NUMBER 9.................. Reviewing The Arts UK-wide: July 2018

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

Star-studded Comedy Gala come to Liverpool's Epstein as part of Comedy Festival

Some of the best names in live stand-up take to the stage at The Epstein Theatre this September when the hilarious Our RITA’s Comedy Festival Gala comes to the venue on Sunday 16 September.

Forming part of this year’s Liverpool Comedy Festival, the show promises a fantastic evening of entertainment, with an amazing star-studded line-up which includes a headline performance from Xtra Factor presenter Matt Richardson.

Broadcaster and all round funny man Matt Richardson presented the 2013 series of The Xtra Factor with Caroline Flack and has also appeared as a guest on Celebrity Juice and Comedy Central’s Drunk History. In 2016 he became the drive time presenter on DAB radio station Virgin Radio UK.

The full line-up also includes sets from support acts Stephen Bailey; Robert White; Mrs Barbara Nice; and Lindsey Santoro.

Guilty pleasure Stephen Bailey is one of the UK’s most sought-after comedy acts thanks to his friendly and open brand of gossipy humour. He brings his sassy style to The Epstein fresh from his recent five-star, critically acclaimed headline tour Can’t Think Straight.

Since first joining the comedy stand-up scene Robert White has gone from strength to strength – a finalist in the prestigious Hackney Empire competition in 2016, winning the Malcom Hardee Award at Edinburgh Fringe, and most recently entertaining the nation on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talentfinishing as 2018’s runner-up!

Meet housewife extraordinaire, comedy character Barbara Nice. She has given up domestic bliss of Tupperware and Poundstretcher shops for the comedy circuit! Comedian Janice Connolly has taken her character Barbara Nice across the UK including solo shows at Edinburgh Fringe, and recorded 4 episodes for a BBC Radio 2 Comedy Showcase series in 2017.

A regular on the comedy circuit since 2014, BBC New Comedy Award semi-finalist Lindsey Santoro and her madcap comedy stylings completes the line-up.

Keeping the audience on their toes, the host for the evening will be MC Lou Conran who has previously supported Sarah Millican on her recent tour.

Jack Ryan, Managing Director of Our RITA’s said: We are delighted to be back at The Epstein Theatre this September with our latest dose of stand-up comedy gold, as part of Liverpool Comedy Festival. We have got an incredible night planned for Liverpool audiences in what is possibly our strongest line-up to date!”

Be sure to get down to Our RITA’s at The Epstein Theatre for a night guaranteed to make audiences roll in the aisles!

The line-up may be subject to change.

LISTING INFORMATION

Our RITA’s Comedy Festival Gala

Date: Sunday 16 September

Time: 8pm

Tickets: £17.50

Venue Details

The Epstein Theatre

Hanover House

85 Hanover Street

Liverpool

L1 3DZ

To book tickets please call 0844 888 4411* or go online at www.epsteinliverpool.co.uk * or in person at The Epstein Theatre Box Office from 12pm - 6pm Monday - Saturday.

*Subject to booking fee. All prices include a £1 per ticket venue restoration levy

The Lowry Announces The Return Of Its Hugely Popular Open Day!

The Lowry announces the return of its Open Day following the huge success of the event in 2017. Once again the venue will open its doors from 10am until 6pm on Saturday 11 August for a day of free activities that enable visitors of all ages to explore the venue in a completely new way.

In 2017 The Lowry saw more than 7,000 people attend their Open Day. Throughout the day visitors were able to attend a range of workshops, drop-in activities, back-stage tours and performances. With feedback from the event extremely positive. One customer said, "The Open Day is very well organised, varied, interesting, enthusiastic, friendly and even though we loved The Lowry before, we love it even more now! The behind the scenes tour was fantastic!"

Due to overwhelming demand last year, visitors will be pleased to see the return of backstage tours and workshops in lighting and sound.

This year there will also be the opportunity to get involved in a variety of performance related workshops hosted by renowned companies Matthew Bourne's New Adventures and Rambert, with further companies with further companies to be announced. Other workshops available on the day will include drop in drawing sessions, cupcake decoration, creating your own comic book and acting improvisation classes. Pier Eight restaurant & bar will also host a DJ playing music through the decades.

The range of activities will also spill out of the building and onto the plaza as visitors will be able to watch live open air performances from elite street circus performers D & F Bros. Grand Indian Circus, play large outdoor games, join in dance activities and enjoy a colourful street piano.

