Cassi Roberts, left, Grace Scott and Vicky Hatt rehearsing for York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost. Picture: John Saunders
ANNA Gallon is directing York Shakespeare Project for the first time in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Shakespeare meets the 1990s’ club scene in an exciting new take on the Bard’s early comedy.
Her immersive production, set in the heat and heighted passions of urban nightlife, will run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from next Wednesday to Saturday as part of the 2026 York International Shakespeare Festival.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Anna as our director,” says YSP chair Tony Froud. “She emerged from an outstanding group of applicants, since when she has brought energy and excitement into the rehearsal room. This promises to translate into a totally memorable and entertaining show.
“York is very fortunate to have so many outstanding young directors. This production will show Anna as a key member of that group.”
Anna is co-founder and artistic director of York theatre company Four Wheel Drive, perhaps best known for its 2023 production of The Trial Of Margaret Clitheroe in the Guildhall. She also appeared as Lucetta in YSP’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, directed by Tempest Wisdom in 2024.
Love’s Labours Lost director Anna Gallon: “I want this comedy of discipline versus desire to play out not in a palace, but in a bar, where vows are as fragile as your morals after one too many tequila shots,” she says
“I’m thrilled to be directing Love’s Labour’s Lost for YSP,” she says. “It’s a dazzling, witty play about language, love and self-discovery – and I can’t wait to bring it to life in a way that feels vibrant and connected to the world we live in today.”
Set firmly in the here and now, Anna’s Love’s Labour’s Lost will re-imagine Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy of wit, wordplay, vows and romantic mischief on the nocturnal tiles. Her playful reinvention promises to mix verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly.
The King of Navarre and his three companions are re-imagined by Anna as the DJs who once ruled York’s club scene but have now renounced the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors.
However, when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, their solemn vows begin to unravel, as Anna explores with mischievous glee. “I want this comedy of discipline versus desire to play out not in a palace, but in a bar, where vows are as fragile as your morals after one too many tequila shots,” she says.
Ben Reeves Rowley: Progressing from Summer Sonnets to principal role in York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost. Picture: John Saunders
“My interpretation uses Shakespeare’s original language but finds playful, recognisable parallels for modern audiences: ageing players try to resist temptation, while nightlife culture collides with wellness culture and the irresistible force of love.”
As a key element of Anna’s production, the audience will find Theatre@41’s John Cooper Studio transformed from black box into a nightclub. “The bar setting will place Shakespeare into a familiar social space,” she says. “Instead of watching from a distance, theatregoers will find themselves inside the comedy: vows made across tables, love confessions unfolding on dance floors. It will be a shared night out for all.”
Anna’s cast features many faces familiar to York audiences, such as Ian Giles as Don Adriano de Armado, Tempest Wisdom as his page Moth, Harry Summers as Longaville and Nick Patrick Jones as Berowne, complemented by six actors new to YSP, Nason Crone’s Dumaine, Vicky Hatt’s Katherine, Helen Clarke’s Boyet, Elizabeth Duggan’s Costard, Stephen Huws’ Holofernes and Sarah McKeagney’s Sir Nathaniel.
Tony enthuses: “We are very excited that Anna’s production has attracted so many actors who are working with us for the first time. Only three of this cast appeared in our last show, Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, at Theatre@41 last October. It’s a very healthy and invigorating mix.
Ian Giles rehearsing the role of Don Adriano de Armado
“In a very strong cast, it’s particularly pleasing to YSP to see Grace Scott and Ben Reeves Rowley in the central parts of Rosaline and the King of Navarre. Both first appeared in our annual Summer Sonnets show and it’s great to see them progressing to major parts in a full production.”
Love’s Labours Lost is the latest staging post in York Shakespeare Project’s 25-year programme to perform all 37 plays, plus plays by his contemporaries, in innovative and engaging ways from 2023 to 2048. Coming next will be the autumn production of The Comedy Of Errors, Shakespeare’s shortest play, the chaotic one with two sets of identical twins separated at birth that accidentally end up in the same city.
More immediately, why should you see YSP’s Love’s Labours Lost? Let veteran cast member Ian Giles entice you: “Off the scale for daring entertainment, one of Shakespeare’s most verbal comedies is set in King’s Night Spot in 2005 with a soundtrack of Nineties and Noughties’ belters – what could possibly go wrong (or should that be right)? Come and find out.”
York Shakespeare Project presents Love’s Labour’s Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 22 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Tempest Wisdom’s Moth in rehearsal for Love’s Labours Lost
Who’s in the cast for York Shakespeare Project’s Love’s Labours Lost
BEN Reeves Rowley, Ferdinand, King of Navarre; Nick Patrick Jones, Berowne; Harry Summers, Longaville; Nason Crone*, Dumaine; Charlie Barrs, The Princess of France; Grace Scott, Rosaline; Cassi Roberts, Maria; Vicky Hatt*, Katherine; Helen Clarke*, Boyet; Ian Giles, Don Adriano de Armado; Tempest Wisdom, Moth; Elizabeth Duggan*, Costard; Stephen Huws*, Holofernes; Sarah McKeagney*, Sir Nathaniel; James Tyler, Dull/Marcade; Pearl Mollison, Jaquenetta, and David Lee, Forrester
* New to York Shakespeare Project
York Shakespeare Project’s mirror-ball poster for Love’s Labours Lost
Depths of despair: Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, docking at York Theatre Royal from April 14 to 18. Picture: Marc Brenner
THE Royal Shakespeare Company’s visit to York Theatre Royal with Rupert Goold’s production of Hamlet, set on a sinking ship, will coincide with the 114th anniversary of RMS Titanic’s demise on the night of April 14-15 in 1912.
Around 1,500 people perished at sea that night from the estimated 2,240 on board. Death stalks Shakespeare’s tragedy too, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, King Claudius and Hamlet himself joining his already dead father, King Hamlet.
“Hamlet is a play about the inevitability of death: the death of fathers, the death of kings, the mortality facing each and every one of us, but it is also a play about how to live, what makes a good life and a just one too, however brief our allotted time,” says Goold.
“Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands,” says Goold. “Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours, our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation. It’s a production that asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.”
Among those joining Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in Goold and revival director Sophie Drake’s touring cast in Shakespeare’s epic family drama of deceit and murder is Royal Shakespeare Company regular Ian Hughes in the roles of King Hamlet’s Ghost and the Player King.
From April 14 to 18, he will be returning to York Theatre Royal, 38 years since he made his professional debut in the 1988 pantomime Peter Pan, in the days when Frank Barrie played the dame. “Frank had made his debut there too in 1959 in Henry IV, Part 2, the play that marked my debut for the RSC in the 1990s – and I’ve learned that Frank had played Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in [March] 1974,” says Ian.
Ian Hughes, front, in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet. Picture: Marc Brenner
“In another Yorkshire connection, Harrogate Theatre artistic director Andrew Manley saw me in Peter Pan and said afterwards, ‘do you fancy joining my Harrogate rep company?’. “I was a Kit Kat Girl in Cabaret; we also did Mrs Warren’s Profession, the regional premiere of Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money, Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On and the panto.
“Because I didn’t go to drama school, those Harrogate shows with Andrew were effectively my drama school after starting with the Theatre Royal panto, when I played John Darling, the boy with the top hat and the round glasses – and we got to ‘fly’!
