North West Archives - Page 76 of 179

24Feb

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Smiler – Pyramid Arts Centre

Soup Productions presented ‘Smiler’ at Warrington’s Pyramid Arts Centre written by Michael Pirks and Directed by Michael Ridd. Soup Productions is a relatively small theatre company that established itself in 2017 and has had one previous successful production of ‘Little Red’ which was performed in 2023. It is extremely rare that actors are blessed with new writings and are given the opportunities to use new material as nowadays everything is rehashed or is a reimagined versions of something that already exists. New material is so unique for actors to be given the scope to be a new character that has no stereotype and has only the characteristics from the genius’s head that it came out of. The actor has only the writers’ ideas that they can base and build the character on. The actor ...

Grieg’s Piano Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

23Feb

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Grieg’s Piano Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

“Easy on the banjos!” warned Eric Morecambe when André Previn (or Andrew Preview) famously attempted to conduct the Grieg Piano Concerto in the classic 1971 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. The one time I ever saw a banjo on stage with the RLPO my Facebook post quoting this zinging one-liner garnered precisely zero likes. It must be a generation thing. For this 2024 performance, Liverpool welcomed back its prodigal son and former Chief Conductor, Vasily Petrenko. Turning from the podium, orchestra poised to start, to acknowledge an errant mobile phone ringtone with a wry raise of the eyebrow, he held the audience in the palm of his hand - comic timing worthy of the much-missed double act themselves. First on the programme was Bohuslav Martinů’s La Bagarre, composed w...

23Feb

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

The BFG – Theatre Porto

Disley Theatrical Productions are back with their second production, the fantastic BFG. Originally written by Roald Dahl and adapted for the stage, DTP have done an incredible job at bringing this wonderful story to life at Theatre Porto in Ellesmere Port. Directed by Phil Cross, you can see from the off how much work has gone in to bringing this classic to life, but not in any ordinary way. This version invites the audience to dive into this new world with the use of inventive lighting, shadows, puppetry, and a wonderful imagination. You feel like you’ve been completely transported into a whole other universe which is run by Giants, easily losing yourself in that world with the incredible storytelling of this company. It's Sophie’s birthday and she receives The BFG book as her birth...

22Feb

By Paddy Darnell-WalshNo Comments

North West

Bouncers – Blackpool Grand

If your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in… Bouncers is back in Blackpool with a bang! Named as one of The National Theatre’s ‘Plays of the Century’, John Godber’s classic is at the Grand Theatre for a very limited run. With a contemporary introduction for a 2024 audience, Bouncers quickly returns to its roots. Keeping faith with Godber’s original script, packed with humour and nostalgia, this new production takes us back to the 1980s when disco was king, and everyone lived for the weekend. Les, Ralph, Judd and Lucky Eric (played wonderfully by George Reid, Tom Whittaker, Nick Figgis and Frazer Hammill respectively) take us on the journey back to relive a night in nightclub “Mr Cinders”. With an exhilarating, toe-tapping 80s soundtrack, this production is as fantastic for its ...

22Feb

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Edward Scissorhands – Empire Theatre

A magical production that is simply stunning! There is nothing like seeing a live ballet and when Matthew Bourne is the choreographer you know it will not disappoint. He is a magician of imagination and originality, bringing stories to life for contemporary audiences. Tim Burton’s gothic fantasy Edward Scissorhands, was a strange, yet hauntingly beautiful fairytale, which came to the cinema in the 1990s. Bourne developed this bittersweet story, and it was first performed in 2005 with subsequent tours. Despite seeing many of his other magnificent ballets, this was my first time seeing Scissorhands - and it was simply stunning! Bourne works his magic once again, to give us an enchanting visual feast for the eyes, as well as really bringing out the comedy moments, which the packed ho...

22Feb

By Grace AnnabelNo Comments

North West

Oliver – Northwich Memorial Court

This evening I had the pleasure of being transported back to 1830’s London for Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Company’s and Mid Cheshire Youth Theatre’s production of ‘Oliver’. Following a brief hiatus from producing full-scale musical productions, I was very excited to see MCMTC tackle such an iconic classic on its welcome return to the Northwich Memorial Court. The pre-show air of keen anticipation in the auditorium was tangible. Despite the challenges of such a complex and epic show to a family audience, the stellar production team, comprising of Lou Steggals (director) Jenna Finnigan (youth director & choreographer) and Marilyn Blank (musical director) did not disappoint. The musical follows the story of Oliver, a young orphan living in Victorian England. After escaping t...

Haunted Scouse – Liverpool’s Royal Court

16Feb

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Haunted Scouse – Liverpool’s Royal Court

A new play was upon us at the Liverpool Royal Court Theatre. Haunted Scouse by Gerry Linford, is a tale about husband Charlie (Michael Starke) who has sadly passed away, and he can’t complete his journey to the other side as there is something he needs to deal with first at home. His widow Molly (Lyn Francis) has turned to the bottle something she never used to do she feels alone as their son is in Australia. Molly blames herself for Charlie’s untimely death. All Charlie wants to do is give Molly a kiss and a hug just one more time as he is struggling with being on the other side but his guardian angel or should I say his auntie Peggy (Helen Carter) is on hand to guide him through to what he needs to do to get on to the other side. Charlie doesn’t like the fact that there is another gentle...

16Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sheila’s Island – Rainhill Village Hall

It’s Bonfire night and Sheila (Rosetta Parker), Denise (Jo Webster), Julie (Sophie Brogan), and Fay (Lynn Aconley) are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual outward-bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District. Our intrepid heroines find themselves manufacturing weapons from bras and spatulas and create a rescue flag with plastic plates and a toasting fork. Questions are asked; truths are told; dirty washing is aired: is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress? What is Julie’s husband really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this team building exercise when they could be at a spa? The only one with al...

16Feb

By Miranda GreenNo Comments

North West

Abigail’s Party – Hope Street Theatre

The Northern Comedy Theatre’s Abigail’s Party is another casualty of the closure of the Epstein. Relocated to the Hope Street Theatre, a tiny, intimate auditorium of just 85 cramped seats, located incongruously between a Masonic Hall, displaying the ritual paraphernalia of set squares and compasses, and the excellent Liverpool Arts Bar, the audience are projected almost on to the stage itself. Yet this only serves to foster the claustrophobic, pressure-cooker effect that this play demands. Devised in 1977 by Mike Leigh, the play observes the Classical Unities of time, action and place, depicting a drinks party thrown by the appalling Beverly (Kathryn Chambers) and her husband Laurence (Franklyn Jacks) for new neighbours Tony and Angela. Also present is Susan, who has been invited to ...

Shed: Exploded View – Royal Exchange Theatre

16Feb

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Shed: Exploded View – Royal Exchange Theatre

Back in 2019, in those halcyon pre pandemic days, Phoebe Eclair-Powell won the biannual Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and with it the opportunity to develop ‘Shed: Exploded View’ for production at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. Now, after an enforced hiatus of nearly four years, we finally get to see the startling and thought provoking theatre she produced, a piece of writing that will both challenge and engage its audience. The play follows the lives of three couples over a thirty year period from the mid-nineties to the present day as they negotiate the vicissitudes of married life, from the early promise of new love to the dark reality of a relationship breakdown, all the troughs and peaks are explored. We meet Frank (Jason Hughes) and Naomi (Lizzie Watts) in 1994, honeymooning ...