Written by Liz Tait
Liz Tait Productions
Time passes. The girls we were become the women we are, sisters and friends, and sometimes not such good friends. All those unreliable hopes and memories.
But can we ever really recapture those days, and is it wise to pile so much expectation onto a reunion?
Well, there’s a lot riding on a fun dance class designed to recapture those happy 90s times, when girl power ruled.
We’re in a shabby dance studio and a soft opening works well as Marion bustles about, building a sense of chirpy anticipation that something fun’s about to kick off. Kate Peltzer-Dunn’s kindly benevolence just wanting everything to be as it was is a charming, quirky and childlike presence.
One by one, the rest of the foursome arrive, a little hesitant, maybe reluctant, resolute – each motivation subtly revealed.
Each has gone through her own trials, dealing with whatever life chucked their way through relationships, bereavement, motherhood and menopause. Their stories spin out through conversations, revelations and humour, as we focus on each player in turn.
As hyped up dance teacher Pippa, dedicated to keeping things just so, Helen Rogers delivers a tightly wound self discipline teetering on the edge of unravelling, as what lies beneath starts to tell…
Sally Best’s Sarah is wrong footed and wrestling with her own life and that ‘what’s happening to me??’ deep dive.
Sophie Dearlove’s cool and confident Kim gradually reveals the truth beneath the nonchalant exterior.
Tait’s detailed, compassionately observed writing shines in this warm, wise four-hander, performed with energy and verve.
The title speaks of women navigating the complexities of friendships, sisterhood, motherhood, daughterhood and relationships, asking who are we – now?
The crystal clear dialogue, larger than life characters and physical exuberance are well suited to the generous space here in Shoreham.
While perhaps the blend of interscene blackouts and musical stings could be further refined as the run continues, this is a tight and snappily directed slice of fun with so much going on under the makeup and the lycra, and some joyful dance numbers whisking it all along.
Loved the clever build of costume throughout the show until the finale we want – and the Spice Girls are in the room. In the end, whatever life throws on the way, sometimes you can just let it all go, and dance.
The run begins with performances at Shoreham Community Centre then transfers to The Actors Brighton 26/27 September, then 4th October at the Victoria Institute, Arundel.
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Sussex Playwrights Reviews: Who Do They Think They Are?
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Suddenly Last Summer By Tennessee Williams
The Conor Baum Company at Brighton Open Air Theatre, August 2025
This Brighton Fringe Outstanding Theatre Award winning company is back, with the third in their trio of significant plays spanning thousands of years and sharing a common theme: families bound by buried trauma, domineering mothers, monstrous unseen men and blazing enraged daughters who will not be quiet.
It seems like no time at all since the Conor Baum Company was born and we’ve swiftly come to expect nothing but excellence from this accomplished team. And this show delivers all-round excellence.
Last summer, something happened. Sebastian is dead and grieving mother Violet clings to her version of him as her health fails, while his avenging angel cousin Catherine is coming – with the truth. Intense desperation permeates the play – desperation for a hearing, for saving face and preserving an image, and for money.
The sun setting over the green, exotic bird song and lush foliage set the scene in this tree-surrounded space, with Brighton’s crows and gulls picking up their cues overhead.
As Violet, Sharon Drain delivers a mesmerising performance as the fading matriarch, single minded, wealthy and proud, propped up by obsessive love. Her delivery of the exhausted and ultimately expendable sea turtle mother metaphor is queasily fascinating.
As Catherine, Isabella McCarthy Somerville slinks in, a fragile-seeming piece of steel, with mercurial flashes of sullen loathing, burning intent, and a final unstoppable spirit.
The play is bookended by two epic speeches by these two women whose very different stories of the late Sebastian are drawn out by the composed, still presence of Oliver Clayton’s youthful and sincere Doctor Cukrowicz – whose sweetness belies his dreadful intent.
The play’s second mother-son duo are a great complication. Deborah Kearne’s a grimly funny Mrs Holly, all pleasantries and social niceties restraining Jordan Southwell’s bullish tightly-wound George, as they circle Catherine, revealing themselves as equally intent on money – and silence.
