7:30PM
Mona and Mimi is set over one evening in December 1961, a time of great social change “between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles’ first LP”. The play presents a fictionalised encounter between two real women, Mona Best and Mimi Smith, who couldn’t be more unalike, with Mimi stuck in the the past and Mona embracing the future. Initially all they seem to have in common is that their boys play together in a Liverpool beat group. However, as the play develops, parallels between the two women emerge as both grapple with their personal struggles and the sacrifices inherent in raising a child.
Mona Best, mother of the group’s drummer Pete, is an unconventional woman. She has started a lucrative rock and roll club in the basement of her home and is at this point informally managing the group. Into her life storms Mimi Smith, aunt and guardian of John, the group’s guitarist and singer. Mimi is relentless in her determination to thwart her nephew’s dream to make it as a musician, an ambition she views with undisguised contempt. She goes to Mona’s house to thwart the signing of a contract with a local music entrepreneur, unaware of Mona’s role in nurturing the band.
Mona & Mimi is the first full length play by Catherine Leen (Bright Sparks) and is directed by Nick Bagnall. Mimi is played by Meriel Scholfield, Mona by Fiona Boylan and Neil by Noah Fox.
‘A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love’ – WB Yeats
List of team and cast:
Nick Bagnall – Director
Meriel Scholfield – Mimi
Fiona Boylan – Mona
Noah Fox – Neil
Catherine Leen – Writer/Producer
Xenia Bayer – Lighting & Sound Designer
@monaandmimi
Murder Under the Spotlight! A Christmas Murder Mystery
DBY Interactive and The Atkinson proudly present a brand new crime solving show in Southport. Brush off your best suit and bring your feather boa!
It’s Christmas, 1928. You are exclusively invited to the star-studded festive celebration of one of Chicago’s prestigious film studios. No expense has been spared right down to the finest bootleg liquor around. But behind the studio’s reputable name are reports of connections to some of the city’s not so high standing. There is even links to the mob scandal sweeping the city. Word is that along with Chicago’s finest on the guest list both from screen and stage…there could be some uninvited guests.
But you can’t always believe what you read in the papers, right?
Dress to impress on the red carpet and join DBY Interactive to discover the source to the studio’s success and a dark secret, that if revealed publicly could shine a spotlight on some horrifying truths and even push someone to do something unthinkable…!
Show type and themes: Mature, period (1920s), glamourous, speakeasy, gangsters, prohibition, crime solving, murder mystery.
Audiences are encouraged to dress to impress.
Due to some references this performance is suitable for ages 12+.
Five birthdays. Two unhappy marriages. One possessive mother.
It is 1976. Dennis tinkers in his garage, cheerfully indifferent to wife Vera’s impending breakdown. Marjorie hovers in the background, making tea and finding fault. Neil has planned a birthday surprise for his wife, but Pam doesn’t share his enthusiasm, preoccupied by frustrations of her own.
Set in a suburban garage and garden over four successive birthdays beginning in February and ending the following January, playwright Alan Ayckbourn masterfully evokes a world of hidden tensions and suppressed hostility. In perhaps his most emotionally charged play, Ayckbourn skilfully navigates the tightrope between comedy and tragedy, guiding us towards a hilarious, yet chilling finale.
An Olivier and Tony Award winning playwright, Alan Ayckbourn’s ninety plays have been produced worldwide. Notable successes include: The Norman Conquests, Relatively Speaking, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval and Communicating Doors.
Following successful tours of Absent Friends (2015) and Absurd Person Singular (2020-21), Alan Ayckbourn’s 1976 masterclass in suburban comedy and heartbreak will form the centrepiece of London Classic Theatre’s 25th Anniversary celebrations.
Age 14+
Direct from the West End.
The Last Laugh is a “brilliant” (The Telegraph) brand new laugh-a-minute play which reimagines the lives of three of Britain’s all-time greatest comedy heroes – Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse.
Filled with great gags and touching stories, The Last Laugh is nostalgic and poignant and guaranteed to be the best comedy night out.
