Jorgie Willingham’s Referee and Jim Carnall’s boxer Paul Stokes in rehearsal for The Sweet Science Of Bruising at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Harvey
FOR the knock-out show of the week in York, look no further than Joy Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science Of Bruising, staged at York Theatre Royal Studio tonight and tomorrow by the York College and University Centre’s first cohort of Acting for Stage and Screen BA students.
Thisepic tale of passion, politics and pugilism in the world of 19th-century women’s boxing forms their graduating production after two intense years at the Slim Balk Lane campus in Bishopthorpe
Set up in partnership with York Theatre Royal and Screen Yorkshire in 2021, the course is designed for a maximum intake each year of 16, 12 signing up in the first year and 11 in the second.
“Entry is based on rigorous auditions, with many more applications than places available,” says programme leader and acting lecturer James Harvey. “The youngest starter would be 18; the oldest, 37. There’s no age limit. It’s all about giving an opportunity.
“Lots of the students in the first year were the first from their family to go to university, so the aim is to offer high quality but not at a prohibitive expense.
“Setting up the course was wrapped in the idea that there needs to be a place in our region that has great accessibility and is affordable, doing a course over two years, when the vast majority of training takes place in London and courses around the country are out of people’s price range. Since Bretton Hall closed, there was nowhere to go around here, and we’ve changed that.”
Gaining the partnerships with York Theatre Royal and Screen Yorkshire gave the degree course momentum, and crucially too, it is endorsed by the Open University and is one of around 20 education providers in Great Britain and Ireland affiliated to the Spotlight Graduate Membership Scheme. The only other one in Yorkshire is based in Leeds.
The students have been undertaking two years of professional acting training under Harvey, who has been assisted by a team of experienced industry professionals, such as voice lecturer Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, who works regularly at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London; movement lecturers Jen Malarkey and Gemma O’Connor; professional development lecturers Niall Costigan and Cassie Vallance, both familiar figures from the York stage, and screen acting lecturer Kate Chappell.
External industry experts are invited frequently to share their knowledge with the students, while the Royal Shakespeare Company has delivered a workshop on motion capture.
“The students have done incredibly well, doing an accelerated two-year course rather than the usual three, so they only get the college breaks: two weeks at Christmas, two at Easter, then working through the summer, with two weeks off in September,” says James.
“The first-year students spend five weeks on a placement, whether at York Theatre Royal, Pilot Theatre in York, Talking Lens Pictures in Leeds, or Blackpool Grand Theatre, for example. Even Harvest Films in Sweden.
“That’s a big focus for us, the industry side of it, to go with Spotlight-recognised daily training, all day, every day, which gives credibility to what we’ve done for professional industry training.”
James has been impressed by the commitment of the first intake. “Some had done a foundation course at drama school but they wanted to come and do intensive training here, really buying into two years of living as actor-training monks,” he says.
As well as doing productions at York College and York Theatre Royal, students have worked with Screen Yorkshire at York Castle Museum last year and York Mansion House this year.
In May, York College University Centre staged its debut Graduate Showcase at the Theatre Royal, where the first graduating cohort exhibited their drama skills in a series of extracts from Patrick Marber’s Closer, Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, Matt Hartley’s Sixty Five Miles, Penelope Skinner’s Eigengrau, Evan Placey’s Consensual and Katherine Chandler’s Bird, played out in front of industry professionals on the lookout for talent.
A video of the performances is being sent out to agents unable to make the showcase. “It was a culmination of two years of professional actor training and gave our first cohort of actors an opportunity to present their work to the industry, which will launch them into successful careers for many years,” says James.
Now comes their final show, The Sweet Science Of Bruising, set in London, 1869, where four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring as they fight inequality as well as each other.
“The students will still be with us throughout August, working on Creating My Own Work, which is like the practical equivalent of a dissertation, with full responsibility for everything they do in their ten-minute pieces,” concludes James.
York College BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight and Friday, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Did you know?
JAMES Harvey is developing a musical with West End collaborators.
Sleuth and sidekick: Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake with Sam Thorpe-Spinks’s Jack Barak in Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Sovereign in the King’s Manor courtyard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
FIRST the bad news. Not the July weather forecast, but the Sold Out notices denoting you are too late to book for the rest of the fortnight run of this summer’s York Theatre Royal community play.
