Fiona Baistow’s Millie in Next Door But One’s She Was Walking Home
YORK community arts collective Next Door But One’s autumn tour has visited schools, colleges and the Theatre Royal already.
Next comes the university leg: a sold-out 7.45pm performance tomorrow at the University of York, followed by a 7.30pm finale at York St John University on October 25. Fewer than 20 tickets remain on sale at nextdoorbutone.co.uk. Hurry, hurry, book now.
Rachel Price’s testimonial theatre work was first presented as a walking audio tour around York city centre in 2021, then on tour last year, when suggestions that it should visit schools and colleges prompted this autumn’s itinerary.
This season’s performances follow the publication of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s report, revealing that more than half a million offences against women and girls were recorded in England and Wales between October 1 2021 and March 31 2022 and that violence against women and girls accounts for at least 15.8 per cent of all recorded crime.
Anna Johnston’s Cate
Next Door But One’s website carries the strapline Where Every Story Matters. In this instance, 33 stories from women of different ages living, working and studying in York. “Stories of fear, harassment, suspicion, disappointment, anger, but above all hope…to make sure the right voices are still being heard,” as NDB1’s tour flyer puts it.
From those countless journeys and real-life testimonies, Price has created a series of four monologues, told with the minimum of theatrical tools. Stark lighting; a couple chairs and a white box that can be folded in different way to serve as a seat, a table, a lectern. Sound effects too. That’s all that’s needed. Less is more.
The focus is on the words, always theatre’s greatest asset, and in turn on how they are delivered by Kate Veysey’s cast of Fiona Baistow, Anna Johnston, Mandy Newby and Ceridwen Smith, deputising for one night at York Theatre Royal Studio for Emma Liversidge-Smith, who will return for the university performances.
Mandy Newby’s Jackie
In the wake of statistics highlighting that one in two women feels unsafe walking alone after dark in a quiet street near their home or in a busy public place, She Was Walking Home asks How Do We Keep Women Safe? Note the emphasis on “We”. All of us.
The post-show question-and-answer session revealed that one school had been averse to hosting the play for fear of boys feeling picked on. That school changed its mind and the show’s impact was such that the next lesson was immediately scrapped and replaced with discussions on the issues raised.
At one performance, some boys had laughed initially, even stamped their feet to mimic the footsteps of an approaching man, but that response was born out of a feeling of awkwardness, one that changed as the performance progressed and they realised the need to wise up to women’s experiences and how boys, as much as men, need to be “part of the change” that NDB1 is urging.
Baistow’s Millie is a girl, finishing a work shift, who misses her bus home and decides to risk walking down “Rape Lane”, the quickest route. Why does she do it, you ask? Put yourself in her shoes and ask again. By her harrowing journey’s end, it takes an act of kindness to help her out. What stops such acts being commonplace?
Ceridwen Smith: Stepping in to play lawyer Joanne for one performance only at York Theatre Royal Studio
Jonhnston’s Cate is a student on a night out, quick to leave after an unwanted chat-up, only to be followed by a creep who’s been doing that for a while. The police stop her, to tell her she is being followed. You might well be asking why didn’t they stop him instead? Everyone was asking that afterwards. As ever, the implication is that she is the one to blame. How she dresses. Her manner. Not the men, the pest and the predator. When will that change?
Mandy Newby’s Jackie is older, a mother, who finds herself being picked on and molested by a group of young lads on bicycles. She can’t face telling her daughter, such is her feeling of humiliation.
Urged by a friend, who subsequently sits beside her in the interview room, she goes to the police station; they give her the standard leaflets. Here’s where the work of the Kyra Women’s Project, the York charity that helps women to make positive change in their lives, is so important.
Smith’s Joanne is a lawyer, giving a talk on her experience of being sexually assaulted by two men working in tandem. Her recovery has been gradual, but now she has “joined the conversation”, encouraging women to seek the services of the likes of IDAS (Independent Domestic Abuse Services).
Emma Liversidge-Smith: Resuming her role as lawyer Joanne at the University of York tomorrow and York St John University on October 25
Four shocking cautionary tales, told verbatim from York’s streets as theatre verité; not so much acting as matter of facting. What followed was the best reason for a Q&A: the instant need to be “part of the conversation”, men and women alike.
To quote the flyer once more: “The conversation continues. And the loudest voices call for self-defence classes, rape alarms, trackers and a dress code. The conversation needs to change. The voices of women need to be at the centre, but the responsibility and accountability lies elsewhere.”
That makes She Was Walking Home as important for men to experience as women sharing stories and seeking advice and support. Crossing the road at night, to avoid following a woman, would be a step in the right direction for a start.
Next Door But One’s poster for She Was Walking Home: Countless journeys, 33 real testimonies, 4 women, 1 call to action
Bill Ward’s Gerald, left, Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper and Neil Hurst’s Dave watch understudy Leyon Stolz-Hunter’sHorse go through his audition moves in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
AT the midweek matinee, there appeared to be more men on stage than in the audience. It was very much the same febrile atmosphere that greeted the Chippendales on their York Barbican visits.
Outnumbered, dear reader, yes, but ironically The Full Monty is just as much a show for blokes too. Hence the link up with Menfulness, the York mental health charity.
Throughout this week’s run, the Grand Opera House will be collecting donations at bars and kiosk card payment points to provide funds towards urgent counselling for men at crisis point.
Men don’t talk to each other. Not about their problems, neither their own, nor each other’s. Just the football. But they do talk in this play. A lot. Men would benefit from doing it more often.
In the meantime, let’s talk about this terrific touring revival of The Full Monty, the spin-off play that the 1997 film’s scriptwriter, Simon Beaufoy premiered in 2013 in his first work for the stage.
In essence it is another strip off the same block, The Fuller Monty that goes even further, replaying the film’s greatest bits and greatest hits (Hot Chocolate, Donna Summer, Tom Jones finale), but with resonance anew and a political punch to the gut amid the cost-of-living crisis, rising rate of men’s suicides and a Tory government mired in long-reigning powerplays.
Just as was the case in the Sheffield of 1990s’ industrial strife, whose skyline forms the backdrop to Jasmine Swan’s fold-out set design of scaffolding and gauze.
Policemen’s drill: Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper, left, understudy Leyon Stolz-Hunter’s Horse, Jake Quickenden’s Guy, Bill Ward’s Gerald and Neil Hurst’s Dave in the finale to The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
The Republic of South Yorkshire’s steel industry had been knifed in the back, steelworkers stripped of their jobs, their dignity, their future. Men like former prisoner Gaz (Danny Hatchard, from EastEnders and Not Going Out) and his best mate, big Dave (Neil Hurst), who operated the steelworks crane.
The lads are now consigned to the scrapheap, the forlorn job club form-filling, and thieving from the foundry, where they have snuck into as the play opens, looking up at the crane, named Margaret after you know who, once mighty but now dormant in the damp, ever since the factory was shut down.
They will encounter insecure security guard Lomper (Nicholas Prasad), stuck in a dead-end job that he wants to end with a rope around his neck. Next will be Gerald (Bill Ward, from Coronation Street and Emmerdale), the jumped-up foreman with a sideline in dance tuition at the Conservative club and a free-spending wife (in Mrs Thatcher blue suits and stiff blonde hair), who is yet to tell he has lost his job. Six months ago.
On a night out at the Chippendales are Jean (Harrogate Theatre regular Katy Dean), Dave’s long-suffering yet devoted cleaner wife, and Mandy (Laura Matthews), Gaz’s ex-wife, who is threatening to cut off his links with son Nathan (Jack Wisniewski, sharing the role on tour with Cass Dempsey, Theo Hills and Rowan Poulton) as he falls further behind with the maintenance.
Ever the Billy Fisher dreamer, Gaz hits on the fundraising idea of forming a strip act, a Yorkshire fish-and-chips answer to the Chippendales’ T-bone steak, for one night only. Gerald will teach the routines, joined by Gaz, lovable, ever-dieting Dave, offbeat Lomper and who else?
The auditions, always a highlight, bring the first half to a double climax under Michael Gyngell’s perfectly weighted direction. First, step forward, a tad gingerly, Horse (Ben Onwukwe), with his James Brown/Northen Soul moves and dodgy hip.
Next, the moment the matinee hordes had been waiting for: the arrival to whoops and cheers of Jake Quickenden, last seen in York stripping down to his golden hot pants as a hunky cowboy in Footloose at the Theatre Royal. This time, Jake and his fabbadabbadoo abs are playing Guy, although audience members are quick to shout out Jake’s name, demanding rather more than a pound of flesh.
The full package: Jake Quickenden’s Guy in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
He takes it all in his stride, staying in character, gay, gorgeous but still coming to terms with a lost love, in keeping with Gyngell’s production playing the big tease, but always being true to Beaufoy’s original spirit.
For many, The Full Monty will be familiar, and that familiarity breeds contentment amid the discontent of the lives depicted, played here as if the for the first time.
The bare truths surround impotence, unemployment, loneliness and suicide attempts. You laugh because otherwise you would cry, and sometimes you do both at once, faced by comedy and pathos, mischief and melancholia in tandem, dealing with the stuff of life: resilience, community, fighting back, and love, in whatever form, whatever shape. The Yorkshire of Keith Waterhouse, John Godber, Alan Plater.
This Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and Buxton Opera House touring production delivers the Fullest Monty yet, superbly cast, with spot-on lighting by Andrew Exeter, ace choreography by Ian West, and a soundtrack not only of the film favourites but Pulp, Primal Scream, The Verve and Chumbawamba too.
It feels wrong to pick out performances: Ward, Onwukwe and Prasad all shine, but partnerships are particularly strong in Gyngell’s company. Take your pick: the friendship of Hatchard’s Gaz and Hurst’s Dave (with his echoes of York’s Mark Addy). The bond between Hatchard’s Gaz and Wisniewski as his canny-beyond-his-years son, at once amusing yet deeply moving too.
Or the ups and downs of Hurst’s Dave and Dean’s Jean, so been there, done that. And then there’s Quickenden’s Guy and his appendage, his Monty python, if you like.
Performances: 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Taking a tumble: Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for the now postponed The Worst Witch
PRODUCER Robert Readman has called off Pick Me Up Theatre’s Halloween double bill of The Worst Witch and Young Frankenstein at the Grand Opera House, York, due to unforeseen circumstances.
Hopes are high, however, that he will rearrange the two production runs for early 2024 at a venue yet to be confirmed, but most likely to be the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Watch this space.
Directed by Rosy Rowley, Emma Reeves and Luke Potter’s The Worst Witch was booked to run from October 27 to 29 with a young cast, followed by Readman’s northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s musical Young Frankenstein from October 31 to November 4.
October 26 and October 30 shows had been jettisoned already, since the initial posters (see above and below) were published.
For ticket refund details, head tohelp.atgtickets.com or contact 03330 096690.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster artwork for Young Frankenstein
“A chance to take on a role like this feels like heaven,” says Sue Cleaver as she looks forward to playing Mother Superior in Sister Act The Musical in her return to the stage after more than three decades
CORONATION Street star Sue Cleaver will swap the cobbles for the convent, the Rovers Return for rosary beads, when she plays the Mother Superior in Sister Act The Musical on tour.
The British and Irish itinerary will take in the Grand Opera House, York, from May 6 to 11 next spring.
‘‘I’m thrilled to be stepping into the habit and joining the incredible company of Sister Act on tour,” says Sue, 60. “It’s been over 30 years since I’ve been on stage, but theatre has always been my first love. A chance to take on a role like this feels like heaven.”
She is best known forplaying Eileen Grimshaw for 23 years in Corrie, her soap opera role bringing her the Favourite Female Soap Star gong at the TV Now Awards and Best Soap Actress in the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards, along with being nominated twice for Most Popular Actress at the National Television Awards.
Sue Cleaver: Coronation Street stalwart, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here contestant, Loose Women guest panellist and soon-to-be Mother Superior in Sister Act The Musical
Her further television credits include City Central, Dinnerladies, This is Personal: The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper, Peak Practice, Casualty, Band Of Gold and A Touch Of Frost. In 2022, she appeared in the 22nd series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, finishing ninth.
Sue will join the Sister Act company in Brighton before playing Manchester, Cork, Belfast, Glasgow,York and Birmingham.
In the cast too will be Landi Oshinowoas Deloris Van Cartier, Alfie Parker as Eddie Souther and Ian Gareth-Jones as Curtis Jackson, alongside Isabel Canning, Julie Stark,Phillip Arran, Wendy-Lee Purdy, Callum Martin, Esme Laudat, Amber Kennedy, Joseph Connor, Ceris Hine, Eloise Runnette and Sheri Lineham. Further casting for the tour will be be announced.
Based on Emile Ardolino’s 1992 American comedy film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act is a testament to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music, built around the story of Deloris Van Cartier, a disco diva whose life takes a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.
“I’m thrilled to be stepping into the habit and joining the incredible company of Sister Act on tour,” says Sue
Under protective custody, she is hidden in the one place she will not be found: a convent! Disguised as a nun and under the suspicious watch of Cleaver’s Mother Superior, Oshinowo’s Deloris helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own.
Sister Act The Musical isdirected by Bill Buckhurst and choreographed Alistair David, with set and costume design by Morgan Large, lighting design by Tim Mitchell, sound design by Tom Marshall and musical supervision by Stephen Brooker.
Produced by Jamie Wilson and Whoopi Goldberg, the show features original music by Tony and eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken (Disney’s Aladdin, Enchanted), lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, with additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane.
Tickets for the York nun run are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.
Six pack; Jake Quickenden, left, Ben Onwukwe, Neil Hurst, Danny Hatchard, Bill Ward and Nicholas Prasad in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
MARKING the 25th anniversary of Peter Cattaneo’s Sheffield film, The Full Monty is stripped for stage action in a national tour of Simon Beaufoy’s spin-off play that arrives in York tomorrow.
As the group of lads on the scrapheap tries to regain dignity and pride, the story of downs, more downs and ups, defiant humour and heartbreak will resonate anew amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Leaving their hat on at the Grand Opera House this week will be Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Jake Quickenden’s Guy, Bill Ward’s Gerald, Neil Hurst’s Dave, Ben Onwukwe’s Horse and Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper.
Completing the cast will be Oliver Joseph Brooke; Katy Dean; Laura Matthews; Badapple Theatre favourite Danny Mellor; Adam Porter Smith; Suzanne Procter; Alice Schofield and Leyon Stolz-Hunter. The young actors sharing the role of Nathan on tour will be Cass Dempsey, Theo Hills, Rowan Poulton and Jack Wisniewski.
Directed by Michael Gyngell, The Full Monty tour marks the first co-production and partnership between the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and Buxton Opera House.
Choreography and intimacy direction is by Ian West; set and costume design by Jasmine Swan; lighting design by Andrew Exeter and sound design by Chris Whybrow.
Making plans: A scene from The Full Monty as the lads audition Horse, right, for their strip act. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Here, television stars Danny Hatchard (from EastEnders and Not Going Out), Jake Quickenden (Dancing On Ice winner and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! runner up) and Bill Ward (from Emmerdale and Coronation Street) discuss the joy of taking to the stage in this autumn’s 25th anniversary touring production.
The Full Monty is experiencing a resurgence, first in the Disney+ TV series and now this tour show. Why has stood it stood the test of time?
Danny: “Is there a more iconic working-class comedy than The Full Monty? I’d argue not. Especially one that covers so many incredibly important topics that are still very relevant today. Fathers’ rights, depression, suicide, impotence, homosexuality, unemployment, body image.
“Tackling important subjects like these whilst adding a sprinkle of nostalgia and a dash of humour takes the audience on a two -hour emotional rollercoaster filled with tears and belly laughter. This show is not only a cocktail of excellence, but also hugely relatable to both men and women.”
Jake: “It’s a story for everyone and it has everything – love, humour, sensitive subjects, the lot. So many people can relate to the characters. They draw on relationships that affect everyone: ex-wife; ex-wife’s new husband; kid that lives with mum; lads; being skint, the list goes on and on.
“It means that’s everyone who watches it can feel like it’s speaking to them, and then of course, there is the brilliant humour, the dancing and everything that goes with it!”
Bill: “Because at its core it revolves around a number of universal, timeless themes: male brotherhood, love, overcoming loss and adversity, and ingenious solutions to universal recognisable problems. This is essentially about six men who’ve lost not only their jobs, but their sense of identity and their dignity too, and what they’re prepared to do to get them back.”
Hitting their stride: Bill Ward’s Gerald, left, Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Neil Hurst’s Dave, Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper and understudy Leyon Stolz Hunter’s Horse invest their all in the strip routine finale from The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
The Full Monty is a comedy but one that explores tough issues around male body image and mental health too. In which ways are these themes relevant today?
Danny: “They’re almost indistinguishable. If anything, times are harder now on men (and women) than they ever have been, especially regarding body image and mental health. Social media being the main driving force of that. Every day people post their idea of ‘perfection’ all over the internet, and naturally we compare.
“I’d say The Full Monty is just as important now as it was 25 years ago. There used to be more of a sense of community and care for one another, and I feel social media is pushing us further and further away from our natural way of communicating. The Full Monty will make you feel part of a community again. Who doesn’t want to experience that?”
Jake: A lot of people ask this [question] and do you know, I think The Full Monty led the way with a lot of these conversations. It was ’97 when then film came out, men didn’t really share their issues with each other, and it was still pretty taboo to be open about mental health and being gay.
“This story reminds us of lots of things that are more accepted today but still very important: talk to people if you are feeling down – there is always another way out other than suicide.
“Being yourself in the world is nothing to be ashamed of. Your body is the only one you have; love it no matter how it looks; everyone likes something different. Just because you are old doesn’t mean you can’t do something…there are just so many messages in here for everyone.”
Bill: “There are so many things in this play that resonate today. Simon Beaufoy, the writer, came to see us during rehearsals, and he was very clear it wasn’t a comedy at all. ‘A play with jokes’, is how he described it.
“It is of course very funny indeed, but the comedy actually comes from the very real tragedy that all these characters are facing in their lives…different circumstances, different starting points, but real grief and tragedy nevertheless.”
Jake Quickenden now: Playing Guy in The Full Monty, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York from tomorrow. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
In keeping with the brotherhood between the men in the play, how well have you bonded with your fellow cast members?
Danny: “The casting team have done an incredible job. I love and respect every member of this cast very much. They say time flies when you’re having fun. Well, two hours feels like 20 minutes on stage with this lot. We’re all just a bunch of good mates having a wonderful time. Every scene feels effortless, and I trust them all implicitly.”
Jake: “I don’t want to sound clichéd but literally everyone is so close. Usually, you get little cliques grow but we genuinely all get on so well, and because a lot of the scenes include all of us, we just have a laugh and get closer and closer every day.
“Then there are all the memories we’re making as we tour the UK and all those different theatres, hotels, lunch breaks end up building to create this huge happy family. Plus, we are all hilarious, which helps!”
Bill: “This is a wonderful cast and crew. Hugely talented and lovely too. We’re a very happy band of sisters and brothers.”
What do you hope this week’s audiences will take away from seeing this production?
Danny: “Pure unadulterated happiness.”
Jake: “The main thing is: be yourself, never give up, never listen to what anyone thinks and just do you! The story is sad at times, but every character overcomes their worries in some way and ends with success! It’s a feel-good show, which keeps people laughing even when they are crying.”
Bill: “This is a very beautiful, heartwarming and at times very moving story. It’s also very, very funny indeed and an absolute riot at the end. A properly banging night out at the theatre.”
Jake Quickenden then: Striking a pose in hot pants in his role as cowboy Willard Hewitt in Footloose The Musical at York Theatre Royal last year
Did you know?
JAKE Quickenden last appeared on a York stage as hunky cowboy Willard Hewitt, stripping to his golden pants in Footloose The Musical at the Theatre Royal in April 2022.
BILL Ward’s last appearance on a York stage came during the Theatre Royal’s Haunted Season, cast opposite fellow Coronation Street star Wendi Peters in Philip Meeks’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow in October 2021. He played not only village elder statesman Baltus Van Tassel, but also a naughty 90-year-old female cook, a hard-drinking coach driver and a crazy, delusional Dutch captain.
The Full Monty, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.Also: Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, November 14 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; 01274 432000 or bradford-theatres.co.uk.
The men from Full Monty say yes to supporting York mental health charity Menfulness in fund-raising drive
The Full Monty cast with representatives from the York charity Menfulness in the foyer bar at the Grand Opera House, York
THE Full Monty cast has met up with the men’s mental health charity, Menfulness, ahead of the first night of this week’s run in York.
The Grand Opera House is supporting the York charity by collecting donations at bars and kiosks card payment points throughout the week to provide funds for urgent counselling for men at crisis point.
Menfulness is an inclusive social wellbeing group that supports and promotes improvements in men’s lives through activities and counselling. The group is “led by five blokes from York who, like most of us, have struggled with mental health and the pressures of life”.
“Our goal is to bring men together to socialise, exercise, enjoy themselves, talk and let off steam in a non-judging, friendly and supportive environment,” says the charity. “These are all essential for wellbeing and health, both physical and mental.
“Menfulness is not only changing lives, it’s saving lives. And we aim to be the leaders of a cultural shift in which men can talk, where we don’t have to man up, where it’s OK not to be OK, and where support is plentiful, accessible and affordable.”
To find out more about the charity, head to: menfulness.org
Alan Sharp’s Warwick, James Tyler’s Lancaster, James Lee’s Gaveston, Emma Scott’s Young Mortimer and Cassi Roberts’s Kent at work on York Shakespeare Project’s Edward II. Picture: John Saunders
AT the heart of phase two of York Shakespeare Project over the next 25 years is the mission to stage not only all of Shakespeare’s plays, but also the finest works of his contemporaries.
The Bard’s first rival in focus will be playwright, poet and translator Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, writer of The Tragicall History of Dr Faustus; Tamburlaine The Great; Dido, Queen Of Carthage; Edward II; The Massacre At Paris and The Jew Of Malta.
York Shakespeare Project (YSP) will stage his intimate historical tragedy Edward II (a.k.a. The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England) under the direction of Tom “Strasz” Straszewski at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 17 to 21 at 7.30pm plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee.
Edward II is king at last. Determined to shower his loved ones with gifts, he summons his exiled lover, Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall. In the face of a king, court and country intoxicated by their passions, the Queen takes her own lover, whereupon the nation is torn apart in a merciless divorce. Their child watches from the shadows, desperate to mend this broken family and nation or bring them to heel.
“Like Marlowe himself, we wanted to focus less on historical accuracy or psychological realism, and instead as a fantasia of power and love. This is a fearful England,” says the director.
Tom Straszewski: director of York Shakespeare Project’s Edward II
Here Tom Straszewski discusses kings and queens, sexuality and social mobility, drag and cancel culture with CharlesHutchPress
What attracted you to directing Marlowe’s Edward II, Strasz?
“I’d just come off the back of directing Lincoln and York’s Mystery Plays and was looking for the next challenge. Edward II came at the perfect moment – something more intimate, but still engaging with a community cast and their own ideas for the play.
“YSP were good enough to trust me with their first non-Shakespeare play. I knew I wanted to treat it as a queer play, not just in terms of the love between Edward and Gaveston, but as something that challenges what it means to be powerful.”
How will you bring contemporary resonance to this age-old story of the struggle for love and power?
“The historical Edward II has tended to be portrayed as a weak king. He lost to the Scots, he wasn’t interested in taking over more land in France, there was a Europe-wide famine…but it’s been horribly tied to debate over his sexuality.
Cassi Roberts, back left, as Kent, Emma Scott as Young Mortimer, James Lee as Gaveston, Thomas Jennings as Lightborn, Stuart Lindsay as the Bishop, Emily Hansen as Pembroke and Alan Sharp as Warwickin rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Edward II. Picture: John Saunders
“The cast were generally wary of judging Edward by medieval standards. Did we really want to judge him for failing to conquer other countries? What we found was a king whose downfall isn’t in rejecting his love for Gaveston or failing to make war, but failure to keep his community safe.
“What’s resonated with many of us is the dramatic increase in transphobia over the last few years. Because of that, we’ve framed power and love as two ways of finding safety. For the nobles, having power lets them keep their loved ones safe. Edward protects Gaveston because he loves him, because it’s the right thing to do – whatever the cost.”
How did you bring drag into your considerations on how to present Edward II?
“It draws on the glamour of royalty. Drag queens, drag kings, it’s about finding something powerful in how you present yourself to the world. So we call our production a fantasia. A work of the imagination, of imagery and visions, rather than pure plot.
“Originally it meant ‘to shine’, and that’s something we’ve engrained in the play: a world of shining gold and dripping pearls, and the seductive shimmer of power and passion. Underneath all that are ordinary people, striving for something glorious.”
Cassi Roberts as Kent, left, and Emma Scott as Young Mortimer. Picture: John Saunders
What drew you to casting YSP Jack Downey, James Lee and Danae Arteaga Hernandez in the principal roles of Edward II, Gaveston and Queen Isabel? “When we first auditioned, we were looking for an ensemble who could all work together. We didn’t know who might be in each part, as long as they brought curiosity and bravery. As we got into the guts of the play, it became clear that James and Jack played off each other.
“There’s something of the current monarch in Jack’s portrayal – torn between his real love on one side, and the rejected wife on the other. James’s Gaveston allows Edward to be gentle, to shrug – for a moment – the weight of kingship off his shoulders.
“Danae has been a real revelation as Queen Isabel, particularly paired with Emma Scott’s Young Mortimer. She’s constantly described as weeping or mourning, but Danae’s found the power behind that.
“I’m also delighted that familiar faces have returned, often bringing something surprising, something I hadn’t seen them do before. Emily Hansen’s found a steely core in Pembroke’s moderation. Harry Summers’ Elder Mortimer gives a wonderfully tender paean to love between men, behind his desire to bash some heads in.”
James Lee’s Gaveston, left, and Jack Downey’s Edward II
How does Jack Downey interpret Edward II? “Jack’s Edward uses weakness as a weapon. He threatens to give his crown away, knowing nobody wants the responsibility. He’ll lie down in the middle of the stage and see if people will really dare to brutalise him. And they back down! He wins!
“Then he starts playing the game on the other’s terms: starts wars, executes his prisoners, abandons his friends for his own safety. That’s when it falls apart. “And what Emma Scott has brought to Young Mortimer is a noble who recognises this, responds to it – she doesn’t rant and bully people, but tries to lead them along with a smile (and the threat of her knife behind it).”
How are today’s issues of cancel culture, celebrity and social mobility woven into your Edward II?
“If our play is a fantasia, we looked at other forms of power and display than the monarchy – and celebrity is chief among them. How we present ourselves and who lies behind it are often different. For Gaveston, he’s met the right people, helped out his friends, risen above his poor background.
Stuart Lindsay as the Bishop, left, Charlie Barrs as Maltravers and Thomas Jennings as Lightborn. Picture: John Saunders
“Gaveston’s enemies don’t see it that way. His crime is not loving the king, but getting rich off it, and they don’t see what he’s done to deserve it. They’ve suffered to keep their people safe. He hasn’t.
“Gaveston and Edward fail to control the narrative, and so they lose their supporters, their fans I guess! The play constantly references the medieval wheel of fortune: if you rise, you must fall. And we can see how quickly someone can rise and fall today.”
What will the set and costume design be?
“All the actors have brought their own designs to the mix, based on their understanding of the characters. Expect to see a little Hollywood glamour, mirrored vanities, gold and pearls. Makeup as a source of power. Underneath it, the decay of the fall.”
York Shakespeare Project’s poster for Edward II
Where will music fit into your production? “Music comes out in moments of power and desire. Serenades to the king, a power number gearing up for war, a bit of techno. We’ve drawn on what suits the moment. Each of Edward’s lovers sing to him. For example, The Ink Spots’ I Don’t Want to Set The World On Fire: its refrain of ‘Believe me’ is key to it all.”
And finally, Strasz, how do you “rate” his rival Marlowe by comparison with Shakespeare?
“You don’t! You shouldn’t! They were collaborators; they almost certainly worked on Henry VI together; there are phrases and situations that they share. Maybe Shakespeare’s later works have a certain tenderness that Marlowe’s early plays lack, but then Shakespeare had decades of experience beyond Marlowe’s death.
“Marlowe’s not interested in broad comedy, although his insults are witty. But I think he’s willing to let his lead characters let loose at the world. Shakespeare’s characters enjoy the rise to power. Marlowe’s better at the fall.”
Tickets are available at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk or by emailing the box office at boxoffice@41monkgate.co.uk.
Tony Froud: Chair of York Shakespeare Project
Only One Question for: York Shakespeare Project chair Tony Froud
Why will York Shakespeare Project feature works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries in its second cycle of productions?
“AS we embarked on phase two, we wanted to stretch ourselves afresh, in a way matching the great ambition of the original project’s aim (to do all the plays in 20 years). Producing all of Shakespeare’s plays again is a mighty task in itself and will offer new challenges in presenting the texts in new ways for different times.
“But we were mindful that Shakespeare did not exist in a vacuum. Many of his contemporaries were great playwrights in their own right, and there are so many exciting Elizabethan and Jacobean plays that we want to share over the next 25 years.”
Made in Sheffield, on tour in York: Simon Beaufoy’s The Full Monty, packed with a star cast at the Grand Opera House
GHOSTS in gardens, men in hats and nowt else, kings in trouble, Halloween scares and pumpkins galore offer an autumn harvest for Charles Hutchinson and you to pick.
Yorkshiremen of the week: The Full Monty, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
CELEBRATING the 25th anniversary of Peter Cattaneo’s Sheffield film, The Full Monty takes to the stage in a national tour of Simon Beaufoy’s play, wherein a group of lads on the scrapheap try to regain their dignity and pride in a story of ups and downs, humour and heartbreak, resonant anew amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Leaving their hat on will be Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Jake Quickenden’s Guy, Bill Ward’s Gerald, Neil Hurst’s Dave, Ben Onwukwe’s Horse and Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Fiddler Ryan Young: NCEM concert
Fiddler of the week: Ryan Young & David Foley, National Centre for Early Music, York, Monday, 7.30pm
FIDDLER and 2022 MG ALBA Musician of the Year nominee Ryan Young brings new and exciting ideas to traditional Scottish music with his spellbinding interpretations of very old, often forgotten tunes. Joining him in York will be guitarist David Foley. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
James Lee’s Gaveston, left, and Jack Downey’s Edward II in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Edward II. Picture: John Saunders
Play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Edward II, Theatre@41, Monkgate, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
PHASE two of York Shakespeare Project offers the chance over the next 25 years to see works by Shakespeare’s rivals, led off by Christopher “Kit” Marlowe’s intimate historical tragedy Edward II under the direction of Tom “Strasz” Straszewski.
Expect themes of cancel culture, social mobility and celebrity to pour out of this modern interpretation of Marlowe’s 1952 work, starring Jack Downey as Edward II, James Lee as his lover Gaveston and Danae Arteaga Hernandez as his wilful Queen, Isabel, in this “fantasia of power and love”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Fascinating Aida: Forty years of sassy satireencapsulated at York Barbican
Cabaret return of the week: Fascinating Aida – The 40th Anniversary Show, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm
DILLIE Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman, “Britain’s raciest and sassiest musical cabaret trio”, celebrate 40 years of Fascinating Aida travels in their typically charming, belligerent, political, poignant, outrageous and filthy new show. Much-loved favourites, such as Dogging and Cheap Flights, will be combined with fresh satirical numbers. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Meanwhile, actress, presenter and writer Miriam Margolyes’s Oh Miriam! Live show on Monday has sold out.
Something wicked this way comes: Ian Thomson-Smith’s Macbeth and Sharon Nicholson-Skeggs’s Lady Macbeth in York Opera’s Macbeth
Opera of the week: York Opera in Verdi’s Macbeth, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday and Friday, 7pm; Saturday, 4pm
JOHN Soper directs York Opera in its autumn production of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1847 opera Macbeth, starring the highly experienced duo of baritone Ian Thomson-Smith as Macbeth and soprano Sharon Nicholson-Skeggs as Lady Macbeth.
Sung in English, it stays true to Shakespeare’s original play, complete with witches, ghosts, cut-throats and the political scheming of the Scottish court. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Lloyd Cole: Two sets in one show, one acoustic, the other electric, at York Barbican
Gigs of the week: Lloyd Cole, Tuesday, 8pm; Paul Carrack, Thursday, 7.30pm at York Barbican
LLOYD Cole plays two sets in one night on Tuesday, the first acoustic and solo, the second electric, with a band featuring two of his Commotions compadres, Blair Cowan and Neil Clark, as he showcases his 12th solo album, On Pain.
Sheffield singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player Paul Carrack, the soulful voice of Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics hits, returns to one of his most regular joints on Thursday. How long has this been going on? Oh, a long, long time. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Paul Carrack: Returning to York Barbican
Halloween days and nights: Hallowtween and Hallowscream, York Maze, near Elvington, York until November 4
HALLOWTWEEN is billed as the “UK’s only Halloween event for families with children aged ten to 15”. Venture inside four of York Maze’s Hallowscream scare houses but without the monsters that inhabit them at night for the shocks and thrills of Corny’s Cornevil, The Singularity, The Flesh Pot and a new haunted house.
Hallowscream fright nights promise fear and fun in five live-action scare houses, plus a new stage show, bar and hot food. Box office: hallowtween.co.uk or yorkmazehallowscream.co.uk.
The Bride, in Museums Gardens, part of the Ghosts In The Garden free sculpture trail in York. Picture: Gareth Buddo
Trail of the season: Ghosts In The Garden, haunting York until November 12
THE eerie sculptures of Ghosts In The Gardens return for the third time for haunted York’s spookiest season, as unearthly monks, a noble knight, Vikings, painters, archers, even a phantom peacock, pop up in translucent 3D wire mesh form.
Unconventional Designs have created a free trail of 39 sculptures, installed at Museum Gardens, The Artists’ Garden, Treasurer’s House, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, Middletons Hotel, St Anthony’s Garden, Barley Hall, Shambles, Clifford’s Tower, The Judge’s Lodging, DIG, Castle Museum Mill, Edible Wood and Library Lawn.
Professor Dan: Tricks and Treats at the Pumpkin Festival at Piglets Adventure Farm
Children’s festival of the month: Pumpkin Festival at Piglets Adventure Farm, Towthorpe Grange, Towthorpe Moor Lane, York, October 14, 15, 21, 22 and 28 to 31, then November 1 to 3
HERE comes the Pumpkin Patch (with a free pumpkin for every paying child), Pumpkin Carving Marquee, Catch The Bats Quiz, Professor Dan’s Tricks and Treats Magic Show at 12 noon and 2pm, The Bat-walk Fancy Dress Parade at 3.30pm, Gruesome Ghosts of York in the Maize Maze and Spooky Animal Encounters.
From November 1 to 3, the attractions will be Professor Dan’s eye-popping Magic Show (same show times), Gruesome Ghosts of York in the Maize Maze and Spooky Animal Encounters. Tickets: pigletsadventurefarm.com.
Out of luck: Bev Jones Music Company has had to call off Guys And Dolls, starring Chris Hagyard
Postponed: Bev Jones Music Company in Guys And Dolls, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 18 to 21.
LUCK won’t be a lady next week after all. Cast illness has put paid to the Bev Jones Music Company’s first production since Covid-blighted 2020. Claire Pulpher was to have directed a York cast led by tenor Chris Hagyard in Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ 1950s’ musical. Plans are afoot to stage the show next summer instead. Ticket holders are being contacted by the JoRo box office team.
Catrin Finch, right, and Aoife Ni Bhriain: NCEM preview of debut album Double You
Duo of the week: Catrin Finch & Aoife Ni Bhriain, National Centre for Early Music, York, Friday, 7.30pm
AFTER her award-winning collaborations with Seckou Keita and Cimarron, Welsh harpist Catrin Finch has formed a virtuoso duo with Dublin violinist Aoife Ni Bhriain, who commands both the classical world and her traditional Irish heritage.
Inspired by a multitude of influences and linked by the cultures of their home countries, they follow up last November’s debut at Other Voices Cardigan with a select few concerts previewing the extraordinary and original material from their October 27 debut album, Double You. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Paloma Faith: New album, new tour, both entitled The Glorification Of Sadness, in 2024
Looking ahead: Paloma Faith, The Glorification Of Sadness Tour 2024, York Barbican, May 12
NEXT spring, Paloma Faith will play York for the first time since her York Racecourse Music Showcase set on Knavesmire in June 2018, promoting her sixth studio album, next February’s The Glorification Of Sadness.
Her new songs will be “celebrating finding your way back after leaving a long-term relationship, being empowered even in your failures and taking responsibility for your own happiness”, following last year’s split from French artist Leyman Lachine. Hull Bonus Arena on May 3 awaits too. Box office: from 10am on October 20, ticketmaster.co.uk and seetickets.com.
In Focus: Chronicled and Summer Art finalists’ exhibitions at Spark: York, Piccadilly, York, today and tomorrow
Spark summer art under-15s competition winner Emily Saunders with her mother Samantha and Spark:York resident artist and judging panellist Leon François Dumont
SPARK:YORK, the creative community space in Piccadilly, York, is hosting two exhibitions this weekend, both exploring themes powerfully relevant to our communities today.
Chronicled is a pop-up show organised by the University of York’s Ukrainian Society, showcasing works by Kyiv street photographer Dima Leonenko.
His dynamic vision of everyday life in the Ukrainian capital during the Russianfull-scale invasion is reflected through his film photos. ”When I see a character or a scene that catches my attention, I just press the button and capture it,” he says.
On show from 12 noon to 10.30pm today and tomorrow, Dima’s exhibition will be accompanied by an interactive project that allows visitors to immerse themselves in the “war-life reality’’ of the Ukrainian people. The event takes place in Spark:York’s co-working space downstairs, with a drinks welcome, from 6pm to 8pm tonight.
The poster for Kyiv street photographer Dima Leonenko’s Chronicled exhibition at Spark:York today and tomorrow
Spark:York also will be showcasing artworks submitted to its summer art competition, set up to encourage York-based artists to imagine the city’s future 100 years from now and share their ideas, fears and hopes surrounding the impact of climate change on this historic city.
Leon François Dumont, Spark:York resident artist and judging panel member, says: ”In this art exhibition, we’ve witnessed a remarkable outpouring of creativity from both young and adult artists.
“From a city transformed by shipping containers to a bubble-like dome preserving York under water, these artworks by the finalists are a testament to the power of imagination.”
The exhibition can be viewed in Spark:York’s Show studio upstairs today and tomorrow from 12 noon to 9pm. Guests are invited to contribute to a time capsule created on the day by leaving a message and a memento for the people of York in 2050, the year of the UK’s net zero target. Spark: York hopes to pass the time capsule on to the City of York Council for safekeeping.
The VRAC (Vape Recycling Awareness Campaign) art installation SUCKERED – not – SUCCOURED in the making for display at Spark:York this weekend
At the front of Spark:York will be an art installation by VRAC (Vape Recycling Awareness Campaign), a York campaign group that has been been working with Spark:York over the past 18 months to collect used vapes that would otherwise end up being discarded, either in landfills or down drains, polluting waterways and ground water with toxic metals. An estimated 1.5 million per week are discarded in this way.
Group founder Mick Storey says: ”The SUCKERED – not – SUCCOURED installation, using some 3,000 used vapes, conveys a message about our responsibility to all our young people and the future generations yet to come who will inherit whatever future it is we leave behind us.”
Spark:York “hopes that both exhibitions can open a discussion around the future of our communities, as well as provoke reflections and meaningful actions that can help build a better world for us all”.
Entry to both exhibitions is free. For more information, head to: www.sparkyork.org/
NEWS ALERT: 26/10/2023
The York In 100 Years exhibition has moved to Spark:York’s pop-up space, where it will be on display until November 5.
Lowri Clarke, winner of the 15-plus categrory of the Spark summer art competition
Paul Crewes: The new chief executive at the helm of York Theatre Royal
WHAT a sight to greet new chief executive Paul Crewes at Tuesday’s opening night of Frantic Assembly’s pulsating reinvention of Kafka’s Metamorphosis: a full house at York Theatre Royal, with excited school groups to the fore.
Appointed in June, after Tom Bird flew off to Sheffield Theatres in January, Paul took up his post last week, when Rambert’s Death Trap marked his arrival with two Ben Duke works full of the turbulence of life and death.
Metamorphosis? Death? New life? Re-birth? Paul will give himself time, letting his feet settle under his desk in St Leonard’s Place, before making his mark on the way forward post-Covid, post-Bird, post-De Grey Rooms.
His official statement put it this way: “I am thrilled to have now joined the great team at York Theatre Royal. Over the next few weeks and months, I’m looking forward to meeting our audiences, participants, creatives, members, donors and partners and hearing from them what makes this fantastic theatre so important in the life of our wider community.
“I will continue to build on all that work – supporting great artists and practitioners as well as attracting and growing new audiences. This is an exciting time at York Theatre Royal and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Impact on the wider community. Supporting artists and practitioners, locally, nationally and internationally. Cultivating new audiences. Exciting time to arrive. These are the bullet points, the right goals, at the right time.
No wonder his appointment made so much sense to the York Citizens’ Theatre Trust board of trustees, whose chair, Ann Green CBE, said at the time of his appointment: “Paul has a huge breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, and a passion for the positive role theatre can play in community life.
“Building on all the fantastic work the team have created in recent years, we are all excited to be embarking on a new, fresh and confident chapter in the life of York Theatre Royal together.”
At 62, Paul’s vast experience in theatre and the arts as a chief executive, producer and artistic advisor takes in organisations both in Great Britain and the United States. From 2015 to 2021, he was artistic director of the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts in Los Angeles, where theatre, dance, music and film vied for attention.
Before that, he was executive producer and chief executive officer of Kneehigh, the Cornish company that went national and international in a model of groundbreaking, exhilarating, innovative theatre expansion.
Earlier, Bristol Old Vic, Paines Plough, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal, the Lowry, Salford, Phoenix Dance Theatre and the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2001-2004) in Leeds all benefited from his producing skills, and he had three years as director of technical training at RADA too.
“I started my career at the Bristol Old Vic and I shall probably end it here in York,” says Paul. “I love the history of these theatres.”
He was born in Brixton, South London in May 1961, where his Methodist minister father was the chaplain at Brixton Prison in the Sixties. “He got to know the Richardsons, Charlie Kray, Ronnie and Reggie too, and the youth club he ran was raided daily by the police,” recalls Paul.
He went on to study English and History at Roehampton Institute, part of London University, where he served as social secretary of the students’ union in his second year. “I loved creating events, whether a ball, a party or a theatre show, working with a very small budget,” he says.
He did “get his head down” in his 3rd year, albeit while being social secretary for the rugby club – sport is his other great love – and was then elected to the sabbatical post of students’ union treasurer, “looking after everything” and mothballing his plan to study teacher training in English and PE at Westminster College, Oxford.
Ken Baker’s vision for education in Margaret Thatcher’s Government prompted him to write a dissertation on why he would not be going into teaching. “At that point, I didn’t feel ready to teach,” he says.
He was, however, developing the skills that would take him into producing for theatres, having already stage managed a school production of Max Frisch’s Andora that played the Edinburgh Fringe, even picking up a review in the Scotsman. “That’s quite an experience for a 17-year-old,” he says.
“At university, I directed a play, Ball Boys, a two-hander by David Edgar, and had such a great time doing it. I never saw theatre as a career, but as a hobby, so when I entered that world in 1985, I wasn’t planning for the long term.
“But then came the sudden realisation that if I’m going to do something, it must be something I enjoy, and that I should train in it from the very bottom, beginning at the end of the pier at Great Yarmouth, working on four shows seven days a week.”
His career was up and running, with the focus on producing and gradually overseeing the creativity that comes into the building. “Whether it’s programming or production managing, for the last 24 years, I’ve been involved in the producing side, working with great creative teams. For me, it’s always been about working with the team, and that will continue at Theatre Royal, brokering and guiding and at times being guided too, but ultimately with control in my hands.”
He thrives on such responsibility. “People are brought up being afraid to make mistakes, and that’s part of the problem with the arts, where they’re scared of failing, where you have to create prototypes, but if you’re not frightened of failing, then something more exciting will come out of it.”
Kneehigh’s success would be a case in point, and now York Theatre Royal should benefit from his artistic and commercial vision.
Suffering under a surfeit of chairs: Felipe Pacheco’s Gregor Samsa in Frantic Assembly’s Metamorphosis. Picture: Tristram Kenton
SHOULD Frantic Assembly transfer Franz Kafka’s absurdist novella Metamorphosis from page to stage?
Artistic director Scott Graham’s initial reaction was No, but its themes of the crushing burden of debt, subsequent dysfunctional family relations, monotonous work for low pay, fear of isolation and an unhealthy obsession with identity made it as much a story for our time as of 1912.
That surely made it ripe for a company noted for the heft of its emotional truths? Then add wave upon wave of Kakfa surrealism to bring out Frantic Assembly’s other trademark: movement. The physicality to complement all that mental turbulence.
Now Graham needed a writer, one to work in tandem with him in creating a 21st century reinvention of Metamorphosis, its world of social immobility, dashed expectations, repetitive restraints, impoverishment and exploitation, but still with the look of the early 20th century (courtesy of Jon Bauser’s design and Becky Gunstone’s period costumes).
Lemn Sissay OBE, esteemed poet, broadcaster and speaker, was his pick but again the first inclination was No. However, he too felt the tug of Kafka’s torrid tale, seeing within its desperation, a chance to depict Gregor’s transformation as the embodiment of the woes of modern capitalism.
Two forces are at play in Graham’s production, movement and language, not always in union, however.
Ruling the roost: Joe Layton’s Chief Clerk piling on the financial pressure in Frantic Assembly’s Metamorphosis as Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Grete, left, Louise May Newberry’s Mrs Samsa and Troy Glasgow’s Mr Samsa look aghast. Far left, Felipe Pacheco’s Gregor’s day is going from bad to worse. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Movement first, the more satisfying, more successful component. Bauser’s set, with its sloping ceiling, cut-off-at-the-knees floor, silken walls and sparse furnishings, conspires with Ian William Galloway’s video designs, Helen Skiera’s soundscapes, Stefan Janik’s unnerving compositions and Simisola Majekodunmi’s all-important lighting to be disorientating for audience and Brazilian-English actor and movement practitioner Felipe Pacheco’s Gregor Samsa alike.
The Samsa house, or more precisely, Gregor’s room within it, is constantly, subtly, deceptively, on the move, as if a magician with dexterous sleight of hand is at work. The physicality of the stage in motion is as imvital here as human movement. Or insect movement, in the case of poor Gregor.
As a sidenote, the sense of a house on the move, of tectonic shifts, is more effectively portrayed than in Les Enfants Terribles’ Theatre Royal visit last month with The House With Chicken Legs.
Your reviewer recalls lighting last being used so strikingly, as a character in itself, in the Lyric Hammersmith’s Ghost Stories at the Grand Opera House in pre-Covid March 2020.
Here, in one extraordinary scene, as Pacheco’s Gregor swings on the wiring from the detached ceiling light, the light in his hand keeps switching on and off. Off, back on, and he has moved again. Again and again.
This is movement and meaning in perfect symmetry, with Pacheco as spry as a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, but not comical, more like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.
What lies on the other side of the door? Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Grete, left, Troy Glasgow’s Mr Samsa, Louise May Newberry’s Mrs Samsa and Joe Layton’s Chief Clerk fear the worst for the insect inside in Frantic Assembly’s Metamorphosis. Picture: Tristram Kenton
By comparison with the visual, the verbal is uneven, sometimes playful, other times earnest or abstract; sometimes snappy, other times, weighty and wordy in monologues for Troy Glasgow’s wastrel, hypocritical, hyper-critical Mr Samsa and his compliant wife (Louise Mai Newberry).
Shards of humour pierce the surrealist surface, but the overall tone is disquieting, discomfiting. For all the poetic verve and political vigour, momentum is lost, rather than gained, post-interval, when more interaction would have been beneficial (like in the scenes with Joe Layton’s Chief Clerk), rather than the fragmented, episodic structure of lone voices.
In the best decision, Gregor’s transformation to an insect is depicted not as an overnight sensation, but as a gradual consequence of his debilitating, repetitive daily routine as a clothing salesman, with all the pressures of being the sole breadwinner, That works wonderfully well across the first half, captured in Pacheco’s Groundhog Day grind, climaxing with Gregor encased in four chairs, looking not unlike a beetle for the only time.
Likewise, the metamorphosis of Gregor’s young sister, Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Grete, takes on more prominence in Sissay’s account, wherein she hates the discipline of having to play the violin yet craves the spotlight. How very 21st century! Her face-pulling solo scene by the mirror is a stand-out, one that finds Sissay, Graham and Sinclair Robinson conveying character as one.
That scene is typical of a production with moments and ideas of theatrical brilliance rather than creative cohesion. Last autumn’s bar-room Othello was superior, but Frantic Assembly are always worth seeing, for those exciting highs, the visual fire storms, the brutal, yet beautiful physicality.
Performances: 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Elaine MacNicol in The Widow’s Path in Elysium Theatre Company’s Reiver: Tales From The Borders, on tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, and the Grey Village Hall, Sutton-on-the-Forest
ELYSIUM Theatre Company presents Matthew Howden, Elaine MacNicol and Steven Stobbs in artistic director Jake Murray’s touring production of Reiver: Tales From The Borders at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight at 7.30pm.
The Reivers were lawless families who terrorised the Anglo-Scottish border for 400 years from Newcastle to Edinburgh, Carlisle to Dumfries, until King James I broke their power. Living by blackmail, extortion, protection and theft, they grew to become some of the most powerful families of their time: the Nixons, the Armstrongs, the Charltons, the Maxwells and many more.
Steeped in the folklore and history of the northern borders, writer Steve Byron weaves three tales of ordinary people caught up in the Reivers’ web, a farmer, a lawman and a young woman, as they take a stand against their murderous ways in a world of violence and injustice.
In Blackmail, an innocent farmer is forced to take a stand against the bullying threats of a powerful Reiver family. In Godforsaken Place, a southern lawman exiled to the north by the corrupt London authorities tries to save a Reiver child from a terrible fate.
In The Widow’s Path, a Scottish woman sold into servitude as a child pursues the murderers of her husband. She will not rest until she has overturned the Reiver order to gain her revenge.
As law and order do battle with corruption and greed, will good triumph over evil, or will evil win the day?
Simon Cartwright’s Frankie Howerd and Mark Farrelly’s Dennis Heymer in Howerd’s End. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Tomorrow night, at 7.30pm, Mark Farrelly’s play Howerd’s End goes to the heart of York-born comedian Frankie Howerd’s secret. A secret called Dennis Heymer, his lover, friend and anchor, with whom he had a clandestine relationship from the 1950s until Frankie’s death in 1992.
From the writer of Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope and The Silence Of Snow: The Life Of Patrick Hamilton comes a show packed with humour in a glorious opportunity to encounter Frankie in full-flight stand-up mode, but also unafraid of the truth.
Howerd’s End portrays a shared, defiant journey through closeness, love, grief and all the other things that make life worth living. Come and say farewell to a legend… and learn the art of letting go as Farrelly’s Dennis is joined by Simon Cartwright’s Frankie in a touring production directed by Joe Harmston.
Ria Lina: Riawakening makes it three nights in a row at Theatre@41 on Friday at 8pm. In the aftermath of a global pandemic, comedian and scientist Ria Lina has undergone a Riawakening and now sees the world differently.
In her debut tour show, she tackles the issues of coming out of a pandemic, the new normal, divorce, dating in a new digital world, motherhood and what it really means to be a woman today.
Fearless and provocative, Ria is the only Filipina comedian working on the British stand-up circuit and has appeared on Live At The Apollo, Have I Got News For You, House Of Games, The Last Leg and Celebrity Mastermind.
Tickets are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Durham company Elysium Theatre’s Reiver: Tales From The Borders also visits the Grey Village Hall, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, on October 28 at 7.30pm; tickets, 01347 811428. Ria Lina plays The Wardrobe, Leeds, on October 19, 7.30pm; box office, thewardrobe.seetickets.com.
