Author: Charles Hutchinson

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 2, from Gazette & Herald

Lawyer Arthur Kipps (John Mackay) and The Actor (Daniel Burke) in The Woman In Black, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from January 13

IN his second guide to the New Year, Charles Hutchinson picks out upcoming highlights on January’s calendar and beyond.

Ghostly return of the week: The Woman In Black, Grand Opera House, York, January 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

FIRST staged in 1987 in a pub setting by the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story The Woman In Black returns to the Grand Opera House two years to the month since its last visit.

Elderly lawyer Arthur Kipps (played by John Mackay) is obsessed with his belief that a curse has been cast over his family by the spectre of a “Woman in Black” for 50 years. Whereupon he engages a sceptical young actor (Daniel Burke’s The Actor) to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul, but the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to blur. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

First Ryedale panto of the New Year: Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25  

DIRECTED for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold and scripted by Ron Hall, Pickering Musical Society’s 2026 pantomime blends familiar faces with new turns, led by Alice Rose as Snow White in her first appearance since Goldilocks in 2018.

Local legend Marcus Burnside plays Dame Dumpling alongside mischievous sidekick Jack Dobson as court jester Fritz, his first comedic role. Company regular Courtney Brown switches to comedy too as Helga; Paula Cook turns to the dark side in her villainous debut as Queen Lucrecia; Danielle Long is the heroic Prince Valentine, John Brooks, the scheming Chamberlain and Sue Smithson, Fairy Dewdrop. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.

Dementia Friendly Tea Concert of the week: Eloise Ramchandani and Robert Gammon, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, January 15, 2.30pm

ELOISE Ramchandani gives an all Saint-Saëns cello recital, accompanied by pianist Robert Gammon. The 45-minute programme includes the well-loved The Swan, lively Allegro Appassionato and beautiful Cello Concerto No. 1.

Ideal for those who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, the relaxed recital will be followed by tea, coffee and homemade cakes in the church hall. Seating is unreserved; no charge applies but donations are welcome.

Second Ryedale pantomime of the New Year: Malton and Norton Musical Theatre in Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, January 17, 1.30pm, 5.15pm; January 18, 2pm; January 20 to 23, 7.15pm; January 24, 1pm, 5.15pm

BETWIXT York roles in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy and Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn, Harry Summers continues to corner the market in dark, dramatic and deliciously boo-worthy roles as wicked magician Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin.

Fresh from his villainous scene-stealing in The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Jennings plays the Emperor, insisting he is “one of the good guys”, even if his idea of good includes execution and arranged marriages. Further principal players in the mystical land of Shangri-La include Harriet White’s Aladdin, Isabel Davis’s Princess Jasmine; Rory Queen’s dame, Widow Twankey, Tom Gleave’s Wishee Washee, Mark Summers’ Genie of the Lamp and Annabelle Free’s Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

World premiere of the month: Death Of Gesualdo, Gesualdo Six with Tableaux Vivants, National Centre for Early Music, York, January 18 and 19, 6.30pm

THE Gesualdo Six reunite with director Bill Barclay for this daring successor to international hit Secret Byrd. Featuring six singers, six actors and a puppet, Death Of Gesualdo creates living tableaux that illuminate the life and psyche of madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo, a tortured genius most famous for murdering his wife and her lover in an explosive fit of jealousy, but revered among composers for anticipating chromaticism by 200 years.

This is the boldest look yet at how the life and sometimes chilling music of this enigmatic prodigy must function together for the true Gesualdo to emerge from the shadows. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Comedy-folk combination of the month: Little Wander and Say Owt present Grace Petrie, This Is No Time To Panic!, January 18, The Crescent, York, 7.30pm

DO you like protest songs? Neither does Grace Petrie – and she has been singing them for 15 “politically disastrous” years. No longer able to meet the desperate hopes of left-wing audiences, the “British folk scene’s funniest lesbian” reckons there is no better time for a feel-good show.

After making her stand-up debut in 2022 with Butch Ado About Nothing, she combines music and comedy for the first time in This Is No Time To Panic! “I know folk songs can’t save the world, and neither can stand-up, but both at the same time?” ponders Petrie. “Read it and weep, Putin!” Box office for returns only: thecrescentyork.com.  

Festival launch of the month: York Residents’ Festival, January 31 and February 1

ORGANISED by Make It York, York Residents’ Festival offers residents free entry to York’s top attractions and exclusive offers on food, retail and unique experiences across the city in support of businesses and independent makers.  

Thefull list of offers and pre-booking will go live from 12 noon on January 9 at visityork.org/resfest. Among them will be York Museums Trust providingfree entry to York Castle Museum, York Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum and the National Trust doing likewise to Treasurer’s House.

Looking ahead to the summer: Futuresound Group presents Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens, July 10, 5pm

SOUTH Yorkshire’s Self Esteem is the second headliner to be announced for Futuresound Group’s third summer of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts, in the wake of Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark, Heaven 17, China Crisis and Andrew Cushin  being booked for July 9.

Rotherham-born Rebecca Lucy Taylor was part of Slow Club for a decade before turning solo as the sardonic Self Esteem, releasing the albums Compliments Please in 2019, Prioritise Pleasure in 2021 and A Complicated Woman last April. She will be supported by South African “future ghetto funk” pioneer Moonchild Sanelly and Sweden-based Nigerian spoken-word artist and musician Joshua Idehen, with more guests to be confirmed. Box office: futuresound.seetickets.com/event/self-esteem/york-museum-gardens/3555239.

Posted on

Nigel Burnham RIP: A tribute to The Band Room promoter who made somewhere you had to to go out of the middle of nowhere

Nigel Burnham: The Band Room founder, concert promoter, journalist and music critic

THE funeral of The Band Room founder Nigel Burnham will be held at St Mary’s Church, Farndale, near Kirkbymoorside, on Thursday(8/1/2026) at 1pm.

Concert promoter, journalist and music critic Nigel passed away peacefully at St Leonard’s Hospice, York, on December 1 2025, aged 74, having written typically eloquently of his cancer diagnosis.

“I’m dying of cancer,” he wrote for the March 25 edition of Daily Mail +. “If your GP dismisses your symptoms or offers you Viagra instead of a life-saving test, beware. Too many are slipping the cracks like me: Nigel Burnham.”

Nigel, of East Farndale, held his first concert in August 1995, presenting the legendary Cajun band Balfa Toujours in the moorland wood and corrugated iron shed in “the middle of nowhere”, or more precisely, the “Daffodil Valley” hamlet of Low Mill that had first served as a silver band rehearsal room.

“There was a full moon, and it was so hot and sticky, very Mardi Gras and swampy, you could almost have been in New Orleans,” he recalled in 2014. “Since then I’ve lost count of the number of times people have exited the venue and looked upwards in amazement at the black velvet skies crackling with billions of stars.”

On that September night, Nigel speculated: “Could we reasonably claim to be England’s best Dark Sky music venue?”, asking concert-goers to bring binoculars to Tiny Ruins’ show. Six years later, in December 2020, the North York Moors National Park was designated an International Dark Sky Reserve.

“Astronomy has always been a bit of a leitmotif for me,” he said of the scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the universe, but Nigel was a star gazer in more ways than one, spotting talent that would go on to shine all the more brightly after playing the 100-capacity Band Room, its white walls bathed in a comforting womb of red light.

