Mike Skinner: Debut film and The Streets’ new album in tandem
THE Streets’ Mike Skinner will present his visionary debut feature film, The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light, in an exclusive Q&A tour to Everyman cinemas this autumn.
The “neo-noir” clubland thriller will be shown at Everyman Leeds on September 21 (Screen 2, capacity 230, 8pm) and Everyman York on September 25 (Screen 1, capacity 200, 7pm).
Birmingham multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Skinner, 44, funded, wrote, directed, filmed, edited and scored his cinematic account of the seemingly mundane life of a DJ whose journey through London’s nightclubs turns into a tripped-out modern-day murder mystery. He designed the special effects too.
Each screening at 13 Everyman cinemas nationwide will be followed by a live question-and-answer session with Skinner, who will provide an insight into the music and story behind the film.
Noted for turning the mundane into the extraordinary in examining life’s nuances, Skinner’s musical project, The Streets, will release an accompanying 15-track album – his first under that moniker since 2011’s Computers And Blues – that bears the same name as the film and is intrinsic to its development by providing the soundtrack to the story. While neither the album nor the film could exist without each other, both can be enjoyed separately, advises Skinner.
“Ultimately, it’s all the fruits of a decade on the DJ circuit,” says The Streets’ Mike Skinner of his film and album project. Picture: Ben Cannon
“It has been seven long years working on this film and album,” he says. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and after dipping my toe in with some shorts and music videos, I felt I was ready.
“I tried to go the traditional route for a bit, but it’s always served me better to follow my instincts and just get on with it myself, so I’ve directed it, acted in it, edited, sound mixed, funded, produced it all, as well as written it. The album doesn’t exist without it.
“Ultimately, it’s all the fruits of a decade on the DJ circuit, watching people in clubs and back rooms, testing out beats and basslines to see what connected – and putting it all together into The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light.”
Tickets for the film tour are available via The Streets’ website, thestreets.co.uk, where The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light can be pre-ordered ahead of its October 20 release on 679 Records/Warner Music UK.
The track listing will be: Too Much Yayo; Money Isn’t Everything; Walk Of Shame; Something To Hide; Shake Hands With Shadows; Not A Good Idea; Bright Sunny Day; The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light; Funny Dream; Gonna Hurt When This Is Over; Kick The Can; Each Day Gives; Someone Else’s Tune; Troubled Waters and Good Old Daze.
The Streets’ 11-date autumn tour will take in two Yorkshire gigs: Shefield O2 Academy on October 28 and Leeds O2 Academy on November 4. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/the-streets-ticket/.
The poster for Mike Skinner’s Q&A tour to accompany Everyman’s exclusive screenings of his debut film The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light
Nina Nastasia: “Going eye to eye with some very difficult issues”. All pictures: Paul Rhodes
NINA NASTASIA is enjoying an overdue creative rebirth. Falling off the music map in 2010, in 2020 she left her controlling partner, who then committed suicide. Her grief drove the creation of 2022’s Riderless Horse, a striking album that goes eye to eye with some very difficult issues. It will likely prove a very hard act to follow.
Yet, in person, the music never felt depressing. Nastasia was jetlagged from her flight and delayed by the annual end-of-school-holiday air traffic system meltdown that nearly did its worst.
As she walked onto the stage alone, she asked for a whisky. Despite the claggy head, she has an unerring ability to connect. “Keep yourself wide awake”, she sang rhetorically. Between songs she talked self-deprecatingly about catastrophising and brain fogs. Such is her way that mistakes add to the set.
Nastasia’s songs don’t seem to be anatomically correct: there are sometimes parts missing, or in unexpected places, they go round and about and often repeat themselves. Musically they are often simple. It adds to their uniqueness.
Before Nina: Support act Before Breakfast, alias Gina Walters, playing solo to The Crescent’s seated audience on Tuesday night
By contrast, opening act Before Breakfast’s material reveals a more traditional musical education, albeit not from the Brill Building. Also performing alone, Gina Walters met her (absent) musical foil in the music department of Sheffield University, and her songs are literate and full of interesting moments, beautifully sung and confidently performed (somehow making the act of setting glasses back on her nose seem part of the choreography).
Without going into their back story, Nastasia played many of Riderless Horse’s songs that tell you enough. There were a number of highlights from that record. Is This Love? had the startling line “Drawing blood until we both see black”, while In The Graveyard tells you how that story ended.
Hard Long Life tunefully stuck two fingers up to tribulation. A tune about a fire and violence in the grasslands was on a par with Nick Cave – a dark ballad that left you breathless. If only the best song of the night has a name!
Leaving to well-deserved cheers, let’s hope it’s not long before we hear Nastasia’s unique voice in York again.
Review by Paul Rhodes
Nina Nastasia: “Tunefully sticking two fingers up to tribulation”
Anna Thomas, sommelier and storyteller. Picture: Matt Turner
CHEERS! After a sold-out run at the Adelaide Fringe and a summer season at the Edinburgh Fringe, Australian storyteller and sommelier Anna Thomas heads to Stillington Mill, near York, tonight for a Theatre At The Mill night on the vino.
Thomas’s show, How To Drink Like A Wa**er, is an occasionally emotional, mostly ridiculous, always delightful story of a fabulous tasting flight of South Australian wines and 12 months of sobering self-discovery.
Thomas’s 8pm comedy monologue follows one woman’s accidental journey from corporate highflyer and shallow wine novice to full-blown wa**ker where, with a little rudimentary knowledge to accompany her game face, voila, she became so much more (co-owning the Treasury 1860 wine bar in Adelaide by the way).
Part performance, part storytelling, part wine-tasting, this Fringe hit comes with a full-bodied narrative and a moreish finish at 9.30pm. Tickets update: sold out.
Velma Celli: Celebrating British pop icons past and present in God Save The Queens at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography
YORK vocal drag diva Velma Celli is to return to York Theatre Royal for one night only, introducing her latest cabaret concoction of music, risqué comedy and generally fabulous entertainment on September 15.
God Save The Queens will be a celebration of British music icons, from “the obvious ones”, Adele and Amy Winehouse, to Florence Welch, Leona Lewis and the Spice Girls. Dua Lipa too.
“Since I first announced the show, I’ve added more favourites: Cilla Black, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Tyler, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, so I now have some older pop royalty to go with my modern regulars,” says Velma, the flamboyant creation of West End musical actor and cruise ship star turn Ian Stroughair. “I’ll be doing a tribute to Sinead O’Connor too. Poor Sinead. Bless her.”
God Save The Queens: that’s a great show title, Ian. “Thank you so much! I came up with it on the latest sea cruise, going around the Caribbean and South America in March, because you have to keep finding new ones, but it’s still just a gig with a theme!” he says.
Velma Celli will be completing a hattrick of Theatre Royal shows after Me And My Divas last September and A Brief History Of Drag in May 2021.
Ian Stroughair: The face behind Velma Celli’s powder, paint and pop bangers
“This time I’ll have a band led by musical director Scott Phillips on keyboards, with bass, drums and two guitars, and my special guests will be York singer Jessica Steel and guitarist extraordinaire Stuart Allan, doing an acoustic set together. It will be lovely to be back at the Theatre Royal, which I love playing,” says Ian.
After 14 years of shows taking her to Australia, New York, the Edinburgh Fringe and London’s Hippodrome, Velma’s diary looks busy, busy, busy for the months ahead.
“I’ll be back at Yorktoberfest [York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival] at York Racecourse on two weekends in October; I’ll be performing on a cruise ship to Singapore, Bangkok and Thailand in November and touring Australia for four to five weeks, starting in January, playing the Karnidale Circus Festival, in Karridale, near Margaret River, in Western Australia, about three hours from Perth,” says Ian.
“Then the Perth Fringe World festival for ten dates, maybe Melbourne and finally Sydney for a couple of dates. There’s loads of ex-pats over there who love drag!”
Every other month too, Velma has been performing at Crazy Coqs, an intimate Art Deco cabaret and jazz space at Brasserie Zedel, Piccadilly, London, staging Me And My Divas and Velma Celli Goes Gaga, her tribute to Lady Gaga and her influences, such as David Bowie, Prince and Whitney Houston. “Next up will be a little preview of God Save The Queens on September 7,” says Ian.
Drag diva Velma Celli serves up song, comedy and sartorial fabulousness in regal style on September 15. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography
In York, meanwhile Velma Celli’s Drag Brunch shows are ongoing upstairs at Impossible York, St Helen’s Square, with upcoming dates on the first Saturday in September, October and November at 1pm and 4pm.
