Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

The House Amongst the Willows – Formby Little Theatre

30Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The House Amongst the Willows – Formby Little Theatre

Fletcher (Peter Harris) is taking his fiancée Sadie (Hannah Johnson) away for a week, but they will be staying with the parents, Paul (Michael Leathley) and Erin (Vicky Birrell), of his previous wife, Laura (Donna M Day). Although engaged, they haven’t been together that long and Sadie is about to discover more than she had bargained for when his friend Josh (Simon James), a former policeman, reveals some hidden truths about Fletcher’s previous relationship, and when his Parisian ex, Kelly (Samantha Jones), turns up, things are about to get really complicated. If that’s not enough to get you started, then director Day’s unravelling of the subtext of the story definitely will as all is most certainly not what it seems in this tranquil part of middle England. Without giving too much away,...

Fran & Flora: Synagogue Nights – Manchester Jewish Museum

24Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Fran & Flora: Synagogue Nights – Manchester Jewish Museum

Experimental folk duo, Fran & Flora, kickstart the latest season of Synagogue Nights at Manchester Jewish Museum with Contemporary Diaspora Sounds, drawing upon music from Unfurl, their 2019 debut album, and their upcoming second album due for release in 2024. Having freshly arrived from Romania that morning, this was cellist Francesca Ter-Berg and violinist Flora Curzon’s first performance in Manchester as well as their first at a Sephardic synagogue. Drawing inspiration from their travels in eastern Europe and beyond, their work pulls upon the melodies of Klezmer, influences from Transylvania, Romania, Greece, and Armenia and archival manuscript and recordings. Providing us with an array of musical pieces, we moved between traditional Klezmer and the Doina’s of Transylvania and...

10Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Baba Yaga – Theatre Porto

The tales of the Baba Yaga, best known in Slavic folk and fairy tale traditions, are full of rich story material, and Laura Lindow’s new play for Theatre Hullabaloo and Theatre Porto reimagines the best elements of these to present a dark, fairytale world where the children’s bravery and ingenuity ultimately triumphs. The journey of two children, Girl (Fran Burgoyne) and Boy (Ben Galpin), and their search for safety, resonates strongly with current times as they encounter a town which refuses to let them in, knowing that as a result they are almost certainly sending them into terrible danger. However, whilst there is a moral message at the heart of this piece, directed by Nina Hajiyianni and produced by Miranda Thain, about our collective responsibility to look after the most vuln...

The Titfield Thunderbolt – Rainhill Garrick Society

9Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Titfield Thunderbolt – Rainhill Garrick Society

Director Judith Martindale blows new life into Philip Goulding’s stage adaptation of the 1952 Ealing comedy classic bringing the right amount of mayhem and merriment to the birthplace of the modern railway and it’s a theatrical treat well worth waiting for. Whilst Clifton (Rob Williams) and Mr Blakeworth (Tom Nevitt) discuss the imminent closure of their railway line, Lady Chesterfield (Tracey Duffy) and Reverend Weech (George Lowe) bring together the local residents including his niece, Joan (Jenny Martindale), retired track layer Dan Taylor (David Parker), and Mrs Bottomley (Ruth Profitt) to run it themselves, with the financial support of philanthropist Mr Valentine (Michael Brennan), who has a fondness for drinking, as well as those much-needed passengers (Angela Vose; Alison Mawdsl...

L’elisir d’amore – Royal Opera House Live Transmission

6Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

L’elisir d’amore – Royal Opera House Live Transmission

L’elisir d’amore is a bel canto comic opera in two acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti with libretto by Felice Romani. Written in 1832, today it is one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti’s operas. Naïve country boy Nemorino (Liparit Avetisyan) is determined to win the heart of the coquettish Adina (Nadine Sierra) but this assured young woman doesn’t even bother to give him the time of day. When the parochial life of the village is thrown into disarray by the arrival of the dashing Sergeant Belcore (Boris Pinkhasovich) at the head of his troops, the lovesick peasant boy is forced to turn to other means in his Tristan-like pursuit of his Isolde, and the arrival of wheeler-dealer Doctor Dulcamara (Ambrogio Maestri) promises much with his so-called ‘elixir of love’. As...

Das Rheingold – Royal Opera House (Live Transmission)

21Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Das Rheingold – Royal Opera House (Live Transmission)

When you put two geniuses together there is no guarantee that what they create will match the expectation; there is no such concern here as Antonio Pappano conducts Barrie Kosky’s bold new imagining of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the musical brilliance of the orchestra matched by an outstanding cast. This production marks the start of a new Ring Cycle for The Royal Opera and this is undoubtedly a prelude of exciting things to come from the wonderful pairing of Pappano and Kosky. Any new production of Wagner’s Ring has to remain faithful to its mythical origins but also needs to find a way to connect to its modern audience, but that balance is achieved and some in this vibrant theatrical production set at the beginning of time and of life. Rufus Didwiszus’s simple yet symbolic monochr...

The Incident Room returns to Royal Court Studio

13Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

The Incident Room returns to Royal Court Studio

Following a sell-out run at The Black-E, Old Fruit Jar Productions return to the Studio at Liverpool Royal Court, after their sell-out run of Twelfth Night, to present a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of a pivotal moment in British history. Exploring the wider issues of misogyny and institutional negligence that surrounded the case, Olivia Hirst and David Byrne’s beautifully crafted The Incident Room is an intense and thought-provoking look into the police investigation into the crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper. Set in Leeds 1975, the focus of the play is centred in and around the Millgarth Incident Room as the biggest manhunt in British police history unfolds. Whilst based on this gripping true story, the focus of the play is on the police officers at the forefront of what...

A Portrait of William Roscoe – The Athenaeum

10Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Portrait of William Roscoe – The Athenaeum

The latest production from ArtsGroupie CIC, penned and performed by John Maguire, celebrates William Roscoe, a renowned writer and one of England’s first abolitionists. Using an array of theatrical techniques including puppetry, physicality and traditional storytelling, Roscoe is literally taken out of his portrait and brought to life in the very building he helped to found over two hundred years ago. Born in 1755, as the son of an innkeeper Roscoe was of humble stock but with the benefit of education, he was to become a man of learning, able to explore his interests and advocate for a number of causes close to his heart including establishing the original Liverpool Botanic Garden in 1802. A social activist throughout his life, Roscoe became an MP in Liverpool where, in spite of much lo...

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

20Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

In 1865 Lewis Carroll penned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, followed six years later by its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, and here tonight at Speke Hall, one hundred and fifty plus years on, The Pantaloons served up madness and mayhem with this delightfully absurd interpretation of a children’s classic. As the saying goes, less is more, and never was this so true as our troupe of four performed in the garden of this almost five hundred year old building, with the latest of their three summer productions: whilst the first will be remembered for the fox and the second for excessive airplane disruption, tonight nature and aviation combined to give us several flocks of geese in perfect complement to the anarchic nonsense unfolding before us. You would never have known that three ...

6Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Comedy of Errors – Speke Hall

A Shakespearean comedy set around two rival states and two sets of mismatched twins is brought to life in this bright adaptation from Steve Purcell, who also directs, with its central theme of mistaken identity the perfect vehicle for Mark Hayward’s production to explore a number of popular theatre forms in this consistently funny farce that piles error upon error at an increasingly frantic pace. If the challenge of the doubling up of not one but two sets of twins whilst keeping the audience on-board as the only ones who know what is happening on stage wasn’t enough, throw in an open-air venue, forecasted bad weather, and plane disruption from the adjacent airport, and I had everything crossed for the much-reduced cast of four playing all of the roles. I needn’t have worried as with ...