The latest Brighton Festival and Fringe reviews from Team ThreeWeeks. Look out for more reviews in The Argus this Saturday, and then in your final eDaily next week.

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

Mayday! The Musical
The Maydays
'Whoops!' the musical is one for all the family, funny, moving and downright silly, it's a real winner! Not seen it? Then you probably never will. 'Whoops!' was the latest improvised musical from the now staple part of the Brighton Fringe; the Maydays. From just an audience suggestion for the title they simultaneously write and perform the opening and closing night. Not only was tonight's one-off musical cleverly constructed in terms of plot, it was also hilariously funny, each performer capitalising on their own different styles of humour to the delight of the whole audience. Since their appearance at the fringe last year this group has gone from strength to strength; be sorry if you missed them this time.
Udder Place, 19, 20 May, 8:15pm, £11.00 (£9.00), fringe pp19.
tw rating 5/5
[rt]

Jenny Eclair 'Because I Forgot To Get A Pension'
Avalon Promotions
A very spritely performance from a comic whose chief concern is that she's getting too old - Eclair rolls around on her pink rug and canters gleefully on her make-believe pony when a joke goes down particularly well. The insatiable energy carries the show for well over an hour, as Eclair talks of book club drunkenness and hunting for her teenage daughter's diary. Very middle-aged subject matter, but the school-girl in Eclair comes out to play with an irresistible smirk and a playful gesture - she makes it clear she hasn't fully grown up yet. It's a difficult venue, with the front row stretching miles, yet Eclair springs from one side to the other with a flick of her hair and a knowing wink.
Udderbelly, 19 May, 9:00pm, £15.00, fringe pp17.
tw rating 4/5
[se]

Coco Peru
Well this sister sure ain't shy about dishing out her bitchy opinions and naughty anecdotes and she's pretty forthright in singing her colourful songs too. Switching between venomous viper spitting poison to girlish sweetness at terrific speed, Coco recounts her journey from the Bronx to Brighton. Dolly Parton and Little Mermaid songs prove not unfamiliar to the audience, but many songs have been given some twisted treatment. Walt wouldn't be too happy with Coco's Ariel, but seeing as he's frozen maybe her warped Broadway dreams could come true. Aside from a rant about children and turning the crowd ecstatic with her songs, her real triumph is a trip to Hell; a who's-who of homosexuals that allows her to cheekily open a few closet doors.
Komedia, 18 - 21 May, times vary, £12.50 (£10.50), fringe pp16.
tw rating 4/5
[se]

Tasteless, Timeless Comedy
School Of Mirth
Usually grown men dressed as schoolboys would prompt a disturbing thought pattern to cascade through my mind and, initially, that is what the first sketch of 'Tasteless, Timeless Comedy' did.  However, as the show progressed, and as the uniforms were replaced by less unsettling costumes, it became clear that these young performers/comedians had a real talent for making people laugh, and despite the obvious low budget and occasional missing of the mark, they displayed very real promise. With all the twentysomething comedy sketch shows that now saturate the TV market School Of Mirth are undoubtedly in crowded waters but, even in these obviously early days, with a slight honing of their skills, they could be a formidable comedy force. Expect big things. 
Komedia Studio, 18 May, 8:30pm, free, fringe pp21
tw rating 4/5
[sfw]

The Western
Gamarjobat
These sharp-shooting sheriffs quickly fired up the audience with their warm-up routine, though the longer narrative piece wasn't quite the best western spoof. Gamarjobat are masters of audience interaction, gently mocking members of the front row and fighting for attention with their magic and slapstick. The Western, a UK premiere, in which the two clowns send-up the wild west is a much tougher mission, with little audience participation to fall back on. The good, the bad and the beautiful girl all fight it out in true western fashion, the mimed gun fights and romance are slick parodies. There are tumbleweeds in places – real and metaphorical - but moments like the remembered early birthday party with the lead reverting to a toddler are genius.
Komedia, 18 - 21 May, 7:00pm, £12.50 (£10.00), fringe pp23.
tw rating 3/5
[se]

