Culture Diary w/c 15-05-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events – and loads of it’s free!
Monday – In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats @ FACT Liverpool – £22
Last chance to see the immersive VR installation from Darren Emerson, transporting audiences back to an illegal rave set over one heady night in 1980s Coventry. Don’t miss Mark McNulty’s photographs of Liverpool’s Acid House scene while you’re at it.
Tuesday – Without Warning: Kit De Waal in Conversation 7.30pm via Zoom – £5
We’ve long been fans of Kit De Waal here at TDN towers. For her writing, of course, but also – perhaps as much – because of the way she has fearlessly spoken of her working-class beginnings, how they informed her writing, and her relentless advocacy for voices of those that share similar backgrounds. Here, De Waal discusses memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes.
Wednesday – Bottle Rocket & The Darjeeling Limited 7pm @ FACT Liverpool – £13
Ahead of the impending release of new film Asteroid City in June, Picturehouse brings us what they’re calling a Wes-trospective of double bills from the director Wes Anderson. It kicks off here with Anderson’s debut Bottle Rocket, paired with The Darjeeling Limited (both of which feature long-term collaborator Owen Wilson).
Thursday – DYSPLA Neurodivergent Aesthetics VR/AR from 12pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
This exhibition of digital works has been instigated by DYSPLA, a Neurodivergent-led, award-winning arts studio. Showcasing how many people “see, think and experience the world differently from subjective norms”, it includes work exploring: the aging process (Lindsay Seers / Keith Sargent: Care(less) 2019), life as a neurodiverse artist, an immigrant, a female, and a mother (Natalia Skobeeva: True Stories of Two Mormots 2019), and queer intimacy (George Jasper Stone: Save Yourself 2022). On Saturday (from 2pm), catch DYSPLA founder Lennie Varvarides in conversation with creative director Kazimir Bielecki.
Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey 7.30pm @ the Playhouse, Liverpool – £13-£25
As well as those answering the UK’s call for workers amid a post-war labour shortage, the Windrush brought with it new culture. Specifically: ska, rock steady, calypso, gospel, lovers rock, dancehall and Reggae. RUSH: A Joyous Jamaican Journey tells the story of this influx through song, featuring the music of Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Lord Kitchener, Millie Small and more.
Friday – Last Chance To See: Izyum to Liverpool @ Liverpool Cathedral – FREE
Few journeys can be so fraught with heartbreak and ambiguity as those undertaken fleeing conflict on home soil. In multi-channel video installation Izyum to Liverpool (top), Ukrainian artist Katya Buchatska traces just such a journey. As Ukrainian people – herself among them – fled the Russian invasion, many escaped to safety via train. As the poignant exhibition text goes, the work explores the “loss of certainties” brought about by this “one-way journey provoking a shift in the state of mind.”
SBT (Sarabeth Tucek) 7.45pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £10
Twenty years ago, Sarabeth Tucek came to the attention of rapt audiences duetting with Bill Callahan on the celebrated Smog album Supper. It came as a surprise to few when solo acclaim followed. If anything, her reputation grew with the follow up, Get Well Soon. Now, after a decade-long hiatus, the artist is back, slightly remodelled as simply SBT. She hasn’t been twiddling her thumbs, either, as her newie, Joan of All – released this week – is an ambitious double album.
Saturday – A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction 2pm/7pm @ Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot – from £3
Opening on Tuesday, tonight is your last chance to see Headlong Theatre’s innovative, environmentally conscious one-woman show. An exploration of how touring theatre can be made sustainable, this aptly titled play is set against the backdrop of a narrative involving stressed-out theatre worker Naomi (Shareesa Valentine), whose company Zero Omissions, are touring a devised show called Climate Beasties. Urgent, thought-provoking and frenetic.
Sunday – Poets Hanan Issa and James Conor Patterson 2pm @ Open Eye Gallery – FREE
National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa, and T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet, James Conor Patterson respond to the themes found in HOME, a city-wide programme of Ukrainian photography. The pair will give readings of new works before joining Open Eye Gallery director Sarah Fisher and National Poetry Librarian, Chris McCabe, for what should be a fascinating discussion about affinities between writing and image.
Mike Pinnington
Images, from top: Katya Buchatska with her work Izyum to Liverpool, Liverpool Cathedral; Bottle Rocket art work; Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey; Sarabeth Tucek (SBT). Photograph: Paula Bullwinkel; Fairy Castles of Donetsk, 2018–2020, Andrii Dostliev, Lia Dostlieva
