Escape to the South Downs for free during National Parks Week

While Brighton & Hove is well known for being a city by the sea, you may not be aware that we are also very close to the countryside. The city is an access point for the stunning South Downs National Park, and as this week is National Parks Week it's the perfect time to visit.

The park are encouraging visitors to Discover Another Way to visit instead of driving, so this week (29th July - 4th August) you and your family can travel to the Downs by bus for free! It doesn't get much better then that, so pack a picnic and hop on a bus and go to Devil's Dyke, Stanmer Park or Ditchling Beacon. To download your voucher go to: www.southdowns.gov.uk/discover But if you can't go this week then you can still enjoy half price bus travel for the rest of the summer holidays.

Watch this video to see how easy and fun it is to get to the Downs by bus:
For more tips on visiting the South Downs follow @SDNPA and you can also find walks and cycle routes on the Countryside section of our website.

Charlotte

Culture in the City

While it is very easy to get to London from Brighton it seems there are fewer and fewer reasons to leave. For example the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of Jeff Koons work, the first showing in England outside of Tate.

But there are also things coming to Brighton before they go to London, for example this weekend I am going to see a new production of Noel Coward's Relative Values starring Patricia Hodge, Caroline Quentin and Rory Brenner at the Theatre Royal Brighton. While I'm looking forward to seeing this I have to confess I'm even more excited about seeing Jeeves & Wooster later in the year. I've been a fan of the books and the TV series for as long as I can remember so it will be interesting to see how it will have been adapted for the stage.

Matthew Macfadyen (Jeeves) and Stephen Mangan (Wooster) in Perfect Nonsense Photo by Uli Weber

 

Being such a fan I may have been wary about seeing anyone other than Fry & Laurie in the roles, however I think Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen will both be excellent. Anyone who has seen Macfadyen in Death at a Funeral will know he plays the straight man very well, and Mangan often seems to be the lovable buffoon.This production will only go to Richmond and Brighton before it's West End run - so see it in Brighton and then feel smug when everyone starts trying to get tickets for it in the West End ;)

While nothing beats the thrill of the live performance sometimes - wether it's time, money or energy - it's not always possible to see these shows or exhbitions live. Which is why I love the new trend for cinemas to start screening theatre shows and behind the scenes looks at exhibitions. For example tonight I am going to see Twelth Night filmed at the Globe starring Stephen Fry as Malvolio. In the coming weeks the Duke's at Komedia will also be showing the National Theatre's Macbeth; The Globe's Taming of the Shrew and the Victoria & Albert Museum's David Bowie exhibition.

So there is really no excuse not to enjoy a bit of culture by the sea. Let us know what takes your fancy...

Charlotte

A Poem for Flickr Winners in April and May!

Ode to Competition Winners

Almighty April and Manic May,

Have been and gone so fast,

With festivals and events abound,

They surely aren’t the last.

For June is now upon us,

And we may see some sun,

So let’s get to the point at hand,

The Flickr competitions won!

April’s theme was ‘Love Light’,

And there was choice aplenty,

A winner was so hard to choose,

We could have chosen twenty!

So from all the entries,

Alas, there can be only one,

And with this shot of Brighton Pier,

The winner’s Moonheadone!

And so for May’s theme,

We had to ‘Love the Arts’,

From shirts and through to drummers,

Festivals are in our hearts.

Another winner we must choose,

And we just loved this drummer,

With the sea and beach and pebbled rocked,

This is the sound of summer!

The winner was a local man,

A name linked with music,

Mr BrightonDJ is your guy,

And so we had to choose it!

Press on to June’s theme,

‘Love the Great Outdoors’,

Search for walks and hills and sea,

So the photos aren’t bores.

So with these final verses,

I hope I have inspired,

Can think of nothing more to say,

Because I’m getting tired.

Get out and take some shots,

And make sure to get them posted,

Onto our LoveBrighton Flickr page,

So next competitors get roasted.

So ‘till next time,

(I won’t go on and on),

From the poetic and slightly nuts,

The lyrical Siobhan :)

50th Anniversary of The Beatles first appearance at Brighton Hippodrome

Today we hand over to another guest blogger - Geoff Goodyear, a member of the British Beatles Fan Club, is here to tell us about an important anniversary coming up this weekend...

Beatles fans, in particular, will be interested to hear of this forthcoming anniversary. The Beatles Bible Website informs us that on the 2nd June 1963 at 8pm The Beatles played the 15th date of their UK tour with Roy Orbison at the Hippodrome Theatre on Middle Street, Brighton.

