 LEGENDARY Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly will be portrayed at a unique theatrical event as part of next year’s Capital of Culture programme. An Audience with Shankly will see an actor playing the iconic figure before a live audience, with archive footage of his life projected on to giant screens. It is the idea of Liverpool fan and theatre director Andrew Sherlock,whose project is one of 11 brand new works of art to be awarded a share of £500,000 of funding from the Liverpool Culture Company. Other projects will include the Runcorn-born artist Phil Collins, who was recently nominated for the Turner Prize, and Jah Wobble, one of the leading figures from the British New Wave music scene. Mr Sherlock, 43, describes An Audience with Shankly as a “live theatrical documentary.” He will be given free use of Granada TV’s extensive footballing archives for original footage of Shankly, which will be used to put together the multi-media event. He is now looking for a suitable actor to play Shankly. Mr Sherlock said: “It’s a unique project which will involve a live re-creation of the man himself, intercut with documentary footage on giant screens. “I want to make it a great footballing night, showing the essence of what Shankly brought to the game and the city itself. “I’m looking at a number of venues so that as many people as possible can see it. It’s important that up-and-coming fans know about the man behind the myth.” Mr Sherlock, who is also writing the script, is consulting with both Liverpool FC and supporters’ clubs to make sure the show is as accurate as possible. He added: “I wanted to do something that makes us proud of what we achieved. If this show is successful, the same format could be used for other Liverpool heroes such as Bessie Braddock or John Lennon.” The £500,000 programme, called Liverpool Commissions, will showcase dance, theatre, music, film, visual arts and new media. Among the other projects featured will be a new work by 2006 Turner Prize nominee Phil Collins, who will produce a film about his childhood memories in Liverpool. Jah Wobble, a former member of John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols group, Public Image Ltd, will collaborate with Liverpool’s Chinese Youth Orchestra on a work called Chinese Dub. Zi Lan, the youth orchestra’s arts officer, said: ''This is the best news we could have possibly had. The orchestra is so excited at the prospect of working with Jah Wobble, he's such a talented musician and to create a pop single with him and a two-hour long piece is the opportunity of a lifetime.” Zho Visual Theatre will produce a play called The Quiet Little Englishman, about the Oscar-winning movie sound pioneer George Groves. He was born in St Helens in 1901 and went on to become the movie industry’s first ever “sound man,” working on early talkies such as The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson. Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council and deputy chairman of the Liverpool Culture Company, said: “This has been an incredibly competitive process and the final selection of works highlights the artistic calibre of the city. “The diversity of the programme is astonishing and is an indication of Liverpool’s overall artistic creativity.“ Jason Harborow, chief executive of the Liverpool Culture Company, added: “An important part of our work in 2008 is to support new work which has grown out of the city and provide opportunities for it to be enjoyed on an international scale. The Liverpool Commissions will ensure that these new works are recognised on the world stage.”
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