BRIGHTON FRINGE 2023 CABARET SPOTLIGHT
By Federica Purcaro (University of Brighton Press Placement) Brighton Fringe 2023 is back for another...
Brighton Fringe has awarded the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence at Edinburgh Fringe for several years now. It gives an Edinburgh Fringe event the chance to attend Brighton Fringe, through a deal with a different partner venue each year, free registration, and £500 towards production costs. This year the partner venue is Brighton Fringe audience choice Best Venue award winner, The Actors.
The Brighton Fringe team and judging panel received an astonishing number of applications but have now selected a longlist of 20 shows out of the 70+ that applied. The Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence longlisted shows are:
Follow a mail-order bride on her journey as she strives to become unforgettable. An irreverent, no-holds-barred, bouffonesque myth about the violence our culture inflicts on bodies of colour.
Birthmarked is a new concept gig written and performed by Brook Tate and his grand ol' band of pals. With original music likened to Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell, alongside a whale, a paintbrush and a pair of tap shoes, he hopes to shine a light on what it means to be marked... at birth.
Incorporating fan-fictional pairings such as Lennon/McCartney and Sherlock/Watson, interspersed with meta commentary by infamous second-wave feminists (Camile Paglia, Andrea Dworkin) and mashed up 80s punk songs, they guide the audience through an infernal fantasia of perverted-intertextuality.
Journey into the underbelly of queer culture and experience a sweaty pulsing dance theatre show exploring the complexities of desire, intimacy, isolation and addiction. With an international company of incredible performers, Party Scene celebrates the heady high of the session but poses tough questions around drug use, sex, consent and mental health in the queer community.
Oat Milk and Honey is an avant-garde blend of poetic live music and breathtaking acrobatics performed by two of Australia's leading performing artists, elegantly reflecting on the raw human experience of anxiety.
This one-human show merges spoken word poetry, comedy and music to explore both what the Latinx label means in the UK and, on a more personal level, the lengths we all go to fit in.
Pip navigates the challenges and celebrates the joys of living with ADHD. Gain insight into the often-overlooked experiences of women with ADHD and explore how it has affected Pip's coming-out journey and self-acceptance. Explore the impact of ADHD medication on her identity and join the conversation on how we can be more understanding and accepting of neurodivergent individuals.
Subverting Somali folk tales and reminiscing about their childhoods, four girls slowly reveal their reasons for being there. This hour together may reveal that they have more in common than they thought. Inspired by The Breakfast Club, this is a hilarious and authentic exploration of the friendship between Somali girls.
Jacob Storms' Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Rising brings these unexplored years (1939-1945) centre stage as the audience plays the role of kind stranger to a young Williams, whilst he experiences the unexpected highs and devastating lows of his early life and career, wherein his most iconic character emerges, himself.
A Retrospection
Claire Woolner, LA-based absurdist comedian, blows hard on the edges of performance art and swims into surrealist clown. Silly comedic bits, playful performance pieces and authentic breakdowns, make this a work of tragicomedy at its finest.
Barry Potter and the Magic of Wizardry
Real live wizard magic! Experience the wonder of world-class wizardry in a realm of messenger owls, robed wizards, and flying broomsticks! Marvel at mind blowing mysteries with cauldrons, goblets, scrolls, and talking snakes. Also, there’s jokes!
Blossoming (You Undo Me)
Blossoming (You Undo Me) is a musical about a young Chinese man discovering his queerness. A coming-of-age tale, covering sexual and personal awakening and self-discovery, an immigrant’s journey and a chronicle of one family’s changing dynamics.
Crap Ballet
Chekhov's Gum is making their Fringe debut with an all-new clown show, Crap Ballet! One's big, the other's small – both suited up and ready to strut, stretch, and shimmy for an hour of stupid.
Creepy Boys
You’re invited: The Creepy Boys are throwing their 13th birthday party. It will have everything. Games. Gifts. Possibly Satan. Probably Cake.
Declan
A hallucinatory tale of isolation and sexual discovery in rural Wiltshire. Declan makes its Fringe debut after gripping viewers online during lockdown. As childlike outsider Jimbo recalls the disappearance of his friend Declan, he is haunted by ghosts of the past and present.
Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story
Join Diana in heaven as she shares the untold and untrue tale of her extraordinary life. Combining drag, multimedia, audience interaction, puppetry and a lot of queer joy – this unique celebration of the People's Princess is as hilarious as it is tasteless.
Dreams of a Clown
Our family-friendly, immersive show whisks you away on a fast-paced adventure, exploring both contemporary and traditional circus mediums, including clowning, aerial, acrobatics, juggling, and more!
Guilty of Love
With sublime melodies, this incredibly moving, uplifting and thought-provoking new musical delves into Turing's youthful love of Christopher Morcom and how this shaped his life and work.
Impact
An hour of intimate, true storytelling accompanied by striking images and videos, heartfelt original songs accompanied by piano, cello and percussion, and the occasional appearance of a singing, Satanic nun.
IVORIES
What do you get when A24's golden renaissance of horror is captured through a propulsive and urgent tragicomedy? This haunting, bitingly funny thriller theatre follows nonbinary playwright Sloane and their botanist husband Gwyn settling the estate of Sloane's ailing grandmother.
Kingdom
Arguments, negotiations and secret murder plots result in strained relations between the two genders. Can the new leaders of Scotland reunite the country, or will it be torn apart forever?
MEMBER
MEMBER delves into the gay hate-crime epidemic that blighted Australia's coastline for three decades in an unflinching look into a piece of LGBTQ+ history that we can't afford to forget.
My Dad Wears a Dress
My Dad Wears A Dress is a one woman show written and performed by Maria Telnikoff about her experience of growing up with a trans female parent - the highs, the lows and the heels!
Straight for Pay
Cara Connors acclaimed solo show explores her journey of leaving her marriage, embracing her sexuality and occasional feral existence as a queer, millennial comedian, chasing her dreams while making up for lost time.
Sugar and Blood
A body has gone missing. And the blood is on all their hands. This is not a question of who committed the crime – everyone's guilty of that. The question is who took the body and why? And what will be the consequences?
Super
On Hollywood Boulevard, a group of actors are posing as famous characters for photos with tourists. Super is a darkly comic drama about ambition, love and overwhelming failure told by two not-very-super heroes.
Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar
Tom is a charismatic people-pleaser, an expert in empathy, but someone who struggles with the truth. Join him in this hilariously honest solo show as he seeks to exorcise ghosts, confess his deepest darkest secrets and somehow un-f*ck his future.
Welcome to the Big Show
A love letter to unique upbringings, self-discovery, and devoted fathers. An hour of cinematic sensation from stand-up dance comedian Gara complete with musical numbers, dancing wrestlers and 80s camp. Welcome. Welcome to The Big Show.
You Are Going to Die
Performed entirely naked, this show is a nail-biting descent into existential anxiety as humanity stares down the proverbial toilet. A surreal meditation on annihilation that rests on the knife edge between physical theatre and performance art.
By Federica Purcaro (University of Brighton Press Placement) Brighton Fringe 2023 is back for another...
Each year, Brighton Fringe partners with local and national charities, companies and organisations to offer...
Talking to the Box Office...
