AFTER 17 years, York contemporary gallery According To McGee is to close its Tower Street doors in September.
Acomb husband and wife and business duo Greg and Ails McGee are looking forward to the next stage but in the meantime they are “ready to go out with an incendiary confetti of contemporary collectibles”, as Greg puts it.
“Every chapter comes to an end,” says Ails, “And before we launch Part Two, we thought let’s finish our tenure at Tower Street by going full circle. We started back in 2005 with a Richard Barnes show, and I had just finished teaching his daughter Chantal Barnes as an A-Level student at Huntington School.
“The idiosyncratic vigour with which Chantal Barnes pushes paint around is a wholly new visual idea,” says According To McGee co-director Greg McGee
“Chantal is now an internationally sought-after artist and has work appearing in Vogue magazine, while Richard has retired from teaching at Bootham School and is now a full-time painter after moving south from York.”
Barnes at the double goes on show at According To McGee today. “This is a victory lap for us,” says Greg. “We are in many ways going back to our source with Richard’s York cityscapes, but the art scene in York has changed so much, and the paintings of both Barneses are now so collectible, that though we’re tipping the hat to our first exhibition, we’re much more excited about the here and now.
“The York that Richard paints feels very contemporary, very now, and the idiosyncratic vigour with which Chantal pushes paint around is a wholly new visual idea.”
Richard Barnes delivers the new Barnes + Barnes collections to the According To McGee curatorial team, Nell Bannister and Rhys Davies Brackett
Greg looks back fondly over the McGees’ Tower Street years. “Richard really helped to galvanise our business plan back in 2005, which was at that point a general desire to exhibit exciting art. He helped distil that down into an irreducible manifesto.
“Go primarily for paintings, paintings that are instantly recognisable as being from the McGee stable. Grab the attention of passers-by, paint the gallery front yellow, which, although a Choir of Vision inception, had its roots in the initial vision Richard helped us shape.
“Since then, we’ve exhibited Elaine Thomas CBE; Dave Pearson; ska legend Horace Panter, of The Specials. We’ve had exhibitions officially opened by Sir Ian Botham, when we launched art from Dubai celebrity artist Jim Wheat; 1960s’ painter and friend of The Beatles Doug Binder has had solo shows here.
Magical Monk Bar, by Richard Barnes
“It’s been a wild and fulfilling ride here, opposite York’s most recognisable landmark [Clifford’s Tower], but the time has come to leave the building, and we’re doing it in style with Barnes + Barnes.”
Contemporary Painting: Barnes + Barnes’ straddles According To McGee’s past as gallerists but also looks forward. “As an exhibition, it transcends this building, and so we’ll be ready to run it again in the future,” vows Greg.
“Where that will be, we can’t yet say, but that unpredictability, with the liberty and excitement that come with it, was the reason we got into running an art gallery in the first place. This exhibition reflects that. As soon as Chapter II emerges over the horizon, we’ll let you know.”
Contemporary Painting: Barnes + Barnes runs from today (23/7/2022) to Sunday, September 25, at According To McGee, Tower Street, York. For more information, visit www.accordingtomcgee.com
Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, Phil Grainger and Megan Drury in The Gods The Gods The Gods at Stillington Mill for four nights. Picture: Tom Figgins
GODS on the Fringe, battling Romans, a riverside market, a Welsh icon and a thirsty Tiger are courting Charles Hutchinson’s attention on the art beat.
Theatre event of the week: Wright & Grainger in The Gods The Gods The Gods, Stilly Fringe, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, 8.45pm
ALEXANDER Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger believe that three is indeed the magic number. Hence The Gods The Gods The Gods as a title for their third triad of myths, spoken word and music after Orpheus and Eurydice, and their first with a third participant, Australian actor, writer and dramaturg, Megan Drury.
Not everything is about threes, however. There will be four stories and 11 tracks in a show full of big beats, soaring melodies and heart-stopping words as Wright & Grainger head to the crossroads where mythology meets real life. Box office: atthemill.org.
Silversmith and jewellery designer Jen Ricketts: One of 42 artists and makers taking part in Ryedale Open Studios. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Art event of the week outside York: Ryedale Open Studios, today, tomorrow, July 30 and 31, 10am to 5pm
FOUNDED by Layla Khoo, Kirsty Kirk and Petra Young, the second Ryedale Open Studios gives visitors the chance to explore the district’s creative talents and skills, ranging from painting, printing, drawing and photography to ceramics, textiles, metalwork and willow weaving.
More than 40 artists are participating in an event organised by Vault Arts Centre. Head to ryedaleopenstudios.com, where a printable map and handbook can be downloaded.
