The Guide team check out this year's Brighton Fringe must-sees

THIS year marks The Marlborough Theatre’s 220th anniversary and the new management team are celebrating with a street party on the opening weekend of the Fringe.

The party will also launch The Marlborough’s biggest Fringe highlight – a new interactive arts hook-up app, Performr, developed by Pink Fringe and artist Brian Lobel, and inspired by the dating app Grindr.

“Five artists will be making five special pieces of work which exist online and as hook-up experiences,” says David Sheppeard, co-founder of Pink Fringe and co-manager of the pub and theatre.

“It’s inspired by the fact we and a lot of gay men we know are all Grindr users to different levels of regularity. The app has found its way into mainstream culture. It’s changed the way we approach romance and hooking up, and we felt that should be reflected in art.

“We wanted to talk about some of the things users go through – the disappointment, the physical connection of meeting someone face-to-face – and a flavour of the interaction, critiquing, exploring and getting excited by it.”

Among the artists already confirmed to take part in the project are performer Scottee, Brighton theatre company Root Experience and San Francisco artist Nomi Lamm.

ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN
Caroline Of Brunswick, Ditchling Road, Brighton, Tuesday, May 6, and Wednesday, May 7, 7.45pm, £5/£4

CONFESSIONAL comedy meets extreme circus as New Yorker Abigoliah Schamaun brings her X-rated show to Brighton’s Caroline Of Brunswick.

“Previous shows have seen her breathing fire and piercing stuff through her arms,” says proprieter of the Ditchling Road pub Cliff Barnes, who added he didn’t know if fire-breathing would be on the bill again this time.

Much of the Caroline Of Brunswick programme is based around free shows, with Barnes offering up to seven or eight shows an afternoon at weekends in association with promoters Laughing Horse.

Among the Fringe visitors this year are Tom Deacon, Brian Gittins and Argus Angel winner Luisa Omielan with her latest show, Am I Right Ladies?!

Barnes also programmes the Fringe 2 Fringe programme in June and July, which sees comics practice their new Edinburgh Fringe shows on up to 60-strong audiences for a nominal price.

“This year we have Seann Walsh, Lucy Porter and James Acaster,” he says. “Over the years the names have been getting bigger and bigger – maybe one day we’ll get Michael McIntyre and Sarah Millican!”

URBAN ART FAIR
Old Municipal Market, Circus Street, Brighton, Saturday, May 31, 1pm, free

STREET artists will be teaming up with youngsters from the Tarner Youth Project and Circus Street developers Cathedral Group for this year’s Fringe finale.

Bond Street gallery artrepublic and North Road’s ink_d are organising four weeks of workshops with some of their top artists ahead of the afternoon event, which will combine live street art with food stalls and performance.

Fringe City is also set to return throughout May, with Fringe performers advertising their upcoming shows alongside specially programmed live events in New Road.

This year’s Fringe City launches with a family picnic in Pavilion Gardens on Saturday, May 3, from 1pm.

“This year we have added another Fringe City on the first Sunday in May,” says Jacqui Gavin from Brighton Fringe. “It’s always a really popular weekend.”

A WALK THROUGH THE END OF TIME
St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton, Friday, May 9, 7.30pm, £15/£12

THIS year’s Music Of Our Time (MOOT) programme has an over-arching theme of Sounds Of War: Instruments Of Peace.

“We are focusing on music written at the time before, during or after the First World War, which marks its centenary this year,” says MOOT programmer Norman Jacobs, adding a major feature of the programme is Brighton-born composer and pacifist Frank Bridge, who was born on North Road.

“Nearly every concert in the 14-strong programme has a piece by him.”

The programme ends on Friday, June 6, in the Royal Pavilion with a concert marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

The opening event of the 2014 programme combines music and theatre – something of a departure for the music festival, which is now in its third year.

The first half of A Walk Through The End Of Time is devoted to Jessica Duchen’s play about the creation of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time – written in 1941 while the French composer was held in a German prisoner of war camp.

The piece, which was composed for the only four instruments Messiaen had access to – clarinet, violin, cello and piano – will be performed in full by The Ether Quartet in the second half.

Taking the starring roles in the play are Dame Harriet Walter from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Law And Order UK, and her husband Guy Paul.

LOST IN TRANSIT
Brighton Spiegeltent, Steine Gardens, Brighton, Tuesday, May 13, to Saturday, May 17, 9pm, £15/£12

THE brightly coloured mirrored dancehall The Spiegeltent returns to Steine Gardens throughout Brighton Fringe under new management.

And this year’s programme features a range of international talent across 100 performances, including The Tiger Lillies celebrating their 25th anniversary, Chris Green’s comic creations Tina C and Ida Barr, London cabaret sensations Bourgeois And Maurice, Brighton singer-songwriter Eliza Skelton, and a comedy disco from YouTube favourite Cassetteboy.

