No Hobbits in this play, but an equally unexpected hero!
OVER the past two years the enterprising and imaginative Brighton based charity Mankind has been establishing a reputation for presenting lively, provocative theatre at the Brighton Fringe: GROOMED (2016), BLOOMING and BETWEEN YOU AND ME (2017).
This year the emphasis, despite the title of Adrian Marks’ play, moves far from Hobbits, onto the hidden hero inside all of us – however ordinary we may feel. Vulnerable, plucky….the hero emerges in ways startling, comic and profoundly human.
Meet Kevin Brook, self-confessed fanatic of all things Lord of the Rings. On the evening before Gandalf is to sign copies of the brand new movie companion to The Two Towers, Kevin is first in the queue outside the bookshop, eagerly waiting.
But in the deep of the night the thrilling fantasy characters soon give way to the all too real people in his own memory – friends who don’t understand him, family who never had time for him.
What’s the real reason for his obsession with the kindly wizard? A disturbing truth is about to be revealed, and with it the chance for Kevin to find the way clear to a more optimistic future…..
Will he seize the opportunity? Can we, watching, support him?
Adrian Marks’ wry and sensitive writing is matched by the gentle quirkiness of Chris Neville-Smith’s stage presence….but is this a disguise for something infinitely more complex?
Maybe our whole idea of what it means to be male and heroic will be subtly, even inspiringly challenged!
Dark-as-hell (Fringe Guru), ***** (Albie Media), **** (Broadway Baby)
Mankind developed in 2000 from the need for an agency in Sussex that could provide appropriate services to men who had experienced sexual abuse, they now receive 150 referrals a year.
Their main services are 1-1 counselling along with a range of therapeutic groups. Funded by the Big Lottery, Ministry of Justice, Comic Relief and Local PCC funds, they are the only service of its kind in the South East.
Event: Waiting for Gandalf by Adrian Marks
Where: Sweet Werks (Venue 18), 15-17 Middle Street, Brighton and Hove, BN1 1AL
When: May 14-20
Time: 6pm (75mins including after show Q&A)
Cost: £8.00 / £6.00
To book tickets online, click here: