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BOOK REVIEW: The Trial of Roger Casement by Fionnuala Doran

The Trial of Roger Casement

Fionnuala Doran

The life of Roger Casement: celebrated humanitarian and condemned Irish revolutionary is given this sparkling graphic novel treatment by artist and author Doran. We don’t hear much about Casement in England (for some reason…..shame perhaps?)  but he’s a true hero in Ireland and his outing all but sealed his horrible fate.

Casement was knighted by King George V for his humanitarian work in Africa and South America. Five years later, he was hanged for treason. The book charts the events that led a man renowned for his compassion to the noose. Doran’s absorbing narrative explores Casement’s downfall, from his efforts to secure German backing for an independent Ireland to his disastrous return home and subsequent arrest.

Based on his true life story; condemned as a revolutionary, imprisoned in the Tower of London (this was the 20th century!!) his sexuality exposed by the circulation of his private journals, and on his final day in the courtroom, he delivered a brave, impassioned speech that still resonates.

This graffic novel is a lovely labour of love but if you’re not too familiar with the times and history of struggle of Casements’ time then it would really be worth a little extra research, perhaps from an Irish author, then you’d get the full benefit of Doran’s precise narrative.

Out now £12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publishers  website.

LETTER TO EDITOR: Well done and thank you, LGBT Community Safety Forum

We would like to offer our thanks to all the people, volunteers each and every one of them, who give their time to support, work at and deliver such an excellent space for LGBT History Month.

From L to R. Cllr Emma Daniel, Alice Denny, Chris Brown, Vanessa Crawford and Ododo Dafé
From L to R. Cllr Emma Daniel, Alice Denny, Chris Brown, Vanessa Crawford and Ododo Dafé

We held our Celebrating Strong Sisterhood event in the warmth and superb comfort of the Phil Star Pavilion last night. Billy Lewis and his team are astonishing with their level of commitment and professional standards to everything they do.

The venue is superb, lit, heated, a bar, some of the cleanest and most accessible toilets in the city and pretty stylish too with chandeliers and padded red velvet and golden chairs!

They all work so hard, and they all worked so hard last night on making our event a lovely addition to the LGBT History Month events in the city.

It would have been hard to find a venue of the same high standard elsewhere in the city and the LGBT Community Safety Forum (LGBT CSF) should be commended for their amazing work in making the B RIGHT ON Festival happen again this year. It was outstanding value and fitted our needs exactly.

We’d encourage every LGBT+ person in the city, and other staff networks, to go and support the festival or just pop in for a coffee, glass of wine or chat, there’s some superb events on for the next two weeks during the day and evening. We felt cherished and everyone who came along was impressed with the space.

Well done LGBT CST volunteers and Steering Group, you are a model of the very best our LGBT+ communities have to offer, and you make us proud!

Thank you

The Brighton & Hove City Council
LGBT Workers Forum

REVIEW: Hair @The Old Market

The American Tribal Love Rock Musical Hair, composed by Galt MacDermot originally opened on both Broadway and the West End in 1968.

At the time the musical broke new ground firmly establishing the ‘Rock Musical’ genre in the consciousness of a generation of musical theatre goers, while featuring a multi racial cast and dealing with issues such as the use of illegal drugs, emerging sexual freedoms and the irreverence of a new generation of young people to the American Flag and everything it stands for.

Against a backdrop of growing resistance to Americas involvement in the Vietnam war, Hair tells the story of a ’tribe’ of politically active, long-haired hippies of ‘The Age of Aquarius’ generation living a bohemian life in New York while all the time fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War.

Claude a farm hand from Oklahoma meets up with Berger, Sheila and the ‘Tribe’ of hippies in Central Park where he battles with his conscience to decide if he should resist the draft as all his new friends are doing and burn his draft papers or bow to the pressures of his parents and conservative America, compromise his pacifist principles, risk his life and serve in Vietnam. The underlying themes still resonate today, just the characters and Presidents have changed.

