AS part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025, ten breakthrough music acts will be competing live at York Theatre Royal on Saturday as the city becomes the epicentre of British music discovery.
This inaugural line-up will be a showcase of breadth and originality, featuring artists who have performed at SXSW, Glastonbury and Kendal Calling, appeared on The Voice and received plays from BBC Introducing, BBC Radio 1 and Radio X.
The Aesthetica New Music Stage is a bold, innovative platform like nothing else in the country, billed as the UK’s version of SXSW (South By Southwest, in Austin, Texas) and a first-of-its-kind national music competition embedded within a film festival.
DaisyGill
What’s more, New Music Stage involves collaborations with Universal Music A&R and Imagesound and opportunities for national airplay across Caffè Nero, as the festival creates a pipeline to connect grassroots talent with national and international audiences.
As Pablo Ettinger, founder of Caffe Nero and owner of Talentbanq, says: “There is nothing like this anywhere else in the UK. By working with Aesthetica, we are creating a national stage for discovery and giving artists the support they need to take their careers forward.
“It’s about creating pathways, reaching audiences in new ways and shining a spotlight on talent that deserves to be heard, Aesthetica is the perfect home for this kind of innovation.”
Isabel Maria
Spotlighting fresh music across genres, the event will give audiences the opportunity to hear new voices, discover tomorrow’s stars and be part of shaping the future of UK music.
“Aesthetica has always been about discovery – about bringing new voices, stories and ideas to audiences,” says festival director Cherie Federico. “This is the only event of its kind in the UK: a film festival that also platforms the future of music. The New music Stage gives audiences the opportunity to discover tomorrow’s stars right here in York.
“It’s about creating a cultural hub where film and music collide, ensuring that artists have the chance to be heard on both a national and international scale.”
Jemma Johnson
BLANID
The line-up comprises:
BLÁNID: With a rich, storytelling voice that has graced BBC Radio 1 and RTÉ, BLÁNID has earned more than one million streams and toured the UK with folk legend Judy Collins. Her music blends grief, ecstasy and everything in between, marking her as a star in the making.
Jemma Johnson: This self-taught multi-instrumentalist is taking alternative pop to new heights, buoyed by BBC Radio 1 airplay, festival slots from Tramlines to MiCannes, and collaborations with major UK artists. Her live presence is nothing short of magnetic.
Crazy James: A rapper forging his own path through craft and consistency. Known for blistering flows and commanding live sets, he has turned grassroots energy into headline moments across London and beyond.
Kengo
Ewan Sim: Blending indie, pop, rock, and soul into songs of intimacy and power, Ewan Sim has sold out shows in Manchester and impressed audiences at SXSW London.
Daisy Gill: Liverpool’s retro-pop sensation brings powerhouse vocals and modern production. Her rare four-chair turn on The Voice UK and 10 million TikTok views testify that she is a rising star.
Dilettante: Francesca Pidgeon’s art-pop project delivers dazzling, groove-laden sets that have taken her from Manchester basements to SXSW and NXNE. Signed to EMI North and praised by Mojo and Uncut magazines, her sound is as inventive as it is infectious.
Tarian
Ewan Sim
Kengo: Songwriter and vocalist who channels honesty and lived experience into songs that bridge emotion and spirit, marked by lyrical depth and melodic sensitivity and addressing connection, healing and resilience.
Tarian: Welsh artist blending hip-hop with emotive pop and classical roots. Notching two million streams and a loyal TikTok following, Tarian is a genre-defying talent to watch.
Isabel Maria: At 19, Isabel Maria already has won major cultural awards and been celebrated by Rolling Stone magazine for her raw, alternative pop songwriting.
Pleasure Centre, from Scarborough
Pleasure Centre: Alt/art rock quintet from North Yorkshire coast conjures delicate melodies and euphoric walls of sound, inspired by shoegaze and Radiohead.
The New Music Pass (£21) gives audiences full access to all ten acts in one day. Enjoy free flow in and out of the York Theatre Royal: drop in for a set or immerse yourself from start to finish.
Audience members will have the chance to vote for their favourite act, playing a direct role in launching the UK’s next big star.
Dilettante
“This is more than a music stage,” says Cherie. “It’s an innovation in live music and festival programming, giving artists a national platform and audiences a front-row seat to the future of UK music. Don’t miss this chance to experience a festival within a festival, where creativity, performance and discovery collide.”
Universal Music A&R will be in attendance and Anglo-Italian singer songwriter Jack Savoretti will be on the jury.
Tickets and New Music Passes are available from York Theatre Royal on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Hear more from the acts at https://www.asff.co.uk/music/
Jack Savoretti: On the New Music Stage judging panel. Picture: Paul Rhodes, Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens , 2024
York actress Constance Peel in Service Please at Micklegate Social on November 9
IN its 15th year, York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival introduces its debut Aesthetica Fringe in a celebration of emerging talent across music, comedy, exhibitions, installations, and performance.
These artist-led events are part of a citywide cultural programme, transforming York into a creative playground throughout November.
“York is a UNESCO City of Media Arts, and our Fringe embodies this status by activating galleries, venues and public spaces with diverse work,” says festival director Cherie Federico. “Together, we bring art, performance and audiences into a shared, inspiring moment.”
Pilot Theatre presents A Guide To Now For Those In The Future, York Explore, Library Square, York, November 5 to 9
YORK company Pilot Theatre’s unique installation, A Guide To Now For Those In The Future, is a bold and immersive experience remixing interviews and footage into a vibrant explosion of sight and sound. Capturing the emotions, dreams and perspectives of young people, it acts as a digital time capsule, reflecting life, culture, and concerns in 2025. Supported by Portakabin Community Support Fund and York Common Good Trust.Age rating: PG.
Wonkystuff and The Sounen Project’s Change Of Phase
Change Of Phase, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, November 5 to 9, 6-8pm
ICE into water, liquid into solid, sound into light, noise into music, soundscapes into stories, digital into analogue: Change Of Phase is a series of sound and light installations with performances, all set around a single, illuminated table. Wonkystuff and The Sounen Project provide the experimental audio landscape guiding the audience through moods. Age rating: PG.
Celebrating Creativity in Creative Ways, York Explore, November 5 to 9
CREATIVE Ways showcases powerful artworks inspired by York’s rich stained-glass heritage. Created by participants exploring creativity for both wellbeing and belonging, the exhibition celebrates connection, confidence and community and reflects the impact of art in a testament to how art can illuminate lives, provide hope and foster inclusion. Age rating: PG.
Bard At The Bar, Cat In The Wall, The Stonebow, York, November 5, 7.30pm
HAVE you always fancied yourself taking to the stage to try out one of Shakespeare’s great soliloquies? Bard At The Bar is a raucous, no-holds-barred night of “karaoke” Shakespeare. This is your opportunity to grab a drink, take a script and climb onto the stage to perform your favourite scenes. No experience necessary, just bring passion. Age rating: 18+.
Erler and Pilot in Crossroads, York Explore, Library Lawn, York, November 5, 5pm and 6pm; November 6, 6pm and 7pm; November 7,12 noon, 1pm, 4pm and 5pm
STEP inside and take the journey to the crossroads in a spooky immersive experience for teenagers and the young-at-heart by Erler and Pilot on Library Lawn, where you will meet your guide beside her trailer of truth. There she will drive you to the place where dreams come true. Age rating: 12+.
Griffonage Theatre’s poster for Kafka By Candlelight at The House of Trembling Madness
Griffonage Theatre presents Kafka By Candlelight, The House Of Trembling Madness, Lendal, York, November 5 to 7, 6.30pm & 8.30pm
DEEP in the cavernous belly of The House Of Trembling Madness, Griffonage Theatre, York purveyors of the madcap and the macabre, present Kafka By Candlelight, an unsettling adaptation of five of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories, told in the dark, where each piece invites you to confront the bizarre with no guarantee of resolution or escape. Will you be able to stomach it? Audiences will be invited to wear theatrical masks (optional). Age rating: 18+.
