Category: Theatre

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The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time tour breaks new ground with female lead as neurodivergent teen Chris

Alex Keenan as teenager Chris Boone with company members in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s new touring production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

FEARFUL yet fearless teenager Chris Boone is being performed by a woman for the first time in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s bold new interpretation of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, booked into the Grand Opera House, York, from October 27 to 31.

Directed by Ned Bennett, this fresh perspective on one of contemporary theatre’s most iconic characters will honour the heart of the original story while inviting audiences to experience University of York alumnus Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel through a new lens.

The murder mystery combines the intrigue of a whodunit with a coming-of-age story, wherein 15-year-old schoolgirl Chris Boone is gifted with a brilliant mind for numbers but is unsettled by the unpredictability of people and everyday life, distrusting strangers deeply, never venturing alone beyond the end of her road.

Novelist Haddon never called Chris autistic or attributed Asperger Syndrome to the character, but this neurodivergent teenage protagonist does not like to be touched, is incapable of lying, can count binary numbers to infinity and has powers of logic beyond conventional reasoning or normal patterns of behaviour.

When a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, Chris comes under suspicion. Determined to prove her innocence, Chris becomes both detective and suspect, drawn into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered.

What begins as the search for a culprit soon reveals secrets closer to home, forcing Chris to confront truths that will test her courage, family and understanding of trust, independence and the wider world.

Alex Keenan and Imi Price will alternate the lead role on tour, joined by Charlie Brooks and Joe McFadden as Chris’s parents Judy, absent from Chris’s life, and Ed, who struggles with essentially being a single dad.

Alex Keenan’s Chris Boone exchanges a high five with Joe McFadden’s Ed, her father, in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

Brooks, best known for her long-running soap opera role as wildcat Janine Butcher in EastEnders, Brooks made her York debut in October 2017 in Alan Strachan’s revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1969 comedy of matrimonial mishaps How The Other Half Loves, playing Teresa Phillips on tour at the Grand Opera House.

McFadden played film director Jason in the Original Theatre Company’s production of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at York Theatre Royal in October 2022 and was last seen on a Yorkshire stage as Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption at Leeds Grand Theatre in May this year.

“I read the book back in 2003, and like most of the rest of the UK, I loved it,” says Joe. “I re-read it recently and was blown away again. It gives you such brilliant insight into Chris’s inner life, imagination, world. That’s why it was so groundbreaking: really putting you into the mind of a neurodivergent person. It illuminated that experience.

“I saw it in the West End and thought it so inventive. Simon Stephens did such a brilliant job of adapting it, keeping the best bits of the book but also making sure it came alive and really worked as a piece of theatre. When I heard they were doing it again, but with new direction, design, movement, music, that really excited me.”

Describing Ned Bennett’s direction, Joe says: “He’s producing these amazing devices to express the story, and [movement director] Jenni [Jackson] is creating this physical language I’ve never really seen before. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about putting on a show and seeing what people think. Eleanor [Bull] has done an incredible job with the design as well. It’s a real treat for the senses.

“One significant change is that while previously it only became apparent at the end of the show that you’re watching a play based on Chris’s writing, in ours you know from the start that it’s a play within a play, so the audience is getting to see the workings of staging a show. That’s fun.

How does the representation of a neurodivergent character land differently from the National Theatre’s 2012 premiere and Haddon’s 2003 novel? “In some ways we’ve moved on a lot, and we do know more about neurodivergence, but there’s still a long way to go. This is a story that still needs to be told.

“It felt important that we tell the story from the female point of view,” says Joe McFadden of the decision to cast teenager Chris [Alex Keenan) as a female in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s new production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

“Chris has this amazing brain. She’s so adept at these complex mathematical problems. Bringing that to life is exciting: expressing on stage how her mind works. It’s an effective way to tell stories, through theatre, because it’s all happening right in front of you.”

Making Chris a female character has an impact too. “There aren’t as many stories about neurodivergence told from the female perspective,” says Joe. “Lots of girls are being under-diagnosed, or diagnosed later in life, because they’re better at masking their symptoms. It felt important that we tell the story from the female point of view.

“In the way that lots of neurodiverse teenage boys came and saw the show last time, and felt their story was being told, hopefully teenage girls will feel that way now.”

It changes Ed’s relationship with his child. “It definitely has repercussions: Ed is now a single dad with a daughter instead. I was interested in what that would do to their relationship. I think that while he was already protective, now it’s a female character he’s even more protective of her,” says Joe.

“It doesn’t fundamentally change the story, but it raises the stakes, and it changes the family dynamic. Judy leaving her daughter feels like a bigger thing. It’s a subtle shift that audiences who saw the show before will recognise and feel like it’s a fresh experience.”

Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Charlie Brooks as Judy in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

Question-and-answer session with Charlie Brooks, playing Chris Boone’s mum, Judy

When did you first encounter The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time?

“I read the book a long time ago and then I saw the National Theatre production when it was on in the West End. I thought it was extraordinary. I was so excited when I heard the play was coming back – I immediately wanted to know what the vision was, how they were planning to bring this story to life, and how it might be different in this production. Joining the show was an absolute no-brainer.”

How did you find your way into the character of Judy?

“She’s written with so much complexity. She’s flawed, as are many characters within the play, but she’s really doing her best. She’s found herself in a situation where she was unable to cope with the challenges in front of her and she didn’t feel like she had much choice. It’s a horrible question to contemplate: what if me leaving is the best thing for my child?

“Judy thinks ‘I’m explosive, I’m reactive, I can’t cope’. That must be a really difficult thing to go through, totally heartbreaking, especially since Judy obviously deeply loves her child.”

Does the play allow sympathy for Judy?

“Yes, what’s really great is she’s not judged in the play. The audience is allowed to find some sort of identification with her. She speaks her truth. This is a play about communication and honesty – or the lack of it, in some cases. Her truth is that she felt invisible and unable to manage.

“There aren’t enough representations of mothers saying ‘It’s so hard, I want to run away’. The show has empathy for her. I sometimes had those feelings as a mum. I think lots of women do!”

Alex Keenan’s Chris Boone and Charlie Brooks’s Judy in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

How does the representation of a neurodivergent character land differently now?

“There were far fewer people diagnosed when the novel was first out, or when the show was originally on, compared to now, when this is something that’s much more talked about. That’s a brilliant thing: there’s much deeper understanding and completely different language in the way we discuss neurodiversity today.

“The conversation has been blown wide open, and so it felt important to bring the play into 2026. But there’s still a way to go, and plays like this, which put the audience right in Chris’s experience and allow them to experience the world through Chris’s eyes, help so much.”

What can you say about Ned Bennett’s new staging?

“When they did the design meeting, I was like ‘Wow’ – I got goosebumps. [Set and costume designer] Eleanor Bull has dreamed up this incredible vibrant colour palette, and it’s a very textured set with lots of different materials on stage. It’s going to be a whole sensory experience.

“Then when Chris is over-stimulated and overwhelmed, Ned [Bennett] is bringing that to life in an amazing innovative way with a lot of physical movement and props.

