THERE cannot be many full-time students of mathematics and philosophy in this country who are capable of the solo role in any violin concerto, let alone the Sibelius, which is one of the most demanding in the repertoire.
One such is a final-year undergraduate at the University of York, Anna Lezdkan. Her appearance was the centrepiece of an evening that included shorter works by Wagner and Richard Strauss after a modern Icelandic introduction.
Born in St Petersburg, Lezdkan has lived in this country since early childhood and had all her training here. She exhibited extreme calm under duress and despatched the testing cadenza early in the first movement with considerable panache, which compensated for some lapses in intonation in the upper regions.
Her eloquence in the slow movement was partially masked by orchestral accompaniment that tended to be heavy-handed, especially in the horns. But she managed its tricky double-stopping without difficulty.
The finale was a rumbustious affair, if undeniably exciting, tinged with gypsy colourings. But the rondo’s main theme emerged with clarity and Lezdkan dug into her octave swoops courageously. It was clear that she was well inside this score, despite the shortcomings noted above.
The evening had opened curiously with Clockworking, a work originally for string trio and tape but worked into an orchestral version in 2019 by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir. Its seven minutes began mysteriously, slow and hushed, and gradually assumed rhythmic identity as clockwork shapes and snippets of melody appeared. Its climax was abruptly curtailed by a sudden diminuendo at the finish, as if the mechanism had developed a gremlin.
The Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde got off to an uneasy start, but the prelude as a whole built impressively into a long crescendo that was propelled by the main melody rising in the cellos. This in turn inspired the violins into a sumptuously swelling blend in the Love-death (Liebestod) itself, eventually subsiding beautifully with Isolde’s ardour.
John Stringer allowed the orchestra to let its hair down paradoxically at the close with Richard Strauss’s Festliches Präludium (Festive Prelude). It was composed for huge orchestra in 1913 for the commissioning of the new organ at the Vienna Konzerthaus. It presented here as good as argument as any for this orchestra to play in the Central Hall rather than the confines of the Lyons.
At its heart, unsurprisingly, lies the organ and William Campbell cannot be blamed for pulling out all the stops at the start, over an extended pedal bass. Thereafter he achieved a welcome blend, as wind and brass engaged in vivid dialogue, until they united in a splendid chorale against much exciting activity in the strings. There was no need to agonise over detail: the wall of sound was breathtaking.
British Music Society of York presents Maxwell String Quartet, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, 7/3/2025
WHENEVER you programme a work as colossal as Beethoven’s Op 132, which lies at the very heart of his late string quartets, the problem is what to put with it.
The Maxwells opened with an eclectic mix of the old, the traditional and the contemporary, spotlighting the Beethoven after the interval.
In a nod to their Scottish roots, the players offered arrangements of two sets of traditional Gaelic psalms, as found in the Presbyterian churches of the Western Isles. These were intriguing in their closeness to Scottish dance, evoking the exciting rhythms of the ceilidh. One set would probably have been enough, however, given the similarities between the two.
Additionally, there is always the danger, when transcribing vocal music for instruments of dehumanising it, since words and melody need to speak together. This was particularly evident in the transcription of Byrd’s profound motet Ave Verum Corpus, where the nuances the composer attaches to the words were simply not present, making it literally disembodied.
The choice of motet was strange, in that the contemporary work here, the First String Quartet (Aloysius) by Edmund Finnis, dating from 2018, has five movements avowedly centred around Byrd’s setting of the prayer Christe, Qui Lux Es. It would have seemed logical to play this rather than Ave Verum by way of introduction.
The programme note told us of Finnis’s “versatile compositional voice”, a claim not borne out by this work. It is perfectly pleasing in an intimate way, largely slow-moving and ruminative, as if Finnis is searching out a way forward. It opens lyrically and then becomes wispy, if still transparent. The third movement, although pianissimo, is a little quicker, but like its predecessors was played virtually without vibrato.
Byrd’s hymn is treated like a chorale, its melody largely on the leader’s lowest string, before a finale that finally features some genuine counterpoint. Although largely restrained, its acceleration into the abrupt final cadence hints at what might have been. The Maxwells approached it respectfully, if ultimately without much obvious affection.
They brought admirable clarity to the Beethoven, unveiling its dramatic power by ramping up the tension in the highly chromatic first movement. The relative violence of the scherzo was tempered by a gentler trio in which the viola’s solo was notable.
In the Molto Adagio, which is arguably Beethoven’s most personal statement in any of his quartets, each solemn phrase of the chorale was tenderly introduced; although extremely extended, it seemed not a moment too long, so riveting was the detail.
The succeeding march came as sweet relief, before a searing first violin cadenza into the finale. Here the Maxwells threw caution to the winds, with accents stronger than ever and acceleration into the coda that took the breath away. This was theatre on a Shakespearean level.
David Hammond: Yorkshire Airs and A Cuckoo In Spring
YORK Late Music presents pianist David Hammond’s Yorkshire Airs and A Cuckoo In Spring concert at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, today at 1pm.
Hammond continues his exploration of composers with a Yorkshire connection in an afternoon programme of Richard Stoker’s Zodiac Variations; Frederick Delius’s On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring; William Baines’s Goodnight To Flamboro’; Sadie Harrison’s tribute to Baines, 3 Portraits Of William Baines from Shadows; Catherine Holbrook’s Flamborough Sea Cave; Samuel Mather’s Yorkshire Airs and the premiere of new works by Hammond and Elin Alaw.
Pianist Jakob Fichert leads off tomorrow’s brace of York Late Music concerts with his 1pm programme curated by composer and University of York alumnus Tom Armstrong in a tapestry of variations: four discreet panels threading together variation works from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
Jakob Fichert:Concert and talk
James Else’s A Stolen Moment will be followed by Franz Liszt’s Au Bord d’une Source; Variation Tapestry I: a solo piano collage curated by Tom Armstrong; Panel 1, Aaron Copland, Variations/Tom Armstrong, Dance Maze: Variations, and Panel 2, Georg Von Albrecht, Piano Sonata in C Minor (2nd movement Adagio)/Ronald Stevenson, Passacaglia on DSCH (Tempo di Valse and Lento Lamentoso).
Panel 3 comprises Robert Schumann’s Etudes, in the form of free variations on a theme of Beethoven, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major (2nd movement Allegretto), transcribed by Franz Liszt.
The concluding Panel 4 features Bela Bartók’s Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs ( 3 and 8) and Kenneth Leighton’s Nine Variations (2 and 4).
Ian Pace: The Beethoven Project continues with Symphony No. 6 (transcribed by Franz Liszt)
At 7.30pm tomorrow, pianist Ian Pace continues The Beethoven Project’s exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No.6, complemented by Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (movements 1-3) and Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Franz Liszt).
Three new musical tributes by York Late Music administrator Steve Crowther will be premiered too: Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Jakob Fichert gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm with a complimentary glass of wine or juice.
Tickets are on sale at latemusic.org or on the door.
Cellist and York Chamber Music Festival artistic director Tim Lowe
CELLO sonatas by Beethoven and Rachmaninov sandwiched three miniatures by Bloch in this tasty National Centre for Early Music preview of the York Chamber Music Festival, which will takes place from September 19 to 21.
Tim Lowe and his cello are front and centre of the festival, quite rightly since he is its artistic director. John Lenehan is a superb pianist in his own right and proved an excellent partner here.
The last of Beethoven’s five cello sonatas is his most expansive while also melodically amongst the most varied in his chamber music. Its grand gestures owe something to Beethoven’s desire to get back on good terms with its dedicatee, Countess Erdödy, with whom he had fallen out through his own fault. He also wrote it with one of her lodgers in mind, the brilliant Silesian cellist Joseph Linke.
Lowe and Lenehan showed instant rapport here. The second-beat accents and leaping intervals of the opening were neatly balanced by the much more lyrical second theme. The lovely piano chorale in the slow movement benefited from the cello’s elegiac commentary; it hovered teasingly before the headlong attack into the finale, where the fugal textures built relentlessly towards the climax.
Bloch’s three pieces entitled From Jewish Life, written in 1924, had a plaintive tone, notably in the cello’s upper register in the opening ‘Jewish Song’ and in the querulous ending to the supplicant’s humility in No. 2. There was a contrasting angst in the final ‘Prayer’ before it ended on a positive note.
After his only cello sonata dating from 1901, Rachmaninov wrote no further chamber music. Perhaps he found it too constraining. He had recently completed his Second Piano Concerto and there is a similar expansiveness in the sonata’s piano role.
Lenehan met all its challenges admirably, but was unable to subdue his touch quite enough in the finale, where the texture boils into concerto proportions. Balance was inevitably uneven here.
Elsewhere, however, the interplay was finely judged. After marvellous acceleration into the opening theme, there was a Brief Encounter moment for the nostalgic second theme. Lowe’s cello was puckish in the scherzo but contrastingly lush in the trio. His ripe tone made for a glorious slow movement, and even with its shortcomings the finale was never less than exciting. Roll on the festival proper.
Review by Martin Dreyer
TIM Lowe will be joined at the September festival by pianist Katya Apekisheva and violinist Charlotte Scott among others; www.ycmf.co.uk
Fenella Humphreys, violin, Martin Roscoe, piano, Ben Goldscheider, horn, and Jess Dandy, contralto
THIS was two recitals in one. It began and ended with three instrumental works, one each from Robert and Clara Schumann at the start, with the Brahms Horn Trio to finish.
In between we had a song recital from contralto Jess Dandy, with Martin Roscoe as her ‘collaborative pianist’ (we are no longer allowed to speak of accompanists, such is the woke world we live in). Indeed, he was omnipresent and vivid throughout the evening.
Ben Goldscheider’s horn was in pretty good form for Robert’s Adagio and Allegro, Op 70, if not quite at the peak he reached later. One top note even went astray, but he bounced back quickly. His legato was marvellously smooth in the Adagio. One had to smile at the ducking and diving between him and Roscoe in the Allegro, which maintained a tactically immaculate blend.
Less extrovert were the Three Romances, Op 20 for violin and piano by Clara. Fenella Humphreys wisely kept her violin intimate in the opening Andante in D flat major but without compromising her naturally rich tone. The ebb and flow with Roscoe in the finale was a delight. Clara may not have been as persuasive a melodist as her husband, but she knew how to balance these instruments.
Goldscheider was back to join Humphreys for the Horn Trio in E flat at the close. He despatched it with the panache of the super-confident. But Humphreys matched him stride for stride and their balance in the opening movement’s dialogue was impeccable. Goldscheider found a lovely pianissimo for the return of the first theme.
A smoothly elegiac trio allied to a perky scherzo prepared us for penetrating the Adagio’s darker moments. But the rondo was altogether light-hearted, gambolling through its episodes with gay abandon.
Roscoe was the mastermind behind this trio’s cohesion. The best was certainly kept until last. Jess Dandy is a fine talent and as a true contralto she is a rare bird, one to be carefully nurtured.
She is not quite the finished article, however. It took her until her very last song, Schumann’s Requiem, the last of his Op 90 settings, to produce a real pianissimo. Until that point, she had stuck to a stolid mezzo forte or more with little variation in tone. It was as if she had been casting around for a focus.
With a little more confidence she could stop worrying about delivering a beautiful sound – she already has that – and concentrate on interpreting the poetry (but not by shaking her head for emphasis as much as she does).
There was still a great deal to enjoy in what she offered. She glowed at the top of Clara’s setting of Heine’s Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen (I Stood Darkly Dreaming) over Roscoe’s richly flowing accompaniment and found a nicely contemplative mood for Robert’s Stille Tränen (Silent Tears), which was complemented by an exquisite postlude.
She and Humphreys (now on viola) had blended well in Brahms’s Two Songs Op 90, where they and Roscoe negotiated the tempo-changes with pleasing dexterity.
Alison Taylor’s Mrs Alexander, left, Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone, centre, and Beryl Nairn’s Siobhan with Pick Me Up Theatre ensemble members Jon Cook, Tom Riddolls and Lee Harris. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
THE Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time is playing York for the third time in ten years.
First came the National Theatre’s bells-and-whistles production, winner of seven Olivier awards, at the Grand Opera House in January 2015, with its white box framework of graph-paper lines on moving walls and flooring to match the mathematical mind of teenage protagonist Christopher Boone.
Next, the performing arts department at All Saints RC School combined dance, original livemusicand movement sequences in a February 2023 adaptation wherein ten narrators represented Christopher’s imagination and inner thoughts, while highlighting the key motifs of letters, as well as Chris’s love of numbers and space, through physical theatre and projections.
Now comes York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s interpretation, using University of York history graduate Simon Stephens’s superlative script, premiered by the National Theatre, under the imaginative and inventive direction of Andrew Isherwood, a regular presence on the York stage and increasingly in the director’s chair too.
“Directing this show has absolutely been one of the best experiences over the past 12 years I’ve had making theatre,” he says in his programme note – and it shows in an ensemble production that is cinematic yet boldly theatrical in its fusion of video projection, effects and lighting and sound by Will Nicholson, always in harmony with the mathematical shapes, emotional frictions and physical theatre of Isherwood’s team of 11 players.
Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone and his pet rat Toby with Beryl Nairn’s Siobhan. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
His choice of recorded music is impeccable too, especially Cat Power’s heart-rending Maybe Not and Moby’s God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters, last used so evocatively in Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s face-off in Heat in 1995.
On arrival, the audience is confronted by the sight of Elanor Kitchen’s model of a dead dog, Wellington, pinned to the ground by a garden fork, on the end-on raised stage. Welcome to a “murder mystery like no other”.
Jonathan Wells’s Christopher John Francis Boone is rocking, traumatised, even more so when accused of killing the dog by Mrs Shears (Natalie Melia), his potty-mouthed neighbour in Swindon, Wiltshire.
Christopher is 15 years three months and two days old; he attends a special needs school, and although he is never attributed with Asperger’s syndrome by source novel writer Mark Haddon, this fearful yet fearless boy can calculate A-level Maths to A* standard at 15 but is ill-equipped to work out everyday life.
Christopher does not like to be touched, is incapable of lying and has powers of logic beyond conventional reasoning or normal patterns of behaviour. He loves red, his lucky colour, but rejects an offer of Battenberg cake because of his dislike of yellow.
Such frankness and original thinking instil humour and wonderment in his bright, naive, unpredictable utterances, but pain and puzzlement bubble beneath the surface too in Jonathan Wells’s performance, expressed in his twitching, fidgety fingers and downward gaze.
Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone, centre, with fellow Pick Me Up Theatre cast members Jon Cook, left, Lee Harris, Catherine Edge, Beryl Nairn and Tom Riddolls. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
This Elvington GP has favoured musical theatre in his York stage appearances, but here he returns to straight theatre for the first time since Berkoff and Strindberg plays in his Sheffield student days, making you wonder why he has not done so previously.
What a revelation his performance is. Slim of frame, boyish of looks, not unlike Ben Whishaw, he is 34 yet wholly believable as 15 – the age, by the way, that he took his A-level in computing, giving him an immediate connection with Christopher.
His physical demeanour is only part of the equation, Equally significant is how to convey Christopher’s intelligence and more significantly, the way he thinks, and both Wells and Isherwood maximise how Stephens’s script travels both inside and outside Christopher’s head as he vows to defy his father by “doing detective work” to hunt down Wellington’s killer.
Like a Keaton or Chaplin, Wells’s Christopher makes us laugh at the absurdity of others, or whoever he winds up with his candid, unconventional manner, but he never sets out to be a clown or funny. Christopher is serious, earnest, but his comments are the stuff of observational comedy.
Such is the skill of novelist Haddon and playwright Stephens’s writing, where we wholly empathise with the young boy who follows his own path, however unsafe he may feel amid the chaotic cacophony, on a bigger journey of discovery that combines abnormal intellect with bewildering, baffling new experiences.
Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone cowers from his father Ed (Mike Hickman) as a policeman (Jon Cook) looks concerned. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Yes, we laugh, but we are also stopped regularly in our tracks by the feeble behaviour of his elders, but certainly not betters, who let him down, in particular his mendacious father Ed (Mike Hickman), a boiler engineer with a tendency to boil over into rage, even violence.
The one exception is special needs teacher and mentor Siobhan (Beryl Nairn), who encourages him in his writing.
Catherine Edge, so elegantly impressive in Settlement Players’ Separate Tables in February 2024, excels again as Judy, the mother that, spoiler alert, Christopher had been told was dead but had in fact fled to London with her feckless lover, neighbour Roger Shears (Lee Harris). Hers is the most emotionally complex role, the least black and white, and Edge finds those nuances.
In the ensemble, Alison Taylor, Natalie Melia, Lee Harris, Jon Cook, Tom Riddolls and Alexandra Mather both play multiple roles and bond in choreographed movement and babbling, threatening noise on Christopher’s first solo train journey to London with pet rat Toby, into the pandemonium of a Tube station, and out on to the alienating, disorientating streets.
Nicholson’s lighting is key to Pick Me Up’s technical flourish, but all in service of Wells’s remarkable portrayal of a boy with a beautiful mind in search of a safe haven.
Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York Open Studios newcomer Sinead Corkery in her studio in Monkton Road, York. She paints on recycled and reclaimed wood
IN the largest event of its 24 years, York Open Studios will feature 163 artists at 116 venues on April 5 & 6 and April 12 & 13, preceded by a preview evening tomorrow (4/4/2025).
Artists and makers within a ten-mile radius of York will be showcasing their work and inspirations, inviting visitors to “see where the magic happens” in this not-for-profit annual event run by volunteers.
Full details of participants and an interactive map can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk and a free directory with a tear-out map of all the locations is available from libraries, shops, galleries and artist locations throughout the city centre and the wider city region to enable visitors to “plan your route to maximise the range of artists”.
Scott Dunwoodie: Architectural aspects, nature and still life are common themes of hisphotography, on show at The Homestead, Moor Lane, Bishopthorpe
As ever, the diverse range of arts and crafts will take in painting, printmaking, illustration, collage, digital art, mixed media, photography, ceramics, glass sculpture, jewellery, textiles and furniture.
Many artists open their doors to invite the public into their workspaces; some artists share venues or exhibit their work in other spaces.
No fewer than 38 artists and makers will be making their Open Studios debut, including painters Dave Cooper, Marcus Callum, Ala Jazayeri, Julie Mitchell, Mo Nisbet, Mark Kesteven, Denise Duncan, Peter Monkman, Leon F Dumont, Dabble Doodle, Emily Littler, Sinead Corkery and Julia Leonard and ceramicists Wait And See Ceramics, Rock Garden Ceramics, Jackie Maidment and Schiewe Ceramics.
Paper artist Margaret Beech: Making her York Open Studios debut in Oaken Grove, Haxby
So too will be illustrators Alice Elizabeth Wilson and Rachel Merriman; printmakers Kate Hardy, Nic Fife, Drawne Up and Kai West; mixed-media artist Daisy Age Art; photographers Mark Pollitt, Alasdair McIntosh, Laurence Tilley and Jake Straker; drawing exponent Suzanne Young; paper artist Margaret Beech; furniture makers George Younge and Dominic Brown and York St John University students Emma Parker (paper) and Angela Stott (drawing).
York Open Studios chair Christine Storrs has been an enthusiastic visitor to the event since moving to York in 2003, joining the committee from 2012 to 2018 before taking a break and rejoining in 2022.
“We open the applications in the summer, starting in June, open to anyone within a ten-mile radius of York, and every year we get many new applicants,” says Christine.
“Selection takes place in September, and it’s made by an independent panel who assess applications based on images and artist statements submitted. They come from outside York, which was a deliberate decision taken some years ago, because it means they don’t know the artists, so they’re unbiased.
Zak and Lydia of Rock Garden Ceramics, Sutton Road, Hot Box Stoves, York
“They work independently of each other, and we ask them to say Yes or No on the set of criteria we give them. They also don’t know if an artist is a new applicant or a regular participant, so the decision is based entirely on the merits of the work.”
Christine continues: “The selection is also about the quality of the work. It’s not an open event in terms of just applying and taking part. We want selectors to judge whose work they think is of the right quality to take part. No-one has a guarantee of getting on to the list of participants. That’s why we need independent selectors.”
The names of the 2025 selection panel is not made public until they have made their selections, but you will now find their names in the directory: Helmsley Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones, jewellery designer Mari Thomas and former Leeds Beckett University research director Simon Morris.
“We never have the same selectors from year to year,” says Christine. “They can each do it for no more than two years in a row, but not three, so there’s always a change.”
Drawing exponent Mark Druery, who will open his studio in St Paul’s Terrace, Holgate
Reflecting on 24 years of York Open Studios, she says: “The event has evolved over the years. Several years ago, there was a renewed emphasis on it being held in studios, rather than groups of artists exhibiting together, because people enjoy seeing how artists work, where they work and what tools they use. That’s why we get so many visitors going from studio to studio, rather than it just being a series of exhibitions.”
Committee member and jewellery designer Charmian Ottaway, who will open her studio in Penleys Grove Street, adds: “York Open Studios is for anyone with a discerning eye for quality, an interest in art and those keen to find out more about the inspirations and techniques used to create the work.
“It’s also a lovely opportunity for artists to meet potential buyers and welcome those who just want to enjoy a day out in our lovely city. There’s certainly a sense of anticipation, and I can’t quite believe April is here at last!”
York Open Studios: public preview, tomorrow, 6pm to 9pm (check individual listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to see who is participating); April 5 and 6, April 12 and 13, 10am to 5pm. Look out for the yellow balloons to indicate studio locations.
Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
WILLY Russell’s tragi-comic Liverpool musical is visiting York for a remarkable tenth time since 1996. No show can rival that record, not even fellow regulars The Rocky Horror Show or Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.
Ticket demand is as high as ever: Monday’s press night was packed to the gills, opening a week’s run that accommodates three rather than the routine two matinees (Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday).
Should you somehow still be a Blood Brothers virgin, make sure to initiate yourself in Russell’s modern-day Jacobean tragedy on its first York outing since 2022, when your reviewer considered the combination of Niki Evans’s Mrs Johnstone, Sean Jones’s Mickey, in his “last ever tour”, Joel Benedict’s Eddie, Carly Burns’s Linda and Robbie Scotcher’s Narrator to be “better than ever”.
The 2025 leads are more than a match, especially Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnston, with a singing voice to rival Annie Lennox, and Sean Keany’s tall, gaunt grim reaper of an Irish-accented Narrator. Sean Jones, meanwhile, has still not left the building – was he taking the Mickey when he said 2022‘s tour would be the final curtain after 23 years on and off in Blood Brothers’ baggy green jumper and short trousers?! – but why would he leave a role he has made his own?
At 54, Jones continues to pour blood, sweat and tears into his combustible combination of bouncy comic timing [as seen each winter in his daft lad role in the Florian Pavilion, New Brighton panto too] and heartrending pathos on Mickey’s doomed path from skip to slouch to slump, from cheeky, boundlessly energetic child to lovelorn, tongue-tied teen, to crushed, enervated adult, broken on the wheel of anti-depressants and redundancy.
Impresario and producer Bill Kenwright – who had asked Jones to return to the role in 2022 – has passed away since that tour but the 2025 production still carries his stamp, credited as co-director with Bob Tomson, the team that brought Russell’s Blood Brothers to its emotional heights with gold standard production values to boot.
Vivienne Carlyle first worked with Kenwright and Tomson in 2006, playing Mrs Lyons and understudying Mrs J at the Phoenix Theatre in London, later appearing as Mrs Lyons at the Grand Opera House on tour in 2008, and she now returns to Mrs J after a 12-year gap, bringing scabrous Scouse humour, love, fierce passion, desperate resilience and guilty pain to the secret-burdened Catholic mother at the heart of Russell’s1983 cautionary tale of twin brothers separated at birth and cursed by a fateful superstition that if either should discover the other’s existence, they will die instantly.
Already struggling with too many children on an impoverished Liverpool estate and deserted by her wastrel husband, Mrs J’s budget on the never-never means she can only “afford” one child more, not two, and so cleaner Mrs J rashly enters a pact with her employer, a travelling salesman’s barren wife, Mrs Lyons (Sarah Jane Buckley), to give her the choice of the twins.
Whereupon, seen from the age of seven upwards, Jones’s scally urchin Mickey and Joe Sleight’s initially naïve, then scholarly Eddie are divided by the class divide that Russell lambasts, but their paths are destined to keep crossing, as fate plays its hand as much as social circumstance, turning their “blood brother” bond in adolescent rites of passage to adult separation.
Ever present in the shadows on Andy Walmsley’s set of house frontages, a mezzanine level and backdrops of Liverpool Liver Building skyscraper and the verdant countryside is Keany’s Narrator, a Faustian debt collector as dark as his suit and tie, overseeing innocent child’s play making way for crime and tragic final resolution, guns turning from toys to real.
From Vivienne Carlyle’s renditions of Tell Me It’s Not True, Marilyn Monroe and Easy Terms to Gemma Brodrick’s lovely performance as teen crush Linda, caught between Mickey and Eddie, to Nick Richings’ lighting and Matt Malone’s band, the 2025 tour of Blood Brothers shines with high quality in the transition from comedy to tragedy, the two faces of theatre writ large in this peerless, hard-hitting, unsentimental yet emotionally shattering musical.
Bill Kenwright Ltd presents Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/York. Age recommendation: 12 plus.
Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
FOUR nights of Greg Davies and tenth visit of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s bill for cultural satisfaction.
Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
WILLY Russell’s Liverpool musical makes its tenth visit to the Grand Opera House, and despite Sean Jones’s appearance in the 2022 tour being billed as his “last ever” after 23 years on and off as Mrs Johnstone’s son Mickey, here he is once more, still “running around as a seven-year-old in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” at 54.
Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle, who played Mrs Lyons on her previous Blood Brothers visit to York, takes the role of Mrs J in Russell’s moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Curiouser and curiouser: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Play of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Simon Stephens’s stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone (Jonathan Wells), a 15-year-old boy with an extraordinary brain Exceptionally gifted at Maths, he finds everyday life and interaction with other people very confusing.
Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, hates being touched and deeply distrusts strangers, but everything changes when he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Greg Davies: Milking it in his Full Fat Legend stand-up show at York Barbican
Comedy gigs of the week: Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend, York Barbican, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm
TOWERING comedian Greg Davies plays York Barbican for a full-fat four nights on his Full Fat Legend Tour, his first on British soil for seven years.
The 6ft 8 inch star of Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners, The Cleaner, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Man Down and Cuckoo is undertaking his biggest stand-up tour to date. He last played York Barbican on November 1 and 2 2017 on his You Magnificent Beast tour, his first travels for four years. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, go to yorkbarbican.co.uk. Davies’s Hull Connexin Live shows on June 3 and 4 and at Leeds First Direct Arena on June 20 are sold out too.
Daniel Wilmot’s Count Dracula in Baron Productions’ Dracula at St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York
High stakes of the week: Baron Productions in Dracula, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
FOUNDER and director Daniel Wilmot makes it Count when starring as the mysterious Dracula in York company Baron Productions’ account of Bram Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece in one of York’s most atmospheric churches.
When Jonathan Harker (Jack McAdam) embarks on a business trip to Count Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, little does he know the terror that awaits him. Guided by the wise Professor Van Helsing (Lee Gemmell), a courageous group must gamble their lives, even their very souls, to stop Dracula’s evil plans to enslave the world. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/baron-productions.
Pianist Ian Pace
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents The Beethoven Project: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, Saturday, 7.30pm
IN the second of The Beethoven Project concerts for York Late Music, pianist Ian Pace continues his exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No. 6.
The programme also includes Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (1-3), Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Liszt) and a new work of three musical tributes by Steve Crowther, Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Box office: latemusic.org/product/ian-pace-concert-tickets/ or on the door.
The Remi Harris Hot Club Trio: Heading for Helmsley Arts Centre
Jazz & blues gig of the week: The Remi Harris Hot Club Trio, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC and electric guitarist Remi Harris is joined by double bassist Tom Moore and rhythm guitarist Chris Nesbitt for an enthralling evening of gypsy jazz and blues. Combining musical virtuosity with passion and flair, this dynamic trio draws inspiration from Django Reinhardt, Peter Green, Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix and Joe Pass in a mix of original compositions, jazz standards and new arrangements of Harris’s favourite tunes. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
“There is so much you don’t know,” says Andrew Margerison, introducing his portrayal of the life and times of Walter Raleigh in That Knave, Raleigh
Ryedale play of the week: Dyad Productions in That Knave, Raleigh, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm
DYAD Productions follow up I, Elizabeth with a return to the Elizabethan era in That Knave, Raleigh, writer-performer Andrew Margerison’s story of Elizabethan explorer, sailor, dandy and warrior Sir Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth I’s favourite and James I’s knave.
The Huguenots, America, the Armada and execution: is that the whole story? “There is so much you don’t know,” says Margerison of Raleigh, father, husband, writer, poet, adventurer, philosopher, soldier, tyrant, egotist, lover, traitor, alchemist, visionary, victim. “The final chapter of Raleigh’s life is perhaps the most daring, strange and utterly heart-breaking. See the fall from grace taken directly from historical record; marvel at the magnetism of a man who seized every opportunity.” Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The poster for Dianne Buswell & Vito Coppola’s Red Hot And Ready tour, booked into York Barbican and Leeds Grand Theatre
Show announcement of the week: Burn The Floor presents Dianne Buswell & Vito Coppola in Red Hot And Ready, York Barbican, July 6, 7.30pm; Leeds Grand Theatre, July 18, 7.30pm, and July 19, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing’s stellar professional dancers, 2024 winner Dianne Buswell and 2023 winner Vito Coppola, will star in the new show from the Burn The Floor stable, created by Strictly creative director Jason Gilkison.
Billed as “a dynamic new dance show with a difference”, Red Hot And Ready brings together Buswell, Coppola and a cast of multi-disciplined Burn The Floor dancers from around the world, accompanied by vocalists and a band. Expect “jaw-dropping choreography, heart-pounding music and breathtaking moves, from seriously sexy to irresistibly charming”. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
The Twangtown Paramours’ Mike T Lewis and MaryBeth Zamer: Promoting new album The Wind Will Change Againin Leyburn and Bradford. Picture: Scott Simontacchi
NASHVILLE soulful folk duo The Twangtown Paramours play Leyburn Arts Centre on May 3 and Black Dyke Mills Heritage Venue, Queensbury, Bradford, on May 10 on their debut British tour.
Husband-and-wife duo MaryBeth Zamer (lead singer) and Mike T Lewis (writer, producer and guitar player) released their new album, The Wind Will Change Again, in January, charting at number one on the Folk Alliance International Chart for that month.
Their first folk recording in 12 years, the album addresses the themes of resilience in the face of loss, the realisation that our time is finite, and renewed appreciation of the people we love who are gone and of those who are still with us.
In their own lives, Zamer and Lewis “relied on their songwriting to help get them through difficult times with gratitude and humour”.
“We are very excited to finally get a chance to travel to England,” say Zamer and Lewis, winners of Texas’s Wildflower Contest. “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for many years. Especially after getting very generous reviews in the UK for our last two albums, we can’t wait to play the great venues where we’re booked.”
Zamer used to sing backing vocals for Eva Cassidy; Lewis wrote a platinum-selling number one in Korea and sometimes plays upright bass for Jimmie Dale; other artists have started to record their songs.
The Twangtown Paramours play Leyburn Arts Centre on May 3, 7.30pm; Black Dyke Mills Heritage Venue, Queensbury, Bradford, May 10, 7.30pm. Box office: Leyburn, 01969 624510 or leyburnartscentre.com; Bradford, 07920 122735 orblackdykemills.org/events/twangtown2025.html.
