Deck chairs at the ready: Sit down and relax into a “Zen-style” immersive experience surrounded by Van Gogh’s animated artworks at York St Mary’s. All pictures: Charlotte Graham
THE Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience exhibition at York St Mary’s, Castlegate, York, has been further extended to the end of March 2023.
For the festive season, art lovers can enjoy a “Zen-style escape” from the bustling streets in the former church that offers a sanctuary of peace, tranquillity, mindfulness amid the chance to “step inside” Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings as an antidote to the Christmas crowds.
As exhibition manager Evie Blackstock says: “The run-up to Christmas has to be one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year, so we’re encouraging frazzled shoppers to come and recharge their batteries with a calm, relaxing experience surrounded by Van Gogh’s paintings, animated and projected onto the nave walls of York St Mary’s.
Making a big Post-Impression: Vincent Van Gogh surveys his artwork projected onto York St Mary’s nave walls
“The best way to enjoy the experience it is to settle into a deck chair and let the soothing soundtrack wash over you as you are surrounded by stunning artwork. It instils a real sense of calm, so people are ready to face the outside world again with renewed vigour.”
In the 360-degree son-et-lumière presentation, many of Van Gogh’s most famous works are shown on the nave’s four walls and floor, accompanied by an emotive soundtrack, interspersed with “commentary” from Van Gogh.
The Dutch Post-Impressionist painter’s story is told through 200 of his artworks, from his peaceful time in the French countryside, to the mental turmoil that brought his life to an end through suicide at 37 on July 29 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise. He had sold only one of his 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, in his lifetime.
York St Mary’s: The setting for Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
After the immersive sound-and-light show – run on a 35-minute loop to enable visitors to enter and leave at any point – and projections of his floral artworks onto a huge vase, visitors can partake in mindful colouring of Van Gogh’s works, with their illustrations being projected onto a virtual gallery on the wall.
“Some people initially think that this is just for children but engaging the creative part of your mind is very soothing for adults, too,” says Evie. “There’s great satisfaction from finishing an artwork.”
A small exhibition about Van Gogh’s life and work awaits on the mezzanine floor, along with an optional extra (with a £3 additional charge): a virtual-reality visit to Arles, France, where Van Gogh was at his most productive.
“Starry, starry night, Paint your palette blue and grey,” as Don McLean sang on his 1972 chart topper, Vincent
Donning VR headsets, visitors are taken on an 11-minute digital recreation of the village, starting in the house where Van Gogh stayed, before travelling around the streets and sights so familiar from his later paintings.
York was the first British venue chosen to host Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, opening at York St Mary’s, next to the Jorvik Viking Centre, on July 5 2019, followed by Leicester, with temporary exhibitions in such cities as Manchester, London and Bristol (and a New York show too). The Immersive Experience has just opened at Carlisle Memorial Church, in Belfast, where it will run until late February.
“We opened in York in summer 2019 with an original plan to remain until early January 2020, but it has been so popular that we’re delighted to be confirming another extension until March 31 2023,” says Evie. “This year, we had already extended to August and then to the end of the year!
The Dutch Post-Impressionist painter’s life story is told through 200 of his artworks in Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
“We’ve had quite a number of visitors visiting us several times – it’s like they come in to recharge their cultural and emotional batteries – and we’ve had a couple of changes, including upgrading our virtual reality systems and extending the gift shop, during our stay to cater for the numbers of people through the door each day.”
Urging a winter visit, Evie says: “As a visit takes around an hour, this is something that people can easily fit into a trip to York – to rest their feet and their minds. It’s little wonder that we’re the longest-running version of the exhibition in the world!”
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, Castlegate, York, is open every day except Tuesdays, from 10am to 6pm; last admissions at 5pm. Tickets: adults £13, concessions £11, children £9, with an additional charge of £3 per person for the optional Virtual Reality experience. To pre-book, go to: vangoghexpo.co.uk/york
Abbanazar, Rock God: Michael Lambourne’s pantomime villain performing George Thorogood And The Destroyers’ Bad To The Bone… or Bad To The Boom in Michael’s stentorian growl
CASTING an eye over the cast list for Harrogate Theatre’s pantomime, Aladdin, what a delight to espy the name of one Michael Lambourne.
Once a mainstay of the York professional theatre scene, whether at York Theatre Royal or in Alexander Flanagan Wright’s work with The Flanagan Collective and the Guild of Misrule’s immersive The Great Gatsby during eight years of living in the city, he had since returned to his native Fenlands with wife Katie Posner, co-artistic director of Paines Plough, and daughter Heidi.
Now, at the behest of Harrogate Theatre pantomime director Marcus Romer (founder and former artistic director of York Theatre Royal company-in-residence Pilot Theatre), Michael’s unmistakable voice – the “Lam-boom” – can be heard across North Yorkshire as he takes on the villainous role of Abbanazar. Yes, you read that right, Abbanazar with a double B. More of that later.
But first, “I’d worked with Marcus on The Twits at Bolton Octagon and Fungus The Bogeyman at ArtsDepot in London, written while he was at Pilot,” recalls actor, director, teacher and writer Michael.
“That was the show where I met Katie, when I was painted green! Ebony [Feare] did both those productions with me as well, so Marcus has brought to Harrogate two people who he knows will thrive in the pantomime here.”
He first experienced pantomime as a child at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, and he has seen plenty since, but maybe surprisingly, given his outlandish stage presence and natural bond with young audiences, Aladdin will be only his third panto production.
