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More Things To Do in York and beyond when a snowstorm spells theatrical joy. Hutch’s List No. 49, from The York Press

Slava’s SnowShow: Bringing joy to children and drawing out the inner child in adults at Grand Opera House, York

SNOW storms and Count Arthur Strong’s Scrooge; dancing full of Momentum and Jon Ronson’s latest psychopath tests put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.

Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm

ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s  work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

London City Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition at York Theatre Royal

Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists and works rarely seen in the UK.

Here come George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento; New York City Ballets artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition; Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum and Paris Opera Ballet premier danseur and emerging choreographer Florent Melac’s new work. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jason Manford’s show poster for A Manford All Seasons, returning to York Theatre Royal this weekend

Comedy gig of the week: Jason Manford in A Manford All Seasons, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

SALFORD comedian, writer, actor, singer and radio and television presenter Jason Manford makes his second York in his 2025 stand-up show. He cites Billy Connolly as his first inspiration and he cherishes such family-friendly entertainers as Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Pictish Trail: Expect psychedelic goo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery on Monday

Rising to the occasion: Blair Dunlop, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight, 7.30pm; Pictish Trail, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, November 17, 7pm

CHESTERFIELD folk musician, singer, songwriter, storyteller and actor Blair Dunlop performs traditional and contemporary songs from his five albums, released between 2012 and 2024, this weekend.

Known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic pysch-pop, crafted on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides, Pictish Trail, alias Johnny Lynch, has completed work on his new album, a sticky, shimmering swirl of sound and slime. To celebrate, he previews songs at Monday’s intimate show, performing in raw, exploratory mode, armed with acoustic guitar, sampler and his warped imagination. Expect tenderness, weirdness and generous dollops of goo. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise. 

Chris Wood: Seeking the truth in song at the NCEM

Folk gig of the week: Chris Wood, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm 

REFLECTIONS on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim and the Gecko as a metaphor for contemporary society add up to a typically wise and soulful Chris Wood set. Tom Robinson and Squeeze’s Chris Difford are fans, while The Unthanks look to him as an influence, and he has played with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in The Imagined Village project with Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy.

In a world of soundbites and distractions, six-time BBC Folk Awards winner Wood is a truth seeker, whose uplifting and challenging writing is permeated with love and wry intelligence as he celebrates “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

King For A Day: Paying tribute to Nat King Cole at York Theatre Royal

Nostalgia of  the week: King For A Day: The Nat King Cole Story, York Theatre Royal, November 17, 7.30pm

VOCALIST Atila and world-class musicians take a fresh, thoughtful and entertaining look at the life and work of Alabama pianist, singer and actor Nat King Cole, whose jazz and pop vocal styling in songs such as Nature Boy, Unforgettable and When I Fall In Love define a golden era of 20th century American music.

Cole’s most celebrated songs and stylish re-workings of his lesser-known gems are complemented by projections of rare archive images and footage, weaved together by narration. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw

Straight talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, November 19, 7.30pm

WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth ​for any of this.

Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jon Ronson: Hosting Psychopath Night at York Barbican, where he will welcome questions from the audience

Mind-bending insights of the week: Jon Ronson: Psychopath Night, York Barbican, November 18, 7.30pm

WHAT happens when a psychopath is in power? Could you learn to spot a psychopath? Are you working for a psychopath? Is there a little bit of psychopath in all of us? Sixteen years since journalist, filmmaker and author Jon Ronson embarked on The Psychopath Test, he reopens the case.

Expect exclusive anecdotes and fresh reflections in Ronson’s exploration of madness and the elusive psychopathic mind, re-booted with mystery special guests whose tales were not in the original book. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Recommended but sold out already at York Barbican: Adam Ant  in Ant Music, November 19, doors 7pm.

Count Arthur Strong: Telling Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale in Charles Dickens guise at York Barbican

Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, November 20, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm  

IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.

In Focus: Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm  

Lesley Birch at her Flower Power exhibition opening with Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett

YORK artist Lesley Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition at Pyramid Gallery that coincides with the blooming of her small art book of the same title.

The book is published by Overt Books, the independent York publisher set up by York Creatives creator Ben Porter.

“I’ve always meant to publish an art book and never quite got around to it, but with Ben’s help, I was able to pull together this small volume,” says Lesley. “There are beautiful photographs of my home studio from Esme Mai Photography, more photos by Eloise Ross, and some of my free verse musings to accompany photographs of the paintings.

Lesley Birch in her studio. Picture: Esme Mai Photography

“There are only 50 copies available at this time. I’m thrilled to say that there is a foreword from my generous PICA Studios studio mate Mark Hearld

Lesley is sharing space at Pyramid Gallery with ceramicist Jacqui Atkin, who works with The Pottery Showdown programme. “I love the combination of my flower paintings with Jacqui’s ceramics,” she says.  “They sit beautifully together and it was lovely to hear her details about making these exquisite pieces.”

Lesley’s Flower Power paintings were painted in response to abundant summer blooms in her garden and from Shambles Market in York.

Lesley Birch’s book cover for Flower Power

Sunflowers, from Lesley Birch’s Sunflower series

“I’m often keen on certain pots and vases too and I like to set up lots of bouquets here and there, playing with colour, texture and shape,” she says.

“I find myself immersed in a world of pure discovery and concentration.  These works I’ve been developing for the past ten months and they’re now finally ready to go out on show.”

The Flower Power book is priced at £12 plus £3 postage and packaging. Contact Lesley via lesleybirch@icloud.com for a copy.

Lesley Birch with summer blooms in her garden

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REVIEW: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, November 12

Jess Steel, left, Heather Findlay, Annie-Rae Donaghy and Beth McCarthy committing to Murder On The Dancefloor big style. Picture: David Harrison

THIS was the 12th edition of Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, the eighth to fill York Barbican en route to raising more than £200,000 for York charities.

Early signs are that a record sum may have been collected from Wednesday’s three-hour fundraiser to boost  St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects.

You will know Big Ian, HUGE party band frontman Ian Donaghy, who won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2025 York Community Pride Awards, organised by The York Press, in recognition of his extensive charity work and efforts to tackle loneliness and raise dementia awareness in the city.

A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy with Shed Seven’s Rick Witter, Big Ian’s pick for “the new Duke of York”

This is one ID who doesn’t need ID, but A Night To Remember really isn’t about Ian, even if he organises the event and finds sponsors to cover all the costs,so that all the ticket money goes to the charities, along with donations and raffle proceeds on the night.

