And your point is? Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett’s Tom and Kellie Bryce beg to differ in Looking Good Dead
TWO selling points mark out Looking Good Dead.
Firstly, it is the latest in the production line of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace cases to be transferred from page to stage, adapted from Peter James’s stack of best-selling crime thrillers by Shaun McKenna.
Secondly, Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett reprise their brand of marital bickering patented in the guise of Ian and Jane Beale in the aerated London soap wars of EastEnders.
Brett has joined Jonathan O’Boyle’s company for the tour’s second leg, taking over from Gaynor Faye, and her partnership with Woodyatt is marked by a fractious telepathy that only comes with years of performing together.
Brett is not the only new ingredient. After the press night, in a brief chat before he headed off to Mad Alice’s Bloody Tour of York, cast member Leon Stewart revealed the ending had been changed to make it less easy for amateur Roy Graces to detect.
Brett’s Kellie Bryce is hiding her supposedly dormant drink habit from her pre-occupied husband (Woodyatt’s Tom), sipping vodka from her water bottle when he is not around. She is forever cleaning the smartly decorated house, when not buying dresses and expensive foodstuffs.
Woodyatt’s Tom is a businessman, but a weary and brassic, greying and grizzled one after over-stretching himself, mortgaged to the hilt, and now he is in need of a fast financial fix.
Tom had arrived home with a USB memory stick left on a train, saying he wanted to contact whoever had left it behind. Smartass student son Max (Luke Ward Wilkinson) is a tech wiz, but when he helps his dad to download the contents, they inadvertently witness a murder (Natalie Boakye’s Janie), enacted on a mezzanine level on Michael Holt’s slick set.
Don’t contact the police or tell your mum, says Tom, but that would rule out Roy Grace, wouldn’t it, and no Grace, no crime thriller. Ah, here he comes, on the design’s third piece in its jigsaw that slides in from the side to denote a slither of a police station. Harry Long’s matter-of-fact Grace is working in tandem with Leon Stewart’s Glenn Branson, his junior who loves a pun-laden joke.
Looking Good Dead moves at a cracking pace, with plenty of humour, some of it deeply cheesy, some of it rooted in the ebb and flow of family squabbles, but all the while James’s story is piling up twists and turns, intrigues and surprising revelations, weaving in new characters, such as Ian Houghton’s wealthy, smooth-talking American, Jonas Kent.
Didn’t-see-that-coming surprises prevail over suspense in script and direction alike, each conducted with a gleeful flourish that contrasts with the steady-eddie investigations of Long’s Grace in a story that takes in snuff movies, dung beetles, Wagyu steaks, even a modicum of social comment.
Looking Good Dead is fun, corny and self-aware, and if Woodyatt and Brett’s sparring in EastEnders left you cold, here comes their comic relief, unexpected but surprisingly enjoyable.
Looking Good Dead, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight, Thursday and Friday; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York
Grey hair, goatee beard: The new look for Darren Day as Reverend Moore in Footloose The Musical
DOYEN of the musicals Darren Day’s debut at York Theatre Royal is an act of faith: he is playing Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose The Musical until Saturday.
“I really feel this is transitional role for me,” says Darren, who has 29 years in musicals behind him at the age of 53. “I had breakfast last Thursday with Robbie Williams’s dad, [pub and club cabaret comedian and singer] Pete Conway, who came to see the show in Stoke, and he was saying exactly that.
“I’ve let the grey come through in my hair and I’ve grown a goatee beard for the role. Funnily enough, I was told I was too young for such roles when I went to see the producers of Footloose and Chicago within about three months of each other 12 years ago.
“I was thinking, ‘I’d love to play Reverend Moore and lawyer Billy Flynn’, but both producers said ‘not yet’, and they’ve both been on my bucket list of roles I’ve desperately wanted to play ever since, and now I’ve got the opportunity to play them both in one year, it’s incredibly exciting for me.”