Were you there, and if so, what are your memories of this concert?

They performed a seven-song set on this tour, and included :

• Some Other Guy
• Do You Want To Know A Secret
• Love Me Do
• From Me To You
• Please, Please Me
• I Saw Her Standing There
• Twist And Shout. 

This was the first of three occasions on which The Beatles performed at The Hippodrome. They returned on 12th July 1964, and 25th October 1964. The Hippodrome is now closed to the public, otherwise it might have been possible to have hired a Beatles Tribute Band to play at the venue on the anniversary. Unfortunately, many buildings where The Beatles performed, up and down the country, have long since been demolished, so it is a bonus that the Hippodrome is still there.

If you are in Brighton on 2nd June, you may wish to pay your respects in person. The Hippodrome is situated in Middle Street, in the City Centre. I'll be there! Otherwise, you may wish to simply raise a glass to the "Fab Four," the most famous, and arguably the greatest pop band of all time.

Thanks Geoff, we did also manage to find this snippet on YouTube of the Fab four at the Hippodrome:

The Lost Play and a Bus named Terence

Today we hand over to another guest blogger. Kieran Chapman from the Theatre Royal Brighton tells us a bit about Terence Rattigan and there's a chance to win tickets to see Rattigan's 'Less Than Kind'...

The great British playwright Terence Rattigan is a name that could be said to now lack the authority it once did. Hugely successful in his prime during the mid 20th Century, Rattigan had strong connections to Brighton and called the town home for many years, a blue plaque denoting the seafront Kemptown house where he shared a street with none other than Sir Laurence Olivier. Three of his plays premièred in the Theatre Royal on New Road and there’s even a bus in Brighton named in his honour.

Rattigan struck early success during the mid 1930s, as a young man in his twenties, with two of his early plays. As WW2 broke out, Rattigan’s flourishing career was abruptly put on hold and he was enlisted in the RAF as a tail gunner. His time in the services inspired him to write the play Flare Path and shortly after its success he was released from active service to turn it into a film screenplay.

After the war ended Rattigan enjoyed many successes including co writing the screenplay for the 1947 film Brighton Rock and penning The Deep Blue Sea, which premièred at Brighton’s very own Theatre Royal in 1952. However in the mid 1950s Rattigan began to fall out of favour with the arrival of kitchen sink dramas, whose angry working class heroes were at stark odds with Rattigan’s more emotionally understated middle upper class settings.

Despite feelings of bitterness towards the changing tastes of the critics, Rattigan continued to write throughout the 60s and 70s, turning many of his plays into successful films. During this time he was cited by some as the highest paid screen writer in the world and was only the fourth playwright to be knighted during the 20th century in 1971. Terence’s later years were spent in Bermuda, where he tragically passed away in 1977 after a long battle with cancer.

Since the celebration of his centenary year in 2011, many of his plays have been enjoying a revival of their past success and next week, Rattigan will make a return to Brighton, the town and theatre he loved so dearly with the hilarious wartime comedy Less Than Kind. Originally staged in the 1940s, Rattigan was inspired to write the play after an argument with a friend over the conclusion of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After which Rattigan asked himself how he might finish a play that began in a similar fashion, the title even alludes to an opening line directly from Hamlet ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind’.

The original script however was heavily altered at the suggestion of the then leading man Alfred Lunt, until the play had been changed so significantly it also underwent a name change to Love in Idleness (another Shakespearean reference, this time to the flower from A Midsummer Night’s Dream). As part of Rattigan’s centenary celebrations in 2011, the original version of Less Than Kind was published and staged for the very first time. Following success in London, the production, now starring Sue Holderness (Only Fools and Horses, Green, Green Grass) and William Gaminara (Silent Witness) is on tour around the UK and is coming to Brighton 27 May – 1 June.

We’re offering a chance to win a pair of tickets to Wednesday evening’s (29 May) performance of Less Than Kind at Theatre Royal Brighton next week; to enter all you need to do is tweet the following.

RT to win 2 tickets for Terence Rattigan’s hilarious Less Than Kind 27 May – 1 Jun Theatre Royal Brighton @TheatreRoyalBTN @Love_Brighton

A winner will be chosen on Tuesday 28 May and they will be notified by Twitter.

Thanks Kieran, and good luck everyone! 

