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Caravan Guys ponder toxic masculinity in savage satire How To Beat Up Your Dad

The naked truth: Theo Mason Wood and Albert Haddenham in How To Beat Up Your Dad. Pictures: Mollie Gallagher

CARAVAN Guys Theatre Company’s darkly comic tale of “toxic masculinity”, How To Beat Up Your Dad (The Musical), is taking to the road.

First stop for this debut show – first performed in its entirety at The Arts Barge Riverside Festival in York last July – will be at Slung Low’s home at The Holbeck Theatre, in Leeds, on February 9.

On stage at 5pm will be Albert Haddenham and York actor, musician and writer Theo Mason Wood, son of York playwright Mike Kenny and stage and screen actress Barbara Marten.

First making his mark on the York music scene with Bonnie Milnes in the darkly humorous The Lungs and Gwen, Theo graduated from the drama and theatre arts degree course at Goldsmiths, University of London, three summers ago.

Now comes Caravan Guys’ savagely satirical tale of one young man’s journey through manhood, taking him from being a meek teenager looking for the secret, to losing his virginity, to becoming a young man stealing Yakults™, searching for happiness and finally standing up to his own dad with his fists.

Please note, this show is a “free-form piece of dark comedy about the damaging and violent nature of masculinity and doesn’t actually give any instructions on beating up your own dad”. Instead, as told through a cocktail of performance, spoken word, music and storytelling, humour and hubris, How To Beat Up Your Dad is a comedy about masculinity and all the wrong ways to solve your problems.

Here Theo steps out of the caravan to answer Charles Hutchinson’s questions.

Who are the Caravan Guys and why is the company so called, Theo?

“Caravan Guys is myself, Theo Mason Wood, and Albert Haddenham, of Bridlington, a charismatic sausage/multi-instrumentalist with the best sense of humour and big strong hands.

“We are the draughty corridor between hilarity and horror,” says Theo Mason Wood, pictured on the run behind Albert Haddenham,

“We met about 14 months ago and immediately found that we found the same things funny. On New Year’s night last year, we drunkenly swore to make something together and that’s how How To Beat Up Your Dad (The Musical) was born.

“People do awful things, really weird awful things and Caravan Guys want to show you why and make you laugh at them. We are the draughty corridor between hilarity and horror. We are the unknown stain on the caravan floor and the reason it’s going cheaply.”

What was the inspiration for the show?

“The absurdity of masculinity. The script was originally a short story I wrote; I compiled some real stories of extreme and absurd situations that I and other men I know have been in and then applied them all to one character. I find myself constantly amazed by the lengths men will go to assert themselves. It’s shocking and often unpleasant but also really funny.”

Where do you stand on masculinity? Some say men are becoming emasculated, such as in the way they are portrayed in adverts and increasingly on TV. On the other hand, your play highlights “the damaging and violent nature of masculinity”. Discuss…

“Although the phrase gets used a lot, I really do think that masculinity is spectacularly fragile. As a culture, we’re all becoming more aware of this, so the cracks in the macho façade are growing bigger and bigger, and I think we’re all a lot more able to see it for what it is.

“The play shows how sexism and homophobia are often just defences against feeling emasculated. These tropes of masculinity say a lot more about the individual’s sense of self than it does about the groups they are attacking.

“As men, we have been taught that sadness, anxiety and vulnerability are not valid emotions; to cry is to be weak and to be weak is to not be masculine. Therefore, often men will push outwards when experiencing these feelings, they will turn it into rage, aggression and violence.”

“Many men don’t have the correct tools to deal with their emotions and will lash out because anger is seen as masculine while sadness isn’t ,” says Theo Mason Wood

How is that reflected in your play?

“This is what I mean when I say the play is about the damaging and violent nature of masculinity, I mean that many men don’t have the correct tools to deal with their emotions and will lash out because anger is seen as masculine while sadness isn’t. “Although this all sounds very serious – which it is – our show is largely a comedy and we aim to create a space where we can all laugh at the strange things men do to protect themselves from feeling small.”

Explain the provocative choice of show title…

“This is not a musical, nor is it a guide on how to beat up your dad. I don’t know your dad, he might be really hard.

“Our hero, Amon, has a lot of emotional issues tied up in his experiences with his Dad when he was a child. The show starts with Amon as a pre-teen upset because he hasn’t been allowed to come to his own dad’s wedding.

“The play then follows Amon into adulthood and becoming ‘a man’ via some pretty terrible experiences. Finally, he wants to confront his father and get some closure but the man he returns home to isn’t the alpha male he grew up in fear of. Now he does meditation and has started wearing beads.”

What do you love about dark comedy? Your songs with Bonnie Milnes in The Lungs and Gwen occupied that terrain too.

“I think comedy is a brilliant vehicle for making a point without boring people. Serious issues can be very serious and often no fun to talk about.

