The new walkways at Clifford’s Tower. Picture: Christopher Ison for English Heritage
CLIFFORD’S Tower reopens today, re-roofed, its interior transformed, its story to be told anew by English Heritage after a £5 million conservation project that hopefully turns into conversation.
Regularly, the empty shell of the last remains of York Castle, had been voted York’s most disappointing tourist attraction, one that you came, you, saw, you concurred with everyone else after 15 minutes that you would not be going back.
Up against York Minster, the National Railway Museum, the Yorkshire Museum, York Castle Museum and York Art Gallery, let alone York Dungeon, York’s Chocolate Story and myriad ghost walks, Clifford’s Tower was “living with history”, to borrow the city’s former slogan, but not alive with history.
It amounted to 55 steps to what? Awkward, cramped walkways; awkward anti-Semitic associations with the darkest day in York’s past (the Jewish massacre and suicide of March 16 1190 on this site); the awkward misfire of hosting York’s Bonfire Night firework display, thankfully consigned to history.
Then awkward discussions about what to do with the tower, when initial redevelopment plans met with opprobrium, even derision, being deemed a commercially driven act of heresy, rather than heritage, as Councillor Johnny Hayes led the successful 2018 campaign against the English Heritage (and City of York Council approved) plans for a visitor centre on the mound, so out of keeping with LS Lowry’s famous painting.
Roll on to April 2 2022 and welcome to the new but old Clifford’s Tower, the 800-year-old landmark with its new roof deck to provide the best 360-degree views of York – better than York Minster because it takes in York Minster – and hidden rooms, newly revealed and refreshed for the first time since the tower was gutted by fire in 1684.
No visitor centre, no shop, no lift for the disabled, no palatial revamp, only history, unlocked secrets, aerial walkways, stopping points to catch breath when climbing the steps, that breathtaking panoramic rooftop view…oh, and a loo.
Clifford’s Tower, by L.S. Lowry, from the York Museums Trust collection at York Art Gallery
Not for public use, and no ordinary loo but the garderobe for Henry the Third (don’t say that with an Irish accent), a rather flash Royal flush from long before the likes of Thomas Crapper got to work on waterworks. All that is missing is the seat for this alternative throne, but the toiletries cupboard is still there.
What is this fascination with ablutions in York’s past? First the olfactory unpleasantries of the JORVIK Viking Centre, now Henry III’s state-of-the-(f)art lavatory, newly given the reverence of a cistern chapel. Read all about it, how radical it was, and the excitement may well be merited.
After Coun Hayes kicked up a stink, English Heritage went back to the drawing board, the focus solely on the tower itself, or “protecting Clifford’s Tower for future generations and inspiring more people to discover its histories,” as the charity’s chief executive, Kate Mavor, put it.
Jeremy Ashbee, head properties curator at English Heritage, calls Clifford’s Tower “one of England’s most important buildings”. “It is almost all that remains of York Castle, the centre of government for the north throughout the Middle Ages up to the 17th century – the place where the whole of the North of England was ruled from,” he says.
“We not only wanted to preserve this incredible building but also to do justice to its fascinating and multi-faceted history.”
The challenge has been to give Clifford’s Tower a future, one that truthfully can never match its past. What £5 million has done is to tell that past much better, in a city where history is often in the re-making.
Clifford’s Tower is not alone in making the historic headlines at present in York, what with the investigations into whether any part of the ornate street light in Minster Gates can be salvaged after a delivery driver reversed into it on March 21, and the rejection of the second set of York Archaeological Trust, Rougier Street Developments and North Star plans for the Roman Quarter and its Eboracum visitor attraction.
The question now is will visitors make return visits to Clifford’s Tower in such a competitive tourist market? Only time will tell, but for definite, no parties or weddings will be held there. Theatre on the new first floor; concerts on the rooftop? Not ruled out, apparently.
“My faith is very important as a source of creative energy,” says York Open Studios 2022 debutant ceramicist Rukshana Afia
THE sun is out to greet York Open Studios on its opening weekend.
More than 150 artists and makers are showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”, from 10am to 5pm today, tomorrow and next weekend too.
As ever, the range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating.
CharlesHutchPress is highlighting the 30 newcomers in a showcase all this week, in map order, continuing today with Philip Wilkinson; Rukshana Afia; Dylan Connor; Anna Pearson; Danladi Kole Bako and Izzy Williamson.
Automata makerPhilip Wilkinson at work in his Quick Sticks Workshop
Philip Wilkinson, sculpture, 241 Burton Stone Lane, York
PHILIP has been a design-maker of bespoke works and hands-on museum exhibits for 25 years.
Employment stints at the legendary Eden Project, in Cornwall, and the magical Centre for Alternative Technology, at Machynlleth, Wales, stoked his interest in working with reclaimed materials.
Steamer, by Philip Wilkinson
In 2019, Philip built Quick Sticks Workshop, where he imparts “the joy of making stuff” through handmade automata, educational kits and practical sessions.
His works upcycle scrap into whimsical, hand-powered artworks with the common themes of humour, environment and engineering. “Each handcrafted model draws unique character from available materials,” says Philip, who also teaches design at a York school.
Rukshana Afia: Makes coiled ceramics in stoneware and white earthenware
Rukshana Afia, ceramics, 92 Dodsworth Avenue, York
RUKSHANA headlined her March 19 blog “Preparation verging on panic…”, but the day has arrived for York Open Studios debut.
She makes coiled ceramics in stoneware and white earthenware, the earthenware decorated using alkaline/Islamic glazes, sometimes liquid metals. Her felts are cut and re-pieced with surface embroidery.
Rukshana is Eurasian, born in London in 1953. “I’m a progressive Sunni Muslim by birth, upbringing and mature conviction,” she says. “My faith is very important as a source of creative energy as well as a historical treasure-house of artistic techniques, particularly in ceramics,” she says.
Dylan Connor: Attended workshops led by a body sculpture and movie special effects creator
Dylan Connor, sculpture, 114 East Parade, York
DYLAN’S’ work explores an “urban abstract and realism narrative of body anonymous and known body sculptures”, using organic material found in everyday environments present in today’s society.
