KENTMERE House Gallery, in Scarcroft Hill, York, will be open for York Residents Festival on January 25 and 26 from 10am to 6pm.
The work of around 70 artists is on show at any one time in Ann
Petherick’s home gallery: some from York, some from Yorkshire, others from
artists across the country.
“This includes Freya Horsley’s atmospheric York townscapes, which have attracted many admirers, and David Greenwood’s vigorous pastels of Skeldergate Bridge and many York townscapes, along with the distinctive red brick houses of the Knavesmire area,” says Ann, who extends a welcome to all, not only York residents
The interior of Kentmere House Gallery, in Scarcroft Hill, York
“There’s also exciting new work from nationally known artist Susan
Bower, who lives near Tadcaster but whose work is mostly shown in London.”
Prices
start at £200 for original works and £50 for original prints. “We also have books
and cards exclusive to the gallery, reductions, special offers, five per cent discounts
for residents and a free 14-day home trial.”
The gallery’s involvement in York Residents Festival has been a great success in previous years. “A gallery in a home setting is still a curiosity, and I believe many people feel some slight trepidation at entering,” says Ann, whose usual opening hours are 11am to 5pm on the first weekend of every month, every Thursday evening from 6pm to 9pm and at any time by appointment – “just a phone call in advance to check we’re in” – on 01904 656507.
Hull From The South Bank, gouache on paper, by Bob Armstrong, on display at Kentmere House Gallery
“Alternatively, we work on the principle that ‘if we’re in, we’re open’ – just ring the bell. But you would be amazed how many visitors say they have been walking past for years but never been in. The Residents Festival emboldens them, however, and gives them that little extra incentive.
“Then there are many – even some living nearby – who say that
they didn’t even know the gallery existed. It’s truly one of York’s hidden gems
and this festival is the ideal time to sample its unique atmosphere and to
introduce it to your friends.”
The front door of Kentmere House Gallery in York
In addition to the art on display, Kentmere House is an interesting property in its own right. “It was built by the Methodist Church in 1898 as their own offices and a staff dwelling,” says Ann.
“The quality of the workmanship and materials used in the building is exceptional, and it’s one of the few buildings in York roofed with distinctive Westmoreland green slates.
Flamingos, acrylic on paper, by Jack Hellewell, at Kentmere House Gallery
“We bought the property in 1991: the large rooms, high
ceilings and spacious staircase make it ideal for use as a gallery. Two
rooms, the hall, stairs and landing are used for display, with more than 100
paintings at any time.”
Should you be wondering, the name Kentmere was chosen by
one of the Methodist staff involved at the time, as he was a frequent visitor
to the village of the same name in the Lake District.
Hitting the heights on the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour . Picture: Tony Tibbetts
THE Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour returns to York Barbican on April 21 with a new selection of action and adventure films.
The tour features two collections
of films from the world’s best adventure filmmakers, with super-human challenges,
soulful journeys and spectacular cinematography from the wildest corners of the
planet.
Among them is Up To Speed, whose
spotlight falls on the extraordinary discipline of speed climbing, soon to
feature in the Olympic Games for the first time at Tokyo 2020.
“We
can’t wait to share the latest inspirational films from the world’s most
prestigious mountain film festival on our biggest tour yet,” says British and
Irish tour director Nell Teasdale.
“As well as exhilarating stories starring intrepid characters and pioneering journeys, an evening at Banff is a celebration of the great outdoors, with a vibrant atmosphere and a real sense of community. And we guarantee audiences will leave feeling inspired to have an adventure of their own.”
The tour’s films have been
chosen from hundreds of entries for the Banff Mountain Film Festival, held
every November in the Canadian Rockies. The UK and Ireland tour starts in
Pitlochry, Scotland, on January 18 and finishes in Norwich on May 26, visiting
60 locations with 114 screenings along the way.
Aside from Up To Speed, film highlights
include Home, wherein Oxfordshire adventurer Sarah Outen embarks on a
four-year, human-powered traverse of the globe, travelling by bike, kayak and
rowing boat across Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and finally
the Atlantic.
The punishing elements, months
of solitude and storms push Sarah to the mental and physical brink, as Home
intimately and unflinchingly captures on her 20,000-mile odyssey.
Spectre Expedition charts the
progress of Mission Antarctica: 1,000 miles, 200+kg of kit each, 65 days, three
mates and one mountain, those adventurers being Brit Leo Houlding and teammates
Jean Burgun, from France, and Kiwi Mark Sedon.
