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More Things To Do in York and beyond when feeling the earth move. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 37 for 2023, from The Press

Gracing the stage: Grace Lancaster in the role of Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

FROM Carole King’s beautiful songs to Velma Celli’s pop queens, an artistic family to a poet’s biscuits, Charles Hutchinson adds to the September sunshine as cause for heading out and about.

Musical of the week: York Stage in Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to September 23

YORK, are you ready to feel the Earth move, asks director Nik Briggs, ahead of the York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. “This show has taken the world by storm, and for good reason, with its inspiring story of Carole King, a woman who rose to fame in the music industry during a time when female songwriters were few and far between”.

Singer, actress and pianist Grace Lancaster takes the lead role in this celebration of perseverance, passion and the power of music to unite. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Damon Gough: Marking 25 years of Badly Drawn Boy

Treasured songwriter of the week: Badly Drawn Boy, The Crescent, York, Monday, 7.30pm

DAMON Gough is undertaking his Something To Tour About: 25 Years Of Badly Drawn Boy tour, playing a sold-out standing show in York with Liam Frost in support.

Chorlton singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano player Gough, who released Banana Skin Shoes as his first studio album in ten years in May 2020, first made his mark with the Mercury Prize-winning The Hour Of Bewilderbeast in 2000. Eight albums on, he has plenty to tour about.

Rosie Jones: Unadulterated joy in Triple Threat at Leeds City Varieties and York Theatre Royal

Comedy gig of the week: Rosie Jones: Triple Threat, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Wednesday, 8pm; York Theatre Royal, Thursday, 8pm

COMEDIAN Rosie Jones’s show is guaranteed to be full of unapologetic cheekiness, nonsensical fun and unadulterated joy from the triple threat herself.

Theatre@41 honorary patron Rosie has hosted Channel 4’s travel series Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard and Mission: Accessible and made numerous appearances on The Last Leg, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Hypothetical, Mock The Week, The Ranganation and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Jessica Steel: Powerhouse vocals at A Night To Remember

Fundraiser of the week: Big Ian Presents A Night To Remember, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

HUGE frontman Big Ian Donaghy hosts his annual charity fundraiser as George Hall leads a 20-piece All Star House Band with a 12-strong brass section in a night of cover versions of Kate Bush, Bill Withers, Take That, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Queen, Wham!, Elvis and more.

Taking part will be Jessica Steel, Heather Findlay, Beth McCarthy, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Boss Caine, Gary Stewart, Simon Snaize, Annie Donaghy, Kieran O’Malley, Las Vegas Ken, the Huge Brass Boys, Hands & Voices, musicians from York Music Forum and Jessa Liversidge’s fully inclusive group Singing For All. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

John Hegley: Biscuits all round at Stillington Mill

Poet of the week: John Hegley: Biscuit Of Destiny, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm

POET John Hegley, star of radio, television and school assemblies, heads north with a clutch of new verses, a few older favourites and a cardboard camel with a moving jaw.

The biscuits in the show derive Romantic poet John Keats’s phrase: “a scarcity of buiscuit”. Not the sort of phrase nor spelling you expect from a Romantic poet, notes Hegley, who delves into the more eccentric side of Keats, alongside everyday goings-on in the Hegley homes of now and yesteryear. Expect drawings of elephants, myths, discos, daleks, optional community singing and the search for a sense of self-worth. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/939591.

Velma Celli: Reigning over York Theatre Royal on Friday in a celebration of British pop royalty, God Save The Queens. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography

Brit icons of the week: Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret superstar Velma Celli, the vocal drag diva alter ego of musical theatre actor Ian Stroughair, introduces her new celebration of British pop royalty.

Accompanied by Scott Phillips’s band, Velma’s night of rapturous music, risqué comedy and fabulous entertainment features the songs of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Florence Welch, Leona Lewis, The Spice Girls, Kate Bush, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black and Bonnie Tyler, plus a tribute to Sinead O’Connor.

Katya Apekisheva: Russian-born pianist playing at York Chamber Music Festival, sometimes solo, sometimes in the company of string players

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, September 15 to 17

FESTIVAL artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is joined by John Mills and Jonathan Stone, violins, Hélene Clément and Simone van der Giessen, violas, Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, Billy Cole, double bass, and British-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva for three days of concerts.

Highlights include Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13, Dvořák’s String Sextet, Elgar’s late Piano Quintet, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 1 and Schubert’s last Piano Sonata in B flat major. For the full programme and venues, head to: ycmf.co.uk/2023-programme. Box office: 01904 658338 or ycmf.co.uk.

Ewa Salecka: Conducting Prima Vocal Ensemble in Songs From The Heart

Choral concert of the month: Prima Vocal Ensemble, Songs From The Heart, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, September 30, 7.30pm

ARTISTIC director and producer Ewa Salecka leads York choir Prima Vocal Ensemble in an intimate evening of contemporary classical and popular choral music with Greg Birch at the piano.

Works by Randall Thompson, René Clausen, Stephen Paulus and Elizabeth Alexander will be followed by a second half of moving and energetic arrangements of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury songs. Ahead of their 2024 New York City reunion, Prima perform a Christopher Tin number too. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.

Copyright of The Press, York

Hannah Arnup and Ben Arnup with bowls by Mick Arnup and a bronze dog by Sally Arnup at the Arnup Centenary exhibition, opening today at Pyramid Gallery

In Focus: Exhibition launch of the week

Hannah Arnup, Ben Arnup, Tobias Arnup and Vanessa Pooley, Arnup Centenary, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, 11am today to October 30

THE Arnups, two generations of artists with roots in York, work in pottery, painting, wildlife sculpture, figurative sculpture and ceramic sculpture. The late Mick and Sally Arnup set up home and studio in Holtby in the 1960s, and three of their family, Ben, Hannah and Tobias, have followed careers in the arts.

This exhibition by the three second generation artists and Tobias’s wife, Vanessa Pooley, coincides with the centenary of their father’s birth in 1923. In recognition of their parents’ influence on their own artistic journeys, a few pieces by Mick and Sally will complement the new works.

Gallery visitors can expect to see new work by ceramist Ben Arnup, who specialises in slab-made flattened boxes and vessels that play with the viewer’s sense of form and space, alongside Hananh Arnup’s wheel-thrown bowls and plates with sgraffito decoration and Vanessa Pooley’s gently curvy female forms in ceramic and bronze. On the walls, the still life paintings by Tobias Arnup will sit alongside ceramic wall pieces by Ben and Hannah.

Ben’s intriguing Trompe L’Oeil forms are well known to collectors of ceramics and visitors to Pyramid Gallery. Formerly a landscape designer, he creates shapes that explore drawn perspective using coloured clay slab-constructed stoneware, “having fun with the way we see form”.

After studying sculpture at Kingston Art School and specialising in ceramics at Goldsmith College, London, Hannah has lived and worked for much of her adult life in Ireland where she owns and runs Ballymorris Pottery. Latterly, she has set up a new studio in the family home in Holtby near York, re- purposed as a community of artists’ studios.

Vanessa works with bronze and ceramic to create sculpture of mostly female forms with an individual and distinctive style that takes inspiration from the work of Henri Laurens and his studio assistant Balthazar Lobo, as well as Marino Marinni and the sculptures of Picasso and Matisse. Her work is to be found in collections around the world.

Tobias studied at Camberwell School of Art and went on to teach at Blackheath School of Art before a change in career to be an art therapist.

“I was helping run a course at Blackheath School of Art and I found I was more interested in the people that sat in my office at lunchtime complaining about their fellow students or about their parents or about not getting their art right or wondering what they were going to do, or who were just not really coping with life very well,” he says.

After his training, Tobias started an art therapy department at Holloway Prison, which was in existence until the women’s prison closed in 2016. 

During his 35-year career, he also worked in secure units in mental health hospitals, finding that art could engage traumatised people when other methods of therapy had not.  

In his art, Tobias has evolved an individual style that begins with a black outline of still life objects and flowers, drawn in ink with a goose quill. He then adds colour in gouache, filling the spaces between or on top of the black lines.

Depending on what he feels is necessary, he might add more black ink lines, or redo the original lines, then more colour and maybe finish with more black lines. This layering of lines and colour is done slowly and carefully in a process that he describes as meditative. The result is intriguing, distinctive and joyful, with pastel colours contrasting with the black outlines, that have a bold and purposeful feel mixed with occasional random unevenness.

Gallery owner Terry Brett has worked with Ben and Hannah for many years, as well as with Mick and Sally, and looks forward to his inaugural showing of paintings by Tobias and bronze and ceramic sculpture by Vanessa.

“‘For me, this is one of the most satisfying moments in my time as an exhibition curator,” he says. “Not only for the quality of the work and diversity of styles, but also because I am pleased to be representing Vanessa and Tobias for the first time.

“To be hosting the family with an exhibition that is paying respect to Mick and Sally in a collective show is a very special moment for both myself and the gallery.”

Tobias Arnup with his gouache and ink paintings

Tobias Arnup on his artistic practice

THE play between line and colour has always been central to Tobias’s work as a painter.
“Undoubtedly my main influence of this has been that of my father, Mick,” he says. “However, I still remember the impact of being taught by the wonderful art master at Pocklington School, Nigel Billington, who encouraged a proper attention to composition and to drawing, particularly with ink.

“It was hardly a surprise when I chose Camberwell School of Art, in London, as the place to study for my Fine Art degree and where I was lucky enough to teach drawing myself for a while.”

Only relatively recently has Tobias experimented more with different media. “For many years my favourite was egg tempera, which I learnt about at Camberwell and used to
mix up myself,” he says.

“Depending on how much it was diluted, tempera has both the ‘gloopy’ quality of gouache and the richness of a watercolour glaze. It was working on paper, though, that has allowed me to work more flexibly.

“Using water-soluble pencil, Indian ink, watercolour and gouache – although not necessarily in that order – I seem to be forever swinging between creating chaos and trying to excerpt some sort of order on the composition.”

He continues: “These days the chaos of my ink marks is being brought under some sort of control by the flat, mat gouache. When things get a bit too tidy, out comes the ink bottle again.

“There cannot have been many options for school teachers at the time. Mr Billington’s huge
set-ups suited me perfectly, however. They were there ready for me – a constant resource,
I realise now, that is currently replicated in my own studio.

“Although they stray into more abstract concerns, I regard all these works as still-lives. When I am a bit stuck, it’s the ink and the goose-feather quills that I turn to, although I have used up my store of Chinese geese quills that I collected up from the garden when I was young.”

Pyramid Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. The displays can be viewed at pyramidgallery.com too.

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Review: Les Enfants Terribles in The House With Chicken Legs, York Theatre Royal and Leeds Playhouse ***

Eve de Leon Allen’s Marinka and Lisa Howard’s Baba in Les Enfants Terribles’ The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: Rah Petherbridge

TECHNICAL issues delayed the start of Wednesday’s opening night of Les Enfants Terribles’ tour of The House With Chicken Legs.

There would be further hitches during the performance. The house – divided into a revolving interior/exterior and a separate porch – was troublesome to manoeuvre. Something of an irony when Sophie Anderson’s story is all about the house’s tendency to up sticks without warning in the dark of night, keeping 12-year-old Marinka (Eve de Leo Allen) on the reluctant move.

No doubt such gremlins will be ironed out, and indeed it may have been better to hold back the press to later in the week (an opportunity that was indeed offered by the Theatre Royal’s marketing team on arrival).

Likewise, microphone levels will be adjusted to facilitate hearing the lyrics of Stephanie Levi-John’s big number as Yaga more clearly.

On first night, the teething problems took away from the “magically inventive” billing that Les Enfants Terribles’ premiere at HOME, Manchester, had elicited in 2022. 

Let’s look at its strengths instead, then. It is a technically demanding show, not only with the regular movement of Jasmine Swan’s set design, but also with the need to work in tandem with Nina Dunn’s video designs and composer Alexander Wolfe’s sound design. 

Those two elements are powerful forces at play, together with Samuel Wyer’s puppetry and costume design, supporting the two primary pistons: co-director Oliver Lansley’s script, rooted in storytelling, and Wolfe and Lansley’s songs that recall the Weimar cabaret of Weill and Brecht.

In Anderson’s tale, performed by an actor-musician cast, de Leon Allen’s 12-year-old orphan Marinka dreams of a normal life, where she can stay somewhere long enough to make friends. Yorkshire theatre regular Lisa Howard’s Baba has Marinka under her wing as her successor as the guardian of the gateway, guiding the souls of the dead into the afterlife. That gateway happens to be Baba’s house, and where the dead need their exit, with a last warming bowl of food and a star-lit sky, the house must move to meet those demands.

Howard’s Baba, with her Russian accent, grandmotherly garb, strict, cajoling airs and bon mots, chalks up another memorable turn for this ever-watchable northern favourite. De Leon Allen straddles appealing to younger audiences and adults alike with Marinka’s precocious manner, her wish to do her own thing when burdened with the responsibility of taking on a pre-ordained task.

The relationship with Howard’s Baba is played beautifully, as they tug in different directions, Baba answering always to duty; the rebellious, curious Marinka craving the space to grow her way, befriending football-loving, same-aged Ben (Michael Barker). Puppeteer Dan Willis’s jackdaw Jack is her constant companion, becoming amusingly ever more assertive.

The dead, represented by masks, skulls and candlelight, keep popping in, albeit that their first musical number goes on too long, but in keeping with Mexico’s Day of the Dead, the dead are not creepy or scary, but full of personality.

Stephanie Levi-John’s knowing, jive-talking Yaga adds momentum to the second half, leading the singing in the ensemble number Yaga’s Party, when dancing in chicken-legged boots goes down a storm.

By comparison, the key magical revelation, the first spouting of chicken legs by the house, is disappointingly flat, relying on the arm movements of de Leon Allen’s Marinka and Eloise Warboys’ Nina to power those legs. Would a mechanical device have been more effective? Over to Heath Robinson.

Les Enfants Terribles’ first visit to York Theatre Royal since The Trench in June 2013 had been keenly awaited; indeed Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster has wanted to explore the possibility of co-productions. If The House With Chicken Legs fell short of the highest expectations, it still has magic moments, and humour too, in its combination of a rites of passage and adult themes, young life and death, all the more resonant in Covid’s shadow.

Les Enfants Terribles in The House With Chicken Legs, York Theatre Royal, 7pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7pm, Saturday. Leeds Playhouse, September 13 to 16, 7pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk

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Dancefloor disciple John Godber keeps the faith in Northern Soul in days of drudgery and nights of joy in Do I Love You?

Northern Soul power: It’ll never be over for Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Chloe McDonald and Martha Godber in John Godber’s Do I Love You?. Picture: Ian Hodgson

“I’M not afraid to admit I was a rather good dancer,” says playwright, director, actor and erstwhile terpsichorean tornado John Godber. “Not so good now, mind. My knees.”

John’s ‘tap’ these days would be on the laptop, leading to his latest play, a hymn to Northern Soul that keeps the faith with the Wigan Casino days but addresses today’s believers in Do I Love You?, opening at Wakefield Theatre Royal tonight (7/9/2023)

“This is Northern Soul for a new generation, but with rising costs, unemployment and small-town blues, has anything really changed?” asks John, now 67. “Is this England 1973 or 2023? The pubs are closing, hospitality has gone, and strikes are everywhere…but when you’re out on the floor…”

…There you will find Godber’s twentysomethings, Sally, Nat and Kyle, as they develop a love for Northern Soul and the people involved with it across the industrial north. What started as a college project has grown into a passion, but the dance steps are exhausting.

Far beyond their home city of Hull, they find excitement, purpose and the tribe they have been seeking. Cue talcum powder, loafers and weekenders,  from Brid Spa to Stoke, from Oxford to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, as these young soulies vow to keep the faith, even as Britain crumbles, school buildings and all.

Do I Love You? Indeed he did, back in the day. “I went to all-nighters in Scarborough, and even then that single [Frank Wilson’s title song] was worth £45,000,” says John.

“It’s the one that lots of people know, but lots of soulists despise it because it’s too well known! Only 200 copies were printed, and one copy recently sold for £150,000.

Leap of faith: Emilio Encinoso-Gil shows off a Northern Soul move for Do I Love You? during rehearsals in the John Godber Studio at Hull Truck Theatre

“There’s this really interesting thing that soulies want to keep it underground, which is difficult, particularly when the BBC Proms did a Northern Soul Prom this summer [July 15 2023, curated by broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie], gentrifying it with symphonic arrangements, of course!”

John recalls his dancing nights and early single acquisitions. “Dobie Gray’s Out On The Floor was my first one, then The Flasher, the instrumental by Mistura, and then you’re on to Al Wilson’s The Snake,” he says.

“Every church hall had a Northern Soul night, every youth club had a Northern Soul Night back then.

“A couple of Fridays ago, the cast went to a soul night at an ex-servicemen’s club, where they played Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You?, and they came away saying, ‘oh my God, it’s all true’.”

After a run of state-of-the-nation plays (Shafted, 2015; Scary Bikers, 2018, Sunny Side Up, 2020; Living On Fresh Air, 2023), Godber’s latest comedy is more of a celebration, albeit with politics still at its rotten core.

“I’m interested in enclosed environments: nightclubs [Bouncers], schools [Teechers], gymnasiums [Gym And Tonic], now the Northern Soul scene,” says John.

“This time there’s a lot of music, a lot of dancing, in the show, and we’ve had the world champion Northern Soul dancer, Sally Molloy, in for a couple of sessions. Just extraordinary!

A high-steping Martha Godber in rehearsal for Do I Love You?

“She came to the read-through to authenticate the piece and said, ‘I bless this show’, which was great because we want it to be authentic.

“Dancing was important to the casting, so we looked far and wide and even looked at auditioning some Northern Soul dancers but they just didn’t cut the mustard with the acting.”

John settled instead on a typically compact cast of Yorkshire actors Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Martha Godber and Belfast-born, Liverpool-trained newcomer Chloe McDonald.

“Martha went to Northern Contemporary dance in Leeds when she was 16 and got into Trinity Laban [Conservatoire of Music and Dance], but then decided to go to LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) to train as an actor,” he says.

“They worked with Sally a couple of months ago before rehearsals started, then did a full day with her, after the read-through day, when they almost couldn’t walk for a week!”

John’s own research brought him into contact with Dr Sarah Raine, from the cultural industries department at Leeds University, (who is in the process of moving to York by the way).

“What she’s identified is a real growth in Northern Soul, when working men’s clubs have gone, youth clubs have gone, but Northern Soul club nights go on,” says John.

Newcomer Chloe McDonald is making her John Godber Company debut in the premiere of Do I Love You?

“The music is put first; it’s not about leaving with someone on your arm, unlike in Bouncers, though the drug scene is pretty clear, but after 12 hours of stomping, you’re going to need something stronger than coffee and Red Bull!”

Godber’s twentysomethings in Do I Love You? work in a “chicken drive-through portal” as he euphemistically puts it. “It’s not a great place to work. Two of them have degrees, one in psychology, one in musical theatre; the other has stayed at home to look after her grandmother,” he says.

“After Covid, they’ve picked up these low-grade jobs, but the music underlines where they are in their rites of passage. They find this creed they have some sympathy with, a kind of religion, a kind of tribe.”

“In 2023, with the drudgery of daily life, now it’s about finding meaning and young people feeling they’re in a safe place.”

John Godber Company in Do I Love You?, Yorkshire dates: Theatre Royal, Wakefield, tonight until September 16; Georgian Theatre  Royal, Richmond, September 26 to 29; Pocklington Arts Centre, September 30, sold out; Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough, Halifax, October 3 to 5; Barnsley Civic, October 6 and 7; Bridlington Spa, October 27 and 28; Hull Truck Theatre, October 31 to November 4; Cast, Doncaster, January 24 to 27 2024; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, February 7 to 10.

Box office: Wakefield, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk; Richmond, georgiantheatreroyal.savoysystems.co.uk; Pocklington, for returns only, 01759 301547; Halifax, 01422 849227 or theviaducttheatre.co.uk; Barnsley, civicbarnsley.ticketsolve.com; Bridlington, 01262 678258 or bridspa.com/; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Doncaster, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Did you know?

THE latest plays by Great Britain’s most performed and second most performed playwrights open on the same night: Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and John Godber’s Do I Love You? at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield.

John Godber: Playwright, director and Northern Soul disciple
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Alan Ayckbourn predicts the android future of love in Constant Companions at SJT

Writer-director Alan Ayckbourn in rehearsal with actress Naomi Petersen for his Constant Companions premiere at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

ALAN Ayckbourn’s 89th play, Constant Companions, opens tonight (7/9/2023) at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, looking cautiously just around the corner to a world of AI and android love.

In his second play of the year set in the not-too-distant future, after May’s run of Welcome To The Family at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, he weaves together the stories of lawyer Lorraine, lonely bachelor Don and technician Winston with Ayckbournian humour and a shot of compassion.

Lorraine is a fabulously successful lawyer of a certain age. Jan Sixty is the janitor of her building, an android of indeterminate age. In this vision of our future, where humans have turned to artificial friends for companionship without compromise, Ayckbourn ponders whether Lorraine and Jan can find true love.

“Reading so much about the inevitable arrival of AI into our society – some would say it’s already here! – I felt a cautious look forward might be in order,” he says.

“Are we really prepared for an encounter with another race? Not from outer space, but one of our own creation which will inevitably eventually turn out to be a lot smarter than we are? Honestly, the human race! As if we didn’t have enough problems already.”

At 84, Star Wars aficionado Ayckbourn is enjoying speculating on human interaction in the years ahead. “I feel I’m standing at the point in my writing where I have the choice of looking back and looking forward,” he says. “With Family Album [last autumn’s SJT premiere], I was looking back from a modern perspective, over my conscious lifetime.

“This time I thought, ‘let’s look ahead’, though next year I will probably look backwards again, so it’s a see-saw.”

Welcome To The Family straddled both worlds, taking its protagonist, Josh, and his fiancée Sara back to his childhood world from the future with the aid of his wicked Uncle Lance’s gift of a state-of-the-art ‘Capture’ visit to the past that enables him to revisit his deceased parents and family home whenever he likes.

“Everything I write about set in the past could recur in the future,” says Alan. “Thematically, in Constant Companions, the issues raised by AI are the new challenge, and the more one reads the news, Artificial Intelligence is coming and is very nearly here already [in the form of robots].

“Its social impact will be enormous, and the issues we thought were settled, in terms of class and race, will rise again, where they will be considered a different class and a different race, so all these problems will be reactivated. If we think we are on the road to sexual equality, we have another think (CORRECT) coming.

“Maybe we can imagine a colour-blind, sexuality-blind future, but the same things are going to happen again. The interesting thing is that these new creations, these new ‘humans’, will outlive us by millennia.”

Alan considers a second question: “Why have other planets not made contact with us if they are so advanced? But we’ve only been here for ten seconds, compared to the billions and trillions that the universe has been ticking over.

“I have this vision that in the long-distant future, we would eventually make contact or they would contact us, not through human, but artificial intelligence embracing each other, so that android will shake hand with android.”

Ayckbourn’s play projects into a future where the android will miss humanity. “I feel that despite the precautions we can build into the development of AI, that takeover will eventually occur, even if they don’t go berserk and run amok with a machine gun,” he says. “It will be humane, looking after us until the last hospice in town closes down.”

Ayckbourn finds humour, both wry and dry, in contemplating “mixed relationships occurring, as I foresee they might”. “Humans will pair up with androids simply because they will be mixing, and there will be these rather fetching androids looking after our every need,” he says. “But the play looks beyond that to when the woman is in old age, beset with memory loss, and the consequences of that, because the human race is stuffed with foibles and things will go wrong in us.”

In a third Ayckbourn drama for 2023, he will make a rare outing as an actor on September 17 alongside the Constant Companions cast of Georgia Burnell, Andy Cryer, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Alexandra Mathie, Naomi Petersen, Richard Stacey and Leigh Symonds, plus SJT alumnae Christopher Godwin and John Bramwell, in a rehearsed reading of Truth Will Out, his Covid-cancelled 2020 play for the SJT.

In this up-to-the-minute satire on family, relationships, politics and the state of the nation, everyone has secrets. Certainly, former shop steward George does, as do his right-wing MP daughter Janet, investigative journalist Peggy and senior civil servant Sefton.

Cue one tech-savvy teenager with a mind of his own and time on his hands to bring their worlds tumbling down – and maybe everyone else’s along with them.

Here was Ayckbourn’s virus play, written before Coronavirus stopped everything (although Ayckbourn subsequently wrote prodigiously in lockdown). Now he will hear Truth Will Out read aloud for the first time. Truth will out, no matter the delay. 

Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight until October 7; Truth Will Out, rehearsed reading, September 17, 2.30pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Copyright of The Press, York

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Selby Town Hall’s autumn season combines new acts and returning favourites with illustrious award winners. Who’s playing?

Daniel Rodriguez: Former Elephant Revival frontman leads his folk quartet at Selby Town Hall on November 9

SELBY Town Hall’s autumn and winter season opens on September 16 with an already sold-out Work In Progress performance by Hull comedian Lucy Beaumont, star of Meet The Richardsons, The Great Celebrity Bake Off and Taskmaster.

The newly launched programme features multiple Grammy winners, Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees, Juno winners, BBC Folk Award recipients and multi-million selling chart toppers, with performers from the worlds of music, stand-up, theatre, poetry and broadcasting.

Picking out highlights, Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones says: “One of the most critically acclaimed comedians of the past decade, Kieran Hodgson, will be performing Big In Scotland here on October 6.

Kieran Hodgson: Big In Scotland, hopefully big in Selby too on October 6

“It was the talk of this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe, where Two Doors Down star Kieran received a fourth nomination for comedy’s most prestigious prize, the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Only James Acaster has gained more nominations in the 42-year history of the award.”

Author and comedian Sam Avery will return to Selby on November 18 with his show for mums and dads, How Not To Be A Terrible Parent, while the monthly £10 comedy club will be back for a second year, with English Comedian Of The Year Josh Pugh, Seeta Wrightson and Will Duggan playing the first Comedy Network gig on September 24.

Next come Tony Law, Molly McGuinness and Jack Gleadow on October 29;  Nathan Caton, Tom Lawrinson and Jessie Nixon on November 26 and Brennan Reece, Harriet Dyer and Justin Panks on December 17.

Sam Avery: Offering tips on How Not To Be A Terrible Parent on November 18

Lucy Beaumont leads off a host of sold-out comedy nights by poet-comedian Brian Bilston on September 21, Stephen K Amos: Oxymoron, October 14, Chris McCausland: Work In Progress, November 22, and, heading into 2024, Omid Djalili: Work In Progress, February 1.

A similar picture can be painted for music gigs: Shawn Colvin, on September 23, Hue & Cry, September 30, Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, October 27, and China Crisis, November 17, are all fully booked.

“We’re delighted to be hosting Illinois singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin for the smallest date by far on a rare tour of the UK – her first in ages – for the much-lauded Song of the Year Grammy winner,” says Chris.

Shawn Colvin: Selby Town Hall will be “the smallest date by far” on her rare British tour

Tickets are still available, however, for “five stellar acts from North America with an astonishing 19 Grammy Awards between them”, points out Chris. “Fourteen of those belong to globally renowned banjo player Ron Block, best known for his work with bluegrass behemoths Alison Krauss & Union Station. Ron will be playing a full band show alongside Ireland’s BBC Folk Award nominee Damien O’Kane to create what the pair describe as ‘a banjo party’ on October 5,” he says.

“Daniel Rodriguez, former frontman of wildly popular Colorado folk band Elephant Revival, visits the UK for the first time this autumn with his top quartet, playing Selby on November 9, fresh from a United States stadium tour supporting The Lumineers.

“On January 18 there’s a return for Juno-winning Canadian close harmony trio Good Lovelies, followed by a January 26 debut for two-time Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Tim O’Brien, performing alongside his wife, Jan Fabricius.”

Sharon Shannon: Selby date on February 3 2024

Two Irish folk luminaries will be making returns to Selby: Dublin’s two-time BBC Folk Award-winning singer and bouzouki player Daoirí Farrell on October 21 and County Clare’s multi-million selling accordion and fiddle player Sharon Shannon, leading her trio on February 3. Next year too, Scottish traditional duo Ally Bain & Phil Cunningham will head to North Yorkshire on March 28.

On December 15, in his new show, BBC broadcasting heavyweight ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris and Beatles expert Colin Hall will discuss The Songs The Beatles Gave Away to other artists, before Selby Town Hall spreads its festive wings on December 20 to stage Brass At Christmas in Selby Abbey, featuring Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band.

On the theatre front, Enid Blyton: Noddy, Big Ears & Lashings Of Controversy finds Liz Grand playing the “remarkable and controversial woman loved by children but vilified by the BBC, teachers, critics and librarians” on November 2.

Liz Grand: Performing new play about “the turbulent life of Britain’s most successful children’s author, Enid Blyton” on November 2

” I’m really pleased with the quality and range of shows we’ve got coming up,” says Chris. “We’ve got a great mix of new acts and returning favourites, with some pretty illustrious award winners among the artists lining up this autumn and winter.

“I’m particularly excited to be welcoming one of the country’s smartest and most inventive comedians, Kieran Hodgson, with one of the biggest buzz shows from last month’s Edinburgh Fringe, as well as a brand-new play from acclaimed actor Liz Grand about the turbulent life of Britain’s most successful children’s author, Enid Blyton. From banjos to The Beatles and poetry to pop, there’s a fantastic range of shows taking place.”

Tickets can be booked on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk.

Lucy Beaumont: Sold-out Work In Progress gig opens Selby Town Hall’s new season on September 16
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WiFi woes this weekend but WiFi Wars will be waged next February at Theatre@41

Waiting game for Wifi Wars at Theatre@41

WIFI Wars will not rage at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Sunday after all. Unforeseen circumstances have put paid to this weekend’s 3pm and 7.30pm shows at short notice.

However, this is only a hiatus in hostilities. Both shows have been re-scheduled for Sunday, February 18 2024, with tickets holders transferring to that date or, if unable to attend, they can contact tickets.41monkgate.co.uk for a refund.

What is WiFi Wars, you ask. “It’s a comedy game show where you all play along” explains Theatre@41 chair Alan Park. “Log in with your smartphone or tablet and compete in a range of games, puzzles and quizzes to win the show and prizes.

“Hosted by comedian Steve McNeil, team captain on UK TV’s hit comedy/gaming show Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit, and aided by Guinness World Record-breaking tech whizz Rob Sedgebeer, there’ll be entirely different games and quizzes at each show, if you’d like to come to both!” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Sin City recall AC/DC’s Bon Scott years on the highway to tribute hell at Shire Hall

Sin City vocalist Gary John Jenkins and guitarist Ash JD Baker

SIN City, The Bon Scott Years AC/DC tribute, will make its Shire Hall, Howden debut on September 29 in the second show of Howden Live’s autumn season

After nearly a decade, Ash JD Baker, former Angus Young in the AC/DC tribute show Live/Wire, makes his long-awaited return to the Australian guitarist’s trademark school uniform. Joining him will be former band mate Gary John Jenkins, reprising his role of original AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott, as they re-create the sound and stage presence of the late-1970s’ AC/DC.

Alongside them will be bassist Dave Parker, who has held down the thundering low end in AC/DC tributes for the past decade. Citing both Mark Evans (AC/DC 1975-1977) and Cliff Williams (AC/DC 1977-2016) as major influences, he mirrors their tone, musical approach and attack.

Rhythm guitarist Matthew Nixon will recall the signature tone and playing style of the young Malcolm Young. Drummer Al Cormell will capture the swing and groove of Phil Rudd to build a huge wall of sound as Sin City journeys through Bon Scott’s years from High Voltage to Highway To Hell.

Tickets are on sale at howden-live.com, on 01430 432510 and from the Dove House Hospice shop (01430 431660) in hard copy form only.  

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York Chamber Music Festival marks tenth anniversary with three days of concerts

York Chamber Music Festival artistic director Tim Lowe

YORK Chamber Music Festival returns for its tenth anniversary season from September 15 to 17, once more under the artistic directorship of Tim Lowe.

Since its founding in 2013, the festival has gone from strength to strength and will celebrate its first decade by inviting six supreme string players in Europe and the British-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva to participate alongside cellist Lowe.

He will be joined by John Mills and Jonathan Stone, violins; Hélene Clément and Simone van der Giessen, violas; Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, and Billy Cole, double bass.    

Described by York music critic Martin Dreyer as “a mouth-watering prospect”,the full programme can be found at www.ycmf.co.uk/2023-programme.

Picking out highlights: Mendelssohn’s joyous String Quartet Op. 13 was his first mature chamber music, written at the age of 18, and Dvořák’s String Sextet was his first great success in chamber music, a smash hit that was soon played all over Europe.

At the other end of their careers, Elgar’s response to the First World War included his late Piano Quintet, contemporary with his famous Cello Concerto, while the string septet version of Strauss’s Metamorphosen is a moving elegy for the cultural destruction caused by the Second World War. 

In a concert of cello and piano music Lowe is joined by Katya Apekisheva in Brahms’s golden, glowing First Cello Sonata, and Apekisheva performs a solo concert to include Schubert’s great last Piano Sonata in B flat major. 

Lowe says: “In our time, Europe is once again at war and as Strauss said when he re-read his Goethe, anger is never the last word. I hope that beauty and truth will shine through during the tenth anniversary of York Chamber Music Festival. We will certainly do our best. I look forward to greeting you all in September.”

Tickets are available from the National Centre for Early Music box office, in Walmgate, at ycmf.co.uk or on 01904 658338 in office hours. A Festival Saver ticket offers extra value to those wanting to attend multiple concerts. Young people aged 18 and under can attend all the events free of charge.

Pianist Katya Apekisheva

York Chamber Music Festival: the programme

Event 1: September 15, 1pm to 2pm, Cello Recital by Tim Lowe (cello) and Katya Apekisheva, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York.

Beethoven: 12 Variations on See The Conqu’ring Hero Comes from Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus; Brahms: Cello Sonata No.1 in E Minor, Op. 38; Tchaikovsky: Nocturne for Cello and Piano, No. 4 from 6 pieces Op. 19 and Valse Sentimentale No. 6 from Six Morceaux, Op. 51; Schumann: Adagio and AllegroOp. 70.

Event 2: September 15, 7.30pm, Festival Artists John Mills, Jonathan Stone, Hélene Clément,Simone van der Giessen, Tim Lowe, Jonathan Aasgaard and Billy Cole, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York.

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 76 No. 3; Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor Op. 13; Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen, version for String Septet.  

Event 3: September 16, 1pm to 2pm, Piano Recital, Katya Apekisheva, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York.

Schubert: Three Piano Pieces, D946; Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D960.

Event 4: September 16, 7.30pm, Festival Artists John Mills, Jonathan Stone, Hélene Clément, Simone van der Giessen, Tim Lowe, Jonathan Aasgaard, Billy Cole and Katya Apekisheva, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Frank Bridge: Three Idylls H.67; Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet in C Minor; Elgar: Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84.

Event 5: September 17, 3pm, Festival Artists John Mills, Jonathan Stone, Hélene Clément, Simone van der Giessen, Tim Lowe and Jonathan Aasgaard, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York.

Boccherini: String Sextet No.1 in E flat Major, Op. 23 G454; Dvořák: String Sextet in A Major, Op. 48.

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Prima Vocal Ensemble finds intimate setting for Songs From The Heart concert at National Centre for Early Music

Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director, producer and conductor Ewa Salecka

PRIMA Vocal Ensemble will perform an intimate evening of choral diversity, Songs From The Heart, at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on September 30.

Artistic director and producer Ewa Salecka will lead the York choir in a 7.30pm programme of contemporary classical and popular choral music with Greg Birch at the piano.

“Leaving no stone unturned in terms of performance venues, we have brought musical excellence to theatres, churches, cathedrals and arts venues in this country, across Europe and the United States of America as we celebrate our 14th successful year,” says Ewa.

“In recent years, we have expanded our immediate locale to include venues in Tadcaster and Selby, so we are overjoyed to stage our second major event of the year ‘at home’ in York. Accustomed as we are to gracing the big stages, there is a special significance to this aptly titled event. Songs From The Heart will be exactly that.

“Based in the medieval, Grade I listed, converted church of St Margaret’s, in Walmgate, the NCEM is an international exemplar of the very best creative and artistic output. This is the ideal opportunity to experience the choir ‘up close and personal’ with a carefully designed programme.”

Ewa’s music selection itself keeps her choral output “beyond definition”, she says, having championed contemporary composers while discovering arrangements that breathe new life into popular, jazz and soul classics.

“As such, Prima remains a choir that cannot be classified. A cappella pieces can sit comfortably alongside sweeping choral and orchestral performances; accompaniment may stretch from piano to full gospel band, and full-size string orchestras have been a common feature of our concerts over the years,” says Ewa.

“I like to keep my ears finely tuned to the modern choral world. There is so much creativity aimed at choirs today, and I like to be just ahead of the next popular wave, regardless of genre. It delights me when I hear contemporary compositions Prima have performed for years suddenly gaining regular attention on the mainstream media. It’s reassuring to have your instincts proved correct!”

Prima Vocal Ensemble’s poster for Songs From The Heart at the NCEM

For Songs From The Heart, Ewa has chosen heartfelt music to showcase this richness. Contemporary composers Randall Thompson, René Clausen and Stephen Paulus are paired with celebrated female composers such as Elizabeth Alexander.

“Captivating and often unexpected pieces from recent decades are perfectly balanced by a second half performance that takes familiar artists to the next level with moving and energetic arrangements of songs from George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury to current musical songs from the stage and big screen,” says Ewa.

Ahead of their 2024 New York City reunion, no Prima event would be complete without the uplifting music of Christopher Tin, the double Grammy-winning composer of Baba Yetu and Sogno di Volare.

“With two amazing concerts still to come this year, the number one emotion I feel for Prima is overwhelmingly clear,” says Ewa. “Pride! I’m so proud of how this choir keeps giving, its dedication to the music and desire forthe very best performance. This is what drives us all and what appeals to new members.

“We always welcome new voices, and with so much in the pipeline for the next 12 months, it’s the ideal time to join. Yes, we perform high-standard arrangements, but there are no auditions to join, so if you like a rewarding challenge, love meaningful music, want to sing in harmony, improve your voice, your mental and physical health and make new friends, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you, and new enquiries from tenors and basses will always be prioritised.”

Tickets can be booked directly from www.primavocalensemble.com/event-details/songs-from-the-heart-prima-vocal-ensemble. “With limited seating in the NCEM, early booking is recommended,” says Ewa.

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York Shakespeare Project to perform Shakespeare’s Songs in buildings ancient and modern from September 22 to 24

Shakespeare’s Songs producer and composer Nick Jones with, front pew, Meg Ollerhead and Lowen Frampton, and, second pew, Emma Scott, left, and Tracey Rea. Picture: John Saunders

ST Mary Bishophill Junior, probably the oldest working church in York, will swap hymns for Shakespeare’s Songs on September 22 and 23.

Taking over the ancient building – dating in parts to before the Norman conquest – York Shakespeare Project (YSP) will perform acoustic songs and instrumental music written specially for productions of As You Like It (2008), Troilus And Cressida (2011), Twelfth Night (2014) and The Tempest (2022), complemented by new songs from The Winter’s Tale and Love’s Labours Lost.

St Mary’s churchwarden, Graeme Thomas, says: “We’re always delighted to welcome visitors to our historic church. We’ve had theatre here before, and it will be an atmospheric setting for Shakespeare’s Songs.”

The venerable church has a Roman arch and Anglo-Saxon stonework and would have been centuries old already in Shakespeare’s own time. In contrast, the music by Nick Jones, Fergus McGlynn and York International Shakespeare Festival director Philip Parr is more contemporary, with Jones’s cast singing and playing instruments from guitars, ukelele and mandolin to cello, oboe, recorders and cajon.

Among those performers will be Maurice Crichton, who played Sir William Maleverer in York Theatre Royal’s community play, Sovereign, and fisherman Hector in YSP’s Sonnets At The Bar this summer; Emma Scott, the lead actress from YSP’s Macbeth and Rape Of Lucrece, and musical theatre regular Tracey Rea. Cast members from YSP’s Twelfth Night and The Tempest will feature too, alongside familiar faces from York Mystery Plays productions.

Introducing his new compositions for the show, producer Nick Jones says: “From The Winter’s Tale we have two new settings of songs for Maurice Crichton’s Autolycus, the pedlar with a taste for cheating and petty theft, in which he sings about his roving life: When Daffodils Begin To Peer and Jog On.

“From Love’s Labours Lost, Emma Scott and Sally Maybridge will sing the final song, When Daisies Pied. The play ends with an anticipated marriage halted by a death. The suitors are told to wait a year and prove their seriousness. The year passes in the course of the song, as winter follows spring. I think it’s Shakespeare’s most lovely song.”

Nick, who has devised Shakespeare’s Songs, says: “The York Shakespeare Project was set up in 2001 with the aim of performing all the Bard’s plays in York and completed that initial mission last year with Philip Parr’s production of The Tempest that toured North Yorkshire before a final performance at York Theatre Royal.

Producer Nick Jones: At the helm of a light-hearted revue of Shakespeare’s Songs. Picture: John Saunders

“Original music by local composers has often been a highlight of YSP’s productions and we thought it deserved to be heard again, in a light-hearted revue.

“Staging a musical celebration of our 22-year history, we’re marking that achievement with Shakespeare’s Songs, revisiting the original music from several of those plays and introducing some new songs with a cast of YSP regulars. It should be fun – and we’re exploring a couple of new venues to us, separated by about 1,000 years of architectural history.”

After the St Mary’s performances (7.30pm, September 22; 3pm and 7.30pm, September 23), Shakespeare’s Songs will switch to the thoroughly modern Super Sustainable Centre, Derwenthorpe, Osbaldwick, on September 24 at 7.30pm.

YSP heads into the autumn on the back of Sonnets At The Bar taking over the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre’s secret garden from August 11 to 19. “We were blessed with dry weather and delighted with the response, drawing a record 600+ audience,” says chair Tony Froud.

The next production will be the first of YSP’s expanded mission to embrace works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries in the project’s second cycle, namely Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 17 to 21 at 7.30pm nightly plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

Edward II is king at last. Determined to shower his loved ones with gifts, he summons his exiled lover, Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall. King, court and country are intoxicated by their passions, whereupon the Queen takes her own lover and the nation is torn apart in a merciless divorce.

Their child watches from the shadows, desperate to mend his broken family and nation, or bring them to heel, in Marlowe’s poetic play about power and love: who has it, who seeks it and who suffers for it.

Box office: Shakespeare’s Songs, yorkshakespeareproject.org/shakespeares-songs or, if available, on the door; Edward II, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Maurice Crichton in his role as fisherman Hector in York Shakespeare Project’s Sonnets At The Bar in the Bar Convent ‘s secret garden last month. Picture: John Saunders

Shakespeare’s Songs: the cast in full

Maurice Crichton, York stage regular, fresh from a summer playing Sir William Maleverer in York Theatre Royal’s Sovereign and Hector the fisherman in YSP’s Sonnets At The Bar.

Emma Scott, from YSP’s Macbeth and The Rape Of Lucrece.

Tracey Rea, musical theatre stalwart ( such as York Stage’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, April 2023).

Meg Ollerhead, from YSP’s The Tempest and York Mystery Plays.

Lowen Frampton, from York company Baron Productions and YSP’s The Tempest .

Michael Maybridge, from YSP’s The Tempest and York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity For York and The Baptism Play from the Mysteries.

Sally Maybridge, from YSP’s The Tempest and York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity For York and The Baptism Play from the Mysteries.

Tim Olive-Besly, from YSP’s The Tempest.

Nick Jones. “Apparently I’ve been in more YSP plays than anyone else, most recently The Tempest,” he says.

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