Such has been the demand to see Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set thriller in the very place where the biggest chunk of this best-selling sleuth story is set: King’s Manor, so re-named from the Abbot’s House to mark Henry VIII’s visit to the city with his latest queen du jour, Catherine Howard.
Staged in partnership with the University of York on its city campus, Sovereign plays out in the courtyard, the one with the tree at its epicentre and steps that add both height and dramatic statement to co-directors Juliet Forster, John R Wilkinson and Mingyu Lin’s grand production.
Aside from the front row, each capacity house of 240 is protected by a canopy from the rain, leaving the cast of 100 to battle with the elements, as they did last night and rather more so amid Saturday’s heavy downpours.
Kenny, a veteran of York outdoor productions from 2012’s The York Mysteries in the Museum Gardens and Blood + Chocolate on the city streets, even has Sovereign’s Greek chorus – or Women of York Chorus, to be precise – defy the rain with a knowing Yorkshire shrug. They will comment on a woman’s lot in Henry’s world with feminist ire too, resonating with the #MeToo era.
In our age of “levelling up”, but not levelling truthfully with the people, Kenny makes much of the north-south divide in Sovereign, right from the opening scene where Mark Gowland’s gouty, vainglorious Henry makes claim to godlike status, to the chagrin of Rosy Rowley’s no-nonsense God on a York Mystery Plays wagon on the other side of the stage.
As the play unfolds, towards its close after two hours and 45 minutes, Kenny makes a series of bullet pronouncements on the division between Protestant South and Papist North. Not only did Henry take land from Yorkshire landowners and dissolve the monasteries of God’s Own Country, but he put a stop to the Mysteries, seeing them as Catholic propaganda. History will tell you the wagons rolled on for a while longer, but then fell silent until the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Henry is a hated figure in York in Sansom’s story, as he seeks to impose the Royal Progress of 1541. The “Southerans” are unwelcome, not only “Fat Harry”, but also disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Fergus Rattigan) and his Jack-the-lad Jewish sidekick, Jack Barak (University of York history and politics alumnus Sam Thorpe-Spinks).
Shardlake is mocked as a bottled spider by Henry, a crouchback by others; Joe Hooper’s Fulke Radwinter takes against Barak and Shardlake, taunting Barak about the events of March 16 1190, the Massacre of the Jews at Clifford’s Tower.
At Clifford’s Tower in Sovereign the body of Robert Aske, convicted of high treason by Henry, is still hanging five years after his execution in 1537. Plenty more bodies will pile up by the play’s end, more in the tradition of Jacobean tragedies.
Thorpe-Spinks has called Barak “Dr Watson to Shardlake’s Holmes”, but he rather more reminds you of Dennis Waterman’s Terry McCann in Minder with his feisty willingness to challenge all comers and eye for the ladies. Or one lady in particular, Livy Potter’s resourceful Tamasin Reedbourne, as Potter continues her run of winning performances in recent months.
Rattigan makes for a wily and worldly Shardlake, but lawyers have a bad name in this world – another dig delivered with comic timing in Kenny’s canny script – and so he becomes a more complex character as Sansom’s stinging story progresses. Not a conventional hero, not morally straight-backed, but remorseless as a Poirot. By comparison, Thorpe-Spinks’ lovable Barak is a little under-used, but then he is preoccupied with Potter’s Tamasin.
Shardlake and Barak have been sent north to keep an eye on political prisoner Edward Broderick (Nick Naidu-Bock, haunted and haunting), but the murder of a York glazier finds the plot thickening like a bechamel sauce.
So much is bubbling away in Sansom’s story: Matthew Page’s Giles Wrenne earnestly seeking to challenge Henry’s right to the throne; the Conspiracy at work; Scarlett Rowley’s insouciant Queen Catherine playing away from home with Josh Davies’s former beau Thomas Culpeper (or Culpepper in this version); Maurice Crichton’s curmudgeonly Yorkshireman Maleverer in peak scene-stealing form.
Not only does this community play have a chorus but an even larger York Ensemble for crowd scenes and dance numbers steered by movement director Hayley Del Harrison, and a King’s Ensemble for more north-south shenanigans.
The directing triumvirate achieves a balance between scenes on a physical grand scale and ones of more intimacy of a psychological nature. As for spectacle, look out for dramatic entrances by horses and a bear, courtesy of Animated Objects’ animal heads, and a cock-fighting scene too.
