North West Archives - Page 110 of 174

10Mar

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Tosca – The Lowry

Opera North’s return to the Lowry this month is reason indeed to celebrate; even more so with the revival of Edwin Dick’s acclaimed production of Tosca being part of this year’s touring programme. Written over 120 years ago; Puccini’s Tosca is still just as thrilling, as captivating and gives you much more drama than anything you’d find on Netflix. The heroine is a renowned prima donna, her hero an artist, and the villain the corrupt head of the secret police. With everything from love and blackmail, to revenge and even murder… Tosca really will leave you questioning just how far you would go to save the ones you love. Giselle Allen returns as Floria Tosca alongside Ukrainian Tenor; Mykhailo Malafii as Mario Cavardossi, Both deliver powerhouse performances throughout with chemistr...

10Mar

By Adam WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Macbeth – The Lowry

Tonight Shakespeare met Tarantino, this was the bard seen through the lens of some kind of super-visual filmmaker complete with swear words and a dark, brooding attitude. What we have with this production is theatre as film, it could be said to have more style than substance. As a backdrop to the action there were projected flashy, incandescent and strangely beautiful images and video. They were bright, scintillating and imaginatively put together with great skill and creativity. The problem was that they were, at times, somewhat distracting. Above the stage top left and right were two screens showing feeds from two mobile cameras which were on stage. Given the conceit of Macbeth reimagined as a Tarantino film, set in an underground world of drugs and prostitution, Macbeth and his wi...

10Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Top Girls – Liverpool Everyman

It is forty years since Caryl Churchill’s play first hit the stage and with this anniversary production, director Suba Das has been allowed artistic licence to relocate some of the action from Suffolk to Liverpool 8. Marlene (Tala Gouveia) is at the top of her game as the new Managing Director of Top Girls Employment Agency in the glitz and glamour of 1980s London, with a stylised and surreal opening sequence seeing her host an extraordinary dinner party, assisted by a waitress (Kaila Sharples), to celebrate her achievements with five legendary women, some real, some imagined: Isabella Bird (Elizabeth Twells); Lady Nijo (Nadia Anim); Dull Gret (Sky Frances) of Brueghel fame; Pope Joan (Lauren Lane); and Griselda (Ailsa Joy) straight out of Chaucer, to draw upon their old world experienc...

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty – Liverpool Empire

8Mar

By Hannah WildeNo Comments

North West

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty – Liverpool Empire

Thanks to years of experience in dance and choreography (and with an MBE to boot), you know any production with an affiliation to Matthew Bourne will pack a punch. And Sleeping Beauty is no exception. This show was expertly performed by New Adventures, a multi-award-winning UK dance-theatre group, who have become synonymous in the world of dance for storytelling with a unique theatrical twist. Sleeping Beauty – now in its 10th year – was the fastest-selling production in New Adventures’ history, and it’s easy to see why. Described as “a gothic love story”, Sleeping Beauty clearly has many an inspiration across film, TV and literature. The main inspiration for the story is less Disney and much more original folklore, as the story weaves narrative strands from different iterations of t...

The Comedy of Errors (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

8Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Comedy of Errors (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

A Shakespearean comedy set around two rival states and two sets of mismatched twins is brought back to life with its central theme of mistaken identity compounded by deliberate theatrical chaos and a cacophony of musical numbers from the 1980’s in this co-production from Shakespeare North and Stephen Joseph Theatre. An actor, Antipholus (David Kirkbride) arrives in a Yorkshire coastal town with his sidekick Dromio (Oliver Mawdsley) to perform his one man show, but there’s no audience as everyone has booked for a talent show across town starring the twin brother he’s never met, and whose sidekick is also named Dromio. The twin brother owes money but has promised his wife, Adriana (Alyce Liburd) a gold chain. With the Prescot brother falling for Adriana’s unmarried sister, Luciana (Ida...

Too Much World At Once – HOME, Manchester

7Mar

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Too Much World At Once – HOME, Manchester

In many ways, Noble is a totally normal 15-year-old boy: his Dad works away, he fights with his Mum about pretty much everything and his close relationship with his sister is in pieces as she has moved across the world to study the future of various bird species. Totally normal – until one day he feels the world pressing in, too much to handle… and he becomes a bird. Able to fly, to be free, to reach his sister, to escape from the family and the home that are crumbling around him. This great new play from Billie Collins is produced by stalwart supporters of new writing, the Box of Tricks theatre company. It cleverly uses the breakdown of the family environment as a metaphor for the breakdown of our ecosystem, making a strong point: “we did see this coming,” but without bashing you round...

6Mar

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Drowning – 53Two

After a successful tour in 2020, Dare To Know Theatre’s one-man, one-act show Drowning is back on the road. The debut play by writer and performer Jake Talbot garnered positive reviews on its first outing and this time around the show is taking in larger venues - like 53Two in Manchester. It’s even paying a visit to the nation’s capital. Any fears the team may have bitten off more than they can chew are soon assuaged. This is an accomplished piece of work, performed comfortably by an actor who knows the emotional and humorous beats of his tightly written script inside out. A black stage, empty aside from a square white box, is plunged into darkness. The haunting melodies of The Lathums’ Struggle fades away and a spotlight illuminates Josh. The 16-year-old is lying peacefully, sile...

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

3Mar

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Stunningly absorbing, this performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3 conducted by Domingo Hindoyan is unmissable. Considered as an archetype showpiece, the concerto is renowned for being a challenge and demands technical prowess - pianist Sergio Tiempo rises to this and more, demonstrating what a maestro he is. Composed in the summer of 1909, the concerto is composed for a solo piano and an orchestra. It is split into three sections and this performance takes all three of those on with barely sixty seconds between each. This is a performance of endurance as well as technical mastery. Sergio Tiempo was not originally billed to perform tonight, making his playing all the more impressive. Throughout most of his playing, he subtly smiles and loses himself in the intensity of pl...

The Beekeeper of Aleppo – Liverpool Playhouse

2Mar

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

The Beekeeper of Aleppo – Liverpool Playhouse

Of all the jobs in the world, one of the ones you’d probably least associate with Syria, is beekeeping. Based on the book by Christy Lefteri, who was a volunteer at a women and children’s refugee camp in Athens, the play tackles the topic of the Syrian war and a refugee and his wife, who leave Syria and are trying to seek asylum in the UK. With adaptations from a book and especially one that deals with such a serious issue as this one, it can be hard to get it right. Getting the message across in just the right way can be difficult, but this production from Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and UK Productions Ltd hits the spot. Getting the mix of serious and funny across was done extremely well and despite the subject matter, you left the theatre having had a thorou...

2Mar

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

Better Days – The Carlton Club

You don’t have to go far in Manchester to find a now grey haired 50 something who will become positively wistful should you mention words like Hacienda, doves and rave. They will enthusiastically monologue about the greatest years of their lives and the camaraderie they experienced amongst their peers. I have been guilty of this myself on occasion. Ben Tagoe’s poetic story tells of 19-year-old Danny’s journey from the violent football terraces of the late 1980’s to the euphoric dancefloors of the early 90’s. The piece makes a seamless transference from the pleasure felt from the ‘threat of beautiful violence’ within the subculture of football hooliganism to the absolute joy experienced within the subculture of an emerging ecstasy fuelled rave scene. Leaving his terraced home, clad in...