Out of the woods and into The Basement for Navigators Art’s Making Waves Live!, Sounds Of The Solstice today
BEST Musical multiple award winner Dear Evan Hansen and a Eurovision spoof light Charles Hutchinson’s fire as the June heat rises.
Midsummer festival of the weekend: Navigators Art presents Making Waves Live! Sounds Of The Solstice, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, today, 4pm to 10pm
FAVOURITE Navigators Art poets, comedians, singers and bands from the past two years will be complemented new friends in sessions from 4pm to 6.30pm, then 7.30pm to 10pm.
Taking part will be folk song duo Adderstone, poet Becca Drake, comedian Cooper Robson, storyteller Lara McClure, punk/jazz trio Borgia, psychedelic band Soma Crew; Will Martin; Jessica Van Smith; Cai Moriarty & Mason Chetnik, Mike Amber and more. Box office: bit.ly/nav-events.
The Wild Murphys: Performing One Night In Dublin for one night in York
Irish craic of the week: One Night In Dublin, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THE Wild Murphys revel in sing-along Irish classics Galway Girl, I’ll Tell Me Ma, The Irish Rover, Dirty Old Town, Whiskey In The Jar, The Wild Rover, Black Velvet Band and many more in two hours of song and humour.
Songs by The Pogues, The Saw Doctors, The Dubliners, The Fureys, Flogging Molly and The Dropkick Murphys receive the fiddle and accordion treatment. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Flowers And Friendship Bracelets: Celebrating Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus, Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo’s pop power at Grand Opera House
Pop party of the week: Flowers And Friendship Bracelets, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday
FLOWERS And Friendship Bracelets combines music, dance and excitement in “the ultimate pop concert in celebration of the biggest hits from the hottest artistes of the moment”. The songs of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter will climax with a huge pop party finale. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kamaljeet Ahluwalia and Jas Ahluwalia: Absolute Focus programme on santoor and tabla at the NCEMon Sunday evening
Indian classical concert of the week: Kamaljeet Ahluwalia and Jas Ahluwalia, Absolute Focus, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
HUSBAND and wife duo Kamaljeet Ahluwalia, on santoor, and Jax Ahluwalia, on tabla, perform their Absolute Focus programme at the NCEM. These former students of the late Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Ustaad Tari work on diverse projects, from Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and Disney series to live theatre, while introducing Indian classical music to audiences around the world in concerts of meditative introspection and energy-filled heights. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Looking to fit in: Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Last chance to see: Dear Evan Hansen, Grand Opera House, York, June 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees
THE Grand Opera House will be the last English port of call on the UK tour of Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levinson’s Olivier, Tony and Grammy Best Musical award winner.
Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a teenager with a social anxiety disorder that inhibits his ability to connect with his peers. After the death of fellow student Connor Murphy, Evan (played by Ryan Kopel) entangles himself in an unwieldy fib, claiming he was Connor’s secret best friend. Thrust ever deeper into a web of lies, he gains everything he has ever wanted: a chance to belong. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Ione Cummings’ Antonia in York Opera’s The Tales Of Hoffmann. Picture: John Saunders
Opera of the week: York Opera in The Tales Of Hoffmann, York Theatre Royal, June 25 to 28, 7.15pm plus 4pm Saturday matinee
ELIZABETH Watson and John Soper direct York Opera in Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann, based on three short stories by German romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann.
Tenors Karl Reiff and Hamish Brown perform the title role on alternate nights; Hoffmann’s evil enemies will be played by Ian Thomson- Smith and Mark Simmonds and his love interests will be sung by Stephanie Wong (Olympia), Ione Cummings (Antonia) and Katie Cole (Giulietta). Alexandra Mather takes the role of Hoffmann’s loyal friend, Nicklaus. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York Light Opera Company cast members in rehearsal for Neil Wood’s production of Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe
Eurovision celebration of the week: York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat – Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm, June 25 to 27 and July 1 to 4; 3pm, June 28 and 29 and July 5
AUSTRALIAN composer, writer and lyricist Craig Christie’s high-octane, electrifying musical Eurobeat: The Pride Of Europe celebrates the vibrant energy and spirit of the continent. Expect non-stop, infectious Eurobeat rhythms, dazzling visuals and a show to leave audiences breathless.
Prepare to dance and soak up the fun of an annual European song contest where audience participation decides the winner. Neil Wood directs a cast led by Annabel van Griethuysen as hostess Marlene Cabana and Zander Fick as master of protocols Bjorn Bjornson. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Just like hat: Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre’s guys rehearsing Guys And Dolls for next week’s Joseph Rowntree Theatre run
Burgeoning talent of the week: Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre in Guys And Dolls, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, June 26 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
MALTON company Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre heads to York to present Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ musical fable of Broadway, Guys And Dolls.
Set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City, this oddball romantic comedy finds gambler Nathan Detroit seeking the cash to set up the biggest craps game in town while the authorities breathe down his neck. Into the story venture his girlfriend, nightclub performer Adelaide, fellow gambler Sky Masterson and straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Snow Patrol: More likely sun than snow on return to Yorkshire coastline on Friday
Coastal gig of the week: Snow Patrol, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 27; gates open at 6pm
SNOW Patrol visit Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Friday for the first time since July 2021. The Northern Irish-Scottish indie rock band will be led as ever by Gary Lightbody, accompanied by long-time members Nathan Connolly, lead guitar, and Johnny McDaid, piano. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Danny Lee Grew: Mind-boggling magic at Friargate Theatre, York
Magic show of the week: Danny Lee Grew, 24K Magic, Friargate Theatre, York, June 27, 7.30pm
CLACTON-ON-SEA magician Danny Lee Grew presents his new mind-boggling one-man show of magic, illusion, laughs, gasps and sleight of hand sorcery. 24K Magic showcases the kind of magic usually seen on television, but now live, in the flesh and under the most impossible conditions. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.
Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger from his On Tour With The Rolling Stones 1975 exhibition at Sledmere House
IN June 1975, Christopher Simon Sykes, of 18th century Sledmere House, near Driffield, joined the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas: his rock’n’roll baptism of fire as a snapper after specialising in photographing stately home interiors.
“You’ve never been on tour have you, Chrissy. It’s not like country life, you know,” said Mick Jagger, on the Yorkshire aristocrat’s arrival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accompany the Stones on their three-month tour of North America and Canada, playing 40 shows in 27 cities: the biggest tour ever staged at that time. Fifty trucks, 100 staff erecting one version of the lotus flower set design at the next location while the Stones played on the same design in another city.
Fifty years later, for the first time, Christopher has picked 34 photographs from the 1,600-1,700 he took for an exhibition on home soil in the Courtyard Room at Sledmere House, with all works on sale at £650 (printed, mounted, signed, framed) or £500 (printed, mounted, signed). Or you could acquire six postcards for a bargain £5 or £2 each.
Christopher, the third son of Sir Richard Tatton-Sykes, 7th Baronet of Sledmere, was 27, (Jagger was 31) when taking on his one and only rock’n’roll commission before he would go on to write 14 books.
“The reason I went on the tour was to do the photographs for a book as the Stones wanted to do a tour diary,” Christopher recalls, over a cup of tea in the early evening sun outside Castle Farm, in Sledmere, his venerable dog at his feet.
“It came out a year later, but it was a terrible, cheap paperback edition, where all the pages fell out after a month. The text was written by Terry Southern [the satirical American novelist, essayist screenwriter and university lecturer], after I sent Mick what I’d written about what it’s like to go on tour, but he’d said it was so ‘boring’ that he’d asked Terry to write the book instead, even though he wasn’t even on the tour!”
Catching Up With The News: Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger reading a newspaper on the 1975 tour
Christopher recalls Southern’s words being “nonsenscical stuff” and the book also featuring American photographer Annie Leibovitz’s photographs from the same T.O.T.A ’75 tour. “I was the official diarist; she was the official tour photographer,” he explains.
“I’ve still got a copy in London. I picked it up the other day, and there’s no glue holding it together now! It was published in Holland by a company called Dragon’s Dream, which tells you everything.”
Not until 2001 did a book do full justice to Christopher’s photographs or make use of his copious diary notes. Step forward Genesis Publications, subscription publishers of gorgeously packaged and embossed books, to print 500 luxury editions at £500 and 2,500 standard editions at £300.
“They all sold out, so you can’t get a copy now, apart from trying to get one online,” he says. Maybe, just, maybe, Genesis Publications might look to do a 50th anniversary re-print. Watch this space.
Until then, Christopher’s photographs, transparencies and negatives had been consigned to a filing cabinet in his London cellar. “I was having dinner one night with Mark Getty, who’d just started Getty Images in 1999, and I was telling him the story of my Rolling Stones photographs when he said he’d love to exhibit them.”
Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas in 1975
That Getty Images show – the only comprehensive exhibition of Christopher’s iconic T.O.T.A ’75 tour images until now – was seen by Genesis Publications and the book ensued.
Now Leeds photographer and documentary filmmaker Paul Berriff MBE has mounted and framed the 34 photographs that Christopher whittled down from 90 for the Sledmere show. “All the negatives are still in good conditions,” says Christopher.
“Let Christopher have what he wants,” Jagger informed the band’s lawyers, as the Stones retain the copyright. “I’ve chosen what I thought were the most striking images, all unique, as I had a special access that nowadays, if you’re going on a rock’n’roll tour as a photographer, you wouldn’t get,” says Christopher.
“But when I did it, I was like an extra member of the band. With all the accreditation, I had complete freedom to be wherever I wanted to be, which could be Mick’s hotel room, the dressing rooms, on stage, on the bus, on the plane called the Starship, a wonderful Boeing 737 converted for rock bands going on tour!”
Yet how did Christopher ever land such a gig in the first place? “I was working for Hesketh Racing, taking photographs for Lord Hesketh, a rich young chap, who wanted to prove he could finance a team to win a Grand Prix,” he recalls.
Christopher Simon Sykes’s tour pass as photographer on The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas in 1975, aged 27
The memorial album he made for Lord Hesketh came to the attention of the Rolling Stones’ financial manager, Prince Rupert Loewenstein, who told him of the tour diary project.
Christopher met the band in America, applied for the photographer’s post, but when Prince Rupert told him he ‘couldn’t get Mick to make up his mind’, Christopher phoned Mick once more. “For once he picked up the phone.”
“What, Rupert told you I didn’t want you on the tour?” said Jagger, always the decision maker. “Well, you call Rupert now and tell him I do want you to come!”
The first night, Christopher had no security pass, forcing him to film from the back of the stage. As chance would have it, it produced the opening picture of this exhibition, the one occasion Jagger faced him, as the sweat-drenched frontman took deep breaths in preparation for the encore.
After those three extraordinary months, Christopher would never photograph a rock band again. “After a while, it was just too monotonous,” he reasons. This would be last time, as well as the first time, but what photographic memories he produced.
On Tour With The Rolling Stones 1975, A 50th Anniversary Exhibition of Photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes, Sledmere House, Sledmere, near Driffield, June 13 to July 6, except Mondays and Tuesdays, 10am to 5pm. Tickets: sledmerehouse.com.
Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of bass player Bill Wyman on The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas
Waving the flag: Contestants on parade in the rehearsal room for York Light Opera Company’s Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe
ABBACADABRA! York Light Opera Company will celebrate the magical spirit and vibrant energy and Eurovision in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 25 to July 5.
Expect non-stop, infectious Eurobeat rhythms and dazzling visuals in Australian composer, writer and lyricist Craig Christie’s high-octane, electrifying musical, presented in its York debut under the direction of Neil Wood and musical direction of Martin Lay.
“I didn’t know of the show until the company approached me and said, ‘this is what we want to do for the summer show’, and I thought, ‘absolutely’! It’s such fun,” says Neil.
“It seems to have taken various guises. The first one I found, from 2008, starred Les Dennis and Mel Giedroyc and was called Eurobeat…Almost European. Then, in 2016, it was revamped by the same writer as Eurobeat Moldova, starring Rula Lenska and Lee Latchford-Evans. Then MTI [Music Theatre International] released this one, Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe.
“It’s very much a re-write but with some of the same songs. Craig Christie updates it each time, freshening it up with more Eastern bloc countries, like Lithuania, this time.
York Light Opera Company in rehearsal for Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe
“The challenge for us is to present it as an event to take part in. For anyone who loves Eurovision, if it’s on your bucket list, then this is your opportunity to get involved.”
What happens? “The audience can not only dance and revel in the fun of the European song contest, but also they will decide the winner, with the chance to vote on an app or good old pen and paper,” says Neil.
“The cast won’t know who’s won until it’s announced, but there’ll be a nod to it ten minutes out from the end because of the costume changes needed.”
The Eurobeat show will be hosted in Lichtenstein – winner of the right to do so by default, apparently – by Annabel van Griethuysen’s Marlene Cabana and overseen by Zander Fick’s master of protocols, Bjorn Bjornson, while Fanny Feuberger, Joy Warner, Kevin Kupferblum and Simon Kelly will take on the roles of Cultural Ambassadors.
Representing Sweden will be Astrid Lungstomberg (played by Emma Swainston); for Poland, Obwody Wirujące (Kit Stroud, Sophie Cunningham and Chloe Branton); Romania, Earnestasia (Emily Rockliff); United Kingdom, Nigel and Nadine (Stephen Wilson and Pascha Turnbull) and Lithuania, Idomus (Pierre-Alain van Griethuysen and Megan Taaffe).
York Light Opera Company cast members working on a routine in rehearsal for Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe
On song for Greece will be Persephone (Chloë Chapman); Portugal , Mateus Villela (Cain Branton); Vatican City, Mother Morag and the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony (Evie Latham and Lizzie Kearton); France, Estelle LaCroix (Amy Greene) and Norway, Hammer Of Thor (Daniel Wood and Matt Tapp).
