Delta Saxophone Quarter: Album launch at York Late Music concert tomorrow
DELTA Saxophone Quartet conclude York Late Music’s 2026 season tomorrow with a blockbuster performance at the Unitarian Chapel, St saviourgate, York.
This 7.30pm concert bridges the gap between contemporary classical innovation and art-rock royalty, tracing a line through the subcultures and energy of two defining pillars of British rock music: David Bowie and The Stranglers.
To mark the tenth anniversary of his passing, the first half is dedicated to a thrilling, re-imagined take on Bowie’s final masterpiece, January 2016’s Blackstar. Post-interval, the energy shifts to a celebration of iconic Guilfdford punk/New Wave pioneers The Stranglers.
Both Bowie and The Stranglers walked the tightrope masterfully between pop accessibility and avant-garde subversion, defining the sound of an era. The Deltas promise to extend this legacy with a combination of specially commissioned arrangements and new works inspired by these musical icons.
Tomorrow’s concert also marks the launch of their new album, Hanging Around.
First half programme: Polari Overture, David Lancaster (first performance); Sax Quartet No. 2, ‘Bowie’, Anthony Adams (first performance); Bowie Mega Mix: I Can’t Give Everything Away (David Power); Subterraneans (David Lancaster); Blackstar (David Lancaster); Lazarus, Spencer James (first performance), and Typical Song, Nick Williams (first performance).
Second half: Old Life Was Rubbish, Laurence Crane (first performance); Don’t Bring Harry, The Stranglers, arranged by David Power; Always The Sun, The Stranglers, arranged by Nick Williams; Allegro Strangolato, David Lancaster (first performance); No More/Heroes The Stranglers, arranged by David Lancaster; Golden Brown, The Stranglers, arranged by David Lancaster; Hanging Around, The Stranglers, arranged by Nick Williams, and The Tormentors, David Power.
At 6.45pm, Chris Caldwell will discuss the programme and new album with a complimentary glass of wine or juice.
Adam Long: Reduced Shakespeare Company co-founder and director
THE new version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), rebooted and re-imagined for the 30th anniversary tour, is squeezing into York Theatre Royal from July 7 to 11.
After nine years at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, two television specials and performances in more than 20 countries, the Reduced Shakespeare Company brings this updated and reinvented classic comedy to a new generation of audiences as Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and Kiran Raywilliams take a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s plays.
Presented by The Theatre Chipping Norton and Selladoor Worldwide, through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, the 2026 version is written by director Adam Long and fellow Californian original writers and founder members Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, who first teamed up when Adam was an accountant for an anti-nuclear political action committee, Daniel, a graphic artist in Santa Rosa and Jess, a lawyer in Santa Cruz.
Here come Hamlet told backwards, a micro-condensed Othello scored to a ukulele, a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus presented as a YouTube cookery tutorial and the History Plays as a manic football game between kings (although King Learis disqualified for being fictional).
“We started touring it here in 1995 – 31 years go – and in the first year we did it at this incredibly beautiful theatre in York,” recalls Adam. “We did a show in Leeds and then there was a three-day gap before York, and we got this phone-call saying, ‘could we do a show in Plymouth in between?’, so we drove all the way down to Plymouth and back again!”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) had begun as a street theatre troupe in San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, busking 15-minute versions of Romeo And Juliet and Hamlet to earn a living.
Most of the performances were at ‘Renaissance Faires’ where the RSC often had to share the stage with belly dancers and sheep. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987, at 10am in a church basement.
From there, the RSC was invited to perform in Montreal, Tokyo, New York and London, and the rest is history, but what first drew Long and co to Shakespeare?
“I’m from California, where we were not forced to study it in the same way as you are here, so our love of Shakespeare came from seeing it live,” says Adam. “I loved Bugs Bunny and The Marx Brothers too and in my life they’re intertwined.”
The comedy style emerged from condensing the essentials of each play. “It comes down to what’s the plot and who are the characters? Like Romeo And Juliet is two teenagers high on hormones who make some bad decisions, and if that was on Netflix, you’d definitely watch it!” says Adam, who has lived in London for 35 years.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
“We figured Romeo And Juliet was the play most people knew, along with Hamlet, so we book-end the show with those two plays. Romeo And Juliet gets a healthy 15 minutes; it’s like Romeo And Juliet shot out of a cannon: high-speed drama.
“We then highlight plays they’re less familiar with, like Titus Andronicus, the most gory play Shakespeare wrote – and one of the most gory plays I’ve encountered. It’s more gory than all Quentin Tarantino’s films condensed into one, so we devote only two minutes to it in the form of a YouTube cooking tutorial by Titus Andronicus.”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company version of Hamlet developed as the show did likewise. “When we got to the point where Ophelia killed herself, we thought it would be interesting to do a Freudian analysis, acting out her psyche, and the response was so good, we had to do an encore, where we did Hamlet in only 30 seconds,” says Adam.
“Demands came for another encore, so we did it in five seconds. Then we were all just sitting in the pub, thinking about what more we would do with it, and Jess, I think, suggested: ‘what if we were to do it backwards, like in a parlour game?’.”
Hamlet in reverse is now a staple of the show, but which plays were the hardest to adapt? “The Histories, because they’re not as funny as the tragedies, and they’re also not as well known,” says Adam.
“So we thought, ‘how do we take all the Histories and condense them into something that will be entertaining for the audience?’. It’s like a football game with the crown being passed from king to king and gradually we got it down to 90 seconds.”
Asked to pick a favourite Shakespeare play, Adam says: “I know it’s a predictable answer, but I do love Hamlet. I think that if I was a playwright and it was the only play I wrote, I would feel it was a job well done without having to write another 36 plays!”
The Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk Age guidance: Ten plus.
A mural taking shape for Acomb Fest. Picture: Art of Protest
ACOMB is hosting AcombFest, York’s first international street art festival for York, from today to Sunday featuring 20 art installations, live mural painting, RARE Collective’s PaintJam and spray battles, plus 30 bands, DJs and performers, across 22 venues.
