Mop-handed: Laura White’s villainous Abadun demands her crew polish up their act in Rowntree Players’ Sinbad
HOWARD Ella and Andy Welch are at the helm of their sixth Rowntree Players pantomime, Sinbad.
All at sea – in a good way – at the
Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday (December 14), this rollicking romp
finds the co-writers returning to The Arabian Nights: Tales Of One Thousand And
One Nights, or 1,001 Scarbadian Nights, more precisely, as Welch’ storyline
gives the seafaring adventure a Yorkshire shake-up.
Director Ella
and co-writer Welch put the naughty into nautical by telling the story with significant artistic licence, especially
for Graham Smith’s dame, Tilly Tinbad.
“In honesty, the seven voyages of
Sinbad are invariably a disaster,” notes Welch. “They tend to end with the ship
sunk and the crew lost. Not so many
laughs in that!”
Enter the humour of Ella and Welch. “We’ve
taken the bare bones of the stories – a young and eager sailor with a good
heart and a taste for adventure – and we’ve set him on a course to fight
pirates, rescue royalty and search for sunken treasure…”
“…But with plenty of silliness in
between,” says Welch. “There’s the regular environmentally friendly, recycled
comedy material, brilliant song and dance and what, we hope, is the biggest and
best slosh scene we’ve ever done!
Hannah King’s Sinbad in Sinbad at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
“I don’t want to give too much away, but
needless to say the band in the pit are bringing brollies!”
In the sixth year of their writing
partnership, Ella and Welch are confident that time is not jading them. “We’ve
really started to find our rhythm as writers and know what bits we each sparkle
at!” says Ella.
“Basically, unless we both laugh at a
gag, it doesn’t make it; unless we both love a song, it doesn’t go in, but
that’s become an instinctive filter that really helps us hone the script.
“It’s that need to appeal to every age
and humour that remains the challenge, but I think we’re getting the hang of
it.”
“Definitely,” decides Welch.
“This year is an absolute belter: fast paced, great fun and totally
ridiculous. What more do you expect from panto?!”
Rowntree Players present Sinbad, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, until Saturday, December 14. Performances: 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee (sold out). Ticket availability is limited for the remaining shows, especially for Friday (only a few left).Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Emma Osman’s Carol, left, Laurie Brett’s Anita and Gaynor Faye’s Rose in Kay Mellor’s Band Of Gold. All pictures: Anthony Robling
Kay Mellor’s Band Of Gold, Leeds Grand Theatre, until December 14. Box office: 0844 848 2700 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com
LEEDS writer and director Kay Mellor knew there was more
life “on the lane” in Bradford to be mined. The result is a Band Of Gold that’s
arguably worth even more on stage than her already precious, ground-breaking 1990s’
TV drama about northern sex workers.
For her new story of street life in Bradford’s red-light
district of Lumb Lane, Manningham, Mellor has revisited the plot and characters
of the first series and the score-writing heft of Dire Streets guitarist and
original composer Hal Lindes, while retaining and honing her own brilliant
skills of everyday detail made fresh, northern humour, dark truths, huge
emotional impact and suspenseful, thrilling storytelling. A big story, both funny
and sad, now condensed into two hours.
“They’ll get all the joy and the suspense they had from the
television version, but it’s live theatre so it has that excitement to it
because it’s unfolding in front of their very eyes” said Mellor beforehand.
Emma Osman in her “break-out role” as sex worker and single mum Carol…and what a break-out
Back then, she was an unknown writer, they were unknown
characters; they are both well-known now, but still capable of surprises,
shocks…and there is still a killer on the loose, but who killed Gina, the naïve,
novice sex worker – spoiler alert – is different. So everyone can play
detective along with The X Factor winner, Coronation Street star and Madame
Tussauds’ waxwork Shayne Ward’s Inspector Newall.
Mellor tells the story of four women, Carol, Rose, Anita and Gina, and the men that use and abuse them as they battle to survive while working in the lane. All life is here: the street pub; the homes; the dark lane; the councillor (ever reliable York actor Andrew Dunn’s Ian Barraclough); the dodgy cleaning contract businessman (Mark Sheals’s George); the chicken factory boss with a fetish (Steve Garti’s Curly); the abusive husband (Kieron Richardson’s Steve); the loan shark (Joe Mallalieu’s “Mister Moore and more) and Gina’s over-stretched mum (Olwen May’s Joyce).
“The Dunn deal”: Andrew Dunn as Councillor Ian Barraclough
Directing as well as writing Band Of Gold, Mellor has
unearthed another gem in Emma Osman, who was born in Leeds, but later brought
up in York, where she stood out as one to watch when playing Oda-Mae Brown in
Pick Me Up Theatre’s Ghost The Musical in 2014. Playing single mum Carol, she
is being billed as “newcomer Emma Osman”, and although she has appeared in
Doctors and Snatch, this is indeed her “break-out role” at 25. And what a
break-out.
Carol was “the Cathy Tyson role”, but Osman makes it her
own, bringing lip, no-nonsense nous, jagged humour, resilience and a strut to a
feisty woman who can handle a disinfectant bottle as well as she can deal with
men’s demands and the inherent dangers of her work, taking care of herself and daughter
Emma.
