Winner, The International Fringe Encore Series Award 2022
Shortlisted, Brighton Fringe International Touring Award in Association with The Pebble Trust 2022,
Shortlisted,UnBarred Best Local Artist Award, Brighton Fringe 2022
Nominated, Best Female Performer Brighton Fringe 2013
A tale of sex, seduction and survival in the underworld of 1800’s Brighton. “I’ll lift me skirts and show you what I’ve been hiding from you for thousands of years…”.
Performed in 2024 by Imogen Strachan
Written & directed by Jonathan Brown
A thrilling award-winning one-woman show from the multi-award-winning theatre company, Something Underground, returning after highly acclaimed, sell-out runs in 2019, 2022 and Off-Broadway NYC performances in 2024 (….with, then, the brilliant Isabella McCarthy Sommerville in the titular role)
“Writer Jonathan Brown knows how to drive a plot” (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian)
“Spellbinding” (Fringe Review)
“A secret gem of the Fringe, not to be missed!” ★★★★★ (Remote Goat)
“This exquisite performance is colourful, unrelenting and at times brutal” ★★★★★(Latest)
“Try to catch her if you can” ★★★★★ (Fringe Review)
Written & Directed by Jonathan Brown
Best New Play, New Writing South 2012
Best New Play (shortlist), New Writing South 2013
A Tale of Sex, Seduction and Survival.
Journey into the murky, sordid and dangerous depths of Brighton’s Underworld, an evocation of memories and past lives.
Betsy, a sauce box, a church bell and a woman on the edge, with mouths to feed, nobs to fleece, and blobby boys to repel.
“Please”, he says, “just half-an-hour of your time.”
I says, “Ain’t you listening? You on The Blob? I ain’t in the business for bloody boiler hands and stokers. I don’t do dingers and I don’t do blobby boys.
Look at ya, You look like you’ve got the French Pox on ya. Now get lost. I got nobility waiting on me, with cleans sheets and clean dicks, so I don’t need to go bug hunting. Now sling it!’
Outstanding Show –
“Writer/director Jonathan Brown’s protean imagination and craft…it’s wonderful to see one of the most darkly-visioned of all return….” Fringereview 2019. Full Review
5 Stars! “This incredible piece of writing by Jonathan Brown…… this is utterly compelling theatre of the highest order and deserving of a much wider audience. This is the kind of work that should remind us all of the real need for live theatre. Why do I only have five stars to award?” Latest 7, Brighton 2019. Full Review
“Magnificent!!!!” Terry Garoghan, Brighton May 2019.
It’s 1820 (ish) and Betsy is a Brightonian, “at work”. Having parted company from the St Mary’s Home for Penitent Women, she’s been given a “situation” by the knobs of the town, keeping an eye on the house of builder and land developer Thomas Kemp, lest he should return with the money he owes his creditors. Whilst she’s there, she’s required to give comfort to members of the brotherhood, and it isn’t long before she meets Guardian of the Town and Chair of the Committee for the Provision of the poor, George Bintshaft.
Flowers arrive. Then wine, then dresses. A carriage to take Betsy to a private supper. More wine, soft words, and then a hot wine-laden breath, urgent whisperings, fumblings at the same dress…