THEATRE: Keeler
Theatre Royal Mon 7th
A prominent cabinet minister has an inappropriate personal relationship, lies to the House and his career goes tits up – no, not last month but nearly 50 years ago. The Profumo affair was a tabloid dream, with showgirls, spies and suicide, and it’s a tale that’s certainly been told a million times over. This version however is based on the autobiography of the showgirl in question, Christine Keeler, and is seen to be a definitive inside account of the biggest political sex scandal of the century. Starring Alice Coulthard and Paul Nicholas, it’s a historical portent for dodgy political behaviour to come. (NC)

THEATRE: Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks
West Hill Hall Fri 11th
Award-winning Fringe theatre and the distinct possibility of leotards and grunting, as writers Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon (best known for Victorian sketch show saviours The Ornate Johnsons) re-enact the sweaty weekly televised heroics of two hefty bunglers. The action takes place between 1976 and 1988, and Paul McCartney, Chris Tarrant, Frank Sinatra, Princess Margaret and Greg Dyke are among the stars of the era whose wailings are revisited along the way. Get your fix of highbrow Friday night intellectualism here. (BM)

COMEDY: Lee Nelson Live! Theatre Royal Sun 13th
It’s easy to write off Lee Nelson, the manic alter-ego of comic Simon Brodkin, as lowbrow BBC3 ASBO-tainment; indeed his Well Good Show was padded out with the kind of end-of-pier tat that even OMG With Peaches Geldof might have balked at. But live, Nelson is a seasoned stand-up and works the room like a pro. It’s comedy from the Vicky Pollard school of working class mockery, but he does it with such an affection and puppy dog enthusiasm that’s hard to find PC fault with. Even the taunting of his morbidly obese mate Omelette is vaguely warmhearted. Be warned: he wanders about the venues a fair bit, so front row-avoidance won’t save you. (NC)

THEATRE: Bane Part Three
Upstairs at Three and Ten Tues 15th, Weds 16th, Sat 19th
For anyone prone to sniggering and the occasional wet fart impression during supposedly tense cinema sequences, the shadowy figure of Bruce Bane provides singlehanded gratification (snort). Joe Bone’s shady film noir parody hero is the product of film and graphic novels, deploying sleights of scene and sound effects in a third instalment commissioned by the Brighton Festival after rapturous acclaim for the previous two at the Fringe. Ben Roe – a “one-man Morricone”, no less – adds a live guitar soundtrack. (BM)

ART: Practical Electronica / Open 2011 Phoenix Gallery from Sat 19th
No cat-swinging in the Phoenix for a month – the foyer is a whole world of weirdness thanks to Ian Helliwell’s Practical Electronica, a boy’s own caper festooned with sounds, loops, bits of books and magazines and televisions inspired by audio-visual inventor Fred Judd. Open 2011, a “submission platform” for photographers and curators plugging the planning gap between the 2010 and 2012 Brighton Photo Fringes, is given the run of the North and South Galleries. (BM)

THEATRE: Iron
New Venture Theatre Sat 19th – Sat 26th
Ken Loach and Doctor Who conspirator Rona Munro is something of a cult writer, particularly for those beloved of bleakness. In this one, a lass whose mum killed her dad is reunited with her murderous maternal femme fatale, finding her serving life in prison. As you can imagine, the ensuing action gets tenser than a 2am alcopop stand-off down West Street in a play which shocked some with its grimness when Munro unveiled it in 2003. (BM)

ART: Missum
Ink_d until Sun 20th
A perfect fit for Ink-d’s edgy enclaves as one half of Miss Bugs, the street art duo known for draping walls with floaty depictions of supermodels, breaks off on her own with a more “gallery-friendly” style encompassing collographs, watercolours and drypoint etchings. The results are more eerie and brooding, imbuing works inspired by isolation, loss and loneliness with a more sombre feel. Cats, dogs and Mickey Mouse still managed to get involved in the finished pieces from a star of the future. (BM)

THEATRE: The Two Man Tempest
Pavilion Theatre Sat 26th
It’s hard to tell how a take on The Tempest incorporating mime, mask, singing, prancing, storms, apparitions and virtuoso directing might work out, but it sounds intriguing in a month when the onset of winter has resulted in a noticeable beefing up of all things experimental on the boards. A comatose old man, reconciling his life as he teeters on the brink of death, forms the starting point for a piece promising to set pulses racing, to the tune of a specially commissioned score. (BM)

THEATRE: The Mistress
Upstairs at Three and Ten from Tues 29th
You’re a glitzy fashion designer, you’re having a fling with your best friend’s husband and you’re left in a studio with nothing for company but a phone which never rings. We’ve all been there, and in the case of Samantha – the heroine of this emotional carousel from the blood-and-guts pen of Upstairs at Three and Ten patron Arnold Wesker – she winds up confiding in a bunch of onlooking mannequins, all the while getting progressively more sozzled. More of this please. (BM)

MUSIC: Colour Out Of Space
Various venues, Friday 11th – Sunday 13th November
Now in its fifth year, this three-day festival provides a friendly and relaxed arena for enthusiasts to come together and enjoy several different shades of experimental music and art in one weekend of intense sensory stimulation. The line-up includes sound poetry, free jazz, avant rock, tape music, and other breeds of uncategorisable weirdness, with a heavy emphasis on the psychedelic and the spontaneous. As well as music there are workshops, talks and installations. For more information go to colouroutofspace.org. (LMM)

WORDS BY NICK COQUET, BEN MILLER, LISA MARIE MUNDY