Tag Archives: Liverpool

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Laurence Spellman, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles, Robin Soans, Kevin Fuller, Stephen Boxer,

The declaration and labelling of being a traitor is one that is arguably fraught with the agony that comes with not being able to present your side of the story to the nation without it being lost in the clamour of calls for your neck, to die at the hands of a public spurred on by mass media and the urging of government to dole out maximum punishment.

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Around The World In 80 Days, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Cast: Pushpinder Chani, Kirsten Foster, Matthew Ganley, Dennis Herdman, Michael Hugo, Nyron Levy, Joey Parsad, Andrew Pollard, Stefan Ruiz.

Time was when travelling meant more than just getting on a plane and complaining that the seats weren’t wide enough, the chance to leave a half-baked witticism on a website that gives you free reign to vent steam or to take the obligatory picture of your legs as they start to resemble sausages left in the frying pan for longer than is safe to do. Time was when it meant adventure, and whilst some still lovingly cling to that idea, now the over-riding thought is that it a holiday deserved, not a moment to be taught a lesson or to have your mind expanded.

Around The World In 80 Days, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Sweeney Todd, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * * *

Photograph by Marc Brenner, used with kind permission by Everyman Theatre.

Cast: Liam Tobin, Kacey Ainsworth, Emma Dears, Paul Duckworth, Keziah Joseph, Dean Nolan, Bryan Parry, Shiv Rabheru, Mark Rice-Oxley.

Musicians: Tarek Merchant, Daisy Evans, Samantha Norman, Alex Smith.

Sweeney Todd, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(592 words, 1 image, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo, Craig Parkinson, Jamie Sives, Gemma McElhinney, James Harkness, Bob Harris, Ashley Shelton, Tracy Wiles, Daniel Campbell, Blair Kincaid, Janey Godley, James McElvar, Rachel Pearl, Vanya Eadie, J. Thomas Bailey, Sondra Morton, Lee Ann Maloney, Justin Hand, Patti Aagaard, Stuart Nisbit, Neil MacColl.

A film that relies on the visual cliche, no matter how well intentioned, is going to surely, and regrettably, be seen as nothing more than touching the very basic of emotions in an audience more than used to a more than likely ending, series of conflicting acts that lead up to the resolution and the moment of telegraphed outcomes that are going to be signalled from the opening scenes.

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Mark Thomas: Check Up Our NHS @70, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * * *

We never fully appreciate anything until either it has been taken away from us, or we find out the hard way how valued the service is. When the National Health Service was created, people fought hard to create something that would not only be the envy of the world, but which might inspire other countries, other politicians and leaders, to actually care about their citizens’ health, it has been a long struggle, and in Britain it seems that it is always under threat, targeted by groups of people who wish to see it dismantled and torn apart, delivering medicine and care for a price which many cannot simply afford.

Mark Thomas: Check Up Our NHS @70, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(579 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Pop, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Katie George, Lauren Foster.

If the 1980s was a decade of direct contrasts between social hedonism and the reality of the action taken communities as one by one the life blood of decades old services and the jobs that were dismantled and the people left to rot on the dole, then the mid to late 90s were a period in which lies and deceptions were given public backing as a kind of false hope of a fairer society was raised like a mantra, a chant aired and repeated and one that has joined the 1980s debauchery enjoyed by some as nothing more than an exposing of the personal greed that we all believe is ours to enjoy by right.

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

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Keeper, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Kross, Freya Mavor, John Henshaw, Harry Melling, Michael Socha, Dave Johns, Barbara Young, Chloe Harris, Mikey Collins, Gary Lewis, Dervla Kirwan, Angus Barnett, Butz Ulrich Buse, Julian Sands, Olivia-Rose Minnis.

To capture a life in sport in film is something that cinema normally fails to truly understand, it focuses too readily on the large scale, the sense of the occasion and the thousand flashing lights that go off in the subject’s face when they battle through adversity to claim the prize they have long dreamed of holding aloft. Regardless of whether it is in the realm of fiction, or in the arena of prepared truth, films about sporting heroes always feel as if they have only room for the fantasy, the polished glamour and the underdog suitable ending which arguably would feel more at home between the pages of Roy of the Rovers, Victor or Tiger comic books.

The Keeper, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(640 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

Princess & The Hustler, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kudzai Sitima, Donna Berlin, Fode Simbo, Seun Shate, Jade Yourell, Emily Burnett, Romayne Andrews.

We either don’t know enough about our own history, or if we do we selectively tune in to the moments which make us feel a false sense of pride, the stirring of the heart as it clings to a despairing sense of nationalism that is both futile and dishonest; we forget the moments that led to change and only the act itself, and never mind the hardship, the disgrace of our words that went before, hiding behind the celebrations of equality gained as if we somehow played a part.

Princess & The Hustler, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Bottleneck, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Daniel Cassidy.

It is only in recent times that we have urged survivors to talk about the events they have witnessed, whether in terms of clarification so that disasters, tragedies and acts of systematic neglect in terms of  safety and the general public can be assessed and never, hopefully, happen again, or so that those same people who saw the catastrophe take place can ease their burden, have the weight and sense of guilt of history taken from their blameless shoulders, start the long journey back to hopeful recovery; never realising that the nightmares perhaps stay with them at each anniversary, each memory that went before analysed and examined, The Bottleneck of emotions that cannot be contained.

Bottleneck, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The winter is behind us, from across the southern moor that acts a warning for what is likely to befall the unseasoned and weary traveller as they venture into England’s two remote counties of Devon and Cornwall, comes a sound of majesty, of the calling card of the Folk tradition and beauty that regales in tales lost and wars won; all with the testimony of the odd murder here and there which really lights up the room as the clocks steady themselves to bring nature and the wisdom of standing still together in a fashion of tranquillity.

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)