On the king’s manor: The Sovereign figure of Henry VIII (Mark Gowland) stands over York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, playwright Mike Kenny and, front, Juliet’s co-directors John R Wilkinson and Mingyu Lin at the launch for York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community production. Picture: Anthony Robling
HERE comes the call-out for community cast members to take part in York Theatre Royal’s majestic outdoor summer production, Sovereign, in 2023.
The world premiere of C.J. Sansom’s York-based Tudor thriller, adapted for the stage by York playwright Mike Kenny, will run in the grounds of King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, from July 15 to 30 next summer.
Applications are open to be involved in the cast and choir in Juliet Forster, John R Wilkinson and Mingyu Lin’s community theatre production on a grand scale, with York Theatre Royal seeking around 100 adults and young performers aged nine and over.
Set in Tudor York in 1541, the play follows lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak who await the arrival of Henry VIII on his northern progress.
Tasked with a secret mission, Shardlake is protecting a dangerous prisoner who is to be returned to London for interrogation. When the murder of a York glazier plunges Shardlake into a deep mystery that threatens the Tudor dynasty itself, he must work against time to avert a terrifying chain of events.
Told through the voices of the people of York, the Theatre Royal production will release all the intrigue, conspiracy and thrills of Sansom’s novel. Alongside the community ensemble, two professional actors will star in the production too.
Co-director Juliet Forster, the Theatre Royal’s creative director, says: “We’re so excited to stage Mike Kenny’s brilliant adaptation of C.J. Sansom’s Sovereign next summer. To do so against the spectacular backdrop of the grounds of King’s Manor, where Henry VIII actually visited, makes it even more special.
“This is a York story and we’re thrilled to invite the people of York to be a part of this community production and help us to bring it to life on the stage.”
Co-director John R Wilkinson says: “York has a wonderful history of epic, large-scale community productions and we’re thrilled that Sovereign will be the focus for next summer.
“There are lots of opportunities to get involved. We would like to see even more people, who haven’t taken part in a community show before, join us for this special production.”
Fellow co-director Mingyu Lin adds: “This is a fantastic and rewarding opportunity to be involved in such a large-scale community production and we’re really keen to hear from people from all backgrounds and experience levels who are interested in taking part.
York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster: Co-directing Sovereign
“Even if you’ve never acted before but have a passion for the stage, we’d love to hear from you. York has such a wonderful tradition of community theatre and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Cast and choir members are invited to express their interest via these links before Monday, December 19 December, ahead of January’s auditions.
In addition, an online and in-person drop-in session for people who identify as d/Deaf and Disabled and are interested in finding out more about participating will be held on Tuesday, December 6 from 2pm to 3pm.
This session will be led by co-director John R Wilkinson and community connector Lydia Crosland in the York Theatre Royal Studio or on Zoom at: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81599256774 Meeting ID: 815 9925 6774.
Rehearsals will start on April 15 2023, taking in two weekday evenings and Saturday daytimes (times to be confirmed.)
All cast and choir members must be available for all tech rehearsals and the production run. Tech weeks: Weeks starting July 3 and July 10 2023. Opening night: July 15.
Show schedule: Saturday, July 15, 7pm; Tuesday, July 18, 7pm; Wednesday, July 19, 7pm; Thursday, July 20, 7pm; Friday, July 21, 7pm; Saturday, July 22, 2pm and 7pm; Sunday, July 23, 2pm.
Tuesday, July 25, 7pm; Wednesday, July 26, 7pm; Thursday, July 27, 7pm; Friday, July 28, 7pm; Saturday, July 29, 2pm and 7pm; Sunday, July 30, 2pm.
Opportunities for further volunteers to help out backstage, in areas such as stage management, wardrobe, lighting, props, marketing, photography, fundraising and front-of-house, will be announced in 2023.
Sovereign was the Big City Read in 2009. Find out more about C.J. Sansom’s Shardlake series here.
Tickets for Sovereign are selling fast already on 01904 623568, in person from the Theatre Royal box office or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/sovereign/
York playwright Mike Kenny: Adapting C.J. Sansom’s Sovereign for next summer’s York Theatre Royal community play at King’s Manor
The Christmas collection: York ceramicist Ben Arnup, left, and Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett with an Anita Klein linocut print behind them
YORK ceramicist Ben Arnup will open Pyramid Gallery’s concluding 40th anniversary exhibition, The Christmas Collection, in Stonegate, York, on Saturday at 12 noon.
Ben will be exhibiting 12 new pieces, having supplied gallery curator and owner Terry Brett with his distinctive trompe l’oeil’ ceramic sculptures for 28 years.
At the heart of The Christmas Collection will be new work by another Pyramid regular, London artist and printmaker Anita Klein. “I’ve invited Anita to fill the walls of this show with 15 large linocut original prints and two paintings,” says Terry.
“The gallery has enjoyed a long, unbroken relationship with Anita as a supplier of her extensive catalogue of prints that form a diary of her family life.
Angel With Gift, linocut print, by Anita Klein
“Over the 28 years in which she has shown more than 800 different pictures at Pyramid Gallery, we’ve watched her career progress to the point where she has become one of the most collectable printmakers in the UK. It seems very fitting that she is the main focus of this year’s final anniversary exhibition.”
As well as showing new linocut prints, Anita will be selling copies of her book Out Of The Ordinary – 40 years Of Print Making, published by Eames Fine Art in October.
For more than 40 years, this artist of the everyday and the personal has produced thousands of paintings, prints and drawings depicting her immediate family – husband, daughters, grandchildren and herself – going about the very ordinary activities of daily life.
