Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: David Judge.
What does family mean in a world where the idea of relationships have become almost throwaway, consumable, there only in some eyes to fill a statistic and perhaps to belong to something rather than be on their own; the idea of family has become in some ways a short hand for strangers treating you as their own, perhaps even with the notion of reckless, limited loyalty when it all gets too much to cope with.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall has played host to the great and the good, it has become a place where a spiritual journey is undertaken, where reactions and passions run high, a meeting place perhaps where the Emotional Geography of the land finds a way to be paid out and given the detailed scrutiny once only available to those with a keen interest in ordnance survey, the peaks, the troughs and the places of interest that are always within walking distance but so few make the effort to explore.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It may have been a strictly confidential moment but one fitting the determination and selfless fortitude into which Marc Vormawah finds himself occupying with a smile and a host of the resilient survivor inflamed into his very being; invited to open up the evening ahead of Only Child’s new album release gig inside the Music Room of the Philharmonic Hall, it became the unveiling of a secret shouted with glory, a tale within the annals of Liverpool music that would live on in the open.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is in the power of a storm that makes a Blizzard one of high tension and drama, the subtle falling of a snow that catches the lights and makes the gentle smile brighten up any face, can soon become a torrent, a fast flowing tornado of expression, a gale of the stuff that will keep you penned in your seats, absorbing every drop of nature that falls from above, and whilst it might catch you unawares, believing for a while that it will just be an inch or two to snip through with ease as you place your toes into the world of snowflakes and warm memories, instead the outpouring leaves you helpless, submerged, unable to do anything but admit that a Blizzard is a gamble worth enjoying.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander, Faye Marsay, Corey Johnson, Greg Wise, Alexandra Moen, Jesuthasan Antonyhasan, Raman Srinivasan, Natasha Jayetileke, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Amanda Drew, Hilton McRae, Fady Elsayed, Tristan Tait, Toma Shelmon, Nadeem Srouji, Mahmoud Al Fari, Rani Jalal, Thaer Manakhi, David Modigliani, Pano Masti, Stanley Tucci, Mo’ath Sharif, Rami Delshad, Bassam Hanna Touma, Jeremie Laheurte, Raad Rawi, Emil Hajj.
The line between truth and distortion lays not only in the hands of the reader, but in the sincerity of the journalist whose name appears before the attention-grabbing headline.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A Foreigners Journey, Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. February 2019. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
To tackle and cover the songs and emotional response of one of the greatest and intensely loved bands of all time is one thing, to do justice to two, that takes more than just the idea of a tribute, it is a carnival of appreciation brought to life as if it was theatre, a series of beautifully balanced songs, highs, expectations and genuine love for a genre’s creativity.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Pauline Davies, Faye Caddick, Paul Codman, James O’Brien.
To honour the past is one thing, to find yourself unexpectedly in the back garden of time, spade in hand and ready with the synaptic electricity burning ready to resuscitate it so you can bring it back to life to examine it in greater detail, so you can relive the pain and the grief of all that you lost, all that was once loved. Such moments should be left to stay hidden and yet as we face the uncertain end and all we have is time, it is into that garden we go and the shovel and the spade dig eagerly.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Sam Angell, Melissa Lowe, Charley Magalit, Nana Amoo-Gottfried, Celia Francis, Robert Penny.
An acrobatic skill weaved around one of the most beloved children’s books and characters to come out of America in the last 100 years, a set of beautiful nonsense in exacting verse and perhaps the first pull of the magic that is theatre, Dr. Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat is not just meant to inspire young minds, it allows them free range to see the world as a place in which the creativity that is possible goes hand in hand with anarchy and order, that learning can be fun rather than insipid, dull and routine.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jack Hobbs A.K.A. Hobbit, Dorcas Sebuyange, Iestyn Evans, Clarke Joseph-Edwards.
Outwardly we might forget what it was like to be little, to see through the eyes of a child, we neglect the belief in what playing can achieve, we turn our back on the youngster we once were because we fall into line with the conviction that at some point it is not the done thing, simply unacceptable, and then we wonder why we have such trouble identifying with the young, with the children who look up to us; we want them to grow, to be adult, to lose their sense of questioning and creativity, yet all the time we should just be imploring them to Big Up!
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Lydia Wilson, John Dagleish, Kathryn Wilder, Sam Ellis, Alex MacQueen, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Margaret Wheeler, Gerard Horan, Doug Colling, Lolita Chacrabarti, Philip Dunster, Freya Durkan, Flora Easton, Matt Jessup, Sabi Perez, Michael Rouse, Kate Tydman.
It is a beautiful story and one that will break the heart of anyone with half a romantic soul in their body and yet like all beautiful whispers that we seek to take advantage of by seemingly learning something of the poet’s soul, fiction, that forgiving beast of bounty, leads to a comedy of inaccuracies and yet we still pursue it as if it were a fair maiden covered in buttercup petals or a rueful youth displaying muscles and brawn on the beach.