You might think a lighting designer wouldn’t be considering environmental issues as they worked. If so, you’d be wrong. “It’s something I've been concerned about professionally for a long time”, Graham Festenstein tells me. In fact, stories about our environment – from the beauty of moonlight to the impact of rising sea levels – are the theme this year for LewesLight, the annual festival of light he’s curating. “We’re probably using less energy on one installation than someone would be using in their house for an evening”, he reassures me, before pointing out that effective lighting doesn't always need to be bright. "We want to demonstrate that darkness is nothing to be frightened of; it’s something to be embraced and enjoyed. Our eyes adapt to darkness really well."
 
Key locations across town will be transformed by lighting and projections for three nights. As with previous LewesLight festivals, the choice of sites is very important – and, at the time of our conversation, still very secret. "We want to find special places", Graham explains. Each illuminated installation will be staffed with well-informed volunteers. "We'd like visitors to understand a little bit more about why it's been created. Lots of arts events don't provide that."
 
LewesLight is undeniably a collaboration, generously supported by the lighting industry alongside production partners Sussex Events Limited. Lighting designers and organisers give their time for nothing, whilst an Arts Council grant means local artists can be paid for their contributions. The whole thing is run as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, with a new emphasis this year on mentoring college and university students through the whole process. Safety concerns mean younger children can't participate directly; instead LewesLight is working with schools to create projects that will form part of the festival. A desire to work with young people is one of the reasons the festival has moved from October to February, fitting much better with term times. And, as Graham adds, "It's darker earlier, so we can kick off at six o'clock rather than seven o'clock, which is great for families and children." Also involved are the Linklater RATS (Raising Awareness of Tides and Sea levels), a youth group linked to the Lewes Railway Land Project. "It's 20 years since the Lewes flooding in 2000", Graham reminds me. "We wanted to work with them as this coincided with our ideas of exploring climate emergency and environmental issues."
 
Ultimately, Graham insists, LewesLight is about more than just light and darkness. "It operates on two levels, in a way. You can come and see it, you can enjoy it for what it is. But there's also the wider back story. I think the process of putting the thing together, engaging with people and bringing people together, is as important as the final result. We're not a gallery – this is a town."
 
LewesLight runs at sites across town from 28th February until 1st March 2020.
Free admission; full details at leweslight.uk

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 161 February 2020

Peter Bayless, BBC MasterChef 2006
 
It was my wife who suggested that I entered MasterChef. After 39 years of working in advertising, I was getting tired of it – and I rather fancy that advertising was getting tired of me. “You should cook”, she said. “Everyone loves your food. You need to get on one of those TV programmes.”
 
I was born in north London immediately after the Second World War. Half of the street was a bomb site, so I wasn’t allowed out to play. Instead I'd be in the kitchen with my mother, standing on a chair to stir puddings, roll pastry and even cut vegetables. This love of cooking was reinforced at the age of 12 when we went on a family holiday to the south of France. I'd never seen such exotic food. I applied to study catering at school but the headmaster convinced me to focus on art and design.
 
Winning MasterChef isn’t a passport to instant success. It opened a few doors – I worked for Michel Roux, Raymond Blanc, John Williams at the Ritz – but realised I had to come back to earth. I took a job as a chef, wrote a book and magazine articles, did some radio and TV, then started teaching and doing private parties. And from August I'm going to be helping friends who run a Greek restaurant in Heathfield.
 
I’m very keen for people to learn how easy it is to create simple, nutritious, inexpensive food for themselves. That’s what I’ll be demonstrating at Firle Vintage Fair on 9th, 10th and 11th August, including this recipe.
 
Serves 4 people
 
For the pasta
200g ‘tipo 00’ pasta flour
2 whole eggs, beaten
Large saucepan of boiling water
Generous amount of salt
 
For the sauce
2 large handfuls of baby plum tomatoes, halved
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed with sea salt
2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzle
2-3 handfuls of fresh spinach
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for finishing
Bowl of grated parmesan (more or less to taste)
Bowl of chopped parsley
Half a glass of dry white wine
 
Method for the pasta
Place the flour into a food processor and, with the motor running, add the beaten egg in a stream until the dough begins to come together. (Italian nonnas – grandmas – do this all by hand.) Remove, knead to a smooth ball and wrap in film. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, then use a pasta machine to roll out the dough and cut it into wide tagliatelle strips. Dust with flour and set aside.
 
