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March 31, 2022March 31, 2022

Who are the 30 new artists and makers in York Open Studios? Meet six more here

*York Minster, by Duncan Lomax,, at Holgate Gallery*

YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.

More than 150 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”, from 10am to 5pm on April 2,3, 9 and 10, preceded by a 6pm to 9pm preview on April 1.

As ever, the range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating and who will be opening up early for the preview.

CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that continues today with Toni Mayner; Kimbal Bumstead; Duncan Lomax; Moira Craig; Jo Rodwell and John Hollington.

*Toni Mayner: Jewellery inspired by histories, love and loss*

Toni Mayner, jewellery, The Cottage, 2 Love Lane, The Mount, York

USING traditional goldsmithing skills and precious stones and materials, Toni makes thematically based one-off narrative pieces and small collections of jewellery inspired by histories, love and loss.

After achieving her Masters in jewellery and silversmithing in 2007, from 2010 to 2020 she lectured at the Institute of Jewellery, Fashion and Textiles, Birmingham City University.

Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and China, including performance, installation and narrative jewellery practice. Returning to her roots as a maker, Toni relocated to York in 2021 to establish a business making wearable collections and commissioned pieces in her garden studio.

*Kimbal Bumstead: “My paintings aren’t just experiments in colour”*

Kimbal Bumstead, painting, The Mount School, Dalton Terrace, York

KIMBAL specialises in vibrant abstract paintings that capture traces of journeys into imaginary worlds. His distinctive style uses translucent layers of oil paint and varnish to create sensory-rich and absorbing compositions.

Kimbal’s painting practice stems from his background in participatory performance art and his fascination with maps. “It’s really thrilling to be an artist,” he says. “My job is to bring things into existence that weren’t there before, and I use colour and mark-making to get there. But there are other aspects too. My paintings aren’t just experiments in colour, nor are they just expressions of feelings, they are also explorations of journeys into other worlds.”

Originally from London, Kimbal studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds and has held solo exhibitions at Aeon Gallery in London, de Stoker in Amsterdam and BasementArtsProject in Leeds.

New to York, where he teaches abstract art classes with York Learning, he is also exhibiting with Simon Crawford in According To McGee’s first Return Of The Painter 2022 show in Tower Street until April 4.

*Duncan Lomax: “Much more than photography”*

Duncan Lomax, photography, Holgate Gallery, 53 Holgate Road, York

DUNCAN is an experienced commercial photographer, running Ravage Productions to serve a wide range of businesses, as well as being the official photographer for York Minster.

Alongside this, he produces creative work to his own brief, work that is often “much more than just photography”

“As well as ‘traditional’ photography, I utilise in-camera multiple exposures, long exposures and other creative techniques to push the perception of what a photograph can be,” he says. “I also use multi-media techniques to create unique prints with individually applied embellishments.”

Duncan has been conducting a spring clean at Holgate Gallery before reopening for tomorrow evening’s preview from 6pm to 9pm. For the duration of the Open Studios event, the gallery will be showing work solely by owner Duncan, who opened the premises in September 2020.

*Moira Craig: “Vibrant memories of summer”*

Moira Craig, printmaking, 51 Otterwood Lane, York

PRINTMAKER Moira has come to her creative practice after a career in a range of care settings. “My passion for creativity really took flight on the day after my retirement when I visited York Open Studios,” she says.

Drawing on her long experience of working in textile techniques, she experimented in her garden during lockdown, resulting in her alchemy of flowers, leaves and dyeing techniques in contemporary botanical pieces that blend traditional flowers into impressionistic compositions to create vibrant memories of summer.

*Jo Rodwell: “Loves the bright, bold colours of nature”*

Jo Rodwell, mixed media, 42 Dikelands Lane, Upper Poppleton, York

JO applies a variety of materials and media to explore how colours and layers interact with each other, depicting light and shadow, and how translucency and opacity affect this.

“Focusing on creating figurative art inspired by people, places and experiences, I uses painting and printing trying to capture the essence of a moment,” she says.

“I love the bright, bold colours of nature and incorporate these in my art to create vibrant and exciting images, in the hope it triggers a moment of reflection for the viewer, evoking an emotion and enabling a connection with the subject.”

*Jo Rodwell: “Exploring how colours and layers interact with each other”*

John Hollington, wood, 68 Ouse Lea, Shipton Road, Clifton, York

JOHN changed career from draughtsman to York St John product design student…and then designer-maker in 2015.

Inspired by a lifelong love of 20th century art and architecture, he creates beautiful pieces with a modernist, geometric aesthetic for home, garden, birds and bees.

*John Hollington: “Modernist, geometric aesthetic for home, garden, birds and bees”*

Crafted from oak or cedar – oiled and left natural or blackened to highlight the grain – they sell in gallery shops at The Hepworth, Wakefield, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park and elsewhere.

John has received awards from Northern Design Festival, been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize in York and was selected by TOAST for their New Makers 2020 programme.

John runs the award-winning John Hollington Studio, designing lighting as well as garden objects.

In focus tomorrow: Andrew Wrigley, painting; Helen Wrigley, painting; Ni Studios, mixed media; Laetitia Newcombe, sculptural ceramics; John Cutting, sculpture; Matilde Tomat, mixed media; Shannon Vertigan, mixed media.

