Archive 2015 - 2018

Sat 29 December 2018, White Hart Hotel, Lewes.

Whimsical whirlwind homage to mixed race Russian poet, Pushkin, in which John Agard transforms his famous verse novel, Eugene Onegin, into a contemporary parlour production in which he plays all of the parts, not just Pushkin and alter-ego Onegin, but love interest Tatyana and the old nursemaid Filipevna!. With live music for accordion, ukulele and voice by Sophia Poznansky and Pam Hewitt. Directed by LLL's Mark C. Hewitt. Part of LLL's Outside Eye season.

Sat 1 December 2018: LLL rehearsal space, Lewes

Performances by actress Rita Suszek of a new text written in Ponglish (half English / half Polish) by poet Maria Jastrzebska, with recorded music by composer Peter Copley. Part of a wider artistic collaboration, supported by LLL as part its Outside Eye season. The eventual installation, which also involved work by visual artist Dagmara Rudkin and photographer / filmmaker Wendy Pye was held in the basement annexe of The Regency Town House in Brighton and reimagined aspects of the story of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen to explore themes of social isolation, gender, sexuality, migration and exile. Part of LLL's Outside Eye season.

Tues 13 November, 2018: All Saints Centre, Lewes​

First performance in East Sussex of Diving into the Wreck, a multi-media production in which individuals in recovery from addiction tell their own story in their own words through film, audio and live performance. With live performances by Daniel Scrivener, Kieran Judge and Jane Muir with support from poet Maggie Sawkins. Musical interludes by Martin Heys and Pam Hewitt. Directed by LLL's Artistic Drector, Mark C. Hewitt. A Tongues&Grooves production. Part of LLL's Outside Eye season of events.

Tragedy & the English

Wednesday 18 July 2018: All Saints Centre, Lewes

Lives of the Artists #4. Playwright Howard Barker in conversation discussing his life, work and tragic form in theatre. An LLL series in which artists talk about how and why they do what they do in the way that they do it. 

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Tues 17 June, 2018: All Saints Centre Lewes​

A restaging in Lewes of the award-winning multimedia production about addiction, written & performed by Maggie Sawkins and directed by LLL's Mark C. Hewitt with video sequences by Lewes artist Abigail Norris. With special aftershow Q&A panel, including former Lewes MP Norman Baker, Professor Aldo Badiani (Director, Sussex Addiction Research & Intervention Centre), Dr Richard Whale (from Brighton & Sussex Medical School who clinically leads a nationally renown Early Intervention in Psychosis service in Brighton), Rose Humphries (activist with Anyone’s Child charity, an international network of families campaigning for safer drug control) and Jane Muir (former addict who runs a Recovery Café in Portsmouth).

Pushkin's Half Hour by John Agard

The Devil's Storybook Experience by Annika Brown

Tues 26 June, 2018: All Saints Centre Lewes

First performance of a whirlwind homage to Pushkin's famous verse novel, Eugene Onegin, by Caribbean British poet John Agard. With live incidental music by Sophia Poznansky (accordion) and Pam Hewitt (ukulele and voice). Plus extracts from The Devil's Storybook Experience by Annika Brown: original edgy songs performed on acoustic guitar and accordion interlinked with snippets of John Agard’s poetry from his collection, From the Devil's Pulpit.

Mon 12th March - Thurs 22nd March 2018: Erlestoke Prison

LLL Productions was invited to hold a second Penned Up festival at HMP Erlestoke, in Wiltshire. Prisoners were involved in a management committee that oversaw all aspects of the festival. Visiting artists and speakers included celebrity chef and musician, Levi Roots, novelists Kit de Waal, Nathan Filer and Courttia Newland, ex-offender/authors Mark Johnson and Shaun Attwood, journalist Gary Younge, ex-footballer and addict Tony Adams and poet Jonathan Edwards. LLL also oversaw the incorporation of Penned Up as an independent organisation.

Fri 12 January, 2018: LLL rehearsal space

A first sharing of an adaptation of The Iliad, or the Poem of Force, written in 1939 by French philosopher and activist Simone Weil was presented as a theatrical storytelling by actress Eleanor Buchan, directed by Mark C. Hewitt. The work, a critique of the effects of war on the human spirit, was presented for a small audience at LLL's rehearsal space in central Lewes. 

7th October - 5th November, 2017: Salisbury Cathedral cloisters

An installation within the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral featuring the writings of prisoners developed in workshops at HMP Erlestoke in Wiltshire. The installation consisted of two panelled towers featuring short passages of text  developed in writing workshops led by David Kendall and LLL's Artistic Director Mark C. Hewitt alongside images of prisoners' tattoos by Lewes photographer Willie Robb. The project was linked to LLL's Penned Up festival held at Erlestoke Prison in March 2017. 

Sat 30 September, 2017: All Saints Centre Lewes

Day long R&D platform in which all performances were no longer than 30 minutes duration. The day featured three performances of T.S. Eliot's visceral dramatic fragment, Sweeney Agonistes, written in the 1920s and presented in a rehearsed reading by seven local actors, Gus Watcham's exquisite live film narration This is always the result and a first preview of Mark C. Hewitt's Songs of the Chambermaids with music for percussion ensemble by Thomas Strønen. 

Sun 24 September, 2017: Lewes All Saints Centre

Presented in association with intercultural performing arts company, Crosspath, as part of LewesOctoberFeast and featuring Guyana-born poet John Agard, actress Leann O’Kasi performing extracts from Isabel Allende’s Aphrodite, chanteuse Pam Hewitt and local chef and writer, Nathalie Mulvan. 

