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York Light Youth and York Light Opera Company principals team up for York premiere of School Of Rock next week

Emma Louise Dickinson’s headteacher Rosalie Mullins and Jonny Holbek’s Dewey Finn rehearsing with the ensemble for York Light Youth’s School Of Rock

YORK Light Youth’s tenth anniversary show will be the York amateur premiere of School Of Rock, ready to rock at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from November 8 to 11.

Directed by Sue Hawksworth, this technically and musically challenging musical – music by Andrew Lloyd Webbber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Julian Fellowes – will be performed by a cast combining young performers aged ten to 17 and adults from the York Light Opera Company in equal numbers: a unique occurrence for York Light.

Among the adult cast will be Megan Overton and Maddy Hicks, who both performed in York Light Youth’s first show, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, in 2013 and are enjoying their return to the group.

Based on Richard Linklater’s 2003 American film, the storyline follows Jonny Holbek’s Dewey Finn, a failed wannabe rock star, who decides to make some cash by teaching at a prestigious prep school. Soon he discovers his students to be clueless about rock’n’roll, but he vows to mould them into a rock band to enter Battle of the Bands.

Bella Smith, Jonny Holbek, Finley Walters and Ollie Lee rehearsing a number in School Of Rock

Along the way, Dewey finds romance, self-worth and a proper job as he initiates the children and their parents in the beauty of rock.

Director Sue Hawksworth was formerly assistant director of York Light Opera Company for 18 years, working on diverse productions ranging from The Sound Of Music and Oliver! to South Pacific and The King & I, and she is no stranger to working with young people.

Assistant director Gavin Shaw has performed in many musical theatre productions, appearing as Officer Krupke in York Light Youth’s West Side Story in 2016. Martin Lay is the musical director, a post he has held for York Light Youth since 2019.

Playing opposite Jonny Holbek in his relentless lead role will be leading lady Emma Louise Dickinson’s formidable headteacher Rosalie Mullins. Jonny and Emma Louise last appeared together as Che and Eva Peron in York Light’s 2022 production of Evita.

For those about to rock: School Of Rock band members Ollie Lee, Finley Walters, Sam Brophy and Bella Smith

Flynn Coultous and Georgia Foster take on the roles of Ned Schneebly, Dewey’s long-suffering flatmate, and his girlfriend, Paty Di Marco. Best friends Flynn and Georgia have been performing together since they were seven and five respectively, ten years in total.

Flynn joined York Light Youth for Hairspray in 2019 and played a loud and comical Joe Vegas in last year’s production of Fame.

School Of Rock is unique among musicals because not one, but two bands play live on stage. The adult band, No Vacancy, features cast members and musicians Jonny Holbek, Mat Tapp, Ant Pengally and Kathryn Lay, along with musicians Ben Huntley on guitar and Mike Hampton on drums.

Jonny Holbek’s Dewey Finn rocks out with the ensemble in the School Of Rock rehearsal room

The young band, School Of Rock, comprises four highly talented musicians who have achieved great things already. On keys will be Sam Brophy, a 2022 finalist in the BBC’s Young Chorister of the Year competition. On guitar will be Ollie Lee, whose band Bangers And Thrash won Minster FM’s Battle of the Bands in 2019, when he was nine.

Double bassist Bella Smith took up playing bass guitar less than a year ago, very similar to the trajectory of her character, Kate, a cellist turned bass guitarist. Completing the line-up will be Finley Walters, already an accomplished drummer at the age of ten. Invited to perform at the RSL Virtual Music Festival in 2021, he opened with a solo drum performance.

“School Of Rock is a celebration of music, friendship and the power of self-expression,” says York Light chair and publicity officer Helen Eckersall. “We’re confident that audiences of all ages will thoroughly enjoy it. Don’t miss the York premiere of this amazing show.”

York Light Youth in School Of Rock, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 8 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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Lovely jubbly! Only Fools And Horses The Musical will be cushty in York next October in Grand Opera House run

The poster for the 2024-2025 tour of Only Fools And Horses The Musical, bound for York next October

DIRECT from a four-year sold-out West End run, Only Fools And Horses The Musical will head to York next autumn in Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan’s show, based on John Sullivan’s record-breaking1980s’ BBC comedy.

Running at the Grand Opera House from October 14 to 19, it features a script and original score by John’s son and Whitehouse, bringing lovable Peckham rogues Del Boy, Rodney, Grandad, Cassandra, Raquel, Boycie, Marlene, Trigger, Denzil, Mickey Pearce, Mike the Barman and the Driscoll Brothers to the stage with wide-boy humour and 20 songs.

Directed by the originating West End director Caroline Jay Ranger, the tour will kick off in September 2024 and then travel to more than 30 theatres across the country, concluding in June 2025. Casting will be announced in early 2024.

Co-writer Whitehouse says: “Following four amazing years in the West End, I’m thrilled we are announcing today that Only Fools And Horses The Musical is going on tour.

“I’ve long been asked by many fans when this might happen, so I’m delighted to confirm that the show will be coming to a theatre near you from September next year. All of the characters we know and love from the Only Fools television series will be live on stage, as we take Peckham on the road! Bonnet de douche!”