“I’ve never been in a rehearsal room that’s so creative and collaborative. The way Ned’s curated these games to help us devise ideas and build them into the production is so thorough and brilliant. I’m really grateful I did The Ocean At The End Of The Lane first [in her West End debut in the National Theatre’s 2022-2023 touring production] so I had a sense of what it’s like to play in this way and create worlds.

“We also want to make the production accessible for audiences coming to the show who are neurodivergent, so that’s definitely something we’re factoring in, while also making it a thrilling play that’s still entertaining and impactful.”

“Everyone can relate to worrying that you’re not doing something well enough, not doing a good job, or not fitting in,” says Charlie Brooks of Chris’s mum, Judy. Picture: Johan Persson

How does making Chris a female character change the production?

“The gender swap gives a completely fresh perspective on the story and the characters. My understanding is that girls who are neurodivergent often have a different journey: there’s a lot of masking of symptoms, so they may not get diagnosed, or not as soon as boys. Simon Stephens and Mark Haddon are very much on board with the change and all the new things it throws up.

“The girls who are playing Chris [Alex Keenan and Imi Price] are incredible – they’re just buzzing for it, they have this amazing energy. And I love Joe [McFadden], he’s the best. The whole cast are just wicked.”

Does it also change your character’s relationship with her child?

“ Yes, I think it does shift slightly. A mother leaving is such a huge thing – you don’t necessarily hear about that as often as you would when a man leaves his family. Also, mother-daughter relationships are complicated. I’ve got a daughter, so I know! I know I was an imperfect mother.

“I can relate to some of their challenges. It’s really helpful to show all the sides of these relationships, rather than some ideal. But whether you’re in this exact situation or not, I think everyone can relate to worrying that you’re not doing something well enough, not doing a good job, or not fitting in.”

Why are you excited to tour with the production?

“I really think this is a properly brilliant show and we need to get good theatre out into the regions. That’s hugely important. It’s personal for me: I’m from Barmouth, a little town in North Wales, and regional theatre was all I saw when I was younger. It made a big impact.

“This is the sort of play you might go to see as a young person, or as an adult actually, and your thoughts will be provoked. I think there’ll be great audiences for this. It’s a fantastic one for families too. It’ll spark people’s imagination and hopefully also conversation.”

Joe McFadden’s Ed in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

Three extra questions for Joe McFadden, playing Chris’s dad, Ed

How did you find your way into playing Ed?

“Brilliantly, Simon [Stephens] came in to talk to us in our first week of rehearsals. My big
question for him was: how do you play these characters sympathetically? They aren’t always fantastic parents; they make some big mistakes in the course of the story.

“He said, ‘What parent is perfect all the time?’, which I think we can all relate to.
Ed is up against it. He’s a single father; he’s trying. He works full time, trying to put food on
the table and look after the house, and [to] parent this quite challenging child.

“You can understand why he has difficulties, and hopefully we don’t judge him too harshly. I
remember thinking ‘What would I have done in that situation?’. There’s not an easy answer.”

What drives Ed?
“McFadden: “He strikes me as quite a private man, quite a serious man. It says in the play that he’s more patient than Judy – he gets on with things and doesn’t let anything affect him.

“That’s a strength but also a weakness. It means he can’t communicate, can’t reach out for
help. He bottles up all his worries. He’s a pressure cooker, and now and then he’ll blow.
That feels like an honest depiction of a parent who means well, but struggles with the
emotional side of things.

“Ed’s a grafter: he’s a hard-working plumber; he’s used to getting his head down. That’s at the heart of who he is. I remember being shocked when I first saw the moment where he lashes out. Now that I’m a bit older, I understand his frustrations, the pressure he’s under to survive and to protect this vulnerable child.”

Why are you excited to be on tour with the production?

“I love touring. I did a tour of The Shawshank Redemption this year and played some amazing venues, and now I get to go back to lots of them. I’m excited. The wonderful thing about touring is it informs and changes the play because the audiences have different personalities in different parts of the country.”

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Filthy historical comedy love letter of the week: Little Wander presents Rachel Mars in Your Sexts Are S**t, Harrogate Comedy Festival, Harrogate Theatre, Oct 9, 7.30pm

Rachel Mars

IN her filthy and funny solo show Your Sexts Are S**t: Older Better Letters, award-winning theatre-maker Rachel Mars mashes up love letters of long-dead artists with modern-day ‘equivalents’ from Grindr, Whatsapp and b*g-standard texts.

Your Sexts Are S**t is billed as “a gloriously rude show that unearths the hot-as-hell historical letters that make sexts blush”. Equipped with the help of the internet, friends and two sexologists, Mars has unearthed missives dating back centuries.

Triangulating these sex and love letters of long-gone artists and writers with contemporary sexts, coupled with a meditation on the construction of the queer female body, the hour-long show is a tender and surprising hour that asks “How do we write ourselves and for whom?”.

“Bring your lovers, your ex-lovers or your perhaps-future lovers,” reads Mars’s invitation. “Take pleasure in James Joyce’s passion for a*se; find out who sneaked her gay lover into the White House; hear from Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe and Mozart and bear witness to the best/worst sexts ever sent.”

Mars is a performance maker and stage and screen writer with a background in theatre, live art and comedy. Her work wrestles with female, Jewish and Queer identities and their intersections in her explorations of the “idiosyncratic cultural and political constructs that inform the way we are together, as people, just trying to figure it all out”.

The intimate, humorous and surprisingly humorous Your Sexts Are S**t is an “erotic archive shot through with Mars’ personal ventures in contemporary Queer kink”. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Age guidance: 18 plus. Content warning: Sexual themes.

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Seasoned actor Rory Mulvihill makes directorial hot seat even hotter as egotistical Lloyd Dallas in Noises Off

Rory Mulvihill’s Lloyd Dallas, right, casts his dyspeptic directorial eye over his cast for Nothing On, the play-within-the-play in Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off

MICHAEL Frayn first had the notion to write his play-within-a-play Noises Off while observing his play The Two Of Us from the wings.

A one-act version, Exits, entered the stage in 1977, to be followed by the three-act full-fat farce in February 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, that has never exited ever since.

Now, this week’s Pick Me Up Theatre production will be company founder Robert Readman’s last as director at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, where he has assembled the peachiest of York casts.

Step forward Helen Spencer, Andrew Isherwood, Alexandra Mather, Rory Mulvihill, Pearl Mollison, Mark Simmonds, Craig Kirby, Jessica Hardcastle and Adrian Cook from tonight (6/10/2026) to Saturday.

“Noises Off takes a wicked look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure,” says Robert.

“This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run.”

Robert continues: “Frayn gives us a window into the inner workings of theatre behind the scenes, progressing from flubbed lines and missed cues in the dress rehearsal to mounting friction between cast members in the final performance.

“Brimming with slapstick comedy, Noises Off is a delightful backstage farce, complete with slamming doors, falling trousers and –of course – sardines.”

Taking the role of Lloyd Dallas, the sarcastic, condescending, egotistical, exasperated, temperamental director of Nothing On, is veteran York actor and erstwhile Leeds solicitor Rory Mulvihill, who turned 70 in June.

“I actually saw Noises Off in the early 1980s, very soon after it first came out, and I was absolutely blown away by it,” he recalls.

“It spoke to me as someone who performs in shows how particular actors react to things going wrong on stage.

