There’s a ghost in the House: Robert Goodale as lawyer Arthur Kipps and Antony Eden as The Actor in The Woman In Black, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next month. Picture: Tristram Kenton
AFTER 547 days, the Grand Opera House, York, will step out of the darkness and into The Woman In Black from September 13.
Robert Goodale will star as lawyer Arthur Kipps and Antony Eden as The Actor in PW Productions’ tour of Stephen Mallatratt’s 1987 adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story.
The Woman In Black tells the tale of an elderly lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over his family by the spectre of a “Woman in Black” for 50 years now.
“For my health, my reason,” he says, “The story must be told. I cannot bear the burden any longer.”
Robert Goodale: Returning to the role of Arthur Kipps in The Woman In Black. Picture: Tristram Kenton
He duly engages a young actor to help him tell that story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul, but although it begins innocently enough, the deeper they delve into his darkest memories, the more the borders between make-believe and reality begin to blur and the flesh starts to creep.
The Woman In Black last spooked York audiences at the Theatre Royal in November 2019, after earlier runs there in February 2013 and November 2014. Hill’s ghost is no stranger to the Grand Opera House’s boards either.
Mallatratt’s splendidly theatrical stage adaptation had begun life as a bonus Christmas show at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1987 in novelist Susan Hill’s hometown of Scarborough, and this latest touring production still retains its original director and designer, Robin Herford and Michael Holt. Well, if it ain’t broke, etc etc.
Likewise, Goodale is returning to the role he played at the Theatre Royal in 2019 for a tour that takes in Bath, Guilford, Oxford, Malvern, Shrewsbury, Manchester, Brighton, Glasgow, York, Blackpool, Stoke and Edinburgh.
Robert Goodale, left, and Antony Eden in a scene from The Woman In Black. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Tickets for the Grand Opera House’s September 13 to 18 run are on sale at atgtickets.com/venues/grand-opera-house-york.
One final thought: as much as The Woman In Black is a ghost story first and foremost, in Mallatratt’s hands, it is also a celebration of the craft of acting, the power of storytelling and the role of the imagination. All the more reason to welcome the reopening of the Grand Opera House, a theatre with a ghost of its own.
Did you know?
THE show that ran the week before darkness descended on the Grand Opera House under the Covid cloud was…Ghost Stories, Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s “supernatural sensation”, from March 10 to 14 2020.
The Caretaker in Ghost Stories at the Grand Opera House, York, in March 2020
Round To Low Horcum, by Sue, Slack, taking part in Ryedale Open Studios at Barn Studio, Swiveynun, Lockton
RYEDALE Open Studios will run over two weekends, tomorrow and Sunday, then August 14 and 15, when 33 artists will take part from 10am to 5pm each day.
The newly formed Vault Arts Centre Community Interest Company, at The Old Bank, Piercy End, Kirkbymoorside, is coordinating the inaugural event, celebrating the creativity and artistic talent of the Ryedale district.
Artists, makers and creators will welcome visitors, offering both an exclusive glimpse into their workplaces and the opportunity to buy art works directly.
Layla Khoo, co-founder of the Vault Arts Centre with Kirsty Kirk and Petra Young, says: “We’re very excited to start our first Ryedale Open Studios this year. After more than a year of seriously hampered activities for many, including artists, we now have the opportunity to show our own community, as well as visitors, the wealth of creativity Ryedale has to offer.’
Participating artist Sue Slack says:“Having taken part in an Open Studios every year for the past 15, it was a great disappointment not to be able to open my studio doors to the public in 2020. The great thing with open studios is the chance to meet with people who are interested in your art; in the processes as well as the finished picture.
“I’m really looking forward to Ryedale Open Studios and am thankful for the opportunity to be able to show my work again in the place it was created.”
Phillip Spurr, Ryedale District Council’s programme director for economic development, business and partnerships, says: “It’s great to see the inaugural Ryedale Open Studios taking place this summer, a testament to the hard work of all those involved. Ryedale is known for its artistic community, and it’s fantastic that so many are participating in what we hope will become a regular event showcasing Ryedale’s creative talent.”
A downloadable map of the artists’ locations can be found at: ryedaleopenstudios.com/map. For full details of all the artists, go to: ryedaleopenstudios.com/
Who are the Ryedale Open Studios artists?
Philip Barraclough, art pencil, watercolours, spanning human forms and landscapes, at Netherby House, Huttons Ambo, near York.
Kate Bentley, oil painting and charcoal drawing, focusing on animals and human subjects, at 22 Dale End, Kirkbymoorside.
Harriet Braithwaite, acrylic painting, at 23, Castlegate, Kirkbymoorside. Graduated in set design for television and film from University of South Wales.
Robert Broughton, photography, at The Courtyard, Dalby Forest Drive, Low Dalby, near Pickering.
Cathartic fine art photography informed by Buddhist philosophy, psychoanalysis and contemplative practices.
Pauline Brown, drawings and paintings around Farndale during lockdown, at The Courtyard, Dalby Forest Drive, Low Dalby, near Pickering
Susan Brunskill, artist, illustrator and animator, at Rutland Grange, Chapel Lane, Harome, by appointment only on 01439 741039 or 07973 331586.
