York violinist Paul Milhau: music, coffee, tea and a chat on a relaxed afternoon
YORK professional violinist Paul Milhau will perform
February 20’s Dementia Friendly Tea Concert at St Chad’s Church, Campleshon
Road, York.
His 45-minute classical concert of solo violin pieces will
be followed by tea, coffee, homemade cakes and a chance to chat.
Milhau’s 2.30pm programme will combine two partitas by J S
Bach with Eugène Ysaye’s lovely second sonata in a
relaxed atmosphere suitable for anyone who might not feel able to attend a
formal classical event.
No admission charge applies but donations are welcome. Please
note, there is a small car park at the church, along with street parking on
Campleshon Road. Disabled access is via the hall.
SHARON
McDonagh cannot recall any past Urban Decay exhibition in the historic city of York.
“So, this show will be quite unique and probably a tad controversial for York,” she says, introducing her Fragments artwork as lead artist in the Urban Decay winter show at Blossom Street Gallery, in the shadow of Micklegate Bar, York.
“With the new development plans being released late last year for Piccadilly and the public view on the design of the new hotel, especially the Banana Warehouse façade, I’m exhibiting my paintings of these buildings, as well as a new one of the lovely derelict ‘Malthouse’ building in The Crescent that was, up until recently, taken over by Space Invaders as a pop-up arts, craft, food and drink space until its demolition.”
Sharon is
drawn to painting the “darker side” to York, in particular to its derelict
buildings, against the backdrop of her high-profile past career as a police
forensic artist. That work required her to draw dead bodies, creating artist’s
impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and crime-scene
information, and you
can make the psychologist’s leap between death and decay if that is your Freudian
wont.
“It might seem mad going from being a forensic artist depicting bodies to doing paintings of decay, but I suppose it’s all an organic path of death and destruction,” she says.
Driven by
a passion for a nostalgia and a fascination with urban decay, the Holgate
artist sees both dereliction in York and now dereliction of duty among the city’s
architects and developers.
Switched on but empty: one of Sharon McDonagh’s Fragments at Blossom Street Gallery
“Redevelopment,
if it’s done in the right way, is fine, but I don’t think they’re empathetic
with what the building was originally. They’re too consumed by money, not by aesthetics,
which is ironic when we’re living in a beautiful city like York.”
Sharon took part in York Open Studios for the first time last spring – and will do so again at Venue 57 in April – when her exhibition of derelict buildings had the title of Transition. “What’s been lost in York’s buildings is soul,” she says.
“Like when Space Invaders took over the ‘Malthouse’, different organic communities came together and gave it soul – it was always busy, it had such a good vibe, and because it was off the beaten track, you didn’t get stag and hen party groups going there – and it makes me mad that other places in York are not doing the same.
“So, when
I saw the plans for Piccadilly, I thought ‘here we go again’. It’s not about
being radical; it’s about being in tune with how York was.
“I think
of all of York’s forgotten buildings that people walk past but don’t give a
thought to, but people worked in those buildings, lived in those buildings, had
businesses in them, and we need to utilise what’s been left derelict. But, as I
said before, it seems to be York is becoming soulless.
The Front Elevation, The Malthouse, by Sharon McDonagh, the latest addition to her Transitions series of derelict York buildings
“The opportunity
to make something of York’s old buildings is wasted by lack of creativity and
empathy for what was there before, and I just don’t know what designers,
planners and architects are going to do with the city next.”
You will not be surprised that Sharon is a supporter of the somewhat contentious Spark:York small business enterprise in 23 “upcycled” shipping containers in Piccadilly. “I love it! People who don’t go there are the ones who criticise it, saying it’s an eyesore, but there was nothing there before, and yes, four of the businesses that started there have moved to bigger premises,” she says.
Sharon
has another reason for “always loving” derelict buildings, she reveals. “I
enjoyed the rave scene of the late Eighties and early Nineties that took over
derelict places, though I was more intent on looking around the buildings than
dancing!” she says. “I know it was illegal, but you could walk around these
amazing old buildings, which was fantastic.”
For her
Fragments show, she has complemented her 2019 Transition buildings with new paintings
inspired by her work in end-of-life care, personal experience and working with
dementia patients.
“The Fragments series is an exploration into the fragility of life,” she says of her tactile paintings that evoke emotion, nostalgia and intrigue. “The vintage light switches and sockets symbolise the person, while their last moments and memories are represented by the fragments of wallpaper and tiles. The last glimpses of life, the last remaining fragments before they die.
“I thought of light switches and sockets, because of the act of switching on and off lights and then life finally being switched off.”
In her artwork, she creates highly textured acrylic and multi-media paintings that examine “the beauty that nature makes through decay”. Basing her Fragments designs on vintage wallpaper, she makes and hand paints all the pieces of wallpaper and tiles separately. She then distresses them to look old and decayed before adding them to her paintings.