“The Theatre Royal was beautiful, and it was so lovely to play there, when Frank made me so welcome. He was marvellous, dry-humoured company with his wonderful anecdotes of who he had worked with as an actor from an earlier time, when he had performed with [Laurence] Olivier.”
Ian was born in the South Wales Valleys, growing up in Merthyr Tydfil and joining the National Youth Theatre of Wales at 16 to work under director Alan Vaughan Williams, who nurtured the talents of Rob Brydon, Michael Sheen and Ruth Jones too. “Alan took no prisoners, treating us like professionals,” he recalls. “It was invaluable for me. I loved it.”
Only seven years later, Ian would be understudying Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet in Adrian Noble’s production at the RSC. “I was 23, so I have a long connection with the play. I had to learn every line of the Second Quarto version, which runs to more than four hours [making Hamlet the role with the most lines in Shakespeare’s 37 plays] – and I never went on once!
“Kenneth kept saying ‘people are flying in to see me, I have to go on’, so I never had the chance, despite learning all those lines.”
That sinking feeling: The Royal Shakespeare Company staging Hamlet on a ship in 1912. Picture: Marc Brenner
Instead, Ian had to content himself with playing Polonius’s servant Reynaldo and Fortinbras. “Part of the reason that I joined the RSC was because I’d just won the inaugural Ian Charleson Award for my [title] role in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Torquato Tasso at the Lyric Hammersmith,” he says.
“I didn’t know anything about the award. I got asked to go to the National Theatre and found I was up against Simon Russell Beale in the RSC’s Edward II, thinking ‘I’m just this young actor from South Wales’. I won £5,000 and was presented with the award by Sir Alec Guinness. What a wonderful start to a career.”
Ian has gone on to play multiple parts for the RSC, most recently appearing in The Merry Wives Of Windsor two summers ago. Now he returns as the Ghost and Player King. “These parts appealed to me as a character actor,” he says. “I thought, ‘I fancy a go at these’, because of the interest in Hamlet, and the short tour appealed too.”
Analysing the impact of setting Hamlet on a ship,” Ian says. “In a nutshell, it brings out the claustrophobia. That exacerbates Hamlet’s feeling of frustration that he can’t escape. The sinking of the ship is effectively the metaphor of Denmark being a prison for Hamlet, and I think that works very well. Shakespeare’s plays are open to reinterpretation, and this reinterpretation is very powerful, with all its technical accomplishments too.
“Because Hamlet has so many water and sea references, you could be drowning in the play.”
Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to 18, 7pm plus 1.30pm, Thursday, and 2pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jacqueline Bell’s Captain Beverley Bass in York Stage’s Come From Away. All pictures: Felix Wahlberg
“WELCOME To Gander,” reads the sign, pictured in the York Stage programme. “Crossroads To The World”.
As an accompanying note explains, Gander, in Newfoundland, Canada, was once a major refuelling stop for transatlantic flights, its airport built to handle large aircraft, giving it the capacity to receive multiple unexpected landings.
In its heyday, Gander International Airport hosted The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Queen Elizabeth II, Frank Sinatra, Neil Armstrong and Muhammad Ali. In later years, on a normal day, six planes would pass through, but September 11 2001 was anything but normal.
Suddenly, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, under Operation Yellow Ribbon, it received 38 unexpected but now essential landings in only two and a half hours.
On board and now grounded on the runways were 7,000 international passengers, their fear, confusion and suspicion exacerbated by the information blackout. Gander’s population would almost double in that instant, and how that community responded is the stuff of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Tony Award-winning 2015 musical, now receiving its York premiere.
Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah, awaiting news of her New York firefighter son, in York Stage’s Come From Away
“Come from away” is the term Newfoundlanders use for someone who is visiting there or lives on the island but was born elsewhere. For five days, Gander welcomed those “come from away” strangers to this temporary new-found land. Here are the facts: 10,000 meals were prepared daily; clothing donations were sorted and distributed, counselling services provided and entertainment arranged to lift spirits (such as the Kiss The Cod drinking game).
The political world was in turmoil, but at such times the best of humanity comes through too, times where we find common ground – in acts of kindness – amid the threat of heightened global division.
Come From Away is billed as a “life-affirming, uplifting celebration of hope, humanity and unity”: characteristics ripe for the musical format, but no less vital is the storytelling, rooted in Sankoff and Hein’s research visit to Gander and interviews with residents and passengers.
That gives the musical its narrative drive, one that encapsulates connection and communication between town and world, grounded as much in humour as the desperate uncertainty of what may have befallen loved ones in New York or Washington DC that morning.
Directed, produced and designed by Nik Briggs and choreographed by Danielle Mullan-Hill, Come From Away is first and foremost an ensemble piece, its 19-strong cast omnipresent, all pulling together to mirror the big-hearted story with its balance of comforting comic relief and sadness, rousing spirit and silent shock, good deeds and grief.
Gander’s residents singing Welcome To The Rock in York Stage’s Come From Away
Within that collective structure, Sankoff and Hein weave the individual tales of the resolute, stout, stentorian town mayor Claude (superb York Stage debutant Richard Billings); the first female American Airlines captain (Jacqueline Bell’s pilot Captain Beverley Bass, full of leadership steel); the mother of a New York firefighter (Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah); the young local news reporter thrown in at the deep end (Megan Day’s resourceful Janice) and an animal welfare devotee (Claire Morley’s Bonnie, as bonny as her name).
Love plays its part too: blossoming in the case of York Stage regular Stu Hutchinson’s typically stiff Englishman Nick and Lana Davies’s Diane; fracturing, however, for Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T and Faisal Khodabukus’s Kevin J. Both relationships, one burgeoning, the other dissolving, are played with just the right chemistry, the dialogue being typical of why it could be argued that Sankoff and Hein’s book is stronger than their songs.
The opening ensemble number Welcome To The Rock sets the musical and choreographic tone, with its high-energy, righteous fusion of Irish and folk vibrancy under Stephen Hackshaw’s muscular musical direction, with band members in view in the wings and later bursting into the well-deserved limelight for a party hoedown.
Against the backdrop of a map of Newfoundland and a red You Are Here neon sign, Briggs moves his cast around on chairs and tables on wheels that are reassembled and reconfigured constantly, even combining to form the cockpit and cabin of a plane.
This further enhances the relentless pace of Briggs’s well-drilled direction and Mullan-Hill’s thrilling choreography, putting the motion into commotion, albeit with the welcome breathing space of ballads for reflection for Bell’s Beverley (Me And The Sky) and trauma for Gardham’s Hannah (I Am Here). Everything initially is a rush, a scramble of emotions, a need for instant practical measures, but then countered by the agony of awaiting dreaded news.
Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T trying on a Newfoundland lumberjack’s shirt for size in York Stage’s Come From Away
That sense of unnatural haste in unnatural circumstances is heighted still more by a running time of only 100 minutes with no interval, compounded further by the regular drum beat of the bodhran.
The songs tend to rush by, full of zest and zing in the moment without having an X Factor hit among them, but the combination of Hackshaw’s band (keys, accordion, whistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, percussion, drums and even a Newfoundland ‘ugly stick’) and Briggs’s unerring ability to find outstanding singers give them greater impact than in the touring version that landed at Leeds Grand Theatre in May 2024.
Emily Hardy’s teacher Beulah, multi-rolling Traitors’ alumnus Theo Mayne, especially his Captain Bristol, and Chris Wilson’s quartet of roles, in particular Oz, all add strong characterisation, ably supported by Emily Davis, Adam Gill, Sarah Jackson, Adam Thompson, Rebecca Stevenson, Eleanor Grady and Kelly Kiernan.
Come From Away does Gander proud, York Stage does Come From Away proud, as “kindness, resilience and human connection in times of crisis” remind us of our humanity. How important that is, amid each new dawn’s screeching vitriol on Truth Social.
York Stage presents Come From Away,Grand Opera House, York, until April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday matinee.Box office: atgtickets.com/york..Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The ‘ugly stick’, far left, makes its bouncy, percussive appearance in the party scene in York Stage’s Come From Away
Newly wedded bliss amid wedding-day blisters: Darren Barrott as Marek and Joy Warner as Sylvia in York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down
YORK Actors Collective founder and director Angie Millard moved quickly to acquire the amateur performing rights for Beth Steel’s Till The Stars Come Down.
“The West End run only closed at the end of last September, after transferring from the National Theatre,” she says as she prepares to present this contemporary British family drama at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from April 14 to 18.
“I applied very early, because I liked the sound of the play, but didn’t think I’d get the rights, but no touring company jumped on it, so my application was successful.”
Premiered at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre from January 2024, the Olivier Award-nominated Till The Stars Come Down is set at the wedding of Sylvia and Marek in a former mining town in Steel’s exploration of the tumultuous dynamics of a working-class family.
Long-held secrets, passions, tensions and social changes transform the celebration into a chaotic blend of humour and tragedy in a play with “themes of racism and xenophobia, reference to suicide, scenes of a sexual nature and depictions of mild violence”.
“When I started reading the play, it resonated with me, because not only am I one of three sisters – like in the play – but also there’s very little I haven’t come across at weddings or funerals, such as deciding who should sit at the top table,” says Angie. “So, in one rehearsal, I did a game of ‘Status’, asking each of the cast to say what they thought their character’s status was.
“The other thing that resonated the most was the emotional problems that happen in the family – and I’ve encountered all of them in the emotional conflicts of sisters.”
Clare Halliday in the role of eldest sister Hazel – the bigoted one- painting her toe nails in Till The Stars Come Down
Angie continues: “There are a lot of things to think about in this play, and as everything in set out in the first half, the audience will have plenty to reflect on in the interval.
“There is stress throughout, which is covered by the humour that the cast are finding ever more ways to express, but because Sylvia is marrying a Polish man, it brings out racial issues.
“They are a dysfunctional family, though they think they’re not, but the sisters come together at the end, turning their back on their relationships to put the sisters first, which makes it even more dysfunctional. It’s a little bit like Alan Ayckbourn in style because it embraces farce as well as the clever use of language.”
Angie did not see the London production – “I purposely never do that,” she says – but was aware that it was staged in the round with a revolving stage. “I thought, ‘put that to one side, look at the text’. That was my first job.
“I wanted to do it with a rake stage, with everyone looking in the same direction, as frankly I’ve been to too many productions where I haven’t been able to see all the actors’ faces, seeing them with their back to you or in profile. I wanted to do it ‘old style’ and make it work that way.
“I thought, why should how it was done in the West End stop me from doing such a well-written play?’. I was determined to see the play staged my way, starting with getting ready in the house for the wedding, with one door for that, then the pub for the wedding breakfast, in the middle, and then Hazel’s house at the end, with two doors because you can get to the kitchen via the sitting room.”
Three sisters: Clare Halliday’s Hazel, left, Joy Warner’s Sylvia and Victoria Delaney’s Maggie lining up for York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down
Angie adds: “I also had to re-think some of the characterisation as Beth [who grew up in the colliery town of Shirebrook, near Mansfield] set the play in Nottinghamshire but we’ve moved it to Yorkshire, because I’m from Sheffield originally and went to a Catholic primary school in a mining village, Spinkhill, and found myself speaking two languages, one at school, one at home. So I’ve set it in South Yorkshire, 30 years on from Thatcher’s dispute with the miners.”
Angie’s cast includes three actors new to the company: Laura Haynes-Bury as Leanne, Leeds actor Darren Barrott as Marek and Daniel Wilmot as Uncle Pete. “Laura has just finished her drama degree in York and she’s so dynamic,” says the director.
“This is the first time she’s worked with non-student adults and she brings so much to this play. I’ve never worked with someone so young and so talented. She has this wonderfully expressive non-expressive face, if you know what I mean.
“Darren caught the eye in Settlement Players’ Party Piece last October. We’re seeing an actor who’s just open to trying anything and his own personality doesn’t come into it at all. He’s fitted in very well with us.
“Daniel is a York actor and writer who has his own company, Baron Productions, and he’s joining us to play the small role of Uncle Pete, a miner who didn’t cross the picket line.”
Together they add to expanding roster of York Actors Collective in Angie Millard’s fifth production, one that she will mine to its deepest seam.
York Actors Collective presents Till The Stars Come Down, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 14 to 18, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday; 2pm and 6pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Lucinda Rennison’s Aunty Carol and company debutante Laura Haynes-Bury’s Leanne in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down
Who is in York Actors Collective’s cast for Till The Stars Come Down?
DARREN Barrott, as Marek; Victoria Delaney, Maggie; Clare Halliday, Hazel; Laura Haynes-Bury, Leanne; Chris Pomfrett, Tony; Lucinda Rennison, Aunty Carol; Neil Vincent, John; Joy Warner, Sylvia, and Daniel Wilmot, Uncle Pete.
Victoria, last seen in York Settlement Community Players’ Blue Remembered Hills at York Theatre Royal Studio in February, has taken over the role of Maggie in a late change of cast. “As always, Vic has proved to be a wonderful replacement,” says director Angie Millard.
York Actors Collective founder and director Angie Millard, left, with stage manager Em Peattie
Angie Millard: Back story
INVOLVED with theatre since her teens, this continued as a drama student at Warwick University and at Jim Haine’s Arts Lab in Drury Lane, London.
Worked in Theatre in Education groups at Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, and Greenwich Theatre, London.
After moving north 20 years ago, she joined the casts of many York Theatre Royal community productions and the York Mystery Plays. Then, via York Settlement Community Players, she returned to directing, launching York Actors Collective in 2023.
This independent group has come together to perform plays and to offer thought- provoking and entertaining theatre, staging Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane in 2023, Alexander Zeldin’s Beyond Caring in 2024 and Nina Raine’s Tiger Country last year at Theatre@41, Monkgate, as well as J. M. Barrie’s Mary Rose at York Theatre Royal Studio in Autumn 2024.
York Stage’s full cast takes a seat for the York premiere of Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
THE York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s global hit musical Come From Away will land at the Grand Opera House tomorrow (10/4/2026).
“It’s one of the most powerful true stories ever told on stage,” says Nik Briggs, who is directing a cast of 19 in the Olivier and Tony Award winner. “If you’ve heard the buzz around this show worldwide, now is your chance to experience it right here in York.
