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Badapple tackle global warming in Christmas show The Snow Dancer

Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham in Badapple Theatre’s Christmas show, The Snow Dancer. All pictures: Karl Andre

BADAPPLE Theatre Company set out on the road tomorrow with their Christmas show, The Snow Dancer, a tale to perk the interest of teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Written and directed by the Green Hammerton company’s artistic director, Kate Bramley, the setting is The Great Wood, where something is awry. The animals are desperate for sleep, but with the onset of global warming and climate change, the weather is just too warm.

The show’s intrepid heroes, played by Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor, decide they must seek out the mysterious Snow Dancer if there is any chance of ever making it snow for Christmas.

Ahead of tomorrow’s preview show at Hunsingore Village Hall, Charles Hutchinson puts director Kate Bramley in the hot seat.

Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham with one of the puppets in The Snow Dancer

What prompted you to write The Snow Dancer, Kate? 

“I started work on this show in 2017 with composer Jez Lowe. There are many stories of indigenous peoples around the globe who had the tradition of dancing to bring on the snow for the season, but as far as we know there are no surviving stories of actual Snow Dancers!”

Were you inspired by any existing Christmas stories?

“I’ve worked on a lot of Christmas stories in the past, so even though this one is completely original and doesn’t follow an existing story, there are still recognisable elements.

“We have Ida the March Hare, who is a meddling villain, for example. But, if anything, it’s a classic ‘quest’ story, where the children head off through the woods to save the world and encounter a few setbacks on the way.”

Ida, the March Hare: the meddling villain in The Snow Dancer

Does writing a Christmas story make different demands of you as a writer, given certain audience expectations?

“I suppose over the years we have created a Badapple style of storytelling that is open to audiences of all ages, so for the family Christmas shows I just have to make sure that the structure is suitable for younger viewers, with lots of things going on.

“We have some beautiful – and very cheeky – woodland puppets in this one, so hopefully that will help keep the kids entertained!

“I think there’s a Pixar animation and commercial pantomime expectation nowadays that tells Christmas stories on a grand scale, which we can’t necessarily do! But I work for a number of months with our designer, Catherine Dawn, to create little ‘magic moments’ of theatre that run throughout the story. There may be some surprises for audiences!”

Hedgehog incoming: Danny Mellor with another of Badapple’s puppets for The Snow Dancer

Global warming is the political issue of our day, even if Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s place was taken by a dripping block of ice on the Leaders’ debate on Channel 4. What impact can a play make at this time? 

“I’m not sure that any one play can make an impact. But it’s about contributing to a conversation, I think. As a company, we often re-use sets and costume; rarely buy anything new and have our power from renewable sources; actively recycle and try to avoid wastage.

“But we’re realising that we just do all that quietly and don’t particularly discuss the issues with our audiences.

“What has changed over the past couple of years since I started work on this project is that it is young people globally who are at the forefront of the campaign for change. And it feels like we should all take them seriously. And that’s why the heroes in our story, Sol and Aurora, are 17…and they save the world! Simple!”

Anastasia Benham: playing an intrepid hero in Badapple Theatre Company’s Christmas show, The Snow Dancer

As a company that travels by road, from village to village, to provide “theatre on your doorstep”, how do you go eco?

“As part of our ambition for this project, I asked Catherine and John [Badapple stage and lighting designer John Bramley] to create an eco-set that was made from re-claimed materials, using partners like the Community Furniture Store and Community RePaint among others.

“But, more than that, Catherine has created a forest setting out of ‘human junk’! It’s an incredibly beautiful and atmospheric design with donated ladders as trees, broken umbrella canopies and much more. So not only is it a recycled set but it also makes a statement about re-cycling or up-cycling. She’s very clever!

“The final piece of our funding for this project was for our team to assess our sustainability as an organisation and create a report as to what we might do in the future to further decrease our carbon footprint.”

What did that report involve?