Dawn Allsopp’s set design works in happy union with King’s Manor, Hazel Fall’s costume designs are a Tudor delight and Craig Kilmartin’s lighting design plays to daylight’s progress into night. Out of view, to the side, apart from musical director Madeleine Hudson’s outstretched arms, is the choir, but their contribution is vital, commenting in song on what is ensuing through Dominic Sales’s wonderful compositions.
Yes, Sovereign could be shorter, and in a future staging it probably would be, but Mike Kenny has worked his Midas touch once more. York Theatre Royal is ahead of the game too: a television series of Sansom’s stories is on its way.
York giving Fat Harry the proverbial two fingers will live long in the memory.
Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Bee Scott’s poster for tonight’s Connect Festival performance of If You Find This
QUEER science fiction theatre maker and University of York researcher Bee Scott presents the premiere of her new play, If You Find This, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, tonight (20/7/2023).
Forming part of the Innovate strand at Four Wheel Drive Theatre’s Connect Festival, the 50-minute interactive sci-fi travelogue invites audiences to make choices leading them to one of three possible endings each night.
“My production plays with game mechanics that let the audience change how they explore the universe, depending on what it is they hope to find. When you imagine the future, do you hope for love, adventure, or comfort in the familiar?” asks Bee.
What happens in If You Find This? “Earth is trashed, but space is vast! And you’ve stumbled on a bunch of messages from the first human intergalactic hitchhiker telling you exactly how to chart your way to safety,” says Bee.
All the messages seem to be addressed to her girlfriend. “They’re kind of private, but it’s probably fine? This is for survival,” says Bee. “The messages are a little jumbled up. But you’re smart and you’ve played those make-a-choice Netflix episodes before. Finding your way through the cosmos along with the other remnants of humanity should be easy. If she could make it, you can too, right?”
As for Bee’s own progress, born to an English father and American mother in Sacramento, the “city of trees” in California, Bee studied theatre at Occidental College, Eagle Rock, the only small liberal arts college in Los Angeles.
Holding dual citizenship, she moved to the UK in 2014 to do an MA in music theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama. Performances at the Edinburgh Fringe, voiceover work and new writing pieces in the sci-fi sphere ensued, leading to her first full-length play, Mission Creep, being mounted by Controlled Chaos Theatre Company in London after being developed from a series of 15-minute extracts with various companies.
Bee had been working front of house at the Old Vic too and had just started afternoon shifts as a receptionist for Hospice UK when the pandemic struck. “We still kept phonelines operational, so we were very, very busy, but I never worked at their office,” she says. “I only visited it for the interview and never saw those people again! Everything went onto Zoom.”
Controlled Chaos Theatre Company in Bee Scott’s Mission Creep in 2019
During lockdown too, Bee was working on a proposal for her PhD. “I got in touch with Louise LePage at the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, who’d been a speaker at an event I’d helped with, where she looked at robot actors.”
Bee duly left “lockdown London” for York two years ago to study for her creative practice PhD on the subject of “How we imagine the future of queer people through science-fiction theatre”.
“It’s been a mixture of looking back and looking forward as science-fiction always looks to the future, but then you can look back at how it influenced what we ended up doing, as well as looking at how those predictions worked out,” says Bee.
“I would say the easiest way to consider queer sci-fi is through the characters, for example the San Junipero episode in Black Mirror. The 2010s had a lot of queer sci-fi and audiences were primed and ready for it.
“Russell T Davies planted the seeds early in Doctor Who and has had such an influence on queer sci-fi culture, and there’s a lot happening in literature too.”
Historically, Bee says, the queer character is seen as the outsider. “The default position has the heroic white man as the main character, with the colonial settler narrative of going out and conquering the world,” she says.
“Whereas now writers can explore things from more perspectives with more people coming forward to offer their view, and that’s something that If You Find This plays with.”
For her PhD, Bee’s first step has been to “dive into queer theory in theatre and contemporary literature”. “I’ve refracted that theory through theatre and then, since last term, I’ve been able to mess around was able to mess around with interactive theatre, working with another practitioner, Anna Gallon, when she did a VR [virtual reality] musical in March,” she says.
Writer and performer Bee Scott
“This interactive element is new for me, and If You Find This is my chance to get my feet wet with this form of theatre.”
