In the red: Brothers AJ, right, and Curtis Pritchard team up for Come What May this autumn
AJ and Curtis Pritchard bring the sultry, mysterious atmosphere of Paris to York Barbican on September 29 on the 24-date of Come What May.
A cast of West End performers will join the terpsichorean Stoke-on-Trent brothers in a song-and-dance show inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama Moulin Rouge.
“Come What May is going to get myself and Curtis back on stage performing together and that’s exactly what we love doing,” says Strictly Come Dancing alumnus AJ, the elder sibling at 29.
“This show embodies the big musical numbers we have all come to love with the dance routines that I love to watch, but I much prefer being on stage, which is exactly where I’ll be.”
2019 Love Island contestant, Dancing With The Stars dancer, choreographer and actor Curtis, 28, enthuses: “I’ve loved performing and entertaining an audience since my Ballroom and Latin dancing days, so this is the perfect tour for me: singing and dancing!”
“We’re ‘Irish twins’! Born 15 months apart. Everything done together,” says AJ Pritchard
Ahead of rehearsals starting in London on Sunday, he adds: “Having gone through the full show I know that you will be entertained start to finish. Come What May is going to blow you away, I guarantee it.”
In the week when sibling rivalry has been all the rage with the feuding Gallagher brothers announcing “the guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned” for the return of Oasis next summer, how do the Pritchard brothers rub along?
“To be honest, Curtis and myself always perform together, having been brought up together,” says AJ. “We’re ‘Irish twins’! Born 15 months apart. Everything done together.
“When we’re performing, Curtis is more like controlled chaos, milking a number for two hours, whereas I’ll be saying, ‘Come on, we have to go on to the next number’, and that contrast works really well because we can play to each other’s strengths.
“Myself and Curtis competed all over the world, both training to the highest levels in Latin and ballroom, representing our country. We’ve always had a competitive relationship, doing extreme, high-adrenaline sports, and also to get the best audience reaction.
“We’ve always got each other’s back,” says Curtis Pritchard. “When working, be as competitive as you like, but when you are out and about, look after each other”
“Anything fun and dangerous we like to do, both of us breaking our arms. Curtis once broke his arm and leg at the same time.”
Curtis chips in: “We’ve always got each other’s back. When working, be as competitive as you like, but when you are out and about, look after each other.”
The brothers look forward to being on the road, away from the prying lens of the television camera that has charted their deeds, whether on Strictly or Love Island, Celebrity SAS or Dancing With The Stars.
“Doing a show like this with a different audience every night, you can always tweak things, and every night it should be slightly different,” says Curtis. “I love performing on stage and the competitive side of that is so stimulating…feeding off the adrenaline of a live audience.
“Though they say, ‘never break the fourth wall’, let’s be honest: you can break that wall if the audience gives you something.”
The tour poster for Come What May, featuring AJ and Curtis Pritchard
The spirit of Moulin Rouge, a Luhrmann film the brothers love for its dancing and costumes, will be evoked in Come What May, capturing the “sexy and disreputable underbelly of the city to the glamour and glitz of the Moulin Rouge, where you’ll be transported back in time to a place of dreams, adventure, and most importantly, love”.
Expect such songs as Come What May, Lady Marmalde, Your Song and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from the film soundtrack, together with hits from other modern movie musicals, such as The Greatest Show, Like A Virgin and The Show Must Go On.
“I will not be singing,” says AJ, “It’s not my forte! But we’ve got a fantastic band and singers. Fundamentally, Curtis and I will do what you see on the big numbers on Strictly.”
Now come the rehearsals and the tour run from September 20 to October 24, with the need to stay in tip-top condition. “If you have the best technique and really high-quality dancers, with lifts or without lifts, if you’re physically and mentally fit, the injuries don’t come,” says AJ. “You always have to be fit and ready”…come what may!
Sisco Entertainment, Cuffe & Taylor and Live Nation present AJ and Curtis Pritchard in Come What May, York Barbican, September 29, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also: Sheffield City Hall, September 26, 7.30pm. Box office: sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
Melissa James as Lou and Patrick Heusinger as James in Paranormal Activity at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Pamela Raith
IT is a balmy Summer evening in Leeds but despite the sweltering temperatures, there is a chill in the air as the world premiere of Paranormal Activity arrives at the Playhouse.
A Leeds Playhouse and Simon Friend Entertainment co-production in association with Gavin Kalin, Ken Davenport and Jonathan & Rae Corr, the show is based on a film first released by Paramount Pictures in the UK 15 years ago.
A relatively low budget found-footage film, the original became a word-of-mouth hit and is regarded as being one of the most profitable films ever made.
If you have seen that film (or any of its many sequels), you will be familiar with the basic premise. A young couple are haunted by a strange presence within their home, inspiring them to set up a camera to try and capture evidence. Of course, technology has come on a long way since then…
In keeping with the subject matter, the whole show seems to be shrouded in mystery, with signs outside the theatre reminding us that we are not allowed to take any photographs or breathe a word of what we have seen to others. “SHHH!” instruct the posters, “NO SPOILERS”.
Perhaps, therefore, it is best to play it safe with the synopsis provided by the Playhouse website, which states: “American couple James and Lou move to London to escape their past…we can’t say anything else.”
We may not know what to expect but expectations are still high that this will succeed in maintaining the original spirit of those films and go some way towards re-creating the fear. As with many scary films, the real horror here is less related to the events themselves and more the impact that they are having on their relationship.
Fly Davis’ residential set is on more than one level, and it is worth keeping an eye on what is happening upstairs when the characters are downstairs and vice versa. It manages to be spacious but claustrophobic, cosy yet disconcerting. Several of the home appliances seem to be in desperate need of an electrical safety test. It might be time to call in the professionals to investigate.
Written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett, the artistic director of Punchdrunk, who specialise in creating unsettling immersive theatre, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a sensory experience with a cacophony of disturbing sounds, atmospheric rumblings and frequent blackouts that serve to intensify the impact of what you have just seen.
The sense of impending dread is palpable throughout as we silently scream warnings at the cast (Melissa James’s Lou, Patrick Heusinger’s James, Jackie Morrison’s Ethylene Cotgrave and Pippa Winslow’s Carolanne, James’s mother). You are anxious to know what happens next but genuinely afraid to watch. There were blood-curdling screams, hands over eyes and leaping up from seats…and that was just the audience.
Your overall enjoyment may depend to an extent on your own beliefs regarding the supernatural, but seeing is believing and not everything here is quite what it seems to be. The effect is often disorientating, and like the characters themselves, by the end, we are left uncertain as to who or what to believe – creating an overwhelming sense of paranoid activity that will follow you home afterwards and linger long after the final curtain falls.
Paranormal Activity ran at Leeds Playhouse from July 4 to August 2, featuring illusions by Chris Fisher, lighting designs by Anna Watson and sound design by Gareth Fry.
Jane Burnell: Buxton Opera soprano performing at tomorrow’s York Proms in York Museum Gardens
IN search of high-summer highlights, Charles Hutchinson finds Proms fireworks, outdoor cinema singalongs, a mad woodland king and comedy on the coast.
Musical picnic of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, general admission, 5.30pm; main stage concert, 7.45pm to 10.30pm
TICKETS are close to selling out for the York Proms, tomorrow’s picnic concert under the stars organised as ever by York soprano Rebecca Newman.
