Grace Lancaster at the piano in her role as Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
BEAUTIFUL is “filled with the songs you remember – and a story you’ll never forget”, says Nik Briggs, director and producer of York Stage’s York premiere of The Carole King Musical.
Put another way, there are songs you know but may not know they are by Brooklyn-born Carole, whose story stayed in the background, much like Carole herself did until moving centre stage with Tapestry, before Douglas McGrath wrote the book for the musical. Tony and Grammy awards have ensued.
Leeds Grand Theatre played host to the first British tour in June 2018, and now Briggs delivers a sparkling York production every note as enjoyable, as lushly musical and, typical of Briggs, visually impactful too, with a wonderful lead performance by Grace Lancaster, a York-raised triple threat of singer, musician and actress.
McGrath’s book does not reveal the full tapestry – King’s flop 1970 debut album, Writer, is as absent as James Taylor – but it wholly captures the spirit, courage and resilience of her constant creativity that blossomed as a teenager, told here with warmth, wit and charm, pathos too, and bursts of frank Jewish humour in her exchanges with her wise, if cautious mother, Genie Klein (Sandy Nicholson, perfect casting), a Manhattan teacher who would prefer her daughter to follow that career path too.
Teenagers in love: Grace Lancaster’s Carole King and Frankie Bounds’ Gerry Goffin in Beautiful. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Bookended by Carole’s celebrated performance at Carnegie Hall, with Lancaster at the grand piano, Beautiful’s storyline opens with ordinary schoolgirl Carole Klein writing incessantly at 16, landing her first songwriting deal with Donnie Kirshner (an urbane Bryan Bounds) as Carole King.
Utilising cast members for scenery moves, Beautiful cracks on in a whirl, much like Carole’s songwriting success. She meets lyricist and putative playwright Gerry Goffin (Frankie Bounds), her fellow teen, and is pregnant and married at 17. What a productive partnership!
The hits keep piling up from their Kirshner-administered songwriting factory for the likes of The Drifters (Faisal Khodabukus, Christopher Knight, Munya Mswaka and Baz Zakeri) and The Shirelles( Cyanne Unamba Oparah, Maria Ghurbal, Nicole Kilama and Lauren Charlton-Matthews, who also plays Janelle Woods). Delightful performances all round.
Even their babysitter (Kilama’s Little Eva) hits the chart peak with The Loco-Motion – and everyone’s doing The Loco-Motion in black and white in the show’s best ensemble choreography by Danielle Mullan-Hill.
Frankie Bounds’ Gerry Goffin, centre, performing Pleasant Valley Sunday in an ensemble number in Beautiful. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Unlike too many jukebox musicals, McGrath’s script does more than link the songs, telling the story behind them with breezy dialogue, yet giving due space to life-changing events, as the story moves between recording studio, record company offices, the home and the concert hall.
If Beautiful underplays the ugly side of the story, the restless, unfaithful Goffin’s straying from the happy-at-home Carole, Frankie Bounds (in his Marlon Brando white vest) seeks to invest the role with more darkness of the soul. He is no pantomime villain, even though one stage entry is greeted with a boo from one voice in the dress circle at Saturday’s matinee.
For contrast with the brooding Bounds’s increasingly troubled Goffin and the downward spiral of the Goffin-King marriage, the friendly rivalry at Kirshner’s 1650 Broadway building with fellow songwriting partners Barry Mann (Alex Hogg) and Cynthia Weil (Harriet Yorke) is depicted with lightness and plenty of laughter, as they progress, step by slower-than-Gerry and-Carole step to a number one hit (You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling) and wedding bells. Hogg’s somewhat hangdog, anxious Mann is ever humorous; Yorke’s Weil more spiky.
Canny operator: Bryan Bounds as recording company boss Donny Kirshner. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Throughout, Lancaster conquers York. What a talent! Leeds Conservatoire tutor by day, New York Brass Band saxophonist and clarinet player by night, she has polished up her piano playing too to complement her delightful singing voice, as uplifting and moving as King’s, especially on Tapestry’s songs from the broken heart.
From precociously gifted yet demure teenager, to diligent young mother, to solo singer-songwriter, embracing the spotlight at last after such hurt, Lancaster evokes all facets of the King character. Her renditions of It’s Too Late and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman are the crowning glory for King and Lancaster alike.
You will feel the earth move, thanks not only to Lancaster, but also to Briggs’s potent direction, full of drama, emotion and humour, to go with his snappy, snazzy costumes and Phoebe Kilvington’s hair and make-up, propelled by the fabulous playing of Stephen Hackshaw’s band, always in view at the back.
Tickets for Tuesday to Saturday’s 7.30pm evening performances and Saturday’s 2.30pm matinee are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.
Dawn French: Frank confessions of a comedian at York Barbican
FRENCH comedy, a very English murder thriller, state-of-the-nation politics and police procedures stir Charles Hutchinson into action for the week ahead.
Comedy gigs of the week: Dawn French Is A Huge Twat, York Barbican, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm
HER show is so named because, unfortunately, it is horribly accurate, says self-mocking comedian and actress Dawn French. “There have been far too many times I have made stupid mistakes or misunderstood something vital or jumped the gun in a spectacular display of twattery,” she explains.
“I thought I might tell some of these buttock-clenching embarrassing stories to give the audience a peek behind the scenes of my work life.” Tickets update: Limited availability at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Tonight, meanwhile, Sarah Millican plays a Work In Progress gig at Pocklington Arts Centre at 8pm. Sold out already alas.
A scene from Original Theatre Company’s touring production of Torben Betts’s new play, Murder In The Dark, starring Tom Chambers and Susie Blake. Picture: Pamela Raith
Thriller of the week: Original Theatre Company in Murder In The Dark, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
TOM Chambers and Susie Blake star in Torben Betts’s new ghost story chiller cum psychological thriller, set on New Year’s Eve, when a crash on a deserted road brings washed-up singer Danny Sierra and his dysfunctional family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England.
From the moment they arrive, inexplicable events begin to occur…and then the lights go out, whereupon deeply buried secrets come to light. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Robin Simpson: Pantomime dame and storyteller, bringing Magic, Monsters and Mayhem to York tomorrow afternoon. Picture: Joel Rowbottom
Children’s show of the week: Magic, Monsters and Mayhem with Robin Simpson, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, tomorrow, 4.30pm
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – he will be playing Dame Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk this winter – switches to storyteller mode to journey back to magic school on Sunday afternoon.
He will be telling stories of wonderful creatures, exciting adventures and “more magic than you can wave a wand” as he places the audience in charge of an interactive show ideal for Harry Potter fans. Suitable for Key Stage 2, but smaller siblings are welcome too, along with Potter-potty grown-ups. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.
Hannah Baker, left, Harvey Badger, Eddie Ahrens and Rachel Hammond in Mikron Theatre’s A Force To Be Reckoned With. Picture: Anthony Robling
Police spotted operating in the vicinity: Mikron Theatre in A Force To Be Reckoned With, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, tomorrow, 4pm
IN Amanda Whittington’s new play for Marsden travelling players Mikron Theatre, fresh from police training school, WPC Iris Armstrong is ready for whatever the mean streets of a 1950s’ northern market town can throw at her.
Joining forces with fellow WPC Ruby Weston, they make an unlikely partnership, a two-woman department, called to any case involving women and children, from troublesome teens to fraudulent fortune tellers. Box office: 07974 867301 or 01904 466086, or in person from Pextons, Bishopthorpe Road, York.
Kathryn Williams and Polly Paulusma: Songwriters at the double at Pocklington Arts Centre
Songwriting bond of the week: Kathryn Williams & Polly Paulusma: The Big Sky Tour, Pocklington Arts Centre, Tuesday, 8pm
AS label buddies on One Little Independent Records, Kathryn Williams and Polly Paulusma met on a song-writing retreat. They wrote songs together and tutored courses at Arvon Foundation and as their friendship developed and strengthened, they supported each other over lockdown.