Using snow-kites to travel great distances, with massive loads, at speeds of up to 60kmph, this is the epic tale of a daring dream to reach the summit of one of the most remote mountains on earth: The Spectre in Antarctica.
In
The Ladakh Project, French athlete Nouria Newman tackles a 375km solo kayaking
expedition down the most remote and daunting rivers in the Indian Himalaya. Facing
hair-raising moments, Nouria is forced to push herself to the edge of her
limits, saying “I felt really vulnerable. I had a proper look at what my
guts were made of.”
Tickets are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk, on 0203 356 5441 or by visiting the box office in person.
The naked truth: Theo Mason Wood and Albert Haddenham in How To Beat Up Your Dad. Pictures: Mollie Gallagher
CARAVAN
Guys Theatre Company’s darkly comic tale of “toxic masculinity”, How To Beat Up
Your Dad (The Musical), is taking to the road.
First
stop for this debut show – first performed in its entirety at The Arts Barge
Riverside Festival in York last July – will be at Slung Low’s home at The Holbeck
Theatre, in Leeds, on February 9.
On stage
at 5pm will be Albert Haddenham and York actor, musician and writer Theo Mason
Wood, son of York playwright Mike Kenny and stage and screen actress Barbara
Marten.
First making his mark on the York music
scene with Bonnie Milnes in the darkly humorous The Lungs and Gwen, Theo
graduated from the drama and theatre arts degree course at Goldsmiths,
University of London, three summers ago.
Now comes Caravan Guys’ savagely
satirical tale of one young man’s journey through manhood, taking him from
being a meek teenager looking for the secret, to losing his virginity, to
becoming a young man stealing Yakults™, searching for happiness and finally
standing up to his own dad with his fists.
Please note, this show is a
“free-form piece of dark comedy about the damaging and violent nature of
masculinity and doesn’t actually give any instructions on beating up your own
dad”. Instead, as told through a cocktail of performance, spoken word,
music and storytelling, humour and hubris, How To Beat Up Your Dad is a comedy
about masculinity and all the wrong ways to solve your problems.
Here Theo steps out of the caravan to answer Charles Hutchinson’s questions.
Who are the Caravan Guys and
why is the company so called, Theo?
“Caravan Guys is myself, Theo Mason
Wood, and Albert Haddenham, of Bridlington, a charismatic
sausage/multi-instrumentalist with the best sense of humour and big strong
hands.
“We are the draughty corridor between hilarity and horror,” says Theo Mason Wood, pictured on the run behind Albert Haddenham,
“We met about 14 months ago and
immediately found that we found the same things funny. On New Year’s night last
year, we drunkenly swore to make something together and that’s how How To Beat
Up Your Dad (The Musical) was born.
“People do awful things, really weird
awful things and Caravan Guys want to show you why and make you laugh at them.
We are the draughty corridor between hilarity and horror. We are the unknown
stain on the caravan floor and the reason it’s going cheaply.”
What was the inspiration for
the show?
“The absurdity of masculinity. The
script was originally a short story I wrote; I compiled some real stories of
extreme and absurd situations that I and other men I know have been in and then
applied them all to one character. I find myself constantly amazed by the
lengths men will go to assert themselves. It’s shocking and often unpleasant
but also really funny.”
Where do you stand on
masculinity? Some say men are becoming emasculated, such as in the way they are
portrayed in adverts and increasingly on TV. On the other hand, your play
highlights “the damaging and violent nature of masculinity”. Discuss…
“Although the phrase gets used a
lot, I really do think that masculinity is spectacularly fragile. As a culture,
we’re all becoming more aware of this, so the cracks in the macho façade are
growing bigger and bigger, and I think we’re all a lot more able to see it for
what it is.
“The play shows
how sexism and homophobia are often just defences against feeling emasculated.
These tropes of masculinity say a lot more about the individual’s sense of self
than it does about the groups they are attacking.
“As men, we have been taught that
sadness, anxiety and vulnerability are not valid emotions; to cry is to be weak
and to be weak is to not be masculine. Therefore, often men will push outwards
when experiencing these feelings, they will turn it into rage, aggression and
violence.”
“Many men don’t have the correct tools to deal with their emotions and will lash out because anger is seen as masculine while sadness isn’t ,” says Theo Mason Wood
How is that reflected in your
play?
