#IndieLitMagGala 2025 Spotlight: ALOCASIA Journal
Alan Parry
October 13, 2025
There’s something rare and steady about a journal that knows exactly what it is—and makes no apologies for it. ALOCASIA is one
Get ready to rock as Shake It Up Baby! – a gritty, high-energy Beatles musical by Liverpool playwright Ian Salmon – hits the Epstein Theatre this autumn, running from 26 September to 11 October 2025.
This powerful new play-with-music tells the untamed story of The Beatles’ make-or-break Hamburg years – the sex, the sweat, the songs, and the self-destruction that forged a band of boys into the biggest group the world has ever known.
Local legend Andrew Schofield stars as the band’s first manager, Allan Williams, alongside a cast of blazing young actor-musicians including:
They’re joined by Kieran Andrew, Andrew Copperthwaite, Grace Galloway, Connor Simkins, and Jess Smith.
August 1960: five teenage lads from Liverpool, barely out of school, pile into a van and head to the roughest city in Europe – Hamburg. What happened next changed everything.
From back-alley gigs at the Indra and Kaiserkeller to chaotic nights at the Star Club, Shake It Up Baby! is a raw and electrifying ride through the early chaos and chemistry that made The Beatles – told with the American rock ’n’ roll classics that lit the fire.
Expect heartbreak, hilarity, and a bucketload of swagger – this is the origin story with all the grime, guts, and glory intact.
SHAKE IT UP BABY!
Epstein Theatre, Hanover Street, Liverpool
Dates: Friday 26 September – Saturday 11 October 2025
Times: 7.30pm (plus 2.30pm matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays)
Tickets: From £22.50 (plus booking fee)
Book Online: www.epsteintheatre.com
There’s something rare and steady about a journal that knows exactly what it is—and makes no apologies for it. ALOCASIA is one
Founded in 2015 and still standing strong a decade later, Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine isn’t trying to be edgy, obscure,
In a lit world still groaning under the weight of gatekeepers, binary boxes, and pay-to-play submission models, new words {press} is a
The Broken Spine is a poetry and arts collective proudly published on the coastal edge of North-West England. Founded in 2019 by Alan Parry and Paul Robert Mullen – two school friends reunited after twenty years through a mutual love of poetry.