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.
Shawna Hamic, centre, in all her “octo-glory” as Ursula, the sea witch, in Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch. Picture: Pamela Raith
IN the wake of a ten-week London run and the York Pride celebrations, the musical parody Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch arrives at the Grand Opera House, York, next week with its queer queen tales of sex, sorcery and suckers.
Co-written and directed by Leeds-born Robyn Grant, who cut her teeth on the York musical theatre scene, this rude, riotous riposte to Walt Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid revels in the lead performance of Broadway actress Shawna Hamic, playing opposite RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star River Medway’s Ariel.
Combining the “trademark filthy humour” of Grant and Daniel Foxx’s script with an original hot pop soundtrack, arrangements and orchestrations by Tim Gilvin, Unfortunate finds Disney diva Ursula giving her take on what really happened all those years ago under the sea.
Six Off West End Theatre Award nominations have come the way of Unfortunate. “If you hate it, it’s all my fault,” jokes writer-director Robyn Grant of her 2019 creation.
“I began making my own work after training as an actor at East 15 Acting School, where I started exploring writing and directing and wrote my first show, Buzz: A Musical History of the Vibrator in my second year.”
She toured with her company Fat Rascal Theatre. “We brought small-scale musicals to York Theatre Royal Studio, including a gender-swap Beauty And The Beast,” she recalls. “We liked doing parodies and flipping things, and off the back of that, we started thinking about Ursula. Even though the film came out in 1989, she’s very much part of culture.
“You can still buy Ursula pyjamas at Primark, and she’s become a queer icon. She’s one of the only female Disney villains. She’s plus size, naughty and sexy and very unapologetic about it, but she didn’t have much screen time so we decided to fix that!”
Unfortunate writer-director Robyn Grant
Unfortunate first emerged at the Underbelly at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe. “I played Ursula in that version, starting out at an hour-long. We were astonished that the run sold out pretty early on, with this recognisable character really catching on,” Robyn says.
Gradually, the show has expanded from a cast of five to ten for the Southwark Playhouse run and five-month tour, while the running time is now 70 minutes for the first half, 65 for the second. The set is bigger too.
“In terms of a model for how to grow a British musical theatre show, not everyone has a Cameron Mackintosh or the RSC to support them, so we’re incredibly proud to hit this scale.
“The Birmingham Hippodrome has been very supportive, and we’ve been very lucky to have a commercial producer, Runaway Entertainment, producer of 2:22 A Ghost Story, who’ve come on board along with lots of angels backing us, who’ll hopefully get their money back and more.”
To cast Ursula this time, “I think I saw every fantastic-sized woman in the world,” says Robyn. “I first met Shawna on Zoom. She was fabulous, crawling all over the camera! She was filthy, funny, such a laugh. She was extraordinary.
“I immediately said, to my producers’ horror, ‘we need to bring this woman over from America’, but thankfully they said ‘yes’ and she’s been absolutely worth it.
“The show has massively grown, and the way it’s grown so huge means we’re about to release a cast album led by Shawna, available on all streaming platforms. We’ve had people seeing the show multiple times, following it around, and we now have a global audience, excited at the possibility of doing the show. We’re being asked to take it to America, where we’re in negotiation to go there over the next two years.”
“I work on it every night, always trying to find a better and different way of doing the comedy,” says Unfortunate star Shawna Hamic
You will note that Disney is not mentioned in the show title. “Because it’s a parody musical we’re protected by those laws, so we’re able to jab at how they present princesses, the role of women in their movies, the representation of women in relationships, especially in The Little Mermaid,” says Robyn, who had “the absolute most fun making this glorious monstrosity”.
In that role, New York City actress Shawna Hamic is enjoying her British travels – “everywhere I go is like a new home, so that’s exciting,” she says – on the back of her London stage debut.
“When the producers contacted my agents to see if I’d be willing to do it, because Ursula is one of my favourite animated characters I leapt at it. It took a couple of months to process the visa, which was dependant on government approval to say I had enough credits to justify me taking the role, rather than a British actor.
“It’s been an incredible opportunity. It was always something I’d wanted to do, thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be amazing for a show to bring me over’, rather than me just coming over.”
Shawna feels a “great responsibility” in playing Ursula. “That’s because of all the work that’s gone before, with Robyn, Daniel and Tim putting their heart and soul into it,” she says. “But I also want to put my own stamp on it. I wouldn’t be in it if I didn’t think I could bring something to it.
“It’s been fun, and maybe I’ve even surprised Robyn by saying ‘I know you wrote it and starred in it, but how about doing it this way?’. I work on it every night, always trying to find a better and different way of doing the comedy, because otherwise it becomes stagnant – and I don’t want.”
Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch, Grand Opera House, York, June 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Age guidance: 16+. Why? Contains strong language, partial nudity, scenes of a sexual nature and flashing lights.
Love lift us up where we belong: Georgia Lennon’s Paula Pokrifki and Luke Baker’s Zack Mayo
THE conversions keep coming. Hairspray. Shrek. Elf. Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Billy Elliot. The Lion King. Legally Blonde. Heathers. The Bodyguard. Beetlejuice. Back To The Future.
Going back to find theatre’s future has become a well-worn path, one paved with gold for producers and venues alike as the conveyor belt from screen to stage musical threatens to turn into a traffic jam.
Already this year, the Grand Opera House has played host to the divinely sassy, soulful Sister Act The Musical and Pretty Woman The Musical, a cheesy, dated rom.com reboot with workmanlike Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance songs.
Back to the USA once more for An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, a vastly more satisfying slice of American culture, driven by George Dyer’s superb orchestrations of Eighties’ pop bangers plus James Brown’s 1966 belter It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World (or This Is A Man’s Man’s Man’s World as it is re-named here for an assertive distaff rendition by the Port Townsend paper mill factory workers).
This Curve, Leicester touring production is stamped Made In Yorkshire as much as “product of the USA”. Director Nikolai Foster is a North Yorkshireman and lead actor Luke Baker was born in Leeds; both are on terrific form here.
As the press-night audience – dominated by women – settles into the dark, the voice of President Ronald Reagan evokes the 1982 setting from the off, making way for the roar of a jet as the new intake arrives at the United States Naval Aviation Training facility at Pensacola, Florida.
“This is not Top Gun,” said Baker in his interview. Indeed so. Not once will anyone be seen in a cockpit, the only sighting of a jet being the frame picked out in lights in the backdrop to Michael Taylor’s set.
Billed as a “timeless story of love, courage and redemption to make your heart soar and leave you breathless”, this show is an emotional rollercoaster rather than a thrill ride, darker too with its depiction of fatherly rejection, a mother’s suicide, factory ennui and mental turmoil, but yes, it is still romantic.
The 1982 screenwriter, Douglas Day Stewart, combines with Sharleen Cooper Cohen for a book that finds the ideal balance between male and female perspectives: the macho muscularity shielding vulnerability on one side; the bonding amid the monotonous hours for factory workers, such as Melanie Masson’s Esther Pokrifki and Wendi Harriott’s Aunt Bunny, on the other. In particular, the admirably singular focus of officer candidate Casey Segar (Olivia Foster-Browne).
Baker’s college graduate Zack Mayo arrives on his motorbike (the one engine we do hear), determined to make it through aviation school to elite jet training. He lost his mother at 12; his heavy-drinking navy dad (Tim Rogers’ Bryon Mayo) jettisoned any responsibility, but Zack has an outsider’s steely resolve to defy the odds. He clicks instantly with Esther’s daughter Paula Pofrifki (Georgia Lennon), a factory worker of Polish stock, determined to shake up her life.
In a parallel storyline, admiral’s son Sid Worley (Paul French) must deal with being burdened with his family name and his father’s unhidden preference for his late brother. Enter factory worker Lynette Pomeroy (Sinead Long in early Eighties’ Madonna’s wardrobe), ruthlessly looking for a good time.
Officer training runs in tandem with learning lessons in young love, the training in the charge of Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (the outstanding Jamal Kane Crawford), a gravel-voiced, tough taskmaster with a waspish tongue to go with his physically and mentally exhausting regime. The bright lights of TJ’s bar and neon-lit motel bedrooms offer relief from navy discipline and navel gazing.
