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Stuart Vincent graduates to lead role of Amir in The Kite Runner’s redemptive tale of friendship across cultures and continents

Tiran Aakel, left, Stuart Vincent and Amar Aggoun in a kite-flying scene in The Kite Runner. Pictures: Barry Rivett

STUART Vincent was three weeks into his cover role on the 2020 tour of The Kite Runner when the Covid pandemic sent the world into lockdown.

“The tour got cancelled, including the possibility of going to America,” he recalls. “But then I was contacted in December, when they asked if I was available and if I’d like to come back for the new tour. I said I’d love to try out for one of the lead roles – how about Amir?”

Stuart auditioned successfully, graduating from understudying the villainous Assef to playing Amir on a tour that began in late-February and brings Californian university professor and playwright Matthew Spangler’s stage adaptation to York Theatre Royal for the first time since October 2014 next week.

Based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel, this haunting tale of friendship spans cultures and continents as it follows Amir’s journey to confront his past and find redemption. That past was in Afghanistan when the country was on the verge of war and best friends Amir and Hassan were soon to be torn apart on a beautiful afternoon in Kabul, when a terrible incident at a kite-flying tournament would shatter their lives forever.

Giles Croft’s production is as resonant as ever, given the fracturing of the overheated political world and its clashing cultures. “It really is prescient, and we get a beautiful response every time we step out on stage,” says Stuart. “The roars we receive, the standing ovations.”

The innocence of playing cowboys, of sharing mythical stories, will disappear as the boys – played by adults – become entangled in a web of betrayal and guilt in a male-dominated world of masters and servants, bullies and victims, where Amir’s blossoming talents as a writer are not appreciated by his macho father, Baba.

Reconciliation and redemption will come eventually, but what a terrible price has been paid, as Stuart’s Amir leads the story between his past and haunted present.

Childhood friends: Stuart Vincent’s Amir, left, and Yazdan Qafouri’s Hassan in The Kite Runner

“The character of Amir is difficult because he’s trying to make the right decisions, but they backfire on him, and he must then try to make things good again,” he says.

“As the audience follows his journey, they really get involved, especially with him talking directly to them over the two and a half hours.

“It’s been a challenge, for sure, with so much storytelling to do. In rehearsal, first of all you have learn all the lines and then there’s the other element of keeping the audience engaged at all times, and as an actor you put so much pressure on yourself to do that.

“But with the trust of the director [Giles Croft] and associate director [Damian Sandys], and the training I’ve been through, all you need to do is tell the story organically and really feel the lines.”

Stuart continues: “You don’t have to have loads of visuals, just fill it with emotion, as the writing paints with imagination, capturing what Afghanistan used to be like, painting that spectacle – how beautiful it once was.”

A sense of impotent rage, despair and frustration grows among audiences every time The Kite Runner goes on tour. “History is always repeating itself, with all these heartbreaking things that are happening in the world. Look back 50 years and you see the same things are happening again, everything that Hosseini’s characters are going through,” says Stuart.

Croft has assembled a multicultural cast. “We understand the issues of immigration and that culture, and that’s why it’s important to tell this story because it’s happening to us all,” says Stuart.

“This is a play for everyone, with so many themes,” says Stuart Vincent

“It may be about different cultures, but this is a play for everyone, with so many themes – love, brotherhood, betrayal, friendship and redemption – that everyone in the audience has been through and can relate to.

“Whether they’ve had a friendship that meant the world to them, or they made mistakes or had to redeem themselves.”

Stuart develops this theme further. “One of the things that I’ve been taught is that we are unique individuals, but at the same time we’re all the same, because we all go through these kinds of emotions. Take away the cultural differences, that’s what we can all relate to: love; how alive you feel, like a kid again sometimes.”

Now 34, Stuart reflects on the lasting impact of childhood friendships. “With those friendships, you have one hell of a wild imagination, with no sense of hazards or warnings,” he says.

“I remember climbing up walls, and standing on the top, fearless, whereas now I think about vertigo. As a child, you have no thoughts of health and safety; in your imagination, one minute you’re a cowboy, the next, an astronaut.

“When I go back to some of the things I did with my friends and my cousins when I was young, I think, ‘I wouldn’t do that now’.”

The Kite Runner, York Theatre Royal, June 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

In Focus: Actor Bhavin Bhatt on playing villainous Assef in The Kite Runner

Bhavin Bhatt’s Assef in The Kite Runner

BHAVIN Bhatt never set out to be an actor. He was just another schoolboy before his acting potential was spotted by a teacher.

“I was 12 or 13 years old and there was an annual Christmas show at my school and people were thinking about auditioning,” he says. “I was umming and aahing when my drama teacher – with whom I’m still in touch – said to me after class, ‘I want you to audition’.

“I did audition and got one of the roles! One of the leads in a cast of about 40. One night the drama teacher and director said they were going to bring in some (acting) agencies because they felt there was a lot of talent there. Luckily enough I got signed up and have been working as an actor ever since.”

Bhavin arrives at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday on the latest British tour of The Kite Runner in the role of Assef, the one that won him the Best Newcomer award at the Asian Media Awards while he was in the West End production.

Bhavin sees Assef as more than the villain of the piece. “When you read the book or the script for the first time, he comes across as a rough-and-tough bully. But the detail, especially in the book, gets inside the mind of a psychopath,” he says.

“As the story goes on, you see all the stages and the full-on psychopath he becomes later on. There are so many nuances and small details that enable you to bring out from your physicality and voice the way you deliver the lines. That makes it so interesting for an actor to play.

“We have managed to add a comedy element into the story, which I think is completely needed,” says Bhavin

“The playwright has been just so genius with the way he’s put everything that’s in the book into the script.”

Bhavin’s first experience of the play was in a smaller role, which meant he saw another actor portraying Assef. Was that a help or a hindrance when he came to play him? Neither, he says. “The person playing the part was great, but when I got the chance to play Assef I chatted with the director and decided to start again from scratch.

“My performance didn’t have to be a copy or based on anyone else’s performance. It was beautiful to go through the rehearsal process, doing your own research.”

Returning for the 2024 tour has seen much the same approach of starting from scratch. This is Bhavin’s first villainous character: fun to play, but the rehearsal process, with the need to ‘get into the mind of a psychopath’, was challenging, he says.

Humour assists Giles Croft’s production, perhaps why it has proved, and is still proving, so popular on tour. “We have managed to add a comedy element into the story, which I think is completely needed,” says Bhavin. “We take audiences on a rollercoaster ride. They’re laughing out loud at one scene and then on the edge of their seat the next.”

Bhavin Bhatt’s Assef and Stuart Vincent’s Amir in The Kite Runner

He is enjoying touring again with The Kite Runner. “It takes you away from home, from family and friends, so you have to adjust as you can. We’re doing seven or eight shows a week, so you have to look after yourself physically and vocally,” he says.

“Every single show we have to keep fresh. It’s interesting as you go up and down the country and see how audiences in different parts of the country react in different ways.”

A previous 2020 tour was cut short by the pandemic lockdown but not before the production had played the Dubai Opera House. “That building was absolutely stunning and the production was received incredibly well there,” says Bhavin.

His pursuit of diverse roles has been, and still can be, difficult, he reveals. “I remember when I was applying to drama schools and the way I was treated wasn’t nice. Some very hurtful and racist comments were made towards me. I have always tried to push for diversity, not just for myself but other people,” he says.

“People opened doors for me, and I would like to leave a legacy of opening doors for other people. It’s been tough but I really hope it’s moving in the right way. I think it is but there’s so much more to be done.”

Interview by Steve Pratt

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Simple8’s “mercifully brief” Moby Dick for pandemic times sails into Theatre Royal

Driven by a vendetta: Guy Rhys’s Captain Ahab in Simple8’s Moby Dick. Picture: Manuel Harlan

MOBY Dick, Herman Melville’s leviathan tale of vengeful whaler versus great white whale, keeps returning to the Yorkshire stage.

