What's On
Current productions
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A Double Bill Scenes from The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan Picnic on a Battlefieldby Fernando Arrabal The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS Directed by Alan Perrin
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana Accrington Pals, first performed by the RSC in 1981, is a play that allows us to enter the minds of the common people who lost so much during the Great War - soldiers who enlisted, in innocence and ignorance, to fight for their country and the women left behind to grieve their loss. Whelan pits the idealistic socialism of the artist, Tom, with the individualism of May's self-help philosophy. The play, inspired by the real tragedy of The Accrington Pals, is based on actual events around the Battle of the Somme and explores how the propaganda machine shaped public opinion. This absorbing play contrasts The Pals' experiences in the trenches with those of the women at home, adapting to new patterns of life and drawing together in the face of social and sexual deprivation. At times funny, at times sad, the play paints a moving and powerful picture of the changes in civilian life during wartime. Picnic on a Battlefield, written in 1958, is set during a battle. During a lull in the fighting at the front, soldier Zapo gets a surprise visit from his parents who have decided to cheer him up with a picnic. While bombs burst around them, the family makes a madcap picnic, joined by an enemy whom their son has captured. A series of comic situations highlights the family's impossible encounter with the Other. The play ends on a merry note with the slaughter of all concerned. Arrabal describes his plays as 'dramatised nightmares...direct manifestations of my inner world as revealed through my dreams.... The dream is my starting point'. Through experiencing this 'Picnic', we see the ultimate absurdity of war, that war erodes our morals and leads caring,compassionate citizens, who in peacetime would not harm anyone, to consent to and support the annihilation of people and property in wartime. Arrabal shows us that understanding breeds fellowship and community, fellowship and community breed reverence and respect and reverence and respect metamorphose battlefields into picnics. DATES: 31st March - 2nd April Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
Previous Productions
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Herr Puntila and his Man Matti
By Bertolt Brecht Nightingale Theatre, 29-30 Surrey Street
Brighton BN1 3PA Directed by Joanna Rosenfeld
Bertolt Brecht wrote this satire while exiled in Finland in 1940 and directed the world premiere in Zurich in 1947. He regarded this his best "folk play" and it remains a facinating study on the treatment of humanity by the upper classes. Puntila, a boorish land-owner whose whims and mood are defined by the amount of alcohol in his system. turns from a heartless capitalist into an ineffectual communist when drunk, playing with the lives of his workers and creating havoc for Eva, his daughter. Puntila is set against his chauffeur Matti, a wise and steadfast working class man and the object of desire for the naive Eva. "One of Bertolt Brecht's most acute observations on class and capitalism" Star Tribune. DATES: 8th - 12th December 2009 Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
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The Blue Room
By David Hare St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton, E. Sussex, BN1 3LJ Directed by Aaron Swartz
The Blue Room is a 1998 play by David Hare, adapted from 'Der Reigen' written by Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931), and more usually known as La Ronde. The original play is based on a series of two-character sketches and was too sexually explicit to be performed at the time. Subsequently it was read and then performed in private. Its first public performance in 1921, under the now accepted title Reigen, was closed down by the Vienna police - Schnitzler was prosecuted for obscenity. Der Reigen ("Round Dance") was meant as a dramatic expose of the decadence of the Austrian society. Max Ophuls's 1950 film version of La Ronde, became a cult classic with its influential blend of nostalgia, enchantment, and titillation. David Hare's adaptation transfers the action from Vienna to 'one of the great cities of the world, in the present day'. The characters change accordingly, the soldier becomes a cab driver, the parlour maid becomes an au pair, and we are left with a contemporary version that views the sexual act as a sexual leveller. Hare's major difference from the original piece was the idea of performing it as a two-hander, having just two actors perform all the parts and thus the whole piece. ACT director, Aaron Swartz, gives the roles back to ten different actors performing across Hare's ten distinctive scenes. The sexual explicit content and strong language make it unsuitable for easily-shocked audiences and it is definitely not suitable for children. DATES: 24th - 25th July 2009 Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
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Graduate Showcase 2009
See Showcase 2009 page for details |
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This show is SOLD OUT please contact the school if you want to go on our waiting list for any returns. A Midsummer Night's DreamBy William Shakespeare Nightingale Theatre, 29-30 Surrey Street
Brighton BN1 3PA Directed by Ralf Higgins
Shakespeare's dream turns nightmare in this contemporary, re-interpretation of the play. Director, Ralf Higgins says: "This dream is closer to a nightmare; the course of true love never did run smooth, especially when death threats are issued willy nilly and your beloved goes bi-polar on you." Inspired by the work of controversial Catalan director Calixto Bieito, film director David Lynch and Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, with a brooding soundtrack influenced by Twin Peaks composer, Angelo Badalamenti, this Dream will be one to remember. Not suitable for easily-shocked adults and definitely not for children. DATES: 14th - 16th July 2009
Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
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THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller Pavilion Theatre, New Road, Brighton Directed by Steve North
"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the ridged theocracy of Salem, rumours that woman are practicing witchcraft galvanise the town's most basic fears and suspicions; when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbour to testify against neighbour brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. DATES: 28th - 30th March 2009
Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS
by Charles Dickens December 14-16 2008 Neil Bartlett's powerful and exciting adaptation of a much-loved story. Damien Goodwin directs this unique production of what is regarded by many as Charles Dickens' greatest novel. Great Expectations is the story of a young orphan Pip whose path through life will be largely shaped by two experiences in his early years, which turn out to have far reaching consequences. Pip first has a dramatic encounter with escaped convict Magwitch, whom he befriends. He then meets the eccentric spinster Miss Havisham's beautiful and spiteful adopted daughter Estella... From the opening image of little Pip, alone on the windswept marshes, to the haunted darkness of mad Miss Havisham's cobweb-strewn lair, let this adaptation take you on a journey right to the heart of Dickens' unforgettable tale. 'Bartlett's inventive and atmospheric adaptation brings to thrilling theatrical life this classic exploration of childhood terrors and hopes - and adult dreams and regrets'. 'This is a new Dickens for a new century, and it is fabulous.' DATES: 14th - 16th December
Contact Jo or Janette on 01273 818266 or info@actbrighton.org for interviews/production photos. |
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LOVEPLAY
by Moira Buffini July 15-18 2008
Here. You. Now. This. Loveplay is a historical comedy following a tangled trail of seductions and sexual encounters on the same location in London over a period of 2,000 years from 79AD to the present day. Ten scenes set in 10 different eras feature 31 delicate characters who are a poignant reminder of how throughout history the search for love has so often been depressing and volatile. The audience is transported from Roman Britain, through Saxon times before entering a Medieval convent where nuns argue over the ideas of love. We witness Renaissance actors confusing reality with the play they are rehearsing, cringe in sympathy with 1960s would-be swingers and end up in a modern day dating agency where the manager is losing control of her own love life. This is a sharp comedy with a hard-working cast from ACT, Brighton's only Drama School training professional actors, directed superbly by Daniel Finlay. Here. You. Now. This.
DATES: 15th - 18th July 2008
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THE GRAPES OF WRATH
by John Steinbeck July 25-26 2008
In this unique production of the American epic, 6 actors from ACT's Creative Playground course will tell you a story of Hardship, Injustice, Cruelty, Greed, Man's ability to destroy Man, Tenacity and ultimately Survival.
DATES: 25th - 26th July 2008
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