Graham Smith in shocking pink as saucy Dame Dora Di Sorderlie in Dick Whittington in December 2021 in his Rowntree Players days
GRAHAM Smith, once the doyen of Rowntree Players pantomime dames, is moving on to panto pastures new with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre.
Graham, who lives near Wilberfoss, will revel in the moniker of Dame Nellie Nickerlastic in Rachel Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood at Shiptonthorpe Village Hall.
Neil Scott, Shiptonthorpe’s former “beloved and renowned dame”, will take on a regal new role as King Richard while Henry Rice will step into the boots of Will Scarlett, one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men.
Joining them will be Toby Jewsen as Robin Hood; Chris McKenzie,Little John; Paul Jefferson, Friar Tuck; Alison Rosa, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Chloe Jensen, Maid Marion.
Further roles will go to Robbie Howe as Snivel and Phil Featherstone as Grovel; Sienna Cayton, Ella; Pelham Dennis, Sam; Carolyne Jensen, Poet; Sarah Burnell, Minstrel, and Shirley Rice, Lady Guy.
Show times will be Friday, January 30 2026, 7pm; Saturday, January 31, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, February 1, 2pm; Friday, February 6, 7pm, and Saturday, February 7, 7pm.
“Get ready for laughter, adventure and festive fun as the curtain rises on another unforgettable pantomime season,” says the director.
Tickets are available from Richard Waud on 07922 443639 or by emailing richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.
AFTER hosting Palestinian poet Farah Chamma in June, York spoken-word collective Say Owt brings another international artist to The Crescent on November 23 when Gaza Poets Society founder Mohammad Moussa headlines the midday bill.
Palestinian poet and podcast host Moussa set up the Gaza Poets Society as a platform for emerging voices from Gaza and beyond.
Born and raised in Gaza, Moussa now lives in Turkey, where he continues to write and build connections across borders. He has published two poetry collections and contributed to multiple anthologies.
Nadira Alom
“Mohammed shares work that speaks with urgency, humour and hope – poems rooted in lived experience and reaching for freedom,” says Say Owt artistic director Henry Raby.
“We believe in platforming under-represented voices, and through his poetry Mohammed tells the story of the people of Gaza. A humble, gentle soul, Mohammed’s poetry is full of compassion and soul.”
Supporting Moussa at Sunday’s 12 noon to 2pm show of “generous spoken word sharing personal stories” will be York-based poets Nadira Alom and Minal Sukumar.
Minal Sukumar
“Nadira Alom is a poet who believes that your voice is the most important thing you have and you should use it to stand up for the causes you believe in,” says Henry. “She writes about mental health and her experiences as both a woman and a Muslim.
“Minal Sukumar is a writer, performance poet and doctoral researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York. She holds a master’s degree in writing and has performed poetry across India, Ireland and the UK.”
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, presented in tandem with Crooked Spire Press.
“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, published in October. In addition, he will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be his chosen guests, award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail.
Navigators Art’s poster for An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends
Parks is the author of Selected Poems 1983-2023 and the editor of Versions Of The North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry. He has run the Read To Write Project in Doncaster for a decade.
His translations of the modern Greek poet Constantine Cavafy were a Poetry Book Society Choice.He has been a Hawthornden Fellow since 1991 and has held residencies at Gladstone’s Library, De Montfort Leicester and Hawkwood College, Stroud.
His poems have appeared in The Times, Poetry Review, the Independent On Sunday, Morning Star and Poetry (Chicago) and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Poet and novelist Janet Dean/Janet Dean Knight explores contemporary themes through the prism of history. She is widely published in anthologies and magazines in print and online.
Poet and critic Matthew Paul
Poet and critic Matthew Paul, originally from South London, now lives in South Yorkshire. His second poetry collection, The Last Corinthians, was published by Crooked Spire Press this year, following The Evening Entertainment (Eyewear Publishing) in 2017.
Paul is the author of two haiku collections, The Regulars (2006) and The Lammas Lands (2015) , and co-writer/editor (with John Barlow) of Wing Beats: British Birds In Haiku (2008) a Guardian book of the year, all published by Snapshot Press.
He co-edited Presence haiku journal, has contributed to the Guardian’s Country Diary column and posts blogs at www.matthewpaulpoetry.blog.
Singer-songwriter and poet Jane Stockdale is a skilled multi-instrumentalist who loves performing a cappella too.
Crooked Spire Press is a new independent publisher based in Chesterfield. Edited by Tim Fellows, it focuses on poetry pamphlets, collections and anthologies.
York singer-songwriter and poet Jane Stockdale
In 2025, it has published an anthology of poems from The Fig Tree as well as Matthew Paul’s The Last Corinthians and Ian Parks’s The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will publish a further anthology of poems, based around coal mining.
Published every two months in the north, The Fig Tree is a vibrant online poetry magazine that reflects the diversity of modern life while looking back on childhood memories, working life, the natural world and family history.
The Fig Tree encourages poems in all forms that explore the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, poems that explore the tensions inherent in politics and the nature of the human condition.
“The bar will be open on Friday night and we hope to adjourn for a chat after the show with anyone who’d like to join us,” says Richard. Books will be available to buy. Tickets for this 7.30pm event cost £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
Navigators Art’s Folk & Words at The Artful Dodger, Micklegate, York, November 20
Navigators Art’s poster for this autumn’s series of Folk & Word events
ON Thursday (20/11/2025) – and on the third Thursday of each month – Navigators Art play host to Folk & Word in The Artful Dodger’s function room, in Micklegate, York, at 7.30pm.
