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Brighton Bear Weekend announce new dates for 2016

Brighton Bear Weekend (BBW) takes place from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday, June 19 in 2016.

Brighton Bear Weekend

While the event attracted record numbers of visitors to the city in 2015, some people who attended could not find hotel rooms at the last-minute as everything in the area was booked up, so now is the time to book your accommodation and your flights.

BBW organisers are striving hard to deliver a weekend in 2016 of socialising, partying, fundraising and of course loads of men. They are putting together an exciting program of events, some new, and some old with a twist to make them more current.

The first BBW was in 2009 and since then has raised more than £15,000 for the Rainbow Fund, who make grants to LGBT and HIV organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT people in Brighton and Hove.

The next Brighton Bear Weekend event is Hairy-oween on Saturday, October 31 at Subline in St James Street, which is a fundraiser for The Rainbow Fund.

To keep up to date with all developments check out and bookmark the new website at  www.brightonbearweekend.com

REVIEW: La bohème: ENO

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La bohème

Puccini

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This is a brilliant new interpretation and a co-production with Dutch National Opera  of one of opera’s most timeless and unforgettable stories. This visually interesting, contemporary new production is from sought-after Australian director Benedict Andrews of the Young Vic’s award-winning 2014 production of A Streetcar Named Desire

Mini should consider changing her name to Mandy after this druggy gallop through Puccini, it’s a rather curious but entirely engaging outing of Benedict Andrews’ new take on La bohème. I’d missed the fact it was all new production and was expecting Jonathan Millers entirely presentable but utterly pedestrian outing and was pulled up rather sharply with this very modern hipster austerity take on La Boheme from Andrews.

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Set in some almost Shoreditch cobbled together flat, with everyone crammed in to one space, stoned, pissed, chomping or slamming, it’s an eyes wide open stare into the hipster underbelly. With a mean grasping landlord not caring about anything other than profits and indulgence this chimes hard with a lot of people’s experience of scrapeing a living in London. With grinding borderline poverty, suffering the wretched cold, endless hunger and utter lack of hope only made bearable by alcohol and drugs the young talented people in this production rage against a system that keeps them out of the good life, but find their own ways to grasp joy.

I’ve always found Mimi irritating but this time she seemed to have more responsibility for her life and choices, – even when those choices are bad ones- and not so much a victim of the patriarchal anachronisms of her society. This Mimi is less broken butterfly floundering to death and more shattered innocent reeling from moment to moment. Director Andrews’s take, although not completely original, really works and the knowing glances as the strap comes out, the drugs heated up and the needle is passed and the gushing, over wrought  passionate lyrics no longer seem stalkerish and out of place, but fit into the scene well. I was surprised I liked it so much, but it seemed to make sense of Mini and the bohemian lifestyle rather than just working the way though the old Parisian clichés.  The singing helped, as did the young committed mostly American cast.

See the trailer here

Zach Borichevsky’s mean, dark cynical Rodolfo was believable and just the right amount of easily disliked cad for this production although his voice faltered once or twice, but then it’s the first night and that will smooth out,  and Corinne Winters shone as Mimì. Pure, clean, shimmering with delicate control when needed and with serious passion in her voice, I was enthralled.  It’s always hard to get the acting right for Mimì, but this knowing, exhausted but still flickering with hope and grasping at raw straws of feeling was spot on.  I’ve watched Mimì die many times, often wishing she’d get on with it, but this time I was genuinely moved, her death, off to one side, abandoned, ignored, drugged and wretched saddened me and I left sobered by this waste of life.  Hep C, overdose or just hypothermia? the cause of death is uncertain, but it was  genuinely disturbing; more so for being off to the side of the action and not at the centre of it, an interesting call which worked well.

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And then we have the rather hunky and tongue in cheek Duncan Rock’s Marcello, he’s utterly gorgeous to watch and quite the heart throb. Ginger, handsome, huge, wide, buff (sigh) and enjoys flashing his seriously hench muscles on stage, while fooling around like a rugby player. One minute doing pull ups, the next flirting in a tutu, genuinely funny. His huge vocal strength matching his big physical presence.  I left with a serious crush on him.  Rhian Lois’s Musetta is played with verve and Lois give her just enough caring brassy sass to make her real and bruised enough by her love to convince, an engaging performance indeed and she possessed the stage each time she sang.

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Conductor Xian Zhang seemed a little flat although the orchestra supported the singers adequately, there were some (first night?) mismatched moments with the action on stage and  I didn’t feel it had the soaring passion that this Puccini needs to fly.

Amanda Holden’s translation is good but doesn’t go far enough in modernising the original, there’s some clunky bits which jar;  if you’re going to update then update and make it work well, leaving prayers and candles in a modern setting irritates. Can’t Mimi need a charger for her iPhone, can’t she dream about her next hit?  She’s been hanging around for drugs knowing Rodolfo will have some, although Director Andrews still leaves us enough feeling of these young folk being victims of a vicious system and unlucky circumstances rather than indulgent wasters.   Victoria Behr’s costumes are delightful, giving us a real contemporary feeling of retro cool Shoreditch all neon, spiv, fake fur and a rather delicious gold sequinned frock for Musetta.  It felt like an in-the-know happening night out in Bow…

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The set is lovely, stripped down with some post-modern winks and although the slow waltz of a Christmas scene change at Café Momus was interesting to watch it also became a bit of distraction, although not at much as those irritating children. Opening Act 3 with some street walkers and wonderful atmospheric black stage with snow and real flames flickering in the discarded claw of a JCB digger worked to bring the drama back into the personal and intimate.

