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.
Veteran Yorkshire arts journalist CHARLES HUTCHINSON doffs his cap to the makers and shakers who made and shook the arts world in York and beyond in 2019.
Alan Ayckbourn at 80 in Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
New play
of the year: Alan
Ayckbourn’s Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, at Stephen Joseph Theatre,
Scarborough, from September 4
Sir Alan
Ayckbourn penned one play to mark his 80th birthday, then decided it
wasn’t the right one. Instead, writing more quickly than he had in years, he
constructed a piece around…birthdays. Still the master of comedy of awkward
truths.
Honourable mention: Kay Mellor’s Band Of Gold, Leeds Grand Theatre, November 28 to December 14.
Lili Miller (Catherine) and Pedro Leandro (Rodolpho) in A View From The Bridge at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ian Hodgson
You
Should Have Seen It production of the year: Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge, York
Theatre Royal, September 20 to October 12.
Once more, the
sage Arthur Miller bafflingly did not draw the crowds – a Bridge too far? – but
Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster found resonance anew for this
age of rising intolerance in Trumped-Up America and Brexit Britain.
Chris Knight as Donkey in York Stage Musicals’ Shrek The Musical
York’s
home-grown show of the year: York Stage Musicals in Shrek The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, September
12 to 21
Nik Briggs
swapped directing for his stage return after five years in the wind-assisted
title role and stunk the place out in Shrek tradition in a good way. Jacqueline
Bell‘s Princess Fiona and Chris Knight’s Donkey were terrific too.
Honourable mention: Pick Me Up Theatre in Monster Makers, 41 Monkgate, October 23 to 27
Rigmarole Theatre in When The Rain Stops Falling
Company
launch of the year: Rigmarole
Theatre in When The Rain Stops Falling, 41 Monkgate, York, November 14 to 16
MAGGIE
Smales, a previous Hutch Award winner for her all-female Henry V for York
Shakespeare Project, set up Rigmarole to mount Andrew Bovell’s apocalyptic
Anglo-Aussie family drama. More please.
Comic capers: Mischief Theatre in The Comedy About A Bank Robbery
Touring
play of the year: The
Comedy About A Bank Robbery, Grand Opera House, York, February 5 to 12
Crime pays
for Mischief Theatre with a riotous show, so diamond-cutter sharp, so rewarding,
in its comedy, that it is even better than the original botched masterplan, The
Play That Goes Wrong.
Honourable mention: Nigel Slater’s Toast, York Theatre Royal, November 19 to 23
Sarah Crowden and Susan Penhaligon in Handbagged at York Theatre Royal
Political
play of the year:
Handbagged, York Theatre Royal, April 24 to May 11
In a play of wit, brio and intelligence, Moira Buffini presents
a double double act of 20th century titans, Margaret Thatcher and
The Queen, one from when both ruled, the other looking back at those days, as
they talk but don’t actually engage in a conversation.
Emma Rice: director of the year
Director
of the year: Emma Rice
for Wise Children’s Wise Children, in March, and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, in
September, both at York Theatre Royal
Emma Rice,
once of Cornwall’s pioneering Kneehigh Theatre and somewhat briefly of
Shakespeare’s Globe, has found her mojo again with her new company Wise
Children, forming a fruitful relationship with York Theatre Royal to boot.
Watch out for Wuthering Heights in 2021.
Director John R Wilkinson in rehearsals for Hello And Goodbye at York Theatre Royal
York
director of the year:
John R Wilkinson, Hello And Goodbye, York Theatre Royal Studio, November
Theatre Royal associate artist John R Wilkinson had long called for the return of in-house productions in the Studio and what he called “the blue magic of that space”. He duly delivered a superb reading of Athol Fugard’s apartheid-era South African work starring Jo Mousley and Emilio Iannucci.
Oh what a knight: Sir Ian McKellen
Comedy show of the year: Sir Ian McKellen in Ian McKellen On Stage With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others…And You, Grand Opera House, York, June 17
A delightful variation on the An Evening With…format, wherein Sir Ian McKellen celebrated his 80th birthday with a tour through his past. His guide to Shakespeare’s 37 plays was a particular joy.
