REVIEW: Naked Hope
By Gary Murray Mark Farrelly’s one-man play about the legendary author, writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp was staged last night at Grove Theatre, Eastbourne. Portraying real people might be daunting but, as in previous performances at the Grove, such as The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton, and Howerd’s End about the (secret) […]
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REVIEW: Travels With My Aunt
By Gary Murray Travels With My Aunt is the second of three plays being presented as part of the ‘Summer In The Park‘ season at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne. Following an entertaining but by-the-book production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Table Manners, Travels is the tale of Henry, a mild-mannered bank manager who’d much rather be […]
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REVIEW: Taking the plunge with Eastbourne Alive
Silent concentration was interspersed with ‘oooh’s of delight and ‘oh’s of resignation as a group of us gathered for a printing workshop in the empty Motcombe Pool caretaker’s house in Eastbourne Old Town. We were experiencing the unpredictable process of printing using a flexible silicone gel plate rollered with paint then imprinted with images or […]
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REVIEW: The Good Grub
I may have reached Peak Smug on a recent Sunday, eating lunch at The Good Grub restaurant at the back of the very grand Grand Hotel building. Not only was I eating vegan and saving a tiny cloud of farmed animal emissions, I watched torrential rain cascade off the green striped canopy onto Compton Road […]
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REVIEW: Mad Catter Cat Café
The first item on the agenda to note is … this place has a lot of cats. In fact, there are 16 featured on the website, not all of which are visible to the naked eye inside the café. I forgot to count how many were draped across hammocks, tucked inside cat igloos and festooned […]
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REVIEW: Battle Abbey
Is this where the Brexit vote came from? The spot where King Harold was slain by the invading Norman French 957 years ago. William of Normandy was respectful of where his enemy died, so a stone tablet marks the place. Standing on the ridge of Senlac Hill, one strains to imagine thousands of Anglo-Saxon […]
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REVIEW: Déjà Vu restaurant
There are probably many corners of Eastbourne still redolent of the 1950s, despite the shiny allure of 2023 with its new-fangled shopping centre and block-paved bus lanes. And there’s nothing wrong with a solid bit of yesteryear when it’s bathed in a golden glow. That was when you had conversations with people while looking at […]
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REVIEW: Bistrot Pierre
The mantra ‘location, location, location’ does not only apply to where you live, as Kirsty and Phil of the Channel 4 house-hunting show of the same name stipulate. It’s pretty crucial with eating out too. Whether it’s handy for public transport if you’re well refreshed or not overlooking a row of bins down a dark […]
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REVIEW: DQ Terrace Bar & Café
It often seems moaning about ‘the council’ is Britain’s national pastime. Most Facebook groups would be tumbleweed-quiet (apart from the missing cat notices) if you stripped out all the “Why don’t they…?” comments complaining about Wherevertown Council. I’m all for local authority scrutiny and impartial reports by journalists about what is going on: the good, […]
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REVIEW: Polegate High Street
Polegate High Street should be a delightful place to shop and linger. It could feature in a classic Ladybird illustration of Shopping with Mother, wholesome girl and boy at her side on a sunny day as they visit the bakery, the greengrocers and butchers. There’s a mainline railway station, a church (below) opposite Victorian villas […]
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