As intuitive as a double act: Mark Hawkins, as The Actor, front, and Malcolm James, as Arthur Kipps, in The Woman In Black. Picture: Mark Douet
THE chill night air. Water, water, everywhere. York, the city with even more ghosts than hotel rooms, was putting on its own show for the umpteenth yet ever-welcome return of The Woman In Black, the ghost story by Susan Hill from up the road in Scarborough.
The Grand Opera House has its resident ghost, said to greet new members of staff by name on first acquaintance in the auditorium, but once more there was a rival in town: one Jennet Humphrey, the “Woman” in the title of Stephen Mallatratt’s meta-theatrical adaptation, first staged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in December 1987 in winter ghost-story season tradition.
That said, The Woman In Black could be staged anywhere, any season, as the latest touring partnership of Malcolm James and Mark Hawkins can testify. They first teamed up as tormented lawyer Arthur Kipps and the whippersnapper-keen Actor for 11 performances in the 40-degree heat of Dubai, modern Madinat Theatre auditorium et al, in 2017.
James has his long service medal already, having appeared in the play’s 2014-2015 tour, visiting York Theatre Royal on that itinerary, and undertaking a subsequent London stretch at The Fortune in 2016.
Hawkins has played The Fortune too, and bringing that combined experience to Mallatratt’s adroit storytelling they make for a terrific partnership, as intuitive as a double act and admirably unfazed when the smog engulfing the stage sets off the smoke alarm.
Sitting next to the 13 to 16-year-olds from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, attending the opening night as part of their theatre studies, was a chance for a veteran reviewer to encounter The Woman In Black as if for the first time. Their changing reactions, as the early humour made way for the gravest, ghostly, ghastly deeds, added to the joys of this masterpiece of theatre’s unrivalled powers of imagination and invention.
As ever, Robin Herford is still directing the fright night’s scares, with Antony Eden, The Actor in the previous tour to York en route to more than 1,000 performances, as his associate director. As ever too, as billed in the programme, “the action takes place in this theatre in the early 1950s”.
Harder to imagine in Dubai, maybe, but the Grand Opera House is the perfect grand setting for the play within the play in a disused theatre within a theatre, where Michael Holt’s design, with its clever use of gauze, takes delight in gradually revealing a shadowy stairwell, dark passages, a mysteriously locked door and, spoiler alert, a children’s bedroom with toys untouched from 50 years ago.
Rod Mead’s sound design, administered on tour by Sebastian Fost, has a way of utilising all the theatre to surprise and jolt, while Kevin Sleep’s light design, now “re-lit” on tour by Alexander Hannah, is, pardon the pun, a highlight of the show, adding to the tension, constantly showing the stage in a different light that has you wondering where the Woman In Black might next appear. Not so much Sleep as sleepless, such is the disturbing presence.
As for the storytelling, James and Hawkins, as much as Mallatratt and Herford, excel in the more-is less-approach as James’s haunted, stultified Kipps seeks to exorcise the fear that has burdened his soul for so long, to end the curse on his family.
“For my health, for reason”, his story must be told, he says, and with the help of Hawkins’s Actor, on the wings of imagination, his rambling book of notes will become a play so powerful, it no longer feels like a play, but an all-consuming reality destined to play out forever.
The Actor becomes Kipps, the young solicitor sent to attend to the murky, isolated, wretched English marshland estate of the newly dead Alice Drablow, while James’s Kipps, once he sheds his stage novice reserve, takes on all manner of roles, from narrator, hotel host and taciturn pony and trap driver, to an even more haunted old solicitor and wary landowner.
All the while, Kipps is ever more traumatised by his fears rising anew, and likewise Mallatratt applies the sleight of hand of a magician as the drama within takes over from the act of making it, while simultaneously glorying in theatre, acting skills and the British love of a ghost story.
No need for high-tech special effects, The Woman In Black is old-fashioned, storytelling theatre-making, in which the terrifying theatrical re-enactment is applied with only two chairs, a stool, a trunk of papers, a hanging rail of costume props, dust sheets over the stage apron and a frayed theatre curtain.
Smoke, shrieks, horse’s hooves and the Woman In Black’s spectral face play their part too, James and Hawkins handling the reins as deftly as an Olympic equestrian yet in thrall to a story beyond their control. Theatre at its best. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Harriet Waters and Maxwell Tyler in illustrator Axel Scheffler’s “favourite moment” from Tall Stories’ stage adaptation of The Gruffalo’s Child. Picture: Charlie Flint
THE Gruffalo’s Child will be on an adventurous mission at York Theatre Royal from February 1 to 3 in in Tall Stories’ enchanting adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book.
One wild and windy night, the Gruffalo’s Child ignores her father’s warnings about the Big Bad Mouse and tiptoes out into the deep dark wood, where she will follow snowy tracks and encounter mysterious creatures.
But the Big Bad Mouse doesn’t really exist…or does he? “Let your imagination run wild with songs, laughs and scary fun for everyone aged 3 to 103,” reads the invitation from director Olivia Jacobs, co-founder of Islington company Tall Stories, whose cast comprises Harriet Waters, Maxwell Tyler, Samuel Tracy and understudy Pip Simpson.
Harriet Waters and Samuel Tracy in a scene from Tall Stories’ The Gruffalo’s Child. Picture: Charlie Flint
After seeing her book brought to life on stage, writer Julia Donaldson said: “Tall Stories bring their own special magic to their stage productions based on my books. Children will love entering the atmosphere of the deep dark wood and enjoy the catchy songs. The Big Bad Mouse is worth waiting for.” Ah, too late for a spoiler alert!
Illustrator Axel Scheffler enjoyed the show, saying afterwards: “The snowy deep dark wood based on my illustrations is brought to life by Tall Stories and it almost becomes a character in its own right in their production. A favourite moment for me is when the Gruffalo’s Child sits on the Gruffalo’s lap and the book cover image is created on the stage. I think the young audience will enjoy it very much.”
Tall Stories in The Gruffalo’s Child, York Theatre Royal, February 1, 1.30pm and 4.30pm; February 2, 1pm (relaxed performance) and 4.30pm; February 3, 10.30am and 1.30pm. Running time: 60 minutes. Age guidance: 3+. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Lil McGibbon, left, and Daz Scott in The Paper Birds’ Feel Me, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Will Green
WHAT makes us feel for another person? After extensive research and development, The Paper Birds answer this question in the verbatim theatre piece Feel Me, whose world premiere tour visits Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on February 27 and 28.
