PAUL Sinha, Morgan Rees and Bethany Black form the triple bill for Candlelit Comedy at Carlton Towers, near Selby, on Saturday.
For one night only, the Picture Gallery in this Grade I listed country house will play host to a brace of stand-up bills by candlelight at 7pm and 9.15pm.
Luton-born doctor, quizzer and comic storyteller Sinha is best known as The Sinnerman, one of six Chasers on ITV quiz The Chase, as well as for his appearances on Taskmaster and once played Abanazar in the Grand Opera House pantomime in York, playing opposite Debbie McGee and Suzanne Shaw in Three Bears Productions’ Aladdin in 2016-2017.
Rees is a BBC New Comedy Award finalist with an offbeat style and self-deprecating charm, while Black is a trailblazing voice in British comedy with a darkly humorous, fearless manner.
Morgan Rees
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Carlton Towers’ Victorian interiors, the night offers a fresh way to experience the house: blending heritage, atmosphere and live comedy in a new format. Drinks will be available throughout the event, which is curated by HeritageXplore, a new platform set up to celebrate British independent heritage houses through imaginative cultural programming.
By bringing bold, modern events into historic spaces, HeritageXplore seeks to connect new audiences with the stories, spaces and character of these family homes.
Jimmy Bryant: First name out of the pirate’s hat to be confirmed for The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan at Grand Opera House, York
COMEDY turn Jimmy Bryant will brew up a storm of laughter on his return to the Grand Opera House, York, in UK Productions’ swashbuckling pantomime The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan: The Return Of Captain Hook.
After shining as Buttons in Cinderella, the Cumberland Street theatre’s most successful panto ever, Bryant will take to the high seasas Smee from December 5 to January 3 2027 with his combination of comic timing, glorious chaos and heart-warming mischief.
“I’m absolutely pixie-dust levels of thrilled to be sailing back to the Grand Opera House, York!” says actor, comic performer and immersive theatre enthusiast Jimmy. “Last year’s audiences were honestly unforgettable, and the thought of stepping back onto that stage gives me goosebumps.
“Smee is such a brilliantly bonkers character – loyal, chaotic, always in the wrong place at the wrong time – and I promise we are going bigger, bolder and sillier than ever before.
“This show is packed with spectacle, surprises and so much heart. York, get ready, because this Christmas we’re not just going to Neverland…we’re going to blow the roof off it!”
Grand Opera House theatre director Allie Long enthuses: “Cinderella was our most successful pantomime to date, and that was due in no small part to Jimmy’s brilliant and hilarious turn as Buttons.
“We’re thrilled to have Jimmy returning, and we can’t wait to welcome him — along with the rest of The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan cast — to the stage for what promises to an unforgettable pantomime season at the Grand Opera House.”
It’s Smee: Jimmy Bryant in the poster for UK Productions’ 2026 pantomime at the Grand Opera House, York
UK Productions producer Martin Dodd adds: “We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Jimmy Bryant back aboard at the magnificent Grand Opera House, York, for this year’s panto, which is going to be to be a ship-shape riot!
“Jimmy’s Smee will be a masterclass in comic chaos, the perfect first mate to mischief, mayhem and a certain ticking crocodile lurking in the wings. There’ll be pirates, planks and plenty of hooks, but the biggest catch this Christmas is your ticket. So, hoist the mainsail, gather your crew and hook your tickets now!”
Bryant’s theatre credits include Cockfosters (Southwark Playhouse), Costard in Love’s Labour’s Lost (Cockpit Theatre), Al Capone in Peaky Blinders: The Rise, Herr Kutte in Jack & The Beanstalk (Cheltenham Playhouse), In The Dead Of The Night(UK tour), Doctor Who: Time Fracture (BBC/Immersive Everywhere) and The Immersive Wolf Of Wall Street (Stratton Oakmont Productions).
Among his film credits are Morris in PINKY! (ESA Films) and ROBBED The Movie, written and directed by Bryant.
Uniting leading UK pantomime producer UK Productions with the Grand Opera House for the fifth time, The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan is designed to appeal to families, offices, families and friendship groups alike.
Audiences are invited to “race to book before the best seats walk the plank”. “In panto land, it’s never too early to secure your spot, because once tickets start flying, they’ll be gone quicker than Peter Pan with a sprinkling of pixie dust. Grab your seats now before they’re swallowed by the crocodile,” reads the press release.
Further casting will be announced. Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Hadfield as Hercule Poirot in Death On The Nile, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, from March 3 to 7. Picture: Manuel Harlan
MARK Hadfield arrives at the Grand Opera House, York, next Tuesday to play legendary private detective Hercule Poirot in the European premiere of a new stage version of Death On The Nile, carrying the approval of none other than Sir Kenneth Branagh.
The two actors are friends. “He’s been incredibly encouraging,” says Mark of his conversations with Sir Kenneth, who has played Agatha Christie’s fastidious puzzle solver in three film outings marked by his moustache topiary.
Encouragement came from Michael Maloney too, another actor friend who took on the role of the Belgian sleuth in the tour of Murder On The Orient Express that visited York last March.