Remember Slung Low’s The White Whale on water at Leeds Dock, the one with headphone sets for the audience, in September 2014?

Or John Godber and Nick Love’s version for the John Godber Company, the one with crates and bicycles, in the repurposed dock of Hull’s amphitheatre Stage@TheDock in June 2021?

Now, from Thursday to Saturday, York Theatre Royal plays host to Sebastian Armesto’s adaptation for Simple 8, the indoor one with sea shanties, planks of wood, tattered sheets and a battered assortment of musical instruments.

Why should you see this one? “It’s mercifully brief and means that if you haven’t read the novel you can watch our show and then pretend that you have,” says a droll Sebastian.

“Mercifully brief”? Two hours, including the interval, should you be wondering, as Royal & Derngate artistic director Jesse Jones’s ensemble cast of nine actor-musicians presents “a fun, fast and joyous production that transports you right to the heart of the hunt for the most famous whale on Earth”.

Mirroring whaling voyages, Jones’s ensemble must apply graft, not only conjuring ships, seas, storms and even whales from sparse means, but also playing and singing all the sea shanties live, in the Simple8 house style of “poor theatre” of multiple roles and minimal materials where “everyone does everything”.

Then add the task of taking the nautical indoors as Guy Rhys’s Captain Ahab and the Pequod crew seek vengeance on Moby Dick, the whale responsible for taking his leg.

Sea shanty singing in Simple8’s Moby Dick, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan

“Not only the setting is a challenge, but so is the size of the novel the play is adapted from, the ‘ginormity’ of the beast, the scale of the drama, the sky, the sea, and then there are the massive themes of the novel,” says Sebastian.

“In taking it indoors, there’s an element within it that suits the forced imaginative leap, where the suspension of disbelief inherent in theatre is directly within the fabric of the novel too.

“In the book, there are chapters and chapters about what a whale is – its bulk, its history – so it’s a novel that’s trying to devise meaning for everything. The whaling industry. Ahab’s character. Whale behaviour.  The existential crisis.”

Sebastian continues: “The idea that you have to do it with nothing on stage sort of aligns with the novel’s struggle with itself. That’s my justification for not doing it in a dry dock, though I might enjoy that.

“I’ve seen a Norwegian production with puppets, a dance production, John Huston’s [1956] movie starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles: whalers in pursuit of Moby Dick to their eventual demise, just as it will destroy you in pursuit of it. I’m sure it’s folly to try to adapt such books, but it’s also part of the pleasure.”

Sebastian reckons Melville’s novel is “one of those books that people would rather prefer they didn’t have to read, with its meandering passages”, but nevertheless he has a long association with Moby Dick.

“I adapted it a long time ago, previously completing an adaptation in 2010, but it wasn’t until 2013 that we first staged it, when I directed it,” he recalls.

“I was told that I did turn into Captain Ahab, obsessed with physical movement, to the detriment of everyone else, which doesn’t surprise me – and I apologise for that.”

Guy Rhys’s Captain Ahab, centre, leading his crew on the Pequod in Simple8’s Moby Dick. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Reviving his adaptation for Simple8’s tour, the script has changed, “as it inevitably will because it will never be complete,” he says. “Watching it fires me with more ideas and more things that I can do. This production and the text are evolving: the play is fluid, rather than solid.

“It’s been rewarding to go back to it. There are bits that I had forgotten, parts of the novel too, though in the end, there are things in the re-write that have not made it into the new version on stage for practical reasons.”

Significantly too, the existential fear and threat of the Covid 19 virus, its  enforced lockdowns and resulting isolation, have given new resonance to the psychological and psychiatric impact of an unknown threat in Moby Dick.

“I come back to the initial discussion about putting Moby Dick on stage, being forced to imagine, when even the characters in the book don’t see Moby until the last 15 pages,” says Sebastian.

“Mime is very important to this production, particularly the idea that the actors are collectively committing to something that is completely imaginary, so there’s a lot of very intense physical storytelling, emphasising how they are grappling with something that they don’t fully understand.

“Post-pandemic, everyone has been grappling with something they couldn’t see, didn’t understand and were contained and confined by. That sense of being pursued by an unseen threat, endangering your survival, is really clear post-Moby Dick, with its imprint on other stories, from Joseph Conrad’s novels to Jaws.”

Simple8, in association with the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, present Moby Dick, York Theatre Royal, June 6 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sebastian Armesto: the back story

Sebastian Armesto: Actor, writer and director

Born: June 3 1982. Son of historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

Education: Eton College.

Occupation: Film, television and theatre actor, writer and director.

Acted in high-profile theatre productions in Great Britain, including shows at National Theatre and Royal Court, London.

Writes and directs theatre with Simple 8 company.

Productions include directing and adapting Les Enfants du Paradis; co-writing and directing play based on William Hogarth’s The Four Stages Of Cruelty and new versions of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Moby Dick.

Influence on directing style: 1981 Ashes-winning cricket captain, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Mike Brearley’s book The Art Of Captaincy: What Sport Teaches Us About Leadership.

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Game Of Thrones actor Anton Lesser celebrates the life and work of Laurie Lee in Red Sky At Sunrise at Grand Opera House

Anton Lesser performing Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music, with the musicians of Orchestra of The Swan

AUTHOR Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story will be told in a weave of music and his own words in Red Sky At Sunrise at the Grand Opera House, York, on Sunday night.

Actors Anton Lesser (Endeavour’s Chief Superintendent Bright and Game Of Thrones’ villainous advisor Qyburn) and Charlie Hamblett (from Killing Eve, Ghosts and The Burning Girls) play the role of Laurie Lee, older and younger, along with a rich array of other characters.

Together, they celebrate Lee’s engaging humour, as well as portraying his darker side, in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events. 

Red Sky At Sunrise follows Stroud-born Laurie Lee through his much-loved trilogy, Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment Of War, when Lee famously walked out of the Slad valley one midsummer morning and ended up fighting with the International Brigades against General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War.

“It has been a joy to discover more of Laurie Lee’s sublime writing,” says Anton. “In many ways, his account of what was happening in Spain in the 1930s is prescient of what is playing out now in Europe. 

“There’s a heartbreaking moment when Lee writes: ‘Did we know, as we stood there, our clenched fists raised high, and scarcely a gun between three of us, that we had ranged against us the rising military power of Europe, and the deadly cynicism of Russia? No, we didn’t. We had yet to learn that sheer idealism never stopped a tank’.”

Devised as a show by Judy Reaves, the text by Lee has been adapted by Deirdre Shields, to be accompanied by David Le Page’s musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan.

His programme weaves around Lee’s writing, from the lush Gloucestershire countryside that Lee made famous in Cider With Rosie, to the dry landscapes of Spain, via the music of Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Elgar, Britten, Grainger, Albeniz, Turina and De Falla. Guitarist Mark Ashford will be performing Asturias, Sevilla and Spanish Romance too.

Charlie Hamblett in the role of Laurie Lee, the younger

“To be asked to read great writing, and to read it aloud is a privilege,” says Anton. “To read it aloud supported by magnificent music is something more – I would call it a blessing. The words and the music combine, hopefully deepening and enriching the experience for both audience and practitioners.

“The audience can expect to be taken on a journey – which reflects Laurie’s actual travels from rural Gloucestershire to Spain, but also his inner journey from boyhood to maturity – all in the company of great musicians playing sublime music.”

Recalling Red Sky At Sunrise’s pathway to the stage, Anton says: “When Judy and Deidre were adapting the books for a performance piece, I just remember someone calling me up, saying ‘would you be interested and do you like Laurie Lee?’.