Billed as “an interrogation of empathy that actively measures each audience’s engagement with the theme during the show”, Feel Me uses a mixture of live performance, film, projection, dance and interactive elements to explore the different lenses through which we are told, and connect to, stories.
Worlds unfold from backpacks and tents are constructed and dismantled again, each scene and location being temporary, like a transient teenager in search of safety, acceptance and a new place to call home.
Company co-founder and co-director Jemma McDonnell says: “The idea for Feel Me started in 2015 when I saw a picture of a three-year-old boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach.
Daz Scott, Kiren Virdee and Lil McGibbon in a scene from Feel Me. Picture: Will Green
“It was a picture I couldn’t get out of my mind; there was something in that horrifying viral image that kept making me return to the concept of empathy and what it means to feel for another. Jump forward five years, and sat in lockdown with my own small children to take care of, I decided to revisit this idea.”
Feel Me “seeks real world impact and action”, achieving it with help from modern technology. As active participants within the show, audience members are gently and anonymously asked to share how they feel about the story they are witnessing at different moments using their phones, and to consider who they connect with, who they feel empathy for, and why.
The data gathered will be measured using innovative software accessed by the audience in a series of collaborative “check-in” moments, with results creatively shared live as part of the performance.
Working with academics from Essex University, the Malden company – the Paper Birds migrated south from Leeds in 2022 – uses mobile phones to measure the impact Feel Me has had on audiences and their immediate empathy levels as well as post-show.
Lil McGibbon, Kiren Virdee and Daz Scott: Conducting an “interrogation of empathy” in Feel Me. Picture: Will Green
Jemma says: “In 2021, we devised a multi-artform digital project for 14 to 25-year-olds, The School Of Hope, during which we worked with nine partner organisations in five countries over three continents to really begin to interrogate who we care for and who we don’t, and why that might be.
“Working with numerous cohorts of young artists and creatives on this subject matter in digital and hybrid formats over the lengthy research and development period that followed, our initial findings made us feel compelled and excited to explore within the show not only the stories we hear, but the way we often receive these stories via tech, most commonly our phones.”
The Paper Birds saw an opportunity to create an interactive element that allowed audiences to share how they felt about the story that was unfolding in front of them. “This interactive element has proved to be a massive challenge, but one, as a new NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) and company wholly committed to giving,” says Jemma.
“I am really proud of what we have made, as empathy is about connection and Feel Me allows hundreds of audience members to have a voice, to see and hear how their community around them is also feeling, and most importantly to connect.”
The Paper Birds cast embraces technology in Feel Me. Picture: Will Green
Known for their devised work with and for young people, The Paper Birds put together a creative team of emerging artists aged under 30 to work on Feel Me, including assistant director Shanice Sewell, designer Imogen Melhuish, sound and music designer Fraser Owen and cast members Lil McGibbon, Daz Scott and Kiren Virdee.
The company has worked with five youth creative councils: steering groups made up of young people aged 13 to 25 years, some with a lived experience of forced displacement. They have been invited to share their thoughts and opinions on the show as it went through the devising process and rehearsals.
Feel Me was made in partnership with Theatre Centre and is a co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, supported by Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja, Indonesia, and The Point, Eastleigh, Hampshire.
The Paper Birds in Feel Me, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, February 27, 7.30pm, and February 28, 1.30pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The Paper Birds: the back story
The Paper Birds’ co-directors Jemma McDonnell and Kylie Perry
ESSEX theatre company with a social and political agenda, specialising in devised verbatim theatre pieces. Relocated company home from Leeds to Malden in 2022.
“We’re artists, investigators, entrepreneurs, educators. We pride ourselves on taking complex, multi-faceted subjects and making them accessible. We have an artistic programme and a creative learning programme and nurture both equally,” say co-directors Jemma McDonnell and Kylie Perry.
The best things in life are free…or on offer: York Residents’ Festival 2024
TWO days of York celebrating all things York lead off Charles Hutchinson’s tips for cultural fulfilment, from Eighties’ nostalgia to a monster musical, a ghost story’s return to a singing French iconoclast.
York Residents’ Festival 2024, today and tomorrow
YORK Residents’ Festival returns this weekend with free entry or offers on more than 50 York attractions, restaurants, bars and retailers.
For the weekend organised by Make It York, historical attractions such as York Minster, Jorvik Viking Centre, Clifford’s Tower, Fairfax House, Barley Hall, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and Treasurer’s House will be opening their doors for free to residents across the weekend.
Residents can also take advantage of a free river cruise with City Cruises, free wizard golf at The Hole In Wand, in Coppergate Walk, and the first 100 visitors can visit for free at York’s Chocolate Story, King’s Square.
Offers at York eateries and restaurants include The Grand, Rio Brazilian Steakhouse York, Ambiente Tapas and Pearly Cow. Retail offers exclusive to residents are available at Avorium, York Gin, Love Cheese, Potions Cauldron and more besides.
For those preferring to explore by foot, offers and discounts apply to walking tours and outdoor activities. Mountain Goat will be taking residents off the beaten path to explore the beautiful Yorkshire countryside, while the family-friendly Wizard Walk of York promises to be spellbinding. Or why not learn to abseil and climb Brimham Rocks, at Brimham Moor Road, Summerbridge, Harrogate?
Step this way for The Wizard Walk of York
To take advantage of York Residents’ Festival offers, you must present a valid York Card, student card or identity card (e.g. driving licence or bus pass) that proves York residency by clearly stating ‘York’.
Make It York managing director Sarah Loftus says: ‘We’re delighted that we have so many York businesses providing fantastic offers for Residents’ Festival weekend. This is a great opportunity for residents to rediscover some of the brilliant attractions, retail and food offers on their doorstop.
“A huge thank-you to our Visit York members for coming together to provide so many brilliant offers; there’s something for everyone during this fun-packed weekend.”
Meanwhile, Ann Petherick is reopening Kentmere House Gallery, in Scarcroft Hill, York, for a new year of exhibitions in time to coincide with the second day of York Residents’ Festival: tomorrow, from 11am to 5pm.
On show are original works of York and Yorkshire by more than 50 professional artists, plus prints, books and cards exclusive to the gallery. The first full weekend opening in 2024 will be on February 3 and 4, 11am to 5pm. Admission is free.
For the full list of offers, and for booking information for York Residents’ Festival, visit visityork.org. Please note, some venues and activities require pre-booking.
Celia Crwys Finnigan and Laura Sillett: On song for The 80’s Movie Mixtape at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
Nostalgic gig of the week: The 80’s Movie Mixtape, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm
THE 80’s Movie Mixtape is a truly independent theatre show showcasing West End singers and musicians from around London and Surrey in a new tribute to Eighties’ blockbuster movies and their electrifying soundtracks.
