Sarah Blanc in My Feminist Boner at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Pictures: Roswitha Cheshire
SARAH Blanc travels from beauty product addict to born-again feminist,
choreographer and comedian in her partly autobiographical show My Feminist Boner
at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on February 13.
Blanc’s performance “grapples with extreme societal pressures on the
female body and the conflict women feel between indulging in the beauty
industry and maintaining their feminist ideals”.
Sarah Blanc “grapples with the conflict women feel between indulging in the beauty industry and maintaining their feminist ideals”
“Why does the world place such unattainable beauty standards on women?
What does it mean to be a feminist today?” she asks.
My Feminist Boner combines honest confessionals and a show-and-tell of
beauty contraptions with conversations with her feminist-hating Dad,
progressively grotesque movement and satirical humour, as Blanc reveals her
anger at “the commodification of women’s bodies” and exposes the absurdity of
the beauty industry.
Sarah Blanc: angry at “the commodification of women’s bodies”
Blanc, an independent choreographer
and performer from Ireland, creates bold work that straddles the boundaries of
dance, theatre and comedy. She makes not only solo shows but also ensemble work
for adults and children with her all-female inclusive dance company Moxie
Brawl.
“I create work that
challenges preconceptions of what dance and dancers look like, that champions
the representation of diverse bodies on stage,” she says. “My work aims to take
risks without alienating people and is engaging to a wide range of audience.”
” I create work that challenges preconceptions of what dance and dancers look like,” says Sarah Blanc
Blanc has worked in dance
and inclusive practice for more than ten years and has delivered projects for
Greenwich Dance, GLYPT and East London Dance, along with choreographic
commissions such as A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer for Complicité/Bryony Kimmings. Her 2016 solo show It Started
With Jason Donovan won a 2016 Brighton Fringe Award.
Tickets for My Feminist Boner’s 7.45pm performance in the McCarthy are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
Alan George: musical director of The Academy of St Olave’s
YORK chamber orchestra The Academy of St Olave’s will perform in
support of the Accomplish Children’s Trust at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York,
on January 25.
Under the musical direction of Alan George, they will present a
wide-ranging programme pf music from the classical era to the 20th
century, opening with two contrasting Mozart works: the exuberant overture to
his first mature opera, Idomeneo, and the elegiac Masonic Funeral Music.
“The second was composed in memory of two of Mozart’s fellow
Freemasons, which unusually features three basset horns – a low-pitched member
of the clarinet family – and a contrabassoon in the woodwind section,” says
Alan.
“There’s also contrast between the pair of Scandinavian works that
complete the first half: Grieg’s ever-popular Holberg Suite for string
orchestra, evoking a bygone Baroque age, and Nielsen’s Serenata In Vano, a
quirky quintet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello and double bass that the
composer described as ‘a humorous trifle’.”
The 8pm concert will conclude with Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 in E
flat major, composed in 1793 for the composer’s second visit to London.
“We’re thrilled to begin the new decade with such a diverse
programme of music, from Mozart’s seldom-heard masonic music – including the
extremely rare opportunity to hear three distinguished basset horn players – to
Nielsen’s eccentric quintet. Alongside Grieg’s neoclassical masterpiece and one
of Haydn’s finest symphonies, our audience are in for a real treat.”
Concert proceeds will go to the Accomplish Children’s Trust, a
Christian charity with connections to St Olave’s church that aids children with
disabilities and their families in Africa. The trust supports projects that address
education, medical care and income generation for families through grants to
grass-roots organisations in Uganda, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
More information on the charity’s work can be found at accomplishtrust.org.uk.
Tickets are on sale at £14, concessions £13, students and children £5, at academyofstolaves.org.uk, from Visit York, in Museum Street, on 01904 555670 or on the door.
Tim Stedman as Happy Harry in Snow White at Harrogate Theatre
TIM Stedman has made his name playing the silly billy in Harrogate Theatre’s
pantomime for 20 years: Buttons, Muddles, Simple Simon, Idle Jack. You know, the
daft lad; the dimwit; the village idiot, the baffled buffoon.
