Originally published by L.S. Media. March 8th 2010.
Cast: Bob Goulding.
It takes a brave actor to take on the mantle of one of Britain’s best loved comedians on stage. It takes a man with nerves of steel to do the whole show on his own for a mind boggling 80 odd minutes and who won’t be sure of how the audience will react to the telling of his life until the final curtain.
Occasionally, a production comes along and shakes your preconceived ideas about staging and writing a play right down to the very foundations. One such play currently in Liverpool is Kneehigh Theatre’s re-working of the children’s classic Hansel and Gretel.
The stage was set for a magical night of theatre and the cast and support did not let the excited audience down. From the very young whose innocent laughter filled every part of the theatre to the parents and older patrons who were just as enthralled by the use of the set and the characterization of the family, (this time without the evil step mother figure).
Originally published by L.S. Media. March 23rd 2010.
Cast: Shaun Williamson, Daniel West, Nicholas Lumley, John Conroy, Peter Alexander, Richard Syms, Claire Andreadis, Andrew Scott Butler, Jon De Ville, Jolana Lee, Mark Pearce, Barrett Robertson, Alex Tanner, Matt Weyland, Ryan Winston.
Not that long ago, a sitcom took the country by storm, not for its high brow wit, not for snappy one-liners but for the place and its subject matter. There are not that many writers who could make a comedy gold out of the idea of sending a man to prison and the prospect of dealing with the establishment (both in the form of the Prison Officers and the man who actually ran the prison, in this case, the genial Harry Grout).
Originally published by L.S. Media. March 24th 2010.
Cast: Isia Bennison, Emily Butterfield, Matt Connor, Phil Corbitt, Laura Cox, Andy Cryer, Michael Hugo, Rosie Jenkins, Alan McMahon, David Newman, Rob Pickavance, Matthew Rixon, Richard Standing, Andrew Whitehead.
After the success of Medea earlier in the year, Northern Broadsides have come back once more to Liverpool with the intention of staging a difficult piece of work for the delight of the Playhouse audience. This time they tackled one of English literature’s defining moments, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
Originally published by L.S. Media. April 30th 2010.
Cast: Billy Clarke, Chris Corrigan, Marty Maguire, Andy Moore, Marc O’Shea, David Craig, Paul Boyd, Conleth White, Paul Burke, Elaine Barnes, Deidre Ashe.
Carefully mixing humour with the despair and hope, The Chronicles of Long Kesh is possibly one of the most important plays to have come to Liverpool.
Superbly written by Martin Lynch, the play deals with the dark days of the seventies and early eighties when the troubles in Ireland were hitting new lows and the relationships between neighbours were more than strained.
Originally published by L.S. Media. June 9th 2010.
Cast: Peter Howe, Christopher Robbie, James Hedley, Seb Morgan, Danny Fox, Russell Clough, Antony Gabriel, William St. Clair, Craig Whittaker, Kirk Barker, Paul Chesterton, Christopher Llewellyn.
There are books and stories that are just too epic and grand in scale to try and transfer over to the theatre, The Hobbit isn’t one of them…just.
Originally published by L.S. Media. July 21st 2010.
Cast: Jake Abraham, Roy Brandon, Paul Broughton, Lindzi Germain, Howard Gray, Phil Hearne, Shaun Mason, Andrew Schofield.
It seems Davy Kirby can do no wrong when it comes to observing the characters and situations that make Liverpool such a unique city, with Brick up the Mersey Tunnels and Lost Soul having received critical and commercial acclaim over the last couple of years, the time was right to let Council Depot Blues have another turn at the Royal Court Theatre.
Cast: Kieran Cunningham, Pauline Daniels, Stephen Fletcher, Mark Moraghan, Georgina White, Sophie Fraser, Chris Mason, Abby Mavers, Jack Rigby. Mia Molloy.
We have all been on one, no matter of our age. The school day out is one of those times that if pushed we will remember detail for detail, whether it was a day trip to the local seaside to let off steam or an exercise in futility where the teachers tried to show that they could be down with the kids and be their friends for one day.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 21st 2010.
Cast: Ken Bradshaw, Kevin Harvey, Matti Houghton, Paul McCleary, Eileen O’Brien, Emily Pithon, Stuart Richman, Nicholas Shaw, Hugh Skinner.
The Everyman theatre is well renowned for its staging of hard, gritty and sometimes disturbing plays. None so more perhaps than the opening play of the new season, John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore.
There may be those who would shy away from the subject of incest, murder and impinging insanity but director Chris Meads has built a reputation for getting the best out of actors even in the most unusual of plays and in Tis Pity he has struck gold again with a cast that tackles some of humanity’s base instincts and wanton desires.
Cast: John Branwell, Liz Carney, Jo Gerard, Catherine Kinsella, Ror North, Wendi Peters, Phil Rowson, Barrie Rutter, Matt Sutton, Jos Vantyler.
Harold Brighouse’s name might ring more bells with drama and literature lovers as the writer of the classic play Hobson’s Choice, however thanks to a dramatic find in a Canadian University, Barrie Rutter and his team of players that make up Northern Broadsides have breathed life into the play The Game.
Northern Broadsides have continued to thrill Liverpool audiences over the last few years, with productions such as The Man with Two Gaffers and their own take on Romeo and Juliet, it seems as though the company can do no wrong in wrong in local eyes.