Back in the news: Stephen Tompkinson’s Damien, left, Robert Duncan’s Gus, Jeff Rawle’s George, Neil Pearson’s Dave and Victoria Wicks’s Sally Smedley reunite in The Truth newsroom in Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!
MARK Twain would have it that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Once that mantra would keep journalists on their mettle, but now we are in a media world of truths, half-truths and Donald Trump’s favourite, alternative truths, and this way trouble lies.
Already the Beeb had a disinformation correspondent. Then came last May’s launch of the BBC Verify team of 60 journalists, whose forensic job is to “fact-check, verify video, counter disinformation, analyse data and – crucially – explain complex stories in the pursuit of truth”.
In our age of fakes deeper than a Balearic holiday tan, alleged Russian interference on social media and AI manipulation, the virus of misinformation is spreading ever wider and faster.
So much for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when so much news output is slanted opinion rather than fact or when politicians play for time by saying “let me make this absolutely clear”. Muddy the water? More like the rotten state of the Thames on this month’s Boat Race day.
Once there was the loneliness of the midnight-shift shock-jock on the radio, now there is a plethora of right-leaning news radio stations and celebrity hack-led satellite TV channels.
News alert! Here comes Truth News. After Alan Partridge, Brassy Eye’s Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci and Punt & Dennis’s The Now Show, and the indefatigable thorn-in-the-side investigative journalism of Ian Hislop’s Private Eye, what better time for Drop The Dead Donkey to re-enter the fray, 30 years after Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin launched their TV satire on newsroom practices and malpractices behind the deadlines and the headlines.
Earlier this spring, An Evening With The Fast Show recalled all its TV yesterdays with a nostalgic night of chat, catchphrases and microwave-quick sketches 30 years on at the Grand Opera House.
By comparison, Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening is no mere re-heat. Yes, “the band have got back together again”, save for the late Haydn Gwynne (1957-2023), Globelink News’s deputy editor, but now they work for the soon-to-launch Truth News in the white heat of the 2024 news industry, 24-hour rolling news et al.
Welcome back George (Jeff Rawle), the stoical editor, with a new North Korean girlfriend on his mind and an erratic coffee machine to work out, over-eager to respond to his every spoken order.
One by one, the “fab four” reunite in Drop The Dead Donkey’s stage debut: next, the troubled and in-trouble Dave (Neil Pearson), then buzzword-chomping chief executive Gus (Robert Duncan).
Lastly, Damien (Stephen Tompkinson), always a stranger to truth in the cause of a scoop from the frontline and now confined to a wheelchair as a “Primark Frank Gardner”. That gibe is typical of Hamilton and Jenkin’s wit, attuned to the BBC Radio 4 listeners populating the Grand Theatre auditorium, along with a knowing jest at their age.
Thirty years on, the news hounds remain well drawn, colourful and amusingly fallible characters. Less so, the women in the news team: Ingrid Lacey’s long-suffering Helen; Susannah Doyle’s not exactly joyful Joy; Julia Hills’ duplicitous Mairead and Kerena Jagpal’s newcomer, Rita, the easily shocked weather girl, sorry, presenter.
Only Victoria Wicks’s newsreader, the implacable, thick-skinned Sally Smedley, has lines or a story arc to rival the men in the room. That’s a missed opportunity by the writers.
As Truth News takes to the air, the frictions and revelations, the technical hitches and glitches, have the rhythm of sitcom, forcing familiar characters and traits to collide anew. Duncan’s hyperbolic Gus is on particularly fine form, bubbling and babbling away the more the troubled waters rise.
Hamilton and Jenkin are at their punchiest in their topicality, updating the script throughout the tour, taking pot shots at Sunak and Hancock for example. Their satirical finger is on the pulse of 2024 news gathering and the source of its financing too.
Nothing sums up news trends better than gushing Gus’s obsession with the power of algorithms to dictate news agendas. Time after time he hits you with his algorithm schtick, more ridiculous than the last.
Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! lives up to that exclamation mark, its sceptical, zeitgiest humour topped off by Damien’s Henry V-style battle cry in the cause of truth that brings the house down in agreement, only for one last revelation to trip him up.
Derek Bond’s smart direction, Peter Mackintosh’s newsroom set and Dan Light’s video design are spot on. Drop the dud ending, or at least make it sharper, and this would be an even better comeback show. And that’s the truth.
Drop The Dead Donkey, Leeds Grand Theatre, tonight at 7.30pm. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Impressionist oil painter Michael Hasan Reda: Making his York Open Studios debut in Prices Lane
ART from the city and out of this world, an orchestra of two, Canadian rock, Italian opera and a courtroom thriller have Charles Hutchinson reaching for the front door key.
Art event of the fortnight: York Open Studios, today and tomorrow; April 20 and 21, 10am to 5pm
AS many as 156 artists and makers who live or work within a ten-mile radius of York will be welcoming visitors to 106 workspaces to show and sell their art, ranging from ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery and mixed media to painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles, glass and wood. Among them will be 31 new participants. Full details and a map can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk. Look out for booklets around the city too.
East Riding Artists: Addressing climate change in From The Earth exhibition at Nunnington Hall
Ryedale exhibition of the week: From The Earth, East Riding Artists, at Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, until May 12, 10.30am to 5pm
THE climate crisis is high on the worldwide agenda; evidence of nature’s fragility can be found everywhere we turn, and few would question that our Earth is changing dramatically, in some cases irrevocably. Nature, however, is a force to be reckoned with, prompting 32 painters, potters and creatives from East Riding Artists to celebrate everything our natural world has to offer.
