Jennie Dale: CBeebies’ star in her York Theatre Royal pantomime role as Fairy Moonbeam in Sleeping Beauty
JENNIE Dale, star of CBeebies’ Swashbuckle, will play Fairy Moonbeam in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, from December 2 to January 4 2025.
She follows in the CBeebies’ footsteps of Andy Day’s Dandini in 2021, Mandy Moate’s Tinkerbell in 2022, James “Raven” McKenzie’s villainous Luke Backinanger in 2023 and Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring and Genie of the Lamp in 2024 in appearing in the Theatre Royal co-production with award-winning pantomime producers Evolution Productions.
Jennie is best known for playing Captain Captain in the CBeebies television series Swashbuckle and for presenting Jennie’s Fitness In 5 for CBeebies and CBBC.
Her theatre credits include Elf(Dominion Theatre), The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre), Sister Act (London Palladium), The Lord Of The Rings (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre).
Jennie has appeared in CBeebies’ pantomimes aplenty, playing Growl in Beauty And The Beast, Sheriff in Robin Hood, Mrs Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington And His Cat and Jiffy in Christmas In Storyland.
Jennie Dale: Presenter of CBeebies’ show Swashbuckle
Evolution writer and producer Paul Hendy and Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the team behind Cinderella, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin, will reunite for Sleeping Beauty.
Juliet previously directed Jennie as the Nurse in CBeebies’ production of Romeo & Juliet. “Fairy Moonbeam is such a fun role and I can’t wait to welcome Jennie to York Theatre Royal’s stage this Christmas,” she says. “Jennie is fabulously talented and York audiences can expect a real treat with this year’s pantomime. Don’t miss it!”
Paul says: “We’re delighted Jennie Dale will be joining the cast of Sleeping Beauty as Fairy Moonbeam. She’s an absolutely fantastic West End performer and CBeebies’ star, who we know will amaze the pantomime audiences at York Theatre Royal. Sleeping Beauty is going to be a truly spectacular show. Book now!”
Jennie joins the already confirmed Robin Simpson, who will play the dame for a sixth successive Theatre Royal pantomime. Expect “stunning costumes, gorgeous sets, dazzling special effects and lots of hilarious jokes in a festive treat for the whole family”.
Early birds who book before the end of March can benefit from a price freeze on ticket prices, with options ranging from £15 to £43.50. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
And now there are two: Jennie Dale is the second cast member to be announced for York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions’ co-production of Sleeping Beauty, joining regular dame Robin Simpson
YORK classical pianist Sarah Beth Briggs will give a recital at St Peter’s Church, Osmotherley, near Northallerton, on April 5.
The 7pm programme will include music by Haydn, Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Poulenc and Germaine Taillefairre.
“St Peter’s has a long tradition of music making, putting on several concerts every year for the local community to enjoy and is delighted to welcome Sarah to play,” says concert organiser Eleanor Gill.
Tickets cost £15, available at eleanor_gill@yahoo.co.uk and from the village coffee shop and Top Shop in Osmotherley.
In addition, Sarah will give a masterclass to more advanced pianists from the Positively Piano Group – run by Eleanor – in Hutton Rudby Village Hall on April 6 at 2pm.
Sarah Beth Briggs: Recorded new album Small Treasures for autumn release. Picture: Fritz Curzon
Looking forward to next month’s recital, Sarah says: “I’ve chosen a very audience-friendly programme with something for everyone. It opens and closes with works from my warmly reviewed discography: Haydn’s late C major Sonata and what many view as Mendelssohn’s finest composition for piano, the dramatic Variations Serieuses.
“Much of the rest of the programme draws from my forthcoming release, recorded earlier this month, entitled Small Treasures, in which I juxtapose some of the greatest and best-loved piano miniatures by Robert Schumann and Brahms with lesser-known gems by Poulenc, Clara Schumann and Germaine Tailleferre.”
As ever, Sarah’s informative but light-hearted introductions to the repertoire will uncover fascinating facts that even the most seasoned concert-goers may not know, while also highlighting details to guide the first-time concert-goer, enabling every audience member to delight in all the music.
Small Treasures will be released in the autumn. Watch this space for further details.
Freya Horlsey: Among the 163 artists and makers taking part in York Open Studios
SPRING has sprung, the cue for the arts world to have an extra spring in its step, much to Charles Hutchinson’s joy.
Art event of the weekend: York Open Studios Taster Exhibition, The Hospitium, York Museum Gardens, today and tomorrow, 10am to 4pm
YORK Open Studios will showcase 163 artists and makers at 116 locations on April 5, 6, 11 and 12 in its largest configuration yet in its 24 years. To whet the appetite, this weekend’s Taster Exhibition showcases works by participating artists to “help you choose which studios you would like to visit”. Full details of the April event can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk. Admission is free.
Stevie Hook: Spinning The Wheel Of Nouns
Queercabaret night of the week: York Literature Festival presents Stevie Hook in The Wheel Of Nouns, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
REJOICE…or beware! The Gender Fairy is loose and has found their way to York.What is gender anyway and why should you care? Discover why it may be easier than you think in Hook’s new cabaret comedy: an evening of spinning game show wheels, jokes, bribes, and voluntary audience participation.
Audience interaction and cabaret-style games create a light-hearted, accepting environment to explore key issues around queerness and gender identity in 70 minutes of thought-provoking, mischievous queer cabaret.
The Wheel Of Nouns is presented by York trans, non-binary, neurodivergent mythical creature, writer and cabaret artist Stevie Hook. They are an associate artist with Roots Theatre and uses the pronouns they/them and hehe/hym.
