Thursday, December 18

North West

Box of Frogs – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre
30Apr By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
North West

Box of Frogs – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

This show is a fast-paced style of improvisation, for those of us who are old enough to remember ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’, you will get the idea of how this works.  No Clive Anderson, but they do short-form gymnastics in the same way as the ‘Whose Line…’ crew. They begin by asking for suggestions from the audience, and poor Robert Wilson whoever you are, you were the choice of child that someone didn’t like at school, and they played a game of ‘Story, Story, Die!’, where three of the company must keep a story going or die, a bit like it’s a knockout improv.  This is a good game to warm up the audience, as it shows off the skills of the improvisers and the speed of their reflexes.  To show off their improvised music, the ensemble pulled together a song about scabies c...
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Death of a Salesman – The Lowry
30Apr By Harry AltyNo Comments
North West

Death of a Salesman – The Lowry

Despite Arthur Miller’s classic play Death of a Salesman first debuting on stage over 75 years ago, this Trafalgar Theatre and Raw Material production at The Lowry helps to demonstrate how the themes of the piece still resonate with a modern audience. This slick interpretation boasts a stellar cast, combined with effective staging, light production and set design resulted in audiences being transported to 1940s Brooklyn.   Our story focussed on the Loman family, led by patriarch Willie who is expertly portrayed by David Hayman as the titular salesman. David Hayman expertly traverses this complex role and when combined with Andy Arnold’s meticulous direction and staging, creates a seamless demonstration of a deteriorating man. The piece presents Willie as a character of duality, wit...
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Annie – George Lawton Hall
30Apr By Kathryn GortonNo Comments
North West

Annie – George Lawton Hall

As someone who fell in love with Annie as a child—watching it at the cinema, singing along and knowing every line, every lyric, and every character, intimately—this reviewer came to Mossley AODS’s production with both deep affection and high expectations. A lifelong fan of the original movie version, I’m well aware that the stage musical differs in places—some of the iconic songs are swapped out, the pacing is different—but at its core, Annie remains a story rooted in resilience. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s Great Depression, Annie’s journey from a grim orphanage to the luxurious world of billionaire Oliver Warbucks is a stirring metaphor for hope amidst hardship. The character of Annie stands as a beacon of optimism in a world clouded by economic despair which is sounding like a ...
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Little Gem – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse
30Apr By Lou SteggalsNo Comments
North West

Little Gem – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Given it is the size of a generous living room, the Garrick Studio has proved the perfect venue for Elaine Murphy’s wickedly funny portrayal of three generations of Dublin women navigating the chaos and camaraderie of everyday life. Little Gem, tonight under the steadfast direction of Meg Brassington, is a play that thrives through its raw emotional proximity and conversational style. Through a series of alternating monologues between the three women we are given a whistlestop tour of love, loss and resilience. With a well-planned static set and judicious use of props, the focus is solely on the three actors and the life that they breathe into Murphy’s rich (and raucous) language. And in our actresses tonight we have three uniformly strong performances. Chloe Arrowsmith, as teenag...
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Taxi Tales – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre
30Apr By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
North West

Taxi Tales – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

Wing It Impro and their ensemble team improvise ‘Taxi Tales’, conceived and directed by Mark Smith, inspired by Raymond Carver’s short stories, and Robert Altman’s movie ‘Short Cuts’.  We have all been in the back of a taxi on a night out and discussed all manner of things, or even forgotten where we are staying, and the driver drives around until you can remember (that is one of my memories from back in the day!).  The team at Wing It Impro have this improvised show off to a fine art, as they examine the premise that anyone can climb into your cab, at any point of their life with their own tale to tell – ‘One Night On The Town’. Photo: Andrew AB Simple staging of chairs with the improvisers facing towards the back of the stage waiting for their turn to either drive the cab...
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From Dawn To Dusk – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre
30Apr By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
North West