From the power of the North Sea and the beauty of Yorkshire’s countryside and coastline to the food we grow and the flowers we cultivate, From The Earth cherishes the best of our ever-changing world. Normal admission applies; National Trust members, free.
In Flight: Barenaked Ladies land at York Barbican on Sunday
Pinch me, look who’s coming to York: Barenaked Ladies, In Flight UK Tour 2024, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.50pm
IN the words of Barenaked Ladies drummer Tyler Stewart: “Our In Flight UK Tour 2024 will feature tasty new songs from the album and of course, a whole slew of BNL hits spanning 35 years. So come on Subjects! It’s time to ring in spring with your favourite Canadians, Barenaked Ladies. We look forward to seeing your happy faces.” Support acts will be Callum Beattie and Ferris & Sylvester.
Sold out already in the York Barbican week ahead are the Modfather Paul Weller’s return on Wednesday and arch comedian Tom Allen’s Completely gig on Thursday. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Blackheart Orchestra: Two musicians, Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington, play 13 instruments between them at Helmsley Arts Centre
Prog rock for the space age: The Blackheart Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday (19/4/2024), doors, 7.30pm
CHRISSY Mostyn and Rick Pilkington’s two-piece “orchestra” play 13 instruments between them from their prog-rock space station on stage, from acoustic and electric guitars, bass and bowed guitar to piano, organ, vintage synthesisers, omnichord, melodica and electric percussion.
Drawing on influences as varied as Kate Bush, Portishead, Cocteau Twins, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, they combine folk and rock roots with electronica and classical music. Foxpalmer, alias London singer-songwriter Fern McNulty, supports, from 8pm. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Patrick Draper, Tony Jameson and Alfie Joey: Comedy at the treble on Friday at the Milton Rooms, Malton
Hilarity Bites Comedy Club: Alfie Joey, Patrick Draper and Tony Jameson, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
ALFIE Joey is a polymath: artist, radio presenter, podcaster, comedian, communication coach, Ted X speaker, impressionist, interviewer, charity auctioneer, motivator, children’s author, master of ceremonies, pantomime player, sitcom actor, Britain’s Got Talent participant and illustrator for York writer Ian Donaghy’s book Never Stop Drawing.
Comedy will be his focus in Malton, where he will be joined by Patrick Draper, purveyor of deadpan jokes, visual gags and songs, and host Tony Jameson. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Keeping an eye on things: English Touring Opera in Manon Lescaut. Picture: Richard Hubert Smith
Opera of the week: English Touring Opera in Manon Lescaut, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm
ENGLISH Touring Opera returns to York in Jude Christian radical production of Giacomo Puccini’s heartbreaking Manon Lescaut, for which she brings incisive direction to her sharp, poetic new translation.
Puccini’s 1892 breakthrough hit presents a devastating depiction of a woman wrestling with her desire for love on her own terms and the rigid double standards imposed on her by society. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
London Obbligato Collective: Opening York Baroque+ Day at the NCEM
Classical concert of the week: London Obbligato Collective, York Baroque+ Day, April 20, 12 noon
FORMED by Masumi Yamamoto, the new London Obbligato Collective focuses on “accompanied harpsichord sonatas”, where the harpsichord is given the solo role within the trio sonata texture, highlighting and enriching the colours and nuances of the instrument.
Next Saturday’s programme includes 18th century music by Felice Giardini, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Jury service: Christopher Haydon’s cast for Reginald Rose’s courtroom thriller Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House, York
Show announcement of the week: Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, May 13 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
CHRISTOPHER Haydon’s touring production of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men for Bill Kenwright Ltd returns to York on the American courtroom thriller’s 70th anniversary tour, having last played the Grand Opera House in April 2015.
Tristan Gemmill, Michael Greco, Jason Merrells, Gray O’Brien and Gary Webster feature in the cast for this study of human nature and the art of persuasion set in 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 soon becomes a dilemma as the jurors are forced to examine their own self-image, personalities, experiences and prejudices. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Top: The look of love for Natalie Winsor’s Titania and Tweedy the clown’s Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Andrew Higgs/Thousand Word Media
BOTTOM has top billing in Everyman Theatre’s touring production of Shakespeare’s most performed, most perfumed comedy.
Tweedy, the Scottish clown with the trademark red stripe in his hair, is the Cheltenham theatre’s regular pantomime daft lad (although he played dame for the first time last winter), as well as being a staple of Giffords Circus for 17 years.
Everyman director Paul Milton had cast Tweedy – real name Alan Digweed – as Estragon opposite Jeremey Stockwell’s Vladimir as the clowning duo in Samuel Beckett’s apocalyptic Waiting For Godot and now reunites them in his ‘Dream’ adaptation.
Tweedy plays the heavy-coated Bottom to Stockwell’s Welsh-voiced Puck and West Country Snug, his fellow Rude Mechanical. The squeak in Tweedy’s Bottom puts you in mind of Harrogate Theatre’s panto clown, Tim Stedman, while the silver tongue and riparian flow of Stockwell’s Puck evokes Richard Burton’s rendition of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.