Now he is adding a new name to that portfolio of fools, Happy Harry, in Snow
White, but isn’t that traditionally Muddles’s panto patch?
What’s going on, Tim? “Well, I dare say, in the present PC climate, calling
me names like Silly Billy may not be politically correct, so we’ve changed the
name from Muddles. For this reason, we’ve changed it to Happy Harry, and some people
have now suggested using the same name every year,” he says.
“I don’t have a problem with these PC issues myself, and I do think my pantomime
character is of a simple type. He has a foolish innocence about him; he’s
either happy or sad, and everything is new to him each time he goes through the
door. When he says something or thinks something, it’s a wonderful, fresh,
beautiful thing, just like children experience things.
“Like at one of our performances, where, when I said ‘I’m exhausted’, someone
shouted out, ‘Well, don’t run then’! You can’t argue with that.”
Tim made his Harrogate debut in Sleeping Beauty in 2000, having been
brought to North Yorkshire by Rob Swain. “He’d been a very good director at the
New Vic, where he was associate to director Peter Cheeseman, and I got a job
there in Hansel And Gretel straight out of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in
the mid-1990s.
“I also did The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice there, playing the nervous
telephone repair man Billy, and when Rob moved to Harrogate Theatre to be
artistic director, he invited me there.”
In the room too was director Lennox Greaves. “I said I was really
nervous, and he said he was really nervous too as he’d never done panto, so we
really hit it off straightaway,” Tim recalls.
” I made my character a little bit vulnerable, a little bit impetuous, and very innocent, so children can laugh at that combination ,” says Harrogate Theatre pantomime buffoon Tim Stedman
Greaves gave him a good piece of advice: “Lennox was very clear: he
said, ‘the dame is there to entertain the adults; you are there to keep the
children entertained’.
“I made my character a little bit vulnerable, a little bit impetuous,
and very innocent, so children can laugh at that combination.”
Tim was blessed to work for his first seven years with Scottish beanpole
actor Alan McMahon as the Harrogate dame. “He’s such a talented man and I
learnt a lot from him. I was the baby of the bunch at the start and I knew I
needed to be good, but I couldn’t help but learn from Lennox and Alan.
“Alan was very encouraging from the start, telling me that ‘if you’re
the comic, have a gag whenever you come on’. That’s why I started doing the
cracker jokes and the straightforward physical jokes; jokes children tell in the
playground the next day and will irritate the adults!”
Tim remembers his first note from Rob Swain. “It said: ‘Make us feel
safe when we watch you’. His second one was ‘Don’t let your first mistake
become your second, or you will make another one’.
“If I did make a mistake that first year, Alan would turn to the audience
and say, ‘well, it is his first job’!”
Twenty years later, the Harrogate Theatre pantomime revolves around
Stedman’s brand of strawberry-cheeked, squeaky-voiced buffoonery, but he is not
one to rest on his laurels. Ahead of the first of 76 performances of Snow
White, he admitted: “Even after 20 years, I still feel nervy. You never lose
that.
“I do feel a sense of pressure to make it better each year. I’m terrified
of complacency. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this to you, but I’m terrified of
people writing things that aren’t positive.”
Tim Stedman’s Happy Harry, left, with Howard Chadwick’s No Nonsense Nora the Nanny, Zelina Rebeiro’s Snow White, Pamela Dwyer’s Fairy Ruby Rainbow, Colin Kiyani’s Prince Lee, front, and Polly Smith’s Wicked Queen Ethel Burger in Harrogate Theatre’s Snow White
Rest assured, Tim, the reviews have been typically enthusiastic, but he
is quick to point out that the show’s success is not down to him. Instead, he emphasises
the importance of being a team player. “Anything extraneous I keep brief, like
the ad-libs, because if we focus on the story and the characters in the story,
that’s far better than putting Tim Stedman out front, because it’s not about me,”
he says.
“If the story’s good, that’s what matters. I put the icing on the cake
and maybe the cherry.”
Snow White marks Phil Lowe’s 13th year as director and his 11th
in pantomime partnership with co-writer David Bown, Harrogate Theatre’s chief
executive, and they are as important to the show as Stedman.