“This is what I mean when I say the
play is about the damaging and violent nature of masculinity, I mean that many
men don’t have the correct tools to deal with their emotions and will lash out
because anger is seen as masculine while sadness isn’t. “Although this all
sounds very serious – which it is – our show is largely a comedy and we aim to
create a space where we can all laugh at the strange things men do to protect
themselves from feeling small.”
Explain the provocative choice
of show title…
“This is not a musical, nor is it a
guide on how to beat up your dad. I don’t know your dad, he might be really
hard.
“Our hero, Amon, has a lot of
emotional issues tied up in his experiences with his Dad when he was a child.
The show starts with Amon as a pre-teen upset because he hasn’t been allowed to
come to his own dad’s wedding.
“The play then follows Amon into
adulthood and becoming ‘a man’ via some pretty terrible experiences. Finally,
he wants to confront his father and get some closure but the man he returns
home to isn’t the alpha male he grew up in fear of. Now he does meditation and
has started wearing beads.”
What do you love about dark
comedy? Your songs with Bonnie Milnes in The Lungs and Gwen occupied that
terrain too.
“I think comedy is a brilliant
vehicle for making a point without boring people. Serious issues can be very
serious and often no fun to talk about.
“Comedy allows people to enjoy
thinking and learning; comedy makes things that are hard to swallow much much
easier to swallow. Personally, I’d rather have a laugh than a scowl but that
doesn’t have to mean the content of discussion can’t be an important one.”
There’s nudity in the show…why?!
“People are paying whatever they want to for a ticket, so I want them to feel they’ve got their money’s worth.”
In a field of their own:: Albert Haddenham, front, and Theo Mason Wood contemplate masculinity in How To Beat Up Your Dad
One reviewer called
The Caravan Guys’ comedy style “punk, a bit scary, Berkoff, brave”, How
would you define it?
“We blur the lines between fiction and reality: the story tells one
narrative, of masculinity and how trauma is inherited and shared, how victims
become perpetrators. As we shift between characters and ourselves we tell
another, deeper and darker narrative about us as men: our competitiveness, our
need to dominate, to show off, to win the play.
“Our work is raucous and violent. It is completely free form. We
drag the audience through styles, times, places and people to show all the
insidious ways masculinity gets its claws in.”
What else are you up to, Theo?
“Currently I
perform comedy music under the title Jean Penne and I’ll soon be releasing a
small book of short stories.
“Meanwhile, me and
Albert are going to continue to try and become the Simon and Garfunkel of dark
comedy. After selling out a number of shows in Manchester and London, we look forward
to bringing the explosive How To Beat Up Your Dad to Leeds and Bristol in
February, the Brighton Fringe in May and Cambridge in July.
“We’ll then take the show to the
Edinburgh Fringe and the rest of the world (Bridlington) and then get cracking
on the next play.”
Caravan Guys Theatre Company in How To Beat Up Your Dad (The Musical), at Slung Low’s The Holbeck Theatre, Leeds, February 9, 5pm. Box office: via slunglow.org, at quaytickets.com or on 0843 208 0500. Please note, this is a Pay What You Decide After The Show performance.
Interview copyright of The Press, York, from July
23 2019
York Artworkers Association member Dave Cooper in his studio
YORK Artworkers Association’s 25th anniversary exhibition at Pyramid Gallery went so well last year that the group has decided to hold another.
Members
will be exhibiting at Terry Brett’s gallery in Stonegate, York, from Saturday
to February 23. “I’m anticipating it
will look unusually full,” he says.
Artist Adrienne French at work in her studio
“We want
to show everyone’s work if we can, but I expect the walls to look very full of
pictures, in the style of the Royal Academy Summer Show, but better. The standard
of work being submitted is very high and I foresee a really exciting exhibition
in both first-floor galleries and all the way up the staircase too.”
Art,
ceramics and jewellery by 30 members will be on show in an exhibition curated
by Terry, who is a YAA member himself.
Silver urchin bracelet, by Karen Thomas
“York
Artworkers Association was formed 26 years ago by a group of artists and people
who were working in design, graphics and galleries in order to provide a social
network of people interested in the arts,” he says.
“They meet
every month at Joseph’s Well, off Micklegate, where they invite speakers to
talk about a topic that could be anything do to with their own art practice or
an art-related organisation. Recent speakers have included a former member of
the theatrical drumming group Stomp and a sculptor who demonstrated modelling a
horse in clay.”