Tim Burrows, left, Mark Ellis and Nigel Burnham: The team behind the concert programming at The Band Room

Mark Ellis, one of Nigel’s team on regular duty on gig nights, says: “Nigel had a good nose for sniffing out new artists to play The Band Room long before anyone had really heard of them, like Willy Mason, Howe Gelb, The Handsome Family, Jesca Hoop, Michael Hurley, Valerie June, and many others. Sure enough, a year later, they would pop up on Jools Holland or be playing Glastonbury.

“He had a passion for country/folk music and keeping it live; the Band Room accommodated that perfectly. His musical knowledge was encyclopaedic. In the early days before social media, we travelled all over the North East to see artists we fancied getting to play the Band Room.”

Mark, who also runs the Dry Stone Wall Maze in the heart of Dalby Forest, continues: “Nige loved to reminisce about various bands he’d seen in his youth, the Sex Pistols in Doncaster, 1977, the [Rolling] Stones in Hyde Park, 1969, and I seem to remember him talking about wanting to see The Beatles in 1963 but his Dad wouldn’t let him go because he felt he was too young. His older brother was able to tell him all about it when he got back.”

Describing The Band Room as being “like no other venue you’ll ever stumble upon”, Nigel delivered to Low Mill such acts as post-Catatonia Cerys Matthews; Vashti Bunyan, after her long hiatus from the folk scene; Richmond Fontaine; Laura Veirs; Eilen Jewell; Caitlin Rose; York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich; Martin and Eliza Carthy, from Robin Hood’s Bay;  Ryley Walker & Danny Thompson; The Weather Station; Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo; Johnny Dowd and Hiss Golden Messenger.

The Handsome Family’s Brett and Rennie Sparks, the gothic Americana duo from Albuquerque, called The Band Room “the greatest small venue on Earth”; singer-songwriter Howe Gelb, from Tucson, Arizona,  enthused, “It’s got a great vibe…and werewolves too”.

 “We’ve had people fly over from Hong Kong to see a show at The Band Room,” said Nigel on the Band Room website. “A couple of guys flew in from Ohio to see The Groundhogs. And a Russian music fan showed up with his Hungarian girlfriend to see a band they had missed at Glastonbury.

“What’s so special about the venue? We think it’s because everyone’s blown away by the beauty of the location, the purity of the acoustic, the instantaneously magical atmosphere of a little wood-panelled room with no noisy bar to contend with (you bring your own drinks).”

The Handsome Family’s Brett and Rennie Sparks, who called The Band Room “the greatest small venue on Earth”

Mark says Nigel was attending gigs right up until the end of his life. “He was putting on shows at the Band Room – Steve Gunn and Sam Moss in 2025 – even when he was too poorly to see them himself.

“It was always for fun; nobody made any money out of it. It was just a group of friends [Nigel, Mark and Tim Burrows] putting on shows that they wanted to see and share. He also provided an opportunity for local artists to play their first shows, specifically Katie Lou McCabe, Charly McCabe, Nessy Williamson and Amy May Ellis.

“He was a warm, kind and humorous man, who always saw the funny side of life and would say farewell with a peace sign. Peace and love Nige, you will be missed.”

Further tributes are being gathered at https://nigelburnham.muchloved.com. One, by Susan, remembers Nigel driving his Land Rover around the field below Hillmead, held together with tinfoil and scrapped only days later. “When we lived in Leeds, Royal Park Avenue, I remember trudging up the hill to the phone box to telephone through to NME [New Musical Express] Nigel’s latest music review. (Trudging and a bit grudging on cold winter nights!),” she writes.

“I was stand-in for Emma Ruth, Nigel’s alter-ego in the music papers. Always fun, always a new adventure. His other alter-ego was Des Moines. Always funny and good with words. Unforgettable. Thank you Nigel. Rest in peace.”

Another, posted by Sandy, recalled “being drawn initially by his big red hair and flamboyant persona”. “I can picture him now at Hillmead, playing music, scoring beverages (never making tea or coffee) and warming the living room with his beautiful smile. I can’t believe he’s gone, and he will be much missed,” she writes.

Thursday’s funeral will be followed by a private cremation. Nigel will be very sadly missed by all his family and friends. Family flowers only, please, but donations if desired may be given to St Leonard’s Hospice and church funds; a plate will be provided at the service.

Farewell, Nigel, you knew how to tell’em; you knew how to pick’em; you knew how to sell’em.

Tiny Ruins in 2014

LET the final words go to Nigel Burnham, talent spotter, word weaver and chilled host, here tempting Band Room devotees to discover the joys of his latest new discovery, Tiny Ruins, in his website posting for September 5 2014.

“Tiny Ruins, by the way, is New Zealander Hollie Fullbrook. Gorgeous voice, crisp finger-picker, Hollie has spent the last three years touring the world opening for Beach House, Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes, The Handsome Family, Calexico and, in April and May, for Crowded House’s Neil Finn, with whom she also played,” he wrote.

“Her classy new album, Brightly Painted One on the Bella Union label, takes in folk, blues and pop, revealing similarities to Laura Marling, Karen Dalton and Sandy Denny, and heralds – oh come on, let’s get down off of the fence – the arrival of a bona-fide genius.”

Posted on

York photographer Ben Porter opens up book of childhood memories and aspirations in Kids Just Wanna Fly

York author Ben Porter with a copy of his latest book, Kids Just Wanna Fly, pictured at York Theatre Royal

YORK author, poet, photographer, filmmaker, publisher and York Creatives founder Ben Porter charts the growing pains and gains of life between age ten and 20 in his new photobook.

Published by his own independent publishing house, Overt Books, Kids Just Wanna Fly takes “a leap into the unknown, captured on disposable cameras, Polaroids, cheap point & shoots and early iPhones”.

“It’s a tale youthful ambition, aspiration and the quest to craft an identity through the tumultuous years of young adulthood,” says Ben. “Unfolding mostly between 2003 and 2013, it’s a raw portrait of youth in the pre-Smartphone era and life growing up in post-industrial northern England.

“The book asks you to consider how much of your ten-year-old self was left in you at 20? How the youthful energy of your teen years shaped the person you became, perhaps in spite of where society tried to direct it.

“It challenges you to think about the value of first-time experiences, of hazy memories that blend fact with fiction, and the advice you ultimately decide to pass on to the next generation.”

Launched at Patch@Bonding Warehouse as part of the Aesthetica Fringe at the 2025 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Kids Just Wanna Fly complements 73 of Porter’s youthful photographs with “heartfelt” short stories and poems by eight contributing authors.

Seven hail from York: Kitty Greenbrown’s Stand And Face The Wind; Kathryn Tann’s The Sky Inside A Puddle; Atlas Rook’s Four Seconds; Luke Downing’s Snapshots; Bram Jarman’s Stood On Your Own Two Feet; Angel Jones’s Concerto and Jay Ventress’s Canvases, joined by Sheffield writer Oliver Manning’s When I Grow Up.

“Instead of doing the writing myself this time, I wanted to broaden it out to other people’s experiences, to go with my ‘roughly chronological’ photos (more in terms of telling the story, rather than when they were taken,” says Ben.  

