Countering the winter blues: Doubletake Projections’ Colour and Light illumination at York Minster
DARKNESS and light, American and Scottish singers, Yorkshire brass players and a York comedian will draw the crowds in the week ahead, advises Charles Hutchinson.
Light show of the week: Doubletake Projections’ Colour and Light, York Minster, 6pm to 9pm nightly until February 23
DOUBLETAKE Projections are using projection mapping to re-imagine the facade of York Minster’s South Transept in a free public show visible from the South Piazza.
Brought to the city by the York BID (Business Improvement District) to illuminate the cathedral during winter’s dark nights, this immersive digital experience is running on an eight-minute loop. Viewers are invited to stay for as many showings as they wish. No booking is required.
In addition to paying homage to the cathedral’s construction and incorporating nods to local history, York Minster’s medieval stained glass is in the spotlight. Collaged compositions of biblical stories told through the glass is being animated and beamed onto the towering transept walls, shining a new light on the medieval window illustrations.
Using animation techniques and styles, the after-dark projection show showcases elements of the rich historical archives in a new way while emphasising the grandeur and ornate detail of York Minster’s architecture.
Chop chop! Demon barber Sweeney Todd (Neil Wood) and resourceful pie-maker Mrs Lovett ( Julie-Anne Smith) make a fast buck from their tasty venture in a cutthroat world in York Light’s Sweeney Todd. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Dark show of the week: York Light Opera Company in Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to March 4, 7.30pm, except February 26; 2.30pm, February 25 and March 4
YORK Light return to York Theatre Royal for a 70th anniversary production of “one of the darkest musicals ever written”, Stephen Sondheim’s noir thriller Sweeney Todd, directed by Martyn Knight with musical direction by Paul Laidlaw.
Neil Wood plays the Georgian-era misanthropic barber who returns home to London after 15 years in exile, seeking vengeance on the corrupt judge (Craig Kirby) who ruined his life. The road to revenge leads him to open new tonsorial premises above the failing pie shop run by Mrs Lovett (Julie-Anne Smith). Cue a very tasty meaty new ingredient to boost sales in this now cutthroat business. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Shepherd Group Brass Band: Performing with the Black Dyke Band at Grand Opera House, York
Fundraiser of the week: York Brass Against Cancer 2, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 2.30pm
YORK’S Shepherd Group Brass Band joins up with West Yorkshire’s world famous Black Dyke Band for a charity collaboration in aid of York Against Cancer. BBC Radio Leeds presenter David Hoyle hosts this two-hour concert. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Belinda Carlisle: Revisiting her decades of hits at York Barbican
California calling: Belinda Carlisle, The Decades Tour, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm
NOW living in Bangkok and once the lead vocalist of The Go-Gos, “the most successful all-female rock band of all time”, Los Angelean Belinda Carlisle, 64, has enjoyed chart-topping solo success too with Heaven Is A Place On Earth.
At a gig rearranged from October 2021, hopefully The Decades Tour set list will be taking in Runaway Horses, I Get Weak, Circle In The Sand, Leave A Light On, Summer Rain, (We Want) The Same Thing, Live Your Life Be Free, In Too Deep and Always Breaking My Heart from her eight studio albums. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Suzanne Vega: Songs and stories from New York in York on Wednesday night
Storyteller of the week: Suzanne Vega, An Intimate Evening Of Songs And Stories, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm
2022 Glastonbury acoustic stage headliner Suzanne Vega, 63, plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire show of the New York singer-songwriter’s 14-date tour.
Emerging from the Greenwich Village folk revival scene of the 1980s, Vega has brought succinct, insightful storytelling to songs of city life, ordinary people and social culture. Her support act will be Tufnell Park folk singer and traditional song archivist Sam Lee. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Rob Auton: Send in the crowds in York, Pocklington and Leeds
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton, The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 (Burning Duck Comedy Club) , 8pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, May 27, 8pm; Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm
CHARMINGLY offbeat York poet, stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home from London on his 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour. Next Friday’s show is crowded out already but space is available at his Pocklington and Leeds gigs.
After his philosophical observations on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Leeds, hydeparkbookclub.co.uk.
KT Tunstall: A nut in every soundbite on her latest album, showcased at York Barbican on Friday
Doing her Nut: KT Tunstall, York Barbican, February 24, 8pm
SCOTTISH singer-songwriter KT Tunstall returns to York on Friday for the first time since she lit up the Barbican on Bonfire Night in 2016. In her line-up will be Razorlight’s Andy Burrows, on drum duty after opening the gig with his own set.
The BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee from Edinburgh will be showcasing songs from her seventh studio album, last September’s Nut, the conclusion to her “soul, body and mind” trilogy after 2016’s Kin and 2018’s Wax. Box office: kttunstall.com and yorkbarbican.co.uk.
A tale of love: Will Parsons as Davy and Kayla Vicente as Yvonne in Central Hall Musical Society’s Sunshine On Leith at the JoRo Theatre. Picture: Joly Black (jolyblack4@gmail.com)
You should walk 500 miles for: Central Hall Musical Society in Sunshine On Leith, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 23 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SUNSINE On Leith, aka “the Proclaimers’ musical”, is a tale of love; love for family, love for friends, love for romantic partners and love for our homes, as one tight-knit family, and the three couples bound to it, experience the joys and heartache that punctuate all relationships.
Secrets will be revealed, relationships made and lost and broken hearts mended once more, all while singing the songs of Charlie and Craig Reid in this student production by the University of York’s musical theatre society, directed by Romilly Swingler. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Slapstick synergy:Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin and Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Laurel in Told By An Idiot’s Charlie & Stan. All pictures: Manuel Harlan
WHY this wonderful 90 minutes of fantastically inventive silent comedy is not playing to full houses renders your reviewer speechless.
Let this fool for love tell you in the politest terms, you would be an idiot to miss Told By An Idiot’s utterly charming “comically unreliable tribute” to England’s golden comedy age of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.
Storytelling physical theatre without dialogue but with the familiar tropes of the silent silver screen – musical accompaniment and scene-setting “intertitles” on screen – is enacted by a cast of four with all the mannerisms and ticks of bygone days under the whimsical direction of writer/storyboarder Paul Hunter.
Together in constant motion and sometimes commotion, they tell the “trueish” story of “the greatest double act that nearly was”…and now is, thanks to Hunter’s romantic imagination and deconstructionist zeal.
All at sea: Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Laurel, left, Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin, Nick Haverson’s Fred Karno and pianist Sara Alexander in Charlie & Stan
What is true is that the sapling comedic talents of the then-unknown Charlie Chaplin (Danielle Bird) and Stanley Jefferson (later Laurel, Jerone Marsh-Reid) did share a cabin on board the SS Cairnrona to New York in 1910 as part of impresario Fred Karno’s music hall troupe. Stan would then understudy Charlie for more than 18 months around America.
From such source material Hunter magically spins the “true fantasy” of Chaplin & Laurel, “intrigued to uncover a hidden and poignant chapter of comedic history”, in keeping with the London company’s mission to “inhabit the space between laughter and pain”.
Yes, laughter and pain both feature here. So much laughter in the nascent comedic talent of Charlie and Stan, but the hints of jealousy of the singular Chaplin towards the fledgling team player Laurel. Then the pain of Charlie’s childhood, with a drunken father (Nick Haverson) and a mother (Sara Alexander) taken away in a straitjacket, and later a veteran Stan arriving just too late for a reunion with Chaplin, who he had so admired for so many years (whereas Chaplin never mentioned him in his autobiography).
Playing “fast and loose” with the truth also allows Told By An Idiot to play fast and loose with time’s past, present and future, enabling Haverson to switch from drumming and Fred Karno duties to become partner-in-waiting Oliver Hardy, with the aid of padding and a strip of black tape. Likewise, at the finale, Chaplin’s trademark Little Tramp takes his impish first steps to Hollywood stardom.
Ioana Curelea’s delightful set evokes on-deck and below-deck on the SS Cairnrona, where Charlie and Stan spar with slapstick timing and pratfalls on their cabin beds: the double act come to life.
Proper Charlie: Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin
Music is vital too, whether in Chaplin’s father’s boozed-up bar song, Charlie playing his signature tune Smile, or Alexander exuberantly performing Zoe Rahman’s piano score in the traditional silent movie style.
Meanwhile, audience members from the stalls are picked to play their part, coerced by cheeky Chaplin, adding to the fun of such an enchanting homage: a celebration of comedy’s timeless ability to highlight the ridiculous, the absurd, our human foibles, as we laugh at ourselves through agents Chaplin and Laurel.
In his programme notes, Hunter talks of being “determined to value fiction over fact, fantasy over reality, and shine a very unusual light on a pair of show business legends”. Yet in doing so, a greater truth emerges. As told by Told By An Idiot, life’s tale is not mere sound and fury signifying nothing; it as much a laughing matter as no laughing matter, especially when these four players strut their 90 minutes upon the stage.
All four are a joy to behold, Haverson and Alexander playing anything but second fiddle as they complement the uncanny physicality and balletic grace of Bird’s Chaplin and Marsh-Reid’s gentle, nice mess of a mishap-prone Laurel.
Both funny and moving, thumbs-up all round.
Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Nick Haverson’s Fred Karno in the swing of things in Charlie & Stan as Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Lauel keeps his distance
Getting mighty crowded: Rob Auton’s artwork for The Crowd Show
CHARMINGLY offbeat, inspiring, poetic writer, comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home to York on February 24 on the 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour.
After his philosophical observations in abstractly themed shows on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”, structured around internet instructions on how to give a speech.
Ironically, he had started writing material for a show about crowds only a few weeks before the Covid lockdowns silenced them.
His 8pm homecoming has sold out already – York’s in-crowd for that night – but further Yorkshire gigs follow at Hebden Bridge Trades Club, April 16 (01422 845265 or thetradesclub.com); Sheffield Leadmill, April 30, 7.30pm (leadmill.co.uk); Pocklington Arts Centre, May 27, 8pm (01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk) and Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm (hydeparkbookclub.co.uk).
Tunnel vision: Rob Auton deep in thought at the Innocent Railway during the Edinburgh Fringe
In a crowded calendar, Rob Auton finds time to talk about The Crowd Show with CharlesHutchPress
How do you interpret the proverb “If two’s company, three’s a crowd”?
“I guess it’s different if you’re doing a show and there’s two people watching, I’m there too, so there’s three of us in the room but only two in the crowd and two isn’t a crowd. Maybe I’d sit down with them so there’s definitely a crowd.”
What’s the difference between an audience and a crowd?
“An audience all face in the same direction.”
Do you ever go crowd surfing, James’s Tim Booth or Peter Gabriel style?
“I went crowd surfing once when I was at a festival but that was only because it was the quickest way to get out of the hell that was that moshpit. I’ve never done it in one of my own gigs; I don’t think it works at comedy/spoken word shows.
“People are sitting down so it would put a lot of stress on their arms. I think if I went up to the front row and said ‘I’m going to Crowd surf now’, they would just look at me and remain seated.”
Can being with a crowd (of strangers) ever feel lonely when you are performing?
“I guess it’s a clear illustration of feeling like you don’t really fit in, everybody facing one way and you’re facing the other way. Sometimes I’m on stage and wish I was there in the crowd with my mates watching.
“One of the main objectives for me is making everyone in the room feel like we are all part of something together. I don’t feel lonely when I feel a connection with the crowd, so I really focus on that connection.”
Can being in a crowd ever feel lonely?
“In 2014 I was lucky enough to get the gig as the Glastonbury Festival Poet in Residence. I didn’t get a plus one and none of my mates were going that year so I was there on my own. Being around all those people having the time of their lives with their mates made me feel really lonely. I was pleased for them but also I felt cut off from the human side of the festival somehow.”
Do you prefer being in a football crowd or a concert crowd?
“I’ve had good times at both but I’ve had better times in music crowds.”
What is the smallest ever crowd you have played to?
“It depends on the room. If you have five people in a small room, it can feel like a decent crowd but the crowd that felt smallest was probably when I was on tour in 2015 doing my show about water. I’d been put in a 300-seater room and I think seven people were there, sitting quite far apart from each other. All character building, I guess.”
Owls of laughter: Rob Auton being an absolute hoot in his avian T-shirt
What is the largest ever crowd you have played to?
“The one with the most people in it? Some of the gigs at festivals I have done have had some biggish crowds. I did one at Bestival where people had climbed up trees to watch my set. That was surreal; I think it was because the person on after me was an influencer who was doing a talk on tree climbing. I love it when there’s a big crowd and the laughter kind of crowd surfs around.”
As essentially social creatures, crowd experiences are important to us. Discuss…
“Yes certainly, I think, especially after the last few years we’ve had. Isolation brought the importance of other people into focus for sure. That’s not really me discussing it is it? I certainly feel better when I’ve been around people. Touring can be quite isolating so I have to really make the most of being around people in the show.”
Do you like to stand out in a crowd?
“Absolutely not. I think that’s why I’ve put myself on stage, out of the crowd. When I’m in a crowd, I’m constantly afraid that I’m in people’s way because I’m quite tall [Rob is 6ft 2].
What do you enjoy most about performing to a crowd?
The fact that the energy is different every night. The crowd really keeps me on my toes; I can never get complacent or think ‘oh this will work’. The act of just trying to be honest instead of trying to be clever, the crowd don’t want to see someone show off really, so walking that tightrope is what I love. The unpredictability of it.”
What do you enjoy least about performing to a crowd?
“I wish it could be just slightly more predictable.”
How do you control a crowd when performing? Indeed, do you need to control a crowd?
“There’s certain tools you can develop, eye contact, level and tone of voice, speed at which you talk, etc. It’s spinning plates really, trying to keep everyone engaged, but I often remind myself that the people who have come to see me have got a lot going on in their lives and might drift off and think about something more important for a bit.
“Trying to take control of one person’s brain for an hour is difficult, never mind a crowd of people. There needs to be a certain amount of playful authority or it can descend into chaos.”
When it comes to events, from gigs to football matches, rallies to festivals, most of us only ever experience the feeling of being in the crowd. What does it feel like being the performer playing to that crowd?
“I think ‘playing’ is the right word. It feels like I’ve given myself an opportunity to be in front of people by working hard, so I just have to share what I’ve made and trust my process and work. It feels like, ‘right, let’s give this to these people, they’ve paid me to give them the best side of me, so let’s give it everything I can while I’ve still got the chance.”
The tour poster for Rob Auton’s The Crowd Show
When do you feel you are going against the tide of a crowd?
“Mainly on weekends when I’m going to do shows and other people are making plans to be with their mates. I feel like I’m swimming away from the party a bit then, but I’m very thankful that I get to do what I do so I’m not complaining one bit.”