Honourable mention: John Osborne in John Peel’s Shed/Circled In The Radio Times, Pocklington Arts Centre bar, March 27
Bonnie Milnes of Bonneville And The Bailers
Event launch
of the year: Live
In Libraries York, York Explore, autumn
In the
wood-panelled Marriott Room, veteran busker David Ward Maclean and Explore York
mounted a series of four intimate, low-key concerts, the pick of them being Bonnieville
And The Bailers’ magical set on October 25. Along with The Howl & The Hum’s
Sam Griffiths, Bonnie Milnes is the blossoming York songwriter to watch in
2020.
Meet The Caravan Guys:Theo Mason Wood, left, and Albert Haddenham discuss masculinity in How To Beat Up Your Dad at The Arts Barge’s Riverside Festival
Festival
of the Year: The
Arts Barge’s Riverside Festival, by the Ouse, July and August
Under the
umbrella of Martin Witts’s Great Yorkshire Fringe, but celebrating its own identity
too, The Arts Barge found firm footing with two locations, an ever-busy tent
and, hurrah, the newly docked, freshly painted barge, the Selby Tony. The Young
Thugs showcase, Henry Raby, Rory Motion, Katie Greenbrown, jazz gigs, a naked Theo
Mason Wood; so many highs.
Honourable mentions: York Festival of Ideas, June; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, November.
Terry Hall: leading The Specials at York Barbican. Picture: Simon Bartle
York Barbican gig of the year: The Specials, May 9
Still The Specials, still special, on their 40th anniversary world tour, as the Coventry ska veterans promoted their first studio album in 39 years, Encore, still hitting the political nail on the head as assuredly as ever.
Honourable mentions: David Gray, March 30; Art Garfunkel, April 18; Kelly Jones, September 14.
Mocking Malvolio: Cassie Vallance’s Fabian, back left, Andrew Phelps’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Fine Time Fontayne’s Sir Toby Belch wind up Claire Storey’s Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Happiest nights of the year: Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in Twelfth Night, Castle car park, York, July 4 and September 1
JOYCE Branagh, Kenneth’s sister, set Shakespeare’s comedy in the Jazz Age, serving up “Comedy Glamour” with a Charleston dash and double acts at the double. “Why, this is very midsummer madness,” the play exhorts, and it was, gloriously so, especially on the last night, when no-one knew what lay just around the corner for the doomed Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre.
Samuel Edward Cook in Glory Dazed
Most moving night of the year: Glory
Dazed, East Riding Theatre, Beverley, January 26
Cat Jones’s play, starring York actor Samuel Edward Cook, brings
to light issues surrounding the mental health of ex-servicemen as they seek to
re-integrate into civilian society while struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. The post-show discussion with ex-soldiers from Hull spoke even
louder.
Serena Manteghi in Build A Rockdet. Picture: Sam Taylor
Solo show of the year: Serena
Manteghi in Build A Rocket, autumn tour
NO sooner had she finished playing Ophelia in Shakespeare’s
Rose Theatre’s Hamlet than Serena Manteghi revived her remarkable role as a seaside
resort teenage single mum in Christopher York’s award-winning coruscating play.
Honourable mention: James Swanton in Irving Undead, York Medical Society, October 10 to 12.
A Blessed encounter: interviewing Yorkshireman Brian
Favourite interview of the year: Brian Blessed, giving oxygen to his An Evening With Brian Blessed show at Grand Opera House, York, in August
The exuberance for life in Brian – Yorkshire man mountain, actor, mountaineer and space travel enthusiast – at the age of 83 would inspire anyone to climb Everest or reach for the stars.
Old soul in a Newman: John Newman’s hot, hot gig at The Crescent
Gig of
the year: John
Newman, The Out Of The Blue Tour, The Crescent, York, June 30
THE unsettled
Settle sound of soul, John Newman, and his soul mates parked their old camper van
outside the almost unbearably hot Crescent, threw caution to the wind and burnt
the house down on a night that must
have been like watching Joe Cocker or Otis Redding on the rise in the Sixties.
Honourable mentions: Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock’n’Roll Revue, Pocklington Arts Centre, June 25; The Howl & The Hum, The Crescent, York, December 14
Van Gogh: ‘ere, there and everywhere at York St Mary’s
Exhibition
of the year: Van
Gogh: The Immersive Experience, York St Mary’s, York, now extended to April 2020
This 360-degree digital art installation uses technology to create
a constantly moving projected gallery of 200 of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous
19th century works in the former church. Breathtaking, innovative, and,
yes, worth the admission charge.
