KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart will co-direct York Shakespeare Project’s autumn production of The Comedy Of Errors from October 21 to 24 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
Katie and Emily worked together previously on York Settlement Community Players’ February 2025 production of Joe Orton’s Loot and Griffonage Theatre’s showcase of Lady Augusta Gregory plays, FourTold,last October.
“We promise an exciting take on Shakespeare’s shortest and possibly funniest play, re-imagining his early farce with a piratical twist, setting sail to the corrupt island of Ephesus, a land rife with crime, debauchery, swashbuckling action and a fair bit of slapstick,” they say.
Now all they need is a cast. Auditions will take place at Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road, York, from 2pm to 5pm on May 16 and 17, then 6.30pm to 9.30pm on May 18 and 19.
“No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required,” says Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre puppeteer Gemma Curry
HAGS, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends). These spectres from performances past must retell their stories before they can find peace in the literary afterlife, but are they friends or will we need to be vanquished back into the supernatural suitcase?
Written, crafted and performed by Hoglets Theatre founder, director, writer and performer Gemma Sharp, this funny, energetic children’s theatre experience presents a world of hand-made puppets, music and storytelling, all performed from a single suitcase.
“This production is aimed at primary children – and no prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required!” says Gemma, whose performance is part of the 2026 York International Shakespeare Festival.
“It’s designed to be a fun, silly, ‘spooky’ show, with no jump scares, but as we’re covering Macbeth and Hamlet amongst others, there’ll be mentions of death and murder, ghosts, witches and monsters. All children are different, so please consider this when booking.” Box office: https://yorkshakes.co.uk/programme-2026/spooky-shakespeare-suitcase-theatre/.
Hoglets Theatre’s puppets in Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre
Julia Bisby’s Doll, left, and Rosy Rowley’s Jack Falstaff rehearsing Scott Bradley’s A Kingdom’s Jack’d. Picture: Scott Bradley
IOWA playwright Scott Bradley is in York for a month, working on the world premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d with fellow American director Tempest Wisdom.
Together they are putting the ‘international’ into the York International Shakespeare Festival while putting the most English of cult figures in the spotlight in 1st Zanni Theatre’s production at Merchant Adventurers’ Hall on Wednesday (29/4/2026) and Thursday at 7.30pm.
Tradition has it that Queen Elizabeth was so delighted by the character of Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, she duly commanded Shakespeare to write a play showing Falstaff in love. Cue The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
Now, Bradley re-imagines an iconic moment in political and Shakespearean history: what if disgraced knight Jack Falstaff – played by York stage regular Rosy Rowley – somehow found his way on to the throne of England in 1399, instead of serious warrior-king Henry IV?
“Stupid, lecherous, selfish but hilarious, Shakespeare’s most (in)famous clown must somehow fund the army, balance the budget and make foreign policy, between naps of course,” says Scott. “His government is drunk, his enemies are plotting, his allies are scheming, and even his girlfriend’s getting in on the action. Falstaff is king…but for how long?”
A Kingdom Jack’d playwright Scott Bradley
He wrote an initial version in 2016 in response to the impact on the arts and beyond of Donald Trump’s first term as President of the United States. Tempest’s mother, Robyn Calhoun, first saw a Playwrights Workshop version in 2017, performed by theatre students at the University of Iowa, where Scott was a lecturer.
Now, with Trump exercising power so erratically in his second term, A Kingdom Jack’d emerges in full bloom in York. “I initially contacted Scott asking if I could read the play and maybe bring a staged reading to the Shakespeare festival, and he gave me an incredible amount of licence – I could take it as far as I’d like!” says Tempest. “I can only hope I’ve deserved the immense amount of trust he’s put in me and the team.”
After studying theatre at the University of Chicago, Tempest pursued a Masters degree in theatre-making at the University of York, making their mark on the York theatre scene as the creator and host of the bi-monthly Bard at the Bar at Micklegate Social and directing York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona in October 2024.
“I’ve worked on many devised shows before – processes where the writing happens in the rehearsal room and the decisions are largely made through group discovery and consensus, but this is my first time having a playwright in the room, making creative decisions in response to my direction and the cast’s choices,” says Tempest.
“I’ll admit, I was intimidated by the prospect, but it’s been really cool, and of course Scott is too kind of a person and too good of a collaborator to be intimidating. Of course, I’m not the one who has to re-memorise the script changes, so take that with a grain of salt!”
Rosy Rowley’s bibulous Jack Falstaff during rehearsals at Southlands Methodist Church
Scott, who studied drama at the University of Hull in 1986, and later drag with Bloo Lips in London, has worked as an actor, director and producer in a career taking in New York, Chicago and Washington before returning to Iowa to teach on the Playwrights Workshop course.
“But in 2016, the election went the wrong way, the way we didn’t want, with Trump winning, and that was devastating,” he says. “I knew I wanted to respond to what was happening in the country, particularly being in the middle of Iowa, which is a red-meat, conservative world: the place I ran away from as a kid.
“I wanted to respond to this crazy, populist President, who was using his presidency to make him and his cronies rich, whereas now, in his second term, he’s just authoritarian.”
Scott was studying Shakespeare’s Henriad, his History plays, at the time. “I thought, what makes Falstaff so enjoyable, and made Trump so enjoyable, as buffoonish provocateurs, was that Falstaff was a crook with no real power and Trump was just a reality TV star.
