AFTER hosting Palestinian poet Farah Chamma in June, York spoken-word collective Say Owt brings another international artist to The Crescent on November 23 when Gaza Poets Society founder Mohammad Moussa headlines the midday bill.
Palestinian poet and podcast host Moussa set up the Gaza Poets Society as a platform for emerging voices from Gaza and beyond.
Born and raised in Gaza, Moussa now lives in Turkey, where he continues to write and build connections across borders. He has published two poetry collections and contributed to multiple anthologies.
Nadira Alom
“Mohammed shares work that speaks with urgency, humour and hope – poems rooted in lived experience and reaching for freedom,” says Say Owt artistic director Henry Raby.
“We believe in platforming under-represented voices, and through his poetry Mohammed tells the story of the people of Gaza. A humble, gentle soul, Mohammed’s poetry is full of compassion and soul.”
Supporting Moussa at Sunday’s 12 noon to 2pm show of “generous spoken word sharing personal stories” will be York-based poets Nadira Alom and Minal Sukumar.
Minal Sukumar
“Nadira Alom is a poet who believes that your voice is the most important thing you have and you should use it to stand up for the causes you believe in,” says Henry. “She writes about mental health and her experiences as both a woman and a Muslim.
“Minal Sukumar is a writer, performance poet and doctoral researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York. She holds a master’s degree in writing and has performed poetry across India, Ireland and the UK.”
Celeste: Promoting new album Woman Of Faces at Leeds Brudenell Social Club tomorrow. Picture: Erika Kamano
CELESTE will showcase her second album, Woman Of Faces, at Leeds Brudenell Social Club tomorrow (18/11/2024) as part of her eight-date outstore promotional tour.
Released on Polydor Records on November 14, the album was produced by multi-Grammy award winner Jeff Bhasker and Beach Noise and features the singles On With The Show, This Is Who I Am and the orchestral title track, whose original demo was accompanied by a French version entitled A Femme aux Mille Visages.
The full track listing is: On With The Show; Keep Smiling; Woman Of Faces; Happening Again; Time Will Tell; People Always Change; Sometimes; Could Be Machine and This Is Who I Am.
Stemming from the slow unravelling of a romantic relationship, and her determination to emerge from the other side triumphant, Woman Of Faces is a body of work born out of pain, but also the steadfast resilience to keep moving forward, even when everything else felt like it was falling apart for the Brighton-raised soul and jazz singer-songwriter.
From the orchestral highs to the gut-wrenching lows, this unflinching, unfiltered chronicle of heartbreak, recovery and reclaiming control is the sound of an artist learning to trust herself.
The artwork for Celeste’s Woman Of Faces
On the title song, Celeste burrows into her own complexities as she learns to accept the unknowable sides of herself. The production could be plucked from an old Hollywood score, with sweeping string arrangements contrasting against a modern meditation on multifaceted womanhood.
“Initially, the song was about realising I have shades of complexity within my mind and not being able to pinpoint what or why they were there,” says Celeste, 31. “It gave me a sort of diagnosis. Like, yes, I find it hard to navigate, but at least I can begin to adapt.”
She hopes other women will see themselves in the song, particularly the unsung heroes of daily life, who are always there to lean on and expect nothing in return. “I want it to speak for people who don’t feel seen,” she says. “There are some women who are like constant caregivers that just go unnoticed, they’re always waiting in the wings. People don’t thank them, but they’re always there. I want that song to be for those people.”
Earlier single On With The Show is an expansive, cinematic ballad that reckons with the battle to put on a brave face and push through anguish. Written with frequent collaborator Matt Maltese in 2022, it was the first song Celeste made specifically for the album.
“I was very much in the moment of experiencing feelings of loss and needing to carry on, almost like an exaggerated hero’s journey,” she says. “This feeling of needing to trudge on through heavier feelings, knowing you have another purpose that’s attached to something bigger than yourself, so you willingly go towards it and sacrifice your sense of wellbeing.”
“This Is Who I Am is an important song for me that identified the world in which I wanted to inhabit sonically and thematically,” says Celeste
This Is Who I Am wraps Celeste’s old-world voice wraps around melancholic piano chords and cinematic strings. “The song aligns with all of my being. It allows me to channel all of my influences, things that I’ve taken in over the years, since being a child,” she says, referencing a range of creative touchstones that span Édith Piaf, Oscar Lavant, Eartha Kitt and, from her contemporaries, the song-writing of Anohni.
Produced by Kendrick collaborators Beach Noise and written during the final stages of putting Not Your Muse together in 2020, Celeste has held the song close for almost four years. “This Is Who I Am is an important song for me, which I wrote in collaboration, that identified the world In which I wanted to inhabit sonically and thematically,” she says.
That song leads the soundtrack for Sky’s television series The Day Of The Jackal, selected for the opening credits by lead actor Eddie Redmayne and co-star Lashana Lynch.
Celeste has been been undertaking her outstore itinerary since November 3 after summer appearances at London’s KOKO and LIDO Festival, Glastonbury (on the Pyramid stage), Werchter Boutique, Belgium, Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, and North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands.
Celeste’s spell-binding performance of her breakout song Strange at the 2020 BRIT Awards placed her firmly in the global spotlight. The English-Jamaican singer landed the double win of the BRITs Rising Star Award and BBC Music’s Sound of 2020 and that year her song A Little Love featured in the John Lewis Christmas advertisement, written expressly by Celeste for the advert.
Celeste’s artwork for This Is Who I Am
In 2021, she topped the UK charts with her debut album Not Your Muse, a year when she received Mercury Prize, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Hear My Voice, her lead single from Aaron Sorkin’s 2020’s film The Trial Of The Chicago 7, for which she wrote three songs.
Since then, Celeste has taken a step back from the glare of mainstage spotlights to recalibrate and reconnect with herself, figuring out how to stay true to her vision and sense of authenticity in her work. “I felt like I had to start making decisions really carefully [in terms of] what to be associated with and what pieces of music I would put out, just trying to regain some agency over maintaining authenticity in my work,” she says.
This mentality led Celeste to collaborate with the Tate Modern for the launch of her 2022 single To Love A Man. “What has been most important to me in the last couple of years has been navigating [the industry] gently, bit by bit.”
She made a striking return in November 2024, releasing This Is Who I Am, followed by Everyday’s release on vinylfor Record Store Day 2024, when she performed at Rough Trade in London.
That year too she made her acting debut in Steve McQueen’s Second World War film Blitz, playing the jazz singer who performed at the Café de Paris in London just before it was bombed. McQueen’s re-enactment of the performance is not exactly true to life: in reality, swing band leader Ken “Snakehips” Johnson sang for the last time that night.
Celeste’s artwork for On With The Show
Celeste’s rendition of Oh Johnny, Johnson’s signature song that closed his last performance, is a poignant tribute, one that contrasts the hedonism of high society during the raids with the stark, brutal reality of war. “Meeting Steve McQueen was one of the most inspiring and significant moments of my life in the last two years,” she says.
Witnessing the director’s uncompromising attention to detail on set, she explains, helped reaffirm Celeste’s belief in artistic intuition, aligning with the core statement of This Is Who I Am and her subsequent approach to writing music; a conviction that comes from within, unaffected by external voices.
“When I saw someone [like McQueen] working in that way, it reinstalled that confidence and sense of navigation within myself. It was like, yeah, don’t let that thing slip, don’t let that core alignment get interfered with.”
An Evening With Celeste, Album Launch Show, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, November 18; presented in tandem with Crash Records, Leeds. Doors open at 7pm. SOLD OUT.
Did you know?
CELESTE Epiphany Waite was born in Culver City, California, on May 5 1994 to a Jamaican father and English mother. She moved to the United Kingdom with her mother at the age three, after her parents separated, settling initially in Dagenham, then moving to Saltdean, Brighton, at five.
Celeste’s poster for her Woman Of Faces album shows
Poet Ian Parks with his new collection The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening With Ian Parks and Friends on November 21 at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, presented in tandem with Crooked Spire Press.
“This is one for lovers of poetry and folk music,” says organiser Richard Kitchen. “Ian is a widely published and much admired poet from Mexborough, described as ‘the finest love poet of his generation’, although his work vigorously addresses the political as well as the personal.”
Parks will be reading from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, published in October. In addition, he will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be his chosen guests, award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail.
Navigators Art’s poster for An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends
Parks is the author of Selected Poems 1983-2023 and the editor of Versions Of The North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry. He has run the Read To Write Project in Doncaster for a decade.
His translations of the modern Greek poet Constantine Cavafy were a Poetry Book Society Choice.He has been a Hawthornden Fellow since 1991 and has held residencies at Gladstone’s Library, De Montfort Leicester and Hawkwood College, Stroud.
His poems have appeared in The Times, Poetry Review, the Independent On Sunday, Morning Star and Poetry (Chicago) and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Poet and novelist Janet Dean/Janet Dean Knight explores contemporary themes through the prism of history. She is widely published in anthologies and magazines in print and online.
Poet and critic Matthew Paul
Poet and critic Matthew Paul, originally from South London, now lives in South Yorkshire. His second poetry collection, The Last Corinthians, was published by Crooked Spire Press this year, following The Evening Entertainment (Eyewear Publishing) in 2017.
Paul is the author of two haiku collections, The Regulars (2006) and The Lammas Lands (2015) , and co-writer/editor (with John Barlow) of Wing Beats: British Birds In Haiku (2008) a Guardian book of the year, all published by Snapshot Press.
He co-edited Presence haiku journal, has contributed to the Guardian’s Country Diary column and posts blogs at www.matthewpaulpoetry.blog.
Singer-songwriter and poet Jane Stockdale is a skilled multi-instrumentalist who loves performing a cappella too.
Crooked Spire Press is a new independent publisher based in Chesterfield. Edited by Tim Fellows, it focuses on poetry pamphlets, collections and anthologies.
York singer-songwriter and poet Jane Stockdale
In 2025, it has published an anthology of poems from The Fig Tree as well as Matthew Paul’s The Last Corinthians and Ian Parks’s The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will publish a further anthology of poems, based around coal mining.
Published every two months in the north, The Fig Tree is a vibrant online poetry magazine that reflects the diversity of modern life while looking back on childhood memories, working life, the natural world and family history.
The Fig Tree encourages poems in all forms that explore the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, poems that explore the tensions inherent in politics and the nature of the human condition.
“The bar will be open on Friday night and we hope to adjourn for a chat after the show with anyone who’d like to join us,” says Richard. Books will be available to buy. Tickets for this 7.30pm event cost £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
Navigators Art’s Folk & Words at The Artful Dodger, Micklegate, York, November 20
Navigators Art’s poster for this autumn’s series of Folk & Word events
ON Thursday (20/11/2025) – and on the third Thursday of each month – Navigators Art play host to Folk & Word in The Artful Dodger’s function room, in Micklegate, York, at 7.30pm.
“This is a low-key and warmly welcoming open-mic night where writers and acoustic folk musicians can present new and original work,” says Richard Kitchen. “Each month we invite a poet and a musician to co-host the evening and bring a guest performer; then the floor is open to the audience.
“Come and enjoy the safe, calm, friendly vibes of this unique monthly event. Entry is free with a purchase from the bar. Sign up from 7pm if you’d like to speak or play. Access is by the stairs only as it’s a listed building.”
Explaining the modus operandi of Folk & Word, Richard says: “Time and ethos-wise, it fits somewhere between the long-running York Spoken Word, held monthly at The Exhibition, in Bootham, and the bi-monthly Howlers sessions at the Blue Boar, in Castlegate, with the bonus of a musical element.
“Although open-mic events are everywhere these days, not many highlight poetry and acoustic sounds, so we’re focusing on people with words to perform, whether spoken or sung – and spoken word can include stand-up comedy as well as poems!
“It’s developing into a small cosy club. Everyone is supportive of each other and it feels good for one’s mental health. People leave feeling at peace, even if they move on to the bigger, noisier Thursday events elsewhere!”
Navigators Art co-founder Richard Kitchen
Navigators Art: back story
LOOSE collective of York creatives that embraces visual art, spoken and written word, live music and community projects.
“We’re passionate about giving emerging artists and performers the opportunity to shine alongside more established names,” says co-founder Richard Kitchen.
“We oppose bigotry in any form and strive to achieve gender balance and across-the-board inclusivity in all our events and activities. Since 2020, we’ve worked with more than 200 individuals and organisations.
“We welcome commissions and new collaborations with artists, writers, musicians and performers of all genres.
The joy of making music with support from the Richard Shephard Music Foundation
THE Richard Shephard Music Foundation (RSMF) is celebrating its most successful year to date.
More than 8,685 children have received weekly music lessons through partnerships with 34 schools across Yorkshire and Tees Valley.
This milestone marks significant progress towards the York foundation’s goal of teaching 10,000 children every week by 2026: a target that will mean almost one in seven primary-aged children in the region will have regular access to high-quality music education.
Andrea Hayes, foundation trustee and former head teacher, says: “Music inspires, unites and empowers. The foundation brings that power into classrooms, ensuring every child, whatever their background, can access high-quality music teaching.”
Here are the key highlights from the RSMF’s 2024–25 Impact Report:
• 8,685 children received weekly music lessons, totalling 8,250 hours of high-quality music education.
• 34 partner schools participated, including new additions in East Yorkshire, Saltburn, Darlington, Richmond and Selby.
• 450 children joined the foundation’s biggest-ever Make Music Day, celebrating creativity and collaboration through live workshops and performances.
• Ten free Music Explorers holiday clubs reached 263 children, with an average of 57 per cent eligible for free school meals, rising to 85 per cent in Scarborough.
• 1,943 children took part in foundation-led events, concerts, and community performances.
Revelling in the power of music for schoolchildren
Independent evaluations and teacher feedback revealed transformative results:
• 99 per cent of staff reported improved confidence among pupils.
• 97 per cent saw enhanced musical knowledge.
• 92 per cent observed improvements in wellbeing.
• 94 per cent said their school’s standard of music teaching had improved.
A teacher from Crayke C of E Primary School says: “The love of music you are instilling in children is wonderful. It’s breathing life back into the curriculum.”
Reaching communities that need it most
HALF of the RSMF’s partner schools have more than 30 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, and 12 are based in Arts Council England’s Priority Places. By focusing on these areas, RSMF is ensuring access to the social, emotional and educational benefits of music for children who might otherwise miss out.
How you can be involved
WHETHER you are a parent, musician or member of the public passionate about music education, RSMF would like to invite you to be involved. “Please consider becoming a Friend of the Foundation by committing to a monthly donation – as small or large as suits you,” requests the RSMF. “You’ll receive updates from the foundation and invitations to events.” For more details, visit: donate.rsmf.org.uk.
Young players in unison
Cathy Grant, the foundation’s chief executive, says: “Research highlights time and time again that music education is not an equal playing field. The Child of the North* report found that 93 per cent of children are being excluded from arts and cultural education due to a lack of funding in state schools, with almost half (42 per cent) of secondary schools no longer entering pupils for GCSE Music.
“The same report outlined how participation in arts activities also correlates strongly with socioeconomic status, with children from the most affluent backgrounds being three times more likely to sing in a choir or play in an orchestra than those in deprived areas.
Cathy continues: “Our work directly addresses these inequalities, aiming to level the playing field for children across our region. We’re encouraged by the Government’s recent curriculum review report, which commits to ensuring that ‘the arts are an entitlement within the national curriculum for every pupil, not an optional extra’. We think our work in the region is a practical example of how this can be delivered.”
For more information about the Richard Shephard Music Foundation and its work supporting schools, visit www.rsmf.org.uk. View the RSMF’s Music Is A Key video at: https://youtu.be/jdJGf3fCvbg.
* N8 Research Partnership produced the Child of the North report, an evidence-based approach to creating a culture of inclusive opportunity through arts and creativity, in March 2025.
Upcoming Richard Shephard Music Foundation events:
Saturday, November 29 2025 to Monday, January 5 2026: York Minster Christmas Tree Festival, featuring RSMF Christmas tree.
Saturday, November 29, Scarborough Sparkle: School choir from Overdale Primary School singing from 11am to 12 noon.
Wednesday, December 3: Acomb Primary School Christmas busking, York Railway Station, 9.45am to 10.30am.
Thursday, December 4 2025: Christmas Celebration, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, 1.30pm to 3pm. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rsmf-christmas-music-celebration-tickets-1756681294039?aff=oddtdtcreator.
York Waits, by John Scarland, one of the Christmas cards on sale at Kentmere House Gallery, York
KENTMERE House, Ann Petherick’s gallery in Scarcroft Hill, York, will be open every weekend in December until December 21, from 11am to 5pm each day, then on January 3 and 4, 11am to 5pm.
The gallery also will welcome visitors every Thursday evening through to December 18, 6pm to 9pm, and at other time by arrangement on 01904 656507 or 07801 810825.
Work by more than 70 artists is on show and for sale. “Those who have everything may be the bane of your Christmas list, but you can be absolutely certain that what they don’t have is any of the paintings available from Kentmere House Gallery – because all are originals,” says Ann.
“The Aladdin’s cave that is Kentmere House Gallery has paintings by gallery favourites such as Susan Bower, Jack Hellewell and John Thornton, along with work from nationally known printmakers, including Lisa Hooper and John Brunsdon.