Oh, and he secured an opening message on screen from  Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer, arranged all the myriad participants – a hush-hush appearance by Shed Seven’s Rick Witter et al – in a late-changing set-list order, hosted the show with patter and swagger, and sung his lungs out too. No wonder he walked 17 kilometres on Wednesday.

He is frontman, showman, show opener too with Uptown Funk, but A Night To Remember is Big Ian’s night every two years for putting York’s diverse world of music on one stage: a night of York Helping York, a night of celebrating why music can be made by everyone for everyone. Where we became one big family, in unison for the finale of Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, as Ian sang “I’ve got all my sisters with me”. Sisters in soul and much more besides, brothers too.  

Making A Night To Remember exactly that: Many, but not all, of the musicians who took part on Wednesday night. Picture: David Kessel

There are plenty of familiar performers that return each time: Las Vegas Ken, now 78, still in jeans, stiffer in leg, joined by fiddler Kieran O’Malley for a singalong Wild Rover; Graham Hodge, now 75,  replacing his standard guitar with bow tie and suit for crooning Cry Me A River with full band accompaniment in Las Vegas manner; George Hall, leading the band from the keyboards; the HUGE brass section; Rob Wilson and Simon Snaize on guitar,

And Ian Chalk leading the bright young talents of York Music Forum, now so important to fledgling talent in the city when schools are finding it more and more difficult to fulfil that role.

Participants young and old had their moment in the spotlight. Responding to Big Ian’s challenge, Easingwold-based choir leader Jessa “Hurricane” Liversidge assembled the 10 Decade Choir, aged from seven to Shirley in her nineties, bonding in the joy of Labi Siffre’s Something Inside So Strong, a hymn to the power of music.

York Music Forum brass and woodwind players in action at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison

Annie -Rae Donaghy: Solo rendition of Maneater at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel

On the run: Beth McCarthy giving everything to Bat Out Of Hell in A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison

Suits you, sir: Graham Hodge taking on Las Vegas cabaret crooner mode for Cry Me A River at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel

The ever-watchful young keyboard player in York Music Forum’s rendition of Dave Kemp’s Fryin, I learnt later, was playing his first ever gig at nine. Keep an eye on him.

Likewise, Big Ian had asked nascent talents to put themselves forward for a solo slot: he picked 12-year-old singer Lacey Hart, performing I Have Nothing to 1,400 people to the accompaniment of the full band, one mightily impressive debut after warm-up slots at a handful of HUGE gigs. Tackling Houston, Lacey had no problem matching Whitney’s dramatics.

North Eastern classical singer Sam Holden hit the heights early on in You’ll Never Walk Alone, ironically performed solo – but spectacularly – to a backing track, and later Y Street Band, their members peppered through other songs throughout, relished the spotlight in Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, immediately followed by Scissor Sisters’ Take Your Mama.

Arms held aloft: Lacey Hart, 12, with A Night To Remember host Big Ian Donaghy, left, and her father, James Hart, after singing I Have Nothing. Picture: David Kessel

Back to those sisters in soul, who are so integral to A Night To Remember: Jess Steel, the singing hairdresser; Beth McCarthy, back in York after playing Glastonbury and an American tour; Annie-Rae Donaghy, soon to appear in Next Door But  One’s Christmas show When Robins Appear, and Heather Findlay, long-standing folk and prog-rock queen.

They took solo turns, they sang backing vocals, all except Annie changed costumes more often than Cher. Jess’s Running Up That  Hill set a high bar; Annie revamped Hall & Oates’s Maneater; Beth surpassed her Mr Brightside with Bat Out Of Hell, preceded by her duet with Annie, Britney at the double for Baby One More Time. 

A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy keeping eye on proceedings from the side of the stage, resting on a donations bucket for York charities. Picture: David Kessel

Best of all was Heather’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, a stairway she not so much climbed as glided up with elan. It was only right they should do a climactic number together, Murder On The Dancefloor, and they nailed it.  

What of Mr Witter, crowned the new Duke of York by Big Ian? The man in black might have been expected to conclude the show given his status in York, but no, just like Ian, he said the show was the star, not him.

Instead, his appearance kept quiet until the last minute, he ended the first half, singing It Takes Two with Jess, who has cut his hair all these years (“I’ve lived my dream,” she said “I’ve sung with Rick Witter”), followed, inevitably, by Sheds’ anthem  Chasing Rainbows,  brass accompaniment and all. Rick may not have closed the show, but he closes this review.

Shed Seven’s Rick Witter duetting with Jess Steel on It Takes Two, the 1966 Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye hit. Picture: David Harrison

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Dilettante wins first New Music Stage showcase at Aesthetica Short Film Festival

New Music Stage winner Dilettante

DILETTANTE is the real thing! She has won the inaugural New Music Stage showcase for the UK’s most exciting emerging musical talent at York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025.

At last Saturday’s event, part of the festival’s debut Beyond the Frame strand at York Theatre Royal, Dilettante delivered a set that captivated audience and jury alike with emotive vocals, layered textures and commanding stage presence.

Reflecting on her victory, she said: “What a massive honour to win this inaugural award. I’m a massive film nerd and I’m really excited to see both film and music festivals starting to work together to support artists across forms. Especially great to win in my home county of Yorkshire and in such a beautiful theatre!”

Signed to EMI North, praised by Mojo and Uncut magazines and featured at SXSW(South By Southwest) and The Great Escape, Dilettante – the inventive art-pop project of Francesca Pidgeon – has risen from Manchester basements to now embarking on festival appearances and cross-disciplinary collaborations across music, film and XR (Extended Reality).

Daisy Gill: From The Voice UK to New Music Stage at Aesthetica Short Film Festival

Last Saturday’s 2pm to 11pm curated line-up of breakthrough talent featured acts championed by tastemakers such as BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music, RTÉ Radio 1 and Mojo and Rolling Stone magazines.

Taking part were winner Dilettante; BLÁNID, an Irish singer-songwriter with one million Spotify streams; Crazy James, lauded by BBC Introducing for his high-energy rap; Daisy Gill, alumna of The Voice UK with Glastonbury and Royal Albert Hall appearances to her name, and Ewan Sim, featured on Spotify Fresh Finds.

