John Atkin directing the York Beethoven Project orchestra
YORK Beethoven Project will go “even bigger” for No. 3, Eroica when the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, hosts the third event on Saturday, September 14 and an additional workshop two weeks later.
“After our first event last year it became apparent that we were going to be too big to fit the whole orchestra onto the Rowntree stage, so we’ve had to limit September 14 to a group of 42 musicians, which will still be the biggest orchestra the JoRo has hosted,” says organiser, conductor and White Rose Theatre director John Atkin.
“We’ll therefore be holding another one-day workshop for the Eroica, which is open to all on September 28. So far, we again have more than 50 musicians signed up to take part.”
The September 14 event will climax with a 7.30pm concert in two halves under the title of An Evening Of Revolutionary Music.
In the first half, the White Rose Singers will perform groundbreaking music from stage and screen under conductor John Atkin, including songs from West Side Story, Les Misérables, Carousel, James Robert Brown and Stephen Sondheim.
In the second, the 42-piece York Beethoven Project orchestra will perform Beethoven’s “revolutionary masterpiece”, Symphony No. 3, Eroica. Tickets are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
“York Beethoven Project is a unique series of concerts where we’ll perform all Beethoven’s Symphonies in order, featuring local musicians in local venues,” says John.
“After the huge success of Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2, we’re going even bigger for No.3: Eroica. Our future plans are now taking shape with bigger venues arranged for No. 4, 5 and 6 in 2025 and plans are well in place for a VERY big venue (or two ) in 2027 to host a performance of the 9th Symphony on what will be Beethoven’s 200th anniversary.”
Conductor John Atkin
Future events
Symphony No. 4 in Bb Major Op 60
Saturday, February 8 2025, York Music Education, Millthorpe School main hall.
Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op 67
Saturday, June 28 2025, St Mary the Virgin, Hemingbrough.
Symphony No. 6 in F Major Op 68 (Pastorale)
Saturday, September 27 2025, venue to be confirmed.These all will be one-day workshops, culminating in a performance from 4pm.
Music will be distributed to players electronically well in advance.Registration for each event will open six months in advance.For more information, and to go on the mailing list, contact: yorkbeethovenproject@gmail.com
TEENAGE blues prodigy Toby Lee heads to the Fulford Arms, York, tomorrow night, the next stop in a year when the Oxfordshire-born guitarist and singer will play more than 100 British and European shows.
In his diary are 40 solo gigs and 60-plus engagements as a special guest on boogie-woogie pianist Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra’s travels in May to July and October to December.
The 2023 Young Blues Musician of the Year will be joining Jools at York Barbican on December 11, as well as further Yorkshire gigs at Bridlington Spa on July 16; Hull City Hall, July 17; Sheffield City Hall, November 23, and Leeds First Direct Arena, December 20.
The story goes that Lee’s musical journey began at the age of four when his grandmother bought him a yellow-and-green ukulele, but by then he had already “started banging around on stuff as if I wanted to be a drummer, when you want to make a noise out of anything,” recalls Toby, now 19.
“We always had instruments around the house, so I could ‘experiment’, as my mum reminds me on a regular basis. I started drumming on the piano legs with two drumsticks, so when it came to guitars and stringed instruments, that’s when I got the ukulele from my grandma, and my dad always had guitars in our home too.”
Toby still has that ukulele, “though it’s lost all its strings. I keep it in the footwell of the car,” he reveals. “It was a natural evolution to play guitar, so I got my first full-size electric guitar when I was eight.; it was a Stratocaster replica, I think.”
Within two years of receiving that guitar as a Christmas present while holidaying at a Cornish hotel, he was partnered by Gibson Guitars. “It was a very crazy experience, having that partnership at that age – and they rang me!” says Toby.
“It all came through social media, from when I did a Get Well Soon jam for BB King, recording myself playing along to a drum beat on my dad’s Fender guitar. It went viral, getting five million views in a week! Gibson Guitars got to see that video, contacted me, and they’ve been unbelievable in terms of them sending me guitars to use ever since.”
Living in the Oxfordshire countryside outside Banbury, no-one could object to Toby’s early guitar exertions. “Not even the cows,” he jokes.
Such was his talent that he was chosen to play guitarist Zack Mooneyham in the West End premiere of School Of Rock.
“I started rehearsals aged 11, going from being a bedroom guitarist, knowing every word of the show, when I got the call to go to Broadway, but it would have meant moving to the other side of the world.
“They said, ‘that’s fine, we’ll be coming to London’. So, after the auditions, they pulled me to one side to say ‘we’d like you to take the part of Zack Mooneyham’.
“That was a crazy feeling as it was a show I’d been listening all my life, and being told at 11 that you can play the guitar on stage, use all that energy, jump around on stage, was wonderful.”
Toby’s attendance record at school was “absolutely dire”. “But I was able to do classes during the day, sometimes cramming them into the morning,” he says.
Three young teams performed the show in rotation, with Toby picked for the team for radio, TV and press coverage. “We did the press opening night when Cliff Richard was in the front row,” he says.
He played Zack Mooneyham for a year, winning an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement In Music, since when has gone on to share stages with blues luminaries such as his hero Joe Bonamassa (on his Mediterranean Blue Cruise), Buddy Guy, Peter Frampton and Slash.
Toby Lee with Jools Holland: Teaming up at York Barbican, Bridlington Spa, Hull City Hall, Sheffield City Hall and Leeds First Direct Arena
“It’s only now that I can look back and think about those amazing experiences, when now it feels real, because you’re in the moment. Now I know what they’ve been through to get where they are; the amount of graft that goes into it. Now I have infinite ideas of how hard it is to make it happen.”
But what drew him to the blues, the music of BB King and Jimi Hendrix in particular, rather than rock? “It’s a bit of an unusual style to pick, and I actually grew up listening to Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochrane, as my dad was always in love with American music, so that was the music around the house,” says Toby.
“So I grew up listening to anything from Buddy Holly – who was my first inspiration – to Metallica, but blues music was the one that took off the most with fans. That took me down a rabbit hole even more, so I’d go from listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan and BB King to thinking, ‘right, I better do more homework’.”
His passion for playing the blues remains a family business, the Lees having moved to Cornwall, just outside Newquay, five years ago. “It’s very much a family-run thing, just me and my mum and my dad. I couldn’t have done it without them,” says Toby, who describes the guitar as his “comfort blanket”.
“There aren’t many parents who would have said ‘great’ when I said I wanted to be a guitarist at nine! My dad was on it straightaway, whereas at first my mum was saying, ‘where’s the curriculum for that?’.”
Toby’s sheer talent negated that question, and the sense of togetherness, completed by their three dogs, prevails. “My mum works from home, and I always travel with my dad, who’s part of the management team,” says Toby.
His multiple shows with Jools Holland will heighten his profile still more. “I got asked to do Cerys Matthews’ blues show on BBC Radio 2, and one of her producers works with Jools too and got asked to do some filming for a film being made about blues music that Jools was involved in as well,” he says.
“That was the first time I met Jools, about seven or eight months ago, and it was definitely a jump in at the deep end, with everyone there knowing they were going to play a song together apart from me! So it was like, ‘ready Toby? Go’!
“It was a really cool moment, jamming a song between Jools and Ruby Turner called Remember Me, so, all of a sudden, I was having a one-to-one music lesson with Jools. It turned out there were lots of similarities between us because neither of us reads music.
“We get on really well, and just as I was about to leave to head back to lovely Cornwall, they asked if I could play some shows with Jools.”
Initially, 30 shows were on his schedule, now it will be more than 60; the summer itinerary with Irish singer Imelda May as Holland’s fellow guest, the autumn and winter dates with Soft Cell frontman Marc Almond on board.
“I grew up listening to Jools, watching his Hootenanny shows on YouTube, and after watching them for years, it was a surreal moment to be working with him,” says Toby.
Before thoseJools Holland commitments comes tomorrow’s gig at the Fulford Arms with Lee’s four-piece band, featuring Chris Haddon on rhythm guitar, Sam Collins on bass and Joe Harris on drums.
“It’ll be original material and a few covers,” says Toby. “For the new album – all originals – we’ll be dropping singles over the summer and it’ll then be out in the autumn with the title House On Fire.”
Toby has played York once before, supporting blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor at York Barbican in April 2022. “I’m excited to be coming back, headlining this time,” he says.
Toby Lee, Fulford Arms, York, tomorrow; doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets: ticketweb.uk/event/toby-lee-the-fulford-arms-tickets/13366163. Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, featuring special guest Toby Lee, York Barbican, December 11, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan, on her 30th birthday, stands between her Una Sinfonia works Ready,Steady, GO! (Spring) and The Girls Take Their Places (Summer) at York Art Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham. The works are the copyright of Michaela Yearwood-Dan, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen
WHERE better for internationally acclaimed artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan to spend her 30th birthday than at the launch of her commissioned contribution to National Treasures: Monet in York at York Art Gallery.
On show until September 8, Una Sinfonia is Londoner Michaela’s response to French Impressionist Claude Monet’s 1899 masterpiece The Water-Lily Pond, the centrepiece of one of 12 exhibitions nationwide to mark the National Gallery’s bicentenary – and the only one in Yorkshire.
“Being commissioned to make this new body of work in response to Monet’s legacy – and The Water-Lily Pond in particular – is a huge honour as an artist and former and forever student of painting,” said Michaela when her commission was announced.
“Having the opportunity as an artist from my varied list of demographics to be introduced into a conversation around this work of one of the world’s most historically significant European artists is an enormous milestone, and one I could not have imagined at this stage in my career.
“Taking inspiration from the way Monet formulated his bodies of work, I am very pleased with how this new series, ‘Una Sinfonia’, has turned out.”
Moving freely between oils, acrylics, pastels, beads, glitter, ceramic petals, floral and botanical motifs and text, Una Sinfonia comprises nine new lush, richly textured works. Four large pieces, one for each season, are complemented by five paper works, influenced by Japanese prints, now sharing gallery space with such artists as Roy Lichtenstein and Utagawa Hiroshige, as well as Monet’s radical, influential painting from the National Gallery collection.
