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Ding Ding – Half Time at Brighton Festival
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 14/5/2013
Royal & Derngate's Flathampton, Brighton Festival

So here we are, half way through May, and therefore half way through the Brighton Festival, which runs 4 – 26 May (although the Fringe is cheekily marching on till 2 June this year).

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Mayhem
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 08/5/2013
NoFitState Circus Bianco at Brighton Fringe

The Bangkok Ladyboys have taken up residence on Grand Parade, the Famous Spiegel Garden is sparkling away on the Old Steine, there’s a crashed plane apparently made out of withies and tissue paper sticking out of the ground next to St Peter’s church, a shipping container or two on the seafront, Brighton's taxi drivers getting into gear for their annual collective denial of the very existence of The Basement arts centre (Where love?

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Do I please you or do I please myself?
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 17/4/2013
Liz Aggiss The English Channel. Photo Joe Murray

Do I please you or do I please myself?

The title of this blog is a quote – or misquote, or paraphrase perhaps – from Liz Aggiss’s new work-in-progress The English Channel, an excerpt of which was presented 9 April at the Brighton Dome’s new venture The Works. (The Works? Where do I know that name? Ah yes it was the title of a soon-to-be-revived series of features in Total Theatre. But we won’t complain, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.)

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Heads Will Roll

Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 27/1/2013
Invisible Thread Les Hommes Vides

So, another London International Mime Festival done and dusted! 2013 saw the usual eclectic mix of work, crossing a whole plethora of artforms that snuggle under the ‘physical and visual performance’ umbrella, including contemporary circus, puppetry and animatronics, theatre clown and mime, live art, and some things that are hard to categorise, other than under the ‘interesting theatrical experiments’ header (cue The Cardinals by Stan’s Café).

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Critics Take to the Hills (of Tuscany)
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 21/10/2012
Yael Karavan and onlookers at Portals, Scompiglio. Photo Cecilia Bertoni

The three Cs: creator, curator and critic. How do these roles relate and interact with each other? Is the fact that so many performance artists and theatre-makers are also curators (of projects, festivals, events) a uniquely contemporary phenomenon? If the roles of theatre-maker and critic cross over does that diminish or enhance each role? Is there an argument for the critic maintaining distance, a step away from the making and doing of creating theatre or art work?

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Edinburgh: On the Cusp of the Awards
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 23/8/2012
XXXO

So where was I? Ah yes – the Total Theatre Awards shortlist meeting, and having 28 shows to see in a week, above and beyond the things I already had booked.

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Edinburgh: The Story So Far
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 17/8/2012
neTTheatre, Puppet. Book of Splendour

So, I’ve made it to the halfway point and more – that feels like something! And the Total Theatre Awards shortlist is done. Just 28 shows to see and judge, then, plus all the late-opening shows / shows I’ve promised myself or someone else I’ll see even if not shortlisted…

And the story so far?

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If it's Thursday it must be Edinburgh...
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 03/8/2012
Hunt and Darton Cafe – Escalator East to Edinburgh

So, here I am in Edinburgh, on the eve of the opening of the Fringe – it officially kicks off tomorrow, Friday 3 August. Today was planned as a quiet, settling in sort of day. Two shows booked to review (some have opened early), and maybe a bit of networking and organising. This is how it went…

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Aqui e Agora / Here and Now

Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 04/7/2012
LUME Teatro's Os Bem-Intencionados – photo by Alessandro Soave

A response to Os Bem-Intencionados / The Well-Intentioned, Brazilian company LUME Teatro’s new work in progress...

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We or I?
Posted by Beccy Smith on 15/5/2012
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nggalai under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

My work for Total Theatre has sporadically placed me in contexts where critical opinions on a production are collectively scrutinised. In these conversations, very often a consensus is reached: shared languages do exist for the analysis of how ideas are executed through a production, the quality of that production, or the quality of a performer’s work.

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Carnival!
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 08/3/2012
LUME Teatro - Terra Lume Trueque Carnival launch

Ola do Brasil!

