Woogie Jung, left, Tom Pavey and Efe Agwele: Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Picture: Mark Senior
FORTY five years ago, Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield first staged a 20-minute Hamlet at the Shakespeare-themed Renaissance Faires in California.
If brevity is the soul of wit, as espoused by the soon-to-be-terminated Polonius in Act Two, Scene Two of Hamlet, then the anti-nuclear political action committee accountant, Santa Rosa graphic artist and Santa Cruz lawyer had hit on a formula for compact comedy gold.
Long moved to the UK 35 years ago; the trio’s Reduced Shakespeare Company first toured the UK 31 years ago, since when The Complete Works have spent nine years at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, featured in two television specials and transferred to more than 20 countries.
Now, Long is at the directorial helm for the 30th anniversary tour of a “re-booted, re-imagined, reinvented and updated” Complete Works, still squeezing 37 plays and, very briefly, the Sonnets, into under two hours (including a 15-minute interval).
On RSC duty for the first time are Mountview Academy of Theatre MA graduate Efe Agwele, South Korean-born, London-based Woogie Jung, in his debut UK tour, and University of Oxford DPhil in Biology student Tom Pavey in his professional bow.
Tour understudy Kiran Raywilliams is a Bristol actor, rapper, poet and DJ, who played David in York company Pilot Theatre’s Run, Rebel in 2023-2024, by the way.
This is a young company, charged with injecting fresh energy into a comedy classic that opens with a copy of the First Folio on a plinth, ready to be shredded alive. The pace is fast, then faster still, but the comic timing is not always there, sometimes pushing too hard or rushed. Serving up the gory Titus Andronicus as a YouTube cookery tutorial, for example, lacks comic bite.
Ironically on such a stiflingly hot night (Wednesday), the cast needed to warm up their audience, whose response times quickened and noise levels rose once audience participation, both on stage and in the auditorium, became central to the show.
Acts of reduction vary from Coriolanus not being performed, on account of an aversion to the second part of his name, to the History Plays being conducted as a game of football with the crown passed like a hot potato from king to king (and King Lear shown the red card for being only a literary creation).
The comedy style is irreverent, gleefully silly at times, delivered with costume and prop changes by the dozen, shaking up Shakespeare like an earthquake but still with a love for Will’s wondrous works. Corniest gag? How about “I invited Shakespeare to the pub, but he was Bard.”
Not everything works, but in Chinese meal tradition, there is always another play coming up for comedic short shrift in the RSC’s taming of rather more than a Shrew.
All’s well that ends well too in Act Two’s focus on Hamlet, in particular a Freudian analysis of the suicidal Ophelia, acting out her psyche, with the audience split into three to play the parts of her Ego, Id and Superego (the three components of the mind defined by Sigmund Freud’s structural theory of personality).
To finish: Hamlet in 30 seconds, then in five seconds, and finally, backwards. Silence is the rest…and the rest is silence until the post-show discussion with chairs on the stage for the only time.
Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
SUPER Furry Animals may be Dai-hard Welshman, but in an act of supreme consideration to England versus Norway kicking off at 10pm in the World Cup quarter final, everything today at Live At York Museum Gardens will kick off earlier to boot. Gates open at 3.30pm; last entry is at 8pm.
Saturday’s bill: Pys Melyn (3.55pm to 4.25pm); Divorce (4.45pm to 5.25pm); Los Campesinos! (5.55pm to 6.40pm); Baxter Dury (7.10pm to 7.55pm); headliners Super Furry Animals (8.25pm to 9.55pm.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits concert at Live At York Museum Gardens tonight
LIVE At York Museum Gardens returns for its third festival of outdoor concerts from today to Saturday and second York Comedy Festival on Sunday, organised by Leeds event promoters Futuresound Group.
“We’re so proud of how Live at York Museum Gardens has grown, and we’re looking forward to seeing the changes we’ve made to the site this year, ensuring that everyone enjoys their time in such a beautiful space,” says Rachel Hill, Futuresound’s project manager, who lives in York, by the way.
The map of the Live At York Museum Gardens site for July 9 to 11
“None of this would have been possible without the continued collaboration, trust and support of the team at York Museums Trust; the opportunity to put together such an incredible bill for the summer makes us excited for the future of our partnership.”
Today’s bill: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Summer of Hits (9pm), with Heaven 17 (7.30pm), China Crisis (6.30pm) and Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin (5.30pm) in support. Gates open at 5pm; last admission 8.30pm. SOLD OUT.
Friday’s bill: Self Esteem (Rotherham’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor), supported by The Big Moon, Moonchild Sanelly and Joshua Idehen. Gates, 5pm; last entry, 8.30pm.
Super Furry Animals: Flower power in the botanical gardens at Live At York Museum Gardens on Saturday. Picture: Ryan Eddleston
Saturday’s bill: PLEASE NOTE: NOW STARTING and ENDING EARLIER. Super Furry Animals (8.25pm to 9.55pm), plus Baxter Dury (7.10pm to 7.55pm). Los Campesinos! (5.55pm to 6.40pm), Divorce (4.45pm to 5.25pm) and Pys Melyn (3.55pm to 4.25pm). Gates, 3.30pm; last entry, 8pm.
Event curfew for each concert: 10.30pm.
Check Live At York Museum Gardens social media channels on the day, where set times will be published ahead of time. NO readmittance to Live At York Museum Gardens; once you leave the site, you will not be allowed to re-enter.
Sunday’s comedy bill: Nabil Abdulrashid, 4:20pm to 4:45pm; Jeff Innocent, 4.50pm to 5.15pm; Barry from Watford, 5.45pm to 6.10pm; Suzi Ruffell, 6.15pm to 6.40pm; Russell Kane, 7.10pm to 7.35pm; Joanne McNally, 7.40pm to 8.05pm; Ross Noble, 8.35pm to 9.05pm and Russell Howard, 9.30pm to 10pm, hosted by Jarred Christmas. Gates, 3pm; last entry, 8.15pm. .
The map for the Live At York Museum Gardens site for Sunday’s York Comedy Festival
Map: Futuresound, the team behind Live at York Museum Gardens, have come to know the site well and, in tandem with York Museums Trust, have “refined how the event fits and feels within the garden walls”. Downloadable site maps can be found at the Live at York Museum Gardens FAQ page with other relevant information.
