menu

Samaritans raise money from ‘House On Cold Hill’ donations

Author Peter James invited Brighton Hove and District Samaritans to make collections at the end of all performances of his recent production The House On Cold Hill at the Theatre Royal Brighton.

PETER James has been a patron of the Brighton Hove and District branch of the Samaritans for over five years.

A whopping £3617.53 was collected in buckets.

Susie McGowan, Samaritans branch director said; “We were blown away by the amazing generosity of the public and just goes to show how much the local people value the work that Brighton Hove and District Samaritans do.”

The branch supports people in the city of Brighton and Hove, as well as along the coast to Shoreham to the West, Newhaven in the East, and over the South Downs to the north including Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Lewes plus the surrounding villages. In order to provide this vital service the Brighton, Hove and District branch needs to raise £75,000 a year to keep the branch open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Susie added; “We would like to thank Peter James, The Theatre Royal Brighton and all the wonderful people who donated. This means that collections from the House On Cold Hill can keep the branch running for eighteen days.”

If you would like to support Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans call 01273 738 115, or email info@brightonsamaritans.org or visit www.samaritans.org/branches/brighton-hove-and-district-samaritans

Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.

You can call Samaritans for free anytime from any phone on 116 123 (this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill), or call Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans on 01273 772277.

To make a donation to Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans, click here:

B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival: LGBTQ Dementia Friends Training

As part of The B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival, Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard present LGBTQ Dementia Friends Training a one-hour workshop aimed at raising awareness.

THESE two one-hour workshops are aimed at raising awareness of dementia within our communities and gives those attending a basic knowledge of dementia.

Switchboard is working in partnership with dementia services both locally and nationally to raise awareness of the additional issues that LGBTQ people living with dementia face and it is their aim to Bring Out Dementia.

For more info please email helen.bashford@switchboard.org.uk or call 01273 234009 to book your place offline.

If you have any access requirements email access@lgbt-help.com or call 01273 855620 and select option 4.

The B RIGHT ON LGBT+ Community Festival celebrating LGBT+ history, lives and culture, is organised by the volunteers of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum. and takes place at the Phil Starr Pavilion – a multi functional, fully accessible, heated performance, conference and community space with a licensed bar which is located on Victoria Gardens, Brighton.


Event: LGBTQ Dementia Friends Training – Sessions

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Thursday, April 4

Time: First session at

Cost: Both sessions are free

Local LibDems warn EU voters could lose their right to vote on May 2!

Local Liberal Democrats warn that nearly 14,000 people in Brighton and Hove could lose the right to vote in local elections in the event the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal.


IN response to parliamentary questions from the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake, the Government has confirmed that except with Spain, UK reciprocal voting rights for UK citizens residing in the EU and EU citizens residing in the UK have yet to be agreed in the event of no deal.

According to population statistics from the Office of National Statistics, 3,546,000 EU citizens across the UK and 484,700 UK citizens across the EU would lose the right to vote. The revelation comes ahead of the local elections on Thursday, May 2.

Beatrice Bass
Beatrice Bass

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Hove, Beatrice Bass said:  “Brexit is tearing apart our communities and stripping people of their rights – all because of Tory incompetence.

“In Brighton and Hove there are 13,738 EU citizens entitled to vote on May 2nd. These people fill vital roles in the NHS, in our schools and across Brighton and Hove. They deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better.

“The local elections on May 2nd are an opportunity to send a clear message to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn that this injustice is not acceptable.

“Every Liberal Democrat elected in May is another voice fighting for a People’s Vote, with the option to stay in the EU.”

Ilse Mogensen, public affairs and campaigns officer for the 3million, is reported as saying: “EU citizens living in the UK were denied a vote on our own future in the 2016 referendum. To add insult to injury, we now face the loss of our right to vote and stand as candidates in local elections.

“The Welsh and Scottish governments have confirmed that EU citizens will keep the right to vote. The UK Government should do the same, instead of leaving the democratic rights of 3.6 million people in limbo.”

