“During this period, it is critical that we continue to support our staff, artists and creative partners,” says Pocklington Arts Centre director Janet Farmer
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre’s crowdfunding appeal has raised more than half
its target already.
Launched in the immediate aftermath of the Market Place venue closing its
doors to the public on March 17, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the
crowdfunding page has accrued donations of £3,060
towards the £5,000 goal.
What’s more, Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) has received £2,000 in ticket
refund donations from customers for cancelled events.
Now PAC has thanked everyone for their support in
helping the venue ride out the tempest and come back stronger than ever, with
the hope of a good majority of shows being re-scheduled for the autumn and winter.
Director Janet Farmer said: “With the health and
safety of our staff, visitors, artists and volunteers being of the utmost
importance to us, Pocklington Arts Centre has temporarily closed its doors to
the public while we weather this storm.
“During this period, it is critical that we
continue to support our staff, artists and creative partners. We are working
closely with our peers across the region, and indeed the country, and are
determined that PAC will emerge from this challenge stronger and more vibrant
than ever.”
Janet continued: “The crowdfunding appeal will play an important part in this re-emergence, so we want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated so far. Your support is greatly appreciated and we look forward to seeing you all again when we re-open.” To make a donation, visit: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/pac.
The Slung Low team outside The Holbeck Slung Low in Leeds
LEEDS theatre company Slung Low are to
open a new art gallery with a difference this month.
Based in Holbeck, South Leeds, the
company will be setting up the LS11 Art Gallery to showcase the best
paintings, drawings and photographs created and chosen by the people of Holbeck
and Beeston.
However, instead of displaying the
images on gallery walls, they will be placed on lamp posts for all to
see.
Slung Low have asked people from the
two Leeds areas to email their image to the theatre company. Slung Low will
then arrange to come around and take a copy of it and then print the images on
special plastic board for display on lamp posts around Holbeck and Beeston.
Artistic director Alan Lane says: “Our
instinct at Slung Low is always to be useful and kind. For the last few weeks
that has primarily been about delivering food-bank parcels and helping people
get their prescription.
“We know that a hungry soul will find it
hard to be creative, to find joy, so the first part of our response has to be
making sure that people have their basic material needs met: and we will
continue that work until this is all over.
“But as
theatre makers we also understand the importance of storytelling and that there
are different ways to be useful.”
Alan continues: “LS11 Art Gallery is us
telling the story that this area – like all parts of this nation – is full of
creativity; that in every house are people who are brilliant, creative and
capable of profound beauty. We need to make sure we keep telling that story in
these challenging times.
“We’re going to open an art gallery on
the lamp posts of LS11 and the people who live here will make what we exhibit.
Let’s cheer ourselves up a bit.”
Founded in 2000, Slung Low specialises
in making epic productions in non-theatre spaces, often with large
community performance companies at their heart.
The company has relocated to The
Holbeck in South Leeds, the oldest working men’s club in Britain.
There, they run the bar as a
traditional members’ bar and the rest of the building as an open development
space for artists and a place where Slung Low invite other companies to present
their work that otherwise might not be seen in Leeds. All work presented at The
Holbeck is Pay What You Decide.
In Autumn 2018, Slung Low launched a cultural
community college based in Holbeck; a place where adults come to learn new
cultural skills, from stargazing to South Indian cooking, from carpentry to
singing in a choir. All workshops, supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, are
provided on a Pay What You Decide basis.
Slung Low are now volunteer guardians
of the city wards of Beeston and Holbeck, taking referrals from the Leeds City
Council Covid-19 helpline (0113 378 1877).
In turn, with help from the staff of
other arts organisations in Leeds, including Opera North, they are
delivering food and medicine to the vulnerable, elderly and those in
isolation.
How to take part in the LS11 Art
Gallery:
IF you live in the Holbeck or Beeston
areas of Leeds and want your drawing, painting or photograph to be featured,
please take a picture of it.
Then send it to Slung Low by email at theholbeck@slunglow.org or by text
on 07704 582137. Slung Low will then arrange to come around to take a copy of
it for you.
Hull Truck Theatre: building closed, but the theatre invites you to be creative at home
CREATIVITY cannot be closed down, says
Hull Truck Theatre, as it launches an At Home community hub from April 6.
Over the coming weeks, Hull Truck will run
a programme of drama and creative activities to keep audiences and communities
entertained and inspired during the Coronavirus lockdown.