If You Find This is a solo piece but with more than one central character. “There are two main characters and depending on the ending we arrive at, there could be a third character. Those alternative endings depend on how the audience on how the audience chooses to interact with other life forms,” says Bee.
“The way the play ends with all those different endings possible tells you there is a very definite sense that this exploration of where one is in the universe never finishes. There’s a lot in the play about finding home, finding a place of safety, and that’s not only for humans.”
Expect minimalism in Bee’s performance. “I’m a big fan of it, and it’s one of the most powerful things about sci-fi theatre,” she reasons.
Expect unpredictability too. “Tonight will be its first outing, and I want to see how it plays with an audience. I want to see how the audience vote works,” says Bee.
“There’s a ‘Game Master’ element to the show, the mechanism for choice that facilitates the options available to the audience and then guides them through each option they choose.
“But the interactive element is quite gentle. I’m not putting anyone on the spot. It’s a group effort. No spotlights!”
As for sci-fi’s desire to head into space, to expand our reach beyond Earth, Bee says: “It’s been interesting to watch certain people with all their money explore that vision of space travel, but I don’t think we’ll quite get there in my lifetime. Maybe in another generation after that. It feels like we need to clean up our own mess first.”
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, Bee is working on another project: making audio dramas. Watch this space…and watch Space too.
Natasha Stanic Mann in The Return, tonight’s 8.45pm performance at the Connect Festival
IF You Find This forms part of Connect Festival’s Non-Linear Narratives night at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. At 8.45pm, Natasha Stanic Mann performs her devised one-woman show, The Return, an immersive insight into the hidden consequences of war, directed by Andres Velasquez.
“The beaches are lovely. Remembering is crass, embarrassing and in poor taste. But to remember is to return,” says Natasha. “If we cannot return, where do we start from? Come to laugh, to cry and to feel awkward. Whatever it is, we will survive it – survival being an art. Or an embarrassment?”
The story, based on the experience of living in Croatia during the break-up of former Yugoslavia, is fragmented and collaged. “It unveils an aspect of family history and explores the surreal circumstances around a conflict building up and what goes into surviving it,” says Natasha.
Combining movement, storytelling and poetry, her piece explores how living through war has affected where Natasha is now.
Bee Scott: If You Find This, 7.30pm tonight; Natasha Stanic Mann: The Return, 8.45pm tonight, Connect Festival, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York.Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Connect Festival: “Enabling audiences to connect with one another and with new work”
Four Wheel Drive’s Connect Festival: the 2023 back story
“TO us, enabling audiences to connect with one another and with new work is invigorating,” say Connect Festival organisers Four Wheel Drive.
Running from July 19 to 23 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, the festival aims to connect York-based creatives with one another and the next stage in their career.
This week’s event not only connects York creatives with like-minded individuals and industry experts, but also enables networking across disciplines, as live arts, digital media and innovative technology connect to celebrate this city’s creative communities.
Connect Festival offers York creatives the chance to broaden their horizons and network with others
Connect Festival offers opportunities for people in York to connect with York’s creative and cultural scene. Festival guests include: Ben Porter, founder of NODE and York Creatives; Mary Stewart David, of Imminent XR; freelance York playwright and comedy sketch writer Paul Birch; Joe Rees-Jones, of XR Stories, and award-winning audio drama producer Kate Valentine.
Masterclasses, workshops, networking events and panels during the day and early evening offer York creatives the chance to broaden their horizons and network with others who share the same passions.
The evenings present theatrical performances, followed by late-night entertainment on selected days. After Friday evening’s two comedies, Joe Maddalena and Gianluca Scatto’s Self Help and Aidan Loft’s On The Rail, Freida Nipples Burlesque hosts burlesque performances of glitz and glamour in A Night With York’s Stars.
In the frame: Joly Black and Anna Gallon, Four Wheel Drive’s co-producers for the Connect Festival, in the doorway of Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Following Saturday’s LGBTQ+ performances, Josh Maughan’s Nice Jewish Boy and Aidan Thompson-Coates in the collaborative work Contradicktion, the Family Shambles Drag troupe will be in action. Both evenings have limited tickets and are predicted to sell out fast.
Connect co-producer Anna Gallon is passionate about welcoming everyone to the festival, be they from a theatrical background or not: “If you want to pursue your creativity, then my question would be: why not? This is a positive and inspiring space where we want to know what you are creating and what you are interested in,” she says.
