Samantha Alton Archives - North West End UK

By the Waters of Liverpool – Floral Pavilion

25Oct

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

By the Waters of Liverpool – Floral Pavilion

Pulse Stage Productions in association with Bill Elms bring the follow up to Twopence to cross the Mersey, By the Waters of Liverpool, to the Floral Pavilion for its final date of the UK tour. By the Waters of Liverpool continues to tell the story of Helen Forrester (Emma Mulligan) and her family in the 1930s as they have been forced to leave behind their nannies, servants and middle-class life as Helen’s father went bankrupt during the Great Depression. The story is told through narration by the actors themselves, talking to the audience to set the scene or tell you how their characters are feeling, which is where, at points, it became a little confusing as there is no separation from dialogue to narration, the actors just continued talking within the scene, feeling quite disjoin...

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...

19Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

ArtsGroupie to play brand new Shakespeare North Playhouse

Local Northern heritage and theatre CIC, Artsgroupie play the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Gardens July 23rd and 24th at the new Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot. “We are ecstatic to see two of our productions come alive in this exciting new theatre space. The Liver Bird and Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse celebrate two Iconic Northern favourites. Both shows champion Northern history and community spirit. Audiences are encouraged to embrace their imaginations and enjoy the classic oral tradition of storytelling.” John Maguire, Creative Director THE LIVER BIRD – a fun interactive performance for all the family What if the Liver Birds really did exist? Charlie J has heard all about Liverpool’s famous Birds from his Grandma’s stories but are they real? Has anybody seen one fly? When th...

A Brief Conversation about the Inevitability of Love – Bombed Out Church

14Jul

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

A Brief Conversation about the Inevitability of Love – Bombed Out Church

Ian Salmon’s A Brief Conversation about the Inevitability of Love, directed by Mikee Dickinson, is a sweet romance about the almosts and what might have beens that everyone has buried in their memories. Mark (Thomas Galashan) and Cathy (Samantha Alton) are discussing their past relationships. Mark’s ex-wife Suzanne hates all of his friends, and he hates hers, while Cathy’s relationship with Philip was plagued by his serial infidelity. Both Galashan and Alton are dressed casually, with a similar colour scheme, which brings them together as characters. Cool blue light warms up to medium pink giving the play an eerie, dreamlike quality. The piece is very funny throughout with tongue in cheek humour as the characters make fun of each other. Height is cleverly used as the actors move f...

Deathly Confessions – Liverpool Theatre Festival

15Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Deathly Confessions – Liverpool Theatre Festival

Amidst a global pandemic we laugh about death in these four darkly comic monologues. On an unseasonably warm September evening Liverpool Theatre Festival hosted this performance written by Emma Culshaw and David Paul in St Luke’s Church, the socially distanced venue for the festival, which is an iconic roofless, bombed out church building which has become a centre for arts and performance. There was a cautious audience keen to welcome back live theatre, the stage was sparse with wooden boxes and very little in the way of costume, lighting or audio effects, so it was the ability of the actors that was to keep the audience enthralled. First up was Thomas Galashan as a guilt-ridden ex-soldier revisiting the site of a war time tragedy. Telling his tale whilst swigging from a hip flask an...