Angeline Morrison: Exploring traditional song with curiosity
SEEKING to make the most of the extra day in this Leap Year? Head to the National Centre for Early Music, in York, tonight to discover why the Guardian picked Angeline Morrison’s The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs Of Black British Experience (Topic Records) as the number one folk album of 2022.
Birmingham-born, Cornwall-based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Morrison explores traditional song with reverence, love and curiosity, a handmade sonic aesthetic and a feeling for the stories of ordinary human lives. York singer-songwriter Holly Taymar supports at 7.30pm.
Kabantu: Expansive sonic arsenal
Tomorrow night, Kabantu “celebrate the space where different cultures meet” in their 7.30pm NCEM concert. Their name means “of the people”, stemming from the South African philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am who I am because of who we all are”.
In the line-up are Katie Foster, violin, whistling, vocals;Eddie Ogle, guitar, vocals; Ali McMath, double bass, didgeridoo, banjo, vocals,andDelia Stevens, percussion, vocals.
Kabantu’s musicians wield an expansive sonic arsenal. Originally classically trained, they draw on an intricate palette of colours curated from their own wide listening to collaboratively write original music influenced by folk music from around the globe. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Neil McDermott’s Milo Tindle, left, and Todd Boyce’s Andrew Wyke in Anthony Shaffer’s thriller Sleuth, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
AMID the multitude of musicals, concerts and comedians, the arrival of a ‘straight play’ is always welcome at the Grand Opera House, especially when it is such a gem.
Hidden gem, hopefully not, although Monday’s audience was not of the full variety, and word of mouth as much this review will be needed to spread the word.
Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer’s 1970 “thriller about thrillers”, received the Tony Award for Best Play, its Broadway stars, Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter, picking up the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.
The darkly psychological play was adapted for feature films in 1972 and 2007, the first starring Michael Caine as hairdresser Milo Tindle opposite Laurence Olivier’s detective novelist Andrew Wyke. Caine would then take on the older role in 2007, joined by Jude Law’s Tindle.
Star quality, in other words. Make that soap star quality in the case of the 2024 touring production under the Bill Kenwright umbrella. Todd Boyce, formerly “notorious” Coronation Street baddie Stephen Reid, plays Wyke opposite Neil McDermott, once EastEnders’ Ryan Molloy, as Tindle.
Todd Boyce as detective novelist and complex game player Andrew Wyke in Sleuth. Picture: Jack Merriman
Twelve-year runs in the West End and on Broadway are testament to Sleuth’s appeal to theatregoers and devotees of the national pastime of amateur sleuthing alike. Add the directorial elan of Rachel Kavanaugh and it still works waspishly, wittily, wonderfully well.
In his grand Wiltshire manor house, Boyce’s wealthy, erudite, insufferable author Wyke is writing his latest St John Lord Merridew mystery. In country suit and tie, he looks and sounds very pleased with himself, awaiting the arrival of a young man of Italian parentage, McDermott’s Milo Tindle.
Ever the devious novelist keen to toy with his audience, Wyke is in the mood for point scoring/mischief making/playing games to match the automata, inventions and games that populate his study in Julie Godfrey’s classically English yet somewhat creepy design. Soon it transpires that Tindle wants to marry Wyke’s heavy-spending, lavish-lifestyle wife, Marguerite. Let the fun and gamesmanship begin in a battle of wills and wits.
McDermott’s Tindle appears to be drawn all too easily into the web of Boyce’s cynical Wyke, dressing up as a clown to stunt the burglary of Marguerite’s jewellery that will fund Marguerite’s expensive tastes and be covered by an insurance claim, but never judge a detective novel by its cover or indeed a novelist by his front.
The sudden appearance of Wyke’s gun changes the playful tone to deathly serious, but how can we be sure what is real and imaginary in his mind games or in what we are seeing?
Sleuth director Rachel Kavanaugh. Picture: United Agents
Rather than giving the game away, let’s say twists, turns and surprises plenty are in store in Act Two, after speculative interval chatter over what might ort might not be going on. Inspector Doppler will appear to make his uncoventional enquiries, later joined by the noises off of Detective Sergeant Tarrant and Police Constables.
Who is one step ahead: Wyke, Tindle or the audience? Not telling. Who’s bluffing? Not telling! Who’s on superb form? Director and cast alike, so too sound designer Andy Graham and lighting designer Tim Oliver.
Boyce and McDermott delight in Shaffer’s wit and authorial chicanery, his turn of phrase and unpredictable humour, his love of the thriller and the craft of writing. Do not let Sleuth slip by this week; it is one of those nights of clever, smart, stylish theatre that makes you love the artform.
The Jolly Jack Tar automata may have the last laugh on stage, but you will be the one wreathed in smiles as you leave the theatre, so glad to have experienced such an intriguing, criminally good drama.
Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Berwick Kaler’s dame Dotty Dullaly in his last pantomime, 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 of getting away with complete nonsense” on the York stage, but there could yet be one final show.
“It has crossed my mind to maybe do a one-off performance as a thank-you, a show of appreciation to the staunch fans of our pantomime,” says Berwick.
Most likely it would be held at the Grand Opera House, host to the Kaler panto for the past three winters.
“I don’t want to say too much but the farewell has been handled wrongly,” says Berwick. “I’ll be 78 later this year [October 31], I’m ready to retire, but I would like to have made the decision in a better way.”
A seven-minute standing ovation had concluded the final night of Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse – written and directed by and starring the dowager dame as ever – but ticket sales for the December 9 to January 6 run had been underwhelming, even prompting a discounted price campaign.
“All those panto companies in the business, they need to make money,” acknowledges Berwick. “But I just thought, after the reception from the audience to that last show, which was totally amazing…
“…I’ve always said that every show I’ve done was ‘rubbish’, but that standing ovation, I don’t know if they knew something that night.
“I know it can’t go on forever. It can’t. I’ve not spoken anyone apart from [UK Productions managing director] Martin Dodds, who rang to let me know, so I’ve kept it to myself for a week.
“What I don’t want is for us to continue and for me to find that my energy levels – which were as good as ever for Robinson Crusoe – were suddenly not there. I smoke, I drink, I’m lucky to have got to the age I have!”
The last gang show: Martin Barrass, left, dame Berwick Kaler, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard and AJ Powell promoting Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouseoutside the Grand Opera House, York.Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
That thought would seem to rule out any suggestion of a move for Kaler and co to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre for winter 2024, in favour of a farewell one-nighter.
“I’ve had a pacemaker for eight years,” says Berwick, who also had a double heart bypass operation in July 2017. “I wanted to get out of hospital the day after the pacemaker was fitted. They said ‘No’, but I did leave the next day!
“I’m just sorry that I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to our most wonderful audiences, to say ‘thank you’ on my part and everyone in the panto gang’s part too. Now it’s about just getting used to looking after my two dogs on my own in Acomb.”
And now, the end is here, the final curtain falling after panto producers UK Productions decided not to retain the services of veteran dame Berwick, who had transferred across the city after 40 years at York Theatre Royal to stage Dick Turpin Rides Again and subsequently Old Granny Goose and Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse.
“I would love to thank everyone in York for giving me a career that would not have gone on this length of time without their support, because every minute I’ve been on stage I’ve just bounced off the audience’s energy, and I’m so grateful for that,” says Berwick.
“When we went to the Grand Opera House, it continued to be ‘the York pantomime’, and that’s a reputation I hope will go on.”
Exiting panto stage left too will be Kaler’s “loyal gang”: 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.
Thanking his co-stars for “putting up with me for so many years”, Berwick says: “I don’t know why UK Productions, even if they didn’t want me anymore, wouldn’t want to keep David, the best villain in the country, the amazing Suzy, Martin and AJ.”
Born in Sunderland, Berwick moved to London in his teenage years to be a painter and decorator, but the acting bug bit. Initially, in pantomime Berwick took to the dark side as a villain but 1977 found him donning his wig as Ugly Sister Philomena in Cinderella at the Theatre Royal after playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that summer.
This would be the last time: Berwick Kaler’s dame Dotty Dullaly in familiar rudimentary wig and workman’s boots with contrasting laces in Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
He would go on to play dame, write the script, ignore conventional plot lines, ad lib ad nauseam and direct “the rubbish”, year after year, bringing him the Freedom of the City, an honorary doctorate from the University of York and a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Great British Pantomime Awards.
“I came to York, not known to the Theatre Royal audience, but the thing is, they take a comic actor to their heart and that was case with me,” he says.
He retired once… “Don’t forget, when I announced my retirement from the Theatre Royal, I was ready to retire. It was that thing of marking 40 years.”
He soon regretted that decision, even more so after writing, co-directing and appearing on screen in the 2019 panto, Sleeping Beauty, and particularly so after the Theatre Royal decided to part with the Kaler gang to make way for a new partnership with Evolution Pantomimes.
The invitation to take up a three-year contract at the Grand Opera House brought about his comeback in 2021, but his finale to his last interview with The Press turned out to be prescient.
“I’m not going to announce my retirement. I’ll just go quietly, whenever. I’ve had my big send-off already [after 40 years at the Theatre Royal],” he mused last December.
“When they announce the next Grand Opera House pantomime, it will either be with us or without us.”
The reality is, “without us”, but with a new “star casting” instead for Beauty And The Beast’s run from December 7 to January 5 2025, with tickets on sale from Monday, March 11 at 4pm at atgtickets.com/york.
As for that Berwick Kaler farewell show, watch this space.
ROB Auton, York stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returns north from London with his tenth themed solo show.
After the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, Rob turns the spotlight on himself, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis in The Rob Auton Show.
“The first one I ever did was The Yellow Show, though I think I should have done a show called The Rob Auton Show at the start, not when I’m scraping the barrel for a title!” he says, ahead of tonight’s(28/2/2024) gig at The Crescent, York, with further Yorkshire shows this week in Hull tomorrow, Leeds on Friday and Hebden Bridge on Saturday.
“But having done a show about crowds, I thought ‘it’s time to turn the mirror on me’, and I’ve moved far enough on from childhood and university days to have plenty in my rear-view mirror and feel mature enough to look back on.”
Rob built up the show’s content over 35 work-in-progress shows all over Wales and at last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe. “The reason I love doing those shows is you’ve got to get the roughest one out of the way as early as possible, starting out last January. You’re listening for the reaction, for someone to prick a hole in the black piece of paper for the first glint of light to shine through,” he says.
“I was playing Corby, sitting in the dressing room, a bit worried, when suddenly I thought of something, and in the show that became the one moment where they laughed.”
The subject: “Remembering when my family and I went to Lightwater Valley [the adventure park at North Stainley, near Ripon] in 1997…on the day Diana died.”
Rob relishes putting a show together. “I just love the craft, and that’s why I love doing a daily podcast. I like to sit down and work on something, crafting it, rather than having it handed to me on the plate,” he says.
“For the work-in-progress shows I was picking out moments from my childhood: first memory, first girlfriend, first job, and what I’m finding is that when I speak of my first memory, of the footstool in my granny and grandpa’s house, it makes people connect with their own memories. That’s where the gold lies because they can then relax into the show.”
Memories within a family can differ. “I’d say things to my parents that I remembered happening in my life, but they’d say they didn’t recall them!” says Rob, who grew up in Barmby Moor.
Breaking (but not actually) breaking his duck: York comedian Rob Auton making his Edinburgh Fringe debut with The Yellow Show in 2012
What’s more, “there’s that thing with a story that it changes every time you tell it, and then how do you explain what the brain lets in, something that’s said and then stays with you for years?”
Better out, than in, as the saying goes. “Just vocalising all these thoughts that have been rattling around my head for years feels really good – and how strange some of them are,” says Rob.
“Going back to that footstool – made from orange and black plastic weaved material – I don’t know why it’s such a specific memory, but then there are the emotions that go with it, being a grandchild in the room, feeling warm and secure.”
Tapping into emotions is the key, Rob believes. “I’m massively into the ethos that if you can make people feel something, they will remember it. Maybe make them feel optimistic. That’s my goal,” he says.
A graphic designer by training, at Northumbria University, with a past in thinking too far outside the box in the London advertising industry, Rob has a way with a ballpoint pen as much as words, often combining the two in his satirical or surrealist poster prints (on sale at £15 a pop post-show, along with assorted books full of Auton philosophy, poetry and pictures and new I’m Here For The Human Experience T-shirt).
