Joe Cillo

NEWS FROM THE BRIGHTON FRINGE

SHORT COMMENTARY ON WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND

I had the unexpected pleasure of stumbling on BITCH BOXER  written and performed by Charlotte Josephine.  I am not a sports fan and I particularly abhor boxing, yet this play with its fast moving dialogue, exquisite direction by Bryony  Shanahan and truly brilliant lighting effects by Seth Rook Williams captivated me from the moment Josephine stepped on the stage and brought tears to my eyes as I relived a young girl’s torment,  torn by her own determination to validate herself in her fathers eyes.   This is a play that must be seen because words cannot cast its spell.  I takes place in 2012 when women entered  the Olympic boxing ring for the first time.  We see Chloe training to compete in the event even as she is torn by cosmic events in her own life.  Through it all, we see her hanging on to a tattered faith in herself and reaching for a star she knows belongs to her.  It is Josephine’s performance that makes this production stellar.  She is an artist in every sense of that word and beyond

BITCH BOXER returns to the Marlborough Theatre May 25,26,& 27 7:30 pm

www.brightonfringe.org; 01273 917272

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THE SPEIGEL TENT IS THE PLACE TO BE ……

LA CLIQUE  happens every night but MOnday at 9 pm and iach performance is unique.  You will see Scotty the Blue Bunny charming you with is wagging little tail and marvelous repartee;  Shay Horay amaze you with rubber bands, Lilikoi Kaos spinning hula hoops in ways you cannot imagine and the Wau Wau Sisters doing a trapeze act that defies gravity.  The show is spellbinding from start to finish and for me a huge highlight is Paul Zenon’s combination of magic and comedy.  This is an hour and a half of superb entertainment…fun, exhilarating and spirit lifting.

My favorite performers ever are and have always been MIKLEANGELO AND THE BLACK SEA GENTLEMEN.   They perform at 5 pm in the tent from the 13-19 and are an experience not to be missed “These are performers at the top of their game,” says The Scotsman;  The Sydney Morning Herald says “They are not so much a band as a dream you cannot wake from.”

The show combines musical theatre and black humor in unexpected ways.  You will never see its like anywhere in the world. Mikelangelo has composed and arranged songs that blend Balkan melodies and European Kabaret with comedy and farce.  The Gentlemen are superb musicians and each has his own comedic sense. Mikelangelo is brilliant on every level as their leader and your host in the production.  When they play AN A MINOR DAY you laugh and yet you know just what they mean…and I defy you not to nod your head at the black humor in A FORMIDABLE MARINADE.  You will chuckle; you will dance and you will love every minute you spend with MIKELANGELO AND THE BLACK SEA GENTLEMEN.  That is a promise.  Tickets 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

THE BIG BITE-SIZE BREAKFAST: Fresh Fruit *****

This is a series of award winning one-minute plays delightfully presented with coffee and a croissant included in the 12.50/9.50 ticket.  Fresh Fruit is a collection of 5 vignettes directed and produced by Nick Brice/Sam Holland and Sophia Wylie.  Each play in this series gives us a new take on what it is to be human, mixing pathos with humor.  Of special note is Tegen Hitchens whose monologue Thin Air  about a tight rope walker who learns what courage is all about is mesmerizing and unforgettable.  Do not miss this delightful mid day hour. Tickets 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

THE BIG BITE-SIZE BREAKFAST: Interpretations  *****

It is rare to see a show that has an almost universal appeal.  The audience for this “menu” ranged from a rapt 3 year old to a woman of 80 and everyone there was captivated by the selection of plays that combine comedy with a dose of unvarnished reality.  Of special note was Becky Norris’s monologue VALENTINE’S DAY about a woman who receives a valentine from a most unusual stranger.  Norris’s characterization is multi-faceted and believable, yet laced with dead-pan humor.  Kudos to Nick Brice, Sam Holland and Sophia Wylie for their programming and expert direction.  Once again they have given us a delightful and unforgettable morning. Tickets 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

