AS YOU LIKE IT
Thurs 4 Aug
Brighton Open Air Theatre
Folksy Theatre present an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy. Our protagonist, Rosalind, is banished from the court, escaping into the forest of Arden disguised as a boy – Ganymede. When she meets the man she loves in the forest, an elaborate scheme is devised to find out the verity of his supposed passion for her through the witty and mischievous façade of Ganymede. This wonderful romantic comedy about life, love, betrayal, faith and death, is saturated with Folksy’s theatrical touches: live music, bold characters, audience interaction and plenty of laughs. The work subverts the accepted and staid rules of romance. Gender identity, tradition and politics are playfully twisted in a play that reflects on how bewildering yet utterly pleasurable life can be.
www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk
JOE MARNI: THE SHOW THAT IS (20P!!!)
Fri 12 Aug
Caroline Of Brunswick
After being in a few double acts, and working on stage for some time, Marni presents his first solo show. He’s taking everything he’s learnt in the last six years and turbo charged it with creativity and real passion for his art. He takes inspiration from the Victorian and Edwardian heyday of magic, as well as the greats like Houdini, Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and even inventions from Nikola Tesla. On a quest to bring back the showmanship and wonderment of magic in the theatre, Marni’s given his all to create this show. A young pioneer of ridiculously ingenious concepts, he presents an incredible performance for the recession-busting entry price of just 20p.
RUDDIGORE
Sun 7 Aug
Brighton Open Air Theatre
Set in the fictional town of Rederring in Cornwall, Robin Oakapple, a shy young farmer, loves Rose Maybud, a prim student of etiquette. Eventually he summons the courage to ask for her hand in marriage. But during the wedding it is revealed Robin is really Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, heir to the ancestral pile of Ruddigore. The groom is subject to the family curse – each Lord of Ruddigore must do an evil deed, every day, or else die an agonising death! Illyria present Gilbert & Sullivan’s glorious spoof of gothic haunted-house stories. Following the runaway popularity of HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and Iolanthe, this theatre company celebrates a quarter-century of productions with another wonderful summer opera.
www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk
TRIGGER
Sun 7 Aug
The Marlborough Theatre
Provocative drag artist Christeene triumphantly returns with a new spectacle of filth and fantasy, which will blow your mind and perhaps something else. She’ll be forging raw and dangerous physical realms with a schizophrenic kaleidoscope of ferocious visions and mind-altering jams. This show will tempt you all to defy, shed and transform all previous notions of normative living. This gender-blending, booty-pounding, perversion of punk is fully equipped with an arsenal of pounding music intertwined with raw moments of strained intimacy and fiery stank. Packed with loud and proud sexuality, this visceral show mixes music with full-on theatrics and biting humour. It’s not suitable for your nan, but take her anyway because you never know what might happen.
PRESENT LAUGHTER
Mon 8 – Sat 13 Aug
Theatre Royal Brighton
Noël Coward’s classic gets a fresh outing, directed by Stephen Unwin and starring Samuel West and Phyllis Logan. One of his funniest plays, it looks at life behind the theatrical curtain and reveals a world of glittering wits, dashing dressing gowns and ostentatious personalities. Actor, charmer and diva, Garry Essendine is determined to disregard his advancing years and receding hairline by revelling in his endless tantrums and casual affairs. But just as he’s about to depart for Africa, he finds himself besieged by a bevy of would-be seductresses, not to mention his long-suffering secretary, his estranged wife and an obsessed young playwright. As he attempts to disentangle himself from their clutches and demands, the precariousness of his situation escalates.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Weds 10 – Sat 13 Aug
The Marlborough Theatre
Fresh from the success of their recent productions of #RandJ and The Crucible (as well as three full-scale musicals) Apollo Productions return with arguably Tennessee Williams’ finest work. It tells the story of Stella and Stanley Kowalski, a couple living in New Orleans, whose lives change irreparably when Stella’s sister comes to stay with them. Despite taking place in claustrophobic conditions, the play takes on the scope of a Shakespearean tragedy. From the first scene each character’s end is perhaps predestined, but the majesty of this work is in how they get there. A powerful piece of drama, it’ll leave you conflicted and unsure whom to side with. This play is undoubtedly one of the finest works of the 20th century.
