York playwright Mike Kenny: Updated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess And The Pea for Tutti Frutti in York Theatre Royal Studio
YORK Theatre Royal Studio will reopen this autumn after lockdown hibernation and temporary use for storage.
The capacity has been reduced from 100 to 71, a Covid-safety measure that means the theatre space will now be head-on only, with seating no longer on the sides.
First to bed into this configuration will be Leeds children’s theatre company Tutti Frutti with York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Princess And The Pea from October 21 to 26.
Imagine a place where what you see is not what it seems, with forgotten stories and forgotten things, say Tutti Frutti. Imagine princesses who don’t know they are princesses and a prince who doesn’t want to be king. Imagine a real prince, discovering a real princess, and a story that ends happily ever after.
Inside the Museum of Forgotten Things, three musical curators tell the amazing tale of the museum’s artefacts, most notably the mystery of a little green pea and how it ended up there.
Tutti Frutti promise an hour of humour, memorable songs and a romp through every type of princess you could imagine, replete with costumes to match.
“The audience will meet a demanding queen, an array of wannabe princesses and our main characters, an unknown girl, who is blown into the palace by a gust of wind, and an indecisive prince under pressure to find his real princess,” says Mike. “Will he ever find a real princess or his happy-ever-after?”
This show was first made by Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal in 2014 for an extensive tour and Christmas run at the Sheffield Crucible before playing to sell-out audiences in Hong Kong and Singapore in January 2015.
“In the dark between life and death, a haunted woman tells strange and terrifying tales”: Rebecca Vaughan in Female Gothic
Now it returns in a new and updated adaptation by Kenny and the inventive Tutti Frutti in a funny, original, beautiful retelling suitable for children aged three upwards and their families. Evening performances will start at 6pm, complemented by Friday shows at 10am and 1pm, Saturday, 3pm, and Tuesday, 11am and 2pm.
Dyad Productions producer Rebecca Vaughan will perform her adaptation of Female Gothic, directed by Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson on October 28 and 29 at 7.45pm.
In the dark between life and death, a haunted woman tells strange and terrifying tales; eerie stories, dusty and forgotten. Until now. “It’s the Hallowe’en season, so come along and be thrilled by three lost gothic spine-tinglers from the great Victorian female writers,” says Rebecca, who has appeared in such Dyad shows as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth and Austen’s Women.
Summoning the magic of the contraries, storytellers Jan Blake & TUUP will present Nightwalkers on October 30 at 7.45pm: a night of “disturbing, comedic and poignant tales of ghosts, duppies, jumbies, loogaroos, soucouyants and other supernatural beings that haunt the Caribbean and the Americas”.
Jan Blake, the queen of Afro-Caribbean storytelling, and TUUP – the acronym stands for The Unorthodox, Unprecedented Preacher – will explore the sorcery, shape-shifting and deep magic that has endured to sustain some and punish others through thunderous storytelling designed to raise the roof as well as neck hairs.
In Imagine If Theatre’s new production, My Old Man, on November 18 at 8pm, Michal Piwowarski’s whole world changes when his granddaughter Tasha finally moves out. The school dinner lady becomes his favourite person, a new neighbour moves onto the street and he has to face his biggest battle yet.
Imagine If Theatreallow people to “imagine if” within their own lives through their thought-provoking productions, creating theatre designed to be “inspiring, entertaining and unashamedly honest for intimate audiences”.
They make theatre shows based on the world around them, comprising real stories from real people, and in the case of the heartfelt and humorous My Old Man, that story revolves around the trials and tribulations of Michał, an old, blind Polish soldier.
Full details of the upcoming York Theatre Royal Studio season can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“I finally wanted to put together a show that would celebrate all the wonderful music throughout my career,” says Marti Pellow
MARTI Pellow will return to York Barbican next spring in a May 3 show newly added to the 2022 leg of his Greatest Hits Tour.
The former Wet Wet Wet frontman, soulful solo singer and musical theatre star, from Clydebank, Scotland, says: “Get your dancing shoes on – it’s time to party with Marti!
“Throughout lockdown, I was inundated by beautiful messages from fans, asking me to please organise a tour once we come out of these terrible times. Twelve million people tuned in for the lockdown sessions and each one of you has inspired me to make this tour happen this year.”
Expect both Wet Wet Wet and solo material. “I finally wanted to put together a show that would celebrate all the wonderful music throughout my career and that I – and I know all of you – fell in love with again through the sessions,” says Pellow.
“All through lockdown, when I could only communicate with my fans through my social-media platforms, you – the fans – would ask me to sing songs from the beginning of my career right up to the present day.
“It was a joy to get such great feedback from everyone and got me thinking about a greatest hits tour, where we could all enjoy those songs again and where I could enjoy singing them.”
The poster for Marti Pellow’s Greatest Hits Tour date at York Barbican next spring
Cover versions are promised too: “During the sessions, I also got to cover songs from other songwriters that were either favourites of mine, or had been suggested by you all,” says Pellow. “I think they resonated with everyone so much that I’m looking forward to including some of them in the shows.”
Anything else? “And, of course, not forgetting my new album Stargazer that came out in March [on BMG], where I finally got to write the songs that let me pay homage to all my heroes. I can’t wait to sing those songs live for the first time,” says Pellow, 56.
