ROMEO Stodart, lead singer and principal songwriter for The Magic Numbers, will play as a one-man band at The Basement, City Screen, York, tomorrow night (February 17).
“I’ve decided to do a few solo shows mainly because I’ve never done them before, so it’ll be a very different and new experience for me,” says Romeo, 43.
“I’ve got so many pieces of music that haven’t yet found a home, as they’re not necessarily Magic Numbers songs, and I think it’d be a great opportunity to play them and bring them to life in front of people.”
Romeo wants his solo gigs to be unique, liberating, intimate and engaging. “I need you to be there for them with an open mind and open heart,” he says. “There’s nothing to fear as our band is forever, but I’m really excited by these dates. Hope you are too.
“You can hear what some of our songs sound like in the way that they were first conceived or a new interpretation, but the main emphasis will be on the new and the journey of the night.”
Formed in Ealing in 2002, The Magic Numbers have five albums to their name: 2005’s million-selling, Mercury Music Prize-nominated, self-titled debut; 2006’s Those The Brokes; 2010’s The Runaway, 2014’s Alias and 2018’s Outsiders.
Making up the Numbers are two pairs of brothers and sisters: Sean and Angela Gannon and Romeo and Michele Stodart, who were born to Scottish father and Portuguese mother on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago, where their mother was an opera singer with her own TV show.
Tomorrow’s 8pm concert is presented by York promoters Under The Influence; tickets for An Evening With Romeo Stodart cost £14 on 0871 902 5726, at thebasementyork.co.uk/romeo-stodart or on the door.
REVIEW: The Ballad Of Maria Marten, Eastern Angles/Matthew Linley Creative Projects, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, today at 7.30pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com
INCREASINGLY, touring theatre needs the support of partners to
sustain companies. Productions as extraordinary, brilliant and powerful as this
one are the vindication for encouraging more such partnerships.
Scarborough’s SJT has the “in association” role in The Ballad Of Maria Marten, and any company would be delighted to play in The Round, the 360-degree theatre experience that adds so much to each Alan Ayckbourn premiere every Scarborough summer season. Eastern Angles thrive.
Elizabeth Crarer emerges from the side as the lights are still up, cutting across the hum of audience chatter. She is holding a decayed, fraying umbrella, her clothes are worn and masculine; blood and bruises are on her face.. We take all this in slowly and are instantly riveted.
We learn she is Maria Marten, the besmirched murder victim at
the heart of Beth Flintoff’s play about the notorious Red Barn Murder. The
defence case of the murderer, disreputable squire, William Corder, has oft been
told, but not Maria’s.
How do you solve a problem like Maria’s void? By telling her story, and more particularly her back story from childhood, and as we all know there are two sides to every story, but not always in the courtrooms of a male-dominated society, such as the one that ruled Polstead in rural Suffolk in the summer of 1827, where a woman’s sole goal was to marry.
Elizabeth Crarer in rehearsal for The Ballad Of Maria Marten. Picture: Giorgis Media
The rest of Hal Chambers’ cast – Suzanne Ahmet, Emma Denly, Jessica Dives, Sarah Goddard and Susanna Jennings – descend from the auditorium stairways, one by one, all female (although two will go on to play men), and the ensemble nature of Flintoff’s storytelling is quickly established.
All the ingredients are outstanding: Flintoff’s prescient and engrossing writing; Luke Potter’s enveloping score; the cast’s compelling performing and beautiful singing, so individual yet collective; Zoe Spurr’s superb lighting; Verity Quinn’s minimalist set design, with the cast briskly moving whatever needs moving from scene to scene. In particular, Rebecca Randall’s movement direction is so key to the drama, using The Round to its maximum.
The title, changed from the original and too plain Polstead when this play premiered in 2018, is apt. The piece does indeed have the character of a ballad, being more of a folk play, even a Mummer’s Play, than the melodrama that usually prevails in Red Barn Murder re-tellings.
We know from the start that Maria is dead, and so The Ballad Of Maria Marten is a resurrection of sorts, like in Mummer’s Plays and in the depiction of fellow murder victim Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood last year. Note, too, how Maria now has her name in the title.
Rather than a manhunt detective story, piecing together the evidence
from Maria’s body being found a year after she went missing, Flintoff fills the
stage with the intricacies of her life story, with humour and darkness, joys
and sadness, hopes and dashed dreams, in equal measure, the childhood shaping
the adulthood that follows.
“I didn’t want her to be a victim any more. Maria emerged as
intelligent,
brave and wryly funny,” said Flintoff beforehand. “How are we going to let
women speak for themselves when there is so much history of being ignored?”
By writing such a ground-breaking play in changing times certainly helps. Maria is indeed no longer a victim, and Flintoff’s sense of optimism for the future is the closing emotion of a ballad play that truly sings.
Messy Eaters: on the menu at Taste Of SLAP at York Theatre Royal
TWO reasons lie behind the title of Taste Of SLAP, the “alternative Valentine’s Day treat” at York Theatre Royal tomorrow.
Organised by SLAP founders and co-directors Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin, the last SLAP festival in 2019 ran for four days. This one, by contrast, is more concentrated: one day and evening’s tasty assortment of pay-what-you-can theatre and performance in different locations in the Theatre Royal.
Bite sized, in other words, and bite is apposite for the second reason. Taste Of SLAP’s day of cabaret, theatre, dinner dating, tea drinking, canape art and more besides takes the theme of food. Even a participating company carries the name of Teastain Theatre.
“After last year’s festival, the idea
was to have a year off and then do the festival every two years,” says Lydia. “But
that’s not the case now, as we believe it’s better to have a presence each
year, so we’re doing a day of events at various locations, ending with the return
of the DryHump Queer Cabaret.”
Sophie says: “The idea is to have a taster menu of everything you would have in a four-day SLAP festival. Everything has the theme of food, what with it being held the day after Valentine’s Day and coinciding with the musical Oliver! [Food Glorious Food et al] in the main house!”
Levantes Dance Theatre’s Canape Art
Lydia rejoins: “It’s always a dream to
have something for everyone at our SLAP events but I really believe we have
this time: some that are family friendly and some that are very definitely not.”
Should you be wondering what the
acronym SLAP stands for, the answer is Social Live Art Performance. “As a
company our aim is to create a fun and supportive environment for audiences to
experience live performance,” says Lydia.
“It is part of the SLAP ethos that
everyone that comes to SLAP is treated equally in the belief that everyone has
the right to experience art, no matter their background.”
Sophie adds: “SLAP are passionate about supporting local talent, as well as bringing international artists to the city. This year, we’ve collaborated with Drama Soc at the University of York to commission a brand new play, the quirky, rhyming Messy Eaters, written by student Aisling Lally that will be performed by York company Teastain Theatre.
“It’s directed by Jesse Roberts, who is a past artistic director of the Theatre Royal’s TakeOverFestival, and I reckon that Aisling, who’s an English Literature student, is definitely the next big thing.
“We’re also programming York St John University graduate Siara Illing Ahmed with her work I Am Mixed, where she’ll be feeding you food from her British, Pakistani and Irish background, telling the story of her life through food and discussing her heritage as an empowered woman.
Binaural Dinner Date: finding the “perfect date”
“We also have York puppeteer Freddie
Does Puppets – Freddie Hayes – presenting her new show in her Mrs Potatohead
costume as part of the cabaret event Dry Hump, with Fred serving Buckfast as
everyone arrives.”
Access is at the heart of SLAP too, the organisers always using venues that have flat or ramped access from the street, elevators and accessible bathrooms. “We also believe income should not be a barrier to accessing performance and that’s why we’ve made all events as part of the festival either free or pay-what-you-can,” says Lydia.
“Being artist led, our main aims are to provide a supportive environment for artists to create new work. Our main aim for audiences is for them to experience new contemporary performance in an accessible and non-exclusionary way.
“A big part of the ethos is that art is
for everyone and we want everyone to feel welcome during all of our events. We’ve
worked very hard to ensure that SLAP provides a safe environment and is a great
opportunity to experience live art for the first time.”
Sophie says: “Taste of SLAP involves eclectic performances from
artists working all over the country and beyond. We’re really excited to have
the opportunity to programme such a variety of celebrated artists, most of whom
have never performed here in York.
“We continue to offer an alternative to
the City of York’s cultural offering while also ensuring there’s something in
the programme for everyone. From family-friendly performance, intimate
experiences to conversations and cabaret.”
Siara Illing Ahmed in I Am Mixed
Taste Of SLAP performance menu for Saturday, February 15
Tea &
Tolerance, Café, 3pm to 6pm;
free.
A roaming tea trolley delivers piping
hot topics, not tea, and dishes out dialogue rather than digestives, with a
board game involving the topics being rolled up inside the tea pots to facilitate
conversations.
This show by a Leeds company was inspired by the York Mosque inviting the English Defence League in for a cup of tea and a chat.
I Am Mixed,Keregan Room, 3pm and 5pm; booking required.
A ‘Cefil’, a mixture of Celtic Ceilidh and Indian Mafill, is presented by Siara Illing Ahmed in an intimate storytelling experience. This autobiographical performance details the experience of growing up “mixed race” in Bradford.
Levantes Dance Theatre’sCanape Art, Café, 4pm and 6pm; free.
Dressed to impress, Levantes Dance
Theatre’s delightful duo serve up a glittery and unexpected twist on hors
d’oeuvres, creating beautiful, unique edible tattoos on the hands, arms and
faces with everyone they come across. Suitable for everyone from curious adults
to inquisitive tots.
Tea & Tolerance: board games leading to conversations
Binaural
Dinner Date,Café,
3pm, 5pm and 7.45pm. Booking required.
Co-ordinated by the Brazilian-London partnership
of ZU-UK, this is a post-Valentine’s Day alternative chance to find romance as a
voice in your ear – courtesy of headphones – guides you through the perfect
date. Come with your own date, or we can find one for you.
Messy Eaters, Studio, 7pm, sold out.
Everyone’s making a mess. Newlyweds Charles and Mabel spend Christmas with the in-laws, God, and a deadly secret. Shirley and Kevin reach boiling point, while stressed student Emma gains a keen tea guest who forgets his table manners.
Meanwhile, Ryan just doesn’t understand how girlfriend Abby likes her eggs in the morning. With five interlinking short plays on the menu, Messy Eaters is jam packed with current, juicy chaos.
DryHump,
De Grey Rooms, 8pm. Booking required.
A sumptuous feast of Queer Cabaret delights,
with small plates of performance, porky party games and delicious dancing.
Freddie Does Puppets, Rich Tea and Rocky Road and DJ Nik Nak all feature.
SLAP’s ticket policy: Taste Of Slap’s ticket brackets are £3, £6, £9 and £12. Choose the amount you would like to pay.
“We will never ask you to prove your
financial situation; just pick the amount that feels best for you. If you would
like to know more about any of the events, please email info@slapyork.co.uk,” say
the organisers.
DryHump Queer Cabaret: the finale to Taste Of SLAP
Tickets
are on sale at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk, on 01904 623568 or in person at the
Theatre Royal box office.
New home: AJ Powell, Berwick Kaler, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard and Martin Barrass settle into the Grand Opera House auditorium. PIcture: David Harrison
THIS morning was the official launch for Berwick Kaler’s comeback pantomime, Dick Turpin Rides Again, as the resurrected York dame handed over the first tickets to queueing fans at his new home, the Grand Opera House.
Joining him were villain David Leonard, stalwart stooge Martin Barrass, ageless principal girl Suzy Cooper and luverly Brummie A J Powell after their controversial exit and crosstown switch from the York Theatre Royal, signing on the dotted line for pantomime powerhouse producers Qdos Entertainment and the Cumberland Street theatre’s owners, the Ambassador Theatre Group.
Not joining them, however, was CharlesHutchPress, barred from the launch and the morning’s media interviews at the request of the Panto Five in a move from the Dominic Cummings rule book for Number 10 press briefings .
This has to stop.
It is time to re-build bridges, and Valentine’s Day would have been a good start, rather than continuing this Charles Hutchinson Derides Again contretemps .
JOKER Jimmy Carr is Terribly Funny.
Or at least that’s the title the dry-witted British-Irish comedian, presenter
and writer has behest on this year’s York-bound travels.
