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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 15, from Gazette & Herald

Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, set on a sinking ship, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Marc Brenner

HAMLET on a sinking ship, family politics on a calamitous wedding day and artists’ studios opening on two weekends are the headline acts on Charles Hutchinson’s latest bill of arts delights.

Titanic anniversary event of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7pm plus 1.30pm, April 16 and 2pm, April 18

LET director Rupert Goold introduce the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, starring Ralph Davis, as the tour sets sail for York on the 114th anniversary of the Titanic’s descent to the depths. “Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands,” he says.

“Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours, our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation. This production asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Wedded bliss amid wedding-day blisters: Darren Barrott’s Marek and Joy Warner’s Sylvia in York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down

Family politics of the week: York Actors Collective in Till The Stars Come Down, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm, tonight to Friday; 2pm and 6pm, Saturday

PREMIERED at the National Theatre in 2024 and now receiving its York premiere, Beth Steel’s contemporary British family drama is set on the wedding day of Sylvia and Marek in a South Yorkshire mining town.

Directed by Angie Millard, Till The Stars Come Down explores the tumultuous dynamics of a working-class family in a changing world of economic  decline and political shifts as long-held secrets, passions, and tensions surrounding class, immigration, and social change spill over into chaos and tragedy. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Aggers & Tuffers: The chatter of cricket and the clatter of wickets at York Barbican

Not just cricket: Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell in An Audience With Aggers & Tuffers, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm

TEST Match Special commentator-and-pundit duo Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell take to the road for more cricket chat from beyond the boundary. Former Leicestershire and England fast bowler and three-decade BBC cricket correspondent Aggers teams up anew with record-breaking former England spin bowler and crowd favourite Tuffers, who gives his spin on his maverick playing days and second wind as a media personality on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, Strictly Come Dancing and A Question Of Sport. Box office update: limited availability at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Patricia Veale School of Dance: Showcasing young talent in Show Dance

Dance show of the week: Patricia Veale School of Dance in Show Dance, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Friday, 7.30pm, and Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

IN an exciting celebration of dance, the Patricia Veale School of Dance showcases its talented dancers in their very first Show Dance, drawing inspiration from classic musicals on film  and Broadway, complete with top hats, flair and razzle-dazzle. Expect a vibrant mix of ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap and much more besides. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Rainey’s Revue: Evoking A Night In Harlem in….Helmsley

Jazz gig of the week: Rainey’s Revue: A Night In Harlem, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

LED by Richard Exall on tenor saxophone and clarinet and musical director Dom Barnett on piano, Rainey’s Revue presents meticulous arrangements of Ma Rainey’s songs while capturing the essence of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. 

Sam Kelly, on drums, and Marianne Windham, on double bass, set the rhythmic foundation for the enchanting voices of Chrissie Myles and Emily Windham, whose vocals evoke the jazz clubs of yesteryear. Box office: 01439 771700 or  helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club presents David Eagle, Anth Young and Nicola Mantalios, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

HILARITY Bites headliner David Eagle has performed on BBC Radio 2’s topical comedy series The Now Show, supports Boothby Graffoe on tour frequently and is one third of three-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning band The Young’uns. Being blind, his comedy often explores how his disability means the most ordinary, commonplace events are turned into surreal and convoluted dramas.

Fellow north eastern act Anth Young finished runner-up in the Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year competition in 2017 in York. Completing the bill, Greek-Geordie bisexual comedian Nicola Mantalios won the 2025 Funny Women Stage Awards, hosts weekend shows at Newcastle Stand and runs her own gigs, such as Queers and Beers, in Newcastle. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

The Rollin Stoned: Covering the hits and deeper cuts from The Rolling Stones’ 1960s’ catalogue at Milton Rooms, Malton

Tribute gig of the week: The Rollin Stoned, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 8pm

THE rock’n’roll circus rolls into Malton for a tribute to The Rolling Stones that focuses on the Brian Jones years from 1964 to 1969.  Now in its 27th year, in The Rollin Stoned show the costumes are shamelessly camp, gaudy and fabulous, the instruments vintage, the wit irreverent, the trademark tongue never far from the cheek, but never to the detriment of the music.

As Keith Richards’ late mother, Doris, once remarked of the line-up featuring Mick Jaguar, Byron Jones, Keith Retched, Bill Wymandy, Charlie Waits and pianist Nicky Popkins: “Phenomenal…I can’t wait to tell Keith and  Mick that you could easily stand in for them.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Prachi Bhatnagar: Making York Open Studios debut at her Ouse Lea studio in York

Art event of the month: York Open Studios, York and beyond, April 18 & 19 and April 25 & 26, 10am to 5pm

ARTISTS and makers involved in York Open Studios are putting the final touches to their workplaces and studios within York and a ten-mile radius of the city, in readiness to welcome visitors across two weekends.

This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular participant or the 27 newcomers, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.

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The Bard heads to the bar as Love’s Labours Lost hits Nineties’ club scene in Anna Gallon’s slice of nightlife for YSP

Cassi Roberts, left, Grace Scott and Vicky Hatt rehearsing for York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost. Picture: John Saunders

ANNA Gallon is directing York Shakespeare Project for the first time in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Shakespeare meets the 1990s’ club scene in an exciting new take on the Bard’s early comedy.

Her immersive production, set in the heat and heighted passions of urban nightlife, will run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from next Wednesday to Saturday as part of the 2026 York International Shakespeare Festival.

 “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Anna as our director,” says YSP chair Tony Froud. “She emerged from an outstanding group of applicants, since when she has brought energy and excitement into the rehearsal room. This promises to translate into a totally memorable and entertaining show.