It seemed a foregone conclusion that they would tour together at some point. Finally, those Thelma and Louise dreams – hopefully without the killing or the cliff finale – come true on a month-long itinerary, playing solo sets and uniting for a few songs. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Mike Skinner: The Streets’ composer-turned-filmmaker discusses his debut film in Q&A appearances at Everyman Leeds and Everyman York
Streets ahead: Mike Skinner’s film The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light and Q&A, Everyman Leeds, September 21, 8pm; Everyman York, September 25, 7pm
THE Streets’ Mike Skinner presents his debut feature film, the “neo-noir” clubland thriller The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light, in an exclusive Q&A tour to Everyman cinemas.
Birmingham multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Skinner funded, wrote, directed, filmed, edited and scored his cinematic account of the seemingly mundane life of a DJ whose journey through London’s nightclubs turns into a tripped-out modern-day murder mystery. Each screening will be followed by a live question-and-answer session with Skinner, giving an insight into the music and story behind the film. Box office: thestreets.co.uk.
Mark Thomas: Comedian stars in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England And Son at York Theatre Royal Studio
Political drama of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 22, 7.45pm; September 23, 2pm and 7.45pm
POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by playwright Ed Edwards.
Edinburgh Fringe award winner England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Rowntree Park, by Jo Rodwell, one of 26 printmakers taking part in the York Printmakers Autumn Fair
Print deadline: York Printmakers Autumn Fair, York Cemetery Chapel and Harriet Room, September 23 and 24, 10am to 5pm
IN its sixth year, the York Printmakers Autumn Fair features work by 26 members, exhibiting and selling hand-printed original prints, including Russell Hughes, Rachel Holborow, Michelle Hughes, Harriette Rymer and Jo Rodwell.
On display will be a variety of printmaking techniques, such as linocut, collagraphs, woodcut, screen printing, stencilling and etching. Artists will be on hand to discuss their working methods and to show the blocks, plates and tools they use.
Sir Alan Ayckbourn: The truth will out when he takes to the SJT stage tomorrow afternoon. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
In Focus:Theatre event of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s Truth Will Out, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tomorrow, 2.30pm
IN a rare stage appearance, Sir Alan Ayckbourn plays Jim in a rehearsed reading of his Covic-crocked 2020 SJT premiere Truth Will Out, joined by John Branwell, Frances Marshall and the cast of his 89th play, Constant Companions.
Truth Will Out is an up-to-the-minute satire on family, relationships, politics and the state of the nation, wherein everyone has secrets. Certainly former shop steward George, his right-wing MP daughter Janet, investigative journalist Peggy and senior civil servant Sefton do.
Enter a tech-savvy, chippy teenager with a mind of his own and time on his hands to bring their worlds tumbling down, and maybe everyone else’s along with them, in Ayckbourn’s own “virus” storyline, written before Coronavirus stopped play.
“It’s ‘the one that got away’, with most of the cast in place, and we even did a season launch,” says Sir Alan. “The play was one of my ‘What ifs’: what if a teenager invented a virus that brought the whole thing down. A ‘virus’ play, like Covid, with the virus escaping and the play ending in the dark, waiting till dawn.”
Racism, trade unionism and infidelity all play their part in Truth Will Out too. “It’s a melting pot of wrongdoings,” says Sir Alan. Tickets update: limited availability on 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Tom Chambers’ troubled pop star Danny Sierra in a scene from Murder In The Dark. Picture: Pamela Raith
TORBEN Betts first made his mark at a North Yorkshire theatre when Alan Ayckbourn talent-spotted the fledgling playwright and gave him a residency at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1999.
That year, the Scarborough theatre presented the premiere of his debut play, A Listening Heaven. Now, Betts’s new thriller, the ghost story Murder In The Dark, is heading to York Theatre Royal from September 19 to 23 on Original Theatre Company’s tour, directed by Philip Franks.
“Horror films have been my guilty pleasure since I was a morbid child,” says Philip, who was at the helm of Original Theatre’s touring production of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at the Theatre Royal last October too.
“Now is the time to find out whether many years’ worth of jump scares and terrible nightmares can be put to good use. We’ll also see whether my more adult theory – that horror often puts its finger on what worries us most as a society at any given time – will also hold true.”
Betts’s setting is a modern-day New Year’s Eve, when a car crash on a lonely road brings famous but troubled singer Danny Sierra and his extended family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England. From the moment they arrive, a sequence of inexplicable events begins to occur…and then the lights go out!
Susie Blake, Miss Marple in last year’s visit, will play farmer’s wife Mrs Bateman alongside 2008 Strictly Come Dancing champion, Top Hat leading man and Holby City, Waterloo Road and Father Brown star Tom Chambers as Danny, Rebecca Charles as Rebecca, Jonny Green as Jake, Owen Oakeshott as William and Laura White as Sarah.
Tom Chambers: “One of these flattering moments,” he says, of Torben Betts writing the role of Danny Sierra expressly for him
When the Covid19 pandemic shut down his tour in Dial M For Murder overnight, Tom appeared in Original Theatre’s remotely recorded lockdown film of Torben Betts’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side Of The Moon and subsequently in Original Theatre artistic director Alastair Whatley’s online piece Into The Night.
“About a year later, out of the blue I got a text from Alastair saying he’d commissioned Torben to write a ghost story with me in mind for the lead role,” he recalls. “It was one of those flattering moments you dream of!”
Ten pages arrived, then the full draft, and now here Tom is, two weeks into the tour. “The Dark Side Of The Moon was only 50 minutes. This [rather longer] new play has been really fascinating but also extremely challenging because Torben has written it like machine gunfire, firing off in all directions, so you think ‘who’s line is it next?’!”
Working on the play in rehearsals and now in its early weeks on stage, 46-year-old Tom says: “It’s one of those pieces where, as we’ve gone along, we’ve all thought on our feet, with none of us quite sure at first what it was.
“With its dysfunctional family at odds in a psychological thriller, I knew it was an emotional piece, with all the humour in there too, but you don’t know what you’re dealing with, because it is scary, funny and emotional at the same time, and so you’re not sure how the audience will take it!
“On stage, it’s become more like a dark comedy, and it’s been really interesting listening to the audience reactions and realising they’re laughing from very early on. But there are really scary moments too and a couple of twists that we’re asking people not to give away afterwards.”
Learning his lines has found Tom thinking: “Torben is like Marmite! I sort of love him and hate him at the same time. His script is very interesting, very exciting and an absolute pig to learn.
Tom Chambers, seated, shares a lighthearted moment with director Philip Franks in the rehearsal room for Torben Betts’s thriller Murder In The Dark. Picture: Pamela Raith
“I haven’t talked to him about the part, though he did sit quietly in the corner at rehearsals on a few occasions, typing away, but not interfering. Torben has allowed Philip to shave, trim and manipulate the script, letting the production grow under his directorship.”
In turn, “Philip is one of the best directors I’ve worked with, always very patient” says Tom. “He’s an actor as well as a director, and so he really lets you play with it at first, and then he very carefully re-shapes it, inspiring you with his ideas. He’s like a wonderful conductor working with an orchestra, a fantastic maestro.”
Tom describes his lead role, Danny Sierra, as a “washed-up pop star from 20 years ago”. “To play his character, to be aware of his body language, I approach him as someone who’s been in the limelight, which I’ve experienced: the shiny bits, the pitfalls, the facades, the truth and reality of how jaded he is,” he says.
“I just try to make him human. Like all of us, he tries to justify the reasons things have happened in his life. He’s made mistakes, but he does have a heart, he’s not soulless, not completely selfish.”
Danny has headed to the isolated cottage for a family funeral and must communicate with his brother for the first time in years. “Everything unravels in this old farm cottage, which is like a deserted island with very few creature comforts. That initially turns the play into a comedy, but then it becomes twisted, warped, deranged and strange, so it’s very intriguing!” says Tom.
As for the ghost story…wait and see.
Original Theatre Company in Murder In The Dark, York Theatre Royal, September 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 14+.
“Torben’s script is very interesting, very exciting and an absolute pig to learn,” says lead actor Tom Chambers. Picture: Pamela Raith
Grace Lancaster at the piano in the role of Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
FEEL the earth move as Beautiful: The Carole King arrives in York for the first time tomorrow in York Stage’s production at the Grand Opera House.