A band of six actor-musicians – Jamie Ross, lead vocals, keyboard; Celia Crwys Finnigan, lead vocals, keyboard, alto saxophone; Laura Sillett, lead vocals, keyboard, baritone saxophone; Dom Gee-Burch, lead guitar; Ed Hole, bass, and Luke Thornton, drums – combine songs from Footloose, Top Gun, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing, Back To The Future, American Gigolo, Ghostbusters, Flashdance, Against All Odds and Electric Dreams with Eighties’ party anthems. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Percy: Performing at Navigators Art & Performance’s Basement Sessions 3 night of music, comedy, spoken word and poetry
On the move: Navigators Art & Performance, The Basement Sessions 3, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, February 23, 7.30pm
YORK creative collective Navigators Art & Performance is moving this weekend’s Basement Sessions 3 bill to next month. “Unfortunately, the Basement is ankle deep in flood water and we’re going to have to postpone the gig this Saturday,” says co-founder Richard Kitchen.
Taking part will be poet and actor Danae, from Mexico via York; “punk/jazz riot” Neo Borgia Trio, from the University of York Big Band; writer, poet, performer and multi-instrumentalist JT Welsch; comedian Will Glitch, from Norwich via Hull; left-field post-punk favourites Percy; acoustic duo The Jammingtons Experience and transatlantic guitar band Fat Spatula. Box office: https://bit.ly/nav-events-all.
English Teacher: Leeds band heading for York tomorrow
Independent Venue Week gig of the week: English Teacher, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
“LEEDS’ music scene is the best in the world,” proclaims Lily Fontaine, English Teacher’s vocalist, guitarist and synthesiser player, without a blink of hesitation. This weekend she heads to near-neighbour York with bassist Nicholas Eden, drummer Doug Frost and lead guitarist Lewis Whitling, who she first met at house parties while they all studied at Leeds College of Music (now Leeds Conservatoire).
After tinkering with projects of their own, they settled on playing together, developing their fusion of dream pop and post-punk noise. Coming next? Writing new songs “somewhere between Adele, Jockstrap and Fontaines D.C.”. Box office: for returns only, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com.
Mark Hawkins as The Actor, left, and Malcolm James as Arthur Kipps in The Woman In Black, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet
Haunting return of the week: The Woman In Black, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
STEPHEN Mallatratt’s stage adaptation of Scarborough author Susan Hill’s spine-chiller returns to York for the umpteenth time, directed as ever by Robin Herford. As he did at York Theatre Royal in November 2014, Malcolm James plays lawyer Arthur Kipps, who engages a sceptical young actor (Mark Hawkins) to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Following the science: James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Young Frankenstein. Picture: Jennifer Jones
Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
WHEN the infamous Victor Frankenstein’s grandson, Dr Frederick Frankenstein (James Willstrop), inherits the family castle in Transylvania, will he be doomed to repeat the same mistakes in Mel Brooks’s musical adaptation of his 1974 monster horror-movie spoof?
Andrew Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre as Frankenstein’s experiment yields both madcap success and monstrous consequences with the help and hindrance of hunchback henchman Igor (Jack Hooper), Scandinavian assistant Inga (Sanna Jeppsson), mysterious housekeeper Frau Blucher (Helen Spencer) and needy fiancee Elizabeth (Jennie Wogan-Wells). Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Guz Khan: York and Leeds gigs this winter
Comedy gig of the week: Guz Khan Live!, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 7.30pm
COVENTRY comedian, impressionist and actor Guz Khan is on his way to selling out York Theatre Royal after his February 25 gig at Leeds City Varieties already did so. Raised on a housing estate in Hillfields, he graduated from Coventry University and taught Humanities at Grace Academy in his home city before focusing on stand-up.
Khan, 38, is best known as the creator and star of the BBC Three comedy drama Man Like Mobeen, wherein he played a former Small Heath drug dealer now trying to live a good life as a Muslim. Box office: “Last tickets” on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Cantona Sings Eric: Maverick footballer-turned-musician returns to Leeds for April concert. Poster picture: supplied by Academy Music Group
Most unexpected Yorkshire gig announcement of the week: Eric Cantona, Cantona Sings Eric, Leeds O2 Academy, April 16, doors, 7pm
ERIC Cantona once told Leeds United fans from the balcony of Leeds Town Hall, “why I love you, I don’t know why, but I love you” as the 1992 league champions paraded the Division One trophy. Only 207 days later, he was gone…to bitterest rivals Manchester United. Never to be forgiven.
Now 57, the avant-garde French footballer, sardine philosopher, actor, English advert regular and painter “to the rhythm of jazz” is to return to the city. Not in one of those “An Evening With” shows full of nostalgic football chat but as Eric Cantona, singer and musician, performing solo, with piano and cello for company. Box office: academymusicgroup.com/o2academyleeds/events or ticketmaster.co.uk/eric-cantona-tickets.
David Hammond: Performing works by work by Erik Satie, Brian Eno, Federico Mompou, Howard Skempton, David Power and Derek O’Connell
Piano recital of the week: Late Music presents David Hammond, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York, Friday, 1pm
DAVID Hammond performs a crossover of ambient and classical solo piano music centred on work by Erik Satie, Brian Eno, Federico Mompou and Howard Skempton, with new works by David Power and Derek O’Connell in the first Late Music recital of 2024.
The full programme will be: Erik Satie, Gnossiennes 1-3; Harold Budd/Brian Eno, The Plateaux Of Mirror; Derek O’Connell, Je mesure le son (first performance); John White, Sonata 95; David Power, Seven Paces Of Stillness (first performance); Erik Satie, Pièces Froides: No.2 Danses de travers; Federico Mompou, Cants Mágics; Howard Skempton, Well, Well Cornelius; Howard Skempton, Rumba; Howard Skempton, Quavers; Budd/Eno/Power mash-up, Remembered, and Erik Satie, Gnossiennes 4-5. Tickets: £5, latemusic.org/david-hammond-piano-2/ or on the door.
In focus: Exhibition launch of the week: Pyramid Gallery, York, from 11am today
One of Linda Combi’s 52 Postcards, painted in 2023
FOUR exhibitions are opening simultaneously today at Pyramid Gallery: Gomery & Braganza, ceramics and painting; Linda Combi’s 52 Postcards; glassmaker Jo Kenny’s What Lies Beneath and Ringleaders’ contemporary handmade rings.
