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Day: May 26, 2019

Richard Hadfield to headline Golden Handbags

Posted on by Besi
Richard Hadfield
Richard Hadfield

Richard Hadfield who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 with musical theatre vocal group Collabro will headline this years Golden Handbag Awards.

BEFORE Richard left the group to pursue a solo career in 2016, Collabro’s first album Stars debuted in the UK album charts at number one and their second album Act Two reached number two. Their first national tour culminated with a sold out headlining show at the London Palladium.

The annual celebration of LGBT+ Brighton & Hove takes place in the magnificent surroundings of the Oxford Suite Ballroom at the Brighton Hilton Metropole on Sunday, June 23 at 7.30pm.

The awards, now in their twenty fourth year, celebrate everything fabulous and supportive about Brighton’s LGBT+ communities while recognising the magnificent selfless work done by volunteers fifty two weeks of the year in LGBT+ Brighton & Hove.

The awards will be hosted and presented by the indomitable Lola Lasagne.

Voting in this year’s awards is now open online at www.gscene.com

All VIP tables are already sold but individual unreserved tickets on the public tables costing £20 will be available from Prowler at 112 St James’s Street, Brighton from Saturday June 1. Prowler do not charging a booking fee so you need to buy in person and pay in cash. If you experience difficulties securing a tickets email info@gscene.com

Headline sponsors of the glittering awards this year are Reveries Event Production and Design who are providing the set, stage, lighting design and production on the evening, E3 Events and PSAV®. Once again this year Security and Event Solutions will provided security personel for the evening and the tables in the ballroom will be dressed by Billie Lewis Promotions.

Ropetackle cinema goes dementia-friendly

Posted on by Besi

After becoming officially dementia-friendly, Ropetackle Cinema launches new programme of relaxed and friendly screenings with a showing of Mamma Mia on June 10.

ROPETACKLE cinema’s committee successfully bid for extra funds from the BFI (British Film Industry) and has worked with the local Alzheimer’s Association about the type of films that might be successful as well as the correct setting.

Around 25 volunteers, staff and Committee members were given a morning’s training by Tim Wilkins of the Alzheimer’s Association, which has officially made Ropetackle Arts Centre a Dementia Friend. The training highlighted key aspects of life with dementia and allowed staff to understand more about this growing condition.

Mr. Wilkins said: “Having a provision within Shoreham aiming to provide dementia friendly screenings of films is an added bonus to the area.”

Maria Reeves, Ropetackle’s interim centre manager, added: “We are very pleased to be able to support this initiative from the Ropetackle Cinema and look forward to seeing a number of successful screenings over the summer and beyond.”

The screenings will happen once a month on a Monday afternoon. Each film will have a technician in attendance as well as a good number of volunteer stewards.

Ropetackle Cinema won a prestigious award from the BFI (British Film Industry) to put on this short programme of nine films which are deemed Relaxed and Friendly (with a focus on people suffering any form of memory loss)

This means in practice that some auditorium lights will remain on, and there will be a relaxed attitude to any noise. The films will start at 2pm but there will be a cup of tea available as from 1.30pm.

Funding for the refreshments has been donated by Adur Masonic Lodge (with match funding from the the Mason District)

If you would like to know more about this initiative, contact Simon Thorpe, at Ropetacklefilmclub2@gmail.com

Mamma Mia on Monday, June 10, £4 (carers are free)

The Lady in the Van on Monday, July 8, £4 (carers are free)

Bohemian Rhapsody on Monday, August 12, £4 (carers are free)

Refreshments: 1pm, Film starts: 1.30pm.

Youh will find Ropetackle Cinema at High St, Shoreham-by-Sea BN43 5EG, telephone number 01273 464440

 

Newhaven to host sporting spectacle in July

Posted on by Besi

Over the weekend of July 20 and 21, Newhaven plays host to the first ever Cornish gig rowing regatta in Sussex.

MEMBERS of the Newhaven Gig Rowing Club have been busy putting together a busy schedule of races which will take place on the sea and the river — and the club is keen for people in Newhaven to enjoy the excitement and perhaps be inspired to give gig rowing a try themselves.

