Dan Whiston: Getting his skates on for Cinderella On Ice
DANCING On Ice three-time champion Dan Whiston will lead the company for Cinderella On Ice at Rawcliffe Country Park, York, from August 17 to 22.
“I cannot wait to get back on the ice and for the crowds to witness this amazing show after such a troubled past 12 months of lockdowns,” says Whiston, who partnered Emmerdale and The Syndicate star Gaynor Faye, Coronation Street’s Hayley Tamaddon and bronze medal-winning Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle to victories on the ITV show in 2006, 2010 and 2013 respectively.
“We hope to both wow and amaze,” he promises of the Fairytale On Ice production that will play to family audiences at seven locations with “some of the world’s most elite entertainers and skilled skaters after thousands of auditions”.
The touring show draw audiences into the magical world of Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming and the wicked sisters through a combination of high-speed ice-skating, music and visuals. Expect “breath-taking aerial feats, expertly choreographed routines and an enchanting storyline”.
Whiston, who has taken on the new role of Dancing On Ice’s associate creative director, will get his skates back on from August 3 to October 31 on the Cinderella On Ice tour, presented by the producers of Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White On Ice.
Tickets for the 4.30pm matinees and 7.30pm evening performances in the Fairtyale On Ice ice palace are on sale at fairytaleonice.com.
Mandy Newby: Stand-out turn in Weirdo in Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios. Picture: James Drury
Review: Next Door But One in Yorkshire Trios, The Gillygate pub, Gillygate, York, April 23 and 24 2021
LIVE theatre has returned to York. Yes, you read that right.
For the first time since York Stage brought a Covid-enforced early end to their pantomime run of Jack And The Beanstalk on December 30 at Theatre @41, Monkgate, actors have taken to a York stage for two nights of pub theatre…in the spring open air.
Where once a tent would suffice for shows by Alexander Flanagan Wright’s company, now The Gillygate publican Brian Furey has installed a wooden-framed outdoor performance area in the beer garden.
Socially distanced tables with allocated seating and an outdoor bar were complemented by Covid-secure measures: pub staff in face masks to take and deliver drink and food orders; Next Doors But One organisers in black and red masks designed in company livery; the programme in e-programme mode, available online only.
Next Door But One, the York community arts collective directed by Matt Harper-Hardcastle, with input from associate and project manager Kate Veysey and creative producer El Stannage, originally hoped to present Yorkshire Trios: 15 Local Creatives, 5 Short Performances, 1 City, inside The Gillygate in early January until Lockdown 3 put a red pen through those plans.
Instead, backed by Arts Council England funding, NDB1 kept the creatives busy with two months of online professional skill- development sessions and mentoring until the Step 2 reopening of pubs’ outdoor hospitality provided the opportunity to perform.
Project manager Kate Veysey, Next Door But One director Matt Harper-Hardcastle and creative producer El Stannage at the Friday night performance of Yorkshire Trios
A day’s warm weather added to the weekend mood as the Friday audience settled in. Behind them were those who were only here for the beer, but rather than putting up a To Beer Or Not To Beer dividing line, and asking anyone to pipe down, everyone just raised a glass to being allowed to gather in a pub garden after the long winter’s hibernation.
Today, Next Door But One have issued a Let Us Know What You Thought email, asking attendees for Audience Feedback by “sparing a few minutes to complete our short survey so we can build and improve on the event”.
CharlesHutchPress is happy to oblige in the analysis of an evening “themed around Moments Yet To Happen, wherein trios of actors, directors and writers brought theatre-starved York a fistful of short stories of laughter, strength, dreams and everything in between: an optimistic carousel operator; a neighbour with a secret; a poet inviting us into her world; a Jane McDonald fan on a soapbox, and a delivery driver full of wanderlust;.
Taking part were the quintet of trios: actor Miles Kinsley, director Nicolette Hobson and writer, Anna Johnston, staging One More Time We Go; Christie Barnes, Fiona Baistow and Jenna Drury, unmasking Kelly Unmasked; Mandy Newby, Joe Feeney and Dan Norman presenting Weirdo; Emily Chattle, Libby Pearson and Lydia Crosland, making a point in Motormouth, and Nicki Davy, Becky Lennon and Rachel Price, asking And How Are Your Goats Keeping?.
On Friday night, one actor, Nicki Davy, from Leeds, had to be elsewhere (for acting work reasons, hurrah), meaning we missed out on answering the goat welfare question.
The poster for Yorkshire Trios at The Gillygate pub as live theatre sparked into life again
Anyway, here is the survey. Question 1: What did you think of the quality of the performances you saw? Rate from 1 for Poor to 5 for Excellent.
One play, Weirdo, was indeed excellent in darkly humorous, unpredictable, intriguing writing by Norman (the discovery of Yorkshire Trios), offbeat direction by Cosmic Collective Theatre’s Brighton-bound Feeney and deadpan execution by Mandy Newby, the most experienced actor on view, as the weird woman with the even weirder smell emanating from her home.
Kingsley, newly back north from completing his training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, had the difficult task of opening the show, not as the warm-up act but straight in at the deep end, side on under a flat cap, in Johnston’s lingering memory play, One More Time We Go, that demanded more assertiveness in performance under Hobson’s direction.
The most resonant piece in Covid times was Kelly Unmasked, Drury’s study of a woman, newly diagnosed in her 30s as autistic, trying to come to her own terms with a lockdown being experienced by unaware, socially distanced others all around her. It was stressful, as much as distressing watching Barnes’s on-the-wire poet Kelly, when director Baistow needed to extract more variety in her acting tropes.
Friday night ended with Abba dance moves, Jane McDonald cheerleading, a very northern no-nonsense feminist ultra and a soapbox that just didn’t quite wash. Not Macbeth’s tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, so much as a torrid tale told by a “Motormouth” devoid of self-awareness and an off-switch, signifying not enough, for all the energy of writer Crosland, director Pearson and actor Chattle.
In a nutshell, this was a night that swung erratically between 2 and 5 on the scorecard, but with consistently good-quality sound and lighting.
Kinsley amiss: Miles KInsley needed more assertiveness in his show-opening performance. Picture: James Drury
Question 2. Did you enjoy the performances being outdoors in a pub setting? Rate from 1 for Not At All to 5 for Very Much.
Yes and no. It was good to feel alive again in the company of actors, but noises off from the tables at the back, while entirely tolerable under present circumstances of outdoors being the only place to drink right now, would be distracting at future performances if the beer garden is to become a garden of artistic delights. So, 3 out of five for now.
Question 3: Do you feel the bitesize performance pieces suited the pub setting? Again, 1 for Not At All; 5 for Very Much.
Yes, because, like the next round, there was always another one coming down the line pretty pronto. That said, the original idea of promenade performances around the interior of the pub would have worked that much better. So, another 3 out of 5.
Question 4: How did you find the quality of the food and drink available during the performance. Same score grades.
Excellent, attentive service. Genial welcomes from Brian and Matt. White wine for the ladies went down very well. Blackcurrant cordial for the teetotal reviewer was totally entente cordial indeed. Didn’t nibble, so no quibble on that score. 5/5
Poet cornered: Christie Barnes as Kelly in Kelly Unmasked. Picture: James Drury
How did you find the COVID safety measures put in place for the performance? Same score grades.
As with last summer’s Park Bench Theatre at Rowntree Park, last autumn’s socially distanced shows in The Round at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, York Stage’s pantomime at Theatre @41, Monkgate, and York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime, the Covid-safety measures were meticulously carried out.
As before, the message to the Government is, yes, the arts needs your support, but you should trust the arts to run events with the utmost professionalism, whatever the circumstances. The Gillygate, 5/5. The Government: could do better.
Would you be interested in attending a similar performance to Yorkshire Trios in the future?
Outdoors? Yes, but with the provisos mentioned above. Indoors, yes. The Gillygate has always been a good home to theatre.
As for the content, there is promise here and further opportunities should be encouraged.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your experience that might help us shape future events?
This review has run to 1,207 words already. Enough said, surely?!
Plenty to say for herself: Emily Chattle’s Motormouth in Yorkshire Trios at The Gillygate pub beer garden. Picture: James Drury
Jon Marshall, of Magic Carpet Theatre and the Inner Magic Circle, who presents tonight’s live online talk on the history of the building now known as Pocklington Arts Centre
FROM Penny Arcadia To Pocklington Arts Centre, the story behind the historic Market Place venue, will be told by magician and performer Jon Marshall in a Zoom event this evening (May 4).
Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) has been staging events for more than 20 years, but should you be wondering what the Grade II listed building was once used for and how it came to be the arts hub it is today, Jon has the answers.
Tales of fire-eaters, magicians and amusements all will feature in the 7.30pm illustrated talk as Jon, director and performer with Hull company Magic Carpet Theatre, takes his audience on a trip down memory lane, delving into the origins of the building formerly known as Oak House, dating back to the 1700s.
“The talk promises to be a fascinating and entertaining online event unveiling the story behind the building, from doctor’s house, cinema and museum housing Europe’s largest collection of amusement machines, to East Yorkshire’s premier arts venue,” says PAC director Janet Farmer.
Marshall, a member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star, promises a fascinating and entertaining evening, replete with tales of former owners of the building Jon and Pat Gresham.
From Penny Arcadia To Pocklington Arts Centre: Jon Marshall’s online audience will hear tales of the Gresham family, who once owned the historic venue. Pictured are the late Pat and Jon Gresham with their son Maxwell
“They were larger-than-life local characters, cinema proprietors and museum curators,” he says. “All will be revealed about the exploits and colourful adventures of Jon, who was once a magician, fire-eater, pantomime promoter and sideshow showman.
“The audience will also hear about Pat, who was determined that when the Penny Arcadia closed, the building should not become yet another retail unit but instead should provide entertainment and a service to the people of Pocklington and the surrounding area.
“I had the privilege of knowing the Gresham family for over 50 years from the mid-1960s, so participants will be able to see many previously unpublished photographs and images from over the years.”
Marshall’s company Magic Carpet Theatre are regular performers at PAC and last October they recorded two shows there for streaming for free on PAC’s YouTube channel: Magic Circus from January 7 to 21 and The Wizard Of Castle Magic from February 18 to March 4, both with financial assistance from the I Am Fund and Smile Foundation.
Now comes From Penny Arcadia To Pocklington Arts Centre. “When I moved into area, I’d already met Jon, and then got to know Jon and Pat really well. They became great family friends,” says Marshall.
Director Jon Marshall as the Ringmaster, showing his frustration with Steve Collison’s Clown in Magic Carpet Theatre’s Magic Circus
“The Pocklington Arts Centre building goes back to the 1700s, and it opened as a cinema in the 1930s. Jon bought the Ritz Cinema in 1981 and that’s when he started putting his collection of amusement machines in there.
“They lived in Westwood House, North Dalton, a big old house and grounds that Jon and Pat did up and lived there for some time. After Jon died, Pat continued to run the building, and she was determined it should not be turned into shops despite receiving various offers.”
Encouraged by Pocklington Town Council, Pat ran Penny Arcadia until 1996, when the last event was a September display of Jon Gresham’s magical props.
“It was a totally unique enterprise, collecting arcade music machines, which is a huge part of our culture,” says Marshall. “Jon’s interest had been sparked by being given a music box by Pat and he went on to become president of the British Music Box Society.
“At that time, the country was going into decimalisation and that meant many, many penny-operated music machines became redundant overnight, and that was perfect for Jon, who drove around the country as pier arcades were throwing them off the piers.
The late Jon Gresham with assorted penny arcade machines
“Some were acquired for free, some he paid for, and he amassed one of Europe’s largest collections. Much of it is still together in a collection, and no, not in America.”
After Jon died, Pat kept them in the outbuildings of Westwood House, for use at the Penny Arcadia. “She was a very astute businesswoman, continuing to run Penny Arcadia very well and Beverley Playhouse too, putting on such live shows as children’s theatre and plays,” says Marshall.
Tonight’s Zoom show will tap into the nostalgia emanating from the Gresham story. “Jon and Pat were huge characters in their own right with big personalities. He was a public schoolboy, who went to Oundle School, and his father ran a timber importers’ business in Hull with sawmills in Brough and Sheffield,” he says.
“Jon was destined to go into the family business, and though he didn’t do National Service for medical reasons, he said he wouldn’t be able to work for the family for at least two years as he should have been doing National Service, and so instead he trained as Europe’s youngest fire-eater, calling himself ‘Jon Gresham from Copenhagen’, as he thought being Scandinavian would add something to the act – and he was blond.
“He toured Europe but then his father said it was ‘now or never’ for him to join the timber business. He did so, but he’d made many great friends touring Europe, and so he also started to promote pantomimes in Harrogate, Scarborough and on the coast, such as Cinderella and Aladdin, appearing as a fire-eating genie in the shows, while working for the family.”
Jon Gresham was a “real dynamo”, in Marshall’s appraisal. “As well as all this going on, he’d do his fire-eating at music halls and on variety bills, and he could appear at fairgrounds, blowing fire in air outside the fairground to attract people inside to see the shows,” he says.
Jon Gresham: Billed as “The world’s youngest fire-eater from Copenhagen”
“He really got a taste for it and decided to open his own sideshow in 1956, The Robot Show, staged in one of the Corrigans’ buildings, as he knew the fairground family well and had become a friend.”
Jon Gresham continued to run the family business as managing director, Monday to Friday, but at weekends he was a sideshow showman and proprietor, spreading his time between 12 sites, among them Rhyl, Porthcawl, Great Yarmouth, Dreamland at Margate and Hull Fair.
From the Smallest Ironing Lady in the Country to the Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Gresham’s sideshows were often elaborate, as well as curious. Annual accounts show he would have at least two girls, a manager and box-office manager per site.
Before marrying Jon Gresham, Pat had been an interior designer and colour consultant. “He used her skills for decorating the sideshows and the Penny Arcadia,” says Marshall.
“Pat also designed and decorated the captain and crew’s quarters for trawlers at Hull, when it was unheard of for a woman to do that.
The Headless Lady: One of Jon Gresham’s live illusion sideshows
“If a girl in the shows was suddenly taken away by the police, somebody had to take her place, so Pat always kept alert. ‘I never knew if I was going to be legless in Margate or headless in Scarborough,’ she once said.”
The Greshams travelled by pantechnicon van, an old vehicle painted purple and known affectionately as “Gertrude”. “The season would run from Whitsun to September, and they would tour their live illusion sideshows throughout that period,” says Marshall.
“The sideshows ran until 1969, when the problem was the resistance to prices going up from six pence and a shilling, but there was another problem too: the crowds going to the seaside resorts were declining in the face of the rise in package holidays, so you now had to rely on footfall on the day.
“It was all by chance, if people were walking by in the daytime or in the evening after the meal at the digs. He would send out the Headless Lady to pique their interest. By then two thirds of the business was on Sundays; Saturday was change-over day, and Sunday was the peak day, running from 10am to 10pm.”
Showman Marshall has since restored some of the sideshows to take them out to festivals to entertain new audiences. “Normally I’d be doing it from April/May to September, but alas we’ve not been out since Derby Feste in September 2019, though we’re hoping we may be able to go out again in 2022,” he says.
Jon and Pat Gresham with their daughter Lindsey at Penny Arcadia, now Pocklington Arts Centre
Marshall’s decision to revive sideshows began with a conversation at a dinner with Pat Gresham. “We thought, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to restore a sideshow for a Magic Circle dinner?’,” he recalls.
“We found the gaudy frontispiece to The Flash with slogans and the picture to entice people in: ‘It’s not the show that gets the dough. It’s The Flash that gets the cash’, it said, and we were off and running.”
Jon Gresham’s sideshows had been in storage from 1969 to 2004 in outbuildings at Westwood House. “They’d been moved around, there’d been pigeons and rats, and nothing was in any order or visible, frankly.
“So, it was out with the rubber gloves to start a detective hunt, and that’s when we found The Flash frontispiece and, by a stroke of luck, the goldfish bowl, alas with cracks in it, from the Girl in the Goldfish Bowl.
“They’re like the ones you see in cartons, and they’re hard to find now, but luckily with some acrylic we’ve been able to mend it and make it watertight.”
The late Pat Gresham. “She was an enormous help to us in our research, as the Greshams never threw anything away in terms of records,” says John Marshall
Marshall has restored seven shows in all now, comparing the experience of finding the Gresham show stock to British archaeologist Howard Carter locating King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. “Because they had been painted in the 1950s with layers of varnish to protect against the sea salt, we had very little restoration to do,” he says.
“Pat was an enormous help to us in our research, as the Greshams never threw anything away in terms of records. Jon left his memoirs and there’s a biography with a chapter by Pat [who died in 2019] and a contribution by Professor Eddie Dawes, the Yorkshire magician and biochemist [who founded the University of Hull’s biochemistry department].
“I’ve written a chapter on the Penny Arcadia and on Jon’s straitjacket, which went to an escapologist called Danny Hunt, and his fire-eating equipment, which is still being used by Tom Cockerill, who has re-created the act for the International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention, performing the original acts with that original equipment.”
The biography, Jon Gresham: The Life And Adventures Of A Sideshow Showman, is available on Amazon and eBay and from Pocklington Arts Centre too, and more information on the revived sideshows can be found at sideshowillusions.com, with details soon to be added on the 2022 season.
Tickets for tonight’s Zoom illustrated talk cost £5 at: ticketing.eu.veezi.com/sessions/?siteToken=5c398sshg8x6xjr7k9mw32dvr8
Film director Oliver Stone, snazzy blue glasses and all, discusses his film JFK, politics, more politics, his upcoming documentary and yet more politics in an online interview for Harrogate Film Festival
NO Stone unturned as Two Big Egos In A Small Carpodcasters Chalmers and Hutch hit Episode 40 with thoughts on Harrogate Film Festival, Oliver Stone & JFK; Jagger & Grohl’s Slade-meets-Sham 69 lockdown knockdown single Eazy Sleazy; bye-bye Bay City Roller Les McKeown & Jim Steinman RIP; jazz & happiness; no Covid insurance government support, no Deer Shed Festival in 2021 & what next for the summer festival season? Oh, and the return of pub theatre…outdoors in York.
Love letter to theatre: The reopening season at York Theatre Royal
MUCH ado about nothing but love is promised when York Theatre Royal reopens with two nights of letters from the heart from May 17.
Love Bites will turn the spotlight on the creativity of artists from in and around York, whether poets, performers, singers, dancers or digital artists, who have been commissioned to write love letters celebrating the return to live performances after the easing of the Government’s pandemic restrictions.
More names will be announced nearer the time for the 8pm performances on May 17 and 18, but confirmed already from 200 proposals are Alice Boddy and Leanne Hope’s piece, A Love Letter To Female Friendship, and Japanese-English actor Erika Noda’s semi-autobiographical account of growing up dual heritage, entitled Ai.
Magic trio: writer Bethan Ellis, illustrator Elena Skoreyko Wagner and composer James Cave
Contributing too will be the Magic combination of illustrator and papercut artist Elena Skoreyko Wagner, composer and York Minster choir member James Cave and writer and editor Bethan Ellis, finding magic and meaning in the mundane, and York-based Zimbabwean playwright Butshilo Nleya, who combines words, music and dance in works centred on place, home and the multiplicity of cultures, this time presenting Ekhaya, Love Them Both?.
Juliet Forster, the Theatre Royal’s creative director, says: “Love Bites is really a love letter to live performance, put together by York artists. It’s a celebration of what we have been missing for over a year now: the chance to come together under one roof and share our stories and experiences. There was no one single theatre production that felt enough to mark the reopening of theatres, the lifting of restrictions, so we decided that we needed multiple ones.”
Selecting 20 commissions from more than 200 proposals was “extremely difficult, but really inspiring too,” she reveals. “There are so many talented, inventive, creative people in York – we could have filled the night several times over. The selection of short pieces that you will see on our stage represent a wide range of voices, artforms and approaches to the theme of love, created by both well-established artists and those who are newer to the scene,” she says.
“We hope Love Bites will turn out to be ‘a many-splendored thing’,” says York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster
“Love Bites will explore the idea of love letters, dedicated to people, places, things, actions, occupations and much, much more in a multitude of ways, all presented in five-minute specially commissioned bite-sized chunks. We hope Love Bites will turn out to be ‘a many-splendored thing’”.
After these two nights introduced by Look North alumnus Harry Gration with a Pay What You Feel ticket policy, The Love Season’s focus on human connection, the live experience and a sense of togetherness will embrace solo shows by stage and screen luminary Ralph Fiennes [Four Quartets} and Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh [The Greatest Play In The History Of The World…]; a new Ben Brown political drama about writer Graham Greene and spy Kim Philby, A Splinter Of Ice, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, transposed to 1940s’ Hong Kong by writer Amy Ng and director Dadiow Lin.
Performances will be presented to socially distanced audiences, adhering to the latest Government and industry Covid-19 guidelines to ensure the safety of staff and audiences with a reduced capacity of 344, but should Step 4 of the roadmap roll-out go ahead as planned on June 21, there is scope for more seats to go on sale for shows later in the season. Over to you, Mr Johnson.
“We’re so chuffed to have Ralph Fiennes coming to York. We can’t believe it,” says Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird
Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird says: “The last thing we want to do, given our mission and the trouble in keeping theatre alive, is to put up more barriers to people coming, but we have to be Covid-safe, and that’s the bottom line. We did it for the Travelling Pantomime we took around York wards, and we will do it again from May 17.’”
The number one talking point is Ralph Fiennes’s Theatre Royal debut, in six performances from July 26 to 31, directing himself in the world-premiere tour of T S Eliot’s Four Quartets: a solo theatre adaptation of Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages and Little Giddings, a set of poems first published together in 1943 on the themes of time, nature and the elements, faith and spirituality, war and mortality.
Tom says: “The link to bring the show here is James Dacre, artistic director of Northampton’s Royal & Derngate Theatres, who co-produced A View From The Bridge with the Theatre Royal in 2019.
Ralph Fiennes rehearsing T S Eliot’s Four Quartets
“He’s co-producing this tour, helping Ralph put the show together. Ralph is rehearsing in London, opening at the Theatre Royal, Bath, from May 25 and then touring. We’re so chuffed to have Ralph coming to York. We can’t believe it!
“We’re thrilled that Ralph’s show became a possibility for us, and it’s a huge credit to him to recognise the need to support theatre around the country at this time.