ROAD Written by Jim Cartwright and directed by Julian Kerridge *****

This award winning play is as moving today as it was when it was written in 1986.  “Now, 24 years later, as the gap between rich and poor grows ever wider….once again it is the very poorest in society who suffer,” says director Julian Kerridge.  Theater is our best vehicle for social outrage and this gorgeous piece will make you cry, laugh and ponder at what is happening now in our world.  Perfectly paced, beautifully directed and acted by an all-star cast, it is the most important piece of theater I have seen in a very long time. Tickets 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

THE BIG BITE-SIZE BREAKFAST: Desires.  The Latest Music Bar May 19, 2013 *****

Once again, the audience is beautifully entertained with five ten-minute plays, all  unforgettable because each is a commentary on the human experience.  The  play selection for all three menus (at Theatre Royal and The Latest) is superb.  We are given literary quality, spot-on direction and amazing acting.  These talented performers must switch from one character to another in a repertory of fifteen plays (for all 3 shows) and not one of them loses the narrative flow.  Each menu is well worth seeing both for its social commentary, its quality, humor and pace. Tickets 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

THE TREASON SHOW *****

This special Festival show is at the Sabai Pavilion at 9pm Tuesday May 21 until Thursday May 25. The very talented cast present fast moving acerbic commentary on the news in song and satire that cannot help but appeal no matter what your level of political interest.  This venue is very large and lacks the intimacy that works so well for the production at The Latest Music Bar, but the skits still get  laughs and leave the audience with unforgettable memories that poke holes in the public image of our all too pompous public officials. Most memorable in this production was Daniel Beales’ impersonation of Angela Merkell singing a parody of My Way.  This show runs monthly. If you missed this one go to www.treasonshow.co.uk for the next edition.

BIG BOYS DON’T DANCE *****

This show is a must see for every age. The music is superb, the dancing is mind boggling and the talent of the two stars amazing.  There is a recognizable and believable story line running though the hour about two brothers about to split up because one is getting married.  However, the show is held together with almost magical rhythm, dialogue and dance. The hour passes in an instant, so memorable are the performances of these two South African actors with unequalled comedic timing and pace.   At The Warren until May 24 at 6 pm  Tickets www.otherplacebrighton.co.uk or 01273 917272  www.brightonfringe.com.

QUA, QUA, QUA !! *****
Prepare yourself for a delightful, interactive experience creating comedy in the Jacques Tati tradition.  This charming hour sweeps the audience into the Tati experience highlighting the tiny absurdities that are life itself.  Chris Cresswell has created this gem of a piece and it is his comedic genius that propels the action.  He is supported by a talented cast who pantomime his words. Marion Deprez is outstanding in her characterizations of the conductor on a train, a frustrated sunbather and just another woman in the rain.    Do not miss this tribute to a moviemaker who saw what being human means.  Cresswell’s presentation is sensitive to every nuance that makes life worthwhile.  Tickets: emporiumbrighton.com.  May 30-June 1 @ 7:30    13.50 pounds

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT *****
Paul Shaw is a consummate actor, a thrill to see on any stage.  His performance in this touching and very wise production is nothing short of stellar.  The story begins in 1958 when homosexuality was considered a mental disease.  A married couple meet for theater and ponder on their future and the baby soon to be born.  Shaw who plays all the characters in Neil Bartlett’s profound script has an understated delivery that makes the dramatization all the more powerful.  His series of characters explore the need to accept who we are and what we have become as a fact of our lives.  The music composed by Nicolas Bloomfield only enhances the poetic rhythms of the monologue.  The tragedy is that this show was only performed May 31 and June first at the Marlborough Theatre and more people lost the opportunity to experience it.

