Category Archives: Theatre

Half The Sky, Theatre Review. View Two Gallery, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lisa Symonds, Natalie Timmins, Emma J. Hind, Claryn Scott, Jennifer Bea.

Music: Reid Anderson.

Liverpool is a truly remarkable place. You can spend ten years immersed in the arts scene here, you can think that you have seen everything, in all of the many performance spaces that the city has to offer, from the great parks and the Williamson Tunnels, to the bastions of entertainment of The Empire, Playhouse and Echo Arena, taking in the myriad of large and small venues in between and then you can find yourself in a large room, in a gallery, high above Matthew Street and even there, in this fair city, if you look hard enough, you will find theatre.

Half The Sky, Theatre Review. View Two Gallery, Liverpool. full post

(1127 words, estimated 4:30 mins reading time)

The Herbal Bed, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Philip Correia, Patrick Driver, Jonathon Guy Lewis, Emma Lowndes, Michael Mears, Charlotte Wakefield, Matt Whitchurch, Heidi Morgan.

William Shakespeare will always be remembered for being Britain’s finest ever writer, however not many of us will know much about his life and family. In this revival of Peter Whelan’s The Herbal Bed, Royal & Derngate, Rose Theatre Kingston and English Touring Theatre have collaborated to bring this drama back to the stage.

The Herbal Bed, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

The Environmentalists, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Aaron Barker, Aaron Kehoe, Alice Corrigan, Callum Crighton, Chloe Hughes, Courtney Parry, Daniel Fitzgerald, Eiffel Lu, Ellie Turner, Emily Woosey, Ester Larkin, Felipe Pacheco, George Clarke, Georgie Lomax Ford, Hannah McGowan, Harry Seargant, Heidi Henders, Isobel Balchin, Jake Holmes, James Bibby, Jamie Pye, Joe Davies, Joe Williams, John Collins, Johnathon McGuirk, Jordan Connerty, Joshua Meadows, Katie Smith, Keeley Ray, Leah Gold, Lucy White, Luke Logan, Luke Patterson, Margaret Saunders, Melissa Waddington, Nadia Mohammad Noor, Nathan Russell, Nick Crosbie, Olivia Doherty, Paige Bradbury, Poppy Hughes, Stuart Dagnall, Tami Holland.

The Environmentalists, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(524 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Who’s Afraid Of The Working Class?, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Connor Lee Dye, Matilda Weaver, Michael Bryan, Sophie Cottle, Chris Mohan, Fia Harrington, Emily Kingston, Joseph Wood, Maisie Young, James Botterill, Anna Brochmann, Hailey Mashburn.

Performed by third-year L.I.P.A. acting students, Luke Barnes’ epic new play, Who’s Afraid Of The Working Class?, looks at the brief history of one fictional community, whose people are trying to keep their heads above water whilst all around them their jobs are being removed alongside the industry and the unions. Unity one is completely opened up for this production and all actors remain on stage throughout, completing costume changes and constructing the set for scene changes themselves.

Who’s Afraid Of The Working Class?, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(342 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

A Raisin In The Sun, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * *

Cast: Alisha Bailey, Mike Burnside, Solomon Gordon, Angela Wynter, Aron Julius, Everal A Walsh, Susan Wokoma, Ashley Zhangazha.

Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright and activist wrote A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 and was the first black woman to write a play that was performed on Broadway. The play highlights the struggles of black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago and follows the story of the Youngers; a lower middle class family who struggle to gain middle class acceptance.

A Raisin In The Sun, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(332 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Bardolph’s Box, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Anna Buckland, Stuart Crowther, Harvey Robinson.

To bring a new generation of theatre lovers into the realms of existence, the effort must be made to demonstrate to them just what a wonderful world it is; if Government in all its selfish motives keeps sending down messages that science and the pursuit of feeding the gluttonous economy must be paramount, then every form of the arts must counteract this by showing the young that the soul is just as important to nurture as the wallet.

Bardolph’s Box, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

The Ale House, Grand Central Hall. Theatre Review, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Philip Olivier, Lindzi Germain, Jake Abraham, George Wilson, Nick Birkinshaw, Bernie Foley, James McMartin, Les Doherty, Kivan Dene.

It is an institution almost unlike anything else in the world, often copied, sometimes mocked but never considered sincere or as authentic as the original; the great British public house remains, despite some knocks over the years, still the fabric of everyday life and it is one that should be lauded even as the so called sophistication of palates and life changes.

The Ale House, Grand Central Hall. Theatre Review, Liverpool. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

I Am Thomas, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: John Cobb, Charlie Folorunsho, Amanda Hadingue, Iain Johnstone, Myra McFadyen, Hannah McPake, Dominic Marsh, John Pfumojena.

The state sanctioned death of a person who argues or probes the idea that there is no God seems an abhorrence to modern day British society, after all the freedom to question is one that we rightly hang onto with dogged grip, that must never be allowed to slip through our fingers lest dark days revisit the land; the freedom to assert a position against a God, monarchy and ruling classes is something that a more enlightened age must strive to keep.

I Am Thomas, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Catacombs Of Liverpool’s Darkest History -The Gangs Of Victorian Liverpool. St George’s Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Michael Hawkins, Nathan Tunstall, Lawrence Larkin, Stephen Turner, Warren Kettle, Niall Ross Hogan, Lois Crawford, Samantha Walton, Katie King, Jimmy McLean, Michael Swift, Jordan Burke, Kathryn Rigby.

St. George’s Hall opened its doors to the public in 1854. Within its Victorian walls it boasts the splendid Great Hall with its vaulted ceiling and Minted floor and the Small Concert Room still used for concerts today. Perhaps the most unusual feature amongst all this grandeur is the Crown and Civil Court which were still working courts until the 1980s and it is where local company Lovehistory focuses their current show.

The Catacombs Of Liverpool’s Darkest History -The Gangs Of Victorian Liverpool. St George’s Hall. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Lampedusa, Theatre Review. St. James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Mikhail Basmadjian, Pia Zammit.

The cold wind that had pummelled Malta from the early hours of the morning could not have been more aptly delivered as Anders Lustgarten’s incredible and soul touching play Lampedusa was brought to the St. James Cavalier with the same ferocity of spirit and damning verdict of Europe’s response to the on-going atrocity and loss of human life across Africa and the Middle-East.

Lampedusa, Theatre Review. St. James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)