Category: Theatre

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Wright & Grainger perform Helios at outset of partnership with Theatre@41, Monkgate, ahead of Australia & NZ tour of SELENE

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger re-visit the Greek tragedy of Helios on February 5 at 7.30pm as part of their new partnership with Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.

In Wright’s tale of the sun god’s son, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city.

In a nutshell, a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

“It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” says Alexander.

Theatre@41 has teamed up with Wright & Grainger to co-produce their new show SELENE, an intimate theatre experience with cinematic score and striking storytelling, rehearsed at the Monkgate theatre in December before touring internationally in 2026, ahead of exclusive summer performances in York.

Theatre@41 is an intimate independent theatre, run almost entirely by volunteers, and this partnership with Wright & Grainger is the first of its kind for the organisation.

Wright & Grainger’s Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, and Phil Grainger with Australian theatre maker Megan Drury. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Theatre manager Tom Bellerby says: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Wright & Grainger on SELENE. A key part of our mission at Theatre@41 is supporting the creation of exceptional new work by artists from York and Yorkshire, and we can’t wait for audiences both here at the theatre and around the world to see this new show.

“Throughout the year Wright & Grainger will also be contributing to Create@41, our new artist development programme, supporting emerging artists in the city by sharing their skills and experience.”

The award-winning, globe-travelling Wright & Grainger’s work re-tells stories from Greek mythology as if they were happening today, bonding Wright’s spoken word with Grainger’s music.

Billed as a sibling show to Helios, SELENE is a radical explosion of an ancient myth, wherein a young girl is watching the moon landings on repeat, entranced by those astronauts’ weightlessness. A bunch of teenagers is swimming under a lunar eclipse, lost in what might happen next. A mismatched couple is watching a horror film at a drive-in cinema, soon to step into all the next stuff.

“It’s a story about the Goddess and the dark side of the moon,” says Alexander. “It’s about how we grow up defined by our bodies. It’s about the light sides of us and the dark sides of us. And it’s about the stuff inside us. All the wild stuff inside of us.”

Welcoming the new partnership, Alexander says: “What a treat to be producing a brand-new show with Theatre@41. We make shows that tour around the world and we spend a lot of time on the road. To be making a new show hand in hand with one of our favourite places in our home city is an absolute dream.

Wright & Grainger’s artwork for SELENE

“Theatre@41 is rapidly becoming a flagship venue in the north of the UK as a home for new artists, acclaimed touring work, the offbeat shows, the wilder ideas. We’re so chuffed to be part of that.”

Alexander continues: “We’re making SELENE with Megan Drury, a really amazing and well-respected performer and theatre maker from Australia, and the show will start its life on the other side of the world.

“We’ll be touring SELENE for five months across Australia and New Zealand [produced by A Mulled Whine Productions]  before heading back home and, importantly, back here to Theatre@41. The team at Theatre@41 have just opened up a whole new chapter – we’re damn proud to be working with them, making with them, carving out new ideas and new projects with them.

“We’re excited to take the show out on the road, and then really excited to bring it home. There’s a lot of love and trust and respect in all of it. And there’s a lot of joy in being stood here, at the start of it!”

SELENE will be performed at Theatre@41 as part of the Summer 2026 season on dates yet to be announced. Tickets for Helios are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Megan Drury in the poster image for Wright & Grainger’s SELENE

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Kym March takes shine to the dark side in run of villainous roles, playing Hedy in updated Single White Female after Cruella

Kym Marsh’s Hedy clasping Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated Single White Female, playing Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow. Picture: Chris Bishop

“THIS is my villain era,” proclaims Kym Marsh on the eve of her return to the Grand Opera House, York, in Rebecca Reid’s update of Single White Female for the social-media age.

Last time, the former Hear’Say pop singer and Coronation Street soap star took to the dark side as Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical in November 2024, having earlier played Alex Forrest – the Glenn Close role in the 1987 film – on the UK tour of Fatal Attraction in 2022.

Now, in the world premiere tour of Reid’s London tower-block re-boot of the 1992 New York psychological thriller, Kym cuts a more complex figure as Hedy, where the audience will be less sure whether she is friend or foe.

When recently divorced mum Allie (Lisa Faulkner in her first stage role in 21 years) advertises for a lodger to help make ends meet as she juggles childcare with starting a new tech business, enter Kym’s seemingly delightful Hedy, only for the new friendship to take a sinister turn.

“The last few roles I’ve done have been pretty villainous and I love it,” says Kym, whose back story also takes in 13 years as Michelle Connor in Corrie, partnering Graziano Di Primas on the 2022 series of Strictly Come Dancing, a 2023 to 2025 stint as school canteen worker Nicky Walters on Waterloo Road and presenting BBC One’s Morning Live.

Kym Marsh’s Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in November 2024. Picture: Johan Persson

“It’s so easy to play the typical moustache twiddler, but I want to make Hedy a little bit more layered and actually have people be a bit taken aback, unsure if she’s good or bad right up to the last minute and even feeling sorry for her, particularly near the end. So, it is a bit more complex and nuanced than you might imagine.”

After her Fatal Attraction role as obsessed, mentally unstable editor Alex, Kym began discussions over potential further projects. “We came up with the idea of Single White Female because it had never been done before [on stage],” she says.

“It was also within that kind of genre of those epic, classic films that had a real impact on people at that time. So I’ve been attached to it from the start and it’s really exciting: the character of Hedy is so interesting and challenging to play.

“Without giving too much away to anyone who hasn’t seen the film, the character is very complex and, from an acting point of view, it gives me an opportunity to explore so many different places that you don’t necessarily really go to normally.”

Author, journalist and broadcaster Reid’s new stage version of Single White Female is designed to appeal to a new generation, while giving a new perspective to fans of Barbet Schroeder’s original film, refracted once more through the themes of ambition, identity and isolation.

Kym Marsh’s Hedy raises a glass to Jonny McGarrity’s Sam in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop

Reid applies more than a contemporary spin, suggests Kym. “There obviously wasn’t social media back in the ‘90s, but if you know the essence of the plot and what it’s about, it works very well because we see people trying to imitate people’s lives online all the time,” she says.

“We hear about these stories of people ‘catfishing’ and so on, and I think there are elements of that within Single White Female that make it feel up to date, and its themes are even more relevant today than they were then.

“I think the world of social media is a wonderful place, but it’s also to be handled with care, because there is always that element of danger about it. And when you have a character like Hedy, and then you put social media into her hands, it can be tricky to the point of dangerous.”

Will devotees of the Bridget Fonda-Jennifer Jason Leigh screen clash still recognise the Single White Female they know and love – and will they be treated to the iconic stiletto moment – now that Reid has moved the location from a neo-Gothic New York building to a stark apartment tower block near Elephant & Castle in London?

 “The essence is very much still the same,” says Kym. “But the story is slightly changed: as well as being more up to date, it’s based in the UK rather than being in America. So there are differences, but the big, important, epic moments are still in there, and it’s very much still a thriller with a real shock factor. We want to have people on the edge of their seats.

Kym Marsh and Single White Female co-star Lisa Faulkner. Picture: Seamus Ryan

“I think people will still very much love the story whether they’ve seen the film or not. As for the iconic stiletto moment, you’ll have to wait and see!”

Her run of stage roles – not least a northern take on tyrannical hostess Beverly Moss in Mike Leigh’s satirical Seventies’ suburban comedy of manners Abigail’s Party in her Royal Exchange Theatre debut in Manchester in April and May – has given Kym a love of the stage while continuing to enjoy her television career.

“I’m so lucky that I am able to enjoy both being in front of the camera and on stage,” she says. “Obviously on stage you get an instant kind of reaction, which is very rewarding. You immediately know how much people are enjoying what you’re doing when you are on stage.

“Television can be very different from that. But there is a real buzz being on stage, you get that atmosphere straight away. And I really like travelling around, seeing different places and some beautiful theatres.

“It’s interesting that everywhere you go, the audience reacts differently to different parts. Then again, in front of a camera you always get to go again.”

Does Kym experience nerves? “Of course I do!” she admits. “Theatre is way more nerve wracking, that’s for sure. My dad passed away last year and I have found myself standing in the wings before I go on stage saying, ‘Come on Dad, come on Dad’.

“I make mistakes and hold my hands up and I think that gives me a girl-next-door feel,” says Kym Marsh. Picture: Nick James

“Because you want to feel that someone is helping you out when you are out there. You really hope that nothing’s going to go wrong, that you give a great performance and people enjoy it.”

Now 49 – she will turn 50 on June 13 – Kym has not stopped working since she auditioned for the TV show Popstars 25 years ago, duly joining the band Hear’Say. “I feel very fortunate and very lucky that I’ve been allowed to have the career that I’ve had and to have been received in the way that I have,” says the Merseyside-born mother of three and grandmother of two.

“I think maybe it’s because I come across as a sincere individual. I’ve never tried to hide anything. I make mistakes and hold my hands up and I think that gives me a girl-next-door feel. Perhaps everyone knows someone a bit like me.

“I was brought up by a family who are very caring and open. My family means everything to me. I absolutely adore my kids and my grandchildren. I think I try to only ever be caring and open, too, when I’m being interviewed or meeting new people, because, to be honest, I don’t know how to be anything else!”

Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/single-white-female/grand-opera-house-york/.

The poster for Single White Female, adapted by Rebecca Reid and directed by Gordon Greenberg on its premiere tour

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REVIEW: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, Grand Opera House, York, 2.30pm and 7.30pm today ***

Let it snow, let it snow in Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana. Picture: Snow Johan Persson

THE storm-swelled waters were beginning to recede but the barrier was still in place on the Kings Arms’ door on King’s Staith on Friday night: a weather hazard of the York riverside down the flooded centuries.

That same night – after Wednesday and Thursday’s performances fell foul to cast illness – it was snowing in Havana in Carlos Acosta’s relocation of The Nutcracker to modern-day Cuba.

Snow in Havana? Official records state the only time snow fell in Cuba was in February 1900 in the Sierra Maestra mountain range around Pico Turquino. Not even climate change might change that, but the power of theatrical imagination can.

Cuban-British dance luminary Carlos Acosta CBE, former Royal Ballet favourite, now director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, also directs Acosta Danza in his homeland, where he trained at the National Ballet School of Havana.

His Cuban company is on tour in the dreek UK from October 31 to February 11, turning up the heat on Tchaikovsky/Petipa/Ivanov’s Russian  ballet, premiered at the the Mariinsky Theatre,  in St Petersburg, Russia, in December 1892.

The story, characters, Christmas setting and transition from house to frosted winter wonderland remain the same, but from set and video designer Nina Dunn’s opening projections of Havana’s Spanish-colonial architecture to Angelo Alberto’s costume designs, from the lush green vegetation to composer and arranger Papa Gavilondo Peon’s Cuban re-boot of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta’s Nutcracker evokes Cuba as much as rum, cigars, vintage 1950s’ cars and the Buena Vista Social Club.

For all that Havana detail – even the flamboyantly moustached mask when the  Nutcracker comes alive – Acosta’s  choreography is essentially classical ballet, rather than modern, making it  the least Cuban transition in the show.

Alexander Varona’s mysterious, magical toymaker Drosselmeyer is the ringmaster, conducting Clara’s wide-eyed journey with sleight of hand and a toreador’s sense of dramatics, as familiar scenes play out in new ways, maybe restricted by the Grand Opera House’s narrow stage, but with humour in toys’ movements and enchantment too.

However, the spectacle (aside from the snowfall scene) and drama fall short of Northern Ballet’s celebrated Christmas staple at Leeds Grand Theatre  and  Act Two loses momentum.

Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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How Robin Simpson is switching from pantomime dame to dog for The Last Picture at York Theatre Royal Studio

Director John R Wilkinson and actor Robin Simpson in the rehearsal room for York Theatre Royal’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture: James Drury

IN the first York Theatre Royal production to be made for the Studio since 2019, associate director John R Wilkinson directs Robin Simpson in The Last Picture from February 5 to 14.

After his sixth season as the Theatre Royal pantomime dame in Sleeping Beauty – and confirmed already for a seventh winter in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs – Robin will swap the dame’s frocks and puns for the role of a dog in YTR, ETT and An Tobar & Mull Theatre’s world premiere co-production.

Robin will play an emotional support dog in Catherine Dyson’s 75-minute solo play, first performed in a reading at the Theatre Royal as one of 37 winning scripts selected from more than 2,000 entries by the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 37 Plays competition in 2023.

“We were given three of the plays to do in book-in-hand readings,” recalls John. “Juliet [creative director Juliet Forster] did  one about MeToo ; Mingyu [resident artist Mingyu Lin] Lin directed one about immigration and diaspora. Then, by default, I was given this one – and I lucked out because The Last Picture was the best play.

“Part of the deal is that the writer comes up to see the reading. Catherine is an actress from Swansea – one of her main roles was playing the ‘woman in black’ in The Woman In Black, the role that’s never credited in the programme! – and she’s branched out into writing plays.

“She and I really connected over my love of European theatre – bare-bones abstract  work – that leans into a storytelling in collaboration with the audience, where there’s very little in terms of set and design elements and instead the audience is encouraged to conjure the play for themselves.”

Dyson’s monodrama invites you to imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam will be by your side to look after you and keep everyone safe in a play built around empathy, its power and limits and what it asks of us.  In a nutshell, The Last Picture explores our shared past, our present,  and the choices we face today.

“For context, Catherine has Jewish heritage,” says John. “Her grandfather escaped persecution just before everything happened in Poland, escaping over the Tatra Mountains, so there’s a personal connection with this story.”

In a novel theatrical conceit, “Catherine was interested in telling the story through the eyes of a dog”, says John, in a device where Robin does not come on dressed as a dog but gives voice to what the dog is seeing and experiencing.

Robin says: “Pretty much straightaway it’s made clear that it’s being told by a dog, where we’re asking the audience to go on a journey of the imagination, when the story is told through a series of pictures created in language.”

John rejoins: “There are only one or two, very clear, stage directions by Catherine, but one was that there should be no actual pictures: they should all be created in the audience’s imagination.”

The production will lean into folklore and ritual. “The play is really fascinating in that we’re operating on several different levels. Firstly, I’m telling a story where I’m asking the audience to accept that I’m a dog, who’s part of a group of Year 19 pupils – aged 13, 14 – as their emotional support on a museum visit,” says Robin.

“Then I ask the audience to be the pupils, so they’re very much part of the story, sometimes in the story with me, and at other points we’re asking them to empathise with the people  in the pictures created through language, because it’s a play about empathy and humanity.”

Robin continues: “I think the reason Catherine chose the dog’s point of view is that the dog can say dispassionately what’s going on in the pictures without having that human connection to the story, so the audience can make up their own mind.

“In finding the voice for the dog, it has to be about a balance between telling the story and colouring the story with emotion without performing it.”

John adds: “It’s such a clever form of storytelling that Catherine has leant into. One thing we said is that it’s not an animal study, but the dog gives the storytelling comfort and warmth.”

At the beginning, there is a description of how dogs have the ability to absorb human emotions without understanding them. “The dog picks up on the children’s emotions of being affected by what they’re seeing without the dog understanding why,” says Robin.

“What Catherine has done really cleverly is that there a lot of sticky political situations going on in the world that she doesn’t directly refer to,” says John. “But in terms of what she’s asking the audience to do, she doesn’t give a political viewpoint but she lets you sit and reflect on how it relates to what’s happening now.”

The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February  5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm plus 2pm, February 7, 11 and 14. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in and around York as Colour & Light illuminates winter nights. Hutch’s List No. 4, from The York Press

Dame for a laugh anew: Graham Smith returns to the pantomime stage with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre

A PANTO dame’s return and another’s transformation into a dog top Charles Hutchinson’s  cultural picks for early February and beyond.

Pantomime of the week: Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, today, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm

GRAHAM Smith, Rowntree Players’ pantomime dame from 2004 to 2022, pulls on the frocks once more after a three-year hiatus in the York guest house proprietor’s debut for East Riding company Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre.

He plays Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, joined in principal roles by Neil Scott’s King Richard, Toby Jewsen’s Robin Hood, Chris McKenzie’s Little John, Henry Rice’s Will Scarlett, Paul Jefferson’s Friar Tuck, Alison Rosa’s Sheriff of Nottingham and Chloe Jensen’s Maid Marion. Tickets: 07922 443639 or email richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.

Femme Fatale Faerytales: Dark feminist re-telling of age-old classic

A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)

MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.

In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com. Box office: wegottickets.com.

Kym Marsh’s Hedy, left, and Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated version of Single White Female, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

World premiere tour of the week: Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

SCREEN actress, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, TV presenter, chef and cookery book author Lisa Faulkner returns to the stage for the first time in 21 years in Rebecca Reid’s darkly humorous stage adaptation of psychological thriller Single White Female, now updated to the social-media age.

Faulkner’s recently divorced mum Allie is balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up. When she decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, Kym Marsh’s Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Colour & Light: Illuminating Clifford’s Tower and York Castle Museum from February 4

Illumination launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, February 4 to 22, 6pm to 9pm

YORK BID is bringing Colour & Light back for 2026 on its biggest ever canvas. For the first time, two of York’s landmark buildings will be illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become a combined stage for a fully choreographed projection show, transforming the Eye of York.

Presented in partnership with York Museums Trust and English Heritage, the continuous, looped, ten-minute show will bring York’s historic characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.

Matt Tapp’s ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Calamity Jane

Musical of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 4 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

HELEN Gallagher’s tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s former peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok lead director Sophie Cooke’s cast for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s musical Calamity James.

Deadwood’s citizens are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers and socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon. However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City to create a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Ancient & modern  drama of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 5, 7.30pm

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger begin their new partnership with Theatre@41 by re-visiting Helios, wherein a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

In Wright’s story of the son of the sun god, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city. “It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” he says. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Robin Simpson in rehearsal for Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, premiering at York Theatre Royal Studio

Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm, plus Wednesday and Saturday 2pm matinees

ROBIN Simpson follows up his sixth season as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame by playing a dog in York Theatre Royal, ETT and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, directed by John R Wilkinson.

Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam (Simpson’s character)will be by your side in a play about empathy – its power and limits and what it asks of us – in a story of our shared past, present and the choices we face today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for Super Furry Animals’ summer concert at York Museum Gardens

Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens presents Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11

FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from  nine albums.

Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be special guests Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn. Tickets for SFA, along with Liverpool’s  Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark on July 9 and South Yorkshire ’s Self Esteem on July 10, are on sale at futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

Super Furry Animals: Playing first concerts in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens headline show

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Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company to stage Western Frontier musical Calamity Jane under Sophie Cooke’s direction

Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s Wild Bill Hickok: Leading the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast in Calamity Jane. All pictures: Jennifer Jones

THE Deadwood Stage rolls into York from February 4 to 7 when the Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s in-house fundraising company kicks off the spring season with Calamity Jane.

Gracing the JoRo stage for only the second time since the Haxby Road theatre’s inception in 1935, Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s 1961 musical – preceded by the 1953 film version – is  a story of friendship, adventure, and romance, set against the dramatic backdrop of the Western Frontier. 

Director Sophie Cooke, musical director Martin Lay and choreographer Heather Stead steer the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s eighth full-scale production since forming in 2017.

Charting the interlinked lives of a South Dakotan community, full of characters united by dreams of a better life, Calamity Jane takes audiences to the golden age of musicals in an adaptation by Ronald Hanmer and Phil Park from Charles K Freeman’s stage play.

Tom Menarry’s Mister Francis Fryer and Alex Schofield’s Henry Miller in rehearsal for Calamity Jane

Led by tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane, and ex-peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok, the citizens of Deadwood are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers, socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon and awaiting treasures brought in from the world beyond.  

However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City and creates a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed.

As a fan of Calamity Jane in all its adaptations since her childhood, director Sophie Cooke chose this show for JRTC, drawn to songs beloved by multiple generations, the humorous, heart-felt story and the show’s combination of operetta, vaudeville and vintage Broadway.

“It’s been a dream to direct,” she says. “Calamity Jane is a story about friendship, love, and community, with a true feel-good factor. The community spirit in Deadwood really captures the spirit of community theatre: everyone pulling together, supporting each other and having fun along the way. 

Calamity Jane director Sophie Cooke in the rehearsal room

“It celebrates that golden-age musical feel: big songs, big characters and lots of heart. It’s a timeless show, with themes, characters and songs that defy decades.”

In the cast will be Helen Gallagher as ‘Calamity’ Jane; Matt Tapp as Wild Bill Hickok; Jennifer Jones, Katie Brown; Adam Gill, Lieutenant Daniel Gilmartin; Mollie Raine, Adelaide Adams; Sadie Sørensen, Susan; Tom Menarry, Mister Francis Fryer, and Alex Schofield, Henry Miller

 Joining them will be Paul Betts as Joe; company newcomer David Hartley as stage-coach driver Rattlesnake; Jamie Benson, Charlie from Nantucket; Kit Stroud, poker-playing doctor-undertaker “Doc” Pierce; Matthew Jarvis an d Conor Heinemeyer as scouts Hank & Pete and Gary Bateson as Colonel. 

Playing the CanCan Girls will be Abigail Atkinson; Liz Campbell; Chloe Chapman; Hollie Farmer; Sarah Rudd; Rachel Shadman and Heather Stead. Featured dancers will be Britt Brett; Katie Crossley; Robyn Hughes-Maclean; Rebecca Jackson; Lorna Newby and Jennifer Dommeck.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members enjoying a rehearsal for Calamity Jane

The ensemble will comprise Meg Badrick; Victoria Beale; Amy Blair; Ruth Boag-Chapman; Pamela Bradley; Sophie Coe; Sue Coward; Lois Cross; Phoebe Dixon; Catherine Halton; Johanna Hartley; Cate Lawson; Caitlin McDowell; Lucy Moul; Rocks Nairn-Smith; Cameron O’Byrne; Kayleigh Oliver; Eliza Rowley; Rachael Turner and Charlotte Wetherell.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 4 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee (last few tickets available). Box office: 01904 501935 or https://www.josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/musical/calamity-jane/2830.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company: back story

FORMED in 2017, the company has since staged such shows as Kiss Me, Kate!, Hello Dolly, Curtains and 2025’s Beauty And The Beast as the im-house company at the JoRo.

All show profits fund the maintenance and development of the long-running community stage, allowing York performers, volunteers and audience members alike to enjoy classic and contemporary theatre in a space of their own. More than £50,000 has been raised so far, with plans for future productions already underway. 

The Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s poster for next week’s production of Calamity Jane

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Graham Smith finds new home for dame duty in Shiptonthorpe pantomime Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood

Graham Smith: Playing Dame Nellie Nickerlastic in his first pantomime since 2022

GRAHAM Smith, once the doyen of Rowntree Players pantomime dames in York, is moving on to panto pastures new with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre after a three-year hiatus from the frocks and quips.

Yorkshireman Graham, who lives on farmland near Wilberfoss, will revel in the moniker of Dame Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood at Shiptonthorpe Village Hall in two clusters of performances from tomorrow to Sunday, then next Friday and Saturday.

“It came about by accident,” says Graham, who lives 11 minutes from Shiptonthorpe.  “I put some left-overs from a building project on Nextdoor [the neighbourhood app], and this guy got in touch and said he’d have them.”

The conversation led on to a recollection of Graham’s days in the Rowntree Players panto and a suggestion that he should contact the Shiptonthorpe group. “I thought it would be too late for this year’s show, but I rang Richard [Waud] anyway and I think he thought I might see it as beneath me, but it certainly isn’t,” he says.

“Over the years I’ve done touring pantomimes; I’ve done school-hall pantomimes; I’ve even done a convent in North Wales. They were days spent in and out of a van, doing maybe two shows a day.

“I said to Richard, ‘all I’m concerned about is making sure I do my best and that everyone does theirs – happy days’. I offered to play in the comedy duo, the baddie, whatever, but for the first scene in the auditions Richard asked me to read for the dame…then the second scene, then the opening to Act Two!

“Then Richard asked, ‘Does anyone else want to have a go?’, and someone said, ‘What? After that!’. When I got home, there was a message on my phone from Richard to say, Graham, we’d love you to do it’. He must have contacted me within ten minutes of finishing the auditions.”

Graham first played the dame for Rowntree Players in 2004, appearing as Dottie Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, after two years in the panto’s comedy duo, and retained the role until 2022.  

On resuming pantomime’s most celebrated part, he says: “I think the dame is a specialist role. I’m fortunate enough to be fairly quick-witted, so if anything unexpected comes up, rather than ‘corpsing’ [the theatrical term for an actor breaking out of character into uncontrollable, unscripted laughter on stage], I’ll usually have a quick response.

“That’s why I played dame for Rowntree Players for so many years and why Shiptonthorpe were keen for me to do it this time.”

Graham, who has worked in the York hospitality trade for almost 30 years as proprietor of the Georgian House & Mews in Bootham, had first donned the dame’s dresses away from a theatre stage. “Bizarrely, it was at a friend of mine’s hair salon called Balta in York,” he recalls. “They did a pantomime for charity as one of his workforce was theatrical and would put on a show for four of five nights for customers and friends at the salon, which he wrote and directed.

“I believe we did three of them, and I took to the dame like a duck to water. I’m very comfortable in my own skin being camp on a stage  – and the bizarre thing is that, as the dame, I find I can flirt equally with the men and the women in the audience.

“I was only thinking about this the other day: how the dame can have women giggling just as easily as making the blokes feel embarrassed!”

Joining Graham in Waud’s cast will be Neil Scott, Shiptonthorpe’s former “beloved and renowned dame”, now taking on a regal new role as King Richard; Toby Jewsen as Robin Hood; Chris McKenzie, Little John; Henry Rice, Will Scarlett; Paul Jefferson, Friar Tuck; Alison Rosa, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Chloe Jensen, Maid Marion.

Further roles in the Alan P Frayn-scripted show will go to Robbie Howe as Snivel and Phil Featherstone as Grovel; Sienna Cayton, Ella; Pelham Dennis, Sam; Carolyne Jensen, Poet; Sarah Burnell, Minstrel, and Shirley Rice, Lady Guy.

“For a village-hall show, the set looks fantastic, the digital lighting system, sound and mixing desk are all of a high standard and all the cast will have radio microphones,” says Graham.

“In rehearsal, Richard has been quite a laidback director about making little changes. For the way I speak, as a Yorkshireman, some of the lines don’t work, sometimes the words jar, so Richard has been happy for me to make adjustments.”

 Discover the results from tonight when Graham is dame for a laugh once more.

Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, tomorrow, 7pm; Saturday, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm. Tickets are available from Richard Waud on 07922 443639 or by emailing richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.

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Lisa Faulkner makes stage return after two decades in updated psychological thriller Single White Female at Grand Opera House

Gunning for her: A tense moment for Lisa Faulkner’s Allie as Kym Marsh’s Hedy reaches trigger point in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop

LISA Faulkner is returning to the stage for the first time in 21 years to appear in Rebecca Reid’s re-imagining of 1990s’ psychological thriller Single White Female, now re-booted for the social media age.

Next stop on the world premiere’s six-month British and Irish tour will be the Grand Opera House from February 3 to 7 in her first visit to York since enjoying the delights of Bettys tea rooms with her grandparents when she was “very young”.

Actor, television presenter, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, cookery book author, chef and mother Lisa will play recently divorced mum Allie, balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up.

When Allie decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, the delightful Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences.

Taking the role of Hedy on the road from January 9 to June 13 is Coronation Street, Waterloo Road and Abigail’s Party actor, TV presenter and Hear’Say pop singer Kym Marsh, who last appeared at the York theatre as villainous Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical in November 2024.

“I’m so full of joy to be taking on another challenge at 53. I feel very lucky,” says Lisa Faulkner

“I’m delighted to be returning to the stage playing opposite the utterly fantastic Kym Marsh,” says Lisa. “I got chills watching Single White Female in the cinema back in 1992, so it’s a real thrill to be part of this bold new production. I cannot wait to bring this fascinating story to life and keep audiences around the UK on the edge of their seats!”

Kym concurs: “I remember being totally gripped by the movie when I first saw it in the cinema and could never have imagined back then that I’d be starring in the world premiere of its life on stage. Get ready to be thrilled, shocked and entertained – and watch out for those stiletto heels!”

The new stage play, adapted by author, journalist and broadcaster Rebecca Reid, reworks the story from John Lutz’s novel SWF Seeks Same and Barbet Schroeder’s 1992 film (scripted by Don Roos), transferring the setting from a neo-Gothic New York building to a starker apartment tower block near Elephant & Castle in London in 2026.

Allison and Hedra are now named Allie and Hedy as Reid retains the dark humour and suspenseful storytelling in the updated tale of ambition, obsession, and the desperate need for belonging in an isolated world.

“It’s been a long time since I was on stage,” says Lisa. “The rehearsals and first couple of weeks were like, ‘oh my god, I’m doing this’, but it’s lovely to be back. I’m so full of joy to be taking on another challenge at 53. I feel very lucky.

“I really think this [opportunity] came from the sky. I have so many wonderful things I do, but there was a sense of timing to doing this. My daughter [Billie] is 19 and doing her own thing, so I don’t necessarily need to be at home, and also I had a conversation in the late summer with my two best friends about doing a theatre show.

Back in the kitchen, but this time Celebrity MasterChef winner Lisa Faulkner is on stage in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop

“Angela [Waterloo Road actor and director Angela Griffin], suggested I should do a tour, though I didn’t say anything to my agent. But two or three weeks later I received the script for Single White Female.”

At first, Lisa felt reticent to read it. Once she did, however, she “really liked it”. “I said to John [husband John Torode], ‘I think I should do this’,” she recalls.

“I think Rebecca has done a very good job bringing it into the modern age, though also if someone has seen the film, there are some big nods to it, but it’s very different. You don’t have to have seen the film to enjoy the play.”

Describing Allie’s character in Reid’s version, Lisa says: “She’s recently divorced from a really rubbish husband and has moved into her best friend Graham’s apartment with her 15-year-old daughter, Bella. She needs a flatmate – enter Hedy, who answers her social media advert, and that’s when it starts unravelling.

“Bella is on social media too, so there’s a new storyline there, but the stilettos are still there, and so is the lift. Listen out for the screeching lift noise.

“It’s a really fun night out. There are a few jump scares but it’s much more of a ‘popcorn’ scare , and now there’s a message to it about thinking about what you put online, which is something we all have to think about. What’s great about it is that you now have Allie’s story, Hedy’s story, Bella’s story and Graham’s story too.”

Kym Marsh and Lisa Faulkner in the poster image for Single White Female

Single White Female promises to captivate, shock and explore “just how far we would go to find – and keep – a family together”. “I just think there’s so much depth to it, especially a depth of character. Hedy is less one-dimensional now; she has her reasons for being how she is, and she’s very dark, whereas Allie is the light.”

Lisa is performing with Kym Marsh for the first time. “We’ve both been in Waterloo Road but at different times,” she says. “Angela [Griffin] has directed her in Waterloo Road and said ‘you will love working with her’. Kym’s been such a joy and a real support too.”

Lisa conducted this interview on Tuesday while travelling to Cardiff Millennium Centre with husband John Torode [the former MasterChef presenter], and the couple are as busy as ever with their culinary commitments.

“We launched our cooking channel, John And Lisa’s Kitchen And Home, just before Christmas on You Tube, doing the filming for that on my days off, and we have some other stuff coming up,” she says. “We have a John and Lisa cookery range coming out – some lovely pots and pans and utensils – that I’m really excited about.”

Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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REVIEW: Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday ****

Kara Tointon’s “eloquent and elegant” Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. All pictures: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller

OLIVIER Award winner Laura Wade and Royal Shakespeare Company co-artistic director Tamara Harvey open up W Somerset Maugham’s 1926 comedy of well-heeled manners for re-examination in 2026, upping the female ante while retaining the elegant period setting.

First staged at the RSC’s Swan Theatre last June, Wade’s sparky, sparkly adaptation chimes with her hit play Home, I’m Darling’s focus on gender roles, feminism, relationships and life choices while echoing the in-flagrante shenanigans of her Disney + television take on Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel Rivals.

All while staying true to the sceptical satire of Somerset Maugham, such a perceptive observer of human behaviour, exposing our foibles and failings, our uncontrolled urges, in the mire of the moral maze, where deceit and deception play out in different ways.

Philip Rham’s Bentley at the piano in The Constant Wife

He does so with a mischievous air, lighting the touch-paper, then stepping back and watching the fireworks fly, his input mirrored by Philip Rham’s immaculate, piano-playing butler, Bentley, ever alert, ever on hand with the right word or action, yet stoically detached as the heat rises around him.

Bentley remains unflappable, unhurried, a quality shared by Harvey’s direction that lets Wade’s dry-witted dialogue breathe to maximum comic effect, revelling in the chess game of words that fizz like an Alka-Seltzer in water.

Wade’s impact is more reinvigoration (like Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors update of Goldoni’s Italian farce) than reinvention. Whether using “kid” rather than “child”, or “dot dot dot”, she sometimes veers towards modern idioms, but her take on Somerset Maugham’s characters still exudes the high-society 1920s as much as the Art Deco designs and colours of Anna Fleischle’s set for the London flat of Harley Street doctor John Middleton (Tim Delap) and his wife Constance (Kara Tointon, last seen on a York stage in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House in 2017).

Gloria Onitiri’s gloriously carefree Marie-Louise Durham in The Constant Wife. Picture:

Through gauze, movement on stairways and corridors can be seen, informing the audience of who will be entering, and keeping us one step ahead in the tradition of French farce, although the comedy style is more akin to the drawing-room dramas of Noel Coward (and Oscar Wilde too), played out to Jamie Cullum’s jagged new jazz score.

The year is 1927; Constance’s impetuous interior designer sister, Martha Culver (Amy Vicary-Smith, in height-of-Twenties’ fashion Russian boots) is in heated discussion with their cynical mother, Mrs Culver (Jane Lambert understudying gamely – good voice, but stooped demeanour – for Sara Crowe).

We learn that Constance is deeply unhappy. “Nonsense,” counters her mother in Lady Bracknell mode. “She eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances.”

Tim Delap’s John Middleton and Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton not seeing eye to eye in The Constant Wife

Should they tell Constance that they suspect John is being unfaithful? Enter Tointon’s flapper-dressed, poised, gliding Constance and next her best friend, the whirlwind Marie-Louise Durham (Gloria Onitiri), as Wade front-loads the women in Somerset Maugham’s story.

Spoiler alert, it turns out that Constance already knows of cocksure John’s affair, as the play takes a time-out to go back 12 months to when she walked in John and carefree Marie-Louise without them knowing.

That transition is played out with a directorial and design sleight of hand, as the fireplace, wallpaper and door change to before Martha’s interior re-design (topped off with ‘wallpaper’ rolling down to reveal ‘One Year Earlier’). This is typical of the wit of Harvey’s direction.

Sisters doing it for themselves…in different ways: Amy Vicary-Smith’s Martha and Kara Tointon’s Constance in The Constant Wife

Vicary-Smith’s Martha, by the way, is a fusion of two Somerset Maugham characters, the sister and an interior-designer friend, and it works a treat, as Constance takes up an invitation to join her business (hence the re-decoration).

In Wade’s most striking interjection, she plays an ace card with her use of that very fashionable device, meta-theatre, (first by having Constance and still-besotted former beau Bernard Kersal (Alex Mugnaioni) heading off to watch a play called The Constant Wife, then by Martha recapping what unfolded and unravelled  in Act One at the outset of Act Two.

Aside from Bentley at the very start, the men have been held back until the play’s conceit has been established. We judge them through Wade, Harvey and the women’s filter, but they are still given a fair hearing, each tall, dapper, buttoned up and not as clever as they think, whether over-confident John, malleable Bernard or Jules Brown’s cuckolded Mortimer Durham.

Jules Brown’s thoroughly duped Mortimer Durham

Fleischle and Cat Fuller’s costume designs, especially for Constance, Martha and John’s suits, delight as much as the central performances as Somerset Maugham/Wade posit the question of what happens when a wronged woman does not react in the expected way, so much so that everyone else then objects to how Constance has responded (not least in confiding only in Bentley, who has a secret of his own) as she seeks her route to freedom and fulfilment against the conventional tide.

At the RSC production’s core is an outstanding performance by Tointon on her return to the stage after moving to Norway. Her Constance is elegant, eloquent, quick of wit and mind, mischievously humorous, yet serious, a woman in a relationship where they still have love for each other but are no longer in love.