“Giving them a very loose brief to reflect on how much of their ten-year-old self was still there when they were 20, I gave them an image of set of images to respond to. Their contributions have beautifully brought to life the many emotions of young adulthood.”

Thanking everyone featured in his photographs for “contributing towards making my journey through life an utter thrill”, he says:  “I took the images on disposable cameras, cheap consumer digitals and first-generation iPhones, before modern camera technology matured. Intimate and imperfect, they embody the raw possibility of a time when everything felt wide open.

Out of the blue: here comes Ben Porter’s book, Kids Just Wanna Fly

“Every picture was carefully selected because it represents an important part of the story – one of a child developing into adulthood, doing their best to navigate their own path in the face of so many conflicting directions,” he says.

Ben’s preface could not better express the vision and mission of a book “charged with youthful movement, capturing the exuberance, confusion and hopefulness of adolescence”. “We are reincarnated many times throughout our teenage years,” he writes. “We try on personas like outfits, switching between social circles that each have different cultures and expectations.

“We have no idea what the world wants from us, nor what we can reasonably offer. Our hopes of who we want to become hang delicately, forever at risk of being crushed before we grow the confidence to stand by them.

“We receive conflicting advice from elders, who we begin to realise have just as many questions as we do, and no convincing answers. All we can do is jump, and hope we fly, for a little while.”

Kids Just Wanna Fly follows Porter’s earlier photobook, Wanderings & Wonderings, his November 2024 exploration of the relationship between humans and nature that was marked by a meditative stillness that contrasts with the new book’s youthful exuberance.

“I’ve been a photographer all my life, but with no exhibitions at that point, but I really enjoyed doing that book, where I picked photos from a folder called ‘Nature, containing 300-400 from over 100,000 pictures I’d taken, spread 200 on the floor, then came up with the theme of our interaction with nature,” says Ben, whose book combined images with his poetic ‘reflections and provocations”.

Wanderings & Wonderings’ release was accompanied by his debut exhibition at Angel on the Green, in Bishopthorpe Road, where Ben’s photos were on show from November 2024 to March 2025.

“When I thought, ‘what should I do next?’, I went through my hard drives, going back to 2003, and just grabbed stuff off there, anything that caught my interest or images that I didn’t think I could capture again, with a theme of memory.

“Looking back, I was pushing boundaries as a child in Sheffield, annoying my parents, trying to see what I could get away with, like spending our time climbing old industrial Sheffield buildings..

“We always took pictures on family holidays, and I really got the bug for photography when watching skateboarding videos. I’d go skateboarding, take the camera with me, do bad videos and then rather better photographs – and those images are now more interesting than they were back then.”

Two photographs from Ben Porter’s stock of images from 2003 to 2013 for Kids Just Wanna Fly

Explaining the choice of book title, Ben says: “The flight image kept coming up. I thought, ‘why was that’, but then I looked back at how you know what you want to be at ten, but at 20, we’re not so sure, when others might have influenced you. It’s about aspiration. At ten you want to project into the future, and it doesn’t come into your head that you might not succeed.

“It’s that lack of fear, and Kids Just Wanna Fly is such a wonderful metaphor for kids to  keep on trying…until parents or teachers convince them not to do so.” How apt that Ben should sign his book for CharlesHutchPress with the message: “It’s never too late to keep trying to fly.”

Ben grew up as the eldest of five brothers, sons of the Right Reverent Matthew Porter. “Our father was the vicar of a small parish church and he was the reason we moved to York from Sheffield in 2008 when he took over as vicar of St Michael le Belfrey,” says Ben. “He’s now the Bishop of Bolton, one of three Bishops for Manchester, looking after Bolton and Salford.

“My dad was working a lot, and my mum had her hands full looking after the children. I remember being frustrated that my parents wouldn’t let me go further than ten minutes from the house until secondary school at Birkdale. That required two bus rides, which took an hour, or 90 minutes to walk, and if it wasn’t raining, I would walk back home.

“From the age of 12-13, I thought of myself as adult, as the leader, with my youngest brother, David, being 11 years younger than me. I’d find that we would sit around not making decisions unless I did, so often I’d make a decision without adults around, but at that age you don’t know what the best option is, so often you make terrible decisions and someone gets hurt.”

Ben’s folder of photographic images from his passage through teenage days was once called “Rebelliousness”. “That was the underlying theme, and the first title I came up with for the book was ‘Once We Were Beautiful’, but some people said that sounded too sad, and it didn’t quite capture what I wanted to get across, whereas Kids Just Wanna Fly does,” says Ben.

“The beauty of being young is trying to do something you might not able to do, and what we do as photographers is pick the ones that resonate the most. They tend to be the ones that are photogenic, which is also why I changed the title as I didn’t want it to be shallow.”

Kids Just Wanna Fly, by Ben Porter, is published by Overt Books at £22 in hardback, £14 in paperback, available from overtbooks.com.

More photographs from Ben Porter’s Kids Just Wanna Fly

Ben Porter on York Creatives

“THE precursor was Plastic Fortune, which we started in 2014 to showcase creativity and alternative culture in York,” says Ben. “In 2016 I renamed it as York Creatives and became managing director and chair. My vision was to assemble 50 people but it grew to 300 – it was at the time when the Arts Barge was being slagged of as a ‘vanity project’.

“People had said, ‘where do you get funding for York Creatives?’, when there was already York Professionals for professionals in the city, but I just thought, ‘I’ll start York Creatives anyway’.”

Founder Ben has stepped back, now that he has a six-month-old son, Jacob. “I can still be involved in the strategy of the group, but now Sarah Williams in the managing director and John Rose-Adams is the chair, ” he says.

York Creatives is a free-to-join network that provides an online forum for arts conversations and sends out a monthly newsletter of upcoming arts events to 3,500 people, with details of upcoming opportunities.

In-person events include Creative Drinks on the first Friday of each month at Patch@Bonding Warehouse (having been held previously at Spark:York, with the capacity now doubling from 50 to 100).

Pop-up events for different arts sectors are held too. Board members cover the fields of art, design, poetry, performance, film, gaming, photography, creative writing and literature. “They’re all encouraged to organise events for their sub-sectors,” says Ben.

The cover artwork for Benjamin Porter’s book, York’s Creative Spaces

“I see York Creatives as a hub for finding out what’s going on in the city, to sign-post other things that are going on and to link people new to the city with what’s happening.

“There’s also an option to become a York Creatives supporter for £2 a month, giving access to events, or otherwise entry to events costs £5. A Pro option costs £6.25 a month with a bunch of other benefits.”

Ben Porter on Overt Books

BEN Porter set up the independent York publishing house Overt Books to publish artist books.

“I founded it as the next step in the journey, to help local creatives put their ideas to the page in the form of beautiful yet affordable artist books,” he says.

Already Overt Books has released Ben’s first book, York’s Creative Spaces, a collection of photographs and interviews profiling the studios, workshops, galleries, creative offices and independent venues of York.

“This book documents the quirky, historic, repurposed spaces York’s creative community inhabits and creates work from,” says Ben.

York floral artist Lesley Birch, whose book Flower Power is published by Overt Books. Picture: Esme Mai Photography

Next came Ben’s Wanderings & Wonderings and, in 2025, York floral artist Lesley Birch’s Flower Power, whose release is accompanied by an exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, that will run until mid-January.