“This Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical phenomenon is filled with the songs you remember – and a story you’ll never forget,” says director-producer Nik Briggs, introducing the Broadway and West End hit with a book by Douglas McGrath and those songs. Oh, those songs.
“She created the sound of a generation, so iconic,” says Nik.” “Those songs have then passed through the generations because they’re so relatable, especially on Tapestry, after her break-up with Gerry Goffin.”
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?. Take Good Care Of My Baby. It Might As Well Rain Until September. Up On The Roof. One Fine Day. So Far Away. You’ve Got A Friend. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. It’s Too Late. I Feel The Earth Move. All by the writer or co-writer of 118 hits on the American Billboard Hot 100. The most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States.
Beautiful tells the story of an ordinary girl, born Carole Klein in Manhattan, New York, with an extraordinary talent that took her from being part of a songwriting team with fellow teenager and later husband Gerry Goffin, through her creative relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to solo success with Tapestry and beyond.
Taking the role of Carole King, opposite Frankie Bounds’ Gerry Goffin, will be York-born actress and singer, New York Brass Band saxophonist and Leeds Conservatoire teacher Grace Lancaster.
“With her voice, her stage presence and her musicality, Grace was the perfect choice to lead our cast of 30,” says Nik. “Grace is 28 now but she’s always had that Carole King girlish charm, so it’s great to watch her charting that same path in Carole’s story.
“We’ll have an 11-piece band on stage, plus Grace on piano, with Stephen Hackshaw returning as our musical director.”
Grace is “really looking forward to the show this week…if a little nervous about the magnitude of the role”. “I’ve grown up with the songs of Carole without even knowing that she was the mastermind behind the music,” she says.
“Everyone knows Natural Woman and The Loco-Motion, right, but I didn’t quite realise that she had written them until I saw Beautiful in the West End back in 2015.
“I was at drama school at the time, and Katie Brayben (who was then Carole King) had just won the Olivier award for her portrayal and I was acutely aware that she’d trained on the very same course as me at Rose Bruford!
“Watching that performance blew me away so much and I felt such a connection that I knew one day I would just have to play Carole King!”
Assessing what makes Carole King’s songs and life story so apt for a musical that is much more than a jukebox musical, Grace says: “Carole was in a golden era for songwriting. She was a young teenager when the one and only Elvis Presley came on the scene and was inevitably drawn to the rock’n’roll style. That type of music connects to a lot of people!
“The way Carole writes melodies is so organic and she often describes the music as just coming through her without her having to think. When music comes from a place of truth then there is something very Beautiful about it (no pun intended).
“I felt such a connection that I knew one day I would just have to play Carole King,” says Grace Lancaster
“The story weaves through Carole’s life and gives us an insight into how these songs were written in a ‘music factory’, the events that inspired them and how they reflect Carole’s life at that time.
“The fact that you’re watching a story that is about real people gives the musical a more personal feel and hopefully the audience will connect with this more than a regular jukebox musical.”
Picking a favourite Carole King song is almost like picking a favourite child, reckons Grace. “From what I’ve read, she’s written over 400 songs! You’ve Got A Friend and Will You Love Me Tomorrow? have popped up in other shows I’ve performed in, so I feel a deep connection to those,” she says.
“But Natural Woman is another strong contender: the gospel chords and the superb imagery make the song an utter delight to perform. These songs are multi-generational, passed on, still relevant today, and that’s another reason why Carole is such a wonder.”
Preparing for Beautiful has been the biggest challenge of Grace’s performing career. “I don’t think there’s a single point in the show where I have time to go back to my dressing room and sit down,” she says.
“A lot of work has gone into memorising the script, but even more time has gone into memorising the piano parts. As a musician, I would describe myself as a saxophone/clarinet player first; piano doesn’t come as naturally to me. So practising the piano to the point where my hands know what they’re doing without my brain getting involved – my brain needs to focus on acting/singing – has been the challenge of the last three months.”
Grace spent time aplenty researching Carole King’s story. “I read her memoir and watched interviews and have been delighted to find so many similarities in our beliefs and musical habits. She truly is an incredible woman,” she says.
Rehearsals have been an “amazing way” for Grace to reconnect with her York roots. “I first performed with York Stage back in 2007 in We Will Rock You, so I’m so delighted to see that the theatre scene is as strong here as it is!” she says. “The cast are all very talented and play such an important role in this show, so I’m very proud to have them supporting me.”
Out of rehearsals, Grace fills her time with an eclectic mix of work. “I play the saxophone and assist with managing the New York Brass Band, which has taken me as far away as China and Kuwait and this summer to Glastonbury festival for the fifth time!” she says.
“Last year I started teaching on the Actor Musicianship course at Leeds Conservatoire and I’m thrilled to be able to see the talent and drive that these students have – but also to be a part of the theatre industry in the north who are nurturing talent outside of London.”
Looking ahead, over the next few months Grace will be developing her own business as a solo singer/saxophone player at weddings and events. “I’m also looking after my four-month-old Labrador puppy Winnie. So I’ve definitely got my hands full!” she says. “Winnie has been subjected to my constant piano practice since moving in with us and now the music of Carole King sends her to sleep.”
York Stage in York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, September 15 to 23, 7.30pm except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
One last question
DO you have Tapestry in your record collection, if such a thing as a record collection still exists in the house of Lancaster?!
“Tapestry is regularly played on my Spotify account,” says Grace.
James Wilbraham’s Simon in Philippa Lawford’s modern love story Ikaria. Picture: Tristram Kenton
PHILIPPA Lawford’s debut play Ikaria opens its autumn tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Saturday night.
When romance blossoms between two university students from different walks of life, the giddy excitement of first love initially preoccupies but then stifles the pair as they contend with their ultimate place in the world that lies ahead.
Exploring young love, set against the backdrop of university, this Tightrope Theatre production presents a nuanced look at mental health and the coexistence of love and self-destruction, ultimately illustrating how we can find salvation in someone else.
After taking a year out, Simon (played by James Wilbraham) has returned to university, determined to crack on with his finals and not to slip back into old, destructive habits.
First-year student Mia (Andrea Gatchalian) is embracing the explosive freedom of life away from home. While seemingly from contrasting worlds, the two easily slide into a relationship, spending every night together in Simon’s messy dorm room, staying up later and later, not going out, and skipping tutorials.
Andrea Gatchalian: Playing first-year student Mia in Ikaria. Picture: Patch Bell
Swept up in a dizzying romance, Mia is initially happy to sink into Simon’s nocturnal habits, until she begins to question whether this makes her happy – and whether it makes Simon happy too. Where once they found solace from the pressures of the outside world in Simon’s bedroom, now that space begins to reflect the growing unrest infiltrating their relationship.
Drawing on Philippa’s own university experiences, Ikaria takes a heartfelt look at the gritty reality of loving and caring for somebody who cannot love and care for themselves.
“I was 24 when I wrote Ikaria, three years after leaving uni,” she says. “I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible about what it felt like to be a student – how exciting and romantic it felt, and also the dizzying fear of feeling like an adult for the first time, fully able to make all your own mistakes.
“It’s been wonderful working with such talented actors and with my fantastic associate director Izzy Parriss as we’ve built the detailed world of the play inside Simon’s bedroom.”
Ikaria begins its tour in York before visiting Mold, Stafford, Guildford, Belfast, Whitley Bay and London. Please note, the play carries trigger warnings of references to anxiety, depression, suicide, sexual assault and drug use, with strong language and depictions of self-harm.
Writer-director Philippa Lawford at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London. Picture: Ian McIlgorm
Here writer-director Philippa Lawford answers CharlesHutchPress’s questions on university life, young love, student pressures, self-destruction, Icarus and advice to her younger self.
Where, when and which subject did you study at university, and what were yourexperiences of young love in that bubble of a hothouse environment?
“I studied my undergrad degree in English Literature at Oxford. I graduated in 2019, right before the pandemic. I had some experiences of very intense (and fun) romantic relationships during this time.
“The freedom to have someone in my room whenever I wanted was totally new, and meant that itwas very possible to spend a huge amount of time with my first uni boyfriend. It was very exciting but there were areas in which it became a bit dysfunctional, as we spent all of our time together.”
