Roll out the bunting: The Dunwells in acoustic mode in Primrose Wood, Pocklington, on July 8
PRIMROSE Wood Acoustics will return to the Pocklington woodland for a third double bill – yet to be confirmed – on August 5.
This step three announcement follows the long-awaited return of live music for organisers Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) after staging sold-out outdoor concerts in Primrose Wood on July 1 and 8.
Scunthorpe-born virtuoso guitarist, singer and songwriter Martin Simpson and East Yorkshire singer-songwriter Katie Spencer played the first night; Leeds indie-folk/Americana band The Dunwells and York singer-songwriter Rachel Croft, the second.
Martin Simpson: Headlined first Primrose Wood Acoustics double bill in Pocklington on July 1
Each was performed to a socially distanced audience of 85 at twilight. “Accompanied by bird song and set under a natural canopy of trees, there was a collective sense of being a part of something special, almost 18 months after PAC last staged a live music event,” said PAC director Janet Farmer.
Artists and audience alike concurred. Joe and Dave Dunwell said: “After 15 months of playing to a computer screen and doing live streams, to be actually playing live in a woodland was just incredible and the audience were just amazing. We loved it!”
Rachel Croft enthused: “For the first time, I felt totally in my element again. Having had all that time off, you get used to not having an amp or an audience or any interaction, so it’s been really special to be in this amazing spot and I’m just really grateful to have been a part of it.”
York singer-songwriter Rachel Croft performing the opening set at Thursday’s Primrose Wood Acoustics concert in the Pocklington sylvan setting
Commenting after Thursday’s concert, audience member Sue Bowden said: “Amazing evening! Fantastic live music in a beautiful setting on a fabulous summer’s evening; brilliantly organised too. Well done to all involved.”
Jane Smith agreed: “What a wonderful gig – our first since March 2020. Great performances in a beautiful setting. Very well organised. Thank you all at Pocklington Arts Centre.”
Julie Eeles said: “A fantastic night: amazing performances by Rachel Croft and The Dunwells. Thank you, Pocklington Arts Centre, for organising the event.”
Thursday’s audience watching The Dunwells in Primrose Wood, Pocklington
Vital to Thursday’s open-air concert was the contribution of sound engineer Daren Bishop. “It was a fantastic event,” he said afterwards. “What a pleasure to be a part of it. I loved mixing the sound in that setting.”
The Primrose Wood Acoustics series comes on the heels of assorted online events and outdoor exhibitions held by PAC since the start of the pandemic.
“Being able to bring live music back to our audiences has just been incredible,” said the director. “We’d like to thank our customers for their support, as well as Pocklington Cricket Club, Burnby Hall Gardens and Pocklington Town Council for helping to make these events possible.”
Looking forward to reopening: Pocklington Arts Centre director Janet Farmer in the auditorium
Watch this space for the announcement of the August 5 double bill. Meanwhile, to keep up to date with PAC’s future events, head to pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Pocklington Arts Centre will reopen formally on July 20, preceded by two sold-out socially distanced warm-ups: work-in-progress gigs by South Shields humorist Sarah Millican on July 14 and 15 at 7.30pm.
“I’ll be trying out loads of new stuff,” says the Geordie joker. “It’ll be rough and ready and very, very fun.”
Sarah MIllican: Warming up for her Bobby Dazzler tour with a brace of sold-out gigs at Pocklington Arts Centre
Next week’s shows are in preparation for her sixth international tour, Bobby Dazzler, whose 2021/2022 itinerary will bring Millican, 46, to York Barbican from November 12 to 14.
“You’ll learn about what happens when your mouth seals shut; how to throw poo over a wall; trying to lose weight but only losing the tip of your finger; a surprisingly funny smear test, and how truly awful a floatation tank can actually be,” says Sarah, who has “spent the past year writing jokes and growing her backside”.
“I can’t wait to get back on the road and make you laugh,” she adds. For ticket details on the 8pm shows, head to yorkbarbican.co.uk
In a field of one: Alexander Wright, playwright, poet, storyteller, musician, director, facilitator, theatre builder…and now solo performer
ALEXANDER Wright is nervous about tonight, but why?
Let Alex tell the story: “In a potentially remarkable act of narcissism, I am doing a solo gig of my own work in a theatre I built [with Gobbledigook Theatre’s Phil Grainger and dad Paul Wright] in my back garden at 7.30pm.
“It’s the first time I have ever done a solo gig. I write lots of stuff, direct lots of stuff, tour Orpheus, Eurydice & The Gods The Gods The Gods to hundreds of places.
“I’ve released Half Man//Half Bull, a double narrative-led album, with Phil and Olivier Tilney. My production of The Great Gatsby has been performed across the UK, in Belgium, Ireland, and Korea to hundreds and thousands of audience members.
“But I’ve never really stood in front of people and performed my own stuff, on my own, for an extended period. So, now, I am…and I’m nervous about it.”
Double at t’ Mill: Phil Grainger and Alexander Wright at Stillington Mill last August when performing a week of shows back on home turf in Alex’s “back garden”. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Expect beautiful stories, beautiful poems, a few beautiful special guests and hopefully a beautiful sunset under the sails of the At The Mill outdoor theatre on the re-appropriated disused tennis court at Stillington Mill, Mill Lane, Stillington, near York.
Tongue in cheek in its title, Alex’s Remarkable Acts Of Narcissism night is part of the anything but narcissistic inaugural Summer At The Mill season at At The Mill, the Wrights’ family-run business at the mid-18th century former corn mill.
Not only theatre, children’s shows, spoken word and concerts have found a home here but so too has a Saturday morning pop-up café with unicorn ice cream and blissful cakes spun from the culinary imagination of Alex’s sister, Abbigail, and a welcoming wood-burner in the corner.