As with the UK and Ireland tour of Death On The Nile, that Fiery Angel production combined Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of a Christie novel by Ken Ludwig with direction by Lucy Bailey.
“They both encouraged me to do this because they said, ‘you will have so much enjoyment in bringing him to life’,” says Mark of Branagh and Maloney. “And I think Death On The Nile is one of Christie’s best stories, so that also drew me in.
“Poirot’s journey within it is fascinating to play, because he goes from being on what he thinks is a relaxing holiday to having to solve a murder.”
The killing in question happens in 1937 when Poirot is holidaying on a luxury steamer on the River Nile in Egypt, where a couple’s idyllic honeymoon is cut short by a brutal murder. Once secrets buried in the sands of time resurface, can the world-famous detective untangle the web of lies to solve the case?
On tour from last October in Salford to May 23 in Plymouth, Mark is following in the orderly steps of Maloney, Branagh, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and David Suchet in playing Poirot, a familiar character that has elicited myriad interpretations. “The challenge is to try and incorporate people’s expectations but also to bring in a few surprises,” he says.
“I’m not expecting people to say, ‘oh my God, that was the most original Poirot I’ve ever seen’ by giving him a punk hairdo or what have you. But I hope to find that balance of pleasing people while leaving them going, ‘we haven’t seen that before’.”
After solving a murder on the Orient Express, Poirot is heading into his later years. “He may even be thinking of retiring,” suggests Mark. “He talks about old age and life having passed him by. There’s more of a hint of melancholy than people might be used to from him.”
Mark hopes next week’s audiences will find Death On The Nile to be “delicious, like opening a two-tray box of chocolates where you enjoy the first layer so much that you have to have the second layer too.
Christie’s story combines escapism with a timeless theme. “It’s gloriously evocative of travel in that time, but it’s also about how we should nurture love and try to be as kind as we can,” says Mark. “That’s something we could learn from with everything that’s going on at the moment.”
Mark has performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Sheffield’s Crucible and Lyceum theatres but never in York previously. “York’s theatres have eluded me, though I have visited the city. This will be my first time on a York stage, so I’m really looking forward to it,” he says.
Most memorably on a Yorkshire stage, “I did the original West Yorkshire Playhouse production of The 39 Steps with Fiery Angel in June 2005,” says Mark, who played myriad roles in the guise The Clown in Patrick Barlow’s adaptation, directed by Fiona Buffini.
In another first for Mark, “Death On The Nile is the first time I’ve worked on a production with Lucy [Bailey], though I’ve known her for a long time and I’ve done workshops with her on other projects.
“Very kindly Lucy was very keen for me to do it, and it does help a great deal that the director has seen you have the capability for the part, especially one as illustrious as Poirot.”
Mark continues: “I was desperate to do it, and knowing that Lucy was keen, I didn’t need much convincing, though I had an elderly mother to think about – when ruminating over whether I could do the tour.
“That’s why I met up with Kenneth [Branagh] and Michael [Maloney], the previous Poirots. We met up at a Tottenham match, as Kenneth is a devoted Spurs fan – I’m a Manchester United fan – and he said ‘you have to do it’. That helped with the decision because it was nice to have that support.
Mark Hadfield – with grey moustache – at the publicity photographic shoot for Fiery Angel’s tour of Death On The Nile. Picture: Jay Brooks
“When we met up again, Kenneth shared his research for the role, where he said the thing that struck him most about Poirot was his kindness – when there are so many facets you could pick out: his meticulous attitude, his aloofness. So that was something that stayed in my mind.”
As for Michael Maloney, “he said he loved creating characters and that Poirot had been a joy,” says Mark. “I’ve been finding that too, and I keep finding more, little things where I think, ‘I’ll try that’ as he’s a multi-faceted character and an absolute pleasure to play.”
Mark’s research had included reading film historian Mark Aldridge’s 2020 book Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective In The World, covering the character’s evolution across novels, stage, radio and screen from 1920 to 2020, the centenary of his debut.
This informs his playing of a role that combines familiarity with flexibility. “I know all the performances that have been done on screen, apart from John Malkovich [in BBC One’s The ABC Murders in 2018],” he says.
“I’ve not ignored the likes of Peter Ustnov and Albert Finney, as well as David Suchet. Peter and Albert were so memorable, partly because they each had a very different look, like Albert going for Poirot’s vanity, whereas Peter’s Poirot was very charming and avuncular. With David Suchet, it was the precise, physical aspect.”
Mark’s research also took in reading Christie’s first detective novel, Poirot’s debut in The Mysterious Affair At Styles. “As it’s his first appearance, you get a bit of background, how he came over from Belgium in the First World War, in which he served and was injured, arriving here as a refugee, like Kenneth showed in Murder On The Orient Express.
“I’ve gone for the physicality of Poirot being in his sixties, with a slight limp, using the cane as a necessity, rather than as a fashion accessory. By Death In The Nile, he’s been through a lot, where he’s got to the point where, if he could, he would retire.
“The script backs this up, where he’s reflecting on his life and growing old, where the lovers on board seem incredibly young, whereas he’s an older man who’s seen too much and grown tired.
