North West Archives - Page 58 of 174

Rough for Radio II – The Tung Auditorium

3Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Rough for Radio II – The Tung Auditorium

Rough for Radio II is a Beckett radio play written in French as Pochade radiophonique and first published in 1975. Beckett translated the work into English shortly before its BBC Radio 3 broadcast on his birthday (13th April 1976). Director Vincent Higgins, in collaboration with Simon Ruding (TIPP), recorded this version in-situ with inmates at HM Prison Liverpool. A man, Animator, makes small talk with his young female stenographer (Orla Charlton): is she ready to get to work, does she have the tools of her trade? The interchange is light and familiar. He then consults a character called Dick: is he on his toes? It is his job after all to ‘encourage’ the prisoner, Fox, to talk with the use of a bull’s pizzle. Beckett’s dialogue cleverly explores the idea that the prisoner is in fact...

They Don’t Really Care About Us – Hope Street Theatre

3Jun

By Gill LewisNo Comments

North West

They Don’t Really Care About Us – Hope Street Theatre

An intelligent and authentic production with fire in its belly, which does well to tackle complex themes with passionate conviction. Provides an important lesson in the ongoing injustices and experiences of racial and sexist discrimination, leaving room for further development and exploration. TDRCAU is set in the 90s during the immediate aftermath of the murder of Stephen Lawrence. A landmark case in which a public inquiry into the handling of his brutal racially motivated murder eventually exposed institutional racism within the UK police and justice systems. We follow the story of medical student Dinesh Sharma (portrayed by co-writer and co-director, Sab Muthusamy), a local lad of Indian descent who finds himself regularly subject to derogatory racial comments from th...

C’est Moi Dans la Poubelle – Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

1Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

C’est Moi Dans la Poubelle – Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

When Ezra Pound was released, after twelve years, from the mental hospital he'd been committed to, he returned to Italy and lapsed into a long silence of deep regret and shame. This was not a vow of silence, just a depressed wordlessness - he felt he'd ruined everything, not least his own Cantos ('a botch - stupidity and ignorance all through'). He went to see Beckett’s Fin de Partie (Endgame in Paris) in which two of the characters, Nagg and Nell, live in trash bins. Pound reportedly broke his by now habitual silence to say ‘C’est moi dans la poubelle’ (‘That’s me in the trash’.). Beckett subsequently went to visit him in Venice and this short film, written by James Lever and directed by Michael O’Neill (Armchair & Rocket), is their reimagining of that meeting based on Beckett’s ac...

1Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Pas Moi / Not I – Toxteth Reservoir

Michael Cummins ensures Toxteth Reservoir is perfect as the pitch-black space illuminated only by a single beam of light which is focused on an actress’ (Clara Simpson) mouth with everything else blacked out around her in this production from Once Off Productions. The mouth utters jumbled up sentences at a ferocious pace and which obliquely tell the story of a woman of about seventy who was abandoned by her family after a premature birth and has lived a loveless, mechanical existence, and who appears to have suffered an unspecified traumatic experience. Virtually mute since childhood, this is one of her occasional outbursts in which she relates four incidents from her life: lying face down in the grass; standing in a supermarket; sitting on a mound in Croker’s Acre, and ‘that time at co...

31May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

All That Fall – Toxteth Reservoir

Beckett described this radio play, first broadcast on the BBC in 1957, as ‘a text written to come out of the dark’, and director Adrian Dunbar has certainly achieved that with his choice of location and the use of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 (D.810) to frame his re-imagining of a radio play whose dark-driven conclusion is hardly credible after the preceding slapstick and pantomime of the foley, with Michael Cummins’ technical direction in conjunction with Simon Roth’s sound design retaining Beckett’s orchestrated sound effects with cast (Orla Charlton, Anna Nygh, Vincent Higgins, Stanley Townsend, Frankie McCafferty) and musicians (Darragh Morgan (violin), Cora Venus Lunny (violin), Fiona Winning (viola), Tim Gill (cello)) positioned behind the audience. One of Beckett’s more acces...