Charlotte 

Art and chocolate at the Open Houses

Today we hand over to another guest blogger, and what a choctastic one it is! We’re huge fans of the Artists Open Houses here at LoveBrighton and today we’re hearing first hand from one of the infamous cake creators that have become synonymous with a trip to an Open House. (For those of you who don’t know, it’s become a bit of a Brighton & Hove tradition to sell tea and cake at the Open Houses during May!)

The Artists Open Houses are on during the 4 weekends in May, so this weekend is your last chance for 2013!

Over to Ev now, from ‘CHOCADYLLIC’ who tells us how her cake making got started, with details of her stall at Farm Mews Open House in Hove….

A few months ago I offered to make my friend Lynne a 'proper' chocolate cake for her 50th, not just a Victoria sponge cake with added cocoa! And so I experimented with different recipes and learnt how to work with chocolate. This is the result:

I carried on baking for my enjoyment, sharing my cakes with friends and family and before I knew it I was selling regular chocolate indulgence cakes to a tea shop in the Brighton Lanes. Soon after, I started to get commissions:

Then I noticed a small ad for the Brighton Bake Off in the Leader and entered this cake:

I was really pleased to win third prize.

From that came more commissions including a cake for Center Parcs.

I then got the opportunity to run a cake and tea stall at Farm Mews, Farm Road, Hove for the Artists Open Houses. My husband Rob came up with a name and CHOCADYLLIC was born.

There are two pretty Tudor courtyards with 15 artists showing their creations. Lovely people and atmosphere, beautiful arts and the best cake in town! Chocolate indulgence cake, wheat free salted caramel millionaires slices, CHOCADYLLIC banana choc chip, truffles, triple chocolate brownies and lemon drizzled cake.

For the last weekend of the AOH I am creating a CHOCADYLLIC show case cake for raffle. Tickets are £1 only.

My founding principle is that my cakes must taste as great as they look.

The raffle prize cake as with all my basic chocolate indulgence cakes serves between 16 and 24 portions, is made of the best quality ingredients including Belgian chocolate, is moist crumbly and deliciously chocolatey.

CHOCADYLLIC open from 11-6pm Saturday and Sunday 25 and 26 May. You can find us at:

• Farm Mews, Farm Road, Hove - half way up Farm Road which is just off Western Road by Hove Kitchen restaurant. Its the second mews!

We’d love to see you!

Ev

For out more about the Farm Mews Collective Artists or check out the Artists Open Houses website at www.aoh.org.uk. You can also join CHOCADYLLIC on Facebook.

Top picks for the Brighton Festival 4-26 May 2013

Today we hand over to another guest blogger, this time it is about the Brighton Festival which runs from 4-26 May 2013. So here is a personal preview by Elizabeth Hughes...

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bunting is flying and the streets of Brighton are alive with excitement and anticipation. Brighton Festival started on Saturday 4th May and there’s so much good stuff to see in the next three weeks…

At the city’s regal and most historic venue, Theatre Royal Brighton, there are two amazing and very different shows; Between 14 and 18 May a breathtaking, physical act from Australia – Casus will perform a mixture of traditional and contemporary circus techniques in their new show ‘Knee Deep’. The critics call it “awe inspiring” and it’s one of the must-see shows this year.

Casus

The following week, 21 – 25 May there is a stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s much loved and heartbreaking novel, The Kite Runner. I recommend taking a large box of tissues to dry your tears when you go along to this moving production about friendship and redemption in Afghanistan.

The Kite Runner

Both shows run for several days which is great news for those with a busy or a tight schedule. Hopefully you’ll be able to slot at least one performance into your visit to Brighton.

If you are bringing children to the city this May there is a delightful and inspiring dance-theatre show at the beautiful Old Market in Hove (one of my favourite arts venues!) on 21 and 22 May. Varmints is based on the award-winning book about creatures who love nature and defend one small plant against the encroaching, noisy city. It’s a poignant and thought-provoking story which adults and anyone aged eight or over will enjoy.

Varmints

At the end of Brighton Festival, a fascinating play by acclaimed writer/director Lola Arias has its UK Premiere at Brighton Dome during the closing weekend of 24-26 May. A cast of young actors, who were born during Argentina’s dictatorship in the 70s and 80s, reconstruct the lives of their parents in ‘My Life After’. Political but playful, dark and humorous the show will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles on screens at the side of the stage. Using original clothes and objects owned by the actors’ parents it sounds intriguing and enigmatic.

Lola Arias

That’s Brighton Festival for you; profound, provocative, playful and international… I love it for bringing the best of the arts from around the world to our seaside city. Visit the website http://brightonfestival.org/ for full details then pack your sunglasses and flip flops and enjoy.