Laura McKeller, left, Michael Cornell, Laura Castle and Jamie McKeller in Neon Crypt Productions’ debut show, Dracula:The Bloody Truth
NEON Crypt Productions is the new theatre enterprise from Jamie and Laura McKeller, ghost-walk purveyors of the Deathly Dark Tour on York’s haunted streets.
They are no stranger to theatrical performance, not least for the Rowntree Players or presentingA Night Of Face-Melting Horror, and so setting up a stage company is not a giant leap for McKellerkind, but more a logical extension of their comedy horror-rooted entertainment empire that also incorporates Neon Crypt Films.
For Neon Crypt Productions, they are joined by like-minded stage cohorts Laura Castle and Michael Cornell, a core company that plans to mount two shows a year, next up November’s premiere of The Wetwang Hauntings to mark Halloween.
The quartet has made a canny choice for this week’s debut: the mishap-strewn comedy of physical theatre troupe Le Navet Bete’s prank and pratfall-filled account of Dracula fits as snugly as a false set of fangs for the Count.
Note the show title: Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Not Bram Stoker’s account of Dracula, but one that will “shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened”. In other words, Stoker’s Dracula sucks. Why, he is even called ‘traitorous” here!
This is Professor Van Helsing’s corrective, corrosive version of Dracula. “It’s a public information seminar, not a show,” insists Jamie McKeller’s exasperated, deeply dischuffed Dutch professor, who takes on the narrator’s role with a disdain for theatre and yet finds himself at the helm of a play within a play. One where Van Helsing and a troupe of multi-role-playing actors strive to enact Dracula in the face of an obstacle course of calamitous impediments on a misbehaving black-and-red set.
McKeller performs the balancing act of playing a humourless character yet eliciting humour aplenty with brio: the importance of being earnest writ large while mayhem abounds around him. Collapsing scenery, role swaps, misplaced props, mistimed sound cues, blows to the head, nothing will deflect him from his cause with so much at stake.
You will know this frantic comedic style from the riotous work of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s Bottom, Lip Service, Mischief Theatre, Oddsocks and Shakespeare-on-a-bike exponents The HandleBards, as well as Le Navet Bete, of course.
Now add Neon Crypt to that list, as the two Lauras, McKeller’s Mina Harker and Castle’s Dracula and Dr John Seward (or C-word as Jamie McKeller’s Van Helsing pronounces it), are joined by Cornell’s increasingly feverish solicitor Jonathan Harker, blonde-wigged Lucy Westenra and wild, fly-munching Renfield.
Under Jamie McKeller’s direction, the energy, the pace, the daftness, never drops, as restless and relentless as Van Helsing, making everything Count in large amounts as they get stuck into Dracula with storytelling relish, theatrical flamboyance and dextrous comic timing.
As much a comedy troupe as a theatre company, welcome to the York stage scene Neon Crypt Productions. This start is bloody good fun!
Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The Brook Street Band: Heading to York for the Early Music Composers Award Day workshops and concert on May 15
THE 2025 National Centre for Early Music Composers Award Day will be led by The Brook Street Band in the baroque instrumental group’s first engagement at the NCEM, York, on May 15.
The annual competition was launched on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show and BBC Sounds on November 17 last year, when composers were invited to create a short work for two violins, cello and harpsichord – one of the most popular chamber music groupings of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Entrants resident in the UK were divided into two categories: 18 years old and under and 19 to 25 years old, whose four-minute compositions had to “reflect the extraordinarily inventive musical heritage of Purcell, Corelli and Handel and create a 21st century response to this wonderful music”.
Daytime workshops for shortlisted candidates will be hosted by composer Dr Christopher Fox before the compositions will be performed by The Brook Street Band at the NCEM, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, in the evening. Each young composer will have the chance to work individually with the group on the day.
The shortlisted pieces will be played in the presence of the panel of judges and an invited audience at 7pm. The winning pieces will be announced after the concert and the performance will be live-streamed through the NCEM’s website at necem.co.uk.
The winning works will be premiered by The Brook Street Band on October 3 as part of the love:Handel festival in Norwich and will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show and BBC Sounds.
NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “We’re very excited to welcome The Brook Street Band as our partner for the Young Composers Award 2025. This ensemble is not only one of the leading exponents of Handel’s music, but also has set up its very own festival, love:Handel, where the winning 2025 compositions will be performed.
“The Young Composers Award is one of the most important dates on the NCEM’s calendar and continues to grow from strength to strength, attracting more and more entries from aspiring young composers from all over the UK.
