North West Archives - Page 5 of 173

23Oct

By Johanna RobertsNo Comments

North West

Breaking the Code – Liverpool Playhouse

Occasionally, a production comes along that is so remarkable on so many levels you know it is going to stay with you for a very long time, and the current production of Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code fits that bill. I say ‘current production’, as I first saw this in London with Derek Jacobi, so my expectations were understandably high. However, this revived production surpassed all those expectations and then some. While the central element of Turing’s life is his work at Bletchley Park in breaking the Enigma code, the play reaches back into his boyhood and afterwards to his life as an academic to explore what inspired his brilliance at mathematics and cyphers and how society’s attitude towards his homosexuality drove him to suicide. The first two scenes, where the action jumps f...

22Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Albert Herring – The Lowry

English National Opera’s first official foray North sees director and designer Antony McDonald delightfully serve up Britten’s 1947 witty comic opera Albert Herring exposing the whimsy and hypocrisy at the heart of post-war British society. Lady Billows (Emma Bell) and her committee’s – aide Florence Pike (Carolyn Dobbin), headteacher Miss Wordsworth (Aoife Miskelly), vicar, Mr Gedge (Eddie Woods), Mayor, Mr Upfold (Mark Le Brocq), and Superintendent Budd (Andri Björn Róbertsson) of the local constabulary – attempts to identify a May Queen for the village come unstuck as they realise all the local girls are lacking the necessary virtuosity. The only option is the shy and reserved Albert Herring (Caspar Singh) who works at his mother’s (Leah-Marian Jones) greengrocers, where he is regula...

22Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Fiddler on the Roof – Palace Theatre

This 2024 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production has been cleverly restaged for an extensive UK tour, landing at the grand old Palace Theatre on Oxford Road for a two week stay from this evening, Whilst retaining all of the energy that makes this one of the most popular and profitable musicals in theatre history, Director Jordan Fein manages to place a liberal and humanitarian message about the plight of refugees in amongst a fantastic evening’s entertainment. The story centres around Anatevka, a village in Tsarist Russia at the start of the 20th Century, where Tevye (Matthew Woodyat) is the local Milkman, a pious soul struggling to bring up his five daughters with his wife Golde (Jodie Jacobs) in poverty, subject to the cruel whims of an uncaring system. His three oldest girls...

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

20Oct

By Johanna RobertsNo Comments

North West

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

This afternoon saw Vasiliy Petrenko making one of his welcome returns to the Philharmonic Hall, this time to conduct the orchestra in three pieces: Liadovs’s Baba-Yaga; Haydn’s Concerto in D Major for Cello and Orchestra (following a change in programme) and Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 7. Baba-Yaga, while lasting only three minutes, gave the orchestra ample opportunity to demonstrate their flair for storytelling, creating drama and tension to convey the menace of the iron-toothed witch stalking the forest in search of human children to eat, though the final chord suggests that – this time at least – her prey escaped. While the original programme had scheduled a concerto by the Russian-born composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas, reduced rehearsal time due to the breakdown of the...

19Oct

By Harry AltyNo Comments

North West

Black Power Desk – The Lowry

Set with the backdrop of the Black British civil rights movement in the 1970s, Urielle Klein-Mekongo’s original musical Black Power Desk shines a light on the underrepresented figurehead activists of the time. This heart-felt, humorous and powerful piece showcases that although times have moved on, the struggles of our cast of characters are just as relatable today. Mixing in real news reports from the time, the musical quickly creates an authentic representation of the mistreatment of the Black community during this era of British history. Our story centres around two sisters, Celia and Dina, who must navigate their place in a world that seems poised to tear them down, whilst also discover who they are after the passing of their mother. From the moment Rochelle Rose enters the stage as...

The Perfect Murder – Rainhill Village Hall

17Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Perfect Murder – Rainhill Village Hall

Director Rosetta Parker is guilty as charged for delivering the perfect murder drama with this production of Hugh Janes’ adaptation of a Jeffrey Archer short story. Set in England, the play centres around the murder of a young woman, and as the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that John (Peter Cliffe) is somehow involved in it and he confesses as such to his wife, Elizabeth (Tracey Duffy), who is determined to keep him out of prison. The police are soon on the case in the form of DI Simmons (Gerald Walker) and Sgt Davies (Rob Williams) and as they – and us – are bombarded with clues and the occasional sleight of hand, it is Paul (Dave Asbridge) who ends up getting charged. But did he commit it though? At No.4 Court of the Old Bailey the Judge (Liz Munro) has to decide with the c...

17Oct

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Young Frankenstein – Hope Mill Theatre

Mel Brooks’ musical adaptation of the 1974 black and white horror comedy Young Frankenstein made its UK debut in Newcastle back in 2017, before taking the West End by storm. Now, in celebration of Hope Mill’s 10th anniversary, this spine-tingling spoof has been reanimated for the spooky season. When esteemed neurosurgeon Dr Frederick Frankenstein learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather’s estate, a trip to Transylvania soon entices him into revisiting Victor’s outrageous experiments. Slick direction from Nick Winston ensures an excellent blend of sci-fi and silliness transfers from screen to stage; from flouting horror film tropes to dancing with double meanings, one scene effortlessly flows into the next as Dr Frederick and co descend into chaos. This remains both a sat...

16Oct

By Dan GrimesNo Comments

North West

1984 – Harlequin Theatre, Northwich

I have never visited the Harlequin Theatre in Northwich before and, my goodness, what a little gem it is! Unprepossessing from the outside, this 96-seater black box theatre is tucked away amidst cul-de-sacs and industrial units on the outskirts of Northwich town centre. It’s an intimate venue, which the Harlequin Players are clearly very adept at using to its full potential (it has been their home for forty-one years now). It proved to be the perfect space for their latest production, an in-house adaptation of George Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel, 1984. The narrative of the play centres on Winston Smith, an Ingsoc Party worker in the Ministry of Truth, and his conflict, both internal and external, with the regime, of which he is part. Set in a horrific near-future where totalitar...

16Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Maids – Unity Theatre

Inspired by the late Graeme Phillips, finessed by director Elinor Randle, and produced by Peter Ward, That Theatre Group CIC’s production of Jean Genet’s The Maids, translated by David Rudkin, is a masterly tour de force and a fitting tribute to a man who did so much for theatre in Liverpool. With their mistress (Jane Hogarth) away, two male maids, Solange (Samuel Perez Duran) and Claire (Cameron McKendrick) plunge into their darkest fantasies, in a twisted game, simmering with sexual tension, unravelling questions of modern slavery, gender identity, and power. The result is an absurd world where boundaries between reality and performance dissolve. Genet’s play was written in 1946 and, drawing upon a real-life murder case, critiqued the social and sexual hierarchies of the time t...

Dancing at Lughnasa – Royal Exchange Theatre

16Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Dancing at Lughnasa – Royal Exchange Theatre

Writer Brian Friel is universally regarded as one of the leading figures in English language drama, a reputation which seems to grow with every passing year since he died in 2015. The style of his work, examining the transitional culture and politics in Irish society in the 20th Century, has drawn serious comparisons with Miller, Williams and especially Anton Chekhov. This Autumn, in a continuation of their recent return to form, the Royal Exchange has teamed up with The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield to produce a spellbinding production of ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, Friel’s exploration of his memories of growing up in rural 1930s Ireland. The comparisons of Friel with Chekhov are a serious one; both writers work is set in communities on the cusp of radical change from rural to industrial ec...