Dylan began studying art and sculpture while at school, graduating in contemporary design and craft from York St John University in 2018.
A sculpture by Dylan Connor, using organic material found in everyday environments
He then attended workshops led by a body sculpture and movie special effects creator and further extended his formal education to become a qualified teacher specialising in art and design.
He has spent time further developing his urban realism practice in his York workshop to reveal his latest collection.
Anna Pearson: Everyday objects and views as subjects
Anna Pearson, painting, 29 Woodside Avenue, York
ANNA has produced a selection of different types of work, sometimes adding collage to them. She takes her inspiration from the Impressionists and Yorkshire’s own David Hockney.
“My preferred medium is acrylics, finding the best way to apply it can be with the fingers or anything else lying around my kitchen,” she says. “When sketching outdoors, I use pen and ink and have a whimsical attitude to straight lines – I like structures to have ‘character’!”
Most of Anna’s work is in acrylics with everyday objects and views as subjects, often using sponges to apply the paint.
Danladi Kole Bako: Creator of Bankoleart
Danladi Kole Bako, mixed media, The Studio, 40 Hempland Drive, York
DANLADI is the Nigerian-born founder of Bankoleart, his art being essentially characterised by the use of talking drums for functional and aesthetic visual art expressions, creatively employing themes, designs and media to highlight socio-cultural issues.
Born in 1969 in Kaduna state, Nigeria, Danladi is a “self-thought” artist, painter and mixed-media artist. “My passion for contemporary visual arts was nurtured during my years in solitude, when I devoted myself to research and developing my unique ‘Bankoleart’ style,” he says.
His art form has flourished with increased experimentation at numerous artist-run spaces in Nigeria and his works are owned by private and corporate collectors worldwide.
Izzy Williamson: Expresses feelings of playfulness and wonder in her linocuts
Izzy Williamson, printmaking, Flat 1, 9 Sandringham Street, York
PRINTMAKER Izzy specialises in making original, limited-edition, intricate and figurative in style and deeply rooted in nature and stories from her childhood in Whitby.
“The narratives within my work observe feelings of playfulness and wonder, stemming from stories in folklore, dreams, myth and everyday joys,” she says.
Since graduating from Leeds College of Art in 2015, Izzy has produced designs for interiors, packaging and branding.
Izzy Williamson goes down to the sea, her linocuts being deeply rooted in nature and stories from her Whitby childhood
In focus tomorrow: Lucinda Grange, photography; Janine Lees, mixed media; Emma Frost, painting; Shirley Davis Dew, painting; Laura Thompson, illustration; The Island, photography.
Kimbal Bumstead: one of 30 new participants in York Open Studios
NOW is the chance to go around the houses, the studios and workshops too, as recommended by Charles Hutchinson on his art beat.
Art event of the week and next week too: York Open Studios, today and tomorrow; April 9 and 10, 10am to 5pm
AFTER 2021’s temporary move to July, York Open Studios returns to its regular spring slot, promising its biggest event ever with more than 150 artists and makers in 100-plus workshops, home and garden studios and other creative premises.
Thirty new participants have been selected by the event organisers. As ever, York Open Studios offers the chance to talk to artists, look around where they work and buy works.
Artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings and the locations map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk or pick up a booklet around York.
Caius Lee: Pianist for York Musical Society’s Rossini concert
Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, St Peter’s School Memorial Hall, York, tonight, 7.30pm
DAVID Pipe conducts York Musical Society in a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s last major work, Petite Messe Solennelle, composed when his friend Countess Louise Pillet-Will commissioned a solemn mass for the consecration of a private chapel in March 1864.
After Rossini deemed it to be a ‘poor little mass’, the word ‘little’ (petite) has become attached to the title, even though the work is neither little nor particularly solemn. Instead, the music ranges from hushed intensity to boisterous high spirits.
Caius Lee, piano, Valerie Barr, accordion, Katie Wood, soprano, Emily Hodkinson, mezzo-soprano, Ed Lambert, tenor, and Stuart O’Hara, bass, perform it tonight. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/rossini-petite-messe-solennelle.
Bingham String Quartet: Programme of Beethoven, Schnittke, LeFanu and Tippett works
Late news: York Late Music, Stuart O’Hara and Ionna Koullepou, 1pm today; Bingham String Quartet, 7.30pm tonight, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York
BASS Stuart O’Hara and pianist Ionna Koullepou play a lunchtime programme of no fewer than eight new settings of York and regional poets’ works by York composers.
In the evening, the Bingham String Quartet perform Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat major, Schnittke’s String Quartet No 3, York composer Nicola LeFanu’s String Quartet No 2 and Tippett’s String Quartet No 2. Box office: latemusic.org or on the door.
The poster for York Blues Festival 2022
A dose of the blues: York Blues Festival 2022, The Crescent, York, today, bands from 1pm to 11pm
YORK Blues Festival returns for a third celebration at The Crescent community venue after two previous sell-outs. On the bill will be Tim Green Band; Dust Radio; Jed Potts & The Hillman Hunters; TheJujubes; Blue Milk; DC Blues; Five Points Gang and Redfish.
For full details, go to: yorkbluesfest.co.uk. Box office: thecrescentyork.seetickets.com.
The Howl & The Hum: Sunday headliners at YorkLife in Parliament Street
Free community event of the weekend: YorkLife, Parliament Street, York, today and tomorrow, 11am to 9pm
YORK’S new spring festival weekend showcases the city’s musicians, performers, comedians and more besides today and tomorrow. Organised by Make It York, YorkLife sees more than 30 performers and organisations head to Parliament Street for this free event with no tickets required in advance.
York’s Music Venue Network presents Saturday headliners Huge, Sunday bill-toppers The Howl & The Hum, plus Bull; Kitty VR; Flatcap Carnival; Hyde Family Jam; Floral Pattern; Bargestra and Wounded Bear.