“I did Alice In Wonderland at Darwen, near Blackburn, in the early 2000s, a loose pantomime, rather than a classic one, where I played the Mad Hatter. Later I was Igor, the evil henchman, and Daddy Bear in Goldilocks And The Three Bears at the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond,” he recalls.
“Harrogate Theatre’s show is very much in the classic pantomime style, like the villain always entering from the left. There’s a sense of legacy too, after Phil Lowe, the long-time director and co-writer, died last year, and what you try to foster with your audience is a sense of community, as we did at York Theatre Royal.”
He is relishing the villain’s role. “I love playing the baddie, because the audience straightaway knows what you’re up to,” says Michael. “I have that sense of what they expect from me, want from me, and as a performer I can really play off that.
Michael Lambourne, centre, as another baddie, Chief Weasel, in The Wind In The Willows at York Theatre Royal in 2014
“To already have that dialogue with the audience and to know how they’re going to respond is a wonderful feeling, whereas a comedian worries about how they’ll react. With the baddie, you know they’re going to boo, and it’s all the better if the booing gets louder and louder.
“I’m naturally positive, but Abbanazar is definitely not, so that means I can luxuriate in the boos, especially at the children’s shows, where I’ve just lapped up the wall of sound. The more they give, the more I’m going to give back!”
Michael “doesn’t really like insulting people”. “That’s why you insult the collective as the baddie, rather than picking on any individual,” he says. “It’s about them all being idiots, all being fools. Why take on one person? I’ll take on 500.”
Back to that name, Michael, Abbanazar with the double B. How come? “Well, he’s the brother of the Emperor of Peking, relocated to Scandinavia, and he’s now Abba’s number one fan,” he reveals.
“So there are ‘subtle’ references to Sweden’s best pop export, and there’s an Abba number in there that’s very appropriate to Abbanazar – Money, Money, Money – as he’s so materialistic.” No opportunity for a reference to an Abba song title is knowingly turned down in the script too.
This year, Michael has appeared in Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre and filmed his role as The Messenger in Warchief, Stuart Brennan’s fantasy feature film, made in Bury St Edmunds and set for release next September.
For now, his acts of deception and the dark arts are focused on Abbanazar. “This is the longest I’ve ever grown my moustache! I’ve gone from the baddie [a Victorian whiskered Chief Weasel] in The Wind In The Willows at York Theatre Royal to now playing the ultimate panto baddie with more curl to the moustache, still using Captain Fawcett’s moustache wax to shape it!” says Michael.
“If you think of what a baddie should have, a curly moustache is a must. Twiddling a moustache in that vaudevillian way tells you ‘he must be the villain’!”
Looking ahead to next year, walking and cycling enthusiast Michael will be turning his attention to running. Running the London Marathon, more precisely, in aid of Lymphoma Action, having come successfully through chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the blood cancer at 40.
Donations can be made at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/michael-lambourne3
Michael Lambourne is appearing in Aladdin at Harrogate Theatre until January 15 2023. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Colin Kiyani’s Aladdin, Stephanie Costi’s Pandora, Tim Stedman’s Wishee Washee and Howard Chadwick’s Widow Twankey in Harrogate Theatre’s Aladdin. All pictures: Karl Andre
REVIEW: Aladdin, Harrogate Theatre, until January 15 2023 *****
PANTOMIME matters to Harrogate Theatre, all the more so after the “disappointment” – I would have used a stronger word – of Arts Council England’s bewildering decision to drop this high-achieving theatre from National Portfolio funding status for 2023 to 2026 after many years.
This is the northern home of a comedy festival with headline names, the wonderful HT Rep season of three plays in three weeks, a big community play on a topical theme, concerts, touring shows, children’s theatre and performances by long-established Harrogate thespian troupes, overseen by the canny management of chief executive David Bown and the increasing artistic input of ever-progressive Pilot Theatre founder Marcus Romer as associate producer.
Oh, and the pantomime, THE pantomime, the one that Bown and the late Phil Lowe have made so special with wit, inventiveness and the magic ingredient of daft lad Tim Stedman (who set the benchmark for fast-rising Pannal-raised comedian Maisie Adam, she says, never one to miss a show each Christmas, by the way). What more do you want, ACE?
Anyway, clear-headed thinking by the board is assured, as testified by chair Deborah Larwood’s November statement: “Following this news, the board and leadership team will take some time to reflect and reimagine our plans from April 2023, as we continue to support the Let’s Create agenda and ensure that Harrogate Theatre continues to deliver a vibrant cultural offer for people of all ages across the Harrogate district.”
In the meantime, Harrogate Theatre has been delivering the Harrogate Theatre pantomime at its best, 78 performances in all by the time it closes on January 15.
For the 2021-2022 season, experienced hand Joyce Branagh stepped in to direct Cinderella after the sudden death of long-time director and co-writer Phil Lowe, and did so with panache.
Tim Stedman: Not as daft as he looks in Aladdin!
This time, Marcus Romer is at the helm, steering a script that retains a credit for Phil Lowe alongside regular writing cohort David Bown. Romer, who has written additional material alongside Stedman, has made one decision that struck a false note, changing the walkdown song from the long-standing exhilaration of Let Me Entertain You to a reprise of the opening number. Symmetry, yes, but finale impact lessened.
On the other hand, however, as soon as he heard Sam Ryder’s Eurovision galactic belter, Space Man, Romer knew he had found the song for Aladdin’s carpet-ride out into the Harrogate night sky.
Beautiful, magical and unexpected – your reviewer has seen no other panto use 2022’s most uplifting big number – it is sung with a lovely sense of wonder by Colin Kiyani, modern-day principal boy par excellence in his fifth Harrogate panto.