Honourable mention: Ruskin, Turner and The Storm Cloud, Watercolours and Drawings, York Art Gallery, from March 28
Agatha Meehan, centre, as Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz at Leeds Playhouse
Christmas
production of the year: The Wizard Of Oz, Leeds Playhouse, until January 25
AFTER its
£15.8 million transformation from the West Yorkshire Playhouse to Leeds
Playhouse, artistic director James Brining gave West Yorkshire’s premier
theatre the grandest, dandiest of re-opening hits. Still time to travel down
the Yellow Brick Road with Agatha Meehan, 12, from York, as Dorothy.
Dame Berwick Kaler’s fina;l wave at the end of his 40 years of pantomimes at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Anthony Robling
Exit
stage left: Berwick
Kaler, retiring on February 2 after 40 years as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime
dame; Tim Hornsby, bowing out from booking acts for Fibbers on June 29, after 27
years and 7,500 shows in York; Damian Cruden, leaving the Theatre Royal on July
26 after 22 years as artistic director; James Cundall’s Shakespeare’s Rose
Theatre, in September, after hitting the financial icebergs .
Richard Bainbridge R.I.P.
Gone but
not forgotten: York Musical Theatre Company leading man,
director, teacher, chairman, bon viveur and pub guvnor Richard Bainbridge, who
died on July 6.
” We want to see how we can get a grip on the negative and bring about positive change,” says artistic director Sue Lister
THE Real
People Theatre Company will hold auditions on Saturday for All Change, their
contribution to the 2020 International Women’s Week.
The York
women’s theatre group will be staging their 21st annual production
at York St John University on March 13 and 14, directed by Rose Drew in tandem
with Missoon El Gomati and Tanya Nightingale.
All Change will explore how the world is changing and how changes must be made to secure our future well-being on our planet.
Artistic
director Sue Lister, who co-founded Real People with Ann Murray in 1999, says: “This
is a chance to bring women together to change the current narrative of our
lives. We want to see how we can get a grip on the negative and bring about
positive change.”
Saturday’s auditions will be held at the Tesco Community Room, Tadcaster Road, York, from 12.30pm. Just turn up!
Heart-breaking: Nathaniel Hall in his one-man show First Time at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Pictures: Andrew Perry
CAN you remember your first time? Nathaniel Hall can’t seem to forget his. To be fair, he has had it playing on repeat for the last 15 years, and now he is telling all in his one-man show on tour in North Yorkshire next month.
After playing the VAULT Festival in London, he will embark on his travels, taking in the McCarthy at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on February 4, Harrogate Theatre’s Studio Theatre on February 5 and York Theatre Royal Studio on February 6, as part of Studio Discoveries, a week of new theatre chosen by Visionari, the Theatre Royal’s community programme group.
The party is over, the balloons have
all burst and Nathaniel is left living his best queer life: brunching on pills
and Googling ancient condoms and human cesspits on a weekday morning…or is he?
After playing the Edinburgh Fringe for four weeks last summer, HIV+ queer artist and theatre-maker Hall brings First Time to Scarborough, Harrogate and York as he strives to stay positive in a negative world. “Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been keeping all these years,” he says.
“Join me as I blow the lid on the secret I’ve been keeping all these years,” says Nathaniel Hall
Conceived, written and performed by HIV
activist Hall, this humorous but heart-breaking 75-minute autobiographical show
is based on his personal experience of living with HIV after contracting the
virus from his first sexual encounter at 16.
“Narratives of HIV often portray people living with the virus as
the victim. First Time doesn’t accept this stance,” says Hall. “It not only transforms audiences into HIV allies,
but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives.”
First Time takes up Hall’s story after an all-night party, when “he
hasn’t been to bed and he hasn’t prepared anything for the show. He’s only had
12 months and a grant from the Arts Council, but he can’t avoid the spotlight
anymore and is forced to revisit his troubled past”.
“First Time not only transforms audiences into HIV allies, but also helps them rid toxic shame from their own lives ,” says Nathaniel Hall
His path leads from sharing a stolen chicken and stuffing sandwich with a Will Young lookalike aged 16, through receiving the devastating news aged 17 and heart-breaking scenes devouring pills and powder for breakfast, to a candlelit vigil and finally a surprising ending full of reconciliation, hope…and a houseplant from Mum.
Commissioned by Waterside Arts and
Creative industries Trafford and developed with Dibby Theatre, the original
production led the Borough of Trafford’s 30th World AIDS Day
commemorations in 2018.
