Caroline Of Brunswick, 16 May 2012
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Victoria Nangle

Carl Garwood, who is jobless and homeless, is accused of saying that he had a bomb at Sainsbury’s in Lewes Road, Brighton, on Monday (14 May).

He is alleged to have holed himself up in the toilets for five hours causing the store to be evacuated.

Sussex Police said on Monday that it had called in specialist negotiators to help deal with the incident.

The force said at the time that the man at the centre of the siege had said that he had a bomb and a gun.

The new home of Brighton and Hove Albion has been recognised in an international arena – pun intended.

The American Express Community Stadium won the New Venue Award at the Stadium Business Awards in Turin last night (Tuesday 15 May).

The awards were held at Juventus Stadium – the new home of the Italian Serie A football champions and one of the contenders for the award.

The Amex was one of the eight best new stadiums around the world to be shortlisted. The others included two of the new venues in Poland that will host matches at this summer’s European Championships.

Albion director Martin Perry was in Turin to collect the award. He said: “We were up against some very strong opposition so to win this award is a remarkable achievement and something we can all be extremely proud of.”

A lottery grant will help a Brighton wildlife group fund new habitats for dormice, owls, butterflies and bats and a nature trail for families.

Keep the Ridge Green and Brighton and Hove City Council’s countryside team are working with contractors to carry out the work on the edge of the South Downs National Park.

It involves planting native flowers in a meadow to attract butterflies and bees, improving a narrow footpath and building rustic seating by a dewpond.

The work, planned for Green Ridge and Coney Woods, is being funded by a £27,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme.

Three glades are to be created in the wood to let in light and encourage growth on the woodland floor.

A low deadwood fence will be built along the footpath edge to help enhance and protect the environmentally sensitive area.

An accessible wildlife trail created for families and school children and nesting boxes will be provided for dormice, birds, owls and bats, along with benches with backs for older people.

The council said that, in response to feedback from the public, the dilapidated oak steps will be repaired.

And handrails would be installed at the Patcham Place entrance and at the entrance from Mill Road and Waterhall.

Councillor Pete West, the council’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “Securing this grant from Community Spaces is wonderful news.

“I’d like to congratulate those members of Keep the Ridge Green who worked so hard carrying out consultation and putting together the application.

“Green Ridge and Coney Woods are important and well-loved public spaces which form part of the boundary with the new national park.

“These improvements will not only encourage more people to enjoy the area but will also provide safe and enhanced habitats for a variety of wildlife.”

Tudor Room, (in the Puma Hotels ‘Old Ship Hotel’), until 26 May 2012
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Jeff Hemmings

Probably best known for his remarkable all male reworking of Swan Lake, this year’s festival will host Spitfire, Town and Country and The Infernal Galop, the triple bill of the works that launched Bourne’s career and cemented New Adventures reputation for wit, style and sheer entertainment.

Matthew Bourne has assembled an impressive cast of experienced New Adventures stars and exciting young talent. The company will be Kerry Biggin, who created the role of Kim in Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands, Tom Jackson Greaves direct from the current tour of Nutcracker, James Leece returns to the company having performed the role of Johnny in Dirty Dancing in the West End, Kate Lyons made her New Adventures debut in Cinderella and has recently been seen in Nutcracker! Drew McOnie was a memorable competitor in the first series of BBC’s So You Think You Can Dance, Christopher Marney was last seen as The Angel in Cinderella, Dominic North has appeared in more New Adventures productions than any other performer, Mikah Smillie has shown her versatility with New Adventures in a variety of leading roles and Joe Walkling made his debut with the company in the original cast of Dorian Gray.

Bourne’s work has built a bridge between the high art of the dance world and the commercial theatre that for years now have embraced conventional dance audiences and attracted new ones with works like Highland Fling, Swan Lake, Nutcracker! and The Car Man. Whilst having an obvious talent to amuse his choreography is never anything less than exhilarating, demanding excellence for his company at all times.

Matthew Bourne said; “Early Adventures sees the company return to its roots to help celebrate our 25th anniversary. All of the pieces on this programme were created with a desire to entertain and to share some of the music and cultural icons that I grew up loving.”

Spitfire was Bourne’s first hit in 1988. Both a celebration of masculine vanity and an affectionate comment on the preening grandeur of the classical male dancer. It hilariously places the most famous 19th century ballet showstopper in the world of men’s underwear advertising and mail order catalogue photography.

Town and Country – Remembered as the piece that most crystallised the Bourne style; gloriously witty and ironic but also strangely moving and heartfelt. It explores notions of national character from a bygone era through the evocative music of Edward Elgar, Noel Coward and Percy Grainger, amongst others. This 1991 two part dance revue features a high speed version of the classic film, Brief Encounter, a furtive meeting between two repressed gents, a jolly clog dance with a violent conclusion, a daringly wild ride on children’s scooters and an eccentric version of ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ played on the ukulele.

