Helen Carter Archives - North West End UK

A Scouse Christmas Carol – Liverpool’s Royal Court

15Nov

By Anna SmithNo Comments

North West

A Scouse Christmas Carol – Liverpool’s Royal Court

A Scouse Christmas Carol – Liverpool’s Royal Court It may not be what Dickens had in mind when he wrote A Christmas Carol but A Scouse Christmas Carol directed by Mark Chatterton hits the mark providing laughter and mischief in the Royal Courts festive offering. Kevin Fearon has taken the traditional story by Charles Dickens shaken it up and given us a mix of ghosts, live music, humour and a murder mystery all delivered with heart, wit, warmth and festive fun. We laughed from the very first minute. Victorian London is brought to life with a beautiful cleverly designed set which makes full use of the revolving stage and the lighting sets the night time scenes. The live band are fantastic and a huge part of the show. Jacob Marley is dead but who has killed him? His widow, ...

7Mar

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

Shirley Valentine – Everyman Theatre

An absolute treasure of a play – a joy to behold!! I adore the Everyman theatre in Liverpool. Maybe because I was born and raised in Liverpool, or that the design of the theatre is so encompassing, almost like we the audience are part of the stage or because it’ a charitable theatre that always hosts astonishing shows. Added to that, the opportunity to watch a Willy Russell (Liverpudlian playwright also born and bred in the city) masterpiece, being performed back on the floorboards of this fabulous theatre, reviving the one-woman play to the stage where it premiered in 1986, a great homecoming as the final show in the theatre’s 60th year celebrations. This was not something me or my 92-year-old mother were going to miss! Willy Russell, who’s famous and fabulous shows includ...

Alice in Wonderland – Shakespeare North Playhouse

27Nov

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

Alice in Wonderland – Shakespeare North Playhouse

A fabulous theatre, a story of marvel and magic, at a pantomime time of year and excitement in bucket loads, this being the ingredients to the opening night for the journey into fantasy, written with brilliance by Nick Land and directed with creativity by Nathan Powell that greeted the packed theatre this evening. To greet the full house, there were children dancing in the foyer and magical colour-changing potions to add to orange juice with the famous quote from the book itself ‘drink me’ (now pour me), that had us all entwined in the world of Lewis Carroll from the onset. As the play started, the playing cards greeted the crowd, waving excitedly at children dressed as Alice in pale blue dresses or as Mad Hatters who all waved back with beaming smiles. The 4 cards on stage realis...

Boys From The Blackstuff – Liverpool’s Royal Court

23Sep

By Carole BaldockNo Comments

North West

Boys From The Blackstuff – Liverpool’s Royal Court

A standing ovation was a given, and Alan Bleasedale here to enjoy it, but I've never seen individual scenes applauded before. It's an astounding piece about the bitter struggle between employers, employees (Dole Office sniffers) and unemployed; men, once so proud of their skills, engulfed by the darkness of poverty and despair. A grand scale tragi-comedy, filled with microcosms: the second half seems like a series of vignettes, monologues and dialogues: fraught scenes between husband and wife, father and son, etc. On the one hand: farce, Freda (Helen Carter) in her hallway, caught between Malloy (Dominic Carter) at the back door, Angie at the front, the phone constantly ringing. Then Yosser, seeking to discover the meaning of life from the churches at each end of hope Street. Th set is ...

27Jun

By Tracy RyanNo Comments

North West

Offered Up – Royal Court Studio

How do you look anew at the issues thrown up by the now overwrought and at times morally exhausting #MeToo movement? Well, why not in a play set in the English Civil War? This first full-length work by local writer Joe Matthew-Morris not only deals with a huge variety of weighty issues - including sexual politics, abuse, trauma, the independence of women, class and politics, the weight of parental expectation, war and poverty - but is impressively almost uncategorizable genre-wise. (A fellow writer said it was a cross between Sleuth and Tarantino). It’s also well-nigh impossible to flesh out the plot without bringing major spoilers and story twists into play - but, here goes… It’s 1645 and inn keeper Willmas is grieving the loss of his wife, while trying to raise his teenage daughter Ro...

8Aug

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

Love, Liverpool – Liverpool Playhouse

Love, Liverpool, created by Chloë Moss and directed by Nathan Powell, is a tender and varied homage to Merseyside and its people. Combining video, stage performance and a vibrant soundscape, this is a love letter to a city and its surrounding areas, which exposes the high points and the low points, the good days and the bad, and focuses in on the core of love and hope which is left when all is said and done. Before the show opens, snippets of recordings of people’s memories of Liverpool, curated by Sound Designer, Xenia Bayer, play as a map is projected on the stage with the words “I love Liverpool” is various languages alternate over it. The play opens with a projected image of a Merseyrail train, and simple setting creating the journey from New Brighton to Liverpool. The first of a...

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse announce casting for Love, Liverpool

29Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse announce casting for Love, Liverpool

In roles inspired by original writing from Amina Atiq, Luke Barnes, Roy, Aron Julius, Mandy Redvers-Rowe, Inclueless Theatre and the people of Liverpool, separate lives intertwine to celebrate and interrogate the rich tapestry of everyday life in Liverpool. Performing a role inspired by his own work, Aron Julius is cast alongside fellow A Christmas Carol company member Helen Carter, and Our Lady of Blundellsands actor Nathan McMullen. Chloë Clarke, a visually impaired actor, will also perform in the stage production created from the award-winning, collaborative project Love, Liverpool: An A-Z of Hope. Love, Liverpool threads together the stories and shared spaces in Liverpool. Local writer Chloë Moss brings to life the original letters, commissioned in lockdown. Directing the cast, E...