Isleworth-born Carr, 47, has just
added a York Barbican date on October 25, in doing so making a crosstown switch
for the first time from his regular York stamping ground, the Grand Opera
House.
Not that the urbane stand-up putdown
specialist is not booked into the Opera House too on his 2020 tour. He is. Carr
will be Terribly Funny there first, on June 21.
Arch cynic Carr first played York in
2003 at the inaugural York Comedy Festival and The Other Side Comedy Club at The
Basement, City Screen, making his Grand Opera House debut with Public Displays Of
Affection in November 2004.
He returned in October 2006 and April
2007 with Gag Reflex; a one-off Repeat Offender in March 2008; two nights of Joke
Technician in September 2008, one in April 2009, and a brace of Rapier Wit dates
in September 2009, another in March 2010 and yet another two months later.
Jimmy Carr will be Terribly Funny twice over in York
Laughter Therapy brought Carr back for
two shows in October 2010 and one the next April; next came four performances
of Gagging Order, one in June 2012, two that December, one more in September 2013,
and two Funny Business gigs in October 2014. The Best Of, Ultimate, Greatest
Hits Tour sent him north in September 2016, October 2016 and June 2017.
His last public appearance in York
was as a guest at the York Minster wedding ceremony of pop star Ellie Goulding
and North Yorkshire-born art dealer Casper Jopling last August.
Terribly Funny contains jokes about all
kinds of terrible things, says Carr: “Terrible things that might have affected
you or people you know and love. But they’re just jokes – they are not
the terrible things. Having political correctness at a comedy show is like
having health and safety at a rodeo. Now you’ve been warned, buy a ticket.”
York Barbican tickets for Carr, the Channel 4 host of The Friday Night Project, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, are on sale on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the box office. Grand Opera House tickets, 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
Food Glorious Food: the Young People’s Ensemble give it plenty in Oliver!. All pictures: Tom Arber
REVIEW: Oliver!, York Light Opera Company, York Theatre Royal, until February 22. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
DAME Berwick Kaler’s 41 years at York Theatre Royal
have come to an end, but one company with an even longer run there is still
rolling out the productions after 60 years.
York Light have chosen to mark another 60th anniversary by staging Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, first performed in the West End in 1960.
This latest revival of a perennial favourite utilises David Merrick and Donald Albert’s Broadway stage version, here directed and choreographed by Martyn Knight on an expansive set with walkways, bustling London streets, the drab workhouse, smart townhouse and the underworld of Fagin’s dingy den.
The show opens with a death outside the workhouse,
and the dead woman being promptly stripped of her necklace by an older woman:
welcome to dark Dickensian London.
Rory Mulvihill’s Fagin and Jonny Holbek’s Bill Sikes in York Light’s Oliver!. Picture: Tom Arber
Once inside, Food Glorious Food bursts into life, the first of so many familiar Lionel Bart songs, choreography well drilled, the young people’s ensemble lapping up their first big moment (even if their bowls are empty already!).
The directorial polish in Hunter’s show is established immediately; likewise, the playing of John Atkin’s orchestra is rich and in turn warm and dramatic. These will be the cornerstones throughout in a show so heavy on songs, with bursts of dialogue in between that sometimes do not catch fire by comparison with the fantastic singing.
This review was of the first night, leaving time
aplenty for the acting to raise to the level of the songs, but there really does
need to be more drama, for example, from all the adults in Oliver and Dodger’s
pickpocketing scene. Likewise, spoiler alert, Nancy’s death scene fails to
shock, although Jonny Holbek elsewhere has the menace in voice and demeanour
for Bill Sikes. Even his dog Bullseye looks scared of him.
Playing the nefarious Fagin for a second time, with a stoop, straggly hair and wispy beard, stalwart Rory Mulvihill has both the twinkle in his eye and the awareness of the fading of the light, characteristics he brings to the contrasting ensemble numbers You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two and Be Back Soon and the reflective, sombre solo Reviewing The Situation.
