June - 2021

Review: Woke at Liverpool Playhouse ****

It’s become a label delivered with often derisive dismissal. But here, Apphia Campbell reclaims the word ‘woke’ and revisits its original meaning as an awareness of social and racial justice. The one-woman play expertly winds together two seemingly separate stories of African American women and their experiences four decades apart to create one single potent testimony. In 2014 we meet Ambrosia, a middle-class, law abiding innocent abroad who is introduced to activism the hard

Liverpool museums reveal new autumn exhibitions and gallery reopening

An exhibition dedicated to Walter Sickert, a display of William De Morgan ceramics and the reopening of a major gallery space are among the autumn programme unveiled by National Museums Liverpool. Meanwhile the organisation’s award-winning House of Memories is going out on the road with a mobile immersive experience, and World Museum will host this year’s Vogue Ball run by House of Suarez. With restrictions still in place due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the autumn and winter

Tate Liverpool stages Lucy McKenzie retrospective this autumn

Tate Liverpool is to stage the first UK retrospective of the work of Brussels-based British artist Lucy McKenzie. This autumn’s show, which opens on October 20, will feature around 80 works from the past quarter of a century of the Glasgow-born artist’s practice. It will include large scale architectural paintings and tromp l’oeil works, as well as fashion and design. Tickets are £10/£9. McKenzie studied at Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, graduating in

Without Walls offers £100,000 Liverpool outdoor events boost

New outdoor festivals and events in Liverpool could receive up to £20,000 in grants through the city’s Without Walls Fund. Organisations can bid for the grants to help them put on events which encourage people to come back into the city, as well as showcase new talent. The first phase of Liverpool Without Walls, launched in June 2020, saw £450,000 invested in the hospitality sector to enable trade to continue outside. That was followed last July when £200,000 was distributed

Dream Team reunited for Vasily Petrenko's final RLPO concerts

Pianist Simon Trpceski will be reunited with Vasily Petrenko for the Liverpool conductor’s final concerts at the Philharmonic Hall. The pair, who together have been dubbed ‘the Dream Team’, will appear in concert over three nights next month. Petrenko was due to conduct two farewell evenings at Hope Street, but demand for tickets has seen a third date added. He will now be on stage on July 8, 9 and 10. Macedonian virtuoso Trpceski will play Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2

Wirral Food and Drink Festival postponed again

The Wirral Food, Drink and Music Festival has been postponed for a second year running because of continued uncertainty over the Coronavirus pandemic. The event was due to go ahead in Birkenhead Park last September, headlined by OMD, The Coral and Echo & The Bunnymen. It was rearranged for this September but now organisers Wirral Council have announced that the popular attraction has been put off for a further 12 months – with the three famous Merseyside bands still slated to

Joe Lycett brings new UK tour to Liverpool auditorium

Joe Lycett brings his major new UK tour to Liverpool next spring for two live shows. The comedian and Great British Sewing Bee presenter will be at the Auditorium at the M&S Bank Arena on May 28-29. Tickets for Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett? go on presale for priority booking on Thursday, June 17 at 10am. They cost £32.50. The 32-year-old artist formerly known as Hugo Boss is set to do what he does best: talk at a room of people in a queer

Victoria Gallery & Museum reopens to the Liverpool public

The Victoria Gallery & Museum has been reopened to the general public. The University of Liverpool venue on Brownlow Hill had been open for members of staff and students since the latest lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on May 17. Now it has made its collections available to other visitors. People will need to pre-book a free timed visitor slot on the VG&M website. They will be able to see three new exhibitions of artworks drawn from the gallery’s own extensive collection,

HandleBards presents Macbeth at Calderstones garden theatre

Shakespeare’s Macbeth comes to the Art Deco Garden Theatre at Calderstones Mansion this summer courtesy of cycling theatre trio The HandleBards. The one hour 40-minute production promises to be a whistle stop tour of kings, queens, witches and noblemen. Forget tears and tragedy – this will be a “frantic, delirious, full-of-beans” telling of ‘the Scottish Play’. The HandleBards transport their set, costumes and props – and themselves – from venue to venue by pedal power, makin

Williamson Art Gallery and Museum to reopen to visitors

Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead will finally reopen its doors to visitors next week. The Slatey Road arts venue has been closed during the Covid pandemic. Earlier this year it looked like it might be under threat of being permanently mothballed as Wirral Council looked to balance its 2021/22 budgets by finding millions of pounds of savings. An online petition calling for the 92-year-old venue to be reprieved attracted thousands of signatures, and it was saved