Workshops will be given by: Mud Pie Arts: Cloud Tales, interactive storytelling; Thunk It Theatre, Build Our City theatre; Gemma Wood, York Skyline art; Fantastic Faces, face painting; Henry Raby, from Say Owt, spoken poetry; Matt Barfoot, drumming; Christian Topman, ukulele; Polly Bennet, Little Vikings PQA York, performing arts, and Innovation Entertainment, circus workshops. Look out too for the York Mix Radio quiz; York Dance Space’s dance performance and Burning Duck Comedy Club’s comedy night.
Oi Frog & Friends!: Laying down the rules at York Theatre Royal
Children’s show of the week: Oi Frog & Friends!, York Theatre Royal, Monday, 1.30pm and 4.30pm; Tuesday, 10.30am and 1.30pm
ON a new day at Sittingbottom School, Frog is looking for a place to sit, but Cat has other ideas and Dog is happy to play along. Cue multiple rhyming rules and chaos when Frog is placed in in charge.
Suitable for age three upwards, Oi Frog & Friends! is a 55-minute, action-packed play with original songs, puppets, laughs and “more rhyme than you can shake a chime at”.
This fun-filled musical has been transferred to the stage by Emma Earle, Zoe Squire, Luke Bateman and Richy Hughes from Kes Gray and Jim Field’s picture books. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Mother and son: Niki Evans as Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones as Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, returning to the Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday
AFTER a three-year hiatus, Sean Jones has returned to playing scally Mickey in Willy Russell’s fateful musical account of Liverpool twins divided at both, stretching his involvement to a 23rd year at impresario Bill Kenwright’s invitation in what is billed as his “last ever tour” of Blood Brothers.
Back too, after a decade-long gap, is Niki Evans in the role of Mickey and Eddie’s mother, Mrs Johnstone.
Blood Brothers keeps on returning to the Grand Opera House, invariably with Jones to the fore. If this year really is his Blood Brothers valedictory at 51, playing a Scouse lad from the age of seven once more, thanks, Sean, for all the years of cheers and tears. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
May in April: Imelda May plays York Barbican for a third time on April 6
York gig of the week: Imelda May, Made To Love Tour, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm
IRISH singer-songwriter and poet Imelda May returns to York Barbican for her third gig there in the only Yorkshire show of her first major UK tour in more than five years.
“I cannot wait to see you all again, to dance and sing together, to connect and feel the sparkle in a room where music makes us feel alive and elevated for a while,” says Imelda. “A magical feeling we can only get from live music. Let’s go!”
Her sixth studio album, last April’s 11 Past The Hour, will be showcased and she promises poetry too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Corruption and sloth: English Touring Opera in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel
At the treble: English Touring Opera at York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm
ENGLISH Touring Opera present three performances in four nights, starting with Bach’s intense vision of hope, St John Passion, on Wednesday, when professional soloists and baroque specialists the Old Street Band combine with singers from York choirs.
La Boheme, Puccini’s operatic story of a poet falling in love with a consumptive seamstress, follows on Friday; the residency concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, a send-up of corruption and sloth in government that holds up a mirror to the last days of the Romanovs. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Eleanor Sutton in the title role in Jane Eyre, opening at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Friday
Play of the week outside York: Jane Eyre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Friday to April 30
CHRIS Bush’s witty and fleet-footed adaptation seeks to present Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to a fresh audience while staying true to the original’s revolutionary spirit.
Using actor-musicians, playful multi-role playing and 19th century pop hits, Zoe Waterman directs this SJT and New Vic Theatre co-production starring Eleanor Sutton as Jane Eyre, who has no respect for authority, but lives by her own strict moral code, no matter what the consequences. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Beth McCarthy: Homecoming gig at The Crescent in May
Welcome home: Beth McCarthy, The Crescent, York, May 2, doors, 7.30pm
BETH McCarthy will play a home-city gig for the first time since March 2019 at The Crescent community venue.
Beth, singer, songwriter and BBC Radio York evening show presenter, has moved from York to London, since when she has drawn 4.8 million likes and 300,000 followers on TikTok and attracted 465,000 monthly listeners and nine million plays of her She Gets The Flowers on Spotify. Box office: myticket.co.uk/artists/beth-mccarthy.
Oh, and one other thing
MODFATHER Paul Weller’s gig on Tuesday at York Barbican has sold out.
Shannon Vertigan: Exploring perceptions of home in her student showcase at York St John University
YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.
More than 150 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”, from 10am to 5pm on April 2,3, 9 and 10, preceded by this evening’s 6pm to 9pm preview.
As ever, the range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating and who will be opening up early for the preview.
CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that continues today with Andrew Wrigley; Helen Wrigley; Ni Studios; Laetitia Newcombe; John Cutting; Matilde Tomat and Shannon Vertigan.
“Paradise remains stubbornly lost despite my return to the UK in 1997,” says Andrew Wrigley
Andrew Wrigley, painting, 1 The Sycamores, Sycamore Place, York
ANDREW works in oils and digitally, as well as in drawing and sculpture. His work is figurative, with narrative pointers to realities that lurk beyond outward appearances. “The bigger the canvas, the better,” he says.
Andrew was born in Scotland but grew up in a little shack on the Pampas from the age of nine. “My art bears witness to the fact I’ve not recovered from the shock of migration and that paradise remains stubbornly lost despite my return to the UK in 1997,” he says.
He never had the time to complete his Masters thesis in theoretical physics at the University of Buenos Aires on account of spending six hours a day drawing.
Helen Wrigley: Favours big canvasses
Helen Wrigley, painting, 1 The Sycamores, Sycamore Place, York
HELEN works primarily in oil paint on big canvasses while calling on her experience in photography, design and sculpture as she expresses her emotional response to her chosen subjects.
“Through life, my creativity has always shone through, whatever the material,” she says. “Never satisfied with other people’s design, my joy has always been in the challenge to create and achieve this intention, whether it be clothes and garden design or fine art.”
Mimi in black and white at Ni Studios
Mimi at Ni Studios, mixed media, 20-24 Swinegate, York
MIMI is a multi-disciplinary artist whose creativity spans painting, printmaking, charcoal, realism, photography and digital work, all presented on the walls at Ni Studios, where she will host a demonstration on Saturday at 2pm.