Curtain call: Pick Me Up Theatre’s Pearl Mollison, left, Craig Kirby, Alexandra Mather, Andrew Isherwood, Helen Spencer, Adrian Cook and Mark Simmonds in character for Nothing On, the play-within-the-play in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off

“I particularly remember the dizzy blonde character Brooke Ashton (to be played this week by Alexandra Mather), one of those actors who knows she has certain lines to say in a certain order, and whatever happens, she will get them out in that order.

“Noises Off has a great attraction to the public, but it has ’even more so to actors, who crave playing Frayn’s roles.”

Relishing his latest role, Rory says: “The great thing about my part is that I’m able to reproduce some of the characteristics of the directors I’ve worked with – and Frayn has done that too of course.

“I don’t normally get involved in ‘back stories’, but Frayn has done a spoof biography of each character, and so you get enough clues from his writing in the play and the biog that Lloyd Dallas is a failed director who clearly thinks he’s better than he is. He has a very high opinion of himself.

“He’s a bully, bullying everyone, particularly the gofer, Tim Allgood, [the overworked, exhausted, and easily flustered stage manager, played by Mark Simmonds from tonight],  but they all take it, all under that veneer of ‘camp theatre speak’!

“One hundred per cent you play Lloyd ‘up’. How else could you play it? I don’t think it’s possible to play him ‘down’. You couldn’t do it deadpan.”

Noises Off may be 44 years old, but its home truths of the acting world resonant as deeply as ever. “The only way you know it’s a period piece is some of its references, such as to the Queen Mother, and the lack of modern technology, but otherwise it’s timeless. However, I have grown a moustache and sideburns – my partner loathes them! – to be more in keeping with the period,” says Rory. “Fashion-wise it’s a period piece but the humour feels contemporary.”

Describing Frayn’s comedic style, Rory says: “It’s 100 per cent grounded in things he has observed – like [Alan] Ayckbourn too. Their genius is to take what they see and turn it into dialogue, like comedians do, reproducing it in a way that’s funny to the audience.

“What differs from Ayckbourn is how there’s no pathos in Noises Off. In Ayckbourn’s plays, it’s always there somewhere. It’s the same with Alan Bennett – I was lucky enough to do Chip In The Sugar, which was both hilarious and emotionally draining at the same time.”

Should you be wondering if one particular director has had an impact on Rory’s portrayal of Lloyd Dallas, he says: “I did over 40 shows with [the late] Bev Jones – and Lloyd is like him in saying ‘love’ and ‘honey’ – but unlike Lloyd, it was lovely to work with him!”

Pick Me Up Theatre in Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for this week’s production of Michael Frayn’s theatrical farce Noises Off

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Coward’s Present Laughter moves to 1977 New York in Oberman’s re-imagining of Thirties’ comedy at Grand Opera House

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and Seb Carrington’s David Stillington in Present Laughter, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture Simon Annand

THEATRE Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions re-present Noël Coward’s provocative comedy Present Laughter in a new version, re-imagined by actress, playwright and columnist Tracy-Ann Oberman, at the Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow (6/10/2026).

Last seen in York as Shylock in her revamp of The Merchant Of Venice 1936 at the Theatre Royal in November 2023, on her return she is playing Geri Essendine: the first time the character has been performed by a female lead, after being originated on stage by Coward himself in 1939 and traditionally being portrayed as Garry Essendine.

Andrew Scott played self-obsessed actor Essendine as a gay man at the Old Vic, London, in North Yorkshireman Matthew Warchus’s 2019 production. Now comes EastEnders, Friday Night Dinner, Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actress Oberman’s reinvention of Coward’s study of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity in a reflection on fame, desire and loneliness, spun inside a “chaotic whirlwind of love, sex, panic and soul-searching” (as the Old Vic publicity put it).

Re-located from London to 1970s’ New York, Oberman’s Geri Essendine is a hugely successful actress who has been 39 for the best part of a decade. Her personality, wit and charm have earned her a legion of devoted fans, young and old, and a coterie of friends, acquaintances and hangers-on.

Set and costume designer Peter McKintosh’s design for Geri Essendine’s apartment in 1977 New York, featuring pastiche “Andy Warhol” portraits of actress Geri. Picture: Simon Annand

On the cusp of departing for a tour of Africa, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevy of would-be lovers, her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? What’s more, deep down, does she really want to? 

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays,” said Oberman, when announcing the tour in June. “But when I looked at it more closely, I saw something beyond the sparkling comedy. I saw a portrait of the cost of celebrity — of a fragile ego trapped inside a gilded cage, desperately trying to hold back the one thing that catches up with every icon: time, and the fear of becoming irrelevant.”

“The moment I flipped the gender, the stakes suddenly became even more fascinating,” noted Oberman, who is working with director Lindsay Posner for the third time, having played Belinda Blair alongside Felicity Kendal’s Dotty Otley in the 40th anniversary production of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre, London, in 2022-2023 and appeared in Ryan Craig’s The Holy Rosenbergs at the Renier Chocolate Factory, London, from late-February to early-May this year.

“I think hopefully Tracy trusts the fact I can bring out her full potential as an actress, and we have that ‘shorthand’ between us that means we don’t have to tread as carefully as you would with anyone you don’t know already,” says Lindsay, whose directorial skills will be familiar to York audiences from his 2018 pop-up Elizabethan theatre productions of Richard III and Romeo And Juliet, set in 1980s’ Italy, for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre at the Eye of York.

Present Laughter director Lindsay Posner

“I know how to connect with her and work with her big personality,” he adds. “Tracy approached me and floated her concept, asking me if I thought it would work – and I did. One of the reasons I hadn’t done Present Laughter before was because the play had started to feel politically dodgy, watching an older man seducing women in their 20s. That would now be creepy and tedious.

“Tracy’s idea liberated the play and allowed it to be performed again with a whole new resonance, just as the Old Vic liberated it by making Essendine a gay man, where Andrew Scott played him.”

Lindsay continues: “Updating it to the 1970s and setting it in New York liberates it from people’s preconceptions of Coward being all about mahogany furniture and people wafting cigarette holders around.

“Now, Geri is living in a New York apartment opposite Studio 54, where Andy Warhol has become a friend and has painted her portraits on the apartment walls. In some ways, Geri feels more isolated and in some ways she’s trying to blend in. It’s made her more hedonistic and sexually  promiscuous.”

The poster for Present Laughter starring Tracy-Ann Oberman

In Lindsay’s verdict, Oberman’s take on Present Laughter is “still 96 per cent Coward”. “We’ve been faithful to Coward but changed certain names, place names and settings,, but the structure is still totally Coward and most of the language too,” he says.

“I do feel that if you just still set it in the 1930s with a woman as the lead, it wouldn’t have worked. You have to update it. I think it now gives it a slightly more substantial resonance in terms of sexual politics.”

The play’s profusion of “talking in the first half before becoming a farce in the second” makes Present Laughter “very difficult to direct”. “Structurally it’s not as adept as some of Coward’s other plays,” says Lindsay. “You have to find the balance to keep it funny and interesting while sticking to the structure.

“The interesting thing about the play existing in the Thirties and well as the Seventies is that it allows you to question boundaries between people, to think about truth telling, and for Geri it’s about identity and identifying true feelings from false, both as an actor and in real life.

