Comedy – Page 14 – charleshutchpress

March 11, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond from March 9 onwards. Hutch plays his cards for List No. 11 for 2024, from The Press

*2023 Strictly champ Ellie Leach’s Miss Scarlett, front right, with her fellow colourful characters in the new whodunit comedy Cluedo 2, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Alastair Muir*

A WHODUNIT comedy, mischievous theatre as a team game, a wicked return, cocktail-bar tales, political satire and one-liners and a very muddy pig are Charles Hutchinson’s clues to the best upcoming shows.

Whodunit, with what and where, of the week: Cluedo 2, York Theatre Royal, March 12 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

STRICTLY Come Dancing 2023 champion and Coronation Street star Ellie Leach is making her stage acting debut as Miss Scarlett in the world premiere British tour of Cluedo 2, marking the 75th anniversary of the Hasbro boardgame. Next stop, York.

This follow-up to the original play (based on Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film Clue) is an original comedy whodunit, set in the Swinging Sixties, with a script by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds Of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Dreamboats And Petticoats) and direction by Mark Bell (Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Ash Hunter’s Macbeth and Jessica Baglow’s Lady Macbeth in Amy Leach’s revival of Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Kirsten McTernan*

Something wicked this way comes…again: Macbeth, Leeds Playhouse, until March 23

AMY Leach reactivates her 2022 Leeds Playhouse production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with a wickedly good cast, now led by Ash Hunter, who returns to Yorkshire after his terrific Heathcliff in Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal.

“Macbeth investigates the nature of belief, love, ambition and desire, asking us to root for two humans who drive each other to do utterly terrible things,” says Leach. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.

*Let the games begin: Gemma Curry, left, Claire Morley and Becky Lennon in Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief at York Theatre Royal Studio*

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Hoglets Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief, York Theatre Royal Studio, March 9, 10.30am

EVERYTHING is kicking off as the fairies in the forest start a fight, but which side will you be on? Team Titania or Team Oberon? York company Hoglets Theatre presents an interactive, fun, larger-than-life production for young children, based on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Expect wild characters, raucous singalong songs, puppets, stunts and some frankly ridiculous disco dancing from director/writer Gemma Curry and fellow cast members Claire Morley and Becky Lennon. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Comedian Matt Green: “Trying to make sense of the world”. Picture: Karla Gowlett*

Political satire of the week: Matt Green: That Guy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 10, 8pm

THE debut national tour by That Guy (@mattgreencomedy) is a stand-up show full of jokes both political and non-political after he achieved millions of views for his online satirical videos launched in lockdown.

Green is touring his first show “since the madness of Covid/Johnson/Truss/Lord-knows-what-else began”, trying to make sense of the world in another year of elections and culture wars. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Jake Bugg: Playing our city on his Your Town Tour*

Singer-songwriter of the week: Jake Bugg, Your Town Tour 2024, York Barbican, Tuesday, doors 7pm

ON his 15-date tour, Nottingham singer-songwriter Jake Bugg is performing two sets per night, first acoustic, then electric, as he rattles through his biggest hits, plus songs from 2021’s top three-charting Saturday Night Sunday Morning.

Two nights earlier, founder member Graham Gouldman leads art pop and soft rock innovators 10cc on their Ultimate Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour 2024 at 7.30pm. Ticket availability is limited. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out: Songs, muddy puddles and snorts at the Grand Opera House*

Children’s show of the week: Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, 1pm and 4pm, and Thursday, 10am and 1pm

PEPPA Pig is joined by her family and friends as they head to the zoo and the beach for a special party, with the promise of a fun-packed day. Prepare to sing with colourful scarecrows, feed the penguins, build big sandcastles and even swim in the sea in a show packed with songs, dancing, muddy puddles, giggles and snorts. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Facing the shift from hell in the worst bar in town: Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter, Holly Smith and Laura Castle in Rowntree Players’ Shakers*

Comedy play of the week: Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 14 to 16, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

WELCOME to Shakers, the worst bar in town where everyone wants to be seen. Carol, Adele, Niki and Mel face the shift from hell. The lights are neon, the music is loud, and shoes must be smart. No trainers.

Jane Thornton and John Godber’s 1984 comedy exposes the sticky-floored world behind the bar on a busy Saturday night. Here come the girls, the lads, the yuppies and the luvvies, all played by Sophie Bullivant, Laura Castle, Abi Carter and Holly Smith under the direction of Jamie McKeller, who worked previously with Bullivant and Castle on Godber’s Teechers in 2023. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

*Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, scheming at Theatre@41 for two days*

Solo show of the week: Dyad Productions in Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 15, 7.30pm and March 16, 2.30pm

FROM the creators of I, Elizabeth, Female Gothic, Christmas Gothic and A Room Of One’s Own comes a new Austen’s Women show, based on Jane Austen’s first full-length work from 1794, performed by Rebecca Vaughan.

Created entirely from letters, this one features the devil-may-care Lady Susan, the coquettish, scheming black widow, hunting down not one, but two, fortunes. Then add oppressed, rebellious daughter Frederica; long-suffering sister-in-law Catherine; family matriarch Mrs De Courcy and insouciant best friend Alicia in this darkly comic tale of Georgian society and the women trapped within it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Shock in shirts: Comedian Milton Jones will be displaying his sartorial eloquence in his Ha!Milton tour show*

Gig announcement of the week: Milton Jones, Ha!Milton, Grand Opera House, York, September 7; Sheffield, City Hall, December 4; King’s Hall, Ilkley, December 8

MILTON Jones, the shock-haired master of the one-liner, will take his 2024 tour, Ha!Milton, on the road from September 3 to December 15. “This is not a musical,” says Jones, in a nod to the title.

“I am tone deaf and have no sense of rhythm, but at least I don’t make a song and dance about it. This is a whole new show of daftness. You know it makes sense.” Topics will include giraffes…“and there’s a bit about tomatoes”. Box office: miltonjones.com; York, atgtickets.com/york; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Ilkley, bradford-theatres.co.uk.

In Focus: Navigators Art & Performance, GUNA: Views and Voices of Women, City Screen Picturehouse, York

*Collaborative banner by Navigators Art workshop group, including first-time artist*s, *for York International Women’s Week 2024*

YORK collective Navigators Art & Performance presents GUNA: Views and Voices of Women, at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York, from March 10 to April 5.

Run in association with York International Women’s Week 2024, this exhibition explores and celebrates the creativity of women and non-binary artists.

