H Hawkline: “Idiosyncratic, tuneful and highly poetic songs”
WELSH songwriter H Hawkline is probably best known as a key part of Aldous Harding and Cate Le Bon’s touring bands.
As a solo artist (real name Huw Evans), his idiosyncratic, tuneful and highly poetic songs have not achieved the same level of recognition. Until now perhaps. His sixth album, Milk For Flowers, is by far his most realised, coherent statement yet.
On his last long player, six years ago, he sang about “getting all his kicks from sympathy”, and with this album he delivers. Milk For Flowers is already being talked about as a contender for those end-of-year best of lists.
Hawkline and his beautiful band were playing the new record from end to end. While critics love albums about breakups and grief, what about concert audiences?
The crowd were already in good spirits thanks to the tuneful efforts of dynamic openers Captain Starlet, then the intermittently brilliant and sonically startling Dilettante. The latter set the bar high with some audacious art rock songs.
Playing as a trio rather than their normal four-piece, centre stage was Francesca Pidgeon, who, like Harkline, is best known for her part in another band, BC Camplight’s. Big Fish and Teeth marked them out as contenders in their own right.
“The master of combining sad or unusual lyrics to upbeat arrangements”: H Hawkline performing at the Brudenell Social Club on Tuesday night
Milk For Flowers may have been inspired by the loss of his mother, but Hawkline was good company and fully committed to putting his album across, showing none of his former detachment.
With a band, he was able to recreate the album (minus some pedal steel guitar and, oddly, one piano-based number). Give the album a few spins and its slow charms seem to multiply. It’s the sort of record that music lovers would have once pored over, trying to work out the lyrics – are the nuns picking noses, or is it roses? (From the title track, it’s the later).
The band were able to bring out these strengths straight from the off. Hawkline has long been the master of combining sad or unusual lyrics to upbeat arrangements, and Suppression Street or Plastic Man showed that side of him – both slinky and thought provoking.
So far, so good, but better was to come. The slower, more personal songs were perhaps the strongest. Sitting down, Hawkline showed his lyrical deftness and also the range of his voice, wrapping everything in those delicious Welsh vowels.
Empty Room has had the pundits swooning, and rightly so. It’s such a shame that George Jones or Gene Clark (who got a namecheck earlier in the set) are no longer with us to take this song to more ears, but this slow, stunning ballad of loss will have an afterlife. The crowd loved it.
Hawkline’s hourlong set was just right, not too short, and certainly not too long. Ending with three songs from 2017’s I Romanticize, Hawkline stepped from band leader to act out the front man. It also showed Hawkline’s tendency to run a good idea or melody into the ground.
Engineers was present and correct and Last Thing On My Mind was the ideal closer. “I’m loved,” he teased ,and so it would seem.
Victoria Delaney’s Kath in York Actors Collective’s production of Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane. Picture: John Saunders
YORK actress Victoria Delaney will be appearing in two plays in quick succession, all on top of her daytime job and being a mum.
From tonight until Saturday, she plays Kath in York Actors Collective’s debut production of Joe Orton’s savage 1964 farce Entertaining Mr Sloane at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
From April 5 to 15, this will be followed by her turn as in York Settlement Community Players’ staging of Tom Stoppard’s 1982 exploration of love and infidelity, The Real Thing, at York Theatre Royal Studio.
Entertaining Mr Sloane launches director and tutor Angie Millard’s new company. “After Angie directed Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind for Settlement Players last February, we were mulling over a few ideas about starting up a company, and what to do, and we settled on Entertaining Mr Sloane,” says Victoria, who had played the lead, housewife Susan, in Ayckbourn’s dark comedy.
“It’s a highly pressurised play for the cast, especially for the young actor playing Sloane. Angie has chosen Ben Weir, from York St John University, who appeared in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Shakespeare In Love last April.”
In Orton’s fractious farce, Delaney’s Kath, who lives with her father Dada Kemp, brings home a lodger, the amoral and psychopathic Mr Sloane, a face familiar to the father from his past.
When her brother Ed arrives, complications crank up when the siblings become embroiled in a tense sexual struggle for Sloane as he plays one off against the other while Dada Kemp is caught in the crossfire.
“I think it’s still a radical play as it’s such a dark comedy, but people need to remember that they’re permitted to laugh because it is really funny. People are drawn to looking at the scene of a car crash and that’s a bit like what watching really dark comedy is like,” says Victoria.
She is delighted to be appearing in a cast featuring Chris Pomfrett as Ed and Mick Liversidge as Dada Kemp alongside Weir’s Sloane. “I’m really lucky to be working with Chris, who played the doctor in Woman In Mind, and Mick, who was Vanya in Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike, the last play Settlement did last year. It’s great to be back with them as there’s a lot of trust there.”
