Micklegate Singers: “Laying out a typically adventurous menu”
IN a Lent-themed programme entitled Beyond The World, the Micklegate Singers under Nicholas Carter laid out a typically adventurous menu built round the first complete performance of A Quaker Trilogy, featuring three composers responding to a text by William Penn.
Renaissance motets framed mainly living composers reflecting on life and death. At the start, Manuel Cardoso’s setting of a lesson for Maundy Thursday matins showed admirable restraint, well suited to a slow-moving soprano line against more active polyphony in the lower voices. His style typified the mid-17th century Portuguese penchant for colourful harmony, which was conveyed neatly here.
At the end of the evening, dynamic contrasts and smooth metre-changing lent Byrd’s Haec Dies plenty of excitement. Owing more than a little to its style was Howells’ setting of the same text, heard immediately before, with its leaping octaves before the final climax every bit as exultant.
Rhythmic spice was less evident in many of the modern works. The various sections of Matthew Martin’s Missa Brevis (St Dominic), interspersed through the first half, were a welcome exception, with a particularly lively ‘Gloria’ and carefree abandon at the first ‘Hosanna’ in the Sanctus.
On paper, the Penn trilogy looked like an excellent idea. But the chosen passage, doubtless well known to Quakers from its use at memorial meetings, but less so to those of other faiths, was heavily freighted with eschatological philosophy and not an obvious choice for musical setting. For its meaning to remain clear, it required delicate handling and minimal use of polyphony, a severe handicap to the University of York composers concerned.
The poster for the Micklegate Singers’ Beyond The World concert
David McGregor took some time to thin his texture into clarity, before reaching a spacious close evoking eternity. Joe Bates began chordally and was alive to the flow of words, even introducing some humming, before a thoughtful finish. Frederick Viner, the only one to set the entire passage, also took a mainly chordal approach, concluding with a low-lying intimacy that respected the text’s vision.
All three settings had something positive to offer. But it is doubtful whether they should be heard consecutively; they were not on this occasion. Having the same text set by three composers simultaneously is perhaps not such a great idea: who wants to hear the same message three times over? But don’t take my word for it. The three versions will be heard together on June 8 at The Mount School, at 1pm, as part of the York Festival of Ideas (entrance is free).
Other contributions, all tastefully handled, came from Ivo Antognini, whose modal Lux Aeterna benefited from gentle counterpoint and close harmony, and Ben Parry’s thoughtful Lighten Our Darkness.
James Whitbourn, who had died at the age of 60 only 12 days earlier, was represented by He Carried Me Away In The Spirit, a slow-moving meditation from the Book of Revelation memorable for its ecstatic phrase on ‘holy Jerusalem’.
Best of all these, however, was James MacMillan’s Who Shall Separate Us?, which keeps its words from Romans paramount. Its very high forceful Alleluia before an extremely hushed Amen were superbly done.
The Micklegate Singers are Yorkshire’s most adventurous chamber choir. Long may they remain so.
The cast for An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical gathering for rehearsals
AN Officer And A Gentleman The Musical will play the Grand Opera House, York, from June 4 to 8 in in the Curve, Leicester touring production.
Directed by North Yorkshire-raised Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster, with choreography by Joanna Goodwin, the show is on tour from February 23 to November 16, visiting the Alhambra, Bradford, from tonight to Saturday.
Based on Taylor Hackford’s 1982 film starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger, An Officer And A Gentleman’s story of love, courage, and redemption follows the emotional journey of fearless young pilot officer candidate Zack Mayo and the captivating Paula Pokrifki, whose fiery spirit matches his own.
A book by screenplay writer Douglas Day Stewart and Sharleen Cooper Cohen will be accompanied by the songs of Madonna, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper and Blondie, topped off by the award-winning (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong, the Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes hit from the film.
Georgia Lennon as Marie Osmond in her previous Grand Opera House appearance in The Osmonds: A New Musical in August 2022. Picture: Pamela Raith
Luke Baker leads Foster’s cast as Zack Mayo, joined by Georgia Lennon – last seen on the Grand Opera House stage as Marie Osmond in the world premiere tour of The Osmonds: A New Musical in August 2022 – in the role of Paula Pokrifki.
Further principal roles go to Jamal Crawford asGunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, Paul French as Sid Worley, Sinead Long as Lynette Pomeroy, Melanie Masson as Esther Pokrifki, Tim Rogers as Byron Mayo, Olivia Foster-Browne as Casey Seegar and Lucas Piquero as Eduardo Cortez.
Set and costume design are by Michael Taylor; musical supervision and orchestration by George Dyer; lighting design by Ben Cracknell; sound design by Tom Marshall; wig, hair and make-up design by Sam Cox and casting by Debbie O’Brien.
Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees in York are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.Also Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm, plus 2pm Wednesday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; box office, 01274 432000 or bradford-theatres.co.uk
Nikolai Foster’s touring cast for An Officer And A Gentleman
Hairspray’s 2024-2025 touring cast: Heading to the Grand Opera House, York, this autumn
BLOSSOMING North Yorkshire talent Alexandra Emerson-Kirby will make her professional stage debut in the lead role of Tracy Turnblad on the 2024/2025 UK and Ireland tour of Hairspray. The Grand Opera House, York, awaits her from October 28 to November 2.
Alexandra’s passion for musical theatre was nurtured at Scarborough’s YMCA Theatre. From there, she trained professionally at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Woking, graduating recently in musical theatre and dance.
Alongside her will be fellow professional theatre debutante Michelle Ndegwa, playing Motormouth Maybelle after her selection from last November’s 3,000 open auditions hopefuls for the tour’s run from July 16 to next April.
