The art beat of YORKshire
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Eija Gibson: Directing Theatre@41’s first community play, It’s A Wonderful Life
THEATRE@41, Monkgate, York, is to play host to its first community play from December 10 to 23.
The John Cooper Studio’s black-box theatre will be transformed for the classic Christmas story of It’s A Wonderful Life with a community cast and crew.
Directed by Eija Gibson, Mary Elliott Nelson’s stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s 1946 film follows down-on-his-luck banker George Bailey as he is paid a visit by his guardian angel on Christmas Eve 1946.
Soon he discovers how life in Bedford Falls – the beloved small American town where he has grown up – would be without him, whereupon his outlook is transformed in a joyful story of love, hope and community.
The show poster for Theatre@41’s community play, It’s A Wonderful Life
This will be the first time the intimate independent theatre has staged its own community production. Auditions for community actors to take part in this winter’s production will take place on Sunday, June 28 at Theatre@41. An audition pack with further details and a link to sign up is available at https://63872f16-4d92-4e53-b625-a6dcb0d0b81d.filesusr.com/ugd/8d660e_d0eebbde62c14d67893e7e2eade6f382.pdf.
Director Eija Gibson is an exciting young director with a growing reputation, whose credits include being associate artist at Leeds theatre company Wrongsemble.
Eija will be mentored by Theatre@41 theatre manager Tom Bellerby, who has worked at the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and several leading regional theatres, Hull Truck Theatre among them.
“I am so excited to be directing this gorgeous show in such a wonderful space!” she says. “It is such an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to bring my vision to Theatre@41, learn from Tom’s mentorship and meet the wonderful creatives of York to create a really strong ensemble and a beautiful show.
Step this way: The entrance to Theatre@41, Monkgate, where auditions for It’s A Wonderful Life will take place on June 28. Picture: James Drury
“Hope, community and connection are at the heart of It’s A Wonderful Life. Through intimate staging, fluid storytelling and visual contrast, and most importantly a strong ensemble, we will bring Bedford Falls to York.”
In a message to auditionees and subsequently successful recruits, she says: “Join me for a collaborative, supportive and creative rehearsal process, resulting in a production that feels uplifting, heartfelt and celebratory.”
Theatre@41 chair Alan Park says: “For more than 25 years, Theatre@41 has hosted productions from York’s incredible community theatre companies. It’s A Wonderful Life will allow us to showcase the very best of York’s community theatre performers and creatives. We can’t wait to welcome people to our own Bedford Falls as we throw a lasso round the moon to re-create the most life affirming of Christmas stories.”
Theatre@41 theatre manager Tom Bellerby says: “We are really excited about this new project and providing the theatre audiences of York with an alternative offer this festive season. Our brilliant community creatives will be mentored by experienced professional artists, providing a unique opportunity for those involved.”
Megan Drury in Wright & Grainger’s Selene, playing Theatre@41, Monkgate, on July 15 and 16
Already this year, under Bellerby’s management, Theatre@41 has partnered with internationally acclaimed North Yorkshire theatre company Wright & Grainger to co-produce their new show, Selene, now on a UK tour after an acclaimed run in Australia and New Zealand.
Starring Australian theatre, film and television actor Megan Drury, Selene will play Theatre@41 on July 15 (7.30pm) and July 16 (8.30pm) ahead of its Edinburgh Fringe run in Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger’s story of the goddess and the dark side of the moon.
In this radical explosion of an ancient lunar myth by the company behind Helios, Orpheus and The Gods The Gods The Gods, a young girl watches the moon landings on repeat, a teenager makes a list of all the things they are not and a young adult starts to discover who they are.
“It’s a story about the light sides of us, the dark sides of us, and the things we grow up in the orbit of – and about the stuff inside us, all the wild stuff inside us,” say Wright & Grainger.
Tickets for Selene and It’s A Wonderful Life are on sale at https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Phil Grainger and Alexander Flanagan Wright of Wright & Grainger, creators of Selene
Kiss and no-tell: Molly Whitehouse’s Minnie and Dan Poppitt’s Alan in Love At First Bite, the play where biter and lover changes from show to show
WHO’S the sucker in vampire rom-com Love At First Bite? The biter or the bitten? The smiter or the smitten? Maybe both, maybe neither, especially when the answer changes with every performance.
York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions return to Theatre@41 with the premiere of writer-performers Dan Poppitt & Molly Whitehouse’s gothic spin on the dating game in the age of Tinder swipes and increasingly anti-social distancing.
The setting is metropolitan, London street names abounding, but it could be universal. To either side of the black-box stage are Minnie and Alan’s flats, fitted with domestic detail to match their characters.
Charlie Clarke, centre, holds court in one of her myriad cameo guises in Love At First Bite as Molly Whitehouse’s Minnie and Dan Poppitt’s listen in on their London Underground journey
In the middle is a space for tables – and for the turning of tables – in a pub or restaurant or indeed a street or Tube carriage, where chameleon Charlie Clarke spins her multitude of often comic, invariably perky roles and accents.
First up, she is overseeing the speed-dating game where Whitehouse’s Minnie and Poppitt’s equally awkward Alan first meet. Conversation is stilted, wilted on the wine, but somehow they still connect as nervy dates and gradually loosening laughter follow, their choice of black T-shirts saying as much as they do.
One thing leads to another, but “what if one of them were a creature of the night”, as the show promo teases? The identity of the vampire suddenly sinks in at the climax to Act One, but as mentioned above, the fang bearer switches from show to show – in a case of I’m A Lover, Not A Biter – and so your reviewer will bite his tongue.
Director Josh Woodgate, left, with his Love At First Bite cast members Molly Whitehouse, Dan Poppitt and Charlie Clarke
Poppitt and Whitehouse’s deadpan, even nonchalant, humour and cultural savvy put you in mind of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s zombie apocalypse movie Shaun Of The Dead with Love At First Bite’s combination of seemingly aimless lives, horror comedy and oddball romance. Their performances are arch, deliberately awkward, quirky, intriguing, full of surprises too.