Carol takes Sacha Parkinson’s Gina under her wing when ends
don’t meet up paying off a loan shark by selling cosmetics door to door, having
jettisoned punchy, threatening husband Steve from their home. Parkinson is
terrific too, introverted by comparison with Osman’s flashy, gobby turn, but
deeply affecting.
Mellor’s casting is uniformly excellent, from Andrew Dunn’s
typically Dunn deal to Sheals’s repulsive George, while she writes superbly for
both the younger and older women. Laurie Brett’s Scottish Anita now sings
karaoke hits in the prostitutes’ hang-out pub, wishes her life could be more
pink and won’t call herself a call girl, although her sexual favours furnish
her home, while she also looks after the girls’ toiletry needs etc at a price. Heart
of gold, struggling for the readies, this is life on the edge, but in a
different way.
The Mellor’s tale: Writer-director Kay Mellor on the red carpet at Tuesday’s press night for Band Of Gold. Picture: Anthony Robling
Gaynor Faye’s far-from-sweet Rose runs the street, hard as
nail gloss, hooked on drugs, desperately missing the daughter she lost to the
social services. Mellor pulls off a heart-tug of a finale, and even somehow
infuses humour into the killer revelation, while all the while making serious
points about the exploitation of women.
Janet Bird’s set design of blackened sliding doors, painted thickly
with street building imagery, adds to the suspense, the sense of danger, especially
when allied to Jason Taylor’s lighting and Mic Pool’s sound design, while Yvonne
Milnes deserves a medal for her spot-on costume design, especially for Carol.
Kay Mellor’s 2017 stage conversion of Fat Friends into a musical at Leeds Grand was frank and funny, the wonderful Jodie Prenger and the novelty of Freddie Flintoff singing et al, but the fearless Band Of Gold is weightier, more significant, more empowering, more revealing. The gold standard, in fact.
The “softer side” of Steve Wickenden’s dame, Nurse Brexit, in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: David Harrison.
STEVE Wickenden suddenly had to divide himself into two in last winter’s Cinderella And The Golden Slipper.
This time he is playing a dame with a most divisive name,
Nurse Brexit, in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs as the cheeky southerner returns
north for his fourth successive Grand Opera House pantomime in York.
“I’m always one for a challenge. I love a challenge, and that’s what happened last year when we lost Ken [fellow Ugly Sister Ken Morley] from the show when he was taken ill at the first Friday matinee,” recalls Steve.
“I love Ken, he’s a dear friend, and it was sad he couldn’t
continue, but then there had to be that element of ‘Come on, let’s make
something of this’.
“By Saturday morning we were re-blocking the show on stage
after I re-worked the songs on the Friday, with me now doing both Ugly Sisters’
lines.”
Ken Morley: Steve Wickenden’s fellow Ugly Sister in Cinderella And The Golden Slipper last year before illness struck the former Coronation Street soap star. Picture: David Harrison
Steve Wickenden’s rival sibling double act as Ugly Sisters
Calpol and Covonia pretty much stole the show, but he says: “When you’re working
with people you trust and that trust you, like Martin Daniels and John Collins,
they’ll have your back. It was the younger ones in the cast who were more
nervous at first, but the thing about panto is you just have to get on with it,
as the rehearsal process is so quick you just have to crack on.”
Was Steve paid double for his impromptu one-man double act? “I’m
still waiting. Funny that!” he says.
Certainly, audiences more than had their money’s worth from
Wickenden’s extra-quick wit. “That was the thing. The audiences were really
sympathetic and just went with it, once it had been explained why there was
only me when they were expecting two Ugly Sisters. Our audiences here are very
understanding and supportive and that’s why they keep coming back.”
Last winter’s show turned into a learning curve for Steve. “The
main thing I learnt is that normally, playing the dame, if I have a spot, a
gag, a routine, I can do whatever I want. It just affects me, but what happened
last time made me think about partnerships, and they’re about the other person
and that relationship,” he says.
“It’s taught me to be more mindful of other people I’m
working with in the rehearsal room, where it’s all so quick you tend to only think
of yourself.”
Steve Wickenden’s Nurse Brexit with fellow Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs cast members Louise Henry, Jonny Muir, Vicki Michelle, Martin Daniels and Mark Little on the Grand Opera House stage. Picture: David Harrison
Playing Ugly Sister was harsh and mean spirited by comparison
with his latest dame, Nurse Brexit. “I’m looking forward to being someone
softer this time, after the nasty wicked Ugly Sisters. She’s more gentle, and I’ve
been working with Martin, who’s playing Muddles this year, to maximise our
comic relationship, to create comedy vignettes for us.”
There ain’t nothing like the dame in panto, reckons Steve. “This
is THE part to play. When I first came into panto, I always wanted to play dame.
I’d done bits and pieces of comic roles and straight roles, but I always felt
most comfortable doing this role,” he says.
