Jardin Flambeau, Compagnie Carabosse, St Ann’s Well Gardens, Brighton

A Truly stunning evening in the Jardin Flambeau created by Compagnie Carabosse for the Brighton Festival. A light shower of rain early in the evening only enhanced the experience as it brought out the sweet scent of blossom. The sheer scale and ingenuity of flaming spectacle was mind-blowing, along with music that resonated with the magic of the night. I kept expecting Grace Slick to appear and White Rabbit to follow – so trippy! What was equally beautiful were the expressions on peoples faces, not just the kids but the adults as well – joy and awe in equal measure.

http://photography.juliaclaxton.net/jardin/slideshow

http://photography.juliaclaxton.net/jardin

Residence Pop-Up Restaurant is back

Residence, Brighton’s first pop-up restaurant has once again given its venue a complete make-over, to sell fantastic food and cocktails Tuesday – Saturday throughout the festival.

Prices range from £13.50 (lunch and pre-theatre) to £17.50 (dinner) for 3 courses.

Local Art: On Fridays and Saturdays we will have an artist in residence, charged with creating an original work on site in front of, and perhaps including, the diners. These pieces will be auctioned for the local Alzheimer’s Association charity – an event that last year raised over £1,500.

Full biographies and works from artists available on the website featuring Jan Irvine, Geo Parkin, and Bridget Davies (whose work raised the highest bids last year).

Local Talent: Like Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, the restaurant will again find students from the catering and hospitality course at City College Brighton working alongside professional chefs and front-of-house staff to receive the most exciting training on offer anywhere in the country. Last year’s students achieved the best passing-out results in the history of the faculty.

Local Business: Wines will be overseen, with onsite tasting every Wednesday, by Henry Butler of Butler’s Wine Cellar. His Winebox.tv show is the largest wine video site in the country and will be recorded and broadcast each week from the restaurant, with an emphasis on local growers and brands.

Local Buy-in: We’re making this a real Brighton event: Diners have been asked to contribute photos from their family albums; Kemp Town’s InRetroSpect is building a 1970’s living room on site; and beleaguered commuters are offered special deals on production of their season ticket!

Last year we were the talk of the festival. With booking already pouring in we hope to be the destination for visitors to the city, while supporting the city’s culinary as well as artistic future. With added sideburns.

www.residencepop-up.com

Whitecross Street BN1 4FA

Acclaimed author Louis de Bernières to appear in Brighton Fringe performance of his only play.

Award-winning writer Louis de Bernières, author of bestselling novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, will appear at a Brighton Festival Fringe performance of his only play this year. Louis will be guest narrator for the showing of Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World at the Marlborough Theatre on May 9th.

Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World was written as a ‘play for voices’ in 1999 and originally broadcast by BBC Radio Three. Influenced by Dylan Thomas’ seminal piece Under Milk Wood, it is an homage to a period of Louis de Bernières’ life in Earlsfield, South London and had never been performed live by a professional cast before this production’s premiere at the Southwark Playhouse, London, in March.

This unique production, directed by Amy Draper, is a 60-minute sensory experience featuring a cast of eight. Blindfolded for the duration of the piece, half of the audience will choose to experience the play not only through hearing the dialogue, but also through the exhilaration of live sound effects, smells and touch. The rest of the audience will watch this played out in front of them as a performance within a performance, witnessing the effects created as well as the reactions of the audience experiencing them.

Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World, produced by Bad Physics in association with London Theatre Academy, arrives in Brighton on the back of sold out houses and critical acclaim in London, including a 4-star review and Critic’s Choice selection by Time Out. It will go on to play at Latitude in July 2011.

The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton. Louis de Bernières will appear as guest narrator for the May 9th performance.

Tickets cost £8.50 (£6.50 concs) and are available from www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk , on 01273 917272 or in person from the Marlborough Theatre.

Modern Toss at Ink_d Brighton

Due to popular demand, Modern Toss returns to Ink_d for a ground breaking exhibition of innovative ‘clothworks’, including a bespoke tailored Swearing Jacket, some challenging tea towel designs and a selection of very collectible new prints.

‘Modern Cloth’ opens on the day of the Royal Wedding and to mark the occasion Modern Toss will present an indispensable capsule collection of last minute commemorative Royal Shitnaks – a set of stamps, a beautiful one-off bone china mug and a professionally woven commemorative royal tea towel – so you can treasure forever the memory of the young Windsor’s nuptials. Help celebrate this emotional time for Kate, Wills, The Drive-by Abuser and the nation by popping down to Ink_d gallery for what promises to be one of our best shows yet.

The gallery is open to the public from Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm. Sundays 12 – 4pm (during exhibition dates).

96 North Road, Brighton, BN1 6YE • 01273 645299 • www.ink-d.co.uk

Ink_d Gallery is a member of the Arts Council’s Own Art Scheme that enables buyers to spread the cost of purchasing art over 10 months at 0% interest.

Piers & Queers: a guided tour of Brighton’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender past

Which woman beat the system to qualify as a surgeon by passing as a man, and then performed the first successful Caesarian in British medicine? What’s the Brighton connection with The Importance of Being Earnest and the words ‘the love that dare not speak its name”? Who came to Brighton to start a new life -and illegally marry – in a new gender? Which Brighton gal became an icon to lesbians and gay men alike? Who did Edward VII call ‘the most remarkable woman in the kingdom”? Which romantic hero spent a last summer of youth in Brighton before going on to achieve legendary status? Whose diary has been called ‘The Rosetta Stone of lesbian history”? What’s the cross-gender connection between Brighton and the Venezuelan Revolution? Why has Brighton become such an LGBT-friendly city?

Long before it was known as the ‘Gay Capital of Britain‘, Brighton has attracted people with alternative sexual and gender identities. Some made Brighton their home, others had brief, but sometimes life-changing, stays. They helped us understand the surprising diversity of life in the past; many made unqiue contributions to our society. This tour looks at some of the stories of Brighton’s past, focusing on the personalities of LGBT interest and their tales of achievement, challenge, bravery and infamy.

Tours 7th, 28th May 2.30pm; 8th, 22nd, 29th, 30th May 11am

Starts by the West Pier on the upper promenade.

Advance booking only. £7 (£6 conc.)