The Play's The Thing!

I think last weekend's activities wore me out... I felt decidedly under the weather all week but revived sufficiently to attend an important cultural event tonight. The re-opening of the wonderful Everyman Theatre!

The Everyman's been a jewel in Liverpool's theatrical crown since its foundation in 1964 and has played an important role in the careers of actors including Pete Postlethwaite, Antony Sher, Julie Walters, Bernard Hill, Bill Nighy, Cathy Tyson, Jonathan Pryce, David Morrisey and Barbara Dickson as well as debuting the work of acclaimed Scouse playwrights such as Alan Bleasdale and Willy Russell.

I've seen many, many productions there over 25 years and eaten countless meals in the much-loved Bistro down in the basement.

The theatre closed over 2 years ago, was raised to the ground and has been completely re-built. I've missed it a lot and am looking forward to seeing the first production in the new building (Twelfth Night) and to checking out the new Bistro!

This evening, Spokes and I joined the hundreds of people who gathered outside the Everyman's sister theatre, the Playhouse, in Williamson Square to parade through the city centre on a 45 minute journey to Hope Street to light up the new Everyman building and welcome the theatre back with drums, choirs, a brass band, 300 lanterns made by school children and community groups, light projections, fireworks and other pyrotechnics.

Amongst the crowd was this huge puppet which stood high above the revellers (it's impossible to get the scale from this shot but I liked the close-up!) and swayed beatifically to the music before 'unlocking' the theatre with a huge key.

It feels great to have the iconic red neon Everyman sign shining out over Hope Street once more!

Play On!