Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Debbie Kurup, Matt Rawle, Simon Rouse, Hugh Sachs, Jayne Wymark, Zoe Rainey, Alex Young, Adam Dutton, Bob Harms, Nick Len, Andy Yau, Michelle Andrews, Anouska Eaton, Jack Evans, Victoria Hinde, Lauren Jade, Rebecca Jayne-Davies, Michael Lin, Dylan Mason, Joanne Lee Marrtin, Ryan Pidgen, Adam Rhys-Charles, Rohan Richards, Tom Partridge, Alexandra Waite-Roberts.
The Unity Theatre in Liverpool isn’t just a creative space for the use of local and touring theatre companies. Within its walls is another heartbeat, a twin spirit of occupation, a breathing fortitude of echoing guitar sounds, exotic drum and cello performed always by a commander of the bow, resides and has firmly taken root over the last few years. A gig here and there throughout the year, bookended by the abundance of theatre, but nevertheless important and the acoustic evenings they put on are fully looked forward to.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jake Abraham, Eithne Browne, Roy Carruthers, Daniel Davies, Emma Dears, Brian Dodd, Christopher Jordan, Maria Lovelady.
There is a horrible sense of deja vu as one looks around closely in hidden doors and hears the sounds of families at war with themselves that the period known as the Great Depression, the 1930s stumbling block to world peace has been making itself at home for the last few years and nobody has truly noticed. Thankfully the true depths that the world groped around in the dark with during that time has not materialised again but only perhaps good fortune, rather than political reckoning has saved the type of scenes witnessed by the writer Helen Forrester as she grew up impoverished in a city that was fighting for grim survival and without even Twopence To Cross The Mersey.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Matthais Schoenaerts, Sam Riley, Ruth Wilson, Margot Robbie, Harriet Walter, Eileen Atkins, Lambert Wilson, Tom Schilling, Clare Holman, Deborah Findlay, Eric Godon, Simon Dutton, Diana Kent, Juliet Howland, Nicholas Chagrin.
As the 21st Century grumbles on and the further we move away from the period of time in which our grandparents gave up on almost everything except hope, the more the apathy to maintaining the struggle against oppression grows more weary. In some cases it is possible to hear some people state out loud, “Shouldn’t we forget all this now?” Yet stories from the Second World War continue to surface and perhaps none more startling in recent years than that of Irène Némirovsky and her posthumously published unfinished novel Suite Française.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Helen Foster
To explore, it is a fundamental part of humanity, that need to stretch out and find new lands, to discover fresh ways of achieving, to be the first to see something or experience new depths is what drives us. However with each passing moment the limits that we can go to are not just tested, they are slimmed down as more and more rules are imposed and limitations are set down, it takes sheer bloody mindedness to go beyond what is expected and those that do should be congratulated for doing so.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér, Lili Horváth, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Lili Monori, Gergely Bánki, Tamás Polgár, Károly Ascher, Erika Bodnár, Bence Csepeli, János Derzsi, László Gálffi, Kornél Mundruczó, Ervin Nagy, Natasa Stork, Vanda Verle.
A nation always seems surprised when a particular group who have been abused, mistreated with contempt, fights back and gives a nasty bite to those who have dealt out beatings, proverbial or otherwise. Throughout human history, the abuse of power has led to such revolts and the only surprise is that people still think they can get away with it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Nick Birkinshaw.
It is the shadow of what can happen to us all when we obsess over what has been and allow the memory room to breathe, take shape and distort what has been. The alienation of the future self as it withers into frosted, disgraced old-age as it rages against the impetuousness of youth and the exuberance of hope that resides in middle-age, all set down for posterity as mould settles on the floor and in the mind, these are the qualities that make Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape such an outstanding and rewarding play to see at the Unity Theatre.
Dr. John and the Nite Trippers. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. March 2015. Picture kindly reproduced by Adrian Wharton.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Let the good times roll…and eventually they did, it just seemed to take a while for the legendary Dr. John and the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall audience to find each other.
There is never a doubt that Dr. John is one of the most stylish men to be welcomed to the stage at the Philharmonic Hall, he also has the overpowering ability and back catalogue to back it up, in that, legendary is perhaps too shallow a description in which to place before the all rounder and man of many parts.
Tommy Scott performing at Leaf, Liverpool. March 2015. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Adran Wharton.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The flickering light supplied by the one reading lamp placed by an antique looking but initially comfortable chair, an audience waiting patiently, the sharp suit complementing the darkness that was settling in as Winter’s icy grip was beginning to thaw, two highly praised musicians waiting by his side, a small inflatable bird perched in his eye line. This was all that was needed to further enhance the ambience and feel of a wonderful 19th Century night of warning, musings and acoustically charged music was for Tommy Scott to deliver his evening at Leaf on Bold Street in the stylised tones of Edgar Allen Poe and a mysterious knocking on the lift at the back from a talkative raven.
Satin Beige performing at Leaf in Liverpool. March 2015. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Adrian Wharton.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
As Satin Beige finishes her support slot to Tommy Scott at Leaf, it’s possible to sit back and reflect upon a raw and flowering special talent that has just awoken many lost memories with her wonderful cello playing; exotic but with more than a hint of the moody regal nature that emanates from every pore and fibre of this young performer.