Jane Asher as The Queen, surrounded by royal dresses on show in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
THERE has been a multitude of portraits of Elizabeth II, from Spitting Image to The Crown, Helen Mirren in The Queen to Moira Buffini’s play Handbagged.
Now comes By Royal Appointment, the debut play by Daisy Goodwin, creator of ITV’s historical television drama series Victoria.
The novel spin here is that By Royal Appointment is as much the story of The Dresser (played by Laura Main), The Designer (David Robb) and The Milliner (Matthew Cottle) as it is a depiction of The Queen (theatre royalty Jane Asher). More to the point, it is the story of how The Queen’s clothes spoke volumes for her.
Unfortunately, the words now wrapped around that statement are stiff and awkward, reduced in impact by their methodical, metronomic, repetitious, monotone rhythm and a chronological structure led by Laura Matthews’ Curator/narrator that undermines momentum.
No amount of high-quality acting and droll humour can save By Royal Appointment from feeling underwhelming, especially by comparison with the wit and political commentary of Buffini’s Handbagged, with its heavyweight clash between The Queen and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in younger and older years.
Handbagged still covered the passing years, but was more concentrated in its focus, whereas Goodwin’s play spans 1969 to 2022, opening and closing with The Dresser, Gigi Gaunt’s attendance at The Queen’s Funeral and taking an episodic format, where Matthews’ Curator introduces each scene with a snapshot of that year’s cultural highlights.
By Royal Appointment is based loosely on two books by Angela Kelly, The Queen’s senior dresser, advisor and confidante from 1994 to her death, albeit that Gigi is a conflation of her dressers from 1969, made into a working-class woman from Wigan with vaulting ambition and a blunt tongue for all but Her Majesty. She puts service and care first but all while serving her own goals too.
credit:-Robert Day
Laura Main’s Gigi Gaunt, The Dresser in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
Humour is not her bag, whereas Goodwin gives The Queen and especially her Milliner and Designer (based on Norman Hartnell) plenty of room for quips and observations. At the same time, the playwright counters those barbs and ripostes with emotional outpourings, whether by Asher’s Queen after her uncle, Lord Mountbatten’s death and the Windsor Castle fire, or Cottle’s unguarded Australian Milliner, when his partner dies in the grip of Aids.
Then add Robb’s guarded, repressed Designer, recalling how his father favoured his chip-off-the-old-block older brother over him, a mere “shaving” despite his Military Cross and design prowess.
In a nutshell, By Royal Appointment is in part the tale of The Queen and a Buckingham Palace “stuffed with queens”, but Goodwin’s set-pieces feel mechanical in seeking a balance of humour and something deeper. The overall tone is light, and yet Main’s manipulative Dresser becomes embittered, except in the presence of The Queen.
Asher has the regal air, the manner and the stature, and a voice and look to carry off the changing of the years. In Goodwin’s dialogue, she lets us see behind the front, especially when expressing The Queen’s love for Prince Philip and how he made her heart throb, but around her the behaviour is mannered and restrained (save on occasion for Cottle’s Milliner).
Consequently the drama is as starched as a shirt collar, in keeping with the time-honoured British characteristic of chronic reserve that prevails.
By Royal Appointment is well dressed and well pressed by director Anthony Banks and designer Jonathan Fensom, but ultimately it says less than its clothes. Style over discontent.
Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge, presentBy Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion with cast members after Thursday’s 7.30pm show. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura Main as The Dresser, Gigi Gaunt, dressed for The Queen’s funeral in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
CALL the Call The Midwife star! Laura Main has stepped in to replace the originally announced Samantha Womack in the tour of Daisy Goodwin’s debut play By Royal Appointment, playing York Theatre Royal this week.
“I had only two weeks of rehearsals – shorter than it would otherwise have been, and even then there were some things that were non-negotiable as I have to do panto at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this Christmas” says Laura, who has played Shelagh Turner (formerly Sister Bernadette) in the BBC medical drama since 2012.
In the role of The Dresser, Laura is starring opposite Jane Asher as The Queen in Goodwin’s exploration of their relationship and how the pair created the public image of the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for her discretion, expressing what she really thought only through her wardrobe. In Goodwin’s play, The Queen is uninterested in fashion, at her happiest instead in a head scarf; her look is managed by her Designer (played by David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Main).
In Goodwin’s chronological play, the Dresser goes from advising the Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne, but the Dresser, like all royal favourites, is living on borrowed time.
“It’s such a wonderful play and such a wonderful subject, and so many things have slotted into place for me, like how I got a ticket to the exhibition of The Queen’s wardrobe at Buckingham Palace on a day off,” says Laura.
“This one ‘Return’ ticket appeared so I snapped it up, when they’re like gold dust, and so I had the chance to look at the dresses, the fabrics, the designs.
“On top of that, one of the things I’d been doing this year, after I’d bought the book for her, was reading Gyles Brandreth’s book [Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait) to my mum, who needs care and support these days. It was like I’d been studying for this role and now it’s about getting the character [of the Dresser] right and doing her justice.”
Gooodman’s Dresser, Gigi Gaunt, is a composite of various dressers to The Queen from 1969 to 2022, most notably Angela Kelly, her personal assistant, adviser and dresser from 1994 until the monarch’s death, says Laura: “We’re playing all these different ages and all these significant times in The Queen’s life.”
Part of the joy of taking on The Dresser’s role was the chance to perform with Jane Asher. “It’s the first I’ve worked with Jane, and I would say one of my favourite moments was looking into Jane’s eyes for the first time as The Queen. It was pretty spine-tingling. Jane is so talented and nice and generous, and such fun. She’s an amazing person.”
Laura Main as The Dresser with Jane Asher as The Queen in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
How did Laura “find” her character? “I hear what you say about thinking about who she is dressing and how extraordinary that is, but you have to find your own way in. The Dresser really loves The Queen, cares for her and she absolutely has that sense of responsibility of serving The Queen. They had this chemistry and bond,” she says.
“I know how it feels when you have to do something scary, where you have to perform, and you have a make-up artist and wardrobe assistant making sure everything is OK, so I channel my friends from Call The Midwife into this role.”
Laura continues: “I know the Dresser is loosely based on Angela Kelly, and I’ve been listening to her audio-books, where she talks about those emotional moments, like before the State Opening of Parliament, where there’s just the two of them preparing in this small space; the silence of those moments.”