Look out too at this Return To Nature-themed festival for special events and tastings, community cinema, family-friendly interactive workshops, art market, Acomb history walks and talk, plus shopping opportunities in support of independent businesses.
Featuring more than 90 activities and events, AcombFest is the creative brainchild of Art of Protest, Jeff Clark’s York-based street and urban art business “dedicated to transforming cities, towns and communities one spray can at a time in artist-led, community-shaped and stakeholder-driven projects”.
Funded by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Vibrant and Sustainable High Street Fund, Great Acomb Community Forum and City of York Council and supported by York St John University and York School of Art, AcombFest presents a long weekend of highly visual and participatory events.
The centrepiece will be the painting of four large-scale murals in and around Front Street by renowned international artists. This work will be complemented by a further ten art installation paints featuring York artists with community collaborations, alongside a range of workshops, music and cultural happenings.
“Nothing of this scale will have been seen in York before, never mind in Acomb” says Jeff, Art of Protest creative director and lead curator of AcombFest.
Jeff Clark: Art of Protest creative director and lead curator of AcombFest
“Normally, activities of this scale would be confined to the city centre, but this event is a fantastic example of how to broaden out creative and cultural engagement to the people in the wider city and wards.
“Not only does this inject life into local high streets to make them more vibrant and sustainable, it also does the same for the communities themselves.”
Jeff continues: “The ambition for AcombFest is to be a bi-annual event attracting the best international, national and more local artists from across the region to really put Acomb on the map as ‘the creative quarter’ of York.
“This is something that has been much needed as a way of balancing the city’s reliance on its fantastic heritage. Not only that, it will act as an inspiration and a pathway for young creative people in the Acomb and surrounding communities to develop their skills and start their own creative journeys – hopefully into related jobs and industries.”
The mural artist headliners will be Australian superstar SMUG, known as “the world’s best photorealistic artist”; Sheffield muralist Peachzz, 2024 runner-up for Best Mural in the World; wildlife artist Curtis Hylton and Acomb returnee Sledone.
Only one magpie? Phew, luckily a second is being added to this mural at AcombFest. Picture: Art of Protest
Creative events and activities will be centred on Front Street with free street art workshops. Venues include Bluebird Bakery, SoJo, The Crooked Tap and all the way down Acomb Road to The Fox, connecting all the green spaces and parks.
Each venue will have its own bespoke offer – from bush craft and nature art to artist talks – with individual tickets, availability information and listings to be found on the AcombFest website at https://acombfest.co.uk/.
RARE Collective are putting on DJs and nine artists will be showcasing their skills in live spray battles at the Carlton Tavern. The community cinema will run at Acomb Explore library and spoken word events at Book & Bevs.
A full programme of family-friendly free activities will run at Acomb Methodist Church; That Acomb Arty Thing will play host to an artist market; the Gateway Church will present art exhibitions; Fishponds Wood will run mini-beast trails. Further attractions will be history tours, light installations in Holgate Windmill and pop-up stalls with Yorkshire Wildlife and York Civic Trust.
Specialist food and drink offerings throughout the festival will include Spirit of Yorkshire and an international mixologist.
The festival was shaped by speaking to more than 1,100 residents and nine schools to learn of Acomb’s rich tapestry of history, flora and wildlife, leading to the festival theme of returning to nature. Acomb Alive and Acomb Methodist Church have supported the event too, the church playing host to music therapy sessions, flower arranging with Acomb Flower Guild, drop-in crafts with Crafty Fox and an art fair with Acomb Artists.
The festival map for AcombFest
What’s On at AcombFest
Friday, July 3
Explore Library 9:30am – 12:30pm Mosaic Workshop 10am & 1pm Hidden History Walk
Gateway Centre 10am – 6:30pm Oak Room Art Exhibition and Art Workshops – Exhibitions & creative workshops curated by That Acomb Art Thing.
The Carlton Tavern 2pm – 5:30pm PaintJam – RARE Collective & Art of Protest setting up PaintJam ready for artists, DJs & mixologist 7pm – 9pm Live World Cup Mega-Screen
Acomb Front Street 3pm – 4pm Art of Protest Street Art Workshops
The Fox 3:30pm – 6pm Water Art – After-school fun! Join the Fox team in a free-for-all floor art event 4pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 6pm – 8pm Tri-Starss – Beer garden gig of 1970s-1990s rock
DJ Sola: Leading a bill of live music, dancing and craft beer at The Crooked Tap
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 4pm – 10:30pm DJ Sola & Friends – Live music, craft beer and dancing 6pm – 9pm Philly’s Woodfired Pizza – Neapolitan wood-fired pizza
SOJO 5:30pm – 8:30pm Yorkshire Beer & Cheese Tasting – Celebration of Yorkshire produce 8:30pm – 11pm Live bands – Local bands performing live sets
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 6pm – 7:45pm AcombFest Talks – Curator Jeff Clark and muralists discuss AcombFest (Whisky-Highball on arrival, tickets required) 7:45pm – 8:30pm Whisky Tasting – Spirit of Yorkshire + Tulum Spirits (tickets required) 8:30pm – 10:30pm Flour Power Sound System with Yeastie Boy – Live music (tickets required)
The Hand 8pm – 9:30pm Josh Pulleyn – Live music
