Tag Archives: Liverpool

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cal Ruddy in Liverpool. April 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

If there is a gentleman to admire in this world, a young man of stature and beaming smile at all life has to throw at him, then a photo fit arrangement of the face would surely have the very likeness of Cal Ruddy attached to it. The same facsimile would also urge anyone close by enough to hear him take on the acoustics of an indoor or outdoor arena to revel in the artist’s work, to realise that to be at the very start of a flourish is only to regret not being there before the guitar was ever picked up and see the first signs of intrigue that blossomed in its early infancy.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool. full post

(506 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: James Templeton, Sharon Byatt, John Schumacher, Sophie Coward, Nick Wymer, Simon Willmont, Sam Donovan, Thomas Casson, Chloe Taylor, Daniel Taylor, Timothy Lucas, Neville Cann, Fra Gunn, Faye Griffiths, Emma Sellars, Emily Chesterton, Georgia Pye.

Something in the undergrowth stirs, a sense of magic is in the air and whilst all theatre productions, across every genre, should have this illusion and allusion readily at its disposal, there is always something incredible, a reason that is fanciful, that should be waiting for William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy and romance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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

(479 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

The Lonesome West, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Keiran Cunningham, Alan Devally, Paul Duckworth, Anne O’ Riordan.

To find peace, one must be content, one must realise that life is not about taking potshots at their neighbour, not to be quick to condemn or to take revenge, one must be true to one’s own actions, one must allow a certain kind of love to flourish in the heart for even the most despicable of actions, lest they revel in their own loneliness.

The Lonesome West, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Their Finest, Film Review. Picturehouse@ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Paul Ritter, Rachael Stirling, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, Jake Lacy, Jeremy Irons, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, Hubert Burton, Claudia Jessie, Stephanie Hyam. Michael Marcus, Gordon Brown, Patrick Gibson, Lily Knight, Francesca Knight, Clive Russell, Cathy Murphy, Emma Cunniffe.

 

It is not always about who has the best and the finest body of men to call upon, the biggest bombs or the most modern equipment that can win a war, it is sometimes, more often than not, about the one individual who can add something a little extra, the one who sees the picture in the theatre of war just a little differently and who can add the element of propaganda to the rallying call of the nation.

Their Finest, Film Review. Picturehouse@ F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Rules Don’t Apply. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen, Hart Bochner, Candice Bergen, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Lily Collins, Steve Coogan, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Ed Harris, Paul Sorvino, Taissa Farmiga.

The story you don’t know is the one that is often the most factual, cinema has a way of unfolding the tale and only offering the sanitised version of someone’s life, the mistakes, they are erasable, the darkness, the redemption found, the eventual downfall, covered in a semblance of sepia toned grace; for in cinema the Rules Don’t Apply, most of the time they are made up on the spot and changed randomly.

Rules Don’t Apply. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremmer, Tom Kanji, Asha Kingsley, Elliott Kingsley, Melanie La Barrie.

No matter the story, if it is told with a sense of thriving passion then it has the ability to nurture life, to explode with an array of colours, light and images, it has the never ending possibilities to ensure that the imagination is always keen to explore and that the mind, the most important and beautiful tool than humanity possesses, is kept open to embrace change and hungry for more.

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

My Country; A Work In Progress, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Seema Bowri, Cavan Clarke, Laure Elphinstone, Adam Ewan, Penny Layden, Stuart McQuarrie, Christine Patterson.

Our voice is important, our opinions even more so and yet we decry others without even understanding them, without taking the time to truly listen without interrupting to what they are saying; at times it can seem like we have never gone past the ethics of the playground, whoever shouts loudest wins the argument. It is one that can be seen to have divided the nation, in some ways irrevocably, for the long foreseeable future as we continue to discuss the almost senseless act of offering a hopeful reasoned debate on the expectation of Britain’s role in the European Union, its position of a once in a lifetime vote of in or out.

My Country; A Work In Progress, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Grease, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Tom Parker, Danielle Hope, Darren Day, Louisa Lytton, Tom Senior, Ryan Heenan, Oliver Jacobson, Michael Cortez, Rhiannon Chesterton, Rosanna Harris, Lauren Atkins, Callum Evans, Gabrielle Williams, Alisa Davidson, Natasha Mould, Anthony Hughes, George Onley, Rory Phelen, Grant Thresh, Charlotte Coggin, Alessia McDermott, Anna Murray.

 

Grease, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(444 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Gabriel, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Belinda Lang, Jules Melvin, Robin Morrissey, Sarah Schoenbeck, Venice Van Someren.

It is Human nature to forget, to wipe out the memory, collective or individual, of some of the evils, the deeds carried out in the name of occupation and survival; it is those actions that were in use every day during World War Two on the continent and were mercifully missing from Britain’s streets as the sheer evil of the Nazi war machine dragged its way from the Atlantic edge to the forests and surrounding areas of Stalingrad.

Gabriel, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Ian Janco, Gig Review. 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool. Threshold 2017.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Threshold is dear to people hearts for many reasons, not only for the creative freedom it installs in area of Liverpool that has taken the idea of bohemian and originality to different level but also for the way it embraces the artistic and the resourceful, it is an avenue of thinking that really endorses the way in which Ian Janco comes across in his performance.

Ian Janco, Gig Review. 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool. Threshold 2017. full post

(417 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)