Catherine Collins

The Plaques of Southampton

By Martin Brisland. Blue plaques started in London in 1866 and the first one there was to poet Lord Byron. There some blue and are several other types of plaque found in our city. Southampton Council facilitated some black ones to remember local people who had a connection to...

Miss Saigon to play Mayflower Theatre in 2026

Miss Saigon will visit Southampton in 2026, as Michael Harrison and Cameron Mackintosh announce that a new version of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical will tour Mayflower Theatre from Tuesday 27 January to Saturday 7 February. In the last days of the Vietnam War, 17-year-old Kim is forced to work...

Preview: Beans on Toast, The Joiners, Southampton

Beans on Toast will be back out on the road this March, including a stop at The Joiners on Tuesday 25 March 2025. Touring in support of his critically acclaimed latest work, Wild Goose Chasers, Beans and his long time musical partner Matt Millership are sizing up 16 headline...

Preview: Dracula, Theatre Royal Winchester

Fans of gothic horror are invited to an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel, Dracula, at Theatre Royal Winchester from Monday 3 March. Set in London, across provincial England, and the mountains of Transylvania in 1897, Dracula tells the story of a group of young men and women, led...

Chichester Festival Theatre announces Festival 2025

Chichester Festival Theatre have announced an exciting line-up for their 2025 Festival Season. It includes five world and two UK premieres, two musicals, and masterpieces from world drama featuring stars such as: Mark Addy, Natalie Dormer, Beverley Knight, Tom Rosenthal, Jenna Russell and Giles Terera. The world premieres feature:...

Preview: Polly Paulusma, Winchester Hyde Tavern, Winchester

Photo credit: Lina Jusevičiūtė Wildfires, the sixth studio album from English singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma, is out on February 28 via One Little Independent Records and Wild Sound, ahead of a date at Winchester Hyde Tavern on Thursday 20 March 2025. Across nearly two hours and six sides of vinyl, folk instrumentation...

Hat Fair returns for 2025

Hat Fair – the UK’s longest running festival of Outdoor Arts – is back for another summer, this year on Saturday 5 July. The festival – run by arts and education charity, Play to the Crowd – takes place in Winchester city centre and which celebrated its fiftieth birthday...