Mysterious theatre in Adelphi hotel's 'hidden rooms'
Izzie Major brings The Living Room to Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel | Latest NW arts news
What is it about Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel that has inspired so many storytellers? Is it the provable, documented events such as Roy Rogers staying there with his horse Trigger? Or is it the myths like Hitler working there as a 20-year-old wannabe-artist?
Over the years I have written about an animated art work based on the “Just cook will ya!” 1990s fly-on-the-wall documentary, a musical about the hotel’s history at the Liverpool Playhouse, and now Izzie Major’s site-specific theatre piece which takes place inside the Adelphi’s “hidden rooms”. You can read all about that one below.
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Enter the dreamlike space of the Adelphi Hotel
Hotels are ripe for hauntings. Thousands of guests pass through their rooms, bringing with them their own tiny dramas, secrets and betrayals. And surely Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel, whose history is part documented, part myth, has more than its fair share of possible spectres.
Performance artist Izzie Major, whose work explores the absurd, the ritualistic, the macabre, the feminine and the grotesque, and her company (Frankie Gold, Piotr Marchewka and Craig Sinclair), are returning to the infamous hotel to perform her second site-specific theatre piece there following on from last year’s Bedroom. It will also feature performances from emerging artists recruited from Liverpool Hope University, and is inspired by the Adelphi’s ghosts and abandoned objects.
This time the action moves to The Living Room - a space, Izzie says, for “connection and reflection” for “being alive and being together”. Intrigued? Here is what she has to say about it.
What made you want to create this show?
This is part of a body of immersive work around the domestic and the feminine, and what lies underneath the performance of both of these things. I began getting interested in domestic objects and spaces, in particular those that seem to take a feminine form, like frills, net curtains, tassels and the historic entrapment of these spaces, the secrets and ghosts that they hold.
I've always loved the Adelphi Hotel as an iconic building in Liverpool, and started thinking about a hotel as a dreamlike space that isn't quite a home but features some of the same objects to try and create a sense of belonging, but is full of transience. I love its grandeur and that it's now a space for community where people from all walks of life gather and all kinds of both spectacularly momentous and everyday mundane events are housed here.
I am inspired by dreams, nightmares and the erotic in my work, and plenty of those things happen at the Adelphi with all the comings and goings of guests over nearly 200 years.
‘This makes me think that there was a time when women were denied access to their dreams, maybe the source of creativity’
What can the audience expect?
Audiences can expect to travel in a small group into some hidden rooms of the Adelphi Hotel, where surreal characters, objects who have been left abandoned in the shadows of the room come to life to share their experience. They long for interaction and admiration from the guests, and struggle to understand the human world as there has been so much change over the years.
Did anything unexpected/interesting happen when you performed The Bedroom?
Yes, we had visits from hotel guests who had never been to an immersive experience before, who just found out it was on as part of their stay. They were a couple celebrating their joint 80th birthday and were the best audience ever! They shared beautiful memories with the characters and the characters sung happy birthday to them.
What is it about female Surrealists that makes you want to champion their work?
I am a lover of dream theory, Surrealism, nonsense and the non-literal. At the time of the Surrealist movement gaining traction, women and non-binary artists were widely left out of this canon, or themselves refused to be a part of it, maybe due to the sexist behaviour of some of the main players.
Surrealism works a lot with dreaming and the dream state, and this makes me think that there was a time when women were denied access to their dreams, maybe the source of creativity.
My work is about freeing creativity and freeing the dream, for women, for myself, for every audience member that joins us. I want to connect them with the parts of themselves that they may have forgotten because of the roles they play in life and the structures we are all trapped in in this modern world.
The Living Room is at The Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, as part of the Independents Biennial from Wednesday, July 2 to Wednesday, July 9.
Latest arts news
✏️ A major new free family exhibition celebrating the work of one of Britain’s most popular writers and illustrators, Quentin Blake, will open at Lowry, Salford, on Saturday, July 19. Curated by Lowry in collaboration with the artist and his studio, Quentin Blake and Me will feature over 100 of his instantly recognisable works, a full-size sailing boat for children to hop-aboard inspired by the story A Sailing Boat in the Sky, the National (Monster) Portrait Gallery alongside Russell Hoban’s storybook Monsters, and a fiendishly difficult magnetic marble puzzle inspired by John Yeoman’s retelling of the voyages of the intrepid Sinbad.
🗡️ A new production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is being produced by Storyhouse in Chester. Adapted and directed by Jamie Sophia Fletcher and featuring a 12-strong cast, it will run from Friday, March 6 to Saturday, March 21. Tickets are on sale now.
🎨 Clitheroe Contemporary Art Festival returns this year with a new venue and new competitions for artists. Running from Saturday, July 19 to Sunday, July 20 at The Old School Rooms and Assembly Hall on Lowergate, it will include walks, talks, creative workshops and family sessions.
🎶 Gareth Malone, star of the BAFTA-winning series The Choir, will present Sing-Along-A-Gareth: 50 Years of Song at Parr Hall in Warrington on Saturday, November 8.
In case you missed it
Opening this week
In the remote Scottish Highlands, two women arrive at a former crofters hut in the deserted village of Coille Ghillie. Suddenly, the weekend getaway takes an unexpected turn. Cut off from the modern world, Laura and Suzanne find themselves drawn into the dark history of the Croft and the lives that passed before them. The Croft by Ali Milles is at the Liverpool Playhouse from Tuesday, July 1 to Saturday, July 5.
Now booking
INDIKA, Milap’s festival of Indian Arts, returns to Liverpool this October with an expanded line-up of events. The 15-day celebration of Indian music, dance and culture will take place across the entire Liverpool City Region. See the full programme here.
Thank you for reading the 137th edition of Stored Honey. If you enjoyed what you read then please hit the ❤️ button to help get it shown more widely.
I’m off now to the seventh circle of hell that is a children’s party at Ninja Warrior. In the meantime, you can get hold of me on Instagram, on Bluesky, in the comments or by replying to this email.
Have a great week,
Laura
P.S. Worcester artist makes the frame at Manchester Art Gallery
