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Ten Times Table adds up to three times in Ayckbourn committee comedy for Curry

Mark Curry’s pedantic Donald, right, with Robert Daws’ hapless committee chairman, Ray, in Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table, presented by Bill Kenwright’s Classic Comedy Theatre Company. All pictures: Pamela Raith

ALAN Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table is the one with “the committee from hell and a fete worse than death”.

Premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in 1977, when inspired by the myriad committees that formed for The Queen’s Silver Jubilee that year, Ayckbourn’s calamitous comedy by committee now forms the inaugural production by the Classic Comedy Theatre Company, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from Monday.

This is the latest theatrical enterprise from impresario Bill Kenwright, whose Agatha Christie, Classic Thriller and Classic Screen to Stage companies are familiar to York audiences over the past 15 years in shows replete with star names.

Among the company, alongside the likes of Robert Daws, Robert Duncan and Deborah Grant, is Mark Curry, the former Blue Peter presenter, now 57.

Taking on the role of pedantic Donald brings back memories of his own encounter with Ayckbourn, artistic director of the SJT at the time, when Mark was pretty much straight out of drama school.

“Apart from auditioning for Alan back in the day, I’ve never met him since then, but I’d love to do as he’s such a brilliant man, and I’d love to sit him down and ask him about the characters in Ten Times Table,” he says.

What did Ayckbourn say when he did audition you, Mark? “He said, ‘you’re not quite ready yet, but you have such energy’.” As perceptive as ever in his people-watching, Ayckbourn highlighted a characteristic that Curry has since brought to his career, whether on Blue Peter, in theatre roles or as a radio presenter.

As chance would have it, Ayckbourn still did play his part in Mark’s milk-teeth days as a professional actor. “I was in rep [repertory theatre] for about three years at Harrogate Theatre, when Mark Piper was the artistic director, and one of the parts I did was a non-speaking role in, ironically, Ten Times Table,” he recalls.

You’re fired! The Pendon Folk Festival committee meeting reaches crisis point in Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table

“I played Max Kirkov, a really strange character who walks on and carries off the leading lady, played in that production by Jean Fergusson, who went on to be Marina in Last Of The Summer Wine for so many years.”

In fact, Mark knows Ayckbourn’s comedy very well, for this latest tour is his third encounter with Ten Times Table, a “predominantly sedentary farce” – the Scarborough playwright’s own description – set in the long-since grand ballroom of the Swan Hotel.

Here, a most miscellaneous assemblage has gathered to conduct the business of the Pendon Folk Festival, led by excitable chairman Ray. Unfortunately for Ray, his committee quickly divides as his wife Helen has a bone to pick.

Then add a nitpicking councillor, a Marxist schoolteacher, a military dog-breeder and an octogenarian secretary, and turbulence is on its way.

Second time around, Mark played Ray, the fulcrum of all the chaos, on a six-week tour. Now, director Robin Herford has cast him as Councillor Donald Evans, a character whose pen portrait for auditionees describes him as “a professional committee man who likes nothing better than a good agenda. A glasses-wearing pedant who is precise to the point of obsession; always accompanied by his mother, Audrey.”

“What made me do it this time was that Robin was directing. He was the first person to play Donald for Alan Ayckbourn in 1977, by the way, and I’d done Woman In Black at the Fortune Theatre in London, with Robin directing, as he always does with that play, in 1994.  

“I remember saying to him, ‘I want to play the older guy [in Woman In Black]; I’m really ready for it’.”

Instead, Mark played The Actor, the younger role in Stephen Mallatratt’s play, but perhaps he could work on Herford during the Ten Times Table run to suggest he is even more ready now, 26 years on, to be cast as Arthur Kipps.

That’s all, folk. Another moment of despair at the Pendon Folk Festival committee meeting in the Classic Comedy Theatre Company production of Ten Times Table

Mark is no stranger to Ayckbourn plays, having appeared in Bedroom Farce, How The Other Half Loves, Season’s Greetings and Joking Apart too, and after resuming the Ten Times Table tour in late-January that began with six weeks of shows before Christmas, he is greatly enjoying the role of Donald.

“He’s described as ‘grey man’. Well, I’m grey now! He’s this pedantic, boring little man and it really bothers him when there’s a spelling mistake or grammatical error! Apparently, Alan had encountered someone like that in a committee meeting!

“Anyway, Donald, who still lives with his mum, is really obsessed with details. It’s a role as real as you could make it, and there’s so much more to this part than just being a boring little man.”

Mark is rather less enamoured by committee meetings. “I remember being on a tennis club committee at a lovely club in Horsforth. I volunteered and was very enthusiastic, but what I soon realised was that while we all had one thing in common – we all loved tennis – we were all different characters who’d end up arguing, even though we all wanted the club to thrive,” he recalls.

