Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Paul Pope, Andie Egan Jr., David Allen.
The spirit and ethos Grin Theatre’s much talked about Queertet production of four short plays can be seen in this year’s opening production; that of John Maines’ Pulse. The spirit that lives in the Liverpool LGBT community, the feeling of acceptance and recognition is highlighted by the fun and the outrageous, the touch of the mystery and the overall entertaining that plays such as Pulse provide.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Louai Alhenawi, Alia Alzougbi, Roskar Nasan, Sanaa Wehbe.
Storytelling is such an important facet of human nature that it strides, like music, across the many diverse and wonderfully different regions and countries of the world. Our own culture, derived as it is originally from many distinct and rampaging races and creeds, is full of folk tales and parables from many customs and backgrounds that it surely is a thrill when the sounds and stories of another area of the world comes and adds more influence to life.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Stuart Crowther, Franki Burke, Adam Handford.
New York in the early 1990s felt at times as if the whole cultural edifice was on its way to being torn down, that imagination, artistic individualism and intellectual prosperity was being neglected, shamed, destroyed by the ever rampant chase of undying consumerism. That the beautiful, even if crime infested streets surrounding certain areas that were awash with artists of every creed were being driven out and in their place those that chased every dollar, every dime and cent with religious capitalist zeal were taking over. Reaganomics had won and the starving artist had better join the party.
Natalie McCool at the Unity Theatre. March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
From supporting Go West at the Floral Pavilion to the unchartered territory of Russia, from producing one of the singles of the year so far to being thought of as an icon in music, it has been an upward trajectory that that has seen Natalie McCool take on an even greater, and well deserved importance, in the annals of North West music. In the spirit of such things, to have Natalie McCool perform at this year’s Liverpool Acoustic Festival is one to take great thanks in.
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.
The Unity Theatre in Liverpool has long been a home for the adventurous and the glorious. It has been and will hopefully always be the place in which the avant-garde shakes hands with the rebellious and in which the seditious, defiant revolutions can start.
These revolutions may be small, they may be missed by the greater good and the world in general but they take place none the less and alongside the plays and productions that take place within its two theatre spaces and even a nod to Kerouac having been filmed within its walls, it is music that carries the revolution nod gently along.
Elinor Randle jogs down London Road with the effortless nature that makes you wonder if she wasn’t so immersed and integral to Liverpool theatre, would she have been one of Britain’s great Olympic hopes in a long distance stamina event. That energy, the raw endurance has certainly seen her through show after show and with Tmesis Theatre, those shows just get more and more endearing and offer something scintillatingly unique to the Liverpool culture scene.
Liverpool Sound and Vision 7/10
Comedy is truly subjective; it is perhaps the one art form that can divide a room quicker than a partitioned wall. In some cases what makes you laugh can have your friend seething or wriggling uncomfortably as if they are attempting to go through customs with every illegal purchase placed in the most delicate of places.
For David Mills, a first time performer at the superbly adept and run Homotopia, the jokes and observances are well placed, they even have the adherence of finely tuned comic execution running through them, it’s just that at times even the hard of hearing can hear the sweat crawl down the neck of the suitably embarrassed as if a snail had suddenly mastered the art of roller skating over razor blades.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jennifer Steyn, Kertrice Maitisa, Mbulelo Grootboom.
The flowering of democracy leaves many a root of the past upturned and exposed to the sunlight, it catches the rays like a magnifying glass and in its wake can have the same effect on the tips of the root and the soft underbelly of the flower harmed by the burnt offering that new social equality can bring.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Tim Lynskey, Matt Rutter.
Monty Python may have sold its last dead parrot, served its last piece of Spam and finally insisted that he is not the Messiah, he is just a naughty boy but that’s not to say what has been bequeathed down the years has been forgotten, especially by the three men that make up Big Wow and arguably one of the finest pieces of comedy theatre that you ever likely to lay your eyes upon in The Art of Falling Apart.