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More Things To Do in York and beyond in the season with reason for great hope and joy. Hutch’s List No. 49 from The Press

Isobel Staton’s Mary in York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York on dress rehearsal night at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton. Picture: John Saunders

IT is time for pantomime, festive exhibitions, ghost stories, Elvis blues and a snow bear, as Charles Hutchinson welcomes winter.

Christmas message of hope of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

PAUL Toy’s community production recalls when the Mystery Plays were banned in the 17th century for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.

“Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter, with their new-born child being forced to flee to another country, but there is news of great hope and joy.” Box office: 0333 666 3366, ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on the door.

Rob Cotterill as The Mad Hatter in Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s Alice In Wonderland

Through the rabbit hole: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Alice In Wonderland, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

FOLLOW young Alice on her adventures underground as she navigates her way through an imperfect and unfamiliar world. Discover a place where absurdity is the norm, logic is turned on its head and animals can talk in York company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre’s flamboyant staging for age five upwards.

Join her as she encounters many weird, wonderful and colourful characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Answers to riddles are non-existent, tales lack morals and injustice looms large in this Lewis Carroll tale, full of fantasy, imagination and fun, where every time is “tea-time” and nothing is ever really as it seems. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Wicked return: Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin

Look who’s back: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, December 3 to January 5 2025

PAUL Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Abanazar to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note) in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy. Look out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon in Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Changing of the old guard to the new: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, December 7 to January 5 2025

EXIT the Dame Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell era. Enter  Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris, from  Les Miserable, as The Prince; comedian  Phil Reid as Louis La Plonk; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as his larger-than-life mum, Polly La Plonk;  Phil Atkinson, from The Bodyguard, as dastardly Hugo Pompidou and David Alcock, from SAS Rogue Heroes, as Clement. George Ure directs 2019 Great British Pantomimes Award winner Jon Monie’s script. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

James Swanton: Christmas ghost stories from the pen of Charles Dickens

Storyteller of the week: James Swanton presents Ghost Stories for Christmas, York Medical Society lecture hall, until December 5, 7pm

YORK actor James Swanton returns to York Medical Society to tell Charles Dickens’s Ghost Stories for Christmas. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms,” he says of his hour-long shows. “Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.

December 5’s performance of The Haunted Man has sold out; hurry, hurry to acquire tickets for A Christmas Carol on December 2, 3 or 4. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

R M Lloyd Parry: MR James Project storyteller

More ghosts in York: Nunkie Theatre Company, Count Magnus, Two Ghost Stories by M R James, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE ghost stories of M R James amuse and terrify as powerfully today as they did when first written more than a century ago. Nunkie Theatre Company brings two of these spine-chillers to life in R M Lloyd Parry’s thrilling one-man show.

In Count Magnus a travel-writer’s over-inquisitiveness leads to a diabolical chase from darkest Sweden to rural Essex. Denmark is the setting for Number 13, where a hotel room with the famously unlucky number conceals a ghastly, baffling secret. Tickets update: SOLD OUT.

Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre

Children’s show of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Polaris The Snow Bear, The Mount School, York, December 7, 3pm, and on tour in Yorkshire and beyond until January 5 2025

MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of Kate Bramley’s new family Christmas show for Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company. On his journey to find renowned naturalist Mr  Hat-In-Burrow, many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as Polaris (Tom Mordell) tries to put everything right, saving the Polar world  in time for Christmas with the help of reluctant sidekick Sammy the Seal (Danny Mellor).

Further Yorkshire dates include: tonight, 7pm, Kilham Village Hall; December 1, 7pm, Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet; December 3, 7pm, Green Hammerton Village Hall; December 11, 7.30pm, Bishop Monkton Village Hall; December 17, 6pm, The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby; December 28, 2pm, Ampleforth Village Hall, and December 30, 4.30pm, East Cottingwith Village Hall. Full details and tickets: badappletheatre.co.uk or 01423 331304.

Gifts of Christmas on display at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre

Christmas exhibition of the week: Gifts Of Christmas, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; last admission 4pm

BAR Convent is sparkling with a dazzling tree decorations and new exhibition on this year’s festive theme of Gifts of Christmas. On show is a collection of digital art inspired by Viborg, where heritage intersects with cutting-edge technology, while young creatives from Blueberry Academy, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s RC Primary and York College (ESOL students) are exploring the theme too. Glass cabinets  showcase pop-punk tributes to the Book of Kells and the works of William Blake. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.

1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Pinocchio at Helmsley Arts Centre

1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; 7.30pm evening shows, December 7, 10 to 14

HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.

However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan).  Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

One Knight with you: Steve Knight in his Elvis Christmas Special at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

To avoid a Blue Christmas, book now: Elvis Christmas Special, Tribute by Steve Knight, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 22, 7.30pm

STEVE Knight embodies the spirit and energy of Elvis Presley as he brings a Christmas flavour to his tribute act that has played Las Vegas to London. Presented by Wryley Music, he combines spot-on vocals with a dynamic stage presence  and an uncanny resemblance to the King of Rock’n’Roll. Backed by a full band, he takes a festive journey through Elvis’s greatest hits. Box office:  01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

In Focus: Jo Walton’s exhibition, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York

Jo Walton setting up her exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Behind her is one of her artworks and graffiti artist Sam Porter’s wall painting of an Eastern Bluebird. “The bluebird is beautiful, though some people think it’s a Kingfisher, which is crazy, isn’t it!”

WHEN Rogues Atelier artist, interior designer, upholsterer and Bluebird Bakery curator of exhibitions Jo Walton asked poet Nicky Kippax to put words to images she had sent her, she responded with “The heft of a cliff and a gathering of sea fret”. Spot on, Nicky.

Into the eighth month of recovery from breaking her right leg, Jo is exhibiting predominantly large works that utilise steel, copper, rust, gold, verdigris and wax in Nicky’s bakery, cafe and community centre, in Acomb Road, Acomb, York, whose interior she designed in 2021.