Box office: Located adjacent to General Admission entrance via Museum Street while the newly situated Premium Ticket entrance is via Exhibition Square.
New features: The Live at York Museum Gardens Premium Area has been moved to a new location closer to the action with a Hang Out Area featuring seating, premium facilities and exclusive food vendors, along with access to a new first-come, first-served, free-flowing Premium Standing Platform with an unparalleled view of the stage.
Significantly, this year’s event will feature large-format, high-definition screens either side of the main stage for the first time, “significantly improving audiences ability to see and appreciate the performances”.
Cutting a dash: Russell Kane will play a 25-minute set at Sunday’s York Comedy Festival at 7.10pm
Gardens facts: Founded in the 1830s, York Museum Gardens span more than ten acres of botanical gardens, set against the backdrop of the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey and also house the Yorkshire Museum and Hospitium. The gardens welcome 1.3 million visitors a year as a space to relax and enjoy.
Weather forecast: Phew, what a scorcher, all weekend.
Rachel Hill’s advice: Make sure to apply Factor 50 sun cream.
Alas, Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor was not available for an interview.
Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor
Who is Self Esteem? Fact file
Born: Rotherham, South Yorkshire, October 15 1986.
Name: Rebecca Lucy Taylor.
Age: 39.
Parents’ occupations: Father, health & safety advisor and amateur musician; mother, secretary.
Education: Wales High School in Rotherham, where she was a “choir nerd”.
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, musician and actress.
Style: Experimental pop, R&B and electronica, delivered with theatrical stage presence.
Content: Known for bold, emotionally honest, witty, genre-defying pop music with feminist themes, addressing gender politics, women’s rights, female autonomy, mental health, liberation, modern identity and self-empowerment, challenging societal norms.
First band: The Lonely Hearts, featuring Taylor on drums.
Second band: On vocals, drums, guitar and percussion, she was one half of folk-indie/country soul duo Slow Club, formed in Sheffield in 2006 with fellow former Lonely Heart Charles Watson (vocals, guitar, piano)
Albums: Yeah So, 2009; Paradise, 2011; Complete Surrender, 2014; All Of This Won’t Matter Anymore, 2016.
Played here: The Basement (City Screen Picturehouse), The Duchess and The Crescent in York; Pocklington Arts Centre.
The first poster for Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens
Documentary: Our Most Brilliant Friends, directed by Piers Dennis, released in 2018, charting Slow Club’s final tour in Winter 2016 and the “unfulfilled” Taylor’s rising dissatisfaction with the band.
Did you know? Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield occasionally joined the duo on stage on tour.
Rebranded as Self Esteem: 2017, preceded by using that name for artistic projects such as a painting and print exhibition.
Albums: Compliments Please, 2019; Prioritise Pleasure, 2021; A Complicated Woman, April 25 2025.
Best-known song: Spoken-word anthem I Do This All the Time, 2021.
Acting roles: On TV, I Hate Suzie Too (Sky) and Smothered (Sky). Film: Layla, playing Emily in writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi’s 2024 debut British romance.
Theatre: Sally Bowles in Cabaret, at Kit Kat Club, Playhouse Theatre, West End, London, September 2023 to March 2024; Maggie Frisby in 50th anniversary West End revival of David Hare’s Teeth’n’Smiles, Duke of York’s Theatre, March 13 to June 6 2026 (playing lead role originated by Helen Mirren)
On stage too: Created and starred in A Complicated Woman Live, a specially conceived theatrical live performance at Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 2025.
Awards: Visionary Award at 2025 Ivor Novello Awards; Album of the Year for Proritise Pleasure in the Guardian and Sunday Times Culture; Attitude magazine’s Music Award, 2021; BBC Introducing Artist of the Year, 2022. Nominated for Mercury Prize, BRIT Awards, Sky Arts Awards and NME Awards.
Did you know too? Self Esteem composed the soundtrack for Suzie Miller’s one-woman play Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer in the West End, on Broadway and on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in February 2026.
Debut book: A Complicated Woman, published on October 30 2025. Co-curated London Literature Festival at Southbank to mark its release.
When is Self Esteem playing York? Live At York Museum Gardens, July 10. Box office: https://www.futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events
The second poster for Self Esteem at Live At York Museum Gardens
As smart as ever…or is he? Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson
AS Harold Wilson once said, in the white heat of a lobby briefing to journalists in 1964, a week is a long time in politics.
As it turns out, it is a long time on a theatre tour too. Both the role of Prime Minister (imminent exit stage left Sir Keir Starmer) and of the former Prime Minister in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister have undergone a change since the tour opened.
Sir Keir resigned on June 22; the next night, Robert Kitson took over from Simon Rouse as Jim Hacker at Cheltenham Everyman, Rouse having had to withdraw from the rest of the itinerary through illness.
Kitson had understudied Griff Rhys Jones in the West End run and York marks his third week of working in tandem with Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby: a partnership now well into its comic groove as the blustering Jim and erudite Sir Humphrey joust in familiar point-scoring mode.
Writers Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay’s beloved BBC political satire, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister had run between 1980 and 1988, followed by the 2010 play, Yes, Prime Minister.
Robert Kitson: Taking over as Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister
Now, writer-director Lynn picks up the solo baton for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, a final chapter that began at The Barn Theatre in 2023 as I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, I Can’t Quite Remember, a title that indicated the vulnerabilities of ageing for the now venerable Hacker and Sir Humphrey.
This is no nostalgia trip for a treasured double act, however, but a freshly crafted comedy as politically sharp as ever in this age of cancel culture, with lessons to be learned by both the former political leader and his Civil Service nemesis, Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey.
Kitson’s Jim Hacker is now Lord Hacker, “older, but perhaps not wiser”, befuddled by the modern world, suffering from arthritis, back pain and congestive heart failure, and in need of a carer, as well as a stair lift.
“Care worker,” Princess Donnough’s Sophie corrects him at her interview to take on the role. It will not be his only politically incorrect utterance to meet her disapproval.
Indeed Jim’s indiscreet tongue is in trouble with rather more than former English Literature student Sophie at Hacker College, Oxford, where he is the long-serving Master after the college was set up in his name with a benefactor’s funding.
Princess Donnough’s care worker Sophie in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Danny Kaan
Since being forced to resign as Prime Minister, he has dabbled in journalism, written a book (6,000 sales in the first week, none since), turned up every so often for his attendance allowance and expenses at the House of Lords, but now he faces “the ultimate modern crisis: being cancelled by the college committee after his support of Cecil Rhodes’s statue staying in place, among other pronouncements against the tide of change.
Hostile students and equally hostile Fellows want him to be ousted: a P45 delivered by William Chubb’s gaunt college Visitor, Sir David, arriving in Grim Reaper black hood.
Jim will not go quietly into the night, re-establishing contact with Sir Humphrey, by now consigned to a “home for the elderly deranged” by his daughter-in-law, to draw on his skills of negotiation, eloquent, elaborate obfuscation and love of a Latin phrase.
Francis, reprising the role he first played at the Barn Theatre and then in the West End, is a master of comic timing, exquisite line delivery and tongue-twisting double-speak monologues, yet there are frayed edges to Sir Humphrey’s piercing intelligence and bureaucratic chess play. Immaculate suit, ever-present briefcase, superior air, are all present and correct, but could the first signs of dementia be kicking in as he loses the thread of his thinking in one of his magniloquent obstructive set-pieces.
Jim and Sir Humphrey must not only seek to outmanoeuvre Sir David but also face the modern thinking of Donnough’s formidable, frank and fearless Sophie. As well as politics, the world of education is dissected with a scalpel by Lynn as rising student fees and “offensive” words in literature come under fierce discussion.
Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby and Simon Rouse’s Jim Hacker in a publicity shot for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Simon had to leave the tour through illness
Lynn has the measure of politics and education alike in the kind of wise, waspish and witty satire now all too rare on the British stage in a play as full of King Lear pathos as comedy, where there is a sadness to Jim and Sir Humphrey, now past their pomp.
Yet the comedy still prevails amid the melancholia, directed so astutely by Lynn and co-director Michael Gyngell in a high-class production where Lee Newby’s set design of Jim’s unkempt college rooms evokes academia, widower loneliness and a political past. Snow dusts the skyline in Leo Flint’s window video projections in a further nod to Jim and Sir Humphrey being in their winter years.
Physical comedy plays its part too, riffing on the ageing of the two protagonists, whether in a mobile-phone-going-off-in-a-pocket joke or the stair lift’s brief turn in the spotlight at the opening to Act Two.
Everything is so well balanced in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, always giving both sides of the argument, showing the fault lines in Jim and Sir Humphrey alike, culminating in the warmth of the fitting finale – the recognition of the need for supportive friendship – that is genuinely moving.
The Barn Theatre presents I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Hannah Davies and Jack Woods: Performing The Ballad Of Blea Wyke at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, and Helmsley Arts Centre
NORTH Yorkshire slam champion poet, theatre maker and writer Hannah Davies and her regular musician, Jack Woods, re-imagine the selkie myth for a not-too-distant dystopian future on the North Yorkshire coast in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke.
Originally micro-commissioned by York Theatre Royal as part of the Green Shoots project in May 2022, the show has grown from its five-minute debut into a 60-minute performance, premiered at the Scarborough Fair in June 2025 and now heading for York and Helmsley.
Directed by Em Whitfield Brooks and presented in association with York arts organisations Say Owt and Next Door But One, this lyrical spoken-word and musical storytelling piece will be performed at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, on Friday (10/7/2026) at 8.30pm and Helmsley Arts Centre on July 17 at 7.30pm.
Chiming with her own move from York to Scarborough, Hannah relates the tale of a young woman who wants to see the sea, combining her storytelling with Pascallion and Leeather’O musician Jack’s live guitar, loops and harmonies in a haunting interweaving of story, music, poetry and song.
“I’ve spent the last few years living and working by the sea – I love it,” says Hannah. “The sound of the waves are like instant calming white noise for me. There is something both soothing and terrifying about the sea and I love the fact that it brazenly declares all of its moods without apology.”
What happens in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke? A stranger stands on a cliff. The last grey seal swims towards the shore. On her 18th birthday, Cerys breaks the city’s lockdown to seek the coastal cliffs that birthed her, the crumbling landscape drawing her back to her mythic past.
Explaining what drew her to the selkie myth of seals transforming into humans by shedding their skin, Say Owt associate artist and creative producer Hannah says: “I suffered from Topical Steroid Withdrawal between 2019 and 2023, a debilitating iatrogenic condition caused by steroids.
“I’d been through hell with that, as my skin burnt, swelled, scabbed and shed, so the image of the seal shedding its skin really resonated with me. A lot of the selkie myths are about transformation and coming back to one truest nature, and I really had to do that as I healed.”
Hannah read all manner of folk tales for research purposes: “Any I could get my hands on,” she says. “The People Of The Sea, a memoir by writer David Thomson, was really useful. In it he travels to rural Scotland and Ireland and meets all kinds of local people, who tell him a wide variety of the ancient Celtic versions of the stories.
“It was fascinating to learn so much about them and the variety of stories and forms they show up in. The selkie stories also cross over into Nordic and Norse folklore, so I read up about those too.”
Hannah continues: “I also ‘geeked out’ on plenty of nature documentaries, watching seals swimming, fighting, giving birth. 2014 film Song Of The Sea is a really lovely watch. I enjoyed that film immensely and also watched darker sea films like Lighthouse (2019) and Bait (2019), set and filmed in a Cornish fishing village.”
Blea Wyke, should you be unaware, is a rocky promontory very close to Ravenscar, between Scarborough and Whitby, where seals often can be spotted, especially during mating or pup season.
“Ravenscar was once planned as a new Victorian seaside town, which never actually got finished as the company went bust,” says Hannah. “There are hints of this in the landscape, laid pavements, drains etc. I was fascinated by this image of a half-finished ghost town and this informed the feel of lockdown and disaster in the piece and also the wider themes.”
Why is the coastline “forbidden” in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, Hannah? “The piece is set in a contemporary re-imagining of the myth and places the events of the story in Yorkshire, in a time that suggests a post-climate collapse.