Chicago was a joy for Darren and now he is settling into Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose, the show based on the 1984 film, the one with such hits as Holding Out For A Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title track, wherein American teenage city boy Ren McCormack is forced to move from Chicago to the rural backwater of Bomont after his father deserts him.
Things go from bad to worse when Ren finds out that dancing and rock music are banned there, but taking matters into his own hands, he soon has all hell breaking loose and the whole town on its feet.
“I’m so happy to be playing the Reverend,” says Darren. “I’m 53 now, I’ve been doing musical theatre for 29 years, so I’d always be grateful to playing these iconic roles, but on the back of Covid closing down theatres, I’m even more grateful. Being offered two six-month contracts at 53, I walk into the theatre everyday feeling so lucky.”
He is not alone, he says: “There’s gratitude with all of us in the company, a new-found gratitude for being able to perform again. Having done six months of Chicago and a few weeks of Footloose, it feels like how it must felt after the war, when people had been deprived of socialising and live entertainment.
“On the first night of Chicago, when the band struck up, the cheer that went up was like nothing I’d heard before. There’s a different feel now to performances, a sense of magic coming from the audience, as not that long ago none of us knew when life would be going back to some form of normality.”
Darren believes Racky Plews’s Footloose show is particularly special. “Even if you have seen it before, you will want to see it again, and this new version will blow you away. It’s been reworked with a new set, new costumes. The lot,” he says.
The tour poster for Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose The Musical featuring a new set, new costumes…and a new-look Darren Day
“Racky has brought an edgy and exciting new take on the show. She’s been working closely with the writer of the original movie and songs, Dean Pitchford, and his input into this new production has been invaluable.”
Darren can draw on his own experiences to play the Reverend, whose daughter, Ariel, wants to break away: “Having a teenage daughter myself in real life, I have a lot of ‘method’ experience I can call on. It’s tough letting your ‘little princess’ out into the big bad world!” he says.
“She’s 15, she’s going out with boys now and wants me to order things for her off the Pretty Little Thing website, where everything is too short, too tight!”
In Footloose, the Reverend’s son, Bobby, has died in a drink and drug-fuelled car accident, whereupon he bans dancing in Bomont. “It’s not an easy role playing the Reverend,” says Darren. “It’s almost like I have to play it over-seriously for it to work. It wouldn’t work if I didn’t commit to it, but even with rowdy crowds, the emotional moments seem to be paying off.”
He is taking to being the old hand in the company. “In this cast, I’m more like the grandad as they’re so young. That’s why it really is the transitional gig for me. I feel so flattered to be working with all these young people around me,” says Darren.
“I was called ‘theatre royalty’ on a TV interview recently and ‘stage veteran’ in a review, and when I hear things like that, without sounding old school, I think that in the last few months, certainly with the impact of Covid, there does seem to be quite a lot of change affecting people.
“Like, I went through changes in my personal life, but now I’m embracing being in the position of the one who passes on advice.”
Darren’s song in the spotlight is Heaven Help Me. “It could be the title of my autobiography!” he says. “It’s not one of the big songs in the show, and that’s a first for me, when even in Chicago I had Razzle Dazzle.
“I just have to play it the right way, getting the mood right and not looking to bring the house down. What I have to do is pull off the acting, and it seems to be working.”
An act of faith, indeed, for Darren’s Reverend.
Footloose gotta cut loose at York Theatre Royal until April 2; 7.30pm nightly; 2pm, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
A painting by Carol Douglas, to be found at 55 Albemarle Road, York
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 Carol Douglas, Anthea Peters, Derek Gauld, Phil Bixby, Jacqueline Warrington and Richard Frost.
Carol Douglas at work in her studio
Carol Douglas, painting, 55 Albemarle Road, York
CAROL paints primarily in acrylic on canvas, adding oil pastel and fabric collage to some works. Her box canvasses are mostly unframed.
