On the stretch: Phoenix Dance Theatre dancers in Interplay, premiering at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre returns to York Theatre Royal for tomorrow and Saturday’s world premiere performances of Interplay.
Presented in association with the Theatre Royal, this powerful mixed bill brings together work by international choreographers Travis Knight and James Pett (Pett Clausen-Knight), Ed Myhill, Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis.
Chief executive Paul Crewes, who has overseen a surge in dance performances at York Theatre Royal, says: “We are delighted to support Phoenix Dance Theatre with the premiere of Interplay and to give York audiences the first opportunity to see this eclectic and dynamic programme of contemporary dance performed on our stage.”
Introducing Interplay, Marcus says: “This dynamic programme celebrates creative collaboration, placing dialogue, contrast and connection at its heart.”
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
“Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience,” says Marcus.
Originally premiered in New York in 2013, Willis’s Next Of Kinhas been re-imagined for Phoenix to highlight the duet’s exploration of the subtle humour and tension between two kindred spirits navigating life together.
Ed Myhill’s Why Are People Clapping?!, restaged by Camille Giraudeau, is set to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music and uses rhythm as its driving force. Combining wit with precision, the choreography highlights the music of life: how rhythm can be found in a tennis match, footsteps in an empty street and in the beat of our own hearts.
In Travis Knightand James Pett’s Small Talk, two figures inhabit a shared yet distant space. Through quiet gestures and unresolved tension, the work reflects on relationships that fade, not through catastrophe, but through the slow exhaustion of time.
The work showcases a portrait of two people held in a fragile stand-off, suspended between what they once knew and what they can no longer admit.
Interplay concludes with a new collaboration between Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Marcus Jarrell Willis. Inspired by ritual, meditation and the roots of hip-hop and house culture, Suite Release reclaims dance as instinct, resistance and communal connection and joy, inviting audiences not only to witness movement, but also to remember it.
Marcus says: “I’ve always found it intriguing to observe dual artistic expression: the ways two creative minds come together and collaboratively work towards one goal in creation, while maintaining their individual artistic expressions.
“The programme consists of different forms of artistic duality, through choreographic voices, as well as the structure of the dance works themselves. I think it will be interesting for an audience to see a full programme that focuses on this particular theme – duality – while highlighting a range of different works.”
Marcus continues: “I wanted to commission choreographers that have unique perspectives of what contemporary dance looks like today, which is what I believe Phoenix Dance Theatre stands for in this iteration of the company.
“While the works are all linked by the theme of duality, the mixed bill offers something for every audience member from any background to connect with. The choreographers themselves come from various backgrounds across the UK and internationally, providing the opportunity to see dance through multiple lenses.”
Marcus, who became Phoenix’s ninth artistic director in Autumn 2023 after seven years in Cardiff, concluded his first tour – Belonging – at York Theatre Royal in May 2024. “This is our first time back in York since then, and I’m excited about maintaining our relationship,” he says. “It’s a lovely theatre, where the audience received the company so well and we so enjoyed our post-show discussion, when, as whenever possible, we had the entire company involved because it’s good for them.”
Now Interplay, as its title suggests, “taps into what it means to have ‘interplay’ in different forms that we can bring together, either through choreographic partnerships or duo pieces, so it’s all about dual relationships and duos pairing up, “ says Marcus. “In this case, we have two re-shaped works, Next Of Kin and Why Are People Clapping?!, and two new creations, Small Talk and Suite Release.”
Highlighting the creative partnerships, he says: “Travis Knightand James Pett regularly create together. I believe they’re based in London but they work all over the place.
“Suite Release, a title that’s a play on words, brings me together with a choreographer that I’ve danced with for many years, Yusha-Marie Sorzano.
“We decided to do a piece about music and our relationship with music, and how we grew up together and lived our lives, so it’s a bit of a party! I’m originally from Eastern Texas, Musha was from Trinidad, then grew up in Mexico, and we met as teenagers in New York City.
“So this work is about remembering; remembering how to move and dance and connect to music – and that comes from our experiences and universal feelings, because our dance company is so diverse.
“That’s why we hit the sweet spot with Suite Release, remembering why we dance and thinking about what that means when we’re living in a world with so much weight in it, so much going on, where we need a release.”
Interplay encapsulates his artistic philosophy. “New York was so varied in its possibilities and artistic approaches, and I’m just cracking on with what I do with Phoenix,” he says.
Phoenix Dance Theatre presents Interplay, in association with York Theatre Royal, at York Theatre Royal, February 27, with post-show discussion; February 28, 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatrerotal.co.uk. Also Leeds Playhouse, March 31 to April 2, 7.30pm; 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.co.uk.
York Theatre Royal’s poster to announce this autumn’s production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad
YORK Theatre Royal will stage a major revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, under the direction of creative director Juliet Forster this autumn.
Adapted from the Canadian novelist, essayist and poet’s 2005 novella of the same name, this exuberant feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids.
Forster’s production will open on October 14, preceded by previews from October 10, and will run until October 24.
“Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive, and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed,” says Juliet. “The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast-paced visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens.
“The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we’ll be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.”
The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. Now comes the first major UK revival since that production.
York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster
Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, revisits The Odyssey in a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths.
Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it is time to hear the story of those left behind.
Reimagining this ancient tale, The Penelopiad finds Penelope wandering the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge.
Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Atwood and interwoven with songs, York Theatre Royal’s production will be directed by Little Women and Around The World In 80 Days-ish! director Forster in an exuberant and witty retelling that questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth.
Priority booking for YTR members is under way; general sales will open on February 28 at 1pm on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Margaret Atwood: back story
HER work has been published in more than 45 countries. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale(recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and subsequently adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV series); The Robber Bride; Alias Grace; The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker prize); Cat’s Eye; The Edible Woman; Surfacing;Life Before Man; Bodily Harm; The Testaments (winner of the Booker prize) and The MaddAddam Trilogy.
Her poetry collections include Double Persephone, The Circle Game, Power Politics, Morning In The Burned House and The Door. Her essay collections include Negotiating With The Dead and Burning Questions. Her novella The Penelopiad was published in 2005 and adapted in 2007 for the stage, marking her first theatrical work.
Stripped back: The Full Monty to return in 2027 tour
THE 30th anniversary of Peter Cattaneo’s Sheffield stripping film The Full Monty will be marked by the 2027 tour of screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy’s spin-off play that will visit the Grand Opera House, York, from July 12 to 17.
The tour will be mounted by the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, and Buxton Opera House in association with Mark Goucher and David Pugh.
Tickets will go on sale to ATG+ members on Wednesday, March 11 at 10am, followed by general sales from Thursday, March 12 at 10am. Star casting will be announced in due course.
Beaufoy’s heartfelt play tells the story of an ordinary group of men in South Yorkshire’s Steel City striving to reclaim their dignity and pride. Fast paced and irresistibly humorous, it remains strikingly relevant today, resonating powerfully in an era marked once again by a cost-of-living crisis.
What happens in The Full Monty? Gaz and his mates find themselves down on their luck, cast aside and underestimated, but determined to fight back, even if it means revealing more than they ever imagined.
Beaufoy says: “A lot has changed in Britain since The Full Monty appeared 30 years ago. What hasn’t changed is our need for laughter, compassion and dignity. I’m so delighted the ‘Monty Men’ are back on the road with all their flaws, jokes and wobbly bits, bringing a bit of much-needed joy to audiences once again.”
Echoing the 1997 smash-hit film, next year’s touring production will deliver a rollercoaster of humour and heartbreak as audiences are invited to relive the iconic music of the 1990s, cheering on the unforgettable group of lads as they prepare to put on the show of their lives.
Beaufoy received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for The Full Monty, later winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire.
The Full Monty tour production will be directed by Michael Gyngell, with choreography and intimacy direction by Ian West, set and costume design by Jasmine Swann, lighting design by Andrew Exeter and sound design by Chris Whybrow. The casting director is Marc Frankum.
Nick Sephton’s Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm and Jason Weightman’s Fredrik Egerman duelling and duetting in Wharfemede Productions’ A Little Night Music. All pictures: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
“LET’S make romance emotionally devastating and funny,” Stephen Sondheim once said, and the New York lyricist and composer was never more playful than in his 1973 musical A Little Night Music.
Here it forms North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions’ third show since being formed by Helen “Bells” Spencer and Nick Sephton in autumn 2024.
“Few writers capture the glorious mess of love quite like Sondheim,” posits director Spencer in her programme director’s note, describing Sondheim’s savvy 1902 Swedish sexual shenanigans as elegant and biting, romantic and relentless, funny and quietly heartbreaking, often all at once, in its rumble-tumble of desire, regret, hope and desperate quest for happiness
James Pegg’s Henrik Egerman: As gloomy as his cello playing in A Little Night Music
Her production, eloquent, waspish of wit, balanced between light and weighty, captures all those qualities most fruitfully and fruitily. Precise in style and movement, her direction places equal emphasis on Hugh Wheler’s fizzing dialogue and Sondheim’s confessional, candid songs that call on quintet, trio, duet and solo performance in equal measure, steered with elan by musical director and Sondheim expect James Robert Ball, in charge of his eight-piece band (split between keys, strings and reeds).
Rooted in Ingmar Bergman’s film 1955 film Smiles Of A Summer Night, whose story of several couples’ interlinked romantic lives it mirrors so smartly, Sondheim’s ever-perceptive depiction of love being “rarely simple, frequently ill timed and deeply human” – to quote Spencer once more – is played out by the juiciest of casts, assembling the cream of York and Leeds stage talent (several having appeared alongside Spencer in Les Miserables at Leeds Grand Theatre last year).
They range from Maggie Smales, Theatre@41 trustee and esteemed York actress and director, as wheelchair-bound grande dame Madame Armfeldt, with her glut of putdowns in the curmudgeonly old-stick manner of her fellow Maggie, Dame Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, to Libby Greenhill, A-level student in humanities and creative subjects, who impressed in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Fun Home last September and now plays granddaughter Fridrika with emotional frankness.
Maggie Smales’s grande dame, Madame Armfeldt
Libby Greenhill as Fredrika Armfeldt and director Helen “Bells” Spencer as her mother, Desiree Armfeldt, in A Little Night Music
Crucial to Spencer’s directorial impact is the prominence of the Liebeslieder Singers, alias The Quintet, omnipresent in white dresses and cream suits as they greet you at the top of the stairs, sell programmes, open Act One with the overlapping la-la-las of Night Waltz, then become a cross between a Greek chorus and Shakespeare’s mischief-making Puck, moving the principals into place as if in a dream or a pictorial tableau at the start of various scenes.
Under Rachel Merry’s slick choreography, they slip seamlessly between foreground and background as Mrs Nordstrom (Emma Burke), Mrs Anderson (Hannah Thomson), Mrs Segstrom (Merry herself), Mr Erlansson (Matthew Oglesby) and Mr Lindquist (Richard Pascoe), their harmony singing delighting in Remember? and the Act Two-opening The Sun Won’t Set, as well as when accompanying the principals in the plot-thickening and summarising A Weekend In The Country.
The sophisticated but Tabasco-saucy Scandi scandals of A Little Night Music are led by Spencer’s Desiree Armfeldt, the darling of the Swedish stage, bored by the chore of touring the same old plays but seeking satisfaction from married men, Nick Sephton’s pompous, blustering, time-keeping dragoon buffoon, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, forever up for a pistol duel, and middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman (Jason Weightman), yet to consummate his marriage to 18-year-old, hair-obsessed Anne (Alexandra Mather) after 11 months but still desirous of old flame Desiree’s ample, bewitching charms.
Mind the age gap: Alexandra Mather’s 18-year-old Anne Egerman and Jason Weightman’s Fredrik Egerman, her husband, in A Little Night Music
Spencer’s programme note talks of A Little Night Music asking its performers to “live fully inside both comedy and pain”, a state crystalised in James Pegg’s Henrik Egerman, Fredrik’s troubled son, who is taking holy orders but is wholly smitten by his stepmother, Mather’s Anne, who chides his earnest outbursts as comical, the more he vexates.
Pegg’s outstanding, devastatingly honest performance recalls Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, the suicidal student in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, and let’s hope the York debut of this Leeds actor and higher education professional service leader will lead to further roles here.
Katie Brier catches the eye in the rumbustiously fetching ‘downstairs” role of Petra, whether introducing Henrik to the birds and bees or romping with fellow servant Frid (Chris Gibson).
Swedish actress Sanna Jeppsson’s Countess Charlotte Malcolm
As Desiree’s weekend invitation to her grand and glamorous country estate leads to much web-tangling amid partner swaps, new pairings, sudden seductions and second chances, Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson comes to the fore as the dunderheaded Count’s exasperated wife, Countess Charlotte, making every ice-cold comic interjection count on renewed home turf.
Sondheim’s romping costume drama is filled with barbed wit, caustic bite and a delicious sense of Scandinavian desperation, topped off by sublime singing, from Weightman, Pegg and Mather’s complex Now/Later/Sooner to Weightman’s Fredrik in his insensitive You Must Meet My Wife duet with Spencer’s Desiree; Jeppsson and Mather’s jilted Every Day A Little Death to the sparring of Weightman and Sephton’s It Would Have Been Wonderful.
Brier maximises her moment in the spotlight in The Miller’s Son; Spencer tops everything with Send In The Clowns, all the more moving for tapping deep into Desiree’s desolation.
Make sure to enjoy Sondheim’s weekend in the country this week in Wharfemede’s combustible combination of courage, comedy, co-ordinated chaos and commitment.
