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

Aeneas Faversham Forever
The Penny Dreadfuls
An already merry audience were treated to a brand of comedy reminiscent of a bygone-era as this talented group whipped up a Victorian comedy masterpiece in a style reminiscent of the likes of Blackadder, or perhaps the Monty Python team in their more historical moments. It’s an extraordinarily silly plot – if I mention that it hinged on the fact that London is under threat from an oyster God, it might give you an idea of just how ridiculous it is. Repetition didn’t always work with some of the gags, but the characters and comedy pairings were unfailingly funny. A consistently amusing script peppered with occasional laugh-out-loud moments made the show a real comedy treat.
Joogleberry Playhouse, 9 May, 8:15pm, £9.00 (£7.00) and Udderbelly, 23 May, 8:15pm, £12.00 (£10.00), fringe pp 15.
tw rating 4/5
[rt]

Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Show
Poor Ivan - it's not his fault the jaundice sufferer was a Coldplay fan, and the song picked was ‘Yellow’. Ivan's incompetent attempts to cheer up the patients of the Chesterfield And North Derbyshire hospital form the basis of this infectiously entertaining stand-up routine, as song after song is rejected as DJ Brackenbury realises why it's inappropriate. Between songs, such as 'Baggy Trousers' for an anorexic, Ivan is proud to show off his badly forged endorsements from celebrities and make a few prank phone calls that go morbidly wrong. The subject matter, from Downs to playing 'The Final Countdown' for the older patients should be in bad taste, but Ivan's lisping naivety and good intentions allow the audience to just sit back and laugh.
Komedia Studio, 4 May, 8:30pm (9:30pm), £9.00 (£6.00), fringe, pp17.
tw rating 4/5
[se]

The Very Best of Slaughterhouse Live
Tongue In Cheek Comedy Management
So, it turns out seeing ‘Two Fat Folkers’ singing “I’m Gay” is something I would pay to see again and again. The same Fat Folkers’ rendition of the Lancashire hotpot song might just have been one of the highlights of the entire Brighton fringe; crude, yes, but excellently performed - the only bad thing was that it had to come to an end. This talented double act brought a number of deranged characters to life and with the aid of a couple of unfortunate audience members and a string of un-PC songs, created an exuberant atmosphere amongst the small and intimate crowd. Even the video interludes during character changes were brilliant, and added to the show’s overall quality that would put any BBC3 comedy to shame.
Joogleberry Playhouse, 3 May, 11:00pm (12:00am), £8.00 (£6.00).
tw rating 4/5
[rt]

Heroes and Villains
Guy Incognito
Set simply and with little action - save for a strange and dispensable Indiana Jones re-enactment – ‘Heroes And Villains’ was always going to sink or swim on the quality of the two characters' dialogue. There are good lines from the off, but for much of the play the jokes have to fight their way out from under a contrived eloquence at odds with the material, the sort that makes ‘Dawson's Creek’ impossible to watch after you turn 16. It does manage to stay afloat though. The plot work, albeit brief, is good, hinting at an aptitude for Seinfeld style entanglements, and the observational stuff rings enjoyably true. There is a little way to go but, if they want it, there's surely a sitcom waiting in the wings.
Upstairs at The Three and Ten, 3, 4, 10, 11 May, times vary, £7.00 (£5.00), fringe pp. 17
tw rating 3/5
[jg]

Clever Peter
Whitebone Productions
Enid Blyton has been a ripe source of satire, but what was once ripe can quickly become old and stale. Five get molested and sell special sherbet was a little lacking in originality, however this was only one of many sketches in this fast-paced show. Sweet and serious scenes were slickly scuppered by sexual misunderstandings, or when anal-raping apes made arbitrary appearances. The performers jumped well between different ages and accents in pieces such as Billy Miner - a well-chosen piece of role reversal. Some of the sexual jokes got a little repetitious though. Anal sex and fellatio gags, like ripe peaches and bananas, are only delicious for a time and after that you need a very alcoholic rumtopf to get them to go down.
Upstairs at Three and Ten, 3-4, 20-21 May, times vary, £7.00(£5.00), fringe pp16.
tw rating 3/5
[se]

DANCE & PHYSICAL THEATRE

Norman
Brighton Festival/Lemieux.pilon 4d art
This foray into the fantastical 'rabbit hole' of an artist's imagination achieves a mesmerising composite of the live dancing body and film. The works of Norman McLaren are projected on screens upon the stage, enabling the single male dancer to balletically explore the image and the life of the filmmaker through an expressive simulation, as if inside the film. Ideas of communication, war, and growth are explored, and become poignant as they play with the smaller dancing figure who moves to bridge the space between these records and a more immediate time. This abstract blending combines with a more didactic commentary on Norman's work, but it's the dancer weaving, lightly touching in mid-air, squiggled lines scratched by Norman onto film, that's most magical. The audience was rapt.
Theatre Royal, 6 - 10 May, 8:00pm (9:30pm), £20 (£10), festival pp2.
tw rating 4/5
[kc]

