LJMU celebrates The Everyman at 60

LJMU helped mark The Everyman Theatre’s 60^th birthday on Wednesday by promoting an exhibition dedicated to the legacy of the Hope Street institution.

Staff joined the likes of Roger Phillips, Michael Starkey and David Morrissey in an all-afternoon BBC outside broadcast of memories, anecdotes and stories from the theatre that Dr Ros Merkin’s 2004 book called ‘Liverpool’s Third Cathedral’.

Ros, a reader in drama, was interviewed along with Susannah Waters, Head of Academic Services, and Emily Parsons, of LJMU Library, which hosts The Everyman Archive.

She said: “The Everyman was called the third Cathedral as it sat between the other two on Hope Street and was … is an iconic place. You had the quality of actors in the early days - Jonathan Pryce, Alison Steadman, Julie Walters to name a few – and you had the attitude, which saw it become known for dangerous work which spoke to the city, in landmark productions like John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert (1974).”

Emily and her librarian colleagues struck on the idea of an exhibition while digitising artefacts in LJMU’s Special Collections and Archives.

She told the BBC: “We started scanning all the programmes and posters to put online and thought, why don’t we show them publicly. There’s so many memories and characters. A 'Who’s Who' of Liverpudlian acting talent.”

The exhibition at Aldham Robarts displays posts, photographs, programmes and a whole lot more.

“It is very visual,” says Ros. “What stands out to me over the years is its promotion of new work and plays about issues that matter to the people.”

She agrees that even the top theatres have been hit by funding for the arts with fewer productions now than in decades past but says the Everyman’s story is always inspiring: “Going back to that time in the 1960s, they just got hold of the building and started making theatre. It’s a great example to young people coming out of LJMU today about just going for it.”

Two LJMU graduates going for it are Cameron McKendrick and Jason Kelly who are appearing in the theatre’s birthday show The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which is currently running until Saturday, October 12.

The LJMU Exhibition, titled EverForward runs until December 13.