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REVIEW: Brighton Festival: The Last Resort

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The Last Resort

Art Of Disappearing

World Premiere
Commissioned by Brighton Festival

Amidst a barren landscape, a neon light stands bleak and stark. Welcome to The Last Resort. For those brave enough to return to this long deserted resort, beauty, science fiction and history merge to create a unique outdoor experience.

The back story is pretentious Sci-Fi, not quite Ian Banks mulched with too much Dr Who and the artists on the day were uncommitted, enjoying some tongue in cheek engagement to seep out or perhaps they had allowed the desolation of the contrasts of Adele’s million pound mansion with it’s obscene private beach and the Basin Road car park to  enter their soul and were glad of some real close human warmth. If so, it betrayed its essence  which seems to be about the lack of humanity: billed as a touristic time travelling experience with echoes of the past clashing with  reconstructed & revisionist historical ideas of long lost architecture; the ‘Last Resort’ of the piece. This is a commissioned piece from Art Of Disappearing, artists Rachel Champion and Tristan Shorr for the Brighton Festival.

You experience it in pairs, protected against the elements, both real and imagined, earphones enclose you in their world and off you go, across the blasted pebbles…

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The soundscape effectively deafens you to anything other than it, and it’s effective in silencing the usual running commentary a couple indulge in at these sorts of things, although nothing could silence the devastation of the softly raised eyebrow of my companion, however… it is an effective way of making people engage with one another physically, through touch, sensations and shared experience. These are the most effective and evocative parts of the experience, this bonding, the shared, the holding of hands, and the wandering out into the unknown together. The narration goes on (and on), the accent slips a touch and a soft technologically beguiling women’s voice would have been easier to bear.  I thought the back story over blown and not quite completely dedicated and the dénouement suitably depressing and reflected perfectly in the wind blasted industrial wasteland of Portslade beach and Shoreham harbour.

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We left with the solace of having done something together, something oddly intimate and exploratory. Not quite fun but certainly engaging and thoughtful.  It’s an odd combination of Samuel Becket and Alan Bennett, unintentionally funny when clashing with the unpolished reality around us; the lorry drivers peeking out from their curtained decorated cabs, the bemused cyclists dashing past, the hardy nudist on the beach looking like a leatherback turtle trying to recline on a granite Chesterfield wondering what the f**k we were up to.  Wonderfully potty and I’m pretty sure the creators of the project were un-aware of the nudist beach or lorry park and the type of ‘usage’ it attracts, but if they were then I congratulate them on the surreal, very British experience that The Last Resort was. I felt a little like Scarlett Johansson in ‘Under the Skin’ just in a plastic poncho and just a little. I wish I had had the forethought to enhance my experience but driving out there meant no large brandy’s for me. (Tip: Smuggle a hip flask in if you can.)

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We liked it, although it felt more Whitstable Festival of the Avant Guard than a world premiere of a commissioned memento mori for the Brighton Festival. There is a gift shop, but the things to buy are both overpriced and undesirable, I thought it was part of the ‘ironic’ installation but it was genuine, it made me laugh out loud.  We engaged (and teased) the artists taking part, as it’s always good to see how far they can/will go, they quickly became charming people and fell out of character under any kind of pressure.  I recall the wondrous days of Shunt and the level of engagement and commitment to these kinds of site specific installation pieces which makes them fly.

But “you can’t have it all!”, as the faked up Last Resort publicity might have said….”where would you put it?

Saturday 7 – Sunday 29 May (no performances Monday & Tuesday)

Wednesday – Friday, 2pm – 8pm
Saturday & Sunday, 11am – 9pm

PREVIEW: Brighton Fringe: Dr Ahmed, Doctor in the House

British GP returns from Down Under to deliver dose of stand up comedy for cancer charity.

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A British GP, who left England for the sunnier shores of Australia, has returned to the UK to make a very important house visit.

After debuting his stand up comedy show ‘Doctor in the House’ to sell out Australian audiences and positive reviews earlier in the year, he now has his stethoscope poised for appearances at the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.

Profits from the UK shows will go to Cancer Research UK to support their work.

Dr Ahmed Kazmi, affectionately called Doctor Ahmed, is a British doctor from Warwickshire who has made Australia his adopted home. He loves his job as a general practitioner and his main medical interests are dermatology and family planning.

After losing his father to cancer last year, Doctor Ahmed took to comedy to manage his grief (not before a brief unsuccessful venture in pole dancing). He has drawn on his experiences of being a family doctor to create this unusual and clever show, which focuses on the funny side of being a modern day GP and the humorous goings on of a doctor’s surgery.

There are more serious subtexts to the show too, including cancer awareness and bereavement.

Doctor Ahmed uses a song or two to weave amusing anecdotes with positive health messages to create a truly original and memorable show.

Hilariously funny, disarmingly honest, intelligent and surprising…..Kimberley Shaw, Stage Whispers

Doctor in the House provides a rare insight into the workings of a doctor’s mind and allows the audience to experience the consultation from a doctor’s perspective.

Doctor Ahmed promises no trip to the doctor will be the same! Furthermore with all of the recent tensions in the media regarding junior doctor contracts and NHS reforms, Doctor Ahmed says, “healthcare workers and the public have both earned a much needed laugh.”

Great Show! Amazing voice!….Tom Dougherty, The Advertiser

Doctor Ahmed is very happy to collaborate with Cancer Research UK on this venture and hopes to raise as much as possible through ticket sales and donations. Those not able to attend the show are still able to support the fund-raising efforts by donating through his justgiving page.

To make a donation to Cancer Research, click here:


Event: Dr Ahmed, Doctor in the House

Where: The Nightingale Room, 29-30 Surrey Street, Brighton,

When: May 20-24

Time: 7pm

Cost: £10 (£8 concs.)

To book tickets online, click here:

 

 

PREVIEW: Brighton Fringe: 5 Guys Chillin’

Em-Lou Productions and the King’s Head Theatre present 5 Guys Chillin’, a graphic, gripping, funny and frank verbatim drama exposing the gay chem-sex, chill-out scene, written and directed by Peter Darney.

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“Wanna pair of shorts? Shot of G? Line of Meth?”

From surgeons to students, couples to kink; guys that love it and lost guys longing to be loved. An original look into a drug-fuelled, hedonistic, highly secret world of Grindr, and instant gratification.

Direct from its sell-out run at the King’s Head Theatre and Brighton Fringe Festival 2015:

“It’s beautifully done, bold and it tackles the issues that hit home. Race, HIV, drugs, sex, love, intimacy, lust and pain…in a very sensitive and even funny way” …..Gay Times 

Taken from over 50 hours of interviews from guys found through Grindr and other social media, this is an important look at the relatively new scene that they have been fundamental in creating.

5 Guys Chillin’ looks at changing attitudes to sex, to HIV and to our perception of what sexual relations can and should be.

“Very clever and stays with you long after the curtain is down” …..Attitude Magazine

Winner of the Doric Wilson Intercultural Dialogue Award and Best Actor award at Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival 2016.


Event: 5 Guys Chillin’

Where: The Warren, Main House, St Peter’s Church, North York Place, Brighton

When: May 29-31 & June 1

Time: 9.30pm

Cost: £11 (£9.50), £8 students, £34 group of 4 tickets

To book tickets online, click here:

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