Blue (Multiplay Drama)

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The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre return with a contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March), directed by Nicole Behan from Liverpool’s Paperwork Theatre; imitating the dog create a new Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May); Do you think the play will challenge what people think they know about mental-health care and mental illness? sees the strengthening of creative relationships with the theatres’ Associate Companies, as a springboard for fresh voices and new diverse perspectives, ensuring Liverpool’s cultural scene remains vibrant and dynamic. As well as collaborating on productions with Homotopia and Cardboard Citizens, there will be a major co-production and commission with Talawa Theatre Company to be announced in February 2024. The theatres continue to work with Graeae on their artist development programme Beyond, will support a new Liverpool-based Associate role and welcome Graeae’s Crips with Chips: A Fork in the Road, a showcase of short plays by Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers written in response to a predetermined theme (24 February). However, it’s important to stress that Blueis a play and not a documentary, it doesn’t need to be as there are loads of brilliant documentaries about the state of mental health services in the UK. In BlueI was trying to get closer to the feeling, the emotive content of what modern mental-health care can feel like, rather than a factual recounting of a specific mental-health unit. sees the strengthening of creative relationships with the theatres’ Associate Companies, as a springboard for fresh voices and new diverse perspectives, ensuring Liverpool’s cultural scene remains vibrant and dynamic. As well as collaborating on productions with Homotopia and Cardboard Citizens, there will be a major co-production and commission with Talawa Theatre Company to be announced in February 2024. The theatres continue to work with Graeae on their artist development programme Beyond, will support a new Liverpool-based Associate role, and welcome Graeae’s Crips with Chips: A Fork in the Road, a showcase of short plays by Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers written in response to a predetermined theme (24 February).

Sam Millard plays the young runaway Ben. His performance grew on me as he seemed to develop confidence, revealing the vulnerability behind this sullen teenager, struggling with his conscience. Kathryn Worth plays the police officer with strength and compassion and supports as the doctor and Jeryl Burgess is salt-of-the-earth Rose and supports in other roles.The play isn't perfect: Simon's soliloquy on the movement of electrons feels like a piece of random physics imparted by the playwright, rather than an observation that springs directly from character. But Katie Scott's beguiling design has an underwater feel; and Lorne Campbell's jittery production puts you permanently on edge. Held introduces a talent worth holding on to. The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre return with a contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March), directed by Nicole Behan from Liverpool’s Paperwork Theatre;; imitating the dog create a new Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May); For younger children there’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea (12 to 17 February), Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book (9 to 13 April) and Tom Fletcher’s There’s A Monster in Your Show (28 May to 1 June). It will be directed by Chris Sonnex, Artistic Director of Cardboard Citizens (an Associate Company at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse): Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse today announce a 2024 season which boasts world premieres, classic plays and projects with their Associate Companies, with the development of new talent at the fore. It’s a year that sees the Everyman celebrate sixty years since it’s foundation and ten years since the Stirling Prize winning new building opened.

There will be collaborations on productions with Homotopia and Cardboard Citizens and a co-production with Talawa Theatre Company to be announced in February, and further work with Graeae on its artist development programme, Beyond. Graeae’s Crips with Chips: A Fork in the Road, a showcase of short plays by Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers written in response to a predetermined theme, will visit Liverpool (24 February). The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre's contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March); imitating the dog's Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May).

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Munrow challenges the assumption that dementia is worse for those close to the patient than the sufferer themselves. "If someone broke their leg, they would be in pain," Simon reasons. "If someone's mind breaks, wouldn't you think they're in pain as well?" The short, staccato scenes seem to echo the distortions and disorientation of the disease: conversations are generally held at cross-purposes, or directly contradict each other, reminding us that collective truth is rarely more than an aggregate of fallible reminiscences. Comedy nights include Babatunde Aleshe: Babahood (24 February), Jon Courtenay: Bigger (5 April), Griff Rhys Jones: The Cat’s Pyjamas (30 April), Tom Davis: Underdog (4 May), R osie Holt: That’s Politainment (25 May) and Danny Davies (11 September). Plus there’s poetry from Hollie McNish: The Lobster Tour (27 June).

I have a friend, Joe Abel, who I knew worked in a mental-health setting but I’d never really discussed it any real depth with him. When I started working on BlueI was primarily looking at it from the viewpoint of a character who has been placed in a mental-health unit but wanted to know what it was like to work in one as well. As soon as I spoke to him about his work, a whole complex world was opened up to me that I knew nothing about. I found it fascinating, not least because it became clear to me that Joe was doing a job that I didn’t have the ability, or the fortitude, to do. It didn’t hurt that he’s a very insightful and articulate human as well. So, he was my main source of help for the play and then there was the usual watching of documentaries and reading of books. Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse's 2024 season comprises world premières, classic plays and projects with their associate companies, celebrating 60 years since the Everyman was founded and 10 years since its current building opened. We tell the tales that need to be told now, by the people that need to tell them, in the places they need to be heard. I suppose the short answer is that various people that I love and care about have had different interactions with mental-health institutions. So, I wanted to explore that, the small insights I’d had and go further and see where that took me.Anyone who tries to pin down Munrow to any one category of work is doomed to failure. He is not just the crumhorn whizzkid. (Mind you, more ponderous medievalists underestimate his scholarship.) His skill as a deviser of recital programmes has stood him in good stead recently on the radio, when he introduced a series of Afternoon Sequences – two hours of records for Saturday afternoons on Radio 3. He is always on the move. His wife. Gillian, does all the planning of transport, food, and accommodation.