Miles And The Chain Gang: Busy weekend ahead
Miles ahead: Miles And The Chain Gang, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm; Harrogate Blues Bar, Montpellier Parade, Harrogate, Sunday, 9pm
YORK poet, radio presenter, festival founder, singer and songwriter Miles Salter and his new line-up of The Chain Gang head to Helmsley and Harrogate this weekend.
Crawling from the swamps of North Yorkshire, with the bit between their teeth and the blues biting at their heels, The Chain Gang will be making their Helmsley debut. Taking their cues from Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Led Zeppelin and early 1980s’ new wave, Salter and co deliver a potent brew of their own tunes as well as classics by Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell and more besides.
“There’s quite a crowd coming to Helmsley but some tickets are available, and you can book online at helmsleyartscentre.co.uk,” says Miles. “Both gigs will feature all the songs we have on YouTube: When It Comes To You, Drag Me To The Light, All Of Our Lives and latest single Love Is Blind, a song played more than 300 times on radio stations in the UK, Europe and USA.” For Harrogate details, head to: bluesbar.co.uk.
What did the Romans ever do for us? Time to find out at the first Malton Museum Roman Festival
Festival of the week: Malton Museum Roman Festival, Sunday, 11am to 3.30pm
MALTON Museum is hosting its inaugural Roman Festival this weekend at the Roman Fort on Orchard Fields.
Live action demonstrations will be staged in the arena by experimental archaeologists Equistry (Roman Cavalry) and re-enactment group Magister Militum will establish a Roman Legionary encampment and engage in battle sequences.
Children can join the Children’s Roman Army, paint shields, create mosaics, try wax tablet drawing and take part in archaeology activities. Tickets: maltonmuseum.co.uk.
Teatime mayhem amid much munching: The Tiger Who Came To Tea tucks in at the Grand Opera House, York
Children’s show of the week: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 2pm; Tuesday and Wednesday, 11am, 2pm
WHAT happens when a Tiger knocks on the door at teatime? You better let Tiger in as the tea guzzler in Judith Kerry’s story returns to the road in this award-winning family show after a West End season.
Expect oodles of magic, singalong songs and clumsy chaos in a stage adaptation full of teatime mayhem and surprises, suitable for age three upwards. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Sexbomb alert: Sir Tom Jones soon to hit Scarborough
Knight’s night out of the week: Sir Tom Jones, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Tuesday, gates open at 6pm
PONTYPRIDD powerhouse Sir Tom Jones heads to the Yorkshire coast with another number one album in his pocket, Surrounded By Time, his 41st studio set, no less.
Maybe singles Talking Reality Television Blues, No Hole In My Head, One More Cup Of Coffee and Pop Star from that April 2021 album will feature in the 82-year-old Welshman’s set. The likes of Delilah, Green Green Grass Of Home, It’s Not Unusual, She’s A Lady, You’re My World, What’s New Pussycat?, Kiss and Sexbomb surely will. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Look sharp for a ticket: Joe Jackson welcomes sinners to his very rare York concert on Friday
Rearranged gig of the week: Joe Jackson, Sing, You Sinners! Tour, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
FAMILIAR foe Covid-19 delayed only the second ever York concert of singer, songwriter and consummate arranger Joe Jackson’s 44-year career, put back from March 17 to July 29.
Better late than never, Jackson promises hits, songs not aired in years and new material, performed in the company of Graham Maby on bass, Teddy Kumpel on guitar and Doug Yowell on drums and electronics.
A mini-solo set is on the cards too in Jackson’s only Yorkshire gig of his European tour; his first York appearance since the Grand Opera House in June 2005. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
A montage of work by artists and makers taking part in this summer’s York River Art Market
York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, by Lendal Bridge, River Ouse, York, July 30 and 31; August 6 and 7; August 13 and 14
YORK River Art Market returns for its seventh summer, this time spread over three full weekends. Drawing comparisons with the Left Bank in Paris, this open-air market is free of charge and provides the chance to browse and buy directly from artists showcasing their creative wares along the riverside railings.
Each market will showcase a different variety of 30 artists with the guarantee that no two markets are ever the same. Look out for paintings, prints, jewellery, textiles, glass work, ceramics, maybe even artisan shaving cream (one of last summer’s hit stalls).
The tour poster for Michael Palin’s new travel show, From North Korea Into Iraq, bound for the Grand Opera House, York
Show announcement of the week: Michael Palin, From North Korea Into Iraq, Grand Opera House, York, October 6
MONTY Python comedy legend and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin will give a first-hand account of his extraordinary journeys through two countries on the dark side of history on his new solo tour this autumn.
Using photos and film, he will recall his challenging adventures in the tightly controlled time bomb of the People’s Republic of North Korea and the bruised land of Iraq, once the home of civilisation, torn apart over the past 30 years by brutal war and bloodshed.