From Taylor’s metallic, industrial set design and Eighties’ costume designs to Joanna Goodwin’s intense, hot choreography and Foster’s exhilarating direction to superb performances by Baker, Lennon, Crawford, French, Long and Foster-Browne, An Officer And A Gentleman hits the heights.
Backed by Christopher Duffy’s band, the vocal performances relish Dyer’s revelatory arrangements, whether opening with In The Navy Now, bringing new resonance to Kids In America or mirroring Madonna in pink in Material Girl. None betters French, Lennon and Baker’s take on Family Man, not even (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong.
An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/York
IT was a field day for horns. All the works in this afternoon programme conducted by Simon Wright featured important French horn solos. Strauss’s First Horn Concerto was centrepiece, preceded by a Humperdinck prelude and dances by Elgar, and followed by Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony.
The horn has always been considered the Romantic instrument par excellence, evocative of fairy-tale, fantasy and fanfare alike. Humperdinck opens his opera Hansel and Gretel with a chorale for a quartet of horns, suggesting the presence of the divine over the children’s adventures. The horns here were a model of composure, although the orchestra’s subsequent capers just lacked that final ounce of playfulness.
Elgar’s three orchestrations of songs in From The Bavarian Highlands distil the essence of dance in the southern German countryside, a favourite holiday spot he enjoyed with his wife Alice. The central Lullaby found principal horn Janus Wadsworth in smooth fettle.
There was plenty of joie de vivre in the opening number, but the real joy came in The Marksmen, where Simon Wright’s delicate tempo changes were minutely observed and the final accelerando was delightfully dashing.
It was a privilege to be in the audience for the Strauss horn concerto. Its soloist, Annemarie Federle, principal horn of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, sports not merely superb technical expertise but a musicality personality that bubbles into all her playing.
It is not too strong to call her the Emma Raducanu of the horn. Both stars are 21, with bright futures and the freshness of youth on their side.
We have produced some outstanding horn players in this country over the years, but Federle is already right in the front rank. The orchestra offered every support she could have wanted, giving plenty of meaning to the ritornellos; Wright’s rapport with her was exemplary.
There was a telling moment in the opening movement. She leapt to a high note and it was not quite right. It was not out of tune, just not perfectly placed. But she made an immediate adjustment that opened out its resonance; it was the mark of a perfectionist.
Her velvety legato in the Andante encased a central section where she added heft to her tone to dramatic effect. In a seemingly nerveless finale, she managed some impeccable shades of phrasing despite the rapid tempo.
We were still not done with the horns. The slow movement of Dvorak’s Seventh features some telling moments for the instrument. Once again Wadsworth did not disappoint. He has been a faithful servant to this orchestra for many years and he deserved his moments in the spotlight.
The composer’s colourful orchestration emerged with considerable clarity in the opening Allegro, taken at a leisurely, lilting pace. But energy had been kept in reserve for the scherzo, which was crisp and taut, with idyllic contrast in its trio.
Wright’s command of this ensemble was in evidence again in the finale as he played with the tempo at phrase-endings and the orchestra responded as to the manner born. This movement has been compared to the devil’s music in Weber’s Der Freischütz and its stern drama remained strong right up until the final cadence in the major key.
The orchestra has decided to persist with Sunday matinee performances in the coming season, which begins on October 6. On this showing, any family with musical interests would be foolish to miss it.
Guy Rhys’s Captain Ahab, centre, leads the whale hunt in Simple 8’s Moby Dick, on tour at York Theatre Royal
SEEKING a whale of a time? Head off to Moby Dick, open studios and musicals full of physical exercise, suggests Charles Hutchinson.
Touring play of the week: Simple8 in Moby Dick, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SEBASTIAN Armesto’s stage adaptation captures the romantic, ambiguous, richly allegorical spirit of Herman Melville’s novel 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.
Wildlife and landscape artist Jonathan Pomroy: Opening his studio at 4 Pottergate, Gilling East, for North Yorkshire Open Studios
Art event of the week: North Yorkshire Open Studios 2024, Saturday and Sunday, 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 this weekend.
Among them will be Steve Page (Sheriff Hutton); Russell Hughes (Easingwold); Richard Gray (Easingwold); Justine Warner (Sheriff Hutton); Patrick Smith (Sheriff Hutton); Calum Balding (Thornton le Clay); Sue Walsh (Cawton); Jonathan Pomroy (Gilling East); Stephen Bird (Ampleforth); Mary Raynar (Helmsley); Ruth King (Boltby) and Marcus Jacka (Boltby). For full details, go to: nyos.org.uk. A full brochure is available.
Tim Pearce’s poster artwork for Life Forms In Motion at Blossom Street Gallery, York
York exhibition of the week: 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.
Save our lido: Drip Drop Theatre in All Those On Board at Helmsley Arts Centre
Making a splash: Drip Drop Theatre in All Those On Board, Helmsley Arts Centre, tomorrow, 7.30pm
NORTH Yorkshire company Drip Drop Theatre presents the premiere of E C R Roberts’s new musical All Those On Board, wherein Bingham-by-the-Sea’s Save The Lido group members are determined to save the town’s long-closed 1930s’ swimming pool from demolition.
They need to come up with the funding before the deadline, no matter to what lengths they must go. Fifteen original songs, live instruments, leg-kicking choreography and colourful swimming hats combine in this lido-themed show for fans of upbeat musical theatre and outdoor swimming in whatever form. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Gary Stewart: Playing the Paul Simon songbook at Helmsley Arts Centre
Ryedale gig of the week: Gary Stewart, The Only Living Boy In (New) York: The Songs of Paul Simon, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
PERTHSHIRE-BORN singer, songwriter, folk musician and Hope & Social drummer Gary Stewart’s compositions are influenced by Sixties and Seventies’ folk artists. Chief among them is New Jersey’s Paul Simon, whose songs Easingwold-based Stewart grew up learning and performing.
Here he interprets such Simon standouts as The Boxer, Mrs Robinson, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Kodachrome and Graceland. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Ryedale Primary Choir: Taking part in Across The Whinny Moor at St Peter’s Church, Norton, on Saturday
Ryedale Festival community event of the week: Across The Whinny Moor, St Peter’s Church, Norton, Saturday, 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.
Mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds: Singing in Across The Whinny Moor
Tribute gig of the month: The Belgrave House Band presents Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, Milton Rooms, Malton, June 16, 8pm
THE Belgrave House Band, specialists in reimagining classic albums, have visited Malton previously with their interpretations of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
Now they return with their take on Amy Winehouse’s second album, 2006’s Back To Black, joined by London vocalist Lydia Kotsirea and a full horn section, backing vocalists and rhythm section from the burgeoning Leeds jazz scene. York singer-songwriter Maggie Wakeling supports. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster artwork for Calamity Jane, whip crackin’ its way to the Grand Opera House, York, 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.
Ryedale Primary Choir: Ready to take part in Across The Whinny Moor, the Ryedale Festival community song cycle
DO you believe in magic? Mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds, storyteller Rosie Barrett and an all-age Ryedale cast bring cheeky hobs, angry mermaids, resourceful giants and wise witches to life in Ryedale Festival’s community song cycle Across The Whinny Moor on Saturday afternoon at St Peter’s Church, Norton.
Inspired by the Lyke Wake Walk, this evocative and mysterious tapestry of magical thinking, Yorkshire superstitions and the power of imagination is packed full of local folk legends.
The song cycle gently follows the route of the 42-mile walk across the highest and widest part of the North York Moors National Park, dwelling in spots of interest to explore stories such as The Ballad of Wade and Bell, where, at Wade’s Causeway, the songs tell of mermaids as the first glimpses of the sea come into sight.
Saturday’s 4pm world premiere will feature a cast of more than 100 schoolchildren and amateur singers, who have co-created Across The Whinny Moor with composer John Barber and writer Hazel Gould.
Mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds
Developed through sessions in Ryedale schools, a one-off event for young people and online workshops with choir members, together they have explored local folklore and ideas, creating new segments of text and music that Barber and Gould have worked into the new song cycle.
Conducted by Caius Lee, the Ryedale Primary Choir schoolchildren and the Ryedale Voices, Harmonia and The RyeLarks choirs will be joined by Kirkbymoorside Town Junior Brass Band, Simmonds and Barrett.
Alison Davis, who runs the three adult choirs, says: “We are thrilled to be part of this community song cycle and have enjoyed working with John and Hazel since January. It was great to see them at choir rehearsals and they’ve taken away a good idea of our level and style and have written some incredible original material for us, quite different from our usual music.”
