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…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Brighton
West End sensation, Operation Mincemeat, takes the stage at Theatre Royal Brighton for a strictly limited five-night run. With the original version boasting that it’s the best reviewed show in West End history, does the touring version match the hype? The plot, based on a true story, centres around a plucky group of employees at MI5 HQ, mid-WW2. They’ve understandably got just one thing on their minds – how to take down the Nazis. And by Jove, they may have just the idea! All they need is a dead body, some falsified papers and a handful of madcap musical numbers…
Matt Hobs is mad about badgers. Is it possible to make a show that is completely, one-hundred-percent about our stripy-backed friends? Possibly – with the odd hedgehog reference snuck in. Sett(le) in for a fun hour of badger facts and conservation conversations from a friendly science communicator and comedian. Matt Hobs is a Bristolian badger fan with a gentle West Country lilt and the occasional penchant for a filthy joke. This unexpected contrast is amusing and adds an extra layer of dimension to this nature-themed, adults-only show. He’s a personable and engaging host, and ready to share stories on this…
Writer: Alice Bloomer Director: Maryam Grace Running at just over half an hour, For Pucks Sake is a look into what happens when one of Shakespeare’s most beloved characters – the impish Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream – is transported from the Athenian forest to the Forest of Arden, setting of As You Like It. Solo performer Alice Bloomer commands the space at the Fringe’s temporary Caravanserai, running round the intimate performance space and climbing on seats and the central tent pole. Bloomer undoubtedly brings energy to the show, needed as the pace slows in part. Yet even with…
Finally, someone turned Victor Hugo’s epic historical novel into a show! Idiot/savant clown duo Stepdads were always the right people to do it, though it’s funny that no-one ever tried this before. Luke Rollason and Tom Penn, our Stepdads, introduce and corral the show between assorted and very brilliant guest performers, many of whom have also performed hereabouts this weekend. This bank holiday at SpiegelGardens, programmed by Ellie BW and Ben Alborough of Liebenspiel, is the Weekend of Weird, and Stepdads’ Les Mis is therefore the perfect, condensed, hyper-bomb of bizarre. Penn and Rollason have been performing together a long…
Is improvised comedy… popular? It certainly feels like it’s enjoying its moment in the sun, with London’s Hoopla Impro voraciously celebrating their 20th anniversary this spring, and improvised comedy shows cropping up in the unlikeliest of places (Germany, for example). CSI are grandaddies of the scene, but on this showing they still have the puppyish and gleeful energy of new recruits, not the hangdog expression and gin-stench of a detective two weeks from retirement. They’re blessed with an easy-to-understand format – who doesn’t love a murder mystery – and a very clear set of audience participation sections. This clarity is…
Musical comedy titan Selena Mersey has put together a beautiful, hilarious show about a bisexual woman just existing, and a man making it all about him. Film noir is the sandbox she’s playing in – a genre parodied to the point of exhaustion, and yet Mersey finds something fun, new, and delightfully silly to do with it. Detective Johnny is a soft boiled (practically runny) public dick one shift from retirement. A chance encounter with a beautiful dame – Bisexuelle – sends him on a fool’s errand, filled with toxic assumptions, red herrings, and the possibility that maybe people like…
Game recognises game, as they say in Hollywood. And Joz Norris – professional purveyor of nonsense – clearly sees a kindred spirit in Hugh Jackman, a genial-seeming Australian man who appears to have had a long and successful career despite the limited nature of his range and the sheer preposterousness of his professional output. Norris’ last show, “You Wait. Time Passes”, was a hysterical paen to the beauty of dedicating one’s life to silly things, both funny and moving in its commitment to the bit. But he might have topped it here, as – pretending, unconvincingly, to be an Australian…