Soul and gospel singer Nedgwa is best known for her vocals for the Gorillaz and has recorded with Billy Porter, Gregory Porter, Shapeshifters, Leeds band Yard Act, Becky Hill, Rita Ora, and Deseri too.
She has performed at Coachella, Glastonbury and BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and her touring, festival and concert work includes backing vocals for Lizzo, Jorja Smith, Emeli Sande, Becky Hill, Nubya Garcia, Wizkid, TLC, Liam Gallagher, Ray BLK, Nina Nesbit, Shakka, Tom Odell and Trevor Nelson’s Soul Christmas at the Royal Albert Hall.
Brenda Edwards, who played Motormouth Maybelle in three productions under Paul Kerryson’s direction, now joins him to co-direct the latest tour. Choreography will be by Olivier Award winner Drew McOnie, artistic director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
Based on John Waters’ cult 1988 film that starred Divine and Ricki Lake, Hairspray The Musical features music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan.
The 2002 Broadway premiere won eight Tony Awards; the 2007 West End premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre picked up four Olivier Awards including Best New Musical.
Revelling in such songs as Welcome To The 60s, You Can’t Stop The Beat and Good Morning Baltimore, Hairspray traces the progress of ambitious heroine Tracy Turnblad, who has big hair, a big heart and big dreams to dance her way onto national American television and into the heart of teen idol Link Larkin.
When Tracy becomes a local star, she decides to use her newfound fame to fight for liberation, tolerance and interracial unity in Baltimore, but can she win equality – and Link’s heart – without denting her hairdo?
Kerryson and Edwards’s touring cast will include Neil Hurst, who played big lad Dave in The Full Monty on tour at the Grand Opera House last October, now cross-dressing as Tracy’s mum, Edna Turnblad.
Returning to the York stage too will be Joanne Clifton, this time as former beauty queen, TV show producer, devious taskmaster and racist snob Velma Von Tussle.
The 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion appeared previously at the Grand Opera House as Princess Fiona in Shrek, Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show, welder Alex Owens in Flashdance and Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Further roles will go to Solomon Davy as Link Larkin; Declan Egan as show host Corny Collins, Katlo as Little Inez, Reece Richards as Seaweed and Allana Taylor as Amber Von Tussle.
Adam Kay: If laughter is the best medicine, head to the Grand Opera House
SHORT plays, doctor’s tales, pop memories, life 11,000 years ago, women in word and song, egg hunts and a Sondheim celebration put the spring into Charles Hutchinson’s step as a new season arrives.
Doctor in the House: Adam Kay: Undoctored, Grand Opera House, York, March 23, 7.30pm
BILLING himself as “the nation’s twelfth-favourite doctor”, This Is Going To Hurt author Adam Kay follows a record-breaking Edinburgh Fringe run and West End season with a tour of tales from his life on and off the wards.
Expect Kay’s ‘degloving’ story to feature “because people ask for refunds if they don’t hear it”. Post-show, he will be signing books. Last few tickets: atgtickets.com/york.
Navigators Art & Performance’s poster for GUNA: Views and Voices of Women at The Basement
Navigators Art & Performance presents: GUNA: Live!, Views and Voices of Women, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, March 23, 7pm
TO complement Navigators Art & Performance’s City Screen exhibition for International Women’s Week, the York arts collective hosts an inspiring evening of music, spoken word and comedy that explores, celebrates and promotes the creativity of women and non-binary artists.
The line-up of mostly York-based performers features poets Danae, Olivia Mulligan and Rose Drew; performance artist Carrieanne Vivianette; global songs and percussion from Soundsphere; original music from Suzy Bradley; comedy from Aimee Moon and a rousing appearance by multi-faceted York musician and artist Heather Findlay. Box office: bit.ly/nav-guna.
Lush stories: Miki Berenyi’s book, Fingers Crossed, under discussion at York Literature Festival
Book of the week: Miki Berenyi In Conversation: Fingers Crossed, York Literature Festival, The Crescent, York, March 24, 3pm
MIKI Berenyi, former lead singer, rhythm guitarist and founder member of London shoegaze/dream pop band Lush discusses her memoir, Fingers Crossed, and her career, recounting her experiences as a trailblazing woman fronting a seminal late-1980s group. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Livy Potter: Performing in Paul Birch’s Running Up That Hill in Yorkshire Trios at York Theatre Royal
York theatre event of the week: Yorkshire Trios, York Theatre Royal Studio, Tuesday and Wednesday, 7.45pm, both sold out
YORK company Next Door But One brings together York actors, writers and directors to produce original, short pieces of theatre, five to 15 minutes in length, on the theme of Top Of The Hill. Cue tales of motherhood, grief, love, war and even Kate Bush.
Badapple Theatre’s Kate Bramley and Connie Peel direct Nicola Holliday in Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast; Livy Potter performs Paul Birch’s Running Up That Hill under Harri Marshall’s direction; Jacob Ward directs Claire Morley in Yixia Jiang’s Outliving and Bailey Dowler appears in Jules Risingham’s Anorak, directed by Tempest Wisdom. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Curators Andrew Woods, left, Adam Parker and Emily North with Mesolithic remains of a wooden platform and materials used for fire-making in the Yorkshire Museum’s Star Carr exhibition. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross
Exhibition opening of the week: Star Carr: Life After The Ice, Yorkshire Museum, York; open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
EXCAVATED in the Vale of Pickering, the Star Carr archaeological site provides the first evidence in Great Britain of the beginnings of home, a place where people settled and built places to live.
The Yorkshire Museum’s interactive exhibition brings together artefacts from “the Mesolithic equivalent of Stonehenge” to give an insight into human life 11,000 years ago, a few hundred years after the last Ice Age, such as how they made fires. On display are objects from the Yorkshire Museum Collection, from antler headdresses and a decorated stone pendant to the world’s oldest complete hunting bow and the earliest evidence of carpentry from Europe. To book tickets, go to: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk.