How do you use the crowd in The Crowd Show?
“I use them by attempting to get them to surrender to the moment and give themselves fully to the space we’re sharing. I might not do that directly in the show but that’s my goal.”
Did the enforced absence of crowds in the pandemic make both you and audiences appreciate the importance of crowds in our lives even more?
“Definitely, that period made me realise how important people are in my life and my work. Without people we are absolutely done.”
What do you prefer: noise/crowds or silence/solitude?
“Both are important, but they can be quite jarring when put right next to each other. When I’m on tour and doing my show about crowds and connection and there’s lots of noise and fun and then I go back to the dressing room and it’s just me, back to the Travelodge and it’s just me, it’s quite a lot for the brain and body to take on.”
E M Forster could not have put it better than in his epigraph for Howards End: “Only connect”. Agree?
“Oh yeah, it’s all about connection, isn’t it. That’s all we have really, connecting with the moment and what’s in it. If I connect with the moment and there’s people in the moment as well and we conjure up a connection, then that’s it.”
So, why is disconnection – and division – on the increase?
“I’m not qualified to answer that.”
After talk, time and now crowds, what will you be looking at in your next show, opening at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe this summer?
“I’m doing a show about me called The Rob Auton Show. A show about me. It will be my tenth show on a specific theme, so I thought I should mark it with a theme I haven’t really explored very much.”
Rob Auton in The Hair Show: He grew his hair from September 2016 to the tour’s closing night in May 2018
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton Fact File
Born: Fulford Hospital, York; son of a plumber.
Raised: Barmby Moor.
Lives: London.
Education: Woldgate School, Pocklington; York College, art foundation course; Newcastle University, graphic design.“Each term I had to stand in front of the class and give a presentation and I’d try to make mine funny,” he says.
Occupation: Stand-up comedian, writer, poet, illustrator, artist, actor and podcaster. Named the “Brian Cox of comedy” by the Guardian.
First job: In London, writing adverts for the House of Fraser. “But I got really frustrated because I just wanted to make things entertaining and started filling notebooks with ideas I had.”
Bright idea: Rob Auton in his Fringe debut, The Yellow Show
What happened next? “The creative director said he was holding a firework night with poetry, and that’s when I read my poems for the first time.”
And then? Began performing with Bang Said The Gun, stand-up poetry collective founded by Dan Cockrill and Martin Galton, in London in 2007.
First solo comedy performance: 2008. “I started saying things aloud to groups of people without wanting them to respond verbally. Some call this ‘stand-up comedy’, some call it ‘stand-up poetry’,” he says.
Edinburgh Fringe debut: The Yellow Show, 2012.
Subsequent Edinburgh shows: All on specific themes, The Sky Show, 2013; The Face Show, 2014; The Water Show, 2015; The Sleep Show, 2016; The Hair Show, 2017; The Talk Show, 2018; The Time Show, 2019; The Crowd Show, 2022. Subsequently toured shows nationwide.
Award: Won the Dave Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh Fring’ award in 2013 for “I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa”.
Post: Poet-in-residence at 2014 Glastonbury Festival.
The cover for Rob Auton’s 2021 book, I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things
Books: Poet and illustrator for Bang Said The Gun’s Mud Wrestling With Words (2013) and solo works In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh (2013), Petrol Honey (2014) and Take Hair (2017), all published by Burning Eye Books, and I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things: A Creative Journey Through The Everyday Wonders Of Our World (2021), featuring poetic prose, short stories and biro drawings, published by Mudlark/Harper Collins.
Television appearances: BBC1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and Netflix; The Russell Howard Hour and Stand Up Central.
Radio: His work has been played on Jarvis Cocker, Cerys Matthews and Scroobius Pip’s shows.
TV acting roles: Cold Feet, 2018, playing a bad spoken-word poet at a music festival; The End Of The F***ing World, 2019, as chef Tommy; Miracle Workers, 2019, as Hank.
Podcast: In 2020, he started The Rob Auton Daily Podcast, posting a new episode every day, as it says on the tin. Amassed two million listens and won gold award for Best Daily Podcast at the 2020 British Podcast Awards.
Likes: Musician Joe Strummer; artist Francis Bacon; author Richard Brautigan.
Auton on Auton: “I am a man who likes the sky and the ground in equal measures. Sometimes I like the sky more than the ground.”
Performing philosophy: “You have to throw it to the wind, that’s when a show starts to really cook and the audience goes with it. It’s trial and error; that’s what all my shows have been.”
Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth and Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring
THREE mysterious figures enter the stage, talking of the hurly-burly, thunder and lightning and a young couple hell bent on overthrowing the old regime.
Whereupon they conjure the Macbeths, placing them in a dangerous new world ruled by paranoia, betrayal, and brutality.
Something wicked – but not wholly familiar – this way comes in ground-breaking Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s typically audacious retelling of Shakespeare’s “Scottish Play”, on tour at Harrogate Theatre on February 24 and 25.
