Food Glorious Food: the Young People’s Ensemble give it plenty in Oliver!. All pictures: Tom Arber
REVIEW: Oliver!, York Light Opera Company, York Theatre Royal, until February 22. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
DAME Berwick Kaler’s 41 years at York Theatre Royal
have come to an end, but one company with an even longer run there is still
rolling out the productions after 60 years.
York Light have chosen to mark another 60th anniversary by staging Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, first performed in the West End in 1960.
This latest revival of a perennial favourite utilises David Merrick and Donald Albert’s Broadway stage version, here directed and choreographed by Martyn Knight on an expansive set with walkways, bustling London streets, the drab workhouse, smart townhouse and the underworld of Fagin’s dingy den.
The show opens with a death outside the workhouse,
and the dead woman being promptly stripped of her necklace by an older woman:
welcome to dark Dickensian London.
Rory Mulvihill’s Fagin and Jonny Holbek’s Bill Sikes in York Light’s Oliver!. Picture: Tom Arber
Once inside, Food Glorious Food bursts into life, the first of so many familiar Lionel Bart songs, choreography well drilled, the young people’s ensemble lapping up their first big moment (even if their bowls are empty already!).
The directorial polish in Hunter’s show is established immediately; likewise, the playing of John Atkin’s orchestra is rich and in turn warm and dramatic. These will be the cornerstones throughout in a show so heavy on songs, with bursts of dialogue in between that sometimes do not catch fire by comparison with the fantastic singing.
This review was of the first night, leaving time
aplenty for the acting to raise to the level of the songs, but there really does
need to be more drama, for example, from all the adults in Oliver and Dodger’s
pickpocketing scene. Likewise, spoiler alert, Nancy’s death scene fails to
shock, although Jonny Holbek elsewhere has the menace in voice and demeanour
for Bill Sikes. Even his dog Bullseye looks scared of him.
Playing the nefarious Fagin for a second time, with a stoop, straggly hair and wispy beard, stalwart Rory Mulvihill has both the twinkle in his eye and the awareness of the fading of the light, characteristics he brings to the contrasting ensemble numbers You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two and Be Back Soon and the reflective, sombre solo Reviewing The Situation.
Jonathan Wells’s Mr Sowerberry and Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Mrs Sowerberry with Matthew Warry’s Oliver (alternating the role with Alex Edmondson)
Overall, the company could take a lead from Neil
Wood’s Mr Bumble and Pascha Turnbull’s Widow Twankey in their hanky-panky I
Shall Scream scene, full of humour, sauce and pleasing characterisation.
Alex Edmondson’s truculent Oliver and Jack Hambleton’s chipper Dodger bond well, especially in Consider Yourself; Jonathan Wells’s Mr Sowerberry and Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Mrs Sowerberry are in fine voice. Her singing is even better, creamier you might say, for the Milkmaid, when joined by Sarah Craggs’s Rose Seller, Helen Eckersall’s Strawberry Seller, Richard Bayton’s Knife Grinder and Edmondson’s Oliver for Who Will Buy?, always beautiful and deeply so here.
Emma Louise Dickinson’s Nancy gives Act Two opener
Oom-Pah-Pah plenty of oomph, and although As Long As He Needs Me sits uncomfortably
on modern ears with its seeming tolerance of domestic abuse, she gives that
bruised ballad everything twice over.
Reviewing the present situation, the singing is
strong, moving and fun when it should be, but, please sir, your reviewer wants
some more from the non-singing scenes, and then he might be back soon.
Binaural Dinner Date: the alternative Valentine’s Day date, so alternative that the date will be on the day after Valentine’s Day
PAY attention hopeful singletons and curious couples seeking an alternative Valentine’s Day date with a difference.
York’s Taste of SLAP Saturday curators and directors Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin are bringing immersive and digital performance innovators ZU-UK to York Theatre Royal this weekend to set up the post-Valentine Binaural Dinner Date.
On the traditional
sporting match day of the week, matches of a different kind will be taking
place in the Theatre Royal café at 3pm, 5pm and 7.45pm, when ZU-UK will
be asking “audiences
to swipe right and join them for an experiential dating experience”.
“Come with your own date, or we can find one for you,” they
say, emphasising that booking is required as soon as possible on 01904 623568,
at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person at the Theatre Royal box office.
What will happen on Saturday? “Using binaural sound, participants will be guided by a voice in their ears to ask each other questions, offer answers, and consider the dos and don’ts of what we say, and what we would like to say, to each other on a date,” say ZU-UK, a company with its art and its heart in both London and Brazil.
“What are we really thinking when we meet for the first time? How much are we prepared to confess? And are the questions we ask each other the questions that will help us find love?”
Binaural Dinner Date is “part interactive performance, part dating agency” for individuals looking for love, or existing couples who simply want a “very different” dating encounter
It will take place at nine tables simultaneously, where the aforementioned voice in the ear of every participant will steer them through a “perfect” date. Wearing headphones, two participants per table will be hosted by a waiter/facilitator/DJ, complemented by “interactively mixed binaural audio” with suggestions and comments on dating “rules”, as well as games pushing social expectations and “acceptable” table-talk topics.
Jorge Lopes Ramos, ZU-UK’s co-artistic director, says: “ZU-UK’s artistic work has never shied away from engaging with urgent, problematic and at times depressing aspects of the contemporary human condition.
“This is a time to
question mainstream narratives and to consider our role in shaping communities
and relationships between strangers. Dating seemed like a contemporary human
ritual worth exploring.”
Formerly known as Zecora Ura and Para Active, ZU-UK is an independent theatre and digital arts company based in East London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, since 2001. Driven by an artistic partnership between Ramos and Persis Jadé Maravala, ZU-UK creates interactive experiences, using games, performance and technology, that can happen anywhere, whether on the phone, in the house, on a stage, in a shopping mall or a field.
Binaural Dinner Date is the first instalment in ZU-UK’s ten-part series Decalogy of Loneliness. After ZU’s Hotel Medea in 2009 to 2012 and the interactive technology exhibition Humble Market in 2012 to 2014, they have been developing ten artworks as part of this project.
Since 2015, they have
worked with Canadian research institute TAG (Technoculture, Arts and Games), using
game-design to deepen ZU’s work with immersive, participatory and interactive
performance.
Over the next three
years, ZU will develop the remaining parts of the Decalogy, focusing on the
relationship between strangers in public and private spaces. The company also
will present two digital artworks using
public phones, #RioFoneHackand How Mad Are You? , and a binaural
prototype, Small Data Mining.
Suitable for age 16 plus, Binaural Dinner Date is part of SLAP organisers Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin’s Taste Of SLAP, a day of food-themed shows under their Social Live Art Performance banner (although, if memory serves right, SLAP initially stood for Salacious Live Alternative Performance when the festival was first set up!).
Full details of Taste of SLAP can be found at slapyork.co.uk and a further preview will appear online at charleshutchpress.co.uk. Tickets for this weekend’s taster carry a “Pay What You Can” price tag.
The Magnificent Six in Crongton Knights at York Theatre Royal from February 25 to 29. Pictures: Robert Day
YORK Theatre Royal resident company Pilot Theatre are following up last year’s powerful adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses with another topical collaboration.
Pilot have teamed up with Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre to present Emteaz Hussain’s new staging of Alex Wheatle’s award-winning young adult novel Crongton Knights.
Co-directed by Corey Campbell, artistic director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company, and Pilot artistic director Esther Richardson, the touring world premiere will play the Theatre Royal from February 25 to 29.
Wheatle’s story depicts how life is not easy on the Crongton Estate and for McKay and his mates what matters is keeping their heads down. When a friend finds herself in trouble, however, they set out on a mission that goes further than any of them imagined.
Crongton Knights will “take you on a night of madcap adventure as McKay and his friends, The Magnificent Six, encounter the dangers and triumphs of a mission gone awry”.
Esther Richardson: Crongton Knights co-director and Pilot Theatre artistic director
In this story of how lessons learned the hard way can bring you closer together, the pulse of the city will be brought to life on stage with a Conrad Murray soundscape of beatboxing and vocals laid down by the cast of Kate Donnachie; Zak Douglas; Simi Egbejumi-David; Nigar Yeva; Olisa Odele; Aimee Powell; Khai Shaw and Marcel White.
Wheatle, a writer born in London to Jamaican parents, says: “I’m very proud that Pilot Theatre are adapting my novel, Crongton Knights, for the stage. It’s a modern quest story where, on their journey, the young diverse lead characters have to confront debt, poverty, blackmail, loss, fear, the trauma of a flight from a foreign land and the omnipresent threat of gangland violence.