The Infernal Galop – A breakthrough hit in 1989, this ‘Franglais Spectacular’ was inspired by icons of France in the 1930s and 1940s; Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Tino Rossi, Jacques Tati etc. Through a series of surprising and saucy vignettes this is France as seen by the uptight English imagination with all the traditional clichés joyously paraded for our entertainment and climaxing in Offenbach’s inevitable Can-Can!

Matthew Bourne’s Early Adventures, Theatre Royal Brighton, Thursday 17 & Friday 18 May, 7.30pm Saturday 19 May, 2.30pm & 7.30pm.

Sacha Baron Cohen reunites with the director Larry Charles who did such a good job with him on previous endeavours – Borat and Bruno, for this third outing of character comedy ambush. This time he appears to be a cross between Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi, an evil tyrant opposed to democracy in any guise and more than a tad deluded about his own personal talents. At great personal risk General Aladeen (Baron Cohen’s creation) travels to America to keep democracy at bay and his own people lovingly oppressed.

As with every Baron Cohen/Charles project, the beauty is bound to be in the detail, as ordinary people and celebrities react – some scripted and some probably not so much – to the many buttons the General pushes in human nature.
Also featuring Anna Faris, Megan Fox, Ben Kingsley and John C. Reilly.

Released Fri 18 May
Showing at Odeon and Cineworld

Despite the low-fi adorability of the sock puppets, this is a show aimed squarely at a comedy audience rather than a family one. Mixing puns, sketches and songs with vaudeville style backchat, this brainchild of Kev F. Sutherland has gathered fans every year since its 2005 inception, going viral on YouTube and generating new material through online shorts at a rate of knots.

This latest show from the fluffy heeled ones is billed as a ‘Socky Horror Show’, giving you some clue as to the content and theme of this year’s horror styled fiasco. Promising brand new songs, sketches, socks and violence – as well as zombie socks thrown into the mix – if it’s anything like its predecessors when the Scottish Falsetto Socks Theatre last visited the Brighton Fringe, there will be silliness galore and liberties that positively make you have to laugh and their ridiculousness. All delivered in a high pitched Scottish accent and ping-pong ball eyes.

There are two performances of this show, one in the evening and the other handily placed to fill a Sunday afternoon, allowing a splendid time to be had by all, without rinsing you out for the beginning of the working week the next day.

Scottish Falsetto Socks – Boo Lingerie! Komedia Studio, Sat 19 May, 7pm and Sun 20 May, 4.30pm, £10/9.

When artists die young, their oeuvre and image are forever burnished within our sub-consciousness, our memories never to be tarnished by poor recordings or the inevitable ageing process. Hence, the continued deification of Sandy Denny who died aged 31, a woman who endured a torrid last couple of years which included the birth of her only child just a few months before.

Sandy Denny suffered a cerebral haemorrhage from tumbling down the stairs of her parents’ home in Cornwall in 1978, but even then she was indubitably the First Lady of modern British folk music. The week she died, Kate Bush, then hurtling up the charts with her debut single, ‘Wuthering Heights’, had cited Denny as a formative influence and even name-checked her on the album Never for Ever.

Her career really took off when she took over singing duties for Fairport Convention in 1968, the most famous British folk-rock outfit, and even though she was with the group for 18 months, in that time she sang on three of the best albums; What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and their most famous album Liege and Lief.

She then formed Fotheringay and released one album, before embarking on a solo career, as well as a turn as guest vocalist on Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Battle of Evermore’. Released on Island, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens, Sandy, Like An Old-Fashioned Waltz and Rendezvous generally combine Denny’s first love of folk with forays into pop and rock, and while patchy affairs, still demonstrate her ability to write outstanding songs to go with that incredible voice. And so Denny’s legacy lives on, gaining momentum particularly in this folk-friendly era we live in.

This festival exclusive will feature members of Bellowhead, Maddy Prior, Thae Gilmore, Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman), Jerry Donohue, Dave Swarbrick, Lavinia Blackwell, Blair Dunlop, Sam Carter, PP Arnold and others, performing songs form Denny’s career, as well as a number of songs that Thea Gilmore was commissioned by Sandy’s estate to write melodies for – to unrecorded lyrics, that were found in Sandy’s paperwork, and which appeared on Gilmore’s Don’t Stop Singing album last year.

The Lady: A Homage to Sandy Denny, Brighton Dome, Mon 21 May, 8pm, £22.50–£10