“York is very fortunate to have so many outstanding young directors. This production will show Anna as a key member of that group.”

Anna is co-founder and artistic director of York theatre company Four Wheel Drive, perhaps best known for its 2023 production of The Trial Of Margaret Clitheroe in the Guildhall. She also appeared as Lucetta in YSP’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, directed by Tempest Wisdom in 2024.

Love’s Labours Lost director Anna Gallon: “I want this comedy of discipline versus desire to play out not in a palace, but in a bar, where vows are as fragile as your morals after one too many tequila shots,” she says

 “I’m thrilled to be directing Love’s Labour’s Lost for YSP,” she says. “It’s a dazzling, witty play about language, love and self-discovery – and I can’t wait to bring it to life in a way that feels vibrant and connected to the world we live in today.”

Set firmly in the here and now, Anna’s Love’s Labour’s Lost will re-imagine Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy of wit, wordplay, vows and romantic mischief on the nocturnal tiles. Her playful reinvention promises to mix verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly.

The King of Navarre and his three companions are re-imagined by Anna as the DJs who once ruled York’s club scene but have now renounced the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors.

However, when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, their solemn vows begin to unravel, as Anna explores with mischievous glee. “I want this comedy of discipline versus desire to play out not in a palace, but in a bar, where vows are as fragile as your morals after one too many tequila shots,” she says.

Ben Reeves Rowley: Progressing from Summer Sonnets to principal role in York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost. Picture: John Saunders

“My interpretation uses Shakespeare’s original language but finds playful, recognisable parallels for modern audiences: ageing players try to resist temptation, while nightlife culture collides with wellness culture and the irresistible force of love.”

As a key element of Anna’s production, the audience will find Theatre@41’s John Cooper Studio transformed from black box into a nightclub. “The bar setting will place Shakespeare into a familiar social space,” she says. “Instead of watching from a distance, theatregoers will find themselves inside the comedy: vows made across tables, love confessions unfolding on dance floors. It will be a shared night out for all.”

Anna’s cast features many faces familiar to York audiences, such as Ian Giles as Don Adriano de Armado, Tempest Wisdom as his page Moth, Harry Summers as Longaville and Nick Patrick Jones as Berowne, complemented by six actors new to YSP, Nason Crone’s Dumaine, Vicky Hatt’s Katherine, Helen Clarke’s Boyet, Elizabeth Duggan’s Costard, Stephen Huws’ Holofernes and Sarah McKeagney’s Sir Nathaniel.

Tony enthuses: “We are very excited that Anna’s production has attracted so many actors who are working with us for the first time. Only three of this cast appeared in our last show, Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, at Theatre@41 last October. It’s a very healthy and invigorating mix.

Ian Giles rehearsing the role of Don Adriano de Armado

“In a very strong cast, it’s particularly pleasing to YSP to see Grace Scott and Ben Reeves Rowley in the central parts of Rosaline and the King of Navarre. Both first appeared in our annual Summer Sonnets show and it’s great to see them progressing to major parts in a full production.”

Love’s Labours Lost is the latest staging post in York Shakespeare Project’s 25-year programme to perform all 37 plays, plus plays by his contemporaries, in innovative and engaging ways from 2023 to 2048. Coming next will be the autumn production of The Comedy Of Errors, Shakespeare’s shortest play, the chaotic one with two sets of identical twins separated at birth that accidentally end up in the same city.

More immediately, why should you see YSP’s Love’s Labours Lost? Let veteran cast member Ian Giles entice you: “Off the scale for daring entertainment, one of Shakespeare’s most verbal comedies is set in King’s Night Spot in 2005 with a soundtrack of Nineties and Noughties’ belters – what could possibly go wrong (or should that be right)? Come and find out.”

York Shakespeare Project presents Love’s Labour’s Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 22 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Tempest Wisdom’s Moth in rehearsal for Love’s Labours Lost

Who’s in the cast for York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost

BEN Reeves Rowley, Ferdinand, King of Navarre; Nick Patrick Jones, Berowne; Harry Summers, Longaville; Nason Crone*, Dumaine; Charlie Barrs, The Princess of France; Grace Scott, Rosaline; Cassi Roberts, Maria; Vicky Hatt*, Katherine; Helen Clarke*, Boyet; Ian Giles, Don Adriano de Armado; Tempest Wisdom, Moth; Elizabeth Duggan*, Costard; Stephen Huws*, Holofernes; Sarah McKeagney*, Sir Nathaniel; James Tyler, Dull/Marcade; Pearl Mollison, Jaquenetta, and David Lee, Forrester

* New to York Shakespeare Project

York Shakespeare Project’s mirror-ball poster for Love’s Labours Lost

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Royal Shakespeare Company sends Hamlet to the icy seas as Ian Hughes returns to York Theatre Royal 38 years since debut

Depths of despair: Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, docking at York Theatre Royal from April 14 to 18. Picture: Marc Brenner

THE Royal Shakespeare Company’s visit to York Theatre Royal with Rupert Goold’s production of Hamlet, set on a sinking ship, will coincide with the 114th anniversary of RMS Titanic’s demise on the night of April 14-15 in 1912.

Around 1,500 people perished at sea that night from the estimated 2,240 on board. Death stalks Shakespeare’s tragedy too, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, King Claudius and Hamlet himself joining his already dead father,  King Hamlet.

“Hamlet is a play about the inevitability of death:  the death of fathers, the death of kings, the mortality facing each and every one of us, but it is also a play about how to live, what makes a good life and a just one too, however brief our allotted time,” says Goold.

“Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands,” says Goold. “Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours, our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation. It’s a production that asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.”