“The way I work and how I work, the movement in the pieces, you can ‘see’ the musicality in that,” says Michaela Yearwood-Dan
Explaining the Italian title of Una Sinfonia, Michaela says: “I love Italy; I don’t necessarily love Italian politics, but it’s a gorgeous place, and when I think of plein-air painting, I think of Italy.
“Two years ago, I was in Brescia for six weeks at Palazzo Monti, living in this palazzo, able to walk around the streets and go to the churches, and it was a joy.”
As the title would indicate, music was an influence too on her abstract works. “The way I work and how I work, the movement in the pieces, you can ‘see’ the musicality in that,” says Michaela.
“There are pieces of music that make me want to paint,” she adds, before recalling her musical upbringing. “At school I was in the orchestra and choir and did Saturday morning sessions till I was 15 – and then became a teenager and developed ‘teenage shame’.
“So theatre and music have always been important to me – and Italian culture lends itself to that.”
The Girls Take Their Places, 2024, oil, beads and ceramic on canvas, by Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Copyright of Michaela Yearwood-Dan, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen
She was inspired too by Monet’s love of painting a subject in each season and his fascination with the changing quality of light in those seasons. “I was thinking about seasons and how symphonies are split into sections, and then thought of the music that maybe Monet would be listening to,” she says.
Michaela favours R&B, neo-soul, lo-fi, indie rock, as well as classical music. “There’s rarely a moment or situation in my studio, from the moment I walk in, when I’m not playing something, if not music, podcasts,” she says. “I tend to listen to podcasts when I’m doing more the more intimate works, like the paper works.”
Michaela, who paints in the studio from her photographic studies in the open air, has always loved flowers. “My mum [who lives in Leeds] has a folder from when I was a child, when I used to draw flowers a lot. It’s the physical form I love,” she says.
“But when you go into the art education system, you’re told to abandon simple things, but there’s something nice about using something simple. Flowers are beautiful to look at; they represent life, a short life span; they represent mortality.
“They have political connotations too: we wear flowers to remember fallen soldiers and to recall conflicts. So flowers have always felt an interesting subject matter.”
Consequently, Michaela’s “visual language” draws on such influences as Blackness, queerness, femininity, healing rituals and carnival culture (from childhood days in both London and Chapeltown, Leeds).
Recalling the early works of David Hockney, verbal language is important to Michaela’s works too, not only in the titles but also the use of phrases in several paintings and even messages on notepaper.
Everything’s gone green: Journalist Charles Hutchinson and artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan with her spring work, Ready,Steady, GO!, from Una Sinfonia. Artwork copyright of Michaela Yearwood-Dan, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen
“I grew up with a dad who always took notes in a notebook,” she says. “The mobile phone has been a great development in technology, so if I have an interesting conversation or hear lyrics I like, I can write things down.
“The text I use in my paintings is always revealing or concealing because my works have a diaristic element.”
Michaela’s preference is for the viewer to “take in the movement, the colours, first, and only then look at the title and the text and take it all in”. A case in point is one of the paper works. Its title? Be My Protector. That sets you thinking, but even more so when you read the wording down the left-hand side: “It’s Too Hard To Think About What Happened”. Twice over, the response changes beyond reaction to shape, texture and colour. “It annoys me when many artists leave large works untitled,” she says.
“I like art to ask questions, for a work to have a conversation with itself, to ask a question, answer a question, ask another question. It’s nice for people to say, ‘I like this painting, and this is the reason’, but it’s always good to be questioning.”
Michaela, who names spring and autumn as her favourite seasons, reflects on what first drew her to Monet’s joy in nature. “His paintings clearly have a positive feeling, which is my favourite feeling that people get from a painting,” she says. Bang on the Monet, Michaela.
National Treasures: Monet in York – The Water-Lily Pond, in full bloom at York Art Gallery until September 8. Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
Velma Celli: Returning to York Theatre Royal to celebrate West End and Broadway musical queens. Picture: Sophie Eleanor
YORK drag diva deluxe Velma Celli will be in regal voice at York Theatre Royal in her new cabaret concoction of music, risqué comedy and generally fabulous entertainment on May 23.
After God The Save The Queens’ celebration of British music icons, from Cilla Black, Shirley Bassey and Kate Bush to Adele, Amy Winehouse and Dua Lipa, here comes Velma Celli’s Show Queen.
“It was going to be called just ‘Show Queen’, but then I discovered there’s a famous drag act in Australia who’s done a show with that title, so ‘Velma Celli’s Show Queen’ it is,” says Velma, the flamboyant creation of West End musical actor and cruise ship star turn Ian Stroughair, 41.
“I’ll be touring it next year when it’ll be called ‘Show Queen’ but with a tag line. It’s a title that’s open to any interpretation.”
Offering an invitation to the new show, Velma says: “Grease up your voice boxes, head to the glorious Theatre Royal, York and come Hear the People Sing the Sound Of Music worthy of royalty or Hamilton himself in this greatest of Cabaret shows.”
