Category Archives: Theatre

When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Danielle Rude, James Ledsham, Barbara Wallis, Gillian Hardie.

Sharman Macdonald’s When I was a Girl I Used To Scream and Shout is a production that lifts a very large lid on a relationship between mother and daughter that is far from cordial and in which both are searching for something that the other is unable or somehow unwilling to give. The need for validation and acceptance is not forthcoming and over a small break in which the pair head back to the small Scottish seaside village somehow start to show where their relationship went wrong.

When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

A Thousand Murdered Girls, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Maria Hutchison, Rachael Boothroyd, Katy Brown, Kitty Spathia, Valerio Lusito, Arancha Herreruelo-Alonso, Emma Segar, Keelin Sweeney, Alun Parry, Alan Bower, Adam Byrne, Tony Davies, Louise Garcia, Gillian Peterson-Fox.

Every so often the sound of three gunshots echoes around the Unity Theatre. The effect it has on the audience is one that is just as chilling on the soul as the realisation that what the writer Darren Guy and Director Mikyla Jane Durkan have put together is so rooted in Greek history that as an audience member it’s possible to feel shame for the lack of knowledge you have as the true story of the many women arrested and tortured in Greece after World War Two for the crime of fighting Fascism and Nazism.

A Thousand Murdered Girls, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Bouncers, Theatre Review. St. Helens Theatre Royal.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon O’Brien, Neville Cann, Benjamin Engelen, John F. Doull.

There are many sides to a city or town but the main difference is between its day time appearance, perhaps full of shoppers, workers and casual visitors and then its late time manifestation, its night life where the rules of the day go out the window and out comes the darker side of drink, drugs and wild abandonment in which we all try to forget the menace of the day.  Voiced by some of the inhabitants of the night, John Godber’s Bouncers is not only a knock out look at some of the funnier aspects of this time of day but perhaps the best kind of social comment that gets too often neglected.

Bouncers, Theatre Review. St. Helens Theatre Royal. full post

(372 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lucy Williamson, Emma Dears.

Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, perhaps two of the biggest names in American show business ever and surely impossible to ever replicate on stage what they have each achieved and the adoration in which they are still held to this day. Whilst Judy Garland’s life was heartbreakingly cut short due to near obscene levels of pressure, Ms Minnelli has been a born survivor despite the huge ruby slippers she had to fill and yet in Judy & Liza it was if the two women had come back together just one more time.

Judy & Liza, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

A Cosy Murder, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Becky Illsley, Alice Ellerby, Natasia Hodge.

Think back to all the great detective shows and heroes, Poirot, Marple, Barnaby, Frost, Cagney and Lacey, Morse, all known for their cunning wit, dogged determination in the face of evil and murder and not quite the knack of spinning out a yarn with humour and unbelievable, almost  astonishing, acts of feat. It is highly unlikely that Jean Marple would throw herself around with the same amount of gusto that Becky Illsley and Alice Ellerby managed in their performance of A Cosy Murder.

A Cosy Murder, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(344 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Evita, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Marti Pellow, Madalena Alberto, Mark Heenehan, Sarah McNicholas, Nic Gibney, Verity Burgess, David Burilin, Joseph Connor, Natalie Day, Joel Elferink, Laura Emmitt, Emily Goodenough, Antony Hewitt, Stuart Maciver, Joe Maxwell, Perry O’Dea, Lizzie Ottley, Ryan Pidgen, Anthony Ray.

Evita should be considered as one of the ultimate musicals to be penned in the last 40 years, it is a production that has everything, arguably the single most important role for a woman to perform in musical theatre, the craving of success and just enough controversy weaved and hidden away within its score to make theatre goers come back for more time and time again.

Evita, Theatre Review. Liverpool Empire Theatre. full post

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

Assemble, Theatre Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jackie Jones, Nuala Maguire, Marie Westcott, Sarah Keating, Becky Brooks, Sophie Smith, Josie Sedgewick Davies, Maggie Quinlan.

Four plays written, edited, practised and performed inside 24 hour whilst all the while at the back of the minds of all involved with Lady Parts Theatre the small nagging doubt that this perhaps can be a jump too far for all participating in the project. Assemble was the rallying call and assemble with flying colours they did, all present and correct, suitably attired and as a bonus were just magnificent.

Assemble, Theatre Review. 81 Renshaw Street, Liverpool. full post

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

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Lowry, Salford.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Maureen Beattie, Neil Pearson, David Bark-Jones, Thomasin Rand, Danielle Flett, Chris Larkin, Sasha Waddell, Simon Bubb, Geoffrey Freshwater.

What Noises Off brings to the stage, is the sense of what regional theatre really is like, fly by the seats mayhem, utter confusion and misunderstanding and above all just the most amazing and side splittingly funny couple of hours you can ever hope to have in a theatre.

The Lowry in Salford is the latest venue to host Michael Frayn’s incredible farce and with a cast that you just want to carry on forever, causing mayhem and theatrical anarchy as they go.

Noises Off, Theatre Review. The Lowry, Salford. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

When The Rain Stops Falling, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon Hedger, Ruth Alexander Rubin, John Edon, Maria Swisher, Jake Norton, Liam Tobin, Jennifer Burgess, Samantha Meisner.

When the downpour starts it is hard to ever believe that it will stop, the rain just becomes relentless, never-ending and destroys more and more lives. What happens though When The Rain Stops Falling?

When The Rain Stops Falling, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Ladies Day, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Eithne Browne, Lynne Francis, Roxanne Pallett, Angela Simms, Jack Lord.

The glitter, the finery, the new frocks and strange alien language truly known only by a smattering of people can only mean one thing; that Amanda Whittington’s play Ladies Day is in Liverpool and under starter’s orders to go down as one of the great feel good productions of 2013.

Ladies Day, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)