A bit tied up at the moment: Annie Cordoni’s Stella Saxby with Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta in Awful Auntie. Picture: Mark Douet
AFTER directing Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, Birmingham Stage Company actor-manager Neal Foster is at the helm of his fourth David Walliams stage adaptation – and playing the lead too for the first time in Awful Auntie.
Except that he wasn’t at Friday’s 10.30am matinee, attended by CharlesHutchPress and a block booking of York school children, when BMS made a triple substitution.
On came Zain Abrahams, stepping into Foster’s shoes and Argyle-patterned socks as Aunt Alberta and fellow understudies Emily Prosser-Davies and Frankie Oldham, playing orphaned Stella Saxby and batty butler Gibbon respectively. And a mighty fine job they made of it.
“I think he has always appreciated how we capture the tone of his work and how we understand how comedy works on stage,” says Foster of his company’s fruitful partnership with fellow Roald Dahl devotee Walliams.
Foster “gets” Walliams’s humour, never more so than in Awful Auntie, where avaricious Aunt Alberta is “menacing but very funny” as Foster emphasises how the spiteful spinster is “dangerous, but not terrifying”. Having a man play the role, echoing the casting of Miss Trunchbull in Dahl’s Matilda, puts the ‘men’ into menace but adds to the comical absurdity too.
Birmingham Stage Company productions are full of hallmark quality: in this case the surging score of composer Jak Poore; the atmospheric sound design Nick Sagar; the playful lighting detail of Jason Taylor; the fabulous puppetry design and direction of Yvonne Stone and above all, the set and costume design of Jacqueline Trousdale, a key player in creating BSC’s theatrical magic for 30 years.
After Simon Wainwright’s sepia-tinted film clip – delivered with one of those Pathé News voices as stiff as a starched collar – introduces the historic house of Saxby Hall with footage of Stella’s parents, Trousdale’s highly inventive rotating set sets the children’s adventure in motion.
It becomes a constantly changing extra character with its myriad stairways, fireplace, book shelves, doll’s house, bed, turrets, cage, cellar and much more besides. “You really get the feeling of being inside this magnificent mansion,” said Foster in his CharlesHutchPress interview and he is absolutely right.
What’s the story in all its Friday morning glory? Tweed-suited, clown-haired Aunt Alberta (Abrahams/Foster) has packed Stella and her parents off to London. Only Stella (Prosser-Davies/Cordoni) will survive a car crash, and she awakes three months later “from a coma”, wrapped head to foot in bandages, “every bone in her body broken”, her awful Auntie says.
Not everything, indeed not anything, Alberta says turns out to be true. The truth is, she wants the deeds to the house, and Lady Stella Saxby, nearly 13, stands in her way.
Stella must fight for her life against the combined forces of – in Foster’s words – “absolute nutter” Aunt Alberta and her scary-eyed Great Bavarian Mountain Owl, Wagner (handled by puppeteer Emily Essert). On her side is a ghost, Soot (the Tommy Steele-style cheeky chappy Matthew Allen) with his Cockney rhyming slang and arsenal of spooks.
In a world of his own is Gibbon, the scatter-brained butler (Oldham/Abrahams), a scene-stealing one-man show with his regular erratic interjections. His prop malapropisms become a running joke, a form of hapless physical clowning, never bettered than when he says he must clean the carpet, only to promptly push a lawn mower across the marbled hall. Walliams and Foster in theatrical tandem, being so playful here.
Awful Auntie rattles along, with room for a car and motorbike chase, a cameo by the dubious Detective Strauss, revenge pranks, a “Here’s Auntie” riff on Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and a cliffhanger of a final showdown: puppetry in motion.
At the close, the tone turns wistful, lamenting how grown-ups lose the power to see ghosts and asserting how being a child is special, when “you can see all the magic in the world”. What’s more, Lady Stella vows to turn the hall over to housing orphaned children: a social conscience putting the world to rights.
The verdict? As Dick Emery used to say, “Ooh, you are awful, but I like you”. Love it, let alone like it, when Aunt Alberta goes nuts, You would be bonkers to miss it.
Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; Sunday, 11am. Age guidance: Five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton, on show in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall
YORKSHIRE landscapes, campsite class division, horror movies to the max and a talkative traveller herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.
Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5
THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in seasonal images.
Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.
The artwork for the Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York
Film event of the week: Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival, City Screen, Picturehouse, York, today and tomorrow
IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern presents a festival of movies, music and social gatherings. Today opens with Demonic Shorts at 11am, followed by the regional premiere of Scopophobia, 12.30pm; Slasher, Thriller and Creature Shorts, 2.30pm; UK premiere of The Healing, 4.30pm; Dead Talk film-making panel, 7.30pm; regional premiere of Kill Your Lover, 9pm, and VIP Awards Party at Revolution, York,11pm.
Tomorrow features the Mad Props documentary, 11am; mini-feature Strike,12.45pm; feature film The Monster Beneath Us, 1.15pm; music mini-feature The Black Quarry, 3.45pm; Music Videos, 4.30pm; UK premiere of Kill Victoria, 6.30pm, and world premiere of Lake Jesup, 8.30pm. Guests must be aged over 18 to access screenings and live events. Box office: deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2024-film-festival.
Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch
Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, today, 2pm and 7.30pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.
The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The bird man of RedHouse Originals Gallery: artist Jim Moir at his Birdland exhibition in Harrogate
Last chance to see: Jim Moir, Birdland, RedHouse Originals Gallery, Cheltenham Mount, Harrogate, today, 10am, 10am to 5pm
“PEOPLE think that I am a comedian, but art comes first,” says Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, as he mounts his second RedHouse show. “This one is Birdland because of my love of birds. I spend most of my days bird watching and painting,” he says.
On show – and for sale – is an exclusive collection of 50 new paintings celebrating his favourite subject ahead of the October 24 release of his second bird book, More Birds, Paintings Of British Birds, published by Unbound. Free entry.
Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince: Plenty to discuss at Pocklington Arts Centre
Double act of the week: Clare Ferguson-Walker & Robin Ince, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm
TAKE a tour around two marvellous minds via the vehicles of poetry, storytelling, jokes, and general silliness when Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince link up in Pock. Poet, comedienne, sculptor and singer Clare’s explosive second collection, Chrysalis, lays bare the poet’s soul on a journey laced with humour and humane observation.
Humorist, presenter, poet and author Ince co-hosts the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. His books include Bibliomaniac, The Importance Of Being Interested, I’m A Joke And So Are You and his next work, Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity, will be published next May. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The cover design for Michael Palin’s new diary collection
Globe-trotter of the week: Michael Palin, Grand Opera House, York, October 3, 7.30pm
IN the words of Monty Python alumnus, actor, presenter and Yorkshireman Michael Palin: “In There And Back – The Diary Tour 2024, I’ll bring to life the fourth collection of my diaries and the first to be released for ten years.
“Lots of fun as I go through the Noughties, and some dark times too. I constantly surprise myself with the sheer amount I took on.” Tickets update: still available at atgtickets.com/york.
Barbara Dickson: Acoustic October concerts in Pocklington and Leeds
Folk gigs of the week: Hurricane Promotions present Barbara Dickson & Nick Holland, All Saints Church, Pocklington, October 4 (sold out) and October 16, 7.30pm. Also Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, October 20, 7.30pm
SCOTTISH folk singer Barbara Dickson and her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs in these acoustic concerts in intimate settings, where the pair will let the words and melodies take centre stage as they draw on Dickson’s folk roots, contemporary greats and her classic hits, from Another Suitcase In Another Hall to I Know Him So Well. Box office: barbaradickson.net; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Mundane matters: Josh Widdicombe mulls over really niche observations about silly little thingsin 2025 and 2026
Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026
PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.
“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.
In Focus: Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show, The Crescent, York, tomorrow. More Yorkshire shows to follow
This is the modern world:Mark Thomas returns to stand-up venting at The Crescent, York. Picture: Tony Pletts
LAST appearing in York in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England & Son in the Theatre Royal Studio last September, South London’s grouchy “godfather of political comedy”, Mark Thomas, returns to polemical stand-up in Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show at The Crescent tomorrow night.
One of the longest-surviving alternative comics after close to 40 years of stand-up, theatre, journalism, human rights campaigning and the odd bout of performance art, his latest tour’s fusillade of jokes, rants, politics, play and the occasional sing-song adds up to “generally mucking about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people”.
Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show? Explain the extended tag, Mark. “What happened is I liked the idea of ‘Gaffa Tapes’ as a title and had it last year for my Edinburgh Fringe show, but halfway through the Fringe run I got Covid and had to stop.
“Last year I toured England & Son, written by Ed Edwards, which I was really pleased with. It picked up more awards than I’d ever done before – six awards – and one of them was to perform the play in Australia, taking it out to Adelaide for five weeks – and we might be going to New York …
“But we made no money out of it. I thought, ‘right, how do we make some money?’, so it’s great to be getting back to stand-up. What I love about stand-up is… and this is simple…if you stop doing it, they say you’ll feel rusty, so if you have a hiatus, what you have to learn to do is put your hand on the neck of the beast.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to do all the clubs at the bottom of the eco-system, doing ten minutes here, ten minutes there, doing shows in different places, and the thing about it is, I died on my arse a couple of times, which feels horrible each and every time…
“But if you take a break, you need to get your muscle memory back working again. That’s why I loved doing Edinburgh this summer. I did 26 gigs. It’s just bang, bang, bang, every night. You can muck around, try things out.
Mark Thomas in England & Son, toured to York Theatre Royal Studio in 2023. Picture: Alex Brenner
“The riots were happening around that time, so I wrote about them – and it’s important to be able to talk about that. It’s a living, breathing affecting thing. I love being a warrior in the culture wars, and it’s good to be back on the battlefield.”
The tectonic plates of the political landscape keep shifting: fresh meat to a polemicist comedian’s grist. “Things are always changing,” says Mark. “What I love is that when I started work on the show, there was loads going on, because the Tories were no longer in power, and it’s good to be able to react to that and to suggest what should be happening.
“I was at the Diggers Festival, celebrating Gerrard Winstanley [English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, activist and leader and co-founder of the ‘True Levellers’ or ‘Diggers’], doing a talk in a church, where someone said, ‘if you get rid of the oath to the King, that would be the most radical thing you could do’.