“With just one day to go until opening night, excitement is building fast for what’s already becoming one of York Stage’s fastest-selling shows to date.”
Come From Away charts the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when 38 planes are diverted to the remote Newfoundland town of Gander, population 9,400, almost doubling that total in two hours.
The community responds by inviting these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts as unexpected friendships form, changing thousands of lives forever.
From Bake Off to take-off: York Stage director Nik Briggs, at the controls of Come From Away after starring in The Great British Bake-Off Musical last November
“Come From Away is more than just a musical,” says Nik. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.”
He recalls his introduction to the show. “One day, on a drive from York to Sunderland, setting off at 6am, I put the soundtrack on – one hour 40 minutes – and as I pulled up in the car park, I had to compose myself as I was sitting there sobbing,” says Nik. “For me, structurally, and the way the piece is brought together, it’s just perfection.”
He has a philosophy on tears being shed in the theatre. “I’m a big believer that, to make an audience cry, you don’t want to see crying on stage,” he says.
“I love working with emotional texts and I like to think York Stage has had success with them over the years, but there’s something about how, in real life, when you see someone at their worst, as a human being, you want to embrace them and be there for them, whereas if you see someone being brave, or just carrying on or holding back the tears, that’s when you’ll cry more. That’s always been the approach I’ve had with shows where there’s real emotion.”
Nik continues: “Albeit that Come From Away’s story is associated with the events of 9/11, it’s not about that tragedy, but the ripple effect it had: how a Canadian community came together with compassion. That’s what’s celebrated in this show; that humanity.
Just landed: York Stage’s cast for Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
“Twenty-five years on from those terrorist attacks, the compassion and humanity shown in Gander is what’s needed in the world now, and some would argue even more so. There’s no baddie in Come From Away. We all know what’s going on in New York that day, where there is a baddie, but though we see fear, we see uneasiness, and at first we see prejudices in Gander, we don’t see a villain. This is a show about something totally different from that.”
Come From Away stands apart in its instrumentation and musical arrangements too. “It’s not typical musical theatre instrumentation,” says Nik, who is working in tandem with musical director Stephen Hackshaw. “Instead it features musical instruments associated with Newfoundland, such as the bodhran [drum] and the ‘ugly stick’, a welly boot fitted with a mop head, bottle tops and tin cans.”
Thanks to cast member Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass, York Stage’s show will feature the aforementioned ‘ugly stick’, and thereby hangs a tale. “After getting the part in our production and doing some research, she had some time off booked to go on holiday but hadn’t booked anywhere,” says Nik.
“She said she just felt compelled to go to Gander – I said I felt the same! – and so off she went! What you hear about Operation Yellow Ribbon [Canada’s handling of the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the 9/11 attacks] may sound too good to be true, or you wonder if it has been slightly ‘musical theatre-ised’ in Come From Away, but no, that community spirit was very much present.
“Before going there in February, Jacqui emailed a few places, saying, ‘I know you’re not running tours at this time of year, but I’m in the cast for the show in York, can you help?’. The Gander community put out a plea to put together a personal tour for her.”
Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass and Annette in Come From Away, flew out to Gander and returned with an ‘ugly stick’. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
What happened next? “Rodgers TV reporter Brian Mosher, on whom one of the Come From Away characters is partly based, turned up and surprised Jacqui! He took her round all the places that featured in the story – and she stayed in the hotel where Captain Beverley Bass had stayed,” says Nik, who recommends looking up Jacqui’s video blogs from Gander on York Stage’s Facebook site.
“On her return to rehearsals, she said that everything that was ‘too good to be true’ about the people of Gander was true. Apparently, there was even one thing that had happened that the musical producers decided ‘we can’t have that in the show as no-one would believe it’ – when a rainbow formed as the last of the 38 planes took off again.”
Jacqueline brought back the all-important ‘ugly stick’, bought for the equivalent of £100. “We’ve affectionately called it ‘Brian Mosher’ in rehearsals,” says Nik.
As for his travel plans, they extend rather further than York to Sunderland as dawn breaks. “Gander is somewhere I’m determined to visit now,” he vows.
York Stage presents Come From Away,Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow (10/4/2026) to April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday matinee.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lesley Jones and Steve Coates: Teaming up for the last time for Swing When You Sing on Sunday night
PRODUCER Lesley Jones will bid farewell to the York stage on Sunday with Swing When You Sing at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, at 7.30pm.
“Unique to me and York, it will be a swing concert with a 16-piece big band on stage, led by Alan Owens, from The Forum in Northallerton, who fronted our huge charity extravaganza, Million Dreams, at the Grand Opera House last year,” says Lesley.
“Funded once again by Steve Coates Music Productions, I am grateful to be given this final opportunity after my 20 years of producing shows, starting in 2005, including two sell-out productions of Les Miserables: School Edition, The Full Monty, Summer Holiday and Pirates! The Penzance Musical (Broadway version).
“Not forgetting Penny Millionaire in 2016, which we staged three weeks before the death of composer and writer Bev Jones.”
Lesley, Bev’s widow, picked up the baton of the charismatic director, musical director, composer and leading man of the York stage to run the Bev Jones Music Company and The Jubilee Celebration Singers, but has decided to “step back” after suffering a stroke.
Lesley Jones: 20 years at the helm of musical theatre shows in York
“I’ve had a wonderful experience in the world of musical theatre, joined recently by the success of our rock shows with Steve Coates Music Productions that we began with the sold-out One Night Of Classic Rock at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in January 2024,” says Lesley, who is also a trustee of the children’s charity Snappy.
“Illness is a cruel intervention and sometimes one has to accept the inevitable and gracefully step back. In summary, I will end by thanking all the supporters over the years and welcome them on Sunday for an evening of traditional glamour, featuring our finest performers singing Rat Pack, Minnie The Moocher, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Under The Sea, Cheek To Cheek, the Latin version of Sway, Fever and Mr Bojangles.
“There’ll be a vigorous rendition of Sing, Sing, Sing, with Bob Fosse-style dancing, and a surprising swing version of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. Varied? Yes! Upbeat? Yes! Emotional? Yes!”
On song on Sunday will be Ruth McNeil, Annabel van Griethuysen, Hayley Bamford, Johanna Hartley, Adele Barlow, Larry Gibson, Terry Ford, Stephen Wilson, David Hartley and Geoff Walker.
The final word goes to Lesley: “Myself and Steve agree – and Bev would have done too – that we are not on stage to educate but to ENTERTAIN.”
Steve Coates Music Productions present Swing When You Sing, with the Alan Owens 16-Piece Big Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 12, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for Swing When You Sing, Sunday’s final concert to be organised by Lesley Jones
Martha Godber in the role of Jesse, a carer on minimum wage, in her play Jesse North Is Broken, produced by the John Godber Company
MARTHA Godber will perform the world premiere of Jesse North Is Broken, her solo theatre piece on the theme of working-class survival in Britain, at York Theatre Royal Studio from May 11 to 14.
Actress-writer Martha, Hull-born daughter of playwright John Godber and fellow writer-director Jane Thornton, will be directed by Millie Gaston in the John Godber Company production.