Significantly too, Milton has cut out classical Greek references and “bits of speech that now feel quite archaic” in pursuit of creating “accessible Shakespeare” without modernising it.
This gives more space for clowning interjections by Tweedy’s nimble, quick-thinking loon, whether being hit by a plank of wood or Moon’s lamp, wrestling with a deckchair, being dragged back by an unseen dog or quoting Shakespeare’s Richard III as he gives the kiss of life to a pantomime horse.
The stuffed horse promptly drops three plops…for Tweedy to demonstrate his juggling skills. Oh, and how he could resist expelling Bottom burps, putting the ‘f ‘ into art, in the way that so many panto fools do.
This might feel like a commercial pantomime’s habit of shoehorning a star name’s speciality act into a show, but here it is entirely in keeping with the character of Nick Bottom, the weaver, the attention seeker, the egotist, who reckons he can play every part in the Mechanicals’ play. Tweedy is the show’s comedy advisor too, although Botom would probably reckon he should have that duty!
Milton restricts his cast to only ten, so everyone aside from Bottom has two or three roles, switching from the Athenian court to the forest fairyland, pretty much all of them playing a fairy.
This makes for a wholly satisfying ensemble experience, a seamless Dream, classical and magical, with a relish for the words as much as for the fractious fizz in the clashes of Troy Alexander’s Oberon and Natalie Winsor’s Titania and the young lovers (Oliver Brooks/Nadia Shash and Thomas Nellstrop/Laura Noble).
Milton has assembled a superb production team too: Charles Cusick-Smith and Phil R Daniels’ gorgeous set and costume designs for court and forest alike; Michael Childs’ delightful compositions; Michael E Hall’s midsummer lighting and Steve Anderson’s sound design that fills the auditorium with atmospheric woodland wildlife.
Above all, Tweedy’s Bottom makes an ass of himself with glee, cheek and joie de vivre. Bottom’s up indeed.
Cheltenham Everyman Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Bottom: Tweedy the clown in his ass-ured performance as Nick Bottom, the weaver, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Andrew Higgins/Thousand Word Media
Rebecca Banatvala’s Cath, back, AK Golding’s Iz and Sam Newton’s Hen in Northnager Abbey
THE journey from page to stage is familiar, well trodden, but still unpredictable for classic novels. Sometimes it works, sometimes it tries too hard, when a book remains better read than said.
This co-production by the SJT, Scarborough, Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, is one such occasion.
We have seen many adaptations in this manner: a small, busy-as-Heathrow cast working with more imagination than props in Hannah Sibai’s design, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall from the start, speeding between roles and differing theatre styles, but here falling short of the best work of Tilted Wig, Wise Children and Nick Lane’s adaptations.
Writer Zoe Cooper defines Jane Austen’s coming-of-age satire of Gothic novels as “a book about invention that revels in layers of fictionality, of imagination”, one that she first read at 19, roughly the same age as lead character Catherine Morland when she leaves behind her claustrophobic northern family to join the smart set in Bath.
In her programme note, Cooper recalls how she felt out of place, awkward and grubby in her posh university town. Austen’s Catherine Morland (Rebecca Banatvala’s Cath) is a bookworm who feels that same discomfort and disconnection after being drawn to Bath by books and dreams.
Cooper and Banatvala express Cath’s tendency to over-excitement and bad behaviour, ending up in difficult situations that she navigates by warping reality with fiction amid the balls and parties.
Cooper draws on another recollection of her English Literature studies, how her tutorials were “generally male, very white, and very heterosexual”. Her reading of Northanger Abbey was rather different: she liked the book because “it felt a little bit naughty” in the friendship of Catherine and society sophisticate Isabella.
That plays out passionately in this account, where the loving bond between impressionable Cath and worldly Iz (AK Golding) runs deeper than Cath’s relationship with Hen (Sam Newton).
Tessa Walker’s production, however, needs to be more humorous, darker in its Gothic climax, but that requires sharper writing by Cooper. The performances have to swim against the tide, too much work to do.
Matt Haskins’ lighting is a delight, but that should never be the stand-out feature. An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen, with “new research and insights into a passionate woman who fought for her freedom”, at York Barbican on October 14 will be more enlightening.
Lighting up the lead role: Reuben Khan as Joseph in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
REUBEN Khan will play the lead role for York Stage for the first time in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from tomorrow (12/4/2024).
Not that the third-year University of York psychology student is a stranger to stepping into the spotlight in a Nik Briggs production at the Grand Opera House, York.
“I had more than a week’s notice this time, that’s the main difference,” says Reuben, 23, seated with his Technicolor attire behind him in Dressing Room No 1 ahead of Tuesday’s rehearsal.
“For Beautiful [the Carole King musical], Nik called me a week before the show opened to say, ‘look, you wouldn’t happen to be free, to play Gerry Goffin in the early performances, would you?’.”
Frankie Bounds had been rehearsing the role of King’s co-songwriter, husband and ‘serial womaniser’ for his last performance in York before starting studies at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
“He’d checked with Mountview early on that it would be OK, but then suddenly Frankie was told he’d have to go down to the theatre school in the first week, and that’s why I stepped in. That was an interesting experience,” recalls Reuben.
“I didn’t know much about the show, I hadn’t seen it before. So I had to learn a few songs and learn the lines as quickly as possible, and l loved doing it. Obviously the music is phenomenal, the story moves at a pace and it’s just a great show – and it was nice to have the chance to watch Frankie when he came back during the second week.”
