Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in her giraffe suit in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
THE musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians arrives at the Grand Opera House, York, on Tuesday, led by Kym Marsh’s villainous Cruella De Vil.
Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
When fashionista Cruella de Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies.
After making her name in the Popstars reality TV pop band Hear’Say in 2001, playing barmaid and landlady Michelle Connor in Coronation Street for 13 years from 2006 and partnering with Graziano di Prima in the 2022 series of Strictly Come Dancing, Merseysider Kym is turning to the dark side at 48 in 101 Dalmatians The Musical.
“I enjoy playing [villainous] roles because they’re so far removed from me, so you have to really try and get into the head of that person,” she says of playing the dog-murdering Cruella.
At the wheel: Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
“Trying to get into the head of a person who wants to skin puppies to wear is especially alien to me because I’m such a huge dog lover! I’ve got two of my own, and I adore them.”
Villains do not come more fabulous than Cruella De Vil. “I think people are going to absolutely love her,” says Kym. “The costumes are so brilliant, and when she walks on, she’s just in command of everything. She’s the the most fun character ever.”
Look out, above all, for Cruella’s trademark black-and-white hairdo. “But there won’t be just one wig,” reveals Kym. “There’s going to be several changes and it’s not just what you expect from her. We’re like Cruella De Vil times ten!”
Her role requires her to perform big musical numbers on stage after many years of concentrating on other pursuits. “If you don’t sing, you forget,” she says.
Did she not sing in her role in last year’s tour of the Take That musical Greatest Days? “I didn’t have a lot to sing [in that],” she clarifies. “There were no solos, and nothing hugely taxing. Whereas in this, I’ve got my own songs, and there’s a lot to learn.”
Kym had to combine rehearsals for 101 Dalmatians with filming commitments for her role as canteen worker Nicky in the latest series of BBC school drama Waterloo Road. Then again, she is no stranger to juggling tasks, ever since she started out as a performer while raising two children as a single mother.
“When she walks on, she’s just in command of everything,” says Kym Marsh of playing Cruella De Vil. “She’s the the most fun character ever.” Picture: Johan Persson
Her parents encouraged her determination to succeed. “I fell pregnant at a very young age and my parents were like ‘this is even more reason for you to continue and carry on pursuing your dream, and make the life that you want, not just for you but for the children’. I was very much spurred on and encouraged, and I’m thankful for that,” she says.
Popstars, the 2001 ITV series that spawned the Hear’Say line-up of Kym, Suzanne Shaw, Noel Sullivan, Myleene Klass and Danny Foster, kicked off the wave of talent shows that led to Pop Idol, The X Factor and The Voice UK.
Kym recalls those “unique and very strange” days as a learning experience unlike anything that anyone had undergone before. “We were guinea pigs and people were watching thinking, ‘what’s going to happen now?’. People were very much waiting for us to fail, and every move we made, there was a comment about it,” she says. “The press back then were very different to how they are now. They’re much more well behaved.”
Her move into acting emerged “by accident”. When Hear’Say folded after only 20 months, citing “abuse from the public” as the primary reason for their demise, Kym set a solo career in motion but was dropped by her record label, despite her 2003 album Standing Tall peaking at number nine in the UK charts and spawning two Top Ten singles, Cry and Come On Over.
While contemplating whether to pursue another deal, she was offered the role of Annette in a West End production of Saturday Night Fever. “Once I started to do that, I remembered my love of acting, which I had as a teenager but had not pursued because I felt like I could make money singing in pubs and clubs,” she says.
Haus of De Vil: Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in her fashion house in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
A few small TV roles ensued, followed by the chance to play Michelle Connor in Coronation Street, a soap-opera opportunity that initially was confined to only four episodes. Kym made such an impression, however, that she was asked to return, becoming one of the best-loved characters.
“I never in a million years thought or expected [that was how things would go],” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate, as I’ve been given some amazing opportunities, and had a lot of people believe in me, even if I didn’t necessarily believe in myself.”
She is now a daytime TV presenter too, hosting the BBC’s flagship lifestyle show Morning Live since its launch in 2020. When offered the job, she had “huge impostor syndrome”, having never done a live TV gig and only a couple of presenting slots for the BBC.
Four years on, she feels part of a TV family, working with co-host Gethin Jones. “I was very fortunate to be paired with him, because he’s a very generous co-presenter,” she says. “He took me under his wing, and I’ve learned so much from him.”
101 Dalmatians will keep Kym on the road until January 5 2025. What next? She has ambitions to do more meaty TV dramas and films but is content to see where life leads her.”One minute I’m serving chips and beans in the canteen at Waterloo Road, and the next thing I’m Cruella wearing [pretend] giraffe skin,” she says. “It’s a bizarre life I live!”
101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 5 to 9, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Cherie Federico: Director of Aesthetica Short Film Festival
THE 2024 Aesthetica Short Film Festival takes over 15 venues in York from November 6 to 10, incorporating the UK’s first-ever UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO.
The festival brings together filmmakers, industry leaders and audiences from around the world for screenings and events as York is transformed into a global stage for screen culture, attracting thousands of attendees and participants from more than 60 countries.
“I’m incredibly excited to open the 14th edition of the BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, a city rich in history and culture,” says director Cherie Federico. “The festival supports York’s designation as a UNESCO City of Media Arts. It’s a celebration of film, new technologies, art and creativity, operating on both national and international levels.
“We’re screening an expansive programme of 300 films across 12 genres from 60 countries and opening a Games Lab, VR Lab, countless panels and masterclasses, with some of the world’s leading talent arriving in York for the week. Aesthetica is an inclusive experience that invites everyone to participate, reinforcing York’s standing as a global hub for culture and media arts.”
In addition to the diverse film offerings, this year’s programme will showcase cutting-edge technologies with Virtual Reality (VR) and Gaming Labs, providing immersive experiences for both the curious and the tech-savvy.
“The VR and Gaming Labs are joined up in a new technology hub at the Hospitium, a new venue for this year’s festival in York Museum Gardens,” says New Yorker Cherie, who has lived in York for 20 years.
“Only in York would you put the cutting edge of new technology in a 14th century building, such as a game from Aardman about Wallace and Gromit trying to go on holiday. We’ll also have a VR and gaming Happy Hour in Thor’s Tipi in the gardens.”