“When you
see a derelict house, there are so many levels of paint and wallpaper, so many
different lives have been lived there, so many layers to those lives, that it’s
akin to your own life, which has many layers,” she says
Analysing her subject matter, Sharon notes: “I always have a bit of a dark side, don’t I? People think I must have a broom and cauldron at home and fly around at night! But I love how natural decay can cause beauty.
“It’s
about change; urban decay is about natural change, but we don’t like change, or
people or things dying, but we can’t shy away from it.
Miss You, by Sharon McDonagh, dedicated to her late father. Note the receiver, dislodged off the hook
“It’s
that simple. We’re here and then we’re gone, but people don’t like to talk about
death – but it’s been in my working life for a long time, first as a police
forensic artist and then at the hospital.”
Her
artistic outpourings have helped Sharon deal with her own grief. “When a parent
goes – my dad had cancer – that grief changes you forever, you feel it every day,
but you grasp at what keeps them alive in your thoughts, you grasp at what
reminds you of them. That’s why there’s nostalgia in my paintings,” she says.
“I’ve
dedicated the painting of a telephone in the Fragments series to my father, so
I’ve called it Miss You, and symbolically the receiver is off the hook to
signify the last missed call.”
Sharon always
paints “from the heart, not from the bank balance”. “That’s the right way. If
someone stands in front of one of my paintings and gets an emotional response,
that means more to me than money in the bank,” she says.
Shades Of Decay 2, by Sharon McDonagh, at Blossom Street Gallery
“When I’m
painting, it has to mean something to me, or it won’t mean something to someone
else when they look at it.
“I also like my paintings to be tactile. If you can touch something, it evokes memories, and that’s why I like doing 3D pieces and collages, so you can touch them and all your senses are working at once. I love touching paintings, though I once got chucked out of a gallery for doing that!”
From paintings, to prints and cards, Sharon’s Fragments are in touching distance at Blossom Street Gallery until the end of February. “It’s great to be invited to do an exhibition on Urban Decay, which I don’t think has been done in York before, and it’s been really good to get feedback on it,” she says.
What would York’s planners, designers and architects make of it, you wonder.
York artist Sharon McDonagh, standing by her Fragments artwork at Blossom Street Gallery’s Urban Decay exhibition in York
Did you know?
FOR many years, Sharon McDonagh created artist’s impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and crime-scene information.
She gained recognition for
her work within this field on television, as well as in the media, on account
of her unusual work and experiences.
She was commissioned as an
artist by the BBC to produce the drawing of a late relative of footballer-turned-television-presenter
Gary Lineker for BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?.
She has been involved in community art projects with disadvantaged young people and now works with teenagers from challenging backgrounds, promoting art as a way to express themselves.
At York Hospital, she is
delivering a unique project on the dementia ward, using art as a way to
encourage patient interaction and alleviate anxiety.
The Banana Warehouse, Piccadilly, one of Sharon McDonagh’s Transitions series, to be exhibited at City Screen, York, in May and June
Sharon McDonagh’s exhibitions
Urban Decay, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street Gallery, York, until February 29. Joint show with Fran Brammer, Linda Harvey, Simon Sugden and Jill Tattersall.
York Open Studios “Taster” Exhibition, Central Methodist Church, St
Saviourgate, York, April 3 (private virew), 4 and 5.
York Open Studios, Venue 57, Holgate, York, April 17, preview evening 7pm to 9pm; April 18, 19, 25 and 26, 10am to 5pm.
City Screen café bar, Coney Street, York, May 19 to June 15, featuring
six Piccadilly paintings. “The café has soul,” she says. “The wall is exposed
brickwork, which is a perfect backdrop for my work.”
Resonate solo exhibition, Basement Arts Project, Beeston, Leeds, June 22
to July 21. “It really will be in a basement,” she says.
Robert Daws’ committee chairman Ray, left, and Mark Curry’s pedantic Councillor Donald Evans in Ten Times Table. Pictures: Pamela Raith
REVIEW: Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table, The Classic Comedy Theatre Company, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york
IMPRESARIO and
prolific producer Bill Kenwright has his name on multiple shows that frequent
the Grand Opera House, from musicals to the Agatha Christie, Classic Thriller
and Classic Screen To Stage companies.
Now add The
Classic Comedy Theatre Company to that list, making their debut tour either
side of Christmas with Ten Times Table, Alan Ayckbourn’s “calamitous comedy by
committee” from 1977, the year when committees popped up everywhere to mark HM
The Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Those stellar
names of British theatre, Kenwright and Ayckbourn, are complemented by a third:
Robin Herford, perennial director of The Woman In Black and much else, not
least past productions of Ayckbourn’s Just Between Ourselves at the Stephen
Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Relatively Speaking, Confusions, Bedroom Farce and Season’s
Greetings elsewhere.
