Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

Murder in Play – Rainhill Garrick Society

19May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Murder in Play – Rainhill Garrick Society

If it’s farce you want it’s farce you’ll get and with Rainhill Garrick firmly established as the go to place, director Rick Young reinforces this reputation with his enjoyable romp of a production of Simon Brett’s wonderfully awful Murder In Play. Boris Smolensky’s (George Lowe) budget repertory production of ‘Murder at Priorswell Manor’ is looking decidedly shaky with the cast more interested in their egos than the play as his wife Renee (Jo Webster) spars with long-time rival Christa (Rosetta Parker) as well as her husband’s latest interest, Ginette (Alison Mawdsley) who herself remains admired from afar by Tim (Tom Nevitt). With Sophie (Sophie Brogan) waiting for her break and thespian Harrison (Michael Brennan) seeking out Dutch courage to stop himself from breaking, stage manager P...

10May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Maria – Unity Theatre

Commissioned by Unity Theatre and Culture Liverpool as part of the Eurovision Cultural Festival 2023, and supported by The Lowry in Salford, Yurii Radionov and Shorena Shoniia’s world-premiere production of Ulas Samchuk’s 1934 novel, follows the life of a young woman through the history of Ukrainian upheaval from the 1861 emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire under the Tsars through to Holodomor: the communist-regime’s induced mass starvation in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930’s. As well as marking the 90th anniversary of this horrific and unimaginable event, it is a timely parallel to the events that continue in Ukraine following the attempted invasion by Russia in 2022, echoed by its performance from a cast of seven Ukrainian refugee actors currently living in the UK as a resul...

9May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Preview: Idlib by Storm in the North

Let’s start off making bread – the Syrian way. We will mix the dry ingredients, in a bowl bought in a Souk from Idlib before the troubles. Then we will add the water… then wait for it to rise. While the yeast does its work, we will witness a brand-new real-life drama set in north-west Syria. The action takes place in a building with no electricity, no food, and a line of bullet holes in the wall. However, it is a story not of despair but of kindness. Then we will take a breath, have a conversation about what we have seen and what is happening in our world. We will also explore the role of food in our own lives. And when the bread is ready, cooked in front of our eyes, and the room is filled with the smell of freshly-baked bread, we will share it with our friends and neighbours – a...

The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House

28Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House

Mozart’s classic four-act comic opera, an adaptation with Da Ponte of Beaumarchais’ banned 1778 play about warring masters and servants, is delightfully brought to life in director David McVicar’s own revival of his 2006 production, again conducted by Antonio Pappano, of this satirical and deeply human drama. As the day of Figaro (Riccardo Fassi) and Susanna’s (Giulia Semenzato) wedding arrives, it becomes clear that their master, Count Almaviva (Davide Luciano), is keen to exercise his ‘droit du seigneur’ – his right to bed a servant girl on her wedding night – and they conspire with the forsaken Countess (Federica Lombardi) to outwit her husband and teach him a lesson in fidelity. Plans however are thrown awry when Bartolo (Henry Waddington), seeking revenge against Figaro for thwarti...

The Incident Room – Old Fruit Jar Productions

19Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

The Incident Room – Old Fruit Jar Productions

Sunday afternoons are for catching up with chums, so it was a real pleasure to drop in on rehearsals with the team at Old Fruit Jar Productions to learn more about their upcoming production of The Incident Room, with Olivia Hirst and David Byrne’s beautifully crafted script most definitely in safe hands judging by the treatment of the opening act that I was fortunate to observe. Now there’s a misguided, in my opinion, line of thought at present that says following the pandemic and other recent hardships, theatre should focus on making everybody smile and avoid anything dark and contentious. OFJP are of view that the purpose of theatre remains to inform as well as entertain, especially at a time when we seem to flip from one outrage to another, none more so than those arising from the Me...