All activities and events are free. Visitors can book places online for some of the workshops in advance. There will also be a limited number of places available for each ticketed event on the day, these will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

A timetable of events will be released and online booking opens onMonday 6 August on The Lowry’s website.

Britannia Hospital - HOME, Manchester.

Lindsay Anderson’s 1982 black comedy, Britannia Hospital, completed a trilogy of films featuring the character of Mick Travis (played by Malcolm McDowell and first seen in the 1968 film, if… and then again in O Lucky Man! in 1973). After satirising public school life in the first film and capitalist society in the second film, Anderson and screenwriter David Sherwin turned their attention to the NHS and class war for their third collaboration.

Sadly, Britannia Hospital is undoubtedly the weakest of the three films. While there are some interesting ideas, some clever comedic lines, and strong performances from Leonard Rossiter (fully channelling his more famous alter-ego Reggie Perrin) as the hospital administrator Mr Potter, Graham Crowden as the ego-driven genius Professor Millar (reprising his role from O Lucky Man!) and, in a final, glorious scene filmed shortly before his passing, Arthur Lowe (of Dad’s Army fame) who plays a hospital patient who gets so worked up delivering a patriotic speech that he dies, the film lacks the formal daring of if… and the sharp, satirical allegory of its follow-up.

The plot of the film centres on Britannia Hospital’s preparations for a royal visit to mark its 500^th birthday. The visit comes under threat due to a combination of striking workers, angered that Britannia Hospital has a ‘private wing’ where those with wealth can recuperate in isolation and eat kippers and devilled kidneys for breakfast, and protestors who are demonstrating against a corrupt president of an unnamed African nation, President Ngami, who is resident in the private wing. The film’s sub-plot features Mick Travis (very much a supporting player in this film after being centre-stage for the previous two; McDowell delivers a decent performance with what material he has), now a ‘citizen of the world,’ who has replaced the gun with a video camera as his revolutionary weapon of choice, exploring the hi-tech Millar Centre which is on the hospital grounds. Professor Millar, whom the centre is named for, is obsessed with harvesting organs and speaks of his intent to reveal his latest project, ‘Genesis’, to the world during the royal visit and Mick finds himself as an unwitting helper in Millar’s work.

Britannia Hospital straddles several tones and genres during its near two-hour run-time: it juggles a ‘state of the nation’ commentary, where there is civil unrest and bomb attacks, the comedic elements surrounding the royal visit (Lady Felicity Ramsden is played by a male actor who often talks with such an upper-class accent as to be incomprehensible) and striking workers (with union leader Ben Keating being easily swayed to restore order to the hospital kitchens with the promise of a MBE), an attempt at commentary on the media through the work of Travis and his accomplices Sammy and Red and the BBC film crew who follow Professor Millar around for most of the film, and an excursion into science-fiction and body horror with the Millar/Genesis subplot. Whereas such tonal shifts had been present in Anderson’s earlier films in the trilogy, here it felt as though perhaps he and Sherwin were trying too hard, biting off more than they could chew. The scenes with Millar which, one assumes, parodied the films of David Cronenberg, pushed grotesque imagery to grand-guignol proportions: in one scene, a brain is bisected and half liquified in a food processor to make a ‘nutritious’ drink, and near the end Mick Travis becomes the crowning touch to a Frankenstein’s monster which Millar has created and goes berserk, his rampaging body being ripped apart and spraying all the surgical staff in blood. The violence and gore of these scenes certainly fit uneasily alongside the comedic elements elsewhere in the film.

The strongest moments of the film, however, come near its climax. When the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist protestors learn that the Queen Mother has been smuggled into the hospital, they break through the hospital’s gates and are met with a line of riot police. In scenes which recalled the anarchic revolution at the climax of if…, a worker offers a police officer a flower who responds by punching the worker in the face and triggering a full-scale riot. As workers and protestors are beaten by police (in scenes which eerily foreshadowed clashes between striking miners and police during the 1984-85 strikes), a band plays the national anthem while the royal guests and hospital administrative staff arrive at the Millar centre. The film’s final scene, with a chilling speech by Millar (expertly delivered by Crowden) and sounds even more prophetic now than it did in 1982, where he unveils Genesis (a giant brain supported by robotic machine), which proceeds to recite the “What piece of work is a man…” speech from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a stark moment and a sobering ending. A brave ending, no less, not just to this film but the trilogy of films. Britannia Hospital may be the weakest of the ‘Mick Travis’ trilogy but that final scene is astonishing and more relevant now than ever.

Reviewer - Andrew Marsden
on - 30/7/18

Come 'Ere You Daft Cow - The King's Arms Theatre, Salford.