Laura not only draws on Angela Kelly’s recollections, but she also has been working with costumer designer and fashion stylist Laura Parkes. “Again it’s a tiny window into that world, which in a way the Dresser has, as she’s not from that world [as a working-class woman from Wigan] but she has access to it,” she says.
“This woman is completely different to anyone I’ve played before, though there are elements that, as Laura, share. I feel really excited to be playing Gigi.”
Scottish actress Laura, who has mastered a Wigan accent for the role, says By Royal Appointment gives a complete picture of The Queen in a play that starts and ends with her funeral and looks back at significant moments in her reign.
“I feel that Daisy has created The Queen behind closed doors when there are tender moments, comical moments, real moments,” she says. “I suspect, having met Daisy, that she is maybe closer to the world of The Queen, having written about Queen Victoria too, but I feel that Gigi is singing off the page too.”
The dresses speak volumes in the play, designed for this production by Jonathan Fensom. “Having been to the exhibition at Buckingham Palace, it’s wonderful to see The Queen in so many iconic outfits. What style, spanning so much time, so many fashions, and she was really bold. I think she had such fun with what she wore,” says Laura. “Jonathan has made us all look fantastic in this heightened, elevated world.
“I have just one dress throughout, whereas The Queen is changing all the time. It’s a simple and stylish dress that can span all the times the play covers, which is really clever. The moment when Gigi was ‘here’ for me was when I first first wore the black hat, that dress, and coat for the funeral.”
Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge, present By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion after Thursday’s 7.30pm show. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura Main as the Dresser in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
Laura Main on saying Yes to playing The Dresser on tour either side of Christmas at short notice
“THERE were some things that were non-negotiable as I have to do panto at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this Christmas, where I’m Fairy Snowfall in Sleeping Beauty,” says Laura.
“I did it in Sunderland last year and had so much fun that when they asked me again, with my mum needing care and support these days. it was my sisters who said, ‘you loved it, go and do it again’.
“With that care and support, my mum has been so much better, but it’s a wrench to leave her.
“I love theatre, I absolutely love it, but I do have family time too, which has been good, and then this opportunity to do By Royal Appointment came up. I know the director, Anthony Banks, after playing M’Lynn, Shelby’s mother, in Steel Magnolias, so right at this moment in time, being offered a huge, huge tour for a long time…
“…you never know what will be right right for you personally and creatively, but I did really want to do some more theatre as I love all the magic of storytelling, the connection with the audience and the chance to play a new character.
“There’s a week off before the panto starts and a week off afterwards, and then we start again in Aberdeen, which is where I’m from and where my mum lives. I thought, when am I going to get the time to do both, acting and looking after my mum, and it felt like Anthony was giving me the chance to do both.
“These are less than perfect circumstances, but we can make it work. I’ve found freedom in doing this role because, in a way, there’s less to prove as you’re stepping in and helping out.”
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Robert Day
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry to Lady Nade’s songs of identity, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who are staging the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits: Playing NCEM tonight. Picture: jameslascelles.co.uk
World jazz, folk and Caribbean groovesof the week: James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
LED by Harewood composer, musician and visionary James Lascelles, Talking Spirits is less a band and more a musical convergence of world-class artists whose combined experience reads like a hall of fame of modern music. Performing a lively blend of world jazz, folk and Caribbean grooves, the line-up comprises Lascelles, keys, dulcimer, melodic and percussion; Richard Bailey, drums; Tim Herniman, sax and violin, and Kenny Higgins, bass.
Between them, band members have performed, recorded, and collaborated with the avant-garde Frank Zappa, the pioneering violinist L. Shankar; the rock theatricality of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the soulful songwriting of Joan Armatrading. Brought together, their network of influence spans continents, genres and generations, yet somehow converges in a single, unexpected place. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig this week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, tonight, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man!, tomorrow at York Barbican
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie, who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Latinos: Cuban and Latin music at Milton Rooms, Malton
Havana spirit of the week: York Latinos, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
YORK Latinos return to the Milton Rooms for a night of Cuban and Latin music, bringing the spirit of Havana back to Malton. Inspired by the sounds of traditional Cuba and the golden era of Buena Vista Social Club, the five-piece blends authentic Caribbean rhythms and high-energy performance into a vibrant experience full of salsa, son and Latin classics. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Brian Bilston: Hatching his new poetry collection in Hemsley and Pocklington
Poet of the week: Brian Bilston: How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS autumn, Brian Bilston, a poet with 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside. Prepare for an evening of comic verse as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day. Box office, Helmsley, for returns only, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Alligator Gumbo: Bringing the New Orleans jazz sound to Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Jazz gig of the week: Alligator Gumbo, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALLIGATOR Gumbo’s seven-piece line-up plays jazz from the New Orleans swing/jazz era, in particular the “Roaring Twenties”, when music was raw and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously.
Performing extensively for more than ten years, James Paylor, double bass/vocals, Mike Rudland Simpson, guitar/vocals, Chris Lloyd, piano, Greg Surmacz, clarinet/saxophone, Chris Williamson, trumpet, Tim Hurst, trombone, and Jose Williamson, drums/washboard, have performed at international jazz festivals and clubs throughout the country. Expect raucous singalongs. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Lady Nade: Songs of self-expression and self-love in her Identity show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Connection and compassion in tandem: Lade Nade, Identity – Live, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
BRISTOL songstress Lady Nade showcases her fourth album, Identity, self-released on October 2. Blending roots, folk, soul, Americana, jazz, blues and pop, her songs of honesty and vulnerability offer sanctuary, encouragement and a powerful celebration of self-love and self-expression.
Featuring the anthemic BBC Introducing Song of the Week One Of Us, the soul-soothing Rainbow and the retro-infused pop of Sober, championed by Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 6 Music, Identity advocates being seen, being heard and discovering the freedom of fully inhabiting who you are. Special guest Holly Carter is a folk/Americana singer, songwriter, fingerstyle guitarist and pedal steel player. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Martin Roscoe: Piano soloist for York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at Helmsley Arts Centre
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 3pm
CONDUCTED by music director Simon Wright, York Guildhall Orchestra presents an intimate chamber concert, using a small group of players from the full orchestra. Martin Roscoe will be the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb in an afternoon programme also featuring Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7, Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Symphony 25 in G minor. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Edwina Hayes: Playing Milton Rooms, Malton, on Sunday
Singer-songwriter of the week: Edwina Hayes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm
EAST Riding folk singer/songwriter Edwina Hayes brings together English folk, Americana and the rich northern singer/songwriter tradition to create her own sound. She has toured with Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Loudon Wainwright III and the late Nanci Griffith, who called her “the sweetest voice in England” and covered the title track from her album Pour Me A Drink.