Then add supper clubs (up next, Tom Smith, from Oxfordshire, cooking an entire lamb on July 17, tickets available); special events; community gatherings; weddings and accommodation in a fairy-lit woodland shepherd’s hut or the two-bedroom Mill Cottage in a converted cow byre.
The stage is set for a night of Theatre At The Mill
Stillington Mill’s pond-side grounds have housed magical performances in previous years, whether on the woodland grass or under canvas, but the outdoor theatre is new for 2021, all because of a vow witnessed one August night by CharlesHutchPress among others at a Grainger and Wright performance in the first socially distanced summer of Covid.
“Phil has a habit of saying what he’s thinking out loud in public, and then being beholden to it. I’m fine with that and so is Phil!”, says Alex, recalling how best friend Phil had announced that a massive pile of wood had just arrived at the mill from G H Brooks, the timber merchants up the road.
They would build a theatre, he promptly promised, with a boldness worthy of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald pronouncing he would construct an opera house in the middle of a jungle in Werner Herzog’s infamously trouble-beset 1982 film Fitzcarraldo. Thankfully, the task proved less arduous, and no-one behaved like loose-cannon prima-donna lead actor Klaus Kinski.
“I think it’s important to get on with stuff, whatever the circumstances you face, and we’ve always done that. If you wait for people to give you permission, it will never happen, but we had the space to create a theatre, so we have,” says Alex.
Alexander Wright performing Orpheus at At The Mill earlier this summer. Picture: Fair Dinkum Film
“There’s something wonderful about an old tennis court making way for a stage, especially in a village where the mill has long been a focal point for the community. There’s been a mill here since being recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and the house was built in 1754.
“It’s lovely to keep allowing these buildings to be central to the community, and even though it’s no longer flour, I hope it’s still some form of nourishment, whether it’s cake and sausage sandwiches or theatre and music. It’s good to have an industry of sorts still going on here.”
Phil built the wooden stage and the benches – in his own self-deprecating words “making good-quality wood look like palettes” – with help from his Australian partner Angie Alle, while Alex and father Paul did all the structures above, the pillars and posts and sails. “So, if you fall off the stage, it’s Phil’s fault; if something falls on you, it’s my dad’s and my fault,” Alex jokes.
“Some of it’s trial and error, like having to re-enforce the pillar structures, but we’re always trying to do something that’s beyond what we would normally do. Others might find that intimidating, but I like stretching my capacities.”
Courtly love: Out goes tennis, in comes a theatre, game set and match at Stillington Mill
Reflecting on changing times for theatre and performance under the cloud of Covid, changes that have seen Alex and Phil rooted in North Yorkshire, rather than travelling to New York and the Edinburgh Fringe after returning early from Australia last February, Alex says: “I’m sure lots of people have had the profound realisation in the past 16 months that theatre and the arts are a function or a means to the end, rather than an end in themselves.
“We get tied up in theatre being something we consume, when in fact it is so much more valuable as a means for people to gather, to hear news, to share stories, to start conversations, and when we’ve not been gathering for 16 months, it’s such a vital tool for doing that – and I think it’s the gathering that’s most important.”
Alex continues: “I love meeting communities, meeting other people, and I feel that everywhere I go, we always leave having learned something. We always play by the same rules: performers and audience, we are together for two hours, and that sense of hanging out together is more important right now than what we see.
“But when we were setting up Summer At The Mill, I was very clear that it needed to serve the communities I care about: the local rural community and the wider, sprawling arts community.
“We’ve made what I hope is a very honest invitation to artists, to encourage them to ask if they want to come here and play, with either a new piece of work or an old piece that they’re getting back on its feet, or maybe for a collaboration, and it’s felt really nice to be able to do that.
A different writing task for playwright and poet Alexander Wright as he works a shift on At The Mill’s Saturday morning pop-up cafe (which turn into a bar for shows, by the way)
“Phil and I see loads of brilliant mates making work around the world, and we’ll hang around with them for a month. Then, six month later, there’ll be another festival, again with all these acclaimed international artists, and it’s kind of amazing when we say, ‘do you want to muck around in our back garden?’ and they’ll say ‘Yes, I’ll try out some new ideas’, and so they’ll play to a new audience, testing out new material. There’s a nice alchemy to it, and it’s a level playing field.
“We’re even talking to a couple of artists about the possibility of doing short residencies, for a week or a weekend, hosting them to let them road-test something new.”
Tonight, meanwhile, it will be Alex’s own turn to do that in a night of spoken word, storytelling and poetry…and, yes, he’s still nervous!
Alexander Wright: Remarkable Acts Of Narcissism, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight (10/7/2021) at 7.30pm. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/538906.
YORK singer-songwriter Rachel Croft will perform at Forty Five Vinyl Café, Micklegate, York, on July 31.
The 7.30pm gig will showcase the July 23 release of Reap What You Sow, a cinematic, moody taster for her four-track EP of the same name on September 9. Exploring a more potent, bluesy style throughout, further tracks will be second single Time Waits For No Man, Roots and Chasing Time.
Since Step 3 lockdown easing, Rachel has played the opening night of the second season of socially distanced Songs Under Skies acoustic concerts in York, sharing the June 1 double bill with Wounded Bear in the National Centre for Early Music churchyard garden at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate.
On July 8, she opened for Leeds band The Dunwells at the second sold-out Primrose Wood Acoustics open-air concert organised by Pocklington Arts Centre.
Rachel will be supported at her Live At Forty Five YouTube Session concert byKell Chambers and Evie Barrand. Tickets cost £10 via fortyfiveuk.com/whatson.
The poster for Rachel Croft’s July 31 concert at Forty Five Vinyl Cafe, York
Olga Koch: “Figuring out who on earth she is, as an immigrant and certified teen drama queen” in Homecoming
“WHAT does it mean to belong and where is home?”, ponders Russian-born, English-dwelling, story-telling stand-up Olga Koch in Homecoming, on tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on October 8.