What’s
more, Ayckbourn cast him as pedantic, punctilious, punctuation and procedure-obsessed
Councillor Donald Evans in his SJT premiere of Ten Times Table in January 1977.
Everything
sounded so promising for Herford’s touring production, not least a cast
starring Robert Daws, Robert Duncan, Mark Curry and Deborah Grant. Certainly,
more promising than the gloomy forecast that the River Ouse floodwaters could
be seeping beneath the Grand Opera House doors by 6am, prompting senior
management to stay on watchful guard through the night.
Thankfully, such concerns turned out to be a false dawn. Alas, Ten Times Table proved to be a damp squib too: that rare occasion when an Ayckbourn play just isn’t very funny any more.
Maybe we are spoilt by Sir Alan’s revivals of his classics at the Stephen Joseph Theatre each summer season; maybe they better suit the bear-pit setting of the SJT’s theatre in the round: more intimate, more inclusive, more apt for the combative nature of his vintage comedies. Maybe it is significant that Ten Times Table has never been among those revivals.
Misfiring: Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy Ten Times Table fires blanks in Robin Herford’s touring production
Here in
York, on a proscenium-arch stage, as with the body of a giraffe, Ten Times
Table feels like the work of a committee. Or the work of a committee like the
one we are watching as they assemble maybe ten times around the table (although
your reviewer lost count).
Welcome to the “miscellaneous assemblage” of the Pendon Folk Festival committee, gathering beneath the erratic lights of the faded grand ballroom of the Swan Hotel, as Seventies as hotel grey gravy and over-boiled veg and as tired as the comedy in Michael Holt’s design.
The
pathway to the Pendon Pageant will be a bumpy one, all the more so for the
irascible, over-excitable disposition of chairman Ray (Robert Daws), who bores
everyone, audience included unfortunately, as he recounts Pendon’s most dramatic
news story of the past.
Now the 18th
century army massacre of the radical Pendon Twelve agricultural agitators is to
be re-enacted on pageant day. Ayckbourn duly sets up matching class warfare:
middle-class conservatism on one side, represented by smug Ray; his constantly
peeved, overbearing wife Helen (Deborah Grant); a mad, revolver-toting military
dog-breeder, Tim (Harry Gostelow), and ineffectual dullard Councillor Evans
(Mark Curry).
Always accompanying
Evans is his octogenarian mum Audrey (Elizabeth Power), the minute-taking but
pretty much deaf committee secretary who never delivers the minutes, dithering dottily
except when a drink or the chance to play the piano comes her way.
On the
other side, representing the agitators, is the truculent Marxist martyr, comprehensive
schoolteacher Eric (Craig Gazey), and his acolytes, the ever-underwhelming
Sophie (Gemma Oaten), even a disappointment to herself, and the almost impossibly
quietly spoken costume maker Philippa (Rhiannon Handy).
No idea
where he is, the sozzled Laurence (Robert Duncan) stumbles from marital crisis
to the next marital crisis.
Ayckbourn
depicts the minutiae of committee conduct with trademark mischief making but
somehow this Ten Times Table does not add up amid the personality and
ideological clashes. The power-driven Ray is as irritating as the banging on
the floor above; plenty of others follow suit, and, especially in the long
first half, the comedy feels too slow, too forced, the timing……..off.
Jeff Beck: playing York Barbican for the first time this spring
GUITAR great Jeff
Beck will play York Barbican on May 19 on his nine-date British tour.
Tickets for the two-time Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame inductee and serial Grammy Award winner will go on sale on Friday, February 14 at 10am.
Joining blues,
rock and jazz guitarist Beck on tour will be Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Rhonda
Smith on bass and Vanessa Freebairn-Smith on cello.
Beck’s tour will begin on May 17, taking in a second Yorkshire show at Sheffield City Hall on May 23 and climaxing with a London finale at the Royal Albert Hall on May 26 and 27.
Over the
course of a career stretching beyond 50 years, Beck has won eight Grammy awards;
been ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of
All Time and been inducted into the Rock’n’Roll
Hall of Fame, both with The Yardbirds and solo.
Beck replaced
Eric Clapton as The Yardbirds’ lead guitarist in 1965, going on to form The
Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on bass. So much has
followed and, now 75, the Wallington-born guitarist is working on new music for
release in 2020 on Rhino/Warner Records.
From Friday, tickets for Beck’s York Barbican debut will be available at yorkbarbican.co.uk and myticket.co.uk, on 0203 356 5441 or in person at the Barbican box office.Sheffield tickets: sheffieldcityhall.co.uk, myticket.co.uk or 0114 278 9789.
