The year has perhaps been one of diverse feelings across the board in Liverpool, one in which reflection, triumphant returns, masterpieces and some sadness has been experienced. The Playhouse Theatre has undergone work for a while and yet held inside its doors one of the most magnificent scenes caught on camera as Annette Bening and Jamie Bell recreated one of the last days of the film star Gloria Graham for the cinematic love letter, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool. The much loved Unity Theatre closed its doors for a time and reopened with a flourish as it too underwent a change in its decor and look and yet still retains the welcome that makes it one of the places to visit in the city.
Tag Archives: unity theatre
Liverpool’s Unity Theatre Announce Diverse Programme Of Performance Especially For Family Audiences This Autumn Season.
Unity Theatre, Liverpool’s unashamedly contemporary theatre, full of exciting, unique and highly theatrical performance announces a diverse Family Programme for autumn 2017. With a long history of supporting high quality performance especially for children and families this season’s programme realises a promise which will develop over the next four years.
Matthew Linley, Artistic Director at Unity said, “Developing our family audience is a key ambition of us at Unity Theatre. Our recent major capital redevelopment was carried out with the ambition to ensure that we would be able to welcome more families to our very special venue. As part of the redevelopment we installed baby change facilities on all levels of the building and will provide seating in our front of house seating for children, including high chairs. Theatregoers will also be able to buy healthy snacks for children in our ground floor kiosk.
Shake It Up Baby, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jackie Jones, Neil MacDonald, Hayley Hampson, Julian Feria.
The world has not been the same since four lads from Liverpool took over the mass hysteria and pop domination and showed that the post war spirit of change and seeming polite revolution was here to stay and not wrestled back by the forces of the damned pre war sentiment of knowing your place. The 60s was all about the revolution, the counter culture and the moving away from pre-destined supposition; it was time to Shake It Up Baby and start to take a chance in life.
Drums Along The Mersey, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Mike Newstead, Daniel Murphy, Abigail McKenzie, James Markham, Matthew Bromwich.
There are many contenders for the much vaunted and valued position of the fifth Beatle, that often much publicised place in history that has fallen for example on the shoulders of Brian Epstein, George Martin, even possibly Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and perhaps with the wish of many early fans the late Stuart Sutcliffe; however there is one man who arguably stands above them all and it is only thanks to history, historians, to the faithful in Liverpool and Hamburg that the truly remarkable Pete Best is quite rightly remembered as being the Beatle who should have been.
Mark Pountney, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2016, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There should never be any doubt of the appeal of Mark Poutney for as long as he is able to perform, stand on a stage with head held high and the ever flowing grace that goes with such a smile of enjoyment, for in that performance comes across a musician who is spirited, giving and full of humble character; if the world ever finds itself without compassion in performance then Mark Pountney would surely endeavour to keep it breathing and ticking along until a new heart could be found for the tired old planet.
The Buffalo Riot, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2016, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Riots can come in all shapes and sizes, they can be easily silenced and quelled, they can become so meaningful that revolutions are given birth from their humble beginnings and like all popular uprisings, nearly always stem from one particular cause or pursuit. In the case of the superb The Buffalo Riot, the root cause is simple, the sound is wholesome and harmonious even when for the purposes of an acoustic gig they slim down from their normal five piece to a slender and melody driven twosome.
Polari, Poetry And Spoken Word Review. Homotopia, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The English language is as rich as anything on Earth and yet it is made so purely because it is allowed to breathe, to expand, to contract and usurp words from other cultures and to bring the art of communication into a realm that no other language can truly compete with. The ability to take one word and give it a completely different sense of occasion, to allow the sense of freedom to define the lingo, the dialect and the pattern of speech is to be celebrated and not given a stern look, not to be rallied against and see the language die in a stunted cul-de-sac.
The Fuck, Theatre Review. Queertet, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Liam Murphy, Gerard McLaughlin
The pick-up, the slow manoeuvring of time and physical introduction as two sets of eyes meet is a story the world over, sometimes though the need for something beyond the carefree social abandon takes the requirements of dating out of the hands of the participants and into the realm of the arena. Not so much making love on the first date but the greeting of a Spanish crowd to their hero decked in national regalia and the snorting, steam driven worship of a single moment in which The Fuck is all but consuming.
Bye, Theatre Review. Queertet, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Nic Hardman, Mary Jayne, James Bray.
It has perhaps arguably long been a topic of conversation between people who find the subject of other people’s love lives and sexual experiences a thrilling and endless game to while away the time, on just how can a person fancy or fall in love with a two people from the opposite genders; the sniggering and the elbow nudging a distraction and deflection to the point which is that human beings are animals and attraction is not based solely on which side of the cup you like to drink out of at all times. For some it even comes down to a choice between friends and which one they may have to say Bye to when the fall out of choice rears its ugly head.
Mates Rates, Theatre Review. Queertet, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Rachel McKweon, James Wray, Gareth Cobham, Richard Carlin.
Break ups are never easy, they don’t actually even just entail the two people going through the process, family aside, it effects a wide circle of friends and close personal attachments to the point where some people breaking up demand that you take sides in a fit of ownership. Whilst others feel as though they have no choice but to make a complete break of the whole situation; to the point where starting with nothing is preferable to looks of disappointment and heartbreak.