Category Archives: Theatre

Life, Theatre Review. Gladstone Theatre, Port Sunlight.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Suzanne Collins, Lenny Wood, Roy Brandon, Lynne Fitzgerald, Lesley Butler, Sam Hellier, Edwina Lea.

Life is in many respects all about the small victories, if you can wake each day and not fear the dawn, if you have a roof over your head, find that you are loved in even the smallest way and have food to eat. It represents the battle being won and perhaps the next day might constitute a smile worthy of being human; life is what happens every day, to all of us, each one capable of spreading a singular point of joy in the world, life is, as the song goes, what you make it.

Life, Theatre Review. Gladstone Theatre, Port Sunlight. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Tiffany Stevenson, Seven. Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It doesn’t seem five minutes since Tiffany Stevenson was wowing the crowds at this year’s Edinburgh Festival and yet in the month since she has been to America to discuss a film, reaffirmed her belief that Donald Trump is bad for women as well as others who may share the land of the free but somehow great for comedians and that somewhere along the line Giant Hogs are as dangerous a prospect in Louisiana as the possibility of Isis striking a direct hit in the swamps and that the great state relies heavily upon guns, lots of guns, weapons carried in full view and more than likely allowed in the disturbing scenes associated with a particular porn empire.

Tiffany Stevenson, Seven. Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Bec Hill Caught On Tape, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Bec Hill

It will be the last time that the Liverpool Comedy Festival will be housed in the Unity Theatre before it begins its major refurbishment at the beginning of next year, and leading us into the festival is acclaimed Australian comedian Bec Hill. After making the finals of the Raw act competition in her native country and wining the Barry Award for best show in Edinburgh 2014, this comedian has gathered quite a following with her quirky style of comedy.

Bec Hill Caught On Tape, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sally Edwards, Philip Whitchurch.

The final moments of anyone’s life, the darkest night before the inevitable dawn, nobody knows what is said when it is discussed in private, when it is between two people who have been married for so long but age, infirmity of spirit and distance between the souls makes the journey one that is poignant and ultimately one filled with regret and doubt.

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Shake It Up Baby, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jackie Jones, Neil MacDonald, Hayley Hampson, Julian Feria.

The world has not been the same since four lads from Liverpool took over the mass hysteria and pop domination and showed that the post war spirit of change and seeming polite revolution was here to stay and not wrestled back by the forces of the damned pre war sentiment of knowing your place. The 60s was all about the revolution, the counter culture and the moving away from pre-destined supposition; it was time to Shake It Up Baby and start to take a chance in life.

Shake It Up Baby, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Drums Along The Mersey, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mike Newstead, Daniel Murphy, Abigail McKenzie, James Markham, Matthew Bromwich.

There are many contenders for the much vaunted and valued position of the fifth Beatle, that often much publicised place in history that has fallen for example on the shoulders of Brian Epstein, George Martin, even possibly Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and perhaps with the wish of many early fans the late Stuart Sutcliffe; however there is one man who arguably stands above them all and it is only thanks to history, historians, to the faithful in Liverpool and Hamburg that the truly remarkable Pete Best is quite rightly remembered as being the Beatle who should have been.

Drums Along The Mersey, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Jim Alsbalstian’s Human Zoo, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Liam Hale, Sean Stokes.

Somewhere in the dim and distant past there was handed down with great pride, a diktat that suggested emerging talent should be given time to grow, the insistence that the performer would be given whatever they needed to bring their comedy to the foreground, even if it took a couple of years of honing and shaping the sketches or the big idea; it was perhaps a halcyon time when The Goons for example were to become the absolute Kings of all they surveyed.

Jim Alsbalstian’s Human Zoo, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Maria Lovelady, Eithne Browne, Christopher Jordan, Emma Dears, Jake Abraham, Tom Cawte, Roy Carruthers, Phil Hearne.

The taste of 1930s Britain so elegantly captured in Helen Forrester’s Twopence To Cross The Mersey is arguably more palpable, more authentic than any text book that might go on at length to describe the after effects of the Great Depression on those caught in its wake and the sacrifice many individuals had to face just to survive; it is genuine, touching, brutal and one that still pervades the modern era and the way its shapes politics today.

Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Tony’s Last Tape, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Philip Bretherton.

A national treasure, the most dangerous man in Britain, a true orator, an elder statesman, a cult figure within the political establishment and one for whom the cause, no matter the size, was just and worth fighting for; a true leader of a party that feared him and yet his legacy has lasted longer than any of his fellow Government members or party followers; Tony Benn was arguably the most forward thinking member of Government and the opposition during his incredible tenure in the House of Commons and yet he left so much more to history than can be described adequately in a mere discussion, it needs to be recorded for posterity.

Tony’s Last Tape, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Yolav & Graham’s Jovial Trauma, Refugee Stand Up, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Comedy is all about interpretation, like music it can transcend across boundaries, international borders and the pain of the language barrier; comedy is the reason to laugh at the world when the world has destroyed almost everything else you have lived for. Whilst some words or actions can become lost, drift in another fruitless direction, translation is the key and it is one that the Shaved Dog Comedy duo of Danny Bradley and Michael Burton decode with genuine honest appeal and superb flair.

Yolav & Graham’s Jovial Trauma, Refugee Stand Up, Comedy Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool. full post

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