Stage: Andrew Kay

Fifty! A major anniversary and a hugely entertaining programme for the Brighton Festival 2016

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Brighton Festival, and my 30th year of attending a huge number of performances and events. I’m a huge fan as the broad canvas on which it makes its marks appeals to so many of my creative loves. I have also repeatedly heard over the years complaints from people that the whole affair is elitist and high brow. Maybe in the past that was in part true but I know that in recent years this has been far from the truth.

Firstly one needs to acknowledge that this an arts festival and therefore one must expect arts in their many and various forms. That said one must also expect to find entertainment too, entertainment of all kinds from the popular to the intellectually demanding. I see that in creating the programme the festival team seek to find a balance in this and if I have any criticism it would be in being able to recognise the fun and popular events in the brochure. The stylish cool design and well written editorial might not reveal in an easy way that there will be lots of fun to be had. I realise that it’s a tough call to get that balance right, but persevere with that brochure for in its depths you will find a huge number of things to appeal to all tastes and to all pockets.

It’s not all city centre based either with events in Whitehawk, Portslade and Hollingbury.

Nor is it all aimed at an adult audience, there’s plenty for the family and for kids and the annual 26 Letter part of the festival is a triumph of inclusivity for young people and writing. I often think that I would have loved to be lucky enough to have had such a delicious array of things to attend when I was a kid.

This year’s guest director is Laurie Anderson, a musician and performance artist from America who came to public attention with a surprise pop hit way back in time. Her pop stardom belied the truth that she was a performance artist at heart but that artistry has often disguised the fact that she has, as Festival Chief Executive Andrew Comben says, a wry sense of humour. This year her delightful film Heart Of A Dog will most certainly demonstrate that, her ability to be provocative, inspiring and entertaining too.

The theme this year is Home. It will be a thread linking much of the programme but I suspect not all of it – and who cares. I am already eager to see a number of new works and especially the emphasis on works created by Brighton based artists and musicians.

Top of my list will be a new collaboration between Tim Crouch and Spymonkey, creative forces that have in the past thrilled me with the excellence of their work. This new piece, which reflects on the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare is called The Complete Deaths and they will be portraying all of those deaths on stage in under two hours – all 74 of them. It will no doubt be funny but expect to be challenged too by the work of these quite brilliant artist/performers.

I am also looking forward to seeing the powerhouse of modern performance/dance that is Liz Agiss. Her show Slap and Tickle is billed as a dark and ribald physical commentary on cultural mores and sexual taboos, well I would expect no less and know that I will come away once again delighting in this most extraordinary of talents.

There’s circus too, but this time for adults and as Andrew Comben says “nudity, kit off!”. That’s a must see then.

Music is as ever of the highest international standard with everything from popular through world to classical. I direct you especially to the lunchtime concert programme which is always packed with brilliant musicians and with tickets pitched at a very reasonable £10, far less than one would be expected to pay to see many of these excellent musicians in other venues.

Then there’s the free stuff and there is as always plenty of it. Seek it out and join in the joyous fun that is Brighton Festival, three weeks of art and entertainment with something, one hopes, to suit all tastes.

For full details pick up a brochure or go to www.brightonfestival.org