“We collected some data last year that showed the percentages of audiences that came to our shows on foot, from under a mile radius, and it’s a pretty high number. So, the next part of our process is to look at our touring (driving) footprint as well as the audiences (lower) footprint and see how much further we can go.

“John has already started to explore electric vehicles but there isn’t currently a vehicle that would fit our needs and run on electric. So, we could run two electric vehicles but, of course, there is a carbon cost in the production of those vehicles.

“Anyway, it’s an ongoing debate, but we’re delighted that we’re having the chance to discuss these elements in detail and hopefully by next summer we’ll have an even more effective strategy! It’s a work in progress for everyone, I think.” 

Let it snow: Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor in Badapple’s The Snow Dancer

How do you balance humour and a more serious message in the play?

“For anyone who knows my writing, they’ve probably cottoned on to the fact that I’m usually delivering social politics by stealth! It’s humour first and then perhaps at the end of the show the audiences will think over the story and maybe ask some questions of themselves at a later stage.”

Who is the Snow Dancer and why is the Snow Dancer mysterious, or had that better remain a mystery?!

“The Snow Dancer is one of four spirit dancers that, back before the dawn of time, was responsible for dancing to bring in the winter season. Over the centuries the other dancers have retired, and only the Snow Dancer remains.

“But with the weather so unseasonably warm in the Great Wood, we can only conclude he’s gone on strike! But he’s hiding somewhere and our heroes must find him and persuade him to dance to get the weather back to normal, so that all the animals can get some sleep. That’s an old Badapple legend, by the way!”

Will Anastasia Benham’s intrepid hero be outfoxed? Find out in The Snow Dancer

What would be your Christmas Day message to the nation in 2019?

“Choose love. Try to scale down the wastage on the un-necessary a bit and focus on supporting your loved ones and those in need in the community. Our Christmas charities this year are Safe Passage where we are founder members and also The Woodland Trust. Maybe some of our audiences might choose to support them as well.” 

What are your New Year wishes for Badapple?

“I want to congratulate my team really. We’ve worked through a difficult couple of years financially with some great shows under our belts and everyone is still smiling! We’re 21 in 2020 so we’re officially a grown-up company now! Hopefully we’ll keep entertaining and inspiring the communities who so kindly invite us into their midst.”

Badapple Theatre Company present The Snow Dancer from December 5 to 29.

Campaign badges: Anastasia Benham in Badapple’s climate change cautionary tale, The Snow Dancer

Tour dates for December 2019:

December 5, Hunsingore Village Hall, LS22 5HY, preview show; box office, 01423 339168.

6, Harpham & Lowthorpe Village Hall. YO25 4QZ; 07867 692616.

7, Bempton & Buckton Community Hall, YO15 1HS; 0844 500 5121/07849 639650

8, Sand Hutton & Claxton Village Hall YO41 1LL; 01904 468525 / 468001

10, Danby Wiske Village Hall, DL7 0LY; 01609 771117.

11, Skipsea Village Hall, YO25 8TJ; 01262 469714.

12, Dalton le Dale Parish Hall, SR7 8QP; 0191 581 3726.

13, Biddulph Moor Village Hall, ST8 7HP; 01782 523573.

14, Fairfield Village Hall, B61 9LZ; 07762 749943.

15, Bubbenhall Village Hall, CV8 3BD; 02476 305931.

17, Appletreewick Village Hall, BD23 6DD; 01423 339168.

18, Stillingfleet Village Institute, YO19 6SJ; 01423 339168.

19, Portholme Church, Selby, YO8 4QH; 01423 339168 or tickets@portholmechurch.org.uk.

20, Green Hammerton Village Hall, YO26 8AB; 01423 339168.

21, Bingley Arts Centre, BD16 2LZ; 01274 567983 or bingleyartscentre.co.uk.

22, Campsall Village Hall, to be confirmed.

27, Markington War Memorial Institute, HG3 3NR; 01423 771748 or 01423 339168.

28, St Alban’s Church, Hull, HU6 8SA; 07401 179 927.

29, Yarm Fellowship Hall, TS15 9BT; 01642 888786.