Looking forward to next year’s travels, he concludes: “You spoke and I listened. This brand new Greatest Hits Tour is about finally being able to come together to celebrate love, life, and remember those we may have lost along the way.
“Most of all, it’s about enjoyment and celebrating the here and now. Get your dancing shoes on – it’s time to party with Marti!”
Pellow last played York Barbican in May 2018 on his Private Collection tour, preceded by his March 2017 appearance on his Mysterious itinerary.
Tickets for May 3 are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk. Pellow will open the first leg of his Greatest Hits Tour at Scarborough Spa Theatre on November 9; the second leg will begin at another new addition, Sheffield City Hall, on April 12; Hull New Theatre is already in the diary for April 25. Box office: scarboroughspa.co.uk; sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.
The Animals & Friends: Last goodbye on the road next spring, visiting Pocklington Arts Centre on April 29
THE Animals & Friends will say farewell on tour at Pocklington Arts Centre next spring when We Gotta Get Out Of This Place will have added resonance.
The veteran rhythm and blues band will be joined at their April 29 2022 show by a special guest, Scottish singer Maggie Bell, now 76, once of Stone The Crows.
Formed in Newcastle-upon-Tyyne in 1963, The Animals moved to London in 1964, chalking up hits with the chart-topping House Of The Rising Sun, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Don’t Bring Me Down, Baby, Let Me Take You Home and the aforementioned We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.
In the original line-up were Eric Burdon, vocals, Alan Price, keyboards, Chas Chandler, bass, Hilton Valentine, guitar, and John Steel, drums. Now The Animals & Friends tour with Steel, Mickey (or Micky or Mick, take your pick/picky/pickey) Gallagher, who replaced Price as long ago as 1965, Danny Handley on guitar and vocals and Roberto Ruiz on bass and vocals.
The Animals & Friends’ poster for next year’s farewell tour
Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) director Janet Farmer says: “An act of this calibre really needs no introduction. PAC has hosted many of the great heritage bands over the years, such as The Searchers, The Manfreds, The Blues Band, PJ Proby and Marty Wilde, so we’re delighted to welcome The Animals, whose hits endure to this day.
“It’s their farewell tour, and this could very well be your last chance to see them live on stage, making it a very special opportunity not to be missed.”
Tickets for The Animals’ 8pm concert cost £32.50 at 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Rhian Duce as Mina Harker in Imitating The Dog’s Dracula: The Untold Story. Picture: Ed Waring
REVIEW: Dracula: The Untold Story, Imitating The Dog/Leeds Playhouse, Courtyard Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, until Saturday, then touring until November 13; The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Tilted Wig Productions, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, then touring into 2022. Box office: Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THE horror! The horror! O’ the contrasting horror of two new accounts of vintage horror stories, as re-envisioned respectively by perennially cutting-edge Leeds company Imitating The Dog and Philip Meeks, life-long fan of horror and the weird, prolific playwright and pantomime dame.
Last time out, forever in pursuit of marrying technology and theatre in inventive, ingenious harmony, Imitating The Dog set themselves the digital task of re-creating George A Romero’s cult 1968 Zombie movie Night Of The Living Dead – Remix, frame for frame, on stage and screen in synch with the original footage being shown simultaneously. Breathless, breath-taking, dead brilliant.
From one restless story of the undead to another: the Victorian gothic horror of Dracula, here presented as The Untold Story, the story as re-told from Mina Harker’s viewpoint on New Year’s Eve 1965 at a London police station, as she turns herself in, the last surviving witness of Count Dracula’s destruction 70 years earlier.
Not seen since 1901, she should be 90, but as she confesses to a murder spree over those intervening years, Riane Duce’s Mina looks young, in her 20s. No wonder, Adela Rajnović and Matt Prendergast’s midnight-shift police officers appear so sceptical, even more so when vigilante Mina reveals her supernaturally powered capacity for self-healing and clairvoyance have sustained her through terminating the likes of Mussolini and Hitler before they could wreak their havoc.
All this is delivered with both verbal and visual wit by directors Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks, the outstanding Duce and the multi-role playing Imitating The Dog veterans Rajnovic and Prendergast, with an economy of words to fit into the bubble spaces that graphic novels use.
Ah, the graphic novel: the pop-culture artform that fuels the latest hi-tech innovation of Imitating The Dog’s co-production with Leeds Playhouse. Just as Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s neo-noir thriller Sin City brought the graphic form to cinematic life, so Dracula: The Untold Story is now staged as a live graphic novel cum detective thriller.
Mixed-media theatre took a long time to settle, whether in the pioneering work of Imitating The Dog or York company Pilot Theatre, with words prone to playing second fiddle to the tricksy technology.
Now, however, the sight of actors working cameras on stage, or bending into unusual positions in front of blue screens to appear together, as if by magic, in the graphic novel in motion, no longer has any sense of distraction or gimmickry compromising the live performance.
This is live theatre-making gloriously embracing new possibilities in a constant flow between 2D and 3D, as the cast performs to both camera lens and audience, the visual experience further enhanced by the use of face-recognition technology for the characters being projected on screen.
