The Crucible is arguably one of the crowning glories of 20th Century theatre, a play so powerful that the parallels it drew on one of the sickening acts in American history, the show trials conducted by Senator McCarthy in an attempt to goad the decent people of the country in to believing that everyone, neighbour, friend, lover was part of a Communist conspiracy, was too big to ignore. Bringing together the fear and jealousy of one era, a harsh time dominated by religion and comparing the post Second World War American dogma was a piece of genius that only Arthur Miller could have done and written so incredibly well.
The Victorian in the Wall, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Will Adamsdale, Lyndsey Turner, Jason Barnett, Chris Branch, Matthew Steer, Melanie Wilson.
The thinkers guide to writing procrastination, or rather how to give an audience that one special night where everything comes together, comedy, drama, talking fridges and builders who belittle your confidence with their knowledge of art. Everything that can ever go right and wrong in the course of a week whilst your girlfriend is away is explored to its absolute best by Will Adamsdale in the superb and captivating comedy, The Victorian in the Wall.
Tongues, Theatre Review. 81 Renshaw Street.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Helen Kerr, Paul Culshaw, Eddie Fortune, Dale Grant.
There are two sets of horror, the one that sets out to shock from the start, blood and guts everywhere, sometimes instruments of terror are involved and in the end it becomes a gore fest, certainly a jolt to the system but doesn’t leave much to the imagination. There is nowhere for the audience member to go to. The other type is explored by Grin Productions and Wes Williams’ dramatic, sometimes bestial, totally compulsive and mind wrenching production of Tongues.
Spock’s Beard, Brief Nocturnal and Dreamless Sleep. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There are exciting times ahead in store for Progressive Rock fans. In the U.K. the genre goes from strength to strength again after what seemed an interminable age of unfathomable corporate driven pop taking the hearts of the musically blessed for a ride and in the United States of America, where it was always a vogue and classic diversion away from the stadium rock acts, the root of the intimate and liberal way of going against the conservative mid-west structure and angry rap scene that burgeoned the big city life, it has become a movement of true artistry.
Karelia, Golden Decadence. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It may not be a music genre that is keenly associated with France but occasionally a band aligned to the Metal brigade bursts through the Euro Tunnel and onto British soil in such a way that makes people sit up and take notice and wonder why the contribution of Karelia to the ever growing list of impressive acts from the continent is over taking the home grown talent from the natural home of the genre.
The Cornmarket Acoustic Club in Liverpool Continues To Enthral And Entertain.
During the day, the streets that surround and hem in the business quarter into a hive of monetary activity, is awash with people going about their trades in the hope that the next big thing will come along and kick start a beleaguered and flat-lining economy. So many companies going bust and making more and more people unemployed and yet the pain goes on and the money continues to be looked for. Liverpool is better placed than many cities and towns in the U.K., for one the streets of the city also carry the hopes of the artistes, musicians and actors, painters, prophets and poets in a way that is unrivalled by any other city.
Broadchurch, Episode Five. Television Review. I.T.V.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Arthur Darvill, David Bradley, Simone McAullay, Peter De Jersey, Tanya Franks, Jonathon Bailey, Vicky McClure, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke.
The lifeless body of one of the suspects in the murder of the young teenage boy is found near the same spot at the bottom of the cliffs and it is hard to ignore the witch hunt, both by the national press and the local townsfolk, the latest episode of Broadchurch.
The White Stripes, Elephant. 10th Anniversary Retrospective.
The distinctive and dramatic style of The White Stripes was probably captured at its very best on the 2003 album Elephant. Full of damning humour, musical trickery, agitated fidgetiness, dirty bass lines and a band at their creative peak, Elephant stands out as one of the real highlights of 2003, a moment where the rock rule book was not just taken to task but publicly admonished, berated in front of its peers and finally told to get a life. Dedicated to the death of the sweetheart, the music is all consuming and leaves the listener breathless, as all good sweethearts should.
Foyle’s War, The Cage. Television Review. I.T.V.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Ellie Haddington, Tim McMullan, Jeremy Swift, Daniel Weyman, Tom Beard, Jonathan Hyde, Rupert Vansittart, Laura Way, Lucy-Ann Holmes, Simon Coury, Radoslaw Kaim, Rufus Wright, Alexandra Clatworthy.
With the erstwhile Christopher Foyle, perhaps one of the most reliable and honest detectives to have graced the television screens in over a decade, being at the beck and call of the shadowy world of MI5, it is no wonder that he finds himself having to stoop to a low level to get the information he needs in order to tie up, not just one small mystery that he would have relished in his Hasting days but seemingly an overabundance of inter-related murders, abduction and covertness that must be making his level-headed swim in the aptly titled episode of Foyle’s War, The Cage.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Oliver Lansley.
The theatre company Les Enfants Terribles are dedicated to creating original, innovative and exciting theatre that challenges, inspires and entertains. The man who founded his creative team is the actor and playwright Oliver Lansley. Well known to television viewers as the man who took on the extraordinary task of portraying the iconic radio and television star Kenny Everett in the 2012 biopic The Best Possible Taste, there is so much more to this versatile actor than portraying in wonderful style a man wrecked by personal demons.