Pianist Katya Apekisheva: “Delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered”
THE best-kept secret in the world of chamber music is up and running once again. This 18th year’s theme celebrates the wonders of Creation and is titled accordingly. Fittingly, this includes six premieres over the festival fortnight, at all of which the composers concerned will be present.
The sheer statistics are worth a glance. Over the course of 13 concerts, there will be 58 pieces from 32 different composers covering 300 years to the present. Most featured are Thomas Adès and Schumann with six pieces each, followed by Beethoven and Mozart with four apiece.
There are 28 performers involved, all of them outstanding in their field, including many who return year after year and have become audience favourites.
For those new to the festival, it should be mentioned that although the programmes are published in advance, the names of the actual performers are only revealed just before each event – which adds an anticipatory frisson.
This year’s Young Artists Ensemble is the Davidoff Trio, who had the honour of opening proceedings, which encompassed Opus 1 pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Berg and Mendelssohn. The outstanding feature of the trio’s treatment of Beethoven’s Op 1, No 1 in E flat was the intelligent pianism of Yona Sophia Jutzi. She maintained an ideal balance with her partners along with smooth momentum.
The ‘Mannheim skyrocket’ of the opening theme had a crisp staccato in all three voices. By contrast, the unusual Rondo slow movement was notable for the pianist’s rubato and the cellist’s interjections.
Much was made of the contrast between the pianissimo opening of the Scherzo and the more robust moments later. There was sparkling wit in the finale, taken at particularly brisk pace, with the strings handling its Mozart-style chromaticism with panache.
Roman Kosyakov highlighted the vitality in Schumann’s Op 1, his Abegg Variations for piano, his first foray into musical acrostics, since the letters of the name (with B representing the note B flat) are the theme that he develops. Kosyakov was clearly aware that their style was largely derived from Chopin and he milked it cleverly, particularly in the highly decorated fourth variation.
Katya Apekisheva, a long-time favourite here, delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered. She was totally attuned to the idiom of extremely late Romantic harmony composed when Berg was still a pupil of Schoenberg. Her touch and attention to detail were impeccable, notably as she built towards its big climax.
Mendelssohn’s First Piano Quartet, Op 1 in C minor, brought a third pianist to the podium, Daniel Lebhardt, in company with violinist Charlotte Scott, viola player Elliott Perks and cellist and festival director Jamie Walton. It proved a superb combination. Its opus number belies the work’s extraordinary maturity, which was apparent in the relentlessly detailed piano role in the first movement. Lebhardt handled it impeccably.
There was a truly Romantic soulfulness in the Adagio, largely coloured by the lower two strings. The excitement in the scherzo gave it a sense of acceleration and a power cut during the trio was weathered faultlessly. Battery lights were brought on before the finale which, despite its moderato marking, was taken at a fair clip, growing in intensity into a thrilling coda.
Review by Martin Dreyer
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival continues until August 22. For the full programme, visit: northyorkmoorsfestival.com.
SmART Gallery charity art sale organiser Jo Dalgleish
AS many as 180 artists will be taking part in the fundraising SmART Gallery art sale on Sunday, August 30 from 11am to 2.30pm in South Bank, York.
Pictures at this outdoor art gallery will be displayed on the York Racecourse fence that runs from Campleshon Road along Racecourse Road.
“It’s a totally inclusive art gallery, created by the community, for the community, all to raise money for two great charitable causes: our voluntary work in Sierra Leone and the Christmas Crisis appeal,” says SmART organiser Jo Dalgleish.
“The idea is that we produce homemade canvases, sell them blank for £10, then ask the artist to donate them back to SmART for the gallery. On the opening day we’ll have live music, stalls, a cafe and a grand sealed bid auction of all the paintings.
“All money raised on the day goes to charity. All the paintings that are not sold will remain on the fence for the year as an outdoor art gallery for the community to enjoy.”
Among the artists contributing artworks will be Yohanna, a ten-year-old refugee from Ethiopia; Tadcaster artist Beth Elsdon; Di Wood, Jo’s friend from her York schooldays, who now lives Inverness, from where she will post her canvas to Jo, and part-time artist Sally Ellen Barlow, who has exhibited for six years and has had a piece licensed and sold globally by IKEA.
Jo’s two-year-old grandson, Oskar Carlyle, has created his first canvas entitled Wisteria, after watching his Great Grandad’s creeper being pruned while on holiday in France. By way of contrast, probably the oldest participant is Tessa Bailey, who has just retired as an artist at the age of 80.
The Huntington Art Group of professional and amateur artists, Caroline, Julia, Kevin, Jackie, Maureen, Linda and Steve, will be exhibiting for the second year.
“On show too will be works by Leah, Aggie, Rose and Maddie, four girls at college wanting to be paramedics or midwives, who all want to join our group going to do voluntary work in Sierra Leone next Easter,” says Jo.
Artworks on show at the SmART Gallery charity art sale in 2025
“Part-time artist Nick Clapham got involved because his sister has been going to Sierra Leone for years as she helped set up the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum! Nick gets many of his friends and families involved and drives over to York to deliver everybody’s canvases.”
Jo continues: “A number of young people and staff from Lord Gowthorpe’s Independent School for young people with autism, where I work, will be exhibiting too.
“Angela Atkin had never painted canvases before the beginning of the SmART Gallery, but, living on Knavesmire Crescent, she wanted to support the event during Covid, so she learnt how to paint and now exhibits every year, along with getting all her family involved.”
Contributing too will be Bob Anderton, a well respected and long-time York artist, who, among other credits, was instrumental in the restoration of the Holgate Windmill, in Windmill Rise, York.
Look out for a work by Tim Blake, Jo’s brother, who was born in York but now lives in London and works as an art director and production designer, latterly on the films Shelter and Hamnet.
Pictures will be displayed in full on August 30. “We’re hoping to sell as many as possible but at least half are taken down and taken by the buyers; the rest of them stay up on the fence till next year!” says Jo.
“Every year we have one stolen – very annoying – despite the fact there are clear signs saying they’re still for sale and the money is all for charity! We usually continue to sell those left out in dribs and drabs, all year, to be honest.
“This year we sold two after they’d been up for around ten months! They did look a little worse for wear! But, depending on what medium has been used, they can look as good as new after a year.