How much did your own experiences or those around you at that time influence Ikaria?
“The play is entirely based on my experiences and the experiences of my friends. The plot is fictional, but only in the sense that I have cobbled together a number of true things that either happened to me or to people around me.
“I like writing in this way as it allows me to feel like what I’m creating is truthful. You don’t have to have had particularly sensational life experiences in order to do this – you just have to be honest and accurate, I think.”
Andrea Gatchalian in the rehearsal room for Ikaria. Picture: Jake Bush
There was a time when students would believe they knew everything and were indestructible. Not now. The pressure, the demands, the expectations, the impact of social media, Covid/post-Covid, the exorbitant fees, now collide to take their toll on mental health. What are your thoughts on this?
“I think mental health is a massive problem at universities and the support systems don’t seem to be coping. During my undergraduate degree, so many people had to take years out or drop out because of pressure and mental health problems. University throws young people in at the deep end and it can be so isolating.”
What do you learn at university beyond a degree course?
“I think I learnt what the uninhibited version of my life looks like. And then I had to learn to dial that back.”
Is university still a place for Ian Dury’s triptych of sex’n’drugs’n’rock’n’roll?
“Yes…but the academic workload I experienced was also very full-on, so the balance between the two lifestyles can be pretty challenging. I’m not very productive when I’m hungover.”
The artwork for Tightrope Theatre’s tour of Philippa Lawford’s Ikaria. Picture: Scarlett Stitt
What is the relationship between love and self-destruction in that university world, one you describe in your play as “co-existence”?
“Self-destruction seems to be a dominant trait amongst high-achieving young people, probably as a natural release of internalised pressure. The people at my uni were very funny and very open about guilt and shame, which everyone seemed to feel, about work and deadlines.
“One thing I think is great about this generation is how comfortable they are expressing vulnerability. But being funny about your self-hatred doesn’t always negate the feeling.”
You say Simon and Mia come from “different backgrounds”. What is each character’s background; what subjects are they studying; what drew them together; what draws them apart?
Student pressure point: James Wilbraham’s Simon in rehearsal for Ikaria. Picture: Jake Bush
“Simon is very posh; he studies classics and he is in third year. Mia is from London and the first person in her family to go to uni. She studies English and does student journalism, and she’s in first year.
“They are drawn to each other’s sense of humour and in a sense they are magnetic opposites. They are charming and insecure and they have great chemistry. They’re fascinated by each other. They clash over their different approaches to life: Mia wants to get out into the world and soak up what it has to offer, and Simon wants to stay in his room.”
Which theatrical mask does Ikaria wear: tragedy or comedy or a blend of both?
A blend of both. We are laughing a lot in the rehearsal room, but there’s plenty of darkness (as you’ll be able to work out from the trigger warnings).
“Magnetic opposites”: Andrea Gatchalian’s Mia and James Wilbraham’s Simon connect in Tightrope Theatre’s Ikaria. Picture: Jake Bush
Why call the play Ikaria? A nod to Icarus, presumably?
“Yes. Ikaria is the Greek island where Icarus supposedly fell to earth when the wax glue of his wings melted. It’s also an island with a remarkably old population: people famously live into their hundreds. In this play, it’s the name of the university halls.”
If you could give your pre-university self a piece of advice, what would it be?
“People gave me plenty of good advice at the time which I didn’t pay enough attention to, so I doubt I’d have listened.”
Tightrope Theatre in Ikaria, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Saturday, 7.30pm. Age guidance: 14 plus. Box office:
Writer-director Philippa Lawford in the rehearsal room for Ikaria. Picture: Jake Bush
Philippa Lawford: the back story
Oxford-educated, London-based playwright and director. Directed plays on the Fringe for the past few years.
Trained as writer on John Burgess Playwriting Course and on MSt course in Writing for Performance from Cambridge University.
Worked as assistant director (Saviour, Jermyn Street Theatre) and reader (Finborough Theatre), alongside writing and directing work.
Ikaria is her first full length play.
Did you know?
IKARIA received a runner-up award in the 2022 ATG/Platform Presents Playwrights’ Prize and an OFFIE Short Run Commendation and came in at number two on Broadway World’s Best Theatre of 2022 list for its London premiere, climaxing with a November run at the Old Red Lion Theatre in November 2022.
The Joy Of A Kiss, drawing in pencil and watercolour on paper, by George Cappleman, who has returned to making art after a long hiatus for the Taking Pride In Queer Joy! exhibition at Pocklington Arts Centre
WOLDS Pride’s Taking Pride In Queer Joy! exhibition by LGBTQIA+ artists is making an impact at Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC).
Launched with live performances by York performance poet Crow Rudd and York spoken word artist and activist Mal Fox at an evening event hosted by Wolds Pride chair Adam Tipping, the show coincides with Sunday’s Wolds Pride day in Market Place and PAC.
“Over the past three years we’ve been doing our community outreach work, working with our partners to promote the opportunity for queer expression, and when some people got in touch to say they were interested in doing an exhibition, we set it in motion with Pocklington Arts Centre,” he says.
“We’re really thankful to the artists from Pocklington, York and Leeds who are taking part, and though at first we thought we would just be exhibiting local queer artists’ work, now it’s becoming an immersive show, so you can add to it because we’ll be leaving our resources out in the exhibition studio throughout the run. You can drop in whenever to be creative.”
Untitled, mixed media on canvas board in acrylkic, ink and paint, by George Cappelman
In addition, the Warm Space community café runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays when PAC is open for free community activities.
Adam champions the power of art. “It’s a way to express how you are feeling, exploring your identities through your imagination and creativity, and sometimes it can be easier to do that through creativity rather than speaking out,” he says.
“Everyone has creativity within them and that’s why we’d welcome anything for this exhibition, whether it’s a photograph, a poem, a story, a drawing, a colouring-in. Anything goes.
“But it’s also a space where you can just come and appreciate other people’s work, have a moment of silence and contemplation, in a safe place.”
Addressing the exhibition title, Adam says: “Taking Pride In Queer Joy! is a broad and open theme, allowing artists to say what it means to them and what being an LGBTQIA+ artist means to them.
Wolds Pride chair Adam Tipping, left, Dean Hodgson and Sophie Fox at the launch of Wolds Pride’s Taking Pride In Queer Joy! exhibition in the Pocklington Arts Centre gallery studio
“With ‘Queer’, it’s the power of reclaiming that word because for a long time it was used in a derogatory way, and it has to be acknowledged that for some people it still symbolises hurt, but we see reclaiming it as a means of empowerment, to be celebrated, as there’s something special about being queer.”
Adam will come on to ‘Joy’ but first he says: “We are living in a concerning time that’s very challenging for our community. If you look at the news at the moment, the trans, non-binary and gender-diverse communities are being challenged daily, by society’s debates around trans people playing sport, about access to spaces, access to health care.
“After five years of waiting and campaigning, we’re still waiting for the Government to deliver a fully inclusive ban on conversion therapy. It’s vital that this ban is delivered as a matter of absolute urgency to ensure no more LGBTQIA+ people are subjected to it.”
In the light of last month’s homophobic double stabbing outside the Two Brewers, the LGBTQ+ nightclub in Clapham, south London, Adam says: “If you look at the hate crime figures, they’re disturbing. We’re seeing a rise in those figures and a lot of that is likely fuelled by the culture wars in the media.
Pride Is Part Of Me, anatomy pieces in mixed media on canvas board, by George Cappelman, from the Taking Pride In Queer Joy! exhibition
“The reason we chose ‘Joy’ in the exhibition title was because of everything that’s going on right now, which is why an event like this exhibition launch, and a space like this, is so important, especially in rural areas.
“I grew up here [Adam is 29 now] and I barely knew any queer people in Pocklington, let alone there being a space for us, so it’s really empowering and special to be able to open a space like this, and hopefully people can come and find their own joy here.
“People that hold protected characteristics or identities that are outside the social norms, still often face funny looks, particularly in rural areas, but with the rise of smaller Pride organisations [in Scarborough, Bridlington, Goole, Beverley and Pocklington] over the past two years, I find hope that people are advocating for these communities and establishing safe spaces, without people having to travel miles to find them. There are fantastic people right across Yorkshire creating these spaces.”
