STANDARD: ELITE
TUES 8 – THURS 10 MAY
THE WARREN
After winning the Best New Writing award at Manchester Fringe, Hidden Track bring their interactive and highly original show to Brighton, giving you the chance to earn the upgrade from Standard to Elite. The narrative is based around a traditional fairytale, but the Standards must work to build the story, while the Elites have the power to influence the path it takes. The branching narrative varies from each staging to the next, meaning audiences can be assured of a unique performance that they have helped to create, whichever side they end up on.
Audience members must expect to be called upon, but, as we all know, when everyone is part of it, nobody is picked on. In past efforts to stretch the boundaries of their medium, Hidden Track have convinced audiences to tell stories without actors on stage, discuss mental health in the dark, and walk blindfolded alone into an abandoned industrial fridge.
While the audience involvement is undoubtedly entertaining, its purpose is more nuanced and the interaction between the Standards and the Elites develops into a profound comment on class structure: which side will you end up on?
LAND OF THE THREE TOWERS: VOL II
WEDS 9 – SAT 12 MAY
EXETER STREET HALL
A non-profit, all-women, theatre group, made up of professional actors and young mothers who have faced homelessness, You Should see the Other Guy demonstrate their mantra of ‘Social Housing not Social Cleansing’ in a riotous and varied show. The group uses speech, song, and civil disobedience to bring the second volume of their brand of protest theatre that aims to entertain as well as inform, and bring humorous but undoubtedly necessary attention to an ongoing debacle.
Volume 2 picks up where the first show left off, with the real-life 2014 Focus E15 Campaign’s occupation of four empty council homes in the towers on Carpenters Estate, Newham, which had been earmarked for demolition. The new group of women and non-binary people in this production manage to create a similarly raucous visual essay, which dismantles the causes and effects of social cleansing in London and beyond. This innovative production avoids the abrasive and largely ineffective process of straight monologue, and instead employs music, movement, and puppetry to provide “a mix of a fun-for-all-the-family day out and a radical toolkit for resistance.”
NARIN OZ’S BONQRZ
SUN 13 – TUES 15 MAY
CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK
Narin is bringing her new bonqrz show to Brighton Fringe,
Narin started at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe with Addicted to Love, a nod to Robert Palmer that saw her falling in love with a random audience member six times a day. In this, her new autobiographical show, Narin recounts the disastrous life choices that she has made in pursuit of meaning and happiness. The very same disastrous life choices that led to her taking advice from a budgerigar.
In a show that has seen her described as “either a comedy genius or someone that needs to be sectioned,” Narin uses her own life as an example of the futility of chasing something we cannot explain. Don’t go into this expecting answers though; Narin does not claim to have had success in this lifelong pursuit, but do expect to be touched and certainly entertained as the show explored through the lengths we people will go to try and achieve the ultimate goal: happiness.
CABARET FROM THE SHADOWS
THURS 17 – FRI 18 MAY
THE WARREN
Winners of last year’s Nordic Fringe Network award, The Cabaret From The Shadows are a unique medieval-themed group. They delve into societal issues, such as gender roles and stereotyping, whilst still bringing with them a humorous and fun performance. Expect the unexpected.
2FUNNY
SAT 19 – SUN 20 & SAT 26 MAY
CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK
Zambian-born with Indian ancestors calling Britain home, does that make Ishi Brizambdian? Ishi Khan-Jackson invites you on a fun adventure of discovery. This Funny Women Best Show Nominee brings her latest show about migration, identity and belonging to Brighton Fringe for the first time. Expect silliness, fun and Bollywood dancing.
THE STATE OF US
MON 21 – TUES 22 MAY
SALLIS BENNEY THEATRE
Performing can cause issues for those who are disabled. The State Of Us is a collective of disabled performers from Brighton and Chichester, who’ll be displaying their unique talents with a free and accessible performance. The group will explore emotions through dance, shadow puppetry, comedy and live music.
STEALTH ASPIES
TUES 22 – THURS 24, SAT 26 & SUN 27 MAY
SWEET VENUES, WERKS 2
The world’s first entirely Neuroatypical performance company brings its original show to Brighton as part of Brighton Fringe’s Freedom Season.
The lives of people ‘on the spectrum’ particularly who’ve had late diagnosis, laid bare. Empowering, moving funny and unique…the Stealth Aspies are a group of performers/poets/writers, all on the spectrum themselves and sharing the words and experiences of others also on the spectrum. The show has had truly heart-warming and appreciative responses from audiences at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and at various theatre events since (including a performance for Leicester University Medical school who found it geneuinely enlightening…and entertaining)
The Stealth Aspies team was initially the brainchild of Paul Wady (Guerilla Aspies, writer and performer) and Alain English (poet, actor and currently artist-in-residence at Vauxhall’s Tea House Theatre) but with the addition of Janine Booth (poet, writer, activist and co-creator of Labour’s first Neurodiversity Manifesto-launched in 2017) and Sarah Saeed (actress, singer, founder of Lava Elastic…a neurodiverse comedy/performance night who also gigs as Marianna Harlotta) the Stealth Aspies is going from strength to strength
www.paulwady.com/the-stealth-aspies-show-2017/
WORD
MON 28 MAY – SUN 3 JUN
SWEET JUKEBOX
Word couples the aesthetic of a game show with the essence of hip-hop – asking its participants to step into the role of the host, stage manager or contestant in order to question: when are words offensive?
Jamal Harawood is an artist who creates temporary communities through audience-led participatory events that focus on ideas of identity and race – believing that these events should be playful experiences that allow everyone to get involved. He works with the audience to create unique experience, providing a space that enables discussion centred around each individual’s interpretation of the performance.
He aims not to educate the audience but more to get the audience thinking about important topics that they have never really thought about. In his second public event, he will be putting the audience under the magnifying glass in his hour –long event that opens up the discussion around words, slurs and the unseen impact that they have on our community.