“Let’s say it, it’s rare for an actor of his profile and standing to do a regional tour, but he’s seen that he can help to save some incredibly important producing houses, like this one, by doing a tour – and it’s not an act of charity; it’s an important and really exciting piece of work.”
“It’s a huge credit to him to recognise the need to support theatre around the country at this time,” says Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird
Tom is delighted by Fiennes’s choice of material too. “There’s a massive tradition of actors doing Eliot poems, like Fiona Shaw doing The Waste Land,” he says. “They lend themselves to performance, and it’s really telling that Ralph has chosen to take Four Quartets on tour at this moment because they’re rooted in life and death; the past and the future; human relationships and a love of place.
“For that reason, it fits into our programme for a season built around love, connection and being rooted in a place. As an American coming to England, Eliot was trying to root himself here by looking for his ancestors in Somerset.”
For full details of The Love Season, go to: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Tickets can be booked at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; on 01904 623568, Monday to Saturday, 12 noon to 3pm, and in person, Thursday to Saturday, 12 noon to 3pm.
Strictly Cabaret performers Chris Hagyard, Terry Ford, Larry Gibson and Claire Pulpher
THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in York, will be reopening its doors on May 21 with Covid-secure measures and a socially distanced seating plan.
That night at 7.30pm and the next day at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, the Bev Jones Music Company will present Strictly Cabaret in this safe, regulated setting.
Claire Pulpher, Chris Hagyard, Terry Ford and Larry Gibson will don their finest to entertain with a glittering cabaret evening of their favourites.
“Rat Pack, swing style, top musicals, film favourites, you name it, they will sing it,” says producer Lesley Jones. “Just sit back, reflect upon the year, clear your minds and be thoroughly entertained in the manner befitting the Bev Jones Music Company.”
Black Sheep Theatre Productions: Fundraiser for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Strictly Cabaret will lead off a line-up of nine shows at the JoRo between May 21 and August 28.
In a fundraiser for the Jo Ro on June 13, music director Jon Atkin will be joined by singers Emma Dickinson, Alexa Chaplin, Richard Bayton and Rob Davies at 7.30pm for An Evening Of Musical Comedy Highlights: a cabaret selection of solos, duets and quartets from musical comedies aplenty with a few popular songs added to the mix.
Poignant after the death of composer Jim Steinman on April 19, Meat Loud – The Duo will perform those very familiar rock operatic songs from Bat Out Of Hell and other Meat Loaf albums, penned by the New Yorker, plus equally grandiose classics he wrote for Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion and Cher, on June 19 at 7.30pm.
Meat Loud – The Duowas founded in 2018 by Meat Loud, alias Andy Plimmer, and British session singer and vocal coach Sally Rivers, who has worked with Cher, Annie Lennox and Mick Hucknall. “So buckle up and get ready for a ride into hell,” say the duo.
Meat Loud – The Duo: Andy Plimmer and Sally Rivers
The York String Quartet will play a fundraiser for the Rowntree theatre on June 20, performing a broad repertoire of classical, pop, jazz, television and film music at 7.30pm.
Between them, quartet members Vince Parsonage, violin and viola, Nicola Rainger, violin, Sara Gilford, cello, and Maggy Lamb, viola, have played across Europe with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and English National Opera.
Some Might Say will re-create the look, swagger and trademark wall of sound in a supersonic tribute show to Oasis on June 26 at 7.30pm.
Selections from all seven albums will feature in a set full of Manchester anthems, from hit singles to fans’ concert favourites and Noel Gallagher’s acoustic numbers. Expect Supersonic, Rock’n’Roll Star, Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Cigarettes And Alcohol and many more.
Some Might Say: Swaggering Oasis tribute show
Black Sheep Theatre Productions will present For The Love Of Musicals in aid of the JoRo in matinee and evening performances on July 10.
Join musical director Matthew Clare, his merry band and a host of singers for a concert of delights as they prove “There’s No Business Like Show Business” with songs from Annie Get Your Gun, classics galore and more recent shows such as Dear Evan Hansen.
The Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company Does Gilbert And Sullivan will feature HMS Pinafore on July 29 at 7.30pm and July 31 at 2.30pm and The Mikado on July 30 and 31 at 7.30pm.
The JoRo’s in-house performing team will produce semi-staged performances of G&S’s biggest hits, brimming with popular tunes and brilliant characters. “Come along and enjoy the topsy-turvy musical madness, with all profits going straight back to the theatre,” reads their invitation.
The Carpenters Experience: Tribute concert led by Maggie Nestor
Billed as “the UK’s leading Carpenters’ show”, The Carpenters Experience brings together vocalist Maggie Nestor and eight musicians to capture yesterday once more in the form of Karen and Richard Carpenter’s Close To You, We’ve Only Just Begun, Top Of The World, Rainy Days And Mondays, Solitaire, Goodbye To Love, Please Mr Postman, For All We Know and Only Yesterday on August 28 at 7.30pm.
Dan Shrimpton, chair of the theatre trustees, says: “We’re thrilled to be staging live shows once again and welcoming audiences back through our theatre doors. We’ve missed the buzz of putting on a show and can’t wait for opening night.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure our theatre is Covid-safe. The new procedures and processes we’ve put in place have all been tried and tested. Our priority is to make sure your theatre experience is a safe one.”
For more information on the shows, booking tickets and the new safety procedures, go to the website, josephowntreetheatre.co.uk, email publicity@jrtheatre.co.uk or ring 01904 501935.
Buy A Tile: Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s new fundraising campaign
THE JoRo has launched its latest fundraising campaign, Buy A Tile, as part of its wider Raise The Roof appeal set in motion last year.
Shrimpton says: “We’ve been staging shows and entertaining local communities in York for more than 85 years. The roof repairs are essential for safeguarding the future of our theatre, so we can continue entertaining communities in York for years and years to come.”
