Category Archives: Theatre

Rapunzel: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emma Bispham, Ben Boskovic, Adam Keast, Ai Kumar, Rebecca Levy, Alice Merivale, Tomi Ogbaro, Adam Scott Pringle, Michael Starke, Dylan Townley, Zoe West.

It is no hair-lucination, the style and delivery will cause a wave of laughter for all ages, and with the deadly Danny Ruff on the prowl to corner the hairdressing market, the buzz of the razor’s edge as it cuts through the dastardly machinations is only enhanced by the terrific sound of laughter that fills to the trim of the Everyman Theatre as the city’s audience are once more treated to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto, and as the Francesca Goodridge directed and the Jude Christian written Rapunzel brings families together no perm is left untouched and no pun safe from being teased out.

Rapunzel: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(358 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

The Scouse Red Riding Hood: Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Emma Grace Arends, Chantel Cole, Lindzi Germain, Adam McCoy, Lydia Rose Morales Scully, Andrew Schofield, Keddy Sutton. Liam Tobin.

Band: Ben Gladwin, Jack Hymers, Greg Joy, Chris Nicholls, Mike Woodvine.

Excellence rarely comes as a surprise, the joy of the eternal is forever and unequivocally stands on its own legendary status, and for the creatives, the cast, and the audiences that will make their way to the Royal Court Theatre between now and the new year, The Scouse Red Riding Hood theatrical offering is as ever one of tremendous and fantastic irreverence to the staid and the cautious that grips the stony hearted and loosens the funny bone with the skill of a night with Liverpool’s own Ken Dodd and a large dose of double entendre at his disposal.

The Scouse Red Riding Hood: Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Lost Soul 2: Smigger’s Wrecked Head. Theatre Review. (2024). Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Paul Duckworth, Lindzi Germain, Michael Hawkins, Jennifer Hynes, Catherine Rice, Andrew Schofield, Lenny Wood.

Time may offer the dangling cries of surprising future in front of us, but it never truly prepares us for the rude awakening of change when it comes to becoming a parent, and then the drama of becoming a grandparent. It is in the shock of how our lives adjust in the face of age and new life that the alter of self-expression is diminished, it undergoes a transformation that in all honest so few of us are prepared for.

Lost Soul 2: Smigger’s Wrecked Head. Theatre Review. (2024). Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Twelfth Night. Marine Gardens, Waterloo. Theatre Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Charlotte Cumming, Amber-Page Moss, Alice Colvin-Cousley, Catherine Fahy, Kyle Jensen. Christopher Hogan, Sandra Tschackert, Oliver Barden, Laurence D. Glover, Chrysanthi Fergani, Becky Brookfield, Simon Baron, Andrew Cecil, Annuncia Skeldon.

Shakespeare is not just about the characters, the most human way that the souls of each audience member are unfolded to reveal the essence of the writing by the master of verbal exchange and thought, nor is the exposure of a time that captures the imagination in a way that historical truth can fathom, but it must be in every situation about setting, about how the space available is utilised to its fullest effect by the director and actors without feeling as if you are contained by a wall, that you are not processing emotions behind the scenes of modern restraint.

Twelfth Night. Marine Gardens, Waterloo. Theatre Review. full post

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

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening. Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Neil Pearson, Jeff Rawle, Stephen Tompkinson, Victoria Wicks, Julia Hills, Kerana Jagpal, Claire Louise Amias, Adam Morris, Riya Rajeev.

They argue that you cannot recreate magic, that nothing is truly timeless, and in comedy that is especially true, the lighting that was captured does not stay in the bottle because attitudes to what makes people laugh alters so drastically that it the pressure inside the glass can do nothing but break, and all that remains is a puff, a glimmer of the electrifying pulse that once was seeping out into a world whose view has shifted and the approach of farce is pushed aside in favour of a new regime designed to no make people guffaw and snort wildly but be downcast and dull.

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening. Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Haunted Scouse. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Helen Carter, Paul Duckworth, Lynn Francis, Julie Glover, Michael Starke.

We deal with grief in our own way, but we must allow humour to part of the therapy in taking us from a place of heartbreak to one where we can look back at the times before the moment and take solace in the joy what came before, the small things that make a smile and a laugh the most beautiful response in the world.

Haunted Scouse. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Bingo Star. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Helen Carter, Paul Duckworth, Paige Fenlon, Jonathan Markwood, Alan Stocks, Keddy Sutton, Les Dennis, Tom Connor.

The internet made having a flutter on the internet something of a secret, the ability to stay at home whilst playing a game of bingo offered a sense of obscurity and privacy, a seclusion from reality. Rather than being a social experience, gaming, having fun, became a solitary pursuit, unedifying, a sense of the in complete; and one exacerbated by recent effects and situations to which many have yet to grasp the full implications.

Bingo Star. Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(526 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Stone On Stone. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Theatre Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: John O’Gorman, Lew Freeburn, Franklyn Jacks, Thom Williamson, Addae G.

The cause célèbre is one that as the 21st Century has marched onwards has gained ever more attention, everyone it seems today has the potential to seek a worthy initiative in which to fight against many of the injustices that blight and damage society. This positive conflict is what keeps us on our toes, but also one that perhaps is orchestrated behind the fact that never before has the ability to rub shoulders and ideas with those we perceive to be celebrity been so prevalent.

Stone On Stone. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Theatre Review. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Macca & Beth, Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. Theatre Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emma Bispham, Gordon Kane, Andrea Miller, Jerome Ngonadi, Danny O’Brien, Jamie Smelt, Karen Young.

“No legacy is so rich as honesty”, as the bard of Stratford noted in All’s Well That End’s Well, or if trust in honour isn’t the bag you entertain when thinking of wills, then to think of theatre as a plaything to be held at arm’s length is a foolish notion that we must discard quickly and efficiently if we are to continue thinking that society is an inheritance that we must preserve at all costs.

Macca & Beth, Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. Theatre Review. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Henry VI. Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Stratford-Upon-Avon. Theatre Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mark Quartley, Minnie Gale, Arthur Hughes, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Ashley D Gale, Ben Hall, Nicholas Karimi, Conor Glean, Daniel J Carver, Richard Cant, Lucy Benjamin, Aaron Sidwell, Paola Dionisotti, Sophia Papadopoulos, Peter Moreton, Yasmin Taheri, Emma Tracey, Daniel Ward, Benjamin Westerby, John Tate, Angelina Chudi, Felixe Forde, Jack Humphrey, Al Maxwell, Georgia-Mae Myers, Ibraheem Toure.

Henry VI. Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Stratford-Upon-Avon. Theatre Review. full post

(818 words, estimated 3:16 mins reading time)