“In 2026, we’ll be looking to publish works by a small number of local artists, which we hope to build upon each year. If you’ve got an idea for an artist book that you would like to discuss, contact me via hi@overtbooks.com. If you want to turn your work into a picture publication, I’d love you to get in touch.”

Coming next will be Katie Lou McCabe’s book of analogue photography, A Darkroom Exploration Of Ancient Egypt And The Quantum Void. “It’s a mixture of reflections on how she got into analogue photography, and the things she thinks about when processing in her darkroom on the North York Moors,” says Ben.

“She has linked together an Ancient Egypt creation myth about light and the sun with developments in quantum physics, discovering that if you keep breaking particles down, inside there is light, so as a photographer it’s fascinating to her that everything is made up of light.”

Did you know?

BEN Porter manages co-working office space for businesses in six rooms in premises next to the Golden Fleece, in Pavement, York.

Did you know too?

IN 2013, Ben Porter formed the band Likely Lads. “We were like Arctic Monkeys meets The Libertines. That band folded in late-2014, and we became The Blue Dawns. Our last album came out three years ago,” he says.

Posted on

Meet Robin Herford, director of The Woman In Black since SJT premiere in 1987, now bringing latest cast to Grand Opera House

Robin Herford directing rehearsals for the 2025-2026 tour of The Woman In Black. Picture: Mark Douet

ROBIN Herford commissioned and directed Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel The Woman In Black at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough in 1987.

First performed in the SJT bar over the Christmas season, it transferred to the London stage, where it ran for 33 years, including 13,000 performances at the Fortune Theatre, before closing in March 2023.

More than seven million people have seen Mallatratt’s play in the UK since the SJT premiere of its tale of elderly lawyer Arthur Kipps being convinced that a curse has been placed on his family by the spectre of the Woman in Black.

When Kipps hires an initially sceptical young actor to help him recount his story, as they delve into his past, the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Now Herford is directing PW Productions’ 2025-2026 tour with a cast of John Mackay and Daniel Burke. Ahead of next week’s return to the Grand Opera House, York, he discusses The Woman In Black’s Scarborough premiere, longevity on the London stage, directorial challenges and ever-changing casts.

Did you anticipate The Woman In Black would have such a long life when it first opened at the SJT in 1987?

“No, absolutely not! When I commissioned my friend Stephen Mallatratt to adapt Susan Hill’s ghost story for the stage in the autumn of 1987, it was to run over Christmas for three and a half weeks in the bar of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, a space which doubled as an occasional studio theatre seating 70 people.

“We had a tiny budget, £1,000 for the set and costumes, enough money to pay for a maximum of four actors, and a very restricted acting area, so it had to be staged very ingeniously. Stephen’s brilliant solution – to turn it into a piece for only two speaking actors – actually meant we didn’t use up all of our allotted resources.

“By the end of the run, which went very well, we dared to wonder if it might warrant a London production.”

What happened next?

“We found a producer, Peter Wilson, who was willing to support us, and opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in January 1989. Favourable reviews enabled us to move into the Strand, then the Playhouse, and finally the Fortune Theatre by June of that year, where we stayed for 33 years. Extraordinary.”

What changes, if any, have you made to the production over that time?

“In essence, the play has changed very little. Moving into larger theatres gave us greater scope for special effects, for example the addition of a hidden staircase at the back of the stage, but its basic simplicity has been preserved, because that is built into the concept of how the story is told.

“Two people alone in an empty theatre, and the whole auditorium is the set – not just what happens on the stage – a fact which really unsettles audiences, since it is no longer their ‘safe space’.

“I have tried to create a product which can expand or contract to fit whatever size of theatre we are playing. We use the magic of theatre, with such basic tools of light/darkness and sound/silence to build tension and atmosphere, and all the time, I have tried to ensure that the audience’s imagination continues to be the main driver to the action of the play. I show as little as possible and try to rely instead on the power of suggestion.”

John Mackay as Arthur Kipps, left, and Daniel Burke as The Actor in The Woman In Black

How does returning to a project differ from working on something new?

“Returning to a project may seem for a director to be a safe option, engendering a feeling of confidence and security, but for the new cast of actors, it is absolutely a new experience as they bring their own imaginations, intelligence and emotional responses into contact with the script, and this means a renewed, fresh show.

“Though the way the production works might remain largely unchanged, the characters created by the actors will be enormously diverse.”

How have you kept the theatre magic alive after so many years?

“Again, it’s the transfusion of new blood that a new cast brings to the play which keeps the magic alive. But also, it’s the freshness of response from new audiences, who are such a vital component in the theatre experience.

“To perform a story to a group of people at the same moment, who have come together on that day with a common purpose to hear that story, is really powerful and carries its own magic.”

How do you feel when you hear audience reactions to The Woman In Black?

“Audiences react to this play in a surprising variety of ways. As a rule, people don’t expect to be frightened in a theatre, but this play seems to buck this trend. Quite often, they will come expecting to be scared and react accordingly.

“Sometimes, they are not quite sure how they will respond and are surprised to hear themselves yelp involuntarily, often leading to laughter immediately afterwards. Sometimes, the play is received in silence, the audience reserving their appreciation until the curtain call, when at other times, a lot of humour is discovered in the early exchanges. There is no ‘right’ way to respond.

“This play particularly appeals to young people, and I take huge pleasure in seeing our next generation of theatregoers finding a show they can relate to and appreciating it to the full. Teachers find it a very fruitful piece to teach from, celebrating, as it does, the art of acting, as well as the simple joys of live theatre.”

Why do you think we as audience members enjoy being scared?

“I find this hard to answer, since I don’t particularly enjoy being scared as a member of an audience! I tend to switch off when presented with too much blood and gore, or by the wildly improbable.

“With this play, the story it relates is tragic and horrible, but it is also a very believable, human story, and we really care about all the people affected by its outcome. It’s a play about courage in the face of really challenging circumstances, demonstrated in contrasting ways.

The Woman In Black has starred such actors as Frank Finlay, Edward Petherbridge, Joseph Fiennes and Martin Freeman. Does each cast bring something fresh to the production?

“We’ve already talked about the immense contribution made by actors to the show. Those four actors, two hugely established, and two right at the start of their careers (it was Joseph Fiennes’ first professional job, whom I cast while he was still at drama school!) demonstrates the huge variety of actors who have stepped up and brought their own particular brand of magic to this show. I have indeed been blessed.”

The Woman In Black haunts Grand Opera House, York, from January 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond at the dawning of 2026’s arts & culture diary. Hutch’s List No. 1, from The York Press

Joshua Arnold and Therine: On the bill for A Feast Of Fools III at the Black Swan

N his first guide to the New Year, Charles Hutchinson picks out upcoming highlights on January’s calendar and beyond.

Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools III, The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, Sunday, 7.30pm, doors 7pm

WELCOME to A Feast Of Fools III, York arts collective Navigators Art’s sign-off to “Holiday’s end – the last gasp of Mischief” in a celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas packed with live folk music and a nod to the pagan and the impish.

