Cartoonopolis was first performed in the Playhouse Studio a couple of years ago, where it came into existence thanks to actor Lewis Bray’s involvement with YEP [Young Everyman and Playhouse]. Along with Matt Rutter and Chris Tomlinson, that company’s artistic director and associate director respectively, Bray’s fledgling idea – to do a play about his […]
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Jamie Wood’s latest work, I am a Tree, closed this year’s Physical Fest with a sold-out performance at the City of Liverpool College’s Arts Centre, where the festival was forced to relocate at the last minute as the Unity’s refurb overran. Wood, a fest favourite who has worked closely with plenty of theatremakers in the […]
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Firing on all cylinders – and “setting phasers to fun” with the introduction of each episode – this year’s Improvathon saw Liverpool’s premier improv performers back to their very best. With an intergalactic theme – The Space Age – and a rejuvinated sense of ambition for the marathon 33-and-a-half hour, non-stop show, dozens of performers, […]
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The pressures of modern life and the availability of professional help for those in need are the issues at the heart of The Punter, the debut play from Liverpool novelist Deborah Morgan. GP Margaret (Denise Kennedy) keeps her patients at arms’ length, not only simply to get through each day’s crippling workload, but also to […]
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The Liverpool Improvathon is scheduled for May this year, and to cover increasing costs and support their amazing year-round community work, the company behind it have set up their first Crowdfunder. A rather standard way to fundraise these days, you might think – but not for Impropriety, who alongside the social media shout outs and […]
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The Playhouse has gone back to its music hall roots this festive season, harking back to the rich history of the venue, which has recently marked its 150th anniversary. Michael Wynne’s The Star is a celebratory theatrical knees-up, drawing on the old-style variety show format with a behind-the-scenes drama and broad social commentary that makes […]
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Owing as much to RuPaul’s Drag Race as it does to Coronation Street, The Ruby Slippers is a new show about love, identity and following your dreams, with a true northern warmth and a big gay heart. Set in a failing drag club run by bubbly Raz (James Rogerson), the story begins as he tries […]
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THE Ruby Slippers, a new play about love and identity set in a Blackpool gay bar, is on a mini North West tour this week and comes to the Epstein this weekend. “The play explores issues of identity and predjudice in the LGBT community – with outrageous drag queens, of course,” explains one of its […]
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FROM rags to riches, from Liverpool to London, from Nabzys to Nandos… The Rise and Fall of The Hamburger Queen is a one-woman comedy show on at The Unity Theatre as part of Homotopia Festival next week (November 3 to 5). The brainchild of city-born performer Ashleigh Owen and Paul Burke, the show tells Ashleigh’s […]
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Happy Hour is the seventh show from Liverpool-based physical theatre company Tmesis, and continues in the vein of 2015’s That’s Amore – four performers on a wry, sideways rollercoaster ride through modern life, brimming with as much fun as poignancy. Turning its attention to the world of work, this time Tmesis create a universe that […]
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Shake it up Baby is a new Liverpool-based romantic comedy, performed as part of the Beatles-themed Ticket to Write festival last weekend. And there was definitely a sense it is just the beginning for this warm, crowdpleasing tale about a woman looking for love later in life. Jackie Jones is never far from a stage […]
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Ghost hunter and time traveller Thaddeus Bent began life as a recurring character in the Legion of Doom’s monthly Comedy Knights at Mello Mello. These days, like that dear departed venue, the sketch trio are no more – and as one of their number, Lee Hithersay, developed the antics of their antisocial performance poet Terry […]
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Suzan Holder is the writer of Shake It Up Baby, one of the plays in this year’s Ticket To Write festival coming to the Unity next week. The festival’s artistic director Francesca Goodridge and producer Max Emmerson are both up-and-coming talents to watch, since their acclaimed revival of Shout: The Mod Musical made it from […]
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Comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas returns to where it all began with his latest show, which comes to the Everyman in September. The Red Shed is the third part of his theatrical trilogy, which began with the multi-award winning, critically acclaimed Bravo Figaro and Cuckooed. It concludes as he returns to the place where it […]
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Terry Arlarse was one of the breakout characters of dearly departed Liverpool sketch comedy trio, the Legion of Doom. Co-founder Lee Hithersay has taken up the mantle and run with Terry – a Scouse performance poet who is basically part Rik from the Young Ones, part Yozza Hughes. Now, Terry is evolving from five-minute sketch […]
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It was all change for the Improvathon this year – a new venue, a new time of year. This meant that many things had been caught off-kilter, and this was interesting as an audience member and critic, as a reminder that it’s not always about us, and that’s not always a bad thing. The Improvathon, […]
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It’s Improvathon weekend! Yes, yes, yes, we’re talking 33 hour and 36 minutes (2016 minutes in all, geddit) of all the super-duper made up theatrical goodness you might ever need – in a brand new home and with a cast of…. well, we don’t know yet. We’ll have to see. But here’s ten reasons (mainly […]
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Now, this production comes highly recommended from those in the know – top physical comedy muckers Spymonkey are bringing their unique tribute to Shakespeare, Complete Deaths, to the Playhouse next month. Promising to “scale the peaks of sublime poetry, and plumb the depths of darkest depravity”, the company commemorate the Bard in their own inimitable […]
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Robert Farquhar is one of Liverpool’s most prolific and well-known working playwrights; his credits include Dead Heavy Fantastic, Live Forever, and being one third of the wonderful and much-missed company Big Wow. Now, he is turning his attention to the silver screen – his play God’s Official has been turned into a film, Kicking Off, […]
Fantastic news today, in that we will get an improvathon this year after all! Following on from the demolition of the beloved Kazimier, Impropriety are setting up shop at the Kaz’s new space, the Invisible Wind Factory in the north docks, for their seventh 33+ hour non-stop improvised comedy/drama/everything inbetween shenannigans. The Invisible Wind Factory […]
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