Participating too were Isabel Maria, BBC Introducing One-to-Watch and North East Culture Award winner; Emma Johnson, an alt-pop artist featured on BBC Radio 1 and Radio X; Kengo, BBC Introducing-supported hip-hop talent; Messy Eater, immersive art-rock innovator, and Tarian, a Welsh artist who blends hip-hop with emotive pop and classical roots.

The New Music Stage jury brought together leading industry representatives including James Matthew, from Universal Music Group; Rachel Hill, of Futuresound Group, Leeds; Pablo Ettinger, Caffè Nero co-founder; Emma Stakes, of  Production Park; Rob Clark, head of media at Imagesound, plus plus musical artists such as Jack Savoretti, The Dunwells, Fauzia Habib, Kat Day (The KVB) and singer-songwriter Rachel Croft, formerly of York, now based in London.

Messy Eater: Replaced Scarborough’s Pleasure Centre in the New Music Stage line-up at York Theatre Royal

The New Music Stage aims to be about “more than performance”, connecting artists with the broader cultural ecosystem being built through such festivals as ASFF.

The showcase combines collaborations with Universal Music A&R and Imagesound with opportunities for national airplay across Caffè Nero as the festival creates a pipeline to connect grassroots talent with national and international audiences.

“Dilettante’s win demonstrates the extraordinary potential of the next generation of musicians,” said festival director Cherie Federico.

Caffe Nero founder Pablo Ettinger highlighted the industry opportunities for emerging talent: “Supporting emerging talent at this level is vital,” he said. “These stages give artists the chance to reach audiences and figures they might not meet otherwise.”

“The New Music Stage promises to grow into a landmark event for UK and global music, reaffirming the vital role of live discovery in the cultural ecosystem,” says ASFF director Cherie Federico

The New Music Stage was set up against the backdrop of the culture of discovering new music live being in decline. Between 2022 and 2023, the UK lost roughly 13 per cent of grassroots music venues, compounded by more than 15 per cent closing or ceasing live music activity last year alone, while audience numbers for live shows have fallen by nearly 17 cent since 2019.

“The New Music Stage addresses this gap, giving audiences the thrill of experiencing music at its moment of emergence, just as grassroots venues once did,” said Cherie.

“By integrating the New Music Stage with film, games and XR, Aesthetica fosters a multidisciplinary creative community. Audiences can witness performances in context with broader creative innovation, and artists gain exposure to delegates from more than 60 countries, industry leaders and tastemakers, helping to launch careers on a global scale.

Rachel Croft: York singer-songwriter on the New Music Stage jury

Running from November 5 to 9, the 15th BAFTA-qualifying ASFF brought together together 300 films, music, games, podcasting, the UNESCO City Of Media Arts EXPO, masterclasses, workshops, the VR Lab, the first Aesthetica Fringe and Beyond the Frame in one immersive environment in York, providing a platform for collaboration, discovery and cultural exchange.

Across five days, York became a hub for creativity, where tomorrow’s stars in film, music, VR, games, and podcasts were discovered first. The festival’s international reach and multidisciplinary programming ensure it is not only a British event but also a meeting point for the most exciting voices in global screen and creative media.

Summarising the festival’s vision, Cherie said: “We’re building a festival where creativity meets opportunity. It’s not just about performances; it’s about creating connections, sparking collaborations and nurturing the next generation of artists across multiple disciplines.

“With this international scale, the New Music Stage promises to grow into a landmark event for UK and global music, reaffirming the vital role of live discovery in the cultural ecosystem.”

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REVIEW: Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, running all day and all of the night, but in reality only until Saturday *****

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies, left, Oliver Hoare’s Dave Davies, Zakarie Stokes’s Mick Avory and Harry Curley’s Pete Quaife in Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan

IT may be dreich and dreary outside, but the weather forecast predicts a Sunny Afternoon all week at the Grand Opera House, York.

Welcome back the four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tale of the rise and fall-outs of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, last sparking fireworks here in February 2017, and still as thrilling, visceral, anarchic, smart and smarting as it was when premiered in 2014 by Ray Davies (original story and songs, 29 of them, from the chief Kink’s katalogue) and Joe Penhall (book) before transferring to the West End.

Returning to the York theatre where Davies last played on May 3 2007, his story of sibling rivalry with younger brother “Rave Dave” (lead guitarist, fashion hound) is the fractious London forerunner to the Gallagher brothers’ Manchester ructions. Northern softies by comparison.

Clashing not only with each other but with authority and management too, The Kinks hold their place in pop history as the first British band to be banned from the United States. No wonder Penhall says “they were punk before punk”.

Sunny Afternoon is not a jukebox musical, more a raucously rude reawakening of Davies’s satirical commentaries on English customs, class wars, fashions and fashion, love and loss. The hits are delivered as much by fists – and a cymbal in the case of drummer Mick Avory (Zakarie Stokes) hospitalising Dave Davies (Oliver Hoare) with blows to the head in All Day And All Of The Night at a Cardiff gig – as they are by Ray’s golden pen.

Told with all the electric charge of Dave’s guitar riff for You Really Got Me, this turbulent tale is an eye opener for those familiar with the songs but not the blistered, bruising history from 1963 to 1967’s Waterloo Sunset and onwards to 1969’s American return, peppered with all its riotous controversies, physical and mental exhaustion and love’s headiness and headaches.

The Kinks’ Ray Davies standing in front of a billboard for Sunny Afternoon, on tour this week at the Grand Opera House, York

Equipped with Ray Davies’s inside track on all things Kinks, Penhall’s book is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving (to the point of tears in Dress Circle, Row C, Seat 26), as he charts The Kinks’ rise from rowdy backing band to cavalier working-class lads caught in a maelstrom of mendacious, manipulative management deals and recording contracts, American red tape, band fall-outs and brotherly spats.

We learn, for example, of Ray’s childhood stutter that returns in moments of stress; his refusal to have his gap teeth fixed; his marriage to an expelled Bradford convent girl Rasa (Lisa Wright, as in 2017); his breakdown after the exploitative American tour; how he misses sister Rene, who died when dancing on the day she gave him his first guitar on his 13th birthday.

You will love how songs both feed off or into the storyline, whether in the moment when a homesick Ray (Danny Horn, himself of Muswell Hill stock) craves comforting words down the phone from Rasa, eliciting her rendition of I Go To Sleep (his devastating ballad resurrected by The Pretenders in 1980), or when his breakdown is encapsulated in Too Much On My Mind, made all the more impactful by segueing into Rasa’s frustrated response, Tired Of Waiting.