BRIGHTON FRINGE: Jane Postlethwaite and Steph Bradshaw in Haunted

Multi-comedy award finalist Jane Postlethwaite (Made in Cumbria and Last Night at the Circus) teams up with fellow Cumbrian comedian Steph Bradshaw to invite you to a deliciously dark new comedy sketch show.

JANE is a Funny Women Awards and Brighton Comedy Festival Squawker Award finalist. Her first character show Made in Cumbria had a sold out Brighton Fringe run with Lamb Comedy Productions. It was nominated for two Brighton Fringe awards – the Latest Comedy Award and for the Audience Choice Award.

Her multimedia character comedy show for 2017, The House debuted at Brighton and was taken to Edinburgh Fringe throughout August with Sweet Venues.

Her show, Last Night at the Circus touched on mental health and focuses on getting conversations going about depression, anxiety and suicide.

She’s been heard on the Radio 4 comedy drama, Almost like being in love written by Catriona Knox and produced by Caroline Raphael. Her characters have also featured on the BBC Radio 4 show Jo Neary’s Inbox. In 2018 her stand up got her into the BBC New Comedy Award Heats.

Steph is a fledgling stand up comedian and actor who has starred in numerous musical theatre productions in the North West. She was recently the lead role in The Addams Family Musical.

Jane and Steph have co-hosted the Miraculous Cumbria comedy podcast since June 2018 and have been heard on BBC Radio Cumbria when they co-hosted the Friday Showcase show.

They’re now thrilled to be bringing their wonderfully dark, daft, surreal humour to the Brighton Fringe with this new show. The show is set in a haunted theatre with themes of the paranormal, feminism, space travel, magic, stand up comedy and the really mundane. Expect to leave less dead inside.


Event: Haunted with Jane Postlethwaite and Steph Bradshaw

Where: Junkyard Dogs: The Kennel, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton

When: May 15, 16, 17, 18

Time: 9.30pm

Cost: £7.50/£8.50

To book tickets online, click here:

THEATRE REVIEW: A Song at Twilight @Devonshire Park, Eastbourne

A Song at Twilight is a play in two acts, one set, four actors, formal, direct to audience, no fuss and depicts an elderly writer confronted by his former mistress with facts about his past life that he would prefer to forget.

A Song at Twilight by Noel Coward

@Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne

YOU can smell the lifetime of craft that went into its construction. It oozes polish.  From 1966 (and part of a trilogy all based in the same hotel suite) the play is one of Coward’s last works for the stage and concerns the closeted past of a famous writer catching up with him.

It’s an interesting piece, has much going for it, and still relevant sadly with many people still living lives of deceit and self-denial rather than embrace the truth of their own being.  Being LGBT+ is widely accepted  and Pride might have become a family institution but as the play brutally points out, time and time again, centuries of religious and civil prejudice take a long, long time to work out of the British state and psyche.

When written being gay was still illegal and the play anchors itself very firmly in this time with touch perfect costumes and set from Simon Higlett. We are given a moment in time, not just in the life of the protagonist and his wife, but of society and the huge windows, the privileged view, the ticking of the over elaborate clock all tell us where and when we are.

Jessica Turner was utterly divine and up against two stage craft folk like Jane Asher and Simon Callow, neither known for the subtleties of their performances and certainly giving it the wellie tonight on stage, Turner managed to not only steal most of the laughs for her wonderfully gentle and utterly beguiling drunken return in the second act, but also brought a convincing yearning loss, untinged by bitterness, ego or anger which she delivered with a tenderness which silenced the house.

Turners performance was a show stealer, quite the result when Asher is stomping around delivering her lines in a staccato daze and Callow is thundering every other syllable until it bleeds. I loved them. Although not balanced in a serious way as a trio they worked very well together, and Callow and Asher certainly gave battle and axe a decent outing, but it’s not until later in the play did Asher convince me of her own characters hurt and motivation. They played torture tennis with energy, their lines only needing the slightest push to work, and the audience lapped them up.