Snowden, by Kate Petitt
Last year’s
silver anniversary was marked by the Pyramid show, open to all association
members working in the arts. A book was produced to accompany the exhibition.
The sequel
will feature more members, several of whom will be present at Saturday’s launch
from 11am on a day when refreshments will be served until 2.30pm.
Artist Kate Petitt. PIcture: Olivia Brabbs
York painters
and printmakers taking part will be Richard and Valerie Bell; Dave Cooper;
Chrissie Dell; Adrienne French; Mandy Grant; Anna Harding; Luisa Holden; John Jirkwood;
Caroline Lord; Bernadette Oliver; Peter Park; Kate Pettitt; Liz and Saul
Salter; Lesley Seeger; Lesley Shaw; Jill Tattersall; Donna Taylor and Joe
Vaughan.
Catherine
Boyne-Whitelegg, Francesca Green, Sophie Hamilton, Ilona Sulikova and Chris
Utley will contribute ceramics; Tim Pierce, sculpture, and Ann Southeran,
stained glass.
Looking Up Iantosque, by Dave Cooper
Needlework,
felting and textiles will be shown by Carol Coleman, Cathy Needham, Sarah
Jackson and Julia Wilkins; weaving by Jacqueline James; basketry by Heather
Dawe, and jewellery by Karen Thomas and Richard Whitelegg.
All of the work will be for sale and exhibition images can be seen at pyramidgallery.com and on social media. Pyramid Gallery, York, is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and on some Sundays from 12.30pm to 4.30pm.
The final curtain: Berwick Kaler’s final wave on the night he retired after 40 years as York Theatre Royal’s dame on February 2 2019
TEN KEY POINTS FROM YORK THEATRE ROYAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TOM BIRD’S BBC RADIO YORK INTERVIEW WITH ADAM TOMLINSON THIS AFTERNOON
1. A new writer and director, with a new direction, will be appointed to make a “spectacular, fabulous, really York” Theatre Royal pantomime for 2020-2021.
2. Yes, it will still be a pantomime, not a winter show.
3. No, Berwick Kaler will not be involved as writer, co-director or dame.
4. Audience figures have declined for 11 years, from as high as 54,190 for Dick Turpin in 2008 to 30,000 so far (with two weeks to go) for Sleeping Beauty. Those “collapsing” figures have to be checked and reversed by attracting a new audience as well as retaining the regular theatregoers.
5. The current contract practice with the regular players, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper, Martin Barrass and A J Powell, is an unspoken agreement of a return for the next show, but Mr Bird wanted to be clear with those performers that this time this would not be the case. No-one is guaranteed an automatic contract renewal and no-one is on a long contract.
6. No regrets at the “halfway house” of retaining retired dame Berwick Kaler as writer and co-director for Sleeping Beauty as a chance to showcase the talents of the “amazing” cast regulars in a way audiences had not seen before, and “to some extent” this had happened. However, from ticket launch day onwards, some people had said ‘No, I’m not going to go.”
7. Refuting Berwick Kaler’s charges of “cheap sets, cheap costumes” for Sleeping Beauty, Mr Bird said the overall pantomime budget had increased. The designer [Anthony Lamble] was new, but the set and costume expenditure was the same as it was for The Grand Old Dame Of York last winter.
8. The new director and writer will need to have free rein for next winter’s pantomime, and if they were told they had to have certain actors, that would not be free rein. It should be a free shot, a state of autonomy, without any ties restricting them.
9. Could there be a U-turn, given that 1,400 people have signed an online petition to bring back Berwick? No.
Berwick had created something extraordinary over 40 years, but this is how life works: the panto needs a re-boot, one where “you don’t have to be in the club to come”.
10. The 2020-2021 pantomime will be announced at a launch on February 3.
First Doncaster Racecourse, now The Piece Hall in Halifax as Shed Seven head outdoors for the summer
YORK’S Shed Seven will top an all-Yorkshire bill at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 26.
Joining the Sheds will be Leeds bands The Pigeon Detectives and The Wedding Present and Leeds United-supporting York group Skylights, plus the Brighton Beach DJs.
Tickets for this Futuresounds Events show will go on sale on Friday at 9am at lunatickets.co.uk, seetickets.com and gigantic.com.
This is the second outdoor show announcement by the Sheds in quick succession, after confirming they will be chasing winners as well as Chasing Rainbows at Doncaster Racecourse on August 15, when they play Live After Racing, under starter’s orders at 5.45pm.
