” 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.
Scarlet Wilderink, Ben Tolley, Niall Ransome and Marcquelle Ward (front) in Treasure Island. Pictures: Sam Taylor
Treasure Island, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until December 29. Box office: 01723 370541 or at tickets@sjt.uk.com
TREASURE Island is re-envisaged with sea shanties, baguette swords, talking vegetables, puppets, rap battles and a giant mechanical crab called Susan in the Stephen Joseph Theatre Christmas show.
Stolen and re-told by story pirate Nick Lane, Robert Louis Stevenson’s
nautical adventure is presented by an actor-musician cast of five billed as The
Fearsome Pirates.
Or not that fearsome at the Relaxed Performance your reviewer attended
where they introduced themselves and explained who each would be playing, while
the stage management outlined how the sword fighting would not be dangerous and
the maximum noise to be expected was the closing of a trapdoor. Likewise, no-one
should be alarmed by the sight of smoke (dry ice) emerging on deck.
Scarlet Wilderink: Revelling in her big fake moustache character switch in Treasure Island
It was fascinating to see the care being taken in making everyone at ease,
reaffirming the importance of theatre’s powers of storytelling reaching out to
everyone.
Lane’s “brilliantly bonkers” shows, whose adventures always begin and
end up back in Scarborough in time for Christmas, have become a staple of the
SJT winter programme, Treasure Island following in the unconventional footsteps
of Pinocchio, A (Scarborough) Christmas Carol and Alice In Wonderland.
Lane’s humour is always wind-assisted, with any excuse for the word “bum”
and prodigious feats of, how to put this, bottom burping. Adults might feel there
is too much wind in this particular sail this time, but try telling that to the
young ones, who revel in the repetition of Marcquelle Ward’s involuntary trumpeting
in the role of apple-loving Jim Hawkins. Nevertheless, maybe a tad less wind
next year would still blow the house down.
Marcquelle Ward, left, Scarlet Wilderink, Alice Blundell and Niall Ransome as the Fearsome Pirate storytellers in Treasure Island
Lane’s play feels more episodic than in past years, not merely because
the cast announces each chapter, but because there is so much to cram in after dishing
out the roles for Ward, Alice Blundell, Niall Ransome, Scarlet Winderink and
Ben Tolley, the pick of this winter’s troupe under Erin Carter’s direction.
Tolley arrives in a suit, saying he is attending on behalf of the
Stevenson estate to make sure no disrespectful nonsense is allowed on stage,
whereupon he is commandeered to play assorted parts, such as Long John Silver
(or LJs as he becomes in the climactic rap battle).
This is a typically inventive device by Lane, and Tolley responds to the
max as the ship full of Scarborough scalleys heads to Treasure Island in search
of Captain Flint’s treasure before the pirates find it.
Alice Blundell with the accident-prone puppet of Captain Smollett in Treasure Island at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
In a second Lane innovation, out goes a talking parrot, in comes a
talking…carrot, perched on Silver’s shoulder in his “disguise” as a pirate cook.
“Five a day, five a day,” says the Carrot, in one of the comic high points.
Look out for the seagulls too, dropping their messages from the sky on
Silver’s head, much to the children’s glee.
Helen Coyston’s stage designs bring out the full potential of the Round
setting, especially when the cast creates the deck of the Hispaniola, and the
giant mechanical crab claws that emerge through one of the exits ticks the “mild
peril” box to amusing effect.
Ben Tolley’s Long John Silver in Treasure Island
Musical director Simon Slater’s new songs are terrific: shanties and
nautical nuggets as fresh and bracing as the sea air with fun lyrics to boot.
While not matching the heights of Alice In Wonderland, in particular, Lane’s Treasure Island still has a treasure trove of jollification, adventure and daftness to be discovered, hapless Captain Smollett puppet, big fake moustache, baguette sword fights and all.
Zoe Paylor’s Pinata and Mark Friend’s Pinocchio, from Blue Light Theatre Company’s Oh! What A Circus cast, at Acomb Cobblers. All pictures: Scott Atkinson
ROLL up! Roll up! The Blue Light Theatre Company’s pantomime, Oh! What A
Circus, will open at Acomb Working Men’s Club, York, next month.
Made up of paramedics, ambulance dispatchers, York Hospital staff and members of York’s theatre scene, the company will be in action on January 24, 25 and January 29 to 31 at 7.30pm nightly, plus a 1pm matinee on January 25.
Blue Light Theatre Company’s cast members for Oh! What A Circus at Acomb Working Men’s Club
“Our story revolves around two circuses, one good and one evil, and
their search for a star act, but which circus will succeed?” says Mark Friend,
who plays Pinocchio. “This is a family-friendly
show that would make a perfect Christmas gift for the whole family, especially
as it features many famous fairy-tale characters such as Pinocchio, Geppetto,
Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Tinkerbell and Hansel and Gretel.”
In the cast will be Steven Clark, as dame Dolly Mixsteur; Glen Gears, Darius De’vil; Jorvik Kalicinski, Geppetto; Mark Friend, Pinocchio; Perri-Ann Barley, Rapunzel; Devon Walls, Red Riding Hood; Brenda Riley, Magenta, the Sorceress; Craig Barley, Cyril and Old Man, and Kevin Bowes, Nodoff, the Clown.
Shoe-in for success: Blue Light Theatre Company’s Zoe Paylor (Pinata), Jorvik Kalicinski (Geppetto) and Mark Friend (Pinocchio) at Acomb Cobblers
So too will be Linden Horwood, as Tinkerbell; Pat Mortimer, Signora Fi Lacio; Zoe Paylor, Pinata and Suki; Kristian Barley, Hansel; Katelyn Botterill, Gretel, and Kalayna Barley, Bird and one of the four Piglets, Pandora. The other three will be Kathryn Donley as Pringles; Charlotte Botterill, Pippa, and Abigail Botterill, Primrose.
Director and producer Craig Barley leads the production team, joined by writer/co-producer Perri-Ann Barley; choreographer Devon Wells and the costumes team of Brenda Riley and Christine Friend. Steven Clark has written additional material.
Sizing up Pinocchio: Jorvik Kalicinski’s shoemaker Geppetto works on Mark Friend’s Pinocchio’s shoe as Zoe Paylor’s Pinata looks on at Acomb Cobblers
As in previous years, Blue Light will be raising money for York Against
Cancer and Motor Neurone Disease (York). “We hope to exceed our record-breaking
£3,000, which was split between the charities after our last production,
Wonderland,” says Mark.
“We’ve had fantastic support from local and national businesses, and our
raffle prizes include family passes to many of York and North Yorkshire’s
famous attractions. We also offer a cheap bar, which now accepts credit and
debit cards, and cheap pick’n’mix sweet bags for sale at the shows.”
Tickets cost £10, adults, £8, concessions, £5, children, at bluelight-theatre.co.uk, on 07933 329654 or from cast members. “We’re hoping to sell some tickets for Christmas zero-waste presents over the next couple of days,” says Mark.
Did you know?
SHOULD you be wondering, the publicity photographs were taken by Scott Atkinson at Mansell Hughes’s shoe repairs shop, Acomb Cobblers, in Green Lane, Acomb. “Mansell is a huge support to us, giving us free rein of his shop for our photo-shoot,” says Mark Friend.