All the while, Clarke is popping in and out, speed-changing costumes and characters as if in a sketch revue, from moustachioed French waiter to friends and family. Best of all is her living embodiment of cloud artificial intelligence assistant Alexa, a ring of light on her head switching on and off with every voice-activated change of request from Alan’s “Latest Play List”, her metronomic Alexa manner becoming ever more irritating as it always does.
Look out too for mischievous director Josh Woodgate’s cameo as a bored, pranking ice-cream salesman, an extra joy in this sharp-as-a-fang, transmutable love story, where you may well wish to watch both of today’s performances to see how Black Sheep’s game of Who Is Hunter, Who Is Prey? Plays out differently each time as “Love At First Bite toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites us to consider what it means to love…and to hunger”.
Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ retro B-movie pastiche poster for Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s Love At First Bite
Holly Taymar: Playing City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend
A FEAST of folk music and Shed Seven’s anniversary celebration, a le Carré thriller and a Willy Russell classic send Charles Hutchinson out and about.
Festival of the week: City of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend 2026, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green York, today and tomorrow
CITY of York Roland Walls Folk Weekend’s three-day programme of 50 acts continues today and tomorrow with bands, soloists and sessions throughout the pub and in the car park from 1pm each day after last night’s Irish-themed bill in the club room.
Among the performers will be King Courgette, in the return of the original line-up, Leather’O, White Sail, Janglebuddies, Graham Hodge, Monkey’s Fist, Chechelele, Caramba, Holly Taymar, Duncan McFarlane Band, Mary Molloy, Susie Coyle, Soundsphere and Jon Palmer Band. Admission is free, with collections for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Lunchtime concert of the week: York Late Music, Stuart O’Hara (bass) and Rob Hao piano), Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, today, 1pm
MARRYING words and music, bass Stuart O’Hara and pianist Rob Hao’s performance is based around new settings of Yorkshire poets by local composers: James Else &Alan Gillott, Retratos (world premiere, complete song cycle); Tim Brooks & Lizzi Linklater, New Student In The University Cafe (world premiere); Jenny Jackson & Richard Kitchen, Vessels (world premiere) and Nick Carter & Hugh Bernays: The Water Will Not Remember from Requiem for the Arctic (world premiere)
This afternoon’s recital also includes David Power’s Six Songs, based on the poetry of E.H. Visiak, and two new settings by York St John University student composers Robyn Hughes-Maclean and Matthew Jarvis. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
The Elysian Singers: Musical settings of poetry at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York. Picture: Linda Dawson
Poetry and music in motion: The Elysian Singers, York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
DIRECTED by Sam Laughton, The Elysian Singers’ insightful programme celebrates the musical settings of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Benjamin Britten’s A.M.D.G. will be complemented by works by Samuel Barber (Heaven-Haven), Alan Bullard (The Windhover and Spring Morning), Bob Chilcott (The Bethlehem Star) and Ian Stephens (Pied Beauty).
The première of David Lancaster’s new work, Henry Purcell, featuring Hopkins’ tribute to his own favourite composer, provides an opportunity to revisit Purcell’s Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences and O Lord God Of Hosts. David Power’s quirky and imaginative settings of four E.H. Visiak poems completes the line-up, preceded by Lancaster and Power’s 6.45pm pre-concert talk. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Shed Seven: Marking 30th anniversary of A Maximum High with one-off concert at The Piece Hall, Halifax, tonight
Recommended but sold out already: Shed Seven, A Maximum High 30th Anniversary Show, The Piece Hall, Halifax, today, 6.30pm
YORK band Shed Seven are marking the 30th anniversary of their hit-laden second album, April 1996’s A Maximum High, with a one-off concert at The Piece Hall, featuring the magnum opus in full plus further Sheds’ hits and fan favourites. Expect a few surprises too. The Guest List (6.30pm) and Seb Lowe (7.20pm) support.
Utter Madness: The Nutty Boys stride out at Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time tonight
Seaside trip of the week: Madness, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tonight, doors 6pm
IN their 50th year since forming in Camden, Nutty Boys Madness make their fourth appearance at Scarborough Open Air Theatre after previous seaside visits in 2017, 2019 and 2024.
Drawing on 31 Top 40 hits and 11 Top Ten albums, their timeless blend of ska, pop, punk and music hall will be on show as ever in Our House, It Must be Love, Baggy Trousers, House Of Fun et al. The Beat featuring Ranking Jnr and reggae vocalist Hollie Cook support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Ralf Little’s disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson
Thriller of the week: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Grand Opera House, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
FOR the first time, a John le Carré novel is being brought to life on stage by Chichester Festival Theatre in David Eldridge’s adaptation of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, a tale that journeys through the fog-shrouded terrain of Cold War espionage, deception and moral compromise.
Death In Paradise star Ralf Little’s disillusioned British intelligence officer, Alec Leamas, is ready to come in from the cold, until veteran agent George Smiley persuades him to take one final mission against the East German Secret Service. Deep undercover, Leamas finds his convictions tested and his defences breached by Liz Gold, a quietly defiant librarian, whose compassion threatens to thaw his frostbitten heart. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
An open book or something more complex than that? Florence Poskitt’s Rita and Jamie McKeller’s Frank in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
Literature lessons of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Educating Rita, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm
YORK actors Florence Poskitt and Jamie McKeller team up for the first time under Jim Paterson’s direction in Willy Russell’s warm, witty and moving double-hander about the power of education to change lives. When Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, signs up for an Open University literature course, she meets disillusioned academic Frank, whose passion for teaching has long faded.
Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and Frank reckons with his own choices and the possibility of a second chance. Change comes with difficult choices for both student and tutor, who must reconsider who they are and who they want to be. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Director Courtney Brown in Pickering Musical Society’s Let’s Do It!, The Cole Porter Songbook
Musical kicks of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Let’s Do It!r, The Cole Porter Songbook, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
IN a sparkling showcase of wit, romance, sophisticated melodies and clever lyrics, Pickering Musical Society celebrates the joyous Cole Porter Songbook, performing beloved songs from Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate and High Society and such hits as You’re The Top and I Get A Kick Out Of You under the direction of Courtney Brown.
The Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance’s vibrant tap, jazz and contemporary routines combine stylish choreography, glamorous costumes and a tribute to the Great American Songbook. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
The Bluffs: Short-form improv games infused with storytelling flair at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Unscripted silliness of the week: Unwritten: The Literary Improv Show, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, June 11, 8.30pm, doors 7.30pm
YORK troupe The Bluffs take classic short-form improv games and infuse them with storytelling flair in an evening of laughter, silliness and plot twists. Each fast-paced show is shaped by audience suggestions and spontaneous creativity. Expect scenes inspired by classic literature, unexpected character mash-ups and even a fanfiction-inspired musical number.
The Bluffs are drawn from a melange of theatrical, comedy and musical backgrounds, from festival stages to pantomime and competitive Theatresports. Box office: eventbrite.com/e/unwritten-the-literary-improv-show-tickets-1984763723726.
Wright & Grainger: Say It & Play: “Gorgeous weave of our home-grown stuff” at The Old Paint Shop on Thursday. Picture: Afternoon Film
The Old Paint Shop presents: Wright & Grainger Say It & Play it, York Theatre Royal Studio, June 11, 8pm
FRIENDS and working partners since Easingwold schooldays, Wright & Grainger serve a carefully curated evening of stories, poems, songs and gentle chaos. Known for their internationally acclaimed adaptations of Ancient Greek myths, sometimes they do something a tad different.
Say It & Play It will be a set full of Alexander Flanagan Wright & Phil Grainger’s shorter collaborative works, the poems that stand on their own, the beautiful tracks they have been writing. “It’s a gorgeous weave of our home-grown stuff, grown and told on home turf,” they say. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Lincoln Lightfoot: Participating in North Yorkshire Open Studios
MORE than 200 artists and makers are taking part in the summer edition of North Yorkshire Open Studios 2026.
Covering three areas of God’s Own Country, from the remote Upper Dales to the Central locations of Harrogate and York and the Moors & Coast, this annual event enables creative talents to open their studios to promote and sell their work directly to the public.
Taking part in and around York will be jewellery designer Helen Drye (Fountains Close, Riccall); oil painter Pennie Lordan (Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe); artist Emma James (Copmanthorpe Lane, Bishopthorpe); oil painter Lucie Wake (Slingsby Grove); abstract seascape painter Alex Ash (Heslington Lane, Fulford); B-movie poster art pastiche surrealist Lincoln Lighfoot (Brunswick Street) and northern landscape linocut printmaker Jon Haste (South Bank Social Club, Ovington Terrace).
So too are eco jewellery designer Rebecca Mihill (Nunthorpe Grove); mixed-media artist Ali Hunter (Alma Terrace); environment and plant-inspired printmaker Rachel Jones (Richardson Street); stained glass artist, ceramicist and printmaker Veronica Ongaro (Richardson Street); oil painter Di Gomery (Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road) and experimental artist Jill Tattersall (Mount Parade).
Further York artists will be geometric jewellery designer Evie Leach (PICA Studios, Unit 4, Enterprise Complex, Walmgate); animal artist Katrina Mansfield (PICA Studios); figurative artist Lesley Shaw (PICA Studios); Irish landscape artist Lisa Power (PICA Studios); rag rug maker Lu Mason (PICA Studios) and cityscape and architecture artist Ric Liptrot (PICA Studios).
In the line-up too will be abstract rust and gold metal-leaf artist Jo Walton (Rogues Atelier, Franklin’s Yard, Fossgate); illustrator and screen-print gig poster artist Kai West (Rogues Atelier); mixed-media figurative artist Mo Nisbet (Acomb Road); nature and animal acrylic artist Nicola Glover (Beech Grove); stoneware potter Hannah Arnup (Arnup Studios, Panman Lane, Holtby); natural world artist Kate Pettitt (Arnup Studios); fine art photographer Lesley Peatfield and enigmatic, ethereal artist Michelle Galloway (Arnup Studios).
Look out too for pattern-led tropical botanical artist Emily Littler (Sugar Hill Farm Stockton Lane); stone and wood sculptor Janie Stevens (Greenthwaite, Chantry Green, Upper Poppleton); Japanese-inspired British plant, flower and animal artist Toby Staunton (The Cottage, Main Street, Shipton by Benuingbrough); landscape artist Gonzalo Blanco (Rose Dene, Moor Lane, Strensall) and multi-media figurative and abstract artist Andrew Bloodworth (Stonelands Close, Sheriff Hutton).
The names keep coming: mixed-media landscape artist Justine Warner (Laburnum Cottage, West End, Sheriff Hutton); “happy accidents” land, sky and water artist Graham Jones (Harland House, Main Street, Huby); nature artist Nora Gaston (Moat House, Boroughbridge Road, Green Hammerton); experimental landscape artist Freya Horsley (Corner Cottage, The Green, Tollerton) and Bee-spoke Quilts’ hand-made quilt, jackets and waistcoats (Apple Croft, Gale Road, Alne),
Completing the list for York & beyond will be milliner Jane de Carteret’s woodland-type creatures (Apple Croft, Alne); Gina Bean’s semi-abstract North Yorkshire landscapes (The Bentleys, Lower Dunsforth); beach, dale and vale artist Richard Gray (Burnside, Spring Street, Easingwold); landscape artist Jeff Parker (Roedeer House, Raskelf Road, Raskelf) and Anya Manfield’s abstract textile wall hangings, mixed media artworks and layered collage pieces (Amber Cottage, Kilburn).
The full list of artists and makers can be found at nyos.org.uk. The Winter North Yorkshire Open Studios 2026, featuring the same names, is in the diary for November 7 and 8, 11am to 4pm.
Florence Poskitt’s Rita and Jamie McKeller’s Frank in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
WILLY Russell’s Educating Rita returns to the York stage in Black Treacle Theatre’s production at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 9 to 13.
Premiered in 1980 and updated in 2003, the Liverpool playwright’s two-hander tells the story of Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, who signs up for an Open University literature course.
There she meets Frank, a disillusioned academic whose passion for teaching has long faded. Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and Frank reckons with his own choices and the possibility of a second chance.
“Frank is so wonderfully brilliant and articulate, but also an absolute disaster,” says Jamie McKeller
As Rita discovers the worlds of art, culture and self-expression, she begins to question the life others expect her to live. Change, however, comes with difficult choices, and both teacher and student must reconsider who they are and who they want to be.
Transformed into a film by Lewis Gilbert in 1983, starring Julie Walters, reprising her stage role as Rita opposite Michael Caine, Educating Rita will be performed in York by Florence Poskitt as Rita and Jamie McKeller as Frank.
Director Jim Paterson says: “Even though Educating Rita was written in 1980, it’s not a period piece in the slightest. The play’s themes of the value and purpose of education, how women’s emancipation is still not universal, and how the choices we have depend so much on our class and background, all still have a lot of relevance today and it felt like a good time to revive it.
Jim Paterson: Director of Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
“Plus it has two brilliantly written characters in Rita and Frank. You worry when staging a well-known play whether you can meet people’s expectations, but I’ve been blown away by how Flo and Jamie have brought a host of different ideas and interpretations to their performances, which I can’t wait for an audience to see.”
Florence says “Educating Rita is such a brilliant, timeless play, and I cannot thank Jim enough for the opportunity to play Rita. Working alongside Jamie is a joy, and not only are we collaborating well as a team, it feels like were creating something really special.”
Reflecting on playing lecturer Frank, Jamie says: “Frank is genuinely a dream for an actor. He’s so wonderfully brilliant and articulate, but also an absolute disaster. A huge challenge to take on, but to face it with Flo and Jim is nothing but a pleasure. It’s possibly one of the saddest, funniest and most heartfelt scripts I have ever read and I feel very lucky to be a part of this production.”
Up to her eyes in books: Florence Poskitt’s Liverpool hairdresser, Rita, in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
Jim had just finished directing Black Treacle in Laura Wade’s The Watsons when Florence pitched the idea of staging Educating Rita. “I didn’t say he had to cast me,” she points out.
Last staged in York in September 2021 in Max Roberts’s touring production starring Jessica Johnson and Stephen Tompkinson at the Theatre Royal, Educating Rita became Jim’s choice for Summer 2026 as soon as he read Russell’s script. “The characters grabbed me; the dialogue crackles – and I said to Flo, ‘OK, what are you doing next June?’.
“Then, when I was speaking to Jamie about something else, I happened to mention Educating Rita, and he said it was a play he’d always been keen to look at. I put Flo and Jamie together and – brilliant! – you could see the chemistry between them straightaway.”
Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter, her partner in York musical comedy and children’s theatre duo Fladam
To Flo’s surprise, “Somehow we’ve never performed together before, which feels a bit bonkers because we’re so similar in that we both do lots of comedy,” she says.
“It’s been really nice coming together from comedy backgrounds, doing fun stuff, and because we both run our own theatre companies [Flo’s Fladam, with partner Adam Sowter, and Jamie’s Neon Crypt], flying by the seat of our pants, we know about being in the moment and having each other’s back, which is a good feeling in rehearsals.”
Working with Florence for the fourth time and Jamie for the first, Jim notes: “They’re both very empathetic performers and one of the things you notice is how they dive into their roles, where you’ll think about putting yourself in their situation, and in Frank and Rita’s situation, thinking ‘what might come from this?’. From the director’s point of view, it’s fascinating thinking, ‘what will you guys do here.”
Jamie McKeller in his guise as Dr Dorian Deathly, ghost walk host of Deathly Dark Tours
Florence says: “It’s just so exciting to have the challenge of doing a two-hander, lots of lines to learn, and the Liverpool accent for Rita too, and we’ve loved the experience. One of the things that’s been useful is that Vic [stage technician Victoria Ryan] is from Liverpool; she’s given me some amazing pointers.
“Vic says everything is ‘lazy’ in the Scouse accent, under-pronouncing words and dropping ‘Gs’ from the end of [‘ing’] words and ‘Hs’. I’ve decided to refer to it as ‘theatrical Scouse’ the way I’m speaking it on stage.”
In the educating of Rita in Educating Rita, she changes, but what about the heavy-drinking Frank? “We’ve discussed this a lot,” says Jamie, who will employ a weariness of voice in his performance. “You would hope that Frank has a transformation too, but he doesn’t really change in that there’s only false hope; he talks about tragedy instead.
“Somehow we’ve never performed together before, which feels a bit bonkers because we’re so similar in that we both do lots of comedy,” says Florence Poskitt of appearing on stage with Jamie McKeller for the first time
“In encountering Rita, it doesn’t do anything to redeem or save him. He has a certain lightness in her presence, but then, in her prolonged absence, he is quick to return to the bass line [in his behaviour].”
Jim adds: “Frank’s tragedy is he has the chance to change but he doesn’t like himself enough to make that change permanent.”
Jamie rejoins: “I’m definitely a lighter shade of Frank, but I could see how this situation could happen, but the difference between me and Frank is that I would not allow it to happen to me. Where he is comfortable in these circumstances and is unwilling to make changes, when it comes to ambition, we’re poles apart.”
Florence Poskitt in rehearsal for Educating Rita
Jim is giving Educating Rita an unspecified setting that evokes both the 19080s and 1990s. “It can’t be set in 2026, given how things have changed in education,” he says.
“But the only thing that really dates it is Frank’s drunken rant,” suggests Jamie, “To be that dismissive of that behaviour dates it to earlier times.”
Black Treacle Theatre in Educating Rita, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
FOUNDED by Jim Paterson, York company Black Treacle Theatre has produced Nick Payne’s Constellations (March 2022); Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott (March 2023), Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit (November 2023); Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist (October 2024); Laura Wade’s The Watsons (July 2025, co-production with Joseph Rowntree Theatre), and Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn (March 2026).
JIM Paterson is joined in the Educating Rita production team by set and prop designer Richard Hampton, lighting designer Sage Dunn-Krahn and stage technician Victoria Ryan.
Jamie McKeller in rehearsal for Educating Rita
MARMiTE Theatre’s show announcement poster for Ladies Day at Theatre@41, Monkgate
YORK company MARMiTE Theatre will begin rehearsals on June 21 for Ladies Day, Amanda Whittington’s “racecourse comedy-drama to warm the cockles of your heart”.
Directed again by company founder Martyn Hunter, the company’s second production will run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from September 8 to 12.
Premiered at Hull Truck Theatre in June 2005, Ladies Day’s tale of friendship, sisterly support and, above all, love follows Hull fish-filleting factory packers Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda as they embark on Pearl’s “I’m not retiring” leaving-do.
Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s debut production, The Vicar Of Dibley, last November
Out go the hairnets, wellies and overalls, in come the outrageous hats, high heels and posh frocks, as the four friends set off for Ladies Day at Royal Ascot in the one-off summer when the racing festival relocated to York’s Knavesmire course in 2005.
“As the racing begins and the champagne flows, we find out there is more to the mundane fish-packing lives of our four friends than we first thought,” says Martyn. “As the day unfolds and the races go by, we see their loves, losses and insecurities laid bare, but if their luck holds they could still hit the jackpot and a lot more besides.”
Ladies Day playwright Amanda Whittington
Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl will be joined in MARMiTE Theatre’s cast by Jackie Cox’s Jan, Nicki Clay’s Shelley, Gemma McDonald’s Linda, Chris Gibson’s Joe, Stuart Rae’s Fred and Kevin, Robbie Howe’s Jim, Martyn Hunter’s Barry and Trevor Britain’s Patrick and Tony Christie.
“MARMiTE Theatre had hoped to follow up November 2025’s sell-out debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley with a return to the village of Dibley this year to continue the story of Hugo and Alice as they set out on married life & parenthood,” says Martyn.
“However, due to unforeseen difficulties, we’ve had to postpone a second visit but are keen to return to Dibley in 2027.” Watch this space.
Tickets for Ladies Day cost £15 at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
NOT only a festival, held on university soil, is full of ideas. So too is Charles Hutchinson in his list of fruitful artistic pursuits as June blooms.
Festival of the fortnight: York Festival of Ideas, Place & Space, until June 12
YORK Festival of Ideas 2026 explores Place and Space in more than 200 mostly free in-person and online events designed to educate, entertain and inspire.
Led by the University of York, the event features world-class speakers, such as Nicola Sturgeon, Dame Kelly Holmes, Alexander McCall Smith and Stuart Rose, performances, exhibitions, tours, family-friendly activities, a Michael Morpurgo celebration day and much more, with topics ranging from archaeology to art, history to health, politics to psychology, football to Manchester’s Music Soul. For the full programme, go to: yorkfestivalofideas.com.
Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: SplitLip in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
THE year is 1943 and we are losing the war but, luckily, we can gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat, the Olivier and Tony award-winning musical take on the unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us the Second World War.
Bursting at the seams with chaos beyond invention, the question is: how did a dead body, a fake love letter and MI5 operative Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler? Let Christian Andrews, Holly Sumpton, Seán Carey, Charlotte Hanna-Williams and latest recruit Jamie-Rose Monk tell the tale. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rosalinda at the double: Alexandra Mather, left, and Olivia Turner sharing the principal role -two performances each – in York Opera’s Die Fledermaus. Picture: David Kessel
Opera of the week: York Opera in Die Fledermaus, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 4pm
YORK Opera is marking two milestones with John Soper and Elizabeth Watson’s production of Johann Strauss II’s party opera Die Fledermaus: the company’s 60th anniversary and its 40th year of performances at York Theatre Royal.
When lavish host Prince Orlofsky seeks fresh amusement at his New Year’s Eve party, what better place for disguises, deception and revenge served with chilled champagne? Alexandra Mather and Olivia Turner share the role of Rosalinda; likewise, Stephanie Wong and LaLa Marais both play Adele, alongside Molly Raine’s Orlofsky and Ian Thomson-Smith’s Falke. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The book cover artwork for Fiona Mozley’s Awake Awake
Book event of the week: An Evening with Fiona Mozley, Awake, Awake, Waterstones, Coney Street, York, June 4, 7pm
“WHAT if you can no longer trust your memories,” asks York author Fiona Mozley in her third novel, Awake Awake, published on June 4 by John Murray.
Booker-Shortlisted for her debut Elmet, and now resident in Edinburgh, Fiona returns to her home roots to discuss her new meditation on memory, loss and moral courage in a York-located story that revolves around a woman haunted by vivid memories of things she suspects never could have happened.
Her hour-long talk will be followed by a Q&A between Fiona and the audience and a book-signing session will be held afterwards. Tickets: £6, Waterstones Plus Card members £5, at https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-fiona-mozley-at-waterstones-york/york.
Writer-performers Molly Whitehouse and Dan Poppitt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ premiere of Love At First Bite
Premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Love At First Bite, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 4 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOSH Woodgate directs Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s seductive new work Love At First Bite, wherein dating can be hell, but what if one of them were a creature of the night? What happens when Alan and Minnie meet at a speed-dating night? A spark flickers. Dates follow. Laughter lingers.
“Yet beneath the rhythms of a familiar rom-com, something waits in the dark,” say Poppitt and Whitehouse, who play the lovers in York company Black Sheep’s premiere. “One of them is a vampire – but the secret shifts. Each night, the actors trade fangs and the audience is left to wonder who is hunter, who is prey.” Blending sharp-fanged wit with a brush of gothic shadow, their play toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites audiences to consider what it means to love…and to hunger! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Sofia Romano in Silver Stage’s murder mystery Club Mistero at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Freya Chaston
Immersive murder mystery of the week: Silver Stage & Solent University present Club Mistero, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
LOSE yourself inside the dazzling but dangerous Club Mistero in 1920s’ New York City, where a flighty barman, outspoken diva, secretive showgirl, neglected wife and an owner with eyes on every corner all become suspects when someone is, seemingly, nowhere to be found. Clutch your pearls, ol’ sport, murder is afoot.
In the heart of a speakeasy, surrounded by deception and secrets, a web of betrayal, revenge and power is spun, whereupon tensions rise as the line between friend and foe is blurred, but who will survive the night? Silver Stage’s Evelyn Foy, George Mclean, Niamh Boyle, Sofia Romano and Borna Vitlov will keep you guessing to the very end. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Alchemy Live! pay tribute to Dire Straits at Malton’s Milton Rooms on Friday
Tribute gig of the week: Alchemy Live!, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
FORMED in 2020 by lifelong Dire Straits fans Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, Alchemy Live’s debut in York was delayed until May 13 2022 by the pandemic lockdowns. By January 2023, they were progressing to theatre shows.
Frontman Ledger says: “It has always been the ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets. Dire Straits themselves were always about the music first and we are fully committed to upholding that. Mark Knopfler has these little percussive flourishes in his playing, which are really difficult to re-create but without them it’s just not Knopfler.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Rick Astley: Opening the summer season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Let the seaside season begin: Rick Astley, TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Friday, gates open at 6pm
IN the wake of 2025’s number two album, Are We There Yet?, last November’s paperback edition of his autobiography, Never, and April’s Reflection arena tour, Newton-le-Willows crooner Rick Astley opens the 2026 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
Now 60, Astley has enjoyed two chapters of success, kicking off with Never Gonna Give You Up topping the charts in 1987, leading to BRIT award success and further hits with Together Forever and Whenever You Need Somebody. After stepping away from the limelight, he marked his half-century by returning to the top spot with his comeback album, 50, and has never looked back, playing Glastonbury and the Royal Albert Hall and performing The Smiths’ songs with Blossoms and Frank Sinatra and swing classics at Henley Festival. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Director Courtney Brown in Pickering Musical Society’s Let’s Do It!, The Cole Porter Songbook
Musical kicks of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Let’s Do It!r, The Cole Porter Songbook, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
IN a sparkling showcase of wit, romance, sophisticated melodies and clever lyrics, Pickering Musical Society celebrates the joyous Cole Porter Songbook, performing beloved songs from Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate and High Society and such hits as You’re The Top and I Get A Kick Out Of You under the direction of Courtney Brown.
The Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance’s vibrant tap, jazz and contemporary routines combine stylish choreography, glamorous costumes and a tribute to the Great American Songbook. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Charlotte Hanna-Williams’s Jean Leslie, Jamie-Rose Monks’ Johnny Bevan, Sean Carey’s Charles Cholmondeley, Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu and Christian Andrews’ Hester Leggatt in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical. All pictures: Matt Crockett
LIKE Six The Musical, Operation Mincemeat’s reputation precedes its York arrival.
Six began as a Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society student show at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe; Operation Mincemeat was a Hail Mary of a change of tack by Edinburgh Fringe purveyors of “weird comedy” SplitLip, premiered at the New Diaroma Theatre, London, in May 2019. Edinburgh that summer, the West End in May 2023 and Broadway in February 2025 ensued, and now comes its first-ever tour.
The technical demands of SplitLip’s bravura show necessitated a two-day “get-in”, leading to the decision six weeks ago to switch the first night from Monday to Tuesday.
Unusually too, that led to the reviewers being posted in Rows D and E in the Stalls, rather than the familiar Row B and C in the Dress Circle, a regular position that affords a more panoramic view and less attrition for the ears. So near the stage, you can see the whites of the eyes, but music can take on the aural impact of white noise, particularly when those songs are often so hyper-energetic and intense.
Charlotte Hanna-Williams’ Jean Leslie in Operation Mincemeat
On the tour poster by the Clifford Street entrance, the wording ‘77 five-star reviews’ had been struck through to say ‘88’, as if a dare to reviewers to keep that count rising for “the best reviewed show in West End history”.
Six The Musical swanned in with much the same anticipation, or hype, if you prefer, and reviewers couldn’t resist giving six out of five verdicts for a novelty girl-power musical that put the herstory into history, turning Henry VIII’s wives into a competitive sextet vying to be lead singer in a girl band, as much a concert as an historical drama.
Operation Mincemeat is rooted in history too: the improbable but true story of perhaps the Second World War’s “most audacious intelligence coup”, the one where MI5 operatives deceived Nazi Germany over the intended invasion target of Sicily in 1943 by floating a dead body with the fake, misleading documents of a Royal Marines officer on to the Spanish coast.
That bizarre plot could make a play, and twice it has been transformed into a film, drawing on Ewen Montagu’s book for 1956’s The Man Who Never Was and 2021’s Operation Mincemeat, the Colin Firth one directed by John Madden.
Christian Andrews’ Hester Leggatt
Jamie-Rose Monk’s Colonel Johnny Bevan
SplitLip’s David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Felix Hagan and Zoe Roberts bring a comedy troupe’s sense of satire, experimentation, sketch structure, restless energy and order from chaos, beloved of Monty Python, The Fast Show and Patrick Barlow’s National Theatre of Brent shows and The 39 Steps revamp.
Consequently, the character-driven storytelling is Operation Mincemeat’s strongest suit, the humour delightfully British, knockabout, full of mischief, fizz, sometimes fury, and send-ups of British intelligence stereotypes, with room aplenty for pathos too to complement all the quips and stings so quick off the lips.
However, the songs are so prominent that Operation Mincemeat feels rather too close to a sung-through musical, and too often they go on too long and could do with more melody, rather than the propulsion and force typified by the lurid Nazi rap of Das Ubermensch that opens Act Two. Christian Andrews’ rendition of Hester Leggatt’s paean Dear Bill is a rare sobering intervention.
One review elsewhere in the country had suggested the “big question on our lips was: how on earth do you make a successful comedy musical about a wartime story?” Mel Brooks might wish to point you in the direction of 1967’s film The Producers and subsequent 2001 Broadway musical, featuring Springtime For Hitler et al.
Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu
Brooks had a better balance of dialogue and music, but if Operation Mincemeat’s songs overplay their hand, former Sheffield Theatres artistic director Robert Hastie and tour director Georgie Straight nevertheless deliver a sophisticated, sassy, technically slick, fast-moving comic romp with stylish set and costume design by Ben Stones, full of elegant lines, intelligence-office minutiae, German cabaret club chic and classic English suits, jackets, braces and ties, as crisp as Jenny Arnold’s choreography.
Above all, Operation Mincemeat has superb performances by a cast of five, each kept busy with playing “Others” as well as the five principals, Holly Sumpton’s pin-sharp, pin-striped Ewen Montagu; Sean Carey’s awkward Charles Cholmondeley; Montagu’s co-devisor of Operation Mincemeat; Christian Andrews’ fastidious senior secretary Hester Leggatt; Jamie-Rose Monk’s Colonel Johnny Bevan, the intemperate boss, and Charlotte Hanna-Williams’ eager-to-learn 19-year-old clerk, Jean Leslie.
Part of the comedic impact lies in the multitude of gender swaps in the role-playing, designed to counter the Boys Club strictures that prevailed at the time. Company new recruit Monk has particular fun as ‘Our Man in Huelva’ and MI5 operative Ian Fleming; Carey’s Cholmondeley delivers a series of amusingly baffling one-liners; Andrews maximises his series of outré Others, especially his glitter-spattered coroner; Hanna-Williams has the peachiest singing voice; Sumpton, immaculate in dress code, sometimes inscrutable in manner, is both the ace and the joker in the pack.
A bells-and-whistles finale looks ahead to what the protagonists did next, but crucially too the show pays tribute to Glyndwr Michael, the homeless Welshman, who had died of rat poisoning in London, his body subsequently being given the invented persona of William Martin for Operation Mincemeat’s act of deception.
SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical runs at Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sean Carey as Charles Cholmondeley
Wright & Grainger: Stories, poems, songs and gentle chaos in Say It & Play It at The Old Paint Shop on June 11. Picture: Afternoon Film
YORK Theatre Royal Studio is being transformed once again into The Old Paint Shop cabaret club for a month-long season of shows.
The June 4 to 26 programme opens with Queer Spaces, a joyful celebration of Pride in Thursday’s 7pm showcase of work by queer artists in the aftermath of May 30’s York Pride fiesta on Knavesmire.
This sparkling one-off night of new LGBTQ+ performances by actors, poets and writers includes award-winning artists trying out new material for the first time. Produced by Yorkshire queer touring theatre company Roots (Fringe First winners with Happy Meal), the show’s proceeds will support new local artists.
The season continues with a mix of Old Paint Shop favourites and exciting new acts, performing a mix of comedy, live music, burlesque and more.
Seating will be cabaret club-style and unreserved, offering an intimate theatrical experience, where audience members are encouraged to grab a drink at the bar, sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
June 5, 5 The Penny Magpie Theatre Company presents 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, 8pm, SOLD OUT.
WELCOME to 1956 whenthe Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein is holding its annual quiche breakfast. As the assembled ‘widows’ await the announcement of the society’s prize-winning quiche, the atomic bomb sirens sound. Has the Communist threat come to pass? How will the ‘widows’ respond as their idyllic town and lifestyle faces attacks?
Winner of a national Best Amateur Production award after a sell-out run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in 2024, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche is a tasty recipe of humour, sexual innuendos, unsuccessful repressions and delicious discoveries, written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hopgood.
June 6, Story Time with Mama G, 1pm and 3pm
MAMA G will be sharing original stories, songs and some of the best picture books on the market in an uplifting story time for the whole family. Expect dancing and giggles galore as pantomime dame Mama G shares the power of being who you want and loving who you are!
She has been telling stories since 2018. In that time, she has been a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent, performed her show off-Broadway, performed at libraries, festivals, prides, museums and theatres all over the UK and penned the book Oh Yes I Am!, published in 2024.Suitable for age three upwards.
June 6, Haus of Games: Pride Month Party, 8pm
FASTEN your seatbelts and prepare for turbulence, darling, aboard Spread Eagle Airlines. The Isolation Creations are back, ready to take you sky-high with their old-school drag spectacular, Haus of Games.
This time, these Trolley Dollies take you on a first-class flight full of bingo, party games, music, and mayhem, all served with their signature blend of Carry On-style comedy, retro glamour and outrageous charm.
Celebrating Pride Month with laughter, glitter and a generous serving of nonsense at 30,000 feet, this camp fest of fun promises fabulous prizes and more double-entendres than an in-flight safety demo. Think Lily Savage meets Dame Edna, with more than a splash of Les Dawson. Dress code: Seaside Summer Holiday or Mile High Club chic; prizes for the best-dressed passengers!
June 10, Amber Topaz in Red, 8pm
INTERNATIONAL cabaret siren Amber Topaz presents a new, classy, sassy, fabulous musical revue, celebrating redheaded musical theatre stars of stage and screen.
This delicious cocktail of Old Hollywood glamour and West End and Broadway classics is brimful of iconic show-stopping numbers, honouring the formidable flame-haired trailblazers that have shaped musical theatre herstory.
From the golden era of Hollywood to the bright lights of Las Vegas, Red embodies legendary artists such as Rita Hayworth, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Shirley MacLaine, Gwen Verdon and many more. The show is choreographed and directed by Nikki Woollaston, resident director of the Les Misérables worldwide tour.
June 11, Wright & Grainger Say It & Play it, 8pm
FRIENDS and working partners since Easingwold schooldays, Wright & Grainger serve a carefully curated evening of stories, poems, songs and gentle chaos.
Known for their internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning adaptations of Ancient Greek myths, sometimes Alexander Flanagan Wright & Phil Grainger do something a tad different.
Say It And Play It will be a set full of their shorter stuff, the collaborative stuff, the poems that stand on their own, the beautiful tracks they have been writing.”It’s a gorgeous weave of our home-grown stuff, grown and told on home turf,” they say.
June 12, Tracey Collins, An Evening With Elvis Lesley, 8pm
COMEDIAN Tracey Collins (Shell Suit Cher, Audrey Heartburn) brings her one-woman musical comedy show to the York stage in the guise of Elvis Lesley, who is preparing to leave their day job in the UK and gyrate their way back to the bright lights of Las Vegas!
Brilliantly reworked songs, surreal stories, heart-stopping hip gyrations and a whole lotta chaos are in store but will Elvis Lesley nail the famous lip curl, sensuous croon and jiggly legs? Find out when witnessing Elvis as you have never seen them before!
June 13, The Jazzville Quartet with Kirsty Hughes, 8pm
YORK jazz combo The Jazzville Quartet present an evening led by London-based fabulous Kirsty Hughes, who sings in a variety of styles and settings, including West End shows and cabaret.
