Category Archives: Theatre

Beside The Seaside, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2 /10

Cast: Jennifer Bea, John Burns, Anna Hudson, Leon Tagoe.

There is almost nothing better in life than a day at the seaside. The chance to eat an ice cream as the sun causes it to dribble and linger upon your fingers, to take in the maritime air and generally have the type of day that at one time was the staple of British life up and down the country. The seaside was where it was at and families flocked there in their thousands. Places like Blackpool, Scarborough, Southend and Brighton were the destinations of choice in which to blow off steam and have some much needed downtime.

Beside The Seaside, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

An August Bank Holiday Lark, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Barrie Rutter, Emily Butterfield, Darren Kuppan, Jack Quarton, Ben Burman, Elizabeth Eves, Sophie Hatfield, Lauryn Redding, Brett Lee Roberts, Mark Thomas, Russell Richardson.

An August Bank Holiday Lark, the chance for some men to become heroes, for some to find some meaning or importance in life away from the remote villages they may have been raised in all their lives or even the chance to be looked at differently by those they need validation or even respect from. An August Bank Holiday Lark, the hazy days of summer before Gavro Princip took a gun and assassinated one man and his wife and started the ball rolling on the first mechanised whole sale slaughter of soldiers and civilians that tore through Europe and beyond.

An August Bank Holiday Lark, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(577 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

The Grid, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: James Bibby, Esta Bickerstaff, Catherine Brown, Georgina Cummings, Philipa Gaskell, Lucy Harris, Heidi Henders, David Jackson, Gus Kearns, Chloe Nall-Smith, Emily Rainbow, Keeley Ray, Anthony Roberts, Grace Sandison, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Whitney Suku, Kieran Urquhart, Matthew Woods, Nick Crosby, Tiegan Byrne, Caitlin Carey, Cortney Carey, Poppy Hughes, Kate Keeton, Niamh McCarthy, James O’ Neill, Mark Powell, Darren Pritchard, Jamie Pye, Paislie Ried, Joe Roberts, Nathan Russell, Harry Sargent, Kaila Sharples, Daryl Wafer, Nadia Anim Mohammad Noor, Rachel Barry, Lewis Bray, Jennifer Briggs, Daniel Fitzgerald, Tom Harrington, Tammy Holland, Sean Hyland, Nina Levy, Scott Lewis, Hannah McGowan, Kathryn McGurk, Spencer Montague, Joe Ringwood, Jenny Stock, Jonathan Taylor, Theo Thompson, Tommy Williams, Curtis Wilson.

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

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Mike McCartney, Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll ( I Wish). An Evening With Mike McCartney. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When anybody with the authority of Mike McGear McCartney, celebrated photographer, part of the great Liverpool band The Scaffold and ambassador of many things to do with the city, comes back home and offers the chance to hear him give a talk on his life, it is not just a night out, it is a chance to live through history.

Mike McCartney, Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll ( I Wish). An Evening With Mike McCartney. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

An Extraordinary Light, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Katherine Godfrey

An Extraordinary Light is amongst one of the rare moments in theatre, an excellently written monologue for a female performer by a male writer and one which smacks completely of teaching an audience something that they possibly didn’t know was important to understand. For without An Extraordinary Light, what people might know about one of the most important discoveries in the history of humanity, the construction of the D.N.A. Double Helix, could be clouded by the thoughts of those who shouted loudest.

An Extraordinary Light, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Special Measures, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Eithne Browne, Paul Broughton, Stephen Fletcher, Jessica Guise, Colin Hoult, Adam Search, Angela Simms, Michael Starke.

St Jude’s Primary School has been placed into Special Measures, the universal, one size fits all term, to denote that somewhere something is not right with the system.

When Tory M.P. Thomas Winters feels the wrath of the P.M.s anger at being hit by a croquet mallet in a particularly painful constituency, he is dispatched to tick the right sort of boxes in a North of England school and make amends. The fall out, the so called oppressed kicking downwards is not new but for the Head Master and staff of St. Jude’s the fall of basic humility and understanding looking them in the eyes is one that is too much to bear.

Special Measures, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Desert, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Giles Roberts, Lucy Farrett.

One of the advantages theatre has over other forms of media is its ability to be intimate, to bring the innermost thoughts and feelings of an individual in front of your face and force you to confront them. The Molino Group does exactly that with Desert, the story of Private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, a soldier in the U.S. Army who leaked footage on Wikileaks of what is often referred to as “Collateral Murder”, and consequently, today is serving 35 years in prison.

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

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

The Events, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Clifford Samuel, Amanda Drew, Magnus Gillijam, Up For Arts Choir.

All events lead to somewhere. The unseen random strands dissecting, passing along easily in infinite possibilities and unhindered, until they converge, they smash together in such an explosion of such reverberation and repercussions that could be felt for years after. The Events are how we deal with the unfolding drama and how we choose to live with the aftermath.

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

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

After What Comes Before. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Cartwright, Sam Berrill, Alex Monk.

Not many evenings starts with three scientists arguing over the relative value of being able to extract the thought processes and the sometimes synaptic misfires in which hold the key to every person’s desires and ills. However Manic Chord Theatre, by intelligent word play and the same insane careful design attributed to the formation of random events that make life in the Universe possible, are able to show in 55 minutes just exactly what happens when you begin to think outside of the box in their play After What Comes Before.

After What Comes Before. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(420 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

A View From The Bridge, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bruce Alexander, Andy Apollo, Jason Carragher, Callum Coates, Daniel Coonan, Julia Ford, Scott Hazell, Lloyd Hutchinson, Denise Kennedy, Tom Peters, Joe Ringwood, Shannon Tarbet, Liam Tobin, Daryl Wafer.

Arthur Miller’s plays are such that to miss out on a production of them is simply not good form. All you really need to know about life in the United States in the 20th Century can be found in the writings of one of the keenest minds of the time and his look at certain frailties of life, emasculation, deceit, dishonour and the destruction of a system that was corrupt and hopelessly out of touch with his thinking, are repeated over and again in the hope that someone, anyone might understand what is going wrong in the country.

A View From The Bridge, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(661 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)