Retold and directed by Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks, with set and video design by Simon Wainwright and original music by James Hamilton, Macbeth’s tale of ambition, betrayal and downfall is re-booted as a neon noir thriller wherein Shakespeare’s language collides with “startling new scenes, stunning visuals and a powder-keg intensity”.
“Macbethis an extraordinary play,” says Imitating The Dog artistic director Andrew Quick. “Shakespeare’s exploration of power, ambition, violence and love seems so relevant to today.
In the flesh and on screen: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth and Benjamin Westerby’s in Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring
“We’re excited to be bringing Macbeth to Harrogate Theatre in a unique take on the original play, a Macbeth as you have never seen before, but still with Shakespeare’s story at its heart.”
Fusing live performance with digital technology for 23 years, latterly in Night Of The Living Dead ™ – Remix and Dracula: The Untold Story, Imitating The Dog turn to Shakespeare after staging Cinema Inferno for the Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela, based on an original concept by creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2022 collection.
“We started off with Romeo & Juliet, working on a version for two actors in their 60s or 70s,” says Andrew. “We did some research, but it felt like a one-idea show that we couldn’t commit to.
“But Macbeth was a play we really liked, and there’ve been a lot of film versions, with two recent ones [Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth, from 2021, and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, from 2015] still fresh in the mind. So, we thought, ‘if we can’t do Romeo & Juliet, let’s do Macbeth’.”
As a contrast with Denzel Washington and Michael Fassbender’s older Macbeths in those two films, Imitating The Dog settled on two young leads (played by Benjamin Westerby, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maia Tamrakar, from Sheffield Crucible’s Rock, Scissors, Paper).
“Out, damned spot; out, I say”: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth, filmed by Laura Atherton, who plays one of the witches in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring
“In our adaptation, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are 18-19 years old; they’re kids really, street kids,” says Andrew.
“We’ve set it in a kind of parallel world, a version of London that’s a cross between Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles and London, with a Blade Runner feel to it. Duncan [the king in the original] is a crime lord; Macbeth seizes the moment, suddenly being thrown into the spotlight when he becomes second in line to Duncan, who starts thinking, ‘ooh, this kid is a bit much’.
“When Macbeth murders him, it’s not just about ambition but self-protection, because though he feels he’s really good at his job, he also feels that if he doesn’t kill him now, he could get done in.”
As played by Stefan Chanyaem, Matt Prendergast (from Dracula:The Untold Story) and Laura Atherton (from Night Of The Living Dead™ – Remix), the witches/shape shifters set up the story in Imitating The Dog’s version, playing everyone bar the Macbeths, who have “fallen into this world that is testing them”.
“The witches are like clowns in suits, these grotesques, who do all the live filming on stage, with Macbeth always being filmed close-up, giving almost a forensic quality to the piece, adding to the psychological drama,” says Andrew.
That world is constructed with 70 to 30 per cent division between original text and new text with hints of the Russian, Italian and Japanese language: “little traces of those argots”, as Andrew puts it. “It’s a cosmopolitan city that is multi-racial, international, like lots of big cities nowadays. “It’s a city that the witches set up and the Macbeths descend into,” he says.
Imitating The Dog’s cast of five in a scene from Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring
“In the back story, they were orphaned when growing up, and Macbeth is looking after her, more like a brother and sister rather than lovers.
“The challenge was: could we make the Macbeths lovable or at least understandable; make them human, whereas Shakespeare’s Richard III is more of a monster under all that Tudor propaganda of the time.”
Exploring the “challenge” further, Andrew says: “Whether you can really like them or not, I don’t know, but I think you can understand their motives in a very brutal world. The Macbeths do things that are terrible, they use extreme violence, like killing Lady MacDuff and the MacDuff children, but we’re not only interested in a story of power and ambition but the context in which that arises too. Right now, looking at monarchy and power feels very relevant.
“In this very violent world, the Macbeths’ love for each other is very important, with everything that Macbeth does being rooted in his need to protect Lady Macbeth. He’s always questioning, always doubting, always reassessing what he should do next, and what’s great about the play is that Shakespeare gives him humanity despite what he’s doing.”
A further reference point is Arthur Penn’s 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. “Even though they do these terrible things, there’s something very attractive about them – and once they start, they have to keep going,” says Andrew.
Imitating The Dog in Macbeth, Harrogate Theatre, February 24 at 7.30pm; February 25, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Further Yorkshire dates: CAST, Doncaster, February 21 and 22, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, 01484 430528 or thelbt.org.
Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth in rehearsal for Macbeth
The more, the Melia: “Triple threat” Kate Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine in York Stage’s Sweet Charity. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick
ON Broadway, Sweet Charity would come with a 30-piece orchestra and all that jazz. In York, you can see it up close and personal, so close that Katie Melia’s fully flexed leg comes within an inch of connecting with your reviewer’s face, plonked by invitation at the centre of the front row. Well, that’s one way to secure a thumbs-up review!
