Tag Archives: Liverpool

Birdsong, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Edmund Wiseman, Emily Bowker, Selma Brook, Max Bowden, Cloudia Swann, Peter Duncan, Emily Altneu, James Staddon, Liam McCormick, Roger Martin, Alastair Whatley, James Findlay.

Even in the foul grip of war, there must be a love that carries the soldier across the boundary between the stench of perpetual death and the sanity that is provided by having something to live for. Love in the midst of war is what keeps the thoughts of ordinary men from turning into barbarians and for those who do the fighting, whether above ground, on the fields of No Man’s Land or in the tunnels, love can be the saving point. Love is a peculiar Birdsong.

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

(564 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Cobain: Montage Of Heck, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Too many modern Rock and music documentaries live in the moment; they are stifled by the effects of the past and constricted by image. The opposite is perhaps arguably true of the biopic, one that in many ways glamorises the person involved, certain areas of life, of thoughts and deeds airbrushed out, spoken as if acting as a token, a memento in which the picture doesn’t want to go down a certain route but invites the viewer to do it on their own but no staging post of reference to the impact on other significant lives.

Cobain: Montage Of Heck, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(634 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Kevin Critchley, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is both cruel and unusual, as well being the well thought of great healer. It asks so much of us and in many ways offers so little in return. To be able to find time to watch all the great bands that come your way, that visit your nearest venue is an almost an impossible ask; to follow round every possible staging post one of the great young acts that the city has nurtured over the last few years is sadly unworkable in the modern age, to do deprives your attention from others, just as deserving, just as enjoyable, and yet when Kevin Critchley comes on stage, Time does its best to hold back the constant ticking.

Kevin Critchley, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

Jenny Strand, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In recent years Norway has given so much to Liverpool’s present musical heritage that it is almost becoming a true tradition to be able to walk into any venue in the wider city and hear the flowing tones of the Nordic ability for storytelling transformed into epic song played, and fully appreciated.

It is the long standing convention that people of Scandinavia have their culture and their physical geography to thank for that, like Britain, of Europe but not immersed fully into the characteristics of their land locked neighbours further south or the mysterious tales that come from Mediterranean culture. With the addition of Jenny Strand to that heritage, the future has yet more reason to be hopeful.

Jenny Strand, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Hazel Empire, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A certain combined wisdom can come together when like-minded people are in sync, inspiration can strike and the effect is not only tangible but far-reaching.

For The Hazel Empire, inspiration and wisdom go hand in hand with musical enjoyment and like all flourishing Empires, the seeds of knowledge cast their net wide and more people find themselves drawn to the apparent mysticism contained within.

The Hazel Empire, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

Nadjia, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Truer words are rarely spoken at any gig. The visiting band might say at some point how much they love a particular town or city, they might perhaps, and with great sincerity attached to their name, say that the audience has been the best on the tour, after all one gig in arguably ten is going to be right. However, when Nadjia sings inside the Parr Street’s Studio 2 about Time not being a creature to be tamed, the truth of existence is placed naked before the world, that the time between the tick and tock might be kind, it might treat you well, but it will still ravage your very soul in the end.

Nadjia, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(539 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Woman In Gold, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Max Irons, Charles Dance, Elizabeth McGovern, Antje Traue, Daniel Brühl, Neve Gachev, Frances Fisher, Jonathan Pryce, Tom Schilling, Moritz Bleibtreu, Anthony Howell, Moritz Bleibtreu, Allan Corduner, Henry Goodman, Nina Kunzendorf, Alma Hasun, Justus Von Dohanyi, Kudger Pistor, Ben Miles, Rolf Saxon.

Woman In Gold, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(624 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Force Majeure, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius, Karin Myrenberg, Brady Corbet, Johannes Moustos, Jorge Lattof, Adrian Heinisch, Michael Breitenberger, Karl Pincon, Julie Roumogoux, Peter Gaunt.

Nature is a force so incomprehensible that its overwhelming tsunami like effect it has on the soul is to be seen as complex and extraordinary. Like an avalanche travelling at a hundred miles an hour and aiming straight at you, the only thing to do is either run from it, or stare it down, come Hell or high water, your choice is how it will be seen to define you.

Force Majeure, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Plastic Figurines, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Remmie Milner, Jamie Samuel.

It is a credit to the theatre attendees of Liverpool that there are writers of such great quality with a unique modern perspective out there who are willing to see their plays performed on the city’s various stages, that no matter how difficult the subject matter may be to perhaps take in, they know with hand on heart that the audiences will give every ounce of their concentration to and be thoughtful in their considered response. This is especially true when someone of the calibre of Ella Carmen Greenhill brings her play Plastic Figurines to the Playhouse Theatre Studio stage.

Plastic Figurines, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

While We’re Young, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Maria Dizzia, Adam Horovitz, Matthew Maher, Bonnie Kaufman, Hector Otero, Deborah Eisenberg, Dree Hemingway, Matthew Shear.

 

One of the biggest problems with humanity is that nothing is truly unique anymore. Our voices are confined with a masking obscurity of soundbites and instant quotes, our actions governed by what has gone before and if by chance something truly exclusive and distinctive is said, it gets tarnished within hours on social media and copied world-wide. In a world where seven billion people inhabit every available bit of land and conscious, to be the one outstanding adult is pretty much impossible, the optimism of this is to only be felt While We’re Young.

While We’re Young, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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