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Jakey Lad takes on title role in Robinson Crusoe after a decade of Berwick jests

“I’ve done 11 pantos for Berwick now, and he’s always really lovely to me off stage,” says Jake Lindsay after a decade of dame jokes at his expense on stage. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

TRUE to form, dowager dame Berwick Kaler has advice for Jake Lindsay, the long-serving Essex lad in his York pantomime ensemble in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse.

“Ah, Jakey lad. I keep telling you, take up painting and decorating,” teases the dowager dame, who earlier told The Press in his panto interview: “Every year I tell him, ‘go and get another career’ and he never listens. Anyway, it’s a while before you see him as Robinson Crusoe!”

It is indeed: not until the second half on Destiny Island in fact, but for all those years as the butt of Kaler’s jesting, Jake has enjoyed a gradual graduation from ensemble to “Jakey Lad” character parts, now crowned by playing the title role as well as being the leading light of the ensemble of Villagers and Pirates at the Grand Opera House.

“I’ve done 11 pantos for Berwick now, and he’s always really lovely to me off stage,” says Jake. “He’s really seen me grow up. I would have been 20-21 when I started at the Theatre Royal, when you’re like a vortex or a mirror, taking in everything. Now I don’t think I could go and do any other panto after being part of this pantomime spectacular for a decade.

Jake Lindsay, centre, with ensemble cohorts Henry Rhodes and Benjamin Goodwin in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

“There’s a certain magnificence and magic that Berwick captures that’s in keeping with classic panto; the details that he can zoom in on. He’s always watching from the wings when he’s not on stage; he never misses a trick.

“When he directs us, he’s very clear what his vision is, and now we’re working with commercial pantomime producers [UK Productions], he’s a maestro of walking that tightrope of what we can say on stage with a certain savvy.

“It’s a delicate dance…where you have to keep up with the times, when it’s tough to know what’s too much, but that commercial edge is useful because it keeps us aware of what the boundaries are now.”

Relishing the “Jakey Lad” panto persona that “has kind of stuck”, Thurrock-born Jake enjoys adding to the diversity of a Wearside dame (Kaler), daft Yorkshire sidekick (Martin Barrass), luverly Brummie lackey (AJ Powell), pucker principal gal (Suzy Cooper) and devilishly thespian villain (David Leonard).

“It’s wonderful to be part of the team; I’ve learned so much from them,” says Jake, 31. “This style of pantomime is such an art in itself; how they carry things from year to year while embodying a new character, retaining the essence the audience first loved all those years ago.  And it’s an audience where it feels like they are on stage with you.”

Jake Lindsay, left, and Martin Barrass in a scene from Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse at the Grand Opera House. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Trained in musical theatre, heavily focused on dance, at CPA Studios in Romford, Jake recalls his early on-stage encounters with Kaler’s dame. “Initially, when he introduced me to the audience at each show, there was genuine fear on my part! Like a father-and-son fear, more respect than fear, but let’s call it fear!” he says. “It was a genuine reaction because Berwick is such a character, but we’ve kept that going over the years.”

A switch to painting and decorating, however, will not be happening. “An apprenticeship is not on the cards but I wouldn’t rule anything out. I’ll try anything,” says Romford-based Jake.

“I’m retraining at the Collective Acting Studio to become a television actor, and I’ve been doing that since Covid. I thought I’d fallen out of love with acting at that time, but as I’ve progressed there’s a lot I want to showcase in different ways.

“Theatre is such a beautiful medium to broaden perspectives, so I’d like to broaden out into writing too, and there are a few projects that I’m exploring at the moment. I’d like to incorporate dance into that: it was my first love, more than acting. I suppose I’m a dancer first and foremost.”

In the meantime, as the pantomime programme reveals, Jake is Berwick Kaler’s understudy as the dame – Dotty Dullaly this time – in Robinson Crusoe. What does his preparation for that role entail?

Understudying for Berwick Kaler as the dame? “The beard would probably have to go,” says Jake Lindsay

“In honesty, Berwick’s ability to see what an audience likes in the first few scenes, to gauge and then respond to that, is something that can only be learned from observing him, side of stage,” he says. “Of course, they know each other so well and they have grown together, so it isn’t something that could ever be replicated.

“Prep looks like taking note from the wings and hoping I never have to practise being ready on stage in front of an audience! But knowing the core audience would always be supportive and understanding in that scenario, with a plus being that there isn’t much of a script to learn!”

If the call came to be Dotty, “I would have to give Berwick’s accent a go for a laugh – or perhaps I wouldn’t put people through that, but the beard would probably have to go.”

Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse heads for Destiny Island at Grand Opera House, York, until January 6 2024. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

One last question, Jake

Have you had any memorable understudying experiences?

“Last year, rehearsing for the flying scene, it took a few more of the tech team to get me in the air!”

Copyright of The Press, York 

Suzy Cooper’s Polly Dullaly and AJ Powell’s Lovely Jubbly in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse. Berwick Kaler’s dame, Dotty Dullaly, front left, looks on. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In Focus: Relaxed Performance of Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse at Grand Opera House, York, on January 4

AS Christmas Day approaches, many feel rushed, but the new year could be the perfect time to relax and enjoy a pantomime show in a less formal environment.

The Grand Opera House, York, will be holding a Relaxed Performance of Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse on Thursday, January 4 at 2pm.

“This year’s panto is popular with all ages but anyone who is very young, new to the theatre environment, or struggles with staying in their seats, may find the Relaxed Performance just the thing,” says Grand Opera House theatre director Laura McMillan.

“The performance, which fits in perfectly with school holidays, enables those who would normally find a trip to the theatre daunting or stressful to come to the show  and suits those with an autism spectrum condition, a learning disability or anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed environment.

“Loud bangs are removed, the lighting and sound are adjusted, and everyone is free to move around as they wish. While the environment is more calm, there will still be plenty of panto excitement to enjoy. We also create a chill-out room for anyone who would like to have time out of the auditorium.”

Ahead of this theatre visit, if any audience member would like to be prepared for what to expect, the Grand Opera House can provide a visual story via yorkaccess@theambassadors.com 

The parent of a child who visited the pantomime with his school last week said: “As a result of having it [the visual story], our son was able to sit through his first-ever full pantomime today and he loved it so much.

“I can’t explain to you how much that means to him or to us when so many things aren’t accessible and he has so many struggles. For a couple of hours, apparently he was belly laughing, booing and hissing and cheering, and knowing what was going to happen massively reduced his anxiety.” 

Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse has two performances most days of the run until January 6, including a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreted show on Wednesday, December 27 at 5pm and an Audio Described performance on Thursday, December 28 at 1pm.

The Grand Opera House aims to be as accessible and inclusive as possible for all visitors, so that everyone can enjoy live entertainment at the Cumberland Street theatre.

Show details:

Relaxed Performance: Thursday, January 4, 2pm 

Show length: Approximately 1 hour 50 minutes, including interval

Box office: Open 90 minutes before the performance

Tickets: atgtickets.com/york

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REVIEW: Be Amazing Arts in A Christmas Carol, Malton Market Place, until Dec 24 ****

Quinn Richards, in top hat, and Jack Downey outside the former Green Man Inn in a scene from Be Amazing Arts’ A Christmas Carol in Malton Market Place

WHAT should lead off reasons to be cheerful for Malton’s inclusion in the Guardian’s guide to Twinkle Towns: Eight Great Places In The UK For A Festive Getaway but Charles Dickens’s 19th century connection with the North Yorkshire market town.

Dickens would visit his friend, lawyer Charles Smithson, whose Chancery Lane offices were the template for Ebenezer Scrooge’s counting room. He performed at Malton’s old theatre on his reading tours too, and Smithson’s widow received an 1844 signed copy of Dickens’s novel on Smithson’s untimely death at 39.

A plaque in Chancery Lane is all that remains of the now closed Scrooge and Marley Counting House/Dickens Museum, but characters based on Malton residents live on in assorted Dickens novels.

The Malton Dickensian Festival, Miriam Margolyes et al, celebrated Dickens’s books, and this winter Malton company Be Amazing Arts is mounting its third season of immersive promenade performances of A Christmas Carol, as highlighted in that Guardian feature on December 2 too.

Roxanna Klimaszewska, once of York company Six Lips Theatre, now creative director of Be Amazing Arts, has freshened up her adaptation, as she did last year, working in tandem with producer James Aconley once more.

Dropping into CharlesHutchPress’s email basket at 7.01am yesterday morning was a letter to “my dearest most valued reader” from the desk of Charles Dickens.

He wrote of his “great anticipation” of presenting a personal reading of his most recently published works: a felicitous visit that would serve as a festive event to “satisfy your hunger for a literary feast (or platter)”.

 It would be his last reading of the season, he wrote, “as I endeavour to direct my attention to my next creation”.  “Tonight, expect theatricals, as only an author who frequents  the theatre as much as I do, can offer,” he promised.

The Cratchit family playing Christmas games at The Cook’s Place in Be Amazing Arts’ A Christmas Carol

And so a full house – as will be the case for the rest of the run – gathered at Kemps Books, arriving early to avoid Dickens’s threat that “latecomers will be treated with disdain and hostility”.

It should be recorded that the welcome, from bookshop to The Cook’s Place, could not have been more civil. There to meet the night’s promenaders was Quinn Richards, resuming his role as Charles Dickens, narrator and guide, striking up a conversation with Jack Downey’s ever-enthusiastic Charles Smithson.

Rather than the expected reading from Martin Chuzzlewit, Richards’ red-suited Dickens finds himself compelled to introduce the story, theme and characters of his new Christmas ghost story”. “Another ghost story?”, questioned Smithson.  

Ah, but this one is A Christmas Carol, a story whose ghostly chill unfolds as if for the first time before our very eyes, countered by the reviving warmth of mulled wine (non-alcoholic, dear readers) part way through perambulations around the Market Place.

In the manner of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Richards will shape-shift between two distinct characters, but without reaching for the mind-altering medication, of course.

His Dickens is upright, loquacious, gregarious company, as he leads the way from shop to street to assorted empty premises. He even stops the two charity collectors (Beth Wright and Daisy Conlan) mid-sentence to re-write, improve, their words in an amusing interjection typical of Klimaszewska’s love of detail in the storytelling.

Later, Dickens will explain why he made the Ghost of Christmas Past a child (played by Team B’s blue-lit Ada Kirk last night in a role shared with Team A’s India Duffy).

Richards’ Scrooge is pinched of facial disposition, mannerism and vocal inflection, his demeanour stooped, his mien bleak midwinter bitter, sending away carol singers gathered outside Kemps.

Downey, meanwhile, is kept busy as Smithson; long-suffering but never-complaining office clerk Bob Cratchit; party host Fezziwig and the chain-clad spectre of former business Jacob Marley, dead these past seven years.

Roxanna Klimaszewska: Creative director of Be Amazing Arts

Marley is introduced in Klimaszewska’s adaptation as the face in the door knocker of what used to be the Green Man Inn. Once inside, the promenaders line the walls in the cold blue light as the chains rattle to herald the arrival of Downey’s Marley.

Children, selected from auditions but many associated already with Be Amazing Arts’ site-specific shows, accompany Marley’s words of foreboding with ghostly voices, then crawl across the floor on their knees in veils. Such haunting imagery will linger long in the memory.

Children are vital to this production, whether popping up in street cameos, serving drinks, or playing Cratchit’s children as the audience nibbles away at a platter of pies and cheese on a stick and sips a soupcon of soup at The Cook’s Place cookery school in Market Street.

Charlotte Wood, a familiar face from the York theatre circuit, makes her mark too, bursting into life in the welcome at Kemps, then delivering her stern Ghost of Christmas Present and feisty Mrs Cratchit.

From an empty shop to an opened upstairs window, Be Amazing Arts uses the street furniture of Malton to maximum impact, not least outside St Michael’s Church, where Tiny Tim and Scrooge’s gravestones of the imminent future are lit up: hazard warning lights, you could say.

All the while, the hooded, towering Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come hovers, disturbingly deathly and deadly silent, as the tick-tock of time signifies the rising urgency of Scrooge’s race against time to change from dark dyspepsia to enlightened benefactor by Christmas Day morning.

Klimaszewska rightly draws attention to Dickens’s symbolic children by the names of Ignorance and Want, resonating anew in our age of social ills, strikers’ dissent but shameful indifference from the suits, rising destitution and fathomless wealth, life-threatening health service waiting lists and cost-of-living despair.

The ending, as Dickens takes over once more from Scrooge at the Cratchits’ Christmas table, elicits a call for compassion and social responsibility: a sobering conclusion to a night of bracing, haunting, uplifting yet chilling theatre, at once moving and forever on the move, mince pie final boost et al.  

Be Amazing Arts in A Christmas Carol, Malton Market Place, December 21 and 23, 7pm; December 24, 5pm; all sold out. Box office to check last-minute ticket availability: 01653 917271 or beamazingarts.co.uk.

Darkness before the light: The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come arrives at the door with a nocturnal mission to be completed

Cast list for the night attended by CharlesHutchPress

Quinn Richards: Charles Dickens/Ebenezer Scrooge

Jack Downey:  Smithson/Bob Cratchit/Jacob Marley/Fezziwig

Charlotte Wood:  Mrs Cratchit/Ghost of Christmas Present

Noah Ashton:  Fred/Young Scrooge

Annie Dunbar: Belle

Jess Middlewood:  Belle’s Sister/Clara (role shared with Kathryn Thompson)

Dom Walker, Gentleman 2/Pawn Broker/Peter Cratchit

Beth Wright, Charity Collector 1; Daisy Conlan, Charity Collector 2

Amalie Waite: Woman 1/Belinda Cratchit/Gentleman 1 (role shared with Emily Brooksby)

Kelly Appleby: Woman 2/Martha Cratchit/Wife

Ada Kirk:  Ghost of Christmas Past (role shared with India Duffy)

Edward: Husband/Suit 3

Daisy May Davies, Matilda Grimmond and Celia Brass are sharing performances as Fanny/Belle’s Child/Want; Reuben Baines and Stan Richardson as Young Cratchit/Boy/Beggar/Carol Singer; Teddy Alexander and Jeremy Walker, Tiny Tim, and Isla Norry and Angelica O’Dwyer, Belle’s Child/Ignorance.

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Yorkshire Trios confirmed for Next Door But One’s theatrical showcase at York Theatre Royal Studio next March. Who’s taking part?

In the line-up for Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios in the York Theatre Royal Studio next March: top row, Sarah Rumfitt, left, Kate Bramley, Connie Peel and Nicola Holliday; second row, Jules Risingham, Tempest Wisdom and Bailey Dowler; third row, Yixia Jiang, Jacob Ward and Claire Morley; bottom row, Paul Birch, Harri Marshall and Livy Potter

AFTER receiving more than four times as many applications as commissions available, York theatre company Next Door But One has assembled the next band of Yorkshire Trios – and a quartet – for March 2024.

“That many applicants is a sign of a few things,” says chief executive officer and artistic director Matt Harper-Hardcastle. “Just the sheer amount of talent that is within the local area; that there’s still a need after Covid for local creatives to be supported to get their own work out there, and hopefully that we as a company are seen as approachable and that people want to connect with us.”

Through a series of micro-commissions, York actors, writers and directors are being supported by NDB1 to produce original, short pieces of theatre that celebrate their individual skill and creativity.

“The brief is to create a five to 15-minute solo performance that in some way responds to the overall theme of ‘Top of the Hill’, so this is already resulting in stories of motherhood, grief, love, war and even Kate Bush!” says Matt.

“The writers are working on their second draft after receiving dramaturgical support from our team, and then rehearsals will begin in the early new year.”

The artists taking part will be Sarah Rumfitt, Kate Bramley, Connie Peel, Nicola Holliday, Jules Risingham, Tempest Wisdom, Bailey Dowler, Yixia Jiang, Jacob Ward, Claire Morley, Paul Birch, Harri Marshall and Livy Potter.

