ART: MA FINE ART SHOW
University of Brighton Faculty of Arts until Sun 3rd
If you read this in time, grab the brief opportunity to spend the rest of the weekend gawping at another eclectic graduate show, featuring the University of Brighton’s finest and artists based at that den of experimentalism the Phoenix. From microscopic seaweed and cliff chalk to inanimate eBay finds given new life through precious gemstones and ceramics, paintings, baroque carvings and “anti-masterpieces” focusing on rubber, there are 19 original new talents from all over the globe at play here. (BM)

WRESTLING: LUCHA FUTURE
Dome Fri 1st-Sat 2nd
We met Blue Demon Jr – the first Mexican to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship – and he’s absolutely huge, with a chest three times the size of our pigeon offering. Cassandro, the first openly gay luchador, was with him, all charm and flamboyance, both climbing up onto a carpark roof for our photos, unafraid of falling six storeys down. All of which bodes well for their return for the Mex fest at the Dome, with real lucha libre (faster and more acrobatic than WWE), alongside Mexican music and food. We can’t imagine more fun this month. (JK)

EVENT: THE SPACE
Komedia Thurs 7th
Bow at the altar of cinematic glory as Chris Dickens brings the Oscar he won for Slumdog Millionaire to Gardner Street, where you can also hear about his time working on Shaun Of The Dead and Spaced. Alternatively, for anyone who’s worked in an office where the treachery of daily infiltration by Radio 1 has perforated their soul since 1998, this is your chance to finally wring Controller Andy Parfitt’s neck for granting gainful employment to Jo Whiley and Chris Moyles. (BM)

COMEDY: RUSSELL KANE
Komedia Fri 8th
Hard to believe that our Russ, the thrusting semi-Cockney who spent ages making us laugh with poo jokes and recollections of his misguided Neanderthal dad, is now a £20-a-pop big stage star with his own Radio 2 series. One of a series of live recordings for his freshly-inked BBC wireless deal, this free show will feature a few of his fellow comedians and a bit of music, with seats allocated on a first-come, first-served basis on the night. (BM)

THEATRE: TWELFTH NIGHT
Queen’s Park Sat 9th
“Tickets are not refundable – if there is a hurricane the performance will be rescheduled,” assert Illyria, the theatre company who have run amok at sunset in Queen’s Park for the past three summers. The spa setting is the perfect backdrop for their take on shipwrecks, upturned worlds where all is illogical, posturing and pathos, romance, music and joy, all up for grabs from the comfort of your rug and minibar. Book early – their appearances sold out in 2009 and 2010. (BM)

COMEDY: DYLAN MORAN
Brighton Dome Sat 9th-Sun 10th
After finding success in Channel 4 series Black Books as drunken book shop owner Bernard, Dylan Moran has gone form strength to strength, finding supporting roles in big films like Shaun Of The Dead and Run Fatboy Run. In his live show that drunken persona seen so much on screen comes to life, and you begin to think that maybe that’s not acting on the silver screen, but just Moran in real life, and it’s rude, crude and utterly hilarious. (JC)

THEATRE: WOMAN IN MIND/CONNECTION UNSECURE
New Venture Theatre Sat 16th – Sat 23rd
Weds 27th – Fri 29th
An excellent mix of traditional crises and Generation X floundering at the NVT. Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind sees a clergyman’s wife leave her joyless marriage for the more twinkly existence of her imagination, ending messily when those two worlds meet. Connection Unsecure, a devised piece by Izzy Mackenzie and Mark Wilson, dares a pair of online suitors to escape the belching comfort cloud of relationships through computer screens and risk meeting in the cold light of real life. (BM)

ART: TWISTED
Phoenix from Sat 23rd
The vogue for traditional crafts and textiles undoubtedly lies in putting them to new, distinctly non-traditional uses at the moment. Whether it’s a transitional phase or the future for makers and spinners, the ethos is perfectly encapsulated by the six artists involved in Twisted, who variously turn clay into cages, puppets into tableaux, sewing machines into drawing tools and fabrics into floating installations. Lifesize bodies, eerie walk-through installations and dreamlike, tactile worlds are among the results in an original and magical-looking show. (BM)

THEATRE: BRIGHTON ‘TIL I DIE
Theatre Royal Weds 27th and Thurs 28th
Your ‘umble cultural correspondent has to confess a smidgeon of bias with this one, but the fact it’s as moving for football sceptics as it is for diehard Albion fans says everything about this show by brilliant director Paul Hodson. Updating the tumultuous story of our local team from its original version, which was rapturously received at the much-missed Gardner Arts Centre a decade ago, Hodson’s passionate performers in Brighton’s answer to Fever Pitch guarantee a theatrical and sporting epic. (BM)

COMEDY: JAMES ACASTER
Caroline of Brunswick Thurs 28th
Stick a pin in the Caz’s huge programme of comedy this month and you still won’t have any assurance of triumph or disaster – largely because even the established names on show are trying out new stuff in Edinburgh previews. We’re going to go for the shiny exuberance of James Acaster, who at the very least is adroitly improvisational and as infinitely likeable as you’d expect for a man who’s supported indie comedy goddess Josie Long on tour. (BM)

WORDS BY JAKE CUNNINGHAM, JAMES KENDALL, BEN MILLER
PHOTO BY JAMES KENDALL