From Dawn To Dusk – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

As we waited for the show to begin, the haunting strumming of a guitar playing ‘The Sound of Silence’ sets the mood for this American mid-West show.  ImprompTwo, or Kathy and Joe Rinaldi have a passion for narrative improv, which brings another dimension to the festival.  Set at a time when Word War II is over, brother and sister Bobbie (Kathy Rinaldi) and Jack (Joe Rinaldi) are trying to keep the family farm running.  Jack sits outside a daybreak, it is his favourite time as the sun starts to rise, and he dreams of a day when everything will come together. Photo: Andrew AB This brother and sister team manage the farm together, but they are under the threat of the Government taking their farm from them, and after their father fought two World Wars, and Jack fought in W...
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Neil Curran’s ‘Café Amour’ – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre
29Apr By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
North West

Neil Curran’s ‘Café Amour’ – Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

Do you date?  Do you use dating websites?  A look into online dating on the modern world of love and romance.  Neil Curran has set the show in a French café so that it doesn’t sound so seedy, searching the audience for someone who is not an improviser to make it feel more authentic.  Well done Lucy for volunteering, you are about to be grilled about your dating life.  Lucy who is half Manc and half Liverpudlian, has been with James for twelve years, and they met on a dating website, although James prefers to say that they met through friends.  The thing that stood out for Lucy on his profile was that he found it funny when old people fall over - ok Lucy, we won’t judge you!  Asked about what her opinion on the secret to longevity in a relationship, her...
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Jungle of Emotions: Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre
29Apr By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
North West

Jungle of Emotions: Liverpool Improvisation Festival – Unity Theatre

Day three of the festival opens with a child friendly episode presented by Peng! Impro, where this improv company aims to help young people to be able to express emotions through laughter.  There are opportunities for interaction, so the children feel as though they are collaborating in the telling of the story. In the jungle, this German improv company attempt to re-create the sounds and feel of the jungle by asking the audience for ideas of an animal, and something that the animal can do in its spare time.  The suggestions were a monkey, and the monkey’s interest was to philosophize!   Mary Gerald (the monkey now has a name), is starting a new life a university in a few weeks’ time, but she doesn’t know what to study, her short list consists of philosophy, and engi...
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R.A.W.D / Loo Prov – Unity Theatre
26Apr By Kevin EcclestonNo Comments
North West

R.A.W.D / Loo Prov – Unity Theatre

As a part of the Liverpool Imrov Festival this double bill was opened by RAWD, a company of performers of different ages, genders, backgrounds and abilities. They soon had the audience in raptures of delight with some instant and visual sketches. The show starts with the performers asking for suggestions about a possible title for the show and jobs and places as inspiration for the sketches. Suggestions such as a Police Station, the surface of the moon, a dog walker (which brought spontaneous laughter) and bizarrely an ink squeezer in a squid factory. Interpretations were energetic and spontaneous, and much appreciated by this smallish audience in an intimate small theatre. Lasting for about 30 minutes the show consisted of a number of energetic and highly entertaining sketc...
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The Dice House – St Hilda’s Church Hall
26Apr By Lou SteggalsNo Comments
North West

The Dice House – St Hilda’s Church Hall

What with cast members in their undies, an unorthodox mix of gore-y horror and Carry-On slapstick, and random acts of murder, the good Lord may have wished to avert his heavenly eyes from the on-stage shenanigans arising in the innocent church hall of St Hilda’s. The Dice House, by Paul Lucas, is a very black comedy in which under the conceit of research, psychiatrist Dr Ratner, pursues ‘Dice Therapy’ – where every decision, from the clothes you eat to the people you choose to be intimate with, is based on the roll of the dice. When a rival psychiatrist, Dr Drabble, attempts to infiltrate the centre to rescue (or kidnap, depending on your point of view) his wife, with the aid of the slightly witless Matthew, all hell quickly breaks loose. What is an intriguing premise, inviting a...
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