Jo has curated exhibitions in the bakery by Mark Ibson, Rosie Bramley, Liz Foster, Carolyn Coles, Rob Burton and Robin Grover-Jacques, but not shown her own work there until now. Why? “I have my own space [at Rogues Atelier] too, and I’ve also been juggling with the availability of other artists,” she reasons.

Jo’s creative year has been shaped by her leg break. “I was visiting Mark Ibson’s gallery at the old blacksmith’s in Bishop Wilton, when I walked around the back with my daughter and I just fell over. That was at the end of April, just after York Open Studios,” she says.

“I’m only just walking OK now. I’ve still got a slight limp. I had to have a pin put through my ankle, and a plate inserted too, as well splints. Everything in my life came to a complete standstill.  All the work and holiday plans stopped, though I did manage to get a couple of paintings done for North Yorkshire Open Studios, going round on my “scooter” to get them completed.”

Earlier in the year, Jo had done an upholstery re-fit upstairs at Ambiente Tapas, in Goodramgate, York, and designed the interior for the new Bluebird Bakery in Butcher Row, Beverley.

For her Acomb exhibition and winter shows at Rogues Atelier, Jo “has been able to work properly at full tilt since September, mainly making smaller pieces”. “But I also had to catch up on so many upholstery orders, delivering what I’d promised but I’d had to put off while I recuperated.

“At Bluebird Bakery, there’ll be big works, all 80cms by 80cms, while all the smaller pieces will be on show at Rogues Atelier, when we do our winter open studios shows along with PICA Studios today [November 30] and tomorrow [10am to 5pm both days], then December 7 [10am to 5pm] and December 8 [11am to 5pm].”

Looking ahead to 2025, Jo will be exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, York, in July after being offered a solo show by owner and curator Terry Brett. The exhibition will combine Jo’s big artworks with ceramic vases and vessels and dried metal arrangements to evoke how all the pieces would complement each other in a home setting.

Prompted by putting Nicky Kippax’s poetry on the walls by her artworks in the past, “I’m planning to incorporate her words in the paintings, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” says Jo. “It was the sort of work that first attracted me as an art college student in Harrogate and then at Bradford University.”

As Neil Young once sang, rust never sleeps, certainly not  in Jo Walton’s art.

Jo Walton, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until January 23 2025

Jo Walton: back story

Jo Walton, at Rogues Atelier Art Studio, on the get-around “scooter” that enabled her to complete works for her North Yorkshire Open Studios exhibition after breaking her right leg in a fall

GRADUATED from Bradford University with degree in Fine Art in 2005. Founded community arts centre in Walmgate, York, and delivered community art projects at York Art Gallery.

In 2012, she founded Rogues Atelier Art Studio in Fossgate, York, where she creates abstract land/sea/colour-scapes focusing on horizons, using gold, silver, copper, metal leaf, oil paint and wax, playing with oxidation – rust, verdigris – on plastered wooden panels.

Her work is inspired by extensive travel, sailing in her twenties and delivering yachts, preceded by her childhood years living in Australia.

Jo participates regularly in York Open Studios, Staithes Art and Heritage Festival, Saltaire Open Village and, more recently, in North Yorkshire Open Studios. She has held solo exhibitions at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, and has been commissioned to curate exhibitions there.

Jo is known for her industrial-styled commercial interiors, designing for bars and shops. She designed and project-managed The Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road, and Bluebird Bakery, in Acomb Road, Acomb, Shambles Market, York,  Kirkgate Market, Leeds, and Butcher Row, Beverley.

A note on rust in Jo Walton’s work

Jo Walton’s artwork on show at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb

THE method to preserve and prevent further rusting of the metal plate has been researched, tried and tested by Jo for more than 12 years, to the point where she is certain of its durability. The first successful pieces are in her home, where she reports no change. 

“I’ve been fascinated by rust forever,” she says. “Growing up in Australia with the red dust and  the searing heat burning everything, I was fascinated by rusted metals and especially by the colours they gave off: those absolutely beautiful colours.

“Then I got rust spots on my jeans that wouldn’t come out. I thought, ‘there might be something in this’, so I looked at printing with rust, which took a while to work out. People liked them, and once I began printing onto metal plate, people loved them – especially men.

“What I’m playing with in my works is the shine of the gold through the matt of the paint. I’m using oil paints, whereas the classic iconic art used egg tempera. It’s painted on to gold metal leaf, so it’s textured, painted black and then polished.

“When I went to Bradford University, my first instinct was to paint almost in the iconic style, but it was the time of Tracey Emin and the Young British Artists, which was a sad time to go to university to study Fine Art if you wanted to do traditional techniques, like I did!

“They were all into modern art, but if I’d stuck to my feelings about the traditions of art, I would never have done the rust works!”

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Badapple Theatre set out to save the Polar world and Christmas in new family show Polaris, on tour from today to January 5

Tom Mordell’s Polaris the Snow Bear and Danny Mellor’s Sammy the Seal in Badapple Theatre Company’s Polaris The Snow Bear. Picture: Karl Andre

MEET Polaris, the travelling snow bear and star of a new family Christmas show by Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company that opens tonight.

Polaris is on the longest journey of his life: to find the great Mr. Hat-In-Burrow, a renowned human naturalist who – legend says – has the key to saving the Polar world.

When he arrives unexpectedly by iceberg in a small village in the North of England, Polaris does not receive the warm welcome he expected! Many complicated and comedic adventures ensue as he tries to put everything right in time for Christmas with the help of his reluctant sidekick, Sammy the Seal.

Tom Mordell

Written and directed by Badapple director Kate Bramley, this festive tall tale for all ages five upwards, as well as the young at heart, will tour to small village halls throughout Yorkshire and then nationwide from November 29 to January 5 2025 with a cast of Tom Mordell as Polaris (and other roles) and company favourite Danny Mellor as Sammy the Seal (and other roles too). Jez Lowe’s songs and Catherine Dawn’s design completes the snow-dusted picture.

