VICTORIA KINGHAM

On 13 April, there was a rehearsed reading of Lindsay Jayne’s play A spectacular Interview in Studio 27, the White Rock Theatre’s fringe venue.

This was quite a feat of writing – like watching a cross between Private Eye’s ‘Pseuds Corner’ and a twenty-first century version of something unspecified by Ionesco. A script like this – a string of corporate speak with emphasis on the spoken acronym (which proliferates throughout) – necessarily calls attention to itself as, sentence by sentence, lacking in meaning.

It’s about the death of sense and reality in the face of endless online techspeak, virtual text and images, and the burial of the truth, among the dross generated by Artificial Intelligence (the written equivalent of music sampling, now so ubiquitous that the originals are rarely acknowledged) and the 1984-type nonsense spouted by world leaders resulting in – yes, possibly – the rewriting of history.

The author herself was prompted to write it because she feels that modern tech-speak is impossible to understand. Who could disagree? She also stressed that this was a rehearsed reading, not a perfect rendition, and that it is extremely difficult for actors (among them the notable, funny and acrobatic Cazimi) to memorise lines with no appreciable context.

It’s a challenging technique, to write that which mixes the essentially meaningless with the essentially absurd (an opera singer randomly enters dressed in Valkyrie costume at one stage, and there’s quite a bit of general falling about, belching, sneezing, and nose-picking) and keeps the audience engaged. The actors did a creditable job despite this not being in any way a finished product.

There was a short discussion afterwards in which one topic was the staging of this. Personally I wondered if slightly less time, without an interval but with more use of the projection screen, might have made the point just as well: it would have enabled each actor to revel in a continuous development of their particular cult of ‘personality’, as do countless on-line ‘influencers’ whose opinions proliferate, without any background knowledge, on any topic they fancy.

An experienced stage director with vision and lateral thinking might be able to bring out this play’s essential protests against the burial of reality, the instability of language, and the massive glorification of the ephemeral, which appears to make up most of the digital universe.

A Spectacular Interview was written by Lindsay Jayne and read by the Daytime Theatre Players: Leonie Avril, Cazimi, Nathan Detroit, Yasmien Huband, Heather Leech, Keith Leech, Delia Reynolds, and Stephen Rose. It was written, produced, and directed by Lindsay Jayne and stage managed by Simon Hobson with consultancy from Elizabeth Ryder. 

Choir and Orchestra, together with soloists Helen May (soprano), Sarah Denbee (mezzo-soprano), Leonel Pinheiro (tenor) and Robert Winslade Anderson (bass), under the baton of Marcio da Silva, will join forces at The White Rock Theatre, on 20 November, to repeat that inaugural programme.

It seems astonishing now, but in 1824, Beethoven extended musical boundaries when, for the first time ever, he integrated vocal soloists and a full chorus into a final movement – Ode to Joy – of a symphony. The work remains one of the most performed and revered works in the classical repertoire.

O’Meara’s No Man leads the listener on a musical and literary journey, from the ‘No Man’s Land’ of war to the ‘No Man is an Island’ message of peace and unity of John Donne’s famous sonnet. Drawing on texts in English, French and Latin by W B Yeats, Victor Hugo, Donne, the Psalms of the Bible and Friedrich Schiller, weaving together the melodies of ancient Gregorian plainsong and a reforming of the famous theme from Beethoven’s choral finale, No Man presents an Ode to Joy for the modern age.

Thursday 20 November 2025, 7pm, White Rock Theatre. Tickets £10–£29.50, at hastingsphilchoir.org.uk/autumnconcert2025, or in person from the White Rock Theatre Box Office. 

The White Rock Theatre welcomed over 250 visitors through its doors on 21 September for a lively open day full of free workshops, performances, and behind-the-scenes magic – a clear sign of the theatre’s ongoing commitment to supporting the town’s cultural life.

The day featured everything from singing and dancing workshops with Lesley Van Edmond, Evie Dawes and Emily Vidler, to an energetic ‘Potted Panto’ performance with Ben Watson (aka Silly Simon from this year’s Jack and the Beanstalk).

The theatre was alive with creativity. Local performers took the mic in The Base, hosted by Steve Didge. Elsewhere, guests could paint with salt and watercolours, crafting shell reliefs with clay, or painting to live music – thanks to two visiting partners: Hastings Contemporary, who brought a taste of their Pearls of the Sea project, and Hastings International Piano, promoting their Sounds of Creativity initiative.

For theatre-lovers (or the merely curious), backstage tours and sound-and-lighting desk demonstrations gave a rare glimpse behind the curtain, led by the venue’s expert tech team.

There was plenty for families too, with a Jack and the Beanstalk-themed treasure hunt, a children’s craft zone full of seed mosaics, colouring sheets (with a growing paper beanstalk) and a competition to win afternoon tea at the venue.