“They are just these ridiculous guys, whose immorality makes them fun, because they have no power, but what happens when you put that funny buffoon, that funny drunk [Falstaff] in charge? He becomes really terrifying.”
Rosy Rowley’s Jack Falstaff in the poster for 1st Zanni Theatre’s premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d at York International Shakespeare Festival
For A Kingdom Jack’d, you can read A Kingdom Trump’d into the play too. “There’s a bit of Trump in my Falstaff but also some of Boris Johnson too because of how he behaved in Covid, when everyone knew he was lying but people loved him anyway,” says Rosy.
“I first read the play about 18 months ago – and I never thought I’d be playing Falstaff as I thought I’d be auditioning for [Mistress] Quickly. As a woman of a certain age, it gets much harder to play leading parts, so to get the chance to play this odious man is amazing.
“I’ve played a lot of male roles, but with Falstaff, the danger lies in over-caricaturing him as a ‘bloke’, so I’m trying not to do that. There’s a vulnerability to Falstaff that you don’t see in Trump.”
Julia Bisby, who is travelling from Sheffield to play the smart prostitute Doll, says: “Because it’s a comedy, they’re exaggerated characters and it’s larger than life, with an emphasis on clowning. Amid the greed of all these people fighting for the crown, Doll’s not chasing power, but she has the power, wanting to avoid bloodshed for the good of the country. One of my favourite things about her is her abundance of insults.”
Scott concludes: “Doll is the figure who has a sense of direction, a sense of morality, and wants a world that’s not craven.”
1st Zanni Theatre in A Kingdom Jack’d, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, York International Shakespeare Festival, April 29 and 30, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
Tempest Wisdom
Q&A with A Kingdom Jack’d director Tempest Wisdom
What attracted you to directing this new play?
“The challenges and opportunities of this play are twofold: one is a question of comedy, and one is a question of history.
“Henry IV, Part I and Love’s Labour’s Lost are my two favourite Shakespeare plays, largely because they both break the generic mold. ‘Love’s’ is a bubbly comedy that ends with an uncomfortable injection of reality, and Henry IV is characterised by a profound tension between comedy and history, with Prince Hal as the fulcrum balancing the two.
“There’s the world of the court, dominated by King Henry, where the serious Shakespearean history business of state occurs: war, treasury, public relations, diplomacy.
“And then there’s the world of the Boar’s Head Inn, the trashy Eastcheam tavern where Falstaff reigns over the comedy side of things: elaborate wordplay, plays-within-plays, wine and women and song.
“Scott has taken that push-and-pull in the source material and dialled it up to 11. The script is clever, funny, a bit mean, and moves at a breakneck pace through a catalogue of jokes that range from pure blue humour to all-too-real barely-satire.
“So the first challenge, the comedy challenge, has been managing that tightrope walk: the cycle of warming up an audience to laughter, then bringing the humour around to a darker and darker tone until it’s difficult to laugh at… and then pushing it even further into the absurd, so we’re laughing again…and then starting the cycle all over.
“The history challenge: Picking this play apart is kind of like delving into a fossil record! Many of the characters in Henry IV, as in all of Shakespeare’s history plays, were real people, and so the first layer of ‘sediment’ we can draw from is their lived reality: the King Henry, Prince Hal, and Owain and Catrin Glyndŵr lived and breathed and died (and in the case of Harry Hotspur, their heads were occasionally mounted on Micklegate Bar!).
“They were also public figures, of course, and so the second and third layers of the fossil record are the public perception of them: the perceptions of their fellows and subjects – and how we understand them today.
“Then, naturally, there are the fictionalised, narrativised versions of them we get in Shakespeare’s plays and their various stagings and adaptations, which colour our understanding of the historical fact significantly (not as much as the case of Richard III, but that’s another story).
“Finally, there’s the script itself, Scott’s reworking of ALL of those prior layers, which brings a modern political filter and an entirely new context. So for myself and the actors, working through these semantic layers of history, narrative and cultural consciousness and using all that rich data (those beautiful fossils!) to construct something fresh and new and immediate has been so rewarding.”
How would you sum up Falstaff in Shakespeare’s plays and how does he contrast with Scott’s Jack Falstaff?
“I have a pet theory that all of Shakespeare’s clowns and fools fit on a spectrum ranging from Genuinely As Stupid As They Seem (Touchstone— I don’t believe that man has any idea what’s going on at any point) to Not Even Bothering To Couch Their Opinions In Jokes Anymore (Lear’s Fool).
“Falstaff is unique among his motley peers because he slides up and down that spectrum scene by scene and play by play, even line by line. It puts him in a powerful position, because it makes him unpredictable. You can’t quite tell when he’s playing dumb.
“Scott has made Falstaff not only unpredictable, but dangerous. He now has institutional power on top of his pre-existing social power, and the thrill of watching the effects of that power unfold is hilarious and sickening in equal measure.”
How exciting is it to be premiering an American-written and directed play at York International Shakespeare Festival?
“This show might as well have been written specifically for the York International Shakespeare Festival. The purpose of the festival is to celebrate Shakespeare as ‘the world’s playwright’’, and so our focus is on bringing together culturally specific understandings of and responses to Shakespeare’s work.