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Santa’s in love and Aladdin’s wishing for magic at Pocklington Arts Centre

Talegate Theatre’s Widow Twankey in Aladdin at Pocklington Arts Centre

POCKLINGTON Arts Centre is staging two Christmas shows with the emphasis on “fantastic festive family fun”.

First up, The People’s Theatre Company present Steven Lee’s Santa In Love on Saturday afternoon, promising to unveil magical secrets for audiences aged four and over at 2.30pm.

If you have ever wanted to know from where the fairy on top of the Christmas tree comes, why you never see a Christmas elf, or maybe the answer to the greatest secret of them all – the one about Santa Claus and the thing he secretly loves best – then this is the show for you. 

Santa will be available to meet little ones after the show and each child will receive a gift. 

Next, Talegate Theatre’s Aladdin on December 14 brings you “the pantomime you have always wished for”.

Follow the heroic Aladdin and his troublesome mum, Widow Twankey, to see if they can beat the evil Abanazar to the magic lamp in time for Aladdin to win the hand of Princess Jasmine. 

Talegate Theatre’s 2.30pm show will be packed with songs, slapstick, silliness and fairy-tale magic.

Pocklington Arts Centre director Janet Farmer says: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when our auditorium is filled with audiences of all ages enjoying some fantastic festive family fun. 

“Our Christmas stage shows enhance our year-round family theatre offering and really mark the start of the build-up to Christmas and the New Year, but they always prove hugely popular, so I would recommend buying tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.”

Tickets for Santa In Love cost £9 each or £34 for a family ticket; Aladdin, £10, under 21s £8, family £33, on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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York poet Carole Bromley to perform at Scarborough’s Christmas Rotunda Night

Headliner: York poet Carole Bromley will perform at Scarborough’s Rotunda Muaeum this Christmas. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

YORK poet Carole Bromley is the headline act for the Christmas Rotunda Night at Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum on December 21.

She will be joined at this 6.30pm to 9pm festive celebration by the Scarborough-told Tales storytellers and Whitby a cappella group The Windmill Girls.

Carole’s work has appeared in many journals and compilations and she has three collections to her name: A Guide Tour Of The Ice House,The Stonegate Devil and Blast Off!, a book for children. She has won such prizes as the Bridport Prize for Poetry, Brontë Society Literary Award and 2019 Hamish Canham Award from the Poetry Society.

The Windmill Girls: a cappella carols

Scarborough-told Tales brings together storytellers who have graduated from a Rotunda workshop course, now making a return visit after their performance in July.

The all-female choir The Windmill Girls sing acapella carols, many drawn from the rich tradition of “village” carols, some dating from the18th century and boasting exuberant choruses.

Scarborough-told Tales: stories for Christmas. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Simon Hedges, head of curation, collections and exhibitions at Scarborough Museums Trust, which runs the Rotunda Museum and Scarborough Art Gallery, says: “This promises to be a brilliant festive treat, with poetry, great stories and seasonal music – just right for getting into the Christmas spirit.”

Tickets for this Rotunda Night cost £7.50 including a glass of wine, beer, Christmas punch or soft drink. Places are limited, so advance booking is recommended on 01723 353665.

Charles Hutchinson

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Hannah Davies and Hannah Bruce launch Conflux audio walk at Castle Gateway

Conflux: “a lyrical audio collage bursting with voice and music “. Image: Katie Allen

COMMON Ground Theatre and Hannah Bruce and Company present Conflux, a lyrical audio collage bursting with voice and music in the heart of York this weekend.

It will be launched by private invitation only to previews at 4pm, 4.30pm and 5pm today and tomorrow at Piccadilly Bridge, on the Foss, next to Tesco Express, before being made available to the public as a download from Monday, December 2, for one year.

The Conflux audio walk is an hour of stories, imaginings and musings inspired by the Castle Gateway area. Accessed via an app on personal devices, the rich sound world guides listeners on a journey through York’s oldest site of stronghold, power and resistance.