New passport in hand, Olga will try to figure out who on earth she is, as an immigrant and certified teen drama queen.
Homecoming will be the third tour for Olga, 28, in the wake of 2018’s Fight and 2019’s If/Then, and once more she has created “cathartic performance art in the privacy of her own home”.
She was nominated for the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s Best Newcomer Award for Fight, her debut “multimedia extravaganza” that took her audience through the making of modern Russia after Olga’s father – who went from “janitor to Mayor to Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, to game-show host, to dissident” – was stopped by authorities on the Russian border, resulting in the most surreal year in her family’s life.
Olga Koch: up for a Fight in her debut stand-up show
A British tour followed in 2019, visiting the Burning Duck Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen, in February that year, where the tracksuit-sporting Olga dissected this real-life spy drama with nothing but a projector and her comedic insights. The show – an hour of Olga Koch starring in From Russia With Gloves Off – has since been aired as a special for BBC Radio 4 and is being adapted as a television sitcom.
Olga’s If/Then debuted at the 2019 Edinburgh before touring the UK and was nominated for Best Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival. The show challenged Olga to tell a love story through the medium of computer programming, a subject she studied at university (“and, like, barely ever brings up”).
“In her feminist investigation into what happens when we can’t separate love and technology, Olga will teach you how to code and explore what happens when our expectations for love, happiness and Michael Bublé no longer compute,” the show brief said.
Like Fight, If/Then is now in development for television. Oh, and while on the subject of TV, Olga has appeared on QI, Mock The Week, King Gary, The New Comedy Show and Channel 4’s Sparks.
Ever busy, she has released the podcast Tech Tech Boom on BBC Sounds and has a new series, OK Computer, running on BBC Radio 4.
Olga Koch’s poster for her newly announced Homecoming autumn tour
Now comes Homecoming, prompting Olga to say: “After various attempts to bring this show to life, I (a stand-up comedian who hopefully hasn’t forgotten how to do stand-up) cannot wait to bring this feel-good extravaganza to an audience (who hopefully hasn’t forgotten how to laugh).”
Homecoming will form part of a full programme of autumn events at Theatre@41. Check out the programme at 41monkgate.co.uk; tickets are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Did you know?
OLGA Alfredovna Koch was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 1 1992. She was educated at TASIS England, aka The American International School in England, an American international boarding and day school.
She studied computer programming at New York University and trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, New York, and the Soho Theatre and the Free Association in London.
Olga Koch’s Homecoming will find a home at last this autumn after “various attempts to bring this show to life”
When domestic bliss turns to domestic blister: Sandy Foster as Judy and Tom Kanji as Johnny in Laura Wade’s comedy Home. I’m Darling. Rehearsal picture: Ellie Kurttz
SWEET peas in the garden; homemade lemon curd in the kitchen; marital bliss in the bedroom; Judy and Johnny seem to be the perfect couple. Sickeningly happy, in fact.
Yet is their marriage everything it seems? Are there cracks in their happiness? What happens when the 1950s’ family values they love so much hit the buffer in the 21st century, as the couple discover that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be?
So runs the bumpy course of Laura Wade’s comedy, Home, I’m Darling, premiered in 2018 by Theatr Clwyd and the National Theatre and now revived in a co-production between Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and Theatre by the Lake, in Keswick, with a cast of Sandy Foster, Tom Kanji, Vicky Binns, Sam Jenkins-Shaw, Sophie Mercell and Susan Twist.
The director is Liz Stevenson, Theatre by the Lake’s artistic director, best remembered in York for her beautiful 2018 touring production of The Secret Garden at the Theatre Royal.
“Home, I’m Darling is the perfect way to welcome back audiences to live theatre again,” she says. “Sharp, funny and incredibly timely, it’s one of those plays that will have everyone chuckling, discussing and debating long into the evening. I can’t wait to bring this brilliant play to life in-the-round with this incredible creative team and with three fantastic northern theatres.”
Director Liz Stevenson in rehearsals for Home, I’m Darling. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Home, I’m Darling has taken longer than first planned by Liz to find a northern home (or three!). “I’d heard so much about the first production, read the script and thought it would be a really interesting play for Theatre by the Lake, but then the pandemic happened and stopped everything,” she recalls.
“There’d been no firm plans; I just thought, ‘one day I bet this play will sit really well on the Keswick stage’. But when Theatre by the Lake, the Octagon and the SJT started talking about play titles for a partnership, this play came up.
“Then we started an online play-reading club with a group of about 40 people of all ages, and this was one of the plays we discussed, and it just confirmed it would go down really well if we ever did it.”
Roll on to summer 2021, and here comes Liz’s production. “It’s very funny, very entertaining, and because it’s in this 1950s-style household, there’s lots of fun and colour to it, but because the play is set now, there are lots of relatable, modern-day issues: feminism, gender roles…” she says.
… “We spoke to Laura [Wade] during rehearsals about people thinking about spending more time at home when losing their jobs, and then of course that’s what happened with the Covid lockdowns.
“Shutting herself in a world that she’s kept so small”: Sandy Foster’s Judy in Home, I’m Darling. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
“People have had to spend time at home, where we’re all expected to have a family, hobbies, a clean home and a talent for baking. Pre-Covid, in this play, here we have someone who wants that life, who wants to be the contented housewife and wants to see people’s reaction to that.”
Perfect timing for her production, then. “It’s a play that will send people out on a high, and that’s something we all need at the moment after what we’ve been through,” says Liz.
Without giving too much away, Liz, what’s the plot? “Judy is 38, she’s been made redundant, and she’s thinking, ‘Do you know what, I’m not going to get another job, working in finance, working very long days, working at weekends’,” she outlines.
“Now she’s becoming an expert baker, an expert cleaner, and it looks like everything is perfect, but then cracks appear and over a fortnight you see things fall apart, as they think, ‘Do we want to spend our lives like this?’.
