Billed as a celebration of some of Britain’s finest creative talent and inspirational women, this evening promised an exceptional line-up of performers tonight at The Corn Exchange – not on stage but, as the event suggests, in an actual boxing ring.
The specially curated programme Words In Motion echoed this year’s festival theme New Dawn, showcasing an exceptional cohort of award-winning poets, actors, dancers, musicians and activists.
Our host for the evening was broadcaster and bestselling author Anita Rani who entered the ring wearing a boxing robe. A mic descended from the ceiling in true boxing style, then she read an encouraging letter to her 16-year-old self from her memoir.
Next was actor Indira Varma, who performed two poems from ‘Mouth’ – a new work by Mona Arshi based on Greek tragedies. The delivery was passionate with a piece about the war in Ukraine supported by a film of a sari-wearing woman walking in the sea.
This year’s Guest Director had earlier introduced the event with praise for that morning’s Children’s Parade and a declaration of her admiration for the work of tonight’s show curator Sweety Kapoor and now took to a raised plinth to perform at the first of several appearances this month. The soft sitar sound wafted over ethereal backing music, which gently faded, to allow solo sitar with pedals and loops to come to the fore and Shankar’s dazzling dexterity shone on ‘New Dawn’.
Academic and human rights activist Preti Taneja stood at a lectern with cello accompaniment and vocal backing to perform a piece that covered subjects as broad as the partition of India and slavery to the destruction of Gaza and the joy of communal eating. This was followed by a solo performance by Amrit Kaur, who sang enchantingly over a strings drone loop, that received a huge cheer from the audience.
After the interval, Anita Rani returned to praise the first half performers and to promote ‘Sisters of Disruption’, her forthcoming documentary about the Brontes. She mentioned writing to Meera Syal when she was younger and, to her surprise, receiving a reply. Ms Syal then entered the ring with an exclusive reading from her, as yet unfinished, new memoir. This covered Indian aunties, whom she wittily dubbed the ‘illuminaunties’ and the lost practice of writing to friends abroad using blue airmail envelopes, at a time when there was no telephone at home.
London-based Ms Mohammed, making her first stage appearance in over a year, used her punk rock electric guitar to great effect on the first song, in which she chanted a Hare Krishna mantra in front of a Bollywood film nightclub scene playing on the screen behind her. She prefaced ‘Ring The Alarm’ by saying we are living in scary times, highlighting the Reform party’s rise, Trans rights and the need for people to organise. The song’s chugging punk bar chords and her barely-controlled anger had her fellow performers at ringside out of their seats to dance.
The incredible array of talent kept on coming with poet Nikita Gill applying the Dadaist cut-up technique on ‘The Bhaji’, a specially commissioned piece that saw her read quotes from divisive right wingers such as Trump, Farage, Braverman and Netanyahu, while the dates of these comments appeared on the screen. A powerful performance highlighting the double speak of fascism.
Award-winning dancer Sarah Kundi, former principal dancer with the English National Ballet,
especially choreographed a solo, set to the classic ‘Speaking In Tongues’ by Sheila Chandra. She flowed and span en pointe, stopping and starting with the music and placing her hands over her mouth during silent pauses – a mesmerising delight.
Areeba Hamid, the joint executive director of Greenpeace UK, delivered a ‘light and hope’ speech that, despite covering issues such as climate change (and the anxiety it is causing children), overfishing and fracking, stated the need for everyone to have faith in change.
Peckham-born British-Bengali artist Tara Lily, the first British artist to be signed by Motown Records UK, gave a beautiful rendition of ‘What A Wonderful World’, accompanying herself on keys and finished with an extremely funky ‘Speak In The Dark’, from her debut album.
To close this evening of delights, multi-instrumentalist, musician, vocalist, composer and producer Bishi performed her adaptation of Yoko Ono’s powerful ‘Voice Piece for Soprano’. Originally commissioned by Tate Modern and full of double entendres, we were encouraged to get out of our seats and join in a collective scream, which resonated throughout the room.
The show’s creator, Sweety Kapoor and Anoushka Shankar returned to the ring for final bows and thank yous to the performers who provided a rich and varied night of thought-provoking entertainment. There was so much packed into tonight’s event that it overran by 35 minutes but nobody had an issue with this incredible start to this Brighton Festival 2025.
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Saturday 3rd May 2025