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays,” says Tracy-Ann Oberman. Picture: Simon Annand

“In this play, there are people who are performing all the time. Geri is forced to perform [off stage] as she’s a celebrity and is expected to do that, which makes her more lonely, and that’s enhanced by bringing it into the 1970s.”

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions present Noël Coward’s Present Laughter, Grand Opera House, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know:

LINDSAY Posner is at the helm of Present Laughter after his West End triumphs directing Noises Off, starring Felicity Kendal, A View From The Bridge, starring Dominic West, and The Deep Blue Sea, starring Tamsin Greig.

Posner is directing the world premiere of Park Myung-Sung and Seensee Company’s production of Nero (book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, the Tony Award-winning team behind Spring Awakening) at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London, from November 2 to December 5

Power, fame and excess combine in this new musical that reimagines the notorious figure of Nero for the modern age. Andrew Barth Feldman will play the Roman emperor who changed history forever. ruling from AD54 until his suicide in AD68.

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and James Dreyfus’s Monty in a publicity shot for Present Laughter

Who will be joining Tracy-Ann Oberman in Lindsay Posner’s cast for Present Laughter?

JAMES Dreyfus will play Monty. Dreyfus is known for major roles in television sitcoms Gimme Gimme Gimme and The Thin Blue Line, as well as Mount Pleasant, more recently. He won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a musical for Lady In The Dark at the National Theatre; other notable stage roles include The Producers and Cabaret.

Adrian Lukis will play Len. Screen credits include Pride And Prejudice, The Crown, Judge John Deed, Peak Practice, and Black Mirror. His theatre work includes The Price in the West End, Orson’s Shadow at Southwark Playhouse, Being Mr Wickham – which he co-wrote and has performed in London, New York and on tour, with Original Theatre Company, playing the Haunted Season at York Theatre Royal in October in October 2021.

From February 27 to May 2 this year, he appeared in Lindsay Posner’s production of The Holy Rosenbergs at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Luk

In the company too will be Richenda Carey as Lady Saltburn, Seb Carrington as David Stillington, Eva Feiler as Rosina Maule, Gabriella Foley as Miss Erikson, Charlotte Randle as Henrietta, Jonathan Tafler as Morris, Perry Williams as Fred  and Kit Young as Johannes.

Tracy-Ann Oberman on ‘flipping the gender’from Garry to Geri Essendine in Noël Coward’s comedy Present Laughter

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine in Present Laughter: “For stars like Geri and her gang, the party is never just a party,” she says. Picture: Simon Annand

“THERE is a beautifully preserved myth surrounding Noël Coward. For many, he exists in a world of silk dressing gowns, perfectly enunciated vowels and silver cigarette cases.

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays. But when I looked at it more closely, I saw something beyond the sparkling comedy.

“I saw a portrait of the cost of celebrity — of a fragile ego trapped inside a gilded cage, desperately trying to hold back the one thing that catches up with every icon: time, and the fear of becoming irrelevant.

“In Coward’s original 1939 play, Garry Essendine is an ageing stage idol, prone to theatrical tantrums and ill-advised affairs, while those around him manage his chaos. But the moment I flipped the gender, the stakes suddenly became even more fascinating.

“Enter Geri Essendine – who has been thirty-nine for the best part of a decade. The idea of a badly behaved middle-aged actress, conducting herself every bit as outrageously as her male counterparts, immediately intrigued me.

“I thought of Mae West, who wrote and produced her own work and famously enjoyed the company of many of her leading men. Ithought of Joan Collins and her uniquely British glamour, of Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli. Women with agency, self-belief, power and unafraid to use their glamour and influence.

“But would it work in pre-war London? Or could another setting honour Coward’s original while allowing us to look at it through a different lens, without losing any of its wit, farce and brilliance?

“I found myself drawn to New York in 1977, at the height of Studio 54. The endless queues outside, the celebrities gliding into those hallowed VIP spaces (sometimes on horseback), where strong charismatic women were centre stage in a world of glamour, excess and an intoxicating sense of belonging to ‘the in crowd’. Where bad behaviour and egotismwas rife across all genders.

“And I began to wonder: what if Geri were an expatriate British actress? A hugely successful West End star who had arrived in America 15 years earlier with her chosen family – her dashing ex-husband, her fiercely loyal secretary and her producers – all  determined that she would conquer Broadway and make all their fortunes.

“Geri needs them desperately, and they need her. Without each other, can they even exist? Can Monty, Len, Henrietta, Morris – and Geri herself – survive the arrival of the handsome Johannes, whose presence threatens to blow “the firm” apart?

“Get close to Geri and you enter the inner sanctum. Here is a woman who knows minor royalty, whose intelligence and talent have made her irresistible to everyone around her, and whose star power still burns brightly.

“Huge thanks must go to Alan Brodie and the Noël Coward Estate for giving me permission to explore the idea, and to Lindsay Posner, Danny Moar and Simon Beresford for encouraging me to see whether it might work.

“Setting Present Laughter in the world of Studio 54 throws a fresh light on questions that feel surprisingly contemporary. In an industry that has so often been harsher on women than men, ageing and relevance are notsimply matters of vanity. For performers whose lives have been shaped by applause and attention, the fear of losing the spotlight can feel overwhelming.

“But we haven’t broken Noël Coward’s masterpiece. Quite the opposite. Beneath the mirrored disco ball, Present Laughter remains what it has always been: a dazzling comedy about love, vanity, friendship and thestrange business of being adored.

“Because for stars like Geri and her gang, the party is never just a party.”

Tracy-Ann Oberman, June 2026

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More Things To Do in York and beyond unlocked secret spaces & hidden places. Hutch’s List No. 40, from The York Press

Angela Hall’s artwork from York Created at Pyramid Gallery

FROM classic Coward in Present Laughter to Frayn’s finest farce, Noises Off, York’s unlocked buildings to Joe Jackson’s hope and fury, Charles Hutchinson piles up the good stuff for the week ahead.

Exhibition opening of the week: York Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until November 14

YORK Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City features a “collection of talented artists from across our fair city”. “Some have exhibited with us before, others are new to us,” says Pyramid Gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane. “All the works are for sale.”

Taking part are potters Danny Aitkin, Chiu-i Wu, Loretta Braganza, Ben Arnup, Emily Stubbs, Jessica Jenyns  and Ruth King, painters Rory Barke, Carolyn Coles, Jill Tattersall, Ric Liptrot, Lesley Birch, Mick Leach, Lesley Shaw and Angela Hall and stained glass artist Helen Bower. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, today and tomorrow

TODAY, Beppe Lombardo’s inaugural YorkJazzFest features: 6pm, Flowerden, The Winning Post; 6pm, Mutant DJ Jazz, Angel On The Green; 6.30pm, Emma Foulds Quintet, York Arts Barge; 7pm, SwanNek, Young Thugs Studios; 8.30pm, Al Morrison Quartet, The Winning Post;  8.30pm, Olivia Cuttill, York Arts Barge;  9pm, Borgia, Angel On The Green, and 9pm, Lovedancin’ DJ, Young Thugs Studios. For tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Tomorrow,  the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale runs from midday with free entry and no ticket required. On the bill are: 12 noon, YorkJazzFest Orchestra; 1pm, Vipertime; 2.15pm, Big Bamboo; 4.15pm, Fergus Quill Sextet, and 6pm, Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk! Ian Chalk concludes the event at The Phoenix Inn at 8pm; free entry.

Season finale of the week: York Late Music presents Federico Pendenza, Folk Roots To Classical Form, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviouragte, York, today, 1pm

UNIVERSITY of York guitarist Federico Pendenza concludes York Late Music’s concert season with Folk Roots To Classical Form, featuring William Walton’s only piece written for guitar (following a persuasive word from Julian Bream!), two intimate pieces by the “Chopin of the guitar”, Agustín Barrios, and two world premieres, Macey Collins’s Impressions Of Tension and Noor Hingorani’s Pomegranates On My Altar, which draws on the Persian Sofreh wedding ceremony, where pomegranates represent joy, passion and strength. Box office: latemusic.org/federico-pendoza-guitar or on the door.

Free discoveries of the week: York Unlocked, today and tomorrow

YORK Unlocked opens York’s most interesting, significant, even hidden and secret buildings to the public completely for free, although some buildings require free pre-booked tickets.  This weekend’s festival enables residents and visitors alike to see York in a new way and aims to educate and inspire a love of architecture this weekend. To download the full programme, go to: https://www.york-unlocked.org.uk/_files/ugd/972e50_ba8593730b26433e8b060829ff5bd5ac.pdf.

​Comedy gigs of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, today, 4pm and 8pm

LAUGH Out Loud promoter Damion Larkin has added an extra show at 4pm in response to ticket demand for tonight’s 8pm bill of Michael Shafar, Ant Dewson, Mike Carter and Gary Jennison.

Former lawyer Shafar left Australia to ply his comedy trade over here. Dewson is a comedian, mediocre piano player and singer of silly songs, many of them rude. Carter covers everything from living with your nan in your 30s to the realities of engaging in “kinky stuff” when you have a coordination disorder. Jennison promises dance-offs, game shows, magic and unbridled chaos. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 7.30pm

BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Coward classic of the week: Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions present Present Laughter, Grand Opera House, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

TRACY-ANN Oberman stars as hugely successful actress Geri Essendine – who has been 39 for the best part of a decade – in Lindsay Posner’s new touring production of Noel Coward’s celebrated portrayal of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity. 

On the cusp of departing for a tour of Africa, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevy of would-be lovers, her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? Then again, deep down, does she really want to? Box office: atgtickets.com/york. 

Slamming doors, falling trousers and flying sardines of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

MICHAEL Frayn’s backstage farce Noises Off takes a wicked look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss and passionate affairs turns every performance into a high-risk adventure.

This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Robert Readman directs a stellar York cast of Helen Spencer, Andrew Isherwood, Alexandra Mather, Rory Mulvihill, Pearl Mollison, Mark Simmonds, Craig Kirby, Jessica Hardcastle and Adrian Cook. Box office:  01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Gig of the week: Joe Jackson + Band, Hope And Fury Tour 2026, York Barbican, October 7, doors 7pm

JOE Jackson played York for only the second time at York Barbican on July 29 2022 as part of his Sing, You Sinners! Tour, having first shared a bill with Todd Rundgren and improvisational string quartet Ethel at the Grand Opera House in June 2005.

Now, the Portsmouth-raised singer, musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer, author and campaigner, 72, returns with his regular band to perform work from throughout his career and to showcase his 23rd studio album Hope And Fury, released in April. Conner Youngblood supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Acosta Danza in Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance.  Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Acosta Danza in Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Acosta Danza in Goyo Montero’s Chacona. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class today (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

ACOSTA Danza performed Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana at the Grand Opera House, York, in January 2026.

Acosta Danza in Pearls at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

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Badapple Theatre revisits life on wartime farm in revival of Back To The Land Girls

On the fence: Pip Cook’s Biddy, left, and Ellen Carnazza’s Buff in Badapple Theatre’s revival of Back To The Land Girls. Picture: Karl Andre Photography

BADAPPLE Theatre, purveyors of theatre on your doorstep near and not so near, are half way through a revival of one of the Green Hammerton company’s best-loved plays from its 28-year track record of original and humorous stories.

Company founder and artistic director Kate Bramley’s Back To The Land Girls is playing 16 rural locations across Yorkshire as part of a wider itinerary featuring a cast of Ellen Carnazza and Pip Cook.

“The show was inspired by interviews with a number of incredible women from Yorkshire who worked on the land during the Second World War,” says Kate. “Their comic and poignant reminiscences led me to create the heart-warming journey of Liverpudlian Buff (Carnazza) and Yorkshire lass Biddy (Cook), who arrive in the countryside not knowing one end of a cow from the other. That soon changes!

“Their camaraderie and friendship sustain them on a journey of back-breaking work, but also one of delightful independence, of dreams of fame and romance and always the hope that the end of the war is just around the corner.”

Kate reflects on a play she first staged in 2009 with music by Sony Award-winning songwriter and BBC Radio 4 host Jez Lowe. “Back To The Land Girls is such a hopeful story, inspired by the interviews I recorded with these women. It was such a privilege to speak with them, and it’s a great joy to share these tall tales once more.”

Kate Bramley: Badapple Theatre’s artistic director and writer

Extracts from three of those stories, by Pauline Dawson, Biddy Cust and Marjorie Waterhouse, can found in the official programme, by the way.

“We did four tours of the play between 2009 and 2011 and now we’re bringing it back after 15 years,” says Kate, whose company is this year’s Associate Company at York Theatre Royal. “I then wrote Lights Out Land Girls in 2013, set between VE Day and VJ Day, where they go on another adventure, trying to get to Blackpool.”

Back To The Land Girls brings together life on the farm, with American airmen and prisoners of war nearby, a brother overseas in the Royal Navy, hopes of Vera Lynn coming to town to sing, a trip to a cinema curtailed by an air raid and the prospect of a visit to the dance hall.

“They’re focused on cows, sowing onions, trying to get the mangle harvest in, with Biddy being distracted by any animal intervention,” says Pip.

“Buff pretty much gets distracted by herself – and boys,” says Ellen. “She’s a bit boy crazy, especially with the Italian prisoner of war, Giovanni.”

Ellen Carnazza’s Buff looking for an elusive mouse in Back To The Land Girls. Picture: Karl Andre Photography

“Biddy is as scared of boys as much as Buff is not enamoured of frogs in the story,” says Pip.  “But I love frogs,” says Ellen. “My gran’s house was covered in a collection of frogs, bronze ones, ceramic ones. Anything frog related, she had it! I’ve inherited some of the frogs; some were donated to charity, but there are still plenty of frogs left.”

Pip chips in: “I’m probably a bit more indifferent about frogs. They’re more of a five out of ten creature for me! But one of my best friends is a dairy farmer, Harry. We spent New Year’s Eve at their place, where a calf had just been born.”

Born and bred in Leeds, Ellen has visited a few farms. “I like them,” she says. “I haven’t milked a real cow, but I remember ‘milking’ a fake one in Ripley!”

Pip says: “I feel that Biddy getting distracted by animals is exactly what would happen to me, like when Biddy is waving at a cow but it turns out to be a bull.”