The programme for the 2023 Connect Festival
For co-producer Joly Black, this ties in with accessibility: “The success of Connect is all about opportunity; I want to create as many opportunities for people to learn, exploring their creativity in a low-risk environment, and build their network to step up their career,” he says.
“But in the end, if you want to be connected with the next stage of your career – theatrical or otherwise – to experiment with new technologies while meeting new people, or simply have a great time watching vibrant performances, come on down to the Connect Festival. We’ve got something for everyone!
“You can browse tickets at www.connectyork.co.uk with free events available. Book now to avoid disappointment as tickets are very limited.”
Bar Convent Overgrown (with pink), by Ethan Wood, from the Colour! display
YOUNG York artists are adding a colourful twist to the city’s iconic heritage landmarks for a summer display at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street.
Award-winning York arts charity New Visuality has worked with children aged five to create the fun, fresh and vibrant artworks, on show in the Colour! exhibition until September 23.
The combination of arts and culture continues in the Bar Convent garden, where an outdoor sketch space has been created with easels and drawing materials, with the invitation to take inspiration from the exhibition and collections to create your own artistic interpretations. Easels are subject to availability and weather permitting.
Boom, by Evie Measor, at Clifford’s Tower
Under New Visuality’s wing, York’s young artists have reimagined the city’s heritage bolstered by funding from City of York Council’s Micklegate, Clifton, and Westfield wards. They visited the Bar Convent and other heritage sites to find inspiration for their work.
Charity co-director Ails McGee says: “We always love coming over to Bar Convent Heritage Centre with groups of young people. Many of our young participants initially report that heritage and culture are just not for them, for one reason or another, but the warm welcome they receive as soon as they come here helps dispel that notion.
The Minster And Pollen, by Isla McGee
“It’s our job, as a visual charity, to build on the groundswell of enthusiasm and encourage creative responses that we can then exhibit.”
New Visuality spent time working in the Bar Convent archives, helping to realise the vision behind Colour! by briefing the young artists to take photos, find photos and use innovative AI technology for the first time to create digital pieces such as Ethan Wood’s Bar Convent Overgrown (with pink), Rosie Measor’s Beatles and Alfie Wood’s Hippopinkimus.
Knip, by Evie Rose, on the city walls
Co-director Greg McGee says: “Heritage without innovation is just history. This project has brought so much joy to our young artists and is a microcosm of what Bar Convent continues to do so well, which is to intersect tradition and technology. The future is indeed bright.”
Dr Hannah Thomas, Bar Convent’s special collections manager, says: “We’re thrilled to be involved in this wonderful project that has enabled us to host these amazing and talented young people.
Hippopinkimus, by Alfie Wood, in Shambles beneath a pink sky
“The purpose of sharing our collections and history with the public is to preserve the legacy of our house and to celebrate the lives of those who changed the course of history. The younger generations are custodians of this legacy.
“Many young people feel that museums are not for them, and perhaps have a perception of them being boring and dusty places. With the fantastic work done by New Visuality, we can begin to change that idea and show that heritage is for everyone.”
The Colour display is included in admission to the Bar Convent exhibition from 10am; last admission, 4pm. Tickets: 01904 643238 or barconvent.co.uk.
Forest Floor By Night, by Tom Wilson, on show at City Screen Picturehouse
YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians).
Thirty-five works are on display in the café bar at the Coney Street cinema in York, priced at £175 to £700.
“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract art is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).
“When my last exhibition was on at St Bede’s, in Blossom Street, last September, I got in touch with as many York artists as I could to network with them and to try and raise the awareness of my charity too, with sale proceeds being donated in aid of the Ukrainians now living in York who needed support,” says Tom.
Artist Tom Wilson standing by his exhibiition for Medical Aid For Palestinians in the City Screen Picturehouse cafébar in York
“As part of my networking campaign, I went to see some of the art being shown at City Screen and spoke to the manager, Cath Sharp. We fixed a date for me to show my art there too, which was incredible.”
In the lead-up to this summer’s show, Tom attended as many exhibitions at City Screen as he could to garner ideas of how to present and promote his work. “When my time for showing arrived, I decided to donate the funds raised this time to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians),” he says.