“Each of the ten songs has an individual character in keeping with the familiar style of each country, but not too many ballads. So the French entry is very sultry; the Swedish entry has Loreen-esque vibes; the Norwegians have entered a heavy metal song – again!,” says Neil.
“The British act, Nigel and Nadine, are on the comeback trail. They were actors in what might have been 1970s’ sitcom and now they’re back, representing the UK.”
Eurobeat takes the form of the song contest in Act One, followed by the voting and extra songs in Act Two, climaxing with the result and the reprise of the winning number. “But rather than five hours on TV, it takes two hours on stage,” says Neil, who also provides the choreography in tandem with Sarah Craggs.
“Our job has been not just to create the songs as Eurovision moments but to find the humour, and if you know my style, if I can see a joke, I’ll use it. Having directed I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Nunsense for this company, this one goes in a completely different direction.
“It ends up as more of an event, thought it’s still a theatre show,” says Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe director Neil Wood
“It ends up as more of an event, though it’s still a theatre show, and from the audience point of view, it’s a blast! If you want to come in costume, you’re more than welcome to do so. We’ll have slash curtains, glitter and haze, everything you’d expect from Eurovision, but without the big budget.”
Praising Christie’s writing, Neil says: “It’s very cleverly written because the contestants and other characters have to talk directly to the audience or to speak in their second language, so the jokes deliberately don’t always land.”
He admits to being a Eurovision devotee. “I love it!” says Neil. “I grew up in the era where the UK still used to win. My earliest memories were Abba, Brotherhood Of Man and Milk And Honey, from Israel.
“It was the thing to watch it as a family, as I have with my kids as they’ve grown up, watching with the packets of Haribo in front of us. It’s so huge now; really in vogue.”
York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 25 to July 5.Performances: 7.30pm, June 25 to 27 and July 1 to 4, plus 3pm, June 28 and 29 and July 5. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
ARGENTINEAN bandoneon master musician and composer Marcelo Nisinman will perform Martin Palmeri’s Misatango in a fusion of Latin Mass and Latin American Tango for one night only at York Guildhall on June 28.
This will be the finale to Eve Lorian’s Sacred Rhythms – From Chant To Tango concert with Prima Choral Artists, pianist Greg Birch, Yorkshire mezzo-soprano soloist Lucy Jubb and the New World String Quintet, who will be travelling to York from various parts of the UK expressly for this 7.30pm concert (doors 7pm).
“Marcelo has worked with outstanding musicians across Europe and the Americas, and it’s a genuine pleasure and honour to have him here with us in York for this event,” says Eve.
“His talents are in high demand across Europe and his constant performance and recording schedule has seen him collaborate with the likes of Gary Burton, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia, among many, many others.”
Growing up in Buenos Aires, the young Nisinman met the legendary composer and bandoneon virtuoso Astor Piazzolla, who would rehearse at his parents’ home.
Prima Choral Artists’ directorEve Lorian with Misatango composer Martin Palmeri in New York in 2019
Invited by the great man to stand behind him to learn the secrets of his interpretations, Nisinman’s experience fuelled the raw emotion, tenderness and fiery passion of his bandoneon playing.
“It is no coincidence that Marcelo finds himself in our city this summer as our special international guest: this engagement is more a meeting of musical minds,” says Eve, who led Prima formerly under her professional Polish name of Ewa Salecka.
For more than 15 years, York producer, conductor and choral director Eve has been presenting choral and orchestral events, backed by the very best musicians and guest soloists, courtesy of her enviable network of international contemporary performers stretching back to her dedicated academic classical training as a pianist and composer.
Eve, who moved to Britain 20 years ago and to York four years later, has prepared and directed choirs of every size and form in concert programmes at home and abroad across Europe and in the United States, leading Prima Choral Artists to the technical levels they enjoy today.
“It was on one of my Carnegie Hall visits with Prima that I had the pleasure of working directly with Misatango composer Martín Palmeri, so his most celebrated work is very close to my heart and that of the choir,” she says.
Prima Choral Artists in concert
Both Eve and Marcelo are committed to presenting “accessible, intelligent music that breaks the mould and offers an exciting new experience to their audiences”. Hence this collaboration between these driven musicians promises a night of thrilling and passionate music.
“There’s no better vehicle for this than Palmeri’s Misa A Buenos Aires, fondly known as ‘Misatango’,” says Eve. “A unique Mass setting, it is infused with the passion and syncopation of tango. Featuring intense rhythmic drive, lush harmonies, and moments of spiritual depth, this modern mass is a showcase of Latin American sacred innovation.”
Prima will begin the concert by demonstrating their sweeping range of styles in Echoes of Faith & Rhythms of Life. The York choir will present pieces by Mozart, Randall Thompson, Astor Piazzola and Prima favourite Ola Gjeilo, all specifically chosen by Eve to showcase their diversity.
Instrumental accompaniment and stand-alone pieces will be performed by the New World String Quintet, formed by leading musicians from Opera North, in tandem with Nisinman.
Eve is delighted to welcome back mezzo-soprano soloist Lucy Jubb for her second performance of Misatango with Prima as the highlight after the interval. “As an experienced opera soloist, Lucy’s talent and warm vocal timbre form the perfect bridge between the emotion of Misatango and its sacred content,” she says.
Eve Lorian: Conductor, producer and performance coach
This celebration of sacred, sublime and sensual music, conceived, produced and conducted by Eve, will mark the 15th year of Prima Choral Artists events. “It is only fitting that this milestone anniversary is accompanied by our hand-selected programme accompanied by world-class musicians,” she says.
“Although the programme may be perceived as a little ‘unknown’ or ‘niche’ to some, it is thoroughly accessible and absolutely guaranteed to delight all tastes.”
Tickets are on sale at primachoral.com. “Due to the limited seating available in the historical venue of York Guildhall, early booking is highly recommended,” says Eve.
Did you know?
EVE Lorian’s choir has resumed the name of Prima Choral Artists. “Prima Vocal Ensemble is no more in use,” she says. “Same choir, new (old) name.”
The cover artwork for Van Morrison’s Remembering Now, his 47th studio album, if you include New Arrangements And Duets, his September 2024 archive collection of unreleased material, big band arrangements from 2014 and duets recorded between 2018 and 2019 with Willie Nelson, Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers and Joss Stone
REMEMERING Now is veteran Belfast mystic musician Van Morrison’s first collection of original compositions since 2022’s What’s It Gonna Take?
Whereas that contrarian album addressed themes of crisis and uncertainty, Covid and governmental mind control, this time love, youthful recollections and Belfast are at the core: “the landscape, the earth, the whole thing – not just the city” – in a “full connection to the land and people”.