On the bill are Ancient Hostility, performing passionate political and personal song in harmony;  North West folk duo Joshua Arnold and Therine, presenting vocal-led trad and experimental versions of British folk songs; Pefkin, whose ritualistic hymnals draw heavily on the landscape and the natural world, and White Sail, York’s multi-instrumental alt-folk legends. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.

Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine and Alice Rose’s Snow White in Pickering Musical Society’s pantomime Snow White

First Ryedale panto of the New Year: Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25  

DIRECTED for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold and writer by Ron Hall, Pickering Musical Society’s 2026 pantomime combines comedy, spectacle, festive magic, dazzling scenery and colourful costumes.

The show features such principals as Marcus Burnside’s Dame Dumpling, Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine, Alice Rose’s Snow White, Paula Cook’s Queen Lucrecia and Sue Smithson’s Fairy Dewdrop. Audiences are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.

Harry Summers in rehearsal for the role of Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin – The Pantomime

Second Ryedale pantomime of the New Year: Malton and Norton Musical Theatre in Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, January 17, 1.30pm, 5.15pm; January 18, 2pm; January 20 to 23, 7.15pm; January 24, 1pm, 5.15pm

BETWIXT York roles in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy and Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn, Harry Summers continues to corner the market in dark, dramatic and deliciously boo-worthy roles as wicked magician Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin.

Fresh from his villainous scene-stealing in The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Jennings plays the Emperor, insisting he is “one of the good guys”, even if his idea of good includes execution and arranged marriages. Further principal players in the mystical land of Shangri-La include Harriet White’s Aladdin, Isabel Davis’s Princess Jasmine; Rory Queen’s dame, Widow Twankey, Tom Gleave’s Wishee Washee, Mark Summers’ Genie of the Lamp and Annabelle Free’s Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

To her Eternal Shame: Sue Perkins announces return to the comedy circuit after more than a decade

Amusing musings of the month: The Eternal Shame Of Sue Perkins, Grand Opera House, York, January 18, 7.30pm

YOU may know her as Bake-Off Sue, Taskmaster Sue, Just A Minute Sue, or the Sue that gives you travel envy, but stand-up Sue is full of surprises. In this new show, Sue Perkins shares the unlikely happenings from a career in the spotlight.

What’s the fallout when your pituitary gland goes haywire on live TV? How do you convince the public you didn’t really fall on to that vacuum cleaner attachment? And when intimate photos are splashed all over the internet, how do you switch the shame to dignity and joy? Find out in Perkins’ first live show in more than a decade, wherein shedelivers a humorous treatise on stigma, humiliation and misunderstanding. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Deadpan Players’ poster for their Star Wars sci-fi and AI spoof at the JoRo

The spoof, the whole spoof and nothing but the spoof: Deadpan Players in Star Wars: May The Farce Be With You, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 23, 7.30pm, and January 24, 2pm and 7.30pm

IN a time of deep unrest, rebel forces are fighting for survival. Led by Garth Vader, the Empire has created a sinister network called The Dark Web, through which Vader could travel back in time to crush the rebellion. Plucky Princess Slaya has encrypted and uploaded the password, along with a desperate cry for help to cute droid R2Ai.

Can Fluke Skywalker decipher the message, find Only One Kenobi, enlist the help of rogue pilot Ham Solo and the legendary, if rather pungent, Gedi Master, the diminutive but powerful “Odour”, then rescue the Princess and save the Galaxy? Find out by attending this fundraising event, with all proceeds going to Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Candlelighters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Mike Joyce: Recollections of five years on the drummer’s stool with The Smiths at Pocklington Arts Centre

On the beat: Mike Joyce, The Drums: My Life In The Smiths, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 28, 7.30pm

DRUMMER Mike Joyce has been asked numerous times, “What was it like being in The Smiths?”. “That’s one hell of a question to answer!” he says. Answer it, he does, however, both in his 2025 memoir and now in his touring show The Drums: My Life In The Smiths.

To reflect on being stationed behind singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr from 1982 to 1987, Joyce will be interviewed by Guardian music journalist Dave Simpson, who lives near York. Audience members can put their questions to Joyce too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

York Residents’ Festival 2026: Weekend of free attractions, experiences and offers

Festival launch of the month: York Residents’ Festival, January 31 and February 1

ORGANISED by Make It York, York Residents’ Festival offers residents free entry to York’s top attractions and exclusive offers on food, retail and unique experiences across the city in support of businesses and independent makers.  

Thefull list of offers and pre-booking will go live from 12 noon on January 9 at visityork.org/resfest. Among them will be York Museums Trust providingfree entry to York Castle Museum, York Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum and the National Trust doing likewise to Treasurer’s House.

Self Esteem: Headlining Futuresound’s July 10 bill at Live At York Museum Gardens

Looking ahead to the summer: Futuresound Group presents Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens, July 10,  5pm

SOUTH Yorkshire’s Self Esteem is the second headliner to be announced for Futuresound Group’s third summer of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts, in the wake of Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark, Heaven 17, China Crisis and Andrew Cushin  being booked for July 9.

Rotherham-born Rebecca Lucy Taylor was part of Slow Club for a decade before turning solo as the sardonic Self Esteem, releasing the albums Compliments Please in 2019, Prioritise Pleasure in 2021 and A Complicated Woman last April. She will be supported by South African “future ghetto funk” pioneer Moonchild Sanelly and Sweden-based Nigerian spoken-word artist and musician Joshua Idehen, with more guests to be confirmed. Box office: futuresound.seetickets.com/event/self-esteem/york-museum-gardens/3555239.

Posted on

REVIEW: Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 ****

Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker. Picture Sophie Beth Jones

2026 will see Leeds company Northern Ballet launch the world premiere of Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre from March 7 to 14.

Already the stuff of biographies, novels and a brace of TV series, the story of adventurous Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall, Halifax, will be staged with a new live score by Peter Salem in a co-production with Finnish National Opera and Ballet.

Exciting times ahead under Federico Bonelli’s artistic directorship, but in the meantime Northern Ballet regulars will be delighted at the latest return of company staple The Nutcracker.

Premiered in 2007, former artistic director David Nixon CBE’s decorative, delightful, dazzling winter wonderland has become his most performed work, bidding farewell to the old year and embracing the new every few years, last doing so in 2022 on tour and back home in Leeds.

Glory be, this latest resurrection comes with a live orchestra (under conductor Yi Wei on press night), when the sight as well as sound of musicians makes the ballet all the more joyous (whereas recorded accompaniment can be so sterile).

What’s more, like singing Christmas Carols or re-visiting Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the familiarity of Nixon’s choreography and costume designs breeds ever more contentment, adding to the emotional impact of a story told so beautifully, with such sparkle, wonder and bravura dancing, against the grain of the 21st century world’s woes and wars.

Once more snow may fail to dust Yorkshire’s hills this festive season, but winter’s white coat is all part of the nostalgic magic of Nixon’s Nutcracker, where snowflakes flutter across the stage front cloth to set the mood for his  Regency England setting of Tchaikovsky’s late-19th century Christmas ballet.

Charles Cusick Smith’s gorgeous designs cast their own spell again, their grand scale sweeping up audience and dancers alike in the fantastical journey from castle drawing-room party to toy battlefield, snowy fairyland and a world above the clouds.

