Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

12Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Idlib – Chester Lane Library, St Helens

Written, directed and presented by Kevin Dyer, and produced by Laura Duncalf, Idlib is based on the story of a Syrian baker who wanted to return home and real interviews with Syrian refugees and escapees across Europe. It tells the story of a woman (Anoush Kendrick) who has hope, but it is both the prelude to this tale and what follows afterwards that makes this such a powerfully prescient piece as it mixes conversation, an uplifting story of kindness, making bread on stage, drawing, and sharing personal memories of food and family, eating together and socialising. As Dyer mixed the essential ingredients, with a glug of oil and yoghurt reminiscent of the Levant, the usual reticence of an audience quickly fell away with three coming forward to assist him. As he spoke, we were drawn i...

Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Metropolitan Opera

3Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera in collaboration with Royal Ballet and Opera close their season in style with Rossini’s effervescent comedy retaking the stage with director Kathleen Smith Belcher’s revival of Bartlett Sher’s madcap production from 2006 of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a prequel to The Marriage of Figaro. Count Almaviva (Jack Swanson), disguised as Lindoro, courts Rosina (Aigul Akhmetshina), who is under the guardianship of the jealous Dr. Bartolo (Peter Kálmán). Figaro (Andrey Zhilikhovsky), the town barber, helps Almaviva navigate the obstacles, including Bartolo's plan – with the assistance of Don Basilio (Alexander Vinogradov) – to marry Rosina himself. Through disguises, deception, and clever schemes, Figaro and Almaviva work to win Rosina's affection and thwart Bartolo's plan. ...

A Shoddy Detective and the Art of Deception – HOME Mcr

1Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Shoddy Detective and the Art of Deception – HOME Mcr

Creative team Mitch Donaldson and Becky Bartram have produced a laugh-out-loud slapstick whodunnit featuring four primary actors, a dozen characters and a whole load of chaos that turns everything on its head so make sure you pay attention. When a priceless painting goes missing at a private auction, Detective Stuart Pidcock (Neil Jennings) is called upon to uncover the mystery. However, when he cannot solve it himself he is forced to enlist the help of an old nemesis, Dusty Wills (Wesley Griffith). Together, the pair must interrogate the many characterful suspects (Donaldson and Bartram in multiple roles plus a delightful cameo from understudy Alexandra Ricou which drew the laughs) that reside at the manor, in order to catch the conniving culprit and solve the crime of the century. ...

30May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Taming of the ‘Shrew’ – HOME Mcr

HER Productions can be commended for taking on what they describe as one of Shakespeare’s most polarising comedies as there is so much more to it than its title suggests, the key to which is its sadly often-omitted Induction when drunken tinker Christopher Sly (Ciara Tansey) is conned by the Hostess (Megan Holland) into believing he is a lord and about to watch a play; it is this ‘play-within-a-play’ that becomes the rest of The Taming of the Shrew. Young noble, Lucentio (Mia Gibson) arrives in Padua to study, much to the chagrin of servant, Tranio (Leah Eddleston). As he quickly falls in love with Bianca (Hope Yolanda), the beautiful younger daughter of wealthy Baptista Minola (Jakki Moore), there is stiff competition from the aged Gremio (Sarah Legg) and younger Hortensio (Nicole Keri...

North by Northwest – Liverpool Playhouse

21May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

North by Northwest – Liverpool Playhouse

Billed as a ‘theatre legend’ in the production’s accompanying notes, celebrated director Emma Rice’s adaptation of this Hitchcock classic for the stage is sumptuous and visually arresting but sadly more style over substance with its lack of storyline. It would be strange would it not, poses The Professor (Katy Owen) who narrates much of the evening’s proceedings, if in a city of seven million people, one man was never mistaken for another. And in a flash we are transported to the bright lights of the big city – New York – in 1959, where we meet reluctant hero Roger Thornhill (Ewan Wardrop), whose mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he’s on the run dodging spies and airplanes as he tries to evade the clutches of villain Phill...