Wharfemede Productions, A Little Night Music, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm tonight, tomorrow and Friday; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rachel Merry’s Mrs Segstrom, left, Emma Burke’s Mrs Nordstrom, Hanna Thomson’s Mrs Anderssen and fellow member of The Quintet Matthew Oglesby’s Mr Erlansson in A Little Night Music
Mark Simmons: Expertly crafted one-liners and off-the-cuff jinks with the audience at Pocklington Arts Centre
FISHING community memories, an abbey light installation and an exhibition addressing loneliness make for a diverse week ahead in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.
One-liners of the week: Mark Simmons, Jest To Impress, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
CANTERBURY jester Mark Simmons won Dave’s Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 with this gag: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it”. Now he follows up his 200-date Quip Off The Mark two-year UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand tour with Jest To Impress, a new show packed with one-liners, alongside his trademark off-the-cuff jokes based on random audience suggestions.
Simmons also hosts the Jokes With Mark Simmons podcast, where he invites fellow comics, such as Gary Delaney, Sarah Millican and Milton Jones, to discuss jokes that, for whatever reason, would not work. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The poster for What The Sea Saw’s fishing stories at Helmsley Arts Centre
Rehearsed reading of the week: 1812 Theatre Company presents What The Sea Saw, Helmsley Arts Centre, Jean Kershaw Auditorium, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm
SET in Scarborough’s Bottom End and capturing the verbatim first-hand testimonies of remaining members of the fishing families, Helena Fox’s new play recounts the tragic events of the 1954 Lifeboat Disaster through the eyes of witnesses, as well as capturing the lost cultures and working practices of the coastal community, including the role of women in skeining and baiting.
Directed by Heather Findlay, the fundraising event for Scarborough RNLI features Stamford Bridge’s Big Shanty Crew’s performance of Scarborough 54. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Imitating The Dog light up Selby Abbey for three days of Selby Light 2026
Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, tomorrow to Saturday, 6pm to 9pm
SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?
Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.
The 20ft Squid Blues Band: Combining 1950s’ Chicago style with 1960s’ blues explosion at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The 20ft Squid Blues Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
THE 20ft Squid Blues Band, from Sheffield, play upbeat, fast, irreverent blues, combining elements of the 1950s’ Chicago style with the more wayward aspects of the 1960s’ blues explosion.
They mix self-penned songs with numbers made famous by Howling Wolf and Little Walter, while throwing in artists not so obviously from the blues tradition, such as Tom Waits and Prince. Expect eye-popping harmonica, thundering bass, intricate beats and choice guitar. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Nick Doody: Topping Hilarity Bites Comedy Club line-up at Milton Rooms, Malton
Comedy bill of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Nick Doody, Ed Purnell and Will Duggan, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
IN the first Hilarity Bites bill of 2026, Nick Doody will be joined by Ed Purnell and Will Duggan. Doody first performed as a student in the 1990s when he supported Bill Hicks at Hicks’ request, since when he has performed all over the world and written for Joan Rivers, Lenny Henry, Dame Edna Everage and Mock The Week regulars aplenty.
In a clever spin, Purnell, Ecuador’s numero uno comedian, delivers his set in Spanish with a sprinkling of English, whereupon audiences realise they can understand him without speaking his mother tongue. Duggan is a quick and witty host. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Phoenix Dance: Presenting world premiere of Interplay at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2pm, 7.30pm
LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!) Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin.
Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Holly Taymar: Performing the best of Eva Cassidy’s back catalogue at Milton Rooms, Malton
Tribute gig of the week: Holly Taymar Sings Eva Cassidy, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 8pm
YORK singer-songwriter Holly Taymar turns the spotlight on Eva Cassidy, one of the most beloved voices of the 20th century. Revelling in Cassidy’s blend of folk, jazz and blues, she performs renditions of Fields Of Gold, Songbird, Over The Rainbow and Autumn Leaves.
“My show show is not an impersonation,” says Taymar. “It’s a heartfelt homage to an artist who left a lasting impact on my development as an artist and on the world of music.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word: Exhibition collaboration between Hannah Turlington and local and wider community at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition launch of the week: Hannah Turlington, Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word, Helmsley Arts Centre, March 3 to May 1
LONELINESS Is Not A Dirty Word is a collaboration between artist Hannah Turlington and the local and wider community, involving sessions where participants were invited to share their own experiences of loneliness by creating pieces of visual art in a variety of mediums.
The resulting exhibition aims to create space for the viewer to consider their own narratives of loneliness and reduce the stigma associated with being lonely.
Del Amitri’s Justin Currie, left, and Iain Harvie: Cherry-picking from four decades of songs at York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Del Amitri, Past To Present UK Tour 2026, November 16
GLASGOW band Del Amitri will open their 17-date Past To Present autumn tour at York Barbican, where core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will mark four decades of songs, stories and live shows. Ticket will go on general sale on Friday at 9.30am at www.gigsandtours.com, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.
The career-spanning set list will chart their early breakthroughs, classic singles such as Nothing Ever Happens, Always The Last To Know and Roll To Me, fan favourites and recording renaissance after an 18-year hiatus with 2021’s Fatal Mistakes.
York landscape artist, printmaker, workshop tutor and now author Michelle Hughes in her garden studio. Picture: Jackson Portraiture
YORK printmaker and workshop tutor Michelle Hughes’ debut art book, Printing Birds And Wildlife In Linocut, is published today by the Crowood Press.
“The slow boat from India must have sped up significantly as my publisher has emailed me to say it’s arrived at the distributors,” says a delighted Michelle, of St Swithin’s Walk, Holgate, York. “It’s all a bit of a surprise that it’s here because there’d been a delay.”
That delay led Michelle to decide to arrange the official launch for Wednesday, April 15 in the Harriet Room at York Cemetery, where doors will open at 6.30pm for the 7pm start.
“It will be by invitation only due to space constraints,” says landscape artist Michelle, who makes limited-edition linocut prints inspired by the Yorkshire coast, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and the Lake District and the wildlife observed from her garden studio.
“Partly because of the date, the launch will have an element of a ten-year celebration too to thank everyone who’s supported and been part of my journey as a printmaker since June 2016, when I launched my business. I’ll probably do a short talk and have examples of the prints and blocks. Plus, of course, I’ll be signing books.”
As of today, Printing Birds And Wildlife In Linocut is available from online retailers and bookshops. Alternatively, to order the book for delivery or to pre-order signed copies to collect from Michelle’s studio, visit: https://www.michellehughesdesign.com/printing-birds-and-wildlife-in-linocut-book.
Michelle Hughes’s book cover artwork for Printing Birds And Wildlife In Linocut
“In August 2023, I was approached by the Crowood Press [independent publishers of specialist books at The Stable Block, Ramsbury, Marlborough] to write a book on making linocut prints,” she says. “It took me 20 months to write, make the linocut prints, photograph each step, edit it, and have friends proof-read it.
“As I went along, I laid it out in line with Crowood’s in-house style and formatted it as I wanted it to appear in the book, to understand how it would visually look to the reader. I’ve poured my heart and soul into it.”