Inn on the Green 8:30pm – 11pm Live music – Local bands performing live sets
Saturday, July 4
York pianist Karl Mullen: PIaying outside the bakery at Rise@Bluebird Bakery from 1pm to 3pm
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 9am – 12pm Wild Bee Flowers – Sustainable florist & flower farm 10am – 3pm Fresh Bakes – Bluebird’s fresh bakes & goodies 1pm – 3pm Karl Mullen Live Piano – Busker extraordinaire playing outside bakery All day Craft Beer and Speciality Cans – Fridges of craft beers & small brewery cans in regular rotation 7pm – 11pm Groovetone + The Unknown Stuntman – Jazz, blues, Latin, funk and Ska tunes (tickets required)
The Place 10am – 12pm Leo Morrey Art Workshops 12:30pm – 2pm Drummers 12pm – 4pm Stephen Hodgkins Art Workshops
West Bank Park 10am – 3pm Trapeze classes
Holgate Windmill 10am – 3:30pm Wind, Soil, Rock Art Installation – Video, sound and life-size puppet
The Carlton Tavern 10am – 6pm PaintJam – Watch nine artists begin their paints 10am – 10pm RARE Collective DJs + Audiovisual – Eclectic mix of DJs and audio visual producers for PaintJam. Decks will be pumping out tunes while the paint dries 10am – 10pm Tulum Spirits Collective – Flying in from Mexico, mixologist Craig Feather serves up menu of luxury bespoke cocktails from 11am, preceded by non-alcoholic delights from 10am 11am – 8pm Streetfood
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 10:30am – 12pm The Art of Kokodema Workshop – tickets required 12pm – 8pm Yuzu East Asian Street Food 12pm – 1:30pm Charlie Swainton – Live music 2pm – 3:30pm Amy & Rob – Live music 4pm – 5:30pm Craig Long – Live music 6pm – 7:30pm James Scanlan – Live music 8pm – 10pm Melting Pot – 90s’ Indie, Britpop & dance tribute
Acomb Methodist Church 10:30am – 2pm Bloom Baby – Fiona Price Baby Classes 11am – 2pm Music Therapy 12pm – 1pm Jazzy J’s – Live music 12:30pm – 6pm Cafe 1pm – 2pm Ten Thousand Pairs of Hands – Live music 1:30pm – 4:30pm Acomb Flower Guild – Adult & Child Workshops 3pm – 3:30pm Acomb Choir 3:45pm – 8:45pm Acomb Community Cinema
Explore Library 11am – 3pm Acomb History Group 4pm – 7pm Open Cinema: Hoppers – Cinema with popcorn (tickets required)
Acomb Front Street 11am – 3pm Art of Protest Street Art Workshops
Storyteller Lara McClure
Books & Bevs 12:30pm – 3:30pm Storytelling with Lara McClure
Fishpond Woods 2pm – 3:30pm Mini Beast Safari
The Fox 12pm – 8:30pm Posca Doodle Wall 12pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 2pm – 4pm The Mothers – Live music 4pm – 6pm Ten Thousand Pairs Of Hands – Live music 6pm – 8pm Steam Pigeon – Live music 6pm – 8:30pm Beermat Art Lost Property Collage
Inn on the Green 2pm – 11pm Open Mic Night
The Sun 3:30pm – 5pm BBQ 4pm – 8pm Fireball Rockband
The Hand 8:30pm – 11pm Pete Hale – Live music
Sunday, July 5
Fishpond Woods 10am – 11am Moth Reveal
Acomb Methodist Church 10am – 12pm Interactive Worship 12pm – 6pm Pop-Up Cafe 1pm – 4:30pm Crafty Fox Kids Club – Hands-on art & craft activities for two to four-year-olds 1pm – 4pm Bio-Diversity Collage – Reacting to ecological crisis 6pm – 8pm Art Speedquiz
West Bank Park 10am – 3pm Trapeze classes
Freida Nipples: Baps’N’Bingo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Bluebird Bakery/Rise 10am – 3pm Bluebird’s Sunday Ritual – Sunday specialties such as Bengali five-spice rolls, spinach & chickpea rolls, plus artisan pastries. 6pm – 8pm Baps’N’Bingo – Burlesque bingo with Dolly Trolly and Freida Nipples (tickets required) 8pm – 11pm Guilty Pleasures Disco – Closing party of pop bangers, disco, R&B & power ballads (tickets required)
Holgate Windmill 10am – 4pm Wind, Soil, Rock Art Installation – Video, sound and life-size puppet
The Crooked Tap All weekend RARE Collective Urban Art Exhibition 10:30am – 12pm Posca Pebble Art 12pm – 8pm Yuzu East Asian Street Food 12:30pm – 5:30pm Acomb Artists’ Kids Art Classes 12:30pm – 11pm Cask Ale Festival 6pm – 10:30pm AcombFest Closing Party – DJ Sola & Friends of RARE Collective
The Fox 12pm – 4pm Bush Craft and Nature Art – Session with Tom Rawson of Branch Out 12pm – 9pm Clucking Oinks Fried Chicken 2pm – 4pm Bare Brass Band – Live music 4pm – 6pm V2 – Live music
Inn on the Green 12pm – 5pm Sunday Roast – OMNI Darts challenge & simulators
The Carlton Tavern 1pm – 6pm PaintJam – Artwork continues 10am – 10pm RARE DJ Sets – Live music 10am – 5pm Tulum Spirits Collective – Flying in from Mexico, mixologist Craig Feather serves up luxury bespoke cocktails from 11am, preceded by non-alcoholic delights from 10am 11am – 8pm El Chappo – New takes on traditional Mexican from Sheffield, ahead of Mexico v England in the World Cup last 16 12pm – 3:30pm The Tavern Sunday Roast – Traditional roasts 9pm – 11pm Live World CupMega-Screen
Gateway Church 2pm – 4pm Little Green Fingers – Plant up container pot to take home
The Sun 4pm – 7pm BBQ 4pm – 7pm York Turnpike Trust – Five-piece band’sR&B covers
The Hand 5:30pm – 9pm The Dunwells – Leeds indie-folk/Americana band
Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
ELECTRONIC new wave trailblazers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark will headline the first night of Futuresound’s third summer of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts.
The Wirral synth-pop duo of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys will be joined on OMD’s Summer Of Hits bill on July 9 bill by two fellow Eighties’ synth-pop luminaries, Sheffield’s Heaven 17 and Kirkby’s China Crisis, and rising singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.
“It’s gonna be lovely playing outdoors,” says McCluskey, 67, fresh from OMD’s 22-date February and March tour showcasing their 2023 UK top two-charting album Bauhaus Staircase. “The biggest difference quite simply is playing in daylight. We have a lot of lights and LED screens behind us, so it will have a different feel just because of the daylight. It won’t be dark until quite late in the show.”
