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What would you do if you found Bram Stoker’s original version of Dracula? James Gaddas wrote an obsessive one-man show

James Gaddas: Getting his teeth stuck into Dracula’s story

THIS is the story of Bad Girls, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks actor James Gaddas happening upon Bram Stoker’s original handwritten manuscript of Dracula.

He duly reads of strange encounters in the Count’s castle in Transylvania, his ghostly arrival on a ship of death off the coast of Whitby, his midnight seductions, and a heroic pursuit across Europe in a race against the setting of the sun.

So far, so familiar, but this document contains pages never published, leading Gaddas to a terrifying discovery, one that he shares with the Grand Opera House audience in York on Monday (21/2/2022) in his solo show Dracula – One Man’s Search For The Truth.

“What if everything we thought we knew was just the beginning? What if it’s not a work of fiction but a warning? What if the legend is real?” ponders James, who will bring the original version to life before sharing his discovery in a performance with one actor, 15 characters and one monumental decision. “Are some things better left unburied,” he must discern.

Are you telling the “truth” in this adaptation, James? “It’s more like Boris Johnson’s ‘truth’,” he says. “It’s conjecture. It’s a way of being able to do a one-man version of Dracula without just concentrating on the end.”

Born in Teesside, James recalls Dracula being the first horror film he saw when he was only 11. “I was staying with my grandparents,” he recalls. “I went to bed, but being typically adventurous, I tiptoed downstairs, turned on the telly, and there it was: Dracula, starring Peter Cushing.”

Gaddas, now 61, initially had the chance to appear in Dracula with a small-scale theatre company in Bath 40 years ago when training at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. “I was going to do it, but then I got offered work for my Equity Card, and there was nothing for me in doing Dracula as it was a non-Equity production,” he says.

The idea of doing his own Dracula show first came after watching programmes about searching for lost Second World War treasure. “You watch, knowing from the start they won’t find anything, and they still haven’t after an hour, with all those looks to the camera, but it made me think, ‘wouldn’t it be fascinating to find Stoker’s original version of Dracula?’.

Gaddas was duly asked to voice one of those “lost treasures” investigations into the roots of Stoker’s manuscript, taking him to Romania, where he travelled around Dracula country with a film crew and director in jeeps. “But then something goes wrong with the filming and we have to come back to England,” he says.

Whereupon he took up the role of abusive care-home worker Cormac Ranger in Hollyoaks, shooting episodes sporadically in 2020 and 2021. “I was doing Hollyoaks when lockdown started, so I was left kicking my heels and started looking further into the Stoker story, deciding to write my adaptation in lockdown in London,” says James.

“The idea is that Stoker had been asked by Van Helsing to put this genuine document in book form and I then take it upon myself to take up that story – and by trying to tell it like an investigative journalist, it allows you to play with how Stoker had everything flying around all over the place – the timelines, the newspaper cuttings, the journals – when he was writing the book.

The poster, blood-red writing and all, for James Gaddas’s Dracula – One Man’s Search For The Truth

“In my show, the search for the truth becomes an obsession, and that psychological side of a story is such a strong part of a solo show.”

Gaddas previously wrote a solo play in Australia in 1989 called Shadow Boxing. “It was about a gay boxer,” he says. “It came about when this actor, David Field, said, ‘write me a one-man show’, and his dad had been a boxer. That play was revived on an Arts Council tour over here two years ago.”

Gaddas knew what form his Dracula show should take. “Doing such a classic piece, I wanted to get away from just standing there enunciating the book,” he says. “We’ve come to the point where we expect Dracula to be a comedy, whereas really it isn’t. It’s much more like Nosferatu, rooted in Eastern European ideology, while playing with what happens to someone when sense ends and obsession begins. It’s that archetypal thing where an obsession can take over.”

He may be performing on his own, but he has an impressive production team that has created the show with him, led by director Pip Minnithorpe, UK associate director of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.