“She has a home that’s beautiful, where she has control, looking after that home and husband Johnny, but when you push that, it becomes unhealthy as friends start poking holes into this ‘perfect’ bubble, where she has shut herself in a world that she’s kept so small.
“That’s the realisation that Judy has by the end of the play, where she says, ‘I think I’m scared that I’m going to struggle to catch up with the world’. It’s about balance in your life and Judy doesn’t have that balance; she’s gone from one extreme to the other.”
Sam Jenkins-Shaw and Vicky Binns in rehearsal for Home, I’m Darling
“But what’s brilliant about Laura’s writing is that she’s not being heavy-handed; she’s putting questions out there, rather than coming up with answers, and those questions have become even more relevant with people working from home.”
Home, I’m Darling is a comedy with darkness at its edges. “A few people at the play-reading club who read it likened it to an Ayckbourn play, where it’s very funny, but there’s a lot of tension,” says Liz.
“The whole play is set in one space with the actors doing their brilliant thing as the characters’ behaviour affects each other and you see the tension rise within that concentrated setting.
“This production is the first time this play has been staged in the Round, so whereas previously the stage was like a doll’s house with the roof taken off, the benefit of the Round is you are so close to the actors, you will spot every pulling of a raised eyebrow.”
Like so many who work in theatre, Liz has experienced an unparalleled past 15 months. “It’s been really tough for us at Theatre by the Lake; we closed in March last year and we’re still closed, though we have lots of activity in the community and we’re doing a festival with English Touring Theatre at Crow Park [Keswick] in August,” she says.
“But when we do Home, I’m Darling from October 6 to 30, it will be my first show IN the theatre two years after my appointment as artistic director, though we have been rehearsing it inside the building, which has been lovely, and we can’t wait to see a show being put on here again.”
“Darlings, we’re home,” she can finally say at that point.
Home, I’m Darling, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, tonight until August 14. Box office: sjt.uk.com
A Twist at the end: Susan Twist in a scene in rehearsal from Home, I’m Darling. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Emily Hansen’s Pilgrim as Mary Magdalene in A Resurrection For York. Picture: John Saunders
A Resurrection For York, Residents Garden, Minster Library, Dean’s Park, York
HAPPENSTANCE may have led to this pandemic-delayed production being staged at the Residents Garden in Dean’s Park, but A Resurrection For York made a compelling case for the York Mystery Plays to take up residence there.
The gardens are self-contained, behind iron railings that facilitate curious passers-by taking a look; the acoustics are clear, without echo; the Minster bells chime on the quarter hour to both complement and compliment the atmosphere, and the setting is perfect for open-air theatre: spacious, green and on a hillock that cries out to be used for moments of high drama or an important monologue.
As Saturday morning’s audience gathered under grey clouds, Philip Parr’s cast members for this York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust, York Festival Trust and York Minster tripartite production were already in situ for the first of six performances in two days.
The premise was that they were playing pilgrims, two canvas tents pitched at the back, everyone in walking boots, with roll-up sleeping mats, blankets, rucksacks and picnics in Enid Blyton retro brown paper bags.
Intentionally, community cast and community audience became indistinguishable: we were all in this together, albeit socially distanced; pilgrims all, gathered to tell each other stories, led by Nick Jones and Sally Maybridge’s exhorting narrators.
From this canvas would emerge Parr’s Pilgrims, dotted around the grass, some staying in that guise, others taking on specific roles, both alongside and on the two static wagons rolled out for significant scenes, one to set the cross in place.
The cross always will be the most potent symbol of the York Mystery Plays, and here it was especially central to Parr and 2018 York Mystery Plays director Tom Straszewski’s hour-long story, adapted from the Mystery Plays cycle of the crucifixion and the events that followed.
The most powerful image was in fact an absence, the dying Christ being represented instead by a shroud, wrapped around the cross pulled high by the grafting soldiers, one declaring himself too tired to finish the task in one of those brief interjections of humour that the Mystery Plays – the street theatre of its time – suddenly throw up.
The shroud became the motif woven through Parr’s production, daubed in blood, later folded up across a wagon to signify Christ’s body placed in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea (Tony Froud), and then being worn by a tall, dark-haired figure, again emerging from the crowd.
In keeping with medieval tradition, the pilgrim playing Christ was not credited, although a reference to “plus David Denbigh” in the list supplied to CharlesHutchPress may indicate it was him.
Judith Ireland’s Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Emily Hansen’s Mary Magdalene stood out in a cast strong on diction and clear delivery. Music played its part too, largely acappella, choral or folk, with minimal accompaniment, and used sparingly but sung lustily or movingly.
What comes next? 2022 is very likely to see the York Mystery Plays being staged on wagons in June, maybe at the Residents Garden. Watch this space.
Art attack: Shark, mural by Replete, at Piccadilly Pop Up, Piccadilly, York
EACH Saturday, Piccadilly Pop Up’s artists and writers at the old Tax Office at 23, Piccadilly, York, open up their shared studio as a gallery.
From 12 noon to 6pm, the public can view and buy paintings, drawings, graffiti, murals, fine art, sculpture, prints, postcards, collage and poetry. Entry is free, no ticket or booking is required, and Covid safety precautions are in place.
Piccadilly Pop Up is operating as part of Uthink PDP (People Developing People), a charity that is borrowing the building from City of Council until its redevelopment.
Uthink does all kinds of social work up and down the country, not least renting such premises to artists at affordable rates to help fund its activities.
Halloweenery, mixed-media collage, by Richard Kitchen
“Eventually, however, we will be given one month’s notice and lose our studios,” says Richard Kitchen, one of the pop-up founders and artists. “Suitable premises are increasingly hard to find, let alone afford, both despite and also because of the amount of redevelopment going on in the city.
“Many artists in York have private means, but what about those who don’t? Some of us at Piccadilly Pop Up work there full time, the complication being that we do not necessarily make ‘commercial’ work, yet depend on sales to make a living.
