BREMF REVIEW: Peace in Europe @St Martin’s Church It was highly fitting and poignant that the final concert in the Brighton Early Music Festival was on he centenary of Armistice Day and was entitled Peace in Europe. The spread of sacred music – mostly from the 18th century – was suitably sombre to match the mood of November 11. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: HADESTOWN – the myth musical @The National Theatre The Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the oldest tales told. The young poet and composer loses the love of his life when she’s stolen away to Hell by Hades the God of the Underworld. To win her back he must do just one thing – not look back behind him to see if she is following him. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: Evita @Theatre Royal Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit musical Evita seems to feature emerging stars on a regular basis and this touring production by Bill Kenwright and Bob Thomson, keeps that tradition going. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: Brighton Early Music – Legal Aliens It’s a time of heightened tension in England. Foreign spies are everywhere plotting acts of treason. England is at odds with Europe. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
INTERVIEW: Mistress of the House – Kara Van Park For Brighton’s Wain Douglas – the drag queen Kara Van Park, it all started in Hollywood films – she talks to Brian Butler about school bullying, Les Miserables and a secret future project. By Brian Butler • 4 min read
TV REVIEW: Miss Jason’s House Party As the nights draw in, what better diversion than an hour of tv silliness, made right here in central Brighton? By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: The Goon Show @Theatre Royal Brighton As a child in the late 1950s I was an avid listener to a BBC radio comedy series that broke the mould. It was the Goon Show and it would lay the groundwork for Python and many other absurdist comedies. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: COCK @Minerva Theatre, Chichester Mike Bartlett is a Premier League playwright, equally at home on stage with the award-winning comedy King Charles III to his tv hits Dr Foster and Press. And in this revival of his play Cock, he doesn’t disappoint. It’s a love triangle with very sharp edges and a twist and a half. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
INTERVIEW: Born to Sparkle – Davina at 50! From hotel manager to panto Queen, Gertie the Gorgeous, David Pollikett has done it all. Brian Butler talks to him about his drag queen persona, Davina Sparkle, and how he gets an audience to love him. By Brian Butler • 5 min read
PREVIEW: Hombres – a photo exhibition of the male nude Ted Cotter spent his working life in financial services in the City of London. A high-level hockey player in his spare time, he turned to photography relatively late in life, joining the world’s oldest photographic society The Camera Club in London in 1990. He subsequently became its Secretary, Trea By Brian Butler • 3 min read
REVIEW: The Habit of Art @Theatre Royal Brighton Shakespeare did it in Hamlet – the device of a play within a play – actors playing actors to “hold the mirror up to Nature”. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
REVIEW: SIX @Arts Theatre, London Some daft ideas – like singling and dancing cats – turn out to be theatrical gold mines, so why not the 6 dead wives of Henry VIII forming a girl band to tell the true story of their lives ? And it works. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