Illusion design is by John Bulleid, who provided the Olivier Award-winning illusions for The Worst Witch, and Deborah Radin has provided the movement direction.

The show’s original music is by composer and Downton Abbey and Ted Lasso actor Jeremy Swift. “I’ve known Jez since he was 11, when we were at school together,” says James.

“He’s always had a love of music, and we’d write songs together; he’d write the tunes, I’d write the lyrics. Anyway, we were on this walk on Hampstead Heath, when he said, ‘what are you doing in lockdown?’, and I told him I was writing a one-man play. ‘Would you like me to write the music?’ he said.”

Tomorrow, Gaddas will be playing no fewer than 15 characters. “It’s slightly easier than when I did Billy Bishop Goes To War, a [John MacLachlan Gray ] musical about a Canadian First World War flying ace, where I had to play 23 characters – and I didn’t get to choose those characters, but here, for Dracula, I could.”

As the interview draws to a close, Gaddas offers a final thought on Stoker’s sense of drama in his writing. “Today, he would probably have been writing episodes for Coronation Street,” he says. Imagine that.

James Gaddas in Dracula – One Man’s Search For The Truth, Grand Opera House, York, February 21, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

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Sonita Gale delighted by response to immigration documentary as Hostile draws full house to City Screen show and Q&A

Dashka Varsani, filmed for Hostile when her Community Response Kitchen faced closure in the pandemic

SONITA Gale’s British immigration documentary Hostile played to a capacity audience at City Screen, York, on Tuesday evening.

Made during the pandemic, with contributions from George The Poet and composer Nitin Sawhney, her debut film highlights the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities.

Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the feature-length documentary reveals the impact of the evolving “hostile environment”.

“This is the term used by the British government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord,” says Sonita, who was born in Wolverhampton into a working-class migrant family from India.

Hostile explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.

The stakes are high. An NHS IT engineer has spent tens of thousands of pounds on visa applications and is still waiting for settled status. A member of the Windrush generation has not recovered from detainment due to a lack of paperwork, in what came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. International students, now destitute, face deportation, and community organisers are struggling to feed these vulnerable communities without government support.

Anthony Bryan, who features in the Windrush detainment story in Hostile

Archival footage is used by Gale to depict the history of the British Empire, as well as charting the UK’s immigration policies over recent years to illuminate how we arrived at the situation we are in today.

“After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point,” says Sonita. “With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, the film asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?”

That question was among those addressed by Sonita in a question-and-answer session hosted by CharlesHutchPress editor Charles Hutchinson, who opened out the discussion to the audience for further questions and comments, not least from Paul Wordsworth, co-ordinator of York City of Sanctuary.

Since 2016, this charity has played a vital role in supporting and welcoming people who come to York – the  UK’s first Human Rights City – seeking a new life.

“More than ever we need to work together to help people fleeing war, persecution, poverty and climate change,” says the charity’s website. “The necessary steps of financing specialised legal help, finding accommodation and work, plus education and language support, are just a few of the ways in which we lead.”

Reflecting on Tuesday’s screening and Q&A, Sonita says: “What a special evening for me. The evening was a sell-out and we had a very engaged audience. Questions were around legislation, bills, accountability and where we are heading. There was a genuine positive feeling that progression is ahead if we collectively come together.

Kill The Bill protestors in Hostile

“We were asked by older audience members how they could see Hostile on the TV and when it would be out as they want their families to see it. People also spoke of their own experiences, which was very heartfelt.”

Sonita reports screenings continuing to sell out across the country. “Please check out our ticket page at www.hostiledocumentary.com/tickets to see when there’s a screening near you,” she advises.


“They will continue until the end of March, and then the ‘impact tour’ begins for Hostile across April, May and June. We’re really hoping for a broadcast deal soon to continue to get these stories out there.”

What is the Hostile Environment?

“The UK Home Office’s hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may ‘voluntarily leave’,” says Sonita. “The term was coined in 2012 by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May.

