Brighton Fringe 2026

The Dance of Time: A New Black Comedy

The Lantern Theatre, Brighton

Genre: Comedy, Contemporary, Drama, Fringe Theatre, New Writing, Short Plays, Theatre

Venue: Grania Dean Studio, The Lantern Theatre, Brighton

Festival: Brighton Fringe

Low Down

Review

Death? It’s far too serious for that. And far too funny. Tom and Mary face a narrowing future together. Tom’s just been diagnosed. Twice. Most recently with terminal cancer. And just before that with Lewy Body dementia (LBD). Tim Coakley (writer of the superb, sinewy Ravel play In Search of the Dance last year, and before that another on Pirandello) has shifted gear. Though his habitual phantasmagoria motif persists. This, a domestic contemporary play, is also fascinating. The Dance of Time: A New Black Comedy is directed at the Grania Dean Studio, Lantern Theatre, Brighton by Petina Hapgood till May 18. Even here there’s a hint of Anthony Powell’s great roman fleuve, A Dance to the Music of Time, itself taking its title from a Poussin painting of 1636.   

Tom is taken by Julian Howard McDowell: sparkling from his recent Kenneth Horne in the national Round the Horne anniversary tour. Mary’s the consummate Sam Nixon, pointing up several of the region’s best productions in recent years. There’s clearly a disparity in age and something about Mary.

One reveal has to come at the end, and in 83 minutes the play takes perhaps 13-18 minutes too long to get there. Not because of the payoff, which one guesses immediately, and whose resolution is sweet. But because the real sinew of this play, its far more devastating reveals we don’t see coming, are spread through high-jinks. These are cleverly embodied as five stages of grieving: here for the life you’re about to exit at 75.  Too soon.

So denial, anger, bargaining, despair, acceptance sashay through the drama in a series of dances. And cleverly too Coakley gives the play five stages as four times Tom drops into a sleep and a forgetting, each time waking and exclaiming with quiet joy: “Mary.” Each ushers in a stage of the grieving process. And each too ushers a stage of sometimes joyful diversion: recalling the past and Tom’s determined seduction, their honeymoon, dressing up in cowboy hats and Al Capone era fantasies; their marital problems, accusations and confessions, eliminating one’s demons (shooting all your tormentors dead, including a taxi driver who short-changed him by 25p 15 years ago!); and forgiveness too. A confession in one sequence has its resolution later. Twice over. It’s not what one person thinks they’re confessing to that’s the real betrayal. But is it a betrayal? On one level they’ve both betrayed each other: on another, tried to save their marriage.

Tom’s a CEO of some acronymic bank, IBA. He’s often away on conferences, leaving Mary, a PhD lecturer who had a teaching and a lecturing circuit as career, giving it all up for love. But Tom’s never there to share it with. It seems a slight mismatch, not least ideologically: but there’s chemistry, even if there’s hilarious moments. “You were like an animal.” ”I was faking it.” “I know you were faking it.” “I know you knew I was faking it.” It wittily echoes Thom Gunn’s 1954 poem ‘Carnal Knowledge’: “You I know you know I know you know.”

Coakley’s play has all the ingredient of something outstanding. It’s not really a black comedy, any more than most of Ayckbourn’s are (and Ayckbourn’s written far darker than here). It’s a sweet work that needs some pointing up. The jinks take too long and diffuse the superb core structure. I counted the times Tom fell asleep so knew the play was crafted in five sections corresponding to five stages. Who else is so OCD as to count though? It’s also clear the trope of Tom’s succumbing to Lewy Body is broached each time he falls asleep or drops out. At one point he forgets he was CEO of something. This isn’t carried through consistently; which might counterpoint the different stages. Perhaps though it would be difficult to manage dramatically. And lose a lightness of touch.

Lighting here is subtle and shifting, though perhaps could be pointed up at this stage, and the sequences more clear-cut. Because the pace is rather steady and doesn’t ratchet up till towards the end, there’s a feel of mission-drift.  Props are good: bench and plants depicting a park, and around the walking frame/buggy with bag, an improbable choice of hats! With no attributions here (indeed the flyer could have mentioned the actors) Hapgood especially, the cast and Lantern deserve equal credit.

Both actors though are superb. Tom, querulous occasionally crotchety, clearly great fun when on form, is realised to silver service level by McDowell. Nixon brings a calming, consolatory and occasionally passionate presence. She pitches her role perfectly in other ways too. No spoilers here.

This is clearly an endearing play, and already sold out on several nights. So no praise or suggestion from me will make any difference. See it for yourselves, because it’s clearly a play with a future as long as Tom’s is apparently short. But there’s a delicious twist to what we think might be short, and a question-mark. Delusional or transcendent, Coakley delicately nudges us towards affirmation. Here’s hoping it returns, more clear-cut, perhaps shorter unless freighted with new sharps (as it were). A recommended comedy that has the potential to be much more.

Performance Schedule Brighton Fringe – World Premiere Venue: The Lantern Theatre, 77 St James’s Street, Brighton, BN2 1PA. Dates: Friday 15th – Monday 18th May 2026. Time: 7:00 PM. Tickets: Limited availability. Book Brighton Fringe Tickets.

Published May 17, 2026 by Simon Jenner