Likewise, a tired and emotional Dave’s rowdy rendition of I’m Not Like Everybody Else defines Hoare’s Molotov cocktail performance.

The blow-by-blow re-enactment of the creation of two Kinks landmarks book-ends the show, firstly the raucous 1964 number one You Really Got Me, giving equal credit to Dave and Ray for sticking  sharp objects into the speaker cone to make that wall-shuddering, ear-shattering guitar squall

Later, and climactically, amid so much turmoil, beauty beyond compare emerges piece by piece in Waterloo Sunset, a song famously denied top spot by The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, but here making you wish you were Terry and Julie meeting at Waterloo station every Friday night.

Joe Penhall: “His bookfor Sunny Afternoon is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving”

Elsewhere, framing 1966 chart topper Sunny Afternoon in the glow of England’s World Cup victory that July makes for a right old London knees-up, while the barbershop quintet reinvention of Days is breathtaking.

Reuniting with Hoare from Sunny Afternoon stints in London in 2015 and Chicago earlier this year, Horn’s Ray leads the show with fire and rage, mischievous wit but the burden of grief too, and their partnership is equally strong in song and sibling flare-ups.

Hoare spells trouble with a capital T as dangerous dandy Dave; Stokes’s volcanic drummer Avory erupts in a remarkable drum solo and Harry Curley’s reserved bassist Pete Quaife is eventually crushed under the weight of the Cain and Abel toxicity.

There is no room for Autumn Almanac, alas, but the likes of Stop Your Sobbing, This Is Where I Belong, The Moneygoround  and A Rock’n’Roll Fantasy take Sunny Afternoon beyond the Kinks klassics to the storyline’s benefit.

Miriam Buether’s set and costumes evoke the era in every detail; Adam Cooper’s choreography is almost combustible and Matt McKenzie’s sound design enhances the Kinks’ progression from incendiary, foundation-shaking early numbers to the broader canvas that followed.

Horn and Hoare never let up, their raw energy propelling director Edward Hall’s exhilarating slice of Sixties’ London life to new heights in its potent yet poetic portrait of sunny afternoons and dark days.

Sonia Friedman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow and Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: 12 plus.

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A blizzard of joyful folly is heading for Grand Opera House as Slava’s SnowShow makes York debut. Cue bubbles, balloons and snow

Hold the front page: Slava’s SnowShow clowns reading all about it while having a cuppa on their promotional York day trip

SLAVA’S SnowShow will bring blizzard conditions to the Grand Opera House, leaving audiences knee deep in “snow” on next week’s first visit to York in its 31-year history of clowning joy.

Founded by Slava Polunin, this immersive, whimsical, multi-sensory show promises a “cavalcade of chaos and charm that invites you to leave the everyday behind and indulge in pure, tender delight as you enter a dream-like world that will both warm your heart and your funny bone , reminding you of the joy in being wonderfully silly”.

Slava’s company returned to British shores for the first time in seven years last winter for a West End Christmas run at the Harold Pinter Theatre and is now on an autumn tour that brought Slava’s son, Vanya, to York for a day’s promotional work and sightseeing in the week when SnowShow played the Manchester Opera House.

Dressed in clown’s costume and make-up for this interview, Vanya says: “It’s my first time in York and the show’s first time too. We’re very excited to be here, having seen photos of the old streets.”

Slava’s SnowShow clowns taking in the awe-inspiring Gothic edifice of York Minster on their sightseeing trip

Vanya has been on the move in this globe-travelling show since childhood. “I was born in Russia, In Leningrad (now St Petersburg), and I’ve stayed away from Russia for the longest time,” he says. “We left when I was seven, touring with the company, going on tour with Cirque de Soleil in the United States.

“We performed Slava’s SnowShow in the UK for the first time at the Hackney Empire in 1994 and were in the UK for nine years from 1996, when we played the Edinburgh Festival.”

The company did do tours to Russia. “When I saw St Petersburg again for the first time I’d forgotten how beautiful it was,” says Vanya.

He was delighted to be travelling from such a young age. “To avoid being called up for the army, you would have to leave at 16. We toured instead and my talents were much more usefully used making people smile than knowing how to hold a rifle,” he says.

Bubbling up: Slava’s SnowShow clowns in their joyous globe-travelling show

Vanya, now 39, is a key component in a show set within an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose”, a work of art wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons.

“Everybody asks me what’s my favourite scene, and it’s the one that involves a clown in an overcoat with the coat rack on the platform. It’s a very touching scene that shows that clowning is not just about slapstick – and there’s only a little slapstick in our show because we’re not traditional clowns,” says Vanya.

“It’s hard to explain the show but it’s very simple! It’s the story of two characters and the journey they’re going on.  It can be confusing and absurd, and in the beginning everyone is a bit confused but then they get to know the characters and it becomes sentimental by the end, when big snow effects take over the whole theatre.”

The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. “Snow is a big part of the show,” says Vanya. “It’s decorative as a prop but because of the theme of the show as well, in my culture, snow holds different meanings: it could be making snowballs, or being trapped in a snowstorm, when it can be isolating or make you feel lonely. So that’s how we use it in the show, in both a scary and joyful way.

Slava’s SnowShow founder Slava Polunin

“Everyone can interpret snow differently, in their own way because, like us, they will have their own connections with snow. We once brought our paper snow to Honolulu [in Hawaii], where they had never seen snow, but they still had snow on their Christmas cards!”

Now the specialist in the international language of snow, Slava Polunin, Vanya’s father, was born in a small town in central Russia, where he discovered the art of pantomime in high school. As he grew into adulthood in Leningrad, he developed an eccentric version of the form that he dubbed lovingly as “Expressive Idiotism”.

From 1979 onwards, Slava became a fixture on Russian stages and television, sharing his gifts and continuing to redefine the art of clowning, exploring its boundless possibilities with his poetic and poignant approach to comic performance.

This discovery reached its zenith with Slava’s SnowShow, a show full of innocence and beauty for all ages. “In a sense, I have been working on this show forever, collecting bit by bit until it became a whole, to express myself fully,” said Slava. “Many things in the show come from childhood memories, like the image of snow, for example, and many others are pure invention in a style of clowning that I had never seen before.”

Slava’s Snow Show clowns and their fish friend taking a breather in St Helen’s Square on their York journey of discovery

Since its debut, the work has travelled all over the world, notching more than 12,000 performances in more than 225 cities and 40 countries and receiving more than 20 international awards, including an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and a Drama Desk Award.