On show in the cafe and the upstairs gallery is an array of paintings, textiles, collages, photographs and more by 20 emerging and established York makers, curated by York artist Katie Lewis.

*Navigators Art & Performance’s poster for GUNA: Views and Voices of Women*

“Women have used textiles as an art form to tell their stories and express views for centuries,” says Katie. “Many of the artists are using recycled fabrics that give further meaning to their work.”

The official launch night event on March 11 offers the chance to meet the artists over a complimentary drink from 6pm. All are welcome, with no need to book; more details at https://www.facebook.com/events/6804352783003925

The exhibition is free to enter every day during cinema hours. City Screen is fully accessible.

NAVIGATORS Art & Performance will co-host GUNA: An Evening of Music, Spoken Word, Performance Art and Comedy to complement the exhibition and further celebrate the creativity of women and non-binary artists in The Basement at City Screen on March 23 from 7pm to 10.45pm.

GUNA is a version of the ancient Greek word for ‘woman’, leading to a line-up of
poets Danae, Olivia Mulligan and Rose Drew; performance artist Carrieanne Vivianette; global songs and percussion from Soundsphere; original music from Suzy Bradley; comedy from Aimee Moon; and a rousing appearance by the multi-faceted singer, author and artist Heather Findlay.

“The venue is small and our shows often sell out, so book soon,” advises Navigators’ organiser, Richard Kitchen. Full details and TicketSource booking are available at https://bit.ly/nav-guna

March 6, 2024May 23, 2025

What’s real, what’s not and what’s gone wrong, asks storyteller Shôn Dale-Jones in Cracking at Theatre@41, Monkgate

*The poster for Shôn Dale-Jones’s Cracking, on tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York*

WHEN the world goes mad, do we inevitably go mad too, asks Welsh storyteller Shôn Dale-Jones in his new dark comedy, Cracking, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Friday at 7.30pm.

Billed as “a completely made-up true story about loving in the face of hatred”, the uplifting, heartwarming 75-minute comic show was developed originally for BBC Radio 4 and is presented by SDJ Productions.

When Shôn playfully cracks an egg on his mother’s head, he has no idea real-life internet trolls will appear on his doorstep. Cracking duly takes on the battle between love and hate, asking what’s funny and where we draw the line.

Part stand-up, part theatre, Cracking is a humorous, touching and thought-provoking solo performance that “sews together fact and fiction into one seamless whole, making us wonder what’s real, what’s not and what’s gone wrong”.

Tickets for Dale-Jones’s celebration of how searching for connection beats disconnecting are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

March 6, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in Ryedale, York and beyond. Food for thought in Hutch’s taste-filled List No. 5, from Gazette & Herald

*Ellie Leach: Strictly 2023 champ is making her stage acting debut in the British tour of the comedy whodunit Cluedo 2, on tour at York Theatre Royal next week*

REVOLUTIONARY teens, rabbit cartoon tributes, mischievous theatre as a team game, food stalls, a whodunit comedy and cocktail-bar waitress tales whet Charles Hutchinson’s appetite.

Whodunit, with what and where, of the week: Cluedo 2, York Theatre Royal, March 12 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

This follow-up to the original play (based on Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film Clue) is an original comedy whodunit, set in the Swinging Sixties, with a script by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds Of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Dreamboats And Petticoats) and direction by Mark Bell (from Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong and A Comedy About A Bank Robbery). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*1812 Youth Theatre’s poster for this week’s run of Jmes Fritz’s Start Swimming*

Young performers of the week: 1812 Youth Theatre in Start Swimming, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm

HELMSLEY’S 1812 Theatre Company presents Start Swimming, a play about occupation, revolution and what the future holds for today’s youth. One step away from disaster, there is only one option left: start swimming.

First staged by the Young Vic Taking Part department, James Fritz’s play was performed at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe too. Suitable for age 12+. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Terry Brett with his Good Rabbits Gone banner for display outside Pyramid Gallery at his book-signing charity event on Friday evening*

Book signing of the week: Terry Brett’s Good Rabbits Gone Volume Three, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, Friday, 5.30pm to 7pm

YORK gallery curator Terry Brett marks the publication of his third volume of cartoon rabbit tributes to celebrities and remarkable individuals at a charity event at Pyramid Gallery, York. Copies are given away but voluntary donations are encouraged in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, in memory of Terry’s father, who died of prostate cancer.

Terry, who draws the cartoons under the artist alias of Bertt deBaldock, will be on hand to sign copies outside the gallery, with the books displayed on a table. Inside, visitors can enjoy a glass of wine and buy the original drawings.

*Hoglets Theatre’s Gemma Curry, left, Claire Morley and Becky Lennon in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief at York Theatre Royal Studio*

Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief, York Theatre Royal Studio, Friday, 4.30pm and Saturday, 10.30am

EVERYTHING is kicking off as the fairies in the forest start a fight, but which side will you be on? Team Titania or Team Oberon? York company Hoglets Theatre presents an interactive, fun, larger-than-life production for young children (ideally aged two to nine, but everyone is welcome), based on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

*Malton Food Market* *stalls. Picture: visitmalton.com*

Feelgood event of the week: Malton Food Market, Malton, Saturday, 9am to 3pm

THE monthly Malton Food Market returns for the 2024 season this weekend with specialist stalls, street food, live music and “bags of foodie fun”, set against the backdrop of St Michael’s Church.

Billed as “popular with all those who care about where their food is sourced”, the market will be held on April 3, May 11, June 8, July 13, August 10, September 14 and November 9 with free admission. Malton’s Harvest Food Festival will take place on October 5 and 6; Malton Christmas Festival, December 7 and 8. For two hours of free parking, go to: visitmalton.com/plan-your-visit.

*Lazy Sunday Sessions at the Milton Rooms, Malton*

Talent initiative: Lazy Sunday Sessions, Milton Rooms, Malton, March 17 and April 14, 3pm to 6pm

THE Milton Rooms has launched an initiative in the updated bar area to promote upcoming Ryedale musicians and find the next generation of performers. After George Rowell and Maggie Wakeling featured in the first session last month, Patrick Robertson and Friends plus Nick Thompson have been booked for a special Irish jam session on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, followed by Phil Hooley and Abbey Follansbee on April 14. Entry is free; a small fee is paid to musicians and audience members can show their appreciation in a tip bucket.

In addition, on the last Sunday of each month, a 3pm to 6pm Open Mic session has been launched, designed to give anyone a chance to bring their own instrument and show off their musical skills. Entry is free; the PA system and microphones are provided.