This will involve a stream of “engaging
and accessible content”, ranging from A Play A Day and Writing Workouts to 3 Minute
Theatre, Educational Resource Packs and Screening past shows, all to be found
on the new page hulltruck.co.uk/hull-truck-at-home/.
The theatre’s statement says: “Hull
Truck Theatre are passionate about the positive and transformative power of
theatre and believe that having the opportunity to take part in
creative activities is good for everyone’s wellbeing, outlook and
self-esteem.
“The team have prepared activities to
help with home schooling; opportunities for all ages to learn and
develop writing skills, and we’ll be streaming some of our past shows to
be enjoyed from the comfort of your sofa.
“Hull Truck Theatre hope that taking
part in them will help participants to feel creative, connected and part of our
online community hub.”
Matthew Wilson and Nicola Stephenson in Jim Cartwright’s Two at Hull Truck Theatre
Here is a
guide to the Hull Truck Theatre At Home programme:
A Play A Day: Play-reading activity for all
ages
EVERY weekday from April 6 to 24 at
10am, a short play will be released, written by local
playwrights. The plays were commissioned by Hull Truck for various projects
over recent years; the theatre is delighted to share these with a wider
audience now.
Participants can read these plays on
their own, out loud with the people in their household or with friends by phone
or a video-conferencing platform. Each play will come with notes to help
the reader, so, even if they have never read a play before, they can enjoy
it as much as a theatre professional.
First up will be Lydia Marchant’s 2009,
written as part of a youth theatre project, Ten, and performed in March 2019 by
55 members of Hull Truck Theatre’s Young Company.
Ten celebrated the ten-year anniversary
of Hull Truck moving to Ferensway and featured ten ten-minute plays, each based
on a year in the decade 2009 to 2019.
The next four plays lined up were part
of Ten too: Ellen Brammar’s KidnappingNick; Lydia Marchant’s 2011; Josh Overton’s 2012 and Marchant’s 2013.
Writing
Workout with Tom Saunders: Daily tasks for writers of all ages and
abilities
NEW writing is a core part of Hull
Truck’s artistic programme, the theatre working with writers at any stage
of their career and regularly staging or presenting world premieres, new
adaptations and cutting-edge new writing from around the country.
From April 6, associate director Tom
Saunders will post a daily blog with a writing activity for people to
complete at home. Writers of any age will be encouraged to complete the task,
and, if they wish, can share footage of themselves reading their work on social
media.
“Even though our doors may be closed, we hope to continue inspiring people to enjoy the arts from their own home,” says Hull Truck Theatre artistic director Mark Babych
3 Minute Theatre
FOR those still needing their “fix of great theatre”,
Hull Truck Theatre is asking some of its associate artists to record a short
monologue from a play of their choice, to be shared across Hull Truck’s online
channels.
Nicola Stephenson, from the cast of Jim Cartwright’s
Two, Hull Truck’s 2020 co-production with Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre,
and writer-performer Hester Ullyart have shared their monologues already.
HULL Truck has made all its Education
Resource Packs from past productions available for downloading online for
use by teachers and home-schooling families.
These packs include plot synopsis, character breakdown, information about
authors and classroom activities to inspire teachers or
home-schooling families.
Hester Ulyart in Paragon Dreams at Hull Truck Theatre in April 2019. Picture: Sam Taylor
Screening past
productions
HULL Truck is digging through its archives
and is excited to share recordings of favourite shows over the years.
First up will be a screening of Paragon
Dreams from 2019, written and performed by Hull artist
Hester Ullyart, directed by artistic director Mark Babych.
This tense thriller about a woman
returning to Hull to face the ghosts of her past will be streamed on YouTube on
Wednesday, April 8 at 7pm. Watch Hull
Truck Theatre’s social media channels via @hulltruck for the viewing link.
To engage on social media with these
activities, tag @hulltruck for all platforms and use the relevant hashtags: #PlayADay,
#WritingDaily, #3MinuteTheatre, #HTTEducation and #HTTStream.
Launching Hull Truck Theatre At
Home, Mark Babych says: “In this
time of uncertainty, it’s easy to feel alone. As a theatre family we are
stronger together, with Hull Truck Theatre At Home we are hoping to reach out
to our local communities – while still complying with Social Distancing.
