Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

20Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Stayin’ Alive – Unity Theatre

Up Next is a new event series showcasing exciting new work from Merseyside performers and following the success of her previous show Heaven or Pussy, Victoria Oxley stepped up with her new musical-themed comedy Stayin’ Alive. Written by and starring Oxley, and with directorial input from Gemma Bodinetz who introduced the piece tonight, it follows the story of Maggie (Oxley) as she confronts her mental health problems and the loss of her grandmother, with support from Emma Bispham reading in other roles including Maggie’s mother, her sister Ann-Marie, and therapist Rob. Drawing on Oxley’s real-life relationship with her grandmother and her own work as a mentor for young people with mental health difficulties, this was a powerful piece of work that in its opening lines managed to blow ...

20Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Heavenly Way to Die – Unity Theatre

Up Next is a new event series showcasing exciting new work from Merseyside performers and this piece was a rehearsed read through of Tom Kinney’s love story about being in a relationship while suffering from Harm OCD. Centred predominantly around bedroom scenes, we see the developing relationship between Violet (Angelina Cliff) and Glen (Liam Powell-Berry). All seems well but that natural initial nervousness doesn’t leave Violet, in fact she continues to feel anxious around Glen all the time. But it’s not him. It’s because she has intrusive and obsessive thoughts that she will hurt him while she sleeps. It is an interesting concept and the piece under the direction of Emma Turner was well read by Cliff and Powell-Berry with stage directions read in by Aimee Cross. With the focus on t...

Our Lady of Blundellsands – Everyman, Liverpool

18Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Our Lady of Blundellsands – Everyman, Liverpool

Jonathan Harvey’s comic drama about a messed-up family resumes from whence it was paused in March 2020, albeit it with some cast changes, with a welcome return to Liverpool’s Everyman. Sylvie’s (Josie Lawrence) life is unravelling as she is forced to emerge from the safety of her Blundellsands cocoon where she has inhabited a fantasy world that never was, and where wiser, older sister Garnet (Joanne Howarth) is now becoming weary of the shopping lists and tired love. This time though, the family’s in town as Sylvie’s boys, ‘brothers’ Mickey-Joe (Mickey Jones) and Lee Lee (Nathan McMullen), return with their respective partners Frankie (Nana Amoo-Gottfried) and Alyssa (Gemma Brodrick) to celebrate Garnet’s birthday. But for once she’s got a story of her own to tell: who’s going to fan th...

12Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Bouncers – Rainhill Village Hall

Rainhill Musical Theatre Company return to the stage with a bang and a bounce with their production of John Godber’s classic 1977 play covering an evening working the doors of a nightclub for four bored doormen and their likely clientele: four young beer swilling lads hoping to get lucky, and four excitable teenage girls out for a bit of dancing, drinking, and whatever the eye might fancy, including visits to hairdressers in its build-up and fast-food vendors in the climactic come down. Other than the excellent writing, what makes this such a clever piece of theatre is that all the roles throughout are portrayed by four bouncers – Lucky Eric (Paul Robinson), Les (Ben Evans-Clarke), Judd (K. Ellis), and Ralph (Aidan Maj) – who, with the simplest of sets, the minimum of props, and no cost...

A Night at the Opera – St Mary’s Church Eastham

23Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Night at the Opera – St Mary’s Church Eastham

Just over three years ago a friend asked a favour of me to review a young company performing an English libretto version of Così fan tutte in the backroom of a pub in Liverpool: it proved to be one of the best things I ever did as it introduced me to Flat Pack Music. Having had the pleasure of watching many of their productions since, and with the challenges and travails of a pandemic almost out of the way, it was a delight to see their return with A Night at the Opera at St Mary’s Church in Eastham, where it all began for them four years ago. Four professional soloists – Soprano Sarah Helsby Hughes, Soprano Heather Buckmaster, Tenor Joseph Buckmaster and Baritone Peter Lidbetter – were joined by Accompanist Jonathan Ellis to serve up some of operas most famous works as they performe...

2Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Dandilicious – APG Films Ltd

Written and directed by and starring Andrew Games as the eponymous King of the Teds, Dandilicious from APG Films is a stylised neo-western which explores a day in the life in of Marty, the hero – or anti-hero – of a suburban town, beset by menace and disruption of his making during 1959, with this its production launch for a festival run which includes Lift-Off Film Festival and the Wales International Film Festival. I have been supportive of the development of this piece over the last few years – I’m even credited at the end – but the promise of its trailer some two years ago has not fully come to fruition as the mooted clash of 1950’s culture has turned into more of a crash, bang, wallop that initially plays out in a somewhat surreal, tongue in cheek style – which I’m not sure was int...

Unity Theatre, Liverpool announce more events in 2021 season

16Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Unity Theatre, Liverpool announce more events in 2021 season

Returning to Liverpool in the autumn of this year are critically-acclaimed companies such as Dibby Theatre, Paines Plough and Lung.Festival season also returns with events and week-long programme from Homotopia, BlackFest and DaDa.From midday on Thursday 15th July, audiences will also be able to book for the 10 new productions programmed through the second round of Unity’s Open Call.Applications also open for new producer training programme Level Up – part of Unity’s Creative’pool programme that provides over 300 Liverpool-based artists a year with training, opportunity and support.Available to book from midday on Thursday 15th July. Festivals, festive programme and the return of some of the UK’s favourite touring companies feature in the latest collection of productions announced by Un...

Seeking Arrangement comes to the King’s Head

14Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Seeking Arrangement comes to the King’s Head

Whilst some questioned whether they could survive the pandemic and others wondered what to do during lockdown, Kitty Ball and Alexandra Hannant took control of their own destiny and set up Burning Brick Theatre Company, so it was a delight to catch up with them – and compatriot Phoebe Coop – to discuss their forthcoming production, Seeking Arrangement, written by Hannant, directed by Ball, and starring Coop. By day, Bolton lass Charlie struggles to make a difference as a UN intern, working to prevent the sexual exploitation and abuse of women across the world. By night, she moonlights as Sugar Baby Tamara, trading companionship and intimacy to survive in New York City. Assessing feminist ideas of ownership of the body while yielding it to a paying consumer, Seeking Arrangement follows o...

5Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Idlib by Storm in the North

Idlib, from new production company Storm in the North, is a transient piece in so many ways. Written and directed by Kevin Dyer, it started as a piece of prose as a prelude for a play that morphed into a short story before becoming the script for this monologue. As a halfway step on its journey to becoming a full-length stage play, the parallel to its content couldn’t be more complete. Commissioned by Chester Bandstand, performed by Paislie Reid, and based on the story of a Syrian baker who wanted to go home and real interviews with Syrian refugees and escapees across Europe, it tells the story of a woman who has hope. There’s a normality to Reid’s delivery that is comforting and almost invites you to step into the picture she paints, but it isn’t a scene that most of us would recogn...

Memoria – Tmesis Theatre at Albert Walker Hall at the Linacre Methodist Mission

30Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Memoria – Tmesis Theatre at Albert Walker Hall at the Linacre Methodist Mission

Memoria, created by Tmesis Theatre and directed by Elinor Randle, takes us on a journey of memory and nostalgia in this immersive, physical piece set in the Albert Walker Hall at the Linacre Methodist Mission, much influenced by the many real stories of people whose lives were spent in this very building and whose accompanying voices and imagery are further represented through the physical medium of cast and ensemble, and the addition of text from David Whyte’s Consolations. These experiences are further explored by the notion that perhaps all epochs live and breath in parallel, that spaces and minds can hold imprints of all that has gone before, influencing the future. Equally, where we don’t remember, we always have our imagination, and this is where the piece spectacularly unfolds as...