Work by Michele Bianco and Pascale Rentsch: On show at Watermark Gallery, Harrogate, from March 4
YORKSHIRE ceramicist Michele Bianco and Scottish painter Pascale Rentsch will head Off The Beaten Track for Watermark Gallery’s spring exhibition in Harrogate.
Both cite venturing out into hidden areas of the natural world as inspiration for work created exclusively for a show that will run from March 4 to April 2 at Liz and Richard Hawkes’s gallery in Royal Parade.
“From time spent on long-distance walks and the coastal paths of North Yorkshire and Northumberland, to the Western Isles and Scottish lochs, both artists draw on the effect of the elements on those environments to seek out compositions and shapes to inform their work,” says curator Liz.
Ceramicist Michele Bianco
Originally from Stokesley, avid hiker Bianco makes works inspired by the landscape of northern England and the Scottish Highlands, where her two studios are based. For Watermark Gallery, she has fashioned intricate and beautiful forms from a variety of stoneware clays.
“I try to make work which, in a small way, expresses the beauty I see around me and the way it makes me feel,” she says.
Meanwhile, Bianco is making tracks of a different kind, as she is almost half-way through an epic 1,000km trek from her former studio in Yarm, Cleveland, to her West Highland base.
Split Sphere vessel, stoneware, by Michele Bianco
As she walks the route in stages, natural phenomena such as Teesdale’s Whin Sill, along with the Northumbrian coastline, have influenced the vessels, spheres and bowls that will be exhibited at Watermark Gallery.
“Michele is fascinated by the world around her, from the intricate tracery of winter trees to the passage of time and the way changes are evidenced in the geology of the landscape,” says Liz.
“Her creations represent an intense synergy between form and environment, and like the artist herself, they exude a deep connection to our natural world.
“Michele’s hand-carved ripple vessels, in their distinctive blue cobalt glazes, reflect centuries of erosion by water and wind on rock.”
Painter Pascale Rentsch at work
Swiss-born Pascale Rentsch, who lives in East Lothian, is a proponent of plein-air painting, immersing herself in the beauty of her surrounding coast and countryside. “I am always moved when painting in nature, because wherever I look, I feel hope,” says the 2021 winner of the RSW Scottish Arts Club Award.
“That hope is abundantly clear when viewing her deeply sensitive and touching paintings, where Pascale captures the immediacy of changing weather and light through the seasons, often in challenging conditions, ” says Liz, ahead of launching Watermark Gallery’s new season.
Seashells, mixed media, by Pascale Rentsch
“As we all look forward to longer, warmer days, the work of these two accomplished artists might just inspire some of us to ‘head off the beaten track’ too.”
Off The Beaten Track, Watermark Gallery, Royal Parade, Harrogate, March 4 to April 2. Artists Michele Bianco and Pascale Rentsch will attend a preview on March 4 from 6pm to 8pm. To join them, RSVP by telephoning the gallery on 01423 562659 or by emailing harrogate@watermarkgallery.co.uk.
Gallery opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; check out the website at watermarkgallery.co.uk to view the exhibition online.
The exhibition poster for Off The Beaten Track at Watermark Gallery, Harrogate, featuring one of Michele Bianco’s ceramics
Amy Hall, left, Victoria Delaney and Neil Vincent in masked rehearsals at Southlands Methodist Church for York Settlement Community Players’ production of Woman In Mind. Picture: John Saunders
CLASSIC Ayckbourn, club classics, a homecoming songwriter, a Dracula discovery and choirs galore make Charles Hutchinson’s list of recommendations, any way the wind blows.
Play of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight (19/2/2022) until February 26, 7.45pm and 2.45pm last-day matinee
HOUSEWIFE Susan’s growing disillusionment with everyday life in her humdrum marriage is brought to a head when she steps on a garden rake and is knocked unconscious.
Such is the impact of her minor concussion, suddenly she finds herself surrounded by the ideal fantasy family, handsomely dressed in tennis whites as they sip champagne.