“I said, ‘well, actually, I don’ think it is. If you want democracy to work, you should have voting at 16, proportional representation, and you need to abolish the House of Lords’…whereas they’re just tidying up what [Tony] Blair started all those years ago. The most radical thing would be to ban donations to political parties. Make it state-funded, giving money to run parties and campaigns, making it a level playing field.
“Do you know who is the only other country in Europe to have a ‘first past the post’ electoral system? Belarus. So if anyone is out of step, it’s us. I think eventually PR [proportional representation] will come in; it’s just a question of what form it takes.”
How does the change of ruling party in Westminster from the Conservatives to Labour after 14 years have an impact on Thomas’s venting? “It changes the goalposts because it’s a new set of people to attack for a new set of reasons,” says Mark. “It’s the new austerity that they’re proposing that’s not great.
“The fact is that Starmer got some of the things right over the riots. I find it fascinating that there is this a disconnect; the idea that everyone who rioted was a racist, but not everyone was, because riots have a movement of their own, but certainly the organisers were far right.
“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socilaist, why on Earth would I vote Labour?” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Art by Tracey Moberly
“You can be a Zen Buddhist but if you set fire to an asylum seekers’ hotel, then you’re a racist.”
Long associated with spouting anti-Tory sentiment aplenty, Thomas will hold the incoming Labour Party to account too. “I think it’s healthier that way in politics. The honeymoon period is over already,” he says.
“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socialist, why on Earth would I vote Labour? There shouldn’t be a honeymoon period anyway, but I expect the right-wing press to go at Labour with gusto because they want to shape not only this government, but the next Tory one too.”
Any suggestions for policy change, Mark? “Local government can run the bus companies, but it’s really important that it’s not about making the maximum profit. That’s what used to happen until Thatcher changed it,” he says.
“I’m lucky now – because I’m 61, I get the 60+ London Oyster card for £20 [administration fee] that allows me to travel everywhere in London for free and I use buses a lot. That’s one of the great things about London: wherever you are, there will be a night bus coming along in a moment.”
He is looking forward eagerly to tomorrow’s return to The Crescent. “I love The Crescent,” he enthuses. “What they may lack in technical facilities, it’s a proper community venue. I always say, when talking about what community venues could be, take a look at this place.”
Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes, Burning Duck Comedy, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm; Marsdsen Mechanics, November 8, 8pm; Social, Hull, November 16, 8pm; Sheffield Memorial Hall November 10, 8pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, February 5 2025; Wakefield Theatre Royal, February 6 2025, 7.30pm.
Box office:York, thecrescentyork.com; Marsden, 01484 844587 or marsdenmechanics.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Hull, socialhumberstreet.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; Wakefield Theatre Royal, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk (on sale soon) Age guidance: 16 plus.
Mark Thomas: the back story
The next step for Mark Thomas: Touring Gaffa Tapes
“IF you don’t know what Mark does, ask your parents. In his time, he has won eight awards for performing, three for human rights work… and one he invented for himself. He has made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and three Dispatches for Channel 4, made five series of The Manifesto for BBC Radio 4, written five books and four play scripts, curated and authored two art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and was commissioned to write a show for the Royal Opera House.
“He has forced a politician to resign, changed laws on tax and protest, become the Guinness Book of Records world-record holder for the number of protests in 24 hours, taken the police to court three times and won (the fourth is in the pipeline), walked the length of the Israeli Wall in the West Bank (that’s 724km), and generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people.”
Ainy Medina, left, Laura Soper, Freya Parks, front, and Helen Chong in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlotte Graham
SEPTEMBER 30 marks the 156th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women books. She wrote it in only ten weeks, a speed matched by the flashing hand of Freya Parks’s restless Jo March, beret in place as ever when at work, in Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster’s free-flowing production.
Alcott’s coming-of-age tale of the March sisters growing up in well-to-do New England during the American Civil War is deemed a “timeless classic” (to quote the Theatre Royal brochure), as popular now as when first published.
Yet the British stage has tended to stage adaptations of Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Mary Shelley novels rather than Alcott. Looking back through The York Press archives, your reviewer cannot find any past productions in York, the closest being a Lip Service parody, Very Little Women, that toured the Theatre Royal in October 2004.
“I can’t remember ever reading Little Women as a child, but Sue [Ryding] did, and she wept buckets,” said her late partner in spoofery, Maggie Fox. “She said we must do it some time, so I had to read it, and she was absolutely right: we just had to do it. It’s so sanctimonious, so twee…just awful…and they’re Americans.”
Helen Chong’s Amy March and Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Hold your high horses. Maggie went on to say the satire was applied with “affection, and also respect for Alcott. She was one of the first woman writers to write about her own life and she was able to make a living out of writing. She was incredibly successful in her own lifetime.”
Anne-Marie Casey brings a similarly affectionate tone to her adaptation of the story of sensible Meg (Ainy Medina), tomboy and would-be novelist Jo (Freya Parks, from the 2024 BBC series This Town), vain, silly Amy (Helen Chong) and consumptive, piano-playing Beth (York actress Laura Soper, in her first Theatre Royal appearance since her professional debut in Swallows & Amazons in 2019).
Sanctimonious? Twee? Just awful? No, no, and thrice no. Very American, yes, but Casey does not stir even a spoonful of sugar into her account of the siblings’ journey from childhood to adulthood in the mid-19th century.
Instead, she combines humour with sadness, candour with kindness, storytelling with travelogue, all the while addressing the matter of a women’s role in society, amid the fractious relationships, the pursuit of love, the absence of the father on chaplaincy duty in the war and the need for matriarch Marmee (York actress Kate Hampson) to be a single mother in such stressful circumstances.
The power of the written word: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Kate Hampson’s Marmee in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Against the backdrop of a divided America’s November 2024 presidential clash coming down to a regressive man versus a progressive woman, with polar opposite views on such matters as abortion, resonance is not hard to find in Little Women.
Albeit that marriage is still the end-all, although not the be-all for Jo, who symbolically takes the lead when dancing, a habit forged in dancing with her sisters but also testament to her determination to do her own thing. Best summed up in burning the back of her dress when standing too close to the fire.
Parks is the stand-out here, a fiery talent fast on the rise (she heads off to her next filming engagement as soon as Little Women ends). The last time your reviewer saw an actor on the York stage destined for the heights was when Sally Hawkins, fresh from drama school, played Juliet in Romeo And Juliet. Parks’s Jo is full of humour, vigour, pathos, impetuous urges, artistic intellect and resolute ambition. Love too.
Medina, Chong and especially Soper more than play their part too, and there is a theatrical grace to the ailing Beth’s scene with Jo, culminating in an exit in white for Beth that symbolises the passing into death: a moment that film could not do so elegiacally or indeed so sparingly.
Clashing opinions: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Caroline Gruber’s Aunt March in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Hampson’s Marmee is firm but as fair as her hair, always urging her daughters to maximise their talents, whether for music, dress-making, art or writing, equal in her love and counsel for each, but away from their gaze, sadness at her husband being away permeates the glowing surface.
A scene stealer emerges in Caroline Gruber’s match-making Aunt March, the Lady Bracknell of the piece with her waspish tongue, snobbery and insistent interventions.
And what of the men? Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence is the handsome, elegant, well-mannered, fun-loving prankster and foil for Jo, with the devilish player streak below that smart, engaging, enquiring posh-boy, privileged surface. Hard to resist, like a matinee idol, you might say. Later, such a type would be found in a Tennessee Williams play.
Jack Ashton reveals the importance of being earnest in not one but two roles as men with academic minds, serious intentions and not much income: firstly John Brooke, Meg’s devoted tutor; then the Teutonic professor, Bhaer, who could have been borrowed from a Chekhov or Ibsen play.
Jack Ashton in rehearsal for his role as Professor Bhaer in Little Women
Forster’s direction brings out the nuances in all these performances, never over-stating anything, but letting the power of storytelling take grip, whether in the first act, where the action is concentrated in the March house, save for a skating accident depicted with clever use of lighting by Jane Lalljee, or the second, where Amy goes travelling in Europe and Jo heads to New York to begin penning her sensationalist stories.
Ruari Murchison’s set design, first used in Pitlochry Theatre Festival’s production, is first class too, making expressive use of curtains, wooden furniture and in particular silver birch tree trunks, sometimes used for hanging a coat to convey a transition from outdoors to indoors. Her costumes delight too, as do Erin Carter’s movement direction and the sisters’ singing in harmony by the piano.
Freya Parks. Remember that name. A tall woman amid Little Women, making a big impact, with a stellar career ahead.
Little Women, presented by York Theatre Royal in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland, at York Theatre Royal, until October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 27 and 28, October 1, 3, 5, 8 to 12; 2pm, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7; 7pm, October 2. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
YORK’S Queen of Burlesque, Freida Nipples, returns to Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight for Baps and Buns Burlesque at 7pm.
She will be joined by cabaret artists, from drag queens to acrobats, for a fun night of debauchery and glamour in Acomb, hosted by Freida, who has run shows at York Theatre Royal, The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse and Impossible York over the past six years. and more.
“The big question is, are you ready for it?” she teases. Tickets include a welcome drink on arrival, with a non-alcoholic option available. For tickets, go to: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts
GARDEN ghosts, Yorkshire landscapes, campsite class division, awful auntie antics and ridiculous improv comedy herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.
Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5
GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.
Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details.
Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall
Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5
THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in a diverse collection of seasonal images at the National Trust house.
Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall
Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch
Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, until Saturday; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16
WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they were expecting four days of hill running and total de-stress. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.
The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet
Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today to Sunday
CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. After adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.
As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Halls Of Ridiculous: Spinning their improv comedy at Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Scott Akoz
Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Club presents The Halls Of Ridiculous, Cal Halbert and Tony Cowards, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
NORTHERN comedy The Halls Of Ridiculous, namely Chris Lumb (from BBC Three’s Russell Howard’s Good News) and Phil Allan-Smith (from BBC One’s This Is My House), push the boundaries of improv, sketch and character creativity with their quick-thinking scenes, zany special guests and quirky approach to performance.
