The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * * *

Cast: David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Oliver Jones, Zoe Roberts.

Kill The Beast Theatre Company have only been on the scene for a mere three years, but are already proving their worth as one of the best inventive new theatre companies around. Their latest show is packed full of grotesque, over the top characters based on Tom Baker’s children’s book The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. Written in 1999, Baker’s truly grotesque story still has a strong following today and is as popular as ever.

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Matthew Linley Named As New Artistic Director Of The Unity Theatre.

Liverpool’s Unity Theatre is delighted to announce the appointment of Matthew Linley as Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Linley succeeds Graeme Phillips, who has guided Unity Theatre for the last 34 years and maintained its tradition of staging radical but accessible work that stretches back to the 1930s.

Matthew is currently General Manager with Eastern Angles – an acclaimed touring theatre company based in Ipswich. He has previously led venues in Leicester (Phoenix Arts), Reading (21 South Street) and Bath (Michael Tippett Centre).

Matthew Linley Named As New Artistic Director Of The Unity Theatre. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Julia Fordham at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. November 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Virtually every artist that goes upon stage is highly regarded by those that wait patiently for their appearance in the local area. They are looked upon with a mixture of awe, the hope of being entertained and taken away from the lives the audiences have found themselves in but few seem as admired and longed for than Julia Fordham appeared to be by the crowd that filled the Epstein Theatre on a shivery and pitch black November night in Liverpool.

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(461 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Västerbotten, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a small village in Sweden in which street lights never came too and for the vast majority who resided there it was a shame that they could not see where they were walking in the dark nights that grip the Swedish hills and give rise to folklore, but for Marianne Folkedotter, it was an understanding, even as a child, that it was a chance to see the universe unfold before her.

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

(361 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Forthaven, The People Of The World. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The very real tragedy that exposes the way humanity deals with a subject it doesn’t like is to sweep it under the carpet. They disown it, they move the subject along, they make excuses or pat it on the head, saying how terrible it all is, before moving swiftly on to talk about how much their home is now worth. For those in society who suffer the effects of mental illness, no matter how or to what degree, at times it does really feel as if the world is not just against you, it is actively campaigning to shut you up and move on. Nobody actually says anything constructive to get the ball rolling as a topic of conversation, not unless you count Forthaven and their brand new single The People of the World.

Forthaven, The People Of The World. Single Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4), Game Review.

Game Review: The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season is a third-person episodic adventure game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The Walking Dead began life in 2003 as a comic book series by Robert Kirkman and has since saw that success transcend to television with a series based upon the story of the comics that sees Rick Grimes, his family, friends and group of survivors attempt to come to terms with an apocalyptic breakout of zombies, referred to as walkers. The success of the television series has also transcended to the videogame adaptation that saw The Walking Dead win over ninety Game of the Year awards with mass critical acclaim from the gaming media across the world.

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4), Game Review. full post

(3233 words, estimated 12:56 mins reading time)

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Alan Price, Oliver Gomm, Howard Chadwick, Guy Lewis, Jon Trenchard, Andrew Whitehead, Robert Took, Gilly Tompkins, Hannah Edwards, Lauryn Redding, Alan McMahon.

The 18^th Century was one of richness in the field of theatre. By the time Oliver Goldsmith’s play, She Stoops To Conquer, had been performed for its debut performance the sight of women acting on the stage was so commonplace that it was an absurdity to have been forbidden from performing in the first place. There had been so many plays that had benefited from King Charles II proclamation a century before, so many talented writers getting more emotion from a finished piece and so many gifted women being rightly lauded that it the art of the Comedy of Manners took off in such a way and perhaps no more so than in the fantastic She Stoops To Conquer.

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Steve Thompson & The Incidents, Rainbows. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sound of an honest beating heart is perhaps the greatest aphrodisiac around. The desire to hear the words and playful teasing notes of musicians who you understand just really like what they do; who just want to entertain, educate and inform the listener of a world beyond the beige and the creeping insidiousness of believing that television has all the answers, to listen with desire is enough to break and rebuild your heart several times over.

Steve Thompson & The Incidents, Rainbows. Single Review. full post

(293 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

All Quiet On The Western, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Durr, Alan Gillespie, Alun Parry, Adam Byrne, Ifan James, Syephen J Higgins, Alan Bower, Eleanor Parry, Giulia Rampone, Gillian Paterson-Fox, Helen Shrimpton.

In the year that marks the 100^th Anniversary of the most futile, military posturing and insane of all wars commencing, it is always worth remembering that the conflict was not fought on the grounds of justness like its successor but by people who led their countries down a path in which millions of men, women and children were killed and slaughtered. A path in which bore fruit shamed in blackness and would propagate seeds so vile that the working class of all countries who participated in, would suffer the most terrible hardships and loss.

All Quiet On The Western, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

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

Under The Dome: Season Two. Television Review. Channel 5.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Mike Vogal, Rachelle Lefevre, Dean Norris, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford, Mackenzie Lintz, Eddie Cahill, Grace Victoria Cox, Max Erich, Dale Raoul, Sherry Stringfield, Dwight Yoakam, Brett Cullen, Aisha Hinds, Nicholas Strong, Britt Robertson, Natalie Martinez, Jolene Purdy, John Elvis.

What makes Stephen King’s Under The Dome so special that it has deserved more airtime than any of his other passages of American horror literature? It is a complex question that deserves answers, however there are but a few that present themselves adequately enough.

Under The Dome: Season Two. Television Review. Channel 5. full post

(547 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)