David Pugh & Cunard present the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

By Charles Hutchinson 

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 4, from Gazette & Herald

A scene from Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Tristram Kenton

CUBAN dance luminary Carlos  Acosta’s Havana reinvention of The Nutcracker tops  Charles Hutchinson’s latest selection of cultural highlights.

Dance show of the week: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

CAST illness has put paid to tonight and tomorrow’s performances, but dance superstar Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana will still turn up the heat in his modern Cuban twist on the snow-dusted 1892 Russian festive ballet on Friday and Saturday. Built on Cuban composer Pepe Gavilondo’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta moves the celebration of joy, life, love and family to modern-day Havana.

More than 20 dancers from Acosta’s Cuban company Acosta Danza perform the familiar story of a young girl transported to a magic world, but one newly incorporating the culture, history and music of his home country. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Tim Delap’s John Middleton and Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller

Play of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday , 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

SET in 1927, The Constant Wife finds Constance as a very unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother, who insists “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances”. 

Played by Kara Tointon, she is the perfect wife and mother, but her husband is equally devoted to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend. Tamara Harvey directs the new adaptation by Home, I’m Darling playwright and Rivals television series writer Laura Wade. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry: Easing worries at NCEM, York

Family show of the week: Mishmash: Ruby’s Worry, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Saturday, 11.30am and 2.30pm

RUBY had always been happy, perfectly happy, until one day she discovered a worry. The more she tries to rid herself of that worry, the more it grows and grows. Eventually she meets a boy who has a worry too. Together they discover that everyone has worries, and that if you talk about them, they never hang around for long! Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry is told through live music, song, puppetry and physical theatre, taking the audience on a delightful musical adventure. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Talent showcase of the week: HAC Studio Bar Open Mic Jan 2026, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

THIS social evening in Helmsley Arts Centre’s Studio Bar offers the opportunity to hear Ryedale musicians and artists perform. The bar will be open serving beer from Helmsley Brewery and Brass Castle Brewery, an assortment of gins, wines from Helmsley Wines and more. There is no need to book to listen or participate, just turn up.

Mountaineer Simon Yates, of Touching The Void fame, has sold out his My Mountain Life talk on Friday at 7.30pm. Box office for returns only: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Femme Fatale Faerytales: Telling Mary, Mary’s contrary tale

A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)

MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.

In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com.

Packing in the acts for PAC Comedy Club line-up at Pocklington Arts Centre

Comedy gig of the week: PAC Comedy Club, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 5, 8pm

RICH Wilson, winner of the New Zealand Comedy Festival Best International Act award, tops the PAC Comedy Club bill next Thursday. He has performed at all the major UK comedy clubs, as well in New York and Las Vegas and at the Perth Fringe, Melbourne International Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.

Supporting Wilson will be Jonny Awsum, who shot to fame on Britain’s Got Talent with his high-energy musical comedy, and Yorkshireman Pete Selwood, who specialises in observational material with killer punchlines, introduced by surrealist compere and BBC New Comedian of the Year regional finalist Elaine Robertson. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The Yorkshire Gypsy Swing Collective: In full swing at Milton Rooms, Malton

Jazz gig of the week: The Yorkshire Gypsy Swing Collective, Milton Rooms, Malton, February 7, doors, 7.30pm

THIS gypsy jazz supergroup with musicians from all around Yorkshire plays music inspired by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli of the Quintette du Hot Club de France. 

The collective of Lewis Kilvington and Martin Chung, guitars, James Munroe, double bass, Derek Magee, violin, and Christine Pickard, clarinet, remains true to Django and Stephane’s spirit while pushing the genre of gypsy jazz forward into a modern sphere. Expect fast licks, burning ballads and even some Latin-inspired pieces. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Liz Foster: Exhibiting at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, from February 12

Exhibition launch: Liz Foster, Deep Among The Grasses, Rise:@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, February 12 to April 10

YORK artist Liz Foster’s new series of abstract paintings, Deep Among The Grasses, invites you into rich, expansive imagined spaces where she explores memory, landscape and the childhood feeling of being immersed in wild places.

Full of colour, feeling and atmosphere, this body of work is being shown together for the first time. Everyone is welcome at the 6pm to 9pm preview on February 12 when Leeds-born painter, teacher and mentor Liz will be in attendance.

Super Furry Animals: Playing first shows in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens

Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens present Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11

FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from  nine albums.

Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be a quartet of special guests, unconventional kindred spirit Baxter Dury, compatriot indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, fast-rising Nottingham alt-country group Divorce and the Welsh Music Prize-nominated woozy, Sixties-inspired psychedelia Pys Melyn.

Futuresound Group project manager Rachel Hill says: “We’re thrilled to announce Super Furry Animals as the final headliner for our third Live at York Museum Gardens series. None of it would be possible without the collaboration, trust and support of the team at York Museums Trust and being able to put together such an incredible line up for the summer makes us excited for the future of our partnership.”

York exclusive postcode presale (YO1, YO10, YO19, YO23, YO24, YO26, YO30, YO31 and  YO32) go on sale at 10am today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/super-furry-animals/york-museum-gardens/3567101?pre=postcode.

General sales open at 10am on Friday at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/super-furry-animals/york-museum-gardens/3567101.

Tickets are on sale already for Liverpool’s  Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark on July 9 and South Yorkshire ’s Self Esteem on July 10 at futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

The poster for Super Furry Animals’ concert in York Museum Gardens