Cal Halbert is one half of The Mimic Men, the UK’s only impressionist double act; host Tony Cowards is a rapid-fire gag merchant with an arsenal of one-liners, delivered by a likeable everyman character. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Just Us And A Piano: 1812 Theatre Company singers stage two fundraisers for Helmsley Arts Centre
Fundraising musical theatre concert of the week: 1812 Theatre Company, Just Us And A Piano, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm
SINGER Julie Lomas and pianist Neil Bell bring together a grand piano and an ensemble 1812 Theatre Company singers to celebrate the world of musical theatre, from the Broadway classics of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers, through to Cabaret, Wicked, My Fair Lady, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Hamilton and the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Singers Amy Gregory, Esme Schofield, Florrie Stockbridge, Joe Gregory, Julie Lomas, Kristian Gregory, Natasha Jones, Oliver Clive and Phye Bell will be raising funds for Helmsley Arts Centre. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Honey & The Bear: Tales of Suffolk folklore, courageous people and a passion for nature at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ten Year Anniversary Tour: Honey & The Bear, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 8pm
BRITISH folk and roots duo Jon Hart (guitar, bass and bouzouki) and Lucy Hart (guitar, ukulele, bass, banjo, mandolin and percussion) are joined by guests Evan Carson (percussion) and Archie Churchill-Moss (melodeon).
Conjuring stories in song, Honey & The Bear tell tales of Suffolk folklore, courageous people they admire and their passion for nature, as heard on third album Away Beyond The Fret, released last November. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Josh Widdicombe: Taking stock of the little things that niggle him in Not My Cup Of Tea
Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026
PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.
“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.
Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in York Theatre Royal’s production of Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
GARDEN ghosts, a coming-of-age classic, a political groundbreaker, astronaut insights and an awful aunt stir Charles Hutchinson into action as autumn makes its entry.
Play opening of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12
CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s repertory cast in Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.
Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, the production features Freya Parks, from BBC1’s This Town, as Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and York actress Laura Soper as Beth. Kate Hampson returns to the Theatre Royal to play Marmee after leading the community cast in The Coppergate Woman. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Steve Wynn: A night of stories and songs at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Picture: Guy Kokken
York gig of the week: Steve Wynn, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Night Of Songs And Stories, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, September 21, 7.30pm
STEVE Wynn, founder and leader of Californian alt. rock band The Dream Syndicate, promotes his first solo album since 2010, Make It Right (Fire Records), and his new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press), both released on August 30.
Touring the UK solo for the first time in more than ten years, his one-man show blends songs from and inspired by the book with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Expect evergreens and rarities from The Dream Syndicate’s catalogue, coupled with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new record. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts. Picture: Gareth Buddo/Andy Little
Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5
GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.
Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details
Points Of View, stainless steel, by Tony Cragg, at Castle Howard. Picture: Nick Howard
Last chance to see: Tony Cragg’s Sculptures, Castle Howard, near York, ends September 22
TONY Cragg’s sculptures, the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist to be held in the grounds and house at Castle Howard, closes on Sunday after a successful run since May 3 that has seen a 12 per cent rise in visitor numbers since the equivalent period last year.
On show are large-scale bronze sculptures in the gardens plus works in wood, glass sculptures and works on paper, some being displayed for the first time in Great Britain. Opening hours: grounds, 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm; house, 10am to 3pm. Tickets: 01653 648333 or castlehoward.co.uk.
Making her point: Lauren Robinson as politician Jennie Lee in Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography
Political drama of the week: Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 22, 4pm to 6pm
IN Marsden company Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not even vote for herself.
Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Scotland and fought with her every breath for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. She was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.
Crime novelists Ajay Chowdhury, left, and Luca Veste team up for The Big Read in York and Harrogate on Monday
Book event of the week: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival presents The Big Read, Acomb Explore Library, York, September 23, 12.30pm to 1.30pm; The Harrogate Inn, Harrogate, September 23, 2.30pm to 3.30pm
THE North’s biggest book club, The Big Read, returns next week with visits to York and Harrogate on the first day, when visitors can meet the festival’s reader-in-residence, Luca Veste, and fellow novelist Ajay Chowdhury, who will discuss Chowdhury’s Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, The Detective.
More than 1,000 free copies of tech entrepreneur, writer and theatre director Ajay Chowdhury’s 2023 novel from his Detective Kamil Rahman series will be distributed across the participating libraries. Entry is free.
Astronaut Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican
Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm
BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage to share stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.
From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of space flight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet
Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, September 26 to 29
CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. Ater adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.
As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Annie Cordoni’s Stella and Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie. Picture: Mark Douet
AFTER directing Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, Neal Foster is at the helm of his fourth David Walliams stage adaptation and playing the lead too for the first time in Awful Auntie.
As with the previous three children’s plays, and indeed myriad Horrible Histories shows too, Birmingham Stage Company is heading for York, playing the Grand Opera House from today (26/9/2024) to Sunday.
“It’s been ten years since we started working with David, and we’ve done four of his books now,” says Neal, long-standing actor-manager, director and writer/adaptor for the Birmingham company.
“He’s been a brilliant person to work with, so generous, so interested; he’ll do anything to help; he’s there at rehearsals, he’s there on opening night. He looks at my scripts with a really helpful professional colleague’s eye, and it’s been a wonderful ten years.”
Neal continues: “I think he has always appreciated how we capture the tone of his work and how we understand how comedy works on stage. I’ll send him drafts and he’ll send notes. I think it works because I get his humour and I knew it would work on stage from the moment I read the books.”
