Isobel Staton’s Mary in rehearsal for York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s new and unique interpretation of the Nativity, dramatising events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, opens at The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, tonight.
Directed once more by Paul Toy, the hour-long touring community production is set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.
Likewise, this production is on the move, following up today and tomorrow’s Poppleton performances with visits to St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, on December 5 and 6, then St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, on December 7.
Toy’s vision for his staging is “that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression”.
Manuda Fernando (Herod’s son), left, Wilma Edwards (Counsellor), James Tyler (Herod) and Tricia Campbell (Counsellor) in the rehearsal room. Picture: John Saunders
Bringing the Christmas story of events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ to York neighbourhoods, Toy’s production recalls a time in the 17th century when the Mystery Plays were banned for being too Roman Catholic. Performers were forced to perform illegally in the houses of sympathisers, always looking out for establishment forces.
Paul says: “Although A Nativity for York reflects the experience of those dedicated but frightened performers, the story itself mirrors the trouble many people are experiencing today: a homeless couple, seeking shelter with their new-born child, being forced to flee to another country, leaving behind scenes of unimaginable horror. While it mirrors both history and our current world situation, there is news of great hope and joy.”
Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry adds: “The trust is delighted to be touring the production around three of York’s suburbs. Our aim is to give people the chance to see a performance from one of York’s great cultural traditions on their doorstep. The hour-long performance of words and music promises to both challenge and delight the audience.”
Traditionally, The Nativity performances celebrate the birth of Jesus into the life of humankind. “Beloved when performed by young children, this story is not a simple tale of unmitigated joy,” says Paul. “It is a cold, cruel world that the baby arrives in. People are subjugated by an occupying power, and some are doomed to pay a price of unimaginable suffering. But the birth also gives optimism and the hope of a better future.
Nick Jones’s Joseph rehearsing a scene for A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
“In our production, we re-create the experiences of those who aimed to keep the story of the Mystery Plays alive at a time when they were banned because their Catholic content was unacceptable to Protestant rulers.
“A band of actors from Egton on the North York Moors kept the flame burning with secret performances in the houses of Catholic landowners – one step ahead of the authorities. Now, join us for an hour when we bring to life that team of fear, of punishment, of homelessness, but also a time of great hope and joy.”
York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust presents A Nativity for York, The Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, November 29, 7.30pm, and November 30, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; St James the Deacon Church Hall, Acomb, December 5 and 6, 7.30pm; St Oswald’s Church Hall, Fulford, December 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Suitable for adults and children aged 11 plus. Box office: 0333 666 3366 or https://ympst.co.uk/nativityticketsand on the door (cash or card), subject to availability.
York Mystery Plays: back story
WRITTEN in medieval times, 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, tell the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.
York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity, a group of volunteers aiming to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive.
Who is in the cast?
The Shepherds, David Denbigh, left, Michael Maybridge and Sally Maybridge in rehearsal for A Nativity for York
Balladeer/Minstrel: Jonathan Brockbank Symeon/Soldier I: David Lancaster Anna/Counsellor II: Clare Halliday The Angel Gabriel: Helen Jarvis Mary: Isobel Staton Elizabeth/Counsellor I: Wilma Edwards Joseph: Nick Jones Neighbour II/Maidservant/Angel: Trisha Campbell King I/Neighbour I: Val Burgess King II/Mother I: Emily Hansen King III: Madusha Fernando/Janice Newton Shepherd I: Michael Maybridge Shepherd II/Mother II: Sally Maybridge Shepherd III/Soldier II: David Denbigh Herod: James Tyler Filius/Herod’s Son: Manuda Fernando Messenger: Oliver Howard Star Angel: Julie Speedie Angel Choir: Emily Hansen, Trisha Campbell, Val Burgess, Wilma Edwards and Julie Speedie
Finlay Butler’s Buddy the elf and Steve Tearle’s Santa in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
STEVE Tearle knows how to sell a show, this time promising audiences “an opportunity to see Elf like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects”.
The result? A sold-out run of six performances at the JoRo, where your reviewer was accommodated at the last minute in the only remaining house seat. Thank you, JoRo management, for being so helpful.
Elf The Musical was last staged in York in the equivalent week three years ago by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, where director-designer Nik Briggs dressed his stage with big snowflakes, open North Pole skyline, bustling Macy’s store, finale snow machine et al, as he drew inspiration from Radio City Music Hall.
Tearle instead put his trust in technology and human/elf chemistry, utilising video backdrops of constantly changing snowscapes, spinning festive candy canes and the interiors of Macy’s Department Store and Greenway Press, a children’s book publishing company in New York City’s Empire State Building, first seen in all its towering, vertigo-inducing magnificence.
Family discussions in the Hobbs household: Perri Ann Barley’s Emily, James O’Neill’s Walter and James Roberts’s Michael
It would spoil the visual delights in store to mention more than that, but Tearle uses the tools with a showman’s flourish, tapping into his inner PT Barnum that never lies far beneath the surface.
But is it really theatre, you ask? Is it in some way cheating to let the science, rather than the art, do the work? Not today when theatre embraces all possibilities to modernise the artform while sustaining the magic.
What’s more, everything else about Tearle’s community theatre-making is rooted in old-fashioned theatre values: a glossy programme, a big cast, with children aplenty cutting their teeth; 15 players, yes, 15, in Joe Allen’s orchestra; costumes galore, and Tearle himself in actor-manager mode, overseeing his production in the genial guise of storyteller Santa. Scatting extra lines like a jazz singer, he gives resurgent York City an unexpected mention far from the North Pole.
He is not the santa of attention, however! That central figure is Finlay Butler’s skateboarding Buddy, with Butler’s enthusiasm for playing Buddy – “one of the greatest experiences of my life!” he says – being a match for Buddy’s ebullience for life.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy enthuses in his unconventional way over Maia Stroud’s Jovie in Elf The Musical
Elf The Musical retains the jokes and the naïve charm of the 2003 Will Ferrell film in its playful, New York-witty, even wise book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, then adds all the song-and-dance razzmatazz of a Broadway musical, with music by Matthew Sklar big on winter brass and lyrics by Chad Beguelin full of smart humour, bold statements and big sentiments.
Tearle’s green-coated Santa introduces the story of how orphan boy Buddy crawls into Santa’s sack and ends up being brought up among all the elf toy makers on a sugar-rich diet with two visits a day to the North Pole dentist.
When Buddy learns that he is not an elf after all, despite being so elfish in his thinking, off to New York he must go – in Tearle’s video variation of a pantomime transformation scene – to try to find his real father, children’s publishing-house manager Walter Hobbs (James O’Neill), who never knew he had a son from a long-ago relationship.
Stressed-out Walter is now married to long-suffering Emily (Perri Ann Barley), with a son, Michael (James Roberts, sharing the role with Zachary Stoney). In their house, no-one believes in Santa but Buddy will work his way into their lives – work, not worm – with his idiot-savant gentle air, kindness and positivity.
The hills are alive with candy canes as Finlay Butler’s Buddy makes his journey from the North Pole to New York via NE Theatre York’s video projections
Butler’s performance is as buoyant as a bubble, as bouncy as Tigger, as cheerful as a robin’s hop on a Christmas card. Who could not love him, this bundle of joy, love, cheek and unguarded desire to please? After Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Up Theatre’s ongoing Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, here is another agile comedic actor who would be wholly suited to turning his hand to daft-lad duty in panto. He sings expressively too, especially in World’s Greatest Dad and The Story Of Buddy The Elf.
Barley’s warm-hearted Emily and Roberts’s excitable Michael have two lovely duets, I’ll Believe In You and There Is A Santa Claus, while O’Neill impresses in his transformative role, gradually defrosting from treasonable to reasonable.
Ali-Butler-Hind’s scatty receptionist Deb and Kit Stroud’s hyperactive Manager maximise their cameos, topped by Stephen Perry’s intemperate publishing boss Mr Greenway with his preposterous suggestions for book changes.
Maia Beatrice, or Maia Stroud as she is now called in the programme, is well cast as Macy’s store worker Jovie, Buddy’s slow-burn love interest, whose initial New York cynicism is chipped away by his persistent enthusiasm as he corrects everyone’s misconceptions over Santa, the North Pole and Christmas.
It’ll be all white on the night (apart from the Santas!) in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
A rising talent of the York stage with a cracking singing voice, full of emotion and range, and a sense of stillness in the moment not always present in an actor’s skill set, her performance has depth, standing out amid the amusing caricatures. No song is better sung than her Never Fall In Love.
Joe Allen’s well-drilled orchestra brings out the fizz and the fun in Sklar’s emotive songs, and if the dancing is less precise, it has all the sugar-rush energy of Buddy in Melissa Boyd’s choreography. Her best routine is for the Santa setpiece Nobody Cares About Santa, where the jaded, boozed-up post-shift Santas leap up and down in turn, topped off by a burst of tap-dancing.
Tearle has decked the stage front with twinkling foliage: a typical touch from NETheatre’s creative director with a designer’s flair who embraces the “true joy of Christmas” as heartily as Buddy and his one-man national elf service.
His stage bursts with colour and life, regulation reds and greens aplenty and one scene where everyone is dressed in white. What a spectacle. Buddy has a word for it: Sparklejollytwinklejingley.
NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.
To beard or not to beard? Paul Hawkyard, left, will retain his, but Robin Simpson will shed his to play Dame Dolly in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
IT could be disconcerting interviewing the dame in week two of rehearsals for Aladdin when Robin Simpson’s beard remains in imperial flourish, especially when his playing style is the antithesis of rough and ready.
Be assured, the whiskers will be long gone when the Yorkshireman begins his fifth York Theatre Royal pantomime next Tuesday, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey in a nod to acknowledging modern-day sensitivities and cultural diplomacy.
As ever, Robin’s dame will be lovable. “I’ve never been a big fan, even in normal life, of putting people down. Dames can be quite cruel but I would never do that,” he says. “When I pick out a man in the audience to be in the spotlight at each show, what I want afterwards is for him to go, ‘I’m so glad I was chosen because I had a great time’.
“My dame personality also comes from performing in front of children a lot [Robin does solo storytelling shows too], accepting their offers [suggestions and comments], working with what they give you, incorporating it, making it work. The aim has to be to give everyone a good time, when it can be too easy in pantomimes to make someone feel they’re being picked on. You don’t need to do that. I believe the dame should be nice.”
Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre’s first poster image for Aladdin, released in January
His style epitomises the new age of the York Theatre Royal pantomime crafted since 2020 by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and award-winning Evolution Productions director and script writer Paul Hendy.
“Our panto does appeal to both adults and children,” says Robin. “You have to have something for the adults, nothing too specific, but ‘bum jokes’ too for the children. You need fabulous costumes and you have to do the story properly, while having a side-wink to the audience that says ‘ we know this is all crazy’!
“We always have an eye on being entertaining for children: you can’t have the baddie being too scary or the dame being too rude!”
On the subject of the villain, Robin will be renewing his badinage with fellow West Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, who returns to the dark side at the Theatre Royal as Abanazar after a gap year appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.
Robin Simpson’s Manky, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy, the scheming stepsisters, in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 2021
Simpson and Hawkyard first revelled in their award-nominated panto double act when things turned ugly as stepsisters Manky and Mardy in Cinderella in 2021. “It’s great to have him back,” says Robin, who also played Mrs Smee to Paul’s Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan! in 2022.
“It’s nice to have that familiarity, and to have similar scenes and routines to past shows, like the ghost gag bench but with a different song. Some of the same catchphrases and punchlines too: the more that people come and see the shows, the more they’ll say, ‘that’s the thing they do’, but you don’t want to force them. They have to be natural.
“The audiences have been great since we started, and hopefully we’ve been growing that audience each year with the shows going from strength to strength. However each one is put together by Juliet and Paul, their decision to cast a CBeebies star each time has worked really well: it’s really wonderful to have Evie Pickerill this year. She’s such a delight to work with – and what great singing voice she has too.
“We have a strong ensemble and we’re a team of really committed people. Pantomimes can be lazy but that’s not the case with here, where Juliet and Paul put everything into constantly finding something funny that appeals to the widest audience.”
Robin Simpson in children’s storyteller mode
Robin’s dame loves to be the dispenser of “lots of fun”. “I’ve been playing dame for eight years now, three in Huddersfield [at the Lawrence Batley Theatre] and now five here, and of all the roles in pantomime, it’s certainly the most interesting one for me as you haven’t got the limitations on you that the leading man and the leading girl have.
“I don’t have to carry the show. That’s up to Aladdin and co. They have the emotional story and earnestness. I can just come on, say a few jokes and fall over. At my age, that’s what I like, though I don’t mean to do it a disservice. The gender reversals in theatre have been going on for many years. They’ve always been part of the theatre tradition.”