“The piece was very much influenced by the desolate feeling of lockdown and the restrictions around it and also by the type of world that we are living in, where every inch of the land is owned, privatised or restricted in some way.”
Assessing why storytelling remains so crucial to human existence, Hannah says: “Stories are embedded into us at the very core. We are all made up of our stories, and by telling and sharing them we get to see and understand ourselves in others’ actions, words and deeds.
“Humans need connection and shared experience to thrive and I think stories do that for us all. In such a divided world we need that more than ever.”
Out of curiosity, the last question has to be whether Hannah believes in the existence of selkies? “I believe in folk tales and the power they have to tell us about the lore of the land,” she says. “I definitely believe in magic.”
Hannah Davies and Jack Woods present The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Friday, 8.30pm, doors 7.30pm; Helmsley Arts Centre, July 17, 7.30pm. Box office: York, bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
More questions for Hannah Davies
How have you and Jack expanded the piece from the May 2022 micro-version at York Theatre Royal?
“After the original five-minute micro-commission as part of York Theatre Royal’s Green Shoots, Jack and I worked together to expand it into a full piece. I led on the story and Jack on the music, though both informed the other as it went on.
“I’d throw Jack bits of dialogue or description and he would share fragments of musical themes and together we built a shared sound and image world, which then became the final piece.
“We then worked with Next Door But One to host a first sharing read-through and this is when Em Whitfield Brooks came on board as directorial/vocal support. Having her expertise really helped me to refine all the different modes and tones of storytelling in the piece. There is poetry, narration, dialogue and song, all beautifully underscored by Jack’s rich, layered sounds.
Have further changes been made since last summer’s Scarborough Fair?
“A couple of tweaks in dialogue here and there, but not really, no. The show we did last year is now ready to tour and be shared more widely. It had been a slow burn making this show; it’s simmered and brewed over a few years and has been worked on between lots of other projects, which has made it a stronger piece I think.”
Where is your favourite place on the Yorkshire coastline and why?
“Ooooh, so many, too many to name! Probably Boggle Hole. My Dad used to take me and my brother there to stay in the youth hostel.”
How important is the support of Say Owt and Next Door But One?
“Working with Matt Harper-Hardcastle and NDB1 was so great. They really helped me and Jack get the piece turned into its finished form. Being associate artist at Say Owt is such a joy too.”
What will you be working on next?
“I’m in the process of reclaiming my writing and performance practice. I have lots of bits and bobs coming up.”
Hannah Davies
Writer/performer
HANNAH Davies is a writer, theatre-maker, director, performer and slam-winning poet from Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
She has written for Royal Court Theatre, Ice&Fire, York Theatre Royal and Guild of Misrule and performed at spoken-word nights across the UK.
She is an associate artist at York spoken-word collective Say Owt and has held such roles as co-leader of MA Playwriting course at University of York, artistic director of York company Common Ground Theatre and executive producer at ARCADE in Scarborough. Discover more at hannahdavies.co.uk
Musician/performer
JACK Woods is a Yorkshire musician and instrumentalist. He studied music at British and Irish Modern Music Institute and plays mandolin, violin and guitar. He has played in many bands across different genres, including Leather’O, and writes and records as Pascallion. He has featured on BBC Introducing with Jericho Keys. Visit pascallion.bandcamp.com
Director
EM Whitfield Brooks is a director, choral leader, creative facilitator, voice teacher and coach. She has directed large-scale community opera and small-scale touring theatre; produced and directed for Ryedale Festival Community Opera; was a choral director of Hull Freedom Chorus, Angus & Ross Theatre Company and Back to Ours in Hull and held the artistic director’s post at Helmsley Arts Centre from 2012 to 2016. Check out emwhitfieldbrooks.com.
PitchWitches
Did you know?
EM Whitfield Brooks’s new vocal quintet, Pitch Witches, will be the opening act at the Helmsley Arts Centre performance of The Ballad Of Blea Wyke. Em brings together some of the finest singers in York for a soaring set of close-harmony songs.
Becca Magson’s Rita and Joe Gregory’s Frank in 1812 Theatre Company’s Educating Rita. Picture: Lauren Wyeth
RYEDALE Festival and 1812 Theatre’s Educating Rita, compact Shakespeare and Live At York Museum Gardens are uppermost in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations amid the July heatwave.
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Educating Rita, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm
SAMANTHA Hughes directs Helmsley Arts Centre resident troupe 1812 Theatre Company in Willy Russell’s comedy Educating Rita, wherein Frank (Joe Gregory) is a tutor of English Literature in his 50s whose disillusioned outlook on life drives him to drink and bury himself in his books.
Enter Rita (Becca Magson), a forthright 26-year-old hairdresser who is eager to learn. After weeks of cajoling, she slowly wins over the hesitant Frank with her highly original insights and refusal to accept “No” for an answer. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk. Picture: Lauren Wyeth.
Michael Flatley’s Irish dancers in the 30th anniversary tour of Lord Of The Dance, in action at York Barbican tonight. Picture: Brian Doherty
Dance show of the week: Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, tonight, 7.45pm
THE 30th anniversary tour of Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance promises a grand celebration of the revolutionary Irish dance production’s legacy, after captivating more than 60 million fans in 60 countries since its 1996 debut.
The 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour features “brand-new choreography, stunning costumes, state-of-the-art special effects and cutting-edge lighting, ensuring that the production continues to push boundaries and deliver an unforgettable experience”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/lord-of-the-dance-30th-anniversary/.
Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson
Political drama of the week: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
JIM Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim (Robert Kitson, replacing the indisposed Simon Rouse) instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction.
Can Humphrey and Jim outmanoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”? Brimming with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series is written and directed by Jonathan Lynn,co-directed byMichael Gyngell and presented by The Barn Theatre, Cirencester. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), squeezing into York Theatre Royal this week
Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
MARKING 30 years of performances in the UK, the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour company of Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and Kiran Raywilliams presents 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, passing the crown from king to king.
