Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits
SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican on November 15 as the only Yorkshire venue.
60 years? Michigan-born singer and bass guitarist Quatro started out in bands in Detroit, playing concerts and teen clubs with Ted Nugent, Bob Seger and others. In May 1964, her sister Patti formed the group The Pleasure Seekers with her, leading to their first single coming out on the Hideout Records label in 1965, when Suzi was 15, Patti, 17.
Further singles Never Thought You’d Leave Me and Light Of Love followed in 1966 and 1968 respectively.
In 1971, Suzi flew to England to work with songwriting hit factory Chinn and Chapman after producer Mickie Most saw her perform live.
She duly chalked up chart toppers with 2.5 million-selling Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and had further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You.
In the United States, her million-selling Stumblin’ In duet with Smokie’s Chris Norman reached number four in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, giving Suzi her only American Top 40 success.
Of York note, after appearing together in Annie Get Your Gun in the West End, she co-wrote the Babbies & Bairns signature song with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp.
As well as selling more than 55 million records – she featured in the UK charts for 101 weeks between 1973 and 1980 – Suzi has branched out into acting, writing novels, broadcasting, making her documentary film Suzi Q and presenting her autobiography Unzipped live in a one-woman show.
She released the album Quatro, Scott & Powell, with two Seventies’ cohorts, Sweet’s Andy Scott and Slade’s Don Powell, in 2017; made two albums with her son, Richard Tuckey, No Control in 2019 and The Devil In Me in 2021, and joined forces with Scottish singer-songwriter K T Tunstall for Face To Face in 2023.
“It’s my 60th year in the business, and it still feels like I’ve just started,” says Suzi, 73. “Devil Gate Drive, number one, 51 years ago. Are you ready now? Let’s do it one more time for Suzi.”
The wild one will rock on, she vows. “I will retire when I go on stage, shake my ass, and there is silence,” she says.
George Green and puppet in Foxglove Theatre’s premiere of Rabbit at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
YORK company Foxglove Theatre have identified a need for weirder, more experimental theatre in the city, focusing on “psychological exploration through innovative visual storytelling”.
Here comes their debut new work, Rabbit, booked into Theatre@41, Monkgate, from Thursday to Saturday with a warning: “This is not a play for children”.
Why? Rabbit contains:
Disturbing content; physical harm/violence (explicit); suffocation; vomiting; flashing lights; jump scares; sudden loud noises; use of haze.
What happens? Rabbit is lost. Rabbit is scared. She will die by the end of the night. Waking up lost in a murky forest, this brave bunny is determined to find her way home to Mumma.
Foxglove Theatre’s poster for psychological drama Rabbit
However, an innocent bunny is not prepared for the trials and tribulations of the real world, where the wind cuts deep, teeth slice flesh, and a mothers hug falls short.
Blending puppetry and visual storytelling effects, Foxglove Theatre’s performance explores the psychological damage that develops from even the smallest mishandlings of our childhood selves.
Focusing on attachment and loss, Rabbit invites this week’s audiences to place their inner child under a magnifying glass and watch it burn.
Vowing to bring impactful, new age, daring theatrical productions to York, Foxglove Theatre made their debut in Summer 2002 at Theatre@41 with Welsh writer Brad Birch’s thriller The Brink: a dark comedy replete with blood, murder and death, sexual imagery and ephebophilia (sexual attraction to post-pubescent adolescents and older teenagers, aged 15 to 19).
Sam Jackson’s Nick comes face to face with Abel Kent’s Mr Boyd, the head teacher, in Foxglove Theatre’s inaugural prodiction, Brad Birch’s psychological thriller The Brink, in 2022
“As young people exploring our creative boundaries in York, we identified a gap in York’s theatre scene, a need for weirder, more experimental performance, and through Rabbit, our first new-work piece, we hope to begin to address this blind spot,” says producer Ione Vaughan.
“This 60-minute production aims to invite our audience into a space for self-reflection, while also refusing to diminish the negative repercussions of allowing poor mental health to fester. Combining modern contemporary theatre technology with the traditional medium of puppetry, we are utilising everything live performance has to offer to provide an impactful and immerse experience for our audience.”
Foxglove Theatre was formed by producers Ione Vaughan and Ivy Magee and director Nathan Butler. “Deciding to dedicate our work to bringing innovative theatre to this brilliant city, we also chose to champion the growth of young creatives like ourselves, offering flexible and malleable opportunities to develop their creative practice while with our company,” says Ione.
“This has been a success with our performer, George Green, as we developed a unique skill to add to their repertoire: puppetry. George learnt a range of puppetry techniques, both those required by the performance and beyond, including training with Leeds puppetry company The Object Project to support their overall development as a performer.”
Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm. Recommended age: 16 plus. Box office:tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
George Green in a scene from Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit
Henry Strutt: “Fearless tenor was well suited to the role of leading Druid”
SPORTING a new logo on the backs of their music stands and joined by their long-time colleagues from Leeds Festival Chorus (also conducted by Simon Wright), York Guildhall Orchestra here launched the first of a series of Sunday afternoon concerts.
Cantatas by Parry and Mendelssohn framed Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations. Parry’s setting of Milton’s Ode At A Solemn Music, known by its opening line Blest Pair Of Sirens, took him 20 years from conception to completion.
This performance echoed that tentative start, with the gentlemen of the chorus taking time to get into their stride. Buoyed by the orchestra’s enthusiasm, however, the choir gradually shed its inhibitions and invested increasing muscle in successive climaxes. Well before the end, Wright had them all relishing Parry’s discords.
The Mendelssohn was something of a rarity. Popular in the Victorian era, the secular cantata Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (‘The First Walpurgisnight’) sports a text by Goethe more suited to the age of Nietzsche than our own.
The roots of his ballad lie in heathen fertility rites, which were subsumed into Christian tradition by being centred on St Walpurga, a 9th-century Devonian nun who became an abbess in Germany. The modern rite is still observed on the eve of her canonisation, April 30.
Sarah Winn: “Firm contralto as a heathen woman”
Goethe, however, is not interested in the sacred aspects, more in rampaging Druids who terrorise Christians. Think witches on broomsticks and pagans with pitchforks and you are getting close.
Text aside, there is plenty for a choir to get its teeth into, along with three soloists. They all did just that. It was unashamedly enjoyable, much enhanced by some dashing brass.
Henry Strutt’s fearless tenor was well suited to the role of leading Druid, as was Sarah Winn’s firm contralto as a heathen woman. Too bad they had so little to do. The lion’s share of solo work went to Christopher Nairne, an 11th hour substitute, who doubled admirably as a hectoring Priest (bass) and a woebegone Christian guard (baritone). Simon Wright just about kept his enthusiastic orchestra on the leash, but it was a close shave.
It was impossible to ignore the subtlety Wright coaxed from his players in the Elgar. Between a smoothly circumspect opening inspired by his wife, Alice, and a colourful self-portrait at the close, we had many memorable moments, including Troyte’s verve and Sinclair’s bulldog, both cameos beautifully crisp.
Nimrod needed more line, especially in its early stages. But the violas excelled themselves, not only in Ysobel but also in partnership with the cellos in the recollection of Basil Nevinson, which was truly heartfelt. The orchestra’s voyage through Elgar continues to satisfy deeply.
Christopher Nairne: “Doubling admirably as 11th hour replacement“
Robert Hayward as Alfio in Opera North’s Cavalleria Rusticana: “Some of the finest singing he has ever delivered on this stage”. Picture: Tristram Kenton
WITH his distraught features spread across both covers of the programme in close-up, there was no doubting who was to be the anti-hero of this double bill.
Robert Hayward has made a speciality of portraying twisted psychotics – his Scarpia comes straight to mind – so the pistol-packing combination of Alfio in Mascagni’s melodrama with the title role in Rakhmaninov’s graduation exercise Aleko was right up his street.
In both, jealousy prompts his character to shoot dead the tenor, in this case the luckless Andrés Presno. Hayward rose to the occasion with some of the finest singing he has ever delivered on this stage.
Karolina Sofulak had returned to revive her 2017 production of Cavalleria Rusticana while tackling the company’s first look at Aleko. Rakhmaninov completed the latter in 1892, a mere two years after the Mascagni had caused a sensation.
Sofulak was understandably at pains to point out the parallels between the two. In close association with her designers, Charles Edwards (sets and lighting) and Gabrielle Dalton (costumes), she put Cavalleria Rusticana first, the reverse of the usual order with these two pieces.
Supplanting the sunshine and lemon blossom of Sicily with the darker but equally restrictive society of Communist Poland in the 1970s, she then – inspired by Pushkin’s poem The Gypsies on which the libretto is based – conceived Aleko as taking place in a 1990s post-hippie commune, such as Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen.
Helen Évora as Lola and Andrés Presno as Turiddu in Opera North’s Cavalleria Rusticana. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Here ‘Al’, who has by now changed the latter half of his name, is trying to liberate himself from the misdemeanours of his youth as Alfio. But his fate lies within his own dark heart, and he is unable to shake it off. It was an ingenious idea. It also put into much better perspective her staging of the Mascagni, which had not made much sense previously alongside Trial By Jury.
None of this would have worked without the conviction of Hayward. He moved convincingly from being a small-town, repressed Alfio, short of one or two marbles judging by his hesitant steps and inability to control his emotions, to a supposedly wiser, more worldly Aleko, whose anger still lay only just below the surface.
As Alfio, he was seen wringing his bloodstained hands at the end of the Mascagni. He was still wringing his hands, albeit now no longer gory, when he became Aleko. Shortly afterwards, he fondly cradled the gun he had used to shoot Turiddù (while a passenger in his beaten-up taxi), before secreting it in his suitcase.
Edwards’s set for Cavalleria Rusticana was bleak, in keeping with the deprivations of the villagers, queuing at Lucia’s counter for meagre supplies which soon ran out. It was still dominated by a huge wooden cross against which Turiddù’s outstretched arms presaged his imminent demise.
Presno’s fine tenor was almost too resonant for the role, given that his attacks were relentlessly fierce, making every note sound higher than it really was. But his depiction of emotional immaturity was telling enough.
Elin Pritchard’s Zemfira in Opera North’s Aleko. Picture: Tristram Kenton
He was immensely helped by Giselle Allen’s marvellously vicious Santuzza, spitting tacks like hell-fire. Anne-Marie Owens brought all her authority to bear on Lucia, and Helen Évora’s Lola was exactly the kind of girl-next-door ingénue to catch her lover’s eye.
The set for Aleko was a total contrast, built around a flashy bar where the community seemed to be perpetually drinking or dancing (very appealingly to Tim Claydon’s choreography).
Rakhmaninov’s score has more than a suggestion of Middle Eastern flavour, especially at the start, right out of the Rimsky-Korsakov playbook. Antony Hermus latched onto this, so that his orchestra underlined the other-worldliness of the setting. Elsewhere he was quick to lend extra drama to an already highly charged atmosphere.
