COUNTRY duo The Shires are moving their 25-date 2020 tour to the autumn,
in response to the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes have switched their York Barbican show from May 20 to November 1, when they will be joined by Texan country singer and songwriter Eric Paslay.
Tickets remain valid for the revised date – The Shires’ only Yorkshire
gig on the itinerary – but those seeking a refund should contact their point of
purchase.
The first Brits to win Best International Act in the American Country
Music Association awards, Earle and Rhodes released their fourth album, Good
Years, in this anything but good year on March 13, reaching number three in the
charts.
As with their past albums, 2015’s Brave, 2016’s My Universe and 2018’s
Accidentally On Purpose, the recording sessions took place in Nashville,
Tennessee.
The album artwork for The Shires’ new album
“We are so excited to be releasing Good Years,” say Earle and Rhodes. “Honesty and storytelling have always been such an important part of our song-writing. We’ve poured some of the incredible experiences and life we’ve lived into these songs.
“We can’t wait to play these live across the country. The songs mean so much to us personally, but there really is nothing like looking out at our fans in the crowd and seeing how much of an impact they can have in someone else’s life. It’s truly a very special thing”.
The Shires last played York Barbican in May 2018 and performed a headline set at Pocklington’s Platform Festival at The Old Station last summer.
Only a smattering of seats remains on sale for their Barbican return on 0203 356 5441 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Explore Library and Archive, the York hub of Explore York in Museum Street, York
THIS is the time to explore Explore York online, providing the Libraries
from Home service during the Coronavirus lockdown.
“If you are confused or overwhelmed by the huge amount of information on offer, Explore can help,” says executive assistant Gillian Holmes, encouraging visits to the website, exploreyork.org.uk, “where it is simple to find what you need”.
This encouragement comes after all Explore York library buildings, reading cafes and the City Archives were closed to the public from 12 noonon March 21, in response to Government strictures.
“We are making it easy for people to find information and advice, as
well as inspiration, as we all deal with the Coronavirus crisis.”
The Explore website has assorted useful links to help people cope during
the coming weeks. “Some sites have always been part of our online offer and
some are brand new,” says Gillian.
“We are also working with City of York Council and our many partners in
York, so that our communities can join together and we continue to support
their initiatives, just as we will when our buildings open again.
“Organisations across
the country are developing their online services in this challenging time. We
are using our expertise to gather together the best offers and add them to the
lists of sites we recommend.”
Explore
York will be developing online activities of its own, such as a Virtual Book Group. “We
will be updating the website regularly as these new things come on stream and
sharing on social media using #LibrariesFromHome,” says Gillian.
The York Explore building: Quiet in the library but still seeking to be busy online
The chance to visit the new York Images site to explore the history of
the city through photographs, illustrations, maps and archival documents at exploreyork.org.uk/digital/york-images/
Dapper Fox, by York Open Studios 2020 debutante Joanna Lisowiec
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April weekends,
has had to be cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event, CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and makers, who would have been showcasing ceramic, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture and textile skills.
Each day, in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages because so much art and craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home. Addresses will not be included at this time.
One of Quercki Design’s cork fabric designs
Quercki Design, mixed media
MARGARET Bradley, who would have been a new participant in York Open Studios, specialises in eco-friendly and carbon-neutral cork fabric designs, drawn on a computer, cut on a laser, backed with colours, glued and sewn to make pictures, notebooks and sketchbooks.
A language degree first took Margaret to Lisbon as a university assistant where she acquired a deep affection for Portugal. This was followed by 30 years of work in educational aid to developing countries, where different cultures, art and music were a constant source of interest and delight.
On retirement, a return visit to Portugal brought her into contact with cork fabric, a perfect material for making things inspired by her travels, she says.
More
details can be found at quercki.com, although Quercki Design is taking a short
break, with the artist in self-isolation.