“This is a low-key and warmly welcoming open-mic night where writers and acoustic folk musicians can present new and original work,” says Richard Kitchen. “Each month we invite a poet and a musician to co-host the evening and bring a guest performer; then the floor is open to the audience.
“Come and enjoy the safe, calm, friendly vibes of this unique monthly event. Entry is free with a purchase from the bar. Sign up from 7pm if you’d like to speak or play. Access is by the stairs only as it’s a listed building.”
Explaining the modus operandi of Folk & Word, Richard says: “Time and ethos-wise, it fits somewhere between the long-running York Spoken Word, held monthly at The Exhibition, in Bootham, and the bi-monthly Howlers sessions at the Blue Boar, in Castlegate, with the bonus of a musical element.
“Although open-mic events are everywhere these days, not many highlight poetry and acoustic sounds, so we’re focusing on people with words to perform, whether spoken or sung – and spoken word can include stand-up comedy as well as poems!
“It’s developing into a small cosy club. Everyone is supportive of each other and it feels good for one’s mental health. People leave feeling at peace, even if they move on to the bigger, noisier Thursday events elsewhere!”
Navigators Art co-founder Richard Kitchen
Navigators Art: back story
LOOSE collective of York creatives that embraces visual art, spoken and written word, live music and community projects.
“We’re passionate about giving emerging artists and performers the opportunity to shine alongside more established names,” says co-founder Richard Kitchen.
“We oppose bigotry in any form and strive to achieve gender balance and across-the-board inclusivity in all our events and activities. Since 2020, we’ve worked with more than 200 individuals and organisations.
“We welcome commissions and new collaborations with artists, writers, musicians and performers of all genres.
Slava’s SnowShow: Bringing joy to children and drawing out the inner child in adults at Grand Opera House, York
SNOW storms and Count Arthur Strong’s Scrooge; dancing full of Momentum and Jon Ronson’s latest psychopath tests put the ‘yes’ into November for Charles Hutchinson.
Weather forecast of the week: Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm
ENTER an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose” in Slava Polunin’s work of clown art, wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons. The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
London City Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition at York Theatre Royal
Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists and works rarely seen in the UK.
Here come George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento; New York City Ballets artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition; Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum and Paris Opera Ballet premier danseur and emerging choreographer Florent Melac’s new work. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jason Manford’s show poster for A Manford All Seasons, returning to York Theatre Royal this weekend
Comedy gig of the week:Jason Manford in A Manford All Seasons, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
SALFORD comedian, writer, actor, singer and radio and television presenter Jason Manford makes his second York in his 2025 stand-up show. He cites Billy Connolly as his first inspiration and he cherishes such family-friendly entertainers as Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pictish Trail: Expect psychedelic goo at Rise@Bluebird Bakery on Monday
Rising to the occasion: Blair Dunlop, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight, 7.30pm; Pictish Trail, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, November 17, 7pm
CHESTERFIELD folk musician, singer, songwriter, storyteller and actor Blair Dunlop performs traditional and contemporary songs from his five albums, released between 2012 and 2024, this weekend.
Known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic pysch-pop, crafted on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides, Pictish Trail, alias Johnny Lynch, has completed work on his new album, a sticky, shimmering swirl of sound and slime. To celebrate, he previews songs at Monday’s intimate show, performing in raw, exploratory mode, armed with acoustic guitar, sampler and his warped imagination. Expect tenderness, weirdness and generous dollops of goo. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Chris Wood: Seeking the truth in song at the NCEM
Folk gig of the week: Chris Wood, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
REFLECTIONS on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim and the Gecko as a metaphor for contemporary society add up to a typically wise and soulful Chris Wood set. Tom Robinson and Squeeze’s Chris Difford are fans, while The Unthanks look to him as an influence, and he has played with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in The Imagined Village project with Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy.
In a world of soundbites and distractions, six-time BBC Folk Awards winner Wood is a truth seeker, whose uplifting and challenging writing is permeated with love and wry intelligence as he celebrates “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
King For A Day: Paying tribute to Nat King Cole at York Theatre Royal
Nostalgia of the week: King For A Day: The Nat King Cole Story, York Theatre Royal, November 17, 7.30pm
VOCALIST Atila and world-class musicians take a fresh, thoughtful and entertaining look at the life and work of Alabama pianist, singer and actor Nat King Cole, whose jazz and pop vocal styling in songs such as Nature Boy, Unforgettable and When I Fall In Love define a golden era of 20th century American music.
Cole’s most celebrated songs and stylish re-workings of his lesser-known gems are complemented by projections of rare archive images and footage, weaved together by narration. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Kerry Godliman: Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who has outsourced her memory to her phone in Bandwidth. Picture: Aemen Sukka, of Jiksaw
Straight talker of the week: Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth, York Theatre Royal, November 19, 7.30pm
WHILE parenting teenagers, bogged down with knicker admin and considering dealing HRT on the black market, Kerry Godliman can’t remember what was in her lost mum bag after outsourcing her memory to her phone. Welcome to the life of a middle-aged woman who lacks the bandwidth for any of this.
