Past Performances

The fastest-selling production in the Young Vic’s history, Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire will be broadcast live from their London home by National Theatre Live. With Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois, Ben Foster as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby as Stella.

A mesmerising, soaring evocation of the Eternal City and its contemporary inhabitants.

“A shimmering coup de cinema to make your heart burst” Robbie Collin, Telegraph

Helen McCrory (The Last of the Haussmans) returns to the National Theatre to take the title role in Euripides’ powerful tragedy, in a new version by Ben Power, directed by Carrie Cracknell.

This year’s Tri.art Summer School is the award winning musical Oliver! Students from the Summer school work hard to pull together a full blown musical in a fortnight.

Award-winning, internationally-touring theatre company Illyria return to the Merlin to take on one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. Expect a gripping story and the dazzling swordplay for which Illyria has an unmatched reputation.

Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan feature in the highly anticipated production of David Hare’s Skylight, directed by Stephen Daldry and broadcast from the West End by National Theatre Live.

New York State of Mind is a new musical that takes place in New York in the 1920s. The prohibition has been announced to all states of America, banning the importation and consumption of alcohol, ending the life of the night scene. Or so it would seem….

We are sorry to announce this performance has been cancelled

There will however be a performance at Bridgwater Arts Centre on Friday 18 July

A Frome Festival Performance Jeremy Hardy is the hilarious comedian known for his quick wit and anti-establishment politics, with a prolific career that has spanned three decades.

A Frome Festival Performance Sharp, creative observational comedy from teh award-winning, charismatic comedian, Seann Walsh. The evening will include support from Romesh Ranganathan, nominee for best newcomer at the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award 2013.

A subtle study of love and loyalties in Stasi-era rural East Germany. Directed by Christian Petzold

A Frome Festival Performance The South West Collective’s COUNT ME IN is a spoken word theatre show about the numbers in our lives. They will also run a free workshop at 2pm, where the words you write will be part of the show. Can we count you in?

A Frome Festival Performance Miracle celebrates 35 years of producing engaging, inventive and enjoyable theatre by bringing together a team of talented collaborators, past and present, to create a fresh and musical adaptation Shakespeare’s timeless play that will delight audiences of all ages. The Tempest will be an outdoor performance

A FROME FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE Join Simeon Wood, live in concert for one night only. Reknowned for the dexterity of his playing, Simeon has a repertoire including flute, celtic whistles, pan pipes and even an NHS Crutch.

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School return to the Merlin with Georges Feydeau’s high spirited romp. Sauce For The Goose is stuffed with preening characters knitting their legs in sexual frustration as master French farceur Feydeau’s sparkling play switches from riotous farce to barbed social satire.

Armed with a stage full of instruments and a box of chalk, FINE CHISEL’s award-winning actor-musicians conjure the rush of waves, the buzz of a 1960s pirate radio station and the far-from-dry world of marine mammal bioacoustics.

Warminster School stage a magical retelling of this classic novel by Russell Hoban.

A riotous exposure of entrepreneurial greed by Olivier Award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn. A Small Family Business returns to the National Theatre for the first time since its celebrated premiere in 1987, when it won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play.

A richly unfamiliar, convention-twisting black comedy, directed by Peter Strickland

In a scintillating fusion of heart wrenching vocals, explosive footwork and virtuoso guitar playing, Jaleo return to Britain after three years with their latest new stage show ‘A Compás’, brimming over with the intoxicating rhythms, palpable energy and joie de vivre which has become synonymous with the company.

Join Tri.art for a delightful evening as students from the drama groups, hip hop classes and dance classes perform a wonderful mixed bill of theatre and dance.

Geminus is a visually and musically stimulating show, featuring dance, rhythm and object manipulation and tailor-made for Early Years.

The first outdoor performance of 2014! Following their enormous successes with JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and FANTASTIC MR FOX, and a record-breaking sell-out season of THE TWITS, Illyria returns with yet another Roald Dahl classic full of (literally) larger-than-life characters, plenty to join in with, and just a twist of malicious fun!

A surreal, hilarious and entertaining double-bill from up-and-coming writer/performer Tom Wainwright. His work has been produced by Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal Bath, Tobacco Factory, Theatre Bristol, MAYK, Myrtle Theatre, ATC, Paines Plough, Hull Truck, and BBC Radio 4, now you can catch him in Frome!

Following its smash-hit live broadcast in 2012, the National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time returns to venues.

Fifty young people from Frome Youth Choir combine their voices with a live band to provide an afternoon of unforgettable musical entertainment.

Endearing and hard-hitting drama-documentary about the redemptive and liberating power of art. Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

Courage Performers have a brand new treat for you to enjoy, a new musical production which they will be taking to the Edinburgh Festival in the summer of 2014. Fun for the whole family. You’ll leave with a smile on your face and a song in your heart!