Wolds Pride presents Taking Pride In Queer Joy! in the Pocklington Arts Centre gallery studio, Market Place, Pocklington, until September 22. Opening hours: 10am to 4pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10am to 5pm, Thursday; 10am to 1pm, Saturday, plus during performances.
Festival focus: Wolds Pride 2023, Pocklington, September 17
The poster for Wolds Pride 2023
WOLDS Pride 2023 will be bigger and better on its return to Pocklington town centre on Sunday from 11.30am to 6.30pm, replete with live entertainment, resources, activities, freebies and stands.
“We got the ball rolling for Wolds Pride in 2020, gaining charitable status that year, and then held our first Wolds Pride event last September: the first ever Pride event in the Pocklington/Wolds area,” says chair Adam Tipping.
“We’ve thrilled to have attained funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, and as part of our 2023 offer, the main event will be on Sunday, taking over the whole of the Pocklington Arts Centre building and Market Place, so there’ll be a road closure in place.
“We’ve been working tirelessly to ensure this event is as memorable, pride-filled and jam-packed as possible for you all, and we can’t wait to come together with you for our 2023 celebrations.”
Run by a team of volunteers, Wolds Pride 2023 is completely free, all are welcome, and no tickets are required. “Simply come along and join in the family-friendly fun in a safe, affirming space,” advises Adam. “Be sure to dig out your favourite outfit, bring along someone you know, and join us in celebrating our local LGBTQIA+ community.”
Crow Rudd: Trans Joy panel discussion; performance poetry reading and poetry workshop leader
Festival highlights
11.30am: Flag ceremony to launch Wolds Pride in Market Place.
11.45am to 6.30pm: Quieter Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre Oak Room, run in collaboration with Autistic Pride at Pride. Chance to contribute to the paper chain alternative pride parade that has been making its way throughout Prides all summer.
12.30pm to 1.30pm: Trans Joy panel discussion, Pocklington Arts Centre main stage, with performance poet Crow Rudd, spoken word artist Malin Fox and moderator Journals of Dami.
1pm to 2pm: Join York company Thunk-It Theatre’s free family workshop to create a giant map of our dream world; Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre gallery. “Chocolate rivers, free houses for everyone, whatever you dream, let’s build it together!” say Thunk-It’s Becky Lennon and Jules Risingham. Suitable for all ages.
2.30pm to 3.30pm: Free tote bag painting and decorating workshop with Journals of Dami, Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre gallery. Suitable for all ages; children aged eight and under must be supervised.
4.15pm to 5.15pm: Free introduction to poetry workshop with Crow Rudd, Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre gallery. Suitable for age 16 plus.
12 noon to 5.30pm: Community Pride Flag; chalk boards; larger-than-life games, including Connect4 and hoopla; badge making and colouring sheets; messages of LGBTQIA+ joy; all in Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre gallery.
12 noon to 5.30pm: Health and Wellness Zone, delivered in collaboration with Pocklington businesses. Includes yoga, meditation and massage tasters, Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, Pocklington Arts Centre gallery.
12 noon onwards: Make-up specialist Sonia Schofield will offer attendees free makeovers inside Pocklington Arts Centre, whether a touch of blush or rainbow eyeshadow.
Plus free face painting. Stilt walkers. Dancing to favourite Pride anthems. Free resources, information and signposting.
Pride Market, 25 stall holders, Market Place and Pocklington Arts Centre. From community stands publicising support, services, safe spaces, events and opportunities, to local businesses and vendors selling products, rainbow merchandise, arts & crafts and refreshments.
York spoken word poet, artist and activist Mal Fox
Festival artists
Mal Fox (he/they)
DISABLED, autistic, ADHD, aroace, non-binary, transmasc poet, crafter, artist and activist, who lives in York with his partner, child and two cats. His work focuses mainly on his experience of mental illness, neurodivergence and queerness.
Trans Joy panellist, PAC main stage, 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Performing spoken word, PAC main stage, 4.15pm to 4.25pm.
Crow Rudd (they/them)
DISABLED, non-binary, queer, internationally published York performance poet, multiple slam champion, mentor, events producer, host, workshop facilitator, exhibition co-organiser and network founder based in York. Their work focuses on mental illness, queerness, activism, grief, identity, radical acts of love and the importance of cuddles.
Panellist on Trans Joy panel, Pocklington Arts Centre main stage, 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Performing performance poetry, PAC main stage, 1.40pm to 1.50pm.
Running Introduction To Poetry workshop, PAC Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, 4.15pm to 5.15pm.
Journals of Dami (she/he/they)
CULTURAL curator and photographer from Newcastle, focusing on creating multi-dimensional representation for marginalised communities such as Black people, disabled people, the LGBTQ+ community and those troubled by mental health.
Uses myriad forms of media and art, such as photography, spoken word, films, writing and more, to create a world where she and others like her can exist unapologetically.
Moderator for Trans Joy panel discussion, PAC main stage, 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Performing spoken word, PAC main stage, 1.30pm to 1.40pm.
Leading free tote bag painting workshop, PAC Interactive Activities and Workshop Zone, 2.30pm to 3.30pm.
Andy Train
HOST for the day, offering the main-stage welcome at 1.50pm. Often dubbed “Mr Pride” with 21 years of Pride experience; vice-chair for Pride in Hull; co-founding co-chair of UK Pride Organisers Network and Interpride Global Advisory Council member.
Provides “pride team” support to Wolds Pride. His day job includes training and performing, often with a big blue steam engine called Thomas.
Abbadabbatwo – Abba tribute
ALEX and Toni pay tribute to super-trouper Swedes Abba with audience participation, crazy costumes and “undeniably dancey” music. Performing together since 1996, they formed this electrifying show in 2018.
Playing Pocklington Arts Centre main stage, 1.55pm to 2.40pm.
MXYM (pronounced M-X-Y-M)
NEWCASTLE singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, self-producing all their own work in a high-speed collision of avant-garde, goth and glam rock. Inspired by Grace Jones, Motley Crue, Madonna and Bjork, MXYM’s musical landscape is diverse and always extensively queer.
Performing on Pocklington Arts Centre main stage, 3pm to 4pm.
Veggie Stripper
BLACK drag king, from Newcastle, who is “the personification of organised chaos”. Expect powerful live vocals, dancing and lip-synching, action-packed into a high-energy, camp performance.
Performing on PAC main stage, 4.05pm to 4.10pm.
Wolds Wonders Theatre Group
BASED at Pocklington Arts Centre, welcoming adults with learning disabilities to explore song, dance and drama. The group provides a safe, friendly, fun environment for members to “try and achieve things they didn’t think they could do”.
Presenting special video performance, PAC main stage, 4.35pm to 4.40pm, preceded by Dance Time from 4.25pm to 4.35pm.
The Family Shambles Takeover!
DRAG collective from York, featuring Luna Hex, “life-sized Monster High doll and mother of Coven Events”; Tommy Boi, “the dancing tailor of York and bisexual drag king”; Miss Diagnosis, “the non-binary, scary, camp, punk drag clown of York”, and Cuppa T, “non-binary drag artist and the UKs hottest beverage”.
Also Linda from HR, a “delusional killjoy, overpromoted, and ready to push you under a bus at a second’s notice”. By the way, her host human form, Phil, is a writer of post-punk pop bangers and founder of the Trans and Non-Binary Open Mic nights at Over The Rainbow Café, above The Portal Bookshop, Patrick Pool, York.
Performing on PAC main stage, 4.45pm to 6pm, to be followed by closing speeches and the last dance.
Tha Family Shambles Takeover!: Drag diva finale to Wolds Pride on the Pocklington Arts Centre main stage
Gracing the stage: Grace Lancaster in the role of Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
FROM Carole King’s beautiful songs to Velma Celli’s pop queens, an artistic family to a poet’s biscuits, Charles Hutchinson adds to the September sunshine as cause for heading out and about.