“You think, if this is what happens with a small-scale committee, imagine what it must be like when it matters on a world scale!” 

What next might come Mark’s way? Would he, for example, fancy playing dame in pantomime, now that such a vacancy exists at a theatre not far from the Grand Opera House? “The dame is the only role I could do in pantomime now,” he says. “It would be lovely to do it.” Watch this space!

The Classic Comedy Theatre Company in Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Copyright of The Press, York

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How Qdos signed up Berwick Kaler to be the Grand’s new dame in panto comeback

Putting his big boots back on: York pantomime dame Berwick Kaler, pictured here in his last Theatre Royal show, The Grand Old Dame Of York, before retiring. Now the Grand Opera House beckons. Picture: Anthony Robling

BERWICK Kaler is back, as the Grand Old Dame of York transforms into the Grand’s new dame.

Now that the Grand Opera House will be the home of his latest dame after 41 years at York Theatre Royal, both Dame Berwick and Dick Turpin will ride again from December 12 to January 10 2021.

Kaler pulled on his big boots at the Theatre Royal for the last time on February 2 2019 after announcing his retirement from Britain’s longest-running panto damehood.

Giving that retirement its P45, in favour of a re-boot, he will write and direct as well as star in Dick Turpin Rides Again, as he takes back control [to borrow a Dominic Cummings mantra]. What’s more, he will be re-uniting on stage with sidekick stooge Martin Barrass, villain David Leonard, ageless principal girl Suzy Cooper and luverly Brummie AJ Powell.

This time, the re-formed Panto Five will be on new terrain as the Grand Opera House owners, Ambassador Theatre Group, team up with Qdos Entertainment, the most powerful pantomime brand in the land.

Here Charles Hutchinson puts the questions to prolific theatre producer, director and Qdos Entertainment (Pantomimes) managing director Michael Harrison, Kaler’s fellow north easterner, who stands at number eight in The Stage’s Top 100 most influential people in theatre, no less.

Michael Harrison: managing director of Qdos Entertainment (Pantomimes), the panto powerhouse bringing Berwick Kaler’s dame out of retirement. Picture: Simon Hadley

Why bring back Berwick, Michael?

“The best things fall out of the sky and I wasn’t expecting this opportunity.

“I’m from Newcastle and I travelled all over the place to see pantomimes; first Newcastle and Sunderland, then Darlington, and then I started venturing to York and further, and I loved York Theatre Royal’s show.

“If you see all the pantos everywhere, they can become like wallpaper, but stumbling across Berwick in York was like a breath of fresh air. I’d never seen anything like it. Stepping out of the script, as he does, I just loved it.

“I never really thought there was a place for it in what I did but was more than happy to see it in Berwick’s pantos, and I did try to put some of that madness in my shows, like I have for 16 years at Newcastle Theatre Royal.”

What struck you most about Berwick’s pantos?

“I like the way he has catchphrases that you don’t have to spend three minutes introducing to the audience because they already know them.

“I like how he returns to things from previous shows, how he uses wild titles and how he has cast members returning every year.

“It’s no secret that our most successful pantos are where the stars keep returning: Allan Stewart, 20-plus years at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh; Billy Pearce, more than 20 years at the Bradford Alhambra; Danny Adams and Clive Webb, 16 years at Newcastle Theatre Royal; Matt Slack at Birmingham Hippodrome.

“It’s true that pantomime is a celebration of local culture and that’s why Berwick had that long run at the Theatre Royal.”

The final curtain for Berwick Kaler’s dame in The Grand Old Dame Of York on February 2 2019 at York Theatre Royal has turned out to be au revoir, not adieu. Picture: Anthony Robling

How did you feel when Berwick retired?

“The day after The Grand Old Dame Of York finished, and I was very tired after directing three pantomimes and producing 30 shows that winter, I got very emotional, thinking ‘this is the end of an era’. But I was also thinking ‘why does Berwick want to retire in his early seventies, when he doesn’t have to travel to do the show, he can go home every night?’”

How did Berwick’s dame resurrection at the Grand Opera House come to fruition?

“Mark Walters, the designer who Qdos have signed up for the London Palladium and Newcastle Theatre Royal pantomimes and who used to design Berwick’s pantos in York, got in touch on January 11 to say ‘Have you heard what’s happening to the Theatre Royal panto?’ [with the news of a new creative team being put in place].

“I woke up the next morning thinking, ‘I don’t know if this is over’. ‘Why is Berwick not coming back? One year off, now he should come back refreshed.