“Look out too for more of David Greenwood’s pastels of familiar York buildings and work by an amazingly talented new artist from South Yorkshire, William Sculthorpe.”
Kentmere House Gallery’s poster for December’s opening hours
Prints are for sale at £50 upwards, paintings from £200, plus lavishly illustrated art books unique to the gallery from £10. “That means there is a wide range of gifts both affordable and truly original,” says Ann. “Please note these prints are genuine and handmade, not the mass-produced ‘limited-edition’ prints you might find on the high street.
“If it’s still all too difficult, the gallery has a gift voucher service, allowing the recipients themselves to make the choice. A voucher can be issued for any amount from £10 and the gallery will add five per cent to the value of any voucher.
“Alternatively, if you buy a painting as a gift and the recipient would prefer another, return it by the end of January & a full credit will be given against another painting.”
Ann has a further suggestion: “For something really special, why not commission a painting? Maybe a portrait, a house portrait, a favourite pet or a landscape that has a special meaning? The possibilities are endless; you can choose from more than 70 artists, and the gallery is happy to advise.”
Kentmere House Gallery favourite Susan Bower picked for Actors’ Benevolent Fund charity Christmas card. On sale soon
Susan Bower’s Taking Five: the Actors’ Benevolent Fund’s selection for its 2025 Christmas card
THE Actors’ Benevolent Fund has selected Kentmere House Gallery regular artist Susan Bower’s painting Taking Five for its 2025 fundraising Christmas card.
Born in 1953, Susan graduated with degrees in Biology and Psychology but pursued an artistic career on returning her Yorkshire birthplace. Exploring her life-long love for painting, she creates pieces that explore various facets of the human condition.
Susan’s work is on permanent display at Kentmere House, where the Christmas card will be on sale soon.
Did you know?
KENTMERE House Gallery is York’s original “gallery-at-home”, housed in the relaxed setting of a large Victorian house on Scarcroft Hill.
It sells work by some of the finest artists working in Britain and has a reputation for showing nationally known names alongside promising newcomers.
The featured artist changes each month and, in addition, there is always a rolling exhibition of work by 50 other artists.
Slava’s SnowShow: Bringing joy to children and drawing out the inner child in adults at Grand Opera House, York
SNOW storms and Count Arthur Strong’s Scrooge; dancing full of Momentum and Jon Ronson’s latest psychopath tests put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.
Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
London City Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition at York Theatre Royal
Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists and works rarely seen in the UK.
Here come George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento; New York City Ballets artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition; Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum and Paris Opera Ballet premier danseur and emerging choreographer Florent Melac’s new work. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jason Manford’s show poster for A Manford All Seasons, returning to York Theatre Royal this weekend
Comedy gig of the week:Jason Manford in A Manford All Seasons, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
SALFORD comedian, writer, actor, singer and radio and television presenter Jason Manford makes his second York in his 2025 stand-up show. He cites Billy Connolly as his first inspiration and he cherishes such family-friendly entertainers as Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pictish Trail: Expect psychedelic goo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery on Monday
Rising to the occasion: Blair Dunlop, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight, 7.30pm; Pictish Trail, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, November 17, 7pm
CHESTERFIELD folk musician, singer, songwriter, storyteller and actor Blair Dunlop performs traditional and contemporary songs from his five albums, released between 2012 and 2024, this weekend.
Known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic pysch-pop, crafted on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides, Pictish Trail, alias Johnny Lynch, has completed work on his new album, a sticky, shimmering swirl of sound and slime. To celebrate, he previews songs at Monday’s intimate show, performing in raw, exploratory mode, armed with acoustic guitar, sampler and his warped imagination. Expect tenderness, weirdness and generous dollops of goo. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Chris Wood: Seeking the truth in song at the NCEM
Folk gig of the week: Chris Wood, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
REFLECTIONS on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim and the Gecko as a metaphor for contemporary society add up to a typically wise and soulful Chris Wood set. Tom Robinson and Squeeze’s Chris Difford are fans, while The Unthanks look to him as an influence, and he has played with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in The Imagined Village project with Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy.
In a world of soundbites and distractions, six-time BBC Folk Awards winner Wood is a truth seeker, whose uplifting and challenging writing is permeated with love and wry intelligence as he celebrates “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
King For A Day: Paying tribute to Nat King Cole at York Theatre Royal
Nostalgia of the week: King For A Day: The Nat King Cole Story, York Theatre Royal, November 17, 7.30pm
VOCALIST Atila and world-class musicians take a fresh, thoughtful and entertaining look at the life and work of Alabama pianist, singer and actor Nat King Cole, whose jazz and pop vocal styling in songs such as Nature Boy, Unforgettable and When I Fall In Love define a golden era of 20th century American music.
Cole’s most celebrated songs and stylish re-workings of his lesser-known gems are complemented by projections of rare archive images and footage, weaved together by narration. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw
Straight talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, November 19, 7.30pm
WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth for any of this.
Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jon Ronson: Hosting Psychopath Night at York Barbican, where he will welcome questions from the audience
Mind-bending insights of the week: Jon Ronson: Psychopath Night, York Barbican, November 18, 7.30pm
WHAT happens when a psychopath is in power? Could you learn to spot a psychopath? Are you working for a psychopath? Is there a little bit of psychopath in all of us? Sixteen years since journalist, filmmaker and author Jon Ronson embarked on The Psychopath Test, he reopens the case.
Expect exclusive anecdotes and fresh reflections in Ronson’s exploration of madness and the elusive psychopathic mind, re-booted with mystery special guests whose tales were not in the original book. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Recommended but sold out already at York Barbican: Adam Ant in Ant Music, November 19, doors 7pm.