19May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Die Walküre – Royal Ballet & Opera

Following 2023’s Das Rheingold, conductor Antonio Pappano and director Barrie Kosky reunite to continue the mythical adventure with Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second work of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. On a stormy night, fate brings Siegmund (Stanislas de Barbeyrac) to the door of Sieglinde (Natalya Romaniw), the fearful wife of bully Hunding (Soloman Howard), unleashing a love with the power to end worlds. Meanwhile, in the realm of the gods, an epic battle ensues between their ruler Wotan (Christopher Maltman) and his rebellious daughter, Brünnhilde (Elisabet Strid), after his wife Fricka (Marina Prudenskaya) has laid her own law down to him, and the battle of the Valkyries – Helmwige (Maida Hundeling); Ortlinde (Katie Lowe); Gerhilde (Lee Bisset); ...

19May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Salome – The Metropolitan Opera

Director Claus Guth gives the biblical story – already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play – a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting, rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness, light, and shadow, as Strauss’ one-act tragedy receives its first new production at The Met in twenty years. Narraboth (Piotr Buszewski) admires the princess Salome (Elza van den Heever) and unable to resist her, allows her to descend into the cell holding Jochanaan (Peter Mattei). She is fascinated by the prophet’s body and begs for his kiss, but he rejects her, and she returns to the palace above. Herod (Gerhard Siegel) appears and offers her food and wine, but she refuses. Jochanaan cries out from below against Salome’s mother, Herodias (Michelle DeY...

18May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Dirty Dusting – Rainhill Village Hall

Rainhill Garrick Society’s take on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood’s laugh-out-loud comedy certainly dusts off the cobwebs and guarantees you’ll never look at a vacuum cleaner the same way again! When three elderly cleaners, Olive (Lynn Aconley), Gladys (Linda Saavedra), and Elsie (Jo Webster), are threatened with redundancy by their arch nemesis and boss Dave (Peter Cliffe), they feel that their lives are coming to an end until a chance wrong number gives them a new business start-up idea: why not run a telephone sex chat line? They’ve got motive, opportunity, and a lifetime of experience... some more than others. Cue hilarious one-liners in a style not dissimilar to a Carry-On film. With the play set in a nameless office building in St Helens in 2002, with updated local references, ...

Sense & Sensibility – Shakespeare North Playhouse

16May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sense & Sensibility – Shakespeare North Playhouse

The Pantaloons roll up in Prescot again with their delightful ensemble of skits, songs, and gags this time aimed at Jane Austen’s first novel with lashings of Regency romp raising the bar high even if there are a few low flying beams to watch out for. All actors want to perform in a theatre-in-the-round but with nowhere to hide, only the best can deliver: The Pantaloons served up a theatrical masterclass tonight and a timely reminder of how great theatre can be. Sisters Elinor (Alex Rivers) and Marianne (Cicely Halkes-Wellstead) along with their mother are somewhat down on their luck and effectively palmed off by their older half-brother when their father dies to live on the estate of a cousin, Sir John Middleton (Christopher Smart). Elinor is disconsolate as she had become close to Edw...

Klezmer Klassica: the Men behind the Play with Music

13May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Klezmer Klassica: the Men behind the Play with Music

It’s always a boon when there is a recording available of a production you’ve attended and none more so than the recently attended Gideon – a play with music, a collaboration between Richard Fay and Daniel Mawson through their company Modalways CIC. Following the life of a magnetic musician and his family facing impossible choices, its factual narrative is accompanied by a delightful fusion of Klezmer, Czech folk, classical compositions, and jazz performed by a live ensemble. My interest was piqued when noting that the recording labelled as Volume 3 was accompanied by a not entirely related Volume 4, raising the obvious question as to what/where were Volumes 1 and 2? Well, a little bit of delving was to unveil a musical goldmine, but first of all we have to take a step back in time. ...