Mark continues: “It’s a great leap for the audience to see this man who, in the first half, is looking forward to the trip with the colonel [Colonel Johnnie Race], going up the Nile for rest and recuperation, but then the murder occurs, and he has to revert to being the Poirot everyone expected him to, with him finding this murder particularly distasteful.”
Mike Britton’s set design opens at the British Museum before the luxurious paddle steamer takes centre stage. “It’s a two-tier set with the lover dying on the upper deck,” says Mark. “What we want to achieve is a very claustrophobic feeling, where Mark creates such spaces as a cabin and a saloon by using sliders.
“Theatrically, you have to keep cranking up the tension until the denouement, where you know that everyone on board is a suspect and the intrigue builds as to who’s done it, as everyone has a back story in relation to the character who’s murdered. Everyone has a motive for committing the crime.
“The theatrical setting heightens that tension and suspense, as do the sound effects of Mic Pool, who I worked with previously at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.”
Britton’s set looks “absolutely gorgeous and sumptuous”, says Mark. “He’s done the fabulous costume designs too. He’s done a lot of research to capture the socialite world aboard the steamer in 1937. Everybody looks immaculate.”
Mark’s Poirot will, of course, have a moustache. “It’s quite a challenge as moustaches are mentioned a lot with Poirot, though I know there were films made in the 1930s where Poirot didn’t have a moustache, which caused confusion [Irish actor Austin Trevor’s Poirot in 1931’s Alibi, Black Coffee and Lord Edgware Dies],” he says.
“I haven’t gone for the severity of Kenneth or David’s moustache. I’m greying quite rapidly, and when we did the photos for the press releases, you can see mine is quite grey, but that doesn’t have a dynamic look on stage, where it has to be darker – and I did read that Poirot dyed his hair and moustache.
“I’m letting my moustache grow – so, yes, it’s genuinely attached! – and it’s become a smart, reverent gesture towards moustache twiddling . My wife complains ‘Will you stop playing with your moustache’, but I just can’t stop! It will grow even more, so it does have its own character.”
Glynis Barber’s romantic novelist Salome Otterbourne in Fiery Angel’s Death On The Nile. Picture: Jay Brooks
AMONG those joining Mark Hadfield’s Poirot on the steamer on the Nile will be flamboyant romance novelist Salome Otterbourne, played by Glynis Barber. “In the play, she’s very different to how she is in the book and in the various films – and she’s quite a character, which makes her fun to play,” she says.
“She is larger than life and she brings a lot of energy to the stage. She’s the loudest, bubbliest and most theatrical character, that’s for sure.”
A further draw for Glynis was the team behind Death On The Nile. “Lucy [Bailey] is a fabulous director and Fiery Angel is an amazing company. Plus this one hasn’t been done on stage before in the UK, so that makes it exciting,” she says.
A version of the play was staged in Washington, but now Ken Ludwig has rewritten it for its European premiere. “And the response has been phenomenal,” says Glynis. “I’ve had so many messages from people I know – and people I don’t know- going, ‘I definitely want to see that’. I’ve even got one friend who is flying in from Spain to Edinburgh to see it.”
Death On The Nile is her first theatre work since The Best Man in 2018 in London’s West End. “After the pandemic, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to return to it, because, after being isolated for all that time, I’d gotten cold feet,” says Glynis.
“But the fact that it’s a scary prospect is a good reason to do it, and I thought, ‘if I am going to go back to theatre, this is a really good play to do so with.”
Glynis understands the lure of a Christie story on stage. “The plots keep you guessing and they’re a very good way to escape the world for a couple of hours,” she says. “Who doesn’t want a bit of that, especially these days?”
Highlighting the central theme, Glynis says: “It’s about love, which is deeply pertinent for every age, and in this story it’s a very profound theme. Unless we all become AI bots, love is universal and that is something that will never change.”
Fiery Angel presents Death On The Nile, Grand Opera House, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, circa 1829-1832, from Making Waves at York Art Gallery. Picture: courtesy of Maidstone Museum
JAPANESE prints, a Belgian detective, a Tudor queen and a West Riding pioneer are all making waves in Charles Hutchinson’s early March recommendations.
Exhibition launch of the week: Making Waves, The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, York Art Gallery, until August 30, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
MAKING Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print presents Japanese art and culture in more than 100 striking and iconic works from renowned artists, such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro, among many others.
At the epicentre of this intriguing insight into the history and development of Japanese woodblock printing is the chance to see Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, one of the most recognisable and celebrated artworks in the world. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Phoenix Dance Theatre in Interplay, premiering at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Connectivity of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, today, 2pm and 7.30pm
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!) Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin.
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Death On The Nile: European premiere of Ken Ludwig’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Murder mystery of the week: Fiery Angel presents Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile, Grand Opera House, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
AFTER tours of And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express, Death On The Nile reunites director Lucy Bailey, writer Ken Ludwig and producers Fiery Angel for the European premiere of a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile.