The Four D'Oeuvres
Resident Alien
A radio sketch show not on the radio is the premise for 'The Four D'Oeuvres' show and the licence for MC Doug Devaney to lend his lips to an orchestral range of sound effects. Devaney holds this piece together: his ad libs elicit the most laughs (and on occasion the most sympathy) from the crowd. The group's moments of off-the-cuff humour and more satirical sketches taking on Brighton's quest for city status and its public transport campaign are the highlights. This is old fashioned, gag-based comedy, which is friendly if not always funny. Fortunately we're allowed to groan, in fact it's even encouraged. And cue cards tell us when to applaud. Though I can't help thinking shorter, pacier sketches would have made that more spontaneous.
Hare & Hounds, 20, 22 May, 9:00pm, £5.00, fringe pp21.
tw rating 3/5
[lo]

The Presidential Selection
Subtlety got shafted in a sketch where city slickers took coke by the kilo. This was puerile satire at its most pathetically unoriginal and it was also the least unfunny sketch of the evening. In vain I searched for punch-lines and found instead only interminable scenes and guffawing faces I wanted to punch. Ranging from hopelessly hackneyed to just skull-fuckingly awful, like their song making light of depression, which had the reverse effect, making me want to slit my wrists and end it all then and there. The stage was empty for one barely audible audio sketch about folks trapped down a mine. A Thatcher's wet dream of a pit disaster doesn't even come close to conveying how catastrophically bad this show was.
Udder Place, 17, 25 May, times vary, £10.00 (£8.00), fringe pp21.
tw rating 1/5
[se]

GSOH - Steve Day
Good Sense of Humour/Otherplace Productions
Steve Day walks onto the stage in the beautiful surroundings of 'Upstairs at the Three and Ten' and proclaims "I am the world's only deaf comedian", which as far as I know, is true. Somewhat refreshingly, he keeps the set totally clean (he does gigs in schools) and gives us a good hour of quality observational comedy. Being forty three, Steve is not that young, and between jokes he preaches to his audience, describing tales of his creative frustration as an IT consultant, and telling us to "follow our dreams". All in all, Steve Day is proper old school comedian: his jokes are funny, but he's not too rude to anyone (unless you're an IT consultant).
Upstairs at Three and Ten, 19 May, 10:00pm, £7:00 (£5:00), fringe pp17
tw rating 3/5
[sfw]

DANCE & PHYSICAL THEATRE

Short Cuts
The Nightingale proves, yet again, to be a breeding ground for innovative ideas and full-on physicality, with this collection of dramatic shorts. A Finnish group bared their souls and malleable bodies in a piece that was both aggressive and affecting. In another, a four-foot old man appeared, as US puppet-maker Matt Jackson explored his relationship with puppets and drink, displaying not just fine puppetry, but clever use of the projector and melancholy soliloquising. Perhaps least original was the final piece, exploring dinner party preparations descending from frustration into chaos. The evening's star, though, was Augusto Correiri, a mousey man with superb stage presence, and MC and creator of the second piece. Correiri's beautifully simple idea of controlling an actor through his drawing allowed him to literally turn theatre on its head.
The Nightingale Theatre, 3, 20 May, 7:30pm, £8.50 (£6.50), fringe pp25.
tw rating 4/5
[se]

LITERARY
           
An Acute Psychotic Episode
Making Connections Matter
An unusual event to say the least, with a red background and musical interludes, Steve Antoni very bravely shared his own very personal struggle with losing the plot. There was humour and confusion, and attempts at grasping at certainties, and explanations, and fallout, immense fallout. There was great depth to this story, and Steve seemed to have great support from his family, which was wonderful to see. Nevertheless, I found it all quite hard to listen to. To be honest I had not realised quite what it was that I was going to review (deliberately I should add, I didn't want to pre-judge) and consequently I wasn't really prepared. As a result some of this was a bit upsetting - a good and a bad thing - perhaps that was the point. An interesting evening nonetheless.
Komedia Studio, 18 May, 3:30pm, £5.00 (£4.00), fringe pp30.
tw rating 3/5
[sla]