“Even though our doors may be closed, we hope to continue inspiring people to enjoy the arts from their own home while also connecting with each other. Whether people are hosting their own online viewing parties or using video calls to go through the exercises together, we hope to start a conversation and help us all feel a lot better in these times. Stay well, stay safe and we look forward to welcoming you back soon.”
Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse in the 2020 co-production of Night Of The Living Dead – Remix. Picture: Edward Waring
INNOVATIVE Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog are responding to the
Coronavirus restrictions by going online with a fortnightly streaming.
Their cutting-edge work from the past 20 years will be made available through
their website, imitatingthedog.co.uk, kicking off tomorrow (April 3) with
projection project Oh, The Night!.
Every fortnight on Fridays for the foreseeable future, Imitating The Dog
will release the next in a selection from their theatre performances and sited
work.
Look out, in particular, for 2020’s Night Of The Living Dead – Remix, a shot-for-shot stage re-creation of George A Romero’s cult 1968 zombie movie, made in co-production with Leeds Playhouse, streaming on April 17.
Further performances will include Arrivals And Departures, a strange and fantastical bedtime story, commissioned in 2017 by Hull: UK City of Culture to look at the East Yorkshire port’s legacy of migration, on May 1, and 6 Degrees Below The Horizon, a macabre and playful tale involving sailors, pimps, barflies, chorus girls and nightclub singers, on May 15. Projection project Yorkshire Electric, on May 29, uses clips from the Yorkshire Film Archive.
Further productions will be announced through social media in the coming
weeks. Each will remain on the website and can be viewed on a Pay-What-You-Like
basis.
Imitating The Dog’s Yorkshire Electric at the Spa Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
The resulting income will go into a development fund to facilitate the company
supporting freelance artists and practitioners to create new work.
Co-artistic director Simon Wainwright says: “With the end of our own Night Of The Living Dead – Remix tour being cancelled and so, so many events and performances now postponed, we thought we’d make some of our past shows available for people to watch online.
“We’re in a lucky position to have some fantastic
recordings of past work, mostly filmed by our friends Shot By Sodium. It’s
obviously no substitute for the real thing but in these isolated days, and
until we can get together in a room again, we hope these videos will provide
joy, thinking and entertainment in equal measure.”
Fusing live performance with digital technology, Imitating The Dog’s two
decades of ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces has been seen by
hundreds of thousands of people at venues, outdoor festivals and events across
the world.
Among other past productions are Hotel Methuselah, A Farewell To Arms and
Heart Of Darkness, while their sited work has included light festivals.
6 Degrees Below The Horizon: Imitating The Dog’s macabre and playful tale of sailors, pimps, barflies, chorus girls and nightclub singers
Here are the upcoming productions:
Friday, April 3: Oh, The Night!
ONE wintry night, a bedtime story is being told, but it’s late, time for
the light to go off, time for the story to pause until tomorrow night.
However, one child starts to wonder… one child at first, but then
another… and another. It might be bedtime and it might be late but without the
end to the story how can they possibly sleep?
What’s happened to the characters? Where have they gone? Are they just
stranded there, waiting for earth to turn its circle, so their story can carry
on the next night?
The children decide to find out. They creep past the grown-ups, out of
the house and to who knows where to find out what happens and how their story
ends.
They find bears and foxes, monsters and ghouls, elves and wizards all
stranded in the night, hiding or hunting, not knowing who to scare or where to
run. All stuck in a place between.
Together, they go on a journey through the night, to the morning and to
the safety of the light.
Performed in Hull, Oh, The Night! combined elements of bedtime stories gathered from around the north of Europe to create a new fable for 2018. The work was commissioned by Absolutely Cultured for Urban Legends: Northern Lights and featured a community chorus and soundtrack from Finnish composer Lau Nau.
Night Of The Living Dead – Remix: Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse match George A Romero’s film shot for shot
Friday, April 17: Night Of The Living Dead – Remix
IN 1968, Night Of the Living Dead started out as a low-budget independent horror movie by George A Romero, telling the story of seven strangers taking refuge from flesh-eating ghouls in an isolated farmhouse.
Fifty years on, seven performers enter the stage armed with cameras, a
box of props and a rail of costumes. Can they recreate the ground-breaking
film, shot-for-shot before our eyes and undertake the seemingly impossible?
Requiring 1,076 edits in 95 minutes, it is an heroic struggle. Success
will demand wit, skill and ingenuity and is by no means guaranteed.
Night Of The Living Dead – Remix is an Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse co-production, presented by courtesy of Image Ten, Inc.
