WORKSHOP: ROCKSHOP
Dome Mon 1st-Fri 5th
This is a week-long event which has bass legend Herbie Flowers and his muso mates overseeing youngster musicians and singers forming new bands, for a Corn Exchange performance on the Friday. Not quite sure how it works – maybe you suck your cheeks in hoping to be picked by the cool kids, but it sounds like a good opportunity to both get your career kick-started and also bug Herbie about his bassline on ‘Walk On The Wild Side’. Pre-book, nametag your gear, and you’re off. (NC)
FILM: JAWS Duke of York’s Thurs 4th
Must…resist…saying…”timeless classic”. If you were a kid in Brighton in the 1980s there were certain films – Jaws, The Fog, maybe Brighton Rock – which nurtured the belief that you too could be sniped by a gangster off Madeira Drive or get gulped down by a Great White if you swam past the West Pier. A quick count on the Wikipedia entry for Jaws shows no fewer than 13 references deeming it the greatest film of all time, and Wiki never lies. (BM)
TALK: GRAHAM HARWOOD Lighthouse Thurs 4th
Admirably-bearded media art mogul Graham Harwood co-founded Mongrel with partner Matsuko Yokokoji in 1995, a collective who combined electronic noodlings with all things ‘street’ in a kind of outsider art take on the personal and political. These days the BAFTA nominees, known as YoHa, make things like memorials to thousands of Second World War slave labourers, which chart their lung capacities on a screen. Harwood’s appearance in Brighton also marks a return to the city he was born in. (BM)
TOUR: DOME DISCOVERY
Dome Sun 7th
As part of a summer of behind-the-scenes snooping at local cultural landmarks, The Dome is sneaking people in the back door and showing them some fascinating stuff from the regal venue’s illustrious history. You might not see Abba’s shiny hot pants from their Eurovision win there or Jimi Hendrix’s charred guitar, but you’ll get a glimpse of a cool secret tunnel that we didn’t know about, running from the Concert Hall to the Royal Pavilion, as well as free tea and cake with your ticket. (NC)
THEATRE: PARADE PROTEST PERFORM
Marlborough Theatre Thurs 11th, Fri 12th and
Sun 14th
Co-produced with The Nightingale, Pink Fringe survey the thorny issue of what Pride means to Brighton’s rich tapestry of beautiful people during a performance trail through the queer heart of the city. Aiming to be “playfully provocative”, they enlist a dancer, surreal performance artists and an intellectual drag queen, armed with glitter, whistles, rainbow flags, banners and loudspeakers. The person dressed in what looks like the remains of a woolly mammoth on the promo material suggests this could get interesting. (BM)
THEATRE: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Little Theatre Weds 17th – Sat 20th
The Royal Shakespeare Company has worked with The Little on this production as part of a scheme pairing amateur companies with hardened professional thesps, and it’s also notable because they’ve decided to transport the farce to the 1920s, adding authentic dance, music, song and outfits from the period to the mix. One of Shakespeare’s breeziest plays, the tale pits a penniless bloke against the two wealthy married women he yearns for, only to be scuppered when their husbands find out. (BM)
ART: MADE IN BRIGHTON 2 Ink-d until Sun 21st
Without wishing to second-guess their curation philosophy, the first Made in Brighton exhibition held at Ink-d a couple of years ago illustrated why the gallery seems so committed to keeping it local. From the super-cool stencil art by Hutch to the beautifully elaborate collaged worlds Maria Rivans dreams up and Ben Allen’s adventures in suave typography and pop art cartoons, this one is another cracker. Who needs the Tate when there’s this much talent on your Brighton doorstep? (BM)
FILM: THE HORROR DOUBLE BILL Komedia Sun 21st
Retro gore is clearly where it’s at in film this month, as the Classic Horror Campaign reinvents BBC 2’s gruesome double bills of the 70s and 80s, alongside giveaways, spooky trailers and competitions. The two chosen flicks are ghost bloodfest House On Haunted Hill (a California-shot 1959 number which is thought to have influenced Hitchcock’s Psycho), and Asylum, a British title from 1972. Come To The Asylum…To Get Killed!, reads the inviting poster. Who could resist an offer like that? (BM)
THEATRE: A REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY DOUBLE BILL
Little Theatre Thurs 25th-Sat 27th
An ace double-bill from the Little’s Youth Group, bravely attacking The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s whirlwind The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged), where 37 plays in 90 minutes include a rap Othello, sock puppet Hamlet and a culinary Titus Andronicus. Then it’s swiftly on to All The Great Books (Abridged), a snappy comedy hurtling through Chaucer, Dickens, Jane Austen and Harry Potter as part of a crash course in literary history. Breathless stuff, and more than likely brilliant. (BM)
ART: CASCADE
Fabrica until Mon 29th
Having immersed ourselves in choral sounds piped through speakers the last time out at Fabrica, the equally meditative proposition of a makeshift kinetic waterfall fills the space for their latest installation. Made by Stéphane Cauchy, a Lille artist who uses mechanical experiments to strike a balance between science and philosophy, Cascade carries water through the air in buckets operated by a revolving pulley, emptying into a pool at your feet in a gentle and poetic bit of magic. (BM)
WORDS BY NICK COQUET, BEN MILLER