Theatre round-up part 1

  • New play Troublesome People by awarding-winning US writer Jill Haas examines the Second World War through the eyes of conscientious objectors, Jewish refugees and arable farmers all working on the Isle of Man.
  • England's only horse-drawn professional theatre company, Sabotage Theatre, stops off at Brighton on a tour visiting historical churches, forests, barns and fields. Owlers (old Kentish for ‘smugglers’) is based on real events from 1826 when a routine landing of contraband in ends in disaster.
  • Simon Waterfield is The Kilted Tommy, in the show he wrote about his maternal grandfather, a volunteer in Kitchener’s Army during the First World War. The dramatised monologue is the story of an ordinary Englishman who joined the Seaforth Highlanders, did his training and saw his first battle at Loos.
  • Amongst the Festival's shows suitable for the young is Smelly Feet, a participative musical for children from American recording artist Dean Friedman who has written the words, music and the book for the show which tells the story of Danny and best friend Pete and their ridiculous questa to find a cure for Pete's 'smelly feet.'
  • Also for children is the first of two shows from Box Tale Soup, A Midsummer Night's Dream re–worked but using the original language. Also an original adaptation featuring the company's signature handmade puppets is Manalive! based on the G K Chesterton novel about the arrival of new guest at a broken–down boarding house (for older audiences).
  • Quick-fire skits, silly songs and inappropriate mime are all to be found in the work in progress show from award nominated sketch group Kitten Killers
  • The Girl Who Cannot Die is a macabre retelling of the Snow White fairytale set in a Victorian sideshow. No happy endings are guaranteed in this whirlwind tale of beauty, jealousy and poison and a young girl's many painful deaths.
  • Award-winning performer Juliette Burton brings her Edinburgh 5-star, sell-out show Look At Me to Brighton for one night. In this true-life docu-comedy, the question she asks is do we appear to be who we are?
  • In comedian Charmian Hughes's show Raj Rage! she recounts the story of her great, great grandmother's escape from the Indian Mutiny in 1857, drug-crazed moon-worship, human banana sacrifice, and her own experiences of modern day India and shopping whilst researching her family history.