What do Liverpool’s arts venues have in store for us during 2012? Laura Davis picks out her 10 must-see events
AS THE New Year dawns over Merseyside, it may seem like the region’s cultural scene is still locked in pantoland, but fear not – there is plenty to look forward to over the next 12 months.
We’ll witness the birth of the new Everyman Theatre as it rises from the dust – and carefully recycled materials – of the old. And the Royal Court will begin its exciting redevelopment. We’ll see international music stars, world-renowned dance and theatrical companies featured alongside homegrown talent and welcome back the city’s many festivals.
Here, in no particular order, are 10 theatre and art shows from those already announced that you won’t want to miss.
1 AFTER the glorious adventure of the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, packed with treats including a replica LFC boot room, what will this year’s contemporary arts festival have in store? Former Serpentine Gallery head of programmes, Sally Tallant, stepped in at the end of last year to take over from Lewis Biggs as artistic director and will oversee her first 10-week Biennial, on the theme of “hospitality”, from September 15.
2 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’S Pulitzer-winner A Streetcar Named Desire opens at the Playhouse next month. Directed by the theatre’s artistic director, Gemma Bodinetz, it will star accomplished stage actor Amanda Drew (who was also the baby-snatching doctor in EastEnders), Sam Troughton (grandson of Doctor Who actor Patrick) and Liverpool’s own Leanne Best.
3 CHOREOGRAPHER Matthew Bourne transports the opening of the Nutcracker ballet from the traditional lavish Christmas party to the bare walls of a Dickensian orphanage. It tours to the Empire Theatre later this month and, if his last two shows – Swan Lake and Cinderella – are anything to go by, it will be spectacular.
4 DADAFEST, the UK's Disability and Deaf Arts festival, has built a strong reputation for posing difficult questions. Staged in the run-up to the Paralympics, this year it promises to be no tamer. One highlight includes Niet Normaal: Difference, at The Bluecoat, which asks “What is normal and who decides the question?”
5 FIVE of Monet’s beautiful waterlily paintings will visit Tate Liverpool for the Albert Dock Gallery’s Turner Monet Twombly exhibition. A show of works by any one of these three artists would be something to look forward to so this, opening next month, is expected to be a hot ticket.
6 PIANIST Simon Trpceski returns to the Philharmonic Hall in the aptly named two-date Dream Team concert in March, as his rapport with RLPO chief conductor Vasily Petrenko has dazzled Hope Street and Proms 2010 audiences alike. On the programme is Debussy’s Ronde de Printemps, Saint-Saens’s Piano Concerto No.2 and Symphonie Fantastique.
7 PART of the spoils of winning the 2011 Liverpool Art Prize was the opportunity to create a work specially for The Walker. Video and sound artist Markus Soukup is currently working with one of the gallery’s curators, Dr Laura MacCulloch, to prepare his new piece, which will be displayed from March.
8 A CAST and orchestra of 50 will arrive at the Liverpool Empire to perform a two-week run of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
Opening next month, the tale of an American nurse who falls in love at a World War II US naval base stars Samantha Womack.
9 IF YOU missed David Yip’s Gold Mountain at The Unity in 2010 – and even if you didn’t – make sure you get a ticket for its reprisal in April.
The ex-Brookside actor delves into his father’s memories and tall stories to create a touching tale of a Chinese immigrant’s life in Liverpool that combines traditional storytelling with multimedia wizardry.
10 PUTTING on Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy, The Norman Conquests, is as much a technical challenge as an acting one. Each comedy takes place in a different part of a crumbling country house – with characters wandering out of one play into another. Watch them individually or book for all three at the Liverpool Playhouse in May.