Palin’s theatre tour will be preceded by his new Channel 5 series, Michael Palin: Into Iraq. York tickets: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Mouth-watering prospect: Holly Beasley-Garrigan in Opal Fruits on July 28
THE Great Yorkshire Fringe exited stage left from York in 2019 after five years, 1,200 shows, 9,000 performers and 110,000 visitors.
Frustrated by red tape, impresario Martin Witts pulled the plug on his fiesta of comedy, theatre, spoken word and children’s shows, since when the black hole in York’s summer entertainment calendar has never been filled.
In no way on the same scale, but occupying the same pre-Edinburgh Fringe slot, here comes the Stilly Fringe, out on the fringes of York at Stillington Mill, the home of the At The Mill arts hub, Saturday café and guest-chef supper club nights.
Running from tonight(July 22) until July 31, this is the latest enterprise from newly married Alexander Flanagan Wright, North Yorkshire writer, theatre-maker and visionary facilitator, and Megan Drury, Australian actor, writer and creative artist.
Selkie myth making: Hannah Davies and Jack Woods in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke on Saturday and Sunday night
“It’s come about because a bunch of our dear pals said, ‘can we come and do this?’, like most of the things we do here come about,” says Alex. “There seemed to be a critical mass to make us think these weekends would be a good way to test things out.
“We thought, ‘let’s do it in a communal and convivial way’ with that bond between audiences and performers giving it a different vibe, seeing new work with a chance to chat with the artists. We love doing that here.”
Presented in the mill gardens, either on the open-air stage on the repurposed tennis court or under the cover of the café-bar, the Summer At The Mill programme takes in theatre and spoken-word premieres, comedy, children’s shows, concerts, Gary Stewart’s folk club bills, even silent disco dance nights.
The Stilly Fringe largely mirrors that format but with the added intrigue of giving an early opportunity to see shows bound for the Scottish capital in August. “Six out of nine are going to Edinburgh,” says Alex. “The Lovely Boys, The Gods The Gods The Gods, Invisible Mending, Opal Fruits and Casey Jay Andrews’ double bill, The Wild Unfeeling World and A Place That Belongs To Monsters, are all heading there.”
The Lovely Boys: Opening Stilly Fringe tonight
First up, tonight at 7pm, will be Joe Kent-Walters and Mikey Bligh-Smith’s absurd clown bonanza, The Lovely Boys, followed by Harrison Casswell & Friends, an 8.45pm set of electric spoken word and live music fronted by the Doncaster poet and writer, who Alex first saw on a Say Owt bill in York.
Next will be Say Owt leading light, York poet, actor, playwright and spoken-word slam champion Hannah Davies’s The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, a lyrical re-telling of the selkie myth, set against the Yorkshire coast, complemented by original live music by Jack Woods, in work-in-progress performances at 7pm on Saturday and Sunday.
On both those nights at 8.45pm, and on July 27 and 28 too, Alex and fellow Easingwold School old boy Phil Grainger will give their first Stillington performances of The Gods The Gods The Gods, the third in their trilogy of spoken-word and live music shows rooted in ancient myths after Orpheus and Eurydice.
“We first did the show in Australia in early 2020 before the pandemic forced us home, and we’re going to do a big, loud, bopping version in the garden, different from the indoor production that had a pretty massive lighting set-up,” says Alex.
Three is a magic number: Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, Phil Grainger and Megan Drury in The Gods The Gods The Gods on July 23, 24, 27 and 28. Picture: Tom Figgins
“We’re having to look at how to play it within this landscape and within the Mill’s vibe, rather than trying to pretend we’re in a black-box theatre design. We’re just really excited to be telling these stories that we’ve been living with for three years.
“We’ve been doing loads of work with Megan as our dramaturg, and Phil and Tom (Figgins) have been re-working the music, re-writing some parts and writing plenty of new pieces.
“It feels like a two-year hiatus that has allowed us to think about these different story-telling modes to tell it with greater clarity.”
Why call this Wright & Grainger show The Gods The Gods The Gods, rather than plain old The Gods, Alex? “A lot of things come in threes and a lot of things in this show fall naturally into threes,” he reasons. “It’s one of those powerful numbers: a triad, with the three of us [Alex, Phil and Megan] telling the story.
Small acts of creativity: Yoshika Colwell combines metaphysics, music and verbatim material in Invisible Mendingon July 31
“There are in fact four stories, three of them everyday stories and one story of the Gods. Most of those stories are told in three parts, and we repeat things three times in parts – and it’s just a good title!
“It’s also the third in the series of storytelling pieces we’ve done, taking a big jump on from the first two with a lot bigger soundtrack of Phil’s songs and Tom’s music production and a more complex narrative that we’ve weaved into it.”
