Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman: Celebrating 25 years together…with an arm wrestle
THE Black Swan Folk Club is still closed under Covid restrictions, but the York club is mounting two concert evenings this autumn, one online, the other at the NCEM.
“We are starting to put a few things together that are the start of our journey back to regular live music,” says club organiser Chris Euesden after booking Chris While and Julie Matthews for October 15 and Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman for two hour-long shows on November 17.
While and Matthews will be playing their 7.30pm online concert exclusively for the club and will conclude the night with a live question-and-answer session.
Tickets are on sale at: whileandmatthews.com/virtual-tour. “Once you’ve purchased a ticket, you’ll be able to watch the streamed performance whenever you want,” says Euesden. “Chris and Julie have been guests at the club and played for us in concert at the NCEM many times over the years and it’s always been a great evening.”
While and Matthews have been performing together for more than 25 years, clocking up 2,600 gigs, appearing on 100-plus albums and writing hundreds of original songs. Last year, they released their 11th studio album, Revolution Calls.
Sponsored by the Black Swan Folk Club, Roberts and Lakeman’s concerts at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, will start at 6pm and 8.30pm, each featuring the same setlist.
“2020 marks 25 years of making music together for this wife and husband duo,” says Euesden. “Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman have long established themselves as one of the UK folk scene’s most rewardingly enduring partnerships.
“To celebrate and acknowledge this milestone, the couple will revisit and reinterpret songs that span their career. From the early days of folk supergroup Equation through to 2020’s On Reflection, with a nod or two along the way to their extracurricular musical adventures, the evening promises a whistle-stop tour through their artistic journey to date.”
Limited seating will be available for the November 17 shows. Each household/support bubble will be seated around small tables positioned at a two-metre social distance from others. Tables can accommodate up to four people in the same group. Check out the guidelines for these concerts via: ncem.co.uk/events/kathryn-roberts-sean-lakeman/
Tickets for Roberts and Lakeman will be on sale at blackswanfolkclub@yahoo.co.uk from October 9. If you bought a ticket for the duo’s postponed April 22 gig, the NCEM team will be in touch soon to discuss your options.
Cheers! Liza Pulman, left, Dillie Keane and Adele Anderson raise a glass to Fascinating Aida announcing their 2021 show at York Barbican
FASCINATING Aida are “back at last”, although the wait will stretch to May 5 2021 to see the satirical cabaret trio at York Barbican.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow (October 2) at 10am for Dillie Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman’s 8pm show, part of a 28-date tour.
Expect a “selection of old favourites, songs you haven’t heard before and some you wish you’d never heard in the first place”.
“The songs are hilarious and topical – the glamour is unstoppable,” say Fascinating Idea, who have attracted more than 25 million YouTube and Facebook hits for audience favourite Cheap Flights and their Rudest Christmas Song…Ever?.
Laconic, ever-quizzical Irish founder member, pianist and singer Keane co-writes most of Fascinating Aida’s material with Anderson, joined in the line-up by Drama Desk Award-nominated singer and actress Pulman.
Simon Slater and Jemma Redgrave: Rehearsed reading of Simon Woods’ “witty and devastating” new play, Hansard, at the SJT
STEPHEN Joseph Theatre artistic associate Simon Slater is teaming up with theatrical dynasty luminary Jemma Redgrave to present a rehearsed reading of Simon Woods’ Hansard.
Directed by SJT artistic director Paul Robinson, the reading will take place in the Round at the Scarborough theatre on Tuesday, October 20 at 7.30pm.
A witty and devastating new play, Hansard premiered at the National Theatre, London, in August 2019.
On a summer’s morning in 1988, Tory politician Robin Hesketh has returned home to the idyllic Cotswold house he shares with his wife of 30 years, Diana, but all is not as blissful as it first seems.
Diana has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden, and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts as gentle ribbing and the familiar rhythms of marital sparring quickly turns to blood-sport.
Robinson enthuses: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have attracted two actors of the stature of Jemma and Simon to bring a reading of Simon Woods’ brutally funny, but ultimately moving, political satire to the SJT.”
Paul Robinson: SJT artistic director, directing Hansard
Jemma Redgrave played the title character in four series of Bramwell from 1995 to 1998 and has a recurring role in Doctor Who as Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT. Her wide and varied theatre and film career has included the role of Evie Wilcox in the Bafta Award-winning Merchant Ivory adaptation of Howards End in 1992.
