Brighton
The Lads In Their Hundreds, Theatre Royal, BrightonWednesday, 06 May 2015
World War One poems can become too familiar. So can the war itself, its five years of centenary commemorations so far suffering from excessive patriotism, a sense of uncomprehending disconnection from the gone generation which lived it, and a... Read more... |
The Apple Family Plays, Brighton DomeWednesday, 06 May 2015
"I hear America singing," wrote Walt Whitman, the American poet whose language playwright Richard Nelson has co-opted for the title of the second (Sweet and Sad) of his remarkable quartet of Apple Family Plays. And those wanting to know what song is... Read more... |
On Liberty, hosted by Shami Chakrabarti, Brighton DomeTuesday, 05 May 2015
Shami Chakrabarti pointed out early on that she is “grim and worthy” and that stand-up is not her strong suit. Despite this, svelte, petite and wearing a sharp back outfit, she acted as compere for an evening of literary “turns” celebrating Liberty... Read more... |
Lungs, Roundabout at Regency Square, BrightonTuesday, 05 May 2015
A couple stand on the stage, squaring up to each other. They are in the middle of an argument. The Man has just, out of the blue, suggested they have a baby. The Woman, understandably, needs time to adjust to the idea. Particularly as they are in... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician SquarepusherThursday, 09 April 2015
Squarepusher, AKA Tom Jenkinson (b. 1975) is a groundbreaking electronic musician. Growing up in Essex, he first came to prominence in the mid-Nineties alongside Aphex Twin, with whom he worked extensively, amid a milieu of post-rave... Read more... |
Brighton Festival: The Locations That Make the FestivalFriday, 03 April 2015
Andrew Comben, CEO of the Brighton Festival, chooses ten locations that have resonance with the annual event. He talks about their past and future but, most particularly, what will be happening this May“Brighton Festival is all about the spaces and... Read more... |
10 Questions for Playwright Richard NelsonWednesday, 18 March 2015
Richard Nelson (b. 1950) is a leading figure in American theatre but also a consistent documentarian of his country’s liberal consciousness. His series of plays about the Apple Family, written between 2010 and 2013, have been critically acclaimed... Read more... |
Brighton Festival 2015 Launches with Guest Director Ali SmithWednesday, 18 February 2015
Prize-winning author and Brighton Festival Guest Director Ali Smith can barely keep still. She wriggles about in her seat before an audience of journalists at Brighton’s Dome Studio Theatre, gesturing around with unabashed enthusiasm. Sat beside her... Read more... |
Nick Mulvey, Komedia, BrightonWednesday, 22 October 2014
The humming is rising. Only three songs in and already a large section of the crowd is swaying, tranced out, from side to side, like southern Baptists, swept along by an extended version of “Meet Me There” from Nick Mulvey’s 2014 Mercury Music Prize... Read more... |
20,000 Days On EarthSunday, 14 September 2014
This excellent documentary considerably deepens the Nick Cave we know. If there is a Cave other than the spiritually and intellectually ravenous rock star with the raven hair, bone-dry wit and shamanic showman seen here, a bumbling secret identity... Read more... |
Dawn French, Brighton Theatre RoyalThursday, 26 June 2014
She may have been performing for more than 30 years, but it takes some cojones to do your first solo show at the age of 56. Dawn French, with neither long-time partner Jennifer Saunders nor fellow cast members on stage, makes her debut with Thirty... Read more... |
Spies: Fact & Fiction/Edmund White, Brighton DomeMonday, 26 May 2014
Espionage may have been the strict theme of the Brighton Festival’s Spies: Fact & Fiction (****), but the talk's perspective quickly widened towards broader aspects of statecraft, secrecy and surveillance. As might have been expected in a... Read more... |