Aleko moves forward in a series of tableaux rather than unfolding continuously, which makes the director’s task tough. But Sofulak’s cinematic style, apparently inspired by Kieślowski, was rarely less than riveting.
Hayward’s determined baritone stole the show, with Elin Pritchard’s luscious-toned Zemfira as his faithless wife. It was a clever conceit to have Lola reappear in a vision to remind Aleko of his earlier life. Presno’s Lover had less to do here and remained much in the Turiddù mould.
Matthew Stiff as Zemfira’s father delivered a pleasing seen-it-all-before aria. The chorus relished their opportunities, especially in Aleko, while Hermus kept his orchestra at a high level of intensity. But Hayward was the true key to the evening’s success.
REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in Albert Herring, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
Dafydd Jones as Albert Herring in Opera North’s Albert Herring. Picture: Tom Arber
FOR the first show of Laura Canning’s reign as general director, Opera North returned to Giles Havergal’s successful production of 2013, here revived by Elaine Tyler-Hall.
As chamber-comedy, Albert Herring certainly benefited from the relative intimacy of the Howard Room, with the audience aligned three-deep on its long sides, facing inwards, and the action confined to the strip between. The orchestra was where the stage platform would normally be.
The production held fast to Havergal’s insistence that Loxford’s village stereotypes should be clearly differentiated but delivered a few carefully calculated extras. The opening scene was much enlivened by a parade of comely candidates for May Queen, all of whom looked extremely suitable but had to retreat dolefully for their alleged misdemeanours. There was a little caper by the judging panel when Lady Billows acquiesced in the choice of Albert.
Dafydd Jones, who has been a Leeds Lieder Young Artist, made his company debut in the title role with considerable aplomb, graduating smoothly from downtrodden drip to born-again bravado. His Act 2 solos as he fantasised about a better life were excellently paced.
Katie Bray as Nancy and Dominic Sedgwick as Sid in Opera North’s Albert Herring. Picture:Tom Arber
He was well supported by Dominic Sedgwick’s breezy Sid, whose aria was nicely nuanced, and Katie Bray’s assured and engaging Nancy; their love-duet was a breath of fresh air in this stuffy village.
Judith Howarth was in fine fettle as Lady Billows, superbly bolstered by Heather Shipp’s Florence Pike, who was if anything even more waspish: a formidable duo. William Dazeley, the only holdover from the original cast, was an avuncular vicar, wringing his hands in diffidence, matched in character-acting by Paul Nilon’s out-of-his-depth mayor.
Amy Freston’s twittery schoolmarm and Richard Mosley-Evans’s blustery local copper added further fuel to the farce. There was always the feeling that Claire Pascoe’s severe Mrs Herring meant well, a feather in her cap.
The threnody over Albert’s casket-to-be, which was overlaid by his tye-marked jacket, was beautifully delivered, which made Albert’s reincarnation all the more effective.
Rosa Sparks as Emmie, left, Willow Bell as Cis and Oliver Mason as Harry in Opera North’s Albert Herring. Picture: Tom Arber
There was a strong sense of a generation gap between the young and old in this village, enhanced by the three children, who were ably led by Rosa Sparks as Emmie, a promising debutante here.
Willow Bell as Cissie and Oliver Mason as Harold were her lively underlings, all encouraged to sing properly rather than pseudo-shout. Their alternates were Lucy Eatock and Dougie Sadgrove; all four are members of the company’s Children’s Chorus. They broke into dance at the slightest excuse (movement director Tim Claydon) which added to the fun.
Vital to the success of the whole evening was the stylish contribution by Garry Walker’s orchestra, whose interludes were potently atmospheric, notably in Act 2.
Diction was not always as clean as it might have been, and some of the voices strayed into territory too forceful for this arena, but those were minor misgivings in the face of Tyler-Hall’s admirable sense of ensemble. This site-specific production could not tour, though sold out weeks in advance. It will, however, be streamed on Operavision later this year.
Late Music York, Robert Rice and William Vann, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, February 3
WALTER de la Mare’s Peacock Pie (1922) is a charming collection of rhymes that have an appeal for all ages, not least through their evocation of childhood.
This recital, featuring baritone Robert Rice and pianist William Vann, mainly paired settings from the anthology by Armstrong Gibbs and Howells with first performances of the same poems by living composers, many of whom were in the audience.
Before that, Rice announced himself with Finzi’s song-cycle in tribute to Vaughan Williams, Let Us Garlands Bring, celebrating the latter’s 70th birthday in 1942. He at once established his sense of line and a keen awareness of text, while Vann added some tasty colour, not least in the postlude to ‘Who Is Sylvia?’. The duo was notably effervescent in ‘It Was A Lover And His Lass’.
Thereafter we had no fewer than ten premieres by nine different composers. As a whole, they were encouragingly well crafted, and a handful also revealed real inspiration.
Robert Walker found an ingenious way to conjure scissors at work in The Barber’s, which Armstrong Gibbs had not done. Also in the Gibbs corner was Charlotte Marlow’s Old Shellover, nicely shaped with its opening repeated.
Liz Dilnot Johnson exploited piano extremes in Hide And Seek and David Lancaster used effective syncopation in With Lantern Bright, a setting of the original ‘Then’. William Rhys Meek daringly selected Miss T, already wittily set by both Gibbs and Howells, and still managed to add tonal variety.
Amongst the Howells settings, Hayley Jenkins neatly milked the absurdity of Alas, Alack! in both parts, but her piano was hyperactive in The Dunce. Phillip Cooke conjured an appealing vocal line in Full Moon.
At this point we had heard no fewer than 26 songs. But there were still six to come that had nothing to do with the rest of the evening.
Having successfully curated the programme, David Power rewarded himself with his own (translated) settings of René Char, three written as a student nearly 40 years ago and the same three poems re-cast in 2016. The early ones had little to offer, the later ones were much bolder and more confident. But their relevance here was tenuous and looked like self-indulgence.
Nonetheless Rice and Vann treated them with the same tireless respect as elsewhere, despite not enjoying any biographies of their own in the otherwise truly admirable printed programme.
Ape japes: Berwick Kaler in his last pantomime, as Dame Dotty Dullally, in Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
BERWICK Kaler, Britain’s longest-running pantomime dame, is “bowing out gracefully” after 47 years on the York stage.
The final curtain has fallen after Grand Opera House panto producers UK Productions decided not to retain the services of veteran dame Berwick, 77, who had transferred across the city in 2021 after 40 years at York Theatre Royal.
Exiting panto stage left too will be long-serving comic stooge Martin Barrass, vainglorious villain David Leonard, principal golden gal Suzy Cooper and “luverly Brummie” A J Powell after their three-year run at the Cumberland Street theatre.
In his quote at the very bottom of the Grand Opera House’s official announcement of Beauty And The Beast as the 2024-2025 pantomime, Berwick says: “After 47 years of getting away with complete nonsense, it’s time to bow out gracefully and I couldn’t have wished for a better production than Robinson Crusoe [And The Pirates Of The River Ouse].
“I’d like to thank all of the audiences over the years, and particularly those who came to the Grand Opera House this year for making it so memorable. I’d also like to thank the producers UK Productions for their support, and for bringing to life my frankly mad ideas so spectacularly.
The last gang show: Berwick Kaler, second from right, with David Leonard, Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and A J Powell, promoting Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse on King’s Staith
“Last and of course not least, my loyal gang, David, Suzy, Martin and AJ, for putting up with me for so many years.”
The official statement reads: “Also announced today is the departure of Berwick Kaler from the Grand Opera House pantomime.
“Berwick has been a beloved Dame in York since 1977 and it has been a privilege for the Grand Opera House to host Berwick and the gang for the last three years. Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper, AJ Powell and David Leonard will also not be returning.”
UK Productions took over the Grand Opera House pantomime after only one year of Berwick and co performing for Qdos Entertainment/Crossroads Live in his comeback show Dick Turpin Rides Again.
Managing director Martin Dodd, always an enthusiastic advocate for Berwick Kaler’s pantomimes, nevertheless makes no mention of the parting of the ways in the Grand Opera House announcement.
Instead, he looks to the future, as the pantomime partnership with the York theatre is retained but in a new form with “star casting”. “We are delighted to continue our relationship with the Grand Opera House and bring one of the most popular fairy tales of all time, our award-winning Beauty And The Beast, to audiences in York,” he says.
“The production is spectacular and contains all the elements that young and old will love, and we look forward to announcing the star casting very soon.”
Likewise, Grand Opera House theatre directorLaura McMillan, focuses on the new era: “The annual pantomime is the biggest show in the theatre’s calendar and to be welcoming Beauty And The Beast to our stage is incredibly exciting.
“There’s nothing like pantomime to introduce children and young people to Theatre and I have no doubt that Belle, The Beast and the rest of the characters will bring so much joy this winter.”
Beauty And The Beast will run from December 7 2024 to January 5 2025.Tickets, from £15, will go on sale on Monday, March 11 at 4pm at atgtickets.com/york.
Wise Children “open the bloody door” to Emma Rice’s beguiling but disturbing Blue Beard at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday. Picture: Steve Tanner
PANTO dame tales and a comedian’s first-time memories, a classic thriller and a feminist fairytale, a community choir festival and a prog-rock legend make Charles Hutchinson’s list of upcoming cultural highlights.
Play of the week: Wise Children in Emma Rice’s Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
BLUE Beard meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign as writer-director Emma Rice brings her own brand of theatrical wonder to this beguiling, disturbing tale.
Applying Rice’s signature sleight of hand, Blue Beard explores curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance, all through an intoxicating lens of music, wit and tender truth. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Rick Wakeman: Last return of the Caped Crusader at York Barbican
Catch him while you can: Rick Wakeman, Return Of The Caped Crusader, York Barbican, tonight (24/02/2024), 7.30pm
PROG-ROCK icon and Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman, 76, is to call time on his one-man shows to concentrate on composing, recording and collaborating, but not before playing York. “I always planned to stop touring by my 77th birthday,” he says. “For those of you who wish to send me a card, it’s 18th May!”
Saturday’s show opens with Wakeman’s new arrangements of Yes material for band and vocalists, followed after the interval by his epic work Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Robin Simpson on dame duty in York Theatre Royal’s All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
Pantomime revelations of the week: Robin Simpson: There Ain’t Nothing Like A Dame, Rise, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm
ALREADY confirmed for his return for Aladdin from December 3 to January 5 2025, York Theatre Royal’s resident dame, Robin Simpson, takes a peak behind the wigs into the glitz and glamour of life as a pantomime dame.
Simpson provides an insight into the origins of the character, backstage antics and classic cheeky panto humour as he reveals “what it’s really like to frock up and tread the boards”. Expect cheesy gags, naughty nonsense and even a silly sing-song.
“I’ve run this event before and it was mostly for slightly older children and adults. Ages 7/8 and above really,” says Robin. “The show includes stories, song-sheet sing-alongs and silly poems. It’s not at all serious!