“We’re doing this Piece Hall show partly because our 2018 gig at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl went so well,” says Shed Seven lead singer Rick Witter, whose revived Britpoppers drew 8,000 that June day and now will perform in the 5,500-capacity square of the renovated 18th-century Halifax cloth hall that now houses history exhibits and independent shops, bars and restaurants.
The Sheds have just mounted their biggest ever Shedcember winter tour, chalking up their record run of 23 shows between November 21 and December 21, with Leeds First Direct Arena on December 7 at the epicentre.
“After we did the Shedcember gigs, we just fancied doing something similar to Castlefield Bowl this summer, but this time a Yorkshire gig,” says the Stockport-born Witter.
Stockport, Mr Witter?! “I know, but I consider myself a Yorkie now,” says Rick, who attended Huntington School in York.
David Gedge of The Wedding Present, part of the June 26 bill at The Piece Hall, Halifax
“I remember Embrace playing The Piece Hall [Elbow have done likewise], and it’s taken a few months to confirm our gig since we came up with the idea of playing there. We wanted to do an outdoor show, and to do it in such a salubrious setting will be a great buzz.”
As the Sheds look forward to their Halifax and Doncaster concerts, complemented by seven summer festival gigs, with two more to be added, Rick says: “It’s a weird one for us: as the Shedcember tour showed, it seems we’re more popular than ever now. It’s a strange phenomenon but long may it continue.
“Having a new album out [Instant Pleasures, released in November 2017], has definitely helped, because the shows aren’t just nostalgia now; there are new songs too.”
Given that fresh impetus, backed up by October 2019’s gold vinyl re-issue of the Sheds’ greatest hits compilation, Going For Gold, Rick says: “Now we need to do that again: write some more new songs, and as busy as everyone is doing their own thing, there might be room to meet up once a week.”
Definitely new this year will be Shed Seven’s first racecourse concert at Donny. “I went as a guest to see Kaiser Chiefs play at York Racecourse [July 22 2016], and it was a great day out. People love it because it’s a full day out with racing and music. Let’s feel the love that day as everyone makes a big day of it. We can’t wait.”
Tickets for Shed Seven’s Music Live performance at Donny are on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk, with more information available at doncaster-racecourse.co.uk. Gates will open at 11.15am for the 1.10pm racecard,
Jess Gardham: on the road from York to Pocklington Arts Centre for a Busking-in-the-Bar night
YORK blues and soul singer, songwriter,
musical actress and MasterChef semi-finalist Jess Gardham performs at Busking-in-the-Bar,
Pocklington Arts Centre’s free music night, on Friday night (January 17).
Jess, of South Bank, York, has toured Britain, Europe, the United States and Canada, supported KT Tunstall, Paul CarrackandMartin Simpson and played at festivals across Britain, not least PAC’s Platform Festival at The Old Station, Pocklington last summer.
In York, she has starred in three York Stage Musicals’ productions, playing “Motormouth” Maybelle in Hairspray in April 2015 and spiritualist Oda Mae Brown in Ghost The Musical and appearing in Rock Of Ages in April 2017.
“We’re delighted that Jess Gardham will play our first Busking-in-the-Bar event of 2020,” says Pocklington Arts Centre director Janet Farmer
“Busking-in-the-Bar is an opportunity for everyone to experience some fantastic free live music, from emerging local artists, all within the comfort of our intimate and luxurious bar,” says PAC director Janet Farmer.
“We were fortunate enough to have Jess Gardham open Platform Festival 2019 and she was sensational, so we’re delighted that Jess will play our first Busking-in-the-Bar event of 2020.
“There’s fantastic live music, a wide
range of drinks to choose from and it’s free entry: what a perfect start to the
weekend.”
On Friday, the bar opens at 7pm, the music starts at 8pm. For more details, call the box office on 01759 301547 or visit pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Pavel Kolesnikov, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, January 10
IT pays to invite big names. The Lyons was justifiably packed for this piano recital promoted by the British Music Society, which was built around two Beethoven sonatas. For anyone just returned from outer space, 2020 is set to be a big year for the great man, as we celebrate his 250th birthday.
