Barrie Rutter after receiving his OBE on June 25 2015 at Buckingham Palace. Picture: Nobby Clark
BARRIE Rutter, award-winning Yorkshire actor, director and founder of Northern Broadsides, has been diagnosed with throat cancer.
In an official statement, 73-year-old Rutter is “in the good care of the mighty NHS and will begin his treatment very shortly”.
Born in 1946, the son of a Hull fish
worker, Rutter grew up in a two-up, two-down in the fish dock area of
Hull.
Barrie Rutter as Lear in King Lear in 2015. Picture: Nobby Clark
At school, an English teacher
frogmarched him into the school play because he had “the gob for it”, and
feeling at home on stage, Rutter chose his future direction.
There followed many years in the National Youth Theatre, culminating in The Apprentices, with a role written specially for him by Peter Terson: a practice to be repeated later in his career.
Seasons at the Royal Shakespeare
Company in Stratford, London and Europe completed the 1970s. In 1980, he joined
the National Theatre, a formative period when he met and worked closely with a
poet who was to become his guru, Leeds writer Tony Harrison.
Rutter performed in three of
Harrison’s adaptations, all written for the Northern voice: The Mysteries, The
Oresteia, and The Trackers Of Oxyrhynchus, wherein he played Silenus, a part
penned for Rutter.
Barrie Rutter as flash banker Fuller in Northern Broadsides’ For Love Or Money in 2017. Picture: Nobby Clark
This experience was the spark for actor-manager Rutter setting up Northern Broadsides in 1992, the Halifax company noted for bringing the northern voice, song and clog dancing to Shakespeare, classical theatre and new works alike.
Frustrated by what he perceived to be
inadequate Arts Council funding for Broadsides, he stepped down from the artistic director’s post in
April 2018. By then he had received the OBE for services to drama in 2015.
He last appeared on the York Theatre Royal stage in November 2017, when the quizzically eye-browed Rutter was at his most Rutter in his farewell Broadsides tour, For Love Or Money, a typically anarchic theatrical double act with Blake Morrison.
YORK’S
grand old dame, Berwick Kaler, is back in panto. Oh yes, he is.
At York
Theatre Royal, his “beloved home” for 41 years? Oh, no he isn’t.
Dame
Berwick is switching to the other side, the Grand Opera House, to become the
Grand’s old dame. What’s more, he will be bringing the rest of the Not Famous
But Famous In York Five along for the ride in Dick Turpin Rides Again: villain
David Leonard; sidekick stooge Martin Barrass; ageless principal girl Suzy
Cooper and luverly Brummie A J Powell.
Tickets for the December 12 to January 10 run will go on general sale on February 14, Valentine’s Day, when fans can have a love-in with Dame Berwick in the box office, when he sells the first tickets at 10am.
A delighted Kaler
says: “Qdos Entertainment have come to the rescue of the most lauded pantomime
in the country, having found us a new home at the Grand Opera House in our
beloved City of York.
“To make this a success we need
you – the most articulate and loyal audience in the entire country. We can go
forth with a management that believes we have enhanced the reputation of a
local pantomime that has caught the imagination of young and old, from all
walks of life.”
Qdos Entertainment’s managing director Michael Harrison enthuses: “We are absolutely delighted to be embarking on an all-new pantomime partnership with our colleagues at the Ambassador Theatre Group, Grand Opera House and, of course, Berwick and the gang.
“Berwick is an undeniable master in the world of pantomime, with his own inimitable style and approach and we are delighted to be working closely with him and the cast to bring back the magic for which they are best known.”
Kaler, 73, retired from playing the Theatre Royal’s dame after 40 years last February, but has signed a three-year contract with Qdos Entertainment, the pantomime powerhouse of British theatre, who are taking over the Grand Opera House panto from Three Bears Productions from Winter 2020.
Dame
Berwick will write and direct the show, as well as pulling on his trademark big
boots, unruly wig and spectacular frocks again, after regretting his decision
to retire, breaking his run as Britain’s longest-running dame, from the moment
he announced it.
Fully
recovered from his double heart bypass in the summer of 2018, It was a
sentiment he repeated regularly, not least on the last night of The Grand Old Dame
Of York on February 2 last year, saying he “would be back like a shot” if
asked.
Now the veteran dame does return, but across the city, where he has chosen Dick Turpin Rides Again for his first Grand Opera House pantomime, revisiting a show that brought him his highest ever audience figures at the Theatre Royal: 54,000 for Dick Turpin in 2008-2009.
He last appeared on the Opera House stage as fey drag artist Captain Terri Dennis in Peter Nichols’ Privates On Parade in 1996.
Kaler made
an emotional, provocative speech at the finale to last Saturday’s final night
of Sleeping Beauty, the troubled Theatre Royal pantomime he had written and
co-directed this winter, but whose progress was jolted by executive director
Tom Bird’s confirmation, with a fortnight still to run, that Dame Berwick would
not be back, as writer or director, let alone as dame.
BERWICKXIT: Berwick Kaler playing the dame in his last York Theatre Royal pantomime, The Grand Old Dame Of York, last winter. Picture: Anthony Robling
Suzy Cooper
and Kaler in The Press splash had called for the dame to return, David Leonard
later backed that campaign, while Martin Barrass addressed the audience at each
show post-announcement to say “this cast and this band” would not be returning.