Presented as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, this is a two-hander by Paige Gadsby and directed by Rachelle Moose for NorthSouth Creatives.

Upon entering the auditorium loud 'girl-power' popular music was playing, and the stage was set to look like a teenage or student girls' bedroom. Clothes strewn over the floor, make-up, mirror, dressing gown, food remnants, and of course a large cuddly toy. Enter Molly (Casey Morgan). She is upset, boyfriend trouble no doubt. She weighs herself, cries; she looks at herself in the mirror, cries. she binges out on chocolate, cries. There is both humour and pathos, and indeed this first scene started the show excellently and I had high hopes for the rest of the play.

Sadly, the nature of the play; which amounted to little more than teenage gossip between two best friends, in very short scenes, didn't actually go anywhere or say anything. It was just that. One problem that became evident was that because they were simply chatting to each other as girls do [about love, sex, the vagina, dildos, weight loss, etc etc ] the volume dipped and I found myself missing the ends of sentences. The scene changes, of which there were many, were overlong and mostly unnecessary. Most of what was said in each scene could have been covered in just the one long scene.

What started as a comedy [albeit with serious issues] soon descended into a tragedy. The penultimate scene saw the two of them standing at the graveside of someone very dear Alex (Paige Gadsby), Molly's best friend. We never did find out who had died (or if we did, then it was in a part of the dialogue which went unheard), and yet it must have been someone very close to Alex as the final scene had her staying in bed for a week not contacting or communicating with the outside world.

The play as it was presented, was very disjointed, full of mixed messages and very unclear exactly what the writer wanted to say to the audience. There were too may ideas left undeveloped and too many issues which were given a starting voice and then glossed over or ignored.

Unfortunately what started out as an interesting and humorous look at love, dating and sex from the female perspective went nowhere at all until the last two scenes which came as a bolt out of the blue, totally unrelated to what had happened previously and in a completely different mood.

I would hope that this play is in the early stages of development and would most certainly suggest that the writer decides exactly which issues they want to tackle (certainly not all of them!) and in which genre.

....and why were both actresses always barefoot!?

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 30/7/18

Who Runs The World? (Girls): A 'Scripts Aloud' Night - The King's Arms, Salford

On arriving at The King's Arms to cover this show, I realised two things, both of which came as a surprise. First, the title of the show had been abandoned, and in its place the company had decided on their usual and regular title of 'Scripts Aloud' [Manchester ADP having a regular monthly slot at this venue for short script-in-hand performances of new writing]; and second, it was not, as their poster suggested, an hilarious evening of drag, but instead an evening devoted to the talent and creativity of women, using only women writers, directors and actresses in this evening's show.

I am therefore also very uncertain as to why this standard ADP format was part of the G M Fringe Festival. But part of it it was, and so I went ahead to review.

As already hinted at, the Manchester ADP are a company which specialise in championing new writing. Every last Monday of each month, they meet at The King's Arms and perform new scripts, most of which are very much in the developmental stages and may not even yet be a completed script. The writers are present, and it is an evening all about them. At the end of the evening the audience are invited to write suggestions anonymously if they wish in the form of feedback, or if they are more bold, then a Q + A session with writers, directors and cast on stage unfolds, and this is a great opportunity for the writer to see how their script is perceived by others and what areas they might be able to either improve or develop. This evening was exactly that, but with one major difference... it was, as in fact their original title actually suggests, an evening of women only.

Three 15 - 20 minute scripts were presented and the performers were still using the script. Of course this is what it is all about, since the reality is the director typically gets only 3 hours rehearsal with the cast before the performance. They are very rough and ready, but it is the words we are focusing on, not the quality of directing or acting. They are simply there to aid our understanding of the spoken word.

This evening's scripts were 'Tea And Oranges' by Patricia Cunningham, which was about a group of friends gathering to pay their respects to Leonard Cohen. Following this was 'Mr. Men' by Anna Girolani; which was a contemporary and off-side look at the classic 'I Know My Place' sketch of The Frost Report (1966) which saw John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett perform one of the finest sketches of all time. Girolani herself admitted that these roles could be played by either male or female, but of course this evening it was all female, and worked excellently. The third and final piece was 'Pink' by Micha Colombo, which pitched a verbal battle between old-style feminism and modern liberalist feminism.

A large and appreciative audience crammed in a very hot and sticky space, but it was, as usual, a highly enjoyable and hugely profitable event, and long may they continue.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 30/7/18

Monday, 30 July 2018

Hancock And Co: One Man, Many Voices - The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

James Hurn is on his first visit to The Epstein theatre with his One Man, Many Voices show, celebrating over 60 years of Hancock’s Half Hour theatre having had a sell-out tour in 2016/17.