In amongst the new music, Simmonds will sing works by Schubert (The Erl King), Handel and Rebecca Clarke. Shining Brass will play Mendelssohn’s Baba Yaga and traditional folk tunes, such as The Lyke Wake Dirge and The Lark In The Morning, arranged by Barber.
Ryedale Voices: One of the choirs performing at St Peter’s Church, Norton
Rosie Barrett creates original stories that bring heritage to life, often commissioned by museums, including Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, where she has worked on its latest exhibition, Believe It Or Not?
Running until November 17 (closed on Fridays), the exhibition showcases more than 200 objects connected with magical thinking and folk beliefs, many of them being explored in Across The Whinny Moor.
Rosie says: “I’ve always had a particular fondness for folklore, which I believe connects us deeply with our ancestors. When we hear the stories that the people of the past heard, we are sharing in the emotions and experiences that they shared, and, by reinventing folk tales, we ensure that they stay relevant for each generation. “
Writer Hazel Gould says: “I love to go walking and often use walking time as a way to clear my head. If I can resist the temptation to listen to a podcast or music, the time I spend walking can often be incredibly helpful if I have an idea that I’m struggling with or need to develop.
Harmonia: On song for Across The Whinny Moor
“There’s something about the rhythm of walking that allows my thoughts a bit of free range, away from the distractions of a busy life, and it becomes a place where the imagination can blossom.
“Walking and stories seem to be perfect partners, so we were delighted to discover more about the Lyke Wake Walk and wanted to use this map across the moors as a way to bring together some of the stories from the rich folklore of the region.”
Hazel continues: “It has been a huge pleasure to learn more. I have loved working alongside our primary school groups and adult choirs to talk about these tales and create songs together, from angry hobs to misunderstood women, sometimes called witches. We hope you like it too.”
Festival artistic director Christopher Glynn says: “Enabling and celebrating local music making is very important to the festival. Presented in association with the Richard Shephard Music Foundation and Ryedale Folk Museum, Across The Whinny Moor brings together the Ryedale Primary Choir, storyteller Rosie Barrett, local choirs run by Alison Davis, the Kirkbymoorside Town Junior Brass Band, star mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds and conductor Caius Lee.
Sing when you’re swinging: Ryedale Primary Choir
“John and Hazel have harnessed the rich and wild ideas of all these performers, and we are very excited to hear the result on June 8. Join us!’’
Music foundation chief executive officer Cathy Grant says: “The young people involved in the community song cycle have been brought together by the Richard Shephard Music Foundation, the charity helping to increase musical opportunities for children in our region.
“They come from the Ryedale Primary Choir and local primary schools and are aged between seven and 13. Overall, around 120 children have taken part in songwriting workshops, in-school singing workshops or choir rehearsals, and a group of these will be in the final performance on Saturday, singing alongside the adult choir and other musicians.”
Ryedale Festival presents Community Song Cycle: Across The Whinny Moor, a walk through stories and songs by John Barber and Hazel Gould, world premiere, St Peter’s Church, Norton, June 8, 4pm. Box office: ryedalefestival.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173652657.
Victoria Simmonds performing at the world premiere at St Peter’s Church on June 8Ryedale schoolchildren singing at the Across The Whinny Moor premiere
The locations on Navigators Art & Performance’s Micklegate Art Trail for the York Festival of Ideas
YORK arts collective Navigators Art & Performance is making a double contribution to the York Festival of Ideas fortnight.
This morning marks the official launch of the Micklegate Art Trail, an innovative community engagement project, highlighted today by activities in participating venues from 11 am.
Running until June 23 at 10am to 4pm each day, the trail is a collaboration between shops, restaurants, artists, makers and community groups.
Artists taking part will be: Adele Karmazyn; Ala Jazayeri; Angela Scott; April Gibson; Brenda Christison; Caroline Lewis; Chalky the Yorkie; Chrissy Buse; Desmond Clarke; Donna Maria Taylor; Eliiot Harrison; Em Goldie; Emma Parker; Fiona Kemp; George Willmore; Hellboreia; Isabel Bullon Benito; Jude Redpath; Katie Fleming; Katie Lewis; Lara Aitken; Larrissa Guida Lock; Leon Francois Dumont; Lincoln Lightfoot and Linda Harrison.