When her real and imaginary worlds collide, however, those fantasies take on a nightmarish life of their own as Alan Ayckbourn applies both humour and pathos to his 1985 portrait of a woman on the verge. Victoria Delaney, on stage throughout as Susan, leads Angie Millard’s cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
James Gaddas: Digging deeper into Bram Stoker’s Dracula in his one-man show at the Grand Opera House, York
So much at stake: James Gaddas in Dracula – One Man’s Search For The Truth, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 7.30pm
WHEN actor James Gaddas comes across Bram Stoker’s original handwritten copy of Dracula while working on a satellite channel television show, he finds it contains pages never published, leading him to a terrifying discovery.
What if everything we thought we knew was only the beginning? What if it is not so much a story as a warning? What if the legend is real?
Gaddas brings the original version to life before sharing his discovery on a night of one actor, 15 characters and one monumental decision: are some things better left buried? Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Babybird’s Stephen Jones: Revisiting his landmark Ugly Beautiful album in full at Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Yorkshire gig of the week: Babybird, Ugly Beautiful 25th Anniversary, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, February 23, doors, 7.30pm
MARKING the silver anniversary of his smart, piercing pop album Ugly Beautiful and its misunderstood ubiquitous single You’re Beautiful – pay attention to its dark criticism of men’s behaviour beyond the shiny chorus – Babybird is taking to the road for four shows built around that pioneering record. The one he said had “songs to annoy, enjoy and employ God with”.
Up front as ever will be Stephen Jones, 59, the songwriter, singer, musician and novelist who first emerged as a purveyor of low-fi recordings made in his Sheffield bedroom over six years for release in 1995-96. Box office: seetickets.com/event/babybird/Brudenell
Benjamin Francis Leftwich: Heading home to York to perform at The Citadel for the first time. Picture: Harvey Pearson
Homecoming of the week: Benjamin Francis Leftwich, The Citadel, Gillygate, York, February 25, 7.30pm
NOW living in Tottenham, North London, singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich heads back home to play The Citadel, his second church gig in York after his sold-out Minster concert in 2019.
Last June he released his fourth album, To Carry A Whale, and he has been song-writing as prolifically as ever since then, so maybe a new number will be aired. Support comes from Elanor Moss and Wounded Bear. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Soul II Soul: Rolling out the Club Classics at York Barbican
Club night of the week: Soul II Soul, Club Classics, York Barbican, February 25, 7.30pm
SOUL II Soul’s postponed York gig comes back to life on Friday, with tickets still valid from the original October 2020 date.
Jazzie B’s London soul, R&B and rap collective will be reviving the vibe of their 1989 number one Back To Life, top five hit Keep On Movin and their debut album Club Classics Vol. One. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
That singing feeling at York Community Choir Festival
On song at large: York Community Choir Festival 2022, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 27 to March 5
EIGHT shows, with a different line-up every time, go into York’s celebration of community choral music.
Taking part will be three primary school choirs (Osbaldwick, Robert Wilkinson and Headlands), Huntington Secondary School gents and ladies’ choirs and 30 adult choirs.
Despite there being close to 200 song choices, in only one concert will the same song be sung by two choirs, in very different styles. Each concert ends with everyone singing I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Madness: Playing York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend for a second time in July
Under starter’s orders: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Madness, July 22, evening; Sugababes, July 23, late-afternoon
CAMDEN’S Nutty Boys, Madness, are on course for the Music Showcase Weekend for the second time this summer, having first played the Knavesmire track in July 2010.
Once more, Suggs and co will roll out such ska-flavoured music-hall hits as Our House, One Step Beyond, Baggy Trousers, It Must Be Love, House Of Fun and Michael Caine.
The original Sugababes line-up of Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy will perform chart toppers as Freak Like Me, Round Round, Hole In The Head and Push The Button and plenty more. The London girl group last played York in a Barbican Centre show in 2003. For race-day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk
Guvnor’s rules: Al Murray puts the world to rights through the bottom of an English glass or two in the Pub Landlord’s new tirade, Gig For Victory
Bar-room bawl: Al Murray, The Pub Landlord, Gig For Victory, Grand Opera House, York, September 1, 7.30pm
THE Guvnor, Al Murray, sets off on his 86-date tour on February 24 and will still be having a word on November 13. York will play host to the first show after a summer re-charge for the Pub Landlord, whose Gig for Victory agenda promises answers to questions that the “men and women of this great country never knew existed”.
“Who better to show the way than the people’s man of the people, steeped in the deep and ancient bar-room wisdom of countless slock-ins,” says Murray, ever ready to offer a full pint of the good stuff to a nation thirsty for common sense. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Dashka Varsani, filmed for Hostile when her Community Response Kitchen faced closure in the pandemic
SONITA Gale’s British immigration documentary Hostile played to a capacity audience at City Screen, York, on Tuesday evening.
Made during the pandemic, with contributions from George The Poet and composer Nitin Sawhney, her debut film highlights the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities.
Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the feature-length documentary reveals the impact of the evolving “hostile environment”.
“This is the term used by the British government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord,” says Sonita, who was born in Wolverhampton into a working-class migrant family from India.
Hostile explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.
The stakes are high. An NHS IT engineer has spent tens of thousands of pounds on visa applications and is still waiting for settled status. A member of the Windrush generation has not recovered from detainment due to a lack of paperwork, in what came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. International students, now destitute, face deportation, and community organisers are struggling to feed these vulnerable communities without government support.
Anthony Bryan, who features in the Windrush detainment story in Hostile
Archival footage is used by Gale to depict the history of the British Empire, as well as charting the UK’s immigration policies over recent years to illuminate how we arrived at the situation we are in today.
“After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point,” says Sonita. “With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, the film asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?”
That question was among those addressed by Sonita in a question-and-answer session hosted by CharlesHutchPress editor Charles Hutchinson, who opened out the discussion to the audience for further questions and comments, not least from Paul Wordsworth, co-ordinator of York City of Sanctuary.
Since 2016, this charity has played a vital role in supporting and welcoming people who come to York – the UK’s first Human Rights City – seeking a new life.
“More than ever we need to work together to help people fleeing war, persecution, poverty and climate change,” says the charity’s website. “The necessary steps of financing specialised legal help, finding accommodation and work, plus education and language support, are just a few of the ways in which we lead.”
Reflecting on Tuesday’s screening and Q&A, Sonita says: “What a special evening for me. The evening was a sell-out and we had a very engaged audience. Questions were around legislation, bills, accountability and where we are heading. There was a genuine positive feeling that progression is ahead if we collectively come together.
Kill The Bill protestors in Hostile
“We were asked by older audience members how they could see Hostile on the TV and when it would be out as they want their families to see it. People also spoke of their own experiences, which was very heartfelt.”
Sonita reports screenings continuing to sell out across the country. “Please check out our ticket page at www.hostiledocumentary.com/tickets to see when there’s a screening near you,” she advises.
“They will continue until the end of March, and then the ‘impact tour’ begins for Hostile across April, May and June. We’re really hoping for a broadcast deal soon to continue to get these stories out there.”
What is the Hostile Environment?
“The UK Home Office’s hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may ‘voluntarily leave’,” says Sonita. “The term was coined in 2012 by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May.
“Since 2010, the Government has launched a wave of attacks on the human rights of undocumented people – meaning people who can’t prove they have a right to live in the UK.
“The idea is to make life in the UK as unbearable as possible for migrants by blocking access to public services and pushing them into extreme poverty. Under the hostile environment, employers, landlords, NHS staff and other public servants have to check your immigration status before offering people a job, housing, healthcare or other support.”
Victoria Delaney and Neil Vincent shelter under an umbrella in a February rehearsal for the Settlement Players’ production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind. Picture: John Saunders
ANGIE Millard has directed myriad plays but “seemed to have avoided” Alan Ayckbourn…until now.
“The present climate of isolation and mental health issues led me to Woman In Mind, which is a perfect choice for this time,” she says, ahead of her York Settlement Community Players production opening on Saturday in the York Theatre Royal Studio.
One of 87 full-length works by the Scarborough playwright, 1985’s Woman In Mind’s portrait of a woman in the verge finds housewife Susan stuck, unfulfilled and neglected in her humdrum marriage.
As played by Victoria Delaney, who remains on stage throughout, Susan’s growing disillusionment with everyday life is brought to a head when she steps on a garden rake and is knocked unconscious.
Whereupon her minor concussion and hallucinations combine to surround Susan with the ideal fantasy family, handsomely dressed in tennis whites as they sip champagne. However, when her real and imaginary worlds collide, those fantasies take on a nightmarish life of their own in Ayckbourn’s hotbed of humour and pathos.
“You can see Ayckbourn’s plays over and over again and still see something new in them each time; they’re so rich in detail,” says Angie. “I love Woman In Mind, and I’m working with very talented and creative people who make every rehearsal a joy, though the problem we’ve faced is the limited amount of time we’ve had to rehearse.
“We’ve been doing just three hours on Sundays, two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, with the Mondays for intensive sessions for the two-hander scenes, followed by a week in tech.
Victoria Delaney: On stage from start to finale in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind
“You need the time to explore the lines, to find the humour, to bring a light touch to it, as it’s that subtle, offhand way that Ayckbourn has in his writing.”
Explaining her reasoning behind selecting Woman In Mind, Angie says: “Because of Susan. I feel there are so few plays that feature a woman like this. Hedda Gabler and that’s it.
“That’s important now in a society where people are having mental health problems – and Susan has massive mental health problems. The pandemic has also thrown up an increased awareness of isolation and of not being happy in a relationship, which has been exacerbated in the lockdowns.”
Angie notes how Susan’s husband Gerald, busy writing his magnus opus on the history of the parish, “doesn’t know how to deal with Susan”. “Men in Ayckbourn’s plays rarely do. It’s a position they take where, over the years, they slide away from their responsibilities in relationships or in their workplace, and that’s rarely something women get to do,” she says.
“But this is where Ayckbourn is really clever, because you also see Susan for who she is. You ask yourself, ‘why did she marry him?’. When Gerald asks, ‘what did I do wrong?’, she says, ‘’Married me’.
“Yes, he’s let her down, he’s a disappointment, but marriages are about a contract and a bargain. It’s about acceptance.”
Putting Susan’s character on the psychiatrist’s couch, Angie says: “Most people who end up unwell mentally have an addiction, though with Susan, I can’t attribute an addiction to her, except an addiction to perfection.
York Settlement Community Players’ poster for Woman In Mind
“If you’re classically depressed, it’s because the world doesn’t see you as you see yourself, but you have to get over that and not see yourself as so important.”
Victoria Delaney will be joined in Millard’s cast by company stalwarts Chris Pomfrett, Paul Toy, Helen Wilson and Paul French and newcomers Frankie-Jo Anderson, Neil Vincent and Amy Hall in Settlement Players’ first Theatre Royal production since Chekhov’s The Seagull in pre-Covid March 2020.
“This is the first role I’ve done since Covid started,” says Victoria. “My last one was in a play I wrote myself, Mad Alice, in October 2019, and my plan at the time was to start my own company, do a Yorkshire tour and then maybe take it to the Edinburgh Fringe, but then the pandemic happened and it just wasn’t possible. I’ll wait for things to settle down and then I can return to that plan or more writing.
“So, when I saw the casting call-out for Woman In Mind, I jumped at it. I did my research and requested to audition for two roles, Susan and Muriel, as I love comedy and I would have loved to play Muriel too, but what a peach of a part Susan is.”
Victoria initially took a break from her professional acting career after her divorce to focus on being a single mum with an autistic son – who will turn 20 in the summer – and she now works remotely from home giving legal advice on Zoom to families with special educational needs up to the age of 25.
Her acting and writing come into play when the opportunity arises. “But in my work, I do also sometimes have to think creatively about how the law might get over a problem,” she says.
Rehearsing for an Ayckbourn play has been such a stimulating challenge. “It’s a comedy but it’s a dark comedy, which means I can show lots of sides to Susan. There are moments where I can play the comedy; moments where she’s really vulnerable, or indignant, or annoyed,” says Victoria.
“I’m going to really miss her because she takes you over,” says Victoria Delaney of playing housewife Susan in Woman In Mind. Here she is pictured by John Saunders, masked up in the rehearsal studio
“There’s just so much to her character, and because I never leave the stage, I get to interact with so many characters. I’m going to really miss her because she takes you over. I’ve been called for every rehearsal because Susan is in every scene, and as I have to go through so many emotions, I then need to let those emotions , that adrenaline, seep away.”
To learn all those lines, “I’ve been walking around the village, doing laps at 6am, listening to the play,” says Victoria, who lives in Wheldrake.
She finds liberation in playing a character of such emotional contrasts. “I’ll say things on stage that I would never say myself. Things that I would consider rude. I’d have too many filters to go through to say them!” she says.