*Rowntree Players’ Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter, Holly Smith and Laura Castle in Jane Thornton and John Godber’s Shakers at the JoRo Theatre*

Comedy play of the week: Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 14 to 16, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

WELCOME to Shakers, the worst bar in town where everyone wants to be seen. Carol, Adele, Niki and Mel are about to work the shift from hell! The lights are neon, the music is loud, and shoes must be smart only. No trainers.

Jane Thornton and John Godber’s 1984 comedy exposes the sticky-floored world behind the bar on a busy Saturday night. Here come the girls, the lads, the yuppies and the luvvies, all played by Sophie Bullivant, Laura Castle, Abi Carter and Holly Smith under the direction of Jamie McKeller, who worked previously with Bullivant and Castle on Godber’s Teechers in 2022. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

*Boyzlife’s Keith Duffy, left, and Brian McFadden: Heading to York Barbican next February*

Gig announcement of the week: Boyzlife, York Barbican, February 1 2025

BOYZLIFE, the supergroup duo of Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden, will return to York Barbican on their 14-date tour in 2025. The Irishmen will combine hits from both bands, such as Boyzone’s I Love The Way You Love Me, All That I Need and No Matter What and Westlife’s My Love, I Lay My Love On You and Uptown Girl. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk.

March 2, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond as the time to book up for the literati arrives. Hutch’s List No. 10, from The Press

*Tuck into An Audience with Grace Dent, the Guardian food writer, columnist, author and presenter, at the Grand Opera House, York, on March 30 (7pm) as part of York Literature Festival*

LITERATURE festivities, psychological bunny puppetry, sci-fi theatre, paranormal investigations and explosive dance promise out-of-this-world cultural experiences, reckons Charles Hutchinson.

Festival of the month: York Literature Festival, ends April 4

YORK Literature Festival is under way with events spread between St Peter’s School; York St John University; York Explore Library; Theatre@41; The Mount School; The Basement at City Screen; York Museum Gardens; York Medical Society, Stonegate; The Crescent; the Grand Opera House and The Blue Boar, Castlegate.

Among the highlights are today’s (2/3/2024) Folk Horror Day; food writers Nina Mingya Powles and Ella Risbridger on Thursday and Grace Dent on March 30; Nicholas Royle David Boiwe, Enid Blyton and The Sun Machine, March 12; journalist and broadcaster Steve Richards on Turning Points in modern Britain, March 16; Lush founder and lead singer Mike Berenyi, discussing her memoir Fingers Crossed, March 24, and poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay’s morning poems, March 30. For the full programme and bookings, visit yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk.

*Lemn Sissay: British-Ethiopian poet will perform morning poems from Let The Light Pour In at York Literature Festival on March 30 (2pm). Picture: Hamish Brown*

When Tuesday is on a Saturday: 1812 Youth Theatre in Tuesday, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight (2/3/2024), 2.30pm, 7.30pm

AN ordinary Tuesday turns really, really weird when the sky over the school playground suddenly rips open in Alison Carr’s funny and playful play Tuesday. Pupils and teachers are sucked up to a parallel universe as a new set of people rain down from above. ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ must come together to work out what is going on and how to return things to how they were.

Carr combines “a little bit of sci-fi and a lot of big themes”: friendship, family, identity, grief, responsibility – and what happens when an unexpected event turns the world upside down. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Exploring psychological damage: George Green in Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York*

New play of the week: Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (2/3/2024), 7.30pm

YORK company Foxglove Theatre identified a need for weirder, more experimental theatre in the city, focusing on “psychological exploration through innovative visual storytelling”. Here comes their debut new work, Rabbit, wherein a brave bunny wakes up lost in a murky forest determined to find her way home to Mumma.

Blending puppetry and visual effects, George Green’s performance explores the psychological damage that develops from even the smallest mishandlings of our childhood selves. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Back on the Chain Gang: Miles Salter, second left, and his York band make a second visit to Ampleforth Village Hall tonight*

Village gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, Ampleforth Village Hall, near Helmsley, tonight (2/3/2024), 7.30pm

YORK band Miles and The Chain Gang return to Ampleforth Village Hall by popular demand after a first outing there last summer. Expect rock’n’roll, acoustic songs, new wave, soul and country, plus Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash covers.

Their latest digital single, the country-tinged Raining Cats And Dogs, is sure to feature in the set by Miles Salter, guitar and vocals, Mat Watt, bass, Steve Purton, drums, and Charlie Daykin, keyboards. Tickets: 07549 775971.

*Yvette Fielding: Leading the paranormal investigations at the Grand Opera House, in the haunted city of York, in a Sunday fright night*

Paranormal show of the week: Most Haunted: The Stage Show, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday (3/3/2024), 7.30pm

YVETTE Fielding, “the first lady of the paranormal”, joins Karl Beattie, producer and director of the Most Haunted television series, in the investigative team to take Sunday’s audience on “the darkest, most terrifying journey of your life”, followed by a question-and-answer session.

In a city bursting at the seams with ghost stories and walks, Fielding and Beattie present Most Haunted’s All-Time Top Ten Scares, complete with unseen video footage from haunted castles, manor houses, hospitals and prisons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Excellent entertainment? Phil Ellis reckons so at Theatre@41 on Tuesday*

Comedy gig of the week: Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday, 8pm

DO you like comedy? Do you like shows? What are your thoughts on excellence? “If you like all three, then the award-winning Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show is the excellent comedy show for you,” advises Ellis, who promises an hour of stand-up and fun from “the North West’s most punctual working-class comedian”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Diversity: Dancing around the Supernova at the Grand Opera House, York, for two nights. Harrogate and Hull to follow*

Dance show of the week: Diversity in Supernova, Grand Opera House, York, March 7 and 8, 7.45pm; Harrogate Convention Centre, March 9, 3.30pm; Hull Connexin Live, April 7, 2.30pm

2009 Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity return to York on their biggest tour yet to stage Supernova, devised by founder Ashley Banjo. More than 120,000 tickets have sold for more than 90 dates in 40 cities and towns through 2023 and 2024, with both Grand Opera House performances down to the last few tickets.

Diversity will be supporting the Trussell Trust, the anti-poverty charity, inviting audience members to bring food donations to place in collection points. Cash donations in buckets are welcome too. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, connexinlivehull.com.

*Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits*

Gig announcement of the week: Suzi Quatro, York Barbican, November 15

SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue.

