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Claire Morley to perform reading of Rachel E Thorn’s Me For You at SJT and take part in Yorkshire Trios at York Theatre Royal

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.

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Helen Boaden to leave Stephen Joseph Theatre to be chair of York Theatre Royal

Helen Boaden: new chair at York Theatre Royal

HELEN Boaden is joining York Theatre Royal as the new chair of the board of trustees.

She takes over from Ann Green CBE, pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing body of York St John University, who had held the post since July 2014.

Helen will step down as chair of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, where she has served as a board trustee since 2015, the last six in the chair’s post.

She has extensive leadership experience in creative organisations, including more than 30 years at the BBC, where, among a range of roles, she was controller of Radio 4 and the first woman to run BBC News. More recently she sat on the Council of the Royal Academy of Arts.

“I am delighted and honoured to have been asked to be the chair of the board of trustees at York Theatre Royal,” said Helen. “I have seen first-hand the impact that York Theatre Royal has both locally and nationally and I am looking forward to working with trustees and staff as we embark on the next chapter in the life of this important and historic theatre.”

“The wealth of experience that Helen brings is invaluable to us and will bring fresh perspective as we explore and redefine our work for the future,” says York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes said: “We are excited to welcome Helen Boaden this month to York Theatre Royal as chair of the board of trustees. The wealth of experience that Helen brings is invaluable to us and will bring fresh perspective as we explore and redefine our work for the future – reimagining ourselves artistically and financially as a producing theatre at the heart of our community.”

Helen spent most of her career at the BBC, starting as a reporter and producer in BBC local and commercial radio in Leeds, before ending on the BBC executive board as the first female director of BBC News and then director of BBC Radio.

After leaving full-time employment, Helen sat as a non-executive on several boards, including Royal Academy of Arts (2017-2023); UK Statistics Authority (2019-2022); Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund (2017-2023) and Stockroom Theatre Company (2018- 2021). Helen was chair of the funding panel for the Audio Content Fund from 2019 to 2022.

Alongside her new role as chair of the York Citizens’ Theatre Trust, Helen will continue as chair at the Windsor Leadership Trust and National Statistician’s Advisory Group on Data Ethics and as an advisory board member at Shorenstein Centre on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the University of Coventry, Scarborough campus. She is patron of Books by the Beach in Scarborough and president of HF Holidays.

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#MeToo pioneer Patricia Douglas inspires Chloe Wade’s Hollywood underbelly play As SHE Likes It at Stephen Joseph Theatre

Huddersfield writer Chloe Wade in rehearsal for her role as Girl Next Door in As SHE Likes It

AS SHE Likes It, Chloe Wade’s play inspired by the story of a #MeToo pioneer, plays the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, for one night only on January 31.

In 1937, 20-year-old Patricia Douglas was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted at an MGM party. Taking on Hollywood’s most powerful institution, the dancer filed charges that were swiftly dismissed and silenced.

Three generations later, through a fusion of live theatre and filmed footage, As SHE Likes It exposes the cultural legacy of sexism and exploitation that still haunts the industry today.

Join Damsel In Distress, or, as she prefers to be known, her own knight in shining armour, as she removes the rose-tinted filter to reveal the truth behind the romanticised facade.

That truth? She is a Leading Lady who is hiding her sexuality. A Sex Symbol, suppressing her appetite. A Comedy Queen, disguising her sadness with humour. A starry-eyed Girl Next Door, discovering what it really takes to make it in Hollywood.

Krupa Pattani (Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, Without Sin and Silent Witness) makes her touring debut as Damsel In Distress. Lucy Tuck (Sleeping Beauty, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Macbeth) plays Leading Lady, and Tanika Yearwood (Emilia, Love Reign, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), follows up a season at Shakespeare’s Globe by playing Sex Symbol.

Krupa Pattani, left, Stacey Evans, Chloe Wade, Tanika Yearwood and Lucy Tuck rehearsing As SHE Likes It

Stacey Evans (Macbeth, Cold Feet, Vera), fresh from her debut solo show, Hanging Around, is Screwball Comedy Queen and writer Chloe Wade (The Snow Queen, Three Sisters, Doctors) heads the production as Girl Next Door.