On board a luxurious cruise under the heat of the Egyptian sun, a couple’s idyllic honeymoon is cut short by a brutal murder. As secrets buried in the sands of time resurface, can Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Mark Hadfield), untangle the web of lies? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lara Stafford’s Anne Boleyn, with the masked ladies of the Tudor court behind her, in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn. Picture: Paul Hutson
Historical drama of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Anne Boleyn, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Black Treacle Theatre presents Howard Brenton’s account of one of England’s most important and intriguing historical figures: Tudor lover, heretic, revolutionary, queen Anne Boleyn (played by Lara Stafford).
Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King’s bed, or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne – and her ghost – re-emerges in a very different light in Brenton’s epic play, premiered by Shakespeare’s Glove Theatre in 2010. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, as Anne Lister, rehearsing for Northern Ballet’s Gentleman Jack. Picture: Colleen Mair
Premiere of the week: Northern Ballet and Finnish National Opera and Ballet in Gentleman Jack, Leeds Grand Theatre, March 7 to 14, except March 8 and 9, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees on March 12 and 14
THIS groundbreaking new ballet marks a trio of ‘firsts’: the first time the story of Anne Lister has been told through ballet, the first large-scale commission for Northern Ballet since 2021 and the first under artistic director Federico Bonelli.
Yorkshirewoman Anne, the “first modern lesbian”, lived, dressed and loved as she desired, not as 19th century society expected of her. Northern Ballet’s interpretation of her life is choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, leading a female artistic team that includes Sally Wainwright, writer of the BBC/HBO television series Gentleman Jack. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Obert String Quartet: Opening York Late Music’s 2026 concert programme at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate. Picture: Drew Forsyth and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (top left and bottom left)
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music, Obert String Quartet, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, March 7, 7.30pm
SALFORD’S Obert String Quartet explores themes of transformation, spirituality, and mortality in a celebration of performers and composers from the North of England, pairing Schubert’s Death And The Maiden (String Quartet No. 14 in D minor) with new miniature works written in response by Northern Composers Network members Jenny Jackson (Flex), Hayley Jenkins (Give Me Your Hand), Ben Gaunt (Skulls, Various), James Cave (Rouffignac) and James Else (Still Movement).
The first half comprises Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, curator Else’s On The Wind and Bradford-born Steve Crowther’s String Quartet No. 2. Violinist Lisa Obert, Jackson, Gaunt, Cave and Else take part in a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Box office: latemusic.org.
Del Amitri’s Justin Currie, left, and Iain Harvie: Cherry-picking from four decades of songs at York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Del Amitri, Past To Present UK Tour 2026, November 16
GLASGOW band Del Amitri will open their 17-date Past To Present autumn tour at York Barbican, where core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will mark four decades of songs, stories and live shows.
The career-spanning set list will chart their early breakthroughs, classic singles such as Nothing Ever Happens, Always The Last To Know and Roll To Me, fan favourites and recording renaissance after an 18-year hiatus with 2021’s Fatal Mistakes. Box office: www.gigsandtours.com, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.
York Community Choir Festival 2026: Showcase for 43 choirs at Joseph Rowntree Theatre
In Focus:Festival of the week: York Community Choir Festival 2026, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 1 to 7
THE annual York Community Choir Festival brings together choirs of all ages to perform in a wide variety of singing styles on each bill. Across the week, 43 choirs take part in nine concerts, making the 2026 event the largest yet.
Concert programmes feature well-known classical and modern popular songs, complemented by show tunes, world music, folk song, gospel, jazz and soul. Performances start at 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow; 7.30pm, March 2 to 6; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, March 7.
Sunday, March 1, matinee
Stagecoach York Show Choir, Singing Communities Poppleton, Selby Youth Choir, Aviva Vivace! and The Stray Notes.
Sunday, March 1, evening
Easingwold Community Singers, Some Voices, Supersingers, Harrogate Male Voice Choir and Heworth Community Choir.
Monday, March 2
Huntington School Choirs, Tadcaster Community Choir and Community Chorus.
Tuesday, March 3
York Military Wives Choir, Jubilate, Sing Space York Musical Theatre Choir, Garrowby Singers and The Abbey Belles.
Wednesday, March 4
Elvo Choir, Sounds Fun Singers, In Harmony, Euphonics and Stamford Bridge Community Choir.
Thursday, March 5
Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus, Cantar Community Choir, York City Harmonisers, Stamford Bridge Singers and York Rock Choir.
Friday, March 6
Ryedale Voices, Eboraca, The Wellbeing Choir, Bishopthorpe Community Choir and Harmonia.
Saturday, March 7, matinee
The Leveson Centre Choir, Fairburn Singers, The Bridge Shanty Crew,The Rolling Tones and York Celebration Singers.
Saturday, March 7, evening
Pocklington Singers, Sound Fellows, Stonegate Singers, Main Street Sound and York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir.
Tickets are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk; proceeds go to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Lara Stafford’s Anne Boleyn and Nick Patrick Jones’s Henry VIII rehearsing for Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn. Picture: Jim Paterson
MOVE over Six The Musical with its six wives of Henry VIII competing in song for the right to be the queen of queens.
The focus falls on only one of his brides, his second pick, Anne Boleyn, in Howard Brenton’s play of that title, to be staged by York company Black Treacle Theatre at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from March 3 to 7.