Letterpress and Film, Thin Ice Press, York Centre for Print, A Celebration of Silence, Peasholme Green, York, November 5, 2pm to 5pm
EXPLORE the intersection of film and print in hands-on workshops that invite you to experiment with letterpress printing and create title cards inspired by the artistry of silent film. Bring your phone or camera to capture the process and discover the tactile beauty of print while celebrating the visual language of cinema. Age Rating: 12+.
Letterpress Film Night: Helvetica Screening, Thin Ice Press, York Centre for Print, Peasholme Green, York November 5, 7pm to 9pm
ENJOY a screening of Helvetica, a celebration of silent film, and the chance to try letterpress printing. Design and print title cards with the team, capture the process and explore the endangered craft of letterpress printing while embracing the timeless aesthetics of ink. This experience is a chance to explore how film and print intersect. Age rating: 13+.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Inner Selves, The White Horse, Bootham, York, November 5 to 8, 10:30am, 1pm, 3pm
A VIEW into a dying marriage, wherein Henry and Nora represent the end of a marriage torn apart by the loss of their child, alcoholism and depression. They are joined by their Inner Selves (Henry’s Self and Nora’s Self) who torment them about what their lives could have been. Every interaction is heavy with the things left unsaid. Age Rating: 16+.
Dan Poppitt in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Inner Selves
The Bluffs present Unwritten, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, November 5, 8pm
IMPROV based on your literary suggestion, wherein York group The Bluffs take classic short-form improv games and infuse them with storytelling flair. Every show is unique, shaped by audience suggestions and spontaneous creativity. “Who knows where this evening will take us but it will be entertaining, inventive, and entirely in the moment,” they promise. Age rating: 12+.
York Fire Walk, York Minster, November 5, 2pm to 3pm; November 9, 12.30pm to 1.30pm
JOIN York Fire Walk to embark on a journey through the city’s fiery history, meeting by the Roman Column in Minster Yard, and finishing at City Screen Picturehouse. In the company of expert guides, discover how York Minster popped up in the Land of Fire – and then there’s some guy called Fawkes. There’s bound to be fireworks! Age rating: 8+.
Compulsive Light Art Show, Fabrication Store, Stonegate, York, November 6 to 8, 6pm to 8pm
THE inside of the Fabrication shop front is transformed into a living light installation in an exploration of the coexistence between art and inspiration. The window becomes a canvas where the very act of making becomes a performance of dancing light. Passers-by are invited to pause, watch and reflect on the journey from idea to creation. Age rating: PG.
Alice May in Sweet Pea & The Beech Tree, Patch@Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, November 6, 7pm to 9pm
JOIN York actress Alice May for a script-in-hand performance of a new one-woman play, then offer feedback to help develop it for stage and screen. Sweet Pea & The Beech Tree is a comic tale of a granddaughter caring for her terminally ill grandmother that asks what caring for someone facing death can teach us. This opportunity invites you to engage with the work in progress. Age rating: 14+.
The Compulsive Light Art Show asks “Why Make Art?”
City Folk & York Creatives, Patch@Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, November 7, 6.30pm
DROP into Patch for an all-vinyl DJ set by Mat Lazenby and Jono spinning a curated mix. Meet York creatives. Grab a drink, discuss ideas, find out how to be involved with City Folk magazine, a new publication made in the heart of the city, and be in with a chance to win a print by illustrator Tony Allen. This event is the perfect way to connect. Age rating: 14+.
Kids Just Wanna Fly, Ben Porter photobook launch, Patch@Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, November 7, 6pm to 7pm |
LEAP into the unknown, through disposable cameras, polaroids and early iPhones. This is a tale of youthful ambition and the quest to craft an identity through the tumultuous years of young adulthood, comprising an exhibition, a photobook launch and short performances. Audiences are invited to reflect on who they are amidst their youth. Age rating: 16+.
Lara McClure in Oral Tradition, Amnesty Bookshop, Micklegate, York, November 7, 7pm
IN Iron Age Ulster, stories travelled from the mouths of bards into the ears of everyone else, with nothing written down. Storyteller, hypnotherapist and medieval historian Dr Lara McClure’s Edinburgh Fringe show offers a gnarly earful of ancient Ulsterwomen who used sex as a weapon – or, at least, so said the bards. The performance unpacks these bold yet provocative tales. Age rating: 16+.
Transmute- Live, Micklegate Social, Micklegate York, November 7, 8pm to 9.30pm
A SEMI-GENERATIVE particle system moves to an evocative mix of electronica, ambient, orchestral and techno sound. Immersive visuals and rich soundscapes merge, creating a mesmerising, cinematic experience that seamlessly blurs the boundaries between sight, sound and emotion in this exploration of movement, transformation, and connectivity. Agerating: PG.
Dr Lara McClure: Presenting Oral Tradition at Amnesty Bookshop
Rock Soil Scrape, West Park Bowling Club, November 8, 1.30pm to 4pm
AN installation inspired by the earth’s sediments, bringing together interviews with York workers and video projections, as well as food and drink to connect us to our physical environment, cultural histories and deep time. Presented in what was once a bakery, then a bottle shop and bar, the installation highlights the change of the site. Age rating: 12+.
In Limbo, De Grey Rooms, York, November 8, 4pm to 6.30pm
SOPHIE is dead. Probably. She thinks. Maybe. How could the happiest time of her life turn to this? Welcome to a rehearsed reading of In Limbo, Judi Amato’s new play about the realities of early parenthood and postpartum depression. A feedback session will follow the performance to help shape and deepen the development of the show. Age rating: 12+.
Constance Peel in Service Please, Micklegate Social, Micklegate, York, November 9, 2pm & 8pm
ALL Lara wanted was an easy job as she started to write her novel, but she is confronted with the sexist, stressful and chaotic reality of the service industry. This one-woman show by York-born, University of York-educated actress, writer, director (and waitress) Constance Peel plays the Aesthetica Fringe after a four-star debut run at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe, and is marked by bright humour, artistic ambition and raw honesty. Age rating: 16+.
More, Spark:York, Piccadilly,York, November 9, 6.30pm to 7.30pm
MORE is a raw performance blending dance, visuals and music to explore the restless pulse of addiction – the craving for sensation, escape and wholeness. Through movement and image, it unravels cycles of desire and release in an intimate, sensory journey through the body’s aching longing to feel more and be enough.
The Storytelling Ensemble, Patch@Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, November 9, 7.30pm
JOIN The Storytelling Ensemble for tales brought vividly to life with improvised music and original composition. Led by storyteller and composer Joe Allen, the ensemble breathes new life into fascinating fables and yearnful yarns, contributing to the magic of stories told aloud, inviting listeners to lose themselves in worlds ancient and new. Age rating: 12+.
For tickets, go to: asff.co.uk/fringe.
Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025: Filmmaking In Schools
AESTHETICA Short Film Festival is putting young people at the heart of the festival run from November 5 to 9.
More than 150 students from seven York high schools – Huntington, Joseph Rowntree, Milthorpe, York High, All Saints, Fulford and Archbishop Holgate – will take part in the Filmmaking in Schools initiative, now in its second year.
The programme gives students the chance to develop practical filmmaking skills across storytelling, directing, writing, cinematography, editing and technical production, while also nurturing teamwork, creative collaboration and problem- solving. These skills are highly transferable, helping young people build confidence and abilities that extend far beyond the classroom.
York’s status as a UNESCO City of Media Arts provides a unique backdrop for creativity and innovation. In a city celebrated for its thriving digital media and creative industries, it is vital that students are offered hands-on, practical opportunities to bring their ideas to life.
Councillor Pete Kilbane, deputy leader of City of York Council and executive member for Economy and Culture, says: “It’s fantastic to see so many York youngsters getting hands-on experience in filmmaking. Through initiatives like this, students discover their creativity, learn new skills and get to see the wide range of exciting job opportunities that the film industry has to offer.
The Filmmaking in Schools programme puts this philosophy into practice, enabling students to write, direct and produce their own short films, while applying problem-solving and technical skills in a real-world environment.
