Category Archives: Theatre

Little Red And The Big Bad Wolf, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Liz Jadav, Simone Lewis, Harvey Robinson, Luca Rutherford.

BSL Interpreter: Kate Labno.

We all warn our children about straying from the path provided, to not deviate, keep close at all times, and even though we understand they have to make their own way in the world. We also have the responsibility to make sure that they don’t get hurt, become embroiled and hang with the wrong crowd, that they, unlike Little Red, find fascination with the wolf who wears its fur with pride, who has the smooth pick up line and casual interesting manner.

Little Red And The Big Bad Wolf, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. (2018). full post

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

Jersey Boys, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michael Watson, Simon Bailey, James Winter, Karl James Wilson, Stephen O’ Brien, Joel Elferink, Mark Heenehan, Arnold Mabhena, Tara Young, Olive Robinson, Amy Thiroff, Dan O’ Brien, Peter Nash.

Musicians: Francis Goodhand, Tom Theakston, Sarah Burrell, Christian Sutherland, Iestyn Jones, Samuel Firsht.

There are many voices, lauded, passionate, full of life, that we hear every day, their songs enthral us, unite us, remind of what it is too feel, to be part of something bigger that we might believe ourselves to be. What we do forget though is the stories behind those voices, we forget as we listen to our favourite song or sit in the blissful memory of a tune that transports us back in time, that the songs came from somewhere deep and personal, that they are the product of a moment that is forever framed.

Jersey Boys, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jay Taylor and Patrick Robinson as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson in Baskerville: Photograph by Ellie Kurttz.

Cast: Bessie Carter, Edward Harrison, Ryan Pope, Patrick Robinson, Jay Taylor.

There is a demonic howl that punctures the thick Devonshire Fog and finds the way to install the first wave of fear in a man’s heart, the moors have the air of the unnatural and spectral feeling its way like spindly fingers through a solid, almost impenetrable web, the hand upon the shoulder, the heavy, phantom breathing of the curse that has weaved its way into the family history is close by and the eyes start to glow blood red, evil and death locked in its slavering, hungry teeth.

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(464 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Peter Pan, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Dane Bowers, Claire Simmo, Lewis Pryor, Joanne Harper, Michael Chapman, Georgia Austin, Chris Barton, Eleiyah Navis, Adam Coyne, Alliyah Hennessey, Libby Sunter, Faye Keating, Rachel Heron, Libby Walker, Liv Baccino, Beth Baccino, Jacob Robinson.

Humanity needs more people who see the world through the same eyes, the same clarity of vision that author and playwright J.M. Barrie did when he created the characters of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Wendy Darling and Tinker Bell, perhaps then it might not be so centred on greed and destruction. Instead, as is always hoped for at this time of year, the pull of being decent, of holding out a hand to a fallen lost boy or fellow darling, is the right way to be. It is an ideal, of being brave in a world of adults, cutlasses and poison, of listening to your heart, of believing and one that Peter Pan flies high.

Peter Pan, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Beauty & The Beast, Theatre Review. The Black-E, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tori Hargreaves, Nick Langmead, Jamie Greer, Adam McCoy, Helen Carter, Alan Stocks, Ciaran Kellgren, Brandon Incles, Libby Fairhurst, Michael Hall, Shannon McFadden.

There is a monster in all of us, a beast to whom only the love of one person can fight hard enough to quell and set on a course to love and to being the person we wish to be seen as by the rest of the world. To find such a person is sometimes all we can hope for, it is the very essence of our time, to have, to hold, to rip off the mask we have put to keep the hurt at bay.

Beauty & The Beast, Theatre Review. The Black-E, Liverpool. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Mother Goose, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Bob Towers, Edmund O’ Hare, Teneye Alvarado, Maggi Green, Charlotte Thomas, George Melling, P.J. Murray, Yahya Baggash, Peter Durr.

 

The song is right, it is the most magical time of the year, one in which we come together to hopefully remember what true message is, one not to be sucked into a world of commercialism, one not to be in the grip of debt, not one to be feel the need to be greedy or over burdened by the selfishness of others. Just one that allows the heart to find forgiveness to others and to yourself, one that in which children and adults alike can find the delight in time together and one which even in the depths of a snow filled scene can lead to a love that might not thought possible.

Mother Goose, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

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

The Jungle Book, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Joel Shipman as Baloo in The Jungle Book at The Unity Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Brian Roberts.

Cast: Fionnuala Dorrity, Asif Majid, Samuel Pérez Durán, Joe Shipman.

The tale of a lost boy raised by wolves, taught by a panther, guarded by a bear and hunted by the king of the jungle, it is story that speaks down through the last century and one that resonates with joy and charm, with meaning, still to this day. The Jungle Book, arguably one of the most loved pieces of literature of the late 19th Century has had its followers, those who bang the drum for its introduction of its well written characters into the national thought and understandably its detractors who see the book with a certain 21st Century outlook compared to its original sentiment.

The Jungle Book, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(489 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

The Scouse Nativity, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Paul Duckworth, Michael Fletcher, Stephen Fletcher, Hayley Hampson, Lindzi Germain, Andrew Schofield, Keddy Sutton.

Band: Ben Gladwin, Greg Joy, Emily Linden.

Choir: Jay McWinen, Elaine Collins, Dee Spencer, Teresa Loughlie, Joan Pinnington, Rob Liston, Linda Martin, Barbara Davenport, Gretta Southern, Julia Hayes, Paul Davenport, Melanie Robson, Molly Madigan.

 

The Scouse Nativity, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Little Mermaid, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Adam Keast and Francis Tucker in this year’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto The Little Mermaid. Photograph by Robert Day, used with kind permission of the Everyman Theatre.

Cast: Danny Burns, Tom Connor, Stephanie Hockley, Adam Keast, Greg Last, Jamie Noar, Elizabeth Robin, Lucy Thatcher, Francis Tucker, Imelda Warren-Green.

Christmas is the time for the Fin-tastic, the spectacle and the promise that the coming year will be an ocean worth swimming in, that the days of floundering will be a dim a distant memory; it is the days when the special, the extraordinary and the beautiful should and must be seen with equal authority, that compassion for all be observed and to every-fin under the sea, a powerful performance and laughter ensured.

The Little Mermaid, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(469 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

People, Places & Things, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lisa Dwyer Hogg, Michael Balogun, Trevor Fox, Susan Lawson-Reynolds, Ekow Quartry, Andrew Sheridan, Imogen Slaughter, George Somner, Aimee Lou Wood, Matilda Ziegler, Ellen Warwick, Natalie Ann Boyd, Emily Jane McNeill.

To beat addiction you need to stay away from the triggers that send you off the rails, to recognise those People, Places & Things which can harm you and your self belief and then start by being honest, more than you have been before in your life. Addiction is such that you don’t recognise it for what it is and to watch someone go through it, in which ever form it takes, is to understand the depths that a human being can sink to when nobody listens to them silently scream.

People, Places & Things, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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