STORYTELLER, poet and BBC Radio 4 regular John Osborne returns
to Pocklington Arts Centre on Thursday to present his beautiful, funny and
uplifting new theatre show about music and dementia.
Last March,
he performed a quietly spoken double bill of John Peel’s Shed and Circled In
The Radio Times in the bar; intimate, convivial storytelling in an intimate,
convivial space.
Now, inspired by seeing a friend’s father face a dementia
diagnosis and the feelings of warmth and positivity and unexpected twists and
turns the family went through, he has put together You’re In A Bad Way.
“This is the fifth theatre show I’ve made and it’s definitely my favourite,” says Osborne. “That’s because I never planned to write about something as personal as dementia, and I’d never written about such a big topic before, which I felt was intimidating and other writers would do it.
“But I was faced with this dilemma when my friend’s father was
diagnosed with dementia a couple of years ago. It was a really interesting
thing to observe, because though it was horrible and terrifying and sad, it was
also beautiful and magical with special moments.
“It felt like such a beautiful story that I wanted to tell. Just
because you’ve been diagnosed with something, it doesn’t mean it’s the end.”
Osborne recalls the circumstances behind his friend’s
revelation. “My friend and I go to Glastonbury every summer. We started at 21
and we’ve been going for 17 years now and we never miss a year,” he says.
“So, it was one of those sweet things we like to do, but it was
at Glastonbury she told me about her father. Glastonbury is kind of where these
things do happen, when you’re spending so much time together.
“I was saying I felt I was getting too old for Glastonbury, for putting
up tents and the like, and it was then she suddenly told me about her dad’s
dementia, and I thought, ‘what’s happening to us?’. But everyone has these
stories, don’t they?”
This set in motion You’re In A Bad Way. “I started thinking
about my relationships, friendships; growing up and now not being as young as
you used to be, but also about having the luxury of growing old, and then my
friend’s father dementia diagnosis,” says Osborne. “I also found myself
thinking about how music plays an important part in our lives.”
Gradually, music and dementia joined in union as Osborne wrote
the show. “Initially, I was looking at music from my own point of view, but the
more I researched dementia, sport and music were two things that were so important
to dementia patients,” he says.
“Like hearing an old commentary from a cup final their favourite
team won. Someone who has been unresponsive to any stimulus can suddenly go back
to where they first heard that commentary.
“It’s the same with music, where they can remember the lyrics
from years ago, but can’t now remember who anyone is.”
Before he went ahead with You’re In A Bad Way, Osborne sought
his friend’s approval for him to talk about her family’s story on stage. “She
works in theatre and said she was happy if a theatre show did discuss these
things,” he recalls.
The poster artwork for John Osborne’s dementia-and-music show You’re In A Bad Way
When premiering the show at last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe, Osborne
spent time at a dementia care centre in the Scottish capital to ensure he was
fully informed about the experience of caring for someone with dementia.
“I met these fantastic women at LifeCare Edinburgh, and we
talked about what they do and how they wanted to raise awareness of what they
do,” says Osborne. “We raised money at the end of every performance to give to
LifeCare.
“It was really good to get information and stories from them and
to be able to repay them by mentioning LifeCare at each show.”
Osborne says that every time he performs You’re In A Bad Way, he
learns new things about dementia. For example, the feeling of isolation when confronted
by loved one falling into the black hole
of dementia. “If you’ve got a parent with dementia, it can be very hard to
communicate about it with your friends, as your relationship with your family
is so specific to you,” he says.
“In the case of my friend, her response was to drop everything to
support her father, whereas her sister couldn’t deal with it at all and wasn’t
there for him. She ran away from it.
“But whatever your reaction, there are thousands of reasons for
why people do what they do in those circumstances.
“That’s why I wanted to do my research and not be out of my
comfort zone when people tell me their own stories at the shows. I’ve met
people who have stayed and supported; I’ve met people who ran away.”
Looking
forward to Thursday’s Pock performance, what tone can the audience expect? “As
it’s such a big topic, I’ve tried to make the show funny and life affirming and
relatable,” says Osborne.
“I don’t
want it to be sad or serious; I think it’s important for it to be a good story
to someone who has no association with dementia, as well as being sensitive to
those who live surrounded by the illness.”
Osborne is busy writing his next show for this summer’s
Edinburgh Fringe. “After two serious shows, You’re In A Bad Way, and before
that, Circled In The Radio Times, which was also about getting older, I
thought, ‘I really want to write something fun’,” he says, introducing My Car
Plays Tapes.
“I’d had my first car for years, but it broke down. I did my John
Peel’s Shed tour in it, and that’s partly why it broke down, when a little
Fiesta isn’t meant to do that many miles, with a box of records in the back.