Last May, Michelle handed in her 42,000-word, 660-photograph manuscript and lay-out to the publishers. Several rounds of proof-reading and lay-out by a professional typesetter ensued, and now the 176-page book is not only published at £18.99 but has been selected as one of the top 25 books to have generated the most support for independent bookshops in the past month.
“This beautiful book explains how to capture the joy of nature in the versatility of linocut,” says Michelle. “From a simple idea or sketch, it guides you through the process of planning designs, carving and then successfully printing your work.
“Projects with detailed step-by-step instructions further demonstrate the process with one-colour and jigsaw prints, before advancing to reduction and multi-block prints. All are shown with the most endearing images that capture the enchanting characteristics of our much-loved British birds and wildlife.”
She continues: “With clear instructions, detailed demonstrations and expert tips developed from years of teaching, this book is designed to help you grow with confidence at any stage of your creative journey.
A close-up of Michelle Hughes carving a linocut. Picture: Jackson Portraiture
“Inside the book, you’ll discover 15 newly created linocut prints celebrating British birds and wildlife, alongside a selection of much-loved favourites. Each print is inspired by wildlife which visits my own garden and memorable encounters on countryside walks.”
Michelle grew up making things, sewing, not least crafting, and creating her own clothes, then studied for an ND in Design at Mid-Warwickshire College of Further Education, Leamington Spa, from 1987 to 1989 and an HND in Fashion Design at Southampton Solent University from 1989 to 1991.
After 25 years of designing fashion, textiles and homeware for major high-street brands, a fourth redundancy in 2016 gave her the space to experiment and play with linocut printmaking, becoming a self-taught printmaker.
She now exhibits at open studios and print fairs, works on commissions, including for the National Trust, and has taught more than 1,000 students worldwide through small group workshops in her print studio since July 2017 and online linocut courses since the Covid pandemic of 2020-2021.
“My creative process starts with photographs taken while walking and cycling,” she says. “I then transform landscapes and wildlife into simplified graphic shapes, applying a limited colour palette. I create limited-edition prints using the multi-block linocut method, hand-carving lino blocks for each colour and printing with oil-based inks.”
Michelle will be demonstrating that technique when participating in York Open Studios 2026 at 67, St Swithin’s Walk on April 18 and 19, when 150 artists and makers will be taking part at 107 venues, including 27 new artists in the 24th year of the annual art festival. Full details can be found at https://yorkopenstudios.co.uk/artists-makers/.
Michelle’s book will be on sale at York Open Studios, where once more she will be signing copies.
Michelle Hughes printing a linocut in her St Swithin’s Walk studio
Michelle Hughes: back story
Education
1971: Born in Coventry and grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon.
1987-1989: ND in Design at Mid-Warwickshire College of Further Education, Leamington Spa.
1989-1991: HND in Fashion Design at Southampton Solent University.
Fashion, textiles and homeware career
1991: Moved to London.
1991-2003: Fashion and textile design for Gable Clothing Company UK Ltd, H.A. Clothing Company, Principles and Evans (The Arcadia Group), Freemans Plc and River Island.
2003-2005: Regional creative manager for Disney Home Europe.
2005-2006: Career break, volunteering for Rajana Arts and Crafts, Cambodia, and travelling in Southeast Asia.
2006: Moved to York.
2006-2009: Design manager, for Shared Earth, Fair Trade homeware and giftware retailer.
2009-2011: Senior graphic designer for Room for Design.
2011-2016: Design manager for cook and dine range at George Home, Asda Stores Ltd.
Michelle Hughes Design business
Jan 2016: Redundancy for fourth time.
June 2016: Started own business, Michelle Hughes Design.
April 2016: Joined York Printmakers.
Oct 2016: First exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery in York with York Printmakers.
July 2017: Started teaching linocut workshops in garden studio.
April 2018: First exhibited at York Open Studios.
March 2020: Launched e-commerce shop.
July 2020: Launched How To Make A Linocut Print For Beginners online course.
May 2021: Launched How To Make A Multi-block Linocut Print online course.
August 2023: Approached by independent publisher The Crowood Press to write book about how to make linocut prints.
February 24 2026: Publication of first book Printing Birds And Wildlife In Linocut.
Michelle Hughes holding a copy of her newly published book
Michelle Hughes’s creative journey
Growing up: A childhood of making things
“I’VE always loved making things and being creative. My favourite phrase was, and still is, ‘I could make that’. If I don’t know how to, I’ll certainly have a go,” says Michelle.
“Sewing, crafts and baking were my biggest interests. In my early teens, I made soft toys that I would sell to a local gift shop opposite Shakespeare’s birthplace in my home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. I still have the costing and sales book. I kept track of it all! An early entrepreneur in the making!! I went on to make all my own clothes.
“As a child of the 1970s, Tony Hart and Blue Peter greatly influenced my childhood. I loved making a Sindy doll clothes shop, filled with clothes I’d made too. I also liked drawing. I would spend hours sketching Disney characters. Ironically, I ended up working for Disney!”
Studying design and fashion
“MY strongest subjects at school were Maths, sewing, art and the sciences. I didn’t have a particular ‘I want to be something’ growing up. I just knew I liked making things.
“I took a two-year National Diploma in Design, specialising in fashion design in my second year. I excelled at the pattern-cutting and making part of the course and created a wedding dress collection for the end-of-year show.
“I then moved to Southampton to study for a two-year Higher National Diploma in Fashion Design. I graduated in 1991 at the age of 20. I have been lucky enough to be working as a designer ever since.”
Designing for well-known high street brands
“FROM 1991 to 2005, I worked my way up the career ladder in fashion, textile design and homeware. I designed for high-street retailers such as The Arcadia Group, Freeman’s catalogue and Disney. You may own something I’ve designed!”
London calling
“MY tutor recommended me for a junior textile design job in London. I had been hopeless at textile design at college and wasn’t a city girl at all. I did need a job, though. I applied, did the application design project for my second interview and got the job!
“So, at 20, I moved to London. It was a steep learning curve, and I was way out of my comfort zone. Back then, textile design concepts were still painted by hand using gouache paints. Each colour was mixed to the exact Pantone shade of the retailer’s palette. This is where I developed my strong eye for colour. I also learned how to create textile patterns and graphics.
“I worked my way up the career ladder in fashion and textile design, designing for high-street retailers such as Principles and Evans, part of The Arcadia Group, and Freeman’s catalogue.”
A change in direction: Homeware design
“AFTER 15 years in fashion design, I felt the need for change. I’d had enough of fast fashion and wanted to move into designing homeware. That seemed easy, as I had all the transferable skills, but I met a lot of resistance from recruitment agencies.
“I was contacted about a new role being created at Disney Consumer Products. As someone with a broad, adaptable skill base, I fit right in. I went on to set up the Pan European Creative Managers role for Disney Home and Disney Baby.