Created by Wade, As SHE Likes It is a darkly comedic, queer, contemporary Brechtian-style play that asks: how much has changed between the Hollywood of yesteryear and now?

Wade says it is time that the story of #MeToo pioneer Patricia Douglas and the stories of the many women whose voices have been silenced were told in all their intersectional complexity and fullness. Be prepared to kiss the Hollywood happy ending goodbye.

As SHE Likes It has been created with support from Olivier award-winning playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and is directed by Tilly Vosburgh and produced by Danica Corns.

Huddersfield theatre-maker and actress Wade has appeared in BBC’s Doctors, Honeycomb Lodge (Best Film winner at Delhi International Film Festival), The Fall, directed by Robert Bathurst, and The Secret Love Life Of Ophelia, where she played Ophelia alongside Helen Mirren.

Chloe Wade Productions presents As SHE Likes It, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, January 31, 7.45pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or at www.sjt.uk.com 

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Now’s the right time to reassess Terence Rattigan in Settlement Players’ Separate Tables at York Theatre Royal Studio

The cast for York Settlement Community Players’ production of Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables

AFTER being at the helm of four Chekhov plays, York Settlement Community Players stalwart Helen Wilson had considered checking out of directing altogether.

“I must say, I never thought I’d direct again,” says the York actress, stage director and York College tutor. “I felt like it was the end of the chapter, and I did think, ‘where would I go from here?’.”

Briefly she pondered the possibility of doing an Arthur Miller play, but after all those Russian plays – Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull – her thoughts turned to the quintessentially English work of Terence Rattigan and in particular Separate Tables.

“This play was something that I’d been considering directing years and years ago for Settlement because it has three really good parts for older women; it’s fairly easy to do set wise, and it’s a damn good play.”

Catching the directing bug once more, Helen is deep into rehearsals for Settlement’s staging of Separate Tables at York Theatre Royal Studio from February 8 to 17.

Technically Separate Tables comprises two interconnected one-act plays, two tales of love and loss, ageing and desperation, both set in the shabby Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, where events unfold 18 months apart in 1954 and the late-summer of 1955 respectively.

Only the two lead characters change from the first tale to the second, the supporting cast of hotel manager, staff and guests staying the same, as guests, both permanent and transient, sit on separate tables: a formality that underlines the loneliness of these characters in Rattigan’s depiction of class, secrets and repressed emotions.

“Terence Rattigan very much fell out of fashion with the rise of the ‘Angry Young Men’ in the 1950s,” recalls Helen of the new age of playwrights and novelists, John Osborne, Kingsley Amis, John Braine, Alan Sillitoe and John Wain.

“Famously, Kennth Tynan [the leading theatre critic of his day] turned against Rattigan, saying his plays were rendered irrelevant in the new ‘kitchen sink’ era. But, actually, Separate Tables is a play that was very daring for its time, and there will be a gasp when certain phrases are uttered, where you realise that nothing changes in the world of politics. On top of that, the character John Malcolm is like a forerunner of Jimmy Porter in Osborne’s Look Back In Anger, written only a year later.”

The first tale,Table By The Window, spotlights the troubled relationship of disgraced former Labour Cabinet Minister John Malcolm and his ex-wife, Mrs Shankland. Arriving as a seemingly random guest, she is dining with him, but earlier Malcolm had served time for assaulting her.

The second, Table Number Seven, focuses on the friendship of a repressed spinster and Major Pollock, outwardly generous but bogus behind his façade as an upper-class retired army officer. “It reminds me of Fawlty Towers, with those permanent characters of the two old ladies that always talk at the same time and the Major. It’s a play with lots of drama and a little bit of Victoria Wood thrown in at the beginning!”

Significantly too, Settlement will be using the variation on Rattigan’s drama favoured in American productions from an earlier draft, where Major Pollock is found guilty of approaching young men on the sea front for cigarettes and “other services”.

“You’ll find it as kind of an add-on at the back of the script, and officially that version was never done in Britain, but we’re using it, rather than the script from the premiere where Major Pollock was found to be sexually harassing women at a cinema,” says Helen. “Burt Lancaster and David Niven starred in the 1958 film, with Niven as Major Pollock, and it was very risqué for the time as it went with the homosexual storyline.”