Sweet Charity might equally have suited the Grand Opera House or Theatre Royal stage, but director-producer Nik Briggs foresaw the benefits of making Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ witty, waspish 1966 New York musical comedy a studio-sized production, just as he found a new way to present pantomime at Theatre@41, with West End choreographer Gary Lloyd’s song-and-dance numbers to the fore alongside the slapstick in the Covid winter of 2020 in Jack And The Beanstalk.
Briggs calls it a “dance-heavy musical but one where you can really get into the story, and seeing those scenes so intimately will be really rewarding”. Consequently, he delivers both glitz and grit, romanticism and realism, with the aid of two finger-clickin’ good lieutenants, musical director Jessica Viner, leading her four-piece on keys and violin on the mezzanine level, and choreographer Danielle Mullan-Hill.
On top of that, if Briggs could have chosen the perfect week to stage a musical with a lead character called Charity Hope Valentine, then a week front-loaded with St Valentine’s Day would be the one. The John Cooper Studio is suitably fitted out with heart shapes galore, balloons et al, while the end-on stage is fringed with glittering tinsel drapes and audience members are seated around tables.
Duet par excellence: Emily Ramsden’s Nickie, left, and Carly Morton’s Helene reflecting on life at the Fandango Ballroom
Briggs’s designs, topped off by the checkboard flooring for the Fandango Ballroom, give off an Austin Powers Sixties’ vibe, matched by the fabulous costumery, and vital to that look is the fantastic hair and make-up work of Phoebe Kilvington. All the better for being experienced within touching distance.
There is a sting in the tale to Sweet Charity, but the vibe is largely fun, breezy and very Sixties, and Briggs is in playful mood, replacing the lake of the film version with a bath filled with plastic balls for two scenes where Katie Melia’s ballroom taxi dancer – or dancehall hostess, to be more colloquial – ends up in both the opening and closing scenes.
Briggs refers to Melia as a “triple threat”, equally adept at singing, acting and dancing (including solo tap dancing here), and she has a goofy girl-next-door appeal to her too. Her heart-of-gold Charity is a dreamer, quirky and spirited, but too trusting, too generous, forever looking for love, but alas in the wrong places. Or, as fellow taxi dancer Nickie (sassy Emily Ramsden) puts it: “Your big problem is you run your heart like a hotel – you got guys checkin’ in and out all the time.”
Living in (dashed) hope, seeking escape, Melia’s plucky Charity goes from man to man, from Sam Roberts’s taciturn Charlie Dark Glasses, to Jack Hooper’s moustachioed movie idol Vittorio Vidal to Stuart Piper’s shy, neurotic tax accountant Oscar Lindquist.
Uplifting: Katie Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine and Stuart Piper’s Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity
Roberts’’s part is wham, bam, Sam, gone, but Hooper and Piper are both terrific. Hooper’s Italian accent and Latin romantic lead schtick are a joy, as his gorgeous singing, his debonair air served up with a dash of the tongue in cheek in Simon’s script.
Melia finds the comedy gold in both relationships, the first involving her hiding in the closet, chomping on olives and a sandwich as Vittorio’s high-maintenance lover, Ursula (York Stage debutant Mary Clare), arrives suddenly.
The second, spanning either side of the interval, begins in a malfunctioning lift, where Melia’s laissez-faire Charity contrasts with Piper’s hyperventilating Oscar, his performance combining physical comedy with aerated verbal expression.
Ramsden’s Nickie and Carly Morton’s Helene excel too, especially in their duet, while James Robert Ball shines as brightly as his silver suit in the stand-out Rhythm Of Life, everyone in green all around him.
Putting it in black and white: The sensational Frug dance in York Stage’s Sweet Charity
Big Spender is an early come-hither taxi-dancer knockout, but better still in Mullan-Hill’s sensuous, sinuous and darn hot choreography is the Frug sequence of three ensemble dances, in black and white, each as groovy, baby, as Austin Powers could wish.
At short notice, Nik Briggs has stepped in to take over the role of matchstick-chewing ballroom manager/pimp Herman, reminding us of his now rarely seen singing and acting prowess.
Melia’s finest hour, knockout dancing, superb band, a frenzy of fishnets, snazzy gear and snappy dialogue, Sweet Charity demands to be your Valentine, whichever night or day, this week.
Performances: 7.30pm, tonight tonight and Friday; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday; 2.30pm, Sunday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Finding the Rhythm Of Life: James Robert Ball and the dance ensemble in silver and green unison in Sweet Charity
JONATHAN Smith’s exhibition of Landscapes From The Heart Of Yorkshire is running at Village Gallery, Colliergate, York, until March 4.
A self-taught painter based in the Yorkshire Dales, Jonathan paints exclusively in oils and focuses on how the land lies in Yorkshire and Northumberland.
“Art was one of Jonathan’s favourite subjects when he was at Ripon Grammar School, although this was the last time he would receive any formal training,” says gallery owner and curator Simon Main.