“This version is really building on everything that we learned and achieved from the first time around,” says Next Door But One artistic director Matthew Harper-Hardcastle

They will be working towards a showcase of original performances at York Theatre Royal next March, with more details on performance dates and how to book tickets to be released in the new year.

NDB1’s inaugural 2021 showcase of Yorkshire Trios in the garden performance space of The Gillygate pub marked the first live show in York after the lifting of Covid restrictions.

“At the time, many local performing arts professionals were feeling disconnected from their artistry and were extremely anxious about the future of their careers,” recalls Matt.

“So we listened to their concerns and created a series of micro-commissions to form new collaborative trios of an actor, writer and director, from which original work could be produced.”

One 2021 creative described Yorkshire Trios as “a total lifeline; a lighthouse in a stormy sea”. “Since then, Next Door But One has supported a further 44 creatives with mentoring in such areas as job applications and funding bid writing,” says Matt.

Yixia Jiang: Writing Love Letters Before Dawn for Yorkshire Trios

“We’ve always wanted to be an approachable company where creatives can hang their hat. We really believe in investing in the York cultural ecology, so this new iteration of Yorkshire Trios sits alongside our professional development programme, Opening Doors, and our Company Coaching provision.

“That provision is giving quarterly business and peer mentoring to five arts-based companies, Thunk-It Theatre, Story Craft Theatre, Terpsichoring dance company, Moon Dust and CoCreate, each with a different focus and at different stages of their development.”

Looking forward to next March’s showcase, NDB1 associate director Kate Veysey says: “It was really encouraging and humbling to read people’s honest reflections on what Yorkshire Trios could do for them within the application process.

“Some who had never been able to showcase their work in their hometown, others who had faced challenges in creating a professional network or establishing their careers on their own terms, and others who really respected our work and wanted to align their practice with our values. We feel really confident in being able to offer solutions to these points through this project.”

Emerging writer Yixia Jiang’s play Love Letters Before Dawn will be performed by Claire Morley, directed by Jacob Ward. “Working with this group of amazing people in York gives me a chance to take a glance into the local theatre industry and help establish myself as a playwright here,” he says.

Bailey Dowler: Performing Jules Risingham’s Anorak

York actor Bailey Dowler will perform Jules Risingham’s Anorak under the direction of Tempest Wisdom. “I wanted to get involved with Yorkshire Trios because there’s a lot of local talent in York and this is a perfect opportunity to widen my creative circle,” says Bailey.

“I cannot wait to work so closely with a writer and director. It’s such a rarity to have a one-to-one experience in the rehearsal room and so I’m excited to collaborate together, creating beautiful theatre, fuelled with passion.

“Next Door But One has a fantastic support system and I’m looking forward to being mentored and learning more about the process of creating a play, from outside the eyes of an actor.”

Fellow actor Nicola Holliday will present Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast, directed by Kate Bramley, artistic director of Badapple Theatre Company, and Connie Peel. “Having heard from friends what an incredible and inclusive company NDB1 was to work with, I was eager for the opportunity and chuffed to bits to be cast in Yorkshire Trios,” says Nicola.

“As an autistic, full-time working parent, finding flexible inclusive work can be a challenge and being welcomed with open arms, kindness and understanding by the whole NDB1 team has been lovely.

Nicola Holliday: Performer for Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast

“Meeting my Yorkshire quartet, such a talented creative and passionate bunch of local folks, I cannot wait to see our piece grow and develop, to be really challenged as an actor and to make some more meaningful connections here in York.”

Writer Sarah Rumfitt says: “Yorkshire Trios has given me an opportunity to explore my own voice within writing, something I have had little time for since becoming a mum.

“Being a creative is incredibly rewarding but also at times lonely. After an initial meeting with NDB1 and the other trios, I already feel more connected and part of an exciting community of Yorkshire-based creatives.”

Co-director Kate Bramley adds: “I’m really delighted to be working with Next Door But One on a brand new short play and mentoring another young director to boot, which makes us a unique four-person ‘trio’! I’ll be very excited to get started in the New Year.”

The fourth Yorkshire Trio comprises writer Paul Birch, actor Livy Potter and director Harri Marshall, combining on Running Up That Hill, the Kate Bush one.

Now that all the Yorkshire Trios have been introduced to one another, they can start creating performances that “really reflect who they are”. “We’ve provided the stimuli of ‘Top of The Hill’,” says NDB1 creative engagement manager El Stannage. “Not only because it then provides an overall theme to the final performances, but also because it brings a bit of the NDB1 ethos into the process.

Writer Sarah Rumfitt: Toast pops up at Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios showcase

“As a team, we often talk about what it’s like for us at the ‘top of the hill’; what it looks like when we are at our best, and that’s really what we want to instil in our trios. We want to celebrate each of them and applaud the incredible talent in our area.”

Highlighting how the 2024 Yorkshire Trios will differ from 2021, Matt says: “This version is really building on everything that we learned and achieved from the first time around.

“We’ve scheduled our Opening Doors programme to run alongside Yorkshire Trios this year, so we can offer development workshops for all the actors, writers and directors. We’ve included additional mentoring or adapted roles to suit the desired outcomes of certain creatives.

“The showcase of work will be performed in the York Theatre Royal Studio so we’ll be able to include more aesthetic decisions. And finally, we’ve reduced the number of commissions this time around so that we can increase the commission sum so that it’s more reflective of the work and energy each creative puts into it.”

Matt is delighted that the chosen artists are so diverse in representing York’s arts community in 2024. “As a company we really lead with who we are, and as an LGBTQ+ and disability-led company, we call to others who want to do the same, or want to be in those same spaces,” he says.

“Then the more that happens, the more others see themselves represented in both the industry and on stage, which then calls to more people, and so the process continues. So, it was really important to us that we had a real diversity across our trios, both in terms of identity and also experiences/stages in their career.”

The 2024 Yorkshire Trios – and a quartet

Kate Bramley: Co-directing Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast

Toast by Sarah Rumfitt

Performed by Nicola Holliday and directed by Kate Bramley and Connie Peel

AFTER giving birth, the midwife brings you toast; simple, medium cut, white Hovis that’s done a quick dip in the toaster, barely browned, overly buttered but the best thing Becky’s ever tasted. If only she knew what was coming…she’d have asked for the full loaf. Following a year-long struggle with post-natal depression, Becky and her son set off on their first walk together; they are going to the top of the hill; a place Becky would often walk alone before becoming “Mum”.

Livy Potter: Performing Paul Birch’s Running Up That Hill

Running Up That Hill by Paul Birch

Performed by Livy Potter and directed by Harri Marshall

ALEX is lost. Alex hates running but loves Kate Bush. They know all the facts about Kate Bush. Kate Bush drinks milk before recording and knows Lenny Henry. Alex is

running and Kate’s voice seems to help. Hill running is the worst and one (bastard) hill has them (almost) beat. This is the story of what Alex is running from and what they are running towards.

Prison is behind them as is their escape from a controlling relationship. Running up that hill is presently painful but it’s a different kind of pain from the past; besides, running up that hill might finally give Alex a clear view…

Harri Marshall: Directing Running Up That Hill

Love Letters Before Dawn by Yixia Jiang

Performed by Claire Morley and directed by Jacob Ward

A SOLDIER has been defending a battlefield from a hill for the past 100 days. Today he has given up on all chances to defend this place. All hopes seem lost.

However, the soldier keeps hold of his bravery and pride by remembering his fallen commander’s words: “We don’t persist because there is hope. It’s because of persisting, there shall be hope.”

Jacob Ward: Directing Yixia Jiang’s Love Letters Before Dawn

Anorak by Jules Risingham

Performed by Bailey Dowler and directed by Tempest Wisdom

THOMAS (no relation to The Tank Engine) loves trains. His whole life has been spent chasing trains, and always chasing after him was his partner, Charlie. Charlie did not like trains but loved Thomas. Thomas sits alone in his camping chair, on the top of his and Charlie’s favourite hill, looking down on the valley below, waiting for a train to pass that never seems to arrive.

With little to write about in his journal, he spends this time reflecting on his life with Charlie – and working out how to overcome his newfound grief. Thomas achieves a new understanding of grief, and how to keep living in the absence of our loved ones.

Jules Risingham: Writer of Anorak
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More Things To Do in York and beyond, deep amid the Christmas show-storm. Hutch’s List No. 51, from The Press

The York Waits: In Dulci Jubilo at the double in Beverley and York this weekend

CHRISTMAS, Christmas and more Christmas events stop Charles Hutchinson from staying by a winter fire as writing cards must wait.

Christmas collaboration of the week: The York Waits & Ebor Singers, In Dulci Jubilo, St Mary’s Church, Beverley, today, 12 noon; St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

SEASONAL music from Renaissance Europe for choir and period instruments, celebrating the Christmas story in the grand works of Michael Praetoius, Schutz, Eccard, Lassus and William Byrd.

Twenty voices of the Ebor Singers combine with the sackbuts, curtals, recorders, flutes and violin of The York Waits. Additional religious and secular instrumental items will afeature the Waits’ Noyse of Shawms, crumhorns, bagpipes and hurdy gurdy. Box office: ncem.ticketsolve.com.

100 snowmen – count them! – created by Slingsby Primary School pupils for the Oak Bedroom at Nunnington Hall

Last chance to see: Christmas Through The Ages, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, today and tomorrow, 10.30am to 4pm; last entry at 3.15pm

NUNNINGTON Hall plays host to Christmases past on a Yuletide journey through the ages, immersed in the rich tapestry of festive traditions. Step into the opulence of the Georgian era, savour the splendour of the Victorian golden age, see a Tudor feast fit for a king, or relive the exuberant 1980s’ parties. Tomorrow, carol-singing sessions start at 12 noon and 2pm.

Younger visitors can discover a riddle trail in the garden and a new 1940s’ display in the West Bedroom details the story of a rationed Christmas. Slingsby Primary School has created a winter wonderland of 100 snowmen in the Oak Bedroom. Normal admission applies. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.

Richard Kay: Perfoming at Showtime With Don Pears At Christmas

Pears, but no partridge, for Christmas: Showtime With Don Pears At Christmas, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow , 7pm

NOW a JoRo Christmas tradition, legendary York musician Don Pears performs an evening full of cheer in his Christmas Showtime Concert. Celebrating 30 years of making music and fundraising for the Haxby Road theatre, Pears will be joined by regular cohorts Arnold Durham, Graham and Richard Kay, John Hall, Steve Cassidy, Carol Richardson and Beth Winteringham.

York choir Singphonia make a guest appearance, along with The Tuesday Singers and York Ladies. Sweet Caroline, Memory and You Raise Me Up join multiple festive favourites on the set list. Meanwhile, Shepherd Group Brass Band’s 7.30pm concerts on December 22 and 23 have sold out. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Two shows in one day for Steve Cassidy: Performing at both York’s Annual Christmas Carol Concert at York Barbican and Showtime With Don Pears At Christmas at Joseph Rowntree Theatre tomorrow

Long-running festive fixture: York’s Annual Community Carol Concert, York Barbican, tomorrow (17/12/2023), 2pm

FOR 65 years, this concert has heralded York’s festive season with favourite Christmas carols and songs. Join Shepherd Group Youth Band, Badger Hill School Choir, Track 29 Ladies Harmony Chorus, York Stage School and Steve Cassidy for a Christmas singalong under the baton of musical director Mike Pratt.

Community Carol Concert favourites Adam Tomlinson and Rev Andrew Foster return as hosts. Proceeds go to the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of York’s Christmas Cheer Fund and The Press’s nominated charity. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk

The Howl & The Hum: Last hurrah for the York band’s original line-up in three-night Christmas run at The Crescent

Ho-ho homecoming for Christmas of the week: The Howl & The Hum, supported by Fiona Lee, tomorrow, Before Breakfast, Monday, and Bar Pandora, Tuesday, The Crescent, York. Doors: 7.30pm. Stage times: support acts, 8.15pm; headliners, 9.15pm

YORK’S supreme swoony rockers return to The Crescent for three festive shows with the original line-up of Sam Griffiths, vocals and guitar, Bradley Blackwell, bass, Conor Hirons, guitar, and Jack Williams, drums, who play together for the last time.

“The Howl & The Hum are a band who we grew up with; their shows here at The Crescent have always been special since our – and their – early days through to the way-pro Christmas gigs they’ve played here more recently,” says the website. “Cheers guys, look forward to what is next!”. Sold out, alas. For returns only: thecrescent.co.uk.

Green Matthews: Returning to the NCEM for A Christmas Carol In Concert on Tuesday night

Dickens of a good idea for a Christmas folk concert: Green Matthews: A Christmas Carol In Concert, National Centre for Early Music, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm

CHRIS Green and Sophie Matthews are joined by Jude Rees for a retelling of Charles Dickens’s redemptive Christmas tale exclusively through song with voices and traditional and modern instruments in authentic musical arrangements.

Modern-day balladeers Green Matthews take this nocturnal festive adventure back to its Victorian fireside roots with a magical blend of new lyrics, midwinter English folk tunes and carol melodies to illustrate the transformation of flint-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge into the epitome of the Christmas spirit:  warm hearted, generous and loving. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

The Carpenters Story At Christmas at York Barbican

Tribute show of the week: The Carpenters Story At Christmas, York Barbican, Tuesday, 7.30pm

IN this special festive show, Carpenters’ classics such as Top Of The World, Close To You and We’ve Only Just Begun are paired with festive selections from Richard and Karen Carpenter’s  1978 album Christmas Portrait, from Merry Christmas Darling to The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire). Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jools Holland: Back at York Barbican for his traditional winter appearance on Wednesday

Recommended but sold out already: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

BOOGIE-WOOGIE piano maestro Jools Holland and his big band will be joined by special guests Pauline Black and Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrick, from The Selecter. “This magnificent addition will amplify our Ska music credentials and bring an extra razzy dazzy spasm to our dance capabilities,” reckons Jools.

Boogie queen and enchantress Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall will be singing too, as will Sumudu Jayatilaka, who joined Jools for the first time in 2022.

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REVIEW: Berwick Kaler in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse, Grand Opera House, York, until January 6 2024 ***

Ape japes: Berwick Kaler’s dame Dotty Dullally and a banana-thieving simian interloper in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick

BRITAIN’S longest-running pantomime dame, Berwick Kaler, had never done Robinson Crusoe until now – and he still hasn’t. Or not Daniel Defoe’s 1719 story of York-born Crusoe being cast away on a Caribbean island for 26 years.

Slave Man Friday has gone altogether, understandably in our slavery-sensitive corrective age, and Crusoe himself doesn’t make an appearance until post-interval, and a brief cameo at that for Jake Lindsay, otherwise busy in the piratical ensemble and as the perennial butt of Dame Berwick’s career advice about jacking in the stage for painting and decorating.

Crusoe does, however, feature in the first half’s back story, once York pantoland’s Infamous Five have reassembled once more after Kaler’s voiceover welcome to “sit back and enjoy the rubbish” and an opening number for ensemble Villagers and children from Dance Expression School of Dance (sharing performance with Lisa Marie Performing Arts through the weeks ahead).

Britannia rules the waves: Suzy Cooper’s fairy in Robsinson Crusoe &The Pirates Of The River Ouse

Here comes Martin Barrass’s skipping sidekick, Willy Dullaly this year, as we learn that the dame is running late, “still writing the script”, he conjectures. Cue Berwick on film, in bed at home with his dogs, as he makes a dash in polka-dotted Dotty Dullaly regalia from Acomb to box-office door via York streets and an encounter with nefarious characters at York Dungeon, looking more spooked than the dowager dame.

All the while, he is singing his variation on The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), sending up his veteran age:  77 this year, having first brought a punk spirit of rebellion to York Theatre Royal’s pantomime in 1977, the year of The Sex Pistols and The Clash.