Among those joining Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in Goold and revival director Sophie Drake’s touring cast in Shakespeare’s epic family drama of deceit and murder is Royal Shakespeare Company regular Ian Hughes in the roles of King Hamlet’s Ghost and the Player King.

From April 14 to 18, he will be returning to York Theatre Royal, 38 years since he made his professional debut in the 1988 pantomime Peter Pan, in the days when Frank Barrie played the dame. “Frank had made his debut there too in 1959 in Henry IV, Part 2, the play that marked my debut for the RSC in the 1990s – and I’ve  learned that Frank had played Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in [March] 1974,” says Ian.

Ian Hughes, front, in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet. Picture: Marc Brenner

“In another Yorkshire connection, Harrogate Theatre artistic director Andrew Manley saw me in Peter Pan and said afterwards, ‘do you fancy joining my Harrogate rep company?’. “I was a Kit Kat Girl in Cabaret; we also did Mrs Warren’s Profession, the regional premiere of Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money, Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On and the panto.

“Because I didn’t go to drama school, those Harrogate shows  with Andrew were effectively my  drama school after  starting with the Theatre Royal panto, when I played John Darling, the boy with the top hat and the round glasses – and we got to ‘fly’!

“The Theatre Royal was beautiful, and it was so lovely to play there, when Frank made me so welcome. He was marvellous, dry-humoured company with his wonderful anecdotes of who he had worked with as an actor from an earlier time, when he had performed with [Laurence] Olivier.”

Ian was born in the South Wales Valleys, growing up in Merthyr Tydfil and joining the National Youth Theatre of Wales at 16 to work under director Alan Vaughan Williams, who nurtured the talents of Rob Brydon, Michael Sheen and Ruth Jones too. “Alan took no prisoners, treating us like professionals,” he recalls. “It was invaluable for me. I loved it.”

Only seven years later, Ian would be understudying Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet in Adrian Noble’s production at the RSC. “I was 23, so I have a long connection with the play. I had to learn every line of the Second Quarto version, which runs to more than four hours [making Hamlet the role with the most lines in Shakespeare’s 37 plays] – and I never went on once!

“Kenneth kept saying ‘people are flying in to see me, I have to go on’, so I never had the chance, despite learning all those lines.”

That sinking feeling: The Royal Shakespeare Company staging Hamlet on a ship in 1912. Picture: Marc Brenner

Instead, Ian had to content himself with playing Polonius’s servant  Reynaldo and Fortinbras. “Part of the reason that I joined the RSC was because I’d just won the inaugural Ian Charleson Award for my [title] role in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Torquato Tasso at the Lyric Hammersmith,” he says.

“I didn’t know anything about the award. I got asked to go to the National Theatre and found I was up against Simon Russell Beale in the RSC’s Edward II, thinking ‘I’m just this young actor from South Wales’. I won £5,000 and was presented with the award by Sir Alec Guinness. What a wonderful start to a career.”

Ian has gone on to play multiple parts for the RSC, most recently appearing in The Merry Wives Of Windsor two summers ago. Now he returns as the Ghost and Player King. “These parts appealed to me as a character actor,” he says. “I thought, ‘I fancy a go at these’, because of the interest in Hamlet, and the short tour appealed too.”

Analysing the impact of setting Hamlet on a ship,” Ian says. “In a nutshell, it brings out the claustrophobia. That exacerbates Hamlet’s feeling of frustration that he can’t escape. The sinking of the ship is effectively the metaphor of Denmark being a prison for Hamlet,  and I think that works very well. Shakespeare’s plays are open to reinterpretation, and this reinterpretation is very powerful, with all its technical accomplishments too.

“Because Hamlet has so many water and sea references, you could be drowning in the play.”

Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to 18, 7pm plus 1.30pm, Thursday, and 2pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: York Stage in Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, until April 18 ****

Jacqueline Bell’s Captain Beverley Bass in York Stage’s Come From Away. All pictures: Felix Wahlberg

“WELCOME To Gander,” reads the sign, pictured in the York Stage programme. “Crossroads To The World”. 

As an accompanying note explains, Gander, in Newfoundland, Canada,  was once a major refuelling stop for transatlantic flights, its airport built to handle large aircraft, giving it the capacity to receive multiple unexpected landings.

In its heyday, Gander International Airport hosted The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Queen Elizabeth II, Frank Sinatra, Neil Armstrong and Muhammad Ali. In later years, on a normal day, six planes would pass through, but September 11 2001 was anything but normal.

Suddenly, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, under Operation Yellow Ribbon, it received 38 unexpected but now essential landings in only two and a half hours.

On board and now grounded on the runways were 7,000 international passengers, their fear, confusion and suspicion exacerbated by the information blackout. Gander’s population would almost double in that instant, and how that community responded is the stuff of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Tony Award-winning 2015 musical, now receiving its York premiere.

 Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah, awaiting news of her New York firefighter son, in York Stage’s Come From Away

“Come from away” is the term Newfoundlanders use for someone who is visiting there or lives on the island but was born elsewhere. For five days, Gander welcomed those “come from away” strangers to this temporary new-found land. Here are the facts: 10,000 meals were prepared daily; clothing donations were sorted and distributed, counselling services provided and entertainment arranged to lift spirits (such as the Kiss The Cod drinking game).

The political world was in turmoil, but at such times the best of humanity comes through too, times where we find common ground – in acts of kindness – amid the threat of heightened global division.

Come From Away is billed as a “life-affirming, uplifting celebration of hope, humanity and unity”: characteristics ripe for the musical format, but no less vital is the storytelling, rooted in Sankoff and Hein’s research visit to Gander and interviews with residents and passengers.