“It’s fun to approach storytelling from the perspective of the dame. It’s a little more anarchic. I also start with a brief history of the pantomime, from Roman times to the modern day.
“I do this while getting dressed and made up into the dame with the idea that, by the time I’m talking about Dan Leno and the Victorian dame, I’m completely changed. There’s room for questions and chat too about being in a panto and what happens on stage and backstage. Like I say, it’s for KS2 and adults really.”
Earlier in the day, at 4.30pm, in an interactive one-hour event for children aged three to six, Robin and Susanna Meese will be spinning the Storywheel to reveal much-loved nursery tales. “It’s a wheel of fortune-style story generator where random fairytales are told and there’s lots of dressing-up, musical instruments, songs, props, puppets and play,” says Robin.
Afterwards, children can delve into story bags full of goodies and stay and play with the hosts, who will have everything needed for the children to tell the tales, including puppets, props, and costumes. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise
Maura Jackson: Public speaker, charity boss and now comedian, playing Theatre@41 tomorrow
Storyteller of the week: Maura Jackson: More O’ Me, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
AT 53 Maura Jackson cannot decide if she is a keynote speaker, charity CEO or comedian. Thanks to “the recklessness of menopause”, she is all three.
After living a life and a half and taking up stand-up in 2022 on a whim, storyteller Jackson takes tomorrow’s audience on a humorous rollercoaster of life-defining moments, good or bad. Despite her professed aversion to drama, she is surrounded by it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Neil McDermott, left, and Todd Boyce in Sleuth, “the thriller about thrillers”, at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
Thriller of the week: Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday
TODD Boyce, best known for playing Coronation Street’s notorious baddie Stephen Reid, will be joined by EastEnders soap star Neil McDermott in Anthony Shaffer’s dark psychological thriller about thrillers, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh.
What happens? A young man arrives at the impressive home of a famous mystery writer, only to be unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of intrigue and gamesmanship, where nothing is quite as it seems. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rob Auton: Star of The Rob Auton Show, full of firsts, from memories to girlfriends to jobs
Comedy gig(s) of the week: Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm; Mortimer Suite, Hull City Hall, February 29, 7.30pm; The Wardrobe, Leeds, March 1, 7.30pm
ROB Auton, Pocklington-raised stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returns north from London with his self-titled tenth themed solo show.
After the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, Auton turns the spotlight on himself, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis. Box office: York, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk; Leeds, brudenellsocialclub.seetickets.com.
Skylights: Lighting up York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, November 2
YORK band Skylights will play their biggest home-city show yet this autumn, with tickets newly on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk in a week when latest release Time To Let Things Go has risen to number two in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart.
Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the biggest venue in our home city of York, the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here, so to headline will be the perfect way to finish what’s going to be a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.”
In Focus: York Community Choir Festival 2024
Jessa Liversidge: Directing Easingwold Community Singers’ performance at the York Community Choir Festival
York Community Choir Festival 2024, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 25, 6pm; February 26 to March 1, 7.30pm; March 2, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
THE 8th York Community Choir Festival spreads 31 choirs across eight concerts over six days at the JoRo. On the opening evening, Easingwold Community Singers will be premiering director Jessa Liversidge’s arrangement of The Secret Of Happiness from the American musical Daddy Long Legs, with permission of composer and lyricist Paul Gordon.
“Festival organiser Graham Mitchell wanted a choir to perform this song,” says Jessa. “I bought the music but couldn’t find a choral arrangement, so I chanced my arm on contacting the composer to ask if there were any arrangements or could I do one, and he said, ‘yes, you can’.
“It’s a lovely gentle song. Hopefully it will go well, and I can then send Paul a recording.”
Choirs range from York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir to The Rolling Tones, Sounds Fun Singers to York Military Wives Choir, Selby Youth Choir to Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus. Six choirs from Huntington School perform next Friday, taking up all the first-half programme. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
York Community Choir Festival: the programme
Sunday, 6pm
Selby Youth Choir, Bishopthorpe Community Choir, Eboraca, Easingwold Community Singers.
Monday, 7.30pm
Community Chorus, York Celebration Singers, Euphonics, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir.
Tuesday, 7.30pm
Jubilate, Some Voices York, Sounds Fun Singers, Abbey Belles Chorus.
Wednesday, 7.30pm
Stagecoach Youth Junior Choir, The Garrowby Singers, In Harmony, Stamford Bridge Community Choir.
Thursday, 7.30pm
York Military Wives Choir, Harmonia, Spirit of Harmony Barbershop Chorus, Heworth Community Choir.
Friday, 7.30pm
Huntington School Choirs, Vivace! Aviva York Choir, Main Street Sound Ladies, Barbershop Chorus
GRIFFONAGE Theatre may well be a new name to you, rooted in a word that means “careless handwriting: a crude or illegible scrawl”.
The York company has its roots in the University of York, where director Katie Leckey is studying for a Masters in theatre-making.
Already, the company with the mantra of “making the strange familiar, and the familiar strange” has staged Poe In The Pitch Black in the non-theatrical but very atmospheric Perky Peacock café, in the 14th century Barker Tower on North Street.
Rope, Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 thriller famous for Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking 1948 film version, marks Griffonage’s move into a formal theatre space, the black box of the John Cooper Studio at Theatre@41.
Set designer Alicia Oldbury keeps it as black as the humour and mood of the piece with its shadows of the rise of British fascism. On the walls are mirrors and picture frames left blank, to match the values of William Osbon’s weak-minded Charles Granillo and especially Nick Clark’s fly Wyndham Brandon treating lives as worthless.
