Brighton Festival highlights: books & debate
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE
BAFTA: A Life in Pictures
As a member of one of Britain’s great theatrical families, a political activist, and peerless performer on stage and screen, Redgrave’s career spans five decades. In addition to her work in the theatre, Redgrave has appeared in more than 60 films and countless TV dramas, winning Emmys, Golden Globes and an Oscar. There have also been, to date, three BAFTA nominations, for: Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966); Prick Up Your Ears (1996) and The Gathering Storm (2002). Her most recent screen roles include Queen Elizabeth I in Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous (2011) and Volumnia in Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (2012).
Redgrave was honoured with a BAFTA Fellowship in 2010. Here, she opens Brighton Festival 2012 with a personal celebration of her remarkable career and life.
This event forms part of BAFTA’s UK-wide learning and events programme, giving audiences across the country access behind the screens of the film, TV and video games industries.
Sat 5 May, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome,
8pm, £12.50, £18.50 Festival Standby £10
The Book Show with Mariella Frostrup
The Festival’s Broadcast Partner, Sky Arts, brings the UK’s leading weekly show dedicated to books to Brighton. The Book Show – which is broadcast weekly on Thursdays at 8pm on Sky Arts 1 HD – will be recorded at The Old Market arts centre. The special guests already booked are Jeremy Deller and Dame Janet Suzman with more to be confirmed soon!
Ticket holders have two opportunities to be part of a live filming and hear Mariella Frostrup interview leading Festival guests.
Sat 12 May, 1:40pm and 4:40pm
The Old Market £5 each show
Index on Censorship
Open dialogue is the key to a healthy, cohesive society, but some fear the disruptive, dangerous potential of truly free speech. Inspired by themes of DV8’s show Can We Talk About This?, the event presents an interactive conversation about how, when and why we censor ourselves.
Chaired by Kenan Malik, author of From Fatwa To Jihad and regular guest on The Moral Maze, the discussion moves between panellists – DV8 choreographer and director Lloyd Newson and activist, author and broadcaster Maryam Namazie – and the audience, who use electronic polling terminals to voice their opinion, the result of which will be screened live.
Sat 26 May, Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, 4.30pm,
£8.50, £5 for DV8 ticket holders
Dirty Drama
What is it that makes the outcomes of political conflict and military aggression rich material for dramatists? And why is political drama enjoying a remarkable revival? The panel includes playwrights David Greig (Damascus and Macbeth for the RSC) and Stella Feehily (Bang, Bang, Bang for the Royal Court) plus Neil Murray, Executive Producer of the National Theatre of Scotland (Black Watch). Chaired by Jack Bradley, Literary Associate to Sonia Friedman Productions in London’s West End.
Presented by New Writing South
Sat 26 May, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton Dome, 2pm, £8.50
Romesh Gunesekera & Abdulrazak Gurnah
Exile, displacement and the nature of identity are among the richest seams for writers. Booker-shortlisted novelists Gunesekera (Reef, Heaven’s Edge) and Gurnah (Paradise) have both explored this fertile terrain. Set in Mauritius during the death throes of British slavery, Gunesekera’s latest novel The Prisoner Of Paradise is a story of intimate passions and colliding destinies. Gurnah’s The Last Gift is a powerful meditation on family, self and the meaning of home.
Sun 27 May, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton Dome, 1pm, £8.50
Book Slam
To mark the publication of its first anthology One For The Trouble (a collection of short stories and poems inspired by song titles), London’s first/best/only literary nightclub takes a special sojourn to the city-by-the-sea. Book Slam is a monthly celebration of storytelling in all its forms, presenting top authors and poets in a relaxed and intimate ambience.
The special Brighton line-up features Booker-shortlisted novelist Jon McGregor reading from his new book The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You; Scottish novelist and poet Jackie Kay sharing her latest collection of luminous short stories Reality, Reality; and Sapphire, the sensational US poet and author of Push (filmed as Precious) and The Kid. Hosted by Francesca Beard.
Mon 7 May, Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, 8pm, £10
Faber Social
– A celebration of words and music for modern sybarites
For one night only London’s latest literary phenomenon leaves the big smoke behind to take a little sea air. Hosted by Faber Publishing Director Lee Brackstone, this regular after-dark soirée of lively readings, heady conversation, and musical interludes began at ‘The Social’ in West London. The night has platformed a wealth of new and emerging voices. For Brighton Festival the programme includes novelist, short story writer and biographer Edna O’Brien; poet, playwright and novelist Simon Armitage; novelist/ essayist Andrew O’Hagan; and Orange Prizewinning novelist Linda Grant.
Sat 5 May, Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, 9pm, £10
