John Higgs has a lot to answer for… Since the 2013 release of his KLF book, he’s become a guiding light for a new wave of seekers; elucidating the complexities of the twentieth century and exploring the essence of the British psyche in the two books that followed.
Read more “John Higgs ‘The Future Starts Here’ – Book Launch”
What is DOOLEYDAY?
Put simply, it’s a celebration of Liverpool-born sculptor ARTHUR DOOLEY held annually on his birthday, 17th January. That’s all.
But looked at again, it’s more than that: it’s an example of how so-called ‘ordinary’ people (no such thing, by the way) can create our own myths, honour our own heroes and sheroes, and by doing so, shine a light to illuminate a possible path ahead for the rest of us, in the darkest of times.
Read more “Dooleyday: Sculpting Our Own Mythologies”
Following Daisy Eris Campbell’s brilliant Pigspurt’s Daughter show, that we hosted alongside Bido Lito! at the Hope Street Theatre back in August, we’re delighted to invite David Bramwell, another guest from Brighton, to perform a solo-show in Liverpool.
The Cult of Water combines original music and film, art and archive footage with a captivating monologue. As a one-man show it is a feast for the ears, eyes, heart and soul, taking audiences on a dream-like journey in search of the ‘spirit of dark and lonely waters’.
Tomorrow, Thursday 23rd August, we’ll be welcoming Daisy Eris Campbell’s one-woman show to Liverpool! An homage to Ken Campbell, her brilliantly eccentric father, ‘Pigspurt’s Daughter’ weaves together the diverse strands that informed his work and helped forge his personal myth – she’s of course thrown a few of her own ideas into the mix too…
A surreal, hilarious and deeply moving one woman show from the daughter of the master raconteur, Ken Campbell. ‘Pigspurt’s Daughter’ visits the pool of life on Thursday 23rd August.
“Ken Campbell was one of the most unclassifiable talents in British Theatre in the last half century” ~ The Guardian Obituary, 2008
Every society needs a central point of focus; an area of universal significance that people can build a culture around. In Ancient Greek mythology, Zeus sent two doves to find ‘the centre’, and when they collided over Delphi, it took on this significance and became known as the ‘navel of the world’, an omphalos.
We’ve got something in the works for this year’s Liverpool Sound City festival on 5th/6th May…
Read more “The Arts Lab Skiffle Factory @ Liverpool Sound City”
Mathew Street was once the epicentre for all of Liverpool’s finest freaks and seekers. This gradually faded however, and the street diminished into a husk of its former self, now standing as a bleak caricature of soulless tourism, brashly cokey revelry and painfully cheesy music.
One of Liverpool’s favourite sons is to be honoured on January 17th, on what would have been his 89th birthday. A very special exhibition at one of Arthur’s favourite places in the city forms the centrepiece of the latest annual ‘Dooleyday’. Inspired by the world famous ‘Bloomsday’ held in Dublin and around the world every year on June 16th, in honour of James Joyce, ‘Dooleyday’ is fast becoming a feature of Liverpool’s cultural landscape. This year’s celebration will centre on The Florrie in the Dingle, reputedly a favourite building of Arthur’s. Co-curated by The Florrie, the event will feature films, presentations, talks, a book reading, and an exhibition of original Dooley work, loaned from a mystery benefactor.
On 15th December we’ll be hosting a live reading of Alistair Fruish‘s monosyllabic masterclass ‘The Sentence‘ – a groundbreaking novel that contains only one sentence with no punctuation. When read aloud, it reportedly has quite the hypnotic effect.
Back in January Daisy Eris Campbell – the force behind the recent adaptation of Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘The Cosmic Trigger‘ – directed a reading of ‘The Sentence’ at The Cockpit theatre where she’d later stage the second run of her seminal play, Robin Ince was amongst the readers, whilst Alan Moore assisted in the Northampton reading.