12 Angry Men at Lighthouse Poole – watching the table turn.

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23 January 2024

If you’ve never seen it, 12 Angry Men can be a bit of a tough sell on paper – a jury sits in a hot stuffy room and discusses their verdict on a murder trial. You never see the courtroom trial, you never meet the alleged murderer, you don’t hear from the lawyers. They never leave the room, there are no new characters, the scene never changes … And yet it’s compelling, intense and utterly absorbing.

Following a recording-breaking West End season, this powerful production is now touring, and this week comes to Lighthouse Poole. The production stars Jason Merrells (Casualty, Emmerdale), Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Peak Practice), Tristan Gemmill (Coronation Street, Casualty), Michael Greco (EastEnders), Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier) and Gary Webster (Minder, Family Affairs) among the all-star ensemble.

The minimalist set, with its gently rotating central table smartly representing time passing, is effective and atmospheric. The room is tired and the lighting is oppressive; both do a good job of instilling the claustrophobia of the original. Purists will perhaps be a little surprised by the comedic breaks in tension – though they were welcomed by much of the audience, they do make for a difference in momentum. Laughs aside, here lies all the nuanced social introspection you would expect.

Jason Merrells plays pivotal juror eight, the single quiet voice of opposition, asking for just a little more thought and discussion. Slowly we uncover the crime, break down the evidence … and reveal the chasms that separate the seemingly-united 11 by class, religion, age, arrogance and ignorance.

The audience is held in the grip of the close atmosphere of the heat-stricken room – the break for intermission caused a spontaneous gasp for air by many in the audience, and the seamless rejoining in the second half immersed the audience instantly where they left off.

The unpleasantness rises and falls as we meet and dismiss case (and character) points. There are no names, and few personal details are obliquely revealed. Yet we come to love one, detest another, regard a third with pity, a fourth with frustrated fury …

The sense of menace created especially by the unravelling of juror number three, played by Tristan Gemmill, unrelentingly increases – but for me he was in the end perhaps just a little too angry? The powerful final scene might have been even more impactful if he hadn’t already been shouting for the last five minutes.

However, the payoff is the quiet as he’s handed his coat. It is utterly deafening.

Written in 1954, the relevance of the 70 year old plot is sadly striking. We all have ingrained prejudices. The need for civic responsibility and social justice. The importance of listening, of being open-minded, of looking for the truth rather than the mob’s easy answer. And the simple importance of quietly but firmly standing up for what is right.

12 Angry Men is on at Lighthouse Poole until Saturday 27^th, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday.

https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/twelve-angry-men/

Operations Assistant | Milton Abbey School

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23 January 2024

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40 hours a week – Fixed Term Contract

Milton Abbey School seeks an experienced and competent Operations Assistant to work within our busy Operations Team. This will be 40 hours a week (all year round), varied role within the School Operations Team, meeting varied administrative needs. Working days will be Monday to Friday, and every other Saturday morning.

The successful candidate must have a broad understanding of general office tasks, with a reasonable knowledge level. Previous administrative experience is essential, as is the need for strong IT skills.

You will be part of a friendly and supportive team, and training will be available to enhance skills. Staff also benefit from 25 days annual holiday plus bank holidays, free parking and afree refreshment and three course hot lunch during term time.

Further details may be obtained from our website or from HR on 01258 882306 or email [email protected]. Applications must be submitted on the school’s application form. The closing date for applications is Friday 2nd February 2024. Please note that we are not accepting applications for this position through any employment agency and all applicationsshould be made direct to the school.

Milton Abbey School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The appointment will be the subject of an enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service. Additionally, please be aware that Milton Abbey School will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. To avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination a person who will not be on the appointment panel will conduct the search and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.

Please note that our school is a no smoking site.

www.miltonabbey.co.uk Registered Charity No 306318

Kitchen/catering Assistant | Fairmead School

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22 January 2024

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10 Hours per week, 12 – 2pm, 38 weeks, term time only

Grade 15 – Gross salary £5,646

Fairmead Community Special School transforms the lives of pupils aged between 4-19 years with additional learning needs (MLD and ASD). The school works in partnership with parents/carers and other stakeholders to develop our pupils in becoming positive individuals who make a valuable contribution to their community.

We are looking to appoint a reliable and motivated individual to join our existing Midday team. The Applicant will enjoy working with young people. Being a good team player is an essential requirement for the successful candidate. The focus of the role is to support the cleaning and catering of our daily hot meal provision. Previous experience in a similar setting would be an advantage but isn’t essential as full training will be given.

To obtain an application pack please view http://www.fairmeadschool.com/vacancies or contact [email protected]

Prospective candidates are warmly invited to visit our school; this can be arranged by contacting [email protected]

Closing/Shortlisting Date: Tuesday 13th February

Interviews: Tuesday 20^th February.