Reuben, from Burnley, has past experience of appearing in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph. “I did the show twice when I was 12, once at my school, Unity School, and then with Basics Junior Theatre School. Both times I played Judah [one of Jacob’s sons], and there was a crossover between the two productions. I finished one and, not long after, I did the other.”
He is delighted to be taking on the title role, performing alongside Hannah Shaw’s Narrator and Amy Barrett’s Pharaoh, among others.
“It’s one of those shows where the vast majority of people have come into contact with it, whether it’s at school or, in my case, my mother having the songs on in the car,” says Reuben. Then there’s the film, and there’s always a tour going on or a local production – or people may know the Bible story of Joseph.
Reuben Khan performing in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“I knew the vast majority of songs already, so I feel like I’ve barely touched the book because the songs were ingrained in me!”
Following in the sandal steps of the likes of Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Donny Osmond, Lee Mead and Joe McElderry holds no fears for Reuben. “Honestly, it’s great fun. It’s a funny role to some extent, as you can kind of understand some of the qualms that his brothers have about him! Joseph is flawed, and you think, if I was one of his brothers, I’d be having problems with him,” he says.
“But at the same time, he represents the everyman. Yes he’s flawed but he tries his best, people around him either like him or they don’t, and there’s something nice about playing a character who the audience is rooting for. It’s good fun.”
Reuben has enjoyed responding to the direction of Nik Briggs. “He has this overarching vision that he puts across incredibly well, to get the best out of us by directing in a very fluid, creatively free way, which is massively important, without micro-directing us,” he says. “He also has this ability to stay level-headed, which is such a skill, something that I’ve not seen in a lot of people in his position.”
Reuben’s preparations have stretched beyond rehearsals to ensuring he will be in peak fitness for a role that involves “wearing not a lot of clothes” (except when he is in his “day to day” coat or the Technicolor dreamcoat of the title).
“It’s all part of the tongue-in-cheek side of the show that Joseph is this half-dressed man! When I knew I would be doing the role, initially it was at the back of my mind, but in the past two months it’s been very much to the front – and at the same time, I’m trying to focus on the third year of my university studies too!
“I’ve never spent so much time keeping an eye on what I’m eating, going to the gym most days of the week for six weeks, to be in the best shape – just in time for the summer!”
On top of his Joseph rehearsals and university studies, Reuben is in the middle of auditioning for drama schools. “I’m studying psychology, but I want to go into musical theatre, and the second I say I’m studying psychology, they say, ‘oh, that’s really interesting’!” he says of his auditions at Associated Studios and the Royal Academy of Music in London to do a Masters degree in musical theatre.
“I guess it’s because psychology is all about understanding people, and that’s the same with acting, understanding a character.”
Now, after such roles as Rapunzel’s Prince in Into The Woods and Bobby in Company for the university’s Central Hall Musical Society, Reuben is ready to go, go, go, Joseph from tomorrow.
York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Savva Zverev: Russian-born violinist and graduate of Royal Northern Collge of Music. Picture: York Late Music
LATE Music has been changing gradually over the years. It now encompasses two concerts on the first Saturday of every month between October and June, one at lunchtime and one in the evening.
Amabile, a clarinet trio, drew the lunchtime slot this month, with Farrenc and Brahms sandwiching a premiere by Steve Crowther.
In the welcome wave of rediscovery of female composers through the ages, the name of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) regularly recurs. She mainly wrote for her own instrument, the piano, but chamber music – always with piano – engaged her frequently.
Her Trio in E flat, Op 44 (1861), partners clarinet (or violin) with cello and piano. It shows craftsmanship rather than inspiration, and is a throwback to Mendelssohn with a touch of Mozartian finesse.
Amabile, with the seasoned clarinet of Lesley Schatzberger to the fore, treated it with considerable respect. Balance was awry at first, with prominent piano and self-effacing cello, but Farrenc’s imitative tendencies soon emerged politely enough.
A slithery little figure in the minuet heralded a finale that showed flashes of imagination; it was taken at an exciting pace. There is probably more to the composer than this but it was good to hear.
Crowther’s Transcriptions from Morris Dances are nothing to do with the well-known dances but five cameos inspired by the composer’s friendship with Philip Morris, presumably originally for piano.
They are delightful vignettes, spiced with wit and insight, ranging from the light and airy in the opening homage to friendship to the thoughtfully elegiac in the final Love Song, with its quizzical ending. They were lovingly played.
Brahms’s Clarinet Trio, Op 114 in A minor (1891), has all the autumnal warmth we associate with the composer’s twilight years. The opening Allegro had a lovely flow here and a delicate ending.
In the heat haze conjured by the Adagio, the cello of Nicola Tait Baxter came into its own, entwined closely with Schatzberger’s idiomatic clarinet. Paul Nicholson’s piano neatly underpinned the lilting Viennese waltz that preceded a finale of crisp rhythms tinged with a touch of aggression. It was good to see Nicholson back in musical harness after his retirement from the Anglican ministry. He has lost none of his previous finesse on all types of keyboard.
The evening brought a surprise. There have been countless expert exponents of contemporary music in this series over the years, but never, I would guess, a virtuoso of quite the calibre of violinist Savva Zverev.
His nonchalant dispatch of a variety of works from Bach to Bartók and beyond was breathtaking. Sid Ramchander was his nimble-fingered piano partner.