Anne Boleyn, you will recall, was the first beheaded one, exiting stage left on May 19 1536, when charged with adultery and incest, her execution conducted by a skilled French swordsman inside the Tower of London, where she was she was forced to kneel in the French style to be given the chop.
So much for the history. Brenton’s play, premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in 2010 to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, presents the story of “one of England’s most important and intriguing historical figures”.
“Lover, heretic, revolutionary, queen, Anne Boleyn has been a figure of fascination ever since her momentous courtship with Henry VIII that led to the English Reformation and Henry’s break with the Catholic Church,” says Black treacle director Jim Paterson
“Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King’s bed, or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne – and her ghost – are seen in a very different light in Brenton’s epic play.”
Anne Boleyn director Jim Paterson
Winner of Best New Play at the Whatsonstage.com Awards in 2011, the play has a dual focus, both on Anne’s life from her arrival at court and on James I’s attempts to bring warring religious factions together as the ripples of her marriage and death continue to reverberate through England decades later.
Whereupon Anne comes alive for him, a brilliant but reckless young woman, whose marriage and death transformed the country forever.
“This is a dynamic, dramatic and often very funny play that helps us look at both Anne Boleyn and the birth of the Church of England in a new way,” says Jim. “The reign of Henry VIII and establishment of the Church of England is one of England’s ‘creation myths’, which shapes how we think about the country and the moments and actions it is built on.
“Brenton’s play asks us to reconsider this outside of the history books, particularly through the clever juxtaposition of the early days of James I’s reign, as he grapples with clashing religious factions, and the intrigue and politics of Henry’s court and Anne’s attempts to forge her own path through it.”
Jim continues: “In fact, this year marks 500 years since Henry’s courtship of Anne began in earnest in 1526. So it felt like serendipity to stage this play, which makes us reconsider who Anne was, and what an important figure she is in our history.”
Taking the role of protagonist Anne Boleyn and antagonist Henry VIII will be Lara Stafford and Nick Patrick Jones. “I’m playing a woman in a lead part in a play and neither of those has happened since The House Of Bernarda Alba in 2009,” says Lara, who worked as an actor, including at York Dungeon and, for a while, in Hindi films in India, before retraining as a physics teacher.
Lara Stafford’s Anne Boleyn, with the masked ladies of the Tudor court behind her, in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn. Picture: Paul Hutson
“It’s fascinating because, how often does a woman, in her early 40s, who can’t belt out a tune, get a chance like this to play a lead role? That chance has come with Black Treacle.”
Anne Boleyn appears as both wife and ghost. “She gives the opening scene from the perspective of having been through it all,” says Lara. “It’s interesting what she looks back on in a light-hearted way here.
“For Anne, the most upsetting part of her life were her pregnancies [she is believed to have fallen pregnant three or four times in her marriage from 1533 to 1536]. It’s a big part of her journey, whereas she’s quite flippant reflecting on getting her chopped off.
“There are moments of almost cheekiness, bawdy humour from James 1, where the play starts off light and playful, but then grows darker and darker, like Anne’s life.”
Nick chips in: “The second half is quite brutal, and Brenton doesn’t shy away from that.” Indeed not, as Nick plays a regal role for the third time. “I was the Earl of Richmond in York Shakespeare Project’s Richard III in 2023, then a folkloric King Henry from the tenth century in a devised piece that Skald Theatre did at Rise@Bluebird Bakery in Acomb last year, and now Henry VIII.
Nick Patrick Jones’s Henry VIII to the fore in a scene with Lara Stafford’s Anne Boleyn in rehearsal for Jim Patterson’s production of Anne Boleyn. Picture: Jim Paterson
“There’s a particularly iconic image of Henry being incredibly large both physically and metaphorically – this larger-than-life character – but you have to create the real person underneath, rather than a caricature. Brenton has done a lot to make that happen by giving the actor a living breathing human being to play, rather than just spouting political statements.”
Lara rejoins: “For almost the first time, he’s written it as Anne’s story, whereas previously it was written by men trying to make their place in history, where she is just ‘wife number two’.”
“She’s the chosen one, or actually she chooses him,” says Nick. “She’s the most significant one in that although four came after her, they were all in her shadow.”
“Exactly, it could only be that she set the tone,” says Lara. “I had no idea until doing this play just how much she drove their relationship.”
Nick concludes: “There’s a strong sense of them as potential equals, but the political structure doesn’t allow them to be equals in court, thus preventing her from fulfilling her potential.”
Black Treacle Theatre presents Anne Boleynat Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Paul Osborne’s Thomas Cromwell, left, and Ian Giles’s Cardinal Wolsey in Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn. Picture: Paul Hutson
Who’s in Black Treacle Theatre’s cast for Anne Boleyn?