“My role was to develop the creative direction for Disney characters and films. I worked with the local European teams to create a cohesive look across Europe. Developing ranges on everything from Disney Princess bedding to Winnie the Pooh lunch boxes was great fun.”
In search of more meaning: Travel and designing for Fair Trade
“I’D climbed the career ladder and had a successful career, but something was missing. I longed to do something with more meaning and give something back. I also wanted to travel more as I hadn’t taken a gap year after graduating.
“In 2015, I quit my job to go backpacking around Southeast Asia for a year. I spent four months in Cambodia volunteering for a Fair Trade company in Phnom Penh.
“They had three gift shops and worked with an in-house team of artisan makers, as well as small producers and craftspeople across the country. I worked with them to develop their ranges and help improve their marketing. I loved every minute of it.”
Moving to York: A happy accident
“RETURNING to the UK, I didn’t want to return to city life or return to the rat race in London. At 35, I moved back in with my mum and dad to look for a design job in Fair Trade. It wasn’t easy, as most companies are pretty small.
“Months of cold calling led me to a design vacancy at Shared Earth in York. I came up for an interview and got the job. A few weeks later, I moved up here without a sense of where this new chapter in Yorkshire would take me.
“Shared Earth was one of the UK’s largest fair trade retailers and wholesalers. We developed ranges with more than 30 producers, craftspeople, and artisan makers worldwide.
“I became their had of design, developing homeware and gift ranges. I also created a fresh, cohesive look for Shared Earth’s branding and marketing materials. Communicating how the products were made, by whom, and the difference the purchase made was very important.”
Not everything goes to plan.
“THE recession hit, and many of the senior management roles were made redundant.
“I put a ‘help, I need a job’ post on Facebook, and a few days later, I had an interview for a maternity cover graphic design role at a design agency. I got it. Phew! Not being a formally trained graphic designer, I felt I had a lot to prove, which was another steep learning curve.
“When that ended, I was looking for work again. The design world is very London-centric, so it’s not easy.
“A role emerged at George Home at Asda, designing home accessories and lighting. It wasn’t right in my heart, but I had bills to pay. I remember crying when I got the job. It meant I was back designing in the commercial world again. Don’t get me wrong, it was a brilliant role.
“I became the design manager for the Cook and Dine range. We designed everything from the graphic illustrations on mugs and tableware to all-over prints on tea towels. They hadn’t had a designer on the team before, but I enjoyed the challenge.
“I worked with a team of in-house designers, freelancers, buyers and merchandisers on multiple ranges each year. We developed thousands of products each season.”
Sewing the seeds of change
“THE corporate world was all I’d ever known. I’d already tried to escape the rat race once before but had got sucked back in.
“I couldn’t imagine working in highly stressful head-office environments for the rest of my career. In design manager roles, I had lost sight of hands-on design work. My time was spent on strategic direction, planning what the trends and ranges would look like and overseeing designers or briefing freelancers to make that come to life. Plus, there are lots of meetings and endless emails!
“I’m a great fan of vision boards. I took two days off after ‘Barmoor’, a weekend yoga retreat near Hutton-le-Hole in the North York Moors. I created mood boards showing what I’d achieved, my strengths, and elements that could be part of a future business. I used pictures of things I’d designed or made, brands or products I adored or aspired to and inspirational quotes.
“I create vision boards or mood boards a lot. They’re a good idea because they clarify everything. They cemented what I had done so far and how I view myself. Although I didn’t know what would come next, I was clearer about what was important to me and what I liked. I also knew that my true inner confidence was rock bottom. Only one thing for that was to get help, and that’s what I did.”
Leap of faith: Starting own business in 2016
“MY fourth redundancy in January 2016 was an opportunity to make a significant lifestyle change, be it a scary one.
“Although it was, in part, what I’d been planning, I wasn’t ready; I didn’t have a plan (I’m a big planner). How on earth would I make a living? I hated the thought of working alone, as I loved being part of a team, bouncing ideas and bringing them to life. I’m a worrier, too and dreaded the thought of financial insecurity.
“I was in China on a buying trip when we heard about redundancies. I’d said, ‘If my role is one of them, then that’s it. I’m not working for anyone else ever again’. It had been my fourth redundancy. I’d become more resilient, as you have to be, and proactively found something else each time, but in my heart, I meant what I said.
“So, with one big shove, off I went. This was the beginning of my journey into self-employment. I started my own business in June 2016.”
Following dreams: A tale of two halves
“I INITIALLY set my business up purely as a graphic designer, offering design support to local businesses. That made sense, and in time, I would pay the bills.
“I had no intention of becoming an artist. I’d always seen making crafts or art as a hobby rather than a career choice. Plus, it’s tough to make a living from it. Sadly, we don’t seem to value handmade things and traditional crafts as much as we should.”
First graphic design briefs
“TO build my portfolio for my new business, I offered to refresh Hawthorn’s logo. They said yes in exchange for printmaking inks and tools. Win-win! This led to Hawthorn’s recommending me to Angela at Beetle Bank Farm. I went on to create their branding and marketing materials, using linocut to develop the initial design concepts.”
Time to play creatively: The craft of print
“THE craftsmanship of printmaking appealed. I’m a maker at heart. I love making things by hand and feeling that connection through all my senses. Linocut seemed like the natural choice. It’s also a craft or art form which is easy to get started with at home, with just a few simple tools and materials. Lino cutting at home doesn’t have to be expensive.
“I’d always been a fan of Angie Lewin’s linocuts and woodcut prints, and I’ve always loved mid-century design, whether that’s 1950s’ clothing or salvaging vintage furniture for my home. I love vintage railway posters and Japanese woodblock prints, too. There’s something about their graphic style and colour use.”
Learning to linocut: First linocut print
“IN terms of timelines, I’m going back a bit here. I first tried lino print in July 2013. There was a craft fair at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in York. One of the makers had a ‘have a go’ table. I’d always liked the style of linocut and thought I’d have a go.
“With a full-on design career, there wasn’t much creative time for me outside of work. Apart from a few simple cards and gifts for friends. It wasn’t until I was made redundant in January 2016 that I found the time to play with lino properly.
“I’m entirely self-taught. I’d play and experiment. Some things worked, and others did not, but it was good to be back ‘playing’ with creativity.
“I used soft-cut lino for my early designs as I had basic lino tools. I also used what I’ve coined as ‘the jigsaw method’. Back then, I thought I’d made it up, but it seems a few others had been making prints that way too. My first series of Yorkshire Dales linocut prints was all created this way.”
Finding own style
“SINCE I started my career at 20, I’d always designed for other brands and didn’t have my own personal style. The focus had been on what was right for their brand, customers, style and trends.
“Using basic beginner’s tools, I played with ideas in my cold, dusty garage. I had my Eureka moment when I created my Yorkshire Dales and Teal Sunflowers linocut prints.