“We’re both fans of Roald Dahl and heavily influenced by him, and Birmingham Stage Company has done more Dahl shows than any other companies in the world.”
Awful Auntie novelist David Walliams. Picture: Charlie Clift
One David Walliams story had been adapted by another company before the Birmingham bond was forged. “He had not been entirely happy with that show and thought maybe it was not the right road to go down again. When we approached him, he liked our track record with the Horrible Histories shows, and that gave him the confidence to run with us.
“Gangsta Granny was then so successful that David was happy to put his books in our hands and has been delighted with the work we’ve done. The stories are very funny, he has a fantastic, wicked sense of humour, but there’s always something important going on in the stories too. It’s no surprise that you will see adults with tears in their eyes at the end because he writes in that way.
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do them, and why they work so well on stage is that David is a performer too and so the stories are naturally theatrical.”
Awful Auntie sends Stella to London with her parents, but she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, only her Aunt Alberta (Foster’s role) can tell her what has happened, but not everything Alberta says turns out to be true, whereupon Stella discovers she is infor the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie.
Neal is savouring playing Aunt Alberta. “I’ve been doing it since March,” he says. “One of the first shows I did with Birmingham Stage Company was Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine, where I played Grandma, one of my favourite parts, and there’s a resonance with that role in Alberta because she too loves being wicked and naughty.
“In the end, Grandma was just rather nasty, but in this one, Alberta turns out to be a serial killer, probably psychopathic, but what makes it so wonderful is that she’s not just wicked but very funny too.
Neal Foster: Birmingham Stage Company actor-manager, director and adaptor, now playing Aunt Alberta in Awful Auntie, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
“It’s a great privilege to play one of David’s leads, having adapted and directed the previous shows. It’s been a great joy to play a part this time, knowing I could do it, and though it would be hard to pull it off, I knew it would lend itself to being played by a man, applying the strength of a man, because Alberta is quite brutal.”
Neal “loves the science of comedy in making it work”. “David’s tone is like Chekhov’s comedies: it makes audiences laugh and cry, where you feel sad at some parts, laughing at the characters but at the same time sympathising with them,” he says.
“Here Aunt Alberta is very funny but menacing. She’s entertaining; she’s dangerous, but she’s NOT terrifying. Menacing, yes, but at the same time David is providing children with an adventure.”
That is the key to Birmingham Stage Company welcoming children as young as five to Awful Auntie. “With all those wicked characters in Roald Dahl’s work, for example, we wouldn’t give them thatlabel, but they probably are psychopathic,” he says.
“When you’re playing Alberta, you realise she doesn’t seem to care and is lethal in what she does, having her psychopathic responses, but it’s not something young audiences need to know, whereas as an actor you’re aware that she’s basically an absolute nutter!”
Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today, 6.30pm; Friday, 10.30am and 6.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; Sunday, 11am. Age guidance: Five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
“Marmee is a really fascinating character to play,” says Kate Hampson of her role in Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
YORK actress Kate Hampson returns to the York Theatre Royal stage on Saturday for the first time since her title role in the August 2022 community play The Coppergate Woman.
She will play Marmee, mother to the March girls, in creative director Juliet Forster’s repertory production of Anne-Marie Casey’s re-telling of Louisa May Alcott’s cherished American novel Little Women, presented in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
She is joined in this coming-of-age story of growing up in New England during the American Civil War by This Town star Freya Parks as headstrong daughter Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and fellow returnee York actress Laura Soper as piano-playing Beth.
“It’s been a really challenging but joyful rehearsal period, working with Juliet again, and I can’t wait to play it to audiences – and I get to walk to work each day!” says Kate in a lunchtime break. “The cast are all fantastic, each bringing something new and unique to their roles. We’re all getting on really well, working with voice coach Yvonne Morley to get the accent right and united, because it’s not only a different [American] accent but an accent from a different time, and we have to sound related to each other.”
Describing Marmee’s matriarchal role, Kate says: “What’s really striking is that for most of the play, she’s a single mother, and that’s a hard task. She’s presented as wholesome and deeply loving, caring for each child equally, encouraging each of them to achieve their full potential, but she’s also Victorian, stiffer, more formal, than today.
“There’s a softness to her but there’s also that Victorian formality, which was the behaviour of the time. So you can’t go too gentle and soft in the role, even though she’s a great mum. It’s the way she gives them their autonomy that’s beautiful to watch. She lets her daughters make up their own minds, not collectively, but individually, seeing them as each being very different with very different needs.”
Kate continues: “Marmee is a really fascinating character to play. She’s a challenge because she’s often portrayed as this warm, kind woman, full of wisdom, the perfect mother, and to some extent she is that, but she’s multi-faceted, and I’m keen to explore that, especially in her relationship with Jo. Like when Jo says, ‘I have this rage’, and Marmee says, ‘I had this rage too and I had to learn to suppress it’.
“She’s very pragmatic, she knows the limitations, and yet she wants her daughters to ‘dream big’, but she had that rage and sadness that she couldn’t do the things she wanted to do. She is both very loving and good at imparting knowledge, getting her daughters to solve their problems themselves, rather than spoon-feeding them.”