Wood carver Dave Atkin
Dave Atkin, wood
USING traditional techniques, Dave carves locally sourced green wood. Influenced by the natural world, folklore and history, he experiments with form and design to create functional and individual pieces.
A professional model maker by trade, he took up wood carving as a hobby, now making spoons, kuksas and bowls, often inspired by the Green Man myth.
He now offers spoon carving courses and demonstrates at events and fairs. For more details, go to woodwyrm.co.uk.
Taking shape: Catherine Boyne-Whitelegg making one of her earthenware pieces
Catherine Boyne-Whitelegg, ceramics
CATHERINE has been working as a potter for 16 years, both throwing and hand-building, creating colourful slipware pottery to be used and enjoyed, as well as raku and smoke-fired clay animals, ranging from foxes and pigs to horses and unicorns. Her work often reflects her wry humour.
Go, figure! Seaside Belle, by Catherine Boyne-Whitelegg
She is a potter, teacher and community artist who set up her own pottery workshop at her home near York after graduating from Sunderland University with a BA (Hons) in ceramics.
Catherine’s work can be found in a number of galleries, complementing her regular exhibitions, and wedding or special occasion pieces can be commissioned. More details at boyne-whiteleggpottery.co.uk.
Mo Burrows at work in her studio
Mo Burrows, jewellery
MO’S contemporary jewellery
embraces the elaborate and the colourful, the dainty and the quiet, in her necklaces,
earrings and brooches.
Predominately favouring copper,
braiding and beadwork, she draws inspiration from the colour, form and texture
of the materials she uses. Frustrated by
an inability to draw, she produces designs straight from a head full of ideas. Find
Mo at facebook.com/MoBurrowsJewellery.
Falling in love with quaint English countryside: Polish-born printmaker and illustrator Joanna Lisowiec
Joanna Lisowiec, printmaking
NEW to York Open Studios this year, Joanna’s prints and illustrations look to nature and folklore for inspiration, as she focuses on birds and animals in her bold, clean and distinctive work.
Originally from Poland
and brought up in the United States and Switzerland, she first came to Britain
to study illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, falling in love with the
wild Highlands and later with the “quaint English countryside” when she moved
to Yorkshire for her MA in advertising and design from the University of Leeds.
“I would love to illustrate
a classic novel one day,” she says at joanna-draws.com, where you can find free
printable worksheets to “keep your children or indeed yourself entertained during
the Coronavirus pandemic”.
Tomorrow: Helen Whitehead; Sally Clarke; Adrienne French; Caroline Lord and Peter Park.
Hand-washing for our times: Amanda Dales as Lady Macbeth in York Shakespeare Project’s now postponed Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
YORK Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth
should have opened this evening, but the curse of “the Scottish play” has
struck again.
Although Macbeth is play number 29 in
Shakespeare’s chronology of 38 plays, YSP had held back the Bard’s tragedy big
hitter until production number 36 of 37 as part of a grand finale to the
20-year project in 2020, with The Tempest as the final curtain this autumn.
Now, however, theatre’s harbinger of
bad luck and its Weird Sisters have delivered double, double toil and trouble to
YSP, whose March 30 to April 4 run at the John Cooper Studio, Theatre @41
Monkgate, is mothballed until further notice under the Coronavirus shutdown.
Amanda Dales, left, as Lady Macbeth, and Emma Scott, as Macbeth, in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth. Picture: John Saunders
“We were six rehearsals short of the
finishing line,” says YSP’s Tony Froud, who was to have played Ross in
Shakespeare’s dark tale of ambition, murder and supernatural forces.
“The ideal solution would be to pick it
up again with the same company of actors later in the year, but there could yet
be complications.”
Come what may, Tony envisages the
project still finishing with The Tempest, originally planned for this October, rather
than Macbeth going on hold to form the closing chapter.
