Finn East’s Dewey Finn and Eady Mensah’s Tomika rehearsing for York Stage’s School Of Rock: The Next Generation
AS the new school term begins, what perfect timing for York Stage to open School Of Rock: The Next Generation at the Grand Opera House, York, today.
“It really is the perfect show to start September,” says director of operations Kevin Coundon. “There will be no back-to-school blues for those going to the School of Rock.”
Produced and directed by Nik Briggs, the riotous musical is based on the 2003 film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Finn East, an actor noted as much for his comic craft as his musical chops, takes “the Jack Black role” of Dewey Finn, a failed rock musician desperate for money, who chances his arm by faking his credentials to be a substitute teacher at a stuffy American prep school.
Jettisoning Math(s) in favour of propelling his students to become the most awesome rock band ever, will he be found out by the parents and headmistress, leaving Dewey to face the music?
“I’d say it’s the biggest role I’ve played, popularity wise, though the biggest stage part I’ve played was Bill Snibson, the cheeky Cockney geezer, in Me And My Girl for Pick Me Up Theatre [Grand Opera House, May 2019],” says Finn.
Finn East (Dewey Finn) and Megan Waite (Principal Rosalie Mullins) in rehearsal for School Of Rock: The Next Generation
“But Dewey is definitely a challenging part for me that’s more well known and draws more attention. I’ve had lots of compliments about getting it, and I’m pleased that everyone is on my side for it.
“There isn’t too much pressure that goes with it, but there is the pressure, I guess, that people see me as a ‘bit of a Jack Black’, but I’m not too worried about doing my own thing, though I naturally fall into his style.”
Finn did not go to last November’s York premiere of School Of Rock by York Light Youth, but he has seen the Paramount film. “But not for a while, though I have it in my DVD collection. That one is in the ‘Director’ section under Richard Linklater as I’m quite the film buff!
“When I studied musical theatre at York College, we went to the West End musical at the Gillian Lynne Theatre – and I loved it!
“I don’t know anyone who’d be as brave as Dewey to do what effectively is identity fraud, but there is a lot in the show’s message that school can bring a lot more out of you by letting you grow instead of squeezing children into a machine.”
Looking back to his schooldays at Warter, near Pocklington, Finn says: “I was very academic to begin with but social at the same time, even at primary school. I was pretty much the school clown: a bit of a comedian, but I always focused on my work too.”
For those about to rock: York Stage’s young musicians in School Of Rock: The Next Generation
He first picked up a guitar – Dewey Finn’s instrument – at the age of five. “I played fingerstyle blues stuff, but I didn’t practise loads, though I did go to lessons, but then I really picked it up in my teens, when I started hanging out with my friend Will Dreyfus, playing with him at open-mic nights at Plonkers and Sotano,” says Finn.
“My guitar playing is all right. I play with a plectrum now. I’m more a chords player, when I’m singing. I’ve never been much of a guitar soloist, which you might find out at the end of Act Two!
“It’s very different playing guitar in this show, as I’ve never really had a band before. Now it’s my band with a bunch of kids, and that’s different from playing in pubs – and I’m also performing in character.”
Joining Finn’s Dewey in the band will be Charlie Jewison’s guitarist Zack, Daniel Tomlin’s keyboard player Lawrence, Matilda Park’s bassist Katie and Zach Denison’s drummer Freddie.
“We didn’t play together until maybe a month into rehearsals and then had quite a few pure band rehearsals,” says Finn, who is full of admiration for his young cohorts. “Matilda only picked up the bass after rehearsals began, having previously played other string instruments, getting tuition from Georgia Chapman.
“The guitarist, Charlie, from Leeds, already has his own band. School Of Rock is the first time he’s done a show like this, but he’s used to playing guitar live on stage.
Guitar face-off: James Robert Ball (Ned Schneebly) and Finn East (Dewey Finn) duelling in School Of Rock rehearsals
“Our musical director Shack [Stephen Hackshaw] had already done School Of Rock at his school, and when we needed a drummer, he asked the parents of the boy who’d played drums in that show, Zach, if he could do our show and they said ‘yes’. He’s really talented.
“It’s quite a challenge, with ‘real’ school just started again and having to travel over here to rehearse and perform, but you can really tell Charlie and Zach just love playing their instruments.”
Both Matilda and keyboardist Dan Tomlin were in York Stage’s April production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as was Finn. “Even during the rehearsals, Dan was always on the piano, getting kids to sing with him,” he says. “He’s so much fun, and he loves getting into character too.”
York Stage is giving these children, along with the young ensemble, the chance to express themselves artistically, much to Finn’s delight. “I would say the kids that Dewey teaches are so talented at music and yet that’s brushed aside as a hobby because parents want them to be accountants or in a dull, high-paid job,” he says.
“At first the kids don’t understand why they’d want to play music when there are ‘more important’ things to do, but they grow to love it, to be hooked on it.”
The poster for Twilight Robbery, in which Finn East appeared in a double act with Josh Benson
Finn knows that feeling. “The first theatre show I did was Oliver!, playing one of Fagin’s gang, for York Light Opera Company, and I loved being on stage,” he says.
He acquired an agent at the age of 18 “for a while” after he performed in Joseph McNiece’s heist musical comedy Twilight Robbery for the Scaena Theatre Company and The Boff Ensemble at The Barn Theatre, Oxted, in Surrey in February 2018.
“I did that production after I’d done The Wizard Of Oz with Pick Me Up Theatre, when Joe [McNiece] played The Tin Man. He’d just finished a course in playwriting and directing and he’d written Twilight Robbery with Matthew Spalding, who composed the music.
“He asked me to do the show – he’s from Surrey, so that’s why we did it there – and I played a double act with [York actor] Josh Benson, my very good friend, which was great fun.”
Roll on to 2024, as Finn contemplates his future. “I’m still thinking about training to get some ‘proper credentials’,” he says. “As much as I love theatre, film interests me the most, though you don’t get to experience that immediate audience reaction you do in theatres. Film is what I love watching and what I’d love to be involved in.”
York Stage presents School Of Rock: The Next Generation, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 21; Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Saturdays, 2.30pm; Sunday, 4pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Copyright of The Press, York
Who’s in the York Stage cast and production team for School Of Rock?
York Stage cast members in rehearsal for School Of Rock: The Next Generation
Cast:
Dewey Finn – Finn East Principal Rosalie Mullins – Megan Waite Ned Schneebly – James Robert Ball Patti DiMarco – Amy Barrett
The adult company is completed by Florence Poskitt, Matthew Clarke, Stuart Hutchinson, Jess Burgess, Ashley Ginter, Julie Fisher, Cyanne Unamba Oparah, Phil Charles Green, Declan Childs, Oliver Lawery, Theo Ryder, Kalina O’Brien and Evie Latham.
Dewey’s Band, performing live every show:
Zack (guitarist) – Charlie Jewison Lawrence (keys) – Daniel Tomlin Katie (bass) – Matilda Park Freddie (drums) – Zach Denison
Plus two teams of ten students.
Production team:
Director/Producer – Nik Briggs Musical director – Stephen Hackshaw Choreographer – Danielle Mullan-Hill
Pink Hair, by Sarah Sharpe, from the Leeds Fine Artists’ 150th Anniversary Exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery
LEEDS Fine Artists is celebrating its 150th anniversary with an exhibition at its regular York host, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York.
“For this celebratory exhibition 26 members have come together with an inspirational collection of work demonstrating a wide range of styles and different media,” says gallery owner Kim Oldfield.
“It is very apparent from this collection that the relevance and talent of the group has in no way dimmed and that they will remain a vibrant force in creative circles for many more years to come.”
LFA artist Tim Pearce adds: “About the very same time that the French Impressionists were holding their first exhibition in the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris in the Spring of 1874, a group of Leeds artists were assembling their own show of work in a large public building in Park Row.
“Whereas Monet, Renoir, Degas and the rest ceased exhibiting together after 1886, Leeds Fine Artists continued to survive through two World Wars and on into the 21st century where the organisation still thrives to the present day.
Cherries, mixed media, by Roger Gardner
“As part of a series of exhibitions marking 150 years since Leeds Fine Artists’ inception, Blossom Street Gallery is displaying painting and sculpture by more than 20 of its 60 members who, these days, work from locations right across Yorkshire.”
Among the artists taking part are: Sharron Astbury-Petit; Dawn Broughton; Jane Burgess; Mark Butler; Pete Donnelly; Alison Flowers; Roger Gardner; Margarita Godgelf; Dan Harnett; Peter Heaton; Nicholas Jagger; Michael Curgenven; Catherine Morris; Martin Pearson; Clare Phelan; Trevor Pittaway; Neil Pittaway; Annie Robinson; Annie Roche; Sarah Sharpe and John Sherwood.
Sharron Astbury-Petit is a Yorkshire-born artist who works from her studio in Leeds. Favourite subjects in her paintings are nature, time and mortality/immortality. “Using a subtle layering of different media, my work pays homage to the seduction of the intangible,” she says.
Dawn Broughton, who lives in Tadcaster, has a First Class BA (Hons) in painting and an MA in fine art and has been an LFA member since last October. “I am a figurative artist who works in acrylic for paintings and pencil, pen and charcoal for my drawings,” she says. “My practice is perpetually evolving, as it constantly revisits ideas and themes that always stem from my own experiences and observations.”
Figurative painter Jane Burgess works in oils and watercolours and is particularly interested in the effects of light on the landscape. “When painting in oils, I often paint en plein air, completing a work in one session or creating a piece that I then finish in the studio. Watercolour appeals to me because of its immediacy of use and the luminosity of its colours.”
Allotment Shed With Maize, by Jane Burgess
Sculptor Mark Butler works mainly in cast bronze. “Although I use metal – a markedly permanent material – I harness chance to create imperfect and fractured pieces, mirroring the impermanence and vulnerability of the environment around me.”
Pete Donnelly’s sculpture is generally figurative and he tends to use traditional techniques such as ceramics. “However, I often use the face and expression as a tool to encourage an emotional response from the audience and prompt them to ask questions and form their own narrative and connection to the work,” he says.
Alison Flowers’ paintings are inspired by time spent in solitary natural spaces and the restorative effect that being away from it all has on her interior landscape. “Through colour, marks and combining different media, I work in the studio evoking memories and use photographs, sketches and mixed-media experiments as a springboard for paintings that emerge,” she says.
Roger Gardner usually paints in oil on canvas on a range of themes: chairs, shirts, picnic sets, plates, for example. “These themes continue for some while and may be reinvestigated later in a different format,” he says. His studio is in Wakefield, where a community of 30 artists and makers provides mutual support.
Margarita Godgelf explores contemporary existence and identity within social constructs, placing protagonists in fantastical or realistic spaces to form a world of ironic provocation and metaphor. “Sometimes this metaphor is flowers representing the spring that we all battle for,” she says. “Flowers blossom and we stretch, reach out, explore, dance and communicate.”
Alison Flowers: “Inspired by time spent in solitary natural spaces”
Dan Harnett’s photography is inspired by his time in the Merchant Navy and childhood on the Kent coast. “Ranging from abstract to still life, it explores human relationships with the sea, reflecting the differing perspectives of seafarers and landlubbers, conjuring images, stories and reflections from earlier voyages.”
Landscape often forms the subject matter of Peter Heaton’s work, along with a concern for “spirit of place”. “I am driven to create something that has resonance, feeling and meaning,” he says. “This can manifest itself in complex, layered images or simpler balanced harmonious compositions with internal spaces.”
Nicholas Jagger explores the Vanitas theme, one that considers the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures, exhorting the viewer to consider mortality and to repent.
“Most of my work witnesses the passing of time over a range of timescales, from the brief lives of leaves to the lifespan of sculpture ravaged and eroded by weather,” he says. “My subjects stand in their own light but are also metaphors for own brief lives.”
Michael Curgenven breaks away from his usual artistic practice of abstract landscapes to focus on figurative pieces for this exhibition. “These are based on my love of drawing,” he says. “They are constructed in mixed media, including ink, pencil, oil pastel and watercolours.”
Mighty Oaks, by Sharron Astbury-Petit
Catherine Morris works in diverse media – oil, acrylic, collage – but the common denominator is layers, allowing colours underneath to peep through and produce unexpected results. “My subject matter is the Yorkshire moors, but not in a literal way, often using just the shapes and colours I see to produce something abstract,” she says.
Since the mid-1990s, Martin Pearson has been exploring a form of lyrical abstraction utilising personal motifs. “I use a variety of mark-making techniques to develop textures and patterns,” he says. “In more recent paintings, still-life elements appear, alongside their abstract counterparts. I hope my paintings are optimistic.”
Award-winning Holmfirth printmaker Clare Phelan is influenced by the post-industrial landscapes of northern England. “I work with mass-produced obsolete materials from the past,” she says. “Through etching and collagraph printmaking processes, these redundant artefacts are given a new life.”
Two of Trevor Pittaway’s favourite subjects are his native North Yorkshire and the “magical city” of Venice. “When travelling, I sketch using pencil, watercolour and an iPad,” he says. “In the studio, I then use these drawings for information. I paint in oil, acrylic and egg-tempera and also produce original etchings and digital prints.”
Wakefield-born printmaker, painter and draughtsman Neil Pittaway’s works reflect ideas from East and Western sources and perspectives such as Anglo-European heritage, transatlantic connections, Asian landscapes, gothic revival architecture, urbanness, satire, illustration and narrative.
Leeds Fine Artists’ 150th Anniversary Exhibition in situ at Blossom Street Gallery, York. Picture: Kim Oldfield
“My work incorporates and explores these identities through direct and indirect observation, creating complex and seemingly agoraphobic, perspective spaces,” says the Royal Academy graduate and New English Art Club, Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers member.
Although Annie Robinson’s work is connected to the landscape, whether visited, studied or remembered, she “tends to work in an exploratory and instinctive way, drawn to the abstract qualities of paint itself and letting the paint evolve and speak for itself.”
After a long career in teaching, Annie Roche has time to explore her own creativity. “Colour is central to my work; it brings me a sense of joy and positivity. Still life, landscape and abstraction all cross over. Compositions are not literal; serendipity allows shapes to sometimes be recognisable but often obtuse, open to reinterpretation.”
Motherhood, angels, birds, woodland and the passing seasons are a constant theme of Malton artist Sarah Sharpe’s work. “Imagination, the land I tread, people and their stories underpin my work,” says this member of Leeds Fine Artists, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts and Society of Catholic Artists.
John Sherwood’s work develops freely over time. “The approach remains flexible and is open-ended in terms of outcome,” he says. “I have no firm preconceptions as to the purpose of what I do, other than perhaps that I see art as being a tool that interacts positively with my life.”
Leeds Fine Artists: the back story
The poster for Leeds Fine Artists’ 150th Annivesary Exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery
FOUNDED in 1874, the Leeds Fine Art Club, now called Leeds Fine Artists, soon became a major player in the intellectual and cultural life of Leeds.
Its meetings and annual exhibitions were popular among the middle-class professionals who had grown up to service the city’s expanding industrial base.
In the course of its 150-year history, the group has been associated with various artists of renown, some of whom have been social reformers, such as Ina Kitson Clark, the prominent campaigner for women’s rights, and Beatrice Kitson, the first woman to be Lord Mayor of Leeds.
The organisation’s members have always embraced a wide variety of subjects and styles. Eric Taylor was renowned for the paintings he produced when he was among the British troops that liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
While some artists evoked the Yorkshire landscape, such as Staithes Group member Owen Bowen, others travelled widely: Frank Dean, for example, painted scenes in North Africa, the Middle East and India.
Triform, by Tim Pearce, on show at Blossom Street Gallery
A blue plaque at Leeds City Art Gallery commemorates Robert Hawthorne Kitson, who, as a gay man, left Britain to live in Sicily, where his villa was much frequented by artistic friends, including Frank Brangwyn and Wilhelm von Gloeden, who was noted for his homoerotic photography.
Perhaps the most famous artist in the LFA ranks is Jacob Kramer, who was born in Ukraine but spent much of his working life in Leeds, becoming renowned for his depiction of Jewish life.
Today, members live throughout Yorkshire with some further afield, from Kent to Scotland, and the LFA continues to attract artists of the highest ability across a variety of media, from painting, drawing and printmaking to ceramics, sculpture and textiles.
To mark the 150th anniversary, LFA has produced a commemorative book, Leeds Fine Artists 1874-2024, featuring the work of 50 current members and an historical introduction to the origins of the group and its 20th century history. Published in hardback, copies are available at Blossom Street Gallery and at leedsfineartists.co.uk/yorkshire/ at £20.
Leeds Fine Artists, Celebrating 150 Years, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, on show until October 31. Opening hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.
The cover for Leeds Fine Artists’ commemorative book to mark the 150th anniversary
Finn East’s Dewey Finn and Eady Mensah’s Tomika in rehearsal for York Stage’s School Of Rock: The Next Generation
FOR those about to rock, or celebrate jazz greats, or glory in Henry V, Charles Hutchinson stacks up reasons to head out and about.