Kate has enjoyed shaping her interpretation of Marmee’s role in the rehearsal room. “You get this thing with character development where you start in one place, take it to another place, and then you have to bring it back to what feels the right place, pulling it back by thinking ‘would I be standing like this?’ or ‘would I be so affectionate at this point?’,” says Kate.
“It’s lovely to have had the time to do that, and I feel that on the first night, it’ll be where I want it to be, but characters always develop further in the run, when you find new things and the relationships develop too.”
Reflecting on the abiding popularity of Louisa Alcott’s story, Kate says: “I think she was so progressive as a writer. You only have to look at her own life, how she lived it, her relationship with her parents. She was progressive, she was feminist and she was brave.
“People can still identify with that. There are still the same issues on life’s journey; the ups and downs of family relationships in that world still prevail. There’s also the challenge to modern audiences, where they have to think: how can we continue to strive to be better and strive for more equality, especially in societies where there is still none. Both remain relevant goals, because it’s not finished, it’s not done.”
Urging York audiences to attend Little Women, Kate says: “Come and sit in a beautiful space and be entertained by a classic play told in a new way. You want people to enjoy it but to go away with questions to answer because the story still resonates.
“It deals with universal themes of family, love and loyalty, the good times and the bad times, so though it’s historical, you can make it relevant to today, resonating with the experiences we have to deal with or might yet have to face.”
Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 21, 24 to 28, October 1, 3, 5 and 8 to 12; 2pm, September 25 and 26, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7, and 7pm, October 2 (fundraising gala). Post-show discussion: October 11. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
* The special fundraising gala performance on October 2 will raise vital funds for York Theatre Royal’s continued work as a producing theatre and for the development of future community projects.
Lauren Robinson in the role of Labour MP Jennie Lee in MIkron Theatre’s world premiere of Lindsay Rodden’s Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography
JENNIE LEE is “the radical MP you have never heard of”, until you venture out to Mikron Theatre Company’s world premiere of Lindsay Rodden’s play at Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, on Sunday afternoon.
Marianne McNamara directs a cast of actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens and Marsden company debutants Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson, and Mark Emmons in Jennie Lee, a play with original songs, wherein writer-lyricist Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the groundbreaking Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP at 24, so young that, as a woman aged under 30 in 1929, she could not even vote herself.
Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Cowdenbeath and fought with her every breath as the Labour MP for North Lanarkshire for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. Oh, and she was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past.
Alongside this formidable couple, Sunday’s audiences will meet Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and a whole host of other characters in a typically entertaining, enlightening and educational show by Mikron, peppered with songs by Sonum Batra in the music hall and Twenties’ Flappers style.
Jennie Lee: Labour MP for North Lanarkshire at 24. Picture: Open University Archive
Introducing her premiere, Lindsay Rodden says: “When I first decided to find out about the remarkable life of Jennie Lee, I knew very little about her. I knew about her commitment to bettering the lives of her class, how striking and fascinating she seemed, and that she was usually known, if she was known at all, as the wife of Aneurin Bevan.
“What I didn’t know then was that this daughter of a coalminer, who became an MP at an age when, as a woman, she couldn’t even vote herself, lived a long and fascinating life, bore witness to all the horror and pride of the 20th century, and made history herself.”
Lindsay continues: “Her life was full of drama and theatre, and I knew I had to put it on the stage. In fact, I could have written three plays from her 88 years of struggle and triumph, and telling her story with a cast of just four – luckily supremely talented! – actors has been quite the challenge.
“Jennie faced down Churchill in the Commons on her first appearance, she travelled all over the world, and she gave us the Arts Council and the Open University as we know them. She was clever, erudite, stylish and funny, stubborn and sharp too. I wish I had known her. Putting her on the stage is the next best thing.”
Jennie Lee playwright Lindsay Rodden
Lindsay was delighted to be invited to write a second play for Mikron after her evocation of the wild and wonderful world of the weather, Red Sky At Night, toured nationwide in 2022.
“It was about six months after the tour that Marianne and I were talking about ideas for the future, and I said I’d love to do another play but with a different approach as one of the things that Mikron is really good at is shining a light on the corners of history that have been ignored,” she says.
Jennie Lee would be that subject, by chance coinciding with Tim Price’s premiere of Nye, the story of Nye Bevan’s dream of the NHS, at the National Theatre, London. “And apparently there’s also going to be another play about Jennie Lee in Scotland towards the end of the year [Matthew Knights’ Jennie Lee: Tomorrow Is A New Day, produced by Knights Theatre]. It’s fantastic that she’s featuring in three plays in one year – and about time too. Her life was so long and so eventful, she really needs three plays to even scratch the surface.”
Mikron is a suitable vehicle for telling Jennie’s story, she says. “There’s something about the Mikron performance style that realty lends itself to leaping on this rollercoaster ride through 80 years, the incredible unfolding of the 20th century, with such zip and music too.
Mikron Theatre Company’s cast of Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmons in Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography
“But there’s no way we could tell every aspect of her life, but one thing I decided not to do was concentrate on her relationship with Nye – they married when she was 24 and he was 31 – though he is in the play.”
Lindsay notes how Jennie was encouraged to become involved in politics through her education. “Her parents decided to set her free from housework and the kitchen to go to university, so that nurturing of her mind began very early on. I could see where the roots everything she achieved came from.