That gives the musical its narrative drive, one that encapsulates connection and communication between town and world, grounded as much in humour as the desperate uncertainty of what may have befallen loved ones in New York or Washington DC that morning.

Directed, produced and designed by Nik Briggs and choreographed by Danielle Mullan-Hill, Come From Away is first and foremost an ensemble piece, its 19-strong cast omnipresent, all pulling together to mirror the big-hearted story with its balance of comforting comic relief and sadness, rousing spirit and silent shock, good deeds and grief.

Gander’s residents singing Welcome To The Rock in York Stage’s Come From Away

Within that collective structure, Sankoff and Hein weave the individual tales of the resolute, stout, stentorian town mayor Claude (superb York Stage debutant Richard Billings); the first female American Airlines captain (Jacqueline Bell’s pilot Captain Beverley Bass, full of leadership steel); the mother of a New York firefighter (Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah); the young local news reporter thrown in at the deep end (Megan Day’s resourceful Janice) and an animal welfare devotee (Claire Morley’s Bonnie, as bonny as her name).

Love plays its part too: blossoming in the case of York Stage regular Stu Hutchinson’s typically stiff Englishman Nick and Lana Davies’s Diane; fracturing, however, for Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T and Faisal Khodabukus’s Kevin J. Both relationships, one burgeoning, the other dissolving, are played with just the right chemistry, the dialogue being typical of why it could be argued that Sankoff and Hein’s book is stronger than their songs.

The opening ensemble number Welcome To The Rock sets the musical and choreographic tone, with its high-energy, righteous fusion of Irish and folk vibrancy under Stephen Hackshaw’s muscular musical direction, with band members in view in the wings and later bursting into the well-deserved limelight for a party hoedown.

Against the backdrop of a map of Newfoundland and a red You Are Here neon sign, Briggs moves his cast  around on chairs and tables on wheels that are reassembled and reconfigured constantly, even combining to form the cockpit and cabin of a plane.

This further enhances the relentless pace of Briggs’s well-drilled direction and Mullan-Hill’s thrilling choreography, putting the motion into commotion, albeit with the welcome breathing space of ballads for reflection for Bell’s Beverley (Me And The Sky) and trauma for Gardham’s Hannah (I Am Here). Everything initially is a rush, a scramble of emotions, a need for instant practical measures, but then countered by the agony of awaiting dreaded news.

Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T trying on a Newfoundland lumberjack’s shirt for size in York Stage’s Come From Away

That sense of unnatural haste in unnatural circumstances is heighted still more by a running time of only 100 minutes with no interval, compounded further by the regular drum beat of the bodhran.

The songs tend to rush by, full of zest and zing in the moment without having an X Factor hit among them, but the combination of Hackshaw’s band (keys, accordion, whistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, percussion, drums and even a Newfoundland ‘ugly stick’) and Briggs’s unerring ability to find outstanding singers give them greater impact than in the touring version that landed at Leeds Grand Theatre in May 2024.

Emily Hardy’s teacher Beulah, multi-rolling Traitors’ alumnus Theo Mayne, especially his Captain Bristol, and Chris Wilson’s quartet of roles, in particular Oz, all add strong characterisation, ably supported by Emily Davis, Adam Gill, Sarah Jackson, Adam Thompson, Rebecca Stevenson, Eleanor Grady and Kelly Kiernan.

Come From Away does Gander proud, York Stage does Come From Away proud, as “kindness, resilience and human connection in times of crisis” remind us of our humanity. How important that is, amid each new dawn’s screeching vitriol on Truth Social.

York Stage presents Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, until April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The ‘ugly stick’, far left, makes its bouncy, percussive appearance in the party scene in York Stage’s Come From Away

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REVIEW: Gorillaz, The Mountain Tour, Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, 25/3/2026

Gorillaz’ Damon Albarn with Argentinian rapper Trueno at Leeds First Direct Bank Arena. All pictures: Matt Eachus (The Manc Photographer)

THE last occasion CharlesHutchPress attended a Damon Albarn concert had been so different. York Minster, December 2 2021, 6.30pm, Damon in studious glasses on grand piano, with all-female strings attached and Covid masks re-attached among the 600-strong audience after a new Omicron variant reintroduced caution and uncertainty.

Albarn would play for 45 minutes precisely, to be followed by a second performance that night at 8.30pm, both hushed and wintry in tone, lit by candlelight, showcasing songs of fragility, loss, emergence and rebirth from that November’s pandemic-shadowed solo release, The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, in the first ever York shows of his then 32-year career.

Roll forward to 2026, when fragility and, in particular, loss frame The Mountain, Gorillaz’ ninth album in 25 years – and third number one – in the wake of the death of Albarn and Gorillaz co-pilot Jamie Hewlett’s fathers within ten days of each other in July 2024.

“You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love,” sings Albarn, on the sombre song of that title and the one that follows, immediately and irresistibly: Orange County. The one with the whistling and the cheeriest tune of all, the obvious single, the one with Anoushka Shankar on sublime sitar and American singer-songwriter Kara Jackson on divine vocals. The one that stood out among last season’s musical interludes on the Graham Norton Show.

As Orange County and On Melancholy Hill testify, Albarn never settles on the obvious path, unlike former Britpop sparring partners Oasis. Already whispers are surfacing that he is at work on a new opera project. Right now, The Mountain tour finds Gorillaz at their creative peak, embracing everything at odds with the rise in nationalism, intolerance, online poison and war-mongering.

