Category Archives: Theatre

The Zoo Story, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Stephen O’Toole, David Crosby.

It may because of its bright lights, the allusion to a sense of greatness that comes with size and popularity with visitors but to feel totally at ease with yourself in New York City can feel emotionally blissful; to sit and listen to the tales of group of a million random voices, all unique, all frightening, dazzlingly inspired voices complaining, laughing, being scared of the dark in a city to whom illumination is a watch word of enlightenment, it can only be satisfying if you are on the edge taking in the wonder of the finest circus, the greatest zoo ever conceived.

The Zoo Story, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival. full post

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

A Woman Alone, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Mikyla Jane Durkan.

Imprisonment it seems is not only for the guilty, for those whose crimes against society are numerous and devastating, but in the eyes of some men there are those who should be imprisoned against their will for their own safety.

Society demands imprisonment for those who steal, murder, maim, spread hate and yet society never seems to lift a finger of warning to those who seek to deny women the opportunity to leave the house, to expect them to stay in, who lock the doors and keep them kept but also keep them from those they love and the pastimes they enjoy; it is not so much imprisonment as it is the start of the unravelling of the mind and the cruelty that comes with it.

A Woman Alone, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Rise And Shine, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Maggi Green.

Controlled by the clock, everything to be done by a certain time or else the feelings of guilt and imperfection come steamrolling through, the sense of not having achieved even the most simplest of tasks during the time the clock wakes you and allows you the brief respite of dreams; this is the greatest form of punishment that humanity has bestowed upon itself, the complexity of time reduced down to moments in which life is either behind or ahead of self doubt and the insecurity of being seen as feckless and inadequate.

Rise And Shine, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. Liverpool Fringe Festival. full post

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

Romeo And Julius, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremmer, Patrick Brennan, George Caple, Pauline Daniels, Laura Dos Santos, Emily Hughes, Tom Kanji, Asha Kingsley, Melanie La Barrie, Dean Nolan, Zelina Robeiro, Keddy Sutton, Liam Tobin, Isobel Balchin, Alice Corrigan, Poppy Hughes, Geirgie Lomax-Ford, Hannah McGowan, Chloe Nall-Smith, Catriona Chandler, Erin Clarke, Jordan Connerty, Stuie Dagnall, Will Flush, Jazmine Hayes, Amber Higgins, Jake Holmes, Chloe Hughes, Luke Logan, Jiacheng Lu, Niamh McCarthy, Lucy McCormack, Lacy McGurk, Nadia Mohamed Noor, Rachel Newnham, Jamie Pye, Keeley Ray, Nathan Russell, Samuel Serrano Roberts, Kalia Shaples, Darci Shaw, Esme Skinner, John Stephenson, Ellie Turner.

Romeo And Julius, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Dying On My Feet, Theatre Review. Liverpool Art College, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joanne Tremarco.

Death, arguably, is not the end; it is a state of being that continues in the hearts of those left behind, long after the last breathe has been drawn. The poets and artists have always been one to draw the subject as a next adventure, perhaps in keeping with Buddhism, the soul moving on from one umbilical cord to the next, the next chapter in a long reading list. It could also be a one shot, possible prize winning article, done and dusted regardless of how many words and the finest of by-lines are used.

Dying On My Feet, Theatre Review. Liverpool Art College, Liverpool. full post

(391 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

The Sum, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Patrick Brennan, George Caple, Pauline Daniels, Laura Dos Santos, Emily Hughes, Tom Kanji, Asha Kingsley, Melanie La Barrie, Dean Nolan, Zelina Rebeiro, Keddy Sutton, Liam Tobin.

The balance sheet that people live their lives by, the counting out of every penny just to make ends meet, the sense of never getting ahead of the game and spiralling ever deeper into the world of debt, of being on the streets. This is a world in which the feeling of inhumane, of intolerable suffering, is so prevalent, so close to everybody’s thoughts that it is surprising that there is less vocal anger than there should be at politicians who see food banks as a complex reason, who see the poor as deserving and it always feels like the world of politics is one step away from re-introducing that most evil of Victorian values, the workhouse.

The Sum, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: James Templeton, Sharon Byatt, John Schumacher, Sophie Coward, Nick Wymer, Simon Willmont, Sam Donovan, Thomas Casson, Chloe Taylor, Daniel Taylor, Timothy Lucas, Neville Cann, Fra Gunn, Faye Griffiths, Emma Sellars, Emily Chesterton, Georgia Pye.

Something in the undergrowth stirs, a sense of magic is in the air and whilst all theatre productions, across every genre, should have this illusion and allusion readily at its disposal, there is always something incredible, a reason that is fanciful, that should be waiting for William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy and romance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(479 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

The Lonesome West, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Keiran Cunningham, Alan Devally, Paul Duckworth, Anne O’ Riordan.

To find peace, one must be content, one must realise that life is not about taking potshots at their neighbour, not to be quick to condemn or to take revenge, one must be true to one’s own actions, one must allow a certain kind of love to flourish in the heart for even the most despicable of actions, lest they revel in their own loneliness.

The Lonesome West, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremmer, Tom Kanji, Asha Kingsley, Elliott Kingsley, Melanie La Barrie.

No matter the story, if it is told with a sense of thriving passion then it has the ability to nurture life, to explode with an array of colours, light and images, it has the never ending possibilities to ensure that the imagination is always keen to explore and that the mind, the most important and beautiful tool than humanity possesses, is kept open to embrace change and hungry for more.

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

My Country; A Work In Progress, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Seema Bowri, Cavan Clarke, Laure Elphinstone, Adam Ewan, Penny Layden, Stuart McQuarrie, Christine Patterson.

Our voice is important, our opinions even more so and yet we decry others without even understanding them, without taking the time to truly listen without interrupting to what they are saying; at times it can seem like we have never gone past the ethics of the playground, whoever shouts loudest wins the argument. It is one that can be seen to have divided the nation, in some ways irrevocably, for the long foreseeable future as we continue to discuss the almost senseless act of offering a hopeful reasoned debate on the expectation of Britain’s role in the European Union, its position of a once in a lifetime vote of in or out.

My Country; A Work In Progress, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)