Simon Slater was born and grew up in Scarborough. He played Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia! in the West End for five years, had a regular role as Inspector Kite in the ITV series The Bill and narrates audiobooks, such as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.
He is in demand too as a musical director, latterly for the National Theatre’s Amadeus, and he has composed more than 300 original scores for theatre, film, television, radio and theatre, not least for the past four Christmas shows at the SJT. He will be doing likewise for The Snow Queen this December.
After Hansard, Slater will perform Bloodshot, Douglas Post’s one-man thriller, in the Round from October 21 to 24 at 7.30pm plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee.
In a story of vaudeville, murder, magic and jazz set in London in 1957, Derek Eveleigh is a skilled photographer, very down on his luck.
Down on his luck: Simon Slater as photographer Derek Eveleigh in Bloodshot. Picture: Marc Brenner
A mysterious envelope arrives from a stranger, asking him to take secret pictures of an elegant young woman as she walks in Holland Park. The reward is handsome, but the irresistible assignment takes a sudden, shocking turn.
Entangled and compelled to understand, Derek is led into a seedy Soho nightlife populated by dubious characters. What do an Irish comedian, an American saxophone player and a Russian magician have to do with the bloody event he has witnessed? And how are these men connected to the woman in Holland Park?
In seeking the truth, Derek finds his whole life turned upside down as Post’s thriller examines the turbulent human heart and keeps you on the edge of your seat in Patrick Sandford’s surprise-laden production.
The SJT has introduced comprehensive Covid-secure measures for the safety and comfort of its audiences and has been awarded both the VisitEngland We’re Good To Go industry standard mark, signifying its adherence to Government and public health guidance, and UK Theatre’s See It Safely standard mark. Full details can be found at https://www.sjt.uk.com/were_back
Bookings for Hansard go on sale from £10 from 10am tomorrow (October 2), and please note that under social-distancing restrictions, numbers are extremely limited for this one-off event.
To book for Hansard or Bloodshot (tickets already available), visit sjt.uk.com/whatson or call the box office on 01723 370541, open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am to 4pm, for both phone calls and in-person bookings.
Pledge Ahead is just the ticket for audiences to support York Theatre Royal “at this critical time”
YORK Theatre Royal is launching Pledge Ahead, an initiative that asks audiences and the wider community for financial support, seven deeply wounding months into the Coronavirus arts crisis.
The pledge will take the form of buying vouchers that can be exchanged later for theatre tickets once the still-closed building re-opens. More details can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Launching the scheme, executive director Tom Bird said: “Lots of people have been asking what they can do to help the theatre at this critical time.
“By pledging ahead, our audiences can continue to support us while our building is closed and look forward to using their vouchers as soon as we are able to re-open our doors and welcome everyone back.”
The plea comes “at this critical time” when the Theatre Royal has revealed it has cut its permanent staff by one third – seven voluntary redundancies and nine staff made redundant – after extensive consultations.
In a further cost-cutting measure, the Theatre Royal also has confirmed it will not be renewing its lease of the neighbouring De Grey Rooms, home to rehearsals, workshops, staff offices and the below-stairs costume store, as well as weddings, parties, award ceremonies and performances in the glorious ballroom.
“It has been a devastating time for everyone involved but the theatre will survive and we are now looking ahead and planning for the future,” says executive director Tom Bird
The “hand-back” will be completed this week after 11 years of renting the Grade 2-listed neo-classical Victorian building from York Conservation Trust.
The costume hire business will be re-located and will re-open in January; further announcements are awaited on exactly where, along with long-term plans for rehearsals, workshops and staff rooms once the Theatre Royal can re-open.
Bird said: “We have been forced to take some very difficult cost-saving decisions. It has been a devastating time for everyone involved but the theatre will survive and we are now looking ahead and planning for the future.”
Along with the redundancies, many more staff have taken cuts in hours and wages, to ensure the theatre survives, and the Government’s soon-to-disappear furlough scheme has played its supportive part too.
However, 89 per cent of York Theatre Royal’s annual income is generated through selling tickets and from associated revenue streams, such as the bars and café, from the tens of thousands of people who come through the doors of a theatre that underwent a £6.1 million redevelopment completed in 2016.