Festival director Cherie Federico adds: “Our aim is to give young people a real chance to explore their creativity and find their voice. Filmmaking is a powerful tool for learning, teamwork, and self-expression – and by putting it in the hands of students, we are investing in the next generation of storytellers and innovators.”
Through mentorship, collaboration and the festival environment, students gain practical skills and inspiration that link directly to potential careers in media arts.
Stuart Campbell, head of communications at LNER, highlights the impact of industry partnerships: “The Railway 200 programme is all about supporting and fostering new talent,” he says. “It starts with young people, and here in York, we have the chance to do something truly different, giving students real-world opportunities to explore creativity and storytelling through film.”
The Filmmaking in Schools initiative sits within the context of the BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival, giving students exposure to the professional world of film and insight into the wider creative industries. By combining mentorship, hands-on experience and festival immersion, the programme nurtures the next generation of screen innovators.
While young people are at the centre of this initiative, Aesthetica 2025 also provides opportunities for families to engage with creativity. From specially curated U and PG film screenings to VR and games workshops, interactive art, live music and city-wide Fringe events, the festival offers experiences that encourage children and adults to explore, learn and play together.
By blending professional insight, imaginative activities, and cultural exploration, Aesthetica ensures that creativity is accessible to all ages, inspiring the next generation while bringing the wider York community together.
Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025: Launching Beyond the Frame programme at York Theatre Royal, November 5 to 8
Comedian Sophie Duker
Sophie Duker & Friends, Wednesday, 7.30m
TASKMASTER champion Sophie Duker, from Mock The Week and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, tops the bill featuring Eleanor Tiernan and Bella Hull.
Silent Cinema & Live Score with The Dodge Brothers, Thursday, 7.30pm
IN a dazzling collision of classic cinema and live music, The Dodge Brothers bring their live score to Beggars Of Life, the 1928 landmark American silent film starring Louise Brooks.
The Dodge Brothers
Film critic and BBC presenter Mark Kermode, on double bass and harmonica, is joined Neil Brand, celebrated silent film accompanist and star of BBC Four’s Sound Of Cinema, on piano, as this electrifying ensemble transforms a black-and-white masterpiece into a full-blooded cinematic event.
Mark Kermode: In Conversation with Jenny Nelson, Friday, 7pm
HEAR from the co-authors of Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound about the magic of film music. Join film critic Mark Kermode and award-winning radio producer Jenny Nelson for an evening of cinematic insight, sharp wit and passionate debate.
Together, they explore the power of film music, inspired by their new book. From cult classics to blockbuster scores, expect passionate discussion, revealing stories and plenty of chances to ask questions and join the debate. Expect honest, humorous and informed film talk.
Mark Kermode: Discussing his new book, Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound, with co-author Jenny Nelson at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Julie Edwards Visuals
Aesthetica New Music Stage, Saturday, 2pm to 11pm
IN the UK’s first national New Music Stage, BLANID, Jemma Johnson, Crazy Mark, Kengo, Ewan Sim, Daisy Gill, Dilettante, Tarian, Isabel Maria and North Yorkshire band Pleasure Centre will compete in a showcase supported by Universal Music A&R, Imagesound and Caffe Nero. Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti will be on the judging panel.
Tickets (and New Stage Passes for the New Music Stage) are available from the York Theatre Royal box office, 01904 623568, or online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
York Theatre Royal is a venue for the ASFF 2025 line-up of film screenings and masterclasses too. More details on booking festival passes can be found at asff.co.uk/tickets/.
Daisy Gill: Taking part in the Aesthetica New Music Stage event
Clive Marshall RIP: Trombone player, character actor, director, chairman, designer, set builder, English and drama teacher, hockey player and club president
YORK Railway Institute Band and York Opera members will come together for one night only on Saturday (8/11/2025) for a charity musical tribute to much-loved colleague Clive Marshall (October 12 1936-March 11 2025).
Expect soaring choruses, heartfelt arias and the very best of operatic overtures in this 7.30pm concert of popular classics at The Citadel, Gillygate, York, all in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, where Clive spent the final days of his life in March this year.
Clive, who trained as a teacher at St John’s Teacher Training College in York, was chairman of the York Railway Institute Band, leading the trombone section for many years, and first performed for York Opera – or City Opera Group, as it was then called – in 1968, going on to play multiple character roles and stage direct myriad productions too. He was president of City of York Hockey Club to boot, playing into his 70s.
As an English and drama teacher, he taught at Derwent and Knavesmire Secondary Modern schools before becoming head of drama at Hemsworth High School in West Yorkshire. After early retirement from Hemsworth, he took on part-time teaching at Northfield School in Acomb and as a drama teacher at Bootham School until the age of 70.
York Opera chairman Ian Thomson-Smith says: “Clive was the heart and soul of York Opera for more than 50 years, as a director, performer, designer and set builder. So many of us who shared a stage with him will be forever grateful for his guidance, good humour and encouragement. This concert is a small way of recognising how much he has meant to us.”
York Railway Institute Band manager Martyn Groves-Williams adds: “Clive was a truly remarkable, talented and generous man, who thankfully lived a long and joyous life. His memory will be cherished by all of us who were lucky enough to be part of his banding life, and we shall all miss him dearly.”
Helen Lay, community and events fundraiser at St Leonard’s Hospice, says: “We’re incredibly grateful to the York Railway Institute Band and York Opera for teaming up for this special event in Clive’s memory.
“As a charity, we rely on brilliant events like this to raise much-needed funds, so we can continue providing our expert care and support to so many across our area. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone involved.”
SCRAVIR author C.M. Vassie, pictured in Whitby, where his gothic horror trilogy is set. Costume courtesy of York Theatre Royal costume hire department
YORK author C.M. Vassie will hold a book signing and meet & greet session for the third instalment of his supernatural thriller trilogy, SCRAVIR III – Possession, at Holman’s bookshop, on Skinner Street, Whitby, on Saturday.
This 2pm to 4pm event forms part of the first Whitby Literature Festival Fringe and concludes Vassie’s promotional travels to the East Coast after book signings at the Whitby Shop and Whitby Bookshop over Whitby Goth Weekend.
Vassie is not only a gothic horror author but also the City of York councillor for Wheldrake with a long back story as film and TV music composer Xian Vassie for the BBC and others too from 1992 to 2012.
“While the SCRAVIR books are dark and nasty, they are nowhere as dark or as nasty as local politics,” says Liberal Democrats Councillor Christian Vassie/author C.M. Vassie.
SCRAVIR – a word made up by the author – is a contemporary gothic horror story that serves up a thriller and a police detective story too. Set in Whitby and Romania, its protagonists are a London youth, Daniel, and a Whitby lass, Tiffany, who works in a fish-and-chip shop. The nemesis is a Goth music star and the action takes place over Whitby Goth Weekend when emaciated bodies appear on streets in the old town.
The original book, SCRAVIR – While Whitby Sleeps appeared in the summer of 2021; the second, SCRAVIR II – Lacklight, followed in 2023. Now Vassie completes the trilogy for Injini Press with Possession, whose plot finds Thor Lupei dead and the pandemic shrinking in the rear mirror, as Daniel and Tiffany make a life together in Whitby, thinking they are safe.
Daniel’s past, however, looms over everything, and when a Goth Weekend gig at the Pavilion goes awry, they decide a holiday in Romania – to discover his mother’s Transylvanian origins – would be a grand idea.
“What could possibly go wrong?” teases the back cover taster. Go wrong? Not so for Christian Vassie, for whom everything has gone right since he ventured on his SCRAVIR journey (also writing the time-travelling adventure The Whitby Trap, set in the 1820s, en route).
Ahead of last weekend’s SCRAVIR III launch, he said: “The last book signing I did there had 65 costumed goths queuing for a chat and copies of the SCRAVIR books. Which is nice, though quite daunting as some of the fans know the stories better than I do!”