Godliman, comedian, actor, writer, podcaster and broadcaster, from Afterlife, Taskmaster and Trigger Point, builds her new stand-up show on straight-talking charm and quick wit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jon Ronson: Hosting Psychopath Night at York Barbican, where he will welcome questions from the audience
Mind-bending insights of the week: Jon Ronson: Psychopath Night, York Barbican, November 18, 7.30pm
WHAT happens when a psychopath is in power? Could you learn to spot a psychopath? Are you working for a psychopath? Is there a little bit of psychopath in all of us? Sixteen years since journalist, filmmaker and author Jon Ronson embarked on The Psychopath Test, he reopens the case.
Expect exclusive anecdotes and fresh reflections in Ronson’s exploration of madness and the elusive psychopathic mind, re-booted with mystery special guests whose tales were not in the original book. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Recommended but sold out already at York Barbican: Adam Ant in Ant Music, November 19, doors 7pm.
Count Arthur Strong: Telling Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale in Charles Dickens guise at York Barbican
Dickens of a good show: Count Arthur Strong Is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, York Barbican, November 20, 8pm; Whitby Pavilion Theatre, November 23, 7.30pm; Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 27, 8pm
IN response to public pressure, doyen of light entertainment and raconteur Count Arthur Strong is extending his fond farewell with new dates aplenty for his one-man interpretation of A Christmas Carol, performing his own festive adaptation in the guise of literary great and travelling showman performer Charles Dickens. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Whitby, whitbypavilion.co.uk; Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Mexboroughpoet Ian Parks holding a copy of his new book The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light
Word-and-song gathering of the week: Navigators Art presents An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, November 21, 7.30pm
YORK arts collective Navigators Art plays host to An Evening with Ian Parks and Friends, where Parks reads from his new collection, The Sons Of Darkness And The Sons Of Light, and will be in conversation with Crooked Spire Press publisher Tim Fellows.
Joining Parks will be award-winning York novelist and poet Janet Dean, poet and critic Matthew Paul and singer-songwriter Jane Stockdale, from York alt-folk trio White Sail. Tickets: £5 in advance at bit.ly/nav-events or £8 on the door from 7pm.
In Focus:Lesley Birch: Flower Power and Jacqui Atkin: Ceramics, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until mid-January 2026, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm
Lesley Birch at her Flower Power exhibition opening with Pyramid Gallery owner and curator Terry Brett
YORK artist Lesley Birch is showing 22 paintings from her Flower Power series in an exhibition at Pyramid Gallery that coincides with the blooming of her small art book of the same title.
The book is published by Overt Books, the independent York publisher set up by York Creatives creator Ben Porter.
“I’ve always meant to publish an art book and never quite got around to it, but with Ben’s help, I was able to pull together this small volume,” says Lesley. “There are beautiful photographs of my home studio from Esme Mai Photography, more photos by Eloise Ross, and some of my free verse musings to accompany photographs of the paintings.
Lesley Birch in her studio. Picture: Esme Mai Photography
“There are only 50 copies available at this time. I’m thrilled to say that there is a foreword from my generous PICA Studios studio mate Mark Hearld
Lesley is sharing space at Pyramid Gallery with ceramicist Jacqui Atkin, who works with The Pottery Showdown programme. “I love the combination of my flower paintings with Jacqui’s ceramics,” she says. “They sit beautifully together and it was lovely to hear her details about making these exquisite pieces.”
Lesley’s Flower Power paintings were painted in response to abundant summer blooms in her garden and from Shambles Market in York.
Lesley Birch’s book cover for Flower Power
Sunflowers, from Lesley Birch’s Sunflower series
“I’m often keen on certain pots and vases too and I like to set up lots of bouquets here and there, playing with colour, texture and shape,” she says.
“I find myself immersed in a world of pure discovery and concentration. These works I’ve been developing for the past ten months and they’re now finally ready to go out on show.”
The Flower Power book is priced at £12 plus £3 postage and packaging. Contact Lesley via lesleybirch@icloud.com for a copy.
Danny Horn’s Ray Davies, left, Oliver Hoare’s Dave Davies, Zakarie Stokes’s Mick Avory and Harry Curley’s Pete Quaife in Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan
IT may be dreich and dreary outside, but the weather forecast predicts a Sunny Afternoon all week at the Grand Opera House, York.
Welcome back the four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tale of the rise and fall-outs of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, last sparking fireworks here in February 2017, and still as thrilling, visceral, anarchic, smart and smarting as it was when premiered in 2014 by Ray Davies (original story and songs, 29 of them, from the chief Kink’s katalogue) and Joe Penhall (book) before transferring to the West End.
Returning to the York theatre where Davies last played on May 3 2007, his story of sibling rivalry with younger brother “Rave Dave” (lead guitarist, fashion hound) is the fractious London forerunner to the Gallagher brothers’ Manchester ructions. Northern softies by comparison.
Clashing not only with each other but with authority and management too, The Kinks hold their place in pop history as the first British band to be banned from the United States. No wonder Penhall says “they were punk before punk”.
Sunny Afternoon is not a jukebox musical, more a raucously rude reawakening of Davies’s satirical commentaries on English customs, class wars, fashions and fashion, love and loss. The hits are delivered as much by fists – and a cymbal in the case of drummer Mick Avory (Zakarie Stokes) hospitalising Dave Davies (Oliver Hoare) with blows to the head in All Day And All Of The Night at a Cardiff gig – as they are by Ray’s golden pen.
