Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

22May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Lucia Di Lammermoor – Met Opera

Producer Simon Stone provides a modern take on Donizetti’s classic opera and, putting the occasional embellishment aside, delivers one of the most complete operatic productions of the season. Fallen on hard times, Enrico (Artur Ruciński) has arranged an advantageous marriage for his sister, Lucia (Nadine Sierra), but Normanno (Alok Kumar) reveals that she is in love with Enrico’s enemy, Edgardo (Javier Camarena). As Lucia and Alisa (Deborah Nansteel) wait for Edgardo, Lucia reveals a recent dream which Alisa interprets as a portent of doom. When Edgardo arrives, he explains that he has to leave on a mission and he and Lucia exchange vows. Normanno obtains forged evidence to suggest that Edgardo is involved with another woman and when Enrico shows it to Lucia, she is heartbroken and a...

Foo Foo’s Follies – Rainhill Garrick Society

13May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Foo Foo’s Follies – Rainhill Garrick Society

Fun, frolics, and farce abound in this delightful and original comedy from writer and director Linda Saavedra with its larger-than-life characters, musical numbers, and an unexpected twist you definitely wouldn’t see coming… The curtains draw back to reveal the Midland, a 1935 art deco hotel, that like most of its guests has seen better days and where waitress Foo Foo (Gerald Walker) exists in a blurred reality. Diana (Lynn Aconley) and Dolly (Rosetta Parker) are on their annual autumn reminisce whilst owner Lord Algernon (Rick Young) and his current belle, Ophelia (Angela Vose), have an eye for restoring the place to its former glory. Throw in a musical chorus of some more unusual guests (Ruth Pollitt, Edi Tinsley, Jo Webster, and Alison Mawdsley) to the accompaniment of a Grand Pianis...

Turandot – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

8May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Turandot – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

The Met Opera’s latest faithful revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 production remains a sight to behold along with every other sensory overload you can imagine as the volume is most definitely turned up to 11 and beyond. In legendary Peking, any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot (Liudmyla Monastyrska) must answer three riddles: if he fails, he will die. Among the crowd Calàf (Yonghoon Lee) discovers his long-lost father, Timur (Ferruccio Furlanetto). As the latest failed suitor goes to his death, the crowd implore the princess to spare him, but she orders the execution to proceed. Calàf is transfixed by her beauty and decides to win her heart. Timor and the slave girl Liù (Ermonela Jaho) as well as the ministers Ping, Pang, and Pong try to discourage him. Whilst the three mi...

Samuel Beckett in Confinement – University of Liverpool

7May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Samuel Beckett in Confinement – University of Liverpool

Beckett is a little bit like the proverbial buses: there’s never any when you’d just like one then suddenly they all come along at once. In the case of Beckett: Confined, a three day-festival of Samuel Beckett’s plays, associated musical performances, and lectures exploring the politics of closed space as a reading of our times, you couldn’t really want for much more. The programme – brought together by Unreal Cities in association with the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, and Culture Ireland– presents an exciting blend of Beckett’s work, including multiple performances of some of his most rarely performed plays alongside a musical series, all pre...

6May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Don Giovanni –Liverpool Empire

Welsh National Opera return to Liverpool Empire with this revival by Caroline Chaney of John Caird’s 2011 production of one of Mozart’s most complete operas, and incorporating John Napier’s original brutalist staging, inspired apparently by Rodin’s The Gates of Hell. Don Giovanni (Aaron O’Hare – a last-minute replacement due to cast indisposition) has seduced over 2,000 women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (Joshua Bloom), and our story starts with him looking to add another name with his attempted rape of Donna Anna (Linda Richardson) that results in him killing her father, the Commendatore (James Platt), and which her fiancé Don Ottavio (Trystan Llŷr Griffiths) swears to revenge. Donna Elvira (Meeta Raval), an earlier conquest who believes Giovanni to be her husband, has come ...