Musical of the week: York Stage in Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to September 23
YORK, are you ready to feel the Earth move, asks director Nik Briggs, ahead of the York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. “This show has taken the world by storm, and for good reason, with its inspiring story of Carole King, a woman who rose to fame in the music industry during a time when female songwriters were few and far between”.
Singer, actress and pianist Grace Lancaster takes the lead role in this celebration of perseverance, passion and the power of music to unite. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Damon Gough: Marking 25 years of Badly Drawn Boy
Treasured songwriter of the week: Badly Drawn Boy, The Crescent, York, Monday, 7.30pm
DAMON Gough is undertaking his Something To Tour About: 25 Years Of Badly Drawn Boy tour, playing a sold-out standing show in York with Liam Frost in support.
Chorlton singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano player Gough, who released Banana Skin Shoes as his first studio album in ten years in May 2020, first made his mark with the Mercury Prize-winning The Hour Of Bewilderbeast in 2000. Eight albums on, he has plenty to tour about.
Rosie Jones: Unadulterated joy in Triple Threat at Leeds City Varieties and York Theatre Royal
Comedy gig of the week: Rosie Jones: Triple Threat, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Wednesday, 8pm; York Theatre Royal, Thursday, 8pm
COMEDIAN Rosie Jones’s show is guaranteed to be full of unapologetic cheekiness, nonsensical fun and unadulterated joy from the triple threat herself.
Theatre@41 honorary patron Rosie has hosted Channel 4’s travel series Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard and Mission: Accessible and made numerous appearances on The Last Leg, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Hypothetical, Mock The Week, The Ranganation and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jessica Steel: Powerhouse vocals at A Night To Remember
Fundraiser of the week: Big Ian Presents A Night To Remember, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm
HUGE frontman Big Ian Donaghy hosts his annual charity fundraiser as George Hall leads a 20-piece All Star House Band with a 12-strong brass section in a night of cover versions of Kate Bush, Bill Withers, Take That, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Queen, Wham!, Elvis and more.
Taking part will be Jessica Steel, Heather Findlay, Beth McCarthy, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Boss Caine, Gary Stewart, Simon Snaize, Annie Donaghy, Kieran O’Malley, Las Vegas Ken, the Huge Brass Boys, Hands & Voices, musicians from York Music Forum and Jessa Liversidge’s fully inclusive group Singing For All. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
John Hegley: Biscuits all round at Stillington Mill
Poet of the week: John Hegley: Biscuit Of Destiny, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm
POET John Hegley, star of radio, television and school assemblies, heads north with a clutch of new verses, a few older favourites and a cardboard camel with a moving jaw.
The biscuits in the show derive Romantic poet John Keats’s phrase: “a scarcity of buiscuit”. Not the sort of phrase nor spelling you expect from a Romantic poet, notes Hegley, who delves into the more eccentric side of Keats, alongside everyday goings-on in the Hegley homes of now and yesteryear. Expect drawings of elephants, myths, discos, daleks, optional community singing and the search for a sense of self-worth. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/939591.
Velma Celli: Reigning over York Theatre Royal on Friday in a celebration of British pop royalty, God Save The Queens. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography
Brit icons of the week: Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK cabaret superstar Velma Celli, the vocal drag diva alter ego of musical theatre actor Ian Stroughair, introduces her new celebration of British pop royalty.
Accompanied by Scott Phillips’s band, Velma’s night of rapturous music, risqué comedy and fabulous entertainment features the songs of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Florence Welch, Leona Lewis, The Spice Girls, Kate Bush, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black and Bonnie Tyler, plus a tribute to Sinead O’Connor.
Katya Apekisheva: Russian-born pianist playing at York Chamber Music Festival, sometimes solo, sometimes in the company of string players
Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, September 15 to 17
FESTIVAL artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is joined by John Mills and Jonathan Stone, violins, Hélene Clément and Simone van der Giessen, violas, Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, Billy Cole, double bass, and British-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva for three days of concerts.
Highlights include Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13, Dvořák’s String Sextet, Elgar’s late Piano Quintet, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 1 and Schubert’s last Piano Sonata in B flat major. For the full programme and venues, head to: ycmf.co.uk/2023-programme. Box office: 01904 658338 or ycmf.co.uk.
Ewa Salecka: Conducting Prima Vocal Ensemble in Songs From The Heart
Choral concert of the month: Prima Vocal Ensemble, Songs From The Heart, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, September 30, 7.30pm
ARTISTIC director and producer Ewa Salecka leads York choir Prima Vocal Ensemble in an intimate evening of contemporary classical and popular choral music with Greg Birch at the piano.
Works by Randall Thompson, René Clausen, Stephen Paulus and Elizabeth Alexander will be followed by a second half of moving and energetic arrangements of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury songs. Ahead of their 2024 New York City reunion, Prima perform a Christopher Tin number too. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.
Copyright of The Press, York
Hannah Arnup and Ben Arnup with bowls by Mick Arnup and a bronze dog by Sally Arnup at the Arnup Centenary exhibition, opening today at Pyramid Gallery
In Focus: Exhibition launch of the week
Hannah Arnup, Ben Arnup, Tobias Arnup and Vanessa Pooley, Arnup Centenary, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, 11am today to October 30
THE Arnups, two generations of artists with roots in York, work in pottery, painting, wildlife sculpture, figurative sculpture and ceramic sculpture. The late Mick and Sally Arnup set up home and studio in Holtby in the 1960s, and three of their family, Ben, Hannah and Tobias, have followed careers in the arts.
This exhibition by the three second generation artists and Tobias’s wife, Vanessa Pooley, coincides with the centenary of their father’s birth in 1923. In recognition of their parents’ influence on their own artistic journeys, a few pieces by Mick and Sally will complement the new works.
Gallery visitors can expect to see new work by ceramist Ben Arnup, who specialises in slab-made flattened boxes and vessels that play with the viewer’s sense of form and space, alongside Hananh Arnup’s wheel-thrown bowls and plates with sgraffito decoration and Vanessa Pooley’s gently curvy female forms in ceramic and bronze. On the walls, the still life paintings by Tobias Arnup will sit alongside ceramic wall pieces by Ben and Hannah.
Ben’s intriguing Trompe L’Oeil forms are well known to collectors of ceramics and visitors to Pyramid Gallery. Formerly a landscape designer, he creates shapes that explore drawn perspective using coloured clay slab-constructed stoneware, “having fun with the way we see form”.
After studying sculpture at Kingston Art School and specialising in ceramics at Goldsmith College, London, Hannah has lived and worked for much of her adult life in Ireland where she owns and runs Ballymorris Pottery. Latterly, she has set up a new studio in the family home in Holtby near York, re- purposed as a community of artists’ studios.
Vanessa works with bronze and ceramic to create sculpture of mostly female forms with an individual and distinctive style that takes inspiration from the work of Henri Laurens and his studio assistant Balthazar Lobo, as well as Marino Marinni and the sculptures of Picasso and Matisse. Her work is to be found in collections around the world.
Tobias studied at Camberwell School of Art and went on to teach at Blackheath School of Art before a change in career to be an art therapist.
“I was helping run a course at Blackheath School of Art and I found I was more interested in the people that sat in my office at lunchtime complaining about their fellow students or about their parents or about not getting their art right or wondering what they were going to do, or who were just not really coping with life very well,” he says.
After his training, Tobias started an art therapy department at Holloway Prison, which was in existence until the women’s prison closed in 2016.
During his 35-year career, he also worked in secure units in mental health hospitals, finding that art could engage traumatised people when other methods of therapy had not.
In his art, Tobias has evolved an individual style that begins with a black outline of still life objects and flowers, drawn in ink with a goose quill. He then adds colour in gouache, filling the spaces between or on top of the black lines.
Depending on what he feels is necessary, he might add more black ink lines, or redo the original lines, then more colour and maybe finish with more black lines. This layering of lines and colour is done slowly and carefully in a process that he describes as meditative. The result is intriguing, distinctive and joyful, with pastel colours contrasting with the black outlines, that have a bold and purposeful feel mixed with occasional random unevenness.
Gallery owner Terry Brett has worked with Ben and Hannah for many years, as well as with Mick and Sally, and looks forward to his inaugural showing of paintings by Tobias and bronze and ceramic sculpture by Vanessa.