Rope opens in the smart London home where Brandon and Granillo will host the weirdest of dinner parties. Not in the dining room, where the table is now buried under a heap of books left to Brandon to sell, but the drawing room where the maid, Sabot (Molly Raine), sets up the food and cutlery on a wooden chest.
In that chest, as we know from the opening scene in the dark, is the body of Granillo and Brandon’s fellow Oxford student, the sporty Ronald Kentley. This is no spoiler alert: Rope is not so much a whodunit or whydunit (disdain, pleasure, arrogance, contempt), but a case of will the smug, wealthy duo get away with their “perfect crime”?
Enter, at Brandon and Granillo’s calculated invitation: glamorous socialite but not bright Leila Arden (Carly Bednar, delightfully daffy performance; too-modern dress); awfully nice but a tad dim student – and Brandon’s former school fag – Kenneth Raglan (Peter Hopwood, dressed in black tie and a never-removed top hat,) and the Oscar Wilde of Brandon’s circuit, Rupert Cadell, a droll poet with a lame leg but tack-sharp mind (Griffonage co-artistic director Jack Mackay).
Completing the assortment of guests as eccentric as the meal’s random contents are Ronald’s esteemed, book-collector father Sir William Kentley (Liam Godfrey, as suitably stiff in his disposition as a book cover) and his taciturn sister Mrs Debenham (Frankie Hayes, as disapproving in manner as Lady Bracknell, but saying everything in a look rather than words).
A white door of an erratic nature, period furniture, a drinks trolley, a piano, all play their part, lighting is kept simple, and tension takes its time to turn to Hitchcockian horror, hushed arguments broken like glass by fevered shouts as the cigarettes pile up and the drinks click in.
The atmosphere is awkward, as it would be, lightened by the nervous chatter of Bednar’s Leila, but Rope tightens its grip once the Mackay’s Cadell and Clark’s Brandon – the two outstanding performers – lock horns, one ultimately smarter than the other, as Osbon’s tad-hammy Granillo, by now a drunk, quivering wreck, slumps by the chest.
Rope is the work of a young company finding its feet, a new addition to the Theatre@41 portfolio with plenty of room to grow and another production on its way.
Pilot Theatre’s Jonathan Iceton, left, Beth Crame, Olivia Onyehara, Grace Long and Amonik Melaco in A Song For Ella Grey
NEWCASTLE. Shopping for vintage clothes. Nights on the toon. Bamburgh Beach. Camping out. Beach parties. Cheap supermarket plonk. Best friends for life. First tingle of love.
Such is the teenage stuff of David Almond’s novel for young readers, and the stuff too of Pilot Theatre artistic director Esther Richardson’s days of growing up in the North East. Been there, done that, bought the book, the first one she read after taking up her post with the York company.
Eight years later, Richardson is directing Pilot’s touring co-production in partnership with York Theatre Royal and Northern Stage, in Newcastle, where rehearsals and the first peformances took place.
Almond has adapted past works for the stage, but this time Pilot commissioned Zoe Cooper, a playwright and dramaturg who has an M Phil in playwriting from the University of Birmingham and cut her teeth on the Royal Court Young Writers programme. Both her script and Almond’s book are on sale alongside the brownies and chai lattes at the café counter.
Working in tandem, Richardson and Cooper have pitched this particular theatrical tent on the cornerstones of storytelling, music, sound and vision to seek to capture the elusive nature of Orpheus, the “man-god” (as Richardson calls him). I say ‘him’, but this Orpheus is called ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’, at various points, depending on who is speaking.
Pilot’s primary target audience is teenage, studying Eng Lit, maybe theatre, and indeed schoolchildren were clustered in the dress circle at Thursday’s matinee, but peppered around the stalls were Theatre Royal matinee regulars.
Overhearing one in the interval and chatting with them afterwards, they praised the performances but had reservations over the storytelling. More specifically, the clarity of what we were watching. In a nutshell, not only was Orpheus elusive, so too was the story.
Your reviewer wholeheartedly agreed about the uniformly excellent cast, but did find himself drawn into the mysteries and murk of Almond’s modern-day re-telling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, one that carried this contents notice in the foyer: References to death of a young person, bereavement/loss and adoption.
Already, on stage in York, at Stillington Mill, in Australia too, Wright & Grainger have explored the myth in a trilogy of exhilarating spoken-word and music shows, Orpheus, Eurydice and The Gods The Gods The Gods, billed as “stories from Greek mythology, told as if they were happening today”.
What Pilot Theatre’s production shares is both modernity and rich imagination in the storytelling, in this case the story of Ella Grey (Grace Long), who was adopted at the age of two and dreams of Orpheus singing to her in the company of her biological parents.
Ella prefers to spend her days and nights with Claire (Olivia Onyehara), her intense best friend since she was four, and Claire’s more open parents, with their baked aubergine suppers and ultra-comfy, tweedy sofas from a Scottish cottage industry. They understand her better, she protests.
Studying Eng Lit etc at A-level, they hook up regularly by the Northumbrian coast with Sam (Amonik Melaco), with his perfectly manicured eyebrows and far from perfect attitude towards young women; the more sensitive birdwatcher Jay (good name for a birdwatcher, Jonathan Iceton) and the ever-curious-to-experiment Angeline (Beth Crame, outstanding).
Craving a feeling of belonging, Ella is ever more drawn to Orpheus, represented here by a silhouetted figure with a crown of twigs behind white curtaining, by distant song and music too. Only she hears the voice at first, but gradually…well, that would be telling.