Born in Michigan, Quatro flew to England in 1971 to work with songwriting duo Chinn and Chapman, chalking up chart toppers with Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You, as well as co-writing Babbies & Bairns with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/event/360060579D80156E.

In Focus: Two Houses, One Story: York ‘s Forgotten Women at Bar Convent and Fairfax House

*Special collections manager Dr Hannah Thomas studies a reproduction of Lady Hungate’s unofficial will alongside items left to the Bar Convent* *Living Heritage Centre*

TWO Houses, One Story: York’s Forgotten Women, a collaboration between the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre and Fairfax House, opens today, marking International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

Running until April 27, the project explores the long intertwining histories of these illegal Catholic houses with an exhibition at each house that enhances the other.

Two of York’s most iconic historic houses, they share a history of strong Catholic women. One was founded as a secret convent, operating a pioneering school for girls, in Blossom Street; the other was constructed as the winter townhouse of Charles, 9th Viscount Fairfax of Emley, gifted to his daughter, the Hon Anne Fairfax, with its richly decorated interiors and stucco ceilings in a masterpiece of Georgian design and architecture in Castlegate.

Dr Hannah Thomas, the Bar Convent’s special collections manager, says: “The histories of the Bar Convent and Fairfax House are so closely intertwined that a joint exhibition such as this makes perfect sense.

*The welcome to the Two Houses, One Story exhibition at Fairfax House*

“Not many people are aware of the links between the houses but both Anne and Mary Fairfax attended the school here and Lady Hungate lived here with the sisters for 29 years.

“This exhibition gives us a fantastic opportunity to explore and share this exciting little-known narrative with the public and to work with the incredible team at Fairfax House.”

Sarah Burnage, curator at Fairfax House, says: “We are delighted to be working with our friends at the Bar Convent on this joint venture. The exhibition tells the story of women living in York in the 18^th century and offers a fascinating glimpse into the little-known world of Catholicism in York”.

Two Houses: One Story features recently discovered documents, beautiful portraits and intriguing artefacts that give new insight into the day-to-day lives of these exceptional Yorkshire women.

*Original 18th century account books referencing Lady Hungate, on display for the first time at the Bar Convent*

The exhibitions explore how they navigated their faith during an era of persecution and suspicion, and how some were linked to dangerous underground activity that ultimately aided the survival of the Catholic faith in York and beyond.

At the Bar Convent, discover the early years of the Fairfax daughters who attended the school, how and why their grandmother, Lady Hungate, lived at the house for 29 years and the significance and legacy of this alliance.

At Fairfax House, learn more about the limited life choices that woman, like Anne Fairfax, faced in the 18th century. Also discover more about the Catholic networks in the city and how this clandestine community supported each other.

Each exhibition complements the other, and visitors to one house receive a 30 per cent discount on admission to the other with proof of receipt. The Bar Convent is open 10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm), Monday to Saturday; Fairfax House, from 10am to 4pm daily (Fridays: guided tours at 10am, 12pm and 3pm). Tickets: Bar Convent, barconvent.co.uk or 01904 643238; Fairfax House, fairfaxhouse.co.uk or 01904 655543.

*Discover what Lady Hungate left to the Bar Convent in her unofficial will, on show at the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre*

March 1, 2024May 23, 2025

Dave Johns to play two Laugh Out Loud gigs at The Basement at City Screen tomorrow. Tony Burgess on first bill too

LAUGH Out Loud Comedy Club will play host to two shows tomorrow at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, both featuring I, Daniel Blake film star and comedian Dave Johns.

Joining him on the 5pm bill will be BBC sitcom star Tony Burgess, Ben Silver and master of ceremonies/promoter Damion Larkin. Simon Wozniak will take over from Burgess on an otherwise unchanged 8pm line-up.

North Easterner Johnshas been part of the stand-up scene since 1989, playing all the major comedy clubs and comedy festivals in the UK and beyond, such as the Kilkenny Comedy Festival, in Ireland, Montreal’s Just For Laughs Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia.

He has worked on stage too in the Middle East, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Sydney, New York, Amsterdam and the Arctic.

As a scriptwriter, his credits include his stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shawshank Redemption, co-written with Owen O’Neill.

He has acted on the West End stage with Christian Slater in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and appeared in Twelve Angry Men, at the Assembly Theatre, Edinburgh, where he also performed in The Odd Couple alongside Bill Bailey and Alan Davies.

Johns played the title role in Ken Loach’s 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, winning that year’s BIFA for Best Actor and a BAFTA too. He is a regular guest on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC Two) and 8 Out Of Ten Cats (Channel 4).

Tony Burgess played DJ Troy, Moz’s crazy, vinyl-obsessed brother, in the cult BBC3 comedy Ideal and starred in his self-penned, seven-part BBC One/BBC Three sitcom The Visit. His stand-up comedy has brought him the City Life Comedian of the Year, the runner-up’s place in So You Think You’re Funny and nominations for best stand-up and writer at the North West Comedy Awards.

Founder member of the topical MEN At Work team at the Comedy Store in Manchester and regular compere of the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, he is a playwright too, his plays Fire Salad and Doorway being premiered at the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre in Manchester.

He wrote for the first two series of Ideal and co-wrote the Sony Award-winning BBC Radio 4 comedy The Nightclass with Johnny Vegas, along with writing for Steve Coogan’s Paul And Pauline Calf’s Cheese And Ham Sandwich, Vegas’s Who’s Ready For Ice Cream, John Bishop’s series John Bishop’s Britain and Lily Savage.

He has a writing credit for Wallace And Gromit’s The Curse Of The Were Rabbit, to the delight of his children who consider he now has a proper job.

Cheerfully self-deprecating, unpredictable Scouse comedian Simon Wozniak has had a meteoric rise from the bowels of the comedy industry to headline the premier British comedy clubs.

Ever modest, he says: “Not much to say really. I have two pairs of jeans for all purposes, work and recreation, mix and match. I’m a part-time contact lens wearer, full-time glasses wearer. I’ve got no thigh gap and I still drink Capri-Suns.”

Ben Silver once crowd-surfed a gig he was hosting, so prepare for anything! He has gigged all over the world, is a regular at London’s clubs, has written for BBC and Comedy Central shows and taken six solo tour shows to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Tickets can be booked at lolcomedyclubs.co.uk. Further shows at The Basement are booked for April 6, May 4 and June 1.