For the past 26 years, Badapple have performed  original shows in the smallest and hardest-to-reach rural venues nationwide, bringing theatre and music “to your doorstep”.

“From the North Yorkshire team that delivered The Mice Who Ate Christmas, The Elves And The Carpenter and The Snow Dancer, expect a classic Badapple family show with the usual comedy, puppets, songs, mayhem and a touch of snowy wonder!” says Kate. “It’s perfect for grandparents and grandchildren to enjoy together as Polaris and sidekick Sammy seek to save the Polar world – and Christmas itself.”

Danny Mellor

The tour will take in 26 venues, as far afield as Lancashire, Cumbria, County Durham, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Herefordshire and Shropshire, as well as North, East and South Yorkshire.. All venue and ticket details can be found at: https://www.badappletheatre.co.uk/show/polaris-the-snow-bear/ or by telephoning 01423 331304.

Yorkshire dates include:

November 29, 7pm: Tockwith Village Hall, box office, 01423 331304.

November 30, 7pm: Kilham Village Hall, 07354 301119.

December 1, 7pm: Old Girls’ School, Sherburn in Elmet, 01977 685178.

December 3, 7pm: Green Hammerton Village Hall, 01423 331304.

December 7, 3pm: The Mount School, York, 01423 331304/badappletheatre.co.uk.

Badapple’s tour poster for Polaris The Snow Bear

December 11, 7.30pm: Bishop Monkton Village Hall, 01423 331304. 

December 17, 6pm: The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby, 01347 889898.

December 28, 2pm: Ampleforth Village Hall, 07549 775971.

December 30, 4.30pm: East Cottingwith Village Hall, 07866 024009.

Did you know? Badapple’s travels in 2024 with The Regalettes

EARLIER this year, Badapple Theatre Company mounted spring and autumn tours of director Kate Bramley’s 1930s’-inspired comedy The Regalettes, the first from April 24 to June 7 with a Yorkshire cast of Ellie Pawsey and Rhiannon Canoville-Ord; the second from September 26 to  November 17 with Pip Cook and fellow York actress Nell Baker plus ‘cinema’ visuals and new twists.

In The Regalettes, Celebrity and rural life clash head on when a new movie premières at the tiny Regal cinema in the fictional Yorkshire village of Bottledale in Bramley’s play set in the 1930s, the cinema decade that spans Hitchcock noir and classic Technicolor showstoppers.

Ellie Pawsey’s The Falcon in Badapple’s The Regalettes. Picture: Karl Andre

Comedy and intrigue ensue as the intrepid heroines Hilda and Annie suddenly find themselves at the heart of a very silly mystery. Cue film sequences, music, songs and clowning in Bramley’s story that looks at the contrast for young women between isolated village life and the perceived glamour of the movies.

Bramley revealed how the idea for the play came about. “I’m a big film noir fan; it’s so stylish and elegant, and so well written – and the 1930s was a huge boom time for Hollywood and famous UK film makers as well.”

Rhiannon Canoville-Ord as Mademoiselle Escargot in The Regalettes. Picture: Karl Andre

Away from Hollywood, the decade was far from magical for many, with the Great Depression taking hold. “For ordinary working people, the 1930s was a time of increasing financial hardship which seemed a world away from the glamour of a movie set,” Kate noted.

“I suppose I thought there were some parallels to our modern-day experiences, but as ever it’s a comedy, and we just had a lot of fun piecing together a ‘what if’ mini-mystery that turns normal rural life upside down for our heroines.”

Nell Baker

The first tour set off in the wake of Badapple securing £28,381 grant funding from Arts Council England and £800 from East Riding Council. “Badapple is immensely grateful for this generous funding, which enables ours original brand of live theatre to reach rural locations across the country,” said Kate.

Later explaining how the 18-date second tour differed from the first, she said: “Bringing in a new cast has given the whole show a new lease of life. I have re-written some of the show and, alongside our new assistant director Connie Peel, we added some new visual twists and turns to the narrative, as well as our production team augmenting the overall design and style. We are always refining and creating and looking to make every tour be the best it can be.”

Pip Cook
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York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust heads out on neighbourhood tour of A Nativity for York full of joy and hope from tonight

Isobel Staton’s Mary in rehearsal for York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s new and unique interpretation of the Nativity, dramatising events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, opens at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, tonight.

Directed once more by Paul Toy, the hour-long touring community production is set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.

Likewise, this production is on the move, following up today and tomorrow’s Poppleton performances with visits to St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, on December 5 and 6, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, on December 7.

Toy’s vision for his staging is “that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression”.

Manuda Fernando (Herod’s son), left, Wilma Edwards (Counsellor), James Tyler (Herod) and Tricia Campbell (Counsellor) in the rehearsal room. Picture: John Saunders

Bringing the Christmas story of events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ to York neighbourhoods, Toy’s production recalls a time in the 17th century when the Mystery Plays were banned for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.

Paul says: “Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter with their new-born child, being forced to flee to another country, leaving behind scenes of unimaginable horror. While it mirrors both history and our current world situation, there is news of great hope and joy.”

Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry adds: “The trust is delighted to be touring the production around three of York’s suburbs. Our aim is to give people the chance to see a performance from one of York’s great cultural traditions on their doorstep. The hour-long performance of words and music promises to both challenge and delight the audience.”

Traditionally, The Nativity performances celebrate the birth of Jesus into the life of humankind. “Beloved when performed by young children, this story is not a simple tale of unmitigated joy,” says Paul. “It is a cold, cruel world that the baby arrives in. People are subjugated by an occupying power, and some are doomed to pay a price of unimaginable suffering. But the birth also gives optimism and the hope of a better future.

Nick Jones’s Joseph rehearsing a scene for A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders

“In our production, we re-create the experiences of those who aimed to keep the story of the Mystery Plays alive at a time when they were banned because their Catholic content was unacceptable to Protestant rulers.

“A band of actors from Egton on the North York Moors kept the flame burning with secret performances in the houses of Catholic landowners – one step ahead of the authorities. Now, join us for an hour when we bring to life that team of fear, of punishment, of homelessness, but also a time of great hope and joy.”