Strong supporting work from Peta Taylor’s Miss Foxhill, Violet’s cosy, dependable rock, a conspiratorial confidante always ready, always there, and Jules Craig’s kindly, watchful, dutiful Sister Felicity, battered and abused by her charge.
The costume and set design are spot on,
those genteel indicators of hats, little gloves and handbags, tennis racquet and polite tailoring in a garden of greenery and Venus fly traps all creating the mask and shoring up the lies covering up the truth.
Night falls during the production, as the tale of searing heat and light unfolds, the stage lighting bringing up the white bone burning in the sky. Nothing will escape this light, finally.
If you don’t know the story, the sense of What HAPPENED? What did he DO? is so powerful, and the final moments so satisfying.
Baum’s direction delivers a pacey and enthralling psychological horror story and we need to know – what’s next from this key player in drama in the city?
Philippa Hammond
Sussex Playwrights Reviews
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Great Britons
The latest show from the Foundry Group
co-written by Brian Mitchell (Ministry of Biscuits)
and Joseph Nixon (The Shark is Broken).Featuring Murray Simon and Brian Mitchell
The setting is the ballroom under the Church of the Annunciation. I always love a new-to-me venue discovery, and this early 19th century church basement is full of character – crumbling paint, the ghost of a fireplace and some chandelier bravado, plus tea and biscuits from a bunting-bedecked stall – it all feels extraordinarily suitable for this particular show.
It’s a simple and very portable concept; two chaps with suitcases and interchangeable hats, a few props, a backdrop and a big sound track.
1066 And All That meets ‘Allo ‘Allo with a touch of Morecambe and Wise, the writing’s witty and warm with real history cred underpinning the fun.
Simon zips through multiple voices and a wicked King Charles impression, with Mitchell the funny, exasperated, avuncular foil. They spark off each other like all the best double acts who’ve known each other and worked together for years.
With history the theme, a Victorian music hall audience would feel right at home here, with this organised chaos before-the-curtain traditional approach to performance
Full of bouncy verve, charming and funny with a spot of audience participation you can’t resist, it’s a fast paced ‘cut to / meanwhile …’ bonkers bulldoze through 1,000 years of British history.
Now imagining a schools’ performance version…
Philippa Hammond
Sussex Playwrights Reviews
(Pic from the Foundry Group’s Event)
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Sussex Playwrights Reviews:
Troubadour Theatre Scratch Night
Guesting last night at Troubadour Theatre’s Worthing Scratch Night at the Charles Dickens pub, featuring a cast of actors performing extracts from seven new plays for writer feedback. Hosted by Lin Robinson.
Drew Rumble by Shari Auldyth
An affectionate pastiche of those 1950s radio thrillers, with great character and accent opportunities for voice artists. Pacey and entertaining.Purgatory by Beth Bayes
A young ex-couple still live together – and it’s that awkward and pivotal moment where the new girlfriend and the ex meet. Natural dialogue and flawed characters.Result by Sarah Agnew
Crisis for a quirky set of colleagues at a failing lads’ mag. Want to know what happens next!The Bench by Crayford Howard
All those memorial park benches have their back stories and secrets – what if you discover your mother’s?!Bite by Rebecca Frew
Two women gearing up for a Gothic themed hen night in a comedy short with a little twist (no spoilers!).Inrush by Norman Miller
A small coastal community is gradually being consumed by the sea. Great role for an elder actress especially, in this full length play.Enemy of the State by Jacqueline Bayes
A look at coercive control and Draconian powers in extreme times – a sense of menace and helplessness in the face of the law and at home.Good to see so much happening at this new monthly event for writers and actors in Worthing, and we’re looking forward to more.
Philippa Hammond
(Pics: Thomas Everchild)
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Sussex Playwrights Reviews: The Tower
The Tower
Written by Emma Kelly
Directed by Debbie Fitzgerald
Choreography Charlie Hendren
Projections A/B Smith, aka Boblete
Wild Elk ProductionsIn a future where climate change has caused catastrophic flooding, pockets of humanity survive huddled together for refuge.