The poster for the 2024 Aesthetica Short Film Festival
Throughout the festival, audiences will have the opportunity to learn from top professionals in the film, television and digital media industries. “Guests from renowned organisations such as the New York Times, Tribeca Film Festival, Aardman, BBC Film, Ridley Scott Associates, and Framestore will share their expertise through 60 panels, workshops, and discussions,” says Cherie.
“We’re delighted that the New York Times is coming this year to check out what we’re doing as a festival and that Tribeca Film Festival will be here because they’ve heard that Aesthetica is the festival for finding new British talent.”
In addition, aspiring filmmakers and creatives can engage in practical workshops, including sessions on stop-motion animation, filmmaking, coding and games development for children.”
Sessions are designed to offer insights into the industry’s inner workings, with contributions from prestigious creatives shaping the future of screen culture.
Among those hosting masterclasses will be Julian Foddy, from Industrial Light & Magic, who will highlight how the studio behind Star Wars has crafted iconic cinematic worlds; Nowhere Boy and Back To Black screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, discussing his approach to storytelling and the art of screenwriting, and Ubisoft, creators of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, exploring the challenges of adapting storytelling for virtual reality platforms.
Abubakar Salim, actor and voice talent from Raised by Wolves and Assassin’s Creed: Origins, will take a deep dive into character development and voice acting and representatives from Ridley Scott Associates, founded by the legendary director of Blade Runner and Alien, will lead a session on documentary filmmaking and practical tips for film development.
A further festival highlight will be Aestheticax Audible’sThe Listening Pitch, a “cinematic exploration of the unheard” that funds documentaries that reveal how listening helps us to understand new points of view.
UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO: Part of the 2024 Aesthetica Short Film Festival
On November 9, at City Screen Picturehouse, the festival will premiere 2024’s winning films, Liberty Smith’s Greensound and Ornella Mutoni’s The Things We Don’t Say, complemented by Old Lesbians and Speed Of Sound, winners from previous years.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of York’s designation as a UNESCO City of Media Arts, a milestone that the film festival will mark with a series of events that highlight the city’s dynamic role in the global creative industries.
The UNESCO EXPO will bring together leading media arts cities from across Europe, including Braga (Portugal), Linz (Austria), and Oulu (Finland), who will showcase how their designation as UNESCO Cities of Media Arts has driven cultural investment and spurred creative opportunities.
“The EXPO promises to be an invaluable platform for cross-cultural exchange, collaboration and innovation in the media arts space,” says Cherie.
“I’ve been looking to raise the profile of the creative industries through a series of Reignite events in York, bringing all the different sectors together. We should use this UNESCO designation to elevate all of us, and with this year being the tenth anniversary of that designation we needed to celebrate that landmark and highlight the businesses of the future in York.
“The question is, how do we establish a thriving creative industry with an educational pathway, and how do we make this a city for a cutting-edge media arts industry? That’s why we’re putting on the EXPO, an exhibition with free entry to highlight York businesses that are operating on a national and international level, to make people aware of the film, visual effects, gaming, VR and experiential design work already going on in the city.
“York’s UNESCO City of Media Arts designation has solidified the city’s position as a national and international leader in the creative industries. Over the past decade, York has become a vibrant hub for digital and media innovation, attracting significant investments and fostering a thriving creative community.”
For the full 2024 festival programme and to book tickets, head to: asff.co.uk.
Skylights: York band headline York Barbican for the first time tonight
FROM Skylights to Ghosts After Dark, a fiesta of film to a musical dog show, Charles Hutchinson spots plenty to light up these November nights.
York gig of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
ANTHEMIC York indie band Skylights play their biggest home-city gig to date this weekend with support from Serotones and Pennine Suite.
Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here. So to headline will be the perfect way to finish a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.” Box office update: Standing tickets still available at ticketmaster.co.uk.
Rob Rouse: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, tonight
Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, Rob Rouse, Peter Brush, Faizan Shan and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm
PEAK District comedian, television regular, Upstart Crow actor and self-help podcaster Rob Rouse, who trained as a geography teacher at the University of Sheffield, makes a rare York appearance with his hyperactive, loveable brand of comedy.
Harrogate Comedian of the Year 2012 Peter Brush combines a slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair with quirky one-liners and original material, delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Manchester comic Faizan Shah’s material makes light of growing up in an immigrant household with the mental health challenges it brings. Organiser Damion Larkin hosts as ever. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.
Artist CJP with his work The Majestic Oak at Art Of Protest Gallery, York
Exhibition of the week: From Little Acorns Grow Mighty Hopes: An Exhibition of Hand-drawn Natural Wonders, Art of Protest Gallery, Walmgate, York, until November 16
ART Of Protest is the first gallery to show CJP’s work The Majestic Oak in an exhibition of original and rare limited-edition artwork. Look out for the Art Of Protest York Special Edition, only available to be ordered until November 16, featuring the River Ouse-dwelling Tansy Beetle, an elusive insect featured on a resplendent mural near York railway station.
“This is an amazing opportunity to own a truly unique celebration of British fauna with a very special York twist,” says gallery owner Craig Humble. “CJP will add a Tansy Beetle to each piece, along with the gold leafing of the branches.”
Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of): Making merry mayhem with Jane Austen’s novel at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic
Theatrical high spirits of the week: Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, November 4 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
MEN, money and microphones will be fought over in Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), the audacious retelling of a certain Jane Austen novel, where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance but it’s party time, so expect the all-female cast to deliver such emotionally turbulent pop gems as Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.
Writer Isobel McArthur directs this new production of her West End hit, Olivier Award winner for best comedy and Emerging Talent Award winner in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, now featuring University of York alumna Georgia Firth in the cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
On the spot: 101 Dalmatians The Musical takes up canine residence at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday. Picture: Johan Persson
Dog show of the week: 101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 5 to 9, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
KYM Marsh’s Cruella De Vil leads the cast for this musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians. Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
When fashionista Cruella De Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
3 Missing 10 Hours, directed by Fanni Fazakas, showing in the Animation programme at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024
York festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York city centre, November 6 to 10, and UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO, Guildhall, York, November 7 to 9
THE BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival returns for its 14th year under the direction of Cherie Federico, this time integrating the tenth anniversary of York’s designation as Great Britain’s only UNESCO City of Media Arts. Fifteen venues will play host to 300 film screenings in 12 genres, Virtual Realty and Gaming labs, plus 60 panels, workshops and discussions. For the full programme and tickets, head to asff.co.uk.
