Unity Theatre Archives - North West End UK

The Story Forge: Make Your Own Myth – Unity Theatre

5Apr

By Stephanie WiswallNo Comments

North West

The Story Forge: Make Your Own Myth – Unity Theatre

Creative, fun and delightfully unique. If you are looking for a family fun show to suit all ages and really get yourself immersed into a show then look no further, the Rubbish Shakespeare Company has you covered with their hilarious and eccentric performance 'The Story Forge; Make your own Myth. As the title suggests, you the audience are involved in the creativity of what you see in front of you. Every person in the theatre was engaged, laughing and left with a smile. Two very talented actors with fantastic improvisation skills, comedy and physical theatre will immerse you, and especially those children in the audience in an engrossingly lively story using information, props and input from the audience. The show could go in any direction and trust me it does, this certainly isn't a sho...

4Apr

By Kevin EcclestonNo Comments

North West

Imaginary Friends – Unity Theatre

As part of his current 2025 tour, award-winning writer and director Daniel Bye’s "Imaginary Friends" opened at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool on April 3rd. The show seamlessly transitions from a lively and engaging comedic introduction to a deep connection with the audience. Bye expertly constructs a nuanced framework that resists easy classification into a single genre. Embracing his identity as a TV comedian, the show starts in a traditional yet captivating manner, featuring a solitary figure, a microphone, and sharp observational humour that immediately draws the audience in. Bye begins with a trigger warning that the performance includes themes of grief and loss, toxic masculinity, the end of the world, profanity, and Piers Morgan. Throughout the show, he introduces imaginary friend...

9Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Work in Progress – Unity Theatre

Following a successful scratch night performance, Ladderman Collective literally take their work in progress to its next developmental level as part of the Up Next Festival at Unity Theatre. Coming in at about an hour, director Mason Guthrie navigates us through five acts that follow the trials and tribulations of problematic MP Phillip Braxton (Aidan Rivers) and his personal assistant, Alison (Natasha Jobst) as he looks to resurrect his political career following an earlier embarrassing altercation on a television programme. There were consequences too for the television host, Robert Jones (Tom Browning), who can now only work on a regional radio programme. With an impending general election, the opportunity to get his revenge on his political nemesis looms large and he begins plott...

2Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Dead Mom Play – Unity Theatre

The funny thing about grief is that it’s no laughing matter, yet conversely laughter is generally considered the best medicine. That’s the conundrum for this semi-autobiographical production from writer, director, and producer Ben Blais which it doesn’t entirely overcome. A young man, Charlie (Griffyn Bellah) faces his critically ill mother (Hannah Harquart) and Death (Joe Bellis), a scythe-wielding Scouser in a hood, as he struggles to accept the harsh reality of the grieving process whilst stuck in a play of his own creation. This is the second play I have seen on grief in as many weeks and whilst I wasn’t reviewing the first, both pieces suffer from the need for some independent creative check which is absent because, in this instance, the writer has opted to direct and produc...

22Feb

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Liverpool Improvisation Festival 2025

North West End UK are delighted to be attending, and writing about this year’s Liverpool Improvisation Festival, with shows to be held at The Unity Theatre, and improv workshops which will be held at the Joe H Makin Drama centre - LJMU. If you have never seen an ‘improv’ show or (if we can use the older word) ‘extemporisation’ show, then you are missing a treat. For those of you who are old enough, you may remember the show ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ hosted by Clive Anderson, which was many people’s introduction to improv, but if you are a young thing, go to YouTube for a taster session, it’s a classic! Every show at this festival is a world premiere, no storyline is the same, and as an audience member, you are the co-creators, so your genius suggestions are the inspir...

22Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Star of Wonder – Unity Theatre

This collaborative production from Theatre Porto and Teatro Pomodoro, originally performed at Theatre Porto in 2022, follows its own star as it travels from Ellesmere Port to arrive in Liverpool’s Unity Theatre where, under the direction of Nina Hajiyianni, it delights and enthrals in equal measure. In this modern take on the nativity tale, five friends (Carmen Arquelladas; Jordan Connerty, Miwa Nagai; Nikki Hill; Simone Tani) and a teddy bear set out to follow a star using a unique form of transport. Despite becoming separated, their journey continues including having to overcome the challenges of mirages, sandstorms, and quicksand, as well occasional attacks from a pair of shepherds and their flock of sheep. With the group eventually reunited, the question is whether they will finally...

17Oct

By Anna Ní DhúillNo Comments

North West

Am I Irish Yet? – Unity Theatre

Kate Kerrigan’s autobiographical one-woman show at Unity in Liverpool has the audience rapt as she shares anecdotes about her life in the media, working at a hair salon in London, and her deep connection to her Irish roots. Playing as part of the Liverpool Irish Festival, Am I Irish Yet? kicked off ten days of celebration as the city hosts theatre, commemorations, and talks celebrating Irish heritage. Photo: Alison Loredo My first takeaway of Am I Irish Yet? is that Kate Kerrigan is an amazing woman. Born in London in the sixties, to Irish parents from Ballina, Co. Mayo, Kate is an exceptional role model for any woman who might have been told they aren’t qualified enough. Over the course of ninety minutes, we get snippets of Kate’s life and the important characters that shaped her, a...

5Oct

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

North West

The Lodger – Unity Theatre

From the creator of ADHD: The Musical comes a semi-hallucinogenic exploration of belonging. After an unsettling welcome paired with deadpan humour, the nameless lodger takes the dust sheets from the objects strewn around the stage and orchestrates the story. I was lost for the few minutes during the lodger’s own initial perspective, but the story soon developed into a compelling journey through place and possession. Dora Colquhoun plays 5 characters and gifts each one their own physicality. Most impressive was her representation of the unspeaking female deer, which was an impressive feat of physical storytelling. Furthermore, the play-world that is conveyed through The Lodger is theatrically inventive and unique. Through the recurring props and reappearing characters - all fighting to s...

17Sep

By Clare ChandlerNo Comments

North West

8 Hours There and Back – Unity Theatre

It’s always fascinating to revisit a show further along in its journey. Two years after its work-in-progress sharing at the Unity, 8 Hours There and Back returns to kick off a UK tour, playing to a packed house. The production features new faces—Cal Connor, Olivia Lamb, and Rio Star as children navigating a world they don’t belong in, within a system that has forgotten them—along with some new creatives. Choreographer Adele Inglis infuses the movement with a Hip Hop-inspired vibe, but at its core, the show remains a moving and, at times, harrowing portrayal of the realities of life for children with a parent in prison. This is unmistakably an All Things Considered Theatre production, bearing the distinct creative fingerprints of Sarah Hogarth and Emma Bramley. Deft comic moments prevent...

31Jul

By Anna Ní DhúillNo Comments

North West

In The Sick of It – Unity Theatre

‘In the Sick of It’, at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool, was an evening of highly enjoyable verbatim theatre and top-notch storytelling. Devised and acted by Adam McGuigan and Antonia Kemi Coker of Wake the Beast Theatre Company, Liverpool was treated to an intimate preview before the company head to Edinburgh for a hefty Fringe run. ‘In the Sick of It’ is a compilation of stories from NHS and healthcare workers who worked tirelessly through COVID and continue to work post-pandemic. Wake the Beast have been working on this show for four years, with the intention of bringing it to care homes and hospitals as an offering of catharsis for those working in healthcare. While I imagine it was a huge success in those specific sites, I’m so glad the company have decided to share this brilliant w...