“Comedy allows people to enjoy thinking and learning; comedy makes things that are hard to swallow much much easier to swallow. Personally, I’d rather have a laugh than a scowl but that doesn’t have to mean the content of discussion can’t be an important one.”

There’s nudity in the show…why?!

“People are paying whatever they want to for a ticket, so I want them to feel they’ve got their money’s worth.”

In a field of their own:: Albert Haddenham, front, and Theo Mason Wood contemplate masculinity in How To Beat Up Your Dad

One reviewer called The Caravan Guys’ comedy style “punk, a bit scary, Berkoff, brave”, How would you define it?

“We blur the lines between fiction and reality: the story tells one narrative, of masculinity and how trauma is inherited and shared, how victims become perpetrators. As we shift between characters and ourselves we tell another, deeper and darker narrative about us as men: our competitiveness, our need to dominate, to show off, to win the play.

“Our  work is raucous and violent. It is completely free form. We drag the audience through styles, times, places and people to show all the insidious ways masculinity gets its claws in.”

What else are you up to, Theo?

“Currently I perform comedy music under the title Jean Penne and I’ll soon be releasing a small book of short stories.

“Meanwhile, me and Albert are going to continue to try and become the Simon and Garfunkel of dark comedy. After selling out a number of shows in Manchester and London, we look forward to bringing the explosive How To Beat Up Your Dad to Leeds and Bristol in February, the Brighton Fringe in May and Cambridge in July.

“We’ll then take the show to the Edinburgh Fringe and the rest of the world (Bridlington) and then get cracking on the next play.”

Caravan Guys Theatre Company in How To Beat Up Your Dad (The Musical), at Slung Low’s The Holbeck Theatre, Leeds, February 9, 5pm. Box office: via slunglow.org, at quaytickets.com or on 0843 208 0500. Please note, this is a Pay What You Decide After The Show performance.

Interview copyright of The Press, York, from July 23 2019

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New writer, new director, new direction and no Berwick for next Theatre Royal panto

The final curtain: Berwick Kaler’s final wave on the night he retired after 40 years as York Theatre Royal’s dame on February 2 2019

TEN KEY POINTS FROM YORK THEATRE ROYAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TOM BIRD’S BBC RADIO YORK INTERVIEW WITH ADAM TOMLINSON THIS AFTERNOON

1. A new writer and director, with a new direction, will be appointed to make a “spectacular, fabulous, really York” Theatre Royal pantomime for 2020-2021.

2. Yes, it will still be a pantomime, not a winter show.

3. No, Berwick Kaler will not be involved as writer, co-director or dame.

4. Audience figures have declined for 11 years, from as high as 54,190 for Dick Turpin in 2008 to 30,000 so far (with two weeks to go) for Sleeping Beauty. Those “collapsing” figures have to be checked and reversed by attracting a new audience as well as retaining the regular theatregoers.

5. The current contract practice with the regular players, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper, Martin Barrass and A J Powell,  is an unspoken agreement of a return for the next show, but Mr Bird wanted to be clear with those performers that this time this would not be the case. No-one is guaranteed an automatic contract renewal and no-one is on a long contract.

6. No regrets at the “halfway house” of retaining retired dame Berwick Kaler as writer and co-director for Sleeping Beauty as a chance to showcase the talents of the “amazing” cast regulars in a way audiences had not seen before, and “to some extent” this had happened. However, from ticket launch day onwards, some people had said ‘No, I’m not going to go.”

7. Refuting Berwick Kaler’s charges of “cheap sets, cheap costumes” for Sleeping Beauty, Mr Bird said the overall pantomime budget had increased. The designer [Anthony Lamble] was new, but the set and costume expenditure was the same as it was for The Grand Old Dame Of York last winter.

8. The new director and writer will need to have free rein for next winter’s pantomime, and if they were told they had to have certain actors, that would not be free rein. It should be a free shot, a state of autonomy, without any ties restricting them.

9. Could there be a U-turn, given that 1,400 people have signed an online petition to bring back Berwick? No.

Berwick had created something extraordinary over 40 years, but this is how life works: the panto needs a re-boot, one where “you don’t have to be in the club to come”.

10. The 2020-2021 pantomime will be announced at a launch on February 3.

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THE LAST WORD. Will Berwick Kaler ever play York Theatre Royal’s panto dame again? No.

Dame Berwick Kaler’s final wave at the end of his 40 years of pantomimes at York Theatre Royal on February 2 2019. All pictures: Anthony Robling

“Things have not gone well and it’s not the fault of the cast. The sets do not do what the script requires.” Dame Berwick Kaler, The Press, York, January 9.

IT should not have come to this, and yet it was inevitable. Berwick Kaler told the full house on the last night of his 40-year damehood on February 2 last year that he would be “back like a shot” if the Theatre Royal came a’calling.