The Theatre Royal – the longest-running theatre in England outside London – reopened on April 22 that year with a new roof, an extended and re-modelled front-of-house area and a refurbished, reconfigured and redecorated main auditorium, with major improvements to access and environmental impact too.
Decked out: Hannah Sibai’s design for York Theatre Royal’s Pop-Up On The Patio festival in August
Since the Covid-enforced closure in March, the Theatre Royal has reduced its costs “significantly”, the redundancies being the most draconian step so far.
“Like almost everywhere in British theatre, we have sadly had to reduce our team in order for the Theatre Royal to survive and provide a theatre for the community.
“There was zero ambiguity that it might have to happen, but all theatres are in this situation and I’m pleased that we have not closed any department, so we maintain producing expertise across the staff.”
Since lockdown, performances have been restricted to a Pop-Up On The Patio festival of 12 shows by diverse York performers on the Theatre Royal terracing from August 14 to 29, with a maximum audience of 35 at each show.
Cinderella shall not go to the ball this winter on the main stage, but instead the Theatre Royal and new pantomime partners Evolution Productions have announced the Travelling Pantomime, starring York magician, panto comic turn, actor and children’s entertainer Josh Benson.
The dates are yet to be announced, but the small-scale tour will visit sports centres, social clubs, halls and community centres in all 21 wards in York in December and January.
Pantomime this way: Josh Benson is full of beans as he looks forward to leading the York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime to Holgate, Heworth and 19 more destinations besides. Picture: Anthony Robling
At each socially-distanced, Covid-secure performance, the audience will vote whether to watch Aladdin, Jack And The Beanstalk or Dick Whittington, all scripted by Evolution director and producer Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster.
Meanwhile, the Theatre Royal expects to learn on Monday (October 5) whether its bid for a grant from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund has been successful…or not.
The theatre received £196,493 from Arts Council England’s Emergency Fund to help to cover July to September 30’s costs, and the latest grant application is “not a million miles from that figure,” confirmed Bird.
“The problem with an old building that’s so huge and hard to heat is that it costs £475,000 a year just to keep it open, without staffing, to cover heating, lighting, water and safety.
“Under Covid restrictions, things like the patio season and Travelling Pantomime are our direction of travel right now.
The team behind the York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime: Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster, executive director Tom Bird and Evolutions Productions director, producer and writer Paul Hendy
“It’s been brilliant to have done the patio shows and we’re totally over the moon with how that went; it was terrific giving local artists the chance to perform. Now we’re looking at further options for outdoor shows in York until it’s viable and safe to be back indoors.
“But we’re always mindful of the risk of a local lockdown, and the main task is to safeguard the future of the theatre and that’s going well but it’s a big fight.”
The Culture Recovery Fund grant, if approved, would cover October to March 31. “It’s a little bit more about recovery this time,” says Bird. “Last time, the ACE grant was about ‘What do you need right now not to collapse?’.
“We have interpreted the guidance for a grant in the best way we can and we hope the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Arts Council will see fit to support us in the best manner possible.”
Today, by the way, is Creative Performance Protest Day, a rallying call to “to highlight the Government’s failure to support the performing arts sector throughout the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Trafalgar Square, London, at midday will be among the focal points of a campaign whose urgency has been heightened by Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s new Job Retention Scheme not accommodating freelance arts workers in its definition of “viable” jobs.
David Lancaster: Darkness into light in his world premiere of Eclipse at HIF Weekender
DAVID Lancaster, cutting-edge composer, York Late Music projects manager and head of York St John University’s music department, is back on course for the new academic year in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Going smoothly so far, but all fingers are crossed,” he says, when asked “How is the new term going?”.
“It’s the start of term like no other, and we’re aware that we could have an outbreak and/or be shut down at a moment’s notice, which does tend to push up the anxiety levels! Still, here goes for week 2.”
A university term “like no other” for Dr Lancaster continues the unpredictable path of a start-stop-restart year like no other, when all the usual channels of performance were removed overnight under the lockdown strictures imposed on March 23.
