Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Stuart Richman.
A well written story needs a powerful performance in which to hang its tale upon and they don’t come much more emotionally and spiritually brilliant than Isaac Bashevis Singer’s A Day of Pleasure and the man who enraptures and leads an audience through the near derelict streets and run down housing of pre and post First World war Warsaw, the outstanding Stuart Richman.
Having wowed the crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Australia’s new contemporary circus company Casus arrive in Liverpool with their stunning premiere work, Knee Deep this November.
Four performers explore the boundaries of strength and tenderness. Bodies are pushed and pulled, weighed and tested, probing the limits of both physicality and feeling. In Knee Deep, unlikely bonds are forged and acts of intimacy co-habit space with thrilling physical feats, as the audience is invited to re-imagine notions of limitation. Throughout this journey, the artists demonstrate that delicacy does not necessarily equate to fragility, although it is often a fine line to tread.
As April Ashley sits down on the specially provided chair next to Radio Merseyside legendary presenter Roger Philips at the Museum of Liverpool, the audience that had made their way to the city specifically to see Ms. Ashley rose almost as one and gave a standing ovation that would normally be reserved for an actor or musician giving a rare solo performance to an adoring crowd.
To many in the audience and to thousands, if not millions round the world, April Ashley is a heroine, a heroine of the highest order, someone that without whom the dark ages, the misguided and in some cases repugnant behaviour of others towards transgendered issues, would have carried on perhaps well into the 21st Century.
With a spring/summer season which boasted the debut of a long-running musical, live music from internationally renowned artists and the critically acclaimed return of a Broadway show to Liverpool, The Epstein Theatre is set to announce an eclectic mix of shows for its Autumn/Winter 2013 season.
At the new season launch Rebekah Pichilingi, Epstein Theatre Manager said, “The Autumn/Winter Season continues the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the theatre on Hanover Street. By sticking to tradition we have a great variety of entertainment at the Epstein Theatre and I am pleased to announce a great line-up of comedy events this season and of course an exciting array of family entertainment.”
Following a triumphant West End debut earlier this year, Australian star Trevor Ashley is back! Channelling the extraordinary talents of the iconic Liza Minnelli in his critically acclaimed show LIZA (on an E), Ashley will star for one night only at The Auditorium Liverpool at the Echo Arena on Saturday 5th October as part of his first ever U.K. tour.
Controversial, wickedly funny yet also touchingly affectionate, LIZA (on an E), directed by Dean Bryant (Associate Director of Priscilla Queen of the Desert), is a must see evening that will have you laughing, crying and screaming for more, as the supremely talented Ashley not only entertains with Liza, plus there are special appearances by her mother, the legendary Judy Garland.
There are just some shows that even on paper look so good, so funny that you know if you miss them you might as well be a social pariah for a while. Such is the case for Dave Kirby’s latest theatre outing, Dreaming of a Barry White Christmas.
Beneath the rotating wheel outside the Echo Arena and B.T. Convention Centre, Six leading actors from a city that produces so many incredible performers gather and kick start off the storm of activity that makes Liverpool theatres such an extraordinary place to be over the festive period.
Sheila, Ken, Olivia and Amy work in the same office 9-5, Monday to Friday. Despite spending most of their time together, there’s very little they really know about one another. When the future of their workplace comes into question, true colours start to be revealed and some difficult decisions must be made. Award winning playwright Grace O’Leary examines this universal experience in her latest production Letter-Headed Paper as it comes to the Lantern Theatre this October.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Terry Malloy, Jonathan Forbes, Nicholas Briggs, Tim Delap, Jessica Brooks, Paul Chandi.
There is only one way to perhaps to finish off what has been an absorbing trilogy involving one of the best female additions to the Doctor Who audio range, a machine so powerful that even in the Doctor’s hands can cause the listener anxiety issues and a fine quirky new companion straight from U.N.I.T. and that’s by having the revulsion of the Doctor’s most hated enemy make an appearance alongside their creator. If all that can happen in one great story then what hope is there for others following after.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
No matter where you look on television or in the book stalls and shops of Britain, there is always the chance you will come across a programme, factual case or long line of fiction dedicated to the murder. The British seem obsessed with it, so much so that no Sunday night would be the same without one of Agatha Christie’s plots giving the viewer a challenge to find the killer before the spinster or the Belgian and no trip to a book shop would feel the same without picking up the latest crime thriller. Dr. Lucy Worsley’s latest historical series delves into the mind set of our island race’s preoccupation with the despicable act and looks at some cases of the deed in A Very British Murder.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Rupert Penry Jones, Phil Davies, Steve Pemberton, Sam Stockman, Ben Bishop, Hannah Walters, Mandeep Dhillon, Munir Khairdin, Hugh Mitchell, Natasha Joseph, Angela Pleasance, Gavin Marshall, John Hodgkinson, Tom Beard.
American television programmes that would be considered on par with the I.T.V. detective thriller Whitechapel would no doubt scream for the sense of history that surrounds the East-End of London, the chilling residue of time, death, murder and mayhem that seem to come out of every pore and alleyway of the area. America’s loss is Britain’s gain especially when it comes to Whitechapel and its abundance of historical murders that can be re-enacted with a new novel twist by today’s modern writers.