Now, in a move without consultation with those above him to match the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the very same week, and always a law unto himself, he has used the pages of The Press newspaper to tell the Theatre Royal to “take me back”, backed by long-serving principal girl Suzy Cooper.

“I made the biggest mistake saying I was going to retire,” said Dame Berwick. “I want to jump out of my suit and perform.”

Let’s remember that the dame called time; he was not pushed into retirement, and a 40th anniversary show gave Britain’s longest-serving dame a right royal and loyal send-off in The Grand Old Dame Of York.

The knives are out…but from Berwick Kaler and Suzy Cooper in The Press, and not A J Powell in Edward Scissorhands mode in Sleeping Beauty.

Fully fit after his double heart bypass, Dame Berwick has “retired” but, unlike Elvis,  not left the building, writing the script for Sleeping Beauty and co-directing the show with Matt Aston, purveyor of the past three rock’n’roll pantomimes at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.

Like the dame, many a boxer later decides he has made a mistake by retiring, but then makes a bigger one by returning, having lost his punch or, in Berwick’s case, his punchlines.

The splash story in The Press amounts to an act of mutiny by Berwick Kaler and Suzy Cooper, openly taking on the management and the board with a series of criticisms that have been refuted swiftly by executive director Tom Bird. In doing so, they are in essence saying “Back us or sack us” and calling on the public, “our audience”, to support their case.

Berwick may have been in for a shock when The Press’s invitation to Have Your Say on whether he should be back on stage next winter evoked such responses as: “No. Big ego.” “Time for completely new blood.” “Time to move on, Berwick”. “Definitely not.” “Stay retired Berwick. The pantomime has run its course.” Or, in the words of Farmer Tom: “Time to have a completely fresh start. The Kaler days were legendary but they’re gone. New blood needed.”

What the Kaler-Cooper outburst has done is bring the debate out into the open, just as was the intention of the headline in the charleshutchpress.co.uk review:  “Sleeping Beauty awakes at York Theatre Royal but should Dame Berwick era be put to bed?”

A picture of innocence: Suzy Cooper as the young Princess Beauty, with her cuddly toy, in Sleeping Beauty

At the request of the rest of the “Not Famous But Famous Five in York”, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper, Martin Barrass and AJ Powell, Berwick was taken on once more as writer and co-director, also appearing in the brace of films and voicing, aptly, a skeleton. The effect, however, was like Banquo’s Ghost haunting this halfway house of a show.

And now, within the bubble of self-preservation, Berwick wants to be back, Suzy wants him back. However, while a bad workman blames his tools, as the saying goes, this particular workman, Berwick, blamed someone else’s tools – the “cheap sets and cheap costumes” – for “things not going well” for Sleeping Beauty. It is true Anthony Lamble’s designs did not match the spectacular heights of predecessor Mark Walters, but that slur is a cheap, inaccurate shot, and although he is right that Sleeping Beauty’s failings are “not the fault of the cast”, what of his own tools as writer and co-director?

Berwick is deluded in believing the script was not at fault either, and it is no secret that the new, experimental Aston-Kaler directorial partnership did not gel, alas.

Where does York Theatre Royal go next? Bird and board cannot answer only to the needs and wishes of Berwick, Suzy and their “loyal audience”. There is a wider audience to consider; those who do not go to a Dame Berwick pantomime, but would like to see in this new decade with a new beginning for the Theatre Royal’s winter show.

In particular, a show for the next generation of theatre-goers, children, who are noticeably outnumbered by adults at the Kaler brand of chaotic meta-panto, in contrast to the audience profile of pantomimes across the country.

David Leonard as Evil Diva in Sleeping Beauty, but will the greatest villain in pantoland return to York Theatre Royal next winter?

The CharlesHutchPress review of Sleeping Beauty on December 12 ended by pondering the Theatre Royal’s vision for 2020. “Are the days of this brand of pantomime behind you?”, it asked, “because the patented but weary “same old rubbish” won’t suffice next year.

“This is no laughing matter, and here are the options,” it went on. “Bring back Dame Berwick full on, working from the inside, not the outside, with all that goes with that; or freshen up the panto in a different way, or find a new vehicle to utilise the talents of Leonard, Cooper, Barrass and Powell. Many a theatre has moved on from pantomime, whether Leeds Playhouse, the Stephen Joseph Theatre or Hull Truck, and still found a winter winner. We await the Bird call…”.

The future of the Kaler pantomime is uncertain, says Suzy, who fears the axe, but the future of pantomime at York Theatre Royal is not uncertain. Will the Theatre Royal “take Berwick back” into the panto fold on stage? No. No player is bigger than the club, as the football world is fond of saying, and to continue the football analogy, Berwick and Suzy have scored an own goal in going to The Press.

