The latest Brighton Festival and Fringe reviews from Team ThreeWeeks. Look out for more ThreeWeeks reviews here in the eDaily and every morning in The Argus each day in May. Hurrah.

A Guide To ThreeWeeks Ratings:
1/5 - somewhere around about God-darn awful, though possibly it's so bad it's good.
2/5 - just not any good really, sorry.
3/5 - good for what it is - if you like this genre, probably worth a try
4/5 - now, this is what we are talking about, a fine example of this genre
5/5 - oh Lord, so damn good, whatever the genre, go see this show if you can

COMEDY

Fear Of Projection
The Infamists
As the half-naked lecturer squirmed against the screen in a pathetic display of sexual union with the PowerPoint projector, I squirmed in my seat. The concept of a lecture about artificial intelligence in which the projector comes to life is not necessarily a bad one. The technical side didn't let this show down either, if anything the projector upstaged Ed the awkward lecturer. Awkward and squirming are sometimes the hallmarks of brilliant comedy; here, though, the jokes fell flat as the projector screen and the audience was left to squirm, awkwardly. I have no problem with nudity or sex, onstage or otherwise, and the actor wasn't bad looking. However, the sounds and images of that gruesomely uncomfortable scene will haunt me forever.
Friends' Meeting House, 3-9 May, 6:00pm, £5.00 (£4.00), fringe, pp17
tw rating 2/5
[se]

MUSIC

Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers Show
Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers
Many might hesitate to call two hours of drumming 'music', and with the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, they'd be right – it's so much more! Fusing the grace of dance with the pounding beat of the Taiko drums, a unique kind of theatre is created, and it's a lot of fun! The performers' technical skill is evident throughout, as they explore the rhythmic and textual possibilities of the percussion, whilst interest is sustained through the contrast between the ethereal bamboo flute, and the massive odaiko drum, which rattles the ceiling with every hit. Unhindered, even, by the audience's inability to clap in time, the Mugenkyo drummers create a fun and thrilling evening – the only complaints will be from the neighbours!
Salis Benney Theatre, 3 May, 7:30pm, £15.00 (£10.00), Fringe pp35.
tw rating 5/5
[sb]

THEATRE & MUSICALS

Spreading Her Thinly
5D Theatre Company / Whose Shoes Productions
This is a must see for women in particular, with its jolly and empathetic take on the dilemmas facing modern women struggling to satisfy all the demands placed on them. Most of the story takes place over the course of one week in the life of Nuala, the stay-at-home mother of two, and Jenny, the working mother of two – both of whom are trying to tackle the challenges of motherhood, but in different ways. Both characters are likeable and believable, striking chords of recognition. The funniest element of the show was the messages left on answer-phones by the characters' mothers, which served to further increase the expectations and pressure Nuala and Jenny find themselves dealing with. The play raises those issues familiar to many women addressing the question of how to strike the right balance, and to which there are no easy answers. In the end, both women find friendship and their own solutions. Go see this play and forget your own pressures for a while.
Joogleberry Playhouse, 4, 10, 13 and 14 May, times vary, £8.00 (£6.00), Fringe pp44.
tw rating 4/5
[sla]

Up the Gary
Bad Penny Theatre
A gripping tale about what happens when you live your life through the reputation of a rock star. This one man play about a Gary Glitter tribute act fuses pathos and comedy so that they complement each other perfectly and carry the audience along on waves of sadness and joy. The unforgettable high was protagonist Sam Barker's appearance on 'Stars In Their Eyes', where his rendition of 'Leader Of The Gang' was superb and fantastically funny. Andrew Barron's performance as the central character was beautifully convincing, and his occasional switch into different roles kept the piece moving. The transformation of nervy Sam into the confidence-oozing Gary Glitter tribute act was effortlessly captured, and made 'Up The Gary' a Fringe delight.
Upstairs at Three and Ten, 2 – 9 May, 6:30pm (7:20pm) £8.00 (£6.00), Fringe pp46.
tw rating 4/5
[rt]

The Knowledge of Beauty
Get A Real Job Promotions
Billed as "a brand new sharp, alternative comedy" one could easily be forgiven for checking they were at the right show... twice! The plot dealt with themes around the old chestnut that it's what's beneath the skin than counts, and whilst this could have been dealt with in an original way, this play is pretty predictable: attractive characters end up sad, ugly characters happy. The story was weak, it didn't really achieve the moral it was aiming for and the characters were so unbelievable that they were about the only thing that was laughable. On top of all that the script was badly written, and many of the cast seemed to suffer attacks of foreign accents syndrome. Everything about 'The Knowledge Of Beauty' smacked of a GCSE drama class.
Ambassador Hotel, 3, 4 May, 8:00pm (9:00pm), £6.00 (£5.00), Fringe pp45.
tw rating 1/5
[rt]