Carol completed her full-time foundation diploma in art and design in 2018, realising an ambition held since she was 16. Now, at 70, she has exhibited at Partisan café, in Micklegate, and According To McGee, in Tower Street, York, and Dean Clough Art Gallery, in Halifax, and is promoted by Broth Art, an on-line London gallery.
Jewellery designer Anthea Peters
Anthea Peters, jewellery, 6 Middlethorpe Drive, Dringhouses, York
ANTHEA creates wearable pieces of jewellery in silver and gold, complemented with copper accents, gemstones and enamel.
Her jewellery is inspired by the wild and unspoilt locations she frequents in her ‘day job’ as a chartered dam engineer in rugged, remote locations. Closer to home, she finds happiness in her garden and on moorland adventures with her family; exploring and studying flora and fauna for her jewellery designs. Consequently, silver toadstools adorn those designs, along with snails, flowers and ‘found’ objects.
“I’ve been making jewellery with precious metals for nearly 20 years and have made special commissions for friends and family over the years, including wedding rings; Christening bracelets; baby teething rings and for special birthdays,” says Anthea. “All my work is very personal and crafted with love, with the design developed specifically for that individual.”
Landscape printmaker Derek Gauld
Derek Gauld, landscape printmaking, 8 Middlethorpe Drive, York
DEREK creates printmaking works, both large and small, from mostly landscape sketching and painting outdoors in Yorkshire, the Lake District and Cornwall.
His distinctive style is developed from sketches, working on marks and tones through etching and printmaking techniques such as sugarlift, soft ground, aquatint and relief in the studio.
“I like the loose feel of sugarlift to begin prints,” he says. “I generally use soft ground etching for initial mark making and then build up tones from light grey to black through a process of aquatinting, which involves stopping out areas of the image and dropping into safe acid, leaving longer to create darker tones.
“I like the loose feel of sugarlift to begin prints,” says Derek Gauld
“I will pull a black-and-white print after three, four or five tone checks and sometimes add accented colour to the print plate to give another impression. Colour will be added individually to each print, and prints are limited to 25.”
Derek studied printmaking at evening class for three years and has exhibited at Pyramid Gallery and Blossom Street Gallery, in York, and Scarborough Art Gallery. He is a member of York Printmakers – whose membership now runs to 40 – and West Yorkshire Print Workshop.
Phil Bixby: Architect and photographer
Phil Bixby, photography, 24 Hob Moor Terrace, York
PHIL makes black-and-white photographs, shot on 35mm film, that he develops and scans to produce high-quality inkjet prints that explore texture and lighting.
Architect Phil rediscovered film photography after a lengthy absence. “Black-and-white photography works with the same elements of light on form but allows a level of abstraction that buildings do not,” he says.
“Being reunited with tools from the late-20th century and learning again the varied characters of different films has given me scope to explore, experiment and enjoy.”
A rural scene by Phil Bixby
Believing “we need to plan for future change”, building designer Phil runs My York Central with Helen Graham, having started working together as My Future York, and since early summer 2017 they have been coordinating the My Castle Gateway project.
As an architect, he has worked on community self-build, masterplanning and community decision-making in York and elsewhere, while spending time aplenty watching and learning about York from the saddle of a bicycle.
“To watch a piece develop as the form and shape changes during the making process is both fascinating and exciting,” says Jacqueline Warrington
Jacqueline Warrington, jewellery, 3 White House Rise, York
JACQUELINE makes precious metal jewels and silver vessels, employing traditional techniques such as raising, chasing, repousse and forging. She makes silver icons too, exploring her interest in folklore and the saints.
Jacqueline trained with a renowned jewellery designer from the age of 16, then studied silversmithing and jewellery at Bradford and Sheffield art schools. She has been working at the bench since setting up her business in 1984, designing and making her own range of jewellery and exhibiting widely across the country.
“Using the qualities of the metals and stones in their various forms makes designing each piece a challenge,” says Jacqueline. “To watch a piece develop as the form and shape changes during the making process is both fascinating and exciting.”