Directed by Chris Hoyle and designed by Irene Jade, with music and sound design by Hall, First Time will be staged at 7.45pm at each location. Tickets: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com. Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Charles Hutchinson reflects on the YORKshire year in the arts in 2019
NOTHING special happened in the arts scene in 2019…or did it? Find out tomorrow when the Hutch Award winners are announced for what made the art beat race faster across YORKshire at charleshutchpress.co.uk.
Ben Fry’s Town Crier and Mark Little’s Lord Chamberlain of Trumpville in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York. . Picture: David Harrison
FOURTEEN years had passed since Ben Fry’s one and only appearance
in pantomime, but the City of York Town Crier was quick to say Oyez, Oyez, Oyez
to starring in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs this winter.
The Minster FM breakfast show co-presenter is playing, you guessed
it, the Town Crier at the Grand Opera House until Saturday, in the company of ’Allo,
’Allo! star Vicki Michelle’s Wicked Queen and Australian comedian Mark Little’s
Lord Chamberlain of Trumpville.
“I did panto once before at the Scarborough Spa in 2005 when
I was at Yorkshire Coast Radio, and I played one of the Ugly Sisters – she was
called Ugly Sister Whitby – in Cinderella,” recalls Ben.
“I remember it was a Tony Peers production: he was a panto
legend, who gave me plenty of good advice, so I was able to go from nothing to
playing Ugly Sister in one leap! It felt like an episode of Big Brother, where
every experience is heightened; every emotion is heightened.”
Ben may have the gift of the gab as a cheeky radio presenter,
speaking off the cuff each morning, but performing in pantomime makes contrasting
demands. “Having to follow a script and learn lines is a different experience, which
is interesting to do, though once you’re into the show, the performances are
flexible, and the next show can be nothing like the last one!” he says.
“Part of the fun with pantomime is that no two performances
are ever the same, and while it might be a bit of a treadmill, it’s never boring.”
Ben is candid about his acting skills. “Let’s be honest,” he
says. “I’m not in Snow White for my acting prowess, am I?! I’m a walking,
talking PR machine on the radio, to make as many people as possible know about
it.
“So, I’m being the Town Crier for the show almost as much
off stage as I am on stage. I see my job as being to get bums on seats, then I
hand it over to the professionals.
“I think we only agreed I should be in the show once the
rest of the cast was in place, so Chris [Three Bears Productions’ director and
co-producer Chris Moreno] then shoe-horned me into the show here and there. No-one
is coming specially to see me, but hopefully because I’ve plugged the show.
“I don’t think anyone will be saying, ‘it was fantastic, but
I’d hoped there would be more bell ringing’.”
Vicki Michelle as the Wicked Queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Picture: David Harrison
Ben is being unduly modest. He more than holds his own in
the Busy Bee, Busy Bee slapstick scene with Martin Daniels’ Muddles, and he plays
not only the Town Crier but also a second uncredited role.
Ben’s “costume” is the official City of York Town Crier
livery, coupled with the City of York bell. “So, anyone who’s seen me around town
since May will recognise me on stage,” he says. “It’s all a bit ‘meta’: the real
Town Crier being the real Town Crier ion pantomime, whereas Vicki Michelle is
not playing a wartime French waitress!”
As a son of York, Ben is “very proud to represent the city”
both in his presenter’s role on Minster FM and now as the Town Crier too. “The
Town Crier is the embodiment of York: I like the pageantry, the history, and it
adds something else to people’s experience when they come to the city,” he says.
Picking out highlights from his first year in office, Ben
selects pop star Ellie Goulding and Casper Jopling’s wedding ceremony at York Minster
on August 31. “Welcoming Ellie to the Minster…and meeting Katy Perry that day was
obviously the greatest day of my life – and that includes my wedding day and
the birth of my two children,” he says, with his tongue by now nudging his
cheek.
“The Mayor-making ceremony was a good day too, and I enjoyed
the ceremonies for Yorkshire Day [August 1] , reading out the declarations at four
bars where you enter the city, and the Christmas Lights switch-on in front of
the Minster was pretty special too.”
Maybe Ben was destined to put his voice to public use as
York’s Town Crier. “When I was a child, people always said that I had to grow
into my voice, as even then I had a loud, bellowing voice,” he says.
It was a voice that stood out. “! got picked to play Bob Cratchit in Scrooge when I was at Westfield Primary School in Acomb,” Ben recalls.