Friday, May 1: Arrivals And Departures
IMITATING The Dog’s work for Hull: UK City of Culture 2017 put a poetic spin on the history of arrivals in and departures from the city. The piece looked at the past of migration from a contemporary perspective, exploring the journeys that have gathered a population and moulded a landscape.
Using The Deep, in Hull, as both canvas and building blocks, Arrivals And
Departures pulled together strands of the complex and universal issues of
migration as a wider subject matter.
The work was created as part of the Made In Hull opening
celebrations for Hull: UK City of Culture.
Imitating The Dog’s Arrivals And Departures for the Made In Hull opening to Hull: UK City of Culture at The Deep, Hull, in 2017
Friday, May 15: 6 Degrees Below The Horizon
THIS macabre and playful tale of sailors, pimps, barflies, chorus girls
and nightclub singers is a startling and visually stunning work, where the
audience views the action through windows and moving frames. In doing so, they piece
together a modern fable of failed dreams, lost love and the guilt of absent
fatherhood.
Building on the successes of Hotel Methuselah and Kellerman,
in 2012 the company created an immersive experience for audiences with a
captivating fusion of cinema and theatre.
Part French film, part Edwardian vaudeville, and drawing on the works of
Genet, Wedekind, and Brecht,6 Degrees Below The Horizon undertakes
a delightful and twisted voyage into a shadowy world wherein there are no
certainties.
Friday, May 29: Yorkshire Electric
YORKSHIRE Electric travels from the dales to the coast on board the
footage of the Yorkshire Film Archive.
Using video mapping, intricate lighting and a soundtrack from the Leeds band Hope & Social, the show transformed the Spa Theatre, Scarborough, offering the audience the opportunity to wander through 100 years of Yorkshire lives and landscapes, from the farming hills to the holiday beaches and back again.
Bringing together Imitating The Dog and architectural lighting
specialist Phil Supple, the piece offered the opportunity to enjoy rarely seen
footage of a century of Yorkshire life in your own time.
YORK drag
queen supreme Velma Cella is to appear in thousands of living rooms across the
country – and around the world – in an uplifting live concert, streamed
tomorrow evening.
Velma’s
Drag Party will be on screen at 6.30pm as
part of the Leave A Light On concert series promoted by Lambert Jackson and The
Theatre Café, St Martin’s Lane, London, to provide financial support for the
performers involved and entertainment for people in self-isolation.
“This
is a tough time for many people, particularly those who regularly attend live
concerts, shows and gigs who are missing the unedited nature of live
performance,” says Ian Stroughair, the West End actor and singer behind Velma
Celli’s spectacular make-up and even more spectacular singing.
“I’m incredibly proud to be taking part,” says Ian Stroughair, alias Velma Celli
“So, it’s
fantastic that Lambert Jackson and The Theatre Café have produced such a superb
series of concerts that can be watched live at home from some of the finest
West End performers. I’m incredibly proud to be taking part.”
Velma Celli’s monthly show at The Basement, City Screen, York, is in abeyance during the Coronavirus lock-down, but devotees and first-timers alike tuning in tomorrow evening can expect “some belted classics and plenty of laughs along the way as we leave reality behind for an hour of camp fun”.
Leave The Light On pays homage to the theatre tradition of leaving a single light burning on the stage of an empty theatre, supposedly to appease the ghosts who reside there.
Tickets
for the live stream cost £7.50 and can be bought up to an hour before the
broadcast. Viewers will be sent a link via email that enables them to
watch the performance live. To buy, go to thetheatrecafe.co.uk/event/leave-a-light-on-velma-celli-live
York Explore Library and Archive, the York hub of Explore York in Museum Street, York
THIS is the time to explore Explore York online, providing the Libraries
from Home service during the Coronavirus lockdown.
“If you are confused or overwhelmed by the huge amount of information on offer, Explore can help,” says executive assistant Gillian Holmes, encouraging visits to the website, exploreyork.org.uk, “where it is simple to find what you need”.
This encouragement comes after all Explore York library buildings, reading cafes and the City Archives were closed to the public from 12 noonon March 21, in response to Government strictures.
“We are making it easy for people to find information and advice, as
well as inspiration, as we all deal with the Coronavirus crisis.”
The Explore website has assorted useful links to help people cope during
the coming weeks. “Some sites have always been part of our online offer and
some are brand new,” says Gillian.