So too are: Lisa Power; Lu Mason; Lucy Churchill; Mark Kesteven; Matthew Fawcett; Melissa Hill; Naomi Wells Smith; Nicholas ESRJ King; Nick Kobyluch; Nick Walters; Nicola Glover; Nicola Harper; Pete (The Plasterer) Baker; Phil Bixby; Poppy Burr; Richard Mackness; Rizak; Schiewe Ceramics; Simon Pagan; Sola; Steve Beadle; Susan Bradley; Tom Bennett; Tom Maynard and Zoe Phillips.
Twenty locations will be putting artists’ work in the window: The Punch Bowl, Plaskitt & Plaskitt Interior Design and Blossom Street Gallery, all Blossom Street; Bridal Relived; Brewdog; Old School Barber Shop; Holy Trinity Church; Cads of Micklegate; Skosh; The Falcon; 84 Sandwich Bar; Dannie Lea Hair & Beauty; Divine Coffee Roasters; Eliza Lamb; Hudson Moody; Oxfam Bookshop; Cafe Fleur; Fancy Dance Shop and Amnesty Bookshop, all Micklegate, and The Hooting Owl, Rougier Street.
The Micklegate Art Trail brochure
Tonight, Navigators Art & Performance turns the focus on York-poet W H Auden at Museum Street Tavern, where York musicians, poets and performers will be gathering for An Exploration of W H Auden’s Poetry in Words, Music and Performance from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
“Wystan Hugh Auden was born in Bootham, York, in 1907. Informed by science and engineering, his fascination with the world and its workings was expressed in a myriad of poetic forms, earning him the title the Picasso of modern poetry,” says Navigators Art & Performance.
“As well as over 400 poems of both profundity and great wit, he wrote drama, es-says, libretti, travel writing and works of criticism: a range that reflects the multi-faceted nature of human life and his own aliveness to all of it.
“Openly gay and defiantly anti-establishment, he was controversial and influential in his views on politics, morals, love, and religion, and widely recognised as a leader of the British avant-garde at a time of cultural and creative flux in Europe.
“His editor recognised him as ‘the first poet writing in English who felt at home in the 20th century. Auden died in Vienna in 1973. We hope you will make him feel at home in the 21st century too.”
In the words of W H Auden in 1927: “All genuine poetry is in a sense the formation of private spheres out of a public chaos.”
Tonight’s programme:
Introduction About York Trailblazers.
Hugh Bernays talk; Jealous Love (Auden, unpublished)
Auden’s Face (original)
Charlotte Shevchenko Knight: Night Mail (Auden)
Musée des Beaux Arts (Auden)
Ukrainian as In (original)
Richard Kitchen: O What Is That Sound (Auden)
Look, Stranger (Auden)
StreetLines: extract 2 (original)
Anthony Vahni Capildeo (recorded material) Letters from Iceland (Auden)
Letters from Jorvik (original)
Janet Dean: 1st September 1939 (Auden)
England 2020 (original)
Three Dresses: My Mother Wonders
How I Felt About Her Death (original)
JT Welsch: Lullabye – duet with Janet Dean (Auden; guitar)
As I Walked Out One Evening (Auden; guitar).
Part Two, after 20-minute interval
Alan Gillott talk; Influence (original)
Carrieanne Vivianette: This Thing (original)
Performative interpretation of a poem by Auden (title to be revealed!)
JT Welsch: The Fall Of Rome (Auden; guitar)
Funeral Blues (Auden; guitar)
Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell: Poem XVII Auden)
If I Could Tell You (Auden)
Behold the Body Of The Moon (original)
Lower On Your Arms Reversed (original)
Richard Kitchen: Clerihews (various)
Jane Stockdale: Silent Lands (original; acapella)
If I Could Tell You (Auden; guitar)
As I Walked Out One Evening (Auden; Shruti box).
The poster artwork for The Basement Sessions #4
“The Festival of Ideas has a different theme every year and the great thing about it is that if you’re organising an event that might fit, you just contact the organisers and propose it,” says Navigators Art co-founder Richard Kitchen.