“Our angle is that living artists are a vibrant part of the cultural attraction of York and should be valued and nurtured. We feel the council would benefit from providing for creatives who show initiative and enterprise as part of the city’s resources. Artists are an asset!”
Ey Tony, mural, by Patrick Dalton
After that rallying call, CharlesHutchPress felt compelled to pop down questions aplenty for Richard [@richardkitchenart] on the present and hopefully the future of Pop Up Piccadilly as he seeks to address what he calls “an imbalance in the council’s priorities”.
When did Piccadilly Pop Up start and who has been the driving force?
“The charity Uthink PDP moved into the vacant former Tax Office at 23 Piccadilly two years ago, putting on a photographic exhibition and some workshops and renting studio space in the building to artists until its redevelopment.
“Since then, quite a few artists have joined and some have gone, mainly due to Covid. Now there are four core artists working there, who have been running the Saturday open days off and on since August 2020.
Bare Bones, ink and watercolour, by Steve Beadle
“We’re a team. Steve Beadle and I look after promotion, publicity and networking; Terry Aaron takes on the upkeep of the building and Patrick Dalton designs our flyers and posters. Some tasks require more time than others, but it takes everyone to make it work.”
How long do you have left at the former Tax Office before needing to move elsewhere?
“All we know is that at some point we will be given one month’s notice to clear out. Uthink took over the premises from the council on a temporary basis but it has now been sold to developers.”
Despite being a pop-up, will the aim be to have a permanent base?
“We hope so. It’s as permanent as possible in Piccadilly although sadly it can’t be permanently permanent. The name was chosen because Uthink often do pop-ups in various cities and we weren’t sure how long we’d be there.
Will Whittington’s corridor mural at Piccadilly Pop Up
“It sounds a bit lightweight, but people know us by that name now, so it’s better not to change it until we have to move. We open the entire first floor as a public gallery every Saturday.”
How may an artist become involved in Piccadilly Pop-Up?
“Most of the display space is spoken for right now, certainly the walls. We make a lot of work and some of it’s quite big! We have a couple of students from York St John helping out on Saturdays and they also have some pieces on show. One will be renting studio space with us too.
“We do show work by guest artists sometimes and we like to encourage people and make new connections, so the best thing would be to get in touch and enquire via facebook.com/piccadillypopupart.”
Portrait, from a photo series, by Gary Pate
How many artists are involved at present?
“Eight people work and/or exhibit there, including the four core members. Between us, we produce a wide range of work: painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, murals, graffiti, street art, photography, prints and even poetry and history books!!”
What is the mission statement of Piccadilly Pop Up?
“As well as supporting Uthink’s own practice, I’d say our mission is to enhance cultural life in the city, to promote art as a living, relevant force and to make it accessible to as wide a range of people as possible.
“By doing that, we’re not only providing entertainment and stimulus but also contributing to people’s wellbeing and positive outlook in terms of mental health and social values. We’re showing what can be achieved when a creative, community-minded enterprise takes over a space that is otherwise going to waste. We’re setting an example for others to follow.
The Natrix, oil painting, by The Medicine Man
Who is involved in the Uthink PDP charity?
“PDP stands for People Developing People. Uthink started as a charity in 2012, giving opportunities to disadvantaged young people and the homeless to encourage and enable them to find their feet.
“Among other good works, it takes over buildings like ours and rents studio space to local artists at affordable rates. It started operating in York in July 2019.
“Gary Pate is the managing director and our main contact. We’re privileged to be part of such a generous, forward-thinking, grassroots organisation and proud to contribute to its work. We give Uthink a percentage of any sales we make.”
Clown Girls, monoprint, by Molly Owen
How will you make your case to City of York Council for premises for York artists? Sadly, Bar LaneStudios have closed, but PICA Studios run from Grape Lane and Westside Artists have formed a collective, with Southlands Methodist Church as a fulcrum. What would suit you best to complement these studio spaces?
“These are our thoughts at the moment: Uthink rents out studio space at deliberately affordable rates, which means we can make the work we want to make without necessarily bowing to commercialism.
“The irony is that we tend to sell a lot less than other galleries, partly because our work differs from what one normally sees in York galleries and pop-ups, and partly because Piccadilly – at least beyond Spark: York – is slightly off the beaten track, unless you’re a Wetherspoons client!
“So, it’s all a bit ‘Catch 22’. We’re quite unique in that, unlike many artists in York and elsewhere, most of us do not have private means or other jobs and cannot afford the rents that other places charge. We aren’t ‘weekend artists’.
Tree, gouache and watercolour, by Steve Beadle
“Two of us do a dedicated 9-till-5 stint (or more) at the studio every day and one often works late at night, but it’s all unpaid. We either compromise and make stuff to sell – the production line of making variations on what you know is popular – or we stay true to ourselves, value our integrity and creativity, and risk getting nothing in return.
“It’s not that the work is weird or bad or ‘difficult’, far from it, but it isn’t mainstream. I’d say we’re a very interesting place to visit for that reason and we should appeal to a wider audience than regular gallery-goers, but because of our location it’s not that easy to attract visitors.”
The solution is…?
“Could City of York Council develop the mindset to see artists like us as assets to the city and its cultural appeal? We think we can contribute a lot to a positive experience of the city for both tourists and residents.
Needle, spray paint on board, by Replete at Piccadilly Pop Up
“With all the development going on and what many residents see as an emphasis on money-making and tourism at the expense of much else, could a few buildings be earmarked by the council for use by artists, at least temporarily?
“At the moment, organisations such as Uthink and Blank Canvas find such places when they can and charge what they feel is appropriate, but there are surely more opportunities out there.
“If it were an initiative on the part of the council to offer premises to genuinely needy and enterprising artists at rock-bottom rates, there would be so many vibrant things going on. Why not promote art as a living, thriving, meaningful cultural force in the city that can enhance being in York for residents as well as visitors?”
