Sculptor Janie Stevens, flanked by According to McGee co-directors Greg and Ails McGee
ACCORDING To McGee launches its series of Affirmations exhibitions with a fusion of ceramics and sculpture tomorrow (8/1/2022).
“We’re still all about the paintings,” says Ails McGee, co-director of the gallery in Tower Street, York. “I’ve been working on my own series of Still Lifes; Beth Ross is here, David Baumforth, Horace Panter too, but we just thought the blank slate of 2022 merited a new approach and so we have some new 3D items.”
They take the form of a ceramic collection from David Austin Duckworth and the latest forms from celebrated sculptor Janie Stevens, who lives just outside York.
Part of Janie Stevens’ sculptural paean to simplicity, Imperfect
“What was important was to kick off the year with art that is for the most part positive and aspirational,” says Ails. “The front gallery is a battle-cry for the positive values of art. Art often throws the cultural equivalent of a Molotov cocktail into contemporary life, but it can also simply reflect what’s aspirational and optimistic.
“Sculptor Janie Stevens launches Imperfect, a sculptural paean to simplicity. It’s her collection of sculptures that greets the visitor in our front gallery and we’re delighted to be widening our remit with work such as this.”
Yorkshire-born Janie says: “Direct carving is a way of freeing the spirit, both my own and the spirit of the stone. I really enjoy observing how the stone changes as the light falls – pure alchemy! My work is hand carved, original and, above all, tactile. Sculpture is not just for the eyes.”
Artist Harry Malkin with Ails McGee at According To McGee in 2019
She encourages connecting with the natural stone through touching, feeling and stroking a sculpture too.
“I take inspiration from Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Tony Cragg,” says Janie, who works with local quarried stone, both in limestone and soapstone. “I’m driven by shape, tactility and emotion; three-dimensional form excites me as I continually test my understanding of the natural world.
“My aim is to create art that seems incomplete, impermanent and imperfect, which therefore aesthetically has no limitations to its beauty and simplicity.”
“Harry is an ex-miner and knows exactly what it is to work chest deep in freezing black water one mile underground,” says Greg McGee
Co-director Greg McGee highlights the latest work by According To McGee regular Harry Malkin, on view in the back gallery in the briefest of exhibitions. “It’s a pleasing counterpoint to the front room,” he says. “Harry is an ex-miner and knows exactly what it is to work chest deep in freezing black water one mile underground.
“These portraits of a rapidly vanishing world from a true draughtsman are a crucial part of Britain’s recent heritage, but they’re here for Saturday only, so if anyone needs a contemporary reason to visit their favourite heritage city, this is it.”
Covid curse strikes again: Positive tests for Dame Berwick Kaler and comic stooge Martin Barrass rule them out of Dick Turpin Rides Again. Picture: David Harrison
ONCE upon a pantomime season, the ubiquitous Covid curse of cancelled shows had somehow evaded Dick Turpin Rides Again at the Grand Opera House in York.
York Theatre Royal had to cancel invitations to Cinderella’s ball from December 23 for traditionally the busiest box-office week of the year before reopening on December 30.
Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Grand Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre and Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre all lost performances as Omicron turned chronic.
Not only Covid had played its unsanitised hand this winter. A leaking roof put a thankfully temporary dampener on Cinderella at Harrogate Theatre, and a performance of Bedknobs And Broomsticks at Leeds Grand was derailed by the flying bed’s unfortunate impact on electric cabling.
“The legend’s return” at 75 in Dick Turpin Rides Again had survived unscathed, however, as grand dame Berwick Kaler’s comeback with his longstanding partners in panto, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and comparative whippersnapper AJ Powell, clocked in for performance after performance from December 11 to December 31.
Scottish actor, comedian and writer Alan McHugh as Dame Bella Buchan in Beauty And The Beast at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen. Now he is stepping into the Covid-convalescing Berwick Kaler’s big boots in Yorkin the final week of Dick Turpin Rides Again
Happy New Year? New Year’s Day was a day off, but come January 2, “Covid-enforced absences within the company” led to the cancellation of that day’s 2pm show at only 20 minutes’ notice, with some panto punters already in their seats, and the 5pm performance had to follow suit.
“Guests affected by this change will be contacted by their point of purchase in the coming days with alternative options,” read the official announcement.
“We apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your continued support.”
By Monday, it became apparent those absentees were none other than Berwick Kaler – quel dammage – and his perennial comic sidekick, Martin Barrass, given that the man in the coarse wig and scruffy boots on stage was Scotsman Alan McHugh, in Kaler’s guise as Dotty Donut, and Barrass’s understudy, Jack Buchanan, had stepped up from the ensemble to bounce around as Dunkin Donut.