“It’s part podcast, part poem, part accidental car park,” says Conflux host Hannah Davies, the York writer, poet, performer and Common Ground artistic director, who has worked with sound designer and composer Jonathan Eato and director Hannah Bruce. 

“Conflux takes listeners on a trip to find the often forgotten and mostly ignored, the stories that lurk on street corners and under the tarmac. Starting by the river Foss on Piccadilly, listeners follow the in-audio instructions to explore one of the city’s most fascinating and iconic sites in a captivating and irreverent blend of past and present, with contributions from 36 York residents.” 

Using art to reference the past while looking to the future of the iconic city-centre site, this free outdoor audio experience is the second of a trio of art commissions to be presented as part of City of York Council’s consultation on Castle Gateway.

Conflux is funded through Leeds City Region Business Rates Pool, which allows local authorities to retain growth in business rates for local investment. It is supported with public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, as well as supported by City of York Council and York Mediale, York’s digital media arts enterprise. The University of York Music Department has provided support for this project too. 

Writer Hannah says: “As someone who lives and works in this city, it was great to spend time in a part of town that I usually only use as a short cut. Our city is full of history but that’s not everything that’s important about it.

“We wanted to capture a sense of now, brushing up against the past. The fragmented messy layers of it all. History is not neat. Nor is everyday life.

“We spent a lot of time on the site at different times of day and met and spoke to some really interesting people whose voices appear in Conflux. I know so much about the site now, I’ll never see it in the same light again. And I’ve definitely developed a thing for Clifford’s Tower, such an iconic part of York I used to take for granted. Now I do a little inner wave to it every time I pass.”

Those attending this weekend’s previews will need a smartphone, earbuds or headphones and details of the event code for the app. “Please dress for the weather and be prepared for an outdoor walk,” advises Hannah. 

Details regarding the app and the event code for specific time slots have been sent in advance to the audio walkers, who will start out from Piccadilly Bridge, having met at Spark York for information and support.

For full download instructions, visit the Common Ground website, cgtheatre.co.uk/portfolio/conflux, from Monday, December 2.

Charles Hutchinson

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REVIEW: Jesus Christ Superstar, York Musical Theatre Company ****

Meet the new Whitney with the powerful voice: John Whitney as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar, York Musical Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

REJECTED as a theatre show, Jesus Christ Superstar began life as that very 1970s’ thing, a rock concept album, or double album to be precise.

The year was 1970; Tim Rice was 25, Andrew Lloyd Webber, 21. By 1972, it had resurrected miraculously as a rock opera, so successfully that it played the West End for eight years initially.

Paul Laidlaw’s glorious new revival in York could not be more Seventies in spirit: hippie hair; kaftans; flared jeans; Bjorn Borg headbands; big beards; cop-show moustaches. Only the patchouli oil and stinky Afghan coats are missing, and no-one misses them.

The dawn of Advent might seem the wrong time to tell the story of the last seven days of Jesus Christ’s life, as seen through Judas’s burning eyes, but in fact its impact is all the greater before thoughts turn towards celebrating the innocent child’s arrival.

John Whitney has long cherished his dream role of Jesus, through his days of studying musical theatre at York St John University and growing a tribute beard. Now, at 28, the Middlesbrough-born actor realises that dream, with York Musical Theatre Company as his “new source to get his awesome musicals fix,” he says in the programme, coming over all retro Seventies.

Through a mutual connection, your reviewer had been hearing of what a powerhouse voice Whitney had. He was right. Wow! The new Whitney sings with a stunning range, sensitivity, emotion, drama, soul, and did he hit that famous Everest-high top note in I Only Want To Say (Gethsemane)? Of course, he did.

At his lowest ebb: Chris Mooney’s Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar

He was but one of many superb casting decisions by Laidlaw. Liverpudlian Chris Mooney is making his YMTC debut as the traitorous Judas, the narrator’s role, standing out from his fellow disciples with cropped hair and autumnal, military colours, his manner as intense and deceiving as Shakespeare’s Iago. His singing voice is full of fire and angst, but sometimes tender too, although he needs to work on the clarity of his diction in moments of heightened vocal stress.