“I wrote to Berwick and said ‘you don’t know who I am, but I put on pantomimes and lots of other shows and I’m a massive fan of your pantos. If I can get the Grand Opera House, would you do it? Would you talk?’.”

What happened next?

“Berwick’s agent contacted me the following day and it developed very quickly from there.

“I just felt that Berwick’s panto was a little bit of pantomime history that should continue.

“Qdos produce all the other Ambassador Theatre Group pantomimes, and I was aware that Three Bears Productions’ contract was not being renewed. Normally it’s about ‘big’ casting, but this was different. There was Berwick and all his regulars.

“It happened quickly with Berwick and then we approached the other four [Barrass, Leonard, Cooper and Powell], and there just seemed to be a passion to make it happen.”

Re-uniting: villain David Leonard and perennial principal girl Suzy Cooper, pictured here in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal, will be back on stage with Berwick Kaler from December 12

Will you want more of “the same old rubbish” as Berwick calls it, or will you be seeking fresh elements to appeal to the regular Grand Opera House panto audience, who like plot, plenty for children to enjoy and popular songs?

“We want to make it a York pantomime. We have to grasp all the best bits that have really worked for Berwick, and we also have to work out what’s the best recipe for this opportunity to move forward in a different way.

“I remember the advice of a member of the audience in Newcastle, who said: ‘Don’t ever change it, but keep surprising me’, and that’s what we have to discover each time; how to do that.

“But Berwick’s panto format is very unique, and I feel that while he wants to do it, and they all want to do it, and there’s an audience that wants him to do it, then let’s continue doing it.

“What I do know is that more people still saw David, Martin, Suzy and AJ in Sleeping Beauty than went to Snow White at the Opera House, by a considerable margin, and by adding Berwick to the mix again, it will be interesting to be in York next winter.”

Does the feisty side of Berwick, such as his “I’m b****y furious” outburst at the finale to the last night of Sleeping Beauty, worry you?

“Anybody that is passionate about what they do can have a reputation for being demanding, but that goes with the territory.

“You expect anyone with a mind like that is going to challenge, always wanting things to be better. I’m sure he only does it with the audience in mind. It’s just about doing the best job for them.”

The new pantomime team at York Theatre Royal: associate director Juliet Forster, who will direct Cinderella, executive director Tom Bird and Evolution Productions producer Paul Hendy

Will there be a rivalry with the York Theatre Royal panto, now to be co-produced with Evolution Productions’ Paul Hendy and Emily Wood, presenting Cinderella for 2020-2021?

“I know Paul and Emily well. They’ve sat in my house. We might all be panto producers but there’s no rivalry there, though I’d love to know why a repertory theatre is teaming up with a pantomime company.

“Picking the Theatre Royal cast now, it will have to be star-driven, otherwise who will go? But Paul is a very clever panto man, so he won’t be going into it to get it wrong.

“Besides, there are more important things going on in the world than a panto ‘rivalry. It’s really not worth falling out when it’s only four of five weeks a year.”

Could the two theatres potentially be swapping their pantomime audiences?

“If there were 31,000 who saw Sleeping Beauty without Berwick – and there’s no surprise that ticket sales fell when someone who’s an institution isn’t there on stage anymore – then there’ll be those 31,000 here. I think there’s no reason why we won’t have 40,000 people coming.

“It would be great to keep some of the regular Grand Opera House panto audience too, if they’ve never experienced a Berwick Kaler pantomime. But I also understand those who want something more traditional, though I think the York audience is still stronger for a Berwick Kaler pantomime than a normal storyline-driven, fairy-tale panto.

“In year one, people might go and see both.”

Will you be looking to inject young talent into the Grand Opera House pantomime, alongside the established team?

“I’m always mindful of who are the pantomime stars of tomorrow because we’re not breeding them as we once were, like when they used to do a Blackpool summer season or a sitcom.

“Today’s comedy stars do Radio 2 and Radio 4 shows and bypass panto, so we have to find the new stars through other ways.”

Valentine’s Day engagement: Berwick Kaler will meet the box-office queues at the Grand Opera House panto ticket launch on February 14

Is there a chance that Mark Walters might design the Grand Opera House show, now that the ex-York Theatre Royal panto designer has signed to the Qdos stable?

“I’m talking to Mark about it now. If it wasn’t for Mark, I wouldn’t have put that request in to Berwick to play dame again.

“We’ve met already about Humpty Dumpty for Newcastle Theatre Royal…and we’ll discuss Dick Turpin Rides Again too.”

As a hugely successful pantomime producer and director yourself, with the London Palladium and Newcastle Theatre Royal to your name, what makes a good panto?