Glove, actually: Alan McHugh all dolled up as Dame Bella Buchan in Beauty And The Beast at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
McHugh had just finished pulling on his boots as Dame Bella Buchan in Beauty And The Beast, continuing his unbroken run as Qdos/Crossroads Pantomimes’ dame and writer at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen since 2004, albeit that Covid had brought a premature end to the show on December 24, when it should have run to January 2.
Now it was time to wear Kaler’s frocks instead. Kaler and Barrass, meanwhile, awaited their PCR results.
Tuesday was already in the diary as a rest day, before Dick Turpin Rides Again was due to climb back in the saddle with a relaxed performance on Wednesday evening. Would you believe it, now Jack Buchanan was not all right, Jack. He too had tested positive.
No relaxed show, but relax, Alan McHugh knew just the fellow Scot to step into Martin/Jack’s shoes: his very own sidekick in Beauty And The Beast, Paul-James Corrigan, who readers may know from his BBC role as Stevie in River City or recall from The Proclaimers’ musical, Sunshine On Leith, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Off to the Granite City went McHugh, returning with Corrigan by his side to complete a Scottish invasion of York. Forget ever having played Boabby this winter, now Corrigan had 12 hours to dip into Dunkin Donut’s lines for Thursday’s brace of shows, while retaining Boabby’s attire.
Not unreasonably, he was still on the book for the matinee, but by 7pm, whoosh, the fresh Donut was rising fully to a challenge: the latest makeshift triumph in a winter when theatre’s old adage that The Show Must Go On has never rung truer.
Understudies and swings have stepped out of the shadows across the nation, their importance to productions being newly appreciated, amid the extra rehearsals and revisions needed to ensure shows could continue.
That said, Omicron’s omnipresence had played havoc with Dick Turpin’s ensemble: originally six, and then there were three as the curtain rose on last night’s opening number. Jack Buchanan. Gone. Ben MacGillivray. Off. Gabriella-Rose Marchant. Out.
Paul-James Corrigan, left and Alan McHugh in a scene from Aberdeen Performing Arts’ pantomime, Beauty And The Beast, in Aberdeen. Their partnership has come to York’s rescue in Dick Turpin’s hour of need
“Life’s not a dress rehearsal,” chirped Emily Taylor, Jake Lindsay and Charleigh Scott, who later received a special round of applause for ploughing on through this strangest of experiences. Another day, another day in the theatre trenches, but who will still be beside you?
Enter Alan McHugh’s dame, part Berwick, in “script” and wardrobe and trim build, but part his own “man in a frock” too: botched lipstick; broken front teeth; cartoon skinny legs with protruding lumps; more Mother Shipton than Old Mother Riley.
There ain’t nothin’ like Berwick’s dame? Well, Aberdeen Alan not only looked the part, flung the Wagon Wheels with elan, bonded cheekily with the regulars and matched him in donning glasses for the shout-outs, he also made references aplenty to the absent Berwick and ad-libbed in a post-modern, knowing way.
Breaking down theatre’s fourth wall, he relished moments of direct address with his new audience, once correcting himself for saying “he” rather than “she” – “I’ll get the gender right by the weekend,” he quipped – and playing the outsider looking in as he commented on the absurdity of a York panto plot that by now had Powell dressed as a shrove of garlic from the Planet Garlictica.
For all the limitations of Kaler’s half-baked script for the second half, McHugh’s oven-ready partnership with Corrigan clicked in new kitchen surroundings, especially when daft lad Corrigan forgot his line for the only time. Cue improvisation, sudden memory of the line, and a putdown from McHugh when that line turned out to be nothing special after the big build-up.
Paul-James Corrigan: Twelve hours to learn his lines
As York lore has it, the presence of a Scotsman at night – on the city walls – can be met with the firing of an arrow, but these two interloping Scots have ridden to the rescue of Dick Turpin. David Leonard led the cast and audience’s gratitude at the finale, and more applause will follow.
Kaler and Barrass’s PCR test results, when they eventually came through, were positive. McHugh and Corrigan were back in action this afternoon and will be filling in the Dotty and Dunkin Donut holes again tonight and tomorrow.
Barrass is definitely out for the rest of the run, but should Dame Berwick have negative lateral flow tests on Saturday and Sunday morning, might he yet make an appearance on Sunday? Watch this space.
Dick Turpin Rides Again, Grand Opera House, York, remaining performances: 7pm tonight; 2pm and 7pm, tomorrow; 1pm and 5pm, Sunday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
UPDATE: 1pm, 8/1/2022
DAME Berwick Kaler and Martin Barrass are both OUT for the rest of the run, still self-isolating. Scottish duo Alan McHugh and Paul-James Corrigan will continue to stand in.