Marlena Kellie, a jazz singer with appearances at Ronnie Scott’s and Pride to her name, makes I Don’t Know How To Love Him sound freshly minted, heartbreaking anew.

More than a decade after his appearance in York Light’s chorus line for this musical, Peter Wookie has his YMTC bow as an austere Pilate, and he is another to make a heavyweight impact, both with his voice and imposing physicality.

Jesus Christ Superstar, like Lloyd Webber and Rice’s fellow fledgling work Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat, loves to show off myriad song styles, whether a rock anthem, a ballad, or a slice of Weimar cabaret in King Herod’s Song (a twinkling, camp John Haigh and his dancing ladies in red, contrasting with the men in black representing authority around him).

For this well paced sung-through musical, musical director John Atkin has a superb band under his command, wherein Paul McArthur and Neil Morgan’s guitars particularly shine out, while Laidlaw’s ensemble more than play their part too. Simon Spencer’s set and especially his lighting hit the mark too.

There is something of a Nativity play, Elvis Vegas show or even Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert about Jesus Christ Superstar, with its hip “Hey JC” lingo, but at the same time Laidlaw’s production wholly captures its deeper, darker aspects, played out on a bare scaffolding set provided by Brian Farrell Scaffolding. Namely, that it is a psychological study of a man alone, or rather two men alone: Jesus, on his pre-ordained journey to the cross, and Judas Iscariot, his betrayer, whose name has been dirt ever since.

This makes both their death scenes – spoiler alert! – devastating, albeit in their different ways. The solemn finale, no song, no music, only Jesus’s final words on the cross, reduces one and all to tears as the curtain falls. Oh, and that’s why it is apt to stage this musical now, when eyes are on a mendacious General Election, full of ill will and false prophets, and the Christmas tat commercials are starting to irritate already. Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus Christ Supershow.

Charles Hutchinson

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Strictly’s strict Craig Revel Horwood to direct Strictly Ballroom

Love is in the air…a year from now in Strictly Ballroom The Musical at the Grand Opera House, York

YOU will have to wait a year, but it will be well worth it to see Strictly Ballroom The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York.

Directed by acerbic Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, the show will be foxtrotting around Britain and Ireland from next September, visiting York from November 23 to 28 2020.

Revel Horwood, the Australian-born dancer, choreographer and director, will assemble a cast of more than 20 for the musical based on Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 Australian film.

Strictly Ballroom The Musical follows arrogant, rebellious young ballroom dancer Scott Hastings, whose radical and daring dance style rubs against the strict conventions of the Australian Dance Federation.

So much so that he is banished, forcing him to start all over again with a beginner, Fran. Together they find the courage to defy tradition and discover that to win, your steps don’t need to be strictly ballroom.

More than 30 hits will be performed on stage, such as Time After Time, Let’s Dance, I’m So Excited, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Sway, Mambo No. 5, Dancing With Myself, Sugar Sugar, It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, Teardrops and Love Is In The Air.

Strictly Ballroom The Musical premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, in December 2016 before making its West End debut at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, in March 2018.

Tickets for the York run are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Charles Hutchinson

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A fete worse than death on the way in Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table

The Classic Comedy Theatre Company in Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next year. Picture: Pamela Raith

ALAN Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table, the debut production by the Classic Comedy Theatre Company, will play the Grand Opera House, York, from February 10 to 15 next year.

This touring show is produced by impresario Bill Kenwright and his team behind the Agatha Christie, Classic Thriller and Classic Screen To Stage theatre companies for more than 15 years.

Premiered in January 1977, Ten Times Table is “the one with the committee from hell and a fete worse than death”. 

In the long-since grand ballroom of the Swan Hotel, a most miscellaneous assemblage gathers to conduct the business of the Pendon Folk Festival.