“So, I got the cheapest replacement car possible, with no
electric windows, no CD player, but it’s got a tape player. Suddenly I was
re-united with the tapes I made when I was 16, when I would have had no reason
to listen to them again otherwise.
“That’s set me off writing about being forced to re-visit your
past.” Hopefully, the resulting show will make its way to Pocklington
post-Edinburgh Fringe.
In the meantime, tickets for Thursday’s 7.30pm performance of You’re In A Bad Way are on sale at £10 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or £12 on the door, with a special price of £9 for a carer of someone with dementia.
A Bunch Of Amateurs writers Ian Hislop, left, and Nick Newman
PRIVATE Eye
editor and Have I Got News For You team captain Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s
comedy A Bunch Of Amateurs will play York Theatre Royal from June 2 to 6.
What happens in this play? Keen to boost his flagging career,
fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King
Lear in Stratford, only to find that he is not in the birthplace of
Shakespeare, but in a sleepy Suffolk village.
Instead of starring alongside Sir Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi
Dench, the cast members are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre
from ruthless developers.
Jefferson’s monstrous ego,
vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians
who share his spotlight. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career
implodes, he discovers some truths about himself and his inner Lear.
After tours of Hislop and Newman’s The Wipers
Times and Trial By Laughter, Trademark
Touring, Karl Sydow and Anthology Theatre, in association with The Everyman
Theatre, Cheltenham, will be taking A Bunch Of Amateurs on the road from April 23 to July 4.
Hislop and Newman say: “Following successful national tours of The Wipers Times and Trial By Laughter, we are thrilled to be touring the very first
play we wrote, A Bunch Of Amateurs: a love
letter to the world of amateur theatre and a celebration of the overweening
absurdity of Hollywood stardom.”
A Bunch Of Amateurs will
be directed by Robin Herford, whose production of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy Ten
Times Table for impresario Bill Kenwright’s Classic Comedy Theatre Company is
running at the Grand Opera House, York, this week.
Herford is best known for directing The Woman In Black, the Stephen Mallatratt stage adaptation of Susan
Hill’s novel that he commissioned in 1987 when artistic director of the Stephen
Joseph Theatre. The Woman In Black has
been running in the West End for 30 years, always directed by Herford, along
with the regular tours.
Tickets for A Bunch Of Amateurs are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Note the name of the pub: the perfect prescient setting for The Last Quiz Night On Earth
QUICK question. Did you see Chip Shop Chips, Box Of Tricks Theatre Company’s show at Pocklington Arts Centre last year?
Yes? So,
presumably you will want know when they will be returning to Pock and what in?
The answers
are Friday, March 20 in The Last Quiz Night On Earth, an immersive, innovative
new play by Alison Carr for theatre devotees and pub quiz enthusiasts alike, who
are promised “a very different experience of live performance”, set in a pub.
In the Box
Of Tricks locker already are the award-winning Manchester company’s shows
SparkPlug, Narvik and Under Three Moons. Now they follow two sold-out
tours of Chip Shop Chips with Carr’s pre-apocalyptic comedy, The Last Quiz
Night On Earth, as an asteroid heads to Earth in a tour that also visits the
Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, for performances in the bar on March 24
and 25.
Writer Alison Carr and assistant director Kitty Ball in the rehearsal room for The Last Quiz Night On Earth. Picture: Alex Mead
Next
question. What happens? “It’s the final countdown. Landlady Kathy invites
audiences to the last quiz night on earth with Quizmaster Rav. He is the host
with the most,” say Box Of Tricks, an associate company at the SJT, by the way.
“But with
time ticking, some unexpected guests turn up out of the blue. Bobby wants to
settle old scores and Fran wants one last shot at love. Expect the
unexpected to the bitter end and plenty of drama as the show gets quizzical.”
Hannah
Tyrrell-Pinder directs the play, with design by Katie Scott. Pub landlady Kathy
will be played by Meriel Scholfield, who has appeared in Coronation Street,
Last Tango In Halifax, Holby City and Doctors, while Shaban Dar will take the
role of pre-apocalyptic Quizmaster Rav.
Playwright
Alison Carr’s past works include Caterpillar and Iris; her latest play,
Tuesday, has been commissioned for the National Theatre’s 2020 Connections
programme, to be performed by 40 groups from across the country. The Last Quiz Night On Earth is her first
for Box Of Tricks.
Box Of Tricks director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder
Next
question. Why did she write The Last Quiz Night On Earth? “I started two other ideas
before this one but they wouldn’t take hold. The idea of a quiz night kept
popping into my head but I’d dismiss it because I was worried it’d been done
too often before.