Velma Celli: Presenting “the greatest of cabaret shows”
What’s in store? “It’s a brand new show going back to my own musical theatre roots, having appeared in iconic mega shows such as Cats, Chicago, Fame and Rent. I’ll be celebrating the very best of London’s West End and Broadway musical theatre hits in a show that takes us to every corner of the fabulous genre, from Kander & Ebb and Lloyd Webber to Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked and Schönberg’s Les Miserables and many more,” says Velma. “Like, more than Six!
“I first did it at Crazy Coqs [the London cabaret club], but only with piano, so not the full version that it will be in York, where the band will be led by Scott Phillips on keyboards. He’s a professional musical director, who I first met when he was training here in York, and now I take him everywhere to do all my gigs. He’s fixing up the rest of the band but Al Morrison will definitely be on guitar.”
Among the highlights of Velma’s 75-minute show will be a ten-minute Kander & Ebb medley of Cabaret and Chicago, including Cell Block Tango. “I’ll be doing all six of the murderesses at Cook County Jail regaling Roxie Hart with the stories behind the murder of the men in their lives,” says Velma. “I’m doing it in a mash-up with Henry VIII’s wives in Six!”
Velma’s special guests will be burlesque superstar Miss Betsy Rose and an acoustic set with soul-powered York singer Jessica Steel, a regular in Velma’s home-city shows accompanied by guitarist Stuart Allan.
“Betsy has been voted the number one burlesque artist three times and is known for being the best in vintage burlesque,” says Velma. “She’s done shows with me at Impossible York, and I look forward to her giving off Cyd Charisse vibes at the Theatre Royal. And Jess? She’s York’s finest!”
Miss Betsy Rose: Guest burlesque act at Velma Celli’s Show Queen cabaret night at York Theatre Royal
Velma Celli’s Show Queen will be Velma’s fourth gig at York Theatre Royal in recent years, after A Brief History Of Drag in May 2021, Me And My Divas in September 2022 and God Save The Queens last September.
“I did my first musical there, in 1997, when I was 14: Kes! The Musical,” Velma recalls. “Lawrence Till directed it, and we were just school kids working with West End professionals. What an experience.”
After 15 years of shows taking her to Australia, New York, the Edinburgh Fringe and London’s Hippodrome, Velma Celli’s diary is as busy and as diverse as ever.
“Last month I was the MC for a concert for the Demelza House children’s charity at the Granville Theatre in Ramsgate, introducing Anna-Jane Casey, Robin Cousins, Amy Lennox, Mike Nolan & Cheryl Baker and Christina Bianco, who I’ll be performing with at Crazy Coqs in a tenth anniversary of our show Divallusion on August 30,” says Velma.
Velma’s travels have taken her back to Australia this year on tour. “I played Sydney, the Brunswick Picturehouse, Byron Bay, in New South Wales, and Perth, where God Save The Queens won the Perth Fringeworld award for best cabaret, after I was nominated previously for A Brief History Of Drag and won with Me And My Divas,” she says.
The poster artwork for Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens
“I did a cruise too, from Melbourne to Sydney, doing my show on board for four days – and I’ve sung at a private show in the Seychelles. Lovely!”
Coming up in York will be Velma Celli’s Pride Drag Brunch for York Pride on June 1 at Impossible York at 4pm and the Pride Official Afterparty at Ziggy’s Bar & Nightclub, in Micklegate, from 8pm.
Further afield in Yorkshire, Velma will be performing God Save The Queens at Skipton Town Hall on June 15 (8pm, box office: skiptontownhall.co.uk). In the diary too is a return to a starring role at Yorktoberfest, York’s celebration of beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian in the Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, on October 18, 19, 25 and 26 (tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest).
Velma Celli’s Show Queen, York Theatre Royal, May 23, 7.30pm. Age guidance: 14 plus. Content warning: Strong language.
Should you be in the south: Velma Celli’s A Brief History Of Drag, King’s Head Theatre, 116 Upper Street, London, N1 1QN, June 17, 9pm; Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, Fiery Bird, Goldsworth Road, Woking, July 13, 7.30pm. Box office: kingsheadtheatre.com; fierybirdvenue.org.uk.
Florally attired York Art Gallery senior curator Dr Beatrice Bertram stands by Claude Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond, on loan from the National Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham
FROM Monet to Martin Carthy, a Shakespeare play in a day to Henry VIII’s life and loves, teenage blues to country rambles, Charles Hutchinson sees how the cultural land lies.
Exhibition of the summer: National Treasures: Monet In York: The Water-Lily Pond, York Art Gallery, in bloom until September 8
FRENCH Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s 1899 work, The Water-Lily Pond, forms the York centrepiece and trigger point for the National Gallery’s bicentenary celebrations in tandem with York Art Gallery.
