Category: Music

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as XXX exits and a cosmic piano arrives. Hutch’s List No. 38, from The York Press

Oh No! Have we missed Harland Miller’s XXX exhibition of Letter Paintings at York Art Gallery? No, this weekend is the last chance

HARLAND Miller’s XXX finale and Fangfest’s 25th anniversary, a comic convention and a cosmic piano are among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as August makes way for September. 

Do not miss: Harland Miller, XXX, York Art Gallery, ends on Sunday, open daily 10am to 5pm

THIS weekend is the last chance to see York-raised Pop artist and writer Harland Miller’s return to York Art Gallery with XXX, showcasing paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series, including several new paintings, not least ‘York’, a floral nod to Yorkshire’s white rose and York’s daffodils. 

Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.

 Fladam’s Flo Poskitt and Adam Sowter: Premiering their shiny new musical comedy, Astro-Norma!, at York Explore today

Intergalactic musical family adventure of the week: Fladam Theatre in Astro-Norma And The Cosmic Piano, York Explore Library and Archive, Library Square, York, today, 11am and 2pm

FROM the creators of Green Fingers and the spooky HallowBean comes Astro-Norma And The Cosmic Piano, wherein Norma dreams of going into space, like her heroes Mae Jemison and Neil Armstrong, although children can’t go into space, can they? Especially children with a very  important piano recital coming up.

But what bizarre-looking contraption has just crash-landed in the garden? Is it a bird? Or a plane? No… it’s a piano?! No ordinary piano. This is a cosmic piano! Maybe Norma’s dreams can come true? Join Fladam duo Flo Poskitt and Adam Sowter for a 45-minute show full of awesome aliens, rib-tickling robots and interplanetary puns. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives.

You, Me And Who We’ll Be: Josie Brookes and Tom Madge’s exhibition at Nunnington Hall

Children’s exhibition of the week: Josie Brookes and Tom Madge, You, Me And Who We’ll Be, Nunnington Hall, near York, until September 7

ENTER the colourful worlds of children’s illustrators Josie Brookes and Tom Madge. Through bold, eye-catching artwork, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne duo creates stories that explore the many ways we can help and understand each other, make friends and build relationships.  

Discover your own helpful superpower in the Big Small Nature Club or join best friends Nader and Solomiya on a journey to find home. A dress-up station lets you share in the adventures of Molly the Flower. Before you go, help the story grow by adding your own artwork to the interactive gallery. Tickets: Normal admission charges at nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall/exhibitions.

York Unleashed Comic-Con: Special guests, stage talks, cosplay masquerade, attractions and merchandise market at York Racecourse

Convention of the week: York Unleashed Comic-Con, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, Sunday, 11am to 5pm

UNLEASHED Events welcomes Tom Rosenthal, Tim Blaney, Peter Davison, Phil Fletcher and special guest Atticus Finch Wobbly Cat to a comic convention featuring stage talks, cosplay masquerade and plenty more.

Comic artists and authors Jim Alexander, Elinor Taylor, Blake Books, Jessica Meats, Paolo Debernardi and Ben Sawyer are appearing too. Attractions include Doctor Bell, Bumblebee Camaro, Johnny 5, Milestone 3D, Imagination Gaming, Battle Ready Academy, Mos Eisley Misfits, Tom Daws Dimple Magician, Rexys Reviews and Iconic Movie Scenes, plus a market selling merchandise and collectables from favourite franchises. Tickets: unleashedtickets.co.uk.

SmART art: One of 100 artworks for sale at the pop-up SmART Gallery at York Racecourse

Art event of the week: SmART Gallery, Racecourse Road, York, YO23 1EU, Sunday, 11am to 2.30pm

SUNDAY’S outdoor, inclusive community art gallery, SmART Gallery, will raise money for the Christmas appeal run by Crisis, the homeless charity, and voluntary work in Sierra Leone next Easter.

The event features more than 100 pieces of art work produced by the York community. Blank canvases are sold for £10, then returned once the art work has been created in any medium. Browsers can submit a secret bid on the day for anything they would like to buy. Any unsold artwork will remain on the fence opposite York Racecourse’s main entrance for five months for all to enjoy.

Austentatious: Improvising new Jane Austen novel from audience suggestions at Grand Opera House, York

Improv show of the week: Show And Tell present Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, Grand Opera House, York, September 5 and 6, 7.30pm

AS seen every week in the West End since 2022 and in York in a sold-out show in January, the all-star Austentatious cast will improvise a new Jane Austen novel, inspired entirely by a title from the audience. Performed in period costume with live musical accompaniment, this riotous, quick-moving comedy comes with guaranteed swooning.

The revolving Austentatious cast includes numerous award-winning television and radio performers, such as Cariad Lloyd (QI, Inside No.9, Griefcast, The Witchfinder),Joseph Morpurgo (Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee), Rachel Parris (The Mash Report), Graham Dickson (After Life, The Witchfinder) and more. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Pottery workshop at 25th anniversary Fangest Festival of Practical Arts in Fangfoss

Silver anniversary of the week: Fangfest Festival of Practical Arts, Fangfoss, East Riding, September 6 and 7, 10am to 4pm each day

FANGFOSS is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Fangfest with the All Things Silver flower festival; veteran cars; archery; the Stamford Bridge Heritage Society; music on the village green; children’s games; the Teddy Bear Trail and artists aplenty exhibiting and demonstrating their work. 

Opportunities will be provided to try out the potter’s wheel, spoon carving and chocolate making. Some drop-in activities are free; more intensive workshops require booking in advance. Look out too for the circus skills of children’s entertainer John Cossham, alias Professor Fiddlesticks, and the Pocklington and District Heritage Trust mobile museum. Admission is free.

Suede: Returning to York Barbican next February on Antidepressants tour. Picture: Dean Chalkley

Show announcement of the week: Suede, Antidepressants UK Tour 2026, York Barbican, February 7 2026

AFTER playing York Barbican for the first time in more than 25 years in March 2023, Suede will make a rather hastier return on their 17-date January and February tour. Brett Anderson’s London band will be promoting  tenth studio album Antidepressants, out on September 5 on BMG.

“If [2022’s] Autofiction was our punk record, Antidepressants is our post-punk record,” says Anderson. “It’s about the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world. This was the feel I wanted the songs to have. This is broken music for broken people.” Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/suede26.

REVIEW: National Theatre in War Horse, Leeds Grand Theatre, until Sept 6 *****

Tom Sturgess (Albert Narracott), left, with Diany Samba-Bandza, Jordan Paris and Eloise Beaumont-Wood (Baby Joey) in War Horse, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

ELEVEN years since first encountering the National Theatre’s remarkable War Horse at the Alhambra, Bradford, a return visit brought out all the awe, wonderment and anger anew at Leeds Grand Theatre amid the turbulence of 21st century conflicts, conflagrations and ever more warmongering.