Kolesnikov began, however, with a Chopin group, in which he probed the composer’s yearning for the Polish homeland he left at the age of 20, never to return. Rather than plunge straight into the tempestuous Fantasie-Impromptu, he opened with a minor-key nocturne not on the programme. It was magnetic. From then on his audience hung on his every note (some ill-timed, uncovered coughs apart).
Another nostalgic nocturne led into a passionate Third Scherzo in which drama took precedence over clarity. Nobody minded. By then we were in thrall to the seemingly effortless charisma of a man who never plays an unmusical note. Besides, there were always these inner voices that he kept bringing out of the texture.
At this point he allowed the first applause – we were desperate for the release. He then used Chopin’s so-called “Raindrop” prelude as his introduction to Beethoven’s “Moonlight” sonata, with barely a pause between the two (not such a bad idea when you consider that they are effectively in the same key, except that the former is major, the latter minor).
” It was thrilling for being so close to the edge,” says Martin Dreyer of Pavel Kolesnikov’s piano playing.
The opening movement was a little distorted by rubato. What followed was unexpected. I have never heard the Scherzo played so slowly and deliberately. By contrast, the finale could hardly have been speedier. It was thrilling for being so close to the edge.
The theme of night continued after the interval in pieces by Schumann, Debussy and Bartok. Kolesnikov brought an eerie edge to Schumann’s halting first Nachstück, elongating the many rests dotting its texture. Debussy’s fireworks (Feux d’artifice) were predictably more colourful, superbly varied, while Bartok’s trademark Night Music from his Outdoors suite chillingly evoked things that go bump in the night.
There was a dignified restraint to the opening movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Op 53, dedicated in 1804 to his erstwhile patron Count Waldstein, which lent its chorale a certain hauteur. The slow movement was less convincing. But the final rondo grew in excitement towards its closing prestissimo, with a riveting wealth of detail throughout.
At a mere 30 years old, Kolesnikov could be adorning our concert platforms for another half-century. Let us hope he can be lured back to York very soon.
Dame Berwick Kaler’s final wave at the end of his 40 years of pantomimes at York Theatre Royal on February 2 2019. All pictures: Anthony Robling
“Things have not gone well and it’s not the fault
of the cast. The sets do not do what the script requires.” Dame Berwick Kaler,
The Press, York, January 9.
IT should not have come to this, and yet it was
inevitable. Berwick Kaler told the full house on the last night of his 40-year
damehood on February 2 last year that he would be “back like a shot” if the
Theatre Royal came a’calling.
Now, in a move without consultation with those above him to match the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the very same week, and always a law unto himself, he has used the pages of The Press newspaper to tell the Theatre Royal to “take me back”, backed by long-serving principal girl Suzy Cooper.
“I made the biggest mistake saying I
was going to retire,” said Dame Berwick. “I want to jump out of my suit and
perform.”
Let’s remember that the dame called
time; he was not pushed into retirement, and a 40th anniversary
show gave Britain’s longest-serving dame a right royal and loyal send-off in
The Grand Old Dame Of York.
The knives are out…but from Berwick Kaler and Suzy Cooper in The Press, and not A J Powell in Edward Scissorhands mode in Sleeping Beauty.
Fully fit after his double heart
bypass, Dame Berwick has “retired” but, unlike Elvis, not left the building, writing the script for
Sleeping Beauty and co-directing the show with Matt Aston, purveyor of the past
three rock’n’roll pantomimes at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.
Like the dame, many a boxer later
decides he has made a mistake by retiring, but then makes a bigger one by
returning, having lost his punch or, in Berwick’s case, his punchlines.
The splash story in The Press amounts
to an act of mutiny by Berwick Kaler and Suzy Cooper, openly taking on the
management and the board with a series of criticisms that have been refuted
swiftly by executive director Tom Bird. In doing so, they are in essence saying
“Back us or sack us” and calling on the public, “our audience”, to support
their case.
Berwick may have been in for a shock
when The Press’s invitation to Have Your Say on whether he should be back on
stage next winter evoked such responses as: “No. Big ego.” “Time for completely
new blood.” “Time to move on, Berwick”. “Definitely not.” “Stay retired
Berwick. The pantomime has run its course.” Or, in the words of Farmer Tom:
“Time to have a completely fresh start. The Kaler days were legendary but
they’re gone. New blood needed.”
What the Kaler-Cooper outburst has
done is bring the debate out into the open, just as was the intention of the
headline in the charleshutchpress.co.uk review:
“Sleeping Beauty awakes at York Theatre Royal but should Dame Berwick era
be put to bed?”
