Tag Archives: Alastair Whatley

The Flare Path, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Leon Ockenden, Olivia Hallinan, Philip Franks, Adam Best, James Cooney, Simon Darwen, Stephanie Jacob, Shvorne Marks, Siobhan O’ Kelly, William Reay, Holly Smith, Alastair Whatley.

The Second World War asked a lot of the men and women of Britain, of Germany and the greater population of the world, it asked of them for sacrifice, of more resilience than at any time and in many ways to be more selfish in the face of adversity; it is a selfishness of spirit, to not give in despite overwhelming odds and face the world with a smile. It is this selfishness, or at least a singular part of it, that sits at the heart of Terrance Rattigan’s World War Two drama The Flare Path.

Birdsong, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Edmund Wiseman, Emily Bowker, Selma Brook, Max Bowden, Cloudia Swann, Peter Duncan, Emily Altneu, James Staddon, Liam McCormick, Roger Martin, Alastair Whatley, James Findlay.

Even in the foul grip of war, there must be a love that carries the soldier across the boundary between the stench of perpetual death and the sanity that is provided by having something to live for. Love in the midst of war is what keeps the thoughts of ordinary men from turning into barbarians and for those who do the fighting, whether above ground, on the fields of No Man’s Land or in the tunnels, love can be the saving point. Love is a peculiar Birdsong.