In 2004, she set up a teaching school that ran successfully for 16 years but now she has decided to concentrate on her own work.
Richard Frost: From civil engineer to furniture maker
Richard Frost, furniture, 36 White House Gardens, York
AFTER a 27-year career as a civil engineer, Richard took a leap of faith and changed vocation to follow his passion for all things wood.
Re-training as a cabinet designer/maker at Waters & Acland Furniture School in Cumbria, he combines the problem-solving techniques of an engineer with the creative skills of an artist to design and make furniture and decorative items.
Setting up Richard Frost Design in January 2019, he has not looked back since, producing bespoke and limited-edition handcrafted furniture, household goods and gifts, often incorporating patterns, achieved through manipulation of contrasting woods and veneers.
“With no single definitive style, I take my inspiration from both the natural world and our industrial heritage,” says Richard. “My portfolio includes pieces with a traditional feel and those with more of a contemporary look. At all times my objective is to produce an exquisite piece of furniture.”
In focus tomorrow: Toni Mayner, jewellery; Kimbal Bumstead, painting; Duncan Lomax, photography; Moira Craig, printmaking; Jo Rodwell, mixed media, and John Hollington, wood.
A sample of Kate Semple’s work as she makes her York Open Studios debut
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 starts today with Laural Duval, Mandi Grant, Amanda Allmark, Marie Murphy, Poppy O’Rourke and Kate Semple.
Laura Duval in her studio
Laura Duval, mixed media, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York
ARTIST, designer and metalsmith Laura specialises in ceramics and metalwork, using copper as her first choice, although she does utilise silver too.
“I create bowls, cutlery, serving utensils, tableware, and other decorative items with the hope that my work will not only be admired, but also be used in the everyday, to create a sense of occasion,” she says. “All my creations are handmade one-of-a-kind pieces; no two pieces will ever be exactly the same.”
Mandi Grant in her studio at South Bank Studios
Mandi Grant, painting, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York
INSPIRED by the architectural features of York buildings, the lush vegetation of allotments and livestock, Mandi creates lyrical paintings of shapes, colours and textures in combinations of oil, acrylic and wax painting techniques.
She has enjoyed a long and career in a tertiary college’s lively art department, teaching A-level and pre-degree foundation courses in art and design.
Mandi has embraced the challenges of combining her studies of fashion and textiles with taking a degree course in fine art painting and printmaking, encompassing the visual richness these subject areas afford.
Ceramicist Amanda Allmark
Amanda Allmark, ceramics, 70 Scott Street, York
EXHIBITING as part of the York College student showcase, Amanda’s ceramics are influenced by her life experiences and an ongoing mission to promote self-love, self-empowerment and our right, as human beings, to shine.
Drawing on a therapeutic background, she uses creativity to highlight human behaviours and emotions, encouraging awareness with a combination of words and illustration on the ceramic surface.
Have Courage Dear Heart, by Amanda Allmark
She handcrafts her contemporary ceramics by working with form and visual language, her pieces being at once impactful and playful and marked by beautifully burnished surfaces.
“The subtle colours and feminine lines of my designs work in contrast with strong and empowered messages,” she says.
Textile artist Marie Murphy: “Mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour”
Marie Murphy, textiles, 38 Scarcroft Road, York
MARIE set up her textiles studio in 2019 with a focus on illustration and surface pattern design. Her modern and bold homeware and stationery combine a love of geometric art, architecture, print and embroidery.
“My work could be described as a mix of mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour,” she says. “Designs and paintings begin as ideas in a sketchbook, as line drawings or the use of bold blocks of colours. These are then translated into paintings and illustrations.”
Those paintings and illustrations then form the basis for Marie’s digital patterns, prints and embroideries, influenced by such artist and designers as Bridget Riley, John Pawson and Anni Albers.
Poppy O’Rourke: Feminist-inspired artwork
Poppy O’Rourke, illustration, 13 East Mount Road, York
SELF-TAUGHT artist Poppy works in a variety of media to create feminist- inspired artwork, spanning digital illustration, painting and mixed media.