February 28, 2024May 23, 2025

First memory, first girlfriend, first job, York comedian Rob Auton discusses Rob Auton in The Rob Auton Show. UPDATED

ROB Auton, York stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returns north from London with his tenth themed solo show.

After the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, Rob turns the spotlight on himself, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis in The Rob Auton Show.

“The first one I ever did was The Yellow Show, though I think I should have done a show called The Rob Auton Show at the start, not when I’m scraping the barrel for a title!” he says, ahead of tonight’s(28/2/2024) gig at The Crescent, York, with further Yorkshire shows this week in Hull tomorrow, Leeds on Friday and Hebden Bridge on Saturday.

“But having done a show about crowds, I thought ‘it’s time to turn the mirror on me’, and I’ve moved far enough on from childhood and university days to have plenty in my rear-view mirror and feel mature enough to look back on.”

Rob built up the show’s content over 35 work-in-progress shows all over Wales and at last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe. “The reason I love doing those shows is you’ve got to get the roughest one out of the way as early as possible, starting out last January. You’re listening for the reaction, for someone to prick a hole in the black piece of paper for the first glint of light to shine through,” he says.

“I was playing Corby, sitting in the dressing room, a bit worried, when suddenly I thought of something, and in the show that became the one moment where they laughed.”

The subject: “Remembering when my family and I went to Lightwater Valley [the adventure park at North Stainley, near Ripon] in 1997…on the day Diana died.”

Rob relishes putting a show together. “I just love the craft, and that’s why I love doing a daily podcast. I like to sit down and work on something, crafting it, rather than having it handed to me on the plate,” he says.

“For the work-in-progress shows I was picking out moments from my childhood: first memory, first girlfriend, first job, and what I’m finding is that when I speak of my first memory, of the footstool in my granny and grandpa’s house, it makes people connect with their own memories. That’s where the gold lies because they can then relax into the show.”

Memories within a family can differ. “I’d say things to my parents that I remembered happening in my life, but they’d say they didn’t recall them!” says Rob, who grew up in Barmby Moor.

*Breaking (but not actually) breaking his duck: York comedian Rob Auton making his Edinburgh Fringe debut with The Yellow Show in 2012*

What’s more, “there’s that thing with a story that it changes every time you tell it, and then how do you explain what the brain lets in, something that’s said and then stays with you for years?”

Better out, than in, as the saying goes. “Just vocalising all these thoughts that have been rattling around my head for years feels really good – and how strange some of them are,” says Rob.

“Going back to that footstool – made from orange and black plastic weaved material – I don’t know why it’s such a specific memory, but then there are the emotions that go with it, being a grandchild in the room, feeling warm and secure.”

Tapping into emotions is the key, Rob believes. “I’m massively into the ethos that if you can make people feel something, they will remember it. Maybe make them feel optimistic. That’s my goal,” he says.

A graphic designer by training, at Northumbria University, with a past in thinking too far outside the box in the London advertising industry, Rob has a way with a ballpoint pen as much as words, often combining the two in his satirical or surrealist poster prints (on sale at £15 a pop post-show, along with assorted books full of Auton philosophy, poetry and pictures and new I’m Here For The Human Experience T-shirt).

The visual is important to Rob, but so too is the visual in the verbal. “Totally! It’s that thing of painting pictures in words and using words as efficiently as possible, dropping things into people’s heads that aren’t there already, doing that in a specific way and in the exact words that come into my head,” he says.

“Neil Young talks about being like a transistor radio, picking up things like antennae do, and then giving them to the world. You have to be alert to capture it, and I’m definitely in the market for picking up new ideas every day. That’s how I make a living, taking things I hear and working them into the show.”

Coming next from Rob will be the Eyes Open And Shut Show, now being knocked into shape for this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe. “When I start working on something new, it’s like I have a bell in my head that goes off,” he says. “Your brain morphs into something else and becomes alert to what you’re on the lookout for: new things, trying to make something fresh and interesting.

“That’s what’s exciting about doing shows, stepping into that arena where anything can happen. I just try to stay faithful to the fact that people want to see that risk: the knife edge of something being funny or not. I’ll always take that risk.”

Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm; Mortimer Suite, Hull City Hall, February 29, 7.30pm; The Wardrobe, Leeds, March 1, 7.30pm; Hebden Bridge Trades Club, March 2, doors 7.30pm, sold out.

Box office: York, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk; Leeds, brudenellsocialclub.seetickets.com; Hebden Bridge, thetradesclub.com.

Rob Auton: the back story

Name: Rob Auton.

Occupation: London-based York cult comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, illustrator and 2014 Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence.

Raised: Barmby Moor.

Educated: Pocklington schooldays; York College; Northumbria University, Newcastle.

First job: “The Crab Cake Kid”/kitchen worker in York restaurant at 16.

First job after university: Graphic designer for advertising firm in London.

First stand-up gig: 2008.

Edinburgh Fringe headline debut: The Yellow Show, 2012.

Shows: The Yellow Show; The Sky Show; The Face Show; The Water Show; The Sleep Show; The Hair Show; The Talk Show; The Time Show; The Crowd Show; The Rob Auton Show (sold-out month-long 2023 Edinburgh Fringe run; Soho Theatre, London, main house, January 22 to 27; now on tour, culminating in Machynlleth Comedy Festival show in Wales on May 6).

Accolade: Won Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe at Edinburgh in August 2013, aged 30. The joke? “I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”

Appeared on: The End Of The F***ing World (Netflix/Channel 4); Miracle Workers (TBS); The Russell Howard Hour (Sky One); Cold Feet (ITV); Random Acts (Channel 4); Stand-Up Central With Rob Delaney (Comedy Central); Auton clip went viral with more than 11 million views on Facebook alone. Look out for cameo in latest series of Rose Matafeo’s Starstruck (BBC One).

On the radio: Stewart Lee: Unreliable Narrator (BBC Radio 4); Front Row (BBC Radio 4); Sara Cox Show (BBC Radio 2);Jonathan RossShow (BBC Radio 2); Craig Charles (BBC Radio 6 Music) and Afternoon Edition with Nihal Arthanayake (BBC Radio 5 Live).

Poetry collective: Member of Bang Said The Gun, stand-up poetry collective founded by Dan Cockrill and Martin Galton.

Podcast: The Rob Auton Daily Podcast, since 2020. Gold winner for Best Daily Podcast at 2020 British Podcast Awards. Two million listeners.

More podcasting: Chief squirrel correspondent on Shaun Keaveny’s new podcast Daily Grind.

