Margaret Connell Archives - North West End UK

Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse – Shakespeare North Playhouse

24Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse – Shakespeare North Playhouse

Kitty Wilkinson is the only female statue in Liverpool’s St George’s Hall, and she is brought to life by Samantha Alton to take us back to 1830’s Liverpool in a captivating one-woman show that tells an against all odds story of how a working-class Irish migrant girl, whose life was laden with poverty, loss, and hardship, fought the cholera epidemic and became a community champion. Shakespeare North Playhouse’s Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden provides the perfect backdrop for this intricate tale from celebrated local writer John Maguire which, told with humour and kindness, brings Kitty’s story centre stage under the direction of Margaret Connell as we are immersed in the world of a true heroine of the North. White sheets draping the open set provide the perfect backdrop for the narra...

The Liver Bird – Shakespeare North Playhouse

23Jul

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Liver Bird – Shakespeare North Playhouse

What if the Liver Bird really did exist? Charlie J (Tom Browning) has heard all about Liverpool’s famous Birds from his Grandma’s (Samantha Alton) stories but are they real? Has anybody seen one fly? When things start to get difficult at school and just when he needs it most, Charlie is visited by a very special creature… Shakespeare North Playhouse’s Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden is well and truly brought alive by this enchanting modern-day fairy-tale from writer John Maguire, adapted here for stage by Jessica Mae Buxton of The Bookworm Players and directed by Margaret Connell. Using the simplest of sets, our two talented actors bring all of their skills to the fore through mesmerising performances with mime and puppetry added in for good measure. There is a high level of interact...

25Jun

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Tick Tock – Hope Street Theatre

A new play was written and performed at Liverpool’s Hope Street Theatre called Tick Tock by Debbie Redcliffe (The Responder, Moving on). Before you ask, no I don’t mean the social media app where you can floss and lip Sync. This play Tick Tock, directed by Margaret Connell (Forgotten Voices and Blood Runs Deep). Follows the story of Sarah, Jenna and Pauline. Sarah (Debra Redcliffe) has dreams to be a mother, she was forever eating healthy, checking her temperature and when it was time to do the deed made sure her husband Danny knew about it. However, whilst trying it became clear that not all seemed right. The tests were negative, and hope was drifting away. Jenna’s life (Lisa McMahon) unfolded where she opened up about the miscarriages she had gone through. Whilst she had a family o...

Boss News Plays (Thursday) – Royal Court Studio

5Nov

By Blathine MaguireNo Comments

North West

Boss News Plays (Thursday) – Royal Court Studio

Boss New Play’s is a three night long annual showcase from some of the most fantastic and ambitious artists in Liverpool who are best known as the ‘Lantern Writers’. This group are an eclectic mix of semi-professional and amateur writers, and tonight’s show brings us three new pieces of work at varying stages of development. In the first slice of this showcase, we see ‘Jigsaw’ live on stage, which has been written by Mark Davoren. In this Kafkaesque drama, two couples meet over dinner for what seems to be a fairly normal ‘life catch-up’ event. One couple, made up of Harry (Conor Burns) and Emily (Jennifer Morrow), look like the perfect pair with well-paid jobs and two children, they really seem to have it all. In contrast, Leah (Faye Draper) and Pete (Christopher James) are struggling a...

19Oct

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Forgotten Voices – Hope Mill Theatre

The adaptable Hope Mill Theatre hosted the one woman show inspired by the life of Eva Moorhead Kadalie the wife of Clements Kadalie first black national trade union leader from South Africa. Shareesa Valentine whose stage and tv credits include Band of Gold, Hollyoaks, The Syndicate, Dumping Ground and Last Tango in Halifax played Eva a strong South African woman who was reflecting on her life and the transitions through the voices in her head that had been forgotten or suppressed that made her the female she was just before she was about to embark on the last journey to a new life in England with her son Victor. ‘Forgotten Voices’ was written by David Moorhead the grandson of Eva who stated in an interview "My grandmother was glamorous and warm hearted but beneath lay a complex pers...