Poppy, who moved to York from Brighton in 2017 to study, favours intense colour and bold, minimalist designs, as seen in her Wonky Women series that aims to depict the female form in all its uneven beauty.
In her latest work, she experiments with colour and text to create unique designs centred around feminist quotes.
Share The Knowledge, Multiply The Power, by Poppy O’Rourke
Kate Semple, illustration, painting, ceramics, 13 East Mount Road, York
KATE has worked in the creative industry for 30 years, her experience ranging from special-effects painting in the film industry to designing and styling for editorial and working as a freelance Illustrator.
Since leaving London 19 years ago, she has created art, illustration and graphics for a variety of clients from her home studio in a wonky old Victorian house in York, where she also loves working in 3D, hand-building ceramic sculptures.
Kate Semple hand-building a ceramic sculpture
“I’ve drawn on recent personal experiences to create a new body of work that explores different mediums, whether ceramics, printmaking or drawing on both paper and clay,” says Kate, who is having a kiln installed in her garden shed
In 2022, Kate will be revisiting her Map Of York, first created in lockdown in 2020. Look out too for the illustration-led branding work she has done for Flori Bakery, in Nunnery Lane, spanning packaging, colouring books, tote bags, T-shirts and cards.
A constant stream of work for Kate is illustrating buildings, not least for the boutique hotel chain Guest House Hotels, both in York and Bath. She also created three paintings for a range of merchandise in the Ryedale Folk Museum shop in Hutton-le-Hole.
In focus tomorrow: Carol Douglas, painting; Anthea Peters, jewellery; Derek Gauld, landscape printmaking; Phil Bixby, photography; Jacqueline Warrington, jewellery; and Richard Frost, furniture.
BalletBoyz Deluxe: 20th anniversary tour visits the Grand Opera House…in the company’s 22nd year
MICHAEL Nunn and William Trevitt are marking the 20th anniversary of their BalletBoyz dance company with the bold, beautiful and boisterous BalletBoyz Deluxe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on April 11.
Six extraordinary young dancers feature in this explosion of mesmeric dance, fused with the witty, distinctive BalletBoyz use of film and behind-the-scenes content.
Cheekily original and innovative, BalletBoyz have blended music and film with achingly beautiful dance, both exhilarating and graceful in its style, since forming in 2000.
Deluxe features work by Shanghai dancer-choreographer Xie Xin, of TAO Dance Theatre, in her UK debut with composer Jiang Shaofeng, and Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle in collaboration with jazz musician and composer Cassie Kinoshi, from the Mercury Prize-nominated SEED Ensemble.
Nunn, 52, and Trevitt, 50, say: “It’s such a thrill to be challenged in the studio, to find new ways of expressing an idea and to learn new techniques. For Deluxe, we wanted to find new voices to develop and work with the BalletBoyz dancers.
“Maxine Doyle and Xie Xin are taking the work of the company in new directions, more physical, more thought provoking, and an opportunity to reach new audiences.
“We have always thrived on the thrill of new collaborations and that urge still shapes our creative decisions. The point of being a repertoire company, and not choreographer-led, is precisely to be able to change direction, take risks on fresh ideas, discover new voices and reveal unexpected outcomes. Despite doing this for more than 20 years, we never want to settle for more of the same.”
Reflecting on their creative longevity, Nunn says: “We made a pact about 25 years ago that we would only work with each other. It’s a strength to work as a partnership. You give something away that somebody else holds for you. I think if that wasn’t there it would collapse somehow.
“I think we’re braver, because there are two of us. It’s much easier to take a huge risk, both financially and artistically, if you are doing it with someone else.”
Tickets for the 7.30pm show are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
TWO Big Egos In A Small Car culture-vulture podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson reflect on drummer Bobby Elliot still keeping time for The Hollies, defying stiffened fingers as the legendary Manchester hitmakers bring their 60th anniversary tour to York Barbican this spring.