Christina Harris returns too for her third Harrogate show – “a place that feels like home,” she says – now playing a not-so-shy Princess So-Shy with plenty of principal girl pluck.
Romer has called on two trusted lieutenants from his past shows to make their Harrogate panto bows: Ebony Feare’s fun, high-energy Caribbean-accented Genie and A Line Of Duty-spoofing DCI Kate, and Michael Lambourne, he of the booming voice so cherished over the years by York audiences.
The “Lam-boom” is in mighty good form here, venturing deep into the dark side for a rumbustious, roaring Abbanazar, an Abba-loving, humanity-hating villain since his exile to Sweden.
Ebony Feare’s Genie and Colin Kiyani Aladdin in a song-and-dance number with the ensemble in Aladdin
Mamma mia, no chance to dig out an Abba song title is knowingly missed in the script (until the titles run out), and of course he sings Money, Money, Money, although his thunderous, rock-god rendition of George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ Bad To The Bone surpasses it.
In his 22nd Harrogate show – where have those years gone? – the clowning Tim Stedman’s Wishee Washee is anything but wishy-washy. From his strawberry cheeks to a voice that somehow combines a state of near-constant perplexity with the not-so-daft-after-all wit of a Shakespearean Fool, he is the crowd-pleasing, crowd-teasing lead yet totally the team player too.
The cracker jokes may be absent this time, but this is a crackerjack of a Stedman performance, all the better for being reunited for slapstick with Howard Chadwick, a stalwart actor with Richard III in his repertoire but so comfortable in the roly-poly guise of the unruly, frolicsome dame, Widow Twankey in his 11th Harrogate winter of panto contentment. His costumery, courtesy of costume designer Morgan Brind, is fab-u-lous throughout.
Look out too for topical Harrogate references, nods to I’m A Celebrity, dance captain Stephanie Costa’s lovable panda Pandora and David Kar-Hing Lee’s zesty choreography.
Roll on next winter when Dick Whittington and his cat will head to London from November 22 to January 14 2024. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Baritone Sam Hird and guitarist Tom Bennett outside the Royal College of Music
JOIN York baritone Sam Hird and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate, guitarist Tom Bennett, for classical music by candlelight at All Saints’ Church, North Street, York, tomorrow night (9/12/2022).
A Winter Night’s Recital will feature songs from around the world including Schubert, Faure and Britten, complemented by festive favourites such as Adeste Fideles, O Holy Night and A Cradle In Bethlehem to stir the Christmas spirit at this cosy evening of December entertainment.
The 15th century All Saints’ Church will be the “perfect backdrop” to this 7pm to 9pm concert. A glass of mulled wine and a mince pie is included in the ticket price of £10 plus booking fee, available from samhirdmusic.co.uk or on the door.
Heading north for Christmas: Tom Bennett and Sam Hird
Here, CharlesHutchPress welcomes Sam Hird back home to York ahead of his first professional solo recital
Why did you choose All Saints for this concert, Sam? What makes it a “perfect setting”?
“I fell in love with this church a few years ago after being taken to a traditional service there. The acoustics were gorgeous, the church was beautiful – especially the mediaeval stained glass windows – and above all the atmosphere was incredible. As with so many places in York, you can really feel the history when you’re inside the building.”
Have you sung there before?
“I rehearsed there around the same time as that service. A particularly memorable moment was getting to sing Make Our Garden Grow from Bernstein’s Candide. Surrounded by a host of marvellous singers, I remember getting shivers from the sound ringing round the whole church after we’d finished the final ‘grow!’ of the piece.”
Congratulations on graduating this year with a First, Sam. How have you found the experience of studying at the Royal College of Music?
“It has always been an exhilarating experience from day one. Getting to learn from incredible industry professionals and singers that I’ve always looked up to, like the brilliant Sally Burgess, was invaluable. The astonishing feeling of walking through the same corridors that Benjamin Britten would have walked through has never worn off.” How has the training had an impact on your singing?
“It’s had a huge impact. Most of my experience in York before moving to the Royal College in London was in acting through song in musicals such Sweeney Todd, Assassins, My Fair Lady and playing Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
“The vocal training at the RCM, through so many top-notch practitioners, including my singing teacher, the baritone Peter Savidge, has built up my classical voice and given me a whole new toolkit for singing at a different level.”
Sam Hird and Tom Bennett performing an Elizabethan ballad in Pick Me Up Theatre’s April production of Shakespeare In Love, directed by Sam’s father, Mark Hird, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
When did you first perform with Tom?
“We used to play through Benjamin Britten folk songs in my room in halls in our first year, as and when we wanted some respite from pizza and the students’ union bar!
“But we first performed in front of an audience for my third-year recital, where we did some French folk songs and an aria from Don Giovanni.
“We also performed in York together in April when Tom’s guitar playing was an important part of Pick Me Up Theatre’s production of Shakespeare In Love at Theatre@41, Monkgate, and we performed a beautiful Elizabethan ballad together. We’ll reprise it in our winter concert in a sequence of Shakespeare songs.”
What do you enjoy about performing to guitar accompaniment?
“It’s a completely different experience to singing with a piano; somehow it instantly feels more intimate. I find the sound-worlds of the voice and guitar blend really beautifully, and I like that there’s more scope to be a little more daring in terms of the quieter moments.”
When choosing a programme, what factors do you take into consideration to achieve balance?
“When Tom and I set out with programming, one of the key factors is available music, as most of what is written for voice and guitar is for tenors – lucky things! But we like to have sections in different languages with ebbs and flows in each part.