“So,
I kept plugging away and overcomplicating things, until eventually I thought ‘okay,
lean into it – a quiz night and what? A quiz night AND the world is about to
end. It all opened up from there and a quiz night became the only way to tell
this story.
“It
brings so much to explore like togetherness and community, camaraderie, competitiveness.
Throw into the mix an asteroid heading straight for us, and the stakes get
higher. It’s the final chance to say the unsaid, heal rifts, get the last word,
make peace with regrets or try to do something about them.”
Alison
wanted to combine the known and the unknown, the safe and the downright terrifying. “My
vision was to create something that audiences don’t just sit and watch but are
part of – but not in a scary way,” she says.
Meriel Schofield as pub landlady Kathy in The Last Quiz Night On Earth. Picture: Alex Mead
“Personally, the thought of audience participation makes me feel
sick, but a quiz is something we can all do, whether we’re a general knowledge
expert or the neatest so we can do the writing.”
Comparing The Last Quiz Night On Earth with her past work,
Alison says: “There
are elements there like a fractious sibling relationship, and having something
quite extreme or unexpected going on.
“But, overall, it’s quite a departure, especially the characters’ interaction with the audience. My jumping- off point was to write something fun. A play about an imminent apocalypse might not sound like larks and giggles, but around the time I got the call, I’d been researching a lot of serious, dark material for other plays I was writing.
“It
takes its toll. So, when Hannah got in touch, my first thoughts were ‘yes
please’ and ‘for my own well-being, it’s got to be fun’. Plus, I always want to
be challenging myself, not trotting out the same-old, same-old. And just like
‘dark’ doesn’t mean humourless or hard-going, ‘fun’ certainly doesn’t equal
something fluffy or meaningless. It is the end of the world, after all.”
Shaban Dar as pre-apocalyptic Quizmaster Rav
Alison
names Victoria Wood as her biggest inspiration. “She was, is, and always will be,”
she says. “Her voice is so distinctive and so northern. She’s why I tried
writing anything in the first place. She brought joy to so many and achieved so
much, she was a grafter.
“I’ll
always try and see any Edward Albee or Tennessee Williams plays I can: they’re
so big and fearless. Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen Of Leenane is one of my
favourite plays. Lee Hall, Bryony Lavery, Zinnie Harris. I recently saw and
read some Annie Baker plays and I’m in awe of her.
“Having
said all that, I’m not so much a fan of particular playwrights as I am plays
and theatre in general. I try and see as much theatre as I can in the North
East and beyond.”
Last
question, Alison, why should the good people of Pocklington and Scarborough seeThe Last Quiz Night On Earth? “Well,
there’s a quiz – a real one. Real questions, real teams, real swapping of answer
sheets to mark,” she says. “You don’t have to be good at quizzes (I’m not) or,
if you are, great, come and show off.
Chris Jack as Bobby in Box Of Tricks’ production
“And when
you’re not trying to remember which British city hosted the 1970 Commonwealth
Games, there’s a story unfolding around you about family and regrets and last
chances. About making your mark, about grabbing the bull by the horns and not
waiting until it’s too late to say ‘I love you’ or ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I’ve never
liked that colour on you’.
“I
wouldn’t want anyone other than Box of Tricks making The Last Quiz Night On
Earth. Their work is never pretentious or intimidating, it’s welcoming and warm
and a good night out. What better way to meet our fiery demise?”
Box Of Tricks present The Last Quiz Night On Earth, Pocklington Arts Centre, March 20, 7.30pm, and Stephen Joseph Theatre bar, Scarborough, March 24, 1.30pm (Dementia Friendly performance) and 7.30pm; March 25, 7.30pm. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
YORK artist Linda Combi was so struck by a Channel 4 News story on The
Last Gardener Of Aleppo that she has responded with an exhibition of the same
title.
“This work is a new departure for me and it’s taken some time to complete, but at last it’s nearly ready,” she says.
Linda’s artwork will be on show from February 25 to April 6 at The Angel on the Green café bar – “where the footfall is huge,” she says – in Bishopthorpe Road, York.
“The news story featured Abu Waad, who ran a garden centre in the
besieged city Syrian city of Aleppo, assisted by his 12-year-old son Ibrahim,” she
recalls.
“Throughout the film, Abu Waad – his name means ‘Father of the Flowers’ –
described his love and admiration for flowers and plants. This last remaining
garden centre was an oasis of calm and beauty for the citizens of Aleppo, who
were experiencing death and destruction all around them.”
Not long after the film was made in 2016, Abu Waad was tragically killed by a bomb that fell nearby.
Father Of The Flowers, in memory of Abu Waad, The Last Gardener of Aleppo, by Linda Combi
“His garden centre was closed and his son Ibrahim was left fatherless. I wanted to commemorate Abu Waad’s life and work through art and decided to hold an exhibition where 80 per cent of any proceeds from the exhibition and card sales would be divided between the charities UNHCR and The Lemon Tree Trust,” says Linda.