“But the absolute drug of acting is to be able to show the audience all these emotions, this sadness, and when you feel them connect with you, I love that connection.
“I’ve meet lot of actors that have a certain shyness about them in their own lives. I mask it, but I have a shy side, and when people say, ‘but you go out on stage’, I say, ‘yes, but I’m playing someone else and I love doing that’.”
As chance would have it, when facing such a demanding week ahead, “luckily the performances are over half-term”, says Victoria, breathing a little more easily at the prospect.
York Settlement Community Players in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind, York Theatre Royal Studio, Saturday until February 26, except February 20; 7.45pm plus 2.45pm, February 26. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Saving Grace with Robert Plant and Suzi Dian out front on vocals
SAVING Grace, the folk-blues co-operative led by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, will play the Grand Opera House, York, on April 16.
Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 9.30am at atgtickets.com/York, gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Singer and lyricist Plant, now 73, will be joined on the April and May tour by Suzi Dian (vocals), Oli Jefferson (percussion), Tony Kelsey (mandolin, baritone, acoustic guitar), and Matt Worley (banjo, acoustic, baritone guitars, cuatro).
Premiered by Plant in February 2019 in a gig near the English-Welsh border, Saving Grace’s repertoire is “inspired by the dreamscape of the Welsh Marches”
Plant and co had been booked to headline the Platform Festival at The Old Station, Pocklington, in July 2020 until the pandemic intervened.
Saving Grace will perform further Yorkshire gigs this spring at Hull City Hall on April 14 and Halifax Victoria Theatre on April 26. Bookings can be made atgigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Scott Matthews will be the support act. He last released an album, New Skin, in 2020, followed by his 2021 EP, Distant Flashing Light.
Meanwhile, tickets for comedian Michael McIntyre’s hastily arranged Work In Progress gig at the Grand Opera House on February 28 sold out within two hours of going on sale on Tuesday morning.
Michael McIntyre: New material on trial in York on February 28
Terpsichorean twirlers Anton du Beke and Erin Boag toast their return to the dancefloor in their first tour since early 2020
LONGSTANDING, long-dancing ballroom couple Anton du Beke and Erin Boag are reunited in Showtime at York Barbican tomorrow night (18/2/2022).
After a fallow 2021, when the pandemic put paid to their tour plans, the Strictly Come Dancing alumni have been on the road since January 28 this winter, playing 30 dates that will take in further shows in Yorkshire at Hull New Theatre on February 22 and 23.
“Not only 2021 was lost,” says Strictly judge Anton. “We lost shows in 2020 as well; we were into the last week of our tour, when were going to play York and then go onto Scotland, so it’s been a while since we danced together.”
Sevenoaks-born Anton, 55, and New Zealander Erin, 46, are taking to the dance floor in Showtime, a “glittering tribute to some of the world’s greatest icons of entertainment”: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Liza Minelli, Elton John and more besides.
Glittering tribute: Anton and Erin are ready to dazzle in Showtime
Returning to dancing after sitting down through the 2021 series of Strictly on the judging panel, Anton says: “To be honest with you. it’s been like ‘wow, I only feel like I’m 28’ because there’s a lot of experience to fall back on.
“We did a few special shows at the back end of last year, like one night in Leeds, where we were only there to do a couple of numbers, and my biggest concern was ‘would the suit still fit’. It did! Then Erin asked, ‘would you do up my zip’, and her dress fitted perfectly too.”
Erin says: “I’m fit! There aren’t many dancers at my age still going strong, but I am, though I’m not the same [dancer] as I was 20 years ago – or even two years ago. But keeping fit is the easiest part. The hardest part is the technical side, but I’ve been really looking forward to the tour as I don’t think anyone will notice that!
“Maybe adrenaline can get you through the first few shows and the presence of an audience can do that too, as well as working with people again, performing with a big orchestra. It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again.”
“It’s all about the enjoyment of getting back to dancing again,” says Erin Boag
Six months of preparation have gone into Showtime, a show produced by Raymond Gubbay that combines the dazzle of ballroom couple Anton and Erin with “stunning costumes, fabulous live vocals, a high-energy dance ensemble and a sensational 23-piece orchestra”.