Fairmead School is committed to safeguarding the school community. All job applications must contain the disclosure of any spent convictions and cautions. The school will carry out pre-employment vetting procedures, which include an online search for shortlisted candidates and the successful outcome of an enhanced DBS

FULL & PART TIME CLASSROOM TEACHERS MPS/UPS + 1 SEN | Fairmead School

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22 January 2024

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STARTING APRIL/SEPTEMBER 2024 (SUPPLY ALSO CONSIDERED)

ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Fairmead School transforms the lives of young people aged between 4 and 19 years with additional learning needs (moderate learning difficulties and autism).

We are seeking to appoint both full-time and part-time enthusiastic and dynamic Classroom Teachers who have the flexibility to teach a range of curriculum subjects across the school. Successful candidates will be self-motivated, creative, fun and inspirational teachers who have a desire to build meaningful and positive relationships with all the young people they encounter. They will need to approach curriculum subjects in a purposeful, age-appropriate and exciting way, engaging young people through first-hand experiences. They will have high aspirations for our young people and will be committed to, and passionate about, preparing them for successful, independent and happy futures in adulthood.

The successful candidates will join our committed, passionate and dedicated staff team and play an integral role in building an exhilarating future for our school community.

We welcome applications from teachers with all levels of experience from a range of educational backgrounds. We would also welcome a teacher with a passion for ICT.

Full details (Job Description, Person Specification and application form) can be obtained by clicking the Apply Now button below or the school website www.fairmeadschool.com or by email to [email protected]

We welcome school visits, please email [email protected] to make an appointment.

Closing Date: 12/02/2024

Interview Date: 22/02/024

Fairmead School is committed to safeguarding the school community. All job applications must contain the disclosure of any spent convictions and cautions. The school will carry out pre-employment vetting procedures, which include an online search for shortlisted candidates and the successful outcome of an enhanced DBS

Apply Link: https://dasjobs.co.uk/job/classroom-teachers/

New Thomas Hardy lecture series

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22 January 2024

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Dorset Archives Trust, in conjunction with the Thomas Hardy Society, have announced a series of three fascinating lectures examining different aspects of Hardy’s life and work, all referencing elements of his archival legacy.
Dorchester, Hardy’s Casterbridge, is home to the world’s largest Thomas Hardy archive. It is inscribed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World as a collection of international significance – Dorset History Centre holds 150 boxes of the author’s records, ranging from the original manuscript of The Mayor of Casterbridge through poetry, correspondence, photographs and much more. The challenge is to make the entire collection accessible; currently it is not visible to the outside world due to the lack of a digital catalogue.
Dorset Archives Trust is working hard to raise funds for an archivist to lead an 18-month project, producing a detailed catalogue of the author’s extensive archive. It will then be made freely available to all online, encouraging engagement with Hardy’s life and works through the personal letters, photographs, notes and work he left behind.
The first lecture is on Thursday 9th March 7pm: Thomas Hardy and Charles Darwin: Lives in Letters with Prof. Angelique Richardson and Dr Paul White.

You can find details of all three lectures here – all are via Zoom, and cost £10 each, or £25 for the series of three.

Energy crisis: soaring costs and corporate profits

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22 January 2024

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From 1st January 2024, the price of energy for a typical household using gas and electricity and who pay by Direct Debit went up by another £94, rubbing more salt into the wound of the current cost-of-living crisis.
On an entirely unrelated note, the world’s five largest energy providers are expected this year to reward their investors with record payouts of more than $100 billion, following another year of record profits that continue to be triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on global energy markets and gas prices across Europe.
With a dysfunctional fossil fuel market driving energy prices sky high, 2023 was still the second hottest year on record in the UK (the top spot goes to 2022) seeing a wet summer bookended by heat waves of 33º in both June and September, alongside stories of ever more extreme weather events around the globe. It is clear that the case for owning our own, clean energy has never been more overwhelming.
Fortunately, there is a choice. With a General Election on the cards in 2024, voters will get the opportunity to choose between Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives (who have, in 12 years, failed to get to grips with the energy crisis and continue to renege on their environmental commitments), and Keir Starmer’s Labour Party with their vision of a transformative plan to create Great British Energy: a new, publicly-owned clean energy company that will harness Britain’s sun, wind and rain to create jobs, cut energy bills, accelerate net zero – and make the UK energy independent.

Pat Osborne
North Dorset Labour

Georgia O’Keeffe: Memories of Drawings

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21 January 2024

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A portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe at Ghost Ranch, 1975, by American photographer Dan Budnik, (1933-2020), best-known for his work covering the Civil Rights movement, Native American life and portraits of artists.

Georgia O’Keeffe has been a feminist icon for many years. Her voluptuous flower paintings have become a visual cliche – but there is so much more to this major artist, who was a leading figure in the American Modernists.
A new touring exhibition, from the Hayward Gallery on London’s South Bank, brings a collection of photogravures of her drawings to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre gallery, from Thursday 25th January to Tuesday 27th February.
The drawings were produced by the artist between 1915 and 1963, reflecting the development of her art and her position as an important innovator, finding a balance between figurative and abstract, and capturing unique and challenging insights into both the cityscapes of New York and the vast mountainous deserts of the American South West, particularly New Mexico where she lived for much of her long life.

Images from Some Memories of Drawings, 1974 © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum DACS, London 2021
Image 1. Goat’s Horns II, 1945 Image 2. Banana Flower, 1933 Image 3. Drawing No.12, 1917, annotated with ‘maybe a kiss …’ by O’Keeffe

Abstracts and etchings
Born in Wisconsin in 1887, O’Keeffe died in New Mexico in 1986. Much of her work is on view at the O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, although visitors can also go to her home, Ghost Ranch, at Abiquiu, some miles from the city.
She was best known as a painter, but drawing was central to her practice. It was her charcoal abstracts which secured her inaugural exhibitions in 1916-17, organised by the prominent photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz. They later married, but had a famously stormy relationship – he had affairs with other women and she increasingly spent her time in New Mexico.
She used drawing as a language to evoke important moments and emotions – the curve of a flower petal, a desert horizon, the wave of one’s hair or the flow of a winding road. The works in the exhibition at Poole show her distinctive style and chart themes and motifs, from early charcoal abstracts through pencil drawings and watercolours, to the powerful semi-abstract images of animal skulls and horns which she found on the desert near Abiquiu.
Photogravure is a printmaking process that produces etchings with the tone and detail of a photograph through exposure onto a copper plate. The exhibition includes nine prints of her earliest charcoal abstracts alongside photogravures of works originally rendered in pencil and watercolour. Displayed alongside the drawings there are texts about why she made them. They are sourced from a fragmentary but often poetic text that she published alongside the collection in 1974.

Do you have some time on a Monday morning?

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21 January 2024

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Home-Start Blackmore Vale are looking for a friendly volunteer to help at the Mother’s in Mind group, held near Sturminster Newton on a Monday morning from 10am to 11:30am.
Mothers in Mind is a referral-only, supportive group for mums experiencing anxiety, loneliness, antenatal or post natal depression.
If you have some free time, could be a general welcoming presence and would be happy entertaining toddlers and babies while mums take some time to chat and to engage in some craft activities, then Home-Start would love to hear from you. You might also be on tea and coffee duty, would be helping to set up and pack away from the session. For more information or to get involved please email [email protected] or call 01258 473038

Facing challenges with a spirit of optimism

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21 January 2024

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anuary is for looking forward at the year ahead – and as a good Liberal Democrat, I look forward with hope and optimism. As someone once said: a sunny and optimistic disposition won’t solve your problems, but it will annoy enough curmudgeons and doom-mongers to make it well worth the effort!
We all know there are serious challenges that demand serious attention and serious answers – but we should attempt to meet those challenges in a spirit of optimism, with conviction that they will be overcome. The key thing is to mix the spirit with the seriousness, and not equate optimism with frivolity.
We cannot simply wish away our difficulties, and there has been too much of the latter over the last few years. Regrettably, the work will also take time and it will cost money that’s in very short supply right now. But with optimism there is also purpose, and that is what we really need and must sustain if we are to thrive in this turbulent world.
One reason for hope and optimism is the knowledge that a General Election will be called this year. At last – we will have the chance, and duty, to give our verdict on this (desperate, wheezing and useless) government. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We will also have Dorset Council elections on 2nd May. We could even have a buy-one-get-one-free opportunity to get it all out of the way and done on the one day. Alas, only if Rishi Sunak has the courage to accept that the game is up, and that we must all have our say.

A different way
A better way ahead is clear. One that is more fair, more open and more free. I took some time this Christmas – between classic TV and the offspring’s latest Tik Tok memes – to read a great report by the Resolution Foundation, which I recommend to anyone interested in serious ideas for the UK economy and The Social Contract. There’s a small health warning, however – the report is weighty. But at least it is coherent and clear. It would also make heavy demands on a government that adopted it.
More importantly, it would demand of us that we be serious too, and understand that the benefits will have costs.
The bit that really stuck in my mind was at the end of a section criticising a Cameron-Osborne era notion about turning Britain’s economy into ‘one like Germany’s’, with a broad-based, China-focused, manufacturing/export economy. The UK today is the second greatest exporter of services in the world after the USA, with smaller – but important – leading edge manufacturing capabilities in specific, niche high-tech areas.
Yet we have stagnated.
I love Germany but as the report says, Britain has strengths and we need to play to them. We need to invest more, both reliably and regularly, and we need to value people much more.
The report is spot on. We need to be a better version of Britain: not a British version of Germany – or anywhere else for that matter. So, I finished reading my Christmas homework seeing a reflection of our values and some great ideas. I have a strong sense that Liberal Democratic policies are right for our times – and that we should all have grounds for hope and optimism in implementing them or at least in influencing a different government to do so, with rigour and energy.
Liberal Democrats will field a strong team of candidates in the coming year of elections – for Dorset Council, as Police and Crime Commissioner and in the General Election. I am standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate in North Dorset for the coming General Election and look forward to bringing seriousness and optimism to ballot boxes across our beautiful slice of Britain.

Gary Jackson
North Dorset LibDems