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Brain Drain, Cella @ Sanctuary Cafe, Hove, May 24
11:45am Tuesday 27th May 2008
So far, this year's Festival and Fringe had brought us productions artfully scrambling hip-hop with acrobatics, conflating Macbeth with pizza and reinventing Figaro's Don Basilio as a pothead.
Here, Pure Vintage Theatre employed an imaginative mix of film noir and low-budget sci-fi horror to shatter the cosy intimacy of the Sanctuary Cafe.
The action followed the Benolli brothers' attempts to brainwash their staff with a mind-control machine.
The result was a dazzling, fractured B-movie theatre piece, cleverly intermingling Shakespearean invective and zombie-like possession.
The distinctions between high and low art were immaterial in Brain Drain because everything was a source for postmodern deconstruction, from the hammy New York accents to the kitsch flashing mind control machine.
The Sanctuary Cafe - which isn't much bigger than a wine cellar - doesn't allow much scope, yet Brain Drain was impressively staged, suggesting both the immediacy of cinema and the otherworldliness of nightmare.
The result was a crisp piece of theatre which carried more resonance than the average 1950's horror flick.
Editor's Choice
Eco-dilemmas solved
All the top tip columns make being green sound so easy: just change your light bulbs, walk to the shops and do your recycling, but it never really works out like that. SARAH LEWIS turns agony aunt and answers some of your pressing eco-questions.
Comment: Sign up to an NHS dentist to beat decay
When the new NHS dental contract was introduced, large numbers of dentists left the NHS and focused on private patients.
Woe of Woolies
Woolworths, one of the best-known names on the British high street, has been put into administration with £385 million of debt. As company bosses and administrators Deloitte wrestle with the task of rescuing the business, RICHARD GURNER takes a look back at the company’s history in Sussex and asks business leaders what needs to be done to revive its fortunes.
This week's walk: Horsted Keynes and Furner's Green
From the village of Horsted Keynes, this walk heads eastwards to encircle the nearby settlement of Danehill, crossing and recrossing two well-wooded valleys before returning along part of the Sussex Border Path, a longdistance walking route which sticks fairly closely to the boundary between East and West Sussex.
In this section
- Eyes Down! Bingo with Ida Barr, Udderbelly, Brighton, May 24
- Ising On The Cake, Friend’s Meeting House, Brighton, until May 23
- The Marilyn Monroe Show, The Parlure Spiegeltent, Brighton, until May 25
- Rob Deering, Udder Place, Brighton, May 17
- An Evening Of Playback Theatre, The Brunswick, Hove, May 18
- Me And Jezebel, Brighton Little Theatre, Brighton, until May 24
- Follow Me, Komedia, Brighton, until May 21
- I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, Brighton Unitarian Church, until May 21
- Coco Peru, Komedia, Brighton, until May 21
- Little Howard And The Pencil Of Life And Death, Udder Place, Brighton, May 16
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