Books: Three collections of writing and drawing, Take Hair, Petrol Honey and In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh, for Burning Eye Books; I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things, poetic prose, short stories and ballpoint pen drawings detailing and celebrating everyday wonders, for HarperCollins’ Mudlark, 2021.

Spoken word album: At Home With Rob, on Scroobius Pip’s record label Speech Development Records.

Coming next: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, Assembly Roxy, Upstairs, July 31 to August 25, 2.15pm. Box office: assemblyfestival.com.

“This is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says Rob. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut. After writing ten shows on specific themes, I wanted to think about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.”

February 28, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in Ryedale, York and beyond, both normal and paranormal. Hutch’s List No 4, from Gazette and Herald

*Alex Hamilton: Scottish guitarist plays Ryedale Blues Club gig at Milton Rooms, Malton*

BLUES guitars, psychological bunny puppetry, mountain films, sci-fi theatre, paranormal investigations and explosive dance promise out-of-this-world cultural experiences, reckons Charles Hutchinson.

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Alex Hamilton Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm

GLASWEGIAN guitarist Alex Hamilton (formerly Lewis Hamilton) has been part of the British blues/rock scene since 2010. Parading a playing style that recalls Robben Ford and Matt Scofield, he released his debut album, Gambling Machine, at 18, winning the Scottish New Music Award for Jazz/Blues album in 2012.

Further albums Empty Roads, Ghost Train, Shipwrecked and On The Radio have followed. Hamilton makes his return to Malton in a trio with his father, Nick Hamilton, on bass and Ian Beestin on drums. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

*George Green in Foxglove Theatre’s Rabbit*

New play of the week in York: Foxglove Theatre in Rabbit, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm

*The poster for 1812 Youth Theatre’s production of Tuesday at Helmsley Arts Centre*

When Tuesday is on a Friday and Saturday: 1812 Youth Theatre in Tuesday, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7.30pm

*Banff Mountain Film Festival: Visiting York Barbican on world tour on Friday*

Film event of the week: Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, Red Film Programme, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

EXPERIENCE a night of thrilling adventure – up on the big screen. The Banff Mountain Film Festival features a new collection of short films filled with extreme journeys, untamed characters and captivating cinematography.

Join the world’s top adventure filmmakers and thrill-seekers as they climb, ski, paddle and ride into the wildest corners of the planet. Prize giveaways are promised too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Back on the Chain Gang: Miles Salter, second left, and his York band play Ampleforth Village Hall for the second time*

Ryedale gig of the week: Miles and The Chain Gang, Ampleforth Village Hall, near Helmsley, Saturday, 7.30pm

*Yvette Fielding: Leading the paranormal investigations in the Most Haunted stage show at the Grand Opera House, York*

Paranormal show of the week: Most Haunted: The Stage Show, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

*Diversity: Dancing around the Supernova at the Grand Opera House, York, for two nights*

Dance show of the week: Diversity in Supernova, Grand Opera House, York, March 7 and 8, 7.45pm; Harrogate Convention Centre, Saturday, 3.30pm; Hull Connexin Live, April 7, 2.30pm

Gig announcement of the week: Suzi Quatro, York Barbican, November 15

SUZI Quatro will mark the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour, taking in York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue.

Born in Michigan, Quatro flew to England in 1971 to work with songwriting duo Chinn and Chapman, chalking up chart toppers with Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive and further hits with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, The Wild One, If You Can’t Give Me Love and She’s In Love With You, as well as co-writing Babbies & Bairns with dame Berwick Kaler in his York Theatre Royal panto pomp. Tickets will go on sale from 10am on Friday at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/360060579D80156E.

February 24, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond when it ‘definitely won’t be boring’! Here’s Hutch’s List No. 9 for 2024, from The Press

*Wise Children “open the bloody door” to Emma Rice’s beguiling but disturbing Blue Beard at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday. Picture: Steve Tanner*

PANTO dame tales and a comedian’s first-time memories, a classic thriller and a feminist fairytale, a community choir festival and a prog-rock legend make Charles Hutchinson’s list of upcoming cultural highlights.

Play of the week: Wise Children in Emma Rice’s Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

BLUE Beard meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign as writer-director Emma Rice brings her own brand of theatrical wonder to this beguiling, disturbing tale.

Applying Rice’s signature sleight of hand, Blue Beard explores curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance, all through an intoxicating lens of music, wit and tender truth. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Rick Wakeman: Last return of the Caped Crusader at York Barbican*

Catch him while you can: Rick Wakeman, Return Of The Caped Crusader, York Barbican, tonight (24/02/2024), 7.30pm

PROG-ROCK icon and Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman, 76, is to call time on his one-man shows to concentrate on composing, recording and collaborating, but not before playing York. “I always planned to stop touring by my 77th birthday,” he says. “For those of you who wish to send me a card, it’s 18th May!”

Saturday’s show opens with Wakeman’s new arrangements of Yes material for band and vocalists, followed after the interval by his epic work Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Robin Simpson on dame duty in York Theatre Royal’s All New Adventures Of Peter Pan*

Pantomime revelations of the week: Robin Simpson: There Ain’t Nothing Like A Dame, Rise, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm

ALREADY confirmed for his return for Aladdin from December 3 to January 5 2025, York Theatre Royal’s resident dame, Robin Simpson, takes a peak behind the wigs into the glitz and glamour of life as a pantomime dame.

Simpson provides an insight into the origins of the character, backstage antics and classic cheeky panto humour as he reveals “what it’s really like to frock up and tread the boards”. Expect cheesy gags, naughty nonsense and even a silly sing-song.

“I’ve run this event before and it was mostly for slightly older children and adults. Ages 7/8 and above really,” says Robin. “The show includes stories, song-sheet sing-alongs and silly poems. It’s not at all serious!

“It’s fun to approach storytelling from the perspective of the dame. It’s a little more anarchic. I also start with a brief history of the pantomime, from Roman times to the modern day.

“I do this while getting dressed and made up into the dame with the idea that, by the time I’m talking about Dan Leno and the Victorian dame, I’m completely changed. There’s room for questions and chat too about being in a panto and what happens on stage and backstage. Like I say, it’s for KS2 and adults really.”

Earlier in the day, at 4.30pm, in an interactive one-hour event for children aged three to six, Robin and Susanna Meese will be spinning the Storywheel to reveal much-loved nursery tales. “It’s a wheel of fortune-style story generator where random fairytales are told and there’s lots of dressing-up, musical instruments, songs, props, puppets and play,” says Robin.

