Sarah Beth Briggs: New album celebrates the notion that small is beautiful. Picture: Marci Stuchlikova
YORK international concert pianist Sarah Beth Briggs is to release her new album, Small Treasures, on AVIE Records (AV2771) on October 24.
“The recording celebrates the notion that small is beautiful and great and familiar miniatures contrast with some very fine lesser-known gems,” says Sarah.
The disc is bookended with two of the greatest sets of miniatures ever written, Robert Schumann’s Woodland Scenes and Brahms’ Piano Pieces op 119, although, given how her international career was launched by winning the Mozart Competition in Salzburg, it seemed fitting for Sarah to end with a tiny, 90-second gem by Mozart – effectively providing an encore.
Along the musical journey, there are delightful miniatures by two female composers, Robert Schumann’s wife, Clara and 20th century French composer Germaine Tailleferre. (Tailleferre’s compatriot Francis Poulenc’s evocative Novelettes are included too.)
Alongside the musical treasures on the recording, the cover photo features Sarah’s own small treasure, with whom she spends as much of her free time as possible, her cocker spaniel, Animé (or Ani), pictured alongside natural small treasures in the floral form of bluebells from Yorkshire woodlands.
While two pre-release tracks are available already on Spotify, the full release will be available from October 24 on CD and via all the standard digital platforms.
Sarah Beth Briggs’s album cover artwork for Small Treasures
“There is something for everyone in this album, from the committed classical music lover to those who are just interested in giving classical music a try,” says Sarah. “With no track lasting more than seven minutes and many hovering around two to three minutes, I really hope the variety of moods and emotions will capture the imaginations of listeners of all ages and tastes.
“Small can be beautiful and serene, fun, virtuoso or perhaps reckless and eccentric. Have a listen and let me know what appeals to you!”
Sarah’s schedule over the coming weeks takes her the length and breadth of the country, from Scotland to Surrey, but closer to home she will be performing one set of these Small Treasures (the Brahms Piano Pieces op 119) at St Paul’s Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, on December 1 for the Huddersfield Music Society.
Her 7.30pm programme also will feature Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor, K397; Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D664; Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque; Hans Gál’s Three Preludes Op. 65 (1944) and Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses.Box office: huddersfield-music-society.org.uk.
PianistSarah Beth Briggs at Wyastone recording studio, Monmouth, Wales. Picture: Fritz Curzon
Sarah Beth Briggs: back story
YORK classical pianist began her professional career at 11 years old. Gained early recognition as youngest finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and later won International Mozart Competition in Salzburg.
Performed as soloist with leading UK orchestras, such as Royal Philharmonic and Hallé. Appeared at prestigious venues, including London’s South Bank Centre.
Experienced educator, teaching at University of York and offering masterclasses internationally. Her recordings, featuring works by Britten, Haydn and more, have received widespread praise.
Anna Soden: No bum notes to her songs or scatalogical subject matter
I HAVE in my hand a piece of paper. Or, more precisely, a piece of loo roll, handed out by our jocund hostess for It Comes Out Your Bum, comedian and actress Anna Soden, last seen on the York stage as a talking, trumpet-tooting pantomime cow In Jack And The Beanstalk.
On the sheet, she had written “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” Not as momentous as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Peace In Our Time document, waved at Heston Aerodrome on September 30 1938: a bum deal when it turned out we were rather more than “halfway there” to the Second World War.
Anna, in party dress and party mood, swished among the tables at York Theatre Royal Studio , re-booted in Old Paint Shop livery for October’s cabaret season of comedy, burlesque and live music. She had penned a loo-roll bon-mot for each of us, a strip of positivity to be shared.
Now based in Brighton, but still bearing her York roots in her frank comedic manner, she had planned a grand entry, but in the absence of a stage curtain, there could be no element of surprise, no hiding place for the pair of buttocks, designed by York puppeteer and fellow comedian Freddie “Does Puppets” Hayes, through which Anna would announce her arrival.
What a bummer? No, she played on the absurdity of it all, having already broken down theatre’s fourth wall by explaining what should have been the ideal opening, establishing her facility for putting the cheeky into the butt cheek.
Poking her trumpet through the backside, she would soon emerge on the front side for an hour of “talking out of my ass”. And yes, Anna, not to put too fine a word on it, did talk s**t, whether bodily functions of celebrities; stools colour; being caught short (like Paula Ratcliffe, when winning the 2005 London Marathon, she recalled).
She even imagined if we were to excrete flowers instead. Would that be poo-pourri, your reviewer ponders.
On a roll : Anna Soden’s bon-mot handed out to CharlesHutchPress
Not that Anna poo-pooed other subjects. Far from it. She turned herself into a string of sausages for five increasingly surreal minutes; she issued a tongue-deep-in-cheek apology to Andrew Lloyd Webber for dissing his musicals in her comedy videos that went viral on TikTok and YouTube.
Earlier she had made rather shorter shrift of putting down Boris Johnson with a pictorial one-liner and delivered a longer tongue-lashing to the propensity for actors from posh schools to do best, at the expense of state-school talents such as herself.
Albeit with a self-deprecating wink, she bragged of her prowess at slam poetry, duly delivering a fusillade of stream-of-conscious wham-bam-slam raps from audience suggestions. “Planes,” said one. Planes promptly soared and crashed. Next? “Ships,” chipped in another. “No,” said Anna, sensing one mode of transport was enough. That ship had sailed.
She used the audience regularly, whether asking communal questions for hands-in-the-air answers or inviting individuals to read from her “script” for a “serious” play she was writing. Here is when the show went off-script, impromptu, unpredictable, Anna at her freest to respond how she saw fit. Using the audience, yes, but never going quite as far as abusing the assembled bums on seats.
The pace was snappy, the tone was chatty, the humour batty, peppered with bursts of satirical songs, each preceded by an exhortation for the tech desk to “Hit it”.
And hit the mark, she did. On a night of the scatological, Anna scattered logical thoughts from her playful “brain-bum” about the “been-there-done-that” universality of her subject matter; so much so, she should give herself a PooHD for her “toilet humour”. And there wasn’t a party pooper in the house.
Natnael Dawit in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou
SHOBANA Jeyasingh, one of the most dynamic and distinctive forces in UK dance, turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells.
The Bard’s tale of power lost and regained is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.
Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story, wherein Caliban, the island’s original native inhabitant, is the enslaved, deformed “son” of the witch Sycorax.
We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay, presented by Jeyasingh as “an abstracted and impressionistic take that draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as the personal experiences of Jeyasingh and her co-dramaturg Uzma Hameed”.
Performed by eight dancers, Jeyasingh’s bold and imaginative 80-minute new work is partnered by projections by Will Duke and music by Thierry Pécou. Lighting design is by Floriaan Ganzevoort; set and costume design by Mayou Trikerioti.
The production is supported by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s touring engagement project, Window Into The Tempest. The company is partnering with venues, higher education institutions and dance organisations to deliver tailored participation opportunities for students, early career artists, intergenerational groups and communities to connect with and to gain insight into the creation of We Caliban.
The York programme, Tempest Rising, is a four-day co-creation project with York St John University students, resulting in a seven-minute curtain-raiser performance before next Saturday’s 7.30pm show, featuring an original score by We Caliban composer Thierry Pécou.
Next Friday’s performance will conclude with a post-show discussion. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 12 plus.
Anna Soden: No bum deal, bum steer or bum’s rush, for that would be a bummer at tonight’s hour of comedy, It Comes Out You Bum, at The Old Paint Shop
FROM royal history re-told to Dickens’ ghost stories, magical monsters to banjo brilliance, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.
Homecoming of the week: Anna Soden, It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 8pm
NOW based in Brighton but very much shaped in York, comedian, actor, writer, TikTok sensation and award-nominated Theatre Royal pantomime cow in Jack And The Beanstalk, Anna Soden delivers her debut hour of madcap comedy, full of brainwaves, songs, revenge and talking out your ass. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Robin Simpson: Monster storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame, performing at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, doors 4pm
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.
“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Out for revenge: Henry VIII’s wives turn the tables in SIX The Musical, returning to the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith
Recommended but sold-out already: SIX The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, October 14 to 18; Tuesday & Thursday, 8pm; Wednesday & Friday, 6pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 4pm and 8pm
FROM Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. Think you know the rhyme? Think again. Divorced. Beheaded. LIVE!
Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s hit show is making its third visit to York, but it’s third time unlucky if you haven’t booked yet. Like Anne Boleyn’s head, every seat has gone.
Eddi Reader: Performing with her full band at The Citadel
Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 15, 7.30pm
EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.
Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.
Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Banjovial partnership at the NCEM
Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 15, 7.30pm
GROUNDBREAKING banjo players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.
O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Francis Rossi: Solo show of song and chat at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography
Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm
IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why they went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
James Swanton: Halloween beckons, so here comes his double bill of Dickens’ ghost stories at York Medical Society. Picture: Jtu Photography
Ghost stories of the week: James Swanton presents The Signal-Man, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 16, 17, 20 to 23, 7pm; October 27 and 28, 5.30pm and 7.30pm
A RED light. A black tunnel. A waving figure. A warning beyond understanding. Here comes the fear that someone, that something, is drawing closer. Gothic York storyteller James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with The Signal-Man, “one of the most powerful ghost stories of all time and certainly the most frightening ever written by Charles Dickens”.
Swanton pairs it with The Trial For Murder, wherein Dickens treats the supernatural with just as much terrifying gravity. Tickets update: all ten performances bar October 21 have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Natnael Dawitin in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou
Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, October 17, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and October 18, 2pm and 7.30pm
SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.
Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington
As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 17, 8pm
HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.
His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. . “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Velma Celli: York drag diva lighting up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor
Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, October 18, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm
MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian Bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.
The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.
In Focus:Charlie Higson and Jim Moir: A Very Short But Epic History Of The Monarchy, York Theatre Royal, Oct 13, 7.30pm
In the frame: Author Charlie Higson and artist Jim Moir discuss royalty and comedy at York Theatre Royal on Monday
36 kings. Five queens. Two comedy legends. Join Charlie Higson and Jim Moir (alias Vic Reeves) for the rip-roaring story of every English ruler since Harold was shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings.
Higson has always been interested in the story of the fabled English monarchy: from the b*stardly to the benevolent,the brilliant to the brutal. “Far from being a nice, colourful pageant of men and women in funny hats waving to adoring crowds, it’s a story of regicide, fratricide, patricide, uxoricide and mariticide (you might have to look those last two up),” he says.
Launched for the coronation of his namesake King Charles III, Charlie’s podcast Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee takes a deep dive into the murky lives of our monarchs. Now, his new book of the show features illustrations by artist Jim Moir, his compadre in comedy.
On Monday, Charlie and Jim will first share stories from their comic collaborations over 30 years, including Shooting Stars, Randell And Hopkirk Deceased and The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer. Then they will take the plunge into the storied history of this most treasured of institutions. Bloody treachery? Check. Unruly incest? Check. Short parliaments? Check. A couple of Cromwells? Check.
Their rip-roaring journey takes in the Normans, Tudors and Stuarts, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?), tin an “utterly engrossing and grossly entertaining primer on who ruled when and why – with never-before-seen illustrations”!
A signed copy of Higson & Moir’s book Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History Of Our Kings and Queens (RRP £22) is included when purchasing Band 1 (£55) tickets, available for collection on the night. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Courtney Brown: Directing Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography
PICKERING Musical Society opens an exciting new chapter in its history when staging My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Kirk Theatre from October 15 to 19.
For the first time, long-time member Courtney Brown takes the reins as director, while society stalwart and theatre manager Luke Arnold steps into the assistant director’s role to support and guide her in this transition.
Next week’s production marks an inspiring milestone for both the society and Courtney. After serving as assistant director for 2024’s sold-out Wonders Of The West End, she moves centre stage creatively, shaping a production that promises to be vibrant, polished and heartfelt .
Courtney is relishing the challenge: “It has been such a joy to step into the director’s role and watch this production grow from the rehearsal room into a fully staged concert,” she says.
Poppy Coulson-Arnold, left, and Ruby Featherstone in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography
“The cast has been incredibly supportive, and seeing everything come together – the music, the costumes, the choreography – is just magical.
“I feel so grateful to have Luke by my side, offering his experience and encouragement. It’s a true team effort.”
Luke, who has directed many of the society’s productions, has embraced his mentoring role with enthusiasm. “Courtney has a wonderful eye for detail and a real passion for musical theatre,” he says.
“It has been a pleasure to guide her through the process and watch her flourish as a director in her own right. I’m proud of what she and the whole team are achieving. This is going to be a very special show.”
Members of the Pickering Musical Society Junior Chorus with Susan Smithson. Picture: Robert David Photography
Running for six performances, My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein will showcase the very best of Broadway’s most iconic songwriting partnership.
Audiences can expect a glittering selection of much-loved numbers, from the cheeky charm of Honey Bun and the playful fun of The Lonely Goatherd to the rousing barn-dance energy of The Farmer And The Cowman.
Alongside these highlights, the evening will feature songs from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most famous shows, including The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I and more.
The concert brings together the heart, humour and sweeping romance of the golden age of musicals, ensuring there is something for everyone — whether you know every word or are discovering these timeless songs for the very first time.
Will Smithson, left, and Jack Dobson in Pickering Musical Society’s My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography
The company of singers will be accompanied by an orchestra under the baton of Clive Wass, who has reassembled the musicians who wowed audiences at Hello, Dolly! earlier this year.
Adding sparkle and spectacle, dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance will light up the stage with elegant and vibrant choreography. Their energy and artistry will bring a dynamic, visual flourish to the evening, complementing the glorious Rodgers & Hammerstein score.
The production will feature a minimalistic but striking set, built by the society’s dedicated Saturday morning volunteers, led by Rob Thomas. This clever design provides the perfect canvas for the music and performances to shine, while still delivering visual impact.
The society’s team of skilled technicians will transform the stage with lighting, special effects, and even a spectacular video wall, creating an immersive concert atmosphere.
Verity Roffe in Pickering Musical Society’s My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography
Courtney reflects on the rehearsals: “The first time we put costumes, lights, and music together, everything suddenly came alive,” she says. “It felt like we’d stepped into the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals themselves. That’s the moment I realised how special this production is going to be.”
Luke adds: “Our society has always been about giving people opportunities, whether it’s new performers on stage, new musicians in the pit, or new directors stepping forward. Seeing Courtney grow into this role has been a privilege, and I know audiences are going to be amazed by what she and the whole team have achieved.”
Pickering Musical Society presents My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.
Tickets update: selling fast. Box office: 01751 474833, kirktheatre.co.uk or in person at Kirk Theatre box office (Tuesdays, 11am to 1pm).
Good Rabbits Gone 4’s final catwalk for fashion designer Mary Quant, by Bertt deBaldock
TERRY Brett will launch the fourth volume of his cartoon rabbit tributes to celebrities and remarkable individuals at a charity event at the Golden Ball pub, in Cromwell Road, Bishophill Senior, York, on October 15.
Publishing costs are met by Terry’s gallery, Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, enabling copies to be given away from there, but “if they enjoy the book”, voluntary donations are encouraged in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, York, in memory of Terry’s father, who died of prostate cancer.
The same applies at next Wednesday’s 4pm to 7pm event, where Terry/artist alter ego Bertt deBaldock will sign copies. Donations can be made to https://www.justgiving.com/page/terry-brett-8.
Terry Brett/Bertt deBaldock holds a copy of Good Rabbits Gone 4, No More War!, plus drawings of John Lennon and Amy Winehouse that will be for sale at the Golden Ball book launch, along with 15 other original works (£20 each, unframed, for this size)
The 104-page fourth compendium of death notices, entitled Good Rabbits Gone 4, No More War! covers the fallen from the spring of 2023 to the demise of 2024, with Mary Quant, Norman Ackroyd, Hairy Bikers’ Dave Myers, Melanie Safka, Shane MacGowan and Terry’s fellow cartoonist Bill Tidy among his favourite portraits this time.
Entertainers Barry Humphries, Paul O’Grady, Mike Yarwood and Len Goodman feature too. So do writers Benjamin Zephaniah, Martin Amis and Fay Weldon. Actors Dame Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson and Bernard Hill. Musicians Burt Bacharach, Sinead O’Connor, David Crosby, Jeff Beck and Tina Turner. Footballers Bobby Charlton and Pele. Politicians Jimmy Carter and John Prescott. Artist Frank Auerbach. Even the Slender Billed Curlew, the first mainland bird to become extinct in West Asia, Europe and Northern Africa.
The cartoon drawings by “the Scribbler” Bertt deBaldock, the nom d’art of gallery owner, colour-blind artist, ukulele player and long-ago chartered surveyor Terry are each drawn in response to an individual’s death and then assembled in a book with Terry’s own witty tributes or poignant memories of the person.
Terry Brett/Bertt deBaldock’s first Good Rabbit Gone, David Bowie, January 10 2026
Why use rabbits, Terry? “It started from my two daughters wanting a pet to replace our cat, back in 1995. I became carer for their pet rabbit and drew the cartoon, which then appeared on a Christmas card every year,” he says.
“Upset when David Bowie died in January 2016, I drew the rabbit shape with an Aladdin Sane-style red-and-blue lightning flash. Then Terry Wogan with a ‘Pudsey Bear ‘ bandage. Eventually I had so many scribbles that I put them in a book.
“Though a better answer is: the rabbit is the most peaceful and least destructive creature on the planet, yet also, potentially, one of the most successful. I like it that individuals, when they die, are reduced back to a persona that is not powerful, not celebrated and not destructive. It’s a leveller.”
The Scribbler’s call for No More War! on the inside sleeve of Good Rabbits Gone 4
Terry introduces the latest volume with the sentiment “The world has gone bonkers”, then adds: “While scribbling this collection of remarkable individuals as rabbits, there has been war in Ukraine; the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory destruction of Gaza; the Iranian regime has been cruel to Iranian women; Houthis have been bombed by the USA for sinking ships in the Gulf and China are poised to attack Taiwan. Hence the tag line is the cry ‘NO MORE WAR!’.”
Expanding on this thought, Terry says: “It seems to me that the disparity between rich and poor has become wider, nationally and individually. But the rich no longer have all the power and developing nations or marginalised groups are finding ways to steal something back from the powerful nations.
“Leaders of all nations seem to be prepared to risk everything in order to strengthen their own position, even though this will destroy the very thing that has allowed them to have such power.
Good Rabbits Gone 4 raises a last glass to Shane MacGowan, by Bertt de Baldock
“I do not know what to make of it. It’s nothing new, but we can all see what is happening, thanks to technology! It just needs one person to make them (leaders of the big nations) and us all see sense: someone like Ghandi or Mother Theresa, or Mikhail Gorbachev – he could sort it.”
Summarising what qualities make someone quality to be a Good Rabbit Gone, Terry suggests: “Some of these ‘rabbits’ have been exceptional at one thing, either through talent or endeavour, and have become famous. But I’m really more interested in the effect that those individuals have had on others. I think ‘good’ means that the person has followed a path which has made a positive impact on others, or on the wider world which we need to conserve.”
Last month at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Alan Ayckbourn introduced his new play Earth Angel with this thought: “We have to remember there are still good things floating about in the world today, though it’s often hard to see them. But the good is still there if we look for it.”
Russell Richardson’s Gerald Mallett, left, and Iskandar Eaton’s Daniel in the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel: “The good is still there if we look for it,” says Sir Alan. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Asked to refract that philanthropic philosophy through the ethos of Good Rabbits Gone, Terry says: “I am constantly looking for those good things when researching the life stories of the deceased. And there are many good stories to tell.
“Fame or power is not enough for me, I need to find some evidence that the individual has either focused on some endeavour or creative expression, or has acted for the benefit of other people or the environment. If I cannot find some form of selfless intention in their character, then I lose interest.”
Terry highlights the “interesting story” of Camilla Batmanghelidjh (who died on January 1 2024). “She got into trouble with the media over poor book-keeping and alleged misuse of charity funds. The Kids Company, which had helped thousands of children, was forced to shut down due to false allegations that were dismissed in the high court,” he recalls.
Good Rabbits Gone 4’s exit stage left to Dame Maggie Smith
“But from what I can read about her, she was very successful at assisting 36,000 marginalised children. She is said to have helped 96 per cent of them to return to full-time education and had a massive impact with respect to reduction of crime.
“There are many really good people in the world, devoting their lives to helping others, and their stories need to be celebrated.”
How would Terry define ‘good’ in 2025? “It’s a bit of a woolly word!” he says. “Some people in this world are so selfishly focused on their ambition, power or money, that they will never be ‘good’ in my eyes. I think ‘good’ means to have acted with the intention of making an improvement to the lives of others, or to the state of the world itself.”
Good Rabbits Gone 4’s hair-flapping farewell to footballer Sir Bobby Charlton, by Bertt deBaldock
One more question…
How long does it take to construct each Rabbit obituary?
“I would say about a day of thinking, three hours’ reading and between 30 minutes and four hours drawing,” says Terry.
Oh, and one more thing…
How does Good Rabbits Gone 4 differ from past Good Rabbits Gone?
“I spent more time on this volume,” says Terry. “I have become fussier about the look of the scribbles and about who goes in. It’s maybe more serious, which sounds ridiculous when I say it!”
Good Rabbits Gone 4’s painterly dark goodnight to School of London artist Frank Auerbach, by Bertt deBaldock
Francis Rossi: Going solo with stories to tell. Picture: Jodiphotography
LET Francis Rossi introduce his solo tour show, bound for York Barbican on October 16.
“The show lifts the lid on a lot of what went on in the world of Status Quo, and I build in plenty of songs along the way – lots of my classic hits, but there are also versions of songs that I haven’t tried in the format before, and I have to say they sound fantastic. There’s a lot to get through so don’t be late!”
Welcome to An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, a chance to feature personal favourites, deeper cuts and songs never played before in this format and to offer first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why Quo opened Live Aid, life with the late Rick Parfitt, more than 100 singles, 57 top forty hits, fellow rock stars and misadventures across the world.
Raconteur Rossi, now 76, is no stranger to chatter on stage, but this time he is featuring more music.
“I did a talk show, and I got asked to play a song and did two after saying I didn’t want to do them, but it made me think,” he says.
“Now doing this new show, it feels like starting again, and there’s a joy in it that I never expected – and I still don’t know what it is, except the intimacy.
“It can over-run, but I don’t mind because the more I’m on there, I so enjoy myself, whereas with Quo, you get up there and do the songs; once it starts it has a certain momentum and has to reach a finale at a certain time.
“But with this show’s audience, I can joke about them and with them, take the mick out of them and me, and if I get on to religion you can hear the breath being drawn in, or if I talk about ‘wokeism’, like saying ‘if I refer to you as ladies and gentlemen, some will be offended’, I get a cheer!”
Status Quo and Rossi himself are still going strong. “Sheer luck,” he says. “Very, very lucky. I think anyone that survives in this business, I don’t know how we do it. It must be an X factor, the way we’re still performing.
“What is it about this band that we were so lucky…and I’m still waffling after all these years! Obviously the tunes are quite good, though there’s a certain amount of ego you have to have, or you could disappear up your derriere.
“I know the tunes are quite simple, but I allude to classical music or Italian arias. Most of them are three chords. It’s still a fantastic melody and the fact you can get something so likeable out of that, whether three, four or five chords, I still love that.”
A new Rossi record is in the pipeline. “I’m going to record with Hannah Rickard. I’ve already done We Talk Too Much with her – she was on the acoustic tour with Quo. I’ve something coming out in January to be recorded with her,” says Francis.
“We’re going to write a bunch of songs together – I’ve got a studio in the garden with a new roof being put on it.”
As trim as ever in jeans, “I still exercise every day,” he says. “I now do those chair exercise, I do crunchies too, and I’ve stepped up the swimming. Everything to keep me alive. I’ll be the fittest thing in a box!”
Why jeans, Francis? “We started wearing jeans in Quo as a fight-back. I was a Mod, which is why I still wear a tie, but when I was told we couldn’t still be Carnaby Street, we rebelled against that by wearing jeans – and it meant we didn’t have to wear stage clothes, so it worked!” he says.
An Evening With Francis Rossi, York Barbican, October 16, 7pm doors. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.Also playing Bridlington Spa, October 11, 7.30pm, and Sheffield City Hall Memorial Hall, November 5, 7.30pm. Box office: Bridlington, bridspa.com;Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
Did you know?
FRANCIS Rossi will be playing mostly his Acoustasonic guitar at An Evening With Francis Rossi shows. “It’s basically a Telecaster but is more compatible with a show of this nature – it still has the ring and sound of a Tele.”
Intertwined: Joe Layton’s Robbie and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Jess in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms. Picture: Scott Graham
RELATIONSHIP two-handers keep popping up on the York Stage in recent years, just as Normal People and One Day’s young lovers top the TV viewing charts.
First, in March 2022, came the multiple universes in Black Treacle Theatre’s York premiere of Nick Payne’s Constellations at Theatre@41, Monkgate, where each scene, such as the first meeting, the first date and breaking up, unfolds in several different ways, showing how nothing is necessarily ‘meant to be’, not least a crisis that could mean the end of their time together.
Next, in November that year, White Rose Theatre staged The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown’s sung-through American musical with the novel structure of struggling actress Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while, at the other end of the stage, successful young novelist Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.
Now comes physical theatre specialists Frantic Assembly’s boy-meets-girl tale, or enervated man meets sparky younger woman, if you prefer, in the London company’s 30th anniversary show in a co-production with Curve, Leicester, Mayflower, Southampton and the Lyric, Hammersmith.
Payne and Brown’s works were both festooned with multiple awards. Anna Jordan’s Lost Atoms is at least their equal and could well be the best of the three in terms of capturing the essence of a life-changing relationship through physicality. When words fail, physical expression takes over, much like how discord in discourse leads to outbursts of singing in opera and musical theatre.
In this truly memorable memory play, the present keeps being interrupted, even elbowed aside, by recollections of a past that began with a chance meeting, sharing a mobile hotspot, in a cafe where Jessie (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) had temped for four years. So stop-starts a run of awkward dates with Robbie (Joe Layton), but gradually blossoming love too.
Is this the stuff of fairy tales, asks Jordan, or maybe of grimmer tales that avid researcher Jess bemoans have had their guts pulled out? Recollection by recollection, it becomes apparent that both protagonists/antagonists are remembering their version of the past in accounts that differ. Whose version should we trust, where does the truth lie and why do we need to re-write and embellish what has gone before – and to keep re-writing it every time we recall it? Maybe because the truth is too painful?
Do Jess and Robbie doubt each other or, increasingly, doubt themselves? Can there be a reliable witness in matters of the heart and do we ever really understand love?
For all the clash of present and past, symbolised by flashes of light and soundwaves, everything is played out in chronological order: love’s vicissitudes; connection and disconnection; Robbie’s preference for staying in, Jess’s need for night outs; parental relationships and pregnancy; infidelity and Robbie’s request of this reunion meeting.
Jordan’s text, as full of frank humour as much as heartbreak, is seductive and insightful in its own right as she explores how two people’s “perceptions of romantic love affected their experiences”, but works all the better for its symbiosis with Frantic’s theatrical house style. Or, as she puts it, “I am drawn to Frantic’s extraordinary ability not just to tell a story but to create feeling on stage.
“I’m always trying to find words for the things that seem impossible to describe, and I love to watch Frantic find language to describe these things through movement.”
Movement that, in the process, really lifts the impact of the language – and I do mean ‘lifts’. Scott Graham’s movement direction plays out on Andrzej Goulding set, dominated by a towering wall of filing cabinets that serves as a climbing frame for Layton’s Robbie and Sinclair Robinson’s Jessie to go clambering hither and thither, to almost dizzying effect at times, as they express a multitude of emotions from giddy joy to guttural pain, playful fun to vulnerable fall-outs, cautious start to implosive finale.
A floor drops out of the structure like a modern-day drawbridge, for sensual bedroom scenes and scrambling precipice friction alike. Drawers open, sometimes to be used as seats, more often for access to props, clothing, photos, mementoes of childhood and past pursuits that serve as welcome or unwelcome memory triggers and glowing light bulbs that set off new patterns of thoughts. Two armchairs complete the set, theatrically large to emphasise how their every reconfiguration carries significance.
Layton and Sinclair Robinson had worked together previously in Frantic’s Othello and Metamorphosis and that familiarity oozes through their kinetic, magnetic performances in Lost Atoms as, in Jordan’s words, they “recreate the extraordinary energy of falling in love, in a way that is recognisable and palpable for the audience.”
How right she is. Lost Atoms is a love story familiar in its course and feelings, but told in a thrillingly bold way, with feeling, energy and infinite hope from lessons learned for the next wall to climb, the next life file for the cabinet.
Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
ANNA Soden was last seen on the York Theatre Royal stage as a pantomime cow.
An award-nominated bovine, no less, playing Dave The Talking Cow and Dave the Trumpet-playing Cow, to boot, in Jack And The Beanstalk in the winter of 2023-2024. And neither the back end of a panto cow, nor the front, but a full-on singing, dancing, chatterbox cow.
Now the York-raised, Brighton-based actor, comedian, musician and writer with ten million views for her comedy videos on TikTok and Instagram is returning to her home city to present her madcap debut comedy show, It Comes Out Your Bum, on night three of the new Old Paint Shop season of burlesque, comedy and live music in the Theatre Royal Studio.
Without further delay, let’s address the show title. “Anna’s brain is a bum – Come see all the nice things that come out of it!” reads the tagline on the Theatre Royal website. Cue an hour of songs, revenge and yes, “talking out your ass”.
Anna Soden as Dave The Talking Cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal in December 2023-January 2024: Nominated in Best Supporting Artist categoryat 2024 UK Pantomime Awards
Explain yourself, Anna. “Well, this show has been quite a long process,” she says. “Initially, as long ago as 2018, I thought, ‘why is no-one making a show about poo?’. So, I’ve been writing and re-writing it for years, starting off as a show about poo, then it became poo material, not gross, but really stupid toilet humour, which I love, and a musical fever dream too.”
A work-in-progress version of the show ran in the Wee Yurt at Hoots@Potterrow at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, billed as: “Girls aren’t allowed to talk about poo. Even though we all do it! Is Anna sensitively exploring how we’ve managed to gender a universal body function? Or is she just talking about how she used to fancy Milo from the Tweenies and pretending to be the tiny nerdy man that lives in all the calculators in the world? Maybe both!”
The show has moved on again. “I had a chat with a comedian who said ‘you can’t call a show ‘Poo’ because there are so many rules to comedy’, but I’ve been doing so much stand-up comedy and so much new material has emerged since then for the show. It’s now a celebration of the weird stuff that comes out of my brain-bum!
“I think It Comes Out Your Bum is such a life-affirming title. It might put people off, but I don’t mind that. If you don’t feel the title’s not for you, I still don’t think that means it’s not a show for you. Maybe it’s just stubbornness on my part, but I just think it’s funny – and it sparks a lot of questions!”
“You have to find yourself funny because you have to spend so much time with yourself,” reasons comedian, writer, actress and writer Anna Soden
What’s more, “I enter the stage coming through a giant-sized bum made by Freddie Hayes [the York puppeteer and fellow comedic talent behind such shows as Potatohead and The Magic Lady}. It then just sits on stage and I make a bit of a joke about that.”
Anna’s progression into stand-up comedy has been a “natural step”, she says. “I was enjoying doing a lot of comedy stuff in my acting, though I was also writing serious plays [her adaptation of Five Children And IT and her folk musical Mad For Our Daughters], but I really enjoy stand-up as it scratches an itch that theatre doesn’t.
“Theatre makes you have to be earnest, and I respect that as a jobbing actor, whereas there are no rules to comedy, performing solo, which makes me a better jobbing actor because it keeps my naughtiness, my playfulness, alive – and as a jobbing actor, I’m happy to collaborate with others.”
Performing comedy could be a lonely experience, but Anna takes it in her stride. “The feeling of fear is not that deep,” she says. “If you bomb, it’s not an attack on you personally. It’s just that those people on that night didn’t find it funny. It’s not that deep!
Anna Soden in rehearsal for her adaptation of Five Children And IT
“I was very serious at drama school. I just wanted to do Ibsen plays, and I did that for two years, but you’ve got to have variety – and also I think I have an excellent sense of humour, so why wouldn’t I want to use that?! You have to find yourself funny because you have to spend so much time with yourself!”
After six successive years of pantomime commitments, Anna will be taking a break this winter. “I did have a couple of offers, including a big Georgian panto, and I’ve loved doing them, but I don’t want my year to revolve around panto,” she says.
“I’ve started being part of the Future Theatre Makers cohort of associate artists, where Chichester Festival Theatre is giving each of us theatre mentorship and then we each write and put on a show in 2027. We’re given funding to support our involvement, enough not to do a panto in a random town.
Anna had planned to do a month-long tour of It Comes Out Your Bum shows. “But then I got cast in Ian Jarvis’s play Steve And Stuff Forever at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, where I was for six weeks,” she says.
Anna Soden’s fairy with her fellow York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime cast members, Robin Simpson’s dame, Faye Campbell’s hero, Reuben Johnson’s villain and Josh Benson’s comic turn, in 2020
Robin Simpson’s dame, Anna Soden’s fairy, Faye Campbell’s hero and Reuben Johnson’s villain“It was a romantic play, where I played Steff, not a manic pixie dream-girl, but a spontaneous, free-spirited, heart-on-your-sleeve girl, whereas Steve was very serious and very sensible, planning everything. Classic rom-com!”
What should Saturday’s audience expect in It Comes Out Your Bum? “Don’t expect any narrative or any big meanings. It’s just an hour of ‘stupidness’; five minutes where I pretend to be a sausage; five minutes where I apologise to Andrew Lloyd Webber for what I said about him in my videos, and lots of songs.”
Anna Soden: It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, Saturday (11/10/2025), 8pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“Don’t expect any narrative or any big meanings. It’s just an hour of ‘stupidness’,” says Anna Soden of her hour-long comedy show It Comes Out Your Bum
Making a splash: Katie Leckey’s Darby and Ben Koch’s Taig in The Bogie Men in Griffonage Theatre’s FourTold showcase of Lady Augusta Gregory plays. Picture: John Stead
THIS is a landmark production by Griffonage Theatre, the York company that likes to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.
Certainly Lady Augusta Gregory’s plays would qualify as unfamiliar, but maybe it is not so strange that they are strangers to the British stage. They were, they are, Irish plays about Irish people for Irish actors and Irish audiences, presented predominantly at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre and in America too but rarely crossing the Irish Sea.
Now, Katie Leckey, Northern Irish actor-director, University of York MA graduate and co-founder of Griffonage Theatre, is presenting her adaptation of four of the late-blooming County Galway playwright’s largely forgotten one-act plays, penned from 1903 to 1914 and never previously staged together over here.
This is a passion project for Leckey, a Lady Augusta enthusiast with plans to study the “criminally under-performed” plays of the Roxborough rural estate dramatist, folklorist and Abbey Theatre co-founder for a PhD. Theatre@41, sure to become increasingly experimental under Tom Bellerby’s directorship, is just the place to dust off her ladyship’s light comedies for reappraisal.
Grace Palma’s Mrs Tarpey and Ben Koch’s James Ryan in Lady Augusta Gregory’s one-act comedy drama Spreading The News. Picture: John Stead
The black-box theatre takes on a traverse configuration, the audience seated to either side of the combustible capers that unfold in Baile Aighneas, or “The Town of Dispute”, as Leckey terms it to reflect how each play is so disputatious.
As presented in the Fay Brothers’ house style at the Abbey Theatre, performances would focus on the storytelling, the voice, the lyrical Irish dialect. Leckey emphasises that too, but rather than “park and bark” theatre, she has favoured the injection of physicality, both in the presentation of that language and in the characterisation, now rooted as much in movement as meter.
You might see parallels with Dylan Thomas’s Welsh village Llareggub in Under Milk Wood; Leckey sees the plays as a “snapshot of a very strange rural Irish town: like Royston Vasey, home of The League Of Gentlemen, meeting Father Ted”.
The League Of Gentlemen is closest to the exaggerated comedic style here, where the comedy may be billed as light but is invariably darker and more heavy handed in performance. The audience laughter comes more from the physicality than Gregory’s often truculent dialogue, penned in Irish dialect but now performed in myriad accents.
Clash of coats: James Lee’s Mr Mineog and Katie Leckey’s Mr Hazel, newspaper editors writing each other off in Lady Augusta Gregory’s Coats. Picture: John Stead
What’s more, being convoluted and percussive in sentence structure, its loquacity can make it hard to follow. The tendency is for the playing to be so boisterous in pushing for the laughs that combative voices become cacophonous, but pumping up the volume is no guarantee to tickle the funny bone.
Blarney and bluster are the heartbeat of the four plays, first up the bustling market place of Spreading The News, where town gossip wreaks havoc, rumours spiral beyond control, apples and maybe blood is spilled, tongues wag and Leckey’s tricycle-riding magistrate is a law unto himself, imagination running roughshod over the truth.
Ben Koch’s James Ryan, spiralling around his walking stick, and Grace Palma’s bow-legged, bent-double Mrs Tarpey bring clowning personality to their roles.
Coats has the classic comedic structure of a mix-up: two coats being taken off, then the wrong one being put back on, with a piece of paper in the pocket of each coat now being in the possession of the wrong person.
Cheered to the rafters: Ben Koch’s Hyacinth Halvey in Lady Augusta Gregory’s Hyacinth Halvey at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: John Stead
Caught in a war of words are two highly competitive newspaper editors, James Lee’s Mr Mineog and Leckey’s Mr Hazel, who have brought each other’s obituary notice to their club restaurant, where polite etiquette comes under ever greater threat as the heat and volume rises in the serpentine scheming.
Next stop, the post office, where Hyacinth Halvey (Ben Koch) has sent word he is coming to town. The young dandy’s reputation precedes him, sending the townsfolk into a frenzy, hanging on his every word on arrival, no matter what he says. Wilf Tomlinson’s preening James Quirke comes to the fore too as Koch’s Hyacinth takes everything in his stride.
Leckey and executive producer Jack Mackay’s company like their shows to stand at the intersection of the madcap and the macabre. Gregory tends more towards the madcap, although the macabre, or maybe the grotesque, nudges into Spreading The News and Hyacinth Halvey.
The climactic two-hander The Bogie Men could be a forerunner of fellow Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s 1952 tragicomedy Waiting For Godot, with its chimney-sweep protagonists, Leckey’s Darby and Koch’s Taig, forging a double act in Vladimir and Estragon mode, in matching brace, shirts, trousers, boots and even battered hats at one point.
Helen Clarke-Neale’s Mrs Delane and James Lee’s Miss Joyce in Griffonage Theatre’s Hyacinth Halvey. Picture: John Stead
Rather than passing the time waiting for Godot, they find themselves at a coach stop, “almost indistinguishably similar” but soon finding mutual reasons to argue and fall out. Again, the volume is turned up as high as Spinal Tap’s “11”, but Koch and Leckey elicit the show’s most successful comic friction.
Helen Clarke-Neale, Emily Carhart and Peter Hopwood add to the ensemble’s colourful characterisation, while James Lee cos-plays mischievously as Mrs Tully and Miss Joyce.
Joined by Leckey’s lusty vocals for Irish pub songs in the interval, Ayse Kaban-Bowers delights with her fiery fiddle when playing between plays.
Truth be told, FourTold is unlikely to spark a nationwide rush to rediscover Lady Augusta Gregory’s obscure curiosities, but Leckey’s enthusiasm is matched by a cast determined to re-light their fire in explosive fashion.
Griffonage Theatre presents FourTold, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Griffonage Theatre’s poster for this week’s quadruple bill of Lady Augusta Gregory comediesat Theatre@41, Monkgate
