Interest area: culture

Jack and the Beanstalk follows the critically acclaimed, sold-out production of Sleeping Beauty at The Hope Street Theatre in 2021.

This year’s production will have a distinctive Liverpool sound with many of the production’s songs coming from bands/artists from the Liverpool/Merseyside region.

Producer Christopher Jones of Just Entertainment says “We wanted to follow on from last year with a production that promises to be bigger and better! I feel we have brought together a talented and ambitious creative team that will bring something magical to Hope Street Theatre’s intimate space. We are delighted to have a cast of amazing local talent on-board bringing the pantomime to life – ensuring this is a pantomime for all the family.”

Jack and the Beanstalk will be headlined by Liverpool Live’s Lesley Butler who will be playing the magical Mother Nature and Alice Carlile who is best known for her work with Britain’s Got Talent’s golden buzzer finalists, The Merseygirls as Jill.

Recent LIPA graduate and Liverpudlian Joe Owens will play the titular Jack Trott, while Director John Garfield-Roberts will also be taking on the larger-than-life role of Dame Trott. Phil Perez – the UK’s face of the family board game Pop-Up Pirate, will be getting in everyone’s face as the evil Fleshcreep.

Magician and ventriloquist Dean Raymond will be entertaining the crowd as the lovable Silly Simon. The principal cast is rounded off perfectly with radio legend Billy Butler lending his voice to the Giant Blunderbore. Local performers Sarah Collinge (Liverpool Theatre School) and Freya Barnes (The Hammond) return to the company as adult ensemble alongside a gigantic junior ensemble from Hope Street based Performers Theatre School.

A new work is heading to the Unity Theatre in Liverpool next week in which a non-binary artist describes ‘the finding, the fallout and the freedom of finding their voice’.

Beyond Binary is an autobiographical performance from the perspective of 48-year-old Jay Farley aka Little Doll.

The show links spoken word performance, movement, film, visuals and music; bringing to life the experience of not being valid in the world for four decades.

Jay is an award-winning non-binary, queer, neuro­diverse filmmaker and digital artist, working in and with diverse communities at First Take in Liverpool.

Their work began as an international creative activist, fusing art and protest, and in 2020 they discovered the language for being non-binary. Since then, they have been prolifically writing honest, radical, working-class poetry with great success.

Audiences at Beyond Binary next week can ‘expect the unexpected’ as Little Doll explores the changing landscape and language of gender and sexuality.

Jay said: “It’s scary crossing the divide from behind the camera to performing, but I somehow feel compelled to do it. To get this story across to help others in my position, to contribute in a positive and creative way and to help bring about greater understanding of a much misrepresented community.

I’ve been working with the amazing Eli Randle from Tmesis Theatre who is just a genius; she is Directing the show. I’m learning so much and can’t wait for people to see what we’ve come up with. I’m so grateful to be working with Lynne Harwood on the films; Eliyana Evans for the music and sound design; Day Mattar for editing the poems; Xenia Bayer for running tech – what a dream team!”

This show is part of the Up Next series at Unity; a weekend festival series showcasing exciting new work from Merseyside performers.

Beyond Binary takes place on Friday 16th September at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. Tickets from £6 are available now from the venue’s website.

Quiet Rebels shines a spotlight on the forgotten stories of white working-class women who crossed the colour line to marry men of the Windrush generation.

Defying race and class prejudice as well as social stigma, this quietly rebellious generation of women became part of the foundations of today’s multi-cultural communities.

The plot sees Detective Shade investigate the murder of Aileen Burnett – a white woman who married a Black man – in a dystopian England. Film, movement, and soundscapes with integrated creative access provide a powerful dramatisation of stories brought to life by Julie McNamara (The Knitting Circle) and Hassan Mahamdallie (The Crows Plucked Your Sinews) and a team of creative talent.

From Nana Funk, the great-great-grandmother of good times, comes a heartfelt musical journey of exploration, inspired by real life events and stories.

Tough Old Bird explores how women are viewed in society as they have the absolute gall to get older! Have you ever noticed those adverts promising to‘defy the effects of aging’? Ooh Nana hates them. What about when we get old? Where’s the instruction manual? Who deems what is ‘acceptablebehaviour’? What happens when your voice isn’t listened to, or you become slowly invisible?

Join Nana as she asks the big questions! Aging well doesn’t mean behaving yourself.

Tough Old Bird explores how women are viewed in society as they have the absolute gall to get older!

Have you ever noticed those adverts promising to ‘defy the effects of aging’? Ooh Nana hates them. What about when we get old? Where’s the instruction manual? Who deems what is ‘acceptable behaviour’? What happens when your voice isn’t listened to, or you become slowly invisible?

Join Nana as she asks the big questions! Aging well doesn’t mean behaving yourself.