“I started with a tiny role at the age of seven, and now, after my dad, who’s 75, I’m the most veteran of the performers – and he still performs sometimes,” says Vanya.

“The show doesn’t change that much dramatically down the years, because we don’t do things that are current, but do things that are eternal; it could be 100 years before now and it will hopefully still exist in 100 years. It has eternal emotions, friendship, love, fear and loss, so it doesn’t matter what year it is.

“These are the basics and that’s why it’s run so long. We try to connect with the inner child, so children love it, but adults love it too, and everyone leaves feeling like a kid, transforming into their playful self. Whenever things are bad, people turn to the arts for solace”

Slava’s SnowShow clowns clowning around on the Clifford’s Tower hillock

No two audiences are the same, says Vanya. “Everywhere we go, they are different, and not just from country to country, but city to city,” he explains. “In the first Act, we spend time looking for what rhythm of comedy they like. Is it slapstick or dramatic? What makes them laugh?

“For us, it’s really important to see how slow we can do the show as we are day-dreaming clowns, where we like to take it slowly without losing their attention! Clowning has evolved, and in the form that we’re doing it, it’s a new evolution.”

After big  balloons, bubbles and the spider’s web that is passed across the audience, Slava’s Snow Show climaxes with a paper snow blizzard. “We used to cut out the paper snowflakes with scissors, then with paper cutters, but now we order in our snow,” says Vanya. “It’s not a snow machine, but make-believe snow as you don’t get wet from paper!”

Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23; 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: Eight upwards.

Why the sad face? The frown meets the clown as CharlesHutchPress interviews Slava’s SnowShow’s Vanya Polunin at the Grand Opera House, York

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Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm, Saturday, 2.30pm & 7.30pm

London City Ballet in the UK premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition

LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum on Friday and Saturday.

This new repertoire showcases artists rarely seen in the UK and is in keeping with the company’s ethos of bringing to the stage rarely performed works.

George Balanchine’s early work Haieff Divertimento was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and to this day had remained unseen outside the USA until this London City Ballet season.

Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist-in-residence and a leading light on the global dance scene, delivers the UK premiere of his work Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s best-known masterpieces as the dancers bring the art to life.

Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score of the same name. Played live, Scarlett’s affecting ballet depicts the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love.

Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at the Paris Opera Ballet, has created a new work for the company in fluid musical style that combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering.

Returning to the London City Ballet company for 2025 are Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Nicholas Vavrečka, Arthur Wille, Jimin Kim and Cira Robinson.

New dancers for the 2025 season include Samuele Barzaghi (formerly Paris Opera Ballet), Yuria Isaka (former soloist at Staataballett Berlin), Sahel Flora Pascual (formerly School of American Ballet, Ballet Austin), Constance Devernay-Laurence (former principal at Scottish Ballet/TV actress), Josue Gomez (formerly Birmingham Royal Ballet), Pilar Ortega (formerly Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Indianapolis Ballet), Siméon Sorange-Félicité (formerly Conservatoire de Paris) and Lydia Rose Hough (formerly English National Ballet School).

Last year, on its return after three decades, the company was awarded Best Independent Company at the National Dance Awards, received a UK Theatre Awards nomination for Achievement in Dance and was nominated for Dance Europe’s Critics Choice for Best Company, New Name To Watch, Best Director and Best Revival for Kenneth MacMillan’s Ballade.

London City Ballet artistic director Christopher Marney

HERE artistic director Christopher Marney discusses London City Ballet’s origins, its triumphant return in 2024 and what to expect from its new programme.

LET’S start with the history bit. “London City Ballet was formerly the resident company of Sadler’s Wells,” says Christopher. “They grew a fond and loyal audience around the country by touring to venues in towns and cities where other dance companies dared not!

“Their reach was important because they engaged new audiences with excellent quality dance and built a foundation with a wide public.”

Returning after a 30-year hiatus, London City Ballet re-emerged into a radically altered dance scene. “I noticed that many of our wonderful venues around the UK were under-served by dance,” says Christopher. “Theatres had bustling programmes of plays and musicals but little on offer to dance audiences.”

The revitalised London City Ballet sought to address that scenario: “I was keen to help facilitate this by building the model of a ballet company that was tourable whilst still providing world-class talent and repertoire on stage,” says Christopher. 

London City Ballet had inspired his own career in dance, one that had taken in being principal dancer at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London. “I would see them often as a child, so had always harboured the desire to rebuild the company and get it back on the road,” he says.

Despite this reverence for the original form, he sensed the need to reflect the world wherein we live now: “This time around, I wanted to make it adept for the times we are living in but still retaining the original ethos of bringing top-drawer choreographers’ work and international dancers to regional theatres,”  he says.

The experience of reviving London City Ballet in 2024 was highly meaningful, not only for Christopher but also for the dedicated audience of English ballet: “It was a heart-warming return and we felt so welcome by the audiences around the country,” he says.

“Some were formerly avid London City Ballet followers 30 years ago, remembering what the company stood for, and many were new audience members seeing us for the first time. We opened the performance with projected images telling the story of the company’s beginnings, which set the scene well, and this was always met with great audience response.”

London City Ballet in Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum

In all, the company toured to 17 venues across three different continents in 2024, including bring the Resurgence tour to York Theatre Royal on September 6 and 7 as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to York.

Opening with Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Resurgence also featured Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances and Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.

London City Ballet is committed to bringing dance to audiences far and wide, a subject of passion for Christopher. “I am committed to keeping the company active and introducing people to revivals of works they have not seen before,” he says.

“When we arrive in a theatre we try to provide engagement opportunities around the performance, which includes participatory workshops and opportunities for audiences to watch the dancers in their daily warm-up ballet class before the performance.”

As to what audiences should expect from the new Momentum programme, Christopher says: “A mix of classical based work with a new contemporary creation made specially for the company. We will bring a ballet by George Balanchine which has never been seen in the UK and is highly anticipated.

“It has something for all the family and is a perfect introduction to dance with bite-sized pieces that are relatable through the portrayal of the company’s wonderful dancers.” 

Christopher is particularly excited to see Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At an Exhibition being brought to life in the UK for the first time as part of the mixed bill: “It is set against a backdrop of projected masterpieces by Kandinsky and the dancers onstage truly bring the art to life. It’s a spectacular work,” he says.