Conducted by Ben Crick, the orchestra will be joined by tenor Joshua Baxter and soprano Jane Burnell, both at present performing with Buxton Opera, for a programme of classical classics, operatic arias and film music, topped off with the flag-waving proms finale, decorated with a fireworks display. Box office: 01904 909487 or yorkproms.com.
Hoglets Theatre’s puppet of Badger for Gemma Curry’s new show, The Badger And The Coins, at York Explore & Archive today
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in The Badger And The Coins, York Explore Library and Archive, Library Square, York, today, 11am to 11.45am
GEMMA Curry’s York company Hoglets Theatre presents The Badger And The Coins, an original play about love, courage and the belief that even the most unexpected companions can bring magic into our world, suitable for pre-school and primary school children.
Based on a Japanese folk tale, the story of an old man rescuing a mysterious Badger and triggering an amazing journey is powered by original songs, outrageous characters, beautiful hand-made puppets and Hoglets’ trademark energy and creativity. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives/1288717.
Cinema in the open air at Castle Howard this weekend, from Disney to Abba, Spielberg to Cruise. Picture: Castle Howard Estate
Outdoor film event of the week: Adventure Cinema at Castle Howard, near Malton, today and tomorrow
PACK a picnic for Castle Howard’s open-air outdoor cinema experience on a giant screen this weekend, presented in tandem with Adventure Cinema. This afternoon features a Sing-A-Long Edition of Disney’s Frozen (PG) at 1.30pm (gates 12 noon).
An Abba disco precedes Mamma Mia! Outdoor Cinema Extrabbaganza, this evening’s all-singing, all-dancing double bill of Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia Here We Go Again at 6.30pm (gates 5pm). Tomorrow comprises Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler’s The Gruffalo/Stick Man (U) at 11am (gates 10am), Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic Park (PG) at 3pm (gates 1.30pm) and Tony Scott’s Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, at 8pm (gate 6.30pm). Box office: adventurecinema.co.uk/venues/castle-howard.
Barn Owl, by Bryn Parry CBE, in the Sculpture In The Landscape exhibition at the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park, The Hutts, Grewelthorpe. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Exhibition of the week: Sculpture In The Landscape, Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park, The Hutts, Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, until November 3
THE 2024 Sculpture In The Landscape exhibition showcases 60 works for sale by artists across the United Kingdom, complementing the permanent sculptures on show at the Himalayan Garden.
Visitors are invited to explore the intricate sculptures set against verdant landscapes. From monumental installations to delicate works of art, each piece offers a perspective on the intersection of creativity and nature. Normal garden entry applies. Tickets: 01765 658009 or himalayangarden.com
Adderstone in the trees: Music, mystery and magic in the woodland company of Mad Sweeney, the Irish king, at the Forest of Flowers, Huby
Woodland folk event of the week: Sweeney Untethered by Adderstone, Forest of Flowers, Home Farm, Tollerton Road, Huby, York, tomorrow (28/7/2024), 1.30pm to 4pm
ADDERSTONE, the storytelling alt-folk duo of Cath Heinemeyer and Gemma McDermott, present Sweeney Untethered, the tale of a 7th century Irish king who went mad, as told and sung on a caper through the wild woods and meadows of the Forest of Flowers with refreshments after the 1.5-mile walk.
The music, mystery and magic-infused performance will immerse the audience in story and surroundings alike as Heinemeyer and McDermott take in the wildflowers, ponds, woodland and wildlife. Bookings: forestofflowers.co.uk/event-details.
The View: Returning to the concert platform after five-year hiatus
Return of the week: The View, The Crescent, York, August 2, 7.30pm
RESCHEDULED from June 15, Under The Influence presents Dundee indie-rock returnees The View in a night of Hats Off To Buskers classics, from Same Jeans to Wasted Little DJs and Superstar Tradesma, plus material from their first album in eight years.
Recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Youth at Space Mountain, Granada, Exorcism Of Youth was released last August on Cooking Vinyl. Five years on from their departing gig at Dundee’s Caird Hall, original members Kyle Falconer (vocals/guitar), Kieran Webster (bass/vocals) and Pete Reilly (guitar) are back on the road. Box office: thecrescentyork.com. music, mystery and magic!
Bill Bailey: Comedy in the Scarborough sea air on August 2
Coastal gig of the week: Bill Bailey, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, August 2; gates open at 6pm
COMEDIAN, actor, musician, presenter, Never Mind The Buzzcocks team captain, Black Books sitcom star and 2020 Strictly Come Dancing champion Bill Bailey heads to the East Coast with his surrealist fusion of stories, poetry and wordplay that takes aim at the modern world’s absurdities, as aired in his Thoughtifier arena tour.
A veteran of the UK festival circuit, with appearances at Latitude, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, Sonisphere and the Eden Project, Bailey will have his array of weird and wonderful instruments on tap too for playful pastiches of Tom Waits, Kraftwerk et al. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Chris Hagyard, pictured in Guys And Dolls mode, will be taking part in One Night Of Broadway Hits at the JoRo
Musical revue of the week: Steve Coates and Bev Jones Music Company present One Night Of Broadway Hits, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, August 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
BEV Jones Music Company performs hits from 26 musicals, including Guys And Dolls, in an unashamedly traditional fashion under the musical direction of James Rodgers.
His band is joined in this moving, lively and at times funny show by vocalists Chris Hagyard, Annabel Van Griethuysen, Anthony Pengelly, Ruth McNeil, Sally Lewis, Stephen Wilson, Geoff Walker and producer Lesley Jones, back on stage for this show, wearing a silver cat suit unseen since 2010, when she played Vera in Stepping Out. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Chrissie Hynde: The great Pretender, leading her band at York Barbican this autumn. Picture: Vi Price
Gig announcement of the week: The Pretenders, York Barbican, October 31
THE Pretenders are extending their sold-out British tour, adding a new date in York, in the wake of releasing Relentless, their 14th UK Top 40 entry and highest-charting record in 23 years, last September.
Fronted as ever by Chrissie Hynde, 72, the band is joining Foo Fighters on their American tour in July and August. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/the-pretenders/.
Friargate Theatre’s brochure cover for the Autumn 2024season
THE poster boxes have gone, the windows are clear, the entrance hallway has new seating, all signs of the revival of activities at the Friargate Theatre in York.
Most significantly of all, brochures for the autumn season of comedy, theatre, storytelling, music, film and family shows at the home of Riding Lights Theatre Company are being distributed around the city.
In the wake of the death of Riding Lights founder and director and Friargate Theatre artistic programmer Paul Burbridge last year, the Christian theatre company is in the process of recruiting a new executive director and artistic director.
As the search goes on, the task of overseeing the Lower Friargate theatre and the autumn season falls to associate director Ollie Brown. “This season is all about rebuilding our audience,” he says. “Maybe some people have forgotten us as York’s hidden theatre by the river; we want to be come better known again with a programme that really supports York’s arts scene with shows York wants to see.”
Comedy will be to the fore, led off by the return of Right Here, Right Now, York’s improv comedy night on September 20, October 18, November 15 and December 6, when the merry band of improvisers will turn audience suggestions into chaotic comedy, music, mayhem and joy-filled nonsense.