From watching television, cooking, reading, driving to school, soaking in the bath and getting dressed, to cleaning the house, choosing a pet, going on holiday, or just cuddling up and sharing tender moments with loved ones, Anita captures these seemingly unremarkable domestic scenes with humour, sensitivity and beauty, creating an intimate visual journal with which everyone can identify.
The book cover for Anita Klein’s Out Of The Ordinary, published in October and on sale at Pyramid Gallery
The book contains 550 of Anita’s best-loved prints, presented as a charming chronological record of the family’s day-to-day life through the decades, seen from the artist-mother’s perspective, as they grow and change in their respective roles within the household.
Out Of The Ordinary also charts her development as a printmaker, from the simple monochrome drypoints of the 1980s, a consequence of the practical and financial demands of being a young stay-at-home mum, through to the more colourful and elaborate prints of recent years.
A personal appreciation of Anita Klein’s work by poet Hollie McNish opens the volume, while texts by publishers Rebecca and Vincent Eames, who have collaborated with the artist for more than two decades, and critic Mel Gooding give an introduction to her practice.
Anita herself provides recollections and further detail with short commentaries on the images and the occasions that they depict, complemented by poetry contributions from Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Hollie McNish and Wendy Cope.
Pangolin, sculpture, by Jennie McCall, from The Christmas Collection at Pyramid Gallery
Taking part in the exhibition too will be sculptors Jennie McCall and Christine Pike; printmaker Mychael Barratt; slipware potter Dylan Bowen; ceramicists Katie Braida, Ilona Sulikova and Drew Caines (from Leeds); glass installation artist and sculptor Monette Larsen and glassmakers Rachel Elliott, Alison Vincent, Keith Cummings, Bruce Marks and David Reekie.
To complement with festive sparkle, the Christmas Collection jewellery displays will feature studio work by more than 50 British makers, including Jane Macintosh.
Saturday’s launch will run from 12 noon to 3pm; the exhibition will continue until January 12, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; 11am to 4pm on Sundays.
The poster for The Christmas Collection exhibitiion at Pyramid Gallery
Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 29, 30 and December 2, 7.30pm; December 1, 2pm and 7pm;December 3, 12pm and 4pm. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York
THIS is the festive turkey and stuffing in Pick Me Up Theatre’s sandwich of three shows in a matter of autumnal months. First, Matilda The Musical Jr at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in September, now Nativity! The Musical, and lastly Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound Of Music, back at Monkgate, only a fortnight after Nativity’s finale.
As a flyer in the Nativity! programme pronounces, no fewer than six productions are in Pick Me Up’s engagement diary, testament to Robert Readman’s restless pursuit of bringing musicals and more (Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None) to York’s stages.
He made the canny decision of holding open auditions for all this season’s shows simultaneously in June, “so we could get to know the children”, he reasoned.
This is a hugely beneficial experience for his young charges, who are at the heart of all three productions. Matilda The Musical Jr had a wild energy, made great play of words and letters and revelled in the rush and thrill of being unruly in school yet disciplined in choreography and musical numbers on stage.
The school year now reaches the Nativity! season, the climax to the Michaelmas term, in Debbie Isitt and Nicky Ager’s musical adaptation of their hit 2009 British comedy, the first in a frantic franchise of four festive family films that rather fizzled out as the DVD sales nevertheless piled up.
Stuart Piper’s lovelorn Mr Maddens
Readman had directed the 2011 York premiere of Tim Firth’s Flint Street Nativity, in truth a wittier work that definitely would have met with the approval of Nativity’s arch, flouncing critic Patrick Burns.
Readman, who never performed in a Nativity play in his schooldays, was delighted to receive the rights thumbs-up for Nativity!, a show marked with “British humour, children being themselves, pathos and daftness, and a romantic, happy end,” he says.
Birmingham Rep, by the way, has picked Isitt’s musical for its Christmas production in the Second City, no doubt drawn to those very qualities so necessary for a family show. Readman serves them all with customary exuberance, to the point of his regularly heard laugh being the loudest in the stalls.
BAFTA Award-winning Isitt’s musical takes the form of a Nativity play within a play, framing her stage adaptation around her original story of flustered, by-the-book teacher Mr Maddens (Stuart Piper) and his unconventional, idiot savant new assistant Mr Poppy (Jack Hooper) struggling with unpredictable children, unruly animals and an unimpressed head mistress, Mrs Bevan (Alison Taylor) when striving to stage St Bernadette’s Roman Catholic primary school’s musical version of the Nativity in Coventry.
Seeking to outdo the bells-and-whistles show mounted at the neighbouring posh school by his scornful ex-childhood friend, Gordon Shakespeare (Stuart Hutchinson), Maddens ups the ante by boasting that Jennifer Lore (Toni Feetenby), his still-missed ex-girlfriend, now working as a Hollywood producer, will be coming to the show with a view to turning it into a film.
Toni Feetenby’s Hollywood-bound Jennifer Lore
Unfortunately, Maddens is lying: he and Jennifer don’t talk any more (and so might she be lying too?!). Doubly unfortunate, Mr Poppy, Mrs Bevan and the local media’s enthusiasm only makes matters worse.
Piper’s Mr Maddens is suitably earnest, self-destructively driven, but, crucially, caring too and a romantic at heart, albeit a deflated one. His beastly bête noir, fellow company debutant Hutchinson’s Gordon Shakespeare, is obsessive, supercilious, priggish, dislikeable but agreeably amusing. Their battle is a highlight, one to be savoured by lovers of long-running theatre wars.
Pick Me Up’s third newcomer among the principals, Jack Hooper, is the show’s five-star turn, reminiscent of both Jack Black’s substitute teacher Dewey Finn in School Of Rock and “silly billy” pantomime characters.
Ignoring the old adage never to act with children or animals, Hooper bonds effervescently with both, his irrepressible Mr Poppy bringing out the best in the excitable pupils, stirring their imaginations with his own inner child, and playing puppy to Cracker the dog. To be serious for a moment, Mr Poppy is also a beacon for why the arts should always matter in schools, encouraging the unconventional among the conventional, as much among teachers as pupils.
Contemplating retirement, Alison Taylor’s Mrs Bevan, a head teacher enervated after so many years of struggle, learns her lessons in life just in time.
Hands up who wants to be in a Nativity musical? Robert Readman’s cast for Pick Up Theatre’s “school” production
Toni Feetenby’s Jennifer, torn between career ambitions and love, is the outstanding singer in a show that complements favourites from the films, such as One Night One Moment and She’s The Brightest Star, with new Christmas-spirited Isitt-Ager additions for the stage version.
The ensemble centrepiece Sparkle And Shine does exactly that, the stand-out in Lesley Hill’s choreography that puts the ensemble emphasis on fun and characterful expression rather more than precision, in the tradition of school Nativity plays, as it happens.
Reaching for the sandwich once more, has Robert Readman bitten off more than he can chew by directing and designing three shows in quick succession, working with children in each of them to boot?!
No, there is plenty to enjoy here, whether theatrical fun and games, school tropes or the climactic bonkers Nativity play in the Coventry cathedral ruin. Not least Jonah Haig’s Ollie and especially Beau Lettin’s Star on press night in the lead children’s roles, amid a scant regard for the Coventry accent among most of the cast, a smattering of technical frustrations and a staccato rhythm to the second half’s scenes, however.
The sound is problematic on occasion, particularly when Faateh Sohail’s Angel Gabriel takes to the air, with wings, yes, but insufficient volume. Hopefully that hitch has been ironed out, but a better sound balance may be more difficult to achieve among so many children.
Sam Johnson leads the band through George Dyer’s orchestrations with a flourish; a bewigged Rosy Rowley is seen in a new light as Mr Parker, a cynical Hollywood bigwig, and your reviewer wouldn’t dare criticise Jonny Holbek’s flamboyant turn as the waspish local theatre critic. Five stars, darling, five stars.
The book cover for Homeless Bound. Design: Justin Grasty
THERE is no such thing as “the homeless”, only people experiencing homelessness, asserts the York project Homeless Bound, ahead of the December 13 launch of its interactive book at Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.
Working in tandem with the Good Organisation, at the Priory Street Centre, Coterminous CIC and producer/broadcaster Jez Russell, the year-long grassroots project has brought together 20 people with direct experience of homelessness to create content collaboratively for a book that uncovers how public misconceptions of homelessness continue to shape public attitudes.
“It’s a book about how public preconceptions of homelessness, and the language we use to discuss the issue, can lead to greater marginalisation and infantilisation,” says Jez.
One such preconception leads to the response: “I hate when people talk about ‘the homeless community’. It paints a false picture that everyone is looking out for each other when many people are dealing with their homelessness in isolation.”
Consequently, Homeless Bound challenges how the use of “othering” language such as “they” or “them” can inadvertently cause further exclusion and isolation for people experiencing homelessness.
Homeless Bound also explores the default perception of homelessness – a man in a doorway, living on the streets – that misrepresents its range and shifting nature, limiting our understanding of what homelessness is, leading to “the public often challenging the ‘realness’ of homelessness other than rough sleeping”.
Demonisation, criminalisation, gentrification, politicisation and blame are among the themes illustrated in the book, all factors that “further exclude and stigmatise those experiencing homelessness and ultimately make homelessness easier to ignore”.
The interactive book uses graphic design, photography and creative writing to explore a broad range of themes, such as “how language and stereotypes ultimately lead to the infantilisation and disempowerment of those affected by homelessness”.
The completed 120-page publication also addresses how prevailing public perceptions often retain a focus on the individual as “problematic”, rather than the systemic and structural causes of poverty.
Those who contributed brought a wide variety of personal insights, encompassing rough sleepers, those living in hostels or temporary accommodation, as well as individuals whose homelessness is hidden or rarely acknowledged.
In addition to building the confidence of all the participants, the project contributed to a thought-provoking discourse among those who took part, with a range of discussions on how best to articulate many of the underlying concerns and how to reframe those for a broader audience in an engaging manner.
The flexible nature of the activities enabled individuals to contribute written and visual content to the book, either as an attributed co-author or through anonymised quotes and other short submissions. Next month’s book launch provides an opportunity to meet some of those participants.
The book also incorporates pertinent games and puzzles, with each copy being distributed with an accompanying NFC tagged bookmark that links to a website that will act as an autonomous information and research repository, now being developed by LIFE (Lived Insights From Experience).
In addition to readings from the book, the launch provides a unique chance to view supplementary digital content. Free refreshments will be available.
As Fellow Of The Royal Society of Arts artist, filmmaker, playwright, author, journalist and social campaigner Paul Atherton says: “There is no such thing as ‘the homeless’. There are people experiencing homelessness. In the mind of the public, if you use terms like ‘the homeless’, people will immediately hear, ‘Oh that’s other, that’s not me!’.”
To reserve a free book launch ticket, go to: eventbrite.co.uk/e/homeless-bound-book-launch-tickets-469524479357. To buy the book, go to: coterminous.co.uk/product/HomelessBound/66?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
What is Coterminous CIC?
