Ian Salmon Archives - North West End UK

Whatever Happened to Billy Kenny? – Liverpool Theatre Festival

23Jul

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

Whatever Happened to Billy Kenny? – Liverpool Theatre Festival

The 2023 Liverpool Theatre Festival once again sees writer, Ian Salmon and director, Mikee Dickinson united for another poignant and emotional piece about the complexities of life and regret. Whatever Happened to Billy Kenny? is a one-man show performed by Jay Johnson which rockets at breakneck speed through the short and dramatic career of an Evertonian footballer who was derailed by his heavy use of alcohol and cocaine. The play opens with voiceovers talking about Kenny and everything he has thrown away. The disembodied voices disintegrate into Johnson’s creation of a club scene where he does a remarkable job of creating the illusion of a crowded nightlife alone on an empty stage. The voiceovers then repeat with overlap and distortion, creating a real sense of anxiety and panic. Jo...

Venus Rising – Liverpool Theatre Festival

Pulsing with energy and sprinkled with laughs, Venus Rising takes you on a trolley ride of emotion through the life of an accidental erotic writer. Performed as a monologue, it has you perched with anticipation. Meet James Wilkinson. All he had ever wanted to do was write, but not like this. Having made a drunken bet with a friend, James finds success carving out his own greasy niche in the market. Life should be brilliant, shouldn't it? It is clear from the staging - a messy room with several wine bottles - that life is perhaps not as brilliant as you'd expect for a writer supposedly living the dream everyone else has. But that's the problem; he's not the one living the dream. He’s the most successful person you’ll ever meet, and you’d never know it. He hates his job, hates his l...

A Brief Conversation about the Inevitability of Love – Bombed Out Church

Ian Salmon’s A Brief Conversation about the Inevitability of Love, directed by Mikee Dickinson, is a sweet romance about the almosts and what might have beens that everyone has buried in their memories. Mark (Thomas Galashan) and Cathy (Samantha Alton) are discussing their past relationships. Mark’s ex-wife Suzanne hates all of his friends, and he hates hers, while Cathy’s relationship with Philip was plagued by his serial infidelity. Both Galashan and Alton are dressed casually, with a similar colour scheme, which brings them together as characters. Cool blue light warms up to medium pink giving the play an eerie, dreamlike quality. The piece is very funny throughout with tongue in cheek humour as the characters make fun of each other. Height is cleverly used as the actors move f...