Over to you, City of York Council. Pass on the baton, not the buck.
In Memory Of Ken, detail from a collage by Richard Kitchen
Here are the key Instagram links for the Piccadilly Pop Up enterprise:
Here Be Monsteras potter Kayti Peschke working in her Fangfoss garage studio
YORK Open Studios’ 20th anniversary celebration of the city’s creative talent begins this evening with a 6pm to 9pm preview. Head to yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out which artists and makers will be “warming up” for the two weekends ahead.
After the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns with 145 artists and makers opening 95 studios, homes and workplaces tomorrow and Sunday, then July 17, from 10am to 5pm each day.
Among them will be 40 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight newcomers in a week-long preview, in map guide order, that concludes today with the final four as York prepares for this month’s showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills.
REG crafts abstract sculptures, sometimes contemplative, sometimes playful, mostly in Corten steel, together with small pieces for the hand in bamboo and distinctive collages in natural materials.
He took up sculpture when inspired by volunteering at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, where he then took part in hot and cold metal courses.
Reg Walker: Moved into Arnup Studios two years ago
Originally from Ireland, Reg settled in Yorkshire in 1988, working in social research and organisation development. He had a studio at Kildale on the North York Moors before moving to Arnup Studios in Holtby in 2019.
He will open his studio for this evening’s preview.
Michelle Galloway: Loves experimenting with different techniques
Michelle Galloway, painting, The Pottery Studio, Arnup Studios, Panman Lane, Holtby, York
MICHELLE moved to York to study art, developing a lasting interest in art history, archaeology and architecture.
Her artwork took a backseat when she retrained as a teacher, but she continued to pass on her passion for art through children’s workshops.
When the opportunity for a temporary studio arose, Michelle rekindled her own creativity and love of experimentation with different techniques. She now has a permanent studio at Arnup Studios.
“My latest work is oils on large canvases,” she says. “Using small brushstrokes to build up layers of colour, the variation of colour and tone achieved creates an abstract and ethereal quality.”
Michelle Galloway in her studio
Michelle describes her oil paintings as having an intensity to them, whereas her watercolours are “mostly calm, harmonious, quiet and contemplative, atmospheric, yet gentle and light”.
“I work from my own sketches and photographs of the location, meaning that all my senses are engaged with the subject,” she says. “I sketch and make notes to myself, decide what to include or subtract, and use a camera to record both the larger scene and tiny details, an instant where the light changes or a fleeting glimpse of something of intrigue.
“Back in the studio, I can take my time and work at my own pace. I can combine all the information with my personal and emotional response to create a visual interpretation.”
Michelle will be welcoming visitors to this evening’s preview.
A brace of ceramic trios by Judith Glover
Judith Glover, ceramics, Brambles, Warthill, York
JUDITH specialises in sculptural ceramics, using the technique of coiling.
“My work is often presented as trios, thus emphasising the relationship between the pieces,” she says.
“Inspired by Italian still-life artist Giorgio Morandi and British painter, designer and illustrator Rex Whistler, I often incorporate different strata of clays in the same piece to give a painterly quality.
“Ceramic artists Jennifer Lee and Ashraf Hanna influence my unglazed hand-built work with clean lines that enhance the interior design of homes.”
Judith Glover with one of her sculptural ceramics
Judith learned the basics of pottery through studying with Su Rogers in Guildford. “Re-locating to North Yorkshire in 2010, I continued to develop my practice, specialising in sculptural hand-building,” she says. “My base clay is generally a Potterycrafts recipe, which contains a red clay from Derbyshire and buff fireclays from Shropshire.”
Her latest pieces, developed in the 2020-2021 lockdowns, are of imaginary landscapes and seascapes. “They use flattened coils and inserts of different clays to create painterly pieces,” says Judith, who is a member of the Northern Potters Association and an associate member of the Craft Potters Association.
All proceeds from sales of her work go to IDAS, the North Yorkshire charity that supports those affected by domestic violence.
A couple of cups, made by Here Be Monsteras ceramicist Kayti Peschke
Here Be Monsteras (Kayti Peschke), ceramics, Ashtree Lodge, Gowthorpe Lane, Fangfoss, York
KAYTI creates ceramics under the name of Here Be Monsteras from her garage studio in her garden in the Wolds, east of York.
Her background is in photography and magazine design, but two years ago she started making pottery and now she has converted full time. “It has become an obsession,” she says.
Kayti makes wheel-thrown ceramics with stoneware clays, “all with a lovely speckle and texture that are wonderful tactile”, to create functional objects for the home.
“Brushstrokes form the decorative styles using a mix of glazes, hand-coloured clay and wax-resist techniques,” says Kayti. “I also screen print pots, using my own hand-cut designs and I love working on colour palettes, with limited runs for each season.”
She has worked on screen-printing ceramics with artist Jade Blood, creating travel cups and a full dinnerware set, as well as collaborating with restaurants and cafés that serve their menus on her tableware.
“A cup of tea in a handmade cup really does taste better, maybe because the process feels more special or you take more time over it? I’m not sure why, but it’s true,” says Kayti.
Taking shape: Kayti Peschke in hands-on mode in her studio
In her home studio, the cups of tea flow and her dogs hang out in the sunshine as she listens to BBC 6Music or podcasts. “I absolutely love being out there, creating, and hopefully this shows in the things I make.
“All the pieces I create are made to be practical and often multi-functional. It’s so important to me that they’re used and enjoyed and bring a little bit of extra joy to the day!”
As testament to that, her ceramics can be found in York at Kiosk, Fossgate; Sketch By Origin, York Art Gallery; Jolly Allotment, Walmgate; Flori, Walmgate; Melk, SparkYork and Clifford Street, and Botanic York, Walmgate.
