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Doon and Dave

Fringe Festival patrons, Dave Brown and Doon Mackichan

Hastings Fringe Festival 2018 launch

The original idea for the festival, catalysed by artistic director and writer, Heather Alexander, was to create a platform to showcase new and original works by local talent – and it took place at The Stables in 2015. This year’s festival, bigger and bolder than previous years, takes place through June and July at various venues in Hastings and St Leonards on Sea with a wide spectrum of performers. The Hastings Film Fringe takes place from 27 – 29 July at the Electric Palace Cinema. There is so much to see and do! Enjoy! 

On Friday 29 June from 7pm at Butler’s Gap on George St in Hastings, kickstart your festival with the Fringe Launch. Join everyone at Butler’s Gap as the Fringe organisers celebrate and launch their biggest programme yet, bringing you highlights from across their 60+ strong season, all rolled into one spectacular package. With special guests Doon Mackichan and Dave Brown, Fringe Patrons, and music from Dr. Savage and the Incurables.

For more information about the Hastings Fringe Festival 2018, pick up a brochure or visit their website.

Old Souls by Vicki Sargent

Old Souls by Vicki Sargent Photo Matt Mitchell

Old Souls

Comedian and writer, Vicki Sargent brings her latest comedy play, Old Souls to the Hastings Fringe on 4 July, which follows a blossoming friendship between two women separated by half a century, but bound together through laughter and Irish coffee.

Befriending the elderly is a scheme run by charities such as Age UK and Independent Age, which pairs an elderly person suffering from loneliness with a volunteer who makes weekly visits and provides much wanted company and conversation. Such schemes can help reduce depression, stress and even improve physical health. This idea catalysed  the meeting of Rosie and Vera in Old Souls; the eager to please Rosie signs up for the scheme hoping to meet the grandma of her dreams only to be faced with the formidable and vivacious, Vera, who longs for the adventurous days of her youth and would rather enjoy a whiskey on the rocks than tea and biscuits.

Writer Vicki Sargent was inspired by a news story she caught one day on the benefits of friendship schemes for the elderly and realised it was the perfect context for a two-hander comedy play. Sargent ultimately hopes that the play might encourage audience members to sign up for a befriending service themselves: “Loneliness is such a tragic epidemic that our country is facing, but it has such a simple solution; my aim is for Old Souls to raise awareness of this and show the benefits, laughter and fun that can come out of these schemes for the elderly person as well as the volunteer”.

Old Souls: The Stables Theatre on Wednesday 4 July at 9:00pm as part of the Hastings Fringe Festival. Tickets: adults: £10, under-18 and groups: £10, and members: £8.

A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men on stage

“You Can’t Handle the Truth!” The memorable line from A Few Good Men, the Broadway smash-hit and blockbuster film, which comes to The Stables Theatre, Hastings as part of Hastings Fringe 2018.

This classic courtroom drama about the trial of two Marines for complicity in the death of a fellow Marine sizzles on stage. A young, inexperienced Navy lawyer, Daniel Kaffee, more interested in softball games, is chosen to represent them. It seems an open-and-shut-case: a plea bargain and a week of paper work. But the men say they were following orders.

Soon Kaffee, pressured by the driven Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway and the memory of his late attorney father, finds himself putting the whole Marine Corps on trial in his search for the truth.

From Bootcamp Productions, the company behind sell-out performances of Flanders & Swann and Yes, Prime Minster previously at The Stables: Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 July at 7.30pm at The Stables Theatre, Hastings. Tickets £13 (£10 groups, £8 members). Box Office 01424 423221. Book online.

For more information about the Hastings Fringe Festival 2018, pick up a brochure or visit their website.

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Posted 19:05 Wednesday, Jun 13, 2018 In: Arts News

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