Interest area: culture

The Rise & Fall of Little Voice

One of Britain’s greatest modern plays, The Rise & Fall of Little Voice, is embarking on a UK Tour in 2022.

The Olivier Award-Winning comedy-drama from Jim Cartwright has earned international acclaim across the globe, including a Golden Globe winning smash-hit film starring Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine.

Meet Little Voice and Mari Hoff. A mother and daughter central to the heart of this Northern fairy-tale, but as far apart in character as can be. Little Voice leads a quiet and unassuming life, seeking companionship and joy from music’s most iconic singers, whilst Mari prefers the sound of her own voice, indulging in a life of booze, cheap thrills and seedy men.

Left to her own devices, LV starts to embody the famous divas she plays on repeat, swapping the grey backstreets of Northern England for the bright lights of Hollywood and Broadway, all from the safety of her own bedroom.

When Mari starts dating small-time club owner Ray Say, LV’sastonishing impersonations of Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland to name a few, are thrust into the spotlight. Transformed and sensational, LV might just be Ray’s one and only chance to hit the big time, but what will the consequences be for mother and daughter?

Starring TV favourite Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street, Dinnerladies, Loose Women), British soap royalty Ian Kelsey (Emmerdale, Casualty) and ‘the girl of a thousand voices’ and two-time Drama Desk Award Nominee Christina Bianco, as Little Voice.

Cartwright’s timeless and iconic tale explores the highs and the lows of small-town dreams, family rivalry and finding your voice in a noisy world.

With humour, heart and countless powerhouse ballads all performed live on stage, featuring music from Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Billie Holliday and many more, this life-affirming production will rouse even the weariest of souls.

RUSH: A Joyous Jamaican Journey

Join Liverpool Playhouse as they tell the story of Reggae music and the Windrush Generation and hear how their music took the world by storm.

Narrated by comedian John Simmit and featuring ska, rock steady, calypso, gospel, lovers rock, dancehall and Reggae played live by the JA Reggae Band.

Get ready to dance to the music of Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Lord Kitchener, Millie Small and many more.

One in, One out: Liverpool’s Smalles...

One in, One out: Liverpool’s Smallest Gay Bar is an exclusive club featuring all the camp, glitz, glamour and dodgy disco lighting you’ve been missing during the past few months, but this time it’s all for you.

There’s a welcome familiarity to be found in the bright lights and sticky floors of the gay bar; spaces which were often created as a rejection of queer isolation. But as the needs of the queer community change, and we grow more aware of intersecting identities – is the gay bar part of the future of queer space?

Created by artist Lucy Hayhoe, One in, One out is inspired by the continuing threat to LGBTQIA+ nightlife spaces and debates around access to these venues. One in, One out explores nostalgia for lost LGBTQIA+ scenes, the consumption of queer space as novelty and what it means to be queer and alone.

One in One out  is experienced one at a time, so put your glad-drags back on and get those dance moves ready, because the floor is all yours.

This interaction installation will be in the Everyman’s Street Cafe from 4 – 6 November, 1pm – 7.30pm and is free to visit.

Presented by Homotopia Festival 2021, the UK’s longest running LGBTQIA arts and cultural festival. Find out more at homotopia.net.

Beauty And The Beast

Beauty And The Beast is sure to wow this Christmastime with a tale of love and kindness.

Audiences will go on an exciting adventure during the family friendly pantomime. This is the timeless story of Belle, a beautiful young woman who falls in love with the most unexpected of princes, who has been cursed to look like a hideous beast.

Will the Beast learn to love and be loved? Will the spell be broken in time for all to live happily ever after?

Start times vary and there are additional matinee shows. See here for full details.

Soapbox

Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) are back on the Main stage at the Everyman with Soapbox.

The challenge – 6 weeks of devising, a 60-minute show, 60-seconds to say what you want on a Soapbox.

Full of passion, humour, heartache and hope Soapbox gives young people the chance to say what they want to say about where they are now.

Sleeping Beauty

A spellbinding tale of Sleeping Beauty. The beautiful Princess Aurora, Lucy Forrester, pricks her finger on a spindle wheel which has been cursed by the evil Carabosse at her 18th Birthday party.

Fairy Spell casts a magical spell which should break the curse. The Princess is to be awoken only by true loves true kiss. Will she find her true love and live happily ever after?  
 
Starring, TV/Theatre Star and Liverpool Live Radio’s Breakfast presenter AARON HAYES as the hilarious Dame Dolly. Local Theatre and Radio starr LESLEY BUTLER as CARABOSSE. Liverpool’s ‘up and coming’ BRIAN COMER as Fester the Court Jester. Plus a full supporting cast and ensemble from LIVERPOOL THEATRE SCHOOL and THE PERFORMERS THEATRE SCHOOL.
 
With Sparkling sets and Dazzling costumes. Plus songs that will make you want to sing and dance! There is even a visit from SANTA at the end of selected shows.

Start times vary and there are also additional matinee shows, see here for full timing details.

I’m not the sentimental type, Bu...

“I’m not the sentimental type, but… is an artistic exploration of the feeling of nostalgia. How does nostalgia affect us individually and what lies beneath the initial set of feelings?

This audiovisual album visually dismantles and reframes footage of the Wirral, whilst spoken word, field recordings and synthesizers create a thought-provoking interpretation of the area.