DAMEBERWICK KALER’S LAST WORDS ON DICK TURPIN RIDES AGAIN
Berwick Kaler: Sent letter in his absence from the stage on Sunday
UNABLE to perform the last week of shows after testing positive for Covid, despite feeling “not even a headache”, Berwick Kaler asked for a letter to be read out to the last evening’s audience on January 9. Alan McHugh, the Scottish actor, comedian and writer who stood in as Dame Dotty Donut, did the honours.
Dame Berwick wrote: “We are one of the few pantos in the country that have managed to complete their scheduled run. The show must go on. And thanks to this amazing cast, musicians, stage management, backstage crew and front-of-house staff, this panto has survived what nature has thrown at us.
“Having experienced no symptoms whatsoever, it has been devastating for me to be forced to isolate this past week. But on a personal note, this is the only thing Martin Barrass has ever given me.
“Alan McHugh has been an ardent follower of our rubbish for many years and I cannot praise him enough. Likewise – PJ [Barrass’s stand-in, Paul-James Corrigan], my love and admiration to you both.
“But it is to you, the most loyal and long-suffering audience, that I heap the most praise on. Thanks to your continued support over more years than we’d care to remember, we have laughed together as one huge extended family. You are part of our lives and here’s to a few more years of belly laughs at the Grand Opera House, York.”
Adecision on who will perform next year’s Grand Opera House pantomime is yet to be announced by producers Crossroads Pantomimes.
The Bone Sparrow: Pilot Theatre’s world premiere at York Theatre Royal
AFTER the Summer Of Love, the Haunted Season and the pantomime revolution, York Theatre Royal has a Spring! in its step for 2022’s diary of new beginnings.
“Our strategy is not middle of the road with our programming,” says chief executive Tom Bird. “We are either being ambitious commercially or ambitious artistically.
“When we make new work, we want it to resonate with the times; we want it to be relevant to York audiences and we want it to be experimental. We used to do a lot of plays that were ‘in the middle’, but where we are now, even though we do them rather well, we can’t do Chekhov and Ibsen, because no-one came.
“But we’re going to do loads of new work over the year ahead and we have to balance it with commercial work, because we want to have a full theatre that is a community-engaged theatre.”
In a nutshell that means accommodating Pilot Theatre’s The Bone Sparrow, York Light Opera Company’s Evita, Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre’s As You Like It, Dancing On Ice winner Jake Quickenden and Darren Day in the 1980s’ musical Footloose and Mischief and Penn & Teller’s Magic Goes Wrong in one season.
“As a creative theatre, we’re co-producing – and hosting rehearsals for – York company Pilot Theatre’s tour of The Bone Sparrow; we’ll be doing a community play, yet to be named, probably indoors in the summer,” says Tom.
“We’ll also be doing something at Easter and something about Guy Fawkes in November, so there’s plenty of new work in the pipeline. We’ll also continue to make ‘micro-community’ shows, like the Love Bites nights that reopened the theatre [after Lockdown 3] in May.” Watch this space as more details emerge.
Directed by artistic director Esther Richardson, Pilot Theatre’s world premiere of award-winning Australian playwright S. Shakthidaran’s adaptation of Zana Fraillon’s novel The Bone Sparrow will open at York Theatre Royal from February 25 to March 5 before touring to fellow co-producing houses Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Mercury Theatre, Colchester and Derby Playhouse.
Fraillon’s story of a Rohingya refugee boy who has spent his entire life living in a detention centre in Australia forms the third liaison between Pilot and the four theatres, who formed a new partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences.
“The way this consortium has worked is that, over a four-year period, each theatre takes its turn to make a show with Pilot. Derby Playhouse made Noughts & Crosses, Coventry made Crongton Knights,” says Tom.
“This time, we’re producing The Bone Sparrow in York. It’s a brilliant time to be doing this play, as it’s set in a refugee camp, when sections of the media and certain politicians try to demonise refugees. This play pushes back against that really powerfully.
“It’s also super-exciting that Arun Ghosh is doing the music and sound. Arun is an incredible Indian musician who I worked with on a show called Lions And Tigers, by Tanika Gupta, at Shakespeare’s Globe.”
Just as York Theatre Royal and pantomime partners Evolution Productions were determined to draw a wider, younger audience to Cinderella – and did so with 65 per cent visiting the Theatre Royal for the first time – so Tom is passionate about attracting young audiences to other shows too.
“It’s great to do work for this [teenage] age group with Pilot. We were worried because Crongton Knights was a tough sell, as it did feel its experiences specifically spoke to South London, but this latest show has really taken off,” he says.
