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Alan Ayckbourn’s classic is deliver at Chichester with a brio and confidence that underpins his place as one of the great British comedy playwrights. He takes the comic convention of farce but manages to instill it with a deep sense of bitterness and a bleak portrait of the human condition. Set in the 1970s, period is irrelevant, this could be now, tomorrow even. The cast are superb, seasoned players in his company, and they certainly know how to deliver his pithy dialogue making the very most of every word, every snort and every sneer. Layering comedy over despair is what he does best and this is Ayckbourn at his best.

Chichester Festival MInerva Theatre

13 August

Andrew Kay

5 stars

Side-splitting comedy written by Brightonian Paul Hodson at The Hawth in Crawley

Way Out West is a new play combining side-splitting comedy with heart-rending melancholy and ending with a very funny dance. What more could you want?! Way Out West, by Paul Hodson (writer of Meeting Joe Strummer), is a meditation on loneliness and grief but at first glance it could just be a funny play fuelled by beer and coincidence.
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Vanessa Redgrave to be guest director of Brighton Festival 2012

Brighton Festival has announced that the legendary stage, screen and television actress and doyenne of the performing arts, Vanessa Redgrave, will be guest director of Brighton Festival 2012 which takes place 5–27 May.
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Theatre Royal Brighton Productions launches under the artistic direction of Christopher Luscombe with Maria Aitken and Philip Franks as associate directors

Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) has announced a new theatre company, Theatre Royal Brighton Productions, which will present classic drama both on tour and in the West End, under the artistic direction of Christopher Luscombe, with associate directors Maria Aitken and Philip Franks.
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