THIS collaborative project brings artists and designers together with those experiencing homelessness, ex-offenders and former drug users to co-create unique products.
What is the Good Organisation?
THIS heritage and tourism-based social enterprise is led by individuals affected by homelessness within York.
YORKSHIRE duo Kimber headline the Victoria Vaults on Friday, launching their debut EP Slow Moon, Long Night at the pub in Nunnery Lane, York.
Already featured on Steve Lamacq’s show on BBC 6 Music, the EP is released by York label Safe Suburban Home Records.
Kimber are producers, multi-instrumentalists and long-time friends Mikey Wilson and Josh Heffernan, whose northern, working-class roots and work ethic emerge in their approach to making music: DIY, self-engineered, self-produced and self-mixed, with both members putting money aside each week to slowly build their shared home studio.
Their studio space has become a sanctuary, with their passion for production and gear allowing Kimber to experiment sonically as well as be self-sufficient artists.
The results are heavily textured with hints of Mount Kimbie in the woozy production, Beach House in the melancholic melodies and New Order in the dynamic basslines. Favouring looseness in their sound, they apply a “performed-not-programmed” ethos, drawn from their passion for capturing an authentic human feel.
Kimber’s music is neither austere electronica nor the simple bounce of new wave, sitting somewhere between the cracks instead.
Chris White, owner of Victoria Vaults, says: “It’s great to see local talent from the York area appearing here. We’re looking forward to a great night.”
Joining Kimber on the 8.30pm triple bill will be support acts Kitty VR and Everything After Midnight; doors open at 7.30pm. Box office: wegottickets.com.
“I’m rarely happier than at the authentically Dickensian location of York Medical Society,” says James Swanton
YORK horror actor and ghost storyteller James Swanton returns to his familiar haunt of York Medical Society from tomorrow (29/11/2022) with his most ambitious schedule of Charles Dickens stories.
This past Outstanding Performing Artist winner in the York Culture Awards is reviving Ghost Stories for Christmas, complementing 12 shows in York with 20 more around the country.
James’s hour-long solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man will play select dates in York from the earlier-than-usual opening date of November 29 to December 20, as well as transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
“I’m delighted to once again be acting in my home city of York, and I’m rarely happier than at the authentically Dickensian location of York Medical Society on Stonegate,” says James.
“I’ve had a busy year on the film front, which means I’ve been variously transported to the Netherlands, Los Angeles, Serbia and Italy across the last 12 months. All very exciting, but Christmas is a time for home.”
James has never given more performances of A Christmas Carol than this year – eight alone in York! “I’m greatly looking forward to all of them, as they’re reliably cheerful experiences at what’s often the most stressful time of the year,” he says.
“However, the two lesser-known stories, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, are also very suited to our times. The Chimes is absolutely hilarious, yet it overbrims with anger at the injustices done to the least fortunate in society; The Haunted Man is a chilling supernatural tale but also a portrait of a man struggling with his mental health.
“These subjects have been much on our minds in recent years, and Dickens attacks them in a fashion that’s not only powerful but intensely hopeful.
“I look forward to gathering people together for an hour of truly heart-warming storytelling. God knows we need it,” says James
“A Christmas Carol, of course, is one of the greatest things ever written. I’ve found there’s little that’s more rewarding to perform as an actor. And there’s certainly no story that audiences are more eager to hear to the end.”
Despite the successful run of Ghost Stories for Christmas last December, James has not been seen on a York stage this year. “Although the world’s opening up and theatre’s getting back to normal, 2022 has been a year of film work – horror film work, specifically, which is what happens when you have a face like mine.”
As well as the Netherlands, Serbia and Italy, James was even whisked off to Los Angeles for “a mad couple of days”. “Annoyingly, most of these projects I’m not allowed to talk about yet – although I did make a feature film of The Haunted Man that streams through the Charles Dickens Museum’s website on December 4. So that’s a viable alternative for those who are still hesitant about attending live shows.”
As usual, the York run of Ghost Stories for Christmas is selling quickly, prompting James to offer strategic advice for securing tickets. “The best availability is at the start of the run, particularly the first few performances of A Christmas Carol and The Chimes in late November and early December,” he says.
“In defiance of the cost-of-living crisis, I’ve kept the ticket price exactly the same as when I last gave the shows. £14 a ticket is a snip these days, so if you’re looking for an activity for a large party, these ghost stories might be the perfect solution.
“In any case, I look forward to gathering people together for an hour of truly heart-warming storytelling. God knows we need it.”
James Swanton, Ghost Stories for Christmas, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, November 29 to December 20. A Christmas Carol will be performed on November 29 and December 1, 5, 6, 7, 12, 19 and 20; The Haunted Man, November 30 and December 10; The Chimes, December 8 and 13.
All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. Tickets: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
“I believe A Christmas Carol’s message rings out with as much urgency as it ever did,” says James
CharlesHutchPress asks the questions to dig out the stories behind York’s gothic storyteller supreme, James Swanton
Why does the York Medical Society so suit ghost-storytelling events, James?
“The building’s a properly ancient pile, festooned with dark wood panelling, open fireplaces, gilt-framed portraits and obscure implements in glass cases. It feels entirely plausible that it might host a ghost or two.
“As I constantly point out, the site offers complete atmospheric immersion: approaching the front door by that tapered alleyway leading off Stonegate feels just like approaching Scrooge’s house on Christmas Eve. And let’s also remember that a former director of York Medical Society was a social acquaintance of Dickens.