The contrast with the indoor experience will come one night earlier at Bradford Live. “A lot of people in Yorkshire were frustrated that York sold out so quickly, so the promoter asked us to play Bradford,” says Andy, who is looking forward to performing at the new £55 million Bradford venue – in the former Odeon cinema – for the first time.
Roll on to the next night in York. “There’s a party element to playing outdoors, though you’re playing with the lottery of the weather in Britain.” Good news for these upcoming Orchestral manoeuvres in the not so dark: the weather forecast predicts sunny intervals with a gentle breeze – while Futuresound concert promoter Rachel Hill advises bringing Factor 50 sun cream.
Choosing the set list will be straightforward. “We’ve advertised the shows as the Summer Of Hits tour, as you’re going to get 18 hits regardless, but obviously in York we’ll have some great acts with us,” says Andy. “Heaven 17 are stunning live, as are China Crisis, both with amazing frontmen [Glenn Gregory and Gary Daly respectively], so that means we have to keep it tighter in York, playing for 90 minutes [to meet the 10.30pm curfew].
“We specifically asked to have Heaven 17 and China Crisis on the bill. At the beginning of March, I was on an Eighties’ rock cruise, out of Port Canaveral, cruising around the Caribbean, doing two 90-minute shows and the rest of the week as holiday, taking all the WAGs with us! Heaven 17 were there for that one – and we go way back with the China Crisis boys, who’ve done a couple of tours with us over the years.”
Formed by childhood friends McCluskey (vocals and bass) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards and vocals) in 1978, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark emerged in the pioneering early days of synth pop, when the proto-machinery was more erratic in its behaviour in making their electronic craft work.
Contrast with 21st century technology. “The digital age has transformed everything,” says Andy. “For me, as the singer, one of the best things now is the in-ear monitor, where you can hear everything so clearly. You don’t need so many speakers on stage; you don’t need it to be so loud, and the sound guy doesn’t have to fight with that.
“You don’t have to keep changing your synths. Everything is loaded into the digital keyboard, so there’s a lot less work for the keyboard player and the songs sound perfect every night.”
Is perfection good for live music, Andy? “Absolutely! We love it. We’re happy with how our records sounded, so that’s how we try to re-create them live on stage, as why would you want to mess with treasured memories. Why change them? Let people treasure those memories,” he says.
“I don’t understand how bands can go on stage and say to themselves ‘I’m so bored how this song sounds after playing it 1,000 times’. Don’t mess with your songs!”
Casting an eye over five decades of OMD, Andy says: “It’s quite remarkable to look back, and what I’m always reminding myself is that we’ve had a lot of hit singles doing the music just the way we wanted to. No-one was telling us how to record them or writing songs for us. We’ve been a 48-year rolling accident!
“I should have gone to Leeds to study Fine Art; Paul should have done a British Telecom apprenticeship in London [but turned it down]. Instead we created a band with a crazy name for a dare for one gig, and here we are, still together 48 years later.
“The broader picture is that what we’re blessed with is how we’re in a post-modern era where nothing is out of fashion any more – which is nice for us older musicians, where if you’re considered an icon, people will still come and see you, and if people saw those songs as the soundtrack of their lives back then, they’re still the soundtrack to their lives.
“In many ways, songs act as little memory pegs, upon which hang several different memories. One of the great things about being a songwriter is that you may not solve poverty or end warfare, but you create these little three-minute vignettes that become reference points for the most touching moments in people’s live, like your songs being played at funerals.
“That’s the greatest compliment that someone can give you, that something you created has become a memory for an entire family.”
Futuresound presents Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Summer Of Hits featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and Andrew Cushin, Live at York Museum Gardens, July 9, gates open at 5pm. SOLD OUT.
Christina Meehan’s Annie and Karen Holmes’s Chris in Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
IT began as The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2015, when plenty of the original Calendar Girls attended the press night in trademark black dresses, pinned with sunflowers.
Roll forward 11 years, when some things have changed, some have not. Four members of the Rylstone and District Women’s Institute, who put the fun into fund-raising by making the risqué alternative calendar in 1999, were in attendance on Wednesday. Black dresses, tick. Sunflowers, tick.
Present too was book writer and lyricist Tim Firth, who cut his playwriting teeth under Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s guiding eye at the SJT – and who should be in the audience too but Sir Alan.
Penned by Firth and composer and Take That mainstay Gary Barlow, friends since childhood days in Frodsham, Cheshire, the show has long since changed its name to Calendar Girls The Musical, while celebrity casts have come and gone and a touring version once jettisoned the teenage tearaways, but thankfully they are very much restored here, as is the original down-to-earth, everyday, no-nonsense ‘Yorkshireness’ of it all
SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s production breaks new ground as the first staging with actor-musicians and the first in a theatre-in-the-round setting, presenting new challenges in how to choreograph the strip comedy of the calendar shoot and how to evoke the other rising hills, the Yorkshire Dales.
Original designer Robert Jones first crafted a theatrical Yorkshire landscape from towering green-fronted furniture that turned into doors and prop cupboards; then later favoured a God’s Own Country verdant backdrop and a regularly opened gate. In May, York Musical Theatre Company did likewise when using All In One Productions’ photographic scenery of the rolling dales at their most green and pleasant pastured, with a dry stone wall and gate in front. You could almost smell Yorkshire.
SJT costume and designer Helen Coyston eschews walls and landscape imagery, preferring an open-plan design with parquet village-hall flooring, on which props and furniture are moved with haste, whether chairs, benches, or the uncomfortable Skipton General waiting-room sofa that prompts Knapely Women’s Institute wild card Chris (Karen Holmes) to suggest making the outré calendar.
It makes all the more room for the actor-musicians that fill the stage with movement and energy, right from the start in the crowd-pleasing opening number Yorkshire, with company members playing all manner of instruments, from guitar and whistle to the most evocative Yorkshire sound of all: gleaming brass instruments of every shape and sound under the musical directorship of associate director Alex Weatherhill.