Di Gomery, Loretta Braganza, Linda Combi and Jo Kenny all will be attending the 11am to 2.30pm launch. “Come along to the opening and enjoy a glass of wine or soft drink with the artists,” says gallery owner and curator Terry Brett.
Di’s studio is at South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, in Bishopthorpe Road, York. Her paintings are lyrical responses to landscape, still life and the human form, painted primarily in oil on canvas or board, often large in scale. Her approach is one of playful energy with an underlying structure and solidity.
Di, who worked in the design industry for Courtaulds (England) and Jakob Schlaepfer couture fabric design (Switzerland), has exhibited previously at Pyramid Gallery, Partisan café, in Micklegate, York, HartLaw Solicitors, in Wetherby, Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax, and the Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield.
Paintings created specifically for this Pyramid exhibition explore edges and volume, make reference to other artists, and generally play with surface and colour combinations. Her artistic influences include the work of British and American women abstract expressionists.
Loretta was born in Mumbai, India, came to Great Britain in 1965 and lives and works in York. She began her practice as a ceramicist in 1990 via a career in dance, graphic arts, textile design and sculpture, as well as teaching drawing and painting at York College.
Loretta Braganza and Di Gomery
Her distinctive style comprising taut edges, clean lines and complex mark making swiftly earned her exhibitions and commissions, as well as awards from the Crafts Council and the Arts Council.
Artist and illustrator Linda Combi, raised in a California desert, now settled in York, returns to Pyramid Gallery, this time with 52 Postcards, a series of original collage paintings, print cards and booklets that reflect on migration.
“I was inspired to create 52 postcards around the theme of displacement,” she says. “I decided to create postcards as you’d typically send them when you’re on holiday to family and friends back home, but for refugees, they can have very different connotations. It’s grounded in the concept of refugees being in another place, writing a letter to home or to their former self.
“In many of my postcards I use birds as a symbol for people forced to flee. They’re innocent, and they’re on the move.”
Linda’s postcards are mixed media, primarily hand painted and printed papers, but also incorporating coloured pencil, pen, stickers and crayon.
“Refugees and other displaced people have to endure so much,” she says. “Everyone should support refugees – not only do they enrich society, but more than anything, it’s just basic kindness and human empathy to understand how frightening it must be to be to have to flee.”
Glassmaker Jo Kenny at work in her studio
Fifty per cent of Linda’s sale proceeds will go to UNHRC, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, and the Lemon Tree Trust, an organisation that works alongside displaced people to transform refugee camps through gardening.
Glassmaker Jo Kenny creates pieces at the furnace inspired by exploring the beaches at Whitby, where she now lives. Such a simple childhood pleasure revisited, she finds a contemplative quality in the act of poking around in rock pools. “I feel the joy and excitement of discovery under each pebble,” she says.
Her What Lies Beneath series encourages the viewer to “look a little deeper and maybe feel a little of that childlike excitement making their own discoveries”.
Awarded an Arts Council England grant, Jo was able to develop the series further in collaboration with Scottish master craftsman Gordon Taylor, who completed pieces with his cutting and polishing skills.
Jo splits her time between making and teaching. Her key themes are the effect of the passage of time, erosion, entropy, persistence of image and all things pertaining to the ocean.
Di Gomery and Loretta Braganza’s exhibition runs until March 11; Linda Combi’s 52 Postcards until March 9; Jo Kenny’s glass until March 7, at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York. Gallery opening hours are:Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm; Saturdays, 10am to 5.30pm. The project can be viewed at Linda’s website, lindacombi.biz, from where purchases can be made too.
Following the science? James Willstrop as Dr Frederick Frankenstein, creator of the Creature in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Young Frankenstein. Picture: Jennifer Jones
YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre’s delayed northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s comedy horror musical Young Frankenstein opens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre next Wednesday.
Unforeseen circumstances had forced the late postponement of last autumn’s run at the Grand Opera House, but rehearsals re-started in York in early December under the direction of Andrew Isherwood.
All the original principal cast chosen by Pick Me Up artistic director and designer Robert Readman was still available, not least former squash world number one James Willstrop in the lead role of mad scientist Dr Frederick Frankenstein, first played by Gene Wilder in Brooks’s 1974 horror-movie spoof of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein.
“You hear of other shows where it’s happened, but it was a really sad feeling when we couldn’t do it as were just about to start our run,” recalls James.
“I was feeling pretty depressed afterwards, thinking ‘this show isn’t going to happen’ – and when people ask, ‘how are you feeling?’, it’s unusual to have to explain to anyone as it’s not ‘real life’, but you do feel really deflated.
Pick Me Up Theatre principals in Young Frankenstein: back row, from left, James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning; front row, Jack Hooper’s Igor and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga. Picture: Jennifer Jones
“But then we got this text from Bells [production management assistant and actress Helen Spencer] asking, ‘Can you do these dates?’, as Robert said we could go ahead with a new run.”
Out went Pick Me Up’s planned production of Chicago at the JoRo, replaced by Young Frankenstein. Rehearsals have been a matter of “going again”. “We had the best part of a month off when the last thing I was thinking of doing was listening to the soundtrack!” says James.
“It’s been a case of getting into the scenes again, with the choreography kept largely the same. Andrew has been really great on the detail, which actors love, and that’s been good. He’s trusted our instincts and he’s been very alive to the comedy.”
James, who made his Pick Me Up debut as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music in December 2022, has enjoyed becoming acquainted with Brooks’s parody songs.
“Going into the audition, I didn’t know a lot about the show, but I love Pick Me Up and working with Robert, and I loved the opening number, The Brain, which I decided to learn for the audition.
James Willstrop: Men’s doubles squash gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, his fifth Games
“A week out from the audition, I hadn’t been sure about the show, but by the time I did the audition, I was thinking, ‘this part is great, I’ve got to do it’!
“The first few times, listening to the soundtrack, it took me a while to get a feel for the songs, but then you realise they’re just great, simple songs. I love the tunes, they have a vaudeville quality, and the humour is always there.”
James, now 40, had first performed in “serious dramas” before branching out into musicals, and last year found him heading to the Cornish coast to play deluded mystery novel writer Charles Considine in Ilkley Playhouse’s production of Noel Coward’s supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit at the Minack Theatre.
“Doing that humorous role, and being tall [James is 6ft 4ins], with all the physicality that goes with that, just seemed to link perfectly to then playing Frederick Frankenstein,” he says.
. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,” says James Willstrop of Mel Brooks’s humour. Picture: Jennifer Jones
In Brooks’s spoof, the grandson of infamous scientist Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein, has inherited his family’s castle estate in Transylvania. Aided and hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor, Scandinavian lab assistant Inga, stern German Frau Blucher and needy fiancée Elizabeth, he strives to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life.