Paul Whitehouse: Comedian, actor, writer and television presenter has co-written Only Fools And Horses The Musical with Jim Sullivan, John’s son

After playing more than 1,000 performances at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, this home-grown musical, featuring cherished material from the TV series, takes a trip back in time, “where it’s all kicking off in Peckham”.

While the yuppie invasion of London is in full swing, love is in the air as Del Boy sets out on the rocky road to find his soul mate, Rodney and Cassandra prepare to say “I do”, and even Trigger is gearing up for a date. Meanwhile, Boycie and Marlene give parenthood one final shot and Grandad takes stock of his life and decides the time has finally arrived to have his piles sorted out.

Co-writer Whitehouse says: “Following four amazing years in the West End, I’m thrilled we are announcing today that Only Fools And Horses The Musical is going on tour. I’ve long been asked by many fans when this might happen, so I’m delighted to confirm that the show will be coming to a theatre near you from September next year. All of the characters we know and love from the Only Fools television series will be live on stage, as we take Peckham on the road! Bonnet de douche!”

Musical contributions from London legends Chas & Dave and the beloved theme tune as never heard before combine with an array of new songs full of character and Cockney charm, guaranteeing a right ol’ knees-up!  

“Only Fools And Horses The Musical is a feel-good family celebration of traditional working-class London life in 1989 and the aspirations we all share,” rolls out the publicity machine. “So don’t delay, get on the blower, and get a ticket for a truly cushty night out. Only a 42-carat plonker would miss it!”

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.co.uk.

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Ian Pace to begin Late Music York’s Beethoven Project of Liszt symphonic transcriptions to piano on Saturday

Ian Pace: Launching The Beethoven Project for Late Music York on Saturday

VIRTUOSO pianist Ian Pace will perform Late Music York’s first recital of The Beethoven Project at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, on Saturday night.

Devised by Pace and Late Music administrator Steve Crowther, the project involves programming the whole cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt in an annual series of piano recitals.

“Playing all nine transcribd Beethoven symphonies, the project should take Ian seven to eight years!” says Steve. “It’s incredibly demanding and it’ll be a real event.”

The opening 7.30pm concert features the heroic Symphony No. 5 and Liszt’s sublime transcription of the radical An die Ferne Geliebte, Beethoven’s only song cycle.

“But why did Liszt undertake such an enormous artistic challenge?” asks Steve. “To be sure, he loved the music deeply; he loved the challenge; he also loved the idea of the intimacy of performing these orchestral works on the piano, experiencing the symphonies afresh.

“But the main reason was financial. The music publisher Breitkopf & Härtel commissioned Liszt to transcribe the work, paying him eight francs per page. Liszt completed this (and the 6th Symphony) in 1837, ten years after Beethoven’s death.”

In an interview in 1988, the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz said: “I deeply regret never having played Liszt’s arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies in public. These are the greatest works for the piano – tremendous works – every note of the symphonies is in the Liszt works.”

Steve says: “Horowitz’s comments are embedded in the score itself to help the performer realise the original work through the lens of the piano transcription. Liszt would note down the names of the orchestral instruments for the pianist to imitate and add pedal marks and fingerings for pianistic clarity.”

Late Music York’s poster for the Beethoven Project

Saturday’s full concert programme is:

Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte (transcribed by Franz Liszt) ;

Gershwin: Love Is Here To Stay (transcribed by Michael Finnissy);

Gershwin: Embraceable You (transcribed by Michael Finnissy);

Gershwin (maybe): Please Pay Some Attention To Me (transcribed by Michael Finnissy)

Jerome Kern: Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man (transcribed by Michael Finnissy)

 Steve Crowther: Piano Sonata No.4;

Beethoven: Symphony No.5 (transcribed by Franz Liszt).


“Now if we park the rogue Piano Sonata, the rest of the programme also reimagines original works, songs by Gershwin and Kern, for piano. This time transcribed by the wonderful composer, Michael Finnissy,” says Steve.

“I know Michael, having studied with him at the University of Sussex and continued contact with him through programming, and commissioning his highly original music. Indeed, it was Michael that introduced me and Late Music to Ian Pace. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Crowther sent Finnissy the programme blueprint, “not surprisingly receiving a corrective response with a lovely insight into Gershwin’s Please Pay Some Attention To Me”.


Finnissy wrote: “I have slightly corrected your programme attributions. Richard Rodney Bennett gave me the melody of Please Pay Some Attention To Me; he had been given it by a Swedish cabaret singer. It is (RRB told me) only attributed to George Gershwin – and does not appear in his work list.

“Jerome Kern wrote (rather than transcribed!) Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man (the original version of Show Boat had ‘dat’ instead of ’that’, but more recent editions have replaced this imitation-black-slang with ‘plain English’).”

In a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm, with a complimentary glass of wine or juice, Ian Pace will be in conversation with fellow pianist Kate Harrison-Ledger.