The Stilly Fringe also will present Opal Fruits, Holly Beasley-Garrigan’s solo show about class, nostalgia and five generations of women from a South London council estate, on July 28 at 7pm; Casey Jay Andrews’ The Wild Unfeeling World, a tender, furious and fragile re-imagining of Moby Dick, and A Place That Belongs To Monsters, a re-imagining of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, on July 29 at 7pm and 8.45pm respectively.
Lucy Bird, originally from Ampleforth, will head back north with her Birmingham company Paperback Theatre for an “utterly Brummie” re-telling of The Wind In The Willows on July 30 at 2.30pm and 7pm.
Yoshika Colwell will return to the Mill for the Stilly Fringe finale, Invisible Mending, her exploration of power in small acts of creativity through original music, metaphysics and verbatim material, presented in collaboration with Second Body’s Max Barton, on July 31 at 7pm.
Anne-Marie Piazza’s Laura and Pete Ashmore’s Alec take time out from rehearsals for the SJT’s Brief Encounter to encounter LMS Royal Scot Class 46115 Scots Guardsman, the locomotive that featured in the 1936 film Night Mail. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
THE Stephen Joseph Theatre’s stage version of Noël Coward’s buttoned-up story of forbidden love, Brief Encounter, opens tomorrow in Scarborough.
Adapted for the stage by Emma Rice, of pioneering Kneehigh Theatre and Wise Children acclaim, SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s actor-musician production is being staged in collaboration with Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and the Octagon Theatre, Bolton.
Rice herself had staged the premiere in 2007, her script drawing on both Coward’s 1945 film, Brief Encounter, and Still Life, his short play in five scenes from 1936, for a comedy drama that combined actors with a live band and film sequences.
“I contacted Emma and didn’t have to persuade her very much to let us do it,” says Paul. “She first said she’d worked on it for so long, she was just delighted to see it being done again, and then she contacted me again to say the only thing she would still like to have done was to do it in the round. I said, ‘please don’t come!’.” Relax, Paul was joking! “Emma was so generous,” he says.
He did not see her production but was drawn to her version of Brief Encounter by reading the script. “I think I might have felt daunted if I’d seen it,” he says, revelling in being able to bring a fresh perspective both to Rice’s play and Coward’s story of Laura and Alec, both married but not to each other, whose chance meeting at a railway station hurls them headlong into a whirlwind romance that threatens to blow their worlds apart.
“The Round requires you to do it differently, like when we did The 39 Steps, where we knew Patrick Barlow’s end-on production couldn’t be bettered, so why do it that way again?” Paul asks.
“We’ve decided to take an actor-muso approach to Brief Encounter,” says Stephen Joseph Theatre artistic director Paul Robinson. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“We’ve decided to take an actor-muso approach with Brief Encounter. Emma had used actors and a band, and we’ll be showing off our company’s musicality too. This is a great way to see musicianship in a show, where they’re not only great actors but between them they can play 11 instruments at a drop of a hat – and often a hat really does have to be dropped to let them do that!”
As for the storytelling side of Brief Encounter, Paul says: “What Emma has encouraged us to do is to go back to Coward’s work in his Chekhovian portrayal of relationships and matters of class, and how he looks at first-time love, the couple who’ve been around the block, and then the illicit love of Alec and Laura.
“What we’d done is really explode all those emotions of being in love, making it not only visually explosive but tonally too. What Emma achieved that Coward didn’t was the ‘ridiculousness’ of being in love, though Alec and Laura’s love is more naturally shaped.
“Unlike the world Patrick Barlow created in The 39 Steps, their relationship is sacrosanct and needs to stay in a true place, which gives the play a core.”
Emma drew on Coward’s own songs and poems to highlight his own situation, where he never came out of “the closet”. “There were obviously a lot of parallels with what he could or could not say about love and his own relationships,” says Paul. “Society has still not moved to being polyamorous. We still have that push and pull of being attracted to people ‘we shouldn’t be’. ‘Thank goodness for that,’ says Emma. ‘It means we’re still alive’.”
Composer Simon Slater has given jazz arrangements to such Coward numbers as Mad About The Boy and set various Coward poems to new music. “They’re poems that Emma had picked out to go with the Coward script that she’d totally stripped back,” says Paul.
Forbidden love: Pete Ashmore’s Alec and Anne-Marie Piazza’s Laura in a Brief Encounter clench. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“She also used impressive, newly created film scenes to move characters seamlessly from stage to screen, but we can’t do that in the Round, which has given us added challenges, like how do we make Laura swim, how do we make waves, and how do we bring a train on stage without actually using film?
“That allows us to explore the wonderful expressionism of David Lean’s 1945 film without being too literal. They weren’t concerned with what a train sounded like, more with the cinematography, which was so extraordinary, as the story of Alec and Laura is told in such a heightened way, where they’re in rapture but also a high state of fear when they think of what they’re about to lose.”