HEARTBREAK HOUSE
Tues 16 – Sun 21 Aug
Brighton Open Air Theatre
We are a nation on the brink, drifting towards ruin! On an estate in the Sussex countryside stands Heartbreak House, home to disappointment. A privileged zone where rules are suspended and lovers are switched, hierarchies reversed and strangest of all, people find themselves telling the truth. This ‘Ship of Fools’ is navigated by ancient mariner Captain Shotover; who longs, with the power of his mind, to dynamite the whole social order sky-high. Droll And Folly Theatre rework George Bernard Shaw’s 1919 masterpiece of rich vs poor, women vs men, young vs old, propriety vs decadence, innovation vs exploitation, and spirituality vs materialism. It’s a raw appraisal of the elite’s indifference to consequence and suffering.
www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk
WHAT I GO TO SCHOOL FOR: THE BUSTED MUSICAL
Thurs 18 – Sat 20 Aug
Theatre Royal Brighton
James Bourne and Elliot Davis present the world premiere of their energetic new musical. After their smash hit Olivier Award nominated musical Loserville, Busted’s James Bourne and award winning writer Elliot Davis have teamed up with critically acclaimed Youth Music Theatre UK for a third time to present this electrifying new show. Featuring some of the power-pop trio’s biggest hits, including Air Hostess, Crashed the Wedding and Year 3000, it also presents a brace of new songs. The show follows a group of teenagers living in a world that just doesn’t understand them. Desperate to escape their humdrum hometown, they soon discover the need to break the rules to find out who they really are. Assembling 40 talented young performers and musicians, this ground breaking new show is a must-see for all the family.
NO MAN’S LAND
Mon 22 – Sat 27 Aug
Theatre Royal Brighton
Following their hit run on Broadway, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart return to the UK’s stages in one of the most brilliantly entertaining plays by Nobel Prize laureate Harold Pinter. One summer’s evening, two ageing writers, Hirst and Spooner, meet in a Hampstead pub, then continue their drinking late into the night. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game. This is further complicated by the sudden return home of two sinister younger men. With a cast featuring Owen Teale and Damien Molony, this is a rare opportunity to see four master actors perform one of Pinter’s comic classics.
Image by Perou
THE PILLOWMAN
Thurs 25 – Sat 27 Aug
The Marlborough Theatre
This Olivier Award-winning play follows a young writer as he is taken into custody regarding the gruesome deaths of local children. These crimes bear a striking resemblance to the events outlined in his stories. We follow this genre-straddling, blackest-of-black comedies, as the writer and his brother are interrogated by good cop/bad cop duo Tupolski and Ariel. Expect twists, turns, laughs and gasps in a gripping piece of theatre from esteemed playwright Martin McDonagh. It’s a lurid and brutal celebration of man’s innate ability to create fantasies, as the lines between reality and imagination shift endlessly. There’s a wholesale embracing of murder, mutilation and dismemberment, in a comedy piece that induces gasps and giggles at the most inappropriate of subjects.
FRANKENSTEIN
Thurs 25 – Sun 28 Aug
Brighton Open Air Theatre
Brighton Little Theatre asks: ‘Are we all born good?’ Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creation is cast out into a hostile universe. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal. Modern concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling, deeply disturbing gothic tale – told through the eyes of the creature… This classic horror story takes in themes of isolation, creation, the burden of responsibility and the constraints of dependence. How can we tell the difference between what we can do and what we should do?
www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk
HAMLET
Weds 31 Aug
Brighton Open Air Theatre
The Festival Players present the Bard’s classic revenge play. A man desires some form of retaliation, but has trouble actually exacting it. For a multitude of reasons, he hesitates to act. Whether action or inaction takes place, perhaps death is the only certain outcome. The ghost of a dead king speaks to his son, telling of his murder and demanding retribution upon his usurper. But not everything is so easy, in the complicated confines of Denmark’s Elsinore Castle. Presented in full period costume, this all-male company will bring you the excitement of this great thriller. Packed with intrigue, ghostly visitations, passion, a play-within-a play, gripping duels, and humour, all within a crystal-clear and fast-paced production.