“We would like to discuss the Liszt and Gershwin transcriptions, and what they bring to the original compositions,” says Kate. “We will hopefully include a few anecdotes from Michael Finnissy, and, if time allows, invite questions from the audience.”

Tickets are on sale at www.latemusic.org and on the door.

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West Country comedian Charlie Baker gets stuck into 24 Hour Pasty People at Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday night

Pasty face: Comedian Charlie Baker at Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday

DEVON comedian, actor, tap dancer and talkSport radio presenter Charlie Baker brings an hour of stand-up drenched in manure, cider and clotted cream to Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday.

Expect comedy with a countryside accent in 24 Hour Pasty People. “Imagine Jethro and Jack Black had a son. Job’s a good’un. Proper job,” he says.

Baker has appeared on The Last Leg, House Of Games, Harry Hill’s Tea Time, Comedy Central at the Comedy Store, The Great British Bake-Off: An Extra Slice, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.

He played Tim Reynolds in BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2016 and took the title role in Harry Hill and Steve Brown’s satirical musical Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera at Park Theatre, north London, in 2022. 

Tickets for Friday’s 8pm gig are on sale on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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Stockton Foresters receive the Barrass bounce of approval for murder mystery at Stockton on the Forest Village Hall

York pantomime comic stooge Martin Barrass, back row, second from right, meets the Stockton Foresters cast for Being Of Sound Mind at Stockton on the Forest Village Hall

STOCKTON Foresters Drama Group will perform Andrew Hull’s little-known gem, Being Of Sound Mind, from November 30 to December 2, much to the approval of York pantomime legend Martin Barrass.

Dame Berwick Kaler’s stalwart sidekick visited last week’s rehearsal of Hull’s murder mystery with all the twists of a corkscrew.

“The Foresters provide the highest standard of any amateur drama society I’ve ever known,” enthused Martin, ahead of the run at Stockton on the Forest Village Hall, near York. “Forget the telly. This is real live entertainment that will have you captivated from start to finish!”

Foresters’ chair Karen Ilsley responded: “Martin has been so supportive of our thriving company, encouraging our talented actors and crew, and letting us in on a few trade secrets! We are honoured to welcome him into our fold and look forward to a long and fruitful association.”

Jasmine Lingard, left, Stuart Leeming and Lynne Edwards in rehearsal for Stockton Foresters’ Being Of Sound Mind

Foresters’ newcomer Jasmine Lingard will play Penelope Asquith, who is eager to discover the truth as to why her late aunt haunts the Goodchild residence. Will the household survive the night to inherit Edward Goodchild’s fortune? Or are the inhabitants destined to succumb to supernatural forces?

Jasmine will have a further role as Eleanor, joined in director Louisa Littler’s cast by Stuart Leeming as Martin Bodmin; Martin Thorpe, as Marshall; Pete Keen, Stephen Asquith; Lynne Edwards, Rebecca Lockhart; Nicky Wild, Jane Brunt, and Russell Dowson, Shaun.

“I have hugely enjoyed working with the Foresters on this production,” said Louisa. “The cast are really responding to the challenge of creating a suspense-filled piece that will have our audience intrigued to the end.”

Stockton Foresters present Being Sound Of Mind from November 30 to December 2 at 7.30pm nightly. Doors open at 6.30pm. Stockton on the Forest Village Hall is on the Coastliner bus route and there will be plenty of accessible parking and a bar. Tickets are on sale at thelittleboxoffice.com/stocktonforesters or Stockton on the Forest Village Shop.

Did you know?

STOCKTON Foresters are teaming up with The Fox Inn for this production. £9 tickets include a voucher for ten per cent off a meal at the village pub in January and February 2024. Vouchers will be available at the village hall.

What will panto favourite Martin Barrass and co be doing this winter at the Grand Opera House?

Martin Barrass, centre with fellow Grand Opera House pantomime stars David Leonard, left, AJ Powell, Suzy Cooper and Dame Berwick Kaler

MARTIN Barrass will star alongside Dame Berwick Kaler, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and A J Powell in the swashbuckling pantomime adventure Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse at the Grand Opera House, York, from December 9 to January 6 2024.

Today, by the way, is Berwick Kaler’s 77th birthday. This winter, Britain’s longest-serving dame will be starring in his 43rd pantomime and second for producers UK Productions.

Meanwhile, the dowager dame’s costume and boots are on display at the V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, London, taking pride of place in the Theatre and Performance galleries until at least February 2024.

Writer-director Dame Berwick will lead his groundbreaking take on Daniel Defoe’s 1719 story of the sailor from York who finds himself marooned on a desert island, but on this occasion, Crusoe will not be sailing solo. Expect the unexpected as the familiar gang assembles again from December 9. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Berwick Kaler’s costume, rudimentary wig, trademark yellow and red socks and boots on show at the V&A Museum, London
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York Art Gallery draws attention to emerging artists in British Museum show for Season of Drawing programme launch

Drawing Attention commissioned artist Ugonna Hosten with her charcoal, ink and pastel work At The Dawn Of Each New Day at York Art Gallery . Picture: Charlotte Graham

THE British Museum touring exhibition Drawing Attention: Emerging Artists In Dialogue has opened at York Art Gallery as part of a new Season of Drawing. 