Robin has returned to York after working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, heading from Scotland to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and OVO, St Albans too on tour. “It’s taken up pretty much my year,” he says. “I did seven months, a proper old-fashioned rep season, with the seventh month at the Wolsey in Ipswich in a co-production of Footloose.
“I was the Reverend and I really enjoyed being put in a musical, which is not something I’m usually considered for. It was good to be out of my comfort zone,” he says.
Robin Simpson having “lots of fun” in rehearsal for his fifth dame’s role at York Theatre Royal in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
“Though I was also in another musical in the season: Beautiful, the Carole King musical, playing Donny Kirshner, Carole’s manager, who managed The Monkees too. We had the same cast for three shows, with me playing Sir John Middleton and Mrs Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility…”
…Mrs Ferrars, you say? “I think they must have heard I played the dame! It was all very much multi-role-playing with only eight of us in the cast. She has only one scene, so none of your pantomime rouge for Mrs Ferrars. We didn’t have time for that.
“She’s really dislikeable! A horrible tyrant of a woman!” Totally unlike Robin’s dame.
York Theatre Royal presents Aladdin from December 3 to January 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
No word of a lie: 1812 Theatre Company will be staging Pinocchio from December 7
CHRISTMAS is in the air, promising brass concerts, pantomime, ukuleles and a festive singalong, as Charles Hutchinson highlights.
1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; evenings, December 7, 10 to 14
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs resident troupe 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio, “a pantomime with no strings attached”. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.
However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan), who will stop at nothing to grab the enchanted toy. Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Mitch Laddie Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tonight, 8pm
PREPARE to be blown away by a superstar in the making when award-winning blues guitar virtuoso Mitch Laddie leads his band (bass and drums) in Malton. Walter Trout, no less, says: “Mitch is one of the best guitarists in the world.”
Born in Shotley Bridge, County Durham, Laddie, 34, is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer and tutor, now living in Consett. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Sally Parkin and Lyn Bailey: Living Landscapes on show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition of the week: Sally Parkin and Lyn Bailey, Living Landscapes, Helmsley Arts Centre, until February 28 2025
SALLY Parkin and Lyn Bailey work from their studios on the North York Moors, finding inspiration every day from the vast landscapes and varied wildlife on their doorstep, then transforming them into paintings and lino prints.
Sally trained at Leeds College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London in Fine Art and Printmaking, moved back to Yorkshire and worked as a designer for Liberty of London while teaching in colleges and schools Since retiring, she spends more time producing paintings and prints, drawn from music and literature and woven together with images from the landscape.
Lyn’s training as a graphic designer has allowed her to transfer the skills of using simple block colour and shapes to the more tactile process of printmaking. Fundamentally each print begins with a simple walk, observing and connecting with her surroundings from the heart of the landscape.
Steve Day: Headlining the Hilarity Bites bill at Milton Rooms, Malton
Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites presents Steve Day, Becky Umbers and Aaron Twitchen, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
STEVE Day describes himself as Britain’s only deaf comedian – and if there are any others then he hasn’t heard of them Actually, a couple of others have started since he wrote that joke, he says.
Becky Umbers, a multi-award-winning New Zealander, offers her “unique take on life with a voice to match and a sly grin”, combining quirky storytelling and cheeky observations. Aaron Twitchen describes himself as “a stand-up, actor, improviser, aerialist and living stereotype”, having trained as a circus trapeze act. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Merry And Bright: Swinton & Excelsior Band’s poster for Sunday’s concert, A Brass Christmas, at Milton Rooms, Malton
Free Christmas concert of the week: Swinton & District Excelsior Band, Merry And Bright, A Brass Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 2pm
SWINTON & District Excelsior Band invites the community to a Christmas concert, also featuring the Swinton Training Band and Swinton Beginners group. Merry and Bright: A Brass Christmas is filled with the joyous sounds of brass in an afternoon of carols, cheerful tunes and heart-warming melodies. Tickets are free but must be booked through ticketsource.co.uk.
Malton White Star Band: Celebrating Christmas with a brass flourish at Milton Rooms, Malton
Brass concert number two of the week: Malton White Star Band, Brass At Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, December 5, 7pm
NOW under the direction of Iain Fell, Malton White Star Band has been serving the community for more than 100 years, these days playing Malton Food Markets, charity events and summer seasons on bandstands at Filey and Peasholm Park, Scarborough.
Joined by the Community Training Band and guests, this will be band’s fourth Christmas concert in the Milton Rooms. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster for Brit Rock Films 2024 at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Film event of the week: Brit Rock Films 2024, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm, doors 6.30pm
BRIT Rock Films 2024 promises a night of adrenaline and inspiration featuring the United Kingdom’s best climbing and adventure films. Three exhilarating films, Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal’s Nose Job, Jesse Dufton’s Climbing Blind II and Freja Shannon’s Freja’s Back “capture an array of hardcore action, pioneering spirit and proper, adrenaline-fuelled madness”.
Profits go to event hosts Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team, who will give attendees the chance to learn more about the team’s vital work and how they support people in need across the North York Moors. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Thornton Le Dale Ukuleles: Strumming for Christmas at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Festive singalong of the week: Thornton Le Dale Ukuleles’ Christmas Singalong, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 5, 7.30pm
THIS Christmas Singalong will be in two parts: Scoble, Swann and Friends, a small group of talented singers and musicians, followed by Thornton Dale Ukuleles, filling the stage with 40 players. Audience participation is their speciality.
The group is the brainchild of leader John Scoble, who provides tuition free of charge, and is indebted to singer-songwriter David Swann, who gives tuition too. Expect all genres of music, but virtually no George Formby. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
NE Theatre York’s production of Elf the Musical opens tonight at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, with all six performances sold out already.
In the wake of staging Fiddler On The Roof and West Side Story, the York company will present a full ensemble with the promise of “favourite performers and a few surprises along the way.”
Director Steve Tearle says: “We wanted to bring the true joy of Christmas to everyone in York with amazing songs in this much-loved story for the whole family. It’s a heart-warming tale filled with Christmas joy and will definitely get you in the festive spirit.”
Featuring book, music and lyrics by Thomas Meehan & Bob Martin and Matthew Solar & Chad Beguelin, Elf The Musical is based on the 2003 Christmas film starring Will Ferrell, telling the story of orphan Buddy (played by Finlay Butler), who mistakenly crawls into Santa Claus’s (Steve Tearle) bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole.
Sold out: No tickets left for NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
After years of growing up as an elf, he discovers his true identity and embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father (James O’Neil) and learn his true identity.
Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and, worse still, his stepbrother (James Roberts/Zachary Stone) and their mother ( Perri Ann Barley) do not even believe in Father Christmas, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. Along the way he falls in love with Jovie (Maia Stroud).
Summing up the show, Steve says: “Elf The Musical is a fantastic holiday season favourite that really embraces the spirit of Christmas. This week we aim to give audiences an opportunity to see this show like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects.”
After Saturday’s 2.30pm matinee, the audience will have the chance to meet Santa and Buddy (Tearle and Butler).
NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.
Pick Me Up Theatre in an ensemble scene in Nativity! The Musical
WHY revive Nativity! The Musical only two years after Pick Me Up Theatre first staged Debbie Issit’s cheery, nicely cheesy family show at the Grand Opera House?
“It was such a success last time that I secured the rights the day after we closed in 2022! I just love the show so much,” reasons producer Robert Readman.
This time he hands the directorial reins to Lesley Lettin, from the Attitude Dance Club, who handles the choreography too (as she did in 2022 under the name Lesley Hill).
All but two of the adult cast are new, Alison Taylor serving another term as enervated St Bernadette’s Roman Catholic School head teacher Mrs Bevan and Jonny Holbek switching from flouncing local theatre critic Patrick Burns to supercilious Gordon Shakespeare, the pretentious theatre director from posh rival school Oakmoor Prep.
Every one of the 48 children is a debutant too, divided into St Bernadette’s Team Maddens and Team Poppy and Oakmoor Prep’s Team Shake and Team Speare. Adam Tomlinson is on musical director duty (Sam Johnson in 2022).
‘Tis the Nativity! season, the climax to the Michaelmas term, in Debbie Isitt and Nicky Ager’s musical adaptation of their hit 2009 British comedy, the first in a frantic franchise of four festive films.
Alex Hogg’s Mr Maddens . left, and Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
Producer Readman sums up this comforting show’s appeal as a combination of “British humour, children being themselves, pathos and daftness, and a romantic, happy end”. Lettin promised “more lights and more sparkle” for 2024, and shining performances duly abound.
BAFTA Award-winning Isitt’s musical takes the form of a Nativity play within a play, framing her stage adaptation around her original story of flustered, by-the-book teacher Mr Maddens (Alex Hogg) and his unconventional, idiot savant new assistant Mr Poppy (Adam Sowter) struggling with unpredictable children, unruly animals and an underwhelmed head mistress, Taylor’s Mrs Bevan, when striving to stage St Bernadette’s musical version of the Nativity in Coventry.
As ever seeking to outdo the cutting-edge, arty, costly show mounted at the neighbouring Oakmoor Prep by his scornful, ex-childhood friend, Holbek’s smug Gordon Shakespeare, Maddens ups the ante by boasting that Jennifer Lore (Alexandra Mather), his still-missed ex-girlfriend, now working as a Hollywood producer, will be coming to the show with a view to turning it into a film.
Unfortunately, Maddens is lying: he and Jennifer don’t talk any more (and so might she be lying too?!). Doubly unfortunately, Mr Poppy, Mrs Bevan and the local media’s enthusiasm only makes matters worse.
Hogg’s hangdog Mr Maddens is weary, self-destructively driven, to the point of being harsh on the children, but beneath the cold front, he is caring too, and a romantic at heart, although a deflated one. In Holbek’s hands, beastly bête noir Gordon Shakespeare has become even more priggish, self-satisfied, preening and dangerously obsessive. You will love his loathsome air, and his clash of personality and theatre styles with Hogg’s more prosaic Mr Maddens is the stuff of theatrical civil wars across the land.
Lesley Lettin: Director and choreographer of Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
Adam Sowter, one half of York musical duo Fladam with Flo Poskitt, is the very definition of irrepressible as Mr Poppy with his Midlands accent, spiky hair and daft lad enthusiasm. His Mr Poppy snaps, crackles and pops, and he plays keyboards flamboyantly to boot.
You would not be surprised to see him turn up as the silly-billy cheeky-chappie in a pantomime, such is his bond with younger and older audience members alike.
Crucially too, the exuberance of Sowter’s Mr Poppy rubs off on St Bernadette’s suddenly excited and motivated pupils, stirring their imaginations with his own inner child, while playing puppy to Cracker the dog (Branwell) too.
Just as the new Wicked film calls for an acknowledgement of the right to be different, individual and expressive, so Mr Poppy’s positivity makes the case for why the arts, forever undervalued, should matter more in schools, championing the unconventional among the conventional, as much among teachers as pupils. Taylor’s Mrs Bevan comes around to that way of thinking at the very last, just as retirement beckons.
Hot on the heels of appearing in York Stage’s Company earlier this month, Alexandra Mather is a spot-on choice to play Jennifer Lore, who foregoes love to pursue the Hollywood dream, only for that dream, spoiler alert, to be dashed by endless compromise in the one darker side to Isitt’s story.
Hollywood dream performance: Alexandra Mather’s Jennifer Lore
Possessor of an operatic mezzo-soprano voice often in demand from York Opera, Mather sings splendidly and dramatically in a show that revels in such film favourites as One Night One Moment and She’s The Brightest Star, bolstered by extra Christmas-spirited Isitt-Nicky Ager compositions for the stage version.
Lettin’s direction is assured, strong on humour and pathos too, while her choreography is exemplified by the ensemble setpiece Sparkle And Shine, the dancing always full of character with plenty of scope for individual highlights as well as teamwork in Nativity play tradition.
The teams of children throw themselves wholeheartedly into Isitt’s theatrical fun and games, school tropes and the climactic bonkers Nativity play in the Coventry cathedral ruin Look out for the Stars (Eliza Clarke and Ellen Dickson) , Ollies (Taylor Carlyle and Hughie Clelland) and Angel Gabriels (Finlay Walter and Dan Tomlin, flying high above the stage).
Adam Tomlinson leads his band with customary flair, precision and Weetabix energy through George Dyer’s orchestrations, and although your reviewer may be biased, who could not delight in James Willstrop’s acerbic local paper theatre critic, Coventry’s answer to Frank Rich, one of a series of scene-stealing cameos from the former squash champ in an ultimately superior show to 2022.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Performances: 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Note of disappointment: James Willstrop’s local theatre critic, Patrick Burns, puts poison pen to paper
Dickensian storyteller James Swanton, switching to the lecture hall at York Medical Society
AFTER another sell-out season in 2023, gothic York actor James Swanton is reviving his Dickensian Ghost Stories for Christmas at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, from tonight to December 5.