For the dish
Heat the oil in a large pan and add the tomatoes, followed by the crushed garlic. Add salt, pepper and the wine. Simmer gently while you cook the pasta in well-salted water for just 2 minutes. Lift the pasta from the water and add it to the sauce, along with a couple of spoons of the cooking water, then toss well together. Gently stir in the spinach. Serve in warmed bowls with a generous amount of grated parmesan, chopped parsley and a final flourish of extra virgin olive oil. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
 
As told to Mark Bridge
 
peterbayless.com
firlevintagefair.co.uk

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 155 August 2019
​

In Elizabethan England, you'd have expected a play called The Winter’s Tale to be some kind of upbeat urban myth; fantasy folklore with a moral core. Shakespeare, subversive as ever, delivered the unexpected. “Basically, it’s two stories. That’s one of the reasons it’s been criticised over the years”, Chris Weber Brown tells me. He’s directing the play at Lewes Little Theatre, where the curtain rises at the end of this month. “There’s all sorts of drama and tyranny and horrible stuff in the first half.” Leontes, the King of Sicilia, thinks his pregnant wife has been having an affair with his old friend. Despite a total lack of evidence, Leontes orders the friend to be poisoned, puts his wife on trial for treason and abandons his new-born daughter. “The audience have to sit through this doom and gloom... we need to lighten up in the second half”, admits Chris. Shakespeare obliges by ensuring the baby daughter is adopted by an elderly shepherd and his clownish son, changing the mood instantly from dark tragedy to upbeat comedy. “We are going to have a sort-of rustic dance, I have a movement coach, and there’s going to be music and some singing.” Ultimately, the two stories are reconciled, as are the king and his daughter. “It all kind-of ends happily. But it isn’t really a happy ending in my view.”

Why does Chris think this 400-year-old play and its magical world is still relevant today?  “I could see echoes of Leontes’s tyranny and power with present-day dictators who will hold on to power at any cost – any cost to the people and the country.” In fact, he’s updated the setting to 2019 and is working without a conventional set. “I just love the idea of having a completely open stage where you can move and you’re not constricted in any way. It’s the first time I’ve done it. Very often with Shakespeare, they have a raised dais at the rear of the stage – but I don’t want that. It’ll all be done by lighting.” This includes the famous stage direction ‘Exit, pursued by a bear’. “A very dark shadow will move across the back”, says Chris. “We will not be having the bear because that would become rather like pantomime.” There’ll be a few other edits, reducing the play’s running time to around two hours, with the entire production being a very collaborative project. “If you get a really good group of people, good in the sense they'll work together, that means so much. The director is not there to dictate. He’s there to try and draw out performances from the actors.” The result, he hopes, will be well-suited to contemporary audiences. “It’s about the text and the feelings and the characterisations. Not the dressing-up box!”

The Winter’s Tale runs from 29th June until 6th July at Lewes Little Theatre. lewestheatre.org

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 153 June 2019

You’d be forgiven for expecting a play from 1950 to be a curiosity; a hackneyed tale with little relevance to the way we live today. That’s not what director Derek Watts is promising at Lewes Little Theatre this month. Instead, he’s delivering a psychological thriller that blends humour into a genuinely touching love story. “The plot of Accolade almost sounds like a 21st-century response to celebrity culture and media corruption”, he explains. It’s hard to disagree. Playwright Emlyn Williams offers the story of a famous novelist whose personal life is exposed. “Definitely sordid” admits the lead character, Will Trenting. His racy stories have apparently been inspired by his behaviour, not just his imagination. And the truth is about to be revealed to his readers.
 
Parallels between the writer and his creation are obvious – and not merely because Williams took the lead role at the London premiere. In the play, Will’s private promiscuity is a shock to his publisher but no surprise to his wife, who tolerated it as part of his personality. Williams, his creator, had a similarly secret life: he was bisexual at a time when this could have resulted in him spending a lifetime in prison, yet he also had the support of his wife. However, composing a script that was acceptable to contemporary audiences and to the Lord Chamberlain, who had the power to censor plays, meant the plot needed a heterosexual theme. It was a characteristically clever move from Williams, known to many as the ‘Welsh Noel Coward’: the Lord Chamberlain didn’t ask to change a single word. The result is Williams’s “most direct and moving confrontation with his own double nature”, says Derek Watts. “Though it is a very theatrical piece, the issues it deals with are very much of today.”
 
This certainly is a timely production. As well as inviting us to consider the media’s obsession with celebrity, Accolade also considers the privacy of famous people and asks us to reflect on whether we can enjoy art if we are opposed to the lifestyle of the artist. “The subject is completely fearless and the naturalistic language means that the audience do not see the punches coming”, says Derek. Indeed, the audience is placed at the heart of the proceedings, with a set by Michael Folkard that’s designed to make us a key part of the action rather than sitting in judgement. “We are aiming to make the audience feel like guests of the family”, Derek explains, “so that when the various shocking pieces of news break, they feel like it was happening to friends.”
 
Accolade is being presented by Lewes Theatre Club from 11th - 18th May. www.lewestheatre.org

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 152 May 2019

It’s not unusual for a child musician to change their mind and turn away from their chosen instrument as they enter their teenage years. What you probably wouldn’t expect is for the child to swap his violin for an accordion.
 
“I just loved the powerful sound of a squeezebox in full flight”, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne tells me. “I loved the idea of being able to play tunes with rich and complex accompaniments and countermelodies, which is possible on concertinas and melodeons – not so much on the violin.” The timing couldn’t have been better, as he’d just started to develop an appreciation of English folk songs. “It’s the music that I like, the music that I feel the strongest connection to and the music that has had the strongest effect on me. I love the unusual melodies, the captivating narratives to songs and the fascinating history that comes with every piece.”
 
Barely a decade has passed since Cohen fell for the concertina, the melodeon and the traditional music he plays on them. In that time, he’s won Bromyard Folk Festival’s Future of Young Folk Award, he’s studied with ‘one-man folk industry’ Pete Coe and he’s graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in Music. These days he’s playing on his own and with the band Granny’s Attic, although it’s the solo Cohen who’s coming to Lewes this month, performing in the evening of Saturday 13th after running a melodeon workshop during the day.
 
“It’s fair to say that I have learnt a huge amount from other players, including John Kirkpatrick, Pete Coe, John Spiers, Brian Peters and Adrian Brown”, Cohen explains. He’s also investigated how concertinas and melodeons were played when they originated around 200 years ago. One such technique involves vigorously moving the instrument in a circle whilst playing it: perhaps the Victorian equivalent of plugging an effects pedal into an electric guitar. “There was a time when just about every concertina player was doing it, but now there are only a handful of us doing it. Essentially the movements through the air alter the sound of the concertina; it’s all to do with the Doppler Effect.”

But Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne isn’t just an exceptionally talented player. He sings as well, with a rich, strong voice that’s well-suited to the traditional music he plays. “I always sang and played around the house, but it took me a while to be able to do it in public”, he admits. “I began singing and playing in public when I was about 17, so about four or five years after I started playing concertinas and melodeons.”
 
Yet all this would probably never have started without those free violin lessons at primary school. “That was my way into music. I honestly think that if they had not been on offer, I probably would not have ended up following this path as a musician.”

Cohen performs at the Elephant & Castle on Saturday 13th. Tickets £7 from the pub or via lewessaturdayfolkclub.org

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 151 April 2019

Back in June 2018, music publicist Del Day and musician Danny George took over Union Music Store from founders Stevie and Jamie Freeman. In some ways, little has changed. It’s still very much the antidote to mainstream online retailing: a local record shop where the owners love discovering new music and sharing their knowledge. Despite this, they’re also happy to order anything you want. “We're not snobs but we've only got a certain amount of space to play with”, Danny admits. It’s what Del describes as a curated approach. “We want it to be a shop where you can pick a record up and we go ‘that's a great record’ and genuinely mean it. It's becoming a little arts hub here for us – and we'd like to extend that.”
 
Look closer and you'll spot a broadening of genres, heralded on my visit by the jazz trumpet of Lee Morgan greeting me as I walked through the door. “Since we moved in we've expanded the range of stock”, Del tells me, “so rather than just being a specialist Americana/country shop, we've now got world, jazz, blues, some classic rock and a lot more interesting left-field records.” You'll also discover loads more vinyl albums – “we're probably 80% new and used vinyl” – and, if you turn up on the last Wednesday evening of any given month, there's a good chance you'll find a session of the shop's Album Club taking place.
 
Album Club is “essentially like a book club”, Del explains, attracting an even mix of men and women. You buy a copy of the month’s chosen album – obviously the shop would appreciate your custom but what’s more important to them is that people obtain a physical copy rather than relying on streaming services – and you listen to it as much as you can. “It's about embracing the art form again and actually cherishing buying the record. And this gives you a chance to reinforce that.” Whoever turns up for the meeting will find the kettle on and beer in the fridge. “We meet in here at 7.30pm, we play back the record and we discuss it for about two hours”, says Del. “It's basically a chance to nourish that artistic element in your head.” There’s no fee and no obligation to stay until the end.
 