The Immigration Game
Rahila Gupta and Kate Clanchy
Two female writers with a similar desire to articulate their empathy with the immigrants that they have come into contact with shared excerpts from their books and answered questions concerning their methodology and opinions. The stories, different in approach and purpose, come together in highlighting the personal struggles that immigrants face before and after their arrival into this country. Clanchy, a self-confessed 'middle England liberal', uses these points of reference to question her Albanian friend and employee, who happens to be the same age, and has produced a narrative that follows the complexity of their relationship. Gupta has encountered far more stories and recounts a series of them from the immigrants' viewpoints. As both writers read from their books I wondered how we can provide asylum for a whole world full of tragic stories; but Gupta addressed this with facts that she uncovered that show that more UK residents have left the country than immigrants have been allowed in. The question for me then becomes how do we better help the dispossessed and vulnerable in our society. I guess we start by learning who they are.
Old Court House, 21 May, 7:30pm, £7.50, festival pp35.
tw rating 3/5
[sla]

MUSIC

Seth Lakeman
It's windy, I'm cold, it's late, I'm tired and I can hardly see the stage – I know this going to go one of two ways. And I love it!  It's immediate, it's for real and I'm not joking. Every song was buzzing, high tempo, high energy, and there was obviously a loyal following in the crowd with shouts for favourite songs and cheers when other songs were announced. I'm back in love with the fiddle, phew! And as for Seth, it's not about his startling blue eyes or jet black hair, that doesn't even feature, he's just a musical genius, that's all, and this was an incredible show.
The Parlure Spiegeltent, 21 May, 10:00 pm, £15.00 (£13.50), fringe pp36.
tw rating 5/5
[sla]

Miriam Makeba
Brighton Festival
'Mama Africa'! A surreal and beautiful transformation took place in the Brighton Dome last
Wednesday night. In the midst of a true legacy – of an international gem and South African treasure – the walls, the seats, and even the people seemed to suddenly disappear. This was not only due to the incredible afro-beat that sounded from the stage; the atmosphere of the venue became filled with intense joy and euphoria – one look at Miriam Makeba was enough to force oneself out of his or her seat and thank the powers that be for the gift of hips. At 76 years, Makeba was stunningly resilient, proud, and most of all, sincere. 'Stay with us', she said of her South Africa. We will.
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 21 May, 8:00pm, £22.00 (£27.50), festival pp16.
tw rating 5/5
[cp]

Vocal Explosion/Banda Los Chillones
Vocal Explosion
The Vocal Explosion are an amateur choral collective delivering powerful harmonies and blissful sounds. If this was not enough, they were supported by Brighton based Banda Los Chillones, a Cuban inspired percussion and brass band. Surprisingly, both these musical styles and groupings fitted together seamlessly and provided a show that left you tapping your foot and continuously humming for the rest of the day. Evidently inspired by world music, from Sardinia to the Middle East, from South Africa to Gregorian chants, Vocal Explosion proved that you don't have to be professional to pull off a lively and rapturous show, you just need heaps of enthusiasm and a competent musical knowledge.
Udderbelly, 18 May, 3:00pm, £10.00 (£8.00), fringe pp39.
tw rating 4/5
[sfw]

Ragtime To Swing
Elal Productions
Walking through the pews at St Andrews Church, it was clear 'Ragtime To Swing' would not be a conventional Fringe show. A sanctified ambience notwithstanding, there was a certain glee in the air for the audience, whose average age probably seemed to oscillate around the 60 to 70 mark – there is something about the elderly reminiscing over their musical youths that's quite special. Clearly, this show is not for everyone, but for those who lived through ragtime and swing, this intimate blast from the past proved quite sweet. Alan Felton and Michael Chance, the performers, clad in white tuxedos, treated the audience with such gentle candour that the entire performance was positively congenial. A catch for fans only.
St Andrews Church, 15 - 17 May, 6:30pm, £7.50 (£6.00), festival pp45.
tw rating 4/5
[cp]

THEATRE & MUSICALS

For The Love of Chocolate
Amanda Waring Productions
Golly, what a lot of chocolate! Chocolate fondue, chocolate sculptures, chocolate chocolates sweeten this farcical flurry in the delights of that melt-in-the mouth treat and its intimate relationship with love and sensuality. The romance is in the little love hearts and crushed red velvet that drape the stage - gushing with silliness and slightly wry. The props are shoddy and the farce will not be to every chocolate lover's taste; but there are splendid moments such as the serenading chef clad only in chef's coat and boxers, and the gloopy fondue is pretty damn delicious! So if you're willing to put your money behind the bar and surrender your taste (both kinds) to the very daft decadence, this is scrumptious.
Hanbury Club, 21 May, 8:00pm, £12.00 (£10.00), fringe pp41.
tw rating 4/5
[kc]