Musical of the week: York Stage in School Of Rock: The Next Generation, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 21, 7.30pm, except September 15 and 16; 2.30pm, September 14 and 21; 4pm, September 15
YORK Stage is ready to rock in the riotous musical based on the 2003 Jack Black film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Failed rock musician Dewey Finn (Finn East), desperate for money, chances his arm by faking it as a substitute teacher at a stuffy American prep school, jettisoning Math(s) in favour of propelling his students to become the most awesome rock band ever. Will he be found out by the parents and headmistress, leaving Dewey to face the music? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe: Running his 11th York Chamber Music Festival next week
Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, various venues, September 13 to 15
FOR its 11th season, York Chamber Music Festival artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is bringing together pianist Andrew Brownell, violinists Ben Hancox and Magnus Johnston, viola players Gary Pomeroy and Simone van der Giessen, cellist Marie Bitlloch and flautist Sam Coles.
The centenary of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s death will be marked prominently in the five concerts. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ycmf.co.uk.
Ronnie Scott’s All Stars: Presenting Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Shawn Pearce
Jazz gig of the week: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club Presents The Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook, York Theatre Royal, September 13, 7.30pm
RONNIE Scott’s Jazz Club returns to York Theatre Royal with a new collection of music, narration and projected archive images and rare footage, celebrating Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook.
Hosted and performed by the award-winning Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, led by musical director James Pearson, the show offers a glimpse into the London club’s storied world with its litany of legendary jazz players and vocalists. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568.
Paul Carrack: Celebrating 50 years since his first hit, Ace’s How Long, at York Barbican. Picture: Nico Wills Cornbury
Ace memoir of the week: Paul Carrack, How Long: 50th Anniversary Tour 2024, York Barbican, September 14, 7.30pm
IN 1974, Sheffield musician Paul Carrack was in “fun London band” Ace when he penned How Long, a song that would reach number three in the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. Phil Collins named it among his top ten favourites in a 1981 issue of Smash Hits.
“How Long is probably the first song I wrote,” recalls Carrack, now 73. “I wrote the song about a real situation, a situation that many people could relate to. Little did I know that it would become a classic and touch the hearts of so many.” His 50th anniversary tour takes a journey through his career, from his days with Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics to his solo years. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Alchemy Live: In Dire Straits in Helmsley
Tribute gig of the week: Alchemy Live, A Tribute To Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 14, 8pm
FORMED in 2022 by frontman Martin Ledger, Yorkshire band Alchemy Live bring together a group of professional players and friends that shares a common love of the music of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits.
Alchemy Live are “all about the music, no lookalike competitions here”, re-creating the Dire Straits sound as accurately as possible. Every guitar solo is taken from a specific show and reproduced note for note. “Close your eyes and you’re right there, at the Hammersmith Odeon back in 1983,” says Ledger. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Historian and author Dan Jones
Book event of the week: Kemps Presents Dan Jones, Henry V: The Astonishing Rise Of England’s Greatest Warrior King, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 17, 7.30pm
HISTORIAN, television presenter, journalist, podcaster and author Dan Jones says he has been waiting to write Henry V’s biography for many years on account of Agincourt victor Henry being considered as the pinnacle and paragon of medieval kingship, both his own time and for centuries thereafter.
Jones will discuss “one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down” and sign copies of the book post-discussion. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Charlie Parr: Showcasing blues and folk songs of community and communing with nature at Pocklington Arts Centre
Troubadour of the week: Charlie Parr, Pocklington Arts Centre, September 19, 8pm
RAISED in Austin, Texas, and now living in the Lake Superior port town of Duluth, folk troubadour and bluesman poet Charlie Parr has recorded 19 albums since 2002, this year releasing Little Sun, full of stories celebrating music, community and communing with nature.
Taking to the road between shows, this American guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music writes and rewrites songs as he plays, drawing on the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship echoing the works of his working-class upbringing, notably Folkways legends Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Iago Banet: Fingerstyle acoustic guitarist plays solo in Helmsley. Picture: Sue Rainbow
Guitarist of the week: Iago Banet, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 20, 8pm
IAGO Banet, “the Galician King of Acoustic Guitar” from northern Spain, visits Helmsley on the back of releasing his third album, the self-explanatory Tres, in 2023.
Featured on BCC Radio 2’s The Blues Show With Cerys Matthews, this solo fingerstyle acoustic guitarist has played such festivals as Brecon Jazz, Hellys International Guitar Festival and Aberjazz, displaying skill, complexity and versatility in his fusion of gypsy jazz, blues, Americana, country, Dixieland, swing, pop and folk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Anna Hibiscus’ Song: Theatrical story of self-discovery from Nigeria at York Theatre Royal
FROM African storytelling to Milton Jones’s puns, Will Young’s joyous pop to Dewey Finn’s teaching methods, Charles Hutchinson finds reasons to smile.
Children’s show of the week: Utopia Theatre and Sheffield Theatres present Anna Hibiscus’ Song, York Theatre Royal, today, 11am and 2pm
THIS is the story of a young African girl named Anna Hibiscus, who lives in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she is so filled with happiness that she feels like she might float away. The more she talks to her family about it, the more her happiness grows. The only thing to do is…sing!
Told through music, dance, puppetry and traditional African storytelling, this theatrical story of self-discovery is adapted for the stage by director Mojisola Kareem from the book by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia. Suitable for children aged three upwards and their grown-ups. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Water-Lily Pond, oil on canvas, by Claude Monet, 1899, on show at York Art Gallery until tomorrow. Copyright: National Gallery
Last chance to see:National Treasures: Monet In York: The Water-Lily Pond, York Art Gallery, in bloom until tomorrow (8/9/2024), 10am to 5pm
SUNDAY or bust. This weekend brings to an end the National Gallery’s bicentenary celebrations in tandem with York Art Gallery after close to 70,000 people took up the chance to feel the radiance of French Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s 1899 work, The Water-Lily Pond, the centrepiece and trigger point of this special anniversary exhibition.
On show too are loans from regional and national institutions alongside York Art Gallery collection works and a large-scale commission by contemporary artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Una Sinfonia. Monet’s canvas is explored in the context of 19th-century French open-air painting, pictures by his early mentors and the Japanese prints that transformed his practice and beloved gardens in Giverny. Hurry, hurry to book tickets at yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Milton Jones: Not short of shirts for his Ha!Milton tour
Comedy gig of the week: Milton Jones, Ha!Milton, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
THIS is not a musical. Milton Jones is tone deaf and has no sense of rhythm, he admits, but at least he doesn’t make a song and dance about it. Instead, he has more important things to discuss. Things like giraffes…and there’s a bit about tomatoes.
The shock-haired, loud-shirted master of the one-liner promises a whole new show of daftness. “You know it makes sense,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Will Young: Showcasing Light It Up’s joyous pop at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jamie Noise
Pop gig of the week: Will Young, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
MARKING the August 9 release of his Light It Up album, Will Young is embarking on his most intimate tour yet, an up-close-and-personal evening of acoustic performances, stories and conversation across 50 dates.
The ten tracks are a return to embracing joyous unashamed pop music for Young, who has teamed up with Scandinavian pop production/writing duo pHD, as well as reuniting with Groove Armada’s Andy Cato and long-term writing partners Jim and Mima Elliot, for “the go-to pop album for a dance, for a cry and for a celebration”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Simon Russell Beale: Shakespeare actor, now starring as Ser Simon Strong in House Of The Dragon, will be in conversation at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday night
Theatre chat: An Evening With Simon Russell Beale, York Theatre Royal, September 10, 7.30pm
WAS Shakespeare an instinctive “conservative” or, rather, gently subversive? How collaborative was he? Did he add a line to Hamlet to accommodate his ageing and increasingly chubby principal actor Richard Burbage? Did he suffer from insomnia and experience sexual jealousy?
In An Evening With Simon Russell Beale, in conversation with a special guest, the Olivier Award-winning actor will share his experiences of “approaching and living with some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters”, from his school-play days as Desdemona in Othello to title roles in Hamlet and Macbeth. Expect anecdotes of Sam Mendes, Nick Hytner, Stephen Sondheim and Lauren Bacall too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ruth Berkoff in The Beauty Of Being Herd, her debut show “for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in”. Picture: Alex Kenyon
Sheep and cheerful: Ruth Berkoff: The Beauty Of Being Herd, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 12, and Terrington Village Hall, near Malton, September 28, both 7.30pm
HAVE you ever felt like an outsider? Hannah has. Her solution? She has decided to live as a sheep. “But don’t worry, she’s thought it all through. She’s even got a raincoat. And she’d love to tell you all about it at her Big Goodbye Party. Everyone is invited,” says Leeds writer-performer Ruth Berkoff, introducing her hour of comedy, original songs, heartfelt sharing and even a rave.
“Whether you’re shy, neurodivergent, have accidentally put your foot in it or simply had to spend time with people that weren’t ‘your people’, this is a show for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in.” Box office: York, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; Terrington, terringtonvillagehall.co.uk.
Finn East’s Dewey Finn and Eady Mensah’s Tomika in rehearsal for York Stage’s School Of Rock: The Next Generation
Musical of the week: York Stage in School Of Rock: The Next Generation, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 21, 7.30pm, except September 15 and 16; 2.30pm, September 14 and 21; 4pm, September 15
YORK Stage is ready to rock in the riotous musical based on the 2003 Jack Black film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Failed rock musician Dewey Finn (Finn East), desperate for money, chances his arm by faking it as a substitute teacher at a stuffy American prep school, jettisoning Math(s) in favour of propelling his students to become the most awesome rock band ever. Will he be found out by the parents and headmistress, leaving Dewey to face the music? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe: Running his 11th York Chamber Music Festival next week
Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, various venues, September 13 to 15
FOR its 11th season, York Chamber Music Festival artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is bringing together pianist Andrew Brownell, violinists Ben Hancox and Magnus Johnston, viola players Gary Pomeroy and Simone van der Giessen, cellist Marie Bitlloch and flautist Sam Coles.
The centenary of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s death will be marked prominently in the five concerts. For the full programme and tickets, go to: ycmf.co.uk.
Tim Lowe: York Chamber Music Festival artistic director and cellist. Picture: York Chamber Music Festival
THE centenary of the death of French composer Gabriel Fauré will be marked by the York Chamber Music Festival from September 13 to 15.
“For the 2024 festival I have gathered together another crop of the best string players in the country, all playing at the top of their game,” says artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe. “The 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition second prize winner, American pianist Andrew Brownell, returns to us after a long absence too.
Lowe has assembled a festival line-up of pianist Brownell; violinists Ben Hancox and Magnus Johnston; viola players Gary Pomeroy and Simone van der Giessen; cellist Marie Bitlloch and flautist Sam Coles.
“Spotlighting the Fauré centenary, we will play his beautiful Piano Quartet No. 1 Op.15 – a piece that after the French defeat in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War led the renaissance of French musical culture and defined its distinctive sound-world,” says Tim.
“In his older age, his Second Cello Sonata is an amazingly youthful and life-affirming work for a composer in his late seventies and by then, sharing with Beethoven a composer’s worst nightmare, unable to hear, arguably, their greatest music.”
Lowe and Brownell will open the festival with a French-themed lunchtime cello recital at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, on September 13 at 1pm, featuring Nadia Boulanger’s Trois Pièces for ‘Cello and Piano, Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano and Fauré’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117.
Flautist Sam Coles. Picture: York Chamber Music Festival
“As the storm clouds of war gathered over Europe in 1914, Debussy was seriously ill with cancer but feeling it was his patriotic duty to compose,” says Tim. “The sonata is infused with progressive, 20th century harmonic language, which often ventures into exotic modes and the dreamy, time-altering magic of the pentatonic and whole tone scales. Yet under the surface lies a nostalgic classicism.
“Fauré, like Debussy, was physically frail. He was totally deaf when he wrote his last major works. He was 76 but what grips us immediately about this cello sonata is its youthfulness and exuberance. For anyone less spiritually centred than Fauré, these final years would have been a time of frustration but from his silent world he shares with us moments of transcendence.”
Hancox, Johnston, Pomeroy, van der Giessen, Bitlloch and Lowe will gather at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, for the Friday evening concert: a 7.30pm programme of Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major Op. 33 No. 3 (The Bird), Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No 1 in D Major Op. 11 and Dvořák’s String Quintet in E flat major, Op. 97.
“After a break of ten years, Haydn returned with renewed enthusiasm to writing string quartets,” says Tim. “The six new Op. 33 quartets toy with convention, surprise and delight us. He uses the title ‘Scherzo’ – Italian word meaning ‘joke’ – and there is indeed a lot of humour in these quartets. Op. 33 No. 3 Is known as ‘The Bird’ for good reasons!
“In 1871 Tchaikovsky decided to supplement his modest income from teaching and journalism by staging a concert of his own works in Moscow including this new String Quartet No.1 in D major; a youthful work and maybe his greatest chamber music. It was an unqualified success, showing the composer’s gift for melodic invention.
“While in America, Dvořák took his family on summer vacations into the countryside in Iowa. It was here, at Spillville, that he wrote masterpieces, among his finest works, embodying his intense love of chamber music, his mastery of the intricacies of the classical form and above all his revolutionary commitment to folk melody, which gives his music such a passionate emotional impact; joy unbounded.”
Pianist Andrew Brownell. Picture: York Chamber Music Festival
Lowe will team up with Coles and Brownell for From Classical To Romantic, the Saturday lunchtime concert of Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Euryanthe (arr. Hummel), Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Adagio, Variations and Rondo on a Russian Theme, Op 78 and Weber’s Trio in G minor, Op 63, at the Unitarian Chapel at 1pm on September 14.
“The genius composer Hummel was a contemporary of Beethoven and Mozart,” says Tim. “Apart from his own brilliant music, he enjoyed arranging large works for small groups to meet the market for amateur players.
“For the Overture to Weber’s opera Euryanthe, Weber’s original brilliant orchestration is served surprisingly well by this arrangement; full of operatic character and tuneful.
“Writing variations based on a well-known tune has always been a familiar form of composition and Hummel’s facility for improvisation plays to this in the Adagio, Variations and Rondo. Here he uses a folk song and creates a series of wonderfully tuneful composition highlighting each instrument’s singing qualities.”
Tim continues: “The Weber trio sound to me more like an opera; full of arias and drama! The operatic master completed this masterly trio in 1819. In it we sense the Romantic era in the air. There is here a preference for composing display pieces for soloists, like operatic divas singing their hearts out in this wonderfully varied, joyful and above all tuneful piece!”
Hancox, Johnston, Pomeroy, van der Giessen, Bitlloch, Lowe and Brownell will focus on quartets on September 14 at 7.30pm at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, once the evening programme has opened with Debussy’s Prélude to the cantata La Damoiselle élue (The Blessed Damozel).
Viola player Gary Pomeroy. Picture: York Chamber Music Festival
“Debussy read Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poem The Blessed Damozel(1850) and had an idea to compose a short cantata,” says Tim. “The synopsis is simple: ‘From the heights of paradise, leaning on a golden barrier, a young girl laments the absence of her lover. On Earth, the latter believes he feels her presence’.
“Debussy shows us his wonderful gift for fleeting moments of sensuality. The Prélude to the cantata is brilliant realised in this arrangement for piano and strings by John Lenehan.”
Next comes Fauré’s beautiful early work, the optimistic Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor Op. 15. “Joining the search for a renaissance of French musical culture, especially after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1871), Fauré defined some of the core elements of this new distinctively French ‘voice’ in his Piano Quartet,” says Tim.
“The use of piano arpeggios and other broken figures to establish a sort of fluid counterpoint on which the music seems to float; resourcefulness in unexpected harmonic changes and Fauré’s genius for melodic invention – subtle, filigree melodies that seem to grow sinuously out of his harmonic scheme.”
The concert will climax with Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25, noted for its joyous gypsy finale. “The Piano Quartet in G Minor is one of the first works of Brahms’s unique flowering, freed from the shadow of Beethoven,” says Tim. “It is a work of huge proportions and despite its quite congenial surface has an inner story with everything constructed on thematic material that is without precedent in chamber music.
“Schoenberg describes this method of composition as preparing the way for atonality. Brahms’s epic Piano Quintet covers a musical canvas with a clarity and newness that had not been heard before.”
Hancox, Johnston, Pomeroy, van der Giessen, Bitlloch and Lowe will be the players for the festival closing Sunday afternoon concert of Mozart’s String Quintet in C minor, K 406, and Brahms’s String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18 on September 15 at 3pm at St Olave’s Church, Marygate Lane.
Viola player Simone van der Giessen. Picture: York Chamber Music Festival
“Mozart in the final years of his short life struggled with money,” says Tim. “The String Quintet in C minor, K 406 is the composer’s own arrangement of a Wind Serenade, K. 388, for two oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoon designed to be advertised alongside two original quintets with the aim of repaying some of his debts.
“Such is Mozart’s finesse with the transcription that, without knowing the back story, it would not be apparent that the quintet was not in its original form. It is a somewhat moody piece, but its inner complexity comes to a joyful open-air ending.”
Tim continues: “The dominance of Beethoven in virtually every genre was so complete that no composer could escape comparison to the departed master. The young Johannes Brahms felt this very acutely; he destroyed three quarters of his chamber music until he found this own voice, which he knew lay within.
“One solution was to use instrumental groups Beethoven didn’t touch. When Clara Schumann heard it she remarked, it was even more beautiful than I had anticipated, and my expectations were already high’.
“Spared the burden of Beethoven’s ghost, the new sextet – and its young creator – scored a success. It is one of his most glorious works; tuneful, colourful and inventive. Above all using the six voices with creativeness and melding them into a wonderful ochre acoustic – a wash of sunset sound.”
Summing up the festival, Tim says: “Come and hear duos, trios, quartets and quintets, finishing up on the Sunday afternoon with the wonderfully life-affirming Brahms String Sextet, Op.18, one of his greatest works and a turning point in his career.”
Visit ycmf.co.uk for the full festival details and to book tickets.
Scarborough Crab, by Jason Wilsher-Mills, at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
LOOK out for a giant inflatable sculpture of a psychedelic crab and colourful digital wallpaper of a pair of lovers, inspired by Peasholm Park, in Jason Wilsher-Mills’s larger-than-life exhibition at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough.
His colourful explosion of artwork characters, revealing the stories of his memories of childhood seaside holidays, 1970s’ working-class experience and disability, will be on show from September 14 to January 4 2025.
The Scarborough Crab sculpture features a tattoo design, 1970s’ psychedelic prints and seagull sidekick. The Scarborough Love digital fabric print wallpaper is themed around a willow pattern, utilising the story of two doomed lovers that decorates many blue-and-white plates.
“I love the fact that here in Scarborough there is a place that has been dedicated to this love story, so I decided to update the story and make it even more ‘Scarborough’,” says Jason, a Yorkshire-based disabled artist, who was born in Wakefield.
“When asked what my work is about, I simply say, ‘Think I, Daniel Blake meets the Beano’,” says artist Jason Wilsher-Mills, pictured on a visit to Peasholm Park in Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“My willow pattern features some of the designs I saw in Peasholm Park, alongside seaside ephemera, such as rope and seashells, and references to the north, with the Yorkshire Rose featured in the border.
“I’ve created my own Scarborough lovers, who meet and fall in love: the rocker with his Kiss Me Quick hat on, and the blonde, with her beehive hair, and Mod jacket, adorned with a target, which was so favoured by the scooter fashionistas that visited the town in the 1960s and ’70s.”
Visitors also should seek out Wilsher-Mills’s Scarborough Triptych: a three-panel wallpaper featuring argonaut characters inspired by his Jason And His Argonauts exhibition. Among them is the Manchester Argonaut, inspired by Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.
Sarah Oswald, interim chief executive at Scarborough Museums and Galleries, says: “We’re really excited to have welcomed Jason to Scarborough over the past few months as he developed his response to the town’s heritage, character and people.
A detail from Jason Wilsher-Mills’s inflatable sculpture Rhubarb Totem at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“We believe everyone, young and old, will find something to connect with in this exhibition. In Scarborough Crab and Scarborough Love Jason has created two new iconic pieces that capture the essence of Scarborough and his own experience and memories.”
Wilsher-Mills will give a talk at Woodend Gallery on October 12 on how he captures childhood memories, popular culture and social history through his psychedelic, pattern-clashing inflatable sculptures and wallpapers.
His large-scale, humorous, challenging work embraces cutting-edge technologies, vibrant use of colour and disabled activist messaging that transcends into individual characters, who carry a story and journey to each new town. “When asked what my work is about, I simply say, ‘Think I, Daniel Blake meets the Beano’,” says Jason.
Summing up Jason Beside The Sea, he says: “Ultimately, it’s a story about love, a reminder of the magic of younger times and caring for everybody.”
Artist. Jason Wilsher-Mills at work on his research visit to Peasholm Park in Scarborough.Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Keep an eye on scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk for further details of the talk.
Jason Wilsher-Mills: Jason Beside The Sea, Woodend Gallery, The Crescent, Scarborough, September 14 to January 4 2025, Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm; Saturdays, 10am to 4pm. Gallery entry is free.His exhibition Jason and The Adventure Of 254 runs at Wellcome Collection, London, until January 12 2025.
Did you know?
JASON Beside The Sea is part of Connecting Coastal Cultures, an Arts Council England-funded project, delivered by Scarborough Museums and Galleries in partnership with Crescent Arts, to raise the profile of art in the north, providing opportunities for artists from the area to exhibit in regional venues.
Did you know too?
EARLIER this year, from February 24 to June 2, Wilsher-Mills exhibited Are We There Yet? at Ferens Gallery, Hull. Created in response to disabled communities in Hull, Wakefield and Manchester, his theatrical portraits and sculptures reflected aspects of his personality, memory and disability. This year too, he has exhibited The Argonaut at Dusseldorf’s Balloon Museum.
Bill Champion and Paul Kemp in rehearsal for Alan Ayckbourn’s Show & Tell. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
ALAN Ayckbourn’s 90th play, a love letter to theatre delivered under the title of Show & Tell, opens at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight.
Ayckbourn directs Bill Champion, Paul Kemp, Frances Marshall, Richard Stacey and Olivia Woolhouse in a delightfully dark farce that lifts the lid on the performances we act out on a daily basis.
The plot? Jack is planning a big party for his wife’s birthday. Pulling out all pulling the stops, he has booked a touring theatre company to perform in the main hall of the family home. Unfortunately, however, Jack is becoming forgetful in his old age, unable to remember all the details of the booking.
The other side of the story? The Homelight Theatre Company is on its knees, desperately in need of a well-paid gig – and Jack’s booking is very well paid – but pinning him down on the details has been tricky. Something does not feel quite right.
“Show & Tell is about something which has preoccupied me for the last 60 years and probably more – theatre,” says Sir Alan, now 85. “It’s a love letter to theatre.
“The play is a dark farce that reflects that real life is curling around it all the time, with the structure of a play within a play: a play of the sort we would do in my second year with the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company at the Library Theatre, like A Game Of Love And Chance, a French farce. We had such a lark with that play, done as one of our attempts to attract a seaside audience.”
Show & Tell writer-director Alan Ayckbourn in his garden in Scarborough. Picture: Tony Barthlomew
Show & Tell presents an interesting challenge for the cast, says Sir Alan. “Once it starts, they have two challenges: they have to be the persona who comes into the rehearsal room, the actor they are playing, and then the character they’re playing in the play within the play.
“One of the things we’ll do is go from modern naturalism to French farce, but I don’t much of that leaping in and out. Once they start doing the play within the play, they do the play – and I don’t want to make the farce bad as it’s a celebration of theatre.
“They’re at the level where it’s not laughing out loud at their ineptitude, nor is it making fun of amateurs as then you’ve lost the point of the play. I’ve never tried to do that; I didn’t do that in A Chorus Of Disapproval either. The performance level should remain reasonably high.”
Come the finale, the play and play within a play elide. “There’s a moment at the very end, where the farce and Show & Tell proper coincide, when they’re taking their bow to endless empty rows, at which point a dormant member of the audience wakes with a jolt and joins in the clapping, and in doing so he encourages us all to do so as he breaks through the fourth wall. We get a Pirandelloesque flip there that I’m anxious to pull off.”
Ayckbourn’s love letter to theatre comes in the wake of a General Election where barely a breath was spent on the future of the arts. “Theatre is not a vote catcher,” reasons Sir Alan. “We need to make the arts more valued in the community. You do that by making people want to come and see it, and you don’t do it by pretending it’s something it isn’t.
“It isn’t an educational tool or an organised sing-song in an old people’s home; but it’ s something that is quite expensive to put on, and in order to put it in a space, whether small large, it depends on the financing.
Richard Stacey and Olivia Woolhouse rehearsing a scene from Show & Tell. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“But we need to make theatre less expensive. A few years ago, when we took Private Fears In Public Spaces to New York and received wonderful reviews, I was approached by the Shubert Organization, the big boys of New York theatre, who said they would like to transfer it to off-Broadway.
“I said the cast had gone on to do other things, but they said we could use American actors, and we put a company together, but then they started saying, ‘you need an assistant director’. ‘No, I don’t,’ I said. They kept adding roles. Fight director. Movement director.”
Size of theatre. Cost of furniture and set design. The list and potential costs grew. “So we abandoned the production in the end because it was too expensive to do, when in fact it was a six-hander with a simple stage and simple sound design. The old expression ‘two planks and a passion’ came to me, and I thought, anything we do has got to go back to basics.”