 York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, November 29, 7.30pm, and November 30, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Suitable for adults and children aged 11 plus. Box office: 0333 666 3366 or https://ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets and on the door (cash or card), subject to availability.

York Mystery Plays: back story

WRITTEN in medieval times, 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, tell the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.

 York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity, a group of volunteers aiming to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive.

Who is in the cast?

The Shepherds, David Denbigh, left, Michael Maybridge and Sally Maybridge in rehearsal for A Nativity for York

Balladeer/Minstrel: Jonathan Brockbank
Symeon/Soldier I: David Lancaster
Anna/Counsellor II: Clare Halliday
The Angel Gabriel: Helen Jarvis
Mary: Isobel Staton
Elizabeth/Counsellor I: Wilma Edwards
Joseph: Nick Jones
Neighbour II/Maidservant/Angel: Trisha Campbell
King I/Neighbour I: Val Burgess
King II/Mother I: Emily Hansen
King III: Madusha Fernando/Janice Newton
Shepherd I: Michael Maybridge
Shepherd II/Mother II: Sally Maybridge
Shepherd III/Soldier II: David Denbigh
Herod: James Tyler
Filius/Herod’s Son: Manuda Fernando
Messenger: Oliver Howard
Star Angel: Julie Speedie
Angel Choir: Emily Hansen, Trisha Campbell, Val Burgess, Wilma Edwards and Julie Speedie

Cast members act in ensemble parts.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on The 24, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, November 27

Robert Hollingworth

THE 24 has grown. When first taken over by Robert Hollingworth, it was largely a choir of graduate students. It has since been amalgamated with the university’s chamber choir and grown to its present 33 members, a size that arguably takes it beyond the usual ‘chamber’ dimensions.

It appeared here with strong support from Ampleforth College Chamber Choir and Huntington School Secret Choir. The menu, served to a full house, was a nourishing pot-pourri ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, all a cappella.

Johann Christoph Bach belonged to the generation before JSB and is widely considered to be the great man’s most talented forebear. The double choir motet Lieber Herr Gott, dating from 1672, has a continuo part but was given here unaccompanied.

Its opening phrase says “wecken uns auf” (wake us up), an apt injunction given that the start was something of a scramble. But it settled into a comfortable stride after its central tempo-change.

In contrast, Alonso Lobo’s penitent motet Versa In Luctum (Turned To Mourning) was much more shapely. For Alma Redemptoris Mater, by his Spanish compatriot and almost exact contemporary Victoria, the school choirs joined the fray, bringing the total to more than 70 voices. Yet the blend was excellent and Hollingworth had the singers in the palm of his hand.

In two madrigals by Thomas Tomkins, we heard the 11 members of the UK’s only MA course in solo-voice ensemble singing, a vivid sextet in Oft Did I Marle (marvel) and a gorgeously mournful quintet in Too Much I Once Lamented.

Either side of the interval, The 24 was back at full strength. It revelled in the lush harmonies of three of Schumann’s double-choir songs, Op 141. The last two had elements of prayer, both ending with ‘Amen’ cadences, but the last – a setting of Goethe’s Talismane – was much the most effective, delivered crisply but with a tender final plea.

 There was exciting propulsion in Gibbons’s O Clap Your Hands and transparency in Tavener’s Hymn To The Mother Of God. Less telling were motets by Kenneth Leighton and Joanna Marsh, although the latter – a setting of Julian of Norwich’s All Shall Be Well – had a welcome sense of triumphal love at its close.

In this exalted company it came as a surprise to hear the calmly confident account of Stanford’s Justorum Animae (The Souls Of The Righteous) delivered by the Ampleforth choir under Roger Muttitt, with ‘non tanget illos’ – the torment of death ‘shall not touch them’ – given special emphasis and the peaceful ending beautifully floated.

With the combined forces reassembled, Elgar’s orchestral Go, Song Of Mine was never going to emerge with much clarity, although its ending was forceful enough. Will(iam) Campbell’s take on Vaughan Williams’s much-loved hymn-tune to Come Down, O Love Divine, however, was lovingly handled, starting out in left field and gradually moving towards more traditional harmonies, as the tune gained shape: a variation in reverse. It made an amusing end to a thoroughly invigorating evening.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday ***1/2

Finlay Butler’s Buddy the elf and Steve Tearle’s Santa in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical

STEVE Tearle knows how to sell a show, this time promising audiences “an opportunity to see Elf like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects”.

The result? A sold-out run of six performances at the JoRo, where your reviewer was accommodated at the last minute in the only remaining house seat. Thank you, JoRo management, for being so helpful.

Elf The Musical was last staged in York in the equivalent week three years ago by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, where director-designer Nik Briggs dressed his stage with big snowflakes, open North Pole skyline, bustling Macy’s store, finale snow machine et al, as he drew inspiration from Radio City Music Hall.

Tearle instead put his trust in technology and human/elf chemistry, utilising video backdrops of constantly changing snowscapes, spinning festive candy canes and the interiors of Macy’s Department Store and  Greenway Press, a children’s book publishing company in New York City’s Empire State Building, first seen in all its towering, vertigo-inducing magnificence.

Family discussions in the Hobbs household: Perri Ann Barley’s Emily, James O’Neill’s Walter and James Roberts’s Michael

It would spoil the visual delights in store to mention more than that, but Tearle uses the tools with a showman’s flourish, tapping into his inner PT Barnum that never lies far beneath the surface.

But is it really theatre, you ask? Is it in some way cheating to let the science, rather than the art, do the work? Not today when theatre embraces all possibilities to modernise the artform while sustaining the magic.

What’s more, everything else about Tearle’s community theatre-making is rooted in old-fashioned theatre values: a glossy programme, a big cast, with children aplenty cutting their teeth; 15 players, yes, 15, in Joe Allen’s orchestra; costumes galore, and Tearle himself in actor-manager mode, overseeing his production in the genial guise of storyteller Santa. Scatting extra lines like a jazz singer, he gives resurgent York City an unexpected mention far from the North Pole.