“Two things, I would say: comedy and magic. Not magic tricks, but that sense of wonderment that you can’t put your finger on.

“The best pantomimes are the funniest ones. We can get terribly criticised for not having as much plot as we could, but the best received shows have always been more focused on comedy, set pieces and routines.

“The plot has to be there but the show must be funny and it has to have a wow factor about it.”

Qdos Entertainment present Berwick Kaler in Dick Turpin Rides Again at the Grand Opera House, York, from December 12 to January 10 2021. Dame Berwick and his co-stars will launch ticket sales on February 14 from 10am at the box office. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

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REVIEW: Seeing Stars, An Evening With Simon Armitage, York Theatre Royal, 4/2/2020

WITHOUT York Theatre Royal, Simon Armitage may never have become Poet Laureate.

Let the Huddersfield writer explain, as he did last night on the first of two fund-raising nights for the Theatre Royal’s community fund.

As a boy, Armitage’s first experience of poetry in performance – poetry in motion, as it were – was attending a double bill of fellow Yorkshiremen Ted Hughes and Tony Harrison at the York theatre.

Last night, he was on that stage himself, marking the tenth anniversary of Seeing Stars, his “very theatrical, very dramatic” book of dramatic monologues, allegories and absurdist tall tales.

Curated by Scarborough-born theatre director Nick Bagnall, who made the briefest of appearances at the start, the show combined Armitage, standing to one side, with four actors, beret-hatted Richard Bremmer, Charlotte Mills, Tom Kanji and Kacey Ainsworth.

Sometimes seated in a row, sometimes leaping to their feet, if the lines demanded it, they took their lead from the dry-witted, deadpan Armitage, who orchestrated the show’s rhythms from beneath his still boyish fringe at 56 with a stand-up’s sense of timing.

In a show of two halves, there was a sense of mischief and playfulness throughout, as well as more serious observations, even bleak horror, that the thespian quartet revelled in as much as Armitage.

So much so, at one point he cut across Ainsworth, not rudely, but because he could not resist the sudden urge to read out more of his favourite opening lines from the poems, such was his enjoyment of the audience response.

I say “poems”, but at the outset Armitage recalled how reviewers had been unsure of exactly what these works were. “Not poetry,” said one. “Crazy, slightly surreal,” was Armitage’s own description last night, as the likes of The English Astronaut and Last Day On Planet Earth spun their modern-day fairytale magic.

Behind Armitage and co was a large print of the book cover: a hybrid of a horse and a pooch that captured this storytelling fusion of prose and poems. Prosems, if you like. It is a perfect choice of image, like Armitage chooses his words so cannily.

There is another story here too. Proceeds will go to the Theatre Royal’s community work that facilitates bringing people to the theatre who would not otherwise be able to visit. Later this year too, there are plans to “embed” people with dementia in youth theatre sessions in a union of old and young. Fantastic idea.

Tickets are still available for tonight’s 7.30pm performance, when you can savour a night of surprises, satire and surrealism from a Yorkshireman with a darker vision than Alan Bennett crossed with Ripping Yarns. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Charles Hutchinson  

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Phoenix rising anew in Joker as you have never seen it before…with an orchestra at York Barbican

Out of step with all around him: Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker

JOKER – Live In Concert will bring Todd Phillips’s award-laden film to York Barbican with live orchestral accompaniment of Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score on May 17 at 7.30pm.

Preceded by the world premiere at the Eventim Apollo, London, on April 30, the international tour has further Yorkshire shows at Hull Bonus Arena on May 16 and Sheffield City Hall on June 24.

Central to the emotional journey Joaquin Phoenix’s character Arthur Fleck takes through Phillips’s film is Guðnadóttir’s beautifully haunting, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award- nominated score.

The fusion of looming industrial soundscapes with raw, emotive string-led melodies – led  by a lone cello – creates a melancholic shroud marked with moments of hope, unfolding gradually to become a fever pitch of disquieting tension. 

Phillips’s music will be brought to life by a full orchestra to build a “vivid, visceral and entirely new Joker viewing experience”.

The London premiere will be conducted by Jeff Atmajian, the conductor and orchestrator of the original soundtrack; Senbla’s Dave Mahoney will take over for the UK tour dates, including York Barbican.

The poster artwork for Joker – Live In Concert

Hildur Guðnadóttir, the first-ever solo female winner of the Golden Globe for Best Original Score, also won a Grammy for her score for HBO’s miniseries Chernobyl. “I’m thrilled to get to see and hear Joker in the cinema with a live orchestra,” she says.

“When we recorded the music, the orchestra brought such depth and detailed attention to the performances that we were all literally holding our breaths during most of the recording sessions. It was a beautiful trip. I’m so happy to get to go there again and for an audience to experience that too.” 