Idles’ Joe Talbot performing The God Of Lying with Damon Albarn

Out of step with our grim political times, yet tellingly, Gorillaz pull in a crowd of all ages, the younger drawn to the cartoon band, the wit and anti-war imagery of Hewlett’s videos, others to Albarn’s chameleon pop skills, from Blur to The Good, The Bad And The Queen, who played Leeds Irish Centre in January 2007 with a line-up of Albarn, The Clash bassist Paul Simonon, the anthemic Nineties’ psychedelia of  The Verve guitarist Simon Tong  and  the Afrobeat drumming  of Tony Allen. 

Gorillaz are even more expansive: multicultural, multiracial, multilingual, bursting with a panoply of colours, textures, moods, possibilities and blue skies, a feast for ear and eye alike, energised by the ebb and flow between live performance and the restless commotion and compassion spread over three kaleidoscopic screens.

Throughout, guitars, keyboards, percussion, tabla and Albarn’s melodica fuse English and Indian pop. Then add a constantly rotating roster of guests, beckoned to the already crammed stage by Albarn, the avuncular master of ceremonies, albeit in the somewhat ramshackle manner of The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus TV special in 1968. The effect is dazzling, dizzying, delightfully diverse and daring: the apotheosis of what a concert can be in 2026.

From the Indian mysticism of the opening The Mountain, accompanied by Hewlett’s pastiche of Mowgli’s initiation in The Jungle Book, the screens flash with comic-book imagery, mixed with live footage, and the faces of Anoushka Shankar, Sparks (for The Happy Dictator) the late Dennis Hopper, The Fall’s Mark E Smith (Delirium) and Bobby Womack (The Moon Cave), and The Roots’ Black Thought (The Empty Dream Machine, The Moon Cave, The Sad God) in a set list dominated by the new album.

All the while, the spinning top of guest vocalists and rappers keeps whirling, first up the bleached blond Joe Talbot of Idles (The God Of Lying); then Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def, for Stylo and Damascus; powerhouse backing singer Michelle Ndegwa for Kids With Guns; Bootie Brown, from The Pharcyde, for Dirty Harry; Kara Jackson, glory be, for Orange County, and Trueno, from Argentina, for the Hispanic word-spinning of The Manifesto.

Gorillaz in a state of Delirium at Leeds First Direct Bank Arena with the trademark stare of the late Mark E Smith on screen. Smith’s recorded vocals feature on the song

Posdnuos, from De La Soul, urges the full house to their feet for the first time for encore fireworks of Feel Good Inc, before Trueno returns for more breathtaking, breathless improvised free-styling in Clint Eastwood.

A certain grouchy President would have given Gorillaz the “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” verdict that he bestowed on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX half-time performance.

Instead, the future is indeed comin’ on in Gorillaz’ glorious, beatific vision of a better world. Albarn does not proselytize or preach or reach for polemic. Rather, he and his band adorn their military fatigues with CND badges, and when the Leeds crowd boo his mention of playing Bradford (in the tour warm-up gigs), he says, “No, there’s no need for that!”. Peace and love, indeed.

The perfectionist in Albarn still burns, in a sudden chuck of the microphone and dissatisfied demand to re-start a song, but that is testament to his drive at 58 for The Mountain to take Gorillaz to  new heights.

All that’s missing is a closing credits list of the night’s cast to match the opening of The Mountain book in Hewlett’s first image.

Damon Albarn and Kara Jackson meet in Orange County at Gorillaz’ Leeds First Direct Bank gig

Gorillaz’ set list, Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, 25/03/2026

THE MOUNTAIN

THE HAPPY DICTATOR

TRANZ

Intro Dark Pop

TOMORROW COMES TODAY

19/2000

THE GOD OF LYING (featuring Joe Talbot, from Idles)

THE MOON CAVE

EL MANANA

Intro Madam

ON MELANCHOLY HILL

THE EMPTY DREAM MACHINE

CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

DELIRIUM

ANDROMEDA

STYLO (Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def)

DAMASCUS (Yasiin Bey)

KIDS WITH GUNS (lead vocal Michelle Ndegwa)

Intro

DIRTY HARRY (Bootie Brown, from The Pharcyde)

THE SHADOWY LIGHT

THE SAD GOD

THE HARDEST THING

ORANGE COUNTY (featuring Kara Jackson)

THE MANIFESTO (lead vocal, Trueno

FEEL GOOD INC (Posdnuos, from De La Soul)

CLINT EASTWOOD (featuring Trueno)

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30th anniversary Operation Halifax exhibition opens at Yorkshire Air Museum

The poster for the Operation Halifax exhibition at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington

THIRTY years ago, a remarkable ten-year restoration project was completed at the Yorkshire Air Museum near York.

After a decade of tireless work, a Handley Page Halifax bomber – the type that flew from the site at Elvington in the Second World War – was unveiled to the public.

To mark the 30th anniversary of this milestone, the Yorkshire Air Museum has launched a new exhibition and theme for the year that honours the project and looks at the work done during the war to build thousands of Halifax bombers.

Operation Halifax also tells the story of the most famous Halifax of them all, Friday the 13th, dubbed ‘the plane they couldn’t kill’.

A new Halifax fuselage section being transported. Picture: Yorkshire Air Museum

The museum stands on the site of RAF Elvington, home to three squadrons of RAF Bomber Command during the war, when crews flew perilous missions over Germany and occupied Europe. Almost half the aircrew did not survive.

After the war, every remaining Halifax bomber was scrapped, but that did not deter volunteers at the Yorkshire Air Museum. When the museum was opened in the 1980s, they realised that to make it complete, it would need a Halifax.

As none remained, they hatched a plan to rebuild one using parts from crashed aircraft, components donated from similar planes and entire sections rebuilt from scratch. One length of fuselage was from an aircraft that had crashed on the Isle of Lewis and had been used as a hen house.