“Once taken down, a year later, they progress to the Alley Art Gallery on the walls of the alley between Knavesmire Crescent and Curzon Terrace! This has a sign at the top explaining.”
Doubles troubles: Husband-and-wife strife for Helen Clarke’s Margo and Jamie McKeller’s ageing club champ, Lionel, in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Magpies’ folk festival, Sue Slack’s landscape paintings and The Basement’s new comedy club should outshine this evening’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until Saturday, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday show
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax on the Scarborough coast
Coastal gig of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, Friday, gates 6pm
FLAMBOYANT, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill on Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags (a younger Margaret Thatcher) flicking through the headlines in Handbagged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29
MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.
Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The Magpies: Hosting their annual folk festival at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest
Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, Friday and Saturday. SOLD OUT
RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).
Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.
York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway
Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, Saturday & Sunday, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.
Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on Saturday
Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, Saturday, 2pm to 10.30pm
ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience.
As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.
Nice touch: Chloe Petts feeling lippy about playing Basement Comedy Club’s debut gig
Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch gig, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 6pm
CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.
Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale
Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, until August 31
NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.
Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.
Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent
American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.
Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
On the stretch: Jamie McKeller’s Lionel and Stuart Lindsay’s Charles limbering up for a doubles match in Summer Sonnets’ What The Deuce? at Holy Trinity Churchyard. Picture: John Saunders
ROSY Rowley and Stuart Green, partners off court, are the new doubles partnership for York Shakespeare Project’s tennis-themed 2026 Summer Sonnets.
Familiar figures on the York stage, they have switched to directing and writing YSP’s regular summer enterprise, wherein ten of the Bard’s sonnets are performed within a framework that changes each year.
Courtly love takes on a new meaning in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, set in the summertime, when the weather is fine at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club as four doubles teams compete for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament.
Ace partnership: What The Deuce? director Rosy Rowley and script writer Stuart Greenputting top spin on York Shakespeare Project’sSummer Sonnets with novel tennis theme
Sporting endeavour clashes with unsporting behaviour when partnerships and rivalries on court undermine partnerships off court, taking rivalries to break point in a surfeit of subterfuge and sabotage. “Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?” ask Green and Rowley, who duly reach for a volley of tennis puns, put away with the flourish of a Federer.
Free drink in hand – alas not Robinsons Lemon Barley Water, but then again Robinsons’ partnership with Wimbledon ended after 86 years in 2022 – the audience settled into seating repositioned by 90 degrees in the Holy Trinity Churchyard.
The cast now performs with the sound of the Chinese restaurant kitchen fans on Goodramgate now behind or to the side of them: an excellent decision that ensures vocal clarity. In addition, Rowley has her actors delivering from closer to the audience, again ensuring no line is lost.
Alan Sharp’s groundsman (in a change of rock band T-shirt from the one referenced in this review) receiving the first of multiple instructions from the tennis club chair, Christine Bramwell’s Elizabeth, in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
York tour guide Alan Sharp is no stranger to speaking on the move, above street noise, and here he does so as the phlegmatic, weather-beaten, worldly-wise groundsman Graham, whose every line is either delivered in iambic pentameter in Stuart Green’s script or is one of the Bard’s smattering of tennis references (or real tennis as it would have been at that time), from Henry V to Hamlet.
In his System Of A Down Mine Is Bigger Than Yours T-shirt and shorts, Sharp’s Graham will open and close the show and make regular interjections to carry out handyman tasks, reappearing with a plunger, rubber gloves, replacement barley water bottle and finally an old-school groundsman’s line marker (with the obligatory squeak). It is a standard-fit line marker, by the way, rather than bigger than yours.
The churchyard grass is not converted into a tennis court (games are conducted as ‘noises off’), but serves as the club grounds where all the shenanigans take place.
Drinks break: Oscar Langford’s Harry, left, and James Robert Ball’s Tony sip the barley water in a joke that will run and run in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? as Stuart Lindsay’s Charles looks on. Picture: John Saunders
Each time the drama heightens, invariably in a heated discussion, rather than bursting into song in opera or musical theatre, a protagonist moves seamlessly into sonnet mode, and come the 50-minute mark, all ten will have unburdened themselves in Shakespeare’s silver tongue.
We meet Christine Bramwell’s ever-enthusiastic club chair Elizabeth; her doubles partner, Helen Clarke’s Margo, wife to Jamie McKeller’s ageing club champ, whose doubles partner, Stuart Lindsay’s Charles, is wont to hiding behind trees, desperate to win Margo rather more than his matches.
Of the young things, Oscar Langford’s Harry is a loyal partner to James Robert Ball’s Tony, in more ways than tennis as it becomes increasingly apparent, but Lionel and Margo’s spoilt-brat, posh and pushy daughter Chessie (Effie Warboys, whose birthday falls tomorrow) wants Harry to hurry up in his affections for her. “I’m practically club royalty,” she scoffs, making a racket at every toss and turn.
Squash on the tennis court: Effie Warboys’ insufferably spoilt Chessie, front left, pushing around her doubles partner, Alexa Williams’s Belle. In the background are Oscar Langford’s Harry, left, and James Robert Ball’s Tony. Effie will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow. Picture: John Saunders
Her long-suffering best friend Belle (Alexa Williams) has the hots for Harry too. Meanwhile, club newcomer Vic (Sarah McKeagney), in jeans and Gorillaz T-shirt, is on the lookout for a partner, as we watch everything play out game, set and match, fair game, re-set and mis-match, with delightful mischief in Green’s plot and Rowley’s direction alike.
“Only in tennis does ‘love’ mean you are losing,” laments Lindsay’s Charles in Green’s best line, although Charles’s “I had Brazilian last night,” prompting a misunderstanding Lionel to enquire “Chafing?” is a peach too. Easy mis-steak to make!
All the familiar Shakespeare comedy tropes are present and freshly spun from mistaken identity to a potion in the barley water, cross-dressing to mistaken identity; revenge to lust and unrequited love. You will be rushing home to check whether Mexican Donkey Laxative actually exists.
Sarah McKeagney: One of eight York Shakespeare Project debutants in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, playing tennis club newcomer Vic at Holy Trinity Churchyard. Picture: John Saunders
What The Deuce is YSP’s ninth season of summertime sonnets and third at Holy Trinity, where Rowley and Green have certainly supplied new balls, please, with their rallying call enticing eight of the cast to make both their Sonnets and YSP debut.
Whether Sonnet Walks or Sit-Down Sonnets, Sonnets at the Bar [Convent], Sonnets in Bloom in 2025 or tennis fun and games in 2026, this event remains one of the joys of the York outdoor theatre year for performers, audience and venues alike. You cannot be serious? Very much so.
York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, play resumes tomorrow until Saturday, 6pm and 7.30pm plus 4.30pm Saturday show. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Doubles troubles ahead: Helen Clarke’s Margo and her husband, Jamie McKeller’s Lionel, the ageing club champ in Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
Donna Maria Taylor in her South Bank Studios studio
GEORGIAN celebrations, a brace of art fairs, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court and The Magpies’ folk festival should outshine Wednesday’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
Artists in situ: South Bank Studios’ Summer Artists Open Doors, Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road, York, today, 10am to 4pm
MEET the South Bank artists and makers who work in a broad range of disciplines, from textile art, painting, drawing and photography, to mixed media, letterpress and linocut printmaking.
Visit their studios to see their creative processes in a day of art to buy, art demonstrations and activities, including the loft studios, not usually on view to the public. The cafe will be open for refreshments. Entry is free; all welcome.
Masquerade Ball at the 2026 York Georgian Festival tonight
York festival of the week: York Georgian Festival, until August 10
HIGHLIGHTING the sights and sounds of 18th century life, York Mansion House and beyond plays host to the fourth York Georgian Festival in a festival programme that ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the York Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms tonight. Talk, tours, performances and workshops feature too. For full listings and booking details, go to: yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.
Carlton Main Colliery Band: Brass At The Proms at Selby Abbey
Rousing concert of the week: Brass At The Proms, Carlton Main Colliery Band, Selby Abbey, tonight, 7pm
JOIN Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band on its return to the former coalfield town of Selby for a Last Night of the Proms brass concert featuring a vibrant mix of rousing favourites. Seating in the Main Nave will be allocated, with seat and row numbers; Rear Nave seating will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Box office: selbytownhall.co.uk.
Futureproof’s logo for a night of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy
Art and science bonding exercise of the week: Futureproof presents Opposites Attract Scratch Night, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 7.30pm
EIGHT acts perform a mixture of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy. Expect biochemistry, molecular biology, sewing, chalk stream-inspired dance and more tonight.
The theme, Opposites Attract, derives from the idea that many things will give people joy, purpose, belonging and entertainment — such as maths and science — that seem to be mutually exclusive to theatre. Futureproof invites creatives to consider these ostensible contrasts, alongside the concept that theatre is meant to reflect our world and/or be a tool to create new ones. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Comedy event of the week: Kevin Bridges: Warm Up, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow, 8pm
CLYDEBANK comedian Kevin Bridges performs two warm-up shows in York ahead of his UK stand-up tour Here If You Need Me. Tonight’s gig has sold out but tickets are still available for tomorrow, as well as for his Leeds First Direct Bank Arena tour show on November 19. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, axs.com/uk/events/1240964/kevin-bridges-tickets?skin=leeds.
On the stretch: Jamie McKeller’s Lionel, left, and Stuart Lindsay’s Charles limbering up for the doubles in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until August 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster fort York River Art Market 2026. Illustration by Elliot Harrison (@York360)
Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, today and tomorrow, then August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.
York River Art Market 2026 organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway
Tribute gig of the week: SWT presents Pulp’d vs Blur 2, Milton Rooms, Malton, today, 8pm
PULP’D and Blur2 team up for a double-header of Britpop royalty tonight. Born and raised in Sheffield, passionate Pulp fans Pulp’d came together to re-create the hits, passion and Jarvis Cocker moves.
Blur2 bring the very best of Blur to every show: the energy, the fun, the sound, the looks and the musicianship of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and co. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Scissor Sisters: Heading to the Scarborough coast tonight
Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Scissor Sisters, today; Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, August 14, gates 6pm
AFTER their 2025 UK arena reunion tour and that summer’s Saturday night Glastonbury set, Scissor Sisters bring their trademark blend of glam, grit and glorious to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend. Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis and co will be rolling out such favourites as Take Your Mama, Laura, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin, Let’s Have A Kiki, Only The Horses and Filthy/Gorgeous.
Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax in Scarborough
Flamboyant, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill next Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival at Sutton Park
Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, near York, August 14 and 15
RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents next Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).
Next Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.
Composer Thomas Adès: Presenting new composition at Creation-themed North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Marco Borggreve
In Focus: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, August 8 to 22
THE North York Moors Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 18th consecutive year with the premieres of six works by contemporary British composers.
Aptly named Creation, the 2026 festival will run from August 8 to 22, featuring new compositions by Thomas Adès, Huw Watkins (both of whom will perform at the festival), Charlotte Bray, Tom Coult, Isabella Gellis and Helen Grime.
“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation, woven through the festival theme, by six of our country’s very finest composers,” says festival director and cellist Jamie Walton.
Charlotte Bray: Premiering That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: David Beecroft
“As part of this narrative, the Sabbath (Sunday) remains a day of rest – and each concert includes works that were themselves groundbreaking or innovative in their time, reflecting music’s timeless power to create, to renew, and to tell a universal story through sound.”
Jamie continues: “Thomas Adès is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest living composers, so it’s a real coup to have him both write for us and come to premiere the piece, Flower Variations [in the Landspeak concert on August 14 at 7pm at Welburn Manor].
“We’re really proud of the fact that, alongside these six outstanding composers, we have such a stellar line-up of international artists.
Helen Grime: Premiering Time Be Brief. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega
“We’re also continuing to champion visual artists from the moors in the brochure, pairing their work with concert titles. We’ve done this for the past two years and it’s a wonderful way to cross-pollinate and collaborate with more artists.”
Charlotte Bray’s piece for horn and string quartet, That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone, will be accompanied by a collaborative artwork by Caroline Burraway, exhibited on stage at St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge during The Dividing Line performance on August 13 at 2pm.
Isabella Gellis’s Creation will be premiered in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby, at 2pm; Helen Grime’s Time Be Brief, at Metamorphoses concert, Welburn Abbey, August 15, 7pm; Huw Watkins’s Oboe Quartet, The Architect’s Hand concert, St Mary’s, Lastingham, August 18, 2pm, and Tom Coult’s Two Nocturnes and A Maze, in its UK premiere, Nightfall concert, Welburn Abbey, August 20, 7pm.
Huw Watkins: Premiering his Oboe Quartet in festival appearance. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega
The festival will take place in four historic moorland churches – St Hilda’s, Danby, St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge, St Michael’s, Coxwold, and St Mary’s, Lastingham – along with the majority of concerts being staged in the grounds of Welburn Manor, near Kirkbymoorside, where the acoustically-treated venue has been enlarged this year to reflect the festival’s increasing popularity.
The festival was named a Best of British Fund Winner 2026 by Airbnb, representing Yorkshire as part of the North York Moors Beacon for the Arts.
Jamie says: “Our festival celebrates the art of collaboration in an awe-inspiring setting, taking our audience on a musical quest each year through interwoven themes within a central storyline.
Isabella Gellis: Premiering Creation in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby. Picture: Ella Pavlides
“Over 18 years, we have built a reputation for breaking down barriers to make exceptional music accessible to all, fostering community and cultural connection through friendship and trust. Uncompromising even amid pandemic challenges, our festival was one of the few to present full, live performances in 2020 and 2021.
“August, when the heather is in full bloom, brings the North York Moors to life. Artists are immersed in the National Park, rehearsing and living in a deeply holistic environment, while audiences are welcome to enjoy picnics on the grounds of Welburn Manor, attend concerts, and explore the region’s historic churches and priories.”
The event continues to attract international artists, 28 this year, many of them committing to the entire fortnight by taking up residencies in a festival of 13 concerts featuring 58 chamber works from 32 composers spanning 300 years to the present day.
Tom Coult: Premiering Two Nocturnes and A Maze on August 20. Picture: Matthew Johnson
This year, these include Alena Baeva, Benjamin Baker, Oliver Cave, Oliver Heath, Alessandro Ruisi and Charlotte Scott (violin); Sascha Bota, Meghan Cassidy, Emma Wernig and Simone van der Giessen (viola); Rebecca Gilliver, Tim Posner and Jamie Walton (cello) and Will Duerden (double bass).
Taking part too are: Thomas Adès, Katya Apekisheva, Joseph Havlat, Roman Kosyakov, Daniel Lebhardt and Huw Watkins (piano); Ben Goldscheider (French horn); Nicholas Daniel (oboe); Matthew Hunt (clarinet); Jonathan Davies (bassoon) and James Gilchrist (tenor). Completing the line-up will be the festival’s award-winning Young Artists ensemble, The Davidoff Trio.
“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation,” says North York Moors Chamber Music Festival director Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson
The poster for York River Art Market 2026. Illustration: Elliot Harrison (@York360)
CAROLINE Turner is delighted by how well her takeover of York River Art Market is going.
The first of three weekends of 30 artists and designers per day setting up stalls by the Ouse riverside on Dame Judi Dench Walk was greeted by sunshine and a steady footfall last Saturday and Sunday.
Professional potter and Clay Space pottery teacher Caroline took over York’s answer to Paris’s Left Bank when founder, organiser, artist and tutor Charlotte Dawson stepped down after a decade to focus on her teaching role as award leader for York College’s BA (Hons) 3D creative practice course.
“It was really busy, and I was so relieved because it’s big boots to fill after Charlotte, when you feel a lot of responsibility to all the artists,” says Caroline. “First of all, they all turned up, the sun came out, and they were making sales at one minute past ten, so that was great.
“City Cruises York put us on their tour list of things to do, saying where we were, and I kept seeing swathes of people coming straight towards as they disembarked on what were really busy days for the cruises.”
One innovation by Caroline for 2026 sees stalls being set up on both sides of the pathway for the first time. “I was initially nervous about doing it, as Charlotte didn’t, but because there were so many applicants, I thought, ‘let’s open it up’,” she says. “We even had one artist hanging items on the mesh around a tree, and there are three more places where that could happen.
“I’m pleased I took the plunge with that decision and I’ll definitely be doing the same again next year.”
Some artists and makers have booked stalls for all six days (August 1 & 2, August 8 & 9 and August 15 &16). “Quite a few do that, but we also have plenty of newbies, maybe as many as 50 per cent of the artists, who haven’t done it before, to keep up the variety each day, as I want it to be varied for regular visitors and it’s important to give new artists a chance to take part, ” says Caroline.
“We had some newcomers who were nervous about how to set up their stall, but what’s lovely is that experienced stall holders showed them what to do. Everyone was helping each other out.”
At the invitation of SPARK: York, she held a launch event there last Thursday featuring artworks by participating artists. “It was very last minute, but it was great opportunity to publicise the event,” says a grateful Caroline, who gained a surge of confidence and momentum for the markets ahead.
“I’d taken on a big challenge, thinking ‘OK, I can do this’, but the launch event meant I was now seeing real people, and I felt really lifted after spending all those hours at home preparing for it. It made all that admin worthwhile,” says Caroline, who makes pottery under the name Happy Pot Mama, by the way.
Now, the weather is set fair for weekend two of York River Art Market 2026, where visitors can buy directly from the makers of ceramics, jewellery, paintings, prints, photographs, clothing, candles, soaps, cards and more besides.
York River Art Market continues on August 8 & 9 , then August 15 & 16, on Dame Judi Dench Walk, by Lendal Bridge, York, 10am to 5.30pm. Admission is free.
LAIL Arad first sang a Joni Mitchell song in public at her London school concert at the age of 11. Joni’s biggest British hit, Big Yellow Taxi, was her choice, and it would be her first pick at The Citadel too.
Singer-songwriter Lail first presented The Songs of Joni Mitchell to mark her groundbreaking Canadian counterpart’s 80th birthday, since when she and Manchester-based American singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop have organised two tours and now a summer of special shows and festival appearances.
They have been joined by the varied likes of This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables, cult singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Irish singer and composer Lisa Hannigan, David Bowie band member (1995 to 2004) Gail Ann Dorsey, Scottish folk and dream-pop singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, BRIT Award winner Emile Sande and American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon.
The latest addition is former Goat Goal band member and folk singer Naima Bock, whose York appearance was only her second with Lail and Jesca, having met them for the first time to rehearse only the day before her debut.
Rather more settled in the ranks is regular pianist Richard Sears, but he was not the only musician to be seated at last Friday’s concert, played to a full house of Mitchell devotees of differing ages, young and much older, split evenly between women and men.
For each solo number, followed by a song with Richard accompanying her on the keys, Naima brought on a chair, then played her guitar cross-legged in bright socks and afterwards returned the chair to from whence it had come, out of view beyond the door to the side.
“I like sitting down,” she later explained. Certainly it added to her looking and sounding very much at home in this nascent association with “Songs Of”, deeper of voice than Lail and Jesca, when performing Tin Angel and A Case of You in Set One and early Mitchell composition Urge For Going and Shades Of Scarlett Conquering, her best number, in Set Two.
Jesca Hoop: Lail Arad’s collaborator and co-organiser for The Songs of Joni Mitchell shows. The York concert was promoted by Joe Coates and The Crescent
The bright white-walled Citadel was looking spick and span after the £300,000 restoration of its meeting spaces and café, all the more so in the early evening daylight. Built as a place of worship and mission centre for the Salvation Army, and still home to the York City Church, the building’s air or reverence lent itself to the tone of the performance.
Always closer to reverent, never irreverent, but with interpretation rather than impersonation at its root, the approach was typified by Lail slowing down Big Yellow Taxi to a stately glide, eschewing Joni’s trademark laugh at the climax too.
Lail incidentally was wearing a shirt from Saskatchewan, in honour of Joni’s formative years there (playing her first paid gig at the Louis Riel Coffee House in Saskatoon). “I bought it on Vinted,” our host admitted, before performing For Free (which presumably the shirt wasn’t).
Introduced by Lail, Jesca had opened Set One with Morning Morgantown, whose melody had ‘stuck in her head for 38 years’ and was newly released to electric guitar accompaniment. Joined by Richard, Jesca’s take on Lessons In Survival, from her favourite Joni record, 1972’s For The Roses, located that survival instinct.
Richard had one solo number, Little Green, from 1971’s Blue, and by now the concert lighting was taking greater effect, whether bathing the walls in green, blue, pink, red or taxi- yellow.
Your reviewer most enjoyed the climax to each half when Lail, Jesca and Naima (now standing) united in harmony, but switching positions, with Richard to their side, first for Night In The City. “How does the first line go?” said a stage-whispering Jesca, promptly answering her own question by breaking into Rainy Night House.
Lail told a story of mistakenly thinking Joni was singing “’A little money riding on the make-beliefs” on Raised On Robbery, until she married a Canadian who put her straight about the “Maple Leafs”, as Set One closed on a surge of Richard’s boogie-woogie piano.
Naima Bock: Making only her second Songs of Joni Mitchell concert appearance in York. Picture: El Hardwick, for Sub Pop Records
The format remained the same in Set Two, opening with Lail in a cappella mode. “This song is from 1969 but it could have been written today,” she said, introducing the anti-war sentiments of The Fiddle And The Drum, her solo highlight.
Jesca picked Night Ride Home and California, either side of Naima’s Set Two contributions. “I know about this next song,” she said, in a nod to her roots in Santa Rosa, in rural northern California, and her years in Los Angeles. “I’m just learning to strum, it’s true,” she chided herself after “fluffing” (in her words) a guitar line. “Thank you, that’s very generous,” came her response to the audience clapping as appreciatively as ever.
Jesca went on to highlight how Joni had been the first female singer-songwriter to divulge details of family, friends and loved ones in her lyrics. “Now we have permission to spill out our experiences, when previously it wasn’t normal.” Step forward Charlie XCX, Self Esteem, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish et al.
Jesca’s rendition of Amelia ensued and then it was time for the grand finale, all four together again for Joni’s Woodstock Festival anthem, Woodstock, the song she did not perform at the August 1969 gathering on account of her manager, David Geffen, fearing the heavy traffic would prevent her arrival at the ABC Television Center in New York to perform it on The Dick Cavett Show. Ironically, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane all turned up straight from the festival to join her.
That song “defined not only the festival but the entire generation”, enthused Lail as she took lead vocals, the stage by now resplendent in golden light. She fronted Carey too, where Naima and Jesca’s harmonising was at its most sublime.
Aptly for Both Sides Now, both sides, audience and performers alike, were invited to sing together. All three protagonists took a lead vocal, one each for “I really don’t know clouds at all/love at all/life at all”.
Joni really does know life at all, of course, as Lail, Jesca and Naima’s performances of The Songs of Joni Mitchell testified. Definitely not a “tribute show”, instead they paid her the highest compliment.
Stanley Chow’s poster illustration for The Songs of Joni Mitchell tour with Naima Bock, including The Citadel, York, on July 31
Nice touch: Chloe Petts feeling lippy at the prospect of headlining first Basement Comedy Club bill at City Screen Picturehouse on August 16
CITY Screen Picturehouse, York, has redecorated The Basement for the first time in 15 years for concerts, comedy and more.
The refurbishment will be marked by the launch of a new comedy night. “Although we’ll still be working with Damion Larkin for Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club nights on the first Saturday of the month, we’ve now set up our own Basement Comedy Club,” says City Screen general manager Cath Sharp.
“It’ll be held on the third Sunday of the month, so as not to compete with Laugh Out Loud. It’s been many years since we had our own club – remember The Other Side?”
The first bill, on August 16, at what will be the regular early evening kick-off of 6pm, will feature Chloe Petts, Faizan Shah and Lovdev Barpaga, introduced by MC Sara Barron.
Sara Barron: Compere for August 16 bill at The Basement
Petts has been touring their 2025 Edinburgh Fringe show Big Naturals, addressing lad culture and identity politics. Manchester comic Shah sheds light on his experiences growing up in an immigrant household, along with the mental health challenges this journey often entails.
Barpaga is a comedian, breakfast show presenter on FreeRadio in Birmingham and podcaster, hosting “Crazy Little Thing Called Lovdev”. On the comedy circuit for ten years now, he specialises in crafting old school-style one liners and puns.
Compere Barron made her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2018 and has toured such shows as For Worse (2018), Enemies Closer (2019), Hard Feelings (2022) and Anything For You (2024). She co-created the Succession recap podcast Firecrotch and Normcore and presents They Like to Watch, a weekly TV discussion podcast.
She is taking her work-in-progress show Slop to the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, where she will explore topics ranging from grannies and dogs to adult films and Jeffrey Dahmer.
Looking ahead, in the diary for September 20 are Daliso Chaponda, Hannah Platt, Dom Hatton-Woods and MC Raul Kholi, followed on October 18 by Lauren Pattison, Nicola Mantalios, Aaron Simmonds and MC Aaron Wood.
The redecorated Basement at City Screen Picturehouse
“It’s us and the Hackney Picturehouse, in East London, that will be running comedy clubs among the Picturehouse cinemas,” says Cath. “Hackney Picturehouse is doing a Saturday programme organised by Jon Barrenechea, and we’ve chosen to do Sundays with an early-doors policy with three acts and a compere from 6pm.”
As part of the Basement revamp, “we’ll be running a menu downstairs – the cinema auditorium menu – served on paper plates, and on cabaret nights, on crockery,” says Cath.
“The Basement capacity will be 100, seated in rows or standing, with a cabaret night capacity of 50, making it York’s most intimate venue.”
Veteran performer and producer Poppy Pout Presents will be putting on burlesque and cabaret nights, while the York Filmmakers club will continue to hold bi-monthly selection of shorts and BFI (British Film Institute) screenings.
The poster for Pigeon Paint Off, the live art competition at The Basement on September 12, in aid of Columba Sanctuary and Advocacy for Pigeons
RARE Collective artist Sharon McDonagh (alias spAm) and artist/DJ Sola will hold a DJ Night on a date yet to be confirmed. The Dead Toe Society’s Pigeon Paint Off day will take over The Basement on September 12 from 11am until late in a day filled with live music, talks and stalls, as well as the centrepiece of two rounds of the paint-off featuring pigeon-loving artists from all over the country.
Visitors will have the chance to “learn more about why pigeons need our support and how you can help advocate for their wellbeing”. The artworks will then go on display in a three-week exhibition.
The Basement upgrade, carried out by Picturehouse Cinemas to a design by architect Marta Tavares, has introduced a new lighting rig and sound panels, ox-blood red chairs and a French navy colour scheme on the walls, topped off by flamingo-pink on the stanchions.
Further features are a new screen for York Filmmakers and new microphone stands, while the floor has been re-painted and the adjoining green room for performers has new carpeting. Meanwhile, the old Basement chairs have found a new home at St Oswald’s Church, Fulford.
New red-and-black carpeting has been fitted at City Screen for the first time since 2000, with off-cuts being used in The Basement as flooring for drummers. The City Screen bar is to be re-fitted in October and new furniture will be provided for the first-floor terrace space.
Gill Riley’s exhibit from A Northern Landscape, on display in the Upstairs Gallery at City Screen Picturehouse
New mustard-yellow blinds have been installed on the first-floor corridor, where the latest exhibition, York Learning’s summer show, A Northern Landscape, is running in the Upstairs Gallery until September 4.
Course tutors challenged painting, drawing and watercolour learners aged 19 upwards to capture the essence of landscapes on plywood canvases, and now the work of more than 70 artists is on show.
This year also has welcomed the introduction of The Book Club programme at City Screen, launched on May 31, when Elizabeth Strout was in conversation with broadcaster Francine Stock, broadcast live from Picturehouse Central.
On August 4, Jaqueline Crooks marked the release of her new novel, Sky City, a spellbinding portrait of 1990s’ London, in conversation broadcast live from The Ritzy in Brixton.
Next up, Waterstones York presents Tidings: Poetry Quarterly featuring Kimberly Campanello at The Basement on September 22 from 7pm to 9pm. Contact event coordinator Nick Newman for more details at Manager.York@waterstones.com.
Director Rosy Rowley and writer Stuart Green, on the bench at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, rehearsing with Summer Sonnets cast members and producer Maurice Crichton (arms folded, at the back). Picture: John Saunders
DIRECTOR Rosy Rowley and writer Stuart Green are the new doubles partnership for York Shakespeare Project’s tennis-themed 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?
New balls, please, will be served on the grass of Holy Trinity Churchyard, in Goodramgate, York, from Friday to August 15, with a rest day on August 11.
Should you be wondering “Why tennis?”, the game features in no fewer than seven Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, Act II, Scene 1; Henry IV, Part 2, Act II, Scene 2; Henry VIII, Act I, Scene 3; Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene 2; Pericles, Act II, Scene 1; The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act V, Scene 2, and most notoriously in Henry V, Act I, Scene 2.
In that scene, the French Dauphin mocks King Henry by sending him a gift of tennis balls to besmirch his youthful reputation as a frivolous playboy. Henry responds by threatening to turn the balls into cannonballs to play a set as explosive as McEnroe against the French crown.
Ready to serve: Tennis fan William Shakespeare in York Shakespeare Project’s poster for Summers Sonnets: What The Deuce?
Now comes What The Deuce?, where summertime at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Cue further tennis puns aplenty as Rowley directs Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation, where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet.
Pulling on the traditional and not-so-traditional Wimbeldon tennis whites for York Shakespeare Project (YSP) will be Alan Sharp’s Graham; Christine Bramwell’s Elizabeth; Helen Clarke’s Margo; Jamie McKeller’s Lionel; Stuart Lindsay’s Charles; Oscar Langford’s Harry; James Robert Ball’s Tony; Alexa Williams’s Belle; Sarah McKeagney’s Vic and Effie Warboys’ Chessie.
“Stuart has been wanting to write and I’ve been wanting to direct,” says Rosy. “I’d directed a Direct Approach play for Settlement Players – Night Secrets – so I just wanted to get back into it, and I suppose YSP have taken a bit of a punt on us.”
James Robert Ball, left, and Oscar Langford in rehearsal for Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
It should be pointed out that Rosy and Stuart tread the boards regularly in York, first meeting when performing in the York Theatre Royal community play Sovereign in 2023. “We’ve done a few plays together, such as A Kingdom Jack’d in April, and theatre is the thing that brought together as a couple,” says Rosy.
“We’ve now got one of those bricks on the wall at Theatre@41, Monkgate, where we both volunteer, that says ‘Theatre together’.”
Stuart and Rosy settled on 80 per cent of the sonnets before Stuart set to work on the script that weaves ten sonnets into the tennis plotline. “We’ve had great fun putting the story together with classic Shakespeare tropes and then putting them in a tennis setting,” says Rosy.
“We’ve crammed a lot into our 50-minute play,” says Stuart. “We have cross-dressing; mistaken identity; poisoning, revenge; lust; unrequited love…
Director Rosy Rowley and writer Stuart Green in the Holy Trinity Churchyard, the setting for courtly love with a difference in their tennis-themed Summer Sonnets. Picture: Maurice Crichton
… “and of course lots of tennis,” says Rosy. “What’s been really important to us is not making the sonnet just something they recite but part of a conversation, which is the case in all but two of them that will be done as monologues.”
Stuart adds: “We wanted to incorporate the sonnets into conversations in the play, thinking how could a sonnet fit with a particular character? The aim is that the audience doesn’t notice they’ve gone into a sonnet because it makes the sonnets really accessible by putting them in a narrative, where suddenly they make more sense.”
Not all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets focus on romantic love. Death, political vexation, artistic rivalries, human flaws and the passage of time are significant themes too, alongside desire and love.
“We thought how could we interpret sonnets in ways that fit with our play, and the beautiful thing is that there are so many ways to interpret them, not just romantic love,” says. “For example, Christine Bramwell’s sonnet reflects her love for the tennis club and the game.
Belle of the ball:Alexa Williams playing the role of Belle in York Shakespeare Project’s tennis-punned Summer Sonnets: What’s The Deuce. Picture: John Saunders
“Right at the start of rehearsals, I had one-to-one table sessions with each actor to see how we could make their sonnet work with the character.”
Stuart adds: “I think it helps that both Rosy and I are actors because we know what each actor can bring to the part.”
Stuart and Rosy have been delighted by the response to this summer’s sonnet project. “We had 30 people applying to take part, which was a record number,” says Stuart. “Then 24-25 auditioned, and we cast ten, where only two of them – Stuart Lindsay and Effie Warboys – had done Summer Sonnets before.
“A lot of them are new to YSP. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it was just that they were the best to put themselves forward.”
Helen Clarke, left, Oscar Langford, Stuart Lindsay and Sarah McKeagney rehearsing with Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? script writer Stuart Green. Picture: John Saunders
One other new element will be the positioning of the actors in the Holy Trinity churchyard. “We’ve shifted it 90 degrees so that the Chinese restaurant, on Goodramgate, with its fan noise and smells, will now be behind the actors, rather than the audience,” says Rosy. Good decision.
Green by name, green keeper by profession, Stuart first wrote screenplays in his teens and 20s. “I wanted to get into films, but the chances were non-existent, so I became a green keeper, initially at Bushey Hall Golf Club in Watford, then went to college and ended up at Gleneagles for four years,” he says.
“Now I teach green-keeping: I’m a grass nerd! I used to be based at Askham Bryan, where I taught apprentices at the agricultural college. Now I work for Train Together, teaching green keepers and cricket, football and rugby groundsmen.
“There’ll be a groundman as one of the characters in our Summer Sonnets, Alan Sharp’s Graham. I couldn’t resist it! I’ve called on one of my old York Cricket Club contacts to lend us an old line marker – and one of my stipulations was that it had to be squeaky as they generally are!”
Helen Clarke, left, Oscar Langford and Sarah McKeagney rehearsing a scene from Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
Tennis gear will carry significance in Rosy and Stuart’s production. “What they’re wearing denotes their status at the club, whether it’s all white or not,” says Rosy. “There has to be a bit of a social statement in that.”
No tennis pun has been resisted. “We realised we didn’t have enough tennis innuendo at first, so I’ve had fun writing some absolute ‘tennis filth’,” says Rosy. “Now it’s unashamedly Carry On Tennis,” says Stuart.
“And of course we had to crow-bar ‘You cannot be serious’ in there too,” says Rosy.
Lara Stafford in her Premium Eclipse Viewer glasses in readiness for August 12’s solar eclipse during the 6pm performance of Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? Pairs are available for free for Sonnets audience members
Not to be eclipsed…
ON Wednesday, August 12, the UK will experience its deepest solar eclipse since 1999, with up to 96 per cent of the Sun covered by the Moon.
Across North Yorkshire, the partial eclipse will begin at 6.12pm, peak at 7.08pm and finish at 8.02pm. That day’s 6pm and 7.30pm performances of Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? will go ahead as planned, but do come prepared for the eclipse experience.
Quick question: Do sunglasses protect eyes in a solar eclipse? NO!The official advice is: Never look directly at the Sun.
Why? The Sun can burn the retinas in the eyes, leading to permanent damage or even blindness. This can occur even if your eyes are exposed to direct sunlight for only a few seconds.
Proper eye protection is the only safe option, not sunglasses. The only way to view the Sun safely – eclipsed or not – is to either project or filter the Sun’s rays.
Suggestion: Make your own box projector or acquire safe solar eclipse glasses. NASA also recommends welder’s glasses rated 14 or higher, to be found at welding supply stores.
Lara Stafford demonstrating the benefit of wearing Premium Eclipse Viewer glasses for August 12’s partial eclipse of the Sun
YORK actress, Physics teacher and Theatre of Science communicator Lara Stafford is teaming up with York Shakespeare Project for a special offer for Summer Sonnet audience members. “August 12’s 6pm show coincides with the solar eclipse: the best one to happen to the UK until 2090, with over 90 per cent of the Sun covered by the Moon,” she says.
“It’ll begin just after 6pm and peak an hour later, just after the performance. A £10 Summer Sonnets ticket has always come with a free drink, but to celebrate this cosmic coming together, we’re going to give out a free pair of eclipse glasses with every ticket sold for performances up to the 6pm show on August 12.”
Lara continues: “I buy them in for work anyway, so I’m just ordering a few more! It’s quite difficult to get eclipse glasses cheaply and guarantee they’re not fakes, and you can ‘only’ watch the eclipse with your eyes if you’re wearing eclipse glasses. So it’s an easy way for us to spread the eclipse excitement around York and spread awareness of the sonnets.”