The full track listing is: Down To Joy (first single); If It Wasn’t For Ray; Haven’t Lost My Sense Of Wonder; Love, Lover And Beloved; Cutting Corners (second single); Back To Writing Love Songs; The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours; Once In A Lifetime Feelings; Stomping Ground; Memories And Visions; When The Rains Came; Colourblind; Remembering Now and Stretching Out.
Morrison’s voice, guitar and saxophone are accompanied by key band members Richard Dunn, on Hammond organ, Stuart McIlroy, piano, Dave Keary, guitar, Pete Hurley, bass, Colin Griffin, drums and percussion, and Alan ‘Sticky’ Wicket, percussion.
Released on June 13, Remembering Now also features an array of accomplished collaborators. The strings were arranged and directed by Fiachra Trench,whose association with Morrisonstretches back to 1989’s Avalon Sunset, while working with Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello too.
Those strings were played by the Fews Ensemble,led by Joanne Quigley. Other contributions come from Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape International Spiritual Centre, lyricist Don Black and Dartmoor folk artist Seth Lakeman.
Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, Morrison remains a restless seeker at 79 (he will turn 80 on August 31), noted for his incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk in his spiritually uplifting songs.
Look out for Morrison sharing the bill with fellow 79-year-old headliner Neil Young at this year’s British Summer Time concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 11. His summer plans will culminate with 80th birthday celebration concerts at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, on August 30 (sold out), August 31 (sold out) and September 14.
Is there more music coming? “Always…There’s always more music,” promises Van Morrison.Picture: Lewis McClay
Here Van Morrison gives a rare interview to Dylan Jones. Long-time Morrison devotee CharlesHutchPress is delighted to share it with you.
Jones:It really does feel like it’s up there with the very best of things that you’ve done. It feels like a very special record. It’s all new material. It feels like a classic Van Morrison record, but it also sounds very contemporary. Can you explain your thought processes behind the creation ofRemembering Now?
Morrison: “Well, there really isn’t a thought process. It’s more like, for want of a better word, a psychic process or the-other-side-of-the-brain process. The thought process comes in when putting it together later on. In the beginning, it’s just instinct, intuition, sometimes randomness. It’s more like being a receiver – you’re receiving info, ideas, and concepts.
Jones:For the past couple of years you’ve been making records that perhaps celebrate the past – maybe genre records – but because this is all new material (apart from Down To Joy), that’s what makes it special, I think. So why did you want to do an album of new material now?
Morrison: “Well, it was going on in parallel. The recording process isn’t completely exclusive. The songs were running parallel to other projects, and a lot of them were recorded during the same time period.
“The last few projects I put out, it wasn’t a matter of the past – it was my nostalgia. People have their own nostalgia, and so do I. It was going back to the beginning, what gave me the impulse to do this.”
Jones:What was the inspiration behind thinking you could actually do it?
Morrison: “I was getting quite a lot of negative feedback during this period, so myself and the musicians just wanted to do something that was going to be fun.
“We weren’t trying to make any statement. We were just going to have fun and go back to the beginning – this is why we got into this in the first place. But the other songs were being written and recorded during the same period.”
Jones: There are 14 great songs on the album, very varied. What’s your favourite?
Morrison: “I don’t really have a favourite. I guess Stretching Out would probably be my favourite at this point.”
Jones:Down To Joy was first heard in Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast [released in the UK in January 2022]. Was it always your intention to put it on an album?
Morrison: “Oh yeah, of course. But it’s more complicated than that. There’s a backlog of material, and it’s finding a way to get the material out. Distribution can only deal with so much at a time. It’d be difficult to get out two records a year. One is manageable.
“There are new arrangements and projects that have just been sitting there gathering dust that were supposed to come out a long time ago – it’s just priorities and timing. Recently we were involved in skiffle and rock’n’roll and wanted to put that out at the time [Moving On Skiffle, March 2023, and Accentuate The Positive, November 2023, his 44th and 45th studio albums]. So it’s complicated.”
Jones:Talking about that particular song – how did it work? Did you get to watch the film before writing it?
Morrison: “Yeah. I watched the first draft of the film. During lockdown I did an interview with Nile Rodgers and Paul Williams. I was explaining to Nile that Kenneth came from North Belfast. I drove over there and remembered visiting in the sixties. I had friends there. We played music together.
“I had this vision of walking down the road in North Belfast, and that’s how the song started; ‘coming down to joy’. I had an image of these young guys coming down the street, having fun, laughing. That’s how it started.”
Jones: What’s the process of making a record? Is it always the same when you’re recording original material? Is it always finished when you get into the studio?
Morrison: “No, it’s not always finished. It’s a work in progress until you get the right take or the right arrangement. The song stays the same, but arrangements can change. Usually, I do a demo with myself – mainly on guitar, some on piano.
“Then I go in the studio, start with the drummer, play him the song. We run the song with guitar and drums to find the tempo, beat and approach. Then I bring in the bass player, run it with bass and drums, get the bass part together. Then I bring in keyboard, figure out what he’s going to play, then guitar. Once everyone’s learned the song, we’re ready to do a take.”
Jones:Where do you like to record these days?
Morrison: “Doesn’t matter. The engineer [Ben McAuley] is really good – he can record anywhere. Most of the rhythm section was in Cardiff, so we recorded there. Two keyboards, bass, drums were there. I brought in a guitar player from Limerick [Dave Keary] and myself – so basically, it was based in Cardiff. Sometimes we recorded in Bath, either at Real World or at a hotel there.”
“Part of me has never really left the street corner. I’m still that guy hanging out there,” says Van Morrison. Picture: Bradley Quinn
Jones: Do you like recording in America?
Morrison: “It depends. I liked Studio D in Sausalito. I did a lot of stuff at the Record Plant. But it’s not really about the place – it’s about mixing up the musicians.”
Jones:Why did you want to work with Don Black again?
Morrison: “Don Black was a bit of a wild card. I wasn’t looking for a co-writer. I used to listen to his radio show on songwriting. I met him at the BMI Awards – we were both up for Icon Awards.
“Later I got a CD with his song Days Like These on it. I thought, ‘I could have written this’. So I asked him to send me lyrics if he had anything that might suit me. He sent Every Time I See A River. I put music to it, recorded it – it worked.
“So he keeps sending me lyrics, and most of the time it works. It wasn’t really a choice. It just happened. The universe kind of set it up.”
Jones:Similarly, why collaborate with Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape Centre?
Morrison: “We’d talked for years about writing a song together. Every time we met, we’d say we would but never got around to it. So I ended up taking words from one of his books and putting music to them. I sent it to him – he liked it. So it worked.”
Jones:So, when you do those collaborations, you’re not actually working together in person?
Morrison: “No. They just send me lyrics, and I do the rest. Don [Black] doesn’t write music. I was going through my library and found Science Of Mind by Ernest Holmes. I used to be into it years ago and wanted to get back into it.
“I looked for local centres – found an interview with Michael Beckwith instead – it resonated. Later, at a party in Malibu, someone mentioned Agape. I asked Roma Downey about it – she knew Michael and set up a meeting. I met him and visited Agape. It just went from there.”