“The dialogue I created for this award-winning novel deserves a platform and I, for one, can’t wait to see the characters that have lived in my head for a number of years leap out of my mind and on to a stage near you.”
Co-director Esther Richardson says of the teen quest story: “For us, this play is a lens through which to explore the complexity of young people’s lives, open a platform for those concerns and show what they have to try to navigate fairly invisibly to other members of society. It’s the context in which they live that creates the problem, and these kids go under the radar.
“Alex is writing about how the world is stacked against teenagers; how young people have been thrown to the dogs; how they to negotiate this No Man’s Land they live in, when their places have been closed down; their spaces to express themselves.
On the wall: The Crongton Knights cast
“They have been victims of austerity – as have disabled people – so it’s no surprise that there’s been a rise in knife crime, with kids on the streets and no youth workers to go to, to talk about their feelings.”
Esther notes how they have no access to the arts either. “That’s why our job becomes very important, especially the work we do with theatres around the country, such as the Young and Talented theatre workshops, working with kids in inner-city London who otherwise would have no involvement in the arts,” she says.
“It’s a very heavily subsidised actor-training scheme for children aged five or six upwards, and cast members for plays like Crongton Knights can come through the scheme.”
Esther is concerned, however, by the cuts in arts funding and the potential negative impact of Brexit too. “Theatre is not seen as an opportunity to thrive in, especially in this post-Brexit landscape where it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she predicts.
“That’s why we will further shift into co-creating pieces, Pilot creating work with communities, Pilot co-creating with teens, which we do already do, but we can do it better and do it more.”
On yer bike: A tense scene in Crongton Knights
Significantly, Crongton Knights is the second of four co-productions between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and York Theatre Royal, who last year formed – together with the Mercury Theatre in Colchester – a new new partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences.
From 2019-2022, the consortium will commission and co-produce an original mid-scale touring production each year that will play in all the consortium venues as well as touring nationally. The consortium’s debut production, Noughts & Crosses, was seen by more than 30,000 people on tour with 40 per cent of the audience being aged under 20.
To reflect the diversity of the consortium partners and the universality of Crongton Knights’ theme, Esther says: “Although there’s an estate in London called Notre Dame, which features in the book and the play, we have very much created a fictionalised inner city in the play, as Corey and I felt we wanted regional as well as London voices in the cast.
“So, our inner-city world is neither London, nor Birmingham, nor Coventry; it’s everywhere from the perspective of teenagers.”
Pilot Theatre and partners present Crongton Knights, York Theatre Royal, February 25 to 29, 7.30pm nightly plus 2pm, Thursday and 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 11 plus; show contains strong language.
Hail Caesar: English Touring Opera are bringing Giulio Cesare to York Theatre Royal in early April. Picture: Oliver Rosser
ENGLISH Touring Opera will be performing
in both the main house and Studio on their return to York Theatre Royal this
spring.
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte will be staged on April 3 and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) on April 4, both at 7.30pm, in the bigger space; next door will be The Extraordinary Adventures Of You And Me, for young children, at 11am and 2pm on the Saturday.
Directed by Laura Attridge, conducted by Holly Mathieson and sung in English, Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte is a story of young love and fidelity that combines glorious music and farcical comedy in his third collaboration with librettist Da Ponte after The Marriage Of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Giulio Cesare, Handel’s epic opera of passion and revenge, is built on “a treasure trove of great arias with immense dramatic intensity”, set in the wake of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Egypt as his uneasy alliance and romance with fabled Egyptian queen Cleopatra unfurls.
Sung in Italian with English surtitles, ETO’s touring show is an adapted revival of their 2017 production, led by artistic director James Conway and conductorJonathan Peter Kenny, who will lead the Old Street Band. Both ETO’s April 3 and 4 performances will be preceded by a 6.30pm pre-show talk.
The
Extraordinary Adventures Of You And Me is the latest instalment of fun,
engaging and interactive operas for children and young audiences, after Laika The
Spacedog, Waxwings, Paradise Planet, Shackelton’s Cat and This Is
My Bed.
The 11am and 2pm audiences will meet the hero, Mackenzie, as they prepare to travel through time and space. On a school trip to a museum, Mackenzie discovers that a pencil case is full of magical worlds. “Who knows who you will meet and where you will visit along the way, so take a deep breath and expect the unexpected” say ETO of a show created by composer Omar Shahryar and writer/director Ruth Mariner.