“It’s a great cause, particularly right now. Harrowing and tragic and barbaric things are going on while the rest of the world looks the other way. It breaks my heart, it really does.”
For his City Screen debut, Tom had 300 bookmark-sized cards printed, along with two 6 by 27-inch banners. “I also decided to paint a banner to cover the central wall in the City Screen café bar, painting it in my own style to really try to grab people’s attention as they eat their couscous and toasted cheese wraps,” he says.
A new work byTom Wilson for his City Screen show
“I’m quite proud of it actually. Needs must and necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, or as Frank Zappa said!”
Tom had first started to paint 20 years, and after a long hiatus, he picked up the brushes once more when his younger brother, Stephen, died. “I’ve been painting for a while now and find it very cathartic and relaxing,” he says.
“I do believe very strongly that art in any form can have a transformative and spiritual power, the power to heal and cultivate emotional awareness, insights, and imbue self- esteem.
“I don’t have a studio, I paint at home, and as a result my kitchen is like a bomb site, but a productive bomb site. Now, as a way of clearing some of my artwork out of my house – I can’t move for paintings and junk – I thought it would be a positive gesture to hang some paintings in this wonderful space at City Screen and donate any monies to Medical Aid for Palestinians, having already held exhibitions for the Haiti Earthquake Disaster Fund and Ukrainians now living in York.”
Tom Wilson’s Art In Aid Of MAP exhibition banner
Tom has been networking latterly with “the fabulous fraternity of artists” a few doors along from City Screen at the Fabrication art shop in Coney Street. “That could well be my next project, showing my art there and making a documentary about this amazing franchise and amalgam of various and diverse artists, all supporting each other and rising from the pandemic like phoenixes from the fire,” he says.
“It’s a real community culture, which in fact has been going for over 12 years now. They have a branch in Leeds and this thriving one in York too.”
Tom is delighted with the response to his City Screen show, which features new works alongside “huge favourites”. “It’s getting lots of attention from other artists and also from cinema and theatregoers alike,” he says.
“It’s on for another few weeks and it would be great to see more and more people visit this warm, friendly and aesthetically pulsating venue.”
To purchase any of his works, Tom can be contacted on 07570 020694 or by email at gingerorourke@hotmail.com.
York artist Tom Wilson, pictured when setting up his St Bede’s exhibition last year
Tom Wilson: the back story
ORIGINALLY from Salford, Greater Manchester, Tom has lived and worked in York for 16 years.
Played in a rock’n’roll band for a few years in the 1980s. Studied drama and art at Dartington College of Arts and became a drama teacher after stints of acting. Continues to write and direct for film and theatre, staging his anarchic farce The Local Authority at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, in August 2021.
Spent more than 20 years living and working in London with individuals who struggled with drug and alcohol problems. His outreach and project work in the mental health field included rough sleepers, street drinkers and ex-prisoners.
Started painting 20 years ago, doing so obsessively for four years but then stopping. Re-started after the death of his younger brother, Stephen.
Likes Russian Rayonism, Surrealism, Outsider art and the work of Egon Schiele, Paul Klee, Otto Dix, Francis Bacon, Paul Cezanne, Gustave Dore, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Félicien Rops, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Richard Dadd and Robert Lenkiewicz.
Tom Wilson’s exhibition runs at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York, until July 29.
Opening Gambit, by Tom Wilson, from his City Screen exhibition
Last Maps’ poster for York River Art Market’s 2023 season
YORK River Art Market will return for its eighth summer next month, sited once more along Dame Judi Dench Walk by Lendal Bridge.
“This city-centre riverside location lends itself to the open-air events of our award-winning market,” says founder and director Charlotte Dawson. “It has often been compared to the Left Bank in Paris.”
Each of the three weekends – August 5 and 6, August 12 and 13 and August 19 and 20 – will host a different variety of more than 30 independent artists and makers from all over Yorkshire and beyond from 10am to 5.30pm.
Work by York River Art Market artists and makers taking part this summer
“Each event has something new to see, and there is always something to suit all budgets,” says Charlotte.
Among the artists and makers taking part will be illustrator and Bull bassist Kai West, noted for his gig posters; ceramicist Jill Ford, new for 2023; printmaker Izzy Williamson, also new for 2023, and Cuban painter Leo Moray, who made his York Open Studios debut this year.
