Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham’s Razor Tess. Picture: Kie Cummings
FATE always lands jam side down in Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, just as it does in Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet.
Yet fate has even decreed that Shakespeare’s star-cross’d lovers should be performed over and over again, whereas this is the first time your reviewer has experienced Thomas Hardy’s Victorian novel on stage.
What a breathtaking, beautiful production it is too, transferring Tess’s turbulence from page to stage as a circus theatre tableau that fuses text with the physical language of dance and circus skills.
Directors Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney filter Hardy’s Wessex story through a feminist lens, one where the sense of loss is heightened but so too is Tess’s endurance. What’s more they give us Tess at the double, each credited as Tess D’Urberville in the programme but delineated as Narrator Tess (Hanora Kamen) and Memory Tess (Lila Naruse) in last week’s interview with CharlesHutchPress.
Hardy’s text is streamlined yet enriched in being edited to 28 pages for Kamen’s Tess, whose every line carries weight and significance, and the crushing sadness of fate playing its hand, as enacted by Naruse’s Memory Tess.
Save for one repetitive fire-and-brimstone exhalation by Joshua Frazer’s guilt-tormented Alec D’Urberville and muffled banter when assembling a wooden framework, the only voice to be heard belongs to Narrator Tess.
The rest is not so much silence as movement, movement that tells the story so movingly, and even humorously at times, such as when Tess and her fellow milk maids (Lauren Jamieson, Victoria Skillen and Shannon Kate Platt) milk cows that take the form of blown-up material to their sound of moos or swoon playfully as Nat Whittingham’s Angel Clare carries them over a river denoted by planks of wood.
The planks are moved regularly by the cast, with the magical grace of Nathan Johnston’s choreography, sometimes to create structures for climbing or balancing on a shoulder, bringing circus skills to the fore but always in thrall to the story.
Tina Bicat’s set and costume design is dazzling throughout, not only those planks, but also the use of knotted and draped material that frames the stage and turns into clothing or the frame of a horse’s for a moonlit ride by Memory Tess.
Everything works in beautiful tandem: the video designs of Daniel Denton that denote each change of scene or provide ever-changing backdrops of the changing weather and moods; the compositions and sound designs of Holly Khan that evoke the beauty of nature and emotional turmoil; the lighting design of Aideen Malone that captures the golden Wessex light.
Every performance shines, individually and collectively, in a performance that reinforces why theatre at its best is an artform like no other in stirring the human senses. Best of all is the finale, Naruse’s Memory Tess in excelsis. Poetic, heroic, Tess as you have never seen her before.
Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, tonight and tomorrow at 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Verve: Presenting a dance triple bill at TakeOver – In The Limelight
THE 12th TakeOver festival at York Theatre Royal is in the hands of York St John University for the fourth year, taking the theme of In The Limelight from May 13 to 18.
In this annual town-and-gown collaboration, third-year drama students are put in charge of the theatre and programming its events for a week, with support and mentoring from professionals.
“TakeOver is a fantastic opportunity for students to experience running and taking part in a theatre festival that is entirely unique,” says Ruby, a student on the producing team. “We’re able to learn so many new skills and create something that we can really be proud of.” said Ruby, a student on the producing team.
Among the highlights will be the May 16 performance of Scottish author and poet Hollie McNish, reading from her latest book Lobster And Other Things I’m Learning To Love, wherein she addresses questions of friendships, flags and newborns as she shines her poetic lens on “all those things we have been taught to hate, and which we might learn to love again”. Joining her on the 7.30pm bill will be fellow poet Micheal Pedersen, reading from his books The Cat Prince and Boy Friends.
To “see where dance is right now, and where it might go next”, the Verve: Triple Billat 7.30pm on May 18 presents a bold programme featuring new commissions by artistic directorMatteo Marfoglia and choreographer Joy Alpuerto Ritter,alongside a reworking of People Used To Die by the international collective(LA)HORDE.
Verve is the postgraduate company of Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Each year, the company commissions choreographers from all over the world to create an artistically distinct, physically daring and engaging programme of dance work.
Hollie McNish: Reading from her book Lobster And Other Things I’m Learning To Love on May 16
Festival Programme
May 13
Opening ceremony; free snacks and drinks available for all guests.
7.30pm, Upper Foyer, This isYork Pecha Kucha,Volume 30:Bearing Fruit, in collaboration with York Creatives. Rapid-fire talks from more than seven speakers on a range of topics created to leave you feeling entertained, educated and inspired.
May 14
Full day of shows and activities, starting with two York St John companies.
11am, Studio: Bounce Back: Interactive children’s theatre experience introducing the audience to the world of fairytale.
12 noon, Studio: Final Girls: Multi-media performance set in a forest where a group of unlikely people try to survive, the best they can, against an unknown entity.
Followed by dance trail that will take the audience around the city of York before returning to the theatre.
6pm, Studio: Peachy & Me: Performer Beverly Bishop invites family audiences into a world of storytelling, music, magic and comedy, as she appears as both herself and her clown alter-ego to overcome the complexities of the modern world.