Count Arthur Strong: Telling Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale in Charles Dickens guise at York Barbican
Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, November 20, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm
IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Mexboroughpoet Ian Parks holding a copy of his new book The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light
Word-and-song gathering of the week: Navigators Art presents An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, November 21, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, where Parks reads from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail. Tickets: £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
In Focus:Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm
Lesley Birch at her Flower Power exhibition opening with Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett
YORK artist Lesley Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition at Pyramid Gallery that coincides with the blooming of her small art book of the same title.
The book is published by Overt Books, the independent York publisher set up by York Creatives creator Ben Porter.
“I’ve always meant to publish an art book and never quite got around to it, but with Ben’s help, I was able to pull together this small volume,” says Lesley. “There are beautiful photographs of my home studio from Esme Mai Photography, more photos by Eloise Ross, and some of my free verse musings to accompany photographs of the paintings.
Lesley Birch in her studio. Picture: Esme Mai Photography
“There are only 50 copies available at this time. I’m thrilled to say that there is a foreword from my generous PICA Studios studio mate Mark Hearld
Lesley is sharing space at Pyramid Gallery with ceramicist Jacqui Atkin, who works with The Pottery Showdown programme. “I love the combination of my flower paintings with Jacqui’s ceramics,” she says. “They sit beautifully together and it was lovely to hear her details about making these exquisite pieces.”
Lesley’s Flower Power paintings were painted in response to abundant summer blooms in her garden and from Shambles Market in York.
Lesley Birch’s book cover for Flower Power
Sunflowers, from Lesley Birch’s Sunflower series
“I’m often keen on certain pots and vases too and I like to set up lots of bouquets here and there, playing with colour, texture and shape,” she says.
“I find myself immersed in a world of pure discovery and concentration. These works I’ve been developing for the past ten months and they’re now finally ready to go out on show.”
The Flower Power book is priced at £12 plus £3 postage and packaging. Contact Lesley via lesleybirch@icloud.com for a copy.
Jess Steel, left, Heather Findlay, Annie Rae Donaghy and Beth McCarthy committing to Murder On The Dancefloor big style. Picture: David Harrison
THIS was the 12th edition of Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, the eighth to fill York Barbican en route to raising more than £200,000 for York charities.
Early signs are that a record sum may have been collected from Wednesday’s three-hour fundraiser to boost St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. (UPDATE: 18/11/2025. £30, 249.70p was raised.)
You will know Big Ian, HUGE party band frontman Ian Donaghy, who won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2025 York Community Pride Awards, organised by The York Press, in recognition of his extensive charity work and efforts to tackle loneliness and raise dementia awareness in the city.
A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy with Shed Seven’s Rick Witter, Big Ian’s pick for “the new Duke of York”
This is one ID who doesn’t need ID, but A Night To Remember really isn’t about Ian, even if he organises the event and finds sponsors to cover all the costs,so that all the ticket money goes to the charities, along with donations and raffle proceeds on the night.
Oh, and he secured an opening message on screen from Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer, arranged all the myriad participants – a hush-hush appearance by Shed Seven’s Rick Witter et al – in a late-changing set-list order, hosted the show with patter and swagger, and sung his lungs out too. No wonder he walked 17 kilometres on Wednesday.
He is frontman, showman, show opener too with Uptown Funk, but A Night To Remember is Big Ian’s night every two years for putting York’s diverse world of music on one stage: a night of York Helping York, a night of celebrating why music can be made by everyone for everyone. Where we became one big family, in unison for the finale of Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, as Ian sang “I’ve got all my sisters with me”. Sisters in soul and much more besides, brothers too.
Making A Night To Remember exactly that: Many, but not all, of the musicians who took part on Wednesday night. Picture: David Kessel
There are plenty of familiar performers that return each time: Las Vegas Ken, now 78, still in jeans, stiffer in leg, joined by fiddler Kieran O’Malley for a singalong Wild Rover; Graham Hodge, now 75, replacing his standard guitar with bow tie and suit for crooning Cry Me A River with full band accompaniment in Las Vegas manner; George Hall, leading the band from the keyboards; the HUGE brass section; Rob Wilson and Simon Snaize on guitar,
And Ian Chalk leading the bright young talents of York Music Forum, now so important to fledgling talent in the city when schools are finding it more and more difficult to fulfil that role.
Participants young and old had their moment in the spotlight. Responding to Big Ian’s challenge, Easingwold-based choir leader Jessa “Hurricane” Liversidge assembled the 10 Decade Choir, aged from seven to Shirley in her nineties, bonding in the joy of Labi Siffre’s Something Inside So Strong, a hymn to the power of music.
York Music Forum brass and woodwind players in action at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison
Annie Rae Donaghy: Solo rendition of Maneater at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel
On the run: Beth McCarthy giving everything to Bat Out Of Hell in A Night To Remember. Picture: David Harrison
Suits you, sir: Graham Hodge taking on Las Vegas cabaret crooner mode for Cry Me A River at A Night To Remember. Picture: David Kessel
The ever-watchful young keyboard player in York Music Forum’s rendition of Dave Kemp’s Fryin, I learnt later, was playing his first ever gig at nine. Keep an eye on him.
Likewise, Big Ian had asked nascent talents to put themselves forward for a solo slot: he picked 12-year-old singer Lacey Hart, performing I Have Nothing to 1,400 people to the accompaniment of the full band, one mightily impressive debut after warm-up slots at a handful of HUGE gigs. Tackling Houston, Lacey had no problem matching Whitney’s dramatics.
North Eastern classical singer Sam Holden hit the heights early on in You’ll Never Walk Alone, ironically performed solo – but spectacularly – to a backing track, and later Y Street Band, their members peppered through other songs throughout, relished the spotlight in Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, immediately followed by Scissor Sisters’ Take Your Mama.