This production celebrates everything positive about this musical through the glorious vocals of the ‘tribe’ whose brilliant harmonies and anthemic choruses hold this production together. Gary Lynn and Jo Barnes the vocal directors have done a great job in recreating the original chorus sound of 60s Hair, and deserve special mention.

At times the story telling gets dwarfed by the sheer scale of numbers of performers on stage, especially during the very long first half, but Michael Burnie’s direction is clearly constructed around the shows big all singing all dancing numbers like Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In, Ain’t Got No, and I Got Life which show the Brighton Theatre Group off at its very best, but I would like to have seen the main characters given more opportunity to develop a relationship with the audience.

In between the show stoppers, there are some beautiful poignant numbers including Frank Mills sung beautifully by Millie Edinburgh (Crissy), and Easy To Be Hard and Good Morning Starshine sung by Lucia Romera Clark (Sheila) whose vocals got to the heart of the lyrics.

Andrew Carn (Berger), Joe Gavin (Woof), Zoe Saunders (Jeannie) and Abbi Crawford (Hud) all turn in sterling performances, but the star of this show is clearly Josh Hanson (Claude) who emerged during the performance as a performer of significance. His vocals were on the money and he managed to capture the naive ‘innocence’ of the period in his voice and his acting. He played being stoned particularly well.

Special mention for the band under the musical direction of Carl Greenwood, who were quite superb. They were tight and rocked with some brilliant trumpet playing from Nick Trish.

The staging is particularly effective with the projection design and screen animations on the backdrop capturing the psychedelic 60s perfectly. The second half in particular when Claude is on a drug induced trip is very effective.

The future of Amateur Dramatic productions is in great hands while groups like the Brighton Theatre Group continue to turn in fun performances like this.

Is this musical still relevant today? Pop along to the Old Market and make your own mind up.

Plays till Saturday, Febrary 24. click here: to purchase tickets.

Tonight at B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: LGBT Community Safety Forum Public Meeting

As part of LGBT History Month, the quarterly meeting of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum takes place tonight, February 21 at 7pm in the Phil Starr Pavilion.

Learn about the changes to the Local Policing Model and how it impacts front line services and reporting Hate Crimes.

There will be guest speakers from Sussex Police and the outgoing Head of Brighton & Hove City Council Community Safety Team, Peter Castleton, who will discuss the recent changes, explain about the expanded council’s Equalities Team, the new Safer Communities Team and introduce the new head of Safer Communities Jo Player.

Brighton Pride will also be delivering information on how community groups can obtain community tickets for the August event.

 


Event: Quarterly Public meeting of the LGBT Community Safety Forum

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Wednesday, February 21

Time: 7pm

Today at B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Tackling hate crime and domestic abuse in Brighton & Hove

What can you do if you or someone you know is affected by domestic abuse and how can you challenge hate crime?

Those are just some of the questions being posed at two free training workshops being held by the Crown Prosecution Service in the South East as part of the B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival in Brighton.

Both are taking place at the Phil Starr Pavilion in Victoria Gardens on Wednesday, February 21, with the first focusing on understanding hate crime at 11:00am and the second looking at understanding domestic abuse at 1:00pm.

To reserve free tickets for the hate crime workshop, click here:

Ann-Marie Tierney, from the CPS, said: “We know that both hate crime and domestic abuse are under reported and by holding these free workshops, we want to help people identify these crimes and understand what is considered an offence that the CPS can prosecute. 

“We also want to get the message out that people can raise awareness of hate crime and domestic abuse in their communities and workplaces.

“It may not be something that directly affects you, but you may know someone who is in an abusive relationship or is being targeted as a result of their race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

“By giving people a better understanding of the criminal justice process and the support available to both victims and witnesses, the CPS hopes to encourage more people that if they see something to come forward, say something and report these crimes.”

To reserve free tickets for the domestic abuse workshop, click here:

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