Jesse, 25, from Hull, is a carer on minimum wage, keeping the elderly alive while trying to live her own messy, chaotic life. Told over one night, Jesse North Is Broken follows her from care shift to the dance floor, from the late-night kebab to an early-morning call-out as she battles the system that undervalues her and the city that shapes her, all while her ADHD-fuelled thoughts and anxious mind crave order in the chaos.
Martha Godber: Hull-born actress, writer and director
“Both political and personal, the show shines a light on working-class survival in Britain today – where carers are underpaid, the care system is crumbling, and young women are left to piece themselves together in a society that keeps breaking them,” says Martha.
LIPA-trained Martha last appeared on the York Theatre Royal stage in June 2025 in the John Godber Company’s tour of John Godber’s hymn to the abiding power of Northern Soul, Do I Love You?.
“I’m thrilled to be bringing Jesse North Is Broken to York Theatre Royal; it feels like the perfect venue to premiere the show,” she says. “As someone from Hull, I’ve always been drawn to telling northern stories, and this piece does exactly that.
Martha Godber, right, playing Northern Soul purist Sally in John Godber’s Do I Love You?, on tour at York Theatre Royal in June 2025
“I’m passionate about creating female characters who are unapologetic, bold and command the stage, celebrating the northern female voice in all its complexity.
At its heart, the show explores connection, pain, love and loss, set against the realities of government policy, the care system and the social pressures of a working-class town. It’s a fearless piece of new writing and I hope it resonates deeply with contemporary audiences.”
John Godber Company presents Martha Godber’s Jesse North Is Broken, York Theatre Royal Studio, May 11 to 14, 7.45pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Age guidance: 15 plus. Content guidance: Strong language and sexual references. Post-show discussion: May 13. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for the John Godber Company’s production of Martha Godber’s Jesse North Is Broken
Hands Up who wants to play another role: Lucy Keirl playing parts by the dozen in Murder For Two. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
MURDER For Two is the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s first in-house production of 2026, and what a burst of spring sunshine it provides before a June run at the Bolton Octagon, the show’s co-producers.
Whatever zest multi-role-playing Lucy Keirl is on, we’ll all have what she’s having, please, through the summer ahead.
SJT debutant Tom Babbage is equally restless in Officer Marcus Moscowicz’s pursuit of her “Suspects” – all 12 of them! – in Joe Kinosian & Kellen Blair’s breathless Broadway musical whodunit.
You might think the balance of roles sounds unfair – one versus a dazzling, dizzying dozen – but in reality they are both all hands on deck and indeed sometimes all hands on piano too in this “madcap murder mystery”.
Window of opportunity: Lucy Keirl in another of her 12 roles in Murder For Two. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
What’s more, Murder For Two has more layers than a spectacularly tiered cake. Keirl and Babbage must construct the performance as a one-take recording in a BBC Broadcasting House radio studio in 1959, audience applause cue cards et al.
On top of all that, they have to be their own Foley artists too, providing all manner of sounds, even dog barks and cat screeches, while engineering their way around Jess Curtis’s wondrously crowded set, with its grand piano, doorway, window frame, table of bizarre sound-effect equipment, piano seat and more besides.
No opportunity for a flurry of Foley skills is left unexplored, right down to Keirl finding an excuse to create the buzz of a fly with yet another concoction.
Keirl and Babbage are billed as “putting the laughter into manslaughter”, but Kinosian (book and music) Blair (book and lyrics) deliver humour far wittier than that clunky pun.
Tom Babbage’s Officer Marcus Moscowicz behind the Foley artist tricks of the trade in Murder For Two. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Where’s the murder, you ask? Here it comes. When famous novelist Arthur Whitney is found dead at his birthday party, the detectives are out of town: the perfect chance for Babbage’s neighbourhood cop, Officer Marcus Moscowicz, to put his dreams of climbing the ranks into urgent, indeed over-zealous action.
Up against the clock, methodical martinet Marcus will strive to prove his super sleuthing skills and solve the crime before the real detective arrives, all while bursting into song or leaping to the piano to take over from Keirl or join her on the ivories.
Familiar to SJT audiences from her Mandy, Delia and Herald in Nick Lane’s 2022 Christmas show Cinderella and Clown Two chameleon in The 39 Steps in 2023, now Keirl moves between myriad characters, voices and mannerisms, each change conducted in plain sight. Extraordinary!
Clever, silly, or deftly daft if you prefer, Murder For Two may confuse initially but you will soon pick up the distinctive features of each suspect, all while enjoying the show’s stylistic shifts between the 1950s and 1940s, and the myriad musical styles with echoes of everything from Cabaret to Victoria Wood, Irving Berlin to Shirley Bassey in ballgown belter mode.
Tom Babbage’s Officer Marcus Moscowicz makes an announcement in Murder For Two. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
The interplay of Babbage and Keirl is an utter delight, whether on piano or in song, and especially in their comedic camaraderie, where they are never afraid to ski off-piste, to riff off a mistake, or capitalise on the unexpected, like when Keirl’s watch breaks.
In the words of director Caroline Leslie, making such a fabulous SJT debut, “Murder For Two is a tour de forceof musical mayhem and a wildly ambitious creative challenge, and we couldn’t have assembled a better acting company and creative team to bring this absurdly joyful play to life.”
Every show will be different, Babbage and Keirl will make sure of that, but the constants will be the high quality of Simon Slater’s musical supervision and sound and Leslie’s abundantly playful direction, complemented by Emily Holt’s dashing movement direction.
Whodunit? Who cares! Let’s just say it would be a crime to miss Keirl and Babbage’s double act.
Murder For Two, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, running amok until April 18. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Murder For Two duo Tom Babbage and Lucy Keirl in the best double-act combination of piano and bowler hat since Laurel & Hardy in The Music Box. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Oliver Davis, Amber Wadey, Connor Keetley and Abigail Bailey in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. Picture: Pamela Raith
FROM a very hungry caterpillar to a life-changing musical, a Ritchie Blackmore tribute to Normal poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks on the bright side for spring joy.
Children’s show of the week: ROYO presents The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 2pm and 4pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am and 2pm
CREATED by Jonathan Rockefeller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show features 75 lovable puppets in a faithful 50-minute adaptation of four stories by author/illustrator Eric Carle:Brown Bear, Brown Bear, 10 Little Rubber Ducks, The Very Busy Spider and the titular star of the show. In the cast will be Abigail Bailey, Oliver Davis, Connor Keetley and Amber Wadey. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nic Cage Against The Machine: A tribute act like no other at The Crescent, York
York tribute act of the week: Nic Cage Against The Machine, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm
MOVE over Elvana, the covers- band conflation of Elvis and Nirvana. Here comes the even wilder Nic Cage Against The Machine, a tribute to Californian rock band Rage Against The Machine, fronted by an homage to Hollywood’s Nouveau Shamanic method actor supreme Nicolas Cage, with props. Leeds fun punks Moose Knuckle support. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Blackmore’s Blood: Celebrating the hard rock of Deep Purple and Rainbow
Ryedale tribute show of the week: Blackmore’s Blood, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
BLACKMORE’S Blood exploded on to the scene in 2016 with its tribute to Ritchie Blackmore’s rock years with Deep Purple and Rainbow, combining an authentic sound with a flamboyant stage presence and thrilling theatrics.
