Event type: Theatre

Selected Works: Table Top Shakespeare

A salt and pepper pot for the king and queen. A ruler for the prince. A spoon for the servant. A water bottle for the messenger.

Two performers create condensed versions of some of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays, creating lovingly made miniatures played out on a one metre table-top. In Selected Works the dynamic force of storytelling is explored in a unique and highly accessible way. Each work re-tells the story of a Shakespeare play using ordinary everyday language and bric-a-brac objects as stand-ins for the characters, creating worlds as vivid as they are strange.

Thursday 26th November

Coriolanus

Anti-elitism in ancient Rome: plebeians versus patricians – and in the middle of it all, a rumbling stomach.

Measure For Measure

Duke Vincentio attempts to combat widespread moral decay measure for measure. But even show trials and the death penalty do little good

Friday 27th November

The Winters Tale

A jealous husband tyrannizes his wife, his child and his best friend. To get to a happy ending takes 16 years and the discovery of a coastline in “Bohemia”.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

What joyous loving, hunting, joking, conjuring, cuddling, scaring and taunting in the forests near Athens, complete with a play within a play and enough characters for every school theatre company.

Saturday 28th November

Twelfth Night

But what do you want? Cesario loves Orsino. Orsino loves Olivia. Olivia loves Cesario. But Cesario isn’t really Cesario: she’s Viola.

Othello

Tragedy, murder, suicide. Love, prejudice, jealousy, betrayal – what’s not to like?

“It’s a reminder that one person – armed with a story and some bric-a-brac – can create colossal worlds.”- The Stage

Selected Works is a Forced Entertainment production. Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment

The Halloween Fire Experience – Photoshoot

Join us for an unforgettable Halloween! An evening of Playing with Fire and a professional photoshoot in a ghostly haunted location

Ready to set your Halloween on FIRE? ?

Join our immersive Halloween experience of fire and fright.

Learn to play with fire under the guidance of two professional fire instructors. And capture the moment with a professional photoshoot by the incredible Tommy Wong, one of the best fire photographers in the UK.

 

YOUR NIGHT INCLUDES

? Fire experience — learn to move and play with fire under expert guidance? Haunted surroundings — experience the atmosphere of one of Liverpool’s most haunted locations? Halloween dress-up — Try out a creative, dramatic terrifying look? Professional photography — capture Halloween photos you’ll want to keep forever

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES:

  • Have your hair tied back or covered
  • Wear natural fabrics like cotton, jeans or leather
  • Event will take place outdoors

 

Exact location will be revealed at the time of booking!!!

 

Dress up. Play with flames. Capture the moment ?

 

Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-halloween-fire-experience-photoshoot-tickets-2003365752896?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1demo0jsrbsp7&fbclid=IwY2xjawVEKB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR49MtMVmUwjxbqNIAp3J0hYSytRocrsMjUWiBX3EWnoEbUV63pKjMU7rGmdLA_aem_qQ-7CGzob8NZAxoTccloEA

The Little Mermaid

Join Ballet Theatre UK on this dramatic re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s all-time favourite story of The Little Mermaid, who falls in love with a human Prince and gives up everything to win his love. The kind hearted Little Mermaid rescues the Prince during a storm at sea, and begins a journey that takes her far from her home beneath the waves.

Determined to pursue her love on to the shore she makes a bargain with an evil Sea Witch, but it comes at a heavy price.

Ballet Theatre UK’s charming and poignant ballet explores the nature of longing, how making choices have lasting consequences and how goodness can be rewarded in unexpected ways.

Join Ballet Theatre UK for this thrilling production touring the UK, Spring 2027

“Glittering costumes, expressive dancers…a pleasure to witness a production of this calibre” -Dance Europe

Critics Choice – “Top Five Dance Productions Touring the UK” -The Independent

“A ballet company of great achievement” – The Dancing Times

 

 

Age 3+

Homotopia Festival 2026

The UK’s longest running LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival returns this Autumn. Liverpool’s Homotopia is back for its 22nd year, with the theme of We Come Together. Running from 17 Oct to 1 Dec 2026, the festival will see theatre, performance, film, music and conversation as it brings Queer creativity in all its forms to venues across Liverpool.

This year, the festival will launch to celebrate the birthday of another iconic Queer community as House of Suarez marks two decades at the heart of the Northern UK vogue scene. With a spectacular runway event, the evening will set the tone for a November programme championing Queer art and artists.

Artists featuring in this year’s Homotopia include; Thick & Tight, Fag Packet, Fatt Butcher, House of Suarez, H.R.H Aphrodite I, Noiregaze, EAT Me Collective, First take.

