Culture Diary w/c 10-03-2025
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – In The Wake 7.15pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.99
Beginning last month to little fanfare at its host venue, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme has, each year (since 2004), selected a range of cinema – including contemporary, classics and anime – rarely otherwise shown in the UK. Tonight’s screening, 2021 murder mystery In The Wake, finds investigator Tomashino on the case in Sendai, a decade after 2011′s earthquake and tsunami ravaged the city.
Tuesday – DaDaFest Continues @ various venues – Many Events FREE
2025 sees DaDaFest, the always excellent deaf and disability arts festival, celebrating its 40th anniversary. With Rage its theme this year – “something many disabled artists and individuals within our community feel” – expect a slew of film, visual arts, theatre, spoken word and more addressing the key issues that, says the organisation, have seen “the gaps in society widening”.
Ghost Stories 7.30pm @ Liverpool Playhouse – £12-£47
Horror has never been in danger of going out of fashion, of course, but the genre is currently enjoying something of an extended moment. Whether the podcast and subsequent runaway TV success of Danny Robins’ Uncanny, or the return of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s Rage Virus in the forthcoming 28 Years Later, things that go bump in the night have rarely been so popular. It is with perfect timing, then, that Ghost Stories (by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson) arrives this week, with plenty of scares in store as arch sceptic Professor Goodman sets about debunking a trio of hauntings. What could possibly go wrong?
Wednesday – Art Plays Games: Digital Residency Artists @ 2pm FACT Liverpool – FREE
Since September last year, FACT has showcased a revolving line-up of games created by artists and indie developers both, demonstrating the innovation and rich potential of the form. This week’s new line-up reveal, open from today, includes a quartet of early career artists emerging from the venue’s digital residency (in partnership with DaDa and Lucid Games). The foursome of Matt Allen, Gavin Gayagoy, James McColl and Livi Wilmore are on hand this afternoon to provide insights into their residencies and, of course, the games presented.
Thursday – Anna Erhard 7pm @ Arts Club Loft, Liverpool – £18.12
Swiss-born Berliner Anna Erhard’s Botanical Garden, released in September 2024, has been on pretty regular rotation since I came across it early this year. It’s an album of wry observations and anecdotes drawing on the absurdities, pettiness and microaggressions we face daily in this frequently less than wonderful world. An indie-pop artist capable of weaving vivid vignettes of the day-to-day, catch Erhard tonight.
Mercury Rev 7.30pm @ Arts Club, Liverpool – £37.81
Longevity; mythology; songs like hazy psychedelic fairy tales with the off-kilter mood to match, Mercury Rev came to attention with their 1998 breakthrough record, Deserter’s Songs, an ethereal album of stark beauty that set them apart from contemporaries. By that time, the band had already lived at least one life, and seen a change of line-up and tone along the way. Formed around the beginning of the 90s to make songs for members’ movie projects, all these years later, Mercury Rev retain a flair for the cinematic. See for yourself this evening as they tour Born Horse, their first new material in getting on for a decade.
Mulholland Drive 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.50
David Lynch’s death in January at the age of 78 was, understandably, keenly felt. But in the immediate aftermath of the news came a celebration of his life and intertwined career. For many, the pinnacle is his 1999 film, Mulholland Drive, the story of a naive young actress, a failed actress, a casting call, a waitress and a beautiful amnesiac. It is a tale set in a noirish vision of tinsel town, where all roads lead to the street lending the film its title, on which, said Lynch, one can feel “the history of Hollywood”.
Friday – Seven 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.50
It’s a barely believable 30 years since the then hot young director David Fincher’s Seven (or Se7en if you prefer) delivered scenes so memorable they have since become pop culture shorthand. The film stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as a pair of cops on the trail of a serial killer whose murders are inspired by, you guessed it, the sins of gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust and envy.
Saturday – Milap: Music for the Mind & Soul: Jonathan Mayer and Kousic Sen 8pm @ More Music, Morecambe – £14
Another highly thought of Liverpool-based festival, Milap, the UK’s leading Indian arts and culture company, celebrates its 40th anniversary. It does so with a host of acclaimed Hindustani and Carnatic musicians playing across the Liverpool City Region this spring. This weekend sees Jonathan Mayer and Kousic Sen pair up on sitar and tabla for an evening of Indian classical music. Sunday, meanwhile, finds the renowned Rakesh Chaurasia joined by Shahbaz Hussain; together they bring classical melodic ragas to the contemporary setting of Liverpool’s Tung Auditorium.
Sunday – Last Chance to See: Abi Palmer: Slime Mother @ the Bluecoat, Liverpool – FREE
The Bluecoat’s short-but-sweet season of gallery screenings comes to a close today with a final opportunity to see Abi Palmer’s Slime Mother. A kind of creative non-fiction homage to the ‘slug-god world’, in it we find Palmer (via disembodied narrator) confessing to a childhood spent pouring salt on, and flicking as far away as possible, the hated slugs she’d encounter in the garden. Now, however, Slime Mother posits a fresh perspective – one of coexistence, and even worship.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Painting in Light/Nothing About Us, Zoe Partington, DaDaFest (across various venues); Ghost Stories trailer; Anna Erhard, Botanical Garden; Mulholland Drive still
