A director’s chair, script and drinks table await us at this Brighton Fringe production of You Oughta Be in Pictures. Taking to the stage, Polis Loizou introduces the concept of the show to us – as if we are to receive a lecture or presentation. Loizou, a former film student, has uncovered footage from an actor’s audition in Hollywood. Yet, we are not shown any segment of this – instead, he will re-enact the unseen aspect of the audition, the words and some of the assumed act

Lucia Raffaella Mariani enters the stage tentatively, almost nervously, wearing a robe over a swimsuit. She begins by asking what at first seems a simple question – whether she can make the audience fall in love with her before the production ends. The reason for the red roses we were given soon becomes clear: we are to adorn the stage with them by the show’s conclusion if she has succeeded. The premise posed by Mariani is more complex than it first appears. The suggestion t