Exhibiting watercolour and oil portraits of people, dogs and horses. Also makes Susel & Co stationery (artisan notecards, greetings cards and original art).
Sarah Cawthray, ceramics for garden, reflecting love of the coast, at West Garth, 23, Castlegate, Kirkbymoorside.
Soon to graduate from York College University Centre with degree in contemporary craft; will then set up ceramic studio at home.
Angela Cole, modern basket designer-maker in woven willow, deeply rooted in heritage skills, at Westow Grange Cottage, Westow, near York.
Makes functional baskets, sculptural woodland baskets and garden plant supports inspired by woodland coppicing style, willow harvest and found wild materials.
Aeva Denham, painting and mixed media, at The Courtyard, Dalby Forest Drive, Low Dalby, near Pickering.
Her work “conveys a message and emotion about social injustices or more personal topics, such as mental health”. Newly graduated from Fine Art BA degree course at York St John University.
Suzie Devey, printmaker, at Vault Studio Space, 5 Piercy End, Kirkbymoorside, studio closed on August 8.
“Don’t miss my Two Tin Cans installation as it’s easy to mistake it for an ordinary red telephone box!” she says. “Inside you will discover a miniature, fully working printmaking studio with everything you need to make your own tiny linocut print.”
Ione Harrison, landscapes and seascapes in watercolour, now incorporating imprints from plants, such as fern or grass, at Vault Studio Space, 5 Piercy End, Kirkbymoorside.
Inspired by sweeping vistas of Yorkshire’s moors and wild hills, her paintings seek to “move beyond the merely physical towards a more metaphysical or spiritual truth”.
Art photographer Peter Heaton
Peter Heaton, art photography, and Peter Maris, sculpture, at Courtyard, Low Dalby, Thornton le Dale.
This exhibition is an artist residency collaboration with photographer Heaton and sculptor Maris, commissioned by Forestry England and Arts Council England. Works are inspired by very particular forest environment and how it flourishes and changes through natural processes and human activity.
Christine Hughes, textile designer and home interior designer, at The Gallery, 7 Market Place, Malton.
Specialises in handmade, hand-painted fabric lampshades and soft furnishings. Her collections include tableware, homewares, contemporary pattern design and framed illustrations and prints.
Alex Jones, oil paintings of British wildlife, at The Little Red House Studio, Abbey Farm, Low Moor, Rillington.
Fascinated by animals’ behaviour, character and form, from the smallest bird to the mightiest stag. “I’m lucky on the farm to see many of the animals I paint on a daily basis: deers, hares, foxes, badgers, barn owls and pheasants,” she says.
Layla Khoo, multi-media 3D artist, specialising in ceramics and site-specific installations, Vault Arts Centre, The Old Bank, Piercy End, Kirkbymoorside.
Often chooses to create her ceramic work for its broad range of historical connotations, from everyday tableware to satire and sculpture.
Yasmin Lari, woven textile designer for Yasmin’s Warp and Weft, at Westgarth, 23 Castlegate, Kirkbymoorside.
Her work combines old and new, inspired by Islamic art, research into her Persian roots and colours in an ever-changing world.
Anna Matyus, printmaker, at Welburn Hall Farmhouse, Flatts Lane, Welburn, Kirkbymoorside.
Inspired by patterns and textures from the natural world and architecture at North Yorkshire historical heritage sites. Specialises in collagraph printmaking, a method that creates layers of texture and a richness of surface.
Carol Messham, watercolour painter and polymer clay artist, at 41 Feversham Drive, Kirkbymoorside.
Draws inspiration from plants, flowers, birds and bees. Trained in landscape architecture; ran garden design business for 20 years.
Heather Niven, painting and ceramic sculpture, at Wayward Studio Gallery, Station House, Kirkham Abbey, Whitwell on the Hill.
After 30 years as a painter and 2D artist, now exploring 3D world of hand-thrown pottery and ceramic sculpture too. Loves colour, dark corners and rhythms of nature.
Alice O’Neill, papercut and collage, at Barmoors, Hutton-le-Hole.
Uses many different types of paper, mostly handmade and hand dyed, from India, China, Japan, Italy and made from grasses, bark and other vegetation. Hand colourist by profession, working for picture framers and book binders.
Amanda Pickles, acrylic and mixed-media paintings, at Allotment Studio, 19 Maundon Avenue, Pickering.
Likes to get the feeling of a place or a moor with the weather, sounds, smells and changing seasons in her work, leading to Deep Earth series.
Jen Ricketts, silversmith and jeweller, at North Croft, Boonhill Road, Fadmoor, York.
Latest work concentrates on making bespoke functional silverware of intricate city skylines, intriguing silhouettes of British countryside and capturing childhood memories of park scenes and fairground carousels.
Meg Ricketts, painter and printmaker, North Croft, Boonhill Rd, Fadmoor, York.
Interested in concept of slowing down and seeing small details in nature – colour, pattern and constant change – as seasons unfold. Favours acrylics and oils; experimenting with painting onto wood.
Rachel Rimell, photography, at Beechwood, 68 Middlecave Road, Malton.
Examines the individual through the prism of transitions and liminal spaces, connections and shared experiences and the human condition. Two self-published books have explored themes of motherhood and identity.
Charlotte Salt, tactile and intuitively made ceramics, at The Gallery, 7 Market Place, Malton.
Enjoys the meditative, grounding processes of handling the clay, a rhythmic physical act involving the senses. Draws on ancient ephemera and passion for collecting found fragments and objects.
Sue Slack, acrylic landscape painter in layered colours, at Barn Studio, Swiveynun, Lockton, Pickering.
Enthusiasm for fell running has taken her to new places, both mentally and physically, influencing work that attracts walkers and cyclists. Upcoming is a four-month sabbatical to embark on new painting journey in Ullapool.
Susan Slann, oil painter and linocut and woodcut printmaker, at 1 Langton Road, Norton-on-Derwent.
Work explores powerful connection between nature, landscape and human emotion.
Patrick Smith, painter and printmaker of landscapes and seascapes, at Nesslyn, West End, Sheriff Hutton, York.
Paints “landscapes of the mind” where poetry and an unfolding process is allowed full reign and “you, the viewer, are co-opted into the image’s final resolution”.
Iona Stock, ceramics, at Hollymead, Snape Hill, Nawton.
Set up her own studio after graduating from University of Sunderland in 2020 with first-class degree in glass and ceramics. Hopes her everyday pieces “bring a little piece of my paradise into your home”.
Ros Walker, ceramics and painting, at Wayward Studio Gallery, Station House, Kirkham Abbey, York.
Creates brightly coloured functional stoneware bowls, mugs and plates; sculptural art ceramic pieces, non-functional vessels and jewellery, plus mixed-media acrylic landscapes.
Susan Walsh, eco-printed textiles and paper, employing botanical mark-making, at Pasture House, Cawton, York.
Uses leaves, flowers and seeds to create wraps, scarves, wall hangings, framed pieces, journals, cards, cushions and bags.
Justine Warner, textile and mixed-media artist, at Laburnum Cottage, West End, Sheriff Hutton, York.
“The canvas of my work is predominantly made from neck ties,” she says. “The beautiful textures and patterns of the fabric are sewn together to make backgrounds for North Yorkshire and Howardian Hills landscapes that can be mistaken for paintings”. Fabrics, wools and thread are used to layer, blend and paint recycled materials.
Mishka Rushdie Momen: “Thirty years old next year, but showing the wisdom and musicality of one twice her age”
Ryedale Festival: Young Artist Day, Mishka Rushdie Momen, All Saints, Hovingham, July 30
SUPERLATIVES are always dangerous, but this morning event was one of the most satisfying piano recitals I have ever had the privilege of attending.
Partly it was the range of repertory covered in not much more than one hour: Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Ligeti and Schubert. But most of all it was the sheer brilliance of this young pianist, 30 years old next year, but showing the wisdom and musicality of one twice her age.
Mishka – she too, like others at this festival, will surely forever be recognisable by her first name alone – hinged her programme on fantasias by Mozart and Schubert, the one in C minor, the other in C major.
But she began with Bach’s C major Prelude and Fugue from Book I of The Well-tempered Clavier, a piece beloved of almost every would-be pianist. The prelude was impeccably smooth, whereas the fugue was notable for its unexpected drama.
In Mozart’s Fantasia, it was if there were an ogre prowling in the bass. Its first appearance was aggressive, but its anger gradually softened until it was tamed into a mere growl. Metaphors aside, Mishka drew marked but subtle contrasts between the work’s intense and melodic poles.
Schumann’s Impromptus On A Romance Of Clara Wieck takes a theme she had sent him and develops it into nine variations (in the revised version of 1850, ten years after they were married). Mishka did much more than merely highlight the two facets of Schumann’s character, poetic and impulsive, and she delivered an exceptionally tender postlude. It all made a pleasing interlude.
The fleeting magic of Ligeti’s Tenth Étude, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, was used as introduction to an unforgettable account of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. John Warrack’s typically urbane programme-note referred to this as “a seminal masterpiece”. It is indeed an Everest of the repertoire, not lightly undertaken. That the whole piece, over an unbroken 20 minutes, is built around a dactylic rhythm makes it all the more remarkable, on a par with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and equally symphonic.
Mishka’s vision encompassed the whole work. She opened boldly, holding nothing back. So the second theme sounded all the more tender by contrast, a haven of peace before it was interrupted. She even made something of Schubert’s bridge – little more than a doodle, in truth – leading into the Adagio, which at first had the solemnity of a funeral march. As the bass became much more active, she still sustained a beautifully controlled line in the right hand.
The sheer theatre of the Scherzo was enhanced by the rapid downward ripples of her left hand, which were frankly breath-taking. The final fugue was sternly enunciated but still unfolded with incredible clarity.
By now hearts were in mouths at her Olympian virtuosity. With eyes closed, I would have sworn I was listening to Alfred Brendel with a feminine touch. And she still had enough left in the tank for an eloquent encore, which I took to be Schubert’s Hungarian melody in B minor. This young lady is thrillingly talented. Ryedale must have her back – soon.
The look of a man who has just heard Graham Chalmers’ question: Ralph Fiennes in Four Quartets at York Theatre Royal
DISCOVER Charles Hutchinson’s answer in Episode 53 of Chalmers & Hutch’s arts podcast Two Big Egos In A Small Car.
Also under discussion are digging out your Harry Potter first editions; Graham’s review of a long-overdue documentary appreciation of undervalued music filmmaker Tony Palmer; Amy Winehouse, ten years gone, and dreamers versus schemers.
David Taylor as Richard Carrol, left, Emma Turner as Tucker, Stewart Mathers as Dan Lucas and Karen Nadin as Tinger in a rehearsal scene from The Local Authority
LET York writer-director Tom Wilson introduce The Local Authority, his new anarchic farce framed around a chaotic, fractious local council emergency budget meeting.
“It’s very much a black comedy about embezzlement, chaotic, dysfunctional individuals and families and a community trying to come to grips with the burgeoning Covid pandemic,” he says. “The play has a lot of adult themes, such as drug taking and alcoholism, zany sex workers, high-level council corruption, irrational budget and public amenity cuts, disintegrating relationships and canines in nappies.”
City Of York Council’s financial conduct may be making the headlines this week, but we’ll leave that for another day, another play.
That said, Salford lad Wilson has his own experience of working for the local authority, as a drug and alcohol education advisor. “I thought I was being paid to take theatre around schools, but I ended up training the staff, the police, local colleges, universities,” he recalls. “It got very complex, and in the end, I did what writers do. I left.”
He also did what writers do: he kept writing, and now comes The Local Authority, his fifth play in 25 years, not a revenge play as such, but one where the inner Joe Orton is at work, sending up the failings of those charged with power.
Wilson has had to spend time in hospital, facing “death or amputation”, with the need to “get this gunge out”, ending up in the Covid ward to boot. He was in and out three times.
Metaphorically, The Local Authority is another way of “getting the gunge out”, Wilson having written “nonsense poetry and prose to get through the day” and make sense of the pandemic pandemonium and his ailing health.
The result is a messy play about messed-up times, fevered and fever-browed, erratic in performance and devil-may-care in spirit, a “pantomime on acid” by the end of its shorter second act.
Catching it on dress-rehearsal night meant there were bumps in the road, but like potholes, they may well still be there tomorrow and the week after, for that matter, if the play were still running.
A devotee of theatre of the absurd, Tom Wilson does not deal in clean-cut, awfully nice, middle-class drama: he prefers the nitty-gritty, the earthy, the punk, the warts, the boils, the gunge and all. It isn’t pretty and it is often foul-mouthed, in the way that Shameless is, but it is also “tongue in cheek, never serious” in a chance to “laugh at our oppressor and reclaim our smiles and freedom”.
What’s the story? Ruder and wilder than the infamous Handforth Parish Council meeting that went viral when we all needed a laugh in Lockdown 1, at its epicentre is Karen Nadin’s Lesley Carrol.
Hosting the aforementioned council emergency budget meeting on Zoom, as the Jackie Weaver of the piece, she is firm at first but gradually worse for wear, as council officers make ever more draconian, yet worryingly feasible, suggestions for £300,000 cuts that would not be out of place in a George Orwell dystopian futurist novel.
What’s novel? For the first act, the cast members are lined up on tables with tablets or laptops but also appear on Zoom, the defining motif of Covid times, on the screen behind them.
The Zoom feed is live and unpredictable, occasionally freezing and not always showing who is speaking but often focused on Rowan Naylor-Mayers’ wannabe soap actor Neil, or Kate Hargrave’s hippy Christine Nunn with her psychedelic Zoom background, or Joel Cambell’s Paul Engers, who has chosen to be pictured in front of a palm-treed paradise.
The first act is too long, not least because the actors are largely static in their seats, except when Wilson has them step out front to deliver their proposed cuts, to add to the sense of absurdity.
He plays his ace in introducing the oil in the ointment, the slick council job executioner Dan Lucas (Stewart Mathers), to deliver his black-cap verdicts on who stays and who goes, as the climax of the first hour.
Post-interval, The Local Authority becomes a more conventional, quicker-moving farce in Orton style in a swish flat. Corruption, cocaine, sex workers (Nadin’s Tinger and Emma Turner’s Tucker, in a deadpan scene-stealing cameo), the council bigwig (David Taylor’s Richard Carrol) and a policeman (Martin Handsley) are thrown into the maelstrom that envelops the potty-mouthed Lucas and his dippy acolyte Neil.
More spit than polish, more whack-a-mole than guacamole, The Local Authority is a tour de farce that goes off the rails, applies a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel, and is often blunt rather than sharp, but as ugly agit-prop theatre for 2021, it hits home hard.
Wilson also coins one of the best phrases for this age of pandemic deaths and ecological recklessness. “Nature has lost its temper,” bemoans the plastered Lesley. How right she is.
Naloxone Theatre Ensemble presents Tom Wilson’s premiere of The Local Authority, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, August 5 to 7, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
Emilio Iannucci, who will switch between The Ringmaster and Phileas Fogg, in rehearsal for York Theatre Royal’s circus-themed production of Around The World In 80 Days
YORK Theatre Royal is going global, visiting all four corners of York in 23 days with its summer family show Around The World In 80 Days.
Not in a hot-air balloon, but on a trailer, whose sides can be dropped down for the set to be built around, in the tradition of travelling players going from town to town.
“It’s not quite a pop-up theatre, but we can certainly taking everything around in the trailer,” says writer-director Juliet Forster.
After overseeing last winter’s debut Travelling Pantomime on its tour of 16 of York’s 21 wards, Theatre Royal creative director Juliet is taking her circus-themed adaptation of the Jules Verne novel to four York playing fields from tomorrow (August 6) to August 21. The last stop will be back at York Theatre Royal from August 25 to 28.
“Around The World In 80 Days is one of those titles that I’d had in the back of my mind, because it’s familiar, and such shows have worked well for us in the summertime,” says Juliet.
“Then, with all the disappointment of restrictions around travelling abroad still affecting plans for holidays, the story came back into my mind, possibly ironically, because we couldn’t go to all these places, but we could do so in a play.
Juggling roles: New Zealander Eddie Mann, who will play The Knife Thrower and Detective Fox in Juliet Forster’s production of Around The World In 80 Days
“Though it still took a little longer to make a final decision on it because none of the existing adaptations appealed.”
She took the matter into her hand: not only would she direct the show, but she would provide the new adaptation herself too in a “perfect opportunity for some armchair tourism – or, rather, picnic-blanket tourism”.
“I did the first draft in April, spending pretty much every day on it, and then did the second and third drafts over the next two months, in bits and pieces, when time allowed,” says Juliet, who also was at the helm of York Theatre Royal’s reopening show, Love Bites, on May 17 and 18.
She promises a “joyful, very energetic, very silly and highly acrobatic re-telling of the Verne’s adventure of Reform Club gentleman traveller Phileas Fogg, delivering the kind of experience that live theatre does best”, but that tells only half the story in the new two-hour version.
“Jules Verne’s tale is a lot of fun as the characters race against time to complete a full circuit of the Earth, but now fact and fiction go head to head as real-life investigative journalist Nellie Bly puts in an appearance,” says Juliet.
How come? “One of the things I felt with Verne’s text was that although it was a fun idea – I’d seen the film, but I’d never read the book – when I did come to read it, it didn’t sum up the atmosphere of each place as much as I’d expected, because Fogg was whizzing around the world, so it didn’t give as much detail as I would have liked.
Roll up, roll up for Ulrika Krishnamurti’s circus skills as The Trick Rider in Around The World In 80 Days
“There was a risk that a show would have a stuffy gentlemen’s club, outdated feel to because it’s a male-dominated story, so I thought, ‘how do we make it a play for today?’. That’s when I decided to put Nellie Bly’s story in there too.”
For the uninitiated, Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, an American journalist, industrialist, inventor and charity worker, who made her own record-breaking trip around the world – and did so with more alacrity than the fictional Fogg.
“When I worked with the Out Of Character company on Objects Of Terror, set in a Victorian cellar, the journalist character was based on Nellie, who had got herself committed to an asylum to blow the lid on what went on inside,” says Juliet.
“Nellie set the record for the fastest crossing of land and sea, and how ironic that we all know the fictional story of Phileas Fogg, and yet we don’t know about the real-life woman who did the same journey and did it quicker!
“So, I read her book about going around the world: a beautiful piece of travel journalism with such lovely detail, and I thought, ‘maybe we should just do her story’, but then I decided, ‘no, let’s look at finding a form for a play that fits bit both stories in’.
“Jules Verne’s story is out of copyright, so there were no complications over doing that.”
Balancing act: Ali Azhar preparing to play The Clown, as well as Passepartout, in Around The World In 80 Days
Juliet never settles for the easy option. “I can’t do a play without going, ‘why am I doing it now?’. I have to ask myself, ‘what is the relevance to today?’, and I think this adaptation brings a whole new perspective to it, but the Jules Verne story is very much still in there,” she says.
She has given the story a circus setting, a manoeuvre that frees up the imagination and removes the need for a big West End-style or silver screen budget. “It’s an opportunity to do it in an ultra-theatrical way,” says Juliet.
“We can use some of the skills we have in the cast to capture the essence of movement, as it’s story full of the joy of being on the move, so it stretches the limits of what we can do and it takes us to all these places, with sounds and music tipping our imagination into visualising each of them.”
One surprise will be the lack of hot-air balloon, but wait… “There is no hot-air balloon in the book! They put one in the 1956 film, the one with David Niven as Phileas Fogg, and it’s been in every version since,” says Juliet. “It’s even on the book cover now! We’ll make a sly reference to it, so watch out!
“I think the other reason the balloon is embedded in our heads because Jules Verne’s first successful book was called Five Weeks In A Balloon.”
Fittingly for a story rooted in international travel, Juliet’s cast has an international flavour: Emilio Iannucci, who will play The Ringmaster and Phileas Fogg, is of Italian heritage; French-Moroccan actor Ali Azhar, born in Paris, will be The Clown and Passepartout; Ulrika Krishnamurti, a singer of Indian classical music, will be The Trick Rider and Aouda, and Eddie Mann, in the roles of The Knife Thrower and Detective Fox, is a New Zealander who moved over here a decade ago.
In the basket: Contortionist Dora Rubinstein fits in some practice for playing The Acrobat in Around The World In 80 Days
“Although I wanted to have an international flavour to the show, I wasn’t sure I’d get it,” reveals Juliet. “But I knew Ali had a great French accent, as well as being a good mover, from seeing him in Shakespeare Rose Theatre’s Henry V in 2019, and so he was ideal for Passepartout.
“I’d seen Ulrika in Katie Posner’s production of Made In India when it came to the Theatre Royal Studio, where she really stood out as being fun and very playful.
“With Eddie, I’d actually forgotten he was a New Zealander until we spoke on Zoom, but that’s what circus is: international. It shouldn’t just be British voices!”
York Theatre Royal in Around The World In 80 Days:
Carr Junior School, August 6, 7pm; August 7, 3pm and 7pm; August 8, 2pm and 6pm.
Copmanthorpe Primary School, August 10, 7pm; August 11 and 12, 3pm and 7pm.
Archbishop Holgate’s School, August 14, 7pm; August 15, 2pm and 6pm; Aug 16, 3pm and 7pm.
Joseph Rowntree School, August 18, 7pm; August 19, 3pm and 7pm; August 20, 7pm; August 21, 2pm and 6pm.
York Theatre Royal, August 25 to 28, 2pm and 7pm. Signed performance: August 26, 2pm.
Suitable for age 7+. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Writer-director Juliet Forster: “Delivering the kind of experience that live theatre does best”
The Trials Of Cato’s Tomos Williams and Robin Jones with new addition Polly Bolton
STORM warning! The trials of Yorkshire’s weather are driving The Trials Of Cato indoors for tonight’s gig in Pocklington.
Out goes an open-air acoustic session in the sylvan setting of Primrose Wood; in comes a 7pm concert at Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) after the forecast of Macbethian conditions: definitely rain and possibly thunderstorms too.
An explanatory statement from director Janet Farmer and venue manager James Duffy reads: “Tonight’s Primrose Wood event with The Trials Of Cato is being transferred to PAC due to the heavy rain forecast – Met Office update at 10am – from late afternoon.
“This is to ensure artist, staff and customer safety and comfort before, during and after the event at PAC, which will not be socially distanced BUT will be at 50 per cent capacity and the auditorium will have medical-grade air purifiers in use throughout.”
The statement continues: “Face coverings are strongly encouraged but not a requirement. All venue staff will be wearing them throughout the performance and have undergone lateral flow tests in advance. Doors will open at 6pm and the show will start at 7pm, as originally advertised.” BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners The Trials Of Cato were the third Primrose Wood Acoustics headliners to be confirmed for this summer, in the wake of sold-out shows organised by PAC featuring Scunthorpe-born virtuoso guitarist, singer and songwriter Martin Simpson and East Yorkshire singer-songwriter Katie Spencer on July 1 and Leeds indie-folk/Americana band The Dunwells and York singer-songwriter Rachel Croft a week later.
Hailed by Mark Radcliffe, The Folk Show host on BBC Radio 2, as “one of the real discoveries on the folk circuit in recent times”, The Trials Of Cato won Best Album at the 2019 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for their debut, Hide And Hair.
Formed in Beirut, when Tomos Williams, Will Addison and Robin Jones were working in Lebanon as English teachers, the trio had returned to Britain in 2016. Here, they set about performing tirelessly up and down the country with their stomping tunes and captivating stories that paid homage to the tradition while twisting old bones into something more febrile and modern.
Hide And Hair’s release in November 2018 was greeted with airplay on BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and thumbs-up coverage in national publications, while mastering engineer John Davis, who worked with Jimmy Page on the Led Zeppelin remasters, memorably dubbed them “The Sex Pistols of folk”.
After a year of wall-to-wall touring across the UK, Europe and North America, however, the band’s march was halted by the stultifying silence of the global pandemic, but now they are emerging anew from their transformative chrysalis.
“The Trials continue,” they say, but this time, after Addison’s departure, Williams and Jones are joined by Leamington Spa multi-instrumentalist and singer Polly Bolton, from The Magpies, for their hotly anticipated second album.
Set for release later this year (precise date yet to be confirmed), Gog Magog is named both after the mythical giant of Arthurian legend and the Cambridgeshire hilltop, where the new album was birthed over lockdown.
Should ticket holders need to contact PAC, please ring 01759 301547.
James Lewis Knight, left, as Jimmy and Matt Stradling as James in Next Door But One’s library tour of Operation Hummingbird in York
GO forth and multiply the chance to see the summer spurt of theatre, musicals and outdoor shows, urges Charles Hutchinson, who also highlights big gig news for autumn and March 2022.
Breaking the library hush: Next Door But One in Operation Hummingbird, in York, today and August 12
YORK community arts collective Next Door But One are teaming up with Explore York for a library tour of Matt Harper-Harcastle’s 45-minute play Operation Hummingbird.
James Lewis Knight plays Jimmy and Matt Stradling, James, in a one-act two-hander that takes the form of a conversation across the decades about a sudden family death, realising an opportunity that we all wish we could do at some point in our life: to go back and talk to our younger self.
Today’s Covid-safe performances are at 3.30pm at New Earswick Folk Hall and 7pm, Dringhouses Library; August 12, York Explore, 2pm, and Hungate Reading Café, 7pm. Box office: nextdoorbutone.co.uk.
Exit-kitchen-sink drama: Ashley Hope Allan as bored Liverpool housewife Shirley, planning a holiday to Greece in Esk Valley Theatre’s production of Shirley Valentine. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Play launch of the week outside York: Esk Valley Theatre in Shirley Valentine, Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, near Whitby, tonight until August 28
ESK Valley Theatre complete a hattrick of Willy Russell plays with Shirley Valentine from tonight, under the direction of artistic director Mark Stratton as usual.
In Russell’s one-woman show, Coronation Street star Ashley Hope Allan plays middle-aged, bored Liverpool housewife Shirley in a story of self-discovery as she takes a holiday to Greece with a friend, who promptly abandons her for a holiday romance. Left alone, Shirley meets charming taverna owner Costas. Box office: 01947 897587 or at eskvalleytheatre.co.uk.
It’s here at last! Heathers The Musical opens its delayed tour at Leeds Grand Theatre tonight. Picture: Pamela Raith
Musical of the week outside Leeds, Heathers The Musical, Leeds Grand Theatre, tonight until August 14
HEATHERS The Musical launches its touring production in Leeds from tonight with choreography by Gary Lloyd, who choreographed the debut York Stage pantomime last Christmas.
Produced by Bill Kenwright and Paul Taylor-Mills and directed by American screen and stage director Andy Fickman, this high-octane, dark-humoured rock musical is based on the Winona Ryder and Christian Slater cult teen movie.
The premise: Westerberg High pupil Veronica Sawyer (Rebecca Wickes) is just another nobody dreaming of a better day, until she joins the impossibly cruel Heathers, whereupon mysterious teen rebel JD (Simon Gordon) teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it is murder being a somebody. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or at leedsheritagetheatres.co.uk.
Round To Low Horcum, by Sue Slack, one of the 33 artists and makers taking part in Ryedale Open Studios
Art event of the week: Ryedale Open Studios, Saturday and Sunday and next weekend, 10am to 5pm each day
THE newly formed Vault Arts Centre community interest company, in Kirkbymoorside, is coordinating this inaugural Ryedale Open Studios event, celebrating the creativity and artistic talent of Ryedale and the North York Moors.
Artists, makers and creators will be offering both an exclusive glimpse into their workplaces and the opportunity to buy art works directly. Full details of all 33 artists can be found at ryedaleopenstudios.com; a downloadable map at ryedaleopenstudios.com/map.
Serena Manteghi: Performing in Eurydice at Theatre At The Mill this weekend
Hit and myth show of the week: Eurydice, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington Mill, near York, Saturday and Sunday, 7.30pm
THIS weekend, Serena Manteghi returns to the play she helped to create with writer Alexander Wright, composer Phil Grainger and fellow performer Casey Jane Andrews with Fringe award-winning success in Australia in 2019.
Manteghi, a tour de force in the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s Build A Rocket, will be joined by Grainger for the tale about being a daily superhero and not giving in to the stories we tell ourselves.
Woven from spoken word and soaring live music, Eurydice is the stand-alone sister show to Orpheus; her untold story imagined and reimagined for the modern-day and told from her perspective. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/.
Kaiser Chiefs: Yorkshire anthems galore at Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Sunday
Yorkshire gig of the week outside York: Kaiser Chiefs, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Sunday, gates open at 6pm
LEEDS lads Kaiser Chiefs promise a “no-holds-barred rock’n’roll celebration” on their much-requested return to Scarborough OAT after their May 27 2017 debut.
“We cannot wait to get back to playing live shows again and it will be great to return to this stunning Yorkshire venue,” says frontman Ricky Wilson. “We had a cracking night there in 2017, so roll on August 8!”
Expect a Sunday night of such Yorkshire anthems as Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less And Less, Ruby, Never Miss A Beat and Hole In My Soul. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Simon Amstell’s hippy-chic poster for his autumn tour show, Spirit Hole, visiting York, Sheffield and Leeds in the autumn
Comedy gig announcement of the week: Simon Amstell, Spirit Hole, Grand Opera House, York, September 25, 8pm
INTROSPECTIVE, abjectly honest comedian Simon Amstell will play the Grand Opera House, York, for the first time since 2012 on his 38-date Spirit Hole autumn tour.
Agent provocateur Amstell, 41, will deliver a “blissful, spiritual, sensational exploration of love, sex, shame mushrooms and more” on a tour with further Yorkshire gigs at The Leadmill, Sheffield, on September 12 and Leeds Town Hall on October 1.
York tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/venues/grand-opera-house-york/; York, Sheffield and Leeds at ticketmaster.com.
Look sharp! Tickets are on sale for Joe Jackson’s second-ever York concert…next March
York gig announcement of the week: Joe Jackson, York Barbican, March 17 2022
JOE Jackson will play York for only the second time in his 43-year career on his Sing, You Sinners! tour next year.
Jackson, who turns 67 on August 11, will perform both solo and with a band at York Barbican in the only Yorkshire show of his 29-date British and European tour, promising hits and new material.