March 31, 2022March 31, 2022

Sean Jones heads back to York as scally Mickey in his ‘last ever’ Blood Brothers tour

Brothers in arms: *Sean Jones as scally Mickey*, left, and *Joel Benedict as scholarly Eddie in Blood Brothers*, on tour at the Grand *Opera House, York, next week*

AT 51, Sean Jones is still “running around in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” playing Liverpool lad Mickey in Willy Russell’s heartbreaking musical Blood Brothers into a 23^rd year.

“It would definitely be me, Yul Brynner and Topol in the top three,” says the Welsh actor, in recognition of their long service to Blood Brothers, The King And I and Fiddler On The Roof respectively, although Sean has not kept a record of the exact number of performances he has chalked up.

Next week, on his return to impresario Bill Kenwright and Bob Tomson’s touring production for a run from January to late-October, Sean will be taking his Mickey back to the Grand Opera House in York.

Musicals were not his first love, but maybe this was destiny. “I’d had had a string of auditions for musicals off my agent but was getting very disconcerted as I’d trained to be an actor, not a singer and dancer, and then he said again, ‘I’ve got you an audition…for a musical.”

However, this time it was different. “It was the chance to be cover for Mickey in Blood Brothers, which has always been my dream role.

“It’s the most prepared I’ve ever been for an audition! Thankfully I got the gig as understudy on tour, and I remember we came to York on that first tour in 1999.”

He had trodden the boards in York previously. “On my first time there, I did [Agatha Christie’s] A Murder Is Announced with Richard Todd in 1993 in my first job after drama college, with Bill Kenwright as producer, and I remember thinking, ‘that might give me an inroad to Blood Brothers’!”

Sean would subsequently become embedded in Russell’s musical, even meeting his wife, actress Tracy Spencer, though the show. “Tracy played Mrs Lyons. We got married in 2004 on a two-show day when we were at the Cardiff New Theatre,” he says.

Sean Jones in his 2022 return to Blood Brothers as Mickey, with Niki Evans as Mrs Johnstone

“We got married in the morning, did the matinee, took the cast out for a drink, then did the evening performance.

“Blood Brothers is absolutely ingrained in me. When Tracy fell pregnant with Eleanor, after three months, we decided we would go out on tour for four years in the show!”

In Russell’s fateful musical, when young mother Mrs Johnstone is deserted by her husband, she is left to her own devices to provide for seven hungry children, taking a job as a housekeeper to make ends meet.

Whereupon her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers herself to be pregnant yet again, this time with twins. In a moment of desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer, leading to Mickey and Eddie being separated at birth, growing up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.

“It’s such a journey that Mickey goes on and such a great role for an actor to get his teeth into, with all the high comedy that Willy Russell has written that requires plenty of skill, and then the final hour that takes the audience to some really dark places, with the last few scenes being so harrowing.”

Sean’s career has taken in stage roles in pantomime, Macbeth and Jacqueline’s Wilson’s world premiere of Wave Me Goodbye and television appearances in Emmerdale, The Royal Today and Hollyoaks, but he keeps returning to Blood Brothers, never tiring of playing Mickey from the age of seven, through his teens and into his troubled adult life.

Out of the past 22 years, only eight have not been spent stretching that trademark baggy jumper over his knees. “It’s one of those things, whatever job anyone has, there’s a certain amount of repetition, whether working in a bank or a shop. Same job, different ****! With Blood Brothers, same job, same lines, but the audience keeps you fresh,” he says.

“Each audience comes with a different challenge each show, and you find yourself becoming a bit of a scientist, thinking, ‘who we’ve got in today; what do they want; what do they need?’. You pay attention to that, and that’s why it will always be fresh.

*Sean Jones, as Mickey, and Marti Webb, as Mrs Johnstone at the Grand Opera House, York in 2008*

“On top of that, Mickey is such a phenomenal role that I’m still finding new things in it after all these years.”

Playing Mickey for more than two decades, Sean has found his performance evolving over that time. “When you’re using techniques in order to get yourself into the zone for those last 30 minutes, the more you can draw on your own emotional memories, because all you are as an older person is a young person with more despair.”

Sean left the show for three years after his parents became poorly. “I needed to be there, with them,” he says. “But I always felt there might be a chance to come back.”

When Bill Kenwright asked him to reprise his Mickey once more, he said yes. “It’s like, go find me a better musical theatre role than Mickey,” says Sean. “There’s a plethora of great roles in musical theatre but none that goes on the journey that Mickey does. It’s brilliant storytelling theatre with so much comedy and then absolute heartbreak.”

The tour publicity states this will be Sean’s “final ever tour of the show”, but will it? “I’m happy to carry on doing it as long as Bill Kenwright is happy for me to get away with doing it!” he says.

“I appear to still have the same energy, hitting all the right notes in the right order, and as long as that keeps happening, I’m happy to keep going, but all I want to do is to keep on being a jobbing actor. That term shouldn’t be a slur. It’s about doing a job I love, whether in Blood Brothers, or in a small play at Theatre Clwyd, though I’d also love to do more screen work.”