“Scott’s play fits that bill to a T, having been born of a particular socio-political anger that I, as an American emigrant, share. (The first draft was written in 2016…a moment of upheaval on the American and global political stage, to put it lightly).
“I hope we’re able to convey some of the rage, despair, absurdity and hope driving this production, as well as getting a few laughs out of people!”
Collage and mixed-media artist Donna Maria Taylor: Participating in York Open Studios at South Bank Studios
FROM Rocky Horror film stars to Shakespeare in a suitcase, Bowie to Boe, Priscilla to The Psychic premiere, Charles Hutchinson is spoilt for choice again.
Art event of the week: York Open Studios, York and beyond, today and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
FOR a second weekend, 150 artists and makers within York and a ten-mile radius of the city are welcoming visitors to 107 workplaces and studios.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular contributor or the 27 new participants, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
Weather Balloons’ Anne Prior: Playing Navigators Art’s YO Underground #7 bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse
Arts collaboration of the week: Navigators Art/Projects presents YO Underground 7, The Basement, City Screen, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CONTINUING its mission to present adventurous left-field music and words from York and the region, Navigators Art plays host to a mixed bill of uniquely styled indie song-writing from Weather Balloons’ Anne Prior, the Joe Douglas Trio’s North African-inspired free jazz and a collaboration between audiovisual projections and Ben Hopkinson’s quartet Synaefonia. Box office: bit.ly/nav-events.
Blue: In full bloom at York Barbican tonight
Limited ticket availability: Blue and special guests 911, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm; Alfie Boe, York Barbican, April 28, 7pm
REVITALISED boy band Blue have released the single Flowers, penned by good friend Robbie Williams and Boots Ottestad, ahead of their 25th anniversary tour date at York Barbican.
“Robbie reached out to me a while back and said ‘I’ve got a song for Blue’,” says Blue’s Antony Costa, who will be joined as ever by Duncan James, Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe. “We only got to record it recently and thought it would be perfect to release for the anniversary tour. We can’t wait for you all to hear Flowers.”
Tenor Alfie Boe plays York on Tuesday and Harrogate Royal Hall on Wednesday on his 35-date tour, combining his most iconic hits and fan-favourite classics with material from new album Face Myself. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk; for Boe, https://gigst.rs/AB26.
Alfie Boe: Tenor dramatics at York Barbican. Picture: Ray Burmiston
Book event of the week: Rivers, Water and Wildness, A Talk by Amy-Jane Beer, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, April 28, 7.30pm to 9pm
THE Friends of Nun Ings invite you to Rivers, Water and Wildness, Our Rivers and Their Landscapes, a talk by biologist-turned-writer and former South Bank resident Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow, winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023, who now lives on the Derwent.
The Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons and the salmon highways of Scotland to the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Beer follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. Tickets are available via eventbrite; admission is free but donations are welcome.
Nell Campbell (Columbia), Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors) and Patricia Quinn (Magenta) celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Let’s do the Time Warp…again: The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour 2026, York Barbican, Sunday, 7pm
JOIN the original Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick), Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and Columbia (Nell Campbell) for this once-in-a-lifetime screening event with a live shadow cast. Jim Sharman’s 1975 film of Richard O’Brien’s musical will be shown in a 4K remastered edition, preceded by a Q&A with the movie stars. Expect a costume contest, memorabilia display with film artefacts and a participation prop bag for every ticket holder. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert: David Bowie on screen at York Barbican
Fantastical film and music event of the week: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, York Barbican, April 27, 7.30pm
JIM Henson’s musical fantasy film Labyrinth is on tour in concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, transporting audiences to Goblin City in a fusion of film on a large HD cinema screen and live music on stage, performed by a band playing David Bowie and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack score and songs in sync with Bowie’s original vocals.
Taking on an ever-growing cult status since its release on June 27 1986, Labyrinth stars Bowie as principal antagonist Jareth the Goblin King, who rules the goblin kingdom, kidnaps protagonist Sarah’s baby brother and presents a charming yet menacing challenge, appearing as a rock star-like figure who lures and influences her journey. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Degrees Of Error’s poster for you-do-it whodunit Murder She Didn’t Write
Sleuthing opportunity of the week: Degrees Of Error in Murder She Didn’t Write, Grand Opera House, York, April 28, 7.30pm
DON your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass and prepare your “finger of suspicion” as Edinburgh Fringe favourites Degrees Of Error return for your sleuthing pleasure, creating a classic murder mystery on-the-spot in this ingenious improvised comedy.
You, the audience, become the author as the cast acts out your very own Agatha Christie-inspired masterpiece live on stage. At each show, the company uses your suggestions to create an original and comical murder mystery. All you have to do is solve it. Ms Gold poisoned at a synchronised swimming gala? Dr Blue exploded by cannon during a hot air balloon race? Professor Violet crushed to death at a Love Island re-coupling? You decide – but will you guess whodunit before the killer is revealed? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kristian Barley’s Adam, left, Steve Tearle’s Bernadette and Matthew Clarke’s Tick in NE Theatre York’s musical Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 28 to May 2, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
STEVE Tearle, creative director of NE Theatre York, plays Bernadette, joined by Matthew Clarke as Tick and Kristian Barley as Adam, in the adventure of two drag artists and a trans woman embarking on a life‑changing road trip across the Aussie outback in their battered tour bus, discovering the power of love, identity, acceptance and true friendship.