That voice led him all the way to becoming the matchday pitch announcer at Elland Road during Ken Bates’s turbulent chairmanship of Leeds United, when Ben also would interview “Mr Chairman” on Bates’s station, Yorkshire Radio.
“It was a difficult time for Leeds United, as there was a great
deal of unrest, and I was seen by some as a frontman for Ken as I was doing a
lot of interviews with him, as well as doing the matchday stuff on the pitch,”
he says.
“But I’d always wanted to work in football, and you don’t know
when the chance will come. Those moments under the Elland Road floodlights,
like when Luciano Becchio put Leeds ahead against Chelsea, were special.
“I’ll never forget the game against Bristol Rovers when
Leeds won promotion, going around the pitch with [centre forward] Jermaine Beckford
after the final whistle, in a yellow high-vis jacket, and being asked by the
police to tell all the fans to get off the pitch. It was possibly the most futile
thing I’ve ever been asked to do in my career!”
No stranger to performing to crowds, Ben is taking his
pantomime role in his stride as he sees in the New Year. What’s next? “We’ll be doing the Minster FM
Search For A Local Hero in February, and the Town Crier is available for any
fete or envelope opening, of course,” says Ben. “Just go to the York BID
website and make a request there.”
Ben Fry plays Town Crier in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs,
Grand Opera House, York, until January 4. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
Charles Hutchinson
Dress like Dame Berwick Kaler? Great Panto Run runners will be encouraged to wear fancy dress on January 18. Picture: Anthony Robling
THIS is one show guaranteed to run and run, namely York’s
first ever Great Panto Run on January 18 in aid of the Berwick Kaler Foundation.
“Who knows who might be running? Perhaps Snow White or Aladdin, the Ugly Sisters or even Patricia the pantomime cow,” says York Theatre Royal press officer Steve Pratt.
Event organisers See York Run York are inviting runners to put on their best pantomime costume for a five-mile trail run for the charity established to continue the legacy of retired Theatre Royal panto dame Berwick Kaler.
The inaugural Great Panto Run at Rawcliffe Bar Country Park,
in York, comprises two laps of an out-and-back route through woodland, fields
and pathway on a course suitable for first-time trail runners and experienced
runners alike. In addition, there will be a family fun run of two laps of the
park, just over a mile in length.
“Fancy dress is encouraged but not compulsory, but there
will be a prize for the best fancy-dressed runner,” says Steve.
A team from York Theatre Royal – last seen running the
Yorkshire Marathon Relay – will be putting their running shoes back on for the
Great Panto Run and are looking for sponsors. “Donations via the Wonderful.org
website are fee free, so 100 per cent of your donation will go directly to the Berwick
Kaler Foundation, which aims to bring families, friends and communities
together to enjoy all that theatre has to offer,” says Steve.
Further information on the January 18 run can be found on
the fundraising page at wonderful.org/fundraiser/thegreatpantorunseeyorkrunyork-991a792b.
Will Dame Berwick be involved on the day? Wait and see.
Agatha Meehan, from York, in the lead role of Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz at Leeds Playhouse, All pictures: The Other Richard
The Wizard Of Oz, Leeds Playhouse, until January 25 2020. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk
AGATHA Meehan is going places. Right now, the blossoming York acting talent
is travelling in a whirling tornado from her Kansas farm to Oz and the Emerald
City in the lead role of Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.
Already she has starred in the West End as Summer Hathaway in School Of
Rock and Annie in Annie, a part she first played for York Musical Theatre
Company in March 2017 while a pupil at St George’s RC Primary School.
After adding Jane in the UK premiere of A Little Princess at the Royal
Festival Hall to her London credits, now she is alternating Dorothy with Lucy
Sherman in the first Christmas family musical in the Quarry Theatre since the Leeds
Playhouse’s £15.8 million redevelopment. All this, and she is only 12 years
old. What a whirlwind rise.
Sam Harrison’s Tinman leading a merry dance in The Wizard Of Oz
There’s no place that Agatha feels more at home than on stage, and she
gives a remarkably assured performance, from the moment she sings the iconic
Over The Rainbow.
Her Kansas accent is spot on; her Dorothy, in pigtails and farm dungarees and later the ever-evocative blue gingham dress, is a stoical young girl of moral conviction, passion and determination, challenging adult authority and inertia in Baum’s Kansas of the 1900s and Emerald City alike.