The Last Laugh is written and directed by the award-winning Paul Hendy, and stars “a trio of sublime performances” (WhatsOnStage) by Bob Golding as Morecambe, Simon Cartwright as Monkhouse and Damian Williams as Cooper.
Hear the heartbeat of history
Love stories can happen anywhere. In the present or the past, in the head or the heart. But when Him and Her meet by chance at the Liverpool docks and unearth the hidden history of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra – the original jazz pioneers – could this be the start of something new, or are they stuck repeating another love story from a hundred years earlier?
Syncopated is an intoxicating new play set to music by Varaidzo about a music student from London and a young Liverpudlian discovering each other in the shadow of the city. As they connect, they begin to sense history’s echoes when two figures from the past lead them on a journey of personal discovery – a trip into the revolutionary Black sound that took the world, and their own lives, by storm.
Co-produced by Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Talawa Theatre Company as part of Talawa’s Black Joy season, Syncopated hums with live music and romantic energy.
You won’t want to miss a beat.
From the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation, The Producers, comes this monster musical comedy. The comedy genius, Mel Brooks, adapts his legendarily funny film into a brilliant stage creation – Young Frankenstein!
Grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”) inherits his family’s estate in Transylvania. With the help of a hunchbacked sidekick, Igor (pronounced “Eye-gore”), and a leggy lab assistant, Inga (pronounced normally), Frederick finds himself in the mad scientist shoes of his ancestors. “It’s alive!” he exclaims as he brings to life a creature to rival his grandfather’s. Eventually, of course, the monster escapes and hilarity continuously abounds.
Every bit as relevant to audience members who will remember the original as it will be to newcomers, Young Frankenstein has all the of panache of the screen sensation with a little extra theatrical flair added. It will surely be the perfect opportunity for a production company to showcase an array of talents. With such memorable tunes as “The Transylvania Mania,” “He Vas My Boyfriend” and “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” by Irving Berlin Young Frankenstein is scientifically proven, monstrously good entertainment.
Directed and choreographed by international award-winning director and choreographer Nick Winston, known for Bonnie & Clyde (Garrick Theatre, WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Musical), MAME and Burlesque.
Presented by Hope Mill Theatre for their 10th Anniversary.
Shake-Scene Shakespeare are BACK to present a Double Bill of Shakespeare’s Dirtiest Politics!
Join Shake-Scene Shakespeare this August, returning for their second mini-residency in the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden.
In 2024 they brought laughs and tears – in 2025 it’s all about deceit, treachery and manipulation. Grab your seat for Measure For Measure, Julius Caesar or both!
Shake-Scene will once again be performing from cued parts in their own unique way. This technique requires the actors to work only from their own lines and cues – nobody studies the whole play, and the full text is not rehearsed before performance resulting in a myriad of hilarious, jaw-dropping and unforgettable moments – it’s Shakespeare Jim but not as we know it!
A fun and engaging introduction to Shakespeare!
Shakespeare arrives at Queen Elizabeth’s court to put on his latest play, only to realise that the actors haven’t been booked, the script has been left behind and the only people able to help are two women (who at the time were banned from performing on the stage!)…
Over the next 60 minutes the audience is introduced to some of Shakespeare’s most iconic excerpts from his plays as the trio try to create a play for Queenie from what they can remember – anything so that they don’t lose their heads!
The production gives a fun and engaging introduction to Shakespeare and is aimed at families with children aged 8 upwards. It’s a hilarious and educational show, with edited and accessible versions of scenes from the Bard’s most popular plays (Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream) – a great introduction to Shakespeare for young people, and there’s quite a bit of audience interaction too!
Join the critically-acclaimed Pantaloons Theatre Company as they put on a frantic disposition to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy in their own anarchic style.
When he discovers that his uncle has murdered his father, married his mother and traitorously taken the crown of Denmark there’s only one course of action for Hamlet: feign madness, frequently monologue and take swift revenge. But outrageous fortune has other plans for the poor Prince of Denmark…
With live music, audience interaction, brevity-boosting abridgements, comic turns and tragic twists there’s only one question: To be there, or to be square?
