Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

Love’s Labour’s Lost (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

5Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Love’s Labour’s Lost (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

Shakespeare North Playhouse’s latest co-production with Stephen Joseph Theatre promises much, but sadly, as the title hints at, delivers little in this 1990’s-based adaptation. Ferdy (Timothy Adam Lucas) and his stags Berowne (Thomas Cotran) and Long-Dumain (Linford Johnson) have tipped up at a resort in Ibiza run by Armado (David Kirkbride) for their lads’ weekend but are under a promise to not talk to any girls, let alone think about them. Meanwhile, Yvette (Annie Kirkham) and her hens Mary-Kate (Alice Imelda), Rosie (Alyce Liburd), and Boyet (Jo Patmore) are heading to Malaga until the resort says they’ve had to relocate them to a hotel in Ibiza. Cue shoddy disguises, mislaid love letters, and theatrical chaos as we wait to see whether the boys get the girls or indeed something el...

2Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Dead Mom Play – Unity Theatre

The funny thing about grief is that it’s no laughing matter, yet conversely laughter is generally considered the best medicine. That’s the conundrum for this semi-autobiographical production from writer, director, and producer Ben Blais which it doesn’t entirely overcome. A young man, Charlie (Griffyn Bellah) faces his critically ill mother (Hannah Harquart) and Death (Joe Bellis), a scythe-wielding Scouser in a hood, as he struggles to accept the harsh reality of the grieving process whilst stuck in a play of his own creation. This is the second play I have seen on grief in as many weeks and whilst I wasn’t reviewing the first, both pieces suffer from the need for some independent creative check which is absent because, in this instance, the writer has opted to direct and produc...

25Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

La Traviata – Opera House

Ellen Kent’s current revival of her original production relishes its traditional 19th Century roots and delivers a truly musical feast to dine upon at whose heart lies a love story that draws upon Alexandre Dumas the Younger’s real-life doomed love affair with well-known courtesan, Marie Duplessis. We open with Violetta (Viktoria Melnyk), aided by her friend Flora (Yelyzaveta Bielous) hosting a lavish party where she is introduced by Gastone (Ruslan Pacatovici) to his friend, Alfredo Germont (Davit Sumbadze), a fervent admirer, who is more concerned for her failing health than her escort, Barone Douphal (Vitalii Cebotari). When Alfredo declares his love for her she wonders if he could be the one amidst her desire to be free to live her life. A year on and Alfredo and Violetta have be...

22Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

La Bohème – Opera House

Ellen Kent’s current revival of her original production perfectly captures the emotion and drama at the heart of Puccini’s timeless masterpiece of unforgettable music that tells of love, friendship, and death, under the direction of maestro Vasyl Vasylenko. Set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in about 1830, it is Christmas Eve when we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Davit Sumbadze); a painter, Marcello (Iurie Gisca); a philosopher, Colline (Valeriu Cojocaru); and a musician, Schaunard (Vitalii Cebotari) who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Eugeniu Ganea) but cleverly trick him into revealing he has been playing around which allows them to throw him o...

14Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sweet Revenge – Rainhill Village Hall

Sophie Brogan has selected a real cracker for her directorial debut which plays to the strengths of both the company and their venue with an almost full house for opening night. Francis Durbridge is one of Britain’s most popular crime novelists and playwrights, and while it was his last play, Sweet Revenge is considered to be his best. Dr Ross Marquand (Rick Young) has it all: a high-flying career as a cardiac consultant, a wonderful home, and a beautiful wife, Fay (Alison Mawdsley) as well as the respect of medical colleague Sam Kennedy (George Lowe), businessman Bill Yorke (Tom Nevitt), and assistant Judy Hilton (Liz Munro). In spite of the immediate support of her brother Alan (Peter Cliffe) and close friend Marian (Angela Vose), Fay is not a happy woman, more so since she met...