A tense moment in the Classic Comedy Theatre Company’s Ten Times Table. Picture: Pamela Raith

Unfortunately for excitable chairman Ray, his calamitous committee quickly divides as his wife, Helen, has a bone to pick.

Add a Marxist schoolteacher, a military dog breeder and an octogenarian secretary, and the table is set for a tumultuous comedy by committee.

In the cast will be Robert Dawes, Deborah Grant, Mark Curry, Robert Duncan, Elizabeth Powers, Gemma Oaten and Craig Glazey.

Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

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REVIEW: Scrooge The Musical, Pick Me Up Theatre ***

Mark Hird’s Ebenezer Scrooge and Frankie Bounds’ Young Ebenezer in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Scrooge The Musical. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Scrooge The Musical, Pick Me Up Theatre, Grand Opera House, York, until Sunday, December 1. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

FOR years and years, Pick Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman has applied for the performing rights for Scrooge The Musical, more in hope than expectation.

This year, at last, the answer was affirmative, and so Readman reckons he must be the first director/producer to stage Leslie Bricusse’s musical on this scale since Bill Kenwright’s long-running tour show.

Those were the days with Tommy Steele in the lead, with songs specially added for his knees-up brand of showmanship, but Readman has restored the 1992 score, when Bricusse transferred his 1970 film musical to the stage as a vehicle for Anthony Newley, six new songs and all. Back come the likes of Good Times, the best in the show, says Readman.

Mark Hird’s Ebenezer Scrooge and Rory Mulvihill’s Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooge The Musical

Ironically, if anything, there are too many songs, or, more precisely, there are not many memorable songs, making it feel like too many.

This is in part because the dialogue is largely true to Charles Dickens’s novel, save for the occasional modernism, and you wish for rather more of it, but another song is always nudging it out of the way.

While you could not call it a “sung-through musical”, it is veering towards that style, yet the great joy of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol lies in its storytelling and the myriad ways of presenting it, whether James Swanton’s one-man show, Alexander Wright’s pub supper two-hander with audience participation or Deborah McAndrew’s  beautifully resonant adaptation for Hull Truck Theatre.

Readman goes for spectacle, garland upon garland of snowy white flowers decorating the stage; a huge door; a big four-poster bed; loud, very loud, sound effects for Jacob Marley’s entry, rattling chains et al;  echoing voices; a company of more than 40;  and two flying sequences. One for Tony Froud’s Marley; the other for Rory Mulvihill’s Ghost of Christmas Present and Mark Hird’s Ebenezer Scrooge, where they are held in suspense rather more than this ghost story holds us, in the absence of more darkness.

Sonny Love as Tiny Tim in Scrooge The Musical

Hird’s diminutive Scrooge carries the last residue of his wonderful Captain Mainwaring in Pick Me Up’s Dad’s Army, and consequently he is humorous from the start, full of bluster rather than the coldness of a blasted heath. You find yourself liking him, even when he is mithering and being miserly, rather like Rowan Atkinson’s penny-pinching Mr Bean, but Scrooge’s transformation is still highly enjoyable in his impish hands.

What’s more, his scenes with Young Ebenezer (Frankie Bounds) and his lost true love, Isabel (Jennie Wogan), and later with Bob Cratchit (Alan Park), Tiny Tim (Sonny Love) and the Cratchit family, are poignant to the core. Bounds, by the way, is the pick of the young talents, with a lovely singing voice in Happiness, while Olivia Caley, as the Ghost of Christmas Past, definitely has a future.

Look out too for Flo Poskitt’s comic cameo as Ethel Cratchit: not for the first time this year, she gives a peach of a supporting performance. Maybe next year, a director will reward her with an overdue lead.

Mulvihill amuses by lounging like Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons, in his Christmas green silks and ermine; Sam Johnson leads his musical forces with customary skill, and Iain Harvey and Readman’s choreography has most fun when Andrew Isherwood’s Tom Jenkins leads the stand-out  Thank You Very Much.

Overall, however, while it may feel “Bah Humbug” to say it, by Pick Me Up standards, this Scrooge  falls short of a Christmas cracker.

