Balancing act: York Theatre Royal postpones The Penelopiad until 2021 but that enables “a little more dreamtime” for the creative team
YORK
Theatre Royal’s summer production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad has been
postponed.
Originally in the 2020 diary for July 10 to 25, associate director Juliet Forster’s show will be staged in 2021 instead on dates yet to be confirmed.
Uncertainty
surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic is holding up pre-production work by Forster’s
creative team.
Juliet Forster: York Theatre Royal associate director, directing The Penelopiad
Juliet says:
“The joy of Atwood’s work is that it doesn’t date, so although we are
disappointed that we have to postpone our production of The Penelopiad, I know
it will be just as relevant and exciting to stage this wonderful play in
2021.
“And on
the upside, for the creative team involved, having a little more dreamtime on
this story will only make the final staging of it all the more spectacular!”
Written
by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and 2019’s The
Testaments, The Penelopiad tells the story of Odysseus’ wife Penelope and the
Trojan Wars from her point of view.
Writer Margaret Atwood
Ticket
holders will be contacted by the Theatre Royal box office in the coming weeks.
Isango Ensemble: May tour to York Theatre Royal cancelled; may tour next year instead,
ISANGO Ensemble’s
three-week season at York Theatre Royal in May – the “highlight of their year” –
has been cancelled in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The South
African company, whose performers are drawn mainly from the Cape Town
townships, was programmed to perform three shows from its repertoire, The
Mysteries, The Magic Flute and SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill, from May 5 to
23 in Isango’s first visit to York in their two-decade span. Now they hope to
visit Yorkshire next year instead.
Isango Ensemble in SS Mend; Dancing The Death Drill. Picture: The Other Richard
Theatre
Royal executive director Tom Bird says: “We are devastated that our friends
Isango Ensemble are unable to make the trip to the UK. They have been in
rehearsal for a specially curated season of work that was sure to delight and
inspire our audiences with their joyous productions. We hope there will be
another opportunity for us to welcome the company to York in the future.”
Director
Mark Dornford-May, the Yorkshireman who co-founded Isango 20 years ago, says:
“The whole ensemble were so excited to be visiting York for the first time in
our 20-year history. It really was the highlight of the year. To have been
rehearsing the shows and then not be able to play them in that beautiful
theatre is a deeply felt blow.
Isango Ensemble in The Mysteries: Noluthando Boqwana as Lucifer, left, with Devils
“Tom and
all his colleagues have been so supportive throughout the last few difficult
days and together we hope to create a plan to get to play in Yorkshire next
year.”
Ticket
holders will be contacted by the Theatre Royal box office in the coming
weeks.
Did you know?
ISANGO Ensemble is a Cape Town theatre company led by director and co-founder Mark Dornford-May and music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis.
York Musical Society: March and June concerts cancelled
YORK Musical Society’s next two concerts on March 28 and June 13 at York Minster have been cancelled in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Chair Irene Plaistowe says: “We had already taken this decision when the Minster announced that it was shutting its doors. We did not wish to put at risk members of the public or YMS members.
The March 28 concert, Requiem Aeternam, would have featured Fauré’s Requiem and Michael Haydn’s Requiem. June 13’s programme, Splendours Of The Baroque, comprised Vivaldi’s Gloria, Marcello’s Trumpet Concerto in D minor and Handel’s Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba and Coronation Anthems.
“Our tickets were sold through the Minster box office, so they will contact anyone who bought a ticket online to arrange a refund,” says Irene. “If a ticket was bought in person or over the phone, contact the Minster box office in the same way you bought your ticket. Everyone will get a refund.”
The notice in the window of the Art Of Protest Gallery, in Little Stonegate, York
EVEN a gallery with the bravura name of Art Of Protest must concede to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Craig Humble’s cutting-edge, fashion-savvy gallery in Little Stonegate, York, was to have launched its York Fashion Week exhibition of Pam Glew’s Kiminos with a preview this evening.
Not now. Today Craig posted a statement in the window, under the heading Gallery Closed – Temporarily, to announce that “sadly, with a heavy heart we are closing the gallery in response to the global pandemic”.