MUSIC

Terence Allbright (Piano): ‘Modern British Music’
Bramber Press
Terence Allbright aims to highlight the variety within modern British piano music, and introduce new elements to a genre where novelty has been almost impossible for 200 years, exploiting every facet of his instrument, and introducing several gimmicks - such as augmenting his piano with pegs - to do so. His own work is edgy and suspenseful, yet throughout, his wit, only hinted at in banter, is evident. A highlight was Thorogood’s ‘Fantasy Variations On A Danish Folksong’, where a simple tune is traced from deep sorrow to the peaks of joy, a performance undoubtedly enjoyed by Thorogood himself, present in the audience. Allbright’s perfect performance was only slightly marred by an overabundance of background noise, yet throughout Allbright brought humour and novelty to a genre which risks repetition.
Friends’ Meeting House, 3 May 5:15pm, £7 (£4), fringe pp14.
tw rating 4/5
[sb]

Still Black, Still Proud:  An Afro Tribute to James Brown
Brighton Festival/Soul Power
On Christmas Day, 2006, legendary soul star James Brown sadly passed away.  However, it seems that no one told the international performers in 'Still Black, Still Proud’ who re-created a little bit of James Brown funk at the Brighton Dome on Tuesday. The show featured charismatic front men Pee Wee Ellis on saxophone, Fred Wesley on trombone (two of Brown's musical directors in his mid-century heyday), and the considerable talents of Senegalese supremo, Cheikh Lo, who left no heart string un-plucked with a near perfect rendition of 'It's Man's World'.  Combined with a set list that could persuade even Victor Meldrew to shake his booty on down, 'Still Black, Still Proud' showed the so-called 'urban' acts of today the true meaning of R&B.
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 6 May, 8:00pm, £18.00 - £22.00, festival pp12.
tw rating 4/5
[sfw]

THEATRE

The Forgotten
Badac Theatre
“I am important to myself” states the anonymous teller of this Holocaust testimony with anguish, and in this realisation lies the play’s greatest strength. Through a monologue bursting with anger and brutal desperation, the audience bears witness to the well-known but still incomprehensible build up to and execution of the Holocaust, but it is smaller, intimate and personal moments that prove most affecting. As the protagonist manically reproaches himself and others for not resisting the Nazis and for telling protective lies to his young daughter, it is the vivid memory of her, consolingly squeezing his hand which stops his story in its tracks. An excellent, almost painfully physical performance which should encourage its audience never to “do nothing” about an obvious injustice again.
The Nightingale Theatre, 4 – 5 May, 7:30pm, £8.50 (£6.50), fringe pp44.     
tw rating 4/5
[jn]        

Generic1
DEFAULT productions
Seeing ‘Generic1’ is like flicking through an audible scrapbook with random cuttings of language. The variety of extracts ranged from dull recitals of historical facts and dictionary definitions to dramatised readings of letters and diaries. Audiences are encouraged to come and go at their pleasure which adds to the pick and mix feel of the piece. The only thing countering this casual approach is the suited and booted appearance of the two performers which gives ‘Generic1’ an uncomfortably stiff vibe. There’s something about the event that, like a hypnotic game of Pong, has the capability to grab your attention. Whether it’s the eloquent speech, the mesmerising pictures flicking behind the performers or just the general strangeness of the piece, I left feeling content that I had been somewhat entertained.
Friends’ Meeting House, 3 – 5 May, times vary, £5.00 (£3.00), fringe pp41.
tw rating 3/5
[rt]

Stockholm
Brighton Festival/Frantic Assembly
It seems that even the perfect couple who share everything from erotic sex to the whole-hearted unconditional love of the other is haunted by their individual insecurities. Rather than tell a story, 'Stockholm' is more of a platform from which some truly awe-inspiring theatre is exhibited. The crisp set had a number of hidden secrets which are gradually revealed to the surprise of a gasping audience, and are used to create wonderful visual effects. The physical movement was beautifully choreographed and portrayed the powerful emotions, whilst the lighting and sound created an unforgettable ambience. As the applause begins, an auditorium’s worth of regretful sighs fill the air, signalling the end of a highly intense and beautiful piece of drama.
Corn Exchange, 3 – 10 May, times vary, £18.00, (£15.00), Festival pp5
tw rating 4/5
[rt]

Reviewed in the ThreeWeeks eDaily tomorrow...
I Kissed A Frog And…It Gave Me Herpes, Hard Chair Stories, Lunchtime Life Lesson, Delovely, Hadley's Experiment, Mojo, Conjuring Up Comedy and The Heimkehrer – Coming Home. 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.

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