That thought sparked a memory of Sir Alan directing his first production for the SJT: Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Library Theatre in 1961. “I asked Stephen [artistic director Stephen Joseph] how much the budget was. ‘Technically nothing,’ he said. “And if you push me, £5’. We scraped and we borrowed, and we still did it. The only cost that came in was the actors’ salaries and stage manager’s salary,” he recalls.
“What Stephen presented, and it comes into my play Show & Tell too, is that theatre is a meeting of audience and performers, and the audience are certainly not interested in who the director is – except with the cult of the director being so important now!”
Alan Ayckbourn’s Show & Tell, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight until October 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 1.30pm matinees on September 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26, October 2 and 3. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Alan Ayckbourn in the poster image for Show & Tell
In Focus: Rehearsed reading of Alan Ayckbourn’s Father Of Invention, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 15/9/2024
THE first ever public performance of the AI-futuristic Father Of Invention, written by Alan Ayckbourn in lockdown, will be given in a fundraising rehearsed reading at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on September 15 at 3pm.
Ayckbourn directs a cast of Bill Champion, Paul Kemp and Frances Marshall from his 90th play, Show & Tell, joined by Ayckbourn alumni Liza Goddard, Elizabeth Boag, Laurence Pears and Naomi Petersen. This will be the first time the Scarborough writer-director, 85, has heard the work read aloud.
“Take a look at their rollcall of Ayckbourn-written-and-directed shows – we reckon they’ve racked up an impressive 39 between them,” says SJT press officer Jeannie Swales. “We haven’t counted last year’s reading of Truth Will Out, only shows that had a full production either here at the SJT or at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, including Show & Tell. Mind you, that’s still not quite half of the Ayckbourn canon of 90!”
One of a handful of dramas penned by Ayckbourn in the creative cocoon of his Scarborough home during the pandemic, Father Of Invention takes its title from its central character of technology magnate Lord Onsett, who has passed away.
“Lord Onsett was an entrepreneur who made billions from the rapid acceleration of Artificial Intelligence,” says Sir Alan. “His company introduced the now ubiquitous Artificial Sentient Lifeforms, which carry out vast swathes of jobs for humanity from cleaning to security.
“His family are gathered to discuss how his enormous estate will be divided but as ever with Lord Onsett, there are a few surprises in store…”
The Stephen Joseph Theatre artwork for Alan Ayckbourn’s Father Of Invention
Leading the gaggle of familiar faces will be “our old friend” Liza Goddard, who has appeared in Ayckbourn premieres of If I Were You, Snake In The Grass, Life & Beth, Communicating Doors, Life Of Riley and The Divide.
The omnipresent Bill Champion has roles in Comic Potential, Haunting Julia, GamePlan, FlatSpin, RolePlay, A Chorus Of Disapproval, Intimate Exchanges, Woman In Mind, Absurd Person Singular, Surprises, Arrivals & Departures, Farcicals, Henceforward…, No Knowing, By Jeeves, Season’s Greetings, The Girl Next Door, Welcome To The Family and now Show & Tell to his name.
Paul Kemp has made his mark in This Is Where We Came In, Drowning on Dry Land, Private Fears In Public Places, The Champion Of Paribanou, Woman In Mind, My Wonderful Day and The Divide, this summer adding Show & Tell to that list.
York actress Frances Marshall has appeared in premieres of A Brief History Of Women, Joking Apart, Season’s Greetings, Family Album and Truth Will Out; Elizabeth Boag in Arrivals & Departures, Farcicals, Roundelay, Confusions, Hero’s Welcome, The Divide, Family Album and Truth Will Out; Naomi Petersen in By Jeeves, Joking Apart, Better Off Dead, Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, Haunting Julia, The Girl Next Door, Constant Companions and Truth Will Out.
All money raised from the rehearsed reading will go towards the SJT’s New Work Fund, helping the theatre to present new work on its two stages and to nurture new talent.
Ticket availability is “limited”. Hurry, hurry, to book on 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
IRISH/FRENCH chanteuse and actress Camille O’Sullivan brings her new show, Loveletter, to Hebden Bridge Trades Club on September 7(doors 8pm) and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall three nights later (7.30pm).
In her intimate soiree of storytelling in song, the ever-courageous chameleon reimagines works by her favourite writers, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Radiohead, Jacques Brel, Arcade Fire and Rufus Wainwright, with intense, dark drama, complemented by new originals.
In the wake of their passing last year, Camille will pay her respects, and sends love, to her dear, departed friends Sinead O’Connor and Shane MacGowan, having toured for many years The Pogues.
Performing with long-time collaborator and dear friend Feargal Murray, 49-year-old Camille will be presenting a “different type of show to her previous incarnations, with a more spiritual energy, transforming each song into an intense, vulnerable experience with joy and pure passion,” say promoters Bound & Gagged.
“Camille has created a very intimate, pated-back, heartfelt show. It captures an honest response to her experiences over the isolation of the last few years, yet captures the joyous and little moments of happiness that makes life worth living.”
Billed as “raunchy and dangerously fragile with an exceptional voice”, Camille’s prowess as a gifted interpreter of narrative songs of loss, love, joy, light and darkness has made her “the Queen of the Edinburgh Festival” (BBC); taken her to Sydney Opera House, the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and La Clique, the cabaret and circus spiegeltent in Leicester Square, London, and brought her the Herald Angel award for her Royal Shakespeare Company solo performance of The Rape Of Lucrece.
As seen on the BBC’s Later…With Jools Holland in 2009 (In These Shoes) and 2015 (God Is In The House), former architect and painter Camille is equally adept at rock and hymnal renditions.
The Hebden Bridge and Leeds gigs are part of a nine-date September tour. Box office: Hebden Bridge, 01422 845265 or thetradesclub.com/events/Camille; Leeds, leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/camille-osullivan-2024/.
Did you know?
CAMILLE O’Sullivan was born in London, to Denis O’Sullivan, an Irish racing driver and world champion sailor, and Marie-José, a French artist. She was raised in the town of Passage West, County Cork. After finishing secondary school, she studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
Ruth Berkoff in the guise of Hannah in The Beauty Of Being Herd. Picture: Alex Kenyon
HAVE you ever felt like an outsider? Hannah has.
Her solution? She has decided to live as a sheep. “But don’t worry, she’s thought it all through. She’s even got a raincoat. And she’d love to tell you all about it at her Big Goodbye Party. Everyone is invited,” says Leeds writer-performer Ruth Berkoff, introducing The Beauty Of Being Herd, whose tour is booked into Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, for September 12 and Terrington Village Hall on September 28.
“Fresh from the Greater Manchester Fringe, where it was nominated for Best Newcomer and Best New Writing (runner up), this is my debut show and I’m touring it around Yorkshire in September as well as to Bristol [Circomedia, October 4],” says Ruth.
“Whether you’re shy, neurodivergent, have accidentally put your foot in it or simply had to spend time with people that weren’t ‘your people’, this is a show for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in.”
Ruth knits Hannah’s quirky yarn together with comedy, original songs, heartfelt sharing and even a rave scene, creating The Beauty Of Being Herd in tandem with director and dramaturg Georgia Murphy, sound designer Isolde Freeth-Hale and movement consultant Izzy Brittain.
Born and bred in Leeds, Ruth trained in contemporary circus at Circomedia, Bristol, and in theatre and clowning at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, France.
Now comes her first solo show, prompted in part by the consequences of suffering a brain haemorrhage in 2017. When she could not find any stories from other survivors, she decided to write her own.
“I write so that people don’t feel so alone,” she reasons. “As an ex-Samaritan, I care deeply about people feeling understood. As a four-time pantomime dame, I care passionately about people having a brilliant time at the theatre.”
Praised in the British Theatre Guide for her “warm hearted and empathic” performing skills, she takes The Beauty Of Being Herd on the road from tomorrow.
Here Ruth discusses feeling like an outsider, fitting in, sheep, clowning, the Samaritans and “the beauty of being herd” with CharlesHutchPress
“I write so that people don’t feel so alone,” says Ruth Berkoff. Picture: Alex Kenyon
What were your theatrical and creative experiences when growing up in Leeds?
“As a child I wanted to be an actor. I went to drama lessons outside of school and then got on the performing arts course at Intake High School. Intake was a state school that had an extra performing arts course for around 30 pupils in each year.
“Mel B, from the Spice Girls, famously attended Intake, leaving the year before I arrived. I stayed at Intake until Year 9 when my dad died and my acting spark faded. I did my drama GCSE at a different school, but didn’t return to acting again until I was 30.”
Did you fit in, like a sheep, or stand out like a zebra in a field of racehorses?
