10 things coming up in Brighton and Worthing
1 Theatre. Freak by Bruntwood prize-winning author Anna Jordan makes its appearance at the Brighton Fringe Festival this year from May 12-17 at the Rialto Theatre. Spokesman Jeremy Holloway said: “It tells the often painfully frank stories of Leah and Georgie as they come to terms with their pending relationships. Georgie (Katie Bottoms) is 30 and in a downwards spiral, having just quit her job, broken up with her long-term boyfriend and taken a job at a strip club. Leah (Hetty Elliott) is 15 and is nervously anticipating her first time and spends her days practising for what might be ahead on the double bed which the two share. As these two deeply-personal and at times very bitter-sweet monologues finally interlock, the play finds a natural finale, though it’s not one that either would have anticipated. Control and vulnerability are as flexible as each other and both play their part in this riveting and contemporary drama.”
2 Festival. Wolf Tamer by Rachel Mae Brady offers a tale of a lost hero at the Brighton Fringe Rachel has lost her hero. Her uncle Neil has died unexpectedly. In the wake of his death she becomes reclusive, struggling to leave the house. To make sense of her loss she travels back in time and revisits the incredible stories Neil told her as a child, of adventures around the world. Wolf Tamer is based on performer and playwright Rachel Mae Brady’s own life. She promises an autobiographical solo show which is an honest, often humorous exploration of grief and the power of storytelling. Wolf Tamer is ultimately a story of courage and survival, she says. “I began writing it shortly after my uncle Neil died in 2015. He was my hero when I was a kid. He travelled all over the world and told me stories of his adventures in Egypt and the North Pole. He rode a red motorbike, went hang gliding and looked like a cross between James Dean and the Terminator.” Rachel retells these stories during the show.
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Hide Ad3 Theatre. Hugh Bonneville and Liz White star in Shadowlands by William Nicholson at Chichester Festival Theatre (April 26-May 25). Celebrated writer C S Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, splits his time between an ordered domestic routine at home with his brother, Warnie, and the academic rigour of his dispassionate, all-male Oxford college. And then he meets New York poet Joy Gresham.
4 Theatre. The Storytelling Army are promising tantalising tales at Worthing’s Pavilion Café Bar – and will be encouraging you to share your own stories. Programmed in partnership with Brighton Festival, Worthing Theatres present The Storytelling Army, a series of interactive tales at 4pm on Sunday, May 19. Tickets on 01903 206206 .
5 Festival. Laura-Doe’s Vaudeville of the Vulva makes its UK Fringe debut in Brighton in May, with the self-styled sex educator promising to liberate libido with laughter. Written and performed by award-winning Australian comedian, singer/songwriter Laura-Doe, it is illuminating and transformative musical theatre for owners and lovers of vaginas, she says:“The production takes the baton from Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues as a catalyst for conversation and social change around the sensitive topic of sexuality. For many people, female genitals are hard to name accurately, if at all, and remain shrouded in mystery. The show is a series of light-hearted sketches that inform whilst entertaining. However, its motivation is also serious, seeking to gently lift taboos, using comedy and song to release tension and create the freedom to speak about and appreciate this much-maligned and misunderstood body area.” Vaudeville of the Vulva’s free fringe show is curated by Laughing Horse Comedy in the Caroline of Brunswick on May 18 at 10.45pm.”
6 Festival. Boris Rex offers a little BoJo inspired comedy for the Brighton Fringe (The Warren, May 15-19, 6.15pm). A spokesman said: “The story of Boris Johnson as a Shakespearean tragicomedy, Boris Rex follows its perfidious anti-hero from the boorish days of Oxford University, right through to a blood-soaked general election, to spin a murky tale of ambition, back-stabbing and ultimately a national catastrophe. Borrowing elements from both Julius Caesar and Richard III, the play fuses original verse with newly-penned pentameters, spoken word, comedy and rap and a visual aesthetic somewhere between Greek tragedy and dreadful clown. Charlie Dupré is a spoken word and rap artist known for combining literary influences with a pulsing delivery.”
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Hide Ad7 Theatre. Join the invincible Captain Cauliflower and his faithful companion Marvin on an “unforgettable adventure, filled with extreme silliness and unquestionable danger.” Captain Cauliflower and Marvin the Mischievous Moose is at Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco on May 25.
8 Music. Shoreham-born Leo Sayer heads back to the country and county of his birth for a date at Worthing’s Assembly Hall on May 18. Leo, who went to school in Goring, will also play Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal on May 23 and Guildford’s G-Live on May 30, all part of his Just a Boy at 70 tour.
9 Festival. Vox Motus are promising story-telling at its most immersive for this year’s Brighton Festival. They bring Flight to the King Alfred Leisure Centre from Saturday, May 4-Thursday, May 23 in an experience which will take each individual audience member to the very heart of the action. You will watch the action unfold from your personal booth with the story and music in your headphones. Miniature images and models move slowly round in front of you, drawing you into a journey undertaken by two brothers.
10 Theatre. James Nesbitt, Sheila Hancock, Clare Burt and Rachel Lumberg star in This Is My Family, a musical by Tim Firth in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from April 20-June 15. Imagine you’re a spirited 13-year-old and you’ve won a magazine competition...
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