Out with the old order, in with the new, as David’s commission for Harrogate International Festivals, Eclipse, became the conversation piece of the hastily arranged inaugural virtual HIF Weekender, when 10,000 people from 60 countries viewed the online line-up of free arts events, exclusive clips and highlights from the July 23-26 programme showcased on BBC Radio 4.
David’s digital commission came to fruition against the stultifying background of lockdown. “The lockdown has proved to be a difficult time for all musicians, particularly for freelance performers, and the members of bands and choirs unable to work together,” he says.
“The impact on composers – who often work alone, in any case – has been significant for different reasons. All performances of my pieces since mid-March have been postponed or cancelled, and the uncertainties surrounding concerts have meant that performers, venues and festivals have been reluctant to make any firm plans for the future.”
Commissions dried up and deadlines, so important to David in providing motivation to complete pieces, disappeared. “Most of all, I miss the interaction and discussion with other musicians that takes place in planning meetings and rehearsals, and in the post-mortem after performances, when so many ideas are nurtured and developed,” he says.
Hence his delight – if trepidation too – at being approached by Harrogate International Festivals’ chief executive, Sharon Canavar, and board member Craig Ratcliffe, director of music at St John Fisher Catholic High School, with a “really great idea” for a new piece.
“Put simply, they wanted a short, fanfare-like composition for brass and percussion that could be recorded remotely by many players, locally, nationally and worldwide, that could be re-assembled in the studio to make a ‘live’ performance,” says David.
“Local brass bands would be contacted, and trumpet virtuoso Mike Lovatt – a good friend of the Harrogate festival – had very kindly agreed to record a solo track.”
Lovatt was a stellar signing, being professor of trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music and principal trumpet for both the John Wilson Orchestra and BBC Big Band.
Explaining the choice of title for his world premiere, David says: “We chose Eclipse to represent the idea that the Harrogate festival couldn’t take place this year – the concert halls, theatres and community venues had ‘gone dark’ – but that next year, the light would return and the festival and all its bright lights could resume.”
David wrote quickly, finishing the piece in only five days. “Oddly enough, I had previously composed a fanfare for a ceremonial occasion at the university – the installation of Reeta Chakrabarti as the new Chancellor – which had been postponed right at the start of lockdown, so I was able to draw upon and develop some of the rhythmic ideas from that piece in Eclipse,” he says.
“There was lots of material on my ‘cutting-room floor’ that I could rifle through, re-cycle and add to for the Harrogate festival piece. I was working on other things at the time, so writing Eclipse was a very pleasant interruption.”
Lockdown and the strange new world of Covid-19 2020 had an impact on David’s composition. “Obviously we all think about then time we are going through, and one of the reasons for being a composer is to get a better understanding of the world we live in as we hope to get back to some kind of normal when we can return to contact,” he says.
Mike Lovatt: Playing trumpet as one of 120 musicians assembled remotely to perform David Lancaster’s Eclipse for Harrogate International Festivals’ HIF At Home festival
Eclipse “isn’t really a conventional fanfare,” suggests David. “I suppose there’s a hint of melancholy that reflects the current mood, but the ending is triumphant, and I hope that will serve us well when this piece is performed live, in front of an audience, when Harrogate International Festival returns in 2021,” he says.
“It would be lovely if Eclipse could complete its journey from darkness to light that way, when things have been so gloomy.”
More than 120 musicians joined forces remotely to record tracks, including players from Opera North, West End musicals and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, complemented by brass players from Qatar, Canada, the United States, South Korea and New Zealand, together with local brass bands and orchestras.
“I was so pleased that so many people got involved in putting Eclipse together,” says David. “When Harrogate International Festival first commissioned it, their intention was to use local brass bands from Ripon, Knaresborough and Harrogate, and then we started getting top players from West End musicals, Opera North and the RPO, with Craig using his contacts to draw in so many musicians.”
Eclipse subsequently was live-streamed for HIF At Home at 6pm on July 24 and made available on the festival website from the end of July.
Meanwhile, serendipitously for David, the new, alienating working conditions necessitated by the pandemic have chimed with a creative project he had in mind already. “Coronavirus has forced musicians to adapt to remote working, often making music independently of one another. Ironically, this is something I had been thinking about in 2019, long before lockdown,” he says.