Asher and Turner both sported the most beautiful outfits, with such attention to detail, and they both worked the costume, in texture and posture perfectly. With some rather pleasantly distraction walk-on’s from handsome eye candy Ash Rizi this was a rather interesting cast.

I’ve always found Coward a bitter old bitch, brittle, brutal and beguiling with his savage critiques and searing bluntness and the lines sizzle on the stage like a rasher of bacon dropped on a red-hot griddle.  Callow gets the best ones and wrestles them up and down the emotional timbres of that fantastic voice before mercilessly slamming them down.

I’d have imagined they’d get on Callow and Coward. I’m not so sure Asher would have lasted long with the master, there’s not quite enough there.  Callow does bombast like no-one but this play is about the phyric triumph of self-delusion, where only you are really deceived by your crafted deceptions. It’s here that Callow failed to convince, in the empty sadness, the regretful echo chamber of true love denied. His bitterness is brilliant but his sadness soporific when it should be crepuscular. “Deep in our hearts it dwells forevermore.”

Director Stephen Unwin has brought us a stylish and relevant production but the imbalance of the acting rather takes the shine off what could have been a stunning production. Nonetheless it’s a very fine piece of theatre, done well, perfectly timed but perhaps tastier with a half kilo less of rant, and a cup full more of conviction.

So there we were, whizzing back to Brighton over the stunning Seven Sisters, roof down, moon high and the darkness hugging us like a crazed fan. My companion warbling on in a very happy tone of voice, obviously satiated by some stylish theatre and pleased with at least two-thirds of the cast. I pondered on this well presented and well thought out curious play and reflected that not all the ingredients were quite as well judged, and the filling not quite to my fancy, and left crumbs all over the place. The overall taste of this vintage baked fancy was well worth the effort and turned out rather well in the end.

Play until Saturday April 6

Audio described performance on Friday April 5, 7.45pm and Saturday April 6, 2.30pm

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

For more info or to book tickets, click here:

STI Testing week returns to the City for fifth year

This is Brighton & Hove STI Testing Week, where local residents are encouraged to get tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

THE campaign to tackle high rates of STIs in the city is led by sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) with support from Brighton and Hove City Council’s public health team.

Gonorrhoea remains the most commonly diagnosed bacterial STI in Brighton amongst gay/bisexual men nationally and locally (and 61% of new STIs in the city in 2017 were amongst this group).

STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis, can be easily passed on through sexual contact and are often symptomless. That’s why regular testing is important, and helps to minimise the chances of infection being passed on.

The chlamydia screening team will be hosting various events throughout the week at MET College, Sussex University and Brighton University where they will be offering free testing.

In addition to this, the outreach team will be in Charles Street Tap, Legends and Subline on Saturday April 5 and Sunday, April 6.

There are a range of testing events across the city during the week  encouraging local people to get tested for STIs at the following locations:

Brighton Sexual Health & Contraception
Monday April 1 – Sunday, April 7
Walk-in and booked appointments.
To book an appointment call: 01273 523 388

Terrence Higgins Trust (Ship Street Clinic)
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
10am – 5pm
Thursday April 4
10am – 8pm

Brighton Sauna
Wednesday, April 3
5:30pm – 8pm

Alan Boyd
Alan Boyd

Alan Boyd, Health Promotion Practitioner at Terrence Higgins Trust in Brighton, said: We have very high STI rates in the area including the highest in the South East region and one of the highest outside of London.

“Overall, around 1 in 10 people we see at Terrence Higgins Trust in Brighton tests positive for an STI without showing any symptoms. This is why we want to use this week to raise awareness of the importance of STI testing. Not only is testing easy, painless and free to everyone, it’s available across the city this week in bars and clubs, as well community venues and at Terrence Higgins Trust’s Ship Street office.”

Alternatively, for a free STI postal test kit, click here:

For more information contact 01273 764200 or email: info@tht.org.uk

Brighton and Hove STI Testing Week runs till Friday, April 7.

For further information about STIs, click here:

X