Whether composing music or writing books, Christian “finds things I want to do, and I don’t make a fortune but I’m able to make a living, like everyone else, and that’s fine,” he says. “When artists start off they have wild dreams of kidney-shaped swimming pools and five houses, but actually, if you can live a good life, that’s fine.
“I produced music for over 80 productions, but over those 20 years, downloading music has become so easy. You used to have to go to Denmark Street [in London]; now you have access to millions of pieces of music on your computer.
Author C.M. Vassie meets SCRAVIR book fans at launch events at Whitby Goth Weekend. “One even came as a deathly bride, one of the characters in the first book,” says Vassie
“I did the music for a series about the Medici in 2003 that you can find on YouTube and has had a million views, but I’ve never earned a penny from that. So you can either feel sorry for yourself or you adapt.”
Adapt he did, a decision brought on partly because he was going deaf. “I could trust my musicality, but I couldn’t trust my hearing,” says Christian. “I no longer had the confidence I needed – but I went out with a bang with Bishaash, a 12-part sci-fi series where Scooby Doo meets Star Trek meets Doctor Who, produced by BBC Worldwide and Bangladesh TV. That had 17 million views! What a wonderful way to go out. I could feel fulfilled.”
Christian had been the head chorister at York Minster in his Archbishop Holgate schooldays, going on to study African Languages and World Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London from 1979 to 1982. “I didn’t come from a musical family, but from the age of 11 or 12, I understood the meaning and value of excellence.”
That drive has never left him. “It has to be part of creativity,” he says. “When I worked on compositions for films, often the director would be satisfied before I was, and I would keep looking to improve. We’re driven to be artists because that is who we are – we just want to explore creative things.”
Hence the move into writing books, already armed with a grasp of how scenes are written how characters develop, from working on films. “It started off with writing a couple of thrillers that did nothing, printing 100 copies and selling 30,” he says.
“Then I wrote a children’s environmental book, a picture book, The Three Little Pigs And The Straw Stick House, when I was also instrumental in the eco-depot being built in James Street with straw bale cladding. That book sold in its thousands.”
Christian was off and running. “Careers in the arts are partly about learning a craft, but also about how you position yourself to make something that appeals to people, to find your audience, and these SCRAVIR books have been transformational for me,” he says.
“People ask me why I don’t set stories in York, but I went to Whitby as a child and loved it, and it’s been in my heart ever since, as it is for many York people. Whitby is so condensed and it’s on the edge of the unknown.
“That romanticism, being at the top of the cliff, looking out at what might be. Like Captain Cook, at a time when things were bl**dy hard, you could just pack your bags and leave. In reverse, it’s where Dracula arrives, so you can go out into the unknown or the unknown can come to you. That’s what makes Whitby so special; what makes it different from York. It’s like a door that’s permanently ajar.”
A door ajar for C.M. Vassie to explore his creativity in three SCRAVIR books. “It’s great to play a small part in shaping how our collective sense of place,” he says. “Yorkshire came close to losing Whitby old town altogether in the 1920s and 1930s as plans were advanced to bulldoze the entire area and replace the yards with modern housing.
“We are all lucky that didn’t happen. I like to imagine that the stories authors create in those ginnels and old buildings help to protect it from developers and give us a clearer view of our history. The armies of goths help too.”
Councillor Christian Vassie’s political thought for the day
“Councillors should be the conscience of the city.”
The Great Plague: Cutting provided by Christian Vassie
The Great Plague: Xian Vassie’s back story
CHRISTIAN Vassie composed the score for Chanel 4’s The Great Plague in 2001. “Samir Shah, now chairman of the BBC, told me it was the film of which he was most proud,” he says.
“It won the Best History award at the Royal Television Society awards in 2001 or 2002. It was a groundbreaking story because it told the story of the lives of a group of Londoners during the Great Plague, not from the recollections of Samuel Pepys or other lofty fellows but from the simple records of a churchwarden.
“He had recorded in absolute detail the tragedy that befell the inhabitants of an alley in London: who he had money to feed when they were locked in their homes to stop the spread of the disease; who he paid to bury their neighbours; how families were torn apart. Real peopl with real names.
“My contribution was to write a score that wasn’t period music to tell you how long ago the events took place; the music blended bluegrass and folk music. Drama documentaries at the period only had a silent cast, over which historians would be the human voices. My score gave the inhabitants of the alley back their voices, using songs without words to draw us into their world.”
Christian used a similar approach for their next joint film project, 2003’s Invitation To A Hanging, winner of the RTS Best History award the following year.
“That told the story of Jack Shepherd, a young man who arguably became the first working- class hero in England because his brief life, and escapes for Newgate Prison, coincided with the birth of newspapers,” he says.
“The score for that film, set in the 1720s, was a mixture of jazz, reggae, and soundscapes. Again the point was to avoid using music to tell the audience when the story was set, but rather to communicate that they were watching the original ‘Jack the Lad’, the hero of The Beggar’s Opera, the inspiration for the song Mack The Knife.
“Jack didn’t see himself as a historical figure but as a man about town, a celebrity. Until he was caught a fifth time and hanged…”
Mark Kermode Taking part in Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s Beyond the Frame strand at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Julie Edwards Visuals
THE 15th Aesthetica Short Film Festival tops the bill in a week when hauntings and musical buns rise to the occasion, as Charles Hutchinson highlights.
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, all over York, today to Sunday
NOT so much a film festival as a “screen and media event”, in its 15th year, York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival is bigger and broader than ever. Not only more than 300 shorts, features, documentaries, animations and experimental films, but also the VR & Games Lab; masterclasses and panels; workshops and roundtables; networking and pitching; Listening Pitch premieres; the inaugural New Music Stage and Aesthetica Fringe shows; Beyond the Frame events at York Theatre Royal; the UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO and the Podcasting strand. For the full programme and tickets, go to: asff.co.uk.
Mary Gauthier: Playing Pocklington Arts Centre tonight
Troubadour of the week: Mary Gauthier, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 7pm
MARY Gauthier hung up her chef’s coat to move to Nashville at 40 to start a troubadour career, going from open-mic gigs to playing Newport Folk Festival a year later. Twenty-five years ago, this courageous lesbian songwriter’s groundbreaking debut album Drag Queens In Limousines announced: “Drag queens in limousines, nuns in blue jeans, dreamers with big dreams, they all took me in.”
The song has become an anthem for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider: as it turns out, all of us. It is typical of her deeply personal, yet paradoxically universal work, written in reaction to what matters most to her, as Gauthier expresses boldly what is often too hard for us to say. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Bugsy at the double: Zachary Stoney, from Team Malone, left, and Dan Tomlin, from Team Bugsy, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone
Young performers of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of more than 40 young performers in Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s musical, replete with the film songs You Give A Little Love, My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and Bugsy Malone.
In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate giving a team talk in James Graham’s Dear England, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre
Sporting drama of the week: National Theatre in Dear England, Leeds Grand Theatre, until Saturday, kick-off at 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
JAMES Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play (and forthcoming television drama) takes its name from revolutionary England football manager Gareth Southgate’s open letter during the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Sturzaker plays Southgate, Samantha Womack, team psychologist Pippa Grange, in this “inspiring, at times heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting story” of England, penalties, lost finals and a new-found national identity. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Ben Rosenfield and Laura McKeller in Neon Crypt and The Deathly Dark Tours’ The Wetwang Hauntings– Live!
Halloween horrors and jump scares of the week: Neon Crypt and The Deathly Dark Tours in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
BETWEEN 1986 and 1993, a series of often violent hauntings rocked the small Yorkshire town of Wetwang. The cases went cold and all the records were lost…until now! Join York ghost walk guide Dr Dorian Deathly and his team as they dig into the history and horrors of these cases. “This show is not for the faint of heart,” he forewarns. Suitable for age 13 upwards. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Jessica Shaw’s Forms Of Water, on show at Pocklington Arts Centre
Ryedale exhibition of the week: Jessica Shaw, Forms Of Water, Helmsley Arts Centre, until February 27 2026
BASED on the edge of the North York Moors, printmaker Jessica Shaw explores the impact of water and ice on landscape, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s assertion that “in time and with water, everything changes”.