“The day was a brilliant success,” said venue director Nadine Passley. “Days like this give us the chance not only to share what’s special about the White Rock, but also to listen to people about what they’d love to see from their local venue.”

With more open days planned, White Rock Theatre continues to show its commitment to creativity, community, and collaboration with Hastings’ unique and wide-ranging arts scene.

 The competition takes place every two years, and the most recent winners were announced in March 2024. Canadian pianist Harmony Zhu, 19, is no stranger to the limelight. A child chess prodigy, she’s appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres TV show three times and, apart from being a huge musical talent, is now studying mathematics at Harvard University. She will be the soloist in Chopin’s poignant and romantic First Piano Concerto, which he wrote (along with his second!) when he was just 20. It has featured in numerous films, among them The Lady In the Van, The Truman Show, and The Competition (about a piano competition!) 

American-Taiwanese Curtis Phill Hsu, 20, lives and studies in Austria. As a result of winning First Prize at the competition in 2024 he now has a packed, international concert diary. He will perform one of the most popular pieces ever written – Rachmaninov’s monumental and timelessly beautiful Second Piano Concerto, which was a hit from its very first performance and has become part of everyone’s internalised melody. It was the background music for Brief Encounter, has been used by Frank Sinatra,adapted as All By Myself (later covered by Celine Dion), sampled by Muse, adapted by jazz quartets and later composers. The concert takes place at the White Rock Theatre on the stage where Rachmaninov himself once actually performed.  

Before the concert there will also be a special event hosted by comedian, conductor, and St Leonards resident Rainer Hersch  in conversation with RPO manager Sarah Bardwell. This free event will give a fascinating (and entertaining) insight into the life of a symphony orchestra, and how playing for a competition differs from what usually goes on in the concert hall. 

Hastings International Piano have this year also reached out to schools and youth organisations, and their young pianists have introduced classical music to children as young as five, who have often never heard it before and are always fascinated by the fact that a single player can produce such wonderful music. 

Hastings International Piano has made every effort to make the concert accessible to all. Tickets are free for young people aged 18 and under. A proportion of tickets are available free to teachers, nurses and care workers

For available free tickets, contact rosa.amor@hastingsinternationalpiano.org for more details. Tickets for the In Conversation event are free but should be booked as seating is limited.  For details and tickets visit the concert website Gala Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — Hastings International Piano. 

Then as the lights dimmed and the music played, Tinsel, Moti and Captain Courage burst onto the stage, closely followed by Wicked Wanda. The level of energy didn’t stop until the adventure reached its happy conclusion nearly two hours later – with interval. 

The show was carried by the talented performances: not just in the way the actors inhabited the weird and wonderful world of toys, but also their singing, their dancing, their musicianship and the sheer gusto of their performances. 

As promised, there was something for the whole family, with a script that included everything from children’s fantasy to local ‘gossip’, from poo jokes to more adult banter.  

I can only speak from the perspective of one of the oldest members of the audience, without even a child in tow, but from the buzz at the end of the show, I think it’s safe to say that it was enjoyable to everyone else as it was to me.

Described in the publicity as “a unique, multi-sensory family show” The Lost Toys’ Big Christmas Adventure! lives up to its expectation and is well worth a visit.

Morning and afternoon performances available from 20th-29th December 2019. Book your tickets here at the White Rock Theatre.

Around 500 tickets to The Lost Toys’ Big Christmas Adventure at The White Rock Theatre, Sussex Studio in Hastings and The Royal Hippodrome in Eastbourne have been paid for by local businesses. 

And families are in for a treat. The script is written and directed by Kali Peacock from Eastbourne of Finding Neverland fame; original music is by Hastings resident Sarah Travis, the first woman ever to win a Tony award for Orchestration – working on the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. 

PIC: UnderWired Productions

“Seeing a Christmas show is such a fabulous and magical family tradition, yet too many can barely afford to put food on the table, let alone think about theatre tickets.” says Kali. 

 “No child should be excluded from the arts because of money. These are our future actors, directors and stage managers but they’re never going to have an opportunity to pursue these careers without being exposed to the arts.”

The show charts the adventures of lost toys Tinsel the doll, Captain Courage and Moti the EmotiBot, who fall out of Father Christmas’s sleigh on their journey from his North Pole factory. Will they reach their children in time before they wake on Christmas morning, or will a naughty doll called Wicked Wanda stop them?

 The production promises to be magical and multi-sensory – smell the forest, feel the wind in your hair, hear the sea crashing on the cliffs – and both venues are accessible to those with disabilities – this being especially important to Kali, mother to a six-year-old boy whose disability means he cannot walk.

 Together with actress and mum Katy Morgan, Kali co-founded UnderWired Productions in 2018. The pair started their company after having children, frustrated with the lack of opportunities for mothers and women over 40 in the theatre industry. 

• Performances 17/18th December, Eastbourne Hippodrome, 13-15th, 20-24th
and 26-29th December, White Rock Theatre.