Sam Hird: Singing Sondheim with Pick Me Up Theatre
Musical revue of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Sondheim We Remember, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 27 to 30, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ROYAL College of Music student Sam Hird returns home to York to join his father Mark Hird in the Pick Me Up Theatre company for Sondheim We Remember’s selection of music from Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway shows, film scores and television specials.
Taking part too in this celebration of the New York composer and lyricist will be show director Helen ‘Bells’ Spencer, Susannah Baines, Emma Louise Dickinson, Alexandra Mather, Florence Poskitt, Andrew Roberts, Nick Sephton, Catherine Foster and Matthew Warry. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The National Trust’s guide to Easter activties, egg hunts et al, at Nunnington Hall
Easter Egg Hunt of the fortnight: Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, today until April 7, 10.30am to 5pm; last entry, 4.15pm.
FAMILIES can enjoy a fun-packed visit to the National Trust property of Nunnington Hall throughout the Easter school holiday, when children can take part in an Easter egg hunt trail around the freshly mown garden, with activities to be completed such as an egg and spoon race, archery and boules, before receiving their egg.
Children can enjoy drawing and painting in the creative hub; take part in seed planting in the cutting garden; explore the Lion’s Den play area, with its obstacle course, rope bridge and climbing frame; learn about composting and spend time in the bird-watching area. On March 31 and April 1, additional garden activities include races on the main lawn and bird-feeder making. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.
Wet Wet Wet and special guest Heather Small: Teaming up at York Barbican in 2025
York gig announcement of the week: Wet Wet Wet & Heather Small, York Barbican, October 13 2025
WHEN Wet Wet Wet headlined a festival in Dubai, who should they bump into but Heather Small, the big voice of M People. She duly accepted their invitation to be the special guest at all dates on their 2025 tour.
Wet Wet Wet will be returning to York Barbican after their January 31 2024 double bill with Go West on the Best Of Both Worlds Tour. In the line-up will be founding member and bassist Graeme Clark, long-standing guitarist Graeme Duffin and singer Kevin Simm, The Voice UK winner and former Liberty X member, who joined the Scottish group in 2018. Tickets: axs.com.york.
In Focus: Children’s show, Millennium Entertainment International in There’s A Monster In Your Show, York Theatre Royal, March 26 to 28, 1.30pm and 4pm
There’s A Monster In Your Show composerTom Fletcher with his children, Buzz, Buddy and Max, and a monster puppet
THE Easter holiday festivities at York Theatre Royal kick off with Tom Fletcher’s new family musical There’s A Monster In Your Show.
Based on Fletcher and Greg Abbot’s Who’s In Your Book? picture-book series for Puffin, the 50-minute performance for three-year-olds and upwards is billed as an “interactive, high-energy adventure for big imaginations” that leaps from page to stage with the aid of lively original music
Adapted for the stage by Zoe Bourn and directed by Miranda Larson, the show features new music by McFly band member Fletcher and Barry Bignold. Expect playful fun aplenty for your littlest ones as their favourite characters come to life in a performance packed with interactive moments to enjoy together.
In the story, performers are preparing to start their show but quickly discover they are not alone on stage. Little Monster wants to be part of the fun too, promptly extending an invitation to his friends Dragon, Alien and Unicorn to join him. Cue comedy and chaos as they help to create a magical show, learning about the joy of books and friendship along the way.
Fletcher says: “I’m so excited to see There’s A Monster In Your Book come to life on stage. The whole journey is incredibly exciting. Theatre is such an important way to introduce children to the arts and There’s A Monster In Your Show is the perfect first theatre trip for pre-schoolers and their families. I’m so looking forward to seeing their reactions first hand.”
The 1.30pm show on March 28 will be a Relaxed Performance that aims to reduce anxiety around theatre visits to help everyone have an enjoyable time. All are welcome, but especially people with sensory or communication difficulties or a learning disability. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ben Murrell and Gil Sidaway in There’s A Monster In Your Show. Picture: Pamela Raith
FOLK renovator and innovator Sam Lee showcases his fourth studio album, songdreaming, at The Old Woollen, Farsley, Leeds, tonight, on his 17-date tour.
Released on March 15 on Cooking Vinyl, songdreaming represents the latest stage in the development of Londoner Lee’s music, from its roots in curating ancient song to a new way of imagining and performing reworked old songs, making them relevant anew.
The follow-up to 2020’s Old Wow was recorded throughout 2023, when Sam continued his work with producer Bernard Butler and long-term collaborator, arranger, and composer James Keay in creating an album rich in musicality and invention.
In taking songs directly related to the nature of the British Isles, he reinvents and contemporises a tradition of communion with the land through song. “songdreaming is a mosaic of the emotions felt in my time outdoors, that artistically emerge in reflective moments when I’m permitted to recount and articulate the complexity of all I witness and thus feel responsible for,” he says.
Explaining the album title, Sam says: “’songdreaming is a neogilism [a newly coined word or expression], that came out of the work that I do rooted in nature, through the idea of how we can connect with the land, and our relationship with nature through music. It goes back to the Aboriginal idea of songlines…”
…Songlines, Sam? “The short answer is I will never truly understand it, as you have to live in that culture, but from my time spent with Aborogines and from reading [English travel writer] Bruce Chatin’s book [Songlines], it’s to do with map orientation to our sense of not just place but ancestry, identity, sovereignty, all wrapped in feelings of adoration and commitment,” he says.
“That’s something we’ve had in this country, working with the landscape to chart who we are, but our experiences have severed that relationship. The concept of this album is to reinvigorate that idea, hence I’ve borrowed old folk songs, our ancient narratives, reworking them to tell of our beautiful relationship, our enchantment, our illicit joy, in nature.”
Illicit joy, Sam? “I’m so involved with the Right To Roam movement, but I didn’t want to make a protest album. I wanted to create a vision,” he says.
“Music can be such a bridge builder into a new sense of possibilities. I don’t think what we have in this age, unlike what we had for thousands of years, is an adoration of nature. Music was inspired by nature for so many years, and yet we’ve now become like a barren land in our attitude.
“How have we ended up with poisoned rivers, barren lands that are so depleted? Most important to that is the severance of connection to nature in our children, who find it more difficult to make that connection because of the urban lives we live.”
Sam regrets the loss of stewardship, grandparents no longer passing on knowledge of nature to grandchildren. “We don’t know the names of our rivers, our fungi, our flowers, anymore,” he says. “Nature has become an exiled realm. What we see is a war of attrition and nature is not winning that war.”
What role can music play to change that? “Where we are completely cut off, music can conjure the emotion of what it’s like to walk in a field, to be in a canoe, and that’s always been the purpose of music: to connect with the visceral sense of place. In my case, to distil all my work in nature to be something that is shared.”
Across songdreaming’s ten tracks, Sam delivers an album that ranges from acoustic songs to drone soundscapes through to the electric guitar and gospel choir-propelled lead single Meeting Is A Pleasant Place, featuring the recording debut of transgender London choir Trans Voices.
songdreaming incorporates the balladry of Sweet Girl McRee alongside the gospel tinges of Leaves Of Life, while also housing the whiteout noise of Bushes And Briars, a song that details Sam’s rage at the treatment and condition of the natural world.
Summing up his bond with nature in song, Sam says: “Those people who are and were singing the old songs here at home were also looking after the land. When we stop singing to the land, the land stops singing back.”
Sam Lee’s songdreaming tour visits plays The Old Woollen, Sunny Bank Mills, Town Street, Farsley, Leeds, tonight (24/3/2024), 8pm; doors, 7pm. Box office: samleesong.co.uk or oldwoollen.co.uk. songdreaming is available on Cooking Vinyl on vinyl, CD and digital download.
In the wink of an eye:Matt Freeman’s Guinevere in Le Navet Bete’s King Arthur. Picture: Craig Fuller
LE Navet Bete translates as “the daft turnip”. Cue fruit and vegetables being lobbed at the stage at the outset of this latest comic caper of precisely organised chaos from a trio of Exeter theatre-makers who met in student days and retain that anarchic spirit in the tradition of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in The Young Ones and Bottom.
Making their fifth visit to York Theatre Royal, this one finds company regulars Nick Bunt, Al Dunn and Matt Freeman working with Peepolykus’s like-minded John Nicholason as co-writer and director, conjuring a re-telling of the legend of King Arthur as never told before, played faster and looser than all those Horrible Histories.
What’s the story, more daft than gory? King Arthur “knows that if he fails to turn things around, this civilization will be known as nothing more than a rather dull time in British history. But when three hapless squires approach him about changing that legacy…a legend in born.”
From a camper-than-camp opening pastiche of Queen’s infamous I Wanna Break Free video, through Kelis’s re-shaken Milkshake to The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army in the interval, the pop hits repurposed medieval style kept on coming as the plot not so much thickens as chases itself around a tree like a squirel.
Add prog-rock, jazz fusion, orchestral score, medieval sitcom segues and re-imaginings of Cher, and no wonder composer and sound designer Jonny Wharton sums it up as ridiculous.
Thwack attack: Al Dunn, left, Matt Freeman and Nick Bunt in Le Navet Bete’s smash-hit King Arthur. Picture: Craig Fuller
Monty Python And The Holy Grail comes to mind as another influence, but like those cycling Shakespeareans The HandleBards, Le Navet Bete have developed their own style of physical comedy, one founded in the fast-moving, faster-witted comic camaraderie and delightful tomfoolery of the multi-role playing Bunt, Dunn and Freeman.
For all the measured order behind their comical disorder, they revel in the unpredictable nature of breakneck live theatre, the mishaps and malfunctions beyond the mayhem, the ad-libbing and the corpsing, joined gleefully by set and costume and designer Fi Russell on constant stage management duty, popping on in stealthy Milk Tray advert black to remove a mis-thrown stool at one point.
Le Navet Bete cram a lot into their Camelot, here represented in a castellated design by the playful Russell with doors aplenty in farce tradition, a water trough and a bucket on a rope: all signposts of pratfalls and slapstick to come.
More than 50 costumes, even a pantomime horse, play their part as the likes of Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and Percival are woven into a plot that spins ever more plates – and when a frying pan is to hand, what else would you do but belt someone in the face with it?! Pan-tomime of a different kind.
Should you miss day three of this riotous romp in York today, head to Cast in Doncaster on June 8, 7pm, or June 9, 11am and 3pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Doncaster, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com.Suitable for legend-loving children and adults alike.
Jessica Baglow’s Lady Macbeth and Ash Hunter’s Macbeth
WHEN shall we meet Amy Leach’s Macbeth again? Only two years to the month since its Leeds Playhouse premiere.
Sixty-nine schools from across Yorkshire attended the 2022 run, “introducing more than 5,000 students to the excitement and lasting resonance of Macbeth – and giving some of them their first electrifying experience of live theatre,” as artistic director and chief executive James Brining recalls in his programme notes.
Even more school-friendly matinees have been fitted in for the return of GCSE Eng Lit set text Macbeth, supported by a programme of resources and activities to “bring additional depth and breadth to students’ appreciation of this incredible play”.
