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Chaired by celebrity food critic Jay Rayner, and with a discussion panel made up of Observer Food Monthly editor Allan Jenkins, food authors Fuchsia Dunlop and Tomasina Miers, plus restauranteur Yotam Ottolenghi, this opened up a conversation on the global politics of food, from the obesity problems and the supermarket semi-monopoly that subversively guides our food choices, to the social exclusion the current, national financial position has placed many in. However, as one member of the public pointed out when the floor was opened, the worry, concern and critique was being made to an audience who can spare £10 and a few hours on a Wednesday afternoon. Preaching to an already converted crowd, this was informative, but a bit too self-congratulatory.

Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, 11 May
Rating:
Victoria Nangle

This farcical trio are currently touring the festival circuit with their musical comedy Me! Me! Me! Quick and sharp-witted, they took turns on centre stage to share their pet peeves with great humility. They caught the audience off guard as they turned British culture on its head with deliberate imprudence. Sarah-Louise Parker was superlative playing the struggling star who blamed her pleasant childhood for her lack of success. Also in the line-up were Desmond O’Connor and Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer who rapped about sex and pornography using the Queen’s tongue. Not for the prim and proper.

Komedia, 11 May
Rating:
Simon Robb

This was t first of five Brighton Festival Fringe concerts from Brighton Early Music Festival featured BREMF Consort of Voices and the BREMF Players with ?Deborah Roberts directing. It was a sublime concert of Vesper psalms and concertos from the Selva Morale of 1640/41. St Bartholomews Church provided the perfect setting for this glorious choral and liturgical music and this was a polished performance with some very moving moments and some exceptional singers, particularly amongst the female Altos. Being able to follow the texts in the programme was a nice additional touch.

St Bartholomew’s Church, 9 May
Rating:
Candy MacNamara

No matter how I tried to love this new work from C de la B I failed. Based on a Spanish film that tells the story of the closing of a transvestite cabaret, I was perhaps expecting moments of sadness and of exuberant joy. All I got was sadness. Initially impressive in its simplicity and the poignant movement of the elderly performers who, when frozen, regained the elegance of their previous stage personas, it soon became repetitive. The soundscape, dotted with great songs, was also mournfully dark and droning. And where was the joy? Was their life so sad, so tawdry and so lacking in dignity. The vision of a stooped and overweight man in a sequined dress clomping down a red carpet told me only one thing and that was that their lives were wasted and futile. Surely there must have been some romance, some love and some happiness? Not in this drab and overlong production.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 11 May
Rating:
Andrew Kay