Fresh from the lofty heights of BBC Radio 4, the lascivious landowner Christian Brighty steps into the Junk Poets tent for a new escapade that broaches many questions. Who is the mysterious Masked Magpie? Is the Brighty the boy to broach a more inclusive Britain? Why do the peasants hate the person who put their rents up? (a question nobody can identify with, we’re sure) Brighty serves high-jinks and a squirt of sauce in this journey of dalliances, discovery and Deliveroo by fishing rod. From semi-synced swashbuckling to an attempt at self-awareness – goodness, Lord Brighty is having quite the…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Brighton
From the Novel by John Le Carré Adaptor: David Eldridge Director: Jeremy Herrin An interesting, well acted, if ultimately not completely satisfying, adaption of a John Le Carré classic. John Le Carré was a master in his genre. There have been many adaptations of his work; most iconically Smiley’s People and Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy on television in the 1980s. The character of Smiley was epitomised by Sir Alec Guinness; one of the leading film actors of his generation and Obi Wan Kenobi in the original raft of Star Wars films. It is fair to say Gary Oldman lent quite…
A creative and curiously confronting show from everyone’s favourite clown. Luke Rollason has many predictions, but there is one that stands above them all – ‘there will be walkouts’. This feels like a highly concept-driven show for Rollason, who is normally escapism personified. Leave your own predictions at the door. Fol-de-Rol is beyond his usual clowning capers. There’s a sense of deserved showboating here, demonstrating Rollason as a fine purveyor of his art. We see the Gaulier training – the flirtatiously nasty bouffon, the gleeful clown, the cartoonified edgelord. Changing our notion of what we expect from the chap dubbed…
The Komedia Comedy Showcase is the oddball jewel in the crown of Brighton Fringe. Sadly, 2026 is to be its last hoorah. 48-year-old* Luke Rollason has decided to hang up his hat on his self-named memorial bursary, finally acknowledging that he may yet remain among the living. With just a few minutes to show their stuff, ten other performers take to the stage for a two-hour spectacle. Does this humdinger of a showcase live up to the sensationally silly standards of previous years? To start our time in the sun, Rollason takes us poolside in tiny shorts. He’s more than…
Are you horny for daffodils? Daft about ducklings? Full of the joys of spring? Enter W*nkers. We join a scene with two milkmaids. So wholesome, so virtuous. At least, until you spot the dildo. We must warn you – there’s more dildos than you can shake a dick at in this show. Which is fantastic news, for the enthusiasts. Spring Fling is a surreal experiment in the art of being delightfully deranged. We see cock-clutching Mayday dancers, bovine-based seduction tactics, and singing about the person you’d most like to drop dead. Just your average Friday night at The Actors. Our…
Hot Mess is an icon, a star-on-the-rise, an ingénue. She’s dreamt of going to the Met Gala her whole life, and soon, the red carpet beckons. Time to celebrate, right? At least, until the torrential turds hit, and the life she’s longed for could soon be flushed away. The toilet-based terrain isn’t obvious from the marketing material, but in this case, it’s a delightfully silly surprise. The show creates a good sense of the frenzy of supposed-stardom. It’s giving bla-bla-bla press conferences, paparazzi madness and misbehaving bums. It’s set in a world peppered with songs about IBS and soliloquies about…
Written by: William Shakespeare Produced and performed by: The Duke’s Theatre Company Though the heatwave is tailing off and the clouds have rolled in, there’s still a balmy midsummer atmosphere at the Brighton Open Air Theatre, making it, as ever, the perfect setting for some outdoor Shakespeare. The Duke’s Theatre Company are in town presenting their slick interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. This six-person group of actors give exuberant lucidity, humour and heart to the text with lots of impressive character-swapping, singing, dancing and writhing death scenes. The two star-crossed lovers at the centre of our story are exactly as…
Written and performed by: Michael Burdett Michael Burdett has quite the story to tell. Whilst working for Island Records, he retrieved a Nick Drake recording from a skip and proceeded to tour the country, playing it to strangers on headphones then photographing their reactions. He made a book out of this journey and then a fringe show, and now with the finding of yet another lost Nick Drake recording, he’s giving us a sequel. Though the mystique of the late musician’s legacy is a central part of Burdett’s story, there’s a more universal message of synchronicity and human connection at…