Cue comedy in the bold Brooks style. “It’s lovely to be doing something silly, full of innuendos and jokes that some people might hate but are just daft,” says James. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,”
James, whose father grew up in York, lives in Harrogate and now divides his time between coaching squash – and “still playing a bit” – at the Pontefract Squash and Leisure Club and performing on stage.
Coming next will be his role as recovering alcoholic Harry in Bingley Little Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Bingley Arts Centre, West Yorkshire, from July 1 to 6.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 31 to February 32024, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
Something wicked this way comes: Rob Wolfe’s Macbeth and Oriana Charles’s Lady Macbeth in Dickens Theatre Company’s Macbeth, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
FROM textbook theatre for GCSE studies to an original pantomime, a finally finished symphony to orchestral ABC, a silent cinema season to a night of Nashville honky-tonk country, Charles Hutchinson has all manner of recommendations.
York debut of the week: Dickens Theatre Company: Revision On Tour, Grand Opera House, York, Macbeth, Monday, 7.30pm, and Tuesday, 1pm, 7.30pm; Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Wednesday, 1pm, 7.30pm; Romeo & Juliet, Thursday, 1pm, 7.30pm
DICKENS Theatre Company, purveyors of exciting, educational and entertaining stage adaptations of literary classics and GCSE texts since 2015, make their York debut with three productions scripted and directed by Ryan Philpott.
A cast of seven presents Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, Macbeth, narrated by the Porter, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make their perilous descent towards Hell; Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic horror story Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, set in the foggy, dimly lit streets of Victorian London, where an evil predator lurks, and Romeo & Juliet, breathing new life and wit into Shakespeare’s tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rob Wolfe, as Dr Jekyll, and Felix Grainger, as Inspector Newcomen, in Dickens Theatre Company’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde at Grand Opera House, York
Pantomime of the week: Blue Light Theatre Company in Nithered!, Acomb Working Men’s Club, York, today, 1pm; Wednesday to Friday, 7.30pm
FORMED by York Ambulance Service staff, Blue Light Theatre Company’s family-friendly tenth anniversary production features an original pantomime script by Perri Ann Barley, with additional material by the dame, Steven Clark, directed by Craig Barley and choreographed by Devon Wells.
They are joined in the cast by Glen Gears, Brenda Riley, Simon Moore, Kevin Bowes, Kristian Barley and new members Aileen Stables and Audra Bryan, among others. Proceeds go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (York) and York Against Cancer. Box office: 07933 329654 or bluelight-theatre.co.uk.
The (Riding) Hoods in Blue Light Theatre Company’s Nithered!: Kathryn Donley, left, Chelsea Hutchinson and Kalayna Barley
Classical concert of the week: Academy of St Olave’s, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, tonight, 8pm
THE “main event” of the Academy of St Olave’s second concert of their 2023-24 season will be Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B minor, but in a finished version! Schubert famously completed only the first two movements, before setting the symphony aside (six years before his death in 1828).
The York chamber orchestra will be adding third and fourth movements compiled and composed by Schubert scholar Professor Brian Newbould, based on material left behind by the Austrian composer. Further works in a programme of late-Classical and early Romantic music will be Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 and Luigi Cherubini’s operatic overture Anacréon. Box office: academyofstolaves.org.uk or on the door.
Miles Kane: One Man Band at Leeds O2 Academy
Miles down the road: Miles Kane, Leeds O2 Academy, Thursday, 7pm
BIRKENHEAD guitarist and singer Miles Kane, former frontman of The Rascals and Alex Turner’s cohort in The Last Shadow Puppets, opens his January and February 2024 solo tour in Leeds. Expect the focus to fall on last August’s album, One Man Band, released on Modern Sky Records.
A deeply personal record, it found Kane reflecting on his journey as he returned to Liverpool, hooking up with Blossoms’ Tom Ogden, Circa Waves’ Keiran Shudall, Andy Burrow and regular writing partner Jamie Biles to record songs with longtime collaborator James Skelly, of The Coral, on production duties. Box office: mileskane.com.
Buster Keaton in Sherlock, Jr: Showing in the ReDiscover programme at City Screen Picturehouse
Time to rediscover: Buster Keaton season, City Screen Picturehouse, York, until February 9
CITY Screen Picturehouse is celebrating the silent cinema of Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton, the American actor, comedian and director whose graceful physical feats of stoical comedy were marked by a deadpan expression that brought him the nickname “The Great Stone Face”.
Friday’s screening of Steamboat Bill, Jr (U), wherein the effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain joins his father’s crew, will be followed on February 2 by Sherlock, Jr (U), in which Keaton’s hapless film projectionist longs to be a detective. The season concludes on February 9 with The General (U), with its peerless chase scenes as Keaton’s plucky railway engineer pursues Union spies doggedly across enemy lines when they steal his locomotive. Box office: picturehouses.com.
Dominic Halpin And The Hurricanes: Revelling in A Country Night In Nashville
Country shindig of the week: A Country Night In Nashville, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm
DOMINIC Halpin And The Hurricanes take a journey down country roads, visiting the songs of American stars both past and present as they recreate the atmosphere of a buzzing honky-tonk in downtown Nashville. The music of Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, The Chicks, Willie Nelson and Kacey Musgraves, among others, will be showcased. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Martin Fry: Fronting the ABC Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour show at York Barbican
Gig of the week: ABC, Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour, York Barbican, January 27, doors, 7pm
MARTIN Fry leads ABC in an orchestral performance of their June 1982 chart-topping debut album The Lexicon Of Love, here coupled with further hits and favourites.
Fusing Motown soul with a steely Sheffield post-punk attitude, the album spawned the hits Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look Of Love and All of My Heart,
now performed with the Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by longtime collaborator Anne Dudley, who orchestrated the original album sessions. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk.
Miles And The Chain Gang: New single and first gig of 2024
Miles on the doorstep: Miles And The Chain Gang, The Terrace, New Street, York, February 10, 8pm onwards, free entry
YORK band Miles And The Chain Gang precede their first gig of 2014 with the January 26 release of new single Raining Cats And Dogs, an Americana-tinged track that dates back 30 years.
“Everything takes time,” says songwriter and frontman Miles Salter. “The song started out at a jam session with my friends Dom Jukes and Syd Egan in the summer of 1994. It just came to me, as song ideas do.” Hearing the subsequent recording for the first time in years, Salter has decided to revisit the “very playful and tongue-in-cheek” country number with Egan on harmonica.