“After years as a hobby painter, he turned semi-professional in 2019, since when he has held several exhibitions across Yorkshire region, including in Doncaster, Ilkley, Harrogate, Skipton and Leeds. Last year, he received a Wild Card place on Sky’s Landscape Artist of the Year.”
Spring, Malham Cove, by Jonathan Smith
He is influenced by the 19th century English Romantic painters, the French Barbizon School and the Russian Itinerants, who drew inspiration from nature and sought to capture the beauty of the everyday in the landscapes around them.
In following this style, he adds the concept of “memory painting”, as espoused by American artist John F Carlson. “Once Jonathan has found a scene or motif that inspires, he will sketch and photograph it,” says Simon. “This material is used to outline the final composition in the studio but is then largely abandoned.
“From this point on, the painting is done from memory in the attempt to convey his own feelings directly through the painting. His main focus is to try to eke out the beauty of nature from his surroundings and to show how beauty exists all around us.”
Village Gallery’s opening hours are 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Robert Hollingworth: University of York Choir musical director
THE University of York Choir join forces with The 24 and The City Musick for an evening of the “Colossal Baroque” music of 17th century Rome at Central Hall, University of York, on March 18.
Under the direction of Robert Hollingworth, the 7.30pm programme combines Orazio Benevoli’s Missa Di Deus Pro Nobis for four choirs with what the choir’s musical director describes as “other monstrous works” by Benevoli’s Venetian teacher, Vincenzo Ugolini, among others.
Almost forgotten today, Benevoli (1605-1672) was one of the most important Roman Baroque composers of his day. “He wrote glorious, large scale, multi-choir music that included a technique called ‘reining in the donkey’, in which the lower parts move hastily underneath a static soprano line, supposedly like a priest sitting on and trying to hold back a frenetic donkey,” says Hollingworth. “Think King Of Kings in the Hallelujah Chorus,” he suggests.
The 24 is a University of York music department ensemble, conducted by Hollingworth, founder/director of I Fagiolini. The City Musick comprises cornett, sackbut, dulcian, strings, organs and theorbos.
Danny Mac’s Edward and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian in the West End production of Pretty Woman: The Musical. Picture: Helen Maybanks
THE debut UK tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical will play the Grand Opera House, York, from February 20 to 24 next year.
Billed as “Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage”, the show features original music and lyrics by Canadian rock star and Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter, J F Lawton, with direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell.
Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees in York are newly on sale at atgtickets.com/York.
The West End production continues to play at the Savoy Theatre, London, taking bookings until June 11 2023. The British and Irish tour will open on October 17 at the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre; the tour cast is yet to be announced.
Should the Richard Gere-Julia Roberts movie have escaped your attention, here is a quick refresher course on Pretty Woman’s story: Once upon a time in the late 1980s, Vivian met Edward and her life changed forever.
Or put it another way, in a tale based somewhat loosely on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, rich New York corporate raider Edward Lewis hires free-spirited Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward to accompany him to a series of social events, only to fall in love with her. How will they bridge the chasm between their worlds?
Danny Mac’s Edward Lewis and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian Ward in a scene from Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre, London
Move forward to 2023-2024, when the tour publicity invites you to “be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart”.
The musical also features the Roy Orbison and Bill Dees composition Oh, Pretty Woman, the Big O’s August 1964 chart topper that inspired Garry Marshall’s film.
Atlantic Records has released Pretty Woman: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), a soundtrack album produced by Adams and Vallance.
The show has scenic design by David Rockwell; costumes by Tom Rogers, from the original Broadway designs by Gregg Barnes; lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Philip S Rosenberg; sound design by John Shivers; hair design by Josh Marquette and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Will Van Dyke.
Pretty Woman; The Musical received its world premiere at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran at the Nederlander Theatre. A German production opened in Hamburg at the Stage Theater an der Elbe in September 2019 and a USA tour began in October 2021.
The Ambassador Theatre Group, the Grand Opera House owners, are among the tour’s producers.
The artwork for Pretty Woman: The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next February
Anna Rose James: Workshops and open mic shows at UK Ghost Story Festival. Picture: Nicolas Laborie
YORK actor-writer Anna Rose James will be the Ghost Of Festival Present at this week’s UK Ghost Story Festival at the Museum of Making, Derby Silk Mill, Derby.
“I’ll be running two workshops on Friday, hosting an open mic on Sunday, live-tweeting the rest and sharing a creative response to the whole thing at the end,” she says, ahead of attending the event from tomorrow until Sunday.
Anna will lead Friday’s Ghosts and Comedy workshop in the River Room from 2pm to 3pm, followed by the Ghostly Origins session in the Studio Space from 5pm to 6pm. Sunday’s open mics will be at 10.30am and 12 noon in the River Room.
Anna, or AR James as she is profiled in the festival speakers’ biographies, is a queer, bisexual actor-writer of unsettling entrances and exits in the form of poetry, flash fiction, auto-fiction, screenplays and scripts.