At the heart of everything they create is a passion for subverting expectations, using games and audience interaction mechanics to invite audiences into silly, unapologetically trans worlds. They believe empowering audiences to participate and play in these silly worlds with them can open doors for meaningful change. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Printmaker Pamela Knight: Exhibiting at Bluebird Bakery in Acomb
Exhibition of the week: Three Printmakers, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, until May 7
YORK Printmakers members Pamela Knight, Vanessa Oo and Sandra Storey are taking part in the Three Printmakers: Energy, Atmosphere & Light exhibition. York artist and former theatre set and costume designer Knight specialises in collagraphy, enjoying the textures and effects she creates using this process, often enriched with monoprint and chine colle.
Oo, from York, is displaying monotypes for the first time. “My work is about capturing the magic of the moment; an unseen energy and rhythm,” she says. Harrogate artist Sandra Storey’s work evokes the “talisman-like quality” of plants, birds and natural objects found within the North York Moors landscape. Admission is free.
Close up for Kim Wilde: Songs from Close and Closer at York Barbican
Pop gig of the week: Kim Wilde: Closer Tour, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.45pm
EIGHTIES’ pop star Kim Wilde performs songs from her sixth album, 1988’s Close, complemented by new numbers from Closer, her 15th studio set, released on January 25. Expect the familiar hits too: Kids In America, You Came, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Never Trust A Stranger, Four Letter Word et al. Cutting Crew support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Fiery Angel head to the Grand Opera House from Tuesday with Lucy Bailey’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express
Thriller of the week: Fiery Angel in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, March 25 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
FIERY Angel follow up November 2023’s visit of And Then There Were None with another Agatha Christie murder mystery directed by Lucy Bailey, this time with Michael Maloney on board for a “deliciously thrilling ride” as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.
In Winter 1934, an avalanche stops The Orient Express dead in its tracks. Cue a murder. A train full of suspects. An impossible case. Trapped in the snow with a killer still on-board, can the world’s most famous detective crack the case before the train reaches its final destination?
Meanwhile, Wise Children’s world premiere of Emma Rice’s theatrical take on Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West continues at York Theatre Royal until April 5. Box office: GOH, atgtickets.com/york; YTR, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Mark Simmonds in rehearsal for his role as Prospero in Black Sheep Theatre’s The Tempest at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Shakespeare debut of the week: Black Sheep Theatre in The Tempest, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 26 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER making their mark with musical theatre productions, York company Black Sheep Productions branch out into Shakespeare territory under Matthew Peter Clare’s direction. “Prepare for The Tempest like you’ve never seen it before,” he says, promising magic, music and mayhem in a dark re-telling of the one with “a storm, a shipwreck and the torment of it all”, featuring Mark Simmonds as Prospero, Freya McIntosh as Miranda, Mikhail Lim as Gonzalo, Deathly Dark Tours guide, Kisskisskill singer Gemma-Louise Keane as Ariel, Meg Conway as Antonia and Josh Woodgate as Caliban.
“With a phenomenal cast, a live six-piece band, our production re-imagines Shakespeare’s tale of power, revenge, and redemption in a truly immersive and unforgettable way.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Public Service Broadcasting: York Barbican debut on March 27
Past meets future in the present: Public Service Broadcasting, York Barbican, March 27, doors 7pm
PUBLIC Service Broadcasting make their York Barbican debut with J. Willgoose, Esq on guitar, banjo, other stringed instruments, samples and electronic musical instruments; Wrigglesworth on drums, piano and electronic instruments; J F Abraham on flugelhorn, bass guitar, drums and vibraslap and Mr B on visuals and set design.
“Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future” for more than a decade, the corduroy-wearing Londoners will select material from their five themed albums, 2013’s Inform – Educate – Entertain, 2015’s The Race For Space, 2017’s Every Valley, 2021’s Bright Magic and 2024’s The Last Flight. She Drew The Gun support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Laura Veirs: Art meets science via geology in her songs at The Crescent, York, on March 27
Folk gig of the week: Please Please You and Brudenell Presents (CORRECT)present Laura Veirs, supported by Lucca Mae, The Crescent, York, March 27, doors 7pm
PORTLAND, Oregon, folk singer, songwriter, children’s author, artist, Midnight Lightning podcaster, Stanford University songwriting teacher and mother Laura Veirs draws on her 14 albums in her Crescent set. Growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she spent summers camping with her family, inspiring her songwriting as much as her fascination with the intersection of art and science from days of studying geology (and Mandarin Chinese) at Carleton College in rural Minnesota.
Her 25-year career has taken in collaborations with Neko Case and kd lang in case/lang/veirs, Sufjan Stevens, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and The Decemberists. Now she is working on new paintings, an instrumental guitar album and a book about creativity. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Freida Nipples: Baps & Buns is backat Bluebird Bakery
Burlesque show of the week: Freida Nipples presents Baps & Buns Burlesque, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, Bakery, March 28, doors 7pmfor 8pm start
YORK’S award-winning queen of burlesque, Freida Nipples, returns to Rise with the first Baps & Buns cabaret bill of 2025. On the menu at York’s regular burlesque night in a bakery will be a collection of sensational cabaret artists, fronted by Freida, of course.
Further Baps & Buns will be on the Rise on May 30, June 27, September 19 and December 13. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.
Will Smith: Off to the seaside to perform at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in August
Gig announcement of the week: Will Smith, Based On A True Story Tour, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, August 24
WILL Smith, the Grammy Award-winning American screen actor, entertainer and recording artist, will promote his first full-length album in 20 years, Based On A True Story, on his debut UK headline travels that will open on the Yorkshire coast.
Songs from his March 28 release will be complemented by such hits as Jiggy Wit It, Miami, and Summertime. “Yo UK, my first ever tour. You got to go get it. I’m on my way,” says Smith, 56. “That’s my airplane. Scarborough, Cardiff, Manchester, London, it’s going to be hot! I’m about to go to the airport. I’m leaving now!” Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Train of thought:Paul Keating’s Hector MacQueen, left, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc and Michael Maloney’s Hercule Poirot in discussion in Lucy Bailey’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next week
REMEMBER And Then There Were None playing the Grand Opera House in November 2023? And now there is another Agatha Christie thriller on track for the York theatre, again directed by Lucy Bailey for Fiery Angel.
It will be full steam ahead for Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express from next Tuesday, with Michael Maloney on board for a “deliciously thrilling ride” as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.
In Winter 1934, an avalanche stops The Orient Express dead in its tracks. Cue a murder. A train full of suspects. An impossible case. Trapped in the snow with a killer still on-board, can the world’s most famous detective crack the case before the train reaches its final destination?
Bob Barrett takes the role of Poirot’s fellow Belgian and friend, Monsieur Bouc, director of La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the Orient Express train company, in a tour well into its stride.
“We started rehearsals last August and our first performance was at The Lowry, in Salford, at the beginning of September, since when we’ve been touring with a very big set,” he says.
Bob Barrett, seated, right, in the Fiery Angel cast for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None on his last visit to the Grand Opera House, York, in November 2023. Picture: Manuel Harlan
“We’ve gone from playing big theatres like The Mayflower in Southampton to the smallest so far, Richmond, with a capacity of 680, and there are parts of the set we can’t use in the smaller venues, but we have a revolve set design that can be used pretty much in its entirety everywhere, certainly in York, where it will be fantastic because it’s such a wide state – and that’s ideal because what you see is a train!”
Trucks were used in the rehearsal room to give a sense of the carriages. “Once we were off the book, we needed as much of the set as possible to work with, and the music too, which is a huge part of the show. I’ve never had that experience before where we had the music in the rehearsal room all the time, creating the energy and the humour in the production.”
Bob is enjoying bonhomie between Monsieur Bouc and Poirot in Bailey’s production. “They have a wonderful bond, and he is the yin to my yang,” he says. Monsieur Bouc is not the brightest, so it’s like Holmes & Watson or Morecambe and Wise, shall we say!
“Bouc has his back, and we see the plot unfold through Poirot’e eyes, with Bouc giving him his support – and advice, even though he’s invariably wrong!”
Bouc’s accent is most definitely Belgian, not French. “In some ways, it’s like the difference between the Canada and the United States. There’s a warmth to the accent and a slight humour too, with Belgians being jokes to the French.
Keeping track of events: Paul Keating’s Hector MacQueen), left, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc and Simon Cotton’s Samuel Ratchett in Murder On The Orient Express
“There’s a running joke throughout the play, where someone will say, ‘Is the Frenchman coming to see us?’, and I’ll have to say, ‘No, he’s Belgian’. But we have a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Fillon, playing the conductor, Michael, so he’s got a really good French accent!”
Joined in the touring production by his wife, Rebecca Charles, in the role of the “weepy and delicate” Greta Ohlsson, Swedish personal assistant to the Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, Bob is returning to the Grand Opera House after appearing as Doctor Armstrong in Lucy Bailey’s account of And Then There Were None in November 2023.
“That was the first Agatha Christie production that Fiery Angel had done on such a big scale and it was a huge success,” he says. “They’ll be reuniting later this year for Death On The Nile with Lucy teaming up with same designer and production team too.
“Lucy has this wonderful imagination, she’s incredibly positive, and creates these unbelievable moments of energy in her directing, taking you on this rollercoaster, taking you to places that you wouldn’t expect to go to.
“She pushes you collectively, lifting the actors [metaphorically] above her shoulders and just running with it, so that you all feel part of the creative process, and that’s how she gets such energy into the performance.”
Director Lucy Bailey: “She has this wonderful imagination, she’s incredibly positive, and creates these unbelievable moments of energy in her directing,” says cast member Bob Barrett. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Assessing why Agatha Christie remains as popular as ever, whether on page, stage or screen, Bob posits: “Usually writers remain popular if what they’ve done has never been bettered.
“That’s why we go back to Shakespeare, Ibsen, Beckett, and Christie too. What they’ve done has been copied, but never bettered. In Christie’s case, how she creates suspense, intrigue and excitement. Dickens is the greatest English creator of characters but Agatha is not far behind. Poirot is such an iconic figure, even more so than Miss Marple.
“The other day, we found out that she’d written a version of Death On The Nile where she wrote out Poirot and had a vicar solving the crime, as she couldn’t face writing another Poirot story, but then changed her mind.”
Bob continues: “Agatha Christie wrote 75 books, Dickens 15, Jane Austen only six. So you have a lifetime of Christie reading ahead! I always say that she’s very accurate in what she writes, and if you’re that successful, you have to have an understanding of human nature, taking people out of their comfort zone and seeing what happens to them, thinking, ‘how would I behave in that situation?’.”
Fiery Angel presents Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, March 25 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Did you know?
BOB Barrett is best known for his BBC television role as Sacha Levy in Holby City since 2010, with further screen credits in EastEnders, The Bill, Shakespeare In Love, Wonderful You, Casualty and Father Brown.
THE world premiere of Emma Rice’s theatrical take on Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West is up and running at York Theatre Royal with a full week of previews before next Wednesday’s press night: a lead-up more associated with West End premieres.
Such is the scale and anticipation that surrounds Frome company Wise Children’s co-production with the Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
“The show’s ready for an audience,” said writer-director Emma last Friday morning, in a brief break from tech-week preparations for Tuesday’s first preview.
Five weeks of rehearsals at The Lucky Chance, Wise Children’s creative space in a converted Methodist church in Somerset, had preceded moving up to York on March 16.
“There’s a certain percentage of work you can’t do in the rehearsal room, especially when we have a very ambitious set with four revolving doors that are over four metres high and slide over the stage, and the cast has to learn how to move across the stage,” says Emma. “It’s quite mathematical as it’s such a mind-bending plot – and Maths is not my strong point!”
Quick refresher course: Hitchcock’s 1959 American spy thriller, the one starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason from cinema’s Golden Age, finds hapless advertising man Roger Thornhill (now played by Ewan Wardrop) being mistaken for George Kaplan when a mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he is on the run across America, dodging foreign spies, airplanes and a femme fatale, Eve Kendall, who might not be all she seems.
Rice duly turns Hitchcock’s smart thriller on its head in her riotously humorous reworking, replete with six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 1950s’ soundtrack and a heap of hats, clothes, suitcases and newspapers in a topsy-turvy drama full of glamour, glitz, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths.
Where Rice’s vision of North By Northwest meets Hitchcock’s version is “sort of a surprising marriage, but I’ve loved it” she says of the creative process. “I love that it’s an impossible test. North By Northwest has a vast series of impossible problems to solve on stage, from Mount Rushmore to the plane, the crop duster, and you have to work your magic.
“We’ve come up with lots of fun ways to meet those challenges, those setpieces, while also matching Hitchcock’s vision, so it’s very stylish.”
Etta Murfitt’s contribution as movement director has been important. “It’s been fascinating because it’s an odyssey story and the thing you can’t do with the four-door set is travel much, so you have to find the energy to give that sense of travel,” says Emma.
Emma Rice at Wise Children’s creative space, The Lucky Chance, a converted Methodist church in Frome, Somerset
“We do that with fantastic choreography that, like Bob Fosse’s work, gives it humour as well as movement, and you think, ‘is it dance, is it theatre’? We have six actors who are incredibly virtuosic in their acting. Five of them have worked with me before, and the newcomer to the company is Simon Oskarsson, who’s Swedish but has been working in England for a long time.”
North By Northwest may be outwardly familiar, “but I would place a wager now that a lot people will have seen the film but if you ask them to tell the story they probably couldn’t,” says Emma. “I’ve taken months to complete all the beats of the story. I’ve not needed to have too many surprises but I’ve made it easier to understand.
“My experience of the film was that it was baffling, and we’ve been able to tell the story more clearly without losing the tension.”
To help her do so, she methodically made note cards of each plot point, placed on the floor to work through the machinations in her fourth conversion from screen to stage after The Red Shoes, A Matter Of Life And Death and Brief Encounter in her Kneehigh Theatre days.
“Nothing happens in Brief Encounter. Everything happens in North By North West, and it takes every iota of my theatre craft to present it. I have to be on the front of my toes. Like we now have over 70 suitcases in this show, each one with a different label and different things in it, after I swapped having lots of hats for more suitcases, though there are still many hats, but many more suitcases now!”
Emma has homed in on the 1950s’ post-war setting too, not least to bring more depth to Hitchcock’s characters. “I’ve always been really fascinated by the Fifties,” she says. “My parents were small children in the war; my grandparents fought in the war. My parents were my family’s first generation to go university.
“Every character in the film would have just come out of the war; everyone making the film would have experienced it, so it’s been interesting to add that depth to it.”
In particular, she focuses on building up the back story of Eve Kendall, the femme fatale who helps Thornhill to avoid detection after they meet on a train. “I think Hitchcock made a great job of Eve; she’s the heroine of the piece, putting herself on the line with her bravery and her moral judgement when facing the most jeopardy.”
Emma has given the narrator’s role to Katy Owen’s Professor. “I’ve used a lot of Hitchcock’s dialogue in the play, but the Professor’s narration is very much in my language though I’ve also used stage directions from Ernest Lehman’s film script, which was a masterpiece. They’re beautifully written; the language is virtuosic and humorous and elegant too.”
Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West, York Theatre Royal, until April 5, 7.30pm plus2pm, March 26 and April 3; 2.30pm, March 29 and April 5Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for Wise Children’s world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, on stage at York Theatre Royal from this week
Shôn Dale-Jones in The Duke. Picture: Jaimie Gramston
SHON Dale-Jones heads to Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight with a re-working of his Edinburgh Fringe First award-winning, fund-raising one-man show, The Duke.
Along with his show about inequality, privilege and poverty, Me And Robin Hood, The Duke has raised more than £100,000 for charities supporting children refugees and street-connected children. Proceeds from his latest tour will go to Save The Children’s Emergency Fund.
Exploring kindness, generosity and the value of what we do, The Duke weaves together the tragi-comic fate of a family heirloom (a porcelain figure of the Duke of Wellington), the quandary of a scriptwriter stretching his integrity and an unfolding disaster as thousands of children flee their homes.
Bristol writer-performer Shôn blends theatre, comedy and storytelling with fantasy and reality to gently challenge our priorities in a world full of crisis in a 60-minute play premiered in 2016 in response to the refugee crisis that exploded following the ‘Syrian Conflict’.
The Duke was re-written and revived last year in response to the ever-evolving and worsening refugee crisis following more conflicts and disasters around the world.
“Every show I make is made for a particular reason,” says Shôn. “I made The Duke in 2016 because I wanted to find a way of doing something practical about ‘the refugee crisis’.
“I couldn’t watch more images of the terrifying reality that these people are suffering without contributing towards the relief effort. I’m not a doctor or an engineer – I’m a writer/performer – and so I decided I could write a show which connects us to the crisis and raise money to support Save The Children’s refugee and crisis work.
“Now, in 2025, I’ve returned to The Duke because ‘the refugee crisis’ has become more extreme and heavily politicised. It feels more important than ever to remind each other that we are talking about people. People like us. It might be complicated to find solutions to the crisis but it’s straightforward to practise empathy for innocent people whose lives are being torn apart.”
Shôn continues:“We feel passionately about what the show is aiming to achieve: to make audiences wonder about the value of art at a time when the world is in turmoil and to reach out and empathise with the refugee crisis.
“We want to increase our empathy for people whose lives have been torn apart and forced them to seek refuge and sanctuary away from home. The show is a vehicle for raising money and awareness. It’s a conduit to an urgent and immediate need and we hope our audiences join us in empathising and raising money to support this cause.”
How did The Duke first emerge? “What happened was I’d spent over a year developing a TV show and at the end I was told I had a couple of months to wait for it to be confirmed,” recalls Shôn.
“I hadn’t expected that, so I thought it would be useful to use those months to write a play, and what was going on at that time was our TV screens were being bombarded with images of the Syrian crisis. We were seeing images of the refugee camps for the first time.
“My father had died, my mother was lonely, and I was concerned about whether my TV proposal would be accepted, so I wrote a solo show that intertwined all those narratives.
“The Duke connects me and my relationship with my mother
The Duke cooconnectsmeandmyrelationshipwithmymother,andmyworkinglifeasawriter,tothelifeofarefugeewhoisherewithhertwoyoungdaughtersthatdon’tknowwhethertheirfatherisaliveordead.TheDukeconnectsustotherefugeecrisisbysharingourcommonhumanityandthelovingbondthatexistsbetweenchildren,mothersandfathers.
What happened next? “The TV project never materialised, so I thought, ‘I’ll go back into theatre’ and set up The Duke as a fund-raising show for Save The Children, where I would give theatres the show and rather than paying for their tickets, audiences would give to the charity.
“I played the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016, then London, Norway and Australia, and the play got translated into Flemish, (Brazilian) Portuguese and Turkish, so there are now other versions being presented around the world.”
Shôn enthuses: “I thought, ‘there’s something in this’, and it’s rekindled my desire to work in theatre and engage with social and political issues. I then made the second show [Me And Robin Hood] for Street Child United, who put on a World Cup for children around the world, which was held a month before the World Cup.
“I went to Chennai in India and did some work directly with one of the homes out there and then I worked with a company in Belgium. I’m still making a lot of theatre but I’m also back in TV development now. I’m still optimistic but less naive.”
Assessing why The Duke has had such an impact, Shôn says: “I think it has an emotional sincerity to it. We’re concerned for our parents when they get older, and it’s also impossible for us not to get caught up in the narrative surrounding refugee camps, but then there is the question of how much do you focus on your professional development when you know there are other things needing your support.
“The whole idea of contributing, of helping others, is deeply embedded in my family. Both my grandmother and my mother were embedded in charity work. My grandmother worked for Oxfam when it was first set up; my mother has worked for all sorts of agencies: for the NSPCC, Samaritans and the Adoption UK charity.
“What I think I found when I started working with humanitarian relief projects was it was so different from the theatre world, and I suddenly found a different dimension to my theatre work, connecting my storytelling to things that were more meaningful.”
Summing up The Duke, he says: “The play connects me and my relationship with my mother, and my working life as a writer, to the life of a refugee who is here with her two young daughters that don’t know whether their father is alive or dead.
“The Duke connects us to the refugee crisis by sharing our common humanity and the loving bond that exists between children, mothers and fathers.”
From an initial expectation of raising maybe £4,000-£5,000 from the four-week Edinburgh Fringe run, Shôn’s charity donations have passed the £100,000 mark, even in straitened times when the average charity donation has gone down from £8 to £4. “I’ve resolved to keep sending the donations to the charities that work on the ground,” he says.
SDJ Productions presents Shôn Dale-Jones in The Duke, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight at 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk or by emailing boxoffice@41monkgate.co.uk.
Shôn Dale-Jones: back story
BORN in Llangefni on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Studied Drama & Film at University of East Anglia (1987-1990) and trained at Lecoq School in Paris (1990-1992) while making street theatre and performing stand-up.
Works as a writer, performer, director and producer, making work on stage, radio, screen and elsewhere. Created 29 theatre shows, six radio plays, several films and site-specific and outdoor work since 1994.
His work has toured to more than 20 countries, across six continents and been translated into seven languages. Partners have included BBC, Barbican, Royal Court, National Theatre Studios, National Theatre Wales and Sydney Opera House.
Previously founding director of Hoipolloi and Hugh Hughes Productions before launching SDJ Productions.
The Duke: back story
PERFORMED at venues across the world from Africa to Australia, at a host of London theatres, including the Royal Court, Barbican and Soho Theatre, and on UK tours.
Won Fringe First Award; highly commended in Sit Up and Act Awards; nominated for Prix Europa Award in Best European Radio Fiction category. Made into BBC Radio 4 play in 2018.
Revised show is touring throughout England and Wales this spring, asking audiences to continue to make a difference to the lives of refugees by inviting them to donate to Save The Children’s Emergency Fund after performances.
Art Of Protest creative director Jeff Clark with Gemma Waygood-Senior, project manager for the Return Of The Arks project in Front Street, Acomb. All pictures: Jeff Clark
ART Of Protest has installed the Return Of The Oaks benches in Acomb, York, ahead of Saturday’s mural and bench “reveal” and celebration event in Front Street and Cross Street.
That afternoon comes the opportunity to meet the artists, join in creative spray paint activities and see the unveiling of the mural from 4pm. Further celebrations will follow with a DJ set and community art show at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, in Acomb Road, from 6pm.
Eight wooden benches have been transformed, each painted with a leaf design from the woodland to reflect links to nature.
Return Of The Oaks mural artist Tom Jackson and Art Of Protest workshop leader Chloe Mae. “Both live within a mile of the mural, and this is the closest paint project to their homes they have ever done,” says Jeff Clark
This follows an extensive programme of engagement events and workshops, led by Chloe Mae where Art of Protest gathered the views and ideas of the Acomb community and gained an understanding of what people would like to see.
Alongside the benches, Art of Protest has been working on the new mural that aims to capture the spirit and sense of community in Acomb.
This art project is part of the wider scheme to improve Front Street and create a more accessible, vibrant, people-friendly space. City of York Council received £570,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Funding to deliver these Phase 2 improvements, including new seating and planters, improved Blue Badge parking, wide and level pedestrian crossings, wayfinding signs and upgraded public loos.
The Oak bench from Art Of Protest’s Return Of The Oaks project in Front Street, Acomb
Councillor Katie Lomas, executive member with responsibility for Finance and Major Projects, said: “This is an incredibly exciting part of the project and it is great to see even more improvements take shape on Front Street.
“This scheme is funded through the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund and is helping to create a more accessible and attractive space for people to live, work, shop or visit.
“The newly painted benches are a very welcome addition and do a fantastic job of brightening up the area. The designs for both the artwork and wider Phase 2 improvements are based on significant engagement with the local community, so it will be great to be able to celebrate the progress with local people this weekend.
“I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished mural and would encourage those who live or spend time in Acomb to come along and get involved.”
Chloe Mae and Tom Jackson take advantage of Thursday’s sunny, dry weather to work on the Return Of The Oaks mural in Acomb
Art Of Protest creative director Jeff Clark said:“It was great to see the evolution of the project, taking the community on the journey and developing local talent through the Street Art Academy and artist Tom Jackson, Art Of Protest’s production manager and one half of the Static street art duo with Craig Evans. The feedback was inspirational and there is so much love and pride in the community.
“We are celebrating the return of local trees and a wonderful idea of each bench having a local leaf emblem, so visitors to the area can say ‘see you at the oak bench’.
“Each bench also has a carved-out leaf emblem so they are accessible and engaging. The return of the oaks is then incorporated into the mural design. We are so grateful to the Acomb community, the support and great ideas. Please come and celebrate as this is your hard work.”
Taking shape: Art Of Project workshop leader Chloe Mae, centre, working on the mural with Art Of Protest production manager and Static artist Tom Jackson and Sarah, from the Street Art Academy
Pamela Knight: “Drawing, painting, ‘making things’ have always been part of my life,” she says
PAMELA Knight, Vanessa Oo and Sandra Storey are taking part in the Three Printmakers: Energy, Atmosphere & Light exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until May 7.
York Printmakers member Pamela Knight specialises in collagraphy, enjoying the textures and effects she creates using this process, often enriched with monoprint and chine colle.
“Drawing, painting, ‘making things’ have always been part of my life,” she says. “I worked as a designer of sets and costumes in professional theatre for many years, following further education in Manchester and Bristol studying fashion and textiles, then stage design.
“I came to York in the late 1980s to join the new heritage industry as a costume researcher and designer. I’ve lived and worked here for over 30 years and I now work from my studio making paintings and prints. I love the city and I love Yorkshire and I now regard it as my home.”
Walking in the natural landscapes of Britain and abroad gives her great joy, “moving through, looking at, soaking up these landscapes – the colours and patterns, the light and the shadows”.
“The memory of the experience becomes the subject of my paintings, sketches and prints. I try to evoke the feeling, the essence, of the special place, expressively with semi-abstract imagery,” says Pamela, who also paints and sometimes incorporates mixed media into her small-edition prints.
Vanessa Oo’s profile picture from the York Printmakers website
Fellow York Printmakers member Vanessa Oo predominantly creates small families of hand-pulled screenprints by placing together abstract drawn elements in different combinations, but she is displaying monotypes for the first time at Bluebird Bakery.
Each work is unique, while always evoking a sense of movement. “The energetic compositions are instinctive and spontaneous: I’m interested in the tensions and relationships which emerge,” says Vanessa, who was a SCAF Emerging Artist Award 2024 finalist.
“My work is about capturing the magic of the moment; an unseen energy and rhythm. Although the marks are abstract, they have an organic feel and are based on shapes found in nature or the human figure.”
Her original designs are all hand drawn in ink, chinagraph or paint. “So it’s a very ‘undigital’ process,” says Vanessa, who likes exploring the reactions to her abstract pieces and raising the question about what that says about the artist and the viewer. “I enjoy the combination of control and spontaneity of the marks it allows.”
Harrogate artist and printmaker Sandra Storey’s work evokes “the talisman-like quality” of plants, birds and natural objects found within the North York Moors landscape. Often reusing old printmaking plates and making her own plates from recycled cartons, she explores traces of the past revealed in both the objects that fascinate her and the landscape itself.
Born in 1961, Sandra grew up in a small village outside Whitby. After studying for a degree in Fine Art, she trained as an art psychotherapist and worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, followed by independent practice for five more.
Sandra Storey in her studio
Sandra completed an MA in Creative Practice in 2016, graduating with a Distinction and the Dean’s Prize (Art and Design) from Harrogate College. She is a member of York Printmakers, Yorkshire Art Collective and Scaffold, exhibits regularly in both group and solo exhibitions and was shortlisted for the Scott Creative Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award.
“My work explores trace, imprint and the ethereal quality of moorland or coastal landscapes,” she says. “Printmaking, drawing and painting are combined to evoke the mythological nature of childhood landscapes and the talisman-like feel of natural objects.”
Often drawn back to the moors and coast near Whitby, Sandra uses material found on walks there to create her printmaking plates, from which she makes her prints.
“Discovering unexpected images through the printmaking process can feel akin to an archaeological find or discovering buried treasure,” she says. “A print is a trace, an imprint from a printmaking plate. It parallels my interest in traces from the past, those that can be found in landscape or images seared or imprinted in our memories. Printmaking can sometimes unearth these.”
Working largely with collagraphs, her prints are often made from multiple plates. Some plates have a built-up, complex surface that embosses the paper, giving texture and dept, and Sandra also works with monoprint, drypoint and aquatint to create layered and painterly prints. The final piece is often a one off or part of a small edition.
In addition to the Three Printmakers show, she will be exhibiting with the Yorkshire At Collective at Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk, from April 5 to 19.
Further exhibitions coming up at Bluebird Bakery in 2025, curated by Rogues Atelier artist, upholsterer and interior designer Jo Walton will be: Jill Tattersall, from May 8; Clare M Wood, from July 3; Mandi Grant, from August 28; Di Gomery, from October 23 and Donna Maria Taylor, from December 18.
Sam Bailey’s April Devonshire, left, and Nina Wadia’s Gemma Warner, with the Birmingham skyline behind them, reconnect in NOW That’s What I Call A Musical. Picture: Pamela Raith
THE familiar chunky bold typeface and loud colours of the NOW compilation album series greets the audience on a huge sign, hanging high above Tom Rogers and Toots Butcher’s set design, to announce we are in the presence of NOW That’s What I Call A Musical.
Next, the equally familiar tones of Craig Revel Horwood, the pantomime villain of Strictly Come Dancing’s judges, voices the obligatory recorded request to switch off all electronic equipment, backed up by the promise of a fab-u-lous show.
Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he, as he is the director-choreography, and the show has all the hallmarks of what the flamboyant Australian loves in a performance: energy, more energy, impish expression, personality and well-drilled routines.
NOW That’s What I Call A Musical is very much Now That’s What I Call A Jukebox Musical, driven in this case by a multitude of 1980s’ smashes guilty pleasures and karaoke bangers with musical supervision, orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Mark Crossland that are invariably as loud and bold as that NOW signage.
NOW’s book writer, Pippa Evans, is an author, writer, performer and BBC Radio 4 and Edinburgh Fringe musical comedy regular with a track record for improvisation and musical theatre (as a founder member of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical), and significantly too she was the dramaturg on 9 To 5: The Musical.
In other words, she knows how to structure a musical’s emotional ebb and flow, and now, in adding ‘jukebox musical’ to her polymath portfolio, she shows a facility for finding humorous ways to shoehorn songs with a knowing wink into the flow of her plot, from Tainted Love to Gold, Everybody Wants To Rule The World to St Elmo’s Fire, as well as delivering punchlines and putdowns aplenty.
That plot is set in Birmingham, now and back then, or more accurately in 2009 and 1989, opening at the Sparkhill school reunion for the Class of ’89, leading into a full-throttle burst of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax, one of multiple ensemble numbers that revel in Revel Horwood’s terpsichorean panache.
At this “most dreaded event of their lives”, stoical nurse Gemma Warner (Nina Wadia, last seen in York as Fairy Sugarsnap in the Theatre Royal’s 2023-2024 pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk) is awaiting the arrival of April Devonshire (The X Factor winner Sam Bailey), the best friend she has not seen for years since she headed for Hollywood.
The open-plan design allows the storyline to move between the 20-year division, quickly introducing the younger versions of the more practical Gemma (Nikita Johal) and the dreamer April (Maia Hawkins) that go on to dominate Act One, with scenes in the Warner kitchen and the schoolgirls’ bedrooms in days of planning their lives around Number One magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley.
We see how Mum (Poppy Tierney) and Dad (Christopher Glover) met (cue their version of Tainted Love, Brummie accents et al), as well as younger versions of Gemma’s entrepreneurial brother Frank (Luke Latchman), school lad Steve (Matthew Mori) and later mullet-haired Tim (Kieran Cooper), who will give hints of the cheating husband to Gemma that he becomes (Chris Grahamson).
Some songs, such as Grahamson’s venal performance of Gold, are used to capture a character; others, like a dazzling silver-suited take on Video Called The Radio Star are there for the fun of it. Some, notably Tainted Love, combine both, switching from a confessional duet for Mum and Dad into an elegant dance routine for six ensemble members.
Act Two fills in the blanks of the missing years, taking on the darker themes of infidelity, broken promises, shattered dreams, strained friendships and infertility as the older Gemma and April move centre stage, with Wadia and Bailey taping into pathos and pain as much as humour (especially in Wadia’s drunken scene) as the revelations mount and the friction sparks.
Wadia, in her first pop musical role, has worked on her singing skills to be more than proficient alongside the powerhouse Bailey, whose opening to Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves is the show’s knockout vocal high point.
Grahamson’s smug rat Tim comes to the fore, Shakil Hussain’s Frank steps out of the shadows, and both Callum Tempest’s Barney and Phil Sealey’s Steve have their moment, the latter putting a full vat of chips into his fleshy take on the Chippendales. Meanwhile, Lauren Hendricks’s teacher Ms Dorian makes the most of her cameos too.
The show taps further into the Eighties’ nostalgia with a roster of guest stars for the tour, from Sonia and T’Pau’s Carol Decker to Toyah Willcox (in Edinburgh) and Sinitta, York’s star turn, who turns from bedroom wall poster and face on a bedspread to bursting into life at Gemma’s initiation and duly sings So Macho, all in white, with a diva final flourish.
She returns for the medley finale too, an effervescent conclusion to a show that may be clichéd but has heart and much as hits and humour, knows its target audience, knows Birmingham (with a good joke about its “beauty”), and knows its Eighties’ pop nuggets, from the teenage exuberance of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and a creepy Every Breath You Take to a table-spinning You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) and a climactic Hold Me Now.
NOW That’s What I Call A Musical runs at Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Pop artist Harland Miller with his new work York from his XXX exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: Olivia Hemingway
FROM Harland Miller’s Pop Art to Emma Rice’s theatrical world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, these are exciting times for artistic expression, Charles Hutchinson reports.
XXXhibition of the week: Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery, until August 31, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
YORK-RAISED artist and writer Harland Miller has returned to York Art Gallery to launch XXX, showcasing paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series, including the unveiling of several new paintings, not least ‘York’, a floral nod to Yorkshire’s white rose and York’s daffodils.
Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Simon Oskarsson’s Valerian, left, Ewan Wardrop’s Roger Thornhill, Katy Owen’s Professor and Mirabelle Gremaud’s Anna rehearsing a scene for Emma Rice’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West. Picture: Steve Tanner
World premiere of the week in York: Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, York Theatre Royal, until April 5, 7.30pm plus 2pm, March 26 and April 3; 2.30pm, March 29 and April 5
IT would be strange if, in a city of seven million people, one man were never mistaken for another…and that is exactly what happens to Roger Thornhill, reluctant hero of North By Northwest, when a mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he is on the run, dodging spies, airplanes and a femme fatale who might not be all she seems.
Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice turns film legend Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller on its head in her riotously humorous reworking. Replete with six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 1950s’ soundtrack and a heap of hats, this dazzling co-production with York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse plays with heart, mind and soul in a topsy-turvy drama full of glamour, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nina Wadia’s Gemma and Sam Bailey’s April in NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith
Musical of the week: NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees, today and Saturday
DIRECTED by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, comedian Pippa Evans’s hit-laden musical is set in Birmingham in 1989 and 2009. Back in the day, school friends Gemma Warner and April Devonshire are planning their lives based on Number One magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley. Twenty years later, Gemma (Nina Wadia) and April (The X Factor winner Sam Bailey) face the most dreaded event of their adult lives: the school reunion.
Drama, old flames and receding hairlines come together as friends reunite and everything from the past starts to slot into place. Sinitta, Eighties’s pop star of So Macho and Toy Boy fame, will be the guest star all week in a show featuring Gold, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Tainted Love, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves et al. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Nearly here: Nearly here: Paddy McGuinness brings his Nearly There tour to York Barbican tomorrow
Comedy gig of the week: Paddy McGuinness, Nearly There, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.45pm
FARNWORTH comedian, television and radio presenter and game show host Paddy McGuinness plays York on his first stand-up itinerary since 2016. Launching the 40 dates last year, he said: “It’s been eight years since my last tour and there’s lots of things to laugh about! I’m looking forward to getting back in front of a live audience, along with running the gauntlet of cancel culture, click bait and fake news.” Tickets update: only a handful of single seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Contemporary jazz gig of the week: Jamie Taylor & Jamil Sheriff, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tomorrow, doors 7.30pm
THE musical association and friendship between guitarist Jamie Taylor, principal lecturer in jazz guitar at Leeds Conservatoire, and Leeds jazz pianist, composer and educator Jamil Sheriff goes back over 20 years of performing together in settings ranging from intimate small groups to large ensembles, such as Sheriff’s own big band.
Playing as a duo at Rise, they will channel this shared history and musical empathy, taking inspiration from jazz piano and guitar collaborations such as Bill Evans with Jim Hall and Fred Hersch with Bill Frisell. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Health and happiness hacks at York Barbican
Meet “the architect of health and happiness”: Dr Rangan Chatterjee, The Thrive Tour 2025, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
JOIN Dr Rangan Chatterjee, inspirational host of Europe’s biggest health podcast, Feel Better, Live More, author and star of BBC One’s Doctor In The House, for two transformative hours of learning the skill of happiness, discovering the secrets to optimal health, breaking free from habits that hold you back and discovering how to make changes that last. “Be empowered, be inspired and learn how to thrive,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
James Jay Lewis: Raw garage blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ryedale blues gig of the week: James Jay Lewis, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
SELFT-TAUGHT multi-instrumentalist James Jay Lewis has performed with The La’s and played bass for fellow Liverpool band Cast and now lead guitar in The Zutons, having earlier formed the band Cractilla.
He has written, recorded and produced two solo albums, the acoustic odyssey Back To The Fountain and the lo-fi, rough and ready garage blues of Waiting For The World, on which he plays all the instruments. He has worked with Nile Rodgers at Abbey Road Studios, is involved in the new Zutons album and is venturing into recording, producing and composing for television and film. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Alligator Gumbo: Re-creating New Orleans 1920s’ jazz in 2025 Helmsley on Saturday
New Orleans jazz jive of the week: Alligator Gumbo 2025, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
LEEDS seven-piece band Alligator Gumbo evoke the Roaring Twenties’ heyday of the New Orleans swing/jazz era, when music was raw, fast paced and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously over foot-stomping rhythms. Their repertoire is built around songs made famous by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Jelly Roll Morton, and Billie Holiday, played in the traditional style. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
