Category Archives: Theatre

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It would have undoubtedly pleased, intrigued, even fascinated the late, great Adrian Henri to have witnessed Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, not least for the acknowledgment of one of the three revered poets of the city of Liverpool but because of its absolute beauty. To be seen as beyond a performance, more of a living, breathing entity in which poetry becomes fine art, morphs into a moment of true artistic temperament which has been nursed and raised by more than just a tender loving of words, which has music, mood and movement sewn into its very fabric.

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Vanessa Schofield, Perry Moore, Suzanne Ahmet, Andrew Price, Howard Chadwick, Victoria Brazier, Anthony Hunt, Darren Kuppan, Claire Storey, Paul Barnhill.

It is often the case to congratulate Northern Broadsides when they come to Liverpool, a much loved theatre company to who much has always been appreciated and taken to the audience’s hearts, they have always given themselves the hardest of challenges by producing theatre that has struck a chord with the times we find ourselves in.

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A man walks into a comedy club and finds a way to make life better through humour and observational clowning; it could be the start to perhaps one of the most farcical jokes, instead it becomes the punch line to the best evening of wit and the pathos of human tragedy conceived.

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alice Bunker-Whitney.

We are at constant war with the one to whom we are nothing without. The daily bombardment of information, propaganda sheets delivered, in magazines, on television, radio, in advertising, across conversations and whispered jibes about how we would be better off, feel better, look more amazing.

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Wicked, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Woolf, Aaron Sidwell, Kim Ismay, Steven Pinder, Emily Shaw, Iddon Jones, Charli Baptie, Emily Olive Boyd, Georgia Rae Briggs, Jason Broderick, Samantha Brown, Hannah Cadec, Grace Chapman, James Davies –Williams, Howard Ellis, Amy Goodwin, Daniel James Greenway, Jack Harrison–Cooper, Charlie Karlsen, Nicole Lupino, Stuart MacIver, Stacey McGuire, Sara Morely, Paul Saunders, James Titchener, Helen Walsh, Amy Webb, Luke Woollaston, Benjamin Yates, Amy Ross, Nikki Bentley.

Wicked, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emma Dears, Helen Sheals.

Music: Greg Palmer.

There are icons and then there are those who, thanks to maybe one performance, one shining brilliant moment captured on film or record, will forever be immortalised, their images seared into the minds of the public, even those who were not born when they tragically passed away, their attitude remaining an engraved line on the monument on how stars are born and their names becoming the epitaph of the age. It is both a warning to how lives can be snatched away and never be truly our own, and it can be the huge embrace of knowing how much a human being can be loved.

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Paint Your Wagon, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Nadia Anim, Emma Bispham, Richard Bremmer, Patrick Brennan, George Caple, Paul Duckworth, Marc Elliott, Cerith Flinn, Emily Hughes, Nathan McMullen, Zelina Rebeiro, George Rosheuvel, Keddy Sutton, Liam Tobin.

Band: George Francis, Rosalind Jones, Katie Foster, Matthew Henry, Alex Smith, Nick Anderson.

Paint Your Wagon, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Those Two Weeks, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Jackie Jones, Mike Sanders, Katie King, James Ledsham, Sam Walton, Daniel Cassidy, Lisa McMahon.

Life and Time hang always in the balance, a single moment can hang forever in the air; it can be as inconsequential as a gnat’s heartbeat to an Elephant’s ear, it can be as earth-shattering and historic as a single gunshot in Dallas. Each moment we live through has the potential to be remembered for ever. It is though the build up to that instant where time and life clash for a brief while, where they converge and separate leaving the devastation in its wake; it is in the ability to look at what happened before that makes us attempt to make sense of the moment later on, when the next dawn has risen.

Those Two Weeks, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Council Depot Blues, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Roy Brandon, Paul Broughton, Lindzi Germain, Howard Gray, Phil Hearne, James Nelson-Joyce, Andrew Schofield.

We all count down the hours as a big day arrives, the end of the week and the chance to sit down with the feet up in the comfy chair or enjoy a holiday in which there is nothing to do but soak up the sun and breathe in the different air. Until the day of final reckoning when the chance to say goodbye to all those we have ever worked alongside, come rain or shine, come snow, hail, biting winds and the odd moments when the heat has driven us to distraction, leaves us with Time on our hands to think, and it is that thinking that makes the clock tick louder as it reminds us, we have nothing to do today and that we miss being part of the routine.

Council Depot Blues, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Kite Runner, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Cast: Ravi Aujla, Jo Ben Ayed, Amiera Darwish, Raj Ghatak, Oliver Gyani, Rez Kabir, Hanif Khan, Soroosh Lavasini, Umar Pasha, Gary Pillai, Jay Sajjid, Karl Seth, Danielle Woodnutt.

This is the third time that Matthew Spangler’s adaptation of The Kite Runner has appeared on this stage. A co-production between Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse, it has enjoyed tremendous success in London’s West End since its premiere here in 2013 and is now on its second U.K. tour.

The Kite Runner, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)