ETO’s performance is suitable for Key Stage 1 and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) audiences. The story features five performers, including singers and players, an ingenious set, interactive songs and sound technology and is recommended for two to five-year-old children.
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Happy Valentine’s Clay: time to mess around at Cineworld York
LOVERS going potty for each other on Valentine’s Day are invited to bond over romantic pottery classes at Cineworld York, Kathryn Avenue, Huntington, York, tomorrow.
Happy Valentine’s Clay can be enjoyed by dating duos who book for the 6pm
ViP screening of Ghost on the 30th anniversary of the 1990 American movie.
This will be the chance for courting couples or pairs of just friends to channel their inner Patrick Swayze or Demi Moore by re-creating Ghost’s iconic pottery scene – soundtracked to The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody, as in the film – in the exclusive ViP lounge before sitting down to a romantic three-course meal. Ticket holders will then watch Ghost in luxury reclining seats.
That moment in Ghost
Ghost’s pottery moment
sees the shirtless
Swayze’s Sam Wheat sitting behind Moore’s Molly Jensen as she carefully sculpts
the wet clay. He reaches out and ruins her vase, so they begin a new one
together, his hands interlaced with hers, before abandoning
the wheel in favour of a loving embrace.
Those who want to avoid messy pottery-making a deux still can partake in the ViP Valentine’s Day screening experience in the intimate screening room, with access to the ViP Lounge private bar 45 minutes before the show and complimentary dining and unlimited nachos, hot dogs, popcorn and soft drinks, all included in the ticket price.
Ghost guests should arrive an hour before the 6pm screen time for their romantic pottery and dinner date.Tickets cost £32 at cineworld.com.vip.
PHOENIX Dance Theatre are
exploring the long-lasting effects of British colonial forces in the world premiere
of Black Waters at Leeds Playhouse this week.
Drawing inspiration from history,
this emotionally evocative new production by the Leeds company combines two events.
Black Waters: Phoenix Dance Theatre’s exploration of place, worth and belonging
In the first, in the late-18th century,
130 slaves were thrown overboard from the Zong as the ship owners attempted to
profit from their life insurance.
More than 100 years later, Indian
freedom fighters were incarcerated in the Kala Pani prison for speaking out
against the regime.
Co-choreographer Sharon Watson during rehearsals for Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Black Waters
Black Waters reflects on these two colonial landmarks, showing
how people can find value, inspiration and hope even in the bleakest of times.
The co-choreographers, Phoenix
artistic director Sharon Watson and Shambik Ghose and Dr
Mitul Sengupta, artistic directors of Rhythmosaic, from Kolkata, combine
contemporary dance with Kathak dance: one of the eight major forms of Indian
classical dance, traditionally attributed to ancient travelling storytellers.
Black Waters co-choreographer Shambik Ghose
Sharon says: “Black Waters is not about recreating these two events through
contemporary dance, but is an exploration of place, worth and belonging, which
can often be conflicting for people of colour.”
Black Waters can be seen in the Quarry Theatre at 7.30pm tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
The album artwork for Ronan Keating’s new album, released this spring
TWENTY years since releasing his
chart-topping debut solo album, Boyzone’s Ronan Keating will mark the anniversary
with a new record and tour, taking in York Barbican on June 19.
That night, the Irish boy band graduate will be promoting an album perfectly entitled for this year, Twenty Twenty, out on May 1 on the Decca Records label.
Tickets go on sale on February 21 at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk, on 0203 356 5441 or in person from the Barbican box office.
Dubliner Keating, who will turn 43 on March 3, describes Twenty Twenty as “a greatest hits of brand new music”. To
help him celebrate the 20th anniversary of his self-titled debut, he made
two inspired choices: to dive into his back catalogue torevisit
three of his biggest hits and, for some new numbers, call in some friends.
Ronan Keating’s 20th anniversary solo album will be “a greatest hits of brand new music”
First single One Of A Kind, despite its title, is a duet, wherein the Irishman is joined by Emeli Sandé. “I guess I’ve been known for those first dance songs at weddings and this has me written all over it,” says Keating. “It’s all about the night before the wedding, the day of the wedding and spending the rest of your life together.”
He decided the song demanded a duet
partner, and for Ronan there was only one choice: the Sunderland-born,
Scottish-raised Sandé.“I was completely honoured when Emeli said she’d
love to do it,” he says. “I was just blown away by her vocal. She’s obviously
got a brilliant voice, and she’s a lovely, warm person, so the personality
she’s brought to the song is just incredible.”
