Brighton
Thomas H. Green
Wim Vandekeybus (b. 1963) is the man behind Ultima Vez, a theatrical-choreographic powerhouse in Brussels. With his guidance they have sped to the forefront of European multi-media performance with such works as Monkey Sandwich, Oedipus/Bêt Noir, NieuwZwart and Booty Looting, each combining music, dance, visual arts and theatre in different ratios to startling effect.After leaving school Vandekeybus took psychology at Leuven University but, finding the discipline’s scientific rationality restrictive and wanting to apply it to more artistic areas, he left and worked with the designer- Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The UK premiere of Dmitry Krymov’s Opus No.7 begins at 5pm. When it finishes two and half hours later, a sun-dappled evening is bustling with the opening weekend of the Brighton Festival. At a nearby pub friends ask, “What was it like? What was it about?” For once I am lost for words. Describing Opus No.7 is akin to conveying an emotionally moving dream which, laid out prosaically, becomes gibberish. The production is as much performance art happening as theatre, zapping the brain with a concatenation of imagery, like a Quay Brothers animation brought to life.Krymov is the toast of Moscow’s Read more ...
Mark Sheerin
Yinka Shonibare MBE makes work from a less entrenched position than his many decorations suggest. This Member of the British Empire (he adopted the initials as part of his name after receiving the honour in 2005) is naturally also a Royal Academician, an Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths, and has an honorary doctorate from the RCA. Shonibare is one of the most celebrated artists around, a fixture as well received as the ship in a bottle which occupied the Fourth Plinth in 2010 and which now has a permanent home outside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.Yet his ambitious new work for year’ Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Dmitry Krymov (b 1954) is one of Russia’s most groundbreaking and celebrated contemporary theatre directors and set designers. Performances by his “Theatre Laboratory” are renowned for combining multimedia with art installation techniques to surprise and thrill audiences across Europe and as far afield as New York.The son of writer Natalia Krymova and theatre director Anatoly Efros, Krymov worked in set design during the Eighties but turned to art the following decade, forging a successful career as a painter and exhibiting all over the world. He returned to theatre in 2002 and two Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Andrew Comben, CEO of the Brighton Festival, has agreed to reveal to theartsdesk his favourite moments from previous Festivals. “Looking backwards,” he ventures, sat in his office around the corner from the Pavilion, “is not a luxury I tend to indulge in as my head is so focused on this year, next year and 2016. Then again, it’s an enjoyable wrench, a fun exercise."Comben, 40, took the position in 2008, having previously worked with Wigmore Hall and the Aldeburgh Festival. “I was a horn player and singer.” he says, “I left that side of my life behind me but I like to feel it gives me some Read more ...
Hanna Weibye
Israeli-born choreographer Hofesh Shechter has had a meteoric rise. Ten years ago, he was a dancer in somebody else’s company who had just taken a couple of steps into choreography. Now he has his own full-time company, can pack out Sadler’s Wells twice a year, and gets invited to stage his creations for top international companies like Nederlands Dans Theater.His success is all the more remarkable for having been achieved outside the traditional channels. Although he is a graduate of Batsheva, Israel’s international-standard contemporary dance company, Shechter left it to study as a Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The Brighton Festival announced its 2014 programme today at a launch helmed by guest director Hofesh Shechter. The choreographer, dancer and musician oversees three weeks packed with 448 performances and 147 events in 34 venues across the south coast city, including 37 premieres. The hugely eclectic programme of music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, debate and family events runs from 3rd to 25th May and includes a performance of Schechter’s own rousing Sun (with an exclusive "Director’s cut", Sun Dust).“Brighton has a magic to it that no one can explain,” Schechter enthused, “Finding a Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
At one point during the show Bill Bailey makes an aside about the last words of biologist JBS Haldane which were, according to the comedian, a comment about God having an “inordinate fondness for beetles". He then goes into a routine about deathbed quotations and the likelihood of coming out with a corker then having a snooze and muttering a mundanity just before you croak.As ever, he combines erudite references with accessible silliness, also reminding us that his most recent media profile has been from appearing in gently enthused wildlife programmes about baboons, or his hero, the ground- Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Charity gigs, by their very nature, are usually jolly affairs, and Brighton Comedy Festival’s opening gala at the Dome was no exception. It had a stellar line-up, but also the advantage of being hosted by Alan Carr (the patron of The Sussex Beacon, in whose aid it was given) who was, like most of the guests, on cracking form.Carr, who will be touring next year, was running out some new material, but it was when he was just riffing with the audience that he was at his best, talking about his new boyfriend – “a nice mix of masculine and feminine. He could enjoy a dog fight but appreciates Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
At the end of his hour and 20 minute long performance Shlomo gives us an encore, a percussive tune wherein his amazing noise-making abilities are piled on top of each other with a piece of sampling kit called a Loop Station. This multi-layered nugget is propulsive but the seated audience is unsure, as it has been throughout, whether the evening's ambience should be rowdily interactive or quietly appreciative, as if watching a play. Except, that is, for two women who stand up and boogie enthusiastically.Alongside Beardyman, Shlomo is at the vanguard of British beatboxing and his art has lately Read more ...
Veronica Lee
Tickets are now on sale for the Brighton Comedy Festival (4-20 October), which takes place in several venues in the South Coast town.As ever, the opening-night gala at the Brighton Dome is in aid of Sussex Beacon, and this year the event is hosted by Alan Carr. Other guests confirmed to appear with him are Jack Dee, Adam Hills, Seann Walsh and Suzi Ruffell. More names will be confirmed nearer the date.Highlights of the festival include Bridget Christie performing A Bic For Her (6 Oct), the show that won her the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award at the Fringe last month; Ed Byrne (17 Oct); Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
When Brighton hip-hop boys Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule first came on-radar in 2011 with the summer smash “Down With the Trumpets” they appeared to be a good-time flash-in-the-pan, possibly even a nascent boy band. When Fatboy Slim got involved, producing the infectious “Mama Do the Hump”, sneaking his old big beat sound back onto daytime radio, it pricked the interest, but it was in the live arena that Rizzle Kicks proved themselves. They went on the road with a full band, replete with a top-range brass section, and slayed the festival circuit.Co-written and produced by long- Read more ...