If Berwick, now 73, really does want to “jump out of my suit and perform”, then how about doing so in plays for the veteran stage of acting: Lear in King Lear, Prospero in The Tempest or Sir in Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser with Martin Barrass as his Norman?

Come early February, we shall know the answer to the pantomime conundrum. Is it too outrageous to suggest that if it came to a choice between who is now more invaluable to the Theatre Royal panto, it would be the villainous David Leonard, not the mutinous Dame Berwick?

Charles Hutchinson

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Once in a lifetime opportunity! Grand Opera House offers £5 student tickets for musical

Alex Hill, left, Beth Scott, Jami Richards and Laura Castle with £5 student tickets for Once The Musical at the Grand Opera House. Picture: David Harrison

THE Grand Opera House, York, is teaming up with City of York Council to offer anyone aged 26 and under £5 tickets for the Broadway and West End show Once The Musical.

Running from February 3 to 8, the show is based on the 2007 Irish indie hit film, telling the uplifting yet yearning story of two lost souls – a Dublin street busker and a Czech musician – who unexpectedly fall in love.

Charting their relationship across five short days, big changes happen to both of them in little ways in this romantic musical drama. Celebrated for its original score, including the Academy Award-winning song Falling Slowly, Once is a spell-binding story of hopes and dreams.

Directed  by Peter Rowe, with musical direction by regular accomplice Ben Goddard, Once The Musical has embarked on its first major British tour after Broadway and West End productions, leading to a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, eight Tony Awards and an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music.

To book £5 tickets, go to atgtickets.com/sho…/once/grand-opera-house-york/ Code: ONCE5. Proof of age must be shown when collecting tickets.

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“Well looks like you put the nail in our coffin. Cheers for that.” So, what exactly was Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on the first post-Dame Berwick pantomime at York Theatre Royal?

Giving him the bird: David Leonard’s Evil Diva in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. All pictures: Robling Photography

Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, until January 25 2020. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

UNLESS you have been asleep for 100 years, you will know Sleeping Beauty is the first York Theatre Royal pantomime since Berwick Kaler hung up his big boots after 40 years as Britain’s longest-serving dame.

Unlike Elvis, however, Kaler has not left the building. Now 73, he is still taking care of business, writing the script; co-directing with Leeds City Varieties rock’n’roll pantomime alumnus Matt Aston; appearing in two film sequences and in doll’s head form for baby Beauty, and providing sporadic voice-overs too. In other words, there is still a Kaler on the loose.

Slice-up: A J Powell’s ever-changing modes transform him into Edward Scissorhands

“You have given me a purpose to life,” he told his adoring panto public as he waved goodbye through the final curtain on February 2 this year. “I’m not going anywhere. If this theatre needs me, I’ll be back like a shot.”

Executive director Tom Bird and co decided they did need him for the first pantomime of the post-dame, post Damian Cruden directorship era. Britain’s best villain, David Leonard, perennially bouncy sidekick Martin Barrass, ageless principal girl Suzy Cooper and chameleon Brummie A J Powell said they needed him too, to write the script.

And so Berwick was back like a shot, ticket sales have passed the 30,000 mark, but how do you fill the black hole, the tornado wreaking havoc, the master adlibber, the smasher of theatre’s fourth wall that is the Kaler dame?

All rise: Martin Barrass’s down-to-earth Queen Aradne with Jack Lansbury’s King and newcomer Howie Michaels’ Funky the Flunky in Sleeping Beauty

This is the elephant in the room, a role more usually taken by Barrass in one of his animal acts. In fact, a better comparison is Banquo’s ghost, haunting this halfway house of a panto.

Sleeping Beauty retains the Kaler template, from Babbies And Bairns theme tune opening to Hope You’ll Return Next Year finale to convoluted plot, via disappointingly unfunny films (one with Berwick and Harry Gration) and a futile slosh scene.

As there ain’t no-one like Berwick’s dame, the remaining panto gang of four spread out their familiar traits without ever filling the gap. Thankfully, there’s no rest for the wicked, and so David Leonard is still fab-u-lous, with a dash of dame, or more truthfully waspish drag queen, about his Evil Diva, and his character switch with Powell’s ever-so-nice Darth Vader is the show’s one coup de theatre.

Principal girl, cuddly toy: Suzy Cooper’s Princess Beauty

Suzy Cooper’s Princess Beauty goes from St Trinian’s schoolgirl with a cuddly toy to leading song-and-dance routines, searching forlornly for better material, especially in a year when she has excelled as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare Rose Theatre’s Macbeth at Blenheim Palace.

Without his buddy Berwick to bounce off, Martin Barrass is in no man’s land – or even no mam’s land – as Queen Ariadne, not a dame, nor a queen, one with only one good (Bile Beans) costume and only one innovation, a nod to Eric Morecambe, to go with the old Barrass tropes.

Musical theatre newcomer Howie Michaels’s Funky the Flunky, big voice, big stage presence, fares well, and Jack Lansbury’s King/Tarquin Farquhar, dance captain Danielle Mullan and the ensemble work their panto socks off in frankly difficult circumstances, their reward coming in the stand-out Teenage Dirtbag routine, Grace Harrington’s best choreography..

Beauty and the beastly: Suzy Cooper with vainglorious villain David Leonard

Was it a mere coincidence that new designer Anthony Lamble’s sets lacked the sparkle of old, just as the comedy lacked the spark, surprise, timing, topicality and magical mayhem of the peak Kaler years?

Last night (December 11) felt awkward, uncomfortable, indulgent. Bird and the board have to ask: “Are the days of this brand of pantomime behind you?”, because the patented but weary “same old rubbish” won’t suffice next year.

This is no laughing matter, and here are the options. Bring back Dame Berwick full on, working from the inside, not the outside, with all that goes with that; freshen up the panto in a different way, or find a new vehicle to utilise the talents of Leonard, Cooper, Barrass and Powell. Many a theatre has moved on from pantomime, whether Leeds Playhouse, the Stephen Joseph Theatre or Hull Truck, and still found a winter winner. We await the Bird call…

Charles Hutchinson

Copyright of The Press, York

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Pickering Musical Society ready to go off the wall for Humpty Dumpty pantomime

Lucy Boyland’s evil Baron Bluebeard and Imogen Rose’s principal boy, Tommy Tucker, clash in Pickering Musical Society’s Humpty Dumpty. All pictures: Brian Stockley

REHEARSALS for Pickering Musical Society’s pantomime Humpty Dumpty are in full swing for the January 17 to 26 run at the Kirk Theatre, Pickering.

Written by Ron Hall and directed by Luke Arnold, the show is set in Nursery Rhyme Land, the kingdom of Old King Cole and Queen Ribena, who will be played by society stalwarts Stephen Temple and Marcus Burnside.

When the evil Baron Bluebeard (Lucy Boyland) arrives in the land to attend the birthday of Princess Crystal, strange things begin to happen, culminating in the arrival of eternal winter. 

Princess Crystal (Alice Rose), Tommy Tucker (Imogen Rose), Humpty Dumpty (Maisie Metcalf), Simple Simon (Matthew Russell) and Little Bo-Peep (Charlotte Hurst) in Pickering Musical Society’s Humpty Dumpty

The whole kingdom has to evacuate to Little-Frolicking-On-Sea, the home of Old King Cole’s mother-in-law Mrs Cordial. While they are beside the seaside, Humpty Dumpty, Simple Simon (Matthew Russell) , Little Bo-Peep (Charlotte Hurst) and Tommy Tucker hatch a plan to save Nursery Rhyme Land. 

Pickering Musical Society welcomes back sisters Imogen and Alice Rose once again to play principal boy and girl, Tommy Tucker and Princess Crystal, respectively in a cast of more than 50 that combines familiar Pickering faces with members of Pickering Musical Society Youth Theatre.

Among them will be Jack Dobson and Maisie Metcalf, sharing their first principal role as Humpty Dumpty. Dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance will be in the company too.

Linda Tester as Mrs Cordial, Stephen Temple as Old King Cole and Marcus Burnside as Queen Ribena in Humpty Dumpty at the Kirk Theatre, Pickering

Director Luke Arnold says: “I can’t quite believe we’re back to panto season so soon. Last year was a huge year for us as we marked our centenary at Pickering Musical Society and 2020 looks to be just as busy.

“Each year I wonder how we can create something more spectacular and magical than the last, but with an army of volunteers both on and off stage it seems 2020 will be more spectacular than ever.” 

Tickets for Humpty Dumpty’s 7.15pm evening shows and 2.15pm Saturday and Sunday matinees are on sale at £13 upwards on 01751 474833 or at kirktheatre.co.uk.

The Pickering Musical Society ensemble for Humpty Dumpty

Did you know?

Pickering Musical Society and the Kirk Theatre are entirely self-funded, everyone involved being a volunteer. “By supporting our pantomime, you are supporting our wonderful community theatre and a venue we are all proud of,” says pantomime director Luke Arnold.

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Rowntree Players seek the missing pieces – the cast – for The Missing Peace premiere

Director Gemma McDonald and writer Ian Donaghy at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre box office

NOBODY thought this morning when they turned the key in the door lock, “well, that’ll be the last time I’ll see you.”

So begins the book The Missing Peace: Creating A Life After Death, written by York musician, author, charity event organiser and motivational conference speaker Ian Donaghy, now adapted for the stage by Rowntree Players performer and York teacher Gemma McDonald and Ian himself.

Gemma loved the book and could not help but imagine it on stage, and so she and Rowntree Players pantomime co-writer and director Howard Ella approached Ian with the idea.