A public petition was launched too.
“I’m b****y
furious,” said the dame, back on his old stamping ground, in a highly charged Saturday
atmosphere, full of cheers for Kaler and boos for new panto villain Bird.
Kaler could
not reveal “the truth”, but said Bird – or “one man” as he called him throughout
without naming him once – was “wrong” in his decision to move on to a new
creative team when the Theatre Royal pantomime “didn’t need fixing”.
“I’ll give them three days,” he said in a cryptic ultimatum that set tongues wagging that Kaler must have something up his sleeve, while Barrass rubbed his hands when reading out a letter in the shout-outs that suggested the Panto Five should move to “the Grand”.
Those three days passed, but now Dame Berwick rises again, linking up with Qdos Entertainment, whose production facilities are based in Scarborough and Beverley, 100,000 costumes et al. Billed as “the world’s biggest pantomime producer”, with 37 years behind them, they present such big-hitting pantos as the London Palladium and Newcastle Theatre Royal shows, as well as, closer to York, Hull New Theatre.
Welcoming the new partnership of Qdos and the Kaler crew, Grand Opera House theatre director Rachel Crocombe-Lane says: “Qdos bring both world-class expertise and also a Yorkshire heart, being based in Scarborough; the perfect combination together with this talented cast.
“As a venue team, pantomime is our favourite time of year because of the friendship with the company and also the joy and devotion of our audience. We are proud of these new partnerships, excited for the future of our pantomime and will be ready altogether to really blow your Christmas socks off!’
Qdos Entertainment chairman, Nick Thomas, from Scarborough, is excited too. “I am thrilled to welcome Berwick, a true Yorkshire theatre legend, to the Qdos family. Qdos Entertainment has had a long association with Yorkshire, it is my home county, and with our production and wardrobe teams based in Scarborough and Beverley, forming this new relationship with Berwick and the Grand Opera House is especially exciting.”
Meanwhile, York Theatre Royal will be launching its 2020-2021 pantomime on Monday at high noon. Rather than declaring a pantomime civil war in York, executive director Bird says: “We wish the Grand Opera House the very best of luck. As we’ve always said, we’ll be announcing our new pantomime on Monday”.
On Tuesday
this week, Bird told a City of York Council meeting that no performance of Sleeping
Beauty had sold out, save for the traditional last night pandemonium,
compounding a decline in attendances that had started 11 years ago.
He said the
Theatre Royal would “build a new pantomime for the city that to some extent doesn’t
rely on you having been to the pantomime for 30 years in order to get it”.
“I know how much affection there is
for our pantomime in the city. What’s prompted us to make this change is that
that affection isn’t necessarily translating into popularity,” he added. “It’s
with a very heavy heart that we make changes but it’s not something we can
leave.”
Tickets for Dick Turpin Rides Again will be on general sale from February 14 on 0844 871 3024, at atgtickets.com/york and in person from the Cumberland Street theatre’s box office.ATG Theatre Card holders can buy from February 11.
The Essex Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015) , by Grayson Perry, on the drawing room wall of Nunnington Hall from February 8
GRAYSON Perry will be Stitching The Past Together with
his tapestries at Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, from February 8.
Out go the National Trust country house’s 17th century
Verdure tapestries for conservation work; in come the Essex transvestite artist,
potter, broadcaster and writer’s typically colourful and thought-provoking pair
of Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015).
Hanging in an historic setting for the first time
in the drawing room, this brace of large-scale, striking works tells the story of Julie
Cope, a fictitious Essex “everywoman” created by the irreverent Chelmsford-born
2003 Turner Prize winner.
The tapestries illustrate the key events in the heroine’s journey from
her birth during the Canvey Island floods of 1953 to her untimely death in a tragic
accident on a Colchester street.
Rich in cultural and architectural details, the tapestries contain a
social history of Essex and modern Britain that “everyone can relate to”.
These artworks represent, in Perry’s words, ‘the trials, tribulations,
celebrations and mistakes of an average life’.
In Its Familiarity Golden: a close-up of one of Grayson Perry’s Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015)
Historically, large-scale tapestry provided insulation for grand
domestic interiors. Perry, by contrast, however, has juxtaposed its
associations of status, wealth and heritage with contemporary concerns of
class, social aspiration and taste.
To write Julie’s biography, he looked to the English ballad and folktale
tradition, narrating a life that conveys the beauty, vibrancy and
contradictions of the ordinary individual.
Laura Kennedy, Nunnington Hall’s visitor experience manager, says: “It’s
extremely exciting to have The Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope
Tapestries on the walls that would usually display the hall’s Verdure
tapestries.
“The tapestries will hang in the drawing room amongst the historic
collection, and nearby to the hall’s remaining 17th century
Flemish tapestries telling the story of Achilles.”
Laura continues: “The genuine and relatable stories told through Grayson
Perry’s artworks are a rich contrast to the demonstration of wealth and status
reflected through many historic tapestries, including our own at Nunnington Hall.
“We’ve worked closely with the Crafts Council to bring the hangings to
Nunnington and observe how these contrasting sets of tapestries are a beautiful
contradiction in design, colour palette, storytelling and manufacture,
illustrating the evolution of tapestries over the past four hundred years. It
will also be the first time that The Essex House Tapestries have been hung in a
historic setting.”