For all Tynan’s judgement, rooted in how Rattigan contrasted with the new breed of working and middle-class writers, Rattigan was anything but a conformist. “He could never experience a safe, cosy relationship in his life; he always veered towards the dangerous,” says Helen.

“He was the son of a diplomat and went to Harrow and Oxford but never voted Tory. He didn’t sit his finals at Oxford, deciding he wanted to be a playwright instead. It was an open secret that he was gay, but it was never spoken of, and while he had lovers, they would never be seen together. He lived on the ground floor of a block of flats, with the lovers staying on the top floor.  

“It’s interesting to see how taboos have changed, but there’s still shock value in the play, and we’ve had some really good discussions during rehearsals, with our two younger cast members, where they might not have realised how homosexuality was viewed at that time. I felt rather Victorian trying to explain those things to them.”

The lead roles in each tale were written to be played by the same performers, but Helen has gone with separate actors, casting Chris Meadley, from Tadcaster, as John Malcolm; Molly Kay, from Flamborough, as Mrs Ann Shankland; Settlement and York Shakespeare Project regular Paul French as Major Pollock, and another York stage familiar face, Jess Murray as Miss Sybil Railton Bell.

The roles of the aforementioned three older women go to Marie-Louise Feeley as bohemian racegoer Miss Meacham, Caroline Greenwood, from last summer’s community cast for York Theatre Royal’s Sovereign, as Mrs Railton Bell and Linda Fletcher as Lady Matheson.

Catherine Edge plays Miss Cooper; James Lee follows up his preening Piers Gaveston in York Shakespeare Project’s Edward II with Charles Stratton here; Nicola Strataridaki, soon to appear in one of Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios, is Jean Tanner and Matt Simpson takes the role of old school master Mr Fowler. Jodie Fletcher completes the cast as Mabel.

Helen concludes: “People might think it’s cosy to go to a Rattigan play, but a lot of Separate Tables will make audiences feel uncomfortable – and that subject of a disgraced MP is very apt for our times. There’s definitely more in common between Separate Tables and Look Back In Anger than you might first think.”

York Settlement Community Players in Separate Tables, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 8 to 17, 7.45pm except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Copyright Of The Press, York

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Extra! Extra! Pickering Musical Society adds two more Aladdin shows at Kirk Theatre

John Brooks’s Abanazar, left, Stephen Temple’s Wishee Washee, Marcus Burnside’s Widow Twankey and Danielle Long’s Aladdin in Pickering Musical Society’s Aladdin

PICKERING Musical Society has added extra performances to this month’s pantomime run of Aladdin at Kirk Theatre, Pickering.

This winter’s spectacular show, charting Aladdin’s rise from humble beginnings to riches beyond his wildest dreams, now opens with a 7.15pm performance on January 18, while a Sunday matinee on January 21 is a new addition too.

“With the success of ticket sales this year, it looks like an additional night will have to be added next year too,” says director Luke Arnold.

Setting out on his quest with a magical lamp, a trusty genie and wishes aplenty, only Aladdin can take on his evil uncle Abanazar. Can he conquer the magical cave and who will win the heart of the princess in the most spellbinding battle of good versus evil?

Jack Dobson, Danielle Long, centre, and Millie Fisher in a scene from Pickering Musical Society’s Aladdin

The 2024 cast features Pickering panto favourites such as Marcus Burnside as the dame, Widow Twankey, and Stephen Temple as simple son Wishee Washee.

Panto regulars Danielle Long and Courtney Brown reunite as the principal boy and girl, Aladdin and Princess Lotus Blossom, while Paula Paylor and Rachel Anderson play comedic double act Minnie Wong and Winnie Wong. John Brooks, a relative newbie to the society, reprises the villain’s role, this year playing Abanazar. 

The principals will be supported by a large chorus of society members, along with students from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance, accompanied as always by a live band, directed by resident musical director Clive Wass. 

All in for Aladdin: The full cast for Pickering Musical Society’s 2024 pantomime

“Last year’s pantomime broke all box-office records and was a real high watermark for us,” says Luke. “This year we took the decision to add an extra performance to our production run and amazingly, with the support we have received already, we are once again on track to beat last year’s record!

