The Reader has curated an online world of the written word to help communities connect during the Coronavirus lockdown. The Liverpool charity, which usually brings thousands of people together at Shared Reading groups in the community, is instead delivering a host of reading activities both online and on the phone while the pandemic continues. The Reader at Home includes a public programme of recommended reads, video readings, online events and telephone and web-based Shared

LightNight Liverpool might not be drawing crowds on to the city’s streets this week – but it is offering a digital evening of cultural treats. The theme for this year’s free late-night arts festival was due to be Home, and now it will be celebrating the city’s culture at homes across Liverpool and beyond. From 5pm on Friday, May 15 the hashtag #LightNightatHome on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram will be a place to share and view work by Liverpool’s creatives that would have f

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse is giving members of the public a chance to get involved in an online ‘A-Z of Hope’. People are being invited to submit stories or memories to the theatres’ Love, Liverpool project, described as a ‘digital journey’ through the city region. Submissions will be incorporated into a weekly series of letters to Liverpool which will use audio, video and the written word to take readers to a different geographical location each time – and will be fil

Liverpool will mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day this week by turning red, white and blue. The city’s original plans to celebrate the landmark – including street parties, parades and church services – have had to be curtailed because of Coronavirus pandemic. Instead, on Friday key buildings in the city centre including the Three Graces, Town Hall, St George’s Hall and Liverpool Cathedral will be illuminated in the colours of the Union Jack. Exchange Flags, Liverpool ONE, th

Vasily Petrenko will mark his final season with the RLPO with a ‘signature series’ of his greatest hits with the orchestra. The RLPO’s new season – its 180th – will also feature a host of world premiere performances as well as major works by 'composers in focus' Mahler, Strauss, Stravinsky, Piazzola and Zemlinsky, many of them marking particular landmark anniversaries. And the programme, revealed today, will encompass performances from three new Artists in Residence; pianist

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse has announced the rescheduling of a number of shows which were due to take place this spring and summer until the Coronavirus pandemic. Dial M for Murder, starring Tom Chambers and Samantha Womack, will now be staged at the Playhouse from January 26-30 2021. Children’s show Zog has moved dates and will be performed from October 15-17 this year. And two one-night shows – Adam Buxton and Al Murray – have moved to October 10 and November 30 respe

West End smash hit musical Dreamgirls is on its way to Liverpool next year. The show, which has been described as ‘dazzling’, ‘lavish’ and ‘exhilarating’, will visit the Liverpool Empire for a fortnight from February 23. Dreamgirls tells the story of three talented young singers – Effie, Lorrell and Deena – making their way against the revolutionary musical backdrop of 1960s America. Join the three friends as they embark upon a musical rollercoaster ride through a world of fa

Linda Robson is set to star in panto at St Helens this Christmas. The Birds of a Feather actress and Loose Women regular will play the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the town’s Theatre Royal. The Regal Entertainments panto is scheduled to run from December 5 to January 3, 2021. And in an ‘Early Birds of a Feather’ offer on adult tickets bought before the end of May, the theatre will also be offering a whole performance complementary to NHS workers. For every adult ticket bo

Liverpool’s annual WoWFest is taking place online this month in a special lockdown literary festival. Irvine Welsh, Noam Chomsky, Lyn Gardner, Brian Reade, A L Kennedy and Levi Tafari are some of the big names signed up to take part in WowFest: Lockdown! from May 7-31. Trainspotting author Welsh will give a free keynote speech on Facebook at 6pm on Thursday, May 7, titled Creativity in a Time of Chaos. The event will be hosted by Peter Hooton. Costa award winner A L Kennedy w