Robinson Crusoe is writer/director/dame Kaler’s 43rd York pantomime and this third since his Sol Campbell-style crosstown transfer to the Grand Opera House after regretting his decision to retire after 40 years.

Narcissus waives the rules: David Leonard’s villain plotting world domination once more

His audience, the pointedly named York Pantomine (Berwick Kaler) Appreciation Society et al, have moved with him and he still gives them what they want, only less of it, whether in performance length, well below the two-hour mark this time, or the number of scenes with the dame to the fore.

Kaler makes a play of ageing, albeit insistent that he feels fit, but thinner of leg, body and facial feature now, he is pacing himself. That said, who else would be flying across a stage at 77, or wrapping his feet around a high wire in a slapstick scene – or tap-face scene, more accurately – with the ever-compliant Barrass?

Like his well-worn wig, the show’s structure could not be more familiar, Kaler having a gossip with ensemble faces old and new (decade-long regular Lindsay, on the one hand; York-born Henry Rhodes, among the latter, appearing for the first time since his days as a bairn in Kaler’s Theatre Royal ranks).

AJ Powell’s Lovely Jubbly, back row, centre, with the piratical ensemble of Belle Kizzy Green, Jake Lindsay, Grace Hawksworth, Benjamin Goodwin and Henry Rhodes

Later will come the dame’s rocking chair reminiscence in Willy’s Kitchen, the cue for a powder-puff slapstick routine with Barrass, and the second half staples of a ghost scene (or in this case a banana-thieving ape) and the obligatory sing-song (the Yorkshire Pudding “Better Bit Of Batter” song).

Ad-libs remain his forte, his teasing trademark, but the near-the-knuckle gags are beginning to rival those cracks, at least three in this panto, the first leaving the villain open mouthed. Even windy bottom gags, not a Kaler staple but loved by children, become a running joke.

Suzy Cooper is Polly Dullaly, 18-year-old sister to Barrass’s 16-year-old Willy, and this year she is Cooper at the double, speeding off at one point for the villain to orchestrate a Countdown-tuned costume change to Fairy Britannia, or Britney, as she is quickly renamed.

Belle Kizzy Green in one of the Villagers’ dance routines in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The Caribbean

Dame Dotty has news for Willy and Polly: they have a stepbrother, Robinson, from her previous marriage to a Mr Crusoe. She should have gone to the Caribbean with them, but illness stopped her  travelling, never to see Robinson again. She has since lost two husbands: to lose one husband, Dotty, may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose both looks like the need to explain why she is a widow twice over.

AJ Powell will be Lovely Jubbly this time, a Brummie with a crush on Cooper’s Polly, and soon to be in service as Captain’s mate to David Leonard’s Narcissus. Their opening routine takes a godsend of an unexpected turn when Leonard’s moustache starts to detach, so much so that by the end that he removes it. Leonard is a master of such comedy opportunism, but he is somewhat under-used this year when Kaler’s panto now needs him to lift a heavier load.

Leonard’s Narcissus has the vainglorious villain’s usual plans for overthrowing the world order, this time one half of an amulet to complete a key to unlock a Book of Spells from the Tomb of Destiny. Guess who has the matching half? Lindsay’s shipwrecked Robinson on Destiny Island, even later to arrive on stage than Kaler’s dame at the start.

Martin Barrass’s Willy Dullaly

UK Productions’ sets and costumes are serviceable rather than spectacular, save for the entrance to the Tomb Of Destiny and walkdown finale. For all the potential for nautical nuttiness and the River Ouse reference in the title, the peak-era Kaler double whammy of water slapstick and ultraviolet underwater scenes make way for a first-half closing video projection of sea creatures and shark attack. Not the transformation magic you might crave.

Songs move swiftly under Richard Baker’s musical direction, cutting verses from Walking On Sunshine and giving Cooper only a taster of Kylie/Edith Piaf’s Padam Padam in the desire to keep the pace up. Kirsty Sparks’s choreography lives up to her surname.

Robinson Crusoe won’t surprise, although it might occasionally shock with Kaler’s innocent-faced sauciness, and while it will not attract new Kaler converts, if you like greatest hits shows, this one with a nod to Sinbad The Sailor and Aladdin, then this is still “the rubbish” for you, albeit fewer of you on the evidence of ticket sales so far.

Box office: atgtickets.com/york

Berwick Kaler’s Dotty Dullaly with the Yorkshire Pudding songsheet
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REVIEW: The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas, Pocklington Arts Centre, in ‘elfomatic motion’ until Saturday ***

Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, front left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave feeling the full force of “Elfomatic Motion” in Pocklington Arts Centre’s The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas. Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography

THE day before had been the Relaxed performance, watched by 130 people, appreciating Pocklington Arts Centre’s all-embracing community consideration in providing such a no-bounds show.

Attended by CharlesHutchPress, Tuesday’s matinee drew a smaller attendance, concentrated towards the front, with a couple of raucous young gents leading the laughter enthusiastically further back.

Such are the differing challenges that face a cast, in this case a young company featuring Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts graduate Matheea Ellerby in her professional debut alongside 2023 Hammond School musical theatre performance graduate and fellow Godber Theatre Foundation member Jade Farnill.

National Elf Service, Pocklington Division: Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave. Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography

Joining them is the more experienced Dylan Allcock, regular contributor to the world’s longest- running comedy sketch show, NewsRevue, and in-house composer for the comedy improv troupe The Noise Next Door.

He collaborates frequently with writer Elizabeth Godber and the John Godber Company, latterly serving as musical director for Elizabeth’s 2023 premiere of The Remarkable Tale of Dorothy Mackaill at East Riding Theatre, Beverley.

Produced by venue director Angela Stone, this Christmas show, the first in-house production in Pocklington Arts Centre’s 23-year history, has the Godbers of East Yorkshire at its core: Elizabeth as writer and her mother, the actress, playwright, director, drama teacher and youth theatre leader Jane Thornton, on playful directorial duty.

Writer Elizabeth Godber

In keeping with John Godber’s plays and productions, Elizabeth and Jane have their actors breaking down theatre’s fourth wall from the off, introducing the elves who work on Santa’s shelves for the National Elf Service, Pocklington Division.

Meet Ellerby’s Sparkle and Farnill’s Jingle, with their East Yorkshire vowels, and Lancashire interloper Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave, with his Accrington burr and additional credit as keyboard-playing musical director and composer. Teamwork and bags of individual personality pepper their performances.

Survey Rick Kay’s set design, crammed with wooden panels, frost-dusted tree branches, propped-up skis, ladder, candy canes, boxes, battered armchair, patchwork quilt and Christmas stockings, plus Allcock’s keyboard, and everything is there for theatre of the imagination to take off.

What’s inside the box: Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave discover the elves’ Christmas presents. Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography

What’s that flashing away at the back?  “It’s an EPS” explains the trio in red & green and trainers. “The Elf Positioning System”. This alarm device will help them carry out their tasks before Christmas Eve turns into Christmas Day in a race against time to help the shoemaker and Santa complete Christmas orders.

Their tasks? They include perking up a Christmas tree and its moody fairy (played delightfully glumly by Ellerby) and helping a girl (Farnill) whose nights are made sleepless by the bumps in her mattress (you will love the explanation). Then coaxing the runaway Gingerbread Man (Allcock in a gingerbread Santa’s hat, courtesy of costume artist Kate Noble) to return to work in a overrun bakery in York.

“GBread”, as he calls himself on social media, has ambitions to be a pop star on East Yorkshire’s Got Talent. Cue Allcock in Elton John glasses knocking out a rather fine song with aplomb.

Jane Thornton: director

The elves propel themselves from task to task, destination to destination, with the aid of Elfomatic Motion: the chance to turn boxes and skis into hair-raising modes of transportation that go down equally well with energetic cast and enthusiastic audience.

The skis, for example, are accompanied by the Ski Sunday theme in the eye of a storm as they confront the Snow Queen with her climate change plans to freeze everywhere from Hull to Howden to Pocklington.