“Haha. I’ve never been the best at fitting in, but I do try.”
Where do you live now? Did you choose it to fit in or stand out?
“I live deep in the city of Leeds, surrounded by buildings and roads, but I long for more nature. The area of Leeds that I live in (Harehills/Chapeltown) is such a mixing pot that I think everyone both fits in and stands out.”
What led you to studying contemporary circus at Circomedia, Bristol, and theatre and clowning at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, France?
“At the risk of sounding morbid, it was actually another death. Deaths and big losses can really shake things up! One of my best friends died in a road traffic accident and it made me face my own mortality; I realised that when you die, people don’t talk about what was on your To Do list, they talk about what you actually did.
Ruth Berkoff with Philippe Gaulier when studying at Ecole Philippe Gaulier
“So I wrote down what I REALLY wanted to do and ‘get back into acting’ was there. I attended [Leeds company] Red Ladder’s Intro To Acting course, Red Grit, and I felt ALIVE again.
“On a recommendation from a friend, I went on the three-month Circus in Performance course at Greentop in Sheffield. I enjoyed it so much, I applied for a full-time course at Circomedia.
“In the summer holidays after my first year at Circomedia, I went to Ecole Philippe Gaulier on a four-week summer school and I fell in love with the challenge of working with Philippe, so I decided to leave Circomedia and focus full time on theatre.”
What life skills did the courses teach you?
“Circomedia taught me about consistent hard work; we trained so hard there! It also taught me about fun and the permission to explore and play; that place gave me a lot of confidence. “Gaulier taught me how to really listen to the audience and to play together. I had some beautiful moments on that stage (as well as many, many failures).”
The clown is the outsider in the circus world, the disruptive loon, like The Fool in Shakespeare’s plays. Discuss…
“The clown in the circus world is both on the outside and exactly in the centre. They say things that other people don’t put a voice to. And with an innocence. Learning clown with Philippe Gaulier was definitely an experience, it’s ironic how HARD it can be to be so simple, but Viggo Venn (winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2023, who I studied with at Ecole Philippe Gaulier) makes it look easy.”
How did you come to work for the Samaritans? All part of being warm-hearted and empathic?
“We had some brushes with suicide within our family when I was a child and as a result, I wanted people to know that they could always come to me if they needed. I learnt from a young age how to give people space to be heard – sometimes I think it’s my superpower (when I remember to use it!)
“When I was at university in Belfast, reading English and Philosophy, I joined the university listening service, Nightline, and then Samaritans. It gave me a sense of purpose. I knew I often helped people and also it was nice to be part of a secret group of people in a new city.”
Balancing act: Ruth Berkoff on stage with Rosy Roberts when studying at Circomedia. Picture: Henry Buxtion, Circomedia
Those qualities seem to be increasingly rare in our solipsistic, me-me-me world. Discuss…
“I had to look up the word ‘solipsistic’ – every day’s a school day! Yes, we’ve got more and more solipsistic, more focused on the individual and less and less focused on community. The show discusses how this can leave some people behind.
“However, I don’t really think it’s quite as simple as ‘group’ being good and ‘individual’ being bad. Lots of great things have happened from people daring to be different, like challenging abuse and gender norms and so much innovation.
“Also, I’ve found I have to be a little selfish to make art, otherwise I would be forever reading stories to my nephews and never doing my own thing.”
What were the roots of the show? What inspired it? Would the answer lie within this revelation: “Ruth had a brain haemorrhage in 2017. When she couldn’t find any stories from other survivors, she wrote her own”?
“My brain haemorrhage definitely got me writing again. I wrote my story so that the people who had a brain haemorrhage after me didn’t feel as alone. I became the person who says the thing that others don’t dare say out loud, which can be really comforting for other people.
“I built up confidence writing and sharing the story of my brain haemorrhage. But the roots of the show are a mixture of my walks in the Yorkshire countryside, which is full of sheep, and also the feeling of not knowing how to really connect with other people sometimes. I guess it’s an exploration of loneliness. And sheep. But with a lot of humour. And a few songs.”
How did you then turn that into creating Hannah and her story?
“Hannah was created for a night called Leeds Pub Theatre. This was my first time writing for the stage (since drama GCSE). They run two events a year, each with a different theme, and this one was ‘From Darkness To Light’.
Ruth Berkoff performing The Beauty Of Being Herd at the Cockatoo Club as part of Greater Manchester Fringe. Picture: Shay Rowan
“I wrote a monologue about someone at their first rave, talking to all these people she doesn’t know, then the sun rises. It was about that shift from ‘everything is possible!’ to ‘I think I need to leave’.
“I loved the character, I loved how she was so enthusiastic and innocent and up for it, yet lonely and unsuccessful at making friends. I wrote a few more monologues for her and at the same time, I was working on an idea of a woman who discovers strength through being with sheep. The sheep idea wasn’t quite working until I put Hannah into the story and then it was like, ‘Aha! We’ve got it!”
Is Hannah your stage alter ego or a character?
“Hannah isn’t me, she’s a different character. She’s much sweeter than me, but at the same time, I think there’s a lot of Hannah in me and all of her words did come from my head. I get her. Maybe she is my alter ego. Or one of them…”
You met director/dramaturg Georgia Murphy when you were at Ecole Philippe Gaulier. When did you first work together?
“I met Georgia on the first day of summer school in 2013. I liked her immediately. We worked together a few times at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, most notably in a clown number where I was waving at the audience (I don’t remember anything else about it – oh, other than Georgia and Steve were in a boat).
“That school, most of the time there, it was just failure after failure; that’s kind of how it works, but I always enjoyed spending time with Georgia and going on walks together and bounding through fields of flowers together.
“I knew I’d wanted to work with her from day one but she was in London and I was in Leeds and it was only when I got Arts Council England funding through the DYCP grant [Develop Your Creative Practice] that I was able to hire her.
“It was perfect because she was up north at the time, working as associate director for Bolton Octagon.”
Ruth Berkoff, right, and Georgia Murphy on stage together in student days at Ecole Philippe Gaulier with Steve Day, working on their assignment, Gibraltar. Picture: Philippe Gaulier
What drew you to working together? What do you bring out of each other?
“I think we both have the same love for hilarity, the surreal, and we both know heartbreak too. It’s handy having the same shorthand after studying with Philippe for two years together, so that makes things easy.
“Like, Georgia can say, ‘Right, let’s play such and such game’, and I’m like, ‘Let’s go’. Also, I felt safe with her in the devising space because we’ve already been through quite a lot together. I was able to tell her what I needed, which was sometimes to go in the corner, put a timer on and rant for a minute, saying ‘This feels TERRIBLE, it’s rubbish! I can’t do it’. And once the timer went off, it was like, ‘OK, let’s crack on’.
“That was a tip I learnt from Kath Burlinson at Authentic Artists and it is so genius! Making something creative, we often come up against the inner critic. This gives it its little moment to shine, and then it’s time to get on. Georgia was understanding about that.
“I’m not sure exactly what I bring out in Georgia. I hope it’s freedom to get silly and experiment. I’m up for trying anything. And I trust her, so I guess that must be a joy for her too. I don’t know for sure though, I’d have to ask her.”
Georgia ensures the show remains playful despite covering some heavy topics. How does she do that, and why was that important in the show’s creation?
“Humour and fun and playfulness are so important, especially when you’re talking about the pain of feeling like you don’t belong. I’ve watched work that has a heavy subject matter and is presented in a heavy way, and it feels awful! Life is hard enough; we might as well laugh at it.
“Georgia brought in games, improvisations, Post-It notes and her general playful energy. We experimented a LOT in that space. Lots got put in the bin, but there was also some magic. And that’s the stuff we bottled up and put in the show.”
Sheep and cheerful: Ruth Berkoff in The Beauty Of Being Herd at The Kings Arms, Salford. Picture: Shay Rowan
You write “so that people don’t feel so alone”. Develop that sentiment further…
“I know people who have taken their lives, and people who have tried. I’ve felt lonely many times in my life and sometimes, as I found at Samaritans, what you need isn’t to be told a solution, it’s just for someone to be with you, to hold your hand as you find your own way through it.
“Just someone to say, ‘I hear you. I get you’. Life can be very lonely but the more we talk about it or listen to other people talking about it, the more we realise, ‘Oh, I’m not the only one’.”
In practical terms, how can you help someone who feels so alone make the decision to come out to the theatre?
“These shows are so, so lovely. I fall in love with the audience every time. It’s a great show to come on your own to because, for a start, Hannah is on her own too, so you won’t be the only one on your own.
“I often have people come on their own to the show and somehow, as the show goes on, there’s a sense of connection that is born in the audience. I can’t explain it, but people often comment on it. And I always hang around afterwards to say hi to anyone who wants to talk.”
