Books BOOK REVIEW: Cheer up Love by Susan Calman I adore her, not just for her ability to tell a difficult story with engaging hope but also to be honest enough about her pain to allow me to learn and little about being a more supportive person to depressed people in the future. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: I AM THEY @Sallis Benney Theatre The film is engaging and interesting without being preachy and using this young couple’s obvious and romantic personal experiences and relationship as the main narrative thrust allows us to keep the focus on them, and the daily struggle they face and the struggle they have to marry – something the r By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts POETRY REVIEW: Hello Glastonbury – I mean, Brighton Ray A-J reviews the Poetry Competition and Festival 2017 featuring The Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy at the Old Market in Hove on Saturday, November 18. Electric – The atmosphere alive with the buzz and hum of a festival. Undeniably, contagious. If all the literary gigs of the world were a pool, thi By Ray A-J • 10 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: Marnie @ENO Daughter. Liar. Wife. Thief. She has been running for so long, no one knows the real Marnie, least of all herself. A world premiere opera from composer Nico Muhly, with a libretto by Nicholas Wright, Marnie is based on the novel by Winston Graham although alludes to the Hitchcock film. It examines t By Eric Page • 5 min read
Arts FILM REVIEW: You Were Never Really Here If I had to sum up Lynne Ramsay’s style of filmmaking in a word it would be ‘concentrated’. Important clues about a character, or a vital link in a chain of events, might be expressed in a single shot or a couple of words. By Michael Hootman • 2 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: How the Other Half Loves @Theatre Royal Rather like his recently revived Relatively Speaking, Alan Ayckbourn’s play is a farcical look at an affair and the tortured results of covering it up. The intricate web of lies lead, inevitably, to a whole raft of misunderstandings. Written five years later, How the Other Half Loves is almost exper By Michael Hootman • 2 min read
Books BOOK REVIEW: Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde Her lyrical and incisive prose takes on sexism, racism, homophobia, and class; reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope that remain ever-more trenchant today. Lorde was a Poet Laureate until her death; her poetry and prose together produced an aphoristic and incomparably quotable By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: The Kite Runner @Theatre Royal It’s a hard look at the chaos of the unleashing of hugely destructive violent social prejudice from the perspective of a small close nit family. Its use of personal catastrophe as an intersectional metaphor for national tragedy is relentless. It’s also a breathless, almost unbearable personal confe By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts MUSIC REVIEW: Jake Shears @Heaven There are gigs where you can feel a collective audience groan as the artist you’ve adored for years introduces another new song from their forthcoming solo album. Jake Shears was asking for a whole lotta patience from the crowd at Tuesday night’s London gig who had yet to hear a good 80% of his set By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 2 min read
Arts MUSIC REVIEW: Christmas Oratorio: BREMF This evening’s music was superb, it’s almost as if the BREMF was saving the best till last but this year’s programme has excelled in the quality of its music and tonight was no exception. John Hancorn conducted with a florid grace which kept the music tight and graceful while allowing the complex in By Eric Page • 3 min read
General News REVIEW: TALES IN MUSIC: THE PIGEON AND THE ALBATROSS: Little Baroque Company TALES IN MUSIC: THE PIGEON AND THE ALBATROSS Little Baroque Company The room was full of rows of expectant children and the parents in a semi circle everyone excited. The room was lovely and warm. The musicians were wearing feather wigs, bright colours, looking resplendent in their outfits and engag By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: ORFEO: BREMF Once again the Brighton Early Music Festival shows that you can take problematic and difficult pieces of early music and when stripped down and presented with care and consideration they can be allowed to shine and be appreciated for their own idiosyncratic, early charms. By Eric Page • 3 min read