“The Missing Peace lends itself beautifully to the stage and also allows an opportunity for actors of all ages to highlight their talents with heart-breaking and heart-warming monologues,” she says. “It’s a very different, original and powerful production.”

Billed as “One play…fifteen endings”, The Missing Peace will be staged at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on April 17 and 18 with plans for further performances in Yorkshire.

Already confirmed is the recorded involvement of narrator Mark Addy, York star of The Full Monty, The Game Of Thrones and now the new ITV crime drama White House Farm.

“Mark will be in New York when our play opens in April, playing Harry in the Broadway premiere of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen at the Golden Theatre from March, so he’s very kindly recording the narration before he leaves for the United States,” says Ian.

Next, Gemma will hold an initial meeting for anyone interested in being involved in The Missing Piece on Monday (January 13) at 7.30pm at Door 84 Youth & Community Centre in Lowther Street.

“We’re looking for a variety of actors of all different ages; there really is something for everyone to audition for,” says Gemma. “This is a very exciting project and I can’t wait to start next week.”

Ian shares that excitement. “There’s a big buzz already about this very ambitious production of a truly thought-provoking look into people’s lives after they have lost a loved one.

“The Missing Peace will show audiences that they’re not alone, and I’m also delighted to say that we’re presenting the play as a fundraising event with all proceeds going to local bereavement and hospice charities.”

Rarely will York be so well represented in a production, reckons Ian. “York actors;  York production company;  York set designers; York play written by a man who has made York his home about people who live in York,” he says.

The poster for Rowntree Players’ premiere of The Missing Peace

“As the poster says, ‘One play…fifteen endings’, because it includes Talking Heads-style monologues of people who have survived losing loved ones, illustrating how the power of kindness, friends and family have helped them through.”

After reading numerous self-help books and “I know so much better than you” guides, Ian felt there was a need for a book that “doesn’t tell you how you should be feeling”.

Former teacher, host of A Night To Remember at York Barbican  and still the larger-than-life Big Ian frontman of York band Huge, Ian has branched out into writing about dementia and campaigning to combat loneliness in the elderly, whether at conferences or in a series of moving short films on social media that he shoots in black and white.

He has written as one reviewer called it, “a 200-page cuddle”: a book where people share experiences and “you decide what you get from hearing their emotional stories”.

“My aim is to provide a survival guide for people to find their own ‘Missing Peace’,” says the inspirational writer and speaker. “It’s not a morose bereavement book. It won’t tell you how you should be feeling. It’s a book about how to be a better friend when your friends lose someone.”

Ian continues: “As we all grow older, our favourite characters are written out of our lives and we have to, somehow, carry on without them.

“Friends often feel powerless, so terrified of saying the wrong thing that they may say nothing, leaving their friend bereft and isolated.”

Ian Donaghy with Sally Rasmussen from The Missing Peace premiere sponsors The Chocolate Works Care Village

Consequently, the book and the play highlight the power of kindness and offer some tried-and-tested maverick ideas.

“The book is a scrapbook of monologues and stories from interviews and conversations I’ve had with people all over the UK in my work with older people and children,” says Ian, whose research took in bereavement groups, hospices, nurses, doctors and parents.

“There are stories looking at loss from many different angles. Many may surprise you…there’s even a short story about my father’s special Parker pen that cleverly illustrates how to get the best out of people.

“I’ve been invited in by some of the most inspirational, wonderful people, who have shared their innermost thoughts and emotions to help others, so thank you to them.”

The play will deliver an optimistic boost in the opening scene, saying, “If you are watching this play you, already have a 100% survival record. Congratulations!” It will go on to listen, in particular, to the views of children and our oldest generation, who are often ignored, says Ian.

“Children haven’t made their minds up yet and so give you unedited ideas, without any spin, and older people realise they can reflect on their successes and failures, so they either have wonderful experience or a hard-earned wisdom,” he suggests.

Sarah Atkinson, of St Leonard’s Hospice, one of two York charities to benefit from ticket sales for April’s premiere

“The play isn’t a magic wand, a flow chart through the grieving process, and it won’t kiss it better, but it will start the conversation you may need to have between siblings, family or friends.”

Every scene, by the way, is named after a song, such as Everybody Hurts, I Don’t Wanna Talk About It, These Foolish Things and All You Need Is Love. 

Two York charities, St Leonard’s Hospice and Bereaved Children Support York, will share the profits from the premiere production.

Jo Cole, founder of Bereaved Children Support York, says: “Grief can be very lonely and isolating. This play gives so many examples of how different people have coped with the loss of a loved one that you’re bound to find something that makes you realise it’s not just you feeling the way you do. To have this play raise awareness will help so many families.”

Janet Bennett, left, Lisa Curtis and Jo Cole, of Bereaved Children Support York, the second charity to receive a donation from The Missing Peace’s run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Ian concludes: “The stories and monologues will make you smile, some will make you cry, but they will all make you think.

“We’re all broken biscuits when we lose someone. We can either dwell on the cracks or make the best cheesecake ever.”

Rowntree Players present The Missing Peace, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 17 at 7pm; April 18, 2.30pm and 7pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk. This production is sponsored by The Chocolate Works Care Village.

Copyright of The Press, York

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Blanc ‘challenges preconceptions of what dance and dancers look like’ in SJT show

Sarah Blanc in My Feminist Boner at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Pictures: Roswitha Cheshire

SARAH Blanc travels from beauty product addict to born-again feminist, choreographer and comedian in her partly autobiographical show My Feminist Boner at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on February 13.

Blanc’s performance “grapples with extreme societal pressures on the female body and the conflict women feel between indulging in the beauty industry and maintaining their feminist ideals”.

Sarah Blanc “grapples with the conflict women feel between indulging in the beauty industry and maintaining their feminist ideals”

“Why does the world place such unattainable beauty standards on women? What does it mean to be a feminist today?” she asks.

My Feminist Boner combines honest confessionals and a show-and-tell of beauty contraptions with conversations with her feminist-hating Dad, progressively grotesque movement and satirical humour, as Blanc reveals her anger at “the commodification of women’s bodies” and exposes the absurdity of the beauty industry.

Sarah Blanc: angry at “the commodification of women’s bodies”

Blanc, an independent choreographer and performer from Ireland, creates bold work that straddles the boundaries of dance, theatre and comedy. She makes not only solo shows but also ensemble work for adults and children with her all-female inclusive dance company Moxie Brawl.

“I create work that challenges preconceptions of what dance and dancers look like, that champions the representation of diverse bodies on stage,” she says. “My work aims to take risks without alienating people and is engaging to a wide range of audience.”

” I create work that challenges preconceptions of what dance and dancers look like,” says Sarah Blanc

Blanc has worked in dance and inclusive practice for more than ten years and has delivered projects for Greenwich Dance, GLYPT and East London Dance, along with choreographic commissions such as A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer for Complicité/Bryony Kimmings. Her 2016 solo show It Started With Jason Donovan won a 2016 Brighton Fringe Award.

Tickets for My Feminist Boner’s 7.45pm performance in the McCarthy are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

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Why Tim Stedman is as happy as Harry to be Harrogate panto’s daft lad for 20 years

Tim Stedman as Happy Harry in Snow White at Harrogate Theatre

TIM Stedman has made his name playing the silly billy in Harrogate Theatre’s pantomime for 20 years: Buttons, Muddles, Simple Simon, Idle Jack. You know, the daft lad; the dimwit; the village idiot, the baffled buffoon.

Now he is adding a new name to that portfolio of fools, Happy Harry, in Snow White, but isn’t that traditionally Muddles’s panto patch?

What’s going on, Tim? “Well, I dare say, in the present PC climate, calling me names like Silly Billy may not be politically correct, so we’ve changed the name from Muddles. For this reason, we’ve changed it to Happy Harry, and some people have now suggested using the same name every year,” he says.

“I don’t have a problem with these PC issues myself, and I do think my pantomime character is of a simple type. He has a foolish innocence about him; he’s either happy or sad, and everything is new to him each time he goes through the door. When he says something or thinks something, it’s a wonderful, fresh, beautiful thing, just like children experience things.

“Like at one of our performances, where, when I said ‘I’m exhausted’, someone shouted out, ‘Well, don’t run then’! You can’t argue with that.”

Tim made his Harrogate debut in Sleeping Beauty in 2000, having been brought to North Yorkshire by Rob Swain. “He’d been a very good director at the New Vic, where he was associate to director Peter Cheeseman, and I got a job there in Hansel And Gretel straight out of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the mid-1990s.

“I also did The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice there, playing the nervous telephone repair man Billy, and when Rob moved to Harrogate Theatre to be artistic director, he invited me there.”

In the room too was director Lennox Greaves. “I said I was really nervous, and he said he was really nervous too as he’d never done panto, so we really hit it off straightaway,” Tim recalls.

” I made my character a little bit vulnerable, a little bit impetuous, and very innocent, so children can laugh at that combination ,” says Harrogate Theatre pantomime buffoon Tim Stedman

Greaves gave him a good piece of advice: “Lennox was very clear: he said, ‘the dame is there to entertain the adults; you are there to keep the children entertained’.

“I made my character a little bit vulnerable, a little bit impetuous, and very innocent, so children can laugh at that combination.”

Tim was blessed to work for his first seven years with Scottish beanpole actor Alan McMahon as the Harrogate dame. “He’s such a talented man and I learnt a lot from him. I was the baby of the bunch at the start and I knew I needed to be good, but I couldn’t help but learn from Lennox and Alan.