Striking up a pre-show conversation with the student in the neighbouring back-row seat at Thursday’s lunchtime matinee, she had first seen a version of Macbeth when she was ten and it had since become her favourite play. Now she is studying its psychology on her GCSE course.
And what a psychological thriller to be watching to elucidate those studies, in a theatre full to the brim with excited school uniforms, all enraptured from start to finish by Leach’s vision of all-inclusive theatre-making. Theatre for all the senses, all audiences, all performers, deaf, visually impaired, included. Each performance has integrated audio description.
Think of modern theatrical retellings of historical stories with nods to concert culture, and up pops SIX The Musical, the Spouse Girls’ revenge of Henry VIII’s wives. Another controversial king, Macbeth, is now framed in a setting that would not be out of place in a stadium rock show.
A huge drawbridge hangs heavy over Hayley Grindle’s stage. Searchlights scan the auditorium from metallic towers spread out like a forest. Fog enfolds. Deafening noise bursts through the air. For those about to rock, however, stop. You notice a puddle of water; muddy ground; grit too. Something witchy this way comes.
Enter the weather-watchful Witches (Charlotte Arrowsmith, Karina Jones and Elkanah Wilder, all from 2022), spinning opening words that are re-shaped, re-ordered, with rhythms afresh, their sound as important as their meaning.
What’s this? Macbeth (Ash Hunter, last seen on Yorkshire boards as Heathcliff in Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal) and Lady Macbeth (the returning Jessica Baglow) are cradling a new-born baby, only for the bairn to die within a heartbeat.
In the Playhouse’s wish to “explore the damaging physical, spiritual and psychological effects of treachery on those who seek power at any cost”, Leach has put child loss, lineage and legacy at the heart of the Macbeths’ behaviour, the acts of murder, the need to eliminate all threats to their ill-gotten power.
Leach then takes it even further, Baglow’s Lady Macbeth being pregnant when she beseeches “unsex me here” and later suffering a miscarriage as blood seeps through her nightgown. Come the finale, Leach adds prescient text to give a foretaste of Banquo’s son, Fleance, becoming king as the Witches had prophesied.
Those Witches typify Leach and Brining’s “commitment to accessible and inclusive theatre-making”, as does the participation of the blind Benjamin Wilson as audio description consultant.
Supernatural soliciting: Elkanah Wilder, Karina Jones and Charlotte Arrowsmith’s Witches in Amy Leach’s Macbeth. Picture: Kirsten McTernan
Among the witches, Karina Jones is visually impaired and Charlotte Arrowsmith is profoundly deaf, while Elkanah Wilder “interrogates multifaceted sociopolitical oppressions from a queer and disabled lens”.
Here, Shakespeare’s “weird sisters” are neither weird, nor alien, in the way they are often played, but are as wild as the landscape instead.
Arrowsmith also plays Lady MacDuff, partnered once more by the profoundly deaf Hull actor Adam Bassett as MacDuff. Paul Brown’s Lennox vocally interprets the sign language, complementing the intensity of Bassett’s expressive face, hands and arms with the staccato rhythms of his speech.
Learning of, spoiler alert, his wife and children’s deaths is even more shocking, heart-rending, in this form of news delivery: theatre at its unique best, living and breathing in the rawness of the moment.
Not only do lighting designer Chris Davey’s searchlights induce a sense of paranoia (later turning from white to red after yet more murdering), but relentlessly oppressive natural elements prevail too, along with the sound and fury of machismo war.
These are all big, muscular, mud-and-blood splattered men, ready to rut like stags, except for Aosaf Afzal’s King Duncan; their physicality being emphasised by Georgina Lamb’s movement direction and Claire Lewellyn’s fight direction. Likewise, Nicola T Chang’s sound design adds to the cacophony.
Macbeth’s vaulting ambition may in part be represented by the drawbridge, crowned when on top of it, but broken beneath it, but Leach’s production is deeply human amid the technology.
In the relationship of Hunter’s reactionary Macbeth and Baglow’s more intuitive Lady Macbeth, the shifting sands become less about calculating mind games, controlled initially by her, more about brute physicality and brutal will, imposed by him, as intense love and mutual hopes are snuffed out in the face of ultimate destiny being beyond their control, whether shaped by supernatural witchcraft or the resurrection of natural order.
Hunter’s Macbeth is as physical in his language as in his pugilist’s body, his soliloquies carrying the force of punches amid the fevered actions of his bloody rise and fall. He is so spent – “Enough, enough, I am done” – that he lays down to let Macduff administer the final blow.
Above all, Leach puts Lady Macbeth’s motives under the spotlight, and if purists feel she has gone too far in doing so, the reality is that Baglow’s performance is all the better, more rounded, for it.
Risk-taking change can be liberating, rather than be judged as taking liberties, as Leach’s emboldened Playhouse productions affirm, from Romeo And Juliet to Macbeth X 2.
What’s more, there is no damned spot to ‘out’ here. Leach’s Macbeth was already beyond blemish in 2022 and is even better in 2024.
Macbeth, Leeds Playhouse, today at 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
Fast talking: An Evening With The Fast Show at the Grand Opera House, York
CONVENTION has it that audiences complain when bands leave out big hits but equally do so when comedians repeat gags from a previous tour show.
Where does that leave a sketch show, transplanted from screen to stage, in this case for a 30th anniversary tour, 22 years after The Fast Show played York Barbican on their debut UK tour?
Much to the sold-out audience’s delight, a multitude of beloved characters strut rather than fret their allotted time upon the stage on Tuesday, some with little more than a catchphrase, others given new material to complement those phrases. Phrases gathered on T-shirts selling like hot cakes at the foyer bar merch stall. Scorchio.