Told with all the electric charge of Dave’s guitar riff for You Really Got Me, this turbulent tale is an eye opener for those familiar with the songs but not the blistered, bruising history from 1963 to 1967’s Waterloo Sunset and onwards to 1969’s American return, peppered with all its riotous controversies, physical and mental exhaustion and love’s headiness and headaches.
The Kinks’ Ray Davies standing in front of a billboard for Sunny Afternoon, on tour this week at the Grand Opera House, York
Equipped with Ray Davies’s inside track on all things Kinks, Penhall’s book is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving (to the point of tears in Dress Circle, Row C, Seat 26), as he charts The Kinks’ rise from rowdy backing band to cavalier working-class lads caught in a maelstrom of mendacious, manipulative management deals and recording contracts, American red tape, band fall-outs and brotherly spats.
We learn, for example, of Ray’s childhood stutter that returns in moments of stress; his refusal to have his gap teeth fixed; his marriage to an expelled Bradford convent girl Rasa (Lisa Wright, as in 2017); his breakdown after the exploitative American tour; how he misses sister Rene, who died when dancing on the day she gave him his first guitar on his 13th birthday.
You will love how songs both feed off or into the storyline, whether in the moment when a homesick Ray (Danny Horn, himself of Muswell Hill stock) craves comforting words down the phone from Rasa, eliciting her rendition of I Go To Sleep (his devastating ballad resurrected by The Pretenders in 1980), or when his breakdown is encapsulated in Too Much On My Mind, made all the more impactful by segueing into Rasa’s frustrated response, Tired Of Waiting.
Likewise, a tired and emotional Dave’s rowdy rendition of I’m Not Like Everybody Else defines Hoare’s Molotov cocktail performance.
The blow-by-blow re-enactment of the creation of two Kinks landmarks book-ends the show, firstly the raucous 1964 number one You Really Got Me, giving equal credit to Dave and Ray for sticking sharp objects into the speaker cone to make that wall-shuddering, ear-shattering guitar squall
Later, and climactically, amid so much turmoil, beauty beyond compare emerges piece by piece in Waterloo Sunset, a song famously denied top spot by The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, but here making you wish you were Terry and Julie meeting at Waterloo station every Friday night.
Joe Penhall: “His bookfor Sunny Afternoon is at once witty and scabrous, rebellious and moving”
Elsewhere, framing 1966 chart topper Sunny Afternoon in the glow of England’s World Cup victory that July makes for a right old London knees-up, while the barbershop quintet reinvention of Days is breathtaking.
Reuniting with Hoare from Sunny Afternoon stints in London in 2015 and Chicago earlier this year, Horn’s Ray leads the show with fire and rage, mischievous wit but the burden of grief too, and their partnership is equally strong in song and sibling flare-ups.
Hoare spells trouble with a capital T as dangerous dandy Dave; Stokes’s volcanic drummer Avory erupts in a remarkable drum solo and Harry Curley’s reserved bassist Pete Quaife is eventually crushed under the weight of the Cain and Abel toxicity.
There is no room for Autumn Almanac, alas, but the likes of Stop Your Sobbing, This Is Where I Belong, The Moneygoround and A Rock’n’Roll Fantasy take Sunny Afternoon beyond the Kinks klassics to the storyline’s benefit.
Miriam Buether’s set and costumes evoke the era in every detail; Adam Cooper’s choreography is almost combustible and Matt McKenzie’s sound design enhances the Kinks’ progression from incendiary, foundation-shaking early numbers to the broader canvas that followed.
Horn and Hoare never let up, their raw energy propelling director Edward Hall’s exhilarating slice of Sixties’ London life to new heights in its potent yet poetic portrait of sunny afternoons and dark days.
Sonia Friedman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow and Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: 12 plus.
Hold the front page: Slava’s SnowShow clowns reading all about it while having a cuppa on their promotional York day trip
SLAVA’S SnowShow will bring blizzard conditions to the Grand Opera House, leaving audiences knee deep in “snow” on next week’s first visit to York in its 31-year history of clowning joy.
Founded by Slava Polunin, this immersive, whimsical, multi-sensory show promises a “cavalcade of chaos and charm that invites you to leave the everyday behind and indulge in pure, tender delight as you enter a dream-like world that will both warm your heart and your funny bone , reminding you of the joy in being wonderfully silly”.
Slava’s company returned to British shores for the first time in seven years last winter for a West End Christmas run at the Harold Pinter Theatre and is now on an autumn tour that brought Slava’s son, Vanya, to York for a day’s promotional work and sightseeing in the week when SnowShow played the Manchester Opera House.
Dressed in clown’s costume and make-up for this interview, Vanya says: “It’s my first time in York and the show’s first time too. We’re very excited to be here, having seen photos of the old streets.”
Slava’s SnowShow clowns taking in the awe-inspiring Gothic edifice of York Minster on their sightseeing trip
Vanya has been on the move in this globe-travelling show since childhood. “I was born in Russia, In Leningrad (now St Petersburg), and I’ve stayed away from Russia for the longest time,” he says. “We left when I was seven, touring with the company, going on tour with Cirque de Soleil in the United States.
“We performed Slava’s SnowShow in the UK for the first time at the Hackney Empire in 1994 and were in the UK for nine years from 1996, when we played the Edinburgh Festival.”
The company did do tours to Russia. “When I saw St Petersburg again for the first time I’d forgotten how beautiful it was,” says Vanya.
He was delighted to be travelling from such a young age. “To avoid being called up for the army, you would have to leave at 16. We toured instead and my talents were much more usefully used making people smile than knowing how to hold a rifle,” he says.
