Category: Theatre

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Black Treacle Theatre to stage York premiere of Poor Clare, Chiara Atik’s story of St Clare and St Francis Of Assisi. UPDATED with Jim Paterson interview

Isabel Azar’s Clare helps PJ Gregan’s Francis straighten himself out in Poor Clare in rehearsal for Jim Paterson’s production. Picture: Jim Paterson

MODERN meets medieval in the York premiere of American playwright Chiara Atik’s award-winning comedy Poor Clare, presented by Black Treacle Theatre at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from November 3 to 7.

The lives of the young St Clare and St Francis of Assisi receive a fresh telling in Atik’s story of noblewoman Clare being set for marriage to a rich aristocrat and a life of wealth and privilege in 13th century Assisi.

However, she then meets a young man named Francis, whose strong faith and commitment to rejecting the established order and serving the poor sparks a change in her that makes her look at her life in a new way. Clare will go on to found the Poor Clare order of nuns.

“The play has been hailed as a hilarious and off-beat take on these established religious and historical figures, told with modern, witty dialogue,” says Black Treacle Theatre director Jim Paterson.

Premiered at the Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles in 2020, Poor Clare won the 2022 American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association’s New Play Award and the Los Angeles  Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

P J Gregan’s Francis in contemplative mode in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

“I was hooked from the moment I first read Poor Clare,” says Jim. “Chiara Atik has crafted a funny and unique play that makes Clare’s story come to life, whilst also posing questions for us about our own attitudes and responsibilities when it comes to questions of poverty and inequality.”

After productions of Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, Poor Clare completes York company Black Treacle’s informal trilogy of productions on the theme of women who reflect the quote that “well-behaved women seldom make history”.

“Clare’s growing commitment to a better world, driven by her faith and sense of justice, drive this story in unexpected directions and I’m really proud of the work the cast and creative team have done to bring it to Theatre@41’s stage,” says Jim.

Isabel Azar, who plays Clare, says: “Clare is such a deeply relatable role. She’s a young woman figuring out her vocation and she’s so raw and honest. I love her integrity, her fervent faith and her intense hunger and thirst for righteousness.

“The beauty of this play is its message that whatever our life circumstances may be, we are called to help the less fortunate and be instruments of the Lord’s peace. My wholehearted thanks to Jim for this incredible opportunity and to my amazing fellow cast-mates for making this production pure joy.”

Isabel Azar’s Clare seeks to provide clothes for the poor of Assisi in a scene in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

PJ Gregan, taking the role of Francis, says: “In the play, Francis is very far from the idyllic holy leader that we know today. He’s brash, stubborn, angry, nervous, petulant and immensely fun to play as an actor.

“It’s been a pleasure working with Jim and Isabel to craft the journey of this rebellious young man taking his first steps toward the saint he will be, even if he stumbles a little along the way. You may laugh or cry – probably both – but one thing is certain: you must see Poor Clare!”

Black Treacle Theatre in Poor Clare, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Running time: Two hours, including interval.  

Poor Clare director Jim Paterson

Jim Paterson’s Q & A with CharlesHutchPress on directing Poor Clare and matters of faith

How did you discover Chiara Atik’s play and what attracted you to performing it?

“I read a review of last summer’s Orange Tree Theatre production (the play’s European premiere) and was intrigued by the description of the play’s deliberately anachronistic use of modern, ‘Gen Z’ dialogue and attitudes in the telling of the lives of these religious figures in 13th century Italy.

“I ordered it to read and found it funny and smart, but also a play that cleverly drew parallels with our time to discuss materialism and morality. Not in a purely didactic way, but raising questions for both the characters on stage, and the audience watching, to grapple with. It quickly came to life in my head and when the opportunity came up to perform this autumn at Theatre@41, this was the first piece I chose.”

What does the story of Clare and Francis of Assisi say to modern audiences in this age of increasing indifference towards religion?

“One of the reasons I really like this play is that it asks us to consider questions of personal and societal morality that are as true in the modern day as they were in Clare and Francis’s time.

“In other words, what does it mean to be a good person? What sacrifices could we make to live in line with our own moral code? How much moral compromise do we personally ignore to live the life we want?

“For our characters, their choices to devote their lives to easing suffering and inequality is rooted in their religious faith, but the skill in Chiara Atik’s writing is that we can empathise with their personal struggles and their situations regardless of our own beliefs.”

Alma (Emily Hansen, right) shares the latest gossip in Assisi with Clare (Isabel Azar, middle) and Peppa (Clare Meadley). Picture: Jim Paterson

In turn, how important is the religious message, not least being presented in a building with its own faith history?

“I think this play is, in many ways, about the importance of faith, and how it can give us purpose and help us discover more in ourselves than we thought possible. Faith can take many forms – in people, institutions, ideas – and even if you aren’t necessarily a person of religious faith yourself, I think you can recognise how it matters to and drives Francis and Clare. 

“It’s important to note that this play doesn’t mock or belittle the characters’ faith, but recognises it as the guiding light for their moral code.

“The other thing about the characters’ faith is that it is personal to them, as is their relationship with God, and the play deftly explores where these differences create tensions and challenges for our characters – such as how Francis’s disagreements with the Bishop and established church require strength to follow his convictions:  strength drawn from his faith.

“And of course, performing this at Theatre@41 means stepping into a space with over a century of faith in its bones, and where people still come together for shared ritual and communal experience.”

Introduce your two lead actors, Isabel Azar and PJ Gregan…

“Isabel and I first worked together on Anne Boleyn, and it’s been a joy to work with her again here. She’s been a font of ideas about the play and her character from day one, crafting a rich emotional journey for Clare’s arc, from carefree young noblewoman, to the woman who will go on to found the Poor Clare’s order of nuns.

Francis (PJ Gregan, kneeling) listens as Clare (Isabel Azar) asks him how he will help the poor in Assisi in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

“This is the first time I’ve worked with PJ, having previously seen him on stage in The Spanish Tragedy last year, and have been hugely impressed with his improvisational energy in rehearsal, changing up his reading and approach from run to run to build ‘his’ Francis’.

“Both actors have also brought in a huge amount of background research to better understand the context and religious beliefs of their characters (Isabel even added a trip to Assisi to a pre-planned family holiday to Italy!), which has helped them find different approaches and subtext in their character development.”

What have been the directing challenges of this play?

“It’s definitely had some different challenges for us to navigate. The individual scenes are quite self-contained and dialogue-led, so ensuring we keep them dynamic for our audience has meant a lot of experimentation in rehearsal with finding movement and opportunities for play in the text that still feels true to the moments and characters.

“And with the dialogue, balancing the sometimes (deliberately) flippant dialogue with the real emotional weight of some scenes has been a careful balancing act. Fun challenges though!”

Why should people see Poor Clare next week?

“It’s very funny! I know I’ve talked a lot about the importance of the themes and meaning, but it’s packed full of great one-liners and character comedy. And this helps what is, in many ways, a modern play of ideas, to engage and enthral an audience.

“Our hope is that audiences have a fun evening at the theatre, but still end up talking about the ideas within it, and how they interpret them, long into the night.”

Beatrice (Eleanor Stephenson), right, argues with her sister Clare (Isabel Azar) in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

Black Treacle Theatre’s cast and creative team for Poor Clare

Clare – Isabel Azar

Alma – Emily Hansen

Beatrice – Eleanor Stephenson

Bianchi/Beggar – Ben Reeves-Rowley

Francis – PJ Gregan

Peppa – Clare Meadley

Ortolana – Victoria Delaney

Director – Jim Paterson

Set and prop designer – Richard Hampton

Lighting designer – Kathryn Wright

Sound designer – Sage Dunn-Krahn

Production lead – Dave Robertson

Black Treacle Theatre’s past productions

NICK Payne’s Constellations (March 2022); Gary Owen’s Iphigenia In Splott (March 2023); Nassim Soleimanpor’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); Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn (March 2026) and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita (June 2026).

Did you know?

VICTORIA Delaney will be performing in York productions in successive weeks. From tomorrow to Saturday, she will play “power hungry” businesswoman Kat in York Actors Collective’s York premiere of Stephanie Jacob’s three-hander power struggle The Strongbox at York Theatre Royal Studio (box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk). Next week she will appear as Ortolana in Black Treacle Theatre’s York premiere of Chiara Atik’s Poor Clare.

Victoria Delaney in rehearsal for her role as Kat in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox, opening at York Theatre Royal Studio on October 29

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 44, from Gazette & Herald

Alex Keenan’s Chris and Charlie Brooks’s Judy, her mum, in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, staged by Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep. Picture: Johan Persson

FROM a new female spin on ‘Curious Incident’ to Ricky Gervais’s “most personal” tour, Halloween shows to Leo Sayer’s last tour, Charles Hutchinson finds ways to brighten up darker nights.  

Reboot of the week: Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

MELTING Pot and Birmingham Rep are touring a gender-swap reboot of Simon Stephens’s inventive adaptation of Mark Haddon’s compassionate novel, in which neurodivergent 15-year-old Chris Boone is now a female role, played by Alex Keenan and matinee alternate Imi Price.

Ned Bennett’s cast features Joe McFadden as dad Ed and Charlie Brooks as absentee mum Judy in the story of Chris becoming both detective and suspect when a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, drawing her into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered. Box office: atgtickets.co.uk/york.

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Halloween family entertainment of the week: Wharfemede Productions in The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

COMPANY co-founder Helen Spencer directs North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions in Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s devilishly funny, deeply kooky comedy The Addams Family Musical.

When Wednesday Addams falls in love with a “normal” young man and invites his respectable parents to dinner, chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in this spooky celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird, replete with sharp comedy, dazzling dance numbers, a witty score and a nine-piece band. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nairn’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox

Struggle for survival of the week: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow, 2.30pm & 7.45pm, Friday, 7.45pm, and Saturday, 2pm

YORK Actors Collective presents Stephanie Jacob’s study of freedom and control, The Strongbox,  in which a mother (Beryl Nairn’s Ma) and her daughter (Victoria Delaney’s Kat) keep a homeless woman (Clare Halliday’s Maudie) as a slave in their London home. Power shifts, however, when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.

“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” asks director Angie Millard. “As Ma says, ‘ If you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

New York Brass Band: Having a blast at Malton’s Milton Rooms for the fourth time

Ryedale gig of the week: New York Brass Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7pm

NEW York Brass Band return to the Milton Rooms for a fourth party night of big tunes, huge brass sounds and plenty of dancing. York-born, New Orleans-inspired and Glastonbury festival fixtures for eight years, they have performed for Kylie Minogue, Liam Gallagher, Ellie Goulding and Jamie Oliver with their trademark infectious energy. Tickets: 07813 889085 (Ali) or newyorkbrassband.co.uk.

Leo Sayer: Playing York Barbican on “what could well be his final full UK tour”

The show must go on…for one last tour: Leo Sayer, Can’t Stop Loving You, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

AFTER almost 60 years on the road, Leo Sayer, now 78, returns to the UK stage for “what could well be his final full UK tour”. “I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country. I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” clarifies Sayer, in a year when he is releasing his autobiography and a career-spanning box set.

Meanwhile, Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have sold out tomorrow’s return to York Barbican. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Fladam Theatre’s Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter cooking up their Halloween show Hallowbean

Children’s Halloween show of the week: Fladam Theatre in Hallowbean, Acomb Explore, Front Street, Acomb, York today, 3pm, and Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 2.30pm

FLADAM Theatre, the madcap York musical comedy duo of Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter, head to Acomb and Helmsley with their spooktastic musical comedy Hallowbean. In the town of Ghooul, Dr Frankenheinz is rustling up his Hallowbean for the annual Halloween cooking competition, hoping his tomatoey terror will dazzle Scary Berry, the most frightful food critic of them all.

However, his ‘eeny beany’ lacks scariness. Instead she is downright lovable. Problem! “Will Halloween have to be cancelled? Or can the Hallowbean find her scare in time?” ask Fladam. Find out in this hour-long, pun and puppet-packed Halloween treat for three to ten years olds. Box office: York, https://www.tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives/2432836; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Clare (Isabel Azar) helps Francis (PJ Gregan) to straighten himself out in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

Life-changing story of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Poor Clare, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

THE lives of the young St Clare and St Francis of Assisi are the subject of American playwright Chiara Atik’s comedy Poor Clare, presented in York for the first time by Black Treacle Theatre, directed by Jim Paterson.

Noblewoman Clare (Isabel Azar) is set for marriage to a rich aristocrat and a life of wealth and privilege in 13th century Assisi, but then she meets Francis (PJ Gregan), whose strong faith and commitment to rejecting the established order and serving the poor makes her look at her life in a new way. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ricky Gervais: Returning to York Barbican next February, this time in his Legend show

Gig announcement of the week: Ricky Gervais, Legend, York Barbican, February 15 2027

COMEDIAN Ricky Gervais will return to York Barbican as one of the newly added 2027 dates on his 2026-2027 tour after all this year’s shows sold out. Already Legend has been acquired for streaming on Netflix.

“This is my most personal show so far and because both cancel culture, and most people I knew growing up, are dead, I can really say what the **** I want now,” promises Gervais, who once again will donate a portion of the ticket-sale proceeds to charity after giving £2.43 million to worldwide animal charities from his Mortality tour in 2025. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/ricky-gervais-legend.

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York Actors Collective delves into battle of wills in the all-female white heat of Stephanie Jacob’s The Strongbox. REVIEW: Find Charles Hutchinson’s verdict here

Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nairn’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox

YORK Actors Collective returns to York Theatre Royal Studio next week to stage the York premiere of The Strongbox, Stephanie Jacob’s powerful study of freedom, control and servitude.

First performed in 2018 at the VAULT18 Festival at Charing Cross, London, where it won the Origins Award for Outstanding New Work, was Pick of the Festival and Jacob played the role of Kat, this 75-minute three-hander charts the changing dynamics of a mother and daughter keeping a homeless woman as a slave in their London home. Power starts to shift when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.

In her sixth production since setting up York Actors Collective in 2023, Angie Millard directs a highly experienced York cast of Beryl Nairn as Ma, Victoria Delaney as daughter Kat and Clare Halliday as Maudie.

“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” ponders Angie. “As Ma says, ‘if you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.”

In keeping with presenting Alexander Zeldin’s Beyond Caring in 2024, Nina Raine’s Tiger Country in 2025 and Beth Steel’s Till The Stars Come Down at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in April 2026, Angie has picked a play new to York audiences.

“That’s my bag. That’s one of the things I try to do,” she says. “If there are plays you haven’t seen or by new writers, when there are too many productions of shows you already know, I want to do works that make people think, and as long as you choose carefully…”

Describing the play, Angie says: “This one is a chamber piece, about a relationship between three women with a lot of cruelty in it, but with a sad acknowledgement that that’s what life can be about.

Beryl Nairn, left, Clare Halliday and Victoria Delaney in rehearsal for Stephanie Jacob’s three-hander The Strongbox

“It’s an intense drama – 75 minutes where there’s no breathing space – and the cast really understands the intensity of their characters.  They’re three very talented actresses who are very much up for the job. It would be impossible to have an interval because the intensity of the emotions wouldn’t tolerate it.”

Angie homed in on The Strongbox after researching Stephanie Jacob’s work. “I read a couple of things she’d written and loved her style. I wrote to her to ask, ‘why can’t I get a script for The Strongbox?’, and she explained it was out of circulation as a festival play in London, but she said I could have the script rights for £10 as she’s pleased that someone wants to have a go at it.

“I’ve since had phone conversations with her, though not recently, because the author, I think she would agree, needs to butt out!”

One significant change Angie has made is to change Maudie from a teenager [aged 17] to an older woman in her 30s. “I think the play is richer for that, because Maudie’s lived through a lot, and I feel an older character suits that better,” she says. “I’m sure Stephanie would not object to that change.”

After making that alteration, “one of the things I’ve been working on with the cast since we started rehearsals in early September is the ‘status’ of the characters, thinking about where I should place them on stage, which is as important as in a Harold Pinter play,” says Angie. “There’s this constant jostling for power, where it’s a life and death struggle for them.”

The set design will play into that power struggle. “There’s a bed, a table and two chairs – minimal – which will be great for Studio where there’s not much room!”

Introducing her character of Maudie, Clare says: “She’s a northerner who’s been through the care system and is used to living on the streets. She’s basically ‘rescued’ by Ma and Kat and she’s just trying to survive.”

Victoria Delaney rehearsing her role as “power-hungry” Kat in The Strongbox

“Kat is really tough,” says Victoria, “I’m going to play her as quite androgynous, but also a woman of the world who is power hungry.”

Beryl comments: “To say Ma and Kat are not close would be an understatement, yet they’re welded together. Ma is top dog…at the moment…but she’s being very closely followed her daughter, who want to be top dog. There are lots of dark secrets that are then shockingly revealed – with the odd laugh too.”

Whereupon Victoria chips in: “Every spine-chilling play has to have an element of horror. There are some disturbing things in the play and one of them is modern-day slavery, which is not often explored in contemporary dramas.”

Playing the 80-year-old Ma, Beryl notes: “One of the other important aspects is that it’s a play about women. Tough women. Ma and Kat have this empire in chauffeur-driven cars and want to accumulate more business.”

Clare says: “Maudie is the ‘victim’ at their house but she’s waiting for her chance.”  “There’s no lead role here; they each come to the fore as the dynamic changes,” says Victoria. “They’re all fighting for power in a battle of wills, and it’s fair to say Ma and Kat hate each other but need each other.”

“There’s no trust but there is co-dependency,” says Beryl. “Everything is transactional, including the relationships.”  

York Actors Collective presents The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29, 2.30pm & 7.45pm; October 30, 7.45pm; October 31, 2pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 14 plus.

Beryl Nairn’s Ma slurping fennel soup dismissively as Clare Halliday’s Maudie and Victoria Delaney look on in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox. Picture: John Saunders

REVIEW: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, 29/10/2026 ****

THREE women. Two chairs. One table. One trolley. One bed. Later, one wheelchair. One set of pliers. One strongbox. One bottle of vodka. One power struggle. Only one winner, but who?

On the wall is the message Home Sweet Home. Oh, the irony. Next to it, pinned up, is a tea towel depicting butterflies gradually fluttering away. How poetic. Come meal times, it’s fennel with everything. Chuffin’ fennel.

This could be the dingy abode of a claustrophobic Harold Pinter play, such as The Birthday Party, but Stephanie Jacob’s The Strongbox is an even more concentrated psychological drama, a battle of wills done and dusted in 75 minutes. Don’t dare ask if there will be an interval. That’s for the birds, although you will need a drink at the end.

Kat (Victoria Delaney) administering her punishment regimen to house slave Maudie (Clare Halliday) in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox. Picture: John Saunders

Ma (Beryl Nairn) is 80, ill, either in bed, slumped at the table, or in her wheelchair, but still the top dog, the matriarch. She is in pain but equally a pain in the neck to ambitious, unloving daughter Kat (Victoria Delaney), who has her steely eye on that pooch perch, keen to expand their London chauffeur car business, picking at the bones of rivals till procurement is guaranteed.

Toughened and spat out by the care system, homeless northerner Maudie (Clare Halliday) has been picked off the London streets and is now their slave, doing chores, being abused by Ma and Kat in tandem, subjected to a punishment regime for “crimes” recorded in the ledger. Hence the pliers…for tooth extraction.

Clare Halliday’s Maudie wrapping her arms around Beryl Nairn’s Ma, or Mrs G as she calls her, in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox. Picture: John Saunders

Yet when Kat is out of the house, pre-occupied with business, Maudie makes her play to shift the power dynamics, capitalising on Kat’s absence by tending to the fragile Ma’s needs, whether singing to her or brushing her hair. Bide her time, then add vodka and…? That would be telling.

York Actors Collective director Angie MiIllard has made a habit of picking plays either in need of re-discovery or discovery in her six productions since founding the company in 2023. The Strongbox falls into the latter category.

Premiered in 2018 at the VAULT18 Festival at Charing Cross, London, where it won the Origins Award for Outstanding New Work and Pick of the Festival too, it was now out of circulation. Angie, however, tracked down the writer, who gave her the script rights for £10 as “she’s pleased that someone wants to have a go at it”.

On a knife edge: Clare Halliday’s Maudie turning the table on Victoria Delaney’s Kat in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox. Picture: John Saunders

The Strongbox is a chamber piece, “one with a lot of cruelty but with honesty and humour too,” as Angie puts it. Make that the darkest humour, the starkest honesty, as each of the unholy trinity plays by her own rules while seeking to impose those rules on the others.

Millard’s triumvirate of highly experienced York talents, Nairn, Delaney and Halliday, maximises the compressed atmosphere of the Studio stage in a cut-and-thrust production where you can see the whites of their eyes and feel the white heat of such a toxic cauldron.

Jacob’s dialogue fizzes, sometimes with menace, sometimes with misery, sometimes with mystery, and the intensity is all the greater for being wrought by three women. Think of Macbeth’s trio of Witches, then watch the toil and trouble bubble up here.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

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More Things To Do in York and beyond the spooks and ghouls of Halloween. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 43, from The York Press

York drag diva Velma Celli adding vocal oomph to oompah band The Bavarian Strollers in Yorktoberfest’s big top at York Racecourse

FROM a new female spin on ‘Curious Incident’ to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top, Halloween shows to Leo Sayer’s last tour, Charles Hutchinson finds ways to brighten up darker nights.  

Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, today, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm

FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop. 

Look out today for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display, complemented by oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.

Ghost event of the week: The York Ghost Merchants present Mischief Night Ghost Week Trail, York Mansion House, York, today to November 1, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry 4pm

GROWING up in York, the young Guy Fawkes was a mischief-maker who caused no end of havoc for his school masters, long before he set his sights on a more famous prize. Join ghostly headmaster John Pulleyn, who needs your help to keep the peace, before Guy forks out more misrule than the city can handle!

Follow the trail around York Mansion House, solving puzzles and clues as you go. Everyone who completes the trail puzzle book successfully will be entered into a draw to win a unique ghost designed by the Ghost Merchants and inspired by the Mansion House building.  Tickets: Available on the door on the day of visit (no online sales).

Troy Hawke: “Navigating conversational minefields” at York Barbican tonight

Comedy gig of the week: Troy Hawke, Never Stop, Never Change!, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

TROY Hawke is the internet sensation creation of Michael Patrick “Milo” McCabe, the British television presenter, actor and stand-up character comedian. In Never Stop, Never Change!, angry security guards, barked compliments and crossed wires abound as Hawke navigates various conversational minefields, both online and in real life. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Freedom versus control : Sarah Belcher’s Deborah and Phil Corbitt’s Colin in the shifting sands of Alison Carr’s All At Sea at the SJT

Claustrophobic couple of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31

MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s. Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Alex Keenan’s Chris Boone and her dad, Joe McFadden’s Ed, in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

Reboot of the week: Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

MELTING Pot and Birmingham Rep are touring a gender-swap reboot of Simon Stephens’s inventive adaptation of Mark Haddon’s compassionate novel, in which neurodivergent 15-year-old Chris Boone is now a female role, played by Alex Keenan and matinee alternate Imi Price.

Ned Bennett’s cast features Joe McFadden as dad Ed and Charlie Brooks as absentee mum Judy in the story of Chris becoming both detective and suspect when a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, drawing her into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered. Box office: atgtickets.co.uk/york.

Book talk of the week: A Way With Media presents John Lydon: I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right, Harrogate Theatre, October 27, 7.30pm

JOHN Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – is a legend, an iconoclast, a revolutionary and a punk immortal, who changed the face of music, causing a political earthquake as frontman and lyricist of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL).

To coincide with A Way With Media’s special-edition boxed Flexi Bind Version of his I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right collection of random thoughts, life philosophies and personal anecdotes, Lydon, now 70, is undertaking a pyrotechnic, one-off tour to discuss how he sees life and to reflect on his extraordinary career, taking audience questions too. Sharing his thoughts, he could be wrong, he could be right. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Playing by the ghouls: Halloween In Concert at York Barbican

Graveyard smash of the week: Halloween In Concert, York Barbican, October 27, 7.30pm

IN a frighteningly good night of raves from beyond the grave, Halloween In Concert’s cast and band unleash a thrilling crescendo of all things Halloween. Expect big vocals and killer moves as the greatest spooky hits are resurrected, from Monster Mash, Highway To Hell, The Time Warp and Running Up That Hill to Hungry Like The Wolf, Maneater, Bat Out of Hell, She Wolf and Thriller. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Simon Trow

Halloween family entertainment of the week: Wharfemede Productions in The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

COMPANY co-founder Helen Spencer directs North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions in  Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s devilishly funny, deeply kooky comedy The Addams Family Musical.

When Wednesday Addams falls in love with a “normal” young man and invites his respectable parents to dinner, chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in this spooky celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird, replete with sharp comedy, dazzling dance numbers, a witty score and a nine-piece band. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Scrum down for former England prop forward Joe Marler’s probing questions at York Barbican on Wednesday

Live podcast tour of the week: Joe Marler Will See You Live, York Barbican, October 28, 8pm

SINCE retiring from Rugby Union in 2024, England prop forward Joe Marler has been pushed into the mainstream by his “Big Dog” theory, people-reading prowess and relentless Traitor hunting in the 2025 debut series of The Celebrity Traitors.

This sparked his show format for Joe Marler Will See You Now, wherein Marler and his co-host and research assistant, comedian Jake Bhardwaj, apply acute observational skills to delve inside the mind of a celebrity guest with probing questions and unusual mind games. Who will be their guest in York? Find out on Wednesday night. Cue “ludicrous set-pieces and immersive audience participation”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Christopher Leslie in his haunting one-man adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound at York Medical Society

Halloween solo show of the week: Christopher Leslie in Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 27 to 30, 7.30pm

YORK writer, performer and Pop Yer Clogs Theatre company member Christopher Leslie presents his haunting one-man adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “bogey tale”, here re-titled Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound.

Lawyer Gabriel John Utterson, now living a sheltered, haunted  life, invites you into the Soho house once occupied by his former client, Doctor Henry Jekyll. Tonight, Utterson will speak at last, looking into the darkness of the human psyche and asking are we really who we appear to be? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nain’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox

York premiere of the week: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29, 2.30pm & 7.45pm, October 30, 7.45pm, and October 31, 2pm

YORK Actors Collective presents Stephanie Jacob’s study of freedom and control The Strongbox,   in which a mother (Beryl Nairn’s Ma) and her daughter (Victoria Delaney’s Kat) keep a homeless woman (Clare Halliday’s Maudie) as a slave in their London home. Power shifts, however,  when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.

“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” asks director Angie Millard. “As Ma says, ‘ If you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” says Leo Sayer

The show must go on…for one last tour: Leo Sayer, Can’t Stop Loving You, York Barbican, October 30, 7.30pm

AFTER almost 60 years on the road, Leo Sayer, now 78, returns to the UK stage for “what could well be his final full UK tour”. “I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country. I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” clarifies Sayer, in a year when he is releasing his autobiography and a career-spanning box set.

Cue The Show Must Go On, Thunder In My Heart, Moonlighting, One Man Band, When I Need You,  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing et al. Meanwhile, Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have sold out October 29’s York Barbican gig. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

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Wharfemede Productions mark Halloween week with deeply kooky The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Henrietta Linnemann‘s Morticia and Zander Fick’s Gomez Addams in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

WHAT better way for North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions to mark Halloween week than by staging The Addams Family Musical.

Running at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 27 to 31, artistic director Helen “Bells” Spencer’s production of this deeply kooky, definitely spooky American musical comedy follows award-winning productions of Little Women and A Little Night Music. “We look forward to seeing you at Halloween – if you dare!” she says.

Combining music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, The Addams Family Musical opens with Wednesday Addams (played by Abbie Law) falling in love with a “normal” young man and inviting his respectable parents to dinner, whereupon chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in a celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird.

“We are thrilled to return with a show full of heart, humour and Halloween spirit, performed during Halloween week itself, when audiences can expect the perfect seasonal treat packed with gothic glamour, mischievous fun and spectacular entertainment,” says Bells. 

Director Helen “Bells” Spencer” holding two of Nick Sephton’s 3D-printed masks for the Ancestors in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

“The Addams Family is darkly delightful, gloriously gothic and wickedly entertaining. Whether you’re a life-long fan of the Addams clan or discovering them for the first time, this is one family reunion you won’t want to miss!”

The success of the Netflix series Wednesday has stimulated renewed cultural interest in The Addams Family. “It had got into a nostalgic space, but by making it relevant to modern audiences, it’s led to the musical coming to the fore again,” says Bells.

Zander Fick, who will play Gomez Addams, concurs. “Wednesday has almost ground the family in more reality, whereas the old family was more of a caricature,” he says. “Now they seem to have a feeling of being eccentric but relatable.”

Helen first encountered the musical two years ago when her fiance, Nick Sephton, was cast as  Fester Addams in a production in Wetherby. Her early expectations of a “very panto show – and I hate panto” were confounded. “I thought I’d just be going along as the devoted partner, but I absolutely loved it. It was a really good musical,” she says.

Nick Sephton’s Uncle Fester in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

“Unfortunately, Nick tore the cruciate ligament in his knee when dancing on the graves of the Ancestors on the first night, and for the rest of the run he had to deliver his Uncle Fester from a large armchair at the side of the stage. He was gutted that he didn’t get the chance to do the part properly, but I thought, ‘actually I think we can make this show work.”

Now Nick will reprise his Uncle Fester in Wharfemede’s production. “People will be surprised by his Fester as he usually plays authority figures, like generals, but with Nick you’re genuinely moved by Fester’s ‘oddness’, and with Nick being autistic he’s identified with that, having felt different from other people through his autism.”

Zander comments: “A key message in the show is that it’s OK to be different, so Fester is really loved by his family, The show has more depth than just having kooky characters, so you can really empathise with them. The story presents a conflict with outsiders who are uncomfortable with them, but  the show celebrates that difference, celebrating what makes you you.”

The masked Ancestors in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

Helen rejoins: “The show says we are all unique. We’re all happier as human beings if we embrace our differences. Wharfemede was created by our wish to create a space where people can be themselves to make high-quality work. We have multiple people in the cast who are autistic or neurodivergent, and we always start rehearsal sessions with a check-in, asking if everyone feels comfortable in the space. That seems to work well.”

Zander, who moved to York from South Africa in 2023, is enjoying those rehearsals as he prepares to play Gomez, the father of the family. “I’m loving him so much,” he says. “He’s so comfortable in who he is, so unapologetic about who he is, when quite often male characters in theatre tend to be moulded as reserved, guarded and always holding back, but Gomez is not like that at all. I can relate that to when I feel in a comfortable place, striving to be myself in that place. I always leave rehearsals feeling energised.

“We’ve had discussions about who Gomez is, as this naive, aloof child in a man’s body, but with a very healthy relationship with his wife, Morticia, so that’s been really interesting to explore.”

Helen has handled the design brief for this Gothic tale. “I want it to be as realistic and gritty as it can be within the realms of the Addams Family,” she says. “I didn’t want everything to be Halloween costumes, but instead with every character having an individual sense of themselves. So we discussed it with the actors, like Abbie Law wanting to wear a black velvet dress for Wednesday: a classic Wednesday look, but in velvet, which is something Abbie really wanted.”

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical: Abbie Law’s Wednesday, left, Matthew Warry’s Pugsley, Henrietta Linnemann‘s Morticia, Chris Gibson’s Lurch, Zander Fick’s Gomez, Nick Sephton’s Uncle Fester and Rosy Rowley’s Grandma. Picture: Simon Trow

Bells is particularly excited to be bringing elements of commedia dell’arte into Wharfemede’s interpretation of the show, not least in putting all the Ancestors in masks, created in 3D-printed form by Nick Sephton, to make them imposing in unison. 

“Having had the privilege of working with commedia companies in Trieste and Venice, I have long admired the genre’s physical storytelling, heightened characters and joyful theatricality,” she reasons.

“Those influences feel perfectly suited to the world of The Addams Family, and I look forward to blending them with the musical’s unique humour to create something that is both fresh and deeply entertaining.”

Wharfemede Productions presents The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 27 to 31, 7:30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: www.tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

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REVIEW: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, making waves until Saturday ***

Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus  of  Ephesus, second from right, and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead

KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart buckle up to steer Shakespeasre’s “shortest and possibly funniest play” into piratical waters, replete with lusty sea shanties and the sound of crashing waves.

“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical antiheroes,” they said in their mission statement.

“We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.”

Two masts from a shipwreck hang over the stage to evoke seafaring in the black box theatre, where the staging is otherwise minimalist, largely left bare for physical comedy and fast-fizzing farce. 

Ben Reeves-Rowley’s Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead

A plinth is moved into place to denote the higher status of Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus (played by Ben Reeves-Rowley with the clipped vowels and tightened jaw of King Charles III). Later, two sets of doors – the time-honoured harbingers of imminent  farce – make appearances, one as the entrance to the abbey, the other with skeleton door knockers in keeping with the piratical reboot.

Andrew Wrenn’s vexed Egeon has to wade his way through a chunk of exposition before the play settles into its rhythm of mistaken identities,  spun around two sets of identical twins. Helen Clarke’s  flamboyant Antipholus of Syracuse and her servant, Kat Lazarus’s flirtatious  Dromio arrive on the corrupt pirate isle of Ephesus , where Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus  of  Ephesus and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, are already caught up in the debauched shenanigans.

Add a tavern and booty, and let the misunderstandings and misbehaviour multiply, involving the likes of Ro Trimble’s haughty Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, Leckey’s Luciano, always quick with a jest, and Harry Summers’ oft-baffled Angelo .

You will note that Antipholus times two are now female, all part of the gender fluidity brought to The Comedy  Of Errors by Leckey and Carhart, prompted by being “intrigued by the lack of traditional gender and romantic dynamics in the play”.

“In Elizabethan culture, there was a more flexible understanding of physical and romantic intimacy between same sex partners, as well as a fluid approach to the representation of gender on stage,” they say. “We feel our production is a celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic.”

Kat Lazarus’s Dromio of Syracuse, front, and Helen Clarke’s Antipholus of Syracuse in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead

Laura Broughton-Janes’ Antipholus  of  Ephesus and her servant, Liz Duggan’s Dromio, in York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead

Luciana becomes Luciano, played by Leckey with a droll air and a cigarette in hand, in a late change of casting that affirms their relish for comic friction and interplay.

The slapstick even features slaps to the face; the likes of Trimble and Reeves-Rowley make the words sing; Andrea Mitchell’s Emilia, the Abbess, gives the peachiest cameo; the musicians on the mezzanine level (Rebecca Jackson, Izzie Burger de Fremol, Vicky Hatt and Emily Rowan) convey matters of the heart and sea, and the sets of twins are so identical that the audience may well have to keep looking twice.

The gender transitions add to the physical comedy, but this is not a play of memorable verbal wit or intellectual insight.

Carhart even called it “silly”, as light as a bubble, and certainly she and Leckey have fun with it, giving it fresh zest, although their claim of its status as “possibly Shakespeare’s funniest play” is debatable.

York Shakespeare Project presents The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, 7.30pm nightly until Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 43, from Gazette & Herald

Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton), left, and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

FROM a couple all at sea at the SJT to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top,  a piratical twist on The Comedy Of Errors to Bison Hip’s blues, Charles Hutchinson recommends ways to stay cheerful.

Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.

Equipped with the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Over-reaching strategy: Phil Corbitt’s Colin puts yet another plan to Sarah Belcher’s exhausted Deborah in Alison Carr’s All At Sea

Premiere of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31

MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the real-life escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s.

Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, until October 31

BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Ben Reeves-Rowley and Harry Summers in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Company’s piratical The Comedy Of Errors

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart co-direct York Shakespeare Project in “ an exciting take on Shakespeare’s shortest and possibly funniest play”, giving a piratical, gender-swapping twist to The Comedy Of Errors in a convergence of the original text with slapstick, farce and physical comedy and a “celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic”.

“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical anti-heroes,” they say. “We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster for The Amy Winehouse Band’s Back To Black 20th Anniversary Tour

Going back to Back To Black: The Amy Winehouse Band, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm

AMY Winehouse’s original band, who played with her from the very start, are marking the 20th anniversary of her iconic second album, Back To Black, the one that brought her five awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Performing with Amy that evening, as these musicians had done since her earliest gigs in London pubs, was her band. 

Led by Amy’s long-time musical director and bass player, Dale Davis, The Amy Winehouse Band features members who both toured and recorded with her throughout her career. Tomorrow’s gig will be the first of more than 50 on the anniversary itinerary, taking in Hull City Hall on February 12, Sheffield City Hall, February 13, and Harrogate Royal Hall, February 14 2027. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Hudson & Hudson: Combining the magical and the marital at Helmsley Arts Centre

Magic show of the week: Hudson & Hudson Magicians: Married At First Sleight, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

ORIGINALLY from Hull, husband-and-wife magicians Alan and Kat Hudson appeared separately on Britain’s Got Talent before eventually forming a double act. Ant & Dec had suggested they should work together while they were on the show, but they both said no at the time. Between them, they have appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, ITV’s The Next Great Magician and in the West End production Wonderville.

Married At First Sleight mixes magic, mind-reading, comedy and audience participation with the realities of being married to the person with whom you also rehearse, tour and perform. Cue marital banter alongside the tricks. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

York drag diva Velma Celli leading the Yorktoberfest celebrations in the Big Top with The Bavarian Strollers at York Racecourse

Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Friday, 7pm to 1pm; Saturday, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm

FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop. 

Look out on Friday and Saturday for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display and oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. The Bavarian Bar and the Dog Haus serve up drinks and German-inspired food. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.

Bison Hip: A dose of the Glasgow blues at Ryedale Blues Club

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Bison Hip, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 29, 8pm

BISON Hip were formed by long-time friends Paul Sloway, Malcolm Button, Steven Radziwonik, John Gilmour Smith and Graeme Carswell during a lockdown Zoom call in 2020. “Maybe it was the mid-life crisis at play,” says vocalist Sloway.

“We wanted to take our love of blues and rock and mix it up with our experiences of life. Between us, we’ve been through so many things in life, ups and downs, some successes and plenty of failures, we wanted all that in the music. We needed to wrap it up in the DNA of our hometown, Glasgow, and hopefully that’s what we’ve achieved.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

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Premiere of the month: All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, till 31/10/206

Sarah Belcher’s Deborah and Phil Corbitt’s Colin in Alison Carr’s All At Sea. Picture: Matt Savage

ALL At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the notorious “canoe man” story, is making waves at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Maria Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in this premiere co-production with Newcastle’s Live Theatre. “This sharp and witty play requires two expert actors to bring this extraordinary couple to life, and this casting has delivered just that,” she says.

Drawing inspiration from Seaton Carew couple John and Anne Darwin, whose insurance fraud hit the headlines in the early 2000s, All At Sea is the story of Colin and Deborah, a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn.

Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout.

Phil Corbitt’s Colin, the canoe man in All At Sea. Picture: Von Fox Promotions

“I’m often drawn to stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and if they’re rooted in the North East, then even better,” says director Maria.

“I first approached Alison with the idea for a play about the ‘canoe couple’ five years ago. I’d always been fascinated by the story, but during lockdown, in a time of confinement and claustrophobia, when we were all ‘locked in’ our flats and houses, it got me thinking about the reality of it all.”

Maria continues: “I wasn’t interested in putting the ‘real life’ version on stage and was certain that the story needed to be reimagined by someone who could tap into the potential darkness and horror, alongside the humour and absurdity.

Sarah Belcher’s Deborah in All At Sea. Picture: Matt Savage

“I knew Alison had to write it. Thankfully, she said yes. I offered Alison the seed of an idea and handed it over to her imagination. Alison has created something totally unique, inspired by the original story but completely her own; a sharp, witty and moving exploration of a relationship surviving under extreme pressure. It has been a real privilege to bring it to life.”

Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Did you know?

ALISON Carr’s earlier plays, Caterpillar and The Last Quiz Night On Earth, played the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

Who is in the creative team for All At Sea?

ALISON Carr, director; Maria Crocker, director; Hannah Sibai, designer;  Roma Yagnik, sound designer; Catja Hamilton, lighting designer, and Ziad Jabero, composer.

Phil Corbitt’s Colin emerging from the shadows in All At Sea. Picture: Matt Savage

REVIEW: Live Theatre, Newcastle and Stephen Joseph Theatre present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31 ****

ALL At Sea, surely the perfect title for a show in Scarborough, is the third Alison Carr work to play Stephen Joseph Theatre, following Caterpillar and The Last Quiz Night On Earth.

This time, however, it is a premiere, one that carries the Made In Scarborough tag, albeit in a co-production with Live Theatre, Newcastle.

The story may sound familiar: a North Eastern man burdened with credit card debts and a heavy mortgage fakes his death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea, whereupon his wife enacts his complex plan to secure life insurance, lying to their sons all the while.

So far, so John and Anne Darwin, the canoe fraud couple from Seaton Carew, but that story is only an inspiration, a launching pad, for Carr’s psychological thriller that very much rows its own course.

Significantly too, condensed into 90 minutes, this is a two-hander as claustrophobic and compressed as the deceitful life that Colin (Phil Corbitt) must now live, hiding behind a fake wall in the sewing room, underneath the stairs, while awaiting the pay-out.

One stairwell step clicks to open and shut in Hannah Sibai’s domestic design, but like every one of Colin’s ideas, it is faulty, with a mind of its own. A mis-step, as it were.

Initially, Carr’s tone is humorous, in the manner of a jaunty episode of The Likely Lads, but All At Sea morphs into a study of a gradually fracturing marriage, one where Colin’s wife, Deborah (Sarah Belcher), has a mind of her own too.

Corbitt’s Colin foresees his maritime mishap turning into a merry time, bringing freedom and a new start with a false passport. Instead, this witless Walter Mitty is as much deceiving himself as everyone else, the escapist dreamer with no escape. He can only leave the house in disguise, always scurrying into his hole if the bell rings.

He has always controlled Deborah, manipulated her, but now she is the one who can live the double life, on the one hand still going along with his conceit, but on the other, suddenly blossoming with her pottery classes, brighter clothes and tipsy nights out. The more she does so, the more irritating she finds him – the sound of his mealtime chewing turned up to emphasise its impact in Roma Yagnik’s sound design.

The more Deborah finds self-expression and self-worth, the more the coercive yet impotent Colin belittles her, in a classic case of gaslighting, as Carr’s early humour dissipates into the torrid sea swell of Nora Helmer’s need to escape in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Instead of the avaricious, bullying, selfish, imprisoned Colin, Deborah is the one who finds the new identity.

Maria Crocker’s direction turns up the heat gradually, like a frog being placed in a pan of cold water, until the juddering finale that is darker than Whitby Jet yet feels like justice served. Belcher and Corbitt likewise bring rising intensity to the  disintegrating chemistry of the capricious, conniving Colin and Deborah, the devoted dormouse-turned independent free spirit as his canoe con capsizes. He is indeed dead to her after all.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

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REVIEW: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, grit and polish until Saturday *****

Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

THIRD time, even luckier. After York Stage’s Teen Version at Theatre@41 in June 2023 and Pick Me Up Theatre’s Joseph Rowntree  Theatre run in July 2025, Sheffield musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is being re-made in York for the third time.

This one is the best yet, wholly justifying Nik Briggs’s decision to revisit Tom MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells’ musical after directing the York premiere in 2023. “When the full version became available I knew I had to bring it to the Grand Opera House,” he said, promising a “truly beautiful, bold and gritty new production, capturing the electricity, humour and heart that has made ‘Jamie’ a modern British classic”.

Electricity. Tick. Humour. Tick. Heart. Tick, tick, ticker. They are all here in abundance in a production driven by Briggs’s thrilling direction, bold and beautiful performances and A J Powell’s choreography, full of punch and panache. What lifts it even higher, to five- star status, is Briggs’s costume and especially set design.

In a story so fast moving, where Jamie’s life is always on the edge of being out of control, where he wants to run before he can strut in heels, Briggs’s revolving stage is the perfect way to encapsulate the commotion. It enables the next scene to be set up out of sight, in transitions from Mayfield School classroom to Jamie’s house; classroom to Victor’s Secret clothes shop; a street bench to Jamie’s house; outside Legs Eleven nightclub to inside.

Nik Briggs: Director-designer of York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

There is no need for stage hands to be in view, save to push the merry-go-round for the next triangular stage to lock into place. It is so quick and efficient that the only things not to be on the move are the hands of the classroom clock. Then again, time waits for no man, or rather teenage boy in this case.

After Ryan Addyman, at the age of 17 in 2023, and Harvey Stephens, at 15 in 2025, now 16-year-old Sheffield council estate schoolboy Jamie New is played by Huby professional actor Frankie Bounds, who is fully ten years older than Harvey at 25, but still boyish of frame, cherubic in his cheekiness and lithe of limb to complement boundless mischievous energy and singing skills honed by his training in both opera and musical theatre.

Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Gillespie Sells (from Horsham pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist MacRae draw on an original idea by co-writer Jonathan Butterell for the unapologetic story of the boy who sometimes wants to be a girl, wear a dress to the school prom and be a drag queen in this classic teen rebel story.

Withering wit, northern nous and sassy social awareness all pepper their unflinching account of societal and classroom attitudes towards gender, bigotry, bullying, homophobia, absentee fathers and the right to self-expression. Nine years on from the Sheffield Crucible premiere, post-Covid strictures and the rise of right-wing intolerance, ‘Jamie’ hits home all the harder.

Mum Margaret New (Joanne Theaker), left, and friend Ray (Julie-Ann Smith) organising the 16th birthday party for Jamie (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Significantly, every Jamie putdown of loathsome, self-loathing school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) is met with cheers, cheers that grew even louder to greet Bounds’ exit from the Stage Door after Saturday’s matinee. Likewise, Jamie’s best friend, assured York Stage debutante Roxanne Hall’s Priti Pasha, the Muslim student destined to study Medicine at Cambridge, puts dunderhead Dean in his place too. This bravura musical not only celebrates difference but what a difference for the better it makes too.

Among the Year 11 pupils of Mayfield School, a typical northern comprehensive classroom of hope-filled, yet cynical and unruly 16-year-olds, Bounds’ Jamie is a restless Yorkshire dreamer in need of escape. He wants to be a performer, not the fork lift driver his  career advisor suggests.

Breaking rules and hearts alike, this lippy kid in lip gloss is outwardly confident but he is naive and vulnerable too, wounded by the barbs of  his stay-away father (Adam Thompson) and discouraged by his narrow-minded  teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer).

The grit promised by Briggs is delivered through the kitchen-sink drama frankness not only of blinkered teacher and bigoted father but also of Jamie’s world-weary, self-sacrificial, ever-supportive mum Margaret (Joanne Theaker, whose rendition of heartfelt ballad He’s My Boy is the Act Two show-stopper).

Class act: Frankie Bounds in his glittering yet shattering performance as teenager Jamie New at the heart of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

High quality is guaranteed by the presence of both Theaker and Julie-Ann Smith’s Ray, who brings a sharp tongue and kind heart to every domestic drama. Together they form a formidably forthright duo taking on both authority and convention.

To go with the grit, here comes the glitz and bravado of dress-shop boss Hugo/veteran drag act Loco Chanelle (Grant McIntyre) and the drag-queen veterans Sandra Bollock (Thompson’s second role),  Tray Sophisticay (George Cornell, reprising his Teen Version role) and Laika Virgin (the thoroughly fabulous Stu Hutchinson), in Sheffield’s answer to The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.

Supporting roles and ensemble cast are in fine form too, as is Jessica Viner’s band, where James Lolley’s trumpet is particularly potent. Briggs has hit new heights in his director-designer double whammy, bringing out the best in his cast, boosted by Powell’s fabulous choreography, where even the cans on a schoolroom table dance in rhythm.

York Stage presents Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus  2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Year 11 pupils, led by Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New in red nail varnish, turn the classroom into a dancefloor of defiance in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

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REVIEW: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, The Odyssey, Her Story, York Theatre Royal ***1/2

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, left, comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s returning Odysseus. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

THE Penelopiad is the heavyweight centrepiece of York Theatre Royal’s autumn programme, Wednesday’s press night being marked by the presence of Arts Council England luminaries.

Creative director Juliet Forster’s plans to mount Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s re-spinning of Homer’s yarn in 2020 were scuppered by Covid’s clenches. Roll on to 2026, when Forster’s all-female production finds its counter-Homer home at last with the self-explanatory full title of The Penelopiad, The Odyssey: Her Story in the city where Actors Of Dionysus and Wright & Grainger’s Greek tragedies have made their mark.

Not only is The Penelopiad “her story” but “their story” too. After The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood delivers a multitude of Maids here, Penelope’s hand-picked slaves’ daughters: wronged, vengeful and constantly meddling in Penelope’s wishes to re-tell her tale, post-death, in the Underworld.

The glacial Penelope may want to miss out chunks, just like Christopher Nolan’s film made no mention of Odysseus’s philandering ways in his 20-year avoidance of coming home from the Trojan Wars, but the Maids have other ideas, and they will do anything to re-route The Penelopiad’s journey, from child puppetry to a rather short tap dance, girl group singing to acrobatic aerial skills, macho masks to more macho masks.

Pena Iiyambo’s Helen goes full Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch mode with the masked Maids in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture:  Pamela Raith Photography

Riot Women actress Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope is still at the core, still an honourable figure of loyalty and  restraint, but the restless riot women of this piece, the Maids, keep breaking her poised rhythm, shattering her sang froid and melancholic air.

Nevertheless, especially in Bullmore’s honeyed tones and elegant white jumpsuit and coat, Penelope’s dry-witted putdowns are the embodiment of Atwood’s own irreverent humour, becoming a particular joy of her ice-queen performance. 

Her spat with Pena Iiyambo’s preening Helen, trollop of Troy, could launch a thousand quips, but one withering epithet suffices, although Iiyambo’s pulchritudinous Helen still has her Marilyn Monroe moment in screen goddess frills in the face of Penelope’s enmity.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, surrounded by her Maids with their macho masks to portray aristo Suitors. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Atwood had been haunted by the fate of the Maids, under Odysseus’s orders, prompting the vengeance of The Penelopiad, where the horror counters the jesting humour that mocks Charlie Russell’s Odysseus for having short legs, much as Eric Morecambe would tease Ernie Wise.

Atwood’s Penelope comes across as “methinks she doth protest too much” with her First World problems, complaints of being busy without being so and eating only asphodel flowers in Hades, while using the Maids’ wiles to stave off the unwanted attentions of the Suitors, whereas the Maids are up against it, putting themselves at risk on her behalf.

They do, however, find common ground when working together to weave and unpick Penelope’s tapestry to ward off those pesky Suitors. Ropes emerge as the motif that weave their way through Forster’s production and Sara Perks’s design, whether in the tapestry, the aerial circus skills of assorted Maids, pulling Penelope’s bed upwards or downwards, becoming a hissing snake or, spoiler alert, a hangman’s mode of execution.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, right, in discussion on her bed with her Maids. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Bullmore’s Penelope has a stillness and depth of character that contrasts with the Catherine Wheel fizz of the octet of multi-rolling Maids, especially when they play the leery, lecherous aristo Suitors, very much 2D stereotypes. Having women taking these roles is a further way of Atwood taking revenge on Homer’s misogyny, all the more forceful for the choreography of Frantic Assembly’s Michelle Edwards.

These graphic caricatures climax in the form of Russell’s Odysseus, mocked by Atwood not only for short legs, but in no longer being a mighty physical specimen, full stop, but a mendacious trickster with dubious moral values.

The Maids (Iiyambo, Russell, Nell Baker, Danielle Bird, Olivia Burton-Laws, Faye Campbell, Kat Johns-Burke and Syakira Moeladi) achieve both individuality and collective vigour the more they come to the fore, while Bird stands out as Eurycleia, the Odysseus loyalist who besmirches the Maids and cuts Penelope out of nursing her son Telemachus.

The Maids displaying rope and aerial skills in The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

What are the plus points beyond Bullmore’s elegance with Atwood’s eloquence and the Maids’ zest? Perks’s design, described as chic by Bullmore in her interview, is startling, bright, white, modernist and minimalist, but timeless too, countered by Alexandra Stafford’s palette of colours in her lighting, most notably red to evoke the night of the Trojan Horse.

Edwards’s movement direction maximises the physicality of women playing men; Kate Marlais’s compositions, varying from rousing declamations to quieter underscoring and laments, are at their best when haunting.

The negatives? Whereas the humour in Bullmore’s Penelope is assured, polished and consistent in tone, elsewhere it is more erratic, uneven, sometimes pushing too hard. Given the harrowing denouement to come, it is a difficult balancing act for Forster to achieve, especially when comedy has a tendency to undermine tragedy and outrage, rape and execution. Ultimately, this account of The Penelopiad plays more to the head, the senses of sight and sound, than to the heart.

The Penelopiad, York Theatre Royal, unravelling the strands until October 31. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.  

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope and Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

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