Pam Glew’s Kiminos: exhibition postponed, but Art Of Protest Gallery vows it will return
“Due to a combination of recent announcements, the importance for all our future of beating this outbreak and the reality of the ever-thinning streets of York, I am closing the gallery for at least a couple of weeks from Thursday March 19th, while the way forward becomes clear. Hopefully this is an au revoir; rather than a goodbye,” says Craig.
“I will be developing the website and investigating the online opportunities that can be maintained while away from the gallery, so keep an eye out on social media for any changes and news.”
Those hoping to visit the Pam Glew exhibition “to purchase one of the amazing pieces”, says Craig, can click on the Pam Glew Catalogue button on the website, artofprotestgallery.com, for a catalogue of available work.
“Thank you for being part of the movement over the past three years and I look forward to seeing you on the other side of this pause. When we return, it will be with the exhibition newly which has been hung for York Fashion Week featuring Pam Glew’s Kiminos,” he adds.
The frontage of the Art Of Protest Gallery
Craig ends the statement by advising:
Although the gallery is closed from Thursday March 19, email
and social media will be monitored if you want to get in touch.
JORVIK Viking Centre, in York, is temporarily closed for the foreseeable future in response to Government advice relating to minimising the risk of Covid-19.
Today’s statement from the Coppergate visitor attraction said: “The health and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers and visitors is our number one priority and so we have decided this action is the best step to take at this moment in time.
“We will do all that we can to keep you updated on the situation through our website and social media channels.
“If you are a visitor, group leader or school booked with us over the next few weeks, our reservations team will be contacting you shortly to discuss what your options are with regards rescheduling, refunds and alternative experiences. We apologise for any inconvenience this closure may have caused.”
The statement continued: “We are owned by York Archaeological Trust, an educational charity with a mission of ‘Building Better Lives Through Heritage’; and so ensuring all of our audiences remain engaged with their past is one of our key aims.
“With this in mind, we are working hard behind the scenes to create some new digital content that we look forward to sharing with you in the coming days and weeks. Please keep checking our social media and website for details.”
Meanwhile, donations are being sought for Jorvik’s own future wellbeing. “If you would like to show your support and offer a donation to York Archaeological Trust to help assist us during this difficult time, it would be appreciated enormously,”
Donors are asked to click on a link at jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk. Alternatively, please email enquiries@yorkat.co.uk or call 01904 663000.
THE York Theatre Royal building is closed to the public until further notice.
This morning’s full statement reads: “Following the latest Government advice about Coronavirus, the York Theatre Royal building is now closed to the public until further notice. You can still contact our box office by phone on 01904 623568.
“All Youth Theatre, LAMDA, Crafty Tales and Adult Theatre Workshop sessions will stop running for the time being. Costume hire is also closed until further notice.”
The statement continues: “It’s with enormous sadness that we temporarily close our doors, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of utmost importance. We apologise for the disruption and thank you for your support during this period of great uncertainty.
“We are making contact with ticket holders for the cancelled performances. If the closure period is extended, we will be in touch with bookers for future performances in good time, and we’ll also post updates to our website and social media channels. See you soon.”
Nothing happening full stop. Now, with time on your frequently washed hands, home is where the art is and plenty else besides
Exit 10 Things To See Next Week in York and beyond for the unforeseeable future. Enter home entertainment, wherever you may be, whether still together or in isolation, in the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic. From behind his closed door, CHARLES HUTCHINSON makes these suggestions.
Compiling your Desert Island Discs
CREATE your own Desert Island Discs and accompanying reasons, should you ever be called to answer Lauren Laverne’s questions on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday morning staple. Cue Eric Coates’s opening theme, By The Sleepy Lagoon, then your eight music choices, one book choice, one luxury.
Then play your list, but cutting it down to eight will be much harder than you first expect.
Make a cut-out of Lauren Laverne and do your own edition of Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs, suggestion number two
AND while you are about it, also take every opportunity to raid the Beeb’s Desert Island Discs back catalogue at BBC Sounds. Recommendations? Ian Wright, former footballer, turned broadcaster; Dr John Cooper Clarke, sage Salford stick insect and man of multitudinous words; Kathy Burke, Camden Town actress, comedian, writer, producer and director.
Make a timetable for the day
LIKE you would at work…though this timetable may not be possible, if indeed you are working from home.