Jonathan Wells’s Mr Sowerberry and Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Mrs Sowerberry with Matthew Warry’s Oliver (alternating the role with Alex Edmondson)
Overall, the company could take a lead from Neil
Wood’s Mr Bumble and Pascha Turnbull’s Widow Twankey in their hanky-panky I
Shall Scream scene, full of humour, sauce and pleasing characterisation.
Alex Edmondson’s truculent Oliver and Jack Hambleton’s chipper Dodger bond well, especially in Consider Yourself; Jonathan Wells’s Mr Sowerberry and Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Mrs Sowerberry are in fine voice. Her singing is even better, creamier you might say, for the Milkmaid, when joined by Sarah Craggs’s Rose Seller, Helen Eckersall’s Strawberry Seller, Richard Bayton’s Knife Grinder and Edmondson’s Oliver for Who Will Buy?, always beautiful and deeply so here.
Emma Louise Dickinson’s Nancy gives Act Two opener
Oom-Pah-Pah plenty of oomph, and although As Long As He Needs Me sits uncomfortably
on modern ears with its seeming tolerance of domestic abuse, she gives that
bruised ballad everything twice over.
Reviewing the present situation, the singing is
strong, moving and fun when it should be, but, please sir, your reviewer wants
some more from the non-singing scenes, and then he might be back soon.
Binaural Dinner Date: the alternative Valentine’s Day date, so alternative that the date will be on the day after Valentine’s Day
PAY attention hopeful singletons and curious couples seeking an alternative Valentine’s Day date with a difference.
York’s Taste of SLAP Saturday curators and directors Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin are bringing immersive and digital performance innovators ZU-UK to York Theatre Royal this weekend to set up the post-Valentine Binaural Dinner Date.
On the traditional
sporting match day of the week, matches of a different kind will be taking
place in the Theatre Royal café at 3pm, 5pm and 7.45pm, when ZU-UK will
be asking “audiences
to swipe right and join them for an experiential dating experience”.
“Come with your own date, or we can find one for you,” they
say, emphasising that booking is required as soon as possible on 01904 623568,
at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person at the Theatre Royal box office.
What will happen on Saturday? “Using binaural sound, participants will be guided by a voice in their ears to ask each other questions, offer answers, and consider the dos and don’ts of what we say, and what we would like to say, to each other on a date,” say ZU-UK, a company with its art and its heart in both London and Brazil.
“What are we really thinking when we meet for the first time? How much are we prepared to confess? And are the questions we ask each other the questions that will help us find love?”
Binaural Dinner Date is “part interactive performance, part dating agency” for individuals looking for love, or existing couples who simply want a “very different” dating encounter
It will take place at nine tables simultaneously, where the aforementioned voice in the ear of every participant will steer them through a “perfect” date. Wearing headphones, two participants per table will be hosted by a waiter/facilitator/DJ, complemented by “interactively mixed binaural audio” with suggestions and comments on dating “rules”, as well as games pushing social expectations and “acceptable” table-talk topics.
Jorge Lopes Ramos, ZU-UK’s co-artistic director, says: “ZU-UK’s artistic work has never shied away from engaging with urgent, problematic and at times depressing aspects of the contemporary human condition.
“This is a time to
question mainstream narratives and to consider our role in shaping communities
and relationships between strangers. Dating seemed like a contemporary human
ritual worth exploring.”
Formerly known as Zecora Ura and Para Active, ZU-UK is an independent theatre and digital arts company based in East London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, since 2001. Driven by an artistic partnership between Ramos and Persis Jadé Maravala, ZU-UK creates interactive experiences, using games, performance and technology, that can happen anywhere, whether on the phone, in the house, on a stage, in a shopping mall or a field.
Binaural Dinner Date is the first instalment in ZU-UK’s ten-part series Decalogy of Loneliness. After ZU’s Hotel Medea in 2009 to 2012 and the interactive technology exhibition Humble Market in 2012 to 2014, they have been developing ten artworks as part of this project.
Since 2015, they have
worked with Canadian research institute TAG (Technoculture, Arts and Games), using
game-design to deepen ZU’s work with immersive, participatory and interactive
performance.
Over the next three
years, ZU will develop the remaining parts of the Decalogy, focusing on the
relationship between strangers in public and private spaces. The company also
will present two digital artworks using
public phones, #RioFoneHackand How Mad Are You? , and a binaural
prototype, Small Data Mining.