As in every home across the land, Rachael Gillespie’s inquisitive Clara excitedly awaits the chance to unwrap the presents that lie behind the towering, closed doors on Christmas Eve night.

When the clock strikes midnight, Clara is transported to fantasia by Harris Beattie’s noble Nutcracker Prince, her journey through the snow orchestrated flamboyantly by Harry Skoupas’s dandy Herr Drosselmeyer, fleet of foot and full of poised purpose.

Bruno Serraclara’s Mouse King seeks to defy the odds, so brave in dashing defeat, and making an amusing exit to boot, before Act One’s climax mirrors the traditions of pantomime in the outstanding transformation scene, graced with the most beautiful imagery of all, yet more delightful for Mark Jonathan’s lighting: spectacle as big as Yorkshire.

As ever, Act Two is even better, its tempo set by Saeka Shirai’s enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, in tandem with Jonathan Hanks’s Cavalier.

Amid the snow, contrast is provided by the kaleidoscopically colourful pageant of national dances – Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, French, Russian – in a showcase with an amusingly competitive spirit, orchestrated with panache by Skoupas’s Drosselmeyer.   

Throughout, Nixon adorns Tchaikovsky’s rousing score with the poetic eloquence of his elegant choreography, at once beauteous and charming, suffused with romance and drama, always up for mischievous comic interplay too in Puck style.

The Nutcracker is on cracking good form, a winter warmer like no other in Yorkshire this season.

Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2026.  Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 1, from Gazette & Herald

Ancient Hostility: Passionate political and personal song in harmony at The Black Swan Inn, York

IN his first guide to the New Year, Charles Hutchinson picks out upcoming highlights on January’s calendar.

Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools III, The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, January 4, 7.30pm, doors 7pm

WELCOME to A Feast Of Fools III, York arts collective Navigators Art’s sign-off to “Holiday’s end – the last gasp of Mischief” in a celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas is packed with live folk music and a nod to the pagan and the impish.

On the bill will be: Ancient Hostility, performing passionate political and personal song in harmony, in the vein of The Young Tradition, plus fiddle and squeezebox, and North West folk duo Joshua Arnold and Therine, presenting vocal-led trad and experimental versions of songs in the British folk canon on hurdy gurdy, harmonium and DIY instruments.

So too are Pefkin, whose slowly unfolding, ritualistic hymnals draw heavily on the landscape and the natural world, using processed violin/viola, electronics, voice and field recordings, and White Sail, York’s multi-instrumental alt-folk legends, weaving sound-spells for the season’s final curtain. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.

The Hammonds Band: A blast of brass at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Lorne Campbell

The Hammonds Band, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, January 11, 3pm

THE award-winning Hammonds Band returns to the SJT for an afternoon of the best of brass music. Founded by mill owner Sir Titus Salt in Saltaire as an amenity for the workers, the band later had a long association with Hammonds Sauce Works under the baton of the legendary Geoffrey Whitham. Now, under Morgan Griffiths’s direction, the band performs across the world. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine and Alice Rose’s Snow White in Pickering Musical Society’s panto Snow White

Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25  

INTEREST has been “extraordinary” for Pickering Musical Society’s January 2026 pantomime, directed for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold. More than 1,000 tickets have sold already; January 18’s 2.15pm performance has sold out and several others are close behind.

Written by Ron Hall, the show combines comedy, spectacle, festive magic, dazzling scenery and colourful costumes and features such principals as Marcus Burnside’s Dame Dumpling, Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine, Alice Rose’s Snow White, Paula Cook’s Queen Lucrecia and Sue Smithson’s Fairy Dewdrop. Audiences are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.

York actor Harry Summers: Wintering in panto villainy as Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin

Malton and Norton Musical Theatre in Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, January 17, 1.30pm, 5.15pm; January 18, 2pm; January 20 to 23, 7.15pm; January 24, 1pm, 5.15pm

BETWIXT York roles in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy and Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn, Harry Summers continues to corner the market in dark, dramatic and deliciously boo-worthy roles as wicked magician Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin.

Fresh from his villainous scene-stealing in The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Jennings plays the Emperor, insisting he is “one of the good guys”, even if his idea of good includes execution and arranged marriages. Further principal players in the mystical land of Shangri-La include Harriet White’s Aladdin, Isabel Davis’s Princess Jasmine; Rory Queen’s dame, Widow Twankey, Tom Gleave’s Wishee Washee, Mark Summers’ Genie of the Lamp and Annabelle Free’s Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Sue Perkins: Reflecting on stigma, humiliation and misunderstanding at the Grand Opera House, York

The Eternal Shame Of Sue Perkins, Grand Opera House, York, January 18, 7.30pm

YOU may know her as Bake-Off Sue, Taskmaster Sue, Just A Minute Sue, or the Sue that gives you travel envy, but stand-up Sue is full of surprises. In this new show, Sue Perkins shares the unlikely happenings from a career in the spotlight.

What’s the fallout when your pituitary gland goes haywire on live TV? How do you convince the public you didn’t really fall on to that vacuum cleaner attachment? And when intimate photos are splashed all over the internet, how do you switch the shame to dignity and joy? Find out in Perkins’ first live show in more than a decade, wherein she delivers a humorous treatise on stigma, humiliation and misunderstanding. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The poster for Deadpan Players’ Star Wars spoof at the JoRo, York

Deadpan Players in Star Wars: May The Farce Be With You, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 23, 7.30pm, and January 24, 2pm and 7.30pm

IN a time of deep unrest, rebel forces are fighting for survival. Led by Garth Vader, the Empire has created a sinister network called The Dark Web, through which Vader could travel back in time to crush the rebellion. Plucky Princess Slaya has encrypted and uploaded the password, along with a desperate cry for help to cute droid R2Ai.

Can Fluke Skywalker decipher the message, find Only One Kenobi, enlist the help of rogue pilot Ham Solo and the legendary, if rather pungent, Gedi Master, the diminutive but powerful “Odour”, then rescue the Princess and save the Galaxy? Find out by attending  this fundraising event, with all proceeds going to Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Candlelighters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Snake Davis and special guest Sumudu Jayatilaka: Performing together at Helmsley Arts Centre

Snake & Sumudu, Helmsley Arts Centre, January 24 2026, 7.30pm

SAXOPHONIST to the stars Snake Davis and singer-songwriter Sumudu Jayatilaka often meet up to perform with Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra or to play together in arts centres.

Raised in Scunthorpe, now based in London, Sumudu has frequently toured as a backing vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and percussionist for Sir Van Morrison. At 15, she made her TV debut on BBCs Pebble Mill At One, performing her own composition, accompanied by Snake on sax and flute. Later they took part in a Royal Albert Hall concert with Burt Bacharach and Hal David.  At Helmsley, expect classic pop, original compositions and a touch of soul and jazz. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Mike Joyce: Discussing his days on the beat with The Smiths at Pocklington Arts Centre

Mike Joyce, The Drums: My Life In The Smiths, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 28, 7.30pm

DRUMMER Mike Joyce has been asked numerous times, “What was it like being in The Smiths?”. “That’s one hell of a question to answer!” he says. Answer it, he does, however, both in his 2025 memoir and now in his touring show The Drums: My Life In The Smiths.