Ellen adds: “I like animals more than Buff does. She likes to think she knows more than she does, but she does get stuck in on the farm and I would do that too.

Ellen Carnazza’s Buff, left, and Pip Cook’s Biddy enjoying rare access to lipstick in wartime in Back To The Land Girls. Picture: Karl Andre Photography

“In the play, the Land Girls have to cling on to the small things, rather than thinking about the future, so the dance becomes a really big thing for them. There’s an element of them being removed from the war in Yorkshire, apart from the air raid. It’s not like being in the Blitz in London.”

Pip rejoins: “But their rural world is interrupted every so often by events in the outside world, so it’s not all just farming.

“What’s really interesting is how they don’t have access to the news that we do now, so they were reliant on word of mouth and the radio, whose information was official and factual.”

Singing features prominently in the show. “In this show, it’s all happening for real, rather than having a song break to heighten the emotion in the tradition of musicals,” says Pip. “Instead, when they sing a song in the air raid, it’s to make themselves feel brave. Or later, when Buff, who has always wanted to be a singer like Vera Lynn, chickens out of performing at the hall, Biddy does it instead.”

Ellen and Pip have been on the road with stage manager and lighting designer Duncan Hands on hand since September 9, continuing their association with Badapple after Ellen appeared most recently as hot and flustered TV baking queen Petronella Parfait, disgraced and on the rapidly downward spiral in Bramley’s one-woman-but-many-parts play Crumbs and  Pip toured in The Thankful Village, the pantomime mash-up Sleeping Beauty And The Beast and The Regalettes.

On song: Pip Cook’s Biddy takes to the microphone in Back To The Land Girls. Picture: Karl Andre Photography

They are into week four of the Land Girls tour. “We’ve always come away from performances thinking ‘that was a really warm audience’, with a lot of chat afterwards, like recalling how women would draw lines on their legs to mimic stockings and talking about Land Girls in their families,” says Ellen. 

“They feel comfortable watching these two Land Girls, feeling they’re going on a journey with them,” says Pip. “It’s very wholesome.”

Badapple Theatre in Back To The Land Girls, on tour until October 25, including Yorkshire shows at Settle Victoria Hall, October 6, 7pm (tickets: 01729 825718);  Eggborough Methodist Chapel , October 8, 7.30pm, sold out; St Joseph’s Church Hall, Wetherby, October 9, 7.30pm, for Wetherby Arts Festival (tickets: wetherbyfestival.co.uk) and Hampsthwaite Memorial Hall, near Harrogate, October 21, 7.45pm (tickets:  01423 331304). For the full itinerary and ticket information, go to: https://www.badappletheatre.co.uk/show/back-to-the-land-girls/.

Did you know?

ELLEN Carnazza will play the Ellen will play the Wicked Fairy, Carabosse, in Harrogate Theatre’s pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, from November 25 to January 17.

Pip Cook launches her own company, Paper Mouse Theatre, with the festive favourite A Christmas Carol at Micklegate Social, Micklegate, York, on December 12 and 13 at 2pm and 7.30pm.

Whichever way the cook crumbles: Ellen Carnazza’s disgraced TV baking queen Petronella Parfait falls apart in Badapple Theatre’s Crumbs

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REVIEW: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

On terror alert to the max: James Bye’s James and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

WHEN Paranormal Activity premiered at Leeds Playhouse in August 2024, the Playhouse website stated: “American couple James and Lou move to London to escape their past…we can’t say anything else.”

Obviously, a review has to say rather more than that, but the Playhouse  poster’s instruction of “Shhh! No spoilers” remains pertinent two years later, even if Punchdrunk theatre director Felix Barrett’s immersive account of American playwright Levi Holloway’s self-contained offshoot from the movie franchise has since enjoyed a hit West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre.

Now the Melting Pot, Simon Friend and Hanna Osnolska touring production is in its early weeks, visiting York, the city that trades as the most haunted in Europe.

“Good horror is personal,” reads the headline in blood-red capitals to introduce writer Holloway’s programme note. “Good horror doesn’t rob you of your sleep, it rules it,” he writes. When the house lights go out, there are people waiting for you in the dark, he declares. “Later, when you try to bed down, when you close your eyes and the dark comes again, you know who to blame.”

Rest far from assured, when your reviewer wended his way to bedfordshire, the landing light remained on all night and no internal doors were closed.

The senses had been scrambled and fried by encountering Paranormal Activity, whose late opening – delayed by 15 minutes on opening night – only heightened the tension. Once Nirvana’s Lithium kicked in at deafening decibels, there would be no escape from sound designer Gareth Fry’s aural assaults, Barrett’s directorial sleights of hand, Anna Watson’s restless lighting and the tricks of the eye of Chris Fisher’s illusion designs that not even the interval could assuage.

The audience is cast into deepest darkness before that Lithium cacophony, an instantly unsettling feeling, whereupon we are invited to take in the full scope of Fly Davis’s two-storey house design: downstairs, an open-plan kitchen-cum-sitting room and dining area; upstairs, the main bedroom, a bathroom, and in between another bedroom, bare now, but potentially a child’s room, should newly-weds James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson), newly arrived in London from Chicago, make plans.

The stairway will be in constant use in horror movie tradition, and the profusion of doors may be more befitting of a farce, but Paranormal Activity is no laughing matter, albeit it that it starts that way with James (or Jimmy as everyone calls him) and Lou in playful mood, captured in the freedom of movement given to the actors by the director deliberately not “blocking” the opening scenes in rehearsal.

However, we know that the couple have left the USA to “escape their past”, and already the pipes are making funny noises, the lights and the television are playing up, and soon we learn that Lou is on medication for depression. The laughter starts to look nervously over its shoulder.

Each scene ends with being plunged into darkness, the black-out accompanied by the screech or hiss of distorted industrial sound,  as deliberately disorientating as interrogation techniques, before the next scene opens with a heightened sense of blind terror,

Bye is appearing in his second psychological thriller of the year at the Grand Opera House after playing opinionated scientist Sam in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story in April. If that play was as much a commentary on the changing culture of living in modern-day London as a ghost story, booted with telegraphed jump scares, Paranormal Activity is not as socially savvy or quick-witted, but it lays its traps with greater subtlety, cranking up the nerve-shredding with delicious timing while consistently adding new layers of mystery, then shredding them before the devastating final revelations.

Jo Castleton’s spiritualist, Etheline Cotgrave, and Caroline Faber’s Carolanne, James’s hyper-religious mother, add to the intrigue, and as the surprises and the scares mount up, Bye and Sinclair Robinson (last seen in York  in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms last October) fray at the edges as the couple disintegrates. The truth will out, the theatrical magic will ramp up, and you won’t experience a louder play in York this year.

One word of warning:  it has come to your reviewer’s attention that according to one colleague “visibility was heavily restricted from further back in the Grand Circle, where the overhang from the ceilings on the set meant that you couldn’t see the actors’ faces unless they were in the front half of the set”. Bear that in mind when booking.

Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, no sleep until Saturday; performances at 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 40, from Gazette & Herald

Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York

FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art, York’s four-day jazz festival to Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks ahead to October cultural opportunities.

Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19

YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.

Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.