Bubbling up: Slava’s SnowShow clowns in their joyous globe-travelling show
Vanya, now 39, is a key component in a show set within an absurd and surrealistic world of “fools on the loose”, a work of art wherein each scene paints a picture: an unlikely shark swimming in a misty sea; clowns and the audience tangled up in a gigantic spider’s web; heart-breaking goodbyes with a coat rack on a railway platform, and audience members being hypnotised by giant balloons.
“Everybody asks me what’s my favourite scene, and it’s the one that involves a clown in an overcoat with the coat rack on the platform. It’s a very touching scene that shows that clowning is not just about slapstick – and there’s only a little slapstick in our show because we’re not traditional clowns,” says Vanya.
“It’s hard to explain the show but it’s very simple! It’s the story of two characters and the journey they’re going on. It can be confusing and absurd, and in the beginning everyone is a bit confused but then they get to know the characters and it becomes sentimental by the end, when big snow effects take over the whole theatre.”
The finale is an “out-of-this-world snowstorm”. “Snow is a big part of the show,” says Vanya. “It’s decorative as a prop but because of the theme of the show as well, in my culture, snow holds different meanings: it could be making snowballs, or being trapped in a snowstorm, when it can be isolating or make you feel lonely. So that’s how we use it in the show, in both a scary and joyful way.
Slava’s SnowShow founder Slava Polunin
“Everyone can interpret snow differently, in their own way because, like us, they will have their own connections with snow. We once brought our paper snow to Honolulu [in Hawaii], where they had never seen snow, but they still had snow on their Christmas cards!”
Now the specialist in the international language of snow, Slava Polunin, Vanya’s father, was born in a small town in central Russia, where he discovered the art of pantomime in high school. As he grew into adulthood in Leningrad, he developed an eccentric version of the form that he dubbed lovingly as “Expressive Idiotism”.
From 1979 onwards, Slava became a fixture on Russian stages and television, sharing his gifts and continuing to redefine the art of clowning, exploring its boundless possibilities with his poetic and poignant approach to comic performance.
This discovery reached its zenith with Slava’s SnowShow, a show full of innocence and beauty for all ages. “In a sense, I have been working on this show forever, collecting bit by bit until it became a whole, to express myself fully,” said Slava. “Many things in the show come from childhood memories, like the image of snow, for example, and many others are pure invention in a style of clowning that I had never seen before.”
Slava’s Snow Show clowns and their fish friend taking a breather in St Helen’s Square on their York journey of discovery
Since its debut, the work has travelled all over the world, notching more than 12,000 performances in more than 225 cities and 40 countries and receiving more than 20 international awards, including an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and a Drama Desk Award.
“I started with a tiny role at the age of seven, and now, after my dad, who’s 75, I’m the most veteran of the performers – and he still performs sometimes,” says Vanya.
“The show doesn’t change that much dramatically down the years, because we don’t do things that are current, but do things that are eternal; it could be 100 years before now and it will hopefully still exist in 100 years. It has eternal emotions, friendship, love, fear and loss, so it doesn’t matter what year it is.
“These are the basics and that’s why it’s run so long. We try to connect with the inner child, so children love it, but adults love it too, and everyone leaves feeling like a kid, transforming into their playful self. Whenever things are bad, people turn to the arts for solace”
Slava’s SnowShow clowns clowning around on the Clifford’s Tower hillock
No two audiences are the same, says Vanya. “Everywhere we go, they are different, and not just from country to country, but city to city,” he explains. “In the first Act, we spend time looking for what rhythm of comedy they like. Is it slapstick or dramatic? What makes them laugh?
“For us, it’s really important to see how slow we can do the show as we are day-dreaming clowns, where we like to take it slowly without losing their attention! Clowning has evolved, and in the form that we’re doing it, it’s a new evolution.”
After big balloons, bubbles and the spider’s web that is passed across the audience, Slava’s Snow Show climaxes with a paper snow blizzard. “We used to cut out the paper snowflakes with scissors, then with paper cutters, but now we order in our snow,” says Vanya. “It’s not a snow machine, but make-believe snow as you don’t get wet from paper!”
Slava’s SnowShow, Grand Opera House, York, November 19 to 23; 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday; 2.30pm, Thursday and Saturday; Sunday, 2pm and 6pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: Eight upwards.
Why the sad face?The frown meets the clown as CharlesHutchPress interviews Slava’s SnowShow’s Vanya Polunin at the Grand Opera House, York
London City Ballet in the UK premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At An Exhibition
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum on Friday and Saturday.
This new repertoire showcases artists rarely seen in the UK and is in keeping with the company’s ethos of bringing to the stage rarely performed works.
George Balanchine’s early work Haieff Divertimento was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and to this day had remained unseen outside the USA until this London City Ballet season.
Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist-in-residence and a leading light on the global dance scene, delivers the UK premiere of his work Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s best-known masterpieces as the dancers bring the art to life.
Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score of the same name. Played live, Scarlett’s affecting ballet depicts the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love.
Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at the Paris Opera Ballet, has created a new work for the company in fluid musical style that combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering.
Returning to the London City Ballet company for 2025 are Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Nicholas Vavrečka, Arthur Wille, Jimin Kim and Cira Robinson.
