Printmakers Pamela Knight, Vanessa Oo & Sandra Storey capture energy, atmosphere and light in Bluebird Bakery exhibition

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.

REVIEW: NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ***

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.

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 11, from Gazette & Herald

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.  

National Theatre Connections turns spotlight on new plays and young performers at York Theatre Royal Studio

Ravers: Part of the National Theatre Connections programme at York Theatre Royal Studio

THE National Theatre Connections programme in the York Theatre Royal Studio welcomes Westborough High School this evening at 6.15pm to present Jane Bodie’s The Company Of Trees.

Playwright, screenwriter and teacher Bodie’s drama about bullying, bravery, the power of nature, finding friendship, loneliness and Hanoi the giant tortoise follows new girl Willow as she moves into town but is not welcomed by the popular gang. Meanwhile, when a spectacular gymnastic accident leaves Taylor bed-bound, her once loyal gang begin to drop away.

Enter Willow, to share Taylor’s solitude, teach her about trees and poems that don’t rhyme, whereupon Taylor begins to heal.

Suitable for age 14 upwards, The Company Of Trees features strong language, themes of bullying, references to physical injury and the loss of a parent.

Vickie Donoghue’s Fresh Air will be staged by South Hunsley School tonight at 7.45pm and John Smeaton Academy on Thursday at 7.15pm.

Fresh Air: Featuring in the National Theatre Connections season at York Theatre Royal Studio

In this  Essex stage, screen and radio writer’s play, students from a pupil referral group are made to go orienteering in what they discover is England’s most haunted woods. Stalked by eerie ghost children determined to keep them there forever, they must learn to confront the here and now to unlock the key to their futures.

Suitable for age 14 upwards, Fresh Air features moderate language, mild gore, mild dread, ghosts and supernatural elements throughout, references to mental health and one instance of a character being choked.

Writer, director, composer, choreographer, designer, producer and film, theatre, TV and radio performer Rikki Beadle-Blair’s Ravers will be performed by Wyke Sixth Form College tomorrow at 6.15pm and York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre (York St John University group) on Saturday at 12 noon and 7pm.

A rag-tag group of self-described “neeks” (nerds and geeks) gathers at midnight in a local park to hold a “‘dry rave” (No intoxicants). Will the group succeed in redefining “cool” or will the powers-that-be succeed in shutting down the neek revolution?

Again suitable for age 14 upwards, Ravers has depictions of underage drinking, moderate language, themes of anxiety and references to the loss of a parent.

Brain Play: One of the plays to be performed at York Theatre Royal Studio this week

Oxfordshire playwright Chloë Lawrence-Taylor and Olivier-nominated playwright, dramaturg and musician Paul Sirett’s Brain Play will be presented by Joseph Rowntree School on Thursday and 1812 Youth Theatre on Friday, both at 5.30pm.

When Mia’s dad suffers a traumatic brain injury and struggles to leave the house, she makes it her mission to find the cure for his symptoms. Delving deeper and deeper into the world of neuroscience, Mia is desperate to make him better, but first she must contend with her own brain.

Suitable for age 13 upwards, Brain Play contains strong language, discussion of brain injury and its associated effects, plus hearing loss, anxiety, PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder and mental health, references to blood and agoraphobia, and, at one point a character says “take him out and shoot him” in jest.

Abbey Grange Academy takes to the Studio stage on Friday at 7.15pm to perform Mia And The Fish, Southall writer Satinder Chohan’s modern retelling of the ancient Indian myth Manu And The Fish.

Mia is a young refugee girl who, along with her sister, is washed up onto the British shores. Against the backdrop of a freak winter heatwave, as the climate emergency becomes critical, one day Mia happens upon a talking fish that she nurtures and names Samaki.

Mia And The Fish: Performance at 7.15pm on Friday

As well as becoming Mia’s friend and confidante, Samaki grows quickly into a giant fish, larger than any marine animal the world has ever known, and becomes the key to her and her friends’ survival in the face of the imminent extinction of humanity.

Suitable for age 13 upwards, Mia And The Fish contains discussions of the climate emergency, references to displacement and the refugee crisis and mild language.

National Theatre Connections’ week of York Theatre Royal Studio performances concludes with three weekend performances of Gary McNair’s No Regrets and Stage@Leeds Young Company’s Sunday performance of Alys Metcalf’s YOU 2.0.

York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre will be in action at 4.15pm and 5.30pm on Saturday, followed by Cockburn John Charles Academy on Sunday at 5pm, presenting No Regrets.

The Company Of Trees: Jane Bodie’s play for National Theatre Connections

Over the course of five years, Glasgow writer-performer McNair, three-time winner of the coveted Scotsman Fringe First Award, spoke to people at all stages and in all walks of life on the subject of regret.

This play marks the results of those conversations, presented in a collection of scenes, from the silly to the profound, that charts our relationship with the things we should have done but never did and the things we should not have done but did.

Suitable for age 14 upwards, No Regrets features strong language, descriptions of violence, mentions of alcohol and addiction, one scene of a mugging and stabbing and references to death.

In Sunday’s 12.30pm performance of YOU 2.0, strangers Martha and Isaac find themselves forced into playing YOU 2.0, a new therapy video game designed to help players access their better selves. As they tackle the levels in two-player mode, the pair form an unlikely friendship behind the anonymity of their gaming avatars, but their impact on each other’s lives goes much deeper than the game.

Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jodie Comer to revive Prima Facie “one last time” on 2026 tour. Grand Opera House, York, awaits next Feb in only Yorkshire run

Jodie Comer in the role of defence barrister Tessa Ensler in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, heading for the Grand Opera House, York, in February 2026. Picture: Helen Murray

NEWSFLASH: 26/3/2025

GONE in a flash. Tickets have sold out already for Jodie Comer’s “one last time” return to Prima Facie at the Grand Opera House, York. On pre-sale to members at 10am this morning and the general public at 12 noon, The York Press reports that only 20 minutes later, the last seat was filled.

JODIE Comer will revive her Olivier and Tony Award-winning solo performance in Suzie Miller’s sexual assault drama Prima Facie “one last time” on a 2026 tour booked into the Grand Opera House, York, from February 17 to 21.

The Killing Eve star last appeared on a North Yorkshire stage in her professional debut as spoilt, mouthy but bright, privately educated Ruby, playing opposite York actor Andrew Dunn in the world premiere of Fiona Evans’s The Price Of Everything, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in November 2010.

Tickets will go on sale at midday on Tuesday, March 25 at atgtickets.com/york for criminal lawyer-turned playwright Miller’s Olivier Award winner for Best Play, wherein Comer will play thoroughbred Tessa Ensler, a young, brilliant barrister who loves to win.

Ambitious Tessa has worked her way up from Liverpool and Luton council estates, via Cambridge University, to be at the top of her game in her early 30s as a criminal defence barrister for an esteemed London chambers: defending the accused, cross examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case.

However, an unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.

Jodie Comer in her professional debut role as Ruby in Fiona Evans’s The Price Of Everything at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in April 2010. In the background is York actor Andrew Dunn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

“She played by the rules, but the rules are broken,” as the sleeve to Miller’s script puts it, when Tessa, the woman who defends men accused of rape, is assaulted herself.

Liverpool-born Comer, who turned 32 on March 11, won the Olivier Award for Best Actress for her 2022 performance as Tessa in her sold-out West End debut at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, repeating that feat in the Tony Awards when Miller’s play transferred to Broadway in 2023.

The NTLive (National Theatre) and Empire Street Productions live capture of Prima Facie has enjoyed two record-breaking cinema releases, with streaming on National Theatre At Home too, and Comer also has recorded an audiobook adaptation by Miller.

Looking forward to reprising Miller’s monologue on tour, Comer says: It is a huge privilege to return to Prima Facie for one last time and take this important play on tour across the UK & Ireland. The resonance of Suzie Miller’s writing, both in London and New York, exceeded anything we could have imagined.

“I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to get the team back together and take the production to theatres around the country, including my hometown of Liverpool. On a personal note, I can’t think of a better finale to what has been such an incredible and deeply rewarding chapter in my life.”

“It is a huge privilege to return to Prima Facie for one last time,” says Jodie Comer. Picture: Helen Murray

In her play, Miller, who was a lawyer for 15 years before focusing on writing since 2010, drew on research from trials at the Old Bailey to address how the legal system conducts sexual assault cases.

“It’s almost impossible to actually run a sexual assault case and win it,” she told a 2022 roundtable with Comer, DSI Clair Kelland and barrister Kate Parker, hosted by Emily Maitlis (as reported by the Guardian, April 22 2022).  “It’s almost like the forum of the court is not fit for purpose for sexual assault.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled about the Prima Facie 2026 tour,” says the Australian playwright, screenwriter, librettist, visual artist, novelist and human rights lawyer, who has degrees in both science and law. “This play has already achieved more than we all could have dreamed, and Jodie’s commitment to the story reaching so many new venues and communities means more people can be part of the conversation, and the solution.”’

Empire Street Productions producer James Bierman has announced that partnerships with the Schools Consent Project and Everyone’s Invited charities will continue on next year’s tour.

Set up in 2014 by barrister Kate Parker, the Schools Consent Project sends lawyers into schools to teach 11 to 18 year olds the legal definition of consent and key sexual offences.

The poster for the 2026 tour of Prima Facie

Their aim is to normalise these sorts of conversations among young people; to empower them to identify and communicate their boundaries, and to respect them in others.  To date, they have spoken to more than 80,000 young people across the country.

Throughout the tour, the production will be working with each venue to support the charity’s work in educating young people in the UK about consent.

Everyone’s Invited’s mission is to expose and eradicate rape culture with empathy, compassion and understanding. The charity offers a safe space for all survivors to share their stories completely anonymously. 

Everyone’s Invited allows many survivors a sense of relief, catharsis, empowerment, and gives them a feeling of community and hope. 

Conversations with friends and personal experiences throughout school and university revealed to founder Soma Sara how widespread the issue is, whereupon she began sharing her experiences of rape culture on Instagram.

Prima Facie playwright Suzie Miller. Picture: Sarah Hadley

In light of the overwhelming response from those who resonated with her story, Soma founded Everyone’s Invited in June 2020, later gaining charitable status in 2022 alongside the launch of the Everyone’s Invited education programme. So far, the programme has reached more than 50,000 students across the UK.

James Bierman says: “All of us involved in Prima Facie are honoured to be able to highlight and support the essential and brilliant work that Everyone’s Invited and The Schools Consent Project do up and down the country.

“Creating safe spaces for people to share their stories and be heard is vital, and to try and change the horrific levels of sexual assault we have in this country we have to change the way we as a society see and talk about consent. By educating young people the Schools Consent Project team are making the future a better place.”

The nine-city UK and Ireland tour will open at Richmond Theatre, London, on January 23 2026 and will visit the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin; Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, New Theatre, Cardiff; The Grand Opera House, York, in its only Yorkshire dates; Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, and Birmingham Rep before closing with Comer’s home run at Liverpool Playhouse from March 17 to 21.

Prima Facie is helmed by Olivier Award-winning director Justin Martin, who is joined in the creative team by Rotherham-born composer Rebecca Lucy Taylor, the Brit Award-nominated singer and songwriter otherwise known as Self Esteem; set and costume designer Miriam Buether; lighting designer Natasha Chivers; sound designers Max and Ben Ringham; video designer Willie Williams for Treatment Studio and vocal coach Kate Godfrey.

Jodie Comer: the back story

Jodie Comer

BORN on March 11 1993 in Liverpool, Merseyside. Made professional stage debut in Fiona Evans’s The Price Of Everything, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, April 2010.

Best known for playing psychopathic assassin Villanelle in cult BBC America spy thriller Killing Eve (2018–2022).  Won Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Drama Series and BAFTA Award for Best Leading Actress in 2019. Later nominated again for Emmy Award, BAFTA Award and Critics Choice Award, as well as Screen Actors Guild Award.

Made West End debut at Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in 2022 and Broadway debut at John Golden Theatre, New York, in 2023 in Suzie Miller’s legal drama Prima Facie. Won Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play, Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play and Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards. Nominated for Drama League Award too.

Starred in Channel 4’s Covid film drama Help, opposite Stephen Graham, marking her executive producer debut too. Won BAFTA for Leading Actress; Help won BAFTA for Single Drama. 

Further television credits include: Thirteen (BAFTA Award and RTS Programme Award nominations); Talking Heads; Doctor Foster; The White Princess; Rillington Place; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; My Mad Fat Diary and Remember Me.

Made feature film debut in Shawn Levy’s $300 million-grossing action comedy Free Guy, alongside Ryan Reynolds and Joe Kerry, in 2021. That year too, she appeared alongside Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver in Ridley Scott’s historical drama The Last Duel, premiered at 78th Annual Venice International Film Festival.

In January 2024, she starred in The End We Start From, Mahalia Belo’s survival thriller based on Megan Hunter’s novel about the trials and joys of new motherhood in the midst of devastating floods that swallow up London.

Last year too, she joined Tom Hardy and Austin Butler in The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols’s account of a fictional 1960s’ Midwestern motorcycle club, based on the photo-book of the same title by Danny Lyon.

Coming next, from June 20, will be 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle’s latest instalment in the 28 Years Later trilogy, where she stars alongside Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell, followed by Kenneth Branagh’s The Last Disturbance Of Madeline Hynde.

Now filming The Death Of Robin Hood, playing opposite Hugh Jackman, directed by Michael Sarnoski.

‘RENT is the reason we fell in love with theatre in the first place,’ says Inspired By Theatre director Dan Crawfurd-Porter

Inspired By Theatre principal cast members for RENT: left to right, Maddie Jones, Jess Gardham, Iain Harvey, Dan Poppitt, Gi Vasey, Mikhail Lim, Tom Collins and Fen Greatley-Hirsch. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

FROM the York theatre company that brought the Hutch Award-winning production of Green Day’s American Idiot to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre last July comes another iconic American rock musical, RENT.

Directed once more by company founder Dan Crawfurd-Porter, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking Tony Award winner will run at the JoRo from April 10 to 12 with its celebration of life, even in the face of adversity.

“RENT tells a story of love, resilience and artistic defiance, making it as relevant today as it was when it debuted 30 years ago,” says Dan.

Dan Poppitt’s Roger, left, Gi Vasey’s Mimi and Mikhail Lim’s Benny in Inspired By Theatre’s RENT. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

Set in the heart of New York City’s East Village at the apex of the AIDS epidemic, RENT follows a group of young artists struggling to survive, create and hold onto hope in the face of uncertainty.

Larson’s revolutionary score, with its blend of rock, pop and musical theatre, features such numbers as Seasons of Love, La Vie Bohème and Take Me Or Leave Me.

“This isn’t just another revival; for us, it’s personal,” says director Dan, who credits the show as a major inspiration for his company’s formation and mission to bring bold, meaningful theatre to York audiences.

Fen Greatley Hirsch’s Angel and Joseph Hayes’s Tom Collins. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

“RENT is the reason we exist and the reason we fell in love with theatre in the first place. It’s a show that has inspired us to tell stories, push boundaries and build a thriving theatre community.

“This production brings together returning favourites and exciting new members of the company, and I’ve never seen a cast quite like this before. We’ve assembled a powerhouse of performers, ready to bring this iconic show to life like never before.”

Crawfurd-Porter’s principal cast comprises American Idiot leading man Iain Harvey as Mark; Dan Poppitt as Roger; Gi Vasey as Mimi; Joseph Hayes as Tom Collins; Maddie Jones as Maureen; York blues musician Jess Gardham as Joanne; Fen Greatley-Hirsch as Angel and Mikhail Lim as Benny.

Iain Harvey’s Mark in Inspired By Theatre’s RENT. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

In the ensemble will be: Richard Bayton; Katie Brier; Kailum Farmery; Rebecca Firth; Jack Fry; Chloe Pearson; Lucy Plimmer-Clough; Fernadna Aqueveque Retamal; Connie Richards; Josh Woodgate and Tiggy-Jade.

Crawfurd-Porter is joined in the production team by choreographer and assistant director Freya McIntosh, musical director Matthew Peter Clare and assistant producer Charlie Clarke.

Inspired By Theatre was known formerly as Bright Light Musical Productions. “We rebranded as Inspired By Theatre to reflect our evolving vision: theatre that moves people, challenges perspectives and delivers unforgettable moments both on and off the stage,” says Dan.

Maddie Jones’s Maureen and Jess Gardham’s Joanne. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

“We saw this philosophy come to life with our highly successful production of Green Day’s American Idiot last summer when more than 1,000 audience members, many covered head to toe in merchandise, packed the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, proving that a show can be more than just a performance, it can be an event.”

Inspired By Theatre in RENT, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 10 to 12, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://www.josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/all-shows/rent/2761.

Inspired By Theatre ensemble members Connie Richards, left, and Tiggy-Jade. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter

REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on Craven Faults, Rymer Auditorium, University of York, March 12

Craven Faults: “Navigated rural map using loops, symmetries, images bleeding in to each other to create this inspired journey”

I MUST start off with a confession: I’ve never heard of Craven Faults. Well, actually that’s not true. I know the Craven Faults System in the Yorkshire Dales, having done a lot of hiking around Malham etc, and this, basically, is what we saw on screen.

Starting out with a pastoral loop of sheep safely grazing, we were transported over a monochrome, bleak and overcast landscape (as it often is in this part of the Yorkshire Dales). The way Craven Faults navigated this rural map using loops, symmetries, images bleeding in to each other to create this inspired journey was – for me – simply unique.

In front of the screen was an impressive modular synthesiser with a million leads and sockets (patch cables); the artist’s electronic orchestra. I assume the artist was the enigmatic Craven Faults himself. Not sure why, but he reminded me of Jeremy Corbyn (no insult intended), and his gentle, calm modus operandi never drew any attention to himself. Even his response to the spontaneous audience appreciation only drew an unassuming waft of the hand.

The ambient score(s) drew inspiration from Krautrock; Tangerine Dream and particularly Kraftwerk. The visual as well as musical parallels with their 1974 hit Autobahn – Wir fahr’n, fahr’n, fahr’n auf der Autobahn – are striking. But there were the obvious echoes of minimalism – cellular repetition, ostinati, electronic looping and, possibly, Harrison Birtwistle.

Although not from God’s own country, this great Lancastrian composer used musical layers when composing. He talked about an analogy with the construction of the stone walls that feature so powerfully in these rural landscapes.

To be sure, the patchwork of musical layers in this score is not hewn out of the rock face, but those layers are there nonetheless: invariably rooted in square four-beat phrases, the musical base upon which the repeating motives are superimposed. And then the magic happened.

Without any warning, the artist at work became part of the film, and in real time. Like bubbles released into the air, these real-life images floated into being and disappeared. We had the introduction of vintage colour images. It was genuinely transcendental. OK, spookily other-worldly then.

If the performance had ended here, I would have described the composition as a work of genius, but it didn’t. Instead we had a kind of psychedelic kosmische imagery signing-off that put me in mind of Stanley Kubrick’s finale of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

It was either a transformation too far or, at 10.50pm, past my bedtime. Nevertheless, Craven Faults is a truly remarkable artist with something distinct and significant to say.

Review by Steve Crowther

REVIEW: York Musical Society, Bach’s Mass in B minor, York Minster, March 15

Baritone soloist David John Pike

FOLLOWING a call to prayer, the concert opened with a gravitas-laden Kyrie. It took a moment or two to get into the groove, but despite the ever-generous Minster acoustic, I could hear the choral fugue weaving its way through to a pleasing cadence.

The Christe soprano duet— Zoë Brookshaw and Philippa Boyle — with obbligato violins was in the altogether sunnier key of D major. The singers’ clear, confident deliveries and crisp string articulation brought a welcome relief and respite.

But then back to a second Kyrie fugue. This worked much better; maybe the choir were more at ease with the vocal demands, but I think the greater clarity and confidence benefited from Bach’s doubling of instruments and voices.

Assured string and clear trumpet playing added much to the celebratory opening of the – D major again – Gloria. I did lose a bit of choral detail, but this is a given in this acoustic. Nicola Rainger was on fine form with a disciplined, technically challenging violin obbligato accompaniment to Philippa Boyle’s captivating Laudamus Te.

Despite the impressive, soaring trumpet contribution, the Gratias Agimus Tibi seemed to have that ‘morning after’ quality. The balance between soprano (Zoë Brookshaw), tenor (Nicholas Watts) and flute obbligato (Della Blood) with muted strings was nigh-on perfect.

Indeed, David Pipe’s judgement was an impressive feature throughout the concert. The Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris was sung by countertenor Tom Lilburn, and very well indeed. The clarity, almost purity of tone, worked really well with Jane Wright’s oboe d’amore obbligato accompaniment.

Baritone David John Pike fared less well in the following Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus. I lost detail in the lower register, but as the aria is scored for the bass voice, this really wasn’t surprising. Janus Wadsworth was excellent on horn, but again I found it tricky to hear the bassoon playing with any real clarity.

The closing Cum Sancto Spiritu proved to be an enjoyable fugal first-half signing-off. The tempo was suitably energetic, and the strings in good nick with fine, crisp articulation.

This brought us to a welcome 15-minute break where the audience seemed to bypass chat about the performance in favour of how cold it was.

The Credo is in itself an altogether satisfying movement, probably on account of its clearly defined symmetrical structure. There was an impressive account of Et In Unum Dominum Jesus Christum from Zoë Brookshaw (soprano) and Tom Lilburn (countertenor) with sympathetic string commentary.

The aria Et In Spiritum Sanctum was more suited to the baritone range and gave David John Pike the chance to showcase what a very fine singer he really is. The oboe d’amore obbligati support was really well judged too. However, I could have sworn they were placed stage left. But not so. Of the three central choral sections, the opening five-part chorus Et Incarnatus Est De Spiritu Sancto fared best. In a quiet setting, the performance shone brightly.

By the time we reached the end of the Sanctus, it was clear that, to use a footballing metaphor, there were a lot of tired legs out there. The demands on the chorus are massive and unrelenting.

Yet, following a poignant Agnus Dei performed by Tom Lilburn with yearning string commentary, they rallied to deliver a splendid Dona Nobis Pacem to bring this enormous spiritual journey to a satisfying conclusion.

Finally, we should mention the consistent quality support from organist Shaun Turnbull and the authoritative direction of conductor David Pipe. But I am going to leave the last word with tenor Nicholas Watts. His performance of the Benedictus aria— with lovely flute accompaniment (Louise Evans, I think) — was, for me, the highlight of the concert.

Review by Steve Crowther

REVIEW: Rowntree Players in Glorious!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 2.30pm and 7.30pm today ***

Neil Foster’s Cosme McMoon Jackie Cox’s Florence Foster Jenkins and Mike Hickman’s St Clair Bayfield in the Rowntree Players poster for Glorious!, mirroring the composition of the poster for Stephen Frears’ film, by the way

GLORIOUS! is the true story of 1940s’ New York socialite heiress Florence Foster Jenkins, “the worst singer in the world”, yet cherished by Cole Porter and Tallulah Bankhead, no less.

You may recall Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated tour de force in Stephen Frears’ 2016 film or Hull actress Maureen Lipman in the West End premiere of Peter Quilter’s 2005 play with music. Now is the turn of Jackie Cox in Martyn Junter’s elegant production for Rowntree Players.

Meanwhile, as chance would have it, across the Pennines, Wendi Peters is playing Florence in a revised version of Quilter’s joyous drama at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester until March 30.

In her day, bemused audiences would great the screeching warbling of the deluded Florence with mocking laughter, but in Glorious! the laughter is reserved for Quilter’s script, whose wit is even sharper than Florence’s ever-enthusiastic but far-from-pitch-perfect singing.

We first encounter Cox’s flamboyant Florence in her grand hotel suite abode, where her constantly supportive manager and long-time companion, failed British Shakespearean actor St Clair Bayfield (Mike Hickman), has arranged for dapper Cosme McMoon  (Neil Foster) to be her new piano accompanist.

Apparently, St Clair has been cut from the streamlined Manchester production, but Hickman makes you wonder why as he continues his run of impressive performances with this arch, dry-humoured fixer.

Foster’s McMoon takes his place behind assorted grand pianos through the show, his face a picture of alrm when he first encounters the shocking noise of “the First Lady of the sliding scale”.

It becomes a running joke how McMoon’s eloquence allows him to seemingly flatter Florence by leaving out the exact word that would insult her and yet impart that meaning to the audience. Here Quilter’s delicious, mischievous writing is at its best, along with the moment he plays a delightful trick on the audience in a funeral scene, turning sombre repose to chuckles.

Florence loves to sing, loves to dress up, loves to entertain, loves to raise money for charity, loves music, but she does not take kindly to criticism, vetting her potential audiences by restricting entry to invitation only to her notorious balls.

She is shielded from the truth by kindly/sycophantic friends, such as Dorothy (Jeanette Hunter in a double act with a stuffed dog), but in Cox’s hands you cannot but warm to her passion for performing, even if you cover your ears when another high note falls off the cliff edge.

What’s more, like comedian Les Dawson’s deliberately maladroit piano playing, it takes skill to sing always tantalisingly either side of the right note. Director Hunter encouraged Cox to worsen her singing in rehearsal, advice that pays off in Cox’s indestructible performance.

Her Madame is neither an operatic diva, nor a circus freak show, more a singing equivalent to Olympian ski jumper Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards in still giving pleasure for all the faults in her technique. Quilter brings so much heart her character and to his storytelling, summed up in a poignant finale where we are invited to think how Florence, by now in angel wings for her triumphant Carnegie Hall farewell, thought she sounded when she sang.

That angelic frock is but one of many striking costume choices by Julie Fisher and Cox herself, matched by the set design with yellow walls and green doors for Florence’s hotel apartment.  Abundant flowers adorn the stage, courtesy of Robert Readman and cast members, and if Cox’s singing puts teeth on edge, the soothing recorded piano arrangements by Sam Johnson are of the highest order.

Martyn Hunter pops up in dapper dinner jacket to play a CBS news reporter, Graham Smith has a cameo as the Undertaker, and Quilter’s skill at crafting humorous characters is further affirmed by Moira Tait’s Maria, Florence’s Mexican maid, who sticks stoically to speaking Spanish  – aside from “sandwiches” – but understands every English utterance in another running gag.

Chris Higgins draws boos for her performance as Mrs Verrinder-Gedge, not for the quality of her acting, be assured, but for her music snob’s rude, mean-spirited interruption of Madame’s concert.

Not boos, but cheers, even tears, accompany Florence’s swan song – fitting for Rowntree Players’ polished, amusing, ultimately poignant show. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

More Things To Do in York and beyond when the XXX factor hits the gallery walls. Hutch’s List No. 11 from The York Press

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 arts exploits, Charles Hutchinson reports.

XXXhibition launch 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.

David John Pike: Baritone soloist at York Musical Society’s concert

Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, Bach Mass in B minor, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm

DAVID Pipe conducts York Musical Society’s singers and orchestra in Bach’s epic choral work, replete with magnificent choruses, resplendent fugues, moving arias and soloists Zoe Brookshaw and Philippa Boyle (both soprano), Tom Lilburn (countertenor), Nicholas Watts (tenor) and Canadian/British/Luxembourger David John Pike (baritone), who returned to music after initially training and working as a chartered accountant. Tickets: available from York Minster or on the door.

Tayla Kenyon: Exploring memories and the choices we make in Fluff at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Fringe play of the week: Teepee Productions and Joe Brown present Fluff, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

NOW is the time for Fluff to do the ultimate puzzle: her life. As she navigates her way through her most treasured and darkest memories, she desperately needs to piece together her life, story by story, person by person.

Tayla Kenyon performs solo in her darkly comedic 75-minutre play, co written with James Piercy, as she explores memories and the choices we make, using a non-linear plot line to enable the audience to feel, first hand, the devastating effects of dementia. Box office:  tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ewan Wardrop in rehearsal for his role as reluctant hero Roger Thornhill in Wise Children’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, premiering at York Theatre Royal from March 18

World premiere of the week in York: Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, York Theatre Royal, March 18 to 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, March 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees, Wednesday 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.

In the Strummer time: Stiff Little Fingers’ Ali McMordie, left, Steve Grantley, Jake Burns and Ian McCallum pay tribute to The Clash punk hero at York Barbican. Picture: Will Byington

Punk gig of the week: Stiff Little Fingers, Flame In Our Hearts Tour, York Barbican, March 18, doors 7pm

NORTHERN Irish punk legends Stiff Little Fingers’ tour title is a nod their 2003 track Summerville, recorded to mark the untimely passing of Joe Strummer of The Clash.

Frontman Jake Burns says: “The opening line to the song is ‘You lit a flame in my heart’ and still stands strong today as it did when I wrote it. Joe was a legend and a huge influence on myself and the band. Calling the tour Flame In The Heart keeps Joe in everyone’s memory.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Meanwhile, Monday’s double bill of The Darkness and special guests Ash has sold out.

Nearly here: Paddy McGuinness brings his Nearly There tour to York Barbican next Thursday

Comedy gig of the week: Paddy McGuinness, Nearly There, York Barbican, March 20, 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.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Health and happiness tips at York Barbican

Meet “the architect of health and happiness”: Dr Rangan Chatterjee, The Thrive Tour 2025, York Barbican, March 21, 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.