Michael Morpurgo’s source novel was ostensibly a tale for children, as was Michelle Magorian’s Second World War story Goodnight Mister Tom, but Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris’s theatrical tour de force is a show for everyone.

The most successful play in the history of the National Theatre, collecting more than 25 awards and playing to 8.3 million people worldwide, War Horse is a complete piece of theatre, replete with technical aplomb, extraordinary puppetry, grand design and foundation-shaking sound to complement Nick Stafford’s beautiful, powerful storytelling.

For all those theatrical tools, the story is king, told with imagination and wonder beyond even the cinematic scope of Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film version.

More remarkable still, Morpurgo’s central character is a horse, whose journey is charted from Devon farm to the fields of the Somme, in the service of first the British and then the Germans in the First World War.

Directors Elliott and Morris and designer Rae Smith had the original vision, put into flesh by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company’s Adrian Kohler. Not so much flesh as leather tack and a wooden see-through framework that exposed the three puppeteers, gloved and dressed to add to the sense of equine power in life-sized Joey, whose transformation from colt to magnificent beast is a coup de theatre that takes the breath away.

From the highly physical ensemble acting of revival director Katie Henry’s cast to the deafening sounds of war (by sound designer Christopher Shutt) and the omnipresent animation and projection designs of Nicol Scott and Ben Pearcy that depict war so devastatingly, every last detail counts. Anne Marie Piazza’s singing of John Tams’s affecting folk songs is even more haunting for its female interpretation.

At the core is the bond of a boy and his horse, Tom Sturgess’s stoical farm boy Albert Narracott and noble Joey, as boy becomes man all too young in the most brutal passage of rights in the trenches. War divides but it also unites, bringing out the best and worst on all sides (as Morpurgo’s equal focus on the Germans emphasises).

Co-produced with Michael Harrison, Fiery Angel and Playing Field, this “all-new tour” for 2024-2025 is a triumph once more. The National Theatre and British theatre at their best.

National Theatre in War Horse, Leeds Grand Theatre, until September 6, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

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Suede to return to York Barbican on February 7 on 2026 Antidepressants tour. New album out on September 5

Suede: Heading back to York Barbican next February

AFTER playing York Barbican for the first time in more than 25 years in March 2023, Suede will make a rather hastier return on their 17-date Antidepressants UK Tour on February 7 2026. Tickets go on sale today at yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/suede26.

Brett Anderson’s London band will be promoting their tenth studio album, Antidepressants, out on September 5 on BMG.

“If [2022’s] Autofiction was our punk record, Antidepressants is our post-punk record,” says Anderson. “It’s about the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world. This was the feel I wanted the songs to have. The album is called Antidepressants.This is broken music for broken people.”

Antidepressants will be available in multiple formats including CD (standard and deluxe), vinyl (standard and colour variants), picture disc LP, cassette and as a deluxe box set. All pre-orders are available at https://suede.lnk.to/AntidepressantsPR.

The cover artwork for Suede’s tenth studio album, Antidepressants

The track listing will be: Disintegrate; Dancing With The Europeans; Antidepressants; Sweet Kid; The Sound And The Summer; Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star; Broken Music For Broken People; Trance State; Criminal Ways; June Rain and Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment. The deluxe CD adds Dirty Looks, Sharpening Knives and Overload.

The Antidepressants tour will take in a second Yorkshire date at Octagon Centre, Sheffield, on February 13 at 8pm; box office, sheffieldoctagon.com/suede-tickets/sheffield-octagon-centre/2026-02-13-19-00.

This week Suede opened their sold-out, six-date Suede Takeover special concert and event programme, hosted in different spaces across London’s Southbank Centre from August 26 to September 19.

Suede Takeover  began on Tuesday with an immersive Antidepressants performance, when the band introduced their new album live and in the round from a new stage within the Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom, created specially for the show. The intimate performance was a one-night-only chance to experience Antidepressants in this unique environment two weeks before the official release.

The poster for Suede’s Antidepressants UK Tour 2026, bound for York Barbican and Octagon Centre, Sheffield

On September 12, in the Purcell Room, Suede will revisit the up-close-and-personal 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones, discussing its highs and lows with journalist Miranda Sawyer and director Mike Christie in a live Q&A and filling in the gaps from the past seven years.

Suede Takeover will continue at the Royal Festival Hall on September 13 and 14 with two sets of Suede’s classics, hits and new music. Special guests Bloodworm and Gazelle Twin will join in September 13 and 14 respectively.   

On September 17, the band will perform in the Purcell Room in an unusual and intimate off-mic evening with Suede. The residency will close on September 19 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Suede’s first-ever full orchestral headline show, in collaboration with the Paraorchestra.

“It’s a chance for us to stretch beyond the usual rock gig format,” says Anderson. “We are all huge fans of the Southbank. It’s the heartbeat of the arts in London. Expect old songs, new songs, borrowed songs, blue songs, drama, melody, noise, sweat and a couple of surprises.”

Suede Takeover is a full-circle moment for Suede as they return to the Southbank Centre for the first time since performing at the Royal Festival Hall for David Bowie’s Meltdown in 2002.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Of Music In The Silver Air (Algernon Charles Swinburne, August), Marquee, Welburn Manor, August 12

The Waldstein Trio

TWO French piano quintets dominated this programme, with solo piano bonbons introducing each.

César Franck wrote four piano trios as a teenager and then took nearly 40 years to produce his grand Piano Quintet in F minor, premiered in 1880. Another 40 years later, Gabriel Fauré wrote his Second Piano Quintet in C minor, unveiling it in 1921. They carry certain similarities but if anything the Franck sounds the more modern.

For the Franck we had the Waldstein Trio joined by Benjamin Baker as first violin and Megan Cassidy as viola. The Waldsteins were much more focused than at their earlier outing here, not striving to make an effect, and blended well with their colleagues.

It may help to remember that although Franck was born in Belgium and became French, his parents were both of German origin. This helps to explain why the principle of leitmotif, popularised by Wagner, became so important to him: one major theme recurs in various guises in all three movements of this work. It takes a while to emerge – which accounts for the urgency this ensemble brought to the opening, while searching for its raison d’être.

The start of the slow movement similarly gropes in the darkness, but it reached a nice apex here before subsiding with a sigh of relief. The tremolos in the finale lent a sense of menace, this edginess here peaking in the two heavy pizzicato passages and eventually rushing towards a highly emotional climax, where major and minor keys jostled for superiority.

The Fauré is altogether less pretentious and the now changed ensemble reflected this. The key to its success was the delicate restraint but brilliant underpinning provided by the pianist Joseph Havlat; he was never percussive. The violins of Charlotte Scott and Emma Parker were joined by the viola of Gary Pomeroy and the cello of Jamie Walton.

There was a comfortable ebb and flow right from the start before an energetic conversation between piano and strings. In the light and airy scherzo, taken at a terrific pace, the strings were like flitting fireflies.

In contrast, the richer harmonies of the slow movement spoke of a new intimacy, over the piano’s rippling flow: its main theme, heard on low strings, delivered deep emotion before vanishing into space. The viola’s opening theme was tossed around in various guises throughout a luscious finale.

Daniel Lebhardt had opened the evening with two more tasteful episodes from Janacek’s On An Overgrown Path, always sustaining their simplicity. Similarly, he applied deft brush strokes to a Debussy prelude, a thoughtful painter at his easel.

Charlotte Scott

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Time Present and Time Past (T S Eliot, Four Quartets), St Mary’s Church, Lastingham, August 14

THE opening line of Burnt Norton, the first of T S Eliot’s Four Quartets, was amply reflected in this stirring two-pronged matinee. A very recent string trio by Huw Watkins was followed by the last of Mozart’s six string quartets dedicated to Haydn.

There is a special aura about Lastingham church. This certainly owes much to its Saxon foundation, but equally its radiant stonework lends lightness and intimacy to an arena where none of the audience is far from the players.

In Huw Watkins’s Second String Trio, these were the violinist Oliver Heath, the violist Gary Pomeroy and the cellist Jamie Walton. The intensity of their cohesion in what is by any standards a very demanding work was a privilege to experience.

The work is divided into seven short sections. It bounced straight into an electric rampage, with a marginally calmer centre. This dissolved into the total contrast of a luscious, lyrical slow movement. Like a video dissolving into new frames, it led into something darker, with upper-voice pizzicato that encouraged the cello to break free.

But one senses that Watkins does not like to stay serious for long. A flippant, frolicsome frenzy followed, suggesting Bacchic dance or even a rite of spring. A residue of anger seeped into the subsequent Adagio, although it gradually sweetened, providing a springboard into an angular free-for-all, with all threesquabbling over a four-note motif.

However,  the extraordinary finale, with supercharged cross-accents and catchy syncopation, saw the players finally coalesce in sensational style. Both the piece and its delivery were a tour de force. I would gladly hear it again any time.

After that, it hardly seemed possible that Mozart’s K.465 in C, nicknamed the ‘Dissonance’, could match the excitement of the Watkins. The violins now were Charlotte Scott and Emma Parker, with Pomeroy’s viola remaining on stage and Tim Posner taking the cello chair.

One of the special features of this festival is watching professionals go all out on a favourite piece: the thrills risk spills. But there were no spills here. After an opening as teasingly perplexing as Mozart clearly intended, there was terrific energy in the release of pent-up tension that followed and with it great transparency, so taut was the ensemble. The lovely Andante began a little forcefully but the pregnant silences in its second half were cleverly stretched.

There was even more of a surprise in the trio, which turned into a mini-drama in Sturm und Drang style, a hangover from the 1770s. The finale was brilliantly pointed. The devil was in the detail: the two-note staccato upbeat to the main theme, for example, taken in a subtle variety of ways, or the chromatic harmony, thrown out nonchalantly.

Mozart said that these six quartets were “the fruit of long and laborious effort”. This one was made to sound effortless, not least because Posner’s cello sustained the lightest of touches and allowed the spotlight to fall elsewhere: the quartet often seemed to be floating on air, a magical effect. Perhaps the secret was in the surrounding stonework.

Daniel Lebhardt

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Of A Dark Path Growing Longer (Angela Leighton, Cyclamen at the winter solstice), Marquee, Welburn Manor, August 16

THIS was an eclectic mix of solo piano numbers interspersed with music for horn, with a Leighton piano quartet at its centre. Many of the pieces referred to night and darkness, appropriately geared to the winter solstice of the title poem.

Such is the wealth of talent on hand at this festival that there were no less than four pianists on parade here.

There were 11 pieces throughout the evening. Joseph Havlat opened the innings with the last two of Schumann’s Night Pieces for piano Op 23, the first with intriguing inner voices, the second a moving chorale. In two more of Janáček’s cycle On An Overgrown Path (dotted through the festival), he was attentive to incidental detail, especially in the sploshy “Unutterable anguish”.

Daniel Lebhardt contributed Janáček’s lullaby Good Night! towards the end, having earlier accompanied Ben Goldscheider’s horn in Mark Simpson’s Nachtstück, which delivered a pretty forceful reaction to the time of day that inspired it.

Over the rambling bass line in a very active piano role at the start, the horn flew ever higher, before something gentler followed. The horn’s response to increasingly martial piano was a muted passage almost by way of protest. A processional passage in straight time blew into a climax, before an apologetic pianissimo that seemed to include quarter-tones. It was an odd but involving mixture.

The pianist Katya Apekisheva made two welcome appearances: first, on her own in Brahms’s B flat minor Intermezzo, Op 117 No 2, where her delicate arpeggios enhanced the work’s autumnal aura, and then partnering Goldscheider in Schumann’s Adagio & Allegro in A flat, Op 70. They blended superbly. After faultless scene-setting, Schumann’s flights of fancy were mouth-watering, the duo building on one another’s phrases rather than competing.

Goldscheider was back at once in Huw Watkins’s Lament, which he had commissioned in 2021 to celebrate the centenary of Dennis Brain’s birth. The composer himself was his partner at the piano. In mainly tonal, if mildly modal, harmony a slow cantilena built to an anguished climax, at which point both players grew more temperamental. It finally subsided into a resigned pianissimo, in true elegiac fashion, as if wondering what might have been had Brain lived longer.

The central work in this programme was Leighton’s Contrasts and Variants, Op 63 (1972), a piano quartet in one movement, which was given in the presence of his daughter (the poet quoted above).

Alongside Watkins as pianist we had violinist Benjamin Baker, violist Gary Pomeroy and cellist Tim Posner. Essentially an extended theme and variations, it rambles through a variety of moods, although always with an underlying romanticism.

There was some elegant syncopated pizzicato at its heart, and the players were able chameleons through its rapidly-changing colours. But even at the end, after the strings had been muted, we were left with a sense of yearning.

Goldscheider ended the evening in dazzling style with Messiaen’s solo horn evocation of the cosmos, Appel Interstellaire. It calls for a veritable thesaurus of brass techniques. Goldscheider not only despatched them all with panache, he also gave them compelling logic, a bravura performance.