“As they head west through the Australian desert to chase a dream aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, our three terrific travellers come to the forefront of a comedy of errors,” says Steve, whose high-energy production also features Helen Greenley as Shirley, Ben Rich as Jimmy, Steve Perry as Bob, the mechanic, Ali Butler-Hind as his wife Cynthia, plus disco divas Perri Ann Barley, Melissa Boyd and Aileen Hall. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Eileen Walsh, left, Jaz Singh Deol, Megan Placito, Andy Nyman, Nikhita Lesler and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for the world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, April 29 to May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Pulling Shakespearean strings: Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre at York International Shakespeare Festival
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre presents Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre, York International Shakespeare Festival, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, April 29, 6.30pm
HAGS, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends). These spectres from performances past need to retell their stories before they can find peace in the literary afterlife, but are they friends or will we need to be vanquished back into the supernatural suitcase?
Written, crafted and performed by Hoglets Theatre founder, director, writer and performer Gemma Sharp, this funny, energetic children’s theatre experience presents a world of hand-made puppets, music and storytelling, all performed from a single suitcase. “No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required,” she says. Box office: https://yorkshakes.co.uk/programme-2026/spooky-shakespeare-suitcase-theatre/.
The poster for Scott Bradley’s premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d at York International Shakespeare Festival
The poster for Scott Bradley’s premiere of A Kingdom Jack’d at York International Shakespeare Festival starring Rosy Rowley, whose birthday coincides with the opening night
Shakespeare spin-off of the week: 1st Zanni Theatre in A Kingdom Jack’d, York International Shakespeare Festival, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York April 29 and 30, 7.30pm
IN A Kingdom Jack’d, American playwright Scott Bradley re-imagines an iconic moment in political and Shakespearean history: what if disgraced knight Jack Falstaff (Rosy Rowley) somehow found his way onto the throne of England in 1399, instead of serious warrior-king Henry IV?
Stupid, lecherous, selfish but humorous, Shakespeare’s most (in)famous clown must somehow fund the army, balance the budget and make foreign policy between naps. His government is drunk, his enemies are plotting,his allies are scheming, and even his girlfriend wants a piece of the action. Falstaff is king but for how long? Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
YORK actress Andrea Mitchell will be saving the day for American scholar and theatre coach Linda Gates when her play The Thistle And The Rose is staged on Monday (27/4/2026) at the York International Shakespeare Festival.
The 7.30pm performance was under threat after when Professor Gates’s acting partner, Marion Sybil Lines, suffered an accident that left her unable to perform at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
Fortunately, Andrea Mitchell was ready and willing to ensure the show could go on, duly receiving praise from Linda for mastering the script at such speed.
The Thistle And The Rose offers a portrait of the tense relationship between two queens: Elizabeth I of England and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, as revealed through their coded letters.
Playwright Linda Gates
United by kinship, these two powerful women were nevertheless divided by religion and ambition, both craving the throne of England.
Told in their own words, Gates’s play sheds light on a 27-year relationship that begins with Mary’s first letter to Elizabeth as she prepares to leave France to claim her Scottish throne and is marked subsequently by political manoeuvring, personal longing and rivalry.
Although they never met, through decades of correspondence – originally written in French and then translated by Elizabeth’s secretaries – the two monarchs reveal their hopes, fears, alliances, betrayals and ultimately the fatal conflict that ended with Mary’s execution.
Full details (and tickets) can be found at yorkshakes.co.uk, along with the full programme for a festival that will run until May 3.
Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for their world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
IT began with a chance conversation at a University of York honorary degree ceremony in 2024.
York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes found himself next to actor, writer and comedy talent Steve Pemberton, who was in York with The League Of Gentlemen and Inside No. 9 collaborator Reece Shearsmith to be honoured with doctorates by the department of theatre, film and television.
Crewes, who had taken up his post in October 2023, said he was seeking new work for the Theatre Royal: the perfect opportunity for Pemberton to reveal that League Of Gentlemen cohort Jeremy Dyson and regular writing partner Andy Nyman were working on a new play and looking for a theatre to stage the premiere.
“Finding creative partners is the secret to doing good work,” says Jeremy, seated in the Theatre Royal foyer alongside Andy in a break from co-directing rehearsals for their twisted dark thriller The Psychic, whose world premiere will open with previews from April 29.
“It was a moment of fate that Steve happened to be sitting next to Paul. To Paul’s credit, he contacted me straightaway and we arranged to meet in Leeds the next day as I live in Ilkley. We met at Paranormal Activity, which was having its premiere at Leeds Playhouse.”
Crewes read the script, loved it, and a new partnership was born in a city that has become a creative haven for Dyson and Nyman.
“I’m fascinated by [Carl] Jung’s Synchronicity, his concept of ‘meaningful coincidences’,” says Jeremy. “Anyone who does creative work knows it’s a phenomenon different from serendipity. It’s more mystical than that, like how me and Andy had taken to coming to York when we had creative problems, first when we were working on our novel The Warlock Effect [a Cold War spy thriller] that came out in 2023.
“We were a couple of years on from Covid, we both had lots on, and we thought, ‘let’s get away’. As Andy lives in London, I’m in Ilkley, we said, ‘let’s come to York’. I loved coming to York on day trips, growing up in Yorkshire; but Andy had never been.”