Jones: There’s obviously such a strong sense of – if you’ll forgive the word – spirituality in this record. There often seems to be in your work. How have your personal beliefs changed over the years?
Morrison: “Well, it’s not a belief. It’s an energy. It’s a frequency. That’s how I see it – a frequency.”
Jones:And is that frequency a creative frequency?
Morrison: “Yeah, it is.”
Jones: And do you feel that you are channelling that?
Morrison: “Absolutely.”
Jones:Do you have to wait for that, or can you summon it?
Morrison: “Most of the time, yeah. Sometimes you wait, but most of the time, you have to summon it. Other people meditate or use other methods. I have to actively summon it.”
“It’s a jazz approach — not trying to be popular for a set time. Not being manipulated by the system,” says Van Morrison
Jones: As a creative person, having done this for a long time, does that make the process shorter?
Morrison: “It depends on the individual. I had to work my way through this. You have to deal with the energy. Back in the ’70s, I didn’t know how to deal with it — it was burning me out. People around me were burning out on drugs. One of them almost died.
“So I was given this book by Carl Jung, Man And His Symbols. I started to discover what it was about — projection. When you’re famous, people constantly project on you. This happens to everyone, but with famous people it’s amplified. It can destroy you if you don’t understand what’s happening. Or you can work your way through it.
“So I had to learn to deal with the energy and the negativity. The media constantly projects negativity – they think that sells. So they create what I call a ‘third party’. There’s you, and there’s the audience – that’s a two-way street. But the media creates a third thing that people start relating to instead of you. That took a long time to work through and come out the other end, learning to handle it.”
Jones: Where you are different – maybe like Bob Dylan – is that most artists have an “imperial period,” seven to nine years of great music and creativity, then they fall off. But you’re still making records as good as 50 or 60 years ago. You must be aware of that.
Morrison: “Yeah. Basically, I’m coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what’s commercial. That’s where I started, and that’s still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton. And the blues. And then the skiffle scene – Ken Colyer, Chris Barber, Lonnie Donegan.
“So it’s a jazz approach — not trying to be popular for a set time. Not being manipulated by the system. If your system is empty to start with, you can avoid getting sucked in.”
Jones: You have this ability to keep moving forward musically yet always make records that are quintessentially Van Morrison. How good an editor are you?
Morrison: “I’m very bad.”
Jones:Of your songs?
Morrison: “Oh, very good. Very good. See, that’s when the thought process comes in.”
Jones: You must have a vast amount of material you’ve recorded but haven’t released.
Morrison: “That’s right. Yeah. It’s just massive.”
Jones: Out of interest, Bob Dylan has a parallel career of releasing unreleased material and many think it’s better than what came out at the time. Would you consider doing that?
Morrison: “Yeah, I would – I just don’t have a system together to do it yet. Everyone talks about it – ‘Are you gonna put your money where your mouth is?’. But nobody’s come up with a plan.
“It’s just too huge. There’s so much good stuff. Distribution can only realistically handle one record a year. I don’t have a team. I’d need a team of people to figure it out. And we don’t have that yet.”
Jones: With Remembering Now, there’s a big emphasis on string arrangements. You’ve used strings throughout your career, but they seem particularly prominent here. Was that a conscious decision? They work beautifully on the record.
Morrison: “It was just that I wanted to work with the arranger [Fiachra Trench] again. I hadn’t worked with him in a while, so I got in touch, sent him some of the songs, and we went from there. I wanted to reconnect. He’s very good. We’ve worked together a lot, so I don’t have to explain much.”
“It’s about staying connected to that original energy, that original impulse that got you into it in the first place,” says Van Morrison
Jones:Almost from your first records, you’ve referenced your childhood, your adolescence and the important role of place in your life. That’s true of this album too. How has your relationship with Belfast changed?
Morrison: “Everybody’s has changed – even those who stayed and didn’t go anywhere. The sense of place has changed. I made a documentary in the 1980s – I think it was called A Sense Of Place. It featured poets like Michael Longley, Gerald Dawe, Seamus Deane, Derek Mahon. It was about that theme: place.
“My old English teacher, Davy Hammond, was a folk singer, broadcaster and documentarian. He may have coined the phrase ‘sense of place’. The documentary subject matter ties into Remembering Now.
“It’s about the landscape, the earth, the whole thing – not just the city. That’s what Kenneth Branagh was getting at with his film Belfast. It’s a full connection to the land and people.”
Jones:The album does seem to have a strong theme around Belfast. Was that intentional?
Morrison: “It’s just the way the songs came about. Part of me has never really left the street corner. I’m still that guy hanging out there. I still see some of those guys around. Part of me is still there.”
Jones: Well, it sounds like it. Many artists who’ve had careers as long as yours don’t have that kind of rootedness.
Morrison: “Yeah, well, you see, it’s about staying connected to that original energy, that original impulse that got you into it in the first place. And if you can do that, then you’re always drawing from the same well. It’s the same creative source.”
Jones: So, for you, it’s not nostalgia – it’s a living connection.
Morrison: “Exactly. It’s not about trying to recreate the past. It’s about being in the present with that energy still flowing. So you can still create new things that are just as vital.”
Jones: How do you maintain that sense of integrity over such a long period?
Morrison: “I just try to stay true to the music. That’s the bottom line. I don’t care about trends or charts. I don’t care about what people think is cool. I care about the music – what feels right to me.”
Jones:And that’s what’s sustained you?
Morrison: “Yeah, that’s what keeps it alive for me. That’s why I’m still doing it.”
Jones:Are you still as passionate about making music as you ever were?
Morrison: “More so, maybe, because I know what I’m doing now. Back then, I didn’t always know – I was figuring it out. Now I know what works, what doesn’t. I have the freedom to just do it.”
Jones: Do you still get nervous before releasing something new?
Morrison: “Not nervous, but curious. I wonder how it will land – what people will hear in it? But I don’t worry. That’s not my job. My job is to make the music.”
Hannah Davies and Jack Woods: Performing The Ballad Of Blea Wyke at Shakespeare Gallery, Scarborough, on Friday and Saturday. Picture: Matt Jopling
ELECTRONIC music by the sea, best musical award winner Dear Evan Hansen and a Eurovision spoof light Charles Hutchinson’s fire.
Scarborough Fringe show of the week: Next Door But One and Say Owt present The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, Shakespeare Gallery, St Helen’s Square, Scarborough, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm
STORYTELLING, poetry and music show The Ballad Of Blea Wyke re-tells the traditional Selkie myth, re-imagined for a not-far-into-the-future dystopian Yorkshire coast by North Yorkshire theatre-maker Hannah Davies and Pascallion musician Jack Woods.