“I started quite young at 27; they took a punt with me at the
Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, when I played Hyacinth Horseradish in Rapunzel. It’s
not a panto that’s done very often, but what was great was that it was a very
Mother Goose-type role in a very dame-driven show, so it really gave me the
full first experience.
“I remember they said I was ‘very good but far too pretty’ as
this beautiful young thing as I didn’t do make-up like I do it now.”
Steve had been the youngest auditionee in the room, but he took
everything in his stride. “My agent had fixed it up for me because I’d kept
saying ‘I really want to play dame’ when people had said, ‘you’re really good
but come back in two years’.
“The main thing I took from that was ‘be ugly’, and I can’t believe
how lucky I was to be given that first chance, but the even luckier thing was then
to come here, to the Grand Opera House, and develop my character and ‘find’ my
dame,” he says.
“I remember they said I was ‘very good but far too pretty’ as this beautiful young thing as I didn’t do make-up like I do it now,” says Steve Wickenden, recalling his first pantomime dame at the age of 27.
“I really play on my ‘inner southerner’, taken from my
grandmother and great grandmother, and that southern turn of phrase works
really well in a northern theatre, where it’s a bit alien, and the dame is a
bit alien anyway, and doing it in a northern theatre makes it stranger still!”
He can’t wait for opening show on Thursday (December 12) when
he starts to “get Nurse Brexit done”, right on cue on General Election night. “One
of the things I said about my first year here was the warmth coming off the
audience towards me, which, to an extent, I’ve not been able to have since then
because of the characters I’ve played: Mirabelle in Beauty And The Beast and
the Ugly Sisters,” says Steve.
“I’m looking forward to having that warmth again, rather than
last year’s boos, but it’s always exciting because it’s dame again but in a new
setting. I just love coming back here and I think it’s become my second home
now.”
In the year since he was last in York, Steve has been busy
directing a children’s theatre show, the musical Annie, doing plenty of
teaching, and performing with his Fifties’ rock’n’roll band The Bandits, even headlining
The Vintage Rock’n’Roll Festival in the South West, “just beyond Stonehenge”.
“I’d love to do a rock’n’roll number in the panto. Why not?
Maybe Tutti Frutti!” he says. “I always say that one of the wonderful things about
here is that there’s absolutely no expectation that the dame will sing well. You
can screech!”
Steve Wickenden plays Nurse Brexit in Snow
White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, December 12 to January 4
2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
Florence Poskitt: Making her York Stage Musicals debut as Gabriel, the angel who covets the role of Mary in The Flint Street Nativity. Picture: Kirkpatrick Photography
YORK Stage Musicals will bring an alternative
festive offering to York this Christmas for the first time, staging The Flint
Street Nativity at the John Cooper Studio @41Monkgate from December
12 to 22.
Tim Firth’s story was first performed as a television drama on ITV in
1999 with a cast featuring York actor Mark Addy, Frank Skinner, Neil Morrissey
and Jane Horrocks.
Firth, the Frodsham-born writer of Neville’s Island, All Quiet On The
Preston Front, Calendar Girls and the Madness musical Our House, then re-worked
it for the Liverpool Playhouse stage premiere in 2006.
Firth’s show follows “Mizzis Horrocks’s” class of seven year olds as they
prepare to perform their Nativity play at Flint Street Junior School for the
proud mums and dads – and the occasional social worker.
Squabbles arise when Angel Gabriel wants to play Mary; the Star grumbles
he isn’t a proper star like they have at NASA; Herod won’t stop waving to his parents
and the subversive Innkeeper is determined to liven up the traditional script.
Then the class stick insect escapes.
Leading the ensemble company as the ambitious Angel Gabriel will be
blossoming York actress and comedienne Florence Poskitt, making her York Stage
debut alongside Fiona Baistow in the coveted role of Mary. Look out too
for YSM debutant Conor Wilkinson, playing both Herod and Joseph.
The York Stage Musicals’ show poster for The Flint Street Nativity
Here, Charles Hutchinson asks York Stage Musicals artistic
director Nik Briggs to come forth on Firth by answering a Christmas sack-load
of questions.
What made you choose this Tim Firth
piece as your debut Christmas production?
“York is the ultimate Christmas
destination, and many people ask us each year what we’re staging
at Christmas but it hasn’t been something we’ve ventured into before. But then
Jim Welsman [chairman at the time] asked us if we’d be interested in bringing
a Christmas offering to 41 Monkgate, so I jumped at the chance and knew
what show would be the perfect choice.
“I was looking for one that really
would provide the city with an alternative theatrical offering. It needed to be
a show that suited York Stage and the 41Monkgate venue. Flint Street was
the perfect choice. It’s not saccharine; it’s fun, energetic and a
tad off the wall.
“So, come join us as we alter your perspective on not only the art and
politics of the humble Nativity, but the John Cooper Studio as a whole!”
What makes The Flint Street Nativity so humorous?
“This festive play really is one of the funniest observations I’ve come
across based on the Christmas holidays. Everyone knows the traditions
surrounding the institution of the school Nativity, tea towels tied to the
head and tinsel-clad Angels everywhere, but Tim Firth has created
a brilliant script, set in the build-up to the much-anticipated show
filled with laughs and pathos in an oversized classroom where adults play
the children in Mrs Horrocks’s class.”
