Seagull Recommends 18/08

Hello and welcome back to Seagull Recommends! We've got lots of art, some good pop punk, and an exclusive free coffee offer for you this week. Enjoy!

If you come across anything coming up in the city that you think we should know about, let us know!

🎶Gigs: Tonight at The Prince Albert, Northern New South Wales band Mini Skirt play Aussie pub punk that captures the climate of current-day Australia—the vocals are urgent and frustrated while the music has a rawness and melody sonically painting a picture of the hope through the struggle (tickets); absolutely banging pop-punkers Pinkshift are at Patterns on Monday—incredible energy, huge choruses, we've got 'i’m gonna tell my therapist on you' on repeat (tickets).

🎨Art: Kemptown Arts Association have announced its 2023 summer exhibition, a free showcase of 25 local artists that runs from Tuesday to Saturday at St George’s Church. From 11am to 5pm every day, work from painters, printmakers, photographers, ceramicists and illustrators will be on display, with the artists on-hand 'keen to share their expertise and ideas, and to encourage all local artists to explore a variety of approaches in demonstrating their creativity'. There's a cafe too, with homemade cakes and snacks, and a lovely garden!

🎨More art: The Ledward Centre also has a summer exhibition, showcasing art by queer and neurodivergent people. It's live now, and runs until Thursday 28th September.

🚩Protest: Students at BIMM are protesting at an open day tomorrow. BIMM University has recently had a national wide restructure leading to mass redundancies and resignations—BIMM students are protesting decisions made by BIMM Executive Management group that they say have severely impacted the wellbeing and trust of staff. Students are targeting BIMM open days to take a stance against management decisions that they say have been poorly communicated and, with the start of term approaching, leave current staff worried about the added work loads and unfilled positions. Turn up in solidarity to help with their demands for a union!

☕️Coffee: Special offer for you here: from tomorrow to Monday, you can get a free iced drink from Starbucks, GAIL's, Caffè Nero, Joe & The Juice, or Pret, via Deliveroo, using code ICEDAY. Don't say we never treat you!

🍻Drink: Friend of The Seagull, Xavier Voigt-Hill, visited The Sussex Cricketer at the entrance to the cricket ground. Here's what he had to say:

It was a pub that had many, many drinks and lots of windows and some good dogs. I had a pint of Staropramen, it came out of a tap and it tasted like beer. They have a menu of roast things that sounded very nice too. Very pleasant vibes, the Glamorgan team came in after they won the match and they all seemed to enjoy it. Pleasant greenery. Wide selection of drinks. Yeah. Is this mildly helpful?

We've got a rare second recommendation too: Loud Shirt Brewery & Taproom will be open every Saturday from 2pm for pre-Whitehawk FC pints, and will be open until late afterwards. Before every game, if you head down to the Taproom pre-match, buy a pint and use the secret code 'Hawks are flying', they'll have two free tickets available for the game!

On Saturday 12th August, I went to Kemptown's Lantern Theatre for a double bill of Joe Orton-penned plays as part of their Orton Tribute Week, commemorating his murder at the hands of his partner, Kenneth Halliwell, 56 years ago this month. Orton was an English playwright with a short but influential career, known for farcical black comedies that scandalised and satirised 1960s Britain.

The plays chosen, The Ruffian on the Stair and Funeral Games, are amongst his lesser-known works, but showcase his penchant for melodrama, wit, and the exposing of hypocrisy, especially the religious kind. The stage space was small but well-used across both pieces, creating rooms brimming with life, much like the short but vibrant plays themselves. The music choices were also pitch-perfect for the off-beat, mischievous tone, and the lighting and sound design brought the space to life.

The casts were 3- and 4-strong respectively, with the cast of the first piece plus one new addition returning in new roles for the second, and strong is indeed the right word, with competent performances throughout. The eponymous ruffian on the stair stole the show, but Funeral Games was, on the whole, a better utilisation of everyone's skills. The repressed, controlling murderer-for-hire of Ruffian shone as the camp, hypocritical, and fame-hungry preacher in Funeral, earning many well-deserved laughs from the small but attentive audience, and the newcomer delighted as the impish defrocked priest.

Overall, I'm glad that I got to know such an important playwright through such an adeptly staged double-bill, and that I finally stepped foot into the little theatre around the corner—I'm sure that I'll be back.