Director Todd Phillips says: “I speak for the entire Joker team when I say how thrilled we are to be working with Senbla and Ollie Rosenblatt on Joker – Live In Concert. I think it’s a wonderful way for audiences to experience Hildur Guðnadóttir‘s haunting and immersive score, while bearing witness to Joaquin Phoenix’s descent into madness as Arthur.”

Joker already has won the Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critics’ Choice awards for Best Actor and Best Original Score and is nominated for 11 Academy Awards, more than any other film. Those nominations for the Oscars awards ceremony include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Music/Score.

Tickets for Joker – Live In Concert at York Barbican go on sale at Friday at 10am on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office; Hull, 0844 858 5025 or bonusarenahull.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.

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HIV+ queer artist Nathaniel Hall tells all as he recalls the first time at York Theatre Royal’s Studio Discoveries

Heart-breaking: Nathaniel Hall in his one-man show First Time at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Pictures: Andrew Perry

DAY three in the Studio Discoveries festival house, and York Theatre Royal’s Visionari community programme group will be presenting Nathaniel Hall’s First Time tomorrow night.

Can you remember your first time? Nathaniel can’t seem to forget his. To be fair, he has had it playing on repeat for the last 15 years, and now he is telling all in his one-man show on tour in North Yorkshire this month.

After playing the VAULT Festival in London, Hall has embarked on his travels, taking in the McCarthy at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre last night, Harrogate Theatre’s Studio Theatre tonight and York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow as part of Studio Discoveries, a week of new theatre chosen by Visionari.

The party is over, the balloons have all burst and Nathaniel is left living his best queer life: brunching on pills and Googling ancient condoms and human cesspits on a weekday morning…or is he?

“Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been keeping all these years,” says Nathaniel Hall

After playing the Edinburgh Fringe for four weeks last summer, HIV+ queer artist and theatre-maker Hall takes First Time on the road as he strives to stay positive in a negative world. “Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been keeping all these years,” he says.

Conceived, written and performed by HIV activist Hall, this humorous but heart-breaking 75-minute autobiographical show is based on his personal experience of living with HIV after contracting the virus from his first sexual encounter at 16.

“Narratives of HIV often portray people living with the virus as the victim. First Time doesn’t accept this stance,” says Hall. “It not only transforms audiences into HIV allies, but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives.”

First Time takes up Hall’s story after an all-night party, when “he hasn’t been to bed and he hasn’t prepared anything for the show. He’s only had 12 months and a grant from the Arts Council, but he can’t avoid the spotlight anymore and is forced to revisit his troubled past”.

“First Time not only transforms audiences into HIV allies, but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives ,” says Nathaniel Hall

His path leads from sharing a stolen chicken and stuffing sandwich with a Will Young lookalike aged 16, through receiving the devastating news aged 17 and heart-breaking scenes devouring pills and powder for breakfast, to a candlelit vigil and finally a surprising ending full of reconciliation, hope…and a houseplant from Mum.

Commissioned by Waterside Arts and Creative industries Trafford and developed with Dibby Theatre, the original production led the Borough of Trafford’s 30th World AIDS Day commemorations in 2018.

Directed by Chris Hoyle and designed by Irene Jade, with music and sound design by Hall, First Time will be staged at 7.45pm at each location. Tickets: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Visionari’s Studio Discoveries festival runs until Saturday. For full details, visit the Theatre Royal website.

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A Pilgrim’s Tale leads Seth Lakeman to Doncaster to mark Mayflower’s 400th anniversary

Seth Lakeman: telling A Pilgrim’s Tale to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower setting sail

DEVON folk musician Seth Lakeman heralds Friday’s release of his album A Pilgrim’s Tale with a tour that opens at Cast, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, tomorrow night (February 5).

This year marks 400 years since The Mayflower ship departed these shores for the Americas.

Lakeman was raised and still lives on Dartmoor, within sight of the sea at Plymouth, from where the Puritans sailed on The Mayflower in 1620.

His album tells the epic and soulful tale of the Pilgrim Fathers, and consequently, the ten tour dates are routed in a trail of towns and cities that, for various reasons, hold significance to the Mayflower journey.

Locations such as Immingham – where Separatists made a dangerous escape from England to Holland in their search for religious freedom – and Dartmouth, where the ship was anchored for repairs. Doncaster, Harwich, London and, of course, Plymouth feature too.

“If you’d never heard anything about The Mayflower and the birth of the modern USA, these words and music could be your primer,” says Seth, whose album is narrated by actor Paul McGann and features guest performers Cara Dillon, Benji Kirkpatrick, Ben Nicholls and Seth’s father, Geoff Lakeman.