On show are key loans from regional and national institutions alongside York Art Gallery collection works and a large-scale commission by contemporary artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Una Sinfonia. Monet’s canvas is explored in the context of 19th-century French open-air painting, pictures by his early mentors and the Japanese prints that transformed his practice and beloved gardens in Giverny. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Steven Arran: Directing Shakespeare’s Speakeasy’s debut play in a day in York at Theatre@41, Monkgate
York debut of the week: Shakespeare’s Speakeasy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (16/5/2024), 7.30pm
SHAKESPEARE’S Speakeasy is heading from Newcastle to York for the first time, making its Theatre@41 debut under the directorship of Steven Arran. “It’s Shakespeare, but it’s secret,” he says. “Can a group of strangers successfully stage a Shakespearean play in a day? Shakespeare’s Speakeasy is the place for you to find out.”
After learning lines over the past four weeks, the cast featuring the likes of Claire Morley, Esther Irving and Ian Giles meets for the first time on Thursday morning to rehearse an irreverent, entertaining take on one of Bill’s best-known plays, culminating in a public performance. Which one? “Like all good Speakeasys, that’s a secret,” says Arran. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Sarah McQuaid: Playing Helmsley Arts Centre on Friday
Folk gig of the week: Sarah McQuaid, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
BORN in Madrid to a Spanish father and folk-singing American mother, raised in Chicago and holding dual Irish and American citizenship, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sarah McQuaid is long settled in west Cornwall.
She has released six albums, When Two Lovers Meet (1997), I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning (2008), Crow Coyote Buffalo (written and recorded with Zoe Pollock under the name Mama, 2008), The Plum Tree And The Rose (2012), Walking Into White (2015), If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous (2018) and The St Buryan Sessions (2021).Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Jack Abbot’s Henry VIII: Regal performance in Divorced, Beheaded, Died at Milton Rooms, Malton
History lesson of the week:Divorced, Beheaded, Died – An Evening With King Henry VIII, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm
THE year is 1544, when King Henry VIII is engaged on royal progress about his realm, halting in Malton on Friday to afford his loyal subjects the opportunity to have “audience” with their sovereign lord and king.
In Select Society Theatre Company’s one-man, two-act show, Jack Abbot’s Henry recounts the events of his life and long reign with tales of his wives and children, concluding with an audience Q&A. DNA tests, by the way, have revealed that Jack is Henry’s 21st cousin, six times removed. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Toby Lee: Blues prodigy heads to the Fulford Arms on Saturday
Blues gig of the week: Toby Lee, Fulford Arms, York, Saturday, 7.30pm
BLUES rock prodigy Toby Lee, the 19-year-old Oxfordshire guitarist and singer, will be playing 100 shows home and abroad this year, 40 of them his own headline gigs, 60 as a special guest of boogie-woogie pianist Jools Holand.
The 2023 Young Blues Musician of the Year learned his trade playing Zack Mooneyham in the first West End production of School Of Rock and has since shared stages with his hero Joe Bonamassa, Buddy Guy, Peter Frampton and Slash. First up, Fulford Arms on Saturday, then come Jools engagements at York Barbican on December 1 and Leeds First Direct Arena on December 20. Box office: ticketweb.uk/event/toby-lee-the-fulford-arms-tickets/13366163.
A seascape by artist Ione Harrison, who leads Sunday’s workshop at Helmsley Arts Centre
Workshop of the week: Seascapes with artist Ione Harrison, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 10am to 1pm
ARTIST Ione Harrison hosts a workshop suitable for all levels, from beginners to anyone wanting to explore new techniques, exploring the magic of watercolour in a mindful and playful way – no drawing needed.
Participants will create two atmospheric seascapes of the North Yorkshire coast, with room for artistic licence, using a limited but vibrant palette, trying out fun techniques, such as cling film, spatter and wax resist, plus raditional washes and wet-on-wet painting. Refreshments will be available. Bookings: visit ioneharrison.co.uk/book-online.
Mikron Theatre cast members Eddie Ahrens, left, Mark Emmon, Georgina Liley and Lauren Robinson: Presenting an outdoor performance of Common Ground at Scarcoft Allotments, York, on Sunday afternoon. Picture: Robling Photography
Touring play of the week: Mikron Theatre in Common Ground, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday, 2pm
ON tour on narrow boat and canal, van and land until October 18, Marsden company Mikron Theatre present Common Ground, writer and lyricist Poppy Hollman’s hike through the history of land access in England, where only eight per cent of land is designated “open country”.
Under the direction of Gitika Buttoo, actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmon tell the tale of the fictional Pendale and District Ramblers as they look forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary walk, but the path has been blocked by the landowner. How will they find their way through? No reserved seating or tickets required; a “pay what you feel” collection will be taken post-show.
Martin Carthy: Folk trailblazer
Gig announcement of the week: Martin Carthy, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, July 27, 7.30pm
“WHAT we like most about Martin Carthy is that to us he’s a local hero who will once again take the high road from Robin Hood’s Bay to Farndale, jewel in the crown of the North York Moors National Park, to renew his acquaintance with The Band Room,” says gig promoter Nigel Burnham.
Carthy, 82, who has enjoyed trailblazing folk partnerships with Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick, wife Norma Waterson and daughter Eliza Carthy, brings to the stage more than half a century of experiences and stories as a ballad singer, groundbreaking acoustic and electric guitarist and insatiably curious interpreter and arranger of other artists’ material and trad songs. Box office: thebandroom.co.uk.
