It was a week with reviews on rape poetry, tips from swindlers, girl on girl action, a jerky performance and a jazz playing legend, plus some recommendations to check out 400 pendulums swinging in a deserted market space and salt columns in a house built from waste products.

Brighton Writer Amelia Charman reviewed Come Rhyme with Me and was deeply moved by Dionne Elizabeth's poem ' Rape'. She said: "Oh my lord! it was terrifying, beautiful and cathartic. Rape, or more specifically, child rape is a subject that makes you squirm in your seat and grimace in discomfort." 

Amelia also went to see Philosophy Hour, which turned out to be "a brilliant end to a day stuck in a stuffy office, reminding those of us that sometimes feel lost and slightly trapped on the treadmill that there is a mischief-maker in all of us and that life shouldn't be taken so seriously." 

Sophie Turton, another member of the Brighton Writers group, went along to Auld Acquaintance, a play by Natalie Audley, "an astutely well-written black comedy that explores the tenuous nature of inter-family relationships. It is the dialogue that makes this play, which has already been short listed for the Pebble Trust Award."  

In contrast it was the action in Jerk that impressed Rosie Davis, she described it as "hard-hitting as if Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball had swung uncontrollably, slamming into the audience’s bodies catapulting everyone into the stratosphere. The nature of the story makes this show jerky (there are many different connections to the show’s name). You will sweat with her, shake and your heart will beat faster with her." Star of Jerk, Emma Sarjeant, can be seen in Knee Deep this week at the Brighton Spiegeltent.

Meanwhile I sat back to enjoy a performance by the charismatic bassist and tuba player Herbie Flowers, whose musical career has spanned six decades, the self styled busker and improviser brought us a mid-morning collection of popular jazz tunes.

Sunday arrived with good weather and I went to check out some commissioned art as part of House 2014. In Circus Street Market, William Forsythe had created an art installation of 400 moving pendulums that the public were invited to enter and navigate their way through without touching the pendulums.  The dappled light in the huge empty space with people dipping in and out of the rows of pendulums was fascinating to watch and take part in. 

Exhilarated by this curious experience I headed to another experiment, the Brighton Waste House. Completed on 3 May 2014, the waste house has various forms of insulation from cassette and vhs tapes, toothbrushes and unwanted wallpaper rolls. Each form a wall of insulation, which will be monitored to see how effectively they work. The stairs were made of compressed paper and the entrance was furnished with chairs from a skip. Inside was Phillip Hall-Patch's commission, Salt Field where pillars of salt were exposed to different verbs, like drip, splash and flush creating different impacts on the salt pillars. 

Inspired to see more, the next stop was the Regency Town House and Basement to view Leah Gordon's Caste|Cast and Ester Svennson and Rosanna Martin's No One Owns The Land.  Affected as much by the Basement carcass with its tantalising glimpses into the buildings past life, there were doors I wanted to open and a dresser empty of purpose that seemed bursting with stories.  Of the art, the re-imagined Four Continents photograph and the tiny figures dotted about, dwarfed by the empty landscape created lasting impressions as well.

As for what to see in the final week, I can recommend the Scroobius Pip gig at Komedia (if you were lucky enough to get a ticket) and a one off show called Worbey & Farrell that involves a piano and some nifty playing!

For more Brighton blogging previews and reviews check out my blog.