The JoRo needs to raise £45,000 urgently to replace its leaking roofs: still made up of the original tiles laid in place when the Haxby Road theatre was built in 1935. Without repairs to the broken tiles, the Grade II-listed theatre risks damage to the building’s Art Deco fabric.
The Bev Jones Music Company’s poster for Jesus Christ Superstar at Rowntree Park, York
LOOKING ahead, musical actress, radio presenter, choreographer, director, writer, teacher and model Claire Pulpher will direct the Bev Jones Music Company in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar at Rowntree Park, York, on July 12 at 3pm and July 13 at 2pm and 5pm.
Claire also will play Mary Magdalene in the York company’s first full-scale musical production post-pandemic lockdown, in a safe outdoor setting in the park’s secluded amphitheatre, where audience members can sit in bubbles of up to six people, allocated on the day. Bring picnic chairs, rugs and possibly umbrellas too.
Joining her in the principal roles will be fellow Strictly Cabaret performers Chris Hagyard, Terry Ford and Larry Gibson.
Claire Pulpher: Directing Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar tells the story of the last seven days of Jesus’s life, leading to his crucifixion. Pulpher will use the natural setting to maximum effect to bring a unique vision to the 1973 rock opera, complemented by musical director James Rodgers’ band.
“James’s brilliant rock band will have you clapping and joining in with this rousing show, featuring the company’s very best performers, plus new names for you to enjoy in a production set to lift your spirits after such a difficult year,” says producer Lesley Jones .
“Suitable for all ages, with parental guidance, there’ll be singing and dancing to please everyone, in a suitably distanced manner.”
EXCITEMENT is on the rise at the Milton Rooms, Malton, as the prospect of reopening under the Government’s lockdown-loosening roadmap moves closer to fruition.
A varied programme will be on offer for the second half of next month, should all go to plan for the lights to go up once more with Covid-secure measures in place from May 17. Tickets for four events are on sale now at the miltonrooms.com.
In the diary are gigs for fans of rock, pop and indie, plus a healthy dollop of the blues, a talk on the secret messages hidden in flowers in Victorian times and even a magic-meets-comedy show by a Britain’s Got Talent star.
Starting the ball rolling on May 21 will be Martin Gough’s One Man Rock concert, showcasing rock, pop and indie music by artists from the Sixties to the present day.
On May 23, the Dickens Society will take a light-hearted look at the meaning of flowers and how the Victorians loved sending secret messages in a well-chosen bouquet – and how certain flower messages applied to some of author Charles Dickens’s favourite characters.
Martin Gough: First show at reopened Milton Rooms
Another change of pace will follow on May 27 with the return of the Ryedale Blues Club, presenting Dr Bob & The Bluesmakers.
Mandy Muden Magic will roll into town on May 29, when the 2018 Britain’s Got Talent contestant will stage a new show full of wit, magic tricks and mind-reading.
Onwards into the next month, Fifi La Mer will present A Journey Into French Music from Offenbach to Gainsbourg on June 2. Acoustic covers band Taphouse Burnout are booked for June 5; the Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, with Nick Doody and Karen Bayley, June 11; Kick In The Head’s “Downton Abbey with gardening tips” show, Old Herbaceous, on June 20, and Ryedale Blues Club, hosting the James Oliver Band, June 24.
Venue manager Lisa Rich says: “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes renovating the Milton Rooms and there are exciting plans for the future. We have had our Covid-safe certificate extended by Visit England and we’re really looking forward to welcoming audiences both old and new.
‘’Initially, ticket sales for our diverse programme of events will be restricted because of Covid regulations, so people are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.’’
Masked ball, pandemic style, in Romeo & Juliet: Not exactly kissing by the book in The HandleBards’ irreverent production at York Theatre Royal
TODAY is William Shakespeare’s 457th birthday: the perfect time to reveal what will be happening with this year’s York International Shakespeare Festival in May and how you can play your part.
“Covid, Brexit and all the issues around travel and funding mean that this won’t be the usual ‘YorkShakes’ experience,” says festival organiser Philip Parr, artistic director of Parrabbola.
“Festivals and theatre are facing tricky times, but all is not lost. Undaunted, we’re going ahead and have an exciting programme for you. Our festival may be little, but from May 25 to June 6, we’re fiercely determined to bring some international Shakespeare to York and to share work being made in the city.”
The festival promises films of exciting international productions; the announcement of a new ongoing collaboration programme with colleagues in Taiwan, and “even some live Shakespeare”, courtesy of cycle-everywhere company The HandleBards’ irreverent Romeo & Juliet at a socially distanced York Theatre Royal on May 25 and 26.
Created by three actors cooped up together during lockdown, fuelled by cabin fever and a determination to forget the tears and the tragedy, the result is “an unhinged and bonkers, laugh-out-loud version of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers” that also will form part of the Theatre Royal’s Love Season.
“The festival climax will be a new, online filmed production of a fast-paced, pared-back Pericles by York company Riding Lights, and we’re also going to launch the world’s first ever – we think! – collection of all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, each recorded in a different language or dialect,” says Philip.
“And we want you to be part of the festival too in the form of York Loves Shakespeare, a photographic project for people who live, work or play in York, and who love Shakespeare.”
Here’s how to be involved: “We want you to propose your favourite line from a Shakespeare play and then we’re going to choose one line from every play (so either 37, 38 or a few more plays),” says Philip.
“If you and your line are selected, we’ll photograph you with that line at a location in York that is relevant, iconic and perhaps personally specific. The results will be presented on Instagram and other social media during the festival and then collected on a webpage – and might perhaps go further!
“It’s a simple commitment and can be done legally and safely under current pandemic rules. You’ll need to go to your venue, but it will be only you and the photographer working together. John Saunders, who is well-known around York, has agreed to take our photographs and we’re grateful to him for being a vital part of the team.”