“Working with a combined cast and production team of over 100 people, it really has been a joy to direct, and audiences can be assured of a fantastic, fun-filled production.”

Pickering Musical Society in Aladdin, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 18 to 28. Performances: 7.15pm, except January 22; 2.15pm, January 20 (four tickets left), 21 (sold out), 27 (six tickets) and 28 (nine tickets). Box office: 01751 474833 or thelittleboxoffice.com/kirktheatre.

Pickering Musical Society pantomime’s principal boy and girl: Danielle Long’s Aladdin and Courtney Brown’s Princess Lotus Blossom
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More Things To Do in York and beyond, whether inside and outdoors. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 2 for 2024, from The Press, York

Black’n’White the Zebra and Hiran Abeysekera (Pi) in Life Of Pi, bound for Leeds Grand Theatre from Wednesday. Picture: Johan Persson

DRAMAS, circus, musical theatre, rock’n’roll, sorrowful folk, one more pantomime and the return of forest concerts attract Charles Hutchinson’s attention.

Theatre event of the week: Life Of Pi, Leeds Grand Theatre, January 10 to 13; 2pm and 7pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 7.30pm, Friday

WINNER of five Olivier Awards, not least Best Play, the West End spectacle Life Of Pi is heading north on its debut British tour with its combination of jaw-dropping visuals, magic and puppetry.

Adapted from Yann Martel’s 15 million-selling, 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning fantasy novel, Life Of Pi finds Pi stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive on this epic journey of endurance and hope. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

The poster for Meat Loaf By Candlelight at Grand Opera House, York

Tribute show of the week: Meat Loaf By Candlelight, Grand Opera House, York, January 12, 7.30pm

STARS of the original West End and international productions of Bat Out Of Hell will be accompanied by a rock band in a tribute to Texan rock-operatic singer and actor Meat Loaf “as you have never heard before”.

On the Meat Loaf menu will be I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That), Bat Out Of Hell, Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad, Dead Ringer For Love, You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through et al. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Cirque: Combining musical theatre bangers and circus skills at York Barbican

Move over PT Barnum and Hugh Jackman: Cirque: The Greatest Show, York Barbican, January 13, 2pm and 6pm

CIRQUE: The Greatest Show combines West End and Broadway musical theatre showstoppers with spectacular circus skills, ranging from aerialists and contortionists to thrilling feats of agility and flair.

West End performers join with mesmerising circus acts in the all-star cast for an enchanting variety show that vows to “charm and astonish in equal measure”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Peter Panto: The PQA York pantomime at the JoRo Theatre

Still time to squeeze in another pantomime: PQA York in Peter Panto, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 14, 7.30pm

PETER Panto, the high-flying PQA Pantomime, features the talented young performers of the Pauline Quirke Academy York’s Friday Academy.

Join Peter Pan as he flies off on a new adventure for one night only in a show featuring “stunning visuals, gorgeous music and barrel-loads of laughter on a swashbuckling journey to Neverland unlike any before”. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Showaddywaddy’s 50th anniversary tour, taking in Grand Opera House, York

Hey, rock and roll nostalgia: Showaddywaddy 50th Anniversary Tour, Grand Opera House, York, January 19, 7.30pm

FORMED in Leicester in 1973, Showaddywaddy like to call themselves “the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world”. Their 50th anniversary travels rock’n’roll on into 2024 with a line-up featuring only one original member, drummer Romeo Challenger, aged 73.

Dave Bartram, the singer on such hits as Hey Rock And Roll, Under The Moon Of Love, Three Steps To Heaven, When, Blue Moon and Pretty Little Angel Eyes, now manages the band, having performed his last gig in Ilkley in 2011. Andy Pelos takes  lead vocals. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Angeline Morrison: Performing songs of sorrow at the NCEM, York

Leaping ahead: Angeline Morrison, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 29, 7.30pm

SEEKING to make the most of the extra day in this Leap Year? Why not discover why the Guardian picked Angeline Morrison’s The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs Of Black British Experience (Topic Records) as the number one folk album of 2022.