“We are also working with City of York Council and our many partners in
York, so that our communities can join together and we continue to support
their initiatives, just as we will when our buildings open again.
“Organisations across
the country are developing their online services in this challenging time. We
are using our expertise to gather together the best offers and add them to the
lists of sites we recommend.”
Explore
York will be developing online activities of its own, such as a Virtual Book Group. “We
will be updating the website regularly as these new things come on stream and
sharing on social media using #LibrariesFromHome,” says Gillian.
The York Explore building: Quiet in the library but still seeking to be busy online
The chance to visit the new York Images site to explore the history of
the city through photographs, illustrations, maps and archival documents at exploreyork.org.uk/digital/york-images/
Hand-washing for our times: Amanda Dales as Lady Macbeth in York Shakespeare Project’s now postponed Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
YORK Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth
should have opened this evening, but the curse of “the Scottish play” has
struck again.
Although Macbeth is play number 29 in
Shakespeare’s chronology of 38 plays, YSP had held back the Bard’s tragedy big
hitter until production number 36 of 37 as part of a grand finale to the
20-year project in 2020, with The Tempest as the final curtain this autumn.
Now, however, theatre’s harbinger of
bad luck and its Weird Sisters have delivered double, double toil and trouble to
YSP, whose March 30 to April 4 run at the John Cooper Studio, Theatre @41
Monkgate, is mothballed until further notice under the Coronavirus shutdown.
Amanda Dales, left, as Lady Macbeth, and Emma Scott, as Macbeth, in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth. Picture: John Saunders
“We were six rehearsals short of the
finishing line,” says YSP’s Tony Froud, who was to have played Ross in
Shakespeare’s dark tale of ambition, murder and supernatural forces.
“The ideal solution would be to pick it
up again with the same company of actors later in the year, but there could yet
be complications.”
Come what may, Tony envisages the
project still finishing with The Tempest, originally planned for this October, rather
than Macbeth going on hold to form the closing chapter.
Emma Scott as Macbeth in Leo Doulton’s futuristic cyberpunk production of Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
“I would be very surprised if we didn’t want to retain The Tempest as the finale. It being Shakespeare’s final play [that he wrote alone], it is entirely appropriate to round things off with The Tempest, inviting as many people as possible who have been involved over the 20 years to join us for the celebrations.”
The final production is likely to be
accompanied by an exhibition charting YSP from 2001 formation to 2021
conclusion. “The York Explore library is expressing an interest in presenting
it, ideally to coincide with The Tempest’s run.”
Where The Tempest may be staged is yet
to be decided after the initial plan to work in tandem with York Theatre Royal this
autumn fell by the wayside. “It’s now the case that we’re looking into the
possibility of doing a touring production as our final show, culminating in a
York run,” says Tony.
“We were six rehearsals short of the finishing line,” says Tony Froud, who was to have played Ross in this week’s run of York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth
Should Macbeth have gone ahead tonight, Leo Doulton’s production would have been set in a dystopian “cyberpunk” future and performed in a promenade style, with the action taking place on the move, around the audience, led by Emma Scott’s Macbeth. Two performances on Wednesday would expressly have been for schools’ audiences studying the play.
“Macbeth is a magnificent tragedy
about the earthly struggle between the forces of order and chaos, and how the
world becomes corrupted by Macbeth’s strange bargains,” says Doulton, who made
his YSP directorial debut at the helm of last October’s stripped-back Antony
And Cleopatra.
“Cyberpunk is an exciting genre for
exploring, highlighting, and visualising those ideas for a modern audience. We
no longer fear witches, but we are still scared of our society being shaped by
powers with no concern for those below them.”
Leo Doulton: director of York Shakespeare Project’s production of Macbeth. Picture: Amanda Dales
Whenever we more than three shall meet again, let us look forward to Doulton’s show “capturing all the original’s epic drama in its poetry and production” with Emma Scott in the title role. In the meantime, now is the time to follow Lady Macbeth’s latter-day practice: constant hand washing, over and over again.
York Shakespeare
Project’s cast for Macbeth
Macbeth: Emma Scott
Lady Macbeth: Amanda
Dales
Banquo, Siward: Clive
Lyons
Fleance, Donalbain,
Son, Young Siward: Rhiannon Griffiths
Macduff: Harry
Summers
Duncan, Lady Macduff,
Menteith: Jim Paterson
Malcolm: Eleanor
Frampton
Lennox: Nick Jones
Ross: Tony Froud
Angus: Sarah-Jane
Strong
First Witch, First
Murderer, Doctor: Joy Warner
Second Witch, Second
Murderer, Gentlewoman: Alexandra Logan
Third Witch, Third
Murderer, Caithness, Seyton: Chloe Payne.