Afterwards, children can delve into story bags full of goodies and stay and play with the hosts, who will have everything needed for the children to tell the tales, including puppets, props, and costumes. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise

*Maura Jackson: Public speaker, charity boss and now comedian, playing Theatre@41 tomorrow*

Storyteller of the week: Maura Jackson: More O’ Me, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

AT 53 Maura Jackson cannot decide if she is a keynote speaker, charity CEO or comedian. Thanks to “the recklessness of menopause”, she is all three.

After living a life and a half and taking up stand-up in 2022 on a whim, storyteller Jackson takes tomorrow’s audience on a humorous rollercoaster of life-defining moments, good or bad. Despite her professed aversion to drama, she is surrounded by it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Neil McDermott, left, and Todd Boyce in Sleuth, “the thriller about thrillers”, at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman*

Thriller of the week: Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday

TODD Boyce, best known for playing Coronation Street’s notorious baddie Stephen Reid, will be joined by EastEnders soap star Neil McDermott in Anthony Shaffer’s dark psychological thriller about thrillers, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh.

What happens? A young man arrives at the impressive home of a famous mystery writer, only to be unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of intrigue and gamesmanship, where nothing is quite as it seems. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Rob Auton: Star of The Rob Auton Show, full of firsts, from memories to girlfriends to jobs*

Comedy gig(s) of the week: Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm; Mortimer Suite, Hull City Hall, February 29, 7.30pm; The Wardrobe, Leeds, March 1, 7.30pm

ROB Auton, Pocklington-raised stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returns north from London with his self-titled tenth themed solo show.

After the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, Auton turns the spotlight on himself, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis. Box office: York, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk; Leeds, brudenellsocialclub.seetickets.com.

*Skylights: Lighting up York Barbican in November*

Gig announcement of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, November 2

YORK band Skylights will play their biggest home-city show yet this autumn, with tickets newly on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk in a week when latest release Time To Let Things Go has risen to number two in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart.

Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the biggest venue in our home city of York, the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here, so to headline will be the perfect way to finish what’s going to be a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.”

In Focus: York Community Choir Festival 2024

*Jessa Liversidge: Directing Easingwold Community Singers’ performance at the York Community Choir Festival*

York Community Choir Festival 2024, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 25, 6pm; February 26 to March 1, 7.30pm; March 2, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

THE 8th York Community Choir Festival spreads 31 choirs across eight concerts over six days at the JoRo. On the opening evening, Easingwold Community Singers will be premiering director Jessa Liversidge’s arrangement of The Secret Of Happiness from the American musical Daddy Long Legs, with permission of composer and lyricist Paul Gordon.

“Festival organiser Graham Mitchell wanted a choir to perform this song,” says Jessa. “I bought the music but couldn’t find a choral arrangement, so I chanced my arm on contacting the composer to ask if there were any arrangements or could I do one, and he said, ‘yes, you can’.

“It’s a lovely gentle song. Hopefully it will go well, and I can then send Paul a recording.”

Choirs range from York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir to The Rolling Tones, Sounds Fun Singers to York Military Wives Choir, Selby Youth Choir to Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus. Six choirs from Huntington School perform next Friday, taking up all the first-half programme. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

York Community Choir Festival: the programme

Sunday, 6pm

Selby Youth Choir, Bishopthorpe Community Choir, Eboraca, Easingwold Community Singers.

Monday, 7.30pm

Community Chorus, York Celebration Singers, Euphonics, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir.

Tuesday, 7.30pm

Jubilate, Some Voices York, Sounds Fun Singers, Abbey Belles Chorus.

Wednesday, 7.30pm

Stagecoach Youth Junior Choir, The Garrowby Singers, In Harmony, Stamford Bridge Community Choir.

Thursday, 7.30pm

York Military Wives Choir, Harmonia, Spirit of Harmony Barbershop Chorus, Heworth Community Choir.

Friday, 7.30pm

Huntington School Choirs, Vivace! Aviva York Choir, Main Street Sound Ladies, Barbershop Chorus

Saturday, 2.30pm

Singing Communities, Fairburn Singers, Daytones Harmony Chorus,

The Rolling Tones.

Saturday, 7.30pm

Headlands Primary School, York Sing Space Musical Theatre Choir, Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus, The Wellbeing Choir.

February 23, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in Ryedale, York and beyond when comedy bites. Here’s Hutch’s List No 3, from Gazette and Herald

*Deaf comedian Steve Day: Playing on the Hilarity Bites bill at Milton Rooms, Malton*

A DEAF comedian and history-charting musicians, a classic thriller and a feminist fairytale, a community choir festival and a prog-rock legend make Charles Hutchinson’s list of upcoming cultural highlights.

Ryedale comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Steve Day, Ashley Frieze and Carl Jones, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday (23/02/2024), 8pm

THE first Hilarity Bites bill of 2024 will be headlined by Steve Day, who describes himself as “Britain’s only deaf comedian and if there are any others he hasn’t heard them”! Actually, a couple of others have started since he wrote that joke, but it is only a joke after all.

On the bill too are guitar-toting funny man Ashley Frieze, with his charming, daft and warm brand of music-infused stand-up, and Midlands storytelling comedian Carl Jones, a football fanatic who interviews comedy cohorts for his Premier League nostalgia podcast When Football Began Again. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

*Chris Green and Sophie Matthews: 600 years of music crammed into 90 minutes at Pocklington Arts Centre*

Musical tour of the week: Green Matthews: A Brief History Of Music, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 8pm

STRING player Chris Green and woodwind player Sophie Matthews take in 600 years of musical history in 90 minutes, spanning the Middle Ages to the 20th century in a whistle-stop tour of Western music.

Featuring long-forgotten songs, tunes and jokes too, Green and Matthews paint a vibrant and vivid picture of our musical DNA, mixing the familiar and the obscure, the raucous and the reflective and the courtly and the commonplace. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Gig announcement of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, November 2

YORK band Skylights will play their biggest home-city show yet this autumn, with tickets going on sale on Friday at 10am at ticketmaster.co.uk in a week when latest release Time To Let Things Go has risen to number two in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart.