“‘For me, this is one of the most satisfying moments in my time as an exhibition curator,” he says. “Not only for the quality of the work and diversity of styles, but also because I am pleased to be representing Vanessa and Tobias for the first time.
“To be hosting the family with an exhibition that is paying respect to Mick and Sally in a collective show is a very special moment for both myself and the gallery.”
Tobias Arnup with his gouache and ink paintings
Tobias Arnup on his artistic practice
THE play between line and colour has always been central to Tobias’s work as a painter. “Undoubtedly my main influence of this has been that of my father, Mick,” he says. “However, I still remember the impact of being taught by the wonderful art master at Pocklington School, Nigel Billington, who encouraged a proper attention to composition and to drawing, particularly with ink.
“It was hardly a surprise when I chose Camberwell School of Art, in London, as the place to study for my Fine Art degree and where I was lucky enough to teach drawing myself for a while.”
Only relatively recently has Tobias experimented more with different media. “For many years my favourite was egg tempera, which I learnt about at Camberwell and used to mix up myself,” he says.
“Depending on how much it was diluted, tempera has both the ‘gloopy’ quality of gouache and the richness of a watercolour glaze. It was working on paper, though, that has allowed me to work more flexibly.
“Using water-soluble pencil, Indian ink, watercolour and gouache – although not necessarily in that order – I seem to be forever swinging between creating chaos and trying to excerpt some sort of order on the composition.”
He continues: “These days the chaos of my ink marks is being brought under some sort of control by the flat, mat gouache. When things get a bit too tidy, out comes the ink bottle again.
“There cannot have been many options for school teachers at the time. Mr Billington’s huge set-ups suited me perfectly, however. They were there ready for me – a constant resource, I realise now, that is currently replicated in my own studio.
“Although they stray into more abstract concerns, I regard all these works as still-lives. When I am a bit stuck, it’s the ink and the goose-feather quills that I turn to, although I have used up my store of Chinese geese quills that I collected up from the garden when I was young.”
Pyramid Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.The displays can be viewed at pyramidgallery.com too.
Eve de Leon Allen’s Marinka and Lisa Howard’s Baba in Les Enfants Terribles’ The House With Chicken Legs. Picture: Rah Petherbridge
TECHNICAL issues delayed the start of Wednesday’s opening night of Les Enfants Terribles’ tour of The House With Chicken Legs.
There would be further hitches during the performance. The house – divided into a revolving interior/exterior and a separate porch – was troublesome to manoeuvre. Something of an irony when Sophie Anderson’s story is all about the house’s tendency to up sticks without warning in the dark of night, keeping 12-year-old Marinka (Eve de Leo Allen) on the reluctant move.
No doubt such gremlins will be ironed out, and indeed it may have been better to hold back the press to later in the week (an opportunity that was indeed offered by the Theatre Royal’s marketing team on arrival).
Likewise, microphone levels will be adjusted to facilitate hearing the lyrics of Stephanie Levi-John’s big number as Yaga more clearly.
On first night, the teething problems took away from the “magically inventive” billing that Les Enfants Terribles’ premiere at HOME, Manchester, had elicited in 2022.
Let’s look at its strengths instead, then. It is a technically demanding show, not only with the regular movement of Jasmine Swan’s set design, but also with the need to work in tandem with Nina Dunn’s video designs and composer Alexander Wolfe’s sound design.
Those two elements are powerful forces at play, together with Samuel Wyer’s puppetry and costume design, supporting the two primary pistons: co-director Oliver Lansley’s script, rooted in storytelling, and Wolfe and Lansley’s songs that recall the Weimar cabaret of Weill and Brecht.
In Anderson’s tale, performed by an actor-musician cast, de Leon Allen’s 12-year-old orphan Marinka dreams of a normal life, where she can stay somewhere long enough to make friends. Yorkshire theatre regular Lisa Howard’s Baba has Marinka under her wing as her successor as the guardian of the gateway, guiding the souls of the dead into the afterlife. That gateway happens to be Baba’s house, and where the dead need their exit, with a last warming bowl of food and a star-lit sky, the house must move to meet those demands.
Howard’s Baba, with her Russian accent, grandmotherly garb, strict, cajoling airs and bon mots, chalks up another memorable turn for this ever-watchable northern favourite. De Leon Allen straddles appealing to younger audiences and adults alike with Marinka’s precocious manner, her wish to do her own thing when burdened with the responsibility of taking on a pre-ordained task.
The relationship with Howard’s Baba is played beautifully, as they tug in different directions, Baba answering always to duty; the rebellious, curious Marinka craving the space to grow her way, befriending football-loving, same-aged Ben (Michael Barker). Puppeteer Dan Willis’s jackdaw Jack is her constant companion, becoming amusingly ever more assertive.
The dead, represented by masks, skulls and candlelight, keep popping in, albeit that their first musical number goes on too long, but in keeping with Mexico’s Day of the Dead, the dead are not creepy or scary, but full of personality.
Stephanie Levi-John’s knowing, jive-talking Yaga adds momentum to the second half, leading the singing in the ensemble number Yaga’s Party, when dancing in chicken-legged boots goes down a storm.
By comparison, the key magical revelation, the first spouting of chicken legs by the house, is disappointingly flat, relying on the arm movements of de Leon Allen’s Marinka and Eloise Warboys’ Nina to power those legs. Would a mechanical device have been more effective? Over to Heath Robinson.
Les Enfants Terribles’ first visit to York Theatre Royal since The Trench in June 2013 had been keenly awaited; indeed Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster has wanted to explore the possibility of co-productions. If The House With Chicken Legs fell short of the highest expectations, it still has magic moments, and humour too, in its combination of a rites of passage and adult themes, young life and death, all the more resonant in Covid’s shadow.
Les Enfants Terribles in The House With Chicken Legs, York Theatre Royal, 7pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7pm, Saturday. Leeds Playhouse, September 13 to 16, 7pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk
Northern Soul power: It’ll never be over for Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Chloe McDonald and Martha Godber in John Godber’s Do I Love You?. Picture: Ian Hodgson
“I’M not afraid to admit I was a rather good dancer,” says playwright, director, actor and erstwhile terpsichorean tornado John Godber. “Not so good now, mind. My knees.”
John’s ‘tap’ these days would be on the laptop, leading to his latest play, a hymn to Northern Soul that keeps the faith with the Wigan Casino days but addresses today’s believers in Do I Love You?, opening at Wakefield Theatre Royal tonight (7/9/2023)
“This is Northern Soul for a new generation, but with rising costs, unemployment and small-town blues, has anything really changed?” asks John, now 67. “Is this England 1973 or 2023? The pubs are closing, hospitality has gone, and strikes are everywhere…but when you’re out on the floor…”
…There you will find Godber’s twentysomethings, Sally, Nat and Kyle, as they develop a love for Northern Soul and the people involved with it across the industrial north. What started as a college project has grown into a passion, but the dance steps are exhausting.
Far beyond their home city of Hull, they find excitement, purpose and the tribe they have been seeking. Cue talcum powder, loafers and weekenders, from Brid Spa to Stoke, from Oxford to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, as these young soulies vow to keep the faith, even as Britain crumbles, school buildings and all.
Do I Love You? Indeed he did, back in the day. “I went to all-nighters in Scarborough, and even then that single [Frank Wilson’s title song] was worth £45,000,” says John.
“It’s the one that lots of people know, but lots of soulists despise it because it’s too well known! Only 200 copies were printed, and one copy recently sold for £150,000.
Leap of faith: Emilio Encinoso-Gil shows off a Northern Soul move for Do I Love You? during rehearsals in the John Godber Studio at Hull Truck Theatre
“There’s this really interesting thing that soulies want to keep it underground, which is difficult, particularly when the BBC Proms did a Northern Soul Prom this summer [July 15 2023, curated by broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie], gentrifying it with symphonic arrangements, of course!”
John recalls his dancing nights and early single acquisitions. “Dobie Gray’s Out On The Floor was my first one, then The Flasher, the instrumental by Mistura, and then you’re on to Al Wilson’s The Snake,” he says.