The company members remain of paramount importance to Christopher, who enthuses over the troupe of dancers he has assembled for this year’s tour: “Our performance is an opportunity to witness thrilling, talented dancers hailing from all over the globe, many who are new to the dance scene in the UK.

“From experienced principal dancers to emerging young UK talent, it’s a real showcase for their technical prowess and unique artistic qualities. It makes for an exciting mix.”

London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion; November 15, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.

London City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento, opening the Momentum programme

Christopher Marney: back story

FROM growing up watching London City Ballet in the early 1990s, the company was an early inspiration for his career as a choreographer, teacher and artistic director.

Formerly, as director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London, he had the pleasure of programming tours internationally, curating and commissioning diverse programmes.

These have included the repertoire of such choreographers as George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Liam Scarlett, Frederick Ashton, Jasmin Vardimon, Matthew Bourne and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

As a dancer, Chris worked internationally for the Balletboyz, Gothenburg Ballet, Ballet Biarritz, Bern Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, where he danced many principal roles around the world.

The Critics Circle National Dance Awards nominated him for Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance two years running as well as including him in Dance Europe’s Outstanding Male Dancer 2013 list.

Chris retired from performing in 2017 with Ivan Putrov’s Men In Motion where he danced the Faun in Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi d’un Faun.

As a choreographer, he has created works for Ballet Black, English National Ballet’s Emerging dancer, The Four Seasons for the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Nutcracker at the British Museum, Eve at Sadlers Wells and Lady Macbeth at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.

His London West End credits include choreography for McQueen The Play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Tell Me On A Sunday at the St James.

Named associate artist of the UK Foundation for Dance and holds a Masters degree in choreography, awarded by the University of Kent.

Remains committed to reviving less familiar but important works, shining a new light on those choreographies and providing access through extensive touring.

Re-formed London City Ballet in 2023 after 30-year hiatus, launching the first tour, Resurgence, in 2024.

London City Ballet on tour in Resurgence in 2024
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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 48, from Gazette & Herald

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies leading The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan

SUNNY Afternoon’s Kinks songs for dark nights, Dibley comedic delights and drag diva Velma Celli’s frock rock catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye.

Musical of the week: Sonia Freidman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees

RETURNING to York for the first time since February 2017, four-time Olivier Award winner Sunny Afternoon charts the raw energy, euphoric highs, troubling lows, mendacious mismanagement and brotherly spats of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, equipped with an original story (and nearly 30 songs) by frontman Ray Davies.

The script is by Joe Penhall, who says: “As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsider – punk before punk.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Nicki Clay’s Reverend Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Paul Miles

Village drama of the week: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre:41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

NICKI Clay is going doubly Dibley for MARMiTE Theatre in the new York company’s debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley, having played Geraldine Grainger for The Monday Players in Escrick in May.  

Martyn Hunter directs Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s first two TV series, bringing together all the favourite eccentric residents of Dibley as the new vicar’s arrival shakes up the parish council of this sleepy English village. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

N’Faly Kouyaté: Dancing shoes recommended

African rhythms of the week: N’Faly Kouyaté, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm

AFTER gracing stages across the world with Afro Celt Sound System — where Celtic voices and instrumentation met the vibrant heartbeat of African rhythms — avant-garde griot N’Faly Kouyaté embarks on a profoundly personal journey.

This masterful Guinean multi-instrumentalist, inspired vocalist and living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds returns with his album Finishing, whose songs stir the soul, provoke reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving. Bring your dancing shoes! Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Velma Celli: Rock Queen with a nod to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane slash. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography

Drag night of the week: Velma Celli: Rock Queen, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK’S international drag diva deluxe Velma Celli follows up her iconic October 1 appearance in Coronation Street soapland withan “overindulgent evening celebrating and re-imagining the best of rock classics” with her band. 

The alter ego of West End musical star Ian Stroughair, who has shone in Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago, cabaret queen Velma’s live vocal drag act has been charming audiences for 14 years, whether at Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse, her Impossible Brunches at Impossible York, or in such shows as A Brief History Of Drag, My Divas, God Save The Queens and Divalussion (with Christina Bianco). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Beth McCarthy: Heading back home to play Big Ian’s A Night To Remember charity concert. Picture: Duncan Lomax., Ravage Productions

Charity event of the week: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

BIG Ian Donaghy hosts a “night of York helping York” featuring a 30-strong band led by George Hall  with a line-up of York party band HUGE, Jess Steel, Beth McCarthy, Heather Findlay, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Simon Snaize, Annie-Rae Donaghy, fiddler Kieran O’Malley, Samantha Holden, Las Vegas Ken and musicians from York Music Forum, plus a guest choir. 

Proceeds from this three-hour fundraiser go to St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. Tickets update: Balcony seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Staff woes: William Ilkley, left, Levi Payne and Dylan Allcock in John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough

One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 12 to 15, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

ON the glitziest East Yorkshire fundraising night of the year, everyone wants to be there. The Bentleys are parked, the jazz band has arrived, the magician will be magic, but behind the bow ties, fake tans and equally fake booming laughter lie jealousies and avarice, divorces and affairs, as overdressed upstairs meets understaffed downstairs through a drunken gaze. 

The raffle is ridiculously competitive, the coffee, cold, the service, awful, the guest speaker, drunk, and the hard -pressed caterers just want to go home. Welcome to the Brechtian hotel hell of John Godber’s satirical, visceral comedy drama, as told by the exasperated hotel staff, recounting the night’s mishaps at breakneck speed in the manner of Godber’s fellow wearers of tuxedos, Bouncers. Box office:  01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Ensemble 360: Performing works by Shostakovich and Dvořák at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Matthew Johnson and Music in the Round

Classical matinee concert of the week: Ensemble 360, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2.30pm

ENSEMBLE 360’s chamber musicians Benjamin Nabarro and Claudia Ajmone-Marsan, violins, Rachel Roberts, viola, Gemma Rosefield, cello, and Tim Horton, piano, perform the dramatic intensity and soaring lyricism of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 and the radiant warmth and Czech folk-inspired melodies of Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, a piece cherished for its lush harmonies, spirited dances and seamless instrumental interplay. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Rock’n’roll show of the week: Two Pianos, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 7.30pm

IN the words of Jerry Lew Lewis, “Two Pianos are awesome rockers”. Tomorrow night, David Barton and Al Kilvo  bring their rock’n’roll piano show to Pocklington for a journey through the golden age of  Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee and, yes, the “The Killer” himself. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Lydia Hough and Joseph Taylor in London City Ballet’s Pictures At An Exhibition, on tour at York Theatre Royal

Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion); Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists rarely seen in the UK. Haieff Divertimento, an early George Balanchine work, was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and remained unseen outside the USA until now. Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at Paris Opera Ballet, combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering in his fluid new work.

Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist in residence, presents Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings. Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score, depicting the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Anna Gallon to direct York Shakespeare Project in modern nightlife take on Love’s Labours Lost at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Anna Gallon: Appointed director of York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost

ANNA Gallon will direct York Shakespeare Project in Love’s Labour’s Lost next spring as its 25-year project to stage all of William Shakespeare’s plays rolls on.

Her immersive production, set amid modern nightlife, will run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from April 22 to 25 2026 with 7.30pm evening performances complemented by a 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

 “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Anna as our director,” says YSP chair Tony Froud. “She emerged from an outstanding group of applicants and we know that she will find an exciting way to let the play speak to us in 2026.”

Anna is co-founder and artistic director of York theatre company Four Wheel Drive, perhaps best known for its 2023 production of The Trial Of Margaret Clitheroe in the Guildhall. She also appeared as Lucetta in YSP’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, directed by Tempest Wisdom in 2024.

 “I’m thrilled to be directing Love’s Labour’s Lost for YSP,” she says. “It’s a dazzling, witty play about language, love, and self-discovery – and I can’t wait to bring it to life in a way that feels vibrant and connected to the world we live in today.”

Set firmly in the here and now, Anna’s Love’s Labour’s Lost will re-imagine Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy of wordplay and romantic mischief in a world of modern nightlife. Her playful, immersive production promises to mix verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly.

Auditions will be held in Room 2 at Southlands Methodist Church on Tuesday, November 25, from 6.30pm, Wednesday, November 26, 6.30pm, and Saturday, November 29, from 10am. Anyone interested in auditioning can sign up via the online form: https://forms.gle/XiDKFL4CLiehUgacA

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Anna directly at annagalloncreative@gmail.com.

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REVIEW: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday ****

Always time for chocolate: Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

MARMiTE Theatre’s entire run of The Vicar Of Dibley sold out before opening night. What an achievement for this new York company – and how enviously any number of village churches must look at the full congregation.

New company, yes, but one steeped in names familiar to followers of the York theatre scene, from director Martyn Hunter to Nicki Clay, a third generation York performer with more than 50 shows in 26 years to her name.

Here she is on doubly Dibley duty, having played the Reverend Geraldine Granger in May for the Monday Players in Escrick.

Joining her in Hunter’s company are Florence Poskitt, Neil Foster, Mike Hickman, Adam Sowter, Jeanette Hunter and Helen “Bells” Spencer, all regulars on York’s boards, and Glynn Mills, whose absence of a cast profile in the programme made him a man of mystery to your reviewer.

Who will fill that empty seat? Dibley Parish Council awaits the arrival of the new incumbent in The Vicar Of Dibley. Present are Mark Simmonds’s Owen Newitt, left, Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton, Glynn Mills’s David Horton, Mike Hickman’s Frank Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia Cropley and Adam Sowter’s Jim Trott. Picture: Paul Miles

Research enquiries revealed he had been connected with theatre for 62 years, attending Central School of Speech & Drama, working in repertory theatre, the West End and on UK tours, and doing voiceovers and cabaret too. All that experience shows in a performance full of fire and ire, putdowns and intolerance as council chairman David Horton.

Rich Musk and Martyn Hunter’s set design accommodatesGeraldine’s cosy sitting room cum office with desk and typewriter alongside the tables and chairs of Dibley Parish Hall, permanently laid out for the next meeting.

Above is a screen, on which Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Carpenter’s first two television series opens with the familiar Dibley faces walking through the churchyard. Scene titles, Later, Later Still, Later That Evening, and such like, denote time of day and the change from one day to the next.

To either side of the screen on the mezzanine level is a neon-lit cross; on one occasion up there, Clay’s Geraldine tells one of her shaggy dog tales to Poskitt’s Alice Tinker, the ditzy church verger, but the lighting puts a distracting shadow slash across the vicar’s face from the barrier railing. Hopefully that can be eradicated.

In perfect harmony: Rachel Higgs, Helen “Bells” Spencer, Henrietta Linnemann and Cat Foster on choral duty in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

On more than one occasion, the York vocal harmony group The Hollywood Sisters (“Bells” Spencer, Cat Foster, Henrietta Linnemann and Rachel Higgs) transform themselves into The Holy Sisters to sing hymns in beatific Songs Of Praise manner. Wholly in harmony with the play’s multitude of formal meetings and informal chats, their inclusion is typical of Hunter’s good directorial judgements that see the sitcom flow of short scenes sustain momentum with a twinkle in the eye throughout.

The play opens with Mills’s grouchy parish council chairman David Horton hosting the meeting where the new vicar will make a first appearance. In attendance are his awfully nice son Hugo (Neil Foster); the stickler-for-accuracy minute-noting parish clerk Frank Pickle (Mike Hickman); knitting-on-her-knee Letitia Cropley (Jeanette Hunter) , creator of endless inedible cakes and sandwiches, and no-no-no-no-yes man Jim Trott (a gurning Adam Sowter, left arm in a sling, presumably not for extra comic effect?!).

Dashing in and out with bodily ablution problems that he loves to describe is blunt dairy farmer Owen Newitt (Mark Simmonds, York’s busiest actor of the moment as he follows his Macheath in York Opera’s The Beggar’s Opera with Dibley, only a month to go to Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes).

 Enter the new vicar, very definitely not a man as irascible chairman Horton expects, but Clay’s Geraldine Granger, drawing attention to her ample bust (matched by her even more ample supplies of chocolate). Whereupon Clay performs in the French style, mirroring the speech rhythms, facial expressions and mannerisms of Dawn’s sitcom vicar but with her own panache.

Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger looks on as Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton and Florence Poskitt’s Alice Tinker kiss at last in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

Clay’s Geraldine is a delight throughout, at once reverent yet irreverent, and her scenes with Poskitt’s ever-slow-off-the-mark, exasperating Alice are a particular joy.

Poskitt, a supremely expressive physical comedian, wins hearts too in her love-struck, tongue-tied bonding with Foster’s equally awkward, inhibited Hugo. Their kissing clench that stretches from Act One finale into Act Two opener is one of the comic highpoints, not least from the nimble-footed input of Clay’s Geraldine, breaking down the fourth wall to play to the audience in providing a running commentary on what’s going on.