Zverev opened his first half with Bach’s first solo violin sonata, BWV 1001 in G minor. He made it sound, as Bach undoubtedly intended, as if there were several instruments involved, not just counterpoint in three or even four parts but, with double and treble-stopping, remarkable harmony as well. This was cutting-edge stuff in Bach’s day. It still is – and very much belonged here.
By way of balance, Zverev’s second half began with Bartók’s unaccompanied Violin Sonata of 1944, the year before he died. It takes several leaves out of Bach’s book and is equally challenging.
Not that it held any terrors for Zverev. His top-string brilliance was not balanced by much dynamic shading in the opening chaconne, but his handling of the four-voice fugue, with its alternate plucking and bowing, was masterly. So too was the zig-zagging Melodia and bravura reached a new peak in the headlong finale.
After that, there was bound to be anti-climax. Pärt’s slow, minimalist Spiegel im Spiegel could not hold attention in this company. Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, taken from his soundtrack to the 1946 film Humoresque, inevitably came across as relatively empty display, virtuosity for its own sake. Perhaps we had simply had enough by then.
Earlier, Zverev had shown a different side to his musical personality in the delicate traceries of Webern’s Four Pieces, Op 7 and discovered genuine drama in Lutoslawski’s rondo Subito, especially in the episode on the G-string. Ramchander was with him every step of the way here, no mean feat in itself.
In five extracts from Debussy’s Préludes for piano his melody lines were not always evenly voiced, but his minimal use of pedal contributed to admirable clarity. This is certainly a duo to watch.
Painter Michael Hasen Rada: One of 31 new participants in York Open Studios 2024
YORK Open Studios 2024 offers the chance to meet 156 York artists and makers at 106 locations over the next two weekends.
Studios and workspaces will be open from 10am to 5pm on April 13 and 14, then April 20 and 21, preceded by this Friday’s preview evening at some locations. (Head to yorkopenstudios.co.uk for full details.)
All the artists live or work within a ten-mile radius of the city, with one in five of them taking part for the first time in the 23rd year of this annual not-for-profit event alongside a multitude of regulars.
Artists will welcome visitors to their workspaces to show and sell their work, spanning ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles, wood and glass.
Some artists will share venues or exhibit their work in other spaces, displaying a selection of tools and materials or even demonstrating their skills to give a more ‘Open Studio’ experience.
Visitors can talk to artists about their processes, look around the places where they work and perhaps acquire a work. Venues range from small studios in artists’ homes to large commercial workshops and often offer access to places not usually open to the public.
Ahead of the two weekends, most of the artists exhibited a piece at the Hospitium, in York Museum Gardens, in a taster exhibition last Saturday and Sunday.
Artists were selected for York Open Studios by an independent panel that assessed applications based on images and artist statements. On the 2024 panel were Helmsley Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones, Leeds Fine Artists’ chair, Paul Hammond, and Rural Arts’ senior creative producer for visual arts, Julian Hartley.
To complement the selected artists, York Open Studios plays host to a showcase by students from York College and York St John University, many sharing their work with the public for the first time.
Among the new participants will be ceramist Patricia Qua, an Argentinian-born Korean artist who began her creative journey in New York before studying at the Royal College of Art in London.
Patricia, who has exhibited at the London Design Festival and Hepworth Wakefield Ceramics Fair, brings her background in print and graphics to her one-off porcelain or stoneware ceramics decorated with a love of vibrant colours.
New too will be urban oil painter Michael Hasan Reda, originally from Birmingham, who finds inspiration and joy in the natural and built environment. He has studied the techniques of the late-19th century Impressionists and Tonalists to create works with expressive brushstrokes and confident tone and colour.
Jeweller Hannah Weston has been stringing beads together since she was a child. Part bench trained, part self-taught, this former science teacher has turned her hobby into a full-time job after attending classes and moving to creating pieces in silver and gold to bring “a little joy into the everyday”.
Committee chair Christine Storrs says: “I know all the artists have been working incredibly hard to ensure they have the best of their collections available to see and buy, and the best way to showcase their skills to their visitors.
“It’s a sneak peek behind the scenes to marvel at their practices and expertise, as well as a chance to start your own collection. We are blessed with regular artists and new ones to bring the best of art to our weekends. Doing this in York? York is the best place to enjoy spring in the city with a good dose of art to warm the heart.”
For more information on all the artists and access to an interactive map of all the locations, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk.Alternatively, a free printed directory is available from various tourist hubs, libraries, shops, galleries and artist locations throughout York and beyond.
“Plan your route to maximise the range of artists or organise your day interspersed with something entirely different,” advises Christine.
New artists for 2024
Patricia Qua
Kate Hutson, ceramics, Creative Studio York, Unit 14, Bull Commercial Centre, Stockton Lane, York.
Michael Hasan Reda: Impressionist oil painter of landscapes, cityscapes and gardens, making his York Open Studios debut at his studio in Prices Lane, York
ART out of this world, comedy in the news, a poetic war of words, an orchestra of two, a very colourful musical and a courtroom thriller have Charles Hutchinson reaching for the front door key.
Art event of the fortnight: York Open Studios, April 13 and 14, April 20 and 21, 10am to 5pm; preview, Friday, 6pm to 9pm
156 artists who live or work within a ten-mile radius of York will be welcoming visitors to 106 workspaces to show and sell their art, ranging from ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery and mixed media to painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles, glass and wood. Among them will be 31 new participants. Full details and a map can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk. Look out for booklets around the city too.