”If we can do it in the same vein each year, like when I grew up
watching Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies every Christmas, we can
entertain everyone from age three to 93, and if we can do it with a bit of magic,
then hey, we’ve done our job!” says Tim.
Could he ever envisage playing a different pantomime role? “It’s been
mooted…though I quite like what I’m doing! And you have that ego problem with
actors, thinking that because you’re good at something, you can do something else
just as well!” he says.
“I’ve worked with some really good dames, Alan McMahon, now Howard
Chadwick, and it’s different from what I do.”
What about moving over to the dark side as the panto baddie? “They have
the most fun, but I suspect there would be uproar if I came on as the villain,
though I’ve often suggested it would be fun for the villain to have an
assistant coming on from a different side,” says Tim.
Surely he will return for pantomime number 21, Cinderella, come November
25? “I’ve not been asked yet, but I love doing what I do here, and it’s so
lovely when people come up in the street to say hello,” he says. “Harrogate is
such a lovely place to work.”
Tim Stedman plays Happy Harry in Snow White at Harrogate Theatre until January 19. Box office: 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Did you know?
Tim Stedman has appeared in three roles in Emmerdale: Kevin Harmon in
March 2014; locum veterinary surgeon Joseph Gibson in April 2016, and Jeremy,
the leader of a surrogacy support group, in March 2019.
Dawn In The South Bay, Scarborough, by Richard Beaumont
THIS week is the last chance to see Scarborough photographer Richard
Beaumont’s exhibition at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
In his debut show, Scarborough And Its Surroundings, he takes a personal
look at his coastal hometown.
The Harbour Entrance At Whitby, by Richard Beaumont
“As a schoolboy in the 1960s, I wanted to be a photographer,” says
Beaumont. “I didn’t particularly see it as a way of making money; I just wanted
to create pictures of what interested me at the time.
“My father had other ideas about a possible future career and carefully
steered me towards studying the science subjects, university and a career in
business, saying that there would be time for photography when I retired.”
Scarborough photographer Richard Beaumont: debut exhibition
That time has come. “Following retirement in 2013, the passion was still
there and I gradually began to revive my interest,” says Beaumont. “In 2017, I
successfully completed a postgraduate diploma in photography at the British
Academy of Photography and now accept the occasional assignment and continue to
build my portfolio.”
Summing up his photography, he says. “I like to observe as well as see
and create a bit of language in each shot that I take.”
The Lighthouse And South Cliff, Scarborough, From The Outer Harbour, by Richard Beaumont
Scarborough And Its Surroundings – A Personal View runs in the SJT corridor gallery until Saturday, January 12. Gallery opening hours are 10am to 6pm, Mondays to Saturdays, except during show times (mostly evenings, but some afternoons too, so please check the website, sjt.uk.com, before travelling). Entry is free.
NORTH Yorkshire artist Paul
Blackwell will exhibit his Treescapes at Village Gallery, Colliergate, York,
from January 14 to February 22.
Blackwell and his wife,
fellow artist Anne Thornhill, ran a gallery in Grosmont, on the North York
Moors, for more than 20 years before selling up and moving to an 18th century
farmhouse overlooking the Esk Valley near Whitby. Here they have a barn studio,
where they both continue to work.
Ash Tree In The Late Autumn Light, in pastel, by Paul Blackwell
Blackwell uses many different
media, from oil and acrylic to pastel and pastel pencil. “Paul is passionate
about wildlife and the natural landscape and a lot of his work is done from the
14 acres they have as a small nature reserve,” says Village Gallery owner and
curator Simon Main.
Blackwell reveals he has always
had two passions in his life. “The first is rugby and the second, malt whisky,”
he says. “But I also like to paint a bit: landscapes mainly.
Paul Blackwell and Anne Thornhill’s home and studio in the Esk Valley
“My work is a reflection of
my interest in the complex and emotional interchange of colours, as I attempt
to convey the vibrancy and radiance of a landscape and the depth of its
emotional impact.
“I often use the medium of
pastel as it’s particularly suited to my way of working, using colour
juxtapositions to create energy and dynamism, rhythm and balance.”