“Because of the continuing horrors being endured by the Syrian people, it feels important to celebrate life and beauty at this time.”
Many of Linda’s pieces in the exhibition are illustrations inspired by the words of Abu Waad and based on Syrian carpet designs found in her research. All the work is mixed media, incorporating painted papers, drawing, and stencil.
As well as work directly relating to the story of Abu Waad, further
pieces take the theme of The Oasis in celebration of secure and beautiful
places, such as gardens, set in harsh environments.
“The Lemon Tree Trust is involved in helping refugees create gardens in
their strange new surroundings, and so I’ve included an artwork about the
journeys made by refugees who often travel carrying seeds from home,” says
Linda.
“Both the UNHCR and The Lemon Tree Trust have responded positively to
this exhibition, offering materials for display and distribution. I’m
grateful for the good work that they do.”
Linda’s The Last Gardener Of Aleppo will be launched on February 25 from
8.30pm.
Hazelnut, by Linda Combi
Here, Charles Hutchinson interviews Linda Combi ahead of The Last
Gardener Of Aleppo opening.
What form did your research take, Linda?
“I watched the Channel 4 News story The Last
Gardener Of Aleppo over and over again on YouTube, drawing Abu Waad and his son
Ibrahim, and taking down the words of Abu Waad about his love of flowers and
plants.
“I then found images of Syrian carpets on the net,
but also visited the Islamic Room of the British Museum to draw from their
decorative tiles.
“I needed images of drones, of bombers, and of
destruction from bombing, sadly too often available on the news.
“Finally, I downloaded a map of Aleppo, which I then used for my collages. York Central MP Rachael Maskell’s talk at a public meeting a few years ago, about how events in Syria have unfolded, was really informative, and I thank her for that.
If the pen is mightier than the sword, can art be mightier than the bomb (in the long run)?
“I’ve been very inspired by the works of Banksy,
particularly his public art on The Wall in Palestine, and his Bethlehem ‘Walled
Off Hotel’.
Desert Flower, by Linda Combi
“Political cartoons are powerful instruments for
highlighting hypocrisy and dictatorship. Picasso’s Guernica is
horribly relevant today.
“OK, these art forms haven’t stopped the bombing, but they have shone a light on the atrocities. As well as enriching our lives and reminding us of joy, art can be critical and informative and have the power to undermine those in power.
“I’ve been hugely impressed by the creativity shown
in the placards seen on the streets during protests during the past few years.”
Poppies are so evocative of the First World War. Your art is embracing flower power too. What makes them such a potent symbol in the face of human atrocities?
“As a San Francisco hippie who discovered the joys of gardening on
arriving in the UK, I do believe in flower power.
“Abu Waad’s flowers brought moments of joy to the citizens of Aleppo
during the destruction of that city, and who saw death all around them. He
believed that flowers could ‘nourish the soul’.
Despite Everything, by Linda Combi
“I’ve always been impressed by how flowers and their ’seasons’ are so important to the British. The arrival of snowdrops, then the daffodils, followed by bluebells and tulips: all herald the end of a long and dark winter. So, in an extreme situation like war, flowers bring a sense of the life force even more powerfully.”
What work do the charities UNHCR and The Lemon Tree Trust do?
“The UNHCR is the global United Nations Refugee Agency, which aims to
save lives, protect rights and help refugees to work for a peaceful and
productive future.
“They also help displaced communities and stateless people, and they believe
everybody has the right to seek asylum from violence and persecution, war
or disaster. “Their work is varied, involving education, providing shelter,
protecting migrants at risk, and highlighting the desperate plight of migrants
around the world.
“The Lemon Tree Trust believe that ‘gardening has the power to
positively address issues of isolation and mental health’.
“They help to create community gardens in refugee camps by working with
those refugees who are so very far from home.
The Flower Is The Essence Of The World, by Linda Combi
“The Refugee Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show was a moving example of how important this can be for refugees. One woman said, ‘We had so many flowers in Syria. This garden makes me happy’.”
What materials have the two charities offered for display and distribution?
“They’ve been very enthusiastic about the exhibition and have offered posters, leaflets, T-shirts and stickers, as well as publicising the exhibition on their social media.”
What are you working on next?
“The next project will be work with Refugee Action York on some teaching
materials. I’d also love to do more T-shirt designs for the Good
Organisation, who work with the homeless in York.
“As for personal work, I’ll be continuing the theme of migration, but
this time the emphasis will be on borders.
“I’ve lived in San Diego for a time and have witnessed migrants being
sent back over the border to Mexico after attempts trying to get into the USA.