Emma Scott as Macbeth in Leo Doulton’s futuristic cyberpunk production of Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
“I would be very surprised if we didn’t want to retain The Tempest as the finale. It being Shakespeare’s final play [that he wrote alone], it is entirely appropriate to round things off with The Tempest, inviting as many people as possible who have been involved over the 20 years to join us for the celebrations.”
The final production is likely to be
accompanied by an exhibition charting YSP from 2001 formation to 2021
conclusion. “The York Explore library is expressing an interest in presenting
it, ideally to coincide with The Tempest’s run.”
Where The Tempest may be staged is yet
to be decided after the initial plan to work in tandem with York Theatre Royal this
autumn fell by the wayside. “It’s now the case that we’re looking into the
possibility of doing a touring production as our final show, culminating in a
York run,” says Tony.
“We were six rehearsals short of the finishing line,” says Tony Froud, who was to have played Ross in this week’s run of York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth
Should Macbeth have gone ahead tonight, Leo Doulton’s production would have been set in a dystopian “cyberpunk” future and performed in a promenade style, with the action taking place on the move, around the audience, led by Emma Scott’s Macbeth. Two performances on Wednesday would expressly have been for schools’ audiences studying the play.
“Macbeth is a magnificent tragedy
about the earthly struggle between the forces of order and chaos, and how the
world becomes corrupted by Macbeth’s strange bargains,” says Doulton, who made
his YSP directorial debut at the helm of last October’s stripped-back Antony
And Cleopatra.
“Cyberpunk is an exciting genre for
exploring, highlighting, and visualising those ideas for a modern audience. We
no longer fear witches, but we are still scared of our society being shaped by
powers with no concern for those below them.”
Leo Doulton: director of York Shakespeare Project’s production of Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
Whenever we more than three shall meet again, let us look forward to Doulton’s show “capturing all the original’s epic drama in its poetry and production” with Emma Scott in the title role. In the meantime, now is the time to follow Lady Macbeth’s latter-day practice: constant hand washing, over and over again.
York Shakespeare
Project’s cast for Macbeth
Macbeth: Emma Scott
Lady Macbeth: Amanda
Dales
Banquo, Siward: Clive
Lyons
Fleance, Donalbain,
Son, Young Siward: Rhiannon Griffiths
Macduff: Harry
Summers
Duncan, Lady Macduff,
Menteith: Jim Paterson
Malcolm: Eleanor
Frampton
Lennox: Nick Jones
Ross: Tony Froud
Angus: Sarah-Jane
Strong
First Witch, First
Murderer, Doctor: Joy Warner
Second Witch, Second
Murderer, Gentlewoman: Alexandra Logan
Third Witch, Third
Murderer, Caithness, Seyton: Chloe Payne.
The York Shakespeare Project cast in rehearsal for Macbeth. Picture: John Saunders
Crew
Director:
Leo Doulton
Set designer: Charley Ipsen
Lighting designer: Neil Wood
Costume designer: Scarlett Wood
Sound designer: Jim Paterson.
Did you know?
WILLIAM Shakespeare’s
play Macbeth is said to be cursed, so actors avoid
saying its name when in the theatre. The euphemism “the Scottish
Play” is used instead.
Should an
actor utter the name “Macbeth” in a theatre before a performance, however, they
are required to perform a ritual to remove the curse.
When the
Grand Opera House reopened after a £4 million refurbishment on September 26 1989,
the York theatre tempted fate by presenting Macbeth (in a Balinese version) as
the first show, 33 years since the last professional stage performance there. Only
two years later, the theatre closed again, staff arriving to find the doors
locked.
Adam Martyn: partially sighted actor playing the blind scientist Nicholas Saunderson in No Horizon, pictured in rehearsal
RIGHT Hand Theatre’s No Horizon, a musical celebrating a blind Yorkshire
science and maths genius, is no longer on the horizon at York Theatre Royal. Exit
stage left the April 9 and 11 performances under the Coronavirus shutdown.