*Rick Wakeman: Return Of The Caped Crusader at York Barbican*

Catch him while you can: Rick Wakeman, Return Of The Caped Crusader, York Barbican, Saturday, 7.30pm

Saturday’s show opens with Wakeman’s new arrangements of Yes material for band and vocalists, followed after the interval by his epic work Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Choirs galore: York Community Choir Festival 2024, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 25, 6pm; February 26 to March 1, 7.30pm; March 2, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Choirs range from York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir to The Rolling Tones, Sounds Fun Singers to York Military Wives Choir, Selby Youth Choir to Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus. Six choirs from Huntington School perform next Friday, taking up all the first-half programme. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

*Todd Boyce, left, and Neil McDermott in Sleuth, on tour at Grand Opera House, York*. *Picture: Jack Merriman*

Thriller of the week: Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday

*Emma Rice: Writer-director of Wise Children’s Blue Beard, playing York Theatre Royal from next Tuesday*

Play of the week: Wise Children in Emma Rice’s Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

February 17, 2024May 23, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond as arts take to the bike & beach. Hutch’s List No. 8 for 2024, from The Press, York

*Pilot Theatre’s cast for A Song For Ella Grey at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Topher McGrillis*

BEACH encounters with Orpheus, tandem cyclists divided by Brexit, a joyful mess in art, an Eighties rom-com revisited, Ukrainian opera and big summer concerts brighten Charles Hutchinson’s days ahead.

York play of the week: Pilot Theatre in A Song For Ella Grey, York Theatre Royal, February 20 to 24, 7pm plus 1pm, Thursday and 2pm, Saturday; Hull Truck Theatre, March 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm, Wednesday and Saturday

IN Zoe Cooper’s stage adaptation of David Almond’s novel for York company Pilot Theatre and Newcastle’s Northern Stage, Claire and her best friend, Ella Grey, are ordinary kids from ordinary families in an ordinary world as modern teenagers meet ancient forces.

They and their friends fall in and out of love, play music and dance, stare at the stars, yearn for excitement, and have parties on Northumbrian beaches. One day, a stranger, a musician called Orpheus, appears on the beach and entrances them all, especially Ella. Where has Orpheus come from and what path will Ella follow in this contemporary re-telling of the ancient Greek myth. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.

*Displayful artists Luke Beech, Wendy Galloway, Kate Fox and Liberty Hodes, exhibiting at Scarborough Art Gallery. Picture: Tony Bartholomew*

Coastal exhibition of the season: Displayful, Scarborough Art Gallery until May 7

DISPLAYFUL celebrates happy accidents and joyful mess, aiming to brighten the winter months by inviting visitors to enjoy uplifting contemporary artistic responses to objects from the collections of Scarborough Museums and Galleries.

The show combines new work by five regional artists, Luke Beech, Kate Fox, Wendy Galloway, Liberty Hodes and Angela Knipe, alongside historical artefacts and asks audiences to consider new possibilities for the lives of objects.

*Amber Davies’s Vivian and Oliver Savile’s Edward, centre, in a scene from Pretty Woman The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next week*

Musical of the week: Pretty Woman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

BILLED as Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when Hollywood Boulevard hooker Vivian meets entrepreneur Edward Lewis and her life changes forever.

Amber Davies plays Vivian opposite Oliver Savile’s Edward; 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba, last seen at this theatre in fishnets in March 2022 as Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, has two roles as hotel manager Barnard Thompson/Happy Man, and Natalie Paris will be Vivian’s wisecracking roommate Kit De Luca. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*The poster artwork for Dnipro Opera’s Madama Butterfly at York Barbican*

Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera in Madama Butterfly, York Barbican, February 20, 7pm

DNIPRO Opera, the Ukrainian National Opera, returns to British shores after last year’s visit to perform Puccini’s favourite work, Madama Butterfly, sung in Italian with English surtitles (CORRECT).

Set in Japan in 1904, this torrid tale of innocent love crushed between two contrasting cultures charts the affair between an American naval officer and his young Japanese bride, whose self-sacrifice and defiance of her family leads to tragedy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Carly Bednar in rehearsal for her role as Leila Arden in Griffonage Theatre’s Rope at Theatre@41, Monkgate*

Thriller of the week: Griffonage Theatre in Rope, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm

HALFWAY through her MA in theatre studies, Katie Leckey directs York company Griffonage Theatre in their Theatre@41 debut in Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Rope, with its invitation to a dinner party like no other.

Set in 1929 against the backdrop of Britain’s flirtation with fascism, this whodunit states exactly who did it, but the mystery is will they be caught? Cue a soiree full of eccentric characters, ticking clocks and hushed arguments. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*An Eiffel and an earful: Don (John Lister) and Carol (Kate Caute) share a cycle but not political views in Paris in 1812 Theatre Company’s Scary Bikers*

Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Scary Bikers, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm

HELMSLEY’S 1812 Theatre Company stage their first John Godber comedy next week, his 2018 two hander Scary Bikers. Outwardly, redundant miner Don (John Lister) and former private school teacher Carol (Kate Caute) have little in common, but beneath the surface their former spouses are buried next to each other. Soon widowed Don and Carol bump into each other.

An innocent coffee leads to a bike ride through the Yorkshire Dales, then a bike tour across Europe to Florence. All looks promising for a budding romance, but their departure date is June 23 2016 and Don and Carol are on the opposite sides of the Brexit fence. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk or in person from the arts centre.

*S Club: Post-racing party songs at York Racecourse on July 27*

Bring it all back: S Club, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 27

JULY 27 will be S Club Party time after the Saturday afternoon race card on the Knavesmire track. Once S Club 7, now the five-piece S Club comprises Jo O’Meara, Rachel Stevens, Jon Lee, Tina Barrett and Bradley McIntosh, following last April’s death of Paul Cattermole from heart complications at 46 and Hannah Spearritt not featuring in 2023’s 25th anniversary tour.

This month finds S Club in the USA playing Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Roll on summertime to enjoy chart toppers Bring It All Back, Never Had A Dream Come True, Don’t Stop Movin’ and Have You Ever, plus You’re My Number One, Reach, Two In A Million, S Club Party et al in York. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

*James: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in July. Picture: Paul Dixon*

Yorkshire gig announcement of the week: James, supported by Reverend & The Makers and Girlband!, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 26

MANCHESTER band James play Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time on July 26, the night when Leeds lads Kaiser Chiefs finish off the evening card at York Races.

“If you haven’t been there before, then make sure you come,” says James bassist and founder member Jim Glennie. “It’s a cracking venue and you can even have a paddle in the sea before the show!” New album Yummy arrives on April 12. Box office: James, ticketmaster.co.uk from 9am on Friday; Kaiser Chiefs, yorkracecourse.co.uk.