“She grew up with poverty all around her, seeing the treatment of women around her, the terrible health problems that arose from that and the terrible difficulties in finding medicine to deal with those problems. We should all be proud of what Jennie achieved for better health and education.”
Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, Sunday, 4pm to 6pm. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.
John Hegley: Two poetry peformances at Helmsley Literary Festival. Picture: Jackie di Stefano
HELMSLEY Literary Festival leads off Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations to fill the cultural diary, joined by drag, folk and blues acts and an American coming-of-age classic.
Festival of the week highlight: Helmsley Literary Festival, Helmsley Arts Centre, John Hegley, New & Selected Potatoes, Saturday, 7pm to 8pm; I Am A Poetato, Sunday, 11am to 12 noon
POET, comic, singer, songwriter and spectacles wearer John Hegley heads to Helmsley with two shows, the first being his seriously funny, cleverly comic “best of golden oldies compilation with some new stuff” about love, family, France, art, the sea, dogs, dads, gods, taxidermy, carrots, glasses and…potatoes.
Second gig I Am A Poetato features An A-Z of Poems about People, Pets and other Creatures! Spelling it out for Helmsley, he promises Hedgehogs. Elephants. Laughing. Mandolin. Singing. Luton. Even a cardboard camel with moving parts. Yo! For full details of two days of talks, signings, readings, open mic and a quiz, with Hegley, Anne Fine, Joanne Harris, Harriet Constable and The Chase’s Paul Sinha, visit helmsleyarts.co.uk. Box office: 01439 771700.
Bianca Del Rio: Discussing politics, pop culture and political correctness at York Barbican
Drag show of the week: Bianca Del Rio, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
COMEDY drag queen and RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Bianca Del Rio heads to York on her 11-date stand-up tour. Up for irreverent discussion will be politics, pop culture, political correctness, current events, cancel culture and everyday life, as observed through the eyes of a “clown in the gown”, who will be “coming out of my crypt and hitting the road again to remind everyone that I’m still dead inside”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ryan Adams: Heading back to York Barbican on Friday
Return of the week: Ryan Adams, Solo 2024, York Barbican, Friday, doors 7pm
NORTH Carolina singer-songwriter Ryan Adams returns to York Barbican next week after playing a very long, career-spanning set there with no stage lighting – only his own side lamps – in April last year. This time he will be marking the 20th anniversary of 2004’s Love Is Hell and tenth anniversary of 2014’s self-titled album, complemented by Adams classics and favourites. Adams, who visited the Grand Opera House in 2007 and 2011, will be performing on acoustic guitar and piano. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Harp & A Monkey: Songs of everyday life, love and remembrance at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Folk gig of the week: Friday Folk presents Harp & A Monkey, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm
GREATER Manchester song-and-storytelling trio Harp & A Monkey specialise in poignant, uplifting and melodic short stories, both original and traditional, about everyday life, love and remembrance. In a nutshell, the extraordinary ordinary, from cuckolded molecatchers and a lone English oak tree that grows at Gallipoli to care in the community, medieval pilgrims and Victorian bare-knuckle boxers.
This versatile collective of artists, animators, storytellers and multi-instrumentalists has undertaken bespoke songwriting for soundtrack, film and art projects for the likes of Sky Arts and the Department of Sport, Media and Culture. Fylingdales Folk Choir will perform too. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
York actress Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Play of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, Saturday to October 12
CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s new production of Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.
Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, the production features Freya Parks, from BBC1’s This Town, as Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and York actress Laura Soper as Beth. Kate Hampson returns to the Theatre Royal to play Marmee after leading the community cast in The Coppergate Woman. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Seedling, by Sarah Sharpe, on show in Leeds Fine Artists’ 150th anniversary show at Blossom Street Gallery
Exhibition of the week: Leeds Fine Artists Celebrating 150 Years, Blossom Street Gallery, York, until October 31
LEEDS Fine Artists is celebrating its 150th anniversary with an exhibition at its regular York host, Blossom Street Gallery, featuring an inspirational collection of work demonstrating a wide range of styles and different media.
Taking part are: Sharron Astbury-Petit; Dawn Broughton; Jane Burgess; Mark Butler; Pete Donnelly; Alison Flowers; Roger Gardner; Margarita Godgelf; Dan Harnett; Peter Heaton; Nicholas Jagger; Michael Curgenven; Catherine Morris; Martin Pearson; Clare Phelan; Trevor Pittaway; Neil Pittaway; Annie Robinson; Annie Roche; Sarah Sharpe and John Sherwood. Opening hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.
Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican
Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm
BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage with his stellar new show, sharing the collected stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.
From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of spaceflight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Lightning Threads: Showcasing their debut album, Off That Lonely Road, at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club, Lightning Threads, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 26, 8pm
SHEFFIELD blues-rock trio Lightning Threads are influenced by the great rock musicians of another time, drawing comparisons with The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr, Cream and The Doors.
Tom Jane, guitar and vocals, Sam Burgum, bass and vocals, and Hugh Butler, drums and keyboards, have been nominated for Best Album in the 2024 Blues Awards for their November 2023 debut, Off That Lonely Road, recorded with Andrew Banfield, of Superfly Studios, and graced by Kelly Michaeli’s gospel vocals. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
