Category: Culture Radar

This week our Culture Radar guest is Madeline Heneghan, Co-Director, Writing on the Wall and member of the Culture Network LCR Board of Directors.

Loved: The launch of Jay Farley’s debut poetry book A Cupboard Full of Tomboys. Jay’s performance accompanied by techo music, was inspired and powerful. Rough Trade provided the perfect vibe and it was packed to the rafters.

Looking forward to: Sorry but it has to be WoWFest25! Our month-long annual festival returns in May and this year we’re celebrating a quarter of century of Writing on the Wall. We’re delighted with the programme and looking forward to welcoming old friends and WoW first timers, including Irvine Welsh, The Singh Twins, Gary Younge, Jackie Kay, Frank Cottrel Boyce and loads more. I’m very proud that during the festival we will be presenting Liverpool Rising Against Racism in partnership with Love Music Hate Racism & Liverpool City Halls in a cultural show of unity in the face of those that try to divide us.

Trivia: I’m the queen of the poached egg, no vinegar, no swirling – mine are perfect time. Trivia about WoW: We were part of the team that wrote the beautiful heritage plaques on Princes Boulevard. It’s one of favourite places in the city. Come and check it out.

This week our Culture Radar guest is freelance Writer, Director and Creative Facilitator, Helen Jeffery. Helen is also a trustee of Unity Theatre.

Loved: Up Next Festival at Unity Theatre in March which supported 22 artists all trying out work for the first time. A fantastic variety of work was shown over 3 days and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for some of the work that was previewed. 

Looking forward to: I’m looking forward to Writing on the Wall’s annual WoWfest happening in May. This year its the 25th anniversary of the Festival and the entire month will offer an exciting programme of events comprising local, national and international writers, performers and artists.

Trivia: I am just over 4 years sober and my recent play ‘Buckled’ (which explored navigating sobriety) has finished touring venues in the Northwest last week!  I run writing courses and workshops online and in person. The next 6- week online course starts 2nd April 2025 and all info is in my Linktree.

This week our Culture Radar guest is Patrick Fox, Chief Executive – Heart of Glass – we are a community arts organisation supporting the work of artists and communities. Patrick is also a member of the Culture Network LCR Board of Directors.

Loved: There’s always so much going on in the region – some recent highlights for me in the last while range from Irish comedy legend Deirdre O’Kane at the Playhouse, our recent collaborative levent with Duckie’s Posh Club at St Helens Town Hall – a brilliant queer performance and social club for over 60’s which was a sell out (plus large waiting list) and has received some of the best feedback we’ve ever had for an event, and was a complete joy all round, and then of course there was the LCR Culture and Creativity Awards where it was great to hear about the breadth and depth of work taking place amongst our peers and partners across the region. We were delighted to be nominated for our long term collaboration with Artist Mark Storor titled The Suicide Chronicles, and shout out to MAKE CIC, our partners in Huyton who were recognised for their brilliant work as Arts Organisation of the Year. 

Looking forward to: The Liverpool Biennial is just around the corner, and curated by the brilliant Marie-Anne McQuay, and that is always a brilliant showcase that allows us to see and experience our city differently. Our ongoing project called How to Look After a Grieving Elephant (and other social animals), produced in partnership with Wonder Arts and Willowbrook Hospice and Child Bereavement UK is a really beautiful project and with the support of St Helens Art in Libraries will be touring library venues over the course of the year so I’m excited to see how that is received – needless to say I would highly recommend it.

Trivia: We turned 10 in 2024 and a lot of people don’t know that we were named after the Werner Herzog film of the same name in which a local artist known for making brilliant glass sculptures dies without passing on to anyone the skills of his trade, leading the owner of the town’s glass factory to obsessively attempts to recover the deceased artist’s lost knowledge. Not necessarily his best work, but a story that resonated with our origins in St Helens and our belief that art and artists are a critical part of a functioning civil society. Ps. the Blondie song is also a tune!

This week our Culture Radar guest is our LJMU Discovery Intern Tara Moyes.

Loved: I loved the Iconic Women exhibition at dot-art. Any celebration of women is going to be right up my street but this exhibition in particular blew me away with its incredible artwork and of course getting to see some familiar favourites such as Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill and Kim Cattrall.

Looking forward to: The No Iconic Images.Views of War exhibition at Open Eye Gallery about war photography. I currently study Journalism, so any kind of photo journalism is interesting to me. It’s also so important to look into the power of imagery and how it influences us especially in a digital age.

Trivia: I actually did Ballet for 12 years, from the age of 4-16 which is quite a long time! When I was younger I wanted to be Angelina Ballerina so badly and then I guess I just never quit until COVID came along.

Our first Culture Radar guest this week is Director at First Take, and Culture Network LCR Board Member, Jay Farley.

Loved: Loving Open Eye in general I love all their stuff – Regenerative farming and poets was especially fantastic, and RAVE ON. The Walker Art Galley – Conversations exhibition and in particular a piece by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley where I got to experience a pro black pro trans space that also generously found space to consider and include me as a white trans person. It was interactive, engaging and liberating. I got to bury my dead name which was very emotional, cathartic and I felt seen.