“I’ll be hosting Velma’s Christmas Roast there too on December 2, 3, 16 and 17 with sittings at 1pm and 4pm,” says Ian. “It’s ‘Christmas Roast’ with a double meaning of roast, allowing me to be ‘mean’ with what I say!”
Another December show will feature Velma Celli too: Castellana, the Cardiff Castle Christmas Festival, promising “sensuous, smooth and seductive” fun in a spiegeltent in Sophia Gardens from December 6 to 24.
“I’ll be the master of ceremonies for half the shows, and I’m casting and directing it as well, with contortionists, aerialists, jugglers and hula-hoopists – if there’s such a word – on the bill,” says Ian.
Castellana and South Wales can wait. For now, the focus is on York’s drag diva deluxe and her parade of pop royalty at the Theatre Royal.
Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, York Theatre Royal, September 15, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 14 plus.
Living Backwards, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, St Michael’s Church, Coxwold, August 16
IF you are scratching your head over the title above, you deserve an explanation. It comes from Lewis Carroll, whose looking-glass themes are being explored in this year’s festival, which remains North Yorkshire’s best-kept musical secret. This was the fourth of the 14 programmes that could be heard daily until August 26.
Such titles are needed since no named group is performing. We know the musical menu in advance but must wait until the start of each event to discover which of the 27 resident players are involved.
This title? You may well not have encountered Ravel rubbing shoulders with Telemann, not to mention Dvořák with Biber. Throw in an intro by Saariaho, and put everything in reverse chronological order, and you have the outline of this wonderfully eclectic afternoon programme.
Benjamin Baker, who with fellow-violinist Charlotte Scott bore the brunt of the playing, opened with a tender account of Kaija Saariaho’s solo Nocturne, which she wrote in 1994, the same year as her violin concerto. Although intended as an in memoriam for Lutoslawski, it also commemorated the composer’s own death two months ago.
As Baker walked slowly away another memorial piece began, Ravel’s violin and cello sonata to honour Debussy. All but one of its four movements reflects Debussy’s joie de vivre, as did Alena Baeva and Jamie Walton’s playing.
Their warm, weaving dialogue in the opening and skittish scherzo, rapidly alternating bowing with pizzicato, were picked up again in the zestful finale, which bubbled with bonhomie. The slow movement, however, was properly elegiac: deliberate, bleak, and hushed at the close.
Dvorak’s Terzetto in C, for two violins and viola, brought back Baker and Scott, joined by Sascha Bota on the lowest part. They revelled in its unexpected demands. The scherzo’s emphatic return after a gentler trio was but a prelude to a theme and variations that were delivered with ever-increasing panache. Here were three superb virtuosos sharing their unbridled delight in unfamiliar repertoire – almost a trademark of this festival.
Gulliver’s Travels was Telemann’s response to Swift’s widely popular satire, a five-part suite for two violins. Once again it involved Baker and Scott: their palpable rapport was essential to the success of its quick-fire conversation, especially in the teasing ‘Brobdingnagian gigue’ and the busy dance of the ‘untamed Yahoos’.
Scott remained on stage to deliver a stylish, spellbinding account of the 16th and last of Biber’s Rosary sonatas, a chaconne that is the ultimate test of the Baroque violinist. A visit to Wonderland? Definitely.
Elio Pace at the piano performing The Billy Joel Songbook
ELIO Pace and his band will present “the greatest love letter ever to the genius that is Billy Joel” at York Barbican on March 27 2024.
Further Yorkshire performances of The Billy Joel Songbook tribute show are booked into Sheffield City Hall for March 26 and Hull City Hall for April 4 on the 18-date British and Irish tour.
Tour tickets will go on sale at 10am on Friday at eliopace.com/tours; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk or 0114 256 5593; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk or 01482 300306.
Devised by piano-playing Southampton singer-songwriter, producer and arranger Pace and Matt Daniel-Baker, this homage rounds up more than 30 of Joel’s songs, including The Longest Time, She’s Always A Woman, An Innocent Man, Uptown Girl, Tell Her About It, The River Of Dreams, We Didn’t Start The Fire and Piano Man.
After two sold-out tours, Pace enthuses about next year’s return: “We all get such a buzz touring this show so we absolutely cannot wait to get back out on the road. We have an amazing tour in place, returning to theatres while also visiting some for the first time, and to be starting in my hometown and then ending in London’s West End is going to be pretty incredible.
“The music of Billy Joel is timeless. He is a genius composer and, in my humble opinion, the greatest singer/songwriter of all time. I really do feel humbled that so many people want to see us perform his music.
“We can’t wait to celebrate this incredible music once again and we’ll now look forward to travelling across the country next spring.”
In 2010 Pace was the musical director for BBC Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan, playing as the featured artist on all 35 shows broadcast that year.
He has performed with Brian May, Huey Lewis, Glen Campbell, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Lulu, Mike Rutherford, Don McLean, Tom Chaplin, Debbie Reynolds and Martha Reeves.
His performing skills have taken him to Elstree Studios, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Radio 2’s Elvis Forever, Proms In The Park, The Bitter End in New York and BBC Radio Theatre in London.
In 2013 and 2014 he was invited to “‘fill Billy Joel’s shoes” by appearing in five reunion concerts in the United States with Joel’s original 1971-72 touring band, whereupon Pace embarked on the debut tour of The Billy Joel Songbook.
In 2018 he released the double CD and DVD The Billy Joel Songbook Live; in June 2019 his concert film of The Billy Joel Songbook Live won an award at the 17th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Overall Long Form Music Video in New York City.
In 2019 he released his second live double CD album and DVD within a year, Elio Pace Presents Elvis Presley: The World Premiere, 16 August 2017.
Did you know?
ELIO Pace featured in Sky Sports’ coverage of the 2015 Ashes cricket series between England and Australia with two specially re-written versions of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.
Did you know too?
ELIO Pace has appeared on the BBC children’s show ZingZillas as “the greatest boogie woogie player in the land”, turning him into a household name…“well, at least to every CBeebies-loving under five-year-old and their parents”.
Stephanie Hutchinson: Leeds actress will play Naomi in A Play For The Living In A Time Of Extinction at York Theatre Royal
CYCLISTS are needed to power radical new theatre show A Play For The Living In A Time Of Extinction at York Theatre Royal next month.
Miranda Rose Hall’s darkly humorous, life-affirming play uses energy generated by on-stage cyclists, who will ride specially adapted bicycles to power all the electricity required for lighting and sound.
Consequently, the Theatre Royal is seeking volunteers to saddle up to be part of this innovative production, co-produced with Headlong and the Barbican, London. Eight cyclists are needed for each 80-minute performance, outnumbering the solo performer by eight to one.
Anyone keen to be involved can find out more at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/pedalpower. The deadline for signing up is Monday, September 11.
Running in York from September 27 to 30, Miranda Rose Hall’s play heads out on a life-changing journey to confront the urgent ecological disaster unfolding around us. Part ritual, part battle cry, this “fiercely feminist off-grid” one-woman show offers a moving evaluation of what it means to be human in an era of man-made extinction.
Sharing learning from Europe and Katie Mitchell too, Headlong’s innovative touring model explores the idea of a play touring, but the people involved not doing so, in the first project of its kind in the UK.
The Barbican hosted the beginning of this journey and now each city on the tour will follow a blueprint for the show, brought to life by a different team of theatre makers at each venue as part of a ground-breaking international experiment in reimagining theatre in a climate crisis.
The York leg’s director, Mingyu Lin, resident artist at York Theatre Royal, says: “York is the final stop for this ground-breaking concept of sustainable touring and I’m so excited to be directing our own version of this ambitiously eco-conscious and witty show, which will be made (and powered!) by York talent.”
The role of Naomi will be played in York by Stephanie Hutchinson, from Leeds, who studied performing arts at Salford University. She previously appeared on the Theatre Royal stage in Green Hammerton company Badapple Theatre’s haunted dance hall comedy, Elephant Rock, in May 2022.
Her further theatre credits include Shake The City (Jermyn Street Theatre), Wind In The Willows Library Theatre, Manchester), Mugabeland (Come As You Arts North West) and The Haunted Man (Kindred Theatre) and she has had television roles in Emmerdale, Without Sin and Coronation Street too.
A Play For The Living In A Time Of Extinction, York Theatre Royal, September 27 to 30, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Haunted happenings: Stephanie Hutchinson in Badapple Theatre Company’s Elephant Rock at York Theatre Royalin May last year
In Focus: A Play For The Living In A Time of Extinction director Mingyu Lin
DIRECTOR Mingyu Lin could be excused for feeling a little lonely as she prepares to bring an innovative show to the stage of York Theatre Royal. She has moved from rehearsing a community company of 100 for Sovereign to A Play For The Living In A Time Of Extinction with a cast of only one.
While cast numbers may be small, the idea and thoughts behind the project are big, not least the idea of generating power for the production using bicycles on a zero-travel tour. Or as the pre-show publicity puts it: “a bold experiment in eco theatre-making” that sees the play tour across the country while the people and materials do not.
York is the final stop, where Theatre Royal resident artist Ming, a regular director of Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, has been involved with the project from the start. She was working as a creative associate at Headlong when “the play passed my desk”, and she recalls that she and the rest of the team loved it.
A Zoom meeting was set up with the writer Miranda Rose Hall, who lives in America, and Katie Mitchell, director of a version of the play in Switzerland, to discuss how a play about sustainability could itself be sustainable. Pedal power, involving a team of cyclists generating electricity during the performance , was a big part of the answer.
“I’m passionate about touring theatre and Headlong tours outside London, so we knew we had to tour the play,” says Ming. “And if you have a play that looks at climate change, I’m against a play made in London going around the north telling us how to live our lives.
“What the tour does is use local talent and it doesn’t have all the things that are damaging where you spend lots of energy and resources when you move people from place to place, which you don’t actually need to do because where you’re moving to has got those things already.
“What’s been done is find a way to be both sustainable and tour. The concept of the play never changes but the talent working on it changes at each venue. Cyclists are recruited at each venue to power the show. The only thing that’s moved physically is the technology that transforms kinetic energy into electricity – and that all comes in one big box.”
When Headlong was planning the tour, Ming knew she was joining York Theatre Royal as a resident artist, so she snapped up the chance to direct the production. “I knew I really wanted the people of York to see it,” she says.
“I knew York would love it in a theatre that’s absolutely unique and gorgeous. The play and the concept fits really well within the theatre and York itself is a cycling city.”
Ming needed to find an actor within commutable distance of York to play Naomi, the character in the one-woman play. That turned out to be Leeds-based Stephanie Hutchinson.
“With one-person shows it’s difficult to maintain the energy and the engagement. You are really banking on performance charisma. We had to look for a very strong performer and there are a lot of them in the area,” says Ming. “I hope that even if we don’t work with them now, we will work with them very shortly because those we saw were of a high calibre.”
Theatre was “always the dream” for Ming. “Growing up in Singapore, I was interested in stories and storytelling. I loved reading and in the world of literature everything is new writing,” she says. “I worked as a stage manager there during the holidays. When I started doing A-level drama, I realised theatre is a great way of telling stories.”
MIngyu LIn, front right, with fellow Sovereign directors Juliet Forster and John R Wilkinson, front left, writer Mike Kenny and central character Henry VIII at King’s Manor, York
She studied English Literature at the University of York, then trained as a director at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She now directs for stage and screen, as well as being a founder member of the BESEA (British East and Southeast Asian) advocacy group BEATS (Better Ethnic Access To Services).
Ming also is a [play] reader for Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre and the Brentwood Prize. “As a stage director, what I’m really passionate about is advocacy. I want to affect society change with the work we do,” she says.
“I’m part of an advocacy group that campaigns for more South East Asian representation on stage, backstage, on screen and behind the camera. The genres I’m interested in primarily are new writing and adaptation,” says Ming.
“One reason I was drawn to A Play For The Living was because it deals with an urgent issue, something important, and features a wonderful way to get communities involved with the cycling. There’s also a volunteer choir involved.”
York Theatre Royal’s summertime large-scale production of Sovereign, staged outdoors at King’s Manor with a 100-strong community company led by two professional actors, was “great” for Ming because “I’m very, very, very up for working with the community. That’s very important. You can make change doing that,” she says.
Directing Sovereign – with co-directors Juliette Forster and John R Wilkinson – was definitely a challenge but, putting it in perspective, Ming refers to the scale of directing for television with a crew of 50 and cast of 20.
Not the most stressful artistically perhaps, but certainly in terms of the logistics and keeping on schedule. “There was a lot of joy in the uniqueness of a community production like Sovereign. It was a challenge because most of the performers had never been in that situation before,” she says.
“With rehearsals, they were learning new things and you were going on a journey with them, and that’s quite fun. There was a huge treasure trove of learning for me, especially working with Juliet [Forster, the Theatre Royal’s creative director], who has done so many large-scale community productions. That was really helpful, working with other directors.
“One thing I loved about coming here was that I knew there were other directors in the artistic planning team and you get to work together.”
She is now part of that community, as she and her husband, who comes from York, have moved to the city.
Ming directing Hollyoaks coincided with the arrival of the first South East Asian family in a television soap: a continuing TV drama that reaches a younger audience than most theatre shows. “So you’re not preaching to the same audience as in the theatre. You’re widening your reach. The show also covers a lot of important storylines, which is what drew me to it,” she says.
Night glow: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta to light up Castle Howard grounds
EVERYTHING is up in the air for Charles Hutchinson in his search for cultural entertainment and enlightenment as balloons take to the Yorkshire skies. Tea is on the menu too.
Festival of the week: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta, Castle Howard, near York, today until Bank Holiday Monday
THE Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta has left the green expanse of York’s Knavesmire for the country air of Castle Howard, its new (stately) home. The family-friendly extended weekend features mass balloon launches, tethered balloons and night-glow displays that light up the evenings against the backdrop of Castle Howard’s grounds and architecture.
Look out for headline 9pm live sets from Sister Sledge tonight, Eurovision star Sam Ryder tomorrow and Joel Corry on Monday. For family entertainment, here come The Raver Tots Big Top each afternoon, Andy And The Odd Socks (tomorrow, 2.30pm); CBeebies’ Justin Fletcher (Monday, 1.30pm); Dick & Dom DJ Battle (Monday, 3pm) and street-dancers Diversity (Monday, 4.30pm).
Activities include a fun fair, TV character meet-and-greets and the world’s largest inflatable assault course, culminating in a spectacular finale on Monday evening. Box office: yorkshireballoonfiesta.co.uk.
Teddy at teatime: Joseph Rowntree Theatre fundraiser takes over a country garden tomorrow afternoon
Tea time part one: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party, Trinity House, Stockton on the Forest, near York, tomorrow, 3pm
FIRST held in 2021, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party returns this weekend, taking over the private garden of Trinity House. A choice of teas with home-made plain or cheese scones will be on the menu, complemented by a raffle and cake stall.
Special guests The Notebook, an acoustic duo, will be performing two sets spanning soul, ambient jazz and “live lounge-type” pop. Proceeds will go to the JoRo’s fundraising appeal. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance of Story Craft Theatre: Summer fun in the Stillington Mill garden
Children’s activity of the week: Story Craft Theatre’s Summer Fun Garden Party, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Monday, 10am to 12 noon
STORY Craft Theatre and At The Mill join forces on Bank Holiday Monday for a magical event celebrating the joys of being in the garden.
Suitable for two to eight-year-olds, York duo Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance’s morning party fun includes craft making, a scavenger hunt, a word search, lawn games and an enchanting interactive theatre show. Box office: athemill.org.
Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ Jack Barak, left, and Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake in a legal pickle in Sovereign, York Theatre Royal’s community play at King’s Manor
Film screening of the week: Sovereign, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 7pm, and Thursday, 2pm and 7pm
CAMERAS recorded the July 23 evening performance of York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set political thriller, Sovereign, at King’s Manor, Exhibition Square. This film can be viewed at three free screenings in the Theatre Royal’s main house with a booking limit of four tickets per person.
In 1541, lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Fergus Rattigan) and his assistant Jack Barak (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) are sent to York to await the arrival of Henry VIII on his mission to sort out northern rebels. Cue intrigue, mystery, murder and North v South shenanigans. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Sleeper: Reviving Britpop hits at The Crescenton Wednesday
Britpop memories of the week: Sleeper, The Crescent, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm
THE Crescent has teamed up with the National Lottery and Music Venue Trust for a United By Music summer show with Britpop legends Sleeper.
Louise Wener’s reawakened band are back on the road, where fellow founder members Jon Stewart (guitar) and Andy Maclure (drums) are joined by bassist Kieron Pepper, previously of The Prodigy, to reactivate Inbetweener, What Do I Do Now?, Sale Of The Century, Nice Guy Eddie, Statuesque et al. Honey Moon support. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, check the crescentyork.com.
The Rocket Man: Jimmy Love at the piano for his band’s tribute show to Sir Elton John
Tribute show of the week: The Rocket Man, A Tribute To Sir Elton John, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm
MISSING Sir Elton after that Glastonbury finale? Step forward Jimmy Love and his band, ready to head down the Yellow Brick Road for two hours of Elton John hits, from Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and Crocodile Rock to Philadelphia Freedom and I’m Still Standing, plus many, many more.
Love’s tribute show takes a journey through Elton’s life and career, the highs and the lows, with many a laugh too. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
How do you do: Millie Robins’ Sophie meets Benjamin Stone’sTiger in The Tiger Who Came To Tea, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Tea time part two: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, York Theatre Royal, September 1, 2pm and 4.30pm, and September 2, 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm
COMMEMORATING the centenary of author Judith Kerr’s birth, The Tiger Who Came To Tea is back on the road in a 55-minute musical production adapted and directed by David Wood.
This slice of teatime mayhem serves up singalong songs, oodles of magic and interactive fun suitable for children aged three upwards when the doorbell rings just as Sophie (Millie Robins) and her mum (Katie Tripp) sit down to tea. Who could it possibly be? Enter a big, furry, stripy, tea-guzzling Tiger (Benjamin Stone). Scott Penrose, former president of the Magic Circle, provides the magical illusion designs. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York jewellery designer Mo Burrows: Demonstrating the Japanese technique of kumihimo braiding at Fangfest next weekend
Art event of the week: Fangfest, Fangfoss, near Pocklington, September 2 and 3, 10am to 4pm each day
NEXT weekend’s Fangfest, the Fangfoss Festival of Practical Arts, features 30 artists and craft makers demonstrating and exhibiting their work, from woodworking, rocking horse-making, felting and painting to wire sculpture, medieval tile techniques, jewellery and peg loom-weaving.
A mixed-media pattern design workshop and drop-in craft activities, such as children’s card marking, pot-throwing on the wheel, pottery painting and a collaborative mixed-media mural, will be taking place too. A charity sunflower trail, classic car collection, pantomime-themed flower festival in St Martin’s Church, fairground rides, archery sessions and busking spots for ukuleles, a shanty crew, young celloists and a pop choir are further attractions. Entry is free.
Jo Whiley: Revelling in 1990s’ anthems at York Barbican next month
Nostalgia afoot:Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems, York Barbican, September 9, 7.30pm
BBC Radio 2 presenter, DJ and producer Jo Whiley, the voice of a Brit generation, is heading for York after rummaging through her record bag to dig out the very best of 1990s’ anthems.
Whiley was on the cutting-edge, leading the charge as Britpop blew up, dance music exploded and indie went wild. Now comes the chance to re-live those magical memories on a dancefloor, from Oasis to Blur, The Chemical Brothers to The Prodigy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The tiger who drank from the tea pot: Millie Robins’ Sophie and Katie Tripp’s Mummy observe the teatime manners of Benjamin Stone’s Tiger in The Tiger Who Came To Tea. All pictures: Robert Day
THE Tiger Who Came To Tea is tucking in at York Theatre Royal on September 1 and 2, with an extra show added to the second day to meet ticket demand.
Commemorating the centenary of the birth of author Judith Kerr, the Olivier Award-nominated stage show is on tour in a musical production adapted and directed by David Wood.
Hailed as Britain’s best-loved picture book, Kerr’s classic is entering its 55th year, having sold more than five million copies since its first publication in 1968 with its story of the doorbell ringing just as Sophie and her mum are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they do not expect to see at the door is a big furry, stripy tiger.
Wood’s 55-minute show premiered in 2008 and has since toured nationally and internationally, including Christmas seasons at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Arts Centre with sold-out dates in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Bahrain.
Teatime essentials: Benjamin Stone’s Milkman delivers more than the milk in The Tiger Who Came To Tea
Bringing the tea-guzzling tiger to life on stage, this musical slice of teatime mayhem serves up singalong songs, oodles of magic and interactive fun suitable for children aged three upwards.
In the cast will be Millie Robinsas Sophie, Katie Tripp as Mummy and the multi role-playing Benjamin Stone as Daddy, Milkman, Postman and Tiger, with Jack Huckin and Tia Bunce on understudy duty.
Wood is joined in the production team by designer Susie Caulcutt, assistant director/choreographer Emma Clayton, music arranger and supervisor Peter Pontzen, lighting designer Tony Simpson and sound designers Shock Productions. Scott Penrose, former president of the Magic Circle, provides the magical illusion designs.