Anne Boleyn – Lara Stafford
Henry VIII – Nick Patrick Jones
Thomas Cromwell – Paul Osborne
Cardinal Wolsey/Henry Barrow – Ian Giles
Lady Rochford – Abi Baxter
Lady Jane – Rebecca Jackson
Lady Celia – Isabel Azar
Simpkin/Parrot – Harry Summers
Sloop – Paul Miles
William Tyndale – Maurice Crichton
James I – Katie Leckey
Robert Cecil – Paul Stonehouse
George Villiers – Cameron O’Byrne
Dean Lancelot Andrewes – Sally Mitcham
John Reynolds – Martina Meyer
Katie Leckey’s James I, right, rehearsing a scene with Cameron O’Byrne’s George Villiers. Picture: Paul Hutson
Who’s in the production team?
Director – Jim Paterson
Lighting designers – Sage Dunn-Krahn and Kathryn Wright
Lighting technicians – Emma Jones and Dave Robertson
Set and prop designer – Richard Hampton
Costume designer – Julie Fisher and Costume Crew
Black Treacle Theatre: back story
YORK company has produced Constellations (March 2022); Iphigenia In Splott (March 2023); White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (November 2023); Accidental Death Of An Anarchist (October 2024) and The Watsons (July 2025, co-production with Joseph Rowntree Theatre).
Elvis Costello: Playing with The Imposters and Charlie Sexton on June 17 return to York Barbican. Picture: Ray Di Pietro
ELVIS Costello will return to York Barbican for the first time since May 2012 in the first of six new additions to his Radio Soul! Tour, alongside Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Paris and Dublin.
Last time, Costello wheeled out his gigantic vaudevillian contraption for his Spectacular Singing Book show, where The Imposters’ three-hour set list was decided by the spinning of a wheel with myriad song titles displayed on it.
Now, in the company of The Imposters’ Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher and Texan guitarist Charlie Sexton, the focus will be on Radio Soul!: The Early Songs Of Elvis Costello.
As the playful billing suggests, Costello’s show will feature numbers drawn from record releases from My Aim Is True in 1977 to Blood & Chocolate in 1986, complemented by “other surprises”.
Those nine years saw the first appearance of such renowned Costello compositions as Watching The Detectives and I Want You, along with songs that have remained in The Imposters’ live repertoire for 20 or more years, Alison, Man Out Of Time and Brilliant Mistake, among them.
“For any songwriter, it has to be a compliment if people want to hear songs written up to 50years ago. Among them, Radio Soul, the first draft of what eventually became Radio Radio,” says Costello, now 71.
“You can expect the unexpected and the faithful in equal measure. Don’t forget this show is ‘Performed by Elvis Costello & The Imposters’, an ensemble which includes three people who first recorded this music and two more who bring something entirely new.
“They are nobody’s tribute band. The Imposters are a living, breathing, swooning, swinging, kicking and screaming rock-and-roll band who can turn their hands to a pretty ballad when the opportunity arises.”
These dates follow the Autumn 2024 release of King Of America & Other Realms, a six-CD anthology that tells the story of his 1986 album, recorded with The Confederates, and the music to which it led.
The King Of America songs are expected to be heard in the mid-show interlude, along with songs written as long ago as 1975 and even some of those “pretty ballads” that Costello has promised.
In September 2024, Costello brought his career-spanning presentation, 15 Songs From 50 Years, to Leeds City Varieties Music Hall for four unique performances over two days with regular Attractions and Imposters’ sidekick Steve Nieve by his side once more.
Costello selected from each of the five decades of his songwriting, whether solo or in the company of Flip City; American country rock band Clover; The Attractions; Squeeze’s Chris Difford; The Coward Brothers, with T-Bone Burnett; the Confederates; Paul McCartney; the Brodsky Quartet; The Imposters; Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint or the Roots.
Chris Difford, by the way, will be his special guest at June 17’s show.
Showmanship: Lee Mead’s P. T. Barnum in Barnum The Circus Musical. Picture: Pamela Raith
PHINEAS Taylor Barnum may have been “America’s greatest showman” – his biography sold second only to the Bible in his lifetime – but Barnum is not America’s greatest ever musical.
Bill Kenwright Ltd and Watermill Theatre throw razzle-dazzle and razzmatazz aplenty at composer Cy Coleman, lyricist Michael Stewart and book writer Mark Bramble’s show, from Lee Newby’s circus set and costume designs to Strictly Come Dancing alumna Oti Mabuse’s choreography, from circus director Amy Panter’s array of acrobatic talents to the company of actor-musicians playing 150 instruments between them.
All topped off by a star lead turn from Lee Mead, who combines verbal and visual twinkle and tightrope walking with resolute singing, from his opening There Is A Sucker Born Every Minute to Out There, in his personable portrayal of Barnum.
However, in keeping with the essence of Barnum’s infamous spinning of humbug – deceit and lies by another name – director Jonathan O’Boyle’s production is rather more style than substance, especially in Act Two.
This is not to suggest that Barnum is a big flop under the big top, merely that its high qualities in performance cannot compensate for an underwhelming score that pales by comparison with the Oscar, Grammy and Tony-winning songwriting of Ben Pasek and Justin Paul for 2017’s The Greatest Showman.