The UNESCO EXPO will showcase the region’s creative sector, working in film production, games development, VFX (visual effects), publishing and design, with the chance to try out new projects and speak to creatives. Entry to the Guildhall is free.
Ghosts After Dark: New nocturnal complement to the Ghosts In The Gardens installation in York Museum Gardens
Nocturnal event of the week: Ghosts After Dark, York Museums Gardens, November 7 to 10, 6.30pm to 9.30pm; last entry, 8.30pm
YORK Museums Trust and the York BID present the inaugural Ghosts After Dark, showcasing York’s rich tapestry of historical figures with light, sound and storytellers for four nights only.
Ticketholders will have the exclusive chance to experience York Museum Gardens like never before, by choosing their own path to explore 46 ghostly sculptures, hidden around the gardens and lit dynamically against an atmospheric background of smoke and sound. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/ghosts-after-dark/.
Rag’n’Bone Man: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
Gig announcements of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, July 6, and Rag’n’Bone Man, July 11 2025
“I THINK I’ve got the best reggae band in the world,” says UB40 legend Ali Campbell, who last played Scarborough OAT in 2021. “They are all seasoned musicians, who have spent all their lives in professional bands, and I feel so confident with them.” Support acts will be Bitty McLean and Pato Banton.
Triple BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winner Rag’n’Bone Man, alias Rory Graham, will follow up his 2023 Scarborough OAT show with a return next summer in the wake of his third album, What Do You Believe In? entering the charts at number three last Friday. His special guest will be Elles Bailey. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.
Show announcement of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to May 17 2025
Gary Oldman reflecting on his first steps in professional theatre in the York Theatre Royal dressing rooms on his March visit
OSCAR winner Gary Oldman will return to York Theatre Royal, where he began his career as a pantomime cat, to direct himself in Krapp’s Last Tape next spring: his first stage appearance since the late-1980s.
The April 14 to May 17 2025 production of Samuel Beckett’s one-act monodrama was set in motion when Slow Horses star Oldman paid a visit to the St Leonard’s Place theatre in March, when he met chief executive Paul Crewes.
“When Gary visited us at the beginning of the year, it was fascinating hearing him recount stories of his time as a young man, in his first professional role on the York Theatre Royal stage.,” says Paul.
“In that context when we started to explore ideas, we realised Krapp’s Last Tape was the perfect project. I am very happy that audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Gary Oldman return to our stage in this brand new production.”
Making plans: Actor and director Gary Oldman in discussion with York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes in the York Theatre Royal main house auditorium
Ticket prices start at £25, with priority booking for the York Theatre Royal Director’s Circle opening on November 6, YTR Members’ priority booking from November 11 and public booking on November 16, all from 1pm. To become a member and access priority booking, head to: https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/support-us/.
After graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, Londoner Oldman started out in the repertory ranks at York Theatre Royal in 1979 in such plays as Privates On Parade and She Stoops To Conquer and playing the Cat in Berwick Kaler’s third York pantomime, Dick Whittington, that Christmas.
Dame Berwick later told the Guardian in an interview in 2018: “Gary has gone on to become one of our greatest screen actors but I’m afraid he was a bit of a lightweight when it came to pantomime.
“He kept fainting inside the costume. On at least three occasions I had to turn to the audience and say, ‘Oh dear, boys and girls, I think the poor pussy cat has gone to sleep’!”
Gary Oldman as the Cat with dame Berwick Kaler, centre, in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Oldman, now 66, posted on Instagram: “My professional public acting debut was on stage at the York Theatre Royal. York, for me, is the completion of a cycle. It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home.
“The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.”
After cutting his teeth in York, New Cross-born Oldman went on to act at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, the Royal Court, London, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then swapped theatre for film with break-our roles as Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy (1986), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1992) and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
He later played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film franchise and Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, won the 2018 Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, and is now starring as obnoxious MI5 boss Jackson Lamb in the latest Apple+ series of British spy thriller Slow Horses.
Gary Oldman (third from the left in hat and glasses) in Privates On Parade at York Theatre Royal in 1979: one of his first professional performances after graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, with a BA in Acting. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Oldman has been considering going back to the stage for a long time. “I have never been far from the theatre and, in fact, have been discussing plays and my return to the theatre for nearly 30 years,” he posted.
What happens in Krapp’s Last Tape, Samuel Beckett at his most theatre of the absurd? Each year, on his birthday, Krapp records a new tape reflecting on the year gone by.
On his 69th birthday, Krapp, now a lonely man, is ready with a bottle of wine, a banana and his tape recorder. Listening back to a recording he made as a young man, Krapp must face the hopes of his past self.
The melancholic, tragicomic role was premiered in 1958 by Patrick Magee and has been played by the likes of Albert Finney, Harold Pinter, John Hurt, Stephen Rea and Kenneth Allan Taylor, the long-running Nottingham Playhouse pantomime dame, writer and director, at York Theatre Royal in 2009.
Gary Oldman’s Cat in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989): the back story
IRISH writer, dramatist and poet, specialising in theatre of the absurd. Wrote in English and French. Principal works for the stage included Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting For Godot. Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
Gary Oldman: Further screen appearances
TINKER, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Academy Award and BAFTA nominations); Mank (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations); Oppenheimer; The Book Of Eli; Meantime; The Firm; Prick Up Your Ears; Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead; State Of Grace; Romeo Is Bleeding; True Romance; Leon/The Professional; The Fifth Element; Immortal Beloved and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, among many others.
Worked with directors Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone, Frances Ford Coppola, Luc Besson, Alfonso Curon, Chris Nolan, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Paulo Sorrentino.
Did you know?
IN 1995 Gary Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski founded a production company, producing Oldman’s screenwriting and directorial debut, Nil By Mouth, winner of nine majot awards from 17 nominations.
Selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, where Kathy Burke won Best Actress. The same year, Oldman won Channel Four Director’s Prize at Edinburgh International Film Festival, British Academy Award (shared with Douglas Urbanski) for Best Film and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.
In Focus:Other Lives Productions in How To Be Brave, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm, and on tour
Livy Potter as Katy, left, and Alice Rose Palmer as mum Natalie in Louise Beech’s How To Be Brave
ON March 19 1943, just after midnight, Merchant Seaman Colin Armitage’s cargo ship, the Lulworth Hill, was torpedoed by an Italian Navy submarine in the South Atlantic. He scrambled aboard a life raft. Fifty days later HMS Rapid rescued him.