Looking forward to: A shameless plug! I’m looking forward to the launch of my book A [Cupbard] full of Tomboys at Rough Trade Records Liverpool on 19th March which I will perform as a TRANS industrial techno meets uplifting /dance dance beat poetry experience. I’ll be accompanied by Meave aka Quieting who will bring the sounds and sequencers. We are connected through our mutual relationship with being trans and will be exploring how that has reshaped how we experience time. We both lived for decades outside of our true selves! What happened in those years?? So it’s about loss and missing time, but also celebration and joy of finally getting to be ourselves. It’s gonna be FUN and inclusive for all 🙂

Trivia: I D-locked myself to a hat stand in the Swiss Embassy once.

This week’s Culture Radar guest is Liz Barker, the Director and Founder of March for the Arts, Arts Activism and Supporting Creatives.

Loved: The River of Light was fantastic as always, I particularly enjoyed the ‘Bubblesque’ and ‘Firefly Field’. Over the festive period I loved getting to see Alice in Wonderland at Shakespeare North Playhouse, and the Everyman Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto Rapunzel. I also think the Lights Up on Liverpool Exhibition in Central Library is a must see for anyone interested in Liverpool’s arts heritage, it’s beautifully curated by Arts Groupie.

Looking forward to: I’m keen to visit The Holly Johnson Story before it closes in July at the Museum of Liverpool, take one of Arts Groupie’s Theatre Walking Tours, and see Shirley Valentine at the Everyman. And as a life long fan, I’d be remised if I didn’t mention, I’m very excited that The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen is coming to play Anfield in the summer.

Trivia: People might be unaware at March for the Arts we offer free advice and consultation to freelancers and arts organisation relating to working better in the arts. We also have a guidance document called Working Guidance for Arts Freelancers and Organisations that can be accessed for free via our website.

This week’s Culture Radar guest is writer, director and artist, as well as a Director of Make It Write Productions and The Studio Below, Ted Gray.

Loved: I saw The Feral Parakeet at the Smithdown Arts Hub where poetry, words and avant-garde jazz improvisation merged. It was inspiring. Time talking with my friend and fellow writer, Sue Comer, about what we write and why. I went wassailing down south in the freezing cold, a reminder of origins.  When possible, I go to any of the galleries to quieten my mind.  A pint in The Caledonia – beer, conversation and music.

Looking forward to: The WOW Pulp Idol Grand Final full of brilliant new writers but I’m in The Studio Below that weekend for the Weird and Wonderful Festival (I’ve a tiny part in Mick Francis’ Wheat is What We Eat and I’m also directing Lauren Blakeway’s The Fox). Opening our new premises on Wood St for rehearsal and performance. Liverpool International Jazz Festival. A long way off yet but the Liverpool Fringe gets better each year.

Trivia: I write to the sounds of discordant, arrhythmic jazz. My pet’s names reveal my like of absurdism – Mortimer, Vic and Bob. Art changes the world so never stop being a revolutionary. The other side of my brain loves a good spreadsheet. Street protest politics brought me to theatre.

This week’s Culture Radar guest is the Artistic Director, A Place for Us Theatre, Kate Allerston.

Loved: I have really enjoyed the NPO events programme at Norton Priory in Runcorn, where I have been fortunate to be one of the Artistic Directors, along with my husband Chris Bastock, in 24/25. This includes the events around the Gaia (Earth) installation, the outdoor and indoor theatre & concerts programme and the events currently around the Mars installation (until 9 March 2025).

Looking forward to:  I am really looking forward to being at Shakespeare North Playhouse for several of our productions this coming summer.

Trivia: I have been an actor & director for over 30 years, starting at the Liverpool Playhouse Youth Theatre as a young teen, then went on to study acting in London at LAMDA, lived/worked  in London for all of the 90s and early naughties and was one of the founder artistic directors of the now international and Shakespeare Schools Festival (now Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation) and returned to work in the arts across the LCR in 2005.

This week’s Culture Radar guest is the Director of The Hope Street Theatre, Merseyside Academy of Drama (MAD), Performers Theatre School, and Olivier award-winning theatre company, Papatango, Nick Rogers.

Loved: I thoroughly enjoyed An Evening with Talking Heads (which was made up entirely of a cast of current and ex-MAD students) and the What Happens Next competition by Tip Tray Theatre, both hosted at The Hope Street Theatre. Stocking Fillers at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre was another highlight, directed by my brilliant colleague, Sam Donovan.

Looking forward to: I’m particularly excited for On The Banks of The Royal Blue Mersey (despite being a Red!), Someone You Love by SevenBlu3, Northern Comedy’s No Sex Please, We’re British – all at Hope Street – and The Merchant of Venice 1936 at the Playhouse, and The Peaceful Hour at Liverpool’s Royal Court.

Trivia: Next year marks the 25th anniversary of Performers Theatre School, which has introduced thousands of children to drama, dance, and singing. We began on Bold Street in 2001 and moved into our current studios on Hope Street in 2015, which are also home to MAD in the evenings and Rare Studio BTEC and Intensive students on weekdays. The opening of The Hope Street Theatre in 2017 helped transform the building into a vibrant creative hub. It’s been incredible to see the space evolve into a thriving centre for the arts, with so many talented people coming together to create and share their work. And now, with amazing food courtesy of the Arts Bar, there’s truly something for everyone here, from aged 2 to 99!