However, the No Horizon team say: “Sadly, though we
will be pausing our adventure for now, our No Horizon journey is
far from over. When we are back – and we truly mean when, not if
– we will be bigger and better than ever.
“This has been an amazing rehearsal process and although this [situation] is a hurdle, we will overcome
this. Here’s to the
future of the show and we are sure that the best is yet to come.”
No Horizon’s 2020 tour was to have opened at The Civic, Barnsley, on
March 20. Now, the progress towards a new horizon can be followed at nohorizonthemusical.com
and on social media.
The musical tells the life story of Nicholas Saunderson, a blind
scientist and mathematician from Thurlstone, West Riding, who overcame
impossible odds to become a Cambridge professor and friend of royalty.
Often
described as an 18th century Stephen
Hawking, Saunderson was born on January 20 1682, losing his sight through
smallpox when around a year old. This did not prevent him, however, from
acquiring a knowledge of Latin and Greek and studying mathematics.
As a child,
he learnt to read by tracing the engravings on tombstones around St John the
Baptist Church in Penistone, near Barnsley, with his fingers.
No Horizon
premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, going on to draw an enthusiastic
response from BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans, who called it a “Yorkshire Les
Mis”.
Next month’s
York Theatre Royal shows would have been part of a now stalled northern tour of
a 2020 adaptation “with a fresh look” by Right Hand Theatre, a company
passionate about diversity and inclusivity within theatre.
Consequently, the 2020 cast has a 50/50 male/female balance, with
the credo of delivering the show in a gender-blind way with a female Isaac
Newton, for example. Both the director and lead actor are visually impaired.
Leading the
company in rehearsals, in the role of Saunderson, has been the partially
sighted Adam Martyn, from Doncaster, who trained at Liverpool Institute of
Performing Arts (LIPA).
Alongside him have been Yorkshire born-and-bred, Rose Bruford
College-trained Larissa Teale in the female lead role of Abigail; Tom Vercnocke
as Joshua Dunn; Louise Willoughby as Anne Saunderson; Matthew Bugg as John
Saunderson; Ruarí Kelsey as Reverend Fox; Katie Donoghue and Olivia Smith as
Company.
In the production team are director Andrew Loretto; vocal coach
Sally Egan; movement directors Lucy Cullingford and Maria Clarke; costume
designer Lydia Denno; costume maker Sophie Roberts; lighting designer David
Phillips and tour musical director David Osmond.
No
Horizon’s 2020 northern tour has been co-commissioned by Cast, Doncaster and
The Civic, Barnsley and supported by Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind,
with funding from Arts Council England and Foyle Foundation.
York Theatre Royal box office will contact ticket holders for
refunds.
Matthew Kelly as York-born poet W H Auden when Alan Bennett’s The Habit Of Art was rehearsed and staged at York Theatre Royal in August and September 2018. Picture: James Findlay
YORK Theatre Royal’s 2018 co-production
of Alan Bennett’s The Habit Of Art has been made available to stream by
OriginalTheatre Online.
Directed by Philip Franks,
a second British tour was due to start this month with Matthew Kelly and David
Yelland reprising their roles of poet W H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten.
However, both the tour and
a trip to New York for the Brits Off Broadway have been scrapped after the
Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
In turn, this has prompted
The Original Theatre Company, the Theatre Royal’s co-producers, to release the
production online.
Matthew Kelly as W H Auden and David Yelland as Benjamin Britten in The Habit Of Art, now available to stream through Original Theatre Online
Leeds playwright Bennett’s
The Habit Of Art imagines a 1972 meeting between friends and collaborators Auden
and Britten – their first in 30 years – where they mull over life, art, sexuality and death.
What drew Matthew Kelly to
playing York-born Auden? “He has a razor-sharp wit and we have a very similar
outlook about work which is the habit of art. I am the same,” he says.
