Event type: Performance

Jenny Eclair: Jokes Jokes Jokes Live!

In celebration of the release of her hilarious memoir of the same name, comedian, novelist, and professional show-off Jenny Eclair comes to Liverpool Playhouse with a brand-new autobiographical show.

From drama school, (mostly drinking cider and eating sausage rolls), sleeping with men who looked like they lived under a carpet, punk poetry, anorexia, bedsit misery, waitressing and not really having a clue about anything, to being the first woman to win the Perrier Award, becoming a mother, author, grumpy old woman, podcaster and nana!

Still gigging to sell-out crowds forty years later, Jenny invites you to look back at what she can remember before she forgets everything. Warning, punk poetry, animal impressions and baritone nursery rhyme singing may feature.

Count Binface: Bindependence Day

The universe’s favourite novelty politician, Count Binface, is back on our planet, and just in the nick of time as he’s set to embark on a national tour this autumn to save us all from imminent disaster with his MEGA plans. (Make Earth Great Again!)

2024 is the biggest year ever for democracy, with elections all over the globe, and Binface has more than played his part. He recently ran in the London Mayoral Election and will soon be taking on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the General Election (if Rishi makes it that far).

Hot off the back of the UK’s General Election, Binface will be invading a theatre near you with his brand new live comedy show, featuring his unique take on Britain, his special brand of sci-fi satire, and of course his unbeatable manifesto. Cheaper croissants? Check. The nationalisation of Adele? Check. The return of Ceefax? Check. Water bosses to take a dip in UK rivers to see how they like it? CHECK!

Count Binface is the intergalactic space warrior and novelty politician who has delighted millions with his unlikely tilts at power in the United Kingdom. First, he took on Theresa May in the 2017 General Election, cunningly disguised as ‘Lord Buckethead’, and went viral around the world (in a non-Covid way), appearing on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and at The Glastonbury Festival.

Then he challenged Boris Johnson in 2019, when he scored 69 votes (he’d love to say he’s the first life form to experience a surprising 69 with the Prime Minister in a sports hall during the small hours, but with Boris you just never know). In 2021 he first ran to be Mayor of London in a bid to gain control of the Earth Capital itself. He received a glorious 92,896 votes from the great British public that sent him soaring into ninth place. This year he won 24,260 votes and he got endorsed by a national newspaper and beat the fascists of Britain First.

The Night Circus: A Spectacular Celebr...

Welcome to The Night Circus: A Spectacular Celebration of 10 Years of The Secret Circus! Roll up, roll up! The Night Circus is coming to town… 📢📣

To celebrate TEN years of the Secret Circus, they are taking their show and celebrations to the next level and HOSTING A CLUB NIGHT!

Expect risquĂŠ performances, including drag acts, gogo dancers, burlesque and surprise performance encounters embedded into a club night experience.

Dress to impress in your most extravagant attire as we celebrate a decade of eclectic cabaret, boundary pushing and embracing the unconventional.

Whether you’re a seasoned cabaret connoisseur, an all-night-long party animal, or still wearing your party water wings – The Night Circus promises an evening of excitement, intrigue, and eccentric entertainment.

Date: Sept 6th 🕰️ Time: 7pm-3am 📍 Venue: Quarry, Love Lane

Event Highlights:

🍾Happy Hour 7pm – 8pm 
🎨Body paint station and photo booth
🎶DJs to keep you dancing all night long
💋Seductive gogo dancers to tantalize your senses
💃Sensational burlesque acts that will leave you breathless
🎁Surprise Performances throughout the night to keep you entertained
👠Drag Performances because they’re fkn’ fabulous!

Other awesome shizz –

Stalls including epic vegan scran, Jade Muat-Dodd, Secret Circus Merch and more.

HOSTS: The Queen of Heartbreak, Beija Flo, Naffrodite

CABARET: Gina Sterling, Felix Mufti, Arch Femisist

DORSA: Joss La Porta, Emma Lippitt, Just Owen, Naya Thorne, Dr Diablo, Thicc &Thick

DJ SETS: Wild Forts, Evvie Da, Barry Bigtune 18+ Tickets are limited, so secure your place under the big top for this exclusive anniversary extravaganza. Don’t miss your chance to be part of history as they raise a glass to 10 years of unforgettable cabaret memories with The Secret Circus.

Join them at The Night Circus and let the magic unfold! 🎩✨

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: ÂŁ16.50