REVIEW: Time Keeps the Drummer at the Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome
Time Keeps The Drummer was brave, engaging, funny and also thought-provoking all at the same time.
It featured an adult percussionist and twelve children from Brighton. Entirely improvised and evolving over five hours, each performance unfolds as a unique and unrepeatable experience, directed live and shaped in real-time.
Part performance, part installation, the show is suitable for everyone: adults who are interested in contemporary experimental work, as well as children and families who are seeking out bold new experiences.
I took my two children. We’d been to see another show in the morning, one which had been eagerly awaited, and we’d also gone for a mooch at Spiegel Gardens and had pizza and ice cream in between.
So they were not really that keen on another show. I know, I know, dreadful planning on my part.
The show runs for five hours and people can leave and return. Never mind five hours I thought, I’ll see if they’ll sit for five minutes.
Thank goodness then that there was a fluffy carpet set out in front of the stage with pillows strewn for people to make themselves comfortable.
The children were handed headphones – another plus- to hear the drummer, who was omnipresent at the back of the stage.
We were told we could sleep if we wanted, make nests, rest.
They got to work. They weren’t the only ones. The audience wasn’t predominantly children, but the ones who were there either on their own or with parents on the carpet, were busy making dens and nests out of pillows.
And this is the thing.
On the stage, children were showing the passing of time: playing with trains, sewing, chatting and dancing slowly across the stage while the drummer beat on.
On the carpet, the children were passing their time in similar ways. Some dozed, some engineered, some laughed and chatted. It was as interactive as you can get without being interactive.
It was also, as previously mentioned, thought-provoking.
Audience members were asked: “What does time mean to you?”
Only the grown-ups mind, and only those on seats. (The ‘no-fun zone,’ my youngest whispered.)
It is, of course, a stark question and not one that is answered easily. The answers came, hesitantly:
“Something that feels a bit stretchy or changes.”
“Different things on different days”
“Not good; deadlines”.
As if to counter the seriousness with which the grown-ups were treating the subject (Mr ‘deadlines’ in particular looked quite sternly at his interviewer, causing my two to giggle uncontrollably), a small boy dressed in a grey wig and a fake moustache was then interviewed on stage by another child.
The little boy was asked his name and his job.
“My name is Dave and I’m a fireman,” he retorted and then caused the audience to erupt into laughter as he said things like ‘I don’t watch the news because it’s boring’, ‘I am 45 so quite old now’.
And as Dave was explaining what he does as a fireman, a young girl stood stock-still holding a branch. Another pair played with a train set. And the drummer kept on and on.
We also heard from ‘Lara,’ an air traffic controller, who was very clear about getting driven to work in a taxi. And drinking good coffee.
Hearing adult things from a child’s perspective really weighs on the subject of time. The depictions are that we as adults worry about things that don’t matter, like frothy coffee and deadlines, was evident. 
Every now and then children would put words up on the wall: ‘Equator’, ‘Limited’ ‘Long’, which we later found out other children (or, indeed, grownups) had written on exiting the show.
My children stayed over an hour and they both wanted to return. They loved it.
Time Keeps The Drummer originally premiered at WestK in Hong Kong (April 2025), before transferring to the UK for a wider ongoing tour.
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