|
Bloomsbury-Meets-The-Modern-World |
 The Gruffalo Cast Await Review!
A fox in a hacking jacket, a sleazy snake with the maracas and the gold lame jacket, and a WW1 fighter - owl shouting 'Chocs away!' - where else would you think to find all this except in The Gruffalo, at the Theatre Royal Brighton this week.
Of course the main issue to look at with any attempt to convert a book into a play is 'does it work on stage?'
Well, the simple and joyous fact of this matter is that it does and with...
more >>
|
 Simon Callow Is The Master Of The Monologue
I want to get to the point here, there's something missing from Shakespeare – The Man From Stratford, starring Simon Callow at Theatre Royal Brighton, but I just can't quite put my finger on what it is.
The idea is fine, make a lecture about Will S into a play or monologue, include some quotes and make sure it is funny, informative and entertaining, so it cannot be that.
The venue, ...
more >>
|
 A Cast For All Seasons
Any play that contains Tim West, Michael Jayston, Gwen Taylor and Susannah York is bound to be at least interesting and probably funny, and indeed this one is (Quartet by Ronald Harwood, at Brighton Theatre Royal, 6th July).
In fact Quartet is a bit like an old jumper or an old pair of comfy shoes that you have always loved to wear, and love all the more for their age. Women readers may not fully unde...
more >>
|
 Extended Season For Before I Sleep
Brian Eno, Brighton Festival's second Guest Artistic Director, has really enjoyed being in Brighton for the month and his contribution to this year's programme has been extraordinary
With his own events ranging from the acclaimed This is Pure Scenius! – his first live UK collaboration in over 30 years – to 77 Million Paintings with a record number of 29,000 visitors ...
more >>
|
 Gytha Lodge Wins Best New Play Award
Playwright Gytha Lodge has won the first New Writing South Best New Play Award for Otherwise.
This new annual award is in recognition of an outstanding new play premiered at the Brighton Festival Fringe.
Chris ...
more >>
|
 Futility Of War Expressed As Art @ Newhaven Fort
Two UN workers commended for bravery during the shelling of a Gaza warehouse travelled from Palestine to attend the premiere of a play about the bombing.
Jodie Clark and Scott Anderson, of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), answered questions after the first performance of Brighton Theatre's I am a Warehouse, last Frid...
more >>
|
 Eno's As Little As Anyone Else!
Brian Eno set out last night (Brighton Dome, 23rd May) to try and define what art actually does for us, but overran his allotted time and so was unable to finish his lecture before it was time to take questions.
He argued that an absolute value in art does not exist and that the impact of art relates to its context. All values are variable, he argued, and art makes no sense if we do not understand wher...
more >>
|
 Blurping & Bleeping Noises Ruin The Show
I am always suspicious of any contemporary dance production that feels the urgent need to over-explain itself in some kind of mission statement way in its programme notes.
More so, when it is done in that kind of art-speak that aims to impress rather than to communicate. Often such writing is a veil used by the author to mask a vacuum at the heart of his thinking...
more >>
|
 Daniel Veronese Surpasses Chekov
One minute Hofesh Shechter is re-inventing contemporary dance, the next minute Daniel Veronese is abolishing symbolism and mortally wounding the theatrical metaphor (Women Dreamt Horses, Corn Exchange Brighton, 21st May).
Acting as a sequel to his adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Women Dreamt Horses is a far, far better play because Daniel Veronese is a better playwright than Chekhov.
Yes, that's right 'D...
more >>
|
 No Fear In The Eyes Of Dome's Resident Company
It was like someone had fired a titanium bullet into my brain and then poured a load of neat vodka into the hole made by the passage of the bullet.
Political Mother (Hofesh Shechter, Dome Concert Hall, 20th May) is a kind of mixture of the totality of Wagner, the originality of The Fall and a power like nothing ...
more >>
|
|
|