Charles Hutchinson  

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Louise is just right for Snow White in first professional role

Royal appointment: Louise Henry as Princess Snow White in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture by David Harrison.

LOUISE Henry will swap flat whites for Snow White next week after being picked to lead the Grand Opera House pantomime cast in York.

Louise, 22, from Knaresborough, works at the Hoxton North café bar in Royal Parade, Harrogate, but will join rehearsals for Three Bears Productions’ Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs from Monday (December 2) for the December 13 to January 4 2020 run.

After playing Liesl von Trapp in York Stage Musicals’ The Sound Of Music at the Cumberland Street theatre, now she will star as Princess Snow White alongside Mark Little’s villainous Lord Chamberlain, regular dame Steve Wickenden’s Nurse Brexit, ’Allo, ’Allo! star Vicki Michelle’s Wicked Queen and Martin Daniels’ Muddles.

From producer Chris Moreno’s search for a local principal girl in Three Bears’ fourth Opera House panto, Louise was among 30 invited from the many applicants for a day’s auditions in May.

After queueing in the rain in the line of Snow White hopefuls that formed along the stage door wall, she won through to the shortlist of 12 for the afternoon’ s second session and was then picked for panto principal girl after a nervous wait.

Meet the Grand Opera House pantomime cast: Mark Little, left, Steve Wickenden, Martin Daniels, Louise Henry, Jonny Muir, and Vicki Michelle. Picture by David Harrison.

“The auditions were on the Wednesday, and they rang me just as I was setting off to work on the Friday afternoon,” Louise recalls. “I’d been refreshing my emails, hoping for news, and it was such a euphoric moment when the phone call came.      

“I’m so thankful to have been chosen. I’ve been beaming whenever I’m reminded that I’m signing my first professional contract. I’m really looking forward to getting into the theatre and putting the show together. Performing is all I have ever wanted to do and I feel so lucky that my Christmas this year will be doing just that.”

Although Louise has not studied at drama school since leaving school, “I’ve had acting and singing lessons for as long as I can remember and I’ve done lots of theatre work, like school plays when I was at King James’s in Knaresborough,” she says.

“From the age of nine to 17, I went to the ACTAcademy in Harrogate, run by Kelly Creates, when we took part in the Harrogate Festival of Speech and Drama and did The Big T talent show at Harrogate Theatre, and I’ve had singing tuition with Jacqueline Bell in Wetherby too.”

Louise impressed in Nik Briggs’s April production of The Sound Of Music, playing the eldest von Trapp daughter, Liesl. “I was 21 playing 16, and the next in age to me was 12, playing 15!” she says. “It’s such a nice show to do because it’s so honest, and it was sad when it came to an end as we all made such good friends.

Welcome to York: Louise Henry, from Knaresborough, is pictured by Clifford’s Tower after landing the role of Snow White in the Grand Opera House pantomime. Picture: David Harrison

“It was lovely to be able to become familiar with the Grand Opera House stage too before doing the panto.”

Since The Sound Of Music, Louise has appeared in two more York shows, the first being another Nik Briggs production, Joseph McNeice and Matthew Spalding’s new musical comedy, Twilight Robbery, at 41 Monkgate in May.

“I played Jane, the daughter, who’s 40 years old, so I went from one extreme, 16-year-old Liesl, to another…and now I’ll be playing Snow White!”

The nearest she has come to playing her own age was her most recent role, a young Australian woman, Gabrielle York, in Rigmarole Theatre Company’s debut production, Andrew Bovell’s apocalyptic family drama When The Rain Stops Falling, at 41 Monkgate in November.

Louise Henry, right, playing Gabrielle York in Rigmarole Theatre Company’s When The Rain Stops Falling earlier this month. Picture: Michael J Oakes

Now her focus turns to her professional bow, billed as “York’s very own Louise Henry” in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

“I’ve done one panto before, Aladdin, an amateur one for the Pannal Players when I was maybe 14,” says Louise,

Looking forward to starting rehearsals on Monday, she says: “This opportunity is what I’ve been waiting for, and I’ve just got to have faith in my abilities.