Combining Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg’s songs
from the more innocent 1939 MGM film with John Kane’s witty, somewhat knowing 1987
script for the Royal Shakespeare Company, artistic director James Brining’s
production delivers on an epic, filmic scale, full of heart and humour, joy and
jeopardy, Munchkins and monkeys, mystery and magic.
Eleanor Sutton’s Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz
Meehan’s Dorothy is surrounded by a combination of
hi-tech and lo-tech, and likewise the familiar and the freshened up, with
Jitterbug re-introduced as one of two premier league showstoppers alongside The
Merry Old Land Of Oz, choreographed to dazzling effect by Lucy Cullingford.
Phil Cole’s Uncle Henry and Angela Wynter’s Aunt Em are a mixed-race couple; Eleanor Sutton is a female Scarecrow; Sam Harrison’s Tinman is gay and the outstanding Marcus Ayton is a black timorous Lion, with boxing moves and a knock-out singing voice to boot for If I Were King Of The Forest.
Simon Wainwright, from innovative Leeds company Imitating The Dog,
provides the video projections for the twister scene that combine with the
time-honoured skills of spinning aerialists. Toto the dog is played by a real
dog before the storm, then by a puppet animated so expressively by Ailsa
Dalling in Oz. Look out too for the crow puppets, and be sure to duck when the
Wicked Witch of the West and her dive-bombing monkeys are flying overhead.
A roaring success: Marcus Ayton’s outstanding Lion in The Wizard Of Oz at Leeds Playhouse
Polly Lister is terrifically terrifying as the mean, twisted neighbour Miss
Gulch and the cackling, droll Wicked Witch, whose vamp camp air never quite ventures
into pantomime villainy.
As you would expect of a major-city Christmas show, this is a big, big production:
a cast of 20, supported by a young Leeds
community company as the Munchkins; a band of 11 directed with panache by Tamara
Saringer; and wonderful set and costume designs by Simon Higlett, whose palette
progresses from parched, dustbowl Kansas with its plain farmhouse and water
tower, to the spectacular greens and yellows of a futuristic Emerald City.
Click your ruby red heels, make a wish and find yourself having a wizard
time on the Yellow Brick Road at Leeds Playhouse this winter.
Toto and puppeteer Ailsa Dalling in The Wizard Of Oz
Tim Stedman’s Happy Harry, left, Howard Chadwick’s Nora the Nanny, Zelina Rebeiro’s Snow White, Pamela Dwyer’s Fairy Ruby Rainbow (back), Colin Kiyani’s Prince Lee (front) and Polly Smith’s Wicked Queen Ethel Burger in Snow White at Harrogate Theatre
Snow White, Harrogate Theatre, until January 19 2020. Box office: 01423 502116 or atharrogatetheatre.co.uk
JUST by the entrance to the stalls is a sign. Snow
White contains Smoke/Haze, Pyrotechnics, Flashing Lights. The usual, in other
words, but then it adds Poison Apples.
A-ha. This is why Harrogate Theatre’s pantomime is
such a joy for adults, as well as the children they bring along. The witty
extra details.
This latest pantomime collaboration between
director Phil Lowe and co-writer and chief executive David Bown doesn’t contain
“And The Seven Dwarfs” in the title, but it does contain Tim Stedman in his 20th year
as Harrogate’s strawberry-cheeked, squeaky-voiced daft lad.
Back to Stedman in a moment, but first more of
those details that make the difference: the sign on stage that points to Base
Camp and Too Camp; Harrogate being renamed Happygate in the county of
Yawnshire; and the pop-culture words to spot in Wicked Queen Ethel Burger’s castle
lair. Spells For Teen Spirits (one for Nirvana fans); Keep Calm & Cast
Spells; Tears/Fears.
Then there are the regular mentions of Harrogate’s
event of the year:September’s week-long cycling festival, the UCI Road World
Championships, that turned the Stray into looking more like a Waif and Stray.
“And the bikes have been put away,” came the first mention. “It’s only grass,
it will grow back,” we were re-assured by Stedman and on the back page of a
mocked-up Happygate Advertiser.
Lowe and Bown certainly have fun stoking the fires
of this hot topic that vexes more than agitated letter writers to the local
paper.
On a happier note, Stedman’s 20 years of putting
the funny ha-ha in Harrogate is a cause for celebration, albeit that his silly
billy is given a new name for these politically correct times: Happy Harry,
rather than the usual Muddles. Happy to report, however, that he is still the
sharpest fool in the foolbox, and the fool is still making fools of others,
just as he did in Shakespeare’s plays.