Look out too for York jewellery maker and York Open Studios regular Joanna Wakefield and Last Maps, Thomas Moore and Angel Jones’s small design studio, dedicated to producing work that celebrates adventure and the natural world. They designed this summer’s York River Art Market (YRAM) poster, by the way.
YRAM’s chosen charities this summer are York Rescue Boat, the city’s independent lifeboat and search and rescue team, and Henshaws, which supports people living with sight loss and a range of other disabilities to achieve their ambitions and go beyond their expectations. The charities will be present at YRAM to raise funds and awareness of their work.
The markets are free to attend.
York River Art Market founder, director and artist Charlotte Dawson
TONY Hadley will be in the swing of things at York Barbican on March 8 on The Big Swing Tour 2024. Tickets go on sale on Friday at ticketmaster.co.uk and via yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The erstwhile Spandau Ballet frontman, 63, will perform vintage songs from the swing era of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, complemented by stylish reworkings of his solo hits and velvet-voiced Spandau favourites such as 1983’s True and Gold.
Hadley will be accompanied by his Fabulous TH Band and a full brass section as New Romantic reinterprets old romantics. “My love of swing music began when I was very young. The preparation for Sunday lunch was never without the classic sounds of Sinatra, Bennett and many more,” he reminisces.
“Then years later, when we formed our first band at school, which eventually would become Spandau Ballet, I was reminded by my parents that although I loved punk rock, if I was serious about pursuing a career as a professional singer, never to forget the classic jazz vocalists.
“So there I was listening to The Sex Pistols and The Clash alongside Tony Bennett and Jack Jones! I’ve always loved performing live, but this swing tour is totally different from our normal rock shows. I want audiences to come and enjoy a night of amazing songs from an incredible era of music alongside some great songs from my own repertoire.”
Islington-born Hadley last played York Barbican in May 2022 on a tour marking the smooth crooner’s 40th anniversary in the music business.
Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp, footballer, manager, pundit and King of the Jungle on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, is booked to play York Barbican on February 20 2024.
The former Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City boss, now 76, will tell stories from his football and TV careers, from winning the FA Cup with Pompey in 2008 to his Jungle triumph a decade later.
Redknapp is the second veteran football manager to be confirmed for a York Barbican date in 2024. Neil Warnock, 74, now staying in charge of Huddersfield Town for the 2023-2024 Championship season after saving the Terriers from relegation in May, has moved his June 15 2023 show to May 31 next spring.
Tickets for An Audience With Harry Redknapp and Neil Warnock: Are You With Me? are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
John Atkin: Pulling the strings – and hopefully pooling the strings – for the York Beethoven Project
WANTED! String players and students are needed for the York Beethoven Project, launched by White Rose Theatre.
Woodwind or brass pupils can apply too but their places are becoming limited for the first in the series of Beethoven concerts performing his symphonies in order, which opens with No. 1 in C major Op. 21 on Saturday, September 23.
Plans are in place for Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3 in 2024 and the series will end with Symphony No. 9 in D minor No. 125 in 2027, just in time for the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death (March 26 1827, at the age of 56).
Each concert will take place in a different York venue and will be performed by York-based musicians and those from “not too far away”. A double bass player, from Sheffield, has signed up already.
Symphony No. 1 will be rehearsed and performed in one day at Acomb Methodist Church, in association with York Light Orchestra, York Arts Education and White Rose Theatre and sponsored by Inc Dot.
“This is a Come & Play workshop-style event with rehearsals throughout the day from 9.30am, culminating in an informal concert at 4.15pm, with the audience welcome from 4pm,” says organiser John Atkin, the stalwart York musical director. “Once informed if they have been selected, all registered players will receive their parts in advance.
The poster announcing the formation of the York Beethoven Project
“The aim is to enjoy playing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 throughout the day and then perform it alongside another well-known and popular short guest piece announced on the day! The event is free and is about taking part, experiencing and enjoying the music, with a collection box for voluntary donations from the audience to support the musicians.”
More than 30 musicians have signed up already. “If you’re a musician and want to take part, we’d love to hear from you,” says John. “We’re looking for anyone who can play an instrument that Beethoven wrote for, at Grade 6 or above, who’s over 16. Under-16s can also be considered if accompanied by an adult.”
“It’s basically on my bucket list to do the Beethoven Symphonies in their entirety at some point in my life,” says John. “I started them at university – way back when in the last century! – and did three or four there, but then life gets in the way.