“It seems to be a story that everyone is relating to, even thought it’s set in Australia, but then Australia is a good place to set such a story because the way Australia handles refugees and asylum seekers is a bleak vision of how it could be in our country.”
Politics lies at the heart of another centrepiece of the season: Nottingham Playhouse, Northern Stage (Newcastle) and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh’s co-production of Red Ellen, on tour in York from May 24 to 28.
Caroline Bird’s new play tells the inspiring and epic story of Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson “who was forever on the right side of history, forever on the wrong side of life”.
Caught between revolutionary and parliamentary politics, Ellen’s fight for a better world took in encounters with Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway; battling to save Jewish refugees in Nazi Germany; campaigning for Britain to aid the struggle against Franco’s Fascists in Spain; leading 200 petitioning workers on the Jarrow Crusade from Newcastle to London and serving in Churchill’s Cabinet – and she had affairs with Communist spies and government ministers alike.
“Caroline Bird, no relation, is an amazing new playwright, and this play is an absolute corker. It’s great to do that new work here, just as we were delighted to stage The Young’uns’ show The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff in the autumn,” says Tom.
“A new play by a female playwright, on a large theatrical scale, doesn’t happen that often and definitely not often enough.
“I just wanted to give it a stage in Yorkshire because it was already going to be performed in Scotland, the North East and the Midlands: places it should be seen in, but otherwise it wouldn’t be coming to Yorkshire.”
On March 17 and 18, Oladipo Agboluaje’s Here’s What She Said To Me follows three generations of proud African women, connecting with each other across two continents, across time and space.
First staged at Sheffield Crucible Theatre, the play was conceived and directed by Mojisola Elufowoju, who cut her theatrical teeth while studying at York St John University. “Moji did a lot of work at the Theatre Royal and has now put together this incredible company [Utopia Theatre] to tell the story of what happened to these Ugandan women,” says Tom.
“We have to keep going with tackling diversity in theatre; we’ve changed from being aware of the need to be diverse to reflect our community to a position of having to take a lead on this, going beyond reflecting diversity in our community to be always representing the contemporary world on our stage, because York is changing faster than we realise.”
In Michele Lee’s Rice, on April 13 and 14, two women form a powerful if unlikely bond: Nisha is a headstrong hotshot Indian executive working for Australia’s largest producer of rice and Yvette, an older Chinese migrant, is the cleaner with entrepreneurial ambitions of her own.
“Actors Touring Company are continuing our strand of Chinese and Asian theatre, which is becoming important to us because the largest community in York, aside from the white community, is Chinese,” says Tom.
“We’re trying to develop more work to reflect the city’s demographic, like when we did a production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie set in Hong Kong. Over seven percent of the audience was Chinese/Asian, compared with one per cent normally.
“Matthew Zia is a brilliant directing talent and we’re really excited to be bringing this European premiere to York.”
York Light Opera Company follow up Oliver! and Grease with Andrew Loyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita, the rags-to-riches story of Eva Person’s rise to First Lady of Argentina, from February 9 to 19.
“The last thing that would ever go from here would be shows like this, because work by York companies is so important to us,” says Tom. “It now fits in with Arts Council England’s new direction of travel, where it wants to encourage the chance for people to fulfil their creativity on our stage.”
Halifax company Northern Broadsides return to the Theatre Royal with their 30th anniversary production, Shakespeare’s sylvan comedy As You Like It, performed by a northern cast of 12 in the first visit to York under Laurence Sansom’s direction.
All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players as gender roles dissolve and assumptions are turned on their head in this celebration of the transformative power of love and the natural world.
“Laurie is a great appointment as artistic director, and As You Like It is really on the nose as a choice of play with all the focus on climate change right now,” says Tom.
Many more shows tumble out of the brochure: The HandleBards pedalling into York with their all-female, bicycle-powered, irreverent Macbeth on January 25 and 26; Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens’ tribute to Eric & Ern on February 1 and 2, and Treasure Island, La Navet Bete’s follow-up to Dracula: The Bloody Truth, on March 10 to 12.
Among further returnees are York’s drag diva deluxe, Velma Celli, with Me And My Divas, a celebration of Mariah, Celine, Whitney, Aretha, Cher and Britney, on March 19; English Touring Opera on April 8 and 9 with Puccini’s La Boheme and Rimsky Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel and Show Stopper, The Improvised Musical, on April 23.
For full Spring! season details and tickets, go to: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Box office: 01904 623568.
NO time like the present to discover no-nonsense arts podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson’s look back to the year of No Time To Die, Ralph Fiennes in York, Grayson Perry’s Pre-Therapy Years and Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights.