They stayed at The Principal York, now The Milner, for two or three days and did so again when working on one of the drafts for The Psychic. “York has taken on this special meaning for us, and when we were looking for somewhere to stage The Psychic, somewhere outside of London that ‘got’ it, York Theatre Royal was that place,” says Jeremy.
“It meant so much to us as York has become our problem-saving place, and it’s worth saying that Paul and his team have been fantastic, being so supportive and so enabling, and their ambition for the show is even greater than ours.”
Andy adds: “We also believe, as we did with Ghost Stories, starting that show at Liverpool Playhouse and the Lyric Hammersmith and going around the world for 16 years now, that we want to pay back those theatres.
“We deeply believe in subsidised theatre, how important it is for the city. Theatres are not for ‘posh people’’; they’re essential for all, and we love producing something new that can help put coffers back in the community.”
As Andy notes, York is a city “drenched in the supernatural”, making the Theatre Royal the perfect location for The Psychic, wherein TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case, branding her a charlatan.
It costs her not only her reputation, but a fortune in legal fees. When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, Sheila senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life.
“One of the fascinating things about ghost stories, and spirituality in general, is that it exists, whether you believe it or not, in whatever form,” says Andy.
“So our play is exploring the questions without giving definitive answers, but looking at it from all sides,” says Jeremy.
“Pilate asked Jesus this question 2,000 years ago: What is truth? It’s a perennial question, and here we are 2,000 years later with Trump in power. In this play we are asking the deeper question about what really matters in life – and ghost stories are a very helpful lens to look at that because they give you a bridge to eternity as there are ultimate truths around mortality.”
Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s The Psychic runs at York Theatre Royal from April 29 to May 23. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Ardour on the dance floor in York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. Picture: John Saunders
YORK has a new nightclub, Navarre, but hurry, because it will be shutting after Saturday night.
Welcome to Anna Gallon’s clubland take on Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost in the Four Wheel Drive artistic director’s debut production for York Shakespeare Project as part of the 2026 York International Shakespeare Festival.
In March 2025, co-writers Nick Lane and Elizabeth Godber packed the lads off to a stag do in Ibiza and the lasses off to a hen do in Menorca in the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s shake-up of Love’s Labour’s Lost (More Or Less). When both groups of revellers end up stuck on the same Mediterranean island, shoddy disguises, mislaid love letters and theatrical chaos ensue, all topped off with 1990s’ pop bangers, sung live on stage.
In April 2026, Gallon re-imagines Ferdinand, the King of Navarre, and his three companions, Nick Patrick Jones’s Berowne, Harry Summers’ Longaville and Nason Crone’s Dumaine, as the DJs who once ruled York’s Nineties’ club scene. Now, however, in 2005, they renounce the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors for three years, in favour of fasting and study.
We first encounter them flat out, hung over, slumped on the Navarre dance floor after one heck of a party hosted by Tempest Wisdom’s Moth, the all-hands-on-decks club DJ with a licence to ad-lib. The audience had arrived to the sight of all the cast cutting the rug amid the ever-changing floor lights, as they took up their seats on the perimeter, seats that will be occupied by cast members on occasion too for moments of direct address, all adding to the highly energetic production’s “immersive tag.
The lads must sign off a long list of rules and regulations but this contract of abstinence looks as fragile as Liam “Glenn Huddle” Rosenior’s five-and-a-half-year deal at Chelsea turned out to be.
All it takes is the arrival of Charlie Barrs’ Princess of France, a not-so-diplomatic diplomat, and her entourage of Grace Scott’s Rosaline, Cassi Roberts’ Maria, Vicky Hatt’s Katherine and Helen Clarke’s Boyet to rip their paper-thin yet “solemn” vows to shreds.
Not that Love’s Labour’s Lost is that simple. Shakespeare stirs the pot, as is his wont in pursuit of comedy, to include multiple meddlesome figures, not only Wisdom’s droll, mischievous Moth, but also Elizabeth Duggan’s clown, Costard, Stephen Huws’ verbose schoolmaster Holofernes, and James Tyler’s not-so-bright constable, Dull. Then add Sarah McKeagney’s curate, Sir Nathaniel, and David Lee’s Forrester, a guide to the princess, who pops up on the mezzanine level every so often.
Bubbling away throughout is the absurdist farce of aged Spanish nobleman Don Adriano de Armado (Ian Giles) fancying his chances with luscious, lustrous country wench Jaquenetta (Pearl Mollison, dress code, Friday night, York city centre), as lack of reality meets fantasy.
Gallon describes Love’s Labour’s Lost as a “dazzling, witty play about language, love and self-discovery”, where wordplay, vows and romantic mischief meet in the heat of York nightlife in a celebration of love, temptation and folly. Certainly her production is vibrant, with outbursts of dance, playful interaction and a balance between physicality and rhythmic verse, but while it re-locates to the modern world, the somewhat laboured humour still dwells in bygone times, tending to be clever and loquacious, rather than uproariously funny.
More often than not, typified by Huws’ Holofernes, a multitude of verbiage must be pushed up the hill to release the laughter, whereas Wisdom’s Moth can spin off in any direction with a quick impromptu quip.