Compelling up-and-coming names in the field of contemporary drawing are displayed alongside works by celebrated artists within the British Museum collection of prints and drawings. 

These new acquisitions include works by some of the youngest living artists ever collected by the British Museum, presented in tandem with works by celebrated artists from Mary Delany and Édouard Manet to Barbara Hepworth, Andy Warhol and Yinka Shonibare.  

In this surprising and thought-provoking selection, emerging artists take the medium of drawing in new directions and use innovative approaches. A wide range of techniques and practices are represented, including drawings using make-up on face wipes by Sin Wai Kin and a drawing made with chalk collected from the White Cliffs of Dover by Josephine Baker.

Artists show how drawing, often considered a quiet or private medium, can be used to challenge social norms, explore identity and protest injustice. Catherine Anyango Grünewald has described the time and labour invested in her monumental drawings as a “direct homage” to their subjects, often the victims of institutional crimes.

The painstaking detail of Irish artist Miriam de Búrca’s drawings of clods of earth from cilliní – the unmarked graves of those deemed unfit for Christian burial – forces us to confront an uncomfortable history. 

Isabel Seligman, the British Museum’s curator of modern and contemporary drawing, says: “We are excited to share our dynamic and growing collection of contemporary drawings with York Art Gallery, alongside treasures of our historic collection.

Amy Cope admires St John the Baptiste, by Hendrick De Somer 1602 – 1656, in the British Museum’s touring exhibition Drawing Attention: Emerging Artists In Dialogue at York Art Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham

“This touring exhibition enables us to highlight over 20 new acquisitions by some of the freshest and most compelling new voices in the field, exploring questions of identity, memory and materiality, and using innovative materials and processes.”

Drawing Attention: Emerging Artists In Dialogue forms part of a broader Season of Drawing that will run until April 21 2024, taking in the annual Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition from February 15 to April 21.

This season of events and exhibitions includes a new commission by artist Ugonna Hosten, an exhibition of works created by participants in the York Art Gallery’s Teenage Art School and a drawing studio space for visitors to make their own drawings.

Ugonna Hosten’s commission, chi; Altarpieces, Liturgy & Devotion, chronicles a heroine’s enchanted journey to initiate a relationship with her chi, a personal guiding spirit central to the Igbo-speaking people of Southeast Nigeria.

Ugonna uses the process of drawing to investigate and reimagine alternate precolonial histories. Paintings from the York Art Gallery collection connect her research to her Christian upbringing, while ceramics expand on relationships between the use of water vessels in sacred rituals and ceremonies.

Multi-disciplinary artist Ugonna works across media encompassing collage, drawing and printmaking. Born in Nigeria, she migrated to Great Britain as a child, and in many ways her work seeks to explore the notion of duality – namely earthly and spiritual – as being central to the human experience. Themes of myth as a form of reality and the realm of the unconscious are prevalent in her art.

Ugonna’s route into fine art was via a BA Honours in Criminology that led to a career in the civil service. Those early explorations into the human mind on her degree programme filter into her work now, her artistic practice being an evolution of a sort in piecing fragments together and investigating experiences; historically, personally and imagined.

Seeking to convey the dimensions of the self and its connection to the collective unconscious, she considers her exploration as building on the rich legacy and tradition of storytelling and myth making.

York Art Gallery curator of fine art Becky Gee drawing in the specially created Drawing Studio. Picture: Charlotte Graham

As part of the Season of Drawing, Ugonna has developed and led York Art Gallery’s annual Teenage Art School programme. Participants created work guided by their own experiences and interests, using a broad interpretation of drawing that aligns with Ugonna’s own practice in an exploration of the relationship between printmaking and drawing.

The installation of their works alongside Ugonna’s commission offers visitors the chance to reflect on the vast creative and interpretive potential of drawing.

With that in mind, a range of drop-in sessions and bookable events will run in the specially created Drawing Studio, where visitors can have a go at different types of drawing. Becky Gee, York Art Gallery’s curator of fine art, says: “The Season of Drawing is a dynamic series of exhibitions and events that we hope will inspire visitors to think deeply about different aspects of drawing, and be inspired to try it for themselves.

“We are so grateful to have the opportunity to bring together so many different artists, from the famous and contemporary names of the British Museum to our own Teenage Art School participants.”

Among the Emerging Artists In Dialogue is Charmaine Watkiss, exhibiting her 2021 pencil, water-soluble graphite, watercolour and ink work Double Consciousness: Be Aware Of One’s Intentions, acquired by the British Museum with Art Fund and Rootstein Hopkins Foundation support.  

Charmaine, who lives and works in London, completed her MA in Drawing at Wimbledon College of Art, 2018. Her work is concerned with what she calls “memory “, wherein she creates narratives primarily through research into the African Caribbean diaspora, then mapped onto female figures.

Charmaine depicts herself as a conduit to relay stories that speak of a collective experience; starting with an idea, then allowing intuition and a dialogue with the work to take over. Her practice addresses themes of ritual, tradition, ancestry, mythology and cosmology.

