Event type: Performance

Marco Woolf – Dream Setting

Dream Setting is a playful, interactive performance of music, dance and storytelling. Rising star Malawian-born musician and storyteller Marco Woolf is creating the performance for and with St Helens library and its community.

What is your dream? The performance celebrates the power of dreams and explores how we can harness them to shape the world around us.

Marco shares stories about the various people (and sometimes creatures) he and local people have encountered in dreams about St Helens. Audiences are then invited to imagine and create alternate futures for these characters, forming a unique story that is shaped by the audience and woven in-between improvised and original music.

Joined by his talented band, featuring jazz pianist Tom Harris and electric guitarist Carmel Smickersgill, alongside contemporary dancer Sara Marques, Marco takes audiences on a dreamlike audio-visual journey, bringing fascinating stories to life and exploring future themes.

Marco Woolf: voice, guitar
Sara Marques: dancer
Carmel Smickersgill: electric guitar
Tom Harris: piano

Part of the Carnival of Creativity at:

St Helens Library,
The World of Glass,
Chalon Way E,
St Helens
WA10 1BX.

Cal and the Big C

A drag comedy about the ups and downs one person faces when the ‘Big C’ comes calling

Cal lives in their head, avoiding real life at all costs. What happens when real life comes crashing in, uninvited and invasive?Call in Edwardian drag performer Hetty King to help of course!

A journey of self-discovery, imagination, love, hate, cancer – and drag.

Cal and the Big C is a comedy of navigating the byways of life when the worst happens, the absurdities, tears and triumphs of facing down an unseen enemy.

Unity Scratch Night

Off the back of the roaring success of the Unity Variety Night Fundraiser, they are delighted to announce a brand-new monthly scratch night coming to Liverpool this Autumn.

At their Open House Session one of the biggest parts of feedback was that their community needed a place to come and test out new ideas, so they are delighted to be launching this new series for artists to come and experiment on the Unity stage.

Introducing a new series of mid-week scratch nights:

  • Wednesday 25th September
  • Wednesday 23rd October
  • Thursday 21st November

Do you want to get involved or perform? 

These nights are open for artists to come and test out new material on a live audience. See what works and what doesn’t as we develop together.

If you are interested in performing, it can be any genre, any stage of development or length. Please register your interest via the link provided here.

Gary Starr: Classic Penguins

Literature! Literature! Literature! It might not rhyme with anything but it’s still very important. Garry Starr is back and he’s hell-bent on saving books from extinction by performing every Penguin Classic novel ever written. In an hour. Mostly naked (but with flippers).

Comic wunderkind Starr takes us on a literary adventure through the world’s most iconic works of fiction. From The Little Prince to Moby Dick and everything in between, nothing is safe from being lampooned with the utmost nincompoopery.

Directed by Cal McCrystal (‘Britain’s funniest director’ – The Guardian) and Georgia Murphy

Who the f-k is Shakespeare?

Following a sell-out run, four of Shakespeare’s (in)famous characters are back for a national tour, ready to tell their side of the story.

Join them as they blow the dust off the classics to stage a multi-art form political occupation of stories steeped in racism, patriarchy and violence.

Armed with punchy verses, punky attitudes, and whole lotta wit – let’s rip out the pages, raise the roof, and rise up!

The Team

Writer/Director – Ameera Conrad

Producer – Natasha Patel

Lighting Designer – Xenia Bayer

Composer/Sound Design – Mal Lidgett

Creative Captioner – Ben Glover

Design Associate – Keshi Raghu

Audio Description Consultant – Mandy Redvers-Rowe

Dramaturg – Keith Saha

 

Company Stage Manager – Charlotte Jones

Technical Stage Manager – Jordan Barnes

Production Manager – Mike Dunn

 

Cast:

Beca Barton – Viola

Harriet O’Grady – Cleopatra

Jada-Li Warrican – Ophelia

Mary Savage – Lady Macbeth

All performances of this show include creative captioning and integrated audio description. The Saturday 21st September performance will be BSL interpreted

 

 

The Bubble Entertainment Show at Thatt...

Join The Bubble Entertainment Show by Ray Bubbles at Thatto Heath Library.

Ray Bubbles is a world record breaking bubble performer and International Bubbleologist. This is a fast paced show full of high energy and surprises as Ray uses various different gases to create incredible bubble sculptures, effects and magical displays.

Head along and enjoy the magic of bubble art!

Suggested Age: 5-10 years

Children under 8 years old must be supervised in the library at all times.

Please Note: Tickets only need to be booked for children attending the event, parents and guardians do not require their own ticket.

This event is part of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, funded by the Department of Education. Your child must live or attend school within the borough of St Helens to be eligible to take part in this programme.

Maximum number of children on this session is 25.

La Feria: REWIND, Ephemeral Ensemble

Join the Bluecoat for this incredible performance, as part of La Feria, 2024 from Luma Creations.

On the 51st anniversary of the military coup that took place in Chile, La Feria and Luma Creations are proud to present the multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed play, REWIND by Ephemeral Ensemble.

REWIND, pieces together a scientific examination of a crime secretly buried. In a whirlwind of visceral music, energetic movement, puppetry, projection and innovative lighting, the show reveals an intimate backward journey into the life of Alicia, a young woman who dared to resist authoritarianism.

REWIND is inspired by testimonies of Latin American refugees and migrants across generations, and draws from Forensic Anthropology, the first science in history to investigate human rights violations. The show ultimately tracks back through time to reveal a universal story of the struggle for social justice.
The play will be followed by a Q&A with Ephemeral Ensemble

Running time: 65 min (performance) / 120 min incl. changeover and Q&A

Age restriction: 14+

Show warnings: Death, grief and occasional flashing light

Tickets: £16.50

Phil Walker: Happy Bunny

He’s a husband, a dad, a man in the middle of life frantically striving to stay relevant in the rapidly changing world around him.

He’s performed in war zones like Afghanistan and Bosnia, at 20,000 feet on an EasyJet flight full of non-speaking Italian tourists without a parachute, and he’s even endured a Megabus! Basically, he will go anywhere for a laugh. So, come experience award-winning comedian Phil Walker in his brand-new show for an unforgettable night of laughter guaranteed.

*Warning may contain jokes about allergies, so if you’re allergic to jokes about allergies please consult a doctor before attending.

Hosted at Metal: WEȽ∝KER and Lola D...

Join experimental musicians WEȽ∝KER (pronounced ‘WET LOCKER’) and Lola De La Mata for two special performances at Edge Hill Station.

WEȽ∝KER are Manchester duo Guillaume Dujat and Joe Beedles, exploring the outer edges of computer music that is playful and tactile. The sounds presented on their last record ENHANCER evoke a strange warmth, shimmering and stretching with the intuition of acoustic improvisation.

Lola De La Mata is a composer, sound artist and curator based between Liverpool and London. Her recent album Oceans on Azimuth was released to much acclaim, reflecting on years of research and embodied experience on tinnitus and the architecture of our ears. Her live performances explore sonic illusions and incorporate dance and motion, collaborating with artists such as Eve Stainton, Rosie Terry Toogood among others.

Performances start at 8pm

This event will contain strobing lights and laser and at times loud volume and high-pitched sounds.

Alternative Black Cabaret Showcase

The Black is back! The Alternative Black Cabaret Showcase in partnership with Boisterous Theatre Co. bring the biggest names and the freshest acts from around the globe; Liverpool, Los Angeles, Lafta Republic and Oldham. Resident host Che B introduces comedy, music and specialist turns along with Black Bingo and raffle there’s even a token white act for diversity thrown in too!

27 September Lineup

Opening Act – Paul Sinha

A trained medical doctor, best known as the Sinnerman on the ITV quiz show The Chase, Paul has been a highly successful British-Asian stand up comedian for many years.

He has performed eight solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival, with his 2006 show nominated for the then Perrier Award. As a club comedian, Paul has played every major comedy club in the UK, performed in eighteen other countries across the globe, and was three times nominated for Best Club Comedian at the Chortle Awards, winning in 2014.

Headliner – Desiree Burch 

A comedian, writer, actor, theatre-maker and NY-to-London transplant, Desiree has quickly and firmly established herself as one of the break out comic stars in the UK. She is the host and voice of Netflix’s smash reality hit, ‘Too Hot Too Handle’ and recently hosted Live At The Apollo (BBC 2).

Desiree exploded onto the UK comedy scene, winning the 2015 Funny Women Award. Since then, she has appeared on, ‘Live at the Apollo’ (BBC), ‘Have I Got News For You’ (BBC), ‘Qi’ (BBC), ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’ (Channel 4), ‘Mock The Week’ (BBC2),’Insert Name Here’ (BBC2), ‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order (BBC2). and co-hosted Netflix series, “Flinch”. Desiree recorded her critically acclaimed, debut Edinburgh festival show, ‘This Is Evolution” as a TV special for, ‘Live From The BBC ‘(BBC3) and has recorded a 2nd stand up special for Comedy Central. Her recent Edinburgh hour, ‘Unfuckable’ was a sold out hit at The Edinburgh Fringe and went onto two fantastic, sold out runs at The Soho Theatre.