Combining screenprint, woodcut, monoprint and etching with diverse media such as gouache and acrylic ink, her work draws from organic patterns and shapes made by water and ice, detailing their effect on the North York Moors National Park’s topography by highlighting the shapes of its high ground and the curls of its rivers, to the ephemeral ice patterns found in puddles and windows in winter.
Katie Leckey: Directing Griffonage Theatre in Kafka By Candlelight
Deliciously disturbing stories of the week: Griffonage Theatre, Kafka By Candlelight, The House Of Trembling Madness, Lendal, York, tonight to Friday, 6.30pm and 8.30pm
“NO rest for the week,” say Griffonage Theatre, York’s purveyors of the madcap and the macabre, who are performing Kafka By Candlelight in the cavernous belly of the House Of Trembling Madness cellar as part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s debut Aesthetica Fringe, featuring 25 shows across the city.
This one showcases five of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories, told disturbingly in the darkness with the audience in masks (optional). “Dare to join us?” they tease. Box office: eventbrite.com/e/kafka-by-candlelight-tickets-1815618316259.
Entwined: Nik Briggs’s cooking copper, Ben, and Harriet Yorke’s carer, Gemma, in York Stage’s York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical
York musical premiere of the week: York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
BAKING battles, singing sponges and a sprinkling of hilarity is the recipe for York Stage’s York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical, rising to the occasion under the direction of Nik Briggs, who also makes a rare stage appearance as one of the Bake Off contestants.
Expect a sweet and savoury symphony of British wit and oven mitts, propelled by a menu of jazz hands and jubilant original songs that capture the essence of the Bake Off tent, from nerve-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become fruitful reality. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Understaffed and overworked: The hotel workforce on clean-up duty in John Godber Company’s Black Tie Ball. Picture: John Godber Company
One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ON the glitziest East Yorkshire fundraising night of the year, everyone wants to be there. The Bentleys are parked, the jazz band has arrived, the magician will be magic, but behind the bow ties, fake tans and equally fake booming laughter lie jealousies and avarice, divorces and affairs, as overdressed upstairs meets understaffed downstairs through a drunken gaze.
The raffle is ridiculously competitive, the coffee, cold, the service, awful, the guest speaker, drunk, and the hard -pressed caterers just want to go home. Welcome to the Brechtian hotel hell of John Godber’s satirical, visceral comedy drama, as told by the exasperated hotel staff, recounting the night’s mishaps at breakneck speed in the manner of Godber’s fellow wearers of tuxedos, Bouncers. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Offcut Theatre’s poster for Libby Pearson’s Four By Three
Uplifting mini-dramas of the week: Offcut Theatre in Libby Pearson’s Four by Three, Milton Rooms, Malton, Thursday, 7.30pm
PAULINE, Bill and Martin invite you into parts of their lives through three separate monologues before coming together in a short play in Libby Pearson’s hopeful, uplifting, light-hearted look at the need for human contact.
In The Woman Next Door, is Pauline a lonely, nosey neighbour or a woman full of unfulfilled longing? In Silk FM, Bill runs a very local radio station; catch it on Thursdays, 1pm to 3pm, term-time only. In The Picker, Martin is desperate to be acknowledged for his innovative litter-picking ideas. In Shelved, Pauline, Bill and Martin run a volunteer-led library, where the council may have plans for it, but so do they. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Nik Briggs’s cooking copper, Ben, and Harriet Yorke’s carer, Gemma, become entwined in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
YORK Stage will be rising to the occasion in the York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical from Wednesday (5/11/2025) to Saturday at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Nik Briggs’s cast will be putting the tension into the tent – and the fun bite into the bun fight – in the familiar journey from never-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers as eight contestants seek to avoid soggy bottoms en route to impressing judges Phil Hollinghurst (Chris Wilson) and Pam Lee (Tracey Rea).
“Prepare yourself for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become delicious reality,” says director and producer Nik. “It’s a show that proves baking isn’t just about the final product, it’s about the journey and the joy that comes from sharing that journey with others.”
He was determined to snap up the show for York Stage. “It started off in July 2022 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, then transferred to the West End [Noel Coward Theatre, February 24 to May 13 2023], and when the rights became available earlier this year, we were straight in there with our application!
“It’s a show by Jake Brunger [book and lyrics] and Pippa Cleary [music and lyrics], who did the 2015 musical The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, and this show has gone the furthest for them since then. It’s gorgeous! It has the perfect recipe: it’s got comedy, real heart, it’s so British – and it knows how to poke fun at the great national institution that Bake Off has become, but at the same time hold it in respect.”
The show is built around Brunger and Cleary’s original songs. “A lot of the humour comes in the wordplay and the lyrics, which are reminiscent of Victoria Wood’s patter songs, so rehearsals have been so funny,” says Nik. “It’s just been a lovely experience, which is just what you need when you’re rehearsing a show in only five weeks, whereas we normally do ten.
“Traditionally in musicals, you have your principals and the chorus singing the rousing chorus in harmony four times in the same song, but with this show, you have your Bake Off contestants being eliminated, so you have fewer people to do the harmonies as the show goes on – and everyone’s harmonies then swap too!”
Nik continues: “There’s one song with four choruses, where I sing different parts with different harmonies in every chorus! Those harmonies are gorgeous – and as Bake Off fans will recognise, all the big numbers are based on the underscore music from the TV series.
“It’s so clever the way it’s been done. The audience will think, ‘what a gorgeous, heart-filled British comedy’ it is, and they will realise what hard work has gone into it when people thought it might be twee, but it really isn’t.”
The Bake Off musical condenses the path of a full TV series into one show, replete with the aforementioned technical challenges, show stoppers, eliminations by the musical’s answer to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith all introduced and jollied along by hosts Jim (Sam Roberts) and Kim (Mary Clare).
“Like in the TV series, we learn about their home life, why they’re doing Bake-Off. Like Izzy (Amy Barrett), the Cambridge graduate, who’s very competitive, desperate to win and thinking of the big deals that might come from winning.
“There’s a school dinner lady, who’s just there for the experience, and the environmentalist, who will not cook with butter and insists on everything being vegan. There’s a carer and policeman, both at a new stage in their lives, and we see them connecting with each other as the competition progresses.”
The policeman, Ben, will be played by Nik. “His daughter Lily is with him for reasons that will become clear, and I have four of my York Stage School students, Eady Mensah, Abigail Hodgson, Ella Laister and Meg Pickard, sharing the role,” he says.
Now so busy directing York Stage shows and running York Stage School, Nik is seldom to be seen on stage. Indeed Ben will be his first principal role since leading the cast in green in Shrek The Musical in September 2019 at the Grand Opera House.
“When I first came by the show, there is this duet that Ben sings with Lily, and though it’s very rare these days, I thought, ‘ooh, I would love to sing that’, when nowadays I’m much more comfortable on the other side, directing.
“I still felt that way about the song after a few months, so I decided that I would scratch that [performing] itch once in a decade!”
Nik has been turning his hand to another skill. “We have to make 50-odd cake and pastry props,” he says. “We’ve been designing and making them ourselves, using various crafts, like making things out of Polystyrene and foam. After this interview, I’m off to finish off the Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Tower cakes!”
How does he rate his own baking skills? “I’m rubbish with pastry as I have hot hands, when cold hands are good for pastry making, but back in the day, I was quite renowned for my sponges and cakes in food tech at school,” says Nik. “But in lockdown, I just lost the knack. Neither of my banana breads worked, so I gave up.”
York Stage’s show could not be better timed. “This year’s final is on Channel 4 tomorrow night[4/11/2025); we open on Wednesday. Some people might think it was planned!” says Nik.
York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 5 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Joseph Egan’s club boss Fat Sam, from Team Malone, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone
THIS is Pick Me Up Youth Theatre by all but name, revelling in the chance to fire off splurge guns at those joyless dullard authoritarians determined to make artistic expression more and more difficult for young people.