Artist Charmaine Watkiss studies her pencil, water-soluble graphite, watercolour and ink work Double Consciousness: Be Aware Of One’s Intentions at York Art Gallery. Picture: Anthony Chapell-Ross

Since her first gallery solo show, The Seed Keepers, for Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, London, in 2021, she has been investigating the herbal healing traditions of Caribbean women; especially those of her mother’s generation, connecting those traditions through colonisation back to their roots in Africa. 

In 2022, Charmaine undertook a six-week residency in southwest France at Launchpad LAB that enabled her to explore nature and ecology in a more focussed way, and to combine drawing with making sculptural forms.

On her return, she was selected as a commissioned artist for the 12th edition of the Liverpool Biennial 2023. This allowed her to develop her practice further by creating an installation that consisted of life-sized drawings and sculpture, embodying a healing frequency in response to Liverpool’s troubled historical past.

Charmaine’s first institutional solo show, The Wisdom Tree, ran at Leeds Art Gallery from May to October last year, combining her signature large-scale drawings with more private artworks and notebooks in works that fused her interests in herbalism, alchemy and history and drew on her research into the medicinal and physical capabilities of plants.

Drawing Attention: Emerging Artists In Dialogue runs at York Art Gallery, launching the Season of Drawing, until January 28 2024. The season is backed by the Little Greene Paint Company.  

To find out more about the exhibition, the Season of Drawing events programme and how to book tickets (£7, concessions available) at www.yorkartgallery.org.uk. 

The full list of emerging artists in the Drawing Attention exhibition

EMII Alrai (born 1993); Catherine Anyango Grünewald (b.1982); Josephine Baker (b.1990); Miriam de Búrca (b.1972); Somaya Critchlow (b.1993); Jake Grewal (b.1994); David Haines (b.1969); Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan (b.1991); Mary Herbert (b.1988); Jessie Makinson (b.1985); Sam Metz, Jade Montserrat (b.1981); Ro Robertson (b. 1984); Sin Wai Kin (b.1991), and Charmaine Watkiss (b.1964).

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What a farce as Matthew Kelly plays drunken old actor in Michael Frayn’s classic comedy Noises Off at York Theatre Royal

Matthew Kelly: Defying an injured knee on tour in Noises Off. All pictures: Pamela Raith

MATTHEW Kelly is performing “like a gazelle” in the 40th anniversary tour of Michael Frayn’s riotous farce Noises Off, despite a knee injury.

“I’m already doing it on two new hips, and off stage I have to walk with a stick,” says the erstwhile Stars In Their Eyes presenter, now 73, who takes to the York Theatre Royal stage from tonight.

“I twisted my knee on the set about a year ago on the first tour run. I thought, ‘I’m not going to have any more surgery; I’ll treat it with physiotherapy’, and that’s what I’ve done. It gets me a seat on the Tube every time!

“The knee’s getting better and I’ve kind of got used it, having had to use sticks when I was getting the hips done.”

Matthew takes the role of Selsdon Mowbray, an old actor with a drink problem, “for which I’ve done a lot of research”, he jokes.

“The play’s been going for 42 years, and I was up for the first takeover 40 years ago, when I was invited to follow Nicky Henson in the lead role in the original production.”

Watching Henson’s supreme performance, however, Matthew decided against taking up the invitation. When the chance came to play Selsdon Mowbray, four decades later, this time he jumped at it, new hips and all.

“What makes it work, and the only way it can work, is for the company to be really close, really bonded, and absolutely in tune with each other, which we are,” says Matthew Kelly

On the first itinerary, he played opposite Felicity Kendal; now he is joined by fellow 73-year-old Liza Goddard in Theatre Royal Bath’s touring revival, directed by Lindsay Posner, who staged Richard III and Romeo And Juliet in York’s first season of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre productions in 2018.

Structured as a play within a play over three acts, Frayn’s chaotic comedy follows the on and off-stage antics of a hapless touring theatre company stumbling its way through the fictional farce, Nothing On, from shambolic final rehearsal to a disastrous matinee, seen silently from backstage, before their catastrophic last performance in Stockton-on-Tees.

If you have enjoyed Mischief’s visits to York with The Play That Goes Wrong and Magic Goes Wrong in recent years, they echo Frayn’s forerunner, a comedy rooted in calamities, pratfalls and slapstick as a cast at war with each other strives desperately to keep a performance on track amid the mayhem.

“What makes it work, and the only way it can work, is for the company to be really close, really bonded, and absolutely in tune with each other, which we are,” says Matthew. “If you get one thing wrong, it can throw the whole play out of kilter.

“I always have good times with companies, but this company is an absolute delight to work with. Having to do three matinees a week, it’s absolutely killing us. There’s no-one having an affair as we’re too knackered!”

Michael Frayn has supported the 40th anniversary tour at every opportunity, as well as tweaking the script. “He’s now 90, and he’s been with us since the start, coming to the opening night when I first did the show with Felicity last year, opening at Bath, and then when we went into the West End,” says Matthew.