Yvette Stone’s puppet of The Creature for Blackeyed Theatre’s 2016 production of Frankenstein. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown
NICK Lane’s adaptation of Frankenstein will be staged by Blackeyed Theatre at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from February 9 to 12 as part of a national tour.
South Yorkshire playwright Lane has reinterpreted John Ginman’s original 2016 script for the Bracknell touring company, built around Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel set in Geneva in 1816, where Victor Frankenstein obsesses in the pursuit of nature’s secret, the elixir of life itself.
Alas, nothing can prepare him for what he creates, and so begins a gripping life-or-death adventure taking him to the ends of the Earth and beyond.
Blackeyed Theatre’s highly theatrical telling combines live music and ensemble storytelling with Bunraku-style puppetry to portray The Creature. Designed and built by Warhorse and His Dark Materials alumna Yvonne Stone, the 6ft 4inch puppet is operated by up to three actors at any one time, adding a new dimension to the retelling of the Frankenstein story.
Playwright Nick Lane
Director Eliot Giuralarocca says: “For me, the beauty and excitement of theatre is that it’s live, unfolding in front of an audience as they watch, and the decision to make the creature a life-sized puppet – beautifully and painstakingly made by Yvonne Stone – seemed to fit perfectly with this approach.
“Frankenstein is obsessed with re-animating dead matter by finding the spark of creation, the ‘elixir of life’. We bring our creature to life theatrically, animating, manipulating and breathing life into the puppet right in front of the audience, and in doing so, I hope we present a lovely theatrical metaphor for the act of creation in the story itself and give audiences the chance to share in that creation.”
Victor Frankenstein will be played by Robert Bradley (Hedda Gabler, National Theatre, Joe Strummer Takes A Walk, Cervantes Theatre, Encounters With The Past, Hampton Court Palace).
Max Gallagher (Brief Encounter, Watermill Newbury, War Horse, National Theatre, Richard III, Northern Broadsides) reprises the role of Henry Clerval, while Benedict Hastings(Wolf Hall, Royal Shakespeare Company, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, Kenny Wax) plays Robert Walton.
“We bring our creature to life theatrically, animating, manipulating and breathing life into the puppet right in front of the audience, ” says Blackeyed Theatre director Eliot Giuralarocca. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown
Billy Irving (War Horse Tenth Anniversary Tour, National Theatre) is chief puppeteer and the voice of The Creature; Rose Bruford graduate Alice E Mayer makes her professional stage debut as Elizabeth Lavenza.
Writer Nick Lane, whose SJT winter production of Jack And The Beanstalk can be watched online until January 31 via sjt.uk.com, was associate director and literary manager at Hull Truck Theatre from 2006 to 2014.
Director Eliot Giuralarocca and puppetry creator and director Yvonne Stone are joined in the Blackeyed Theatre production team by composer Ron McAllister, musical director Ellie Verkerk, set designer Victoria Spearing, costume designer Anne Thomson and lighting designer Alan Valentine (whereas the 2016 production was lit by Charlotte McClelland).
Frankenstein is produced by Blackeyed Theatre in association with South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, with support from Arts Council England.
Performances in The Round at the SJT start at 7.30pm on February 9; 1.30pm and 7.30pm, February 10; 7.30pm, February 11, and 2.30pm and 7.30pm, February 12. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
Blackeyed Theatre’s Bunraku-style puppetry for The Creature in Frankenstein. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown
Artist Feral Practice researching in the field.Picture: Tony Bartholomew
QUESTION of the day: What can we learn from ants?
Artists and naturalists will come together on Zoom on January 19 from 7pm to 9pm to address this fascinating question in Ask The Ants.
In an event organised by Scarborough Museums Trust, designed to complement Scarborough Art Gallery’s ongoing exhibition, The Ant-ic Museum, artists Feral Practice and Marcus Coates will discuss what ants can teach us about our anthropological world in the company of ant ecologies specialist Dr Elva Robinson and natural world author Charlotte Sleigh.
Subverting a Gardeners’ Question Time format, the panel will draw on their specialist knowledge of ants to answer questions from the audience about human society. “Seeing our entrenched issues or thorny problems through the unusual position of the ant world opens up unexpected pathways of creative thinking for everyday life,” says the Scarborough Museums Trust literature.
Online attendees can submit questions in advance via https://bit.ly/AskTheAnts or ask it on the day. Questions can vary from the political and societal to the deeply personal. They should not be questions about ants, however!