Nevertheless, Gallon achieves her central aim of sending up “ageing players trying to resist temptation, while nightlife culture collides with wellness culture and the irresistible force of love in this comedy of discipline versus desire”.
There is a pleasing frisson to the machinations and deceptions of Ferdinand’s group and the Princess’s posse, especially when the lads don leathers, black string vests and German accents (rather than the original Muscovite disguise), only to be countered by the resourceful women swapping clothes and jewellery to test their loyalty, in the show’s best scene.
Infatuated boy band balladry and assertive Girl Power anthems add amusingly to the friction, while Gallon has fun with club-culture references such as a megaphone, a dance beat replacing a trumpet as a herald of arrival and what appeared to be a little perk-you-up package in a plastic bag.
Reeves Rowley, Jones, Scott and Wisdom are the stand-outs amid all the ardour on the dance floor, before Gallon’s daring direction delivers one final brave choice: turning on all the theatre lights for the mood-changing announcement of the death of the Princess’s father, the play no longer leading a merry dance.
York Shakespeare Project presents Love’s Labour’s Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
P.S. Happy 462nd birthday to William Shakespeare today (23/4/2026).
Rianna Louise’s Wendla and Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s Melchior in rehearsal for Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: JJ Thornton
INSPIRED By Theatre will mark the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening with a bold new production at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 20 to 23.
Continuing the York company’s reputation for presenting bravura interpretations of well-known works, the Tony Award-winning rock musical will be directed by Mikhail Lim.
Following artistic director Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s ambitious staging of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in February, Lim picks up the reins for one of the most powerful and emotionally raw musicals of the modern era.
Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1906 play, Spring Awakening follows a group of late-19th century teenagers in a small German village, navigating the confusion, curiosity and turmoil of adolescence in a rigid and repressive society at odds with their awakening sexuality.
Maz Machif’s Martha and JJ Thornton’s Hanschen. Picture: Tiggy-Jade
As these young people search for answers about sex, identity and self-expression, their world collides with an oppressive culture imposed by teachers and parents determined to silence them.
Combining music by Duncan Sheik with book and lyrics by Steven Sater, the show blends alternative rock, folk and punk influences with a deeply human coming-of-age story. Scenes unfold with grounded realism before erupting into powerful musical numbers that reveal the characters’ inner thoughts and emotions.
Opening on Broadway in 2006, starring Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and John Gallagher Jr., Spring Awakening won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Next month’s production marks a full-circle moment for director Lim, who appeared in the northern premiere of Spring Awakening, staged by York Stage Musicals under Robert Readman’s direction at the Vaudeville Theatre, Joseph Rowntree School, York, in November 2010.
Spring Awakening director Mikhail Lim working on the guitar with cast member JJ Thornton. Picture: Tiggy-Jade
On returning to the show as director, Mikhail says: “Spring Awakening came out when I was almost exactly the age of the characters. It completely opened my eyes to different forms of musical storytelling and the kind of contemporary theatre I fell in love with.
“Being part of the northern premiere in York 15 years ago was incredibly special. Now, approaching the 20th anniversary of the original off-Broadway production, it feels extraordinary to be returning to this piece as a director. In many ways, it feels like fate.”
Lim leads an outstanding creative team assembled specifically for the project. Choreographer and assistant director Freya McIntosh, known for her work on Green Day’s American Idiot, RENT and Jesus Christ Superstar, reunites with Lim after their acclaimed Black Sheep Theatre Productions collaboration on Songs For A New World at the National Centre For Early Music, York, in October 2024.
Musical director Jessica Viner brings a wealth of musical expertise to Spring Awakening, drawing on her professional experience in touring productions, not least her role as musical director for Singin’ In The Rain, when she travelled across China.
Gemma McDonald, best known for her clowning silly-billy in Rowntree Players pantomimes each winter, takes on the role of Adult Woman in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
Annie Roux steps into the producer’s role after serving as assistant producer on Jesus Christ Superstar. Costume design will be led by Julie Fisher, of The Costume Crew York, joined by fashion designer Gregory Harper, working together to create a visual world that supports the show’s striking aesthetic.
Dan Crawfurd-Porter swaps directorial duties for playing Melchior in Inspired By Theatre’s cast of 13, joined by Rianna Louise as Wendla; Eryn Grant, Moritz; Skye Pickford, Ilse, Maz Machif, Martha; JJ Thornton, Hanschen; Oskar Nuttall, Ernst; Lewis Jordan, Georg; Kailum Farmery, Otto; Ines Campos, Thea; Greta Piasecka, Anna; Stefan Michaels, Adult Man, and Gemma McDonald, Adult Woman.
Utilising such a small cast requires every performer to play a vital role in bringing the story to life, as Mikhail explains: “This show demands performers who can truly act through song and move with real emotional honesty. We’ve assembled a phenomenal company of performers who bring enormous passion and skill to the stage.”
Eryn Grant’s Moritz at the microphone, with Sky Pickford’s Ilse in the background. Picture: JJ Thornton
Movement and physical storytelling will play a central role in the production. McIntosh’s choreography blends contemporary dance with expressive theatrical movement, creating moments that feel less like traditional choreography and more like living visual art unfolding on stage.
The show’s band will form part of the storytelling, with a mixture of professional musicians and actor-musicians creating a dynamic on-stage musical presence.