“He’s told us it’s the best ever production of the play, though he probably always says that. He’s kind and encouraging, and you just know he’s like that with every company.”

Matthew Kelly in his role as drunken old actor Selsdon Mowbray. “I’ve done a lot of research,” he says

The revival of Noises Off is perfectly timed after the pandemic sent theatres into cold storage. “It’s a love letter to theatre that really lifts the spirit. You hear people rolling around with laughter throughout the show,” says Matthew.

This is the reward for the cast’s meticulously timed comedic performances. “We only had three weeks’ rehearsal for the second tour, and I was the only original member of the cast still in the show. So when we opened in Birmingham, we were still rehearsing during the day as well as performing at night.”

In keeping with the play, things can go wrong. “At one show, one of the girls accidentally left a bunch of flowers on stage, on the upper level, and the next thing that happened was the play began to fall to bits – and the whole place went nuts!” recalls Matthew.

“It wasn’t funny, it was terrifying, but somehow, we got back on track. After the show, I saw a friend, and when I told them it had all gone wrong, they said they’d never noticed! But when things go wrong, they’re only funny to the people who are there watching the show.”

Mind you, actors can play jokes on each other too, like when Matthew was performing Arnold Ridley’s The Ghost Train with Julie Walters and Bill Nighy in Aberystwyth. “When we’re locked in the waiting room, everyone changes place in the dark. Each show we’d have scuffles, where everyone would try to shove each other off stage!” he reveals.

“One Wednesday matinee, when the lights came back on, there was only me on stage, and the rest of the cast were sitting in the front row, arms folded, all looking at me.”

Don’t take it too seriously, Matthew advises himself and those around him in the acting world. “Honestly, no-one cares! We’re only playing in the dressing -up box,” he says.

“It’s a love letter to theatre that really lifts the spirit,” says Matthew Kelly of Michael Frayn’s frenetic farce Noise Off, on tour at York Theatre Royal from tonight

That said, he would love to play King Lear, the third age role that veteran Yorkshire Shakespearean actor Barrie Rutter has said “you should do twice: once when you can do it, and once when you have to do it”.

Kelly’s Lear will surely happen one day. In the meantime, next up, once the Noises Off tour ends in January, will be the world premiere of Jim Cartwright’s The Gap, a two-hander with Denise Welch, running at Hope Mil Theatre, Manchester, from February 9 to March 9.

“It’s about two teenagers running away to London in the Sixties and reuniting much later,” says Matthew. “I first did it as a one-act play about seven years ago, then made a film of it with Sue Johnston during the pandemic, and now Jim has expanded it into a full play.”

The Gap follows the audacious adventures of Walter and Corral. “He’s back up north, she’s still down south,” the theatre website says. “They haven’t seen each other for 50 years, not since their Soho days, back in the swinging ’60s.  A chance phone call reunites them for one magical night and in next-to-no time, they’re back to their old tricks.”

What is “the gap”, Matthew? “Cultural? Geographical? I tell you what it is,” he says. “It is the gap of flesh between stocking top and knicker ridge that drives men wild!”

Noises Off, York Theatre Royal, tonight (31/10/2023) until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

MATTHEW Kelly appeared previously at York Theatre Royal in two Alan Bennett plays: Kafka’s Dick, with his son Matthew Rixon, in 2001 and The Habit Of Art, a fictional meeting between York-born poet W H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, exploring friendship, rivalry, heartache and the joy, pain and emotional cost of creativity, in 2018.

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Top Ten Things To Do at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2023 in York. Here’s director Cherie Federico’s November best of fest 

Aesthetica Short Film Festival director Cherie Federico

300 independent films on your doorstep

EXPERIENCE a vast range of films from around the world with the Official Selection, Guest Programmes and New Wave screenings. This year’s outstanding selection includes films by Ricky Gervais, Maxine Peake, Ben Whishaw and Oscar-winner Tim Webber.

The Official Selection is curated with more than 300 films spanning 12 exciting genres, covering comedy, drama, animation, documentary, family friendly, thriller and more. Guest Programmes come from BFI Doc Society, Iris Prize and We Are Parable among others. New Wave spotlights new talent and is the only strand in a UK festival to showcase graduate films, introducing the filmmakers of the future.

UK film festival first: Pioneering Games Lab

THE Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom sold 10 million copies in three days, making it the fastest-selling game in Nintendo history. Games enable players to interact with stories like never before, from journeying through vast open worlds to navigating mesmeric VR (virtual reality) experiences. 

Aesthetica sees the games industry evolving and wants to spotlight and celebrate all that interactive media offer, proudly becoming the first British film festival to develop a Games Lab alongside the film screenings, VR and immersive experiences.

Head to Spark:York to play your way through 40 captivating titles, from squirrel mysteries to mythical island escapades, as these Official Selection games immerse users in imaginative worlds.

Masterclasses and Panel Discussions

WHETHER you are an actor, cinematographer, director, developer, producer, screenwriter or a film aficionado, ASFF has world-class masterclasses to suit you, bringing together big names from across film, games and VR. Speakers include representatives from Aardman, Guardian Documentaries, the BFI, Film4, Ridley Scott Associates, Ubisoft and BBC Writersroom.