Halifax fuselage on the Isle of Lewis. Picture: Yorkshire Air Museum

It took a decade to complete the project, carried out by museum volunteers,many of them RAF veterans.

The new exhibition is based in the museum’s main hangar, under the nose of the Halifax, and includes displays, videos and an animation that shows where each part of the reconstructed aircraft came from. It will run for at least a year.

Yorkshire Air Museum communications manager Jerry Ibbotson said: “Rebuilding the Halifax was a staggering project 30 years ago, and it’s easy to forget just how much effort was involved.

A Second World War female factory worker building a Halifax. Picture: Yorkshire Air Museum

“Operation Halifax will shed light on what was achieved, as well as showing how Halifaxes were built during the war – often using bus and coach factories that were requisitioned for the task.

“We have some stunning photos from this time, showing how many of the workers were young women who stepped up to fill roles taken by men who had gone off to fight.”

Operation Halifax is included in the Yorkshire Air Museum and Allied Air Forces Memorial admission price. Opening hours: 10am to 5pm, last admission, 4pm, seven days a week. Tickets: yorkshireairmuseum.org.

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York Actors Collective stages York premiere of Beth Steel’s mining family drama Till The Stars Come Down at Theatre@41

Newly wedded bliss amid wedding-day blisters: Darren Barrott as Marek and Joy Warner as Sylvia in York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down

YORK Actors Collective founder and director Angie Millard moved quickly to acquire the amateur performing rights for Beth Steel’s Till The Stars Come Down.

“The West End run only closed at the end of last September, after transferring from the National Theatre,” she says as she prepares to present this contemporary British family drama at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from April 14 to 18.

“I applied very early, because I liked the sound of the play, but didn’t think I’d get the rights, but no touring company jumped on it, so my application was successful.”

Premiered at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre from January 2024, the Olivier Award-nominated Till The Stars Come Down is set at the wedding of Sylvia and Marek in a former mining town in Steel’s exploration of the tumultuous dynamics of a working-class family.

Long-held secrets, passions, tensions and social changes transform the celebration into a chaotic blend of humour and tragedy in a play with “themes of racism and xenophobia, reference to suicide, scenes of a sexual nature and depictions of mild violence”.

“When I started reading the play, it resonated with me, because not only am I one of three sisters – like in the play – but also there’s very little I haven’t come across at weddings or funerals, such as deciding who should sit at the top table,” says Angie. “So, in one rehearsal, I did a game of ‘Status’, asking each of the cast to say what they thought their character’s status was.

“The other thing that resonated the most was the emotional problems that happen in the family – and I’ve encountered all of them in the emotional conflicts of sisters.”

Clare Halliday in the role of eldest sister Hazel – the bigoted one- painting her toe nails in Till The Stars Come Down

Angie continues: “There are a lot of things to think about in this play, and as everything in set out in the first half, the audience will have plenty to reflect on in the interval.

“There is stress throughout, which is covered by the humour that the cast are finding ever more ways to express, but because Sylvia is marrying a Polish man, it brings out racial issues.

“They are a dysfunctional family, though they think they’re not, but the sisters come together at the end, turning their back on their relationships to put the sisters first, which makes it even more dysfunctional. It’s a little bit like Alan Ayckbourn in style because it embraces farce as well as the clever use of language.”

Angie did not see the London production – “I purposely never do that,” she says – but was aware that it was staged in the round with a revolving stage. “I thought, ‘put that to one side, look at the text’. That was my first job.

“I wanted to do it with a rake stage, with everyone looking in the same direction, as frankly I’ve been to too many productions where I haven’t been able to see all the actors’ faces, seeing them with their back to you or in profile. I wanted to do it ‘old style’ and make it work that way.

“I thought, why should how it was done in the West End stop me from doing such a well-written play?’. I was determined to see the play staged my way, starting with getting ready in the house for the wedding, with one door for that, then the pub for the wedding breakfast, in the middle, and then Hazel’s house at the end, with two doors because you can get to the kitchen via the sitting room.”

Three sisters: Clare Halliday’s Hazel, left, Joy Warner’s Sylvia and Victoria Delaney’s Maggie lining up for York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down

Angie adds: “I also had to re-think some of the characterisation as Beth [who grew up in the colliery town of Shirebrook, near Mansfield] set the play in Nottinghamshire but we’ve moved it to Yorkshire, because I’m from Sheffield originally and went to a Catholic primary school in a mining village, Spinkhill, and found myself speaking two languages, one at school, one at home. So I’ve set it in South Yorkshire, 30 years on from Thatcher’s dispute with the miners.”

Angie’s cast includes three actors new to the company: Laura Haynes-Bury as Leanne, Leeds actor Darren Barrott as Marek and Daniel Wilmot as Uncle Pete. “Laura has just finished her drama degree in York and she’s so dynamic,” says the director.

“This is the first time she’s worked with non-student adults and she brings so much to this play. I’ve never worked with someone so young and so talented. She has this wonderfully expressive non-expressive face, if you know what I mean.

“Darren caught the eye in Settlement Players’ Party Piece last October. We’re seeing an actor who’s just open to trying anything and his own personality doesn’t come into it at all. He’s fitted in very well with us.

“Daniel is a York actor and writer who has his own company, Baron Productions,  and he’s joining us to play the small role of Uncle Pete, a miner who didn’t cross the picket line.”

Together they add to expanding roster of York Actors Collective in Angie Millard’s fifth production, one that she will mine to its deepest seam.

York Actors Collective presents Till The Stars Come Down, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 14 to 18, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday; 2pm and 6pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Lucinda Rennison’s Aunty Carol and company debutante Laura Haynes-Bury’s Leanne in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down

Who is in York Actors Collective’s cast for Till The Stars Come Down?