Birmingham-born, Cornwall-based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Morrison explores traditional song with reverence, love and curiosity, a handmade sonic aesthetic and a feeling for the stories of ordinary human lives. York singer-songwriter Holly Taymar supports. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Paul French: Soon to play Major role in Separate Tables at York Theatre Royal Studio

Classic play of the season: York Settlement Community Players in Separate Tables, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 8 to 17, 7.45pm except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees

AFTER directing four Russian plays by Chekhov, Helen Wilson turns her attention to Separate Tables, two very English Terence Rattigan tales of love and loss, set in a shabby Bournemouth hotel in the 1950s.

Guests, both permanent and transient, sit on separate tables, a formality that underlines the loneliness of these characters in a play about class, secrets and repressed emotions. Chris Meadley, Paul French, Marie-Louise Feeley, Caroline Greenwood and Linda Fletcher lead the Settlement cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Bryan Adams: Canadian rocker will play Dalby Forest on June 21

Going down to the woods again at last: Forest Live concerts, Dalby Forest, near Pickering, June 21 and 22; gates open at 4pm

FOREST Live concerts are to return to Dalby Forest for the first time since Paul Weller and Jess Glynne’s shows in June 2019. Covid put paid to 2020, since when three more silent summers have passed in the woods, but the hiatus will come to an end after Forestry England’s announcement of two outdoor gigs for 2024.

Bryan Adams, forever associated with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You’s 16-week chart-topping run from the 1991 film soundtrack to the forest tale of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, will play on June 21. Nile Rodgers & CHIC will be supported by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Deco on June 22. Ellis-Bextor previously guested at Erasure’s Dalby date in 2011. Box office: forestlive.com.

Nile Rodgers: Good times ahead at Dalby Forest on June 22 in the company of CHIC
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Charles Hutchinson’s review of the year of culture & art in York & beyond in 2023

Sleuth and sidekick: Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake, left, with Sam Thorpe-Spinks’s Jack Barak in Sovereign at King’s Manor. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Community show of the year: Sovereign, King’s Manor, York, July

YORK Theatre Royal’s best show of the year was not at the Theatre Royal, but across Exhibition Square in the courtard of King’s Manor, the setting for C J Sansom’s Tudor sleuth yarn, adapted typically adroitly by the golden pen of York playwright Mike Kenny.

Henry VIII was given the Yorkshire cold shoulder by a cast of 100 led by Fergus Rattigan and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, complemented by Madeleine Hudson’s choir.

Livy Potter in Iphigenia In Splott at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Solo performance of the year: Livy Potter in Black Treacle Theatre’s Iphigenia In Splott, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March

GREEK myth is smacked in the chops by modern reality in Gary Owen’s scabrous, “horribly relevant” one-woman drama Iphigenia In Splott, a stark, dark 75-minute play, played out on a single blue chair, with no props, under Jim Paterson’s direction.

Livy Potter kept meeting you in the eye, telling you the bruised, devastating tale of Cardiff wastrel Effie, and her downward spiral through a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, with shards of jagged humour and shattering blows to the heart.

Crowded in: Comedian Rob Auton’s artwork for The Crowd Show

Comedy show of the year: Rob Auton in The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24

COMEDIANS tend to play to a room full of strangers, hence the subject matter of Rob Auton’s The Crowd Show, with its discussions of crowds, people and connection.

Except that the crowd for this (London-based) York comedian, born in Barmby Moor and educated in Pocklington, was made up of friends, family, extended family, and loyal local enthusiasts. The home crowd, rather than the in-crowd, as it were. Auton revelled in a unique performing experience, even more surreal than usual.

Honourable mention: Stewart Lee, Basic Lee, York Theatre Royal, March 20. Serious yet seriously amusing dissection of the rotten state of the nation and comedy itself.

Christmas In Neverland at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Exhibition of the year: Christmas In Neverland, Castle Howard, near York, running until January 7

IS it a Christmas event, an installation or an exhibition? All three, in that Charlotte Lloyd Webber Event Design makes an exhibit of the 300-year-old stately home at Castle Howard each winter.

This time, the theme is a Peter Pan-inspired festive experience, transforming rooms and corridors alike with floristry, installations, props, soundscapes, and projections, conjuring a Mermaid’s Lagoon, Captain Hook’s Cabin and the Jolly Roger with new innovations from Leeds company imitating the dog.