Micro-commissioned by York Theatre Royal as part of the Green Shoots project in May 2022, the show has grown into a 60-minute performance by writer, performer, director and Say Owt associate artist Davies and guitar, mandolin and violin player Woods. Box office: scarboroughfair.uk/events/the-ballad-of-blea-wyke/
Pendulum: Electronic rock at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Coastal gigs of the week: Pendulum, supported by Normandie, Friday; Basement Jaxx, Saturday, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, gates open at 6pm
FORMED in Perth, Western Australia, in 2002, electronic rock act Pendulum have returned from a self-imposed hiatus with the EPs Elemental and Anima, festival headline shows and now Scarborough. Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul Harding’s drum & bass group released such albums as 2005’s Hold Your Colour, 2008’s In Silico and 2010’s UK chart topper, Immersion, before shifting their focus to their Knife Party project in 2012.
Fellow electronic combo Basement Jaxx play Scarborough this weekend as part of their resumption of live shows after ten years of “DJing around the globe”. “It’ll be great to return to the live stage: to connect to people with life-affirming energy and give people a great time,” says Felix Buxton. Cue house and garage with a punk attitude. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Raul Kohli: Exploring what it means to be British at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
York comedy gig of the week: Raul Kohli: Raul Britannia, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Saturday, 8pm
COMEDIAN and proud Brit Raul Kohli is the son of a Hindu Indian and Sikh Singaporean, raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his best friend was a Pakistani Muslim.
Kohli has lived in every corner of this glorious nation and is fascinated by the diversity of these small isles. Imagine his surprise to hear from politicians and the media that “multiculturalism has failed”: the spark that lit the flame for his exploration of what it means to be British. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Qween UK: They will rock you at Helmsley Arts Centre
Tribute show of the week: Qween UK, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
QWEEN UK celebrate the works of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor in a tribute show that encompasses all the “classic” Queen songs, complemented by subtle acoustic arrangements. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen: Thrust ever deeper into a web of lies at Grand Opera House, York
Last chance to see: Dear Evan Hansen, Grand Opera House, York, June 24 to 28, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees
THE Grand Opera House will be the last English port of call on the UK tour of Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levinson’s Olivier, Tony and Grammy Best Musical award winner.
Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a teenager with a social anxiety disorder that inhibits his ability to connect with his peers. After the death of fellow student Connor Murphy, Evan (played by Ryan Kopel) entangles himself in an unwieldy fib, claiming he was Connor’s secret best friend. Thrust ever deeper into a web of lies, he gains everything he has ever wanted: a chance to belong. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Alexandra Mather’s Nicklaus in York Opera’s The Tales Of Hoffmann. Picture: John Saunders
Opera of the week: York Opera in The Tales Of Hoffmann, York Theatre Royal, June 25 to 28, 7.15pm plus 4pm Saturday matinee
ELIZABETH Watson and John Soper direct York Opera in Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann, based on three short stories by German romantic writer E.T.A Hoffmann.
Tenors Karl Reiff and Hamish Brown perform the title role on alternate nights; Hoffmann’s evil enemies will be played by Ian Thomson- Smith and Mark Simmonds and his love interests will be sung by Stephanie Wong (Olympia), Ione Cummings (Antonia) and Katie Cole (Giulietta). Hoffmann’s loyal friend, Nicklaus, will be performed by Alexandra Mather. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York Light Opera Company in rehearsal for Neil Wood’s production of Eurobeat – Pride Of Europe
Eurovision celebration of the week: York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat – Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm, June 25 to 27 and July 1 to 4; 3pm, June 28 and 29 and July 5
COMPOSER, writer and lyricist Craig Christie’s high-octane, electrifying musical Eurobeat: The Pride Of Europe celebrates the vibrant energy and spirit of the continent.
Expect non-stop, infectious Eurobeat rhythms, dazzling visuals and a show to leave audiences breathless. Prepare to dance and revel in the fun of an annual European song contest where audience participation decides the winner. Neil Wood directs a cast led by Annabel van Griethuysen as hostess Marlene Cabana and Zander Fick as master of protocols Bjorn Bjornson. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Guitarist James Oliver: Playing Ryedale Blues Club gig on June 26
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club, The James Oliver Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, June 26, 8pm
THE ever busy James Oliver Band play upwards of 300 gigs a year all over Great Britain, Europe and the USA, chalking up 3,000 so far.
Guitarist Oliver, UK Blues Awards Emerging Artist of the Year winner in 2020, has released two studio and three live albums and is working on a new record with legendary producer John Leckie. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com
Aaron Simmonds: Headlining the Hilarity Bites Comedy Club bill on June 27
Ryedale comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club presents Aaron Simmonds, Alex Mitchell and Chris Lumb, Milton Rooms, Malton, June 27, 8pm
AARON Simmonds has been failing to stand up for 32 years. Luckily he is far better at comedy than standing up, offering sharp observations grounded in his disability, but by no means limited by it.
2024 Britain’s Got Talent finalist Alex Mitchell is an autistic comic with functional neurological disorder (FND), In his Tics Towards Puffection show, he laughs at himself, his neurodivergence, disability and sexuality to reflect on difficult subjects within his own life and wider society. Host Chris Lumb manages and performs in The Discount Comedy Checkout improv group. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
James Sheldon’s Mr Darcy and Rosetta Hesmondhalgh’s Lizzy Bennett in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith
LOTTE Wakeham’s new production of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice comes to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from July 3 to 26 in an adaptation by American writer Kate Hamill.
This co-production between the SJT, Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Hull Truck Theatre and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in association with Theatr Clwyd, Mold, opened at Bolton on June 5.
Hamill’s witty adaptation brings to life Austen’s story of love, misunderstandings and second chances, with music and dancing aplenty, in a whirl of Regency parties and courtship as hearts race, tongues wag and passions swirl around the English countryside.
Combining sharp humour and sparkling dialogue, Hamill’s re-telling uncovers the absurdities and thrills of finding the perfect (or imperfect) match in life.
Leading Wakeham’s cast at the heart of the love story are Rosa Hesmondhalgh as Lizzy Bennet and James Sheldon as Mr Darcy, joined by Aamira Challenger, Jessica Ellis, Ben Fensome, Joanna Holden, Dyfrig Morris, Eve Pereira and Kiara Nicole Pillai.
Octagon Theatre artistic director Wakeham says: “As a huge Austen fan, I am delighted to be directing this vibrant, witty and funny production, which has been adapted brilliantly by Kate Hamill. We have a stellar cast and creative team on board to bring this iconic story to life.”
Joining Wakeham and Hamill in the creative team are movement director Jonnie Riordan; composer and musical director Sonum Batra; set and costume designer Louie Whitemore; lighting designer Jamie Platt and sound designer Andy Graham.
New York writer Kate Hamill. Picture: SubUrban Photography
Here Jeannie Swales puts questions to Kate Hamill about her adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.
What is it about Jane Austen, an early 19th-century Englishwoman, who rarely, if ever, travelled more than 100 miles from her rural home, that speaks to you as a 21st -century New Yorker?