James is an actor and impressionist and now script writer performing a brand-new programme including one classic episode of 1950s ‘light entertainment’ radio programme Hancock’s Half Hour and two episodes he has written himself in the same style as the show’s original writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

James is the voice of the whole cast. He recreates not just the accents but the personalities of Tony Hancock, Sidney James, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams.

The stage has an old-fashioned radio microphone stand, a coat stand and a high wooden chair holding a black Bakerlite telephone. We go to blackout and the lights go up on a young Tony Hancock, bringing a spontaneous round of applause from the middle-aged audience. He cuts a lonely figure. Hurn personifies the character of Tony Hancock bringing such a lifelike performance that it is obvious his research goes far beyond interest in doing an impression. He mesmerises in the role with only his characters for company as he launches into the first of three half hour radio shows.

Billed as ‘bringing to life the classic days of radio comedy’, he switches seamlessly line by line from one character to the next with enough facial expression to recognise each iconic star of the day as they rapidly appear. The repartee and wit bounce from cockney Sid James to southerner Hancock then to Bill Kerr who grew up in Australia with interjections by a gloriously high-pitched Hattie Jacques. His Kenneth Williams was superb, complete with trademark sneer and schoolboy innuendo.

Recorded sound effects are perfectly cued. Hurn captures the Hancock style in all three pieces so unless you were a ‘Half Hour’ buff you wouldn’t know which of the three is the original and I’m not going to spoil the surprise. His concentration is absolute, as is his timing. The comedy is by nature of the material dated. More of a huh huh than a laugh out loud although there were some highly comic moments. That is Hurn’s skill. He manages in one of the pieces to bring the comedy up to date while simultaneously maintaining the rhythm and style of the genre. Clever stuff.

Hurn is a rare talent and no one can fault his attention to detail. He has a reservoir of episodes made clear by the fact that the three shows performed, inserted on a sheet into the programme, were different to the ones billed. There lies the problem. There is a reason the shows were thirty minutes and three in a row is a lot for an audience to take without change of pace or setting. Die-hards will disagree I’m sure but it’s a niche audience. The iconic actors were of a particular and much more comically restricted if not altogether innocent era. You can see where this style of writing gave rise to the popularity of innuendo. All are dead, and unless brought up on ‘Carry on’ movies this will struggle to reach a younger public. Having said that it’s worth going just to experience the brilliance of Hurn as he skilfully plays with the audience, never dropping his persona of Hancock in his heyday.

It would have been good to see the real Hurn at the end, just to acknowledge he was playing a role but he’s too far gone for that. Like the enthusiastic audience I just want to applaud him. Go to see something different and live before he is snapped up by television.

Reviewer - Barbara Sherlock

on - 29/7/18

Liverpool's Capstone Theatre announces Autumn Season

Liverpool Hope University’s Capstone Theatre is delighted to announce the launch of its Autumn 2018 Season, which runs from October to December 2018, and promises an eclectic programme rich with artistic delights.

Opening the season with performance art and storytelling, Mary Pearson’s FoMO, MoFo’s reflects on the consequences of continuous self-exposure on the psyche on Wednesday 10^thOctober. Then on Saturday 13^th October, Adverse Camber presents the funny, surreal, moving and true The Remarkable Tale of Robert Desnos, a storytelling show based on the life of poet Robert Desnos, who spent his final years in a World War II concentration camp.

Continuing to champion contemporary music, jazz, Indian classical music and contemporary dance and performance art at an international level, the season boasts two festivals as the venue plays host to Milapfest's Indika Festival (17^th October – 3^rd November) and MDI’s LEAP Dance Festival (2^nd – 11^th November).

Indika is regarded as one of Europe’s finest festivals of Indian arts, bringing together brilliant, innovative artists who create entirely new concepts of collaboration in Music and Dance. Milapfest will also be presenting a free admission Music for the Mind and Soul concert for sarod and tabla at 1pm on Saturday 24^th November.

LEAP Festival celebrates MDI’s 25^th year with a programme dedicated to the theme of Suffrage as a tribute to the Suffragist movement. A whole host of female inspired dance pieces will perform at The Capstone between the 2^nd and 11^th November as part of the festival programme. Following LEAP, on Tuesday 13^th November one of Europe’s most in-demand dance companies, James Wilton Dance, presents its acrobatic tour-de-force The Storm.