What do you most enjoy about Tim
Firth’s writing?
“The detail
in the observation of the people he writes about is just brilliant; it really
is all on the page. Like in Calendar Girls, you can relate to and recognise the
characters. The seven year olds just come to life through the writing.
“I work with children of this age
quite regularly and, as I read the script, I could see the
children he was talking about and describing. It seems far-fetched to some, but
it really isn’t! Then, the twist in the final scenes and his ability to
inject just the right amount of pathos into a riotous comedy is what
clinches it for me.”
What are the particular challenges of
this piece for director and cast?
“The key to
the whole show, for me, comes in getting the final part of the show just right,
when – spoiler alert! – the actors who’ve been playing the
children throughout then turn to play the respective parents and we
see what’s made the children the way they are.
“It’s been fairly easy to work on the
scenes with the brilliant actors where they’re playing around and having
lots of fun playing the seven year olds, but actually getting that to tie in
with the adults is where the magic is, so we started the rehearsals with the
adult scenes and got to know them before we then worked on creating
their children, as it’s the adults who nurture.”
What is Tim Firth’s Christmas
message?
“The final
line in the play is ‘I’m in a Nativity. Yeah, it’s great…really brings it
home’, and I think that sums it up. In the fast-paced world we live in,
the simplest, purest things can really make you slow down and take stock.”
Assistant director Jonny Holbek with Florence Poskitt’s despondent Angel Gabriel
What are your recollections of
Nativity plays when you were nobbut a lad?
“Absolute terror!
Every year, I’d come in from school and tell my mother that I’d been cast
as a lead role in the show. Every year, she’d then have to go in and tell
that year’s teacher that they should be prepared that come the day of the show, I’d
just cry and refuse to go on as I suffered from crippling stage
fright!
“They would assure her I’d been
fine in class rehearsing and that I was doing brilliantly with
it. Then every year she’d turn up and sit in the hall expectantly, to be
hauled out by the teacher and informed I was having a meltdown. This
happened every year until I was ten!”
Why are Nativity plays still
important?
“Purity! It’s
plain and simple to see in any Nativity the purity in the children and the
performances they give. Sadly, it’s not a quality we always see in society and
on stage nowadays. so let’s cling on to it in Nativity plays!
What have been your highlights of the
York Stage Musicals year in 2019?
“2019 really has
been a dream. We had the opportunity to produce a classic musical in
The Sound Of Music; have worked on new writing with Twilight Robbery; created magic
with our acclaimed youth production of Disney’s Aladdin, but I think the
cherry on the top has to be Shrek The Musical at the Grand Opera House
in September.
“The buzz around the production, from
auditions through to the closing night, were just electric. The reviews and
comments were just sensational. It really did raise our bar yet again and will
really be a cherished production for us for a very long time.”
What’s coming next for York Stage
Musicals?
“We have a
bit of a bumper year planned already actually. An Eighties’ classic, a York
premiere, a birthday celebration and what is set to be possibly the biggest and
messiest youth show the city has ever seen!
“We start in February with Robert
Haring’s Steel Magnolias at 41 Monkgate. We then head across town to the Grand
Opera House with a brand-new production of Bugsy Malone in April.
Chris Knight’s perennially enthusiastic Donkey in York Stage Musicals’ “monster hit”, Shrek The Musical, at the Grand Opera House, York, in September
“Then it’s a return to Monkgate in
May to present the York premiere of Sondheim On Sondheim to mark Stephen
Sondheim’s 90th birthday [on March 22 2020].
“We’re still firming up plans for our
big autumn show, but things are looking exciting, and we’ll again end the year
back at 41 Monkgate with another Christmas alternative!”
And finally, Nik, what would be your Christmas
Day message to the nation?
“People of
the United Kingdom, it seems that the country truly is in the… No, in all
seriousness, we are in a transition, whether we want to be or not.
“In times of transition and change,
we have to really look out for each other as not everyone will move at the same
pace or be able to keep up. Stay genuine and be kind to those around us
and trust that love will always win.
“Sadly
nowadays, there are too many people in the world who like to over-promise and
oversell themselves for personal gain. This can only lead
to disappointment as we can see everywhere. “Know yourself, know your
limits, don’t compare yourself to others and work hard to run your
own race. Celebrate successes briefly, remain humble and learn from your
mistakes.”
York Stage Musicals present The Flint
Street Nativity, John Cooper Studio @41 Monkgate, York, December 12 to 22,
7.30pm except Sundays at 6pm. Box office: 01904 623568, at
yorkstagemusicals.com or in person from the York Theatre Royal box office.
Putting the Royal into York Theatre Royal: Martin Barrass as Queen Ariadne in Sleeping Beauty. Picture: Anthony Robling
HE ain’t nothing like a dame. Instead, Martin Barrass, perennial pantomime soft lad, comic stooge and sidekick punchbag, will not so much step into Berwick Kaler’s big boots at York Theatre Royal as reinvent himself in regal mode for Sleeping Beauty.