New dancers for the 2025 season include Samuele Barzaghi (formerly Paris Opera Ballet), Yuria Isaka (former soloist at Staataballett Berlin), Sahel Flora Pascual (formerly School of American Ballet, Ballet Austin), Constance Devernay-Laurence (former principal at Scottish Ballet/TV actress), Josue Gomez (formerly Birmingham Royal Ballet), Pilar Ortega (formerly Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Indianapolis Ballet), Siméon Sorange-Félicité (formerly Conservatoire de Paris) and Lydia Rose Hough (formerly English National Ballet School).
Last year, on its return after three decades, the company was awarded Best Independent Company at the National Dance Awards, received a UK Theatre Awards nomination for Achievement in Dance and was nominated for Dance Europe’s Critics Choice for Best Company, New Name To Watch, Best Director and Best Revival for Kenneth MacMillan’s Ballade.
London City Ballet artistic director Christopher Marney
HERE artistic director Christopher Marney discusses London City Ballet’s origins, its triumphant return in 2024 and what to expect from its new programme.
LET’S start with the history bit. “London City Ballet was formerly the resident company of Sadler’s Wells,” says Christopher. “They grew a fond and loyal audience around the country by touring to venues in towns and cities where other dance companies dared not!
“Their reach was important because they engaged new audiences with excellent quality dance and built a foundation with a wide public.”
Returning after a 30-year hiatus, London City Ballet re-emerged into a radically altered dance scene. “I noticed that many of our wonderful venues around the UK were under-served by dance,” says Christopher. “Theatres had bustling programmes of plays and musicals but little on offer to dance audiences.”
The revitalised London City Ballet sought to address that scenario: “I was keen to help facilitate this by building the model of a ballet company that was tourable whilst still providing world-class talent and repertoire on stage,” says Christopher.
London City Ballet had inspired his own career in dance, one that had taken in being principal dancer at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London. “I would see them often as a child, so had always harboured the desire to rebuild the company and get it back on the road,” he says.
Despite this reverence for the original form, he sensed the need to reflect the world wherein we live now: “This time around, I wanted to make it adept for the times we are living in but still retaining the original ethos of bringing top-drawer choreographers’ work and international dancers to regional theatres,” he says.
The experience of reviving London City Ballet in 2024 was highly meaningful, not only for Christopher but also for the dedicated audience of English ballet: “It was a heart-warming return and we felt so welcome by the audiences around the country,” he says.
“Some were formerly avid London City Ballet followers 30 years ago, remembering what the company stood for, and many were new audience members seeing us for the first time. We opened the performance with projected images telling the story of the company’s beginnings, which set the scene well, and this was always met with great audience response.”
London City Ballet in Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum
In all, the company toured to 17 venues across three different continents in 2024, including bring the Resurgence tour to York Theatre Royal on September 6 and 7 as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to York.
Opening with Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Resurgence also featured Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances and Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.
London City Ballet is committed to bringing dance to audiences far and wide, a subject of passion for Christopher. “I am committed to keeping the company active and introducing people to revivals of works they have not seen before,” he says.
“When we arrive in a theatre we try to provide engagement opportunities around the performance, which includes participatory workshops and opportunities for audiences to watch the dancers in their daily warm-up ballet class before the performance.”
As to what audiences should expect from the new Momentum programme, Christopher says: “A mix of classical based work with a new contemporary creation made specially for the company. We will bring a ballet by George Balanchine which has never been seen in the UK and is highly anticipated.
“It has something for all the family and is a perfect introduction to dance with bite-sized pieces that are relatable through the portrayal of the company’s wonderful dancers.”
Christopher is particularly excited to see Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At an Exhibition being brought to life in the UK for the first time as part of the mixed bill: “It is set against a backdrop of projected masterpieces by Kandinsky and the dancers onstage truly bring the art to life. It’s a spectacular work,” he says.
The company members remain of paramount importance to Christopher, who enthuses over the troupe of dancers he has assembled for this year’s tour: “Our performance is an opportunity to witness thrilling, talented dancers hailing from all over the globe, many who are new to the dance scene in the UK.
“From experienced principal dancers to emerging young UK talent, it’s a real showcase for their technical prowess and unique artistic qualities. It makes for an exciting mix.”
London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion; November 15, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.
London City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento, opening the Momentum programme
Christopher Marney: back story
FROM growing up watching London City Ballet in the early 1990s, the company was an early inspiration for his career as a choreographer, teacher and artistic director.
Formerly, as director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London, he had the pleasure of programming tours internationally, curating and commissioning diverse programmes.
These have included the repertoire of such choreographers as George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Liam Scarlett, Frederick Ashton, Jasmin Vardimon, Matthew Bourne and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
As a dancer, Chris worked internationally for the Balletboyz, Gothenburg Ballet, Ballet Biarritz, Bern Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, where he danced many principal roles around the world.
The Critics Circle National Dance Awards nominated him for Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance two years running as well as including him in Dance Europe’s Outstanding Male Dancer 2013 list.
Chris retired from performing in 2017 with Ivan Putrov’s Men In Motion where he danced the Faun in Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi d’un Faun.
As a choreographer, he has created works for Ballet Black, English National Ballet’s Emerging dancer, The Four Seasons for the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Nutcracker at the British Museum, Eve at Sadlers Wells and Lady Macbeth at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
His London West End credits include choreography for McQueen The Play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Tell Me On A Sunday at the St James.
Named associate artist of the UK Foundation for Dance and holds a Masters degree in choreography, awarded by the University of Kent.
Remains committed to reviving less familiar but important works, shining a new light on those choreographies and providing access through extensive touring.