Receiving its world premiere is Lost In Transit, which was created by a Brighton-based company of international artists under the name Spiegeltheatre Company especially for the 2014 Fringe.

The story opens on a lonely young girl struggling with a suitcase in a world of smoke, whistles and discordant clangs, before opening up to embrace a cast of daredevils, circus pranksters and aerial performers all under the all-seeing eye of the Psychopomp. The show has been directed by Chris Cresswell, with aerial direction from Vicki Mcmanus, starring Marion Duprez.

THE OPINION MAKERS
Latest Music Bar, Manchester Street, Brighton, Monday, May 5; Tuesday, May 6, and Sunday, May 11, 8pm, £10/£8

BRIGHTON-BASED writing duo Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon turn the clock back to 1960s London, focusing on a team tasked with rebranding the world-famous cure-all, Dr Campbell’s Lotion.

The comedy musical from Driftwood Productions and The Foundry Group stars Heather Urquhart from The Maydays, Treason Show regular Christophe Phillips, Emma Kilbey of Radio City Theatre, Lloyd Ryan Thomas, and Count Arthur Strong’s long- suffering radio sidekick David Mounfield.

Music comes from a band led by Brighton Beach Boy Stephen Wrigley, featuring Andy Smith and Dave Miller-Bernard.

RED B*****D
Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Friday, May 16, to Tuesday, May 20, 8pm, £15/£12.50

Komedia celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with the Reasons To Be Cheerful festival – the ultimate festival within a festival.
Programmer Emily Coleman picks out Red B*****d – the comic creation of American-born former Cirque du Soleil performer Eric Davis – as the one to watch.
His the evil-looking face all over the venue’s promo material, whose show comes with a warning that audiences should expect to be invovled.
“It’s the classic show for those thinking, ‘It’s the Fringe, let’s try something different’.
“You have to go all out and take the risk with this. The show is about trying to get people to come out of their everyday life and think about what it is they want to do.
“He is trying to help you change your life. People who went to his show in Edinburgh last year quit their jobs or proposed to someone.
“He takes you out of your comfort zone to help you think about what is important.”
 

THE SHAKESPEARE HEPTET
The Blue Man, Queen’s Road, Brighton, Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, 9pm, £5
Blue Man – the African restaurant, cafe and latterly late night bar – has a full month of events for its inaugural Fringe programme.
Manager Rich De-Warrenne Waller recommends folk troupe The Shakespeare Heptet to readers.
They’ll make fitting entertainment a few weeks after the 450th anniversary of the bard’s birth has passed on April 23.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” explains De-Warrenne Waller. “They take Shakespeare’s sonnets and put them to blues and folk music.
“Every time they play, they pack out the venue.
“It’s such a nice vibe in The Blue Man anyway but when they play it’s something really special.
“The lead singer has a great blues voice. It’s one of those events that gets a good spread of audience because it attracts both blues fans and Shakespeare fans.”
 

ERNEST AND THE PALE MOON
The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, Wednesday, May 21 and Thursday, May 22, 7.30pm, £12/£10

The company behind last year’s puppet-based take on the First World War, The Trench, returns to The Old Market with a dark gothic creation.
Les Enfants Terribles’s lastest production, made with Bristol-based Pins And Needles Productions, is inpsired by Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Hitchcock.
“It’s a noir horror, with all the same clever, imaginative set tricks as before,” says Old Market press and marketing manager Will Sawney.
“With their stuff you walk in and perhaps think it is a standard Fringe show. But by the end you go, ‘Wow, I was really transported
to new places and another world.’”
The show, which previously toured in 2010, follows Ernest Hemel, who spends his days watching the beautiful young Gwendoline in the apartment opposite.
Upon seeing her with another man, Hemel is thrown into a jealous rage and driven to murder.
Slowly Ernest’s guilt sends him on a spiralling descent into madness.

THE NIGHTINGALE PRESENTS HOST
The Bathing Machines, New Road, Brighton, Fridays and Saturdays
in May, 6pm, free
The popular Victorian bathing machines
from Brighton Fringe 2012 make a comeback for this Nightingale Theatre-presented show in New Road.
Playwright Tim Crouch answered the theatre’s call for a short one-to-one performance which could be passed from one person to another like the baton in a relay.
You’ll be led away from the machines for a five-minute show, whose direction is passed to the audience.
Producer Seth Kriebel says, “Host is made to be shared. After you receive the performance, you’ll be given the means to pass it on… in your kitchen, on the beach, with your friends in the pub. Wherever, whenever and to whomever you choose.
“And when you do, you’ll also be sharing the means for Host to be passed on again. And again, and again…”