Red
Otherplace Productions
Sand and tough heterosexuality, experiences rare to Brighton, texture this poetic play mixing with blood and pineapple on the gladiator arena-style floor. Red is a young soldier returned from war (possibly a future one) to find his mother mad, his lover has deserted him and his pineapple crop dying. The language, like the blood, is rich and colours the play with its flow and rhythm as well as its allusions to classical tragedy. Red's lover Amy returns to find Red in more than just his mother's arms, like Oedipus, while Amy confesses that like Aphrodite she has left the warrior for the blacksmith. On the gritty stage the coarse yet clever language and strong performances bring life to this bold tragedy.
Upstairs at The Three And Ten, 6:45pm, £8.00 (£6.00), fringe pp44.
tw rating 4/5
[se]

The Father Monologues – Part 2: Jenny
Jonathan Brown
A librarian confronts her complex and often contradictory feelings arising from a sex change operation amidst customers, Mills and Boon novels and internet terminals in this wordy monologue. Being the second instalment of a triple bill of free standing, yet connected pieces dealing with the experience of fatherhood, 'Jenny' explores issues of identity, gender prejudices and relationships in the modern world. Although intense, thought provoking and moving - with a short scene of a chance meeting between the now female father and her son standing out as particularly poignant - the script seemed slightly over long and could have done with some sharpening up. Nonetheless, perhaps aided by the small size of the audience the night I saw it, the 'Monologue' proved to be a suitably intimate evening.
West Hill Community Hall, 16-18 May, times vary, £8.00 (£6.00), fringe pp44.
tw rating 3/5
[jn]

I, Lear
The Black Sheep
With acting and facial hair as coarse as a badger's arse, those incorrigible thesps Chester and Hugh are here with their history of British theatre. Sophocles, Chekhov and Brecht are all sent up with lashings of ham, ignoring the trivial facts about nationality. Ginger whiskered fop Chester delivers a masterclass in comedy and gurning, bearded Hugh reveals the tricks to emotion. The 'Cats' and 'Talking Heads' parodies are spot-on, in both sound and appearance, while Chester's Tennessee Williams heroine is less subtle but nonetheless funny. The King Lear finale makes a great play of drawing on all the theatrical techniques they have employed but, while the mad scene is great, as a whole it drags on rather long and becomes rather repetitive.
Udder Place, 17 May, 4:00pm, £11.00 (£9.00), fringe pp17.
tw rating 3/5
[se]

The Office Of Correspondence
Foul Play Productions avec Les Correspondents
As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I have an almost crippling fear of interactive performances. 'The Office Of Correspondence', on this account, was my idea of hell. Set up as a theatrical and stylish 1930s office, the audience are thrown head first into their roles as newly recruited employees. Ushered around the office in a chaotic fashion, you have to attempt a variety of bewildering tasks, such as typing explanatory letters regarding compromising scenarios on demand. If you are good enough, you might just get to be the "employee of the minute" –a privilege announced at random through the ringing of a bell. This was an absolutely brilliant and wonderfully innovative show – I just found myself wishing I didn't have to be in it.
Komedia Studio, 20-23 May, times vary, £10:00 (£7:00), fringe pp45.
tw rating 5/5
[jn]

Mother's Boy
Mason and Merriman
We have all had problems with our parents, but spare a thought for Vernon, whose chain-smoking, whisky-drinking mother Stella is more than a handful. Not only does she hate his new girlfriend with a passion, she won't even pretend to be polite, and on top of it all thinks nothing of attempting homicide. After miserable beginnings things take a turn for the worse when Stella unwittingly attempts to steal a million pounds from her gangster boss and has to drag her unwanted family with her on her escape route. Since I don't want to spoil the plot, let's just say that things get nasty. Jo Merriman puts on a dazzling performance in this sharp, bitchy, cruel and very funny monologue.
Upstairs at Three and Ten, 22-24 May, 8:30pm, £8.00 (£6.00), fringe pp42.
tw rating 4/5
[jn]