THE WEATHERMAN *****

Kiki Lovechild proves how unnecessary words can be in his charming pantomime of how to amuse yourself in purgatory. His show is beautifully paced and combines movement with sound and lighting that sweeps his audience into a world of fun and fantasy unlimited by earthly notions.  Anything can happen on his stage and does from umbrellas swirling to multicolored lights flashing and unexpected gifts shared by a captivated audience.  Nothing verbal can describe the magic of this production and why should it?  The show is an unforgettable hour that cannot fail to make you laugh and love being alive.  Seen at the Marlborough Theatre May 30-June 1.

JULIAN CADDY SPEAKS ON THE IMPACT OF THE 2013 BRIGHTON FRINGE

This is the second year that Julian Caddy has been at the helm of the Brighton Fringe.  In that time, the number and quality of shows have increased by 60% as have the number of attendees.  The Brighton Fringe is the second largest festival in the UK.  Caddy made these comments after a spectacular performance of THE BIG BITE SIZED BREAKFAST: INTERPRETATIONS (reviewed in this article).  The Big Bite Sized Breakfast series was a group of delightful and very meaningful 10-minute plays, each one giving the audience a new view of our own life experience.  Caddy spoke to us after the show.  “What Bite Sized is doing is basic to what we are about,” he said.  “Over 200,000 come to The Brighton Fringe.  And the shows that come here reflect the values of the society that hosts it.”

The majority of the patrons that attend shows for this festival are from Brighton as opposed to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe where the majority of punters are visitors. Each production lives or dies on what they produce and the audience’s reaction to their work.  “That is why we should make more of what we have here, now,” Caddy said.  “The Fringe should continue to support the arts by giving vibrant offerings throughout the year.  That is my ambition.”

Nick Brice produced the Bite Sized Breakfast show.  “Showing people the choices they have gives them the power to make change happen,” he said.

Brice pointed out the parallel between theatre and business.  He creates similar productions to businesses to help both employees and employers empathize with one another and learn how to actually understand what the other person is thinking.  His goal is to show people how to do business in a different way through theater. “Building a brand is making a piece of theatre,” he said.

Theater then is a reflection of life in all its many phases.  Perhaps, this is why experiencing a fringe festival anywhere is so very exhilarating.  Suddenly, the arts take precedence over profit…even over our daily routines.  Instead of going home, eating dinner and watching television, we take in a play, listen to music, laugh at a comedy and experience live entertainment with people of like interests.  All the shows that came to The Brighton Fringe this year were forms of communication and so was the act of attending them.  Theater, be it a play, a dance, a concert…  indeed, in all its forms…. gives us  invaluable tools to keep us human.

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/

WHO SAID FIRST WAS BEST?

A first child is your own best foot forward,
And how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out.
Barbara Kingsolver

In all things in life, being first is considered the best.  You win the game, you get the scholarship, you pass the test. You are a winner, that is, everywhere but in your family.

I was my mother’s first born.  She had never HAD a baby before but she was pretty enthusiastic about motherhood until the last three months before I emerged.  She read books about how delightful little babies are with their cute, cuddly ways and she expected me to be a bundle of exquisite joy.  When, at last, I came crashing out of her uterus, I left the warm amniotic fluid that encased me and landed in a cold, hospital room. A bunch of strangers pummeled me to make me cry, cleaned me up and snipped my umbilical cord without so much as a kiss or a word of comfort.

I never got over it.  And neither did my mother.

It appears that all first-born children are emotionally and physically bruised just by being first.   My own mother never expected to have to deal with a crying, spitting, demanding sleepless infant.  She never forgave me for her stitches, the pain, the endless labor she endured for a very questionable reward.  “You almost killed me,” she said, every time she looked it me.

She may have been more verbal than most new mamas, but she was actually no different than every new parent when they have to deal with the unexpected rigor of that first baby.  The crying, the diapers, the pulling at your breast….  …not to mention the terrible guilt because they are not REALLY enjoying the process.