Hayes’s cover of Randy Newman’s Feels Like Home was featured in the Cameron Diaz film My Sister’s Keeper and has since had 20 million plays on Spotify and 50 million plays on YouTube. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Ebor Players in their 2025 pantomime Dick Whittington
PROPS and scenery are being painted. Lines are being learned, forgotten and learned again. Songs are being fine-tuned. Yes, it must be pantomime time again in Bishopthorpe.
Preparations are well underway for Mother Goose, this year’s show by the Ebor Players at Bishopthorpe Village Hall, near York – the Players’ home since 1994 – where it will run from November 30 to December 5 in the society’s first ever panto to be set in Norway.
Written by Ben Crocker and directed and produced by Philippa Parrish, this fun, feathery and fabulous family show will be replete with the traditional cheering and booing, songs and laughter, nonsense and romance, colourful costumes and slapstick surprises, peril and villainous skulduggery.
Who will win the battle of good versus evil: Fairy Aurora or Smorg, the wicked troll? Can Mother Goose and her beloved Heidi escape the treacherous clutches of the Baron and his sidekick, Gonk? Will Freya and Sven find love amid the mayhem? What will the Grand High Snow Goose have to say about it all?
In the cast will be: Paul Brook as Smorg; Phil Pickering, Mother Goose; Denny Davis, Freya Goose; Remo, Heidi the Goose; Katie Pickering, Baron von Rumpensmakka; Amy Bruce, Gonk; Sarah Frankland, Sven; Vincent Loach, The Grand High Snow Goose, and Bella Rutherford, Bobbie Lay-Flurrie, Diane Curran, Jules Rutherford and Mhairi Dunn as Trolls, Snowmen & Choir.
Ebor Players in Mother Goose, Bishopthorpe Village Hall, near York, November 30 to December 5. Performances: 7pm, Monday; 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday; 2pm (sold out) and 7.30pm, Saturday. Please note, the Wednesday and Saturday evening shows are adults only, with cabaret-style seating.
Red light spells danger:Neon Crypt’s Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show in traverse – with audiences to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know.
“Ready to scare the absolute beans out of you”, here Jamie McKeller discusses Neon Crypt’s latest spooky production with CharlesHutchPress.
What attracted you to presenting 2:22 A Ghost Story, Jamie?
“Nick Hern Books, who we’ve previously worked with on Dracula – The Bloody Truth and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, let us know that the rights were available, so we had a very quick read-through with the four of us to decide if it was the right fit.
“Neon Crypt have a reputation for very silly, very chaotic theatre, so 2:22 is quite a diversion for us. We all agreed that if any of us felt that it wasn’t working, we would abandon the idea.
“We read Act One and it wasn’t great. We had a chat about the tone, the delivery and character. When we read Act Two, it fired into life and we knew it was one we had to do.”
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben gather around the dinner table in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
What makes 2:22 such a good modern ghost story…and what makes it distinctive in an already well-stocked market?
“In a time of modern horror, audiences can be somewhat desensitised to shocks and jumps. Theatre cannot do what a 70ft projection screen can, so there’s a magic to figuring out how to deliver those shocks and jumps in the moment.
“2:22 is a ghost story, but it’s also a story about grief, loss and family. The temporary nature of a human life, and how the spaces we inhabit are more fixed and forced to change around the living. Threaded through it all is a great big question: ‘Do ghosts really exist?’”
What are the attractions of staging 2:22 in traverse?
“Theatre@41 is such a diverse space, and we love taking advantage of that. We’ve performed here in end-on, cabaret, thrust and now traverse. Then landscape in July next year for an original show, going back to our comedy chops in The House On The Hill That Is Haunted!”
Jamie McKeller as arch sceptic Sam in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
“Having the flexibility as a company is wonderful. In terms of 2:22, the rights state that we could not emulate the touring productions, urging people staging it to find their own design.
“By building the show in traverse, we’ve moved it as far away from the end-on staging as possible, and for an audience it provides a really immersive experience. They are IN the room with us, and there is nowhere to run.”
What will be the stage design within that traverse staging?
“The whole show is set in one large room in a modernised Victorian house, a space which features a living room and kitchen and great big patio doors. That last element is going to be a headache for smaller companies: actual working patio doors are very expensive, and very, very heavy!
“But we have them (thanks eBay and a miscalculation in measurements by someone) and they look incredible. There’s a real ‘WOW’ moment when people walk in, and then a sense of ‘oh no’ when they realise just how immersed into the horror they will be. What a splendid night out.”
Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Hands-on-the-table time as tension mounts in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Nick Walters’ Honey Dipper, on show in The Wisdom Of The Desert at the Red Tower, York
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to honey artworks at the Red Tower, the Aesthetica Film Festival to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Pop-up art show of the week: Navigators Art presents No Spinoza & Nick Walters, The Wisdom Of The Desert, The Red Tower, Foss Islands Road, York, today, 6pm to 9pm; tomorrow, 1pm to 4pm
GROUNDBREAKING multi-media York artists No Spinoza (Thomas Pearson) and Nick Walters share an interest in the immersive, provocative, multi-sensory experience of film, sound and sculpture, as represented in their joint show in York’s historic Red Tower.
No Spinoza presents Jupiter’s Great Hurricane (2026), a cycle of experimental music and film that broadly explores themes of temptation, progress and inheritance with references to desert spirituality. Walters’ Honey Dipper (2026) passes electrical current through honey to create mysterious and ever-changing textures of sound, while Ex-voto (2026) is a series of small sculptures set in niches in the tower walls that alludes to beeswax votive statues placed in shrines as a gesture of gratitude and devotion.
Victorian Penny Farthing Rider lit up at Ghosts After Dark at York Museum Gardens. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Sculpture trail of the week: York BID and York Museums Trust present Ghosts After Dark, York Museum Gardens, today and tomorrow, 5.30pm to 9.30pm; timed entry slots until 8pm
IN the wake of Ghosts In The Gardens’ free public art trail of 70 wire-mesh sculptures across 32 city-centre locations, Ghosts After Dark brings storytelling, light, smoke and sound to York Museum Gardens, plus King’s Manor courtyard and Library Lawn, the Anglian Tower, Edible Wood, Artists’ Garden, St Olave’s churchyard and the area beside York Art Gallery.
Representing a fascinating person, creature or story connected to York’s history, each sculpture was made by York creative agency Unconventional Design. A new immersive experience (the Witch Encounter) and the inaugural night market are further highlights of the 90-minute trail. Bookings: www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-after-dark/.
The VR Lab at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, at the Aesthetica Film Festival
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Film Festival, York, until tomorrow
IN its 16th year under the artistic directorship of Cherie Federico, Aesthetica Film Festival welcomes filmmakers, games developers and virtual reality experts from around the world. The five-day programme comprises screenings, VR & games labs, a podcasting lounge, industry masterclasses and workshops, networking sessions, live performances, pitching opportunities, the New Music Stage and much more. For the full programme and tickets, go to asff.co.uk.
Gareth Malone: Inviting you to Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth’s afternoon of movie songs
Instant choir of the week: Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth At The Movies, Grand Opera House, York, today, 4pm
LIGHTS, camera, sing! Choirmaster supreme Gareth Malone returns with a new tour show in an immersive celebration of the greatest songs from the movies and the joy of singing together. Please note, there is a maximum of ten tickets per household and seats in higher levels or with restricted views may not have full visibility of the on-stage screen. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes: Championing flamenco music at the Grand Opera House, York
Flamenco gig of the week: The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes present Viva El Arie, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THE Gipsy Kings by André Reyes transcend musical borders with their flamenco music and rumba. Led by Gipsy Kings co-founder Andre Reyes, the family project combines the band’s original essence with a renewed energy.
Together with his son and nephews, Reyes still conquers the world’s most prestigious stages after three decades. His dedication celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the gypsy community while ensuring this music continues to resonate with new generations. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Ellie Mackenzie in a montage for Oddsocks Productions’ Motherhood
Maternal matters of the week: Oddsocks Productions in Motherhood, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
REGULAR visitors to the JoRo, Matlock company Oddsocks Productions present an amusing and moving look at the bizarre and downright unbelievable aspects of raising children while running a family business in Motherhood. Actress and writer Elli Mackenzie explores the highs and lows, the frustrations and joys of being a working parent alongside her husband Andy, an orangutan and a giant woodlouse. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s play By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Author Miles Salter holding a copy of his new book, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83
Book launch of the week: Miles Salter, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83, Topping & Company bookshop, Museum Street, York, November 10, 7pm (doors 6.30pm)
YORK author, journalist, songwriter, band leader, podcaster, storyteller, festival organiser and poet Miles Salter launches A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83 in conversation with poet and author John Goodby at Topping & Co.
“Their remarkable, strange, dark, sad tale was a gift to a writer,” says Salter. “Every time I thought ‘this can’t get any stranger’, something else came up. The more I talked to people, the stranger it became, the darker and darker it became. A story of totally living that rock’n’roll life but to the detriment of band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon as it cost them their lives.” Tickets cost £17.95, including hardback book or £5 “if you just want to come and listen”. To book, go to:https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/york/miles-salter-the-pretenders/
Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Neon Crypt’s production of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig next week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, November 11, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man, in York on November 12 with the last few tickets still available
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, November 12, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
In Focus: Teenage Fanclub, Project House, Leeds, November 9, 7pm. Raymond McGinley in discussion with CharlesHutchPress
Teenage Fanclub on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera when recording Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture Donald Milne
TEENAGE Fanclub head to Project House, Leeds, on Monday (9/11/2026) on their 15-date November tour to promote Do Not Dare To Dream.
“Last time in Leeds we played the Brudenell Social Club, and it’s good when you’ve been doing it for so long, and you’re going a back to cities you’ve been before, to play somewhere new there,” says co-founder and lead guitarist Raymond McGinlay.
Released on October 9 on Merge Records as the follow-up to 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, their 13th studio album was recorded at Black Bay Studio on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera, the Glasgow band’s most remote recording location since their formation in 1989.
This setting helped the five-piece to focus on the work, while putting them in a place of awe, surrounded by the sound of crashing waves and the haunting presence of ancient ruins.
“It was a new studio to us,” says Raymond, who is still at the heart of Teenage Fanclub’s signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting, along with fellow songwriter Norman Blake, after 37 years. “We’re always on the lookout, when we’re making a new record, to find a new place that we’ve never been to before.
“We usually start with fragments of songs, allowing things to happen in the moment, reacting to the surroundings, and when we were looking for a studio, there was this one on an island off the far end of the Isle of Lewis. We looked at pictures and it looked interesting.
“It worked out for us, doing the album in late January and early February, when we thought it would be bleak, but actually it was really beautiful: lovely to walk around, with not many people there and the main inhabitants being sheep. Not many hours of daylight, but at least there was light in the studio.”
Production duties were shared between band members, the band’s studio engineer and the studio owner. “There was no producer as such; it was a collective endeavour,” says Raymond, who “feels lucky that you find people that you connect with”.
Teenage Fanclub in Black Bay Studio when recording 13th studio album Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture: Donald Milne
“From that point of view, experience tells you to let things happen without having too much ego or someone trying to impose an idea. We’re pretty good at working together, with me and Norman presenting ideas, and then it’s all quite instinctive with the band.”
McGinlay and Blake are “the ones sitting up at night, maybe three in the morning, trying to figure out lyrics”. Alongside them for the recording sessions are long-time members Euros Childs (keyboards), David McGowan (bass) and Francis Macdonald (drums).
“Euros starts contributing or David does what he feels like doing, Francis joins in on drums, and it just kind of evolves into songs,” says Raymond. “The input of everyone is important.” So, on this occasion, were synthesisers and a Domus church organ found by the band at Black Bay, the organ now heard prominently on many songs, most notably on Over And Over.
“We approach everything kind of the same way each time we make a record,” says Raymond. “Whether you intend things to be different, you just have to be conscious of trusting your instincts in doing our thing. We are the people we are now that we were then, but the subtlety of things changes year to year All you can do is offer something that comes from within yourself.”