Blood Brothers runs at Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

*Sean Jones’s Mickey and Maureen Nolan’s Mrs Johnstone at the Grand Opera House, York in 2013*

March 31, 2022April 7, 2022

After ten years Niki Evans says yes to returning as Mrs Johnstone, the Blood Brothers role she turned down four times

*Niki Evans’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in the 2022 tour of Blood Brothers, running at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9*. *Picture: Jack Merriman*

NIKI Evans will be returning to the Grand Opera House as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers from Tuesday, but there is one place nearby in York that she will be avoiding.

“One time I was in York, they took me to the York Dungeon on my own and I’ve never screamed so loud,” she recalls. “I don’t know how I managed to do the show that night, I screamed so much. I won’t be going back to the Dungeon but York is a beautiful city.”

2007 X Factor semi-finalist Niki last played Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s Liverpudlian musical in 2012, having first done so in 2008, visiting York in May 2011. “Returning to it was scary at first,” she says. “The first time I did it, I’d never done a musical or been a part of the theatre world so when [producer] Bill Kenwright called me I think I turned it down four times.

“I was like ‘No, you’re OK!’ but he persuaded me to audition, and my audition was terrible. But he saw something in me and within a week I was on stage in the Phoenix Theatre [in London]. It was such a whirlwind. Since then, I’ve done lots of other roles, mainly funny ones, so to come back to such a dramatic role is very scary but it’s like a dream come true. They’d asked me to come back before but I had to be ready, and now I am.”

Blood Brothers revolves around Mickey and Edward, twins separated at birth by their mother Mrs Johnstone, who then grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.

What makes Mrs J such an iconic musical theatre role, Niki? “It’s because of her strength and the emotions you have to go through when you’re on stage,” she says. “She starts as a young girl in her 20s, then within 20 minutes she’s got seven kids and has to give one away. It’s a big part and it’s a big part for a woman, which is rare at my age [Niki is 49].

“My window is tiny to get a part where you’re on for more than ten minutes. She’s a strong female lead and she’s so real. Every mother in this country can relate to her on some level because of how real she is.

“Every mother must see something in Mrs Johnstone that they’ve also gone through. I know I can. I’ve got two sons, so her Mickey and Eddie are my Morgan and Jonah. My kids have had troubles, I’ve had troubles, and the way I look at it is: I don’t have to play her, I just have to be her.”

Niki is still discovering new things about Mrs Johnstone in her latest interpretation of the role, ten years on. “She’s not such a feisty tiger as I thought when I first did the show. They used to call me ‘the Feisty Tiger Mrs Johnstone’. I come from a family of four; we grew up on a council estate; we had no money; I used to go to school in jelly shoes, even in November, and my mum was a tough cookie,” she says.

“You didn’t mess with her and that’s how I thought Mrs J was, or at least that she was how I was, like, ‘Don’t mess with my kids or I’ll come at you with a baseball bat’. But now I’m older, I’ve mellowed. I’ll be 50 this year and I’m not so bouncy as I was ten years ago, so my take on her is much more grounded. She’s stronger without being quite so feisty.”

Blood Brothers is such an emotional rollercoaster for Niki and audience alike. “There are a couple of parts in the show, without giving spoilers, where it rips me to shreds,” she reveals. “I do it as though someone is about to take one of my children and I can’t hold back. I have to feel it every time I do it.”

Aside from Blood Brothers, Niki has appeared in musicals in the West End and on tour, such as Kinky Boots and Shout. “There’s been loads and I’ve loved every character I’ve played, but if I had to pick one it would be Paulette in Legally Blonde,” she says.

*Niki Evans in a past production of Blood Brothers*

“To go from playing Mrs Johnstone to Paulette in just two weeks was brilliant because it was such a contrast. I’ve never laughed and smiled so much as I have when doing the bend and snap. It was the first time I realised I could make people laugh as well as cry.”

Busy, busy, busy, but when Covid lockdowns left theatres closed, Niki took a job outside that familiar world. “I worked in a factory packing boxes for Amazon because I didn’t want to lose my house. I’m a working mum and I have to pay bills,” she says.

Post-lockdown, she appeared in Girls Just Wanna Have Funon tour and played Mimi the Magical Mermaid in Peter Pan, the Wycombe Swan Theatre’s pantomime, before going straight into Blood Brothers after only two days off.

“The first time I got back on stage, I was petrified because I hadn’t done it for two years and had to open myself up again to people watching me. All your insecurities come back and you’re like, ‘Am I good enough? Can I still do this?’, but the feedback from the audience, the love and the warmth – I can’t tell you what it means and how it feels.”

The return of live theatre felt “just amazing” to Niki. “People told me, ‘This is just what we needed’ and recently I was talking with a bunch of students in a theatre cafe who saw Blood Brothers and loved it. That enthusiasm is something you can’t buy.

“To have young people go, ‘You were so real, we were so engrossed’ is priceless. To know that you’re not just reaching older people, but young kids as well makes me so emotional. “What’s also interesting to me is how men in the audience react to Blood Brothers.

“When I look out into the auditorium, it’s the men who have their heads down because they can’t watch. It’s always the men who say, ‘I don’t like musicals, she’s dragged me along, but oh my God, I’m coming back to see this again’.”

Singing was Niki’s passion as soon as she could open her mouth, going on to finish in the top four in the 2007 series of The X Factor and to perform at Her Majesty The Queen’s 90^th birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle.