10Feb

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North West

Madama Butterfly – Empire Theatre

Ellen Kent’s current revival of her original production adds layers of tone and colour to further enhance this sensitive and moving portrayal of Puccini’s devastating tragedy about a young geisha who falls in love with an American naval officer. Marriage broker Goro (Ruslan Pacatovici) shows US naval lieutenant Pinkerton (Davit Sumbadze) around the home he will share with his bride-to-be in Nagasaki, although American Consul Sharpless (Iurie Gisca) warns him of the tragic consequences that may follow. The Butterfly duly lands in the form of young Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San (Elena Dee) supported by maid Suzuki (Yelyzaveta Bielous), and they are married by the Commissioner (Vitalii Cebotari). Her love makes her willing to sacrifice everything which sees her disowned by her uncle, a Bonze (...

The Tales of Hoffmann – Royal Ballet & Opera

18Jan

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

The Tales of Hoffmann – Royal Ballet & Opera

Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann is one of his most enduring operas, with the suggestion that it is incomplete – it premiered some four months after its composer’s death – lending it to interpretation which director Damiano Michieletto has taken full advantage of here in this lavishly visual staging which weaves magic and mystery through oft-imagined memories. At the tavern, poet Hoffmann (Juan Diego Flórez) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Alex Esposito), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… Accompanied by Nicklausse (Julie Boulianne), the oft ignored voice of reason throughout, Hoffmann te...

22Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Star of Wonder – Unity Theatre

This collaborative production from Theatre Porto and Teatro Pomodoro, originally performed at Theatre Porto in 2022, follows its own star as it travels from Ellesmere Port to arrive in Liverpool’s Unity Theatre where, under the direction of Nina Hajiyianni, it delights and enthrals in equal measure. In this modern take on the nativity tale, five friends (Carmen Arquelladas; Jordan Connerty, Miwa Nagai; Nikki Hill; Simone Tani) and a teddy bear set out to follow a star using a unique form of transport. Despite becoming separated, their journey continues including having to overcome the challenges of mirages, sandstorms, and quicksand, as well occasional attacks from a pair of shepherds and their flock of sheep. With the group eventually reunited, the question is whether they will finally...

It’s A Wonderful Life – St George’s Hall

14Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

It’s A Wonderful Life – St George’s Hall

Having completed a two-week run at Liverpool’s Royal Court Studio and with the bells well and truly ringing, Old Fruit Jar Productions turned to St George’s Hall to spread the festive magic of this delightful tearjerker production a little further. Christmas Eve, 1946 and down-on-his-luck banker George Bailey (Robbie Fletcher-Hill)) feels life has passed him by, and he's at the end of his tether, so angels Joseph (Andrew Johnson) and Gloria (Faye Griffiths) decide to send a fledgling guardian angel, Clarence (Jordan Barkley) to earn his wings, but if he is going to be of any help, he needs to understand who George truly is: the young boy at play with brother Harry (Anthony Roberts) and friend Sam (Taona Matope)? Or the young man distracted by the attractions of Violet (Rachel McGrath) a...

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – St Hilda’s Church Hall, Hunts Cross

13Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – St Hilda’s Church Hall, Hunts Cross

Directors Gemma Hurst and Georgina Anwyl lead us on a delightful romp through time and space with Glyn Roberts’ adaptation of the well-loved C.S. Lewis tale. Siblings Peter (Carl Latham), Susan (Victoria Turnock), Edmund (Connor Jones) and Lucy (Zoe Marras) are evacuees staying at the house of the Professor (Zoran Blackie) and his housekeeper, Mrs McCready (Jenny Snell). When Lucy steps into the wardrobe and out again into the magical world of Narnia, a land of Beavers (Andrew Parsons; Victoria Grimbly) and Leopards (Ife Babatunde; Elise Ng) amongst other animals, where she meets fawns, Mr Tumnus (Aslan Herzen) and Mrs Tumnus (Samra Uddin). All is not well though as The White Witch (Snell), assisted by her Wolves (Juliet Shreeve; Lydia Byrne; Heather Robinson; Ray Ormsby; Michelle Conne...