The Strid Woods, in pastel, by Paul Blackwell
After starting work on site, usually in monochrome, Blackwell enjoys exploring the colour structure once back in the studio. Frequently keeping the formal content simple, he creates a uniformity of atmosphere and feeling through his application of colours, as can be seen at Village Gallery from next Tuesday.
Gallery opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. In addition, the gallery will play host to a preview evening on January 13 from 5pm to 8pm, when Paul Blackwell will be on hand to discuss his work. Free tickets are available from Simon Main on 07972 428382 or 01904 411444 or at simon@village-on-the-web.com.
Shed Seven: under starter’s orders for a day at the Donny races
YORK’S revived Britpoppers Shed Seven will play Live After Racing at Doncaster Racecourse on August 15 on a day that will combine chasing winners with Chasing Rainbows.
Tickets for this Music Live performance will go on pre-sale for Artist + O2 customers via ticketmaster.co.uk at 10am on Wednesday (January 8), followed by general sale on Friday (January 10) at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk, with more information available at doncaster-racecourse.co.uk.
The Sheds have just mounted their biggest ever Shedcember winter tour, chalking up their record run of 23 shows between November 21 and December 21, with Leeds First Direct Arena on December 7 at the epicentre.
In June 2018, they played to 8,000 people in the open air at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl. Could Doncaster Racecourse on an August summer’s evening surpass that total? Wait and see!
Gates will open at 11.15am for the 1.10pm racecard; Shed Seven will be under starter’s orders at 5.45pm.
Lynne Dawson: ” bewitching in an unattributed version of Goldilocks”
Review: York Guildhall Orchestra,
York Barbican, January 4 2020
TUBBY the Tuba was the headline
star and Goldilocks & the Three Bears put in an unscheduled appearance at
York Guildhall Orchestra’s family concert on Saturday afternoon.
There
were also sizeable selections from two musicals, Les Miserables and The Sound Of Music, while the more traditional delights of Johann Strauss the Younger
added Viennese touches to the New Year hi-jinks. A good time was had by all.
Not
that the YGO took its duties lightly. On the contrary, behind Simon Wright’s
genial baton there lurks a hard taskmaster; he ensured his charges delivered their
customary high standards.
Anyone
whose 2019 was less than satisfying will have been soothed by the story of
Valjean’s journey from despair to hope, evoked by the musical version of Victor
Hugo’s Les Miserables. YGO brought reassurance to this emotional
roller-coaster: we can all now face 2020 with confidence.
So
too with the Von Trapp family, whose real-life journey from Nazi Germany to
liberation in the USA inspired Rodgers & Hammerstein to write The Sound Of Music60 years ago. Here we had 15 singers from York
Stage Musicals (otherwise unidentified), half sopranos and half children,
adding vivacity and verve to the familiar songs.
Brian Kingsley: soloist for Tubby The Tuba
Although her name unaccountably escaped mention on the front cover of the programme, YGO president Lynne Dawson’s contribution to the afternoon was invaluable, as narrator in the two children’s stories. Her charming, chameleon voices brought her characters instantly to life: we felt Tubby’s disappointments keenly.
She was partnered here by Opera
North ace Brian Kingsley, the north’s finest tuba player, whose velvet tones
were plaintively suggestive.
Dawson
was equally bewitching in an unattributed version of Goldilocks, which
amusingly made reference to other favourites such as Brahms’s Lullaby and Henry
Bishop’s Home, Sweet Home. Soloists in both wind and brass were really on their
toes here.
The
Strauss family and Franz Lehár filled in the rest. And how. The orchestra’s
kitchen department had fun popping the corks in the Champagne polka and
providing fireworks for Thunder & Lightning. The brass went to town in the
Tritsch-Tratsch polka and the crazy ending of Lehár’s Gold & Silver.
But
it was the majestic sweep of the strings in two Strauss waltzes, The Emperor
and The Blue Danube, which lives in the memory. The audience clapped heartily in
the Radetzky march at the close: everyone went away happy. This event has
deservedly become a New Year tradition in York.
Next
up: YGO’s 40th anniversary concert at
York Barbican on February 15. Don’t miss it.