Re-formed London City Ballet in 2023 after 30-year hiatus, launching the first tour, Resurgence, in 2024.
Danny Horn’s Ray Davies leading The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan
SUNNY Afternoon’s Kinks songs for dark nights, Dibley comedic delights and drag diva Velma Celli’s frock rock catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye.
Musical of the week: Sonia Freidman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees
RETURNING to York for the first time since February 2017, four-time Olivier Award winner Sunny Afternoon charts the raw energy, euphoric highs, troubling lows, mendacious mismanagement and brotherly spats of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, equipped with an original story (and nearly 30 songs) by frontman Ray Davies.
The script is by Joe Penhall, who says: “As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsider – punk before punk.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Nicki Clay’s Reverend Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Paul Miles
Village drama of the week: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre:41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
NICKI Clay is going doubly Dibley for MARMiTE Theatre in the new York company’s debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley, having played Geraldine Grainger for The Monday Players in Escrick in May.
Martyn Hunter directs Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s first two TV series, bringing together all the favourite eccentric residents of Dibley as the new vicar’s arrival shakes up the parish council of this sleepy English village. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
N’Faly Kouyaté: Dancing shoes recommended
African rhythms of the week: N’Faly Kouyaté, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
AFTER gracing stages across the world with Afro Celt Sound System — where Celtic voices and instrumentation met the vibrant heartbeat of African rhythms — avant-garde griot N’Faly Kouyaté embarks on a profoundly personal journey.
This masterful Guinean multi-instrumentalist, inspired vocalist and living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds returns with his album Finishing, whose songs stir the soul, provoke reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving. Bring your dancing shoes! Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Velma Celli: Rock Queen with a nod to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane slash. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography
Drag night of the week: Velma Celli: Rock Queen, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK’S international drag diva deluxe Velma Celli follows up her iconic October 1 appearance in Coronation Street soapland withan “overindulgent evening celebrating and re-imagining the best of rock classics” with her band.
The alter ego of West End musical star Ian Stroughair, who has shone in Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago, cabaret queen Velma’s live vocal drag act has been charming audiences for 14 years, whether at Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse, her Impossible Brunches at Impossible York, or in such shows as A Brief History Of Drag, My Divas, God Save The Queens and Divalussion (with Christina Bianco). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Beth McCarthy: Heading back home to play Big Ian’s A Night To Remember charity concert. Picture: Duncan Lomax., Ravage Productions
Charity event of the week: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
BIG Ian Donaghy hosts a “night of York helping York” featuring a 30-strong band led by George Hall with a line-up of York party band HUGE, Jess Steel, Beth McCarthy, Heather Findlay, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Simon Snaize, Annie-Rae Donaghy, fiddler Kieran O’Malley, Samantha Holden, Las Vegas Ken and musicians from York Music Forum, plus a guest choir.
Proceeds from this three-hour fundraiser go to St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. Tickets update: Balcony seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Staff woes: William Ilkley, left, Levi Payne and Dylan Allcock in John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough
One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 12 to 15, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
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: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Ensemble 360: Performing works by Shostakovich and Dvořák at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Matthew Johnson and Music in the Round
Classical matinee concert of the week: Ensemble 360, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2.30pm
ENSEMBLE 360’s chamber musicians Benjamin Nabarro and Claudia Ajmone-Marsan, violins, Rachel Roberts, viola, Gemma Rosefield, cello, and Tim Horton, piano, perform the dramatic intensity and soaring lyricism of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 and the radiant warmth and Czech folk-inspired melodies of Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, a piece cherished for its lush harmonies, spirited dances and seamless instrumental interplay. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Rock’n’roll show of the week: Two Pianos, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 7.30pm
IN the words of Jerry Lew Lewis, “Two Pianos are awesome rockers”. Tomorrow night, David Barton and Al Kilvo bring their rock’n’roll piano show to Pocklington for a journey through the golden age of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee and, yes, the “The Killer” himself. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Lydia Hough and Joseph Taylor in London City Ballet’s Pictures At An Exhibition, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion); Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists rarely seen in the UK. Haieff Divertimento, an early George Balanchine work, was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and remained unseen outside the USA until now. Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at Paris Opera Ballet, combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering in his fluid new work.
Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist in residence, presents Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings. Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score, depicting the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Always time for chocolate: Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles
MARMiTE Theatre’s entire run of The Vicar Of Dibley sold out before opening night. What an achievement for this new York company – and how enviously any number of village churches must look at the full congregation.
New company, yes, but one steeped in names familiar to followers of the York theatre scene, from director Martyn Hunter to Nicki Clay, a third generation York performer with more than 50 shows in 26 years to her name.
Here she is on doubly Dibley duty, having played the Reverend Geraldine Granger in May for the Monday Players in Escrick.
Joining her in Hunter’s company are Florence Poskitt, Neil Foster, Mike Hickman, Adam Sowter, Jeanette Hunter and Helen “Bells” Spencer, all regulars on York’s boards, and Glynn Mills, whose absence of a cast profile in the programme made him a man of mystery to your reviewer.
Who will fill that empty seat? Dibley Parish Council awaits the arrival of the new incumbent in The Vicar Of Dibley. Present are Mark Simmonds’s Owen Newitt, left, Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton, Glynn Mills’s David Horton, Mike Hickman’s Frank Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia Cropley and Adam Sowter’s Jim Trott. Picture: Paul Miles
Research enquiries revealed he had been connected with theatre for 62 years, attending Central School of Speech & Drama, working in repertory theatre, the West End and on UK tours, and doing voiceovers and cabaret too. All that experience shows in a performance full of fire and ire, putdowns and intolerance as council chairman David Horton.