Reviews by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Reception: The Wedding Present Musical, at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Holbeck, Leeds, until September 6 ***

Writer-director Matt Aston, left, and The Wedding Present’s David Gedge at the Recepetion: The Wedding Present Musical press night. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

WHEN York writer-director Matt Aston first suggested making a musical from The Wedding Present’s songs of love, loss and longing, Leeds songwriter David Gedge was intrigued.

“I’d never imagined my songs being used in a musical – I know nothing about the format and I’m not even sure I like it – but I loved how Mamma Mia! reimagined ABBA, and I’ve always been up for trying new things,” he said. “I’m excited to see how the show brings the songs to life in a new way.”

Performed by Aston’s cast of predominantly young actor-musicians and a community quintet of dancing waitresses, Reception: The Wedding Present Musical certainly does that.

And maybe we should not be surprised because Gedge already had expanded his template from trademark thrashing guitars to Cinerama’s more cinematic, French-infused pop and a BBC Big Band re-tooling of the Weddoes’ songs. The sudden burst of Rebecca Levy’s saxophone at one point is a nod to that reinvention.

Caught on camera: Rebecca Levy’s Estrella, left, Amara Latchford’s Sally and Zoe Allan’s Rachel in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Can indie rock songs work in theatre? Aston was sure they could: “The BBC Big Band arrangements for the songs were astonishing, as different as you could possibly imagine but David’s lyrical and conversational storytelling still shone through,” he said. “His lyrics are cinematic, emotional and rich with story – they felt naturally theatrical.

“Then later seeing Wedding Present and Cinerama concerts backed with 16-piece orchestras and full choirs helped cement the thought that the songs could work perfectly in a musical.”

Reception is not a jukebox musical. Instead its structure and style is closer To Sunshine On Leith, Stephen Greenhorn’s 2007 show for the Dundee Rep Ensemble that interwove The Proclaimers’ rousing songs into the story of two young Scottish soldiers returning to their families in Edinburgh after serving in Afghanistan. A TMA Award for Best Musical and Dexter Fletcher’s 2013 film version followed. Reception has work to do to match that.

Just as Charlie and Craig Reid’s songs for The Proclaimers are full of acerbic wit, wry observation, lovelorn yearning and narrative detail, so too are Gedge’s arch, romantic yet often disappointed songs of love and loneliness, life’s high hopes and low blows, break-ups and breakdowns, chance and no chance.

When Harry met Rachel: Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings and Zoe Allan in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In the Weddoes’ 40th anniversary year, Matt Aston utilises both Wedding Present and Cinerama songs and a new Gedge composition, Hot Wheels, within his “coming-of-age story of love, friendship, growing up, regret and reconnection that heads back to the sticky dance floors and crimped hair of 1980s’ Leeds”.

That northern story begins at the end in 1990, the rivals at war in an ill-fated love triangle, before heading back to the innocence of 1985, the year when Leeds University mathematics student Gedge formed The Wedding Present.

That summer, a group of Leeds student friends is celebrating the dying embers of university days, with plans afoot, but life’s paths will meet cul de sacs, dead ends, U turns, bumps in the road, as Gedge’s songs know only too well.

Events entangle, unfold and entangle again at a graduation ceremony, funeral, wedding and reception over a span of five turbulent, formative and transformative years. “You should always keep in touch with your friends…or should you,” asks Aston, quoting a Wedding Present song title as he explores how we grow together and apart.

Zach Burns’ Joe and Hannah Nuttall’s Jane in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In creative consultant Gedge’s presence on press night, the audience have taken their seats either at Wedding Guest tables – each delineated with the cover of a Wedding Present album – or on the banks of seating behind, facing Hannah Sibai’s end-on stage that takes the open-plan form of a wedding reception with white decor, dance floor and balloons, complemented by the striking triptych projections of Lee Thacker that mirror his black-and-white illustrations for Gedge’s autobiography Tales From The Wedding Present.

Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings’ Harry is going out with Zoe Allan’s North Easterner Rachel; his best friend, Richard Lounds’s John, is urging him to head to Seattle. Keep an eye on him. Friends Sally (Amara Latchford), Jane (Hannah Nuttall) and Estrella (Rebecca Levy), forever armed with her Camcorder, are always on hand.  

Rachel’s brother Joe (Zach Burns) has a slow-burning thing for Jane in the second love story, while Latchford’s Sally has ‘previous’ with John. Rachel and Joe’s Dad (Matthew Bugg) is the one seasoned adult amid all the young folks with all the life experience of Shakespeare’s young lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Gedge has described his lyrics as “typically little stories”; little, yes, but universal, in the way that love is.  Aston’s anxious characters are everyday types, experiencing teething problems in coltish lives that are more prosaic than poetic. Post-university red-brick students on a learning curve in life.

They are not the gilded youth of Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford spires, but provincial average Joes and Janes. Not particularly bright (unlike Chris Davey’s sometimes intrusive lighting), not particularly witty, nor particularly interesting or enlightening, but we recognise them in kitchen-sink dramas and soaps.

Caitlin Lavagna’s vicar Emma leading the funeral ceremony in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Reception’s combination of storytelling, impactful projection and drama-filled song peaks with the suspense of Act One’s closing scene on Brighton pier, suspense that is broken by the unexpected, rug-pulling opening to Act Two: a funeral that plays out in full, led by vicar Emma (Caitlin Lavagna), to establish a better balance of chat and song.

What Reception does have throughout is a restless energy, to match The Wedding Present in concert, captured in the choreography of York’s Hayley Del Harrison as much as in the fractious exchanges in Aston’s dialogue, where the wittiest moment comes in a late cameo by Jack Hardy’s Keir/Keith/Kevin – no-one is ever sure of his name – who turns out to be Keir Starmer in his Leeds University days.

As you would want from a musical, what works best by far are Gedge’s songs, delivered in myriad settings by musical director Marie McAndrew, from string quartet to piano, accordion to flute, Ukrainian folk band to full-on guitars by instrument-swapping actor-musicians in fine voice, emphasising the melody and diversity of his love songs to accompany his home truths.

My Favourite Dress takes on new poignancy  as a despairing, broken-hearted ballad for Burns’s Joe and Nuttall’s Jane. As John Peel once said: “The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the rock’n’roll era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!” Reception affirms that again and again.

Perfect Blue Productions and Engine House Theatre in Reception, The Wedding Present Musial, at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Crosbt Road, Holbeck, Leeds, until September 6. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk. Wedding Guest table packages are available.