Der Rosenkavalier – MET Opera Live in HD

16Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Der Rosenkavalier – MET Opera Live in HD

Paula Suozzi’s revival of Robert Carsen’s 2017 production, which moved the setting from the cusp of revolution in the 18th century to the brink of World War I in 1911, the year in which it premiered, remains eerily evocative with its tale straddling three generations, the imminent collapse of the old order, the uncertainty of what is to come, and the maturity to accept both. The Marschallin (Lise Davidsen) is having an affair with the young count Octavian (Samantha Hankey) whilst her country cousin, Baron Ochs (Gunther Groissböck) is engaged to Sophie (Erin Morley), the young daughter of a nouveau-riche arms dealer, Faninal (Brian Mulligan). When Ochs meets Octavian, hastily disguised as a chambermaid to avoid discovery, he makes advances towards ‘her’ and the Marschallin is appal...

12Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Richard III – Liverpool Playhouse

This production from Rose Theatre and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres in association with Swinging the Lens sees director Adjoa Andoh take the treacherous tale of Richard III and reset it in the Cotswolds of her youth, complete with Maypole and Morris Dancing, and with the emphasis in line with more modern re-interpretations of Richard as a much-maligned character who having been punched down all of his life, decides to punch back. And Richard (Andoh) certainly punches above his weight dispatching all those with greater right to the throne including brother Clarence (Oliver Ryan), the young Prince Edward (Joshua Day) and others who oppose him including Rivers (Robin Morrissey) and Hastings (Harriett O’Grady), and whilst aided throughout by Gatesby (Harry Clarke) and Ratcliff...

We Wish You Long Life – Synagogue Scratch at Manchester Jewish Museum

4Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

We Wish You Long Life – Synagogue Scratch at Manchester Jewish Museum

Performing as part of Manchester Jewish Museum’s inaugural Synagogue Scratch season, We Wish You Long Life, written by Amy Lever and directed by Helen Parry, explores cultural integration, shared memory, and family ties, when Steven (Robin Simpson), raised Catholic, is brought begrudgingly by his wife, Mary (Orline Riley), to a Jewish house of mourning for a person he doesn’t seem to remember. Father and daughter, David (Danny Ryder) and Katie (Lever), await the arrival of the Irish Catholic side of their family whilst food caterer Karen (Tilly Sutcliffe) begins to wonder if this is the strangest event ever. A Q&A session with the writer, director, and cast followed which provided useful background on the piay which began life as a ten-minute piece as part of a short play festival ‘...

4Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Falstaff – Met Opera Live in HD

Behind every great man there is a greater woman and none more so than in Gina Lapinski’s revival of Robert Carson’s 2013 production of Verdi’s final masterpiece, a comic opera drawn from Shakespeare and reimagined in a post-war 1950’s Windsor with a stylish, satirical and slapstick production that fools nobody: it is superb. Caddish knight Falstaff (Michael Volle) informs Bardolfo (Chauncey Packer) and Pistola (Richard Bernstein) that he intends to seduce Alice Ford (Ailyn Pérez) and Meg Page (Jennifer Johnson Cano) but when they refuse to deliver the letters, he throws them out. When the letters are eventually received, Mistress Quigley (Marie-Nicole Lemieux), Meg, Alice, and her daughter Nanetta (Hera Hyesang Park), laugh over their similarity and decide to get their revenge. Meanwhil...

26Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Steel Magnolias – Rainhill Village Hall

Robert Harling penned this play shortly after the death of his sister and it is very much based on real life experiences: after his sister’s funeral he noticed how the women who supported her came together to share stories and laugh in a way the men of the family seemed unable to do. Director Michèle Martin has remained faithful to the setting in Louisiana in the heart of the Deep South where the action unfolds in the singular setting of a small-town beauty salon with owner Truvy (Samantha Moores) welcoming the newly arrived but troubled young beautician, Annelle (Katie Griffin) to work with her. But this is more than a hair salon, it is a place of refuge that forges those that need it into ‘steel magnolias’ and where a group of local women come to share their close bond of friendship. ...