A picture of innocence: Suzy Cooper as the young Princess Beauty, with her cuddly toy, in Sleeping Beauty
At the request of the rest of the “Not
Famous But Famous Five in York”, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper, Martin Barrass and
AJ Powell, Berwick was taken on once more as writer and co-director, also
appearing in the brace of films and voicing, aptly, a skeleton. The effect,
however, was like Banquo’s Ghost haunting this halfway house of a show.
And now, within the bubble of self-preservation, Berwick wants to be back, Suzy wants him back. However, while a bad workman blames his tools, as the saying goes, this particular workman, Berwick, blamed someone else’s tools – the “cheap sets and cheap costumes” – for “things not going well” for Sleeping Beauty. It is true Anthony Lamble’s designs did not match the spectacular heights of predecessor Mark Walters, but that slur is a cheap, inaccurate shot, and although he is right that Sleeping Beauty’s failings are “not the fault of the cast”, what of his own tools as writer and co-director?
Berwick is deluded in believing the
script was not at fault either, and it is no secret that the new, experimental Aston-Kaler
directorial partnership did not gel, alas.
Where does York Theatre Royal go
next? Bird and board cannot answer only to the needs and wishes of Berwick,
Suzy and their “loyal audience”. There is a wider audience to consider; those
who do not go to a Dame Berwick pantomime, but would like to see in this new
decade with a new beginning for the Theatre Royal’s winter show.
In particular, a show for the next generation of theatre-goers, children, who are noticeably outnumbered by adults at the Kaler brand of chaotic meta-panto, in contrast to the audience profile of pantomimes across the country.
David Leonard as Evil Diva in Sleeping Beauty, but will the greatest villain in pantoland return to York Theatre Royal next winter?
The CharlesHutchPress review of Sleeping Beauty on December 12 ended by pondering the Theatre Royal’s vision for 2020. “Are the days of this brand of pantomime behind you?”, it asked, “because the patented but weary “same old rubbish” won’t suffice next year.
“This is no
laughing matter, and here are the options,” it went on. “Bring back Dame
Berwick full on, working from the inside, not the outside, with all that goes
with that; or freshen up the panto in a different way, or find a new vehicle to
utilise the talents of Leonard, Cooper, Barrass and Powell. Many a theatre has
moved on from pantomime, whether Leeds Playhouse, the Stephen Joseph Theatre or
Hull Truck, and still found a winter winner. We await the Bird call…”.
The future of the Kaler pantomime is uncertain, says Suzy, who
fears the axe, but the future of pantomime at York Theatre Royal is not
uncertain. Will the Theatre Royal “take Berwick back” into the panto fold on
stage? No. No player is bigger than the club, as the football world is fond of
saying, and to continue the football analogy, Berwick and Suzy have scored an own
goal in going to The Press.
If Berwick, now 73, really does want to “jump out of my suit and
perform”, then how about doing so in plays for the veteran stage of acting:
Lear in King Lear, Prospero in The Tempest or Sir in Ronald Harwood’s The
Dresser with Martin Barrass as his Norman?
Come early February, we shall know the answer to the pantomime conundrum. Is it too outrageous to suggest that if it came to a choice between who is now more invaluable to the Theatre Royal panto, it would be the villainous David Leonard, not the mutinous Dame Berwick?
Alex Hill, left, Beth Scott, Jami Richards and Laura Castle with £5 student tickets for Once The Musical at the Grand Opera House. Picture: David Harrison
THE Grand Opera House, York, is teaming up with City of York Council to offer anyone aged 26 and under £5 tickets for the Broadway and West End show Once The Musical.
Running from February 3 to 8, the show is based on the 2007 Irish indie hit film, telling the uplifting yet yearning story of two lost souls – a Dublin street busker and a Czech musician – who unexpectedly fall in love.
Charting their relationship across five short days, big changes happen to both of them in little ways in this romantic musical drama. Celebrated for its original score, including the Academy Award-winning song Falling Slowly, Once is a spell-binding story of hopes and dreams.
Directed by Peter Rowe, with musical direction by regular accomplice Ben Goddard, Once The Musical has embarked on its first major British tour after Broadway and West End productions, leading to a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, eight Tony Awards and an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music.
To book £5 tickets, go to atgtickets.com/sho…/once/grand-opera-house-york/ Code: ONCE5. Proof of age must be shown when collecting tickets.