Honourable mention: Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s absurdist sculptures in Trap Of The Truth, his first UK museum show, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, bringing a whimsical smile until April 28 2024.

Kevin Rowland leading Dexys through The Feminine Divine and old hits sublime at York Barbican

Favourite gigs of the year?

SPOILT for choice. At York Barbican: Suzanne Vega, vowing I Never Wear White in droll delight on February 22; James, bolstered by orchestra and gospel choir, hitting heavenly heights, April 28; Dexys’ two sets, one new and theatrical, the other laden with soul-powered hits, September 5; Lloyd Cole’s two sets, one ostensibly acoustic, the other electric, both eclectic, on October 22.

At The Crescent: The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster, performing with his son; March 14; Lawrence, once of Felt and Denim, now channelling Mark E Smith and the Velvet Underground in Mozart Estate, October 7; The Howl And The Hum’s extraordinary, deeply emotional three-night farewell to the York band’s original line-up in December.

The long-dormant Pulp’s poster for their This Is What We Do For An Encore return to performing live

Outdoor experience of the year: Pulp, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 9

THE rain swept in on the Eighties’ electronic nostalgia of Being Boiled at the Human League’s Music Showcase Weekend at York Racecourse on July 28 too, but that was a mere watering can by comparison with the deluge that befell the Open Air Theatre half an hour before fellow Sheffield legends Pulp took to the Scarborough stage. “Has it been raining?”, teased Jarvis Cocker, but huddled beneath hastily purchased sheeting, the night was still plastic fantastic.  

Cherie Federico: At the helm of all things Aesthetica in York

Driving force of the year in York: Cherie Federico, Aesthetica

2023 marked the 20th anniversary of Aesthetica, the international art magazine set up in York by New Yorker and York St John University alumna Cherie Federico. The Aesthetica Art Prize was as innovative and stimulating as ever at York Art Gallery; the 13th Aesthetica Short Film Festival, spanning five days in November, was the biggest yet. On top of that came the Future Now Symposium in March and the launch of Reignite to bolster York’s focus on being a fulcrum for the arts, media arts and gaming industry innovations of the future.

A star performance: Andy Cryer in The Comedy Of Errors (More Or Less) at Stephen Jospeh Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Patch Dolan

Best Shakespeare of the year: The Comedy Of Errors (More Or Less), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, April

THE SJT teamed up with Shakespeare North Playhouse, Nick Lane paired up with co-writer Elizabeth Godber, and Eighties’ pop guilty pleasures rubbed shoulders with Shakespeare’s rebooted comedy as Yorkshire clashed with Lancashire and everyone won. This Comedy Of Errors got everything right. Not more or less. Just right. Full stop. 

Nuno Queimado and Rumi Sutton in Gus Gowland’s Mayflies at York Theatre Royal

New musical of the year in York: Mayflies, York Theatre Royal, May

YORK Theatre Royal resident artist Gus Gowland deserved far bigger audiences for the premiere of the intriguing Mayflies, as confirmed by no fewer than nine nominations in the BroadwayWorldUK Awards.

O, the app-hazard nature of modern love under Covid’s black cloud, as two people meet up after two years of tentative communication online. In Tania Azevedo’s flexible casting, you could pick any configuration of Rumi Sutton, Nuno Queimado or Emma Thornett for the couple of your choice. Better still, you should have seen all three; the songs, the nuances, the humour, grew with familiarity.

Leigh Symonds’ engineer Winston and Naomi Petersen’s automaton house maid ED in Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Still delivering the goods in Yorkshire

ALAN Ayckbourn’s visions of AI in Constant Companions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough; John Godber’s Northern Soul-powered Do I Love You?, on tour into 2024; Barnsley bard Ian McMillan’s Yorkshire take on The Barber Of Seville, St George’s Hall, Bradford; Robin Simpson’s dame in Jack And The Beanstalk, York Theatre Royal.

Copyright of The Press, York

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More Things To Do in York in 2024…and beyond. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 1 for the New Year, from The Press, York

Shed Seven: Launching new album with meet & greet at HMV, York, on Friday

WHAT lies ahead in the New Year? Charles Hutchinson picks his path through highlights across the city’s venues.