Special guest: Lisette Auton will perform at Say Owt Slam #24
SAY Owt, York’s most raucous spoken-word hub, returns on February 1 for its
first competitive slam of the new decade at The Basement, City Screen.
Slots are open to take part in Say Owt Slam #24 by emailing
info@sayowt.co.uk. Artistic director Henry Raby, the York performance poet, playwright and
activist, says: “Poets get a maximum of three minutes each to wow the audience
with their words, culminating in the winner receiving a cash prize and bragging
rights.
“Whether travelling from across the country or a homegrown York talent,
each one brings a totally different style of humour, politics and heart to the
gig.”
Say Owt has run slams for five years, being highly commended in the 2018
York Culture Awards and prompting audience members to comment: “Expertly put
together, a delightful extravaganza”; “I love it here!” and “Felt so
welcome at my first slam, great atmosphere. Not what I expected”.
“Each poet brings a totally different style of humour, politics and heart to Say Owt Slam,” says artistic director Henry Raby
Say Owt Slam invariably feature a special guest too, on this occasion award-winning
Darlington disabled activist, writer, poet, spoken-word
artist, theatre-maker and creative practitioner Lisette Auton.
“I do stuff with words,” says Lisette, a
Penguin Random House UK WriteNow mentee for her children’s novel inspired by
the North East coast.
“Her poetry is full of stories, humour and
lyrical warmth and all of her work seeks to make the invisible visible,” says
Henry.
Tickets for this 7.30pm show cost £6 from the City Screen box office or at ticketing.picturehouses.com or £7 on the door.
Veteran Yorkshire arts journalist CHARLES HUTCHINSON doffs his cap to the makers and shakers who made and shook the arts world in York and beyond in 2019.
Alan Ayckbourn at 80 in Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
New play
of the year: Alan
Ayckbourn’s Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, at Stephen Joseph Theatre,
Scarborough, from September 4
Sir Alan
Ayckbourn penned one play to mark his 80th birthday, then decided it
wasn’t the right one. Instead, writing more quickly than he had in years, he
constructed a piece around…birthdays. Still the master of comedy of awkward
truths.
Honourable mention: Kay Mellor’s Band Of Gold, Leeds Grand Theatre, November 28 to December 14.
Lili Miller (Catherine) and Pedro Leandro (Rodolpho) in A View From The Bridge at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ian Hodgson
You
Should Have Seen It production of the year: Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge, York
Theatre Royal, September 20 to October 12.
Once more, the
sage Arthur Miller bafflingly did not draw the crowds – a Bridge too far? – but
Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster found resonance anew for this
age of rising intolerance in Trumped-Up America and Brexit Britain.
Chris Knight as Donkey in York Stage Musicals’ Shrek The Musical
York’s
home-grown show of the year: York Stage Musicals in Shrek The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, September
12 to 21
Nik Briggs
swapped directing for his stage return after five years in the wind-assisted
title role and stunk the place out in Shrek tradition in a good way. Jacqueline
Bell‘s Princess Fiona and Chris Knight’s Donkey were terrific too.
Honourable mention: Pick Me Up Theatre in Monster Makers, 41 Monkgate, October 23 to 27
Rigmarole Theatre in When The Rain Stops Falling
Company
launch of the year: Rigmarole
Theatre in When The Rain Stops Falling, 41 Monkgate, York, November 14 to 16
MAGGIE
Smales, a previous Hutch Award winner for her all-female Henry V for York
Shakespeare Project, set up Rigmarole to mount Andrew Bovell’s apocalyptic
Anglo-Aussie family drama. More please.
Comic capers: Mischief Theatre in The Comedy About A Bank Robbery
Touring
play of the year: The
Comedy About A Bank Robbery, Grand Opera House, York, February 5 to 12
Crime pays
for Mischief Theatre with a riotous show, so diamond-cutter sharp, so rewarding,
in its comedy, that it is even better than the original botched masterplan, The
Play That Goes Wrong.
Honourable mention: Nigel Slater’s Toast, York Theatre Royal, November 19 to 23
Sarah Crowden and Susan Penhaligon in Handbagged at York Theatre Royal
Political
play of the year:
Handbagged, York Theatre Royal, April 24 to May 11
In a play of wit, brio and intelligence, Moira Buffini presents
a double double act of 20th century titans, Margaret Thatcher and
The Queen, one from when both ruled, the other looking back at those days, as
they talk but don’t actually engage in a conversation.
Emma Rice: director of the year
Director
of the year: Emma Rice
for Wise Children’s Wise Children, in March, and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, in
September, both at York Theatre Royal
Emma Rice,
once of Cornwall’s pioneering Kneehigh Theatre and somewhat briefly of
Shakespeare’s Globe, has found her mojo again with her new company Wise
Children, forming a fruitful relationship with York Theatre Royal to boot.
Watch out for Wuthering Heights in 2021.
Director John R Wilkinson in rehearsals for Hello And Goodbye at York Theatre Royal
York
director of the year:
John R Wilkinson, Hello And Goodbye, York Theatre Royal Studio, November
Theatre Royal associate artist John R Wilkinson had long called for the return of in-house productions in the Studio and what he called “the blue magic of that space”. He duly delivered a superb reading of Athol Fugard’s apartheid-era South African work starring Jo Mousley and Emilio Iannucci.
Oh what a knight: Sir Ian McKellen
Comedy show of the year: Sir Ian McKellen in Ian McKellen On Stage With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others…And You, Grand Opera House, York, June 17
A delightful variation on the An Evening With…format, wherein Sir Ian McKellen celebrated his 80th birthday with a tour through his past. His guide to Shakespeare’s 37 plays was a particular joy.
Honourable mention: John Osborne in John Peel’s Shed/Circled In The Radio Times, Pocklington Arts Centre bar, March 27
Bonnie Milnes of Bonneville And The Bailers
Event launch
of the year: Live
In Libraries York, York Explore, autumn
In the
wood-panelled Marriott Room, veteran busker David Ward Maclean and Explore York
mounted a series of four intimate, low-key concerts, the pick of them being Bonnieville
And The Bailers’ magical set on October 25. Along with The Howl & The Hum’s
Sam Griffiths, Bonnie Milnes is the blossoming York songwriter to watch in
2020.
Meet The Caravan Guys:Theo Mason Wood, left, and Albert Haddenham discuss masculinity in How To Beat Up Your Dad at The Arts Barge’s Riverside Festival
Festival
of the Year: The
Arts Barge’s Riverside Festival, by the Ouse, July and August
Under the
umbrella of Martin Witts’s Great Yorkshire Fringe, but celebrating its own identity
too, The Arts Barge found firm footing with two locations, an ever-busy tent
and, hurrah, the newly docked, freshly painted barge, the Selby Tony. The Young
Thugs showcase, Henry Raby, Rory Motion, Katie Greenbrown, jazz gigs, a naked Theo
Mason Wood; so many highs.
Honourable mentions: York Festival of Ideas, June; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, November.
Terry Hall: leading The Specials at York Barbican. Picture: Simon Bartle
York Barbican gig of the year: The Specials, May 9
Still The Specials, still special, on their 40th anniversary world tour, as the Coventry ska veterans promoted their first studio album in 39 years, Encore, still hitting the political nail on the head as assuredly as ever.
Honourable mentions: David Gray, March 30; Art Garfunkel, April 18; Kelly Jones, September 14.
Mocking Malvolio: Cassie Vallance’s Fabian, back left, Andrew Phelps’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Fine Time Fontayne’s Sir Toby Belch wind up Claire Storey’s Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Happiest nights of the year: Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in Twelfth Night, Castle car park, York, July 4 and September 1
JOYCE Branagh, Kenneth’s sister, set Shakespeare’s comedy in the Jazz Age, serving up “Comedy Glamour” with a Charleston dash and double acts at the double. “Why, this is very midsummer madness,” the play exhorts, and it was, gloriously so, especially on the last night, when no-one knew what lay just around the corner for the doomed Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre.
Samuel Edward Cook in Glory Dazed
Most moving night of the year: Glory
Dazed, East Riding Theatre, Beverley, January 26
Cat Jones’s play, starring York actor Samuel Edward Cook, brings
to light issues surrounding the mental health of ex-servicemen as they seek to
re-integrate into civilian society while struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. The post-show discussion with ex-soldiers from Hull spoke even
louder.