To take part in this celebration of Shakespeare and York, just email Philip Parr at info@yorkshakes.co.uk and propose your play and your line. “The deadline is May 1, so not much thinking time – t’were well it were done quickly!” both he and Shakespeare advise.
“Once we’ve made our choices, we’ll be back in touch to discuss the how and where and when. We need you! Come and join in,” adds Philip.
Let Ian Massie take you to Another Place in his Northern Soul show at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole from May 17
NO mention of home entertainment here, as Charles Hutchinson decides to cast fears aside – albeit while acting responsibly – as he looks forward to theatres, bars, galleries, museums and music venues opening their doors once more.
Cupid, draw back your bow and let the beer flow, straight to the York Theatre Royal patio
LOVE is in the Step 2 air, and soon on the York Theatre Royal stage too for The Love Season from May 17.
Cupid’s Bar: Follow the arrow to the York Theatre Royal patio. Picture: Livy Potter
Perfect timing to launch Cupid’s Bar for five weeks on the Theatre Royal patio, where the bar will run from midday to 9.30pm every Thursday to Sunday, providing an outdoor space in the heart of the city for residents and visitors to socialise safely.
Working with regional suppliers, Cupid’s Bar will offer a range of drink options, such as draught beer from Black Sheep Brewery, Masham, and York Gin from, er, York.
Ian Scott Massie: Finding Northern Soul in his landscape watercolours and screenprints. Picture: Steve Christian
Exhibition of the month ahead outside York: Ian Scott Massie, Northern Soul, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, North York Moors National Park, May 17 to July 11
MASHAM artist Ian Scott Massie’s Northern Soul show of 50 watercolours and screenprints represents his personal journey of living in the north for 45 years.
“The north is the truth of England, where all things are seen clearly,” he says. “The incomparable beauty of the landscape; the harsh ugliness left by industry; the great wealth of the aristocracy; the miserable housing of the poor; the civic pride of the mill towns and a people as likely to be mobilised by political oratory as by a comedian with a ukulele.”
The Waterfall Of Nikko-Zan In Shimotsuke Province, by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1853, from York Art Gallery’s show of rarely seen Japanese prints, Pictures Of The Floating World. Image courtesy of York Museums Trust
Reopening exhibition of the month ahead in York: Pictures Of The Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints, York Art Gallery, from May 28
YORK Art Gallery’s display of rarely seen Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, complemented by much-loved paintings from the gallery collection, will go on show in a new Spotlight Series.
Marking next month’s gallery reopening with Covid-secure measures, Pictures Of The Floating World will feature prints by prominent Ukiyo-e artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, along with works by those influenced by Japanese art, York artist Albert Moore and Walter Greaves among them.
This free-to-visit exhibition will highlight the significant impact of Japanese art on the western world and the consequential rise of the artistic movements of Aestheticism and Art Nouveau.”
Van the manoeuvre: Morrison’s York Barbican gigs put back to July
On the move: Van Morrison’s York Barbican shows
NO reopening date has yet been announced for York Barbican, but Irish veteran Van Morrison’s shows are being moved from May 25 and 26 to July 20 and 21.
“Please keep hold of your tickets as they will be valid for the new date,” says the Barbican website, where seats for Van The Man are on sale without social distancing, in line with Step 4 of the Government’s pandemic Roadmap to Recovery, whereby all legal limits on social contact are potentially to be removed from June 21.
Morrison, 75, will release his 42nd album, Latest Record Project: Volume 1, a 28-track delve into his ongoing love of blues, R&B, jazz and soul, on May 7 on Exile/BMG.
Lockdown love story: The taster poster for Alan Ayckbourn’s new play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
New play of the summer: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, June 4 to July 3
AFTER the 2020 world premiere of his virus play Truth Will Out lost out to the Covid pandemic restrictions, director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn returns to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to direct his 85th play, The Girl Next Door, in the summer season.
“I wrote it back in Spring 2020. I like to think of it as a lockdown love story,” says Ayckbourn, introducing his touching, tender and funny reflection on the ability of love to rise above adversity and reach across the years.
Influenced by his own experiences in two “lockdowns”, one in wartime London in childhood, the other in the on-going pandemic in Scarborough, Ayckbourn will play with time in a plot moving back and forth between 2021 and 1941. Box office: sjt.uk.com.
May and April in tandem: York Barbican date for Imelda next spring on her first tour in five years
Gig announcement of the week in York: Imelda May, York Barbican, April 6 2022
IRISH singer-songwriter Imelda May will play York Barbican next April in the only Yorkshire show of her Made To Love tour, her first in more than five years.
“I cannot wait to see you all again, to dance and sing together, to connect and feel the sparkle in a room where music makes us feel alive and elevated for a while,” says May. “Let’s go!”
Last Friday, the 46-year-old Dubliner released her sixth studio album, 11 Past The Hour. The box office opens tomorrow at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Dance like Fred Astaire…or more likely like Tim Booth as James end the summer at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Gig announcement of the week outside York: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, September 9
WHERE better for James to announce a summer show in the week they release new single Beautiful Beaches than at Scarborough Open Air Theatre?
The Manchester legends will play on the East Coast in the wake of launching their new album, All The Colours Of You, on June 4. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (23/4/2021) at 9am at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
This will be the third that James, led by Clifford-born Tim Booth, have played Scarborough OAT after shows in 2015 and 2018.
The writers, actors, directors and organisers in a Zoom gathering for Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios at The Gillygate pub, York
And what about?
GOOD news: Live theatre bursts into life in York for the first time since December 30 when York community arts collective Next Door But One presents Yorkshire Trios in The Gillygate pub’s new outdoor seating area tomorrow and on Saturday.