I Love You, You're Perfect... Change!
S&M Productions
For every girl who has feigned interest on a first date and for every boy who has regretted letting his girlfriend choose the film: this is the musical for you. A young and vocally strong cast romp through sketches exploring the perks and pitfalls of relationships through the generations. Combining deadpan delivery with perfect timing, the group bring out the sharpness of the writing and turn themselves into modern day everymen for the empathetic audience. The live accompaniment adds to the professionalism of the performance, which could only be improved by tweaking the number of scenes included. And despite that one slight criticism, I loved it, it was practically perfect... they shouldn't change anything... unless it's to add some extra dates to their Fringe programme.
Brighton Unitarian Church 19, 20, 21 May, 7:15pm, £6.00 (£5.00), fringe pp41.
tw rating 4/5
[lo]

The Marilyn Monroe Show
NJB Productions
The musky surroundings of the Spiegeltent seem apt for the tragic yet compelling story of Hollywood's most famous daughter. However, this is not the glamorous story of a lovable dizzy blonde; it's a disturbing tale of mental illness, drug addiction and manipulation. 'The Marilyn Monroe Show' interestingly chooses to portray the starlet as three separate characters, Norma Jeane Mortensen (Marilyn's real name, childlike and innocent), the darling of the studios Marilyn Monroe and the reclusive, bitter and drug addled Zelda Zonk. All this should make for a refreshingly original musical. Unfortunately, the bad American accents and the poor songs let it down dramatically.  The concept shows great promise, but the reality is well off the mark.
The Parlure Spiegeltent, 19-25 May, 7:15pm (9:30pm), £15.00 (£13.50), Fringe pp45
tw rating 2/5
[sfw]

Utter Bellocs
Discombobulated and Me
Like a more sinister 'Alice In Wonderland', 'Utter Bellocs' is a bizarre but likeable play very befitting of its venue. The fact that the motionless body of the protagonist lay on the stage floor as the audience entered set the macabre tone of this piece, whilst the opening sequences threw one into a confused nightmarish state as ghoulish children hauntingly danced around the auditorium. Once you have been sufficiently unsettled the clever plot evolves; poet Hilaire Belloc is being haunted by the very characters he created, characters which were fantastically well performed, each with their individual innerving mannerisms. For some of these individual performances alone 'Utter Bellocs' is well worth the haunting experience.
The Hope, 20 – 22 May, 7:30pm, £10.00 (£8.00), fringe pp46.
tw rating 4/5
[rt]

VISUAL ART

I Have Made Too Many Memories
Moksha Café
Don't blink, or you'll miss them. The paintings amidst the lovely minimalism of the Moshka café blend so cohesively into the pastel décor that you'd be forgiven for not pausing to appreciate them. The silhouettes, detailed with painterly intricacies, seem to step from all ages; the outlines of some suggest elaborate archaic costume while others are starkly modern. Yet all evoke that illicit moment of capture when movement is stilled, unawares. The people, mainly children, appear in a physical dialogue with the beholder as they attempt to move beyond the artist's frame, their motion suggesting an intention or secret to which the painting may only elude. Compelling, but perhaps slightly too frothy to ever trespass, like the figures, beyond this café setting.
Moksha Café, 3 - 26 May, 7.00am (6.00pm), free, fringe pp67.
tw rating 3/5
[kc]

Roots Of Africa
Rowan Africa
What do MP Lembit Opik, his Cheeky Girl lover and the 'Roots Of Africa' exhibit and its dated B&B setting have in common? Answer: the unexpectedness of both pairings is oddly fascinating. It is the breakfast room, duly set for morning, that houses the majority of works, meaning that African art must battle with an extensive range of cereals for attention. Basement lighting, and an attempt to cram in as much as possible fail to do the work justice, although Hanlie Kotze's more innovative pieces did still manage to shine. For cohesion's sake an edit is required, and for aesthetics' sake a less fussy space needed, but then this would sacrifice the whole odd fascination thing and frankly I'm not convinced that's a worthwhile surrender.
Ambassador Hotel, 3 – 26 May, 10:00am - 8:00pm, free, fringe pp65.
tw rating 3/5
[jh]

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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