Sam Hird and Tom Bennett in a light moment outside the Royal College of Music
“We really enjoy putting in the first few pieces from a song cycle (like Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin) as that gives us a clear, defined journey to try and take the audience on with us.”
How has the winter season infiltrated tomorrow night’s programming?
“We’ll be covering a lot of ground in terms of styles and sound worlds but the candlelit winter setting with mulled wine definitely made us want to find some ‘cosy-sounding’ songs to suit the season – and a few classic Christmas tunes tucked themselves in early on in the planning stages.”
On leaving college, how do you go about building your career?
“Thankfully, I have another two years of Masters to try and get the definitive answer to that excellent question! I’ll be putting myself forward for quite a few competitions and keeping an eye out for auditions for appropriate solo opportunities.
“But the dream would be to join a Young Artist’s Programme, where I would hope to cover some main roles and perform smaller parts in operas. That would be an incredible learning experience and hopefully an important stepping stone for my musical career.”
Tom Lewis’s Neon Beasts: Adding a Splash Of Colour to the corner of Feasegate and Market Street, York, in Art Of Protest Projects’ latest city-centre installation
SOMETHING fishy is happening to York city centre.
The reason is Splash Of Colour: Neon Beasts, a street art installation that is making waves amid the throng of Christmas shoppers and night-time party people.
York urban art team Art Of Protest Projects has curated this “exciting space for residents and tourists to come and soak up” at the corner of Feasegate and Market Street.
Commissioned by the York Business Improvement District (BID), the installation features artist Tom Lewis’s Neon Beasts in a project designed to bring animation and theatre to the streets, together with footfall and smiles to a deprived part of the city centre.
Before: The empty former coffee shop
Art Of Protest Projects director Jeff Clark says: “The high streets have suffered in the UK since the Covid pandemic hit and many businesses have struggled to stay open. By targeting a specific area in York with a concentrated amount of empty shop-front windows, our mission was to uplift the streets and breathe new life into them, making the space an interesting place to walk past, even if people cannot walk inside.
“The result has been fantastic as the tired and unused streets have been transformed by an infusion of colour and energy, but also with a deeper meaning behind the art.”
Splash of Colour: Neon Beasts utilises multiple forms of artistic media and aquatic features, designed to navigate people from Coney Street to Parliament Street in a curiously colourful way.
After: Tom Lewis’s shop-frontage conversion into a street art installation
The Art Of Protest Projects team asked whimsical Lewes artist Tom Lewis to bring” iconic scenery into focus that relates back to York’s history and relationship with its waterways”, using vibrant colours and imagery to create a modern piece of street art.
On the frontage of a former coffee shop, the team has covered the space from top to bottom with a mural wrap, painting the adjacent pillars to reveal ocean waves and applying floor art and colourfully painted benches, providing a place for people to stop and take in the beautiful scenery.
Look out for an information board that gives details of the individual sea creatures for passers-by, complemented by a QR code that leads to more info on the project and also connects it to the charity Blue Marine Foundation, acting as a call to action for people to learn more about the crisis brought on by overfishing.
Installation artist Tom Lewis
At night, the installation takes on an added radiance with ultraviolet lighting, illuminating the space and transforming the Neon Beasts into an even brighter and more impactful feature.
At first, the installation’s aquatic, underwater theme may seem unusual to residents and tourists alike, but Art Of Protest Projects communication director Brenna Allsuch says: “Almost every street that you walk down in the city of York is somehow linked to the history of the seas. The waters have provided a source of food, a pathway to reach foreign lands, a boundary divide to separate during war, and a travel network to expand the globe as we know it.
“York has had a plethora of historical importance, from its strong ties to the Romans where it saw incredible prosperity, to the years of struggling through the plague. Whether it be the Romans, the Saxons, the Vikings or during the mediaeval era, through to the more recent years of the Industrial Revolution, York has taken much of its trade and wealth from the seas.”
The information board for Tom Lewis’s installation
Jeff adds: “It’s always a wonderful feeling to be able to create a successful project, from concept and planning to full-scale delivery – and to see the instant effect that urban art has on people’s facial expressions and moods is a real privilege.
“We’ve done so many projects over the years with the intention of uplifting people’s spirits, including our last project with the York BID, the Guardians Of York, during the Covid pandemic, so to help bring a little bit of colour and joy to what was becoming quite a sad and unused thoroughfare in York was a really exciting opportunity to deliver on.
“We took an interesting concept, and by utilising the talent of artist Tom Lewis, we brought it to life. We’re super-proud of the result and the new space for people to come sit and relax.”
“We’re super-proud of the result and the new space for people to come sit and relax,” says Art Of Protest Projects director Jeff Clark
York artist Rosanna Johnson enthuses: “The high-street makeover by Art Of Protest Projects and Tom Lewis has done wonders for the street’s atmosphere. It’s so great to see it revamped and lit up with neon colours and aquatic shapes. I think young people especially will enjoy the feature. York needs more of this.”
Brenna concludes: “Intended for all ages and demographics, Splash Of Colour is a place to stop, to ponder, to laugh, to photograph, to share, to enjoy.” The installation will remain in place for several months.
“Full-scale delivery”: A shark in the dark in Tom Lewis’s Neon Beasts installation
Topical, political and convention-challenging artist Heath Kane: Making his Art Of Protest Gallery debut in York
ART Of Protest Gallery’s Christmas Hang is up and glistening in Walmgate, introducing a new name to York’s exhibiting walls.
Born in Australia, Heath Kane has spent much of his life in England; first in London and now in the market town of Saffron Walden, Essex, where he has his studio.