“Well, I got interested in her work in a couple of different ways. I just love the novels and have read them many times. I spent a semester in London when I was at university, and I went to Bath and her house and the whole bit.
“But I take a new play approach to adaptations – I really treat it as a collaboration between myself and the original author, who is sometimes currently dead!
“And Jane Austen is interested in a lot of the same things that I’m interested in. She’s very, very funny, obviously. She’s really interested in how the dictates of our conscience clash with what society expects of us.
“She was very much a proto-feminist. I really wanted to adapt her books in the order that she wrote them – I’ve just finished Emma – so Pride And Prejudice was my second. I wanted to trace her journey and make each of
the plays very different. I also wanted to present them in a totally new way. “I like really irreverent, theatrical shows that treat something as a new play and are in conversation with the original, not just a copy-and-paste version. So I felt like Jane, who I sympathised with a lot and who was interested in a lot of the same things I was, was a great collaborator.”
Joanna Holden and Dyfrig Morrisin Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith
How do you approach adapting these stories? How do you identify theelements and incidents that you want to keep or lose?
“Jane [Austen] has been adapted a million times, so I’m really interested in what I have to bring to it. The original is always going to be the original; I don’t just want to create a copy. I want to create a work of theatre that is interesting to both people who know the novel and people who don’t know it at all.
“But also I want to create something that’s new and surprising even for people who do know the novel. I read the original and see what it brings out in me, the thematic questions, and then I write it very much as a new play in conversation with the original, cutting out anything that dramaturgically doesn’t work with that new play.
“So, for instance, with Pride And Prejudice, I was really interested in how we know that we’ve found the perfect match in life. Even now, and certainly in Jane Austen’s day, we treat love like a mix between a game and a war – down to tactics and strategies.
“I got very interested in the game theory – there are even [dating] books with titles like The Game and The Rules. So I wanted a play structure that’s very high stakes, and halfway between a game and a war, and I thought, that’s a farce.
“And then I thought, there’s been a bunch of different versions, down to Pride And Prejudice with zombies, and all sorts of loose adaptations like Bridget Jones’s Diary, which I’m a particular fan of, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a farce before.”
Aamira Challenger and Rosa Hesmondhalghin Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith
Talking of the perfect match – the first production of your version of Pride And Prejudice starred you and your now-husband, Jason O’Connell, as Lizzy and Darcy…
“I actually met Jason about five years before I wrote Pride And Prejudice, and at the time I had a boyfriend. I met him and shook his hand, and it was like a bell went off in my head – something I’d never experienced before.
“And I thought, ‘oh, that is trouble and weird’, but I ignored it for about a year until I was single again. When I wrote Pride And Prejudice, we were starting to talk about marriage, and I had historically been someone who’d been frightened of marriage,
“I didn’t think it was for me, and now I’m very happily married. But I think Pride And Prejudice was my way of exploring all the different kinds of matches, and how they go wrong and how they go right. And yes, in the world premiere, I played Lizzy and he played Darcy, so I got to experience all that catharsis live!”
You have been frustrated by the dearth of shows with a feminist gaze, leading to a $100 bet with a friend, and from there to your first play, Sense And Sensibility. Was that bet the crystallisation of a long, slow process, or was it a light bulb moment?
“I think it probably just catalysed something that had been building in me. I think quite often I write from a place of great love, or great anger, and sometimes both.
Rosa Hesmondhalgh, left, Joanna Holden and Aamira Challenger in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith
“I love the theatre; I think it’s a transformative place, one of the few public spaces left that are sort of public squares, where you can have this live catharsis and you’re not just staring at a screen.
“But at that time, at least in the States, playwriting was very much a male-dominated field. In fact, at that point, the primary adaptor of Austen in the States was a man.
“Not that there’s anything at all wrong with men adapting Austen, of course, but I felt like this is this very important female writer and she’s not even being told through a female gaze.
“I infamously went out with my friend, and we split a couple of bottles of wine, and I wrote her a $100 dollar cheque and said, ‘if I don’t have a first draft to you in six months, you can cash this’.
“At the time I was very poor, so that would have meant not making my rent. So I always highly recommend to writers: write a cheque and give it to a friend you know will cash it!”
Director Lotte Wakeham rehearsing Pride And Prejudice at Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Picture: Bolton Documentary Photography
If you could go back in a time machine to meet Jane Austen, what would you like to discuss with her?
“First of all, I think she would be so fun to talk to! I‘ve read her letters and I’ve put parts of them in some of my adaptations, and she’s so cutting and mean – but in the most delightful way.
“I think I’d enjoy sitting and talking with her. I’d also like to ask her what drove her to write so prodigiously. She partially paralysed her thumb from pressing down so hard – she just wrote and wrote and wrote and eventually developed this thing.
“I read somewhere else that visitors would come and she would hide away so she could carry on writing. It’s so hard to write even now sometimes – and I have computers, and I live in a world where women can take ownership of their own work and get paid some money for it.
“I’m fascinated by what drove her to write so brilliantly at a time when it was all longhand and between social calls. Also, I feel like she’d got pigeon-holed as fusty, romantic, girly literature, and when I started reading her more seriously I was shocked by how funny and how socially smart she is.
Kiara Nicola Pillai, left, Aamira Challenger and Rosa Hesmondhalgh in rehearsal for Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Bolton Documentary Photography
“I think it’s quite sexist when she’s just as brilliant as Dickens, or Hawthorne, or Thackeray or any of those men who are sometimes maybe taken a bit more seriously. I think I would just sit at her feet. And maybe beg her pardon a little bit.”
One final question: what do you think Jane would have made of the Trump family?
“Oh, she would have hated them! I think she would have absolutely loathed them and skewered them. Maybe that’s what I would talk to her about…”
Pride & Prejudice, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 3 to 26, 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday, plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office:01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com. Also at Hull Truck Theatre, September 18 to October 11. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Did you know?
KATE Hamill was named 2017’s Playwright of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and was among the ten most-produced playwrights in the United States from 2017 to 2024. She is now the most-produced living playwright in the USA.
Ione Cummings’ Antonia at the pianoin The Tales Of Offenbach
ELIZABETH Watson and John Soper direct York Opera in Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann at York Theatre Royal from June 25 to 28.
Based on three short stories by German romantic writer E T A Hoffmann, the opera comprises a prologue, three scenes and an epilogue and features the outstanding aria The Doll Song.
“This production has fantastical tales combined with glorious music to create an unforgettable evening,” say the directors.
Alexandra Mather’s Nicklaus with Karl Reiff, left, and Hamish Brown’s Hoffmann in York Opera’s The Tales Of Hoffmann. Picture: John Saunders
Tenors Karl Reiff and Hamish Brown will perform the lead role of Hoffmann on alternate nights. His evil enemies will be played by Ian Thomson-Smith and Mark Simmonds; his love interests will be sung by Stephanie Wong (Olympia), Ione Cummings (Antonia) and Katie Cole (Giulietta), and the role of his loyal friend, Nicklaus, goes to Alexandra Mather.