HALF A COD A DAY
The Old Courtroom, Church Street (side entrance), Brighton, Thursday, May 8, to Sunday, May 11, 9.15pm, £8/£6

Henry VIII gave Hastings’ fishermen room on the Sussex town’s beach in exhange for their boats 500 years ago. But today the tradition of beach-launched fishing boats is under threat.
Playwright Brian Abbott interviewed fishermen and their families for a comedy which takes its name from the quota the Hastings fleet are allowed, Half A Cod A Day.
“Most of the coastal fishermen are on the way out because the super trawlers get the lion’s share of the quota,” says Jolie Booth, from The Old Courtroom.
“The quota is working. It is putting fish numbers up, but it is putting smaller fishermen out of business. The big guys take in a day what the smaller guys would take in a year. It’s also damaging the eco-system.”
Using song, humour and anedotes, the play traces several families’ assocation with the trade over generations before guest speakers join for a 45-minute question and answer session to involve the whole community.
 

COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE BBC (ABRIDGED)
The Dukebox Theatre, The Iron Duke, Waterloo Street, Hove, Tuesday, May 6, to Monday, May 12, 6.45pm, £7/£6

Five Rounds Rapid are new Brighton residents and to celebrate they bring
their Edinburgh hit to the Fringe.
This history of one of the best known public broadcasting institutions ever is led by the Platers, a married couple who build a museum to the BBC in their garden shed.
Together they guide you from the times when the Radio Times really was the Radio Times to the iPlayer generation.
“We got excited by Daleks and Doctor Who because they are massive Whovians,” says programmer Sarah Johnson.
“Then there is stuff for Radio 4 fans, the change from the RP to Estuary and regional accents, and how they started doing regional accents during the war, so the Germans couldn’t pretend to be British broadcasters.”
The style is farcical, à la Reduced Shakespeare Company, at breakneck speed and abridged.
“They really whack their way though the decades. They push
the farce with a loving eye.”

OTHERPLACE PRODUCTIONS

ARGUS Angel-winning Otherplace Productions have expanded to programme four different spaces for this year’s Fringe, having opened pop-up venue The Warren in 2012.
Over the 32 days of the Fringe they will be offering 349 performances at three venues in Russell Place, off West Street, and at their usual year-round base Upstairs At Three And Ten in Steine Street.
And, as ever, the fairy-lit garden in Russell Place will be the centrepiece of the Fringe Club as the sun goes down from Thursday to Sunday throughout May.

THE BLOODY BALLAD
The Warren, Russell Place, Brighton, Saturday, May 3, to Tuesday, May 6, Saturday 7.15pm, Sunday to Tuesday 9pm, £10/£8.50

WINNER of this year’s Brighton Fringe Emerging Talent Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, The Bloody Ballad has been described as The Brothers Grimm meets Quentin Tarantino.
“It is stunning,” says Nicky Hayden, Otherplace Productions programmer, who helped judge the award.
“While there are songs, it is not musical theatre. The songs tell stories but the show is set up like a gig. There’s lots of blood and sex with
a 1950s feel.”

ANATOMY OF THE PIANO
St Paul’s Church, Russell Place, Brighton, Saturday, May 3, and Saturday, May 24, 8pm, £10/£8.50

ALSO a finalist for the Emerging Talent Award, Will Pickvance’s solo show focuses on the piano he plays during the performance.
“It’s like a biology lecture about a grand piano,” says Hayden. “He treats it like a person – it’s really unusual and quirky.
You will never see anything like it.”
 

WAVES
The Burrow, Russell Place, Brighton, Thursday, May 15, to Sunday, May 18, 6.30pm, £8/£6.50

ALICE Cooper’s solo show tells the story of the woman who invented the butterfly stroke.
“Cooper is an Australian storyteller with the most beautiful but simple story,” says Hayden. “Waves tells how this little girl grew up wanting to be a swimmer after seeing dolphins in the water and ends up competing at the 1936 Olympics. It’s a moving story, perfect for The Burrow."
 

MARGARET THATCHER QUEEN OF SOHO
Upstairs At Three And Ten, Steine Street, Brighton, Monday, May 5, to Wednesday, May 7, 10pm, Wednesday, May 21, and Thursday, May 22, 9.30pm, £9.50/£8

ON the eve of homophobic law Section 28 being passed, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher becomes a Soho cabaret performer in this alternative history.
The play is written by Jon Brittain from Theatre 503, who wrote Philippa And Will Are In A Relationship – a hilarious two-hander based on a real-life Facebook wall between two irritating student lovers which came to Upstairs At Three And Ten two years ago.

• Tickets for all Brighton Fringe shows are available by calling 01273 917272 or visiting brightonfringe.org