September 26 marks the launch of Get Up Stand Up, York’s new monthly comedy club, featuring stand-ups from the British comedy circuit, each bill comprising a compere introducing two acts.
Check online at friargatetheatre.co.uk for updates on the 8pm line-ups for the last Thursday of each month, including October 31 and November 28. Steffen Peddie will host the first two shows, Tony Vino, the next two, and Patrick Monahan and Lost Voice Guy (Lee Ridley) will be among the acts heading for Lower Friargate.
Frankenstein (On A Budget), on October 5, combines one man, one monster, one glorious dream to singlehandedly tell the most famous cult horror story of all time on no budget whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong in this comedy musical Hammer Horror homage, replete with new music, cardboard creations and characters inspired by Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff.
Súper Chefs: Interactive musical exploring family, food and gender roles at Friargate Theatre on November 17
Still on the comedy front, ever witty York sketch writer and playwright Paul Birch will be holding workshops at his Improv Gym, some at Friargate Theatre, others at York Theatre Royal.
The autumn season will open on September 7 with the first family show, Welcome To The World, Little Wild Theatre’s interactive entertainment for nought to five-year-olds that takes a journey with Mother Earth’s children, Tide, Ariel and Blaze as they take their first steps in the world.
On September 28, Rhubarb Theatre’s Finding Chester follows the story of Edith Tiddles’ missing moggie when she needs the help of her delivery team to orchestrate the search.
Murray Lachlan Young’s epic fairytale for six-year-olds and upwards, The Chronicles Of Atom And Luna, will be performed by Funnelwick Limb on October 29 and October 30, with its story of special twins, one who can talk to the birds, the other who can control the moon.
Further family entertainment follows with Jam Jar Theatre’s puppetry musical How A Jellyfish Saved The World on November 3; Maya Productions’ Súper Chefs, a bi-lingual, interactive Latin American family musical by Betsy Picart, on November 17, and York company Next Door But One’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, a magical voyage across lakes and over mountains based on Philip Pullman’s novel, on November 30.
A season of thought-provoking and dynamic plays will start in a hurry on October 12 when Crew Of Patches present The Shakespeare Jukebox. The rules are simple: “give us the name of a Shakespeare play and we’ll do it…well, a bit of it at least”. History, comedy and tragedy combine chaotically, faced with 37 plays to slay.
Climate change will be the topic on October 12 in Decommissioned, a heart-warming, comical play inspired by the true story of Fairbourne in Wales, with its story of caring for children, falling in love and staying sane while tackling the climate catastrophe.
Frankenstein (On A Budget): Comedy musical Hammer Horror homage with gore & flashing lights on October 5
On October 25, Adverse Camber presents storyteller Phil Okwedy in The Gods Are All Here, a personal story sparked by the discovery of letters from his father in Nigeria to his mother in Wales. Myths, folk tales and legends of the African diaspora feature.
On November 29, Andrew Harrison performs The Beloved Son, a new play written and directed by Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts for Wayfarer Productions that explores hope and longing, family dynamics, sexual and emotional crises and the profound insights of priest and psychologist Henri Nouwen.
Mat Jones brings Charles Dickens’s Victorian story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge to life in his solo performance of A Christmas Carol on December 13.
The autumn’s season’s storytelling sessions promise a busy day for Gav Cross on November 2, presenting Ghastly Stories For Gruesome Gremlins at 2pm and After Supper Ghost Stories, a portmanteau of ghostly tales told by an unreliable narrator, at 7.30pm.
On the music front, on October 19, Saturday Night With The Shakers showcases the hits, misses, B-sides and lost classics from the golden age of Merseybeat. On November 1, Joseph O’Brien pays homage to Frank Sinatra in A Man And His Music.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival will be in residence from November 6 to 10 and a Christmas film double bill of The Muppet Christmas Carol (2.30pm) and Die Hard (8pm) is booked in for December 7.
Riding Lights return home for A Christmas Cracker, Paul Birch’s festive family show bursting with seasonal stories, told by world famous but lost storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer, from December 21 to 24. Comedy, puppetry and storytelling, strange ideas and a dog called Cracker combine in this magical glimpse of Christmas.
To book tickets, head to friargatetheatre.co.uk or ring 01904 613000.
Barbara Marten, York actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I’ve known Barbara for over 40 years and have followed her shining career with interest. She’s a very kind, thoughtful and knowledgeable woman, and I think this emanates through her eyes,” says Steve
ACTOR and artist Steve Huison will launch his Portraits exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, with a personal appearance from 4pm to 7pm tomorrow (11/7/2024).
Best known for his role as suicidal steel-mill security guard Lomper in The Full Monty, Leeds-born Huison is exhibiting 12 studies of colleagues in the acting profession, musicians who have inspired him, an adventurous chef and a famous clown.
Before his success as an actor, Steve had studied at art school. Near the end of a 30-month stint playing Eddie Windass in Coronation Street from November 2008 to April 2011, he rediscovered his talent as a portrait artist, culminating in a charity event featuring portraits of Corrie cast members.
Mike Keen, chef, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “A chef with a difference. I’ve followed his career over the last couple of years as he’s kayaked his way up the west coast of Greenland, existing on eating what he finds along the way. In doing so he has brought his metabolism to a near perfect condition,” says Steve. “His health and vitality shines through his face.’
‘It seemed a valuable opportunity to capture portraits of some of the cast,” he recalls. “I wanted to try to portray them as the people I had got to know rather than their better-known characters. The extensive publicity turned out to be a good kick-starter for my evolving post-soap career.”
Other art forms constantly distract Steve’s attention. “They ignite new ideas for me, which I am never short of,” he says. “Once they’re in there rattling around in my mind I have to try them out. Consequently, I can turn my hand to a variety of creative outlets, including acting, stand-up, singing, drawing, painting, sculpting, carving, magic, escapology and a variety of musical instruments.”
Steve, 61, has been focusing on portrait painting for the past ten years when his acting commitments permit. While living in Robin Hood’s Bay he ran regular portrait drawing classes for complete beginners, an activity he has now moved to West Yorkshire since relocating in 2023.
Arnold Oceng, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I first met Arnold on set of the Disney production of The Full Monty. As soon as he walked on set I was instantly drawn to the beautiful lustre of his skin. I decided at that point to attempt to paint his portrait,” says Steve
The move followed filming for The Full Monty series for Disney+, when he reactivated his role as a much older version of Lomper. Fellow Full Monty actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng and Wim Snape are now among the portraits in his Pyramid Gallery show.
Steve first exhibited at Pyramid Gallery in July 2016, presenting A Year In Bay, his artistic response to his move to a new community in Robin Hood’s Bay, where he “had no contacts or connections, and witnessed how new relationships are formed, and how people go out of their way to help strangers”.
Wim Snape, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “Wim is an old friend, and even though he’s only 39, I feel we’ve travelled through an interesting parallel journey together over 28 years. Wim played the 11-year-old Nathan in The Full Monty and went on to reprise the role in the Disney+ series of 2023,” says Steve
A second Pyramid show, Musings Of An Erratic Mind, followed in July 2018, its title reflecting his realisation that “I have a collection of work that bears little resemblance to each other, but says everything about how my mind and creativity works”.