Victoria Delaney in rehearsal for her role as actress Charlotte in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing
That trust is essential when performing a play of extreme behaviour. “It’s misogynistic, there are racist comments in there, and Kath’s character is vulnerable and highly sexualised. Feminists will be up in arms,” says Victoria.
“But isn’t theatre supposed to be thought-provoking and aren’t we supposed to learn from the mistakes of the past, like how we now look at Dada Kemp’s racist comments?
“Also, some of the terminology shows how different society was at that time, like Kath’s illegitimate baby, when she was young, was ‘born on the wrong side of the blanket’. It’s good to dip your toe into different times to show how it was.”
Victoria has a preference for Entertaining Mr Sloane over Orton’s most performed work, What The Butler Saw. “Maybe it’s more gritty, and I like that,” she says. “If I had to choose a modern-day drama to perform, I would pick something gritty and British that has wit as well, and Entertaining Mr Sloane does.
“If you have a powerful plot, then you really have the chance to up your acting game and show your skills. At times, it’s also important to remember it’s a comedy, but there are some scenes that however you approach them, they’re not going to be funny, but what you do next has to be funny to lift the mood.”
Coming next will be her first experience of performing a play by Pocklington School alumnus Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing. “It’s my first Stoppard and my first time of working with director Jacob ward, who I met when we did The Coppergate Woman last year at York Theatre Royal, where he played one of the gods,” says Victoria. “He came to see me in Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike, liked what I did, and that helped with the audition.”
In Stoppard’s typically witty and adroit play within a play, Henry is married to Charlotte, Victoria’s character. Max is married to Annie. Henry – possibly the sharpest playwright of his generation – has written a play about a couple whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. Charlotte and Max, his leading couple, are soon to find out that sometimes life imitates art, as Stoppard has everyone questioning, “What is the real thing?”
“Charlotte’s husband has written a play for her to star in, but she hates him and the play as he’s written a really weak woman character, which is something that Stoppard was accused of doing in the past. So this is Stoppard taking the mick out of himself,” says Victoria.
York Actors Collective in Entertaining Mr Sloane, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (15/3/2023) to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York Settlement Community Players in The Real Thing, York Theatre Royal Studio, April 5 and 6, 7.30pm; April 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. No performances from April 7 to 10. Question-and-answer session after the April 12 peformance. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jacob Ward: Directing York Settlement Community Players in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing this spring
Jacob Ward to direct York Settlement Community Players in Tom Stoppard’s deceptive comedy The Real Thing
YORK thespian Jacob Ward is directing York Settlement Community Players for the first time in Tom Stoppard’s play within a play, The Real Thing, at York Theatre Royal Studio from April 5 to 15.
First performed in 1982, this award-winning beguiling play of surprise and wit follows Henry, possibly the sharpest playwright of his generation, who is married to Charlotte, an actress. Max is married to Annie.
Henry has written a play about a couple whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. Charlotte and Max, his leading couple, are soon to learn that sometimes life imitates art in Stoppard’s study of love and infidelity that ponders: “What is the real thing…?”
Settlement Players’ last production was New Jersey playwright Christopher Durang’s relationship comedy Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike at Theatre@41 in November 2022.
The Real Thing marks their return to the Theatre Royal Studio after presenting Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind last February.
Alan Park’s Henry and Alice Melton’s Annie rehearsing a scene from The Real Thing
Director Jacob Ward says: “I’m very excited for an audience to interact with our modern-day version of Stoppard’s play. Its subject seems simple but, as we see through the eyes of various characters, we realise its complexity, and enjoy having our views on love and relationships broadened.
“The writing is nothing short of genius – it really is. Even after 20-plus times of reading, I’m still finding impossible connections and meaning. It’s a joy to direct and will be a thrill to watch: hilarious, heart-warming and thought-provoking all in one.
“We have a brilliant cast to take you on the journey and a truly dedicated production team to bring the play to life. I can’t wait to add the audience.”
Alan Park, chair of Theatre@41, takes on the role of Henry. Alice Melton, last seen in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s 2022 production of A Nativity Of York last December, plays Annie. They are joined by Settlement regulars and newcomers: Victoria Delaney as Charlotte; Mike Hickman as Max; Rebecca Harrison as Billy; Hannah Waring as Debbie and Alexandra Logan as Brodie.
David Ford: Songs and stories at The Crescent, York
EASTBOURNE troubadour David Ford might play solo stomps with loop machines and effects pedals or backed by a swish jazz trio or with a string quartet attached. Not this time in his intimate Songs 2023 gig at The Crescent, York, tomorrow night.
After 2022’s albums May You Live In Interesting Times and Love And Death, for 2023 Ford has “taken the rare decision to keep it simple, leave most of the crazy machines at home, play some of his favourite songs and share stories about where they came from”. Oh, and he’ll be bringing his new DIY toy, a drum robot. Beat that.