“Alan was very encouraging from the start, telling me that ‘if you’re the comic, have a gag whenever you come on’. That’s why I started doing the cracker jokes and the straightforward physical jokes; jokes children tell in the playground the next day and will irritate the adults!”

Tim remembers his first note from Rob Swain. “It said: ‘Make us feel safe when we watch you’. His second one was ‘Don’t let your first mistake become your second, or you will make another one’.

“If I did make a mistake that first year, Alan would turn to the audience and say, ‘well, it is his first job’!”

Twenty years later, the Harrogate Theatre pantomime revolves around Stedman’s brand of strawberry-cheeked, squeaky-voiced buffoonery, but he is not one to rest on his laurels. Ahead of the first of 76 performances of Snow White, he admitted: “Even after 20 years, I still feel nervy. You never lose that.

“I do feel a sense of pressure to make it better each year. I’m terrified of complacency. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this to you, but I’m terrified of people writing things that aren’t positive.”

Tim Stedman’s Happy Harry, left, with Howard Chadwick’s No Nonsense Nora the Nanny, Zelina Rebeiro’s Snow White, Pamela Dwyer’s Fairy Ruby Rainbow, Colin Kiyani’s Prince Lee, front, and Polly Smith’s Wicked Queen Ethel Burger in Harrogate Theatre’s Snow White

Rest assured, Tim, the reviews have been typically enthusiastic, but he is quick to point out that the show’s success is not down to him. Instead, he emphasises the importance of being a team player. “Anything extraneous I keep brief, like the ad-libs, because if we focus on the story and the characters in the story, that’s far better than putting Tim Stedman out front, because it’s not about me,” he says.

“If the story’s good, that’s what matters. I put the icing on the cake and maybe the cherry.”

Snow White marks Phil Lowe’s 13th year as director and his 11th in pantomime partnership with co-writer David Bown, Harrogate Theatre’s chief executive, and they are as important to the show as Stedman.

”If we can do it in the same vein each year, like when I grew up watching Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies every Christmas, we can entertain everyone from age three to 93, and if we can do it with a bit of magic, then hey, we’ve done our job!” says Tim.

Could he ever envisage playing a different pantomime role? “It’s been mooted…though I quite like what I’m doing! And you have that ego problem with actors, thinking that because you’re good at something, you can do something else just as well!” he says.

“I’ve worked with some really good dames, Alan McMahon, now Howard Chadwick, and it’s different from what I do.”

What about moving over to the dark side as the panto baddie? “They have the most fun, but I suspect there would be uproar if I came on as the villain, though I’ve often suggested it would be fun for the villain to have an assistant coming on from a different side,” says Tim.

Surely he will return for pantomime number 21, Cinderella, come November 25? “I’ve not been asked yet, but I love doing what I do here, and it’s so lovely when people come up in the street to say hello,” he says. “Harrogate is such a lovely place to work.”

Tim Stedman plays Happy Harry in Snow White at Harrogate Theatre until January 19. Box office: 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Did you know?

Tim Stedman has appeared in three roles in Emmerdale: Kevin Harmon in March 2014; locum veterinary surgeon Joseph Gibson in April 2016, and Jeremy, the leader of a surrogacy support group, in March 2019.

Charles Hutchinson

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Say Owt kicks off new decade with Slam #24 contest at City Screen’s Basement

Special guest: Lisette Auton will perform at Say Owt Slam #24

SAY Owt, York’s most raucous spoken-word hub, returns on February 1 for its first competitive slam of the new decade at The Basement, City Screen.

Slots are open to take part in Say Owt Slam #24 by emailing info@sayowt.co.uk. Artistic director Henry Raby, the York performance poet, playwright and activist, says: “Poets get a maximum of three minutes each to wow the audience with their words, culminating in the winner receiving a cash prize and bragging rights.

“Whether travelling from across the country or a homegrown York talent, each one brings a totally different style of humour, politics and heart to the gig.”

Say Owt has run slams for five years, being highly commended in the 2018 York Culture Awards and prompting audience members to comment: “Expertly put together, a delightful extravaganza”; “I love it here!” and “Felt so welcome at my first slam, great atmosphere. Not what I expected”.

“Each poet brings a totally different style of humour, politics and heart to Say Owt Slam,” says artistic director Henry Raby

Say Owt Slam invariably feature a special guest too, on this occasion award-winning Darlington disabled activist, writer, poet, spoken-word artist, theatre-maker and creative practitioner Lisette Auton.

“I do stuff with words,” says Lisette, a Penguin Random House UK WriteNow mentee for her children’s novel inspired by the North East coast.

“Her poetry is full of stories, humour and lyrical warmth and all of her work seeks to make the invisible visible,” says Henry.

Tickets for this 7.30pm show cost £6 from the City Screen box office or at ticketing.picturehouses.com or £7 on the door.