The Three Pigs in Blue Light Theatre Company’s Nithered!: Simon Moore, left, Kevin Bowes and Kristian Barley
BLUE Light Theatre Company’s tenth anniversary pantomime, Nithered!, is a frosty fairytale adventure by regular writer Perri Ann Barley to match the wintry weather in York.
The ongoing run atAcomb Working Men’s Club, Front Street, Acomb, continues with a 1pm matinee today and 7.30pm performances from January 24 to 26.
Formed by Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff, they performed their debut pantomime in 2013. “It was supposed to be a ‘one-off’ production to raise funds for a colleague who had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease but was so successful that it’s still going to this day, and we’ve even branched out into performing plays too,” says Nithered! director Craig Barley.
“Since that first panto, more than £22,000 has been raised for our chosen charities: the Motor Neurone Disease Association (York) and York Against Cancer. Extra performances have been added over the years to accommodate more people, due to our shows’ ever-growing popularity, and there’s also a waiting list for people wanting to join the cast.
Acomb Working Men’s Club has housed the show since 2013. “It’s been our home for so long as they gave us the space for free for so many years, so we could maximise our charitable donations,” says Craig.
“We can seat 200 and offer use of the bar, meaning a relaxed performance which has received so much good feedback. New audience members are pleasantly surprised when they arrive and see the size, layout and the room all dressed up accordingly – putting them immediately at ease and into the panto spirit.”
All ten pantomimes have utilised the same production team: co-producers Perri and Craig, alongside choreographer Devon Wells and stage manager Dave Holiday. “Between us, so much has been achieved on the tiny stage at Acomb Working Men’s Club, from magic carpets to levitating witches!” says Craig.
The (Riding) Hoods in Nithered!: Kathryn Donley, left, Chelsea Hutchinson and Kalayna Barley
The cast still consists of Yorkshire Ambulance staff along with other talented performers from in and around York.
“We like to do things a little differently, creating a brand-new storyline every year, among other things,” says Craig. “But at the same time adding some traditional elements, such as the Dame, played by Steven Clark, who writes additional script material too, and the villain, Glen Gears, who has been with the company since the very beginning. Both of them are very much audience favourites.”
Introducing the storyline in Nithered!, Craig says: “The usually bright and happy village has been shrouded in a permanent frost by the evil Snow Queen (played by Perri Ann Barley), who has enlisted the Big Bad Wolf’ (Glen Gears) to govern the land on her behalf and to keep the population down.
“Mother Goose (Brenda Riley) and the villagers are struggling to cope with the never-ending winter and, with the Wolf around, they are living in constant fear for their safety. Things take a dramatic turn when one of the Three Pigs (Simon Moore, Kevin Bowes, Kristian Barley) is kidnapped by the Wolf.”
Whereupon the villagers decide to take matters into their own hands and head out on a very risky rescue mission. They enlist the help of the Fairy Godmother (Steven Clark), who finds herself in a face-off with the Snow Queen herself, but who will prove to be the most powerful?
“Will the villagers overcome the Big Bad Wolf? Will the everlasting winter come to an end? To find out, come join us and step right into the weird but wonderful world of Nithered!,” says Craig.
The Three Bears in Blue Light Theatre Company’s pantomime: Linden Horwood, left, Harry Martin and Richard Rogers
The cast also features Richard Rogers, Linden Horwood, Julie Shrimpton, Nicky Moore, Pat Mortimer, Zoe Paylor, Chelsea Hutchinson, Kalayna Barley, Kathryn Donley and Harry Martin, plus new members Aileen Stables and Audra Bryan.
“With this being our tenth anniversary, the team have really gone all out to give the audience an amazing experience and cannot wait for everyone to see it.”
Looking ahead, this summer Blue Light will present Murder At Reptilian Park, a new comedy murder mystery by Perri Ann Barley, to be staged in conjunction with the Galtres Centre in Easingwold. “It will run there from June 20 to 22, including a Saturday matinee, bringing us a whole new audience and new challenges,” says Craig. Tickets will be on sale soon on 01347 822472 or at galtrescentre.org.uk.
“Perri masterfully crafts our unique pantos, giving audiences new and interesting storylines featuring some familiar characters, which take them away from some of the other tired classic panto stories to give our audiences an experience like no other, ” says Craig. “That’s why so many return year after year.
“Perri is now working with London Playwrights [a resource for emerging playwrights] as she branches out to try and make her passion for writing a career. Not only this, but she’s also in talks with another professional theatre in Yorkshire, but more about that later.”
Blue Light Theatre Company in Nithered!, Acomb Working Men’s Club, Front Street, Acomb, York, January 20, 1pm; January 24 to 26, 7.30pm. Tickets: £12 adults, £10 concessions, £8 children. Box office: 07933 329654 or bluelight-theatre.co.uk. All proceeds go to Motor Neurone Disease Association York and York Against Cancer.
Gripping moment in Mischief’s Pan-tomime : Gareth Tempest as Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s Jonathan Harris in the role of Peter Pan in Mischief’s Peter Pan Goes Wrong. All pictures: Pamela Raith
MISCHIEF, those cavorting catalysts of chaotic comedy through catastrophic collisions, return to Leeds Grand Theatre this week in the immediate aftermath of the riotous pantomime season. Cue the breathless pantomimic piratical pratfalls of Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
“Not a pantomime. A traditional vignette,” corrects Jack Michael Stacey’s Chris Bean, po-faced president of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and director of Peter Pan.
If you haven’t caught the dizzying merry mayhem of The Play That Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery or Magic Goes Wrong on their York visits, these Mischief makers with improv roots are schooled in the calamitous comedy of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus Of Disapproval and the theatrical in-jokes and home truths of Michael Green’s The Art Of Coarse Acting books.
Directorial tussle: Jack Michael Stacey’s Chris Bean and Matthew Howell’s Robert Grove in Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Add the crazed slapstick of Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson’s Bottom, the physical grace of Buster Keaton’s films and the anarchic spirit of Monty Python, and you have a comedy compound that can’t go wrong, despite the show titles.
Metatheatre, you might call it: not so much breaking down theatre’s fourth wall as treating it as an obstacle course to be negotiated. Or the wall being smashed and rebuilt time after time. Or Sisyphus forever rolling an ever-bigger boulder up theatre’s steepest hill.
The audience is in on the joke from the moment of arrival: cast members and technicians have the frantic demeanour of Basil Fawlty as they struggle to set up the stage, the lighting fizzing and malfunctioning, but all the while they must try to maintain an air of calm.