“We have a new sound company working with us, great lighting and costumes,” says Anton. “When there has been no shows, it’s been so much more than Erin and me not being able to put on a show. No shows means no frocks, no work for sound engineers. That’s why it’s important that now that shows are back, the message is clear that people can feel safe to come into a theatre.
“It’s also important that people work harder to make the experience enjoyable, with venues going the extra mile. We get that venues need to be safe, but their job is to make it enjoyable within the safety guidelines. Don’t be officious, be welcoming!”
Anton And Erin in Showtime, York Barbican, tomorrow (18/2/2022), 7.30pm; Hull New Theatre, February 22 and 23, 7.30pm. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk.
IN Episode 77, Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson report on the Kerouac Lives cabaret show that reappraised the work of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.
Under discussion too are John Rushton, D-Day hero, RIP; Harrogate duo The Paper Waits in hushed concert; Black Country, New Road’s sophomore album, and levelling up in the arts.
We Will Rock You, pictured on an earlier tour in 2019. The 2022 show comes re-booted with a state-of-the-art design
WE Will Rock You is “intriguing, challenging, achingly romantic, brutally cynical and at once both sad and hilarious,” says the futuristic Queen “rock theatrical’s” writer-director, Ben Elton.
It is also probably the daftest musical you will ever see. Even dafter on reacquaintance than when the flamboyant show visited Leeds Grand Theatre in 2011, the year it won the Most Popular Show prize at the Olivier Awards.
Thirty years since Freddie Mercury passed away at 45 – “too beautiful, too wild,” as Elton puts in his script – Queen still rule. On press night, there was not a spare seat to be had, setting the box-office pattern for the busy week ahead.
For its 20th anniversary touring production, Elton is back at the helm as director, adding changes and updates here and there to a plot that has gone from “science fiction to science fact” and is “more relevant than ever”, in the judgement of Queen guitarist Brian May.
A pre-show Elton recorded plea to “live in the freakin’ moment” (by putting away mobile phones) and two references to Covid go down particularly well, while the renaming of Planet Earth has moved on from Planet Mall to iPlanet in the age of Internet Gaga.
Astutely, musical advisor May had suggested: “The show needs to work in a theatrical context and retain the rock, while also incorporating the spectacle, uniqueness and humour embodied by Queen.”
This prompted Elton to consider how “legendary rock music should have a legendary context” as he riffed on tales from King Arthur to The Terminator: “heroic myths in which brave individuals take on the vast monolithic force of evil systems”.
Elton’s nutty narrative is duly set in a distant, dystopian, globalised future where iPlanet’s inhabitants dress and think identically and exist in a brain-dead cyberspace haze, like the Gaga High School pupils encouraged to spend day after day on the online drip-feed.
Rock music is banned, prompting a rebellious cluster, the tartan and leather-clad Bohemians, to fight against the all-powerful Global Soft company, its pantomime-baddie boss, the Killer Queen (Jenny O’Leary) and her henchman, Khashoggi (Adam Strong), the Malvolio party-pooper of the piece.
Two school outsiders, boy dreamer Galileo Figaro (Ian McKintosh) and bad-ass girl Scaramouche (Elena Skye), want to break free from all this bleak conformity, to join the Bohemian cause to restore freedom of expression and individuality (except for the audience, who are asked to refrain from singing except when instructed).
Ben Elton: Writer-director of the hit and myth musical We Will Rock You. Picture: Trevor Leighton
We Will Rock You builds that Orwellian story around a framework of readymade hits, like the Madness musical vehicle, Our House. In other words, it applies a back-to-front process, songs first, story second, as satirical humorist Elton sticks his tongue firmly in Queen’s already saucy cheek.
Combining lampoon and harpoon, he revels in a hoary plotline that sends up Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Sir Cliff Richard, Meat Loaf and corporate control of pop, throws in a love story and sexual innuendo, while finding endless routes/excuses to sing another of those Queen monoliths: 24 in total.
May’s fellow musical advisor, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, defines the musical as being silly, funny but making “quite a lot of serious points”. True, but Elton’s show rightly refuses to take itself seriously when making those points.
His dialogue is deliberately as clunky as a B-movie script and his knowing, debunking humour, full of in-jokes and Queen and rock-history references bounces off his characters, just as it does in Blackadder, The Young Ones and Upstart Crow.