Colin was the grandfather of How To Be Brave playwright Louise Beech. Sixty-four years after his ordeal, Louise’s daughter, Katy, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In order to distract her during insulin injections Louise began to tell the story of Colin’s bravery and determination to survive.
The story inspiring ten-year-old Katy to be brave in the face of her diabetes is a true one. She has said that Grandad Colin’s experience made her determined to carry on when she wanted to give up and die: “If Grandad Colin can survive an ordeal like that, I can do anything. I can do these injections,” she said. And she has never faltered.
Director Kate Veysey with Rose’s seagull Gilbert
“We hope that by presenting this story we can inspired audiences in the East Riding and beyond,” says director Kate Veysey, a familiar name from both York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre and Next Door But One productions.
Scenes alternate between the life raft and Katy’s house in Hull as York actors Jacob Ward and Livy Potter take the roles of Colin Armitage and Rose (Katy, given a pseudonym), joined by Lex Stephenson as carpenter Ken Cooke, on the raft, Alice Rose Palmer as Natalie (alias mum Louise) and Alison Shaw as nurse Shelley. Age guidance: ten upwards (the show contains moderate bad language). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Lex Stephenson, as Ken Cooke, left, and Jacob Ward, as Colin Armitage, in Other Lives Productions’ How To Be Brave
Wonder-ful:Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny in Wonder Boy. Picture: Steve Tanner
WHAT was the last play to capture the forlorn yet defiantly hopeful schoolroom experience so expressively? Willy Russell’s musical Our Day Out, with its busload of bored teens, springs to mind; John Godber’s Teechers even more so, especially in its Leavers 22 revamp.
In a new class of its own is Ross Willis’s Wonder Boy, an exploration of the power of communication with the aid of creative captioning, wherein the electronic screen captures every last repeated letter of young Sonny’s “Stammer Horror” experience.
At the helm of Bristol Old Vic’s touring production is Sally Cookson, whose unforgettable National Theatre staging of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre lit up the Grand Opera House with such vitality, imagination and innovation in 2017 that it won that year’s Hutch Award for Stage Production of the Year in York.
What her reading of Wonder Boy shares with her Jane Eyre is its focus on a central character’s struggles in a world seemingly set against them, taking up residence inside the head of the outsider so completely that we feel we are in there too.
In this case, 12-year-old Sonny (Hilson Agbangbe) lives with a stammer that leaves him silent and sullen at school. Words, not ideas, hopes or flights of fancy, evade him except when in the company of his imaginary friend, the combative word warrior Captain Chatter (Ciaran O’Breen).
The omnipresent caption and video design, courtesy of Limbic Cinema’s Tom Newell, charts every uttering of Sonny, whether fluent when kept inside that troubled head or when in conversation with rebellious, trouble-magnet friend Roshi (Naia Elliott-Spence), report-obsessed new head teacher Miss Fish (Meg Matthews at Wednesday’s matinee/Jessica Murrain) or his Mum (Matthews/Murrain again) in flashback scenes that trace her downward spiral.
Sonny expresses himself in his comic-book drawings, but inevitably bullying will spoil that well of creativity and expression in this struggling, downtrodden secondary school.
When the insensitive Miss Fish decides to impose the role of the Guard in Hamlet on him in the school play, Sonny finds an ally in the shape of unconventional deputy head Wainwright (Eva Scott), Wonder Boy’s answer to Godber’s new drama teacher in Teechers, Geoff Nixon.
Wainwright likes Ryvita nibbles, paper planes and Star Wars models; Wainwright dislikes Miss Fish’s methods, manner and form-filling excesses. For all her love of teaching, she will be the next to join the stampede of exits stage left from the teaching profession.
Willis writes with an anger and vigour, a frustration too, to match former teacher Godber – and that of Sonny too, although the boy’s determination to deliver his lines brings tears to the eye.
Cookson’s witty and wise direction combines with Willis’s astute writing to bring out the playful, scabrous humour as much as the pathos in Wonder Boy, not least in not shying away from the frank, “very sweary” language that adds even more impact.
Agbangbe and Scott, in particular, are terrific, their scenes together being the most moving your reviewer has seen on a York stage this year. Top marks too for Katie Sykes’s set and costume design, Laila Diallo’s Kapow-style movement direction and Benji Bower’s incidental compositions.
Wonder Boy is wondrous theatre, a lesson to us all in the importance of listening and breaking down barriers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Olly Murs: First signing for next summer’s concerts at York Racecourse
THE Music & Racing calendar for 2025 is under starter’s orders at York Racecourse with chart-topper Olly Murs confirmed for June 28, a new race day for next summer.
Tickets go on sale at 9am this morning with the promise of “some attractive deals” at yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Acts are yet to be confirmed for the Music Showcase Weekend on July 25 (evening meeting) and July 26 (afternoon meeting). Keep checking the course’s website for further announcements.
James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship, says: “It is great news that Olly Murs, a performer who wowed the crowds on his previous visits here, will be performing for us. It will herald a month for music and racing fans to remember.”
Murs, who will perform following the Saturday race card, will complete his hat-trick of appearances at the Knavesmire track, having played there in 2010 – the year after he finished runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor – and 2017.
The 40-year-old Essex singer, songwriter, actor and television personality from Starstruck and The Voice UK has released seven albums and 25 singles, including the number ones Please Don’t Let Me Go, Heart Skips A Beat, Dance With Me Tonight and Troublemaker and Top Five hits Thinking Of Me, Dear Darlin, Wrapped Up and Up. He last breached the Top 40 in 2017 with Unpredictable, peaking at number 32 in a duet with Louisa Johnson.
On June 28, racing and music fans can take advantage of a price freeze on general admission. Entry to the main Grandstand and Paddock enclosure starts at £38 per person for a group of six, with no booking fees and free car parking.
On the track, the racing action will see seven thoroughbred contests with combined prize money of at least £275,000.
You can’t stop the beat: The Hairspray The Musical cast on Takis’s psychedelic stage
HAIRSPRAY opened on Monday, but press night was on Tuesday, when it was somewhat of a surprise to be presented with an extensive notice headed “For this performance the role of… will be played by”.
The list covered a full page of A4, eight roles in all, but the eye went straight to the disappointing absence of Yorkshire lead actor and Hull New Theatre pantomime favourite Neil Hurst, whose interview featured in The Press on Monday.