Raymond continues: “Sometimes, if you’re going to show something of yourself, you show vulnerability, which exists in everyday life, and I find it’s best to reveal something of yourself, rather than constructing a persona.”
How was the album title chosen? “It’s difficult when it comes to…coming up with a name for an album,” says co-founder Norman. “Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.” In the end, his song I Do Not Dare To Dream was adapted to represent the overriding theme of pushing back on hollow optimism while still embracing a quietly hopeful outlook. “Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” reckons Norman. “I don’t think the world works that way.”
Raymond adds: “Norman came up with the title as a riposte to that soundbite optimism, those completely meaningless expressions.” Instead Teenage Fanclub advocate resilience when facing an increasingly uncertain world, where the need is to find clarity and comfort in the everyday, rather than giving in to despair.
“Now it’s the unknowingness of it that makes it more scary,” he says. “We’re no different to anyone else in presenting introspective reflections on creativity.
“In the place where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago,” says Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinlay. Picture: Donald Milne
“We’re not that different to people before technology, people dealing with difficult circumstances, though most of us had been far less pessimistic before.” That said, Raymond declares: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great”.
Picking a favourite from Do Not Dare To Dream, Raymond says: “I really like Norman’s song Somewhere To Land, the last one of his we recorded, where he added mellotron when we got back to Glasgow.”
Reflecting on Teenage Fanclub’s longevity, Raymond says: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place [Great Bernera] where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.
“What you do with your life, doing this mad thing for 37 years, it‘s a privilege, because most people who want to do this, be in a band, make records, play concerts, most people don’t manage to do that. I don’t think we’re better than others, but somehow we connect with our audience and that has allowed us to continue.
“We started the band in 1989, going into the studio wanting to make a record in our little bubble. Me and Norman had played in the band The Boy Hairdressers, which then fizzled out and we thought, let’s do something, as opposed to just talking about it. Let’s make an album and ask if others are interested in these songs, going from just doing something for yourself, to then having an audience. That’s something you can’t take for granted.”
Four decades have taught McGinlay and Blake that “when you make a record you never presume anyone will be interested”, but that interest has sustained. For proof, Do Not Dare To Dream has just been placed at number 48 in Uncut magazine’s Top 80 albums of 2026.
Futuresound presents Teenage Fanclub at Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on November 9, doors 7pm. Box office: https://www.seetickets.com/event/teenage-fanclub/project-house/3481726.
Track listing for Do Not Dare To Dream:
There Was You; Tomorrow People; Over And Over; Be With You Tonight; The Same Air; I Do Not Dare To Dream; Take Time; Day In The Sun; Somewhere To Land and Young And Wise.
The cover artwork for Teenage Fanclub’s Do Not Dare To Dream, released on Merge Records last month
York author Tom Wilson holding a copy of his first book, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic
YORK playwright, poet, TV scriptwriter, musician, artist, outreach worker and teacher Tom Wilson has written his first book, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic, part one of his How To Relapse And Die double bill.
Let Tom introduce himself, “I’m a recovering alcoholic in the 12-step fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve been sober now coming up to 38 years.
“I’ve lived here in York for just over 20 years now and I’m so glad I came here. It’s a wonderful place for artists such as myself to garner inspiration and to find opportunities to express themselves.
“My biography covers a lot of my Salford childhood and the more recent years covering the first 25 years of my recovery in the rooms of AA.”
One of 11 children, from whom only nine survived the poverty cull, in his early school days Tom was bullied relentlessly until he went to secondary school, where he became a notorious and disruptive “pain in the a**e” for teachers.
“I was constantly fighting, swearing, smoking and causing trouble most of the time while involved in truancy, vandalism and petty crime,” he says. “Early futile jobs led to extreme frustration and increasing dependence on drink and drugs and further forays into serious criminal behaviour.”
The back and front cover artwork for Tom Wilson’s The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic
Tom’s drinking, self-destructive attitude and immature belligerence raised his marriage to the ground and his now added drug indulgences soon took him into jail.
“Then a road accident left me with a serious disability after being run over on Christmas Day! I then formed a band, The Parody, which absconded to London when Manchester was an apathetic ghost town,” he says.
“London eventually provided me with a harrowing rock bottom after the demise of the band in 1985. I was at the ‘jumping off place’.”
Roll forward to late-2005, when Tom moved to York. “I began to think more and more about getting out of London but I really didn’t want to go back to Salford as it had become incredibly feral with the drug wars and even more deadly with the burgeoning gun culture,” he says.
“I think I managed to get out of London just in time, looking back. York opened up a lot of new vistas and challenges for me. I’ve done another four plays, two of which I wrote. I‘ve had three successful art exhibitions, all for good charitable causes, I must stress – people from the Ukraine living in York; Medical Aid For Palestinians; MIND and the Haiti earthquake foundation.”
Tom Wilson at the launch of his exhibition at St Bede’s Pastoral Centre with York Central MP Rachael Maskell in September 2022
Tom continues: “I’ve made around half a dozen short films and I’ve written a feature film about my sister Christine. I’ve done a little teaching since settling in York and I’ve worked at the council as a drug and alcohol strategy advisory role.
“I’ve retired from full-time work and decided to take Mark Herbert (This is England and Adolescence) at his word and write a book just to send a copy to ‘him’ in particular. The original title originated from a kind of comedy sketch I’d been working on a few years earlier called (very tongue in cheek) ‘How To Relapse And Die’.”
Tom used this as the starting point for the book’s title when contacting a publisher, i2i Publishing, in Manchester. “They were recommended to me by two dear friends, both great writers: Alan Franks, formerly of The Times and Simon Van Booy, who I knew from Dartington College of Arts,” he says.
“They liked the concept of me telling my true life story but also with an emphasis on my drinking and debauchery but also on my cataclysmic fall from grace and subsequent recovery and resurrection, for want of a better word.
“As I’d never written a book before, only standard plays on A4 paper, I started to write like fury once I’d started and then when I got to something like page 480, I submitted it to the publishers, only to be told it was far too long. After long discussions with the powers that be, we decided to split the manuscript in half, thus producing not one but two books!”
