Chris Davey Archives - North West End UK

19Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dancing at Lughnasa – Crucible Theatre

Riveting and far reaching, a masterclass of storytelling. The Sheffield Theatres and Royal Exchange Theatre Production of Dancing at Lughnasa is inspired by its renown writer’s own life and Brian Friel’s powerful play is given an outstanding outing by the new Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Elizabeth Newman. Newman’s vision is crisp, captivating and concise, disregarding sentimentality and instead allowing the audience to witness the societal change on a generation with great intricacy and care. It is harvest time in 1936, rural Donegal, Ireland and we meet the five unmarried Mundy sisters. Their lives are marred with hardship yet laced with unfulfilled and often hidden dreams and in one season their mundane lives are changes irrevocably. Enter Uncle Jack, a clergyman of the...

2Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Croft – Liverpool Playhouse

Returning to the stage for a second life after its original run, under the direction of Philip Franks, was curtailed due to the pandemic, revival director Alastair Whatley successfully oversees changes to the original cast and script in this intriguing and intelligent piece of theatre from writer Ali Milles based on a true story. Beginning in the present day, Laura (Gracie Follows) has brought her lover, Suzanne (Caroline Harker), to the Highlands to stay in her parents’ holiday home, a former crofter’s cottage, primarily to focus on their burgeoning relationship, but where the challenges of its remoteness and isolation from the modern world play on Suzanne’s need to stay in touch with an ex-husband and two teenage children, and the nature of their relationship provides much consternati...

16Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: The Magic Flute – Lowry

Opera North’s English Version of Mozart’s two-act opera hints at the fantasy but lacks the magic necessary for the classic fairy tale rescue of a princess by a handsome prince. Tamino (Egor Zhuravskii), a young prince, is being pursued by a terrible dragon and in his attempt to escape he passes out and is unknowingly saved by three mysterious Ladies (Charlie Drummond; Katie Sharpe; Hazel Croft). As they depart to alert the Queen of the Night (Naomi Quant) to his presence, Tamino regains consciousness only to meet another strange figure, that of Papageno (Emyr Wyn Jones), the bird catcher, who also works for the Queen, and deceitfully claims to have defeated the monster. He is punished when the three Ladies return by having his tongue sealed with a magic spell. Tamino is presented with a...

Catch Me If You Can – The Alexandra, Birmingham

26Apr

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

Catch Me If You Can – The Alexandra, Birmingham

This thrilling mystery based on the play Trap for a Lonely Man by French writer Robert Thomas arrives in Birmingham this week. Not to be confused with the Leonardo Di Caprio film of the same name, this American adaptation written by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, Catch Me If You Can tells the story of newly married Daniel Corban. Daniel and his wife have gone to the mountains for their honeymoon when Elizabeth Corban goes missing. While the police are searching, Elizabeth returns, but Daniel is adamant the woman is not his wife. Is he losing his mind or is something more sinister going on? With a single room set throughout and a small cast, Patrick Duffy as Daniel Corban is on stage for most of the play. He convincingly portrays the desperation and determination of his character ...

26Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Cat and the Canary – Opera House

With Halloween upon us and the clocks going back at the weekend, our thoughts turn to entertainment of the scary variety, therefore an old-fashioned thriller set in a creepy house should be just what is required as the nights draw in. Unfortunately, the production of 'The Cat and the Canary' which began its week-long run at the Manchester Opera House this evening was a huge disappointment. As a thriller it wasn't scary, as a comedy it wasn't funny, and it wasn't camp enough to be interesting as a pastiche of the genre. Based on the 1921 play by John Willard and adapted by Carl Grose, the production wore its 100 years heavily, with the usual tropes that one would associate with a thriller of this vintage. Creepy old mansion - check; assortment of characters assembled and trapped against ...