One of the Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015), by Grayson Perry
Nunnington’s three Verdure tapestries were brought to Nunnington Hall more
than 350 years ago by the 1st Viscount Preston, Richard
Graham, following his time as Charles II’s ambassador at the Court of
Versailles.
Graham was appointed by King James II as the Master of the Royal
Wardrobe because of his style and knowledge of Parisian fashions. He would have
used these tapestries to demonstrate his good taste, wealth and status in
society.
Welcoming Perry’s works to Nunnington Hall, Jonathan Wallis, curator for
the National Trust, says: “It’s great to be able to show these wonderful
tapestries at Nunnington. It continues our aim of bringing thought-provoking
art to rural Yorkshire.
“The Life of Julie Cope is a story that we can all relate to and one
which will delight, surprise and engage people. Digital devises accompany the
tapestries exploring Julie’s life experiences and the reveal much of Perry’s
inspirations.”
This is the first of two opportunities to see work by Grayson Perry in North Yorkshire in 2020. His earliest works and “lost pots” will be showcased in Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years from June 12 to September 20 at York Art Gallery’s Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).
The
touring exhibition, developed by the Holburne Museum in Bath, is the first to
celebrate Perry’s early forays into the art world and will re-introduce the
explosive and creative works he made between 1982 and 1994.
The 70 works have been
crowd-sourced through a national public appeal, leading to the “lost pots”
being on display together for the first time since they were made.
Cocktail Party, 1989, by Grayson Perry, on show in Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years at CoCA, York Art Gallery, from June 12
The
Pre-Therapy Years exhibition begins with Perry’s early collaged sketchbooks,
experimental films and sculptures, capturing his move into using ceramics as
his primary medium.
From
his first plate, Kinky Sex (1983),
to his early vases made in the mid-1980s, Perry riffed on British vernacular
traditions to create a language of his own.
The
themes of his later work – fetishism, gender, class, his home county of Essex,
and the vagaries of the art world – appear in works of kinetic energy.
Although
the majority of his output consisted of vases and plates, Perry’s early
experiments with form demonstrate the variety of shapes he produced: Toby jugs,
perfume bottles, porringers, funeral urns and gargoyle heads.
Perry says: “This show has been such a joy to put together. I am really looking forward to seeing these early works again, many of which I have not seen since the Eighties. It is as near as I will ever get to meeting myself as a young man, an angrier, priapic me with huge energy but a much smaller wardrobe.”
Grayson Perry’s The Essex House Tapestries: Life of Julie Cope (2015)
will be on display at Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, Helmsley, from February 8 to
December 20. Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30am to 4pm.
Nunnington Hall’s Verdure Tapestries: away for conservation work; back on display from January 2021
What’s happening to the Nunnington Hall Verdure tapestries?
ALL three tapestries at Nunnington Hall have been taken
off the walls. At various times they were sent to Belgium to be cleaned and
each is being worked on by a selected conservator.
At each studio, the tapestries have been placed on to a frame with a
linen scrim. The conservators are working across each tapestry, undertaking
conservation stitching.
This includes closing the gaps that have appeared and replacing worn historic
threads and previous conservation repairs. These stiches are placed through
both the tapestry and the linen to provide extra support.
One of the conservators has estimated this work will take 740 hours. The
work should be completed in the middle of 2020 to be placed back on the drawing
room wall in January 2021.
Grayson Perry’s Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015) at Nunnington Hall
The story behind Grayson Perry’s Essex House Tapestries
THE Essex House Tapestries were made for A House for Essex, designed by
Grayson Perry and FAT Architecture, as featured on the Channel 4 programme Grayson
Perry’s Dream House.
The house was conceived as a mausoleum to Julie Cope, a fictitious Essex
“everywoman”, who was inspired by the people Perry grew up among.
The tapestries are the only pair in a public collection, acquired by the
Craft Council.
Lips’ ink: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage with a pen for his thoughts
SIMON Armitage is the fourth Yorkshireman to be appointed Poet Laureate, in the wake of Laurence Eusden, Alfred Austin and the rather better-known Ted Hughes.
“I know bits and pieces of the other two,” says the 56-year-old Huddersfield poet, who succeeded Carol Ann Duffy as the 21st incumbent of the prestigious ten-year post last May.
Next Tuesday and Wednesday (February 4 and 5), he will be performing in York for the first time since his appointment, presenting Seeing Stars: An Evening With Simon Armitage at York Theatre Royal in two fundraising shows to support the theatre’s community work.
“But I don’t see myself as someone who speaks for the county,” says Simon, “Though I’m obviously from here and speak with the voice I grew up with, the noises and dialect I grew up with, and I certainly use Yorkshire in my poetry.”
Historically, the payment for the laureateship was a gift of wine until Henry Pye chanced his arm by asking for a salary in 1790 in the reign of George III. That all changed again when Ted Hughes became Poet Laureate, whereupon Graham Hines, director of the Sherry Institute of Spain, invited him to Jerez in 1986, and the traditional gift was re-constituted.
“They invited me over to Spain last year, and I did my tasting, educating my palate and getting to choose my sherry, and then effectively they send over a barrel every year.”