“Since 2010, the Government has launched a wave of attacks on the human rights of undocumented people – meaning people who can’t prove they have a right to live in the UK.

“The idea is to make life in the UK as unbearable as possible for migrants by blocking access to public services and pushing them into extreme poverty. Under the hostile environment, employers, landlords, NHS staff and other public servants have to check your immigration status before offering people a job, housing, healthcare or other support.”

Hands united in protest in Hostile
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‘There are so few plays that feature a woman like this,’ says Woman In Mind director Angie Millard. ‘Hedda Gabler and that’s it.’ Meet Alan Ayckbourn’s Susan

Victoria Delaney and Neil Vincent shelter under an umbrella in a February rehearsal for the Settlement Players’ production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind. Picture: John Saunders

ANGIE Millard has directed myriad plays but “seemed to have avoided” Alan Ayckbourn…until now.

“The present climate of isolation and mental health issues led me to Woman In Mind, which is a perfect choice for this time,” she says, ahead of her York Settlement Community Players production opening on Saturday in the York Theatre Royal Studio.

One of 87 full-length works by the Scarborough playwright, 1985’s Woman In Mind’s portrait of a woman in the verge finds housewife Susan stuck, unfulfilled and neglected in her humdrum marriage.

As played by Victoria Delaney, who remains on stage throughout, Susan’s growing disillusionment with everyday life is brought to a head when she steps on a garden rake and is knocked unconscious.

Whereupon her minor concussion and hallucinations combine to surround Susan with the ideal fantasy family, handsomely dressed in tennis whites as they sip champagne. However, when her real and imaginary worlds collide, those fantasies take on a nightmarish life of their own in Ayckbourn’s hotbed of humour and pathos.

“You can see Ayckbourn’s plays over and over again and still see something new in them each time; they’re so rich in detail,” says Angie. “I love Woman In Mind, and I’m working with very talented and creative people who make every rehearsal a joy, though the problem we’ve faced is the limited amount of time we’ve had to rehearse.

“We’ve been doing just three hours on Sundays, two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, with the Mondays for intensive sessions for the two-hander scenes, followed by a week in tech.

Victoria Delaney: On stage from start to finale in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind

“You need the time to explore the lines, to find the humour, to bring a light touch to it, as it’s that subtle, offhand way that Ayckbourn has in his writing.”

Explaining her reasoning behind selecting Woman In Mind, Angie says: “Because of Susan. I feel there are so few plays that feature a woman like this. Hedda Gabler and that’s it.

“That’s important now in a society where people are having mental health problems – and Susan has massive mental health problems. The pandemic has also thrown up an increased awareness of isolation and of not being happy in a relationship, which has been exacerbated in the lockdowns.”

Angie notes how Susan’s husband Gerald, busy writing his magnus opus on the history of the parish, “doesn’t know how to deal with Susan”. “Men in Ayckbourn’s plays rarely do. It’s a position they take where, over the years, they slide away from their responsibilities in relationships or in their workplace, and that’s rarely something women get to do,” she says.

“But this is where Ayckbourn is really clever, because you also see Susan for who she is. You ask yourself, ‘why did she marry him?’. When Gerald asks, ‘what did I do wrong?’, she says, ‘’Married me’.

“Yes, he’s let her down, he’s a disappointment, but marriages are about a contract and a bargain. It’s about acceptance.” 

Putting Susan’s character on the psychiatrist’s couch, Angie says: “Most people who end up unwell mentally have an addiction, though with Susan, I can’t attribute an addiction to her, except an addiction to perfection.

York Settlement Community Players’ poster for Woman In Mind

“If you’re classically depressed, it’s because the world doesn’t see you as you see yourself, but you have to get over that and not see yourself as so important.”