News alert: The Drop The Dead Donkey newsroom team reunites for Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin’s new play at Leeds Grand Theatre
Breaking News of the week: Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!, Leeds Grand Theatre, until April 13
THIRTY years since the launch of the trailblazing television series Drop The Dead Donkey, the Globelink News team is back, live on stage for the first time. Original cast members Stephen Tompkinson, Neil Pearson, Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Jeff Rawle and Victoria Wicks reunite for a new, constantly updated script by sitcom writing duo Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, under Lindsay Posner’s direction.
“It’s going to be hugely enjoyable to watch those seven funny, flawed characters from Globelink News being plunged into the cutthroat world of modern 24-hour news-gathering and trying to navigate their way through the daily chaos of social media, fake news and interim Prime Ministers,” say the writers. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Reuben Khan: Playing the lead role in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Musical of the week: York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19
BE ready to paint the city in every colour of the rainbow as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical dazzles the Grand Opera House in York Stage’s vibrant production, directed by Nik Briggs, with musical direction by Adam Tomlinson and choreography by Lesley Hill.
Reuben Khan leads the cast as Joseph, joined by Hannah Shaw as the Narrator, Carly Morton as Pharaoh, Martin Rowley as Jacob, Finn East as Simeon, Matthew Clarke as Potiphar, among others. Tickets are selling fast at atgtickets.com/york.
Shareefa Energy!: Guest performance poet at Friday’s Say Owt Slam clash at The Crescent, York
Spoken word clash of the week: Say Owt Slam, featuring Shareefa Energy!, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.45pm
SAY Owt, “York’s loveable gobby gang of performance poets”, take over The Crescent for a raucous, high-energy night of verse that combine a slam war of words with a guest performer. “In a slam, poets have three minutes to wow the audience,” says host Henry Raby. “It’s fast, frantic and fun: perfect for people who love poetry, and those who think they hate poetry too.”
Special guest Shareefa Energy! is a poet, writer, activist, educator, creative campaigner, workshop facilitator and arts and wellbeing practitioner of Indian and Muslim heritage from working-class Highfields in Leicester. Box office: thecrescentyork.com or on the door.
East Riding Artists: Exhibiting at Nunnington Hall in From The Earth’s celebration of the natural world
Ryedale exhibition of the week: From The Earth, East Riding Artists, at Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, until May 12, 10.30am to 5pm
THE climate crisis is high on the worldwide agenda; evidence of nature’s fragility can be found everywhere we turn, and few would question that our Earth is changing dramatically, in some cases irrevocably. Nature, however, is a force to be reckoned with, prompting 32 painters, potters and creatives from East Riding Artists to celebrate everything our natural world has to offer.
From the power of the North Sea and the beauty of Yorkshire’s countryside and coastline to the food we grow and the flowers we cultivate, From The Earth cherishes the best of our ever-changing world. Normal admission applies; National Trust members, free.
The Blackheart Orchestra’s Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington: Thirteen instruments divided between two musicians at Helmsley Arts Centre
Prog rock for the space age: The Blackheart Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 19, doors, 7.30pm
CHRISSY Mostyn and Rick Pilkington’s two-piece “orchestra” play 13 instruments between them from their prog-rock space station on stage, from acoustic and electric guitars, bass and bowed guitar to piano, organ, vintage synthesisers, omnichord, melodica and electric percussion.
Drawing on influences as varied as Kate Bush, Portishead, Cocteau Twins, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, they combine folk and rock roots with electronica and classical music. Foxpalmer, alias London singer-songwriter Fern McNulty, supports, from 8pm. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Patrick Draper, Tony Jameson and Alfie Joey: April 19’s comedy line-up at the Milton Rooms, Malton
Hilarity Bites Comedy Club: Alfie Joey, Patrick Draper and Tony Jameson, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 19, 8pm
ALFIE Joey is a polymath: artist, radio presenter, podcaster, comedian, communication coach, Ted X speaker, impressionist, interviewer, charity auctioneer, motivator, children’s author, master of ceremonies, pantomime player, sitcom actor, Britain’s Got Talent participant and illustrator for York writer Ian Donaghy’s book Never Stop Drawing.
Comedy will be his focus in Malton, where he will be joined by Patrick Draper, purveyor of deadpan jokes, visual gags and songs, and host Tony Jameson. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Jury service: Christopher Haydon’s cast for the courtroom thriller Twelve Angry Men, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Show announcement of the week: Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, May 13 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
CHRISTOPHER Haydon’s touring production of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men for Bill Kenwright Ltd returns to York on the American courtroom thriller’s 70th anniversary tour, having last played the Grand Opera House in April 2015.
Tristan Gemmill, Michael Greco, Jason Merrells, Gray O’Brien and Gary Webster feature in the cast for this study of human nature and the art of persuasion set in 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 soon becomes a dilemma as the jurors are forced to examine their own self-image, personalities, experiences and prejudices. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Adam Price’s George and Natalie Walker’s Dot in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Sunday In The Park With George. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
FRENCH post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat obsessed over every little last detail, making a point of everything.
The same applies to Robert Readman’s production of one of his favourite musical works, Stephen Sondheim and playwright-director James Lapine’s Sunday In The Park With George, a 1984 collaboration inspired by Seurat’s pointillist painting, Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte.