Highlights of this year’s programme include;

Queer theatre with three shows. Award-winning dance theatre company Thick & Tight with Natural Behaviour, a collection of performed portraits spanning human and non-human life forms. Joining them is Fag Packet with DYKE Systems Ltd, a repeat sell-out at Edinburgh Fringe that serves an anarchic, physical comedy cocktail dissecting pyramid schemes, ruthless heteronormativity, and corporate feminism. Finally, Fatt Butcher performs Congregational an act of coming together. Part concert, part communion, part resurrection – join Fatt Butcher on the dance floor with special guests the Liverpool Rainbow Chorus.

Photographer Helen Constantinou’s The Gathering – Stop The Clause  confronts the legacy of Section 28 at Open Eye Gallery capturing the mass protests in 1988 against Section 28, the barbaric UK legislation which banned local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”.

Homotopia is hosting a special screening of Project Triangle at 17: YOUNG QUEER AND STILL HERE. To mark the historic exchange, of Project Triangle, documenting the 2009 journey of Young Homotopia to Auschwitz and Warsaw to explore the persecution of LGBTQIA+ people during the Holocaust and its lasting impact on queer history.

A month of Queer club nights for dancing feet including EAT Me Collective with HORRIBLE HERSTORIES, Noiregayze, Protect Scouse Dolls, Homotopia edition of Sonic Yootha and Queer Cxntry Burnin’ Daylight, a country music themed LGBTQIA+ club night by PINK SUITS.

A Reel Queer film screening marking the 40th anniversary of Liverpool production company, First Take.

Dine in the converted stables of Cobble and Hay in historic Port Sunlight for Cookery Book Club at the Movies, featuring a menu inspired by Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Commemorations for World AIDS Day with Sahir House and a screening of April Ashley in Enigma for Transgender Day of Remembrance.

An evening with the next generation of Queer talent with Young Homotopia and QueerCore Showcase.

 

View Homotopia Festival 2026 Brochure

 

Raising the Wreck -Revisited!

 

 

A pioneering piece of unapologetically women’s theatre, loud, vibrant, hilarious and somehow holy.

Forty years after its groundbreaking premiere an iconic piece of British queer theatre returns for a new generation.

For centuries, four women pirates have been lying on a wreck at the bottom of the sea.

Grace O’Malley, Aku, Mary Read and Zoa have drifted through time unperturbed by the progress of the modern age. Until 1985 when they were visited by Jenny who took their stories into the 1980’s.

In 2026 Jenny falls through time again and lands on their long-forgotten shipwreck, armed with nothing but a mobile phone and a head full of questions.

Blending history, mythology and contemporary politics with humour, music and Storytelling “Raising The Wreck – Revisited” is a bold re-imagining of Sue Frumin’s pioneering play. Originally commissioned by Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company the production was one of the first British plays to feature a multi-racial cast of women and to place lesbian stories.

By Sue Frumin

Directed by Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder

Designed by Lara Booth

The final show on 22 November is a matinee show, starting 2.30pm

 

 

The Wonder of Stevie

The ultimate celebration of the genius of Stevie Wonder!

Voted one of Britain’s top soul singers, mesmeric vocalist Noel McCalla, award-winning saxophonist Derek Nash (Jools Holland’s R&B Orchestra) and their world-class band present a diverse catalogue of Stevie Wonder classics from albums including Signed, Sealed & Delivered, Talking Book, Innervisions, Songs in the Key of Life and Hotter than July.

The Wonder of Stevie perform hit after hit, from dance floor classics I Wish and Superstition to beautiful arrangements of My Cherie Amour and I Just Called to Say I Love You and the much-loved Isn’t She Lovely and Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing. This outstanding live band features musicians who have previously performed with a wide variety of music legends including Sir Rod Stewart, Bill Withers, Amy Winehouse, The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Sir Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Nile Rodgers, Martha Reeves, Chaka Khan, Sam Moore, Jethro Tull, Eddie Floyd, Gregory Porter and Alfie Boe.

 

“Breathtaking” – Sunday Times

“Spine-tingling” – The Guardian

“A dazzling homage to one of the great masters of 20th & 21st century music” – Jools Holland

“Never have we heard the music of Stevie Wonder interpreted with such finesse, energy and all-round brilliance” – The House of Soul

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

A musical play adapted and directed by DAVID WOOD 

Based on the book by JUDITH KERR 

 

Direct from the West End, the Olivier Award nominated smash hit show, The Tiger Who Came to Tea returns on tour. 

The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don’t expect to see at the door is a big, stripy tiger! 

Join the tea-guzzling tiger in this delightful family show; packed with oodles of magic, sing-a-long songs and clumsy chaos. Don’t miss this stunning stage adaptation of the classic tale of teatime mayhem… expect to be surprised! 

