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Mischa Barton on her femme fatale role at the Liverpool Playhouse
The OC’s Mischa Barton is making her UK stage debut in a new production of Hollywood thriller Double Indemnity which comes to Liverpool this month – and it seems she’s looking forward to her first visit to the banks of the Mersey. “I’ve always heard such incredible things about Liverpool - the music history, the warmth of the people and the energy of the city,” says the British-American actor who has carved a busy and successful career on the small and big screen. “So, I’m re
Review: Waiting for Godot at the Liverpool Everyman *****
It may be a play where, as the tagline goes, “nothing happens…then nothing happens again”, but Samuel Beckett’s tragicomic masterpiece on the human condition is rich in incident and Shakespearean in scope. And it also fair twangs with vividness and life in this tremendous new co-production between Liverpool, Glasgow Citizen and Bolton Octagon, which features a pair of peerless performances from Everyman alumni Matthew Kelly and George Costigan. Jean Chan’s frayed set (even th
Leap Dance Festival returns to Liverpool for 2026
Liverpool’s Leap Dance Festival returns to city venues next month with a programme of performances, workshops and free public events. The festival, which was revived and relaunched by Chaos Arts CIC in 2024 after a five year break, this year runs from April 24 to May 9 and encompasses National Day of Dance on April 29. It aims to showcase local and regional talent and nurture and support the next generation of dancers as well as bring top dance companies and artists to the ci
Review: Come Together at Liverpool's Royal Court ****1/2
The Beatles juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down, seven decades after it first set off on the road to stardom and immortality. Since Come Together – Tom Connor and Mark Newnham’s homage to Lennon and McCartney - was last staged at the Royal Court two years ago, Ian Leslie’s fab, and unexpectedly moving, book John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs has been published (if you haven’t read it, you really should). Meanwhile, in the last few weeks, Sam Mendes has started filming
Up Next Festival returns to the Unity Theatre this month
The Up Next Festival is set to return to the Unity Theatre this month for a fifth year. The 2026 festival takes place from March 25-28 and will feature 20 new and diverse performances – many of them work-in-progress, readings, workshops and a guided walk, created by Merseyside artists. The Hope Place theatre started the festival in 2021 as a response the Covid pandemic and the seismic effect it had on live performance, providing a vital platform for new work with the aim of s
Review: Two at Shakespeare North Playhouse ***1/2
There’s a satisfying sense of symmetry about this Shakespeare North Playhouse revival of Jim Cartwright’s perennially popular Two. There’s the physical symmetry of the octagonal bar designer Kay Buckley has placed in the middle of the Cockpit Theatre’s octagonal stage, around which the action swirls to a background hubbub of pub noise. And then there’s the casting, which brings the two-hander full circle. The playwright was originally commissioned to write Two for John McArdl
Review: The Constant Wife at the Liverpool Playhouse ****1/2
What would you do if you discovered your other half was cheating on you? Pack a bag and leave? Throw them out and change the locks – having first taken scissors to their wardrobe? Or go down the Beyoncé route and channel you pain into an acclaimed best-selling album? Constance Middleton (Kara Tointon), the heroine of Laura Wade’s larky, sparky, stylish adaptation of W Somerset Maugham’s 1920s ‘comedy of manners’, opts for a more measured but no less decisive and devastating r
Review: War of the Worlds at the Liverpool Playhouse ***
HG Wells’ pioneering, prescient sci-fi classic has been presented in a myriad of ways over the 128 years since it was first published – from films and TV series (the Beeb’s 2019 version was partially shot in and around Liverpool) to Orson Welles’ famous 1938 radio bulletin version which put the frighteners into listeners in New Jersey to Jeff Wayne’s musical spectacular with its giant hologram face and tripod fighting machine. Wayne’s huge, immersive arena show underlines one
Review: Dear England at the Liverpool Empire ****1/2
When Bill Shankly told a journalist that football wasn’t just a matter of life and death but was “much more important than that” he was articulating his total dedication to the game. But he could just as easily have been giving voice to the feeling of generations of diehard England fans who have celebrated (and mythologised) the team’s highs and loudly mourned their many lows. Pressure and expectation weighs heavy on the shoulders of every successive England squad, both men a
Liverpool Empire set to be rocked by talented young performers
Talented young performers from the Liverpool Empire Youth Theatre are set to rock audiences at the Lime Street venue next month. They will perform the Queen-inspired musical We Will Rock You on the Empire stage over the Easter weekend of April 3-4. The smash hit dystopian musical from the pen of Ben Elton has played to more than 15 million people in nearly 20 countries worldwide since it was premiered 24 years ago. Set 300 years in the future on the Orwellian iPlanet, it foll
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