Arts PREVIEW: Brighton Festival unveils its events Brian Butler looks at this year’s Brighton Festival and finds a theme of caring By Brian Butler • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Strangers on a Train @ THEATRE ROYAL Strangers on a Train Strangers On A Train is based on the 1950 novel by Patricia Highsmith with a heafty nod at that Oscar-Winning Alfred Hitchcock film. We begin the story as a fateful encounter takes place between two men in a carriage of a train crossing America. Guy is the successful businessma By Eric Page • 4 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 REVIEW: The Real Thing @Theatre Royal Stoppard’s words fly around, they are funny and caustic, the actors obviously enjoy speaking them, even if the sentences are often more than a mouthful, the set piece speeches are entertaining and irritating, clever, deep and shallow and it’s all very showy and apparently entertaining on one level, By Eric Page • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: An Audience with Armistead Maupin @Theatre Royal This was an unforgettable evening with the Tales of the City author celebrating the launch of his long-awaited memoir Logical Family. From his early life in the conservative South to liberal San Francisco, from his palm-reading Grannie to an awkward chat about girls with President Nixon, Armistead M By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: The Best Man @Theatre Royal After making its UK premier at Theatre Royal Windsor earlier this month, Gore Vidal’s 1960 political satire, The Best Man, has landed at Brighton’s Theatre Royal on the second leg of its UK tour. The plot revolves around the characters and ambitions of two very different fictional politicians vying By Paul Gustafson • 2 min read
Arts PREVIEW: Grease – Tom Parker from boy band to leading man Voted The No.1 Greatest Musical in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Musical – GREASE comes to the Theatre Royal, Brighton for Christmas 2017! In the absence of a traditional Christmas Pantomime at the Theatre Royal again this Christmas, it’s time to dust off your leather jackets, pull on your bobby socks an By Besi • 3 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Driving Miss Daisy @Theatre Royal This is a perfectly balanced cast, Sian Phillips as Miss Daisy captures the fierce but fragile nature of this woman whose humble beginnings and comfortable retirement dictate her relationship with the outside world. Derek Griffiths as her driver Hoke Colburn who ages and changes along with her is t By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: The Wedding Singer @Theatre Royal Based on the 1998 box office breaking movie, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, The Wedding Singer’s original musical score written by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin has much to offer but sadly on first hearing, few memorable tunes. By Besi • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: La Cage Aux Folles @Theatre Royal When La Cage Aux Folles opened in 1983 it was very much a ‘piece of its time’ scripted by Harvey Fierstein with music by Jerry Herman and introducing the world to the fabulous Les Cagelles. Those were the days before we had gay marriage and many of the rights we now enjoy. The musical gave gay peopl By Besi • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Shirley Valentine @Theatre Royal I could gush more, I will gush more, but book yourself a ticket now, this was an unexpected treat and I left feeling empowered by Russell’s life affirming writing, as relevant now as it was thirty years ago, and enchanted by this tour de force performance from Prenger. With the audience on their fee By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Buddy The Buddy Holly Story @Theatre Royal In just 18 short months between 1957 and 1959 Buddy Holly changed the face of modern music, producing in the process a treasure trove of rock and roll classics that have become the soundtrack of following generations. By Besi • 2 min read
