LIVERPOOL is to be engulfed throughout July in a sea of comedy. The third Merseyside Festival of Comedy gets under way next Tuesday with the first of a series of events that will entertain the whole area over two weeks.
Catholic schoolchildren from Kirkby area will take part in the Kirkby Response Theatre's own version of Aristophanes' Lysistrata called "Stop the War I Wanna Cop Off", and in impromptu poetry readings on local buses.
Among star names taking part in the festival are Prunella Scales, Phil Cool and the cast of the Merseyside-based soap opera Brookside.
There will be drive-in movies and..special events at pubs, clubs, theatres and even the city's Tate Gallery at Albert Dock. Further details from the festival organisers on 051 709 8151.
• Taking place in Liverpool at the same time as the festival will be the lecture organised by the Catholic Herald and Hodder and Stoughton the publishers by Fr Ronald Rolheiser OMI on the erosion of hope and its recovery. There are still a few tickets available for this event on Thursday, July 26 in Liverpool Cathedral Concert Hall at 7 pm. Write to Hodder anu Stoughton, 47 Bedford Square, London WC1 enclosing £1 booking fee per ticket.