“Every church hall had a Northern Soul night, every youth club had a Northern Soul Night back then.
“A couple of Fridays ago, the cast went to a soul night at an ex-servicemen’s club, where they played Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You?, and they came away saying, ‘oh my God, it’s all true’.”
After a run of state-of-the-nation plays (Shafted, 2015; Scary Bikers, 2018, Sunny Side Up, 2020; Living On Fresh Air, 2023), Godber’s latest comedy is more of a celebration, albeit with politics still at its rotten core.
“I’m interested in enclosed environments: nightclubs [Bouncers], schools [Teechers], gymnasiums [Gym And Tonic], now the Northern Soul scene,” says John.
“This time there’s a lot of music, a lot of dancing, in the show, and we’ve had the world champion Northern Soul dancer, Sally Molloy, in for a couple of sessions. Just extraordinary!
A high-steping Martha Godber in rehearsal for Do I Love You?
“She came to the read-through to authenticate the piece and said, ‘I bless this show’, which was great because we want it to be authentic.
“Dancing was important to the casting, so we looked far and wide and even looked at auditioning some Northern Soul dancers but they just didn’t cut the mustard with the acting.”
John settled instead on a typically compact cast of Yorkshire actors Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Martha Godber and Belfast-born, Liverpool-trained newcomer Chloe McDonald.
“Martha went to Northern Contemporary dance in Leeds when she was 16 and got into Trinity Laban [Conservatoire of Music and Dance], but then decided to go to LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) to train as an actor,” he says.
“They worked with Sally a couple of months ago before rehearsals started, then did a full day with her, after the read-through day, when they almost couldn’t walk for a week!”
John’s own research brought him into contact with Dr Sarah Raine, from the cultural industries department at Leeds University, (who is in the process of moving to York by the way).
“What she’s identified is a real growth in Northern Soul, when working men’s clubs have gone, youth clubs have gone, but Northern Soul club nights go on,” says John.
Newcomer Chloe McDonald is making her John Godber Company debut in the premiere of Do I Love You?
“The music is put first; it’s not about leaving with someone on your arm, unlike in Bouncers, though the drug scene is pretty clear, but after 12 hours of stomping, you’re going to need something stronger than coffee and Red Bull!”
Godber’s twentysomethings in Do I Love You? work in a “chicken drive-through portal” as he euphemistically puts it. “It’s not a great place to work. Two of them have degrees, one in psychology, one in musical theatre; the other has stayed at home to look after her grandmother,” he says.
“After Covid, they’ve picked up these low-grade jobs, but the music underlines where they are in their rites of passage. They find this creed they have some sympathy with, a kind of religion, a kind of tribe.”
“In 2023, with the drudgery of daily life, now it’s about finding meaning and young people feeling they’re in a safe place.”
John Godber Company in Do I Love You?, Yorkshire dates: Theatre Royal, Wakefield, tonight until September 16; Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, September 26 to 29; Pocklington Arts Centre, September 30, sold out; Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough, Halifax, October 3 to 5; Barnsley Civic, October 6 and 7; Bridlington Spa, October 27 and 28; Hull Truck Theatre, October 31 to November 4; Cast, Doncaster, January 24 to 27 2024; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, February 7 to 10.
Box office: Wakefield, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk; Richmond, georgiantheatreroyal.savoysystems.co.uk; Pocklington, for returns only, 01759 301547; Halifax, 01422 849227 or theviaducttheatre.co.uk; Barnsley, civicbarnsley.ticketsolve.com; Bridlington, 01262 678258 or bridspa.com/; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Doncaster, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Did you know?
THE latest plays by Great Britain’s most performed and second most performed playwrights open on the same night: Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and John Godber’s Do I Love You? at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield.
John Godber: Playwright, director and Northern Soul disciple
Writer-director Alan Ayckbourn in rehearsal with actress Naomi Petersen for his Constant Companions premiere at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
ALAN Ayckbourn’s 89th play, Constant Companions, opens tonight (7/9/2023) at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, looking cautiously just around the corner to a world of AI and android love.
In his second play of the year set in the not-too-distant future, after May’s run of Welcome To The Family at The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, he weaves together the stories of lawyer Lorraine, lonely bachelor Don and technician Winston with Ayckbournian humour and a shot of compassion.
Lorraine is a fabulously successful lawyer of a certain age. Jan Sixty is the janitor of her building, an android of indeterminate age. In this vision of our future, where humans have turned to artificial friends for companionship without compromise, Ayckbourn ponders whether Lorraine and Jan can find true love.
“Reading so much about the inevitable arrival of AI into our society – some would say it’s already here! – I felt a cautious look forward might be in order,” he says.
“Are we really prepared for an encounter with another race? Not from outer space, but one of our own creation which will inevitably eventually turn out to be a lot smarter than we are? Honestly, the human race! As if we didn’t have enough problems already.”
At 84, Star Wars aficionado Ayckbourn is enjoying speculating on human interaction in the years ahead. “I feel I’m standing at the point in my writing where I have the choice of looking back and looking forward,” he says. “With Family Album [last autumn’s SJT premiere], I was looking back from a modern perspective, over my conscious lifetime.
“This time I thought, ‘let’s look ahead’, though next year I will probably look backwards again, so it’s a see-saw.”
Welcome To The Family straddled both worlds, taking its protagonist, Josh, and his fiancée Sara back to his childhood world from the future with the aid of his wicked Uncle Lance’s gift of a state-of-the-art ‘Capture’ visit to the past that enables him to revisit his deceased parents and family home whenever he likes.
“Everything I write about set in the past could recur in the future,” says Alan. “Thematically, in Constant Companions, the issues raised by AI are the new challenge, and the more one reads the news, Artificial Intelligence is coming and is very nearly here already [in the form of robots].
“Its social impact will be enormous, and the issues we thought were settled, in terms of class and race, will rise again, where they will be considered a different class and a different race, so all these problems will be reactivated. If we think we are on the road to sexual equality, we have another think (CORRECT) coming.
“Maybe we can imagine a colour-blind, sexuality-blind future, but the same things are going to happen again. The interesting thing is that these new creations, these new ‘humans’, will outlive us by millennia.”
Alan considers a second question: “Why have other planets not made contact with us if they are so advanced? But we’ve only been here for ten seconds, compared to the billions and trillions that the universe has been ticking over.
“I have this vision that in the long-distant future, we would eventually make contact or they would contact us, not through human, but artificial intelligence embracing each other, so that android will shake hand with android.”
Ayckbourn’s play projects into a future where the android will miss humanity. “I feel that despite the precautions we can build into the development of AI, that takeover will eventually occur, even if they don’t go berserk and run amok with a machine gun,” he says. “It will be humane, looking after us until the last hospice in town closes down.”
Ayckbourn finds humour, both wry and dry, in contemplating “mixed relationships occurring, as I foresee they might”. “Humans will pair up with androids simply because they will be mixing, and there will be these rather fetching androids looking after our every need,” he says. “But the play looks beyond that to when the woman is in old age, beset with memory loss, and the consequences of that, because the human race is stuffed with foibles and things will go wrong in us.”
In a third Ayckbourn drama for 2023, he will make a rare outing as an actor on September 17 alongside the Constant Companions cast of Georgia Burnell, Andy Cryer, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Alexandra Mathie, Naomi Petersen, Richard Stacey and Leigh Symonds, plus SJT alumnae Christopher Godwin and John Bramwell, in a rehearsed reading of Truth Will Out, his Covid-cancelled 2020 play for the SJT.
In this up-to-the-minute satire on family, relationships, politics and the state of the nation, everyone has secrets. Certainly, former shop steward George does, as do his right-wing MP daughter Janet, investigative journalist Peggy and senior civil servant Sefton.
Cue one tech-savvy teenager with a mind of his own and time on his hands to bring their worlds tumbling down – and maybe everyone else’s along with them.
Here was Ayckbourn’s virus play, written before Coronavirus stopped everything (although Ayckbourn subsequently wrote prodigiously in lockdown). Now he will hear Truth Will Out read aloud for the first time. Truth will out, no matter the delay.
Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight until October 7; Truth Will Out, rehearsed reading, September 17, 2.30pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
