Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Help! I Think I Might Be Fabulous @Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco It’s been quite a while since I’ve failed to connect with a show as deeply as I failed to connect with this one – it might as well have been performed in Lithuanian so little did I appreciate what was happening on stage. By Michael Hootman • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: For the Birds: Brighton Festival You hop on a bus, reminiscent of the mystery tours so favoured by aunts of mine in the 1970’s and are deposited in the dark, with some superb and wholly novel views of the city in the distance, it’s a long walk thought this night-time trail, like a crepuscular robotic nature watch we come across the By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus: The Superhero Show The Superhero Show, Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) contribution to the Brighton Fringe on Saturday evening (May 6), was a feast of musical excellence and performance with first class production values. By Besi • 3 min read
Arts BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: MacBlair@The Warren Studio 3 It’s 1994- the young ambitious Tony Blair and the irascible Gordon Brown meet three journalists – ‘hacks’ in a stairwell in Parliament. The “weird journalists” predict TB will be Leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister and King of the World. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Ruffian on the stair@The Lantern @ ACT Pretty much Joe Orton’s first play – written in 1964 – this 3-hander deals comically and darkly with love, sex for sale , Catholicism, homosexuality, lies, power and loneliness. By Brian Butler • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: ELVIS Las Vegas 1969@The Woodville, Gravesend ELVIS Las Vegas 1969 is really two shows in one. The first half, mainly spoken with little music is a dramatic reconstruction of the hours leading to Elvis Presley’s return to the stage on July 31, 1969, after a ten-year break from live concerts, while making movies in Hollywood. By Besi • 3 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Critical & Experiential : Dimensions in Gender and Sexual Diversity: Previn Karian There are some profoundly interesting chapters in this book, that challenge as much as inform but anyone with an interest in proud, frank and non-pathologizing discussions of gendered identities and sexual practices that are explored in honest and engaging ways would find this book invaluable in a p By Eric Page • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: Queer British Art 1861-1967 @Tate Britain This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised consensual sex (in private) in England and Wales between men aged 21 and over. The show includes works from a period of over 100 years, and is bookended by the 1861 Offences against the Person Ac By Paul Gustafson • 5 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Gay in the 80: From fighting for our rights to fighting for our lives : Colin Clews Gay in the 80s examines a number of the events and issues in the UK, USA and Australia, giving a comprehensive perspective of LGBT reality during this decade The book covers the broad political context of the 1980s and takes a comparative approach to events in these countries from Clewes personal ex By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Crucible@Theatre Royal This is a truly magnificent production of a twentieth-century classic; its three hours seem to pass in a blink of an eye as director Douglas Rintoul expertly paces the play so that, in places, it has the heart-pounding intensity of a thriller. It’s also an exploration of moral corruption and decency By Michael Hootman • 2 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: When We Rise: Cleve Jones When We Rise is not only the story of a hero to the LQBTQ community, but the vibrantly voice memoir of a full and transformative American life. By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Bad Girls the Musical@The Old Market Bad Girls the Musical is based on the iconic TV series Bad Girls first broadcast in June 1999, highlighting life in the fictional women’s prison HMP Larkhall. By Besi • 2 min read