DARREN Barrott, as Marek; Victoria Delaney, Maggie; Clare Halliday, Hazel; Laura Haynes-Bury, Leanne; Chris Pomfrett, Tony; Lucinda Rennison, Aunty Carol; Neil Vincent, John; Joy Warner, Sylvia, and Daniel Wilmot, Uncle Pete.

Victoria, last seen in York Settlement Community Players’ Blue Remembered Hills at York Theatre Royal Studio in February, has taken over the role of Maggie in a late change of cast. “As always, Vic has proved to be a wonderful replacement,” says director Angie Millard.

York Actors Collective founder and director Angie Millard, left, with stage manager Em Peattie

Angie Millard: Back story

INVOLVED with theatre since her teens, this continued as a drama student at Warwick University and at Jim Haine’s Arts Lab in Drury Lane, London.

Worked in Theatre in Education groups at Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, and Greenwich Theatre,  London.

After moving north 20 years ago, she joined the casts of many York Theatre Royal community productions and the York Mystery Plays. Then, via York Settlement Community Players, she returned to directing, launching York Actors Collective in 2023.

This independent group has come together to perform plays and to offer thought- provoking and entertaining theatre, staging Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane in 2023, Alexander Zeldin’s Beyond Caring in 2024 and Nina Raine’s Tiger Country last year at Theatre@41, Monkgate, as well as J. M. Barrie’s Mary Rose at York Theatre Royal Studio in Autumn 2024.

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York Stage’s Come From Away is ready to touch down for York musical premiere at Grand Opera House from tomorrow

York Stage’s full cast takes a seat for the York premiere of Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

THE York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s global hit musical Come From Away will land at the Grand Opera House tomorrow (10/4/2026).

“It’s one of the most powerful true stories ever told on stage,” says Nik Briggs, who is directing a cast of 19 in the Olivier and Tony Award winner. “If you’ve heard the buzz around this show worldwide, now is your chance to experience it right here in York.

“With just one day to go until opening night, excitement is building fast for what’s already becoming one of York Stage’s fastest-selling shows to date.”

Come From Away charts the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when 38 planes are diverted to the remote Newfoundland town of Gander, population 9,400, almost doubling that total in two hours.

The community responds by inviting these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts as unexpected friendships form, changing thousands of lives forever.

From Bake Off to take-off: York Stage director Nik Briggs, at the controls of Come From Away after starring in The Great British Bake-Off Musical last November

“Come From Away is more than just a musical,” says Nik. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.”

He recalls his introduction to the show. “One day, on a drive from York to Sunderland, setting off at 6am, I put the soundtrack on – one hour 40 minutes – and as I pulled up in the car park, I had to compose myself as I was sitting there sobbing,” says Nik. “For me, structurally, and the way the piece is brought together, it’s just perfection.”

He has a philosophy on tears being shed in the theatre. “I’m a big believer that, to make an audience cry, you don’t want to see crying on stage,” he says. 

“I love working with emotional texts and I like to think York Stage has had success with them over the years, but there’s something about how, in real life, when you see someone at their worst, as a human being, you want to embrace them and be there for them, whereas if you see someone being brave, or just carrying on or holding back the tears, that’s when you’ll cry more. That’s always been the approach I’ve had with shows where there’s real emotion.”

Nik continues: “Albeit that Come From Away’s story is associated with the events of 9/11, it’s not about that tragedy, but the ripple effect it had: how a Canadian community came together with compassion. That’s what’s celebrated in this show; that humanity.

Just landed: York Stage’s cast for Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

“Twenty-five years on from those terrorist attacks, the compassion and humanity shown in Gander is what’s needed in the world now, and some would argue even more so. There’s no baddie in Come From Away. We all know what’s going on in New York that day, where there is a baddie, but though we see fear, we see uneasiness, and at first we see prejudices in Gander, we don’t see a villain. This is a show about something totally different from that.”

Come From Away stands apart in its instrumentation and musical arrangements too. “It’s not typical musical theatre instrumentation,” says Nik, who is working in tandem with musical director Stephen Hackshaw. “Instead it features musical instruments associated with Newfoundland, such as the bodhran [drum] and the ‘ugly stick’, a welly boot fitted with a mop head, bottle tops and tin cans.”

Thanks to cast member Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass, York Stage’s show will feature the aforementioned ‘ugly stick’, and thereby hangs a tale. “After getting the part in our production and doing some research, she had some time off booked to go on holiday but hadn’t booked anywhere,” says Nik.

“She said she just felt compelled to go to Gander – I said I felt the same! – and so off she went! What you hear about Operation Yellow Ribbon [Canada’s handling of the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the 9/11 attacks] may sound too good to be true, or you wonder if it has been slightly ‘musical theatre-ised’ in Come From Away, but no, that community spirit was very much present.

“Before going there in February, Jacqui emailed a few places, saying, ‘I know you’re not running tours at this time of year, but I’m in the cast for the show in York, can you help?’. The Gander community put out a plea to put together a personal tour for her.”

Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass and Annette in Come From Away, flew out to Gander and returned with an ‘ugly stick’. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

What happened next? “Rodgers TV reporter Brian Mosher, on whom one of the Come From Away characters is partly based, turned up and surprised Jacqui! He took her round all the places that featured in the story – and she stayed in the hotel where Captain Beverley Bass had stayed,” says Nik, who recommends looking up Jacqui’s video blogs from Gander on York Stage’s Facebook site.