“I wanted to explore asynchronous rhythmic elements in my music: passages in which players are not governed by a single, unifying pulse, but have opportunities to move apart from one another, to play independently, either individually or in small groups. Little did I suspect that I would be composing this music during a global pandemic in which we were all forced into working apart from one another.
“I have always been intrigued and fascinated by the non-verbal communication that takes place during ensemble performance: the way in which players send – and receive and interpret – visual and musical signals, and I wanted to incorporate some of these ideas into the fabric of a piece.”
The resulting work, Before I Fall Asleep, Again, The City…, takes its title from the first line of a novel by French author Alain Robbe-Grillet, whose use of multiple perspectives mirrors David’s own creative process. “It reflects my concept and it casts my piece into the domain of a recurring, if half-forgotten, memory,” he says.
“As always in my music, there is plentiful repetition; ideas move into the foreground then recede, only to return later in different contexts. I like the analogy of a person wandering aimlessly around a town, during which they regularly encounter sights previously seen from different directions, angles and perspectives: they experience familiar sights, unfamiliar sights, and the familiar ones in new guises.
“Memory plays an important role, so in the music I have tried to ensure that there are elements that will be recognised when they reappear, even if they are never quite the same each time.”
A research grant from York St John University enabled David to approach the new ensemble Trilogy with a view to performing it. “I was delighted when they agreed, but the ongoing pandemic has meant that all arrangements need to be provisional for the moment, though if all goes well, we are looking to perform it in York and London next year – and I can’t wait to hear it.”
As and when those performances can take place, the Trilogy performers will be placed as far apart as possible on stage. “Not in different rooms, or buildings, as they have to be able to co-ordinate, but we want to use the space they are in to the maximum,” says David.
“We hope to do it as part of the York Late Music 2021 programme in the St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel next May, and we’re still hoping to perform it in London next summer, in June.”
David is working on two more projects too. “One is a piece for a solo violinist, Steve Bingham, who works extensively with live electronics,” he says. “I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m firing off lots of questions to Steve.
“The other is a longer-term project, where I’m setting the sonnets of John Donne. Last year, two of his Holy Sonnets were performed in Oxford Town Hall – Death, Be Not Proud and At The Round Earth’s Imagined Corner – by Oxford Harmonic Choir, who now want me to do more.”
Beth Moxon. “Breathed more life into Sally than the text really implied”. Picture: Nick Rutter
REVIEW: Thomas And Sally, Northern Opera Group, Merrion Street Rest Garden, Leeds, August 29
DAVID Ward will not take No for an answer. All through lockdown, as artistic director of Northern Opera Group, he kept up a flurry of releases about his plans for the company’s annual festival at the end of August, this year based around the history of opera in Leeds.
There was never doubt in his mind that the festival would not materialise. Luck was on his side, of course, and outdoor gatherings began to be allowed from the start of August.
So it was that a band of diehards gathered on the grass, suitably distanced and just round the corner from the Grand Theatre, on a cool, blustery day, to watch Thomas Arne’s two-act Thomas And Sally, or The Sailor’s Return.
Premiered at Covent Garden in late 1760, it was seen in Leeds not long afterwards, following publication of the full score the following year.
It has been Arne’s misfortune to be remembered almost exclusively for Rule, Britannia, the patriotic chorus from his masque Alfred (1740); Beethoven’s use of the tune for a set of piano variations undoubtedly enhanced its international appeal.
Arne, however, was a prolific composer of stage works in many guises. Several of these were afterpieces, short, often comic entertainments that lightened the atmosphere after a longer opera: Thomas And Sally, running to barely an hour, was one such. Its librettist was the Irish-born Isaac Bickerstaff, who also provided the text for Arne’s oratorio, Judith.
The story is a riff on a typical pastoral scenario. Innocent milkmaid Sally laments the absence of her fiancé Thomas, who has joined the navy. The local Squire sees an opportunity to capitalise, egged on by the worldly-wise matron Dorcas. When Thomas returns from the sea to claim his bride, he chases off the Squire, who is left to fume at Dorcas.
The piece is claimed as the first all-sung comic opera in English and certainly marks the first use of the clarinet by an English composer. Even as here with keyboard accompaniment, it was possible to appreciate how far Arne’s harmonic palette had broadened in the two decades since Alfred.