“Taking part in the award has been an important step in the careers of many successful composers and we are looking forward to hearing this year’s new compositions.”
Les Pratt, producer of BBC Radio 3’s The Early Music Show producer, says: “BBC Radio 3 is delighted to continue to support this award, now looking ahead to its 18th edition. It’s hugely important to challenge and nurture young talent, and what’s most gratifying is seeing past winners and entrants who are now making their way in the professional world.
“We are really looking forward to sharing the 2025 compositions for The Brook Street Band with our audiences at home on The Early Music Show.”
Tatty Theo, cellist and director of The Brook Street Band, says:“We’re thrilled to have the privilege of working with young composers, giving life to brand new music that will showcase the varied colours and rich character of our old baroque instruments.
“Handel’s music is at the heart of our music-making, and we cherish this opportunity to explore the creativity it inspires and unleashes in a new young generation of composers.”
Named after the London Street where George Frideric Handel lived from 1723 to 1759, The Brook Street Band was formed by baroque cellist Tatty Theo, rapidly establishing itself among the UK’s leading Handel specialists, and has retained an unusually stable core membership for more than 20 years, skilled in precise and spontaneous musicianship, where the players react instinctively to each other and play as one.
Tatty spoke to CharlesHutchPress from Hamburg, where she was working on preparations for the Young Composers Award Day with first violinist Rachel Harris, utilising a borrowed cello.
“You have to buy a seat on the plane for your cello, and it’s not that straightforward,” she says. “If it’s a busy flight, they try to bump off the cello. You can put the cello in the pressurised hold, but the problem is that baggage handlers don’t know what to do with it – and I don’t like flying anyway!”
It may have taken 20 years for The Brook Street Band to head to York, but better late than never, and Tatty’s group has performed at the companion Beverley Early Music Festival. “I’ve known Delma for years because my group has been established for a long time, and I’ve always kept an eye on her work,” says Tatty.
“The Brook Street Band has a history of contemporary commissions, exploring new repertoire ranging from songs and trio sonatas written especially for period instruments by such composers as Errollyn Wallen and Nitin Sawhney (for the London International Festival of Early Music).
“These commissions challenge you in different ways, so when Delma said, ‘would you be interested in the Young Composers Award’, I absolutely jumped at the chance, particularly as we’ll be working with young composers.”
The Brook Street Band will meet the eight finalists for the first time on May 15 to workshop their works. “We’ve had the repertoire for over a month now, and because I’m with Rachel in Hamburg, we can do some useful work together, bouncing ideas off each other,” says Tatty.
The Brook Street Band cellist and director Tatty Theo
“Otherwise, we will all work on our own ahead of two pretty intensive days of working in York, finessing what the composers have written and they can see how their works fit with our instruments.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting them. We only get to work with each of them for 40 minutes, so it’s going to be a whirlwind, with Christopher Fox there as well to steer everything through to the award day concert.”
Tatty comes from a family of cellists going back three generations, and her interest in baroque repertoire became apparent at a very young age, but she has a confession to make. “I didn’t want to play cello! My uncle is a cellist and my grandfather was a very notable cellist, but I didn’t want to play it as a young child,” she says.
“No-one pushed me, but I had a babysitter when I was five or six who also played cello, so I started, then I moved on to lessons with my grandfather, playing duets.”
Her grandfather happened to be William Pleeth, no less. Likewise, her uncle is English Concert Chamber Group co-founder Anthony Pleeth, who she would hear performing Geminiani cello sonatas on the baroque cello. “I wanted to be like Anthony, playing baroque cello, like him, from the age of 16,” she says.
Her grandmother, Margaret Good, was a concert pianist too. “She was a really ground-breaking player, performing premieres at the Proms,” says Tatty, who went on to read music at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and continue her studies at postgraduate level at the Royal College of Music, where she won many of the Early Music prizes.
She has since performed as a soloist at festivals throughout Britain and Europe, with live broadcasts for BBC and European radio stations, as well as her life-long passion for Handel and love of performing chamber music leading her to found The Brook Street Band.
“I wouldn’t put pressure on the next generation to play, but if they want to, then I’d be delighted,” says Tatty, who also maintains the Pleeth family archive, her “passion project”.
Beyond her remarkably musical family, she loves to spread the joy of music-making into schools with The Brook Street Band. “That’s something we’re really passionate about,” she says.
