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More Things To Do in York and beyond to lighten up nights and uplift days. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 8 for 2023, from The Press

Countering the winter blues: Doubletake Projections’ Colour and Light illumination at York Minster

DARKNESS and light, American and Scottish singers, Yorkshire brass players and a York comedian will draw the crowds in the week ahead, advises Charles Hutchinson.

Light show of the week: Doubletake Projections’ Colour and Light, York Minster, 6pm to 9pm nightly until February 23

DOUBLETAKE Projections are using projection mapping to re-imagine the facade of York Minster’s  South Transept in a free public show visible from the South Piazza.

Brought to the city by the York BID (Business Improvement District) to illuminate the cathedral during winter’s dark nights, this immersive digital experience is running on an eight-minute loop. Viewers are invited to stay for as many showings as they wish. No booking is required.

In addition to paying homage to the cathedral’s construction and incorporating nods to local history, York Minster’s medieval stained glass is in the spotlight. Collaged compositions of biblical stories told through the glass is being animated and beamed onto the towering transept walls, shining a new light on the medieval window illustrations.

Using animation techniques and styles, the after-dark projection show showcases elements of the rich historical archives in a new way while emphasising the grandeur and ornate detail of York Minster’s architecture.

Chop chop! Demon barber Sweeney Todd (Neil Wood) and resourceful pie-maker Mrs Lovett ( Julie-Anne Smith) make a fast buck from their tasty venture in a cutthroat world in York Light’s Sweeney Todd. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Dark show of the week: York Light Opera Company in Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to March 4, 7.30pm, except February 26; 2.30pm, February 25 and March 4

YORK Light return to York Theatre Royal for a 70th anniversary production of “one of the darkest musicals ever written”, Stephen Sondheim’s noir thriller Sweeney Todd, directed by Martyn Knight with musical direction by Paul Laidlaw.

Neil Wood plays the Georgian-era misanthropic barber who returns home to London after 15 years in exile, seeking vengeance on the corrupt judge (Craig Kirby) who ruined his life. The road to revenge leads him to open new tonsorial premises above the failing pie shop run by Mrs Lovett (Julie-Anne Smith). Cue a very tasty meaty new ingredient to boost sales in this now cutthroat business. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Shepherd Group Brass Band: Performing with the Black Dyke Band at Grand Opera House, York

Fundraiser of the week: York Brass Against Cancer 2, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 2.30pm

YORK’S Shepherd Group Brass Band joins up with West Yorkshire’s world famous Black Dyke Band for a charity collaboration in aid of York Against Cancer. BBC Radio Leeds presenter David Hoyle hosts this two-hour concert. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

Belinda Carlisle: Revisiting her decades of hits at York Barbican

California calling: Belinda Carlisle, The Decades Tour, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm

NOW living in Bangkok and once the lead vocalist of The Go-Gos, “the most successful all-female rock band of all time”, Los Angelean Belinda Carlisle, 64, has enjoyed chart-topping solo success too with Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

At a gig rearranged from October 2021, hopefully The Decades Tour set list will be taking in Runaway Horses, I Get Weak, Circle In The Sand, Leave A Light On, Summer Rain, (We Want) The Same Thing, Live Your Life Be Free, In Too Deep and Always Breaking My Heart from her eight studio albums. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Suzanne Vega: Songs and stories from New York in York on Wednesday night

Storyteller of the week: Suzanne Vega, An Intimate Evening Of Songs And Stories, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

2022 Glastonbury acoustic stage headliner Suzanne Vega, 63, plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire show of the New York singer-songwriter’s 14-date tour.

Emerging from the Greenwich Village folk revival scene of the 1980s, Vega has brought succinct, insightful storytelling to songs of city life, ordinary people and social culture. Her support act will be Tufnell Park folk singer and traditional song archivist Sam Lee. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Rob Auton: Send in the crowds in York, Pocklington and Leeds

Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton, The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 (Burning Duck Comedy Club) , 8pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, May 27, 8pm; Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm

CHARMINGLY offbeat York poet, stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home from London on his 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour. Next Friday’s show is crowded out already but space is available at his Pocklington and Leeds gigs.

After his philosophical observations on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Leeds, hydeparkbookclub.co.uk.

KT Tunstall: A nut in every soundbite on her latest album, showcased at York Barbican on Friday

Doing her Nut: KT Tunstall, York Barbican, February 24, 8pm

SCOTTISH singer-songwriter KT Tunstall returns to York on Friday for the first time since she lit up the Barbican on Bonfire Night in 2016. In her line-up will be Razorlight’s Andy Burrows, on drum duty after opening the gig with his own set.

The BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee from Edinburgh will be showcasing songs from her seventh studio album, last September’s Nut, the conclusion to her “soul, body and mind” trilogy after 2016’s Kin and 2018’s Wax. Box office: kttunstall.com and yorkbarbican.co.uk.

A tale of love: Will Parsons as Davy and Kayla Vicente as Yvonne in Central Hall Musical Society’s Sunshine On Leith at the JoRo Theatre. Picture: Joly Black (jolyblack4@gmail.com)

You should walk 500 miles for: Central Hall Musical Society in Sunshine On Leith, Joseph Rowntree Theatre,  York, February 23 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

SUNSINE On Leith, aka “the Proclaimers’ musical”, is a tale of love; love for family, love for friends, love for romantic partners and love for our homes, as one tight-knit family, and the three couples bound to it, experience the joys and heartache that punctuate all relationships. 

Secrets will be revealed, relationships made and lost and broken hearts mended once more, all while singing the songs of Charlie and Craig Reid in this student production by the University of York’s musical theatre society, directed by Romilly Swingler. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Told By An Idiot in Charlie & Stan, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow ****

Slapstick synergy: Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin and Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Laurel in Told By An Idiot’s Charlie & Stan. All pictures: Manuel Harlan

WHY this wonderful 90 minutes of fantastically inventive silent comedy is not playing to full houses renders your reviewer speechless.

Let this fool for love tell you in the politest terms, you would be an idiot to miss Told By An Idiot’s utterly charming “comically unreliable tribute” to England’s golden comedy age of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.

Storytelling physical theatre without dialogue but with the familiar tropes of the silent silver screen – musical accompaniment and scene-setting “intertitles” on screen – is enacted by a cast of four with all the mannerisms and ticks of bygone days under the whimsical direction of writer/storyboarder Paul Hunter.

Together in constant motion and sometimes commotion, they tell the “trueish” story of “the greatest double act that nearly was”…and now is, thanks to Hunter’s romantic imagination and deconstructionist zeal.

All at sea: Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Laurel, left, Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin, Nick Haverson’s Fred Karno and pianist Sara Alexander in Charlie & Stan

What is true is that the sapling comedic talents of the then-unknown Charlie Chaplin (Danielle Bird) and Stanley Jefferson (later Laurel, Jerone Marsh-Reid) did share a cabin on board the SS Cairnrona to New York in 1910 as part of impresario Fred Karno’s music hall troupe. Stan would then understudy Charlie for more than 18 months around America.

From such source material Hunter magically spins the “true fantasy” of Chaplin & Laurel, “intrigued to uncover a hidden and poignant chapter of comedic history”, in keeping with the London company’s mission to “inhabit the space between laughter and pain”.

Yes, laughter and pain both feature here. So much laughter in the nascent comedic talent of Charlie and Stan, but the hints of jealousy of the singular Chaplin towards the fledgling team player Laurel. Then the pain of Charlie’s childhood, with a drunken father (Nick Haverson) and a mother (Sara Alexander) taken away in a straitjacket, and later a veteran Stan arriving just too late for a reunion with Chaplin, who he had so admired for so many years (whereas Chaplin never mentioned him in his autobiography).

Playing “fast and loose” with the truth also allows Told By An Idiot to play fast and loose with time’s past, present and future, enabling Haverson to switch from drumming and Fred Karno duties to become partner-in-waiting Oliver Hardy, with the aid of padding and a strip of black tape. Likewise, at the finale, Chaplin’s trademark Little Tramp takes his impish first steps to Hollywood stardom.

Ioana Curelea’s  delightful set evokes on-deck and below-deck on the SS Cairnrona, where Charlie and Stan spar with slapstick timing and pratfalls on their cabin beds: the double act come to life.

Proper Charlie: Danielle Bird’s Charlie Chaplin

Music is vital too, whether in Chaplin’s father’s boozed-up bar song, Charlie playing his signature tune Smile, or Alexander exuberantly performing Zoe Rahman’s piano score in the traditional silent movie style.

Meanwhile, audience members from the stalls are picked to play their part, coerced by cheeky Chaplin, adding to the fun of such an enchanting homage: a celebration of comedy’s timeless ability to highlight the ridiculous, the absurd, our human foibles, as we laugh at ourselves through agents Chaplin and Laurel.

In his programme notes, Hunter talks of being “determined to value fiction over fact, fantasy over reality, and shine a very unusual light on a pair of show business legends”. Yet in doing so, a greater truth emerges. As told by Told By An Idiot, life’s tale is not mere sound and fury signifying nothing; it as much a laughing matter as no laughing matter, especially when these four players strut their 90 minutes upon the stage.

All four are a joy to behold, Haverson and Alexander playing anything but second fiddle as they complement the uncanny physicality and balletic grace of Bird’s Chaplin and Marsh-Reid’s gentle, nice mess of a mishap-prone Laurel.  

Both funny and moving, thumbs-up all round.

Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Nick Haverson’s Fred Karno in the swing of things in Charlie & Stan as Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Lauel keeps his distance
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Macbeth meets Blade Runner as Imitating The Dog’s witches fuse theatre and video

Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth and Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

THREE mysterious figures enter the stage, talking of the hurly-burly, thunder and lightning and a young couple hell bent on overthrowing the old regime.

Whereupon they conjure the Macbeths, placing them in a dangerous new world ruled by paranoia, betrayal, and brutality.

Something wicked – but not wholly familiar – this way comes in ground-breaking Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s typically audacious retelling of Shakespeare’s “Scottish Play”, on tour at Harrogate Theatre on February 24 and 25.

Retold and directed by Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks, with set and video design by Simon Wainwright and original music by James Hamilton, Macbeth’s tale of ambition, betrayal and downfall is re-booted as a neon noir thriller wherein Shakespeare’s language collides with “startling new scenes, stunning visuals and a powder-keg intensity”.

“Macbeth is an extraordinary play,” says Imitating The Dog artistic director Andrew Quick. “Shakespeare’s exploration of power, ambition, violence and love seems so relevant to today. 

In the flesh and on screen: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth and Benjamin Westerby’s in Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“We’re excited to be bringing Macbeth to Harrogate Theatre in a unique take on the original play, a Macbeth as you have never seen before, but still with Shakespeare’s story at its heart.”

Fusing live performance with digital technology for 23 years, latterly in Night Of The Living Dead ™ –  Remix and Dracula: The Untold Story, Imitating The Dog turn to Shakespeare after staging Cinema Inferno for the Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela, based on an original concept by creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2022 collection.

“We started off with Romeo & Juliet, working on a version for two actors in their 60s or 70s,” says Andrew. “We did some research, but it felt like a one-idea show that we couldn’t commit to.

“But Macbeth was a play we really liked, and there’ve been a lot of film versions, with two recent ones [Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth, from 2021, and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, from 2015] still fresh in the mind. So, we thought, ‘if we can’t do Romeo & Juliet, let’s do Macbeth’.”

As a contrast with Denzel Washington and Michael Fassbender’s older Macbeths in those two films, Imitating The Dog settled on two young leads (played by Benjamin Westerby, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maia Tamrakar, from Sheffield Crucible’s Rock, Scissors, Paper).

“Out, damned spot; out, I say”: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth, filmed by Laura Atherton, who plays one of the witches in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“In our adaptation, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are 18-19 years old; they’re kids really, street kids,” says Andrew.

“We’ve set it in a kind of parallel world, a version of London that’s a cross between Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles and London, with a Blade Runner feel to it. Duncan [the king in the original] is a crime lord; Macbeth seizes the moment, suddenly being thrown into the spotlight when he becomes second in line to Duncan, who starts thinking, ‘ooh, this kid is a bit much’.

“When Macbeth murders him, it’s not just about ambition but self-protection, because though he feels he’s really good at his job, he also feels that if he doesn’t kill him now, he could get done in.”

As played by Stefan Chanyaem, Matt Prendergast (from Dracula:The Untold Story) and Laura Atherton (from Night Of The Living Dead™ – Remix), the witches/shape shifters set up the story in Imitating The Dog’s version, playing everyone bar the Macbeths, who have “fallen into this world that is testing them”.

“The witches are like clowns in suits, these grotesques, who do all the live filming on stage, with Macbeth always being filmed close-up, giving almost a forensic quality to the piece, adding to the psychological drama,” says Andrew.

That world is constructed with 70 to 30 per cent division between original text and new text with hints of the Russian, Italian and Japanese language: “little traces of those argots”, as Andrew puts it. “It’s a cosmopolitan city that is multi-racial, international, like lots of big cities nowadays. “It’s a city that the witches set up and the Macbeths descend into,” he says.

Imitating The Dog’s cast of five in a scene from Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“In the back story, they were orphaned when growing up, and Macbeth is looking after her, more like a brother and sister rather than lovers.

“The challenge was: could we make the Macbeths lovable or at least understandable; make them human, whereas Shakespeare’s Richard III is more of a monster under all that Tudor propaganda of the time.”

Exploring the “challenge” further, Andrew says: “Whether you can really like them or not, I don’t know, but I think you can understand their motives in a very brutal world. The Macbeths do things that are terrible, they use extreme violence, like killing Lady MacDuff and the MacDuff children, but we’re not only interested in a story of power and ambition but the context in which that arises too. Right now, looking at monarchy and power feels very relevant.

“In this very violent world, the Macbeths’ love for each other is very important, with everything that Macbeth does being rooted in his need to protect Lady Macbeth. He’s always questioning, always doubting, always reassessing what he should do next, and what’s great about the play is that Shakespeare gives him humanity despite what he’s doing.”

A further reference point is Arthur Penn’s 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. “Even though they do these terrible things, there’s something very attractive about them – and once they start, they have to keep going,” says Andrew.

Imitating The Dog in Macbeth, Harrogate Theatre, February 24 at 7.30pm; February 25, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Further Yorkshire dates: CAST, Doncaster, February 21 and 22, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, 01484 430528 or thelbt.org.

Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth in rehearsal for Macbeth

Copyright of The Press, York

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REVIEW: York Stage in Sweet Charity, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, till Sunday ****

The more, the Melia: “Triple threat” Kate Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine in York Stage’s Sweet Charity. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick

ON Broadway, Sweet Charity would come with a 30-piece orchestra and all that jazz. In York, you can see it up close and personal, so close that Katie Melia’s fully flexed leg comes within an inch of connecting with your reviewer’s face, plonked by invitation at the centre of the front row. Well, that’s one way to secure a thumbs-up review!

Sweet Charity might equally have suited the Grand Opera House or Theatre Royal stage, but director-producer Nik Briggs foresaw the benefits of making Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ witty, waspish  1966 New York musical comedy a studio-sized production, just as he found a new way to present pantomime at Theatre@41, with West End choreographer Gary Lloyd’s song-and-dance numbers to the fore alongside the slapstick in the Covid winter of 2020 in Jack And The Beanstalk.

Briggs calls it a “dance-heavy musical but one where you can really get into the story, and seeing those scenes so intimately will be really rewarding”. Consequently, he delivers both glitz and grit, romanticism and realism, with the aid of two finger-clickin’ good lieutenants, musical director Jessica Viner, leading her four-piece on keys and violin on the mezzanine level, and choreographer Danielle Mullan-Hill.

On top of that, if Briggs could have chosen the perfect week to stage a musical with a lead character called Charity Hope Valentine, then a week front-loaded with St Valentine’s Day would be the one. The John Cooper Studio is suitably fitted out with heart shapes galore, balloons et al, while the end-on stage is fringed with glittering tinsel drapes and audience members are seated around tables.

Duet par excellence: Emily Ramsden’s Nickie, left, and Carly Morton’s Helene reflecting on life at the Fandango Ballroom

Briggs’s designs, topped off by the checkboard flooring for the Fandango Ballroom, give off an Austin Powers Sixties’ vibe, matched by the fabulous costumery, and vital to that look is the fantastic hair and make-up work of Phoebe Kilvington. All the better for being experienced within touching distance.

There is a sting in the tale to Sweet Charity, but the vibe is largely fun, breezy and very Sixties, and Briggs is in playful mood, replacing the lake of the film version with a bath filled with plastic balls for two scenes where Katie Melia’s ballroom taxi dancer – or dancehall hostess, to be more colloquial – ends up in both the opening and closing scenes.

Briggs refers to Melia as a “triple threat”, equally adept at singing, acting and dancing (including solo tap dancing here), and she has a goofy girl-next-door appeal to her too. Her heart-of-gold Charity is a dreamer, quirky and spirited, but too trusting, too generous, forever looking for love, but alas in the wrong places. Or, as fellow taxi dancer Nickie (sassy Emily Ramsden) puts it: “Your big problem is you run your heart like a hotel – you got guys checkin’ in and out all the time.”

Living in (dashed) hope, seeking escape, Melia’s plucky Charity goes from man to man, from Sam Roberts’s taciturn Charlie Dark Glasses, to Jack Hooper’s moustachioed movie idol Vittorio Vidal to Stuart Piper’s shy, neurotic tax accountant Oscar Lindquist.

Uplifting: Katie Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine and Stuart Piper’s Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity

Roberts’’s part is wham, bam, Sam, gone, but Hooper and Piper are both terrific. Hooper’s Italian accent and Latin romantic lead schtick are a joy, as his gorgeous singing, his debonair air served up with a dash of the tongue in cheek in Simon’s script.

Melia finds the comedy gold in both relationships, the first involving her hiding in the closet, chomping on olives and a sandwich as Vittorio’s high-maintenance lover, Ursula (York Stage debutant Mary Clare), arrives suddenly.

The second, spanning either side of the interval, begins in a malfunctioning lift, where Melia’s laissez-faire Charity contrasts with Piper’s hyperventilating Oscar, his performance combining physical comedy with aerated verbal expression.

Ramsden’s Nickie and Carly Morton’s Helene excel too, especially in their duet, while James Robert Ball shines as brightly as his silver suit in the stand-out Rhythm Of Life, everyone in green all around him.  

Putting it in black and white: The sensational Frug dance in York Stage’s Sweet Charity

Big Spender is an early come-hither taxi-dancer knockout, but better still in Mullan-Hill’s sensuous, sinuous and darn hot choreography is the Frug sequence of three ensemble dances, in black and white, each as groovy, baby, as Austin Powers could wish.

At short notice, Nik Briggs has stepped in to take over the role of matchstick-chewing ballroom manager/pimp Herman, reminding us of his now rarely seen singing and acting prowess.

Melia’s finest hour, knockout dancing, superb band, a frenzy of fishnets, snazzy gear and snappy dialogue, Sweet Charity demands to be your Valentine, whichever night or day, this week.

Performances: 7.30pm, tonight tonight and Friday; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday; 2.30pm, Sunday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Finding the Rhythm Of Life: James Robert Ball and the dance ensemble in silver and green unison in Sweet Charity
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Remember that film? Now Pretty Woman: The Musical heads for Grand Opera Opera next February with ‘love story for the ages’

Danny Mac’s Edward and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian in the West End production of Pretty Woman: The Musical. Picture: Helen Maybanks

THE debut UK tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical will play the Grand Opera House, York, from February 20 to 24 next year.

Billed as “Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage”, the show features original music and lyrics by Canadian rock star and Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter, J F Lawton, with direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell.

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees in York are newly on sale at atgtickets.com/York.

The West End production continues to play at the Savoy Theatre, London, taking bookings until June 11 2023. The British and Irish tour will open on October 17 at the Birmingham Alexandra  Theatre; the tour cast is yet to be announced.

Should the Richard Gere-Julia Roberts movie have escaped your attention, here is a quick refresher course on Pretty Woman’s story: Once upon a time in the late 1980s, Vivian met Edward and her life changed forever.

Or put it another way, in a tale based somewhat loosely on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, rich New York corporate raider Edward Lewis hires free-spirited Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward to accompany him to a series of social events, only to fall in love with her. How will they bridge the chasm between their worlds?

Danny Mac’s Edward Lewis and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian Ward in a scene from Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre, London

Move forward to 2023-2024, when the tour publicity invites you to “be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart”.

The musical also features the Roy Orbison and Bill Dees composition Oh, Pretty Woman, the Big O’s August 1964 chart topper that inspired Garry Marshall’s film.

Atlantic Records has released Pretty Woman: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), a soundtrack album produced by Adams and Vallance.

The show has  scenic design by David Rockwell; costumes by Tom Rogers, from the original Broadway designs by Gregg Barnes; lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Philip S Rosenberg; sound design by John Shivers; hair design by Josh Marquette and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Will Van Dyke. 

Pretty Woman; The Musical received its world premiere at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran at the Nederlander Theatre. A German production opened in Hamburg at the Stage Theater an der Elbe in September 2019 and a USA tour began in October 2021. 

The Ambassador Theatre Group, the Grand Opera House owners, are among the tour’s producers.

The artwork for Pretty Woman: The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next February
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York writer Anna Rose James to be Ghost of Festival Present at UK Ghost Story Festival

Anna Rose James: Workshops and open mic shows at UK Ghost Story Festival. Picture: Nicolas Laborie

YORK actor-writer Anna Rose James will be the Ghost Of Festival Present at this week’s UK Ghost Story Festival at the Museum of Making, Derby Silk Mill, Derby.

“I’ll be running two workshops on Friday, hosting an open mic on Sunday, live-tweeting the rest and sharing a creative response to the whole thing at the end,” she says, ahead of attending the event from tomorrow until Sunday.

Anna will lead Friday’s Ghosts and Comedy workshop in the River Room from 2pm to 3pm, followed by the Ghostly Origins session in the Studio Space from 5pm to 6pm. Sunday’s open mics will be at 10.30am and 12 noon in the River Room.

Anna, or AR James as she is profiled in the festival speakers’ biographies, is a queer, bisexual actor-writer of unsettling entrances and exits in the form of poetry, flash fiction, auto-fiction, screenplays and scripts.

She co-founded Sonnet Sisters, Six Lips Theatre and The Podvangelist and is the voice of 3CC0 in Tin Can. Her works include Unknown (York publisher Stairwell Books), Little Irritants (Analog Submission Press) and 100 Friggin’ Poems.

Full festival details can be found at ukghoststoryfestival.co.uk. Festival tickets:  https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststoryfestival. Anna has shared four weekly readings of ghost stories in the run-up to the festival at https://instagram.com/annaonthepage?igshid=ZDdkNTZiNTM=.

Here Anna Rose James answers five questions on the ukghoststoryfestival.co.uk blog

What was the first ghost story you read, Anna?

“The first ones I remember encountering were actually told to me, and they were poems: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, which remains a favourite, and The Listeners by Walter de la Mare – another narrative lyric that portrays a traveller who knocks upon a ‘moonlit door’ only to wait in the silence of the ‘listeners’, the phantoms who inhabit the house.

“Unlike the thoroughly conclusive The Raven, The Listeners is a swift draft of pure anticipation – silence and waiting and the unknown.”

Do you have a favourite ghost story, be it on the page or on the screen?

“The ones I’m writing will always be my favourites, but I can’t share those yet. I also won’t rank any single tale above the rest, but one of my favourites is The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens. I’ve only read and heard it so far, but I imagine it would also make a great short film in the right hands.

“I am fascinated by the cyclical impression of the titular character’s dreadful premonitions – the repetition of the haunting refrain, ‘Hallao, below there!’ and the tragic futility of his being trapped with the knowledge of impending doom and the inability to do anything to prevent it.

“There’s a real sense of ‘so close!’ – the narrator takes an interest in his strange case, the visions must surely be warning him for a reason, but…ultimately, fate strikes again. The real-world parallels with Dickens’s own life (and death) are a perfectly eerie cherry on the cake.”

What was the first ghost story you wrote?

“I wish I could find it to share pictures because it was a riot. The Time Machine was, I suspect, inspired equally by Jurassic Park and Sister, Sister! Penned at the tender age of seven, I used poster paints, masking tape and glitter glue to weave a (literally) incredible story about some friends who travelled back in time, saw some dinosaurs and got eaten.

Meanwhile in the present day (or future, presumably), someone had given birth to twins who then suddenly faded away (presumably the people who’d been eaten). It was non-stop until it stopped abruptly before seven-year-old me came up with an ending.”

What is the enduring appeal of the ghost story form?

“The social aspect of telling and being told, sharing the creeps and relishing the feeling of doling out some ghoulish experience. Watching a friend’s face as you lay out the reveal. The thrill of the unearthly clues, the surprising explanations.

“We love to be scared. We love it when stories can still surprise us, even with all we know. And until we know what’s beyond the veil of death, we’ll have this eternal playground of ideas to explore, whether we’re tugging at a thread we feel we shouldn’t or attempting to make peace with something completely out of our control and understanding.”

What are you particularly looking forward to at the festival?

“I’m a sucker for psychogeography so I can’t wait for Ally Wilkes’ workshop on Landscape and Location in Horror on Sunday. I’m an old lovey too so all the performances are top of my list.

“I’m also super excited to get stuck into my own workshops on comedy and origins in ghost stories, and to hear what the attendees have cooking in their own cauldrons at the open mic slots!”

Q&A courtesy of ukghoststoryfestival.co.uk/blog

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Happy Valentine’s day, all week, as York Stage’s Sweet Charity goes in search of love

Looking for love: Katie Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine in York Stage’s Sweet Charity

WHAT better character name could there be for a show opening on St Valentine’s Day than Charity Hope Valentine?!

Company regular Katie Melia will take that sweet, optimistic, indomitable, hopeful, romantic, trusting, naïve, quirky, charming, caring, irresistible role in York Stage’s production of Sweet Charity, the musical with the subtitle The Adventures Of A Girl Who Wanted To Be Loved.

From tomorrow to Sunday, the John Cooper Studio will be transformed into a seedily seductive Fandango Ballroom for the 1966 Broadway musical with a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, decorated by such songs as Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now and Rhythm Of Life.

“I’ve wanted to do Sweet Charity for over a decade in York,” says director-producer Nik Briggs. “When I started York Stage, we had an Independent Woman season, with Hairspray, Sister Act and Legally Blonde, and Sweet Charity was in on the wish list.

Fandango Ballroom dancers: Emily Ramsden’s Nickie, back, Carly Morton’s Helene and Katie Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine

“I’ve always loved Neil Simon’s work, and considering it’s a dance-heavy musical, you can still really get into the story. What made him so special at that time is the realism in his work, where everyone recognises those situations, and to see those scenes so intimately at Theate@41 will be really rewarding.”

In the American musical comedy, Melia’s heart-of-gold New York City taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine fantasises about three things in life: romance, luxury and escaping the questionable ballroom clientele. Lovable, gullible and spirited, she longs to find a lover to sweep her off her feet but Charity keeps handing over her heart and earnings to the wrong man, whether Charlie, his name tattooed on her arm, movie star Vittorio Vidal or Oscar.

“Charity is billed as ‘the girl who wanted to be loved’. All she wants is true love,” says Nik. “But as [fellow dancer] Nickie tells her, ‘your big problem is you run your heart like a hotel – you got guys checkin’ in and out all the time’. She’s the kind of girl who falls in love too easily and just goes from guy to guy.

“Sweet Charity follows hostess Charity through the various men in her life, as she lives in hope through all of them, but deep down, we all know that we’ve seen it all before and heard it all before, and one of the reasons I love the piece is that it doesn’t give audiences the ending they expect.”

Nik Briggs: York Stage director-producer for Sweet Charity

Briggs has picked a cast of 15, led by Melia’s Charity, who is joined by Emily Ramsden and Carly Morton as dancers Nickie and Helene; Stuart Piper as Oscar; Jack Hooper as Vittorio Vidal; James Robert Ball as Daddy; Briggs himself as Fandango ballroom owner/pimp Herman and York Stage newcomer Mary Clare as Ursula and Rosie.

Amy Barrett, who played the female lead, assembly line worker Lauren, in York Stage’s Kinky Boots last September, will be Carmen, while supporting roles go to Verity Carr, Ilana Weets, Kelly Stocker, Sam Roberts, Stuart Hutchinson and debut-making Katherine Farr.

Rather than an orchestra of 30 for big Broadway productions of Sweet Charity, Briggs and musical director Jess Viner have “totally rearranged” the songs for a small band, stationed above the stage on the mezzanine level. “It’s almost like a jazz quartet,” says Nik. “We’ve created a production for the Theatre@41 space [a black box design] and that space is very much a 16th member of the cast.”

A further key factor is the choreography for a musical first choreographed by Bob Fosse for both the stage premiere and the 1969 film, his screen directorial debut. “You can’t move away from the Sixties, that very stylised choreography that is sensual and sexual,” says Nik.

Emily Ramsden’s Nickie and Carly Morton’s Helene in York Stage’s Sweet Charity

“Danielle Mullan-Hill has created really dynamic routines for us that’ll be very exciting to see in that space – and she knows that space and how to work it from doing our pandemic pantomime, [Jack And The Beanstalk, in December 2020]. It will feel really immersive.”

To mark St Valentine’s Day, York Stage are advertising the first night as “Galentine’s Night”. “Traditionally, it’s a night for all the gals without a Valentine date, when they get all the girls round,” says Nik. “There’s a glass of fizz included in the ticket for Valentine’s night for gals…and guys.”

Coming next from York Stage will be Ian Fleming’s fantasmagorical musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, flying car et al, at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 6 to 15. Principal roles will go to Carly Morton as Truly Scrumptious; Ned Sprouston as inventor Caractacus Potts; Finn East as Baron Bomburst; Richard Barker as the evil Childcatcher and Mick Liversidge as Grandpa Potts. Adam Tomlinson will be the musical director.

York Stage in Sweet Charity, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow (14/2/2023) until Sunday, 7.30pm, except Sunday; , 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

York Stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Grand Opera House, York, April 6 to 15, 7.30pm; 2.30pm, April 7, 8, 12 and 15; no shows on April 9. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The poster for York Stage’s spring production, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, at the Grand Opera House, York
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when Vikings and young rebels rise up. Hutch’s List No.7 for 2023, from The Press

A fierce-faced warrior at Jorvik Viking Festival, back in York from today

THOSE pesky Vikings are invading again, promising battles and big beards, as Charles Hutchinson wrestles with what to do in half-term week.

Festival of the week: Jorvik Viking Festival 2023, today until February 19

SWORDS and seaxes are being sharpened, shields reinforced, beards groomed and tents prepared as York braces itself for the annual invasion of 9th century raiders, Norse warriors, craftspeople and traders in half-term week.

Welcoming 40,000 visitors each year, Europe’s largest Viking festival takes over the city centre with living history encampments, a combat-and-display arena and a Battle Spectacular on February 18, inspired by Arab writer Ibn Fadlan’s accounts of Viking traders.  

Among further highlights will be the Best Beard Competition, today, 11am; Strongest Viking Competition, February 18, 11.15am; March To Coppergate, February 18, 1.30pm, from Dean’s Park; talks and lectures; crafting workshops and a traders’ market. Full details at: jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk 

Melanie Watson in Mythos: Ragnarok: Making its York Barbican debut on the Jorvik Viking Festival Fringe

Festival Fringe event of the week: Mythos: Ragnarok, Jorvik Viking Festival, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

MYTHOS: Ragnarok retells mythical tales of the apocalypse through wrestling, yes, wrestling, in a Fringe event new to the 2023 Viking festival programme, presented by Mythological Theatre and Phil McIntyre Live.

Half-brothers Odin and Loki must overcome primordial giants, rivals gods and goddesses and their own ambitions in their quest to seize power over the Nine Worlds through the grappling sport in Mythos’s York Barbican debut. Warning:  Contains strobe lighting, scenes of violence, references to death, indirect sexual references, occasional bad language and actors specialising in professional wrestling skills. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

A chance to dress up as rebel: One of the activities at the Marvellous And Mischievous, Literature’s Young Rebels exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Exhibition of the week: Marvellous And Mischievous, Literature’s Young Rebels, York Art Gallery, until June 4

OPENING just in time for half-term week, York Art Gallery presents the British Library’s touring exhibition of memorable characters from children’s literature.

Favourites such as Pippi Longstocking, Jane Eyre, Matilda, Dirty Bertie, Zog, Tracey Beaker, Peter Pan and Dennis the Menace feature in this exploration of characters who break the rules and defy conventions. Around 40 books, manuscripts and original artwork from 300 years of literary rebels, outsiders and spirited survivors will be complemented by an activity room with a busy programme of workshops and events.

Anastasia Bevan: Soprano soloist at York Guildhall Orchestra’s all-Beethoven concert tonight

Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK Guildhall Orchestra will be joined by Leeds Festival Chorus for the Angels’ Hallelujah Chorus, from the oratorio Christ On The Mount Of Olives in a wholly Beethoven night.

The Egmont Overture and Fidelio Overture and the Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt setting of two Goethe poems feature too before the climactic, gloriously melodious Symphony No. 9, “The Choral”, billed as “a real work out for orchestra, choir, and soloists” Anastasia Bevan, Sarah Winn, Sam Knock and Matthew Kellett. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Dnipro Opera take to the York Barbican stage in Carmen

Ukrainians in York: Dnipro Opera in Carmen, York Barbican, Sunday, 7pm

DNIPRO Opera, from Ukraine, perform Georges Bizet’s opera of fiery passion, jealousy and violence in 19th century Seville in French with English surtitles (CORRECT), to the accompaniment of a 30-strong orchestra.

Carmen charts the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who falls head over heels in love with Carmen, a seductive, free-spirited femme fatale, abandoning his childhood sweetheart and neglecting his military duties, only to lose the fickle firebrand to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The double act that nearly was…and now is: Danielle Reid’s Charlie Chaplin and Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Stan Laurel in Told By An Idiot’s Charlie & Stan

Double act of the week: Told By An Idiot in Charlie & Stan, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm, plus 2pm, Thursday and 2,30pm, Saturday

IN 1910 the unknown Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel set sail for New York on a voyage of discovery as part of Fred Karno’s music hall troupe, sharing a cabin and then spending two years together touring North America, with Stan as Charlie’s understudy.

In a fantastical reimagining that plays fast and loose with the facts, Told By An Idiot tells the story of “the greatest comedy double act that nearly was” in Paul Hunter’s homage to the English comedy legends pre-fame, played out by Danielle (CORRECT) Bird’s Chaplin and Jerone (CORRECT) Marsh-Reid’s Laurel in the style of a silent comedy to a Zoe Rahman piano score. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Katie Melia’s Charity Hope Valentine in York Stage’s Sweet Charity

Musical of the week: York Stage in Sweet Charity, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Sunday, 7.30pm, except Sunday; 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees

THE John Cooper Studio will be transformed into a seedily seductive Fandango Ballroom from St Valentine’s Day for Sweet Charity, the 1966 Broadway musical with a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields.

Played by Katie Melia, Charity Hope Valentine fantasises about three things in life: romance, luxury and escaping the questionable ballroom clientele. Lovable, gullible and spirited, she longs to find a lover who can sweep her off her feet but Charity keeps handing over her heart and earnings to the wrong man. Hey big spender, box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Velma Celli: On song in a night of drag diva belters at Pocklington Arts Centre

Drag show of the week: Velma Celli, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 8pm

YORK drag queen supreme Velma Celli, alias West End musical actor Ian Stroughair, promises an overindulgent diva fiesta in celebration of the  songs, mannerisms and behaviour of Mariah, Whitney, Aretha, Cher, Britney and many more.

Cue cheeky impressions, belting singing and saucy banter from the international star and creator of A Brief History Of Drag, Me And My Divas, Equinox and Irreplaceable (in praise of David Bowie). Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The Forest Awakens: The new hole at The Hole In Wand York magical golf course

In Focus: The Hole In Wand York on course for more magic at wizard visitor attraction

FORE! Watch out, The Hole In Wand York, the “World’s Most Magical Golf Course”, has a new woodland hole at the Potions Cauldron visitor attraction in the Coppergate Shopping Centre, York.

In a magical makeover, wands have been raised and spells cast to create The Forest Awakens hole and several additions for wizards to enjoy, including a new quest.

Opened last May, the award-winning mini golf venue also has upgraded the tavern area to help with the visitor flow and journey.

For The Forest Awakens, a hole based on the North York Moors National Park’s Dalby Forest, near Pickering, a new scent and soundtrack have been added to the room to create an immersive experience.

The hole places wizards among the trees as they aim for a hole in one, looked on by magical creatures of the darkened and mythical forest.

Chief Wizard Oliver Brayshaw says: “‘We’re excited to reveal the new holes; we know that our visitors are really going to enjoy them. Both Hole 6 and 7 are quite eerie but great fun.

“We have designed and built the holes and upgraded the tavern with the visitor journey in mind to ensure that everyone that visits has a fantastic experience.”

At The Hole In Wand York, in Coppergate Walk, wizard players take on nine magical golf holes. Along the “course” are bubbling cauldrons, magical portals and a giant picture frame where they become part of the painting. Visitors can do cast a Light Spell to illuminate the way in the dark hole and awaken the spirits.

At the end of the adventure, players will find out if they have the magical powers of a Serpent, Basilisk, Unicorn or Wizard. Every player will receive a magic potion gift to take home and hopefully find Grobblenook.

Wizard golf with a potion drink costs from £6.99 per person. The minimum age for players is three and the maximum group size is six wizards with wands. To book tickets, go to: theholeinwand.com/york

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REVIEW: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Hello, Dolly! ***

Helen Spencer’s Dolly Levi in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s fifth production as the JoRo’s in-house fundraising troupe since 2017 is their “most ambitious yet” and first to be directed by company regular Kathryn Lay.

She brings experience of directing for several Gilbert & Sullivan companies to the task, along with a familiar right-hand man for this bright and breezy production, husband Martin Lay, a figure in constant motion in white tie and tails as conductor and musical director in the dozen-strong orchestra pit.

Hello, Dolly!, with its book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, had its day as the longest-running show on Broadway after its 1964 debut, further buoyed by Gene Kelly’s 1969 film starring the irrepressible Barbra Streisand.

Based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce The Merchant Of Yonkers, re-written as The Matchmaker in 1954, it is a lightweight, gently amusing piece, not dissimilar in spirit to those works from the other side of the Big Pond, G&S’s light operas. Or, you could call it “an absolute hoot”, as the JoRo’s publicity puts it.

The setting is 1885 New York, where wily widow and meddling matchmaker Dolly Levi (Helen Spencer) has her eye on hooking tight-fisted half-a-millionaire Horace Vendergelder (Alex Schofield), a man short on joy and even shorter on humour.

Ever chirpy Dolly has calling cards for all manner of skills she claims to have, but resourcefulness is her primary asset, along with an ability to confuse all around her in pursuit of her goal. Spencer triumphs, both in song, especially her ballads, and as leading lady with an artful yet appealing air and bags of brio. Vandergelder is a stick in the mud, all the more so for Schofield playing him so straight.

The path to love may not run smoothly, but Hello, Dolly! is giddy with a supporting bill of billing and cooing involving Stuart Sellens’s Cornelius Hackl and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Irene Molloy, alongside Jamie Benson’s Barnaby Tucker and Jennifer Jones’s Minnie Fay. They make a swell foursome, amusing, smartly attired and characterful in their singing.

“Flouncing around in a feather boa”, Sophie Cooke is a good sport as Ernestina, the butt of Dolly’s meddling with a voice to launch a thousand cough lozenges.  Abigail Atkinson and Jonathan Wells make their mark too as artist Ambrose Kemper and young Ermengarde.

Supporting roles and ensemble players add to the jollification, particularly in the big numbers, whether beneath twirling brollies or on waiter duty in Lorna Newby’s lively choreography.

Tickets are in limited supply for tonight’s show and tomorrow’s matinee with better availability for tomorrow night’s finale. All proceeds go back to the JoRo in support of York’s community theatre and the chance to put on more big musicals with big casts to match.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

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Theatre’s virtual reality future feels at home with the avatars at York Theatre Royal

Home X: Theatre, dance, music, gaming, avatars, widescreen projections, virtual reality and 3D design combine in Kakilang and Don’t Believe In Style’s collaboration in the York Theatre Royal Studio

The arty bit

THE future of theatre arrives at York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow night in the cutting-edge form of Home X, an experimental UK and Southeast Asian collaboration that piches musicians and dancers into a virtual reality world.

Presented by Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) and Hong Kong partner Don’t Believe In Style and soon to open the Kakilang Festival 2023 in London, An-Ting Chang, Ian Gallagher and Donald Shek’s show combines theatre and music, gaming and virtual reality technology, live performance and audience participation. Soprano Colette Wing Wing Lam and actor gamer Mia Foo play their part too.

After tech rehearsals all this week, tomorrow and Saturday’s previews at a reconfigured Theatre Royal Studio, with 270-degree widescreen projections on three sides and the audience in the middle, can be followed online worldwide too. Further live performances will follow at the Barbican in London later this month.

Created in tandem with technologists and artists in London and Hong Kong, Chang, Gallagher and Shek’s three-dimensional world can be joined by digital audience members as avatars. 

Live performers in York (Si Rawlinson) and Hong Kong (fellow choreographer-breakdancer Suen Nam) will be captured as 3D images by depth-sensing cameras and then added to the world. In-person audience members in both locations will see one performer live in the venue, the other half as 3D projections on the widescreen.

After winning Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Award for storytelling, director, composer and Kakilang artistic director Chang, creative technologist Gallagher and architect in 3D design Shek are inviting audiences to “witness the future of live performance”, first in York.

“In Home X, we’re using technology as a form of artistic expression to create a new way of experiencing and telling stories,” says An-Ting. “Through this project, we aim to explore the potential of technology to bring people together and transcend physical boundaries.

“The remote audience will actively participate in the game, while the live audience witnesses these different realities intersecting in various ways. We aim to create a powerful and engaging experience that brings people together in a meaningful way.”

Home X explores the concept of home while celebrating the power of connection and togetherness in the belief that this show has the potential to revolutionise the way people experience theatre through fusing live performance with gaming technology, and “seeing where this technology can take us in the future”.

An-Ting Chang: Electronic musician, composer and director for Home X

“The two dancers have only ever ‘met’ on the VR headset; I’ve only ‘met’ Suen online, but what’s incredible about technology is that you can reach out to people you can’t meet physically,” says An-Ting. “It opens your eyes because there must be things you can learn from each other, from each other’s worlds, when you’re working in different spaces.”

An-Ting first brought a show to York Theatre Royal in February 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns, presenting Overheard in the theatre foyer, where the audience used headphones to eavesdrop on family discussions (“because they often take place in cafés”).

“It’s lovely to be back here, doing Home X in a co-commission with York Theatre Royal as one of the partners,” she says. “After we did the digital theatre show Every Dollar Is A Soldier online during lockdown, where we used the gaming engine too, that show became very important for Home X, where we wondered how a digital audience could really engage with a live performance, choosing an avatar and taking part in a promenade performance where you can really feel yourself jumping around in the space and engaging with other avatars. For those in the Studio, you can turn it into a theatre people couldn’t imagine.”

An-Ting has a background is both science and art with a degree in Chemistry from National Taiwan University and a MMus and PhD in performance from the Royal Academy of Music.

“I came to the UK 14 years ago, first to study at the Royal Academy as a concert pianist, and afterwards went to Germany to more studies, and then came back to do a PhD at the Royal Academy, looking at how to bring piano and theatre together,” says the director,  who has since put those studies into practice by combining different media, music, physical theatre and technology, while also travelling hither and thither as a concert pianist.

Where is ‘home’ for Taiwan-born An-Ting? “Home X is my personal story. Coming here 14 years ago, ‘home’ for me is confusing. Even after 14 years, I can still feel quite foreign but when I go back to Taiwan, I also feel foreign,” she says.

“Because ‘home’ is such a universal subject, I also interviewed lots of people about how they feel about ‘home’. People who had to leave Ukraine and Iraq. ‘Home’ is complicated but important to everyone, and I wanted to share those stories through Home X.”

Brought up in the Taiwanese countryside, An-Ting’s next move will be to move into the English countryside, a new home.

Home X, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow (10/2/2023) and Saturday, 7.45pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Online: homexvr.com. 

“The future of theatre”: Home X at York Theatre Royal Studio tomorrow and Saturday night

The science bit

IN Home X, live on stage in the UK and Hong Kong, depth-sensing cameras capture 3D video of the performers, using infrared light to convey the shape and movement of the performers’ bodies in real time.

The live audience will watch as they are digitised and streamed into the 3D world. This world will come alive for the audience through a 270-degree widescreen projection, with a live in-game camera following the digitised performers, the digital audience and the other creatures of the world.

Home X uses the gaming engine Unity to create a three-dimensional, virtual world. The digital audience members can engage fully with the performance by entering the virtual world as avatars. They may interact with other audience members and the performers using gestures and emojis, and even play a role in driving the story forward.

The use of bespoke streaming technology allows for a lag of less than half a second between the UK and Hong Kong performers, making it feel as though they are truly performing together in the same space.

Copyright of The Press, York