Dracula: The Untold Story is thrillingly bravura, yet entirely coherent 21st century storytelling, at once pulp fiction in style yet deeply psychological too, still gothic but ultra-modern, humorous yet haunting. Sinking their ever-sharper teeth into Dracula, Imitating The Dog keep on breaking new ground.
Bill Ward and Wendi Peters in The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Philip Meeks’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is a horror story too, but not of the kind intended. Washington Irving’s gothic story from 1820 runs to only 24 pages and should take the average reader 86 minutes to consume at 250 words per minute. Meeks’s play stretches to over two and a quarter hours, and when town teacher Ichabod Crane (Sam Jackson) mocks the legend for being boring, alas audience heads could be seen nodding in agreement.
At the interval, bewildered expressions were commonplace, as first-night attendees sought mutual guidance as to what was going on, a failing of storytelling amid Meeks’ proliferation of florid words and fanciful ideas.
Neither he nor director Jake Smith has settled on a tone or style, caught in a no man’s land between the earnest, the arch, the knowing, and the quagmire of strangely unfunny schlock-horror comedy ripped from the Hammer House playbook, with sporadic folk-dance stomping and religion-bashing to boot. Imagine a cross between Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man, topped off with a gay love story.
The acting is uneven; Wendi Peters’ Widow Mariette Papenfuss, with her gobby parrot, surpasses all around her; fellow Coronation Street big-name Bill Ward hams up Baltus Van Tassel; Jackson’s Ichabod is like a man under water forever trying to reach for the surface; Lewis Cope’s buff blacksmith Brom Van Brunt keeps removing his shirt, as if he has escaped from Heathers The Musical; Tommy Sim’aan’s Joost De Groot and Rose Quentin’s Katrina Van Tassel need better material.
Amy Watts’s set design could be a Bruegel painting but feels lifeless by comparison, while you wish for more of Filipe J Carvalho’s illusions amid the overall delusion and want of suspense.
In the desire to be magical and monstrous, spunky and spooky, everything has the feel of running around like a headless horseman, although “running” is not the right word.
“Don’t pass by. Stay Forever,” comes the never-to-be-repeated invitation to Sleepy Hollow. But what is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? You better ask Philip, although on second thoughts…
Stephen Hough: “A hungry lion newly released from his cage”
THE resumption of the University of York’s Live Concert series was greeted with a full house on Wednesday. No wonder: we were there to welcome a titan of the keyboard.
Stephen Hough was in pugnacious mood, as well he might be after prolonged lockdown, a hungry lion newly released from his cage. He had chosen to satisfy his appetite on meaty chunks of Schumann and Chopin, leavened by two British composers, Alan Rawsthorne and Hough himself.
Rawsthorne’s Bagatelles, his first serious piano music that coincided with his first international recognition in 1938, launched Hough straight into a tempestuous whirlwind, although that was soon moderated by more pensive lyricism, a skittish interlude and a sad duologue between the hands, as if looking back at what might have been these past two years.
Forward-looking Schumann, stretching tonality as far as he ever did, came with Kreisleriana, dedicated to Chopin but written in 1838 with Clara Wieck in mind, in the long run-up to their marriage two years later.
The two sides of Schumann’s personality, fiery Florestan and easy-going Eusebius, actually mirrored the eccentric conductor Kreisler (a figment of E T A Hoffmann’s imagination), who is pictured here in eight “fantasies”, in G minor or its relative major, B flat.
In truth, it was Florestan who had much the upper hand in this account, with the forte passages cumulatively becoming an angry tour de force and the slower melodies tending towards moodiness. But there always a keen sense of shape, even when Schumann was at his most temperamental.
Hough’s own five-movement Partita, written only two years ago, proved a substantial treat. The martial opening of its Overture returns in driven style after a flightier Trio (such as every march should have), before a cute little coda.
A jittery Capriccio and two eloquent song-and-dance routines inspired by Mompou, the one very high, the other elegiac, preceded a hugely demanding Toccata, which could not help recalling Widor’s eponymous movement from his Fifth Symphony. It reached a breath-taking climax.
Finally, to more familiar Chopin, which was greeted with rapt attention. Ballade No 3 came across as an entity, rather than a series of episodes and its continuity was wholly convincing.
Hough’s unique ability to sustain a melody had really begun to emerge. In two nocturnes we were in piano heaven, with the most delicate of decorations in the F sharp (Op 15 No 2) and a gorgeously restrained, barely audible ending to the E flat (Op 9 No 2).
There was considerable urgency in the Second Scherzo, in B flat minor, which meant a mildly garbled ending when it accelerated, but by now Hough could do no wrong. This virtuoso lion was taking no prisoners – and we loved him for it. What a return!
“It is a gift of a part. An absolute dream role,” says Lizzie Wort, of playing screen icon Marilyn Monroe in Dyad Productions’ The Unremarkable Life Of Marilyn Monroe
LIZZIE Wort had written off Marilyn Monroe. “I really wasn’t very interested in her,” she says. “I had always thought she was kind of fun and frivolous.”
Then, however, writer-director Elton Townend Jones asked her to play Marilyn in The Unremarkable Death Of Marilyn Monroe.
“It is a gift of a part. An absolute dream role,” says Lizzie. So much so that Lizzie, trained ballet dancer, former comic entertainer, actor and mother, has returned to that dream role for St Albans company Dyad Productions’ latest tour, visiting Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Sunday night.
The date is August 5 1962, on Marilyn’s last night, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Marilyn as never seen before: alone in her bedroom in a dressing gown and underwear; no glitz, no glamour, no masks.
Overdosed on pills, the woman behind the icon unravels her remarkable life and travels back through the memories of her closest relationships. Repeatedly stalked by a mysterious caller, the Hollywood icon tells all – about Joe DiMaggio, Clark Gable, Arthur Miller, her mother – revealing a biting intelligence and an imperfect body, leading in real time to the moment of her death.
“Elton was very clear from the beginning that he wanted us to find a Marilyn that was recognisable as the well-loved icon, but also had a different, previously unseen side to her. This was such a gift for me in terms of finding the characterisation,” says Lizzie, who played her previously in 2015.
“To be cast as such a huge icon felt intimidating at first, and potentially limiting, but being able to dig beneath the surface opened up so many possibilities for her and my understanding of her, which was hugely rewarding and exciting.”
“Marilyn was unusual. The more I have studied her, the more clearly I see how she was essentially always able to be many things to many people,” says Lizzie Wort
Lizzie continues: “Elton has written such a tremendously well rounded, rich character, who is flawed, gets angry, is at times selfish, bitingly intelligent, wry, playful, warm and deeply soulful.
“It is a gift of a part. An absolute dream role. It also feels so relevant to women today. Marilyn was a female in a male industry in a time when women weren’t allowed a voice. And, sadly, that struggle continues. To finally give her that voice, and in doing so, give other women that chance too, was such an exciting process and journey of discovery.
“Her experiences are relevant still today and that played a large part in forming my characterisation of her.”
Why are we still fascinated by Marilyn Monroe, Lizzie? “There are two elements to this. One is the endless fascination we have with celebrity in general. This is referenced in the play and she makes the point herself that we all invest in celebrity stories. We want to revel in other people’s lives. It’s a fascination that has existed for a long time now.
“Marilyn’s death was unexpected and far too early. To have a young, vibrant life cut short so suddenly was shocking. People feel that they know a person, feel they are connected to them, are invested in them. To lose them so early always feel tragic and unfathomable.
“The controversy surrounding her death and the fascination over how she died continues to this day. She was a hugely popular star, made all the more famous by her death, so this keeps her as an interesting character.”
The fascination goes beyond conspiracy, suggests Lizzie. “Marilyn was unusual. The more I have studied her, the more clearly I see how she was essentially always able to be many things to many people,” she says.
“Marilyn was somehow approachable and relatable, while also being totally unobtainable,” says Lizzie
“She had an effortless ability to draw people in. She instinctively knew how to capture people’s interest. How to charm people. She had the perfect blend of vulnerability and unbridled joy. She was hugely likeable. And that’s not actually an easy thing to accomplish as a Hollywood star. To be likeable in the truest sense. She was somehow approachable and relatable, while also being totally unobtainable.”
Naming her favourite Marilyn film roles as The Prince And The Show Girl (1957) and The Misfits (1961), Lizzie says that what she most loved about Marilyn was her strength. “She endured so much as a child, as a young woman, from the industry, from the press, from men. She carried a huge amount of trauma within her, but still radiated warmth and joy,” she reasons.
“When someone goes through personal pain and grows up with traumatic experiences, it shapes who you are and the way you view and receive the world. It can sometimes enable a person to feel both sides of the coin.
“You can feel the pain and the torture of your experience existing deeply in your body and have a sense from childhood of the fragility of life. But, if you are lucky, that pain can also then give you an even greater appreciation of the beauty and joy of life all the more deeply. I truly think she had that appreciation.”
Lizzie’s favourite discovery about Marilyn has been to realise that her golden Hollywood smile was actually real. “Not because she was a one-dimensional blonde movie star who just smiled vacuously for the cameras. It was a smile that expressed all her pain and joy simultaneously,” she says.
“She understood life deeply. She felt it all deeply. I find that incredibly beautiful. And I think fundamentally that’s why we all love her. She radiated humanity. Heartbreak and joy in a single smile.”
Dyad Productions in The Unremarkable Death Of Marilyn Monroe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 10, 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk
“Heartbreak and joy in a single smile”: Lizzie Wort’s essence of Marilyn Monroe
The Russian is Homecoming: Comedy turn Olga Koch tries to figure out “who the heck she is” at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow
GODBER’S comedy, protest art, Russian and American comedy, an adventurous Scott, a DH Lawrence spoof, one of the Wainwrights, operatic Handel, Turkish songs, mountainous films and Velma’s witches find Charles Hutchinson spoilt for choice.
Yorkshire play of the week: John Godber Company in John Godber’s Sunny Side Up!, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 1.30pm, 7.30pm today; 7.30pm, tomorrow; 2.30pm, 7.30pm Saturday
Coastal comedy: John Godber and Jane Thornton in Sunny Side Up! at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Martha Godber
THE John Godber Company returns to the SJT with Sunny Side Up!, the coastal comedy premiered by the Godbers in a family bubble in the Round last autumn.
In Godber’s moving account of a struggling Yorkshire coast B&B and the people who run it, down-to-earth proprietors Barney, Cath and Tina share stories of awkward clients, snooty relatives and eggs over easy.
Writer-director Godber plays Barney and Graham alongside his wife, fellow writer Jane Thornton, and daughter, Martha Godber. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
Activist-artist Richard Lees’ campaigning prints are on show at York College
Exhibition of the week: Richard Lees, Justice, York College gallery, until October 21, open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
A STALWART activist Hull artist once at the heart of the Rock Against Racism movement is exhibiting four decades of prints in his first York show, with his latest justice campaign project to the fore.
The exhibition title, Justice, is derived from printmaker Richard Lees’s linocuts inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I feel that all art has some element of politics in it, even if it’s to distract you,” he says. Entry is free but booking is essential via yorkcollege.ac.uk.
Barron’s night: Sara Barron will keep her Enemies Closer in York on Saturday
Comedy at the double at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York: Olga Koch, Homecoming, tomorrow (8/10/2021); Sara Barron, Enemies Closer, Saturday, both 8pm
BORN in Russia, educated at an American school in Staines, and now starring over here on Mock The Week and in her own BBC Radio 4 show, Olga Koch is touring her third show.
New passport in hand, tomorrow Olga will try to figure out who the heck she is as an immigrant and certified teen drama queen.
Saturday’s headline act, no-holds-barred Sara Barron, from Chicago, Illinois, is on her first British tour, examining kindness, meanness, ex-boyfriends, current husbands, all four of her remaining friends and two of her 12 enemies in Enemies Closer. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Mike Scott: Back at York Barbican with Memphis keyboard player Brother” Paul Brown, Irish electric fiddler Steve Wickham, drummer Ralph Salmins and bassist Aongus Ralston on Saturday
Return of the week: An Evening With The Waterboys, York Barbican, Saturday, 8pm
FROM the “Big Music” of the mid-1980s, to the Celtic swell of Fisherman’s Blues, to all manner of soul, rock, blues and folk since then, Mike Scott has been ever the adventurer with The Waterboys.
Last year came their 14th studio album, August 2020’s Good Luck, Seeker, and seekers of those songs in a live format should venture to the band’s regular York haunt this weekend. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Turning Lady Chatterley’s Lover upside down: Subversive writer-actor Lawrence Russell in a shocking moment for Lord Chatterley in Happy Idiot’s Not: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Send-up show of the week: Happy Idiot in Not: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
HAPPY Idiot team up with Worthing Theatres to rip through Lawrence Russell’s subversive, witty and, yes, rude parody of D H Lawrence’s once-banned bodice-ripper.
Russell’s Lord Chatterley will be joined in Ben Simpson’s cast by Christina Baston’s Lady Chatterley, Wesley Griffith’s Mellors and Rebecca McClay’s Mrs Bolton, with Chris Jamieson as the narrator and a score by Savage & Spies, for an evening of high drama, high comedy and highly raised eyebrows. Box office: 01439 772112 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk
Turkish delight in song: Olcay Bahir in her National Centre for Early Music debut on Sunday
World music concert of the week: Olcay Bayir, Dream For Anatolia, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
TURKISH singer Olcay Bayour makes her NCEM debut with her four-piece band, performing songs from her albums Neva and Rüya (Dream).
Born in the historical city of Gaziantep, she moved to Britain as a teenager and trained in opera. Now she showcases ancient poems and original songs in Turkish, Kurdish, and Armenian, reflecting her Anatolian heritage, wrapped in music of deep roots yet applied with contemporary, sophisticated arrangements, suffused with irresistible rhythms. Box office: 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk.
On fire: English Touring Opera in Handel’s Amadigi at York Theatre Royal
Two nights at the opera: English Touring Opera in Handel’s Amadigi, York Theatre Royal, Monday and Tuesday, 7.30pm
ENGLISH Touring Opera returns with James Conway’s new production of Handel’s “magic opera” Amadigi on a tour where William Towers and Tim Morgan share the title role.
Francesca Chiejina and Jenny Stafford play sorceress Melissa, whose infatuation with Amadigi drives her to imprison his love Oriana (Harriet Eyley) and torment him and his companion turned rival, Dardano (Rebecca Afonwy-Jones), with shape-shifting spells and devilish devices. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Taking to the mountains: Spectacle galore at Tuesday’s BANFF Mountain Film Festival night at York Barbican
Film scenery of the week: BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour, York Barbican, Tuesday, 7.30pm
THE BANFF Mountain Film Festival joins the world’s best adventure filmmakers and explorers as they push themselves to the limits in the most remote, breath-taking corners of the globe.
Witness epic human-powered feats, life-affirming challenges and mind-blowing cinematography on the big screen in a new collection of short films. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Rufus Wainwright: Follow him to York Barbican on Wednesday to discover how to Unfollow The Rules
Rule-breaker of the week ahead: Rufus Wainwright: Unfollow The Rules Tour, York Barbican, Wednesday, doors 7pm
CANADIAN singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will be accompanied by a new band, under guitarist Brian Green’s musical direction, for his set of arch classics and new cuts from his latest album.
“I consider Unfollow the Rules my first fully mature album; it is like a bookend to the beginning of my career,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Under discussion: David Suchet’s Poirot years and much more besides from a 52-year career on stage and screen
Chat show of the week ahead: David Suchet, Poirot And More, A Retrospective, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 3pm and 8pm
DAVID Suchet is retracing his steps as a young actor on a tour of 20 theatres in conversation with Geoffrey Wansell, journalist, broadcaster, biographer and co-author of Poirot And Me.
Suchet, 75, will be looking back fondly on his illustrious five-decade career, shedding new, intimate light on his most beloved performances as they discuss the actor behind the Belgian detective and the many characters he has portrayed on stage and screen. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“Out come the witches, creeps and freaks,” promises York vocal drag queen Velma Celli for a Halloweenish Equinox show at Impossible York
The glam night with the Halloweenish swish: The Velma Celli Show: Equinox, Impossible York Wonderbar, York, October 15, 7.30pm
YORK drag diva deluxe Velma Celli’s October residency night at Impossible York will be a Halloweenish twist on Velma’s Equinox show, the one with “witches, creeps and freaks”.
“I’ll be doing Hocus Pocus, I Put A Spell On You, Radiohead’s Creep, A Thousand Years from Twilight and much more gorgeous musical gore besides,” says Velma, the spectacular creation of musical theatre actor, cruise-ship headline act and Nola jazz singer Ian Stroughair. Box office: impossibleyork.com/wonderbar.
Sacconi Quartet’s Ben Hancox (violin), Robin Ashwell (cello), Hannah Dawson (violin) and Cara Berridge (cello): Performed Schubert’s incomparable String Quartet in C and York composer Nicola LeFanu’s newly commissioned Quartet, both a celebration and a reflection. Picture: Emilie Bailey
FORTUNE favours the brave. Back in May when the Covid outlook was far from clear, the British Music Society of York (BMS) took the courageous decision to go ahead with their 100th season in October. It had already been delayed a year.
This quintet – a string quartet with added cello – was the happy result, in a members-only evening last Friday.
Schubert’s incomparable String Quintet in C was preceded by the world premiere of an engaging new BMS commission for the same forces from Nicola LeFanu, one of the society’s two vice-presidents.
Titled simply Quintet and lasting some 20 minutes, it lives up to the composer’s typically lucid programme-note as a combination of celebration and reflection, which are mirrored in two contrasting themes. The faster of these provides a rondo motif while the slower inspires its diversions.
The device works excellently. The two cellos generally operate as a pensive pair, while the higher strings interrupt, sometimes intensely, always excitedly, often preferring a catchy iambic rhythm when not adding twinkling filigrees. But all of the instruments have something individual to say.
At the centre of the work is a solemn chorale, after which the second cello has a broad, yearning passage – which Tim Lowe attacked with relish. This is the signal for mounting urgency that is capped by a return to the opening cello duet at the close. Did I detect here the semitone with which Schubert so determinedly ends his quintet?
Second cellist Tim Lowe: “The engine” in Schubert’s String Quartet in C
The Sacconi and Lowe brought fervent application to their task, clearly enjoying its challenge. The music makes real sense on a first hearing, but would also repay deeper listening. It certainly commends itself as a partner to the Schubert.
Any players faced with one of the towering monuments of Western music will feel humbled. This manifests itself in different ways. Here there was a studied intensity to the first two movements of the Schubert, before an earthier Scherzo and a finale infused with the spirit of dance.
The mood of anticipation in the introduction was satisfied when the Allegro got going, but the repeat of the exposition was much tauter (and rhythms wittier too) than its first statement.
Second cellist Lowe was the engine, as in several places later, for the development section. He also ignited more fire in the middle of the slow movement – although the pregnant rests that followed were a tutti effort, before the heart of the Adagio hovered beautifully again.
In the Scherzo, the ensemble really began to relax, so much so that its Trio almost ground to a halt, it was so leisurely. In the circumstances, the return of the Scherzo came almost as a relief.
The finale, so often a let-down in this work, was anything but: there was even an element of mystery before the main theme returned. Doubt lingered as to whether all five players shared the same overall vision for this piece. But the BMS is back in business. Hurrah!
Colours From A Hot Land, inspired by Indian travels, by Simon Crawford
ACCORDING To McGee’s campaign to “alleviate anxiety caused by uncertain times” gathers pace with the duo exhibition Colour & Ceramics at the ever-revolving gallery in Tower Street, York.
No sooner has she launched her own collection Affirmations, in celebration of the reviving powers of tea, than artist and gallerist Ails McGee has curated a new show by Simon Crawford and David Austin Duckworth for the front gallery opposite Clifford’s Tower.
“Colour is underrated in Britain,” she says. “After 19 months of relentless bad news online and in the papers, it’s sometimes an obligation for creatives to stop reflecting the anger of the times and instead try and find a little optimism. That’s why there’s such an explosion of colour here at the moment.”
Colour & Ceramics sees the launch tomorrow of new collections from painter Simon Crawford and painter and ceramicist David Austin Duckworth, on the back of Crawford’s return from a trip to India.