“I have to keep working – I’m nearly 70 [his birthday falls on May 9] – not because I need the money, but because the theory comes into play that the longer you hang on, the longer you will hang on. Otherwise you fall off the perch.”
The Habit Of Art requires Kelly
to play an actor playing an actor playing a real-life person. If this sounds
confusing, “No, it actually clarifies things,” says Kelly, clarifying things.
Philip Franks, director of The Habit Of Art, who also directed Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in The Tempest in York last summer
“It’s a very clever device
because it means you can be funny about what you do, you can comment on it and
you can explain stuff. You can come out of the play Caliban’s Day, which the
actors are rehearsing, and then it’s a play about the fictional meeting of
Auden and Britten.
“What’s wonderful about
Bennett’s play is, not only have you got the finest composer of our time and
the finest poet of our time, but you also, in my opinion, have the greatest
playwright of our time.”
Kelly
continues: “So, you’ve got all those words being sewn together by our greatest
playwright, who’s kind, accessible, very erudite and talks about sex in a very
earthy way.
“He also gives a voice to
the unregarded, who don’t usually have a voice. Generally, the great people,
the stars of our time, get the final word and the people who look after them,
what are commonly called ‘the little people’, really don’t get any say at all.
They are the forgotten heroes who nurtured these stars.”
“He’s terribly kind and encouraging, which I love,” says Matthew Kelly of The Habit Of Art playwright Alan Bennett
Former Stars In Their Eyes presenter Kelly completed a hattrick of Bennett roles with The Habit Of Art, having appeared as unconventional teacher Hector in The History Boys in 2013 and Czech author Franz Kafka in Kafka’s Dick, opposite his son Matthew Rixon, as a younger Kafka, at York Theatre Royal in March 2001.
“We were hoping Alan
Bennett would come to York because he lives in Leeds and it’s only a hop and a
skip away, but he didn’t come,” recalls Kelly.
“A couple of years later, I met him at Heathrow and he came up to me and apologised for not coming to the York production. He was terribly kind about it. “Years later, I did The History Boys in Sheffield, then Kafka’s Dick again in Bath. On both those shows he sent champagne and a Good Luck postcard.
“He always knows what’s
going on and he’s terribly kind and encouraging, which I love. The great thing
about Alan is he’s very supportive of all productions, although he doesn’t go
and see them.”
Original Theatre Online is
streaming a second touring production too: Ali Milles’s The Croft, starring
Gwen Taylor and again directed by Franks. Both that show and The Habit Of Art can
be streamed any time until June.
“We are thrilled to be able to share these brilliant shows digitally: our own theatre without walls,” says The Original Theatre Company director Alastair Whatley.
Alastair Whatley, artistic director of The Original Theatre Company, says: “We know how disappointing it has been to our audiences, cast, creatives and Original Theatre to have to close our shows. We are thrilled to be able to share these brilliant shows digitally: our own theatre without walls.
“However,
the Original Theatre Company operates with no Arts Council support and relies
almost solely on the box-office takings. With our two productions of The Habit Of
Art and The Croft both out on national tours, the immediate cancellations are
financially devastating for us.
“But we are determined,
wherever possible, to meet our financial commitments made to our actors, stage
managers and suppliers, who are all dependent on us to survive the coming
months.
“Every
penny we make through this online release will go to the people who helped make
this show, who now find themselves in a hugely precarious financial position.”
Both
plays are free to watch although The Original Theatre suggests a minimum
donation of £2.50.
For
full streaming details, visit originaltheatreonline.com.
“The show I do is pretty much all of Elvis’s eras,” says The King Is Back tribute act Ben Portsmouth
ELVIS is making another comeback…in 2021.
The King Is Back, Ben Portsmouth’s tribute show, will be back at York
Barbican on April 9 next year.
Berkshire singer Portsmouth was last in the building with his Elvis Presley act on December 20 2019. Tickets for his return are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk or on 0203 356 5441.