‘I had to say that to my shame I’d never read any Laurie Lee, but I then looked at Cider With Rosie and thought, ‘this is so beautiful’. I asked to be sent what Judy and Deidre had put together and then the first draft.”

Anton had already done Wolf Hall Live, a combination of words and Debbie Wiseman’s music, and events with the Trio Carducci, where he reads letters to accompany the music of composers such as Beethoven and Shostakovich.

Anton met up with producer Judy Reaves and musician David Le Page at Laurie Lee’s pub [The Woolpack Inn] in Slad, in Gloucestershire, whereupon Red Sky At Sunrise was first performed in 2022.

“The reaction has been fantastic because a lot of people, like me, assume they know Laurie Lee’s work or think, ‘I read that at school’, but then find they don’t know the full story behind the books that chart his journey to Spain to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War,” says Anton.

David Le Page: Leading Orchestra of The Swan in Red Sky At Sunrise. Picture: Lucy Barriball

“Red Sky At Sunrise is a really romantic, powerful record of that time, a period before motorised transport was around, where you travelled by horse in his village. So Laurie Lee goes from this bucolic, idyllic childhood to end up in this violent war and then comes back to the village, saying ‘it’s where I want to end my days’.”

Among the highlights so far for Anton have been a sold-out performance at the RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, in May 2023 and an hour-long version at the Chelsea Arts Club, Lee’s “home from home”, attended by Lee’s daughter in April.

“We tweak it a little the more we do it, spotting things that we think will make it better, both the words and the music, and we’ve added projections too,” he says.

“We’re continually layering the evening with more dimensions, not just the words and the music, but to show Lee’s growth as a human being, such as the implications of him going to Spain as a young man, learning a little bit to play the violin, which sustains him en route and then becomes a character in the performance.”

He cherishes each chance to perform Red Sky At Sunrise, feeling a “sweet resonance” with Laurie Lee’s writing. “You just feel so privileged, so blessed, because great text forces you to come up and meet it full on and give of your best.

“As an actor I’ve worked with some great writers but some who are not so great too, where you have to make it more authentic, but with Laurie Lee, you think, ‘I must up my game’, and I just feel inspired and very lucky.”  

Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music, starring Anton Lesser, Charlie Hamblett and Orchestra Of The Swan, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, May 26, 7.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Wonderful opportunity to enjoy the light and dark of poet Harry Baker in Say Owt gig

“I am more fascinated and amazed by the world around me than ever before,” says poet Harry Baker

ONCE the youngest World Poetry Slam champion, Harry Baker has a new poetry collection to spin on his Wonderful tour.

Tonight his 30-date itinerary brings the Bath-born poet, mathematician, stand-up comic and writer to The Crescent, in York, to reflect on “important stuff”, whether hope, dinosaurs or German falafel spoons, as found in Wonderful, published in paperback by Burning Eye Books on May 7.

The “maths-loving, TED-talking, German-speaking, battle-rapping, happy-crying, self-bio-writing unashamed human” releases his signature playfulness and poignancy in new poems about wellies, postcodes, sunflowers, sticky toffee pudding and his favourite German wheat beer.

“After the mental health struggles I shared in my last show, this time around the plan was to have a fun time touring a fun show full of fun poems to celebrate coming out of the other side. But it hasn’t quite worked out like that,” says Harry, who will be a completing a hattrick of appearances at The Crescent.

“For the first time ever, I have been to more funerals than weddings in the last year. I have hit the age where everyone around me is either having babies or talking about having babies or definitely not having babies and found out first-hand how complicated and painful that can be. And yet I am more fascinated and amazed by the world around me than ever before.”

Harry continues: “From the transformational power of documenting moments of everyday joy to the undeniable raw energy of performing a garage song about Greta Thunberg, I am learning more than ever that life can indeed be incredibly hard sometimes, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible.

“If anything, it is the darkness that helps us to appreciate the light, just as it is the puddles that help us to appreciate the wellies.”

As with his Unashamed show in February 2023, Harry is being brought to The Crescent by Say Owt, the York collective of “gobby northern poets” that plays host regularly to slams, workshops, scratches, open-mic nights and stellar spoken-word guests.

“I loved The Crescent so much that I’m coming back,” he says. “Working out where to go on this tour, I knew there was a readymade audience there from the Say Owt shows – they’re a brilliant organisation.”

He thrives on performing in such settings as a Say Owt gig. “Some like to call it ‘slam poetry’ because it sounds more exciting, or ‘spoken word’ because it takes in something more theatrical, but we’ve been sharing words for centuries, whatever you call it. 

“So, bringing words alive in front of an audience has always been important for me. When you see poetry performed, what’s amazing is it can make you laugh, it can make you cry.

“Reading poetry on the page is a very personal experience but hearing poetry being performed feels a very collective experience.”

The Wonderful show will combine joy with sadness. “Poetry is not frightened to be vulnerable, so rather than focusing only on fun things, I’m acknowledging that we have deeper moments and I share these in the poems,” says Harry, who has sought to find silver linings from the pandemic. “There are people I know who died from Covid, so it makes you treasure relationships.”

He continues: “I will always have fun in my shows, highlighting funny things, but I’ve found that people are responding to the things that are more serious and cathartic. Even my favourite stand-up comedians have those moments of rawness.”

Harry writes his poems to be performed out loud. “The first two books came out after tours, so they felt like a transcription of the shows, but this time I’ve written the book first, and the stuff in between the poems will evolve as I perform,” he says. “The new book is like the studio version of an album; the live album will follow on the road!”

Harry is as much a mathematician as a poet, but can he see a connection between the two disciplines? “I used to be massively in denial about this, seeing them as opposite,” he says.

“I loved the definite answers in Maths, that were either right or wrong, and the ambiguity in poems, but actually they’re both trying to work the world out.

“There’s something about the rhythm and rhyme of poetry, slotting the words into the right place, that does feel like mathematics. You can be light and playful but seek to push the form to the limits.”

In the wake of publishing his third volume, Harry reflects: “I think I’ve learned that my poems are snapshots of moments in time that don’t have to solve the world’s problems, but you hopefully make some points within them,” he says.

Those points strike a balance between light and darkness. “One of my all-time favourite lyrics is by Leonard Cohen, where he says, ‘there is a crack, a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in’,” says Harry.

“My first book was called The Sunshine Kid, but when you write with acknowledgement that there is darkness too, it has greater weight. When we share laughter with other people just after crying, it’s about embracing the murkiness, and then we get to appreciate the full richness of joy.”

Say Owt presents Harry Baker: Wonderful, The Crescent, York, May 20, 7.30pm. Box office: thecrescentyork.com

In the words of Harry Baker:

“One thing that I know that I will always find amazing

Is what a thing it is to live a life.

P.S. Let’s also do this loads before we die.”

Harry Baker: back story

Harry Baker: Poet, mathematician, comedian, slam champ and writer

Born: March 19 1992.

Occupation: Poet, mathematician, stand-up comedian, writer and word warrior on UK rap battle scene.

Poetry style: Honest. Heartfelt. Hopeful.

Record breaker: Became youngest ever World Poetry Slam Champion when winning in 2012.

Global impact: Poetry translated into 21 languages.

Social media impact: Reached ten million people on Instagram and TikTok.

Festivals: Played Glastonbury, Latitude and his spiritual home, Greenbelt.

Did you know? Performed on Dubai Opera House bill with poet laureates Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage.

Did you know too? His last gig before Covid lockdown was at The Crescent, York, on March 15 2020,

Talk the talk: On TED.com

Favourite place: On stage.

Regular contributor: BBC Radio 2’s Pause For Thought.

Appeared on: The Russell Howard Hour, as part of comedy-rap-jazz duo Harry and Chris.

Books: The Sunshine Kid, 2014; Unashamed, 2022; Wonderful (Burning Eye Books, May 7  2024).

