Launch – David Bowie: You’re Not Alone
Brighton Corn Exchange: July – August 2027
A groundbreaking David Bowie immersive experience is coming to Brighton Dome Corn Exchange as a new era of artistic ambition takes shape. The venue is set to become the home of David Bowie’s world next summer, with the acclaimed immersive experience David Bowie: You’re Not Alone coming to the Corn Exchange for a limited season from 16 July to 30 August 2027 next year.
The announcement was made at Brighton Dome this morning, with the Lightroom production arriving in the city during what would have been Bowie’s 80th birthday year.
There is, however, more to this announcement than another major touring production coming to Brighton. It offers a glimpse of the artistic direction being pursued by Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival under Chief Executive Lucy Davies. With a creative hand on the helm of this august venue, she and her creative team are making ambitious use of the newly transformed Corn Exchange, exploring new forms of audience engagement and opening up the building to experiences that sit somewhere between performance, exhibition, cinema and installation. Who better to demonstrate these possibilities than Bowie?
Produced by London immersive venue Lightroom and designed by Studio 59, David Bowie: You’re Not Alone surrounds audiences with 11-metre-high projected walls and an expansive open floor, drawing on thousands of hours of material from the David Bowie Archive in New York. Rather than concentrating on the familiar mythology of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke, the production looks behind the masks to the man himself, that is, Bowie the artist, thinker and relentless creative chameleon.
The show is structured thematically rather than chronologically, exploring theatricality, spirituality, songwriting and the transformative power of creativity. Iconic performances sit alongside rarely seen and never before exhibited material, including photography, drawings, lyrics, personal notes and audio recordings.
Bowie himself is the sole voice heard throughout, but this is an opportunity for audiences to open ourselves up to new experiences and encourage an “omnivorous cultural hunger” as Mark Grimmer, the co-founder and Studio Director of Studio 59, and who wrote and directed the production stated today.
Grimmer was also Creative Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s David Bowie Is exhibition. He shared his thoughts at Brighton Dome this morning, suggesting our fascination with Bowie’s various personas can sometimes obscure the person who created them. He stated, “It says something about our relationship with artistic heroes that we’re drawn to mystery, otherness, the alien… In Bowie’s case, this is our construct, not his”.
For Grimmer, that creativity is ultimately about something much bigger than Bowie himself. “Throughout his career, Bowie repeatedly resisted being figured as anything but human. Rather than undermining his mystique, we designed a show to celebrate Bowie as a champion of human creativity.”
That idea of curiosity and openness ran through this morning’s launch, with a conversation between Lucy Davies, and Grimmer exploring the idea of Bowie’s legacy allowing audiences to encounter something unfamiliar, to experiment, change direction and, as one description put it, “change lanes”. It is an especially apt philosophy for an artist who spent his career refusing to remain in one place creatively.
The production also uses sound to put audiences inside Bowie’s performances rather than simply in front of them. Each track has been newly configured for Lightroom’s specialised spatial audio system by multi-award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry, whose credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and David Bowie Is. The result is intended to be an experience of sound, as well as image, with the audience physically surrounded by the performances.
For Brighton, there is another layer to the story. “This is a city that loves its music,” Lucy Davies, Director and CEO of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, said at the launch. Davies described David Bowie: You’re Not Alone as a new collaboration with Lightroom and a “homecoming” for Bowie to Brighton Dome, referring to his notorious 1973 appearance at the venue and subsequent ban, which has finally been revoked after all these years.
“This marks a new collaboration with the mighty Lightroom and a homecoming for Bowie to Brighton Dome, after his 1973 ban,” she said. “Over the summer of 2027 our doors will stay open for this landmark experience in our beautiful Corn Exchange, bringing something very special to the city.”
That is worth noting. The refurbished Corn Exchange is not simply being returned to use as a conventional performance space. Its groundbreaking flexible configuration used to great effect in this year’s Brighton Festival, with improved acoustics and digital production capabilities, allows it to accommodate work conceived around the architecture and movement of the audience.
David Bowie: You’re Not Alone will make use of that potential, with audiences moving through an expansive audiovisual environment rather than sitting in conventional rows facing a stage. It is precisely the sort of project that can demonstrate what the newly developed Corn Exchange can offer.
Davies has been at the helm of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival since January 2025, having previously been Executive Director of the Young Vic. Her arrival coincides with a significant new chapter for the Dome following the redevelopment of its historic buildings. This is also a clear steer that as Chief Executive of the Brighton Festival and Brighton Dome, she is really rolling up her sleeves and bringing exciting new artistic developments and engagement to our city. A new way to bring the Corn Exchange to life, explore new avenues for audience engagement, developing the way that Brighton Dome is open to the public, and plough new territory of artistic vision.
That means bringing together artistic development, technology, heritage, music and audience engagement, while being prepared to move beyond the familiar boundaries of what constitutes a performance or cultural experience. It’s a round of applause from me!
Bowie is an unusually appropriate figurehead for that approach. His career crossed music, theatre, visual art, fashion, film and popular culture, continually challenging audiences to follow him somewhere new. “Art, in all its forms, is our best hope for understanding what it means to be alive,” he said. You’re Not Alone takes that spirit and translates it into a 21st-century immersive format.
For Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, it is also an opportunity to show audiences what their newly transformed spaces can do. And, if this morning’s launch is anything to go by, what happens inside them is going to become considerably more adventurous.
The production is made in close collaboration with and authorised by the David Bowie Estate.
Event supported by Pembroke Financial Planning.
Details
David Bowie: You’re Not Alone runs at Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange from Friday 16 July to Monday 30 August 2027. Members’ presale opens at noon on Thursday 1 October, with general sale from noon on Friday 2 October.
Dates: Friday 16 July to Monday 30 August 2027
Venue: Corn Exchange, New Rd, Brighton, BN1 1UG
Tickets: Limited early-bird tickets are available from £26 including fees. Brighton Dome members receive £2 off full-price tickets.
Concessions include £17 tickets for 3–11-year-olds before 6pm, 12–18-year-olds and students. Under-14s must be accompanied by an adult, while under-twos can attend free with a ticket for sessions before 6pm.
Suitable for all ages. Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult aged 18+. Children aged 2 and under go FREE but do require a ticket. Please note that 6pm–7.30pm performances are for ages 12+
Children need to be supervised in the space and we ask that parents are considerate of the experience for all our guests
Running time: 1 hour
Accessible: Details here.
The venue offer British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted showings of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone. BSL is incorporated into the show as well as enhanced subtitles. BSL showings are on the following dates: Wed 21 Jul, Sun 25 Jul, Thu 29 Jul, Sun 8 Aug, Thu 12 Aug, Tue 17 Aug, Sun 22 Aug, Thu 26 Aug
Relaxed Performances TBA
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