“Barnum’s the name, P T Barnum, and I want to tell you that tonight, on this stage, you are going to see – bar none – every sight, wonder and miracle that name stands for,” proclaims Mead’s inspirational Barnum, showman, businessman, politician and visionary, whose gift for humbug carries far more eloquence, chutzpah and wit than today’s quotidian, rather than quotable, politicians, even trumping Trump for braggadocio.
His humbug is not of the “Bah, Humbug” variety of Charles Dickens’s misanthropic cynic Ebenezer Scrooge, with his distaste for deception, but more a brand of playful bluster, full of exaggeration and theatrical hoaxing delivered with a showman’s flourish that may be on foreign terms with the truth but is all in the cause of entertainment.
Alas he needs a little of that humbug to cover this biographical 19th century tale’s musical failings: the lack of knock-out songs in the weaker second half, with nothing to match its opening Come Follow The Band, where Mead’s Barnum is dressed as a clown.
That said, the transition from the black-and-white stars and stripes and costumes – reminiscent of Humbug mints – for Dominique Planter’s Blues Singer belting out Black And White to the riot of colours in the reprise of the Act One stand-out The Colours Of My Life is the high point of O’Boyle’s direction.
Acrobatic and circus skills play their part but would benefit from more highlights to match the wow-factor dexterity of the bow-and-arrow routine, and overall they are outshone by the actor-musicians’ prowess on multiple instruments, with the brass playing being a particular delight.
The visual scale ranges from the big to the small, from the life-sized model of an elephant to Fergus Rattigan as General Tom Thumb, singing Bigger Isn’t Better on his return to a York stage for the first time since playing Tudor sleuth Matthew Shardlake in York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play Sovereign.
Amid the surface-level showmanship, Barnum finds its heart in P. T. Barnum’s relationship with his steely wife Charity (Monique Young), full of her own bright ideas and suggestions, and his six-month fling with opera singer Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale (Penny Ashmore).
Mead shines brightest but Young pulls heartstrings too and Ashmore is the very definition of a polymath with her spectacular singing of Jenny Lind’s Obbligato and Love Makes Such Fools Of Us All, her heavenly harp and piano playing, and even her dancing on point, once serving in the ensemble, for the Finale.
Overall, this Barnum is a better performance than its source material, good in individual parts but not great.
Barnum The Circus Musical, Grand Opera House, York, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
On the stretch: Phoenix Dance Theatre dancers in Interplay, premiering at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre returns to York Theatre Royal for tomorrow and Saturday’s world premiere performances of Interplay.
Presented in association with the Theatre Royal, this powerful mixed bill brings together work by international choreographers Travis Knight and James Pett (Pett Clausen-Knight), Ed Myhill, Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis.
Chief executive Paul Crewes, who has overseen a surge in dance performances at York Theatre Royal, says: “We are delighted to support Phoenix Dance Theatre with the premiere of Interplay and to give York audiences the first opportunity to see this eclectic and dynamic programme of contemporary dance performed on our stage.”
Introducing Interplay, Marcus says: “This dynamic programme celebrates creative collaboration, placing dialogue, contrast and connection at its heart.”
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
“Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience,” says Marcus.
Originally premiered in New York in 2013, Willis’s Next Of Kinhas been re-imagined for Phoenix to highlight the duet’s exploration of the subtle humour and tension between two kindred spirits navigating life together.
Ed Myhill’s Why Are People Clapping?!, restaged by Camille Giraudeau, is set to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music and uses rhythm as its driving force. Combining wit with precision, the choreography highlights the music of life: how rhythm can be found in a tennis match, footsteps in an empty street and in the beat of our own hearts.
In Travis Knightand James Pett’s Small Talk, two figures inhabit a shared yet distant space. Through quiet gestures and unresolved tension, the work reflects on relationships that fade, not through catastrophe, but through the slow exhaustion of time.
The work showcases a portrait of two people held in a fragile stand-off, suspended between what they once knew and what they can no longer admit.
Interplay concludes with a new collaboration between Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Marcus Jarrell Willis. Inspired by ritual, meditation and the roots of hip-hop and house culture, Suite Release reclaims dance as instinct, resistance and communal connection and joy, inviting audiences not only to witness movement, but also to remember it.
Marcus says: “I’ve always found it intriguing to observe dual artistic expression: the ways two creative minds come together and collaboratively work towards one goal in creation, while maintaining their individual artistic expressions.
“The programme consists of different forms of artistic duality, through choreographic voices, as well as the structure of the dance works themselves. I think it will be interesting for an audience to see a full programme that focuses on this particular theme – duality – while highlighting a range of different works.”
Marcus continues: “I wanted to commission choreographers that have unique perspectives of what contemporary dance looks like today, which is what I believe Phoenix Dance Theatre stands for in this iteration of the company.
“While the works are all linked by the theme of duality, the mixed bill offers something for every audience member from any background to connect with. The choreographers themselves come from various backgrounds across the UK and internationally, providing the opportunity to see dance through multiple lenses.”
Marcus, who became Phoenix’s ninth artistic director in Autumn 2023 after seven years in Cardiff, concluded his first tour – Belonging – at York Theatre Royal in May 2024. “This is our first time back in York since then, and I’m excited about maintaining our relationship,” he says. “It’s a lovely theatre, where the audience received the company so well and we so enjoyed our post-show discussion, when, as whenever possible, we had the entire company involved because it’s good for them.”
