07/05/2013 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

Paul Lewis: Brighton Festival at Glyndebourne: Music Review

Posted on 07/05/201307/05/2013 by Eric Page

Paul Lewis

Piano

Schubert

Sonata No.19 in C minor D958
Sonata No.20 in A major D959

Sonata No.21 in B flat major D960

At the beginning of 2011, Paul Lewis embarked upon a two-year project to perform all the piano works from the last six years of Schubert’s life. As this labour of love reaches its climax, he performed Schubert’s last major compositions for the piano, written the year before his death in 1828 and he performed it in the glory of Glyndebourne on a sunny spring day.

The three late sonatas represent the culmination of Schubert’s genius for writing for the piano. Revealing a rare depth of expressiveness, they reflect the turbulent emotions that assailed Schubert in the closing months of his life and present profound challenges and opportunities for an eloquent interpreter.

See Lewis’s website here:

Lewis is an astonishing pianist, full of flair and deep insight and channeling his profound understanding of Schubert to bring a freshness of touch to these three Sonata’s. I was transfixed and adore his almost Victorian attitude towards playing Schubert. He’s dramatic and theatrical while at the same time erasing his own personality and letting the glorious subtly of the music shine through. His explorations of the depth of these complicated and sophisticated Sonatas was thorough but he also delighted in letting some of the moments of hope and humour in these works shine though, something sadly over looked by most pianists.

This concert provided a breathtaking overview not only of Schubert’s genius but also of the artistry of one of today’s great instrumentalists, made even better by a picnic in the ground of Glyndebourne, the spring sunshine and a wonderful display of spring flowers.

The Brighton Festival at it’s very best. See the festival website for more info.

Sun 5 May, 3pm

Celebrate 10 years of ‘Healthwalks’

Posted on 07/05/201308/05/2013 by Graham Robson

Brighton & Hove City Council’s ‘Healthwalks’, a scheme providing free walks in the city to improve local people’s physical and mental health, will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a seafront walk and picnic on Saturday, May 11 from 11.30am.

A mass balloon release will signal the start of the free 4-mile walk from Hove Lagoon to Blackrock and walkers will receive a free commemorative pin badge and anniversary walk programme.

Walkers are encouraged to bring a picnic for the event, which also launches this season’s walking calendar.

Event: ‘Healthwalks’

When: Saturday, May 11 from 11.30am

Where: Hove Lagoon.

To register, CLICK HERE:

Survey to highlight LGBT discrimination at work

Posted on 07/05/201308/05/2013 by Graham Robson

A survey looking at the experiences of coming out in the work place and discrimination against LGBT people at work has been launched by JobsinBrightonandHove.co.uk

Results for the survey, which takes 5 minutes and is treated in the strictest of confidence, will be published in June.

To complete the survey, CLICK HERE: www.jobsinbrightonandhove.co.uk/lgbt-workplace-survey/

Beautiful Thing: The Arts Theatre Soho: Theatre Review

Posted on 07/05/201314/05/2013 by Eric Page

To celebrate its twentieth anniversary year, the award winning BEAUTIFUL THING returns to the West End’s Arts Theatre before touring and then visiting Brighton’s Theatre Royal. This uplifting and heart-warming new production is directed by Nikolai Foster, designed by Colin Richmond and stars Susanne Jones.

BEAUTIFUL THING is a glorious urban love story between two young men coming to grips with their sexuality and the effect it has on the people in their lives. It tells the story of teenager Jamie’s relationship with classmate and neighbour Ste, who together find comedy, warmth and the music of Mama Cass through their loud-mouthed next door neighbour Leah. The play exquisitely captures what it is to be 16, coming of age, and falling for your first love.

I think I was the only person in the packed house who hadn’t seen the film but still knew the love that most people have for it. This was a great night out, full of warm humour, sharp social commentary and most of it still pertinent twenty years on from when it was written. We may have come a long way with LGBT rights but it’s still a struggle for young working class people to come out, this play shows the way that love, tenderness and compassionate can overcome prejudice and intolerance. It’s funny and sad and all the things you want from a gay love story, a bit of camp, some great bitching and a happy ever after ending.

Jake Davis as Jamie and Danny-Boy Hatchard are endearing and believable as the two young lovers, Suranne Jones portrayal of mother Sandra was a joy from the moment she opens her mouth and (understudy) Nancy Sullivan as Leah the bolshie teenager from next door with the hidden heart of gold was simply perfect. Oliver Farnworth as spaced out lover boy Tony was also good, his comedy timing is perfect and he spends most of the time undressed. The simple pared down set based on a south London council estate and lightning allowed the acting to shine and the soundscape and music just added to the perfect atmosphere on stage.

It’s such a sweet play, and this reinterpretation, although showing its age a little from its built in references to the 1980’s politics and people still has the power to move an audience.

This is a wonderfully evocative play full of striking social comment all wrapped up in a gentle and honest romantic love story. This revival of this well loved play delighted the packed audience at the theatre this evening, brought a tear to my companion’s eye and left us all feeling a lot happier as we left.

Recommended!

Until 25 May, then 10-15 June in Brighton

To book ticket for the London run until 26^st May see the website here:

Table Manners: The Basement: Theatre Review

Posted on 07/05/201307/05/2013 by Eric Page

This year’s Festival didn’t appear to have an immediately obvious must-see. However, only three days in, I seem to have stumbled across what may turn out to be its absolute hit. Table Manners comprises three pieces which explore the potential minefield of the simple, quotidian act of eating together. It takes place in The Basement and has, unsurprisingly considering the venue’s avant garde credentials, a pinch of audience participation, a soupçon of bamboozling performance art and a light seasoning of – and I mean this approvingly – pretentiousness. Not all the pieces were equally impressive, but taken as a whole it genuinely gave me one of the most vital, exciting and memorable nights at the theatre in perhaps years.

Delia – We’ve been Thinking is a rather slight, amiable amuse-bouche. The audience is invited to a faintly surreal cheese and wine tasting. Comedy wines – Black Tower, Blue Nun and Babycham – are paired with comedy cheeses like Dairylea and Babybell. During the performance we interact with our hostesses who may ask us in front of everyone socially polite questions like what do we do (Me: “Er, I’m here to review you“). But avant garde disorder is soon restored when one rolls up some ham in her mouth, lies on the table, opens and closes her legs whilst stating “I am the buffet“.

Exterminating Angel has five people trapped in a dinner party from which no one can escape. The middle-class dinner party is almost a cliche setting for simmering resentments and the breaking of social taboos. But Future Ruins’ play doesn’t settle for the crowd-pleasing, almost comforting, bickering of a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Instead it presents something harrowing and discomforting which does menace as well as Pinter. It’s also blackly, horribly funny. The cast is just brilliant: they actually made me think (and those of a Daily Mail disposition should look away now) that there can be something heroic about the art of acting.

The Honest Crowd’s Glasshouse takes a five-minute dinner party conversation and gives it a 12-inch remix as we hear it repeated for about half an hour. Sometimes bits are missed out, other bits are repeated, or it slows down as the dramaturgical DJ plays it at the wrong speed. Hypnotic, funny and baffling it, like Exterminating Angel, will live in the memory years after I’ve forgotten the most intelligently directed, exquisitely costumed and impeccably acted piece of straight theatre.

Continues at the Basement until Wednesday May 8.

For more details and information click here.