To reflect on being stationed behind singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr from 1982 to 1987, Joyce will be interviewed by the Guardian music journalist Dave Simpson, who lives near York. Audience members can put their questions to Joyce too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Posted on

Aoife Kenny delights in playing Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty after jumping at chance to appear in Theatre Royal panto

Aoife Kenny in the role of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

WEST End actress Aoife Kenny is making her York Theatre Royal debut as Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty of the title of this winter’s pantomime co-production with Evolution Productions.

Originally from Birmingham, now living in Reading and working mainly on the London stage, she made her first ever visit to York for the September 30 pantomime press launch. “My first time in Yorkshire was last Christmas for Snow White at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre [also co-produced by Evolution Productions],” she says.

Aoife had studied at Laine Theatre Arts performing arts school, in Epsom, Surrey, when the Covid 19 pandemic made for a disrupted finale to her musical theatre degree under lockdown restrictions in 2020.

“I had to finish my studies that summer on Zoom, and luckily it was a nice summer, so I was able to complete the course out in the garden,” she recalls.

“Ever since then, I’ve done various musical theatre shows, such as being in the ensemble for Frozen The Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which you can watch on Disney+.  We filmed it in February 2024.

“I’ve just finished in a show in London called Clueless [at Trafalgar Theatre], a musical theatre show that KT Tunstall wrote the score for, with lyrics by Glenn Slater [best known for Sister Act and Tangled]. Amy Heckling, the writer-director of the original film, wrote the script.

“I was in the ensemble and covering for the role of Dionne Marie Davenport, played by Stacey Dash in the 1995 film. It was meant to run for a year but closed early after six months.

“When I rang Paul (Evolution Productions director and York Theatre Royal panto script writer Paul Hendy) and said, ‘the Clueless job has been cancelled, do you have a panto slot for me ?’, as I’d enjoyed Snow White so much,  luckily this chance to play Aurora in York came up.

Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia singing a duet in Sleeping Beauty. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

“I’ve been raving about Paul’s script writing. He really knows his art and he just captures so well what works for a ‘straight’ panto character. He knows how kids think, being a dad, and is very up to date with the modern world, which always helps.”

Aoife enjoys performing with Evolution. “They’re lovely people to work with, really easy going, and it’s nice to have input into a show, whereas you can’t do that with West End show. The joy of panto is reacting to the audience and having fun with them,” she says.

“This year I’m in the princess’s role, which kind of drives the show forward – someone’s got to get the show’s message across! She’s a modern-day princess in our show, and although she’s still being rescued [from Carabosse’s curse], she can hold her own.”

Aoife can certainly hold a tune too. “I was brought up in an Irish-Jamaican family who loved musicals, growing up with so much music around me 100 per cent of the time.  Me and my sister Sinead, all we’ve known is music and musical theatre,” she says.

“My parents were a bit reluctant at first [for Aoife to pursue a stage career] because it’s a hard industry but Sinead and I had the talent and they’ve thoroughly supported us.” Who should be sitting directly in front of CharlesHutchPress on press night but Aoife’s parents, whereupon a very proud conversation ensued.

Naming a favourite musician, Aoife picks Steve Wonder. “I went to see him at Hyde Park this summer, which was amazing, but that was the day I found out I’d lost my Clueless job, so there I was, in the middle of Hyde Park, crying – and that’s when I decided to contact Paul [Hendy] about a panto job.

She is a “huge fan” of Beyonce too. “I saw her at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June on her Cowboy Carter Tour,” she says. “I loved her country album! Her career has been going as long I’ve been here – I’m 26 – and she’s an icon.  She does her own thing, and she has a message behind everything, so it’s not just the music with her.”

Christmas has been a chance for Aoife to reunite with her partner, musical theatre actor Matt Blaker. “He’s been out in the Philippines doing The Bodyguard The Musical for ten weeks,” she says. “My family are all away in Spain for Christmas, but Matt’s coming up for a couple of days from Reading. Just the two of us together – and York’s not a bad place to be for Christmas!”

Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles performing in Sleeping Beauty with ensemble members Chris Morgan-Shillingford, back row, left, Elijah Daniel James, dance captain Alyssia Turpin, Sophie Flora and, front row, Jayden Tang and Charlotte Rose O’Sullivan. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Aoife Kenny: back story

TRAINED at Laine Theatre Arts, Epsom, Surrey, graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in musical theatre in 2020.

Theatre credits include Clueless (Trafalgar Theatre); Frozen The Musical (West End); Snow White (Sheffield Lyceum); White Christmas (UK tour); Carousel (Kilworth House); Chess (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Sunset Boulevard (Alexandra Palace); Up Next Gala (National Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (Mayflower Theatre, Southampton); Peter Pan (Swansea Grand Theatre); Cinderella (SEC Armadillo, Glasgow) and A Little Night Music and Beauty And The Beast (Laine Theatre Arts). 

Television credits include Songs Of Praise, The Chart (pilot), Children In Need and The X Factor. Other credits include Bare (London Palladium); Josh Groban’s Stages (UK tour); Russell Watson (UK tour); Turn Up London (Cadogan Hall); Drive In London (concert); Love Never Dies in concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and I Put A Spell On You (Theatre Cafe). 

Kevin the “vicious” Velociraptor in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

On second thoughts: child’s play at the pantomime on a Saturday afternoon

RE-VIEW: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, until January 4 ****

ACCOMPANYING three children plus chocolate goodies to Saturday afternoon’s matinee of Sleeping Beauty, Charles HutchPress discovered – not for the first time – that he was wrong. Very wrong.

We need to talk about Kevin, the “vicious Velociraptor”, derided in the original review as the “dawdling, limb-twiddling dinosaur that somewhat undermined the impact of speciality act Kris Madden’s fire artistry as Guardian of the Raptor” at the close of Act One.

To these eyes, Kevin still looks lost in the sudden spotlight, his front limbs doing a Tommy Cooper “Just Like That” impersonation”, spoiling any chance of  being scary, but no, no, no. Kevin was a roaring success with Louis, dinosaur devotee, aged five. Enraptured by the Raptor indeed.

And that’s the point. York Theatre Royal and co-producers Evolutions Productions have the right instincts for a pantomime that will appeal to all comers. The animal kingdom has always been part of the Theatre Royal show, whether Martin Barrass’s unforgettable Seal back in the day or Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie two years ago.

Louis loved Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics too – an act truly on fire, topped off by his burning top hat in his walk-down –  and Finley named that twisting, turning fire starter as his favourite too, while Molly most enjoyed Golden, the up-up-uplifting K-Pop Demon Hunters hit that has become this pantomime season’s ubiquitous song in another on-trend choice by the Theatre Royal panto team.

Fired up: Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor in Sleeping Beauty. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Encountering Sleeping Beauty for a second time, CharlesHutchPress was struck once more by the political jibes (especially a dig at the early release of prisoners under Labour’s watch); the cornucopia of corny puns and the chemistry of dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Tommy Carmichael’s dippy Jangles and Christian Mortimer’s game Prince Michael in the outstanding splosh slapstick scene.

Top marks too go to Terry Parsons, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s gorgeous set designs and Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame Creations’ ever-witty costumes for Simpson’s polka-dotty dame.

The exploding confetti cannon – fired without warning after a big build-up much earlier– finds Simpson’s dame at his best in pulling all the strings amid the comical chaos.