Paul was adamant he would not undermine Brief Encounter’s truthfulness by sending up the clipped accents. “Yes, the film is very mannered and of its time, but I want the story to still feel resonant and I don’t want to take anything away from that, because the play is like Chekhov, where the subtext is vital. The accents will be RP (Received Pronunciation), but they won’t sound affected.
“I’ve also hinted at setting it in York. The film was filmed in wartime in the Lake District [at Carnforth station], because London was in blackout, but it was probably set in the Home Counties. I wanted to put more northern accents in it, implying it’s set at York station.
“We’re taking the production to the New Vic [Newcastle-under-Lyme], Bolton and Keswick, so we have north western and north eastern accents in the cast, because it’s fun to have a diversity of accents.”
Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter goes full steam ahead at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from tomorrow (22/7/2022) to August 27. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
Feathered finery: Tom Henshaw’s Adam/Felicia, left, Steve Tearle’s Bernadette and Finley Butler’s Tick/Mitzi in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical
NE Musicals York in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Sunday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm matinees, Saturday and Sunday. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
YOU must have seen the lipstick-pink banners plastered all over town, pronouncing NE Musicals York’s hotter-than-July production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert.
“With a cast of 30 and more than 300 costumes, this is not just a bus ride, it’s a two-hour rollercoaster of a ride,” promises creative director and producer Steve Tearle, his beard shaved off to play veteran drag queen Bernadette Bassenger, the Terence Stamp role in Stephan Elliott’s 1994 film that gave rise to this musical spin-off.
Stamp famously gave transgender Bernadette an apples-and-pears Cockney accent despite the setting of the Australian Outback. Blonde-wigged North Easterner Tearle goes for Aussie, although he is sometimes closer to Newcastle-upon-Tyne than Newcastle, New South Wales, but he carries off Bernadette’s regal disdain with such aplomb in his swaggering strut that it matters not a jot.
What’s more, in the tradition of Berwick Kaler’s pantomime dame, Tearle is never averse to ad-libbing, breaking down the fourth wall to comment on one line he dislikes having to say and later pleading to borrow his co-star’s wig to cover his shaven head when he had left off his hairpiece in a rushed costume change, duly bringing the house down.
No misunderstanding: Definitely Jack Hambleton’s Miss Understanding
Both moments in Wednesday’s opening night were very much in keeping with NE Musicals York’s determination for everyone – cast and audience alike – to have a fun, fabulous time, whether being taken by the hand to join in a country dance in the aisles or being a lucky recipient of a gift bag containing a pink ping-pong ball and Ginger Nuts biscuits in a nod to one of the show’s most memorable lines.
Tearle’s direction has gone for spectacle, glamour, flamboyance, drama, boldness and pride, rather than technical perfection, especially in the singing, and is rewarded with performances full of vitality and emotional clout and bags of ballsy humour too.
Big number after big number, from It’s Raining Men to I Love The Night Life, I Will Survive to Hot Stuff, MacArthur Park to the Finally finale, are exuberantly choreographed by Ellie Roberts, and the drag costumes grow ever louder and prouder.
Elliott and co-writer Allan Scott’s musical retains the film’s fearless humanity, frank, fruity humour and fabulous feathered finery while adding a Kylie medley for Tom Henshaw’s Felicia and so many dancefloor fillers.
Show time for Finley Butler’s Tick/Mitzi, Tom Henshaw’s Adam/Felicia and Steve Tearle’s Bernadette
Yet for all that peacock parade and the novelty of a bus on stage, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert is all the better for wearing its heart on its sleeve in its tale of the tiffs and the tantrums, the tears and the fears, the triumphs and the terrors as the three drag queens, Tearle’s waspish Bernadette, Henshaw’s reckless young Adam/Felicia Jollygoodfellow and Finley Butler’s Tick/Mitzi, journey from Sydney to Alice Springs across the Oz outback for Tick to meet Benji (Matthew Musk), the son he has always found excuses never to be with.
Subtlety is not to the fore in Priscilla, but both the script and Tearle’s direction provide just enough, not least in Bernadette’s burgeoning bond with mechanic Bob (James O’Neill) and Tick’s reunion with wife Marion (Melissa Boyd).
Ali Butler-Hind is a scream as Cynthia, Bob’s mail-order bride with her ping pong ball-firing party trick to M’s Pop Muzik. Perri-Ann Barley, Aileen Stables and Julie Blackburn’s Divas, Jack Hambleton’s Miss Understanding and the ensemble relish every scene.
Scott Phillips’s orchestra glistens as brightly as his attire in this Tearle twirl of a dazzling show that parks the bus so much more positively than Jose Mourinho ever did.
Ryedale Open Studios founders and directors Kirsty Kirk, left, Layla Khoo and Petra Young. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
ARTISTS across Ryedale are preparing to open their studios to the public on Saturday and Sunday and the following weekend from 10am to 5pm each day.
In the wake of last summer’s first ever Ryedale Open Studios, the sequel will give visitors the chance to explore the variety of creative talents and skills in the district, ranging from painting, printing, drawing and photography to ceramics, textiles, metalwork and willow weaving.
More than 40 artists will be participating in an event organised by Vault Arts Centre, a Community Interest Company founded to develop arts activities and events in the Ryedale area, with financial support from Ryedale District Council.
Ceramicist Iona Stock. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Its founders and directors are Layla Khoo, Kirsty Kirk and Petra Young. Ceramicist Layla will be taking part in the open weekends; former South London primary school art teacher Kirsty co-founded and ran makers’ markets in East London and now runs a holiday cottage complex near Pickering; Petra is Forestry England’s funding and development manager.
She was instrumental in developing the arts strategy for Dalby Forest, near Pickering, in 2017 and has been working on establishing Dalby as a destination for high-quality arts activities ever since.
Phillip Spurr, director of place and resources for Ryedale District Council, says: “Arts and culture in Ryedale is key to our identity. It nourishes the roots of our communities and helps make the district what it is. I’d encourage residents and visitors alike to attend the Open Studios event to support our arts and culture industry.”
Silversmith and jewellery designer Jen Ricketts. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
To find out more about all 42 artists, head to ryedaleopenstudios.com, where a printable map and handbook can be downloaded.
Taking part will be: Aeva Denham, mixed media; Alex Jones, wildlife oil paintings; Alice O’Neill, papercut and collage; Amanda Pickles, mixed media; Angela Cole, basket designs in willow; Anna Matyus, printmaking; Caleb Matyus, decorative blacksmith works; Carol Messham, garden watercolours and polymer clay pictures, jewellery and mobiles.
Charlotte Elizabeth Lane, large-scale sky and ocean paintings; Charlotte Salt, ceramics and still-life drawings; Christine Hughes, textiles and home interiors; Colin Culley, paintings of natural world; Eleanor Walker, textiles and weaving; Environmental Art, blacksmith sculpture and abstract textiles; Evanna Denham, pencil pieces full of meaning.
Hannah Turlington, mixed media, printmaking and textiles; Harry Oyston, drawings; Heather Niven, painting and ceramic sculpture; Helen Milen, Studio Milena textiles; Iona Stock, functional and sculptural ceramics; Ione Harrison, watercolour and gouache paintings; Janet Poole, plein-air paintings in oil, watercolour and pastel.
Painter and printmaker Meg Ricketts. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Jayne Hutchinson Raine, drawings, paintings and linocuts; Jen Ricketts, silversmithing and jewellery; Jo Naden, sculptures of myth, legend and culture; Kitty Bellamy, oil paintings and charcoal drawings of animals and people; Layla Khoo, ceramics; Meg Ricketts, collagraph prints, dry-point etchings and lino prints; Millie McCallum, paintings, collages and linocuts; Pamela Thorby, ceramics informed by Ryedale’s beauty.
Patrick Smith, painting and printmaking; Pauline Brown, paintings and drawings of Farndale; Philip Barraclough, art pencil works and watercolours; Rachel Rimell, photography on themes of identity and transition; Robert Broughton, fine art photography inspired by natural world; Ros Walker, functional and sculptural ceramics, jewellery and mixed-media paintings.
Ruth Kneeshaw, needlefelt landscapes and animal sculptures; Sally Tozer, ceramic sculptures; Sarah Cawthray, ceramics celebrating individuality; Susan Walsh, eco-printed textiles and paper; Suzie Devey, printmaking and automata; Tessa Bunney, rural life photography.
Photographer Tessa Bunney
In addition, all but four of the 42 artists are represented by one or two of their pieces in an accompanying exhibition at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole until September 5. Only Charlotte Elizabeth Lane, Janet Poole, Jen Ricketts and Millie McCallum are absent.
“This is new for this year’s Open Studios and we’re very pleased to be able to show the fabulous talent of Ryedale in one place,” says Petra Young. “We hope this will bring more visitors to Ryedale Folk Museum, and at the same time we hope this will encourage museum visitors to explore Ryedale further through visits to artists’ homes.”
Admission to the exhibition is free; museum opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Saturday to Thursday; closed on Fridays.
MAKE It York is inviting visual artists, print makers and designers to create a bespoke bauble design to celebrate St Nicholas Fair’s 30th anniversary with a prize of £500 for the winning design.
A fixture on York’s streets over the Christmas festive season since 1992, the 2022 fair will feature a limited run of porcelain baubles for sale to celebrate this milestone.
Artists are asked to submit designs on the theme of A York Christmas, whether traditional, contemporary or a fresh interpretation.
Running for five weeks, the St Nicholas Fair Christmas market features 60 Alpine chalets lining the streets of Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square, where businesses sell everything from handmade gifts to delicious treats.
Summer Sizzler season on its way to City Screen Picturehouse, in Coney Street, York
CITY Screen Picturehouse, in York, is reducing ticket prices from July 25 to September 2 in a Summer Sizzler discount offer.
General admission will cost £7.99 – down from the standard £12.50 – for all films; £4.99 for Picturehouse Members.
“This offer includes all the best new blockbusters and family movies, as well as Picturehouse’s curated arthouse line-up and regular screenings of vintage classics,” says general manager Cath Sharp. “We’re also extending these great prices for our weekend of Outdoor Cinema at York Museum Gardens from August 5 to 7. With an unmissable summer of cinema approaching, this offer arrives at the perfect time.”
Among the summer releases heading for City Screen are Where The Crawdads Sing, Olivia Newman’s dramatic adaptation of Delia Owens’ novel, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, from Friday; David Leitch’s action-thriller Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt, from August 5, and Jordan Peele’s blockbuster horror movie Nope from August 12.
Daisy Edgar-Jones in Where The Crawdads Sing, opening at City Screen, York, on Friday
The Outdoor Cinema programme will show Ridley Scott’s 40th Anniversary release of Blade Runner (cert 15) on August 5; Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (12A) on August 6 and a Sing-A-Long screening of Disney’s Encanto (U), directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, on August 7, all starting at 7.30pm.
In an opportunity to revisit film history, look out for Picturehouse’s reDiscover strand, celebrating the work of German filmmaker Wim Wenders; the Kids In America season, dedicated to 1990s’ American teen movies, and European Summers, a timely toast to the joy of summer holidays on screen in timeless continental favourites.
The Summer Sizzler reductions will extend to families: children’s tickets will be £4.99 and City Screen will continue to offer its Family Ticket deal, where adults pay children’s prices when visiting in a group of four.
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story: City Screen Outdoor Cinema screening in York Museum Gardens
Admission to City Screen’s mid-morning Kids’ Club shows and a selection of family films over the summer will remain at £3, as will Toddler Time, City Screen’s unique programming strand screening 30 to 40-minute programmes for toddlers. Check listings for more details, advises Cath.
Annual Picturehouse Membership gives visitors up to ten free cinema tickets, along with ten per cent off all food and drinks, invitations to special previews and priority booking for the most popular films and events.
“City Screen also boasts a lively cafe bar with outdoor seating on the river and our menu is bursting with innovative home-made offers, many of them vegan and vegetarian,” says Cath. “The menu can be found on our website.”
York musical theatre actor, dancer and vocal drag artisteIan Stroughair sans make-up
IAN Stroughair, creator of flamboyant York vocal drag artiste Velma Celli, will reveal The Man Behind The Make-Up at the Grand Opera House, York, on September 9.
For one night only, international award-winning cabaret and musical theatre star Ian will shed his Velma alter-ego to present his brand of fabulous, revealing entertainment “complete with a live big band and a lot of laughs”.
Returning to his roots, he will serve up a one-off concert as himself, celebrating the music that inspired him to sing. From George Michael to Freddie Mercury, Elton John to David Bowie, York’s West End performer promises an evening of musical theatre and anecdotes from his varied career in show business, from cruise ships to pantomime, Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago on the London stage to Funny Girls in Blackpool. Oh, and a cameo on EastEnders.
Ian Stroughair in Velma Celli mode at the Impossible Wonderbar
In the guise of Velma Celli, Ian has presented such shows as A Brief History Of Drag; Irreplaceable, his Bowie tribute; Velma Celli’s Equinox, “the one with witches, creeps and freaks”, and Outlaw Live!, his York Gin night at the National Centre for Early Music.
Velma has a residency at the Impossible Wonderbar, in St Helen’s Square, where upcoming shows include Velma Celli’s Equinox on October 31 and Velma Celli’s West End Christmas on December 16, as well as The Velma Celli Show on July 29, September 30 and November 25.
Here in York, Ian also has presented the Ian Stroughair Jazz Band’s jazz and blues gigs at Nola, the 1920s’ Art Deco-themed restaurant and bar in Lendal, and starred in York Stage’s debut pantomime, playing the villainous Flesh Creep in Jack And The Beanstalk at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in December 2020.
Tickets for September 9 cost £22.90 upwards on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Ian Stroughair as Flesh Creep in York Stage’s 2020 pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Audrey 2 x 2: The plant and the plant in human form in Emily Ramsden in Nik Briggs’s inspired innovation in Little Shop Of Horrors. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography
York Stage in Little Shop Of Horrors, planted at York Theatre Royal until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THIS is a 40th anniversary production with plenty of firsts and one unquenchable thirst.
York Stage are making their Theatre Royal main-house debut after shows all over town; Filipino-born and trained, York further-educated actor and chef Mikhail Lim is cutting the mustard in a premier-league lead role; Lauren Sheriston is rocking blue hair for the first time as Audrey and…
…Audrey 2, the ever-expanding plant with the insatiable need to “feed me” with rather more than BabyBio, has undergone a sex change from bass-baritone bully to seductive soul diva and sprouted not only profuse foliage but an accompanying female embodiment in the form of Emily Ramsden: a sort of Christina Aguilera think bubble come alive. Or an Audrey 2 x 2, if you prefer.
This way, the jive-talking, blood-sucking, man-munching plant takes on even more of a personality, albeit less sinister than usual.
Mikhail Lim’s Seymour, left, and James Robert Ball’s Mr Mushnik in Mr Mushnik’s Skid Row florist shop
Not even initial sound-level problems could knock Ramsden off her stride. Quick thinking by musical director Stephen Hackshaw saw his band drop their volume, while a hand mic was found for Ramsden to see her through to the end of her opening number. After that, everything went tickety-boo as York Stage settled into new surroundings under the ever-watchful eye of director-producer Nik Briggs.
Little Shop Of Horrors is a grisly, if tongue in cheek, cautionary tale of the dangers of rampant commercialism and unsavoury greed, where the laughs are rooted in feet of clay and the protagonists die, laughing.
The director’s challenge is twofold, first to find the gory heart of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s rock’n’roll send-up of Roger Corman’s B-movie horror flick and Fifties’ American culture but to make us laugh like a hyena on the highway to hell while doing so.
Secondly, to not let the underlying moral message about the fallacy of the American dream – the profits of doom – stand in the way of a bluesy belter, a tender ballad, a dollop of girl-group doo-wop or a blast of rock’n’roll swagger.
Lauren Sheriston’s Audrey, left, and Lucy Churchill’s Chiffon in York Stage’s Little Shop Of Horrors
Briggs’s propulsive production could be darker, more twisted in the manner of The Rocky Horror Show, but the laughs flow and the principals’ singing throughout is powerful, impassioned and sassy.
Little Shop Of Horrors is set in the trash can of the aspirant American Fifties, otherwise known as Skid Row, New York, as denoted by two big bins in Brigg’s otherwise colourful set and costume design.
Initially, Mr Mushnik’s struggling little flower shop feels a little crammed with unnecessary “stuff” on the Theatre Royal stage: twice Lim’s shop junior, Seymour Krelbourne, unintentionally bumps into a waste-bin by the counter, although his character is clumsy by nature – and as the plant and its notoriety threaten to outgrow the premises, it is only right that everything becomes a tighter squeeze.
Those bumps are the only false steps in an otherwise delightfully personable, pathos-led performance by Lim as the bespectacled, geeky loser Seymour, who grows from being comically, loveably awkward and love-struck to surprisingly ruthless and reckless as fame and fortune come his way once he signs his Faustian pact with Audrey 2. He has a sweet-sweet singing voice too that channels Sam Cooke’s tone.
Danger to dental health: Darren Lee Lumby’s mad dentist Orin finding life a gas, gas, gas
Sheriston’s Audrey, the subject of Seymour’s crush, is being crushed by her abusive dentist boyfriend, Darren Lee Lumby’s corkscrew-haired, cocksure Orin, who threatens mental and dental health alike in his deranged bad-lad turn.
Sheriston has to pull off a now uncomfortable Fifties’ trait of being too good for her own good, to the point of self-sacrifice. Audrey is compliant yet resolute, and Sheriston’s performance, especially in her singing, conveys both those traits. Briggs gives her a spot-on wardrobe too, notably a green dress to rival Audrey 2’s leafage.
The thrill-seeking doo-wop chorus girls (Hannah Shaw’s Crystal, Lucy Churchill’s Chiffon and Cyanne Unamba-Oparah’s Ronnette) serve as Greek chorus and girl-group nostalgia alike with hen-party glee. By way of contrast, James Robert Ball’s phlegmatic Mr Mushnik is amusingly lugubrious, wearier than a latter-day Woody Allen.
Praise too to Hackshaw’s band, embellished with wood and brass; to Adam Moore for lighting that nods to Little Shop’s red and green livery, and to plant puppeteers Jack Hooper, Katie Melia and Danny Western, relishing their well-deserved applause when leaping out at the finale.
York Stage will return to the Grand Opera House for Kinky Boots from September 16 to 24, but looking ahead, maybe an ideal scenario is for Nik Briggs’s ever-busy calendar to accommodate shows at the Theatre Royal, Opera House and 41 Monkgate each year.
Hannah Shaw’s Crystal: Part of the Greek chorus in A Little Shop Of Horrors