“Since then, my style has evolved and refined. I’m known for my use of colour and simple stylised silhouettes, particularly of local Yorkshire landscapes. I often use paths to draw your eye through the picture. I draw on my textile and graphic design experience for my use of colour and composition.”
Inspired by nature: Desire for adventure
“MY work reflects my love of nature and the great outdoors. My desire to rekindle the freedom of travel from my backpacking days in Asia has led me to explore what’s on my doorstep.
“I walk and cycle to gather inspiration. I don’t like to just grab a photo from Google. I need to see, feel and experience the landscape for myself. Observing my surroundings, I capture the colours, shapes and textures of nature, landscapes, wildlife, and building styles on my camera before returning to my studio to sketch ideas that capture the essence of the place.
“On walks, friends often say that they now ‘experience a view through the eyes of Michelle’, which is rather lovely.”
Joining the York Printmakers creative community
“IN April 2016, I joined York Printmakers. I felt like a fraud. I’d dabbled with linocut, but nothing that was any good.
“The group formed in 2015 and was in the process of creating its logo. Not a dry corporate one, but one where each member had created a letter in their style and printmaking technique.
“To begin with, I volunteered to design their logo, incorporating the letters the group’s members had created through various printmaking techniques. I made the linocut letter Y.
“Graphic design and bringing ideas together were something I could do. The group is incredibly friendly and welcoming to printmakers of all levels, but my own self-doubt wasn’t having that.
“Going through redundancy is mentally quite challenging, and no matter how much I’ve told myself not to take it personally, I do, and it knocks my confidence. In many ways, designing the logo gave me a sense of purpose, and I felt that I could offer something useful to the group.”
Exhibiting for the first time
“YORK Printmakers’ support and encouragement spurred me on to create new lino prints. Joining the group’s first exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery in York in October 2016 gave me something to work towards. I was bitten by the bug and asked to exhibit my work there again.”
Living the dream: Garden studio
“LIKE many artists and makers, I started working on my kitchen table. I often used my very cold and dusty garage for printing.
“In March 2017, I converted my dusty, cold garage into a bright, light, warm, inspiring workspace. Back then, I’d lived here for ten years and had always dreamed of making better use of the space.
“Redundancy money allowed me to convert my garage into a light, airy, insulated garden studio. I live in a quiet suburb of York, with a view of Holgate Windmill.
“I love the quality of light, even on the greyest day. I have windows overlooking my garden, so it brings the outdoors in. It’s such a relaxed place to work. Listening to birdsong is quite idyllic.”
Learning new linocut techniques
“IN 2017, I started experimenting with making multicoloured prints using the multi-block technique. Usually, a separate lino block is carved for each colour layer within a linocut print. “It takes a lot of planning to ensure the registration of each lino block line up when printed. I’m very mathematical and enjoyed pattern cutting at fashion college, so I guess I use a lot of those skills. Now, I mainly use the multi-block method to create my linocut prints.”
York Open Studios
“I APPLIED for the 2017 York Open Studios but sadly wasn’t accepted. I applied the following year and was accepted, taking part in my first event in April 2018. I’ve applied and taken part each year since then, as well as hosting my own open studio events. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet people and share how I create my linocut prints.”
Sharing a passion through linocut workshops and online courses
“I WANTED to inspire others to make more time in their lives for a creative hobby, and in July 2017, I started running linocut workshops from my York studio.
“I teach small groups of four, so everyone gets lots of one-to-one attention. I thoroughly enjoy teaching them. The look on people’s faces when they peel back the paper from the lino block for the first time is an absolute joy, even more so when someone has started the day saying they’re not arty or can’t draw.
“Initially, I taught beginners through my introduction to linocut workshops. Participants learn how to use lino tools to create various marks and print them. With my background so strongly rooted in design, I love helping evolve their ideas from a photo or inspiration image into a sketch and a design that works well for lino print.
“I now offer follow-on workshops where participants learn how to make multicoloured linocut prints using either the Jigsaw or Multi-block linocut methods. I have more ideas for different lino print workshops, so watch this space!”
National Trust commission
“IN December 2018, I was contacted by a graphic design agency about creating a series of 12 linocut prints for the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo. These were to be used, and still are, across a range of marketing materials. The curlew linocut print has since been used on gift ranges for the National Trust shop too.”
Adapting during the pandemic: Teaching online
“IN March 2020, the pandemic lockdown meant everything came to a standstill overnight. Events, exhibitions and workshops were cancelled and postponed; graphic design work dried up, and I had to adapt quickly.
“The Design Trust launched an online course called Learn How To Teach Online, which was invaluable. The approach to teaching online in different formats is very different.
“I spent another three months writing, filming and editing my first online course. I had a wealth of experience to draw on from the in-person workshops I’d been teaching.
“In July 2020, I launched my first online linocut course, Beginners’ Guide to Linocut printing, followed by How to Make a Multi-block Linocut Print in May 2021. I continue to teach online, with students joining from all around the world.
“I host monthly Zoom Q&As for my students, and it’s been a joy to help so many people discover the craft of traditional printmaking.”
Adapting during the pandemic: E-commerce online shop
“UNTIL the pandemic, I’d focused on selling my original prints through local art galleries, print fairs and events. With all these being cancelled, I was stuck.
“I built my online shop and, to my surprise, realised that people all over the country wanted to buy my lino prints of Yorkshire.
“Alongside my online shop, I now continue to take part in two main events a year, York Open Studios in April and the York Printmakers Print Fair in September.”
Becoming a full-time professional printmaker
“THE challenges I faced during the pandemic became the silver lining.
“Adapting my business during the pandemic was a success, and I realised I could make a living solely as a professional printmaker.
“As the world returned to normal, I decided to leave graphic design behind and hand over my clients to a friend who’s a graphic designer, so I could focus solely on printmaking.”
Commissions
“IN addition to the National Trust project, I have been privileged to work on a number of commercial commissions. Two of my favourites have been:
“In 2019, Jim Leary commissioned me to create a series of ten linocut print illustrations for his forthcoming book, Footmarks: A Journey Into Our Restless Past.
“In January 2022, I was commissioned by The Chase Creative Consultants to create artwork for The Rawcliffe Bridge Award for Sustainability. The illustration is composed of 16 individual linocut prints. Each quadrant of the plate depicts a season in the farming year and the natural cycle of farming.”
Licensing
“AS well as commissions, I license linocut prints for book covers, homeware, interiors and editorial projects.
“It’s quite a privilege to have your art chosen for the front cover of a book and an absolute delight to see it in print!”
Launching first book!
“IN August 2023, I was approached by The Crowood Press to write a book on making linocut prints. I was blown away!
“I’m proud to be launching my first book, Printing Birds and Wildlife in Linocut, on February 24 2026.
“It took me 20 months to write, make the linocut prints, photograph each step, edit it and have friends proofread it. As I went along, I laid it out in line with Crowood’s in-house style and formatted it as I wanted it to appear in the book, to understand how it would visually look to the reader. I’ve poured my heart and soul into it.
