The first annual Seamus Heaney Lecture will be held in Liverpool next month, including poetry read by Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar. The Northern Irish actor will take part in the free event on October 17 which is being organised by the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies. Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, will give the lecture – titled Airs and Graces - which will also be attended by Heaney’s widow Marie and childre

Golden Beatles’ anniversaries have arrived helter skelter over the past decade. But now we’re reaching the end – and yet another chance to take stock of the legacy of four local lads from down the road in South Liverpool. Two years after they came together for Sgt Pepper, the Bootleg Beatles and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic have reunited for an even more ambitious project, And in the End, which draws together not one but two albums, augmented with new orchestrations. Composer

Ardal O’Hanlon is bringing his live solo show to the Epstein Theatre next year as part of an extension to his current UK tour. Tickets for The Showing Off Must Go On, arriving at the Hanover Street venue on February 26, are on sale now. Where O’Hanlon comes from there is nothing worse than showing off. Yet he is a professional ‘show-off.’ Why does he do it? Well. Just when he thought he’d made sense of the world, when he thought he’d found wisdom, when he’d finally found a ha

It seems Little Miss Sunshine’s epic road trip has reached its final destination, with an end-of-tour week parked up in Liverpool. But there’s been enough left in the tank to entertain audiences at the Playhouse before the dysfunctional Hoover family finally goes its separate ways. Based on the off-beat, decidedly deadpan Oscar-winning 2006 comedy, this stage musical version is slight and sweet (rather like its pint-sized heroine) even if it doesn’t always capture the full ch

Liverpool’s annual River of Light event is taking on a different appearance this November. The Bonfire Night extravaganza, which draws thousands of people to the River Mersey waterfront, included the usual giant firework display by Titanium Fireworks – this year on Sunday, November 3. The 15-minute display was set off from two barges moored in the river, and to what is being described as “a dynamic soundtrack” featuring some of the year’s most popular artists and songs. But t

Jennifer Johnston will sing her Love Letter to Liverpool in two intimate concerts at the Philharmonic Hall this weekend. The in-demand city-born mezzo soprano, who performed in the opening concert of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this summer, will showcase favourite songs connected with Liverpool at the events in the Music Room on September 29-30. The concerts mark the start of Johnston's artist in residence season with the RLPO which will also see her perform with the f

Work has started on the site of the new £24million Shakespeare North Playhouse at Prescot. Ground works are being carried out while the bespoke wooden frame of the 350-seat 'theatre-in-the-round' is being created by skilled craftsmen at Berkshire-based McCurdy and Co, the company which also built the Globe, and will be transported to the site once work begins in earnest next spring. An update on the ambitious project was presented at a special event at Knowsley Hall, hosted b

It sent chills down the spine of Liverpool audiences when it was premiered at the Playhouse nine years ago. And now Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s acclaimed Ghost Stories is returning to the theatre where it all began. The creepy cult production will come to Williamson Square as part of a national tour, spending a week in the city from March 31 to April 4 next year. Tickets go on general sale on Monday, September 30 at 11am. Since Ghost Stories was first staged in the city in

FACT’s new autumn exhibition asks its visitors to imagine a future world without division. you feel me_ transforms the Wood Street venue's its galleries into alternative worlds, promising a ‘sanctuary of healing’. Curator-in-residence Helen Starr has brought together multisensory artworks including 360° virtual reality experiences and a neon-lit restaurant orbiting in space to create an immersive exhibition which encompasses virtual reality, AI, video and game design and cera

The third Liverpool Literary Festival takes place this October with the programme featuring a host of writers. Brooklyn author – and University of Liverpool Chancellor - Colm Tóibín (pictured above) will deliver the festival lecture on October 11, considering the subject Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats & James Joyce: Three Writers in Search of a Father, while the October 12 line-up includes Andrew Miller, Alan Hollinghurst, Molly Case and Jess Kidd. The weekend of events features discu