DORSET'S most westerly theatre is offering its audience a rich diet at the beginning of the Christmas season.

Margie Barbour, the artistic director of the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis, said: "The venue is offering up a Christmas cracker in Ann Widdecombe, the sauce of Marcus Brigstocke, the deep rich flavours of Ibsen's Peer Gynt and the delicious Christmas pudding of Madame Lucinda.

"Stir them all together and you get a delicious mixture of mystery, spectacle, comedy and horror."

The return of Cygnet Theatre from Exeter to the Marine Theatre for their Christmas show is always a special date in the Marine Theatre's calendar, and this years offering of Peer Gynt will be no exception.

The performance on Thursday, December 6, at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £8 plus concessions.

Ibsen's early masterpiece will reveal it to be an exuberant epic, filled with angry trolls, beautiful girls, dangerous madmen and philosophical strangers.

Earthy, tender and moving by turns, Peer Gynt is a Christmas alternative for the mind and the heart.

Madame Lucinda's Wonder Show, which is also on at the theatre next week, stylistically borrows from the 1920s Side Show and finds itself somewhere between the worlds of wacky film director Tim Burton and The Wizard of Oz.

The performance is based on poems and text written by Anna Maria Murphy of Kneehigh Theatre, The National Theatre and BBC Radio 4 fame. It combines Rogue's daring style with live music, illusion, side-splitting comedy, dance, explosive physical theatre and compelling narrative.

Madame Lucinda's Wonder Show is on Saturday, December 8, at 7.30pm with tickets at £10 plus concessions. It is suitable for adults and children aged 10 and above.

Also on at the theatre are Tory MP and popular firebrand Ann Widdecombe, who is speaking at the Marine tonight (8pm, £13.50 plus concessions), and comedian Marcus Brigstocke who is at the venue on Friday, December 7 at 8pm (£14 plus concessions). Call 01297 442138 for all Marine Theatre bookings and details.