The work is a culmination of the practice-led research undertaken by audiovisual artist Mathew Lomas. I’m not the sentimental type, but… explores the themes of existentialism, time and technology through the lens of nostalgia.”

An audiovisual album captured through the gaze of nostalgia by Mathew Lomas, the film will be followed by a nostalgic DJ-set. Dress in your best retro garments.

All donation based tickets funds are reinvested back into their current and future creative programming. This will support them in creating more opportunities for both people in the creative industry and the wider community. All their “In Cahoots” core programming is free to attend and donations are optional.

Rossiter

For the first time Jim Blythe’s incredibly touching and thought-provoking play ROSSITER will be performed in Liverpool. Actor Toby Harris will bring the much loved and iconic comic actor back to life in his home city once again.

The event is held 4-6 November, 7.30pm, with a 3pm matinee show on the 5th. See here for tickets.

Leonard Rossiter born in Wavertree in 1926, was one of the leading comic actors of his generation. He was also a man of paradoxes – a committed husband who nevertheless had a long-standing affair, a working-class man who kept a fine wine cellar, an amateur actor who became a professional and a theatrical performer whose greatest fame came from his television work.

ROSSITER explores his life, his work and his motivations. Set backstage, we find Rossiter preparing for his nightly performance as Inspector Truscott in Joe Orton’s “Loot”. This was to be his final role – he died backstage, in his dressing room, of a heart condition associated with athletes. To die at the age of 57 may be seen as a tragedy: it was certainly a great loss to the theatre. To die backstage was, to an actor of Rossiter’s stature, only to be expected – he was far too prolific, far too hard-working, to have been seen dead anywhere else.

ROSSITER was first performed in 2019 in Cardiff and was due to play The Hope Street Theatre in 2020 but due to the countrywide lockdown and closure of live entertainment due to the pandemic, had to be postponed.

ROSSITER is written by Jim Blythe a former Merchant Navy radio officer, a ladies hairdresser, a business consultant, a rock musician, a truck driver, a company director, an academic and, playwright with over 11 plays to his name.  Directed by David Baxter former head of Arts Active – the education, community and audience engagement unit of the National Concert Hall of Wales and the New Theatre, Cardiff, with original music by Helen Woods.

ROSSITER can be booked through their website at www.hopestreettheatre.com or via telephone on 0344 561 0622

Statues Redressed

Over the summer, Sky Arts followed a collection of inspiring artists in a unique project as they creatively reimagined some of Liverpool’s most iconic statues, giving them a whole new look by dressing them up or creating art around them.

The documentary special, Statues Redressed, first aired on Sky Arts 18 October (available to watch On Demand until 17 November) and streaming service NOW in October, will see the artists challenge and celebrate the role of these statues in modern times, as part of the ongoing debate around who and what should be immortalised as public monuments.

Chosen because of its rich history, Liverpool has the highest number of statues in the UK outside of London, including cultural icons like The Beatles through to sporting heroes, royalty, and monuments depicting people linked to slavery and Britain’s colonial past.

Some of the artists’ interventions range from the celebratory to the confrontational, and all will be thought-provoking. As each statue is gradually revealed to the public, spectators will be prompted to look again, think again, and question how we feel about the public art that surrounds us.

The artists involved in the project include major artists and heavyweights in the public art scene, as well as rising stars, local artists and designers. The reimagined statues include:

  • Open Culture worked with costume designer Mary Lamb, storyteller Gav Cross and a group of young children celebrate the magic of the Peter Pan statue in Sefton Park, an exact replica of the original in Kensington Gardens, London. With the children dressed in fantastical outfits, and a new hat for Peter, Mary Lamb’s redressing of the statue explores the storytelling in the sculpture, and the fact that it was commissioned in 1928 as a gift for the children of Liverpool.
  • Artist Bob and Roberta Smith has boldly placed a ‘We will get through this with art’ banner underneath Jacob Epstein’s famous Liverpool Resurgent sculpture, reinforcing the statues original post-war message of hope and giving it new meaning following the impact of the pandemic
  • Designer Daniel Lismore gives the statue of Victorian statesman Benjamin Disraeli a whole new look with a Pride-themed Empress of India dress. The redressing is a commentary on Disraeli’s reputation as a flamboyant dresser and a dandy who wrote love letters to men, and on the fact that Victorian anti-homosexuality laws were imposed by Britain across the Empire. In many ex-colonial countries today, those laws still apply.
  • Taya Hughes has dressed statues of Christopher Columbus, Captain Cook and Henry The Navigator in elaborate Elizabethan-style ruffs made from fabrics associated with indigenous populations in Africa, New Zealand and Australia as a commentary on these explorers, who claimed to ‘discover’ these parts of the world.
  • Designer Stephen Jones will soon be giving The Beatles statue outside the Museum of Liverpool a new look creating four spectacular hats, each inspired by a different Beatles song to celebrate the iconic band.

Full details of all ‘redressings’ can be found at: www.statuesredressed.com

No Exit

Jean-Paul Sartre’s most famous play ‘No Exit’ performed in the Hope Street Theatre.

Three sinful strangers, condemned to Hell for all eternity, find themselves together in a locked room with nothing but each other and their own dark thoughts for company.

A brooding, philosophical piece about perspective, perception and how we treat one another – a slow burning suspense from the warped mind of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.