Category Archives: Theatre

The Ghosts Of Kirkdale, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Ashleigh Jones, Nicola Ravenscroft, Rhiannon Davies McCabe, Amy McAlan, Kate Emmett, Emily Rigby, Courtney Carragher, Emily Washington, Olivia Coleman, Reece Armstrong, John Risley, Ceri Wyn, Ian Curran, Nigel Peever.

There have been many memorable Victorian characters created over the years. Perhaps Charles Dickens springs to mind as one who really captured what life was like with his descriptions of the workhouse and his over the top characters. For writer Lyn Wakefield Ghosts Of  Kirkdale is such a snapshot of grim Victorian life but told from the perspective of children.

The Ghosts Of Kirkdale, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Play With Myself: The Trials And Tribulations Of Drama Practitioner Gregory Bike. Theatre Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Liam Hale, Dominic Davies, Rio Matchett, David Paes, Sean Stokes.

The world according to Gregory Bike, a mantra for all the giants of theatre, a man to whom you should listen to with open ears and open minds…a man to whom the word theatre is the be all and end all of life’s pursuit of truth and experience…a man who exists completely as fantastic extension of Liam Hale’s superb imagination and for whom Play With Myself: The Trials and Tribulations of Drama Practitioner Gregory Bike will surely be rated as a must see at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Play With Myself: The Trials And Tribulations Of Drama Practitioner Gregory Bike. Theatre Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool. full post

(581 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Betty Blue Eyes, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Laura Baldwin, Tobias Beer, Kit Benjamin, Adam C. Booth, Amy Booth-Steel, Jeni Bowden, Ricky Butt, Matt Harrop, Oliver Izod, Rachel Knowles, Lauren Logan, Rebecca Louis, Sally Mates, Joe Maxwell, Hayden Oakley, Anthony Ray, Kate Robson-Stuart.

Winston Churchill, the war-time leader of Great Britain, once exclaimed that to look a dog in the eyes was to see it acknowledge it saw its master, a cat would see its slave but to look a pig in the eyes, well the pig sees its equal…for Betty Blue Eyes, it’s doubtful you will ever see anything to equal this well written and superbly performed play again.

Betty Blue Eyes, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Candleford, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kim Veldman, Lisa Hitchins, Albert Hastings, Stacey Liddell, Carla Cookylnn, Rachel McKeown, Charlotte Holguin, Gillian Lewis, Gemma Doyle, Peter Higham, Sheddie Broddie, John Goodwin, Bertie Jones, Agustin Arraez, Lisa Symonds, Keri Seymour, Amy Stout, Michael Treanor, Ady Potter, Katie Thomas, Janet Fennell, Derek Weigh.

To perform a theatre production based on a hit television programme, a period piece in which the attention to detail of the age is usually the first thing that subconsciously many people sitting down to watch will question, is a brave choice. For a company that is made up of those who love acting for its ventured expression, for the satisfaction of being on stage and becoming someone else it is courage befitting the bold and the fearless.

Candleford, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(585 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Gaffer, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Simon Hedger.

Life’s a pitch for a good manager, in the testosterone filled world of football, there is the hard work but also the banter, the great times of winning a trophy or two, of the desperate times in which a club can come so close to extinction that it threatens a whole community, it can destabilise it to the point where it may never recover. A club’s fortunes doesn’t just depend on what happens on the pitch, with the supporters or indeed with the person who bank rolls it all, it depends on the everyday making headway and for supposed social stigma’s to be recognised as just life. There is no wrong in being different; if you can do the job then you are good enough, no matter who you are.

Gaffer, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Dead Dog In A Suitcase And Other Love Songs, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Carly Bawden, Audrey Brisson, Andrew Durand, Rina Fatania, James Gow, Martin Hyder, Giles King, Patrycja Kujawska, Dominic Marsh, Justin Radford, Ian Ross, Sarah Wright.

Dead Dog In A Suitcase And Other Love Songs, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Curious Disappearance Of Mr. Foo, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon Wan, Tina Malone.

The richness of Liverpool’s cultural heritage is forever blessed because of every single person that has made their way to Liverpool. No matter how far, no matter the reason, like New York, it is a city built upon the history of strangers coming from far afield and giving a little piece of their home. That history inspires, it moulds an area and its people and yet occasionally the lives that have been touched by meeting somebody new is destroyed by ill thinking by Government agreements.

The Curious Disappearance Of Mr. Foo, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: John Power, Tom Connor, Kirsten Foster, Ross Higginson, Adam Keast, Jonathan Markwood, Daniel McIntyre, Mark Newnham, Nicky Swift.

It is impossible to thank somebody across the ages, to shake their hand and say cheers for bringing a story to life, even when that person is still such a force in Liverpool’s artistic and cultural society, you cannot go back to a day over 30 years ago and tell them thank you for telling the dramatic life of one of the true heroes to have come from a city in which salutes its champions harder than anywhere else in the country. However if you should bump into Bob Eaton then try your absolute best to thank him for taking the chance on a production at the Everyman Theatre just a few short months after the passing of John Lennon.

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Daniel, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Philip Shaun McGuinness, Wesley Wharton, Nick Crosbie.

It does take someone with extreme passion and an undeniable knowledge of certain genres in which the call change the way they are perceived, to make more relevant to modern society, speaks loudest. The latest film which stared Australian actor Russell Crowe, the much talked about Noah, is one example, perhaps poor one, of a story that in The Bible was, even for the atheist, is one that can be a stirring read. Natasia Hodge, musician, actor, singer, director and soon to be company head of B Tales, takes the story of Daniel from the Old Testament, and unlike Noah, delivers a fine piece of work in which, thanks to the excellent cast and the sublime writing of Laura-Kate Barrows and some clever effects and excellent additional music, is itself just as stirring as the Biblical text laid down.

Daniel, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Subusiso Mamba, Tonderai Munyevu.

How far would you go to survive in a regime that treats you worse than a cockroach; that demands total obedience of your every waking hour and who can control every moment you make, only reluctantly allowing you to live your life as a free member of society once they have humiliated you enough. The mark of oppression stamped across a nation and deeply into the faces of those who are its citizens.

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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