Themed around Moments Yet To Happen, trios of actors, directors and writers will bring to theatre-starved York a quintet of short stories of laughter, strength, dreams and everything in between: a neighbour with a secret; a delivery driver full of wanderlust; an optimistic carousel operator; a poet inviting us into her world and a Jane McDonald fan on a soapbox.
Bad news for tardy readers? The 7.30pm shows have sold out.
Maggie Fox, left, and Sue Ryding in a scene from LipService Theatre’s Withering Looks
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre favourites LipService Theatre will present a special live stream of their savvy yet delightfully silly Bronte sisters spoof Withering Looks tomorrow night (22/4/2021).
Forming part of the still-closed East Yorkshire venue’s ongoing series of online events during the pandemic lockdowns, the 7.30pm streaming will be introduced on Zoom by LipService duo Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding.
They will conduct a live question-and-answer session too at the finale. “We’ll either be on Maggie’s sofa or mine, with some no doubt very interesting photographs behind us!” says Sue.
Tickets are selling fast with customers from far and wide – including Belgium – snapping them up.
Dubbed “the Laurel and Hardy of literary deconstruction” by the Guardian, LipService have visited Pocklington Arts Centre regularly, and when pandemic restrictions put a cross through their latest return, they settled on tomorrow’s stream instead.
“We’re doing this live stream specially for Pocklington Arts Centre, who had booked us to perform Withering Looks as part of their grand celebrations for their 20th anniversary last year, when obviously we couldn’t do it,” says Sue.
For the uninitiated in the Lip Service world of affectionate parody and pastiche, Withering Looks explores a day in the life of the Bronte sisters. “Well, two of them, Anne’s just popped out for a cup of sugar,” say the duo. “And in true David Attenborough style there’ll be additional footage, going behind the scenes of the making of the show.”
Commissioned by the Bronte Parsonage Museum, the filmed performance by “Britain’s favourite literary lunatics” was recorded by Maggie, from York, and Sue, from the other side of the Pennines, at the Bronte family’s home at Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Scenes from Withering Looks filmed “in the actual parsonage where the Bronte sisters wrote their actual books actually” will be complemented by additional material by Maggie and Sue recorded in and around Haworth village and on the wild and windswept moors in sub-zero temperatures.
“We made the recording three years ago in January, when the Parsonage was closed for cleaning, so we could do the filming,” says Sue. “That’s when we also filmed some scenes on the moors…in a blizzard. It was freezing! I think we nearly died! I’ve never been so cold!”
Maggie recalls the filming sessions: “We worked with a wonderful crew, with Noreen Kershaw directing us. She got a fantastic team together with the floor manager from The Teletubbies, the soundman from The Night Manager, and a brilliant cameraman, who did documentaries outdoors with Billy Connolly, so he was used to the cold.”
Maggie and Sue first met as drama students at Bristol University in a “very serious Henrik Ibsen production that had the audience on the floor laughing”. A tragedy for Ibsen nevertheless turned out to be the launching pad to a very long partnership in satirical comedy.
Lip Service’s promotional image for their digital performances of Chateau Ghoul in lockdown
Forming LipService in Manchester in 1985, Maggie and Sue have chalked up 22 original comedies from a distinctly female perspective, as well as series for BBC Radio and tours of Germany, Eastern Europe, the United States and Pakistan, over the past 35 years.
Not everyone has appreciated their comic tone. “We did a ‘very controversial’ production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest, when someone asked: ‘Who thought this was a good idea, with all the cross-dressing and the underlying scandal that was going on among the actors?’,” says Maggie.
LipService are keeping busy, despite the hiatus in live performances. “We should be on tour with our new show, a farce set in a hotel called Chateau Ghoul, but we’ll now be doing that tour this autumn,” says Sue. “In the meantime, while venues remain closed, we’ve being down live stuff on Zoom to keep our audiences involved, offering an interactive digital performance, with the invitation for people to make origami windmills.”
Maggie adds: “We’ve had lovely feedback, with people saying how much they’re enjoying see us close up for about 50 per cent of the show. But it is quite disconcerting seeing people with their ‘computer face’ on. That neutral face, where you think, ‘Do they hate us?’. It’s weird for us getting familiar with seeing them so close up!
“Doing a digital performance is a new way of performing for us, and we’ve really enjoyed it, because it means we can perform ‘live’, but we can have a different relationship with our audience, chatting with them beforehand, where they’ll tell us on the stream where they’re watching from, or what they’ve had for dinner…”
…“Or we can pick on people for the quality of their origami!” says Sue. “But what’s been interesting is that we’ve had an international response, with people watching from Belgium, Oklahoma and San Francisco.”
What next? “We’ve been thinking about turning our Sherlock Holmes show into an interactive murder mystery, using the material in a different way for a streamed show,” says Maggie.
Above all, they long for a return to taking to the stage. “I really, really miss loading the van, driving to venues, looking around towns – like going to York Minster – doing the shows and hoping there’s a bar open afterwards,” says Sue.
Meanwhile, what about those ticket holders from Belgium, Luc and Hilde Verstraeten-Mariën, who will Zoom into the PAC show after their plans to catch LipService live were thwarted by the pandemic?
“We were excited to hear that Lip Service had created Zoom performances,” say Luc and Hilde. “We’ve just watched Château Ghoul and it made our day! We really enjoyed the show: it was funny, cheeky, and mad. We enjoyed the interactive part of it and we thought they made clever and creative use of Zoom. We kept giggling for the rest of the evening!
“We are looking forward to more of the same: refreshingly funny, intelligently witty and slightly mad at the same time, highly creative, high-standard comedy with a twist by two fabulous women.”
Tickets for Withering Looks cost £15 at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
