Posted on

Oddsocks return to Joseph Rowntree Theatre after hiatus with ‘gentle and silly’ spoof radio play take on Frankenstein

Taking the mic: Oddsocks’ Andy Barrow, Jack Herauville and Elli Mackenzie in R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein. “Between us we play all the roles,” says Elli. “Part of the fun is the amount of the roles we split between us“

ODDSOCKS make a “happy and long-awaited return” to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on October 20 with their new show, R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein.

“We have played there many times in the past. Such a welcoming space,” says creative producer Elli Mackenzie

The Matlock company invites audience members to delve into the grim laboratory of Dr Frankenstein from the comfort of a theatre seat; to experience the creation of a monster from several human corpses; to gasp as the creature comes to life and to play the part of a humble local to save the village from the creature’s revenge.

Will Dr Frankenstein face his destiny? Will the monster eat your crisps? Will there be a dry seat in the house? Answers to all these questions and more besides will be revealed when R.O.G.E.R Radio attempts Frankenstein.

“We are very excited to be bringing this play to our audiences in York.” says Elli, one half of the husband-and-wife team that runs this family theatre company, whose open-air production of Julius Caesar played the 2024 Harrogate International Festival at RHS Garden Harlow Carr in July.

“We last appeared at the Rowntree Theatre in the small window of touring opportunity during Covid with A Christmas Carol and we are very excited to be returning. Our audiences know it’s worth the effort to come along: we make people laugh out loud and we ensure that you leave the theatre feeling happier than when you arrived.”

Noted for creating bold, challenging, innovative and interactive theatre from classic texts for a family audience of all ages, Oddsocks’ comedy adaptation of Frankenstein features artistic director Andy Barrow as one of the cheeky chappies of the R.O.G.E.R Radio cast.

Multi-role playing is an understatement as he takes on the parts of the Sea Captain, Frankenstein’s father, Henry Clerval and others, not least Frankenstein’s monster. “The joy of presenting the story as though we are performing a radio play is that we can play so many characters in quick succession by just a change of wig or hat,” says Andy, who has appeared in most of the Derbyshire company’s productions since its beginnings 35 years ago.

He is joined by Elli, who likewise plays many parts, including Elizabeth Frankenstein, First Mate Jenkins, numerous villagers and landladies. “My favourite role is First Mate Jenkins, mainly because of his expressive hat…you have to be there,” says Elli, cryptically.

Here, Oddsocks producer, script writer and actor Elli Mackenzie discusses R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein with CharlesHutchPress.

What’s the back story of Oddsocks, Elli?

“Oddsocks is a family company and it’s our anniversary, 35 years. I can’t quite believe it, until I think back over all we’ve done together in those years and all the thousands of people we’ve met, worked with and entertained in that time.

“We are usually to be found performing our unique take on Shakespeare throughout each summer. Our last tour, which finished in August, was of Julius Caesar. It was a lot of fun, though it’s lovely to get out of the Roman armour and put the sword and shield down, don something sophisticated and play a ‘lovely lady of the heyday radio drama’ in this gentle and silly piece.”

What is the performance style of R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein?

“It evokes the heyday of radio drama, circa 1950. Lots of sound effects made using ridiculous props on our ‘foley table’…

Foley table, Elli?

“Foley artists create the sound effects which are created live in the studio or added after in the edit, and they help to bring the drama to life for the listener; doors opening and closing, tea being poured, animal sounds, ambient noise of a babbling brook, running feet on gravel, that sort of thing.

“Our audience see how these sounds are made, which is fun, and there are lots of surprises, which I won’t spoil. A lot of cabbage and celery is used, however!”

Back to the performance style, Elli…

“We have a cast of three actors to play all the roles in the story of Frankenstein. We do it ‘script in hand’, just as a cast of actors would have done in the radio studios of the 1950s, and we all play lots of roles each.

“The premise is that we ‘go live’ with a ‘live radio audience’, who are encouraged to join in by shouting out lines at suitable moments to add to the drama. If we were to record it, which we might at one performance, the idea is that you could listen back, and it would make absolute sense without physically seeing the action.

“In our performance, the evening doesn’t go quite to plan. No spoilers here, but let’s just say, it’s not just the play which Oddsocks tackles. There is very funny, unplanned drama and mild peril, which you will have to come along to on the night to enjoy. “

Why present Frankenstein?

“Frankenstein is such a beautiful, engaging, action-packed story. It is poignant, as well as scary at times. We certainly don’t shy away from the questions raised about Frankenstein’s ambition, hubris and selfishness in creating his monster, and yet we have a lot of Oddsocks-style fun with the characters and audience interaction too.”

Why are we still so fascinated by Frankenstein? 

“Monsters are still scary, and drama is part of our lives.  We watch horror films from the comfort of our armchairs at home or go to the cinema to be thrilled by them. We love to be scared from a place of safety, I guess.”

When did you first read Frankenstein? What struck you at that time?  

“I first actually read the book last year when I was due to adapt it.  What struck me at the time was the sadness of the monster, his loneliness and isolation, and Frankenstein’s inability to take responsibility for his creation.”

What was your approach to adapting Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel for Oddsocks’ production?

 “I was surprised by the story when I first read it. I guess, like a lot of people, I thought I knew the story because I had seen the famous film adaptations over the years, depicting grotesque and scary monsters.

“Like many, I fell in love with the actual story and its messages about taking responsibility for one’s own creation. For the life one brings into the world. (I am a mother, after all). I love the fact that the author was a young woman too.

“In the novel, a young, ambitious, self-centred student, Victor Frankenstein, discovers how to create life and promptly sets about doing it. However, his creation doesn’t turn out to look as he intended.

“Instead of stepping up, facing his fears and dealing with the situation, he shuns the being and tries to ignore it. Of course, he learns through terrible circumstances that he can’t escape his duty of care, and resolves, finally, to deal with the nightmare of his making.

“My ‘creation’ is a comedy interpretation of a classic 19th century novel in a spoof radio format, and even though I felt like I wanted to escape my duty of care after I’d written about ten drafts, we sat in the rehearsal room to read the rehearsal draft, and it came together hilariously.

“We introduced the creation to audiences in January and thankfully they laughed, joined in and were moved in equal measure.”

What makes Frankenstein ripe for a spoof reinterpretation? 

“There are theatre productions which are ‘straight’ adaptations, which reinterpret the story in different ways but rarely by using comedy, so we thought…’Why not?’. It really works in the context of a spoof radio play too.  Lots of sound effects made using ridiculous items, which actually work, and characterisations that look extreme but are so suitable for radio drama.

“Our interpretation is based on the original story and characters but goes in very funny directions and uses audience participation.  There are moments which are straight from the novel and are very moving, but equally our aim is to entertain our audiences, who know that what we do is funny, touching, clever, slick and a good night out.”

What does comedy add to Frankenstein? 

“We have spent the last 35 years adapting classic texts for a modern audience and with the focus on bringing out the comedy potential of piece through situation. Our audiences enjoy our interpretations, whether they have an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the original or otherwise. 

“The ‘purists’ enjoy the wit and reverence with which we adapt the original, whilst those who are new to the story, whether it’s Hamlet, Treasure Island, Frankenstein or Pinocchio (we’ve adapted so many greats),  get to know and love the story, laugh out loud, acknowledge the layers of meaning under the humour and glean the messages within the text .

“People often go away and read the original afterwards, then email us to say how they didn’t realise so much of what we did was from the original, word for word!”

What is the significance of Frankenstein being written by a woman and now being adapted by a woman?

“The significance for me is more that of us both being mothers.  I think the responsibility one feels as a mother having given birth is something which links us more than our gender.  

“I read the book as a mother with a commission to make audiences laugh and feel emotion; Mary Shelley wrote it as a mother in the 19th century, when audiences had different references and values, but we had both given life to sentient beings. There’s something primeval about the significance of that.”

In a nutshell, Elli, what should the York audience expect from R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein?

“A great deal of laughing, action, mild peril and slick silliness.”

Oddsocks in R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 20, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501937 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Did you know?

ODDSOCKS moved into the 17th century, Grade II listed disused Lea Chapel, Upper Lea, near Matlock, Derbyshire, as the company’s rehearsal and performance space during the Covid lockdown. “It is opening to the public with our first performance of this tour. It’s so exciting,” says Elli. “We hope it will be followed up by lots of other companies using the space too.”

Did you know too?

R.O.G.E.R Radio Attempts Frankenstein premiered at Jersey Arts Centre in January 2024 and will be on tour from October 18 to November 2.

One final question for Elli:

What will Oddsocks be staging next and when?

“WE are back on tour next summer with our new adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and will be appearing at Harrogate International Festival in July and possibly other venues near to York from June.”

Posted on

Has Ian Rankin written his last Rebus novel? ‘It’s up to Rebus. He’ll tell me when he’s had enough of me,’ says thriller writer as his new whodunnit heads to York Theatre Royal

Ian Rankin reading the script for Rebus: A Game Called Malice in the rehearsal room. Picture: Jonathan Phang

NOVELIST Ian Rankin is contemplating killing someone. Not surprising, perhaps, as his business is crime in general and murder in particular.

What does come as a shock is the identity of the person he would like to bump off: his best-selling creation, Scottish detective John Rebus.

However, with a new play, Rebus: A Game Called Malice, heading to York Theatre Royal from October 15 to 19, the six-part BBC television series that aired in May and June, and a new book out next Thursday, Rebus is very much alive and investigating.

“I have tried to bump him off or get rid of him several times,” confesses the Fife-born crime writer and philanthropist, who was knighted for services to literature and charity in June 2023.

“But he seems to want to stick around. He refuses to leave my head.” Indeed so. Earlier attempts to rid himself of Rebus, including the detective’s retirement, have ended in failure.

“With the previous novel, I thought this is the end because at the end of the book he’s in court charged with murder and in the dock waiting to be sentenced,” Rankin explains.

“I thought, ‘what a great way to finish the Rebus series,’ then fans disagreed. They said, ‘we need to know what happened in court. Was he found guilty or not guilty?’, so I’ve written this latest book to explain that and answer the question.

“The end of this new book is, I think, a very good end to the series, so let’s wait and see. It’s up to him, not up to me. It’s up to Rebus. He’ll tell me when he’s had enough of me.”

The latest Rebus thriller, Midnight And Blue, will be sending Rankin out and about to do interviews and head to Yorkshire on a book tour to discuss the landmark novel, meet readers and sign copies.

His 7.30pm visit to The Cat Club, Pontefract, on November 21 has sold out, but tickets are still available for his Farsley Book Festival appearance at the Old Woollen, Sunnybank Mills, Town Street, Farsley, Leeds, on November 22, hosted by Truman Books from 12.30pm to 3pm. To boo tickets, go to: trumanbooks.co.uk/event/an-afternoon-with-sir-ian-rankin or ring 0113 805 6019.

Crime writer Ian Rankin, second left, with Rebus: A Game Called Malice cast members Billy Hartman, left, Abigail Thaw and Gray O’Brien. Picture: Jonathan Phang

Before then, at York Theatre Royal, he will take part in the post-show discussion with members of the Rebus: A Game Called Malice company after the October 18 performance of his new play, co-written with Simon Reade.

The plot? A splendid dinner party in an Edinburgh mansion concludes with a murder mystery game, wherein a murder needs to be solved. However, the guests have secrets of their own, threatened by the very game they are playing.

Among them is Inspector John Rebu, but is he playing an alternative game, one where only he knows the rules? Cue suspects, clues and danger with every twist and turn and a shocking discovery – a yes, a real-life murder – that sends this game called Malice hurtling towards a gasp-inducing conclusion.

After mentioning his Yorkshire connections – Rankin’s mother grew up in Bradford and he still has family around there and Leeds, whom he hopes will attend the play in York – he enthuses about his upcoming train journey from Edinburgh to York.

 “I like taking the train,” he says. “It’s a joy with Durham, Newcastle and the coast. A beautiful part of the world to do by train. And you get to go into the railway station bar – The Tap, isn’t it? – and have a pint.”

Tickets are selling well for the Theatre Royal run of Rebus: A Game Called Malice, testament to the public appetite for whodunnit, detective and crime stories. “It’s a very popular genre and producers know it will put bums on seats. It’s a good night out,” says Rankin.

“You’re working hard mentally in a fun way, there’s an interval when you can get a drink and discuss with your friends and family what you think is going on, what happens next. And you’re in and out of the theatre in two hours. As far as I’m concerned, I want to be home and in bed by ten o’clock.”

Rebus has been a hit on stage from the start. Rankin recalls being told by the manager of the King’s Theatre, where the first play, Rebus: Long Shadows, premiered in Edinburgh, that “he’d never seen takings like it”. “So they were very happy because they were selling more drinks at the interval,” says Rankin.

He wrote the first draft of the latest Rebus play during lockdown, “basically to entertain myself”. “It was written without anyone knowing I was doing it,” he says. “When I read it I thought, ‘it’s short but I like it’,  so I showed it to Simon Reade, who is a professional playwright with whom I’d worked previously. He picked it apart and put it together again – and that’s what we’ve got.”

Writing a play and a book present differing challenges. “You have to get in a completely different mindset. In a novel, you can be inside a character’s head, you can have a huge cast of characters, you can range widely over geography and time,” says Rankin. “A play is a much more succinct entity and the actors have to speak your ideas.

“A play is a much more succinct entity [than a novel] and the actors have to speak your ideas,” says Ian Rankin

“The challenge for me is in how different it is. You have to tell a story through voices in a way that I don’t when writing a novel. Very early in my writing career I was writing radio plays for the BBC. They were a lot of fun to do and I enjoyed working with the director and actors. Sometimes the actors came up with much better lines than mine. But the writer gets the credit when it’s broadcast, so it’s terrific from my point of view.

“Writing a novel is not collective. You sit there in splendid isolation for six months to a year. With a play, from quite early on it is collaborative, especially when the actors and director get involved.

“It changes shape because the intonation of each actor is different to the way I imagined the lines being spoken. The way they move around the stage is not how I imagined it might be. And every night in the theatre is, of course, subtly different from the night before.”

Assorted actors have played John Rebus both on stage and television, among them John Michie, who appeared in a try-out of A Game Called Malice but could not commit to a long tour this year.

Gray O’Brien, familiar to TV viewers through Casualty, Coronation Street and Peak Practice, takes on the role on the road, and Rankin is confident he will do the character justice.

Not protective of Rebus, he says each actor adds something to the role: “Every actor is going to give me a slightly different interpretation. Every actor that has played him on television, on radio, on stage has brought something new to the performance and my understanding of this complex character.

“I’ve been writing about this guy Rebus since 1985, and the first book was published in 1987. I’ve spent more than half my life with him. I still don’t quite know what makes him tick. I keep writing about him to get to the core of his identity. And so each actor helps me understand the character a little bit better.”

He missed the first week’s run of Rebus: A Game Of Malice at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on account of a  pre-arranged holiday in Greece. He will turn 65 on April 28 next year and his wife has suggested that he might consider slowing down work-wise to enable them to go travelling.

It should be noted that this is a big ask of a writer who could not resist doing some work during a recent year-long sabbatical. His wife has been booking holidays aplenty, but will she be more  successful at encouraging him to take things easy than he has been so far at killing off Rebus?

Rebus: A Game Called Malice runs at York Theatre Royal, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday and Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees.. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Ian Rankin’s new Rebus book, Midnight And Blue, will be published by Orion Books on October 10. 

Gray O’Brien’s Inspector John Rebus in a scene from Rebus: A Game Called Malice, directed by Loveday Ingram. Picture: Nobby Clark

Did you know?

GRAY O’Brien will be appearing at a York theatre for the second time in 2024. His role as John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice at the Theatre Royal follows his performance as Juror 10 in Twelve Angry Men at the Grand Opera House from May 13 to 18.

Posted on

REVIEW: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow ****

A bit tied up at the moment: Annie Cordoni’s Stella Saxby with Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta in Awful Auntie. Picture: Mark Douet

AFTER directing Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, Birmingham Stage Company actor-manager Neal Foster is at the helm of his fourth David Walliams stage adaptation – and playing the lead too for the first time in Awful Auntie.

Except that he wasn’t at Friday’s 10.30am matinee, attended by CharlesHutchPress and a block booking of York school children, when BMS made a triple substitution.

On came Zain Abrahams, stepping into Foster’s shoes and Argyle-patterned socks as Aunt Alberta and fellow understudies Emily Prosser-Davies and Frankie Oldham, playing orphaned Stella Saxby and batty butler Gibbon respectively. And a mighty fine job they made of it.

“I think he has always appreciated how we capture the tone of his work and how we understand how comedy works on stage,” says Foster of his company’s fruitful partnership with fellow Roald Dahl devotee Walliams.

Foster “gets” Walliams’s humour, never more so than in Awful Auntie, where avaricious Aunt Alberta is “menacing but very funny” as Foster emphasises how the spiteful spinster is “dangerous, but not terrifying”. Having a man play the role, echoing the casting of Miss Trunchbull in Dahl’s Matilda, puts the ‘men’ into menace but adds to the comical absurdity too.

Birmingham Stage Company productions are full of hallmark quality: in this case the surging score of composer Jak Poore; the atmospheric sound design Nick Sagar; the playful lighting detail of Jason Taylor; the fabulous puppetry design and direction of Yvonne Stone and above all, the set and costume design of Jacqueline Trousdale, a key player in creating BSC’s theatrical magic for 30 years.

After Simon Wainwright’s sepia-tinted film clip – delivered with one of those Pathé News voices as stiff as a starched collar – introduces the historic house of Saxby Hall with footage of Stella’s parents, Trousdale’s highly inventive rotating set sets the children’s adventure in motion.

It becomes a constantly changing extra character with its myriad stairways, fireplace, book shelves, doll’s house, bed, turrets, cage, cellar and much more besides. “You really get the feeling of being inside this magnificent mansion,” said Foster in his CharlesHutchPress interview and he is absolutely right.

What’s the story in all its Friday morning glory? Tweed-suited, clown-haired Aunt Alberta (Abrahams/Foster) has packed Stella and her parents off to London. Only Stella (Prosser-Davies/Cordoni) will survive a car crash, and she awakes three months later “from a coma”, wrapped head to foot in bandages, “every bone in her body broken”, her awful Auntie says.

Not everything, indeed not anything, Alberta says turns out to be true. The truth is, she wants the deeds to the house, and Lady Stella Saxby, nearly 13, stands in her way.

Stella must fight for her life against the combined forces of – in Foster’s words – “absolute nutter” Aunt Alberta and her scary-eyed Great Bavarian Mountain Owl, Wagner (handled by puppeteer Emily Essert). On her side is a ghost, Soot (the Tommy Steele-style cheeky chappy Matthew Allen) with his Cockney rhyming slang and arsenal of spooks.

In a world of his own is Gibbon, the scatter-brained butler (Oldham/Abrahams), a scene-stealing one-man show with his regular erratic interjections. His prop malapropisms become a running joke, a form of hapless physical clowning, never bettered than when he says he must clean the carpet, only to promptly push a lawn mower across the marbled hall. Walliams and Foster in theatrical tandem, being so playful here.

Awful Auntie rattles along, with room for a car and motorbike chase, a cameo by the dubious Detective Strauss, revenge pranks, a “Here’s Auntie” riff on Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and a cliffhanger of a final showdown: puppetry in motion.

At the close, the tone turns wistful, lamenting how grown-ups lose the power to see ghosts and asserting how being a child is special, when “you can see all the magic in the world”. What’s more, Lady Stella vows to turn the hall over to housing orphaned children: a social conscience putting the world to rights.

The verdict? As Dick Emery used to say, “Ooh, you are awful, but I like you”. Love it, let alone like it, when Aunt Alberta goes nuts, You would be bonkers to miss it.

Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; Sunday, 11am. Age guidance: Five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond the endless rain when films turn Dead Northern. Hutch’s List No. 40, from The Press, York

Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton, on show in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall

YORKSHIRE landscapes, campsite class division, horror movies to the max and a talkative traveller herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.

Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5

THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in seasonal images.

Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.

The artwork for the Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York

Film event of the week: Dead Northern 2024 Horror Film Festival, City Screen, Picturehouse, York, today and tomorrow

IN “the world’s most haunted city”, Dead Northern presents a festival of movies, music and social gatherings. Today opens with Demonic Shorts at 11am, followed by the regional premiere of Scopophobia, 12.30pm; Slasher, Thriller and Creature Shorts, 2.30pm; UK premiere of The Healing, 4.30pm; Dead Talk film-making panel, 7.30pm; regional premiere of Kill Your Lover, 9pm, and VIP Awards Party at Revolution, York,11pm.

Tomorrow features the Mad Props documentary, 11am; mini-feature Strike,12.45pm; feature film The Monster Beneath Us, 1.15pm; music mini-feature The Black Quarry, 3.45pm; Music Videos, 4.30pm; UK premiere of Kill Victoria, 6.30pm, and world premiere of Lake Jesup, 8.30pm. Guests must be aged over 18 to access screenings and live events. Box office: deadnorthern.co.uk/dead-northern-2024-film-festival.

Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch

Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, today, 2pm and 7.30pm; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.

The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The bird man of RedHouse Originals Gallery: artist Jim Moir at his Birdland exhibition in Harrogate

Last chance to see: Jim Moir, Birdland, RedHouse Originals Gallery, Cheltenham Mount, Harrogate, today, 10am, 10am to 5pm

“PEOPLE think that I am a comedian, but art comes first,” says Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, as he mounts his second RedHouse show. “This one is Birdland because of my love of birds. I spend most of my days bird watching and painting,” he says.

On show – and for sale – is an exclusive collection of 50 new paintings celebrating his favourite subject ahead of the October 24 release of his second bird book, More Birds, Paintings Of British Birds, published by Unbound. Free entry.

Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince: Plenty to discuss at Pocklington Arts Centre

Double act of the week: Clare Ferguson-Walker & Robin Ince, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm

TAKE a tour around two marvellous minds via the vehicles of poetry, storytelling, jokes, and general silliness when Clare Ferguson-Walker and Robin Ince link up in Pock. Poet, comedienne, sculptor and singer Clare’s explosive second collection, Chrysalis, lays bare the poet’s soul on a journey laced with humour and humane observation.

Humorist, presenter, poet and author Ince co-hosts the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. His books include Bibliomaniac, The Importance Of Being Interested, I’m A Joke And So Are You and his next work, Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity, will be published next May. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The cover design for Michael Palin’s new diary collection

Globe-trotter of the week: Michael Palin, Grand Opera House, York, October 3, 7.30pm

IN the words of Monty Python alumnus, actor, presenter and Yorkshireman Michael Palin: “In There And Back – The Diary Tour 2024, I’ll bring to life the fourth collection of my diaries and the first to be released for ten years.

“Lots of fun as I go through the Noughties, and some dark times too. I constantly surprise myself with the sheer amount I took on.” Tickets update: still available at atgtickets.com/york.

Barbara Dickson: Acoustic October concerts in Pocklington and Leeds

Folk gigs of the week: Hurricane Promotions present Barbara Dickson & Nick Holland, All Saints Church, Pocklington, October 4 (sold out) and October 16, 7.30pm. Also Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, October 20, 7.30pm

SCOTTISH folk singer Barbara Dickson and her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs in these acoustic concerts in intimate settings, where the pair will let the words and melodies take centre stage as they draw on Dickson’s folk roots, contemporary greats and her classic hits, from Another Suitcase In Another Hall to I Know Him So Well. Box office: barbaradickson.net; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Mundane matters: Josh Widdicombe mulls over really niche observations about silly little things in 2025 and 2026

Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026

PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.

“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.

In Focus: Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show, The Crescent, York, tomorrow. More Yorkshire shows to follow

This is the modern world: Mark Thomas returns to stand-up venting at The Crescent, York. Picture: Tony Pletts

LAST appearing in York in Ed Edwards’s one-man play England & Son in the Theatre Royal Studio last September, South London’s grouchy “godfather of political comedy”, Mark Thomas, returns to polemical stand-up in Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show at The Crescent tomorrow night.

One of the longest-surviving alternative comics after close to 40 years of stand-up, theatre, journalism, human rights campaigning and the odd bout of performance art, his latest tour’s fusillade of jokes, rants, politics, play and the occasional sing-song adds up to “generally mucking about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people”.

Gaffa Tapes…Old Title, New Show? Explain the extended tag, Mark. “What happened is I liked the idea of ‘Gaffa Tapes’ as a title and had it last year for my Edinburgh Fringe show, but halfway through the Fringe run I got Covid and had to stop.

“Last year I toured England & Son, written by Ed Edwards, which I was really pleased with. It picked up more awards than I’d ever done before – six awards – and one of them was to perform the play in Australia, taking it out to Adelaide for five weeks – and we might be going to New York …

“But we made no money out of it. I thought, ‘right, how do we make some money?’, so it’s great to be getting back to stand-up. What I love about stand-up is… and this is simple…if you stop doing it, they say you’ll feel rusty, so if you have a hiatus, what you have to learn to do is put your hand on the neck of the beast.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to do all the clubs at the bottom of the eco-system, doing ten minutes here, ten minutes there, doing shows in different places, and the thing about it is, I died on my arse a couple of times, which feels horrible each and every time…

“But if you take a break, you need to get your muscle memory back working again. That’s why I loved doing Edinburgh this summer. I did 26 gigs. It’s just bang, bang, bang, every night. You can muck around, try things out.

Mark Thomas in England & Son, toured to York Theatre Royal Studio in 2023. Picture: Alex Brenner

“The riots were happening around that time, so I wrote about them – and it’s important to be able to talk about that. It’s a living, breathing affecting thing. I love being a warrior in the culture wars, and it’s good to be back on the battlefield.”

The tectonic plates of the political landscape keep shifting: fresh meat to a polemicist comedian’s grist. “Things are always changing,” says Mark. “What I love is that when I started work on the show, there was loads going on, because the Tories were no longer in power, and it’s good to be able to react to that and to suggest what should be happening.

“I was at the Diggers Festival, celebrating Gerrard Winstanley [English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, activist and leader and co-founder of the ‘True Levellers’ or ‘Diggers’], doing a talk in a church, where someone said, ‘if you get rid of the oath to the King, that would be the most radical thing you could do’.

“I said, ‘well, actually, I don’ think it is. If you want democracy to work, you should have voting at 16, proportional representation, and you need to abolish the House of Lords’…whereas they’re just tidying up what [Tony] Blair started all those years ago. The most radical thing would be to ban donations to political parties. Make it state-funded, giving money to run parties and campaigns, making it a level playing field.

“Do you know who is the only other country in Europe to have a ‘first past the post’ electoral system? Belarus. So if anyone is out of step, it’s us. I think eventually PR [proportional representation] will come in; it’s just a question of what form it takes.”

How does the change of ruling party in Westminster from the Conservatives to Labour after 14 years have an impact on Thomas’s venting? “It changes the goalposts because it’s a new set of people to attack for a new set of reasons,” says Mark. “It’s the new austerity that they’re proposing that’s not great.

“The fact is that Starmer got some of the things right over the riots. I find it fascinating that there is this a disconnect; the idea that everyone who rioted was a racist, but not everyone was, because riots have a movement of their own, but certainly the organisers were far right.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socilaist, why on Earth would I vote Labour?” says Mark Thomas. Picture: Art by Tracey Moberly

“You can be a Zen Buddhist but if you set fire to an asylum seekers’ hotel, then you’re a racist.”

Long associated with spouting anti-Tory sentiment aplenty, Thomas will hold the incoming Labour Party to account too. “I think it’s healthier that way in politics. The honeymoon period is over already,” he says.

“I didn’t vote Labour. I’m a Socialist, why on Earth would I vote Labour? There shouldn’t be a honeymoon period anyway,  but I expect the right-wing press to go at Labour with gusto because they want to shape not only this government, but the next Tory one too.”

Any suggestions for policy change, Mark? “Local government can run the bus companies, but it’s really important that it’s not about making the maximum profit. That’s what used to happen until Thatcher changed it,” he says.

“I’m lucky now – because I’m 61, I get the 60+ London Oyster card for £20 [administration fee] that allows me to travel everywhere in London for free and I use buses a lot. That’s one of the great things about London: wherever you are, there will be a night bus coming along in a moment.”

He is looking forward eagerly to tomorrow’s return to The Crescent. “I love The Crescent,” he enthuses. “What they may lack in technical facilities, it’s a proper community venue. I always say, when talking about what community venues could be, take a look at this place.”

Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes, Burning Duck Comedy, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm; Marsdsen Mechanics, November 8, 8pm; Social, Hull, November 16, 8pm; Sheffield Memorial Hall November 10, 8pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, February 5 2025; Wakefield Theatre Royal, February 6 2025, 7.30pm.

Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Marsden, 01484 844587 or marsdenmechanics.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Hull, socialhumberstreet.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; Wakefield Theatre Royal, 01924 211311 or theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk (on sale soon) Age guidance: 16 plus.

Mark Thomas: the back story

The next step for Mark Thomas: Touring Gaffa Tapes

“IF you don’t know what Mark does, ask your parents. In his time, he has won eight awards for performing, three for human rights work… and one he invented for himself. He has made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and three Dispatches for Channel 4, made five series of The Manifesto for BBC Radio 4, written five books and four play scripts, curated and authored two art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and was commissioned to write a show for the Royal Opera House.

“He has forced a politician to resign, changed laws on tax and protest, become the Guinness Book of Records world-record holder for the number of protests in 24 hours, taken the police to court three times and won (the fourth is in the pipeline), walked the length of the Israeli Wall in the West Bank (that’s 724km), and generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people.”

Posted on

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Little Women, York Theatre Royal, until October 12 ****

Ainy Medina, left, Laura Soper, Freya Parks, front, and Helen Chong in Little Women at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlotte Graham

SEPTEMBER 30 marks the 156th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women books. She wrote it in only ten weeks, a speed matched by the flashing hand of Freya Parks’s restless Jo March, beret in place as ever when at work, in Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster’s free-flowing production.

Alcott’s coming-of-age tale of the March sisters growing up in well-to-do New England during the American Civil War is deemed a “timeless classic” (to quote the Theatre Royal brochure), as popular now as when first published.

Yet the British stage has tended to stage adaptations of Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Mary Shelley novels rather than Alcott. Looking back through The York Press archives, your reviewer cannot find any past productions in York, the closest being a Lip Service parody, Very Little Women, that toured the Theatre Royal in October 2004.

“I can’t remember ever reading Little Women as a child, but Sue [Ryding] did, and she wept buckets,” said her late partner in spoofery, Maggie Fox. “She said we must do it some time, so I had to read it, and she was absolutely right: we just had to do it. It’s so sanctimonious, so twee…just awful…and they’re Americans.”

Helen Chong’s Amy March and Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Hold your high horses. Maggie went on to say the satire was applied with “affection, and also respect for Alcott. She was one of the first woman writers to write about her own life and she was able to make a living out of writing. She was incredibly successful in her own lifetime.”

Anne-Marie Casey brings a similarly affectionate tone to her adaptation of the story of sensible Meg (Ainy Medina), tomboy and would-be novelist Jo (Freya Parks, from the 2024 BBC series This Town), vain, silly Amy (Helen Chong) and consumptive, piano-playing Beth (York actress Laura Soper, in her first Theatre Royal appearance since her professional debut in Swallows & Amazons in 2019).

Sanctimonious? Twee? Just awful? No, no, and thrice no. Very American, yes, but Casey does not stir even a spoonful of sugar into her account of the siblings’ journey from childhood to adulthood in the mid-19th century.

Instead, she combines humour with sadness, candour with kindness, storytelling with travelogue, all the while addressing the matter of a women’s role in society, amid the fractious relationships, the pursuit of love, the absence of the father on chaplaincy duty in the war and the need for matriarch Marmee (York actress Kate Hampson) to be a single mother in such stressful circumstances.

The power of the written word: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Kate Hampson’s Marmee in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Against the backdrop of a divided America’s November 2024 presidential clash coming down to a regressive man versus a progressive woman, with polar opposite views on such matters as abortion, resonance is not hard to find in Little Women.

Albeit that marriage is still the end-all, although not the be-all for Jo, who symbolically takes the lead when dancing, a habit forged in dancing with her sisters but also testament to her determination to do her own thing. Best summed up in burning the back of her dress when standing too close to the fire.

Parks is the stand-out here, a fiery talent fast on the rise (she heads off to her next filming engagement as soon as Little Women ends). The last time your reviewer saw an actor on the York stage destined for the heights was when Sally Hawkins, fresh from drama school, played Juliet in Romeo And Juliet. Parks’s Jo is full of humour, vigour, pathos, impetuous urges, artistic intellect and resolute ambition. Love too.

Medina, Chong and especially Soper more than play their part too, and there is a theatrical grace to the ailing Beth’s scene with Jo, culminating in an exit in white for Beth that symbolises the passing into death: a moment that film could not do so elegiacally or indeed so sparingly.

Clashing opinions: Freya Parks’s Jo March and Caroline Gruber’s Aunt March in Little Women. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Hampson’s Marmee is firm but as fair as her hair, always urging her daughters to maximise their talents, whether for music, dress-making, art or writing, equal in her love and counsel for each, but away from their gaze, sadness at her husband being away permeates the glowing surface.

A scene stealer emerges in Caroline Gruber’s match-making Aunt March, the Lady Bracknell of the piece with her waspish tongue, snobbery and insistent interventions.

And what of the men? Nikhil Singh Rai’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence is the handsome, elegant, well-mannered, fun-loving prankster and foil for Jo, with the devilish player streak below that smart, engaging, enquiring posh-boy, privileged surface. Hard to resist, like a matinee idol, you might say. Later, such a type would be found in a Tennessee Williams play.

Jack Ashton reveals the importance of being earnest in not one but two roles as men with academic minds, serious intentions and not much income: firstly John Brooke, Meg’s devoted tutor; then the Teutonic professor, Bhaer, who could have been borrowed from a Chekhov or Ibsen play.

Jack Ashton in rehearsal for his role as Professor Bhaer in Little Women

Forster’s direction brings out the nuances in all these performances, never over-stating anything, but letting the power of storytelling take grip, whether in the first act, where the action is concentrated in the March house, save for a skating accident depicted with clever use of lighting by Jane Lalljee, or the second, where Amy goes travelling in Europe and Jo heads to New York to begin penning her sensationalist stories.

Ruari Murchison’s set design, first used in Pitlochry Theatre Festival’s production, is first class too, making expressive use of curtains, wooden furniture and in particular silver birch tree trunks, sometimes used for hanging a coat to convey a transition from outdoors to indoors. Her costumes delight too, as do Erin Carter’s movement direction and the sisters’ singing in harmony by the piano.

Freya Parks. Remember that name. A tall woman amid Little Women, making a big impact, with a stellar career ahead.

Little Women, presented by York Theatre Royal in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland, at York Theatre Royal, until October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 27 and 28, October 1, 3, 5, 8 to 12; 2pm, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7; 7pm, October 2. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Posted on

Freida Nipples hosts Baps and Buns Burlesque night of debauchery and glamour at Rise@Bluebird Bakery tonight

Nun better: York burlesque artiste Freida Nipples

YORK’S Queen of Burlesque, Freida Nipples, returns to Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight for Baps and Buns Burlesque at 7pm.

She will be joined by cabaret artists, from drag queens to acrobats, for a fun night of debauchery and glamour in Acomb, hosted by Freida, who has run shows at York Theatre Royal, The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse and Impossible York over the past six years. and more.

“The big question is, are you ready for it?” she teases. Tickets include a welcome drink on arrival, with a non-alcoholic option available. For tickets, go to: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond as garden ghosts gather for haunting season. Hutch’s List No. 35, from Gazette & Herald

Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts

GARDEN ghosts, Yorkshire landscapes, campsite class division, awful auntie antics and ridiculous improv comedy herald the arrival of the arts autumn for Charles Hutchinson.

Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5

GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.

Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details. 

Rievaulx Abbey, mixed media, by Robert Dutton in A Yorkshire Year at Nunnington Hall

Exhibition of the week: A Yorkshire Year, Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, until December 5

THE changing landscape of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline is captured by Yorkshire artists Robert Dutton, from Nunnington, and Andrew Moodie, from Harrogate, in a diverse collection of seasonal images at the National Trust house.

Dutton presents a dramatic interpretation of the untamed expanses of Yorkshire, from meandering freshwater rivers and hidden woodlands to the stark beauty of the moors. Moodie directs his attention to the undulating valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, as well as coastal villages. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission prices apply at nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall

Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch

Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Harrogate Theatre, until Saturday; Pocklington Arts Centre, October 9 and 10; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 13 to 16

WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they were expecting four days of hill running and total de-stress. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.

The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet

Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today to Sunday

CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. After adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.

As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The Halls Of Ridiculous: Spinning their improv comedy at Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Scott Akoz

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Club presents The Halls Of Ridiculous, Cal Halbert and Tony Cowards, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

NORTHERN comedy The Halls Of Ridiculous, namely Chris Lumb (from BBC Three’s Russell Howard’s Good News) and Phil Allan-Smith (from BBC One’s This Is My House), push the boundaries of improv, sketch and character creativity with their quick-thinking scenes, zany special guests and quirky approach to performance.

Cal Halbert is one half of The Mimic Men, the UK’s only impressionist double act; host Tony Cowards is a rapid-fire gag merchant with an arsenal of one-liners, delivered by a likeable everyman character. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Just Us And A Piano: 1812 Theatre Company singers stage two fundraisers for Helmsley Arts Centre

Fundraising musical theatre concert of the week: 1812 Theatre Company, Just Us And A Piano, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm

SINGER Julie Lomas and pianist Neil Bell bring together a grand piano and an ensemble 1812 Theatre Company singers to celebrate the world of musical theatre, from the Broadway classics of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers, through to Cabaret, Wicked, My Fair Lady, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Hamilton and the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Singers Amy Gregory, Esme Schofield, Florrie Stockbridge, Joe Gregory, Julie Lomas, Kristian Gregory, Natasha Jones, Oliver Clive and Phye Bell will be raising funds for Helmsley Arts Centre. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Honey & The Bear: Tales of Suffolk folklore, courageous people and a passion for nature at Milton Rooms, Malton

Ten Year Anniversary Tour: Honey & The Bear, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 8pm

BRITISH folk and roots duo Jon Hart (guitar, bass and bouzouki) and Lucy Hart (guitar, ukulele, bass, banjo, mandolin and percussion) are joined by guests Evan Carson (percussion) and Archie Churchill-Moss (melodeon).

Conjuring stories in song, Honey & The Bear tell tales of Suffolk folklore, courageous people they admire and their passion for nature, as heard on third album Away Beyond The Fret, released last November. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Josh Widdicombe: Taking stock of the little things that niggle him in Not My Cup Of Tea

Gig announcement of the week: Josh Widdicombe, Not My Cup Of Tea Tour, Hull City Hall, October 2 2025, and York Barbican, February 28 2026

PARENTING Hell podcaster and comedian Josh Widdicombe, droll observer of the absurd side of the mundane, will take stock of the little things that niggle him, from motorway hotels to children’s parties, and explain why he has finally decided to embrace middle age, hot drinks and doing the school run in his 58-date tour show, Not My Cup Of Tea.

“That’s my favourite type of stand-up: really niche observations about silly little things that you wouldn’t think about. I’ve got no interest in the big topics.” Box office: joshwiddicombe.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk; hulltheatres.co.uk.

Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond from September 21 onwards. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 39, from The Press, York

Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in York Theatre Royal’s production of Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

GARDEN ghosts, a coming-of-age classic, a political groundbreaker, astronaut insights and an awful aunt stir Charles Hutchinson into action as autumn makes its entry.  

Play opening of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12

CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s repertory cast in Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.

Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, the production features Freya Parks, from BBC1’s This Town, as Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and York actress Laura Soper as Beth. Kate Hampson returns to the Theatre Royal to play Marmee after leading the community cast in The Coppergate Woman. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Steve Wynn: A night of stories and songs at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Picture: Guy Kokken

York gig of the week: Steve Wynn, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Night Of Songs And Stories, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, September 21, 7.30pm

STEVE Wynn, founder and leader of Californian alt. rock band The Dream Syndicate, promotes his first solo album since 2010, Make It Right (Fire Records), and his new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press), both released on August 30.

Touring the UK solo for the first time in more than ten years, his one-man show blends songs from and inspired by the book with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Expect evergreens and rarities from The Dream Syndicate’s catalogue, coupled with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new record. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts. Picture: Gareth Buddo/Andy Little

Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5

GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.

Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details

Points Of View, stainless steel, by Tony Cragg, at Castle Howard. Picture: Nick Howard

Last chance to see: Tony Cragg’s Sculptures, Castle Howard, near York, ends September 22

TONY Cragg’s sculptures, the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist to be held in the grounds and house at Castle Howard, closes on Sunday after a successful run since May 3 that has seen a 12 per cent rise in visitor numbers since the equivalent period last year.

On show are large-scale bronze sculptures in the gardens plus works in wood, glass sculptures and works on paper, some being displayed for the first time in Great Britain. Opening hours: grounds, 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm; house, 10am to 3pm. Tickets: 01653 648333 or castlehoward.co.uk.

Making her point: Lauren Robinson as politician Jennie Lee in Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography

Political drama of the week: Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 22, 4pm to 6pm

IN Marsden company Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not even vote for herself.

Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Scotland and fought with her every breath for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. She was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.

Crime novelists Ajay Chowdhury, left, and Luca Veste team up for The Big Read in York and Harrogate on Monday

Book event of the week: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival presents The Big Read, Acomb Explore Library, York, September 23, 12.30pm to 1.30pm; The Harrogate Inn, Harrogate, September 23, 2.30pm to 3.30pm

THE North’s biggest book club, The Big Read, returns next week with visits to York and Harrogate on the first day, when visitors can meet the festival’s reader-in-residence, Luca Veste, and fellow novelist Ajay Chowdhury, who will discuss Chowdhury’s Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, The Detective.

More than 1,000 free copies of tech entrepreneur, writer and theatre director Ajay Chowdhury’s 2023 novel from his Detective Kamil Rahman series will be distributed across the participating libraries. Entry is free.

Astronaut Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican

Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm

BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage to share stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.

From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of space flight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet

Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, September 26 to 29

CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. Ater adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.

As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Posted on

‘She’s not just wicked but very funny too’, says Neal Foster as he plays Aunt Alberta in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie

Annie Cordoni’s Stella and Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie. Picture: Mark Douet 

AFTER directing Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, Neal Foster is at the helm of his fourth David Walliams stage adaptation and playing the lead too for the first time in Awful Auntie.

As with the previous three children’s plays, and indeed myriad Horrible Histories shows too,
Birmingham Stage Company is heading for York, playing the Grand Opera House from today (26/9/2024) to Sunday.

“It’s been ten years since we started working with David, and we’ve done four of his books now,” says Neal, long-standing actor-manager, director and writer/adaptor for the Birmingham company.

“He’s been a brilliant person to work with, so generous, so interested; he’ll do anything to help; he’s there at rehearsals, he’s there on opening night. He looks at my scripts with a really helpful professional colleague’s eye, and it’s been a wonderful ten years.”

Neal continues: “I think he has always appreciated how we capture the tone of his work and how we understand how comedy works on stage. I’ll send him drafts and he’ll send notes. I think it works because I get his humour and I knew it would work on stage from the moment I read the books.”

“We’re both fans of Roald Dahl and heavily influenced by him, and Birmingham Stage Company has done more Dahl shows than any other companies in the world.”

Awful Auntie novelist David Walliams. Picture: Charlie Clift

One David Walliams story had been adapted by another company before the Birmingham bond was forged. “He had not been entirely happy with that show and thought maybe it was not the right road to go down again. When we approached him, he liked our track record with the Horrible Histories shows, and that gave him the confidence to run with us.

“Gangsta Granny was then so successful that David was happy to put his books in our hands and has been delighted with the work we’ve done. The stories are very funny, he has a fantastic, wicked sense of humour, but there’s always something important going on in the stories too. It’s no surprise that you will see adults with tears in their eyes at the end because he writes in that way. 

“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do them, and why they work so well on stage is that David is a performer too and so the stories are naturally theatrical.”

Awful Auntie sends Stella to London with her parents, but she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, only her Aunt Alberta (Foster’s role) can tell her what has happened, but not everything Alberta says turns out to be true, whereupon Stella discovers she is infor the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie.

Neal is savouring playing Aunt Alberta. “I’ve been doing it since March,” he says. “One of the first shows I did with Birmingham Stage Company was Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine, where I played Grandma, one of my favourite parts, and there’s a resonance with that role in Alberta because she too loves being wicked and naughty. 

“In the end, Grandma was just rather nasty, but in this one, Alberta turns out to be a serial killer, probably psychopathic, but what makes it so wonderful is that she’s not just wicked but very funny too.

Neal Foster: Birmingham Stage Company actor-manager, director and adaptor, now playing Aunt Alberta in Awful Auntie, on tour at Grand Opera House, York 

“It’s a great privilege to play one of David’s leads, having adapted and directed the previous shows. It’s been a great joy to play a part this time, knowing I could do it, and though it would be hard to pull it off, I knew it would lend itself to being played by a man, applying the strength of a man, because Alberta is quite brutal.”

Neal “loves the science of comedy in making it work”. “David’s tone is like Chekhov’s comedies: it makes audiences laugh and cry, where you feel sad at some parts, laughing at the characters but at the same time sympathising with them,” he says.

“Here Aunt Alberta is very funny but menacing. She’s entertaining; she’s dangerous, but she’s NOT terrifying. Menacing, yes, but at the same time David is providing children with an adventure.”

That is the key to Birmingham Stage Company welcoming children as young as five to Awful Auntie. “With all those wicked characters in Roald Dahl’s work, for example, we wouldn’t give them thatlabel, but they probably are psychopathic,” he says.

“When you’re playing Alberta, you realise she doesn’t seem to care and is lethal in what she does, having her psychopathic responses, but it’s not something young audiences need to know, whereas as an actor you’re aware that she’s basically an absolute nutter!”

Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, today, 6.30pm; Friday, 10.30am and 6.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; Sunday, 11am. Age guidance: Five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Copyright of The Press, York

Posted on

Kate Hampson returns to York Theatre Royal stage for matriarchal role in Little Women

“Marmee is a really fascinating character to play,” says Kate Hampson of her role in Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

YORK actress Kate Hampson returns to the York Theatre Royal stage on Saturday for the first time since her title role in the August 2022 community play The Coppergate Woman.

She will play Marmee, mother to the March girls, in creative director Juliet Forster’s repertory production of Anne-Marie Casey’s re-telling of Louisa May Alcott’s cherished American novel Little Women, presented in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

She is joined in this coming-of-age story of growing up in New England during the American Civil War by This Town star Freya Parks as headstrong daughter Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and fellow returnee York actress Laura Soper as piano-playing Beth.

“It’s been a really challenging but joyful rehearsal period, working with Juliet again, and I can’t wait to play it to audiences – and I get to walk to work each day!” says Kate in a lunchtime break. “The cast are all fantastic, each bringing something new and unique to their roles. We’re all getting on really well, working with voice coach Yvonne Morley to get the accent right and united, because it’s not only a different [American] accent but an accent from a different time, and we have to sound related to each other.”

Describing Marmee’s matriarchal role, Kate says: “What’s really striking is that for most of the play, she’s a single mother, and that’s a hard task. She’s presented as wholesome and deeply loving, caring for each child equally, encouraging each of them to achieve their full potential, but she’s also Victorian, stiffer, more formal, than today.

“There’s a softness to her but there’s also that Victorian formality, which was the behaviour of the time. So you can’t go too gentle and soft in the role, even though she’s a great mum. It’s the way she gives them their autonomy that’s beautiful to watch. She lets her daughters make up their own minds, not collectively, but individually, seeing them as each being very different with very different needs.”

Kate continues: “Marmee is a really fascinating character to play. She’s a challenge because she’s often portrayed as this warm, kind woman, full of wisdom, the perfect mother, and to some extent she is that, but she’s multi-faceted, and I’m keen to explore that, especially in her relationship with Jo. Like when Jo says, ‘I have this rage’, and Marmee says, ‘I had this rage too and I had to learn to suppress it’.

“She’s very pragmatic, she knows the limitations, and yet she wants her daughters to ‘dream big’, but she had that rage and sadness that she couldn’t do the things she wanted to do. She is both very loving and good at imparting knowledge, getting her daughters to solve their problems themselves, rather than spoon-feeding them.”

Kate has enjoyed shaping her interpretation of Marmee’s role in the rehearsal room. “You get this thing with character development where you start in one place, take it to another place, and then you have to bring it back to what feels the right place, pulling it back by thinking ‘would I be standing like this?’ or ‘would I be so affectionate at this point?’,” says Kate.

“It’s lovely to have had the time to do that, and I feel that on the first night, it’ll be where I want it to be, but characters always develop further in the run, when you find new things and the relationships develop too.”

Reflecting on the abiding popularity of Louisa Alcott’s story, Kate says: “I think she was so progressive as a writer. You only have to look at her own life, how she lived it, her relationship with her parents. She was progressive, she was feminist and she was brave.

“People can still identify with that. There are still the same issues on life’s journey; the ups and downs of family relationships in that world still prevail. There’s also the challenge to modern audiences, where they have to think: how can we continue to strive to be better and strive for more equality, especially in societies where there is still none. Both remain relevant goals, because it’s not finished, it’s not done.”

Urging York audiences to attend Little Women, Kate says: “Come and sit in a beautiful space and be entertained by a classic play told in a new way. You want people to enjoy it but to go away with questions to answer because the story still resonates.

“It deals with universal themes of family, love and loyalty, the good times and the bad times, so though it’s historical, you can make it relevant to today, resonating with the experiences we have to deal with or might yet have to face.”

Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12. Performances: 7.30pm, September 21, 24 to 28, October 1, 3, 5 and 8 to 12; 2pm, September 25 and 26, October 2, 3 and 10; 2.30pm, September 28, October 5 and 12; 6.30pm, October 4 and 7, and  7pm, October 2 (fundraising gala). Post-show discussion: October 11. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

* The special fundraising gala performance on October 2 will raise vital funds for York Theatre Royal’s continued work as a producing theatre and for the development of future community projects.

Copyright of The Press, York