In the support slot will be Nashville singer, songwriter, guitarist, pedal steel player, virtuoso session musician and producer J P Ruggieri.
“It keeps things a little bit dangerous and exciting as a performer,”says David Ford
Here David Ford has a word with CharlesHutchPress about gigs, robots, books, happiness and irritations
What form will the show take, David?
“Well, it was originally intended to be me playing my songs alone on stage but since I have JP Ruggieri – who is quite the finest player of a guitar I have ever had the good fortune to witness – along as support act, I’ve insisted that he join me for a few.
“And with the addition of Perry the plywood automaton drummer I spent the first frozen months of 2023 building, the show has evolved into one of the less orthodox three-piece band performances.”
What do you like about this form of performance, by comparison with playing with a jazz trio, string quartet or loop machines?
“I always like to change the way I present my songs live. It’s a great part of the challenge and the enjoyment for me. It keeps things a little bit dangerous and exciting as a performer and hopefully some of that energy is transferred to the audience.”
What instruments will feature?
“I’m playing guitars and keyboards; JP is caressing sweet sounds from a lovely old hollow-bodied guitar…and a stack of plywood and wires will be turning a series of wooden discs with strategically inserted screws to trigger tiny motors to hit drums in a rhythmical manner. That’s Perry.”
David Ford in March 2023: “Feeling helpless as as the forces of democracy and capitalism go all Cain and Abel on each other”
At 44, might you fancy writing a second book to chart what’s happened since the first, the cautionary autobiographical tales of 2011’s I Choose This – How To Nearly Make It In The Music Industry? (The one where David said, “there was a time when people swore I’d be the next big thing. It took ten years of hard work and dedication, but I finally proved them all wrong.”)
“Yes. It’s on my list. I think I’ve been waiting for an ending. Some kind of grand finale. But since I still don’t appear to be getting close to retirement, I need to think of the next book as less of a sequel and more as book two of a trilogy… and maybe one of those trilogies in 12 parts.”
Any touring or recording plans for later in the year?
“I’m planning some shows with my friend Abe Partridge [American folk singer-songwriter from Mobile, Alabama] in the early summer around the UK and Europe. And I have some songs taking shape inside my head.”
What’s making you happy at the moment?
“Playing music that feels organic, different every night. Connecting with audiences. I’m also delighted at the number of little lambs I see in fields as I drive around Britain.”
What’s annoying you right now?
“Oh, the usual! My feeling of helplessness as the forces of democracy and capitalism go all Cain and Abel on each other. The continual grasping among the well-meaning for simple explanations to complex problems as the mega-tanker of the age drifts slowly toward the iceberg of history.
“And I keep losing my hat.”
Footnote: David Ford has been known to acquire new hats in York.
David Ford & J P Ruggieri…oh and Perry too, Songs 2023, The Crescent, York, Thursday (16/3/2023), 7.30pm. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Paula Sides as Lucrezia Borgia in English Touring Opera’s Lucrezia Borgia. Picture: Richard Hubert Smith
ENGLISH Touring Opera returns to York Theatre Royal with two deeply contrasting operas, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia on March 24 and Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims the following night, each directed by a woman staging her first production with the London company.
Period-instrument specialists The Old Street Band will play for both operas, the first time the operas by Donizetti and Rossini have toured in the United Kingdom with a period instrument orchestra.
Donizetti’s tragedy of a complex woman in a dangerous situation, Lucrezia Borgia, is making its debut in the English Touring Opera (ETO) repertoire in a new production of this thrilling and moving meditation on power and motherhood by Eloise Lally in her ETO directorial debut.
Paula Sides takes the title role, with Thomas Elwin as Gennaro, Katie Coventry as Orsini and Aidan Edwards as Alfonso. ETO music director Gerry Cornelius conducts.
English Touring Opera in Il Viaggio a Reims: Left to right: Llio Evans (Modestina), Lucy Hall (Contessa di Folleville), Esme Bronwen-Smith (Marchesa Melibea), Julian Henao Gonzales (Conte de Libenskopf), Richard Dowling (Chevalier Belfiore), Grant Doyle (Barone di Trombonok), Jean-Kristof Bouton (Don Alvaro), Timothy Dawkins (Don Profundo), Edward Hawkins (Lord Sidney), Lucy Hall (Madame Cortese), Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio) and Eleanor Sanderson-Nash (Delia) . Picture: Richard Hubert Smith
The new production of Il Viaggio a Reims (March 25) is another first for ETO. Intrigue, politics, romance and lost luggage all play their part in Rossini’s last Italian opera, as a group of entitled guests from all over Europe is stranded in a provincial hotel on the way to a great coronation.
Featuring a cast of 27 – one of the largest ever assembled by ETO – the production features the burgeoning singing talents of Lucy Hall as Madame Cortese, Luci Briginshaw as Contessa di Folleville, Susanna Hurrell as Corinna and Julian Henao Gonzalez as Conte di Lebenskopf.