An interval chat with sound designer and musical supervisor Simon Slater revealed how carefully those brass players needed to be placed, in order not to overpower the overall sound mix, often being posted in the “voms” (the passageways for stage entries and exits).
The actor-musicianship, especially in the natural amphitheatre of the theatre-in-the-round, brought a heightened intimacy to the already highly emotional or highly humorous songs, where Firth’s sense of pathos and observational comedy dovetail so pleasingly with Barlow’s ear for melody.
The balance of dialogue and song is just right too. After a surfeit of song-heavy shows with workmanlike tunes on reviewing duty in 2026, here is a show where emotion is filtered through conversation, confession and comic collisions, as well as through songs that capture the essence of a situation or character.
None has more potency in Scarborough than Scarborough itself, the beautiful ballad where Christina Meehan’s Annie contemplates life without John ‘Clarkey’ Clarke (Neil Moors), her rock of a husband, brought down by a blood cancer.
Barlow and Firth give plenty of characters their “big number”, from Alicia McKenzie’s Cora, the organ-playing vicar’s daughter, with her Christmas Carol pastiches in Who Wants A Silent Night?, to Chris’s Act One climax, Sunflower; from Pippa Duffy’s former air hostess Celia’s defiant So I’ve Had A Little Work Done to SJT favourite Annie Kirkman’s vodka-swilling Annie’s My Russian Friend And I, topped by her drunken arrival for her camera-flash moment.
Matt Heslop’s photographer Lawrence is even more timid than past iterations, and all the better for that, while Fenella Norman’s former school teacher, Jessie, Sarah Groarke’s stuffed-shirt new WI chair, Marie, Matt Ian Kelly’s trio of supportive husbands, Rod, Colin and Denis, and Angela Caesar and and Rachel Hammond’s tea-and-coffee double act as the Miss Wilsons all play their part to maximum impact.
In the teen trio, Will Ireland and Charlie Wright are sharing the role of easily distracted head boy-in-waiting Danny; Robyn Chambers and Annie Dunbar do likewise for the rebellious Jenny and Keane Liley and Jack Pickering will split the ever-joshing Tommo over the performances ahead. Firth writes so astutely of teen behaviour and adult influence, the young’uns so full of cheek, brio and quick retorts.
The climactic calendar shoot is choreographed by intimacy director Stephanie Dattani with imagination, originality, flair, bags of humour, plenty of surprise too, finding new ways to refresh this comedic set piece with vitality, wit and heart.
Honorary Yorkshiremen Barlow and Firth, in tandem with Robinson – a director at his best in comedy – have delivered the best version of Calendar Girls yet, not least thanks to the leading performances of Holmes’s Chris and Meehan’s Chris, Yorkshire women of such spirit and resilience.
Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
Joe Sleight’s Peter Pan in the Grand Opera House poster for The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan: The Return Of Captain Hook
WEST End star Joe Sleight will fly high as Peter Pan in the 2026 Grand Opera House pantomime, The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan: The Return Of Captain Hook.
Sleight will take to the York stage from December 5 to January 3 2027 as the boy who never grew up, bringing charm, energy, mischief and theatrical magic to the UK Productions show.
He last appeared at the Cumberland Street theatre as twin brother Eddie Lyons in Blood Brothers in April 2025 and now swaps the emotional power of Willy Russell’s beloved Liverpool musical for the magic, adventure and youthful spirit of Peter Pan.
Sleight’s theatre credits include: Boq in Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre, West End); Roger and 1st Cover Pongo in 101 Dalmatians (Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, West End); Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Middle Temple Hall, London); Rudolph and puppetry director in Rudolph The Reindeer’s Red Nose Roadshow (The Bolton Octagon); The Russian in Chess (Union Theatre, London); Roger in Grease (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); Benji in Benji The Fish (UK tour) and the international and Chinese tour of JunNk, the percussion musical.
His pantomime roles include: Jack in Jack And The Beanstalk (Aylesbury Waterside Theatre and Floral Pavilion, New Brighton, for UK Productions); Prince Charming in Cinderella (St Helens Theatre Royal; Peter Pan in Peter Pan for Qdos/ Crossroads Entertainment (Dartford Orchard Theatre, Royal & Derngate Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe) and Dandini in Cinderella (Towngate Theatre).
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to York and to the beautiful Grand Opera House after such an unforgettable run as Eddie in Blood Brothers,” says Joe. “York audiences are incredibly special, and I can’t wait to be back on that stage for something completely different, full of magic, mischief and adventure.
Brothers in arms: Joe Sleight’s Eddie Lyons, right, and Sean Jones’s Mickey Johnstone in Blood Brothers, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, in April 2025. Picture: Jack Merriman
“This time I’m swapping school ties for fairy dust, and stepping into the role of Peter Pan is a real pinch-me moment. It’s a story filled with imagination, heart and the joy of never growing up, and I can’t wait to fly into Neverland with audiences this Christmas. Bring on the magic!”
Sleight joins a blockbuster line-up led by Tom Lister, Emmerdale soap star and musical theatre performer, whose credits include 42nd Street, Calamity Jane and Legally Blonde.
Alongside Lister’s dastardly Captain Hook will be audience favourite Jimmy Bryant, returning as Smee after delighting York audiences as Buttons in last year’s Cinderella, while Nick Jr’s Holly Atterton will bring sass, sparkle and fairy-dust magic as Tinker Bell.
Grand Opera House theatre director Allie Long is thrilled to welcome Sleight back to the York stage. “We can’t wait to see Joe’s Peter Pan,” she says. “I can’t wait to witness all of Peter’s antics as Joe joins Holly, Jimmy and Joe in what is shaping up to be a fantastic ensemble cast for the lucky Grand Opera House York audiences.
“With Joe bringing youthful adventure and high-flying charisma as Peter Pan, Tom bringing villainous swagger, Jimmy bringing comedy gold and Holly adding magical sparkle, this is a cast built to give York families a Christmas panto to remember.” .