Union Music Store has hosted five album club meetings so far, from Damien Jurado to Janelle Monáe. January’s meeting will be listening to Merrie Men, the latest album from supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen. Yes, it’s a diverse collection – but what’s the point?  Del has a characteristically matter-of-fact answer. “It's a little bit of publicity for our shop, it's a way of embracing the art form, which we think is really important, and it's also a social event. It's immensely enjoyable. I really look forward to it.”

Union Music Store, 1 Lansdown Place, Lewes. unionmusicstore.com

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 148 January 2019

Penned Up is a unique two-week arts and literature festival that rotates around prisons. Not only is it designed for prisoners, it’s also curated by them. “Prisoners are involved in the conception, the planning, the ideas and the promotion”, Co-Director David Kendall tells me. “Some want to be more creative, others want to use what they learn to deal better with their time in prison. For some, it helps them through difficult times, for others it allows hope. The arts can address who we think we are, and who we think we should be.”

This year, Penned Up came to Lewes Prison. It’s a festival that takes place behind closed doors: its audience as well as its performers are prisoners. But outside is an event that’s aimed at a wider audience. The Keep at Falmer is hosting ‘Inside Lewes Prison’ – two talks about life behind bars: a historical insight from County Archivist Christopher Whittick; and a personal perspective from author and journalist Erwin James.

Back in 1984, Erwin was neither of those things. He’d just been convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. It would be 20 years before his release. During that time, education and reading transformed his perspective. He took O-level English, then an Open University degree and a journalism course. But Erwin insists he isn’t an exception, apart from his subsequent career choice. “The vast majority of people in prison hate being criminals” is what he found when talking to other offenders. “Few rejoice in being outcasts. Most are broken, damaged and, like any regular citizen, have dreams of living a regular life, with a job, a home, a family. There is never any excuse for crime, for causing hurt and pain to others, but if we don't use our prisons constructively the hurt and pain will continue.”

Earlier this year the Secretary of State for Justice, David Gauke MP, said prison had three main purposes: protecting the public, punishment and rehabilitation. What does Erwin think? “Pretty much the same – but, since the majority of people in prison will be released one day and will be somebody's neighbour, we have to agree more as a society that rehabilitation is key.”
 
Art can be a key part of this rehabilitation, according to Erwin. “My experience was that creativity – more than anything else – gives people who engage a sense of value and worth like nothing else can. I'm so grateful for the authors, musicians and poets who came to the prisons I was in over the years; they gave me hope that I might find the better part of me and, along with help from the teachers and good-hearted prison staff, I made it.”
 
“I want people, the public, to be safer from people like I was. Helping people in prison is not about compassion for broken damaged lives; it’s about practicalities, to make communities safer.”
 
Inside Lewes Prison takes place 6pm – 8pm on Wednesday 7th November 2018 at The Keep. Tickets £5; booking essential via 01273 482349.

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 146 November 2018

I like working as part of a team. I’m less happy about playing in one. So I’m already feeling uncomfortable when my editor proposes an article about stoolball. Things take a turn for the worse when I receive an email from Ian Goldsmith of the Lewes Arms stoolball team. “You can take part in the warm up if you like”, he says. “If you look promising, you might get a game.”
 
I’m wearing trainers and an unpromising expression when I arrive at The Paddock. The team plays there at 6.30pm on most Wednesdays from May to early September. Team member Rick Mason explains the rules. He’s on the management committee of Stoolball England, the sport’s national governing body, so he should know.
 
“The majority of the game is the same as cricket. The major differences are that we bowl underarm from ten yards away, the ball doesn't bounce on the way to the batsman – and it comes through at about shoulder height. The idea is to hit the ball away from the fielders and run to the other end. Our wicket is a white one-foot square at about shoulder height and the ball looks like a rounders ball.”
 
Adam Frost, who’s been with the club since it was formed, says the simplicity of the game is its attraction. “Just about anyone can play it. It doesn't require a lot of equipment and it's easy enough to pick up. I mean, I played cricket and wasn't particularly good but I'm quite adequate at stoolball!”
 
It turns out that the most complicated detail is the club’s history. The team started at the Black Horse pub before moving to the Lewes Arms and changing its name. “About ten years ago we stopped being associated with the Lewes Arms pub”, says Rick, “but we're still called the Lewes Arms; it's the arms of the borough – and we're now an independent mixed team that plays friendlies.” Teams usually consist of eleven players but the Lewes Arms team expands to fit the number of people that turn up.
 
