Sue MacLaine
Against a dark-red velvet backdrop, Sue MacLaine as Sid Lester wears a tweed flat cap, suit and tie, while Valerie, in a white fur stole and teal dress, points forward wearing a large red ring.

2013

Sid Lester & his daughter Valerie

… is an alter-ego or devolved autobiographical 'I' that honours and celebrates my love of all things music-hall and vaudeville. Sid is an old tap-and-patter legend whose performing career appears to span 100+ years as grief reorders memory, causing his to fall meaningfully out of sequence in the mind. The performance began as a solo and then engaged Emma Kilbey to portray Sid's ungrateful but emotionally dependent daughter as carer and performance side-kick. The Sid Lester Christmas Special became a must-attend event in the Brighton performance calendar with shows at the Brighton Dome, Nightingale Theatre and the New Venture.

Video

Sid and Valerie — Christmas Special 2013

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A three-part sequence of a performer on white aerial silks on a red-curtained Christmas stage — suspended in the silks, hanging low beside wrapped presents and a tree, then standing and smiling. A three-part Christmas sequence: a small terrier in red antlers on a wooden floor, performers in a green Christmas-tree costume among cardboard trees, then a face framed inside a star-topped tree costume. A three-part sequence on a stage of cardboard Christmas trees — two women beside a terrier in antlers, the pair clasping hands in a dance, and a bearded man playing a drum kit.
  • Set & costume design: Lucy Bradridge
  • Musical director: Greg Mickleborough
  • Ensemble: Liz Aggiss, Jonathan Burrows, Tim Crouch, Janine Fletcher, Sally Kennedy, Vicki McManus, Millie Roberts, Helen Rogers, Lisa Woolfe

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