Do you like sherry, Simon? “I do now!” he says.
Meanwhile, let’s raise a glass to his shows in York next week when Simon will be joined by “well-known actors” for the Seeing Stars poetry readings. “The performance is devised around the shows we did at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse [at Shakespeare’s Globe in London], maybe four years ago, when Tom Bird [now York Theatre Royal’s executive director] was at the Glob,” says Simon.
“In fact, the first performance was just when Dominic Dromgoole was leaving the artistic director’s post, and we did Sir Gawain And The Green Knight and The Death Of King Arthur poems, and it will be something along those lines with four actors in York.”
As the show’s title indicates, Seeing Stars will feature selections from Armitage’s book of dramatic monologues, allegories and absurdist tall tales of that title. “That book is ten years old this year: it’s very dramatic, very theatrical,” he says.
The York show is being curated by Scarborough-born theatre director Nick Bagnall, with the actors involved yet to be confirmed at the time of going to press.
“I first met Nick when he was playing a monkey trapped in a bathroom in Huddersfield!” Simon reveals. What? “It was a promenade event in a house in Huddersfield in an area called The Yards that was being knocked down,” he explains.
“I’ve since done a couple of my plays with him directing them: first my dramatisation of Homer’s The Iliad, The Last Days Of Troy, at Manchester’s Royal Exchange and Shakespeare’s Globe.
“There are no rules really, no written spec, so it’s a question for each incumbent to decide how they will interpret it,” says Simon Armitage of his post as Poet Laureate
“Then the Liverpool Everyman did The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, which ended up at the Globe.”
Looking beyond next week to Simon’s decade-long tenure as Poet Laureate, what does the role entail?
“There are no rules really, no written spec, so it’s a question for each incumbent to decide how they will interpret it,” he says.
“I’ve decided to do several projects: one of them will be The Laurel Prize: a prize for poems on the theme of the environment and nature and all that goes with that.
“It’s very prevalent in poetry now, and I’m delighted that the Yorkshire Sculpture Park [near Wakefield] will host the prize ceremony in May.
“I’m also making tours of public libraries this year,[The Laureate’s Library Tour], doing a week of eight readings from March 16 to 21 of A and B places: Aberdeen, Belfast, the British Library, Bacup, and several others.” A tour of C and D locations will follow in the autumn.
“This is to give some support to the pretty beleaguered library service because I believe it to be a really important institution,” says Simon.
His greatest wish is to introduce a National Centre of Poetry. “Not in London,” he says. “Poetry is one of our proudest traditions, and hopefully a national centre can be a place of writing, reading, research and residencies.
“It’s a huge capital funding project, a kind of legacy idea, not a one-year pop-up space but something that becomes part of the landscape.”
You may not know, but “there is no writing obligation associated with the role of Poet Laureate,” says Simon. “Wordsworth never wrote one poem in the post!”
The ever-prolific Simon, however, will be writing as prolifically as ever, having been appointed Poet Laureate by Her Majesty The Queen and the Prime Minister.
“The call came from Theresa May a week before she resigned,” recalls Simon. What did that involve? “It was a private call.”
What did the Prime Minister say? “It was a private call!” Simon says again.
Seeing Stars: An Evening With Simon Armitage, York Theatre Royal, February 4 and 5, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Customer experience manager Lauren Atkins, left, deputy customer experience manager Laura Castle, ticketing and sales manager Beth Scott and York Teaching Hospital Charity community fundraiser Joe Fenton with the Grand Opera House bucket collection cheque in the York theatre’s auditorium. Picture: David Harrison
THE Grand Opera House, York, is to donate £8,765 to the York Teaching Hospital Charity from bucket collections held at performances in 2019.
The donation will go towards “helping to fund the extras to improve
healthcare facilities above and beyond the NHS making patients feel better”.
Joe Fenton, the hospital charity’s community fundraiser, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank-you to the Grand Opera House and to everyone who generously donated at the bucket collections held across 2019.
“The incredible amount that has been raised is truly inspiring and will
go a long way in improving the staff and patient experience across our
hospitals.
“The money will be used benefit a number of wards, including the Children’s
Ward, Dementia, the Renal Unit and our Maternity Bereavement Suite, so thank
you for your fantastic support.”
Clare O’Connor, theatre manager at the Cumberland Street theatre, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have contributed nearly £9,000 (£8765.17) to numerous departments – Renal Unit, Children’s Ward, Dementia Appeal and Butterfly Appeal – in the hospital over the past 12 months, in conjunction with the wonderful York Teaching Hospital Charity.
“Without the very generous donations of our audience members, and the time kindly given by volunteers for collections, we wouldn’t have achieved so great a figure, which means so much to all the staff at the Grand Opera House.”
Clare continued: “The patients and relatives who use these departments
at York Hospital will benefit greatly from these funds, which will improve
their experience during a difficult time, and we look forward to more
successful fundraising over the next 12 months. Thank you.”
York contemporary classical composer Joe Alexander Shepherd
YORK pianist Joe Alexander Shepherd will play in aid of the Charlie Gard
Foundation at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on March 7.
Joe studied at Bootham School, where he learnt to play the piano from a young age, before
moving on to Paul McCartney’s Academy of Music in Liverpool as a teenager.