In a nutshell, why should someone see The Beauty Of Being Herd?
“To be entertained. To feel something. To laugh and possibly cry.”
“It’s an exploration of loneliness. And sheep. But with a lot of humour. And a few songs,” says Ruth Berkoff of The Beauty Of Being Herd
Sum up the show in six words.
“Bonkers, funny, heartfelt, many sheep facts.”
What is THE beauty of being herd?
“It’s a feeling of ‘not-aloneness’.”
What comes next for Ruth Berkoff?
“I want to keep on developing this show, get a new track for the rave scene and run more workshops for people to develop their creativity. And then I’d like to make another show. And another. And another. I’d also really like to get a team together so I’m not doing it all on my own.”
Ruth Berkoff: The Beauty Of Being Herd, Crookes Club, Sheffield, September 5, 7.30pm;Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 12, 7.30pm; Fire and Water, Sowerby Bridge, September 14, 7pm; HEART (Headingley Enterprise and Arts Centre), Headingley, Leeds, September 20, 7.30pm, and Terrington Village Hall, near Malton, September 28, 7.30pm. Age guide: 16+. Content warning: reference to non-consensual touch
“You’ll have to come and find out! I love the songs. Isolde Freeth-Hale, an artist and musician living in Bristol, and an old friend, turned my improvised songs into show tunes and they get a lot of compliments, especially The Thing About Sheep. Isolde made a sheep synth for that song, and it brings me so much delight every time I hear it.
“I don’t play any instruments in the show, I just sing. But in real life, I do sometimes play the guitar or piano.”
The tour poster for The Beauty Of Being Herd, visiting Sheffield, York, Sowerby Bridge, Leeds, Terrington…and Bristol
Did you know?
RUTH Berkoff has played pantomime dame – a traditionally male role – with Wakefield company Pocket Panto. “We did a Rural Arts tour every winter,” she says. “We went round North Yorkshire and based ourselves in Thirsk. My first year there was Cinderella in 2017-2018. It was a three-person team so I played an Ugly Sister and Prince Charming.
“The next year, the long-established dame, Jeremy [Stroughair], had had enough of being away from his family every single year, so Darren [Johnson], the writer-director, asked if I would consider playing the dame. I had a LOT of doubts about whether people would want a female dame and a lot of imposter syndrome, but what I discovered is that at the end of the day, what people want at the panto is to have a good time. And I provided that!
“I played Sarah the Cook and Queen Rat in Dick Whittington and the following year I played Mother Goose. Then I did another year in panto with Same Difference Theatre, playing an Ugly Sister and Prince Charming again in a different takeaway on the traditional Cinderella story.”
Ruth Berkoff in dame mode as Sarah the Cook in Pocket Panto’s Dick Whittington with fellow cast members Chris Arkesden and Annie Bashford. Picture: Darren Johnson
Works by Alison Diamond, centre, Ade Adesina RSA, right, and Ian Burke, left, on show at Helmsley Arts Centre
FROM African storytelling to Milton Jones’s puns, Will Young’s joyous pop to Jason Wilsher-Mills’s inflatable psychedelic crabs, Charles Hutchinson finds reasons to smile.
Triple bill of the week: Three Approaches To Relief Painting by Alison Diamond, Ade Adesina RSA & Ian Burke, Helmsley Arts Centre, until November 1
THIS exhibition brings together three separate approaches to relief printing but a shared love of hand-made printing, lino cutting and woodcut.
Ade Adesina RSA, a Nigerian artist living in Aberdeen, has won the 2023 Academies des Beaux-Arts annual prize. Ian Burke, from Staithes, and Alison Diamond, from County Durham, produce work in regional galleries and print fairs. The connection between all three is the use of relief print to achieve something personal and produce multiple images.
Anna Hibiscus’ Song: Theatrical story of self-discovery from Nigeria at York Theatre Royal
Children’s show of the week: Utopia Theatre and Sheffield Theatres present Anna Hibiscus’ Song, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow and Friday, 10am and 1pm; Saturday, 11am and 2pm
THIS is the story of a young African girl named Anna Hibiscus, who lives in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she is so filled with happiness that she feels like she might float away. The more she talks to her family about it, the more her happiness grows. The only thing to do is…sing!
Told through music, dance, puppetry and traditional African storytelling, this theatrical story of self-discovery is adapted for the stage by director Mojisola Kareem from the book by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia. Suitable for children aged three upwards and their grown-ups. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Snake Davis: Making the saxophone talk at Helmsley and Pocklington
Snake at the double: Snake Davis, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm
THE choice is yours: Snake Davis solo, with his multitude of saxophones, in Helmsley on Friday, or Snake’s four-piece band – sax, guitar, bass and drums – in Pocklington on Saturday.
The first gig will be an informal acoustic evening of music and chat in two parts, showcasing his musical dexterity and the stories behind his work as a sax hired gun to the stars. The second night promises “something for everybody, from floaty to dance-able, from soul through pop to jazz and world, original material and classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train”. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Milton Jones: Not short of shirts for his Ha!Milton tour
Comedy gig of the week: Milton Jones, Ha!Milton, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS is not a musical. Milton Jones is tone deaf and has no sense of rhythm, he admits, but at least he doesn’t make a song and dance about it. Instead, he has more important things to discuss. Things like giraffes…and there’s a bit about tomatoes.
The shock-haired, loud-shirted master of the one-liner promises a whole new show of daftness. “You know it makes sense,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Will Young: Showcasing Light It Up’s joyous pop at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jamie Noise
Pop gig of the week: Will Young, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
MARKING the August 9 release of his Light It Up album, Will Young is embarking on his most intimate tour yet, an up-close-and-personal evening of acoustic performances, stories and conversation across 50 dates.
The ten tracks are a return to embracing joyous unashamed pop music for Young, who has teamed up with new collaborators pHD, the Scandinavian pop production/writing duo with Kylie and Little Mix credits, as well as reuniting with Groove Armada’s Andy Cato and long-term writing partners Jim and Mima Elliot, for “the go-to pop album for a dance, for a cry and for a celebration”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Beauty Of Being Herd: Ruth Berkoff’s debut show is “for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in”
Sheep and cheerful: Ruth Berkoff: The Beauty Of Being Herd, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 12, and Terrington Village Hall, near Malton, September 28, both 7.30pm
HAVE you ever felt like an outsider? Hannah has. Her solution? She has decided to live as a sheep. “But don’t worry, she’s thought it all through. She’s even got a raincoat. And she’d love to tell you all about it at her Big Goodbye Party. Everyone is invited,” says Leeds writer-performer Ruth Berkoff, introducing her hour of comedy, original songs, heartfelt sharing and even a rave.
“Whether you’re shy, neurodivergent, have accidentally put your foot in it or simply had to spend time with people that weren’t ‘your people’, this is a show for anyone who’s ever found it hard to fit in.” Box office: York, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; Terrington, terringtonvillagehall.co.uk.
Scarborough Crab: Jason Wilsher-Mills’s inflatable psychedlic crab installation at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Exhibition launch of the week: Jason Wilsher-Mills: Jason Beside The Sea, Woodend Gallery, The Crescent, Scarborough, September 14 to January 4 2025, Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm; Saturdays, 10am to 4pm
LOOK out for a giant inflatable installation of a psychedelic crab and colourful digital wallpaper featuring a pair of lovers inspired by Scarborough’s Peasholm Park in Jason Wilsher-Mills’s larger-than-life exhibition, a colourful explosion of artwork characters that reveals the stories of his memories of childhood seaside holidays, 1970s’ working-class experience and disability.
Scarborough Triptych, a three-panel wallpaper of argonaut characters, includes the Manchester Argonaut, inspired by Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Wilsher-Mills, a Yorkshire-based disabled artist, will give a gallery talk on October 12. Gallery entry is free.
Setting up camp: Julian Clary is bringing his western-themed stand-up show A Fistful Of Clary to Harrogate and York
Gig announcement of the week: Julian Clary, A Fistful Of Clary, Harrogate Theatre, May 2 2025, 7.30pm; Grand Opera House, York, May 25 2025, 7.30pm
JULIAN Clary is extending his A Fistful Of Clary stand-up tour to next spring. “Oh no, do I have to do this?” he asks. “Rylan and I were going to go back-packing in Wales. Sigh.”
Yee-haw, The Man With No Shame is adding 28 dates, Harrogate and York among them. “Yes, it has a Western theme,” Clary confirms, setting up camp for his comedy. “It was only a matter of time before I eased myself into some chaps.” Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, atgtickets.com/york.