“Snow White is on stage for most of the time, so I’ll always need to react in the moment, and that’s something that will add to my repertoire of skills, which I’m always working on.”

Imagine how Louise feels as the first night approaches, knowing she is taking on the title role in a star-laden show. “I know! It’s my show! How crazy is that!” she says. “When I rang my sister to tell her I’d got the part, she didn’t believe it…and when I rang my mum, I had to say, ‘no, I’m not kidding’. That was a really fantastic day!”

Louise Henry stars in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, December 13 to January 4 2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Charles Hutchinson

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History forgot genius scientist Nicholas Saunderson but musical will tell his story

Adam Martyn: partially sighted actor who will play 18th century blind scientist Nicholas Saunderson in No Horizon next year

NO Horizon, a new musical that tells the forgotten story of a Yorkshire maths genius, will tour to York Theatre Royal next April after more than a decade in the making.

Andy Platt’s show is inspired by the life of Nicholas Saunderson, a blind scientist and mathematician from the West Riding village of Thurlstone, near Penistone, who overcame impossible odds to become a Cambridge professor and friend of royalty.

Often described as an 18th century Stephen Hawking, Saunderson was born in 1862 and by the age of one he was blinded by smallpox. In an era before Braille, it is said he taught himself to read by running his fingers over the gravestones in a local churchyard.

He learned Latin and Greek and became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post also held by Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage and the aforementioned Stephen Hawking. 

In his day, Saunderson spent time with kings and queens and had a reputation that spread across Europe. Remarkably, his field of expertise was not in mathematical equations, but in lecturing about optics.

It is thought that Saunderson, who was elected a member of the Royal Society, may have been the earliest discoverer of Bayes’ theorem, a mathematical formula for determining conditional probability.

A past performance of No Horizon, set to be revived on a northern tour in 2020

Described by singer and BBC Radio Two presenter Elaine Paige as “one to watch out for”, Platt’s musical will run in York on April 9 and 11 – no performance on Good Friday – as part of its 2020 northern tour mounted by Right Hand Theatre, in the wake of an Edinburgh Fringe run in 2016.

The show was first written in 2003 by Platt, a former headmaster who rediscovered Saunderson’s remarkable journey after it was forgotten by history. 

“Saunderson’s achievement as the Stephen Hawking of his day was phenomenal,” says the writer and producer. “I wanted No Horizon to entertain and move the audience at the same time as restoring Saunderson to his rightful place as a national icon. Next year’s tour is the culmination of a 15-year dream.”

The lead role of Saunderson will be played by the partially sighted Adam Martyn, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, who trained at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

He will be on the road in the 2020 tour from March 19, when No Horizon opens at The Civic, Barnsley, the nearest major theatre near to Saunderson’s birthplace.

The poster for next spring’s tour of No Horizon by Right Hand Theatre

After further shows there on March 20 and 21, the tour will head on to the Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, March 26 to 28; Leeds City Varieties, March 31 and April 1; Cast, Doncaster, April 2 to 4; Harrogate Theatre, April 7 and 8; York Theatre Royal, April 9 and 11, and Millgate Arts Centre, Delph, Saddleworth, April 15.

Helen Reid, producer at Right Hand Theatre, says: “I’m so excited we’ve managed to pull off and organise a northern tour. It’s only taken over a decade to do it!

“We couldn’t have done it without the support of our fan base at the Edinburgh Fringe and locally, to help bring the show to a wider audience. 

“We look forward to seeing our old fans and new fans alike at any of the northern venues. The support we’ve had so far from the public and celebrities has been immensely rewarding for Andy and the producers. We thank them all.”

The 2020 tour is funded by Arts Council England and Foyle Foundation, co-commissioned by Cast, Doncaster, and The Civic, Barnsley, and supported by Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind.

York tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or cityvarieties.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Charles Hutchinson