The history of stoolball can be traced back to the fifteenth century, with men and women playing the game in churchyards. Folklore suggests the name comes from milkmaids using their milking stools as a target. Rick says history is clearer from the late 19th century, when the first stoolball clubs were formed in Sussex and the rules were written down by the Reverend William de St Croix of Glynde.
 
Here in 2018, I’ve turned down the offer of a game. Despite this, the Lewes Arms stoolball players are treating me like an old friend. If I was looking for a team sport, this is certainly the place I’d start.
 
The Lewes Arms team will be in action on Wednesday evenings in June at the Paddock. There’s also a stoolball league on Thursday evenings at the Convent Field.
 
First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 141 June 2018

East Sussex Community Choir is joined by the Corelli Ensemble this month for a performance of three much-loved Mendelssohn works. The programme ends with the symphony-cantata Lobgesang (‘Hymn of Praise’), featuring soloists Dame Felicity Lott, Shona Knight and Paul Austin Kelly. “This is very uplifting music that we're singing”, Dame Felicity tells us. “I love Mendelssohn; he's joyous and raises the spirits.” A Sussex resident since 1980, Dame Felicity fell for the area after performing at Glyndebourne: “I used to love the drive out of London and the sight of the wonderful, rolling, soft Downs.” But what prompted her to fit this particular event into her international schedule? “I thought it would be nice to do something locally, for once. I did a charity concert some time ago with Paul, the tenor, and really enjoyed singing with him.” Not only does Dame Felicity know Paul and musical director Nick Houghton, she’s also very familiar with the music. “I come from Cheltenham, where there's a competitive music festival. When I was a teenager I entered the festival and sang the duet from this with another young singer. It's called 'I waited for the Lord' and I've been singing that all my life.”
 
Saturday 5th May 7.30pm at Lewes Town Hall; tickets £12 from Lewes Tourist Information.

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 140 May 2018

Walking into the staff café at Glyndebourne, I find myself surrounded by dozens of excited children who are taking a break from rehearsing a new opera. ‘Belongings’, composed by Lewis Murphy with words by Laura Attridge, compares the lives of World War 2 evacuees with present-day refugees fleeing war zones. As the youngsters return to the stage, Lewis sits down with a coffee. I ask him if there’s a moral to the story. “If there is a moral, it's about learning from history”, he tells me. “It's about openness and human connection. As well as entertaining the audience, I'm hoping we can make them ask questions of themselves.”
 
Glasgow-born Lewis has been Glyndebourne’s Young Composer in Residence since 2015, before which, he admits, “opera was quite new to me”. He’s clearly a fast learner. As well as composing ‘Belongings’, he’s subsequently been commissioned with librettist Laura to write for Scottish Opera. Should we expect more music from the Attridge and Murphy partnership? “Whether we actually brand it as that, who knows. But in terms of setting ourselves up and promoting ourselves as creators of new opera, it’s something we are interested in. We’ve reached a point now where we feel comfortable working together.”
 
This type of collaborative approach runs throughout Belongings. “Lucy Bradley, our director, was involved from the very beginning of the project, talking with me and the librettist about the story and trying to structure the narrative of the whole piece. And Lee Reynolds, our conductor, has also been heavily involved.”
 
Earlier this year, culture and arts project The Complete Freedom of Truth arranged for all four members of the creative team to visit the Italian town of Sarteano and meet young people in a refugee community. Lucy encouraged the community to perform an improvised drama that represented ‘home’. “It was really heart-warming, touching and very humbling for us to see what these guys missed”, Lewis says. “It was the first time we’d actually had direct contact with people who’d been through that situation.”
 
Insight from the trip has been passed on to the 65 members of Glyndebourne Youth Opera, aged between 9 and 19, who are singing alongside three professional singers: Rodney Earl Clarke, Leslie Davis and Nardus Williams. “The production taking shape here looks incredible, so I’m really excited to see what happens.” There’s a special show for schools followed by one public performance – but what next? “I would love to get it performed again”, Lewis says. “I think it is still a very relevant piece for our times. Themes of displacement and people being thrown into a new environment; these have happened throughout history and will probably continue to happen. As soon as you create conflict, people have to move.” 
 
Belongings will be performed at Glyndebourne on Saturday 11 November. Tickets available from 01273 815000 / glyndebourne.com

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 134 November 2017