In his stead, understudy Stuart Hickey would be cross-dressing as Edna Turnblad, the no-nonsense laundry service, played on screen by Divine and John Travolta, no less. Hurst will be back from Thursday, we are told.
On a further Yorkshire note, your reviewer had hoped to see Alexandra Emmerson-Kirby in her professional debut as plucky daughter Tracy Turnblad after cutting her musical theatre teeth at the YMCA Theatre in Scarborough.
On tour, however, performances are being shared out with Katie Brice, and on Tuesday, it was Katie’s turn. What a feisty, fearless, funny performance she gave.
Still the feel-best of all the feel-good musicals, Hairspray will be playing to big houses all week, all the more so in half-term week when families are looking to fill the diary with not only Halloween parties and too many sweets.
Paul Kerryson and Brenda Edwards’s touring production last played the Grand Opera House in July 2018, and it returns looking even more kaleidoscopically colourful in Takis’s design for this black-and-white anti-segregation story.
Rooted in John Waters’ cult 1988 cinematic nostalgia spoof and the tongue-in-cheek panache of the 2007 Travolta-led movie remake, this fabulously flamboyant, highly humorous and exuberantly energetic spin-off Broadway musical is propelled by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman’s Sixties pastiche songs and Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan’s witty, anarchic book.
Takis delivers a deliciously gaudy set and costume design, as groovy as an Austin Powers movie, now complimented by George Reeve’s projections designs that bring a hi-tech sheen to evoking an early-Sixties retro vibe, whether depicting Baltimore streets, the TV studio for The Corny Collins Show, the Turnblad and Pingleton homes or a prison cell that echoes Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock movie.
Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, where teen rebel Tracy Turnblad (Brace/Emmerson-Kirby) vows to prove “fat girls can dance”, as she challenges the segregation policy that excludes her like and the black community from appearing in the TV talent contest introduced by the slick Corny Collins (cheeky charmer Declan Egan).
On one side of the divide are Tracy; outspoken, larger-than-life mum Edna Turnblad (Hickey/Hurst) and joke shop-owning doting dad Wilbur (Dermot Canavan), and geeky pocket-dynamo best friend Penny Pingleton (Nina Bell/Freya McMahon).
So too are hip-swivelling black pupil Seaweed J Stubbs (Shemar Jarrett/Reece Richards)) and the sage, savvy Motormouth Maybelle (Michelle Ndegwa).
On the other side are the aspiring pageant queen, spoilt brat Amber (Allana Taylor) and her bigoted mother, the TV show’s shrewish, bigoted producer, villainous Velma Von Tussle (Strictly Come Dancing alumna Joanne Clifton in the latest of multiple Grand Opera House musical appearances).
Torn between needy pin-up girl Amber and boundary-breaking Tracy is the TV show’s Elvis-lite pretty boy, Link Larkin (Solomon Davy).
Hickey’s Edna is very much a towering man in a dress, but equips her with the requisite twinkling eye, abundant love of family and well-timed putdowns for authority, and is at his best in the double act duet with Canavan’s ever-resourceful Wilbur, Timeless To Me. Mel Brooks would surely love it.
Beneath her bouffant beehive, Brace’s Tracy buzzes with enthusiasm for life and taking every opportunity; Davy’s Link carries a crooner’s tune and pink suit with equal aplomb, and Clifton’s humorously sour-faced Velma is full of vile style.
Soul and gospel singer Michelle Ndegwa is resplendent in her theatre debut as Motormouth Maybelle after working with the likes of Gorillaz, Gregory Porter and Leeds band Yard Act. Golden hair, golden dress, golden voice, she brings the house down in the stand-out I Know Where I’ve Been.
Exuberant dance numbers choreographed with oomph and pizzazz by Drew McOnie combine with fun, fabulous and forthright performances in a knockout show where “you can’t you stop the beat” but you can beat intolerance, bigotry and racism.
Hairspray, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Victoria Delaney, as Mrs Morland, and Tony Froud, as Mr Morland, in York Actors Collective’s Mary Rose. Picture: Clive Millard
YORK Actors Collective make their York Theatre Royal debut in the Studio with this week’s revival of J M Barrie’s haunted house drama Mary Rose, adapted and directed by Angie Millard.
Formed by a group of like-minded actors with the aim of producing entertaining and thought-provoking theatre, the company was launched in March 2023 with Joe Orton’s 1964 black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane, followed in February 2024 by the gritty improvisational piece Beyond Caring, Alexander Zeldin’s topical exposé of the social damage inflicted by zero hours contracts. Both were staged at Theatre@41 in York.
Now comes Mary Rose, a third Barrie drama to play York Theatre Royal in recent years after the 2022-2023 pantomime All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Northern Broadsides’ touring production of his Regency comedy Quality Street in May 2023.
In this one, an old Yorkshire manor house for sale – Sussex in the original – is haunted by the ghost of a young woman who once lived there.
Thirty-seven years earlier in 1913, a young girl, Mary Rose, went missing on an island in the Outer Hebrides while her father was out of sight. After a month, she mysteriously returns, unaware that she had been away and with no memory of the time she spent missing.
Chris Pomfrett’s Harry and Beryl Nairn’s Mrs Ottery in Mary Rose. Picture: Clive Millard
Then, as a young married woman in 1938, Mary Rose persuades her husband to take her back to the island, only to disappear again. She reappears 22 years later, but she has remained the same while her husband, parents and son have all aged.
Featured at number ten in Michael Billington’s August 2020 list of Forgotten Plays in the Guardian, Barrie’s “strange, sinister Hebridean ghost story about the intensity of mother-son relationships and the universal grief for loss” has long sparked Angie Millard’s intrigue.
“Barrie uses dimensions of time to great effect,” she says of a play that covers a period of 41 years, during which there were two World Wars and massive changes in British society.
“His treatment of love, loss and unwavering hope draws in an audience and gives it universality. I have adapted the script to appeal to modern thinking and offer a little more explanation than Barrie provided but his themes are intact. It remains a moving tribute to mother-love, loss and final reconciliation.”
The production run could not be better timed, coinciding with Halloween on October 31. “The strange and ghostly atmosphere of the play fits beautifully into the autumn slot, which includes Halloween and is a time for considering other worldliness,” says Angie.
Xandra Logan’s Mary Rose and Laurence O’Reilly’s husband Simon on their island picnic in Mary Rose
“I’ve wanted to direct Mary Rose for many years as it was a favourite of my mother’s, who saw it in Sheffield and thought it was a beautiful and charming story. I wanted York Actors Collective to produce something with a lot of theatrical effects, a contrast to what we have done before.