In 1991, Tom had a poem published called The Intrepid Sylph. “I’ve always liked the word ‘intrepid’, especially when it’s attributed to an alcoholic’s journey. So I thought also of various word searches that would dredge up good traffic. Then I came up with The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic,” he says.
Tom Wilson with his artworks at his City Screen Picturehouse exhibition
“I thought it had a certain ring and a cachet to it. So under the banner of ‘How to relapse and die’, part one, The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic. Part two will be called ‘The Gift Of Desperation’, which is the term we use in the fellowship to describe every alcoholic’s moment of heartfelt surrender and it invokes a kind of a spiritual awakening.
“The first book deals with my making it to my first ever A.A. meeting and the second picks up from the previous 38 years of sobriety and recovery.”
Tom wrote his story with “a lot of humour and a kind of flippant attitude”. “But, believe me, there’s a strong serious undercurrent and a powerful message for the souls that are still suffering who may not know there’s a way up and out of this maelstrom,” he says.
“There are a lot of light-hearted japes and some intriguing and zany memoirs but it also carries a vitally important message for those who may need hope and some guidance; it’s all in there.
“I’m hoping that the books serves to entertain and enthral the non-addict and the non-alcoholic but should anyone with those insidious tendencies read it, they may find something in the book more valuable than just entertainment and an old ‘sot’s’ nostalgic romp.”
The Intrepid Odyssey Of A Salford Alcoholic, by Tom Wilson, published by https://i2ipublishing.co.uk/, is on sale on Amazon and at waterstones.com and foyles.co.uk.
Kit Stroud’s Edmund Swettenham, left, Katy Barrow’s Mitzi, Victoria Beale’s Mrs Swettenham, Catherine Edge’s Letitia Blacklock, Paul Betts’s Sergeant Mellors, Adam Kadow’s Inspector Craddock, Joy Warner’s Dora ‘Bunny’ Bunner, Oscar Langford’s Patrick Simmons, Jennifer Jones’s Julia Simmons, Em Sinclair’s Phillipa Haymes and, front, Julie Russell Wilson’s Miss Marplein Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced
A MURDER is announced and will take place on Friday, October the Thirteenth, at Little Paddocks at six thirty P.M. Friends, please accept this, the only intimation. So runs the public notice in the local newspaper, The Chipping Cleghorn Gazette.
You will find it on the programme cover for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s latest fundraising production for the JoRo. A landmark show too, as this is the first Miss Marple mystery to be staged there.
“Not only am I a huge Agatha Christie fan, A Murder Is Announced is my favourite Miss Marple mystery and in my top three of all Agatha Christie’s stories,” enthuses director Alex Schofield in his programme note.
This is not the only first connected with this week’s production. Appearing as Miss Marple, Julie Russell Wilson is performing her first theatre role since returning to Yorkshire last year, while Adam Kadow is making his company debut – and Christie bow too – as “dry-humoured detective” Inspector Craddock.
They give the outstanding performances in Leslie Darbon’s adroit adaptation of a murder mystery with all the classic Christie features, in Schofield’s words: “a closed group of suspects; characters who may not be what they seem and plenty of red herrings.
“But importantly it also ‘plays fair’ and gives us, her audience, the opportunity to solve the mystery, which I invite you all to do.” A group lining the auditorium wall on Thursday was seeking to do just that, somewhat excitedly in the interval, prompting a gentleman nearby to ask them to desist as he did not want his own speculations to be influenced. Such is the abiding appeal of a Christie mystery.
When so much misery about Britain’s decline percolates the airwaves, what a delight to sit back and enjoy something as indestructible as Agatha Christie’s quintessentially British crime capers. This one has a country pad, stocked with a stoical family, a loud clock, two doors into the drawing room (one barred from opening) and a paranoid Hungarian housemaid (Katy Barrow’s delightfully scatty Mitzi).
Christie’s story assembles childhood friends, the haughty Letitia Blacklock (Catherine Edge) and often befuddled Dora “Bunny” Bunner (Joy Warner), the mischievous siblings Patrick (Oscar Langford) and Julia Simmons (Jennifer Jones) and a young widow, Phillipa Haymes (Em Sinclair).
Intrigued by the newspaper announcement, enter nosy neighbour Mrs Swettenham (Victoria Beale) and, clinging to her arm, her son, unpublished writer Edmund (Kit Stroud, magnetically drawn to the wall on each entry, perhaps to hide his incongruous man-bun).
Suddenly. Lights out. Three bullets. Torch light. One dead body (Paul Betts’s Rudi Scherz). One murder for Kadow’s wry, meticulously methodical, flamboyant Craddock or Wilson’s ever astute, under-the-radar amateur sleuth Miss Marple to crack. One case? Soon make that two, spoiler alert.
Schofield’s production is fast-moving fun, led by Kadow and Wilson’s terrific turns and precise diction, with the company nailing both the humour and deadly set-pieces in Darbon’s script. Chocolate cake, a taciturn village bobby and not every costume fitting well, what a vintage British visit to the amateur theatre unfolds.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm (last few tickets); tomorrow, 2.30pm (sold out). Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Isabel Azar’s Clare, centre, with her family servants, Clare Meadley’s Peppa and Emily Hansen’s Alma, in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. The bowl containing her hairpins will reappear later in Jim Paterson’s production as a begging bowl.Picture: John Saunders
FIRST, the history bit. The Franciscan order of the Poor Clare Colettines was based at St Joseph’s Convent, in Lawrence Street, York, founded in 1865 by nuns from Bruges. Where once it housed 40 nuns, now the site provides student accommodation. How very York in 2026.
The original Poor Clare is the subject of American playwright Chiara Atik’s 2021 play, premiered in Los Angeles and given its European debut at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in 2025.
Black Treacle Theatre founder and director Jim Paterson read a review and then the script ,“intrigued by the description of the play’s deliberately anachronistic use of modern, ‘Gen Z’ dialogue and attitudes in the telling of the lives of these religious figures in 13th century Italy.”
Hot on the heels of York Settlement Community Players’ staging of Sarah Gordon’s irreverent re-telling of the Brontë Sisters’ literary lives, Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, with its frank and fruity language and modern sensibilities, Theatre@41 plays host to another conflation of old and modern in its York premiere. This one, however, is as much reverent as irreverent.