The list of directors, producers and visual effects specialists have worked such iconic projects as: Avengers: Endgame, Bridgerton, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Gravity, Ready Player One, Wallace And Gromit, and much more.

Family Friendly screenings: Bring the whole family

INSPIRE your children with a selection of incredible films. The whole family can experience the best in independent cinema at Family Friendly film screenings of comedies, engaging dramas and fun-filled animations. Follow compelling characters, from a brave hummingbird to a shy presenter, in shorts that encourage us to be our best selves. ASFF’s three reels are divided into ascending age groups.

Screen School VR Lab: Expanded Realities here in York

THE possibilities of 360° film are endless. Immersive experiences like these bring audiences closer to the action than ever before, positioning them in both real and entirely imagined environments.

Aesthetica and LCC’s (London College Of Communication) Screen School invite you to dive into a bold selection of imaginative stories. Embark on a multi-sensory journey as you explore the world of 360 cinema. The VR Lab will be held at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, alongside panel discussions at York Explore. To join virtually, buy a cardboard headset and experience at home.

Networking Sessions: Meet filmmakers

BUILD relationships, seek out collaborations and make lasting memories. Whether you are looking to connect with industry representatives, discover new opportunities or learn new approaches to filmmaking, Networking Sessions are the perfect opportunity to meet with film sector professionals and share ideas. 2023’s representatives are from renowned organisations such as Canon, The Pitch Film Fund and York special effects studio Viridian FX.

Insightful Workshops: Learn new skills

TRAVEL to the past to uncover the tactile magic of traditional printmaking or look to exciting futures with Test Bed of AI Generators and Writing in 360: A Practical Workshop. A series of workshops will run at Pitcher & Piano, StreetLife Hub, The Guildhall and York Theatre Royal’s Studio, with a host of key organisations, ranging from the London College of Communication and The Pitch Film Fund to Viridian FX and Canon.

These practical workshops are centred around expanded realities, making them essential for those looking to try out new technologies and learn from industry professionals.

Three Exhibitions: Sound & Photography

THE premiere of Flux & Possibilities, Martyn Riley’s deep listening, multi-channel sound installation, explores personal identities and histories at Bedern Hall. Created in partnership with Aesthetica, LCC and Audible, it invites you to listen to numerous female-identifying interviewees across different locations and generations, revealing their personal stories of feminism, inequality and gendered spaces.

Look out too for a film poster exhibition at the StretLife hub and photography exhibition, Inside (Out), featuring three female photographers, at City Screen Picturehouse, both in Coney Street.

Pitching Sessions: Speak with the experts

DEVELOPING a new short or feature project? ASFF offers a series of 20-minute pitching sessions where experts provide guidance on how to develop ideas, break into the industry and further your distribution goals.

These sessions will be led by delegates from BBC Film, Goldfinch, Film4, Guardian Documentaries and Neal Street Productions across various days at Malmaison York, as well as virtually. Pre-selection and applications are required.

Kids’ Workshops: Filmmaking & Games

ASFF believes in nurturing children’s creative potential. New for this year, children can attend workshops to learn how to direct, edit and make films. Budding game developers can join Impact Games to learn what goes into creating the games they love.  

Pauline Quirke Academy will lead workshops for young directors keen to get behind the camera,  shout “action” and “cut” and tell their unique stories.

Two types of workshops will run: filmmaking and gaming, where children can learn how to code and develop their own games.

Aesthetica Short Film Festival runs  in York from November 8 to 12; full programme and tickets at asff.co.uk.

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Shed Seven to play “extraordinary” York Museum Gardens two-nighter for 30th anniversary with Peter Doherty on bill

Shed Seven: 30th anniversary celebrations in 2024. Picture: Barnaby Fairley

SHED Seven will mark their 30th anniversary next year with a brace of “extraordinary” outdoor concerts in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20. Tickets go on sale on Friday (3/11/2023) at 9am at seetickets.com.

“It’s been a long time coming, and now we can finally announce two special homecoming shows,” says the York band’s website.

“We’re already planning something truly extraordinary for these shows, so you can expect special guests and grand ideas galore. It’s going to be a jubilant celebration of the last 30 years of Shed Seven and a performance like nothing we’ve done before.”

The announcement continues: “We’re thrilled to be joined by special guests Peter Doherty, The Lottery Winners, Brooke Combe, Serotones and Apollo Junction throughout the weekend.”

Doherty recorded a guest vocal for Throwaways, the closing track of Shed Seven’s upcoming sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, when his band, The Libertines, were at work on new recordings in their Margate studio.

Throwaways is an anything-but-throwaway duet with Sheds’ singer Rick Witter. “We played Bingley Festival a couple of summers ago when The Libertines were headlining the main stage, and as we played, there was Peter at the side of the stage, singing along to all our songs,” recalls Rick.

“When I met him afterwards, he said he used to sit on his bed learning our guitar parts, so I said, ‘would you sing on our new album?’.

“We sent Peter the song Throwaways and he did some harmonising and ad-libbing. It’s a song about outsiders. We’ve always been outsiders, and The Libertines have that about them too.”

A Matter Of Time will be released on Shed Seven’s new label, Cooking Vinyl, on January 5 2024 and can be pre-ordered from shedseven.com.

This will be the first Sheds’ album to feature new members Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, from Audioweb, on drums and Ian Brown band member Tim Willis on keys, along with Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bass player Tom Gladwin, band stalwarts from the Britpop era.

Did you know?

SUPPORT act Serotones feature Rick Witter’s son, Duke, on vocals, alongside original Sheds’ drummer Alan Leach’s son, Sonny, on guitar.

Did you know too?

SHED Seven’s Museum Gardens shows will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut single for Polydor Records, the double A-side Mark and Casino Girl (March 7 1994), and debut album Change Giver (September 5 2024), rather than the 30th anniversary of the year they formed in York (1990).  

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REVIEW: Tilted Wig in Frankenstein, York Theatre Royal ****

Eleanor McLoughlin’s Doctor Victoria Frankenstein and Cameron Robertson’s The Creature in Tilted Wig’s Frankenstein

AFTER their liaison with York Theatre Royal for a tour of Juliet Forster’s production of Around The World In 80 Days earlier this year, Tilted Wig make a welcome return north with Frankenstein. In Halloween season, as chance would have it, in a tour running from September 14 to November 25.

Forget Halloween. This is not Frankenstein’s monster of six Hammer horror films or Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein. This is Frankenstein reimagined by Séan Aydon after Mary Shelley, as the cover to Tilted Wig’s elegantly designed programme denotes.

An earnest, deadly serious, deeply humanitarian Frankenstein with only one shard of humour and two significant changes: scientist Doctor Victor Frankenstein has become Doctor Victoria Frankenstein (Eleanor McLoughlin), and the gothic sci-fi novel’s 1818 setting has moved to wartime 1943 in Poland.

Neither the Nazis, nor the Second World War in name is mentioned, but the shadow of eugenics, and indirectly the creation of a master race, an Aryan nirvana, casts a dark shadow over Doctor Frankenstein’s experiments and the ruthless university philosophy of Basienka Blake’s Richter.

Aydon’s production opens in a dry ice fog in a wooden hut, the spartan emergency home of Blake’s first character, Captain. A frantic knock on the door: McLoughlin’s exhausted Victoria Frankenstein is seeking shelter and sustenance.

Here are two women “hiding from their past at what feels like the very end of the world”. One of them, Frankenstein, has a terrifying story to tell; the other has a gun in her hand, demanding that she tell it.

Whereupon Nicky Bunch’s set peels back to reveal Frankenstein’s laboratory, where a storm is brewing on the perfect night for sufficient electricity to spark her creation, made from body parts, into life.

In Bunch’s design, the profusion of laboratory jars lights up,like beacons, as if in response to Doctor Frankenstein’s excitement at this golden opportunity for scientific progress. She will share her exact plans with Francine (Annette Hannah in her impressive professional theatre debut), but not with husband Henry (Dale Mathurin), and nor with her sister Elizabeth. On her first visit in six months, with no letters home in that time, Victoria is too preoccupied to have dinner with her.

The Creature’s sudden surge into life as the storm crackles is an electrifying piece of theatre in every way, visually, aurally, musically: the peak of Eamonn O’Dwyer’s sound designs in a scree of discordant strings. Horrifying, remarkable, breathtaking, amid the rusted operating equipment.

Aydon has created a thriller as much as a horror story, one with a sense of moral responsibility that suits its wartime setting but resonates anew in our new age of artificial intelligence and robotics and our fears over the route this AI is taking.

Aydon’s exploration of “the very fabric of what makes us human and the ultimate cost of chasing ‘perfection’” puts both McLoughlin’s Frankenstein and Cameron Robertson’s Creature under the spotlight.

She is thrilled anew at the possibility of creating a partner for The Creature, at his demand, until she is challenged by Hannah’s Francine over her own status, as a dwarf. Where does that fit in with this pursuit of “perfection”? 

A shattering moment, indeed, one that confronts all human experimentation and scientific exploration, just as in Michael Mann’s film Oppenheimer this summer.

Robertson’s Creature is never given a name by Doctor Frankenstein. He calls her “Mother” when they finally meet after his escape on that first night through a broken window. Another deeply impactful moment that makes Aydon’s production so powerful in its transition from Shelley’s series of letters to theatre of the imagination, a ghost story of the haunted Frankenstein.

The Creature, left to fend for himself, teaches himself how to talk, to learn Shakespeare too. That will make for an extraordinarily moving finale when The Creature reprises Hamlet’s final speech:  What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.“

“The rest is silence,” he concludes, just as Hamlet did. Silence does indeed fall across the Theatre Royal auditorium, but then explosive applause follows, and the conversations begin.

A Frankenstein for today, a cautionary tale with a fearful message for tomorrow, Tilted Wig’s reinvention demands to be seen.  

Tilted Wig in Frankenstein, York Theatre Royal, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Not suitable for under 12s.