Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Combine Robert Farquhar’s original and incredible ability to make a play of side-splitting genius from even the smallest of things and Francis Tucker’s seemingly unnatural and comic god like precision to go from the humour to semi tragedy in the spilt of second and the result is the fantastic Di Is Dead.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Tony Irwin, Christine Heaney, Sally Fildes-Moss, Kevin Foott, Jack Spencer, Sophie O’Shea, Donna Ray Coleman, Dan Pendleton, Lee Burnitt, Shaun Roberts, Leanne Jones, Paula Stewart, Meera Bala, Alex Clark, Bradley Thompson, Sophie Kirby.
Within 12 months Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, arguably one of the towering stage works of the 20th Century, has been performed in Liverpool by two amateur dramatic companies. In both cases the play that has been seen by audiences has left them spellbound and lost for words. This particular version by Tell-Tale Theatre at the Static Gallery and Directed by Emma Whitley and produced by Leanne Jones is without doubt the finest production possibly seen on either side of the Atlantic in decades and something that the playwright would have salivated over and found disturbingly majestic.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Will Adamsdale, Lyndsey Turner, Jason Barnett, Chris Branch, Matthew Steer, Melanie Wilson.
The thinkers guide to writing procrastination, or rather how to give an audience that one special night where everything comes together, comedy, drama, talking fridges and builders who belittle your confidence with their knowledge of art. Everything that can ever go right and wrong in the course of a week whilst your girlfriend is away is explored to its absolute best by Will Adamsdale in the superb and captivating comedy, The Victorian in the Wall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Helen Kerr, Paul Culshaw, Eddie Fortune, Dale Grant.
There are two sets of horror, the one that sets out to shock from the start, blood and guts everywhere, sometimes instruments of terror are involved and in the end it becomes a gore fest, certainly a jolt to the system but doesn’t leave much to the imagination. There is nowhere for the audience member to go to. The other type is explored by Grin Productions and Wes Williams’ dramatic, sometimes bestial, totally compulsive and mind wrenching production of Tongues.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Russell Parry, Dominic Pitt, John Bradburn, Wendy Jones, Des Flanagan, Mark Jones, Ashleigh Barton, Josie Parks, Louise Clark, Tony Russell, Jade Oxby, Franny Conlin, Wayne Lester, Peter Highton, Ken Adderley, Mal French.
It’s hard to find a production these days that is professionally polished and smooth to watch but still retains its personal touch; the little feeling you get when you recognise a character or two from your own life. It is possible to see audience members forget they are watching the latest production of Wild Flowers from the company of the same name. However they are and with original tunes and such developed characters, what a production it is!
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Steven France, Karl Howman, Bruno Langley, Elizabeth Power, Bob Saul, Graham Seed, Jemma Walker, Clare Wilkie.
It all starts with a radio announcement in which a murder has been announced…The Mousetrap is perhaps the most eagerly awaited plays to come to Liverpool for a long time. Unless people have been able to see down in the heart of London’s theatre land at any point in the last 60 years and with a waiting list longer than it took to write it for the then Queen Mary’s 80th Birthday that means the vast majority of the population in the country still have not had the pleasure, then the Agatha Christie play remains a huge pull of the theatre goers heart strings as it celebrates its diamond jubilee going round the country.
Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Christopher Harrisson, Julian Spooner, Matthew Wells, Daniel Wilcox, Laila Woozeer.
There is a moment in A Strange Wild Song, a well written piece by Rhum and Clay, where the audience feels part of the action, the bombs being dropped from overhead planes that are falling around the near destroyed French village resonate and echo through 70 years and a couple of hundred miles and bring those in the auditorium face to face with one of the most inhuman parts of human history…and with one of the most interesting tales from World War Two.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Grace Chapman, Sophie Cullen, Nicholas Pitt, Ellie Simpson, Joel Gatehouse, Kate Stanley.
Who controls the words you see? Who do the words that each and every human on the planet fortunate enough to read and enjoy, belong to each and every day? For those that lose the ability to see the words that have meant so much to them, the psychological damage can be devastating.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Alex Pardey, James Boys, James Telfer, Martin Poile, Harry Parker, Jonny Campbell, Jack Conway, Liam Middleton, Akthar, Gertaint Williams, Barney Elliot, Alun Simpson, Georgina Rose.
There are moments in a young actor’s life, whether or not they take it any further in years to come or are content with having been a part of just one show, where they will look back and relish in the memory of what they achieved in two hours on stage.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Joanna Croll, Jamie Matthewman, Sam Parks, Sian Williams.
The humble cafe is the place where you get to meet the finest array of characters, all with their own peculiar stories of loves and their lives. It is the place where people meet and confess their deepest thoughts and fears and those that really run the establishments, the waiters and the chefs act as father or mother confessors to anyone who may pop in for a routine cup of tea and to tell someone their news. Such is Cafe Chaos; such is the scale of life.