Nevertheless, should the time need passing, allow, say, an hour for each activity, be it writing; reading; playing board games at the stipulated distances apart or card games, which can be done on your own, such as Patience; watching a movie, maybe a long-neglected DVD rescued from a dusty shelf; or whatever else is on your list.
“Puzzles are wonderfully relaxing yet keep the brain very active ,” says jigsaw enthusiast and York actor Ian Giles
Re-discover a childhood joy
PLUCKING one out of the air, how about jigsaw puzzles, a favourite of Mother Hutch and Granny Pyman before her.
“They are wonderfully relaxing yet keep the brain very active and there’s a feeling of creative satisfaction on completion,” recommends York actor Ian Giles, a devotee of such puzzle solving.
Singing
YORK singer Jessa Liversidge runs the Singing For All choir, as heard savouring I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing at Big Ian’s A Night To Remember at a packed York Barbican (remember those days?) on Leap Year Saturday.
Now, abiding by the Government’s Avoid Unnecessary Social Contact advice, to keep people singing, she is planning a range of online singing opportunities to suit not only her Singing For All and Easingwold Community Singers folks, but “any frustrated singers”. “Get in touch to find out how to join,” says Jessa, whose Twitter account is @jessaliversidge. She posts regularly.
Still on song: York singer Jessa Liversidge would like to reach the world to sing online
Lighting a candle
THE Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Dr John Sentamu, is asking us all to place a lighted candle in our window at 7pm this coming Sunday “as a sign of solidarity and hope in the light of Christ that can never be extinguished”.
Baking
ALL those cookbooks that you bought for the nice pictures, but have never opened since, are bursting with opportunities to try out a new dish…if the supermarket shelves have not been emptied by 10 o’clock in the morning.
Why not raid the store cupboard too, check the dates (and the dried dates from last Christmas) and see if anything may come in handy. The likelihood is more and more hours will have to be spent at home; this is a chance to stretch your culinary skills.
Candlelight: The Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Dr John Sentamu’s Sunday request
Gardening
HOPEFULLY, going for walks, maintaining a safe, previously anti-social distance, will still be a possibility, as advocated by Prime Minister Johnson, until otherwise stated.
If not, or if isolation is your way ahead, spring is in the air, gardens are turning green, the grass is growing. Gardening will surely be one of the unbroken joys of the ever-so-uncertain path that lies ahead.
Should you not have a garden, windowsills are havens for green-fingered pursuits: the seeds of much content.
And what about…
Podcasts. Books. More podcasts. More books. Box sets (yawn). Discovering a new band online, or maybe an old one you had long neglected. Writing a 10 Things like this one. Reading Bard of Barnsley Ian McMillan’s morning Tweets, or any time of day, in fact. Reading York musician and motivational speaker Big Ian Donaghy’s perennially positive thoughts for the day @trainingcarers, BIGIAN #DEMENTIAisAteamGAME. Watch Channel 4 News, especially Jon Snow, one bright-tied 72 year old who should defy the imminent Government “curfew” on the over-70s. (UPDATE: 19/3/2020. Or maybe not. Tonight he broadcast from his central London home.)
Poetry in motion: Ian McMillan’s joyous Tweets from his early-morning walks
And finally…
PLEASE stop flicking through social media at every turn…except for displays of the ever-so-British black humour in response to the new C-word.
Any suggestions for further editions of 10 Things To Do At Home And Beyond are most welcome. Please send to charles.hutchinson104@gmail.com
“Critical situation”: Dark nights, dark days too, at York Theatre Royal until further notice
CLOSED. Closed. Closed. Closed. Closed. York’s theatres have shut down en masse in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Monday briefing on Black Monday to avoid unnecessary social contact at pubs, clubs and theatres.
One by one came the measured official statements in response to the rising Coronavirus pandemic, announced with regret, sadness and heavy hearts.
By way of contrast, a tide of anger rose ever higher on social media from the entertainment industry, feeling shafted by the PM not legislating closure, merely advising it.
In doing so, he placed the decision in the (no doubt frequently washed) hands of theatre managements, boards and trusts, whose sense of moral responsibility left no option but to announce closure until further notice as a precaution amid the Coronavirus crisis. When insurance effectively amounts to no insurance, hell by hand cart is the only journey in town.
Lights out: Ellen Kent Company’s La Boheme, at the Grand Opera House tomorrow is snuffed out by the Prime Minister’s Coronavirus dictum
The Grand National, the first post-Brexit Eurovision, the Chelsea Flower Show, Glastonbury Festival, the Euro 2020 football championships, are all scrapped for 2020. A tsunami of further announcements will follow, not least from theatre companies cancelling or postponing tours.
Keep Calm and Carry On may be the mantra, but the fear is that Keep Calm and Carry On may well turn to carrion on account of, well, the accounts.
York Theatre Royal, in St Leonard’s Place, Theatre @41 Monkgate, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in Haxby Road, and Riding Lights Theatre Company’s Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate, have individual boards and managements addressing urgent, previously unimaginable requirements and strictures.
Likewise, the Ambassadors Theatre Group, owners of the Grand Opera House, is co-ordinating the Coronavirus-impacted strategy throughout ATG, making statements for the Cumberland Street theatre, whose staff are now working remotely from home.
Clock stopped: PIck Me Up Theatre’s Tom’s Midnight Garden was curtailed after Monday’s performance at Theatre @ 41 Monkgate, York
These are unprecedented circumstances. Circumstances not even seen in wartime when theatres – some, not all – across the land stayed open through 1939 to 1945.
Circumstances where the new C-word has led to theatre after theatre – together with cinemas, music clubs, museums, galleries, visitor attractions, SparkYork, et al – to issue variations on: “It is with enormous sadness that we take these measures, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of utmost importance.”
So, where does each of these York theatres stand now, in a city where, like the rest, the theatre focus is turning to those of the medical variety? The best advice is to visit the theatre websites for information on the present closures, ticket refunds, and, in light of the harsh financial reality, Donate Today requests. “Your support is vital to our survival,” pleads York Theatre Royal bluntly.
A spokesman for the Theatre Royal – take it as read that it was executive director Tom Bird – said: “The closure of theatres in the UK puts York Theatre Royal, along with hundreds of other theatres, into a critical situation.”
Road closed: Riding Lights Theatre Company have had give up The Narrow Road tour for Lent
Does that make it theatre’s version of the intensive care unit? Time will tell, but the arts have a way of defying the last rites, always have, always will, keeping the fat lady singer waiting, the final curtain up in the flies. What they will make of Richmond Rishi’s £330 billion loan scheme is another discussion point for the in-tray, however.
In a nutshell, York Theatre Royal’s shows and public events initially are cancelled until April 11, but there surely will be no miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. The York Theatre Royal building, box office and café remained open initially, but the building closed to the public today (March 19). The box office is still taking phone calls on 01904 623568; ticket refunds are underway.
Shows at the Grand Opera House, in common with all Ambassadors Theatre Group theatres, are “temporarily suspended with immediate effect”, with a policy of postponement and future re-arranged dates to be confirmed, rather than cancellations, at this stage.
“We are following government guidance which is currently ambiguous,” say ATG. “It is unclear how long theatres are to remain closed. We will reopen them once the government and medical authorities confirm that there is no risk to our audiences, performers and staff.
The Missing Peace: one of the now missing pieces at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, but with plans for re-arranged dates later
“We are working hard with our producers and performers to understand how this will play out, so we can’t confirm that at this time. We will try, wherever possible, to re-programme shows that have been suspended.”
The Joseph Rowntree Theatre will remain closed “until we receive further instruction that it is safe to reopen”. “We will be issuing further advice in the coming days on how we are going to manage ticket refunds and exchanges,” says trust chairman Dan Shrimpton. “We would ask that you please bear with us and wait for us to contact you.”
The Theatre @41 Monkgate website is yet to be updated following Monday’s Coronavirus ultimatum – the About Us section has Covid-19 Guidance from before – but Pick Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman announced performances would cease after Tom’s Midnight Garden that evening.
He also cancelled Pick Me Up’s Sondheim 90 birthday concert this Sunday and the April 17 to 25 run of The Pirates Of Penzance. Be assured that Coronavirus has been the death of York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth from March 31 to April 4 too.