Portsmouth and his band Taking Care Of Elvis have been taking care of
Elvis tribute business for a dozen years in a show built around “a little less
conversation, a lot more action, please”.
“The show I do is pretty much all of Elvis’s eras,” he says. “So, from
the Sun Studio to his movie years. Then I’ll do the 1968 comeback with the
leather outfit.
Portsmouth to York: Ben Portsmouth confirms York Barbican concert next spring
“The first half is more like a story of Elvis’s
life and what he was doing in his career at the time. The second half is
just like an Elvis Seventies’ concert.”
In pursuit of authenticity to the maximum, all of Portsmouth’s
Elvis outfits are flown over from the United States, with the peacock jumpsuit
being his favourite.
In August 2012, Portsmouth made Elvis history when he became
the first act from outside the United States to win the annual Elvis Presley
Enterprises “Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist”, held in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Portsmouth loves the Elvis voice, the look, the stage charisma, his
humour, but more than that. “He was just a people person,” he says. “He was just a simple country boy who liked his cars, his food and all
the rest of it.”
Marketing officer Olivia Potter’s We Pull Together poster at York Theatre Royal,, pictured by events producer Zach Pierce when he left the theatre for the last time before the Coronavirus-enforced closure.
TODAY is World Theatre Day, but a day when the world of live theatre
and its eye on the world are shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, theatres are still marking the occasion, be it York
Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird’s Tweets throughout the day on his
favourite theatres around the world, or reflections elsewhere on why theatre,
in its myriad forms, is so important to British life.
At the Theatre Royal, show posters have been replaced by one message to the city of York, a rallying call reminiscent of wartime posters, designed in the Theatre Royal livery by marketing officer Olivia (Livy) Potter from an initial idea by development officer Maisie Pearson.
In bold print, it reads: We Are Creative. We Are Sturdy. We Are
Ambitious. We Are York. We Pull Together.
Bird’s eye view on World Theatre Day: York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird is marking the day with Tweets highlighting his favourite theatres in the world
Here, Olivia answers Charles Hutchinson’s questions on how the poster came to be printed.
Why and how did you choose the wording of your poster, Olivia?
“The wording was inspired by York Theatre Royal’s values:
“We are ambitious
We are sturdy
We are welcoming
We are ambassadors for York
We celebrate the city’s true diversity; it makes us bloom
We are creative in every context
We pull together
We excel in every area”.
“The idea to take some of these values and work them into a
message came from our development officer, Maisie Pearson, and it was a
brilliant one.”
Dumb question, but what prompted you to do it?
“We had to take the show posters down outside the theatre as they
were promoting productions that had been cancelled, such as Alone In Berlin
mid-run.
“The empty poster sites looked very forlorn and that got us
thinking about putting up a poster with a message of support and solidarity for
the city to see instead – something that could stay up for however long it
needed to.”
Run halted: Alone In Berlin fell silent when York Theatre Royal closed in response to the Coronavirus pandemic
What is the overall message you are seeking to put across? Is it about theatre and the arts at large being woven so vitally into the fabric of York, or is it more about that wider message of the importance of all pulling together?
“I think it’s both these messages. It’s a very uncertain time for
all industries right now, but particularly the arts and entertainment industry.
“We wanted to find some way of reassuring the people of the city
that the curtain will rise again and we want everyone to be there when it does.
“Also, the narrative of the nation ‘pulling together’ by staying
at home to save lives has really come into force, particularly over the last few
days. The wording we’ve chosen for the poster seems to be quite vital now and
in keeping with this narrative.”
Where are the posters on show at York Theatre Royal?
“One can be found by our Stage Door on Duncombe Place, next to Red
House Antiques. Another can be found next to our patio area to the left of the
theatre building on St Leonard’s Place.”
York Theatre Royal’s logo: colour palette is replicated in the new poster
Why are posters such a powerful medium in tumultuous times?