“Singing is like breathing to me, it’s so natural for me to do, but the actual performing scares the pants off me,” she says. “I was always happy as a backing singer or in the studio where nobody is looking at me. I know that sounds really weird, but when I’m out there I have to forget there’s people watching because it’s terrifying.”

The X Factor changed Niki’s life “completely. “It’s given me a career I didn’t think I was capable of, although it did eventually break up my marriage because I was never there,” she says.

“My life since X Factor couldn’t be more different. My kids didn’t even know I sang because I’d given it up. So much has happened in the past 15 years career-wise and I’ve got a partner and I’m getting married soon, which is very exciting!”

Blood Brothers returns to Grand Opera House, York, from April 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

March 31, 2022April 1, 2022

Shakespeare In Love’s celebration of the world of theatre moves from screen to stage in Pick Me Up Theatre’s hands

*Pen pals:* *George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare and Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola de Lesseps in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Shakespeare In Love. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography*

YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre mark their tenth anniversary with a rollicking celebration of the joys of theatre, Shakespeare In Love.

Adapted for the stage by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall from Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman’s screenplay for the Oscar-winning 1999 film, the Elizabethan love story will be performed under the direction of Bard buff Mark Hird at Theatre@ 41, Monkgate, from tomorrow (1/4/2022) to April 9.

First staged by Sonia Friedman Productions in the West End with Cheek By Jowl’s Declan Donnellan in the director’s chair in 2014, Hall’s play was snapped up for its York premiere by Pick Me Up’s ever-alert founder, artistic director, designer and producer, Robert Readman (who will be making a rare appearance as actor Ned Alleyn).

“When Robert got the rights, I read it, and straightaway I thought, ‘my god, it’s brilliant’, with Stoppard and Norman as the starting point for the fantastic script, and Lee Hall then transforming it into a great piece of theatre,” says director Mark Hird.

“Anyone who thinks this Shakespeare In Love will be just the film on stage, it’s absolutely not. It’s so theatrical, and that makes it such a joy to put on. That’s what so special about it: it’s a love letter to theatre as well as being a great love story.

*Where there’s a quill, there’s a way: George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare at work*

“Anyone who comes to the play who loves theatre will leave with a great big smile on their face at all the theatrical allusions. Lee Hall has put even more theatre aficionado jokes in there.”

Shakespeare In Love delights in the love story of struggling young playwright Will Shakespeare (played by George Stagnell) and feisty, free-spirited young noblewoman Viola de Lesseps (Sanna Jeppsson), his greatest admirer, who helps him to overcome writer’s block and becomes his muse.

She will stop at nothing, even breaking the law and dressing as a boy actor to appear in his next play, whereupon, in this turbulent world of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms, inspiring him to write his breakthrough romantic drama, Romeo and Juliet.

“Basically, you have Will Shakespeare right back in the early days of his career, having done Titus Andronicus, Two Gentlemen Of Verona and Henry VI, but he’s not yet had a big hit,” says Mark.

“All Marlowe’s plays are being bigger hits at the time, and in fact there’s a lot more of Kit Marlowe in the play than there was in the film,” says George.

*“The play what I wrote”: George Stagnell’s Will shows his latest work to Sanna Jeppsson ‘s Viola*

“But the love story is still at the heart of the play, and it’s as beautiful on stage as it was in the film, but there’s now a lot more changes of energy, moving back and forth from the chaotic rehearsals, and all the fun that goes with that, interspersed with the love story,” says Mark.

Sanna first saw the film on Swedish TV with Swedish subtitles before moving to Britain and has watched it again since landing her role as the ground-breaking Viola. “She’s a very brave woman, doing something that was forbidden at the time; something she wouldn’t be allowed to do, being in a space she wouldn’t have had access to as herself, having to take the guise of a boy actor, Thomas Kent,” she says.

“Being on stage, feeling so alive for the first time, I can connect with that. I remember going on a backstage tour of Mamma Mia!, and then getting to go out on to this amazing stage and looking at all those seats, and wanting to be on there performing.

“That’s what I bring with me when Viola comes on as Thomas Kent, knowing she shouldn’t be there, and normally could only imagine the audience looking at her.”

“I always like to go on stage before a show, when the auditorium is empty,” says George. “When it’s quiet and no-one’s there, you take the space in and imagine how it will erupt with life. It’s like the calm before the storm.”

Mark adds: “There’s something about an empty theatre: you can feel the presence of the ghosts of all those who have been there before.”

Sanna rejoins: “A theatre is a space where anything can happen, that moment of magic and then it’s gone.”

*George Stagnell’s Will and Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola in disguise as young actor Thomas Kent*

George has focused on playing young Will Shakespeare, not the feted Bard. “Pretty much since day one, I’ve had to come in not thinking ‘this is William Shakespeare’,” he says. “I don’t want to have that mentality of thinking about who he became, but to see him as this young man trying to find his way through a very complicated time in history, in the early days of his writing, when there was a lot of history that we don’t know and a lot of conjecture.”

Mark concurs: “That’s what’s so gorgeous about this piece. We all think we know about Shakespeare, but here we are watching a three-dimensional character called Will.”

Sanna had studied Shakespeare “a little bit at school, but not in its original language”, when growing up in Molkom, but when she lived out her long-held dream of moving to London in 2013, she attended the International College of Musical Theatre, rather than focusing on classical theatre.