Two of a kind: the single cover for One Of A Kind replicates Twenty Twenty except for the addition of Emeli Sande
For Twenty Twenty, Keating had production
assistance from his longstanding wingman, Steve Lipson, who has worked with
such big hitters as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox, Simple
Minds, and Whitney Houston. Names of further collaborators and track titles will
be revealed in due course, but Keating teases by revealing those collaborators
comprise some of his closest musical and chart-topping friends.
Over the past 20 years, Keating has
chalked up 30 consecutive Top Ten solo singles, ten studio albums,
multiple tours and 20 million records sales on top of 25 million sold with
Boyzone, as well as judging on The X Factor and The Voice in Australia; acting in
television drama and film; playing Guy in the romantic Irish hit, Once The
Musical, in the West End and co-hosting Magic FM’s breakfast show.
Over the past 12 months, he has worked tirelessly on an album that celebrates a longevity he does not take for granted. “There’s not a lot of artists that have been lucky enough to do 20 years and still be here,” he says, appreciative too of sustaining solo and band careers. “I’m very honoured to have had that, so I wanted to mark it with an album like this.”
Ronan Keating last played a York concert in July 2018 with Boyzone at the York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend
In York, Keating last performed with Boyzone at a York Racecourse Music Showcase post-racing show on July 28 2018 on their 25th anniversary tour. His last solo appearance in the city was at York Barbican on September 21 2016. Last summer, the dangers posed by a massive thunderstorm led to his open-air solo concert at Castle Howard, near York, on August 4 being cut short.
Storm brewing but the Vikings can handle a little disturbance at the upcoming festival
JORVIK Viking
Festival is to launch on Saturday with new venues to avoid Storm Dennis, the
all-too-soon sequel to Storm Ciara nightly, daily and nightly again.
In
keeping with the Vikings knowing where and when to anchor their boats and pitch
their tents on their world travels, this weekend’s Norse invaders of York will
be tweaking their plans slightly in the face of Storm Dennis being expected to
unleash its fury over the next few days.
Festival manager
Gareth Henry, of York Archaeological Trust, says: “We breathed a sigh of relief
when Storm Ciara missed us, but it seems that Thor has taken a leaf out of his
trickster brother’s repertoire and is throwing Dennis our way for our opening
weekend.
“Thankfully, the Vikings are a hardy and adaptable bunch, so we’ve managed to rearrange most of the most exposed parts of the festival to alternative, sheltered and indoor locations for the first few days, and we hope to have everything back to normal from Tuesday or Wednesday, weather permitting.”
The
biggest changes will be to the Viking encampment,
normally sited in Parliament Street. From Saturday to Monday, however, it
will be relocated to the Undercroft at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, where entry
will be free on all three days. (Usual admission applies to other parts of
Merchant Adventurers’ Hall.)
Many events
planned for the St Sampson’s Square stage and Parliament Street marquee temporarily
will be relocated to Spark: York – the venue for Viking Crafting
for Kids – on Piccadilly on Saturday and Sunday, including Saga Storytelling
and the festival’s newest event, the Viking Costume Competition, on Saturday at 3pm.
Have-a-go
Sword Workshops will take place in DIG: An Archaeological Adventure on St
Saviourgate from Saturday to Monday, hopefully returning to St Sampson’s Square
on Tuesday, February 18 for the rest of the festival run.
The
Nine Realms Bar will operate as normal in Parliament Street for the festival’s duration,
within the Parliament Street Tent that also will host Viking Crafting
for Kids during the weekdays. The Festival Information
Stand can be found in the Parliament Street Tent on Saturday to Monday but
should move outdoors to St Sampson’s Square on Tuesday.
At this
stage, the only events to have been cancelled are the city tours, taking place
on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, starting instead on Tuesday. Thankfully,
flooding has only affected riverside areas accustomed to high water levels each
year, and the vast majority of the city remains unaffected and open for
business, including the Jorvik Viking Centre
in Coppergate.
“We’re
confident that visitors can still enjoy an amazing Viking experience
despite these changes,” says Gareth. “But we hope that the good people of York
will consider offering a poem or two to Thor – as Norse explorer Thorhall did
in the Saga of Erik the Red – to bring this weather chaos to an end ahead of
our second festival weekend, when hordes of
warriors will once again descend on the city and march through our historic
streets.”