Cornish gigs are 32 foot long, six-oared rowing boats built to a specific design which dates back to 1838. They were used as pilot boats to guide larger vessels into harbour and also as seagoing lifeboats. They’re now rowed competitively, and local rivalries abound — the Newhaven regatta will see around half a dozen visiting clubs from across England compete, including Lewes Rowing Club and the newly-formed Lewes Pilot Gig Club.

Spectators will get a good view of the sea races on Saturday, July 20 from the East Pier and tide mills and Seaford beach.

There will be six races between 1-7pm. On Sunday 21 there will be a series of sprint races upriver from the harbour mouth from 11am.

The weekend will culminate in the Head of the Ouse river race starting from Southease bridge at 3pm. There will be good viewing spots from the riverbank and on Huggett’s Green.

The club is also hoping to live stream drone footage of the races via Facebook.

For more details, click here:

Bear-Patrol thank Mayor for support during her Mayoralty year

Posted on by Besi

Bear-Patrol the social networking group, hold reception at the Old Ship hotel to thank the city Mayor for her support during her year holding the Mayoralty.

IN one of the last official duties of her year as Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Cllr Dee Simson spoke with feeling of her happy memories of being Mayor of the city and thanked Bear-Patrol for inviting her to their events which she said she had “throughly enjoyed.”

She was presented with flowers by Nick Lane and a framed photograph of the Mayor by Carole Todd taken by Ian Courtier.

The reception was hosted courtesy of Jason Bramwell, The General Manager, at the Old Ship, a big supporter of Bear-Patrol who provided bubbles, soft drinks and nibbles for the Mayor and guests who included two previous Mayors of the city, Cllr Pete West and Cllr Mo Marsh.

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Photographs by Nick Ford Photography.

Bear-Patrol supporter runs Sydney Half marathon for MindOut

Posted on by Besi

Bear-Patrol supporter runs Half Marathon on the other side of the world for Local Mental Health Charity.

KIERAN Fitsall who moved from Brighton to Australia last year for two years with his husband Rob Stevens took part in the Sydney Half Marathon on Sunday May 19 2019 to support MindOut the Brighton based Mental Health Charity.

Kieran, a keen supporter of Bear-Patrol has been a part of their running team for the past three Brighton Half Marathons. Despite the heat and different running conditions Kieran completed the Sydney Half Marathon in 02:01:42

Kieran said: “Moving to Sydney last year meant I missed out on running with my fellow Bear-Patrol runners in the Brighton Half to help raise awareness and money for MindOut. This is my way of doing my bit for the team to continue my support for the good work that they do.”

To make a donation to Kieran’s Fundraising page, click here:

https://smhhalfmarathon.com.au/history-legends/

Fringe THEATRE REVIEW: Betsy @Old Ship hotel

Posted on by Brian Butler

In a deep, dark and eerie cellar under the Old Ship hotel in Brighton, we take our seats in a candle-lit vaulted space, seated on three sides of a small acting space.

LYING on a chaise lounge, is Betsy, a self-confident self-confessed whore, plying her trade near Brighton’s clock tower and Quadrant pub in the early 1800’s.

From the outset she verbally attacks audience members literally spitting out her vituperative defence, telling us not to judge her by our standards – which in any case are no better than hers.

For the next 75 minutes Isabella McCarthy Sommerville as Betsy takes us through her sordid but profitable life and the many characters who have interacted with her – from benefactors to lovers, nuns to murderers, all the people jumbled up in her befuddled dreams.

She lives in this cellar – under a house owned by the famous entrepreneur Thomas Kemp, who has done a bunk abroad to avoid his creditors. She is put in charge of his house till he returns, and when he doesn’t she is given the cellar to live in as her reward.

There are many other rewards for the young woman, including the on and off attentions of George Bintshaft – overseer of Brighton’s poorhouses, from which he skims a percentage of profit.

The plot is intricate but believable and it leads us from homes for the penitent to the mansions of Brunswick, the murderous beach at Rottingdean, and the doorstep of even the Prince Regent.

It’s a dark and vicious tale of illegitimacy, power, corruption, loveless sex, betrayal and despair.

In the claustrophobic setting of the Old Ship’s former wine cellar, we are trapped in Betsy’s life and ultimate doom. Isabella plays it full-on, sparing us no details of her sexual encounters. In a startling physical performance she even simulates her savage beating by George’s henchman, writhing under his punches and kicking so vividly we can imagine we can see him.

In her dreams she believes herself underwater – a premonition which all too really comes true, and again the actor’s physical contortions are mesmerising.

Betsy, written and directed by Jonathan Brown, is part of Brighton Fringe and plays at the Old Ship until June 1.

Review by Brian Butler

Festival REVIEW: BOYS @The Old Market

Posted on by Brian Butler

Presenting physical theatre at its very best, BAME company The Pappy Show use playing games and physical training as the basis for an hour of music, dance , acrobatics and dialogue exploring what it is to be male.

FOCUSSING on the child within, this highly agile and talented company of nine, directed by performer Kane Husbands lead us through the complex maze that growing from boyhood to manhood can create.

From its opening choreographed dance with balloons, stage fight, and fatal stabbing, the company pose questions to one another to tease out the conflicts within and then play them out in intricate balletic sequences, some of which are just visually stunning.

They take us through a series of statements, which may or may not be true, but which are always entertaining and thought-provoking, about race, gender, beliefs and ancestry.

Their main game is called Map of The World – where they emphasise their own geographical and historical backgrounds. The nature of their rehearsal and performance techniques is fascinating. What seems totally improvised is obviously not so, as it involves such intricate patterns of movement.

But it’s entirely believable that their words are their own and come from their hearts and minds.

Most moving for me was a short section where a father writes a letter of advice to his son, “Let your good be better and your better be best” and the son replies, with the telling line “you need to let me be my own man. I’m no longer a boy”.

At one point a particularly disturbed young man acts out his inner demons which are causing him to hate himself, but in the end the group show their brotherhood, immense friendship and sense of fun.

It’s  a joy to have experienced.

Boys played at the Old Market on May 25 and 26 as part of the Brighton Festival.

The company perform shows around the UK and run workshops based at the National Youth Theatre in London. Seek them out .

Review by Brian Butler

Festival REVIEW Silence @Black Rock

Posted on by Michael Hootman

A ten-foot tall creature wearing flowing robes unveils a shabby bus from which disembark a group of ragged men, women and children. It’s certainly an arresting image, the first of many from Poland’s Teatr Biuro Podrozy which looks at the lives of these civilians both before and after the military takeover.

Culture is constantly contrasted with brutality. A large sculpture of a head (Jesus? Plato? I’m not really sure) is lifted up on to the bus as plaintive violin music eerily envelopes the wasteland at Black Rock. A man is later seen producing the music by moving a bow across the stems of flowers but then a bucket of blood is thrown, staining his white shirt red. So, yes, it’s not exactly subtle. Then the military are back with their pounding industrial rock, terrifying the population with wheels of fire or riding at them on motorcycle-driven chariots. A death-like figure on stilts rings a bell whilst pulling a child’s wooden horse. It looks fantastic but if it’s trying to tell us about a child’s loss of innocence during war it’s perhaps a tad simplistic.

Silence is an amazing experience which works at the level of pure spectacle. Though the philistine in me would advise against applying too much thought and instead just revel in its beautiful, violent theatricality.

Local musicians help raise funds for Peter Tatchell Foundation

Posted on by Besi

Fundraiser for the Peter Tatchell Foundation raises £1,012.14.

Mr Tatchell was the special guest speaker at the fundraising night on April 26 at the Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton at A Night Of 21st Century Folk Music.

Live music was provided by Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds – Brighton based BBC Radio Folk Award nominees singing Appalachian songs of English and Scottish origin, Lisa Knapp – English folk singer and BBC Radio Folk Award winner, Robb Johnson – English political folk singer-songwriter, folk, blues and indie singer-songwriters Sarah Clarke Kent, Sue Tyhurst, Michele Allardyce and Brighton based folk group Bird in the Belly whose debut album The Crowing was heralded as ‘Folk Album of the Year’ in the Daily Express.

Pictured with Peter from left to right is Sarah Clarke Kent, Sue Tyhurst and Michele Allardyce.

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