Such a show is not without precedence. Monty Python and The Secret Policeman’s Ball reprised greatest bits from TV shows on stage, the Four Yorkshireman sketch a recurring favourite (first performed by co-writers Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman on At Last The 1948 Show in 1967).
Now, six of the originals have gathered for The Fast Show’s nights of nostalgia: writing partners Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse, who first performed together in a punk band in smudged eyeliner days at the University of East Anglia; actors Mark Williams and Simon Day, actress Arabella Weir and, last to join the party, John Thomson, the man of many voices.
Higson and Whitehouse take on the role of narrators and chat-show hosts, opening the show with recollections of how The Fast Show came into being, from writing for Harry Enfield to being entrusted with their own editorial control by the BBC.
Seats are in place, as are clothes rails to facilitate quick changes of character/caricature, each one greeted with a cheer of recognition, especially so for Ralph and Ted, lord of the manor and his taciturn but profound Irish groundsman.
Williams is the first to join them in the guise of “Today I’ll be mostly” Jesse, the country bumpkin. They chat, affably, with room for teasing and affectionate digs at Steve Coogan, recalling the old days as if at a school reunion.
The rhythm is established immediately: fast for The Fast Show sketches and monologues, slower for the comfy banter when seated.
Ever charming, avuncular too, Higson has to battle against misbehaving facial fuzz, from flyaway moustaches to non-stick sideburns; Whitehouse is a bundle of unruly energy, prone to interject and seek the spotlight.
Day plays the puckish mischief maker, full of surprises; Weir, outnumbered five to one, is the most reflective; Thomson, a constant delight with all manner of impressions.
Characters and catchphrases galore come and go, another one always just around the corner, like a taster menu’s next nibble. Day’s Tommy Cockles goes down particularly well, as do Whitehouse’s drunken Rowley Birkin QC and Thomson’s Jazz Club host Louis Balfour, now smoking a vape to bring him up to date.
Nice! Especially, his story of giving band members the names of London tube stations. Take a bow Tooting Bec on trumpet.
But does a compendium of sketches add up to a satisfying full picture, especially when bolstered by memories of all their yesterdays, topped off with a video clip tribute to the late seventh team member, Caroline Aherne, reminding all of her special comedy chops?
In truth, for all the surge of joy at the “band getting back together”, Tuesday left your reviewer wanting more of some, less of the others, as sketches always do.
Consone Quartet: Participating in York Early Music Festival’s chamber music programme
THIS summer’s York Early Music Festival 2024 will be an eight-day celebration of music from medieval to the baroque under the title of Metamorfosi.
“The festival will focus on the human voice and song, a combination prized for its power to communicate most directly, and through metamorphosis, the inspiration behind the creation, reimagination and reconstruction of music across time,” says festival director Delma Tomlin.
“This is a very prestigious early music festival that everyone wants to play. We’re looking forward to bringing to York an outstanding line-up of artists, celebrating the power, magnificence and influence of the human voice over the centuries. This year’s exciting line-up will see the return of many festival favourites and a host of new ensembles.
“As ever, the festival will take place in an array of York’s most beautiful churches and historic buildings, and this year’s programme includes four performances in the iconic York Minster.”
Presented by the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), York, from July 6 to 13, festival will feature a line-up of vocal specialists such as French festival debutants Concerto Soave (NCEM, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, July 6, 12 noon); The Gesualdo Six (Chapter House, York Minster, July 9, 7.30pm); festival newcomers Vox Luminis (York Minster Quire, July 11, 7.45pm) and Cappella Pratensis & I Fedeli (York Minster Quire, July 12, 9pm).
Highlighting the theme of reimagination, guest artists including The Sixteen (York Minster, July 6, 7.30pm), the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (NCEM, July 8, 7pm), Rose Consort of Viols, with mezzo-soprano Martha McLorian (NCEM, July 9, 9.30pm), and Gawain Glenton’s Ensemble In Echo (St Lawrence Church, Hull Road, July 10, 7.30pm) will reveal how much composers have borrowed from each other and themselves.
As well as performing herself, mezzo-soprano, BBC New Generation Artist and YEMF artistic adviser Helen Charlston is curating a series of chamber concerts, where the Consone Quartet, harpsichordist John Butt and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Leggett will be her guests.
Leggett, Butt and basse de viole player Jonathan Manson will join Charlston for Couperin: Lecons de Tenebres at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, Aldwark, on July 8 at 9.15pm, and later she will perform William Thorp’s arrangement of Schumann’s song-cycle Frauenlieben und leben with the Consone Quartet through a new lens of string quartet and voice at the NCEM on July 9 at 12 noon.
Cubaroque, a new combination of tenor Nicolas Mulroy and lutenists Elizabeth Kenny and Toby Carr, will bring together an unusual programme of music by Purcell and Monteverdi, plus more modern songs from South America, at the NCEM on July 7 at 7.30pm.
Making a return to York for two concerts in a residency will be Apotropaïk, winners of the Friends Prize, the EEEmerging+ Prize (CORRECT) and the Cambridge Early Music Prize at the 2022 York International Young Artists Competition. First up, Holy Trinity, Micklegate, on July 10 at 12 noon, followed by the Undercroft, Merchant Adventurers Hall, on July 11 at 9.45pm.
Against the tide of the Brexit divorce from Europe, the NCEM and YEMF have been “especially thrilled” to be working on a new collaboration with artists and colleagues based in Flanders, Belgium, with support from the Alamire Foundation, AMUZ in Antwerp and the Flanders government.
“This partnership enables us to bring Flemish vocal ensemble Utopia to the festival [at the NCEM, July 12, 6pm,] to perform Salve Susato: Treasures from Antwerp’s Golden Age, as well as the Cappella Pratensis & I Fedeli’s celebration of Renaissance polyphony in the Franco-Flemish music of Jacob Obrecht and Jacobus Barbireau later that day,” says Delma. “Both concerts will mark Flanders Day.”