The visual is important to Rob, but so too is the visual in the verbal. “Totally! It’s that thing of painting pictures in words and using words as efficiently as possible, dropping things into people’s heads that aren’t there already, doing that in a specific way and in the exact words that come into my head,” he says.
“Neil Young talks about being like a transistor radio, picking up things like antennae do, and then giving them to the world. You have to be alert to capture it, and I’m definitely in the market for picking up new ideas every day. That’s how I make a living, taking things I hear and working them into the show.”
Coming next from Rob will be the Eyes Open And Shut Show, now being knocked into shape for this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe. “When I start working on something new, it’s like I have a bell in my head that goes off,” he says. “Your brain morphs into something else and becomes alert to what you’re on the lookout for: new things, trying to make something fresh and interesting.
“That’s what’s exciting about doing shows, stepping into that arena where anything can happen. I just try to stay faithful to the fact that people want to see that risk: the knife edge of something being funny or not. I’ll always take that risk.”
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; Hebden Bridge Trades Club, March 2, doors 7.30pm, sold out.
Occupation: London-based York cult comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, illustrator and 2014 Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence.
Raised: Barmby Moor.
Educated: Pocklington schooldays; York College; Northumbria University, Newcastle.
First job: “The Crab Cake Kid”/kitchen worker in York restaurant at 16.
First job after university: Graphic designer for advertising firm in London.
First stand-up gig: 2008.
Edinburgh Fringe headline debut: The Yellow Show, 2012.
Shows: The Yellow Show; The Sky Show; The Face Show; The Water Show; The Sleep Show; The Hair Show; The Talk Show; The Time Show; The Crowd Show; The Rob Auton Show (sold-out month-long 2023 Edinburgh Fringe run; Soho Theatre, London, main house, January 22 to 27; now on tour, culminating in Machynlleth Comedy Festival show in Wales on May 6).
Accolade: Won Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe at Edinburgh in August 2013, aged 30. The joke? “I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”
Appeared on: The End Of The F***ing World (Netflix/Channel 4); Miracle Workers (TBS); The Russell Howard Hour (Sky One); Cold Feet (ITV); Random Acts (Channel 4); Stand-Up Central With Rob Delaney (Comedy Central); Auton clip went viral with more than 11 million views on Facebook alone. Look out for cameo in latest series of Rose Matafeo’s Starstruck (BBC One).
On the radio: Stewart Lee: Unreliable Narrator (BBC Radio 4); Front Row (BBC Radio 4); Sara Cox Show (BBC Radio 2);Jonathan RossShow (BBC Radio 2); Craig Charles (BBC Radio 6 Music) and Afternoon Edition with Nihal Arthanayake (BBC Radio 5 Live).
Poetry collective: Member of Bang Said The Gun, stand-up poetry collective founded by Dan Cockrill and Martin Galton.
Podcast: The Rob Auton Daily Podcast, since 2020. Gold winner for Best Daily Podcast at 2020 British Podcast Awards. Two million listeners.
More podcasting: Chief squirrel correspondent on Shaun Keaveny’s new podcast Daily Grind.
Books: Three collections of writing and drawing, Take Hair, Petrol Honey and In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh, for Burning Eye Books; I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things, poetic prose, short stories and ballpoint pen drawings detailing and celebrating everyday wonders, for HarperCollins’ Mudlark, 2021.
Spoken word album: At Home With Rob, on Scroobius Pip’s record label Speech Development Records.
Coming next: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, Assembly Roxy, Upstairs, July 31 to August 25, 2.15pm. Box office: assemblyfestival.com.
“This is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says Rob. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut. After writing ten shows on specific themes, I wanted to think about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.”
Alex Hamilton: Scottish guitarist plays Ryedale Blues Club gig at Milton Rooms, Malton
BLUES guitars, psychological bunny puppetry, mountain films, sci-fi theatre, paranormal investigations and explosive dance promise out-of-this-world cultural experiences, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Alex Hamilton Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
GLASWEGIAN guitarist Alex Hamilton (formerly Lewis Hamilton) has been part of the British blues/rock scene since 2010. Parading a playing style that recalls Robben Ford and Matt Scofield, he released his debut album, Gambling Machine, at 18, winning the Scottish New Music Award for Jazz/Blues album in 2012.