If you were wondering why your editor had gone a bit quiet these past few weeks, it is because she's been in Brazil on an extended research trip. Is still there, in fact, spending quality time with LUME Teatro and other Brazilian companies!

So being in Brazil in February/March means being in Brazil for carnival (you know, Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday  the big blow-out before Lent). This was my second year in a row in Brazil at carnival time, so thought a few words on the subject wouldn't go amiss!

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Kings and Fools
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 08/1/2012
Toron Blue Tendre Suie at London International Mime Festival 2012

Epiphany! So the Three Kings have come and gone, the Christmas trees have been taken down, and the Twelfth Night revellers have sobered up. The world is no longer turned upside down – everything’s back in its rightful place. It’s back to work, then...

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White Night Beach Party Animals
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 16/11/2011
Liz Aggiss and Joe Murray Beach Party Animal – short film

So, that was autumn then. Halloween, Bonfire Night and – if you live in Brighton – White Night, in which the city’s venues, clubs, art galleries, and museums open their doors all night to mark the end of British Summer Time and the turning of the year. The event is produced by Donna Close, who cut her teeth on the Streets of Brighton festival, so she knows a thing or two about programming outdoor performance and work for public spaces.

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Autumn Days
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 01/11/2011
Flavio Rabelo Take-Away BR-116 photo Ludovic des Cognets

Hallowe’en already? It seems just the other day that I was reporting from the Edinburgh Fringe. Somehow we’ve crept into Autumn with me hardly noticing – perhaps because summer in Scotland felt so like autumn, but then in a reversal of the usual order we had summer in September and October this year!

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Big Daddy Meets His Match
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 27/8/2011
Curious the moment I saw you...

It was a chance remark from a friend that started me thinking. We were discussing the dilemma for contemporary 'liberal' parents in choosing whether to send children to private school or to throw them to the sharks of state education in the inner London boroughs, and this somehow moved on to a discussion about the number of people in positions of power in theatre who have been educated in the public school system.

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Shortlisted!

Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 22/8/2011
As the flames rose we danced to the sirens, the sirens

So, where was I? Ah yes, autumn in Edinburgh – although these past few days it’s been almost like summer. There are cricket whites on the Meadows, and hippies blowing giant bubbles – but there’s also a rustling in the trees, and the odd leaf or two falling just as a warning. On the edge of the Meadows is a café with a board outside announcing: ‘Sun? Rain? Hail? Ice Cream!’ Can’t argue with that.

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Endgame
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 17/8/2011

That’s me. Not in the photo, although perhaps I have morphed into a giant triangle, illusion or rewind button during the Edinburgh festival, and not actually noticed. But in the Scots sense of ‘that’s me done’, ‘I’m out of here’.

A brief tally: 19 reviews, five blog entries, over 40 trains, three two-hour meetings and one lasting a good five hours, one birthday, one babysitting session, zero romance, eight low-calorie energy drinks… how much information do you want?

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Immerse Yourself
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 16/8/2011

Leaving Edinburgh mid-fest is always a weird one. It doesn’t seem right somehow, and hard to imagine that it all carries on without you. But it does! It does! Just take a look at the reviews section and you’ll see what a busy bunch of bees the TT reviewers have been, swarming all over Edinburgh.

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Nowhere to run
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 14/8/2011

Sometimes the Edinburgh festival gets a bit suffocating. Whether it’s artistic differences, Fringe fatigue, illness or something worse, there’s no point suffering in silence. So here are some possible escape routes from the festival bubble.

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Culture clash
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 12/8/2011
No Credit with Czech company Cirk La Putyka

As the international festival opens, I've been pondering cultural differences.

Edinburgh International Festival caused a little controversy by accepting money from the Chinese government this year. 'Festival under fire for China's key cash role' is the headline in The Scotsman today. It reports that human rights organisations have criticised the organisers in the wake of China's crackdown on dissidents such as Ai Weiwei.

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