Valentina Ceschi, who directed ETO’s online opera The Firebirdlast year, makes her ETO theatrical directorial debut; ETO artist in association Jonathan Peter Kenny conducts.
Lucrezia Borgia and Il Viaggio a Reims are part of ETO’s first season under the leadership of new general director Robin Norton-Hale. Tickets for the two 7.30pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
0785: L-R: Llio Evans (Modestina), Lucy Hall (Contessa di Folleville), Esme Bronwen-Smith (Marchesa Melibea), Julian Henao Gonzales (Conte de Libenskopf), Richard Dowling (Chevalier Belfiore), Grant Doyle (Barone di Trombonok), Jean-Kristof Bouton (Don Alvaro), Timothy Dawkins (Don Profundo), Edward Hawkins (Lord Sidney), Lucy Hall (Madame Cortese), Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio), Eleanor Sanderson-Nash (Delia) in Il viaggio a Reims
NEW York rock band Interpol will play Leeds O2 Academy on May 29 on their five-date UK tour.
The Manhattan combo released their seventh studio album, The Other Side Of Make-Believe, last July, produced by the legendary team of Flood and Moulder.
Imbued with pastoral longing and newfound grace, the record also explores today’s more sinister undercurrents in songs of sadness, darkness and introspection, wherein Daniel Kessler’s guitar frames the yearning vulnerability of Paul Banks’s vocals.
Interpol’s 2023 diary takes in dates in Mexico in May and summer festival appearances in Britain, Ireland and Europe.
The future, here they come: Amy Revelle, Dave Hearn, centre, and Michael Dylan in Original Theatre’s The Time Machine. Picture: Manuel Harlan
THE week ahead is so crammed with clashing cultural highlights, Charles Hutchinson wishes you could climb aboard a time machine.
Find time for: Original Theatre in The Time Machine, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
DAVE Hearn, a fixture in Mischief Theatre’s calamitous comedies for a decade, takes time out to go time travelling in John Nicholson and Steven Canny’s re-visit of H G Wells’s epic sci-fi story for Original Theatre.
“It’s a play about three actors who run a theatre company and are trying to put on a production of The Time Machine, with fairly limited success,” says Hearn. “But then a big event happens that causes the play to spiral out of control and my character [Dave] discovers actual time travel.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Curtains At Village Gallery, by Suzanne McQuade, marks the final exhibition at Simon and Helen Main’s art space in Colliergate, York
Farewell of the week: The Curtain Descends, Village Gallery, Colliergate, York, until April 15
AS the title indicates, The Curtain Descends will be the last exhibition at Village Gallery after 40 exhibitions showcasing 100-plus Yorkshire artists in five and a half years. “The end of the shop lease and old age creeping up has sadly forced the decision,” says gallery co-owner Simon Main.
Ten artists have returned for the farewell with work reduced specially to sale prices. On show are watercolours by Lynda Heaton, Jean Luce and Suzanne McQuade; oils and acrylics by Paul Blackwell, Julie Lightburn, Malcolm Ludvigsen, Anne Thornhill and Hilary Thorpe; pastels by Allen Humphries and lino and woodcut prints by Michael Atkin. Opening hours are 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Singer PP Arnold: From The First Cut Is The Deepest to Soul Survivor, her autobiography is under discussion at York Literature Festival
Festival of the week: York Literature Festival, various venues, today until March 27
HIGHLIGHTS aplenty permeate this annual festival, featuring 27 events, bolstered by new sponsorship from York St John University. Among the authors will be broadcasters David Dimbleby and Steve Richards; political journalist and think tank director Sebastian Payne (on The Fall of Boris Johnson); The League Of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson; Juno Dawson, thriller writer Saima Mir and York poet Hannah Davies.
On Music Memoir Day at The Crescent, on March 18, at 1.30pm American singer PP Arnold delves into her autobiography, Soul Survivor, at 1.30pm. At 4pm, writer/broadcaster Lucy O’Brien discusses her new book, Lead Sister: The Story Of Karen Carpenter, and the challenges of writing a biography. Go to yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk for the full programme.
Too hot to handle: Strictly’s Gorka Marquez and Karen Hauer in Firedance at the Grand Opera House, York
Hot moves amid the weekend chill: Gorka Marquez and Karen Hauer in Firedance, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 5pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing stars Gorka Marquez and Karen Hauer reignite their chemistry in Firedance, a show full of supercharged choreography, sizzling dancers and mesmerising fire specialists.
Inspired by movie blockbusters Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Carmen and West Side Story, Marquez and Hauer turn up the heat as they dance to Latin, rock and pop songs by Camilla Cabello, Jason Derulo, Gregory Porter, Gipsy Kings and Jennifer Lopez. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Suede: First appearance at York Barbican in a quarter of a century
Gig of the week: Suede, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.45pm
ELEGANT London rock band Suede play York Barbican for the first time in more than 25 years on the closing night of their 2023 tour. Pretty much sold out, alas, but do check yorkbarbican.co.uk for late availability.