Spoiling for a fight: Tristan Gemmill’s Juror 3 has to be held back as Jason Merrells’s Juror 8, front left, probes. Picture: Jack Merriman
“UNBEARABLY hot!” was the verdict of one audience member, who bailed out of Monday’s press night at the interval. “Wedding ring and watch wouldn’t fit because of heat swelling fingers and wrist,” he reasoned.
Come Tuesday night, York’s heatwave had waved goodbye, but you could still feel the heat rising, temperature and tempers alike, on the Grand Opera House stage.
A storm is brewing both metaphorically and meteorologically in Reginald Rose’s “knife-edge thriller” on its return to the Grand Opera House for the first time since April 2015, in the finale to the 70th anniversary tour.
Mounted once more by Bill Kenwright Ltd and directed again by Christopher Haydon, with the same set design by Michael Pavelka, the latest production has the continuity and hallmark of quality of The Woman In Black under Robin Herford’s stewardship.
At the tiller since the 2013 premiere at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Haydon has assembled another supremely combative cast of 13, unlucky for none, whether fellow cast members or enthralled audience.
A train thunders by on the New York subway, a jolt to sharpen our senses for the war of words ahead before the sonorous voice of the unseen judge warns the jury, “one man is dead; the life of another is at stake”.
One by one, the 12 jurors file into the dingy jury deliberating room, opening the dusty windows to the street to counter the sweltering heat, a discomfort only heightened by the overhead fan failing to work.
Gray O’Brien’s Juror 10, left, and Michael Greco’s Juror 7 in discussion in Twelve Angry Men. Picture: Jack Merriman
To one side is an oft-visited rest room; to the other, an even more oft-visited water dispenser. Outside the locked door, a stone-faced guard (Jeffrey Harmer) is on duty.
Under the charge of the stoical foreman (Owen Oldroyd), the jurors must decide the fate of a young delinquent, a boy of 16 accused of stabbing his father to death.
It looks an open-and-shut case, as the preliminary guilty vote of 11 to one would indicate, but a unanimous verdict is required to condemn the boy to the mandatory death penalty.
Standing alone, unsure of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, is Jason Merrells’s Juror 8, an architect by profession who sets about building the case the defence lawyer never satisfactorily presented.
Admirably equitable and eloquent, Juror 8 is the calm amid the electric storm soon to crackle. The twelve angry men of the title turns out to be a misnomer: Merrells’s conciliatory juror never raises his voice or bursts the banks of frustration as those around him do in Rose’s claustrophobic study of human nature.
Haydon’s cast combines ensemble enterprise with individual expression, steered by Merrells’s assiduity, fair and quick of mind, always humanitarian, never righteous.
Mark Heenehan’s meticulously methodical broker, Juror 4 – watch how he washes his hands – comes slowly but authoritatively to the fore, by way of contrast with Tristan Gemmill’s vituperative, volcanic Juror 3 and Gray O’Brien’s boorish, bigoted Juror 10.
Christopher Haydon’s cast casting votes in Twelve Angry Men. Picture: Jack Merriman
Who will reach boiling point first as the art of persuasion locks horns with a surfeit of jackets-off testosterone? Not only a teenager’s guilt or innocence is under examination, so too are 12 men’s characters, their predilections and prejudices, hot-housed and released under pressure that builds like the beads of sweat to be wiped away with handkerchiefs.
Amid the tightening tensions and mid-20th century American angst, Haydon’s company also mines all the observational humour in Rose’s astute script, typified by the gum-chewing, hat-tilting swagger of Michael Greco’s time-watching marmalade salesman, Juror 7.
Ben Nealon, Gary Webster, Paul Beech, Paul Lavers and especially Kenneth Jay and Samarge Hamilton all do sterling jury service too, and one more character stands out: the revolving stage that keeps the jurors’ table moving.
You could even call it scene stealing, such is the sleight of hand that means you never see it in circular motion, but move it most certainly does, facilitating seeing faces to the maximum within the proscenium arch framework.
As the table turns, so the tables turn in the jury room’s votes in a psychological drama where Pavelka’s set so cleverly mirrors the story, played out to a choreographer’s sense of movement by Haydon.
Pavelka, Haydon and his cast are guilty of being criminally good. To miss Twelve Angry Men would be a crime to make your reviewer one angry man.
Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Court in session: Twelve Angry Men cast members take a seat at the Guildhall, York, from left to right: Paul Beech, Ben Nealon, Gary Webster, Jason Merrells, Kenneth Jay, Owen Oldroyd, Tristan Gemmill, Samarge Hamilton, Paul Lavers and Gray O’Brien
She likes to moove it, moove it: Anna Soden’s Dave the talking cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime stars Mia Overfield and Anna Soden are in the running for the 2024 UK Pantomime Awards.
Mia is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut in Jack And The Beanstalk, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre,Manchester.
In her home-city panto, Anna played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category.
Mia Overfield’s Jack with the giant Blunderbore in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor
Anna, who grew up in York, was a member of York Youth Theatre for a decade and was part of the young people’s ensemble for Theatre Royal shows, including The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum and the 2006 panto Cinderella.
In 2020, she appeared as the bass guitar-playing Fairy in York Theatre Royal’s socially distanced Travelling Pantomime, toured to York community centres under Covid restrictions.
The awards ceremony, held in association with Stagecoach, will take place at G Live, Guildford, on June 18 after the 70 judges had their busiest year yet in the awards’ third year, collectively visiting 259 venues to see 728 performances across the UK.
Reason to be cheerful: 2024 UK Pantomime Awards nominees Mia Overfield and Anna Soden. Picture: S R Taylor
Among them, Jack And The Beanstalk was the third pantomime produced on the Theatre Royal stage in partnership with panto specialists Evolution Productions, directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution’s Paul Hendy.
After Cinderella, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk, the team will reunite for the 2024-2025 Theatre Royal pantomime, Aladdin, from December 3 to January 5, when Robin Simpson will return for a fifth winter as the Dame, joined by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring.
Evie, who has guest starred on Blue Peter, has been hosting CBeebies since 2018 and during that time she has performed leading roles in their Christmas and Shakespeare productions too.
Evie Pickerill: CBeebies presenter will reunite with York Theatre Royal pantomime director Juliet Forster for Aladdin
Aladdin director Juliet Forster will be directing her for a second time. “I’m absolutely delighted to be welcoming Evie to York Theatre Royal’s stage this Christmas. I worked with Evie on CBeebies’ Romeo & Juliet– she made a wonderful Juliet and was a joy to work with.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing her bring her unique, lovable style to pantomime. We are so lucky to have her, and York audiences are in for a treat!”
Aladdin writer and Evolution producer Paul Hendy enthuses: “We’re delighted Evie Pickerill will be joining Robin Simpson in our spectacular production. I’ve been lucky enough to see Evie in pantomime before and know that she’s going to bring a sparkle and flare to the show that our audiences will adore! This really is shaping up to be our biggest and funniest show ever!”
Evie is no stranger to pantomime, having played Cinderella and Snow White previously, and she also performed in the musical Shout! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after first appearing in the show during her Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts studies. Last year she hosted her first radio show on Heart North West.
Alongside her passion for the arts, Evie is a supporter of several children’s charities, taking part in fundraising events for Comic Relief and Children In Need and becoming a champion for Place2Be in 2022.
Mikron Theatre cast members Mark Emmons, left, Lauren Robinson, Georgina Liley and Eddie Ahrens in Poppy Hollman’s Common Groud. Picture: Robling Photogrpahy
GRAB boots and a waterproof on Sunday afternoon for a meander to Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, for Mikron Theatre’s outdoor performance of Common Ground.
In their 52nd year, the Marsden company will be touring by canal, river and land throughout the summer with the premiere of Bedfordshire writer and lyricist Poppy Hollman’s third play for Mikron.
This one takes a hike through the history of land access in England – where only eight per cent of land is designated “open country” – at a time when the right to roam and the legal right to access are hot topics amid press stories of the “paywalling” of Cirencester Park and “Access Islands”.
Directed by Gitika Buttoo, Poppy’s outdoor drama tells the tale of the fictional Pendale and District Ramblers, who are looking forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary walk, only to discover that the landowner has blocked the path.
How will they find their way through? Mikron actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmons have to navigate this thorny subject matter with originally composed songs, witty lyrics, silliness, hat swapping and gusto.
Common Ground playwright and lyricist Poppy Hollman. Picture: Molly Hollman
Expect “plenty of laughs and pathos in this look at how we got to where we are now and where we might go next”. The ramblers’ quest for freedom and fresh air will not be easy, as they encounter revolting peasants, wandering sheep and a bull.
“This is my third commission for Mikron and it’s taken me on a wild ramble,” says Poppy. “From Saxon Times to Kinder Scout and beyond, the play explores our connection to the countryside around us. Who is it for, and why should we care?
“As the Right to Roam movement gains ground and there’s growing awareness of the importance of green spaces for our mental and physical health, it felt timely to explore how we access our countryside. The play delves into history to point out how access has been removed from ordinary folk over the years, from the Norman Conquest to the Enclosures Movement and contested Rights of Way.”
Director Gitika Buttoo, who directed A Force To Be Reckoned With for Mikron last year, says: “I’m so excited to be working with Mikron again for a second year running! It’s been a joyous experience working closely with the uber-talented Poppy Hollman on such an important subject matter.”
Ahrens returns from Buttoo’s company for A Force To Be Reckoned With, joined by Mikron debutants Liley, Robinson and Emmons.
Georgina Liley and Eddie Ahrens in a scene from Common Ground. Picture: Robling Photography
The touring production is designed and costumed by Celia Perkins, with musical composition by Dan McGlade (Macbeth and Twelfth Night for Leeds Playhouse) and musical direction and arrangements by Rebekah Hughes (Twitchers for Mikron; The Great Gatsby for Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre).
Mikron are touring by narrowboat and van from May 10 to October 18, no venue too small, as they head to 137 locations in 2024. More than half the performances will be “pay what you feel” after the show, rather than ticketed, and every performance has integrated audio description.
Common Ground is touring in tandem with the premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden’s new play charting the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not vote.
Mikron Theatre in Common Ground, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday, 2pm. No reserved seating or tickets required; a “pay what you feel” collection will be taken post-show.For Common Ground dates visit https://mikron.org.uk/shows/common_ground/
Did you know?
OVER 52 years, Mikron Theatre have toured 70 productions on board the vintage narrowboat Tyseley and spent 35,000 boating hours on the inland waterways. Performing 5,487 times, they have played to 460,966 people and counting.
Mikron Theatre’s poster for the 2024 tour of Poppy Hollman’s Common Ground
Wannabe’s Posh, left, Ginger, Sporty, Baby and Scary
WANNABE – The Spice Girls Show will celebrate three decades of girl power at the Grand Opera House, York, on June 20.
The “world’s longest-running” Spice Girls tribute stage production pays homage to the best-selling girl group of all time in a nostalgic journey through the Spice World.
Since its debut in 2017, Wannaba’s tribute to Sporty, Scary, Ginger, Baby and Posh has hit the West End and toured Great Britain, Europe, Asia, and Australia, playing to 300,000 Spice Girls devotees.
Wannabe charts the English girl group’s meteoric rise, from their debut number one, Wannabe, in July 1996 to Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham’s reunion at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Expect “meticulously crafted costumes representing pivotal moments in the Spice Girls’ career, unique vocal and musical arrangements exclusive to Wannabe, iconic dance routines and stunning visual flair”.
Tickets for June 20’s 7.30pm show are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.
Ema Nikolovska and Joseph Middleton. Picture: Leeds Lieder Festival
Leeds Lieder Festival 2024: Ema Nikolovska/Joseph Middleton, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Grand Theatre, April 20
MACEDONIAN-CANADIAN mezzo soprano Ema Nikolovska, partnered by festival director Joseph Middleton, brought a delightful potpourri to her evening recital, in which they teamed Schubert and Debussy with rarities by Margaret Bonds and Nicolas Slonimsky alongside the premiere of a festival commission by Tansy Davies.
Nikolovska’s clean, nicely focused tone is allied to a lively personality that illuminates the poetryof her songs. There was a freshness to her opening Schubert group, not least in Im Frühling (In Spring).
After its penultimate verse, there was a pronounced rallentando and a long pause before she resumed. Not so long ago that would have been considered unstylish, but she made it seem natural. One could only admire, too, her treatment of the dramatic scena Der Unglückliche (The Forlorn One), a poem from Karoline Pichler’s novel Olivier. It has been called pastiche, but Nikolovska handled its emotional roller-coaster with immense conviction.
In answer to a commission from Leeds Lieder, celebrating its 20th anniversary, Tansy Davies chose to set Nick Drake’s The Ice Core Sample Says, taken from his collection The Farewell Glacier, about climate change. The poem deals memorably with the “chronicle of lost time” revealed in an ice core, with an overarching nostalgia in what is essentially a lament over mankind’s mistreatment of our planet.
Davies’s response is unexpected. Against an accompaniment that explores the extremes of the keyboard, she takes the voice slowly from very low to very high in each of a series of phrases. Later in the piece, which lasts about eight minutes, the vocal line becomes very jagged, as the narrator shows agitation at the shocking revelations coming from the ice.
Great demands are made upon the singer here, in what is essentially an instrumental line, quite the opposite of cantabile. Nikolovska was equal to them all, indeed she gave the impression of being comfortable.
Towards the end she also shakes something like maracas, as “Now the great narrator Silence takes over”. This powerful poem, replete with images, which was commendably read out beforehand, is arguably too complex for vocal setting. But Davies and Drake between them certainly made an impact.
The American composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was a new name to me. Although a pianist, the bulk of her works were for solo voice; several of her spirituals were commissioned and sung by Leontyne Price. Her early Songs Of The Seasons (1935-6), settings of her favoured poet Langston Hughes, proved a delightful antidote to the Davies work, and elicited considerable virtuosity from Middleton.
Thereafter we were on more familiar ground. Debussy’s six Verlaine settings, Ariettes Oubliées, which really put him on the mélodie map, found her in idiomatic vein. She sustained a pleasing legato through Il Pleure dans Mon Cœur against the rippling piano, and ideally evoked the ennui of Spleen.
But in two Medtner songs in Rachmaninov style – Twilight with its flavour of a bar-room ballad and the sweeping lines of Sleeplessness – she showed plenty of heft.
A return to wry delicacy was the order of the day in Slonimsky’s Five Advertising Songs, commercial jingles by any other name, but with a few extra twists. This was immaculate caricature, from ‘falling asleep’ with pillowcases to grand sweeping lines for toothpaste. Nikolovska has a great sense of humour and proved it here. She topped it all off, however, with a touching Macedonian folk-song encore, which came right from the heart.