Everyone knows first-borns seem smarter, more aggressive and more successful than their siblings.  This is because they are constantly proving to their parents and themselves that they were worth the pain and suffering they caused. First-borns are usually taller than their siblings because they are the ones that have to reach up to get the dishes off the shelf to feed their little brothers and sisters. They are thinner too and that is probably because parents are always more careful to feed the first one proper food and teach them the good eating habits child care books tell them are best.  I had to eat my spinach or else while my sister dined on leftover pie and gallons of pudding.  The result was that she tips the scale at 400 pounds and I have yet to top 100.

All that stress and responsibly can kill a person and we now know that it actually does.  Researchers in New Zealand discovered that the oldest child from the most well-meaning families suffer more heart attacks, higher blood pressure and have a stubborn resistance to insulin that makes them susceptible to diabetes.  That means that the child born first will probably be the first one to go to the other side.

By the time the second kid comes along, the parents are more relaxed.  They don’t really notice the germs or the squealing and besides they have the older one to baby-sit.  It is the oldest child who ends up being a substitute parent to the others.  He is the one who establishes the family reputation in school for industry and intelligence. Band most unfair, when he kicks off, the younger ones get the inheritance.

It doesn’t seem right, does it?  That is why I now call on all older children to unite!!!!  When that new little nipper comes into the house, use those brains that made you the smart one and smother it with a pillow before it gets out of line.

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/

DRUG-ADDLED FISH

Tell me what you eat, and
I will tell you what you are.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

I am very careful about the food I eat because I know that what is in it goes into me.  I will not eat red meat because I was a huge fan of Elsie the Cow, Porky the Pig and Mary’s three little lambs.  However, since I never had an aquarium or cuddled something aquatic, I have been relying on fish as a staple to my diet.

I am amazed to learn that the reason I feel so relaxed and at peace with the world after a salmon dinner is that the fish on our planet are all becoming junkies. We are dumping our medications into the landfill helter-skelter and our Prozac, Vicodin and Demerol are being transmitted from the fish in the sea into my bloodstream.

I find this excellent news.  It has the potential to save me an immense amount of money when I am moved to escape my current reality. If I eat my perch and dine on cod I will be calm and collected, if a bit loopy, when disaster strikes.  I will not panic…I will be properly tranquilized by my dinner.

There is more good news to come.  Evidently, all that drug consumption has made our fishy friends sterile. The morning after pills we didn’t need and the birth control pills we discard are affecting the reproductive powers of our aquatic friends.   This is bad for the food supply I admit and terrible information for the pharmaceutical companies.  We no longer need rely on the pill or the morning-after remedies (some of which are disgustingly unpleasant) to take care of any repercussions from a night of pleasure.  All we need do is eat a generous helping of plaice for dinner.  (You can even deep-fry it and it will still fix you up). If you decide you would like to have a family, forget estrogen or in-vitrio fertilization.  Eat meat.

Ah, how times have changed.  Back in the uninformed early fifties, I had two exquisite Siamese Fighting Fish: Herbert and Tarrington.  They were lovely to watch, swimming from one side of their little bowl to the other, munching on algae and sparking in the sun.  But one day Herbert got into a snit and ate poor timid Tarrington. He digested him whole and didn’t even spit out the bones.  Had he lived in this knowledgeable century of ours, I would have scooped up some water for the nearest stream and cured his inappropriate behavior just like that.

Of course there are times when you do not want to dull your senses.  You long to heighten your awareness of life around you.  No need to waste hard-earned cash on speed, cocaine or ecstasy. Just run to the nearest fish grotto, pig out on sea bass and you are ready to party!

The only ones deprived of this safe avenue to contentment are vegetarians. They will have to rely on prescription medicines for their highs.  The poor among them will reproduce like bunnies if they don’t give up sex entirely.  It doesn’t seem fair does it?  They have already given up so much that makes life delicious.

Fish, to taste right, must swim three times –
in water, in butter and in wine.
Polish Proverb

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/

Brighton Theatre presents…..