Coming on leaps and bounds: The community ensemble in gymnastic action in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

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What happens when iconic songs collide with parallel realities? Find out in Wharfemede Productions’ Musicals Across The Multiverse at Theatre@41 Monkgate

Wharfemede Productions artistic director Helen “Bells” Spencer, right, leading a rehearsal for Musicals Across The Multiverse

THE musical multiverse is on the move but with the visionary creative team of director Helen “Bells” Spencer and co-creator and musical director Matthew Clare still at the helm.

After the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company staged Musicals In The Multiverse as its “most ambitious concert production ever” in June 2023, now Helen’s Wetherby-founded company, Wharfemede Productions, takes up the multiverse mantle for Musicals Across The Multiverse, featuring a stellar cast of performers drawn from across Yorkshire’s vibrant talent pool.

Promising to be “even more inventive and boundary-pushing”, this out-of-this-universe sequel will take over Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from September 10 to 13, with its “nod to the Marvel franchise and the Spiderverse”.

“Musicals Across The Multiverse is a bold and exhilarating theatrical experience that reimagines your favourite musical theatre numbers like never before,” says Wharfemede Productions artistic director Bells, whose daily diary combines being a consultant psychiatrist with motherhood and her multiple theatrical pursuits.

“Step into a multiverse where the classics you know and love still exist, but not as you remember them. You’ll hear the songs that you know and love, but with their traditional presentation turned on its head, so they’re different but still recognisable.

Musical director Matthew Clare, right, in rehearsal with Wharfemede Productions cast members for Musicals Across The Multiverse

“Think unexpected style swaps, minor to major key switches, surprising gender reversals, era-bending reinterpretations, genre mash-ups and more, offering audiences a witty, heartfelt journey through the many worlds of the multiverse.

“Inventive, genre-defying and packed with surprises, Musicals Across The Multiverse is a celebration of creativity and theatrical flair that promises to delight, challenge and thrill audiences. This is musical theatre recharged, remixed and ready to take you on an interdimensional journey you won’t forget.”

Bell is “absolutely thrilled” to be working with Matthew again. “He’s incredibly talented,” she enthuses. “Collaborating with him is always a joy. He’s not only a brilliant musician and composer, but also an endlessly inspiring creative partner. His ability to take an idea and elevate it into something truly original is nothing short of magic.

“Our friendship and shared passion for musical theatre have been at the heart of developing this piece. We both love exploring the ‘what ifs’ of familiar stories and pushing the boundaries of traditional performance. We’re not afraid to take risks, flip conventions on their head, and do things a little differently – and that spirit of playful reinvention is what Musicals Across The Multiverse is all about.”

In Bells’ cast will be Abbie Law; Ben Holeyman; choreographer Connie Howcroft; David Copley-Martin; Ellie Carrier; Emilia Charlton-Mathews; Emily Hardy; Emma Burke; Jack Fry; Jai Rowley and James Ball.

Musicals Across The Multiverse choreographer Connie Howcroft, right, working on moves with Zander Fick, Ben Holeyman, Abbie Law and Lauren Charlton-Matthews

So too will Kirsty Barnes; Laertes Singhateh; Lauren Charlton-Mathews; Matthew Warry; Mickey Moran; Naomi Mothersille; Nick Sephton; Richard Bayton; Rosy Rowley; Tess Ellis; Zander Fick and Bells herself.

“Our cast is nothing short of phenomenal,” she says. “This time we have multiple new additions from the production of Les Miserables I did this summer at Leeds Grand Theatre, and it means we now have a lovely mix of people from York and Leeds, who haven’t done a show together before, making it a really unique mix.

“They’ve thrown themselves into this wild, imaginative world with energy, humour and heart. Rehearsals have been full of laughter, creativity, and genuine moments of magic. Watching this show come to life with such an amazing group of performers from across Yorkshire has been a total privilege.

“Hopefully this format is something we can continue to grow. We’re now talking with The Carriageworks about taking shows there as well as to York.”

Bells and Matthew’s original concept for the parallel universes of this musical multiverse emerged from a conversation among York’s musical theatre performers about songs they would love to sing but would never have the opportunity to do so in a fully staged musical production, on account of, for example, the gender or the age of the character in the original setting.

“This is musical theatre recharged, remixed and ready to take you on an interdimensional journey you won’t forget,” says director Helen Spencer

“We pride ourselves in Wharfemede Productions on being an inclusive and welcoming artistic space for all,” says Bells. “The concept for this show allows our wonderfully talented and diverse cast to perform songs that explore and celebrate who they are, to push some of the traditional musical theatre boundaries and ultimately honour some of the best musical songs ever written.

“What’s been really lovely, working with Matthew, is how we can not only swap the gender in a song but also the feel of a song or the genre to match the gender swap. There isn’t a single song in this show that’s in its original format, which is an amazing challenge, but Matthew is such a genius in doing the musical arrangements.

“Santa Fe, from Disney’s Newsies, for example, was made famous by Jeremy Jordan in the Broadway musical, but is now being sung by Kirsty Barnes, who has just starred as Sister Mary Robert, the postulant in Sister Act, with LIDOS at The Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds.

“Matthew describes the arrangement as ‘written in the style of Chopin’s Preludes’, so it’s much more lyrical with piano and cello that really changes the song.”

Reflecting on lessons learnt from the first iteration of the musical multiverse, Bells says: “The  changes made to songs really excited everyone, and we’re always looking to push things further, like in the mash-ups, where we’ll have A Million Dreams, from The Greatest Showman, pared with How Far I’ll Go, from Disney’s Moana, and Defying Gravity, from Wicked, with Go The Distance, from Hercules.

Hands across the multiverse in the Long Marston Village Hub rehearsal room

“We got really good feedback on the close-harmony singing last time, singing that’s challenging but really lovely to do, so we’ll be doing more of that , and we’ll also have maybe four more solos than before as we had so  many people auditioning and the standard was so high.

“I’m also really excited about using British Sign Language again, as we did last time with Jack Fry for Cell Block Tango, from Chicago. Now we’ll be using it from Listen from Dreamgirls.

“Another highlight will be Zander Fick singing Sally Bowles’s Cabaret in a darker, more modern male version, where there will be no jazz hands to be seen.”

Among further “very different” interpretations will be Connie Howcroft’s rendition of the Genie’s Friend Like Me from Disney’s Aladdin. “It’s very clearly not a cartoon and not male!” says Bells.

“We also have a couple of major-to-minor key swaps that turn positive songs into ‘villain’ songs. Don’t Rain On My Parade is so well known that changing the key makes it so different and so challenging to sing – and it’s not only a genre swap but a gender swap too. It’s now more of an aggressive, very funky song, performed by Ben Holeyman.

The Wharfemede Productions cast for Musicals Across The Multiverse

“Emma Burke, who played Cosette in Les Miserables this summer, will do a very moving version of Anthem from Chess, in a gender and genre swap, highlighting the role of the Women Land’s Army in the Second World War.”

Look out too for three sets of mothers and children – Bells and Laertes Singhateh, Rosy and Jai Rowley and Emilia and Lauren Charlton-Mathews – singing Slipping Through My Fingers from Mamma Mia!

“It”s lovely for us to sing such a gorgeous song together,” says Bells. “Every mother feels that sense of pride yet loss at their children growing up.”

Matthew Warry will join Laertes, Jai and Lauren in The Place Where The Lost Things Go – “the Emily Blunt one” – from Mary Poppins Returns. “It’s a switch from Mary Poppins singing it, so now we have children singing an adult’s song,” says Bells.

As rehearsals take shape at Long Marston Village Hub, Bells concludes: “We can’t wait to share this unique, genre-bending show with you. Come and see what happens when musical theatre gets turned on its head – and support community theatre at its most daring, dynamic and joy-filled.”

Wharfemede Productions present Musicals Across The Multiverse, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 10 to 13, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Out of this universe: Wharfemede Productions’ poster for Musicals Across The Multiverse

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 37, from Gazette & Herald

You, Me And Who We’ll Be: Josie Brookes and Tom Madge’s enchanting exhibition at Nunnington Hall

CHILDREN’S outdoor adventures and diverse exhibitions, improvised Austen and American folk blues are among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations as August makes way for September. 

Children’s exhibition of the week: Josie Brookes and Tom Madge, You, Me And Who We’ll Be, Nunnington Hall, near York, until September 7

ENTER the colourful worlds of children’s illustrators Josie Brookes and Tom Madge. Through bold, eye-catching artwork, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne duo creates stories that explore the many ways we can help and understand each other, make friends and build relationships.  

Discover your own helpful superpower in the Big Small Nature Club or join best friends Nader and Solomiya on a journey to find home. A dress-up station lets you share in the adventures of Molly the Flower. Before you go, help the story grow by adding your own artwork to the interactive gallery. Collages, prints and animation add up to plenty to inspire children. Tickets: Normal admission charges to Nunnington Hall apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall/exhibitions.

Kate Stables of This Is The Kit: Playing The Crescent in York tomorrow

York gig of the week: This Is The Kit, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

THIS Is The Kit is the pseudonym of Winchester-born, Paris-dwelling songwriter, banjo strummer and pinhole camera aficionado Kate Stables, who makes albums of  “cataclysmic honesty and welcoming tonal embraces” that place companionship at a premium.

Stables will be accompanied in her experimental folk quartet by bass player Rozi Plain, drummer Jamie Whitby-Coles and guitarist Neil Smith, as she was at The Citadel, the former Salvation Army HQ in Gillygate, York, in November 2021. Box office for returns only: thecrescentyork.com/events.

Mandi Grant: Launching There Are Places To Remember exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, tomorrow

York art preview of the week: Mandi Grant, There Are Places To Remember, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, tomorrow, 6pm to 9pm

BE among the first to see South Bank Studios artist Mandi Grant’s new collection There Are Places I Remember on the bakery walls in Acomb. On show will be lyrical paintings of shapes, colour and textures in a combination of oil, acrylic and wax techniques.

Wine, soft drinks and nibbles will be served. Tickets are free but please register to attend at eventbrite.com/e/mandi-grant-art-preview-evening-tickets-1515431479349?aff=oddtdtcreator. Mandi’s exhibition will run until October 23.

Nunnington Hall: Playing host to Dawn Of The Dinos

Children’s adventures of the week: Dawn Of The Dinos, Nunnington Hall, near York, until August 31, 10.30am to 5pm

ENTER the Nunnington that time forgot with outdoor dinosaur-themed games around the gardens and main lawn for the family as you don your explorer’s hat and stomp around with your favourite dinosaurs.

In addition, around the gardens you can find a quiet creative hub with art supplies  and children can enjoy the Lion’s Den play area, where little explorers can climb up, over and wobble along a natural obstacle course, including tree-stump steps, a rope bridge and a wooden climbing frame to conquer. Inside the house, family-friendly art events and activities are running too. Normal admission applies, with free entry for National Trust members and under fives at nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/nunnington-hall/events.

Jake Xerxes Fussell: North Carolina singer, guitar picker and composer making York debut on September 3

American folk music for anxious times: Jake Xerxes Fussell, National Centre for Early Music, York, September 3, 7.30pm

PLEASE  Please You & Brudenell Presents promote the York debut of North Carolina singer, guitar picker and composer Jake Xerxes Fussell, whose intuitive creative process draws from traditional music and archival field recordings, incorporating elements of Southern folk song and blues into new works for the anxious modern world.

Folklorist Fussell released his fifth album, When I’m Called, last summer as his first on Fat Possum Records. He teamed up again with producer James Elkington to write and record music for Max Walker-Silverman’s feature film Rebuilding, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Austentatious: Improvising new Jane Austen story from audience suggestions at Grand Opera House, York

Improv show of the week: Show And Tell present Austentatious, An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, Grand Opera House, York, September 5 and 6, 7.30pm

THE all-star Austentatious cast will improvise a new Jane Austen novel, inspired entirely by a title from the audience. Performed in period costume with live musical accompaniment, this riotous, quick-moving West End hit comedy guarantees swooning.

The revolving Austentatious cast includes numerous award-winning television and radio performers, such as Cariad Lloyd (QI, Inside No.9, Griefcast, The Witchfinder),Joseph Morpurgo (Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee), Rachel Parris (The Mash Report), Graham Dickson (After Life, The Witchfinder) and more. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Pottery workshop at Fangfest Festival of Practical Arts

Silver anniversary of the week: Fangfest Festival of Practical Arts, Fangfoss, East Riding, September 6 and 7, 10am to 4pm each day

FANGFOSS is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Fangfest with the All Things Silver flower festival; veteran cars; archery; the Stamford Bridge Heritage Society; music on the village green; children’s games; the Teddy Bear Trail and artists aplenty exhibiting and demonstrating their work. 

Opportunities will be provided to try out the potter’s wheel, spoon carving and chocolate making. Some drop-in activities are free, while others are more intensive workshops that require booking in advance. Details of these can be found at facebook/fangfest or Instagram:@fangfestfestival. Look out too for the circus skills of children’s entertainer John Cossham, alias Professor Fiddlesticks, and the Pocklington and District Heritage Trust mobile museum. Admission is free.

Anton Du Beke: Making a song and dance out of Christmas at York Barbican

Show announcement of the week: Anton Du Beke in Christmas With Anton & Friends, York Barbican, December 21, 5pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing judge and dashing dancer Anton Du Beke will return to York Barbican with his festive show, Christmas with Anton & Friends, whose debut tour visited York on December 10 last year. Anton, 59, will be joined as ever by elegant crooner Lance Ellington, a live band and a company of dancers to create an evening of song and dance with added Christmas dazzle, concluding with a big medley.

“I loved doing the shows so much last year – they were simply magical – so I genuinely can’t wait to get on the road and do it all again,” says the King of the Ballroom. Box office:  yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Martha Wainwright finds her voice anew at All Saints Church in Pocklington tomorrow

Martha Wainwright: 20th anniversary tour show at All Saints Church, Pocklington

MARTHA Wainwright plays All Saints Church, Pocklington, tomorrow on her 18-date 20th Anniversary Tour.

The Montreal-born singer-songwriter will be marking 20 years since she released her self-titled debut album, when she stepped out of the shadow of her illustrious North American musical family (father Loudon Wainwright III; mother Kate McGarrigle; brother Rufus Wainwright and aunt Anna McGarrigle).

“Twenty years ago my life as an artist took shape when my first record was released,” recalls Martha, now 49. “In many ways that record defined me, as well as launched me into a now over-20-year-long career that has made me who I am.

“It was after ten years of playing in bars, making cassettes and EPs to sell at my shows, singing back-up for my brother Rufus, falling in love and out of love, practising, writing, singing until I could barely sing anymore, partying, playing with musicians and listening to great artists, working with my ex-husband [producer and bassist Brad Albetta] in the studio for two years, all that created this first record.”

Martha continues: “Labels wouldn’t sign me when I started and I had to craft, with the help of many people, an album that would finally be licensed and released in 2005. My first record tells my story and when it was finally released I was able to work and tour and have a career in music – something that I always wanted but wasn’t sure would happen. 

“Twenty years later, with six other albums under my belt, two kids and a career that is chugging along, I can safely say my first record paved my way forward.”

In May, [PIAS] (CORRECT) released Martha’s debut on vinyl for the first time, alongside CD and digital versions with extra tracks and a bonus disc of 14 rarities and alternate versions: unheard songs, outtakes and early material from ten years of discovery that led to her first record. Gems include Bring Back My Heart, featuring Rufus Wainwright, Our Love with Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Far Away, featuring the late Garth Hudson, of The Band.

“In the years before my first album was released, I was doing my own version of ‘artist development’ – playing a lot of gigs and going into the studio to make demos,” says Martha. “I got to New York City in 1998. It was a magical blur of fun and discovery, meeting musicians, playing and seeing shows and going into the studio. Hopping from bar to bar in the Lower East Side and Williamsburg.

“These are some of the recordings that came out of that time. Some were released as EPs that I would sell at shows but others have never been released. These are the ones that best reflect that time and the wild eclecticism I’ve always had, for better or worse, as an artist.”

Why did she call her first album “Martha Wainwright”? “That’s a very classic singer-songwriter thing to do. It’s your introduction, and the world’s introduction to you, and it also means there is not necessarily one song that defines the record. It’s not saying ‘this is the single’; it’s not creating an image. That’s how eponymous works for me,” says Martha.

“Also, I think, for my first record, as is the case for some artists, this one was a long time in the making as I couldn’t get a record contract, thought I released my first cassette in 1997, then moved to New York, made some EPS and tried to discover myself musically.

“Coming from a musical family, I needed to discover myself when there’s a lot of shadow to come out of, and these were songs that I wrote over many years as a young person defining myself.”

Was she ever tempted not to use her family name? “Well, it’s interesting, because I come out of a tradition of songwriters who use their own name as they had an interesting name and didn’t need to change it or didn’t want to,” says Martha.

“Artistically, it could be silly to change my name, though not necessarily so, because people will inevitably draw comparisons, but we’re all bogged down  by our families, whether we want to be or not.

“My family chose songwriting to be the big subject in life, and I guess I was leaning to that, but it was also about love and unrequited love.

“It was this acceptance of where I came from, but also maybe that I would have to push and shove , and you can hear that edge, that youthful resentment, to make you different to Kate and Anna, Rufus and Loudon.

“Every artist is trying to find their spot, trying to find that centre, and maybe we are trying to do that not only as artists but as people: to find our voices.”

Now comes her 20th anniversary tour with “a few great musicians”, when Martha will be playing her debut record in its entirety, complemented by a few new songs. “There’s no 49-year-old me without the 28-year-old me,” she says.

Martha Wainwright, supported by Michele Stodart (of The Magic Numbers), All Saints Church, Pocklington, August 27, 7.30pm. Also The Foundry, Sheffield, August 28, 7.30pm. Tour tickets are on sale at marthawainwright.com.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as summertime blues stretch into September. Hutch’s List No.37, from The York Press

Comedian Tommy Cannon’s poster for his Keeping The Magic Alive night of reminiscences at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

BLUE skies and outdoor activities, veteran comedy and American folk blues stir Charles Hutchinson into action. 

Comedy night of the week: An Audience With Tommy Cannon, Keeping The Magic Alive, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tonight, 7.30pm

BEST known as one half of comedy duo Cannon & Ball, national treasure Tommy Cannon presents a night of entertainment and nostalgia with the billing of “Legend, Laughter & Legacy – Live On Stage” as he shares stories from his 50-plus career in showbusiness, many in tandem with Bobby Ball. 

Expect behind-the-scenes secrets, career highlights and heartfelt reflections on his life on and off screen, delivered with charm, warmth and wit. Recollections from the golden days of British television to his stage work and appearances on hit shows will be topped off with special surprises (maybe a song), archive clips and a Q&A, when you can ask Tommy anything. Box office:  01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Kirkgate decorated for summertime at York Castle Museum. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross

Museum activities of the week: Summer At York Castle Museum, Eye of York, York, until August 31, Mondays, 11am to 5pm; Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm

INSPIRED by the vibrant and colourful Victorian galas of bygone years, enjoy live music, street performances, seasonal crafts and interactive trails in York Castle Museum’s bustling summer programme.

Victorian street Kirkgate is transformed into a traditional summer scene from 19th century York. On Sundays, live musical entertainment can be heard in the yard; on Tuesdays, The Silly History Boys perform circus skills; History Riot perform regularly as Phinneas Fickletickle returns with his Totally Tremendous Time-Travel Tincture. Tickets: yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.