“The building could scarcely be more magnificently haunted, so I was glad to see that my on-and-off collaborators at the York Ghost Merchants made use of it over Halloween.”
For those yet to see The Haunted Man, why should they do so? “The Haunted Manis an overlooked Gothic chiller that often plays like a ghost-infused dress rehearsal for Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. The narrative is steeped in quintessential Victorian gloom yet also feels peculiarly modern, in that it explores its protagonist’s poor mental health.
“It’s all very dark and deep – the most difficult of the three pieces to act, but perhaps the most rewarding when it clicks. That said, there remain only three tickets for its York showings, so interested parties might be better off reserving places for the filmed version being streamed by the Dickens Museum on December 4.
Likewise, for those yet to see The Chimes, why should they do so? “The Chimes is a remarkably strange riff on the Christmas Carolformula. The first half is a scathing social critique, at times less story than soapbox; then the second half plays out like a more demented take on It’s A Wonderful Life.
“The whole story comes thrillingly close to falling apart under the sheer weight of its own ideas, but Dickens manages (just) to keep it all together. There are goblins too: many, many goblins. The Victorians were fascinated by goblins – and I think we should be too!”
Given the bleak chill afflicting so many lives in 2022, with society more divided than ever, does A Christmas Carol strike you as being even more resonant this Christmas?
“I believe its message rings out with as much urgency as it ever did – though perhaps ‘God Bless Us, Every One!’ now seems a little less fitting than ‘God Help Us, Every One!’.
“Scrooge has to go through hell to find redemption; if only our current ruling masters were forced to face a bit of the same,” says James
“The spectres of Ignorance and Want are obviously keenly felt at a time when an individual as grotesque as Matt Hancock can be forgiven his sins by simply appearing on television. (All that uncritical publicity for the measly appearance fee of £400,000).
“Scrooge has to go through hell to find redemption; if only our current ruling masters were forced to face a bit of the same. They never do, of course. Dickens would have heartily despised them – and no doubt pilloried them in his seasonal ghost stories. Merry Christmas.”
What has prompted you to do even more performances this winter in York and beyond? “Essentially, I really enjoy doing them – provided my voice and limbs hold out! – and even though the earliest of the stories, A Christmas Carol, turns 180 in 2023, public demand for it seems to grow year on year.
“Even last Christmas, with so much Covid hesitancy surrounding live theatre, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shows sold.”
What was the filming process for The Haunted Man that will be streamed through the Charles Dickens Museum. Was it a filmed version of your stage performance or were there new elements to it?
“Over the lockdown years, the Dickens Museum started to create these ingenious little streamed films, usually starring seasoned Dickensian actor Dominic Gerrard (his podcast Charles Dickens: A Brain On Fire is required listening for enthusiasts).
“I was keen to do the same with The Haunted Man as it’s one of the very few Dickens stories of any substantial length that’s never been filmed. The results are faithful to the stage version – it’s just me telling the tale, after all– but with lots of appealing bells and whistles: a magical coloured lighting palette, an ambient soundscape and a few low-key special effects, not least of which is everything being filmed within Dickens’s actual London house.
“I’m indebted to Jordan Evans-Hill at the Dickens Museum for pushing for it to be made and to Alex Hyndman for doing such a beautiful job on the filming and editing.
“I want people to see the shows without being deterred by yet another price hike,” says James
You can’t say much about filming in the Netherlands, Serbia and Italy this year, or being whisked to LA for a mad couple of days, but can you say at least a little more about them?!!
“I really can’t! I’m in non-disclosure agreements up to my eyeballs! What I will divulge is that I’ve been playing two parts that provide a most vindicating extension on a part I’ve already played in York.
“Even within the demands of a 48-hour round-trip to Hollywood – quite the most preposterous thing that’s ever happened to me – I have therefore been honouring my northern heritage! And as a dyed-in-the-wool horror enthusiast, I was thrilled to be involved with these films in particular. Announcements and releases to follow in 2023, I hope.”
You have kept the Ghost Stories for Christmas ticket price at £14. Why, when everything else is going up?
“I want people to see the shows without being deterred by yet another price hike. It’s worth pointing out that Dickens took special measures to ensure that people in every income bracket could experience his public readings.
“He wasn’t always successful, what with ticket-scalpers being a crafty breed, so, in that respect, I’m fortunate not to be a global celebrity (one man was actually killed in a fight over a ticket to see Dickens).
“Given that the main thrust of A Christmas Carol is anyway to spread the wealth around, it struck me as self-sabotage to charge more at a time when things only appear (just like every year) to be getting worse.”
What’s in the pipeline for you in 2023?
“I have nothing planned other than complete nervous collapse. I continue to pray for Richard III, though I expect I’ll be weary enough come January that I’d only convince as the version lying peacefully beneath that car park in Leicester.”
Ghost Stories For Christmas, part two: James Swanton, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, select dates from November 29 to December 20, 7pm
The Chimes they are a-clangin’ in James Swanton’s account a Charles Dickens novella
REVIEW: The Chimes, James Swanton’s Ghost Stories For Christmas, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, 8/12/2022
YORK’S gothic ghost storyteller supreme and film actor to boot, James Swanton, is part way through his most ambitious Dickensian schedule yet, with 12 shows back home and around 20 more around the country, transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
Ghost Stories For Christmas is made up of Swanton’s hour-long solo renditions of A Christmas Carol (eight performances) and the lesser-known The Chimes and The Haunted Man (two nights each).