“Poster art and design is a really interesting medium, and very
difficult to get right. I suppose the key is to keep it simple, find your
message and present it in a way that is striking.”
How did you choose the charcoal and old-gold colour scheme for the poster? Echoes of wartime posters, perhaps?
“The colours are actually the brand colours of York Theatre Royal,
which unintentionally seem to have connotations of those famous wartime-era
posters.”
Will there be more posters to come?
“We hope that won’t be necessary and that we can replace them with
show posters soon.”
How are you spending your days during the theatre shutdown?
“I’m finding ways to engage with our audiences online; yoga; a bit
of dancing; chatting to family and friends online; making fancy meals and
drinking a fair bit of gin.”
Livy Potter in the role of Nina in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at York Theatre Royal Studio, February 26 to March 7
On World Theatre Day, why does theatre and the arts matter so much to you, both in your work at the Theatre Royal and as an actor?
“There’s nothing quite like the arts as a means of bringing people
together, not just physically but emotionally too.
“I love being part of an audience who are engaged, laughing as one
and sometimes even crying together, too.
“One of the biggest joys in my life is being part of a group who
come together with the purpose of creating something as one – a shared aim of
telling a story for others to listen to and enjoy.
“In this difficult time, I think people are going to find really
ingenious ways of achieving this and when this all does finally end, I can’t
wait for us all to come together once more to experience the joys of theatre
afresh.”
The Grand Opera House sign for these Coronavirus lockdown days
TODAY is World Theatre Day,
although the day-to-day world of theatre has ground to a shuddering halt, its
stages silenced by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, today is still the
chance to celebrate Shakespeare’s sentiment in As You Like It that “All the world’s
a stage”.
Shakespeare’s Melancholy Jaques went
on to mull over exits and entrances, how one man in his time plays many parts,
his acts being seven ages. Let’s turn that life model to theatre itself, and
none more so than the Grand Opera House in York, a theatre, a building, a site,
that has been through so many ages, so many stages, that seven would be an
underestimate.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who appeared at the Empire Theatre, York, on March 22 1954
Its life before theatre can be
traced back to 71AD as part of the Roman Quayside; 450AD, a nunnery; and Victorian
days as a “sink or stew”, brothels, crowded slum housing, until the area was
cleaned.
The Grand Opera House building in Cumberland Street began life as a Corn Exchange, designed in 1868 by architect G A Dean to double as a concert room, hence an ornate blue/vermillion/ gold gilding colour scheme.
Conversion to a 1,540-capacity theatre followed in 1901, undertaken by theatrical manager William Peacock, who presented the first performance at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, as it was first named, on January 20 1902 when Australian music hall entertainer Florrie Forde starred in Little Red Riding Hood.
The SS Empire, pictured in the 1970s. Note the Roller Skating sign
The 1916 introduction of the
Amusement Tax was not amusing, putting all theatres at risk, but The Empire, as
it was now known, survived. Charlie Chaplin, Gracie Fields, Lillie Langtry and
Marie Lloyd played there; so too, later, did Vera Lynn, Laurel and Hardy, on
their last tour, and Morecambe and Wise.
A huge rates increase in 1945 ruined
the theatre, forcing Marie Blanche, Peacock’s daughter, to end 44 years of
family ownership by selling it to F.J. Butterworth. Audiences declined against
the competition of television, to the point where the theatre closed in 1956,
blaming the “crippling entertainment tax, when TV pays no tax”.
Ernest Shepherd of Shambles acquired the theatre in 1958, duly
adding the ‘S’ and ‘S’ to the Empire name, removing the stage and levelling the
stalls floor for roller-skating, wrestling and bingo.
Special knight, special night: Sir Ian McKellen in Ian McKellen On Stage With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others…And You! at the Grand Opera House, York, last June
The end of Empire days came in 1985, but after the India Pru Company
acquired the building in 1987, Henley-on-Thames architect Gordon J Claridge was given the
brief to restore it to its 1909 glory. The Art Nouveau wallpaper was copied;
the chandelier duplicated; the carpets rewoven from the original pattern with
the Grand Opera House motif added to the design.