Musical direction is by Alasdair Jamieson, who will conduct the full cast and orchestra.
York Opera in The Tales Of Hoffmann, York Theatre Royal, June 25 to 28, 7.15pm, plus 4pm Saturday matinee.Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
CONGRATULATIONS to Sir Gary Oldman, knighted in the King’s Honours List for services to drama.
Services that began in the repertory ranks of York Theatre Royal in 1979-1980 in a season of nine shows that took in She Stoops To Conquer, Thark, Privates On Parade and Romeo And Juliet, topped off by Oldman playing the Cat in furry suit, mittens and nylon whiskers in Berwick Kaler’s third York pantomime, Dick Whittington And His Wonderful Cat, that Christmas.
Announced on June 13, Sir Gary’s knighthood comes less than a month after he completed his banana-munching April 14 to May 17 residency in Samuel Beckett’s melancholic monodrama Krapp’s Last Tape on his return to York Theatre Royal after more than 45 years.
Gary Oldman, third from the left, in hat and glasses, in Privates On Parade at York Theatre Royal in 1979, one of his first professional performances after graduating that year with a BA in Acting from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent. Picture: York Theatre Royal
“To be included in the long lineage of extraordinary actors, artists and others who hold this title fills me with indescribable humility and pride,” pronounced Sir Gary in his official statement. “It is emotional, humbling and flattering all at the same time to be recognised amongst them.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes, who oversaw Sir Gary’s York return, says: “Congratulations to Sir Gary on this very well-deserved knighthood. We were so honoured to welcome him back to the York Theatre Royal stage this year and the whole team are delighted by this news.”
Sir Gary, 67, can be seen next in the fifth series of Slow Horses, in the lead role of grouchy Slough House spy Jackson Lamb, on Apple TV+ from September 24.
Gary Oldman in his York Theatre Royal residency in Krapp’s Last Tape from April 14 to May 17 2025. Picture: Gisele Schmidt
Oliver Strong’s Odin in Charlie Blanshard’s play Jorvik
EAST Yorkshire writer and actor Charlie Blanshard will present his debut full-length play, Jorvik, at Barley Hall, Coffee Yard, York, on July 25 and 26.
He first presented his hour-long show there on February 17 at the 2025 Jorvik Viking Festival, when it was pleasing to see a theatre piece in a festival noted for its living history encampments, workshops, tours, traditional crafts, feasts, family events, boat burning, evening entertainment and dramatic combat performances.
“That’s why I made the show,” said Old York Theatre co-producer Charlie, whose imposing 6ft 2 frame and long hair would have befitted Viking times.
“When I was studying at Rose Bruford College, I made a short Viking film called Snake-In-The-Eye, which we shot in the Allfather Hall in Valhalla, as my final work on my MA in Actor Performer Training course.
“Dr Chris Tuckley [Jorvik’s head of interpretation and learning] gave me historical advice for that project, and I reached out to him again with this play. He put me in touch with Abi at Jorvik, I presented the script and asked if there was any way I could do it at Barley Hall.”
Old York Theatre’s logo
The answer was yes, whereupon February 17’s two performances led off a northern tour that took in The Brain Jar cocktail bar in Hull and the Monks Walk Inn in Beverley, where Charlie used to work, as well as crossing the Pennines to play a Manchester cabaret bar.
Jorvik, an immersive play set directly in the aftermath of the fall of Eoforwic to the Great Viking Army and its rebirth as Jorvik, will be staged once more in the Tudor Throne Room, the great hall at Barley Hall.
What will “immersive” involve, Charlie? “Every audience member will be cast as a member of the Viking Army with plenty of opportunities to get involved if you want to,” he says. “Everyone is part of the moment. It’s not a play to be sat at the back with popcorn!”
Directed by co-producer Jack Chamberlain, Charlie takes the role of Ubbe, son of Ragnar and leader of the Viking army, playing opposite Oliver Strong’s Odin.
“The play leans heavily on the Viking mythos, rejoices in the fantastical and is delivered with the spirit of larger-than-life storytelling! We follow our protagonist; Ubbe, soaked in the blood of battle as he finds himself at a great banquet in his honour,” says Charlie.
Jorvik actor-writer Charlie Blanshard
“But in this mysterious throne room, not all is as it seems!. Jorvikis a play about loss, glory, family and celebrating life while we are still around to enjoy it. Expect big characters, song, fights and plenty of table banging.”
Defining Old York Theatre’s theatre style, Charlie says: “It’s theatre of myths and legends, legacy and mortality. We’re not focused on history; it’s storytelling about larger-than-life heroes and gods and focusing on their stories. Ultimately, we want people to come and have a good time and leave with a smile on their face.
“We tell the story in a mixture of styles, with moments of mythological verse and also modern language. It’s a mash-up to match the clash of two worlds, and every show will be different because each audience will add a unique element with their own story.
“It’s a performance that’s rooted in history and myth but lives and breathes today – and York is the perfect place to stage it because this is a city where history does live and breathe and you can experience the legends of times before.”
Born in Londesborough, in the Wolds, and raised in Hull, Charlie has been drawn to York since regular weekend family trips in his childhood. “It really does feel like home every time I come to the city. Even as a young child, it captured my imagination. From the city walls to historic pubs, you think, ‘who has walked these walls, these streets?’, ‘who has sat before in these pubs?’. It’s a city that cannot deny its history.”
Charlie Blanshard in his Viking film Snake-In-The-Eye
Old York Theatre’s motto is “Theatre company rooted in Yorkshire, for the world. Anywhere, anytime, any place”. Hence February’s debut mini-tour headed to a great hall, a cabaret bar, a cocktail bar and a pub.
“We hope to expand on that,” says Charlie. “We also want to appeal both to people who’ve been to a theatre a thousand times and those who’ve never been. So we want to break down barriers for people to go to a theatre show, as well as those who go to see Chekhov and Shakespeare, which is why we’re doing the play in cocktail and cabaret bars.”
Living in Hull on his return from London, Charlie has worked with Middle Child theatre company, based in Hull Town, and now with Old York Theatre. “I want to make work for the north,” he says. “The northern theatre scene called me back to make new theatre, bringing northern stories to northern audiences and breaking dwon that barrier of theatre being London-centric.”
Since that February tour, Charlie has appeared in York community arts collective Next Door But One’s May tour of Sarah McDonald-Hughes’s How To Be A Kid to primary schools, bookended by public performances at York Explore and Friargate Theatre, York. He played six-year-old Joe, a dinosaur-fixated dreamer, in a story of family, friends and fitting in, built around a study of young carers, mental health and social care.
Old York Theatre in Jorvik, Barley Hall, Coffee Yard, York, July 25 and 26, 7pm. Box office: yat.digitickets.co.uk/tickets
Charlie Blanshard’s Joe in Next Door But One’s How To Be A Kid in May. Picture: James Drury