Up for discussion too in Episode 83 are stubborn Covid’s unceasing impact on the live arts; Michael Bracewell’s London 80s’ and 90s’ scene book, Souvenir; U2’s Achtung Baby at 30 and Ed Sheeran’s copyright case.
Dr Maximillian Elliot: Organ recital at St Chad’s Church
ORGANIST Dr Maximillian Elliott will give the next Dementia Friendly Tea Concert at St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, on April 29.
Max is assistant director of music at St Olave’s Church and All Saints Church, North Street, as well as being the diocesan organ advisor with Robert Sharpe.
“As usual, the format for Max’s recital will be about 45 minutes of classical music followed by tea, coffee and homemade cakes, with a chance to chat,” says co-organiser Alison Gammon.
“The event is a relaxed concert, ideal for people who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, so we do not mind if the audience wants to talk or move about!
“Seating is unreserved and there’s no charge, although donations are welcome. We give the hire cost to the church and the rest goes to Alzheimer’s charities.”
Dates for the monthly series of Thursday concerts are in the diary up to Christmas, all starting at 2.30pm: May 19, Isobel Parsons, cello, and Robert Gammon, piano; June 16, Peter and Julia Harrison, flute and poetry reading; July 21, Hannah Feehan, guitar; August 25, Robert Gammon.
Then come: September 15, Flauti Felice, flute ensemble; October 20, Billy Marshall, French horn, and Robert Gammon, piano; November 17, Giocoso Ensemble, wind group; December 8, Ripon Resound Choir.
The church has wheelchair access via the church hall. A small car park is complemented by on-street parking along Campleshon Road, “but it can get busy, so do allow plenty of time,” forewarns Alison. “We hope you will be able to come to the concerts, where it’s lovely to see new faces along with the regulars.”
DebutantYork Open Studios automata artist Philip Wilkinson in his Burton Stone Lane studio
YORK Open Studios returns with two weekends of creativity and colour on April 2, 3, 9 and 10 from 10am to 5pm each day.
After a temporary switch to July last year, the event resumes its more familiar spring slot for 2022, when 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”.
The range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art.
As with every year, new artists – 30 in total – dovetail with regulars, enabling visitors to see new work by their favourites and discover innovative work by emerging artists and those new to York Open Studios. In keeping with past years, artists have been handpicked by a panel of art professionals to keep the line-up fresh and diverse.
York Open Studios artist and co-organiser Beccy Ridsdel
Beccy Ridsdel, one of the organisers and an artist in her own right, says: “We are thrilled to bring to this ever popular, two-weekend event to York and welcome visitors and the residents of York to enjoy and buy art in our usual time slot of April.
“Last year, our 20th year, was a special celebration and we recognise that after two years of restrictions on our lives, our visitors are more than delighted to get out and about enjoying all that York Open Studios brings.
“Our artists too are really looking forward to sharing their work. Our weekends may have been 21 years in the making, yet 2022 allows us to introduce even more talent to York. We look forward to welcoming everyone to one of the country’s premier arts events.”
Mixed-media eco-artist Lisa Lundqvist: Showing her work in her garden studio at 55 Green Lane, Acomb
A key aim of the York Open Studios team is to support and work closely with developing artists or those new to making creativity their career. Working with York College University Centre and York St John University, the York Open Studios committee has selected several undergraduates for the Student Showcase.
Among them will be Laetitia Newcomb, whose sculptural ceramics are influenced by her time in Africa and her home in Yorkshire, and Shannon Vertigan, whose installation art homes in on the theme of home.
Last year’s interactive map went down so well that visitors can access such a map again via the yorkopenstudios.co.uk website. Alternatively, a free printed directory is available from various tourist hubs and artist locations throughout York and beyond.
York Open Studios 2022 will have a preview evening on April 1 from 6pm to 9pm. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating.