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when the wonderful and the wicked await. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 21, from The Press

Mikron Theatre cast members Eddie Ahrens, left, Mark Emmon, Georgina Liley and Lauren Robinson: Presenting an outdoor performance of Common Ground at Scarcoft Allotments, York, on Sunday afternoon. Picture: Robling Photography

FROM land access tales to the Yellow Brick Road, wonderful words about wellies to a journey through isolation, show song heights to a soulful heaven, Charles Hutchinson follows the path to cultural discovery.

Touring play of the week: Mikron Theatre in Common Ground, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, May 19, 2pm

ON tour on narrow boat and canal, van and land until October 18, Marsden company Mikron Theatre present Common Ground, writer and lyricist Poppy Hollman’s hike through the history of land access in England, where only eight per cent of land is designated “open country”.

Under the direction of Gitika Buttoo, actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmon tell the tale of the fictional Pendale and District Ramblers as they look forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary walk, but the path has been blocked by the landowner. How will they find their way through? No reserved seating or tickets required; a “pay what you feel” collection will be taken post-show.

Harry Baker: Wonderful words by the slam champ at The Crescent

Spoken word gig of the week: Say Owt presents Harry Baker: Wonderful, The Crescent, York, May 20, 7.30pm

WORLD Poetry Slam champion Harry Baker is a poet, mathematician, stand-up comic and writer who reflects on “important stuff”, whether hope, dinosaurs or German falafel spoons, as found in his new poetry collection, Wonderful, published by Burning Eye this month.

On his 30-date Wonderful tour, the “maths-loving, TED-talking, German-speaking, battle-rapping, happy-crying, self-bio-writing unashamed human” brings his signature playfulness and poignancy to new poems about wellies, postcodes, sunflowers, sticky toffee pudding and his favourite German wheat beer. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Jeanette Hunter: Heading to the dark side as the Wicked Witch in York Musical Theatre Company’s The Wizard Of Oz

Musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in The Wizard Of Oz, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 22 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK stage stalwart Jeanette Hunter will play a villain for the first time next week, starring as the Wicked Witch in York Musical Theatre Company’s The Wizard Of Oz.

Following the Yellow Brick Road will be Sadie Sorensen’s Dorothy, Rachel Higgs’s Scarecrow, Zander Fick’s Tin Man and Daan Janssen’s Lion, while further principal roles will go to Liz Gardner as Glinda, Marlena Kellie as Auntie Em and Martin Hunter as the Wizard. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Miranda Sykes: Songs of isolation, illness and recovery at Black Swan Folk Club

Folk gig of the week: Miranda Sykes, Out Of The Woods Tour, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, May 23, 7.30pm

SHOW Of Hands and Daphne’s Flight member Miranda Sykes promotes her pandemic-scarred March album Out Of The Woods in her debut Black Swan solo gig, showcasing songs that chart her journey through isolation, illness and recovery with the aim of bringing comfort after such turbulent years.

“Life is many faceted; like most people I’ve had good times and hard times,” says the Lincolnshire-born singer, double bass player and guitarist. “I’ve taken some forks in the road I shouldn’t have done and I’ve had some knocks, but it’s all part of who I am now.”  Box office: blackswanfolkclub.org.uk.

Velma Celli’s Show Queen: Celebrating the best of West End and Broadway musical theatre at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Sophie Eleanor

Cabaret celebration of the week: Velma Celli’s Show Queen, York Theatre Royal, May 23, 7.30pm

DRAG diva Velma Celli, the alter ego of York actor Ian Stroughair, goes back to Ian’s roots in Cats, Chicago, Fame and Rent for a new celebration of the best of London’s West End and Broadway musical theatre hits.

The show “takes us to every corner of the fabulous genre, from Kander & Ebb and Lloyd Webber to Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked and Schönberg’s Les Miserables and many more,” says Velma. “Like, more than Six!”. Special guests will be burlesque star Miss Betsy Rose and belting York singer Jessica Steel. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rebecca Ferguson: Final album and tour at 37

Soul gig of the week: Rebecca Ferguson, Heaven Part II Tour, York Barbican, May 24, 7.30pm

LIVERPOOL soul singer and The X Factor alumna Rebecca Ferguson is touring her fifth and final album, Heaven Part II, released last December 12 years to the day since her debut, Heaven.

Working with new contributors and original Heaven writers and producers, Ferguson sings of love, family, joy, liberation and her journey to happiness over the past seven years. She is, however, calling time on recording and touring to “find a way to have a relationship with music which is positive”. Friday’s support acts will be York country singer Twinnie and Eloise Viola. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Anton Lesser in Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music at Grand Opera House, York

Literary event of the week: Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music, Grand Opera House, York, May 26, 7.30pm

AUTHOR Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story is told in a captivating weave of music and his own words in Red Sky At Sunrise, performed by actors Anton Lesser and Charlie Hamblett, accompanied by David Le Page’s musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan.

Together, they celebrate Lee’s engaging humour, as well as portraying his darker side, in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events, tracing Lee’s path through Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment Of War as he ended up fighting with the International Brigades against General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Home Is Where The Heart Is, seascape, by Carolyn Coles, from her exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb

Exhibition launch: Carolyn Coles, Home Is Where The Heart Is, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, May 30 to August 1

CREATING atmospheric, impressionistic and abstract seascapes, South Bank Studios artist Carolyn Coles paints mostly with acrylics on stretched canvasses, using an array of techniques and implements.

Known for evoking emotional responses, Carolyn reflects her love for the Yorkshire landscape, offering a direct response to the feelings and connections to places that feel like home. Everyone is welcome at the 6pm to 9pm launch on May 30, when Carolyn will be happy to answer questions.

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Anton Lesser & Charlie Hamblett combine with Orchestra Of The Swan to tell Laurie Lee’s story in words and music at GOH

Anton Lesser and Orchestra Of The Swan in a performance of Red Sky At Sunrise. Picture: Lucy Barriball

AUTHOR Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story is to be told in a captivating weave of music and his own words in Red Sky At Sunrise at the Grand Opera House, York, on May 26.

Actors Anton Lesser (from Endeavour, Wolf Hall and Game Of Thrones) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, Ghosts and The Burning Girls) play the role of Laurie Lee, older and younger, along with a rich array of other characters.

Together, they celebrate Lee’s engaging humour, as well as portraying his darker side, in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events. 

Actor Charlie Hamblett in the role of Laurie Lee, younger. Picture: Lucy Barriball

Red Sky At Sunrise follows Stroud-born Laurie Lee through his much-loved trilogy, Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment Of War, when Lee famously walked out of the Slad valley one midsummer morning and ended up fighting with the International Brigades against General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War.

Devised as a show by Judy Reaves, the text by Lee has been adapted by Deirdre Shields, to be accompanied by David Le Page’s musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan.

His programme weaves around Lee’s writing, from the lush Gloucestershire countryside that Lee made famous in Cider With Rosie, to the dry landscapes of Spain, via the music of Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Elgar, Britten, Grainger, Albeniz, Turina and De Falla. Guitarist Mark Ashford will be performing Asturias, Sevilla and Spanish Romance too.

David Le Page: Put together the musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan for Red Sky At Sunrise. Picture: Lucy Barriball

Anton Lesser reflects: “It has been a joy to discover more of Laurie Lee’s sublime writing. In many ways, his account of what was happening in Spain in the 1930s is prescient of what is playing out now in Europe. 

“There is a heartbreaking moment when Lee writes: ‘Did we know, as we stood there, our clenched fists raised high, and scarcely a gun between three of us, that we had ranged against us the rising military power of Europe, and the deadly cynicism of Russia? No, we didn’t. We had yet to learn that sheer idealism never stopped a tank’.”

Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music, starring Anton Lesser, Charlie Hamblett and Orchestra Of The Swan, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, May 26. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Guitarist Mark Ashford playing at a Red Sky At Sunrise performance. Picture: Lucy Barriball

In the spotlight: Anton Lesser on Laurie Lee, Red Sky At Sunrise, playing villains, Endeavour and favourite roles

What do you enjoy about Laurie Lee?

“I enjoy a sweet resonance I feel with Laurie Lee’s writing, a kind of recognition of something apparently difficult to access, but which mysteriously becomes available through great storytelling.”

What can the audience expect from Red Sky At Sunrise?

“The audience can expect to be taken on a journey, (which reflects Laurie’s actual travels from rural Gloucestershire to Spain, but also his inner journey from boyhood to maturity), all in the company of great musicians playing sublime music.”

How does performing a combination of words and music work for an actor?

“To be asked to read great writing, and to read it aloud is a privilege. To read it aloud supported by magnificent music is something more – I would call it a blessing. The words and the music combine, hopefully deepening and enriching the experience for both audience and practitioners.”

Can you be carried away by the music?

“Yes, I’m often so carried away by the musicians that I’m a bit of a liability – sometimes needing a bit of a nod or nudge to come in on cue!”

“I enjoy a sweet resonance I feel with Laurie Lee’s writing,” says actor Anton Lesser

You played the villainous advisor Qyburn in the HBO fantasy drama Game Of Thrones. Do you enjoy playing villains?

“It’s not so much that I enjoy playing ‘villains’ – I like to think that I approach every role without limiting their identity to a single label like good or bad – but I think it’s more that those characters tend to be more complex and interesting.”

True or false? When you did your first day’s shoot on Endeavour, Shaun Evans could not stop laughing?

“Yes, Sean did have a problem with me – for some reason in the first episode he couldn’t look at me without laughing. I like to think this was a manifestation of love, respect and huge professional admiration; sadly I suspect it had more to do with the ridiculous hat I was made to wear.”

 On Endeavour, you and Roger Allam were renowned for being cheeky together?

“Roger and I got away with a modicum of bad behaviour simply because we were very old. Two theatre actors in gentle competition for the best ‘light’ or close-up must have been a sad and sorry spectacle, and an example for younger actors how not to behave on set – but it was great fun and all in the best possible taste!”

Favourite roles? 

“My favourite role is usually the one I’m currently working on, but I can point to one or two which I remember as being particularly enjoyable. Feste in Twelfth Night (working with the wonderful Richard Briers), Serge in Art and more recently Benedict in The Two Popes. Vernon Marley in the TV series Better was especially fulfilling – a great character.”

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Ockham’s Razor take Hardy’s fateful tale of Tess to the circus at York Theatre Royal

Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham Razor’s Tess. Picture: Kie Cummings

TESS Of The D’Urbervilles will be Tess at the double in Ockham’s Razor’s circus adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Victorian novel, on tour at York Theatre Royal from May 8 to 11.

Circus performer Lila Naruse will play Memory Tess in tandem with actress Hanora Kamen as Narrator Tess in  Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney’s bold fusion of original text and the physical language of circus that enables the duo to tell the Wessex story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens.

The directors say: “Tess Of The D’Urbervilles has been adapted before for TV and film but it always struck us that the poetry of the book, the radical nature of it, and the strength and heroism of Tess was often lost in translation.

“Over time we became increasingly convinced that circus, and all the physicality of it, would be the perfect medium for capturing all the many elements of the novel. One of the surprises in the creation of Tess is how much joy and humour there is to find in the novel and the staging. There is a seam of joy in there which is captured by the play and collaboration of the ensemble.”

Commissioned by The Lowry, Salford and London International Mime Festival, circus theatre specialists Ockham’s Razor bring a cast of five women and two men to their first production based on a novel, presenting a script that uses Hardy’s own words with advice from novelist and screenwriter Anne Marie Casey, who has adapted Little Women and Wuthering Heights previously for the stage.

Strength and circus language evoke the physical labour of the novel as the cast members wield wooden planks and shift walls, ropes and swathes of linen to make sets that they balance on, climb, carry and construct.

Weaving together Hardy’s poetic language, acrobatics, aerial skills, dance, physical theatre, Tina Bicât’s evocative set and costume design, Daniel Denton’s projection design and Nathan Johnston’s choreography, Harvey and Mooney’s philosophical production explores questions of privilege, class, consent, agency, female desire and sisterhood. 

At the heart are Memory Tess and Narrator Tess. “Memory Tess mostly re-lives the storytelling of Narrator Tess in a physical role with no verbal communication,” says Lila. “Through circus, dance, movement or physical theatre, she helps to create storytelling images very physically.”

Hanora Kamen: Taking the role of Narrator Tess at York Theatre Royal

Alongside her, Hanora is stepping into the role of Narrator Tess for the York run. “It involves lots of language, loads of Hardy’s beautiful language,” she says. “It runs to 28 pages, which makes it sparser than other narrators’ roles than can feel dense.

“My role is to guide the audience, when a voice is needed, or to make a link between Memory Tess and Narrator Tess, and to take the audience on two journeys but on one route, starting at different points in Tess’s life.

“Narrator Tess starts from the end of Tess’s life, as if you’re looking through old photos, with Memory Tess experiencing those memories, passing by the Narrator, and making the audience think, ‘what if something else could have happened?’.”

Both Lila and Hanora are working with Ockham’s Razor for the first time. “I did the R&D [research and development] for this show in November 2022,“ says Lila. “I come from a dance background, and they’ve brought together people from different disciplines, who’ve trained in circus or dance, so there’s a lot of crossover of disciplines to help each other with the things we haven’t trained in.”

Hanora reveals: “I’ve been trying to make contact with the company for what feels like the longest time, since the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. It’s funny, you do that a lot as an actor. In this case, the chance has come now with an actor moving on to other things.

“Like Lila, I come from a devising background, but when you have a short lead-in time, you watch videos though you don’t want to feel your performance doesn’t come from within you, so I learnt the lines first.

“For me, this is a new show, and there’s a freshness for everyone. It’s a very exciting opportunity.”

Only One Question for….Ockham’s Razor artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey

Ockham’s Razor in Tess: Circus theatre specialists tell Hardy’s Victorian story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Picture: Kie Cummings

Why Tess?

SINCE Ockham’s Razor announced their ground-breaking circus adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey have faced one question more than any other: “Why Tess?”.

“The answer starts with the fact that we both love the novel – in fact at times have felt a bit haunted by it,” they say, ahead of next week’s visit to York Theatre Royal.

“Despite being written in 1891, it still seems to speak to this moment in time as it explores questions of privilege, class, poverty, agency, the need for non-industrialised agriculture, female desire and solidarity.

“It also pulses with such a deep vein of beautiful pain around love and loss, heartbreak and yearning like no other novel.”

Tess has always struck them as a very physical and visual book. “Hardy paints this story with images alongside the deep poetry of the language, and at the centre of it is Tess, a character who experiences the world physically in all her journeying, labouring, desiring and battling against the fate dealt out to her,” they say.

“It is incredibly nuanced in its evocation of female relationships, sexual violence and female desire.

“We have long experience of working with reframing the female body with circus looking at strength, capability and agency and know there’s a radical staging of this that is possible and also one where the subtlety, nuance and poetry of the novel could be captured by movement.”

Mooney and Harvey note that although Tess has been adapted for film and television previously, the book’s poetry, its radical nature and Tess’s strength and heroism were often lost in translation, instead presenting her as an oddly passive and bloodless character.