Hickman’s Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia, Sowter’s Trott and especially Simmonds’s brusque Owen all have their moments too in MARMiTE Theatre’s debut that you will surely love, not hate. Don’t swear if you are too late for a ticket; Hunter and co have plans to do further Dibley village capers.

MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. All profits will be donated to Comic Relief.

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Who won Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025 awards and what were the highlights?

Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025 Best Documentary and Best of Fest winner: JD Donnelly’s The Hold

YORK’S Aesthetica Short Film Festival has concluded its landmark 15th anniversary edition by announcing 2025’s award-winning filmmakers: a new generation of talent poised to shape the future of screen culture.

For 15 years, Aesthetica has been the home of new voices in film, where tomorrow’s BAFTA and Oscar nominees and winners are first discovered.

Across five transformative days, from November 5 to 9, York welcomed filmmakers, delegates and industry professionals from more than 60 countries worldwide, underscoring the BAFTA-qualifying festival’s significance as an international platform for storytelling and creative exchange. 

This year’s winners, selected from more than 300 films spanning 15 categories, represent the best in innovation, creativity and emotional storytelling. Audiences were reminded that the filmmakers, writers and artists celebrated here are the stars of tomorrow, destined to become household names on the international stage.

Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025 Best Director: Reiff Gaskell for Cuerpos

2025 Award Winners

Genre awards:

  • Best Advertising: Swimming With Butterflies – Karl Stelter
  • Best Animation: Wild Animal – Tianyun Lyu
  • Best Artists’ Film: Mother Company – Alexandros Raptotasios; Konstantinos Thomaidis
  • Best Comedy: Dating In Your 20s – Lily Rutterford; Lucy Minderides
  • Best Dance: Spoken Movement Family Honour – Daniel Gurton
  • Best Documentary: The Hold – JD Donnelly
  • Best Drama: El Corazón – Oscar Simmons
  • Best Experimental: We Will Be Who We Are – Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda
  • Best Fashion: Fugue  – Nastassia Nikè Swan Yin Winge
  • Best Family Friendly: Girls Together – Christie Arnold
  • Best Music Video: Tank  – Garath Whyte
  • Best Thriller: Scope – Emma Moffat
  • Best VR & Immersive: Xian’er (Chinese Immortals) – Fang Zhou
  • Best Game: Blue Prince – Dogubomb
  • Best Feature (Documentary): Torn – Kullar Viimne
  • Best Feature (Narrative): Disremember – Matthew Simpson
  • Best Podcast: Reality Looks Back – Anne Jeppesen

Craft & special awards:

  • Best Director: Cuerpos – Reiff Gaskell
  • Best Cinematography: Baby – Simisolaoluwa Akande
  • Best Editing: No One Really Knows Me Well – Gaia
  • Best Screenplay: Giants – Alex Oates, Andy Berriman
  • Best of Fest: The Hold – JD Donnelly


Mark Kermode: Busy festival, playing with his band The Dodge Brothers twice, first at Silent Cinema with Live Score screening of 1928’s Beggars Of Life, starring Louise Brooks, at York Theatre Royal on November 6, then at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, on November 7, after his In Conversation with Mark Kermode book discussion with Surround Sound co-author Jenny Nelson at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Julie Edwards

Festival Highlights: Five days of creativity, performance and innovation

A Global Programme of Film

Aesthetica 2025 screened more than 300 films across multiple venues, representing genres from drama and documentary to experimental work and immersive VR projects. Filmmakers from around the world attended in person, sparking conversations and collaborations that extended beyond the cinemas into York’s streets and cafés. The festival’s international scale reinforces its role as a launchpad for talent on a global stage.

Masterclasses and industry insight

THE festival’s Masterclass series offered audiences unparalleled access to industry leaders, including:

  • Peter Straughan (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
  • Jasmin John (Adolescence, Boiling Point)
  • Mick Audsley (Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire)

Industry organisations such as Aardman, BBC, Film4, Framestore, The New York Times, ITV, Industrial Light & Magic and Ridley Scott Associates shared insights into directing, screenwriting, post-production and the creative use of emerging technologies.

Beyond the Frame: Live performance, comedy & music

York Theatre Royal played host to live events and performances:

  • Comedy Night with Sophie Duker & Friends, featuring Eleanor Tiernan and Bella Hull.
     
  • Silent Cinema with Live Score, featuring Louise Brooks in 1928’s Beggars Of Life accompanied by bass player Mark Kermode’s band The Dodge Brothers and Neil Brand.
     
  • Mark Kermode in Conversation with Surround Sound co-author Jenny Nelson, exploring the role of music in film storytelling.
     
  • The New Music Stage, showcasing ten emerging acts, with Universal Music A&R and singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti attending.

The poster for Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025

Immersive & Interactive: The EXPO, VR & Games Lab
 

THE VR & Games Lab pushed the boundaries of storytelling through interactive and immersive media. The Podcasting Lounge celebrated excellence in audio storytelling, while the York UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO highlighted cutting-edge innovation across digital media, visual effects and design. Workshops for children and teens in filmmaking, animation, and coding nurtured the next generation of creative talent.

UK Film Production Summit

THE UK Film Production Summit, held at The Grand, York, brought together more than 150 leading production companies, development executives and commissioners. Chaired by Ridley Scott Associates, discussions explored The Future of Production: Scripted, Unscripted, Film, TV & Streaming, with sessions on AI, virtual production, global streaming and investment models.

Mark Herbert, CEO of Warp Films, delivered a keynote speech on independent storytelling and the future of British production, joined by representatives from BBC Films, Film4, Working Title, Paramount, Clerkenwell (Baby Reindeer), Scott Free and many more. 

Festival director Cherie Federicosaid: “Aesthetica is about discovery, ambition, and possibility. Over five days, York becomes a place where the next generation of talent is seen first, where ideas collide, and where creativity thrives across every discipline – from film and music to VR, games and podcasts.

“This festival is the beating heartbeat of the UK’s creative sector, a space where innovation, culture and storytelling converge, shaping the future of our industry.”

Continuing online

AESTHETICA 2025 continues online until November 30, offering audiences the chance to catch up on all the films, see the winners and discover the brightest and boldest talent in screen from around the world. This digital extension ensures the festival’s creativity, innovation and international spirit can reach audiences across the UK and globally. Visit: www.asff.co.uk.