Riding Lights, York’s Christian theatre company based at Friargate Theatre, have cancelled their March 16 to April 11 tour of The Narrow Road. “We are very sorry not to be performing this Lent but wish you a happy and safe Easter,” their website says.
Meanwhile, prayers and thoughts go to all those working in the theatres at York Hospital and elsewhere, preparing for whatever is to come.
Hare, there and everywhere: Whitby sculptor Emma Stothard surrounded by her 366 Leaping Hares at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross
WHITBY sculptor Emma Stothard’s wildlife work has
come on leaps and bounds over the past year for her latest show at Nunnington
Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley.
To mark 2020 being a leap year, she has created a
one-off installation of 366 Leaping Hares, one for each day of the year, combining
sculptures,
illustrations and paintings, all for sale, on display amid the historic
collection in the Smoking Room of the National Trust country house.
Alas, Nunnington Hall is now closed with effect from this Wednesday (May 18), in response to Government advice on the Coronavirus pandemic. “The safety of our staff, volunteers and visitors is our priority,” says senior visitor experience officer Laura Kennedy.
Out of the top drawer: four of Emma Stothard’s 366 Leaping Hares emerging from the Smoking Room furniture at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross
Let’s take a leap of faith, however, beyond the month of the Mad March Hare
and leap ahead to later in the year when hopefully you can still see 366
Leaping Hares. “The idea came first, doing something for 2020, for Leap Year,
rather than responding to a particular space, and I thought ‘let’s do 366
hares’,” says Emma. “Given that number, I knew some would need to be small,
with some bigger ones for contrast.”
Emma spent the past year creating each work, whether clay, wire or willow
sculptures, textiles hangs and cushions, drawings and ceramic tiles.
All have been individually hand-finished and dated by the sculptor,
not least a special Leap Day Hare to mark Saturday, February 29. “Each of those
366 days is going to be special for someone – a birthday, an anniversary, maybe
even a proposal of marriage on the Leap Day itself!” says Emma.
Emma Stothard working in her studio on her 366 Leaping Hares. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
She has responded too to Nunnington Hall’s “rich sense of history”. “Generations
have lived here, and you can feel their presence in the furniture, the
wallpaper and the textiles,” she says.
Consequently, Emma’s installation explores the array of materials that
embodies the ever-changing architecture and fabric of the historic building,
while experimenting with contemporary methods too in her hotchpotch of hares
that range from four-foot willow sculptures to four-inch miniature wire and
clay collectables.
Placed by Emma amid the historic collection, some are in full view; others are in the Smoking Room’s hidden spaces, nooks and crannies, even emerging from drawers or to be spotted under furniture.
Hare, there, everywhere, yes, Emma loves hares. “They’re just so
wonderful to see, aren’t they,” she enthuses. “I see them quite a lot when I’m
walking across the fields with my dog.
Going to the wire: A close-up of Emma Stothard’s handiwork as she makes a hare. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“I love spotting them because they’re so elusive, so quick moving. They’re
magical to sculpt, and it’s the same with roe deer. I find them fascinating, beautiful,
because you can never get that close to them.
“We’re steeped in their history and it feels a real privilege to be in their presence when they run out of front of me.”
The large number of hares required was the green light for Emma to
broaden her working practices. “Like casting in bronze for the first time. I’d
been recommended by (the late) Sally Arnup to use Aron McCartney, who has a
metal-casting foundry at Barnard Castle,
but there never came a time to be able to cast anything until now,” she says.
“Now that I have, hopefully we can continue with the relationship.”
Taking shape: hares lined up for the next stage of sculptor Emma Stothard’s creative process. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
This is not the first time that Nunnington Hall has had an impact on
Emma’s work. “I first exhibited here in 2012 on the Rievaulx Terrace, when I
was also commissioned to make my first wire sculpture of a horse, which you can
still see here,” she says. “They like to move it around the gardens to keep
people on their toes.
“The wire horse was the first time I moved away from working in willow and
has led me to doing more public commissions in wire and now bronze wire. There
are 12 little galvanized ones in the new exhibition, coated in zinc in the
galvanizing process.”
Her outdoor willow sculptures, meanwhile, must be treated at regular
intervals. “Think of it as a seasonal chore in the garden,” she says. “Four times
a year; 50 per cent linseed oil; 50 per cent Turps substitute, which is a
traditional way to protect the strength of the willow.
“There’s no reason you can’t get ten years out of them if you look after
them properly, as linseed oil builds a layer of varnish, like shellac. So, remember,
four times a year, once a season.”
Start counting: 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6….366 Leaping Hares in Nunnington Hall’s Smoking Room. Hope to see them again some time in 2020. Picture: Anthony Chappel-Ross
In Staithes, you can spot Emma’s coral and coronation blue lobsters, her 9ft marine crustaceans first exhibited in the Sculpture By The Sea exhibition at the 2015 Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage, and now she has made Withernsea Crab, a three metre-high sculpture of a brown crab for the Withernsea Fish Trail.
Emma also had been working on sculptures for
Jardin Blanc at May’s now cancelled 2020 Chelsea Flower Show, her fourth such
commission for the hospitality area, where Raymond Blanc is the executive chef.
More Emma work, by the way, can be found at Blanc’s Oxfordshire restaurant, the
Belmond Le Manoir au Quat’Saisons.
At the time of this interview, Emma was on the cusp of signing a contract to create seven life-size sculptures celebrating Whitby’s fishing heritage on the east side of the East Coat harbour. ”I’m hoping to have the first piece installed in time for the Whitby Fish & Ships Festival in May,” she said. The 2020 festival has since been cancelled, but look out for Emma’s sculptures at the 2021 event on May 15 and 16 next spring.
Looking ahead, where would Emma most love to exhibit? “My dream is to do an exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park [at West Bretton, near Wakefield], particularly as I did my teacher-training there at Bretton Hall,” she says.
One final question for Emma: is it true that boxing hares are not male rivals scrapping over a female in hare-to-hare combat but in fact, contrary to myth, jack versus jill (as hares were known). “That’s right: it’s male against female, and in my boxing-hare couples, it’s always a female fending off a male,” she says.
As and when Nunnington Hall re-opens, Emma Stothard’s installation 366 Leaping
Hares would then be on view and on sale until November 1.
Atalanta Forever…but not now for 2020 after Mikron Theatre Company called off the tour of Amanda Whittington’s new play
MIKRON Theatre Company 2020’s tour of Amanda Whittington’s new women’s
football play, Atalanta Forever, is off. The referee showing the red card is,
inevitably, Coronavirus Pandemic.
The tour would have opened at the National Football Museum, Manchester,
on April 18, and waiting in the wings was a June 2 visit to the Marsden
travelling players’ regular York idyll of the Scarcroft Allotments, kick-off at
6pm.
Also falling foul of COVID-19’s Governmental advice to avoid unnecessary
social contact is Mikron’s second show of the summer, Poppy Hollman’s new play A
Dog’s Tale, a celebration of canines past and present that explores the
enduring love between people and their dogs.
This exploration of “the extraordinary world of heroic hounds,
pampered pedigrees and naughty nobblers through the halls and history of Crufts”
was bound for Clements Hall, York, in the autumn, with a cast of Mikron stalwart
James McLean, company newcomer Thomas Cotran and Rachel Benson and
Elizabeth Robin from last year’s brace of shows, All Hands On Deck and Redcoats.
In a statement from artistic director Marianne McNamara, producer
Pete Toon, general manager Rachel Root, production manager Jo English and the board
of trustees, Mikron say: “It is with an extremely heavy hearts that we have to
tell you that we are cancelling our 2020 tour.
“We have worked on every possible scenario and this
is the only way that we will survive into our 50th year of touring in 2021.
“Our board has a duty of care for our team, venues
and Mikron supporters. We want you all to know that we are thinking of you, and
indeed everyone who is part of the Mikron family, in these very difficult
times.”
Mikron Theatre Company’s summer mode of transport: Tyseley, a vintage narrowboat. Picture: Jon Gascoyne
The statement continues: “If you’ve already booked
tickets for our 2020 season – thank you! – we will honour any ticket refunds:
just call or email if you would like us to action this.
“Like many theatre lovers across the world, if you
feel that you wish to donate your ticket price to help us come back better than
ever in 2021, we’d be so very grateful.
“If you haven’t booked, but you were planning on
seeing us in 2020, you can support Mikron now in the following ways:
Mikron praise Arts Council England for being “amazing”
“They are doing everything they can to assist the arts, museums and libraries.