Why, why, why? I defy anyone not too see the benefits, the joys, the camaraderie, the sheer fun of being on stage, working as a team but flourishing individually, in Bugsy Malone, British writer-director Alan Parker’s 1976 gangster spoof with words and Jazz Age music by Paul Williams.
The Grand Opera House stage is buzzing with energy, with comic glee, with the sharpest of suits and glitziest of gowns (outstanding work by Julie Fisher & Costume Team).
A gauze screen with a full canvas of a young chap in suit and pork pie hat, and the title Bugsy Malone in boldest red, establishes immediately that Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman and fellow designer Rich Musk are going to hit the right notes on the design front.
Theo Rae’s Fizzy: Outstanding performance, topped off by his rendition of Tomorrow
In familiar Readman style, there is a stairway to either side of a mezzanine level, on which musical director Adam Tomlinson’s band members are kitted out in Prohibition-era attire. To the front of them, singers will be picked out by squares of light bulbs.
To the sides of the stage are yet more banks of light bulbs, the kind to be seen in dressing rooms. A revolving stage turns from well-stocked bar to a plain backdrop. Images of New York’s skyline and more besides are projected on drapes. The evocation of the Big Apple and Fat Sam’s Club is complete, and it looks fantastic, good enough, frankly, for a touring professional show.
Readman has focused on the staging this time. Lesley Hill, from the Attitude Dance Club in Copmanthorpe, takes on the dual role of director and choreographer, and her cast responds with both aptitude and just the right attitude to portray 1920s’ gangland New York.
“This has been a truly wonderful experience,” says Lesley, in the programme, and that enjoyment is writ large in her cast. Make that casts, not cast, because performances are being shared between Team Bugsy and Team Malone, some actors appearing in both, and more than 40 involved overall.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s Dandy Dan at the double: Kurtis Moss from Team Bugsy, left, and Max Porter from Team Malone
The love for this musical among the performers – one of the Blousey Browns said she had watched Parker’s film more than 100 times – is evident from the start, whether in principal or ensemble roles, in the opening Bugsy Malone and Fat Sam’s Grand Slam numbers.
The joy for these young swells is being centre stage, children playing adult roles, showing up the absurdities, mannerisms and machinations of adult behaviour by playing it straight, eliciting laughter from doing so, as speakeasy boss Fat Sam (Team Malone’s Joseph Egan on press night) goes to turf war with Dandy Dan (Max Porter) who is holding all the aces.
Penniless boxing promoter Bugsy (Zachary Stoney) is Fat Sam’s fixer, drawn to wannabe club singer Blousey Brown (Elizabeth Reece), but can he resist the charms of seductive songstress and former flame Tallulah (Cara Suddaby, now Dandy Dan’s moll)?
You watch throughout with a beaming smile, loving the audacity, the confidence, the dazzling look and the delightfully daft comedy of this sassy, snazzy jazzy show, suffused with knockout performances, not only from Stoney, Egan, Porter, Reece and Suddaby, but also Tommy Lonsdale (good surname for a boxer) as putative pugilist Leroy in the outstanding ensemble routine So You Wanna Be A Boxer?
Their name is Tallulah: Cara Suddaby, left, and Freya Horsman in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone
Taylor Carlyle’s Knuckles gives a cracking performance too, as does Nancy Walker is her cameo as Lena Marrelli, the loose-cannon star singer.
On talent watch, keep an eye on Theo Rae’s Fizzy, a stage natural with a wondrous voice already. Good news, he will be fizzing his way through every performance, serving in both teams.
As if Bugsy Malone were not fun enough already, SAHA Media provides even more thrills in Fat Sam and Dandy Dan’s car on the big screen.
Bugsy Malone remains the perfect avenue for theatre colts and fillies to learn the ropes, here kitted out with New York accents, custard pies and whipped cream-firing splurge guns in this tongue-in-cheek look at gang warfare in 1920s’ America that hits the target with every song, every gag.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, resumes tomorrow until November 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Bugsy Malone times two: Team Malone’s Zachary Stoney, left, and Team Bugsy’s Dan Tomlin
Introducing: Team Bugsy and Team Malone’s Bugsy and Blousey Brown
HAVE you heard the one about the three All Saints Catholic School pupils and the Manor Church of England Academy boy?
They are all starring Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone at the Grand Opera House: All Saints’ Zachary Stoney, 12, as boxing promoter and speakeasy boss Fat Sam’s fixer Bugsy, and Elizabeth Reece, 13, as aspiring singer from the sticks Blousey Brown, in Team Malone and Manor student Dan Tomlin, 12, as Bugsy to 11-year-old All Saint Darcey Powell’s Blousey in Team Bugsy.
All four have seen Alan Parker’s 1976. “I must have seen it at least 100 times,” says Darcey. “It’s my favourite musical movie.” Elizabeth? “I’ve grown up watching it.” Zachary? “I kind of grew up watching it. It’s one of my favourite musical films.”
Elizabeth Reece’s Blousey Brown and Zachary Stoney’s Bugsy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone
For Dan, however, “I was completely new to Bugsy Malone, but then I watched it for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it,” he says.
Director-choreographer Lesley Hill’s cast may be divided into teams, but this quarter has enjoyed bouncing ideas off each other. “Me and Dan have given each other notes,” says Zachary. “It’s constructive to do that.”
“We all have our differences in how we interpret our roles, but sometimes you can draw inspiration from each other,” says Darcey. “I’m making the role for myself, but watching Darcey too,” says Elizabeth.
Darcey Powell’s Blousey Brown and Dan Tomlin’s Bugsy
They are all thrilled to be in such an iconic show. “It’s such an opportunity to be on this stage, at this theatre, playing this role,” says Darcey. “It’s just that feeling, that emotion of getting up on stage and doing this show.”
“I cried when I got the part of Blousey!” says Elizabeth. “I’d say I’m best at my dancing, but I’ve loved doing all the other things in this show. I’ve taken inspiration from seeing what Blousey [Florrie Dugger] did well in the film, but thinking about what style I can bring to it myself.”
“I was thinking I was going to get Fat Sam’s role, but I was so pleased that I ended up with Bugsy,” says Zachary. “Having the opportunity to do my own version of Bugsy is such fun.”
Darcey Powell’s Blousey Brown, left, standing back to back with Elizabeth Reece’s Blousey Brown
“I auditioned for Dandy Dan, the bad guy, but then I was picked to play Bugsy, and I’m so glad because I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I am because I wasn’t expecting it,” says Dan.
“I’ve been waiting for this role for so long because it’s a great part in a great show,” says Darcey. “Growing up, I’ve always wanted to play Blousey, so it’s lovely to be doing it,” says Elizabeth.
Sitting chatting in the front row of the Grand Circle, their enjoyment of performing together is abundantly clear. “We’re all good friends, and working with each other you build such good friendships,” says Darcey.
“We’re loving the chance to play the leads in an all-child cast,” says Zachary. “Usually you’re playing a kid, but in Bugsy Malone, we’re children playing adults – and that’s cool!”
Pick Me Up Theatre cast members in Lesley Hill’s knockout production of Bugsy Malone
Poet Ian Parks with his new collection The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening With Ian Parks and Friends on November 21 at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York.
“This is one for lovers of poetry and folk music,” says organiser Richard Kitchen. “Ian is a widely published and much admired poet from Mexborough, described as ‘the finest love poet of his generation’, although his work vigorously addresses the political as well as the personal.”
Parks will be reading from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light. Joining him will be York novelist and poet Janet Dean, critic and poet Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail.
In addition, Parks will be in conversation with publisher Tim Fellows, of Crooked Spire Press. Tickets for this 7.30pm event cost £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm. “We hope to adjourn for a chat after the show with anyone who’d like to join us,” says Richard.
The poster for Navigators Art’s November 21 bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York
Film critic Mark Kermode: Book talk and gig with his band Dodge Brothers at York Theatre Royal in the Beyond the Frame strand of Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025. Picture: Julie Edwards Visuals
THE 15th Aesthetica Short Film Festival tops the bill in a week when Sir Gareth Southgate and David Walliams are keen to talk too, as Charles Hutchinson highlights.