“I suggested this play with two or three other ideas to Juliet [Forster, York Theatre Royal’s creative director] and she settled on this one.”
Barrie’s supernatural play has been “severely adapted” by Angie. Why? “Because you can see the difference between Edwardian and modern-day audiences just by reading it,” she says. “I’ve changed it from three acts with two intervals to three scenes before the interval and two after, reducing the running time by about 20 minutes.
“I’ve also cut out one of the characters, Mr Morland’s friend. They would just talk about the value of art, and though it was supposed to be funny, it just didn’t work for a modern audience.”
Angie has capitalised on Halloween week, “but the ghost story is only one aspect of it,” she says. “It’s a story about mother-love, about [Mary Rose] having a child and losing that child, and how that feels when you deeply love the child. It’s all about loss, framed in a ghost story.
Mary Rose director Angie Millard, left, and stage manager Em Peattie
“In rehearsals, it’s been about exploring characters and the loss they feel. We’ve had crying in the rehearsal room, and I defy anyone to watch the last scene without a lump in their throat.”
Key to Angie’s decision to “offer a little more explanation” is her exploration of Mary Rose. “I’m trying to express her state of mind,” she says. “Mary Rose is clearly autistic, hiding in the apple tree as a child when the Morland family story opens in 1909. At 18, she could equally be taken for a child, talking about playing games.
“She’s too young for her age; her mother and father [Mr and Mrs Morland] recognise this, and in now having an actor in his 40s – rather than one in his 20s – as her husband, it works really well for having the bigger age discrepancy as it was a time when men married young women and no-one thought anything of it.”
You will note that Barrie’s Mary Rose mirrors Peter Pan in the theme of mothers and lost sons: Barrie grew up as a “lost boy”, neglected by his grieving mother after the death of his elder brother. Like Peter Pan too, the character of Mary Rose does not grow up.
“I’m also fascinated that Alfred wanted to do Mary Rose’s story as a film,” says Angie. “He could see the mileage in it, that strangeness typical of Hitchcock. “
Haunted: Beryl Nairn’s Mrs Ottery in York Actors Collective’s Mary Rose. Picture: Clive Millard
In Angie’s cast are Beryl Nairn as Mrs Ottery; Chris Pomfrett as Harry; Tony Froud as Mr Morland; Victoria Delaney as Mrs Morland; Clare Halliday as Molly; Xandra Logan as Mary Rose; Joy Warner as Cameron and Laurence O’Reilly, Angie’s poet son, as Simon, stepping into the role at three weeks’ notice.
York Actors Collective presents J M Barrie’s Mary Rose, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 30 to November 2, 7.45pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Did you know?
MARY Rose premiered in London at the Haymarket Theatre in April 1920, running until February 1921. Fay Compton played Mary Rose, a role written for her by Barrie. The play opened in New York on Broadway in December 1920, running at the Empire Theatre for four months with Ruth Chatterton as Mary Rose.
A 1972 production by Manchester’s 69 Theatre Company starred American actress Mia Farrow, transferring to London.
Alfred Hitchcock planned to turn the play into a film, with Tippi Hedren in the title role, but was thwarted by Universal Studios.
York RI Golden Rail Band members: Playing 40th anniversary concert at National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, on Friday
YORK RI Golden Rail Band, a brass band with its roots in York’s railway history, will mark its 40th anniversary with a special concert at the National Centre for Early Music on Friday (1/11/2024).
Based at the band room on Queen Street, next to York Station, the Golden Rail Band came into being in 1984, taking on the name of its sponsor at the time, British Rail’s Golden Rail, the operators of popular all-inclusive holidays by train to British resorts in the 1970s and ’80s from a base in York.
Before taking on the Golden Rail name, it was the training band for what is now York RI Band (previously York Railway Institute Band), also based at the Queen Street band room.
The parent band’s relationship with the railways goes back even further, to 1952, following a merger that saw Ebor Excelsior Silver Band and York City Band allied to York Railway Institute, as most members were railwaymen at the time.
After the arrangement with the British Rail package holidays company ended, Golden Rail Band retained the name and went on to take part in brass band contests under the baton of long-time conductor John Warley until 1994.
A number of different conductors succeeded him, not least Huntington schoolboy Jack Capstaff, who took on the role at only 16 years old in 2010, earning the title of Britain’s youngest brass band conductor.
Jack was succeeded by older brother Nicholas Eastwood, who had previously held the title when he began his conducting career aged 19 with Honley Band in Huddersfield.
Other former Golden Rail conductors include Peter Andrews, funeral director Kevin Moxon, the RI Band’s James Lolley and Iain Fell, now of Malton White Star Band, before trombonist Nicholas Eastwood took up the baton again as musical director in January 2022.
He embraced his return to brass bands with typical verve and enthusiasm, driven by an ambition for the band to aim higher and do more innovative programming, and in 2023 he was shortlisted for the Brass Bands England Conductor Award.
Nicholas has devised the programme for Golden Rail’s 40th anniversary concert, with tickets priced at £5 to make the experience accessible and affordable for all, on sale on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk.
“I’m looking forward to our anniversary concert, where we can not only celebrate the successes of the past but also look with pride at the band that has evolved, one that encourages grassroots performance, enthuses audiences, and innovates at a level above its stature,” he says. “This concert will do that, for sure!”
As well as marking the band’s railway roots and connections, Friday’s 7.30pm programme features an environmental-themed original story for brass band written by Nicholas, featuring vocalist Rachel Tuckett and narrated by York actor Paul Joe Osborne. Blackbird brings together a repertoire of popular music, including songs by Paul McCartney, Sia, Queen, Disney’s Hercules and The Cinematic Orchestra.
Reflecting on Golden Rail Band’s history, Nicholas says: “The band’s 40-year legacy is so rich and colourful. We have had so many players that have been through this phenomenal organisation and have gone on to the highest of musical accolades, including other areas of music like jazz, military and orchestral. It’s a privilege to have contributed to that vibrant history, both as a player and as musical director – twice!”
Many of York’s established brass musicians learned to play with Golden Rail, which enjoyed a thriving and sociable youth scene. Former band member Paul Stamp, who now plays with Championship Section Shepherd Brass Band in York, says: “I still have vivid memories of my first ever concert as a young player with the Golden Rail Band. I was around ten years old when I joined the band in 1987.