Royal Academy of Music graduate Kirsty will be showcasing her love of Judy Garland and the great jazz singers in an intimate cabaret-style performance, joined by piano maestro, arranger and composer Alec Robinson, saxophonist Alex Fisher, double bassist Tim Murgatroyd and drummer Steve Hanley.
The Jazzville Quartet will explore the Great American Songbook in a joyful celebration of swing and Latin classics and haunting jazz ballads. A few surprises are in the pipeline too.
June 17, Neil Haigh’s Comedy Masterclass Ruined by Stewart Wright, 8pm
NEIL Haigh’s Comedy Masterclass Ruined By Stewart Wright combines clowning, improvisation and theatrical storytelling as a beleaguered acting lecturer channels 20 years of disappointment into a one-off masterclass amid a backdrop of professional pressure and personal crisis. Will a surprise guest be his ruin or saviour?
Haigh’s experience with groundbreaking theatre company Cartoon de Salvo and Wright’s 30 years as a comic character actor (Smack The Pony, Bridget Jones’s Diary) combine exquisitely in their stage duo, shaped with BAFTA-nominated Justin Sbresni as their comedy consultant.
York audiences may recall Wright from his role as Welsh welfare officer Sergeant Dave in the Theatre Royal premiere of Debbie Isitt’s Military Wives – The Musical last September.
June 18, Rock Paper Goose, 8pm
YORK indie pop band Rock Paper Goose comprises multi-instrumentalists Nathan Greaves (vocals, guitar, synth) and Olly Whitehouse (vocals, synth, bass). They write catchy melodies over the top of infectious, colourful music that takes equal inspiration from rock, pop and EDM to create life-affirming shows full of playful energy and joy. Songs from September 2025’s debut album, Okay!, will be complemented by new, unreleased material.
June 19, Velvet Jazz Night with Luka Watabe, 8pm
LUKA Watabe brings rich, smooth vocal styling and Old Hollywood glamour to her sophisticated repertoire of classic jazz standards and modern songs, delivered with a sleek jazz twist by her professional musicians.
June 20, Freida Nipples presents…The Exhibitionists, 8pm, sold out
YORK’S international burlesque artist Freida Nipples returns to the Old Paint Shop with some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across the UK and further afield.
From burlesque to drag and beyond, the unexpected will be in store. “Get ready to be dazzled, shocked and in awe by these performers,” says Freida. “Only a few things are guaranteed, glamour, gags and giggles. Get ready to explore the world of The Exhibitionists.”
Freida’s past Theatre Royal shows have paraded drag queens, acrobats, whipcrackers, circus artists, sideshow performers and stripteasers of many different flavours, from comedy caricatures to sensual fan dancers.
June 26, Karl Mullen, 8pm
YORK pianist Karl Mullen, upright-piano busker, The Phoenix fixture and Leeds Piano Competition Pub Piano Champion, closes the season by serving up his high-energy mix of everything from Chopin to Oasis, via Led Zeppelin and Les Dawson, packed with outrageous and heartfelt stories from decades of gigging and street playing.
Tickets can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ralf Little’s British intelligence officer Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Picture: Johan Persson
FOR the first time, a novel by John le Carré, master of the modern spy genre, is being brought to life on stage in a thrilling adaptation of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
Ralf Little, best known for playing Detective Inspector Neville Parker in Death In Paradise, Antony Royle in The Royle Family and Jonny Keogh in Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, will lead the cast as Alec Leamas in Second Half Productions and The Ink Factory’s tour of the Chichester Festival Theatre production.
“It is a huge privilege to be stepping into the shoes of one of John le Carré’s great literary creations, Alec Leamas, as we bring the murky world of his Cold War masterpiece to life on stage,” says Oldham-born actor, writer, presenter, narrator and former semi-professional footballer Little, 46. “I first read The Spy Who Came In From the Cold when I was 16 and it has stayed with me ever since.
Ralf Little: Touring 21 venues in the role of Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Picture: Michael Wharley
“Reading David Eldridge’s brilliant script, I once again found myself drawn into the story’s unexpected twists and turns, its high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse between East and West, which David has captured so thrillingly in the play. Despite being written in the Sixties, it feels startlingly relevant to the times we are living in now. I can’t wait to share this story with audiences old and new as we take it to cities right across the UK.”
Named in TIME Magazine’s All-Time Greatest 100 Novels and still a best seller after more than six decades, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold takes a journey through the fog-shrouded terrain of Cold War espionage, deception and moral compromise, adapted by Eldridge (Beginning; Middle; End, all National Theatre) from the work of Le Carré, creator of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Night Manager.
Disillusioned, weary and hardened, British intelligence officer Alec Leamas is ready to come in from the cold, until veteran agent George Smiley persuades him to take one final mission —dangerous, deceptive and deeply personal — against the East German Secret Service. Despatched into enemy territory, deep undercover, he finds his convictions tested and his defences breached by Liz Gold, a quietly defiant librarian, whose compassion threatens to thaw his frostbitten heart.
Ralf Little’s Alec Leamas, left, in a scene from The Spy Who came In From The Cold. Picture: Johan Persson
After a sold-out run at Chichester Festival Theatre and a West End premiere at @sohoplace in a14-week run from November 2025 to February 2026, the play is on a 21-venue tour from March 21 to August 22, under the direction of Jeremy Herrin (Grace Pervades; A Mirror; People, Places & Things; Long Day’s Journey Into Night).
Little’s Alec Leamas is joined by Grainne Dromgoole as Liz Gold, Tony Turner as George Smiley, Nicholas Murchie as Control and Peter Losasso as Hans-Dieter Mundt. Completing the cast are Eddie Toll as Fielder, Melody Chikakane Brown as Miss Crail/President of the Tribunal, Jeff D’Sangalang as Ashe, Jonny Burman as Riemeck/Kiever and Jo Servi as Pitt/Ford, with Clara Wessely and James Burman in the ensemble.
The creative team includes designer Max Jones, lighting designer Azusa Ono, sound designer Elizabeth Purnell, composer Paul Englishby, movement director Lucy Cullingford and tour director Joe Lichtenstein.
Second Half Productions and The Ink Factory presents Chichester Festival Theatre in John le Carré’s The Spy Who Comes in From The Cold, Grand Opera House, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for Ralf Little’s appearance in John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold