EXHIBITION: KIN
Artist Residence until Fri 28th Oct
Best jobs in the world: 1. National chocolate quality assurance for Belgium, 2. In-house masseur for Elite Models, 3. Artist in residence. Skipping past the first two, how great would it be to be put up in a hotel and make art all day? That’s the position screenprinter and sometime SOURCE illustrator Ralph Fox Fisher is lucky enough to be in. The Salute Creative founder’s beautiful twists on classic English imagery have found themselves in the pages of many magazines and the final of the Global Cut & Paste Championships. (JK)
ART: Solar Systems
Phoenix from Sat 3rd
Twinkly-eyed experimenters Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt – better known as Semiconductor – position themselves as intrepid investigators of the natural world, and their first show in the south-east for yonks uses three films to portray the movement of the sun from various vantage points ranging from the humble Earth to outer space. A continuation of the kind of extraordinary installations which have won them residencies in NASA labs and the Galapagos Islands, their globe-crossing scientific explorations always amaze and inspire. (BM)
THEATRE: Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister
Upstairs at Three and Ten Tues 13th – Weds 14th
How much is too much during the grieving process? Where are the boundaries between laughter and death? And, for the journalists who risk their lives on perilous assignments, where is the line between bravery and suicide? After Rebecca Peyton’s sister, BBC reporter Kate, was murdered in Somalia in 2005, she decided to tell her story and contemplate the interwoven taboos in a performance which could not get much more personal. Her courage, if nothing else, is undoubtedly admirable. (BM)
TONY BENN & ROY BAILEY
Komedia Thurs 15th
As public perception of politicians edges ever closer to pond life, it’s reassuring that one of the few honourably regarded politicos of the late 20th Century still brings his great oratorical skills to local stages. Mixing inspirational quotes with his own musings, Benn will alternate on the mic with legendary British folk singer Roy Bailey, the latter playing old rebel songs alongside his own work. It’s a shame this is probably the only pairing who could pull off a night like this. (AP)
THEATRE: A Celebration Of Harold Pinter
Corn Exchange Fri 16th
Julian Sands reckons Harold Pinter would have been recognised as a poetic great had his skill in verse had greater exposure, having once stood in for the master playwright when he was too ill to attend a reading. Fresh from being directed by John Malkovich in Edinburgh, this short and passionate insight into Pinter’s hidden salvo veers from brash parodies to love letters and cricket haikus. Sands’ reverential treatment of the works is one most likely to please Pinter devotees. (BM)
COMEDY: The Treason Show Summer Special
Pavilion Theatre Fri 16th and Sat 17th
If you’re new to the city au bord de la mer or simply haven’t had the unsettling experience of witnessing the all-action Treason Show squad in action yet, get stuck in as Sussex’s satirical stars of spoof (alright, enough of the dodgy alliteration) bring their all-killer-knowing-filler back. The old favourites still throng the goofy and exceptionally funny line-up, but regular changes and additions to the writing team – revamped again here – make theirs a show which only seems to get better. (BM)
ART: MA2011
University of Brighton Gallery Sat 17th – Weds 28th
Showcasing work from Brighton Uni’s graduating MA course students, this is a collection including animation, illustration, packaging, typography and design. The two courses represented, Sequential and Independent Project, attract participants from all over the world, working within a broad spectrum of artistic endeavour, taking in everything from the narrative potential of the t-shirt to designing gifts for the angry and the heartbroken. (NC)
THEATRE: Blackout
Upstairs at Three And Ten Tues 20th – Fri 23rd
All hail the return of the loft above Three And Ten, back after a brief departure to Edinburgh to reclaim its reputation as the place to see theatre that makes you sit up and take notice this month. Set in a tiny cell as the incumbent wakes up, this short, sharp and physical performance was written by Davey Anderson after the former National Theatre of Scotland Director carried out an interview with a 15-year-old Glasgow teenager who had been charged with attempted murder. (BM)
FILM: A Machine To See With
Somewhere in Brighton until Sat 24th
There is, admits the small print in the latest site-specific spectacular from Blast Theory, a chance you’ll get arrested if you take part in this one. We were just trying to find out where this adrenalin-rushing “interactive heist movie” through the streets of the city – which doubles up as the premiere of an acclaimed film – would start, but it turns out you find out via a call to your mobile on the day you’re due to take part. How very James Bond. (BM)
ART: Brighton Art Fair
Corn Exchange Fri 23rd – Sun 25th
There isn’t a great deal to say about the Brighton Art Fair that you couldn’t read on the elaborately-adorned tin, although the stats report sales of 500 grand’s worth of work last year for an art slosh which has gained national prominence. Always eclectic and a good chance to find out more from practitioners whose stuff you like the look of, it features more than 100 exhibitors this time around. (BM)
DANCE: Far
Corn Exchange Mon 26th
Mystical dance overlord Wayne McGregor gained a bit of exposure outside of theatres earlier this year when he orchestrated Thom Yorke’s shape-throwing in the video for Radiohead’s ‘Lotus Flower’. For new piece Far, he returns with 10 performers in a work soundtracked by the menacing electronica of wolfish composer Ben Frost, staged in “3D architecture” under shifting beams of light, shadow and cinematic projections. Tense, exciting, a bit scary and marvellously bendy, McGregor’s ensembles are magicians of their art. (BM)
Event: Gambia Benefit
Friends Meeting House Fri 30th
Thanks to the likes of Vampire Weekend et al, African vibes are enjoying a Paul Simon-style resurgence. But preppy pop stars in Ralph Lauren belie the problems of the Third World. Unemployment in Gambia runs at 70%, so the Community Empowerment Project are providing low cost education to the unemployed people there. This all-day fundraiser for the CEP will feature purely African music and some amazing Gambian food. Kora genius Jali Mbye Burama, Bady Touray and Brighton’s own Ye Ye Fever DJs will be keeping things moving all day. (MB)
WORDS BY MATT BARKER, NICK COQUET, JAMES KENDALL, BEN MILLER, ADAM PETERS