Last appearing there on April 23 1997, Brett Anderson and co return with a set list of Suede classics and selections from last September’s Autofiction, their ninth studio album and first since 2018. “Our punk record,” as Anderson called it. “No whistles and bells. The band exposed in all their primal mess.”
Sloane danger: Ben Weir’s psychopathic Sloane, left, playing siblings Kath (Victoria Delaney) and Ed (Chris Pomfrett) off each other in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s Entertaining Mr Sloane
Debut of the week: York Actors Collective in Entertaining Mr Sloane, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
DIRECTOR Angie Millard launches her new company, York Actors Collective, with Joe Orton’s controversial, ribald comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane, the one that shook up English farce with its savage humour in 1964.
Living with her father, Dada Kemp (Mick Liversidge), Kath (Victoria Delaney) brings home a lodger: the amoral and psychopathic Sloane (Ben Weir). When her brother Ed (Chris Monfrett) arrives, the siblings become involved in a sexual struggle for Sloane, who plays one off against the other as their father is caught in the crossfire. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Classrooom comedy: Sara Howlett, left, Laura Castle and Sophie Bullivant in rehearsal for Rowntree Players’ production of John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22
Education, education, education play of the week: Rowntree Players in Teechers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FAMILIAR to York’s streets at night as ghost-walk guide and spookologist Dr Dorian Deathly, actor Jamie McKellar is directing a play for the first time since 2008, at the helm of Rowntree Players’ production of former teacher John Godber’s state-of-the nation, state-of state-education comedy Teechers.
Updated for Hull Truck’s 50th anniversary celebrations as Teechers Leavers ’22, Godber’s class warfare play within a play features a multi role-playing, all-female cast of Laura Castle, Sophie Bullivant and Sarah Howlett as Year 11 school leavers Salty, Hobby and Gail put on a valedictory performance, inspired by their new drama teacher. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
David Ford: Songs and stories at The Crescent
The robots are coming: David Ford, Songs 2023, The Crescent, York, Thursday, 7.30pm
EASTBOURNE singer-songwriter David Ford might play solo stomps with loop machines and effects pedals or backed by a swish jazz trio or with a string quartet attached. Not this time.
For 2023, Ford has taken the rare decision to keep it simple, leave most of the crazy machines at home, play some of his favourite songs and share stories about where they came from. Oh, and he’ll be bringing his new DIY toy, a drum robot. Beat that. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Tuesday’s seated Crescent gig by The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster, promoting his new album The Candle And The Flame, has sold out by the way.
Because he cared: Comedian Bilal Fafar reflects on working in a care home for the very wealthy in Care at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Caring comedian of the week: Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Bilal Zafar in Care, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 19, 8pm
WANSTEAD comedian Bilal Zafar, 31, is on his travels with a new show about how he spent a year working in a care home for very wealthy people while being on the minimum wage.
Fresh out of university with a media degree, Bilal was dropped into the real world, where he was given far too much responsibility for a 21-year-old lad who had just spent three years watching films. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk; age limit,18 and over.
In Focus: Anders Lustgarten’sThe City And The Town, at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 15 to 17
Gareth Watkins as Magnus in Anders Lustgarten’s The City And The Town. Picture: Karl Andre
LONDON playwright and political activist Anders Lustgarten’s new play, The City And The Town, heads to the Yorkshire coast next week.
This funny, eclectic drama brings a fresh perspective to the political divides and problems facing Great Britain and Europe today.
By way of contrast to those schisms, the tour involves a hands-across-the-water partnership: a co-production by Riksteatern, the national touring theatre of Sweden, and Matthew Linley Creative Projects in association with Hull Truck Theatre.
Lustgarten’s play tells the story of brothers Ben and Magnus. Ben, a successful London lawyer, returns home for his father’s funeral after 13 years away, only to be confronted not only by family and old friends, but also by uncomfortable truths about the past, present and future of the provincial community and family he grew up in and left behind for the metroplis.
Lustgarten, by the way, is the son of progressive American academics and read Chinese Studies at Oxford: in other words, he is an internationalist (and an Arsenal supporter to boot).
Directed by Riksteatern artistic director Dritero Kasapi, The City And The Town features Gareth Watkins as Magnus, Amelia Donkor as Lyndsay and Sam Collings as Ben, with set design by Hannah Sibai and lighting design by Matt Haskins.
Amelia Donkor’s Lyndsay in The City And The Town. Picture: Karl Andre
Kasapi is at the helm of his first UK production since Nina – A Story About Me And Nina Simone. “Even from the very first draft Anders sent us, I knew that this was a play I wanted to direct,” he says. “In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s the play I’ve wanted to direct for a very long time.