Now comes Portraits, featuring actors Paul Barber, Arnold Oceng, Barbara Marten, Will Snape, Clarence Smith and Joe Duttine, counsellor and therapist Dr Tanya Frances, chef Mike Keen, Swiss clown Grock and musicians Abdullah Ibrahim, Quentin Rawlings and Flora Hibberd.
Steve Huison, Portraits, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, July 11 to August 31. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Steve Huison: the back story
Artist Steve Huison. Portrait by Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett
Birthplace: Leeds, December 2 1962, born Steven Johnson.
Height: 6ft 1in.
Education: Rose Bruford College, Sidcup, diploma in Community Theatre Arts, 1983 to 1986.
Occupation: Actor, artist, arts administrator, musician, master of ceremonies (Cabaret Saltaire, Caroline Club, since February 2011).
Best known for: Playing Lomper in 1997 film The Full Monty, made in Sheffield. Reprised role in 2023 Disney+ series The Full Monty.
Film: Ken Loach’s The Navigators, 2001.
Television: Casualty; Where The Heart Is; dinnerladies (as Steve Greengrass); Heartbeat; The Royle Family; Scott & Bailey; ITV post-apocalyptic drama serial The Last Train (also known as Cruel Earth); Doctors. From January 2008, porter Norman Dunstan in ITV1 daily hospital drama The Royal Today. From November 2008 to April 2011, Eddie Windass in Coronation Street. 2012, Mr Byron in CBBC series 4 O’Clock Club. 2023, The Full Monty, Disney +.
Theatre: Co-founder of Shoestring Theatre Company, in Shipley, 2002. Made pantomime debut at Harrogate Theatre as dame Nanny Clutterbuck in The Sleeping Beauty in 2006 and returned as gurning, knock-kneed King Keith in Sleeping Beauty in 2013. In 2007, toured one-man play Fifty Feet And Falling, based on diaries of a friend who struggled with depression and took his own life.
Improv comedy: Cabaret Saltaire, creating characters such as Squinty McGinty and Korvorra Czeztikov.
Abdullah Ibrahim, pianist and composer, oil painting, by Steve Huison. “A giant of a South African jazz musician. His music has inspired me to take up the bass guitar in the last few years,” says SteveClarence Smith, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison, from a photo by Helen Maybanks. “I first met Clarence in the summer of 1982 on a wild night in a flat in Queensway, London. We went on to train as actors together. 42 years later and we’re still in touch,” says Steve. “Still an amazingly good-looking man considering those wild times back then, and no doubt since.”Flora Hibberd, singer-songwriter, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison.“An up-and-coming Paris-based singer/songwriter. Her music has resonances for me of Leonard Cohen and classic French chanteuses such as Françoise Hardy,” says Steve. “The portrait is from an original photograph by Marie Yako.”Dr Tanya Frances, counsellor and therapist, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “Tanya is someone I’ve observed go from strength to strength in the 17 years that I’ve known her. I first had the privilege of working with her at Harrogate Theatre before she successfully switched careers,” says SteveJoe Duttine, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I got to know Joe through working with him on a Ken Loach film back in 2000. He’s a fine actor who brings true conviction to all his roles,” says SteveGrock the clown, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “At the height of his career, Charles Wettach (1880-1959) was the highest-paid performer in Europe. I was first given a black-and-white postcard 25 years ago. It’s an image that has stayed with me ever since, often inspiring me in many comedic projects. I just had to see how it would look larger and in colour,” says StevePaul Barber, actor, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I first worked with Paul on a BBC screenplay in 1992. Despite his tumultuous upbringing in care, Paul has managed to carve out a gleaming career in the industry and still bears no airs and graces. A true gentleman and a dear brother,” says Steve.Quentin Rawlings, musician, oil on canvas, by Steve Huison. “I met ‘Q’ over 35 years ago, playing sessions with him in the White Stag in Leeds. He’s a wonderful musician and was the first guitarist I played with who used open tuning. It amazed me then and still does,” says Steve. “I’ve never climbed out of the standard tuning box – there are still new tricks to learn.”
George Stagnell, playing D-Day veteran Dennis “Hank” Haydock, in a scene from In The Footsteps Of Hank Haydock: A Walk In The Park, filmed in Duncombe Park woodland
EVERWITCH Theatre will stage Bomb Happy D-Day 80: Hank & Smudger’s Stories, an evening of film and wartime spoken word, for a second time tonight.
First presented at Helmsley Arts Centre on June 1 in the lead-up to the 80th anniversary commemorations in Normandy, France, on June 6, In The Footsteps Of Hank Haydock: A Walk In The Park and Sleep/Re-live/Wake/Repeat will be presented at Shepherds Hall, Lealholm, near Whitby, at 7pm when a full house will attend.
Looking ahead, Everwitch writer and director Helena Fox says: “After putting on the Helmsley and Shepherds Hall performances as our preview showings, we’re in the process of planning a tour next year to venues in the North to commemorate VE Day 80.
“We anticipate from the interest shown so far for these to include atmospheric non-arts venues, for example, historic Bamburgh Castle and the Second World War-themed Eden Camp Modern History Museum. The film is being entered into international festivals too.”
The premiere at Helmsley Arts Centre drew a full house too, including York actor George Stagnell, making a quiet entrance after travelling up from his London home to watch his film role.
He had first appeared in the 2017 tour of Helena Fox’s Bomb Happy, a play inspired by the playwright’s conversations in 2016 with Yorkshire Normandy veterans. She had since returned to those conversations to create two new pieces for the 80th anniversary, opening the Helmsley show with Sleep/Re-live/Wake/Repeat, a live performance of verbatim spoken word and nostalgic a cappella song, presented by Fox in tandem with singer Natasha Jones.
They brought to life anew the first-hand accounts of D-Day veteran Private Ken “Smudger” Smith, from Armley, Leeds, those words echoing down the years as they charted the lifelong impact of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and sleep trauma.
The first showing of black-and-white images from Ken Smith’s personal photo collection that followed his journey during an equally traumatic time in the Middle East after victory in Europe made Smith’s observations all the more resonant. Can a soldier ever find peace after the atrocities of war?
There followed, for that one night only, a new short story of an act of reconciliation for the 80th anniversary of D-Day: Our Mum, Our Dad, And A Door Handle, written and performed by Dorothy Bilton, daughter of Bomb Happy D-Day veteran Bert Barritt, whose experiences had featured in Bomb Happy.
Helena Fox, left, and Natasha Jones
George Stagnell had played Private Ken “Cookey” Cooke, from York, in Fox’s play. Cookey, the last of the Bomb Happy veterans still alive, had hoped to make the Helmsley performance, but in the end his energies were poured into attending the D-Day commemorations, where his television interviews were as poignant and lucid as ever.
For In the Footsteps Of Hank Haydock: A Walk In The Park, he switched to Guardsman Dennis “Hank” Haydock, conscripted at 18 from Sheffield to serve as a Sherman tank gunner in the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards.
Written and directed by Fox, her debut 30-minute film was shot by Jay Sillence of York company InkBlot Films on location in the woodland of Duncombe Park, near Helmsley, in July 2022. On the hottest day of the year. Pretty much in one continuous take, re-takes kept to a minimum with film stock running low.