Victoria Delaney will be joined in Millard’s cast by company stalwarts Chris Pomfrett, Paul Toy, Helen Wilson and Paul French and newcomers Frankie-Jo Anderson, Neil Vincent and Amy Hall in Settlement Players’ first Theatre Royal production since Chekhov’s The Seagull in pre-Covid March 2020.

“This is the first role I’ve done since Covid started,” says Victoria. “My last one was in a play I wrote myself, Mad Alice, in October 2019, and my plan at the time was to start my own company, do a Yorkshire tour and then maybe take it to the Edinburgh Fringe, but then the pandemic happened and it just wasn’t possible. I’ll wait for things to settle down and then I can return to that plan or more writing.

“So, when I saw the casting call-out for Woman In Mind, I jumped at it. I did my research and requested to audition for two roles, Susan and Muriel, as I love comedy and I would have loved to play Muriel too, but what a peach of a part Susan is.”

Victoria initially took a break from her professional acting career after her divorce to focus on being a single mum with an autistic son – who will turn 20 in the summer – and she now works remotely from home giving legal advice on Zoom to families with special educational needs up to the age of 25.

Her acting and writing come into play when the opportunity arises.  “But in my work, I do also sometimes have to think creatively about how the law might get over a problem,” she says.

Rehearsing for an Ayckbourn play has been such a stimulating challenge. “It’s a comedy but it’s a dark comedy, which means I can show lots of sides to Susan. There are moments where I can play the comedy; moments where she’s really vulnerable, or indignant, or annoyed,” says Victoria.

“I’m going to really miss her because she takes you over,” says Victoria Delaney of playing housewife Susan in Woman In Mind. Here she is pictured by John Saunders, masked up in the rehearsal studio

“There’s just so much to her character, and because I never leave the stage, I get to interact with so many characters. I’m going to really miss her because she takes you over. I’ve been called for every rehearsal because Susan is in every scene, and as I have to go through so many emotions, I then need to let those emotions , that adrenaline, seep away.”

To learn all those lines, “I’ve been walking around the village, doing laps at 6am, listening to the play,” says Victoria, who lives in Wheldrake.

She finds liberation in playing a character of such emotional contrasts. “I’ll say things on stage that I would never say myself. Things that I would consider rude. I’d have too many filters to go through to say them!” she says.

“But the absolute drug of acting is to be able to show the audience all these emotions, this sadness, and when you feel them connect with you, I love that connection.

“I’ve meet lot of actors that have a certain shyness about them in their own lives. I mask it, but I have a shy side, and when people say, ‘but you go out on stage’, I say, ‘yes, but I’m playing someone else and I love doing that’.”

As chance would have it, when facing such a demanding week ahead, “luckily the performances are over half-term”, says Victoria, breathing a little more easily at the prospect.

York Settlement Community Players in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind, York Theatre Royal Studio, Saturday until February 26, except February 20; 7.45pm plus 2.45pm, February 26. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Robert Plant’s Saving Grace to play Grand Opera House. Tickets go on sale tomorrow

Saving Grace with Robert Plant and Suzi Dian out front on vocals

SAVING Grace, the folk-blues co-operative led by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, will play the Grand Opera House, York, on April 16.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 9.30am at atgtickets.com/York, gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.

Singer and lyricist Plant, now 73, will be joined on the April and May tour by Suzi Dian (vocals), Oli Jefferson (percussion), Tony Kelsey (mandolin, baritone, acoustic guitar), and Matt Worley (banjo, acoustic, baritone guitars, cuatro).

Premiered by Plant in February 2019 in a gig near the English-Welsh border, Saving Grace’s repertoire is “inspired by the dreamscape of the Welsh Marches”

Plant and co had been booked to headline the Platform Festival at The Old Station, Pocklington, in July 2020 until the pandemic intervened.

Saving Grace will perform further Yorkshire gigs this spring at Hull City Hall on April 14 and Halifax Victoria Theatre on April 26. Bookings can be made atgigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.

Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Scott Matthews will be the support act. He last released an album, New Skin, in 2020, followed by his 2021 EP, Distant Flashing Light.

Meanwhile, tickets for comedian Michael McIntyre’s hastily arranged Work In Progress gig at the Grand Opera House on February 28 sold out within two hours of going on sale on Tuesday morning.

Michael McIntyre: New material on trial in York on February 28
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Showtime for Anton and Erin as Strictly duo celebrate Fred, Ginger, Chaplin and Elton

Terpsichorean twirlers Anton du Beke and Erin Boag toast their return to the dancefloor in their first tour since early 2020

LONGSTANDING, long-dancing ballroom couple Anton du Beke and Erin Boag are reunited in Showtime at York Barbican tomorrow night (18/2/2022).

After a fallow 2021, when the pandemic put paid to their tour plans, the Strictly Come Dancing alumni have been on the road since January 28 this winter, playing 30 dates that will take in further shows in Yorkshire at Hull New Theatre on February 22 and 23.

“Not only 2021 was lost,” says Strictly judge Anton. “We lost shows in 2020 as well; we were into the last week of our tour, when were going to play York and then go onto Scotland, so it’s been a while since we danced together.”

Sevenoaks-born Anton, 55, and New Zealander Erin, 46, are taking to the dance floor in Showtime, a “glittering tribute to some of the world’s greatest icons of entertainment”: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Liza Minelli, Elton John and more besides.

Glittering tribute: Anton and Erin are ready to dazzle in Showtime

Returning to dancing after sitting down through the 2021 series of Strictly on the judging panel, Anton says: “To be honest with you. it’s been like ‘wow, I only feel like I’m 28’ because there’s a lot of experience to fall back on.

“We did a few special shows at the back end of last year, like one night in Leeds, where we were only there to do a couple of numbers, and my biggest concern was ‘would the suit still fit’. It did! Then Erin asked, ‘would you do up my zip’, and her dress fitted perfectly too.”

Erin says: “I’m fit! There aren’t many dancers at my age still going strong, but I am, though I’m not the same [dancer] as I was 20 years ago – or even two years ago. But keeping fit is the easiest part. The hardest part is the technical side, but I’ve been really looking forward to the tour as I don’t think anyone will notice that!

“Maybe adrenaline can get you through the first few shows and the presence of an audience can do that too, as well as working with people again, performing with a big orchestra. It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again.”

“It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again,” says Erin Boag

Six months of preparation have gone into Showtime, a show produced by Raymond Gubbay that combines the dazzle of ballroom couple Anton and Erin with “stunning costumes, fabulous live vocals, a high-energy dance ensemble and a sensational 23-piece orchestra”.

“We have a new sound company working with us, great lighting and costumes,” says Anton. “When there has been no shows, it’s been so much more than Erin and me not being able to put on a show. No shows means no frocks, no work for sound engineers. That’s why it’s important that now that shows are back, the message is clear that people can feel safe to come into a theatre.

“It’s also important that people work harder to make the experience enjoyable, with venues going the extra mile. We get that venues need to be safe, but their job is to make it enjoyable within the safety guidelines. Don’t be officious, be welcoming!”

Anton And Erin in Showtime, York Barbican, tomorrow (18/2/2022), 7.30pm; Hull New Theatre, February 22 and 23, 7.30pm. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

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Kerouac Lives near Hebden Bridge…as spotted in Heath Common’s cabaret night

Heath Common: Jack Kerouac aficionado

IN Episode 77, Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson report on the Kerouac Lives cabaret show that reappraised the work of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

Under discussion too are John Rushton, D-Day hero, RIP; Harrogate duo The Paper Waits in hushed concert; Black Country, New Road’s sophomore album, and levelling up in the arts.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/10055233

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REVIEW: We Will Rock You, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

We Will Rock You, pictured on an earlier tour in 2019. The 2022 show comes re-booted with a state-of-the-art design

WE Will Rock You is “intriguing, challenging, achingly romantic, brutally cynical and at once both sad and hilarious,” says the futuristic Queen “rock theatrical’s” writer-director, Ben Elton.

