Articles by Johanna Makelainen

Blues and Burlesque

What do you get when you combine blues with burlesque? A sad stripper? A naked blues singer? At the Blues and Burlesque cabaret, the answer is a delightful cocktail of Pete Saunder…

Ripper

Ripper is a bloody good rock musical.

Bob Marley: How Reggae Changed the World

Bob Marley is often overlooked when listing the great freedom fighters of our time.

Ask A Stripper: No Holes Barred

Ask a Stripper challenges you to rethink everything you know about stripping and sex work.

Potty the Plant

Potty the Plant is a campy horror musical with vibrant energy, catchy tunes and a quirky storyline.

COMŒDIA

COMŒDIA takes on the ambitious challenge of reviving the vivacious spirit of the traditional Italian theatre form, Commedia dell'Arte.

Practice of Zen

Practice of Zen, currently streaming as part of C ARTS’ online offering, explores the sensuality and resilience of traditional Chinese swordplay.

The Kaye Hole Hosted by Reuben Kaye

A black hole is a place where gravity pulls so much that even light can’t get out.

RENT

La vie Bohème! I can’t believe it’s been nearly 30 years since the rock musical RENT hit the stage and almost 20 years from the film version.

Trainspotting Live

How do you top Trainspotting, the defining film of the ‘90s? You top it by making it live.

Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody

Prepare to have your Disney fantasies shattered like an ill-fitting glass slipper.

Bowjangles: Dracula in Space

If you think you’ve seen it all, you haven’t.

Party Ghost

Halloween is still months away, but fear not, Party Ghost is here to suck you right into the deadly holiday spirit.

A Comedy of Operas

If you think that opera is performed by a bunch of clowns, this is the show for you.

Cabaret Continentale: We Still Love EU

In this year’s Eurovision, Europe didn’t give the UK much love, but do the Brits still love the EU? Apparently so, at least judging by the cheerful welcome Cabaret Continentale…

Drag Queen Wine Tasting

Wine tasting and drag queens go together like milk and cookies.

Bourgeois & Maurice: Pleasure Seekers

It’s been nine years and a pandemic since I last saw the double-trouble act Bourgeois & Maurice.

Back to Black: The Music of Amy Winehouse

As one of the most iconic members of the 27 club, Amy Winehouse left an indelible impression, not just on popular music, but on popular culture as a whole.

Crème de la Crème

If I were to ask you, which fringe troupe is most likely to be found spooning naked on stage, you may have guessed correctly The Head First Acrobats.

Madame Chandelier's Night at the Opera

If the encore of a show entails audience members chucking white tennis socks at you, would you consider it a success? You might, if the tennis socks were props for an avalanche so …

IT'S A TRAP! The Improvised Star Wars Show

Ladies and gentlemen, droids and aliens, gather round for a special Star Wars themed improv show taking us to comedic depths of a galaxy far, far away! But did Leia, Luke, Boba and…

Komedia Comedy Club

I was intrigued to see who would choose a regular Saturday night comedy club over the spectacle of the Eurovision final being shown all around Brighton.

Alternate Endings

The end is nigh.

Little Parts Hunts a Baby-Daddy

How do clowns get pregnant? There is no obvious punch line for Little Parts, a clown who has always been pregnant, yet who is not sure if she’ll ever give birth.

Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales

There’s always two sides to every story, even fairy tales.

How Eva Von Schnippisch Saved Hollywood

Eva Von Schnippisch is back – and this time she means show business! After becoming a double-agent, winning World War II and working for the British Secret Service for a decade, …

Please Hold

Do you have a minute to talk about sex doll rights? Because sex dolls should have equal rights too: sick days, overtime pay, child care, union representatives! There should be a de…

Privates: Great Ideas by Geniuses

Review
★★★
Johanna Makelainen
Brighton Fringe
Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco / The Warren: The McElderry
16th May, 2022

Things were warming up at the Spiegeltent Bosco as the pre-Eurovision party crowd was ready for some afternoon goofs and giggles.

The Trials Of Galileo

“And yet it moves,” repeats Galileo Galilei over and over again, convinced that he has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the earth moves around the sun, not the other way…

Man of a Thousand Farces

If you looked up the dictionary definition of a variety show, Johnny MacAulay’s Man of a Thousand Farces should be there.

Betsy: Wisdom of a Brighton Whore

Betsy had a plan.

Rough Night

Still recovering from the weekend? As usual, you get online and start flicking through social media to see what have your friends been up to.

Another Christmas

Losing your wits and your Christmas spirit? Feel hollow and need a break? Drop everything for half an hour and watch Another Christmas, a musical short film celebrating otherness a…

The Comedy of Errors / La Commedia degli Errorir

The mother of all mistaken identity comedies, The Comedy of Errors gets a lockdown makeover in the hands of the bilingual theatre group The Blind Cupid Shakespeare Company.