Arms held aloft: Lacey Hart, 12, with A Night To Remember host Big Ian Donaghy, left, and her father, James Hart, after singing I Have Nothing. Picture: David Kessel
Back to those sisters in soul, who are so integral to A Night To Remember: Jess Steel, the singing hairdresser; Beth McCarthy, back in York after playing Glastonbury and an American tour; Annie Rae Donaghy, soon to appear in Next Door But One’s Christmas show When Robins Appear, and Heather Findlay, long-standing folk and prog-rock queen.
They took solo turns, they sang backing vocals, all except Annie changed costumes more often than Cher. Jess’s Running Up That Hill set a high bar; Annie revamped Hall & Oates’s Maneater; Beth surpassed her Mr Brightside with Bat Out Of Hell, preceded by her duet with Annie, Britney at the double for Baby One More Time.
A Night To Remember master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy keeping eye on proceedings from the side of the stage, resting on a donations bucket for York charities. Picture: David Kessel
Best of all was Heather’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, a stairway she not so much climbed as glided up with elan. It was only right they should do a climactic number together, Murder On The Dancefloor, and they nailed it.
What of Mr Witter, crowned the new Duke of York by Big Ian? The man in black might have been expected to conclude the show given his status in York, but no, just like Ian, he said the show was the star, not him.
Instead, his appearance kept quiet until the last minute, he ended the first half, singing It Takes Two with Jess, who has cut his hair all these years (“I’ve lived my dream,” she said “I’ve sung with Rick Witter”), followed, inevitably, by Sheds’ anthem Chasing Rainbows, brass accompaniment and all. Rick may not have closed the show, but he closes this review.
Shed Seven’s Rick Witter duetting with Jess Steel on It Takes Two, the 1966 Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye hit. Picture: David Harrison
DILETTANTE is the real thing! She has won the inaugural New Music Stage showcase for the UK’s most exciting emerging musical talent at York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025.
At last Saturday’s event, part of the festival’s debut Beyond the Frame strand at York Theatre Royal, Dilettante delivered a set that captivated audience and jury alike with emotive vocals, layered textures and commanding stage presence.
Reflecting on her victory, she said: “What a massive honour to win this inaugural award. I’m a massive film nerd and I’m really excited to see both film and music festivals starting to work together to support artists across forms. Especially great to win in my home county of Yorkshire and in such a beautiful theatre!”
Signed to EMI North, praised by Mojo and Uncut magazines and featured at SXSW(South By Southwest) and The Great Escape, Dilettante – the inventive art-pop project of Francesca Pidgeon – has risen from Manchester basements to now embarking on festival appearances and cross-disciplinary collaborations across music, film and XR (Extended Reality).
Daisy Gill: From The Voice UK to New Music Stage at Aesthetica Short Film Festival
Last Saturday’s 2pm to 11pm curated line-up of breakthrough talent featured acts championed by tastemakers such as BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music, RTÉ Radio 1 and Mojo and Rolling Stone magazines.
Taking part were winner Dilettante; BLÁNID, an Irish singer-songwriter with one million Spotify streams; Crazy James, lauded by BBC Introducing for his high-energy rap; Daisy Gill, alumna of The Voice UK with Glastonbury and Royal Albert Hall appearances to her name, and Ewan Sim, featured on Spotify Fresh Finds.
Participating too were Isabel Maria, BBC Introducing One-to-Watch and North East Culture Award winner; Emma Johnson, an alt-pop artist featured on BBC Radio 1 and Radio X; Kengo, BBC Introducing-supported hip-hop talent; Messy Eater, immersive art-rock innovator, and Tarian, a Welsh artist who blends hip-hop with emotive pop and classical roots.
The New Music Stage jury brought together leading industry representatives including James Matthew, from Universal Music Group; Rachel Hill, of Futuresound Group, Leeds; Pablo Ettinger, Caffè Nero co-founder; Emma Stakes, of Production Park; Rob Clark, head of media at Imagesound, plus plus musical artists such as Jack Savoretti, The Dunwells, Fauzia Habib, Kat Day (The KVB) and singer-songwriter Rachel Croft, formerly of York, now based in London.
Messy Eater: Replaced Scarborough’s Pleasure Centre in the New Music Stage line-up at York Theatre Royal
The New Music Stage aims to be about “more than performance”, connecting artists with the broader cultural ecosystem being built through such festivals as ASFF.
The showcase combines collaborations with Universal Music A&R and Imagesound with opportunities for national airplay across Caffè Nero as the festival creates a pipeline to connect grassroots talent with national and international audiences.
“Dilettante’s win demonstrates the extraordinary potential of the next generation of musicians,” said festival director Cherie Federico.
Caffe Nero founder Pablo Ettinger highlighted the industry opportunities for emerging talent: “Supporting emerging talent at this level is vital,” he said. “These stages give artists the chance to reach audiences and figures they might not meet otherwise.”
“The New Music Stage promises to grow into a landmark event for UK and global music, reaffirming the vital role of live discovery in the cultural ecosystem,” says ASFF director Cherie Federico
The New Music Stage was set up against the backdrop of the culture of discovering new music live being in decline. Between 2022 and 2023, the UK lost roughly 13 per cent of grassroots music venues, compounded by more than 15 per cent closing or ceasing live music activity last year alone, while audience numbers for live shows have fallen by nearly 17 cent since 2019.
“The New Music Stage addresses this gap, giving audiences the thrill of experiencing music at its moment of emergence, just as grassroots venues once did,” said Cherie.
“By integrating the New Music Stage with film, games and XR, Aesthetica fosters a multidisciplinary creative community. Audiences can witness performances in context with broader creative innovation, and artists gain exposure to delegates from more than 60 countries, industry leaders and tastemakers, helping to launch careers on a global scale.
Rachel Croft: York singer-songwriter on the New Music Stage jury
Running from November 5 to 9, the 15th BAFTA-qualifying ASFF brought together together 300 films, music, games, podcasting, the UNESCO City Of Media Arts EXPO, masterclasses, workshops, the VR Lab, the first Aesthetica Fringe and Beyond the Frame in one immersive environment in York, providing a platform for collaboration, discovery and cultural exchange.
