Interest area: culture

Shiraz Bayjoo: Ile de France

Shiraz Bayjoo’s film Ile de France explores the diverse landscape and history of Shiraz Bayjoo’s home country, Mauritius. The artist uses moving image to examine the impact of colonialism which remains visible across the island today.

You’ll see the country’s rugged coastline, French graffiti found in early settlements, sugar plantations overgrown with plants and vines and thick forests.

Shiraz Bayjoo is a contemporary multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, photography and video. Often using material stored in personal and public archives, Bayjoo explores cultural memory and postcolonial nationhood by tracing the history of people and places.

Bluecoat Archive Drop In Day

A unique opportunity to dig deeper into the history of the Bluecoat!

They’re interested to hear your own Bluecoat stories and how you’d like to make use of the archive, including online through their Library.

Explore the history of Liverpool’s oldest city centre building and the UK’s first arts centre, through a selection of photos, slides, posters, programmes, architectural plans, and more.

Sat 15 Feb & Sat 14 Mar, 11am-4.30pm
Free, drop in

Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light

Inspired by writer Allison Davies’s own diagnosis of autism, this heartfelt story is a celebration of the joy that comes when we live as we truly are. This show has been designed with the access needs of neurodiverse audiences in mind, with the choice to experience the sound using headphones.

Elsa’s story is an immersive journey of self-discovery. She doesn’t know why she’s never quite fit in. Perhaps it’s just the way she’s made? She’s quirky, kind, clever and funny, but school was always a nightmare, and romance was a mystery, until now… When Elsa meets Carmen the real journey begins: to find out who she is, and why there’s an octopus living inside her head.

Event

An unmissable performance that allows us better understand the experiences of so many, so often un-portrayed.

Buckled

Written and directed by Helen Jeffery, who is originally from the Wirral, this piece dives deep into the drinking culture of contemporary Britain as it asks the question: How do you navigate sobriety in a world that revolves around drink?

Buckled is based on Helen’s personal experience of navigating sobriety. The piece revolves around three central characters who are all connected but have different relationships with alcohol; Maggie who is six months sober, her son Callum, and his mate Ruby.

Ruby doesn’t think she has a problem. Maggie’s almost six months into recovery. Then there’s Callum… Family, friendship and booze. Drinking to remember. And drinking to forget.

“A tight, well-written and well-executed examination of a wider, recognisable societal problem… Mature, intelligent work with plenty to say and a big heart. – Vicky Anderson, Made Up Liverpool

The Flood

On Boxing Day 2015, the small Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge experienced the worst floods in century. But, as the town submerged a community emerged, working together to rebuild their sodden town.

Honest and touching with a dash of Northern humour, The Flood is a love letter to a town that refused to give in to the volatility of nature. Performed by a team of multi-rolling actor musicians, representing the diverse, yet passionate, members of Hebden Bridge’s community, interweaving dozens of personal stories taken from every corner of the town.

AKA Theatre Company promote, engage, and support new original story with music created by the next generation of fresh graduate artist, musicians, and creatives and to provide safe place for artistic ideas and creative works.

Dinosaur Adventure Live

Are you ready for a BRAND NEW ADVENTURE with DINOSAUR ADVENTURE LIVE?! When a satellite tasked with controlling the island’s weather systems malfunctions, chaos erupts.

The island’s tropical climate spirals leading to one big JURASSIC STORM. If not stopped, it will erase all existence of the island… forever!

The mission: find the code hidden deep within the island, reboot the satellite and save the Dinosaurs before it’s too late.

The adventure of a lifetime awaits… bring the family on a T-REX-IFFIC journey with our BRAND NEW dinosaurs, meet their ROAR-SOME babies and help the rangers save the Island. Are you brave enough to face the Jurassic Storm!

A Natural History of Ghosts

Author and podcaster Isaac Hart, the host of the popular ‘Ghost in the Museum’ podcast, discusses the history of ghosts and hauntings from the Bronze Age to the present day.

Exploring the origins of ghosts in human culture, the fears and folklore behind centuries of ghost sightings, and how belief in the restless undead continues even into the digital age.

Attention All Shipping: A Celebration ...

‘Dogger, Fisher, German Bight’: Charlie Connelly brings the shipping forecast vividly to life in his hilarious and moving celebration of an iconic cultural institution. Charlie explores the broadcast’s remarkable history, unlocks its beguiling mysteries and tells rip-roaring stories of his own adventures among the sea areas, ensuring the forecast will never sound the same again.

As the shipping forecast embarks on its second century following its 2024 centenary, bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Charlie Connelly’s hilarious and informative show brings the quirky broadcast vividly to life, celebrating what he believes to be the greatest invention of the modern age.

How did a weather forecast for ships capture the hearts of a nation, from salty old sea dog to insomniac landlubber? How is it possible for ‘rain later’ to be ‘good’? And where the hell is North Utsire?

Delving into the history of the forecast and the extraordinary people who made it, Charlie explains what those curious phrases really mean, celebrates its wide cultural impact, shares riproaring adventures from his own extraordinary journey through the 31 sea areas – the times he was accused by the media of trying to annex Rockall from the British government and sang sea shanties with Tom Hardy in a Manx hotel bar while Scary Spice pulled the pints – and presents his case for the shipping forecast being our finest achievement.

Inspired by Charlie’s bestselling book, which has sold more than a quarter-of-a-million copies worldwide, this pacy, moving and hilarious show takes you all the way from Viking to South-East Iceland to ensure the shipping forecast will never sound the same again.

“Charlie Connelly is one of the funniest people I have ever had the pleasure of sitting in a studio with…He has a natural wit that doesn’t get crushed by an over-zealous ego with a lovely personality attached to it.” Fi Glover, broadcaster

“Charlie is always warm, funny and engaging…I actually sent him a fan letter – and I’ve never done that to anyone in my life before.”  Bernard Sumner, New Order

“I can thoroughly recommend an evening spent in the company of the very funny and very lovely Charlie Connelly whose knowledge of what I call ‘the ships’ is excellent. Sou’westers optional.” Corrie Corfield, BBC Radio 4

 

Another Country: A Journey through St ...

A year after its launch at St Helens Lucem Cinema the film Another Country: A Journey through St Helens past is being launched on-line. and for free, courtesy of the St Helens Arts Service. The film was written and produced by Roger Hill.

What’s it about? Well, here’s what it says about itself-

Another Country tells the story of a not-so-quiet revolution. It is a documentary account of a particularly memorable period of music and culture in St Helens, a township among the many which sprang up across Northern England in the Industrial Revolution. In the 1980’s and 1990’s an exciting, unexpected and uniquely wonderful scene developed in the town, apparently from nowhere, and here it is in all its wayward spontaneity, as told by the surviving “actors” in that scene, with material from the period, and brought into the present with an optimistic glance into the future. Can culture make history? And then make it again? “Another Country” says Yes.”

You can access the film by going to https://vimeo.com/892908308. The film was made to provoke new activities and to open up the debate about local culture and is still available for public showings. 

Also, look out for copies of a new magazine appearing in your library, bookshop or arts centre. It’s called Glass Eye and is being produced to feature the arts and culture scene in St Helens with a special emphasis on heritage.

Hippolytus

Head along and join them for a captivating performance of Hippolytus at the Capstone Theatre! This in-person event will immerse you in the ancient Greek tragedy like never before.

Witness the tale of love, betrayal, and revenge unfold on stage in a way that will leave you speechless. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to experience Hippolytus live!