Playing not only the classics, every performance is a time machine, transporting audiences back to the glory days of hard rock with electrifying riffs, soaring melodies and Blackmore swagger. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
York Stage cast members in Nik Briggs’s production of Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Musical of the week: York Stage in Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to April 18, 7.30pm, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday matinee
NIK Briggs directs the York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical account of the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts.
Performed by a cast of 19, Come From Away is “more than just a musical,” says Briggs. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Cyril Raymond and Janet Morrison in the poster for Meaningful Films’ documentary Briefest Encounters at City Screen Picturehouse
Film event of the week: Brief Encounter, Briefest Encounters and Q&A, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Friday, 7pm
FRIDAY’S screening of the 80th anniversary restoration of David Lean’s Brief Encounter (PG) will be followed by North Rigton-raised journalist, researcher and filmmaker Joanna Crosse’s new documentary, uncovering the untold love story behind the 1945 film, revealing the hidden past of her grandfather, actor Cyril Raymond, who played Laura’s cuckolded husband Fred.
In an uncanny twist of fate, Raymond had a ‘brief encounter’ with actress Janet Morrison during a transatlantic stage production in 1929 that resulted in a child being born out of wedlock. Cinema myth meets lived experience in Briefest Encounters as interviews, letters, Raymond’s rediscovered diaries and archive material show how interrupted love, inherited silence and duty shaped family lives for generations. Crosse and fellow Meaningful Films filmmaker Luke Taylor will take part in a Q&A afterwards. Box office: picturehouses.com.
Classical pianist Julian Trevelyan: Performing at Helmsley Arts Centre
Classical concert of the week; Julian Trevelyan, Farewell Letters, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 11, 7.30pm
CONCERT pianist Julian Trevelyan performs regularly throughout Europe and in the UK. He moved to France after winning the 2015 Long-Thibaud-Crespin international competition at the age of 16, becoming the youngest prize-winner in the competition’s history. He has since won prizes at international piano competitions such as Leeds, Géza Anda & Horowitz. He will be performing works by Bach, Byrd, Oginski, Beethoven, Schönberg, Strauss/Trevelyan and Mozart. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Jan Brierton and Henry Norma:l: Teaming up for poetry and humour at Helmsley Arts Centre
Poetry at the double: Edge Street Live presents Henry Normal and Jan Brierton, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 16, 7.30pm
WRITER, poet, television & film producer and Manchester Poetry Festival founder Henry Normal is joined by Dubliner Jan Brierton for an evening of poetry and humour. Normal, whose credits include co-writing The Mrs Merton Show and the first series of The Royle Family, will be reading from his new book A Quiet Promise.
Brierton riffs on modern life, love and friendships, wellness and ageing, rage and domestic exasperation in her poetic reflections on being a wife, mother, daughter, sister and retired raver, plus plenty of stuff about tea, lipstick and biscuits. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Maureen Onwunali: Slam champion in action at Say Owt’s night of poetry at The Crescent in York
Slam champ of the week: Say Owt presents Maureen Onwunali, The Crescent, York, April 17, 7.30pm
YORK spoken-word collective Sat Owt’s guest poet for April’s gathering will be Dublin-born Nigerian poet and two-time national slam champion Maureen Onwunali.
Rich with political observations and carefully crafted verse, her work has been featured by musicians, radio shows and organisations, such as the British Film Institute, Penguin, BBC, Roundhouse, Apples and Snakes, Obsidian Foundation and the Poetry Society. Box office: seetickets.com/event/say-owt-slam-featuring-maureen-onwunali/the-crescent/3588134.
More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 14, from The York Press
Amabile Clarinet Trio: Playing innovative programme at York Late Music concert
HAMLET on a sinking ship, family politics on a calamitous wedding day and artists’ studios opening on two weekends are the headline acts on Charles Hutchinson’s latest bill of arts delights.
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents Amabile Clarinet Trio, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, April 11, 7.30pm
THE Amabile Clarinet Trio – York clarinettist Lesley Schatzberger, cellist Nicola Tait Baxter and pianist Paul Nicholson – presents an innovative programme featuring two premieres plus Thea Musgrave’s Canta Canta!, patron Nicola LeFanu’s Lullaby and Nocturne, American composer Robert Muczynski’s rarely played Fantasy Trio and the first York performance ofAlexander von Zemlinsky’s Trio in D minor.
The UK premiere of David Lancaster’s Canzone Sospesoand a world premiere from composer David Power will be complemented by a set of Morris newly transcribed by York composer Steve Crowther. Lancaster gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm, to be enjoyed with a complimentary glass of wine or juice. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Lesley Jones and Steve Coates: Teaming up for the last time for Swing When You Sing
Farewell concert of the week: Steve Coates Music Productions present Swing When You Sing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 12, 7.30pm
BEV Jones Music Company and The Jubilee Celebration Singers producer Lesley Jones bids farewell to the York stage after 20 years of mounting shows with Swing When You Sing, presented with Steve Coates Music Productions.
Alan Owens’s 16-piece big band will be joined on stage by singers Ruth McNeil, Annabel van Griethuysen, Hayley Bamford, Johanna Hartley, Adele Barlow, Larry Gibson, Terry Ford, Stephen Wilson, David Hartley and Geoff Walker to perform Rat Pack, Minnie The Moocher, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Under The Sea, Cheek To Cheek, Sway (Latin), Fever, Mr Bojangles, Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black and Sing, Sing, Sing (with Bob Fosse-style dancing). “Varied? Yes! Upbeat? Yes! Emotional? Yes!” says Lesley. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for the launch of Bishy Road Community Choir
Start-up of the week: Bishy Road Community Choir, Stables Yoga Centre, Nunmill Street, York, from April 13
THE Stables Yoga Centre and Rachel Davies are setting up the Bishy Road Community Choir to run on Mondays from 5pm to 5.50pm at £5 a session from April 13. This welcoming, musically accessible group will use song to promote happiness, wellbeing and community. No experience or musical skills are needed; only enthusiasm to try feel-good singing. To book a place, visit stablesyoga.co.uk/timetable.
Wedded bliss amid wedding-day blisters: Darren Barrott’s Marek and Joy Warner’s Sylvia in York Actors Collective’s Till The Stars Come Down
Family politics of the week: York Actors Collective in Till The Stars Come Down, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April14 to 18, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday; 2pm and 6pm, Saturday
PREMIERED at the National Theatre in 2024 and now receiving its York premiere, Beth Steel’s contemporary British family drama is set on the wedding day of Sylvia and Marek in a South Yorkshire mining town.
Directed by Angie Millard, Till The Stars Come Down explores the tumultuous dynamics of a working-class family in a changing world of economic decline and political shifts as long-held secrets, passions, and tensions surrounding class, immigration, and social change spill over into chaos and tragedy. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ralph Davis’s Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, set on a sinking ship, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Titanic anniversary event of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to 18,7pm plus 1.30pm, April 16 and 2pm, April 18
LET director Rupert Goold introduces the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, starring Ralph Davis, as the tour sets sail for York on the 114th anniversary of the Titanic’s descent to the depths. “Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands,” he says.
“Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours, our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation. This production asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jan Brierton and Henry Normal: Poetic humour at Milton Rooms, Malton
Poetry at the double: Edge Street Live presents Henry Normal and Jan Brierton, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 16, 7.30pm
WRITER, poet, television & film producer and Manchester Poetry Festival founder Henry Normal is joined by Dubliner Jan Brierton for an evening of poetry and humour. Normal, whose credits include co-writing The Mrs Merton Show and the first series of The Royle Family, will be reading from his new book A Quiet Promise.
Brierton riffs on modern life, love and friendships, wellness and ageing, rage and domestic exasperation in her poetic reflections on being a wife, mother, daughter, sister and retired raver, plus plenty of stuff about tea, lipstick and biscuits. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Aggers & Tuffers: The chatter of cricket and the clatter of wickets at York Barbican
Not just cricket: Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell in An Audience With Aggers & Tuffers, York Barbican, April 16, 7.30pm
TEST Match Special commentator-and-pundit duo Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell take to the road for more cricket chat from beyond the boundary. Former Leicestershire and England fast bowler and three-decade BBC cricket correspondent Aggers teams up anew with record-breaking former England spin bowler and crowd favourite Tuffers, who gives his spin on his maverick playing days and second wind as a media personality on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, Strictly Come Dancing and A Question Of Sport. Box office update: limited availability at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Maureen Onwunali: Slam champ spinning words at Say Owt
Slam champ of the week: Say Owt presents Maureen Onwunali, The Crescent, York, April 17, 7.30pm
YORK spoken-word collective Sat Owt’s guest poet for April’s gathering will be Dublin-born Nigerian poet and two-time national slam champion Maureen Onwunali.
Rich with political observations and carefully crafted verse, her work has been featured by musicians, radio shows and organisations, such as the British Film Institute, Penguin, BBC, Roundhouse, Apples and Snakes, Obsidian Foundation and the Poetry Society. Box office: seetickets.com/event/say-owt-slam-featuring-maureen-onwunali/the-crescent/3588134.
Jacqueline James: Demonstrating her hand-woven rug-making in Rosslyn Street, Clifton, at York Open Studios
Art event of the month: York Open Studios, York and beyond, April 18 & 19 and April 25 & 26, 10am to 5pm
ARTISTS and makers involved in York Open Studios are putting the final touches to their workplaces and studios within York and a ten-mile radius of the city, in readiness to welcome visitors across two weekends.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular participant or the 27 newcomers, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
York linocut printmaker and wildlife artist Gerard Hobson with one of his 13 bird boxes for the Castle Howard Easter Family Trail. Picture: David Scott
FROM a bird box trail and Vanbrugh’s architecture at Castle Howard to Horrible Histories in concert and a very hungry caterpillar, Charles Hutchinson embraces Easter’s extra spring in the step.
Birdlife event of the week: Castle Howard Easter Family Trail, Castle Howard Gardens & Arboretum, near York, until April 19
CASTLE Howard has collaborated with York artist and printmaker Gerard Hobson on a new interactive Easter trail, comprising 13 handmade wooden bird boxes installed for a springtime adventure across Castle Howard Gardens and the Arboretum.
The boxes house Hobson’s linocuts of birds, including swallow, magpie, woodpecker and wren, as part of a story designed for children as they all prepare for spring. “Young explorers will discover interesting facts about our feathered friends and learn more about their homes along the way,” he says. Admission is included in Castle Howard and Arboretum day tickets at castlehoward.co.uk/castlehowardarboretumtrust.org.
James B Partridge: Teaching the world to sing Primary School Bangers at York Barbican. Picture: Rebecca Johnson
“School” concert of the week: James B Partridge, Primary School Bangers, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
TEACHER James B Partridge brings his viral hit show Primary School Bangers to York for a night of massive singalongs, throwback mash-ups and tongue-in-cheek humour. What started in the classroom has become a nationwide phenomenon – from Glastonbury to sold-out theatres – as James leads audiences through the songs that defined school days.
“Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or just someone who remembers every word to He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, this one’s for you,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Architect Roz Barr: Curator and designer of Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard. Picture: Carole Poirot
Exhibition of the week: Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard, on show at Castle Howard, near York, until October 31
STAGING The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard celebrates its creator, the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), on the 300th anniversary of his death.
Designed and curated by architect Roz Barr, the exhibition chronicles the story of the stately home’s creation, exploring Vanbrugh’s visionary use of scale, shadow and light and his creative relationship with the third Earl of Carlisle, as shown in letters by Vanbrugh on public display for the first time. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Chris Helme: Showcasing new album Forest For The Trees at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Recommended but sold out already: Chris Helme, Forest For The Trees Album Launch, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, April 5 and 6, doors 7.30pm
YORK songwriter and former Seahorses frontman Chris Helme plays a brace of official album launch gigs for Forest For The Trees after a busy 2025 touring his World Of My Own album.
Helme returned to the studio to record stripped-back versions of raw, soulful and bruised songs from his 30-year back catalogue. Forest For The Trees is the first of an ongoing series of recordings, showcasing gently crafted versions of Love Me & Leave Me, Standing On Your Head and other Seahorses classics and more besides.
Harrie Hayes’s Queen Elizabeth I makes her point to Richard David-Caine’s William Shakespeare in Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage! Picture: Matt Crockett
“The ultimate first concert for children”: Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage!, York Barbican, April 6, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; April 7, 11am and 3pm
FOR the first time, favourite songs and actors from Horrible Histories’ CBBC TV series will be live – and dead! – on stage in York. When Queen Elizabeth I asks William Shakespeare to create the greatest show on earth, he runs into trouble with monstrous King Henry VIII and Queen Victoria.
Once Death appears, Boudica and Cleopatra want to take over! Can things turn any worse? Of course they can! Cue songs such as Stupid Deaths, Charles II, Dick Turpin and The Monarchs Song, performed to a band led by Horrible Histories’ song master, Richie Webb. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jason Fox: Helping you to reboot your thinking and challenge your limits at York Barbican
Advice of the week: Jason Fox: Embrace The Chaos, York Barbican, April 8, 7.30pm
SOME people are built to embrace the chaos. Adventurer, Royal Marine Commando and UK Special Forces soldier Jason Fox is one of them, having survived myriad hostile outposts as an elite operator, documentary maker and expedition leader.
In his new show, Foxy shares stories of his close brushes with enemy gunmen, terrorist bomb makers and cartel leaders, while revealing his strategies for surviving and thriving in environments as life-threatening as the Arctic Circle and Afghan Badlands. Using principles from his military operations, he will help you to reboot your thinking, challenge your limits, change your habits, transform and rebalance your life – and he will answer audience questions too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Clowning skills aplenty in Out Of The Box at Helmsley Arts Centre
Family show of the week: Darryl J Carrington in Out Of The Box, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm
DARRYL J Carrington transforms everyday objects into extraordinary adventures in Out Of The Box, where a toothbrush stars in a balancing act, a string sparks a heist and a tea party lands on someone’s head in an hour of joyful chaos, jaw-dropping skill and irresistible fun.