Knaresborough artist Simon Crawford at work in his studio
“This has provided a portal into the theme of the exhibition,” says gallery co-director Greg McGee. “Simon’s art has been exhibited internationally, with shows in Moscow and, a little closer to home, at the Dean Clough galleries in Halifax, helping give this collection an extra heft and pull for collectors across the UK.
“But it’s also the fact Simon travels and soaks up his experiences with such obvious wonder and gratitude that imbues his paintings with such ripples of light and dark.
“To hear him talk of watching the Indian jungle come to life from his train window in the red light of the evening is thrilling, and then to hear him talk of how Covid-19 has decimated the shanty towns of Amritsar and Mumbai is a reminder that recent history has been a nightmare for millions of people.
Whinny Bank, Rievaulx, by Simon Crawford
“Art is never going to fix these problems, but it can be a hammer we can use to help shape our response. In this case, it’s a very colourful hammer.”
Crawford has brought back to his North Yorkshire studio a new appreciation of colour and energy, even filtering his depictions of North Yorkshire’s Whinny Bank at Rievaulx through the conduit of a Punjabi palette.
Looking forward to exhibiting at According To McGee, he says: “The concept is a brilliant one from the gallery: brightening these rather grim days through colour.
A David Austin Duckworth painting in the front window of According To McGee, York
“India is visually explosive and an eyes-out-on-stalks experience. A love affair was ignited by the intensity of the Indian palette. This show will set the visual taste buds tingling as the English autumn approaches.
“My work takes you on a journey through the Rajasthan landscape of pink saris against pale green and yellow mustard fields. India made me reimagine my vision of the English landscape.”
Complementing Crawford’s vivid compositions, fellow Knaresborough artist David Austin Duckworth continues his Cornwall Inspired collection in celebration of the elements, especially those found in Cornwall.
David Austin Duckworth in his studio
“Not all of us managed to get to Cornwall this summer, so experiencing David’s artwork is the next best thing. David’s paintings are alive with light and turquoise seas, and his Raku-fired ceramics ache with how precious nature is. Simon and David work well together, and it is a duality we’d like to continue to exhibit.”
Greg concludes: “We’re excited! There’s a whole load of reasons for people to visit York city centre; we like to think that contemporary art is increasingly up there at the top of the list.”
Simon Crawford & David Austin Duckworth: Colour & Ceramics runs at According To McGee, Tower Street, York, from October 7 to 21; open daily, 12 noon to 5pm, except Sundays, or by appointment on 07973 653702.
According To McGee gallerist Greg McGee with a painting by David Austin Duckworth
Lydia Hasoon left, as Imani, Halema Hussain as Aaliyah and Jag Sanghera as Hussain in Freedom Studios’ Aaliyah: After Antigone. Picture: Tim Smith
FREEDOM Studios will premiere Aaliyah: After Antigone as a simultaneous live performance and digital online experience at Impact Hub Bradford, Digital Exchange, Peckover Street, Bradford, from October 8 to 16.
From the intercultural theatre producers of Black Teeth And A Brilliant Smile and Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange and CARBON: Imagineering comes Bradford playwright Kamal Kaan’s new contemporary adaptation of Sophocles’s Greek tale, an examination of the fragile nature of citizenship that “makes us question our own relationship to ourselves and our country”.
Set in the local authority offices in Bradford, Aaliyah: After Antigone follows the plight of British Bangladeshi sisters Aaliyah and Imani as they seek to save their brother Syeed, who has been deported by the Home Office.
Aaliyah must rise up and face the might of the Home Secretary, Parveen Parvaiz, but Aaliyah’s political activism puts her own life in danger.
Directed by Alex Chisholm and Dermot Daly, the cast comprises Halema Hussain as Aaliyah, Lydia Hasoon as Imani, Jag Sanghera as Hussain and Siddiqua Akhtar as Parveen Parvaiz. Design is by Miriam Nabarro and sound design by Ed Clarke.
Kamal Kaan has written for stage, screen, and radio, including Fathers Land In Mother Tongue (BBC Radio 4), On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring (Leeds Playhouse/BBC Radio Leeds) and The Weather Machine (SkyArts/Leeds Playhouse/Stage@Leeds), and was story consultant on Clio Barnard’s Ali + Ava, selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Kaan says of Aaliyah: After Antigone: “This modern adaptation of Antigone is about taking the essential drama from the original and transplanting it into our contemporary world. The two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, are now Aaliyah and Imani: two British-Bangladeshi sisters.
“With their own citizenship under threat, the play becomes a fierce battle of loyalty, family, love and politics, all set within the landscape of Bradford.”
Director Alex Chisholm adds: “We commissioned Aaliyah: After Antigone in late-2019 as a live/digital hybrid. Kamal, Carbon: Imagineering and Freedom Studios had previously collaborated in re-creating Tajinder Singh Hayer’s North Country as a streamed performance for Facebook Live.
“Fascinated by the theatrical possibilities of the digital medium, we wanted to create a piece that was digital and live at the same time. The story of Aaliyah was the result: simultaneously both present (at Impact Hub Bradford) and remotely digital (on your device) experiences that are equal but different.
“The past 18 months has underlined the relevance and resonance of this story, both in our enforced embrace of all things digital, but also the question of who gets to belong, who gets to be sacrificed, and who has to fight back.”
Tickets for the live performances are priced at Pay What You Can (£0/£4/£6/£10) and Pay What You Feel for the digital performance, available from freedomstudios.co.uk.
Aaliyah: After Antigone playwright Kamal Kaan. Picture: Tim Smith
Here Bradford playwright and actor Kamal Kaan answers questions on Aaliyah: After Antigone:
This project was commissioned as a live/digital hybrid wherein Freedom Studios and CARBON: Imagineering would explore “storycasting” and live digital art. How much did that influence your writing, Kamal?
“This project was always intended to be a hybrid show and was commissioned pre-Covid in 2019. With the limitations and social distance of Covid, it gave rise to the popularisation of digital work.
“The show was specifically created to be a hybrid experience as this would allow a wider audience and access to live theatre on a more national and global platform. I like to make work that doesn’t allow a building to be a barrier in terms of travel and access and hybrid work offers a generous way to invite a wider demographic.”
Why do a contemporary version of a Greek tragedy? Do you have a special interest in Greek tragedy?
“I’ve always loved the story of Antigone and studied it for A-Level, years before I knew I was ever going to be a writer. It was the first Greek tragedy I’d read and loved and it was an honour to have been asked by Freedom Studios to write my own contemporary version.
“The story still remains relevant for a modern audience as the themes of family, love, justice, faith are timeless and universal themes.”
How have you found the experience of working with Alex Chisholm?
“It was wonderful collaborating with Alex Chisholm, co-director and dramaturg for the play. Alex is of Greek heritage and her knowledge and passion for Greek literature is inspiring. The production then became a celebration of our cultures to create a contemporary Bengali-Hellenistic hybrid drama and it has been such a nurturing and joyous journey working with Alex. She also bakes the best cakes!”
Halema Hussain as Aaliyah in Aaliyah: After Antigone. Picture: Tim Smith
Aaliyah: After Antigone has been made for in-person and remote viewing experiences to be “different but equal”. How will it differ from the live-streaming of theatre shows that boomed during lockdown?
“What sets Aaliyah: After Antigone apart from streaming theatre is that it’s not a pre-record. It’s designed and will be produced more like a live television drama – with a five camera set-up – and what the audience watches on the digital stream is fed through software and an editor that will decide what’s the best shot for the audience to see from each camera.
“It’s very exciting as theatre is rarely produced like this. But to capture that exciting live element of theatre, by doing a broadcast like this, feels like the most honest way to give two types of audiences a similar theatrical experience.”
You were story consultant on Clio Bernard’s Ali + Ava. What did your role entail and did you make it to Cannes?
“As well as making my own work as a writer, I work as a dramaturg and script consultant. It was a dream come true to work with the most wonderful writer/director Clio Barnard (The Arbor, The Selfish Giant).
“I spent three years working with her on Ali + Ava: a love story set and filmed in Bradford. The process involved giving feedback on treatments, scripts, locations, character research, production and post-production. Working so closely with Clio gave me a detailed insight into the film-making process.
“Clio and myself were heartbroken not being able to go to Cannes for the red-carpet premiere due to travel restrictions and other commitments. However, I was invited to be with Clio for a virtual link-up up with Cannes for the screening! So yes, we were there in spirit.
“However, we will get to be there for the snazzy London premiere, during the same week as the production of Aaliyah: After Antigone. How wonderful to have the launch of two projects simultaneously.”
What’s next for you after Aaliyah: After Antigone? Any particular ambitions?
“I’m about to shoot my own BFI-funded short film that I’ve written and is being directed by the wonderful Bradford-based television director Dominic Leclerc. The ambition with this is to then turn the short film into a feature.
“I’ve also co-written my next BBC Radio 4 afternoon drama with the joyful Leeds writer Mary Cooper, due to be broadcast by the end of this year.
“I’m also working on a BBC TV series called The Secret Lives Of The Amir Sisters, adapted from the books by former Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, and I’ve pitched several ideas for my own BBC television drama. I also hope to collaborate with Clio Barnard again.”
Lydia Hasoon. left, and Halema Hussain in their roles as British Bangladeshi sisters Imani and Aaliyah. Picture: Tim Smith
What are the advantages – and disadvantages! – of living in Bradford, both in your personal life and your career. Do you ever have any thoughts of moving?
“I am Bradford born and bred from a large British-Bangladeshi working-class background. My father worked in the mills and was very proud to be a Bradfordian.
“Having lived away for several years while I undertook my undergraduate degree at Cambridge University and my Masters [in TV fiction writing] at Glasgow Caledonian University], I returned back home to Bradford due to personal reasons.
“I strongly objected against having to move to London to make it in the arts. I found, once I rooted myself back in my own city, my work began to flourish and I’m constantly and infinitely inspired by the people and landscape that envelope me. Bradford has the space to breathe and allows the mind to dwell and I’ve found that is crucial for the creative process.”
Aaliyah: After Antigone premieres as a simultaneous live and digital online performance from October 8 to 16, plus a British Sign Language-interpreted matinee on October 16 at 2pm. Tickets for the live performances are priced at Pay What You Can (£0/£4/£6/£10) and Pay What You Feel for the digital performances, available from freedomstudios.co.uk.
