The first forty-five minutes of the show was Fraser’s popular Funny Business clown act. Man-handling children with his customary finesse, his balloon, juggling, and human puppetry routines are always delightful. He did right to limit the new boxing element to a short bout at the end. It is more suited to the outdoor arena. Pitching […]
Tag Archives: Brighton Fringe 2014
Sparkle and Dark: Killing Roger
May 23rd, 2014 by Beccy SmithYoung company Sparkle and Dark have been creating and touring puppetry-led visual theatre since 2009. Their work has followed an interesting trajectory, moving from the sort of fantastical storytelling that is puppetry’s natural habitat into more serious subjects: 2012’s The Girl with No Heart tackled the impact of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from a child’s point […]
The Brighton Laboratory: The House Project
May 23rd, 2014 by Beccy SmithHousing, especially here in the south east, is currently a national obsession. The premise of The House Project, which draws together sociological and economic research about housing use in Brighton with drama, feels not only timely but almost pathologically compelling. An estate agents’ tour of the sort of grand old villa in Brighton that these […]
All In: Love Sick
May 22nd, 2014 by Bill ParslowAt one stage in Love Sick I was doubled up with hysterical laughter in the front row, lost for breath. It is always a transformative thing to laugh that much, and the memory exists as a warm glow – but somehow all this good feeling has to be communicated in a review that gets across […]
SynaesTheatre: The Girl and The Goat
May 21st, 2014 by Beccy SmithThe Girl and The Goat is the first production by new devised physical theatre company SynaesTheatre. They tackle an ambitiously earthy tale – a young woman’s conflict between her passionate affair with the god Pan (the eponymous goat) and the more conventional expectations of her family. It’s set in a loosely medieval frame and the […]