He is not the santa of attention, however! That central figure is Finlay Butler’s skateboarding Buddy, with Butler’s enthusiasm for playing Buddy – “one of the greatest experiences of my life!” he says – being a match for Buddy’s ebullience for life.

Finlay Butler’s Buddy enthuses in his unconventional way over Maia Stroud’s Jovie in Elf The Musical

Elf The Musical retains the jokes and the naïve charm of the 2003 Will Ferrell film in its playful, New York-witty, even wise book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, then adds all the song-and-dance razzmatazz of a Broadway musical, with music by Matthew Sklar big on winter brass and lyrics by Chad Beguelin full of smart humour, bold statements and big sentiments.

Tearle’s green-coated Santa introduces the story of how orphan boy Buddy crawls into Santa’s sack and ends up being brought up among all the elf toy makers on a sugar-rich diet with two visits a day to the North Pole dentist. 

When Buddy learns that he is not an elf after all, despite being so elfish in his thinking, off to New York he must go – in Tearle’s video variation of a pantomime transformation scene – to try to find his real father, children’s publishing-house manager Walter Hobbs (James O’Neill), who never knew he had a son from a long-ago relationship. 

Stressed-out Walter is now married to long-suffering Emily (Perri Ann Barley), with a son, Michael (James Roberts, sharing the role with Zachary Stoney). In their house, no-one believes in Santa but  Buddy will work his way into their lives – work, not worm – with his idiot-savant gentle air, kindness and positivity.

The hills are alive with candy canes as Finlay Butler’s Buddy makes his journey from the North Pole to New York via NE Theatre York’s video projections

Butler’s performance is as buoyant as a bubble, as bouncy as Tigger, as cheerful as a robin’s hop  on a Christmas card. Who could not love him, this bundle of joy, love, cheek and unguarded desire to please? After Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Up Theatre’s ongoing Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, here is another agile comedic actor who would be wholly suited to turning his hand to daft-lad duty in panto. He sings expressively too, especially in World’s Greatest Dad and The Story Of Buddy The Elf.

Barley’s warm-hearted Emily and Roberts’s excitable Michael have two lovely duets, I’ll Believe In You and There Is A Santa Claus, while O’Neill impresses in his transformative role, gradually defrosting from treasonable to reasonable.

Ali-Butler-Hind’s scatty receptionist Deb and Kit Stroud’s hyperactive Manager maximise their cameos, topped by Stephen Perry’s intemperate publishing boss Mr Greenway with his preposterous suggestions for book changes.

Maia Beatrice, or Maia Stroud as she is now called in the programme, is well cast as Macy’s store worker Jovie, Buddy’s slow-burn love interest, whose initial New York cynicism is chipped away by his persistent enthusiasm as he corrects everyone’s misconceptions over Santa, the North Pole and Christmas.

It’ll be all white on the night (apart from the Santas!) in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical

A rising talent of the York stage with a cracking singing voice, full of emotion and range, and a sense of stillness in the moment not always present in an actor’s skill set, her performance has depth, standing out amid the amusing caricatures. No song is better sung than her Never Fall In Love.

Joe Allen’s well-drilled orchestra brings out the fizz and the fun in Sklar’s emotive songs, and if the dancing is less precise, it has all the sugar-rush energy of Buddy in Melissa Boyd’s choreography. Her best routine is for the Santa setpiece Nobody Cares About Santa, where the jaded, boozed-up post-shift Santas leap up and down in turn, topped off by a burst of tap-dancing.

Tearle has decked the stage front with twinkling foliage: a typical touch from NETheatre’s creative director with a designer’s flair who embraces the “true joy of Christmas” as heartily as Buddy and his one-man national elf service.

His stage bursts with colour and life, regulation reds and greens aplenty and one scene where everyone is dressed in white. What a spectacle. Buddy has a word for it: Sparklejollytwinklejingley.

NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, until  Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on University of York Symphony Orchestra, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, 23/11/2024

University of York Symphony Orchestra

THIS excellent York Concerts series continued with a really attractive programme of Mendelssohn, Busoni and Richard Strauss.

It opened with Mel Bonis’s Le Songe de Cléopâtre, op. 180. To be honest, the only thing I knew about the composer was that her actual name was Mélanie, publishing her works under the gender-neutral name  of Mel Bonis in an attempt to avoid the inevitable prejudice against women composers.

But the performance of this wonderful crafted miniature clearly revealed a composer of real stature and individuality. As the title implies, the work is inspired by the influential Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. And there did seem to be a programmatic element, a response to the strong, seductive qualities associated with this historic femme fatale.

 I could clearly hear the impressionistic influence of Debussy, although the rich orchestral swells suggested the music of Wagner. Maybe. The string tuning was not always on the money (the auditorium was pretty warm), but lovely flute and clarinet playing stood out and the overall performance convinced.

Taking centre stage for Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op. 25 was third-year university music student Alexa MacLaren. Not surprisingly, there were some early signs of nerves but the introduction was nevertheless simply exhilarating.

I loved the overall charm of the playing, the sparkling passagework dispensing with the unnecessary dramatic showmanship. Attention to detail was ever present. The playful nature of the Presto finale was instinctively captured by Ms MacLaren, as in the rhythmically crisp articulation – far from easy at this very lively tempo and sparkling scale passages.

But it was the lyrical passages, the singing melodies, particularly in the tonally radiant E major Andante, which stayed with me. The phrasing, expression and avoidance of sentimentality worked beautifully. The rapturous response from the capacity audience was genuinely touching.

Ferruccio Busoni is a towering figure in ‘modern’ music. His music breathes the contrapuntal sound world of J S Bach – the great Fantasia Contrappuntistica on an unfinished fugue by Bach is a remarkable homage to the great man, just as much as it breathes the “air from another planet”.

Busoni was a friend of Arnold Schoenberg. He also had a close relationship, both personally and professionally, with Gustav Mahler. And it was Mahler and the New York Philharmonic who gave the first performance of Busoni’s short Berceuse élégiaque for orchestra, op.42 in 1911.

The Berceuse is an atmospheric, contemplative work and John Stringer’s insightful reading allowed it the space to gradually unfold. I was struck by the subtlety of the instrumental timbres and gently jarring (major and minor) tonalities and harmonic patterns.

 The performance created a dream-like world, drifting through a quite unique musical landscape. The dark, elegiac intimacy surely was a response to the death of his mother. Indeed, the score itself is headed by the enigmatic words “A man’s cradle-song at his mother’s bier”. A bier is the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed (I had to look this one up).

A slight whinge before turning to the Strauss: the slightly surreal amplified call to refrain from taking photos is a good thing, but then having a photographer taking shots from the rear of the auditorium with a camera the size of a mini Hubble telescope ain’t – it’s distracting.

So, from one master of atmospheric orchestration and colour to another, Richard Strauss’s tone poem Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration). The musical narrative depicts the death of an artist.

As the man lies on his death bed, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his earthly goals and finally the mother of all transfigurations “from the infinite reaches of heaven”. A bit like Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius composed 11 years later – both 19th-century Europeans and Victorians were obsessed with death and mysticism.

The work opens with quiet pulsing strings and timpani suggesting life, the living, but its irregularity of beat suggests a slowly failing heartbeat and the imminence of death. John Stringer’s orchestral instincts were well served here, generating a quiet, unsettling musical moment of unwanted familiarity. There were telling flute, oboe and string contributions.

The second movement was absorbing, with the heartbeat theme threading the musical narrative together, culminating in a brilliant full orchestral manifestation with the brass (trumpets and trombones) articulating a new idea. The ending was quiet and bleak.

I found the third movement really engaging as the dying man’s life is played out: aims, aspirations and failure to achieve them. The performance became appropriately agitated, tormented and explosive.

The moment of death and transfiguration was effectively evoked; a climax of dramatic glissando strings followed to an eerie, unearthly quiet gong calls and a low sustained C in the bowels of the orchestra itself.

The transfiguration begins with the whole orchestra pianissimo, fine horn and (celestial, what else?) harp playing leading to the “true and ultimate heavenly paradise”.

Another really fine outing for the University Symphony Orchestra, admirably directed once again by John Stringer. On a personal note, I hope to see the day when Mr Stringer decides to include some of his own impressive compositions into these programmes.

But the final word belongs with final-year student Alexa MacLaren; an exceptional young pianist at the start of a clearly promising career. We wish her well.

Review by Steve Crowther

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom and Daisy Brown at Tytania with the children of A Midsummer Night’s Dream cast as Fairies. Picture: Richard H Smith

THIS is the second revival of Martin Duncan’s 2008 production. It was seen again five years later and now, 16 years on from its genesis, it reappears under the supervision of Matthew Eberhardt, who is building an impressive portfolio as an assistant director in Leeds. So it can be said to have stood the test of time.

The magic behind its success is not hard to find. Large-cast productions have become a speciality at Leeds, where chorus-members regularly step up into smaller roles. But Duncan has also looked back at 1960, when A Midsummer Night’s Dream was premiered, and built on a legitimate modernity behind it.

It is not merely night music, but dream music, drug-induced at that. Ashley Martin-Davis’s pseudo- psychedelic costumes for the lovers reveal them to be flower children. The child-fairies are identically clothed in white, with black wings and blonde, fringed wigs, the product of a dream-world, flitting around like bees seeking pollen. Oberon and Tytania gleam in shiny metal discs, like sci-fi chain mail.

Camilla Harris’s Helena and James Newby’s Demetrius. Picture: Richard H Smith

Reinforcing the otherworldly theme are the tall ‘trees’ of translucent Perspex surmounted by oval ‘clouds’, all brought to life by Bruno Poet’s lighting. Not quite your traditional dream, in other words.

Equally transparent is Garry Walker’s exceptionally delicate treatment of the score. He conjures from his players an intimacy that exactly complements the goings-on above, sometimes to an almost erotic degree. Naturally this dissipates into something more earthy when the artisans are at play.

These two worlds, alongside the high voices of the fairies’ realm, offer clear differentiation between the drama’s three groups, just as Britten intended, with Daniel Abelson’s lively Puck as go-between, his trumpet-and-drum motif sectionalising the score. Such clarity is magical indeed. James Laing’s commanding Oberon, a stalwart from 2008, is well matched by Daisy Brown’s yearning Tytania.

The outstanding performance of the evening comes from Henry Waddington as a blustering Bottom, the other veteran holdover from the production’s start; he is positively Falstaffian in his donkeydisguise.

Daniel Abelson as Puck in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith

Colin Judson, the original Flute, reappears as Snout here, alongside Dean Robinson as Quince, Nicholas Watts as Flute, Frazer Scott’s Snug and Nicholas Butterfield’s Starveling, an excellent team.

There is also exceptional teamwork – and beautiful singing – from the dozen children as fairies, who are spearheaded by Kitty Moore, Dougie Sadgrove, Lucy Eatock and Jessie Thomas as Peaseblossom, Moth, Mustardseed and Cobweb respectively.

Nor is there is any shortage of passion from the four lovers. They are distinct personalities, Camilla Harris a flighty Helena as opposed to Sian Griffiths’s determined Hermia, with Peter Kirk’s Lysander and James Newby’s Demetrius more like rutting stags when they clash. All bar Griffiths are making their company debuts. The aristocrats, Theseus and Hippolyta, are given due gravitas by Andri Björn Róbertsson and Molly Barker.

The wit and wisdom we had first enjoyed in 2008 is resuscitated in spades.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Nicholas Butterfield as Robin Starveling, Frazer Scott as Snug, Nicholas Watts as Francis Flute, Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom, Colin Judson as Tom Snout and Dean Robinson as Peter Quince in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in Ruddigore, Leeds Grand Theatre

Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd (seated) with Chorus of Opera North members as the ghosts of Ruddigore in Ruddigore. Picture: Richard H Smith

ANYONE sniffing at the idea of a professional company devoting time to Gilbert & Sullivan will experience a tasty riposte in this Jo Davies production, revived here by James Hurley.

Unveiled nearly 15 years ago, it was originally (1887) billed as “entirely original supernatural opera”. That seems to have intimidated Victorian audiences more than modern ones and Davies/Hurley really go to town in this escapist revival, unabashed at any idea that Ruddigore is somehow outside the mainstream.

 The show ticks two other boxes as well. It fits neatly into the autumnal charm offensive under the company’s new regime: witness the pre-curtain pep-talks at all three productions.

Xavier Hetherington as Richard Dauntless with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

In these straitened times – when are they not so? – it also makes sense to schedule a show dependent on teamwork. With no major lead roles, many could be taken by members of the company’s versatile chorus. So we have Amy Freston returning as Rose Maybud, just as naïve and gullible as before but vocally more flexible too.

 Similarly, Claire Pascoe steps into the redoubtable shoes of Anne-Marie Owens as Dame Hannah and makes them her own, not least when greeting her old flame Sir Roderic as “Roddy Doddy”. He is the other returnee – a regular here, although not a chorus member – Steven Page, even more proudly military and stentorian than before.

Updating the action from the 18th century to the 1920s means that the cloaks swirled and the moustaches sprouted, in true silent cinema fashion, which plays right into the hands of John Savournin’s dastardly Sir Despard. Never one to downplay comic opportunities, Savournin is in his element – and making every word count in a firm baritone.

Helen Évora as Mad Margaret with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

This means even more when he meets his match in Helen Évora’s delightfully capricious Mad Margaret, reacting compliantly to his ‘Basingstoke’ commands; they play off each other superbly.

They also combine winningly with Dominic Sedgwick’s Robin – now Sir Ruthven – in Act 2’s unique patter song. This marks the point at which Sedgwick returns to the comfort zone he inhabited as a genial Robin, a transition as tricky as any in the Savoy operas.

 Xavier Hetherington brings a bright tenor and boundless gusto to the role of Dick Dauntless, while Henry Waddington’s Old Adam is both gruff and bumbling, notably as ‘valet de chambre’. Gillene Butterfield adds a neat cameo as Zorah.

Henry Waddington as Old Adam Goodheart and Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

Anthony Kraus contributes a vigour and determination that not only inspires his orchestra but enlivens the singers into the bargain. He shows an unerring instinct for colour, mining Sullivan’s orchestration at every turn and making When The Night Wind Howls a highlight.

Special mention must also go to Kay Shepherd’s choreography and the way it is so crisply delivered, despite the addition of only three professional dancers. Dance has had a thin time of it in opera recently and this is a welcome return of an essential ingredient in the G & S recipe.

The chorus revels in its opportunities, the ladies as professional bridesmaids, the men as Murgatroyds from the past. Richard Hudson’s set for the castle picture gallery, allied to Anna Watson’s darkly evocative lighting, makes Act 2 memorable – proving Sullivan’s ability not merely to parody, but to create, real opera.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Dominic Sedgwick as Robin Oakapple and Amy Freston as Rose Maybud in Opera North’s Ruddigore.Picture: Richard H Smith
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Roderick Williams & Christopher Glynn, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, November 13

Baritone Roderick Williams: Revelled in the full house at the Lyons

IT IS rare for a song recital to contain only songs in English, still rarer for all the composers involved to hail from the British Isles. But then a recital by baritone Roderick Williams is never going to be run-of-the-mill, still less when a pianist of Christopher Glynn’s talents is at his side.

The occasion was enhanced by the presence of the highly promising young soprano Caroline Blair, who took part in six numbers.

From the moment he appears, Williams gives the impression that there is nowhere else in the entire universe he would rather be, such is his charisma. Before he has even opened his mouth, the audience is at ease and eager. Needless to say, he faced a full house at the Lyons and clearly revelled in that fact.

Six John Ireland songs formed his opening set and included two of the composer’s three settings of Masefield, the incomparable Sea Fever and the vernacular Vagabond (it has no definite article). The former was truly noble, delivered almost as recitative, with deliberately uneven pacing but never losing momentum.

Soprano Caroline Blair: Took part in six numbers

Glynn, as so often elsewhere, seemed to follow him instinctively: they were a tight duo. Vagabond might have been a touch more carefree, in the manner of Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel, which appeared later here.

But the finest song of the Ireland set was Youth’s Spring Tribute, the barely suppressed ecstasy of its opening blossoming into a huge climax with April’s sun, before petering into a serene conclusion. It was a good counterbalance to Housman’s sombre, autumnal We’ll To The Woods No More, heard earlier.

Masefield was also the creator of The Seal Man, which brought forth arguably the finest ofRebecca Clarke’s many songs, now thankfully enjoying something of a revival. Williams treated it as an operatic scena, generating terrifying resonance at its climax, before the tragic drowning of the young girl. It was powerful indeed.

Blair had opened her account with Clarke’s setting of Yeats’s The Cloths Of Heaven, giving it firm, intelligent focus.

Two songs each from Ina Boyle and Joan Trimble contributed an Irish flavour, with folksong never too far from the surface, even in Boyle’s Straussian setting of George Russell’s The Joy Of Earth. Another Ulsterman, Charles Wood, known almost exclusively for his church music, in fact wrote many settings of Irish Folksongs, here well represented by I’d Roam The World Over With You, a strophic song with attractively varied accompaniments in each verse.

Pianist Christopher Glynn: Delivered handsomely. Picture: Gerard Collett

Both the Irish ladies had also shown a flair for piano writing, which Glynn delivered handsomely. Our duo’s bold, exciting approach to Tewkesbury Road gave the lie to Michael Head’s reputation as a composer of delicate miniatures.

Williams’s superb ability to deliver a smooth legato underlined Vaughan Williams’s talent as a melodist in his Songs of Travel, never more so than in Whither Must I Wander?. The vagabond emerged as a character in his own right, if perhaps not quite as overawed by the “infinite shining heavens” as he might have been. But the contrast between the two verses of Bright Is The Ring Of Words was truly intense, the one strong and confident, the other gently wistful.

The evening ended with four songs by Williams himself. The first, the duet Prima Materia, uses single Latin words “derived by Catherine Wilson from the Jungian concept of alchemical diagnosis”. Here the patient (Blair) and the therapist (Williams) were at comical cross-purposes, neither seemingly listening to the other until subsiding into suspicious ‘conjunctio’. It required considerable facility from Glynn’spiano.

Two Wendy Cope poems, both fanciful and parodistic, made an amusing intro to the cleverest setting of the four, the duet Sigh No More, Ladies. As a composer, Williams has as much of a feel for the piano as he does for voices, if not more. Blair showed remarkable composure and a mezzo-like timbre that is extremely appealing.

We had also heard several settings of The Salley Gardens – by Ireland, Clarke and Gurney – but they were outclassed by Britten’s setting with its rueful postlude, heard as an encore. It rounded off a thoroughly rewarding evening, all of it crisply conveyed in our own language.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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Hello Dolly! Robin Simpson’s dame takes on new guise in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal

To beard or not to beard? Paul Hawkyard, left, will retain his, but Robin Simpson will shed his to play Dame Dolly in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

IT could be disconcerting interviewing the dame in week two of rehearsals for Aladdin when Robin Simpson’s beard remains in imperial flourish, especially when his playing style is the antithesis of rough and ready.

Be assured, the whiskers will be long gone when the Yorkshireman begins his fifth York Theatre Royal pantomime next Tuesday, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey in a nod to acknowledging modern-day sensitivities and cultural diplomacy.

As ever, Robin’s dame will be lovable. “I’ve never been a big fan, even in normal life, of putting people down. Dames can be quite cruel but I would never do that,” he says. “When I pick out a man in the audience to be in the spotlight at each show, what I want afterwards is for him to go, ‘I’m so glad I was chosen because I had a great time’.

“My dame personality also comes from performing in front of children a lot [Robin does solo storytelling shows too], accepting their offers [suggestions and comments], working with what they give you, incorporating it, making it work. The aim has to be to give everyone a good time, when it can be too easy in pantomimes to make someone feel they’re being picked on. You don’t need to do that. I believe the dame should be nice.”

Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre’s first poster image for Aladdin, released in January

His style epitomises the new age of the York Theatre Royal pantomime crafted since 2020 by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and award-winning Evolution Productions director and script writer Paul Hendy.

“Our panto does appeal to both adults and children,” says Robin. “You have to have something for the adults, nothing too specific, but ‘bum jokes’ too for the children. You need fabulous costumes and you have to do the story properly, while having a side-wink to the audience that says ‘ we know this is all crazy’!

“We always have an eye on being entertaining for children: you can’t have the baddie being too scary or the dame being too rude!”

On the subject of the villain, Robin will be renewing his badinage with fellow West Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, who returns to the dark side at the Theatre Royal as Abanazar after a gap year appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.

Robin Simpson’s Manky, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy, the scheming stepsisters, in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 2021

Simpson and Hawkyard first revelled in their award-nominated panto double act when things turned ugly as stepsisters  Manky and Mardy in Cinderella in 2021. “It’s great to have him back,” says Robin, who also played Mrs Smee to Paul’s Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan! in 2022.

“It’s nice to have that familiarity, and to have similar scenes and routines to past shows, like the ghost gag bench but with a different song. Some of the same catchphrases and punchlines too: the more that people come and see the shows, the more they’ll say, ‘that’s the thing they do’, but you don’t want to force them. They have to be natural.

“The audiences have been great since we started, and hopefully we’ve been growing that audience each year with the shows going from strength to strength. However each one is put together by Juliet and Paul, their decision to cast a CBeebies star each time has worked really well: it’s really wonderful to have Evie Pickerill this year. She’s such a delight to work with – and what great singing voice she has too.

“We have a strong ensemble and we’re a team of really committed people. Pantomimes can be lazy but that’s not the case with here, where Juliet and Paul put everything into constantly finding something funny  that appeals to the widest audience.”

Robin Simpson in children’s storyteller mode

Robin’s dame loves to be the dispenser of “lots of fun”. “I’ve been playing dame for eight years now, three in Huddersfield [at the Lawrence Batley Theatre] and now five here, and of all the roles in pantomime, it’s certainly the most interesting one for me as you haven’t got the limitations on you that the leading man and the leading girl have.  

“I don’t have to carry the show. That’s up to Aladdin and co. They have the emotional story and earnestness. I can just come on, say a few jokes and fall over. At my age, that’s what I like, though I don’t mean to do it a disservice. The gender reversals in theatre have been going on for many years. They’ve always been part of the theatre tradition.”

Robin has returned to York after working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, heading from Scotland to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and OVO, St Albans too on tour. “It’s taken up pretty much my year,” he says. “I did seven months, a proper old-fashioned rep season, with the seventh month at the Wolsey in Ipswich in a co-production of Footloose.

“I was the Reverend and I really enjoyed being put in a musical, which is not something I’m usually considered for. It was good to be out of my comfort zone,” he says.

Robin Simpson having “lots of fun” in rehearsal for his fifth dame’s role at York Theatre Royal in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

“Though I was also in another musical in the season: Beautiful, the Carole King musical, playing Donny Kirshner, Carole’s manager, who managed The Monkees too. We had the same cast for three shows, with me playing Sir John Middleton and Mrs Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility…”

…Mrs Ferrars, you say? “I think they must have heard I played the dame! It was all very much multi-role-playing with only eight of us in the cast. She has only one scene, so none of your pantomime rouge for Mrs Ferrars. We didn’t have time for that.

“She’s really dislikeable! A horrible tyrant of a woman!” Totally unlike Robin’s dame.

York Theatre Royal presents Aladdin from December 3 to January 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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