Once more, the festival will play host to ensembles from across Europe in the prestigious biennial York International Young Artists Competition, a ground-breaking initiative that attracts young artists from all over the world.
Looking to follow such past winners as the Protean Quartet, L’Apotheose, Barroco Tout and Sollazzo Ensemble, finalists will spend time in York performing informal concerts and learning from experts before the final concerts on Saturday, July 13, from 10am to 5pm.
“We end the festival with one of the most important dates on the NCEM’s calendar, the York International Young Artists Competition York Early Music Festival,” says Delma. “The NCEM is internationally renowned for promoting and mentoring aspiring young musicians through its extensive work and we can’t wait to host this year’s competition.”
The full festival programme can be found at:https://www.ncem.co.uk/whats-on/yemf/.
In Focus: Who will be the eight ensembles taking part in the 2024 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition?
Rubens Ros, from Switzerland
MEDIEVAL music ensemble based in Basel, co-directed by Aliénor Wolteche (fiddles) and Matthieu Romanens (tenor), graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Repertoire ranges from 13th century accompanied monody to late-medieval vocal and instrumental polyphony. Rubens Rosa made its debut in 2022 at the Basel festival Erasmus klingt.
[hanse]Pfeyfferey, from Germany
RENAISSANCE wind band specialising in improvised and rediscovered music from circa 1500. Their goal is to reproduce authentic and refined Renaissance wind band sound that can be heard from high church towers and serves as the soundtrack for grand processions and balls.
Ayres Extemporae, based in Belgium
TRIO comprising Moldovan-Spanish violinist Xenia Gogu, Spanish cellist Víctor García García, playing on a five-string cello piccolo, and Portuguese cellist Teresa Madeira. Awarded first prize and audience prize at 2022 Semana de Música Antigua de Estella-Lizarra, leading to them being programmed in 2023 festival too. Also received second prize at Biagio Marini International Early Music Competition in Germany.
Brezza, from Switzerland
CREATED in the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, this versatile ensemble’s research, rehearsal and concert activities explore 17th and 18th century music in the core instrumentation of traverso, viola da gamba, and harpsichord.
Apollo’s Cabinet, from Great Britain
MURDERS, drinking songs, Cinderella stories, virtuosic cantatas, European tours, serene polyphony and candlelit rituals all feature in the evocative and story-driven programmes of these Göttingen Händel Competition and 2022 Maurizio Pratola competition winners. Signature mix of acting, dancing, poetry and silliness brings historical performance to modern audiences, while educational outreach for children and adults alike is at the core of the ensemble’s work.
Pseudonym, based in Switzerland
SCHOLA Cantorum Basiliensis graduates Gabriel Smallwood, Maya Webne-Behrman, Stephen Moran and Liane Sadler perform adventurous interpretations of 17th and 18th century music. Finalists and prize winners at MA Competition Bruges, Van Wassenaer Concours, international harpsichord competition Wanda Landowska in Memoriam, Bach-Abel Wettbebwerb, the International Telemann Wettberwerb and International Biagio Marini Competition.
Trio Pellegrino, from the Netherlands
FORMED after playing in larger ensemble at 2023 La Risonanza Early Music Festival in Bertinoro, Italy. Focusing on Classical and early Romantic repertoire, ranging from Haydn to Schubert, they plan to perform in Germany and England later this year.
Friedrichs Nebelmeer Ensemble,from Switzerland
DYNAMIC woodwind ensemble of Pablo Gigosos (flute), Mei Kamikawa (oboe), Claudia Reyes (clarinet), Andrés Sánchez (horn), and Angel Alvarez (bassoon) formed in 2022 out of shared passion for chamber music and commitment to artistic excellence.
The 2024 competition final will be presented by a panel of judges: Bart Demuyt, director of AMUZ/Alamire; lutenist Elizabeth Kenny; Philip Hobbs, from Linn Records; Lionel Meunier, director of Vox Luminis, and clarinettist/University of York lecturer Emily Worthington. .
The main prize includes a professional CD recording contract from Linn Records; a cheque for £1,000 and opportunities to work with BBC Radio 3 and the National Centre for Early Music, York.
Other prizes are supported by Cambridge Early Music Festival, the European Union Baroque Orchestra Development Trust and Friends of the York Early Music Festival.
Bull: Two nights and a jamboree day at The Crescent to mark the release of Engines Of Honey
BULL, York’s “finest purveyors of jangling indie joy”, launch second album Engines Of Honey with a brace of home-city shows at The Crescent this weekend.
Their tour booker has sent the guitar-powered slacker pop quintet on a frankly bonkers itinerary, beginning in Brighton on March 14, where frontman Tom Beer slept on a bean bag – “a comfy, long bean bag,” he says – at his cousin’s house, followed by Bristol.
Next came Manchester on Saturday; Edinburgh on Sunday, where Tom took a restorative run up Arthur’s Seat first thing on Monday morning; Newcastle last night (20/3/2024); Glasgow tonight; then, back home to York after all that mileage, tomorrow and Saturday, before a London finale at the Windmill, Brixton, on March 28.
“Ex-tour booker,” jokes Tom in a Wednesday morning chat in the Explore York library hush of The Centre @ Burnholme.
“Rather than music, I’d been doing a lot of painting, some little doodles – one we used for the artwork for the Red Rooves single – now some bigger ones as well, though I’ve got no plans to exhibit them, but this tour has reinvigorated me massively, making me realise I do want to do more music.