Naomi Rogers: “The real scene stealer”
His vocal decorations also sounded much less perfunctory. That was partly a result of the excellent treatment the work received at the hands of four singers, none of whom had been before a live audience for at least five months.
Beth Moxon’s soprano breathed more life into Sally than the text really implied, and Michael Vincent Jones’s tenor Squire moved convincingly from quizzical to lusty under the tutelage of Dorcas.
Although also billed as a tenor role, Thomas really sits lower, closer to Purcell’s Aeneas, and Egan Llyr Thomas’s strong baritonal timbre was just what was needed.
But the real scene-stealer was Naomi Rogers, whose versatile mezzo inhabited the role of Dorcas to her fingertips, finding humour in the unlikeliest places. Jenny Martins wrought miracles at the keyboard in the chilly wind.
So engaging was David Ward’s production that the traffic beyond the railings – behind a shed – passed by unnoticed.
Most of the rest of the festival took place online, a notable exception being an excellent lunchtime recital by soprano Louise Wayman, to Ward’s accompaniment, in a chilly room with windows wide open. Her wide-ranging arias reflected 300 years of operatic history in Leeds, many of them mentioned in an online exhibition, Leeds Opera Story.
Elsewhere, bass-baritone Neil Balfour and violinist Chloe Hayward commendably tackled extracts from ballad operas in five outdoor venues around Leeds.
Over the same weekend, the Orchestra of Opera North – or 13 members of it – led by the redoubtable David Greed, reopened Leeds Town Hall with Mendelssohn’s Octet and Mozart’s Symphony No 29.
Both were played with tight ensemble and considerable élan despite distancing, separated by tenor Nicholas Watts bravely duelling David Cowan’s over-keen piano in the first six numbers of Die Schöne Müllerin.
In every instance, Yorkshire grit won the day, but Ward’s dauntless optimism had led the way.
ED Atkin has won Yorkshire’s Got Talent, the online contest organised by York teenage musical actor Hannah Wakelam in aid of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s £90,000 Raise The Roof appeal.
After weeks of searching for “the best talent that Yorkshire can offer”, the judges combined yesterday with guest panellists and the public to vote for the winner from a final three of Atkin, Jordan Wright and Fladam (the silly-song double act of Florence Poskitt and pianist Adam Sowter).
Judging the competition from the start were Wicked star in the West End, Laura Pick, cruise-ship vocal captain Nathan Lodge and vocal coach Amelia Urukalo.
Ed Atkin last appeared on a York stage in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Covid-curtailed production of Tom Midnight’s Garden at Theatre @41 Monkgate in March, playing Peter and composing the score too.
Sarah Gordon: Her Brontë story The Underdog will open the play-reading season at the SJT
FROM the Brontë sisters to Morris dancing, happiness to self-help, Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre will present a themed season of play readings this autumn.
The six 7.15pm readings by professional actors will take place in front of a socially distanced audience, who can join in a discussion with the writer, director and actors at the end, potentially contributing to each play’s development.
Artistic director Paul Robinson says: “These readings give our audiences a sneak preview of some shows that may go on to have a full production at the SJT. One of our biggest successes in recent years, Christopher York’s Build A Rocket, started out this way.”
Cosmic Collective Theatre company members Joe Feeney and Anna Soden, here pictured performing Heaven’s Gate, will be among the readers for The Underdog
The first reading, Sarah Gordon’s The Underdog on October 7, will be performed by York actors Joe Feeney and Anna Soden, from Cosmic Collective Theatre, Houmi Miura and Monica Sagar. Casts for the other play readings will be announced soon.
Peeling back the legend of the Brontë sisters, The Underdog tells the story of the sibling power dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame from The Parsonage at Haworth, West Riding.
“Individual ambition and differing levels of success collide increasingly with the desire for group empowerment – which, let’s face it, is awkward. Especially when you’re the underdog, a.k.a Anne Brontë,” says Sarah, whose play The Edit played the SJT in Spring 2019.
Full of Joy: Adam Hughes contemplates what it means to be happy in his new play
On October 13, in Adam Hughes’s Joy, Joy is a never without a smile and always looks on the bright side of life, but when her son, Ryan, returns home following a messy break-up, she finds herself questioning what it really means to be happy.
In Tapped, Katie Redford’s comedy drama on November 3, three Co-op colleagues attend a failing self-help group in Stapleford, Nottingham.
Every Tuesday evening, Gavi holds motivational meetings in his garage, hoping to inspire his community, but when only bickering mother and daughter Denise and Jen turn up, clearly he has his work cut out.
Katie Radford: What happens when a self-help group leader needs help himself in Tapped?
Both wounded by tragedy, an Iraqi-Welsh Muslim woman and an ex-soldier, who live in multicultural Canton in Cardiff, find unexpected solace in each other’s company in Rebecca Jade Hammond’s Canton on November 10.
Hammond explores those rare fleeting relationships between two strangers of different backgrounds, living side by side in the same community, and how their interactions can be a catalyst for change.
Rebecca Jade Hammond: Fleeting relationships as a catalyst for change in Canton
In Worldly, on November 17, Jess knows she will survive Armageddon in Rachel Horner’s one-woman show about religion, family and unlearning everything you once knew.
She has done the training and read all the books and already she is planning what to name her pet panda on Paradise Earth. However, Jess realises that with organised religion comes unorganised chaos and not everyone is as faithful as they think they are.
Rachel Horner: Contemplating Armageddon, religion, family and unlearning everything you once knew in her play Worldly
Yorkshire actor Chris Chilton’s touching comedy With Bells On! concludes the season on November 24 with its story of salesman Morris, friendships and a passion for Morris dancing.
By day, Morris sells rubber valves but come nighttime, he is the Lord of the Dance, leading an unlikely group of friends on the road to the Morris Ring Regional Dance-Off.
The six readings will take place in the Round, except for Canton, booked instead into the McCarthy auditorium.
Chris Chilton: Morris leads a merry dance in With Bells On!
Tickets for individual play readings cost £5 each at sjt.uk.com/whatson or by calling the box office on 01723 370541, open Thursdays to Saturdays, 11am to 4pm, for phone calls and in-person bookings.
The SJT has introduced comprehensive measures for the safety and comfort of its audiences and has been awarded the VisitEngland We’re Good To Go industry standard mark, signifying its adherence to Government and public health guidance. For more details, go to: https://www.sjt.uk.com/were_back
Serena Manteghi in Build A Rocket, Christopher York’s debut play that was first aired in a reading at the SJT. Picture: Sam Taylor
Glittering prize: Today is judgement day for Yorkshire’s Got Talent
WHO will win Yorkshire’s Got Talent, the contest organised by York teenage musical actor Hannah Wakelam in aid of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s £90,000 Raise The Roof appeal.
Today is the final of this online competition, and the choice lies between Fladam (the silly-song double act of Florence Poskitt and pianist Adam Sowter), Ed Atkin and Jordan Wright.
Hannah has created a poll for public votes that will be combined with the judges’ votes (each one classed as 25 votes) and guest panel votes (each worth 20 votes).
Judging the competition from the start have been Wicked star Laura Pick, cruise-ship vocal captain Nathan Lodge and vocal coach Amelia Urukalo
Voting closes today at 7pm and the winner will be announced at 8pm. To vote, go to: https://www.facebook.com/.groups/.687590815139642/.permalink/.755696498329073/.
“The inevitable has happened,” says Kate Rusby, after the Covid Grinch ruled out her Christmas 2020 tour
THIS winter’s Kate Rusby At Christmas show at York Barbican on December 20 must now do Covid-enforced cold turkey for a year
Barnsley folk nightingale Kate’s South Yorkshire carol concert is re-scheduled for Sunday, December 19 2021 and tickets already bought will transfer to the new date.
A note on the Barbican website, not dissimilar to one posted by Kate with festive emojis galore on Twitter, states: “Well, the inevitable has happened,we have had to postpone our December tour until 2021. Stupid Coronavirus!! I hope you can join us then.
“In the meantime, Don’t Worry as we’re going to stream a full-length gig on Saturday 19th December this year, complete with sparkles, Sweet Bells, brass lads, daftness, dressing up, Ruby Reindeer and even an actual interval and everything! I’m looking forward to it sooooo much. Hope you can join us. Onwards and upwards.”
In August, Kate released her 14th album, Hand Me Down, a set of covers such as Manic Monday, Friday I’m In Love and Shake It Off, completed at her home studio in lockdown with husband producer and musician Damien O’Kane.
