Exhibition of a range of approaches to drawing by a group of 8 selected artists. Free admission.

Open 10am to 4pm daily. Free admission.

A department store Santa who claims to be the real Santa Claus sparks wonder and scepticism when his identity is put on trial.

As a young girl and her mother wrestle with doubt, they are drawn into a journey that ultimately affirms the power of faith, kindness, and the spirit of Christmas.

Director: Les Mayfield

Featuring: Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J. T. Walsh

Details: USA | Language: English | 1994 | 1h 54m

Showings:

Tuesday 16th December – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

 An exhibition bringing together the tactile depth of ceramics and the quiet intensity of landscape photography.

Ruth Readman’s hand built vessels are rooted in the natural world, echoing textures of earth, stone, and weathered surfaces. Her work invites touch and reflection, blurring the line between functional object and expressive artwork.

Alongside, Dan Croft’s atmospheric landscape photography captures fleeting light, shifting skies, and the enduring presence of land.

Together, their practices create a dialogue between form and image, clay and lens, offering fresh perspectives on how we see, feel, and connect with our surrounding landscapes.

Open 10.30am to 5pm daily. Free admission.

A tinderbox of competition and resentments underneath the façade of a picture-perfect couple is ignited when the husband’s professional dreams come crashing down.

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites. THE ROSES is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler.

Director: Jay Roach

Featuring: Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Samberg

Details: Language: English | 2025 |  1h 45m |

Showings:

Wednesday 17th December – 19:30

Sunday 21st December – 17:00

Tickets: £7.50 Adults. £6.50 Members & Friends. £5.50 under 18s.

A black and comic thriller set in the frigid winter landscape of Minnesota, concerning a crime that gets out of control, with some gruesome results.

Regarded as a stand-out in the Coen brothers’ catalogue and for Frances McDormand’s outstanding performance as a persistent policewoman.

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Featuring: William H Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi

Details: UK/USA | Language: English | 1996 | 1h 38m

Tickets: £7.50. Members & Friends £6.50. U18s £5.50. Film Society members free.

See here for details of Film Society membership.

Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Responder) in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play by David Ireland.

After years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James becomes a sponsor to newcomer Luka. The pair bond over black coffee, trade stories and build a fragile friendship out of their shared experiences. But as Luka approaches step five – the moment of confession – dangerous truths emerge, threatening the trust on which both of their recoveries depend.

Finn den Hertog directs this provocative and entertaining production filmed live from @sohoplace on London’s West End.

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

A tinderbox of competition and resentments underneath the façade of a picture-perfect couple is ignited when the husband’s professional dreams come crashing down.

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites. THE ROSES is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler.

Director: Jay Roach

Featuring: Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Samberg

Details: Language: English | 2025 |  1h 45m |

Showings:

Wednesday 17th December – 19:30

Sunday 21st December – 17:00

Tickets: £7.50 Adults. £6.50 Members & Friends. £5.50 under 18s.

Coffee, Cake and Crafts! Join us at Shaftesbury Arts Centre for our fun and friendly Crafty Café!

Enjoy a relaxing morning with a coffee and a chat while the kids get creative with free Christmas-themed craft activities – perfect for keeping little hands busy.

There’s plenty for adults to join in with too, so everyone can enjoy getting a bit crafty! Perfect for families, grandparents, and anyone who loves a bit of creativity with their coffee!

This event is kindly sponsored by Hobby Craft Yeovil.

Free entry.

The Muppets’ rendition of Charles Dickens’ classic tale puts a unique twist on that fateful Christmas Eve, when Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Together with kind, humble Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog) and his family, the Spirits open Scrooge’s eyes – and his heart – to the true meaning of Christmas.

Director: Brian Henson

Featuring: Michael Caine, Steve Whitmire, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, David Rudman

Details: USA | Language: English | 1992 | 1h 27m

Showings:

Tuesday 23rd December – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

War correspondent Lee Miller travels to the front lines of World War II to embark on a mission to uncover the hidden truths of the Third Reich.

The true story of photographer Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.

Director: Ellen Kuras

Featuring: Kate Winslet, Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard.