The York Shakespeare Project cast in rehearsal for Macbeth. Picture: John Saunders
Crew
Director:
Leo Doulton
Set designer: Charley Ipsen
Lighting designer: Neil Wood
Costume designer: Scarlett Wood
Sound designer: Jim Paterson.
Did you know?
WILLIAM Shakespeare’s
play Macbeth is said to be cursed, so actors avoid
saying its name when in the theatre. The euphemism “the Scottish
Play” is used instead.
Should an
actor utter the name “Macbeth” in a theatre before a performance, however, they
are required to perform a ritual to remove the curse.
When the
Grand Opera House reopened after a £4 million refurbishment on September 26 1989,
the York theatre tempted fate by presenting Macbeth (in a Balinese version) as
the first show, 33 years since the last professional stage performance there. Only
two years later, the theatre closed again, staff arriving to find the doors
locked.
Adam Martyn: partially sighted actor playing the blind scientist Nicholas Saunderson in No Horizon, pictured in rehearsal
RIGHT Hand Theatre’s No Horizon, a musical celebrating a blind Yorkshire
science and maths genius, is no longer on the horizon at York Theatre Royal. Exit
stage left the April 9 and 11 performances under the Coronavirus shutdown.
However, the No Horizon team say: “Sadly, though we
will be pausing our adventure for now, our No Horizon journey is
far from over. When we are back – and we truly mean when, not if
– we will be bigger and better than ever.
“This has been an amazing rehearsal process and although this [situation] is a hurdle, we will overcome
this. Here’s to the
future of the show and we are sure that the best is yet to come.”
No Horizon’s 2020 tour was to have opened at The Civic, Barnsley, on
March 20. Now, the progress towards a new horizon can be followed at nohorizonthemusical.com
and on social media.
The musical tells the life story of Nicholas Saunderson, a blind
scientist and mathematician from Thurlstone, West Riding, who overcame
impossible odds to become a Cambridge professor and friend of royalty.
Often
described as an 18th century Stephen
Hawking, Saunderson was born on January 20 1682, losing his sight through
smallpox when around a year old. This did not prevent him, however, from
acquiring a knowledge of Latin and Greek and studying mathematics.
As a child,
he learnt to read by tracing the engravings on tombstones around St John the
Baptist Church in Penistone, near Barnsley, with his fingers.
No Horizon
premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, going on to draw an enthusiastic
response from BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans, who called it a “Yorkshire Les
Mis”.
Next month’s
York Theatre Royal shows would have been part of a now stalled northern tour of
a 2020 adaptation “with a fresh look” by Right Hand Theatre, a company
passionate about diversity and inclusivity within theatre.
Consequently, the 2020 cast has a 50/50 male/female balance, with
the credo of delivering the show in a gender-blind way with a female Isaac
Newton, for example. Both the director and lead actor are visually impaired.
Leading the
company in rehearsals, in the role of Saunderson, has been the partially
sighted Adam Martyn, from Doncaster, who trained at Liverpool Institute of
Performing Arts (LIPA).
Alongside him have been Yorkshire born-and-bred, Rose Bruford
College-trained Larissa Teale in the female lead role of Abigail; Tom Vercnocke
as Joshua Dunn; Louise Willoughby as Anne Saunderson; Matthew Bugg as John
Saunderson; Ruarí Kelsey as Reverend Fox; Katie Donoghue and Olivia Smith as
Company.
In the production team are director Andrew Loretto; vocal coach
Sally Egan; movement directors Lucy Cullingford and Maria Clarke; costume
designer Lydia Denno; costume maker Sophie Roberts; lighting designer David
Phillips and tour musical director David Osmond.
No
Horizon’s 2020 northern tour has been co-commissioned by Cast, Doncaster and
The Civic, Barnsley and supported by Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind,
with funding from Arts Council England and Foyle Foundation.
York Theatre Royal box office will contact ticket holders for
refunds.
Matthew Kelly as York-born poet W H Auden when Alan Bennett’s The Habit Of Art was rehearsed and staged at York Theatre Royal in August and September 2018. Picture: James Findlay
YORK Theatre Royal’s 2018 co-production
of Alan Bennett’s The Habit Of Art has been made available to stream by
OriginalTheatre Online.
Directed by Philip Franks,
a second British tour was due to start this month with Matthew Kelly and David
Yelland reprising their roles of poet W H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten.
However, both the tour and
a trip to New York for the Brits Off Broadway have been scrapped after the
Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
In turn, this has prompted
The Original Theatre Company, the Theatre Royal’s co-producers, to release the
production online.
Matthew Kelly as W H Auden and David Yelland as Benjamin Britten in The Habit Of Art, now available to stream through Original Theatre Online
Leeds playwright Bennett’s
The Habit Of Art imagines a 1972 meeting between friends and collaborators Auden
and Britten – their first in 30 years – where they mull over life, art, sexuality and death.
What drew Matthew Kelly to
playing York-born Auden? “He has a razor-sharp wit and we have a very similar
outlook about work which is the habit of art. I am the same,” he says.
“I have to keep working – I’m nearly 70 [his birthday falls on May 9] – not because I need the money, but because the theory comes into play that the longer you hang on, the longer you will hang on. Otherwise you fall off the perch.”
The Habit Of Art requires Kelly
to play an actor playing an actor playing a real-life person. If this sounds
confusing, “No, it actually clarifies things,” says Kelly, clarifying things.
Philip Franks, director of The Habit Of Art, who also directed Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in The Tempest in York last summer
“It’s a very clever device
because it means you can be funny about what you do, you can comment on it and
you can explain stuff. You can come out of the play Caliban’s Day, which the
actors are rehearsing, and then it’s a play about the fictional meeting of
Auden and Britten.
“What’s wonderful about
Bennett’s play is, not only have you got the finest composer of our time and
the finest poet of our time, but you also, in my opinion, have the greatest
playwright of our time.”
Kelly
continues: “So, you’ve got all those words being sewn together by our greatest
playwright, who’s kind, accessible, very erudite and talks about sex in a very
earthy way.
“He also gives a voice to
the unregarded, who don’t usually have a voice. Generally, the great people,
the stars of our time, get the final word and the people who look after them,
what are commonly called ‘the little people’, really don’t get any say at all.
They are the forgotten heroes who nurtured these stars.”
“He’s terribly kind and encouraging, which I love,” says Matthew Kelly of The Habit Of Art playwright Alan Bennett
Former Stars In Their Eyes presenter Kelly completed a hattrick of Bennett roles with The Habit Of Art, having appeared as unconventional teacher Hector in The History Boys in 2013 and Czech author Franz Kafka in Kafka’s Dick, opposite his son Matthew Rixon, as a younger Kafka, at York Theatre Royal in March 2001.
“We were hoping Alan
Bennett would come to York because he lives in Leeds and it’s only a hop and a
skip away, but he didn’t come,” recalls Kelly.
“A couple of years later, I met him at Heathrow and he came up to me and apologised for not coming to the York production. He was terribly kind about it. “Years later, I did The History Boys in Sheffield, then Kafka’s Dick again in Bath. On both those shows he sent champagne and a Good Luck postcard.
“He always knows what’s
going on and he’s terribly kind and encouraging, which I love. The great thing
about Alan is he’s very supportive of all productions, although he doesn’t go
and see them.”
Original Theatre Online is
streaming a second touring production too: Ali Milles’s The Croft, starring
Gwen Taylor and again directed by Franks. Both that show and The Habit Of Art can
be streamed any time until June.
“We are thrilled to be able to share these brilliant shows digitally: our own theatre without walls,” says The Original Theatre Company director Alastair Whatley.
Alastair Whatley, artistic director of The Original Theatre Company, says: “We know how disappointing it has been to our audiences, cast, creatives and Original Theatre to have to close our shows. We are thrilled to be able to share these brilliant shows digitally: our own theatre without walls.
“However,
the Original Theatre Company operates with no Arts Council support and relies
almost solely on the box-office takings. With our two productions of The Habit Of
Art and The Croft both out on national tours, the immediate cancellations are
financially devastating for us.
“But we are determined,
wherever possible, to meet our financial commitments made to our actors, stage
managers and suppliers, who are all dependent on us to survive the coming
months.
“Every
penny we make through this online release will go to the people who helped make
this show, who now find themselves in a hugely precarious financial position.”
