Tag Archives: Alan Stocks

Beauty & The Beast, Theatre Review. The Black-E, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tori Hargreaves, Nick Langmead, Jamie Greer, Adam McCoy, Helen Carter, Alan Stocks, Ciaran Kellgren, Brandon Incles, Libby Fairhurst, Michael Hall, Shannon McFadden.

There is a monster in all of us, a beast to whom only the love of one person can fight hard enough to quell and set on a course to love and to being the person we wish to be seen as by the rest of the world. To find such a person is sometimes all we can hope for, it is the very essence of our time, to have, to hold, to rip off the mask we have put to keep the hurt at bay.

Beauty & The Beast, Theatre Review. The Black-E, Liverpool. full post

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

Scouse Of The Rising Sun, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Michael Fletcher, Lindzi Germain, Hayley Hampson, Michael Ledwich, Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Keddy Sutton.

Musicians: Ben Gladwin, Greg Joy, Emily Linden, Howard Gray.

There may be a house in New Orleans in which many a poor lad has lost his way, but they never quite lose their way, or regain the right path, as a Liverpool lad fighting the evil intentions of a maniac hell bent on destroying the city, not even a hero of a popular 60s song could match the heroics of the Scouse of the Rising Sun.

Scouse Of The Rising Sun, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Father O’ Flaherty Saves Our Souls, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Clare Bowles, Helen Carter, Paul Duckworth, Alan Stocks, Keddy Sutton.

An outpouring of respect should be shown to an actor who puts their life in the hands of an audience to the extent that their own inner thoughts, their own passionate affair with the boards and with language become so consuming that they write a play off their own back and present it to a crowd, ever hungry, ever in need of a new production to hold close to their hearts, and feel the sweat and possible damnation coming off the rehearsal floor for.

Father O’ Flaherty Saves Our Souls, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

A Fistful Of Collars, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Eithne Browne, Suzanne Collins, Lindzi Germain, Angela Simms, Alan Stocks, Lenny Wood.

The world is a harsh place at times, not everybody plays by the same rules and those who are fair, honest and upright in their morals are the ones forever being treated like dirt, that they have the very will to continue offering the service they do is a measure of their honour, that they refuse to be stitched up by those kicking against them a sign of their trustworthy and good nature.

A Fistful Of Collars, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

The Royal, Theatre Review. Theatre Royal, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Lynn Francis, Lindzi Germain, Philip Hesteltine, Danny O’Brien, Angela Simms, Alan Stocks.

Some institutions are so engrained into the fabric of society that to be without them is to argue that society is going backwards. The N.H.S., arguably the greatest and proudest contribution to British life in the last 100 years, is always under threat, always on the verge of being lost by those who believe that the health of the nation should be one that is allowed to make profit over care, yet, for now, still offers the best a patient can get and that always boils down to the people inside the hospitals, the doctors, the cleaners, the morticians, the nurses…those that wander in with a clip board one day and decide to stay.

The Royal, Theatre Review. Theatre Royal, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Mam! I’m ‘Ere!, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Eithne Browne, Helen Carter, Paul Duckworth, Michael Fletcher, Rachael Rae, Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Keddy Sutton, Jamie Hampson, Hayley Hampson.

Musicians: Emily Linden, Simeon Scheuber, Alex Smith, Lauren Williams.

 

One of the great musical comedies to have come out of Liverpool in the last few years has to be the outstanding Mam! I’m ‘Ere! Making its debut in the grand space of The Dome, it took audiences to a place where imagination and riotous laughter met, shook hands, frolicked in the winter cold and sent them home happier than a free weeks pass at a holiday camp with drink supplied.

Mam! I’m ‘Ere!, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Night Collar, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jake Abrahams, Eithne Browne, Suzanne Collins, Michael Ledwich, Alan Stocks, Lenny Wood.

Confession and revelation is not confined to the unburdening of souls in the wooden box that adorns many a church, the simple act of sticking a paw out for a taxi when time, tide and the day is against you is perhaps arguably a more sincere way of getting the troubles of the soul purged, for the taxi driver hears all, sees all and unless you happen to become the topic of conversation which revolves around the words, “You’ll never guess who I had in the back of my cab last week”, then your secret torment, bad relationship, money troubles, who you would like to see bumped off, what you think of the council, all are kept secret.

Night Collar, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Lewis Bray, Garry Cooper, Emma Curtis, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Cynthia Erivo, Michael Hawkins, Charlotte Hope, Dean Nolan, Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Tom Vary, Matt Whitchurch, Ozzie Yue.

One year on from the Everyman Theatre opening its bright, brand new interior to the people of Liverpool once more, throwing the wrapping of the impressive exterior and the doors being opened wide with a huge Merseyside smile, William Shakespeare returns to liven up the world and let the magic in the Everyman stage run over.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Paul Duckworth, Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie, Lenny Wood.

A different setting, a changed venue, can make all the difference between wildly incredible and drop dead tremendous.

For the second year running the area around the Echo Arena played host to Dave Kirby’s sensational and uproarious Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas and yet just to take it out of the main arena in which the echo of Christmas Day’s Past Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Peter Gabriel songs were still bouncing off the walls and in which Deacon Blue’s soulful pop was still to grace, the Auditorium became a more natural staging in which to completely immerse one’s self into the world of Thomas Minge and his collection of oddities and workers with the most wonderful but very peculiar habits.

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool. full post

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

Hope Place, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michelle Buttery, Neil Caple, Ciaran Kellgren, Tricia Kelly, Emma Lisl, Joe McGann, Eileen O’ Brien, Alan Stocks.

The power of memory is one that can either hold you back so hard that it feels as if the weight of the future is too difficult to deal with, or can be such an aid in which it can only set you free. What if the place in which those memories are of also retains those memories, the very bricks and mortar that keep you safe from the outside world are able to hold onto an image of a time perhaps best forgotten?

Hope Place, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(449 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)