Tonight (13/12/2022) is the second chance to hearThe Chimes, subtitled A Goblin Story Of Some Bells That Rang An Old Year Out And A New Year In. In Swanton’s nutshell, the first half is like music hall, the second more like Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, only more miserable.
Swanton, in immaculate Dickensian attire topped off by the most dapper of hats, greets you at the door, passing brief, apologetic comment on the non-Victorian scaffolding outside, but he is the master of atmosphere at the flick-off of a switch.
A single dim light picks out his face, sometimes enhanced by lamplight to emphasise his elongated features, his wide mouth, his narrow frame, gaunt pallor and impossibly long fingers. All this physicality goes into his storytelling, as important as his chameleon voice in creating character and tone as he spins Dickens’s tale with humour, intrigue, coloratura and just the right depth yet economy of detail.
First published in 1844 as the second in Dickens’s series of Christmas novellas, The Chimes was inspired by his year-long stay in Italy, and in particular by the clamour of the Genoese church bells.
At the heart of the story is Trotty, an elderly messenger, and in no time Swanton has evoked myriad characters, from daughter Meg and fiancé Richard, to pompous Alderman Cute (your reviewer’s favourite) and ostentatious charity-dispensing MP Sir Joseph Bowley, poor countryman Will Fern and his orphaned niece Lilian.
In the church bell chamber, Trotty encounters the spirits of the bells and their goblin attendants, and here is where It’s A Wonderful Life comparisons fall into place as he is scalded for losing faith in man’s destiny to improve. So much more unfolds in a series of visions, portrayed so eloquently and ingeniously by Swanton in a night so chilling yet warming.
Ghost Stories For Christmas runs until December 20 on various dates.All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. Tickets: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Winter’s chill: Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Christmas Gothic
GHOST stories, pantomimes and Jools’s annual visit top Charles Hutchinson’s list of winter essentials to keep warm and alert.
Ghost stories of the week, part one: Dyad Productions in Christmas Gothic, Theatre@41, Monkgate, tonight (27/11/2022), 7.30pm
FROM the creators of I, Elizabeth, A Room Of One’s Own, Female Gothic and Austen’s Women comes a dark celebration of Christmas, adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan.
Come in from the cold and embrace the Christmas spirit as a spectral woman tells haunting tales of the festive season, lighting a candle to the frailties of human nature and illuminating the chilling depths of the bleak, wintry gloom at this time of feasts and festivities, visits and visitations, ghosts and more ghosts. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
A Dickens or three of a scary night: James Swanton in his Ghost Stories For Christmas
Ghost Stories For Christmas, part two: James Swanton, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, select dates from November 29 to December 20, 7pm
YORK’S gothic ghost storyteller supreme, James Swanton, presents his most ambitious Dickensian schedule yet, with 12 shows back home and around 20 more around the country, transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
Ghost Stories For Christmas is made up of Swanton’s hour-long solo renditions of A Christmas Carol (eight performances) and the lesser-known The Chimes and The Haunted Man (two nights each). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/ghost-stories-for-christmas/.
The Stylistics: Soul power at York Barbican
Good for the soul show of the week: The Stylistics, York Barbican, tonight (27/11/2022), 7.30pm
SOULFUL Philadelphia harmony veterans The Stylistics “can’t wait to be back in the UK, performing all our hits, bringing back great memories and having a great evening with you all” on their 27-date tour.
In the line-up will be founder members Arrion Love and Herb Murrell, complemented by ‘Bo’ Henderson and Jason Sharp, as the 2004 inductees into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame sing I’m Stone In Love With You, You Make Me Feel Brand New, Let’s Put It All Together, You Are Everything et al. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Robert Hollingworth: Director for University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble’s concert at Central Hall. Picture: Frances Marshall
Christmas concert of the week: Long, Long Ago, Messe de Minuit pour Noel, University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble, Central Hall, University of York, Wednesday, 7.30pm
UNIVERSITY of YorkChoir & Baroque Ensemble are joined by The 24 for a Christmas concert of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit for voices, strings and flutes, Howells’ four jazz-inflected Carol Anthems and Bo Holten’s First Snow.
Director Robert Hollingworth also will be donning his dressing gown for a reading of Dylan Thomas’s magical A Child’s Christmas In Wales. “All in all, it’s a strange alchemic mix but we know it works!” he says. “Trust us – and come and have your first mince pie of the season.” Box office: yorkconcerts.co.uk.
Bad to the bone: Michael Lambourne’s ABBAnazar in Harrogate Theatre’s Aladdin. Picture: Karl Andre
Yorkshire welcome back of the week: Aladdin, Harrogate Theatre, until January 15 2023
MICHAEL Lambourne, the booming-voiced thespian who needs no introduction to York Theatre Royal audiences, can probably be heard all the way from York when he plays the evil ABBAnazar in his Harrogate Theatre pantomime debut.
Lambourne joins daft lad Tim Stedman’s Wishee Washee and fellow Harrogate panto returnees Christina Harris(Princess Jasmine), Colin Kiyani (Aladdin) and Howard Chadwick, back on spa-town dame duty, as Widow Twankey, for the first time since Snow White in 2019. Ebony Feare’s Genie and Stephanie Costi’s Pandora the Panda are the new faces in Marcus Romer’s cast. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
From CBeebies to York Theatre Royal: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
Putting the Pan into pantomime: All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, York Theatre Royal, December 2 to January 2 2023
CBEEBIES favourite Maddie Moate and three stars of last year’s Cinderella – Faye Campbell, Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson – fly into action for York Theatre Royal’s third collaboration with Evolution Productions.