An exhibit at The Ant-ic Museum exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
The January 19 event is part of Ask The Wild, a collaborative project by Feral Practice and Marcus Coates that offers fresh perspectives on personal, social and political issues in human society by bringing expert knowledge of natural history disciplines to bear on everyday human problems and dilemmas. Previous events include Ask The Sea at Tate St Ives, Cornwall, and Ask The Birds at Whitechapel Gallery, London.
Feral Practice’s Fiona MacDonald is an artist, curator and writer who specialises in human-nonhuman relationships, creating art projects that “develop ethical and imaginative connection across species boundaries”.
Performance artist, writer and filmmaker Marcus Coates seeks to draw parallel in his work through “examining how we perceive ‘human-ness’ in imagined non-human realities”.
Elva Robinson, senior lecturer in Ecology at the University of York, conducts research on the wood ants of the North York Moors. Her book Wood Ant Ecology And Conservation was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.
Charlotte Sleigh is a researcher, writer and practitioner whose work is spread across the science humanities. Her research interests began in the history of biology and now have an emphasis on animals, and she is the author of Ant (Reaktion, 2003) and Six Legs Better: A Cultural History Of Myrmecology (Johns Hopkins, 2007).
Jacob George: Soloist for Schumann’s Violin Concerto
THE Academy of St Olave’s Winter Concert at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, on January 22 will feature Jacob George as soloist for Schumann’s Violin Concerto.
Jacob, the son of the York chamber orchestra’s musical director, Alan George, returns on solo duty after performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in 2019.
As a teenager, he was principal second violin for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, topped off by three concerts at the BBC Proms.
Jacob has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, including performances of Dvorak’s Romance with York Guildhall Orchestra and the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto with Sheffield University Symphony Orchestra. Outside music, he works as a senior planning officer in urban development management.
The Academy’s first concert since last September’s sold-out return will feature two works inspired by Italy: Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony No. 4.
Musical director Alan George says: “We are looking forward to transporting our audience to sunnier Mediterranean climes with two Italian-inspired pieces, as well as welcoming Jacob back as soloist for the concerto.
“The Schumann Violin Concerto is a real curiosity, not performed for more than 80 years after it was composed, and still a relative rarity in the repertoire. It’s a wonderful piece, deeply affecting – dating from the end of his life, and well deserving of greater recognition: we hope to have another full house to sample its characteristic combination of sadness and joy.”
The 8pm concert is in aid of Musical Connections, a York charity that runs community choirs and weekly music groups in assorted care and community settings.
Tickets cost £15 (£5 for accompanied under-18s) at academyofstolaves.org.uk. Numbers are limited; book in advance to avoid disappointment. Check the academy website the week before the concert for any Covid-19 mitigation measures in place.
The Best Of Gilbert and Sullivan at Harrogate Royal Hall on Friday
THE International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is holding a three-day spectacular at Harrogate Royal Hall from January 7 to 9 to mark the New Year.
First up will be The Best Of Gilbert and Sullivan, Friday’s concert that asks the question: which is your favourite Gilbert and Sullivan opera? “There’s no need to decide when you can have a cavalcade of the very best of G&S, from the wonderfully familiar to the surprisingly unfamiliar, performed by the best G&S singers in the world,” says festival trustee Bernard Lockett.
The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company (NGSOC), led by comic baritone Simon Butteriss and accompanied by the National Festival Orchestra, will be taking a whirlwind tour of the Savoy Operas, set in context by fascinating, historical, gossipy anecdotes that evoke the glitter and glamour of the 19th century Savoy Theatre.
Joining Butteriss on stage will be NGSOC stars Matthew Siveter, David Menezes and Amy Payne; the orchestra will be conducted by David Russell Hulme.
Enchantment awaits in The Magic Of Vienna New Year Gala Concert on Saturday. “Come on a magical journey through Vienna, the musical capital of the world, and celebrate the New Year in style,” says Bernard.
“Our annual gala concert will be an absolute treat, and what a fabulous Christmas present for that special person too. Enjoy a fantastic selection of the most beautiful pieces by Johann Strauss, Mozart, Lehar and more, brought to you by the renowned National Festival Orchestra, conducted by Aidan Faughey. Our soloists include international opera stars James Cleverton and Rebecca Bottone.”
The short winter season concludes with Charles Court Opera’s London production of G&S’s The Mikado, accompanied by the National Festival Orchestra, on Sunday night.
Behind closed doors at the British Consulate in the Japanese town of Titipu, the scheming, slippery Lord High Executioner is on the cusp of hatching one plot too far, with far-reaching, but humorous consequences for everyone involved, especially when the Mikado arrives.
“Containing such familiar songs as A Wandering Minstrel, I, Three Little Maids From School and I’ve Got A Little List, this punchy and hilarious satire promises to be a treat for operetta lovers and newcomers alike,” says Bernard.