We genuinely would not be here without them today,” they say.
“We have been able to cushion the financial blow
for our creative team as much as possible, and we’re planning for next year in
the hope that what we collectively do in the coming months gets us there.
Coronavirus-cancelled canine comedy capers: MIkron Theatre Company’s poster for A Dog’s Tale
“If there is anything else we can do for you,
please do keep in touch. We may not be out on the road and waterways this year
but we’re still very much here for you on email, and at the end of the phone.”
From the writer of Ladies Day, Ladies Day Down Under and Mighty Atoms
for Hull Truck Theatre and Bollywood Jane for the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Atalanta Forever tells the story of pioneering women footballers in 1920.
In post-war Britain, women’s football is big news. Across the country,
all-girl teams are pulling huge crowds in fund-raising games for wounded
soldiers.
Huddersfield amateurs Ethel and Annie take a shot at the big time.
Teammates at Atalanta AFC, they are soon tackling new football skills,
mastering the offside rule and kicking back at the doubters.
This summer’s audiences would have been invited to “come and cheer for
Atalanta as our plucky underdogs learn how to play the game, take on the
legendary teams of the era and find the toughest opponent of all is the
Football Association”.
Whittington’s play is based on the true story of one of three women’s
football teams in Huddersfield in post-war Britain. As told through the lives
of two young women, Atalanta Ladies Football Club was formed in 1920 to
“provide games for the women of Huddersfield, to foster a sporting spirit, and
a love of honour among its members”.
During the Great War, several women’s football teams had sprung up
around the country, usually based in factories or munitions works, and proved a
great success in raising money for hospitals, war widows and so on.
Atalanta Forever playwright Amanda Whittington
The popularity of the women’s game may be measured by the estimated
25,000 crowd that packed Hillsborough, Sheffield, for the Huddersfield
team’s next game with the Dick, Kerr Ladies FC of Preston on May
4, when they lost 4-0 to their much more experienced opponents.
In the wider football world, the growing popularity of women’s football
was now causing concern. The FA even saw it as taking support away from the
men’s game and on December 5, 1921, they banned women’s teams from using FA
affiliated grounds.
Before folding in 1924, the pioneering Huddersfield Atalanta
Ladies FC had raised more than £2,000 for various charities.
Writer and co-lyricist Whittington says of her new play: “I
was an 11-year-old footballer in the 1980s, the only girl who played in the
boys’ village tournament, and I vividly remember being ‘advised’ to stop
because it wasn’t appropriate.
“I still
feel the injustice and the sense of shame for wanting to do something I wasn’t
meant to.
“It brings
joy to my heart to see football’s now the biggest team sport for girls in
Britain. I wanted to write about the battle the women’s game has fought
to survive and prosper – and perhaps to tell the 11-year-old me she was
right?”
A newly prescient poster for Mikron Theatre Company’s 2018 tour of Get Well Soon. How we need all those heroes in our NHS in the months ahead, God bless you all
Atalanta
Forever was being directed by Mikron artistic director Marianne McNamara, joined
in the production team by composer and co-lyricist Kieran Buckeridge, musical
director Rebekah Hughes and designer Celia Perkins.
Explaining why Mikron chose to tackle the subject of the fight
for women’s football, McNamara says: “Women’s football is making a comeback and
not before time. We are thrilled to pay homage to the trailblazing Huddersfield
women that paved the way against all odds.
“Just like
the great game itself, this will be an action-packed play of two halves, full
of live music, fun and laughter with no plans for extra time!”
Mikron’s 49th year of touring would have run from April 18 to October,
with the West Yorkshire company travelling hither and thither by road in the
spring and autumn, and by river and canal on the vintage narrowboat Tyseley, until October 24.
Let us look
forward to whenever Mikron will be putting on their shows once more in “places
that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, whether a play about
growing-your-own veg, presented in allotments; one about bees performed
next to hives; another about chips in a fish and chips restaurant, as well as
plays about hostelling in YHA youth hostels and
the RNLI at several lifeboat stations around the UK.
In the meantime, in the spirit of Mikron’s 2018 show by York
writer Ged Cooper, please world, Get Well Soon.