He composes and performs intricate,
minimalist contemporary classical music with subtle touches of atmospheric
melancholy, in the vein of Ludovico Einaudi, Michael Nyman, Dustin O’Halloron
and beyond.
The poster for Joe Alexander Shepherd’s March 7 concert
Writing since the age
of 15, piano has always been in the heart of Joe’s songs, adding his own twist
with textural synths to bring the simplistic melodies to life.
After signing a worldwide
record deal with the Vancouver label Nettwerk, he launched his five-track debut
EP, Time, in an intimate concert at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York,
in September 2018.
Recorded at his York
home over a two-year period, it compromised the title track, One Day, Opus 266,
Amore and Love Me Like You Did Before. “I’m now working towards my second EP and there’ll be an
album to follow in the near future, released through Nettwerk, whose roster
includes the likes of Passenger, Fun, Stereophonics, to name a few,” he
said at the time.
The artwork for Joe Alexander Shepherd’s debut EP, Time, in 2018
Joe will showcase new material alongside
special guest cellist Isaac Collier at his March 7 concert. Maybe an indication
that recordings could be on their way?
Reflecting on his career so far as a
performer and in-demand composer, he says: “I was lucky to compose the
soundtrack for UEFA’s World War One Truce video, starring footballers Wayne
Rooney, Gareth Bale and Sir Bobby Charlton, and I’ve also written pieces for
the Rugby Football Union, BBC One, BBC Two and Land Rover. My dream is to
perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, playing my own original material to
fans across the globe.”
Support act Rachel Croft. Picture: Jono
Joe’s support act at his 7.30pm charity concert
will be York singer-songwriter Rachel Croft. Tickets cost £15 on 07853 070201
or by email to stephanie@thecharliegardfoundation.org.
The Charlie Gard Foundation charity supports children, adults and their families affected by mitochondrial disease.
York Settlement Community Players director Helen Wilson bonding with Cliff, the seagull from Dotty’s Vintage Tearoom in Staithes, ahead of her production pf The Seagull
CHEKHOV devotee Helen Wilson set herself the challenge of directing the 19th century Russian’s four greatest plays for York Settlement Community Players in ten years.
Next month, the project will be completed with his 1895 tragicomedy The Seagull, his most famous work, as Settlement celebrate their centenary by returning to the York Theatre Royal Studio.
First, however, Helen will give a library talk tomorrow (January 29) from 6pm to 8pm at York Explore to mark Anton Chekhov’s 160th birthday, under the title of Adventures In The Cherry Orchard: Chekhov And Me.
“Why is Anton Chekhov so beloved and called ‘the father of the modern theatre’,” Helen will ask herself. “I’ll seek to explain why through anecdotes and a little biography; casting a light on why he called his plays ‘comedies’.
“So, come and toast Chekhov’s 160th birthday with a glass of vodka or wine and be entertained by extracts of his work from The Seagull cast. As I direct the fourth of his major plays, I’ll share my enthusiasm for a great Russian dramatist.”
Chekhov And Me: Helen Wilson’s talk at York Explore
This will be York tutor, theatre director and actor Helen’s final Chekhov production as Settlement tackle the late 19th century work that heralded the birth of modern theatre with its story of unrequited love, the generation gap and how life can turn on a kopek: a raw tragicomedy of poignancy yet sometimes absurd playfulness.
She had not envisaged doing all the Chekhov quartet when she set out in March 2010. “I did Three Sisters in the Theatre Royal Studio, and I thought that would be that, as it was my ambition to do that play,” recalls Helen.
“But then I did The Cherry Orchard at Riding Lights’ Friargate Theatre in September 2015, and I was on a roll, so we did Uncle Vanya in the Theatre Royal Studio in March 2018 and now The Seagull in the Studio again. Two actors have been in all of them: Maurice Crichton and Ben Sawyer. They just keep auditioning!”
Helen can see patterns in Chekhov’s work when putting the four side by side. “Chekhov has both ensemble text and ‘duo-logue’, where there’s so much going on and so much subtext too,” she says.
“So for The Seagull, I’m having to hold both ensemble rehearsals and separate rehearsals for the main characters.
Helen Wilson and seagull Cliff in Staithes
“And having done the three other plays, I can point to the pattern where Act One is always a souffle, with plenty of laughing at these slightly inept characters thinking they are something they’re not, and the audience having that delicious moment of thinking, ‘well, actually that’s not going to happen’. Then Chekhov likes to lob a bomb into the room in Act Three.”
Helen has “always felt that The Seagull has never fully made sense on stage” when she has seen past productions. “Like Irina Arkadina has always been seen as a monster, when she’s not,” she says.
“It’s important to show what’s beneath that, and Chekhov always gives you the opportunity to see the other side of the character. That’s what I want to explore and exploit.
“They’re all vulnerable, every one of them…but when I went to see Vanessa Redgrave in the play when I was nine, I wasn’t very impressed! Her speech at the end wasn’t very good!
“In this production, I want there to be vulnerability, but also warmth, in every character, for the audience to be able to laugh and cry with them.”
