BRIGHTON THEATRE grew out of the pioneering work of RICHARD CRANE and FAYNIA WILLIAMS at Oxford, Bradford and Essex Universities and on the London and Edinburgh Fringe.

BRIGHTON THEATRE was launched at the Brighton Festival 1980 with MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, in co-production with Boundstone School Lancing, on the Fishmarket Hard, Brighton. The show went on to become the West End hit musical MUTINY! starring David Essex and Frank Finlay.

Following premieres on the Brighton and Edinburgh Festival Fringes of GOGOL and VANITY, Brighton Theatre was commissioned to adapt BROTHERS KARAMAZOV for the main programme of the Edinburgh Festival. With three London Critics’ Award Nominations (Best Actor Alan Rickman, Peter Kelly and director/designer Faynia Williams), BROTHERS KARAMAZOV transferred to the West End, toured Russia and Georgia, was translated and produced in many countries. GOGOL and VANITY also played London and toured nationally and worldwide.

Other Edinburgh award-winners included SATAN’S BALL, from Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, later reprised at the University of California Davis, USA…

Also winners of Edinburgh Fringe Firsts were… CLOWNMAKER, SOLDIER SOLDIER, ENVY, PUSHKIN, RED MAGIC, ROLLING THE STONE…

Dormant through the 90s and early 2000s, when Faynia was producing BBC dramas and documentaries and Richard was convening Creative and Dramatic Writing programmes for the University of Sussex, Brighton Theatre re-formed to premiere THE FIRST DOMINO by Jonathan Cash, previewing at the Groucho Club London, then winning Best Theatre Performance and two Best Actor Nominations, Brighton Festival 2009.

Brighton Festival 2010 saw the sight-specific, multi-media I AM A WAREHOUSE premiered at Newhaven Fort, UNRWA staff from Gaza guesting at the Q&A. The show was reprised 2014 with live-link-up to Jerusalem.

Invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to complement their blockbuster Diaghilev Exhibition, Brighton Theatre restaged CLOWNMAKER, retitled DANCING WITH DEMONS, at the V & A, transferring the production to the Brighton Festival 2011.

Brighton Festival 2012 brought a Best Actor Nomination for Brian Capron in Brighton Theatre’s revival of GOGOL.

BLACK VENUS by Jonathan Cash, about the legendary dinner between Josephine Baker and Hermann Goering, premiered at the Concorde 2 Music Venue, Brighton Festival 2013.

Adapted from THE THIRD STAKE by Marin Sorescu, VLAD THE IMPALER played at Oran Mor Glasgow, and the Rialto Theatre, Brighton Festival 2014. With music by Vlad Maistorovici, it was shown as IMPALED: THE OPERA, a work in progress, at the Victoria and Albert Museum 2018.