Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: CIRCUS’SISSION: Bosco Tent With a rotating cast, each night different fringe artist guests get to showcase their best, weirdest and most hilarious talents, backed up by the incredible acrobatics and comedy of the Head First Acrobats. A little bit raunchy, a little bit weird and a whole lot of fun! By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FESTIVAL REVIEW: Five short blasts An interesting boat trip, some food for thought, a moment feeling free of the land and riding the wild white breakers of the churning sea, safe in a boat, with a few moments of delightful silliness which I won’t spoil but contain more than one trombone it all adds up to something delightful, etherea By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Two Singular Sensations @Purple Playhouse Theatre This intimate homage to the stage musical from Brighton-based Elevation Productions starts with mini toeches shining on the tap dancing feet of Edwin Ray, and on his saxophone-playing life-long friend Emma Jane Morton – in their tribute to A Chorus Line. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Hats off to Laurel and Hardy Tony Carpenter (Laurel) and Philip Hutchinson (Hardy) overcome the first big hurdle of a tribute show in Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy at the Sweet Waterfront – they actually look and sound like the originals. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FESTIVAL REVIEW: If I could I would: Mimbre Mimbre don’t challenge; they change and provide a healthy counter narrative to the usual edge-of-danger acrobatics and physical theatre and ‘If I could I would’ allows them to convince us that we’ve all got capacity to fly, have pools of resilience and sometimes you just need two cheeky old ladies a By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Sex addiction: The lecture @One Church I hadn’t intended on writing a review for The Queer Historian’s latest Fringe show Sex Addiction: The Lecture because I already submitted a preview piece in April’s issue of Gscene. And Tommy (The Queer Historian) has become one of my closest friends in Brighton since moving here in January, so I ac By Spencer Charles Smith • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FESTIVAL REVIEW: Sarah Connolly: All Saints Church There was hefty representation from the gay composers tonight and the spread of their works balanced the simple but strong lyricism of the first half, with a wonderfully witty encore of a James Fenton poem offered up with panache. This was an evening of quality, musical excellence and pure vocal joy By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Rubber Ring @The Warren Energetic and charming, just like its writer/performer, Rubber Ring is an engaging tale of adolescent uncertainty and a refreshing snapshot of growing up queer in Norfolk. Although somewhat predictable, the story was fast-paced and the script had moments of poetry and earnestness – I was genuinely h By Spencer Charles Smith • 1 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FESTIVAL REVIEW: Endings @Old Market Saulwick come across like a retro-modern Madame Blavatsky using the vintage recording machinery and snatches of interviews to express her theosophical investigations, the temporary and temporal mashing up to form the present, the past and gone giving us creative material for the now, the reflection By Eric Page • 4 min read
Comedy BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Good Grief: Stories at 207 West 88th Bruna is an Italian is an Italian woman of a certain age with hilariously broken English – the building superintendent of a New York apartment block. We first see her in the confessional saying to the unseen priest – “God he is pissed off with me”. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Fannytasticals @Sweet Dukebox If you are a man attending this show on your own – beware – for most of its duration you will be quite justifiably the target of sharp, witty and very crude humour from this 6-woman ensemble. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Super Hamlet 64: Parody DLC @ Warren 2 Day is an energetic and engaging performer; he is charming and fun and clowns with a furious passion, helped along by an ability to contort his plastic features and sinuous lanky frame in many ways at once. His ability to perform to extreme is aided by the well thought out video mapping and under-st By Eric Page • 3 min read