The Mayflower carried British and Dutch passengers with hopes of fresh settlement, who were met by the Wampanoag first nation tribe on arrival. Bottling the spirit of the 17th century pilgrimage, Lakeman has written and performed a selection songs that shape a fictional narrative of the journey, informed by research from text, such as the journals of William Bradford; conversations with modern-day ancestors of the Wampanoag people at the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, and information sourced at the national heritage sites that still exist in the UK. 

The artwork for Seth Lakeman’s album A Pilgrim’s Tale

Chronicling the voyage and early settlement in these songs, Lakeman has created a drama that celebrates the history but does not lose sight of the journey’s tribulations. It stays sensitive to important facets of the story; the religious liberation that passengers were trying to achieve, the nefarious deeds enacted on the Wampanoag, and the deaths that followed on both sides.

Lakeman feels linked intrinsically to the story. “I didn’t have far to go for inspiration,” he says. “The Mayflower Steps, on Plymouth’s cobbled Barbican streets, are 20 minutes away from me.

“I fished from this quay as a boy, sang songs on tall ships tied up here and played music in just about every old sailors’ pub in this Elizabethan quarter.” 

The stories in the songs are told from a variety of perspectives, from personal accounts, such as the opening number, Watch Out, detailing deadly premonitions of a Wampanoag girl, to tales of the collective travellers in songs such as Pilgrim Brother and Sailing Time, each marching at a hopeful cadence, reflecting their early optimism.

In an immersive tale of struggle, songs bring to life anew 17th century characters: a crewman wrestling to control the ship; a pilgrim celebrating in rapturous faith, or the solemn Wampanoag tribesmen forlornly surrendering to the new way of life thrust on them. 

Inspiration for the project came when Lakeman was on tour in Robert Plant’s band and paid a visit to the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts to talk to the Wampanoag that still reside in the area.

It did not take long for the songs to form on his return to England. “After I travelled home from the ‘New World’ to Plymouth, everything happened in a quite mystical way. The songs came together so speedily and with exactly the vibe I wanted, and we recorded in a very short time in my Crossways Studio at home on Dartmoor,” says Seth, who at present is hosting the BBC Radio 2 series Seth Lakeman’s Folk Map Of The British Isles on Saturday nights..

To supplement the recordings, a between-song narration was written by the associate director of Plymouth’s Theatre Royal, Nick Stimson, and read by Paul McGann, who Lakeman was elated to have on board.

“As we finished the album, another quite magical thing happened, when Paul agreed to voice the narration between the tracks on the record. He pitched it perfectly,” he says.

Released on BMG, the album track listing is: Watch Out; Pilgrim Brother; Westward Bound; A Pilgrim’s Warning; Sailing Time; The Great Iron Screw; Dear Isles Of England; Saints And Strangers; Foreign Man; Bury Nights; The Digging Song and Mayflower Waltz.

Tickets for Lakeman’s 7.30pm concert in Cast’s Main Space tomorrow (February 5) are on sale at castindoncaster.com or on 01302 303959.

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REVIEW: Once, The Musical, is so good, why not see it twice this week? *****

Feel the chemistry Emma Lucia’s Girl and Daniel Healy’s Guy in Once , The Musical

Once, The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/York

THREE weeks into rehearsals at Toynbee Hall in London’s East End, the media were invited to a press day where director Peter Rowe and musical supervisor Ben Goddard put their 16-strong cast through their paces in exhilarating fashion.

Sometimes you can feel the magic in the air as early as that, sensing the chemistry between leads Daniel Healy and Emma Lucia and the bonding of the company of actor-musicians as they turned a rehearsal room into an Irish pub full of lusty singing and joyful playing.

You just knew the show was going to be good, but, glory be, it is even better than that. Having cherished John Carney’s micro-budgeted cult romantic Irish film starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova since 2007, yet aware that many still don’t know that charming movie, save maybe for its multi-award-winning song Falling Slowly, your reviewer urges you to fall immediately for this touring musical version. No time for slowness here.

Broadway, the West End and Dublin have all had a go at doing Once The Musical. Rowe and regular musical partner Goddard first united Scotsman Healy and Durham-born Lucia as Guy and Girl, jilted Dublin busker/vacuum cleaner repairman and immigrant Czech odd-jobs worker and musician, for shows in Ipswich and Hornchurch in 2018, and now they have found the  perfect format for a touring version.

What a Guy: Daniel Healy in Once, The Musical

Designed by Libby Watson, the setting is an Irish pub, crammed with pictures and chattering life, where the cast rally the audience with songs familiar from The Pogues, Chieftains and Dubliners to set the Dublin craic.

