Tag Archives: Playhouse Theatre

Crime And Punishment, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Adam Best, Mabel Clements, George Costigan, Amiera Darwish, Chris Donald, Cate Hamer, Jessica Hardwick, John Paul Hurley, Jack Lord, Obioma Ugoala.

There are moments in theatre where the ugly head of jealousy might just rear up within an audience member and show the person what they could have achieved if they were so minded. The chance to write, direct or even perform in a production of Crime And Punishment that is so magnificent, so constant in its relentless look at the way poverty, crime and descending psychosis, that even to have pulled the curtain up at the start of the play would have been an enormous thrill.

Crime And Punishment, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Lionboy, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Adetomiwa Edun, Femi Elufowoju Jr., Robert Gilbert, Victoria Gould, Lisa Kerr, Clive Mendus, Dan Milne, Stephen Hiscock.

There are many plays and productions that can make an audience sit up just that little bit higher in their seats and marvel at the spectacle, wonder with joy at the sheer leap in the imagination and be amazed at what the theatre company has managed to achieve in the time on stage. Complicite are no exceptions to this rule as they bring their superb adapted version of Zizou Corder’s acclaimed Lionboy to the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre.

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

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

Rutherford & Son, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Barrie Rutter, Nicholas Shaw, Andrew Grose, Sara Poyzer, Kate Anthony, Catherine Kinsella, Richard Standing, Gilly Tompkins.

Not for nothing was Githa Sowerby compared to Henrik Ibsen, the father of theatre realism. Her play Rutherford & Son was a powerful statement in a world where the writing of a female playwright was not expected to be as bold, so groundbreaking in its fury at a world that put male pride and arrogance before the thought of the family. The absolute realism she bought to her characters, especially that of the bombastic and near tyrannical father John Rutherford, the anguish and near heart breaking life of his daughter Janet and that of the stranger to the house, the woman who makes the Faustian-like pact with her father-in-law when all else around her goes awry, the woman whose head for business sees her keep a roof over her head, the young Mary.

Rutherford & Son, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Blue Remembered Hills, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: James Bolt, Phil Cheadle, Tilly Gaunt, Adrian Grove, Joanna Holden, David Nellist, Christopher Price.

It may not be considered as the pinnacle of Dennis Potter’s career as a playwright, that surely goes to the plays Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective but Blue Remembered Hills is certainly a Potter classic and one that shows that cruelty is not just confined to the adult world in which the backdrop of the Second World War rages but resides within us all from birth.

Blue Remembered Hills, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(420 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Held, Theatre Review. Playhouse Studio Theatre, Liverpool.

Pauline Daniels, Ged McKenna in Held. Photograph by Christian Smith.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Pauline Daniels, Ged McKenna, Alan Stocks.

The idea of losing someone piece by piece, memory by bittersweet memory is one that no human being ever wants to contemplate, its implications and devastating results can break apart families whilst the person who slowly moves further and further away cannot help in anyway. Such was the authoritative writing of Joe Ward Munrow and the directing of the creatively astute Lorne Campbell in Held, that the heart was pulled in many different directions as the audience empathised and felt sympathy for each character.

Held, Theatre Review. Playhouse Studio Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(412 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Steptoe And Son, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Photograph by Steve Tanner. Dean Nolan, Mike Shepherd as Steptoe and Son.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mike Shepherd, Dean Nolan, Kirsty Woodward.

Albert and Harold Steptoe, national comedy legends that were bought to B.B.C. television by the incredible writing of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, two men bound to each other through blood, despair, apathy and a small measure of distant attachment. No one could have predicted how much the two men would change the television viewing habits of the nation as they settled down each week to watch the Steptoe and Son.

Steptoe And Son, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(427 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

The Alchemist, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Photograph by Tristram Kenton

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 19th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

Cast: Ian Bartholomew, Simon Coates, Hasan Dixon, Kevin Harvey, Joshua Higgott, Laurence Kennedy, Ellie Kirk, John McGrellis, Kristian Phillips, Lara Rossi, Nicolas Tennant, Roger Watkin.

The whole world is out for a fast buck, a sure fire way to make money no matter who suffers or is made a fool of. Such was the world during the time of Ben Jonson…and time hasn’t moved on any! Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist is something different from the plays of the 17th century.

The Alchemist, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(421 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

The Canterbury Tales, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 24th 2010.

Cast: Isia Bennison, Emily Butterfield, Matt Connor, Phil Corbitt, Laura Cox, Andy Cryer, Michael Hugo, Rosie Jenkins, Alan McMahon, David Newman, Rob Pickavance, Matthew Rixon, Richard Standing, Andrew Whitehead.

After the success of Medea earlier in the year, Northern Broadsides have come back once more to Liverpool with the intention of staging a difficult piece of work for the delight of the Playhouse audience. This time they tackled one of English literature’s defining moments, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The Game, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Cast: John Branwell, Liz Carney, Jo Gerard, Catherine Kinsella, Ror North, Wendi Peters, Phil Rowson, Barrie Rutter, Matt Sutton, Jos Vantyler.

Harold Brighouse’s name might ring more bells with drama and literature lovers as the writer of the classic play Hobson’s Choice, however thanks to a dramatic find in a Canadian University, Barrie Rutter and his team of players that make up Northern Broadsides have breathed life into the play The Game.

Northern Broadsides have continued to thrill Liverpool audiences over the last few years, with productions such as The Man with Two Gaffers and their own take on Romeo and Juliet, it seems as though the company can do no wrong in wrong in local eyes.

The Game, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

No Wise Men, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. December 9th 2010.

Cast: Helen Carter, Annabelle Dowler, Javier Marzan, John Nicholson, Clare Thomson, Milo Twomey.

Take a pinch of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, mix it up with lashings of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of The Little Match Girl and add the very best of humour from theatre company Peepolykus you end up with a compelling, sometimes heartstring pulling and totally absorbing production of No Wise Men.

No Wise Men, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(328 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)