Should you be wondering, a reference to an eclipse can be found in Sonnet No. 35, one that does not feature in Rosy and Stuart Green’s choices for Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? So here is the quote:
“No more be grieved at that which thou hast done. Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.”
UPDATE: 11/08/2026
THOSE four lines from Sonnet No. 35 WILL now feature in Wednesday’s 6pm and 7.30pm performances of Summer Sonnets, adding to Alan Sharp’s Shakespeare quotes in his guise as groundman Graham. Every line uttered by the phlegmatic Graham in Stuart Green’s script is either in the rhythm of iambic pentameter or one of the Bard’s references to tennis.
Still shielding their eyes! The Brontë Sisters in York Settlement Community Players’ poster for Underdog: The Other Brontë at Theatre@41, Monkgate
ECLIPSE glasses removed, Lara Stafford will be shining next on the York stage as Charlotte Brontë in Claire Morley’s production of Sarah Gordon’s 2024 play Underdog: The Other Brontë for York Settlement Community Players at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 13 to 17.
The plot? Charlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one…Anne.
Underdog presents an “irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters like you’ve never seen them before”. This is not a story of well-behaved women but of the power of words, sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition. Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee are on sale at https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
No common ground: Pandora Clifford’s Mags and Liz Garland’s Liz in Handbagged at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
THIRTY six years since her resignation and 13 since she died at the Ritz Hotel, Margaret Thatcher still drew boos and derision from the SJT audience – in a town that only turned red from decades of Tory MPs in 2024.
There was a smattering of cheers too, drawing more boos from the derisive naysayers for a Westminster titan that remains as divisive as ever in an age of increasingly short-lived minnows in Downing Street.
Moira Buffini’s 2013 play – so full of wit, brio and intelligence – is neither biased nor one-sided in its depiction of Mrs T, instead letting her speak, vehemently, vigorously, and even vituperatively, for herself over her 11 years as the UK’s first female Prime Minister. She stands and – seemingly in many eyes and ears on press night – falls by her words.
Words that were fired off in the direction of the other dominant female presence of the British 20th century, Queen Elizabeth II, in their weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace and beyond.
Director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder in the rehearsal room with Handbagged cast member Simon Darwen. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Revived by the Stephen Joseph Theatre under the directorship of Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder (whose father, Andrew Pinder, received a CBE for his services to Tony Blair’s Labour government), Handbagged is built on the classic political structure of conflict where people talk but don’t engage in conversation.
Born within six months of each other but poles and circumstances apart, albeit that both had to face a patriarchal world, the PM and HM The Queen serve as a double act, or, to be precise, a double double act, on account of Buffini doubling the combat between a younger Mags (Pandora Clifford) and Liz (Liz Garland), from the weekly audiences, and an older T (Alexandra Mathie, wig too dark) and Q (Meriel Scholfield).
Observing their younger selves, they each say equally quizzically, “I never said that”, as if they have become unreliable witnesses to their earlier sentiments and assertions.
That said, everything Buffini writes of their awkward conflabs behind closed doors can only be conjecture to complement words from public utterances and Mrs Thatcher’s Downing Street Years memoirs.
Alexandra Mathie’s T: Doubling down on her political philosophies in old age in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags flicking through the Sunday paper headlines in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Yet she writes with such cultural savvy, comedic conviction, assiduous detail, such a grasp of her satirical subject, that she brings to mind the mischief-making of political heavyweights The Thick Of It , House Of Cards or Yes, Prime Minister. It feels all the more truthful for the assured voice of Buffini.
A third double act is at play: our convivial hosts Actor One (Deven Modha) and Actor 2 (Simon Darwen), who spar over who should play Labour Leader Neil “Kinnockio” Kinnock, while allocating themselves such support acts as Denis Thatcher, Prince Philip (only one irascible line), Gerry Adams, Geoffrey Howe, Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Heseltine (all Darwen), and Kenneth Kaunda, Nancy Reagan, Michael Shea, Kenneth Clarke, a Palace footman and protestor (all Modha, while refusing to play Enoch Powell).
Serving as Greek chorus too, both challenge Mrs Thatcher’s tendency to skip over her most controversial policies, only to be forced to confront them anew. Throughout their mimicry of accent and mannerism is spot on.
Multi-rolling Actor I (Deven Modha), left, and Actor 2 (Simon Darwen) playing First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Deven Modha’s No Poll Tax protestor in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
On the surface, you could be inclined to decide that everyone loves the Queen (especially in Garland and Scholfield’s superb caricatures), whereas Maggie, whether younger or older, remains the humourless villainess of the piece in Clifford and Mathie’s characterisation. Buffini’s writing is far too bright for that, however, all while making Mrs T funny on occasion through jokes at her expense when breaking through that humour dead zone.
Buffin seeks the humanity in both women. Margaret Thatcher is given every chance to state, re-state and double down on political philosophies, and we see her change, as her voice does, ironically adopting “we” when she becomes more “I” and isolated as she loses her allies. Always and forever, her favourite word is No. No. No, until no more.
The Queen’s Christmas Day addresses are the cornerstone of her portrayal: one of compassion, a call for kindness, and in essence Socialist principles from the richest woman in the land. Through the years, PM and HM talk but never bond, for all that time and tea consumption together, never finding common ground.
Out of step? Liz Garland’s Liz dancing with Simon Darwen’s Denis Thatcher and Pandora Clifford’s Mags doing likewise with Deven Modha’s Kenneth Kaunda in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
All six performances are top notch, matched by Pinder’s astute direction, using the Round as a battlefield, where she keeps moving the combatants to emphasise the shifting tectonic plates of the relationship.
Katie Scott’s design is circular too, giving the sense of a merry-go-round thanks in part to Aiden Crawford’s movement direction. A museum shelf of named props and costumes on the stage rim works wonderfully well too for speed of character changes before your very eyes.
As the years tick by since the passing of both protagonists, Handbagged becomes an ever better play, one where Buffini’s skill in weaving her own mischievous political commentary into her modern-day comedy of manners is delivered with witheringly witty aplomb. Bag a ticket pronto.
Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Pandora Clifford’s Mags, Liz Garland’s Liz, Meriel Scholfield’s Q and Alexandra Mathie’s T expressing differing opinions in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Everything stops for tea: Meriel Scholfied’s Q raises a cup and humorous quips aplenty in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