Further albums Empty Roads, Ghost Train, Shipwrecked and On The Radio have followed. Hamilton makes his return to Malton in a trio with his father, Nick Hamilton, on bass and Ian Beestin on drums. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
George Green in Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit
New play of the week in York: Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
YORK company Foxglove Theatre 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, wherein a brave bunny wakes up lost in a murky forest determined to find her way home to Mumma.
Blending puppetry and visual effects, George Green’s performance explores the psychological damage that develops from even the smallest mishandlings of our childhood selves. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for 1812 Youth Theatre’s production of Tuesday at Helmsley Arts Centre
When Tuesday is on a Friday and Saturday: 1812 Youth Theatre in Tuesday, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7.30pm
AN ordinary Tuesday turns really, really weird when the sky over the school playground suddenly rips open in Alison Carr’s funny and playful play Tuesday. Pupils and teachers are sucked up to a parallel universe as a new set of people rain down from above. ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ must come together to work out what is going on and how to return things to how they were.
Carr combines “a little bit of sci-fi and a lot of big themes”: friendship, family, identity, grief, responsibility – and what happens when an unexpected event turns the world upside down. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Banff Mountain Film Festival: Visiting York Barbican on world tour on Friday
Film event of the week: Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, Red Film Programme, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
EXPERIENCE a night of thrilling adventure – up on the big screen. The Banff Mountain Film Festival features a new collection of short films filled with extreme journeys, untamed characters and captivating cinematography.
Join the world’s top adventure filmmakers and thrill-seekers as they climb, ski, paddle and ride into the wildest corners of the planet. Prize giveaways are promised too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Back on the Chain Gang: Miles Salter, second left, and his York band play Ampleforth Village Hall for the second time
Ryedale gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, Ampleforth Village Hall, near Helmsley, Saturday, 7.30pm
YORK band Miles and The Chain Gang return to Ampleforth Village Hall by popular demand after a first outing there last summer. Expect rock’n’roll, acoustic songs, new wave, soul and country, plus Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash covers.
Their latest digital single, the country-tinged Raining Cats And Dogs, is sure to feature in the set by Miles Salter, guitar and vocals, Mat Watt, bass, Steve Purton, drums, and Charlie Daykin, keyboards. Tickets: 07549 775971.
Yvette Fielding: Leading the paranormal investigations in the Most Haunted stage show at the Grand Opera House, York
Paranormal show of the week: Most Haunted: The Stage Show, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
YVETTE Fielding, “the first lady of the paranormal”, joins Karl Beattie, producer and director of the Most Haunted television series, in the investigative team to take Sunday’s audience on “the darkest, most terrifying journey of your life”, followed by a question-and-answer session.
In a city bursting at the seams with ghost stories and walks, Fielding and Beattie present Most Haunted’s All-Time Top Ten Scares, complete with unseen video footage from haunted castles, manor houses, hospitals and prisons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Diversity: Dancing around the Supernova at the Grand Opera House, York, for two nights
Dance show of the week: Diversity in Supernova, Grand Opera House, York, March 7 and 8, 7.45pm; Harrogate Convention Centre, Saturday, 3.30pm; Hull Connexin Live, April 7, 2.30pm
2009 Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity return to York on their biggest tour yet to stage Supernova, devised by founder Ashley Banjo. More than 120,000 tickets have sold for more than 90 dates in 40 cities and towns through 2023 and 2024, with both Grand Opera House performances down to the last few tickets.
Diversity will be supporting the Trussell Trust, the anti-poverty charity, inviting audience members to bring food donations to place in collection points. Cash donations in buckets are welcome too. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, connexinlivehull.com.
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
Gig announcement of the week: Suzi Quatro, York Barbican, November 15
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 as the only Yorkshire venue.
Born in Michigan, Quatro flew to England in 1971 to work with songwriting duo Chinn and Chapman, chalking up chart toppers with Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You, as well as co-writing Babbies & Bairns with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp. Tickets will go on sale from 10am on Friday at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/360060579D80156E.
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.