Suitable for age 16 plus, Binaural Dinner Date is part of SLAP organisers Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin’s Taste Of SLAP, a day of food-themed shows under their Social Live Art Performance banner (although, if memory serves right, SLAP initially stood for Salacious Live Alternative Performance when the festival was first set up!).
Full details of Taste of SLAP can be found at slapyork.co.uk and a further preview will appear online at charleshutchpress.co.uk. Tickets for this weekend’s taster carry a “Pay What You Can” price tag.
The Magnificent Six in Crongton Knights at York Theatre Royal from February 25 to 29. Pictures: Robert Day
YORK Theatre Royal resident company Pilot Theatre are following up last year’s powerful adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses with another topical collaboration.
Pilot have teamed up with Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre to present Emteaz Hussain’s new staging of Alex Wheatle’s award-winning young adult novel Crongton Knights.
Co-directed by Corey Campbell, artistic director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company, and Pilot artistic director Esther Richardson, the touring world premiere will play the Theatre Royal from February 25 to 29.
Wheatle’s story depicts how life is not easy on the Crongton Estate and for McKay and his mates what matters is keeping their heads down. When a friend finds herself in trouble, however, they set out on a mission that goes further than any of them imagined.
Crongton Knights will “take you on a night of madcap adventure as McKay and his friends, The Magnificent Six, encounter the dangers and triumphs of a mission gone awry”.
Esther Richardson: Crongton Knights co-director and Pilot Theatre artistic director
In this story of how lessons learned the hard way can bring you closer together, the pulse of the city will be brought to life on stage with a Conrad Murray soundscape of beatboxing and vocals laid down by the cast of Kate Donnachie; Zak Douglas; Simi Egbejumi-David; Nigar Yeva; Olisa Odele; Aimee Powell; Khai Shaw and Marcel White.
Wheatle, a writer born in London to Jamaican parents, says: “I’m very proud that Pilot Theatre are adapting my novel, Crongton Knights, for the stage. It’s a modern quest story where, on their journey, the young diverse lead characters have to confront debt, poverty, blackmail, loss, fear, the trauma of a flight from a foreign land and the omnipresent threat of gangland violence.
“The dialogue I created for this award-winning novel deserves a platform and I, for one, can’t wait to see the characters that have lived in my head for a number of years leap out of my mind and on to a stage near you.”
Co-director Esther Richardson says of the teen quest story: “For us, this play is a lens through which to explore the complexity of young people’s lives, open a platform for those concerns and show what they have to try to navigate fairly invisibly to other members of society. It’s the context in which they live that creates the problem, and these kids go under the radar.
“Alex is writing about how the world is stacked against teenagers; how young people have been thrown to the dogs; how they to negotiate this No Man’s Land they live in, when their places have been closed down; their spaces to express themselves.
On the wall: The Crongton Knights cast
“They have been victims of austerity – as have disabled people – so it’s no surprise that there’s been a rise in knife crime, with kids on the streets and no youth workers to go to, to talk about their feelings.”
Esther notes how they have no access to the arts either. “That’s why our job becomes very important, especially the work we do with theatres around the country, such as the Young and Talented theatre workshops, working with kids in inner-city London who otherwise would have no involvement in the arts,” she says.
“It’s a very heavily subsidised actor-training scheme for children aged five or six upwards, and cast members for plays like Crongton Knights can come through the scheme.”
Esther is concerned, however, by the cuts in arts funding and the potential negative impact of Brexit too. “Theatre is not seen as an opportunity to thrive in, especially in this post-Brexit landscape where it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she predicts.
“That’s why we will further shift into co-creating pieces, Pilot creating work with communities, Pilot co-creating with teens, which we do already do, but we can do it better and do it more.”
On yer bike: A tense scene in Crongton Knights
Significantly, Crongton Knights is the second of four co-productions between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and York Theatre Royal, who last year formed – together with the Mercury Theatre in Colchester – a new new partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences.
From 2019-2022, the consortium will commission and co-produce an original mid-scale touring production each year that will play in all the consortium venues as well as touring nationally. The consortium’s debut production, Noughts & Crosses, was seen by more than 30,000 people on tour with 40 per cent of the audience being aged under 20.