Beyond York, Yorkshire stockists include The Hispanist and Two Gingers, both in Paragon Street, Hull; Plant & Paint, Humber Street, Hull; The Gallery, Malton; The Art House, Wakefield; Flavour Like Fancy, Meanwood, Leeds; Mr Cooper’s, Whitby, and Mlkwood Studio, Bridlington.
Kayti will be giving throwing demonstrations at 1pm and 3pm each day during York Open Studios.
A painting by Ian Cameron, one of 145 York Open Studios artists in 2021. Find him – but maybe not this bird – in his back garden at 65, Green Lane, Acomb, York
TO find full details of all the York Open Studios artists and makers, their studios, opening hours and examples of their work, go to: yorkopenstudios.co.uk.
The 95 locations will be highlighted on a map of York to help visitors navigate their way to as many studios, workshops and homes as they wish.
Visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk to look at the York Open Studios map. Alternatively, free printed brochures with the map can be picked up from Visit York, on Lendal, or in shops, restaurants and visitor attractions around the city.
2021’s York Open Studios will be Covid-compliant, with artists adhering to Government guidelines on social distancing, ventilation and sanitisers, keeping themselves and visitors safe throughout.
Serious advice from Joanna Lisowiec in her lettering series
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns this weekend for its 20th parade of the city’s creative talent.
Preceded by tomorrow’s preview evening, from 6pm to 9pm, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight six newcomers a day over the week ahead, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
“Soothingly immersive”: Fiona Love’s art in her own words
Fiona Lane, painting, 8 Claremont Terrace, Gillygate, York
SELF-TAUGHT artist Fiona paints seascapes and landscapes, mostly on canvas.
“Most of my work is seas and trees,” she says. “I’m inspired by the beautiful and diverse Yorkshire countryside, which is so accessible to me.”
Favouring mixed media, she loves working with colour and light, creating pictures that she describes as “almost 3D” and “soothingly immersive”.
“I prefer to paint outside,” says Fiona Lane, not least in her flower-filled courtyard
“I’m always developing my style,” she says. “I stretch and smooth paint which I apply with palette knives and brushes, adding details with other media. I prefer to paint outside, whether in the woods, by the sea or in my flower-filled York courtyard.”
Fiona will be taking part in tomorrow’s preview evening.
Creating textile designs is a form of meditation for Ealish Wilson
Ealish Wilson, textiles, PICA Studios, Grape Lane, York, second weekend only
TEXTILE designer Ealish has lived and worked in many places around the world, spending 15 years in the USA before making her way to York and joining the PICA Studios arts hub.
However, Japan was where her work was transformed. “Japan taught me that art exploration and practice is a lifelong journey from which we constantly learn,” she says.
“Experience informs the creative process over time, enhancing and developing an artist’s expression. It’s about seeing creativity in the everyday.”
She brings this philosophy to making her sculptural textiles, using a variety of substrates and techniques, including print, drawing, photography and stitching.
Ealish Wilson’s artistic philosophy: “Seeing creativity in the everyday”
“I repeat this process to create multiple iterations and layers to my designs,” she says. “Much of my process investigates pattern and its transformation through surface manipulation. I use many traditional hand methods of stitching, such as pleating and smocking, to physically alter my original designs.
“Frequently my work starts in the digital realm: whether photographing an object or one of my own paintings, it serves as inspiration for new work. Many of my images are everyday scenes or objects of purpose that appear mundane but feature a beautiful shape or colour that’s a perfect jumping-off point to create a textile.”
Ealish, who sees the craft of making as “my form or meditation”, is also exhibiting in the Westside Artists’ Momentum Summer Show at Blossom Street Gallery, York, until September 26.
Embroidery by Amy Butcher
Amy Butcher, textiles, 1 Carlton Cottages, Wigginton, York
FOR Amy’s applique-based hand embroidery, a collage of intricately cut fabric shapes creates a foundation. This is then stitched and embellished to make illustrative pieces rooted in nature and animals.
“My love of art and textiles started at school and has been a passion ever since,” says the largely self-taught Amy.
Amy Butcher: A passion for textiles
“The support and inspiration from an embroidery class enabled me to continue to develop my work and confidence, and in 2014 I was fortunate to get the opportunity to work with the greetings card company Bug Art.”
She now works on developing her own range of greetings cards, prints, cushion panels, coasters and embroidery stitch kits, printed from her original textile art for Beaks & Bobbins.
Tomorrow’s preview evening will be the first chance to catch her York Open Studios debut.
Golden Orioles, an illustration, by Joanna Lisowiec
Joanna Lisowiec, illustration, 40 Hempland Drive, York
JOANNA’S prints and illustrations look to nature, classical art and mythology for inspiration, as she focuses on birds and animals in her bold, clean and distinctive linocuts, drawings and paintings.
“My aspiration is to capture truths that make one ponder the beauty of life,” she says.
Originally from Poland and brought up in Colorado, USA, and Switzerland, she first came to Britain to study illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, falling in love with the wild Highlands and later with the “quaint English countryside” when she moved to Yorkshire for her MA in advertising and design from the University of Leeds.
“As an illustrator and printmaker, I’m known for a bold style of illustration with lots of texture, usually focused on the beauty of nature and narratives inspired by folklore. I love reading books and would love to illustrate a classic novel one day,” says Joanna, whose surname is pronounced “Lease-oviets”.
“When I’m not working, I can be found with my nose in a book, taking long walks in the countryside, drinking tea and listening to the rain.”
She will be opening her studio for tomorrow’s preview.
Black Mist, by Dee Thwaite
Dee Thwaite, painting, 10 Bedale Avenue, York, second weekend only
DEE uses acrylic paint, inks, graphite, oil pastels and charcoal in her sea and landscape paintings and drawings, marked by stormy skies, movement in the clouds, shifting light and the changing seasons.