PJ Gregan’s zealous but never pious Francis in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: John Saunders
Paterson’s cast is in medieval costumes, complemented in Richard Hampton’s design by a plain white backdrop. Then, the first time you hear each and every actor speak with an American accent straight out of Hollywood’s rom-coms or Frank Zappa’s satirical song Valley Girl, you will be puzzled.
Think Legally Blonde. Every second word, like, is ‘like’. Hey you guys, give us a break. But wait, Atik’s script is so smart and sharp and wise that you are soon wholly on board.
As it happens, Clare is played by an American actress, Isabel Azar, from Memphis but now extending her studies in York to opera singing with a view to a career embracing acting, writing and opera. She is Catholic too, drawing her even closer to St Clare, founder of the Poor Clare order of nuns.
In Atik’s faithful re-telling, Clare is a young noblewoman in 13th century Assisi, where she is preparing for marriage to an aristocrat and a life of even more wealth and privilege than she has already as part of the second most wealthy family in the central Italian town – even if younger sister Beatrice (Eleanor Stephenson) and their mother Ortolana (Victoria Delaney) will argue over whether they are rich or not.
Isabel Azar’s Clare in her putative wedding dress with her high-society mother, Victoria Delaney’s Ortolana. Picture: John Saunders
Yes, of course they are: at the start, Azar’s Clare is idling the day away with her droll servants, Emily Hansen’s Alma and Clare Meadley’s Peppa, endlessly titivating her hair. Stephenson’s Beatrice cares only about clothes. Such superficiality is rife in this high society.
Yet the presence of Ben Reeves-Rowley’s Beggar, bowl in hand, is a haunting reminder that poverty besets Assisi too. Into the town strides Francis (yes, that Saint Francis of Assisi, played by PJ Gregan), who has turned his back on his privileged upbringing to campaign tirelessly for the poor and the redistribution of wealth. A man of bare feet and facts laid bare. Zealous, yes, pious, no.
Azar’s Clare finds herself drawn to rather more than the beautiful robe and golden locks of Gregan’s Francis, as he sets her on her way to a life of devotion to the cause of caring for the needy. Yet she has a long way to go when she initially assures him she will still give to charity after her marriage.
Eleanor Stephenson’s Beatrice, left, Victoria Delaney’s Ortolana and Isabel Azar’s Clare looking delightedly at one of her wedding presents, a book, in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: John Saunders
Atik’s play moves with such pace and vigour that past productions have eschewed an interval, but here the break was a perfect chance at Wednesday’s performance to ask each other questions. “It’s not what I expected,” was the most common reaction, but uttered with approval and excitement at what was to follow.
Reeves-Rowley will reappear in modern clothing, linking with the modern world, as he begs for money from the front row while spinning his life story.
Azar’s Clare will find herself in discussions with bewildered sister and bemused mother and Gregan’s Francis alike. The more the two converse, and indeed clash in the high point of Paterson’s production, the more she feels compelled to reject aristocratic airs for service to the poor. By now, she is wearing a scratchy hair shirt to remind her constantly of the suffering, while his robe is no longer ostentatious blue but dull brown.
Come the finale, Azar’s Clare is in nun’s habit, addressing the ills of the modern world directly. The play was doing that already, albeit indirectly, but this monologue seeks to trigger more to follow Clare’s lead.
Eleanor Stephenson’s Beatrice, Victoria Delaney’s Ortolana and Isabel Azar’s Clare bathe their feet in the company of servants Alma (Emily Hansen) and Peppa (Clare Meadley). Picture: John Saunders
Paterson’s cast all enjoy the wit and fizz of Atik’s dialogue. Stephenson’s Beatrice is a riot, spoilt, blinkered but amusing; Gregan’s Francis has weight and authority but boyish charm too. Azar’s Clare combines impish humour and quiet intelligence with rising defiant steel as radiance settles on her.
Azar’s mother was in Wednesday’s audience, all the way from Memphis. She was not the only one whose face was wreathed in smiles after encountering such a bravura play.
Black Treacle Theatre in Poor Clare, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until November 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
P.S. Should you be wondering, if you attended Poor Clare, in keeping with the play’s meeting ground of modern and medieval, director Jim Paterson chose “medieval bardcore” renditions of songs by the likes of Lady Gaga, performed by such artists as Hildegard von Blingin’ and Beedle The Bardcore, each as magical as a madrigal, for the scene changes.
PJ Gregan’s Francis and Isabel Azar’s Clare finding common ground – and clothing – on Richard Hampton’s set, with its wheel-on chapel, in Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: John Saunders
Jane Asher as The Queen and Laura Main as The Dresser in Daisy Goodwin’s play The Dresser, on tour at York Theatre Royal next week. Picture: Robert Day
DAISY Goodwin wrote ITV’s historical drama series Victoria. Now, her debut play, 2025’s By Royal Appointment, is to tour to York Theatre Royal next week in a co-production presented by Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge.
Directed by Anthony Banks and designed by Jonathan Fensom, the play stars Jane Asher as The Queen and Laura Main as The Dresser, replacing the originally announced Samantha Womack.
By Royal Appointment explores their relationship and how the pair created the public image of the world’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who was famous for her discretion, never saying anything in public that could ruffle the lightest of feathers. However, Her Majesty had one way of expressing what she really thought – through her wardrobe.
Goodwin’s humorous, poignant and celebratory play considers the kind of power that only a Queen can wield, charming the world through coats and admonishing her family through a carefully chosen hat.
Yet Goodwin depicts The Queen as uninterested in fashion, her look being managed by her Designer (played by David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle’s role) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Main).
In By Royal Appointment, the Dresser is a working-class girl who goes from advising The Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. However, the Dresser, like all royal favourites, is living on borrowed time.
Taking the regal role in Goodwin’s behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world is “acting royalty” Jane Asher, the queen of cake bakers to boot.
“I was asked if I would like to do the role,” says Jane, now 80. “I was sent the play – I didn’t know it existed. It’s pretty much new but was first done in a different version last year. I read it and thought it was a somewhat terrifying prospect, but I knew the producer, Lee Dean, who asked me to do it before there was a director attached.
“By chance, a few weeks previously, Anthony had sent me a lovely message via my agent after seeing me in a rehearsed reading at the Orange Tree [Richmond, London]. I knew of him and his work, and when Lee suggested him to me I jumped at it.”
