I’ve gone to some interesting places for theatrical performances in my time: there was a performance of Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carnage in the State Rooms of Kensington Palace, for instance, three years ago, or a Manchester semi-detached house that Johnny Vegas showed us around as a man trying to sell it in a show presented as part of the Manchester International Festival. But I haven’t, until now, seen a show presented at bath-time in the bathroom of the performer’s own home in Brighton.
With an audience of just six people crammed into it on seats arranged around the bathtub — with one audience member sitting on the toilet itself — there’s Abba playing on the radio and a warm, welcoming tub of foamy water ready.
Then actor Martin Lewton enters with a towel wrapped around him, throws it off and climbs into the bath, with a glass of wine on hand. Then he begins reciting Herman Melville’s Billy Budd story, best known in theatrical terms for Benjamin Britten’s opera but here becoming a one-man bathtime story, Billy Budd Sailor.
During the course of the show, he goes through several of his bath-time ablutions including shaving his face, head and even his balls (I kid you not). All the time, he keeps up a riveting telling of the story, with a toy ship and his collection of orange bath ducks becoming part of the narrative. There’s also a cockring (we see him putting it on) and a bottle of poppers (we see him sniffing it) involved. I won’t detain you with the details, but there isn’t a performance this intimate or surprising around.
I saw it on Saturday afternoon on a visit to Brighton just before the festival ended. Billy Budd Sailor was actually part of Brighton Fringe, which runs parallel to the main festival as in Edinburgh, with some 600 events showing in 180 venues. Brighton now has the third biggest fringe in the world after the Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals. At Edinburgh, of course, the fringe has long eclipsed the official festival in both size and significance — the official theatre programme this year is looking decidedly thin (there are just four shows in all, including a one-man King Lear and a buy-in collaboration with a Toronto festival).
But the Brighton Fringe really is a fringe, as the official festival still provides the core of theatrical interest; and my return to the city on Saturday also saw me taking in a massive free outdoor theatrical installation, As the World Tipped, presented in a park on the outskirts of the city as part of the main festival, for which my review will be appearing elsewhere on The Stage website today.
The trip back to the city after, on a crowded local bus full of young clubbers heading to their night on the town, felt like a theatrical installation all of its own; but here’s a festival that also goes into the community for free, makes new work and imports other stuff. It’s interesting that both Brighton and the Manchester International Festival that’s soon to be staged for the third time in July have, at least in theatrical terms, now officially usurped Edinburgh in the festival stakes.
I then came back to London on Sunday morning and am now in the midst of a theatrical week of my own: though I’m used to hosting public interviews at places like the National and Donmar Warehouse for one-off platforms, the season I’ve put together at Jermyn Street Theatre this week, These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs, is the first time I’ve both organised and hosted eight consecutive performances of a whole series.
It also embraces more of a performance element than a simple platform: we have live performances of some of the songs chosen being sung by Caroline Sheen, accompanied by pianist Ben Stock, and last night Craig Revel Horwood exercised his live vocals again for the first time in 15 years, he said, when he sang one of his own favourite songs, “The Greatest Love of All”, that used to be one of his own audition numbers!
The night before, another dancer turned director and choreographer Rob Ashford was choosing his favourite songs, one of which was Gimme Gimme from the score to Thoroughly Modern Millie, the first show that he ever choreographed (and won him his first Tony for; on Sunday week, he is up for not one but two, for both his direction and choreography of the current Broadway hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying). He revealed how the song was written out-of-town during the show’s La Jolla Playhouse try-out in San Diego; and before Caroline Sheen sang it, she had told me that it was one of her regular audition numbers, too!
Craig was gloriously indiscreet and personal last night; you really had to be there, but if you weren’t, the conversation was recorded and will be available to hear on Theatrevoice in due course. I hope to see (some of) you as we continue with producers Bill Kenwright and Michael Codron tonight and tomorrow; Nick Hytner on Thursday; Janie Dee on Friday; legendary theatre school founder Sylvia Young on Saturday afternoon; and composer duo Stiles and Drewe on Saturday evening. For full details, visit the website of the Theatrical Guild, the charity that looks after backstage and front-of-house workers in need. in whose benefit the week is being staged.
Cant wait to hear the recording of Craig on theatre voice.