Contemporary music features strongly throughout the season. On Sunday 14^th October, Sound Affairs presents Radio Amore, a live musical mixtape fusing Baroque and contemporary works by Italian and British composers from Vivaldi through to Michael Nyman. Then the ninth edition of the Sonic Interactions concert series on Tuesday 30^th October presents a showcase of music and sound, featuring compositions and performances created with technology and digital media with works by Liverpool Hope University composers Stephen Davismoon and Manuella Blackburn. Steve Boyland & Merseyside Improviser's Orchestra present For Some Time, Nothing on Thursday 1^st November, a fusion of poetry and free improvisation.

Serbian pianist Branka Parlic presents two concerts of American minimalist music for solo piano on Monday 19^th and Tuesday 20^th November with a concert of The Piano Music of Philip Glass on Tuesday 20^th November. British contemporary pianist and composer John Tilbury presents two concerts on Monday 3^rd and Tuesday 4^th December the first of which is a solo piano recital of Morton Feldman’s late epic piano work For Bunita Marcus. Tilbury’s second concert on Tuesday 4^th December is a performance of his own composition Lessness, a piece based on a Beckett text and performed with Merseyside Improviser’s Orchestra.

Commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the end of World War I are two concerts. The first, by Liverpool Mozart Orchestra on Saturday 17^th November is a programme entitled We Will Remember Them, featuring music of the day including Ravel’s Le Tombeau De Couperin, Butterworth’s The Banks of the Green Willow and Vaughan William’s The Lark Ascending. Then later in the season on Wednesday 5^th December Lithuanian pianist Lauryna Sableviciute presents a concert of Piano Music by Cecil Coles and other World War I Composers.

Throughout the season there are three concerts of contemporary Jazz. Supporting their new album, We are All, with a UK tour, multinational trio Phronesis bring their unique jazz grooves to the Capstone on Wednesday 31^st October. This is followed on Wednesday 14^th November with a concert by DJM Trio led by Cinematic Orchestra keyboardist Dominic J Marshall, whose music reinvents hip hop and R’n’B standards for jazz piano trio. Finally, an intimate solo piano concert by Courtney Pine collaborator Zoe Rahman on Friday 7^th Decembercompletes Autumn’s musical offerings.

The spirit of Christmas is embraced with a family concert on Saturday 1^st December by Capstone regulars Allerton Brass and then Chapterhouse Theatre Company’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from Tuesday 11^th - Thursday 13^th December bringing the Autumn season to a close.

“This Autumn’s programme continues the Capstone’s longstanding championing of contemporary classical music and jazz within a multi-arts programme that embraces family concerts and shows, storytelling and contemporary dance. The theatre is especially delighted to be hosting MDI’s very impressive LEAP Dance Festival this year.” - Neil Campbell, Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus Venue Manager

For full season listings check out the new season brochure:

http://www.thecapstonetheatre.com/media/liverpoolhope/contentassets/images/capstonetheatre/media,83273,en.pdf

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

FoMO, mofos! (Fear of Missing Out, mother***ers!)

Wednesday 10th October, 7.30pm

Admission: £10 (£8 concessions)

Box Office: https://www.ticketquarter.co.uk/Online/fomo-mofos

Adverse Camber presents

The Remarkable Tale of Robert Desnos

Saturday 13th October, 7.30pm

£10 (£8 concessions)

Ticket link: https://www.ticketquarter.co.uk/Online/the-remarkable-tale-of-robert-desnos

Sound Affairs presents

Radio Amore

Sunday 14th October, 7.30pm

Admission: £15

Ticket link: https://www.ticketquarter.co.uk/Online/radio-amore

Milapfest Indika Festival

Wednesday 24^th – Monday 29^th October and Saturday 3^rd November

Link: www.milapfest.com/indika

Sonic Interactions

Tuesday 30^th October, 7.30pm

Free Admission

Link: http://www.thecapstonetheatre.com/whatson/sonic-interactions.html

Phronesis

Wednesday 31st October, 7.30pm

Admission: £11.50

Ticket link: https://www.ticketquarter.co.uk/Online/phronesis-2018

Steve Boyland & Merseyside Improviser's Orchestra:

For Some Time, Nothing

Thursday 1st November, 7.30pm

Admission: £11.50 (£6.50 concessions)

Ticket link: https://www.ticketquarter.co.uk/Online/for-some-time-nothing

Liz Aggiss: Slap and Tickle

Friday 2 November, 8pm

Admission: £11.50 (£9.50 concessions)