James Bye’s James arms himself with a baseball bat in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Credit: Johan Persson

Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.

When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Roham Bayat’s poster for the inaugural YorkJazzFest

Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, tomorrow to Sunday

BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.

Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Masked up: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus. Picture supplied

Devil in the detail of the week: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York , tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre delivers a devilishly clever new twist on Doctor Faustus, placing a woman, Doctor Joan Faustus, at the epicentre of Christopher Marlowe’s late-16th century cautionary tale of ambition, temptation and damnation.

Director Lydia McCudden plays Faustus, who strikes a terrible deal by selling her soul to Lucifer in exchange for knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, only to encounter the Seven Deadly Sins.  Cue masks, commedia dell’arte, dark comedy and gothic tragedy as Hell awaits. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ben Portsmouth: Performing Presley’s pearls with his Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican

King of The King tribute shows: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.

This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican: Satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments from Barnsley

“Sexy knitwear” gig of the week: The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm

FOUNDED in Barnsley Rock City in 2006 by their outspoken and energetic ringleader Scott Doonican, The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican are on a mission.

Anything but a typical folk ensemble, this collective of like-minded knitwear enthusiasts – Scott, Mo-Jo Doonican, Dave Doonican and the Reight Reverend Jeremiah Rickenbacker III – are determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps, keeping his legacy alive while Bar-Stewardising other famous people’s songs with satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments, from Jump Ararnd to Goat Yoga. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Mark Harrison Band: Songs and stories at Helmsley Arts Centre

Where folk meets the blues: Mark Harrison Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

MARK Harrison writes original songs for today in the spirit of the great troubadours, coupled with stories to make you smile, move and think in a world where blues, roots and folk collide.

Finger-picking and slide guitarist Harrison is joined by Charles Benfield on double bass and Ben Welburn on drums and percussion to create a rhythm section that defies convention, as heard on eight albums to date. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Alchemy Live: Performing the songs of Dire Straits at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

In Dire Straits: Alchemy Live, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm

ALCHEMY Live were formed in 2020 by life-long Mark Knopfler fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, who used the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns to put their Dire Straits tribute project in motion. Rehearsals started in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic was over, their first show being scheduled in York for Friday the 13th of May 2022 (what could possibly go wrong)?

They have never looked back, progressing to playing theatres since 2023. “It’s always been our ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets,” says frontman Ledger. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Brian Bilston: Showcasing his latest poetry collection at Milton Rooms, Malton

Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm

BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded in collaboration with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Olly Murs: Enjoying a Knees Up at Live At York Museum Gardens next July

Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound presents Olly Murs, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 2027

ESSEX singer-songwriter and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.

Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up. Box office: York postcode pre-sale from today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256?pre=postcode; general sale from Friday, 10am, at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256.

In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance.  Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A Q&A with the company will follow tomorrow’s performance. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Say hello to James Bye haunting York not once, but twice this year as he returns to Grand Opera House for Paranormal Activity

Gripping scene: James Bye’s James and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

JAMES Bye is making a habit of spooking theatre audiences in York, the city that trades as “the most haunted in Europe”.

In April he played self-righteous, hyper-opinionated, sceptical but irritatingly always-right scientist Sam in Danny Robins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller  2:22 A Ghost Story.

From tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, he returns to the Grand Opera House to play James in Paranormal Activity, the first British and Irish tour of a new story inspired by the horror film phenomenon, scripted by Levi Holloway, the Chicago writer, director, actor and teacher behind Broadway hit Grey House, and directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett.

When American couple James (Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson, last seen in York as Jess in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at the Theatre Royal) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that rather than places being haunted, people are.

“York is a fantastic city to host this show,” says James. “We’ll fit right in here! I think a theatre [building] definitely brings another dynamic to a performance, and we’re fortunate to be visiting some of the older theatres in the country on this tour. York [the Grand Opera House] is one of the oldest, and everyone will lean into that.”

Who…or what’s there? James Bye’s James in the doorway in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

As he prepares to return to York, how would James compare Paranormal Activity with 2:22 A Ghost Story? “For people who have not seen either or have seen 2:22 and are thinking about coming to Paranormal Activity, I would say 2:22 leans more towards being a thriller with jump scares, whereas with Paranormal Activity what we’re trying to achieve is straight-out old-school horror, where we want the audience to be on the edge of their seats,” says James.

“Not that we don’t want them to enjoy it but we really want to scare them, but it’s done in a more subtle way than in 2:22. This play has a very naturalistic style that is more like television, where the audience feel like they’re in the room with us.”

James continues: “The set design by Fly Davis in incredible: it’s an actual two-storey house, like a doll’s house, with a bedroom, empty bedroom and bathroom upstairs, stairs, and an open-plan kitchen and living area downstairs. We use the whole house, which is lit throughout, which really helps to bring the audience into the ‘room’.

“The audience will see the set before they see any actors and they all just love it! Their breath is taken away before we do anything.”

James joined the tour cast on the back of Paranormal Activity’s hit West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre. “I was asked if I wanted to see it, but I very deliberately said ‘No’ as I didn’t want to copy something subconsciously when it’s such a rich piece in its own right and it becomes very much my own creation,” he says.

James Bye’s Sam takes a vote on a point of debate with Shvorne Marks’s Jenny, Natalie Casey’s Lauren and Grant Kilburn’s Ben in 2:22 A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in April 2026

“It’s one of those shows that’s right up the audience’s street. It’s in the horror genre, but very funny too, keeping them entertained with comedy but then flipping it on its head, so the scares are for real.

“This is the challenge: doing something  scary on stage while keeping the audience with you. which the director [Felix Barrett] has done brilliantly, blurring the line between 2D and theatre.

“The show absolutely has a cinematic element to it, and that’s very deliberate. We definitely want the audience to lean into that.”

Describing his American character in  Paranormal Activity, James says: “He’s like a Labrador: high energy, always fun, trying to make his wife laugh all the time. They’re newly married, they’ve just moved to the UK and they’re super-happy together. He needs her so much and leans on her so much too.

“Then there’s another character, Jimmy’s mum, who’s still in America, so they have moments where they Zoom-call. He’s just a fun-loving guy, but as it progresses, you learn more about him and Lou, and maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought. Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.”

The poster for the 2026 tour of Paranormal Activity

Praising Levi Holloway’s script, James says: “It’s so well crafted: the way the audience laugh genuinely at the start, but then there’s a pitch change, where it becomes nervous laughter. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a show where the audience has been so vocal.

“It’s lovely to get that response from the audience, and I would ask anyone who’s thinking of coming to the show to feel they can vocalise their response , as we’re going on a journey together. You can really embrace being in a room together where it feels like more of an experience.

“Levi brings this super-naturalistic style to the play, where I couldn’t put the script down when I read it. It’s like a work of art how he takes you through the story, one minute making you laugh, the next, sob. I don’t have to force anything. I just have to trust it.”

James is working with Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett for the first time. “It’s very naturalistic style, where a lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that.

“A lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that, working on getting into an emotional state, where it’s all about being in the moment.”