Martin Roscoe: “Let’s his fingers do the talking. They are certainly eloquent“
PIANISTS do not come much more deceptive than Martin Roscoe, who closed the British Music Society of York’s season with this recital of Schubert, Brahms and Liszt.
He goes against convention by using a score – no harm in that, especially if you consult it as little as he did. Having walked unassumingly to the keyboard, he plays without fuss or histrionics. In other words, he lets his fingers do the talking. They are certainly eloquent.
Although Schubert’s second set of impromptus, D.935, was not published until 11 years after his death, he had presented them as a foursome to his publisher (who, incredibly, rejected them). There is no suggestion that they are the movements of a sonata, but there is undeniably a feeling that they are related – for one thing, the first and fourth are in the same key, F minor. Certainly, I have never felt them to be so closely linked as they sounded here.
There was an understated elegance in Roscoe’s approach. He unfolded the opening Allegro moderato gently, melting smoothly from the minor to the major key and back again. There was a touch more emphasis in the second, marked Allegretto.
The ‘Rosamunde’ variations were beautifully contrasted: the three different voices in the second variation, for example, emerged with lovely clarity. The sense of impromptu, essentially improvisation, was kindled most keenly in the final dance, especially in the link to the return of the main theme.
The three Brahms intermezzi, Op 117, which are late, autumnal pieces, emerged as if they were the composer’s innermost thoughts, at once intimate and revealing. A lovely cantabile flow permeated the first, while it was the inner voices of the more sombre second that gleamed to the surface in turn. The syncopations of the third, which might have felt more restless, were not allowed to disrupt its serenity.
Petrarch’s Sonnet 104 finds the poet in a confused state over a burning love affair. Liszt’s reaction to it was first to set it as a song and then, more famously, to transcribe that into a piano piece, which appears in the Italian volume of his Years of Pilgrimage. Roscoe treated its harmonies tenderly, as if aware that the topic was sensitive, and it unfolded logically to its bitter-sweet close.
In both the remaining Liszt pieces, there must have been plenty of temptation to treat the piano as an orchestra; Liszt piles on the pressure relentlessly. Roscoe resisted. Isolde’s Love-Death, his transcription of the closing scene from Wagner’s Tristan Und Isolde, reached a passionate but controlled climax, with the lovers finally achieving satisfaction together after death.
Even more orchestral was St Francis’s triumphant walk on the waves, its rushing, stormy figurations not disrupting the relentless flow. Here we had the only out-and-out fortissimo of the evening. After that, a quiet Beethoven Bagatelle seemed the perfect antidote as encore. An evening of impeccable taste and considerable virtuosity.
Quick step: Jake Quickenden as dancing cowboy Willard in Footloose The Musical at York Theatre Royal
FROM Holding Out For A Hero to Search For The Hero, Charles Hutchinson is on a quest to find heroic deeds and much else to entertain you.
Musical of the week: Footloose at York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday
DANCING On Ice champ Jake Quickenden rides into York as cowboy Willard and musicals stalwart Darren Day plays Reverend Moore in Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose The Musical.
Reprising the 1984 film’s storyline, teenage city boy Ren is forced to move to the rural American backwater of Bomont, where dancing and rock music are banned. Taking matters into his own hands, soon he has all hell breaking loose around him and the whole town on its feet.
The set design, by the way, is by Sara Perks, who designed York Theatre Royal’s open-air show Around The World In 80 Days last summer and Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre productions in York. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Reunited: EastEnders soap stars Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett in the chilling thriller Looking Good Dead
Thriller of the week: Looking Good Dead, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday
AFTER playing bickering husband and wife Ian and Jane Beale in EastEnders for years and years, Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett are re-uniting, this time on stage in Shaun McKenna’s stage adaptation of Peter James’s thriller Looking Good Dead.
No good deed goes unpunished in this story of Woodyatt’s Tom Bryce inadvertently witnessing a vicious murder, only hours after finding a discarded USB memory stick.
Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to face while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryces’ lives. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Writer, journalist and historian Simon Jenkins: Appearing at York Literature Festival
Festival event of the week: York Literature Festival presents Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals with Simon Jenkins, St Peter’s School, Clifton, York, tonight, 7pm
FOR Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals, former editor of the Evening Standard and The Times Simon Jenkins has travelled the continent, from Chartres to York, Cologne to Florence, Toledo to Moscow, to illuminate old favourites and highlight new discoveries.
Tonight he discusses the book’s exploration of Europe’s history, the central role of cathedrals in the European imagination and the stories behind these wonders. Box office: yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk.
That Old Devil Moon, by Richard Kitchen, from Navigators Art’s Moving Pictures exhibition at City Screen Picturehouse
Exhibition of the week: Navigators Art in Moving Pictures, City Screen Picturehouse café and first-floor gallery, until April 15
FROM December’s ashes of the Piccadilly Pop Up Collective studios and gallery in the old York tax office, Navigators Art have re-emerged for a spring exhibition at City Screen.
For their first post-lockdown project, founder Navigators Steve Beadle and Richard Kitchen have invited fellow artist and teacher Timothy Morrison to join them for Moving Pictures: From Fan Art To Fine Art.
“The title is deliberately ambiguous, and we’ve responded to it accordingly,” says Richard. “There are works that relate to cinema and other media but also many of which interpret ‘Moving’ in other ways.”
BC Camplight: Examining madness and loss at The Crescent, York
Rearranged York gig of the week: BC Camplight, supported by Wesley Gonzales, The Crescent, York, Thursday, 7.30pm
MOVED from March 10, BC Camplight’s gig in York highlights the final chapter of his “Manchester trilogy”, Shortly After Takeoff.
“This is an examination of madness and loss,” says BC, full name Brian Christinzio. “I hope it starts a long overdue conversation.”
Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, Shortly After Takeoff follows 2018’s Deportation Blues and 2015’s How To Die In The North in responding to BC’s move from his native Philadelphian to Manchester. Cue singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and Fifties’ rock’n’roll. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola de Lesseps and George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Shakespeare In Love. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
York premiere of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Shakespeare In Love, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 9
LEE Hall’s 2014 stage adaptation of Shakespeare In Love, the Oscar-winning film written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, celebrates the joys of theatre in Pick Me Up’s first show of 2022.
Directed by Mark Hird, it recounts the love story of struggling young playwright Will Shakespeare (George Stagnell) and feisty, free-thinking noblewoman Viola de Lesseps (Sanna Jeppsson), who helps him overcome writer’s block and becomes his muse.
Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola blossoms, inspiring him to write Romeo And Juliet. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Heather Small: Proud moment at York Barbican
Voice of the week: Heather Small, York Barbican, April 2, 7.30pm
BILLED as “The voice of M People”, soul singer Heather Small will be combining songs from her Nineties’ Manchester band with selections from her two solo albums.
As part of M People, she chalked up hits and awards with Moving On Up, One Night In Heaven and Search For The Hero and the albums Elegant Slumming, Bizarre Fruit and Fresco. The title track of her Proud album has since become a staple at multiple ceremonies.
At 57, she will never be one to rest on her laurels: “If you got the feeling I do when I sing, you’d understand,” she reasons. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Steven Jobson (Jekyll/Hyde) gets to grips with Matthew Ainsworth (Simon Stride) in rehearsals as York Musical Theatre Company director Matthew Clare looks on
Book early for: York Musical Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 25 to 28
FLOOR rehearsals are well under way for York Musical Theatre Company’s spring production under the direction of Matthew Clare, who is delighted by how the cast is responding and supporting each other.
The epic struggle between good and evil in Jekyll & Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of myth and mystery on London’s fog-bound streets, comes to stage life in Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s pop-rock musical, where love, betrayal and murder lurk at every chilling twist and turn.
YMTC are running an early bird discount ticket offer with the promo code of JEKYLL22HYDE when booking at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk by April 10.
