Category Archives: Theatre

Jeremy Hardy, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is a simmering volcano that surely lives in the heart of Jeremy Hardy, a volcano that just wants to burst open and let the clouds of ash, pumice and lava fall where it must and melt what it can. It is a volcano that many would like to see crack open, devour a certain section of the population and then serenely go on biding his time until the next idiot comes along and pokes the genuine joy within to the point where explosions of distaste are vented once more.

Jeremy Hardy, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Happily Ever After, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Paul Curley, Ady Thompson, Eve Shotton, Bruno Mendes.

Happily Ever After is inspired by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland book King & King which was published in 2002, which tells the story of two young princes who fall in love and marry. It opened up the debate of how young do children have to be to be able to understand gay relationships. The book has made its mark and has since been published in eight languages. It has gone on to receive great success, as well as hitting opposition from parents, teachers and social conservatives.

Happily Ever After, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(338 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

An Evening With Boycott & Aggers (The Second Innings.), Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cricket is all when it comes to some people’s lives and it is with little wonder when you consider that at one time the game, especially the Test arena, was seen by millions of people across British summer’s on the B.B.C. as a right and not as is now the case a preserve for those who are able to take, or even wish to procure, Sky Television’s Shilling.

An Evening With Boycott & Aggers (The Second Innings.), Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Narvick, Theatre Review. Studio, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Joe Shipman, Nina Yndis, Lucas Smith.

Musicians: Lizzie Nunnery, Martin Heslop, Vidar Norheim.

In many ways the war in Norway has been pretty much forgotten by many in the U.K. and beyond. The thought these days seems to centre on the fields of France, the systematic destruction of Eastern Europe and the polarised viewpoints of the war in the Far East. Yet Norway and especially for her citizens, the uneasy liaisons that lay between opposing Nazi rule and the fraternisation that reigned in the hearts of her young women starved of male attention and the deaths of so many her young men has somehow been cleansed, sanitised and thrown into the same realms of forgetfulness as those faced by the Channel Islands.

Narvick, Theatre Review. Studio, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Bouncers, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Paul Broughton, Danny O’ Brien, Andrew Schofield, Michael Starke.

The night is young, the perfume is sprayed with liberal application, the smell of the aftershave overpowers the testosterone emanating from the raw majesty that is the Friday night club and disco and the D.J., who might not save your life on the night but who will certainly play a few good numbers to get the girls up and dancing, is full of ready innuendo. If your names are not down though and you’re not ready to party with the best doormen around then the Bouncers, on behalf of the management, reserve the right to make you laugh long into the night.

Bouncers, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Dreamboats And Miniskirts, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast:  Alex Beaumont, Alan Howell, Elizabeth Carter, Laura Sillett, David Luke, Anna Campkin, Will Tierney, Michael Kantola, Sheridan Lloyd, Mike Slander, Daniel O’ Flanagan, Joseph Hardy, Josh Tye, Chloe Edwards-Wood.

 

The music world can be a cruel mistress, especially when you have had one hit record and the path is opened up before you as if the parting of the Red Sea has happened before your eyes and Moses is on the other side showing you this week’s sales and a mouthing over the crashing tumbling waves around you that Sir Paul McCartney has expressed an interest in doing a duet, with the fickle nature that comes in the form of a scratched record, dreams can be broken and dashed upon a cruel sea.

Dreamboats And Miniskirts, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(552 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Hal Cruttenden, Comedy Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Mean, moody, a man with more chips on his shoulder than N.W.A. had hits in the U.K. and one man you wouldn’t want to cross or exchange a dirty look with…of course that’s the interpretation of the comedic genius that resides deep in the heart of one of the most cheerful and amiable men arguably in the world today.

Hal Cruttenden, Comedy Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Chopin’s Last Stand, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Phil Aughey.

The allure of the Edinburgh Fringe is such that no matter where in the world the theatre company or performer is based, the call of the Scottish lowlands and gentility of Edinburgh is never too far away. Especially when it offers a perspective of a composer of such repute as Chopin but told with great nerve to highlight his time in the country before his early passing from Tuberculosis, such is the effects of Chopin’s Last Stand.

Chopin’s Last Stand, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The Titanic Orchestra, Theatre Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ivan Barnev, Stuart Crowther, John Hannah, Heidi Niemi, Jonathan Rhodes.

The strains of The Last Waltz, perhaps the loneliness of Nearer To My God Than Thee or the finality of Autumn should with illusion be observed and be heard as the lives of four alcoholic tramps living the same existence day in, day out on the railways is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of another, a man who can see their lives and the fantasy of humanity’s deception that lives in them all

The Titanic Orchestra, Theatre Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Souvenirs, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Walsh, Ellice Stevens, Oscar Owen, Kitty Murdoch, Tommy Loftus, Ella Tebay.

Children can be cruel, it is in their cruelty that they either learn how to be adults that care and show empathy or they descend like monkeys into the art of throwing faeces around to show bitterness and superiority over others. It is the state of such things that can also see a child rise to the point where they fit in more closely with the adult world and its often doomed relationships.

Souvenirs, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)