Casting announced ahead of Twopence To Cross The Mersey UK tour

1May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Casting announced ahead of Twopence To Cross The Mersey UK tour

The full cast for the first major UK national tour of Helen Forrester’s Twopence To Cross The Mersey has been announced. Twopence To Cross The Mersey UK Premiere Tour 2022 opens this September in Wirral, a place which features heavily in Helen’s million-selling books. The hit stage drama has been revamped and updated as it gears up to visit 15 venues nationwide during Autumn 2022. The 9-strong cast, playing over 40 characters, has now been announced and includes five cast members who have appeared in its sister show By The Waters Of Liverpool. The new touring production of Twopence To Cross The Mersey is produced by Rob Fennah and Lynn McDermott for Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms and Directed by Gareth Tudor Price. The...

Samuel Beckett in Confinement: Festival 6th – 8th May 2022

30Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Samuel Beckett in Confinement: Festival 6th – 8th May 2022

There’s no more waiting for Beckett with tickets now available for a weekend festival of the works of Samuel Beckett, exploring the politics of closed space as a reading of our times. The University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies and University of Notre Dame in association with Unreal Cities Theatre Company is pleased to present Samuel Beckett in Confinement, a three-day festival of Samuel Beckett’s plays, associated musical performances and lectures. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated playwrights and authors, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His works examine what it means to be human, in all its absurd, existentialist and sometimes bleak comedy. The programme, curated by celebrated actor and director Adrian Dunbar a...

14Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

La Traviata (2022) – Royal Opera House

Director Bárbara Lluch’s current revival of Richard Eyre’s 1994 production delivers a truly musical feast that not only embraces and relishes its traditional 19th Century roots but whose theme continues to resonate strongly today. At its heart lies a love story which draws upon Alexandre Dumas the Younger’s real-life doomed love affair with well-known courtesan, Marie Duplessis. We open with Violetta (Pretty Yende) aided by her friend Flora (Angela Simkin) hosting a lavish party where she is introduced by Gastone (Andrés Presno) to his friend, Alfredo Germont (Stephen Costello), a fervent admirer, who is more concerned for her failing health than her escort, Baron Douphal (Germán E. Alcántara). When Alfredo declares his love for her she wonders if he could be the one amidst her desire t...

The Liverpool Passion Plays: This is Our Story – Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool

12Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Liverpool Passion Plays: This is Our Story – Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool

Written by Mark Lovelady and Daniel Bishop, who also directs, and produced by Nick Basson, the Liverpool Passion Plays are back with a…well yes, it’s obvious, but there was so much more to this though as using the Cathedral’s architecture and artwork as a backdrop, the audience ‘walk with Jesus’ through his story, starting as a young boy, and witnessing his entry into Jerusalem, his betrayal by Judas, and his subsequent trial and crucifixion. Congregating in the Nave of the Cathedral, Mary (Katherine Wikeley) and Joseph (John Zang) worry where their son has gone, when we meet Young Jesus (Thomas Holmes) in the temple questioning the Pharisees, before we move forward to an Adult Jesus (Tom Martin) challenging the moneylenders. In the Western Crossing, to the accompanying choir singing...

Doctor Doolittle Jr. – Rainhill Village Hall

11Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Doctor Doolittle Jr. – Rainhill Village Hall

Rainhill Musical Theatre Company Youth’s latest production, under the direction of Tom Cain, is based on the original 1920 Dr Doolittle stories by Hugh Lofting, and with the assistance of Choreographer Kirsty Higgins and Musical Director Wayne Oakes, takes us on a journey from the small English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh to the far corners of the world. When wacky but kind Doctor Doolittle (Aaron Savage) decides he’s going to learn to talk to animals, friends Madeline Mugg (Eden Brennan) and Tommy Stubbins (Ella Andrews) are in disbelief but with parrot Polynesia (Poppy Trigwell) leading the lessons, it’s only a matter of time before he’s getting to grips with what’s ailing Jip the Dog (Marina Forshaw), Toggle the Horse (Emily Greenough), Sheila the Fox (Mandy Roberts), and Dab Da...