 BLACK VENUS
by
Jonathan Cash

“Josephine Baker subverted racial stereotypes and had a huge influence on black performers,” said Faynia Williams, director of a showcase trailer of this production designed by Romany Mark Bruce.  BLACK VENUS brings Baker, the first jazz superstar, face to face with Hermann Goering over dinner in occupied Paris.  The action combines music, dance and dialogue with Brechtian style flashbacks and promises to mesmerize the audience by intertwining themes of love, food, sex and racism.

Baker grew up in St Louis, Missouri, living hand to mouth in the streets when she was 12, living in cardboard boxes and scavaging for food in garbage cans.  Her street corner dancing attracted attention when she was 15 and her career expanded across the ocean to Paris.  Indeed, she always said she had two loves: Paris and America.  Her famous Banana Dance combined the rhythms of African Dance and contemporary jazz to create modern Continental Break Dancing. She was an activist on many fronts and worked for the French Resistance because of her many contacts in the world of the Axis.  It was because of her undercover activities that Hermann Goering invited her to dinner.  This play recaptures that momentous evening when the two met face to face.

BLACK VENUS was shortlisted for the 2013 Best New Play Award and given funding by the Arts Council of England.   It will be presented for one night only,  Josephine Baker Day, May 20 at 7pm and 9pm, at Concorde2, Madeira Drive, Brighton BN2 1EN . It will feature Anna Maria Nabirye as Josephine, Ross Gurney Randall as Goering with musical direction by Tom Phelan.

For more information: www.brightonfringe.org; 01273 917272

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/

Lynn Ruth [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

The Thrill Peddlers present….
TINSEL TARTS IN A HOT COMA
Music and lyrics: Scrumbly Koldewyn
Book: Sweet Pam” Tent
Directed by Russell Blackwood

“The Cockettes were basically complete sexual anarchy
Which is always a good thing.
John Waters

“The Cockettes were the first hippie drag queens,” said filmmaker John Waters,  “Insane hippie drag queens on and off the stage.”  And that sentence sums up that outrageous and delightful group of wild, flamboyant hippies, transsexuals, gays and rebels that managed to destroy all our sacred cows on and off the stage.  They created a series of drug infused ostentatious musical shows so camp only the sub-culture in San Francisco could understand them.  Their musicals were disorganized and wild, filled with glitter and nudity, mad and maddening yet irresistible to anyone ready to accept the unacceptable.

When they brought the original production of “Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma” to New York In 1971, the establishment simply could not handle their “in your face” exuberance. It was critic Lillian Roxon who realized that, inexperienced, chaotic and rough as they were, the group blazed a trail for a cultural evolution we are experiencing today “Their influence will be felt years from now,” she said. “Every time you see too much glitter or a rhinestone out-of-place, you (will) know it’s because of the Cockettes.”

Russell Blackwood, director of the Thrill Peddlers fell in love with the Cockette spirit and in 2009 he re-invented the Cockette production Pearls Over Shanghai  and followed it with Vice Palace.  Now, we have his re-imagining of  Tinsel Tarts In A Hot Coma the 1971 musical originally performed by The Cockettes at The Palace Theatre in San Francisco.

Blackwood’s interpretation of that production is on stage now at the Hypnodrome theatre and if you like splashy costume, great energy and not much plot, this production is your cup of tea.  Three of the original Cockettes are in this version of the musical that blossomed in San Francisco and died in New York.   Two of them, Scrumbly Koldewyn and Pam Tent also rewrote the book and added 18 songs from the original four-page outline used in that first production.  For this reviewer, Scrumbly Koldewyn is worth hearing and seeing anytime he takes to the stage.  His musical talent is beyond words, so original and exciting are his compositions; so thrilling his keyboard technique. Pam Tent steals the show in a parody of Hedda Hopper and no one can resist her.