“Almost every other person in London is an actor, which makes it hard there, and so I moved to York in 2019, where I now work as a civil servant for the Ministry of Justice, sitting on in trials sometimes.”

From courtroom dramas, Sanna’s attention now switches to courtship dramas on stage.

Pick Me Up Theatre in Shakespeare In Love, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, April 1 to 9, 7.30pm, except April 3 and 4; 2.30pm, April 2, 3 and 9 . Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

March 30, 2022March 31, 2022

REVIEW: Peter James’s Looking Good Dead, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ***

And your point is? *Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett’s Tom and Kellie Bryce beg to differ in Looking Good Dead*

TWO selling points mark out Looking Good Dead.

Firstly, it is the latest in the production line of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace cases to be transferred from page to stage, adapted from Peter James’s stack of best-selling crime thrillers by Shaun McKenna.

Secondly, Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett reprise their brand of marital bickering patented in the guise of Ian and Jane Beale in the aerated London soap wars of EastEnders.

Brett has joined Jonathan O’Boyle’s company for the tour’s second leg, taking over from Gaynor Faye, and her partnership with Woodyatt is marked by a fractious telepathy that only comes with years of performing together.

Brett is not the only new ingredient. After the press night, in a brief chat before he headed off to Mad Alice’s Bloody Tour of York, cast member Leon Stewart revealed the ending had been changed to make it less easy for amateur Roy Graces to detect.

Brett’s Kellie Bryce is hiding her supposedly dormant drink habit from her pre-occupied husband (Woodyatt’s Tom), sipping vodka from her water bottle when he is not around. She is forever cleaning the smartly decorated house, when not buying dresses and expensive foodstuffs.

Woodyatt’s Tom is a businessman, but a weary and brassic, greying and grizzled one after over-stretching himself, mortgaged to the hilt, and now he is in need of a fast financial fix.

Tom had arrived home with a USB memory stick left on a train, saying he wanted to contact whoever had left it behind. Smartass student son Max (Luke Ward Wilkinson) is a tech wiz, but when he helps his dad to download the contents, they inadvertently witness a murder (Natalie Boakye’s Janie), enacted on a mezzanine level on Michael Holt’s slick set.

Don’t contact the police or tell your mum, says Tom, but that would rule out Roy Grace, wouldn’t it, and no Grace, no crime thriller. Ah, here he comes, on the design’s third piece in its jigsaw that slides in from the side to denote a slither of a police station. Harry Long’s matter-of-fact Grace is working in tandem with Leon Stewart’s Glenn Branson, his junior who loves a pun-laden joke.

Looking Good Dead moves at a cracking pace, with plenty of humour, some of it deeply cheesy, some of it rooted in the ebb and flow of family squabbles, but all the while James’s story is piling up twists and turns, intrigues and surprising revelations, weaving in new characters, such as Ian Houghton’s wealthy, smooth-talking American, Jonas Kent.

Didn’t-see-that-coming surprises prevail over suspense in script and direction alike, each conducted with a gleeful flourish that contrasts with the steady-eddie investigations of Long’s Grace in a story that takes in snuff movies, dung beetles, Wagyu steaks, even a modicum of social comment.

Looking Good Dead is fun, corny and self-aware, and if Woodyatt and Brett’s sparring in EastEnders left you cold, here comes their comic relief, unexpected but surprisingly enjoyable.

Looking Good Dead, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight, Thursday and Friday; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York

Review by Charles Hutchinson

March 30, 2022March 31, 2022

Darren has a grey Day as he plays the fun-banning Reverend in Footloose The Musical

*Grey hair, goatee beard: The new look for Darren Day as Reverend Moore in Footloose The Musical*

DOYEN of the musicals Darren Day’s debut at York Theatre Royal is an act of faith: he is playing Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose The Musical until Saturday.

“I really feel this is transitional role for me,” says Darren, who has 29 years in musicals behind him at the age of 53. “I had breakfast last Thursday with Robbie Williams’s dad, [pub and club cabaret comedian and singer] Pete Conway, who came to see the show in Stoke, and he was saying exactly that.

“I’ve let the grey come through in my hair and I’ve grown a goatee beard for the role. Funnily enough, I was told I was too young for such roles when I went to see the producers of Footloose and Chicago within about three months of each other 12 years ago.

“I was thinking, ‘I’d love to play Reverend Moore and lawyer Billy Flynn’, but both producers said ‘not yet’, and they’ve both been on my bucket list of roles I’ve desperately wanted to play ever since, and now I’ve got the opportunity to play them both in one year, it’s incredibly exciting for me.”

Chicago was a joy for Darren and now he is settling into Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose, the show based on the 1984 film, the one with such hits as Holding Out For A Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title track, wherein American teenage city boy Ren McCormack is forced to move from Chicago to the rural backwater of Bomont after his father deserts him.

Things go from bad to worse when Ren finds out that dancing and rock music are banned there, but taking matters into his own hands, he soon has all hell breaking loose and the whole town on its feet.

“I’m so happy to be playing the Reverend,” says Darren. “I’m 53 now, I’ve been doing musical theatre for 29 years, so I’d always be grateful to playing these iconic roles, but on the back of Covid closing down theatres, I’m even more grateful. Being offered two six-month contracts at 53, I walk into the theatre everyday feeling so lucky.”