Californian co-founders Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield have re-booted, re-imagined, reinvented and updated the restless comedy for a new generation to undertake a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s First Folio of plays. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Stephen Smith’s Claude Monet in A Montage Of Monet at York Medical Society. Picture: Amie Barton-Young
Storytelling actor of the week: Threedumb Theatre presents Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, tonight, 7.30pm and July 11, 3pm; One Man Poe world premiere, July 11, 7.30pm
THREEDUMB Theatre artistic director and actor Stephen Smith performs Joan Greening’s new play exploring French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s life and loves: his two marriages, his first wife’s devastating death, his lover’s erratic behaviour, his suicide attempt, his thoughts on fellow Impressionists and the torment of his failing eyesight. The 55-minute Monet montage combines projection design and Joe Furey’s music with Smith’s storytelling in two York performances.
Smith also presents the world premiere of his latest Poe double bill (The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar) ahead of his Edinburgh Fringe residency. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits concert at Live At York Museum Gardens
Rock and pop festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, tomorrow, gates 5pm; Self Esteem, Friday, gates 5pm, and Super Furry Animals, Saturday, gates 4pm
WIRRAL synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark open Futuresound’s third season of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts tomorrow with a Summer of Hits bill featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and rising Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.
Mercury Prize nominee Self Esteem, aka Rotherham singer, songwriter and actress Rebecca Lucy Taylor, tops Friday’s line-up, featuring London indie group The Big Moon, South African ghetto funk musician Moonchild Sanelly and Nigerian-born musician and spoken-word artist Joshia Idehen.
Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals are Saturday’s headliners, joined by singer-songwriter Baxter Dury, indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, Nottingham alt-country band Divorce and North Wales psychedelic act Pys Melyn. Box office for July 10 and 11: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.
Ross Noble: Playing York Comedy Festival at Live At York Museum Gardens on Sunday
Comedy event of the week: Futuresound presents York Comedy Festival, Live at York Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates 3pm
TOPICAL comedian Russell Howard (9.30pm), from Russell Howard’s Good News, and Geordie surrealist Ross Noble (8.35pm) take top billing at the second open-air York Comedy Festival, promoted by Futuresound.
In Sunday’s line-up too will be Irish stand-up and podcast sensation Joanne McNally (7.40pm); stand-up and presenter Russell Kane (7.10pm); Big Kick Energy podcaster and comedian Suzi Ruffell (6.15pm); Barry From Watford (5.45pm), the 82-year-old comic creation of Alex Lowe; cult stand-up hero and viral sensation Jeff Innocent (4.50pm) and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nabil Abdulrashid (4.20pm), all hosted by Jared Christmas. Box office: yorkcomedyfestival.com.
The Gesualdo Six: Performing Wishing Tree: A Choral Journey at St Lawrence’s Church, York, on July 14 at 3pm as part of Ryedale Festival. Picture: Ash Mills
Festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, July 10 to 26
RYEDALE Festival presents 60 events this month in 40 different venues, including Tenebrae, pianist Junyan Chen, The Gesualdo Six, Dunedin Consort, John Wilson & Sinfonia of London’s An English Summer, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Opera North.
Taking part too are tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Christopher Glynn, Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, Eliza Carthy and The Restitution, soprano Erika Baikoff, cellist Laura van der Heijden, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band. For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: ryedalefestival.com.
Hannah Davies and Jack Woods: Re-imagining of the selkie myth in a not-too-distant future in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke. Picture: Matt Jopling
Dystopian vision of the week: Hannah Davies & Jack Woods in The Ballad of Blea Wyke, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, York, July 10, 8.30pm; Helmsley Arts Centre, July 17, 7.30pm
IN North Yorkshire writer and storyteller Hannah Davies and musician Jack Woods’ dystopian re-imagining of the selkie myth in a not-too-distant future, a young woman wants to see the sea. A stranger stands on a cliff. The last grey seal swims towards the shore.
On her 18th birthday, tough care-leaver Cerys breaks the city’s lockdown and travels to the coastal cliffs that birthed her, the crumbling landscape drawing her back to her mythic past. Cue a haunting interweaving of story, music, poetry and song. Box office: York, https://bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise;Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Tim Firth: Book writer and lyricist for Calendar Girls The Musical
TIM Firth has returned to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where he first cut his playwriting teeth under Alan Ayckbourn’s artistic directorship.
He is opening the Scarborough theatre’s summer season in tandem with composer and friend-since-Frodsham- schooldays Gary Barlow in a ground-breaking revival of their 2015 musical, Calendar Girls The Musical (first called The Girls in its Leeds Grand Theatre premiere).
For the first time, under SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s directorial hand, the show is being staged in the round and as an actor-musician production.
In a joint statement, Firth and Barlow enthused: “As writers, one of the most exciting things that can happen is when someone comes up with a totally new way of staging something you’ve created.
“When Paul described his vision for a new production of Calendar Girls The Musical, it was instantly clear he was talking about something we’d never seen before, never imagined and to be honest never thought possible.”
Explaining the rationale behind this co-production with Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake, the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and the Octagon Theatre Bolton, Robinson said: “Our new in-the-round staging brings the audience into the heart of the Rylstone Women’s Institute, making this true story of friendship and determination feel more personal and immediate.
“This intimate production will create a unique, shared experience, reminiscent of gathering around a community hall or a close friend’s living room, allowing for a deeper connection to the characters and creating a collective, communal atmosphere that fully immerses everyone in the moving story of these ‘ordinary women’ doing something quite extraordinary.”
Quick refresher course: this show is the one about a group of Yorkshire women, from the Rylstone Women’s Institute, who create a nude calendar to raise money for charity after the death of a husband to a blood cancer.
News spreads fast in their community and none of them expects the emotional and personal repercussions, but gradually the making of the calendar brings each woman unexpectedly into bloom.
Recalling the roots of writing play, film and musical versions of Calendar Girls and now bringing the musical to the SJT, Tim says: “Scarborough I always feel to be my home as a writer. Not only was it the first place to give me a main stage but the plays of Alan Ayckbourn embody so much of what I love about theatre.
Sarah Groarke, left, Karen Holmes and Angela Caesar in a scene from the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s actor-musician production of Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“It was en route to a meeting with him about a new play that I called into a Wharfedale fete and bought a calendar from a WI stall. Now years later, it seems wonderfully fitting to be starting a production of a musical about that story at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.”
