Category Archives: Theatre

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: John Power, Tom Connor, Kirsten Foster, Ross Higginson, Adam Keast, Jonathan Markwood, Daniel McIntyre, Mark Newnham, Nicky Swift.

It is impossible to thank somebody across the ages, to shake their hand and say cheers for bringing a story to life, even when that person is still such a force in Liverpool’s artistic and cultural society, you cannot go back to a day over 30 years ago and tell them thank you for telling the dramatic life of one of the true heroes to have come from a city in which salutes its champions harder than anywhere else in the country. However if you should bump into Bob Eaton then try your absolute best to thank him for taking the chance on a production at the Everyman Theatre just a few short months after the passing of John Lennon.

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Daniel, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Philip Shaun McGuinness, Wesley Wharton, Nick Crosbie.

It does take someone with extreme passion and an undeniable knowledge of certain genres in which the call change the way they are perceived, to make more relevant to modern society, speaks loudest. The latest film which stared Australian actor Russell Crowe, the much talked about Noah, is one example, perhaps poor one, of a story that in The Bible was, even for the atheist, is one that can be a stirring read. Natasia Hodge, musician, actor, singer, director and soon to be company head of B Tales, takes the story of Daniel from the Old Testament, and unlike Noah, delivers a fine piece of work in which, thanks to the excellent cast and the sublime writing of Laura-Kate Barrows and some clever effects and excellent additional music, is itself just as stirring as the Biblical text laid down.

Daniel, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Subusiso Mamba, Tonderai Munyevu.

How far would you go to survive in a regime that treats you worse than a cockroach; that demands total obedience of your every waking hour and who can control every moment you make, only reluctantly allowing you to live your life as a free member of society once they have humiliated you enough. The mark of oppression stamped across a nation and deeply into the faces of those who are its citizens.

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(467 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

L’Étranger, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Luke Barton, Charlotte Wilson, George Doran, Liam Hale.

Two of life’s undoubted pleasures are seeing a piece of work for the first ever time on stage, played and directed with so much passion you could almost believe someone could be having an affair with the themes and words of Albert Camus and sending them flowers every weekend, and watching someone you first saw on stage many years ago, trusting your gut that their performance was magnificent, then catching them again and knowing that what you thought of their early promise was correct and they are now just sublime and outstanding. Two great pleasures in one play, L’Étranger, at the Everyman Theatre; life really is surrounded by strangers, clowns and shining brilliance.

L’Étranger, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The Blue Touch, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Daisy Leigh, Shaun Stanley, Claire Kelly, Andrew Walsh.

Writer: Karla Sweet.

Grin Theatre delights in the story in which causes a ripple a shock throughout the audience, whether the well-intended, the deeply fascinating or the type that leaves a seismic tremor waiting to erupt in your stomach, Grin Theatre have it delightfully covered.

Karla Sweet’s contribution to Grin Theatre’s Young Playwrights Showcase certainly fell in to the final category to the point that anybody within a mile radius of the Gregson institute might have felt the lurking beginnings of a judder as the audience realised just exactly what was happening to the family in the play but also the trembling violence and retribution in which to come.

The Blue Touch, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Laying Tracks, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Elaine Stewart, Ben Sherlock, Ann Edwards.

Writer: Jack Stanley.

Grin Theatre and new writing, it goes hand in hand with a newly temperate person finding they adore the taste of Ginger Beer, an England football team being lauded and dismissed in equal measure and the hope that at some point an unpopular Government will fall upon their collective swords.

Laying Tracks, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool. full post

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

Carousel, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julie Evans, Phil Birss, Franki Burke, Camille Machin, Jamie Barfield, Jak Malone, Ruth Dalton, Charlotte Dawson, Sarah Hale, Rosemary Barfield, Trev Fleming, Ady Thompson, James Hill, Andy Godden, Carrie Cushman, Edward Feery, Andrew Abrahamson, Clare Fozard, Andy Walker, Tom Lox, Lorna Foley, Eugene Chong Hon Zhen, Sara Barnes, Jayne Strahan, Ellie Gray, Steph Minshall, Zoe Thirsk, Danielle Fernando.

There are times, not often, but on the wonderfully rare occasion, where you think you know how a play or a musical can play out because it is of the immense stature that surrounds its very core that it can only be played out in a particular, perhaps reliable fashion.

Carousel, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(613 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Two Tides, Theatre Review. Writing On The Wall. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lisa Parry, Carl Cockram, Joel Shipman, Daniel Hayes, Paul Duckworth, Laura Campbell, Lois Young, Tom Wilson, Nicola Bentley, Alice Bunker-Whitley, Andy Frizzell, Phil Saunders,

There are pivotal moments in history that may go unnoticed by the wider world in general but to whom are just as earth-shattering, just as profoundly important to the greater good of the community and ground breaking in the lives it touches upon that they also deserve a time of reflection, of wide-spread celebration and revisiting.

Two Tides, Theatre Review. Writing On The Wall. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Catch 22, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * *

Cast: Daniel Ainsworth, Philip Arditti, Geoff Arnold, Victoria Bewick, Simon Darwen, Michael Hodgson, Liz Kettle, Christopher Price, David Webber.

Joseph Heller adapted his novel Catch 22 for the stage in 1971 and today the script is more or less unchanged. As it is difficult to get the rights to adapt the script, Northern Stage’s director Rachel Chavkin has done what other companies have shied away from, and has put her own mark on this classic war tale.

Catch 22, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(349 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Hope Place, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michelle Buttery, Neil Caple, Ciaran Kellgren, Tricia Kelly, Emma Lisl, Joe McGann, Eileen O’ Brien, Alan Stocks.

The power of memory is one that can either hold you back so hard that it feels as if the weight of the future is too difficult to deal with, or can be such an aid in which it can only set you free. What if the place in which those memories are of also retains those memories, the very bricks and mortar that keep you safe from the outside world are able to hold onto an image of a time perhaps best forgotten?

Hope Place, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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