Stagnell has previous form for wartime memoir, performing a remarkable one-man adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful at the John Cooper Studio, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York in March 2017 and later at the Edinburgh Fringe. Next came Bomb Happy and later, in 2021, a performance piece about Hank Haydock at Duncombe Park, where the young conscript had trained.
Stagnell is not an experienced film actor, but he has the attributes of stillness, presence, focus, in his understated yet weighted performance, allied to a mellifluous voice and mesmeric eyes, made for the big screen.
He looks the period part too, and he serves the words of Hank Haydock wonderfully well, especially when filmed in close up, as well as when striding through the woodland, looking skywards, as rueful as truthful in his demeanour.
As Robert Laurence Binyan wrote in his poem For The Fallen, published in The Times on September 21 1914, “At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them.” Now, the archivist works of Helena Fox, the profound performance of George Stagnell, will do likewise in honouring those that served, ensuring their words, their foreboding, yet their camaraderie too, shall live on.
Everwitch Theatre, Bomb Happy D-Day 80, Hank & Smudger’s Stories, Shepherds Hall, Lealholm, near Whitby, 7pm. For returns only: 01947 897011. All the Shepherds Hall hosting fee will be donated to the Royal British Legion.
What’s All The Fuss About?, Will Palmer’s photo of Arctic walrus Thor on the Scarborough harbour slipway, from the British Wildlife Photography Awards exhibition at Nunnington Hall. Courtesy of National Trust
WILDLIFE photography, Rodgers and Hammerstein romance, a Strictly couple and a Scottish double bill send June into full bloom for Charles Hutchinson.
Ryedale exhibition of the week: British Wildlife Photography Awards, Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, until July 7
CELEBRATING the diversity of British wildlife and wild spaces, this exhibition aims to raise awareness of British biodiversity, species and habitats. On display are award-winning images selected from 14,000 entries in more than a dozen categories, including film and three for juniors.
Look out for What’s All The Fuss About?, taken by Scarborough photographer Will Palmer, who captured the headline-making Arctic walrus, Thor, when resting ashore on the harbour slipway cobbles on December 31 2022. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm; last entry at 4.15pm. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.
Courtney Broan’s Ado Annie in Pickering Musical Society’s Oklahoma! at the Kirk Theatre, Pickering
American classic of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Oklahoma!, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, running until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
LUKE Arnold directs Pickering Musical Society in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 love story of Curly (Marcus Burnside) and Laurie (Rachel Anderson), set in the sweeping landscapes of the American heartland.
Further roles go to Courtney Broan as Ado Annie, Stephen Temple as Will Parker, Michael O’Brien as Mr Carnes and Rick Switzer-Green as Ali Hakim, joined by dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Nadiya & Kai: Strictly dancers venture Behind The Magic at York Barbican
Dance show of the week: Nadiya & Kai , Behind The Magic, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing professionals Nadiya Bychkova and Kai Widdrington go Behind The Magic on a journey through the world of dance, from childhood memories and competition days, to dancing on Strictly and beyond.
The Ukraine-Southampton couple and their cast will be highlighting the influence of 20th century dance legends, creatives and artists alike. Expect “fabulous outfits, wonderful music and sensational dancing”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ceramicist Emily Stubbs: Exhibiting with sister Amy and father Christopher in Stubbs3 – Canvas, Clay and Cloth at Pyramid Gallery, York
Family exhibition of the week:Stubbs3 – Canvas, Clay and Cloth, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, June 15 to August 3
FAMILY artistry unites in Stubbs3 – Canvas, Clay and Cloth, a unique exhibition featuring works by sisters Emily Stubbs and Amy Stubbs, regular participants in York Open Studios, alongside their father, Christopher Stubbs, from Hepworth, West Yorkshire.
Their first-ever joint showcase brings together diverse artistic media in a celebration of family creativity. Contemporary ceramicist Emily Stubbs works from PICA Studios, in Grape Lane; Amy specialises in textile and surface pattern design in a range of homeware and wearable art; Christopher will be exhibiting framed paintings and sketches. All three will attend Saturday’s launch in a Meet The Artists session from 12 noon to 2pm.
Amy Stubbs: Homeware and wearable art
Vintage gig of the week: Ben Beattie’s After Midnight Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm
BEN Beattie’s After Midnight Band celebrate the greats and the lesser known, from honking jump blues to hypnotic Latin beats, joyous African township sounds to the smoky jazz normally to be found in a Chicago speakeasy at 3am. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Ben Beattie: Heading to Helmsley with the After Midnight Band
Film music of the week: A Tribute To Hans Zimmer and Film Favourites Illuminated, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 3.30pm and 7pm
EXPERIENCE cinema’s most iconic soundtracks performed by the London Film Music Orchestra in an immersive tribute to Hans Zimmer and more besides in an immersive illuminated setting.
The chamber orchestra will be performing music from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Gladiator, E.T., Pirates Of The Caribbean, Jaws, Interstellar, Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List and Inception. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Simple Minds in Scarborough: Charlie Burchill, left, and Jim Kerr are off to the Yorkshire coast on Tuesday. Picture: Dean Chalkley
Coastal gig of the week: Simple Minds and special guests Del Amitri, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 18; gates open at 6pm
SOMEONE somewhere in summertime, namely Simple Minds in Scarborough on Tuesday, finds Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill’s band revisiting such hits as Promised You A Miracle, Glittering Prize, Alive And Kicking, Sanctify Yourself, Don’t You Forget About Me and, aptly for Scarborough, Waterfront.
Opening the Scottish double bill will be fellow Glaswegians Del Amitri, led as ever by Justin Currie. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/simpleminds.
Wannabe: Spicing up the Grand Opera House, York
York tribute show of the week: Wannabe – The Spice Girls Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 20, 7.30pm
WANNABE, the “world’s longest-running” Spice Girls tribute stage production, celebrates three decades of girl power in a nostalgic journey through the Spice World.
The show charts the English girl group’s meteoric rise, from July 1996’s debut number one, Wannabe, to Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh’s reunion at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony. Expect “meticulously crafted costumes, unique vocal and musical arrangements exclusive to Wannabe, iconic dance routines and stunning visual flair”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tim Ainslie: Leading his three-piece band in Malton
Blues gig of the month: Ryedale Blues Club, Tim Ainslie and The Vibes, Milton Rooms, Malton, June 27, 8pm
TIM Ainslie and The Vibes head up to Malton from Suffolk for a night of blues, jazz and funk, crossing over into country and rock too, making it hard to pigeonhole his three-piece’s style.
Ainslie, who turned professional in 1997, will be showcasing his original material and guitar-playing prowess that has seen him tour home and abroad with Steamboat To Chicago, Steel Street, Swagger, Groove Doctors, Delta Groove and American guitaristsBuddy WhittingtonandLightnin’ Willie. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster artwork for Rick Witter and Paul Banks’s acoustic Shed Seven gigs at Huntington Working Men’s Club in December
Show announcement of the week: Shed Seven’s Rick Witter and Paul Banks, Huntington Working Men’s Club, York, December 21 and 22
RENASCENT York band Shed Seven will end their 30th anniversary celebrations with a brace of intimate acoustic concerts by frontman Rick Witter and guitarist Paul Banks at Huntington WMC, supported by a DJ set by Sheds’ bassist Tom Gladwin.
Tickets will go on sale at 9am today (12/6/2024) for these homecoming gigs: the York postscript to the Sheds’ 23-date 30th Anniversary Tour, their biggest ever “Shedcember” itinerary from November 14 to December 14. Box office: store.shedseven.com.
Swing when you’re singing: Ryedale Primary Choir schoochildren doing their vocal exercises for Across The Whinny Moor
MUSICAL moorland mermaids and a villainous sea witch, motion in art and a Mozart mass, vintage Pink Floyd and a Louise Brooks silent movie set up Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.
Ryedale Festival community event of the week: Across The Whinny Moor, St Peter’s Church, Norton, today, 4pm
THE world premiere of the Community Song Cycle: Across The Whinny Moor follows the trail of North Yorkshire’s Lyke Wake Walk, meeting cheeky hobs, angry mermaids, resourceful giants and wise witches along the way.
The all-age cast for a walk through stories and songs by John Barber and Hazel Gould includes the schoolchildren of the Ryedale Primary Choir, the Ryedale Voices, Harmonia and The RyeLarks choirs, Kirkbymoorside Town Junior Brass Band, storyteller Rosie Barrett and mezzo-soprano soloist Victoria Simmonds, conducted by Caius Lee. Box office: ryedalefestival.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173652657.
Tim Pearce’s poster artwork for Life Forms In Motion at Blossom Street Gallery
Six of the best: Life Forms In Motion, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until June 30
SIX Yorkshire artists give individual responses to the challenge of interpreting the motion of life forms in a range of static media. In a nutshell, time and space condensed into single, dynamic images.
Taking part are Tim Pearce, painting and sculpture; Cathy Denford, painting; Jo Ruth, printmaking; Adrienne French, painting; Mandy Long, ceramic sculpture, and Lesley Peatfield, photography. Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.
Robert Hollingworth: On baton duty at the University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra’s concert at York Minster tonight
Classical concert of the week: University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm
UNDER the direction of Robert Hollingworth and John Stringer, the University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra perform Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor, widely considered to be among his supreme choral works.
This will be complemented by a selection of works by Anton Bruckner, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Austrian composer’s birth, including the Te Deum, “the pride of his life”. Box office: 01904 322439 or yorkconcerts.co.uk.
Across The Fields To The Sea, by John Thornton, from his Kentmere House Galleryexhibition
“Favourite artist” of the week: John Thornton, Across The Fields To The Sea, Kentmere House, Gallery, Scarcroft Hill, York
BORN in York and now living in Selby, seascape and landscape artist John Thornton has opened his latest show, Across The Fields To The Sea, at his regular York gallery.
“John is everyone’s favourite painter,” says gallery owner and curator Ann Petherick. “I’m delighted he has produced a new and exciting collection of paintings of Askham Bog and Skipwith Common woodlands and meadows and the occasional seascape, inspired by his travels in Yorkshire since the end of Covid.” Opening hours: First weekend of each month, 11am to 5pm; every Thursday, 6pm to 9pm; any other time by appointment on 01904 656507 or 07801 810825.
Louise Brooks in Diary Of A Lost Girl, showing at the NCEM on Tuesday
Film event of the week: Diary Of A Lost Girl (PG), with pianist Utsav Lal, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, June 11, 7.30pm
TRAILBLAZING New York raga pianist Utsav Lal improvises his live score to accompany Diary Of A Lost Girl, a rarely shown gem of German silent cinema starring American icon Louise Brooks.
Presented by Northern Silents, G W Pabst’s 1929 film traces the journey of a young woman from the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening. Box office: 01904 658338 and at ncem.co.uk.
Sex, sorcery and suckers: Shawna Hamic’s filthy-humoured Ursula in Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch. Picture: Pamela Raith
Musical discovery of the week: Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch, Grand Opera House, York, June 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER a hit London season, Yorkshire writer-director Robyn Grant heads north with her raucously rude, wickedly camp parody musical Unfortunate, wherein Disney diva Ursula, the villainous sea witch, rules the waves and waves the rules.
New York actress Shawna Hamic’s Ursula gives her filthy-humoured take on what really happened all those years ago under the sea in a bawdy tale of sex, sorcery and suckers. Age recommendation: 16+, on account of strong language, partial nudity and scenes of a sexual nature. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Courtney Broan as Ado Annie in Pickering Musical Society’s Oklahoma!
American classic of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Oklahoma!, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
LUKE Arnold directs Pickering Musical Society in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 love story of Curly (Marcus Burnside) and Laurie (Rachel Anderson), set in the sweeping landscapes of the American heartland.
Further roles go to Courtney Broan as Ado Annie, Stephen Temple as Will Parker, Michael O’Brien as Mr Carnes and Rick Switzer-Green as AliHakim, joined by dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets: Re-visiting Pink Floyd at York Barbican
Rock gig of the week: Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, York Barbican, June 12, 7.45pm
NICK Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets follow up their April 2022 appearance at York Barbican with Wednesday’s date on their Set The Controls Tour.
Once more, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason will be joined by Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, bassist Guy Pratt, guitarist Lee Harris and keyboardist Dom Beken to perform vintage Pink Floyd material. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The poster artwork for Calamity Jane, starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, on tour at Grand Opera House next spring
Show announcement of the week: Carrie Hope Fletcher in Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, April 29 to May 3 2025
IN the week when Nikolai Foster’s production of An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical is on tour at the Grand Opera House, the York theatre announces the booking of another show with the North Yorkshire director at the helm, this one bound for the West End.
Three-time WhatsOnStage Best Actress in a Musical winner Carrie Hope Fletcher will star in the whip-crackin’ musical as fearless Dakota gun-slinger Calamity Jane. “She is one of those roles that doesn’t come around all too often,” she says. “She’s action, romance and comedy all packed into one character, and I can’t wait to take on the challenge of filling her shoes.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Angels Of The North: Headlline drag act at York Pride today
PRIDE pageantry and wartime memoirs, open studios and open-air Status Quo lead off Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations.
Celebration of the week: York Pride, Knavesmire, York, today
NORTH Yorkshire’s biggest LGBT+ celebration opens with the Parade March for equality and human rights from Duncombe Place, outside York Minster, at 12 noon, processing through the city-centre streets, up Bishopthorpe Road to the festival’s Knavesmire site.
Pride events will be spread between the main stage, Queer Arts’ cabaret tent, Polymath’s dance tent and a funfair, complemented by a licensed bar and marketplace. Among the main stage acts will be headliners Angels Of The North, alias winner Ginger Johnson, Tomara Thomas and Michael Marouli, from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5, plus Max George, Big Brovaz & Booty Luv, Jaymi Hensley, Janice D and Eric Spike. Full details: yorkpride.org.uk.
Into the woods: George Stagnell as Dennis “Hank” Haydock in the short film In The Footsteps of Hank Haydock, premiered at Helmsley Arts Centre tonight
D-Day landmark of the week: Everwitch Theatre, Bomb Happy D-Day 80, In The Footsteps Of Hank Haydock (film premiere) and Sleep/Re-live/Wake Repeat (live performance), Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
TO commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Bomb Happy playwright Helena Fox has created two poignant, lyrical new works telling the stories of two Yorkshire Normandy veterans from conversations and interviews she held with them in 2016.