Paul Robinson first put the question to Firth two years ago: “Do you think this is possible: doing Calendar Girls in a theatre of this size and design? Up till then, I’d only seen professional productions in bigger venues, and yet the sheer number of amateur productions made me think we could do it in smaller theatres,” says Tim.
“I wanted this show and these songs to be robust enough to stand up to any setting, whether on a small stage with a piano, in a church hall or a theatre – but in the modern world, it’s become difficult to mount a musical on your own, so we needed three other theatre to align with the SJT to do this new production.”
Analysing the popularity of Calendar Girls, Tim says. “It’s a ‘group comedy’, and what people seem to respond to right from the start is the bonding of these women, the unity and the camaraderie, and there’s warmth in the comedy.
“We’re tribal and Calendar Girls is a tribal piece of theatre. It’s a poke in the belly of society that makes people rally round. What makes Calendar Girls work and the whole endeavour work in reality was that it was more about friendship than it was ever about nudity.
“What makes the photo-shoot work in Calendar Girls is what the other ‘girls’ are doing around the ‘girl’ being photographed to make the picture happen because the nudity is like a fan dance.”
For the SJT production, two factors came into play: how many of the cast would be playing instruments on stage at any one time in a scene and how could the teenage children’s roles be re-introduced (after being jettisoned for a touring version). “It was a shame to have lost them as they’re like a palate cleanser and a real change in tone,” says Tim, delighted by their return.
“The rest of it, I have done absolutely nothing with, because I grew up writing for this theatre, and I know that you don’t write for the Round; you let the Round tell the story. I know you can do anything in that set-up, and it’s up to the director and the designer to make it work in the Round, where it’s like a circus.
“That’s why everyone is excited by it as it brings a proximity, immediacy and vibrancy to the story. It’s also why all my plays are prop heavy rather than scenery heavy, as you can’t have any scenery more than two feet high, so it’s all about the floor and putting people together to work on that stage.
“Sometimes, the more ‘production’ you give a musical, the more you move away from its heart. You can do it just with a basket full of props.”
Calendar Girls The Musicalruns at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
CONTRE le Temps’s Le Baiser de la Rose has to be one of the more unusual and immersive concerts I have ever experienced.
The pervading atmosphere was one of intimacy – the storytelling was deeply personal. The quartet of singers wove a magical musical spell.
This was creatively varied through solo, duet, trio and quartet singing, spatial arrangement and, most significantly, the use of subtly dramatic text to bring both context and focus.
The programme is built around two of the great literary works of medieval France: Le Roman de la Rose, the allegorical love story by Guillaume de Lorris, and Le Remède de Fortune, a narrative with songs by Guillaume de Machaut.
So, rather than simply presenting a sequence of songs, Contre le Temps wove together spoken poetry and music, telling the story of the Lover, who falls in love with the Rose – a symbol representing the object of desire – and, in so doing, retells the medieval tradition of courtly love.
The Springtime prose opens with the most poetic of intentions: “…The earth becomes so proud that she wishes to wear a new dress…”
The anonymous Venez ouïr les vrais amoureus took the form of a lively conversational invitation or welcome. It was quite delightful. This was followed by the complex monophonic song Qui n’aroit autre deport by Guillaume de Machaut, with contrasting sections reflecting the changing emotions of the text.
The drama was enhanced by the answering vocal calls, presumably an arrangement by the performers. Whatever the case, it was highly effective.
The anonymous chanson Contre le Temps, from which the ensemble takes its name, was more than simply a programme item, linking the performers’ identity with their exploration of medieval song. The singing was so seductive, so delicious.
Accompanying the section Entry into the Dream, we were treated to a trio singing with such elegance and poise in Guillaume Dufay’s Je me complains. The voices were equal, with finely judged imitative interplay, weaving a continuous musical web of sound.
Responding to the most poetic imagery in The Wonders in the Garden (“…flowers of extraordinary whiteness, yellow blossoms, and crimson ones with exquisite scents”), we were treated to a beautiful, flowing performance of Machaut’s Et pour ce engendrée s’est douce pensée. The long, aching phrases suggested a meditative, inward quality. The singing also possessed a timeless quality – I certainly could not discern a pulse.
Accompanying the text Cupid and the Rose, there was a change in style in the anonymous En remirant vos douce portraiture. Here we had an elegant four-voice ballade, with all four voices contributing to the texture. Each individual line emerged with remarkable clarity.
One of the many highlights was the anonymous Qui n’a le cuer, which followed The Pain of the Lover. The duet had a touching intimacy and lyrical grace.
The programme closed with Dufay’s Ma belle dame souveraine. Here all four singers clearly relished the richness and elegance of Dufay’s four-part texture. The closing cadence was deeply satisfying.
Contre le Temps’s Le Baiser de la Rose was a thoughtfully conceived and rewarding programme. The contrasts between solo chant and polyphony were superbly judged.
The rhythm of the medieval music was so complex that I often felt the melodies were floating freely, making the moments when the voices came together and locked into place all the more satisfying. Above all, it was the transparent purity of sound that lingered long after the final cadence.
Contre le Temps: Cécile Walch, soprano; Karin Weston, soprano; Amy Farnell, mezzo-soprano, and Julia Marty , mezzo-soprano.
Sofie Vanden Eynde: Artistic direction and lute for Imago Mundi’s Tears Into Lightconcert at York Early Music Festival
DESCRIBED in the festival programme as “a contemporary reimagining of John Dowland’s Lachrimae”, Imago Mundi’s Tears Into Light uses Seven Tears as the point of departure for a contemporary meditation in which Renaissance song, Armenian tradition, newly composed music by Vladimir Gorlinsky and spoken reflections become successive stages of a journey from melancholy towards hope.
The spoken narrative, by Fleur Pierets, functions as a series of meditations drawn from conversations with residents of a Belgian care home and palliative day centre.
They become a sequence of poetic monologues – intimate reflections on ageing, memory, regret, companionship and death:
I walk through cities made of memories,
where echoes whisper, soft and low.
Each breath is heavy with remembering,
each step moves tides I cannot slow.
There is a sound the dark remembers
a hum that aches beneath my bones.