7.30pm, main house: Out Of Character Theatre Company in Afterlife.In this York-made piece, strangers find themselves in a waiting room between life and death where they must go through their past lives to choose their forever.
The TakeOver – In The Limelight logo for the 2024 festival
May 15
11am, main house: Misery Loves will be sharing their production of The Women Of Whitechapel, a newly devised musical that re-tells the stories of Jack the Ripper’s victims with the focus on finding out who these women really were.
12 noon, main house: Blushed’s show Our Fault, Never Their Fault follows two characters as they experience the journey of becoming a woman, highlighting the good, bad and little embarrassing parts that go alongside growing up.
7.30pm, main house: Pinch Punch Improvisation use audience suggestions to help their four characters unmask the murderer before they are all killed in the improv whodunit Locomotive For Murder.
May 16
11am, Studio: York St John company Glass Broom perform their post-apocalyptic show End,where five people are trapped in a house together. Tensions runs high as the characters are forced to find a way to survive with each other.
12 noon, main house: Fellow York St John company Tradesman present Life Of The Party,where agroup of collaborators explores essential themes through the lens of absurdist theatre, aiming to question the themes of the human condition.
6pm, Studio: York company Pop Yer ClogsTheatre perform Alice In Wonderland Abridged, Lewis Carroll’s timeless tale ofAlice encountering many weird and wonderful characters in subterranean land where every time is tea time and nothing is ever as it seems.
7.30pm, main house: Hollie McNish reads from her book Lobster And Other Things I’m Learning To Love.
May 17
11am and 1pm, main house: Two dance routines created by York St John student Izzy Cryer.The first, Unholy,tells a story of cheating and betrayal, performed ina commercial style; the second, the lyrical Survivor, focuses on survival and standing together as one.
12 noon, Studio: York St John company M.A.D. say “fate, you can’t escape it”, asking how will it leave us? Alone or somehow forced together? Let’s find out what fate will throw at us this time in The Red Thread (a show suitable for age 18 plus.
Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, and Phil Grainger: Performing Helios in the closing show on May 18
7.30pm, main house: A talk by Colin Sutton, a police officer for 30 years, who served as the head of a Metropolitan Police murder squad for the last nine of them. His show, The Real Manhunter, gives a guide to his career, how policing has changed, what it feels like to chase a serial killer and how he made the step from policing to storytelling.
May 18Alexander
At 7.30pm, on the main house stage, Verve: Triple Bill of modern dance routines.
At 7.45pm, in the Studio, Alexander Flangan Wright and Phil Grainger present the third in their trilogy of Greek dramas in words and music, Helios.
Opportunities to be involved throughout the week:
May 13, 2pm: Heels workshop, focusing on a style of dance that inspires confidence and is aimed at any level of experience. 5pm: Year 10 students from Joseph Rowntree School present a show based on social media and lockdown.
Throughout the week, tours include an afternoon tea experience. An open mic event takes place on May 14 at 4pm; a fashion show will be held on May 16 at 1pm; adult cocktail classes on May 17 at 2pm; a dance workshop for five to ten-year-olds, based on The Lion King, on May 18 at 2pm.
Mary Ward (Augsberg portrait): Foundress of the Bar Convent
THE Trailblazers of the Bar Convent will be celebrated in a new audio trail that opens at the living heritage centre, in Blossom Street, York, on May 25 to mark half-term week.
Focusing on uncovering the amazing stories of key characters from the history of the oldest surviving convent in Great Britain, the exhibition trail spotlights:
* Mary Ward, who believed that girls deserved an equal education to boys;
* Mother Superior Ann Aspinal, who determined to build a secret chapel totally hidden from the outside world;
* Sister Gregory Kirkus, who set up the first ever museum at the convent;
* Plus many more incredible women who have lived there over the centuries, dedicating their lives to helping those in need, protecting the Catholic faith and supporting the Catholic community across the city.
Saint Margaret Clitherow
The foundress of the order – resident at the Bar Convent since 1686 – was a Yorkshire woman, Mary Ward, who has such international significance that her followers and supporters are building a case to have her officially recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.
She believed that women were intellectually equal to men and deserved an education that reflected that equality. Providing a proper education for girls was central to her work, and she duly travelled widely across Europe, founding schools in ten European cities by 1628.
She noted in 1617 that “there is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things – and I hope in God it will be seen that women in time to come will do much”.
In the mid-18th century, Mother Ann Aspinal wanted to construct a new convent chapel with an Italianate style dome but it was still illegal to build Catholic churches at that time. Rather than hiding the building project, she instead added a new suite of rooms to the front of the building, including a beautiful Georgian parlour, to disguise the real building project taking place at the back of the house: the secret chapel.
Sister Gregory Kirkus: Author of 20 books about the Bar Cinvent
Sister Gregory Kirkus wrote more than 20 books on the history of the convent and researched the lives of many of the sisters who have lived here. She established the inaugural museum at the Bar Convent and saved its historic books and documents. Thanks to her, so much of the building’s history is known.
The Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre is open to the public and welcomes all faiths and none. The chapel is free to visit and a public mass is celebrated on Fridays at 12 noon. The relic of Saint Margaret Clitherow is housed there.
Using QR codes throughout the Trailblazers trail, visitors are invited to discover more about the trailblazing women of the Bar Convent story, whose bravery and determination made history locally, nationally and globally.
Entry to the convent is free. The trail is included in admission to the Bar Convent exhibition. Complete the trail to be in with a chance to win a £30 voucher for the café. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.
Opening hours for the exhibition, chapel and Georgian parlour: 10am to 5pm; last entry 4pm. Café: Monday to Saturday, 8am to 3pm (hot food served until 2.30pm).
Stranger things: Actors will meet up for the first time to stage a Shakespeare’s Speakeasy play in a day in York
SHAKESPEARE’S Speakeasy is heading to York for the first time on May 16, making its debut at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
“It’s Shakespeare, but it’s secret,” says the theatre’s website. “Can a group of strangers successfully stage a Shakespearean play in a day? Shakespeare’s Speakeasy is the place for you to find out.
“Taking an irreverent and entertaining view of the Bard’s work, this one-night-only production promises you an hilarious take on one of Bill’s best known plays. But which play will it be? Well, like all good Speakeasys, that’s a secret.”
Why so secret? Let artistic director Steven Arran explain: “We don’t actually unveil the play until the curtain goes up. ‘Speakeasys’ are supposed to be secret after all! And if I unveiled our reason for choosing it, that will probably give the game away. You’ll just have to come along and find out.”
Introducing the cast: Claire Morley. No stranger to Shakespeare, having performed his words for many years in York with companies such as York Shakespeare Project and Well-fangled Theatre. Latterly had fun with the characters of Malvolio (ALRA North), Macbeth (Northumberland Theatre Company), Aufidius (1623 Theatre) and Titania (Hoglets Theatre). “Ready for the adrenaline rush of the Speakeasy, I’m also excited to geta shot at another character long on the bucket list,” says Claire. “For the May 16 event I’m helping them to create some connections in York.”
Shakespeare’s Speakeasy started in Newcastle upon Tyne on September 11 2018. “We performed our first show at a great Fringe venue, the Alphabetti Theatre, but post-pandemic we migrated to The People’s Theatre, where we’ve developed a very enthusiastic and loyal audience who have responded well to our anarchic and irreverent style,” says Steven.
“As to why we started, that’s a horse of many colours. I’d been working in Canada as an actor, where I performed in a lot of outdoor Shakespearean productions. In North America, Shakespeare was treated like a holy text with a major focus on treating every line as sacrosanct – the major focus being on the poetry.
“For me, this really detracted from the characters being real humans with human emotions, and I knew that it was the latter I was more invested in as an audience member.”
This prompted Steven to think of his experiences watching Shakespeare in the UK. “No-one was really staging Shakespeare in Newcastle, and I realised the majority of opportunities I had to watch in Newcastle was if the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company] or the National Theatre rolled through town at the Theatre Royal, and you’d pay top dollar for the privilege to watch a lot of posh boys and girls recite lines that you remembered from school,” he says.
“This did not make me feel included. The price made it feel like ‘a treat’ and the accents made me feel like Shakespeare was something for ‘them’, not for everyone. My drama school training had really opened my eyes that this should not be the case, and so I was resolved to cast local actors to produce shows for local audiences, in which they would see people like them reflected on the stage.
Introducing the cast: Tempest Wisdom, writer, director, performer and educator based in York. Specialises in clown, mask and Shakespeare, “making the Speakeasy a perfect fit,” Tempest says.
“Also, these plays are SO funny and entertaining, something lost in many productions, and I wanted to inject that excitement into my shows. Shakespeare’s audience was a rowdy lot for the most part, and we like ours to be too!”
Why begin in Newcastle? “No more exciting an answer than this is my home and I wanted to give my home opportunities that it didn’t already have,” says Steven. “When I was coming up as a young actor, the scene felt like a closed shop, and what little was being produced that we had access to felt very much of the ‘it’s grim up north’ variety.
“No-one was producing Shakespeare bar amateur dramatics groups, and even then it was often in a very affected style. After my experiences at drama school, where I was encouraged to use my own voice, I wanted to see more Geordies doing classical works without being forced to do an RP [Received Pronunciation] accent. It’s still something we run up against all the time though. People think Shakespeare and they think ‘posh’ and it’s simply not the case.”
Steven is the only core member of the Shakespeare’s Speakeasy production company. “One of primary aims is to ensure we employ as many directors and performers as possible, and so there is no wider team so to speak,” he says. “We employ and cast locally to give regional actors opportunities to direct classical pieces that they may not usually get a chance to professionally stage.”
Introducing the cast: Esther Irving, actor and theatre-maker from North Yorkshire with big passion for Shakespeare
This philosophy has led to the decision to spread Shakespeare’s Speakeasy’s wings to York in its sixth year. “The Yorkshire accent is so rich and versatile, and we want people to hear that on stage,” reasons Steven.