“In the first part of Heath’s career, he was a designer and art director for London advertising agencies, and a strong sense of graphic structure still sits at the heart of his art,” says gallery curator Craig Humble. “He specialises in simple, iconic and memorable pieces that have the ability to tell stories and are linked to a larger narrative.”
Heath Kane’s artwork on display at Art Of Protest Gallery
One of Heath’s breakthrough collections was Rich Enough To Be Batman, the superimposing of Batman’s mask on The Queen’s face, in his response to what he calls “the increasing disparity in wealth that I was seeing”.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the world around me: particularly where life, art and storytelling collide,” says Heath. “After decades of working in advertising and design, it dawned on me that there was more to life than selling people sh*t they don’t need.
“Having worked with clients in the luxury goods market for quite a while, I found it hard to understand how some individuals had more wealth than entire countries. And so I created Rich Enough To Be Batman. I knew then that I wanted any art I made to be topical, political and to challenge the conventions of our lifestyles and the world we live in today.”
“I want people to look at my art and talk about the issues we face, both individually and as a community,” says Heath Kane
Heath has always made art in response to what he sees happening in the world. “Each of my collections explores a different political or social narrative,” he explains. “I want people to look at my art and talk about the issues we face, both individually and as a community.
“When politics seems to be moving backwards (and while right-wing governments continue to be in power), we need to be more active than ever in moving forwards. In creating art, I now have a voice that can help to bring about change. And through buying my art, perhaps you can join in that choir.”
Heath vows to continue to create more art that brings awareness to the societal rifts that politics creates. “I hope to ridicule these divisions while trying to create more tolerance and understanding for each other,” he says. “Let’s work together in making the world better. Not just for ourselves, but for everyone.”
Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Friday, 11am to 6pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
DameBerwick Kaler, playing Mrs Plum-Duff in The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose at the Grand Opera House. Picture: David Harrison
GRAND dame Berwick Kaler will step on a York stage on Wednesday for the first time since Covid ruled him out of the last week of his comeback show, Dick Turpin Rides Again, last December.
Last winter had marked his crosstown transfer to the Grand Opera House after four decades at York Theatre Royal, bringing his trusty cohorts, vainglorious villain David Leonard, spring-heeled comic stooge Martin Barrass, golden principal gal Suzy Cooper and “luverly Brummie” AJ Powell, along for the ride.
Roll on a year, and all the team are back once more after protracted contract negotiations for 49 performances of The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, Dame Berwick’s 42nd York panto.
Some things have not changed: at 76, and five years on from his double heart bypass operation and having his pacemaker fitted – or “Gerry” as he calls it – Dame Berwick is still directing the show, as well as performing the dame’s role, Mrs Plum-Duff this year.
He completed writing the script at 6am last Thursday, as close to the “deadline” as ever for rehearsals at a new location for 2022, Theatre@41, Monkgate.
“I have to say the management has been as good as gold,” says Dame Berwick. “I’ve ended up by concentrating on what I consider good old-fashioned pantomime values, so I’ve put the emphasis on the verbal exchanges.”
Other things have changed, however. Last year’s partners in the Grand Opera House pantomime, Qdos Entertainment/Crossroads Live, have made way after only a year for UK Productions, whose musical theatre shows and pantomime play across Britain and Ireland, London’s West End, mainland Europe, Turkey, Malta, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Berwick, meanwhile, has suffered the loss of his partner, David Norton, after 40 years together. “It’s the loneliness. Suddenly you’re alone,” he says of the grief he has experienced. “We couldn’t have got this show on if I didn’t have the team around me. There’s no way I could have done it otherwise.
“I’ve lost a way of life,” he reflects. “I have to do everything now. There are two dogs [spaniels, should you be wondering]; they’d go out two or three times a day with David, so they were always looked after during my pantomime commitments.
“Now I’ve had to bring my sister and her husband up from Ilkley to look after them, let them out, during Old Granny Goose, and they’re in their 80s.”
Berwick’s weight has dropped to nine and a half stone, his face and legs thinner at 76. “I’d always been around 11 stone. That was my fighting weight for pantomime,” he says. “I can’t afford to lose any more.”
High fives: Berwick Kaler, centre, reunites with regular partners in panto Martin Barrass, left, AJ Powell, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard on stage at the Grand Opera House. Picture: David Harrison
He once said he lost as much two stone during those long, long pantomime runs at York Theatre Royal, an endurance test of heavy costumes and even heavier workloads when three performances a day were not uncommon over weekends and the festive holidays in bygone days.
The fighting spirit still burns inside, coupled with the need to entertain, to savour the roar of the crowd. “If I can get through this year, then I can get through anything in life,” says Berwick.
He may have vowed to retire at 70 or after 40 years of pantomimes, settling for the second route out, but he quickly regretted that decision. “I still think I can give people a laugh, and I think this show will be a laugh,” he says.
“I’ve always worked, and anything I’ve got, I’ve always worked for. I’ve just worked and worked from the age of 15 [when he headed from Sunderland to London to be a painter and decorator]. I still need that fix of performing every year – and I’m feeling fit.”
As for the content of The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, Dame Berwick says: “I hope you think the humour is all natural. I take the mick out of myself about my age, like when I do this Barbie Girl number – I’m calling it ‘Barmy Girl’ – where I collapse at the end.
“The good thing is that we can all take the mick out of each other on stage after all these years, and audiences love that.
“But there’ll be no mention of Covid or the hardships that people have had to go through. They don’t want that right now.