La Dernière Bande (Krapp’s Last Tape) – Stanley Theatre, University of Liverpool

31May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

La Dernière Bande (Krapp’s Last Tape) – Stanley Theatre, University of Liverpool

On his sixty-ninth birthday, Krapp (Denis Lavant), as has become his custom, hauls out his old tape recorder to review one of the earlier years, and make a new recording commenting on the events of the previous twelve months. Whilst his younger self speaks to reveal an idealistic fool, will the passage of time reveal the kind of fool he has become? This is the UK debut of director Jacques Osinski’s production – which opened the Avignon Festival in 2019 – that, performed in French with English surtitles, exposes the bleakness of recorded life. Indeed, almost seventy years since it was written, this one-act play remains as relevant – perhaps more so – in 2024, when we can so easily identify with its themes of isolation, reflection, and loneliness following our experiences during the recen...

31May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sentient – Everyman Theatre

The world premiere of Sentient, a Beckett: Unbound 2024 Festival commission from choreographer Liz Roche, in collaboration with performer/composers Nathalie Forget and Nick Roth, is a major full-length work for six dancers (Sarah Cerneaux, Emily Terndrup, Mufutau Yusuf, Conor Thomas Doherty, Grace Cuny, Inez Berdychowska), saxophone and ondes Martenot, an early electronic musical instrument. As a response to an innocuous seeming passage in Samuel Beckett’s Molly where the author explores his wonder at the behaviour of bees – Beckett’s fascination came from German-Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch’s Nobel-prize winning description of the precise way in which bees communicate information through their orientation, height, and movement – the piece is designed to offer a new interpr...

30May

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Judy & Liza – Hope Mill Theatre

What an absolute joy and honour it was to attend "Judy & Liza" at the Hope Mill Theatre. And what a show! "Judy & Liza" is like the concert many have dreamt of but never had the chance to see. This vaudeville-style production revisits the brief but iconic history of Frances 'Baby' Gumm and her daughter, Liza May Minnelli, marking 60 years since they last performed together at the London Palladium. The show is so well-crafted and thoughtfully executed that you could almost forget you were watching actors and not the legends themselves. Helen Sheals as Judy and Emma Dears as Liza were the perfect pair, making the audience feel welcomed and at ease. Neither outshone the other; each had ample time to shine individually and together in numerous duets. Their performances were fille...

29May

By Manda ElizabethNo Comments

North West

Grease The Musical – Liverpool Empire

Grease The Musical has lightening bolted onto the stage of Liverpool’s Empire Theatre this week for some summer loving… much different to its movie counterpart it still promises a night choreographed to perfection and vocals worthy of mesmeric status. If you’re an avid fan of Grease the movie, you will notice the flow of the musical misses out some of the story but gives you alternative which supports the added musical numbers and characters which are highlighted more during the stage adaption.  We are introduced into Rydell High by Vince Fontaine, who we quickly warm to as our host and almost like the page turner from scene to scene, flowing the set changes with comedic charm and presence. In act one it seemed to be a warmup for the main debut in act two where we as the audience are...

29May

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

Sister Act – Buxton Opera House

Sister Act, the hit musical comedy directed by Bill Buckhurst is touring the UK and this week is at the beautiful Buxton Opera House. The larger than life production delivers an evening of joyous entertainment and powerful performances. Based on the beloved 1992 film, this production brings together a stellar cast, bright and bold staging and impeccable comedic timing. Former Coronation Street star Wendi Peters shines as Mother Superior, bringing a perfect blend of stern authority and underlying warmth to her role. Her comic timing and vocal prowess add depth to the character, making her a memorable anchor for the show. Landi Oshinowo as Deloris Van Cartier is a revelation. Her portrayal of the nightclub singer turned nun on the run is both heartfelt and hilarious. Oshinowo’s powerfu...