By Royal Appointment is based loosely on the books by The Queen’s senior dresser, Angela Kelly: Dressing The Queen (2012) and The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe, (2019)].
“She more or less became her carer towards the end and had been given permission by The Queen to write the books,” says Jane.
“So the role was irresistible for me: challenging, terrifying but wonderful too. People do really seem to be enjoying it: people of my age group and younger too, really love it, remembering some of The Queen’s clothes that got into your psyche. To see those clothes being brought to life again is remarkable, but of course it’s about much more than that.”
By Royal Appointment is being well received on tour. “I’ve done a great many new plays and I always enjoy it, partly because the writer is usually still alive – and so ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ is still available,” says Jane.
Jane Asher as The Queen, surrounded by regal clothing in By Royal Appointment. Picture: Robert Day
“You never know how the audience will take it, whether they will laugh or go quiet, but they’re enjoying this play, where with some jokes you get the most from them if you know the history. Overall it’s one of those plays that’s both funny and sad.”
By Royal Appointment is a slice of theatre vérité. “All the characters are taken from reality, so what you have – almost a first – is the chance to go behind the scenes, getting an insight backstage,” says Jane, who drew mostly on the script for her characterisation.
“I didn’t do specific research beyond checking certain dramatic moments in The Queen’s life, such as Lord Mountbatten’s boat being blown up by IRA bombers, happier times too, and her children’s marriages.
“I’ve gone mainly with Daisy’s view because she’s such a good writer about the Royals. It’s terrifying that so many other actors have played The Queen, and I’ve not ignored them, because they’re deeply ingrained, but I can only do Jane Asher’s version, which will never be The Queen, but audiences will accept this version.”
Did Jane ever encounter The Queen? “Yes, like many actors, I’ve been lucky enough to meet her a few times, like at a do at Buckingham Palace, and when my husband [illustrator and political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe] received the CBE [in October 2008], The Queen did the ceremony and I was there that day.”
Here is a statistic to ponder: “People dream about The Queen more than any other figurehead, which is relatively common,” says Jane. “It may be rather banal to say, but she did reign for an incredibly long time.
“She was so incredibly good at her job, fantastic in that way of being tactful and resolute that no-one should know her political views, and she did such wonderful things in speaking through her ‘clothes’.
“She just loved being in her head scarf and knitted skirt in the Highlands, because I can imagine that if you have to dress up in grand, uncomfortable clothes, you would long to get back into casual wear!”
Central to Jane’s role in By Royal Appointment is the clothing. “I love clothes, so of course it’s a lovely part of the job of acting to wear completely different clothes, but in a play like this, with eight or nine changes, it can get a bit tiring. I’d love to go back to playing a cavewoman!”
Jane wrote about clothing in Jane Asher’s Costume Book: Over 100 Costumes for Children and Adults and How to Make Them. “I thoroughly approve of things like Vinted,” she says. “I’ve always appreciated beautiful clothes that have been kept. I like being dressed in period clothes or ‘vintage’ clothes as they’re now called – but second-hand as I called them.”
Daniel Schumann, Lee Dean and The Arts Theatre, Cambridge, presentBy Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; post-show discussion with cast members after Thursday’s 7.30pm show. Age guidance: 14 plus. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
One last question for Jane Asher, cookery book writer
What do you consider to be the Queen of cakes?
“That’s so tricky: as with most food, so much depends on one’s mood! I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth so although I love making beautiful iced cakes for special occasions, if I was making one for myself to have a slice with a cup of tea I’d choose something like the old-fashioned Madeira – simple but delicious…”
Jane Asher: Actress, businesswoman and author
Jane Asher: back story
Stage credits include: Twelfth Night, The Circle (Orange Tree Theatre); A Song At Twilight, Moon Tiger (Theatre Royal Bath); An American In Paris (Dominion Theatre); Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre); Pride And Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Charley’s Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory); TheImportance Of Being Earnest, Farewell To The Theatre, Bedroom Farce (Rose Theatre Kingston), TheReluctant Debutant (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre).
Before The Party (Queen’s Theatre); Blythe Spirit, Henceforward, House/Garden (Vaudeville Theatre); Festen (Almeida Theatre), Look Back In Anger (Royal Court Theatre, Criterion Theatre); Making It Better (Hampstead Theatre, Criterion Theatre); Measure For Measure, Romeo and Juliet, The Happiest Days Of Your Life… (Bristol Old Vic, US tour); Old Flames (Bristol Old Vic).
Peter Pan (Shaftesbury Theatre); Strawberry Fields, The School For Scandal, To ThoseBorn Later (National Theatre); The Philanthropist (Royal Court Theatre, Mayfair Theatre, Broadway); The Shallow End, The Worlds Biggest Diamond, Treats (Royal Court Theatre) and Things We Do For Love (Gielgud Theatre).
Her film credits include: A Family Affair; Splinter; Burn Burn Burn; I Give It A Year; Alfie; Closing Numbers; Death At A Funeral; Deep End; Dream Child; Henry VIII And His Six Wives; Paris By Night and Runners.
For television:Crossing Lines; Pompidou; Eve, Stella; The Old Guys; Poirot: 3 Act Tragedy; The Palace; A For Andromeda; Crossroads; Miss Marple; The Mistress; Brideshead Revisited and The Mill On The Floss.
Books: Three novels,The Longing, The Question, and Losing It.
Lifestyle, costuming and cake-decorating books: Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress; Jane Asher’s Quicky Party Cakes; Jane Asher’s Tricks Of The Trade; Jane Asher’s Costume Book; Jane Asher’s Children’s Parties; Jane Asher’s Eat For Treats; The Complete Christmas Book; Jane Asher’s Calendar Of Cakes; Jane Asher’s Complete Book Of Cake Decorating Ideas; The Best Of Good Living With Jane Asher; Good Living At Christmas With Jane Asher; Cakes For Fun; Beautiful Baking and Jane Asher’s Easy Celebration Cakes.
Children’s books: Moppy Is Angry; Moppy Is Calm; Moppy Is Happy; Moppy Is Sad and Rhymes For All Seasons.
Businesswoman:Owns a company that makes party cakes and sugar crafts for special occasions.
Did you know? Jane is a shareholder in the satirical magazine Private Eye.
Did you know too? Jane has served as the president of the National Autistic Society since 1997.