“By exploring the rise of the right, Anders is looking at something that is happening all over Europe. But this is not just a political play, it’s also a humane one. It explores the question of if and how we belong to society, what can happen when we lose that connection and how we perceive our common history as a society.”
Kasapi was educated as a stage director at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, Macedonia, but since the early years of his professional life he has been engaged as a cultural organiser.
From 2015 to 2018, he was the deputy artistic director at Kulturhuset Stadstetern in Stockholm. He took up his present post in November 2018.
The City And The Town follows such Lustgarten plays as Lampedusa (Hightide/Soho Theatre), The Seven Acts Of Mercy (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Secret Theatre(Shakespeare’s Globe) and The Damned United (Red Ladder/West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2016, turning Brian Clough’s 44 days as Leeds United manager in 1974 into a Greek tragedy).
The City And The Town began its UK tour at Hull Truck on February 10 and 11 and has since played Northern Stage, Newcastle, Wilton’s Music Hall, London, Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and Norwich Playhouse before its Scarborough finale. It will then transfer to Sweden for an autumn tour.
The City And The Town, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 15 to 17, 7.45pm plus 1.45pm Thursday matinee.Box office: 01723 370541 or www.sjt.uk.com
Classrooom comedy: Sara Howlett, left, Laura Castle and Sophie Bullivant in rehearsal for Rowntree Players’ production of John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22
ACTOR, voiceover artist, filmmaker, tour guide, pantomime villain and York ghost-walk host Jamie McKeller is turning his hand to directing.
More precisely, he is reacquainting himself with the director’s seat after a 15-year hiatus, at the helm of former teacher John Godber’s 2022 update of Teechers, his state-of-education play originally commissioned by Hull Truck Theatre for £100 in 1984.
Why now, Jamie? “I did the Rowntree Players’ pantomime last Christmas [playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Babes In The Wood] and had a great time. Afterwards, Howard [Ella, the director] said, ‘we’re doing Teechers next’, and I thought, ‘Ooh, it’s been a while since I directed, I fancy doing that’. So, I pitched for it, and later that week the committee said yes.”
Jamie’s production of Teechers Leavers ’22 opens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday with an all-female cast – YorkMix radio presenter Laura Castle as Gail, Joseph Rowntree School drama teacher Sophie Bullivant as Salty and Rowntree Players regular Sara Howlett as Hobby – in keeping with Godber’s revised version for Hull Truck Theatre’s 50th anniversary last year.
Gail-force: Laura Castle as Gail in Teechers Leavers ’22
In Godber’s play within a play, they adopt multiple roles as the trio of Year 11 school leavers put on a valedictory performance, inspired by their new drama teacher but hindered by myriad obstacles and classroom poltics that vex playwright and pupils alike.
Jamie is no stranger to fellow Yorkshireman Godber’s work, both on and off stage. “I’ve been in Bouncers twice, as Judd and Les, but I’m still too young for Lucky Eric, so there’s time yet for that,” says Scarborough-born Jamie, who is 42.
“I was Salty in Teechers and did Lucky Sods in 2004, and I’ve already directed Teechers once in Scarborough in 2003 and Bouncers once too.”
In fact, whether in his university days at Hull University from 1998 or when studying Performance: Theatre at York St John University from 2006 to 2008 or working his way through Terry Pratchett stories at the YMCA Theatre in Scarborough, when doing his BTEC in theatre, he has directed more than 20 productions.
Class act: Sara Howlett’s Hobby
“But it’s now been a long time since I last directed a play. Not counting my self-directed shows that I took to the Edinburgh Fringe for five years, the last one was Danny King’s The Pornographer Diaries in 2008, here in York at Friargate Theatre, but originally I always wanted to be a director more than an actor,” says Jamie.
“I’d like people to become aware of me as a director as I’d forgotten the passion I had for it, and it’s where I feel most at home, cooking up ridiculous visuals in my head – so working with these three actors has been an absolute dream.”
6ft tall Jamie is a familiar cloaked figure on the streets of York at night, in the guise of spookologist Doctor Dorian Deathly, ghost tour guide for the award-winning Deathly Dark Tours, but he has a posse of guides to call on, enabling him to take time away from his “night job”, whether to do panto last winter or be at the helm of Teechers.
His enthusiasm for play and cast alike is writ large. “What I really like about Godber is that he’s always prefaced his scripts by saying, ‘make it work for your cast, make it work for the times, because if you don’t update it, it will be a museum piece,” says Jamie.
Match play: Sophie Bullivant’s Salty
“We’re delighted to be doing the 2022 version, where we’ve kept the politics, but eased back on the Covid material, as we’ve lived through it, though it’s still there in the dialogue, but just not at the forefront.”