“I’m a multi-faceted artist whose true passion lies within autobiographical creations,” she says. “My practice is innately cathartic and led by expressionism and my emotions.
“Most of my work is instinctual, spilling my thoughts and feelings out from behind the barrier of creation. I believe I use creating as a release and see myself reflected through most of my oeuvre.”
Laetitia Newcombe: “Drawn to the fluid nature of clay”
Laetitia Newcombe, sculptural ceramics, York College student showcase, The Last Drop Inn, 27 Colliergate, York
INSPIRATION for Laetitia’s sculptural ceramics, jewellery and wall hangings comes from the forms and patterns she finds in her surroundings, together with a deep connection to her vibrant upbringing.
Growing up in South Africa and now based in North Yorkshire, she draws on this fusion of influences in her richly textured and brightly coloured works.
“All my pieces are hand-built, using coils and slabs that I alter, sculpt and refine as I go along,” she says. “I’m drawn to the fluid nature of clay as it lets me express my individuality.”
A sculptural ceramic by Laetitia Newcombe
John Cutting, sculpture, student showcase at Creative Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York
JOHN’S art practice has developed from multiple skills gained during his working life as a soldier, engineer, traveller and adventurer.
These experiences enable him to confidently identify and play with raw, natural, synthetic and engineered materials that ooze inspiration for him to create assemblage sculpture and installations.
John Cutting: Soldier, engineer, traveller, adventurer and sculptor
Using his imagination, creativity and experimental approach, he chooses suitable materials from their texture, form and malleability.
Establishing a working knowledge of the materials’ properties, capabilities and boundaries, John creates unique and personal pieces of contemporary art with an “imaginary, thought-provoking awareness of the relationship the various combinations present”.
Caught in the act of reading: artist Matilde Tomat
Matilde Tomat, mixed media, student showcase at Creative Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York
CAUGHT in the act of drawing, Matilde’s work investigates the reactions and separateness of both maker and viewer while exploring inspiration, separation and artistic pleasure in her mixed-media performative piece.
Originally from Italy, Matilde is an artist, writer, psychogeographer and psychotherapist. “My practice evolved from the enquiry on loss to the discernment of past events, the idea of posterity, the concepts of Truth and Seen, and my identity as an artist as seen by ‘the others’ while in the act of creating,” she says.
A lover of silence, Matilde is intrigued by hidden connections, synchronicities and the mystical. Oh, and should you be wondering, psychogeography is the study of the influence of geographical environment on the mind or on behaviour. Psychogeography art “explores artists’ responses to place and displacement in real and imagined spaces”.
Shannon Vertigan: Questioning the meaning of ‘dwelling’
Shannon Vertigan, student showcase at Creative Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York
SHANNON’S multi-disciplinary practice begins to question the meaning of ‘dwelling’. “Installations are inspired by investigating the role of structures that surround us, spatial boundaries and differing perceptions of ‘home’,” she says.
Born in Cheshire in 1999, Shannon is an artist, researcher, organiser and curator, at present completing a BA degree in Fine Art at York St John University.
She is a director of numerous community art projects and was a co-curator, organiser and resident artist at Uthink’s Piccadilly Pop-Up in York. Last year she exhibited at The Awakening show in York; Cultivate: Alright? and Cultivate: Next, both online, and Uthink York at 23, Piccadilly.
In focus tomorrow: Philip Wilkinson, sculpture; Rukshana Afia, ceramics; Dylan Connor, sculpture; Anna Pearson, painting; Danladi Kole Bako, mixed media; Izzy Williamson, printmaking.
Beth, singer, songwriter and erstwhile BBC Radio York evening show presenter, has moved from York to London, since when she has been buoyed by the online response to her singles and videos, drawing 4.8 million likes and 300,000 followers on TikTok and attracting 465,000 monthly listeners and nine million plays of her heartbreak hit She Gets The Flowers on Spotify.
Beth has been singing since the age of seven when she started performing in musical theatre shows. She joined a band at 11, picked up an acoustic guitar and became a singer-songwriter at 13, playing 150 gigs all over England and releasing her debut EP by the age of 16, when she appeared on the BBC One talent show The Voice in 2014.
Coming up this spring for Beth is an appearance on Kilimanjaro Live’s stage at Liverpool Sound City on May 1 and gigs at Camden Assembly, London, on May 3 and Deaf Institute, Manchester, on May 7, followed by a set at Kilimanjaro Live’s new festival in Norwich, Neck Of The Woods, on May 29.
Hot pants! Jake Quickenden’s hunky cowboy Willard Hewitt strikes a pose in Footloose The Musical
THERE was a time when Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose The Muscal would have played the Grand Opera House, not York Theatre Royal, as indeed it did in May 2017 with Bradford’s Gareth Gates’s cowboy Willard as the star attraction.
Just as the Mischief’s brand of comic mayhem with a team of accident-prone Charlie Chaplins has moved from Cumberland Street (The Play That Goes Wrong, September 2021) to St Leonard’s Place (Magic Goes Wrong, April 26 to May 1), Footloose’s transfer is a sign of chief executive Tom Bird balancing the Theatre Royal’s obligations as a producing house with the need for commercial prudence after the triplet of Covid lockdowns.
Sure enough, Plews’s new production – “reworked with a new set, new costumes, the lot,” as Darren Day, one of two new star names, put it – was playing to a full stalls and dress circle at Wednesday’s performance. Box-office business has been brisk, driven by the industry’s time-honoured key ticket purchaser: women, especially for musical theatre.
Bereft: Darren Day’s burdened Reverend Shaw Moore
Men, outnumbered as ever on Wednesday, nevertheless would have a fun time at this feelgood, then feelevenbetter show, delivered by Plews’s cast of actor-musicians with the pizzazz befitting Holding Out For A Hero, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title number.
Faithful to the 1984 teen movie, Footloose is the teen-rebel story of Ren McCormack (Joshua Hawkins), the high-school newcomer who has blown into Bible Belt Bomont from Chicago with mum Ethel (Geri Allen) after his father deserted them without explanation.