Lim’s production will take place in the John Cooper Studio at Theatre@41, creating an intimate and immersive environment where audiences are placed close to the action. “The black-box setting allows the production to feel particularly visceral,” says Mikhail.
“Performing in a smaller space is both a challenge and a gift. It allows every moment, every sound and every visual detail to be felt up close. The result is something incredibly immediate and powerful.”
Inspired By Theatre will draw visual inspiration from German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to create a haunting and symbolic world that sits between realism and surrealism as old-fashioned values are refracted through a 21st century lens in an exploration of sex, puberty, coming of age and a yearning for a more progressive future.
Inspired By Theatre presents Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Content warning: Spring Awakening features mature themes, including sexual content, sexual assault, suicide, abortion, physical abuse and strong language. Minimum age recommendation: 15 plus.
Inspired By Theatre’s poster artwork for Mikhail Lim’s production of Spring Awakening
Jalen Ngonda: Returning to York for the first time since Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July. Picture: Paul Rhodes
SHAKESPEARE is in the spotlight with international guests and a York nightclub rom-com while artists and makers open their studios, as Charles Hutchinson’s diary bulges with inviting opportunities aplenty.
Soul show of the week: Jalen Ngonda, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AFTER appearing on Nile Rodgers & CHIC’s bill at Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July, willowy soul singer and pianist Jalen Ngonda opens his seven-date spring tour at York Barbican. Originally from Maryland and now based in Liverpool, Ngonda’s voice and music recall the best of the great Sixties and Seventies’ soul artists, delivered with a contemporary edge. Deptford Northern Soul Club support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pink rocks: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Made At Curve’s Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies plays Elle Woods in the 2026 tour of Legally Blonde The Musical, joined by York Theatre Royal pantomime villain Jocasta Almgill as Brooke Wyndham, after she appeared as wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty last winter.
Davies had been set to appear as Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman The Musical at the Grand Opera House in February 2024, but Sydnie Hocknell understudied that week. Hannah Lowther, otherwise playing Margot, will step in for Davies at the April 23 matinee. North Yorkshireman and Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster directs the uplifting, totally pink tale of Elle’s transformation from ‘It Girl’ fashionista to legal ace at Harvard Law School, all in the name of love. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Common Ground Theatre’s Nathan Brocklebank and Lydia Keating in rehearsals for Hamlet, bound for York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: Magdalini Brouma
Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, until May 3
YORK plays host to two weeks of world premieres, unmissable performances, enlightening talks and world-class exhibitions, bringing together artists from Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland and United States, along with British creatives and York talent, in celebration of Shakespeare’s impact across the globe.
Highlights include festival artist-in-residence Lisa Wolpe’s show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, York St John University Creative Centre, tonight, 7.30pm; Common Ground Theatre’s Hamlet, Creative Centre, April 25, 7.30pm, and April 26, 4pm; Petty Men – ShakeSphere Selection 2026, Theatre@41, Monkgate, April 29, 7.30pm, and Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello, performed in English and Ukrainian, Creative Centre, May 2, 6pm, and May 3, 2pm. Full festival programme and box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition
Folk opera of the week: 1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
NATASHA Jones and Freya Popplewell direct 1812 Youth Theatre in Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s intriguing and beautiful folk opera that intertwines two love stories, young dreamers Orpheus (Mani Brown) and Eurydice (Ava Woolford) and immortal King Hades (Koen-Leigh Brown/Jay Stevens) and Persephone (Lena Chorazyk).
Hadestown: Teen Edition invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back in a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York Shakespeare Project’s cast on the dance floor in rehearsal for Anna Gallon’s nightclub version of Love’s Labour’s Lost
York nightlife drama of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Love’s Labours Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FOUR Wheel Drive co-founder and artistic director Anna Gallon directs York Shakespeare Project for the first time in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Shakespeare’s comedy of wit, wordplay, vows and romantic mischief meets the 1990s’ club scene in an immersive new take on the Bard’s early comedy, set in the heat and heighted passions of urban nightlife.
Her playful reinvention mixes verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly, wherein the King of Navarre and his three companions are DJs who once ruled York’s club scene but now have renounced the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors. However, when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, their solemn vows begin to unravel. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Collage and mixed media artist Donna Maria Taylor: Taking part in York Open Studios at South Bank Studios this weekend
Art event of the week: York Open Studios, York and beyond, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
AS many as 150 artists and makers within York and a ten-mile radius of the city are welcoming visitors to 107 workplaces and studios this weekend.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular contributor or the 27 new participants, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
The Manfreds: Sixties’ hits, jazz and blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ryedale gig of the week: The Manfreds, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday,7.30pm
ORIGINAL Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness are joined by Marcus Cliffe, Simon Currie, Pete Riley and Mike Gorman in The Manfreds’ two-hour performance of Sixties’ hits, dynamic jazz and powerful blues. Get Your Kicks On Tour ’26 features such favourites as 5-4-3-2-1, Pretty Flamingo, Mighty Quinn and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, alongside rhythm & blues-inspired gems and solo successes. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster artwork for Labyrinth: In Concert: On tour at York Barbican
Film and music collaboration of the week: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, York Barbican, April 27, 7.30pm
JIM Henson’s musical fantasy film Labyrinth is on tour in concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, transporting audiences to Goblin City in a fusion of film on a large HD cinema screen and live music on stage, performed by a band playing David Bowie and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack score and songs in sync with Bowie’s original vocals.
