CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
Bakkhai
Thirdspace Theatre, Brighton People’s Theatre, Ceda Tanc Dance
Brighton Festival
AT first sight, a play written by Euripides – the Greek dramatist who died in 406 BC – might not set hearts throbbing in this digital age.
Yet under the chalk cliff by Brighton’s White Hawk estate, a huge cast of young and older actors conjured a spectacular modern version of the drama Bakkhai in the Brighton Festival this year.
The creative team for this play, led by artistic director Tanushka Marah, worked in local communities with people – from early teens to late retirement – to co-create a highly relevant version for our times.
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about a two-handed theatrical homage to jazz’s most mercurial musician
PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship


