Brighton Fringe 2012: Now you don’t even have to leave the house to take part in the Fringe

Hot on the heels of the National Theatre, La Scala and Glyndebourne, who have enjoyed great success with their live performance broadcasts, this year’s Brighton Fringe offers several ways to get involved in the festival without stepping foot in Sussex, or even getting up off the sofa.

Tonight sees the launch of the Anywhere Theatre Festival, where couch potatoes who log onto www.anywherefest.com can choose from live streams of musicals, plays and comedy being performed all over the world. Many are coming from Brisbane, Australia, where the festival is (somewhat confusingly) based so it might mean getting up at a rather unsociable hour, but at least you won’t get rained on – or have to sit behind a tall person.

At the Live Art Salon in Queens Park, there’s a house party going on – in Berlin. Make-shift allows you to join in via a specially designed online interface. Come to the house in Brighton where there will be a live link-up (advance booking essential), or raise a glass of wine with new friends remotely by visiting www.make-shift.net. (From tomorrow, Friday, May 11). No taxi back required.

Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit, a hot ticket at the Nightingale Theatre (finishes tonight), looks at how art can span time and space, even without modern technology.  Unable to leave his native Iran, his funny, tense play goes where he cannot. Last year it was Edinburgh, this year, Brighton and San Francisco. Performed by a different actor every night, who are all instructed not to read the script beforehand, the writer toys with notions of authorship and collective responsibility.  His guesses at what his audience might look like are poignant – half school pen pal, half Death Row inmate – and he leaves a lasting impression as he describes how “it tastes like freedom to be able to travel to other worlds through my words.”

So tune in if you want to get involved, without even having to leave the house.

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