Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

A Portrait of William Roscoe – The Athenaeum

10Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Portrait of William Roscoe – The Athenaeum

The latest production from ArtsGroupie CIC, penned and performed by John Maguire, celebrates William Roscoe, a renowned writer and one of England’s first abolitionists. Using an array of theatrical techniques including puppetry, physicality and traditional storytelling, Roscoe is literally taken out of his portrait and brought to life in the very building he helped to found over two hundred years ago. Born in 1755, as the son of an innkeeper Roscoe was of humble stock but with the benefit of education, he was to become a man of learning, able to explore his interests and advocate for a number of causes close to his heart including establishing the original Liverpool Botanic Garden in 1802. A social activist throughout his life, Roscoe became an MP in Liverpool where, in spite of much lo...

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

20Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

In 1865 Lewis Carroll penned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, followed six years later by its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, and here tonight at Speke Hall, one hundred and fifty plus years on, The Pantaloons served up madness and mayhem with this delightfully absurd interpretation of a children’s classic. As the saying goes, less is more, and never was this so true as our troupe of four performed in the garden of this almost five hundred year old building, with the latest of their three summer productions: whilst the first will be remembered for the fox and the second for excessive airplane disruption, tonight nature and aviation combined to give us several flocks of geese in perfect complement to the anarchic nonsense unfolding before us. You would never have known that three ...

6Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Comedy of Errors – Speke Hall

A Shakespearean comedy set around two rival states and two sets of mismatched twins is brought to life in this bright adaptation from Steve Purcell, who also directs, with its central theme of mistaken identity the perfect vehicle for Mark Hayward’s production to explore a number of popular theatre forms in this consistently funny farce that piles error upon error at an increasingly frantic pace. If the challenge of the doubling up of not one but two sets of twins whilst keeping the audience on-board as the only ones who know what is happening on stage wasn’t enough, throw in an open-air venue, forecasted bad weather, and plane disruption from the adjacent airport, and I had everything crossed for the much-reduced cast of four playing all of the roles. I needn’t have worried as with ...

Alice in Wonderland – Individuality Youth at Rainhill Village Hall

9Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Alice in Wonderland – Individuality Youth at Rainhill Village Hall

Alice (Ellen Challinor) isn’t having much fun with her Nanny (Helena Hanlon) so when she spots a large, talking White Rabbit (Lexie Haslam), she decides to follow, with narrators Lewis (Elijah Houghton) and Carrol (Laia Mogan) recounting her journey and attempts to return home in this tale written and directed by Samantha Moores. Going through the tiniest of doors in her pursuit, Alice enters a magical world where she encounters Leopard (Marina Forshaw), Wolf (Erin Pye), Mock Turtle (Mandi Roberts), Beaver (Reeve Keyte), and Owl (Sienna Sheridan), before further on meeting Tweedle Dee (Milly Sutton) and Tweedle Dum (Louisa Nelson) following which there is Caterpillar (Ella Davies) hoping to transform like its butterfly friends (Laila Muir; Lucy Simpson). Things begin to liven up when...

8Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Emma – The Pantaloons at Speke Hall

I’m a long-time fan of The Pantaloons and so it was a pleasure to see them back performing in the beautiful grounds OF Speke Hall with four new Loons making up the party. Emma was Jane Austen's fourth novel, first published in 1815, and tells the story of Emma Woodhouse (Rachel Cumming), a rich and spoiled young woman who takes it upon herself to become a matchmaker for the society of the town of Highbury, Surrey - while looking out for someone handsome, clever, and rich for herself - and in which the many parts of friends, relations, romantic interests, and anyone else vaguely relevant to the plot are mixed up and performed in true Pantaloons-style by James Alston, Molly Cheesley, and Richard Lessen. The question is, amid all the shenanigans and social mores, can she avoid the tornadoe...

30Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sealskin – Liverpool Everyman

‘In a village far away, by the wild landscape of the sea, every full moon the Selkies appear. As they peel away their seal skin, they dance freely in the moonlight, as humans. One such night a fisherman discovers their secret and, stealing away a Selkie’s skin, our story begins.’ Devised by the Tmesis Theatre and directed by Elinor Randle, with the assistance of Stage Manager Joey Colasante, Sealskin is described as a powerful story of betrayal, power, otherness, and loss. It is all these things yet more as, rich in meaning and metaphor, it explores what it means to be, to long, to belong. The cast – Stephanie Greer, Faye McCutcheon, Samuel Pérez Durán, Mariana Pires, and Jaquell Walker – excel with each taking a principal role as well as supporting in an ensemble as we embark on a m...

The Ballads of Billy the Kid set for Summer tour

27Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

The Ballads of Billy the Kid set for Summer tour

Off the Ground Theatre are taking a trip to the Wild West for the first time this summer, with The Ballads of Billy the Kid. The famous outlaw and desperado who made his name as a gunslinger and fearsome cowboy in Arizona and New Mexico is the hero of this brand new play, from the minds of OTG graduates Mat Oliphant and Connor Wray. Taking in venues across the North West, Wales and Ireland, this summer’s showdown promises to be a barnstorming, darn tootin’ hoedown of drama and delights, hilarity and big characters! An all new piece of writing, this play makes use of different storytelling devices to whistle through the life of one of the West’s most notorious outlaws, Billy the Kid. An ensemble cast of 10 take on all roles across the stories, showing us what happens when unfortunate ...

The Addams Family – Rainhill Village Hall

22Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Addams Family – Rainhill Village Hall

Director and choreographer Bryan Dargie takes us into the upside-down world of the Addams Family, where to be sad is to be happy, to feel pain is to feel joy, and death and suffering are the stuff of their dreams. Patriarch Gomez (Luke Montague) and his wife Morticia (Julie Robinson) are visiting the graveyard for an annual gathering of family members including the dead: Evangeline (Claire Heaton), Scarlet (Michelle Williams), Owenna (Claire Jones), Missy (Meg Charlton), Veronica (Annie Topping), Lizzy (Fiona O’Gorman) and Octivia (Anita Shaw). But Uncle Fester (Ben Greenall) stops them returning to their graves to enlist their help, as while torturing brother Pugsley (Tyler Lloyd), Wednesday (Sarah Johnson) has admitted to inviting her new ‘normal’ boyfriend Lucas (Cameron Gilbert) ...

14Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Il Trovatore – Royal Opera House

Verdi wrote Il Trovatore hot on the heels of Rigoletto, with its premiere at Covent Garden in 1853 a mere two months before that of La Traviata, but of the three it is the more conventional opera, although Director Adele Thomas’ production has steered clear of the traditional, opting instead for a more modern interpretation whilst remaining rooted in its original medieval setting and themes of jealousy, revenge, and love. The Count di Luna (Ludovic Tézier) loves Leonora (Rachel Willis-Sørensen), but she loves Manrico (Riccardo Massi), the Count’s military enemy. Manrico’s mother Azucena (Jamie Barton) tells him how her mother was burnt to death for supposed witchcraft against the Count’s baby brother, with the subsequent unravelling story reflecting differing perspectives with only Azuc...

11Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Idlib – Theatre Porto

Written and directed by Kevin Dyer, and produced by Laura Duncalf, Idlib started as a piece of prose as a prelude for a play that morphed into a short story before becoming the script for a monologue first performed online in 2021. 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 as well that make this such a special evening. I have seen this production twice before – online and in-person at an intimate space several months ago – but I couldn’t resist the attraction of participating again at a new venue (for me) and with a new performer. It transpires that this is the start ...