Stedman’s jaunty jester is in cracking clowning form,
picking his “victim for humiliation” with a Catch The Apple game that ends with
teacher Mrs Smith – an appropriate name, he notes – as his stooge for this
particular performance.
His Wheel of Happiness – we should all have one installed
at home – is a thing of joy with its tension-building Slice of Danger and his hapless
slapstick scene with Pamela Dwyer’s Scottish Hunter the Handyman recalls Laurel
and Hardy, while the terrible Christmas cracker jokes keep rolling by. “What do
call an exploding monkey?” he asks. “A ba-boon!” Cue groans.
Colin Kiyani’s Prince Lee and Zelina Rebeiro’s Snow
White keep the romance and soppy ballad count ticking over and the seven dwarfs
make their appearances as big puppet heads, while Alice Barrott’s Magic Mirror
is a frank-speaking Southerner in a northern town.
In a piece of metatheatre, Dwyer’s Fairy Ruby
Rainbow makes a point of stepping outside the pantomime boundaries to explain
that “technically fairies aren’t allowed to be around humans but you can keep
my secret safe” as she transforms into castle dogsbody Hunter the Handyman.
Both roles are handled with aplomb.
Polly Smith returns to the Harrogate panto, this
time as Wicked Queen Ethel Burger, a role with plenty of bite and spite, while
fellow returnee Howard Chadwick’s grouchy dame lives up to his name of No
Nonsense Nora the Nanny, banning the singing of Baby Shark. Look out for his
paintbrush hair-do, one of many delights in Morgan Brind’s designs that provide
humour and spectacle in equal measure.
Nick Lacey’s sprightly musical direction and David
Kar-Hing Lee’s zesty choreographer add to the enjoyment as Harrogate Theatre
revels in the restlessly cheeky Stedman’s 20th anniversary. He’ll return
for Cinderella next Christmas, and surely the Stray grass will be back by then
too. Won’t it?
Minju Kang and Rachael Gillespie in Northern Ballet’s Cinderella at Leeds Grand Theatre
Northern Ballet in Cinderella, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 2 2020. Box office: 0844 848 2700 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com
FOR the most magical
Christmas show of this winter, look no further than Northern Ballet’s revival
of Cinderella, first staged at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2013.
The prettiest, most breath-taking
transformation of Yorkshire’s winter theatre wonderland is back, three bounding
huskies et al.
The Cinderella story exists in myriad
forms across the world and through the ages, our British pantomimes being the
most familiar but also the most misleading when presented with the Eastern
mysticism of Canadian artistic director, choreographer and costume designer
David Nixon and his associate director Patricia Doyle’s beautiful, painfully romantic
interpretation.
Set in Imperial Russia at a time when
“superstitious people believe in the possibility of magic” and the repressive
authorities believe in the power of gun rule and constantly barking dogs,
Northern Ballet’s oriental fairy-tale production opens in a burst of yellow
flowers beneath the deepest blue sky on the hottest of days, far removed from
pantomime’s glitter and chintz.
Out go the Fairy Godmother and Buttons, pumpkins and
cross-dressing Ugly Sisters. In come acrobats and a towering stilt walker, a
bear and huskies, a kindly Easter magician (the wonderful Ashley Dixon); a
servant who ends up being shot for helping Cinderella and skaters sashaying
across a frosted lake.
Cinderella’s anything but ugly
stepsisters, Natasha and Sophia (Kyungka Kwak and Rachael Gillespie) are not
wild cards but wholly subservient to the despicably wicked yet immaculately
fashionable step-mother, Countess Serbrenska (Minju Kang, roundly booed but soon
cheered at the end after her fabulously theatrical performance).
Duncan Hayler’s set design has the sleight of hand of a
magician, not only in the transformation scene where the kitchen comes alive
but also when the invitation envelope to the royal ball is peeled open to
reveal a dazzling, white ballroom. Philip Feeney’s compositions, gorgeous
throughout, bring even more of a flourish to Hayler’s works of wonder.
Yet the designs never out-dazzle Sarah Chun’s put-upon but
blossoming Cinderella or Jonathan Hanks’s powerful Prince Mikhail.
A glorious show in a well-deserved return,
Cinderella is Northern Ballet at Nixon’s very best.