Settlement regular Maurice Crichton (Vanya) and Amanda Dales (Yelena) in rehearsal for York Settlement Community Players’ Uncle Vanya in 2018
Helen sees a difference between The Seagull and the other three plays. “It isn’t like the others in that the ending is very abrupt,” she says. “Chekhov was very influenced by Ibsen, and this is more of an Ibsen ending than elegiac, but the play is also a great deal funnier than people realise, especially in Act One.
“As with Ibsen and Shakespeare, you can be too reverent in how you present it, but I want people to find the characters recognisable types that they know.
“All life is there; you don’t have to hit people over the head with it. All the resonance is there. It’s all going at someone’s home and that’s how it should feel.”
What has Helen learned from her earlier productions? “Not to have so much on stage, like having a chaise longue previously! The costumes will be period, there’ll be a soundscape and lighting, but what matters is to make it absorbing to watch, so it’s going to be very intimate.”
Settlement’s production, by the way, will be carrying the best wishes of writer/translator Michael Frayn, who has sent the York company a message of gratitude. “It’s a wonderful achievement for YSCP to have performed all of Chekhov’s four last great plays – and I can’t help being pleased, of course, that they have chosen to use my translations,” he wrote.
Helen Wilson standing by cherry blossom when directing The Cherry Orchard in 2015
“Most productions of the plays these days seem to be ‘versions,’ with
the period, location, genders, and politics changed to make them more relevant
to audiences who might otherwise not be up to understanding them.
“People in York, though, are evidently made of tougher stuff, because the simple intention of my translations is to get as close to the original Russian as I can. Just occasionally, perhaps, it’s worth trying to catch the sense and feel of what Chekhov actually intended. So, thank you, YSCP!”
Helen has stated this will be her last Chekhov, but out of the blue she
says: “Having done the other three, in some ways I’d like to do Three Sisters again.
Having learned things since I did it, I’d do it differently but more or less
with the same cast.
“You get into a rhythm of what these plays are like, and they still move
me every time. It’s like a labour of love doing them.
“But when I finish this one, I’d love to do an Arthur Miller one next.
The thing about Chekhov and Miller is that they’re universal. You don’t have to
modernise them for resonance. They will always resonate in their own period.”
A word in your shell like by the sea at Staithes: Cliff and The Seagull director Helen Wilson
York Settlement Community Players in Chekhov’s The Seagull, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 26 to March 7, 7.45pm plus 2pm matinee on February 29; no Sunday or Monday performances. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Tickets for Helen Wilson’s Chekhov talk at 6pm tomorrow (January 29) at York Explore, Library Square, Museum Street, York, cost £5 at yorkexplore.org.
Quick question:
What’s the story behind seagull Cliff, Helen?
“He’s called Cliff and he lives in the window of the much frequented Dotty’s Vintage Tearoom in Staithes, collecting coins for the RNLI. He was allowed to commune with me for an hour or two and seemed to enjoy it!”
Rory Mulvihill, donning beard, wig and iconic green coat, to play Fagin for a second time. Pictures: Anthony Robling
YORK Light Opera Company mark
60 consecutive years of performing at York Theatre Royal by presenting Lionel
Bart’s Oliver!, 60 years after the musical’s West End debut.
Running from February 12 to 22 in a revival directed by Martyn Knight, with musical direction by John Atkin, the show is based on Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist and revels in such songs as Food, Glorious Food, Oom-Pah-Pah, Consider Yourself and You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two.
Leading the cast of 40 will be Rory
Mulvihill, a veteran of the York theatre scene, who will be playing Fagin after
a career with York Light that does not quite stretch back 60 years but does run
to 35. “I started in 1985 with the summer show Songs From The Shows, which was
a cabaret-style show, where I remember I was part of Three Wheels On My Wagon
as a cowboy,” he says.
Reflecting on his subsequent myriad York Light roles, he says: “I’ve enjoyed all of them, but the one I’m most proud of is Barnum. It was a tremendous show. Every member of the cast had to learn a circus skill and perform it to full houses. I spent four months going to a circus school three days a week learning how to tight rope walk.”
Rory Mulvihill in the rehearsal room for York Light Opera Company’s production of Oliver!
Rory is playing Fagin for the
second time, so he is well qualified to analyse the musical’s portrait of the
trickster who runs a den of nimble young thieves in Victorian London’s murky
underworld.
“The character is written very
differently in the musical from the novel, in a way that makes you feel for
him. You know fundamentally he’s a bad person but there’s always something that
redeems him,” he says.
“If I had to describe him in
three words, I remember there was an advert for creme cakes about 40 years ago
and the slogan was ‘naughty but nice’, so I’m going to go with that one.
“I don’t do anything specific to get into character. Someone once
said their character builds as they dress up as them and that certainly applies
to Fagin as I’ll be having a beard, wig and the iconic long green coat. It
certainly helps wearing the costumes to get into character.”
Rory Mulvihille’s Fagin with his two Artful Dodgers, Jack Hambleton and Sam Piercy
Picking out the differences between the first and second times he has portrayed Fagin, Rory says: “The children involved give Oliver! its dynamic. It’s a different set of kids and crew of course.
“We only have one set of kids this time instead of two. Having done it once, I’m not starting again, I’m building on what I’ve done before. Hopefully I’ll not stumble over the lines and give a better performance.”