UK Productions producer Martin Doddadds: “We’re thrilled to welcome the brilliant Joe Sleight to the Grand Opera House as our ever-youthful Peter Pan! With bucketloads of charisma and energy, he’s sure to soar to new heights and win hearts along the way. Get your tickets before they fly away!”
Stephen Smith’s Claude Monet in A Montage Of Monet. Picture: Amie Barton-Young
AFTER last summer’s sold-out Edinburgh Fringe run, Stephen Smith’s solo show A Montage Of Monet plays York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, on July 8 at 7.30pm and July 11 at 3pm.
Joan Greening’s 55-minute play invites audiences to step beyond Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings and meet the complicated, passionate and often deeply flawed man behind them.
A Montage Of Monet explores the extraordinary life of Normandy-born Monet, from his turbulent love affairs and artistic rivalries to personal tragedy, financial hardship and the failing eyesight that threatened to end his career.
“While millions recognise his iconic water lilies, few know the remarkable story behind the artist himself,” says actor and Threedumb Theatre artistic director Stephen Smith, whose production holds a special connection with York.
Actor Stephen Smith stands by Claude Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond on his visit to York Art Gallery in 2024
“While preparing for the original Edinburgh production, I made a pilgrimage to York Art Gallery to see The Water-Lily Pond during the gallery’s hugely successful National Treasures: Monet in York exhibition in 2024.
“Standing in front of one of his most famous paintings while developing the role was an unforgettable experience, and it’s incredibly special to now be bringing the show back to the city.”
Smith’s production combines live performance with carefully curated projections of Monet’s paintings and those of his contemporaries, allowing audiences with little or no prior knowledge of Impressionism to immerse themselves fully in the story.
Writer Joan Greening, whose work has been performed across the UK and internationally, created A Montage of Monet specifically with Stephen Smith in mind after she saw him perform at the Edinburgh Fringe.
In the frame: Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet. Picture:Picture: Amie Barton-Young
“I immediately thought this brilliant young actor could play Monet,” she says. “It has been an enormous pleasure working with Stephen, who is a dynamic performer with original and clever ideas.”
Produced by four-time OFFIE Award-winning company Threedumb Theatre, A Montage Of Monet continues the London-based company’s reputation for creating bold, imaginative solo theatre that tours nationally and internationally.
Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, July 8, 7.30pm and July 11, 3pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 12+.
Stephen Smith’s other Fringe shows of the week: One Man Poe at Ripon Theatre Festival, July 10, 8pm, and York Medical Society, July 11, 7.30pm
Stephen Smith in The Tell-Tale Heart in One Man Poe at Ripon Theatre Festival. Picture: Shay Rowan
THREEDUMB Theatre actor and artistic director Stephen Smith brings his gothic horror phenomenon One Man Poe to North Yorkshire for a special Ripon Theatre Festival performance on July 10 and the world premiere of an entirely new Poe double-bill in York the next night.
One Man Poe had sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 and 2025, winning both the Derek Award for Best Overall Show and the Spookies Award for Best Horror Solo Show.
London-based Smith now returns north with two distinct One Man Poe productions. Ripon’s audience will have the chance to experience the original One Man Poe, featuring Edgar Allan Poe classics The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Black Cat and The Raven, while July 11’s York audience exclusively will receive the first ever public performance of The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar.
Anyone heading for Edinburgh this summer can catch all six stories, presented as three different shows, when Smith returns for another Fringe run.
The Ripon Theatre Festival performance presents the four-story gothic anthology that has toured internationally to Europe, Dubai, Malaysia, New York, Baltimore and beyond, earning acclaim for Smith’s virtuosic solo storytelling and atmospheric theatrical style.
Stephen Smith as The Mesmerist in The Case Of M. Valdemar, from One Man Poe, pictured at St Cuthbert’s Kirkyard graveyard in Edinburgh. Picture: Colin Hattersley Photography
Meanwhile, York becomes the first city in the world to see Smith’s newest Poe adaptations before they transfer to the Edinburgh Fringe later this summer for a 42-show run.
The Business Man concerns a corrupt, bullying American businessman who builds his fortune through ruthless scams and opportunism before deciding the time is right to enter politics.
The Case of M. Valdemar explores one of Poe’s most disturbing concepts: a mesmerist attempting to hypnotise a dying man at the precise moment of death itself.
Smith, who has committed more than 18,000 words of Poe to memory, says: “Every year I deepen the work, and these new stories allow us to explore Poe’s wicked humour and his darkest fascination with mortality. The horror in Poe is never simply monsters – it’s human nature.”
Stephen Smith in One Man Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Black Cat and The Raven, Ripon Theatre Festival, Ripon Arts Hub, Allhallowgate, Ripon, July 10, 8pm. Tickets: https://www.ripontheatrefestival.org/event/one-man-poe/.Age guidance: 12 plus.
Stephen Smith as The Politician / Businessman, pictured on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Picture: Colin Hattersley
Both shows contain distressing or potentially triggering themes.
For details of One Man Poe at The Fringe see https://www.edfringe.com
Stephen Smith and One Man Poe: back story
A HUGE fan of the late Roger Corman/Vincent Price’s Edgar Allan Poe-cycle when a child, Stephen Smith reignited his love of classical horror stories during the pandemic by creating online renditions of Poe’s work via Facebook Live.
When the theatres reopened, he combined four of Poe’s most popular pieces in a solo show and named the extravaganza One Man Poe. First performed in 2021 at Watford Palace Theatre, the show has had multiple runs in London and on tour in the UK.
Poe is sometimes referred to as “America’s Shakespeare” and Stephen is thrilled to share the stories to UK theatre audiences. However, the show has toured internationally to Dubai, Malaysia, Off-Broadway in New York and the International Poe Festival in Baltimore, Maryland.
Stephen has had the pleasure of performing the show at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, Poe’s cottage in the Bronx, New York, and even a special VIP catacomb performance at Poe’s burial site in Baltimore.
The Choir Of Man : “Give into your freewheeling side and ‘bring tomorrow on’ while this lovely blast is in York”. Picture: The Other Richard
IF you really want to know how a show was, ask someone (carefully) in the next cubicle or at the next urinal afterwards. This was a taste from the Gents: “Incredible”. “The best fun you can have on a Tuesday” (the night your reviewer attended).
The Choir Of Man performance doesn’t start with the lifting of the curtain, but begins with cast and audience together on the stage decked out with a real working bar. This is the audience’s introduction to ‘The Jungle’: an idealised pub that feels familiar to anyone of a certain age. The sort of place where people talk, share, open up, drink, sing and don’t appear to worry too much about what comes next.
This is a show where everything is tilted to ensure you have a good time, and the performers look like they do too. There is a nod to a back story (based on the actor’s own) but their names, such as “Hardman” and “Maestro”, tell you all need to know.
But who really needs a reason to go to a bar? The emphasis is rightly on the songs, the musicianship and the nine voices. It’s a careening blast through some well-chosen songs from the 1980s onwards (and no room for Vera Lynn).
Choirs need voices that work together, not overwhelming the rest. On Tuesday’s opening performance, Sam Walter’s Romantic, Oluwalonimi ’Nimi’ Owoyemi’s Poet, Jack Skelton’s Handyman, Joshua Lloyd’s Barman, Gustav Melbardis’s Maestro, Levi Tyrell Johnson’s Hardman, Rob Godfrey’s Beast, Aaron Pottenger’s Bore and Ben Mabberley’s Joker all seemed to have come from some superhuman school of acting and music.
The audience joining the fun and pub games in The Jungle on stage at Tuesday’s performance of The Choir Of Man. Picture: Paul Rhodes
One where everyone can sing, play several instruments, dance when required and shake their thang with the best of them. Where do such people come from? Not likely headhunted from your average local.
The set-up is simple. There are a few heartfelt words, albeit sometimes a little rushed from Nimi, our narrator, but what little story there is always serves the song, spanning 15 numbers and a reprise over two hours.
It is exactly the life-affirming, joy-giving experience you hope for, and it is easy to see why the show has gathered such plaudits over the past ten years. While a few liberties are taken with The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), the emotion is raw for Luther Vandross’s Dance With My Father.
You do have to set aside any scruples about celebrating alcohol, and if toilet humour isn’t your thing, then there’s one (actually very funny) scene when you might want to take a loo break. Spoiler (free beer!) for those in the stalls and a greater chance of being whisked on stage by a handsome man, but go with it and you’ll wake up without regret. There are lots of laughs, with Lloyd’s Barman gamely mining the most.
While the idea of this sort of bar may be fading into folk memory, people no longer routinely gather around the “old Joanna” to sing together, the community and belonging these spaces create, and places like them still engender, live and breathe on.
Beers and cheers: The Choir Of Man cast takes in the applause at Tuesday’s performance. Picture: Paul Rhodes
The musical highlights are the a cappella choir numbers. They steal the show from some of the bigger and better-known hits by Bon Jovi, Queen and even Eagle Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight.
The wonderful interplay of nine voices is sensational. For the finale, the cast is joined by 102 local choir members from Some Voices, Stamford Bridge Community Choir and Sing Space Musical Theatre for Sia’s Chandelier. The standing ovation that follows is thoroughly deserved.
Much is made of the show’s invitation to enjoy life while we can, to raise another glass. There is always that drinker’s tension, held in the balance in the glass, between one sip and the next, revelry or regret. Fortunately for us, this show truly does go on.
Give into your freewheeling side and “bring tomorrow on” while this lovely blast is in York.
The Choir Of Man, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight; 4pm & 8pm tomorrow; 2.30pm & 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
GREG Doran, former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director, York Millennium Mystery Plays director, renowned Shakespearean and knight of the realm for services to theatre, is back in York for two days presenting his revival of Shakespeare’s narrative poem Venus And Adonis.
He will take part in a post-show discussion after today’s 2pm performance, but whether you attend the matinee or tonight’s concluding show, you really should see the best 60-minute combination of Shakespeare and (adult) puppetry that makes theatre stand out from other artforms.
Those performances fall either side of England’s last 32 low-block encounter with D R Congo, so that feeble football excuse won’t wash.
What’s more, esteemed Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale is the narrator, live and in person, seated, in black, voice mellifluous, arm movements a show in themselves.
Here’s the history bit. When theatres were closed by a severe outbreak of the plague in 1592, William Shakespeare spent lockdown not baking banana bread but switching from penning plays to poetry. Cue Venus And Adonis, little known to modern audiences but a publishing sensation in his lifetime, running to ten editions, no less.
First staged by Doran in 2004 for the RSC in tandem with Little Angle Theatre , it has become one of his favourite pieces – and Sir Greg, you should note, has directed all 37 plays in Shakespeare’s First Folio – over subsequent productions.
When the RSC contacted him to ask what should be done with the now redundant box of puppets, jettisoned in the need to create space, Doran decided to reactivate puppets and poem alike in a 2026 tour that already has played the Shakespeare festival in Craiova, Romania, and the Barbican, London, with support from the Backstage Trust and executive producer Mark Pigott.
Inside York Theatre Royal’s plush proscenium arch stage now stands Rob Jones’s design of another vintage theatre frontage, with a golden orb to the top, ornate curtains and a backdrop on which shadow-play puppetry and scenes in miniature are played out.
In front is a table; to one side is guitarist Nick Lee, performing beautiful, romantic and mournful music of the period arranged by John Woolf & Stevon Russell; to the other is Russell Beale, no less melodic in tone.
Venus And Adonis director Greg Doran
Constantly on the move, and yet somehow invisible, such is their skill, like the impact of Milk Tray Man, are puppeteers Bartolomeo Bartolini, Edie Edmundson, Rachel Leonard, Lee Maeda and Sarah Wright, who provide sound effects too, from kises to sighs.