“It was at the Citadel on Gillygate. I remember pulling on the massive green Golden Rail concert jacket and green tie and walking into the band room before the concert. There must have been at least 20 people that told me I looked like a Teddy Boy! I had no idea what they were talking about.
“I sat on the third cornet seat next to my grandad Bill. I remember returning home and my dad asking my grandad how I did. He said I was great, but I needed to learn my sharps and flats. I’m still working on that!”
Paul retains a fondness for the now dilapidated band room, which is to be knocked down as part of the work connected with York Station Gateway.
“The band room is amazing,” he says. “Its history, intensity and aura are something many bands long for. You can’t buy that. The generations that have come through the Golden Rail Band and emerged as excellent players and friends to this day is quite astonishing.”
Sharon Greenfield joined in 1982 when in its training band days and was there for the transition to the Golden Rail Band name. “I was very much a part of that band family,” she says.
“There were a number of kids all of a similar age that grew up in this band together. We had a number of, dare I say, mature players that kept a good eye on us kids and I considered them my banding uncles. John Scarboro, Peter Duck, Billy Stamp, to name a few. I have some wonderful memories of my time with the band.
“As I grew older and my banding career went off in a different direction, I remember with much fondness my days with the Golden Rail Band. Even though my life took me to a different part of the county, I will never forget my roots and where my brass banding was nurtured.”
York RI Golden Rail Band will round off a year of celebrations by performing at three more iconic venues, playing Selby Abbey with Leeds Male Voice Choir on December 7, a service for the Lullaby Trust at York Minster on December 8 and the Community Carol Service at York Barbican on December 15.
Balancing act: M6 Theatre Company in Mike Kenny’s A Tiger’s Tale at Helmsley Arts Centre
A TIGER adventure and a boy with a stammer, two ghost stories and a pioneering DJ are in the spotlight in Charles Hutchinson’s entertainment tips for the week ahead.
Ryedale children’s show of the week: M6 Theatre Company, A Tiger’s Tale, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm
ROCHDALE company M6 Theatre presents York playwright Mike Kenny’s fantastical, riotous adventure A Tiger’s Tale, the extraordinary story of Fenella, the Holmfirth Tiger, in a high-spirited balancing act of circus, puppetry, live music and song.
From a circus train in South Africa, to a steamboat on the Atlantic Ocean and onward to West Yorkshire, the ramshackle travelling troupe of Titch, Ma and Pa relates the unbelievable true story of a family of acrobats and their adopted tiger cub. Suitable for ages four to 11. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Steve Tanner
Play of the week: Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday; evenings, 7.30pm, tonight and Friday; matinees, 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday
OLIVIER Award winner Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic’s touring production of Wonder Boy, Ross Willis’s exploration of the power of communication, told through the experiences of 12-year-old Sonny and his imaginary friend Captain Chatter.
Playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music combine in this innovative show that uses live creative captioning on stage throughout as Sonny, who lives with a stammer, must find a way to be heard in a world where language is power. When cast in a school production of Hamlet by the head teacher, he discovers the real heroes are closer than he thinks. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Victoria Delaney as Mrs Morland and Tony Froud as Mr Morland in York Actors Collective’s production of J M Barrie’s Mary Rose at York Theatre Royal Studio. Picture: Clive Millard
Theatre Royal debut of the week: York Actors Collective in Mary Rose, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight to Saturday, 7.45pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees
YORK Actors Collective make their York Theatre Royal debut with a revival of Peter Pan and Quality Street playwright J M Barrie’s Mary Rose, adapted and directed by Angie Millard.
“Barrie uses dimensions of time to great effect,” she says. “His treatment of love, loss and unwavering hope draws in an audience and gives it universality. I’ve adapted the script to appeal to modern thinking but his themes are intact. The strange and ghostly atmosphere fits beautifully into our autumn slot, which includes Halloween and is a time for considering other worldliness.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Helmsley company Clap Trap Theatre in the ghost story The Room Upstairs at Helmsley Arts Centre
Haunted drama for Halloween week: Clap Trap Theatre in The Room Upstairs, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
WHEN a young woman answers an advertisement for a trusted house-sitter, she arrives at a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere. It should be the perfect job but with one proviso. Please do not go into the room upstairs.
A mysterious cloaked figure narrates and commentates as two young people strive to unravel the long-held mystery of a haunted house in this new 55-minute black comedy by BAFTA-nominated television writer Tom Needham, performed by Cal Stockbridge, Florrie Stockbridge and Helmsley Arts Centre artistic director and Youth Theatre director Natasha Jones. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Skylights: York band headline York Barbican for the first time this weekend
York gig of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 7pm
ANTHEMIC York indie band Skylights play their biggest home-city gig to date this weekend with support from Serotones and Pennine Suite.
Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here. So to headline will be the perfect way to finish a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.” Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.
Rob Rouse: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement. Picture: Andy Hollingworth
Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, Rob Rouse, Peter Brush, Faizan Shan and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Saturday, 8pm
PEAK District comedian, television regular, Upstart Crow actor and self-help podcaster Rob Rouse, who trained as a geography teacher at the University of Sheffield, makes a rare York appearance with his hyperactive, loveable brand of comedy.
Harrogate Comedian of the Year 2012 Peter Brush combines a slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair with quirky one-liners and original material, delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Manchester comic Faizan Shah’s material makes light of growing up in an immigrant household with the mental health challenges it brings. Organiser Damion Larkin hosts as ever. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.
Andy Kershaw: “Two-hour explosion of irresistible tropical dance music” at Milton Rooms, Malton
Declaring war on musical mediocrity: Andy Kershaw’s African, Caribbean & Latin Dance Night, Milton Rooms, Malton, November 8, 8pm
ANDY Kershaw, DJ pioneer, evangelist and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter, has brought global music to British audiences over more than three decades of programmes on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 3. His obsession with finding new music has resulted in a 7.5 ton record collection garnered from visits to 97 countries in pursuit of new and exciting sounds.
His one-man war on musical mediocrity promises a two-hour explosion of irresistible tropical dance music. Folk-infused York buskers and party, pub and festival covers’ band Hyde Family Jam support. Box office: 01653 692240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Rag’n’Bone Man: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
Gig announcements of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, July 6, and Rag’n’Bone Man, July 11 2025
“I THINK I’ve got the best reggae band in the world,” says UB40 legend Ali Campbell, who last played Scarborough OAT in 2021. “They are all seasoned musicians, who have spent all their lives in professional bands, and I feel so confident with them.” Support acts will be Bitty McLean and Pato Banton.