It is also probably the daftest musical you will ever see. Even dafter on reacquaintance than when the flamboyant show visited Leeds Grand Theatre in 2011, the year it won the Most Popular Show prize at the Olivier Awards.

Thirty years since Freddie Mercury passed away at 45 – “too beautiful, too wild,” as Elton puts in his script – Queen still rule. On press night, there was not a spare seat to be had, setting the box-office pattern for the busy week ahead.

For its 20th anniversary touring production, Elton is back at the helm as director, adding changes and updates here and there to a plot that has gone from “science fiction to science fact” and is “more relevant than ever”, in the judgement of Queen guitarist Brian May.

A pre-show Elton recorded plea to “live in the freakin’ moment” (by putting away mobile phones) and two references to Covid go down particularly well, while the renaming of Planet Earth has moved on from Planet Mall to iPlanet in the age of Internet Gaga.

Astutely, musical advisor May had suggested: “The show needs to work in a theatrical context and retain the rock, while also incorporating the spectacle, uniqueness and humour embodied by Queen.”

This prompted Elton to consider how “legendary rock music should have a legendary context” as he riffed on tales from King Arthur to The Terminator: “heroic myths in which brave individuals take on the vast monolithic force of evil systems”.

Elton’s nutty narrative is duly set in a distant, dystopian, globalised future where iPlanet’s inhabitants dress and think identically and exist in a brain-dead cyberspace haze, like the Gaga High School pupils encouraged to spend day after day on the online drip-feed.

Rock music is banned, prompting a rebellious cluster, the tartan and leather-clad Bohemians, to fight against the all-powerful Global Soft company, its pantomime-baddie boss, the Killer Queen (Jenny O’Leary) and her henchman, Khashoggi (Adam Strong), the Malvolio party-pooper of the piece.

Two school outsiders, boy dreamer Galileo Figaro (Ian McKintosh) and bad-ass girl Scaramouche (Elena Skye), want to break free from all this bleak conformity, to join the Bohemian cause to restore freedom of expression and individuality (except for the audience, who are asked to refrain from singing except when instructed).

Ben Elton: Writer-director of the hit and myth musical We Will Rock You. Picture: Trevor Leighton

We Will Rock You builds that Orwellian story around a framework of readymade hits, like the Madness musical vehicle, Our House. In other words, it applies a back-to-front process, songs first, story second, as satirical humorist Elton sticks his tongue firmly in Queen’s already saucy cheek.

Combining lampoon and harpoon, he revels in a hoary plotline that sends up Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Sir Cliff Richard, Meat Loaf and corporate control of pop, throws in a love story and sexual innuendo, while finding endless routes/excuses to sing another of those Queen monoliths: 24 in total.

May’s fellow musical advisor, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, defines the musical as being silly, funny but making “quite a lot of serious points”. True, but Elton’s show rightly refuses to take itself seriously when making those points.

His dialogue is deliberately as clunky as a B-movie script and his knowing, debunking humour, full of in-jokes and Queen and rock-history references bounces off his characters, just as it does in Blackadder, The Young Ones and Upstart Crow.

Tim Blazdell’s set design and Stufish Entertainment Architects & Willie Williams’s  video production bring a state-of the-art pizzazz to the Queen hit parade, while also evoking the spirit of Flash Gordon and Return To The Forbidden Planet, aided by Kentaur’s costume and wig designs.

Zachary Flis’s band, up on the mezzanine level, relish the mock-operatic drama and sheer diversity of the Queen songbook, sung spectacularly by Elton’s company of colourful characters, as much in the tradition of Meat Loaf as Mercury.

No-one is afraid to throw the kitchen sink into shamelessly over-the-top performances, especially O’Leary’s belting Killer Queen and David Michael Johnson’s Brit, or to be hammy in the case of Strong’s Khashoggi.