“Mind you, it’s so difficult, especially now in these woke times, when I’ll write something that I don’t think will offend anyone, but then someone says, ‘you can’t say that’. Though I’m all for woke progress, it’s suffocating comedy.”
Slapstick will still play its part. “I can do some lovely slapstick, like a decorating scene, making Martin do all the physical stuff!” says Dame Berwick. “But I can’t throw buckets of water. That’s just not practical anymore. When you ‘move house’ [to the Grand Opera House], you have to adjust.
“But I’ve still got sections in the script where I’ll go down the steps to the stalls to banter with the audience. That was something we really missed under Covid restrictions.”
Dame Berwick wants to continue tapping into the inner child, the one devoid of a sense of embarrassment when throwing off the shackles of English reserve in pantoland. “That’s why there’ll be no retirement. I’ve had one very big retirement and that’s it,” he says. The boots with one yellow lace, one red, are not ready for hanging up.
Berwick Kaler in The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose, Grand Opera House, York, December 10 to January 8 2023. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/york.
Copyright of The Press, York
The poster for Berwick Kaler’s second pantomime at the Grand Opera House, The Adventures Of Old Granny Goose
The Ebor Singers: Christmas concert at St Olave’s Church
THE Ebor Singers serve up a double festive treat of Part One of Handel’s Messiah and Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols in A Christmas Celebration in York on Sunday, December 18.
This is the second of the York choir’s Christmas concerts, wherein the 7.30pm programme will be performed in the intimate surroundings of St Olave’s Church, Marygate.
The choir will be joined by a string quartet and organist Keith Wright for Handel’s work; harpist Rachel Dent for Britten’s carols. Solos will be taken on by choir members.
“Part One of Handel’s Messiah takes us from prophecy to the birth of Jesus, and Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols takes up the story of the nativity,” says musical director Paul Gameson. “Although 200 years separate these two works, they both speak with similar directness and freshness.
“Handel draws on the most popular musical genres of the day for his Messiah: part-German passion, part-Italian opera, part-English anthem. Britten followed a trend of his contemporaries, exploring medieval poetry, but his music – scored for female voices and harp – established the new quintessential ‘sound’ of Christmas music.
A Christmas Celebration also showcases pieces from The Ebor Singers’ new album of American Christmas music, Wishes And Candles.
Tickets (£15, concessions £12, students aged 16 plus £7, children free) are available from eventbrite.co.uk or on the door.
Hook, line and singer: Paul Hawkyard’s Captain Hook in his big nuumber in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. All pictures: Pamela Raith
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present All New Adventures Of Peter Pan at York Theatre Royal. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THE show title signifies changes afoot and freshness, but York Theatre Royal knows continuity is important too.
In the third year of the pantomime partnership with Evolution Productions – with a fourth year already rubber stamped for Jack And The Beanstalk next winter – Juliet Forster remains the director, Paul Hendy, the writer, and Hayley Del Harrison, the choreographer.
Children’s favourite Faye Campbell returns too, alongside the double-the-trouble double act of Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson, Cinderella’s award-nominated Ugly Sisters last year and now villainous Captain Hook and dame Mrs Smee respectively.
Ship-shape and bristling fashion: Robin Simpson’s dame, Mrs Smee
Having a CBeebies TV presenter to the fore last year in Andy Day proved a hit, and so science whizz Maddie Moate fronts the poster and flyer campaign this time as a feisty, fearless, even fractious Tinkerbell.
What’s new? The story for a start, still rooted in JM Barrie, but for the next generation. Wendy Darling is now Wendy Sweet (Theatre Royal newcomer Francesca Benton-Stace), mum to single-minded Elizabeth (Campbell), who craves her own flight to Neverland with Peter Pan (Jason Battersby). Elizabeth is more of a feminist, never attracted to Peter in the way Wendy was, but very much a dab hand at the “Lizzie Mother” role to the Lost Boys and Lost Girls.
There’s a new Newfoundland nanny dog in the house too, Nana being replaced by Minton, who leaves a mark on the show in more than one way. Naughty, Minton.
The father of the house, Hawkyard’s Mr Sweet, still turns into Captain Hook; Simpson’s dame makes a rather smaller leap for pantokind from home help Mrs Smee to Hook’s henchperson Mrs Smee. Likewise, Jonny Weldon, actor since childhood and social media comedy-sketch phenomenon since Covid lockdowns, switches from butler Mr Starkey to Hook’s other henchman, Starkey.
Balancing act: The Black Diamonds in acrobatic mode in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
The double act becomes a mischief-making trio, Hawkyard’s dandy, intemperate Hook still ridiculously vainglorious but the butt of multiple jokes as shock-haired cheeky chappy Weedon and Simpson’s savvy dame conduct a pun fight to the last.
Oh, how writer Paul Hendy loves a pun, no matter how convoluted the set-up, and when it is combined with visual gags in a fish-name routine, reprising the magazine-title routine from 2020’s Travelling Pantomime, the jokes really get their skates on, faster, funnier, fishier.
Act One hits its stride amid the mayhem of Hawkyard, Simpson and Weldon struggling to manoeuvre a boat across the stage, dangerously close to the orchestra pit, reducing fourth occupant Moate’s to fits of laughter on the stern. This scene, already ripe for improvisation, will grow ever more chaotic as the run progresses.
Moate’s beaming Tinkerbell had made her first entry from above, flying high over the stage. Soon Battersby’s Pan, a magical, mysterious yet damaged perennial child, will lead Campbell’s Elizabeth across the London night sky to a duet of Take That’s Rule The World and onwards to Neverland in a gorgeous video projection by Dr Andy.
Drop in. centre: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell makes her entry as Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth and Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan look on
Later, in Act Two, Simpson’s Mrs Smee will emerge from on high too to the accompaniment of the James Bond theme, now playing flipper-clad Caroline Bond on a hoist that stubbornly refuses to touch the ground despite Simpson’s increasingly desperate pleas. Comic timing is exquisite here, and again, for all Simpson’s self-sacrificing physical discomfort, this scene is sure to expand.
Hendy and director Juliet Forster love the magic of pantomime as much as the comic mayhem rendered by haughty Hawkyard and co. This applies equally to Helga Wood, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s set design, for London house, island and aboard the Jolly Roger, and to Harrison’s fizzing and fun choreography, and they are never happier than when magic and mirth elide in the Mermaids, beautiful and shimmering at first, but then turning into gossipy fish wives.
Benton-Stace’s scene-stealing Myrtle the Mermaid gives the outstanding vocal performance under Benjamin Dovey’s musical direction, run close by Hawkyard’s riotous Guns N’ Roses number, Neil Morgan guitar solo et al.
Cultural references play their part, from departing Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock to departing Dr Who Jodie Whittaker; Moate is granted a brief science bit about the sun; Campbell’s Elizabeth turns on the girl power and dance captain Emily Taylor drives on her troupe of Lost Boys and Girls with boundless energy.
Jonny Weldon’s Starkey, piratical mischief maker in chief
Big, big cheers go to the show’s speciality act, East African acrobats Teddy, Muba and Mohamed, alias The Black Diamonds, who defy the compact space to pull off dazzling feats of athleticism.
“All New” these adventures may be, but the increasingly tedious Sweet Caroline is an unimaginative choice for the song-sheet singalong. Not so good, so good, alas. Far better is the impact of Duncan Woodruff’s fight direction for Hook’s clashes with magic-powered fairy Tinkerbell, Elizabeth and Pan alike.
Michael J Batchelor and Joey Arthurs’ beautiful but bonkers costumes for Simpson’s dame keep topping the last one, and it is lovely to see the Theatre Royal walkdown scene in full pomp once more in gold, cream and white.
Something of the darkness of Barrie’s original story is lost in pursuit of pantomime frolics, but York Theatre Royal and Evolution unquestionably have found their groove, their own schtick, that appeals to children and adults alike.Simpson’s convivial dame is already confirmed for next year, another sign of continuity in this new age for the Theatre Royal pantomime.
“Lizzie Mother’s” storytelling sit-down: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell, left, and the Lost Boys and Girls listen to Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth. Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan prefers to keep watch
James on stage: Next spring their ranks will swell by 30 when joined by an orchestra and gospel choir
ENDURING Manchester band James will play York Barbican on April 28 on next spring’s James Lasted Orchestral Tour.
Led as ever by Boston Spa-born singer Tim Booth, this 40th anniversary celebration will come loaded with a 22-piece orchestra and eight-strong gospel choir conducted by Joe Dundell.
The tour title is presumably a nod to both James’s longevity and to the orchestral music once synonymous with James Last, the German composer, jazz double bassist big band leader of the James Last Orchestra.
All 15 dates on the 2023 orchestral tour have sold out already, including Sheffield City Hall on May 4 as well as Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and a Royal Albert Hall finale in London.
That itinerary will be accompanied by a double album of new versions of James’s greatest hits, fan favourites and deep cuts, plus one new composition, as yet untitled. Full details including release date, tracklisting and formats are to be announced soon.
The poster for the James Lasted Orchestral tour in 2023
Recorded at Blueprint Studios, Manchester, the album was arranged and conducted by Duddell – whose credits include Elbow and New Order – working in tandem with Orca, the orchestra assigned to the tour too, and a gospel choir.
Since playing as James for the first time when supporting Big Country at Manchester’s Hacienda on November 17 1982, they have released 16 studio albums, sold 25 million records, and enjoyed an Indian summer renaissance with a run of Top Five albums with Girl At The End Of The World, narrowly missing out on the top spot in 2016 to Adele’s 25, 2018’s Living In Extraordinary Times and 2021’s The Colours Of You.
Last December’s arena tour, taking in Leeds First Direct Arena with fellow Mancunians Happy Mondays in support, was their biggest selling and most successful to date.
Looking ahead to the 2023 tour and double album release, Booth, 62, says: “There are a number of great bands who have been around for 40 [years]. But to get here and to be having the best time of our lives. To be part of a supportive loving family that still has something to say and new ways to say it. To be turned on by every gig and song. To fall in love over and over again, Groundhog Day, with our bandmates and audience. Damn. That’s time well spent.
James, at Broughton Hall, near Skipton, in May 2021, when gathered for rehearsals and promotional duties for 16th studio All The Colours Of You. Picture: Lewis Knaggs
“We should have recorded the orchestra tour first time round, as many of you have reminded us. Well, we’ve done it now. And here comes the tour. The orchestra and gospel singers expand our palette, heighten the tenderness, heighten the celebration and, despite their numbers, somehow leave us feeling more naked and raw. It will be different, probably each night, because we are James and Joe [Duddell] knows how to dance with us. And because you are different, each night.”
Bassist Jim Glennie, 59, adds: “Has it really been 40 years? In some ways it feels like yesterday and in others, many lifetimes. A family of brothers and sisters, willing to support each other musically and emotionally. Uniquely challenging, always pushing ourselves into the new and taking risks collectively and individually, looking for transcendence.”
Joining Booth and Glennie in the tour line-up will be Saul Davies, Adrian Oxaal, David Baynton-Power, Mark Hunter, Andy Diagram, Chloe Alper and Deborah Knox-Hewson.
Marking diaries for next summer’s outdoor concert season, James are booked in to play Live At The Piece Hall 2023 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on July 7 and a hastily added second show on July 8, due to “phenomenal demand”.
Already confirmed for The Piece Hall in 2023 are Madness on June 16 and 17; The War On Drugs, June 21; Rag’n’Bone Man, June 23; Embrace, July 1; Sting, July 3, and The Lumineers, July 9, with plenty more acts yet to be announced. Box office: thepiecehall.co.uk.
Double the fun: Graham Smith’s Dame Harmony Humperdinck and Gemma McDonald’s Kurt Jester in Babes In The Wood
Babes In The Wood, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight until Friday, 7.30pm (last few tickets for first three, limited availability for Friday); Saturday, 2pm (last few) and 7.30pm (limited). Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
HOWARD Ella reckons this is the best of the 13 Rowntree Players pantomimes under his writer-directorship. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he, but he does have a point. This is a case of 13th time, luckier still, for family audiences at the York community theatre.
For a start, Babes In The Wood is two shows for the price of one: weaving Robin Hood and his merry band, Sherwood Forest and the Sheriff into the fairy tale of those two poor orphans abandoned in woodland by their wicked uncle.
Don’t be hood-winked by the show title. It is rather more Robin’s story and characters that dominate,including distaff variations on a theme, while accommodating the misfortunes of Hansel (Henry Cullen/Fergus Green) and Gretel (Maddie Chalk/Ayda Mooney) in their Gingerbread House, cooked sweeter and cuter than in the dark fable of yore.
Now, Robin (Hannah King) takes on not only a rescue mission to free Maid Marion (Marie-Louise Surgenor) from the tower and the clutches of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Jamie McKeller) and sidekick Will Snatchell (Joe Marucci), but also vows to find Hansel and Gretel.
Double the trouble: Joe Marucci’s Will Snatchell and Jamie McKeller’s Sheriff of Nottingham
For Friar Tuck, read Freya Tuck (Meg Badrick), and so on through the Merry Band of Alana Dale (Keelie Newbold) Georgie Green (Erin Willis), Jill Scarlett (Mollie Surgenor/Eva Howe) and Little Joan (Libby Roe/Charla Banks).
Put them together with King’s traditional, thigh-slapping yet somehow girl-power principal boy Robin Hood and suddenly they are aping SIX The Musical in Six, a musical number that makes great play of the sisterhood buzz musical of the decade (already booked in for June 27 to July 2 return to the Grand Opera House next summer, by the way).
Musicals are a running theme to the song-and-dance numbers in Ella and musical director Jessica Viner fast-moving show, from the opening Hairspray ensemble routine (Good Morning Sherwood Town) to Dirty Rotten’s echo of Something Rotten.
Best of all is Musical, all singing, all dancing and all seven minutes of it, led by Gemma McDonald’s cheeky, chipper, cartoonesque Kurt Jester, who lost her voice at Friday’s dress rehearsal but thankfully called on Doctor Theatre to see her through two shows on Saturday.
Howard Ella: Rowntree Players’ pantomime writer-director
The comic (bubble-haired McDonald) and the dame (Graham Smith’s slightly grumpy but lovable ‘Humpy’, alias Dame Harmony Humperdinck) are no longer chained to working in the Sheriff’s castle, but freelance travelling actors instead.
One is the greatest Shakespearean actor of her age, with an ego to match; the other is a comic extraordinaire in the daft jester tradition. Both have a licence to be loose cannons and pretty much run the show in their unruly way.
King’s Robin and Surgenor’s Maid Marion deliver a knockout Without Love in the tower by the No Exit sign, after Marion knocks back Robin’s demand to do a Rapunzel with her hair, whereupon Robin recourses to a ladder entry through the open window. Physical comedy in the classic English tradition.
Ella loves a pun, a political dig (for example, “Party?”. Correction: “Work gathering”) and partnerships too: not only the regular double act of Smith & McDonald and principal boy and girl King and Surgenor, but also a new combination of McKeller and Marucci, actors with previous form for Rowntree Players, but now venturing into the dark side, albeit to self-delusional comic effect as the topically tax-hiking Sheriff and the dimwitted, snatch-all Snatchell.
Hannah King’s Robin Hood and Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Maid Marion
McKeller is particularly inspired casting. Now making his name on the streets of York as ghostwalk host Doctor Dorian Deathly, he returns to his former stamping ground to make a big imprint with his gleefully dastardly Sheriff, eyebrows arched, voice arch, stage walk swaggering. “There’s still a touch of showbiz lurking behind the venom,” as Ella puts it and he’s spot on.
The comic and the dame nail the slapstick sludge scene; Viner’s musical band are as merry as Robin’s band; the senior chorus and young Blue/Red Team (Red on Saturday night) lap up every ensemble scene, and Ami Carter’s choreography is all dash, nothing slapdash.
Ella and his fellow set designers Paul Mantle and scenic artist Anna Jones have excelled too for the tower and forest alike. Andrea Dillon and Claire Newbold have fun with the costumes, for the pink-fixated dame as ever, but doubly so for the Merry Band in the Six pastiche.
You will love the all-action songsheet number too in a production that comes with genuine icing on the cake: a snow-topped roof from a past panto now repurposed to the dame’s mocking as the Gingerbread House.
Knocked for Six: The Merry Band mirroring SIX The Musical in Babes In The Wood