The Blue Room, original painting, by Horace Panter, from Blue Sky Paintings show at RedHouse Gallery, Harrogate

Exhibition of the week: Horace Panter, Blue Sky Paintings, Journeys Across America, RedHouse Gallery, Cheltenham Mount, Harrogate, until September 18

BLUE Sky Paintings is the new travelogue exhibition by The Specials bassist and Pop Art painter Horace Panter, combining paintings from his ongoing Americana series with new oversized prints. “The myth still beckons. America and its dream,” he says. “As a musician, touring America means basically playing where the water is. The ‘Flyover States’ (that enormous bit in the middle) are the bits that fascinate me these days.

“In recent years, I’ve been fortunate enough to spend time in both Texas and South Dakota. Photos from these visits constitute the subject of many of the pieces in this exhibition. Of course, the commonality across the collection is the blue sky. I’m drawn to the intensity of the colour, the light and shade, and always aim to represent its fullness.” Opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Camp manoeuvres: Living History Weekend at Eden Camp Modern History Museum

Family fun days of the week: Living History Weekend, Eden Camp Modern History Museum, Old Malton, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm

STEP back in time at Eden Camp, where the past comes alive with re-enactors around every corner in the Living History Weekend programme of displays, talks and activities.

Meet with medics; try out authentic ration recipes; explore a Sherman Tank and its escape hatch, and enjoy live music in the engine shed, with space aplenty to show off dance moves. Why not dress up in Forties fashion to become part of the weekend? Box office: edencamp.digitickets.co.uk.

Kate Stables of This Is The Kit: Playing The Crescent next Thursday

York gig of the week: This Is The Kit, The Crescent, York, August 28, 7.30pm

THIS Is The Kit is the pseudonym of Winchester-born, Paris-dwelling songwriter, banjo strummer and pinhole camera aficionado Kate Stables, who makes albums of  “cataclysmic honesty and welcoming tonal embraces” that place companionship at a premium.

Stables will be accompanied in her experimental folk quartet by bass player Rozi Plain, drummer Jamie Whitby-Coles and guitarist Neil Smith, as she was at The Citadel, the former Salvation Army HQ in Gillygate, York, in November 2021. Box office for returns only: thecrescentyork.com/events.

Mandi Grant: Launching There Are Places To Remember exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb

Art preview of the week: Mandi Grant, There Are Places To Remember, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, August 28, 6pm to 9pm

BE among the first to see South Bank Studios artist Mandi Grant’s new collection There Are Places I Remember on the bakery walls in Acomb. On show will be lyrical paintings of shapes, colour and textures in a combination of oil, acrylic and wax techniques.

Wine, soft drinks and nibbles will be served. Tickets are free but please register to attend at eventbrite.com/e/mandi-grant-art-preview-evening-tickets-1515431479349?aff=oddtdtcreator. Mandi’s exhibition will run until October 23.

Jake Xerxes Fussell: American folklorist singer, guitarist and songwriter at the NCEM

American folk music for anxious times: Jake Xerxes Fussell, National Centre for Early Music, York, September 3, 7.30pm

PLEASE  Please You & Brudenell Presents promote the York debut of North Carolina singer, guitar picker and composer Jake Xerxes Fussell, whose intuitive creative process draws from traditional music and archival field recordings, incorporating elements of Southern folk song and blues into new works for the anxious modern world.

Folklorist Fussell released his fifth album, When I’m Called, last summer as his first on Fat Possum Records. He teamed up again with producer James Elkington to write and record music for Max Walker-Silverman’s feature film Rebuilding, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Christmas cheer: Anton Du Beke to return to York Barbican with festive friends

Show announcement of the week: Anton Du Beke in Christmas With Anton & Friends, York Barbican, December 21, 5pm. Also Royal Hall, Harrogate, December 1, 7.30pm, and St George’s Hall, Bradford, December 17, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing judge and dashing dancer Anton Du Beke will return to York Barbican with his festive show, Christmas with Anton & Friends, whose debut tour visited York on December 10 last year. Anton, 59, will be joined as ever by elegant crooner Lance Ellington, a live band and a company of dancers to create an evening of song and dance with added Christmas dazzle, concluding with a big medley.

“I loved doing the shows so much last year – they were simply magical – so I genuinely can’t wait to get on the road and do it all again,” says the King of the Ballroom. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Bradford, bradford-theatres.co.uk.

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REVIEW: James Willstrop in Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man?, Friargate Theatre, York ***1/2

James Willstrop’s publicity picture for Daddy, Will I Be A Man Tomorrow?

JAMES Willstrop thrives on taking centre stage, whether seeking to dominate the international squash court or playing leading man in Yorkshire musical theatre productions.

This, however, is different. This is Willstrop solo, no opponent to beat, no fellow cast members by his side, albeit with musical director Sam Johnson omnipresent on keyboards behind him.

A Fringe solo show is new terrain for Harrogate action man Willstrop, 50 minutes of self-lacerating examination conducted as a training exercise, sweat band on his fevered brow, squash racket in hand, kit bag by his side. And two chairs, as if he is both psychiatrist and patient.

No smashed rackets to report. Instead, in the most adept physical element of his musical monodrama, Willstrop transforms “Push, push” from his gruelling fitness regime into the racket becoming a baby cradled in his arms. Later, when conducting a dad-and-lad chat, the racket serves as his son Logan.

Willstrop conducts multiple conversations in those 50 minutes, sometimes with his late mother, Lesley, sometimes with his wife Vanessa, sometimes with Logan, sometimes with himself, sometimes breaking down theatre’s fourth wall to speak directly with his audience as he asks: “Where’s the solution when two dreams collide?”. Squash champion or putative parent?

The poster for James Willstrop’s York preview of Daddy, Will I Be A Man Tomorrow?

Interestingly, his main opponent here is Willstrop himself, the younger James, the one chasing those dreams of being the world’s number one squash player, and in doing so pushing his relationship with fellow squash player Vanessa to the limit. Likewise, he puts himself in a bad light in regretful reflection on not spending enough time with his ailing mum in his teenage days.

In exploring what success really means and what really matters, there is less joy than you might expect, although Willstrop excels in the show’s comedic moments, especially when multi-role-playing. A psychiatrist would surely tell him he is being too harsh on himself.

Johnson has put the musical flesh on Willstrop’s skeletal, narrative songs, the best being his candid confessional tale of his IVF experiences. The York preview exposed the need for a microphone. Happy to report that James is now using one for Edinurgh Fringe run at The Space @ Niddry Street (Lower).

James Willstrop in Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man?, Edinburgh Fringe, Venue 9, The Space@Niddry Street (Lower), August 13  to 16, 5.25pm; August 18 to 23, 7.25pm. Box office: 0131 2260000 or edfringe.com. Age guidance: 12 plus.