“If they like your proposal, you’re in! We did that for the first time last year and it was an amazing success, particularly our sold-out performance event, which we hope will happen again this year.
“By demand, we’re hoping to repeat the Auden event in October, when the associated York Trailblazers sculpture project will be in place at various locations in York.” Watch this space for updates.
In addition, on June 8,Navigators Art & Performance’s 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.
For tickets andfull festival details, visit: yorkfestivalofideas.com.
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.”
And then there were nuns: York Light Opera Company’s flyer for Nunsense: The Mega-Musical
THE Little Sisters of Hoboken will be bigger than ever in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical, York Light Opera Company’s summer show at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
Running from June 26 to July 6, the divine delights of Dan Goggin’s musical are being directed by Neil Wood with musical direction by Martin Lay.
“Get ready for a heavenly dose of laughter as we present a side-splitting extravaganza brimming with witty humour, toe-tapping tunes and heavenly hilarity,” says Neil.
In the wake of the unfortunate passing of four beloved sisters – now “chilling out in the freezer” after a “culinary catastrophe” involving soup – the remaining Little Sisters of Hoboken find themselves in a sticky situation. To raise funds for a proper burial – and perhaps a new cook! – the nuns take centre stage for a riotous revue like no other.
For the uninitiated, Dan Goggin’s 1985 off-Broadway musical promises a night of unforgettable entertainment, featuring:
● An all-singing, all tap-dancing cast of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, each with their own delightful personality.
● A script packed with jokes and side-splitting situations.
● Show-stopping song-and-dance numbers.
● A heart-warming message of community, perseverance and finding humour even, in the face of adversity.
Building on the success of last June’s “riotous, rude and relevant” I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, York Light will stage a “mega-sized version” of Goggin’s show with an expanded cast, new characters and even more musical mayhem.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to return to York Light Opera Company to direct their summer show for the second year running,” says Neil. “Nunsense: The Mega-Musical is an exciting, hysterical and entertaining show and I’ve been lucky enough to cast 12 exceptionally talented actresses who encapsulate their various characters to perfection. It’s a wonderful show, which I’m sure audiences will adore.”
One cast hitch has required a novel solution, Neil reveals: “As with producing any show, you come across little hiccups, and our Father Virgil [Matt Tapp] being sent to the Highlands a month before opening night is possibly the most extreme hiccup I’ve had to deal with as a director.
“So, what’s the solution? Do you find one actor who can cover all ten shows at late notice? No! Instead, we’ve found ten actors who can do one night each with limited rehearsal! Keep your eyes on social media to find out who.”
Inspiration came from comedy national treasures Eric and Ernie. “I got the idea having seen the guest actors in The Play What I Wrote, which is a show based on the life of Morecambe and Wise, and it’s worked exceptionally well!” says Neil.
“We had such a good response from the gentlemen of York Light Opera Company and within days had managed to cast all ten performances. However, that’s just one little treat for the audience…
“…Throw in tap dancing, tightrope walking and ventriloquism and you know you are in for a night you will never forget.”
York Light Opera Company in Nunsense: The Mega-Musical; Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 26 to July 6, 7.30pm (except June 30, July 1 and July 6); 3pm, June 29 and 30, July 6. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Who’s who in the cast?
Reverend Mother Mary Regina: Joy Warner; Sister Mary Hubert: Clare Meadley (except July 5 and 6), Alison Davies , July 5 and 6; Sister Robert Anne: Emily Rockliff; Sister Mary Amnesia: Annabel van Griethuysen; Sister Mary Leo: Emma Craggs-Swainston; Sister Julia, Child of God: Kathryn Addison, replacing Pascha Turnbull, with only five days of rehearsals to go; Sister Mary Brendan: Sarah Foster; Sister Mary Luke: Chloë Chapman; Sister Mary Wilhelm: Madeleine Hicks; Father Virgil: as explained above; Brother Timothy: Ben Wood; Sister Mary John: Alison Davies (except July 5 and 6); Sister Mary Matthew: Amy Greene; Sister Mary Mark: Sophie Cunningham.
On duty: Georgia Lennon as Paula Pofriki and Luke Baker as Zack Mayo in An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical
YORKSHIREMAN Luke Baker, set to play the title role in An Officer And A Gentleman The Music in York next week, remembers early career advice from his father.
“Born in Leeds and brought up in Wakefield, when I was 15, I started doing shows at the Wakefield Theatre Royal summer school with director Louise Denison, who must be solely responsible for half of the West End now,” he recalls.
“I grew up playing rugby, at scrum half for Sandal, and played football and did gymnastics too. I used to go down to Thorne Park to play, and had played for various football clubs when I decided to start concentrating on acting.
“When I told my father, he said, ‘to be honest, you’ve got more chance of singing at Wembley than playing there’!”
Two years at Leeds College of Music – now Leeds Conservatoire – from 2005 to 2007 were followed by a BTech in musical theatre at ArtsEd, in London, graduating in 2100. “You can train anywhere and you will get similar training, and your ability will speak for itself, but it’s about the impact of the contacts you can make when training in London: the directors, casting directors, choreographers and agents.
“They would come and do Q&As with us, as well as work with us, and then the agents would come to the full-scale musicals that we’d do to end the year. The next day you’d be called to the head’s office and you’d be given a Post-it with the name of an agent on it.”
Luke met no fewer than ten agents. “You have to suss out if they want to work with you, if you want to work with them, and it then boils to if you think you can work with them,” he says.
He duly signed up with Belfield & Ward. “I’ve been with them ever since, so I made the right choice. People tend to change agents after five years, but I’m loyal – and maybe that’s a Yorkshire thing.”
Now 36, he is working with a fellow Yorkshireman for An Officer And A Gentleman: director Nikolai Foster, who grew up in North Yorkshire before training at the Drama Centre, London, and The Crucible, Sheffield.
Foster is artistic director of the Curve, Leicester, the producers of the February 23 to November 16 2024 tour of the musical adaptation of Taylor Hackford’s 1982 all-American film starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
“I’ve worked with Nikolai quite a few times,” says Luke. “I first came across him when I was graduating from ArtsEd, and he would have been among the directors who came to see one of our shows.
Off duty: Yorkshire actor Luke Baker
“I did the second UK tour with him of All The Fun Of The Fair, when we visited the Bradford Alhambra and Sheffield Lyceum, and last year I played Tony, Billy’s brother, for him in Billy Elliot in Leicester.
“It was always a dream to play that role. So many people had said to me, ‘you’ve got to play Tony, if you get the chance’ – but I was always doing something else when the role came up in the West End. It was a dream opportunity to do it with Nikolai at Leicester, one to tick off on the wish list.”
Foster has reassembled much of his Billy Elliot production team for An Officer And A Gentleman, including musical director Christopher Duffy and choreographer Joanna Goodwin (assistant director for Billy Elliot), so they were familiar with Luke’s pedigree too.
His audition process began in the customary modern fashion of submitting a tape. “I sang Bon Jovi’s Blaze Of Glory, my first song in the show, and then they call you for an in-person audition at Pineapple Dance Studios, where I did the songs and the scenes. One tape, one live audition, and I got the part,” he says.
“For some shows I’ve done ten rounds of auditions over three and a half months, and then you might not get it, but some things go like that. It’s all part of it.
“It’s different needs for different shows. Like I did ten rounds to play Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys, and by then everyone left could do the role, but that show is a product that has to be signed off by the American producers and everyone has to fit with everyone in the cast in a specific way.
“I think it suits me better to be creative in a role, either creating a new part or doing a part where I can do my character background work and think ‘what can I do with this role?’.”
That applies to his casting as fearless young officer candidate Zack Mayo opposite Georgia Lennon’s fiery-spirited Paula Pofriki in Douglas Day Stewart & Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s story of love, courage and redemption.
“I’ve been lucky to be able to be creative in the role, and Nikolai is the kind of director who wants it to be your version. It’s the same show as it was when first done six years ago, but it’s never final; it’s forever growing and changing, like using different choreography.”
What can next week’s York audiences expect, aside from George Dyer’s musical arrangements of Eighties’ pop bangers by Bon Jovi, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and the film’s signature song, (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong. “Like the film, it’s a love story, but it’s darker than people remember. It’s not like Top Gun!” says Luke.
An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 4 to 9, 8pm, Tuesday, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday, 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