It’s only A Matter Of Time before: Shed Seven release their new album

YORK band Shed Seven will mark the January 5 release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, on new home Cooking Vinyl with a meet & greet/signing session that day at HMV, in Coney Street, York, at 4.30pm (tickets: shedsevenn.lnk.to/instores). Their midday appearance and stripped-back performance on the same day at Vinyl Whistle, in Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds, has sold out.

In the summertime, when the weather is hopefully fine, The Sheds will celebrate their 30th anniversary with a brace of outdoor concerts in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20, supported by Peter Doherty, no less. Both have sold out already. Box office: seetickets.com.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members peer out through and beneath the JoRo curtain in Curtains

It’s Curtains for…Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 7 to 10, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

WHEN the leading lady of a new musical mysteriously dies on stage, a plucky local detective must solve this 1959 case at Boston’s Colonial Theatre, where the entire cast and crew are suspects in Kander & Ebb’s musical with a book by Rupert Holmes. Cue delightful characters, a witty and charming script and glorious tunes in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s staging of Curtains. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Steve Mason: Independent Venue Week gig at The Crescent. Picture: Gavin Watson

Beta times ahead: Brudenell Presents Steve Mason, The Crescent, York, January 30, 7.30pm 

SCOTTISH indie songwriter Steve Mason, founder of The Beta Band, returns to The Crescent as part of Independent Venue Week. Combining a rare melodic gift with an itch to experiment, as heard on his 2023 album Brothers & Sisters, he investigates where the boundaries lie between the craft of songwriting, technology and free expression.

Taking part in Independent Venue Week too will be Leeds band English Teacher, whose January 28 night of dreamy pop and post-punk noise has sold out already. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Monster show: The Apatosaurus in Jurassic Live, bound for York Barbican

Dinosaurs take over York: Jurassic Live 2024 World Tour, York Barbican, February 16, 5pm; February 17, 11am and 3pm; February 18, 1pm

LIFE-SIZED monstrous beasts roar into York in an interactive all-star theatrical spectacular featuring the world’s only Tylosaurus in a giant tank (new for 2024), the last flying Pterodactyl, a Tyrannosaurus Rex called Suzie and more dinosaur species than any other show on Earth.

Join little Amber, Ranger Joe, Ranger Nora and the rest of the Jurassic Live rangers on  a musical journey to help save the day from an evil man who is trying to shut down the Jurassic facility. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Amber Davies’s Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward and Oliver Savile’s wealthy businessman Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman: The Musical at Grand Opera House, York

Most anticipated touring musical: Pretty Woman: The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday

BILLED as “Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage”, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when Vivian (Amber Davies) meets Edward (Oliver Savile) and her life is changed forever.

Strictly champ Ore Oduba’s Happy Man/Mr Thompson and Natalie Paris’s Kit De Luca will be in the cast too for a musical featuring original music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the film’s screenwriter, J.F. Lawton. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The tour poster for Wise Children’s Blue Beard, opening the bl**dy door at York Theatre Royal from February 27

World premiere of the season: Emma Rice’s Wise Children in Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm and 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

BLUE Beard will be Wise Children’s fourth visit to York after Wise Children, Malory Towers and Wuthering Heights, this time in a co-production between Emma Rice’s Bristol company, York Theatre Royal, Birmingham Rep, HOME Manchester and the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.

Rice brings her brand of theatrical wonder to the beguiling and disturbing folk tale of Bluebeard meeting his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. Summoning all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters, she vows to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rob Auton: At his most Rob Auton in The Rob Auton Show at The Crescent, York

Welcome home: Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm

AFTER nine Edinburgh Fringe shows on themes as diverse as the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, York writer, comedian, artist and actor Rob Auton delivers his most autobiographical work, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Rhod Gilbert’s poster for his tour show with a Giant Grapefruit at York Barbican

Comedy comeback : Rhod Gilbert & The Giant Grapefruit, York Barbican, June 20, 8pm

IN his last show, The Book Of John, firebrand Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert dealt with “some pretty pungent life citrus” and an idiot called John. Little did he know that things were about to turn even more sour.