“A primary aim of Shakespeare’s Speakeasy is to champion local performers with local accents and disabuse people of the notion that Shakespeare is ‘posh’ or ‘done in a certain way’. We plan, eventually, to expand to several cities in the North. Venues in Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool have already been confirmed.”
So far Shakespeare’s Speakeasy has tackled Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy Of Errors, Macbeth, As You Like It, The Taming Of The Shrew, Love’s Labours Lost, Measure For Measure and Hamlet, some staged more than once.
“We mostly stick to the comedies, but have done a few tragedies, which our irreverent style has made a laugh riot,” says Steven. “It’s hard to make people feel the ‘feels’ of Hamlet in 70 minutes, so you may as well make them laugh at some of the more ridiculous elements.”
May 16’s inaugural York performance will be Shakespeare’s Speakeasy’s 13th show. “Unlucky for some, let’s hope it’s not us!” says Steven.
Introducing the cast: York actor Ian Giles, part of an international company that created Working Title for the York International Shakespeare Festival in April
Among those taking part will be Claire Morley, Esther Irving, Tempest Wisdom, Alice May, Ian Giles, Rowan Naylor Miles and Jake Wilson Craw. “We’ve assembled a really talented troupe for this production but, honestly, we could have cast the play three times over,” says Steven.
“It was humbling to see the enthusiasm we were greeted with by York’s acting community. Applicants came via word of mouth – actors who have worked with us voluntarily spread the word – and also through various social media groups. Theatre@41 and York Theatre Royal were also very gracious in spreading word of the opportunity. The cast has since had four weeks to learn their lines.”
The day will be a long and challenging one, but full of laughter and play too, for actors and director alike. “The actors will meet at 9am – the first time they meet in person – and do a line run of the whole play,” says Steven. “After that, we’ll spend the day, approximately eight hours, going through the show scene by scene, getting it on its feet and doing the basic business of blocking and tech on the fly.
“It’s a very collaborative experience. Actors are encouraged to share ideas they have for scenes, and we’ll give them all a try as long as we have the time. Whilst the directors always have a vision – we’ve done a Lion King version of Hamlet, Twelfth Night in a Butlins-style holiday camp – it’s really important for us to let the actors offer their suggestions. A good idea can come from anyone.”
The climactic performance will be fully teched and costumed. “Not to RSC standards, mind you. Expect cardboard sets, plastic swords and all manner of ridiculousness,” promises Steven. “This is Shakespeare as pure entertainment”.
Introducing the cast: Jake Wilson Craw, actor and writer from Newcastle returning to Shakespeare’s Speakeasy ranks in York debut
Asked to define the characteristics of a typical Shakespeare’s Speakeasy experience, Steven says: “I’ve reached out to some loyal audience members for this answer, as well as my own thoughts. The characteristics would be funny and local. Chaotic. Very silly. We’re entertaining first and foremost.
“We want you to have a good time, and because of that we’re often irreverent, sometimes bawdy, and sometimes downright daft. We want you to see the people you know in your everyday life on stage, not vaunted legendary characters. You will always leave with a smile on your face.”
Looking ahead, will Steven be seeking to make Shakespeare’s Speakeasy a regular event in York? “Hopefully yes,” he says. “Since our inception, we’ve staged 12 productions in Newcastle and see no reason why our format cannot be replicated in York and other cities in the north.
“One of our primary aims is to give regional actors more work. You shouldn’t have to move to London to work in the field you love – and the only way to do that is to stage productions.”
Shakespeare’s Speakeasy York, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 16, 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Steven Arran: back story on North East actor, theatre maker and artistic director behind Shakespeare’s Speakeasy
Steven Arran: Artistic director of Shakespeare’s Speakeasy
“I WAS a professional actor for ten years. I trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was lucky enough to work in the UK and North America. My interest in Shakespeare only really emerged during this time when we spent a term at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
“Being in that space, realising how the environment informed the play scripts and, most importantly, being encouraged to perform the text in my own accent and not an affected RP, really opened my eyes to how accessible Shakespeare could be.
“Seeing shows there whilst in the pit for £5 a pop didn’t hurt either. You can feel both financially and culturally excluded from Shakespeare and we aim to break down that assumption.
“I also wanted to give young local actors the opportunity to act in their own town, and to become familiar with classical plays, which they may have had no access to other than reading along in English class. (Not how we should be experiencing them).
“To date we’ve employed more than 80 actors from the North East and hope to do similar in different regions.”
Steve Arran’s profile on LinkedIn:
PROFESSIONAL actor, committed writer, passable stand-up, enthusiastic gamer, fanatical art historian and total cinephile. Very skilled in classical theatre and improvisation. Screenplays’ relation to historical events a speciality.
Did you know?
STEVEN Arran works with International House language school, helping non-English speakers to learn the language through acting in mini-Shakespeare productions.
Gray O’Brien’s Juror 10, left, and Michael Greco’s Juror 7 in the 70th anniversary production of Twelve Angry Men. Picture:Jack Merriman
REGINALD Rose’s claustrophobic study of human nature, Twelve Angry Men, began as a teleplay, then transferred to the stage and finally to the screen in Sidney Lumet’s black-and-white 1957 film.