What awaits James Bye’s James on the other side of the door? Find out at the Grand Opera House from tonight until Saturday. Picture: Johan Persson

James continues: “The first scene between Jimmy and Lou, which takes up the majority of Act One, is not blocked, so every night has been different. Sometimes Hannah and I just so playful because they’re such a super-fun couple. When we started, that could be quite scary, but we always trusted each other.

“Then there are parts of the play where it’s very specific that things have to happen at a certain time.”

Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

JAMES Bye played market trader Martin Fowler in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from December 5 2014 to February 20 2025. The long-running character was killed off in a special live episode for the show’s 40th anniversary, dying of a cardiac arrest after a steel beam crushed him during an explosion at the Queen Victoria pub.

He competed in series 20 of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, reaching Week 6, Halloween Week, when he and professional partner Amy Dowden were the fifth couple to be eliminated, beaten in the October 30 dance-off by Fleur East and Vito Coppola.

“Maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought,” says James Bye. “Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.” Picture: Johan Persson

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when circuses at the double pitch up. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 39 from The York Press

Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb

FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art and entertainment, Tony Blackburn’s Sixties’ celebration to the debut York Jazz Fest, Charles Hutchinson heads into a fruitful autumn.

Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19

YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.

Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.

Russells International Circus: Intent on delivering in-tent entertainment on Knavesmire this weekend

While on the subject of circuses: Russells International Circus, Knavesmire, York, today, 3pm and 6pm, and tomorrow, 12 noon

ROLL up, roll up, as Russells International Circus, voted Britain’s best circus six years running, brings its new show for 2026 to York. Each two-hour performance is jam-packed with mesmerising aerial displays, jaw-dropping stunts, comedy and more besides. Box office: russellscircus.co.uk.

The Jake Leg Jug Band: Songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption at Kirk Theatre, Pickering 

Ragtime gig of the week: The Jake Leg Jug Band, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tonight, 7.30pm 

THE Jake Leg Jug Band delivers the authentic sounds of 1920s and 1930s’ America – jazz, blues, ragtime and gospel – in songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption.

Since self-releasing debut album Cotton Mouth, Duncan Wilcox, vocals and double bass, and Warren James,  vocals, guitar and banjo, have released a further eight albums in 12 years, among them Next Stop!, Everythin’s Jake, Break A Leg, Fifth Avenue, Goodbye Booze, Hello Central and 2024’s spirituals collection Some Glad Morning. Box office: kirktheatre.co.uk.

Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey: Heading to York Barbican tonight

Eighties’ double bill of the week: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, York Barbican, tonight, doors 6.30pm

REMEMBER the Thompson Twins, makers of such 1980s’ hits as Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, In the Name Of Love, Love On Your Side, If You Were Here, Lies, Lay Your Hands On Me and King For A Day? Tom Bailey, the Sheffield-founded group’s lead vocalist and instrumentalist, now performs under the name Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, revisiting his past and showcasing debut solo album Science Fiction.

Tonight he closes his autumn tour at York Barbican, the only Yorkshire location on his 14-date itinerary, when fellow 1980s’ chart act Blancmange support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou and James Bye’s James on terror alert on the stairs in Paranormal Activity, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson Credit: Johan Persson

Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, September 29 to October 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.

When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sounds Of The 60’s Live: Sensational Sixties show at York Barbican

Sixties’ celebration of the week: Sounds Of The 60’s Live, hosted by Tony Blackburn, York Barbican, September 29, 7.30pm

BBC Radio 2 presenter Tony Blackburn hosts an evening of stories and songs from “perhaps the most iconic ten years in music, fashion and popular culture” on the Sounds Of The 60’s tour, 62 years since his first broadcast on pirate radio station Radio Caroline South in 1964.

The Sounds Of The 60’s All Star Band and Singers perform hits by The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, The Drifters, Marvin Gaye, a Rolling Stones medley, The Walker Brothers, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and more besides. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Roham Bayat’s poster design for the four-day York Jazz Fest

Festival of the week: York Jazz Fest, October 1 to 4

BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural York Jazz Fest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.

Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale next Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Katy Cawkwell in the poster for Lilith at Rise@Bluebird Bakery

“Shocking, seductive and entertaining” show of the week: Katy Cawkwell in Lilith, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, October 1, 8.30pm

BEFORE Eve, there was Lilith, as revealed in Katy Cawkwell’s uplifting one-woman storytelling showin an exploration and celebration of female power through the mythological figure of Adam’s first wife.

Lilith was not prepared to lie down and accept what was given to her. Thrown out of Eden, she slithered back in to take her revenge and wake up Eve to what her body could do.

“Viewed as a demon, worshipped as a goddess, adored as the Queen of Sheba, Lilith slips out of the Bible, reclaims the narrative and is dancing with us still, forever free,” says Cawkwell, who mixes myth from Arabia, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia and Jewish tradition with a dash of feminist flavouring and a large dollop of her own wild dreaming. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Ben Portsmouth: Presenting This Is Elvis with the Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican

Tribute gig of the week: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican,  October 2, 7.30pm

REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.

This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

In Focus: Say Owt Slam, featuring Kirsty Taylor and KG, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm to 10pm

Bradford writer and educator Kirsty Taylor. Picture: Carolyn Mendelsohn

SAY Owt, York’s loveable gang of loveable gang of performance poets, brings the best working-class poets and rappers from Bradford tonight to complement the Say Owt Slam clash of the verbals.

“Since 2014, we’ve hosted high-energy nights of words and verse, bringing together poets, musicians, spoken-word artists, rappers and anyone with a story to tell,” says artistic director Henry Raby.

“We’re always proud of our line-ups, but this could be our most exciting parade of poets yet. It wouldn’t be possible without buzzy audiences showing up and being loud and demanding more and more shows! And it wouldn’t be a Say Owt season without a poetry slam!”

Henry continues: “Say Owt Slam is an energetic battle of words where judges in the audience score the poets and the top-scoring poet is crowned Say Owt Slam champion at the end of the night. Tonight, as well as a top crop of York poets, we have slammers from Glasgow, Manchester and Halifax hoping to win the competition.”

Kemmi Gill: Rapper, poet and youth worker

Tonight’s bill also features  two guests from guests from  Bradford, Kirsty Taylor and KG (Kemmi Gill). “Kirsty is a writer and educator inspired by her beloved home city of Bradford,” says Henry. “She is passionate about storytelling through poetry and has performed all over the country telling tales about people, class and the realities of Broken Britain.”

Taylor was a BBC Verb New Voice in 2017 and was awarded the Apples and Snakes & Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance award in 2020. She is the creator of Front Room Poetry, which takes nanna-style living rooms and world-class poets to unusual settings such as car parks and housing estates.

Kirsty opened Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture 2025 in January last year when she performed her words to 20,000 people over the first weekend.

KG (Kemmi Gill) is a Bradford-born rapper, poet and youth worker, hailed by Wordplay Magazine as “one of the sharpest lyricists” in the UK rap scene. “Kemmi combines lyrical storytelling and wordplay to explore themes of struggle and hope and has contributed writing and performance work to major civic projects, such as  the open-air spectacular Rise and Common/Wealth’s sell-out show Public Interest,” says Henry.

To book tickets, go to: sayowt.co.uk

In Focus Too: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance.  Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class next Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque: the intersection of Baroque lush artistry with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Picture: Johan Persson
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