“We’ve been dealing with two viruses over the past two years, and the worst – the one we really need to put behind us – is Fear,” he says. “Love is the opposite of fear, so if you love live music, come out and support it!” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Sandy Foster’s Judy and Tom Kanji’s Johnny in Home, I’m Darling at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
HOME, I’m Darling is back at work after taking leave from the SJT stage for an extended Covid-enforced hiatus.
A positive test among the company de-railed Liz Stevenson’s production from July 19 to July 27, then a second one until August 2, but as if with foresight, thankfully Laura Wade’s play had been booked in for a long run from July 9 to August 14.
This still leaves plenty of time to see the SJT’s co-production with Theatre by the Lake, Keswick and Octagon Theatre, Bolton.
Already this summer the SJT has played host to a play with past and present interwoven into one story: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door, where 1942 wartime rubs up against 2020 Covid times, a gap of 78 years yet only a garden hedge.
In Laura Wade’s 2018 comedy, the setting is now, but “perfect couple” Judy (Sandy Foster) and Johnny (Tom Kanji) embrace 1950s’ family values, from their clothes to their décor, their meals to their bedroom bliss.
It is like flicking through an old catalogue, all glossy and surely too, too perfect, behind the beautifully stylised playing of Foster and Kanji. 21st century reality is knocking ever louder on the door: Judy had been made redundant from her job in finance at 38, choosing to be the out-of-Stepford wife, cleaning, baking, making lemon curd, but this puts extra pressure on Johnny to gain a promotion and to meet the mortgage.
Twisting time is here: Susan Twist in rehearsal for her role as Sylvia in Home, I’m Darling
What’s more, withdrawing from the outside world leaves Judy as the bird in the gilded cage, controlling but losing control, switched off from the news, paddling against the tide with her impressionable friend Fran (Vicky Binns), vulnerable to being duped by the predatory Marcus (Sam Jenkins-Shaw).
Billed as a comedy, the tone turns from frothy farce to being ever darker, pricklier too, the stylish surface scratched away by the grit, the reality check coming in the form of a devastating lecture from Judy’s mother, Susan Twist’s Sylvia, whose Twist of the knife elicits provokes a spontaneous burst of applause from the entire audience.
Parallels have been drawn with Ayckbourn’s bleaker comedies, high praise indeed, and Stevenson’s direction elicits superb performances from her cast, who remain believable, for all the heightened playing of the early scenes, as the tension rises.
This production is all the more timely, when people have been asked to stay at home in Covid lockdown, and amid rising job losses for women, but Wade’s themes of feminism and gender roles pre-date the pandemic, as she bursts the bubble of outward contentment with an Ibsen scalpel.
By the end, Fifties’ nostalgia has had its day, but Wade’s couple have a future, Home, I’m Darling duly living up to Stevenson’s promise that it will “send people out on a high, and that’s something we all need at the moment after what we’ve been through”.
It is all the better for being staged in The Round, where Helen Coyston’s Fifties’ retro set looks so at home yet simultaneously awkward. Just as it should.
Simon Amstell: Playing York, Leeds and Sheffield on Spirit Hole tour
SIMON Amstell will play the Grand Opera House, York, on September 25 on the introspective, abjectly honest comedian, television host, actor, writer and filmmaker’s 38-date Spirit Hole autumn tour.
These shows add up to his first stand-up comedy travels since the 2019 release of his debut bittersweet comedy-drama film, Benjamin, written and directed by Amstell, and his soul-searching 2019 Netflix stand-up special, Set Free.
Agent provocateur Amstell, 41, will deliver a “blissful, spiritual, sensational exploration of love, sex, shame, mushrooms and more” on a tour with further Yorkshire gigs at The Leadmill, Sheffield, on September 12 and Leeds Town Hall on October 1. York tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/venues/grand-opera-house-york/; York, Sheffield and Leeds at ticketmaster.com.
Amstell, former saucy host of cult BBC2 pop quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks, previously played the Grand Opera House in May 2008, October 2009 on his Do Nothing tour and May 2012 on his Numb tour.
Six facts about Simon Amstell
Born: Gants Hill, Ilford, Essex, November 29 1979.
Comedy breakthrough: After making stand-up debut at 13 in the wake of parents’ divorce, complicated childhood and confusion aroused by puberty, he became youngest finalist in BBC New Comedy Awards in 1998.
Presenting roles: Nickolodeon (sacked for being “sarcastic and mean to children”, he says); Popworld, Channel 4; and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, BBC2.
TV series: Grandma’s House, from 2010, playing Simon, a mildly self-obsessed, claustrophobic narcissist, trying desperately to heal his broken family in order to feel something real in his life.
Book: Help, subtitled Comedy. Tragedy. Therapy., published in January 2019, with Amstell’s aim of “telling the truth so it can’t hurt me anymore”, driven by compulsion to reveal his entire self on stage. Loneliness, anxiety, depression feature prominently, but you will “then feel happier than you have ever been”.
Film: Carnage, about veganism, written, directed and narrated by Amstell, set in utopian 2067, where animals live equally among humans. Premiered on BBC in March 2017.
