Sam Duxbury Archives - North West End UK

6Dec

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Pantoville – St Thomas’s Church Hall

Written & directed by Michael Pirks Returning once again to review a Michael Pirks Soup Production feels less like an assignment and more like coming home. Since first meeting Pirks in 2024, I’ve been hooked on his brilliantly spirited writing, and Pantoville - my fifth of his shows, proves yet again that his creative well runs deep and delightfully wild. While his previous works I’ve seen have been plays, this venture into pantomime is nothing short of a triumphant stroke of genius. With all the essential ingredients of a classic panto - singing, dancing, audience participation and of course the timeless cries of “He’s behind you!” and “Oh no you didn’t!”, Pirks not only honours the tradition but elevates it. The script is enriched with beloved Disney and storybook characters, g...

Checkout – St John’s United Reformed Church Hall

Soup Productions presented ‘Checkout’ staged in St John’s United Reformed Church Hall, Warrington. Set in the bustling aisles of the fictional discount store Super Save, ‘Checkout’ written by the fabulous Mike Pirks and Sam Duxbury is a warm-hearted yet emotionally resonant play skilfully blending comedy with timely social commentary. Featuring initially a core trio of supermarket workers navigating daily life, difficult customers, however, this production delivers more than just laughs. The story centres on three colleagues: Tracy (Karen Hewitt) with leadership, calming qualities and compassion, Marlena (Lisa Rhodes) a brilliant boisterous bold sharp witted flirtatious singleton and Molly (Louise Wright) in a touching, vulnerable but hilarious performance. The chemistry is palpable ...

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 ...