Moate plays naughty fairy Tinkerbell, Campbell, Elizabeth Darling, Hawkyard, Captain Hook and Simpson, Mrs Smee, joined by Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan and Jonny Weldon’s pirate Starkey in creative director Juliet Forster’s production, scripted by Evolution’s Paul Hendy. Look out for acrobats Mohammed Iddi, Karina Ngade and Mbaraka Omari too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jools Holland: Returning to York Barbican with Vic Reeves as his specual guest
Jools et Jim show: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, with Vic Reeves, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm
ON the back of notching the 30th anniversary of his Later…With Jools Holland shows on BBC Two, the boogie-wooogie piano man joins up with fellow Squeeze alumnus Gilson Lavis, vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall and his exuberant big band.
The special-guest star turn goes to comedian, artist and chart-topping all-round performer Vic Reeves (aka Jim Moir), Holland’s Leeds-born podcast partner on Jools & Jim’s Joyride, fresh from his Yorkshire Rocks & Dinghy Fights exhibition at RedHouse Originals, Harrogate. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Long wait: Diversity bring Supernova to York in…2024
Looking and booking ahead: Diversity: Supernova, York Barbican, March 7 and 8 2024
LONDON street dance troupe Diversity’s 66-date Supernova tour to 40 cities and towns in 2023-2024 will take in a return to York.
Winners of the third series of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, Ashley Banjo’s dancers will be switching to the Grand Opera House from York Barbican, where they presented Connected, a show full of playful, comedic routines with powerful statements on human connectivity, in April this spring. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
University of York Symphony Orchestra (USO) Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, November 26
TICKETS were like gold dust for the USO’s latest foray under its permanent conductor John Stringer.
This is a popular group and its standards are high. The programme encompassed London as painted by Elgar and Paris as seen by Delius and Gershwin, with a couple of brief side-trips from Grainger in between.
Elgar’s concert overture Cockaigne (In London Town) is a series of vignettes of London life. He wanted to lift his spirits in 1901 after the disastrous initial response to The Dream Of Gerontius the previous year. As an establishment outsider, he also needed a way back into the musical mainstream. Cockaigne did the trick.
The violins were immediately bold in the vivacious opening melody but the change of mood to the more serious side of the Londoner was fluently done, even if things only quietened down fully when we glimpsed the lovers in the park. The military march rang out with majestic bravado underpinned by an especially zealous timpanist.
Although premiered the same year as Cockaigne, Delius’s Paris: The Song Of A Great City is quite a different animal, much more personal, indeed almost autobiographical. It started a little uncertainly here, before finding its way into a more shapely impressionism; the sinuous phrasing of the bass clarinet led the way.
The night air was warmed by the saltarello rhythm suggesting distant revels. But after the frenzy of bacchanalia leading to the march we reached an immense climax, which suited the orchestra’s mood perfectly. Thereafter the encompassing lull before the last great chord was serenely controlled.
Percy Grainger struck up a lasting friendship with Delius, so there was a personal link in his Dreamery, which – contrary to the Grainger image of relentless jollity – is a quiet daydream for strings alone. It dates from immediately after the First World War and is clearly nostalgic for calmer times. The orchestra’s fine body of violins were right at home here and all the strings enjoyed the composer’s delicate tapestry.
Equally brief but no less effective was Grainger’s arrangement of Ravel’s La Vallée des Cloches, from his piano suite ‘Miroirs’. Ravel had originally intended to orchestrate it himself. The opening section for tuned percussion was hypnotic. When the strings finally joined them, the violas made succulent use of their time in the spotlight.
We stayed in France for An American In Paris, Gershwin’s jocular parody of the archetypal Yank abroad, bold, brazen, and more than a little loud. He got off to a jaunty start, courtesy of the woodwinds, and the syncopation that followed was nicely edgy.
The sleaze quotient lifted with blues trumpet and tuba. Tempo changes were smoothly negotiated, as this American began to look and listen rather than impose himself. The ending was triumphant. It had all been a tasty travelogue.
El Gran Teatro del Mundo: Undertaking first tour to be arranged by the National Centre for Early Music, York
CONCLUDING a six-stop tour around Britain, organised by the NCEM, El Gran Teatro del Mundo pitched up in York. I’m very glad they did.
As their name suggests – taken from by a 1655 mystery play by Pedro Calderón – they reflect the theatre of Baroque music, not physically, but through their instruments.
Beginning and ending with Germany, with three Vivaldi works between, they put a tasty sonata by the unknown Catalan composer Josep (aka José) Pla into the middle of their sandwich.
Oboe and recorder jostled happily at the opening of a Fasch sonata, later joined by violin in a vivacious finale, with rhythms firmly underlined by theorbo continuo. Fasch reappeared in a concerto, which also boasted a witty final Allegro.
There were stylish echo effects from violinist Claudio Rado in a trio by Vivaldi. In a concerto da camera for all six of the group, also by Vivaldi, there was some neat syncopation in the main motif, and a breath-taking furioso finale. But its real beauty lay in the central Largo, for recorder, violin and cello alone.
A second Vivaldi concerto, notable for the way the soloists bounced their lines off one another, finished with a spectacular chaconne, whose bass line was joyfully jazzed by cellist Bruno Hurtado.
At the heart of Pla’s sonata, which was in galant – post-Baroque, almost Classical – style, lay a lovely cadenza for violin and oboe. It finished with a thrilling Allegro assai. The work was handsomely introduced by an improvisation from harpsichordist Julio Caballero, who directs the ensemble. He was a mainstay throughout the evening.
Caballero delivered another cracking improvisation during the final Telemann concerto, as if it were a riff in a jazz session, before the supreme virtuosity of recorder, oboe and violin in its closing Vivace. This is a supremely talented ensemble, individually expert but also able to react to one another with spontaneity. They must return soon.
Opera Aperta in Chornobyldorf. Picture: Artem Galkin
HUDDERSFIELD Contemporary Music Festival sprang back into full ten-day mode for the first time since Covid with this shattering “archaeological opera” from Ukraine.
That country had been pencilled in for a major strand in the 2022 festival, as part of the Future Reimagined UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, long before the outbreak of hostilities there. So this UK premiere of Chornobyldorf could hardly have been more poignantly timed.
A co-composition by Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko, it was premiered in October 2020 by Opera Aperta at Mystetskyi Arsenal, Ukraine’s flagship arts complex in Kyiv. Opera Aperta is a “contemporary opera laboratory” that works in partnership with Ukraine’s own proto produkciia and Musiktheatertage Wien.
The work’s libretto was compiled by the composers from four sources: Ivan Kotlyarevsky (1769-1838), the pioneer of modern Ukrainian literature; poet and novelist Yuriy Izdryk (who has a role in its videos); Ovid’s Metamorphoses and composer Razumeiko himself.
The composers also acted as their own set designers and cast themselves as Greek characters, plucking microtonal dulcimer and bandura, while directing the whole show.
The accidental disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986, when the core of one of its reactors melted, caused widespread soul-searching, not least in Ukraine itself. The recent Russian invasion has redoubled the anguish and underlined the wider existential threat.
Seven video-novels shown on two vast screens were shot in areas around Chornobyl as well as Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear plant (now shut down), and in abandoned churches, theatres and galleries, such as have become sadly apparent on every television worldwide.
Denuded forests, shapeless lakes and piles of rubble were sparsely populated by naked humans, often in foetal positions. Indeed, many of the cast appeared unclothed at various times, humankind stripped of protection or dignity. For the work is a post-apocalyptic fantasy that tries to discover “a world after the death of capitalism, opera and philosophy”.
The performance area in this spinning mill was broadly cruciform, with the audience within its arms, uncomfortably ‘inside’ the action. At one end of a central catwalk stood a scaffolding tower with what amounted to an altar beneath; at the opposite end was an apron stage.
Four instrumentalists lined the walls, one of them commanding a huge array of mainly home-designed percussion attributed to Evhen Bal. The screens behind were like scoreboards on a cricket ground, always there for reference for anyone losing their bearings.
The broad thematic canvas opened up a number of potential potholes, not least lack of focus. With texts in Ukrainian and Latin –and no surtitles – this seemed bound to happen. Oddly enough, it didn’t.
All seven ‘novels’, although self-contained, were clearly linked. The musical mood was largely sombre, forming a vast requiem for civilisation. Over an unbroken span of over two hours, this might have been tedious. That it was not owed everything to the commitment and energy running through the veins of every last one of the cast.
Electronic sounds and live instruments blended well and permeated everything. But what really hit home was the amplified thesaurus of human noises – chant, folk-song, choral speaking, recitative, operatic techniques, rock screams, even rap – all of which, in conjunction with the vivid, often national-style costumes (Katerina Markush) spoke of a distinctive local culture, proudly delivered, alongside a universal one.
Khrystyna Slobodianiuk, the choreographer for the whole show, played the title role in ‘Elektra’. Sophocles came to mind, so long as the Greek chorus lasted. But with a chanted duet from two circling dancers, it broke up, the first element of civilisation to dissolve.
‘Dramma per Musica’ brought us a wordless female trio, followed by a properly sung lament and a strong baritone in drag. But a Bach chorale struggled to survive within an ever-murkier soundtrack. Two excellent dancers in ‘Rhea’ became spasmodic, before yielding to a manic torch-dance, over rumbling, menacing percussion. This was dance in its death-throes.
Next under threat was music itself, as three ladies in ‘The Little Accordion Girl’ rattled the keys of their accordions before letting them flop open, allowing random squawks. Cymbals and metronomes were carried as offerings, against a Hebrew-style chant over a drone. The central accordion became a headdress.
With ‘Messe de Chornobyldorf’, we entered seriously religious territory. Two singers in national dress offered Orthodox chants, which speeded into disintegration when two vestal virgins, ever more frenzied like the drumming, dismantled the formal rite. A cello battled desperately to be heard above the tumult with the Agnus Dei from Bach’s Mass in B minor.
In ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’, the latter’s body was prepared for burial as a chorus slowly chanted, breaking up as the earlier baritone took over in a powerful lament. A nude Orfeo on the apron conducted jazzily decadent rhythms.
The concluding ‘Saturnalia’ was positively anarchic, with a minor-key version of something like ‘Frère Jacques’; it became increasingly operatic, accelerating as it was taken up by brass band.
After a brief appearance on video, Leonid Brezhnev was now spun upside down in effigy and trampled underfoot. Cue thunderous choral rejoicing that left everyone vibrating.
A mere catalogue of events does scant justice to the effect of this extraordinary work. Its potent weave of music and theatre, liberally laced with irony, had a riveting spontaneity. Rarely can so much determination, and presumably anger, have been channelled so devastatingly into a work of art.
We must applaud the festival’s initiative in scheduling the event, with sterling support from the British Council. It was due to enjoy a performance at Battersea Power Station. Not enough, not nearly enough. Everyone should have the chance to experience it. We are all Ukrainians now.
Review by Martin Dreyer
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival continues until November 27: hcmf.co.uk