Gilbert, 55, required surgery for metastatic cancer of the head and neck as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, receiving his first clear cancer scan in October after undergoing treatment.

“Not bitter, he’s bouncing back and feeling remarkably zesty”, returning with a dark, passionate and way-too-personal tour show that squeezes every last drop out of life’s latest curveballs…with a little help from an old adversary. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jason Donovan: Doin’ fine at York Barbican in…wait for it…2025

Even further ahead: Jason Donovan, Doin’ Fine 25 Tour, York Barbican, March 8 2025, 8pm  

IF 2023 was the year of Kylie, all that attention on Tension, Padam Padam and ITV’s An Audience With, then 2025, yes 2025, promises a York date with her Neighbours beau, Jason Donovan, in celebration of his “incredible ride” through 35 years in music, theatre, film and television.

His long-awaited sequel to Doin’ Fine 90 will feature Jason’s most beloved songs from his stage shows, nods to his TV times in Neighbours and Strictly Come Dancing and his biggest pop hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

In Focus: York Actors Collective in Beyond Caring, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, cleaning up from February 6 to 10

Neil Vincent, left, Clare Halliday, Chris Pomfrett, Victoria Delaney and Mick Liversidge in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s February production of Beyond Caring

YORK Actors Collective follows March 2023’s debut production of Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane with Beyond Caring, a play that highlights the social damage inflicted by zero hours contracts. 

Devised by Alexander Zeldin and the original Yard Theatre cast in East London in 2014, later transferring to the National Theatre, the story of agency cleaners at a meat factory will be directed in York by Angie Millard, working with a cast of Victoria Delaney, Clare Halliday, Mick Liversidge, Chris Pomfrett and Neil Vincent.

Over 90 unbroken minutes, Beyond Caring follows two women, Becky and Grace, and one man, Sam (replacing Sarah from past productions in a directorial decision), as they confront the reality of low wage, zero-hour contract employment, never sure of how many hours they have to work, when they will be paid and whether their ‘job’ will continue.

Director Angie Millard says: “This play is remarkable in its structure and power. It totally represents 2024 where many workers are on the breadline, trapped in employment with no guarantee of further work and no way to improve their position. 

“What drew me to the play, however, is the message it conveys about people surviving and keeping a sense of humour. I loved the intensity of the piece with its silences, its disappointments and its determination to get pleasure out of the smallest things. It gave me hope.”

Stage managed by Em Peattie, Millard’s production will play nightly at 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday, followed by Saturday shows at 2.30 and 5.30pm. “Ticket sales for our first production indicated that a Saturday matinee was very popular,” says Angie.

“We thought that having two early Saturday performances would give the audience an opportunity to see the show and still have time to go for a drink or meal afterwards, making a night of it.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Chris Pomfrett and Victoria Delaney in rehearsal for Beyond Caring

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On your marks, get set, go, go, go, Joseph as York Stage opens audition registration

GO, go, go, Joseph! Audition registration time is here for York Stage’s “dazzling” spring production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

“Alongside our main adult casting, we’re also looking for children aged seven to 12, at the time of the audition, to join our cast,” says producer Nik Briggs.

Auditions will be held this month, beginning with initial adult auditions on January 9 from 7pm, followed by children’s ensemble auditions on January 11 from 7pm and recall auditions on January 14 from 1pm, all at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Nik will aim to release the cast list within 48 hours.

To resister for an audition, go to: www.yorkstage.com/event-details/joseph-2024-auditions. The full audition pack can be found at: www.yorkstage.com/_files/ugd/ce9cd2_86a604a4aafa470e82d1c030ef479fb4.pdf.

Joseph was first written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice at the request of a friend of Andrew’s father, Colet Court School choirmaster Alan Doggett, for the school’s 1968 end-of-term concert.

The full-scale musical will be presented by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 12 to 20, at 7.30pm, except Fridays and Sunday; Fridays, 5pm and 8pm, and Sunday matinee, 4pm.

Set in ancient Egypt, this vibrant musical tells the biblical story of Joseph, his coat of many colours, and his prophetic journey as he learns that dreams really can come true. Among the songs are Any Dream Will Do, Go, Go, Go, Joseph, Close Every Door and the Elvis pastiche Song Of The King.

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.