– The Distant Light (dark to horizon)
Although there are echoes of Sufi imagery – I walk (journey); a hum that aches beneath my bones (listening from within); memory as spiritual experience – I was more affected, however, by the personalisation of these texts: We; Eli; Carlos; Eric; Danielle; Frédéric and Rose-Marie – they are almost certainly the individuals at the care home and palliative centre.
It was obvious that these spoken texts were repeated in close imitation. This subtly reinforced the theme of echo and memory; the individual transforming into collective – repeated entries blurring the identity of the individual speaker and creating a bridge between speech and music. Canon, based on exact imitation, is one of the simplest and most recognisable musical devices that can be applied to speech.
So, rather than interrupting the music, these meditations broadened its emotional landscape, perhaps suggesting that Dowland’s melancholy remains as resonant today as four centuries ago.
Another fascinating aspect of Tears Into Light was the inclusion of the Armenian duduk. At first glance, Dowland and Armenian traditional music seemed an unlikely pairing. Yet the duduk, long associated in Armenian culture with remembrance, lamentation and funeral rites, proved a natural companion to Dowland’s world of melancholy.
Its warm, breath-infused tone carried an unmistakable sense of grief and longing, while Vardan Hovanissian’s subtle and deeply expressive playing was illuminating, revealing just how naturally the instrument could inhabit Dowland’s emotional landscape.
Although the programme credited visual artist Ria Verhaeghe as a collaborator, the performance itself was experienced principally as a dialogue between music and spoken word. I assumed the visual contribution was deliberately understated.
Rather than projected imagery unfolding alongside the performance, what seemed to be a single image remained behind the performers throughout. Maybe I simply missed it.
As far as I could tell, the Dowland pavan and songs remained recognisable and largely intact, whilst Vladimir Gorlinsky contributed new pieces, transitions and soundscapes around it, rather than rewriting the Renaissance music itself.
His music featured sustained sonorities, drones, sparse textures, slow-moving harmonic fields and, tellingly, moments where electronic sound blends almost imperceptibly with acoustic instruments.
Without his music the programme would probably have felt episodic – song, speech, song, speech. His contributions helped to make it feel like a single, continuous journey. This leads nicely to his Rumi’s meditation – Rumi being one of the most significant Sufi poets; the mystical tradition within Islam.
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it: a gentle, reflective minimalist pattern interrupted by an anguished cry of despair before gradually finding a measure of resolution.
The performance of Sorrow was quite simply a thing of beauty. Eugénie De Mey’s singing had a gorgeous, seductive tone and was gently amplified and supported by Sofie Vanden Eynde’s subtle lute accompaniment.
Like Vardan Hovanissian, Eugénie De Mey (mezzo-soprano) and Sofie Vanden Eynde (lute) were a joy throughout. Ms De Mey’s singing was so immersed in the performance, her tone had a velvety-rich quality. She focused on intimacy and textual clarity – particularly noticeable in the lower register – which suited the reflective atmosphere of the work and allowed the spoken texts and songs to coexist naturally.
Ms Vanden Eynde’s lute playing struck me as invariably understated and yet quietly authoritative. I admired the refinement of her lute playing and beautifully shaped phrasing. She was the performance’s anchor, allowing Dowland’s music to breathe without becoming an exercise in historical reconstruction.
Finally, I was impressed by Sofie Vanden Eynde’s curatorial approach: this included imaginative programming and willingness to rethink what an early music concert can be.
Eugénie De Mey, voice; Vardan Hovanissian , duduk; Sofie Vanden Eynde, artistic direction & lute; Jo Thielemans, sound engineer. Texts, Fleur Pierets; music, John Dowland & Vladimir Gorlinsky (composition & arrangements); visuals, Ria Verhaeghe.
Robert Kitson: Replacing Simon Rouse in the role of Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry Prime Minister
SIR Keir Starmer is not the only Prime Minister being replaced.
More precisely, ex-Prime Minister, in the case of the 2026 tour of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister after illness forced Simon Rouse out of the cast a fortnight ago, to be replaced by Robert Kitson, who is playing Jim Hacker for the remaining dates, including this week’s visit to the Grand Opera House, York.
“It’s very sad that Simon had to leave the show, and we send him our best wishes for a speedy recovery,” says Robert. “He was so loved by the company while he was here, but it’s now a fortunate opportunity for me.
“I wasn’t Simon’s understudy for the tour but I did understudy Griff Rhys Jones as Jim Hacker in the West End, and because I knew the part and we’d done an understudy run during the six months in London [at the Apollo Theatre), I was asked to take over.
“One of the other understudies did a couple of dates, before I arrived last Monday (June 22) to open at the Cheltenham Everyman that Tuesday. “
Robert continues: “I’m very delighted to be having this extended run, where I’ve played Cheltenham and Milton Keynes and York, Brighton, Southend and Malvern are still to come.
“I haven’t appeared on the York stage before, but I love the city and I’m really looking forward to doing the play there.”
Written and directed by Jonathan Lynn and co-directed by Michael Gyngell, I’m Sorry, Prime Minister is the long-awaited final chapter of the British political satire that brought BAFTA awards for the television series Yes, Minister (1980 to 1984) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986 to 1988), when co-written with Antony Jay.
The Times, they are a’changing for Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson
Jim Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee.
Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Clive Francis, reprising his West End role), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction in a finale replete with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing.
“Do you know what, you can really feel the affection the audiences have for the characters,” says Robert. “Before Sir Humphrey comes on, you can hear an ‘ooh’ from the audience when I mention his name.
“People loved the TV series, and the relationship between Sir Humphrey and Jim, but this play is set later and so the relationship is now different. A lot of the play is about these people re-finding themselves and coping with their lives now.
“It makes for a very different dynamic where the audiences are initially surprised but then they do get into it. This is only my personal opinion, but I think the re-discovery and re-defining of the relationship, when seeing each other again after a long time, is what works so well, as they’re now older men, infirm, and they no longer have the resources they did when they were in their peak years.”
Robert further elucidates: “There are two levels to it. They have to cope with the fact they don’t have the status they once did, and although Sir Humphrey was always the cleverer once, the more sly and conniving one, sometimes Jim got the better of him and that now continues in old age where they still spar with each other.”