Godber’s impassioned belief in the importance of the arts in the curriculum hits home with Jamie, from past experience. “The resources at York St John were being shrunk all around me. The Chapel theatre was closed in 2006, just before I went there, to become a conference hall, and I ended up rehearsing my last play there in my garden and then staging it in the quad at York St John as a sort of protest. That struggle for facilities still resonates with me,” he says.
“I make my living out of performing, but after a ghost walk tour, I’ve been asked ‘what else do you? Don’t think you should have a proper job?’. There’s still that dismissive attitude towards creativity as an occupation.”
On a positive note, Jamie loves the musicality in Godber’s writing. “When you get it right, it’s almost like Shakespeare, where if you see it performed poorly it’s an unpleasant experience, but it can be wonderful. That’s the same with Godber, which is why we’ve done lots of work on the rhythm and tempo,” he says.
Jamie McKeller’s other fella: Teechers director in his guise as Doctor Dorian Deathly, spookologist and ghost-walk host
Selected from open auditions, Castle and Bullivant are making their Rowntree Players debuts alongside Sara Howlett. “We wanted to find three actors that would instantly gel,” says Jamie. “We weren’t looking for the greatest actors, but the best combination, and they turned out to be great actors too!
“Having these three together, they’ve definitely bonded and become friends as well, meeting outside rehearsals and running their lines. They really care about getting it right and doing it well.
“The way it’s written, it requires a heightened style of performance, where you need to fill it with physicality too – and they’ve really put in the hard work for such a physically demanding play where they never leave the stage.”
Rowntree Players in Teechers Leavers ’22, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 16 to 18, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
One question for John Godber
Playwright John Godber
What were the biggest changes/themes you had to include in this reimagined version of Teechers, John?
“OBVIOUSLY, the language has changed, teenagers now have a whole new vernacular which had to be incorporated to make the characters seem real and authentic.
“I also changed the drama teacher character from male to female. Quite simply this is because when I wrote the play, I based that character on myself and my experience as a drama teacher.
“But now I have two daughters – one of whom [Martha] is an actress, the other [Elizabeth] has a PHD in gender studies – so I thought it’d be interesting to make that character female. Also, and this may have just been a coincidence, but many of the teachers I spoke to were women, so it made sense to write it as a female role.
“The impact of the pandemic is also a big theme as I feel it put the whole education system – and its failings, especially for working-class students – under a microscope. Digital poverty is a huge issue now and students not being able to access the internet via a computer or phone during lockdown meant for many – they couldn’t access their education for a major portion of those two years.
“The repercussions of this are huge – isolation, loss of communication skills, diminishing attention spans. However, I truly believe that harnessing the power of storytelling – whether that’s through writing or acting – is a way of overcoming these problems, which is another reason the arts should be a priority now more than ever and why this particular story resonates so much still today.”
AS the title indicates, The Curtain Descends will be the last exhibition at Village Gallery, Colliergate, York.
“After five and a half years, more than 40 main exhibitions and the showcasing of work by 100-plus local artists, we’ll be closing our doors on Saturday, April 15,” says gallery co-owner and curator Simon Main. “The end of the shop lease and old age creeping up has sadly forced the decision.”
For the final show, Simon and Helen Main have invited ten 2D artists who have exhibited there previously to return for the March 7 to April 15 farewell.
Jim’s Garage, by Julie Lightburn
A range of styles, disciplines and media are on show: watercolours by Lynda Heaton, Jean Luce and Suzanne McQuade; oils and acrylics by Paul Blackwell, Julie Lightburn, Malcolm Ludvigsen, Anne Thornhill and Hilary Thorpe; pastels by Allen Humphries and lino and woodcut prints by Michael Atkin.
These artists are complementing those whose work is already on show: oils by Glynn Barker; the digital art of Fiona Calder; ceramics by Meg Ashley and Kit Hemsley; fused glass work by Ruth Foster; wood turning by Ralph Shuttleworth and sculpture by Edward Waites.
“With the support of all these artists, this final exhibition period will be a sale, with everything in store being reduced, so do drop in, support these artists and grab a bargain,” says Simon.
Breezy Day On Cowes Seafront, by Hilary Thorpe
In addition to its regularly changing art exhibitions and craftwork displays, Village Gallery has featured new and old Lalique glass and crystal (as York’s official stockist for new pieces), along with new and old jewellery.
“We’ll continue to deal in and sell both Lalique and jewellery, with this part of the business being moved to the Antique Centre on Stonegate (yes, even the new in an antique centre!), so it’s not a complete goodbye,” says Simon.
In addition, the online store at www.village-on-the-web.com will continue to serve. Village Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, until April 15.
For those about to rock at York Barbican: Here comes The Classic Rock Show
THE Classic Rock Show’s 2023 tour is“easily the most challenging live set we’ve performed to date,” reckonsvocalist, guitarist and musical director James Cole.
Hear why at York Barbican on Tuesday (14/3/2023) as the 39-date itinerary heads for its last week after taking in many British cities and towns for the first time. Tickets for “the ultimate live jukebox” are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Paying tribute to its favourite rock heroes, The Classic Rock Show thunders through a set list of Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, The Who, Eric Clapton, AC/DC, Queen, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Pink Floyd, Meat Loaf, Aerosmith, Toto and Rainbow.
Expect note-for-note precision as Cole and co “bring the original and era-defining recordings back to life on stage, with an amazing sound and light show to match”. After anthem after anthem, riff after riff, solo after solo, the climax will be a show-stopping guitar duel.
Jesse Smith: Lead vocalist for The Classic Rock Show
Cole says: “We’re very excited to get back on the road in 2023 with easily the most challenging Classic Rock Show live set we’ve performed to date. To have 39 dates scheduled for the 2023 tour feels fantastic. The band and I really appreciate the ever-growing popularity of the show.”
Opening on January 17, the tour has visited Yorkshire already, playing Hull Bonus Arena on January 29 and Harrogate Royal Hall the next night. St George’s Hall, Bradford, awaits tomorrow (11/3/2023) with tickets on sale at https://theclassicrockshow.com/tour-dates
Performing alongside Cole will be: Wayne Banks, bass/vocals; Pete Thorn, guitar/vocals; Jesse Smith, lead vocals/guitar; Henry Burnett, keyboards/vocals; Jess Harwood, vocals/keyboards; Rudy Cardenas, lead vocals, and Tim Brown, drums.
“I’M probably nuts to try it, but it’s huge fun,” said Dame Prue Leith.
She was talking about mounting her debut tour at the age of 83, and not of her presence at a Parisian orgy aged 19.
As she would explain to her York audience, judge and jury, your honour, she did not know she would be entering such a party when accompanying a young man to the house.
He indulged, but not Prue. She merely took off her clothes to fit in, seated by the bar. She was being Prudent, not Prudish. Nothing on, but something in moderation, in a life where “I’ll try anything once”, to quote her autobiography’s title, but just not that.
As it happens, South African-born, French-trained, English-enterprising Dame Prue has always stood out, not only latterly in her choice of specs and jewellery, but in her culinary career, first cutting a swathe through the male-dominated restaurant scene of the Sixties, later often being the only female director on assorted non-executive boards, where the men put the bored into board meetings.
Prue, live in York: specs, tick. Funky jewellery, tick. Dark jeans, light jacket and pumps, tick. She wouldn’t have looked out of place on a rock concert stage. Always more Chrissie Hynde, than mumsy, our Dame Prue.
The poster for Prue Leith’s Nothing In Moderation tour
Complemented by photos and video clips, Nothing In Moderation was divided into two halves, the first a kind of fork-talk variation on stand-up as culinary queen Prue told funny stories and insightful anecdotes, from her African family roots to flailing around in assorted university studies, to French freedom and culinary finesse.
Then onwards to Swinging Sixties’ London, keeping her pop-star next-door-neighbours The Hollies’ stash of marijuana in her herb jars; flourishing at her restaurant with ground-breaking late-night opening; party cooking from her flat and a van; the Rolling Stones and The Beatles (“the Full English,” requested the nocturnal Fab Four and no greenery on Ringo’s plate). Cooking for Princess Margaret too.
Cue Prue’s cookery school, still going strong. Her branching out into cookery writing and novels (eight so far). Those non-exec posts. Journalism. Recipes in papers, with an accidentally erroneous measure for one ingredient causing a particular stir. TV work, 11 years’ judging on Great British Menu and now unintended innuendos (as innocent as that Parisian orgy) to Paul Hollywood’s side on The Great British Bake Off, whose theme tune had heralded Dame Prue’s arrival.
After the businesswoman in Dame Prue was exhibited during the interval in a revolving showcase on screen for her books, specs range and Pure Prue homeware, that perky Bake Off tune announced part two, Prue plus one, Prue and TV producer Clive Tulloh, the witty, gently teasing host for a question-and-answer session.
Tulloh had skilfully filleted the questions sent in by the audience, fishing out the best and finding connecting themes and juicy jousts for Dame Prue’s pondering in the confession chamber. As promised, nothing was “off the menu”, plenty of Bake Off, no back off.
Prue, what does Paul Hollywood smell like? “Grown-up crumpet,” she mused, before an unexpected revelation. She no longer needs glasses, after a cataract operation, but she just loves wearing her bright Prue-designed frames. To emphasise the point, she promptly stuck a finger through where the lens should have been. Well, that’s certainly better than a poke in the eye.
After stories of specs & drugs & maybe not sausage rolls, this show in praise of food, love and life found Dame Prue in a place of happiness, hitting the sweet spot on cake TV, the sun shining brighter than ever on Leith.