Tickets for the 7.30pm performances are on sale on 01422 323352 or at gsfestivals.co.uk. Looking ahead, the 28th International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival will run at Harrogate Royal Hall from August 10 to 21, preceded by Buxton Opera House, Derbyshire, from July 30 to August 6. For more details, go to: gsfestivals.org.
From quips to quiff: Joker Tim Vine as Plastic Elvis
TIM Vine’s “unique tribute to a legend”, Plastic Elvis, shakes his hip and quivers his lip at Doncaster Dome on March 5 on the last night of his rearranged tour.
Please note, this is NOT a stand-up comedy show by the quick-quipping cracker of one-lines and pantomime regular but Vine’s tribute act to Elvis Presley.
First booked for May and June 2020, the 19-date tour was rescheduled for September 2021 to March 2022, including an October 5 date at Harrogate Theatre.
Billed as a “total sell-out at the Edinburgh festival” – more specifically, a one-off fully booked gig at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe – Vine invites you to “feel the electricity as Plastic Elvis hits the stage backed by his incredible five-piece The High Noon Band”.
“He’ll shake, he’ll smoulder, he’ll try and control his hair and in the end, he’ll break your heart,” the show blurb promises. “Sing along with some of the King’s greatest songs on a breathless night of rock’n’roll.”
“This is it. The moment has arrived,” says Vine, who plays Doncaster the day after his 55th birthday. “This isn’t a stand-up show, but a concert dedicated to my favourite performer. When I was 11 years old, I would stand in front of my bedroom mirror and mime to the whole of 1972’s Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden album. This is a tribute act that is 40 years in the making. Well, the waiting is over. It’s time to go public.”
Be warned, Vine’s show “may contain moves that even Plastic Elvis himself isn’t expecting”. Support comes from special guests John Archer as Big Buddy Holly and song-writing legend David Martin, who wrote four songs for Elvis, A Little Bit of Green Let’s Be Friends, Sweet Angeline and This Is The Story.
Martin has sold 26 million records around the world in a career spanning more than 40 years. His songwriting and production team with Chris Arnold and Geoff Morrow has worked up with Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and David Essex, among others.
Tickets for Tim Vine Is Plastic Elvis’s 7pm show are on sale on 01302 370777 or at dclt.co.uk.
Lotta bottle: Tim Vine in his Sunset Milk Idiot show at Grand Opera House, York, in May 2018
Tim Vine’s back story: Quips with everything
Born: Cheam, Sutton, March 4 1967.
Job description: English writer, actor, pantomime performer, comedian and presenter.
Best known for: One-liner jokes and his role from 2006 to 20212 as Lee Mack’s uptight, sensible best friend, Timothy Gladstone Adams, in 34 episodes of BBC One’s studio sitcom Not Going Out.
Stand-up DVDs: Time Vine Live, 2004; So I Said To This Bloke, 2008; Punslinger Live, 2010; Joke-amotive Live, 2011; Tim Timinee Tim Timinee Tim Tim To You, 2016; Sunset Milk Idiot, 2019.
Books: TheBiggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book and The Tim Vine Bumper Book Of Silliness.
Awards: Winner of Best Joke at Edinburgh Fringe, twice.
TV shows: Not Going Out, BBC One; Tim Vine Travels Through Time, BBC One; hosting quiz show Football Genius, ITV; Taskmaster.
Radio: Hosts Tim Vine Chat Show on BBC Radio 4, interviewing audience members as he seeks to prove that not everyone has a story.
YouTube channel: Tim Vine Televisual (TVTV), regularly serving up nonsense.
Famous brother: Broadcaster Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2 and television show presenter, Strictly Ballroom Dancing alumnus and one-man cycling video vigilante.
Car Park Panto’s cast dishes up a Horrible Christmas to Sunday’s drive-in audience at Elvington Airfield
AS U2 once sang, all is quiet on New Year’s Day, but Charles Hutchinson has his diary out to note down events for the months ahead.
Drive-in pantomime: Car Park Panto’s Horrible Christmas, Elvington Airfield, near York, tomorrow (Sunday,) 11am, 2pm and 5pm
BIRMINGHAM Stage Company’s Horrible Histories franchise teams up with Coalition Presents for Car Park Panto’s Horrible Christmas.
In writer-director Neal Foster’s adaptation of Terry Deary’s story, when Christmas comes under threat from a jolly man dressed in red, one young boy must save the day as a cast of eight sets off on a hair-raising adventure through the history of Christmas.
At this Covid-secure experience, children and adults can jump up and down in their car seats and make as much noise as they like, tuning in to the live show on stage and screen. Box office: carparkparty.com.