Dee Thwaite at work in her studio
Mainly self-taught, this contemporary abstract artist expresses her love of the North Yorkshire coastline on canvas, board and paper in works that combine both a physical and emotional response when she paints, predominantly with her hands, as opposed to brushes.
“Painting has become such a healing and therapeutic part of my life and one of my greatest passions,” says Dee.
A Tabitha Grove painting on handmade paper
Tabitha Grove, painting, Arnup Studios, Panman Lane, Holtby, York
TABITHA uses bold colour, contrast, ink, watercolour, gold leaf and collage on handmade paper, fabric and even garments to explore perceptions of the body and how they can be challenged and celebrated.
Her career as an actor and costume designer for film and theatre has informed Tabitha’s passion for storytelling and her fascination with the way our bodies interact with our environments.
Tabitha Grove: Actor, costume designer, art therapist, piano restorer….and artist
Tabitha’s career portfolio career extends to co-managing Look Gallery, in Helmsley, being an art therapist in hospitals and now working in piano restoration, where she learns rare skills that influence her art.
Each experience has informed Tabitha’s style, she says, leading to her “bringing diverse technique to a new perspective”.
TOMORROW: Reg Walker, Michelle Galloway, Judith Glover and Here Be Monsteras Ceramics (Kayti Peschke).
Withholding the truth: Oliver Ford Davies’s Graham Greene and Stephen Boxer’s Kim Philby in A Splinter Of Ice
A Splinter Of Ice, The Original Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
WHAT’S this? A proper printed programme to peruse. Another sign of a return to theatre’s old normal ahead of Monday’s Step 4 pronouncement and its promise of the resumption of full-capacity shows.
What’s this? A not particularly busy first-night audience for spy story A Splinter Of Ice, even making allowances for social distancing in masked times. We could romanticise how theatres will be crammed to the gills once “Freedom Day” arises, but audiences are selective. Always were, always will be.
In between the mothballed lulls in lockdown, we have grown accustomed to seeing theatres and theatre companies adapting to Covid rules with social-bubble casts of one, two or three on main stages. In truth, Ben Brown’s three-hander would have been equally at home on a studio or Edinburgh Fringe stage, where it would have gained from added claustrophobia.
A Splinter Of Ice has its own cases of social distancing and mask-wearing: Brown’s subject matter is the first meeting in 35 years of The Third Man writer Graham Greene (Oliver Ford Davies) and Cold War-era spy Kim Philby (Stephen Boxer) in 35 years, whose friendship had been forged in Greene’s days in Philby’s office at MI6. Greene professed to loving him, maybe explaining the play’s inclusion in the Theatre Royal’s Love Season.
British intelligence officer and double agent Philby’s defection to the Soviet Union ensured an enforced social distancing, despite Philby’s invitations to his old friend to visit him. Greene finally does so when attending a peace conference at Gorbachev’s initiation, along with the likes of Yoko Ono, Gregory Peck and Peter Ustinov.
The date is February 15 1987. Greene arrives for dinner at Philby’ rudimentary Moscow flat, home to the terminally ill spy, his charming fourth wife Rufa (Karen Ascoe) and books and a chair given to Philby by fellow Cambridge Five spy Guy Burgess.
Michael Pavelka’s set is skeletal, bare scaffolding framing the drab flat contents, much like Brown must fill in the blank pages of exactly what went on that night as Greene would later only affirm that the meeting had taken place.
Likewise, Boxer’s Philby opens by saying he will not answer any of Greene’s questions, although subsequently he does, but who knows where the truth lies in his answers. Greene had had the first word, addressing the audience directly to warn that “perhaps he was just playing with me, as he did with others”. Philby’s mask-wearing had been so adroit that he was, in Greene’s words, “the greatest spy of the 20th century”.
The ghost in the writer: Oliver Ford Davies’s Graham Greene, there but not there
“Though they are great friends, they withhold things; they’re not always honest with each other,” Ford Davies forewarned in his interview, and indeed Greene is, in his own way, as a writer, an outsider, an observer, who has to keep his anti-social distance from his quarries. Are his reasons for finally agreeing to see Philby entirely honest, or is there a hidden agenda?
Just as Philby is still in the service of his Russian masters, albeit only sparingly, so Greene still attaches himself to “the firm” (MI6).
The British love a spy story, whether in book or film form, and here we have two of the brightest minds of their generation locking intellectual horns over wine, whisky and a dinner of coq au vin cooked by Rufa (although Philby normally does the cooking).
Tonight, however, he is on washing-up duty, a task that facilitates Brown the opportunity to have a conversation between Greene and Rufa, to bring a third, more sympathetic, perspective into the reunion, a device that also loosens up what might otherwise be all rather too stifling and monochrome.
Brown conducts the first half as Philby sketching in some of the blanks under Greene’s questioning, telling the story his convivial, urbane way, before all that politesse truly turns to politics post-dinner when Greene’s probing becomes more of an inquisition, as Philby starts to show his true colours in “vodka veritas” with what Greene calls his “chilling certainty” – and no sense of guilt. Greene turns out to be the more mysterious character, the ghost in the writer, there but not there.
There is a little brittle wit , there is intrigue, history and mystery too, and then there is the big question: would you choose to be loyal to your friend or your country? Yet A Splinter Of Ice ultimately leaves you as cold as the Cold War; for all the surface finesse of Alan Strachan’s direction and the consummate stage craft of Ford Davies, Boxer and Ascoe, it should reveal and say more, rather than play a chess game in words. From Brown, amid the display of superior grey matter, the play is too grey without enough of his own voice beyond the detailed research.
Truth be told, An Englishman Abroad, Alan Bennett’s marrow story of a defector and British visitor, Guy Burgess and actress Coral Browne, meeting in Moscow in 1958, was more fascinating, more rewarding too.
Given the subject of two men who took such risks, whether in word or deed, A Splinter Of Ice feels just too safe.