Two years in the making, that 1884-1886 work forms the wraparound artwork for Pick Me Up Theatre’s programme. Unfold it, and you find Sondheim’s lyrics to Finishing The Hat, the most significant song in capturing the artistic temperament and drive of Seurat and Sondheim alike.
Director-designer Readman has given Sunday In The Park With George a traverse setting within the black-box John Cooper Studio. At either end is a blank canvas for projections of such Seurat works as 1884’s Bathers At Asnières, an oil painting of a suburban, placid Parisian riverside on a monumental scale soon to be matched by Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of Grand Jatte.
Libby Greenhill’s Louise, left, Sanna Jeppsson’s Yvonne and Natalie Walker’s Dot in Sunday In The Park With George. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
Work-in-progress drawings by Kevin Greenhill (also the production’s photographer) depict Seurat’s sketches and character studies as Adam Price’s George (Seurat) is consumed by his craft of painting: a craft that brought him no monetary reward in a life curtailed by a fatal illness at 31, not one painting having sold before his death.
This is an exquisite directorial touch by Readman, happily and visibly restored to full throttle after “unforeseen circumstances” forced him to call off last autumn’s Halloween double bill of Young Frankenstein and The Worst Witch at the Grand Opera House.
In between the two canvas bookends runs another strip of blank canvas, a walkway or catwalk to be peopled by all the figures in Seurat’s painting coming to life in the imagination of Lapine and Sondheim (much like Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring doing likewise in Tracy Chevalier’s historical fiction novel), as if the writers had eavesdropped on conversations in the park.
Host Readman has his audience seated to either side of the stage at circular tables topped with paper “tablecloths” decorated with dots. We feel like we are in the park too.
Adam Price’s George and Natalie Walker’s Marie in the American Act Two of Pick Me Up Theatre’s Sunday In The Park With George. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
Dots are everywhere. Even Seurat’s long-suffering mistress/lover/muse is called Dot, a made-up name, it would seem, but typical of the wit at work in this fictionalised account of the months leading up to the completion of Seurat’s painting.
In a canny piece of casting, Readman has brought together real-life husband and wife Adam Price and Natalie Walker as his leads. They have performed as a duo and sang together in Pick Me Up’s Dad’s Army but this is the first time they have taken roles together in a musical, and their natural chemistry shines through their performance as the damaged central couple.
Dot wants Seurat to express his love, especially once she is pregnant, but he is drawn only to the canvas, to shining his light on Parisian life, putting her only in the spotlight in the painting.
They sing beautifully, Walker especially in the ballads, Price in expressing his artistic modus operandi, his dot-dot-dot technique being matched at one point by the staccato notes emanating from musical director Matthew Peter Clare’s keyboard.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast representing figures in Seurat’s pointillist painting Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
As Seurat alienates the French bourgeoisie, snubs his fellow artists and neglects his lover, we meet all manner of Parisian folk in the park: an Old lady (Beryl Nairn), who turns out to be his oft-exasperated mother; his cigar-smoking agent Jules (James Willstrop), who behind his back shows no enthusiasm for his work; Yvonne (Sanna Jeppsson), who is even more snobbishly dismissive; and Craig Kirby and Rhian Wells’s befuddled American couple, Mr and Mrs.
Look out too for Mark Simmonds’s haughty, Germanic Franz; Ryan Richardson’s surly Boatman; Neil Foster’s self-righteous Soldier and Alexandra Mather (a late replacement for the indisposed Emma Louise Dickinson) and Nicola Holliday as a pair of anything but angelic Celestes. Tracey Rea’s Frieda, Michael Tattersall’s Louis, Libby Greenhill’s Louise and Logan Willstrop’s Boy cut a dash too.
After the interval, the musical takes a turn for the more personal for Sondheim in a parallel modern story where Price’s Seurat becomes George, a ‘chromolume’ American artist as underappreciated and fractious as Seurat was in his lifetime as Sondheim “explores the reverberations of Seurat’s actions over the next 100 years”.
At the time, Sondheim was increasingly dischuffed by the reaction to his musicals, just as Woody Allen had a fan say “I especially like your early, funny ones” to Allen’s character, film director Sandy Bates, in 1980’s Stardust Memories when weary of critics giving that verdict on his later works.
Nicola Holliday’s Celeste and Neil Foster’s Soldier. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
This is a somewhat overwrought piece of point-scoring by Sondheim amid all the pointillism of Seurat, but archly amusing all the same, adding to the enjoyment of a superb performance by leads and supporting players alike, responding to Readman’s relish for the musical.
Will Nicholson and Adam Coggin’s lighting and sound is top notch, and Matthew Peter Clare’s palpably energetic musical direction brings out the best in his seven-piece band.
Readman’s design skills are always a strong suit, but particularly so here, full of playfulness and artistry, such as in the cut-outs of dogs from Seurat’s painting, later matched by black-and-white full-size cut-outs of George part two in his suit, tie and pumps in the American gallery.
Do please spend Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday in the park with George. You’d be dotty to miss out.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Sunday In The Park With George, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte in the Pick Me Up Theatre show poster
The eyes have it: Love-struck Natalie Windsor’s Titania and Tweedy the clown’s Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrew Huggins/Thousand Word Media
GOTHIC Austen, a clowning Bottom, a dose of the blues, a Technicolor dreamcoat, open studios and a reactivated newsroom satire feature in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for a busy diary.