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This was thoroughly modern Mandy driven Mimi looking like Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin and it worked for me and for the rest of the audience. The enchanted full house loved it,  being very generous with their cheers and applause. My companion, a first timer at the opera was challenged out of his preconceived idea of opera in a good way and was delighted by the production, so a win for him too.

The ENO have taken a risk with this production and I could see some critics jiggling around with disdain, but it’s been a while since I’ve heard the coliseum audience being so pleased by what they have just watched, and it’s the first time I’ve really, seriously enjoyed and cared about Mini or the rest of la bohème.

Recommend.

Until November 26

For more info or to book tickets see the ENO website here

Running time: 2hrs 20mins

Language: Sung in English, with surtitles projected above the stage

Tickets: Available from £12.

There are now at least 500 tickets at every performance at £20 or under. Find the right offer for you.

Signed Performance: November 10, 2015

IPCC issues guidance to improve the handling of discrimination complaints

Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) issue revised guidelines to improve the handling of discrimination complaints.

WEB.600.4They have also issued a set of key principles to help police forces improve the accessibility of the complaints system.

The publication of the IPCC’s revised Guidelines for handling allegations of discrimination followed a number of critical reports by the IPCC, which found significant failings in the way that four forces carried out such investigations and engaged with complainants.

The guidelines will assist police to properly and effectively handle allegations of discrimination, including discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, or disability.

A series of training workshops for police professional standards departments are being held by the IPCC across the country to support the roll-out of the guidelines.

Dame Anne Owers
Dame Anne Owers

Dame Anne Owers, Chair of the IPCC, said: “It is crucial for public confidence in the police and the police complaints system that allegations of discrimination are handled properly. Fairness is a core principle underpinning the concept of policing by consent, and unfair or unlawful discrimination fundamentally undermines this principle.

“In drawing up this guidance, we have listened to people who have experienced discrimination firsthand and to groups who have supported people to make complaints about discrimination. We have also consulted the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the College of Policing and police forces. This has given us a valuable insight into how to improve the way complaints involving discrimination are handled.

“This clear, practical guidance sets the standards that complainants, families and communities should expect when allegations of discrimination are made.”

Nik Noon, Chief Executive of Galop, London’s LGBT anti-violence & abuse charity, added: “In the main police forces provide a good service to LGBT communities. But too many LGBT people still face problems of inconsiderate, inappropriate or outright homophobic, biphobic or transphobic treatment, often at exactly the moment when they most need assistance. It is essential that officers get their response right at the critical moments when their actions can help or harm individuals and communities.

“We welcome this excellent guide and see it as a valuable tool in supporting police forces tackle the minority of officers who act in a discriminatory manner and hope it will be used to build momentum in positively responding to diversity among the communities they serve.”

Alongside the discrimination guidelines, the IPCC has also published a set of key principles to help police forces improve accessibility to the complaints system.

The IPCC reviewed information on force websites and other sources of information to see how well forces made this information available to the public, and how they support complainants with specific needs.

The review found a lack of consistent good practice. Some of the information online and in police stations was inaccurate, difficult to understand or inaccessible, and there was little use of social media. Some forces did not accept complaints from people in police custody.

Dame Owers continued: “We have consistently heard from the public that access to the police complaints system needs to improve. The aim of these principles is to ensure that people who are dissatisfied with the service they have received are better able to make a complaint. This in turn will increase levels of confidence in the complaints system and in policing itself.”

The IPCC is working with forces and the College of Policing to ensure that the discrimination guidelines and the accessibility principles are embedded in police complaints processes, guidance and training.

To read the guidelines, click here:

PREVIEW: FIKA is coming to Brighton!

FIKA is a Swedish term that means “to have coffee and pastries”.

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Enjoy an afternoon with Brighton-based musicians Stefan Holmstrom and Tim Nail and take part in the great Swedish tradition which is FIKA!

FIKA is a deep rooted tradition from the 19th century when coffee was just as important for the Swedes as tea is in the UK.

Stefan Holmstrom, who hails from the north of Sweden, is bringing FIKA to Brighton along with some fantastic songs including Vaughan Williams’ ‘Songs of Travel’, Faure’s ‘Mirages’ and selected songs by Sibelius.

Trained as an opera singer at Guildhall School Of Music And Drama, Stefan performs in the UK and internationally, conducts local ensembles Resound Male Voices and Rebelles and coaches voices throughout Sussex.

Tim Nail, pianist and composer, grew up in Scotland where he studied at Glasgow University. He works extensively in the South East and is much in demand as an accompanist and repetiteur. Tim will be playing piano music by Arensky and Peter Maxwell Davies.

Coffee and Swedish cake will be served in the interval.

Stefan Holmström
Stefan Holmström

Stefan Holmström, says: “It’s exciting to bring some cakes here that people might not have tried before, I love the old style Swedish baking, especially since we tend to get a very streamlined selection at the coffeeshops”

If you would like to go, accept this event on Facebook.

Coffee and pastry is included in the cost of the £10 ticket, which can be purchased on the door.


Event: FIKA

Where: Friends Meeting House, Ship St, Brighton

When: Saturday, November 21

Time: 3pm

Tickets: £10 available on the door

For more information, click here:

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