Now, after a record-breaking West End season, Rose’s courtroom thriller is back in session, on tour in its 70th year, visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from May 13 to 18.
The setting is not the courtroom but the jury deliberating room, where 12 men hold the fate of a young delinquent, accused of killing his father, in their hands. What looks an open-and-shut case, with an initial 11 to 1 guilty vote, becomes a fractious dilemma, where the jurors must each examine their self-image, personality, experiences and prejudices as the art of persuasion plays out.
Michael Greco, best known for his role as Beppe di Marco in EastEnders from 1998 to 2002, plays Juror 7 in Rose’s tableau of mid-20th century American angst.
‘I’d watched the film years ago and I loved it,” he recalls. “When I got a call to be in the show, a lot of my friends said, ‘oh my god, this is one of my favourite films, can’t wait to come’.
“It’s an amazing piece of writing, something that is for all ages, really from youngsters to older people who’ve known the show and have loved the film for years. People just love a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, seeing how it unfolds.”
Who is Juror 7, Michael? “In layman’s terms, I would describe him as ‘absolutely gagging to get to this huge basketball game’. It’s in three hours’ time and he can’t wait to go. He’s thinking, ‘yes, yes, yes, I can get there’, but then there’s a spanner in the works. I feel for him,” says the Chelsea fan. “He’s a funny character, a vexed character too.”
“He’s a funny character, a vexed character too,” says Michael Greco of Juror 7, his role in Twelve Angry Men
Preparing for a role, he says: “I think, as an actor, I always do my due diligence about what I would say about the character in the text, and then, secondly, you have to learn the subtext.
“Because he’s just called Juror 7, I give him a name and ask, ‘is he married?’; ‘is he an alcoholic?’; ‘has he been to prison?’, otherwise there’s no substance to him. Especially as I have to bring something new to him after that.”
Reflecting on Twelve Angry Men’s abiding impact in its depiction of men locking horns, Michael says: “It definitely resonates with today’s society. You will recognise some of the characters and the way that people are in their thinking and the way they are in their personalities.
“There are certain scenes where prejudices come out – and that’s still the case today. Like when a racist guy has a rant, he’s brought down very quickly.”
Michael, 53, looks back to his own family’s experiences in the 1950s. “I’m from an Italian immigrant family, who moved to London from Naples in the late-Fifties. They came to England without money, they didn’t speak any English, but they were welcomed with open arms. Prejudices were not so open.”
Michael’s character in Twelve Angry Men does have prejudices. “I decided to go over the top with this character because he’s someone people can associate with. The director [Christopher Haydon] just loved the comedy I brought to it and didn’t cut it back a bit. He’s just let me go with it,” he says.
Michael Greco
“You have to go on this journey with him where you try to get the audience on his side because you can see his frustration, and then he reaches that point where his prejudices come out. But I can play that with openness because, wherever it comes from, this character is a good guy, but the situation brings out the worst in him.”
Putting human behaviour under the microscope, Michael says: “Every human being is the same in that we all get intrusive thoughts, where you think, ‘where did that come from?’, but you then dismiss them.
“But any psychiatrist would tell you it’s natural to have these thoughts coming into your head and to reject them…but some people do act on them.”
Michael rules out changing the configuration of Twelve Angry Men to six men and six women. “It’s very difficult to know what to say, but I don’t think it would work because of the testosterone and the physical reactions in the writing, and because women are not built in the same way psychologically and physically. It would be a completely different play if you did that.
“You can do things with Shakespeare’s plays, but when you write a play called Twelve Angry Men, the clue is in the title. The thing is, we get it in all forms of society, not just in politics, but in the bragging rights of football, for example. I despise the ‘tragedy chanting’. I can’t believe people can sink so low.”
Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, May 13 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Sculptor Tony Cragg with his bronze work Outspan in the Great Hall at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
SCULPTURES and Tess in the country, free events at the double, nun fun on the run, courtroom tensions and a funny mummy send Charles Hutchinson out and about.
Sculptures of the week: Tony Cragg at Castle Howard, near Malton, until September 22
SCULPTOR Tony Cragg presents the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist in the house and grounds of Castle Howard. On show are new and recent sculptures, many being presented on British soil for the first time, including large-scale works in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and fibreglass.
Inside the house are works in bronze and wood, glass sculptures and works on paper in the Great Hall, Garden Hall, High South, Octagon and Colonnade. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Let us pray: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier, left, and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinee, Saturday
SUE Cleaver takes holy orders in a break from Coronation Street to play the Mother Superior in Sister Act in her first stage role in three decades. Adding Alan Menken songs to the 1992 film’s storyline, the show testifies to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music in its humorous account of disco diva Deloris Van Cartier’s life taking a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.