How will the titular but so-far absent Shoemaker, as well as the elves, save Christmas? You will have to see the show to find out, but Elizabeth Godber’s comment on the potentially damaging impact of new technology is a chip off playwright father John’s political block, another tool to writing characterised by impish humour, fun, magic, mystery and a dash of pathos.

Christmas chestnuts such as Jingle Bells and Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree add to the festive cheer, topped off by a singalong rendition of  Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday beneath a spinning mirror ball.

Christmas 2023 saved, another in-house festive family show surely will follow next winter as Angela Stone continues to put her stamp on Pocklington Arts Centre in the post-Janet Farmer era.

Performances: December 14, 7.30pm; December 15 and 16, 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

IN FOCUS: Pocklington Arts Centre’s auditorium improvements from Feb 2024

Pocklington Arts Centre’s auditorium: Upgrades incoming

POCKLINGTON Arts Centre is to receive funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to make significant accessibility improvements to the auditorium.

The Government’s Levelling Up funding for PAC will include an upgrade to the existing seating, with a new demountable seating system to be installed that will increase comfort for visitors and be flexible to meet demand for different types of performance.

In addition, access to wheelchair users and those with mobility limitations will be improved and handrails will be installed to offer better support when using the stairs to move around the auditorium.
 
The seating configuration will remain unchanged, enabling regular visitors to continue to  book their favourite seat position, but the scheme also allows for improved usage of the back row area to accommodate up to four wheelchairs with designated companion spaces.

The auditorium design – a former cinema – has been challenging to be inclusive for wheelchair users and those with mobility restrictions to perform on stage, but the new plans include the installation of a stair-lift to the backstage area to make accessibility much more adaptable. This is likely to be complete by mid-2024. 



Pocklington Arts Centre’s Forgotten Voices community choir member Lynn Drury has felt
frustrated at being unable to access the stage easily as a performer alongside her fellow singers.

“I have been campaigning for accessibility improvements to make the performance area more inclusive for those of us who are restricted in getting to the stage due to every direction being reliant on stairs to get on and off,” she says.

“On a good day, I can be assisted, but on a bad day the extra physical effort required can leave me in pain for days. I am so looking forward to these improvements and know that many people in my position will benefit from this.” 

PAC director Angela Stone says: “We are grateful to East Riding of Yorkshire Council, who administer the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, for recognising the significant impact this project will have on our community and our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility.

“20 per cent match funding has been allocated from our reserve funds as a contribution to the overall scheme of works, which will include the replacement of carpeting, decoration and the installation of LED house lights to improve energy efficiency and light quality.”

Pocklington Arts Centre’s stage: Accessibility improvements to be installed

Pocklington Town Council Mayor, Councillor Roly Cronshaw, says: “We support these improvements and look forward to seeing the results when the full scheme concludes by mid-2024.

“A lot of work has already been done to ensure a thorough procurement process and we are very grateful to Councillor Sue Carden, a retired quantity surveyor, for her significant contribution to the management of the project”.

The majority of the building work will begin in January 2024, with preparations for the work scheduled from Monday, December 18. 

“Pocklington Arts Centre staff and volunteers recognise the positive impact these changes will have on the visitor experience, but also wish to respect the heritage of the existing seating,” says Angela.

“A bank of three seats will be retained and, where possible, other seats may be re-utilised elsewhere. It is anticipated that there may be around 180 seats available for collectors to purchase by donation. Anyone interested should contact boxoffice@pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

“Any funds received through the sale or auction of these seats will be reinvested in the arts centre for ongoing maintenance and improvements.” 

A number of seat plaques will be retained and a campaign to “sponsor a seat” is being launched today (15/12/2023), offering patrons the opportunity to have their name fixed to the seat for the planned unveiling during next February.  

Pocklington Arts Centre will be closed to the public from Thursday, December 21. The community café will reopen from Tuesday, January 9 and Singing for Fun from Thursday, January 11 in the studio space, which will remain accessible during the works.

PAC’s other community groups will meet in the Studio during this time and new members will be welcomed to: Forgotten Voices on Tuesdays, from 7pm to 8.45pm, from January 9, Wolds Wonders on Wednesdays, 10am to 3pm, from January 10, and Thunk-It Youth Theatre on Wednesdays, 4.30pm to 5.30pm, age six to 11, and 5.30pm to 6.30pm, age 11+, from January 10. Pre-booking is required on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The first live public performance in the revamped auditorium will be Top Secret: The Magic Of Science on Saturday, February 10 at 2.30pm.  




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REVIEW: Jack And The Beanstalk, York Theatre Royal, until January 7 2024

Can you teach an old dame new tricks? Ask Zeus the border collie, working in tandem with Robin Simpson’s lead actor (ho ho), Dame Trott, in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. All pictures: S R Taylor Photography

YORK Theatre Royal’s pantomime partnership with Evolution Productions is one of gradual evolution, rather than revolution.

A first year under Covid social distancing in 2020 had daft sausage Josh Benson, fellow York actor Anna Soden’s Fairy and Robin Simpson’s dame leading the Travelling Pantomime cast to community centres and village halls and laid the foundations for the fruitful axis of Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution writer-producer Paul Hendy.

It is to be dearly hoped magician Benson’s time will come again in a York panto – you will have to head to Darlington Hippodrome to see his Muddles in Snow White this winter – but Forster and Hendy are in tandem once more and Simpson’s dame has become the Theatre Royal panto’s affable, quick-thinking, fleet-footed fulcrum, already signed up for Aladdin next winter.

Mia Overfield’s Jack with the giant Blunderbore…or Boris for short in Jack And The Beanstalk

Very welcome too is Strawberry Lion theatre-maker Soden’s first Theatre Royal panto appearance since those 2020 travels, cast as – pull the udder one – the groundbreaking character of Dave the Talking Cow, male by name, but very definitely female and a triple threat to boot as feisty bovine performer/hoofer, fabulous singer and trumpet player in the Walking On Sunshine finale.

Her startling version of I’m Just Dave, borrowed from this year’s biggest, pinkest movie, Barbie’s I’m Just Ken, is typical of the topical cultural antennae under Forster-Hendy’s control.

But let’s go back to the beginning, the only slow section of a show whose momentum builds and builds. Artichoke wand in hand, Nina Wadia’s cajoling Fairy Sugarsnap opens the curtain to a stage empty but for two tech team staff removing equipment. That’s novel! 

Wanderful: Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap

Commanding scenery to appear, with the powers of a Prospero, she introduces the audience to the wonders of pantomime, character by character, in the setting of Giggleswick, a funny name that does what it says on the tin: make you giggle, like Wadia herself.

For first timers, reflecting the new, younger age of the Theatre Royal pantomime post-Berwick Kaler, this is a gentle stepping stone, if a little laboured for the serial panto-goer. Plot is somewhat put on hold, but then it is little more than bean there, done that anyway, and enjoyment rises quickly.

Especially once James “Raven” Mackenzie’s blackbearded Scottish baddie Luke Backinanger (cue an Oasis lyric gag later on), Soden’s loquacious Friesian and Simpson’s Dame Trott make their entries. The latter attired in a fortified Clifford’s Tower dress beneath a balloon headgear, the first in a fashion parade of fabulous, off-the-wall dame costumes by Michael J Batchelor and Hazel Fall (complemented throughout by Ella Neal and Amy Chamberlain’s cast costumes and Helga Wood and Michelle Marden’s sets, especially for Cloudland). 

CBeebies star James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger leading a zombie dance with the ensemble

Former chief executive Tom Bird was loathe to build up too many returnees after the years of Dame Berwick’s Infamous Five, but continuity combined with innovation is the way forward. Simpson’s knowing, ever game dame, so appealing to children and adults alike, is the key, here playing with a new toy, the Drone of Love, a piece of camera kit that lets Simpson home in on men in the audience as the same’s potential new beau/victim for the rest of the show.

This is the moment of lift-off for Jack And The Beanstalk, rather more than the misbehaving beanstalk-inflating transformation scene that has Simpson ad-libbing deliciously in surprise.

All the while Mia Overfield’s Jack – short for Jacqueline – Trott and her daft brother Billy (Matthew Curnier) grow into their roles, especially once Overfield moves more to the fore as the story demands and Curnier inserts himself in a bouncing ball (ostensibly a giant tomato), only his head sticking out, and somehow changes costume (in a new development on debuting this physical comedy last winter).

Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott, in the Clifford’s Tower frock designed by Hazel Fall, with Matthew Curnier’s Billy Trott, left, Mia Overfield’s Jack Trott and the ensemble

Continuity? The return of the Trolley of Puns, turning pantomime into puntomime, this time on the theme of dog breeds on picture boards, that is all the better for a Simpson slip-up. The inevitable ghost scene, but with a new finale, typical of Forster’s determination never to settle for the conventional.

Look out, here come the perennial digs at “desolate, desperate, depressed” Hull; political putdowns aplenty, for Braverman and Sunak, and Blunderbore the giant being re-named Boris, while Wadia adlibs a Cop28 quip when fluffing a line.

Then add Hayley Del Harrison’s choreography, as joyous for the ensemble of Villagers and Zombies as it is for the lead shakers and moovers (in the case of Dave the Talking Cow). On song too is Robert Louden’s musical direction, playful (listen out for the entry for EastEnders star Wadia), vibrant and varied, topped off by Mackenzie and Soden duetting on trumpet at the close.

All the right mooves: Anna Soden hoofing it as Dave the Talking Cow

Innovations? Dame Berwick introduced film to pantomime, and now Juliet Forster reinvigorates it with the aid of Ed Sunman’s video production wizardry, peaking with a send-up of boy band tropes (Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger is so called after being turned down for a boy band  in younger days). By this point, Jack And The Beanstalk has become by far the best of the Evolution shows so far.

Luke Backinanger’s weather-making machine – for his plans for world domination via climate change – lends itself to revamping the dame’s water slapstick scene. Long may it rain, unexpected final flourish et al.

The surprises and delights keep coming, from the Giant being joined by a grumpy teenage son, Darren (who “hates sleeping”), to Simpson’s costume as a piano-playing Elton John, so clever that it requires a double-take before another fiesta of song title puns.

Giant steps are what you take: James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger and Anna Soden’s Dave the Talking Cow with Blunderbore and grouchy teenage son Darren

One more talking point: Dave the Talking Cow is not the only animal to tread the boards. Making his stage debut is a scene and headgear-stealing border collie by the name of Zeus – from god to dog in one step!

This three-time Young Kennel Club Crufts champion is trained by Anna Auster (whose mum goes to the same York art class as Forster’s husband, leading to a conversation about Zeus appearing in the show). 

The dame and dog partnership – each negotiating an obstacle course with very differing results – is as unpredictable to Simpson, canine and audience alike. Best in Show winner, no question, in a panto that, like Jack’s beans, will grow and grow.

Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Only stools and farces: Matthew Curnier, left, James Mackenzie, Mia Overfield and Robin Simpson send up boy band tropes in With A Little Help From My Friends with more than a little help from Ed Sunman’s video wizardry
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REVIEW: Rowntree Players, Cinderella, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, ‘romping rollickingly’ until Saturday ****

Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra, Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Fairy Carabosse and Michael Cornell’s Miranda performing I Know Him So Well in Rowntree Players’ Cinderella. Picturee: Angela Shaw, York Camera Club

UNLIKE Cinders, you will not go to the ball…unless you have acquired a ticket already. Cinderella has sold out, reward for the ever-rising pantomime pizzazz of Howard Ella’s community capers.

Cinderella may be the most popular of all pantos, but it is the most difficult to write, he contends, on account of the need to fit in so much. “The story is so loved, so full of plot points and favourite moments, it’s very hard to put your own spin on things,” Ella says in the programme notes.

Then add “the breaking of panto norms”: the dame making way for two Ugly Sisters, baddies rather than goodies to boot. Regular dame Graham Smith decided to take a year’s sabbatical, and in his stead comes the new double act of Jamie McKeller, last winter’s Sheriff of Nottingham, re-booted as Cassandra, and Michael Cornell as Miranda, both shaving off their beards but still with a hint of stubble to go with their trouble-making in matching costumes.

Gemma McDonald: Even busier as co-writer as well as show-steering Buttons in Cinderella. Picture: Angela Shaw, York Camera Club

They know each other from bygone days, and they work in step as pleasingly as Layton and Nikita’s Strictly Charleston last Saturday.

Typically spot-on casting by Ella, who has a new writing partner by his side too in Gemma McDonald, the Players’ long-serving daft lass with the auburn bubble-perm clown’s hair and rouge cheeks.

Still on delightfully dimwit duty as Buttons, she carries the heaviest comedy load as usual, leading the slapstick shenanigans in tandem with the Ugly Sisters in the hotel spa, breaking down the fourth wall to bond with the audience, ragging them when they are too slow to respond.

Ella suggests that Buttons is “really the story lead”, and McDonald’s ever-energetic, ever-cheeky performance backs that up.

Sara Howlett’s Cinderella and Laura Castle’s wave-wanding Fairy Flo in Cinderella

The writers were keen to avoid the danger of Cinderella’s traditional story feeling dated while wanting to be respectful to tradition too: hence Prince Charming and Dandini still being played by women, on the one hand, but Barry Johnson’s Baron Hardup owning the rundown Hotel Windy End (cue bottom burp gags from Buttons and corrections on the pronunciation), on the updated other.

This is very much a Yorkshire Cinderella, playing to its York setting at every opportunity. Radio presenter Laura Castle, so impressive in John Godber’s Teechers at the JoRo in March, makes for a feisty, no-nonsense Fairy Flo, while Teechers’ co-star Sophie Bullivant brings personality to the often dry role of Dandini, especially enjoying her switch with Hannah King’s thigh-slapping Prince Charming.

King’s singing is as strong as ever, not least in partnership with Sara Howlett’s resolute Cinderella in the ensemble number Omigod (a splendid lift from Legally Blonde The Musical). Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Fairy Carabosse takes the singing honours, first in It’s All About Me, then in Three Evil Dames with McKeller and Cornell.

Fill that stage! Rowntree Players in an ensemble routine from Cinderella. Note the pun-named plumber on the backdrop. Picture: Angela Shaw, York Camera Club

Johnson’s Baron, Geoff Walker’s lackey Flunkit and Jeanette Hunter’s Queen of Hearts, the Prince’s mother, bring bags of experience and panto panache to these support roles; Bernie Calpin completes a trinity of fairies, and Ami Carter’s exuberant choreography finds the principal dancers, senior chorus and young teams in boisterous form.

Highlights? Cinderella’s transformation scene with Fairy Flo, unicorn-powered carriage et al, is a picture indeed, and what better way to open Act Two than with McDonald leading the show’s best ensemble routine, Flash Bang Wallop What A Picture, followed by Cinderella, Prince Charming and the ensemble revelling in Shut Up And Dance. The hits keep coming with Fairy Carabosse, Cassandra and Miranda sending up I Know Him So Well.

Ella gained Tommy Cannon’s permission to reprise a Cannon & Ball slapstick classic, as Cinderella, Cassandra and Miranda push, pull and drag each other off a wall while striving to sing a romantic ballad. Howlett, McKeller and Cornell look exhausted from all their exertions, the audience cheers rising with each tussle.

Spot the difference: Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra and Michael Cornell’s Miranda in matching costumes as things turn Ugly for the shopaholic sisters in Rowntree Players’ Cinderella. Picture: Angela Shaw, York Camera Club

The costume team of coordinator Leni Ella, Andrea Dillon, Jackie Holmes and Claire Newbald adds fun and flair to the finery, while set designers Howard Ella, Anna Jones, Paul Mantle and Lee Smith turn their hands to all manner of scenes with aplomb.

Musical director James Robert Ball’s band fires up pop hits and musical favourites alike with dynamic delivery, aided by fellow keyboard player Jessica Viner providing the musical orchestrations with her customary zest.

Difficult to write? Maybe, but Ella and McDonald’s setpiece-driven Cinderella is a joyous, riotous start to the York pantomime season. 

Performances: 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee, all sold out. Box office for returns only: 01904 501935.

Travelling by unicorn: Sara Howlett’s Cinderella, aboard her carriage, heads for Prince Charming’s ball
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Why Harrogate Theatre makes ‘the best pantomime in the world’, according to Two Big Egos podcasters Chalmers & Hutch

Tim Stedman in Harrogate Theatre’s Dick Whittington

TWO Big Egos In A Small Car podcasters Chalmers & Hutch head home from Dick Whittington to proclaim why Harrogate Theatre’s pantomime is “the best in the world”.

In Episode 159, Graham also discusses Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman’s chemistry and why May December is Todd Haynes’s slipperiest film.

A sombre conclusion follows as the great songwriting talent of The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan is considered after his flame was snuffed out at 65.

Head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/14079973

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as panto time arrives and Christmas shows abound. Hutch’s List No. 50, from The Press

Me babbies, me bairns, me Berwick: Berwick Kaler’s dame, Dotty Dullaly, in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse, his third Grand Opera House pantomime. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

‘TIS the season for pantomime as three start at the same time amid a glut of Christmas shows, from kitchen disco to classic rock, as Charles Hutchinson reports.  

York pantomimes at the treble: Rowntree Players in Cinderella, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today until next Saturday, except Monday; Jack And The Beanstalk, York Theatre Royal, until January 7 2024; Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse, Grand Opera House, tonight until January 6

ROWNTREE Players “rollicking pantomime” director Howard Ella is joined in the writing team for the first time by comic Gemma McDonald, who will be playing Buttons alongside Sara Howlett’s Cinderella, Laura Castle’s Fairy Flo and the baddie trio of Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Wicked Queen, York ghost walk host Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra and Michael Cornell’s Miranda.

James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger and Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal

York Theatre Royal’s fourth collaboration with Evolution Productions goes green with Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap and CBeebies’ James Mackenzie’s villainous Luke Backinanger joining returnee Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott, Anna Soden’s Dave the Cow, Mia Overfield’s Jack and Matthew Curnier’s very silly Billy in Jack And The Beanstalk.

Dowager dame Berwick Kaler tackles Robinson Crusoe for the first time in his 43rd York panto and third at the GOH. Jake Lindsay takes the title role alongside the Ouse crew’s regulars, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell. Box office: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk or 01904 501935 (last few tickets); yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or 01904 623568; atgtickets.com/york.

Matheea Ellerby: Shining as Sparkle in Pocklington Arts Centre’s The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas

Debut of the week: The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas, Pocklington Arts Centre, until December 16

WRITER Elizabeth Godber and director Jane Thornton are at the helm of Pocklington Arts Centre’s inaugural in-house production: the children’s story of Jingle, Sparkle and Daredevil Dave, who have gingerbread to cook, peas to find and shoes to make. But who gives the Elves their Christmas? Surely they too deserve a break? Dylan Allcock, Jade Farnill and professional debut-making Matheea Ellerby star. Show times and tickets: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Cooking up her hits with Christmas trimmings in her Kitchen Disco at York Barbican

Yuletide on the dancefloor: Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Christmas Kitchen Disco, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

WHAT began as a lockdown online sensation from Sophie Ellis Bextor’s kitchen turned into her 2022 Kitchen Disco tour. Now she follows up Cooking Vinyl’s June release of her seventh studio album, Hana, with her Christmas Kitchen Disco tour for 2023. Hits from throughout her career will be combined with festive classics, served in her seasonal disco style. Tickets update: Sold out. Could be murder on the dancefloor to acquire one now. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Mostly Autumn: Christmas classic rock at The Crescent

Homecoming for Christmas: Mostly Autumn Christmas Show!, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 8pm

BEFORE heading off to Belgium and the Netherlands next week, York classic rock band Mostly Autumn play a home-city Christmas show heavily influenced by 1970s’ progressive rock, trad folk and, increasingly, contemporary influences after 28 years together led by guitarist Bryan Josh.

Meanwhile, York folk-covers, busker rock’n’roll troupe Hyde Family Jam have sold out both Thursday and Friday’s Christmas Party gigs, but tickets are available for Tuesday’s 7.30pm double bill of folk trio The Magpies and York singer-songwriter Dan Webster. Box office: thecrescentyork.

Bootleg Beatles: Get back to York Barbican on Wednesday

Tribute show of the week: Bootleg Beatles, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

PERFECT timing for the Bootleg Beatles to return to York this Christmas with their nostalgic whirlwind trip through the Fab Four Sixties, after the reissue of the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ compilations and especially the chart-topping renaissance of Now And Then.

And yes, that reactivated ghost of a John Lennon song will feature in a set combining the then and the now as Steve White’s Paul, Tyson Kelly’s John, Steve Hill’s George and Gordon Elsmore’s Ringo re-create the sound and look of each Beatles’ phase in fastidious detail, accompanied by a brass and string orchestra. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

A mouse on skis in A Townmouse Christmas at Fairfax House, York

Mouse in the house: A Townmouse Christmas, Fairfax House, Castlegate, York, until January 7, 10.30am to 4.30pm, last entry 4pm

FAIRFAX House’s 2022 festive exhibition, A Townmouse Christmas, returns this winter with double the magic and double the mice, causing even more mayhem and mischief amid the Georgian Christmas festivities.

Hundreds of merry mouse guests can be spotted swinging from the ceiling and bursting out of drawers as they play among the 18th century décor, festive foliage and displays of Georgian Christmas traditions. Tickets: fairfaxhouse.co.uk.

Hands up who’s coming to town: Santa Claus looks forward to York Stage’s Santa’s Sing-a-Long

Busiest company of the week: York Stage presents Santa’s Sing-a-Long, Wednesday to December 23; Festive Feast, December 15, 16, 19 to 22, 8pm, both at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

JOIN Mr and Mrs Claus in their busy home as they prepare for the big day, entertaining children with 45 minutes of sing-a-longs, Christmas stories, interactive wonderment and Christmas songs aplenty. Santa has a Christmas book for every child to take away to read on Christmas Eve. Show times and tickets: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

At night, York Stage vocal talent, accompanied by Adam Tomlinson and his band, dishes up a Festive Feast of Christmas songs, ranging from the traditional to modern pop, plus lashings of musical theatre favourites.

On song will be Katie Melia, Jess Main, Tracey Rea, Matthew Clarke, Cyanne Unamba-Oparah, Carly Morton, Finn East, Jack Hooper, Hannah Shaw, Stuart Hutchinson and York Stage debutant Jess Parnell. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Mike Paul-Smith: Musical director of Down For The Count at the Royal Hall, Harrogate

Christmas in full swing: Down For The Count, Swing Into Christmas, Royal Hall, Harrogate, December 16, 7.30pm

MIKE Paul-Smith trained as a doctor but is now principal conductor of London vintage orchestra Down For The Count, specialists in bringing jazz’s Swing Era back to life, in this case with a festive focus.

Paul-Smith and arranger Simon Joyner re-create the music of Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and many more in a luscious 30-piece orchestral setting, evoking Capitol Studios recordings. Cue original arrangements of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) and It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, alongside Let’s Face The Music And Dance and S’Wonderful. Box office: 01423 50211 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Reopening of the week: Victorian Christmas at York Castle Museum, Eye of York, until January 7 2024

Story Craft Theatre’s Cassie Vallance and Jane Bruce with their Museum Mice at York Castle Museum

YORK Castle Museum’s Victorian Kirkgate street has reopened for a magical Yuletide experience full of activities and performances for all ages.

Highlights include Chris Cade’s Scrooge shows; a Victorian green-clad Father Christmas; carol singing on Sundays, and Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance’s Story Craft Theatre bringing cute Museum Mice to life with puppets, games and family fun, followed by a craft activity on several weekdays. To book tickets: https://beta.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/york-castle-museum/admission-tickets