Brighton Music, Comedy and Cultural Listings: 19th - 25th May 2025
Featuring Brighton Fringe, Brighton Festival, and SweetFest.
Hello everyone!
Hope you’re all enjoying the lovely weather. I caught some excellent (and one less excellent) shows last week.
Let’s grease up and get down to it. Lots going on, with many excellent clowns descending for Weekend of Weird from Friday onwards.
Brighton Listings
Comedy
Thursday 22nd May
Annabel Edmonds does a live read-through of her sitcom scripts to critical acclaim and universal approval, Presuming Ed’s*, 7:45pm. Free. Many excellent sketch comedy comedians will be in the cast for this novel approach from the excellent, non-Blobby Edmonds1. Also Friday 23rd May.
Friday 23rd May
Lachlan Werner: WonderTwunk (Work In Progress), WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 6pm. £8/10. Genius queer ventriloquist.
Siblings: Dreams in Progress, WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 7:30pm. £8/10. Comedy royalty sketch and character comedy.2
Richard Todd: Fine, Fine, Everything's Fine, Presuming Ed’s, 9pm. £4/PWYW. Insightful and rambling comedy from a charming man.
Saturday 24th May
Ben Goldsmith: Memory, Presuming Ed’s*, 1:30pm. Free. Excellent stand-up / improvisor / character comedian. Until Monday 26th May.
A Word With The Bird, The Yellow Book*, 2:30pm. £10. Family-friendly chat show.
Chris East: Boxes Boxes Boxes (Work In Progress), Presuming Ed’s, 2:45pm. Free / PWYW. Sketch / character comedy from an inspired, deadpan man with access to cardboard. Until Monday 26th May.
Freddie Hayes: The Magic Lady, WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens. 3pm. £10/12. Tommy Cooper meets Margaret Thatcher in inspired clowning / magic nonsense.
Andy Barr: The Hotly-Anticipated 4th Debut Hour from Rising Star, Andy Barr, The Yellow Book*, 5:30pm. £10. Knowing self-sabotage from one of London’s most interesting comics.
The KOMEDIA Fringe Comedy Showcase, Komedia, 6pm. £8/10. Luke Rollason memorial showcase hosted by the not-dead Luke Rollason.
Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine 3: The Rebellion On Ice Part 6 (Work In Progress), WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 7:30pm. £8/10. Faux-Austen sweetheart bulldozes all before her.
The Beauty of Being Herd, Presuming Ed’s, 7:45pm. £5/10. Gaullier-trained autistic clowning on fitting in and whether that’s such a good idea. Also May 25th at 5:15pm.
Sunday 25th May
Impromptu Shakespeare, Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT), 2pm. £15/16.50. Improvised bardage from people who know what they’re doing even when they don’t know what they’re doing.
Sooz Kempner Is Ugly, Laughing Horse @ Caroline of Brunswick*, 3:15pm. Free. Reflecting-on-the-90s comedy from the cabaret / winding up right wing people on the internet star.
Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer, The Yellow Book*, 5:30pm. £10. Always-interesting angles and jokes from “burgeoning trans icon”.
Just The Two Of Us! (Work In Progress), WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 6pm. £8/10. Co-hosts of London’s Soft Play Area bring their queer double act sketch gloriousness.
Lorna Rose Treen (Work In Progress) (it's set in a diner), WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 8pm. £8/10. Award-winning character and sketch comedy from (possibly) the funniest person in Britain.
Stepdads Les Mis, WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, 9:30pm. £12/14. Clown lunacy version of Les Mis (somehow) by Luke Rollason and Tom Penn.
Music
Monday 19th May
Open Mic Night, The Brunswick, 8pm. Free. Open Mic night in a lovely space. Music dominates, but all performance styles welcome.
Cara Ellin, The Folklore Rooms, 8pm. £7. Brighton’s resident Welsh folklore queen.
Tuesday 20th May
Jazz Jam, The Brunswick, £3. Free. 8pm. Assorted jazz musicians get together to make your evening… nice. £3 to guarantee table / admission.
Folklore Rooms Monthly Showcase, The Folklore Rooms*, 7:30pm. Free. Always-interesting bunch of acts. Get done early to guarantee admission.
Wednesday 21st May
Kanekoayano, The Hope & Ruin*, 7:30pm. £20. Fragile but also full-throated Japanese guitar pop.
Friday 23rd May
Wasted Youth + ST///LL + DJ Andrew Lowlife, Prince Albert*, 8pm. £12. Returning post-punk champions.
Saturday 24th May
Lene Lovich, Prince Albert*, 8pm. £22. Legendarily kooky Chigago post-punk singer. Had a number one in 1979 with Lucky Number.
Big Tree All-Dayer, Green Door Store, 2pm. £8/10. Psych, prog, rock and other joy.
Theatre / Cabaret
Monday 19th May
The Fools Present: Nerd Ball, Daltons Brighton, 7:30pm. £5/10. Musical theatre drag troupe.
Actors Showcase: Pick of the Fringe Mondays, The Actors - Theatre*, 7:30pm. Free. Queer cabaret / comedy Fringe showcase.
Tuesday 20th May
Moby Dick, Rotunda Theatre Brighton: Bubble, 6.30pm. £10/12. Abridged whaling obsession.
Thursday 22nd May
BEAVERHAUSEN, Komedia Studio, 6.30pm. £8/11. Drag King / clown / burlesque nonsense directed by Selena Mersey.
Terry's: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers, and Selling Cars to Customers, Rotunda Theatre Brighton: Bubble, 8pm. £11. Comic play about the contraditions of the American Dream. Until Saturday 24th May.
With Ruby and I, The Lantern @ ACT, 9pm. £12.50. Obsessive friendship theatre two-hander. Until Saturday 24th May.
Friday 23rd May
The Man who was Thursday, Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT), 7:30pm. £14/15. Theatrical version of GK Chesterton’s finest novel.
Boyz Nite, Rotunda Theatre Brighton: Squeak, 8:15pm. £8. Cabaret variety night celebrating trans men, trans masc and butch non-binary performers.
Prospero's Dead, The Lantern @ ACT, 11pm. £5/10. Late night fever dream of a Tempest sequel.
Sunday 25th May
Prancer the Dancer’s DanceDanceDiscoPartyFunShow, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, 2pm. £10. Daytime, family-friendly cabaret disco rave.
Talks / Poetry / Other
Tuesday 20th May
Pan the Wild God is Dead, The Actors - Theatre*, 7:30pm. £8/10. Queer storytelling. Until Tuesday 21st May.
Wednesday 21st May
Rosy Carrick's Poetry Gang Bang, Komedia Studio, 8:15pm. £8/12. Showcase of Brighton’s vibrant poetry scene. Also Thursday 22nd May.
Saturday 24th May
Queering the Archive, Brighton Dome Founders Room, 2pm. Free. Interactive archiving workshop.
Glossary
OTD - On the door. As in, it’s cheaper to buy in advance.
* - a venue that is not accessible. With so many venues in Brighton being rooms above Victorian Gin Palaces, it’s important to be clear.
PWYW/C - Pay what you want / can. Please give what you’re able to, as clowns can’t live on grease paint alone.
Adv - In advance.
Bf - Booking free, not boyfriend
WIP - work in progress.
That’s it for this week! Thanks to everyone who has shared the word about these listings, it really helps - I can see that more and more people are reading them!
Cheers,
J xxx
No nepo babies these - these performers are brilliant - but their parents are literally Ed Bye and Ruby Wax.