Festival visitors are advised to keep an eye on social media and the festival website, jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk, for the latest news and any other scheduling changes.
York violinist Paul Milhau: music, coffee, tea and a chat on a relaxed afternoon
YORK professional violinist Paul Milhau will perform
February 20’s Dementia Friendly Tea Concert at St Chad’s Church, Campleshon
Road, York.
His 45-minute classical concert of solo violin pieces will
be followed by tea, coffee, homemade cakes and a chance to chat.
Milhau’s 2.30pm programme will combine two partitas by J S
Bach with Eugène Ysaye’s lovely second sonata in a
relaxed atmosphere suitable for anyone who might not feel able to attend a
formal classical event.
No admission charge applies but donations are welcome. Please
note, there is a small car park at the church, along with street parking on
Campleshon Road. Disabled access is via the hall.
SHARON
McDonagh cannot recall any past Urban Decay exhibition in the historic city of York.
“So, this show will be quite unique and probably a tad controversial for York,” she says, introducing her Fragments artwork as lead artist in the Urban Decay winter show at Blossom Street Gallery, in the shadow of Micklegate Bar, York.
“With the new development plans being released late last year for Piccadilly and the public view on the design of the new hotel, especially the Banana Warehouse façade, I’m exhibiting my paintings of these buildings, as well as a new one of the lovely derelict ‘Malthouse’ building in The Crescent that was, up until recently, taken over by Space Invaders as a pop-up arts, craft, food and drink space until its demolition.”
Sharon is
drawn to painting the “darker side” to York, in particular to its derelict
buildings, against the backdrop of her high-profile past career as a police
forensic artist. That work required her to draw dead bodies, creating artist’s
impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and crime-scene
information, and you
can make the psychologist’s leap between death and decay if that is your Freudian
wont.
“It might seem mad going from being a forensic artist depicting bodies to doing paintings of decay, but I suppose it’s all an organic path of death and destruction,” she says.
Driven by
a passion for a nostalgia and a fascination with urban decay, the Holgate
artist sees both dereliction in York and now dereliction of duty among the city’s
architects and developers.
Switched on but empty: one of Sharon McDonagh’s Fragments at Blossom Street Gallery
“Redevelopment,
if it’s done in the right way, is fine, but I don’t think they’re empathetic
with what the building was originally. They’re too consumed by money, not by aesthetics,
which is ironic when we’re living in a beautiful city like York.”
Sharon took part in York Open Studios for the first time last spring – and will do so again at Venue 57 in April – when her exhibition of derelict buildings had the title of Transition. “What’s been lost in York’s buildings is soul,” she says.
“Like when Space Invaders took over the ‘Malthouse’, different organic communities came together and gave it soul – it was always busy, it had such a good vibe, and because it was off the beaten track, you didn’t get stag and hen party groups going there – and it makes me mad that other places in York are not doing the same.
“So, when
I saw the plans for Piccadilly, I thought ‘here we go again’. It’s not about
being radical; it’s about being in tune with how York was.
“I think
of all of York’s forgotten buildings that people walk past but don’t give a
thought to, but people worked in those buildings, lived in those buildings, had
businesses in them, and we need to utilise what’s been left derelict. But, as I
said before, it seems to be York is becoming soulless.
The Front Elevation, The Malthouse, by Sharon McDonagh, the latest addition to her Transitions series of derelict York buildings
“The opportunity
to make something of York’s old buildings is wasted by lack of creativity and
empathy for what was there before, and I just don’t know what designers,
planners and architects are going to do with the city next.”
You will not be surprised that Sharon is a supporter of the somewhat contentious Spark:York small business enterprise in 23 “upcycled” shipping containers in Piccadilly. “I love it! People who don’t go there are the ones who criticise it, saying it’s an eyesore, but there was nothing there before, and yes, four of the businesses that started there have moved to bigger premises,” she says.
Sharon
has another reason for “always loving” derelict buildings, she reveals. “I
enjoyed the rave scene of the late Eighties and early Nineties that took over
derelict places, though I was more intent on looking around the buildings than
dancing!” she says. “I know it was illegal, but you could walk around these
amazing old buildings, which was fantastic.”
For her
Fragments show, she has complemented her 2019 Transition buildings with new paintings
inspired by her work in end-of-life care, personal experience and working with
dementia patients.