A key part of his role is leading the young cast around him. “Whenever you work with kids, it’s difficult to begin with because they’re scoping you out to see what they can/can’t get away with, but once you get over that, it’s a joy.
Jonny Holbek as Bill Sikes with Roy as Bullseye in York Light Opera Company’s Oliver!
“They’re now quite relaxed in the company of the adult cast and I’m getting to know them – maybe a bit too cheeky at times. Theatre is the best gift you can give a kid to carry through their life.”
That sentiment takes him back to
Leeds-born Rory’s first steps in theatre. “Funnily enough Oliver! was the very
first show I was ever in. I played the Artful Dodger in a school production at
St Michael’s in Leeds in 1968. It was just by accident really. I was just asked
to do the part by the director. That was my introduction to theatre and I’ve
been doing it ever since. Now I’ve come full circle with Oliver!”
Rory, who has lived in York since
the mid-1980s, worked as a lawyer for more than 30 years, at Spencer Ewin
Mulvihill and latterly Richardson Mulvihill in Harrogate, before retraining as
a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, but he has always found time for a
parallel stage career.
In doing so, he has been not only a leading man in multiple musicals but also has played both Jesus and Satan in the York Mystery Plays; York lawyer and railway protagonist George Leeman in In Fog And Falling Snow at the National Railway Museum, and lately Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army and the outrageous Captain Terri Dennis in Peter Nichols’s Privates On Parade for Pick Me Up Theatre.
Rory Mulvihill, centre, as the flamboyant Captain Terri Dennis in Privates On Parade
Last summer, he set up a new York
company, Stephenson & Leema Productions, with fellow actor and tutor Ian
Giles, making their June debut with Harold Pinter’s ticklishly difficult 1975 play
No Man’s Land.
Now his focus is on Oliver!, performing alongside Alex Edmondson and Matthew Warry as Oliver; Jack Hambleton and Sam Piercy as the Artful Dodger; Emma-Louise Dickinson as Nancy and Jonny Holbeck as the villainous Bill Sikes.
Rory looks forward particularly to singing the climactic Reviewing The Situation. “It’s a tour de force,” he reasons. “You can’t really go wrong with it. It’s a fantastically written song with a beautiful tune, comedy and pathos.
“Please sir, I want some more…and more”: Matthew Warry and Alex Edmondson, sharing the role of Oliver in York Light Opera Company’s Oliver!
“Lionel Bart clearly thought ‘I’m
just going to take the audience’s emotions and put them through the ringer’.
So, at the end, they don’t know whether to laugh or cry. A wonderful piece of
work.”
As the first night looms on the horizon, will Rory experience first-night nerves, even after all these years? “For me, rehearsals can be more worrisome than being on stage,” he says.
“Performing in front of your peers, certainly for the first time, can be very nerve racking, and it’s getting over that that prepares you for being on stage. By the time you get on stage, you have butterflies of course, but you know you can do it.”
York Light Opera Company present Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, York Theatre Royal, February 12 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinee on both Saturdays. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
DEER Shed Festival’s second wave of acts for July 24 to 26 at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, near Thirsk, is confirmed today.
Ghostpoet, Cate Le Bon, Tim Burgess and Warmduscher are among more
than 30 new additions, complementing a bill that already features Stereolab and
Baxter Dury among its headliners.
Two-time Mercury nominee Ghostpoet will join headliners Stereolab
on the Friday Main Stage line-up, while Welsh avant-pop singer-songwriter Cate
Le Bon will play before Deer Shed’s yet-to-be-revealed Saturday night Main
Stage headliner.
Tim Burgess,
frontman of Madchester icons The Charlatans, will headline In The Dock, Deer
Shed’s second of four live music stages, on the Friday, followed by The
Twilight Sad and Kate Tempest on the Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Boy Azooga, Dream Wife and Jesca Hoop are all artists familiar with performing at Baldersby Park, 100 acres of North Yorkshire parkland, woodland, lakes and rivers that Deer Shed calls home. Boy Azooga will be on the Main Stage on the Sunday, Dream Wife have been elevated to In The Dock headliners on the Friday and Jesca Hoop will join Roddy Woomble as a Lodge stage headliner on the Saturday.
Warmduscher will
play at Deer Shed on the Saturday, bringing their industrial post-punk sounds
to the Main Stage after Tainted Lunch
was named among BBC 6 Music’s 2019 Albums of the Year.
As is Deer Shed tradition, Yorkshire and North East acts will be well represented: step forward Hull punks LIFE; Leeds indie bands Marsicans and Ruthie; Sheffield nerd disco trio International Teachers Of Pop; North York Moors alt rock band Avalanche Party; Leeds folk singers Serious Sam Barrett and Gary Stewart and north easterners Mt. Misery, Tom Joshua and Beccy Owen.
A wealth of folk-influenced artists have been added too, among them Erland Cooper, Admiral Fallow; I See Rivers; Kitt Philipa; Rachael Dadd; Eve Owen; Irish Mythen; Conchúr White and The Magpies.
The
alternative rock contingent is bolstered by the additions of hotly tipped bands
W.H. Lung, Do Nothing, Egyptian Blue, Kate Davis and Friedberg.
Irish folk
duo Morrissey & Marshall will present their Dublin Calling radio show live
from Balderbsy Park, featuring live performances by Steo Wall, Brigid Mae Power
and Padraig Jack.