To reflect the diversity of the consortium partners and the universality of Crongton Knights’ theme, Esther says: “Although there’s an estate in London called Notre Dame, which features in the book and the play, we have very much created a fictionalised inner city in the play, as Corey and I felt we wanted regional as well as London voices in the cast.
“So, our inner-city world is neither London, nor Birmingham, nor Coventry; it’s everywhere from the perspective of teenagers.”
Pilot Theatre and partners present Crongton Knights, York Theatre Royal, February 25 to 29, 7.30pm nightly plus 2pm, Thursday and 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 11 plus; show contains strong language.
Hail Caesar: English Touring Opera are bringing Giulio Cesare to York Theatre Royal in early April. Picture: Oliver Rosser
ENGLISH Touring Opera will be performing
in both the main house and Studio on their return to York Theatre Royal this
spring.
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte will be staged on April 3 and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) on April 4, both at 7.30pm, in the bigger space; next door will be The Extraordinary Adventures Of You And Me, for young children, at 11am and 2pm on the Saturday.
Directed by Laura Attridge, conducted by Holly Mathieson and sung in English, Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte is a story of young love and fidelity that combines glorious music and farcical comedy in his third collaboration with librettist Da Ponte after The Marriage Of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Giulio Cesare, Handel’s epic opera of passion and revenge, is built on “a treasure trove of great arias with immense dramatic intensity”, set in the wake of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Egypt as his uneasy alliance and romance with fabled Egyptian queen Cleopatra unfurls.
Sung in Italian with English surtitles, ETO’s touring show is an adapted revival of their 2017 production, led by artistic director James Conway and conductorJonathan Peter Kenny, who will lead the Old Street Band. Both ETO’s April 3 and 4 performances will be preceded by a 6.30pm pre-show talk.
The
Extraordinary Adventures Of You And Me is the latest instalment of fun,
engaging and interactive operas for children and young audiences, after Laika The
Spacedog, Waxwings, Paradise Planet, Shackelton’s Cat and This Is
My Bed.
The 11am and 2pm audiences will meet the hero, Mackenzie, as they prepare to travel through time and space. On a school trip to a museum, Mackenzie discovers that a pencil case is full of magical worlds. “Who knows who you will meet and where you will visit along the way, so take a deep breath and expect the unexpected” say ETO of a show created by composer Omar Shahryar and writer/director Ruth Mariner.
ETO’s performance is suitable for Key Stage 1 and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) audiences. The story features five performers, including singers and players, an ingenious set, interactive songs and sound technology and is recommended for two to five-year-old children.
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Happy Valentine’s Clay: time to mess around at Cineworld York
LOVERS going potty for each other on Valentine’s Day are invited to bond over romantic pottery classes at Cineworld York, Kathryn Avenue, Huntington, York, tomorrow.
Happy Valentine’s Clay can be enjoyed by dating duos who book for the 6pm
ViP screening of Ghost on the 30th anniversary of the 1990 American movie.
This will be the chance for courting couples or pairs of just friends to channel their inner Patrick Swayze or Demi Moore by re-creating Ghost’s iconic pottery scene – soundtracked to The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody, as in the film – in the exclusive ViP lounge before sitting down to a romantic three-course meal. Ticket holders will then watch Ghost in luxury reclining seats.
That moment in Ghost
Ghost’s pottery moment
sees the shirtless
Swayze’s Sam Wheat sitting behind Moore’s Molly Jensen as she carefully sculpts
the wet clay. He reaches out and ruins her vase, so they begin a new one
together, his hands interlaced with hers, before abandoning
the wheel in favour of a loving embrace.
Those who want to avoid messy pottery-making a deux still can partake in the ViP Valentine’s Day screening experience in the intimate screening room, with access to the ViP Lounge private bar 45 minutes before the show and complimentary dining and unlimited nachos, hot dogs, popcorn and soft drinks, all included in the ticket price.
Ghost guests should arrive an hour before the 6pm screen time for their romantic pottery and dinner date.Tickets cost £32 at cineworld.com.vip.
