Free Theatre History Walking Tours in May,
Guided walking tours exploring Liverpool’s theatrical past, led by eccentric Victorian actors, Bartholomew Garrick & Wildman Stageham.
Join the pair as they reveal Liverpool’s hidden theatre gems, starting at The Bluecoat you will be led to the #lightsuponliverpool Theatre History exhibition at The Hornby Library Liverpool Central Library for a special tour of the exhibition.
Plus on two of the dates you have the opportunity to visit the Central Library Archive Rooms and see some of the rare artefacts from the exhibition in the flesh.
Dates:
Fri 2nd May – Walk at 11am, meet at The Bluecoat – One Hour Archive Tour (a maximum of 15 people) – 2 till 3pm & 3pm till 4pm
Sat 3rd May – Walk at 11am, meet at The Bluecoat – One Hour Archive Tour (a maximum of 15 people) – 2 till 3pm & 3pm till 4pm
Sat 24th May – Walk at 11am, meet at The Bluecoat – One Hour
Email: artgroupie@outlook.com
please state the date/time and number of places required to reserve.
Kindly supported, by The National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to money raised by National Lottery players to offer free heritage activity in connection with the ‘Lights Up on Liverpool’ exhibition currently on display at Liverpool Central Library which launched in November.
‘Lights Up on Liverpool’ is ArtsGroupie CIC’s first public heritage exhibition in partnership with Liverpool Central Library Liverpool Libraries and Information Services. It explores the city’s vibrant theatre heritage, showcasing historic playbills, props, and programmes from the archives at Liverpool Record Office. The exhibition was extended to May 2025 due to its popularity and warm reception from the public.
Theatre legend Emma Rice takes on a film legend in this riotously funny reworking that turns the original thriller on its head.
With just six performers, a fabulous fifties soundtrack and a lot of suitcases, this production plays with the heart, mind and soul. Join us for a night of glamour, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths.
A movement ritual of care & resilience.
How has colonialism impacted the care we have received from our elders?
How did we experience their resilience?
What nurturing strategies can we share with each other to help us thrive, in a
mainstream society that seeks to racialise and dehumanise us?
Can we create rituals and spaces to care for ourselves?
Women from the Global Ethnic Majority whose families have been impacted by colonisation share their own histories of care, resilience, legacy, and how these stories live in their bodies. Going beyond everyday storytelling, transforming those energies into a live experience. This performance brings to audiences their latest research and development phase of this project, where they focused on weaving personal storytelling, movement, dramaturgy and community.
Performer Ruby is cleaning out her dad’s static caravan following his death, and the decisions of what to keep and what to chuck are triggers for memories – some good, some bad.
“…entertaining the bloody kids while their parents were off playing bingo or getting drunk.”
“Everyone! Get on this…she got down to the last ten for the Spice Girls.”
The belongings of the colourful characters from her days working in a holiday camp on the ‘Welsh Riviera’, and the shadows cast by Eddie, the ‘touchy-feely’ magician to whom she was the 18-year-old assistant, are her companions in a six-berth caravan as she roots through her belongings and her past.
Moving and funny, peppered with Elaine’s Liverpudlian wit, Static explores a volatile childhood, the shadier side of the ‘business called show’ and its disappointments, classism, ableism, and always being the outsider.
Nature is hilarious, and terrifying…
Mushroom Language: A Fungal Gothic is about the cycles that shape us – eruption, reproduction and decay. It’s about role-playing the lichen love stories, spore shoot-outs and truffle siren songs found in our forests.
They eat nappies
They eat toothbrushes
They eat bombs
They eat newspapers about how the world will end…
A species running slowly in parallel preaching change silently, digesting muck into matter and back again.
In an eerie and funny homage to folk horror, two human performers absorb and mimic ‘mushroom language’ through ritual and power dynamics. Who are these creatures, and what are the mushrooms trying to tell them? Dreamlike conversations and movement sequences are underpinned by original music from composer Hannah Miller (of the Moulettes) and playful design by Rūta Irbīte.