Scenes are played out against this backdrop, the musicians fading in and out of scenes, sometimes acting like a Greek chorus as they lean in, in response to what is unfolding between Healy’s Guy and Lucia’s Girl.

They are first encountered as she watches him busking in the chill streets, singing to his ex, now moved to New York, but still the subject of each pained song, although he is on the cusp of giving up on those songs too.

Girl is open, frank, funny for being so serious; Guy is taciturn, guarded, but the shared love of music speaks volumes and she needs her vacuum cleaner mending. It duly arrives as if out of thin air, shooting across the stage in one of the show’s many humorous moments.

Big-hitting Falling Slowly is not held back. Instead, it forms their first song together in Billy’s unruly music shop, tentative at first as she picks out the piano lines, to accompany his singing, then joining in, their voices entwining and overlapping beautifully. Gradually, one by one, the musicians join in too: fiddle, guitars, mandolin, cello, squeezebox and more, in union, in sympathy.

Emma Lucia’s Girl saying hello to the piano – which musicians should always do, she says

Here, in a nutshell, is why Once works wonders as a musical, being as much a celebration of the power of music in Dublin’s fair city as a love story of ebb and flow, rise and fall, surprise and revelation, over five all too short days.

The path of love is never smooth, as we all know, but for those who have never seen Once, it would be wrong to issue spoiler alerts of what ensues. Except to say, on the way home you will want to discuss how the open-ended story might progress, if you have any romantic bones in your body!

Healy and Lucia are terrific leads: who would not fall for either of them?! His Guy is generous, kind, a blue-eyed soul man of song and acoustic guitar playing; her Girl, his new Czech mate, is feisty, fearless in the face of adversity in her adopted city, and plays the piano exquisitely too.

Dan Bottomley’s hapless, bandy-legged, hopelessly romantic, fiery Billy pickpockets plenty of scenes and Ellen Chivers, last seen in York last summer in the Theatre Royal’s Swallows & Amazons, is even better as wild-spirited Czech Reza.

From Enda Walsh’s witty, whimsical, love-struck script to Hansard and Irglova’s impassioned songs, you must see Once, a wonderful show that blows away weeks of panto wars and politics, to herald a new year of theatre in York. In fact, it is so enjoyable, you could go not once, but twice…and make sure to arrive early to see York buskers Rachel Makena, Florence Taylor, Owen Gibson and Peter Wookie taking turns pre-show and in the interval in the foyer bar.

Charles Hutchinson

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Leo Sayer and Squeeze’s Chris Difford to join Jools Holland for York Barbican gig

Jools Holland: on tour for 32 autumn and winter dates

BOOGIE WOOGIE pianist Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra will be joined on tour for the first time by veteran singer Leo Sayer, as well as original Squeeze compadre Chris Difford.

Both Sayer and Difford will perform at York Barbican on November 11, Harrogate International Centre on November 27 and Leeds First Direct Arena on the 32-date itinerary’s closing night, December 20. Sayer, but not Difford, will be a guest at Holland’s Sheffield City Hall show on December 3.

Tickets for Holland’s 24th autumn and winter tour will go on sale at 10am on Friday (February 7) via Ticketmaster, See Tickets, Ticketline and Stargreen, as well as the venues.

Leo Sayer: touring with Jools Holland’s orchestra for the first time in 2020

Joining jaunty Jools too will be two long-term participants, gospel, blues and soul singer Ruby Turner, who has written songs with Holland, and original Squeeze drummer Gilson Lavis. Regular vocalist Louise Marshall will be there each show too.

Sayer, 71, who became an Australian citizen in 2009 after moving to Sydney, New South Wales, in 2005, charted in the Top Ten with all of his first seven hits between 1973 and 1978: The Show Must Go On, One Man Band, Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), Moonlighting, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, the chart-topping When I Need You and How Much Love.

Further success followed with I Can’t Stop Loving You (Though I Try) and More Than I Can Say in 1978, Have You Ever Been In Love in 1982 and Thunder In My Heart, contributing vocals to Meck’s number one in 2006.

Chris Difford: Squeezing in autumn and winter dates with Jools Holland

Difford, Holland’s fellow Squeeze co-founder, has worked through the years with Glen Tilbrook, also writing with Elton John, Paul Carrack, Lisa Stansfield, Bryan Ferry, Helen Shapiro, Elvis Costello and Holland too, who calls him “the John Lennon of London, the John Betjeman of Blackheath and the Alain Delon of Deptford”.