Featuring York actor George Stagnell, the short film In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock: A Walk In The Park was shot on location in the Duncombe Park woodland with its lyrical account of Coldstream Guardsman Dennis “Hank” Haydock’s experiences in his own words. In Sleep/Re-Live/Wake/Repeat, playwright Helena Fox and vocalist Natasha Jones bring to life the first-hand experiences of D-Day veteran Ken “Smudger” Smith and the lifelong impact of PTSD and sleep trauma through spoken word and a cappella vocals. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York artist Adele Karmazyn: Taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios
Art event of the week: North Yorkshire Open Studios 2024, today and tomorrow, June 8 and 9, 10am to 5pm
STRETCHING from the coast to the moors, dales and beyond, 169 artists and makers from North Yorkshire’s artistic community invite you to look inside their studios over the next two weekends.
Taking part in and around York will be Robin Grover-Jacques, Adele Karmazyn, Anna Cook, Boxxhead, Simon Palmour, Duncan McEvoy, Evie Leach, Jane Atkin, Jane Dignum, Jen Dring, Parkington Hatter, Jo Walton, Kitty Pennybacker, Lu Mason, Robert Burton, Lincoln Lightfoot, Sharon McDonagh, Claire Castle, Rosie Bramley, Emma Welsh, Lesley Peatfield, Gonzalo Blanco and Freya Horsley. For full details, go to: nyos.org.uk. A full brochure is available.
Isobel Staton: Directing Cain and Abel for A Creation For York, today’s York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust promenade production
York community play of the week: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Creation For York, around Micklegate, York, today, from 2pm and 3.30pm
YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust stages a trilogy of 20-minute plays from the Creation cycle, directed by Katie Smith, Dan Norman and Isobel Staton under Dr Tom Straszewski’s mentorship.
The promenade procession starts with Smith’s The Creation Of Man at St Columba’s, Priory Street, at 2pm and 3.30pm, and progresses to Holy Trinity, Micklegate, for Norman’s The Fall Of Man at 3pm and 4.30pm, then onwards to St Martin’s Stained Glass Centre, Micklegate, for Staton’s Cain And Abel at 4pm and 5.30pm. Tickets: ympst.co.uk/creation.
The poster artwork for Navigators Art & Performance’s night of live music, spoken word and comedy, The Basement Sessions #4, at City Screen Picturehouse
Navigators Art & Performance at York Festival of Ideas (festival running from today until June 14)
YORK arts collective Navigators Art & Performance presents the Micklegate Art Trail, a collaboration between shops, restaurants, artists, makers and community groups, from today until June 23, 10am to 4pm, including a special exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery. Tomorrow is the “official” launch day with activities in participating venues from 11 am.
Tomorrow comes As I Walked Out One Evening, An Exploration of W H Auden’s Poetry in Words, Music and Performance with York musicians, poets and performers at Museum Street Tavern, York, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. On June 8, The Basement Sessions #4 offers a night of music, spoken word and comedy at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse at 7pm with Percy, Amy Albright, Cai Moriarty, Danae, Suzy Bradley, Kane Bruce, Rose Drew and John Pease. Tickets and full festival details: yorkfestivalofideas.com.
Rain or shine: Francis Rossi, left, leads veteran band Status Quo at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tomorrow
Coastal gig of the week: Status Quo, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Sunday, gates 6pm
DENIM rock legends Status Quo open the 2024 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, where they played previously in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Led as ever by founder Francis Rossi, who turned 75 on Wednesday, they must pick their set from 64 British hit singles, more than any other band. The support act will be The Alarm. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/statusquo.
Georgia Lennon, as Paula Pofriki and Luke Baker as Zack Mayo in An Officer And A Gentleman, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 4 to 8, 8pm, Tuesday, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees
NORTH Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster directs Leeds-born actor Luke Baker as fearless young officer candidate Zack Mayor in the Curve, Leicester touring production of An Officer And A Gentleman.
Once an award-winning 1982 Taylor Hackford film, now Douglas Day Stewart’s story of love, courage and redemption comes re-booted with George Dyer’s musical theatre arrangements and orchestrations of pop bangers by Bon Jovi, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie and the signature song (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Guy Rhys, centre, as Captain Ahab in Simple8’s Moby Dick, setting sail at York Theatre Royal next week
Touring play of the week: Simple8 in Moby Dick, York Theatre Royal, June 6 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SEBASTIAN Armesto’s stage adaptation captures the spirit of Herman Melville’s novel – romantic, ambiguous and rich with allegory – for Simple8, specialists in creating worlds out of nothing in bold new plays that tackle big ideas with large casts.
Armed with sea shanties played live on stage, planks of wood, tattered sheets and a battered assortment of musical instruments, the ensemble of actors and actor-musicians, led by Guy Rhys’s whale-seeking Captain Ahab, brings Moby Dick ingeniously to life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In Focus: Northern Silents presents G W Pabst’s film Diary Of A Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, at NCEM, York, June 11
“From the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening”: Louise Brooks’s
TRAILBLAZING New York raga pianist Utsav Lal will provide the live score for Diary Of A Lost Girl, a rarely shown gem of German silent cinema starring Louise Brooks, at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on June 11 at 7.30pm.
Premiered in Vienna, Austria, on September 12 1929, and now screened by Northern Silents, G W Pabst’s film traces the journey of a young woman from the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening.
Directed with virtuoso flair by Pabst, Diary Of A Lost Girl (PG, 104 minutes) represents the final pairing of the Czechia-born Austrian filmmaker with American silent screen icon Louise Brooks, mere months after their first collaboration in the now-legendary Pandora’s Box, for which Brooks had arrived in Berlin on October 14 1928 to play alluring temptress Lulu.
In Diary Of A Lost Girl, she is pharmacist Robert Henning’s innocent daughter Thymian, who is traumatised by the suicide of housekeeper Elisabeth after her father expels her from the house.
Even more so when Henning’s assistant rapes Thymian. Pregnant, she refuses to marry her assailant, prompting her outraged father to sendher to a reformatory for “wayward women”, where a cruel regime prevails. Henning, meanwhile, makes advances towards new housekeeper, Meta, who insists Thymian should not be allowed to return home.
Thymian escapes with her friend Erika but discovers that her child has passed away. She joins Erika in working at a brothel, then marries a count, but can she ever escape her past?
Pianist Utsav Lal, noted for his innovative performances at Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre and around the world, will improvise a unique live score at the 7.30pm screening.
Huddersfield-based Northern Silents will return to the NCEM with another fusion of new music and vintage film on October 15. Watch this space for more details.
Tickets for Diary Of A Lost Girl are on sale on 01904 658338 and at ncem.co.uk.
In Focus too: Anita Klein, 30 Years In York, exhibition launch at Pyramid Gallery, York, today at 12 noon
Poster artwork for Anita Klein’s 30 Years In York exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York
ARTIST Anita Klein will attend today’s opening of her Thirty Years In York exhibition of paintings, linocuts and etchings at Pyramid Gallery, York.
“Anita was one of the first artist printmakers to be shown here and has shown her work in York constantly since June 1994,” says Terry Brett, owner and curator of the gallery in Stonegate.
That first exhibition marked a dramatic change in both the look of the gallery and its fortunes under the new ownership of Terry, who took the keys to Pyramid Gallery on May 31 1994 with his then partner and wife Elaine.
“As soon as Elaine and I had taken over the gallery, I contacted the Greenwich Printmaking co-operative who ran a shop in Greenwich market,” Terry recalls. “They agreed to do a show and I collected work by 15 artists in my car.
“Several of those artists have supplied Pyramid Gallery regularly for 30 years. The first print that sold was a small drypoint print by Anita Klein, which I had put in the window one evening, before the show had opened.”
Terry continues: “Anita was not a big name in the art world in 1994, but she certainly had a following and has since had a very successful career as an artist with features on BBC Radio and national newspapers and magazines.
Pyramid Gallery curator Terry Brett with Anita Klein works and a copy of her 2022 book Out Of The Ordinary, charting her career since 1982
“‘From working with Anita and other former Greenwich artists, such as Mychael Barratt, Trevor Price and Louise Davies, I have come to realise that the relationship between artist and gallery is something that is really worth nurturing. I place great importance on visiting the South East London-based artists, personally collecting the work for each show.”
To mark the start of Terry Brett’s 30th year as a gallerist, Anita Klein is travelling up from London to attend today’s opening from 12 noon to 2pm, when she will sign copies of her 2022 book, Out Of The Ordinary, too.
Australian-born Anita began her career by studying painting on degree and post-graduate courses at the Slade School of Art, where she was influenced by Paula Rego, who encouraged her to “draw what she wanted to draw”.
In response, she started to capture scenes depicting ordinary moments of her own life. Given expert guidance at the school, she learnt to reproduce those sketches using the various techniques of printmaking.
She met her future husband and artist Nigel Swift at the Slade. From the outset, Anita’s artistic diary of her life has often featured amusing or romantic scenes of the two of them or sometimes only ‘Nige’ in the throes of some activity that Anita has observed and captured in a sketch.
In 1984 she was awarded the Joseph Webb Memorial prize by the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers to spend the summer drawing from the Italian masters. Anita and Nigel stayed in a flat in Arezzo, Tuscany, and filled sketch books with sketches of Italian frescoes.
Casserole, linocut, by Anita Klein
Soon after, they married and had two children, Maia and Leia, Anita recording it all in many small prints using techniques that included woodcuts, etching, lithograph, aquatint and drypoint. When their daughters were small, she made small sketches while they were asleep and developed them into drypoint prints at a printmaking evening class.
For her first solo show in 1986, she had a year to prepare enough images to fill a gallery in London, which led her to simplify the way she worked. Fortunately for all her followers and collectors, the first show was successful and led to another solo show elsewhere.
Many years later, after she supplied her work to as many as 60 galleries, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers elected Anita to the prestigious position as president. During those 38 years, her work and life has been profiled in national newspapers and magazines and on BBC Radio 4’s Home Truths, presented by John Peel.
In 2007, Anita and Nigel bought a flat in a medieval hilltop town in Tuscany. After painting large oils from her studio in London for many years, she started to paint in acrylics on canvas when staying in Italy.
By using acrylics, she was able to roll up the paintings and carry them back to London, which in turn enabled Pyramid Gallery to show a few of her paintings, along with a larger exhibition of the prints.
For Terry, the choice of Anita Klein to begin a year of anniversary celebratory shows, is apt. “My own family life corresponds quite closely with Anita’s in that I got married about the same time and had two daughters, Elinor and Suzy, just two years prior to the births of Maia and Leia,” he says.
Artist Anita Klein: 30 years of exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, York
“I could relate to almost every image that Anita created about her family life. When I was helping my two daughters learn to drive, Anita produced a print that could easily have been about us. We even had a similar car. ‘Picking Maia and Leia up from School’ or ‘Driving to Ballet’ could also easily have been about my own family.”
When asked how she came to start documenting her own life, Anita says: “There was no plan to start with. Drawing my everyday life was at first a continuation of the kind of drawings I did as a child. And as I spent the first 20 or so years of my career bringing up my two children with no extra childcare help, it was really the only subject matter I knew.
“Looking back, I can see that I have always wanted to hold onto and celebrate the ordinary. The small repetitive joys that can so easily go unnoticed and unappreciated.”
Knowing how fortunate he is still to be able to represent an eminent London artist with such a large following, Terry asked Anita: “What does Pyramid Gallery and York mean to you?”.
“Pyramid Gallery has been very good to me over the years, showing and selling my work from the very early days of my career while other galleries have come and gone,” she says. “At one point I had prints in over 60 galleries worldwide.
“These days I have cut this down substantially – the Internet and social media enables me to reach a wide audience, and Pyramid is one of only a small handful of galleries that has a large selection of my work.”
Eating Pizza, linocut, by Anita Klein
Mounting this exhibition has enabled Terry to pause a while and “take a long look at the gallery more as a pleasurable activity than as a business”.
“Sometimes I can become a bit too focused on the sales figures and the marketing, but in recent weeks I’ve been looking forward to celebrating the landmark of having been nurturing the gallery for three decades, as if it were a part of me that I have to ease through challenges and crises,” he says.
“Pyramid Gallery has become a meeting point for those that need to create and those that need the joy of feeling moved or inspired. It really is more about people than it is about art.
“It gives me a glowing feeling of warmth that I am able to connect a great artist like Anita, who is a storyteller and recorder of social history and of human emotions, with those who visit the gallery for exactly the same experience that inspired the creation of the images.”
For Terry’s 30th anniversary show, Anita will be showing two or three acrylic paintings alongside coloured linocut prints and many black-and-white images of various sizes with a price range from £96 for a small etching up to £7,000 for a large painting.
Here Terry Brett puts questions to Anita Klein
Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett with works by Anita Klein
You first supplied Pyramid Gallery as part of a show by Greenwich Printmakers in 1994. How important was that co-operative to you and was it an easy decision to be part of that show?
“Greenwich Printmakers was a vital first step to exhibiting and selling my work, both through their gallery in Greenwich Market and through their ‘outside exhibitions’. Those exhibitions introduced my work to a number of regional galleries, including Pyramid.
“In the days before social media it was crucial to get your work seen as much as possible in galleries, so that first show was a great opportunity for me.
In those days you were bringing up two small daughters and doing your art on the floor when they were napping. Many of your drypoints were quite small – was this by choice or a necessity?
“I did some painting when my children were small, but without a studio in the early days I was limited to small-scale work. I drew my drypoints while the children slept and printed them once a week at a printmaking evening class.”
Do you enjoy being ‘dragged out’ of London to open a show in York?
“It’s wonderful to have exposure of my work in York, and it’s always a pleasure to visit such a fascinating and vibrant city.”
When did you realise that other people would very quickly find parallels in their own lives and connect so easily with your work?
“It came as a surprise at first that other people saw themselves in my work. I thought my life was unique! Now I know that we are all much more alike than we think, especially in the most private parts of our lives.”
Cold water wild swimming has become an important activity to you. Does the need for a new image in your art ever drive you to do find new places to swim?
“Not really. I can always make up the backgrounds! But I’m always on the lookout for beautiful places to swim, so just as with all other parts of my life this feeds into my work.”