Made up of James’s absorbing solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, they will play eight dates in York before transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
James is following up his October 24 to 30 run of Dickens’s The Signal-Man at York Medical Society – a partner event with the York Ghost Merchants – that sold out a month in advance. His other Dickensian theatre work prompted Simon Callow to describe Swanton’s West End play Sikes & Nancy as “fantastical, startling and enthralling” and fellow Dickens enthusiast Miriam Margolyes to call his performances at the Dickens Museum “extraordinary”, “superb” and “vivid”.
“I’ve had to skew my York shows early because of the exceptional demand down south,” says James. ‘Indeed, we’ve already sold out all 18 performances of A Christmas Carol in London!
‘But being a northerner, York is where I feel most at home – and there’s no better setting for Dickens than York Medical Society. We’ve moved to their largest space to accommodate more guests, but we’ve kept the vital period atmosphere. It’s a properly immersive experience: all gilt- framed portraits and heavy curtains and dim lighting.
‘I’ll be giving six performances of A Christmas Carol here in York. There’ll also be one showing apiece of The Chimes and The Haunted Man, its lesser-known but fascinating follow-ups, which have both sold out already.”
James is keen to emphasise the merits of all three stories. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms. Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.
“Beyond anything, these stories are masterful exercises in theatrical storytelling, with a real sense of joy emerging from the Victorian gloom.”
Kit Harrington and James Swanton in Lot No. 249. Picture: Kieran McGuigan
Since last December’s run of Ghost Stories for Christmas, James has spent the year as various terrors on screen. “This time last year, I was terribly excited to be playing the Mummy in Lot No. 249, Mark Gatiss’s BBC Ghost Story for Christmas, in which I was unpardonably nasty to Kit Harington,” he recalls.
“I couldn’t have guessed I’d be filming as another BBC spook in January, when the wonderful Reece Shearsmith asked me to play the Curse of the Ninth Symphony in the last series of Inside No. 9.
Both programmes are available on BBC iPlayer, and James advises that they make for “perfect Gothic viewing in the run-up to Christmas: two very classic ghost stories”.
They have been far from James’s only sinister appearances in recent times, however. “Every few weeks in 2024, I seem to have loomed up as some new monstrous entity,” James notes. “I played a couple of occult apparitions, the Hermit and the Magician, in a pleasingly ludicrous film called Tarot.
“My late grandad, Professor Walter Swanton, was a magician as well as a Punch-and-Judy man, so I’m sure he’d have been amused to see me sawing people in half!
‘I’ve also fathered the Antichrist in two big horror prequels. I was the Jackal in The First Omen, bringing little Damien into the world, and then Satan himself in the Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A. I was astonished to see myself next to Julia Garner on the poster for that one! Given I’ve played Lucifer in the York Mystery Plays, that felt like a full- circle moment.”
As usual, the York run of Ghost Stories for Christmas is selling quickly, so James has strategic advice for securing tickets. “The best availability comes at the start of the run in late-November,” he says. “You can still secure a place for A Christmas Carol then. With tickets being only £16 each, this could be the perfect way to kick off your festive celebrations.
“I greatly look forward to gathering people together for some heart- warming storytelling. And I promise I won’t dress up as Satan!”
“The emotional power of Dickens’s prose strikes differently with each return of Ghost Stories for Christmas,” says James Swanton. Picture: Jtu Photography
Here James Swanton discusses his latest York and London runs of Ghost Stories for Christmas, his work with Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith and his Hollywood roles with CharlesHutchPress.
What draws you back to Dickens’s Christmas ghost stories each year and does each year bring new revelations and nuances to you?
“These annual performances remind me why I persist with acting at all. It’s restorative (and very rare) to feel you’re using every bit of yourself as an actor: full application of body and voice andmind and heart, with all the attendant fatigue. When you tether that to stories that people insist on hearing to the end, little proves more rewarding.
“And yes, the emotional power of Dickens’s prose strikes differently with each return. I’ve tinkered with my version of A Christmas Carol to include an episode that some audience members have told me they’ve missed in previous years. There’s one sentence there that brings a lump to my throat.
What makes York Medical Society such a suitable setting? Describe the bigger performance space this time…
“It’s the lecture hall, in which I premiered Irving Undead (my one-man resurrection of Victorian thespian Henry Irving) back in 2019. What we lose of the wood- panelled room’s sequestered gloom, we gain in 19th-century opulence.
“The hall has a raised stage, a very responsive acoustic and appropriately theatrical curtains. There’s also a portrait of Henry Belcombe, a former York Medical Society president, who actually knew Charles Dickens. He’ll be interested in watching what’s going on, I’m sure.”
What will be the dates of your run at the Dickens Museum next month? Eighteen sell-outs already. You must be chuffed…
“Chuffed if not a little daunted! I’m there from December 10 to 23, in which time I’ll be giving 26 performances: a panto schedule! In total, I’m doing 40 live shows this Christmas season. Pray for me.
“What makes the enterprise sustainable at the Dickens Museum is the intimacy of the space – 30 people maximum – and the galvanising thrill of occupying a room in Dickens’s house. We share our back wall with Dickens’s front parlour. This makes me rather nervous of touching it mid-show.”
“In general, I think that ghosts serve as a form of collective wish fulfilment,” says James Swanton
The Signal-Man run sold out well in advance. How did it go? You are keen to do it again. When might you make that decision?
“I’ve got the York Ghost Merchants to thank for the sell-out, as they listed The Signal-Man (which I paired with The Trial For Murder) as a partner event for Ghost Week. Basking in their reflected light meant a shockingly high demand for tickets!
“In truth, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy performing those texts at all: they were hellish to memorise and maddeningly elusive in rehearsal; all variegated shades of grey rather than Dickens’s usual glorious Technicolor. But the paradox is that you agonise in private so you can fly in public. They turned out to be deeply stimulating narratives to relate and audiences were wonderfully attentive.
“I haven’t decided when to revive them, but I’m not restricted to one set time of year as I am with these Christmas ghost stories. This gives me greater flexibility, though they do suit the darker months…”
Do supernatural tales serve a broader purpose in understanding life?
“In general, I think that ghosts serve as a form of collective wish fulfilment: the idea that we can beat back death and go on persisting, in no matter how limited a form.
