and Jim will be making a joke out of it.

Not for the easily offended. Telephone 01722 327676.