January - 2023

Archive

Two of Us stars on returning to Lennon and McCartney roles

It’s 10 years now since Mark Newnham and Tom Connor first met in the Royal Court rehearsal room. They were there for Bob Eaton's play-with-music Lennon, in which Newnham played a young John Lennon to John Power’s older Beatle while Connor delivered an uncanny turn as Paul McCartney. “I remember doing Twist and Shout round and round in different keys. They just slowly increased its pitch - they were like ‘and his voice can keep going, keep going, keep going’ ah, that’s about a

Art of printmaking on show in new West Kirby exhibition

The art of contemporary printmaking is set to be explored in an exhibition being staged at a gallery in Wirral. PrintWorks will be on show at The LAKE Gallery in West Kirby from February 9 to March 25, featuring a range of print methods including linocut, etching, collagraph and monotype in works from eight artists. The six-week run also includes an artists’ talk with print demonstrations on Saturday, February 25. Places are free but should be booked in advance. The Grange Ro

dot-art gallery takes a trip to the sea for latest exhibition

The Sea is the title – and subject – of a new exhibition opening at Liverpool’s dot-art gallery next month. Four dot-art members, Amanda Oliphant, Simon Cooper, Samantha Danford-Jones and Chris Routledge, will show works inspired by high tides and rolling waves in the show which opens on February 3. Amanda Oliphant captures the ever-changing weather, light and atmosphere of the coastline on the Wirral peninsula and further afield, while Simon Cooper’s painting feature stormy

Review: Unsolicited at Royal Court Studio ***1/2

It was 10.30pm and there was a woman at the stop seeing her friend safely on to the bus I had just stepped off after returning from the Royal Court Studio. We both separately turned for home – her determinedly chatting away on her phone, and me with my keys clamped between my fingers, warily negotiating our way safely to our own front doors in what every woman knows as a well-rehearsed routine. In Unsolicited, the latest creative and thought-provoking production from All Thin

Africa Oyé 2023 festival dates revealed

This year’s Africa Oyé will take place on the weekend of June 17-18 organisers have revealed. The annual festival – the UK’s largest free celebration of African music and culture – will be staged at Sefton Park, and along with fantastic live music there will also be DJs, workshops, food stalls and a range of traders in the Oyé Village. New for 2023 is a ‘toddler zone’. Since it began in 1992 as a series of shows in the city centre, the festival has evolved into one of Liverpo

Review: Domingo Hindoyan and Víkingur Ólafsson at Philharmonic Hall ****1/2

It was supposed to be the return to the Liverpool stage of Daniel Barenboim after a 50-year absence, in a performance conducted by the maestro he mentored. Barenboim’s announcement last autumn that he was suffering from a neurological condition and would be reining back on his engagements cast uncertainty over the Philharmonic date, although it was hoped with Domingo Hindoyan at the helm, he would do his best to make it. Sadly for the sell-out audience, it wasn’t to be. Still

Frank Cottrell Boyce and Steve Coogan at Shakespeare North Playhouse evening

Steve Coogan will interview author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce in an intimate ‘evening with’ at Shakespeare North Playhouse next month. The Saturday, February 4 conversation in the venue's Cockpit Theatre marks the 21th anniversary of the cult classic cinema release 24 Hour Party People, written by Cottrell Boyce and starring Coogan as the late Tony Wilson, founder of Manchester’s famous Factory Records. Audience members can expect an evening of warmth, laughter and

Review: Girl from the North Country at Liverpool Empire ****1/2

Playwright Conor McPherson has spent his career placing disparate characters in isolated or bleak settings (bedsits, seaside suburbs, a rural Irish pub – and most recently in his adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, rural Russia), distilling and concentrating their hopes, fears, dreams and particularly their disappointments. In Girl From the North Country, his masterly collaboration with troubadour Bob Dylan, we’re picked up and set down (Wizard of Oz tornado like) in Depress

Open Eye Gallery hosts thought-provoking new show

Open Eye Gallery is hosting a thought-provoking solo show by award-winning photographer Craig Easton ahead of it going on a regional tour. Is Anybody Listening?, which runs at the gallery from January 12 to February 26, features two projects – Bank Top and Thatcher’s Children. The exhibition, presented by the University of Salford, aims to challenge typical stereotypes of northern communities and to raise the aspirations of young people within the region through an accompanyi

RLPO joins Eurovision fun with Douze Points!

Eurovision fever is set to take over every corner of Liverpool this May, including the Philharmonic Hall where the RLPO presents Douze Points! - its own tribute to the song contest’s greatest hits. Richard Balcombe will conduct the Friday, May 12 concert, with the orchestra joined by vocalists from Capital Voices and presenter Owain Wyn Evans. Expect a night of power ballads and folk tunes to heavy metal and irresistible Europop, from Waterloo to Boom Bang a Bang and Rise Lik