She co-founded Sonnet Sisters, Six Lips Theatre and The Podvangelist and is the voice of 3CC0 in Tin Can. Her works include Unknown (York publisher Stairwell Books), Little Irritants (Analog Submission Press) and 100 Friggin’ Poems.
Here Anna Rose James answers five questions on the ukghoststoryfestival.co.uk blog
What was the first ghost story you read, Anna?
“The first ones I remember encountering were actually told to me, and they were poems: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, which remains a favourite, and The Listeners by Walter de la Mare – another narrative lyric that portrays a traveller who knocks upon a ‘moonlit door’ only to wait in the silence of the ‘listeners’, the phantoms who inhabit the house.
“Unlike the thoroughly conclusive The Raven, The Listeners is a swift draft of pure anticipation – silence and waiting and the unknown.”
Do you have a favourite ghost story, be it on the page or on the screen?
“The ones I’m writing will always be my favourites, but I can’t share those yet. I also won’t rank any single tale above the rest, but one of my favourites is The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens. I’ve only read and heard it so far, but I imagine it would also make a great short film in the right hands.
“I am fascinated by the cyclical impression of the titular character’s dreadful premonitions – the repetition of the haunting refrain, ‘Hallao, below there!’ and the tragic futility of his being trapped with the knowledge of impending doom and the inability to do anything to prevent it.
“There’s a real sense of ‘so close!’ – the narrator takes an interest in his strange case, the visions must surely be warning him for a reason, but…ultimately, fate strikes again. The real-world parallels with Dickens’s own life (and death) are a perfectly eerie cherry on the cake.”
What was the first ghost story you wrote?
“I wish I could find it to share pictures because it was a riot. The Time Machine was, I suspect, inspired equally by Jurassic Park and Sister, Sister! Penned at the tender age of seven, I used poster paints, masking tape and glitter glue to weave a (literally) incredible story about some friends who travelled back in time, saw some dinosaurs and got eaten.
Meanwhile in the present day (or future, presumably), someone had given birth to twins who then suddenly faded away (presumably the people who’d been eaten). It was non-stop until it stopped abruptly before seven-year-old me came up with an ending.”
What is the enduring appeal of the ghost story form?
“The social aspect of telling and being told, sharing the creeps and relishing the feeling of doling out some ghoulish experience. Watching a friend’s face as you lay out the reveal. The thrill of the unearthly clues, the surprising explanations.
“We love to be scared. We love it when stories can still surprise us, even with all we know. And until we know what’s beyond the veil of death, we’ll have this eternal playground of ideas to explore, whether we’re tugging at a thread we feel we shouldn’t or attempting to make peace with something completely out of our control and understanding.”
What are you particularly looking forward to at the festival?
“I’m a sucker for psychogeography so I can’t wait for Ally Wilkes’ workshop on Landscape and Location in Horror on Sunday. I’m an old lovey too so all the performances are top of my list.
“I’m also super excited to get stuck into my own workshops on comedy and origins in ghost stories, and to hear what the attendees have cooking in their own cauldrons at the open mic slots!”
Soon Amore Choir, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, February 12
THE Soon Amore Choir programme was very much a pick’n’mix affair – and a very tasty one too.
It opened with a hunting call on natural horn, which threaded through the first half, chasing the concluding traditional French fanfare Et Chansons de Chasse. Of course, this was somewhat contrived, but it did treat us to the superb playing of Martin Lawrence.
There was much to enjoy here, not least the performances of Shoebox and Heavy Laden with Jane Stockdale (voice) and Dave Pearce (piano). Stockdale sang Shoebox with an instinctive feeling for folksong tradition while Pearce’s crisp piano octave attacks dispelled any sentimentality. For Heavy Laden they were joined by the choir with the simple counterpoint setting acting to reinforce the song’s world-weary narrative.
The traditional Ghanaian Senwa Dedende was performed by the “people’s” choir, that is, us. And very well indeed and certainly better than our vocal coach, Chris Bartram!
As I know David Lancaster personally, it wouldn’t be particularly professional to comment on his piece itself. Suffice to say that the distinctive sound-world of Fell was very well performed by Soon Amore in its world premiere, where the ritualistic, repetitive choral statements were very clearly delivered, commenting on the convincing spoken narrative by Laura Potts and Gary Craig. Martin Lawrence’s playing was, of course, imperious.
By contrast, Bruckner’s sweet, touching Locus Iste simply glowed with joy. Following an impressive The Deer’s Cry by Arvo Part, which is actually quite tricky, the “people’s” choir were back to perform the traditional Bella Mama. The higher pitch gave our vocal coach the opportunity to redeem himself, which he did admirably. It was genuine fun singing the simple canon and very satisfying too.
Eric Whitacre is a very fine composer and his choral writing is always distinctive. The choir clearly relished the lovely harmonies and gentle dissonances of his Sleep and their enjoyment was infectious. For me, anyway.
Chris Bartram is an excellent, entirely musical conductor and his engaging manner made the Sunday afternoon concert a very rewarding experience.