Nicoll Entertainment presents The Tiger Who Came To Tea at York Theatre Royal, September 1, 2pm and 4.30pm, and September 2, 11am, 2pm and the late addition at 4.30pm. Ticket remain on sale for all performances with the best availability for the last show. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Everything stops for tea as Millie Robins’ Sophie entertains Benjamin Stone’s Tiger in The Tiger Who Came To Tea, on tour at York Theatre Royal next week
The power of puppetry in Les Enfants Terribles’ play with music The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: Rah Petherbridge
IMAGINE a house with chicken legs. Such an image will come to stage life in Les Enfants Terribles’ account of Sophie Anderson’s novel at York Theatre Royal from September 6 to 9.
First staged at HOME Manchester in 2022, Oliver Lansley’s adaptation is on its premiere tour, visiting Leeds Playhouse too from September 13 to 16.
Directed by Lansley and James Seager, with music and sound design by Alexander Wolfe and songs co-written by Wolfe and Lansley, The House With Chicken Legs transports audiences to a world inspired by Baba Yaga with the aid of puppets, live music, masks and magic.
The story follows Marinka, a young girl who dreams of a normal life, where she can stay somewhere long enough to make friends, but she must surmount one problem: her house has chicken legs and is liable to move without warning.
The house with chicken legs in The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: Rah Petherbridge
Such propensity to movement mirrors Les Enfants Terribles. “We kind of go all over the place,” says director Oliver. “I’m based in London, but this production originated in Manchester last year with HOME as our partners, playing only in Manchester. This tour will be the first time everyone can see it, as we move around the country, which is very exciting.
“We brought The Trench to the Theatre Royal [for the TakeOver Festival in June 2013] and we’re delighted to be coming back to York.”
Since the Manchester run, Lansley and Seager have “tweaked bits here and there, trimmed bits here and there, and some of the cast have changed”. “But we still have our original Marinka and Baba, Eve de Leon Allen and Lisa Howard,” says Oliver.
Howard will need no introduction to York or Leeds audiences, whether from Park Bench Theatre’s Every Time A Bell Rings in the Rowntree Park Friends’ Garden or her Spirit Of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol at Leeds Playhouse.
Les Enfants Terribles director Oliver Lansley. Picture: Michael Carlo
“The book was written as a young adult novel, but the play is suitable for children aged nine upwards,” says Oliver. “It was inspired by the tale of Baba Yaga, who, in an old legend, did have a house with chicken legs. Her job is to guide the souls of the dead into the afterlife, so Sophie’s book is one of those stories that’s magical and is written for young readers but deals with adult themes, but in a really magical way.
“Marinka is the granddaughter of Baba Yaga and is destined to be the next of the guardians of the gate, but like most teenagers [or 12-year-old in her case], she’s rebelling and trying to find her own way in the world in that space.”
Marinka, played by an adult in Les Enfants Terribles’ production, is dreaming of leading a normal life. “But she doesn’t really know what that is, and there’s that thing of her being a fish out of water, pretending to be a normal child, but not knowing what the rules are or how she should behave,” says Oliver.
“But then she discovers that there’s no such thing as normal and that everyone has their own complications.”
Eve de Leon Allen’s Marinka and Lisa Howard’s Baba, right, in Les Enfants Terribles’ The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: Rah Petherbridge
Among those complications addressed by Anderson’s story is the impact on young people of moving home. “There is this idea at play of having to move around constantly, particularly for young people, whether changing school, moving house, moving from town to town, when they want security,” says Oliver.
“That security comes from family, and that’s what ‘home’ is, rather than a physical place that you call home.”
Be assured, audiences will see a house move on stage…on chicken legs. “That’s the sort of thing we love to do,” says Oliver. “And yes, we’ve managed to make it fun, after we looked at different ways of doing it and finally settled on one, because it has to be really magical.
“We try to make all these things part of the show as seamlessly as possible, looking at the best way to tell a story with the tools available, such as our video designs by Nina Dunn, who did the Jaws show, The Shark Is Broken, in the West End.”
Music and masks in Les Enfants Terribles’ The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: AB Photography
Crucially too, The House With Chicken Legs “deftly navigates the complexities of loss from a whole new perspective”. “The story explores how we look at death differently in different cultures: in our culture we don’t talk about it much, but other cultures celebrate it, like the Day of the Dead in Mexico,” says Oliver.
“But young people have had to confront death over the past few years with Covid in a way that they’ve not had to before that. Death doesn’t have to be a scary thing, but we do give it that ominous status in our country by not talking about it.”
Les Enfants Terribles in The House With Chicken Legs, York Theatre Royal, September 6 to 9, 7pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee; 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
