Category Archives: Theatre

Beachy Head, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 16th 2011.

Cast: Sarah Belcher, Dan Ford, Katie Lightfoot, Matt Tate, Neal Craig.

There is only one way to describe Analogue’s production of Beachy Head and that is shockingly powerful, a play that will have audiences leaving the theatre having their perceptions changed about the way we look at the way someone takes their own life.

The Unity Theatre once more played perfect host to a troupe of actors and a story that is swept under the carpet and not discussed openly in any home. The intimacy of the stage reflecting perfectly how the main character of Stephen Mitchell, played with stunning grace by Dan Ford, and his story, as told initially by the other actors on the stage.

Beachy Head, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Oedipus, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Picture from everymanplayhouse.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 23rd 2011.

Cast: Anthony Barclay, Sean Buckley, Ian Drysdale, Mark Frost, Christopher Hogben, Louise Jameson, Eoin McCarthy, Alex McSweeney, Simon Merrells, Vincenzo Nicoli, Anthony Ofoegbu.

If you’re going to start off a new season of plays then they don’t come much bigger in terms of minimalist style and historical significance than the first true great piece of tragedy performances, Sophocles’ Oedipus.

Oedipus, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(372 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

They Call Her Natasha, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Picture from everymanplayhouse.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 23rd 2011.

Cast: Lou Dalgleish, Michael Weston King, Gladstone Wilson.

We are all familiar with the idea with obsession, so much so that in a way we can all claim to have one, but what happens when the fixation takes over your life and takes you to places that should be well left alone. In the Everyman Theatre’s new season of productions They Call Her Natasha looks at this obsession from the point of a fan gripped with Liverpool raised musician Elvis Costello.

They Call Her Natasha, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(321 words, 1 image, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

Footloose, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 9th 2011.

Cast: Max Milner, Carys Gray, Steven Pinder, Karen Ascoe, Lorna Want, Jodie Jacobs, Keisha Amponsa Banson, Tanya Robb, Matt Willis, Daniel Smith, Adam C. Booth, Giovanni Spano, Michael Palmer.

Footloose! The very word brings up images of one of the great teen movies of the 1980’s. Reason in the face of oppression for which any teenager of the time would have identified with, a stunning soundtrack and a great cast made the film a smash in box offices both sides of the Atlantic.

Footloose, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre. full post

(435 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Memoirs of a Hermaphrodite, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 16th 2011.

Cast: Sarah Leaver.

The mystery and beguilement that surrounds the treatment and life of an individual who was born Intersexed is gently and lovingly portrayed by Sarah Leaver in the Unity Theatre’s latest production Memoirs of a Hermaphrodite.

Drawing on the real life story of Herculin Barbin, Sarah Leaver takes the audience through sections of Herculin’s life, part voyeuristic, part shrouded in fine Greek mythology, the audience is taken through how the young Herculin’s life was changed from being a young girl at the nunnery in La Rochelle and falling in love to her own discovery, and that of everybody else that she was born an Hermaphrodite.

Memoirs of a Hermaphrodite, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(356 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Dead Heavy Fantastic. Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Picture courtesy of everymanplayhouse.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 17th 2011.Cast: Michelle Butterly, David Carlyle, Helen Carter, Stephen Fletcher, Con O’Neill, Samantha Robinson, Jess Schofield, Alan Stocks.

Dead Heavy Fantastic is the new exciting play by Robert Farquar, that deals with the subject of a world rarely seen by many who live in Liverpool but who will have heard gory tales of hedonism, the party culture, drugs and of out of place postmen.

Dead Heavy Fantastic. Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(407 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Rid The World, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Cast: Hugo Chandor, Andrew Sykes, Lewis Marsh, Andrew Roberts-Palmer.

The year 1911 could be seen as a corner stone in the life of Liverpool and yet the life of Tom Mann and The Liverpool Transport Strike of that year is not readily available for the youth and teenagers growing up in the city to learn about.

Thankfully with the run up to the 100th anniversary of this momentous occasion Breathe Out Theatre have adapted Trevor Griffiths Such Impossibilities and created a hard hitting play called Rid the World.

Rid The World, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(363 words, 1 image, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Hairspray, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Otiginally published by L.S. Media. August 19th 2011.

Cast: Les Dennis, Michael Starke, Dina Tree, Liam Doyle, Gillian Kirkpatrick, Wayne Robinson, Danny Bayne, Emma Dukes, Clare Halse, Sandra Marvin, Yvonne O’ Grady, Seliza Sebastian, Kane Andrews.

Set against the start of the heightened racial tensions that plagued America socially and politically during the early 1960’s, Hairspray is one of those musicals that stretches the audience’s idea of fun to new limits and leaves them gasping for more!

Hairspray, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre. full post

(401 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

12. Theatre Review. The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. August 24th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Shaun Fagan, Morgan McBride, Nick Crosbie, Jamie Vere, Robbie Locke, Bob Schofield, Owen Jones, Josh Quigley, Josh Hughes, Bradley Walker, Paul Holliday, Sophie Eves.

Transferring a 1950’s Henry Fonda classic film to the unsympathetic existence of 21st century Liverpool takes some imagination and a lot of writing talent to give it the grim reality that post war Hollywood films sometimes glossed over. With Shaun Fagan and Matthew Shiel at the helm of 12, the latest play to be performed at The Lantern Theatre, this was more than was ever needed to show how good writing can shine through no matter how unattractive and prejudicial the story line is.

12. Theatre Review. The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(416 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales, Theatre Review. Liverpool Playhouse.

Picture from everymanplayhouse.com

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 1st 2011.

Cast: Nicholas Burns, David Cardy, Ryan Cage, Andy Nyman.

To some, the very name Roald Dahl invokes memories of hiding behind the sofa and watching through the gaps of tight, clamped hands and being mesmerized by the sight of lady dancing in flames, as the title music to The Tales of the Unexpected rang through living rooms up and down the country.

Now after last year’s smash hit Ghost Stories, The Liverpool Playhouse once more delves into the mysterious and peculiar as Jeremy Dyson adapts some of the most popular stories from Roald Dahl’s collection and brings them to life on the stage.

Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales, Theatre Review. Liverpool Playhouse. full post

(368 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)