No less explosive is the battle for supremacy of CBeebies’ star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam and Jocasta Almgill’s wicked fairy Carabosse in a lung-busting sing-off as they spar to the max in Everything About You.

To put the cherry on the festive icing, Louis excitedly joined the queue to meet Jennie Dale, still on full beam in the foyer ahead of another performance that evening.

York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm (captioned performance), 7pm; December 31,  11am, 3pm;  January 2,  2.30pm (relaxed performance), 7pm;  January 3, 2.30pm, 7pm; January 4,  11am, 3pm.  

Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam and Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse battling for singing supremacy in York Theatre Royal’s musical variation on a spoken-word slam or rap battle

Which songs feature in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal?

Good Day Sunshine (The Beatles)

Hot To Go (Chappell Roan)

Introducing Me (Nick Jonas, from Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam)

School’s Out/Baggy Trousers/ABC (Alice Cooper/Madness/The Jackson 5)

Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics) 

Hakuna Matata (Elton John, from The Lion King) 

Die With A Smile (Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars)

Golden Slumbers (The Beatles)

Hellfire (Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame)

Pinball Wizard (The Who)

A Hundred Years Have Passed (from Dragonland)

Everything About You (Ugly Kid Joe)

A Thousand Years, repurposed as A Hundred Years (Christina Perri)

Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr)

Together In Electric Dreams (Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey)

Golden (from K-Pop Demon Hunters) 

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, audience songsheet song, (Wham)

Everybody Needs Somebody To love, walk-down song (Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, from The Blues Brothers).

Posted on

Magician Sean Heydon headlines Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club’s New Year’s Eve bill at The Basement. Don’t miss the early start

Sean Heydon: From Britain’s Got Talent to The Basement’s New Year’s Eve bill for Laugh Out Comedy Club. Now that’s magic!

LAUGH Out Loud Comedy Club will see out the old year with an unusually early start to the New Year’s Eve bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York.

No, seriously, that is true. To facilitate revellers heading off for midnight revelries, master of ceremonies Damion Larkin will be calling out the names from 6pm tomorrow, with everyone having the last laugh at 8.30pm.

Britain’s Got Talent’s madcap comedy magician Sean Heydon has been performing at comedy clubs and corporate events for A-list celebrities and blue-chip companies for more than 15 years. 

Heydon has many television credits to his name, such as Soccer AM on Sky One and three seasons as resident magician on The Paul O’Grady Show on Channel 4. In 2020, he was engaged by Google to headline its sales conference in Birmingham.

Headliner Heydon will be supported by viral breakout star Karl Porter and alt. comedy act Ryan Kenny. Sharp, physical and unpredictable, Porter can make a room chuckle by using nothing more than his body, his face and an instinctive understanding of how absurd everyday life really is.

Ryan Kenny: Comic turn with a love for all things different

Porter broke through in a way that almost never happens in comedy anymore: organically, virally and purely on talent. A single piece of physical comedy – his slow-motion goal celebration impression – took on a life of its own online, introducing him to a huge new audience overnight. Now he has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram.

His stage act combines physical comedy with observational material, weaving everyday frustrations, modern life, and human behaviour into routines that feel familiar yet still surprising.

British Comedian of the Year semi-finalist Ryan Kenny is a whimsical comic with a love for all things different. Host and promoter Larkin likes to improvise his entire set.

To book tickets, go to: https://lolcomedyclubs.co.uk. Laugh Out Loud’s first gig of 2026 will be on January 10 at The Basement at the usual starting time of 8pm (doors 7.30pm).

Posted on

REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Robert Plant, Saving Grace, with Suzi Dian plus Burr Island, York Barbican, December 23

Robert Plant’s Saving Grace

AS PARTING lines go, Robert Plant’s sign-off goes straight to the top: “See you again. We’ll be everywhere, forever.”

Now 74, but as well preserved as ever, Plant seems to have been musically rejuvenated by his incredible Saving Grace band and intent of creating his own version of Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour.

In unshowy jeans and black T-shirt, he seemed totally immersed in the set, watching everything and everyone like some well-intentioned hawk.

It would be easy for a leonine rock star to bask in the adulation and recreate his former glories. Plant has never wanted to take that path. Despite being probably the biggest star to grace a York stage this year, he clearly wanted to cut the full-house adoration short to focus on the songs. 

“I love you Robert,” someone piped up towards the end, to be met with a good-natured “It’s far too late for that!”

Support act Burr Island were also good natured, their four-part harmonies impressing. Coming across like the better-off West Country cousins of Dexys Midnight Runners, the group are still in their thrall of their influences (Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Harvest Moon-era Neil Young) but have the talent – if not the rough edges – to reach their own audience.

Saving Grace’s set of what might loosely be called Americana comprised a mix of traditional tunes, West Coast classics, more contemporary covers, Plant originals and four Zeppelin numbers in acoustic form.

 Musically scintillating, Plant has assembled an absolutely cracking band. Happy to step aside, the spotlight was often somewhere other than him. This underlined with light what was blindingly obvious: this is a band performance, not a frontman and some hired guns.

Singing harmonies and co-lead was Suzi Dian, whose voice was totally simpatico with Plant’s but giving a depth and richness that recalled two of country music’s finest: Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

Dian sang lead on Orphan Girl, written by Gillian Welch but better known for Harris’s cover. Dian’s voice has some of the thin steel that characterises Harris’s voice, but has a richer palette to draw on. Plant and Dian rarely took their eye off the other while singing.

Each of the band had numerous standout moments, for example Barney Morse-Brown’s cello acted like the bass, but also created a wonderfully unexpected segment of the radical reworking of Neil Young’s For The Turnstiles.

Matt Worley on banjo and strings was a cut above and also took on a vocal on the traditional What Is The Soul Of A Man. On drums, Oli Jefferson never went anywhere near a four-on-the-floor beat as he wove a rich sound tapestry on his 1930s’ vintage kit.

This is Plant’s Black Country Grand Union Station (with Alison Krauss of course, Plant’s former singing partner). On this form, no other band could touch them, the dynamics, the imagination and the prowess on show (but never overplayed).

The music was full of twists and turns, often evoking a powerful Spanish, Middle Eastern sound. Plant exemplified this, using that big voice of his with the care of a maestro, often cruising with power in reserve.

It was a treat to hear Moby Grape’s West Coast gem It’s a Beautiful Day Today, which sounded fresh and full of promise (sadly no room in the set for Naked If I Want To, but I can dream).

Occasionally Plant let loose and showed us his Zepp chops, with the band seemingly pinching themselves. The Led Zeppelin covers (Ramble On, Four Sticks, Friends and The Rain Song) were tastefully done and arranged to fit into the style of the set, not stand out. Each was treated to a warm welcome and The Rain Song particularly glistened with mystery.

To be critical, a third of the songs were the same as his April 2022 performance at the Grand Opera House, York, and the encores added nothing new musically. The band appear to be playing a very similar set each night on this tour, so there is none of the jeopardy you might get seeing Dylan.

Instead, you get a supremely well-executed set of songs that seem to have been worked through down to the last intake of breath. The 95-minute set flew by: the rich cherry on a fine year for live music in York.

Review by Paul Rhodes