Placed in protective custody, in the disguise of a nun under the Mother Superior’s suspicious eye, Deloris (Landi Oshinowo) helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
One of Stephen G Bird’s artworks in his Helmsley Arts Centre exhibition
Exhibition of the week: Stephen G Bird, Helmsley Arts Centre, Helmsley, until June 28
NORTH Yorkshire artist Stephen G Bird works in a variety of painting and drawing media. His pictures begin with extensive observational drawing in urban and rural landscapes. Once back in his studio, he creates pictorial and allegorical narratives from memory and imagination. Themes include tales from myth and legend and the comedy and tragedy of the everyday. “Life is dark but also funny,” he says.
Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham’s Razor’s circus theatre production of Tess at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Kie Cummings
“Bold new vision” of the week: Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm
CIRCUS theatre exponents Ockham’s Razor tackle a novel for the first time in a staging of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles that combines artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey’s adaptation of the original text with the physical language of circus and dance.
Exploring questions of privilege, class, consent, agency, female desire and sisterhood, Tess utilises seven performers, including Harona Kamen’s Narrator Tess and Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess, to re-tell the Victorian story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Funny Mummy: One-woman comedy show about the bonkers world of parenting
Comedy gig of the week: The Funny Mummy, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
THE Funny Mummy, alias Alyssa Kyria, delivers a one-woman comedy show about “the bonkers world” of parenting. “From pregnancy to playdates, WhatsApp groups to school runs, if you’re a parent, and you need a laugh, then this show is for you,” she advocates.
Kyria, co-creator of Bring Your Own Baby Comedy, performs across the country and has appeared on the BBC, ITV and Sky. Her comedy, music videos and sketches have gone viral on Netmums and Facebook. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The Twisty Turns: Country songs new and old at Milton Rooms, Malton
Free gig of the week: Lazy Sunday Sessions, The Twisty Turns and Joey Wing, Studio Bar, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 3pm to 5pm
The Milton Rooms’ new Lazy Sunday Sessions programme continues this weekend with a double bill headlined by Ryedale country band The Twisty Turns, who combine their own compositions, influenced by country, folk, country blues and bluegrass, with traditional country songs and rip-roaring fiddle tunes.
In the line-up are Benjamin Gallon, who provides acoustic guitar, vocals and “anteloping”; Jenny Trilsbach, on double bass, vocals and “foxiness”, and Jerry Bloom, on fiddle and “frogmanship”. Singer Joey Wing supports. Entry is free.
Butterwick Alpaca Retreat’s alpacas at the Love Local day at Nunnington Hall. Picture: National Trust
Free celebration of the week: Love Local, Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm; last entry at 4.15pm
HELPING to raise awareness and “show off how brilliant Ryedale and the surrounding area is”, artists, craftspeople, businesses, charities, and community groups create this family event at the National Trust property.
Visitors can taste fresh Yorkshire produce, buy goods from Ryedale makers and crafters and enjoy free admission to the country house, gardens and the last day of the From The Earth exhibition by East Riding Artists’ group of painters, potters and creatives.
Taking the vote: The murder trial jurors in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men at Grand Opera House, York
Jury service: Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, May 13 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
IN its 70th anniversary touring production, Reginald Rose’s knife-edge courtroom thriller Twelve Angry Men resonates with today’s audiences with its intricately crafted study of human nature. Within the confines of the jury deliberating room, 12 men hold the fate of a young delinquent, accused of killing his father, in their hands.
What looks an open-and-shut case soon becomes a dilemma, wherein Rose examines the art of persuasion as the jurors are forced to examine their own self-image, personalities, experiences and prejudices. Tristan Gemmill, Michael Greco, Jason Merrells, Gray O’Brien and Gary Webster feature in Christopher Haydon’s cast. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Heaven help us: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior seeking divine intervention in Sister Act
DELIGHTED to be back in the habit as Deloris Van Cartier, Landi Oshinowo “would like to thank her God and her church”, says her programme profile.
By comparison, lounge singer Deloris is uncomfortable at being given rosary beads by one of the sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow in 1977 Philadelphia.
Oshinowo’s Deloris is more a lady of perpetual motion and commotion, a lippy livewire first seen in sparkling dress and very big hair belting out Take Me To Heaven. Instead, her volatile mobster lover, Curtis Jackson (Ian Gareth-Jones) is taking her closer to hell, denying her the big break she craves.
On witnessing him kill an informant, she must flee from the Mafia’s clutches and into the church’s safe refuge as the unconventional meets the convent, clashing from the off with the formidable, dry-witted, disapproving Mother Superior (Sue Cleaver, in a break from Coronation Street for her first stage role in 30 years).
Placed in protective custody by gun-shy cop Eddie Souther (Alfie Parker), Deloris kicks the habits into shape, transforming the sisters’ singing from off-key shambolic to soul and gospel bliss as she blossoms into a divine diva.
Impressing Monsignor O’Hara (Phillip Arran) rather more than the exasperated Mother Superior, Deloris re-invigorates the rundown neighbourhood’s church services and coffers and rekindles the flame in Eddie’s schooldays crush.
Sister Act, A Divine Musical Comedy, plays to the effervescent spirit, irreverence and delightful daftness of Emile Ardolino’s 1992 movie, now bolstered by the Motown and Philly soul, funk, disco and rap pastiches of Little Shop Of Horrors’ Alan Menken and sassy lyrics of Glenn Slater.
Sue Cleaver: First stage role in 30 years for Coronation Street stalwart as Mother Superior
The book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellener revels in camping up the camp and giving the sisters bags of personality, from Eloise Runnette’s putative rebel Sister Mary Robert (in The Life I Never Had) to Isabel Canning’s boulder of sunshine Sister Mark Patrick and Julie Stark’s rasping, rapping Sister Mary Lazarus.
Callum Martin’s Joey, Michalis Antoniou’s Pablo and understudy Harvey Ebbage’s TJ are comic stooges to the manner born, their bungling mobster act peaking with Lady In The Long Black Dress (with its nod to The Floaters’ 1977 hit Float On). Better still is Parker’s Eddie Souther, ever humorous as the protective cop who craves stepping out of the background to live his soul singer dreams.
Cleaver brings more down-to-earth humour to the Mother Superior than past performers while retaining her serenity and air of authority, while Oshinowo is a joy as Deloris, funky, funny and feisty, equally at home in the heavenly ballads, Seventies’ soul struts and retro dance numbers.
Bill Buckhurst’s bright and boisterous direction brings out the best in all the characterisation and comical situations. At every opportunity, Alistair David’s choreography celebrates the glorious, ever-funny sight of sisters abandoning themselves to the joy of dancing, and Tom Slade’s band is in full swing and in the mood throughout.
Morgan Large’s set and costume designs are living it as large as his name would suggest, glittering finale et al. The American Seventies burst out of his sets for club and stained-glass convent alike, evoking Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever, Pam Grier and Shaft.
In a nutshell, Sister Act is divine entertainment to take you to musical heaven.
Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
“COME from away” is the term Newfoundlanders use for someone who is visiting there or lives on the island but was born elsewhere.
Rather more polite and welcoming than the Cornish nickname for tourists or outsiders in each summer’s influx of visitors: “Emmet”. Meaning? Ant!
On one day, the 10,000 population of Gander, Newfoundland, grew by more than a third when nearly 7,000 airline passengers found themselves stranded in the small Canadian town after 38 planes were grounded. That day was September 11 2001, the fateful day of 9/11.
Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical is the true story of how the Canadian community welcomed the “come from away” strangers into their homes for five days in this temporary new-found land.
The political world was in turmoil, but at such times the best of humanity comes through too, times where we find common ground – in acts of kindness – amid the threat of heightened global division.
Come From Away is billed as a “life-affirming, uplifting celebration of hope, humanity and unity”: characteristics ripe for the musical format, but vital too is the storytelling, the narrative drive, that encapsulates connection and communication between town and world, rooted as much in humour as the desperate uncertainty of what may have befallen loved ones in New York or Washington DC.
Directed by Christopher Ashley, Come From Away is first and foremost an ensemble piece, its cast omnipresent, all pulling together to mirror the well-told, well-judged, big-hearted story with its balance of comforting comic relief and sadness, rousing spirit and silent shock, good deeds and grief.
Kirsty Hoiles’s Diane and Daniel Crowder’s Nick in Come From Away
Within that collective structure, Sankoff and Hein weave the individual tales of the resolute town mayor Claude (Nicholas Pound); the first female American Airlines captain (Sara Poyzer’s pilot Beverley); the mother of a New York firefighter (Bree Smith’s Hannah); the young local news reporter thrown in at the deep end (Natasha J Barnes’s Janice) and an animal welfare devotee (Rosie Glossop’s Bonnie).
Love plays its part too: blossoming in the case of Daniel Crowder’s typically stiff Englishman Nick and Kirsty Hoiles’s Diane; fracturing, however, for Mark Dugdale’s Kevin and Jamal Zulfiqar’s Kevin.
The opening ensemble number Welcome To The Rock sets the musical tone, with its high-energy, righteous fusion of Irish and folk vibrancy under Andrew Corcoran’s musical direction, with band members in view in the wings and sometimes bursting into the limelight centre stage later in the show.
The pace in Ashley’s direction and Kelly Devine’s musical staging is relentless, albeit with ballads for breathing space and reflection; everything a rush, a scramble of emotions, a need for instant practical measures, countered by the agony of awaiting dreaded news.
That sense of unnatural speed in unnatural circumstances is enhanced by a running time of only 100 minutes with no interval. The songs tend to rush by too, full of zest and zing in the moment, but largely without the melodic classicism of Broadway’s golden era, although Beverley’s ballad, Me And The Sky, flies high.
Maybe that deficiency in earworms will matter to you, but judging by the standing ovation on press night, the hum of humanity triumphs.
Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com
The poster for University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra’s concert on June 8
THE University of York Choir, The 24, and the University of York Symphony Orchestra will perform at York Minster on Saturday, June 8.