“We have long experience of working with reframing the female body with circus looking at strength, capability and agency,” say Tess directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey. Picture: Kie Cummings

“Over time we became increasingly convinced that circus and all the physicality of it would be the perfect medium for capturing all the many elements of the novel,” they say. “So we sat in our kitchen and over three weeks read the novel to each other and sketched out chapter by chapter, phase by phase, how we would imagine this painted on the stage. Weaving together Hardy’s words with our physical storytelling.”

They duly wrote an adaptation where the story is told by an actor playing Tess [Hanora Kamen’s Narrator Tess]. “She speaks to us just before her execution, looking back at the events that have led to that moment,” they say. “She tells her story using Hardy’s words while an ensemble re-creates her memories onstage: the extreme physicality of the movement evoking the depth of emotion.

“Sometimes our actor becomes swept up by the ensemble and drawn into the action, so that it is also an adaption which deals with the act of telling, of memory, of control and of fate.”

Alongside Hanora, six circus performers use their strength and circus language to evoke the emotion and the physical labour of the novel. “They create Hardy’s Wessex on stage, wielding a series of wooden planks, shifting walls, ropes and swathes of linen to make sets that can unfold and which they balance upon, climb, carry and construct to become the vast landscapes and interior worlds. Both a literal landscape and a depiction of Tess’s inner world,” say the directors.

One surprise to Mooney and Harvey is how much joy and humour is to be found in the novel and their staging. “Most people, when they think of Tess, remember how bleak and heartbreaking it is. It is a tragedy but also there is a seam of joy in there which is captured by the play and collaboration of the ensemble and there is a reading where Tess moves towards annihilation but also action.”

The question of ‘Why Tess?’ has a practical answer too? “This book is part of the A-level syllabus and so is also an opportunity for us to reach new young audiences and introduce them to our art form and how it is perfectly placed to adapt this book about fate, class, struggle, heartbreak, yearning and redemption,” say Mooney and Harvey.

“Finally, we’ve been creating shows for 18 years, with each creation learning how to evoke worlds, relationships and meaning in circus. We feel that we’ve been working towards the making of this show for many years and now is the time to make it.”

Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, May 8 to 11, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Bottom’s up for love & looning in More Things To Do in York & beyond. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 15, from The Press

The eyes have it: Love-struck Natalie Windsor’s Titania and Tweedy the clown’s Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrew Huggins/Thousand Word Media

GOTHIC Austen, a clowning Bottom, a dose of the blues, a Technicolor dreamcoat, open studios and a reactivated newsroom satire feature in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for a busy diary.

York play of the week: Cheltenham Everyman Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, York Theatre Royal, April 9 to 13, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

EVERYMAN Theatre Company’s staging of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream puts a new twist on the familiar tale by casting comedy clown Tweedy as Bottom and making him “comedy advisor” on Paul Milton’s production to boot.

The night’s magic, mischief, and mayhem unfold in an enchanted Athenean forest, intertwining the romantic misadventures of four young lovers, the playful meddling of mischievous fairies and the comedic antics of amateur actors, culminating in a tale of love, mistaken identity and reconciliation engineered by Jeremy Stockwell’s meddlesome Puck. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Tom Killner: Soul-drenched Southern rock and Americana at York Blues Festival

Festival of the week: York Blues Festival, The Crescent, York, today, 1pm to 11pm; doors, 12.30pm

NAME of the week? Step forward The 20ft Squid Blues Band, participants in this weekend’s York Blues Festival, curated by Paul Winn and Ben Darwin, hosts of Jorvik Radio’s Blues From The Ouse show and the Ryedale Blues Club.

Performing too will be Dirty Ruby, Bison Hip, The James Oliver Band, Hot Foot Hall, York band DC Blues, The Milk Men and Tom Killner. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, yorkbluesfest.co.uk.

Ceramicist Patricia Qua, who will make her York Open Studios debut in Hemplands Drive, York

Preview of the week: York Open Studios, Hospitium, York Museum Gardens, York, today and tomorrow, 10am to 4pm

YORK Open Studios 2024 hosts a taster exhibition this weekend at the Hospitium, ahead of the full event on April 13, 14, 20 and 21. More than 150 artists who live or work within a ten-mile radius of the city will be welcoming visitors to 100 workspaces to show and sell their art, ranging from ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery and mixed media to painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles and wood. Among them will be 29 new participants. Full details can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk.

Back in the news: The original cast reassembles for Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! at Leeds Grand Theatre

Breaking News of the week: Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!, Leeds Grand Theatre, April 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

THIRTY years since the launch of the trailblazing television series Drop The Dead Donkey, the Globelink News team is back, live on stage for the first time. Original cast members Stephen Tompkinson, Neil Pearson, Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Jeff Rawle and Victoria Wicks reunite for a new script by sitcom writing duo Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin.

“It’s going to be hugely enjoyable to watch those seven funny, flawed characters from Globelink News being plunged into the cutthroat world of modern 24-hour news-gathering and trying to navigate their way through the daily chaos of social media, fake news, and interim Prime Ministers,” say the writers. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Go, go, Joseph: Lead actor Reuben Khan in York Stage’s poster for Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19

BE ready to paint the city in every colour of the rainbow as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical dazzles the Grand Opera House in York Stage’s vibrant production, directed by Nik Briggs, with musical direction by Adam Tomlinson and choreography by Lesley Hill.

Reuben Khan leads the cast as Joseph, joined by Hannah Shaw as the Narrator, Carly Morton as Pharaoh, Martin Rowley as Jacob, Finn East as Simeon and Matthew Clarke as Potiphar, among others. Tickets are selling fast at atgtickets.com/york.

Shareefa Energy!: Guest performance poet at April 12’s Say Owt Slam at The Crescent

Spoken word clash of the week: Say Owt Slam, featuring Shareefa Energy!, The Crescent, York, April 12, 7.45pm

SAY Owt, “York’s loveable gobby gang of performance poets”, take over The Crescent twice a year for raucous, high-energy nights of verse that combine a slam war of words with a guest performer.

“In a slam, poets have three minutes to wow the audience to become the champion,” says host Henry Raby. “It’s fast, frantic and fun: perfect for people who love poetry, and those who think they hate poetry too.”

Special guest Shareefa Energy! is a poet, writer, activist, educator, creative campaigner, workshop facilitator and arts and wellbeing practitioner of Indian and Muslim heritage from working-class Highfields in Leicester. Box office: thecrescentyork.com or on the door.

Robert Gammon: Performing with Maria Marshall and Alison Gammon at St Chad’s Church

Dementia Friendly Tea Concert: Maria Marshall, Robert Gammon and Alison Gammon, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, April 18, 2.30pm

CELLIST Maria Marshall opens this Dementia Friendly Tea Concert with Faure’s Elegy, accompanied by pianist Robert Gammon, who then plays two short solo Grieg piano pieces. Alison Gammon joins them for Beethoven’s trio Opus 11 for clarinet, piano and cello.

The relaxed 45-minute concert, ideal for people who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, will be followed by tea and homemade cakes in the church hall. Seating is unreserved; no charge applies to attend but donations are welcome for hire costs and Alzheimer’s charities. 

Lucy Worsley: Revelations about Jane Austen at York Barbican

Show announcement of the week: An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen, York Barbican, October 14, 7.30pm

FOLLOWING up her Agatha Christie tour, historian and presenter Lucy Worsley’s latest illustrated talk steps into the world of Jane Austen, one of English literature’s most cherished figures as the author of Pride And Prejudice, Sense And Sensibility and Persuasion. 

Through the houses, places and possessions that mattered to Austen, Worsley looks at what home meant to her and to the women like her who populate her novels. Austen lived a “life without incident”, but with new research and insights Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

In Focus: Exhibition launch, Makiko, Picture Imperfect, York Theatre Royal, April 8 to 28

Exhibition poster for Makiko’s Picture Imperfect at York Theatre Royal

YORK photographer Makiko has shifted her focus to the mental health of vulnerable children in her Picture Imperfect exhibition at York Theatre Royal.