Rich Musk and Martyn Hunter’s set design accommodatesGeraldine’s cosy sitting room cum office with desk and typewriter alongside the tables and chairs of Dibley Parish Hall, permanently laid out for the next meeting.
Above is a screen, on which Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Carpenter’s first two television series opens with the familiar Dibley faces walking through the churchyard. Scene titles, Later, Later Still, Later That Evening, and such like, denote time of day and the change from one day to the next.
To either side of the screen on the mezzanine level is a neon-lit cross; on one occasion up there, Clay’s Geraldine tells one of her shaggy dog tales to Poskitt’s Alice Tinker, the ditzy church verger, but the lighting puts a distracting shadow slash across the vicar’s face from the barrier railing. Hopefully that can be eradicated.
In perfect harmony: Rachel Higgs, Helen “Bells” Spencer, Henrietta Linnemann and Cat Foster on choral duty in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles
On more than one occasion, the York vocal harmony group The Hollywood Sisters (“Bells” Spencer, Cat Foster, Henrietta Linnemann and Rachel Higgs) transform themselves into The Holy Sisters to sing hymns in beatific Songs Of Praise manner. Wholly in harmony with the play’s multitude of formal meetings and informal chats, their inclusion is typical of Hunter’s good directorial judgements that see the sitcom flow of short scenes sustain momentum with a twinkle in the eye throughout.
The play opens with Mills’s grouchy parish council chairman David Horton hosting the meeting where the new vicar will make a first appearance. In attendance are his awfully nice son Hugo (Neil Foster); the stickler-for-accuracy minute-noting parish clerk Frank Pickle (Mike Hickman); knitting-on-her-knee Letitia Cropley (Jeanette Hunter) , creator of endless inedible cakes and sandwiches, and no-no-no-no-yes man Jim Trott (a gurning Adam Sowter, left arm in a sling, presumably not for extra comic effect?!).
Dashing in and out with bodily ablution problems that he loves to describe is blunt dairy farmer Owen Newitt (Mark Simmonds, York’s busiest actor of the moment as he follows his Macheath in York Opera’s The Beggar’s Opera with Dibley, only a month to go to Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes).
Enter the new vicar, very definitely not a man as irascible chairman Horton expects, but Clay’s Geraldine Granger, drawing attention to her ample bust (matched by her even more ample supplies of chocolate). Whereupon Clay performs in the French style, mirroring the speech rhythms, facial expressions and mannerisms of Dawn’s sitcom vicar but with her own panache.
Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger looks on as Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton and Florence Poskitt’s Alice Tinker kiss at last in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles
Clay’s Geraldine is a delight throughout, at once reverent yet irreverent, and her scenes with Poskitt’s ever-slow-off-the-mark, exasperating Alice are a particular joy.
Poskitt, a supremely expressive physical comedian, wins hearts too in her love-struck, tongue-tied bonding with Foster’s equally awkward, inhibited Hugo. Their kissing clench that stretches from Act One finale into Act Two opener is one of the comic highpoints, not least from the nimble-footed input of Clay’s Geraldine, breaking down the fourth wall to play to the audience in providing a running commentary on what’s going on.
Hickman’s Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia, Sowter’s Trott and especially Simmonds’s brusque Owen all have their moments too in MARMiTE Theatre’s debut that you will surely love, not hate. Don’t swear if you are too late for a ticket; Hunter and co have plans to do further Dibley village capers.
MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. All profits will be donated to Comic Relief.
Velma Celli: Rock Queen with a nod to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane slash make-up. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography
YORK’S international drag diva deluxe Velma Celli follows up her iconic October 1 appearance in Coronation Street soapland with an “overindulgent evening celebrating and re-imagining the best of rock classics” with her band.
The alter-ego of West End musical star Ian Stroughair, who has shone on the London stage in Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago, cabaret queen Velma’s live vocal drag act has been charming audiences for 14 years.
In York, Velma is to be spotted hosting Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse and her Impossible Brunches at Impossible York, as well as on stage down the years at York Theatre Royal, the National Centre for Early Music and The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse.
Wider afield, Velma has starred in such shows as A Brief History Of Drag, My Divas, God Save The Queens, Equinox, her David Bowie tribute Irreplaceable, Velma Celli Goes Gaga, Show Queen and Divalussion (with American actress, singer and impressionist Christina Bianco), performing in London, at the Edinburgh Fringe and with award-winning success in Australia.
On Wednesday, Velma will be joined by musical director Scott Robinson on keyboards, Al Morrison on guitar, Olly Chilton on bass and Chris Sykes on drums.
Velma’s Act One set list will comprise Summer Of ’69; I Was Made For Loving You; Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me; It Must Have Been Love; Wicked Game; The Edge Of Glory; When Doves Cry; Bohemian Rhapsody and I Wanna Break Free/Under Pressure.
Act Two will open with a David Bowie medley, followed by Starman; Hey Jude; Ironic; Creep; Wonderwall; (Everything I Do) I Do It For You; If I Could Turn Back Time and The Best. Rock Queen will bid goodnight with the encore American double whammy of Livin’ On A Prayer and Sweet Child O’ Mine.
Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