The energy and enthusiasm of the cast is infectious and everyone who sees the show cannot help but have a wonderful time.  This production is so much more than a musical,  It is a happening and great fun from the opening number Ain’t We Deluxe to the spirited finale loaded with flashing breasts, swinging dicks, glittering gams and feathers, Hades Lowdown.

The question is: Are we so jaded by all that has gone before that the Cockette spirit is just a bit too over the top for today’s audiences?  “It’s nothing but a high school musical,” said one member of the audience. “All the performers put out lots of effort and enthusiasm, and the songs were clever….but  I didn’t see any reason for the nudity in the finale. I’m hardly a prude but it just seemed out of place.”

The truth is naked bodies aren’t that shocking anymore and too much glitter and glitz is boring.  We have all been there, done that and seen it so many times before.  That said; if you want a fun evening that does nothing to enrich you but everything to tickle your funny bone, don’t miss this fast-moving, melodic farce.  Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma is a production you’ll not soon forget: more colorful than a rainbow, and as delightful as a surfeit of ice cream and cake.

The sixties are gone; dope will never be as cheap
Sex never as free and rock & roll never as great.
Abbie Hoffman

TINSEL TARTS continues through June 1, 2012
Thursday-Saturday @ 8pm
The Hypnodrome Theatre 575 Tenth Street, SF
Tickets: brownpapertickets.com or 800 838 3006
Info: thrillpeddlers.com 415 377 4204

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/

NAKED IS AS NAKED DOES

The male body is hairy and lumpy
And should not be seen by the light of day
Richard Roeper

For Shame

Americans do not mind seeing people murdered on their television screen and they love watching heads flying and limbs severed at the movies.  They like the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire, bodies strewn across the pavement and little children crying for their lost mummies and daddies.   The more violence the better.  That is the American way.

The truth is that violence and tragedy make great entertainment.  So does pornography.  Americans actually prefer to watch lust happening even more than they like doing it. What a thrill to see a man and women tearing each other’s genitals to pieces or whipping and chaining each other for the sheer pleasure of hearing them scream.  Porn is almost as popular in America as violence.  We watch both every day and love it all.

But let some poor schnook walk outside to get the newspaper in the altogether and he ignites public outrage. “It offends me to see anyone that way,” said one insulted observer. “It is disgusting.”

That is why San Francisco decided to compromise its image of freedom of expression and tolerance of the odd-ball and ban public nudity from its streets.  No more can raunchy old men spread a towel on a stone bench and sun themselves in the Castro district.  No more, can its citizens strip to the flesh to bathe in the afternoon sun.  San Francisco now supports the theory that our bodies are so hideous they must be concealed in public.  No matter, that liberated women, forward thinking men and eating disorder specialists are trying to make us comfy with our diverse shapes and sizes.  In San Francisco, it is pc to be ashamed.

Now, it seems that the Japanese, too are offended by nudity, but they have taken it one step further.  They do not want to see representations of the human body, much less the real thing. Michelangelo’s David  was presented to the town of Okuizumo and the inhabitants ran for cover.  “It’s frightening the children and worrying the adults with its nakedness,” said one of the town’s bigwigs.

I can only assume that they have also stripped their museums of reproductions of Van Gogh’s NUDE WOMAN ON A BED or Renoir’s AFER BATHING not to mention Whistler’s shocking NUDE GIRL WITH A BOWL.

Obviously, the very sight of a naked body horrifies the more sensitive among us.   It is difficult to understand why we think the sight of a penis or a breast will frighten our children more than the sight of shattered limbs and battered heads. Will our innocent youth smash the bathroom mirror when one day they see those very banned organs protruding from their own bodies?

The truth is that in America our bodies are considered repulsive and offensive unless we film them and flaunt them on a screen.  The only answer to this dilemma is to cover every baby at birth with ornamental tattoos so that as they mature, no one will recognize the new growth.  And everyone will be amazed when it rises to an occasion.

I don’t even like to be naked
In front of myself!
Camryn Manheim

Joe Cillo

www.forallevents.com/