After her trip to photograph scenes from Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), as well as a spiritual journey to the uninhabited island of Nozaki, Japanese-born Makiko has responded to the impact of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The result is this month’s Theatre Royal foyer exhibition featuring remote portrait photography, colour photos taken by children and a short film on the theme of the lives of vulnerable children and teenagers in the artist’s community in York, exploring their struggles with mental health and their developing identities.

Makiko’s project has received funding from Arts Council England and was conceived to work alongside The Island, a charity that offers mentorship and safeguarding for young people in the community regardless of their socio-economic circumstances or life experiences.

“The more I began to know the charity, the more I learned of a darker reality and of things such as child trafficking and sexual exploitation,” says Makiko. “All the children involved in this project have experienced early life trauma or pre-existing mental challenges or both.

“The conceptualisation of the project coincided with the lockdowns imposed by the UK government to combat Covid-19. Northern England was particularly hard hit: this in turn has had a profound impact on these children’s lives.”

The Covid strictures placed significant restrictions on how Makiko needed to approach her work, imposing the necessity of a creative solution to comply with social distancing and meeting the necessary regulations.

The artist provided the children with disposable cameras to shoot their everyday life. Much of her own photo-shooting was carried out remotely during the lockdown, to document what they were doing and thinking at home.

“Once the restrictions were lifted in early spring 2022, I visited the children during the art activity sessions and let them express themselves both in front of my viewfinder, as well as in writing,” says Makiko. “Subsequently, the work was exhibited at York Open Studios in April that year.”

The story is intertwined with the experience of Makiko and her younger son following their relocation back to the United Kingdom. “He suffered from assault and racial discrimination at school, resulting in school refusal and being housebound for several years,” she recalls. “This provided a precursor to the isolating experiences that children would go on to face during the pandemic.”

Makiko encountered direct racial abuse too, including a physical assault. “Both of us had struggled to fit into the environment,” she says. “The UK has continued to manifest deep division in the aftermath of Brexit, including rises in racism, anti-social behaviour and hate crimes in general.”

Most importantly, Makiko realised that the entire process worked as a catalyst, helping her to recover from a psychological wound she had endured over the past few years. “I began to better understand what my younger son and other children have experienced,” she says. “This included an insight into the thoughts and behaviours of Generations Z during a unique period of UK history.”

This project was carried out when Makiko was a mentee of Magnum Photos during 2021-2022. The exhibition is produced in collaboration with The Island and in association with York Theatre Royal. Its accompanying photobook version will be published in 2024. For more information on Makiko, go to: makikophoto.com.

Makiko’s Picture Imperfect runs at York Theatre Royal, St Leonard’s Place, York, from April 8 to 27; on view from 10am, Monday to Saturday

Makiko: the back story

AWARD-WINNING photographer who has lived, studied and worked in Japan, France, North America, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Studied photography at International Center of Photography in New York.

Since 2006 her work has been exhibited in Japan, North America, and Europe. Best known for her black and white photography.

At present at Royal College of Art in London.

Features among 89 award-winning professional photographers from around the world in What Does Photography Mean To You?, selected by Scott Grant (Bluecoat Press).

Particular interest in high-functioning autism. In 2014 she launched her first documentary/photography book, Beautifully Different. Re-published in Japanese in March
2016.

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Bottom’s up for love & looning in More Things To Do in Ryedale, York & beyond. Hutch’s List No. 9, from Gazette & Herald

Rebecca Banatvala, back, AK Golding, middle, and Sam Newton, front, in Northanger Abbey at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Pamela Raith

GOTHIC Austen, a clowning Bottom, dark pop chat, vintage blues and harmonious folk feature in Charles Hutchinson’s suggestions for a busy diary.

Play of the week outside York: Northanger Abbey, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until April 13, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

ZOE Cooper adapts Jane Austen’s coming-of-age satire of Gothic novels in a co-production by the SJT, Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, starring Rebecca Banatvala (Cath), AK Golding (Iz) and Sam Newton (Hen) under Tessa Walker’s direction.

In a play fizzing with imagination, humour and love, Cath Morland knows little of the world, but who needs real-life experience when you have books to guide you? Cath seizes her chance to escape her claustrophobic family life and join the smart set in Bath. Between balls and parties, she meets worldly, sophisticated Iz, and so Cath’s very own adventure begins. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Megson: Folk duo Debs and Stu Hanna at Helmsley Arts Centre

Folk concert of the week: Megson, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

BRITISH folk duo Megson combines Debs Hanna’s vocals, whistle and piano accordion with Stu Hanna’s guitar, mandola and banjo on songs filled with perceptive lyrics and exquisite musicianship. An infectious mix of heavenly vocals, lush harmonies and driving rhythmic guitars mark their concerts, topped off with northern humour between numbers.

Chalking up 13 studio albums in 20 years, the four-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominees and two-time Spiral Earth Award winners will be showcasing their latest release, March 2023’s What Are We Trying To Say?. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Red, a dare: Tweedy’s Bottom, clowning around and chancing his luck in love in the Everyman Theatre Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrew Huggins/Thousand Word Media

York play of the week: Cheltenham Everyman Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, York Theatre Royal, April 9 to 13, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

THE Everyman Theatre Company staging of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream puts a new twist on the familiar tale by casting comedy clown Tweedy as Bottom and making him “comedy advisor” on Paul Milton’s production to boot.

The night’s magic, mischief, and mayhem unfold in an enchanted forest in Athens, intertwining the romantic misadventures of four young lovers, the playful meddling of mischievous fairies and the comedic antics of amateur actors, culminating in a tale of love, mistaken identity and reconciliation engineered by Jeremy Stockwell’s meddlesome Puck. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

John Robb: Rock’n’roll tales at Pocklington Arts Centre

Pop chat of the week: John Robb: Do You Believe In The Power Of Rock’n’Roll?, Pocklington Arts Centre, April 11, 8pm

JOHN Robb discusses his life in music; his pop culture book Art Of Darkness: The History Of Goth; being the first person to interview Nirvana; inventing the word Britpop and his adventures on the post-punk frontline.

Blackpool-born Robb is an author, musician, journalist, television and radio presenter and pundit, music website boss, publisher, Louder Than Words festival boss, eco-warrior and talking-head singer of The Membranes. His special guest is The Sisters Of Mercy co-founder Gary Marx. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Pianist Robert Gammon: Performing with Maria Marshall and Alison Gmmon at musical tea concert

Dementia Friendly Tea Concert: Maria Marshall, Robert Gammon and Alison Gammon, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, April 18, 2.30pm

CELLIST Maria Marshall opens this Dementia Friendly Tea Concert with Faure’s Elegy, accompanied by pianist Robert Gammon, who then plays two short solo Grieg piano pieces. Alison Gammon joins them for Beethoven’s trio Opus 11 for clarinet, piano and cello.

The relaxed 45-minute concert, ideal for people who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, will be followed by tea and homemade cakes in the church hall. Seating is unreserved; no charge applies to attend but donations are welcome for hire costs and Alzheimer’s charities. On-street parking along Campleshon Road complements the church’s small car park.

The Nightcreatures’ Henry Botham and Tom Davies: Blues songs and stories at Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: The Nightcreatures, Farewell To Storyville, Songs and Stories from New Orleans, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 12, 8pm

THE Nightcreatures duo of pianist Henry Botham and guitarist and singer Tom Davies take a journey to old New Orleans for a night of songs and stories, serving up a spicy gumbo of filthy blues, funky grooves and classic tunes.