Triple BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winner Rag’n’Bone Man, alias Rory Graham, will follow up his 2023 Scarborough OAT show with a return next summer in the wake of his third album, What Do You Believe In? entering the charts at number three last Friday. His special guest will be Elles Bailey. Tickets for both shows go on sale at 9am on Friday at ticketmaster.co.uk.
OLIVIER Award winner Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic’s production of Wonder Boy, Ross Willis’s exploration of the power of communication, on tour at York Theatre Royal from tonight to Saturday.
Playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music combine in this innovative show that uses live creative captioning on stage throughout as 12-year-old Sonny, who lives with a stammer, must find a way to be heard in a world where language is power, with the aid of his imaginary friend Captain Chatter.
When cast in a school production of Hamlet by the head teacher, Sonny discovers the real heroes are closer than he thinks.
Here Sally discusses the wonders of Wonder Boy.
How did your production of Wonder Boy come to fruition?
“I was invited to a new writing festival at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School pre-pandemic in which Ross Willis’s play was presented. It jumped out at me as a piece of unique writing, and I was attracted to the way Ross combined an absurd world with the very real. It made me laugh and cry.
“I contacted him and went to see his production of Wolfie at Theatre 503 [in Battersea, London], which I loved. Tom Morris [the then artistic director of Bristol Old Vic] agreed to programme Wonder Boy the following year at Bristol Old Vic but that got postponed because of Covid.
“Ross and I got to know each other during the pandemic via delightful phone calls where we’d just talk about anything and everything. Chatting with Ross is like being in one of his plays. Wonder Boy finally got performed in 2022, a couple of years later than intended, but by which time we’d had a chance to dream up ideas together about the show.
Hilson Agbangbe as Sonny in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy. Picture: Steve Tanner
In the play, Ross Willis writes movingly about the frustrations that can come with having a stammer. How did you bring that into the structure of the show?
“This is at the heart of the piece. Ross calls it the great inner operatic pain that comes not being able to be seen or express yourself. It was essential that we found a way of bringing all elements of the production together to illustrate and highlight Sonny’s plight.
“Music is especially important in helping with this and Benji Bower’s composition manages to get right inside the character’s head. But casting an actor who is able to portray the character’s trauma is key.
“Understanding what causes Sonny to behave in the way he does and identify every moment of his thought process is vital. Some of Sonny’s darkest moments happen when there is no text, so being able to identify how his pain manifests physically is important too.
“Ross has written it into the structure of the show, those big absurd moments when Shakespeare comes to life to torment Sonny or when vowels and letters attack him are all moments that tap into his inner operatic pain.”
How is creative captioning used in the show?
“The play is about what happens when a person communicates differently and the challenges they face when fluent speech is the expected societal norm. It felt entirely natural to include creative captions as part of the overall design of the show to tap into the major theme of communication.
“Creative captioning involves incorporating the entire text into the world of the play. We don’t just display the words on a small digital strip positioned either to the left or right of the stage; we ensure that all the words spoken are visually central to the piece.
Designed by Tom Newell, the creative captions provide another creative layer and are not only an access tool for deaf, deafened or hard of hearing people but an important part of the imaginative world created in the play.”
Hilson Agbangbe’s Sonny with his imaginary friend, Ciaran O’Breen’s Captain Chatter. Picture: Steve Tanner
Wonder Boy deals with mental health issues, such as suicide. Can theatre do that particularly well?
“My experience is that theatre is a wonderful place to interrogate the stuff that frightens us as humans. And to ask those questions safely in a rehearsal room, and to share that with an audience is what theatre does best.
“In Wonder Boy the protagonist Sonny experiences complicated feelings of guilt, shame, grief and anger as a result of his mother’s death by suicide. A lot of plays written for young people shy away from themes such as this, but Ross approaches the subject with honesty and integrity. He understands what young people endure and gives voice to their suffering in an imaginative way.
“Theatre is a space to gather together to explore human behaviour, and hopefully come away with a bit more understanding of why we do the things we do.”
Wonder Boy is a play for young people – and very “sweary” too. Discuss…
“Oh, we had so many discussions about the ‘sweariness’. It has taken us around and about and back to where we started, which is why we’ve changed very little of it. Ross is quite right – most young people swear a lot. It has become part of the way they communicate.
Some adults get quite upset about the amount of swearing in the show; no young people do. And the play really is for teenagers. Getting teenagers into the theatre is very difficult, and I think Ross has absolutely found a way of engaging them – by telling a beautiful and important story and using an extreme version of the language they identify with.
A scene from Bristol Old Vic’s touring production of Wonder Boy
This show illustrates the impact of art, and theatre in particular, on young people, especially those who experiencing difficulties. Are you passionate about this?
“Yes. That’s what helped me. I hated school. I was really miserable. And my mum sent me to the local youth theatre. That’s where my journey into the arts started. And it’s where I suddenly felt valued, and where I had a voice, so I feel very strongly about it.
And now more than ever – with a curriculum starved of the arts (hopefully this will soon change) – theatre is essential in engaging young people’s imaginations and allowing them space to dream and think big.”
What can theatre give to a young person who is struggling to be heard or to find a voice?
“So many things. It’s not just about encouraging young people to work in the arts. By joining a youth theatre, being part of an audience regularly, partaking in drama, it can make you feel more connected, less alone.
“It can inspire your imagination, make you think bigger, think differently; it can encourage empathy by helping you understand why other people behave like they do. It can tap into your own artistic talents, and help you find things out about yourself that you never knew you had. It can also just be a good laugh. The list is endless.”
Bristol Old Vic presents Wonder Boy, York Theatre Royal, tonight until Saturday; evenings, 7.30pm, tonight, tomorrow and Friday; matinees, 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 / yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Flashback
Nadia Clifford as Jane Eyre in the National Theatre’s Jane Eyre, directed by Sally Cookson
IN the 2017 Hutch Awards, Sally Cookson’s National Theatre staging of Jane Eyre, performed on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, won Stage Production of the Year in York made outside York.
“YOU will not see a better theatre show in York this year, and you won’t have seen a better theatre show in York since The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time”. So The York Press review stated in May that year.
How true that proved to be. Cookson’s devised production of vivid, vital imagination brought Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre back to Yorkshire with breathtaking results.
