Tag Archives: Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre

The Norman Conquests, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. June 7th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Oliver Birch, Philip Cumbus, Tom Davey, Laura Howard, Emily Pithon, Sarah Tansey.

Liverpool audiences have had to wait for quite a while for an Alan Ayckbourn play to come to the city and then like the proverbial bus, three come along at once.

The special and almost unique thing with The Norman Conquests is that it is not just one show but three specially crafted, incredibly well directed and lovingly bought to life plays that demand more attention for their ample moments of generous laughter that Alan Ayckbourn insists must be within all his plays, even when the subject matter is dour, there is always room for laughter.

The Norman Conquests, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Mary Shelley, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. May 9th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

Cast: Kristen Atherton, William Chubb, Ben Lamb, Flora Nicholson, Sadie Shimmin, Shannon Tarbet.

To take the life of one of Britain’s foremost radical and supreme female writers of the last 200 years and present it as a dramatic and inspiring piece of theatre takes incredible fortitude, guile, a cast of infinite quality and a writer whose work is undoubtedly amongst the best in the country right now.

In Helen Edmundson’s Mary Shelley at the Liverpool Playhouse, the audience was treated rather spectacularly to all of the above and then some.

Mary Shelley, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Oedipussy, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 15th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

Cast:  Aitor Basauri, Stephen Kreiss, Petra Massey, Toby Park.

You can sit there all night thinking of the best way to describe Spymonkey’s Oedipussy, scratch your head and explain what you’ve seen in words that are both fitting to the company and the creators behind one of the great adaptations of Greek theatre. What it all boils down too, is that the team behind Spymonkey are pure and utter comic geniuses!

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

(575 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Oedipus, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 23rd 2011.

Cast: Anthony Barclay, Sean Buckley, Ian Drysdale, Mark Frost, Christopher Hogben, Louise Jameson, Eoin McCarthy, Alex McSweeney, Simon Merrells, Vincenzo Nicoli, Anthony Ofoegbu.

If you’re going to start off a new season of plays then they don’t come much bigger in terms of minimalist style and historical significance than the first true great piece of tragedy performances, Sophocles’ Oedipus.

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

(366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

The Sacred Flame, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast:   Sarah Churm, Jamie De Courcey, Robert Demeger, Katrina Innes, Margot Leicester, Al Nedjari, David Ricardo-Pearce, Beatriz Romilly.

When is a murder not murder? It seems in the world of post First World War senselessness and when all those involved and affected by a loss of someone much loved, it can be easier to brush the whole sordid affair under the carpet.

The Sacred Flame, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Doreene Blackstock, Curtis Cole, Dominic Gately, Savannah Gordon-Liburd, Luke James, Jack McMullen, Richard Pepple, Alix Ross, Sean Sagar.

Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was written in the dying days of National Service in Great Britain; this coupled with the thought of young offenders’ prisons which became a one-stop shop for hope being abandoned may have been on a lot of people’s minds when the national riots of 2011 scarred and divided the nation.

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Swallows and Amazons, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 27th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Celia Adams, Akiya Henry, Richard Holt, Katie Moore, Sophie Waller, Stewart Wright, Greg Barnett, Francesca Bradley, Neal Craig, Adrian Garratt, Alison George, Hilary Tones, Jon Trenchard.

Every so often a production comes along that when all is said and done is nothing short of charming and brilliantly executed. Nothing more, nothing less! Arthur Ransome’s classic children’s adventure Swallows and Amazons is one such play.

Swallows and Amazons, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The Misanthrope, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast:  Neil Caple, Simon Coates, Leander Deeny, Daniel Goode, Alison Pargeter, George Potts, Zara Tempest-Walters, Colin Tierney, Harvey Virdi.

For the third time, Moliere, Roger McGough and Gemma Bodinetz combined to make an evening at the Playhouse Theatre so anticipated and enjoyable. Heavily surrounded by a cast that adds that final burst of brilliance that makes The Misanthrope a play a distinguished and tremendous addition to the canon of Moliere plays to now have been performed on the stage in the city. 

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

(398 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Night Of The Living Dead Remix, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Laura Atherton, Morgan Bailey, Luke Bigg, Will Holstead, Morven Macbeth, Matt Prendergast, Adela Rajnovic.

To combine the precision of a cinematic lens and the immediacy and freedom that the theatre provides is to perhaps immerse an audience into a noirish cascade of emotional uncertainty, one that leaves them breathless, suitably claustrophobic in their minds and one that gives the senses free reign to relish, to take absolute pleasure in the psychological fear that out there in the world is a disease that has the potential to place humanity in danger.

Night Of The Living Dead Remix, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

An Inspector Calls, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Liam Brennan, Christine Kavanagh, Jeffrey Harmer, Alasdair Buchan, Chloe Orrock, Ryan Saunders, Emma Cater, Michael Ross, Portia Booroff, Elissa Churchill, Jonathan Davenport, Nathanial Cagliarini, Ella-Grace Hanson, Daniel Dean.

Time never changes, it just alters the angle in which you stare at it, until finally you realise that what has already gone, has returned, and normally with even greater ferocity and fire than before.

An Inspector Calls, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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