He is not alone, he says: “There’s gratitude with all of us in the company, a new-found gratitude for being able to perform again. Having done six months of Chicago and a few weeks of Footloose, it feels like how it must felt after the war, when people had been deprived of socialising and live entertainment.

“On the first night of Chicago, when the band struck up, the cheer that went up was like nothing I’d heard before. There’s a different feel now to performances, a sense of magic coming from the audience, as not that long ago none of us knew when life would be going back to some form of normality.”

Darren believes Racky Plews’s Footloose show is particularly special. “Even if you have seen it before, you will want to see it again, and this new version will blow you away. It’s been reworked with a new set, new costumes. The lot,” he says.

*The tour poster for Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose The Musical featuring a new set, new costumes…and a new-look Darren Day*

“Racky has brought an edgy and exciting new take on the show. She’s been working closely with the writer of the original movie and songs, Dean Pitchford, and his input into this new production has been invaluable.”

Darren can draw on his own experiences to play the Reverend, whose daughter, Ariel, wants to break away: “Having a teenage daughter myself in real life, I have a lot of ‘method’ experience I can call on. It’s tough letting your ‘little princess’ out into the big bad world!” he says.

“She’s 15, she’s going out with boys now and wants me to order things for her off the Pretty Little Thing website, where everything is too short, too tight!”

In Footloose, the Reverend’s son, Bobby, has died in a drink and drug-fuelled car accident, whereupon he bans dancing in Bomont. “It’s not an easy role playing the Reverend,” says Darren. “It’s almost like I have to play it over-seriously for it to work. It wouldn’t work if I didn’t commit to it, but even with rowdy crowds, the emotional moments seem to be paying off.”

He is taking to being the old hand in the company. “In this cast, I’m more like the grandad as they’re so young. That’s why it really is the transitional gig for me. I feel so flattered to be working with all these young people around me,” says Darren.

“I was called ‘theatre royalty’ on a TV interview recently and ‘stage veteran’ in a review, and when I hear things like that, without sounding old school, I think that in the last few months, certainly with the impact of Covid, there does seem to be quite a lot of change affecting people.

“Like, I went through changes in my personal life, but now I’m embracing being in the position of the one who passes on advice.”

Darren’s song in the spotlight is Heaven Help Me. “It could be the title of my autobiography!” he says. “It’s not one of the big songs in the show, and that’s a first for me, when even in Chicago I had Razzle Dazzle.

“I just have to play it the right way, getting the mood right and not looking to bring the house down. What I have to do is pull off the acting, and it seems to be working.”

An act of faith, indeed, for Darren’s Reverend.

Footloose gotta cut loose at York Theatre Royal until April 2; 7.30pm nightly; 2pm, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

March 30, 2022March 31, 2022

Who are the 30 new artists and makers in York Open Studios? Meet the next six here

*A painting by Carol Douglas, to be found at 55 Albemarle Road, York*

YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.

CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that continues today with Carol Douglas, Anthea Peters, Derek Gauld, Phil Bixby, Jacqueline Warrington and Richard Frost.

Carol Douglas, painting, 55 Albemarle Road, York

CAROL paints primarily in acrylic on canvas, adding oil pastel and fabric collage to some works. Her box canvasses are mostly unframed.

Carol completed her full-time foundation diploma in art and design in 2018, realising an ambition held since she was 16. Now, at 70, she has exhibited at Partisan café, in Micklegate, and According To McGee, in Tower Street, York, and Dean Clough Art Gallery, in Halifax, and is promoted by Broth Art, an on-line London gallery.

Anthea Peters, jewellery, 6 Middlethorpe Drive, Dringhouses, York

ANTHEA creates wearable pieces of jewellery in silver and gold, complemented with copper accents, gemstones and enamel.

Her jewellery is inspired by the wild and unspoilt locations she frequents in her ‘day job’ as a chartered dam engineer in rugged, remote locations. Closer to home, she finds happiness in her garden and on moorland adventures with her family; exploring and studying flora and fauna for her jewellery designs. Consequently, silver toadstools adorn those designs, along with snails, flowers and ‘found’ objects.

“I’ve been making jewellery with precious metals for nearly 20 years and have made special commissions for friends and family over the years, including wedding rings; Christening bracelets; baby teething rings and for special birthdays,” says Anthea. “All my work is very personal and crafted with love, with the design developed specifically for that individual.”

Derek Gauld, landscape printmaking, 8 Middlethorpe Drive, York

DEREK creates printmaking works, both large and small, from mostly landscape sketching and painting outdoors in Yorkshire, the Lake District and Cornwall.

His distinctive style is developed from sketches, working on marks and tones through etching and printmaking techniques such as sugarlift, soft ground, aquatint and relief in the studio.

“I like the loose feel of sugarlift to begin prints,” he says. “I generally use soft ground etching for initial mark making and then build up tones from light grey to black through a process of aquatinting, which involves stopping out areas of the image and dropping into safe acid, leaving longer to create darker tones.

*“I like the loose feel of sugarlift to begin prints,” says Derek Gauld*

“I will pull a black-and-white print after three, four or five tone checks and sometimes add accented colour to the print plate to give another impression. Colour will be added individually to each print, and prints are limited to 25.”