Wednesday 30 August 2017: All Saints Centre, Lewes

Lives of the Artists #3 - Julian Bell: Flat things

Lives of the Artists #3. Julian Bell in conversation. An LLL series - with projected images - in which artists talk about how and why they ended up doing what they do in the way that they do it. 

Tuesday 29 August 2017: All Saints Centre, Lewes

Rehearsed reading of a new play by Louise Monaghan. Performed by Irene Marot & Sam Cox. First in a new series of LLL midweek rehearsed readings featuring new work by local playwrights.

Mon 6th March - Thurs 16th March 2017: Erlestoke Prison

Following the success of what may have been the first ever literature festival in a prison at HMP Lewes in November 2015, LLL Productions developed its second Penned Up festival at HMP Erlestoke, in Wiltshire. Prisoners were involved in a management committee that oversaw all aspects of the festival. Visiting artists included Billy Bragg, Kit de Waal, Dreda Say Mitchell, Erwin James, Noel "Razor" Smith, Mr Gee and a performance of Diving into the Wreck, a multimedia production developed by poet Maggie Sawkins and LLL's Artistic Director Mark C. Hewitt in which addicts in recovery tell their own story.

Friday 10 February 2017: private flat in Kemp Town, Brighton

Final part of the R&D of a thought-provoking new spoken word performance by emerging poet, Rachel Shorer. Drunken exploits, regrettable romances and embarassing outfits: there are a lot of ways to mess up in the first decade of adulthood. A work about growing up and f**king up in the age of social media.The work was developed at LLL's rehearsal space, directed by Mark C. Hewitt.

Sunday 9 October 2016: All Saints Centre, Lewes

LLL hosted a second warm-up performance of John Agard’s surreal one man show ahead of a run of dates at London's Southbank Centre. The production is directed by LLL's Artistic Director, Mark C. Hewitt. Read the Southbank review here »

Sat 8 October 2016: All Saints Centre, Lewes.

Billed as 'a celebration of connectedness for those of us suffering from the brexit blues', the Europa Cabaret was a well-attended extravaganza featuring performances by Amor Flamenco, The Brighton & Hove Russian Choir, Pam Hewitt & Anna Tabor's Euro Cabaret plus contributions from poets Maria Jastrz?bska, Catherine Smith, John Agard and singer Adrienne Thomas.

Sat 10 September 2016: All Saints Centre, Lewes.

Sell out trio performance of Eastern European Jewish music by Lorin Sklamberg (American Grammy award winning lead singer of the Klezmatics) with Sussex-based clarinetist Merlin Shepherd and acclaimed vocalist / pianist Polina Shepherd, originally from Siberia.

Dismays and Rainbows

Weds 20 July, 2016: Lewes All Saints Centre 

Artist Peter Messer, in conversation with LLL’s Artistic Director Mark Hewitt, discussed his journey and development as an artist, his eidetic tendencies, his literary and artistic heroes and his bête noires. Second in a series of LLL events in which artists talk about how and why they ended up doing what they do in the way that they do it. 

Mon 9th - Weds 11th May 2016: Komedia Studio, Brighton Fringe 

Three performances during Brighton Fringe of a live literature production by Gus Watcham developed in association with LLL Productions.

In The Crush, ageing Kathy longs for the man who barely knows she exists.

In This is always the result, chaotic violence and human frailty crash in on Sarah's ordinary life in a seaside town.

Directed by Mark C. Hewitt with video sequence by Abigail Norris.

Twice Upon A Time - further ponderings of a wanderer in doubt

Sun 24 April, 2016: Lewes All Saints Centre 

Using stories, illusions, music and humour, visual artist Tom Walker went behind his own scenes to reveal his memories, mentors, methods, myths and madness. First in a series of LLL events in which artists talk about how and why they ended up doing what they do in the way that they do it. 

LLL's programme of scratch evenings and work-in-progress performances, supporting new writing and emerging live literature productions.

Sun 10 April, 2016: LLL Artists' Workspace

Rachel Shorer: 7 Mistakes Every Girl Makes in her Twenties

Jo Wonder: Ziggy Starlight

Tues 8 December, 2015: Lewes All Saints Centre 

Three critically acclaimed writers - Iain Sinclair, Lee Rourke, Suzanne Joinson - and Lewes writer/painter Julian Bell, discussed the inspiration they draw from the South of England; its literary history, landscapes, towns and character. This event was part of the Reading the South, a reading and creative writing campaign run in collaboration with East and West Sussex libraries.

Sun 29 November 2015: All Saints Centre, Lewes

Three events with Polish connections.

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Cedars of Walpole Park. Launch of a new poetry collection in English and Polish by Maria Jastrzebska with Monika Stachyra.

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Behind the Curtain. Illustrated talk by artists Andrzej Klimowski & Danusia Schejbal from their graphic novel about attending art college in communist Warsaw during the late 1970s and 1980s.

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My Mother's Laugh. Rehearsed reading of a new theatre monologue written by Leah Roshinsky, performed by Eleanor Buchan & directed by Mark C. Hewitt. 

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Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute.

Sat 28 November 2015 - All Saints Centre, Lewes

Second LLL preview of the mischievous one-man show by poet John Agard, developed in partnership with LLL. A satirical revisting of Christopher Columbus and his 'discovery' of The New World that mixes the tides of cabaret, calypso and the absurd.