“Last May, I handed my 42,000-word, 660-photograph manuscript and layout to my publishers. Since then, it’s undergone several rounds of proofreading and has been laid out by a professional typesetter.
“My book covers all the basics you need to make linocut prints, from planning designs to carving techniques, mixing colours, and printing. Plus registration, jigsaw prints, reduction prints, multi-block linocut prints, stamping with lino blocks and printing on fabric.
“Inside the book, you’ll find 15 newly created linocut prints of birds and wildlife, along with a selection of favourites.”
One final question: What next?
“WITH the successes I’ve had over the last ten years, I often get asked what next. I find that a tricky question. I’ll always have drive and passion to learn more and move things forward, but I love the mountain I’ve climbed over the past ten years, and I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved in that time.
“It’s important to me to have a sustainable business, one in which there’s a balance between my work and my personal life. Spending time in nature not only inspires my work, but it’s what brings so much joy and well-being to my life.
“It’s important to me to create new print collections and teach with quality and integrity, inspiring and encouraging others.
“I’d like to create linocut prints of so many places and views. Yorkshire always holds my heart, especially the Yorkshire Dales. I’ve got lots of ideas from inspiration trips to Northumberland and Scotland too.
“I have plans for new workshops and courses up my sleeve, too.
“I just love what I do, just as it is.
“Having said all of that, I’m always open to ideas!”
Child’s play: Mark Simmonds’ Willie impersonating a bomber plane in Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders
FLEUR Hebditch, former Stephen Joseph Theatre dramaturg for a decade in Scarborough, is making her Settlement Players directorial debut with Dennis Potter’s stage adaptation of his 1979 BBC Play For Today drama.
She brings together actors very familiar to York audiences (Mark Simmonds, Victoria Delaney, Jess Murray), three from York Theatre Royal’s 2025 community play, His Last Report (Andrew Wrenn, Jon Cook and Thom Feeney) and one who moved to York only four months ago (Rich Wareham).
Each is playing a seven-year-old child on a hot summer’s day in the Forest of Dean in wartime 1943, where their child’s play in the woods mimics and mirrors the adult world at war, whether Simmonds’ Willie dive-bombing like a war plane or impersonating the bogeyman figure of an escaped Italian prisoner of war from a nearby camp.
Jess Murray’s Audrey, left, and Victoria Delaney’s Angela in Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders
Each is pictured in their programme profile aged seven – the director included – whether with big glasses, bigger teeth, white hair band, a giant Rupert Bear, an apple-cheeked cheeky grin or reading a comic.
No pictorial aid, however, is needed to see their transformation into Potter’s West Country boys and girls, one achieved through movement, mannerism, voice and Judith Ireland’s typically exemplary wardrobe, from the boys’ 1940s’ tank tops and baggy shorts to Murray’s Audrey in dungarees and Delaney’s Angela, forever pushing a pram and carrying a dolly, in cornfield yellow party dress and matching bows in her hair.
Simmonds and Wareham retain full beards but the boy inside emerges through the bristle thicket. Richard Hampton’s set design could be a child’s primitive drawing: to one side, barn doors with a milk churn, pail and straw bale inside; to the other, a painterly tree; in the centre, an expanse of grass, all seen as if through the children’s perspective.
All eyes are on Andrew Wrenn’s John, left, as Jon Cook’s Raymond, Victoria Delaney’s Angela, Mark Simmonds’ Willie, Rich Wareham’s Peter and Jess Murray’s Audrey look on. Picture: John Saunders
As sage ancient Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle proclaimed: “Give a me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” In turn, Potter will show you both the man and the woman, and the inner child within both, as he “takes you back to your own childhoods, the laughter, the fun, the freedom, but also the heartache and pain”.
That heartache and pain is expressed in the absence of fathers, away on war duty, both in tears and the boastful my-dad’s better/bigger/smarter/more important-than-yours fisticuffs of Wareham’s Peter and Wrenn’s John, and in the teasing of Feeney’s loner Donald “Duck”, hiding away, playing on his own in the barn.
There is machismo menace beneath the surface, much like in William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies, as adult traits are forged in the children’s pecking order that finds Cook’s kindly, gentle Raymond always playing second or, rather, fourth fiddle to ringleader Peter, John and Willie.
Victoria Delaney’s Angela and Thom Feeney’s Donald “Duck”
Or fifth fiddle, if you were to include the never-seen but respected leader Wallace Wilson. The girls, meanwhile, don’t compete for such roles, Murray’s Audrey fitting in as a tomboy and Delaney’s Angela as an aspirational mother in the making.
Hebditch asked her actors not only to connect with their inner child (Delaney incidentally first trod the Theatre Royal boards aged eight), but also to “focus on instinct rather than intellectual consequences”. Good advice that bears fruit in performances that capture how “emotions flit in the blink of an eye” and “relish in the pure emotions of children”.
Performances are suitably individual too yet collectively excellent, full of the freedom to play like children in Rowntree Park, yet darkened by the claustrophobic shadow of war, even amid the bucolic beauty of the woods.
Blue Remembered Hills director Fleur Hebditch
Like Donald, Hebditch lights a match under Potter’s play, then watches it catch fire and burn with increasingly fierce heat.
As the children blame each other, then exonerate themselves of any guilt – it was ever thus in the slithering grown-up world too – an adult voice reads from A E Housman’s poem that gave Potter’s play its title with its account of the happy highways making way for the land of lost content.
The play makes that very same journey, from fun to fear, from afternoon tease to sucker punch, from innocence to experience, all too quickly to need an interval. Short, and sharp as Willie’s cooking apple, Blue Remembered Hills still shocks.
York Settlement Community Players, Blue Remembered Hills, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 28, 7.45pm nightly, resuming Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Fisticuffs: Andrew Wrenn’s John, left, clashes Rich Wareham’s bully Peter as Victoria Delaney’s Angela and Jess Murray’s Audrey egg them on. Picture: John Saunders
Hera Hyesang Park as Susanna in Opera North’s The Marriage Of Figaro at Leeds Grand Theatre
IT was odd that in an updated version of Figaro, ostensibly set in an English country house, Opera North should choose to perform the work in Italian for the first time in the Leeds company’s nearly half-century of existence.
Not least because this show would have benefited from the variety of defining accents and characters the English class system can offer.
Louisa Muller’s production took a safer option. Her valuation of the overture’s musical worth permitted her to unleash all her principals as they returned from a rural ride to hang up their clothes in a boot room, hardly the most inviting quarters for Figaro and his bride. So much for the pre-wedding ‘scene painting’ the programme encouraged us to hear in the overture.
However, Madeleine Boyd’s set offered a view through to a fine staircase behind, down which trooped tourists and guides, which aptly summarised the Count’s financial needs along with the buckets catching the drips.