Michael McKell’s motor-biking dude, Cliff, is the scene stealer; McIntosh’s Freddie and the dreamer combination of gorgeous voice and naivety are a joy throughout and Skye’s drop-dead goth attitude as Scaramouche is a killer.

Ultimately, silly and funny as it may be, We Will Rock You is all about those oh-so familiar songs being brought to fresh life by myriad knock-out voices, Far better to be done this way than in yet another tribute show.

P.S. Make sure to stay for the end, not the false end, to experience the fandango of a finale.

To join the ticket rush: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York

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The Ebor Singers wish you a merry Christmas…on Saturday. Here’s why…

Rachel Jerome: Harp soloist for The Ebor Singers’ concert on Saturday

MERRY Christmas from The Ebor Singers. In February? Yes, on Saturday, when the festive spirit will be breaking out at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York.

Let the York choir’s director, Paul Gameson, explain. “When we were first able to perform together late last year, it was to prepare for our regular Christmas concert of Britten’s A Ceremony Of Carols for choir and harp, but amid choir illness and rising Covid-19 cases in York, the performance was cancelled.

“Nevertheless, we have chosen this piece for our return to singing in public, our first concert since March 2020. While Britten’s work is synonymous with Christmas, a closer look at the texts suggests a more medieval interpretation of the word ‘carol’.”

Derived from the Old French word carole, it refers to a round of dancers, singing and holding hands. “Carols were not limited to Christmas and were not necessarily religious!” says Paul. “Britten’s work traces the story of Jesus’s birth from the Annunciation through to the Nativity and early childhood.

“So, nestled as it is between Christmas and Lent, this February performance celebrates the joy of Christ’s birth while anticipating his Passion, with music by Chilcott, Stopford, Howells and Holst alongside Britten. As this is our first public concert for two years, a little festive joy feels much needed!”

The Ebor Singers will be joined by harpist Rachel Jerome for the 7.30pm concert, billed as “A Rose in the Middle of Winter”. Tickets (£12, concessions £10, under-16s free) are on sale at eborsingers.org/currentevents and on the door.

The present Government Covid-guidance will apply, but The Ebor Singers also suggest that audience members wear masks.

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‘Britain has reached a crisis point’, as charted in Sonita Gale’s Hostile documentary on immigration at City Screen

The poster for Sonita Gale’s documentary Hostile, showing at City Screen, York, this evening

TICKETS are selling fast for this evening’s 5.55pm screening of Hostile, Sonita Gale’s documentary focusing on the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities. A question-and-answer session with the director will follow.

Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the feature-length film reveals the impact of the evolving “hostile environment”.

“This is the term used by the British government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord,” says Sonita.

Hostile explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.

The stakes are high. An NHS IT engineer has spent tens of thousands of pounds on visa applications and is still waiting for settled status. A member of the Windrush generation has not recovered from detainment due to a lack of paperwork, in what came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. International students, now destitute, face deportation, and community organisers are struggling to feed these vulnerable communities without government support.

Archival footage is used by Gale to depict the history of the British Empire as well as charting the UK’s immigration policies over recent years to illuminate how we arrived at the situation we are in today.

“After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point,” says Sonita. “With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, the film asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?”

What is the Hostile Environment?

“The UK Home Office’s hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may ‘voluntarily leave’,” says Sonita. “The term was coined in 2012 by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May.

“Since 2010, the Government has launched a wave of attacks on the human rights of undocumented people – meaning people who can’t prove they have a right to live in the UK.

“The idea is to make life in the UK as unbearable as possible for migrants by blocking access to public services and pushing them into extreme poverty. Under the hostile environment, employers, landlords, NHS staff and other public servants have to check your immigration status before offering people a job, housing, healthcare or other support.”

Tickets for Hostile are on sale at: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse. CharlesHutchPress editor Charles Hutchinson will host the Q&A.