The content warning serves as a spoiler alert of her death, represented at the sea’s edge by her vintage dress, leaving so many questions to be answered for her friends, audience and Orpheus alike in Act Two.
Designer Verity Quinn switches the colour scheme for the two circular mounds that serve as beds and rocks on the beach from white to funereal black, accompanied by the squawk of a murder of crows and even a crow in the twig head gear worn by Claire.
All the while, Adam P McCready’s all-pervasive sound design (water, water everywhere), Chris Davey’s lighting and especially Si Cole’s video designs on the white backdrop give the atmosphere psychological depths.
Most evocative of all are the compositions of Emily Levy, whose programme note talks of her starting points of “voice (spoken and sung), folk song, and the crossover point where naturally occurring sound morphs into music”. Her songs “pass through and between the performers”, beautifully, spellbindingly so, and they evoke the mystical North East as much as The Unthanks do.
The links with the Orpheus and Eurydice of yore grow ever clearer in song and storytelling alike, as the tragedy and pain of human fallibility, the impossibility of immortality, heighten once in the underworld, but come the finale, Almond and Cooper still allow teenage dreams to be so hard to beat as new worlds beckon for Ella’s friends.
Musician Zak Younger Banks rightly joins the cast on stage to take a bow: thoroughly deserved for his vital contribution.
Performances: York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.Hull Truck Theatre, March 5 to 9, 7.30pm; 2pm Wednesday & Saturday matinees.Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Wise Children artistic director Emma Rice. Picture: Carmel King
WISE Children director Emma Rice has an admission to make ahead of Blue Beard’s arrival at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday.
“I love fairy tales, but I’ve actually never liked the story of Blue Beard,” she says. “Not wanting to add to the number of dead women scattered throughout our literature and media, I have always avoided the gruesome tale.
“However, haunted by the regular and painful chime of murdered woman in the news, I woke one morning with the story knocking powerfully at my dreams. I pulled my copy from the shelves and, with some trepidation, unlocked the door of Blue Beard’s castle.”
Emma thought Blue Beard was a story of controlling women, telling them off for asking questions and being curious. “But something changed a couple of years ago, and the story started to nag at me,” she says.
“What I found hidden in those pages was a story not about dead women but about vibrant, flawed, joyful living ones. Here was a story about female friendship, intellect and survival. It’s also a story in which, by working together, the aggressor is vanquished.
“And this is precisely why I want to tell Blue Beard now. In my middle years I want to join forces with those I love and take down the ones who threaten us. I, for one, have had enough, and for Zara Aleena, Jack Taylor, Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman, Daniel Whitworth, Sarah Everard and the thousands and thousands of others who have died at the hands of violent men – Blue Beard is my defiant and hopeful answer.”
Emma had become more and more haunted by “the regular chime of women being attacked, murdered and abused”. “Sarah Everard’s shocking murder and the ensuing chaos of her vigil captured the public’s imagination,” she says. “However, for me, it was the murder of Zara Aleena that really brought home my anger and made me think about adapting Blue Beard.
“She was just walking home. A week later, her family, friends, and people she would never know, met at the spot where she was killed and walked her memory home. This was the moment that I knew I wanted to walk Blue Beard’s victim’s home. I wanted to use my craft, my platform, and my experience to make a small difference.”
“I want the production to seduce with high comedy, tragedy, magic, romance and just a sprinkle of spine-tingling horror,” says director Emma Rice. Picture: Steve Tanner
Emma realised she wanted to tell this story, not to understand or excuse Blue Beard, but to breathe life into the women he tried to control. “I wanted to express not just the rage, grief and heartbreak so many of us feel at lives cut short, but also to celebrate brilliant living women in all their wild and surprising glory,” she says.
“So, my version of Blue Beard is very definitely about the women, about celebrating women and about saying enough is enough! We will not be afraid anymore.”
Adapted for the stage by Emma, Blue Beard carries the weight and power of a classic drama, she contends. “It’s almost Shakespearean and most definitely Greek in structure; I hope audiences will feel entertained, moved and transported.
“We found the subject matter very powerful in rehearsals and there have been lots of laughter and tears. I hope audiences will share the joy, the darkness, the fury and the hope. It certainly won’t be boring!”
Blue Beard, Emma’s fifth show for Wise Children, finds her returning to her roots at Cornwall’s now disbanded Kneehigh Theatre, where she specialised in folk tales before her brief encounter as the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe.
“After the shared trauma of lockdown and, in its wake, the long haul of getting back into the world, it felt like the right time to go back to my roots. ‘Wonder tales’ (as I like to call them) are an enduring source of inspiration for me,” she says.
“Magical and universal, they are ripe for re-interpretation and reinvention. They challenge and delight in equal measure and allow me to explore complex and important themes without having to be literal or naturalistic. They lend themselves to music and movement and I love them! With Blue Beard, I am back in my theatrical element.”
Given the themes of male violence and control, can York audiences expect a challenging evening? “Well, yes – in some way,” says Emma. “Our production does not shy away from violence and its devasting effect, but it is also hopeful and empowering.
Wise Children in a scene from Emma Rice’s Blue Beard, heading to York Theatre Royal from Tuesday. Picture: Steve Tanner
“I don’t think audiences will come away thinking everything’s awful and it’s never going to change. Instead, I want people to look these issues squarely in the eye and think: ‘right, that’s it. The world does not have to be like this, and I feel inspired to do something about it’.