Both
plays are free to watch although The Original Theatre suggests a minimum
donation of £2.50.
For
full streaming details, visit originaltheatreonline.com.
Marketing officer Olivia Potter’s We Pull Together poster at York Theatre Royal,, pictured by events producer Zach Pierce when he left the theatre for the last time before the Coronavirus-enforced closure.
TODAY is World Theatre Day, but a day when the world of live theatre
and its eye on the world are shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, theatres are still marking the occasion, be it York
Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird’s Tweets throughout the day on his
favourite theatres around the world, or reflections elsewhere on why theatre,
in its myriad forms, is so important to British life.
At the Theatre Royal, show posters have been replaced by one message to the city of York, a rallying call reminiscent of wartime posters, designed in the Theatre Royal livery by marketing officer Olivia (Livy) Potter from an initial idea by development officer Maisie Pearson.
In bold print, it reads: We Are Creative. We Are Sturdy. We Are
Ambitious. We Are York. We Pull Together.
Bird’s eye view on World Theatre Day: York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird is marking the day with Tweets highlighting his favourite theatres in the world
Here, Olivia answers Charles Hutchinson’s questions on how the poster came to be printed.
Why and how did you choose the wording of your poster, Olivia?
“The wording was inspired by York Theatre Royal’s values:
“We are ambitious
We are sturdy
We are welcoming
We are ambassadors for York
We celebrate the city’s true diversity; it makes us bloom
We are creative in every context
We pull together
We excel in every area”.
“The idea to take some of these values and work them into a
message came from our development officer, Maisie Pearson, and it was a
brilliant one.”
Dumb question, but what prompted you to do it?
“We had to take the show posters down outside the theatre as they
were promoting productions that had been cancelled, such as Alone In Berlin
mid-run.
“The empty poster sites looked very forlorn and that got us
thinking about putting up a poster with a message of support and solidarity for
the city to see instead – something that could stay up for however long it
needed to.”
Run halted: Alone In Berlin fell silent when York Theatre Royal closed in response to the Coronavirus pandemic
What is the overall message you are seeking to put across? Is it about theatre and the arts at large being woven so vitally into the fabric of York, or is it more about that wider message of the importance of all pulling together?
“I think it’s both these messages. It’s a very uncertain time for
all industries right now, but particularly the arts and entertainment industry.
“We wanted to find some way of reassuring the people of the city
that the curtain will rise again and we want everyone to be there when it does.
“Also, the narrative of the nation ‘pulling together’ by staying
at home to save lives has really come into force, particularly over the last few
days. The wording we’ve chosen for the poster seems to be quite vital now and
in keeping with this narrative.”
Where are the posters on show at York Theatre Royal?
“One can be found by our Stage Door on Duncombe Place, next to Red
House Antiques. Another can be found next to our patio area to the left of the
theatre building on St Leonard’s Place.”
York Theatre Royal’s logo: colour palette is replicated in the new poster
Why are posters such a powerful medium in tumultuous times?
“Poster art and design is a really interesting medium, and very
difficult to get right. I suppose the key is to keep it simple, find your
message and present it in a way that is striking.”
How did you choose the charcoal and old-gold colour scheme for the poster? Echoes of wartime posters, perhaps?
“The colours are actually the brand colours of York Theatre Royal,
which unintentionally seem to have connotations of those famous wartime-era
posters.”
Will there be more posters to come?
“We hope that won’t be necessary and that we can replace them with
show posters soon.”
How are you spending your days during the theatre shutdown?
“I’m finding ways to engage with our audiences online; yoga; a bit
of dancing; chatting to family and friends online; making fancy meals and
drinking a fair bit of gin.”
Livy Potter in the role of Nina in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at York Theatre Royal Studio, February 26 to March 7
On World Theatre Day, why does theatre and the arts matter so much to you, both in your work at the Theatre Royal and as an actor?
“There’s nothing quite like the arts as a means of bringing people
together, not just physically but emotionally too.
“I love being part of an audience who are engaged, laughing as one
and sometimes even crying together, too.
“One of the biggest joys in my life is being part of a group who
come together with the purpose of creating something as one – a shared aim of
telling a story for others to listen to and enjoy.
“In this difficult time, I think people are going to find really
ingenious ways of achieving this and when this all does finally end, I can’t
wait for us all to come together once more to experience the joys of theatre
afresh.”