“Where Dickens’s Christmas ghost stories are concerned, spirits serve a more didactic purpose. They’re generally there to teach an important human lesson – and, in classic Victorian fashion, they do so by being completely bloody terrifying. Marley’s Ghost might be the purest such example.”
The devil’s work: James Swanton as Lucifer in The Mysteries After Dark in Shambles Market, York, in September 2018
You have played Lucifer in the York Mystery Plays in Shambles Market and now two Hollywood roles where you “father the Antichrist”. How do you sleep at night?!
“To misquote Shakespeare: ‘Hell is empty and all the devils are me’. I’ve never lost a wink of sleep over any of this stuff. Hard to feel threatened when you’re repeatedly the source of the threat!”
Where did you film your two Hollywood movies? Do you enjoy the film-making process? You must spend many hours in the make-up/wardrobe department!
“Despite being set in New York, Apartment 7A was shot entirely at London studios and locations, though I did have to lurch off to the Netherlands for a couple of make-up fittings.
“The First Omen was meanwhile shot in Rome – my hotel room was just a few streets from the Vatican! – but on that occasion, my make-up prep involved a 48-hour round-trip to Hollywood. It’s a realm quite as unreal as Billy Wilder and David Lynch warned us.
“I was there so fleetingly that I saw practically nothing: no HOLLYWOOD sign, no Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, no Universal Studios. Was I ever there at all? It was such an artificial dreamscape that I sometimes question it.
“Both were marathon make-up ordeals. It one day took them 12 hours to apply the full regalia for Apartment 7A, admittedly with a few pauses thrown in. On The First Omen, we averaged between seven and eight hours – about the time it takes to fly to Hollywood, now I think about it. My forty Dickens shows will be a breeze by comparison.”
James Swanton and Julia Garner in the poster for Apartment 7A. Picture: Paramount
When were The First Omen and Apartment 7A released? What did critics say of your performances?
“The First Omen showed in cinemas worldwide in April. It’s now up on Disney +. Apartment 7A came to Paramount Plus for Halloween. Being one small cog in a very big machine, I’m not sure that critics had much of anything to say about me. I don’t seek out their probabledisapproval!”
Inside No. 9 was very well received. How did your involvement – working with Reece Shearsmith – come about? Might there be opportunities for you to do so again or indeed with Mark Gatiss?
“I’d met Reece towards the end of 2023 when we both guested on a panel about the silent horror film Häxan at the Regent Street Cinema in London. Given his decades-long friendship with Mark, Reece had also been aware of my work on the BBC’s Lot No. 249.
“I first got wind of the Inside No. 9 job when I got a text message from Michael Patrick, an extraordinary actor – he’s just played Richard III at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast – was was also shadowing on that final series.
“Reece had mentioned that he wanted me to play the Curse of the Ninth Symphony – and, in one of those strange coincidences, Michael knew me from our university days! A few weeks later, I was billowing about a country house in Victorian dress and picking off my more illustrious co-stars. Business as usual.
“I’d love to work with both Mark and Reece again, either together or separately! We horror-obsessed northerners should stick together.
“Actually, I’ve done another panel with Reece since: a breakdown of our favourite vampire films for Hell Tor in Exeter, accompanied by horror expert Jonathan Rigby.”
James Swanton and Mark Gatiss in rehearsal together
Your late grandfather, Professor Walter Swanton, was a magician and a Punch-and-Judy man. Did you see him perform and did his performance style in any way rub off on you?
“It took me a long time to grasp it, but I almost certainly contracted the one-man show gene from him. One-man theatre is exactly what Punch and Judy is in miniature! He would carve and paint the heads of the puppets whilst my Grandma would make the costumes – another pleasing link, as she made me an awful lot of costumes as a child, generally to play some ghost or vampire.
“Grandad passed away in 2008, but I’ve been able to revisit his act via old family videos. This almost never happens in life, but he was actually better than I’d remembered: such a warm and expressive voice, with not a little of the jovial zaniness of his comedy hero Ken Dodd.”
How is your book on your horror acting heroes progressing?
“The bulk of the text is written! Thirteen highly involved chapters on thirteen different actors. I’m biding my time a bit with the publication, my thinking being that the more notoriety I build up in my own horror work, the easier it’ll be to shift copies. But it will see the light!”
Any news on what’s coming up for you in 2025?
“Absolutely none, I’m afraid. I keep putting it out into the universe that I’m desperate to play Richard III – and given my Yorkshire roots, and my very real spinal kyphosis [a spinal deformity that causes an excessive curvature of the upper spine, making the back appear more rounded or hunched] , and my wraparound spookiness, I’d hope it would only be a matter of time. And wouldn’t the Minster make a great location? Let me dream!”
James Swanton’s Ghost Stories for Christmas run from November 25 to December 5 at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York. A Christmas Carol will be performed on November 25, 26 and 27 and December 2, 3 and 4; The Chimes on November 28; The Haunted Man on December 5. All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Adam Sowter: Christmas jumper at the ready to play Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
PICK Me Up Theatre have revealed the full cast for Nativity! The Musical in the return of the York company’s hit show from two years ago at the Grand Opera House, York, from Friday.
Adam Sowter, of musical duo Fladam, will be effervescent assistant Mr Poppy alongside Alex Hogg as downtrodden teacher Mr Maddens, Alexandra Mather as Hollywood-bound Jennifer Lore, Jonny Holbek as dastardly, pretentious Mr Shakespeare and James Willstrop as the acid-tongued critic Patrick Burns and Hollywood producer Mr Taylor.
They will be joined by David Todd as Lord Mayor, Alison Taylor as headmistress Mrs Bevan, Victoria Lightfoot as TJ’s Mum and Branwell as Cracker the dog.
Jonny Holbek’s dastardly, supercilious Gordon Shakespeare. In 2022, he played Patrick Burns, the acerbic theatre critic
Forty-eight children chosen from across Yorkshire will play the students of rival schools St Bernadette’s and posh Oakmoor Preparatory School.
Adapted for the stage by Debbie Isitt, creator of the 2009 to 2018 film franchise (Nativity!, Nativity 2!, Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s The Donkey?! and Nativity Rocks!), the musical follows St Bernadette’s Roman Catholic Primary School, where exasperated teacher Mr Maddens and his buoyant new assistant, Mr Poppy, attempt to mount a musical version of the Nativity.
What could possibly go wrong when they promise it will be adapted into a Hollywood movie in order to outdo Oakmoor Prep?
Alex Hogg’s lovelorn primary school teacher Mr Maddens
The show features songs from the first film, such as Sparkle And Shine, Nazareth, One Night One Moment and She’s The Brightest Star. The book, music and lyrics are by Debbie Isitt and Nicky Ager; orchestrations are by George Dyer.
Pick Me Up’s revival is directed and choreographed by Attitude Dance Club owner Lesley Lettin, joined in the production team by musical director Adam Tomlinson and producer Robert Readman.
Here Lesley Lettin and Robert Readman discuss Nativity plays past and present, Christmas jumpers and tea towels with CharlesHutchPress
Lesley Lettin: Lover of the Christmas jumper
Why revive the show?
Lesley: After the huge success from the 2022 production and the sheer volume of talented kids available around York currently, we had to revisit Nativity again. It’s a perfect way into Christmas and an alternative option to the traditional pantomime.”
Robert: “It was such a success last time that I secured the rights the day after we closed in 2022! I just love the show so much.”
What will be the major differences from last time?
Lesley: “A whole new cast with the exception of Alison Taylor’s Mrs Bevan and Jonny Holbek, More lights and more sparkle!
Alison Taylor: Returning to the role of St Bernadette’s head teacher Mrs Bevan
“Since knowing Adam Sowter from The Full Monty The Musical days back in 2009, I knew he would be the perfect Mr Poppy. Alex Hogg, a seriously good performer who has been on the York stage a number of times, plays a super Mr Maddens, and watch out for celestial Jonny Holbek as Gordon Shakespeare.
“Our kids are all new this time round – both groups. Their performances are truly brilliant and trust me, the stages in York are well equipped with ridiculously brilliant talent in the years ahead! Look out for our Stars (Eliza Clarke and Ellen Dickson) , Ollies (Taylor Carlyle and Hughie Clelland) and Angel Gabriels (Finlay Walter and Dan Tomlin).”
Does Nativity! The Musical work better than the original film?
Lesley: “If you love the movie, you will love the musical and if you love the musical, you will love the movie! They both represent the brilliance of Debbie Isitt perfectly.”
James Willstrop: Waspish words as Patrick Burns, theatre critic for the Coventry Evening Telegraph
What do you recall of your own Nativity play experiences as a child?
Lesley: “Well, I played the donkey in my school Nativity so I couldn’t bring what I brought to the school stage to the Grand Opera House stage unfortunately. It would have been a more memorable experience had my school had our own Mr Poppy!”
Robert: “I never appeared in a Nativity play at school/church, but my brother Mark was a very nasty King Herod in Bubwith Church in 1969!”
What is the best use for a tea towel: the washing up or Nativity costume?
Lesley: “It’s got to be costume. Either the dishwasher or my husband will do the drying at home!”
Alexandra Mather’s Jennifer Lore: Drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood
Robert: “Neither, they make fantastic puppets. See artist Sarah Young (who I trained with in Brighton in the 1980s) and her tea towel puppet kits online.”
Do you like Christmas jumpers? If so, why? If not, why not?
Lesley: “Yes, they are the best! Christmas is my favourite time of the year and the beauty of doing this show early is I don’t have to wait till December for the countdown to start – and I’m sure everyone leaving the theatre after Nativity! will be getting their trees up and putting their jumpers on too!”
Robert: “I’ve only worn one twice – both at the Grand Opera House for Nativity! I get far too warm in any jumper.”
Adam Tomlinson: Musical director for Nativity! The Musical
What would be your Christmas message to the world?
Lesley: “Christmas is a gentle reminder that love, generosity and hope have the power to sparkle and shine in the darkest of days.”
Robert: “Relax, do one act of kindness to a stranger, don’t stress, answer the door to carollers. I used to hide as a child/teenager/now…”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 22 to 30. Performances: 7.30pm nightly, except November 25; 2.30pm, November 23, 24 and 30. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Penny for your thoughts: Jo Patmore’s prison troubadour offers to sing a song – for a price – to Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s highwayman John Swift as he awaits his hanging in John Godber’s The Highwayman
JOHN Godber is making history in more than one way in his new theatrical adventure. After more than 70 plays framed around modern culture and mores, he has gone back in time for his first historical romp.
Here is the background: “The year is 1769, when Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull thriving, and the spa towns full,” says writer-director Godber, now 68.
“Yorkshire was the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation was great.”
Godber, who once lived in the East Riding village where Dick Turpin was arrested, evokes that era with references to Turpin, fellow highwayman John Levison, and Tate Wilkinson (who managed York Theatre Royal for 36 years and opened the Hull Old Theatre, mentioned above).
He also talks of the history of the assizes and public hangings on the Tyburn gallows in York, a spectator sport of its day that could draw crowds of 100,000 [like the old Wembley Stadium].
Caught in the footlights: Dylan Allcock, left, Jo Patmore, Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Matheea Ellerby in The Highwayman
The Highwayman of the title is, however, a fictitious 18th century character, one John Swift (Emilio Encinoso-Gil), whose opening words find him in the ultimate predicament. “I know what you’re thinking. Not a great start.” Here are the noose headlines: Swift is up to his neck in trouble, the hangman’s rope ready to deliver his exit stage left.
Freeze that moment, Godber keeping both you and Swift in suspense as the highwayman goes into flashback mode to tell you his back story, struggling to make ends meet with his forthright wife Molly May (Matthea Ellerby).
This may be a history play but Godber is drawing parallels with the privations of today, the disparity between the wealthy and those in need of a northern levelling up: the York race-goers and the pilfering pickpockets at work in the crowds.
Swift by name, he is swift of hand too, but while he believes he has luck on his side, his proverbial dropped sandwich would land jam side down. Even when he works at Tate Wilkinson’s theatre, he is peed on from the dress circle above, metaphorically as well as physically.
He is torn between doing the right thing, serving in the war against the French, tilling the land, taking that theatre job, but he cannot resist temptation. Just as Turpin was arrested for shooting the Green Dragon landlord’s cockerel, Swift is nabbed for stealing a duck.
John Godber: On the highway to Hull and back
In the play’s best scenes, Encinoso-Gil’s Swift and Ellerby’s Molly are often at loggerheads, exacerbated by time spent apart and their contrasting expectations. Swift would not call himself misogynistic, but his professed deep love does not extend to believing Molly should be working, especially now they have two children.
Her constant concern is to bring more money into the home, and unlike Swift, she does so by showing spunky entrepreneurial flair, first in selling pressed flowers, then in adding scent to candles: an invention greeted by Swift with derision to rival Peter Kay’s bewildered “Garlic bread”.
Godber has described The Highwayman as “very, very different from what I’ve done before”. Indeed it is, and not only on account of its period setting. Humour is in short supply in Act One, Godber in serious mode, even heavy-handed, the pace surely too slow for a highwayman romp despite the rambunctious friction of Swift and Molly.
You might be tempted to call it “ropey” at this stage, if you like a pun, but CharlesHutchPress prefers to share the undaunted positivity of Swift.
Give Godber enough rope and Act Two is anything but a downfall, by comparison. Instead it stands and delivers an upturn, aided by Dylan Allcock and Jo Patmore’s multiple role-playing, especially Patmore’s Irish pirate queen as Swift takes to the seas.
On his high horse: Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s highwayman, John Swift, makes a point in The Highwayman
Her lugubrious troubadour, offering to sing a song – for a fee – before Swift’s hanging adds to Godber hitting his comic stride too, while Allcock especially enjoys playing the grand thespian Tate Wilkinson back in his Theatre Royal home.
The dialogue, by the way, is modern, recalling Blackadder in giving it a more contemporary clout and political resonance. The staging is in economical Godber tradition: four regularly reassembled wooden boxes, a hangman’s noose and woodland screens behind.
In keeping with past Godber shows, snatches of pertinent pop songs set scenes, while the cast savours Allcock’s high-spirited folk songs, sung lustily in the manner of Brecht & Weil’s operas.
The Highwayman will not go down in history as one of Godber’s era-defining plays, more as a dandy, if acerbic dalliance, a Yorkshire past brought into the present, as ever with hope for a changed, better future.
John Godber Company presents The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, today at 2pm and 7.45pm, SOLD OUT. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Shed Seven: Heading out on their 30th anniversary lap of honour. Picture: Barnaby Fairley
AS Shed Seven bring their 30th anniversary celebrations to a climax, Charles Hutchinson says “Let’s go” for a week of theatre, comedy, Christmas, film and musical highlights.
On the road again: Shed Seven, 30th Anniversary Tour, Hull City Hall, November 19 and Leeds O2 Academy, November 30
ON the back of topping the album charts for a second time in 2024 with Liquid Gold (after a Matter Of Time in January), York indie champs Shed Seven head out on their 30th Anniversary Tour.
The 23-date itinerary opened at Sheffield Octagon on Thursday night, with further Yorkshire gigs to follow at Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on November 18, Hull City Hall on November 19 and Leeds O2 Academy on November 30. Tickets update: the best advice is to head to shedseven.com to check for late availability.
Paddy Young: Headlining the Rye Humour bill at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Lucas Smith
Variety night of the week: Rye Humour, Comedy vs Climate Change, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
RYE Humour’s variety bill of up-and-coming comics will be headlined by Chortle Best Newcomer winner Paddy Young, a stand-up with Scarborough roots. The 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards finalist and Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee has attracted 100 million views online for his sketches with Ed Night. His comedy special, filmed by American record label 800 Pound Gorilla Records, will be released shortly.
This gig has been developed in collaboration with the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership scheme, as part of a project that uses humour to explore environmental issues based around North Yorkshire’s rivers. Any questions about the evening, or accessibility, will be answered at events@comedyvsclimatechange.org.uk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Lucy Beaumont: Off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood at Grand Opera House, York
Hullarious gig of the week: Lucy Beaumont Live, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 8pm
HULL humorist, BAFTA nominee and Taskmaster star Lucy Beaumont is determined to let loose and let slip on her rollercoaster world with off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood.
From the co-host of the chart-topping podcast Perfect Brains with Sam Campbell and creator of Meet The Richardsons comes a look at life through the Lucy lens. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Christmas Market: Stalls galore
York Christmas Market, Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square, York, until December 22, 10am to 7pm; Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland, York Designer Outlet, St Nicholas Avenue, York, until January 5, from 10am
YORK Christmas Market lines Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square with 75 chalets selling crafts, artisan products and seasonal food and drink. Four fifths of the traders come from Yorkshire, giving a showcase to local businesses. Look out for the vintage carousel in King’s Square too.
Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland’s magical festivities at the York Designer Outlet combine an outdoor ice rink and funfair with Santa’s Grotto and Alpine café The Chalet.
Disney’s Frozen: Screening in aid of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Film event of the week: Fundraising Films, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Frozen (PG), tomorrow, 2.30pm; Love Actually, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THIS weekend’s fundraiser for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre opens with a special chance for all the family to see Elsa, Anna, Sven, Olaf et al in Disney’s Frozen adventure in Arendelle.
In the evening, Christmas romance is in the air in Love Actually (15), the timeless Richard Curtis comedy stuffed with interlocking love stories. Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Colin Firth and Liam Neeson lead the stellar cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
Urbane spaceman: Garrett Millerick at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Angriest gig of the week: Garrett Millerick Needs More Space, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 8pm
IN Garrett Millerick Needs More Space, comedy’s “angriest optimist” returns for an honest and mostly historically accurate exploration of space travel as he examines his totally insignificant place in the universe and how little we actually know about anything.
Blending personal experiences with social commentary, while avoiding political partisanship in his hour-long show, Millerick – creator and star of the BBC sitcom series Do Gooders – looks to the stars to find solutions to our earthy complications. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ivo Graham: Hoping to avoid banana skins at York Theatre Royal
Up to the task: Ivo Graham: Grand Design, York Theatre Royal, November 20, 7.30pm
WHAT (yoghurt and) banana skins await old Etonian and Oxford grad Ivo Graham next? No ball games, no blind alleys, no backstage printers this time, but one of the best stand-ups of his generation out to prove he’s “not just Taskmaster’s yardstick for failure”. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Adam Sowter: Playing Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 22 to 30, 7.30pm nightly, except November 25; 2.30pm, November 23, 24 and 30
PICK Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical returns to York after a smash-hit run two years ago, this time with director and choreographer Lesley Lettin’s cast featuring 48 children hand-picked from all over Yorkshire to play students from rival schools.
Adapted for the stage by Debbie Isitt from her films, the show follows St Bernadette’s Primary School teacher Mr Maddens (Alex Hogg) and his assistant, Mr Poppy(Adam Sowter) as they strive to mount a musical version of the Nativity, promising it will be adapted into a Hollywood movie in order to outdo rival school Oakmoor Prep. Look out for Alexandra Mather as Jennifer, Jonny Holbek as Mr Shakespeare, James Willstrop as the acid tongued Critic and Cracker the dog as Branwell. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