Carrington brings five-star Edinburgh Fringe reviews, the Brighton Fringe’s Best Family Show prize and more than 20 years of circus and clowning experience to his silent comedy’s blend of juggling, inventive physical theatre and audience interaction. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Professor Danny and lab assistant Crazy Kazy in Top Secret’s show The Magic Of Science, High Voltage
Fun experiments of the week: Top Secret in The Magic Of Science, High Voltage, Pocklington Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm
JOIN Top Secret as they go on a high-voltage adventure, The Magic Of Science, to ask the question “Is it magic…or is it science?” in a fast-moving, colourful, interactive show filled with mystery, suspense, experiments and loads of mess.
Danny Hunt and Stephanie Clarke take on the guise of Professor Danny and his lab assistant Crazy Kazy as they fuse the mystery of magic with wondrous and miraculous feats of science. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Abigail Bailey and the meal-seeking caterpillar in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, munching its way through York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith
Children’s show of the week: ROYO presents The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, York Theatre Royal, April 9 to 11; Thursday, 2pm and 4pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am and 2pm
CREATED by Jonathan Rockefeller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show features 75 lovable puppets in a faithful 50-minute adaptation of four stories by author/illustrator Eric Carle:Brown Bear, Brown Bear, 10 Little Rubber Ducks, The Very Busy Spider and the titular star of the show.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar has delighted generations of readers since its publication in 1969, selling more than 48 million copies worldwide. Telling those tales will be a cast of Abigail Bailey, Oliver Davis, Connor Keetley and Amber Wadey. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tribute act at the double of the week: Nic Cage Against The Machine, The Crescent, York, April 10, 7.30pm
MOVE over Elvana, the covers- band conflation of Elvis and Nirvana. Here comes the even wilder Nic Cage Against The Machine, a tribute to Californian rock band Rage Against The Machine, fronted by an homage to Hollywood ‘s Nouveau Shamanic method actor supreme Nicolas Cage, with props. “Not sure what more you’re looking for here – if you’re not sold already I don’t know what to tell you,” says The Crescent website. Leeds fun punks Moose Knuckle support. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
York Stage cast members in Come From Away, making its York debut at the Grand Opera House. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Musical of the week: York Stage in Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, April 10 to 18, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Saturday matinees 2.30pm; Sunday matinee, 4pm
NIK Briggs directs the York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical account of the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts.
Performed by a cast of 19, Come From Away is “more than just a musical,” says Briggs. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Brief Encounter actor Cyril Raymond and stage actress Janet Morrison, with Nicholas Crosse, the son he never met and was given up for adoption by Janet, a story told for the first time in Joanna Crosse’s documentary Briefest Encounters
Film event of the week: Brief Encounter, Briefest Encounters and Q&A, City Screen Picturehouse, York, April 10, 7pm
NEXT Friday’s screening of the 80th anniversary restoration of David Lean’s Brief Encounter (PG) will be followed by North Rigton-raised journalist, researcher and filmmaker Joanna Crosse’s new documentary, uncovering the untold love story behind the 1945 film, revealing the hidden past of her grandfather, actor Cyril Raymond, who played Laura’s cuckolded husband Fred.
In an uncanny twist of fate, Raymond had a ‘brief encounter’ with actress Janet Morrison during a transatlantic stage production in 1929 that resulted in a child being born out of wedlock. Cinema myth meets lived experience in Briefest Encounters as interviews, letters, Raymond’s rediscovered diaries and archive material show how interrupted love, inherited silence and duty shaped family lives for generations. Crosse and fellow Meaningful Films filmmaker Luke Taylor will take part in a Q&A afterwards. Box office: picturehouses.com.
In Focus: James Graham’s Punch, Leeds Playhouse, April 7 to 11
Jack James Ryan’s Jacob in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
OLIVIER Award-winning playwright James Graham’s Punch is a true story of hope, humanity and the possibility of change.
Based on Jacob Dunne book Right From Wrong, it tells Jacob’s story of being a Nottingham teenager from The Meadows estate who spent his Saturday nights seeking thrills with his friends.
One fateful weekend, an impulsive punch leads to fatal consequences. After serving prison time, Jacob finds himself lost and directionless. Searching for answers, Joan and David – the parents of his victim James Hodgkinson – ask to meet, sparking a profound transformation in Jacob’s life.
Jacob’s unflinching account of the power of forgiveness sparked courthouse discussion and parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on the topic of Restorative Justice at the time of Punch’s 2024 premiere at the Nottingham Playhouse. The play was even cited by a judge when sentencing a one-punch case.
Finty Williams, left, Matthew Flynn, Grace Hodgett Young, Elan Butler (hidden), Jack James Ryan and Laura Tebbutt in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
Nottingham playwright Graham is one of Great Britain’s most celebrated writers, winning multiple Olivier Awards, as well as receiving BAFTA, Emmy and Tony Award nominations. His political drama This House opened at Leeds Playhouse in 2018. Now he returns to the Leeds theatre from April 7 to 11 with the energetic, entertaining but heartbreaking Punch after runs in London and on Broadway last year.
To complement Graham’s play, a Talking Circle structure will sit front of house to provide a space for audiences to gather and reflect on the performance, while post-show discussions on related themes will be led by expert speakers.
Graham was awarded the Longford Trust’s Kevin Pakenham Award for Punch, joined on the honours’ board by David Shields, winner of the Best Performance in a Play prize at the 2024 UK Theatre Awards 2024 for his lead role in the premiere.
On tour, the role of Jacob will be played by Jack James Ryan (Sing Street, Lyric Hammersmith; Coronation Street, ITV), joined in Adam Penford’s cast by Elan Butler (The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return, Southwark Playhouse and UK Tour; Masters Of The Air, Apple TV+) as Raf and Sam and Matthew Flynn (The Winter’s Tale, Royal Shakespeare Company; Say Nothing, Disney/FX) as David, the father of James Hodgkinson.
Finty Williams’s Joan and Matthew Flynn’s David, James’s parents in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
In the company too will be Olivier-nominated Grace Hodgett Young (Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre/St James Theatre; Hadestown, Lyric Theatre) as Clare and Nicola; Laura Tebbutt (Mrs Doubtfire, Shaftesbury Theatre; School Of Rock, Gillian Lynne Theatre) as Jacob’s mum and Wendy and Finty Williams (The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, national tour; Run Away, Netflix) as James’s mother, Joan.
The original creative team returns, including production designer Anna Fleischle (Death Of A Salesman, Broadway; 2:22 A Ghost Story, Young Vic Theatre); lighting designer Robbie Butler (How To Win Against History, Bristol Old Vic; Death In Venice, Welsh National Opera); sound designer and composer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite (Work It Out, HOME; Lost And Found, Factory International) and movement director Leanne Pinder (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Mountview; Disruption, The Park Theatre).
Punch is dedicated to the memory of James Hodgkinson and all victims of one punch. “James dedicated his life to the helping and healing,” says playwright James Graham in his programme note. “His 28 years were a testament to his outlook and his values – a volunteer, a mentor, a paramedic. He was loved by his family and friends, and he gave love in return.
“Theatre can and should be a restorative space of empathy, and increased understanding. We hope to honour and do justice to the man James was.”
Nottingham Playhouse, in association with KPPL Productions, Mark Gordon Pictures and Eilene Davidson Productions, presents Punch, Leeds Playhouse, April 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 1pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Age guidance: 12 plus. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