Stalls boxes were restored and a new stage built; the Clifford
Street entrance was turned into a box office; Cumberland Street became the main
entrance. The £4 million renovation complete, the theatre re-opened on
September 26 1989 as the Grand Opera House, but tempted fate by presenting Macbeth
– traditionally a harbinger of bad luck in the theatre world – as the first
production, 33 years since the last professional stage performance.
Only two years later, the theatre closed suddenly, staff arriving to find the doors locked, as the curse of Macbeth did indeed strike.
E&B Productions brought to an end two and a half years of darkness
after acquiring the premises for a nominal sum, re-opening the theatre on
February 26 1993, since when the Grand Opera House has remained open, hindered
only occasionally by the River Ouse in flood.
From Strictly Come Dancing to Strictly Ballroom: Kevin Clifton is to star in his dream role of Scott Hastings at the Grand Opera House, York, in November 2020
The theatre’s ownership passed from E&B Productions to Apollo
Leisure in 1995 and American company SFX in 1999. After SFX merged with Clear
Channel in 2000, and later set up a new company, Live Nation, to focus on live entertainment,
in 2006, the latest change of hands came in 2010 when Britain’s largest
owner/operator of theatres, the Ambassador Theatre Group added the York theatre
to their roster.
The ownership baton may be passed on, but each has favoured a
programme of lavish musicals, often straight from the West End; stand-up
comedy; opera; ballet; dance; concerts; tribute acts; celebrity talks; classic
theatre; new plays; in-house youth theatre summer projects; myriad shows by
York stage companies and a star-studded commercial pantomime each Christmas.
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Cabaret, Chicago, Jesus Christ
Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, Blood Brothers, Legally Blonde and Once The
Musical; the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Winter’s Tale; the National
Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Hedda Gabler and
Jane Eyre; The Waterboys, Antony & The Johnsons, Adele at 19, Echo &
The Bunnymen; Ken Dodd so many times, Danny La Rue, Ross Noble, Jimmy Carr, Paul
Merton, Julian Clary; Sir Ian McKellen, on his 80th birthday solo tour.
The list goes on…
Dame Berwick Kaler with his pantomime co-stars AJ Powell, left, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard and Martin Barrass at the launch of Dick Turpin Rides Again at the Grand Opera House, York, on February 14. Picture: David Harrison
In the deepening shadow of Coronavirus, we await to discover when
that list will start up again, but let us hope that once more we can gather for
such upcoming shows as The Commitments, from October 26 to 31 and Strictly
Ballroom, with Strictly Come Dancing’s Kevin Clifton, from November 23 to 28.
Come the winter, all eyes will be on Berwick Kaler as the grand
old dame of York becomes the Grand’s new dame after his crosstown transfer, with
villain David Leonard, perennial principal girl Suzy Cooper, comic stooge
Martin Barrass and luverly Brummie A J Powell in tow, for Dick Turpin Rides Again
from December 12 to January 10.
There to greet them and you, unmoved by the tide of theatre
history, will be the Grand Opera House ghost: a nun in the Dress Circle.
Happy World Theatre Day, but happier still when theatre days and
nights can return.
Sign of the times: The frontage of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, at the former Odeon cinema, in Scarborough
TODAY is World Theatre Day. Stages may be silent, but creativity never sleeps. It adapts. No matter what the circumstances.
Keep watching this space. CharlesHutchPress will continue to bring you stories of how the arts world is reacting, responding, re-engaging, under the Coronavirus lockdown.
Yes, we miss the sound of applause bursting through our theatre walls, but for now, for the unforeseeable future, save your hand-clapping for showing support every Thursday at 8pm for our NHS doctors, hospital staff, carers and rising tide of volunteers. God bless them all.
