Finding Joy, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre Liverpool (2014).

Liverpool Sound & Vision rating * * * * *

Cast: James Greaves, Richard J Fletcher, Nanou Harry, Sarah Hawkins

Finding Joy is a beautiful story about one woman’s decline into dementia and the people left behind to care for her. Created by Vamos Theatre, the story is inspired by true events and the show focuses on the relationship between Joy and her grandson. Vamos is unique as there is no script, rather all the drama is told through masks. For those who have never really seen this in a show before (it was a first time experience for me) it took only a few moments for the expressive masks and the physicality of the actors to work their magic and any doubt as to how this could work soon melted away.

Finding Joy, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre Liverpool (2014). full post

(337 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Under The Skin, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Krystof Hádek, Scott Dymond, Michael Moreland, Joe Szula, Adam Pearson, Lee Fanning, Alison Chand, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Jeremy McWilliams, Steve Keys, Andrew Gorman, Gerry Goodfellow.

Under The Skin will take thought and immense concentration to sit through but the result will be worth it as Director Jonathan Glazer leads a relatively unknown cast, bar of course the major star in the room, through a message laden era adaption of Michael Faber’s novel.

Under The Skin, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Batman: The Long Halloween: Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Alongside Wonder Woman and Superman, Batman is perhaps arguably D.C. Comics’ greatest hero and certainly lucrative money spinner in an ever increasing market for film adaptations. The films, especially the darker and grittier Dark Knight series starring Christian Bale were mesmerising and brutal and aside from perhaps the first two Batman films of the 1980s with the excellent Michael Keaton in the role, were the epitome of graphic novel/adaptions from the D.C. universe.

Batman: The Long Halloween: Graphic Novel Review. full post

(638 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

You’ll Never Walk Alone: The Official History Of Liverpool Football Club. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Lindzi Germain, Howard Gray, Emily Linden, Mark Moraghan, Stephen Pallister, Rachael Rae, Daniel Ross, Francis Tucker, Lenny Wood.

The gentle voice of match day D.J. George Sephton greets the audience to the Royal Court as if he was welcoming all to a day on which Championships were being decided, trophies were being collected and the memory of a thousand greats were going to line up alongside the pitch and show the reason why Nicky Allt’s You’ll Never Walk Alone is one of the most important plays you will ever see performed in Liverpool.

You’ll Never Walk Alone: The Official History Of Liverpool Football Club. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(648 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Stark, Stories from the Underground. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The reminder of folly is never too far away from the people of the South coast town of Brighton minds as they are reminded each day of the beauty of the sea that washes over the pebbled beach and threatens on a bad day to take the boats moored up towards the wall that hugs the front and its sense of back alley history, the Pavilion that gives a sense of opulence to a place that is amongst the salt of the Earth and home to some great music.

Stark, Stories from the Underground. Album Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Adrian Nation, Live At Crossroads. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The sense of wanting to belong to something hangs in the air like an unspoken memory, a thought of clarity and perspective comes through the speakers and dispels the confusion and bewilderment that comes with the fast living in which we have all become far too accustomed to, the brakes have been tampered with and each one of no longer it seems has the time to grasp the moment to breathe. Guitarist Adrian Nation winds the window down, hands you an oxygen mask and smiles as he plays and his new album Live at Crossroads is a timely reminder to see through the muck, the shattered glass and outward momentum and just take in a truth.

Adrian Nation, Live At Crossroads. Album Review. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Twelfth Night, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Neil Caple, Pauline Daniels, Natalie Dew, Paul Duckworth, Luke Jerdy, Adam Keast, Matthew Kelly, Adam Levy, Jodie McNee, Robin Morrissey, David Rubin, Alan Stocks, Nicholas Woodeson.

If…The stage and greasepaint, the drama and the laughter, the sorrow and the exceptional mirth bring you joy then let the theatre forever live on.

Twelfth Night, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Ballad Of The Burning Star, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Nir Paldi, Orian Michaeli, Amy Nostbakken, Seiko Nakazawa, Stefi Sourial, Deborah Pugh, Pete Aves.

The tale of one boy growing up in the settlements of Israel, the history behind his family and the darkness that seeps through like an admission of youthful guilt is introduced not with the fading bell of entropy but with the sound of music, the reckless, wonderfully stirring style of Berlin in the 1920s and with the gaze of the a man pouring into your soul looking for understanding and a sort of forgiveness, not many plays have this at its heart, there is probably no play around that captures the soul in quite the same way as Ballad Of The Burning Star.

Ballad Of The Burning Star, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(552 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Brood Of Erys. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 183.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Nicola Sian, Tori Hart, Chris Overton, Brian Shelley, Glynn Sweet.

Every child feels the need to eventually pull away from their parent, to make their own mistakes, to discover the world by themselves and place their own very big personal stamp in the dust.

For Flip Jackson and The Doctor materialising in a unknown segment of space to do some routine maintenance work on the Tardis has its repercussions as Flip Jackson learns the hard way that sometimes you should not open the door to the creature at your door, no matter if they look benign and childlike, for the parent will certainly bear down upon you with big teeth.

Doctor Who: The Brood Of Erys. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 183. full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision Interview With Mark Moraghan And Jake Abraham.

Full interview originally published in Click Liverpool.

For the city of Liverpool, two topics of conversation are never more than five minutes away from being spoken of with passion, knowledge and enthusiasm; football and music. The subject matter when it comes to football varying wildly between the great teams on both sides of the camp of the 1980s sides who took on the very best and won with consummate ease to the days of the beloved Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley to the current teams battling again for the right to be numbered amongst Europe’s elite.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Interview With Mark Moraghan And Jake Abraham. full post

(1410 words, estimated 5:38 mins reading time)