Holland and his orchestra have performed previously with Eddi Reader, Lulu, Joss Stone, Fine Young Cannibals’ Roland Gift, Spice Girl Melanie C and Marc Almond. For his 2020 tour, UB40 featuring Ali and Astro will join him for three November gigs in Guildford and London.  

Jools is recording his next album, whose focus will be on piano stylings, duets and collaborations with top instrumentalists, for autumn release.

Tickets for York Barbican, where Holland last played on October 31 2019, will be on sale on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Leeds, firstdirectarena.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.

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A Green Knight and painter Pablo’s women take over Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow

What if the story of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight were to be retold by the woman at its heart ? Debbie Cannon does exactly that in Green Knight

STUDIO Disoveries, a week of new theatre chosen by the Visionari community programming group, continues tomorrow with a brace of shows at the York Theatre Royal Studio.

Writer and performer Debbie Cannon’s Green Knight, at 6.30pm, is a one-woman version of the medieval poem Sir Gawain And The Green Knight.

The setting is Christmas at Camelot, where a monstrous green warrior issues an unwinnable challenge to Arthur’s finest knight, but what if the story were to be retold by the woman at its heart?

Flying Elephant’s premiere production, Picasso’s Women, delivers a unique look at Picasso’s life through the voices of his wives, mistresses and muses at 8.30pm.

One of three of Picasso’s Women at York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow

Written by Brian McAvera, directed by Marcia Carr and performed by Judith Paris, Colette Redgrave and Lucy Hunt, it takes the form of three monologues featuring French model Fernande, Russian ballerina Olga and 17-year-old mistress Marie-Therese.

Originally produced for the National Theatre and BBC Radio 3, the women’s stories provide an insight into the influence these women had on Picasso’s life and art.

The full programme for Visionari’s second Studio Discoveries season can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. The festival begins today (February 4) with Not Now Collective’s Pepper & Honey, a new play with live Croatian pepper biscuit-baking, at 11am and 2pm. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.

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A word with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage before his York Theatre Royal shows

Power of the pen: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

YORKSHIREMAN Simon Armitage performs in York tonight and tomorrow for the first time since being appointed Poet Laureate last May.

The 56-year-old Huddersfield poet is presenting Seeing Stars: An Evening With Simon Armitage at York Theatre Royal in two fundraising shows to support the theatre’s community work.

Confirmed to be joining Armitage for the 7.30pm shows are actors Kacey Ainsworth (best known for playing Little Mo in EastEnders), Richard Bremmer, Charlotte Mills and Tom Kanji.

Curated by Scarborough-born theatre director Nick Bagnall, Seeing Stars features readings from Armitage’s works inspired by Sir Gawain And The Green Knight and The Death Of King Arthur on the tenth anniversary of Seeing Stars, his “very dramatic, very theatrical” book of dramatic monologues, allegories and absurdist tall tales.

Nine months into his Poet Laureateship, how would Armitage, the first Professor of Poetry at Leeds University, define poetry? “I’ve always taken the view that poetry is not just one thing,” he says.

“There have been recent times when people think it’s just words in a book, but performance has always been important and that has come back into fashion and been re-imagined too with spoken-word slams. There is room for everybody creating the language.”

Armitage continues: “One of the roles of the Poet Laureate, as I see it, is to promote poetry and speak up for the arts.

” I know it can have a strange effect on people when you say you’re a poet,” says Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

“My feeling is, if you’re involved with the arts, you’re more comfortable with yourself and you bring that to the inner universe you exist in, even if it’s only being more comfortable about language and how you think.”

At a time of cutbacks in arts funding and schools putting science before the arts in the curriculum, Armitage says: “You stifle creativity at your peril because, if you don’t offer an outlet, if you antagonise, it will still find a way out.”

Where does Armitage see sitting poets sitting in the public’s perception in 2020? As minstrels? Prophets? Commentators? Outsiders? “I know it can have a strange effect on people when you say you’re a poet. Definitely there’s something of the outside, the alternative, about it,” he says.

“It’s been a ‘peculiar’, not ever a mainstream, artform but I think people have a soft spot in their heart for poetry, especially at moments in their life, happy or sad, whether reading it or even writing it in those moments, so I still don’t think it’s a remote artform.”

As for his aims in his ten-year tenure as Poet Laureate, Armitage says: “By the end of those ten years, I would like to have seen my projects come to fruition [such as the newly founded Laurel Prize for nature poems and the establishing of a National Centre for Poetry].

“I’d also like to be judged for my writing, either myself seeking to maintain standards, or writing in a communicative, engaging way, and my Poet Laureate poems have to satisfy me too.”

Seeing Stars: An Evening With Simon Armitage, York Theatre Royal, tonight and tomorrow, February 4 and 5, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk