What’s that coming over the field? It’s a Monster of a story, but just not yet as Alexander Flanagan Wright postpones this week’s premiere
ALEXANDER Flanagan Wright’s At The Mill premiere of his work-in-progress storytelling piece Monster tonight and tomorrow at Stillington Mill, near York, is delayed until further notice.
“You brilliant folks that have booked to come and see Monster this week – I’m afraid I’ve decided to postpone the show,” apologises Alex. “It’s pretty boring to have to do that, I admit, and I’m sorry for it.
“I’m excited about story, I’m excited about saying out loud. But now isn’t the time, and I’d be very sad to do something that absolutely wasn’t where it needs to be. So, I’d rather give you your money back and look forward to when the time is right. I’ll refund those tickets for you now.”
What will unfold in Monster…eventually? Bloke in a fancy suit is stood in the Nevada desert. A warrior holding the head of Medusa is stood on top of a hill. The sky is lit bright with the neon lights of Vegas. We are trying to set foot in places no-one has ever been.
Phil Grainger and Alexander Flanagan Wright in the grounds of Stillington Mill, where they will present The Gods The Gods The Gods next month. Picture: Charlotte Graham
So runs Alex’s preamble to “setting out to tell a story about finding places that we should never have found, about the difference between discovery and ownership, and the need to be a hero”.
“Some of that story happens now,” he says. “Some of it happens millennia ago. All of it is to do with people.”
In the immediate absence of Monster, Alex heartily recommends The Gods The Gods The Gods, his collaboration with actor, musician and writer Phil Grainger, programmed for At The Mill’s theatre season on July 23, 24, 27 and 28 at 8.45pm each night.
“It’s a big, loud, weave of mythology, stories, big basslines, spoken word and soaring melodies,” he says. “We’re previewing it here At The Mill before heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe. So, if you fancy your fix of storytelling and myths, I can 100 per cent promise it to you there.”
Everything in modulation:Scarborough artist David Finnigan with his Synthesis works at According To McGee
ACCORDING To McGee plays host to a “double happening”, Contemporary Painting: Elementals and Synthesis by Freya Horsley and David Finnigan, from this weekend in York.
Co-director Greg McGee sees the summer exhibition as an opportunity to reaffirm the Tower Street gallery’s manifesto. “Not so much a duo show, more like two exhibitions in one gallery,” he says. “Freya Horsley and David Finnigan are far removed in terms of subject and mark making, but there’s enough intersection to be able to build an event like this.
“Their common ground is a fearlessness with what contemporary painting can do, and we find that the proximity of both collections in the same gallery not only augments the collections respectively, but also highlights the strengths of each other.
Out Of Darkness, mixed media, by Freya Horsley
“There are flickering moments in all of the paintings here, and a lot of the magic is found in the disparate synergy”.
Elementals and Synthesis is “like nothing According To McGee has exhibited previously in its 17 years”, reckons Greg. “We’re used to dovetailing the collections of painters who share similar visions, whereas this time we have really gone for a discrepancy that cracks open not only the magic of the paintings we have here, but says something about painting in general.”
David Finnigan’s Synthesis is characteristically exact, although he is at pains to highlight how his art has evolved. “These four works represent, for me, a change in the direction of my working practice,” says the Scarborough hyperrealist.
“While they retain some of the exactitude and realism of my previous work, there’s more of a painterly feel to these new pieces. Also, a new aesthetic, which exhibits an expressive freedom within the confines of realist painting.
Low Pitch, by David Finnigan, from his Synthesis series
“They embrace some of the techniques I’ve learned and developed in my other non-visual creative outlets, particularly from the world of sound.”
Not only a looser approach to the confines of realist painting is applied, but so are an amalgamation and superimposition of separate geometric compositions over the existing realist composition.
“These geometric abstractions function aesthetically in their own right, and they have a force and a dynamic that adds energy,” says David. “Visually, in isolation, these geometric compositions echo the work of the constructivists, the suprematists, or even futurism and vorticism from the early 20th century.
“Added together with the realist composition, they ‘modulate’ the existing work, changing the dynamic through the use of the aforementioned energy, but equally importantly through the use of colour, which is a very powerful tool. The now superimposed compositions, ‘modulate’ each other.”
Dolphin Hotel, by David Finnigan
Regarding the concept of “modulation”, David sees a simple parallel in the world of sound with the technique of FM or “Frequency Modulation” synthesis – which, as a side note, powered the soundscape of 1980’s pop and rock music.
“Simply put, in ‘FM’ synthesis, one waveform modulates the other wave to create something new. This is what I’m attempting visually,” he says.
“Another important parallel is the idea of ‘glitch’, a sub-genre of electronic music that became popular in the 1990s, but actually its origins again can be traced back all the way to futurism, specifically with Luigi Russolo’s piece The Art Of Noises.
“Here again, I attempt to apply the concept of ‘glitch’ visually to these compositions, in which, as in music – where the beat and order of the music is broken and reprocessed so some feeling of order remains – I would like to break up the surface of the two superimposed compositions to break up the order and reprocess it to create something new that has a different rhythm.”
York artist Freya Horsley with her Elementals works at According To McGee
Freya Horsley’s return to According To McGee comes after a sell-out exhibition of the York artist’s winter collection of elemental seascapes. “They were huge!” says gallery co-director Ails McGee, “They were the biggest paintings we have ever exhibited here, and that’s some claim.
“But they connected well with browsers and clients alike, with one going to a collector’s house in Poppleton and one travelling all the way to Glasgow.”
Freya’s depictions of the sea and land resonate still more in our era of nature’s curtailment. “The sheer scale of some of the paintings has only added to that,” says Ails.
Until We’re Seen, by Freya Horsley
Freya’s new Elementals series builds on her trademark bristling light and spray but Ails point to new developments too. “Freya has always, from time to time, primed her canvasses with neon paint, which helps to endow her otherwise layered sense of peace and serenity with a bounce and inner-lit joy,” she says.
“This time, the joy she skewers comes from a wild attack of neon paint on top of the tender and elemental background, rather than beneath it; a technique most obvious in her massive work Out Of Darkness. It’s a radical step for her and really amps up the wide-eyed sense of wonder that Elementals celebrates.”
Asked to predict the next direction of Contemporary Painting’s evolution, Greg points to Finnigan’s paintings. “These are painted in egg tempera. That’s something that goes back thousands of years and was used in ancient times. It fell into disuse with the popularisation of oil painting in Europe in the 15th century,” he says.
“But now David is using it with a showman’s chutzpah. So, is this retro, or is this radical and contemporary? It feels a little like when a rock band performs an ‘MTV Unplugged’ session. There’s nowhere to hide but in the quality of the songs, and in a multimedia age, there’s something radical in that.”
Bee-Bop, by David Finnigan
David agrees: “In my eyes it has the capacity to be beautiful and elegant, in the medium itself,” he says. “It is egg yolk, water and pigment and, if non-toxic pigments are used, completely inert. But it is also beautiful and elegant in the aesthetic effect of the finished work itself.
“In our modern day of awareness of sustainability and our ever-increasing eco-friendly approaches to life in general, egg tempera actually fits in well with these philosophies, and maybe it will have its day in the sun again.”
Contemporary Painting: Elementals and Synthesis by Freya Horsley and David Finnigan runs from Saturday, June 18 to Monday, July 11 at According To McGee, Tower Street, York; open Monday to Saturday, 12 noon to 4pm.
WEST End smash Shrek The Musical is on its jaunty way to the Grand Opera House, York, from November 27 to December 2…NEXT year.
After that long wait, join unlikely hero Shrek and his noble steed Donkey, beloved Princess Fiona and the evil Lord Farquaad as they embark on a big, bright, musical adventure that reimagines the Oscar-winning DreamWorks film and William Steig’s book for the stage.
After Broadway and London success, the producers of Hairspray and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert have joined forces with directors Sam Holmes and Nick Winston and designer Philip Witcomb for the touring production.
Full of unexpected friendships and surprising romance, this fun-filled musical comedy promises a cast of vibrant, magical fairytale characters and a “Shrektacular” score by composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire, topped off by Neil Diamond’s I’m A Believer.
DreamWorks’ animated film Shrek celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. Shrek The Musical was first performed on Broadway in 2008, produced by DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions en route to receiving eight Tony nominations and the award for Best Costume and Set Design.
The original West End production was nominated for Best New Musical at the 2012 Olivier awards, where Nigel Harman received the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lord Farquaad.
Shrek The Musical was staged previously at the Grand Opera House by York Stage Musicals in September 2019.
Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com.
AFTER a two-year wait, violinist Catherine Mackintosh will be presented with the York Early Music Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award on July 10.
The belated ceremony will take place during the 2022 York Early Music Festival, to be held from July 8 to 16.
Known to the profession as Cat, Mackintosh is a pioneering force in the British early music scene. After picking up a treble viol while studying at the Royal College of Music, London, she never looked back.
Consort-playing gave her the foundations of understanding the aesthetics and language of baroque music, soon to be translated to the violin. She led various orchestras, notably Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music, and later co-founded and led the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for two decades.
As a founder of the Purcell Quartet, Cat recorded and performed all the major works of the baroque trio-sonata repertoire – and much more – the world over. She was also Britain’s pioneer and champion of the viola d’amore.
Cat’s influence as a teacher and educator has been far-reaching, with many generations of violinists, violists and other instrumentalists passing through her hands at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, as well as on numerous courses worldwide.
Cat will be interviewed from the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, by Hannah French on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show on July 10, broadcast live from the festival. Post-show, she will be presented with the award, in front of an audience, by Romanian-born Israeli violinist Kati Debretzeni, who studied Baroque violin with Cat at the Royal College of Music.
The York Early Music Lifetime Achievement Award honours major figures for making a significant difference to the world of early music. Previous winners were: Kuijken String Quartet in 2006; Dame Emma Kirkby, 2008; James Bowman, 2010; Jordi Savall, 2012; Andrew Parrott, 2014; Anthony Rooley, 2016, and Trevor Pinnock, 2018.
Commenting on the award, Cat says: “I ask myself…is it really an achievement to have enjoyed 50 years doing what I love with people I love and admire? Only in the sense of having survived this long!
“Anyway, I am tremendously touched and honoured to receive this award and to join the list of the previous recipients – all friends and colleagues from whom I’ve learnt much and with whom I have happily travelled this musical road.”
NCEM director and festival artistic director Delma Tomlin enthuses: “I’m delighted that Catherine will finally be receiving this award after a rather long wait! She has a long association with the NCEM and the festival.
“Her wonderful career, not just as a performer, but also as a mentor and teacher, has had an extraordinary impact on the world of early music. We can’t wait to welcome her to York and celebrate this amazing achievement with her this July.”
The full festival programme and ticket details can be found at ncem.co.uk/what’s-on/yemf/.
The Kyiv City Ballet company arrives at York Railway Station on Monday night with York Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird, back, centre, in blue and yellow Ukrainian colours. All pictures: Ant Robling
KYIV City Ballet will give their first British performance since Ukraine came under bombardment from Russia at a sold-out York Theatre Royal tonight (14/6/2022).
Visas rubber-stamped, a combination of Eurostar and LNER delivered the Ukrainian dancers from their temporary base in Paris, with Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird on board the evening train from London.
Led by general director Ivan Koslov and his wife, assistant director Ekaterina Koslova, the exiled troupe made their way immediately to a Civic welcome at York Mansion House before taking a City Cruise on the Ouse.
“It’s a huge honour to be hosting Kyiv City Ballet at York Theatre Royal,” says Bird. “This is the company’s first UK appearance since their city came under attack, and we are proud that York is able to stand in solidarity with Kyiv by supporting these extraordinary dancers for this one-off visit.”
Kyiv City Ballet assistant directorEkaterina Koslova and general director Ivan Koslov at York Mansion House
Bird personally invited Kyiv City Ballet to perform in York after learning of the company being stranded in France, where they had flown to Paris to perform on February 23, only to learn that their country had been invaded by Putin’s forces.
The dancers still went ahead with that night’s performance, and whereas mobile phones usually would be prohibited in the environs of the stage during a show, they were left on in the dressing rooms by the troupe, as relatives rang from home as the performance progressed.
At the invitation of the Mayor’s office, the dancers have been based in Paris ever since that night, one “lost in a fog” before the full enormity of what was unfolding was apparent.
“It’s been very hard to be away from home, but people around here in Paris are helping us a lot,” says Ivan, speaking by Zoom from the French capital.
Cards from well wishers on the York Mansion House railings to greet Kyiv City Ballet on their arrival
“We’re staying in hotel accommodation, everyone under one roof. Our group right now is 38, with the dancers, ourselves and a costume mistress.”
Ivan says “right now” because the number has decreased since that day of arrival in France, after some men in the troupe decided to head home to serve the Ukrainian cause.
The rest have remained in France, where they have been raising awareness and relief funds through performing in Paris and other cities too. “The Mayor of Paris has generously given us a residency at the Theatre de Chatelet since March 6, right in the heart of the city,” says Ekaterina, or Katya, as she introduces herself.
“It means we have a place to continue to rehearse and choreograph works, and it keeps our spirits up as it’s good that we can be together.”
Kyiv City Ballet dancers Ilona Moskalenko, left, and Diana Potapenko at York Mansion House
Ivan adds: “We’re able to go to classes at their theatres as well as having the possibility of doing our own classes. As a ‘cultural exchange’, it’s a very good experience for our dancers; they can see how Parisian dancers train. They’ve invited us to their studios and some choreographers have proposed to choreograph works with us, but it’s too early to be able to do that.”
During their French exile, Kyic City Ballet have performed “almost everywhere”, latterly in Toulouse, Lyon and Saint Marlo.
“In regular times, we’ve always been welcomed by the public very nicely, but now it’s an even better, warmer welcome, with so much applause and everyone staying and continuing to cheer at the end, helping to keep spirits up,” says Ivan. “Sometimes we’ll see Ukrainian flags too.
“It can be difficult to focus on working, but we’re dancers, not fighters; we’re helping in the one way we can.”
The Kyiv City Ballet company on the steps of York Mansion House with Town Crier Ben Fry; York Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird; Sheriff of York Mrs Suzie Mercer; Lord Mayor of York Councillor David Carr and Lady Mayoress Mrs Lynda Carr
Now comes the chance to perform in York. “We received a message inviting us to York Theatre Royal, and very quickly we arranged a phone call and were very excited to confirm the show,” says Katya. “Our performance in York is one of the only things we’ve all been talking about.”
Ivan cannot recall if he has ever been to York previously. “You know the dancer’s life: you leave the hotel, rehearse, do the show, come back to the hotel, move on,” he says.
Katya is more definite. “I haven’t been to England, though I’ve wanted to come for as long as I can remember,” she says.
“We’re in discussion to do more shows here, but it’s already been a real logistical challenge to do so much in such a short time. We don’t have dates to announce yet but we have plans to return to the UK and we hope York will be the first of many performances.”
Kyiv City Ballet dancers Nazar Korniichuk and Anastasia Uhlova reading the messages on the York Mansion House railings
Given that the Russian invasion shows no sign of abating, Katya cannot turn her thoughts to the day when she might return home. “I’m rehearsing every day with our dancers, focusing on that, and, for me, the most important thing is what we can bring through our dancing,” she says.
Thoughts turn to tonight, when 100 per cent of ticket sale proceeds will be donated to UNICEF’s Ukraine Appeal from a two-and-a-half-hour special performance split into two parts.
“The first part will be a ballet class, which will be showing the audience how we normally prepare for a performance,” says Katya. “Ivan and I will be on stage with the dancers, showing how we warm up, why we do certain movements, and we’ll do questions and answers too.
“The second part will be made up of excerpts from our repertoire, both from classical ballets, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, and from pieces that we’ll be performing next season.”
The Kyiv City Ballet company on board the City Cruise on the River Ouse on Monday night
Look out for a premiere tonight: “One of the pieces is being choreographed by one of our dancers, Vladyslav Dobshyinskyi, who will perform a solo from his new work,” says Katya.
Kyiv City Ballet can but pray for the day when they set dancing feet on Kyiv soil once more. In the meantime, here in York, will be another chance to raise money for those in need back home.
The Yorkshire ballet community is playing its part too: Leeds company Northern Ballet are providing the dance floor for tomorrow’s performance, York Dance Space, the ballet bars.
Come Wednesday morning, the Kyiv City Ballet troupe will be heading to Manchester Airport to fly to the southwestern French Basque coast to perform in Biarritz that night.
Kyiv City Ballet at York Theatre Royal, tonight (14/6/2022), 7.30pm. SOLD OUT
The poster for the Jubilee Celebration Singers’ concert on Saturday
THE Jubilee Celebration Singers, formed by Lesley Jones from the ashes of the Bev Jones Music Company expressly for fundraising, will perform in aid of the Ukraine Disaster Fund on Saturday.
One day’s rehearsal has gone into the 7.30pm performance, to be introduced by voluntary host Martin Rowley at New Earswick Folk Hall, near York, with lighting and sound by Ollie Nash.
“Sit in style at cabaret tables with a glass of wine or a beer and be thoroughly entertained by Clare Meadley, Chris Hagyard, Alexa Chaplin, Larry Gibson, Katie Melia, John Clithero, Linsey Dawn, James Noble, Jonny Holbek, Steve Hastings, Sue Parker and me in an evening of 70 years of pop, West End, rock, comedy and more” says Lesley.
“Tickets cost £10 on the door, or you can reserve tickets by leaving your name at the hall or through a cast member. We’ll be donating every penny to the worthy Ukraine Disaster Fund.”
JULIA Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Zog And The Flying Doctors swoops in on York Theatre Royal in Freckle Productions and Rose Theatre’s world premiere tour on June 24 and June 25.
Dragon Zog, super-keen student turned air-ambulance, lands with a crash-bang-thump in a rhyming story for children aged three upwards. Zog and his Flying Doctor crew, Princess Pearl and Sir Gadabout, must tend to a sunburnt mermaid, a unicorn with one too many horns and a lion with the flu.
Alas, Pearl’s uncle, the King, has other ideas as to whether princesses should be doctors, and soon she is locked up in the castle, in a crown and silly frilly dress once more.
However, with help from friends and half a pound of cheese, can Pearl make her uncle better and prove princesses can be doctors too?
Princess Pearl: “Locked up in the castle, in a crown and silly frilly dress”
Freckle Productions reunites the creative team behind Zog, Emma Kilbey and Joe Stilgoe, for this modern take on a classic fairytale.
Where did Julia Donaldson’s inspiration for Zog come from? “Well, that one was quite unusual, in that the initial idea didn’t come from me. My editor said to me, ‘it would be lovely to have a story about a dragon’, so I started thinking about it and the name ‘Madam Dragon’ came into my head, which I thought had a nice sound.
“And then I thought, ‘what could Madame Dragon do, who could she be?’. I came up with various ideas and a schoolteacher was one of them, so I took it from there. Originally it was going to be about a knight and a dragon, but it ended up being about a Princess and a dragon – the story came to me bit by bit”.
Julia’s husband, Malcolm, who is a doctor, had some input here. “When I was planning the story, I knew that Zog would keep meeting the Princess, and originally I was going to have them play together and toast marshmallows,” she recalls. “Malcolm said, ‘that’s a bit soppy, couldn’t it be something with a bit more oomph?’. And then I came up with the doctor angle”.
Zog writer Julia Donaldson
Zog is far from the first animal to star in one of Julia’s stories. Whether a cat in Tabby McTat, a fish in Tiddler or the iconic Gruffalo, animals are regularly Julia’s most memorable creations. “It’s often used as a convention – like in Aesop’s Fables, where the animals aren’t really animals; they represent a quality or a characteristic,” she says.
“I also think it would be far more boring for the reader if Mouse in The Gruffalo was just a small but clever person, or The Gruffalo itself was a big, scary but rather stupid person. Or, in The Snail And The Whale, if the Whale was just a big person and the Snail a little person; I think you need animals to represent the qualities”.
One enduring facet of Julia’s stories is her partnership with German illustrator and animator Axel Scheffler, who has brought so many of her characters to life. How does this collaboration work? “It’s always through the editor,” Julia reveals.
“I never exchange a word with Axel about the pictures until my editor shows him the book – and then I have a nail-biting moment, wondering if he likes it and wants to do it. Then he’ll do some character sketches which I’ll look at.
The King lays the down the law in Zog And The Flying Doctors
“Sometimes, after he’s created sketches for every picture, I’ll think ‘oh hang on, I’m going to change that little bit of text, because I like what he’s done with that’.”
When Julia has had the characters in her head for so long, what happens if the illustrations turn out to be different to what she imagined? “I always say it’s like going on holiday: you’ve got an idea in your head of how it’s going to be, and then it’s always totally different. But once you’re there and enjoying it, you just forget what was in your head before,” she says.
“Also, I usually know when I’m writing something whether I want Axel to work on it – in which case I’ve got his style in my head as I’m working. It doesn’t influence the storyline, but it will influence how I picture the characters. So, I’m usually not surprised when I see Axel’s interpretation.”
Many of Julia’s books have been adapted for film or theatre, where they are reimagined all over again. “For me, it’s like an extension of working with an illustrator,” she says.
Leap to it: Zog takes to the air
“Handing it over to a theatre company or film company, you know it’s going to change a bit; the end product will be a blend of my words and their artistic vision. And they do usually consult me and tell me what they’ve got in mind.”
Stage adaptations of Julia and Axel’s books, from Zog to Stick Man, are often a child’s first experience of live theatre, much to Julia’s delight. “I remember going to see The Nutcracker when I was a child and I found the whole thing completely magical. I can still remember how I felt when the curtain went up,” Julia says.
“I suppose in a way it’s the same thing that a book gives you, in that while you’re reading or watching, you believe in a different reality. And if it’s a good show, parents love to see that their children – even very young ones – can just be transfixed by it.”
Freckle Productions and Rose Theatre present Zog And The Flying Doctors, York Theatre Royal, June 24, 4.30pm; June 25, 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
THE Academy of St Olave’s round off their 2021-22 season with a Summer Concert on June 25 in aid York Against Cancer.
The York chamber orchestra’s 8pm programme at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, begins with Beethoven’s tempestuous Coriolan Overture, followed by The Unanswered Question by American composer Charles Ives, who splits the orchestra into three instrumental groups to consider “the perennial question of existence” posed by a solo trumpet.
The Academy’s principal oboist, Alexandra Nightingale, then performs Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto two years later than originally planned! Considered by many to be the 20th century’s finest oboe concerto, Strauss composed the work in 1945 during his “Indian Summer”, at the suggestion of an oboe-playing American soldier serving in Bavaria at the end of the Second World War. The finale will be Mozart’s much-loved Symphony No. 39 in E flat.
Soloist Alexandra Nightingale grew up in Oxfordshire and studied Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, before moving to Yorkshire to teach Classics in 1993. Past solo engagements have included the Vaughan Williams Concerto with the Pembroke College Orchestra and the Mozart Oboe Concerto in F with the Academy of St Olave’s in 2011.
The Academy of St Olave’s poster for the June 25 concert
Alexandra, who also plays oboe for the York Guildhall Orchestra, volunteers as a fireman on the narrow-gauge Bala Lake Railway in North Wales in her spare time.
The Academy’s guest conductor, John Bryan, says: “I am delighted to have the chance to work again with this fine orchestra – and an outstanding soloist – on such a varied programme. Audience members are sure to enjoy two lesser-known masterpieces by Ives and Strauss, alongside old favourites such as the Beethoven overture and Mozart symphony.”
The concert will benefit York Against Cancer, the independent charity that offers practical help and support to patients and their families living with cancer in York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire. The charity also funds vital research and education to prevent and cure cancer in the future.
Ticket cost £15 or £5 for accompanied children aged 18 and under at academyofstolaves.org.uk; booking in advance is recommended strongly. Any remaining tickets will be sold on the door from 7.15pm.
Poised for Theatre Royal performance: Kyiv City Ballet dancers, heading from Paris to York
FROM Ukrainian dancers to the ukulele, hairdryer music to German comedy, a new but ancient story to medieval street plays, Charles Hutchinson has a fiesta of ideas for venturing out.
Cultural/political event of the week: Kyiv City Ballet, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday, 7.30pm, sold out
AT the invitation of Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird, the dancers of Kyiv City Ballet are to perform in Britain for the first time since taking up temporary residence in Paris after Russia invaded Ukraine. All ticket sale proceeds from the sold-out show will be donated to UNICEF’s Ukraine Appeal.
Under the direction of Ivan Kozlov and Ekaterina Kozlova, a company dance class will be followed by excerpts from Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, contemporary pieces and a premiere.
To bee or not to bee: The Mind Of A Bee is the subject of Lars Chittka’s online talk on June 14 at 8pm at the York Festival of Ideas
Festival of the week: York Festival of Ideas, today to June 24
UNDER the banner of The Next Chapter, more than 150 free in-person and online events promise to educate, entertain and inspire in a festival of speakers, performers, panel discussions, family fun activities and guided tours.
Topics span archaeology to art, history to health and politics to psychology, from the natural history of slime to female Rugby League players; secret Beatles lyrics to the mind of a bee; Holgate Mill to Frankie Howerd. Head to yorkfestivalofideas.com to download a brochure.
Thomas Truax with The Hornicator, left, and Mother Superior, two of his wonderfully weird instruments
Double bills of the week: Songs Under Skies, Mayshe-Mayshe & Thomas Truax, Monday; Testament and Maddie Morris, Wednesday, National Centre for Early Music, York, both 7pm
SONGS Under Skies takes over the gardens of St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, for the third time for two nights of outdoor live music by four musicians making their NCEM debuts.
Mayshe-Mayshe, alias Alice Rowan, blends dreamy art-pop with rich storytelling, her songs incorporating choral vocals, vintage synths and the occasional hairdryer. Thomas Truax, an American musician with a mad scientist’s brain, utilises weird self-made instruments in songs about insects, trees, technology and all things lunar.
Lyrical rapper, human beatboxer and composer Testament is joined BBC Radio2 Young Folk Award winner Maddie Morris, from Leeds, whose protest songs address LGBTQ rights, feminism and trauma issues. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Formidable on four strings: George Hinchcliffe’s Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Anarchy in the Ukulele? George Hinchcliffe’s Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 7.30pm
QUESTION: Who is to blame for the worldwide phenomena of ukulele orchestras and ukulelemania? The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, that’s who!
Led by George Hinchliffe, these independent rock-stars of the “bonsai guitar” promise entertainment, joy, fun, strum and artistry on four strings on all manner of cover versions from the pop, rock and musical worlds beyond. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
How the land lies: Storyteller Alexander Flanagan Wright deep in thought in the the field behind Stillington Mill
Storytelling premiere of the week: Alexander Flanagan Wright, Monster, Work In Progress, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm. UPDATE: 13/6/2022:POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Ticket holders will be refunded.
A BLOKE in a fancy suit is stood in the Nevada desert. A warrior holding the head of Medusa is stood on top of a hill. The sky is lit bright with the neon lights of Vegas. We are trying to set foot in places no-one has ever been.
So runs the introduction to Alexander Flanagan Wright’s Monster, wherein he sets out to tell a story about finding places that we should never have found, about the difference between discovery and ownership, and the need to be a hero.
“Some of that story happens now. Some of it happens millennia ago. All of it is to do with people,” he says, welcoming instant feedback at the story’s close. Box office: atthemill.org.
Roarsome! The Tyrannosaurus Rex rocks up in Dinosaur World Live
Children’s show of the week: Dinosaur World Live, York Theatre Royal, June 17, 4.30pm; June 18 and 19, 11am and 2pm
DARE to experience the dangers and delights of this interactive family show for age three upwards as intrepid explorers discover a prehistoric world of remarkably lifelike dinosaurs in a mind-bending 50-minute Jurassic adventure whose arrival in York just happens to coincide with the big-screen opening of Jurassic World Dominion. Watch out for the flesh-eating, giant Tyrannosaurus Rex and the supporting cast of a Triceratops, Giraffatitan, Microraptor and Segnosauris. A 15-minute meet and greet post-show offers the chance to be up close and personal with these creatures. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Wringing endorsement for German comedian Henning Wehn
Comedy top-up? Just say Wehn: Henning Wehn, It’ll All Come Out In The Wash, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
HENNING Wehn, Germany’s Comedy Ambassador and former marketing ideas man for Wycombe Wanderers Football Club to boot, plays York Barbican for the first time since his impatient Great Yorkshire Fringe gig in July 2019, Get On With It!
On his return, Wehn gives everything a good rinse as he wrings sense out of the nonsensical. “An unbiased look at a certain virus might be inevitable but I have no agenda,” says Wehn. “I just happen to be always spot on. It’s a curse.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Duran Duran: Playing the stately pile of Castle Howard
Open-air gig of the week: Duran Duran, Castle Howard, near York, Friday, supported by Dry Cleaning; gates open at 5pm
FRESH from one outdoor engagement by the Buckingham Palace gates with guest guitarist Nile Rodgers at last Saturday’s Platinum Party At The Palace, Duran Duran play another in Castle Howard’s grounds.
The Birmingham darlings of New Romantic synthpop will be complementing last weekend’s brace of Notorious and Girls On Film with such Eighties’ favourites as Planet Earth, Save A Prayer, Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf. Could last October’s 15th studio album, Future Past, feature too? Tickets update: still available at castlehoward.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk.
Taking the chair:Paul Morel in Oddbodies’ one-man King Lear
Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Oddbodies’ King Lear, Helmsley Arts Centre, June 18, 7.30pm
ARMED with only a drum, a guitar, a knife and a chair, Oddbodies’ inventive, irreverent one-man account of Shakespeare’s King Lear is told from The Fool’s point of view by writer-performer Paul Morel.
Directed by John Mowat, he brings all the characters from this sad and sorry tale to glorious life, from the bipolar Lear to the bastard Edmund, haughty Goneril to poor deluded Gloucester, oily Oswald to sweet Cordelia and mad Tom, in a fast, funny, poignant and ultimately heart-breaking production full of physical ingenuity and visual flair. Box office: 01439 771700 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk.
2022 York Mystery Plays artistic director Tom Straszewski, pictured with Jess Murray, who is directing The Appearance Of Jesus To Mary Magdalene for the Guild of Media Arts and Guild of Scriveners
Street plays of the month: Guilds of York present York Mystery Plays, York city centre, June 19 and 26, 11am onwards; The Mysteries In The Market, Shambles Market, June 22 and 23, 7.30pm
EIGHT plays from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays will be wheeled around York city centre on wagons for Sunday performances, processing from College Green (free) to St Sampson’s Square (free), St Helen’s Square (free) and King’s Manor (ticketed).
Those plays include York Guild of Building’s Creation To The Fifth Day; the Company of Butchers and Riding Lights Acting Up’s The Crucifixion and Death Of Christ, the Guild of Media Arts and Guild of Scriveners’ The Appearance Of Jesus To Mary Magdalene and the Company of Merchant Adventurers’ The Last Judgement, directed by Alan and Diane Heaven, no less.
In addition, a selection of five plays will be staged in special Midsummer midweek performances at the Shambles Market (ticketed, limited to 100). Box office: yorkmysteryplays.co.uk.
From Minstrels to Masterpieces, Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival, May 27 to 29
THE centre of Beverley was festooned with jubilee bunting in time for the festival, which put everyone in the mood for celebration, doubly welcome after a two-year musical hiatus caused by Covid.
Diehards need no reminding that ‘early music’ is not necessarily very early these days, more a case of historical authenticity. Here we ranged no earlier than John Wilbye and covered much more recent territory right up to Mozart.
Concerts took place in four different churches, spearheaded by magnificent Beverley Minster. It was the venue for Florilegium’s opening burst of Bach: three Brandenburg concertos, a violin concerto, and an orchestral suite that is effectively a flute concerto.
It took a little while for performers as well as audience to become attuned to the acoustic. The otherwise excellent platform was placed some distance from the choir screen, so that there was no back-board to reflect the sound down the nave. Detail was hard to disentangle in Brandenburg No 6, written solely for lower strings and it did not hang together as well as what followed, though the final gigue had a pleasing lilt.
In Brandenburg No 5, where the harpsichord steps into the limelight for the first time in an orchestral work, Julian Perkins despatched its cadenza with panache, while Ashley Solomon’s flute was typically fluent if less easy to discern.
The nine string soloists in Brandenburg No 3 radiated immense enjoyment, notably in a dashing finale. In all three concertos, Rosie Moon’s double bass delivered a vivid foundation.
Bojan Čičić was the masterful soloist in the A minor Violin Concerto, BWV1041 (which was later to become a keyboard concerto), with an understated verve and virtuoso lightness of touch that deservedly drew prolonged applause.
Bojan Cicic: “Understated verve and virtuoso lightness of touch that deservedly drew prolonged applause”
The spirit of dance dominated the Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor; the Polonaise was especially balletic. Ashley Solomon’s flute tripped the light fantastic in a breakneck Badinerie. He could only get away with it because of such incredibly fleet-fingered strings in support. But it was thrilling indeed, filled with laughter.
Saturday morning brought the French sextet Sarbacanes to the same venue. From mid-18th century onwards wind ensembles, known as Harmonie in the German-speaking world, were more affordable by smaller aristocratic courts unable to run to a full orchestra. Their most typical line-up was two oboes, two horns and two bassoons – as here.
Divertimentos by Haydn and Mozart jostled with a trio by Salieri – Mozart’s great rival – and a three horn duets, also by Mozart. They made tasty treats, all the more so for their rarity.
The two Haydn works were from early in his career (probably the 1760s) – and sounded like it. One included a starchy polonaise, followed by a wittily brief presto. The other, essentially a five-movement suite as if a holdover from the Baroque, was more spirited, if quite ornamented.
Mozart by contrast, writing a decade later, was much more advanced, playing with spatial effects, which Sarbacanes exploited to the full in his K.253 in F. A year later (1777), he was playing off the oboes against the rest in his K.270 in B flat. Here the group’s ultra-crisp rhythms spoke of taut ensemble and the closing gallop was straight out of hunting territory.
Three of Mozart’s 12 Duos for horns, K.487 were superbly played by Félix Roth and Gabriel Dambricourt, with eloquent dynamic variations. There was clarity, too, in two trio movements by Salieri, which found two oboes and a bassoon modulating with great clarity.
Prisma, a multi-national quartet, evoked the music of London in 1651, using recorder, violin, lute and viola da gamba in St Nicholas Church. Though none professed to sing, they did so vigorously. They dipped freely into the John Playford playbook, The English Dancing Master, which enjoyed many revisions over the next nearly 80 years and is our main source for popular music of the era.
Prisma: “Casual approach belied considerable skills from all four players”
Prisma’s casual approach belied considerable skills from all four players. Their enthusiasm proved that though the theatres were closed down during the Civil War, nightlife continued unabated, with much dancing to syncopated rhythms as instruments tossed tunes between each other.
Traditional Scottish tunes also had a look-in, with Franciska Hajdu’s violin ‘singing’ the Skye Boat Song and sharing the taxing divisions of a ground ‘after the Scotch humour’ by Nicola Matteis with Elisabeth Champollion’s sopranino recorder.
Ralph McTell’s Streets Of London was thrown in for good measure, as was the Londonderry Air. It was stirring to find outsiders finding so much pleasure in British popular music of all sorts and sharing their enthusiasm for it so freely.
The Baroque quintet Ensemble Molière appeared in Toll Gavel United Church. This encouraged an intimate rapport with their audience in a French programme that encompassed composers writing for the magnificent court of Louis XIV. Louis, incidentally, is the only European monarch our queen has still to out-reign, since he ruled for 72 years after inheriting the throne at the age of five (he was succeeded by his great-grandson).
Opening salvos from Charpentier and Lully – two airs from Phaëton (1683) – were but a prelude to Couperin’s superb Deuxième Concert (Concerts Royaux), which included a very lively Allemande fugée followed by a pensive Air tendre, where the ornamentation was exceptionally neat.
Aids to the king’s digestion were revealed in ‘Soupers du Roy’, six movements taken from a Delalande suite put together by the group’s harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck. After two gentle aperitifs and a quintet starter, there was a meatier Gigue featuring a taut duo between Catriona McDermid’s bassoon and Kate Conway’s gamba; indeed McDermid maintained a confident clarity throughout the programme.
The ever-racier variations in the Passacaille dessert might have caused indigestion but for their courtly ending. The king’s nightcap – and finale here – came with a suite by Marin Marais, a much calmer affair which included a fetchingly elegiac Plainte from Flavia Hirte’s flute and Alice Earll’s violin: sweet dreams were guaranteed.
Robert Hollingworth: Madrigal programme with I Fagiolini. Picture: Frances Marshall
The final afternoon included Tony Britten’s entertaining film Draw On Sweet Night (2015), which purports to reveal details of the life of madrigalist John Wilbye in the service of the Kytson family at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk: succulent stuff, though on this evidence either Wilbye was the local Lothario or else he was surrounded by some very randy ladies.
Either way, it made a neat intro to the evening’s madrigal programme by the six voices of I Fagiolini under Robert Hollingworth, in St John of Beverley Catholic Church.
I Fagiolini did not hold back from the juicier implications of these works, which often hinged on romantic liaisons. But Wilbye’s contribution to the collection for Queen Elizabeth I was a sober, beautifully tailored affair.
Adrenaline flowed a little too freely in some of the earlier numbers – there was too much tenor in Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis, for example, though the major-key ending was nicely drawn. Quite the contrary was the six-voice Thou Art But Young which was impeccably blended.
The revelation of the evening was the five-part Down In A Valley, whose Arcadian setting was decorated with startling changes of texture and some graphic illustration, including Cupid’s painful darts (rapidly repeating semiquavers). A wonderfully florid ‘frolic’ was contrasted with a languishing death at the lady’s displeasure in two superb final lines.
Two more familiar pieces had differing outcomes. Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees was a suave affair, warning of the dangers of love’s stings, with a punchy ending that hit home. Draw On, Sweet Night, perhaps Wilbye’s most famous piece and the title of the evening, was undone by an audience cougher unequipped with a means to cover their mouth.
No matter: we had already enjoyed ensemble singing of the most exquisite calibre, much of which had highlighted Wilbye’s special gift for delving beneath the surface of the poetry he set. Catherine Pierron contributed four harpsichord interludes, including galliards by Byrd and Bull, and concluding brilliantly with the flamboyant cross-rhythms of the latter’s In Nomine.
This friendly, compact little festival had made a jewel of a weekend.