Bite-size 'Lunch Hour'
White Room Theatre
Bite-sized it is, and fast-paced laugh out loud drama as well, with a format that offers a selection of six mini-plays by different playwrights, each with a distinctive voice. Different plays are performed on different nights, and the audience get to vote for their favorites to select which pieces are performed at a Gala show. The plays quickly connected with their audience, and although some of the shorts were more engaging than others, overall they were consistently entertaining. Particular highlights for me were 'The Quiet Table For Four' and 'Uncomfortable Silences' – and that's not because the actor bared his chest (although I've no complaints on that front either). Each of the plays felt complete but also clearly had the potential to be developed further. A very enjoyable start to the Festival for me, and one definitely worth catching.
Cella @ Sanctuary Cafe, 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 May, 12:30pm, £7.00 (£5.00), Fringe pp40.
tw rating 4/5
[sla]

Backward Glance
Multi Story
Combining modern themes with a touch of Greek mythology, 'Backward Glance' is an energized study of the impact of the suspicious death of a celebrity figure on her husband and mother. Multi Story deliver an impassioned piece of theatre that charts the unraveling of the main protagonist as he explores his ambivalence towards his wife, laced with his unmeasured grief, exploring themes influenced both by the story of Orpheus and the real-life drama of Ted Hughes. Afterwards the actors finished with a Q&A session with the audience to answer questions and listen to feedback. The whole experience would appeal most to anyone who is keen to be challenged by theatrical experience; this is fairly weighty stuff.
Komedia Studio, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 May, times vary, £6.00 (£5.00), Fringe pp40.
tw rating 3/5
[sla]

Playhouse Creatures/A Life In The Theatre
Hello id
Little has changed in theatre, would be one lesson learned, from this double bill beginning with the bitchings of Nell Gwynne and other wretches of Restoration drama followed by Mamet's play about a silly old darling and his protégé. Aging was a fear in both pieces, with Mrs Betterton throwing wobblers reminiscent of Vivian Vile over being replaced by younger playhouse creatures, while the best performance of the night was Jonathan Rice's 20th century queen giving a wonderfully camp show of hiding his bitterness. Nice parallels, but it is a little lopsided, with Mamet's piece being much snappier and funnier than the drawn-out 17th century melodrama, unless this is a statement on how theatre has improved over the intervening centuries.
Upstairs at Three and Ten, 2 – 4 May, 7:45pm & 25 May, 5:00pm, £9.00 (£8.00), fringe pp42.
tw rating 3/5
[se]

Reviewed in the ThreeWeeks eDaily tomorrow...
Aeneas Faversham Forever, Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Show, The Forgotten, Terence Allbright (Piano): 'Modern British Music', The Very Best of Slaughterhouse Live, Generic1, Heroes and Villains, and Clever Peter. Some of these reviews will appear first in tomorrow's Argus.

ThreeWeeks Reviewers Guide...
Sarah Agnew [sla], Steve Bromley [sb], Kate Charles [kc], Seth Ewin [se], Sean Farrance-White [sfw], Joel Gunter [jg], Jess Hookway [jh], Jessica Nero [jn], Laura Oliver [lo], Clearhos Papanicolaou [cp], Anna Pearce [ap], Richard Tatnall [rt].

ThreeWeeks is the flagship media at the Edinburgh and Brighton Festivals. Its mission is to provide as comprehensive coverage as is humanly possible of both these festivals, in particular reviewing those shows not getting media coverage elsewhere.

We launched ThreeWeeks in Edinburgh in 1996 because at that time the Edinburgh Festival was growingly hugely each year, but at the same time media coverage was, if anything, decreasing. That meant that many strands at the Festival - and especially the new, alternative and grassroots performers and companies which, as far as we could see, were what made the Edinburgh Festival so exciting in the first place - were not getting the coverage they deserved. From year one ThreeWeeks aimed to cover as many aspects of the Festival as possible, from the big names at the big venues through to the real grass roots shows not covered elsewhere. Over a decade later we continue to operate to that ethos, getting even closer to achieving it by reviewing over 1500 shows each Edinburgh Festival - nearly all of them - and hundreds more than our closest competitors.

Since 2006 we have applied the same ethos in our coverage of the Brighton Festival. This year we will have over 25 student reviewers seeing shows. You can read their reviews via this eDaily, our website and through a daily column in The Argus. We also offer a bucket load of previews and interviews on and with some of our favourite shows and performers, on our website, and via our free ThreeWeeks Guide to the Brighton Festival, available all over Brighton from 6 May.

ThreeWeeks is owned, published and loved by UnLimited Media, a Shoreditch based media and marketing company. It is edited by Chris Cooke and Caro Moses, who also run UnLimited Media. UnLimited doesn't make much money out of the ThreeWeeks enterprise, we do it because we get a buzz in discovering and championing cultural innovation, and the best places we've found to do that are Edinburgh in August and Brighton in May.

If you want more information on ThreeWeeks, or you want to get involved or support the project in some way, or you are a journalist looking for info or comment on any aspect of the Brighton or Edinburgh festivals (we know it all!) email chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk