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Henry Filloux-Bennett appointed executive director in ‘pivotal moment for Opera North’

Henry Filloux-Bennett: New executive director at Opera North. Picture: Samantha Toolsie

HENRY Filloux-Bennett is leaving HOME to be the new executive director at Opera North in Leeds from May 2023.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the team at Opera North,” he says. “Having had a long connection with the company, from first seeing them at the Theatre Royal and Concert Hall in Nottingham to then working with them at The Lowry in Salford, and more recently at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, the prospect of joining as executive director at this really exciting – but also challenging – time is one I absolutely relish.”

Filloux-Bennett, who turned 40 last month, is at present executive director and deputy chief executive officer of HOME, the arts centre, cinema, theatre and gallery complex in Manchester. Previously, he was chief executive and artistic director of the Lawrence Batley Theatre; before that, head of marketing at The Lowry; earlier, head of marketing and communications at Nottingham Playhouse.

Filloux-Bennett also has worked as a producer and general manager for organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Royal Haymarket and Bill Kenwright Ltd.

As an author and playwright, he wrote the award-winning Nigel Slater’s Toast, commissioned by The Lowry and subsequently transferred to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, The Other Place in London, plus a UK tour.

In 2020, his stage version of What A Carve Up!, based on Jonathan Coe’s novel, was chosen as one of the Guardian’s Top 10 theatre shows and the Telegraph’s Top 50 Cultural Events of the year.

In Covid-shrouded 2021, he adapted Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray, starring Fionn Whitehead and Joanna Lumley in a digital production for Barn Theatre/Lawrence Batley Theatre that was seen in more than 70 countries.

Opera North general manager Richard Mantle, left, with new executive director Henry Filloux-Bennett. Picture: Samantha Toolsie

He then co-wrote the original screenplay Going The Distance, starring Sarah Hadland, Shobna Gulati and Matthew Kelly in a digital comedy co-produced by the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, The Dukes, Lancaster, and Watermill Theatre, Newbury.

Opera North’s general manager, Richard Mantle, says: “I am delighted to announce that Henry Filloux-Bennett has been appointed as our new executive director, joining the company in May 2023. He brings with him a wealth of experience through his theatre career and as a writer.

“This is a pivotal moment in the history of Opera North as we develop our strategic priorities and re-build our way out of the impact of the pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis.

“Henry will be a key part of the leadership of Opera North into the future, bringing with him significant experience of business planning, budgetary and financial forecasting, programming, stakeholder management, commercial strategies and food and beverage hospitality. I am thrilled to be able to welcome Henry to the Opera North team and look forward to our collaboration as colleagues.”

Opera North, a national opera company based in Leeds since 1977, tours opera and musical theatre to theatres and concert halls across the north of England, including regular appearances in Leeds, Greater Manchester, Newcastle/Gateshead, Nottingham and Hull.

The company’s wide-ranging education and community partnerships work brings music and performance into the lives of communities across the region.

Opera North also operates and programmes the Howard Assembly Room, a 300-seat performance venue within the Leeds Grand Theatre building that offers an eclectic programme of world music, jazz and folk, classical, talks, film screenings and family events.

Opera North’s new restaurant and bar, Kino, opened last year on New Briggate, adjacent to the Howard Assembly Room and Grand Theatre.

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Drama at Grand Opera House as aliens take over box office. Lincoln Lightfoot is at large

Creature From The Bottom Of The Ouse, by Lincoln Lightfoot

ALIENS, dinosaurs and King Kong invade the Grand Opera House box office as York artist Lincoln Lightfoot explores surrealist concepts reminiscent of the absurdist poster art for the Fifties and Sixties’ B-movie fixation with comical science-fiction disasters.

Depicting unusual happenings with large beasts, staged in familiar settings and on iconic architecture, from York Minster to the Angel of the North, Lightfoot’s artwork escapes from everyday problems to tap into the fears perpetuated by the news media and politicians alike in a post Covid-19 world.

Lightfoot’s paintings parody religious apocalyptic scenes circa 1800, such as the work of John Martin, while his storybook illustrations explore detailed pen work and bright block colour.

Lightfoot’s journey into the fantastical began while studying Fine Art at York St John University. After achieving a PGCE in art, craft and design and leading an art & design department in a north-eastern school, he is pursuing his love for art and the surreal full time, showcasing his work in such York exhibitions as Under Siege and Revelation. Now his paintings are just the ticket for theatregoers in Cumberland Street.

York artist LIncoln Lightfoot with his alien artwork at his 2022 exhibition, Revelation, at Micklegate Social, York. Now his creatures from beyond are moving into the theatre world

As past and future collide in Lincoln Lightfoot’s art for today, CharlesHutchPress heads out into the maelstrom to track down the visionary artist among the marauding T-Rex

What inspired such nightmare visions of York and the north in your paintings, Lincoln?

“During the late B-Movie era, the Cold War kept us in perpetual fear of extinction from nuclear Armageddon until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet bloc.

“Today we have growing similarities re-emerging due to the conflict in the Ukraine, which threatens to spill over into the wider world.  Through engagement with art, we can deal with these nightmares.

“Children confront and make sense of a dangerous world through stories and rhymes and are taught of danger through the safe spaces of literature and illustration, which deal with anecdote and myth.”

How does your art respond to that world?

“My artworks attempt to highlight these fears through a safe and comical lens. Juxtaposed with scenes of our storybook city, it’s not hard to imagine incredible things happening in this part of the world because they already have. 

“Walking through York’s streets and passageways, our past heritage resonates in the present. Popular with shoppers and scholars alike, high art co-exists with popular culture.”

How did this Grand Opera House exhibition come about?

“I was fortunate enough to be approached by Allie Long, who works for the Opera House. She invited me to exhibit. She has a collection of my work at home, and when the opportunity arose to fill the box office with artwork, she thought my work would be a good fit. On show is a collection of three large oil paintings from my Revelation exhibition that showed at Micklegate Social last May.”

Close Encounters, by Lincoln Lightfoot

Do you go to the theatre…or are you more of a movie man, given that your images have a cinematic quality?

“As a child I attended a lot of theatre productions. My dad was heavily involved in theatrical groups and my brother and I attended Stagecoach, where we would have drama, dance and singing lessons.

“It opened many doors for me and I had the opportunity to perform as one of the Snow Children in Carousel at the Darlington Hippodrome Theatre and did some smaller production too.

“Unfortunately, it failed to make any sort of long-term impact, but I do still enjoy going to the theatre. I would say that I’m probably more of a movie man, but this may be down to the accessibility and what can be achieved in film. I still really enjoy the theatre and intend to attend more.”

What exhibitions are coming up for you in 2023?  York Open Studios, perhaps?

“Yes, I’ll be taking part in York Open Studios 2023! This should be an opportunity for visitors to my studio, in Brunswick Street, to engage with some new large paintings!

“I’m hoping to have a large solo exhibition in the summer, which will debut a new series, alongside some old favourites and potentially some 3D pieces. I’m toying with a couple of venues but need a large space. Any one of the empty buildings in town would be amazing, so if anyone has any venue ideas, please get in touch via lincoln.lightfoot@hotmail.co.uk.

“I also have work exhibiting alongside two more York artists in The Arthouse [fellow artist Sharon McDonagh’s holiday let in a Victorian terraced house in Railway Terrace, Holgate, York].”

You are developing a new series of works created in oil on circular boards. What do you like about this design shape?  

“I’ve chosen to pursue creating circular pieces as initially this was something new and exciting that I haven’t attempted before. I feel that the circle has certain biblical connotations and hope that it will lend itself to a heightened sense of mystery.

Land Of The Lost, by Lincoln Lightfoot

“I’m even toying with the idea of incorporating gold leaf into those sickly yellow skies but am yet to experiment with this. A lot of these pieces will involve writhing tentacles and the circular shape should complement the rhythm created within.

“I initially came up with the idea when studying Caravaggio’s Medusa’. I’m hoping to replicate some of the style without the violence. Any violence would merely be suggested. I’m still hoping to suggest science-fiction comedy.

“I’ve fallen in love with the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea poster and now have the French version hanging in my bathroom. I’m sure this will inspire some of the imagery.”

How does the circular differ in impact from the rectangular? 

“The use of circular boards breaks away from the expected. You’re immediately dealing with different rules of composition. What is aesthetically pleasing in a rectangle may not be in a circle and vice versa, for example.”

Will the design influence the subject matter too?

“I’m intending to return to and improve a successful line of illustrations, which I’ve informally entitled the ‘It Came From…’ series. So, there’ll be some familiar ideas and imagery but hopefully executed in a more compelling way. There’ll also be some new ideas too.”

Under what title will you exhibit these new works?

“I’m hoping to show them under the title ‘Encircled’ (inspired, I know!) this summer. I do have a number of venues in mind. I love the space in the Den at Micklegate Social and feel it fits the vibe of my work extremely well.

“It may be that these circular pieces make their debuts as Encircled and that my entire collection is exhibited in a large gallery setting alongside illustration, large murals and 3D pieces.”

Lincoln Lightfoot is exhibiting in the Grand Opera House box office, in Cumberland Street, York, until May 31. The box office is open 90 minutes before each show.

NEWSFLASH: 20/4/2023

LINCOLN Lightfoot will present a 90-minute Grand Opera House Creative Learning artist talk and workshop on May 4 at 6pm. Tickets can be booked at: atgtickets.com/shows/artist-talk-and-workshop-with-lincoln-lightfoot/grand-opera-house-york/.

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Iphigenia In Splott hits the spot as Livy Potter plays a young woman spiralling into an abyss of drugs, drink and drama

“As soon as I read the play, I knew I had to accept the challenge,” says Livy Potter of playing Effie in Gary Owen’s Iphigenia In Splott

GREEK myth meets modern reality in Gary Owen’s “horribly relevant” one-woman drama Iphigenia In Splott at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from Wednesday to Saturday.

Under the direction of Jim Paterson, York company Black Treacle Theatre presents Livy Potter in a 75-minute monologue about Effie, whose life spirals through a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day, until one incident gives her the chance to be something more.

Set in contemporary Cardiff, Owen’s play is rooted in the ancient tale of Iphigenia being sacrificed by her father to placate the gods. Effie, in turn, is the kind of woman to avoid eye contact with in the street when she is drunk at 11.30am in the morning.

“Iphigenia In Splott is a play about our country right now,” says director Jim Paterson

Named by the Guardian in its list of the 50 best plays of the 21st century, on account of being a “shattering modern classic that distils all our troubles”, Iphigenia In Splott is both a portrait of a woman whose life is turned upside down by the events of one night and a broader picture of the brutal impact of austerity on communities across Britain.

Director Paterson says “Iphigenia In Splott is a play about our country right now. It was originally written in 2015, but remains horribly relevant when we consider the state of our public services, the cost-of-living crisis and what this means for those already struggling to get by – who are too often forgotten or ignored by those in power.

“What makes it such a brilliantly rich play is the unforgettable character of Effie, and the poetry and lyricism in the language that Gary Owen has written for her. This gives it an emotional heft and weight that I think will be incredibly cathartic for an audience.”

Livy Potter and Jim Paterson in the rehearsal room

Livy Potter, the sole actor on stage throughout, says: “It’s such a privilege to be given the chance to play Effie. As soon as I read the play, I knew I had to accept the challenge; it’s poetic, emotional, witty and riveting.

“I can’t wait to share this story with York audiences. It’s been great to work with Jim again, having been directed by him in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Christopher Durang’s comedy  Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike last November. To be back performing at Theatre@41 is fantastic too.”

Paterson is joined in the production team by lighting designer Ivy Magee and set designer Richard Hampton with technical support from Sam Elmer.

Black Treacle Theatre in Iphigenia In Splott, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

“I can’t wait to share this story with York audiences,” says Livy Potter
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REVIEW: York Light Opera Company in Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, York Theatre Royal, until March 4 ****

Razor sharp: Neil Wood’s Sweeney Todd conducting his sharp practice as Julie Anne Smith’s Mrs Lovett hovers in York Light’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen

LIGHT and dark combine for the tale of Sweeney Todd, York Light’s heavyweight production to mark both the company’s 70th anniversary and last November’s passing of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim at 91.

In 2016, Robert Readman favoured going dangerously up close at 41, Monkgate. In 2023, director-choreographer Martyn Knight returns Sondheim’s knife-edge musical thriller to a gothic grand scale, large ensemble et al, while adjusting the setting from venal Victorian to gory Georgian at York Theatre Royal.

Costume designers Suzanne Ayers and Jean Wilkinson and wardrobe co-ordinator Carly Price pull out all the stops, aided by Ellie Ryder’s wigs, hair and make-up, and sewing, wardrobe and make-up teams in big numbers. Fantastic work all round.

Full of foreboding: Clare Meadley’s harrowing Beggar Woman

Under conductor Paul Laidlaw, keyboardist Simon Kelly’s organ swells to unnerving, edge-of-the-seat effect, forewarning of the terrible deeds to come in an opening that establishes how important the 30-strong ensemble will be throughout this murder-is-meat musical, whether as feral harbingers, boozy pie eaters or mental asylum incumbents.

The grave mien and embittered baritone of Neil Wood’s ponytailed Sweeney Todd further concentrates the mind on the serious business ahead as he flees Australia to return to East London after 15 years of wrongful exile at Botany Bay, vowing vengeance on the corrupt Judge Turpin (Craig Kirby, reprising his Pick Me Up role with even more insufferable judicial arrogance).

The self-flagellating Judge is the abusive ward to Sweeney’s daughter Johanna (Madeleine Hicks), keeping her like a caged bird: a revelation that brings even more of a cutting edge to Sweeney’s resumption of his demon barbershop business above the worst pie gaff in London town.

Clinging on to love amid the wreckage: Maximus Mawle’s Anthony Hope and Madeleine Hicks’s Johanna

Mrs Lovett (Julie Anne Smith) needs an upgrade from the grit and gristle in her pies; Sweeney is up for a slice of the action, when she turns out to be as manipulative as Lady Macbeth.

Mrs Lovett may be devoid of humanity, but now that there is 100 per cent humanity in her pies, they turn out to be bloody good, celebrated heartily in God, That’s Good, the ensemble high point of a consistently impactful performance as London’s exposed underbelly.

Behind dark eyes and a bustling air, add Smith’s humour, love-a-duck London accent and top-notch singing, and hers is a best-in-show performance, relishing Sondheim’s devilish wit and snappy turn of phrase.

Pie high: Jonny Holbek’s Tobias Ragg, furthest forward to the right, leads the euphoric singing in God, That’s Good!

As the bodies pile up, deposited down the shoot from Sweeney’s barber’s chair with a rumble in the tumble each time he shortens life rather than hair, gradually a macabre darkness of humour permeates the audience response, all the more so for Wood’s Sweeney not changing his countenance . And yet vulnerability courses through his inner turmoil.

Praise too for Maximus Mawle’s Anthony Hope and Hicks’s Johanna in the young love roles, as up against it as Romeo and Juliet, plus a treat of a camply comic turn from Richard Bayton as henchman Beadle Bamford and Clare Meadley’s damaged bird of a harrowing prophetess, the homeless Beggar Woman. Martin Lay has great fun with his faux Italian accent as preposterous, twinkling rival barber Adolfo Pirelli.

Any York production is always better for the presence of Jonny Holbek, and his Tobias Ragg, assistant first to Pirelli then kitchen aid to Mrs Lovett, is a scene stealer here: humour and tragedy, light and darkness, hope and desperation, naivety and madness, all at play in his performance.

Gritty encounter: Julie Anne Smith’s Mrs Lovett entreats Neil Wood’s Sweeney Todd to try the worst pie in London town

Paul Laidlaw’s wind and brass players, together with Kelly’s keyboards and Francesca Rochester and Laurie Gunson’s percussion, bring out all the drama and rich musicality in Sondheim’s score, sometimes luscious, other times juddering and jagged.   

Martin Knight’s choreography matches that musical diversity, adding to the deliciously dark delights of this juicy psychological drama. Make sure to grab a bite of this very tasty pie.

Performances: 7.30pm,  tonight (27/02/2023) until Saturday plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.  Box  office: 01904 623 568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

By Charles Hutchinson

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Angie Millard’s York theatre collective make debut with still shocking Sixties’ Orton farce

York Actors Collective director Angie Millard, left, and stage manager Em Peattie

YORK Actors Collective, the like-minded group set up by theatre director, critic and theatre and film studies tutor Angie Millard, will make their debut with Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane next month.

Premiered in the West End in 1964, Orton’s controversial farce still has the power to shock almost 50 years later with its story of Kath bringing home a lodger: the amoral and psychopathic Mr Sloane.

Her father recognises him from his past life and challenges Mr Sloane’s honesty, but when her brother Ed arrives, everything turns more complicated. A tense sexual struggle for Mr Sloane ensues as he plays one sibling off against the other while their father is caught in the crossfire.

The roles at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from March 15 to 18 go to Victoria Delaney as Kath, York St John University student Ben Weir as Mr Sloane, Chris Pomfrett as Ed and Mick Liversidge as the father, Dada Kemp.

“Victoria and Chris have been involved with the new group since last summer,” says Angie. “We talked about so many plays, plays that would have audience appeal but also be challenging for the performers.

A troublesome triangle: Ben Weir’s Mr Sloane, left, with Victoria Delaney’s Kath and Chris Pomfrett’s Ed in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane. Picture: John Saunders

“Entertaining Mr Sloane was one. Joe Orton died too young [aged 34 on August 9 1967], so there aren’t that many plays and they’re not performed that often. I think people are a bit frightened of him, but the thing I love about him is the way he takes a theatrical form and updates it totally to his time, the Sixties. The language is brilliant; the writing is so funny.”

Angie continues: “The other big thing about Orton is that he was writing at a time of censorship, and the innuendo in the play is there to help him get away with things – and he did! He got away with murder! Especially when the censors were looking for homosexuality without recognising it.”

Controversy still surrounds Orton. “I find his treatment of women difficult in his plays, like his treatment of Kath. He makes her grotesque, and finally when she gets her revenge, in a way he had to do that for the shape of the play,” says Angie.

“Left to his own devices, he wouldn’t have done it, but he was such a master of theatrical form, though not of detail. It means I have to work very hard to work out how to get props on and off because he’s forgotten about them.”

Orton’s savagely sharp, confrontational dramas present challenges to director and cast alike. “I like to look at a play and see what you can do with it, and then you make your decisions about it. Orton’s estate are keen that you don’t change words, but rather than Kath having to be naked [as denoted in the play], Victoria is making her look seductive, clothed,” says Angie.

Ed-lock: Chris Pomfrett’s Ed and Mick Liversidge’s Dada Kemp in York Actors Collective’s debut production of Entertaining Mr Sloane. Picture: John Saunders

“We’re playing it in the period setting – the 1960s – and there are things like racist references in there, but because Kath takes a non-racist attitude, it works.

“There are lots of times where her brother Ed treats her shabbily too – they have a very unhappy, complex relationship – and you realise he could easily be transported to 2023 and still behave like that in the home.”

Looking back to the Sixties and the prevailing attitudes towards women at the time, Angie says: “I was a young student in London, at college doing drama and then going to university after that, and men treated you in a certain way; they all did, but that was the culture of the time. When I hear women complain now, I understand, but I also think, ‘you should have been there in the Sixties; that behaviour was the norm’.”

From Sheffield originally, Angie and her husband Clive moved to York ten years ago, since when she has played her part in the arts world, whether directing Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman In Mind for York Settlement Community Players or writing reviews for York Calling. 

Now, she has formed her own troupe. “I don’t know if any other group would have put on this play, saying ‘it’s too shocking. No-one will come’. But York deserves to be shocked! If you fall shy of that, then you don’t see the theatre you deserve,” she says.

“I find his treatment of women difficult in his plays,” says director Angie Millard of Joe Orton. Here Ben Weir’s Mr Sloane attacks Victoria Delaney’s Kath. Picture: John Saunders

“I’m putting my own money into this project. People have hobbies that they put their money into, and I’m equating what I’m doing with that. I’d like to break even, and if people come along, we shall continue and do another play.”

Should you be wondering why the York Actors Collective is so called, Angie says: “I wanted to call it a ‘cooperative’ but everyone else wanted ‘collective’, and I thought ‘fair enough’! But whatever the name, it’s a passion project that I really wanted to do, where like-minded actors aim to produce entertaining and thought-provoking theatre.

“I don’t think Entertaining Mr Sloane is Orton’s best play. That would be What The Butler Saw, but by not doing this play you would be losing out on what is superb about it: it’s an actor’s play, a character play, where you really get into those characters’ situations.”

And so, the York Actors Collective is born.

York Actors Collective in Entertaining Mr Sloane, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 15 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Did you know?

ENTERTAINING Mr Sloane lead actress Victoria Delaney also will be appearing in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at York Theatre Royal Studio from April 5 to 15. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

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Corrie & Legally Blonde star Faye Brookes to join Kevin Clifton in Strictly Ballroom The Musical at Grand Opera House in April

Kevin Clifton and Faye Brookes team up for Strictly Ballroom The Musical in York this spring

DANCING On Ice finalist and Coronation Street star Faye Brookes is to join Kevin Clifton in Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 24 to 29.

The Manchester actress, 35, will play the lead female role of Fran opposite Strictly Come Dancing alumnus Clifton’s Scott Hastings in Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood’s production, co-choreographed with Strictly creative director Jason Gilkison, on tour until July 15.

Faye will be taking over from 2020 Strictly joint runner-up Maisie Smith, who leaves the ten-month tour on March 25 after being on the road since September 26 last year.

Faye is no stranger to musical theatre, having starred as Roxie Hart in Chicago, Princess Fiona in Shrek and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical, appearing in that pink and perky role at the Grand Opera House in August 2011.

She became a household name after joining ITV soap opera Coronation Street to play Underworld packer and waitress Kate Connor, from 2015-2019. Taking on “some of the biggest storylines the show has seen”, Faye won the 2017 National Television Award for Best Newcomer. In 2021, she skated all the way to the runner-up position in the 13th series of ITV’s Dancing On Ice.

“I can’t wait to work with Craig Revel Horwood, Kevin Clifton and the hugely talented cast,” says Faye Brookes

“I’m thrilled to be joining the tour of Strictly Ballroom and can’t wait to work with Craig Revel Horwood, Kevin Clifton and the hugely talented cast,” says Faye. “I’m so excited to be playing the role of Fran and making it my own. Bring it on!“

Welcoming her to the tour, Kevin Clifton says: “It’s very exciting news that Faye is joining the cast of Strictly Ballroom and I’m looking forward to singing and dancing my way across the UK and Ireland with her.“

Director Craig Revel Horwood says: “I am delighted to be directing the sensational Faye Brookes as she joins Kevin Clifton and the super-talented cast of Strictly Ballroom The Musical. I know that she’ll be nothing short of FAB-U-LOUS!”

Based on Luhrmann’s 1992 Australian romantic comedy film, Strictly Ballroom The Musical tells the beguiling story of Scott Hastings, a talented, arrogant and rebellious young ballroom dancer (played by former Strictly professional and 2018 champion Clifton).

When he falls out with the Australian Federation over his radical dance moves, he finds himself dancing with Fran (Brookes), a beginner with no moves at all. Inspired by one another, this unlikely pairing gathers the courage to defy both convention and families – and discover that, to be winners, the steps don’t need to be strictly ballroom.

Faye Brookes in Legally Blonde The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, in 2011

Combining a book by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce with a cast of more than 20, Strictly Ballroom The Musical brings to stage life such songs as Love Is In the Air, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps and Time After Time with joyous verve.

The tour also features new songs by Sia, David Foster and Eddie Perfect in a show full of “scintillating singing, dazzling dancing and eye-popping costumes”, plus heart, comedy and drama, under the glitterball.

This uplifting and courageous musical originated as a stage play that Baz Luhrmann devised with a group of classmates at Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1984.

Eight years later, he made his silver-screen directorial debut with Strictly Ballroom, the first instalment of his Red Curtain Trilogy, winning three awards at the 1993 BAFTAs and receiving a 1994 Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture. In April 2014, Strictly Ballroom The Musical had its world premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre, Australia.

Tickets for the York run can be booked at atgtickets.com/york.

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EastEnders star Tracy-Ann Oberman to play Shylock in Fascist-era The Merchant Of Venice 1936 at York Theatre Royal

Tracy-Ann Oberman: From EastEnders to Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice set in London’s East End in 1936

WATFORD Palace Theatre’s ground-breaking new production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice will visit York Theatre Royal on tour from November 14 to 18.

Tracy-Ann Oberman, from EastEnders, Doctor Who and Friday Night Dinner, will play Shylock on an autumn itinerary that will open at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from September 21 to October 7.

Developed in association with HOME Manchester and with support from the RSC, The Merchant Of Venice 1936 is adapted and directed by Brigid Larmour from an idea by co-creator Oberman. Their thought-provoking and timely reimagining relocates the action to an electrifying new setting: London in 1936. 

The capital city is on the brink of political unrest, fascism is sweeping across Europe and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists is threatening a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End. Strong-willed single mother Shylock runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street, where Mosley will march.

When charismatic, anti-Semitic aristocrat Antonio comes to her for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge? Who will pay the ultimate price?

“I look forward to sparking debate and enlightening people about a pivotal but largely forgotten part of British history,” says actress Tracy-Ann Oberman

“It has a been a lifelong dream of mine to bring this play to the stage in a new way, reimagining Shylock as one of the tough, no-nonsense Jewish matriarchs I grew up around in Brent,” says London-born actress, playwright and narrator Oberman, 56.

“I’m delighted this project is finally happening and look forward to sparking debate and enlightening people about a pivotal but largely forgotten part of British history – just how close the establishment were to Oswald Mosley and his British Union Of Fascists. I cannot wait to take this important, sharp, sexy and heartfelt production to theatres around the country.”

Oberman played Chrissie Watts in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 2004 to 2005; Yvonne Hartman in a two-part Doctor Who story, Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday, and Valerie Lewis or “Auntie Val” in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner from 2011 to 2020.

Larmour’s production will open at Watford Palace Theatre on February 27 before transferring to HOME Manchester from March 15. Joining her in the production team will be costume and set designer Liz Cooke, lighting designer Rory Beaton, sound design Sarah Weltman and composer Erran Baron Cohen (yes, actor/comedian Sacha’s older brother). 

Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions are producing the tour in association with the RSC, HOME Manchester and Watford Palace Theatre.

Tickets for the York run can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Now is the Summers of our discontent as Harry lands title role in York Shakespeare Project’s Richard III this spring

Harry Summers: Title role in York Shakespeare Project’s Richard III this spring

REHEARSALS are under way for Richard III, the first production of York Shakespeare Project’s phase two.

Dr Daniel Roy Connelly’s cast will be led by Harry Summers in the winter-of-discontent role of Richard Duke of Gloucester/Richard III.

Further roles will go to Rosy Rowley, Duke of Buckingham; Miranda Mufema, Lady Anne;  
Emily Hansen, Queen Margaret; Andrea Mitchell, Queen Elizabeth; Frankie Hayes, Duchess of York/Sir William Catesby; Matt Simpson, Duke of Clarence, and Jack Downey, Sir Richard Ratcliffe.

Clive Lyons will play Lord Hastings; Michael Peirce, Young York/Lord Grey/Murderer;  Nell Frampton, Prince Edward/Rivers; Frank Brogan, King Edward IV/Stanley; Thomas Jennings, Sir James Tyrell; Nick Jones, Earl of Richmond; James Tyler, Archbishop, and Anna Kedge, Marquis of Dorset.

Dr Daniel Roy Connelly: Making his York Shakespeare Project debut as director of Richard III

As was the case when YSP began its 20-year mission to present all 37 of the Bard’s works with the 2002 production of Richard III at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, so Richard III will be the opening play once more, this time at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York from April 26 to 29.

A newcomer to York, theatre director, actor, poet, professor and former British diplomat Dr Connelly is at the helm after directing in places as diverse as Shanghai, Rome, America and the Edinburgh Festival. He will refract Richard’s turbulent tale of politics, power and corruption through today’s lens. 

Richard III will be one of two YSP productions at the 2023 York International Shakespeare Festival, along with Liz Elsworth’s semi-staged version of Shakespeare’s narrative poem The Rape Of Lucrece.

YSP begins a new chapter in 2023 with a 25-year project to stage not only those plays again, but also the best works by his Elizabethan and Jacobean contemporaries.

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Meet the three who will become two for each performance of Gus Gowland’s musical Mayflies at York Theatre Royal

Mayflies cast members Emma Thornett, left, Rumi Sutton and Nuno Queimado with composer, writer and lyricist Gus Gowland

THREE into two will go when York Theatre Royal stages the world premiere of resident artist Gus Gowland’s musical Mayflies from April 28 to May 13.

Three actors, Nuno Queimado (May), Rumi Sutton (May/Fly) and Emma Thornett (Fly), will alternate the roles of May and Fly, with each pairing offering a different perspective on the relationships within this contemporary love story.

Not to be confused with Peter Mackie Burns’s 2022 television drama of the same name based on Andrew O’Hagan’s novel, Gowland’s Mayflies tracks the romantic relationship of May and Fly from first flourish to final goodbye.

After swiping right, left, up and down across the dating apps, they match, duly beginning a tentative conversation. Over time, their romance grows into something real, something special. Then they meet!

Award-winning composer, lyricist, songwriter and playwright Gowland’s musical explores the different versions of themselves that people become during relationships and how – in the blink of an eye – it can all come crashing down.

“I was really excited by the challenge of writing something that could be played by pretty much anyone, regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality,” says Gus. 

Nuno Queimado at a research & development session for Mayflies

“As an audience, we bring so much of ourselves and our understanding of the world to the things we see, so I wanted to explore what happens when we see the exact same love story told by different people – how would the dynamics change? Which moments would hit harder in each telling?

“I know how much an actor brings to a role too and so I wanted to create people that the actors cast would be able to really imbue with their own sense of identity. We’ve seen some rotating casts before, but I really wanted to write the flexibility of casting into the material, rather than just have it as a production idea layered on top.”

Gus adds:  “It’s a real challenge to avoid signifiers of characteristics, like age and gender, but I’ve adored finding ways to create rounded specific characters without those to lean back on. One way I’ve done that is to write the parts in different time signatures, which makes them musically very distinct.

“I’m over the moon with the extraordinary cast of actors we have for this first ever production of Mayflies, and am so excited to see what they each bring to the characters.”

Portuguese-born Nuno Queimado played the alternate Alexander Hamilton in the London West End production of Hamilton and has starred in Jesus Christ Superstar too. Rumi Sutton’s credits include Hex and Heathers; Emma Thornett has appeared in War Horse and Bedknobs And Broomsticks.

Directing this trio in rehearsals from the first week of April will be Tania Azevedo, who specialises in developing new work. Resident director on & Juliet in the West End, earlier she received best director nominations in the Off-West End Awards and Broadway World Awards for her work on Turbine Theatre’s world premiere of But I’m A Cheerleader, based on the cult LGBTQ+ film. The show won best Off-West End production at the What’s On Stage Awards.

Emma Thornett: Playing Fly in Mayflies

“When I first read Mayflies, one of the aspects of Gus’s work that immediately grabbed me was the flexibility with which May and Fly have been written,” says Tania. “It allows them to be played by any actor, regardless of age, gender or any other identifiers. This has led to a rich and thought-provoking casting process.

“It truly became about pairing actors and learning about their shared humour, approach to vulnerable conversations and chemistry with one another. Finding three actors who bring very different things to the table, and who have the craft to tackle this idea of ‘multiple configurations’, has been a joyous process and a unique approach to musical-theatre casting. We’re looking forward to making this piece with this incredible cast.”

Songs by Gowland, who lives in York, have been heard already on the Theatre Royal stage in showcases for professional York talent. For 2021’s Love Bites, he wrote a song for diarist Anne Lister (alias Gentleman Jack), performed by Dora Rubinstein, and for 2022’s Green Shoots, he used James Herriot quotes for I’ll Go T’Other, a song about the vet and his relationship with North Yorkshire, performed by Joe Douglass.

Before moving from London to York, Gowland enjoyed success with his first full-length musical Pieces Of String at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, named The Stage’s Best Regional Musical of the Year in 2018 and nominated for the UK Theatre Best Musical Production award. He won The Stage Debut Award for Best Composer/Lyricist and was nominated for the inaugural Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting.

Gowland has been commissioned previously by Theatre Royal Stratford East and has developed shows with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Leeds Conservatoire.

In 2021, with Craig Mather, he wrote and released an EP of pop songs focusing on mental health, In Motion. His musical short Subway was produced by MPTheatricals that year.

Rumi Sutton: Playing May/Fly in Mayflies

His short musical Sick! was performed at LOST Theatre, London, and his short play Clocks & Teapots was performed at RADA Studios and the London Transport Museum.

Gowland was commissioned by Olivier Award-winning theatre collective Duckie to write songs for Copyright Christmas (Barbican, London). He co-wrote and directed Barren and Love Love Love, which toured to Canada, and wrote and performed the one-man musical Tell Me On A Thursday at the Camden Fringe.

Joining Azevedo in the production team will be designer TK Hay, whose hi-tech creativity was last seen on a North Yorkshire stage in Nick Payne’s intricate Constellations at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, last November. Past credits include Making Of A Monster for Wales Millennium Centre and The Apology for New Earth Theatre. Musical direction, arrangement and orchestration will be by Joseph Church.

York Theatre Royal presents Gus Gowland’s Mayflies, April 28 to May 13, 7.30pm, plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. For a video introduction to Mayflies, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXJ962JF2Rc&t=23s

Did you know?

IN 2014, Gus Gowland was on the UK Jury for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Gus Gowland and director Tania Azevedo at a research & development session for Mayflies