Shaparak Khorsandi: Revisiting her 1900s’ experiences in It Was The 90s! at Selby Town Hall
Looking back, but not nostalgically: Shaparak Khorsandi, It Was The 90s!, Selby Town Hall, January 22, 8pm
SHAPARAK Khorsandi, the Iranian-born British stand-up comedian and author formerly known as Shappi, tackles the celebrated but maligned 1990s in her new show, It Was The 90s!.
Back then, she flew around London with hope in her heart, a tenner in her pocket and spare knickers in her handbag. “But how does the decade of binge drinking and walks of shame look now without snakebite and black-tinted specs?” asks Shaparak, 48.
“This is a show about how we ’90s kids are looking to young people to learn how to take care of ourselves, because if you survived the car crash of being a ’90s kid, then surely Things Can Only Get Better.” Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Round The Horne as re-created by Apollo Stage Company at the Grand Opera House, York
Looking back, nostalgically: Round The Horne, Grand Opera House, York, January 27, 7.30pm
FROM the producers of The Goon Show and Hancock’s Half Hour tours comes another radio comedy classic, re-created live on stage by Apollo Stage Company.
Compiled and directed by Tim Astley from Barry Took and Marty Feldman’s scripts, this meticulous show takes a step back in time to the BBC’s Paris studios to re-play the recordings of the Sunday afternoon broadcasts of Kenneth Horne and his merry crew in mischievous mood.
Expect wordplay, camp caricatures and risqué innuendos, film spoofs and such favourite characters as Rambling Sid Rumpo, Charles and Fiona, J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock and Julia and Sandy. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.
Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical: Making its York debut at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in February
Heart or head choice: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, York, February 9 to 12, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
IN the coastal town of Folkestone, Arthur Kipps knows there is more to life than his demanding but unrewarding job as an apprentice draper.
When he suddenly inherits a fortune, Kipps is thrown into a world of upper-class soirées and strict rules of etiquette that he barely understands. Torn between the affections of the kind but proper Helen and childhood sweetheart Ann, Kipps must determine whether such a simple soul can find a place in high society.
Tickets for this fundraising show for the JoRo are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Giovanni Pernice: This is him in This Is Me after his Strictly Come Dancing triumph
Strictly winner comes dancing: Giovanni Pernice: This Is Me, York Barbican, March 9, 7.30pm
GLITTER ball still gleaming, Giovanni Pernice will take to the road on his rescheduled tour after winning Strictly Come Dancing as the professional partner to ground-breaking deaf EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis.
The Italian dance stallion will be joined by his cast of professional dancers for This Is Me, his homage to the music and dances that have inspired Pernice’s career, from a competition dancer to being a mainstay of the gushing BBC show.
“Expect all of your favourite Ballroom and Latin dances and more,” says Giovanni. Tickets remain valid from the original date of June 11 2020. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Script: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in July
Off to the East Coast part one: The Script, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 14
IRISH rock band The Script topped the album charts for a sixth time in October with their greatest hits collection Tales From The Script, matching the feats of Arctic Monkeys, Pink Floyd and Radiohead.
Those songs can be heard live next summer when lead vocalist and keyboardist Danny O’Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power return to Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the first time since June 2018.
Formed in Dublin in 2007, The Script have sold more than 30 million records, chalking up hits with We Cry, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, For The First Time, Hall Of Fame and Superheroes. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Jane McDonald: Leading the line-up at Yorkshire’s Platinum Jubilee Concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Off to the East Coast part two: Jane McDonald and special guests, Yorkshire’s Platinum Jubilee Concert, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 4
WAKEFIELD singing star Jane McDonald will top the bill at next summer’s Scarborough celebration of Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. A host of special guests will be added.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be headlining this very special concert, and where better to be holding such a brilliant event than in Yorkshire,” she says. “Everyone knows I’m a proud Yorkshire lass, so it will be so thrilling to walk on to stage in Scarborough for these celebrations.” Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Paul Hollywood: Sugar-coated secrets and special surprises
The Great British Baker gets cooking: Paul Hollywood Live, Harrogate Convention Centre, October 23
GREAT British Bake Off judge, celebrity chef and cookbook author Paul Hollywood promises live demonstrations, baking tasks, sugar-coated secrets and special surprises in next autumn’s tour.
Visiting 18 cities and towns, including Harrogate (October 23) and Sheffield City Hall (November 1), Wallasey-born baker’s son Hollywood, 55, will work from a fully equipped on-stage kitchen, sharing his tricks of the trade. Tickets for a slice of Hollywood action are on sale at cuffeandtaylor.com.