Theo Toksvig-Stewart, left, Ciara Morris and Clark Devlin as the Darling children with Matthew Howell as Nana the dog
In keeping with The Play That Goes Wrong, the structure is a play within a play, or more precisely a play struggling to reach the finishing line with all the problems and crises that threaten to derail it. Ostensibly we are watching Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s hapless amateurs performing Peter Pan, but en route, their personal back stories, egos, insecurities, neuroses, backstage dalliances and artistic incompetence keep feeding into the performance.
Director Bean (casting himself as George Darling/Captain Hook) has to deal with the rampant ego of co-director – no, assistant director, insists Bean – of Matthew Howell’s Robert Grove (who goes on to bring the house down as Nana the Dog, Peter’s Shadow and especially as an exasperated Starkey, going from being incomprehensible to making himself understood by all but Devlin’s dimwitted Mr Smee.
Rosemarie Akwafo’s Lucy Grove suffers from chronic stage fright; Theo Toksvig-Stewart’s production-funding Max Bennett has an unrequited crush on Ciara Morris’s Sandra Wilkinson (playing Wendy); Clark Devlin’s Dennis Tyde has to be fed every line through a headset (in one of the best running gags in Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields’ script).
Jean-Luc Worrell as Francis Beaumont, the Narrator in Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s Peter Pan
Jake Burgum’s over-worked stage manager, Trevor Watson, is as crucial to the physical comedy as Gareth Tempest’s Jonathan Harris, playing the scenery-endangering Peter Pan. Jamie Birkett’s Annie Twilloil is kept busy in four roles, whether swapping costumes at frantic pace when switching between Mary Darling and maid Lisa, or risking being electrocuted whenever Tinkerbell’s costume lights up, or popping up as Curly in a whirl.
Mischief’s comedy is as much about deconstruction as gradually dismantling Simon Scullion’s revolving stage, scene by scene, as props and furniture alike put cast members at physical risk, not least Jean-Luke Worrell’s Francis Beaumont, the narrator in rising fear of being nobbled by his seat as it speeds on stage.
Worrell, wide eyed and wider mouthed, is one of the great joys of this show, whether sprinkling glitter or fumbling for props with an hyena’s cackle in the piratical guise of Cecco.
Jack Michael Stacey, in the guise of Chris Bean, playing Captain Hook
In the spirit of theatre, the show must go on, no matter what goes wrong, and the more it goes wrong, the more the comedy goes right under Adam Meggido’s direction, slick on the one hand, slapstick on the other.
There is a risk of diminishing returns with Mischief’s template, even with the extra ingredient of sending up pantomime tropes and “He’s behind you” audience participation. In truth, Peter Pan Goes Wrong has to work harder than The Play That Goes Wrong and especially the gravity-defying, eye-deceiving The Comedy About A Bank Robbery to hit the comedy peaks.
Familiarity with the formula undermines the chance of surprise, but manic humour still abounds in this awfully big misadventure.
Trappedin a flap: Matthew Howell’s scene-stealing Nana the Dog
Malcolm James in the role of Arthur Kipps, the lawyer burdened with the need to tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul in The Woman In Black, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from January 30. Picture: Mark Douet
QUESTION: Which play marked the reopening of the Grand Opera House, York, after 547 days of Covid-enforced darkness on September 13 2021?
Answer: Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story The Woman In Black, first staged in a pub setting by the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, as a Christmas ghost story in 1987.
Now, 869 days later, PW Productions’ tour returns to haunt the York theatre once more, “direct from the West End”, with a cast of Malcolm James as lawyer Arthur Kipps and Mark Hawkins as The Actor.
Malcolm and Mark have previous form for presenting the tale of an elderly lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over his family by the spectre of a “Woman in Black” for 50 years.
“We did the show together very briefly in Dubai, for 11 performances, in 2017,” recalls Malcolm. “It might have seemed unusual doing a really ghostly story at Christmas in a modern Dubai building, but it proved very popular, though stepping outside the accommodation and theatre into 40-degree heat was a bit of a learning curve for me!”
Renewing the partnership on the 2023-2024 tour, James and Hawkins will be playing York amid the more apt winter chill, as Arthur Kipps engages a sceptical young actor to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul. “Mark is a wonderful young actor, very engaged and really committed to the play, bringing such intensity to it, never letting me drop from my A-game,” says Malcolm.
Mark Hawkins as The Actor, left, and Malcolm James as Arthur Kipps in The Woman In Black. Picture: Mark Douet
He first played Arthur Kipps on the 2014-2015 tour and in a subsequent West End run at the Fortune Theatre, London, in 2016, both with Matt Connor in the role of The Actor. “The show certainly changed from where we started, and that’s one of the joys of doing long runs. I keep learning, as I’ve been doing throughout my career,” says Malcolm.
“After drama school, a three-week run at Leeds Playhouse feels huge, when you’ve not done that before, but then, when you start doing tours, you find out how limiting a short run is. And because The Woman In Black is a two-hander, there’s so much more to explore, as you keep discovering new things, where suddenly a new emphasis is thrown up when one actor says a line differently.”
As ever, Robin Herford is directing the latest tour. “Working again with the same director is a joy because it’s my favourite play, my favourite part, so rewarding, as you get the initial feedback from the chills, the thrills, the mystery, but ultimately it’s a very human story of grief,” says Malcolm.
“Arthur Kipps is full of suffering, tormented by the burden of this demon that he needs to purge by telling his story. This time Robin [Herford] wanted to make it grittier, and it’s definitely become darker and richer, so as much as the audience may get caught up in the ‘jump scares’, they’re relating to the human drama too.”
Malcolm thrives on performing a play that revels in its own theatrical setting, steeped in atmosphere, illusion and horror. “It’s set up from the beginning, just two people on stage who are going to rehearse a play from Kipps’s story with basic props,” he says.
“The audience willingly slips into thinking they are watching the real thing unfold, not just watching two actors, and it absolutely shows the power of what theatre can do that no other medium does, where everyone becomes caught up in a brilliant piece of storytelling.
Malcolm James, left, and Matt Connor on the 2014-2015 tour of The Woman In Black that visited York Theatre Royal in November 2014. Picture: Tristram Kenton
“Stephen Mallatratt is absolutely faithful to the novel and to the language of the period, and he’s brilliant at building up the story, where each time he goes back into the drama, he does it for longer, with comedy and anticipation at first, until the story becomes relentless to the point where most of the second half is set in the [haunted] house.”
The 2014-205 tour brought Malcolm to York Theatre Royal in November 2014. “I haven’t played the Grand Opera House before, and that’s another joy of touring because playing different theatres helps to keep it fresh,” he says.