Under the direction of Robert Hollingworth and John Stringer, the 7.30pm programme will feature Mozart’s Mass in C minor and a selection of Bruckner’s works, celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth, including the Te Deum, a composition he described as “the pride of his life”. Box office: 01904 322439 or yorkconcerts.ticketsolve.com.
Sculptor Tony Cragg with his bronze work Outspan in the Great Hall at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
FROM landscape sculptures to community cinema screenings, a circus company’s novel assignment to a soap star’s heavenly musical role, Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead is taking shape.
Exhibition of the week: Tony Cragg at Castle Howard, near York, until September 22
SCULPTOR Tony Cragg presents the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist in the house and grounds of Castle Howard. On show are new and recent sculptures, many being presented on British soil for the first time, including large-scale works in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and fibreglass.
Inside the house are works in bronze and wood, glass sculptures and works on paper in the Great Hall, Garden Hall, High South, Octagon and Colonnade. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
The Lapins: Celebrating travel, exploration and adventure in music at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York
World premieres of the week: York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, Mike Sluman, oboe, and Jenny Martins, piano, Saturday (4/5/2024), 1pm; The Lapins, Saturday (4/5/2024), 7.30pm
MIKEY Sluman highlights the range of the oboe family – oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais and bass oboe – in his lunchtime programme of Lutoslawski, Talbot-Howard and Poulenc works and world premieres of Desmond Clarke’s Five Exploded Pastorals and Nick Williams’s A Hundred Miles Down The Road (Le Tombeau de Fred).
The Lapins examine ideas of space, place and time in an evening programme that extols the joys of travel, exploration and adventure through the music of Brian Eno, Stockhausen and Erik Satie, the world premiere of James Else’s A Tapestry In Glass and the first complete performance of Hayley Jenkins’s Gyps Fulvus. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
The poster for The Groves Community Cinema festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Film event of the week: The Groves Community Cinema, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to May 11
THE third Groves Community Cinema film festival promises a wide variety of films, from cult classics and music to drama and animated fun. Supported by Make It York and City of York Council, the event opens with Sunday’s Arnie Schwarzenegger double bill of The Terminator at 6.30pm and T2 Judgement Day at 8.45pm.
Monday follows up Marcel The Shell With Shoes at 2.30pm with Justine Triet’s legal drama Anatomy Of A Fall at 6.30pm; Tuesday offers Ian McKellen’s Hamlet at 7.30pm; Wednesday, Yorkshire Film Archives’ Social Cinema, 6.30pm, and Friday, cult classical musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch, 8pm. To finish, next Saturday serves up the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse at 2.30pm and Jonathan Demme’s concert documentary Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense at 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Steve Cassidy: Performing with his band and friends at the JoRo
Nostalgic gig of the week: Steve Cassidy Band & Friends, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday (5/5/2024), 7.30pm
VETERAN York frontman Steve Cassidy leads his band in an evening of rock, country and ballads, old and new, with songs from the 1960s to 21st century favourites in their playlist.
Cassidy, a three-time winner of New Faces, has recorded with celebrated York composer John Barry and performed in the United States and many European countries. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Let us pray: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday
SUE Cleaver takes holy orders in a break from Coronation Street to play the Mother Superior in Sister Act in her first stage role in three decades. Adding Alan Menken songs to the 1992 film’s storyline, the show testifies to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music in its humorous account of disco diva Deloris Van Cartier’s life taking a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.
Placed in protective custody, in the disguise of a nun under the Mother Superior’s suspicious eye, Deloris (Landi Oshinowo) helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham’s Razor’s circus theatre production of Tess at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Kie Cummings
“Bold new vision” of the week: Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, May 8 to 11, 7.30pm
CIRCUS theatre exponents Ockham’s Razor tackle a novel for the first time in a staging of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles that combines artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey’s adaptation of the original text with the physical language of circus and dance.
Exploring questions of privilege, class, consent, agency, female desire and sisterhood, Tess utilises seven performers, including Harona Kamen’s Narrator Tess and Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess, to re-tell the Victorian story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Night of dub, funk and world music at Pocklington Arts Centre
Funkiest gig of the week: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 9, 8pm
SUPREME bassist Jah Wobble’s two-hour show takes in material from his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd and collaborations with Brian Eno, Bjork, Sinead O’Connor, U2’s The Edge, Can’s Holger Czukay, Ministry’s Chris Connelly and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.
Born John Wardle in 1958, he was renamed by Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who struggled to pronounce his name correctly. Wobble combines dub, funk and world music, especially Africa and the Middle East, in his songwriting. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
“Charming nonsense”: Steven Lee’s There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly at the SJT, Scarborough
Half-term show announcement of the week: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 28, 2.30pm
FIRST written as a song in 1953, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly was a chart-topping hit for singer and actor Burl Ives before being adapted into a best-selling book by Pam Adams a few years later, one still found in schools, nurseries and homes across the world.
To mark the nursery rhyme’s 50th anniversary, children’s author Steven Lee has created a magical musical stage show for little ones to enjoy with their parents that combines the charming nonsense of the rhyme with his own “suitably silly twists”. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