A trio of actor dancers tell this tale of four generations of women, at its heart Toni, a young girl born after it all happened and at first uncomprehending as to why a mother would want to create new life into this disaster.
Isabella McCarthy Sommerville is physical, emotional and resolute, flowing through the adored child clinging to all she’s ever known, the adolescent justifiably angry at everything, until as in all the best hero’s journeys she has no choice, she must move on. The young woman striking out alone, the growing adapting woman, the mother, the elder having to move on again in this fluent world.
Sarah Widdas is mother’s love personified, always there, supporting, pushing, advising, Toni’s light in the dark. There’s a dreadful memory of assault defeated performed with visceral power, and the sense that as long as she’s needed, she’s there.
Lorraine Yu gives strength and resolve, the abandoned child creating a flawed new world from nothing with all the weight of a community on her shoulders, singing and playing (is it a fishing rod? Bow and arrows? No – an intriguing one string instrument) gradually coming out of her spiky armour plating to reach out and learn.
It’s a story of all our lives and a possible future, and for anyone who’s ever let themselves say goodbye, the final moments are very moving.
Simply staged with lights, soundscape and watery projections, in a venue drenched with sea history, the show could travel all round the coast to communities where the water is an ever present element of their livelihoods, and perhaps now a new threat?
A last thought … The Day of the Triffids begins with strange lights in the sky and the appearance of mysterious plants. As I left the Old Net Loft, Brighton Fishing Museum venue, stepping straight onto the seafront looking at the dark sea and the lights of the wind farm on the horizon under a strange green sky that was the beginning of the Aurora Borealis night, I thought about the QR code that carries the programme for The Tower, printed on a little card…
embedded with mystery seeds…Philippa Hammond
May 2024
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The Ministry of Biscuits
Sussex Playwrights reviews:
The Ministry of Biscuits
By Brian Mitchell and Philip Reeve
‘Stop! Think before you eat that biscuit!
Is it in any way fancy?
If so, then you are a criminal!’Twenty something years ago, two chaps sat in a Brighton cafe and started to spin a musical tale of a shy, innocent young biscuit designer with a vision and a crush – and the Ministry of Biscuits was born. It travelled to Edinburgh, where The Stage called it ‘top-hole musical comedy’. Now it’s back for a second freshly polished revival; something different for Christmas, and a tour to follow.
It’s set perhaps somewhere in the grey decade between the end of WW2 and the birth of rock & roll – Spitfires are a fairly recent memory, though there’s no rationing, the Russians are a threat and all foreigners faintly suspect, so it’s hard to tell. Think Salad Days meets Brazil, with a nod to Ealing comedy style.
The show captures that pompous old world authority-mocking we used to see in Dad’s Army, Monty Python and the Goon Show, when ministers wore tailcoats and Bakelite still ruled.
The cast play and sing live in the Brighton production, and there will be additional backing track support on the tour. The Lantern Theatre felt rather small for the production – I’d love to see it expand, and the news that it will come to Brighton Open Air Theatre next year is an intriguing prospect.
Co-writer and composer Brian Mitchell’s bluff Machiavellian minister delivers a Gilbert & Sullivanesque turn, while Dave Mounfield’s flashy conman spinning tales of not quite true wartime exploits plus mad costume changes sparked real rich-tea-stuffed-in-mouth hysteria moments.
Amy Sutton and Murray Simon are a delight, singing clever, wistful and stirring little odes to love and loyalty, Britishness, betrayal and biscuits with delicate charm and heartwarming silliness.
Look out for the original pastiche public information film by Ben Rivers.
Philip Reeve’s science fiction novel Mortal Engines is about to get the Peter Jackson big screen treatment – we can’t wait!
The Ministry of Biscuits is on at The Lantern Theatre Rock Place, Kemptown until December 30th, with a UK tour to follow.