All rise for Barrass’s Queen Ariadne as the Hull-born actor adds to his repertoire in his 33rd panto, performing once more alongside David Leonard’s villainous Evil Diva, Suzy Cooper’s Princess Beauty and AJ Powell’s Darth Diva.
Dame Berwick may have left the stage after 40 years of pantomayhem, but he has not left the building, writing the script once more and directing the morning rehearsal sessions, as he works in tandem with new co-director Matt Aston for the first time.
Kaler has not been available for interviews, concentrating his energies elsewhere at 73 and leaving the spotlight to Barrass and others, although the betting odds are shorter than for Frankel at York Racecourse in 2012 that the departed dame will make an appearance on screen.
He’s still with stupid! “There’s still a bit there that’s my familiar character, so it has shades of the idiot,” says Martin Barrass. Picture: Anthony Robling
“My Queen will be like a duck,” says 63-year-old Barrass. “Looking serene on the surface but paddling away frantically beneath the water.
“This year, it sounds very much like I’ll be in a transitional place, where the dame would have been. My Queen will be ‘alpha and unputdownable’, but there’s still a bit there that’s my familiar character, so it still has shades of the idiot.”
Rather than anyone filling the black hole of pandemonium left by Kaler, the Panto Four will share the challenge, although the most intriguing progression is Barrass’s switch. “I’m aware it’s an enormous undertaking because people stop you in the street to ask, ‘So, Martin, are you the dame this year?’, and I have to say, ‘No, I’m the Queen of all her subjects’.
“I know I’m following in the footsteps of a master, the greatest ad-libber ever, and what you have to be in this role is slightly above it, aware of what’s going on around you, being prepared for any audience heckles.
Re-united: The Panto Four, now minus retired Dame Berwick Kaler,, in familiar pose, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard, Martin Barrass and A J Powell
“Comedy like this always has to be flexible, always switched on for the unexpected, the chance to be anarchistic.
”It will be a case of calming myself down for what lies ahead, but I’m lucky to have watched a genius in operation at close hand.”
You can sense that far from being intimidated by the task, Barrass is rising to it, just as he did when playing the deformed Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man or Stan Laurel in Laurel And Hardy at the Theatre Royal; station porter Albert Perks in E Nesbit’s The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum; or the 87-year-old waiter in Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors for the National Theatre at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Or, earlier this year, excelling as band conductor Danny Ormondroyd, “the Peter Postlethwaite role”, in Brassed Off at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Bounce back: Martin Barrass in rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. Picture: Anthony Robling
“I loved playing Perks, blowing the whistle, controlling the engines, just as I loved playing Danny, conducting a band of 36. I don’t know how we crammed them all in!” says Martin. “Being tone deaf, I had to learn everything about conducting. Playing Danny, he’s the king of his fiefdom, his colliery brass band, and he’s to be feared in some way, when you really make people listen to you.
“So now, playing Queen Ariadne, she won’t be afraid to throw her weight around, but in a nice way, as I’m only eight and a half stone.”
Over his 33 years as the stooge, Barrass has played all manner of animals, a giant carrot, a goofy archbishop and a twist on his hapless One Man, Two Guvnors character, the venerable, if physically vulnerable Chinese philosopher Wisehopper. The Queen will be different again. “Don’t expect to see a scrap of make-up because it’s in the tradition of Old Mother and Berwick’s dame: you know it’s played by a bloke,” he says.
“But how you play it is a tonal thing: you can have a lot of fun with the ‘bunchness’ of the voice, for example. Berwick always said, ‘I don’t want to offend the men in the room’, so I won’t be veering into the realms of drag and camp. I’ll leave that to David Leonard!”
Exit the dame: An emotional Martin Barrass, for so long his comic stooge, embraces Berwick Kaler at the close of the veteran dame’s last performance in The Grand Old Dame Of York on February 2.. Pictures: Anthony Robling
Placing his Queen, as opposed to a dame, Martin says: “Normally the role is someone like a washer woman of lower status, but you don’t get any bigger than the Queen! I’ll be playing her as a cross between Eric Morecambe and Fanny Craddock.
“As Berwick would be the first to say, you should do whatever suits you, whatever you’re at ease with, though there’ll still be traces of Hull in my Queen.
“So this Queen will be as common as muck, and that’s how you have fun with it, along with assuming Berwick’s role of always having the last say.”
He’s just had it!
Martin Barrass stars in Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, December 7 to January 25. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Angels in town: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust cast members for A Nativity for York stand outside the Spurriergate Centre, York. Picture: John Saunders
A NATIVITY for
York is in its final week of rehearsals before premiering from December 12 to
15 at the Spurriergate Centre, Spurriergate, York.
Directed by Philip
Parr and produced by York Mystery Plays
Supporters Trust (YMPST), this hour-long production with live music is based on
the surviving manuscript of the medieval York Mystery
Plays in the British Library, while being infused with a contemporary resonance
to “remind us that this story is not so very far from our own modern-day
experience”.
From the 14th to
16th centuries, episodes from the Bible were presented on wagons pulled through
the streets of York by the City Guilds of Craftsmen,
celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi in early summer. Next week’s show draws
text from eight of the 48 short plays, presented in a modernised version of a
northern dialect of Middle English, so audiences can follow the
action while retaining the all-important sounds of the language.
Ged Murray and Jenna Drury in rehearsal for A Nativity for York. Picture: Nick Ansell
Telling the
biblical story from the creation of the world, through the life of Jesus Christ,
to the Day of Judgement, and grounded in human experience, the Mystery Plays
were “made by the people for the people”. In next week’s new Nativity for York,
the celebration of the birth of Jesus – the Christmas miracle – is juxtaposed
with the story of an ordinary couple caught up in events beyond their control
that will change their lives forever.
“The Nativity is
probably a story that much of our audience will know, but we wanted to give it
a fresh, new and contemporary perspective,” says Parr. “Joseph, Mary and their
baby are really no different from any other refugees: fleeing their country,
persecution and the threat of death.
“To tell the story
within this setting, and to ask questions of what happens now, we hope will
engage audiences to take that question away with them.”
Parr’s production – his first as artistic director for YMPST – draws
on the long Mystery Plays tradition of community performance and storytelling,
utilising York actors, singers and musicians.
In elevated company: The Angels ascend to the heights in a York shop as they promote A Nativity for York. Picture: John Saunders
YMPST chair Linda Terry says: “Our community cast bring a wealth
of experiences, commitment and talent to the work, which has made creating this
production incredibly powerful.
“As we move into
the Spurriergate Centre, we’re looking forward to presenting our first Nativity for York to residents
and visitors. It’s moving, thought provoking and full of beautiful music.”
Director
Philip Parr is a widely experienced director of theatre, opera and festivals
who has worked both in Britain and internationally, establishing a reputation for
directing large-scale community productions, chiefly working as artistic
director of Parrabbola, collaborating with communities across Europe.
His theatre work has ranged from main-house
productions to small-scale rural touring shows, including working at
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Bayerisches Staatsoper and the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden, as well as being founder and artistic director of
Spitalfields Opera.
A Nativity for York cast members gather at a rehearsal at Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, York. Picture: John Saunders
A founding member of the European
Shakespeare Festivals network, he has directed the Swaledale Festival and Bath
Shakespeare Festival and is director of the York International
Shakespeare Festival.
Directing YMPST’s first solo
production, Parr says: “Creating a new Nativity cycle
for York is both a wonderful artistic challenge
and an enormous responsibility. I’m excited to have been given that
responsibility.”
Performances start at 6.30pm on December 12 and 13; 12 noon, 2pm and 6.30pm, December 14, and 12 noon and 2pm, December 15. Tickets cost £10, under 16s £6, on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.
Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham in Badapple Theatre’s Christmas show, The Snow Dancer. All pictures: Karl Andre
BADAPPLE Theatre Company set out on the road tomorrow with
their Christmas show, The Snow Dancer, a tale to perk the interest of teenage environmental
activist Greta Thunberg.
Written and directed by the Green Hammerton company’s
artistic director, Kate Bramley, the setting is The Great Wood, where something
is awry. The animals are desperate for sleep, but with the onset of global
warming and climate change, the weather is just too warm.
The show’s intrepid heroes, played by Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor, decide they must seek out the mysterious Snow Dancer if there is any chance of ever making it snow for Christmas.
Ahead of tomorrow’s preview show at Hunsingore Village Hall, Charles Hutchinson puts director Kate Bramley in the hot seat.
Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham with one of the puppets in The Snow Dancer
What prompted you
to write The Snow Dancer, Kate?
“I started work on this show in 2017 with composer
Jez Lowe. There are many stories of indigenous peoples around the globe who had
the tradition of dancing to bring on the snow for the season, but as far as we
know there are no surviving stories of actual Snow Dancers!”
Were you inspired
by any existing Christmas stories?
“I’ve worked on a lot of Christmas stories in the
past, so even though this one is completely original and doesn’t follow an
existing story, there are still recognisable elements.
“We have Ida the March Hare, who is a meddling
villain, for example. But, if anything, it’s a classic ‘quest’ story, where the
children head off through the woods to save the world and encounter a few
setbacks on the way.”
Ida, the March Hare: the meddling villain in The Snow Dancer
Does writing a
Christmas story make different demands of you as a writer, given certain
audience expectations?
“I suppose over the years we have created a
Badapple style of storytelling that is open to audiences of all ages, so for
the family Christmas shows I just have to make sure that the structure is
suitable for younger viewers, with lots of things going on.
“We have some beautiful – and very cheeky –
woodland puppets in this one, so hopefully that will help keep the kids
entertained!
“I think there’s a Pixar animation and commercial pantomime
expectation nowadays that tells Christmas stories on a grand scale, which we
can’t necessarily do! But I work for a number of months with our designer,
Catherine Dawn, to create little ‘magic moments’ of theatre that run throughout
the story. There may be some surprises for audiences!”
Hedgehog incoming: Danny Mellor with another of Badapple’s puppets for The Snow Dancer
Global warming is
the political issue of our day, even if Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s place
was taken by a dripping block of ice on the Leaders’ debate on Channel 4. What
impact can a play make at this time?
“I’m not sure that any one play can make an impact.
But it’s about contributing to a conversation, I think. As a company, we often
re-use sets and costume; rarely buy anything new and have our power from
renewable sources; actively recycle and try to avoid wastage.
“But we’re realising that we just do all that
quietly and don’t particularly discuss the issues with our audiences.
“What has changed over the past couple of years
since I started work on this project is that it is young people globally who
are at the forefront of the campaign for change. And it feels like we should
all take them seriously. And that’s why the heroes in our story, Sol and
Aurora, are 17…and they save the world! Simple!”
Anastasia Benham: playing an intrepid hero in Badapple Theatre Company’s Christmas show, The Snow Dancer
As a company that
travels by road, from village to village, to provide “theatre on your doorstep”,
how do you go eco?
“As part of our ambition for this project, I asked
Catherine and John [Badapple stage and lighting designer
John Bramley] to create an eco-set that was made
from re-claimed materials, using partners like the Community Furniture Store
and Community RePaint among others.
“But, more than that, Catherine has created a
forest setting out of ‘human junk’! It’s an incredibly beautiful and
atmospheric design with donated ladders as trees, broken umbrella canopies and
much more. So not only is it a recycled set but it also makes a statement about
re-cycling or up-cycling. She’s very clever!
“The final piece of our funding for this project
was for our team to assess our sustainability as an organisation and create a
report as to what we might do in the future to further decrease our carbon
footprint.”
What did that report involve?
“We collected some data last year that showed the
percentages of audiences that came to our shows on foot, from under a mile
radius, and it’s a pretty high number. So, the next part of our process is to
look at our touring (driving) footprint as well as the audiences (lower)
footprint and see how much further we can go.
“John has already started to explore electric
vehicles but there isn’t currently a vehicle that would fit our needs and run
on electric. So, we could run two electric vehicles but, of course, there is a
carbon cost in the production of those vehicles.
“Anyway, it’s an ongoing debate, but we’re
delighted that we’re having the chance to discuss these elements in detail and
hopefully by next summer we’ll have an even more effective strategy! It’s a
work in progress for everyone, I think.”
Let it snow: Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor in Badapple’s The Snow Dancer
How do you balance
humour and a more serious message in the play?
“For anyone who knows my writing, they’ve probably
cottoned on to the fact that I’m usually delivering social politics by stealth!
It’s humour first and then perhaps at the end of the show the audiences will
think over the story and maybe ask some questions of themselves at a later
stage.”
Who is the Snow
Dancer and why is the Snow Dancer mysterious, or had that better remain a
mystery?!
“The Snow Dancer is one of four spirit dancers
that, back before the dawn of time, was responsible for dancing to bring in the
winter season. Over the centuries the other dancers have retired, and only the
Snow Dancer remains.
“But with the weather so unseasonably warm in the
Great Wood, we can only conclude he’s gone on strike! But he’s hiding somewhere
and our heroes must find him and persuade him to dance to get the weather back
to normal, so that all the animals can get some sleep. That’s an old Badapple
legend, by the way!”
Will Anastasia Benham’s intrepid hero be outfoxed? Find out in The Snow Dancer
What would be your
Christmas Day message to the nation in 2019?
“Choose love. Try to scale down the wastage on the un-necessary a bit and focus on supporting your loved ones and those in need in the community. Our Christmas charities this year are Safe Passage where we are founder members and also The Woodland Trust. Maybe some of our audiences might choose to support them as well.”
What are your New
Year wishes for Badapple?
“I want to congratulate my team really. We’ve worked through a difficult couple of years financially with some great shows under our belts and everyone is still smiling! We’re 21 in 2020 so we’re officially a grown-up company now! Hopefully we’ll keep entertaining and inspiring the communities who so kindly invite us into their midst.”
Badapple Theatre Company present The Snow Dancer
from December 5 to 29.
Campaign badges: Anastasia Benham in Badapple’s climate change cautionary tale, The Snow Dancer
Tour dates for December 2019:
December 5, Hunsingore Village Hall, LS22 5HY, preview show; box office, 01423 339168.
6, Harpham &
Lowthorpe Village Hall. YO25 4QZ; 07867 692616.
Talegate Theatre’s Widow Twankey in Aladdin at Pocklington Arts Centre
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre is staging two
Christmas shows with the emphasis on “fantastic festive family fun”.
First up, The People’s Theatre Company present
Steven Lee’s Santa In Love on Saturday afternoon, promising to unveil magical
secrets for audiences aged four and over at 2.30pm.
If you have ever wanted to know from where
the fairy on top of the Christmas tree comes, why you never see a Christmas
elf, or maybe the answer to the greatest secret of them all – the one about
Santa Claus and the thing he secretly loves best – then this is the show for
you.
Santa will be available to meet little
ones after the show and each child will receive a gift.
Next, Talegate Theatre’s Aladdin on
December 14 brings you “the pantomime you have always wished for”.
Follow the heroic Aladdin and his
troublesome mum, Widow Twankey, to see if they can beat the evil Abanazar to
the magic lamp in time for Aladdin to win the hand of Princess Jasmine.
Talegate
Theatre’s 2.30pm show will be packed with songs, slapstick, silliness and fairy-tale magic.
Pocklington
Arts Centre director Janet Farmer says: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when our
auditorium is filled with audiences of all ages enjoying some fantastic festive
family fun.
“Our Christmas stage shows enhance our
year-round family theatre offering and really mark the start of the build-up to
Christmas and the New Year, but they always prove hugely popular, so I would
recommend buying tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.”
Tickets for Santa In Love cost £9 each or £34 for a family ticket; Aladdin, £10, under 21s £8, family £33, on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Headliner: York poet Carole Bromley will perform at Scarborough’s Rotunda Muaeum this Christmas. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
YORK poet Carole Bromley is the headline act for the Christmas Rotunda
Night at Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum on December 21.
She will be joined at this 6.30pm to 9pm festive celebration by the Scarborough-told Tales storytellers and Whitby a cappella group The Windmill Girls.
Carole’s work has appeared in many journals and compilations and she has
three collections to her name: A Guide Tour Of The Ice House,The
Stonegate Devil and Blast Off!, a book for children. She
has won such prizes as the Bridport Prize for Poetry, Brontë Society Literary
Award and 2019 Hamish Canham Award from the Poetry Society.
The Windmill Girls: a cappella carols
Scarborough-told Tales brings together storytellers who have graduated
from a Rotunda workshop course, now making a return visit after their performance
in July.
The all-female choir The Windmill Girls sing acapella carols, many drawn
from the rich tradition of “village” carols, some dating from the18th century
and boasting exuberant choruses.
Scarborough-told Tales: stories for Christmas. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Simon Hedges, head of curation, collections and exhibitions at
Scarborough Museums Trust, which runs the Rotunda Museum and Scarborough Art
Gallery, says: “This promises to be a brilliant festive treat, with poetry,
great stories and seasonal music – just right for getting into the Christmas
spirit.”
Tickets for this Rotunda Night cost £7.50 including a glass of wine, beer, Christmas punch or soft drink. Places are limited, so advance booking is recommended on 01723 353665.
Conflux: “a lyrical audio collage bursting with voice and music “. Image: Katie Allen
COMMON Ground Theatre and Hannah Bruce and Company present
Conflux, a lyrical audio collage bursting with voice and music in the heart of
York this weekend.
It will be launched by private invitation only to previews at 4pm, 4.30pm and 5pm today and tomorrow at Piccadilly Bridge, on the Foss, next to Tesco Express, before being made available to the public as a download from Monday, December 2, for one year.
The Conflux audio walk is an hour of stories, imaginings and musings inspired by the Castle Gateway area. Accessed via an app on personal devices, the rich sound world guides listeners on a journey through York’s oldest site of stronghold, power and resistance.
“It’s part podcast, part poem, part accidental car park,” says
Conflux host Hannah Davies, the York writer, poet, performer and Common Ground
artistic director, who has worked with sound designer and composer Jonathan
Eato and director Hannah Bruce.
“Conflux takes listeners on a trip to find the often forgotten and
mostly ignored, the stories that lurk on street corners and under the tarmac.
Starting by the river Foss on Piccadilly, listeners follow the in-audio
instructions to explore one of the city’s most fascinating and iconic sites in
a captivating and irreverent blend of past and present, with contributions from
36 York residents.”
Using art to reference the past while looking to the future of the iconic city-centre site, this free outdoor audio experience is the second of a trio of art commissions to be presented as part of City of York Council’s consultation on Castle Gateway.
Conflux is funded through Leeds City Region Business Rates Pool,
which allows local authorities to retain growth in business rates for local
investment. It is supported with public funding by the National Lottery through
Arts Council England, as well as supported by City of York Council and York
Mediale, York’s digital media arts enterprise. The University of York Music
Department has provided support for this project too.
Writer Hannah says: “As someone who lives
and works in this city, it was great to spend time in a part of town that I
usually only use as a short cut. Our city is full of history but that’s not
everything that’s important about it.
“We wanted to capture a sense of now, brushing up against the
past. The fragmented messy layers of it all. History is not neat. Nor is
everyday life.
“We spent a lot of time on the site at different times of day and
met and spoke to some really interesting people whose voices appear in Conflux.
I know so much about the site now, I’ll never see it in the same light again.
And I’ve definitely developed a thing for Clifford’s Tower, such an iconic part
of York I used to take for granted. Now I do a little inner wave to it every
time I pass.”
Those attending this weekend’s previews will need a smartphone,
earbuds or headphones and details of the event code for the app. “Please dress for the
weather and be prepared for an outdoor walk,” advises Hannah.
Details regarding the app and the event code for specific time slots have been sent in advance to the audio walkers, who will start out from Piccadilly Bridge, having met at Spark York for information and support.
For full download instructions, visit the Common Ground website, cgtheatre.co.uk/portfolio/conflux, from Monday, December 2.