Serena Manteghi in Build A Rockdet. Picture: Sam Taylor
Solo show of the year: Serena
Manteghi in Build A Rocket, autumn tour
NO sooner had she finished playing Ophelia in Shakespeare’s
Rose Theatre’s Hamlet than Serena Manteghi revived her remarkable role as a seaside
resort teenage single mum in Christopher York’s award-winning coruscating play.
Honourable mention: James Swanton in Irving Undead, York Medical Society, October 10 to 12.
A Blessed encounter: interviewing Yorkshireman Brian
Favourite interview of the year: Brian Blessed, giving oxygen to his An Evening With Brian Blessed show at Grand Opera House, York, in August
The exuberance for life in Brian – Yorkshire man mountain, actor, mountaineer and space travel enthusiast – at the age of 83 would inspire anyone to climb Everest or reach for the stars.
Old soul in a Newman: John Newman’s hot, hot gig at The Crescent
Gig of
the year: John
Newman, The Out Of The Blue Tour, The Crescent, York, June 30
THE unsettled
Settle sound of soul, John Newman, and his soul mates parked their old camper van
outside the almost unbearably hot Crescent, threw caution to the wind and burnt
the house down on a night that must
have been like watching Joe Cocker or Otis Redding on the rise in the Sixties.
Honourable mentions: Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock’n’Roll Revue, Pocklington Arts Centre, June 25; The Howl & The Hum, The Crescent, York, December 14
Van Gogh: ‘ere, there and everywhere at York St Mary’s
Exhibition
of the year: Van
Gogh: The Immersive Experience, York St Mary’s, York, now extended to April 2020
This 360-degree digital art installation uses technology to create
a constantly moving projected gallery of 200 of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous
19th century works in the former church. Breathtaking, innovative, and,
yes, worth the admission charge.
Honourable mention: Ruskin, Turner and The Storm Cloud, Watercolours and Drawings, York Art Gallery, from March 28
Agatha Meehan, centre, as Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz at Leeds Playhouse
Christmas
production of the year: The Wizard Of Oz, Leeds Playhouse, until January 25
AFTER its
£15.8 million transformation from the West Yorkshire Playhouse to Leeds
Playhouse, artistic director James Brining gave West Yorkshire’s premier
theatre the grandest, dandiest of re-opening hits. Still time to travel down
the Yellow Brick Road with Agatha Meehan, 12, from York, as Dorothy.
Dame Berwick Kaler’s fina;l wave at the end of his 40 years of pantomimes at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Anthony Robling
Exit
stage left: Berwick
Kaler, retiring on February 2 after 40 years as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime
dame; Tim Hornsby, bowing out from booking acts for Fibbers on June 29, after 27
years and 7,500 shows in York; Damian Cruden, leaving the Theatre Royal on July
26 after 22 years as artistic director; James Cundall’s Shakespeare’s Rose
Theatre, in September, after hitting the financial icebergs .
Richard Bainbridge R.I.P.
Gone but
not forgotten: York Musical Theatre Company leading man,
director, teacher, chairman, bon viveur and pub guvnor Richard Bainbridge, who
died on July 6.
” We want to see how we can get a grip on the negative and bring about positive change,” says artistic director Sue Lister
THE Real
People Theatre Company will hold auditions on Saturday for All Change, their
contribution to the 2020 International Women’s Week.
The York
women’s theatre group will be staging their 21st annual production
at York St John University on March 13 and 14, directed by Rose Drew in tandem
with Missoon El Gomati and Tanya Nightingale.
All Change will explore how the world is changing and how changes must be made to secure our future well-being on our planet.
Artistic
director Sue Lister, who co-founded Real People with Ann Murray in 1999, says: “This
is a chance to bring women together to change the current narrative of our
lives. We want to see how we can get a grip on the negative and bring about
positive change.”
Saturday’s auditions will be held at the Tesco Community Room, Tadcaster Road, York, from 12.30pm. Just turn up!