Details: UK | Language: English | 2023 | 1h 56m

Showings:

Tuesday 6th January – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

Victoria Wood remains one of Britain’s most cherished entertainers – a comic genius whose work reshaped the landscape of British humour. But behind the joyous persona – the singer, the satirist, the sharp-witted writer – lay a young woman navigating insecurity, anger, and self-doubt.

Told in her ownwords and through the voices of those who knew her best, the film uncovers the formative experiences and personal battles that powered Victoria’s unmatched ability to make the nation laugh.

Featuring: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Maxine Peake, Joan Armatrading, Jasper Carrott, and Michael Ball.

Tickets: £7.50

Members & Friends: £6.50

Under 18s £5.50

Victoria Wood remains one of Britain’s most cherished entertainers – a comic genius whose work reshaped the landscape of British humour. But behind the joyous persona – the singer, the satirist, the sharp-witted writer – lay a young woman navigating insecurity, anger, and self-doubt.

Told in her ownwords and through the voices of those who knew her best, the film uncovers the formative experiences and personal battles that powered Victoria’s unmatched ability to make the nation laugh.

Featuring: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Maxine Peake, Joan Armatrading, Jasper Carrott, and Michael Ball.

Tickets: £7.50

Members & Friends: £6.50

Under 18s £5.50

The place we’ll always remember. The family we’ll never forget. Everything has led to this.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the cinematic return of the global phenomenon, follows the Crawley family and their staff as they enter the 1930s. When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.

Director: Simon Curtis

Featuring: Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery.

Details: UK | Language: English | 2025 | 2h 04m

Showings:

Tuesday 13th January – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

At one of her lavish parties, celebrated Parisian courtesan Violetta is introduced to Alfredo Germont. The two fall madly in love, and though hesitant to leave behind her life of luxury and freedom, Violetta follows her heart.

But the young couple’s happiness is short-lived, as the harsh realities of life soon come knocking.

As intimate as it is sumptuous, La traviata features some of opera’s most famous melodies, and is a star vehicle for its leading soprano role sung by Ermonela Jaho. In director Richard Eyre’s world of seductive grandeur, the tender and devastating beauty at the centre of Verdi’s opera shines bright.

Sung in Italian with subtitles | Duration: 4h (to be confirmed)

Cast:
Violetta Valéry ERMONELA JAHO
Alfredo Germont GIOVANNI SALA
Giorgio Germont ALEKSEI ISAEV
Annina VEENA AKAMA-MAKIA
Doctor Grenvil BARNABY REA
Flora Bervoix ELLEN PEARSON
Baron Douphol SAM HIRD
Gastone de Letorières GIORGI GULIASHVILI
Marquis d’Obigny OSSIAN HUSKINSON

Creatives:
Music GIUSEPPE VERDI
Conductor ANTONELLO MANACORDA
Director RICHARD EYRE
Designer BOB CROWLEY
Lighting Designer JEAN KALMAN
Director of Movement JANE GIBSON

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

Mike Hatchard Plays Everything?

With ‘Rhapsody in Blue, plus Chopin, Brubeck, Bach…and even How to Write your Own Lloyd Weber Song’

Tickets:

Adults: £15

Members, Friends & Under 18s: £12.50

Booking Coming Soon

Barry Lyndon, an ambitious Irishman of humble origins, sets out in 18th-century Europe to rise through society’s ranks by any means necessary.

Through deceit, duels, and a fortuitous marriage to a wealthy widow, he achieves wealth and status, but his reckless actions and personal flaws precipitate his eventual downfall.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Featuring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Diana Körner, Gay Hamilton

Details: UK/USA | Language: English | 1975 | 3h 5m

Showings:

Tuesday Matinée 20th January – 2pm 

Tickets: £5.

Shaftesbury Festival Of Baroque 2026 Season Ticket – £120. Members & Friends £100.

The season ticket gives you access to all the events scheduled for the Shaftesbury Festival of Baroque. Please show your festival season ticket at the entrance of each event. To book, click here.

Clarice Cliff breaks the glass ceiling and revolutionizes the workplace at a pottery factory in 1920s England.

Director: Claire McCarthy

Featuring: Phoebe Dynevor, Matthew Goode.

Details: UK | Language: English | 2021 | 1h 52m

Showings:

Tuesday 3rd February – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

Picasso: A Rebel In Paris takes an unprecedented and alternative look at the
maestro of modernity.

The film focuses on the story of a young immigrant, poor but destined to become one of the most important icons of the 20th century.

The film moves continuously in and out of the Musée Picasso in Paris, which has the largest existing collection dedicated to the painter with 6,000 masterpieces and 200,000 pieces of archive material, and follows Picasso through the Parisian neighbourhoods where he lived, from the early days in ateliers with no heating to the large middle-class apartments where his success began: a physical and intellectual journey to gain a deeper understanding of his work and spirit.

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

What happens when a cinema’s Lord of the Rings marathon goes terribly wrong?

At the local cinema, all hell breaks loose when the ushers misplace the DVDs of The Lord of the Rings trilogy – every single copy! With only the soundtracks left in hand, the team of hapless ushers must somehow improvise an entire three-film saga in front of a live audience.

Get ready for an uproarious evening of comedy, chaos, and utter nonsense, as they attempt to recreate the epic tale of hobbits, elves, and orcs – without any visuals, any planning, or any clue what they’re doing.

Will Frodo ever make it to Mordor? Will Aragorn get crowned king? Will Gollum stop stealing the show? Will anyone even remember who’s supposed to be who?! It’s a show that’s more fun than a barrel of hobbits, and definitely more chaotic than a Gandalf speech.

If you’ve ever wanted to see Gollum fight a battle with sound effects, or Gandalf desperately trying to remember what happens next, then you’re in for a hilarious treat!

Tickets: £20. Members, Friends and under 18s £18.

Struggling to fit in at his new school after being expelled for his treatment of Auggie Pullman, Julian is visited by his grandmother and is transformed by the story of her attempts to escape Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

Director: Marc Forster.

Featuring: Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson, Orlando Schwerdt, Bryce Gheisar.

Details: USA | Language: English | 2024 | 2h 01m

Showings:

Tuesday 10th February – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

Since The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is full with its existing long-term residents, co-owners Muriel and Sonny make plans for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel while he prepares for his wedding.

Director: John Madden

Featuring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy.

Details: UK | Language: English | 2015 | 2h 02m

Showings:

Tuesday 17th February – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

Out Of The Box is a family-friendly circus comedy show, which sees an unlikely character and his box bring audiences together through joyful awe, never knowing what to expect next.

With every opening of the box comes new trick shots, mini acts, and hilarious opportunities for participation – but don’t worry – Darryl only ever wants you to leave the stage feeling like the star of the show (there’s no ridicule here!). Delivered through, non-verbal clowning, ordinary objects become extraordinary in the hands of Darryl – and you won’t believe the reaction he gets from a toothbrush in the finale! The show is a joyous celebration of play throughout your life, whatever your age, bringing generations together through seriously skilful silliness.

Tickets:

Adults: £12

Members & Friends: £10.50

Under 18s: £8

Booking Coming Soon

A band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves. Based on a true story.

Director: Richard Curtis

Featuring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Sturridge, Bill Nighy, Will Adamsdale.

Details: UK | Language: English | 2009 | 2h 15m

Showings:

Tuesday 24th February – 2pm Matinée

Please note: Our Tuesday Matinées feature subtitles for the hard of hearing and will include an interval.

Tickets: £5.

A collection of new paintings by Sara Westaway featuring local landscapes, flora and fauna.

‘Glimmers’ are moments of joy, and each work is inspired by a place or experience, which Sara has strived to capture in her unique style.

A collection of new paintings by Sara Westaway featuring local landscapes, flora and fauna.

‘Glimmers’ are moments of joy, and each work is inspired by a place or experience, which Sara has strived to capture in her unique style.

Join ‘The Magical Mr West’ on an incredible adventure into the world of science!Aided by his corvid companion Crowbert and a collection of curious contraptions, Mr West demonstrates the fundamental principles of scientific enquiry, exploring everything from supersonic speediness to malicious misinformation.

Best known as one half of magic duo ‘Morgan & West’, ‘The Magical Mr West’ has travelled around the world performing to audiences of all ages with spectacular shows that include magic, science and a good deal of tomfoolery. Now he presents his most amazing show yet, with the help (or possibly hindrance…) of a wisecracking cartoon crow.

Expect skills, silliness and the studious application of logic as you embark upon ‘Adventures in Science!’

Tickets:

Adults: £12.50

Members & Friends: £11.50

Under 18s: £10.50

Booking Coming Soon

Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question – you know the one.

National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this sharp, stylish and darkly funny reimagining.

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

Princess Pamina has been captured. Her mother, the Queen of the Night, tasks the young Prince Tamino with her daughter’s rescue.

But when Tamino and his friendly sidekick, Papageno, embark on their adventure, they soon learn that when it comes to the quest for love, nothing is as it really seems. Guided by a magic flute, they encounter monsters, villains, and a mysterious brotherhood of men – but help, it turns out, comes when you least expect it.

Mozart’s fantastical opera glitters in David McVicar’s enchanting production. A star cast including Julia Bullock as Pamina, Amitai Pati as Tamino, Huw Montague Rendall as Papageno, Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and Soloman Howard as Sarastro, led by French conductor Marie Jacquot in her Covent Garden debut.

Sung in German with subtitles | Duration: 3h 30m (to be confirmed)

Cast:
Pamina JULIA BULLOCK
Tamino AMITAI PATI
Papageno HUW MONTAGUE RENDALL
Queen of the Night KATHRYN LEWEK
Sarastro SOLOMAN HOWARD
Monostatos GERHARD SIEGEL

Creatives:
Music WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Conductor MARIE JACQUOT
Director DAVID MCVICAR
Designer JOHN MACFARLANE
Lighting Designer PAULE CONSTABLE
Movement Director LEAH HAUSMAN

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin.

Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his portrayal of the urbane Onegin, who realises his affection for her all too late.

The Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of … Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph).

Sung in Russian with English subtitles | Duration: 4h 5m with two intervals (to be confirmed)

Cast:
Tatiana ASMIK GRIGORIAN
Olga MARIA BARAKOVA
Filippyevna STEPHANIE BLYTHE
Lenski STANISLAS DE BARBEYRAC
Eugene Onegin IGOR GOLOVATENKO
Prince Gremin ALEXANDER TSYMBALYUK

Creatives:
Music PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Conductor TIMUR ZANGIEV
Director DEBORAH WARNER
Set Designer TOM PYE
Costume Designer CHLOE OBOLENSKY
Lighting Designer JEAN KALMAN
Projection Designer IAN WILLIAM GALLOWAY and FINN ROSS
Choreographer KIM BRANDSTRUP

Tickets: £15. Members, Friends and under 18s £12.50.

Sherlock Holmes The Death and Life. A fantasy based upon a fiction, finds Arthur Conan Doyle tiring of ‘his’ intolerably arrogant Sherlock Holmes, and inventing the arch villain, Moriarty, to dispose of him. But Doyle’s dangerous strategy, combined with his passion for raising the spirits of the dead, has rather more surreal and dramatic consequences than he bargains for!

A light – hearted and intriguing investigation of the consequences, when fictional characters take on lives and ambitions of their own, quite against the wishes of the author.

In this wryly humorous one man tale, of murder, mystery and the occult the world’s greatest detective refuses to leave the stage!

Starring Nigel Miles-Thomas, written by David Stuart Davies, adapted for the stage and directed by Gareth Armstrong; with original music by Simon Slater.

‘Nigel Miles – Thomas plays Holmes with magical candour. Brilliant, Unmissable’ ***** (Noho Arts)

‘A Classy Holmes” **** (The Daily Mail)

‘There is nothing elementary about this production, top class’ *****(Glam)

‘A Firework display of Acting virtuosity’ ***** (Theatre Weekly)

Tickets:

Adults: £18

Members, Friends & Under 18s: £15

Booking Coming Soon