“We walked along part of The Wall dividing Mexico and the USA and
talked to border patrol officers there.
This Tree Will Live – Despite Everything, by Linda Combi
“My time in Israel also fed into my preoccupation with walls and
divisiveness. My Sicilian ancestors came to the USA not knowing what the future
held for them, but they were made welcome and did create a good life and a
large family.
“I was welcomed to the UK many years ago, and so the issue of immigration has been central to my life.”
Will you be creating one of your humorous York calendars for 2021?
“It’s too late for a 2021 calendar but I’d love to create one for a
charity.
“As for the York calendars, I feel that though the tourist boom in York
might have boosted the economy, luxury flats and new cafes and restaurants
aren’t inspiring to draw!
“However, I can imagine being enticed by the prospect of a calendar that
would celebrate quirky, lesser-known pubs hidden away in York.”
Linda Combi’s poster for her Angel on the Green exhibition
Linda Combi: The Last Gardener Of Aleppo exhibition, Angel on the Green, Bishopthorpe Road, York, February 25 to April 6.
BONNEVILLE And
The Bailers, the York band du jour you just have to see, will play The Crescent
in York on February 20.
“This show is
what I’ve been working towards for the past six months with my fabulous new
band The Bailers,” says Bonnie Milnes, the fast-rising York combo’s singer and country-noir
songwriter. “I’ve loved smashing out hits with these world-class musicians and
can’t wait to take it to the stage at a venue I’ve always dreamed of
headlining.
“Next Thursday’s audience can expect a mix of heart break and
full-frontal sass as I write material on some tough times with some kickass
comeback songs. I’d describe the show as feminist, sexy and straight from
heart.”
Before then, on Wednesday, Bonnie is “so excited to be sharing a new single, Baby Drive, with an absolutely beautiful video shot by Luke Downing on a beautiful day at Rufforth Airfield, starring myself and my best friend and bass player Jack Garry”. “The song’s about thinking you’re in love with your best friend,” she says.
Bonnie Milnes and Jack Garry in a still from Luke Downing’s video for Baby Drive, Bonneville And The Bailers’ new single. View the video at https://youtu.be/h6H9Va9RNjA
Looking ahead, Bonnie says: “We don’t have any other York shows lined up
but we have got an exciting little tour of gigs that kicks off tomorrow
(February 11) in Hull [at 9.15pm at The Sesh at The Polar Bear, in Spring Bank]
and we’ll be supporting York’s own Benjamin Francis Leftwich at Komedia, Brighton,
on February 26.”
Meanwhile, Bonnie has been building a rehearsal studio with Young
Thugs’ sound technician Matt Woollons. “Called Boom, this has been my base for
writing, rehearsing and – before long – recording something new,” she says.
Tickets for February 20 cost £8 at eventbrite.co.uk/e/bonnie-and-the-bailers or seetickets.com, or in person from Earworm Records, in Powells Yard, Goodramgate, or The Crescent, off Blossom Street. Alternatively, pay more on the door from 7.30pm.
SAXON frontman Biff Byford will release his debut solo album, School Of
Hard Knocks, on February 21, backed up by his first ever solo tour in the
spring.
Among the ten British dates for the 69-year-old West Yorkshireman will
be Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on April 21.
In a show of two halves in ”An Evening With…” format, Honley-born Byford will be in conversation with American comedian Don Jamieson in the first, discussing his life and career with the That Metal Show star. After the break, Byford and his band will perform new tracks, covers and maybe a sprinkling of Saxon gold dust.
The tour poster for Bill Byford’s ten spring dates
“It’s a show I’ve wanted to do for a long
time and one which I don’t think has been done in hard rock before. It’s going
to be something a little bit different, it will be very cool and a lot of fun,”
says Byford, who played bass for assorted Barnsley bands as a teenager by night
while working at a colliery by day.
“The second half will
consist of some old songs, some new songs, some cover versions and some songs
off the solo album. It’s going to be great and I’m really looking forward to it.
So, I’ll see you there.”
The album artwork for Bill Byford’s School Of Hard Knocks
Produced by Byford at Brighton Electric Studios, School Of Hard Knocks reflects
the personality of this “Heavy Metal Bard of the North”, his loves
and musical versatility. Fulfilling his long-standing wish to explore rock’n’roll
a little more, the album takes a personal journey, highlighting his life and
his passionate interests, from growing up in the industrial north to the
history of the Middle Ages.
Byford’s old-school British hard rock album embraces a variety of
musical genres, taking in the Yorkshire folk classic Scarborough Fair, most
famously covered in the 1960s by Simon & Garfunkel and now given a new
arrangement by Byford and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson.
Tickets for April 21 are on sale at myticket.co.uk, cityvarieties.co.uk or on 0113 243 0808.