“It’s also worth saying that I’m not a ‘naturalistic’ director. We use lots of different storytelling techniques to give the subject layers and nuance. This means a violent act could feature on stage as a dance, or a song. It won’t be graphic and unpleasant. Sometimes violence is suggested, sometimes it is shown in a metaphorical way and, at the end, we have a huge, bloody real life struggle.”
Although the underlying themes are urgent and dark, Emma’s show is not all darkness by any means. Blue Beard pulses with stylish theatricality, gritty reality and genuine emotion,” she says. There’s also comedy. Katy Owen, an actor I’ve worked with for many years, is one of the most brilliant comic actors working today, and she plays a nun at the Convent of the Fearful, F****d and Furious – so you can imagine where that goes!
“Using music, dance, and storytelling, I want the production to seduce with high comedy, tragedy, magic, romance and just a sprinkle of spine-tingling horror. It’s a blockbusting rollercoaster!”
As a practitioner of ‘devised theatre’, Emma likes to work closely with a composer throughout the rehearsal process, shaping, refining and reworking the music as the production develops.
“Music is shot through this magical tale,” she says. “I’m working with my longtime friend and collaborator Stu Barker, who I also worked with on Brief Encounter, Tristan & Yseult, and many, many more.
“Stu is a composing genius, who knows just when a song, a sting or an underscore is needed. I’m particularly loving working on this show because almost all my actors are also musicians. This means the music comes straight out of the heart of the show: it’s all performed live by this incredibly talented ensemble of actor-musicians.
“They jump seamlessly between playing and acting, and I marvel at their talent. The songs are dynamite, and I go to sleep with them running through my head and wake up singing them.”
“This is certainly the most ambitious piece of writing I have ever done,” says Emma Rice of her script for Blue Beard. Picture: Steve Tanner
In Emma’s account of the fairytale, Blue Beard is a magician, requiring actor Tristan Sturrock, Emma’s long-term collaborator, to work with several magicians in preparation for the show.
“He can now make coins vanish and cards appear, cut ladies in half and throw knives. It has been brilliant fun and creates fantastic ‘old school’ entertainment,” she says.
“I decided to make my Blue Beard a magician because it felt like a funny and surprising way to explore themes of lies, control and violence. The glamour of the magician’s assistant, mixed with the casual misogyny of these enduring acts, creates a heady cocktail which is the perfect match for Blue Beard.”
After adapting three novels, Angela Carter’s Wise Children, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights for Wise Children productions, Emma has created her own version of Blue Beard.
“The piece has taken shape slowly, as I’ve been working on this project for over two years, and it has been a joyful and surprising path to this place,” she says. “But it’s certainly no less complicated than adapting, because, although I could have chosen to write about anything, I seem to have chosen something quite complex!
“We have three narratives running through the piece: the magical world of Blue Beard, a modern world where we hear the story of the Lost Brother and Sister, and then there’s a framing narrative, set in the extraordinary world of the Convent of the Fearful, F****d and Furious.”
Workshops have allowed Emma to explore these three worlds with her actors and musicians. “The narrative threads intertwine to bring meaning and perspective to the Blue Beard legend. It’s a tricky structure but one that pays great dividends,” she says.
“I’ve relished taking charge of the material and this is certainly the most ambitious piece of writing I have ever done. It feels great to be pushing myself artistically – and yet still allowing myself to be just a little bit silly.”
Blue Beard’s tour takes in Theatre Royal Bath, HOME Manchester, the Lyceum in Edinburgh, Birmingham Rep and Battersea Arts Centre, as well as York Theatre Royal. “I love touring!” says Emma.
“With Blue Beard, I am back in my theatrical element,” says writer-director Emma Rice of Wise Children’s premiere. Picture: Steve Tanner
“I look forward to the food and architecture in Bath, the cool shops in Manchester, the museums in York, the magnificent natural beauty of Edinburgh, the Bullring in Birmingham and the fabulous moody and smoke-damaged Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre.
“Four of our tour venues – Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Birmingham – are co-producers on the show, meaning not only have they helped to finance it, but, more importantly, they have brought all their skills and experiences to the creation of the show, helping us to make something more wonderful, and better resourced, than we could have done alone.
“It’s such a hard time for theatres, but these particular venues have all been superstars, backing us, believing in us, and making it possible for us to bring this show to their audiences.”
Emma has celebrated five years of Wise Children by opening a new venue, The Lucky Chance, in Frome, Somerset, renovating and transforming the early 20th century Methodist Chapel into the company’s creation space and base for their training programmes.
“It’s been wonderful. In the true sense of the word,” she says, after the move from Bristol. “I begin to realise that this has always been my dream: to create a home for the work and the people that make it. The Lucky Chance is a place to create, to party, to take shelter in and to return to.
“It gives Wise Children roots and a beautiful space to welcome our diverse community of friends, audiences, neighbours and students alike. I couldn’t be prouder or happier. It’s called The Lucky Chance because that is exactly what it is.”
Wise Children presents Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, except next Sunday and Monday; 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 7.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Wise Children’s Blue Beard: the back story
BLUE Beard the Magician makes hearts flutter and pupils dilate. With a wink, a stroke and a flick, things just seem to vanish. Cards, coins, scarves…and women. When someone tells you not to look, open the bloody door, advises Wise Children’s world premiere, adapted and directed by artistic director Emma Rice.
Emma brings her brand of theatrical wonder to this beguiling, disturbing tale with her signature sleight of hand to explore curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance, all through an intoxicating lens of music, wit and tender truth.
Artistic director Emma Rice outside Wise Children’s new venue, The Lucky Chance, in a former Methodist Chapel at Frome, Somerset. Picture: Carmel King