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, all over York, November 5 to 9
NOT so much a film festival as a “screen and media event”, in its 15th year, York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival is bigger and broader than ever. Not only more than 300 shorts, features, documentaries, animations and experimental films, but also the VR & Games Lab; masterclasses and panels; workshops and roundtables; networking and pitching; Listening Pitch premieres; the inaugural New Music Stage and Aesthetica Fringe shows; Beyond the Frame events at York Theatre Royal; the UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO and the Podcasting strand. For the full programme and tickets, go to: asff.co.uk.
Joseph Egan’s club boss Fat Sam from the Team Bugsy cast for Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone
Young swells of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, until November 8, 7.30pm, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, both Saturdays and Sunday
LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of more than 40 young performers in Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s Jazz Age musical, replete with the film songs You Give A Little Love, My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and Bugsy Malone.
In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Steel: Addressing the leopard in his house at York Theatre Royal tonight
“Leftie, working-class, BBC Radio 4 favourite” comedy gig of the week: Mark Steel: The Leopard In My House, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
COMEDIAN, nation-travelling radio presenter and writer Mark Steel has not so much an elephant in the room as The Leopard In My House. Under discussion is his battle with throat cancer, one that he is winning (thankfully) and that has spawned his new comedy tour show. Cancer, by the way, has done nothing to dull the edge of Steel’s trademark acute political and cultural observations.
“This show is the story of my year, of wonderful characters and often tricky but bafflingly positive experiences,” says Steel. “Doing the show doesn’t quite make me glad that it happened, but it definitely makes up for it quite a bit”. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Magpies: Launching new EP at the NCEM
Folk gig of the week: The Magpies, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
THE Magpies, the folk trio that hosts The Magpies Festival at Sutton House, near York, every summer, combine rich harmonies with fiddle-led fire and lyrical storytelling, wherein Bella Gaffney (banjo, vocals), Holly Brandon (fiddle, vocals) and Ellie Gowers (guitar, vocals) meld Anglo and American traditions.
Tonight’s intimate gig marks the launch of this autumn’s EP, The One Thing That I Know. Lead single Painted Pony is a stirring tribute to the St John and St Lawrence rivers of Canada: a song that flows with memory, movement and the quiet majesty of nature’s imprint. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
George Stagnell in the short film Bomb Happy, part of an Everwitch Theatre double bill
Theatre and film memorial of the week: Everwitch Theatre in Bomb Happy VE Day double bill, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 3pm
PRESENTED in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday, whose focus this year falls on 80th anniversary of VE Day, Bomb Happy has been created by writer-performer Helena Fox and actor-vocalist Natasha Jones, of Everwitch Theatre.
From D-Day to VE Day, this powerful one-hour double bill of live performance (30 minutes) and short film (30 minutes) brings to life the verbatim accounts of two working-class Yorkshire Normandy veterans, highlighting the lifelong impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep trauma, not only on war veterans but on their families too. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Leading light Mad Alice: Welcoming passengers to her Ghost Train on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Train ride of the week: Mad Alice’s Ghost Train, North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Pickering Station, Sunday, 6.15pm and 8pm
JOIN York ghost walk hostess Mad Alice as she takes a spine-tingling ghost-train ride through the haunted heart of the North York Moors from Pickering to Levisham and back again in an hour-long eerie adventure. “I’ll be joined by Jonny Holbek, from York Light Opera Company, and professional actor Joe Standerline to help me tell stories in the carriage,” says Mad Alice. “Plus a few extra ‘ghosts’, who are actually either NYMR volunteers or York Light members – and even my own niece!”
All on board to learn of the mysterious ghosts that still haunt the carriages and stations; hear of supernatural tales and folklore of the land, and enjoy a special retelling of Charles Dickens’s ghost story, The Signal Man, all while sipping Mini Mad Alice’s Bloody Orange Gin & Tonic from York Gin (age 18 upwards). Box office for waiting list only: nymr.co.uk/Event/ghosttrain.
Sir Gareth Southgate: Discussing his new book Dear England at York Barbican…and the subject of James Graham’s play of that title at Leeds Grand Theatre
Ex-England manager at the double: In Conversation with Gareth Southgate, Lessons In Leadership, York Barbican, November 3, 7.30pm; National Theatre in Dear England, Leeds Grand Theatre, November 4 to 8, kick-off at 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
SIR Gareth Southgate, of Swinsty Hall, Fewston, Harrogate, makes the comparatively short trip to York Barbican to discuss his eight years of leading England’s footballers on the world stage with a revolutionary management style that combined calm empathy with mental resilience, courageous integrity with strong accountability.
David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate, in trademark waistcoat, in James Graham’s play Dear England, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Mark Brenner
He will discuss his new book Dear England: Lessons In Leadership, a title shared with James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play (and forthcoming television drama) that takes its name from Southgate’s open letter during the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Sturzaker plays Southgate, Samantha Womack, team psychologist Pippa Grange, in this “inspiring, at times heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting story” of England, penalties, lost finals and a new-found national identity. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
David Walliams: An evening of frank chat and outrageous anecdotes at York Barbican. Picture: Charlie Clift
Candid comedic conversation of the week: An Evening With David Walliams, York Barbican, November 4, 7.30pm
SKETCH comedian, prolific author, talent show judge and English Channel swimmer David Walliams presents an evening of laughter, storytelling and surprises, discussing his Little Britain breakthrough, Come Fly With Me and his days on Britain’s Got Talent.
Expect the stories behind legendary TV sketches and reflections on his myriad books and the highs and lows of a career. Prepare for candid conversation and outrageous anecdotes, topped off with the chance to put questions to Walliams in the Q&A. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ben Rosenfield and Laura McKeller in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live. Picture: Emma Warley
Halloween horrors and jump scares of the week: Neon Crypt & The Deathly Dark Tours present The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 4 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
BETWEEN 1986 and 1993, a series of often violent hauntings rocked the small Yorkshire town of Wetwang. The cases went cold and all the records were lost…until now! Join York ghost walk guide Dr Dorian Deathly as the Neon Crypt and The Deathly Dark Tours team digs into the history and horrors of these cases. “This show is not for the faint of heart,” he forewarns. Suitable for age 13 upwards. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Nik Briggs: York Stage director back on stage to play a contestant in The Great British Bake Off Musical
York musical premiere of the week: York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 5 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
BAKING battles, singing sponges and a sprinkling of hilarity is the recipe for York Stage’s York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical, rising to the occasion under the direction of Nik Briggs, who also makes a rare stage appearance as one of the Bake Off contestants.
Expect a sweet and savoury symphony of British wit and oven mitts, propelled by a menu of jazz hands and jubilant original songs that capture the essence of the Bake Off tent, from nerve-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become fruitful reality. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Katie Leckey: Directing Griffonage Theatre’s three nights of Kafka’ strangest short stories in the House of Trembling Madness cellar in Lendal
Deliciously disturbing stories of the week: Griffonage Theatre, Kafka By Candlelight, The House Of Trembling Madness, Lendal, York, November 5 to 7. 6.30pm and 8.30pm
“NO rest for the week,” say Griffonage Theatre, York’s purveyors of the madcap and the macabre, who are performing Kafka By Candlelight in the cavernous belly of the House Of Trembling Madness cellar as part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s debut Aesthetica Fringe, featuring 25 shows across the city.
This one showcases five of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories, told disturbingly in the darkness with the audience in masks (optional). “Dare to join us?” they tease. Box office: eventbrite.com/e/kafka-by-candlelight-tickets-1815618316259.
York actor, writer and director Constance Peel: Presenting Service Please at Aesthetica Fringe 2025
In Focus: Introducing Constance Peel, Service Please, Aesthetica Fringe, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, November 4 and 7, 8.30pm; Micklegate Social, Micklegate, York, November 9, 2pm and 8pm
CONSTANCE (Connie) Peel, York-born director, producer, writer and performer, will present her debut one-woman show Service Please as part of the inaugural Aesthetica Fringe.