 

Running time: approx 55 minutes (no interval). 

Suitable for children aged 3+. 

 

★★★★ 

‘This Tiger is the cat’s meow’ 

The Times 

 

★★★★ 

‘A rare and grreat achievement’ 

Mail on Sunday 

 

★★★★ 

‘All the fun of the fur’ 

Daily Express 

 

★★★★ 

‘Perfectly pitched’ 

Daily Telegraph 

 

★★★★★ 

‘Delightful’ 

Whatsonstage.com

The Umbrella Man and other stories

Fresh from a successful run at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, Martin Fitzgerald is now taking his one-man storytelling show on tour.  

The show is based on Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed book of the same name, published by Biteback in April 2026. It was a Radio 4 Pick of the Week and Richard Herring has described it as his favourite book of the year.  

The Umbrella Man and Other Stories brings a fresh perspective to one of the most enduring subjects of modern history – the JFK Assassination. Rather than getting bogged down by the usual questions of who and why, Fitzgerald instead chooses to focus on the ordinary people who were caught up in the most scrutinised six seconds of the twentieth century.  

A man who opened an umbrella on a sunny day. A dressmaker with vertigo. A woman with a polaroid. The mysterious Babushka Lady. And the three suspicious tramps, arrested shortly after the assassination.  

These are the strange, true stories of a small group of accidental bystanders to history, who spent the rest of their lives trying to escape it. The Umbrella Man and Other Stories carefully guides the audience through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, taking them back to 1963 and into the shoes of the people who were present that day.  

 Combining humour, meticulous research and impeccable storytelling, this gripping show shines a new light on the event – whether it’s your specialist subject or you’re a complete novice.

 

REVIEWS 

“Fitzgerald’s approach is full of humanity.” – Hugh Bonneville, Actor – Paddington and Downton Abbey. 

“Smart and restrained.” – Al Murray, Comedian and co-host of We Have Ways of Making You Talk. 

“Fascinating.” – Robin Ince, Comedian and Broadcaster 

“One of the best things I saw in Edinburgh and taught fascinating things about an event I thought I knew a lot about.” – Sarfraz Manzoor, Writer and broadcaster.  

“***** – a gripping, intelligent, and deeply human exploration of one of history’s most infamous moments” – Counter Culture 

“***** – witty, fast, and packed with detail” – Scottish Field  

“Fitzgerald is a master in the art of storytelling. Highly recommended.” – Fringe Review

 

ABOUT MARTIN FITZGERALD 

Martin Fitzgerald is an author and screenwriter from London. His first book, Ruth and Martin’s Album Club (2017), was a collection of reviews of classic albums written by celebrities upon hearing them for the first time. It featured contributions from Richard Osman, Ian Rankin, Bonnie Greer and many more. 

Martin’s particular interest is taking well-worn stories, approaching them from a new angle and finding the comedy and absurdity within them. 

 

Content Advisories

Age recommendation 14+

Under 16s must be accompanied by adult

Contains themes of murder and racism

Pip and Posy

Inspired by the BAFTA nominated animated series from Magic Light Pictures and based on the picture books by multi-award-winning illustrator Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo) this exciting new live stage show celebrates the power of imagination, kindness, and creativity for little ones and families everywhere.

Pip and Posy are best friends whose lives revolve around the world of play. Their stories are a joyful celebration of friendship in all its forms – the laughter, the ups and downs, the silliness, and care. Together with their friends Mo and Jamila, they head off on a thrilling adventure through tangled jungles, across slimy swamps, and high above the clouds aboard a big red balloon. Just watch out, the Troll is after the treasure!

Packed with toe-tapping songs, stunning puppetry, and irresistible interactive play, Pip and Posy are waiting for you. Come on, let’s play!

See more about the show at PipandPosyLive.co.uk (link opens in a new tab)

The King’s Speech

A country on the precipice of another terrible war. An abdicated king. A constitutional crisis. And the only man who can provide hope for the nervous British public is Bertie – a man who is shy, unprepared for monarchy and, worst of all, has a debilitating speech impediment.

With the future of the monarchy, and Britain itself, on the line, an historic radio address looms over a man who can barely stammer through full sentences. Desperate, Bertie and his family turn to an unconventional speech therapist from Australia to turn him into the king Britain can believe in.

Starring Stefan Denis (Neighbours) as Lionel Logue and George Rainsford (Casualty) as Bertie King George VI, this gripping drama follows the unlikely friendship that emerges as royal protocol meets unorthodox challenges.

Adapted from the Oscar-winning film, this exciting new production from the acclaimed Barn Theatre blends humour, heart and high stakes in a beloved drama about duty, courage and finding one’s voice.

thekingsspeechplay.com (link opens in a new tab)