Taking on an ever-growing cult status since its release on June 27 1986, Labyrinth stars Bowie as principal antagonist Jareth the Goblin King, who rules the goblin kingdom, kidnaps protagonist Sarah’s baby brother and presents a charming yet menacing challenge, appearing as a rock star-like figure who lures and influences her journey. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Amber in pink: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
LEGALLY Blonde The Musical was last decorating a York stage in pink only 14 months ago in York Light Opera Company’s York Theatre Royal production. Now the 2011 Olivier Awards Best New Musical winner returns, even pinker and perkier, in North Yorkshireman Nicolai Foster’s hands in a fizzing, fabulous show shaped at Curve, Leicester, and now touring in tandem with ROYO.
Strictly Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies leads Foster’s cast in Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach’s musical spin on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film that charts the path of jilted Malibu fashion merchandising student Elle Woods (Davies) as she follows ex-lover Warner (Jamie Chatterton) to Harvard Law School with her cute Chihuahua Bruiser (Sprout) in tow.
Legally Blonde is a sugar rush of an all-American show, bursting with energy and joy, but beneath that E-number surface and the Omigod You Guys excitability, it also releases a surge of female empowerment and delivers a message of self-belief and self-discovery.
Hence the preponderance of women in the full house at Tuesday’s press night, drawn to Elle’s tale of staying doggedly true to herself as her sunshine-suffused Californian positivity rubs up against New York cynicism and Ivy League snobbery, enabling her to defeat all preconceptions to cut the legal mustard.
Welsh actress Davies, winner of the 2017 series of Love Island, brings that winning personality to playing It Girl fashionista-turned-budding legal ace Elle, revelling in all shades of pink, eschewing convention and countering her vulnerability on new terrain with her vitality, warmth and sassy humour.
Amber Davies’s Elle Woods, second from right, with the “Greek chorus” in Legally Blonde, Rosanna Harris’s Serena, left, Hannah Lowther’s Margot and Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar. Picture: Matt Crockett
Davies’s Elle is fun company for audience and fellow students alike (aside from Chatterton’s stuffed-shirt Warner and his judgemental, sourpuss new girlfriend, Annabelle Terry’s Vivienne Kensington). You know from her Strictly exploits that she will move well in Leah Hill’s choreography, while her singing grows more powerful, the more the performance progresses.
You will enjoy how Elle’s burgeoning legal nous is rooted in uncanny instinct and her knowledge of fashion trends and hair culture, rather than in quoting textbooks by rote. This does not make her a law unto herself, but shows how unconventional thinking can win the day, especially when bolstered by her determination to defy stereotypical “blonde” pigeonholing and leap over obstacles, whether preppy Warner and Vivienne or cynical, predatory Harvard professor Callahan (Adam Cooper).
Davies’s Elle has plenty of friends, old and new, to counter her foes. Closest to home are the Greek chorus (Rosanna Harris’s Serena, Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar and Hannah Lowther’s Margot), her Delta Nu sorority sisters, who now represent her inner thoughts in the style of American sports’ cheerleaders. They sizzle in Hill’s choreography in their ever-changing, brightly coloured attire, topped off by their lippy patter.
Elle bonds with fellow Harvard interloper, George Crawford’s principled, corduroy-clad Emmett, and especially with Karen Mavundukure’s trailer-trash hairdresser Paulette Bonafonte, who matches no-nonsense frankness in conversation with powerhouse singing with all the thunder of Ruby Turner.
Ty-Reece Stewart rather underplays the humour in cool-dude USP delivery stud muffin Kyle, Paulette’s sudden, unexpected love interest: a missed opportunity. By contrast, the camp swagger bubbling away throughout surfaces gloriously in the comedic high point of the courtroom number Gay Or European?, as Jamie Tait’s Nikos and Bradley Delarosbel’s Carlos celebrate their love so flamboyantly.
Resident director Jocasta Almgill leading the skipping-rope exercise session as murder suspect and fitness guru Brooke Wyndham in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Jocasta Almgill’s pantomime villain Carabosse in York Theatre Royal’s Sleeping Beauty last winter is still fresh in the memory, and now she brings bags of character and high energy to exercise-video guru Brooke Wyndham, who is standing trial for murder.
Act Two surpasses Act One, not least because Almgill’s Brooke gives it such an adrenaline boost with the opening skipping number Whipped Into Shape, danced with her fellow inmates. Still to come is the best-known routine, Bend And Snap, wherein Davies’s Elle teaches Mavundukure’s Paulette the moves so resolutely.
Foster’s direction is full of panache and punch, even a sprinkling of pathos, and Hill’s choreography crackles like electricity, while Colin Richmond’s set design savours the power of pink and Tom Rogers’ costumes embrace every colour, without ever putting pink in the shade. Cerys McKenna’s musical direction brings out the fizz in effervescent songs that are almost giddy with excitement.
Nikolai Foster’s Legally Blonde will leave you feeling tickled pink.
Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Holding court: Adam Cooper’s Harvard lawyer Callahan, right, with law school students Warner (Jamie Chatterton), centre, Vivienne (Annabelle Terry) and ensemble member James Lim in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