Derek studied printmaking at evening class for three years and has exhibited at Pyramid Gallery and Blossom Street Gallery, in York, and Scarborough Art Gallery. He is a member of York Printmakers – whose membership now runs to 40 – and West Yorkshire Print Workshop.

*Phil Bixby: Architect and photographer*

Phil Bixby, photography, 24 Hob Moor Terrace, York

PHIL makes black-and-white photographs, shot on 35mm film, that he develops and scans to produce high-quality inkjet prints that explore texture and lighting.

Architect Phil rediscovered film photography after a lengthy absence. “Black-and-white photography works with the same elements of light on form but allows a level of abstraction that buildings do not,” he says.

“Being reunited with tools from the late-20th century and learning again the varied characters of different films has given me scope to explore, experiment and enjoy.”

Believing “we need to plan for future change”, building designer Phil runs My York Central with Helen Graham, having started working together as My Future York, and since early summer 2017 they have been coordinating the My Castle Gateway project.

As an architect, he has worked on community self-build, masterplanning and community decision-making in York and elsewhere, while spending time aplenty watching and learning about York from the saddle of a bicycle.

*“To watch a piece develop as the form and shape changes during the making process is both fascinating and exciting,” says Jacqueline Warrington*

Jacqueline Warrington, jewellery, 3 White House Rise, York

JACQUELINE makes precious metal jewels and silver vessels, employing traditional techniques such as raising, chasing, repousse and forging. She makes silver icons too, exploring her interest in folklore and the saints.

Jacqueline trained with a renowned jewellery designer from the age of 16, then studied silversmithing and jewellery at Bradford and Sheffield art schools. She has been working at the bench since setting up her business in 1984, designing and making her own range of jewellery and exhibiting widely across the country.

“Using the qualities of the metals and stones in their various forms makes designing each piece a challenge,” says Jacqueline. “To watch a piece develop as the form and shape changes during the making process is both fascinating and exciting.”

In 2004, she set up a teaching school that ran successfully for 16 years but now she has decided to concentrate on her own work.

*Richard Frost: From civil engineer to furniture maker*

Richard Frost, furniture, 36 White House Gardens, York

AFTER a 27-year career as a civil engineer, Richard took a leap of faith and changed vocation to follow his passion for all things wood.

Re-training as a cabinet designer/maker at Waters & Acland Furniture School in Cumbria, he combines the problem-solving techniques of an engineer with the creative skills of an artist to design and make furniture and decorative items.

Setting up Richard Frost Design in January 2019, he has not looked back since, producing bespoke and limited-edition handcrafted furniture, household goods and gifts, often incorporating patterns, achieved through manipulation of contrasting woods and veneers.

“With no single definitive style, I take my inspiration from both the natural world and our industrial heritage,” says Richard. “My portfolio includes pieces with a traditional feel and those with more of a contemporary look. At all times my objective is to produce an exquisite piece of furniture.”

In focus tomorrow: Toni Mayner, jewellery; Kimbal Bumstead, painting; Duncan Lomax, photography; Moira Craig, printmaking; Jo Rodwell, mixed media, and John Hollington, wood.

March 29, 2022March 30, 2022

Who are the 30 new artists and makers in York Open Studios? Meet the first six here

A sample of Kate Semple’s work as she makes her York Open Studios debut

YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.

CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that starts today with Laural Duval, Mandi Grant, Amanda Allmark, Marie Murphy, Poppy O’Rourke and Kate Semple.

Laura Duval, mixed media, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York

ARTIST, designer and metalsmith Laura specialises in ceramics and metalwork, using copper as her first choice, although she does utilise silver too.

“I create bowls, cutlery, serving utensils, tableware, and other decorative items with the hope that my work will not only be admired, but also be used in the everyday, to create a sense of occasion,” she says. “All my creations are handmade one-of-a-kind pieces; no two pieces will ever be exactly the same.”

*Mandi Grant in her studio at South Bank Studios*

Mandi Grant, painting, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York

INSPIRED by the architectural features of York buildings, the lush vegetation of allotments and livestock, Mandi creates lyrical paintings of shapes, colours and textures in combinations of oil, acrylic and wax painting techniques.

She has enjoyed a long and career in a tertiary college’s lively art department, teaching A-level and pre-degree foundation courses in art and design.

Mandi has embraced the challenges of combining her studies of fashion and textiles with taking a degree course in fine art painting and printmaking, encompassing the visual richness these subject areas afford.

Amanda Allmark, ceramics, 70 Scott Street, York

EXHIBITING as part of the York College student showcase, Amanda’s ceramics are influenced by her life experiences and an ongoing mission to promote self-love, self-empowerment and our right, as human beings, to shine.

Drawing on a therapeutic background, she uses creativity to highlight human behaviours and emotions, encouraging awareness with a combination of words and illustration on the ceramic surface.

*Have Courage Dear Heart, by Amanda Allmark*

She handcrafts her contemporary ceramics by working with form and visual language, her pieces being at once impactful and playful and marked by beautifully burnished surfaces.

“The subtle colours and feminine lines of my designs work in contrast with strong and empowered messages,” she says.

