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Liverpool theatre shows this February
With New Year now in the rear-view mirror, Easter on the far horizon and nights definitely getting just that little bit lighter, it’s the ideal time to squeeze in a trip to the theatre – or three. Liverpool venues have live performance covered in the shortest month of the year with a range of productions from big and bold musicals to intimate storytelling, and from comedy to hard-hitting drama. February kicks off with a return to the Empire stage for Tudor smash hit SIX the M
The Reader reveals spring season of events at Calderstones
The Reader is celebrating National Year of Reading 2026 with a series of events at its Calderstones Mansion base this spring. The spring programme takes place between March 1 and May 31 and includes literary events, wellbeing workshops, an Easter book hunt, Holi festival and Mothering Sunday celebrations, a four-week Deep Read and Mini-Movies alongside regular Reader events and classes. Holi at the Storybarn on Saturday, March 7, is a collaboration with MILAP (Indian Arts and
Review: The Ghost of Graves End at the Unity Theatre ****1/2
Two months after his one-woman tragi-comedy Stella roared on to the Unity stage, busy Liverpool playwright Robert Farquhar is back with another whirlwind of a show. And if you are a fan of Farquhar, and particularly his work with - the now sadly defunct – Big Wow, a sucker for a chilling theatrical experience or a lover of off-the-wall comedy, you won’t want to miss it. Ostensibly an affectionate homage to, and send-up of, ghost stories like Susan Hill’s ever popular The Wom
Review: KITTEL at the Unity Theatre ****
Everyone is aware of the phrase – all it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing. Good and evil is, in theory at least, binary and stark. Black and white. Right and wrong. But reality, that place where good intentions and moral certainties come up against human frailty – greed, ambition, cowardice, self-interest, indifference - is much more grey and muddy than that. Catherine Harrison’s quietly powerful and thought-provoking new play, brought to the Unity Theat
Review: Tabakova Accordion Concerto at the Liverpool Philharmonic ****1/2
While this Thursday night concert on a chill January evening was officially billed as 'Rachmaninov Symphony No.3', it was really all about the accordion with the UK premiere of a new concerto from the ebullient Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova. And who better to perform it than Ksenija Sidorova, whose artistry with what is essentially a portable organ (albeit a backbreakingly heavy one at 20kg/three-and-a-half stone in old money) is unparalleled. If you’ve ever tr
Follow the Dream at Shakespeare North this February
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is at Shakespeare North Playhouse this week, direct from the Globe in London. Shakespeare’s much-loved sprite-ly comedy is being staged at the Prescot venue’s Cockpit Theatre until tomorrow at the start of a national tour. The show, which explores the darker side of the Bard's seemingly mischievous tale, is a co-production between Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong (with Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse). To escape a society ruled by tyrannical law,
Five shows to see at the Floral Pavilion in 2026
Theatre audiences and fans of live performance are in for a treat all over Merseyside during 2026 – including at the Floral Pavilion. The New Brighton venue has lined up a programme of music, comedy, cabaret, children’s shows and drama for audiences to enjoy, including a return for acclaimed new Country musical Under the Mersey Moon and the unmissable Something About George which pays homage to the late, great George Harrison. Meanwhile there are plenty of other touring treat
Review: Mary Poppins at the Liverpool Empire *****
Author PL Travers actively disliked Disney’s Oscar-winning screen version of Mary Poppins with its dancing penguins, (in her view) overly sugary heroine and twee sentimentality and, perhaps more incomprehensibly, the Sherman Brothers’ soundtrack of songs. Apparently, she took a lot of persuading before agreeing to let Cameron Mackintosh create a stage version and only then with a whole raft of provisos – although she didn’t live to see the subsequent show premiere in the West
LOOK Climate Lab aims to open eyes at Liverpool gallery
Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery has being turned into a lab this month where ideas around the topic of climate change can be explored and tested. LOOK Climate Lab 2026 runs at the Mann Island venue until to March 29, bringing together artists, activists and researchers and offering audiences the opportunity to engage with their work. The biennial LOOK programme explores how photography can be ‘a relevant and powerful medium’ in the conversation about climate. Projects being high
Review: Inspector Morse at the Liverpool Playhouse ***1/2
Inspector Morse was a TV staple in the 1980s and 90s, regularly pulling in audiences of up to 18 million and spawning not one but two successful spin off series – the latter, Endeavour, starring Liverpool’s own Shaun Evans. Morse's star John Thaw was just 45 when the first series was screened, albeit he wore middle age in worn-in fashion, which suited Colin Dexter's curmudgeonly character. Tom Chambers, who takes on detective duties in this first stage outing, is currently 48
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