Across five days, York became a hub for creativity, where tomorrow’s stars in film, music, VR, games, and podcasts were discovered first. The festival’s international reach and multidisciplinary programming ensure it is not only a British event but also a meeting point for the most exciting voices in global screen and creative media.
Summarising the festival’s vision, Cherie said: “We’re building a festival where creativity meets opportunity. It’s not just about performances; it’s about creating connections, sparking collaborations and nurturing the next generation of artists across multiple disciplines.
“With this international scale, the New Music Stage promises to grow into a landmark event for UK and global music, reaffirming the vital role of live discovery in the cultural ecosystem.”
Danny Horn’s Ray Davies, left, Oliver Hoare’s Dave Davies, Zakarie Stokes’s Mick Avory and Harry Curley’s Pete Quaife in Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan
IT may be dreich and dreary outside, but the weather forecast predicts a Sunny Afternoon all week at the Grand Opera House, York.
Welcome back the four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tale of the rise and fall-outs of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, last sparking fireworks here in February 2017, and still as thrilling, visceral, anarchic, smart and smarting as it was when premiered in 2014 by Ray Davies (original story and songs, 29 of them, from the chief Kink’s katalogue) and Joe Penhall (book) before transferring to the West End.
Returning to the York theatre where Davies last played on May 3 2007, his story of sibling rivalry with younger brother “Rave Dave” (lead guitarist, fashion hound) is the fractious London forerunner to the Gallagher brothers’ Manchester ructions. Northern softies by comparison.
Clashing not only with each other but with authority and management too, The Kinks hold their place in pop history as the first British band to be banned from the United States. No wonder Penhall says “they were punk before punk”.
Sunny Afternoon is not a jukebox musical, more a raucously rude reawakening of Davies’s satirical commentaries on English customs, class wars, fashions and fashion, love and loss. The hits are delivered as much by fists – and a cymbal in the case of drummer Mick Avory (Zakarie Stokes) hospitalising Dave Davies (Oliver Hoare) with blows to the head in All Day And All Of The Night at a Cardiff gig – as they are by Ray’s golden pen.
Told with all the electric charge of Dave’s guitar riff for You Really Got Me, this turbulent tale is an eye opener for those familiar with the songs but not the blistered, bruising history from 1963 to 1967’s Waterloo Sunset and onwards to 1969’s American return, peppered with all its riotous controversies, physical and mental exhaustion and love’s headiness and headaches.
The Kinks’ Ray Davies standing in front of a billboard for Sunny Afternoon, on tour this week at the Grand Opera House, York
Equipped with Ray Davies’s inside track on all things Kinks, Penhall’s book is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving (to the point of tears in Dress Circle, Row C, Seat 26), as he charts The Kinks’ rise from rowdy backing band to cavalier working-class lads caught in a maelstrom of mendacious, manipulative management deals and recording contracts, American red tape, band fall-outs and brotherly spats.
We learn, for example, of Ray’s childhood stutter that returns in moments of stress; his refusal to have his gap teeth fixed; his marriage to an expelled Bradford convent girl Rasa (Lisa Wright, as in 2017); his breakdown after the exploitative American tour; how he misses sister Rene, who died when dancing on the day she gave him his first guitar on his 13th birthday.
You will love how songs both feed off or into the storyline, whether in the moment when a homesick Ray (Danny Horn, himself of Muswell Hill stock) craves comforting words down the phone from Rasa, eliciting her rendition of I Go To Sleep (his devastating ballad resurrected by The Pretenders in 1980), or when his breakdown is encapsulated in Too Much On My Mind, made all the more impactful by segueing into Rasa’s frustrated response, Tired Of Waiting.
Likewise, a tired and emotional Dave’s rowdy rendition of I’m Not Like Everybody Else defines Hoare’s Molotov cocktail performance.
The blow-by-blow re-enactment of the creation of two Kinks landmarks book-ends the show, firstly the raucous 1964 number one You Really Got Me, giving equal credit to Dave and Ray for sticking sharp objects into the speaker cone to make that wall-shuddering, ear-shattering guitar squall
Later, and climactically, amid so much turmoil, beauty beyond compare emerges piece by piece in Waterloo Sunset, a song famously denied top spot by The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, but here making you wish you were Terry and Julie meeting at Waterloo station every Friday night.
Joe Penhall: “His bookfor Sunny Afternoon is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving”
Elsewhere, framing 1966 chart topper Sunny Afternoon in the glow of England’s World Cup victory that July makes for a right old London knees-up, while the barbershop quintet reinvention of Days is breathtaking.
Reuniting with Hoare from Sunny Afternoon stints in London in 2015 and Chicago earlier this year, Horn’s Ray leads the show with fire and rage, mischievous wit but the burden of grief too, and their partnership is equally strong in song and sibling flare-ups.
Hoare spells trouble with a capital T as dangerous dandy Dave; Stokes’s volcanic drummer Avory erupts in a remarkable drum solo and Harry Curley’s reserved bassist Pete Quaife is eventually crushed under the weight of the Cain and Abel toxicity.
There is no room for Autumn Almanac, alas, but the likes of Stop Your Sobbing, This Is Where I Belong, The Moneygoround and A Rock’n’Roll Fantasy take Sunny Afternoon beyond the Kinks klassics to the storyline’s benefit.
Miriam Buether’s set and costumes evoke the era in every detail; Adam Cooper’s choreography is almost combustible and Matt McKenzie’s sound design enhances the Kinks’ progression from incendiary, foundation-shaking early numbers to the broader canvas that followed.
Horn and Hoare never let up, their raw energy propelling director Edward Hall’s exhilarating slice of Sixties’ London life to new heights in its potent yet poetic portrait of sunny afternoons and dark days.
Sonia Friedman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow and Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: 12 plus.