“In London, we played it in a 1920s’ theatre, The Fortune, which was perfect as it was small and close up, but on tour it’s a challenge every week, such as dealing with the differing acoustics.
“If you’re playing a theatre that’s seen better days, in a play with an old theatre setting, that’s fantastic, and I love working in proscenium-arch theatres for that reason, but it still works in a modern theatre, a big wooden barn, where you’re asking for an extra level of suspension of disbelief.”
First Matt Connor, now Mark Hawkins, Malcolm has enjoyed the chemistry of both partnerships, so vital to the play’s impact. “I’ve been very lucky with both Matt and Mark,” he says. “It’s great if there’s a personal rapport as well as a professional one, and I’ve had that each time, making the relationship work on stage, having a pint together afterwards.”
The Woman In Black spooks Grand Opera House, York, January 30 to February 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Copyright of The Press, York
Favourite play, favourite role: Malcolm James’s verdict on playing Arthur Kipps in The Woman In Black
Claire Morley: Performing new works in Scarborough and York
YORK actresses Claire Morley and Elizabeth Hope will perform a script-in-hand reading of Rachel E Thorn’s new play, Me For You, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on January 30.
This is the latest in the SJT’s regular series of readings of works by up-and-coming writers, chosen from submissions to the literary department, in this case one longlisted for the Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing.
In Me For You, Holly (played by Elizabeth Hope) knows that human beings have screwed the planet, but she is still desperate to have a baby of her own. She has tried doing the right thing, but can using a bamboo toothbrush really reverse global warming?
In a bid to save the planet, Holly has joined Extinction Rebellion and just wishes her girlfriend, Alex (Claire Morley), would sign up too.
Me For You writer Rachel E Thorn
“Me For You is a play all about love in the face of overwhelming evidence that we’re a despicable race of selfish parasites,” says Rachel E Thorn, a writer and actress from Sheffield, who pens comedy for BBC Radio 4 and has collaborated with impressionists Alistair McGowan, Charlie Hopkinson and Darren Altman.
Rachel also tours the country with her improvised shows that have taken home the Best Improv Show awards from the Leicester Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.
Claire’s preparations are under way for this month’s one-off reading. “I was sent a draft of the script in November, so that I can get an idea of the themes of the play and the characters, but really most of the work is done on the day as there might be new edits,” she says.
“On the morning of the performance, I’ll meet with Fleur Hebditch, a producer at the SJT, writer Rachel and Elizabeth for the first time. We’ll spend the day discussing the script and have a rehearsal before a sharing in the evening, script in hand.
Elizabeth Hope: Performing Me For You with Claire Morley at the SJT
“There’ll also be a Q&A with the writer afterwards. Rachel has written a cracking piece so I’m excited to get stuck in.”
Claire first took part in a Stephen Joseph Theatre reading in August 2021. “We did Emma Geraghty’s play Lagan,” she recalls. “It then became These Majestic Creatures, which was produced by the SJT as a fully realised production last autumn [in the McCarthy].
“The emphasis is really on the development of the work for the writer. That’s why it’s so great to work with them during the day as you can find out their vision and do your best in fleshing out this character for them, often for the first time.”
Claire continues: “Rehearsed readings are a great opportunity to work on complex characters and interesting writing without the pressure of line-learning! I enjoyed being part of one with Live Theatre, Newcastle, last April as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, along with their special guest, Roger Allam, who played my father in Shelagh Stephenson’s An Experiment With An Air Pump.”
Claire Morley’s Henry V, centre, at Agincourt in York Shakespeare Project’s Henry V in 2015
Born and bred in York, Claire is a graduate of ALRA (Academy of Live & Recorded Arts) North Drama School, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, and a former teacher.
She caught the eye on the York stage in the title role in Maggie Smales’s all-female version of Henry V for York Shakespeare Project (YSP) in 2015 and as Kastril in Bronzehead Theatre’s masked production of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist at the 2019 York International Shakespeare Festival.
In 2022, she completed a hattrick of all-female Shakespeare performances, after YSP’s Henry V and Coriolanus in 2019, starring as Macbeth in Chris Connaughton’s three-hander version of Macbeth for Northumberland Theatre Company in a tour that visited Stillington Village Hall, near York, and Pocklington Arts Centre.
Claire Morley’s Kastril, right, in Bronzehead Theatre’s The Alchemist in 2019. Picture: Jtu Photography
Coming next after Me For You will be Claire’s participation in York community arts collective Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios at York Theatre Royal Studio on March 26 and 27.
Through a series of commissions, York actors, writers and directors are being supported by NDB1 to produce original, short pieces of theatre – five to 15-minute solo performances – that respond to the overall theme of Top of the Hill.
Directed Jacob Ward, Claire will perform Yixia Jiang’s Love Letters Before Dawn. ”Jacob and I should be receiving Yixia’s script later this week, so I actually know very little at this stage,” she says.
Claire Morley’s Macbeth in Northumberland Theatre Company’s 2022 tour of Macbeth
“I do know it’s about a soldier defending a battlefield despite all seeming lost, and how to persevere and find hope. I’m excited to read it. We’ll be having a handful of rehearsals between now and joining up with the other trios for the performances in March.”
Me For You, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, January 30, 7.15pm.Tickets: £5, on 01723 370541 or at www.sjt.uk.com. Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios, York Theatre Royal Studio, March 26 and 27, 7.45pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Did you know?
CLAIRE Morley first made the pages of The Press, York, on August 18 2007 after she achieved A grades in five A-levels at All Saints’ RC School, York.
Claire, from Osbaldwick, achieved top marks in English literature, German, history, philosophy & ethics and general studies at 17, going on to study a four-year modern languages course at Somerville College, Oxford University, specialising in German.
York Shakespeare Project’s psychedelic promotional image for Maggie Smales’s production of The Taming Of The Shrew, set in 1970
Did you know too?
CLAIRE Morley will reunite with Henry V director Maggie Smales to be her assistant director for York Shakespeare Project’s spring production of The Taming Of The Shrew.
“Make Love Not War,” reads the invitation to Maggie’s 1970 setting of Shakespeare’s problematic comedy. “As they emerge from the post-Second World War greyness, the baby boomers are growing up, primed and ready to do their own thing.
“A psychedelic world is opening up, promising peace, love and equality. Kate was born, born to be wild. She wants a voice of her own. The Times They Are A’Changin’ and the old order is dead. Or is it? Find out in The Taming Of The Shrew, Shakespeare’s controversial battle of the sexes.”
York Shakespeare Project’s The Taming Of The Shrew runs at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from April 23 to 27, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
