Brighton
Arthur Smith, Brighton Fringe review - touching memoir of his dadMonday, 31 May 2021
“A real live audience,” said Arthur Smith delightedly as he kicked off the Brighton Fringe with Syd, his touching and funny tribute to his late father, “an ordinary man who lived in extraordinary times” – his life included a stint in Dad's Army (the... Read more... |
Live is Alive!, Brighton Festival 2021 review - local talent makes for snappy return to gig-landSaturday, 22 May 2021
The idea live music is back is worth shouting about. Indeed, the BBC News has been doing just that about this gig. In reality, though, while it’s a joy to be out (this is my first major venue concert for a year-and-a-half), Live is Alive is a... Read more... |
Points of Departure, Brighton Festival 2021 review - Ray Lee's harbour-based sound art impressesFriday, 07 May 2021
They stand in a row, nine of them, in a long, strange corridor between rows of stacked, palleted, planked wood and the red brick wall of an endless warehouse. Nine tripods, each two humans high, with a spinning helicopter head, double-ended by... Read more... |
Album: Rag'n'Bone Man - Life by MisadventureThursday, 06 May 2021
Rory Graham was always stoically familiar with life’s knocks. With a stage-name inspired by Galton and Simpson’s fatalistic family tragicomedy Steptoe and Son, and an underground hip-hop career hinterland in Sussex and London, this big 30-something... Read more... |
Album: Black Honey - Written & DirectedThursday, 18 March 2021
Indie rock has taken a commercial back seat, even if the music press still hasn’t quite caught up. Sure, there have been hit-makers, and bands that sell out stadiums, but overall, indie’s tide is very slowly retreating. Like any genre, it will... Read more... |
Grace, ITV review - sun, sea and skulduggery in sunny BrightonMonday, 15 March 2021
We last saw John Simm on ITV in 2018’s Hong Kong-based murder mystery Strangers, a product from the Jack and Harry Williams script factory which wasted its exotic backdrops with a plot which mooched about in a dispirited fashion before dozing off... Read more... |
William Boyd: Trio review - private perils in 1968Monday, 05 October 2020
William Boyd’s fiction is populated by all manner of artists. Writers, painters, photographers, musicians and film-makers, drawn from real life or entirely fictional, are regular patrons of his stories. Boyd’s latest novel, Trio, is no different.... Read more... |
The Cheeky Chappie, The Warren Outdoors review - entertaining drama about risqué comic Max MillerWednesday, 23 September 2020
It’s fitting that there’s another run of Dave Simpson’s terrific play about Brighton’s favourite son, Max Miller (aka The Cheeky Chappie), at this delightful pop-up on the seafront he knew and loved so well.Jamie Kenna, who has been playing the role... Read more... |
The Warren Outdoor Season, Brighton review - creatives take to the beachTuesday, 18 August 2020
The Warren is normally to be found in Brighton city centre, where it stages shows during the Brighton Fringe. But there's nothing normal about 2020, so its organisers are now producing The Warren Outdoor Season at a pop-up space on Brighton beach,... Read more... |
Mark Townsend: No Return review - a masterclass in journalismWednesday, 08 April 2020
When Amer Deghayes departed for Syria in a truck leaving from Birmingham, a worker from a youth arts organisation in Brighton had been trying to get in touch with him. She wanted to inform Amer, an intelligent and creative 18-year-old who had once... Read more... |
One Man, Two Guvnors, National Theatre at Home review – bliss, utter comic blissSaturday, 04 April 2020
Armchair theatre-lovers rejoice. During the lockdown, the National Theatre is streaming a selection of its past hits for free for one week at a time. These shows, originally filmed as part of the flagship’s NT Live project (which broadcast... Read more... |
Brendan Cleary, Great Eastern, Brighton review – last ordersThursday, 19 March 2020
St. Patrick’s Day, and socialising itself, has been all but cancelled. But turn the rickety door-handle of a bohemian pub near Brighton station, and a poignant scene is unfolding. The Irish poet Brendan Cleary’s reading has been officially called... Read more... |
