December 2015

November 28-January 23

Rapunzel: Hairway to Heaven

Everyman Liverpool
https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/

4*

See one panto, and you’ve seen them all…oh no, you haven’t!

Read the rest of this entry »

December 7 – January 16

The Haunting of Hill House

Liverpool Playhouse

https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/

4*

‘Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills holding darkness within’…

And how many years ago is it now since I read this book? Quite something to put on a play based on a writer whom Stephen King himself holds in

Read the rest of this entry »

The Princess and the Pea

December 4-January 9

Unity Theatre,Liverpool

www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

4*

And now for something completely different, and that’s what’s so refreshing about the Unity’s panto, as well as being a good part of its charm.

Admittedly, this play does borrow from others, for example, the mirror in Snow White, but the same could be said of all such productions. The Unity is also unique in that there is always a serious message, the point being made without preaching or patronising: when a young girl is shipwrecked and finally reaches the Land of Meane, nobody will help her. She struggles on, more or less on her own, and it takes some doing before there is any kind of happy ending. Read the rest of this entry »