“I always wanted to complete the cycle and what a better way than with local people. It should be fun.”
PETER Buck is far and away the most well-known member of The Minus Five, which is essentially a vehicle for the tuneful songs of Scott McCaughey, sometime second guitarist to Buck in REM.
Likewise, the “support act” The No Ones, comprised of exactly the same musicians, playing the same instruments.
Buck quietly played the bass in a not dissimilar style to his rhythm guitar playing. While all eyes were on him, his total attention was on following the changes in the music.
Guitarist Frode Strømstad’s solos were fast but essentially empty but his rhythm guitar was good. In truth, Buck also lacks his own voice as a bass player. This is a band whose members are happy to play in the service of the material rather than competing for the spotlight.
Drummer Arne Kjelsrud looked like he was having a wonderful time, a smile fixed on his handsome face as he and Buck held the songs together. McCaughey was the front man and singer, the one speaking to us too.
The Minus Five performing at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds. Picture: Paul Rhodes
Having toured this same venue with Luke Haines in February, Buck and The Minus Five were back in Leeds, this time playing second fiddle to a Bon Jovi act next door on the Brudenell’s bigger stage.
“Is this the biggest place I’ve ever played?” Buck joked, in response to an early audience question. “Perhaps, in Leeds, in the last month.” It was the one nod to being in the presence of a man who has sold out stadiums around the world.
While lacking any overt star appeal, the band has a loyal following. The songs are mostly strong but never scale the same heights as REM. The No Ones sported a couple of more memorable songs; one about the late, great Phil Ochs and the best about a very much alive Jenny Lewis. A song for The Beatles was by some stretch the worst of the night.
The Minus Five set was unsurprisingly the stronger. Better sound, better songs, same personnel. Quietly prolific under the critical radar, their latest is the second instalment about Neil Young. Two back-to-back Young numbers were among the highlights, a fuzzed-up Hitchhiker and then a seemingly impromptu Revolution Blues.
In short. no razzmatazz, just good songs well played. The Minus Five are not really a big deal, but fun to see live.
The King’s Singers: “Aural clarity blending seamlessly with the purity of Fretwork’s viols”
Ryedale Festival: The King’s Singers and Fretwork, St Peter’s Church, Norton, July 14
TWO of British music’s most venerable small groups, The King’s Singers and Fretwork, united to open this year’s Ryedale Festival in fine style. Marking the 400th anniversary of the deaths of composers Thomas Weelkes and William Byrd, the concert mirrored their recently released album Tom And Will.
Weelkes’s Hark All Ye Lovely Saints Above set the tone for the evening, The King’s Singers aural clarity blending seamlessly with the purity of Fretwork’s viols. His mischievous Thule, The Period Of Cosmography was given a kaleidoscopic performance with fleet changes of sonic colour, the singers revelling in the words.
Byrd’s This Sweet And Merry Month Of May was joyous: classic King’s Singers material served up with relish. Their purposeful, surefooted and expressive negotiation of Byrd’s uncompromising counterpoint in O Salutaris Hostia was a marvel.
As well as underpinning vocal numbers, Fretwork contributed instrumental consort music, always easy to listen to, rich and resonant. Rhythms in Byrd’s Prelude & Ground, The Queen’s Goodnight, were nicely sprung.
But his Canon Fantasy was peculiarly unsmiling, conveying but little delight in its imitative cleverness, no sense of the lead violist challenging the treble to reciprocate his flights of fancy.
Appropriately for a death anniversary there were tributes: Byrd’s tribute to his teacher Tallis and Weelkes’s to his teacher Thomas Morley were each succeeded by a modern counterpart commissioned specially for Tom And Will.
Sir James MacMillan’s Ye Sacred Muses is richly textured, expertly crafted, its ending quietly affecting. Roderick Williams’s Death, Be Not Proud is right up these performers’ street, with harmonic effects showcasing the familiar King’s Singers sound world. More than twice as long as their models, these new works overburdened the concert’s long first half.
A nice touch was the short first-half encore incorporating the Ryedale Primary Choir, the fruits of a masterclass earlier in the day. An initiative supported by the Richard Shephard Music Foundation, it’s lovely that these seasoned pros, and the festival, take time out to encourage such youngsters.