Now Interplay, as its title suggests, “taps into what it means to have ‘interplay’ in different forms that we can bring together, either through choreographic partnerships or duo pieces, so it’s all about dual relationships and duos pairing up, “ says Marcus. “In this case, we have two re-shaped works, Next Of Kin and Why Are People Clapping?!, and two new creations, Small Talk and Suite Release.”
Highlighting the creative partnerships, he says: “Travis Knightand James Pett regularly create together. I believe they’re based in London but they work all over the place.
“Suite Release, a title that’s a play on words, brings me together with a choreographer that I’ve danced with for many years, Yusha-Marie Sorzano.
“We decided to do a piece about music and our relationship with music, and how we grew up together and lived our lives, so it’s a bit of a party! I’m originally from Eastern Texas, Musha was from Trinidad, then grew up in Mexico, and we met as teenagers in New York City.
“So this work is about remembering; remembering how to move and dance and connect to music – and that comes from our experiences and universal feelings, because our dance company is so diverse.
“That’s why we hit the sweet spot with Suite Release, remembering why we dance and thinking about what that means when we’re living in a world with so much weight in it, so much going on, where we need a release.”
Interplay encapsulates his artistic philosophy. “New York was so varied in its possibilities and artistic approaches, and I’m just cracking on with what I do with Phoenix,” he says.
Phoenix Dance Theatre presents Interplay, in association with York Theatre Royal, at York Theatre Royal, February 27, with post-show discussion; February 28, 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatrerotal.co.uk. Also Leeds Playhouse, March 31 to April 2, 7.30pm; 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.co.uk.
York Theatre Royal’s poster to announce this autumn’s production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad
YORK Theatre Royal will stage a major revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, under the direction of creative director Juliet Forster this autumn.
Adapted from the Canadian novelist, essayist and poet’s 2005 novella of the same name, this exuberant feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids.
Forster’s production will open on October 14, preceded by previews from October 10, and will run until October 24.
“Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive, and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed,” says Juliet. “The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast-paced visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens.
“The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we’ll be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.”
The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. Now comes the first major UK revival since that production.
York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster
Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, revisits The Odyssey in a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths.
Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it is time to hear the story of those left behind.
Reimagining this ancient tale, The Penelopiad finds Penelope wandering the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge.
Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Atwood and interwoven with songs, York Theatre Royal’s production will be directed by Little Women and Around The World In 80 Days-ish! director Forster in an exuberant and witty retelling that questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth.
Priority booking for YTR members is under way; general sales will open on February 28 at 1pm on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Margaret Atwood: back story
HER work has been published in more than 45 countries. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale(recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and subsequently adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV series); The Robber Bride; Alias Grace; The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker prize); Cat’s Eye; The Edible Woman; Surfacing;Life Before Man; Bodily Harm; The Testaments (winner of the Booker prize) and The MaddAddam Trilogy.
Her poetry collections include Double Persephone, The Circle Game, Power Politics, Morning In The Burned House and The Door. Her essay collections include Negotiating With The Dead and Burning Questions. Her novella The Penelopiad was published in 2005 and adapted in 2007 for the stage, marking her first theatrical work.
Stripped back: The Full Monty to return in 2027 tour
THE 30th anniversary of Peter Cattaneo’s Sheffield stripping film The Full Monty will be marked by the 2027 tour of screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy’s spin-off play that will visit the Grand Opera House, York, from July 12 to 17.
The tour will be mounted by the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, and Buxton Opera House in association with Mark Goucher and David Pugh.
Tickets will go on sale to ATG+ members on Wednesday, March 11 at 10am, followed by general sales from Thursday, March 12 at 10am. Star casting will be announced in due course.
Beaufoy’s heartfelt play tells the story of an ordinary group of men in South Yorkshire’s Steel City striving to reclaim their dignity and pride. Fast paced and irresistibly humorous, it remains strikingly relevant today, resonating powerfully in an era marked once again by a cost-of-living crisis.
What happens in The Full Monty? Gaz and his mates find themselves down on their luck, cast aside and underestimated, but determined to fight back, even if it means revealing more than they ever imagined.
Beaufoy says: “A lot has changed in Britain since The Full Monty appeared 30 years ago. What hasn’t changed is our need for laughter, compassion and dignity. I’m so delighted the ‘Monty Men’ are back on the road with all their flaws, jokes and wobbly bits, bringing a bit of much-needed joy to audiences once again.”
Echoing the 1997 smash-hit film, next year’s touring production will deliver a rollercoaster of humour and heartbreak as audiences are invited to relive the iconic music of the 1990s, cheering on the unforgettable group of lads as they prepare to put on the show of their lives.
Beaufoy received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for The Full Monty, later winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire.
The Full Monty tour production will be directed by Michael Gyngell, with choreography and intimacy direction by Ian West, set and costume design by Jasmine Swann, lighting design by Andrew Exeter and sound design by Chris Whybrow. The casting director is Marc Frankum.
