Brighton: comedy crime caper and the optimism of love

Charles Edward Pipe is offering a nicotine-stained, absinthe-soaked, one-person crime-comedy play about love for the Brighton Fringe.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, here's an

00:06intriguing show described as a nicotine-stained, absinthe-soaked, one-person crime comedy play

00:13about love. It's coming to the Brighton Fringe from Charles Edward Pipe, a one-man show. There's

00:20quite some show you've conjured up there. Tell me, what was the original inspiration then that made

00:24you want to do this? So, my previous projects were also crime comedy-themed theatre shows.

00:34They were called Five Short Plays Loosely Linked by the Theme of Crime, and then Four More Short

00:39Plays Loosely Linked by the Theme of Crime. So, I love crime comedy. I love shows about, you know,

00:46scoundrels and rogues, people who are on the wrong side of the law, but, you know, they've got a heart

00:53of gold, potentially. So, yeah, taking that through line, that thematic link of crime comedy,

01:01I wanted a chance to really delve deeper into one character. With the short play anthology format,

01:09I didn't have much of a chance to do that. So, yeah, this play was a deliberate opportunity to

01:15really dive into one character's psyche and motives.

01:18Tell me about Jimmy, then. What kind of guy is he?

01:21Jimmy is a very interesting character. He's a real, as I say, scoundrel and rogue. He's

01:31chronically averse to doing any kind of hard work or doing anything honest, really. If there

01:38is an opportunity to scheme or swindle, he will take it without putting all that much thought

01:44into it. He's quite a short-sighted person in terms of planning for the future. But he's

01:51also, he's very optimistic and very hopeful. He believes sincerely, deep in his heart, that

01:57things will work out for him, even if the evidence suggests the exact opposite is true.

02:03And he's in love.

02:05He is in love, yes. That's what the show is about. He gets out of jail,

02:09on parole. And that very same evening of the day he gets out of prison, he has a date. And the show

02:16is about him getting ready for that. He's got no money. So he needs, he needs to find money in order

02:21to buy himself a suit, buy flowers, pay for the date. And the show is about the various

02:27misadventures he goes on to try and get money for this date.

02:31It sounds fantastic. It's at the Brighton Fringe. Good luck with that. You're heading off to all

02:36sorts of other fringes, including Watford and Bath and Edinburgh and Camden. Charles, lovely

02:42to speak to you. I hope it goes brilliantly.

02:44Thank you so much.