Join our panel-led 30-minute post-show Q&A on Tuesday, April 15 – Don’t miss out!
The Liverpool Improvisation Festival is back once again! Now an annual highlight in the Unity calendar, they cannot wait to welcome improvisers from far and wide to the Unity stage.
The Unity will become a hive of all thing’s improv, when shows open on Thursday the 24th of April and run through till late on Saturday the 26th of April (10pm).
The Liverpool Improvisation Festival (LIF) brings the best of the world’s improvisation to Liverpool and the best of Liverpool to the world. With local, national, and international talent, including 18 spontaneous shows across 3 days and a day filled with 7 expertly led workshops, LIF2025 has something for everyone!
Join Queen Jesus in Liverpool for two nights only at St Bride’s Church in the heart of the city’s Georgian Quarter.
The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven is a unique, emotive, one-woman theatrical piece that “leaves everyone feeling blessed” as it seeks to end trans discrimination. Jesus has returned to earth as a trans woman and this is your chance to come and meet her even if you don’t normally go to church.
The show is written and performed by Jo Clifford (TAMING OF THE SHREW, EVE) – one of Scotland’s most renowned playwrights with over 100 plays to her name, Stonewall role model and recently elected an Elder of the United Reformed Church.
Described as having “one of the most remarkable journeys in recent theatre history” (Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman) the show has indeed had an incredible journey over the last fifteen years since its premiere as part of the Glasgay festival in 2009. From being the subject of hate, abuse and a mass protest outside the initial show, to hundreds of critically acclaimed and sold-out performances in the UK and Brazil. Indeed, the Brazilian version has become the most talked about work in the country and is at the epicentre of the struggle against censorship and bigotry.
This is Jo’s first time performing her show in Liverpool, and it is a chance for the audience to be blessed with a sense of shared connection. There has never been a more important time for such a simple message of hope and of love.
“I wrote The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven because I wanted to resist. Resist the profound and damaging shame and fear and guilt that has been with me almost all my life. The shame and the fear and the guilt that comes on almost all of us trans women and men born into this hostile world.” – Jo Clifford
Meet the playwright in conversation on
Friday 25th April
7.30pm
entrance by donation and no booking required
Theatre Performance
Saturday 26th April
7.30pm
Performance duration 55 minutes.
Concessions £10
Full price: £15
Sales over the cost of production donated to Open Table Liverpool.
Written by Elspeth Todd, FOUR sees four family members hit with some unexpected news. Each family member is given the spotlight, recounting their version of events in this story of love, loss, and grief.
Tip Tray Theatre and their What Happens Next competition have been at the forefront of supporting emerging writers and their work, setting them up for success in the theatre industry.
A portion of fun and a big plate of chaos.
Hyltons Caribbean takeaway is a much-loved restaurant at the heart of Liverpool 8. Built by Carol and her late husband into a bustling hub with a mouth-watering menu, it serves great food with a huge side-order of love. But in a world of delivery apps, street food markets and gourmet curry goat, her family are divided about what their future should hold.
The Liverpool they live in is changing too. With a block of luxury apartments about to wipe out a local Community Centre, anger’s rising and things are getting spicy.
Takeaway is a big bowl of fun, heartbreak and chaos dished up by our creative director, Nathan Powell. Packed with big laughs, family tensions and delicious food, this is a tasty Everyman treat made for our stage, our city, our people – the perfect recipe for everyone who loves a delicious night out.
A wilder life is closer than you think.
Meet Oskar, Rio and Hazel – three people getting on with their lives in different corners of the globe. They’ve never spoken. They’ve never met. But they’re about to share a startling wild-animal encounter. One that will transform the way they think about their world.
From Norway’s glittering fjords to Colorado’s stunning peaks to Halewood’s majestic Tesco, The Walrus Has a Right to Adventure spins three very human stories into one tender and touching tale.
Funny, surprising and inspired by real animal encounters from around the world, this is powerful, inventive storytelling at its creative best – a swooping, soaring play about instinct, expectation and identity, and what it means to be truly free.
