insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 03 - May 2015 | Page 32

arts+entertainment

We

Brighton

Brighton Fringe 2015

Running from 1st to 31st May, Brighton Fringe is the
biggest, boldest, and brightest mixed media, open access
arts festival in the UK.

© Nick Henley

© David Smith

© Dade Freeman

Ever since 1967, when the first Brighton Fringe
ran, the main objective has been to showcase
local talent and creativity. It is the perfect
outlet for artists, performers, and creatives of
all types and in all media and genres to have
their work on display to the general public.
The open access aspect is exciting too – open
access means that no one is booked, rather
anyone wishing to perform has to contact the
organisers directly, and state their case. There
are no hard and fast rules, and anyone can put
on a show in this extraordinary event.
For 2015, 750 events are confirmed so far, the
highest number ever to appear at the festival.
Around 250,000 people are expected to attend
Brighton Fringe, which acts as a springboard
for both new and established artists across a
diverse range of art forms, which will this year
showcase 233 world premieres.

Royal Court Young Writer Tim Cook returns to
premiere new work Crushed, set during the
2010 student protests. Other theatrical offerings
include Wildspark’s The Bombing of the Grand
Hotel, a visceral new play which tells the reallife story of the unlikely relationship between
bomber Pat Magee and Jo Berry, whose father
was killed in the blast; and Black is the Colour
of My Voice, Apphia Campbell’s hit one-woman
show inspired by the life of Nina Simone. The
Bucket Club’s Lorraine & Alan, a modern
re-telling of the Selkie myth with live electronic
sound design, song and several hundred
plastic bottles, which won the Brighton Fringe
Excellence Award at Edinburgh Fringe last year,
makes a much anticipated appearance.

Hegley, Radio 4 favourite John Osborne and
Mock the Week’s Zoe Lyons. Rising talent Tom
Allen premieres new show Both Worlds, and the
hotly tipped Tom Deacon also performs.

Comedy comes courtesy of more than 200
acts, including sketch-sensations BEASTS,
“comedy’s poet laureate” (Independent) John

Graphic novelists and comics creators will
present a series of events at Sallis Benney
Theatre and the legendary Andie Airfix, who has

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A total of 56 international productions will
appear including a concert from the Soweto
Spiritual Singers; I Am Not Antigone from
the Netherland’s Idreman Foundation; Sjoerd
Meijer’s The Liberation of an Angry Little Man,
winner of the Best Show at Amsterdam Fringe
in 2013; and PAND 7090, which scooped
the top prize at Amsterdam Fringe last year.
Audiences can also see life- sized elephant and
giraffe puppets at the Biggest Marionette Circus
in the World, a UK premiere from Poland.