Harrogate
Big Beat producer Rory Hoy and Newcastle producer Meg Ward will be Deer Shed’s
first DJs, spinning tunes back to back at the Friday late-night silent disco,
while Happy Mondays’ Bez will take to the decks and dancefloor for Sunday’s
closing party.
The festival
team still has a handful of high-profile names left to reveal, but cards will
be kept close to the chest for the time being.
Festival
director Oliver Jones says: “There has yet to be a year at Deer Shed where we
haven’t significantly expanded the music offering. The day may eventually come
where we decide we have enough amazing bands, but that year certainly isn’t
2020.
“Ghostpoet, Cate Le Bon, Tim Burgess and Warmduscher, joining headliners Stereolab and Baxter Dury, plus a mass of artists ready to break the big time in 2020, are all ensuring the music line-up is once again brimming with world-class talent, and we still have an ace up our sleeve for the Saturday headline slot.”
The second tier of tickets for Deer Shed’s 11th summer festival are expected to sell out at midnight on Friday, January 31. Tier 3 tickets will be available from Saturday at an increase of £10 per adult ticket. For tickets and more information, go to deershedfestival.com.
Full list of artists confirmed for Deer Shed Festival 11(additions
in bold):
Stereolab (headline); Baxter Dury (headline); Ghostpoet,
Cate Le Bon; Kate Tempest (Telling Poems); Tim Burgess; The Twilight Sad; Sinkane; Warmduscher; Boy
Azooga; Dream Wife; Roddy Woomble; Jesca
Hoop; Snapped Ankles; Melt
Yourself Down; Liz Lawrence; LIFE; Marsicans; Erland
Cooper; Dry Cleaning.
Admiral Fallow; W.H. Lung;
Ren Harvieu; International
Teachers of Pop; Avalanche Party; I See Rivers; Kitt
Philippa; Rachael Dadd; Native Harrow; Kate
Davis; Big Joanie; Do Nothing; Egyptian Blue; Rina
Mushonga; Friedberg;
Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine; Ruthie; Serious
Sam Barrett; Eve Owen.
Irish Mythen; Tom Joshua; Brigid Mae Power; Conchúr
White; Gary Stewart; Beccy Owen; Mt.
Misery; Morrissey & Marshall present Dublin Calling; Steo
Wall; The Magpies; Padraig Jack; Bez
(DJ); Rory Hoy (DJ); Meg Ward (DJ).
Viking reproduction gold rings at the Jorvik Viking Festival
HORDES of Norse academics will descend on York during the 36th Jorvik Viking Festival, armed with fresh news of the Viking world.
During the
February 15 to 23 festival run, lectures and talks will explore the concept of
a single common European-wide market enjoyed by the Vikings, the remarkable
voyage of replica ship The Viking and the latest discoveries at Trondheim.
The programme
of talks has been compiled by Dr Chris Tuckley, head of interpretation for York
Archaeological Trust. “Jorvik Viking Festival is attended by Norse
enthusiasts from around the world, from children getting their first taste of
Viking culture, to academics who have devoted their lives to learning more
about our Scandinavian ancestors,” he says.
“So, alongside
the colourful hands-on events and presentations, we always host a series of
talks and lectures that are accessible to a wide range of people, from
enthusiastic amateur historians to leading names in the worlds of archaeology
and research.”
Talks for 2020
include:
Home & Away: Fashion and identity in the Viking Age, presented by Dr
Gareth Williams, of the British Museum, on February 18 at 7pm at the Jorvik
Viking Centre.
This talk will
explore how fashion varied across the Viking world, including how it fused with
other styles as the Vikings explored the globe. Tickets cost £25.
Here come the Vikings
The Helen Thirza Addyman Lecture by Chris McLees, archaeologist and researcher at Trondheim, a 10th century Viking trading settlement, on February 19 at 7pm at Fountains Lecture Theatre, York St John University.
This lecture will present the archaeology of
this important place on the northern periphery of the Viking and medieval
worlds, including the results of excavations at sites associated with the
renowned late-Viking kings Olav Haraldsson (St Olav) and Harald Hardrada. Tickets
are £10 for adults, £8 for concessions.
Looking for Jet in A Dark Place, by Sarah Steele,
consultant geologist for Whitby Museum, who explores the trade in black jet
around the Viking world at the Jorvik Viking Centre on February 20 at 7pm.
The mineral of
jet, which requires extreme global warming to form, was traded as far afield as
Greenland, yet remains notoriously difficult to identify in the archaeological
record. Attendees will learn how modern technology may soon appreciate fully
the scope of Whitby Jet’s trade during
the medieval period. Tickets cost £25.
All of these events
build up to the Richard Hall Symposium, closing the festival on February 23 in
the De Grey Lecture Theatre at York St John University.
The theme of that
day’s talks will be A Single Market for Goods and Services? , Travel and
Trade in the Viking World, with experts including Professor Lesley Abrams, of
Oxford University, Dr Gareth Williams, from the British Museum, Dr Jane Kershaw,
of the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, and Maria Nørgaard, project leader at Vikinger på Rejse, Denmark.
For more details on all the talks and presentations at the 2020 Jorvik Viking Festival, visit jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk.