An innocent abroad, Ren is out of step with a stymied town that buckles the Bible belt on the tightest notch, the town council having banned dancing in the wake of four Bomont High pupils perishing in a drink-and-drug fuelled car accident.
Lucy Munden’s Ariel, right, with Oonagh Cox’s Rusty, Samantha Richards’s Urleen and Jess Barker’s Wendy-Jo
In contrast with that tragedy’s fun-negating shadow, Dean Pitchford, Walter Bobbie and Tom Snow’s musical does indeed cut loose, demanding an exuberant, high-energy performance from start to finish.
Footloose is light, insubstantial, even a little daft, being a dance-filled musical about not being allowed to dance, but let’s not split hairs. Last time it felt dated too, but deliberately and knowingly Eighties in style, and that look is still there in Sara Perks’s designs and costumes, but so are tattoos galore and ripped jeans, along with a state-of the-art lighting design by Chris Davey.
What’s more, there is just enough of a sting in the tale of stultifying life in the WASP smalltown of Bomont, where the music died five years ago in this quiet Deep American South backwater.
Giant leap: Joshua Hawkins’s Ren McCormack swaps Chicago for backwoods Bomont
Sunday’s earnest sermons by the anguished Reverend Shaw Moore (Darren Day) set the tone, having administered the dance ban after losing his son. Day, hair newly grey and goatee bearded, grey suit as buttoned up as Moore’s emotions, is the old hand among predominantly young players, and he brings gravitas to the heavyweight role.
He has one of the hit-filled show’s non-hits to navigate in Heaven Help Me, but does so, not once, but twice, with beautifully controlled singing, where less is Moore. Look out for his Elvis impersonation in Reverend Moore’s transitional moment: a lovely light touch.
Moore’s counterpoint is Hawkins’s appealing Ren, the clean-living, accidental rebel who breaks every Bomont taboo, complicating matters further by falling for Ariel (Lucy Munden), the preacher man’s equally rebellious poetess daughter, setting him on a collision course with college bad-lad Chuck (Tom Mussell).
Cutting loose: Joshua Hawkins’ Ren and Lucy Munden’s Ariel
Those of a certain age were excited that Day – who was called theatre royalty on television the other day – would be in the cast. Gen Z were far more excited at the presence of 2018 Dancing On Ice winner Jake Quickenden in the comedy role of hunky cowboy Willard Hewitt, the lovably hapless town hick.
Boy, he delivers, being delightfully dim in failing to read the endless advances of Oonagh Cox’s spunky Rusty and revelling in stripping off to his toned, tattooed torso in Holding Out For A Hero (recalling his time in The Dreamboys revue).
As for his singing, Quickenden nails the comedy number, Mama Says (You Can’t Back Down), one of the high points of Matt Cole’s exuberant choreography.
Jack Quickenden’s cowboy Willard strips down in Footloose The Musical
Hawkins’s Ren, Munden’s Ariel, Mussell’s Chuck, Cox’s Rusty, Samantha Richards’s Urleen, Jess Barker’s Wendy-Jo and the multi role-playing Geri Allen bring plenty to the party (or non-party, as the Reverend would prefer it).
Indeed, let’s hear it for all the boys and girls, as they sing, dance, play instruments and skilfully walk the tightrope between the serious and the tongue in cheek in their performances. Let’s hear it for the drummer too, Bob Carr, ever-present up top at the back, making everything stick and click.
Footloose and fancy free this weekend? This show is just the ticket for you.
Footloose, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, tomorrow. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York Minster, by Duncan Lomax,, at Holgate Gallery
YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.
More than 150 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”, from 10am to 5pm on April 2,3, 9 and 10, preceded by a 6pm to 9pm preview on April 1.
As ever, the range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating and who will be opening up early for the preview.
CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that continues today with Toni Mayner; Kimbal Bumstead; Duncan Lomax; Moira Craig; Jo Rodwell and John Hollington.
Toni Mayner: Jewellery inspired by histories, love and loss
Toni Mayner, jewellery, The Cottage, 2 Love Lane, The Mount, York
USING traditional goldsmithing skills and precious stones and materials, Toni makes thematically based one-off narrative pieces and small collections of jewellery inspired by histories, love and loss.
After achieving her Masters in jewellery and silversmithing in 2007, from 2010 to 2020 she lectured at the Institute of Jewellery, Fashion and Textiles, Birmingham City University.
Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and China, including performance, installation and narrative jewellery practice. Returning to her roots as a maker, Toni relocated to York in 2021 to establish a business making wearable collections and commissioned pieces in her garden studio.
Kimbal Bumstead: “My paintings aren’t just experiments in colour”
Kimbal Bumstead, painting, The Mount School, Dalton Terrace, York
KIMBAL specialises in vibrant abstract paintings that capture traces of journeys into imaginary worlds. His distinctive style uses translucent layers of oil paint and varnish to create sensory-rich and absorbing compositions.
Kimbal’s painting practice stems from his background in participatory performance art and his fascination with maps. “It’s really thrilling to be an artist,” he says. “My job is to bring things into existence that weren’t there before, and I use colour and mark-making to get there. But there are other aspects too. My paintings aren’t just experiments in colour, nor are they just expressions of feelings, they are also explorations of journeys into other worlds.”
Originally from London, Kimbal studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds and has held solo exhibitions at Aeon Gallery in London, de Stoker in Amsterdam and BasementArtsProject in Leeds.
New to York, where he teaches abstract art classes with York Learning, he is also exhibiting with Simon Crawford in According To McGee’s first Return Of The Painter 2022 show in Tower Street until April 4.
Duncan Lomax: “Much more than photography”
Duncan Lomax, photography, Holgate Gallery, 53 Holgate Road, York
DUNCAN is an experienced commercial photographer, running Ravage Productions to serve a wide range of businesses, as well as being the official photographer for York Minster.
Alongside this, he produces creative work to his own brief, work that is often “much more than just photography”
“As well as ‘traditional’ photography, I utilise in-camera multiple exposures, long exposures and other creative techniques to push the perception of what a photograph can be,” he says. “I also use multi-media techniques to create unique prints with individually applied embellishments.”