“On her return to rehearsals, she said that everything that was ‘too good to be true’ about the people of Gander was true. Apparently, there was even one thing that had happened that the musical producers decided ‘we can’t have that in the show as no-one would believe it’ – when a rainbow formed as the last of the 38 planes took off again.”

Jacqueline brought back the all-important ‘ugly stick’, bought for the equivalent of £100. “We’ve affectionately called it ‘Brian Mosher’ in rehearsals,” says Nik.

As for his travel plans, they extend rather further than York to Sunderland as dawn breaks. “Gander is somewhere I’m determined to visit now,” he vows.  

York Stage presents Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow (10/4/2026) to April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Lesley Jones to ‘step back’ from producing York shows after 20 years, bowing out with Swing When You Sing on Sunday at JoRo

Lesley Jones and Steve Coates: Teaming up for the last time for Swing When You Sing on Sunday night

PRODUCER Lesley Jones will bid farewell to the York stage on Sunday with Swing When You Sing at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, at 7.30pm.

“Unique to me and York, it will be a swing concert with a 16-piece big band on stage, led by Alan Owens, from The Forum in Northallerton, who fronted our huge charity extravaganza, Million Dreams, at the Grand Opera House last year,” says Lesley.

“Funded once again by Steve Coates Music Productions, I am grateful to be given this final opportunity after my 20 years of producing shows, starting in 2005, including two sell-out productions of Les Miserables: School Edition, The Full Monty, Summer Holiday and Pirates! The Penzance Musical (Broadway version).

“Not forgetting Penny Millionaire in 2016, which we staged three weeks before the death of composer and writer Bev Jones.”

Lesley, Bev’s widow, picked up the baton of the charismatic director, musical director, composer and leading man of the York stage to run the Bev Jones Music Company and The Jubilee Celebration Singers, but has decided to “step back” after suffering a stroke.  

Lesley Jones: 20 years at the helm of musical theatre shows in York

“I’ve had a wonderful experience in the world of musical theatre, joined recently by the success of our rock shows with Steve Coates Music Productions that we began with the sold-out One Night Of Classic Rock at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in January 2024,” says Lesley, who is also a trustee of the children’s charity Snappy.

“Illness is a cruel intervention and sometimes one has to accept the inevitable and gracefully step back. In summary, I will end by thanking all the supporters over the years and welcome them on Sunday for an evening of traditional glamour, featuring our finest performers singing Rat Pack, Minnie The Moocher, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Under The Sea, Cheek To Cheek, the Latin version of Sway, Fever and Mr Bojangles.

“There’ll be a vigorous rendition of Sing, Sing, Sing, with Bob Fosse-style dancing, and a surprising swing version of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. Varied? Yes! Upbeat? Yes! Emotional? Yes!”

On song on Sunday will be Ruth McNeil, Annabel van Griethuysen, Hayley Bamford, Johanna Hartley, Adele Barlow, Larry Gibson, Terry Ford, Stephen Wilson, David Hartley and Geoff Walker.

The final word goes to Lesley: “Myself and Steve agree – and Bev would have done too – that we are not on stage to educate but to ENTERTAIN.”

Steve Coates Music Productions present Swing When You Sing, with the Alan Owens 16-Piece Big Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 12, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for Swing When You Sing, Sunday’s final concert to be organised by Lesley Jones

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Martha Godber to premiere ‘working-class survival’ solo play Jesse North Is Broken at York Theatre Royal Studio from May 11 to 14

Martha Godber in the role of Jesse, a carer on minimum wage, in her play Jesse North Is Broken, produced by the John Godber Company

MARTHA Godber will perform the world premiere of Jesse North Is Broken, her solo theatre piece on the theme of working-class survival in Britain, at York Theatre Royal Studio from May 11 to 14.

Actress-writer Martha, Hull-born daughter of playwright John Godber and fellow writer-director Jane Thornton, will be directed by Millie Gaston in the John Godber Company production.

Jesse, 25, from Hull, is a carer on minimum wage, keeping the elderly alive while trying to live her own messy, chaotic life. Told over one night, Jesse North Is Broken follows her from care shift to the dance floor, from the late-night kebab to an early-morning call-out as she battles the system that undervalues her and the city that shapes her, all while her ADHD-fuelled thoughts and anxious mind crave order in the chaos.

Martha Godber: Hull-born actress, writer and director

“Both political and personal, the show shines a light on working-class survival in Britain today – where carers are underpaid, the care system is crumbling, and young women are left to piece themselves together in a society that keeps breaking them,” says Martha.

LIPA-trained Martha last appeared on the York Theatre Royal stage in June 2025 in the John Godber Company’s tour of John Godber’s hymn to the abiding power of Northern Soul, Do I Love You?.

“I’m thrilled to be bringing Jesse North Is Broken to York Theatre Royal; it feels like the perfect venue to premiere the show,” she says. “As someone from Hull, I’ve always been drawn to telling northern stories, and this piece does exactly that.

Martha Godber, right, playing Northern Soul purist Sally in John Godber’s Do I Love You?, on tour at York Theatre Royal in June 2025

“I’m passionate about creating female characters who are unapologetic, bold and command the stage, celebrating the northern female voice in all its complexity.

At its heart, the show explores connection, pain, love and loss, set against the realities of government policy, the care system and the social pressures of a working-class town. It’s a fearless piece of new writing and I hope it resonates deeply with contemporary audiences.”

John Godber Company presents Martha Godber’s Jesse North Is Broken, York Theatre Royal Studio, May 11 to 14, 7.45pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Age guidance: 15 plus. Content guidance: Strong language and sexual references. Post-show discussion: May 13. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for the John Godber Company’s production of Martha Godber’s Jesse North Is Broken