Inspired by Japanese Bunraku Puppets and Jacobean Court Masque, they enact Russell Beale’s poetic flow with Lyndie Wright’s puppets to tell the story of Venus, the Goddess of love, and her fixation with the bodacious, handsome but headstrong hunter, Adonis.
Performed on the table top and tableau behind, with rods and marionettes too, the puppetry is exquisite, supple and, at first, comedic. Without being irreverent, imagine Miss Piggy’s seduction technique, hitting on Kermit or celebrity guests on The Muppets, and you will see Venus at work on “waylaying” young, resistant Adonis, even pulling him off his horse in her desires.
Every move, every movement, is choreographed by puppetry director Steve Tiplady with delightful detail and comic timing, the puppetry and Russell Beale in blissful union.
The story switches from V & A horsing around to horses doing the same in a parallel storyline as a frisky mare mirrors Venus in enticing Adonis’s stallion. Again, the comedy here is both earthy and eloquent.
The mood changes suddenly once Adonis insists on hunting for a wild boar, ignoring Venus’s pleas of foreboding not to do so. Jones’s mini-theatre suddenly sprouts huge arms, on whose fingers Venus is gripped with fear, or swings or dances, depending on her transmutable mood.
When Vince Herbert & Lauren Watson’s lighting picks out the now prone Adonis, blood pouring from his side in the form of a red scarf, the tragedy rips at your heart, such is Venus’s woe as every tender touch fails to awake him.
Once described by former RSC artistic director Adrian Noble as “Shakspeare in miniature”, Venus And Adonis is emotional poetry in motion and commotion, combining the two faces of theatre, comedy and tragedy, in 60 sensuous, sensual minutes of lust, love and untimely loss.
Venus And Adonis, York Theatre Royal, 2pm and 7.30pm today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Wren Crawford’s Jesus in The Company of Merchant Adventurers’ Doomsday, staged with Ravens Morris & Haigha and the Northern Militia. Picture: John Saunders
YORK is the city that knows its waggon wheels from its Wagon Wheels, for so many years sent spinning towards theatregoers by pantomime dame Berwick Kaler.
Once every four summers, the York Festival Trust, the city Guilds and assorted theatre companies and community groups take to the city streets to revive the medieval texts of the York Mystery Plays, mingling with the Sunday shoppers and the aromas emerging from cafes, restaurants, stalls and storied chocolate store over two weekends.
Ten of the 48 plays – the most complete set in the world – and a further extract are being staged at four stations, the wagons kept on the move from mid-morning at the Minster Refectory Gardens to King’s Square, St Sampson’s Square and the one seated, ticketed location, Dean’s Park, in the shadow of York Minster.
Being the city of festivals and home to the Jorvik Viking Centre, let alone stag and hen parties, York and dressing up go hand and hand, never more so than for the York Mystery Plays, where the sight of Angel 1 and 2 walking through Goodramgate, wings at full span, faces shielded by veils, separated from their fellow Doomsday performers, looked perfectly normal for a York Sunday rather than an act of divine intervention.
It is easy to take such occurrences for granted in York, but it is all part of living with history and history being alive in a city whose present and future continues to be shaped by its past.
The Mystery Plays are steeped in tradition: plays being “brought forth” on waggons – always with a double ‘GG’ – pulled by human toil rather than horses, led by drums and banners and the dignitaries of assorted guilds in full regalia.
Each set must fit on the waggon, calling for inventive, compact design, easy to assemble and take down. Some are humorous, such as Pip Cook and the Guild of Cordwainers’ The Shepherds, with its multitude of sheep; none is more impactful than the cross rising to the sky, bearing the pierced frame of Thom Feeney’s Jesus of Nazareth, pulled and pushed into position by the four jesting Workmen of York Settlement Community Players, performing a Pageant Waggon play for the first time in 12 years for the York Butchers’ Gild.
Faces familiar from the York theatre scene or from past productions share the spotlight with performers new to the declamatory demands of street theatre in a production that always reflects the changing community of York.
Bodhan Pitel’s Herod in DSpace Ukrainian Theatre and the Guild of Scriveners’ The Massacre Of The Innocents. Picture: John Saunders
Step forward DSpace Ukrainian Theatre, the company set up in York by artistic director and actress Daryna Klymenko, presenting The Massacre Of The Innocents, a title that could not have more resonance.
Writing in the York Mystery Plays Festival 2026 programme, Klymenko says: “Working on the tragic story of the Massacre of the Innocents, we could not ignore the parallels with the modern world – with the way dictatorship , violence and an unhealthy hunger for power and wealth become irreversibly destructive.
“Through this performance, we aim not only to tell a tragic story, but also to ask the question: why do similar tragedies continue to happen? And what has the power to resist them?”
DSpace specialise in physical expression, body language and hidden parallels, and their performance, led by Bodhan Pitel’s violent, gaudy Herod, is the essence of why these Plays continue to chime with the times.
Through the day’s perambulations, we encounter all manner of angels (Guiding/Herald/Fallen/Death/Hey-Hey Angel et al); seven iterations of God (including Daniel Wilmot’s Deus for the Guild of Building’s The Creation) and Jesus times three (the stripped Oscar Langford and Thom Feeney and a white-robed/Elvis-in-Vegas Wren Crawford).
Then add Adam & Eve, Satan, Satanas and Devils, Noah and Mrs Mrs Noah, a Forsaken Soul, shepherds, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Naughty Child 1 and 2, Saved Souls and Damned Souls, messengers, councillors and all manner of animals. All life – and one central death– is here and here to stay, you sense.
Pageant Master Dr Alan Heaven has overseen a festival with two Sunday performances, midweek Sunset plays in Shambles Market, walks and talks, pop-up shop and exhibitions, pipers’ performances and a Festival Fringe: a proper festival that celebrates York, street plays and the alliterative Yorkshire dialect, all while embracing history and Mystery with gusto.
The York Mystery Plays 2026, next performance, July 5. More details at yorkmysteryplays.co.uk.