“The Fragments series is an exploration into the fragility of life,” she says of her tactile paintings that evoke emotion, nostalgia and intrigue. “The vintage light switches and sockets symbolise the person, while their last moments and memories are represented by the fragments of wallpaper and tiles. The last glimpses of life, the last remaining fragments before they die.
“I thought of light switches and sockets, because of the act of switching on and off lights and then life finally being switched off.”
In her artwork, she creates highly textured acrylic and multi-media paintings that examine “the beauty that nature makes through decay”. Basing her Fragments designs on vintage wallpaper, she makes and hand paints all the pieces of wallpaper and tiles separately. She then distresses them to look old and decayed before adding them to her paintings.
“When you
see a derelict house, there are so many levels of paint and wallpaper, so many
different lives have been lived there, so many layers to those lives, that it’s
akin to your own life, which has many layers,” she says
Analysing her subject matter, Sharon notes: “I always have a bit of a dark side, don’t I? People think I must have a broom and cauldron at home and fly around at night! But I love how natural decay can cause beauty.
“It’s
about change; urban decay is about natural change, but we don’t like change, or
people or things dying, but we can’t shy away from it.
Miss You, by Sharon McDonagh, dedicated to her late father. Note the receiver, dislodged off the hook
“It’s
that simple. We’re here and then we’re gone, but people don’t like to talk about
death – but it’s been in my working life for a long time, first as a police
forensic artist and then at the hospital.”
Her
artistic outpourings have helped Sharon deal with her own grief. “When a parent
goes – my dad had cancer – that grief changes you forever, you feel it every day,
but you grasp at what keeps them alive in your thoughts, you grasp at what
reminds you of them. That’s why there’s nostalgia in my paintings,” she says.
“I’ve
dedicated the painting of a telephone in the Fragments series to my father, so
I’ve called it Miss You, and symbolically the receiver is off the hook to
signify the last missed call.”
Sharon always
paints “from the heart, not from the bank balance”. “That’s the right way. If
someone stands in front of one of my paintings and gets an emotional response,
that means more to me than money in the bank,” she says.
Shades Of Decay 2, by Sharon McDonagh, at Blossom Street Gallery
“When I’m
painting, it has to mean something to me, or it won’t mean something to someone
else when they look at it.
“I also like my paintings to be tactile. If you can touch something, it evokes memories, and that’s why I like doing 3D pieces and collages, so you can touch them and all your senses are working at once. I love touching paintings, though I once got chucked out of a gallery for doing that!”
From paintings, to prints and cards, Sharon’s Fragments are in touching distance at Blossom Street Gallery until the end of February. “It’s great to be invited to do an exhibition on Urban Decay, which I don’t think has been done in York before, and it’s been really good to get feedback on it,” she says.
What would York’s planners, designers and architects make of it, you wonder.
York artist Sharon McDonagh, standing by her Fragments artwork at Blossom Street Gallery’s Urban Decay exhibition in York
Did you know?
FOR many years, Sharon McDonagh created artist’s impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and crime-scene information.
She gained recognition for
her work within this field on television, as well as in the media, on account
of her unusual work and experiences.
She was commissioned as an
artist by the BBC to produce the drawing of a late relative of footballer-turned-television-presenter
Gary Lineker for BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?.
She has been involved in community art projects with disadvantaged young people and now works with teenagers from challenging backgrounds, promoting art as a way to express themselves.
At York Hospital, she is
delivering a unique project on the dementia ward, using art as a way to
encourage patient interaction and alleviate anxiety.
The Banana Warehouse, Piccadilly, one of Sharon McDonagh’s Transitions series, to be exhibited at City Screen, York, in May and June
Sharon McDonagh’s exhibitions
Urban Decay, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street Gallery, York, until February 29. Joint show with Fran Brammer, Linda Harvey, Simon Sugden and Jill Tattersall.
York Open Studios “Taster” Exhibition, Central Methodist Church, St
Saviourgate, York, April 3 (private virew), 4 and 5.
York Open Studios, Venue 57, Holgate, York, April 17, preview evening 7pm to 9pm; April 18, 19, 25 and 26, 10am to 5pm.
City Screen café bar, Coney Street, York, May 19 to June 15, featuring
six Piccadilly paintings. “The café has soul,” she says. “The wall is exposed
brickwork, which is a perfect backdrop for my work.”
Resonate solo exhibition, Basement Arts Project, Beeston, Leeds, June 22
to July 21. “It really will be in a basement,” she says.