Beverly has the party under control – nuts, pineapple on a stick, Bacardi on ice and “Love to Love you Baby” playing on the Hifi – What could possible go wrong? Frome Drama Club take a fresh look at this hilarious play by Mike Leigh,set in the seventies.

Insight celebrates and shares the similarities and differences between our cultures through dance. Based on the apparent simplicity and repetition of kissing each other, the performance develops as if behind closed doors. Sometimes absurd, sometimes cynical, it is a performance reminiscent of human relationships.

Tri.art Dance Academy and Theatre School will provide guest performances to kick-off the evening

THE MERLIN RECOMMENDS!

Sunny has been playing the “outrageous and raunchy Lilian Bellamy” in Radio 4’s The Archers for the past 12 years and has become one of the listeners’ favourite characters. Join her for behind the scenes stories about the world’s longest running soap opera – an evening of anecdotes, banter, and favourite pieces from Sunny’s long and distinguished acting career.

THE MERLIN RECOMMENDS!

Following her smash-hit debut WASTED, rapper and spoken word poet Kate Tempest’s incendiary new play combines lyrical fireworks with exhilarating live music.

Danger, the fragility of existence and the desire to survive; we’re surrounded by these things in the relentless challenges of life. How do we respond? With fear, anger, determination? Renowned for exhilarating choreography that leaves you breathless, James Wilton’s work draws on martial arts, break dancing and capoeira to create raw, earthy and ground-breaking performance.

As part of the Spring Forward Festival 2014, Take Art’s dance and drama services will be collaborating with InspirED primary schools around the county to showcase an evening of dance and drama performances from local primary schools and groups.

THE MERLIN RECOMMENDS!

Award-winning clown troupe Le Navet Bete bring their new show to the Merlin- a whirlwind of live music, physical comedy, audience participation, pistols at dawn and sugar glass bottles. Will outlaw and all-round bad guy Loco Perdro rid the town of Kidneystone of all it’s gold? There’s only one way to find out…

Fabulously entertaining poetry from award-winning poet, Nathan Filer. Nathan will read and talk about both his poetry and fiction and reveal why he was deported from Israel on his 2012 truth-finding trip …

Merlin Associate Artist Pip Utton brings two of his award-winning, one-man shows to the Merlin. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Edventure, Frome

“Utton is a national treasure” Fringe Review

Award-winning TV comedian Mark Thomas takes to the Merlin stage with his latest show, a hilarious, subversive and inspiring account of his decision to commit 100 acts of minor dissent in a year.

“Touching but brilliantly funny" -The Times

A beautiful family show from Io Theatre. Join Gwyn as he is drawn into a dangerous adventure on his 9th birthday. With dark forces to confront he is helped in his quest by Arianwen, a silver spider from another world…

The award winning Merlin Theatre Company’s musical Christmas show has become a ‘must see’ as a start to the festive season. This year with over forty different characters on stage it promises to be a fun packed, visual delight for all of the family to enjoy. Join us as we re-tell this timeless classic.

Emma is married to Robert, a publisher. But for seven years, she has been having an affair with Jerry, a literary agent and Robert’s best friend.

Betrayal begins after the end of the affair, and pursues an intricate, gripping journey back to its very beginning.

Guy Jones, recently widowed and looking to expand his social life, joins PALOS – his local amateur light operatic society – who are in the early stages of rehearsal for their production of The Beggar’s Opera. Unable to say ‘no’ to anyone, he quickly finds himself in the arms of one frustrated wife, and in the bed of another, whilst a succession of casting mishaps results in his being rapidly promoted out of the chorus and through a range of roles, until he ends up playing the lead!

Andrew O’Neill, struggling to maintain concentration for long enough to write a new comedy show, decided to write about the fact that he was struggling to maintain concentration long enough to write a new comedy show.

Also, he has been on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle and heard on Radio One and Radio 5 Live.

“THIS SHOW IS NOW SOLD OUT.”

Jonathan Goddard plays the infamous Vampire Count, whose sinister and ruthless ambitions challenge the very fabric of Victorian society. As his victims and opponents rally against him they must face the darkness and savagery within themselves.

A bitter-sweet physical comedy for everyone who is a day older than yesterday! Two elderly Spanish sisters in a foreign land live against the backdrop of a battered rug and a mountain of mysterious boxes.

“There are no elephants in Australia. Well, no elephants except this one…” Written especially for parents to enjoy with their children, The Elephant Bridesmaid is a magical musical about weddings and wombats and the loveliest elephant the world has ever known.

It’s 1899 and escaped prisoner-of-war Winston Churchill is in a fiendish spot of bother: lost in the African savannah, wanted ‘Dead or Alive’ and hounded by the scathing words of his dead father.

Join Vienna Festival Ballet on a magical journey with their world premiere production of Snow White.

The poor Miller Jean-Pierre and his wife are starving. The wind does not blow to turn the mill to grind the corn. The rain does not fall, the plants do not grow and there’s no food for the animals. In desperation, Jean-Pierre appeals to The Wind and The Rain for help with fantastical results.