When on understudy duty in London, Robert had enjoyed watching Clive and Griff working together. “They were different in their styles, so it was like a masterclass observing them,” he says.
Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby, left, and Simon Rouse’s Jim Hacker at the promotional photoshoot for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Simon has had to leave the tour through illness
“Clive is a master craftsman in his coming timing and delivery, and now that it’s the two us, I’m finding that just as important is how every performance is different because the audience laughter can come in different places, so there’s that the unexpected element, which is the essence of live theatre.”
In addition, Robert has drawn on his experience of being present when writer-director Jonathan Lynn gave notes to the London cast both in rehearsal and after the early performances.
“I got the benefit of that as everything is written with particular weighting and he’s particular about how lines should be said,” he says, further praising the director and Michael Gyngell for their ability to bring the company together. “It’s been great for me to have all people around me, on or off the stage, who are so good at what they do.”
Sir Keith Starmer’s imminent departure from Number 10 could not be better timed for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. “It’s really interesting because we’ve found the play has resonance that’s reflecting what’s going on at the moment,” says Robert.
“The fact that the Prime Minister’s post has changed over the past two weeks can’t help but have an echo on stage.”
One further factor is Jim Hacker’s politics and behaviour in 2026. “Jim says and does some awful things and has some unacceptable views – and that’s interesting for the audience too,” says Robert.
“You have to give it 100 per cent in rehearsals and on stage, leaving your own beliefs at the [dressing room] door.”
The Barn Theatre production of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister plays Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Super Furry Animals: Flower power amid the botanical gardens of Live At York Museum Gardenson Saturday
WELSH art-rock band Super Furry Animals headline day three of Futuresound’s third season of Live at York Museum Gardens concerts on Saturday.
The botanical gardens are a suitable setting for such a psychedelic act, who have returned to the concert platform after a ten-year hiatus, and will draw on the nine albums recorded since forming in Cardiff in 1993 (originally with Notting Hill and Star City actor Rhys Ifans as their frontman, by the way).
Expect a choice selection of “ageless multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, all lovingly handpicked from an incredible catalogue”.
Joining Super Furry Aniamls in Museum Gardens will be four special guests: unconventional kindred spirit Baxter Dury, compatriot indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, fast-rising Nottingham alt-country group Divorce and the Welsh Music Prize-nominated woozy, Sixties-inspired psychedelia band Pys Melyn (whose name translates as Yellow Peas, should you be wondering).
“I’m pretty sure we haven’t ever played York before,” says lead guitarist, pedal steel guitarist and cellist Huw Bunford, who will be joined as ever by Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan, Guto Pryce and Gruff Rhys.
The Futuresound press release stated that “until now SFA had no plans to reunite live”. Huw puts the flesh on those bones: “We got asked every so often over the past ten years if we’d be playing again. People approached us to do shows, and I think it was more to do with marking 30 years that brought us together again. It seemed like the usual stars aligned and that happened to be at a time when the rest of the band was available to get together.
Super Furry Animals’ poster for Live At York Museum Gardens
“Initially, we had pencilled in about six gigs, going around the UK and Ireland on the Supacabra Tour, but then I think we added a couple more, York and Bristol, so in May we did indoor gigs and the rest of the summer will be outdoor shows.”
Open-air concerts are a “completely different beast”, says Huw. “There’s something about it that’s nice to do outdoor gigs, where you get a cross section of fans and even people who have never seen us before. Whenever we do things like festivals, you know you have a certain amount of time to play, so at certain songs we’ll check the time!”
After signing to era-defining label Creation Records – the home of Oasis – in 1995, Super Furry Animals turned heads with their unorthodox approach to promotion from the famous Super Furry Animals Tank to a suite of bespoke Yeti costumes. In 1996, debut album Fuzzy Logic broke the familiar guitar music mould with a heady mix of literary, musical and narcotic influences before 1997 follow-up Radiator gave them their first UK Top Ten album.
“Welsh band with a weird edge” was one phrase coined to describe their distinctive indie psych-pop sound, not least because they recorded in the Welsh language too. “Maybe a bit of alliteration there, getting excited with that,” says Huw, on hearing that description down the phone line. “I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird. It’s just weird that a reviewer would say that. I’d throw it back at them!”
The rock history books say that label boss Alan McGee signed Super Furry Animals to Creation on the spot after watching their Camden Monarch club gig in London, maybe with expectations of matching the rise of Oasis. “The whole thing of Alan McGee seeing potential, but in the wrong way…but he still saw potential…and he then realised, and maybe over the years, it’s helped, that we’ve never been able to be pigeonholed,” says Huw.
Super Furry Animals will include Welsh-language songs in next Saturday’s set. “We’ve got three or four Welsh songs in the squad,” says Huw, recalling the days 30 years ago when they played a venue with a Welsh-language-only policy. “At that time, we whistled our English songs and gave lyric sheets to the audience!”
“I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird,” says Super Furry Animals’ guitarist, Huw Bunford
Looking ahead to next weekend’s York debut, he says: “We like to change one or two songs each show. In the festival shows, it depends on how much time we’re playing for, but we always try to play one or two Welsh songs wherever we play.”
Returning to the rehearsal studio for this spring and summer’s shows, “after the first week, there was a bit of muscle memory kicking in and actually it was the same with the energy levels as well,” says Huw. “But it’s one of those weird things in rehearsals that you don’t feel like you’ve ‘got it’, but then you get under the lights.
“The audiences have been amazing so far, like super fans, and very forgiving as well! It’s an amazing thing to see the band back.”
Reflecting on Super Furry Animals’ career path, Huw says: “We don’t do things in a formulaic way, so it’s almost like each album is a reaction to the one before. We take it as being like a craft and we’re blessed that we’re good songwriters. I think the production on the albums stands the test of time as well, which we take to be an important thing, always making sure that the content is good.”
Riding on the wave of Super Furry Animals reuniting for the 2026 series of concerts, could they return to the recording studio too? “If it happens, it happens,” says Huw. “We never say never, but at the moment it’s just a joy to be playing together again.”
Futuresound presents Super Furry Animals, Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn at Live At York Museum Gardens, July 11. Gates open at 4pm; last entry, 8.30pm. Tickets: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-info.