“I’ve been working as an assistant director and performer in theatre professionally for the past two years, since graduating from the University of York,” says Connie, 24. “This show explores the reality of working in hospitality, including the harassment and sexism you can face as a young woman.”
Service Please is billed as “a relatable and comedic monologue that follows Lara, a creative writing graduate, who hopes to write the next best-selling fantasy romance novel. There’s only one thing standing in her way, her casual waitressing job that keeps the money coming in.”
“We’ve all been there, but Lara wasn’t ready for the stressful and chaotic reality of working in the service industry,” says Connie, introducing her monodrama. “Can Lara keep her sanity and get her big writing break or will she crumble under the pressure of understaffed shifts, creepy comments and customers who say their only food allergies are ‘women’?”
Hospitality is the fastest-growing economic sector, worth £93 billion to the UK economy. “But it’s under severe pressure with more than 100,000 job losses predicted by the time of this month’s Budget, due to National Insurance rises (according to UK Hospitality),” says Connie.
“It’s evident working in the sector that to continue profits and keep up with the cost of living, food prices and discounts both need to increase while labour hours decrease. Being a server has never been more stressful and unpredictable and this experience (as other working-class experiences) is so often overlooked by theatre.”
Sexual harassment is an epidemic in the hospitality industry too, says Connie. “As many as 47 per cent of workers having experienced it – and 69 per cent witnessed it in 2021 (Culture Shift).
“These statistics, though informative, mask the personal cost to the individuals harassed and abused. My play presents interpretations of my own personal experiences, including those with harassment, and they’re an unfortunate part of the job when working as a waitress.
“They shouldn’t be, and awareness of this experience even in Fringe-scale theatre is always beneficial to the cause.”
Lastly, says Connie, Service Please tells the story of an artist with no clear way into her industry. “This is the most personally accurate part of my script. I wrote and performed the 50-minute monologue while producing and marketing it alone for its six-day debut run at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe, where it won plaudits from critics and top reviews.
“Though this is hopeful for creatives, both in the execution of the play and my own story behind it, I wanted to show the emotional toll of struggling as an artist, especially as in the past five years there has been one third fewer art jobs (directly impacting my career).
“It was important that I brought this show back to where my career started, in York where I graduated from the University of York and where I’ve been working for the past three years between York and Leeds. I hope this production and my story makes people see the importance of a small-scale play like this in today’s society.”
CELEBRATING its 15th anniversary, the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) transforms York each November into a vibrant hub of culture and creativity next week.
Over five days, from November 5 to 9, and in a digital extension, from November 5 to 30, the city becomes a global meeting point for filmmakers, musicians, technologists and audiences.
Presenting more than 300 films screening across the city, including many Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying titles, the festival champions bold storytelling and new voices from around the world.
Yet Aesthetica’s reach extends far beyond cinema. Its VR & Games Lab, Podcasting Lounge, Aesthetica Fringe and Beyond the Frame events merge film, music, art, comedy and digital culture into one seamless celebration of creativity.
This year, audiences can expect Sophie Duker’s comedy night, film critic Mark Kermode in conversation, a silent cinema live-score performance and the debut of the New Music Stage: a full music festival within the festival, spotlighting ten breakthrough UK artists in partnership with Universal Music and Caffè Nero.
For York and the wider UK, Aesthetica is a cultural catalyst, connecting York venues, supporting artists, boosting tourism and shining a global light on Yorkshire’s thriving creative economy. Driven by the Aesthetica motto that “it’s only an idea away”, ASFF is proof of what culture and creativity do, opening doors, building communities and expanding how we see the world.
Dodge Brothers, featuring film critic Mark Kermode, second from right: Playing at Aesthetica Short Film Festival
Top Ten Things To Do
1. Film screenings
EXPERIENCE more than 300 shorts, features, documentaries, animations and experimental films from across the globe. Many of these titles are Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying, giving audiences a first look at the filmmakers of the future.
Attend the Makers’ Forum to hear from directors and producers, discover new cinematic voices and celebrate bold, thought-provoking storytelling that pushes boundaries and challenges perspectives.
2. VR & Games Lab
STEP into the future of storytelling. The VR & Games Lab invites audiences to explore cutting-edge works in virtual, augmented and mixed reality, plus innovative indie games. Engage with immersive environments, interactive narratives and demonstrations from the frontier of creative technology. Learn how artists are merging code, design and emotion to reinvent what it means to experience a story.
3. Masterclasses & Panels
AESTHETICA’S industry sessions feature icons and innovators from Ridley Scott Associates, Aardman, BBC, Film4 and Framestore. Gain insight into the craft and business of filmmaking, from production design and cinematography to pitching, funding and post-production.
Highlights include Behind the Scenes of Gladiator, Napoleon and Alien and Film4’s From Shorts to Features. Ideal for anyone serious about their creative career.
4. Workshops & Roundtables
GET hands-on with practical sessions designed for filmmakers, producers and writers. From screenwriting labs and pitching clinics to discussions on funding, diversity and distribution, these workshops provide actionable advice from professionals. The roundtable format encourages open dialogue and peer learning: the right space to test ideas, ask questions and gain valuable mentorship.
The Games Lab at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025
5. Networking & Pitching
MEET producers, commissioners and collaborators at Aesthetica’s networking events and UK Film Production Summit, featuring more than 150 companies. Speed-pitching sessions and informal meet-ups give you a chance to share your ideas, find partners and make connections that could propel your next project forward. This is where creative relationships and future deals are born.
6. Parties & Socials
WHEN the lights go down, the city comes alive. Aesthetica’s parties are legendary: relaxed, welcoming spaces where creatives from film, music, gaming and art collide.
Whether you are winding down after a screening or celebrating a new collaboration, the festival’s social scene is where friendships form, ideas spark and stories continue long into the night.
7. Listening Pitch premieres
NOW in its fifth year, the Listening Pitch shines a spotlight on the future of audio documentary. Aesthetica has commissioned ten original documentaries through this pioneering programme, and this year marks the premiere of three new projects.
Previous commissions have gone on to screen at SXSW and Sundance and been acquired by The Guardian. This is the place to discover bold new documentary talent, with live presentations, audience Q&As and an atmosphere that celebrates the art of sound and story.
Comedian Sophie Duker: Celebrating female voices in the festival’s Beyond the Frame strand at York Theatre Royal
8. New Music Stage
FEATURING a line-up of some of the UK and Ireland’s most exciting emerging artists, the New Music Stage blends film and sound in thrilling ways. This year’s acts include BLÁNID, Crazy James, Daisy Gill, Dilettante, Ewan Sim, Isabel Maria, Jemma Johnson, Kengo, Pleasure Centre and Tarian: artists championed by BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, RTÉ Radio 1, MOJO and Rolling Stone.
With performances spanning Glastonbury, The Late Late Show, SXSW and The Great Escape, this new stage celebrates the shared rhythm of cinema and song.
9. Beyond the Frame
STEP beyond the screen and into live performance. Highlights include Sophie Duker & Friends, a comedy night celebrating female voices; Mark Kermode in conversation with Jenny Nelson on film music, and a Silent Cinema & Live Score by The Dodge Brothers with Neil Brand and Mark Kermode. These events blur the lines between film, performance and criticism – cinematic storytelling at its most alive.
10. Aesthetica Fringe
RUNNING city-wide, the Fringe transforms York into an open-air gallery. Expect art installations, theatre, DJ sets, exhibitions and surprise pop-ups across independent venues. The Fringe brings York and international artists together, inviting audiences to see the city through a creative lens in a celebration of community, experimentation and the energy that fuels York’s cultural heartbeat.
Aesthetica Short Film Festival invites you to “be part of the story”. “Whether you’re a filmmaker, musician, gamer or culture-lover, our 2025 festival is your invitation to experience creativity without limits,” says festival director Cherie Federico. “Join us in York and be part of a global conversation about the future of storytelling.”
For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: www.asff.co.uk.