James Newby’s Count in Opera North’s The Marriage Of Figaro. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Muller also gave us a pregnant Countess preparing crib and layette for the happy event, which maybe helped to explain her husband’s more than usually roving eye. That was part of a cleverly split stage, with the Count simultaneously in his billiard room.
Act 4 took place in the stables, with plenty of fresh straw bedding to encourage a roll in the hay (especially with so few signs of any horses); Malcom Ripperth’s lighting lent clarity to the shenanigans.
The concept may have grated occasionally, but there was no denying the flair throughout the cast, only four of whom had ever graced this stage before. Muller, too, was a newcomer to Leeds but melded them into a considerable team.
The brightest star in this constellation was Hera Hyesang Park’s energetic Susanna, a dynamo whose acting and singing were in ideal harness. One might have wished that she had not protested quite so much at Figaro’s hug with Marcellina over his parentage, although it chimed with her personality.
Gabriella Reyes’s Countess Almaviva in Opera North’s The Marriage Of Figaro. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Her charismatic Figaro was Liam James Karai, his strongly focused baritone often laced with a laugh. James Newby’s Count covered the ground well but needed to exert more authority, more gravitas from the start: his downfall was too predictable.
Gabriella Reyes, his Countess, found creamy legato in her arias to match her gracious presence. Hongni Wu lacked enough chest tone or boyishness for Cherubino, although not for want of trying. Jonathan Lemalu and Katherine Broderick were warmly well matched as seen-it-all-before Bartolo and Marcellina, with Daniel Norman a sprightly Basilio.
Jamie Woollard’s disgruntled beekeeper Antonio, Charlotte Bowden’s charming Barbarina and Kamil Bien’s thwarted Curzio all made the most of their roles: Muller certainly had an eye for detail.
Valentina Peleggi started the overture at such lightning pace that even this orchestra’s much-vaunted violins were caught slightly off guard. But they settled quickly and there was much stylishness to savour.
First-night adrenaline was doubtless to blame for the finale getting a touch out of kilter. The chorus’s enjoyment was infectious: they especially relished Rebecca Howell’s amusing choreography for the wedding dance. It was an exciting and excitable evening that just needed to settle down.
Review by Martin Dreyer
Hera Hyesang Park as Susanna and Liam James Karai as Figaro in Opera North’s The Marriage Of Figaro. Picture: Tristram Kenton
SUNDAY afternoons with the Guildhall have in a short time become a much-loved feature of York’s musical landscape. A Mozart overture, a Weber concerto and a Mahler symphony offered something for everyone here.
You can tell a lot about a musical organisation’s view of itself by the calibre of soloists it invites. In Julian Bliss they had a clarinettist who was more than a match for the taxing demands of Weber’s Second Clarinet Concerto in E flat.
All but one of his solo clarinet works were composed for Heinrich Baermann, a pioneer in the field and principal with the Munich Court Orchestra: they rank amongst the instrument’s most important repertory.
Bliss launched into the opening runs with panache, but managed to include echo effects and even a distinctive tremolo in the clarinet’s chalumeau register, its lowest octave. A couple of top notes verged on the shrill, laid down skilfully head-to-toe with much lower ones.
Weber’s slow movement, a Romanza, attempts to introduce an elegiac tone, not entirely successfully, but Bliss delivered it with smooth legato, which enabled satisfying contrast with the outer movements. The closing polonaise, virtually a rondo, was delightfully crisp, superbly articulated. All the while the orchestra danced in close attendance, providing a feather-bed underlay.
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, in C sharp minor, is widely considered a journey from bleak darkness and tragedy towards reassurance and light, although the composer himself vowed that its three parts had no programme as such. Nevertheless this account had that feeling.
The opening Funeral March was made the more stately by the low trumpet, and the frenetic storm that followed, heralded by shrieks in the winds, was enhanced by the six gritty horns.
Thereafter, Mahler leans on them heavily. The concertante solo horn role in the Scherzo was nobly handled by Janus Wadsworth. The movement grew edgier as it progressed and the acceleration into its coda was undeniably exciting.
It was good to hear the Adagietto, so often heard on its own, in proper context. Here some ethereal violin phrasing imparted an air of numinous spirituality, despite its more earthbound central passage.
The closing rondo, the most intricate movement Mahler ever wrote, was rhythmically incisive, an immense aid to clarity. Especially enjoyable was the way the overlapping fanfares came together in the brass chorale, before the triumphant finale for which Wright had kept something in reserve.
The evening had opened with Mozart’s overture to The Impresario. The strings overcame some early sluggishness to deliver fine counterpoint. It conjured anticipation for the larger works to follow.
Battle lines are drawn at the Eye of York at the 2026 JORVIK Viking Festival. Picture: Jonathan Pow
THE Norse weather gods looked favourably on the Vikings of York as weeks of rain broke to keep the 2026 JORVIK Viking Festival dry and even sunny.
From January 16 to 22, thousands of visitors descended on the city, where 50,000 people joined in the fun, from the encampment to the spectacular March to Coppergate, a parade of around 450 Vikings.
“This has really been an epic year for JORVIK Viking Festival, with the vast majority of the events sold out before the festival even opened, and really good crowds turning out to enjoy all the free activities and displays we have hosted” said Mark Jackson, head of operations for York Archaeology, the festival organisers.
Despite gloomy forecasts, the rain held off all day last Saturday(21/2/2026) for the large-scale events taking place at the Eye of York.
From the young warriors-in-training who opened the day with the Kids Barbaric Battle, to the full-grown Viking combatants taking on four rounds of combat in the Battle Spectacular, climaxing with a pyrotechnic display, the public experienced the ferocious side of the Viking invaders.
“The March to Coppergate seemed particularly well supported, with people lining both side of the street the whole way from Dean’s Park to Coppergate, cheering on the marching Vikings as they passed,” said Mark.
“Indeed, the living history encampment in Parliament Street was packed all week, with the wood turning, blacksmithing and tattooing proving exceptionally popular.
“It is brilliant to see so many people engaging with this fascinating period in York’s history, and learning a little about how our 10th-century ancestors would have lived.”
On the festival’s closing day (22/2/2026), 10th-century traders traded at Merchant Adventurers’ Hall; children crafted at Barley Hall, and Poo week concluded at DIG on St Saviourgate. A Fringe event, the Jorvik Tattoo Moot, continued at Merchant Taylors’ Hall and Bedern Hall for those wanting a permanent souvenir of their festival visit.
The festival finale coincided with the final evening of York BID’s Colour & Light installation at the Eye of York, which told the story of York’s villains and legends through Double Take Projections’ projection on the Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, where a familiar Viking name – Eric Bloodaxe – put in an appearance.
JORVIK Viking Festival coincided with the traditional Viking end of winter, when the seasonal makeover at JORVIK Viking Centre, covering the re-creation of Viking-age Coppergate with a thick blanket of snow for A Winter Adventure, concluded too.
JORVIK will close today for “the great thaw”, reopening on Tuesday with the street scenes reverting to their usual spring setting of a May afternoon in the year AD960.
