Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Grant Robert Keelan, Stuart Crowther, Morten Aamodt.
In an opening that could have had Monty Python’s Eric Idle applaud for the utter creativity employed in the many different words used to describe sex between two men, L.I.P.A.’s Stuart Crowther’s play Spunk was something of a revelation.
Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz will direct Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock in a major co-production with Bristol Old Vic. The cast will be led by Niamh Cusack as the eponymous Juno and Des McAleer as her husband Jack Boyle. The production is at Bristol Old Vic from the 5th to 27th September before moving to the Liverpool Playhouse from 1st to 18th October.
Hilarity and tragedy rub shoulders in Sean O’Casey’s classic Irish drama set in Dublin 1922. Juno and the Paycock features his trademark mix of comic double acts, political upheavals, domestic longings, and characters who are never far away from an opulent word or song.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Carl James Fowler, Carmel Skelly, Chris Douglas, Craig Sharkey, Dave Unsworth, Francesco La Rocca, Jim Welsh, Kirsty Taylor, Mike Mackenzie, Nicky Loftus, Pat Hart, Nathan Bates, Peter Bromilow, Rachael Reason, Rita Sharp, Robyn La Rocca, Steve Dagleish, Vera Farrell.
Musicians from the Halewood Choir: Maurice Wileman, Howie Blakeborough, Phil Dean, Pam Bovis, Jill Marquis, Joan Rutledge, Patsy McDonough, Hazel Brennan, Anne Dean, Liz Haygarth.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Geraldine James, Neil Maskell, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alistair Petrie, Alexandra Roach, Nathen Stewart- Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Kevin Eldon, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Michael Maloney, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Will Attenborough, Allan Corduner, Juliet Cowan, Keith Farnham, Candida Gubbins, Alex Lowe, Bruce Mackinnon, Gerard Monaco, Damien Thomas.
Utopia is never meant to be reached, if it was then Sir Thomas More completely missed the point as he wrote in praise to England before finding himself on the wrong side of a King’s wrath. Dystopia on the other hand is the easiest level of human attainment and for those on the run in Channel 4’s riveting series, Utopia, dystopia might actually be more preferable.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
D.C. Comics’ Justice League has so many parts to it, so many interesting characters within its framework that at times the reader could be forgiven for overlooking perhaps one of the more interesting members within its ranks, that of Police Scientist Barry Allen, A.K.A The Flash.
With American television finally producing a television series of one of D.C.’s finest creations, on the back of the success that The Arrow has had, The Flash seems finally ready to take his place in the wider world of acknowledgement as the great hero he has always been.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Broken Three Ways they might be, however there is nothing fragmented or faulty with the Wirral band’s debut album Return To The Shack.
This punchy force of nature with a sly knowing grin attached album is a breath of fresh air in a world that at times seems to have forgotten what Ska and Punk was about. Whilst Ska especially might not be the first thing you think of when the term the Wirral comes up in conversation, Broken Three Ways address the discussion in waiting head on, the banter that steams into view of comparisons with the likes of The Selecter uppermost on people’s thoughts. There is no comparison worthy of placing before them though, except that they both sound incredibly awesome, it is the only comparison that should be mentioned.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *
Evolution is a wondrous event to behold, revolution can, in part, be just as thrilling; especially when it means the old guard whose ideas have come to a natural end are swept away. To place both progressions into the same album though can seem as though for some, that the world has been turned upside down and that Progressive has just a little bit of its enormous and well-meaning heart.
Yes, arguably the long standing Prog Rock band still going from the initial burst of creative freedom in which Prog bought to the world, somehow have possibly released the worst record of their sustained career.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Hell is a place that is reserved for the most evil, the most corrupt or those that have caused such monumental anguish to a fellow human being and it takes a great person to avoid its lure and perhaps aside from Faustus, only a daughter of Zeus might stand any chance of dealing with the realm.
For Wonder Woman, single handed the finest female creation in the D.C. Universe the reason she has to go to Hell is to return Zola, a mortal woman who is the latest in line to be carrying the father of the Gods’ child, back to realm of humanity and away from the lives of those who manipulate the lives of mortals for their own benefit or amusement.
Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse have appointed director Nick Bagnall as their first permanent Associate Director. Bagnall joins the company following the success of The Last Days of Troy at Royal Exchange, Manchester and Shakespeare’s Globe. The theatre’s artistic team will also be bolstered by the appointment of Lindsey Alvis, who was previously with Headlong, as Producer.
Bagnall is currently directing Britannia Waves the Rules at Royal Exchange, Manchester. He also directed Henry VI Parts I, II and III for Shakespeare’s Globe which included four open-air performances in battlefields from the plays. His other directing credits include Betrayal (Sheffield Crucible), Billy Liar (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Entertaining Mr Sloane (Trafalgar Studios).
“Nothing ever goes to plan, not even your own death…”
After finding his father hanged in the garage, Smith becomes infatuated with the idea of following his father’s footsteps and killing himself.
Two years later he places an advert on the Internet searching for a suicide partner… Natalie answers.
As an unlikely friendship unfolds, Smith and Natalie plan how to end their lives. But nothing ever goes to plan…. not even your own death.
Young and Suicidal is a provoking new production exploring youth and suicide. It debuts at Liverpool’s Lantern Theatre from Tuesday 26th August -Friday 29th 2014 at 7:30pm (Matinee performance on Friday 29th at 1.00pm).