Hold the front page: Slava’s SnowShow clowns reading all about it while having a cuppa on their promotional York day trip
SLAVA’S SnowShow will bring blizzard conditions to the Grand Opera House, leaving audiences knee deep in “snow” on next week’s first visit to York in its 32-year history of clowning joy.
Founded by Slava Polunin, this immersive, whimsical, multi-sensory show promises a “cavalcade of chaos and charm that invites you to leave the everyday behind and indulge in pure, tender delight as you enter a dream-like world that will both warm your heart and your funny bone , reminding you of the joy in being wonderfully silly”.
Slava’s company returned to British shores for the first time in seven years last winter for a West End Christmas run at the Harold Pinter Theatre and is now on an autumn tour that brought Slava’s son, Vanya, to York for a day’s promotional work and sightseeing in the week when SnowShow played the Manchester Opera House.
Dressed in clown’s costume and make-up for this interview, Vanya says: “It’s my first time in York and the show’s first time too. We’re very excited to be here, having seen photos of the old streets.”
Slava’s SnowShow clowns taking in the awe-inspiring Gothic edifice of York Minster on their sightseeing trip
Vanya has been on the move in this globe-travelling show since childhood. “I was born in Russia, In Leningrad (now St Petersburg), and I’ve stayed away from Russia for the longest time,” he says. “We left when I was seven, touring with the company, going on tour with Cirque de Soleil in the United States.
“We performed Slava’s SnowShow in the UK for the first time at the Hackney Empire in 1994 and were in the UK for nine years from 1996, when we played the Edinburgh Festival.”
The company did do tours to Russia. “When I saw St Petersburg again for the first time I’d forgotten how beautiful it was,” says Vanya.
He was delighted to be travelling from such a young age. “To avoid being called up for the army, you would have to leave at 16. We toured instead and my talents were much more usefully used making people smile than knowing how to hold a rifle,” he says.
Bubbling up: Slava’s SnowShow clowns in their joyous globe-travelling show
Vanya, now 39, is a key component in a show set within an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose”, a work of art wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons.
“Everybody asks me what’s my favourite scene, and it’s the one that involves a clown in an overcoat with the coat rack on the platform. It’s a very touching scene that shows that clowning is not just about slapstick – and there’s only a little slapstick in our show because we’re not traditional clowns,” says Vanya.
“It’s hard to explain the show but it’s very simple! It’s the story of two characters and the journey they’re going on. It can be confusing and absurd, and in the beginning everyone is a bit confused but then they get to know the characters and it becomes sentimental by the end, when big snow effects take over the whole theatre.”
The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. “Snow is a big part of the show,” says Vanya. “It’s decorative as a prop but because of the theme of the show as well, in my culture, snow holds different meanings: it could be making snowballs, or being trapped in a snowstorm, when it can be isolating or make you feel lonely. So that’s how we use it in the show, in both a scary and joyful way.
Slava’s SnowShow founder Slava Polunin
“Everyone can interpret snow differently, in their own way because, like us, they will have their own connections with snow. We once brought our paper snow to Honolulu [in Hawaii], where they had never seen snow, but they still had snow on their Christmas cards!”
Now the specialist in the international language of snow, Slava Polunin, Vanya’s father, was born in a small town in central Russia, where he discovered the art of pantomime in high school. As he grew into adulthood in Leningrad, he developed an eccentric version of the form that he dubbed lovingly as “Expressive Idiotism”.
From 1979 onwards, Slava became a fixture on Russian stages and television, sharing his gifts and continuing to redefine the art of clowning, exploring its boundless possibilities with his poetic and poignant approach to comic performance.
This discovery reached its zenith with Slava’s SnowShow, a show full of innocence and beauty for all ages. “In a sense, I have been working on this show forever, collecting bit by bit until it became a whole, to express myself fully,” said Slava. “Many things in the show come from childhood memories, like the image of snow, for example, and many others are pure invention in a style of clowning that I had never seen before.”
Slava’s Snow Show clowns and their fish friend taking a breather in St Helen’s Square on their York journey of discovery
Since its debut, the work has travelled all over the world, notching more than 12,000 performances in more than 225 cities across 80 countries and receiving more than 20 international awards, including an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and a Drama Desk Award.
“I started with a tiny role at the age of seven, and now, after my dad, who’s 75, I’m the most veteran of the performers – and he still performs sometimes,” says Vanya.
“The show doesn’t change that much dramatically down the years, because we don’t do things that are current, but do things that are eternal; it could be 100 years before now and it will hopefully still exist in 100 years. It has eternal emotions, friendship, love, fear and loss, so it doesn’t matter what year it is.
“These are the basics and that’s why it’s run so long. We try to connect with the inner child, so children love it, but adults love it too, and everyone leaves feeling like a kid, transforming into their playful self. Whenever things are bad, people turn to the arts for solace.”
Slava’s SnowShow clowns clowning around on the Clifford’s Tower hillock
No two audiences are the same, says Vanya. “Everywhere we go, they are different, and not just from country to country, but city to city,” he explains. “In the first Act, we spend time looking for what rhythm of comedy they like. Is it slapstick or dramatic? What makes them laugh?
“For us, it’s really important to see how slow we can do the show as we are day-dreaming clowns, where we like to take it slowly without losing their attention! Clowning has evolved, and in the form that we’re doing it, it’s a new evolution.”
After bubbles and the spider’s web that is passed across the audience, Slava’s Snow Show climaxes with a paper snow blizzard and big balloons. “We used to cut out the paper snowflakes with scissors, then with paper cutters, but now we order in our snow,” says Vanya. “It’s not a snow machine, but make-believe snow as you don’t get wet from paper!”
Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23; 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: Eight upwards.
Why the sad face?The frown meets the clown as CharlesHutchPress interviews Slava’s SnowShow’s Vanya Polunin at the Grand Opera House, York