Warhol: Bullet Karma

Everyone has an opinion about Andy Warhol.

Alexithymia

Alexithymia is a short play about conflicting human emotions and the disability to connect with your inner feelings.

A Suffocating Choking Feeling

What can an aspiring popstar do to get her big break and rise to stardom? Faking brain cancer might not be your first guess, but that is exactly what Simone Hamilton did.

Saving Wonderland

One worry has kept me awake at night: What happened to Wonderland after Alice returned home? I’m about to find out, as me and my fellow rabbit hole divers play the part of Alice …

O'DD

Bounce, bounce, bounce, flip, bounce, bounce, double flip.

Under the Floorboards

What do Silence of the lambs, Psycho and Texas Chain Saw Massacre have in common? The characters of Buffalo Bill, Norman Bates and Leatherface are all based on the real-life killer…

#txtshow (on the internet)

Do you think that most fringe shows are utter rubbish? That you can write a better script? Well, here’s your chance! In #txtshow, if you don’t like the script, just blame yours…

I am Echoborg Online

Is artificial intelligence here to save us or to destroy us? Is the future more like Cameron’s Terminator or Spielberg’s A.

Sparkly Bird

How do you live after your sister dies by her own hand? You mourn.

An Evening With Professor Edvard von Goosechaser

Professor Edvard Von Goosechaser is the leading 17th Century monsterologist promising to entertain us with his Anglo-Saxon insult-based humour.

Agent November Online Escape Room: Virtual X-Caper

Oh no, Agent November is captured and held prisoner by the evil mastermind Marty Orri.

A Red Square

Everything about A Red Square is different.

Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life

What do tomatoes, banjos and a recovering executive have in common? Keith Alessi, who used to consume excessive amounts of tomatoes and had 52 banjos in his closet, but couldn’t …

Readymade Cabaret 2.0

The first rule about a Dada performance is that you don’t start one with the history of Dada.

Countdown to Clowntown:

When Covid-19 is up, the economy down and Brexit looming around the corner, you need clown therapy.

Frills in Lockdown

I knew it! This is what the Scottish lassies have been up to during lockdown.

Too bored to stay in, too scared to go out!

The 72-year-old cabaret performer Nigel Osner knows a thing or two about ageing and self-isolating during the pandemic.

We Apologise for the Inconvenience

If you think that it’s important to know where your towel is, and you know the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything, then I have a treat for you.

Criminal

Gerard Branson has been murdered.

Heroes & Heroines - Opera Gala Concert

In their Opera Gala Concert, the Sussex Symphony Orchestra is celebrating some of opera’s most iconic heroes and heroines and their wicked stories of lust, passion, death and betra…

A Night at the Musicals

It’s hard to resist chocolate in any shape or form, but it’s downright impossible when you’re talking about Le Gateau Chocolat.

A Box in the Desert

'Should I stay or should I go now? If I go, there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double.

Fright Wig: Essential Tremors

The end is nigh, reads the plaque, but it’s only the beginning.

The Johnny Cash Story

A man wearing a black suit walks on stage.

John Robertson: The Dark Room

You awake to find yourself in a dark room.

Return to the Forbidden Planet

Who would win a fight between Shakespeare, Captain James T.

Ciarán Dowd: Padre Rodolfo

Bless me Father, for I have sinned.

Pickman's Model by HP Lovecraft

Laying your hands on a cult classic is a daunting task, especially when you are dealing with HP Lovecraft’s much loved gothic fiction.

Shit-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet

Shit-faced Shakespeare is one of those things you either love or hate, a bit like Stilton cheese or anchovies.

Joe Black - Touch of Evil: A Celebration of Villainy in Song

Let’s get the review part over and done with; this was going to be a five star review from the moment I saw the title Joe Black - Touch of Evil: A Celebration of Villainy in Song…

Spiegeltent: Heart of the Fringe Show

Tonight was Brighton's chance to show the size of its heart – and its wallet.

Rob Kemp: The Elvis Dead

You know those brilliant ideas you get after last orders, and then in the morning you’re like, what was I thinking? This show must have been one of them: “Hey guys, what if we …

Seaside Sideshow!

Come one, come all! Seaside Sideshow invites us to step back into a Victorian-era celebration of music hall, vaudeville and variety; a place occupied by magicians, showgirls and st…

Arr We There Yet?

Ahoy sailor! Have your days been feeling empty and meaningless since the Pirates of the Caribbean films dried out? Now you can board the Red Rubber Duckie pirate ship and feast you…