“I’m now realising that life is a round thing, where you can do lots of different things. So I can do some music, some law, some painting, some gardening, some swimming pool construction.”
Playing plenty of squash and tennis too, sometimes against fellow York singer and songwriter Sam Griffiths of The Howl & The Hum. “I beat him at squash; he beats me at tennis,” says Tom.
Kai West’s cover artwork for Bull’s Engines Of Honey
We shall return to “some law” and “some swimming pool construction” later, but first the new album, Engines Of Honey, the title taken from a lyric (from Stranger), not a song title, in the tradition of the Pixies.
“Sam [Griffiths] says that when you bring something out it reminds you that you exist,” says Tom. “You can take it way too seriously, but it’s just some songs for people to listen to, and if people have like them, that’s great. The reaction to the album has been really good.”
Released on March 1, with distribution by AWAL, who did likewise for The Howl & The Hum’s Human Contact in 2020, Engines Of Honey is available via Bandcamp on CD and vinyl, and digitally too, but not at record shops.
Billed on Facebook as “our second greatest hits”, the album’s arrival has not been accompanied by the fanfare that met the alt-rock dandies’ March 2021 debut, Discover Effortless Living, after Bull became the first York band since Shed Seven to sign for a major label, fully ten years after their formation. £20,000 from EMI came their way, along with a further £5,000 backing for 2022 EP Stuck.
“Signing to EMI opened up a lot of doors in terms of the record being sold in places like HMV, which was a big deal for us, and brought us headlines. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy where people start taking you seriously,” says Tom.
Not everything went swimmingly, however. “We were going to put out another album with EMI and went down to London to meet them, but I had a bit of a burn-out after their 2022-23 tour, when I kind of realised I didn’t want to be focusing on music as much as I’d done before…so I started a new job.”
Tom had studied for a law degree at Newcastle University in earlier days. “I’m now working as a planning consultant for the gypsy and traveller community nationally, and I’m a trustee for the York Travellers Trust too. It’s about giving them stable private homes, but where they can live their traditional lifestyle,” he says.
“I’m working with lawyer Marc Willers, a leading King’s Counsellor on gypsy and traveller issues, who’s been such an inspiration to me. We met up last week when Bull were playing Brighton, and I’m considering doing a pupillage down there.”
Bull on the March tour trail: Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Glasgow, York, last stop London
Tom decided that Bull should not push for the second album with EMI. “It wasn’t the right fit, to be honest,” he reflects. “We’re a cult independent band from York, That’s what we are. We’re not going to be the next Wet Leg. We have cult appeal, a catalogue of 35 songs, and a small group of people around the world that like us, and that’s all we want.”
Twelve of those songs form Engines Of Honey, recorded by singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Tom, keyboard-playing sister Holly Beer, guitarist Dan Lucas, drummer Tom Gabbatiss and bassist Kai West with producer Remko Schouten in his Amsterdam studio, as was the case for Discover Effortless Living, with further recordings at Tom’s parents’ house in York. “Adding endless harmonies, shakers, timpani and saxophone,” as Tom puts it.
Bull are in a good place, says Tom. “It doesn’t matter that we didn’t do a second album with EMI. We’re happy where we are because you can’t make money from music unless you’re huge, and we were broke,” he says.
“I wasn’t making ends meet, so I needed to get a job. We’re not exactly business people. We tried but it kills it. I started taking things too seriously, but it’s only music. Though I feel very conflicted about it. I don’t feel I’ve quit, but I was working way too hard at it, to the point where I can’t do that any more.
“Music is much more personal than other careers; you feel it too deeply, where it would activate my ‘fight or flight’, so I had to stop doing it, but thankfully Holly and Dan and the rest of the band took over finishing the album, with Dan doing the lion’s share of the mixing.””
Bull: Playing a different set each night at The Crescent on Friday and Saturday
Bull have signed to new management; a further York live event is upcoming at the York Explore library on May 17, and recording plans are afoot already for two more albums, one with Renko Schouten at his new studio in rural Spain, the other, “super-lo-fi” in York.
“We’re trying to strike a deal with Renko to build him a guitar-shaped swimming pool on his land to cover making the next album,” says Tom. Polymath Kai is a builder among his multiple skills, should you be wondering.
Turning 30, Tom finds himself becoming more of a home bird. “I’m engaged; I want to have kids, make normal money from a job,” he says. “I had to give up on my rock’n’roll dream, which is unreal. Only Bob Dylan pulls off the never-ending tour, and I’m not sure how happy he is. I just want to be have friends around me. Be a good citizen for York.”
First up, Bull play two entirely different sets tomorrow and on Saturday with no repeats and DJ sets afterwards by Victor Alvarez, the Mexican-masked host of the Golden Ball’s Latin nights, Sophisticated Boom Boom DJs, from the Micklegate Social, DJ Dr Vic, DJ Georgie, probably Joe Coates and maybe Tom Beer too, picked from his record collection.
In between comes Saturdays’ free daytime jamboree, kicking off at 2pm with an art fair featuring Jade Blood, Harry Clowes, Kai West and Izzy Williamson and more. Ben Crosthwaite’s music quiz at 5pm will be followed by Jade Blood’s Art Bingo with prizes at 6pm.
Look out too for Bull’s homemade curry, cooked up by Kai West, and a memoraBullia exhibition with 20 Bull T-shirts down the years, posters, promotional artwork and record sleeve designs. MemoraBullia, Tom? “I came up with that!” he says.
Please Please You and Brudenell Presents presentBull at The Crescent, York, tomorrow, supported by FEET, from London, and Vehicle, from Leeds, 7.30pm. Tickets still available at thecrescentyork.com. Saturday, supported by Eugene Glorious and Fat Spatula, 7.30pm, sold out.