York play of the week: Cheltenham Everyman Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, York Theatre Royal, April 9 to 13, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
EVERYMAN Theatre Company’s staging of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream puts a new twist on the familiar tale by casting comedy clown Tweedy as Bottom and making him “comedy advisor” on Paul Milton’s production to boot.
The night’s magic, mischief, and mayhem unfold in an enchanted Athenean forest, intertwining the romantic misadventures of four young lovers, the playful meddling of mischievous fairies and the comedic antics of amateur actors, culminating in a tale of love, mistaken identity and reconciliation engineered by Jeremy Stockwell’s meddlesome Puck. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tom Killner: Soul-drenched Southern rock and Americana at York Blues Festival
Festival of the week: York Blues Festival, The Crescent, York, today, 1pm to 11pm; doors, 12.30pm
NAME of the week? Step forward The 20ft Squid Blues Band, participants in this weekend’s York Blues Festival, curated by Paul Winn and Ben Darwin, hosts of Jorvik Radio’s Blues From The Ouse show and the Ryedale Blues Club.
Performing too will be Dirty Ruby, Bison Hip, The James Oliver Band, Hot Foot Hall, York band DC Blues, The Milk Men and Tom Killner. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, yorkbluesfest.co.uk.
Ceramicist Patricia Qua, who will make her York Open Studios debut in Hemplands Drive, York
Preview of the week: York Open Studios, Hospitium, York Museum Gardens, York, today and tomorrow, 10am to 4pm
YORK Open Studios 2024 hosts a taster exhibition this weekend at the Hospitium, ahead of the full event on April 13, 14, 20 and 21. More than 150 artists who live or work within a ten-mile radius of the city will be welcoming visitors to 100 workspaces to show and sell their art, ranging from ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery and mixed media to painting, print, photography, sculpture, textiles and wood. Among them will be 29 new participants. Full details can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk.
Back in the news: The original cast reassembles for Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! at Leeds Grand Theatre
Breaking News of the week: Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!, Leeds Grand Theatre, April 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
THIRTY years since the launch of the trailblazing television series Drop The Dead Donkey, the Globelink News team is back, live on stage for the first time. Original cast members Stephen Tompkinson, Neil Pearson, Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Jeff Rawle and Victoria Wicks reunite for a new script by sitcom writing duo Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin.
“It’s going to be hugely enjoyable to watch those seven funny, flawed characters from Globelink News being plunged into the cutthroat world of modern 24-hour news-gathering and trying to navigate their way through the daily chaos of social media, fake news, and interim Prime Ministers,” say the writers. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Go, go, Joseph: Lead actor Reuben Khan in York Stage’s poster for Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19
BE ready to paint the city in every colour of the rainbow as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical dazzles the Grand Opera House in York Stage’s vibrant production, directed by Nik Briggs, with musical direction by Adam Tomlinson and choreography by Lesley Hill.
Reuben Khan leads the cast as Joseph, joined by Hannah Shaw as the Narrator, Carly Morton as Pharaoh, Martin Rowley as Jacob, Finn East as Simeon and Matthew Clarke as Potiphar, among others. Tickets are selling fast at atgtickets.com/york.
Shareefa Energy!: Guest performance poet at April 12’s Say Owt Slam at The Crescent
Spoken word clash of the week: Say Owt Slam, featuring Shareefa Energy!, The Crescent, York, April 12, 7.45pm
SAY Owt, “York’s loveable gobby gang of performance poets”, take over The Crescent twice a year for raucous, high-energy nights of verse that combine a slam war of words with a guest performer.
“In a slam, poets have three minutes to wow the audience to become the champion,” says host Henry Raby. “It’s fast, frantic and fun: perfect for people who love poetry, and those who think they hate poetry too.”
Special guest Shareefa Energy! is a poet, writer, activist, educator, creative campaigner, workshop facilitator and arts and wellbeing practitioner of Indian and Muslim heritage from working-class Highfields in Leicester. Box office: thecrescentyork.com or on the door.
Robert Gammon: Performing with Maria Marshall and Alison Gammon at St Chad’s Church
Dementia Friendly Tea Concert: Maria Marshall, Robert Gammon and Alison Gammon, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, April 18, 2.30pm
CELLIST Maria Marshall opens this Dementia Friendly Tea Concert with Faure’s Elegy, accompanied by pianist Robert Gammon, who then plays two short solo Grieg piano pieces. Alison Gammon joins them for Beethoven’s trio Opus 11 for clarinet, piano and cello.
The relaxed 45-minute concert, ideal for people who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, will be followed by tea and homemade cakes in the church hall. Seating is unreserved; no charge applies to attend but donations are welcome for hire costs and Alzheimer’s charities.
Lucy Worsley: Revelations about Jane Austen at York Barbican
Show announcement of the week: An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen, York Barbican, October 14, 7.30pm
FOLLOWING up her Agatha Christie tour, historian and presenter Lucy Worsley’s latest illustrated talk steps into the world of Jane Austen, one of English literature’s most cherished figures as the author of Pride And Prejudice, Sense And Sensibility and Persuasion.
Through the houses, places and possessions that mattered to Austen, Worsley looks at what home meant to her and to the women like her who populate her novels. Austen lived a “life without incident”, but with new research and insights Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