Old blues, Mardi Gras songs and vintage New Orleans material are explored, drawing on the heritage of Dr John, James Booker, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint and the great Louisiana bluesmen. Jenny Wren and Her Borrowed Wings, a trio led by singer and double bassist Jenny Trilsbach, support. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Sam Jewison: Interpreting the Great American Songbook at the SJT

Jazz gig of the month: Sam Jewison, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, April 27, 7.30pm

JAZZ singer and pianist Sam Jewison returns to the SJT after a sold-out show in 2023 to perform his interpretation of the Great American Songbook in a fusion of jazz, classical and popular music.

Expect to hear new treatments of songs from the Broadway stage, Hollywood screen and golden age of American popular music, made famous Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Oscar Peterson, from the pens of Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin. Joining Jewison will be Fraser Smith (tenor saxophone), Harry Sankey (guitar), Harry Evans (double bass) and Joe Dessauer (drums). Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com. 

Lucy Worsley: Revelations from the life of Jane Austen at York Barbican

Show announcement of the week: An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen, York Barbican, October 14,

FOLLOWING up her Agatha Christie tour, historian Lucy Worsley’s latest illustrated talk steps into the world of Jane Austen, one of English literature’s most cherished figures as the author of Pride And Prejudice, Sense And Sensibility and Persuasion. 

Through the houses, places and possessions that mattered to Austen, Worsley looks at what home meant to her and to the women like her who populate her novels. Austen lived a “life without incident”, but with new research and insights Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Flutes & Frets’ Beth Stones and Dan Murphy launch educational early music mini-tour of Explore York libraries

Beth Stones and Dan Murphy of Flutes & Frets: Heading out on Explore York library mini-tour

MUSICAL duo Flutes & Frets embark on a mini-tour of three York community libraries tomorrow (14/3/2024) in a National Centre for Early Music cultural wellbeing initiative.

Working in partnership with Explore York Libraries and Archives, flautist Beth Stones and frets player Dan Murphy are taking Baroque Around The Books to Tang Hall Explore Library at 11am tomorrow morning; Clifton Library at 3pm tomorrow afternoon, and Explore: Acomb Library Learning Centre at 11am on Friday. Pre-booking is advised for the Acomb performance at http://ncem.co.uk/baroque-around-the-books/

The tour will continue with an invitation-only concert for NCEM members tomorrow at 2.30pm at Fairfax House, to be recorded for online viewing on March 21 as part of the NCEM’s Early Music Day celebrations. 

Tickets are free for these informal concerts under a new NCEM initiative in tandem with Explore York, supported by the Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, in a project that illustrates the NCEM’s ongoing commitment to support, encourage and nurture the skills of emerging artists in the UK and beyond.

 To conclude the tour, Flutes & Frets will head to the NCEM, at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, later on Friday to work on Italian baroque repertoire with The Minster Minstrels, an ensemble that provides musical opportunities for children from across York, supported by the Mayfield Valley Arts Trust and York Music Hub in partnership with York Arts Education.

Delighted to invite Flutes & Frets to York for a residency, library tour and children’s NCEM workshops, NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “We’re thrilled to be able to be working with the wonderful Flutes & Frets, who appeared in York last December at the York Early Music Christmas Festival.

“Baroque Around The Books will give the people of York the chance to enjoy these fabulous concerts completely free of charge, as we work to share the joy of music making with our partners at Explore York.”

Dave Fleming, Explore York’s innovation, creativity and learning service developer, says: “The initiative emerged from Explore York’s longstanding working relationship with the NCEM, which has been developed over many years. We’ve worked collaboratively with NCEM on successful projects and initiatives over the years, such as Cuppa And A Chorus and now this.”

Assessing the role of music in libraries, Dave says: “Music contributes to Explore York’s commitment of bringing high-quality cultural experiences into our libraries for York residents to enjoy within their communities and right on their doorstep.

“York’s network of community libraries are trusted spaces: safe, creative environments, welcoming to everyone. We have developed out network of libraries as cultural spaces in the heart of communities.”

Crucially too, Explore York is now a National Portfolio Organisation (NPOs), designated by Arts Council England. “NPO recognises Explore’s cultural contribution in creating and promoting artistic experiences, supporting artists, and engaging communities. Opportunities to bring musical experiences into our libraries contributes to what we are as an NPO,” he says.

“Bringing such experiences into libraries aligns with Explore York’s status as an NPO and enhances its cultural offerings. Therefore, the role of music in libraries is seen as integral to fulfilling Explore York’s mission and enriching the cultural experiences available to residents.”

Stone and Murphy’s repertoire spans the medieval to the contemporary, backed by a passion to use instruments from throughout history to create a story that both enthrals and educate. “The educational element of these concerts lies in the opportunity for the audience to experience high-quality classical music performed by internationally renowned musicians,” says Dave.

“In addition to the performances, the musicians will engage the audience by discussing the history and background of the music being played. This approach allows the audience to deepen their understanding and appreciation of classical music, turning the concert into an enriching educational experience.”

Beth and Dan say: “We’re always keen to educate and inform through our performances and so in this programme, we focus on taking the audience on a chronological journey of some of our favourite pieces: a chocolate-box selection of almost 500 years of music.”

Here Flutes & Frets’ Beth Stones and Dan Murphy discuss libraries, music and books with CharlesHutchPress.

“We’re always keen to educate and inform through our performances,” say Flutes & Frets’ Beth Stones and Dan Murphy

When did you form your partnership, where and why?

“Interestingly, Covid helped form the duo. We met while studying at the Royal College of Music, in London, and after collaborating on modern flute and guitar, we realised the potential that our specialisation in historical performance might bring our combination of instruments.

“Beth had been very keen to try playing with lute compared to harpsichord, and Covid brought out a renewed sense of need for chamber music.”

What was the highlight of your York Early Music Christmas Festival concert last December?

“The previous night to our 11am concert, we had a chaotic journey up to York due to train cancellations, meaning we arrived at the hotel at 4am, so to wake up to a cold, frosty morning but have a sold-out audience that had many warm comments to make afterwards made it all worthwhile!”

How did the Baroque Around The Books mini-tour come about?

“Delma has been incredibly supportive of us as an ensemble and believed that we would be appropriate for the intimate setting of libraries. We’re enthusiastic to make the most of our portability and enjoy performing in the types of venues that are harder to accommodate live music.”

Libraries are associated with silence, peace and calm! Does that add to the joy of making music there?

“Every venue has its charm. Libraries in particular tend to bring people that weren’t expecting to find music, especially children and families. As the Italian 15th century philosopher Marsilio Ficino wrote, music is ‘nothing but the decoration of silence’.”

How did you put together the programme for Baroque Around The Books?

“We’re always keen to educate and inform through our performances and so, in this programme, we focus on taking the audience on a chronological journey of some of our favourite pieces: a chocolate-box selection of almost 500 years of music.”

How have books had an impact on your musical selections?

“They haven’t had a direct impact on the programme we’re performing but musical treaties inform the way we play and so affect our approach to all our concerts.”

In what way is the concert educational?

“We encourage our audience to see a bigger picture and think about the changes that instruments and compositional styles have undergone throughout the history of music. Similarly to how a documentary might try to capture hundreds of years in a short space of time.”

The poster for Flutes & Frets’ Baroque Around The Books mini-tour of York libraries

Do you have a target audience?

“Not particularly! We appreciate the attention of anyone and everyone.”

What will Friday’s workshop session with The Minster Minstrels involve?

“We’ll be spending some time working with them on Italian baroque repertoire that they’re currently exploring and hopefully sharing some insight in how to approach and interpret early music.”

In a nutshell, what is the relationship between music and books?

“Both are expressions of thoughts, emotions, creativity and storytelling.”

If you could recommend one book each, what would it be?

Beth: “No book means more to me than the Bible, so that’s an easy choice.”

Dan: “It was The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss that first inspired me to develop an interest in lute playing, so that’s always my first recommendation.”

When you arrive home, what do you reach for first: music or a book?!

“Music usually!”