Tim Blazdell’s set design and Stufish Entertainment Architects & Willie Williams’s video production bring a state-of the-art pizzazz to the Queen hit parade, while also evoking the spirit of Flash Gordon and Return To The Forbidden Planet, aided by Kentaur’s costume and wig designs.
Zachary Flis’s band, up on the mezzanine level, relish the mock-operatic drama and sheer diversity of the Queen songbook, sung spectacularly by Elton’s company of colourful characters, as much in the tradition of Meat Loaf as Mercury.
No-one is afraid to throw the kitchen sink into shamelessly over-the-top performances, especially O’Leary’s belting Killer Queen and David Michael Johnson’s Brit, or to be hammy in the case of Strong’s Khashoggi.
Michael McKell’s motor-biking dude, Cliff, is the scene stealer; McIntosh’s Freddie and the dreamer combination of gorgeous voice and naivety are a joy throughout and Skye’s drop-dead goth attitude as Scaramouche is a killer.
Ultimately, silly and funny as it may be, We Will Rock You is all about those oh-so familiar songs being brought to fresh life by myriad knock-out voices, Far better to be done this way than in yet another tribute show.
P.S. Make sure to stay for the end, not the false end, to experience the fandango of a finale.
To join the ticket rush: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York
Rachel Jerome: Harp soloist for The Ebor Singers’ concert on Saturday
MERRY Christmas from The Ebor Singers. In February? Yes, on Saturday, when the festive spirit will be breaking out at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York.
Let the York choir’s director, Paul Gameson, explain. “When we were first able to perform together late last year, it was to prepare for our regular Christmas concert of Britten’s A Ceremony Of Carols for choir and harp, but amid choir illness and rising Covid-19 cases in York, the performance was cancelled.
“Nevertheless, we have chosen this piece for our return to singing in public, our first concert since March 2020. While Britten’s work is synonymous with Christmas, a closer look at the texts suggests a more medieval interpretation of the word ‘carol’.”
Derived from the Old French word carole, it refers to a round of dancers, singing and holding hands. “Carols were not limited to Christmas and were not necessarily religious!” says Paul. “Britten’s work traces the story of Jesus’s birth from the Annunciation through to the Nativity and early childhood.
“So, nestled as it is between Christmas and Lent, this February performance celebrates the joy of Christ’s birth while anticipating his Passion, with music by Chilcott, Stopford, Howells and Holst alongside Britten. As this is our first public concert for two years, a little festive joy feels much needed!”
The Ebor Singers will be joined by harpist Rachel Jerome for the 7.30pm concert, billed as “A Rose in the Middle of Winter”. Tickets (£12, concessions £10, under-16s free) are on sale at eborsingers.org/currentevents and on the door.
The present Government Covid-guidance will apply, but The Ebor Singers also suggest that audience members wear masks.
The poster for Sonita Gale’s documentary Hostile, showing at City Screen, York, this evening
TICKETS are selling fast for this evening’s 5.55pm screening of Hostile, Sonita Gale’s documentary focusing on the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities. A question-and-answer session with the director will follow.
Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the feature-length film reveals the impact of the evolving “hostile environment”.
“This is the term used by the British government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord,” says Sonita.
Hostile explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.
The stakes are high. An NHS IT engineer has spent tens of thousands of pounds on visa applications and is still waiting for settled status. A member of the Windrush generation has not recovered from detainment due to a lack of paperwork, in what came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. International students, now destitute, face deportation, and community organisers are struggling to feed these vulnerable communities without government support.
Archival footage is used by Gale to depict the history of the British Empire as well as charting the UK’s immigration policies over recent years to illuminate how we arrived at the situation we are in today.
“After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point,” says Sonita. “With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, the film asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?”
What is the Hostile Environment?
“The UK Home Office’s hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may ‘voluntarily leave’,” says Sonita. “The term was coined in 2012 by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May.
“Since 2010, the Government has launched a wave of attacks on the human rights of undocumented people – meaning people who can’t prove they have a right to live in the UK.
“The idea is to make life in the UK as unbearable as possible for migrants by blocking access to public services and pushing them into extreme poverty. Under the hostile environment, employers, landlords, NHS staff and other public servants have to check your immigration status before offering people a job, housing, healthcare or other support.”
Tickets for Hostile are on sale at: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse. CharlesHutchPress editor Charles Hutchinson will host the Q&A.