Duncan has been conducting a spring clean at Holgate Gallery before reopening for tomorrow evening’s preview from 6pm to 9pm. For the duration of the Open Studios event, the gallery will be showing work solely by owner Duncan, who opened the premises in September 2020.
Moira Craig: “Vibrant memories of summer”
Moira Craig, printmaking, 51 Otterwood Lane, York
PRINTMAKER Moira has come to her creative practice after a career in a range of care settings. “My passion for creativity really took flight on the day after my retirement when I visited York Open Studios,” she says.
Drawing on her long experience of working in textile techniques, she experimented in her garden during lockdown, resulting in her alchemy of flowers, leaves and dyeing techniques in contemporary botanical pieces that blend traditional flowers into impressionistic compositions to create vibrant memories of summer.
Jo Rodwell: “Loves the bright, bold colours of nature”
Jo Rodwell, mixed media, 42 Dikelands Lane, Upper Poppleton, York
JO applies a variety of materials and media to explore how colours and layers interact with each other, depicting light and shadow, and how translucency and opacity affect this.
“Focusing on creating figurative art inspired by people, places and experiences, I uses painting and printing trying to capture the essence of a moment,” she says.
“I love the bright, bold colours of nature and incorporate these in my art to create vibrant and exciting images, in the hope it triggers a moment of reflection for the viewer, evoking an emotion and enabling a connection with the subject.”
Jo Rodwell: “Exploring how colours and layers interact with each other”
John Hollington, wood, 68 Ouse Lea, Shipton Road, Clifton, York
JOHN changed career from draughtsman to York St John product design student…and then designer-maker in 2015.
Inspired by a lifelong love of 20th century art and architecture, he creates beautiful pieces with a modernist, geometric aesthetic for home, garden, birds and bees.
John Hollington: “Modernist, geometric aesthetic for home, garden, birds and bees”
Crafted from oak or cedar – oiled and left natural or blackened to highlight the grain – they sell in gallery shops at The Hepworth, Wakefield, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park and elsewhere.
John has received awards from Northern Design Festival, been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize in York and was selected by TOAST for their New Makers 2020 programme.
John runs the award-winning John Hollington Studio, designing lighting as well as garden objects.
In focus tomorrow: Andrew Wrigley, painting; Helen Wrigley, painting; Ni Studios, mixed media; Laetitia Newcombe, sculptural ceramics; John Cutting, sculpture; Matilde Tomat, mixed media; Shannon Vertigan, mixed media.
Brothers in arms: Sean Jones as scally Mickey, left, and Joel Benedict as scholarly Eddie in Blood Brothers, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next week
AT 51, Sean Jones is still “running around in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” playing Liverpool lad Mickey in Willy Russell’s heartbreaking musical Blood Brothers into a 23rd year.
“It would definitely be me, Yul Brynner and Topol in the top three,” says the Welsh actor, in recognition of their long service to Blood Brothers, The King And I and Fiddler On The Roof respectively, although Sean has not kept a record of the exact number of performances he has chalked up.
Next week, on his return to impresario Bill Kenwright and Bob Tomson’s touring production for a run from January to late-October, Sean will be taking his Mickey back to the Grand Opera House in York.
Musicals were not his first love, but maybe this was destiny. “I’d had had a string of auditions for musicals off my agent but was getting very disconcerted as I’d trained to be an actor, not a singer and dancer, and then he said again, ‘I’ve got you an audition…for a musical.”
However, this time it was different. “It was the chance to be cover for Mickey in Blood Brothers, which has always been my dream role.
“It’s the most prepared I’ve ever been for an audition! Thankfully I got the gig as understudy on tour, and I remember we came to York on that first tour in 1999.”
He had trodden the boards in York previously. “On my first time there, I did [Agatha Christie’s] A Murder Is Announced with Richard Todd in 1993 in my first job after drama college, with Bill Kenwright as producer, and I remember thinking, ‘that might give me an inroad to Blood Brothers’!”
Sean would subsequently become embedded in Russell’s musical, even meeting his wife, actress Tracy Spencer, though the show. “Tracy played Mrs Lyons. We got married in 2004 on a two-show day when we were at the Cardiff New Theatre,” he says.
Sean Jones in his 2022 return to Blood Brothers as Mickey, with Niki Evans as Mrs Johnstone
“We got married in the morning, did the matinee, took the cast out for a drink, then did the evening performance.
“Blood Brothers is absolutely ingrained in me. When Tracy fell pregnant with Eleanor, after three months, we decided we would go out on tour for four years in the show!”
In Russell’s fateful musical, when young mother Mrs Johnstone is deserted by her husband, she is left to her own devices to provide for seven hungry children, taking a job as a housekeeper to make ends meet.
Whereupon her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers herself to be pregnant yet again, this time with twins. In a moment of desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer, leading to Mickey and Eddie being separated at birth, growing up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.
“It’s such a journey that Mickey goes on and such a great role for an actor to get his teeth into, with all the high comedy that Willy Russell has written that requires plenty of skill, and then the final hour that takes the audience to some really dark places, with the last few scenes being so harrowing.”
Sean’s career has taken in stage roles in pantomime, Macbeth and Jacqueline’s Wilson’s world premiere of Wave Me Goodbye and television appearances in Emmerdale, The Royal Today and Hollyoaks, but he keeps returning to Blood Brothers, never tiring of playing Mickey from the age of seven, through his teens and into his troubled adult life.
Out of the past 22 years, only eight have not been spent stretching that trademark baggy jumper over his knees. “It’s one of those things, whatever job anyone has, there’s a certain amount of repetition, whether working in a bank or a shop. Same job, different ****! With Blood Brothers, same job, same lines, but the audience keeps you fresh,” he says.
“Each audience comes with a different challenge each show, and you find yourself becoming a bit of a scientist, thinking, ‘who we’ve got in today; what do they want; what do they need?’. You pay attention to that, and that’s why it will always be fresh.
Sean Jones, as Mickey, and Marti Webb, as Mrs Johnstone at the Grand Opera House, York in 2008
“On top of that, Mickey is such a phenomenal role that I’m still finding new things in it after all these years.”
Playing Mickey for more than two decades, Sean has found his performance evolving over that time. “When you’re using techniques in order to get yourself into the zone for those last 30 minutes, the more you can draw on your own emotional memories, because all you are as an older person is a young person with more despair.”
Sean left the show for three years after his parents became poorly. “I needed to be there, with them,” he says. “But I always felt there might be a chance to come back.”
When Bill Kenwright asked him to reprise his Mickey once more, he said yes. “It’s like, go find me a better musical theatre role than Mickey,” says Sean. “There’s a plethora of great roles in musical theatre but none that goes on the journey that Mickey does. It’s brilliant storytelling theatre with so much comedy and then absolute heartbreak.”
The tour publicity states this will be Sean’s “final ever tour of the show”, but will it? “I’m happy to carry on doing it as long as Bill Kenwright is happy for me to get away with doing it!” he says.
“I appear to still have the same energy, hitting all the right notes in the right order, and as long as that keeps happening, I’m happy to keep going, but all I want to do is to keep on being a jobbing actor. That term shouldn’t be a slur. It’s about doing a job I love, whether in Blood Brothers, or in a small play at Theatre Clwyd, though I’d also love to do more screen work.”
Blood Brothers runs at Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Sean Jones’s Mickey and Maureen Nolan’s Mrs Johnstone at the Grand Opera House, York in 2013
Niki Evans’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in the 2022 tour of Blood Brothers, running at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9. Picture: Jack Merriman
NIKI Evans will be returning to the Grand Opera House as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers from Tuesday, but there is one place nearby in York that she will be avoiding.
“One time I was in York, they took me to the York Dungeon on my own and I’ve never screamed so loud,” she recalls. “I don’t know how I managed to do the show that night, I screamed so much. I won’t be going back to the Dungeon but York is a beautiful city.”
2007 X Factor semi-finalist Niki last played Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s Liverpudlian musical in 2012, having first done so in 2008, visiting York in May 2011. “Returning to it was scary at first,” she says. “The first time I did it, I’d never done a musical or been a part of the theatre world so when [producer] Bill Kenwright called me I think I turned it down four times.
“I was like ‘No, you’re OK!’ but he persuaded me to audition, and my audition was terrible. But he saw something in me and within a week I was on stage in the Phoenix Theatre [in London]. It was such a whirlwind. Since then, I’ve done lots of other roles, mainly funny ones, so to come back to such a dramatic role is very scary but it’s like a dream come true. They’d asked me to come back before but I had to be ready, and now I am.”
Blood Brothers revolves around Mickey and Edward, twins separated at birth by their mother Mrs Johnstone, who then grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.
What makes Mrs J such an iconic musical theatre role, Niki? “It’s because of her strength and the emotions you have to go through when you’re on stage,” she says. “She starts as a young girl in her 20s, then within 20 minutes she’s got seven kids and has to give one away. It’s a big part and it’s a big part for a woman, which is rare at my age [Niki is 49].
“My window is tiny to get a part where you’re on for more than ten minutes. She’s a strong female lead and she’s so real. Every mother in this country can relate to her on some level because of how real she is.
“Every mother must see something in Mrs Johnstone that they’ve also gone through. I know I can. I’ve got two sons, so her Mickey and Eddie are my Morgan and Jonah. My kids have had troubles, I’ve had troubles, and the way I look at it is: I don’t have to play her, I just have to be her.”
Niki is still discovering new things about Mrs Johnstone in her latest interpretation of the role, ten years on. “She’s not such a feisty tiger as I thought when I first did the show. They used to call me ‘the Feisty Tiger Mrs Johnstone’. I come from a family of four; we grew up on a council estate; we had no money; I used to go to school in jelly shoes, even in November, and my mum was a tough cookie,” she says.
“You didn’t mess with her and that’s how I thought Mrs J was, or at least that she was how I was, like, ‘Don’t mess with my kids or I’ll come at you with a baseball bat’. But now I’m older, I’ve mellowed. I’ll be 50 this year and I’m not so bouncy as I was ten years ago, so my take on her is much more grounded. She’s stronger without being quite so feisty.”
Blood Brothers is such an emotional rollercoaster for Niki and audience alike. “There are a couple of parts in the show, without giving spoilers, where it rips me to shreds,” she reveals. “I do it as though someone is about to take one of my children and I can’t hold back. I have to feel it every time I do it.”
Aside from Blood Brothers, Niki has appeared in musicals in the West End and on tour, such as Kinky Boots and Shout. “There’s been loads and I’ve loved every character I’ve played, but if I had to pick one it would be Paulette in Legally Blonde,” she says.
Niki Evans in a past production of Blood Brothers
“To go from playing Mrs Johnstone to Paulette in just two weeks was brilliant because it was such a contrast. I’ve never laughed and smiled so much as I have when doing the bend and snap. It was the first time I realised I could make people laugh as well as cry.”
Busy, busy, busy, but when Covid lockdowns left theatres closed, Niki took a job outside that familiar world. “I worked in a factory packing boxes for Amazon because I didn’t want to lose my house. I’m a working mum and I have to pay bills,” she says.
Post-lockdown, she appeared in Girls Just Wanna Have Funon tour and played Mimi the Magical Mermaid in Peter Pan, the Wycombe Swan Theatre’s pantomime, before going straight into Blood Brothers after only two days off.
“The first time I got back on stage, I was petrified because I hadn’t done it for two years and had to open myself up again to people watching me. All your insecurities come back and you’re like, ‘Am I good enough? Can I still do this?’, but the feedback from the audience, the love and the warmth – I can’t tell you what it means and how it feels.”
The return of live theatre felt “just amazing” to Niki. “People told me, ‘This is just what we needed’ and recently I was talking with a bunch of students in a theatre cafe who saw Blood Brothers and loved it. That enthusiasm is something you can’t buy.
“To have young people go, ‘You were so real, we were so engrossed’ is priceless. To know that you’re not just reaching older people, but young kids as well makes me so emotional. “What’s also interesting to me is how men in the audience react to Blood Brothers.
“When I look out into the auditorium, it’s the men who have their heads down because they can’t watch. It’s always the men who say, ‘I don’t like musicals, she’s dragged me along, but oh my God, I’m coming back to see this again’.”
Singing was Niki’s passion as soon as she could open her mouth, going on to finish in the top four in the 2007 series of The X Factor and to perform at Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle.
“Singing is like breathing to me, it’s so natural for me to do, but the actual performing scares the pants off me,” she says. “I was always happy as a backing singer or in the studio where nobody is looking at me. I know that sounds really weird, but when I’m out there I have to forget there’s people watching because it’s terrifying.”
The X Factor changed Niki’s life “completely. “It’s given me a career I didn’t think I was capable of, although it did eventually break up my marriage because I was never there,” she says.
“My life since X Factor couldn’t be more different. My kids didn’t even know I sang because I’d given it up. So much has happened in the past 15 years career-wise and I’ve got a partner and I’m getting married soon, which is very exciting!”
Blood Brothers returns to Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Pen pals:George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare and Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola de Lesseps in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Shakespeare In Love. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography
YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre mark their tenth anniversary with a rollicking celebration of the joys of theatre, Shakespeare In Love.
Adapted for the stage by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall from Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman’s screenplay for the Oscar-winning 1999 film, the Elizabethan love story will be performed under the direction of Bard buff Mark Hird at Theatre@ 41, Monkgate, from tomorrow (1/4/2022) to April 9.
First staged by Sonia Friedman Productions in the West End with Cheek By Jowl’s Declan Donnellan in the director’s chair in 2014, Hall’s play was snapped up for its York premiere by Pick Me Up’s ever-alert founder, artistic director, designer and producer, Robert Readman (who will be making a rare appearance as actor Ned Alleyn).
“When Robert got the rights, I read it, and straightaway I thought, ‘my god, it’s brilliant’, with Stoppard and Norman as the starting point for the fantastic script, and Lee Hall then transforming it into a great piece of theatre,” says director Mark Hird.
“Anyone who thinks this Shakespeare In Love will be just the film on stage, it’s absolutely not. It’s so theatrical, and that makes it such a joy to put on. That’s what so special about it: it’s a love letter to theatre as well as being a great love story.
Where there’s a quill, there’s a way: George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare at work
“Anyone who comes to the play who loves theatre will leave with a great big smile on their face at all the theatrical allusions. Lee Hall has put even more theatre aficionado jokes in there.”
Shakespeare In Love delights in the love story of struggling young playwright Will Shakespeare (played by George Stagnell) and feisty, free-spirited young noblewoman Viola de Lesseps (Sanna Jeppsson), his greatest admirer, who helps him to overcome writer’s block and becomes his muse.
She will stop at nothing, even breaking the law and dressing as a boy actor to appear in his next play, whereupon, in this turbulent world of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms, inspiring him to write his breakthrough romantic drama, Romeo and Juliet.
“Basically, you have Will Shakespeare right back in the early days of his career, having done Titus Andronicus, Two Gentlemen Of Verona and Henry VI, but he’s not yet had a big hit,” says Mark.
“All Marlowe’s plays are being bigger hits at the time, and in fact there’s a lot more of Kit Marlowe in the play than there was in the film,” says George.
“The play what I wrote”: George Stagnell’s Will shows his latest work to Sanna Jeppsson ‘s Viola
“But the love story is still at the heart of the play, and it’s as beautiful on stage as it was in the film, but there’s now a lot more changes of energy, moving back and forth from the chaotic rehearsals, and all the fun that goes with that, interspersed with the love story,” says Mark.
Sanna first saw the film on Swedish TV with Swedish subtitles before moving to Britain and has watched it again since landing her role as the ground-breaking Viola. “She’s a very brave woman, doing something that was forbidden at the time; something she wouldn’t be allowed to do, being in a space she wouldn’t have had access to as herself, having to take the guise of a boy actor, Thomas Kent,” she says.
“Being on stage, feeling so alive for the first time, I can connect with that. I remember going on a backstage tour of Mamma Mia!, and then getting to go out on to this amazing stage and looking at all those seats, and wanting to be on there performing.
“That’s what I bring with me when Viola comes on as Thomas Kent, knowing she shouldn’t be there, and normally could only imagine the audience looking at her.”
“I always like to go on stage before a show, when the auditorium is empty,” says George. “When it’s quiet and no-one’s there, you take the space in and imagine how it will erupt with life. It’s like the calm before the storm.”
Mark adds: “There’s something about an empty theatre: you can feel the presence of the ghosts of all those who have been there before.”
Sanna rejoins: “A theatre is a space where anything can happen, that moment of magic and then it’s gone.”
George Stagnell’s Will and Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola in disguise as young actor Thomas Kent
George has focused on playing young Will Shakespeare, not the feted Bard. “Pretty much since day one, I’ve had to come in not thinking ‘this is William Shakespeare’,” he says. “I don’t want to have that mentality of thinking about who he became, but to see him as this young man trying to find his way through a very complicated time in history, in the early days of his writing, when there was a lot of history that we don’t know and a lot of conjecture.”
Mark concurs: “That’s what’s so gorgeous about this piece. We all think we know about Shakespeare, but here we are watching a three-dimensional character called Will.”
Sanna had studied Shakespeare “a little bit at school, but not in its original language”, when growing up in Molkom, but when she lived out her long-held dream of moving to London in 2013, she attended the International College of Musical Theatre, rather than focusing on classical theatre.
“Almost every other person in London is an actor, which makes it hard there, and so I moved to York in 2019, where I now work as a civil servant for the Ministry of Justice, sitting on in trials sometimes.”
From courtroom dramas, Sanna’s attention now switches to courtship dramas on stage.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Shakespeare In Love, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, April 1 to 9, 7.30pm, except April 3 and 4; 2.30pm, April 2, 3 and 9 . Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
