Liverpool Acoustic Spotlight #35 - November 2010 The Jon Gomm special

This month's Liverpool Acoustic Live takes place on Friday 26th November at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street and features three very different, but extremely talented, performers at the top of their game.

We're really excited that Jon Gomm will be headlining in his first Liverpool gig for over four years. Jon is one of the finest percussive guitarists in the UK today, and we're delighted that he's agreed to travel over from Leeds to play for us. Those of you lucky enough to get a ticket are in for a real treat!

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Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool

There are several good reasons to want to see Anthony and Cleopatra at the Liverpool Playhouse this month. The one the press like is Kim Cattrall of ‘Sex and the City’ fame as Cleopatra. While I’ve never watched the television show I am aware of the shoes associated with it and have more recently been impressed by Cattrall constantly reminding people that she’s from Liverpool,  and yes I am both that shallow and that parochial. However the real draws for me are director Janet Suzman and actor Jefferey Kissoon as Anthony. Jefferey Kissoon was last (as far as I know) in Liverpool in Talawa Theatre’s The Gods Are Not to Blame at the Everyman. I was working there at the time and his performance was arresting to say the least; he was a powerful yet elegant actor who was a pleasure to watch each of the several times I saw the show. And he was a handsome man; all of us box office girls (and one of us was a boy) appreciated that; just to pass his dressing room added a frisson to our day. Perhaps more importantly (but only perhaps!), he has worked with Peter Brook, Robert Lepage, and Complicité, so don’t take my word for his prowess. Putting him together with Cattrall directed by the great Janet Suzman was surely going to produce special theatre.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Anthology when I approached the Everyman last night.

What I did know was that there were several different plays by several different authors being simultaneously performed offsite. I wasn’t sure how that would work, but was pretty keen on seeing how it turned out – plus, I really wanted to see Jeff Young’s piece. It turned out there are seven pieces in all, and choice is by random selection, either by throwing a seven-sided die (‘die’ is singular for ‘dice’, my Dad told me) or by selecting one of seven objects, among them a party popper, a feather, a letter and so on. My choice was a milk bottle with a flier in the top. This turned out to be play number 2, and I was given headphones and a receiver on a lanyard tuned to the appropriate station. All very exciting. However this was not Jeff’s piece, and I was not allowed to swap as it was already oversubscribed. I imagine not all audients are going to be open to this, at least some presumably choosing to come to the theatre because they like a particular playwright, actor or theme; and it certainly added an element of potential chaos that made me glad I was no longer a Front of House Manager. I think on the whole though that this potluck is a good thing; it adds to the sense of adventure, plus I saw a show by a writer I wasn’t aware of and probably wouldn’t have selected given a free choice, and that has to be good.

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore is a dark tale of lust and revenge, centring on sexual love between a brother and a sister. While this may sound like an average episode of Hollyoaks, actually it’s got more in common with one of those dark gothic movies from the 1940s starring Bette Davies, the ones you snuggle up on the couch to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon and get lost in. Or I do anyway. The last time ’Tis Pity was on at Liverpool’s Everyman it was directed by John Doyle and known locally as ‘Tis Pity She’s a Horse’, so I was amused this time to see my ticket printed with ‘Tis Pity She’s a Who’, suggesting an element of time travel and shape shifting that writer John Ford could surely not have anticipated.

This month's Liverpool Acoustic Live takes place on Friday 28th May at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street and features four acoustic acts, three from Liverpool and one from Derbyshire.

1. James M Carson - Nothing Is Lost
2. Rachael Dunn - Alpha Ghost
3. David Gibb - This Young Boy
4. The Southbound Attic Band - Good Luck On The Road bonus track
5. Lizzie Nunnery - Company of Ghosts

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This month's Liverpool Acoustic Live event takes place on Friday 28th May 2010 at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street. The doors open at 8.00pm with the music starting at 8.30pm and finishing at 11.15pm.

This month we've got three fantastic local performers, and one talented musician from Derbyshire.

Tuesday 23rd September 2008
liverpoolacoustic.co.uk/diary

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Monday 22nd September 2008
liverpoolacoustic.co.uk/diary

Download the show for free
(right-click to download)

Or listen online