*Textile artist Marie Murphy: “Mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour”*

Marie Murphy, textiles, 38 Scarcroft Road, York

MARIE set up her textiles studio in 2019 with a focus on illustration and surface pattern design. Her modern and bold homeware and stationery combine a love of geometric art, architecture, print and embroidery.

“My work could be described as a mix of mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour,” she says. “Designs and paintings begin as ideas in a sketchbook, as line drawings or the use of bold blocks of colours. These are then translated into paintings and illustrations.”

Those paintings and illustrations then form the basis for Marie’s digital patterns, prints and embroideries, influenced by such artist and designers as Bridget Riley, John Pawson and Anni Albers.

*Poppy O’Rourke: Feminist-inspired artwork*

Poppy O’Rourke, illustration, 13 East Mount Road, York

SELF-TAUGHT artist Poppy works in a variety of media to create feminist- inspired artwork, spanning digital illustration, painting and mixed media.

Poppy, who moved to York from Brighton in 2017 to study, favours intense colour and bold, minimalist designs, as seen in her Wonky Women series that aims to depict the female form in all its uneven beauty.

In her latest work, she experiments with colour and text to create unique designs centred around feminist quotes.

*Share The Knowledge, Multiply The Power, by Poppy O’Rourke*

Kate Semple, illustration, painting, ceramics, 13 East Mount Road, York

KATE has worked in the creative industry for 30 years, her experience ranging from special-effects painting in the film industry to designing and styling for editorial and working as a freelance Illustrator.

Since leaving London 19 years ago, she has created art, illustration and graphics for a variety of clients from her home studio in a wonky old Victorian house in York, where she also loves working in 3D, hand-building ceramic sculptures.

*Kate Semple hand-building a ceramic sculpture*

“I’ve drawn on recent personal experiences to create a new body of work that explores different mediums, whether ceramics, printmaking or drawing on both paper and clay,” says Kate, who is having a kiln installed in her garden shed

In 2022, Kate will be revisiting her Map Of York, first created in lockdown in 2020. Look out too for the illustration-led branding work she has done for Flori Bakery, in Nunnery Lane, spanning packaging, colouring books, tote bags, T-shirts and cards.

A constant stream of work for Kate is illustrating buildings, not least for the boutique hotel chain Guest House Hotels, both in York and Bath. She also created three paintings for a range of merchandise in the Ryedale Folk Museum shop in Hutton-le-Hole.

In focus tomorrow: Carol Douglas, painting; Anthea Peters, jewellery; Derek Gauld, landscape printmaking; Phil Bixby, photography; Jacqueline Warrington, jewellery; and Richard Frost, furniture.

March 29, 2022March 29, 2022

BalletBoyz to grace Grand Opera House with boisterous, beautiful Deluxe on April 11

*BalletBoyz Deluxe: 20th anniversary tour visits the Grand Opera House…in the company’s 22nd year*

MICHAEL Nunn and William Trevitt are marking the 20^th anniversary of their BalletBoyz dance company with the bold, beautiful and boisterous BalletBoyz Deluxe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on April 11.

Six extraordinary young dancers feature in this explosion of mesmeric dance, fused with the witty, distinctive BalletBoyz use of film and behind-the-scenes content.

Cheekily original and innovative, BalletBoyz have blended music and film with achingly beautiful dance, both exhilarating and graceful in its style, since forming in 2000.

Deluxe features work by Shanghai dancer-choreographer Xie Xin, of TAO Dance Theatre, in her UK debut with composer Jiang Shaofeng, and Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle in collaboration with jazz musician and composer Cassie Kinoshi, from the Mercury Prize-nominated SEED Ensemble.

Nunn, 52, and Trevitt, 50, say: “It’s such a thrill to be challenged in the studio, to find new ways of expressing an idea and to learn new techniques. For Deluxe, we wanted to find new voices to develop and work with the BalletBoyz dancers.

“Maxine Doyle and Xie Xin are taking the work of the company in new directions, more physical, more thought provoking, and an opportunity to reach new audiences.

“We have always thrived on the thrill of new collaborations and that urge still shapes our creative decisions. The point of being a repertoire company, and not choreographer-led, is precisely to be able to change direction, take risks on fresh ideas, discover new voices and reveal unexpected outcomes. Despite doing this for more than 20 years, we never want to settle for more of the same.”

Reflecting on their creative longevity, Nunn says: “We made a pact about 25 years ago that we would only work with each other. It’s a strength to work as a partnership. You give something away that somebody else holds for you. I think if that wasn’t there it would collapse somehow.

“I think we’re braver, because there are two of us. It’s much easier to take a huge risk, both financially and artistically, if you are doing it with someone else.”

Tickets for the 7.30pm show are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

March 29, 2022March 29, 2022

Bobby on the beat: Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcast puts The Hollies’ man at the back in the spotlight in Episode 83

*The Hollies: Playing York Barbican on May 23*

TWO Big Egos In A Small Car culture-vulture podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson reflect on drummer Bobby Elliot still keeping time for The Hollies, defying stiffened fingers as the legendary Manchester hitmakers bring their 60th anniversary tour to York Barbican this spring.

Up for discussion too in Episode 83 are stubborn Covid’s unceasing impact on the live arts; Michael Bracewell’s London 80s’ and 90s’ scene book, Souvenir; U2’s Achtung Baby at 30 and Ed Sheeran’s copyright case.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/10288094