“We take music into state schools to bridge the gap in provision, to give primary and secondary schoolchildren the chance to play at workshops because I just feel it’s tragic that it’s not the focus in schools any more.
“I live in a creative part of North London, where the schools have traditionally taught GCSE and A-level Music, but fewer and fewer primary schools teach music, and so there are fewer and fewer children doing it in secondary schools, and the performing arts are becoming marginalised.
“It’s now STEM [an educational approach that integrates the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics], when it should be STEAM by including the Arts.”
One element of Tatty’s love:Handel festival is to work with schools. “We fund tickets for children to come to the concerts and we pay for the bus fares as well,” she says. “Part of our fundraising is allocated to help to make classical music accessible to people who otherwise wouldn’t have that access.
“Sometimes there are cultural barriers, sometimes physical, so making music accessible to young people is a big part of what we do, giving everyone that sense of wonder.”
Tatty would urge children to investigate all options to learn a musical instrument. “Some councils have music hubs, which are phenomenal, and they often make music lessons affordable,” she says. “I’m 100 per cent encouraging children to pursue to pursue those options, because you will find like-minded people, your tribe, whereas I was mercilessly teased at primary school for playing the cello.”
She welcomes the diversity of possibilities for aspiring composers. “Beethoven and Handel were surrounded by music, but now I’m finding there are more ways to express yourself through making music. Now there are loads of composition programmes for children who don’t play instruments but can compose on their computers,” says Tatty.
“My son composes on a mini-keyboard, though he plays the double bass as my other son plays the cello.” Ah yes, the next family cellist is emerging already!
To book tickets for the 2025 National Centre for Early Music Composers Award Day concert, ring 01904 658338 or visit ncem.co.uk
Did you know?
TATTY Theo is working on the first two chapters of a book about her grandfather, William Pleeth, having been awarded a Finzi scholarship to research his musical life in London pre-1930 and his studies in Leipzig from 1930 to 1932.
She also is researching material for an eventual book examining Handel’s use of the cello and writes for various publications about Handel and 18th century music in general.
York artist Jill Tattersall stands by her work Genesis, Exodus at Thursday’s launch of her Finding The Way exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
AS Gary Oldman’s banana-chomping turn in Krapp’s Last Tape enters its last week, Charles Hutchinson finds alternatives aplenty for entertainment and enlightenment.
Exhibition opening of the week: Jill Tattersall, Finding The Way, The Human Maze, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until July 3
THE Wolf At The Door artist Jill Tattersall has overcome a bout of Covid to launch her Finding The Way show at Bluebird Bakery, featuring such works as World On Fire: Such Colours In The Sky; Universal (Dis)Order, Blue Rhapsody and City Of Light And Shadows.
“My brother is an anthropologist, in New York, so I’m very interested in cave symbols, early writing, Japanese and Chinese imagery and themes of communication and language,” she says. “I just have fun with all this stuff!”
Got it taped: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape on his return to York Theatre Royal after 45 years. Picture: Gisele Schmidt
York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17
OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979, to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1989.
“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The George Harrison Project: Playing the JoRo Theatre on Sunday night
Tribute show of the week: The George Harrison Project, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE George Harrison Project celebrates “the quiet Beatle’s” best-loved hits from the Fab Four, his solo career and The Traveling Wilburys.
Sunday’s show combines Taxman, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Here Comes The Sun, All Things Must Pass, My Sweet Lord, Blow Away, Handle With Care and Got My Mind Set On You with video footage and interesting facts about Harrison and his music. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Next Door But One cast members George Green, left, Charlie Blanshard and Becky Heslop in rehearsal for How To Be A Kid
Children’s show of the week: Next Door But One in How To Be A Kid, York Explore, May 12 and 13, 5.30pm; Friargate Theatre, York, May 17, 12 noon and 3pm
AT only 12 years old, Molly cooks, does the dishes and gets her little brother Joe ready for school. Molly misses her Grandma. Molly looks after her mum, but who looks after Molly?
Now her mum is feeling better, maybe things will return to normal. Maybe Molly can learn to be a child again in Sarah McDonald-Hughes’ touching, funny story of family, friends and fitting in, suitable for seven to 11-year-olds and their grown-ups. Warning: this show contains dancing, chocolate cake, dinosaurs, superheroes and an epic car chase, plus big topics such as care, mental health and growing up with an even bigger sense of imagination, creativity, joy and hope. Box office: York Explore, tickettailor.com; Friargate Theatre, ticketsource.co.uk.
Charlie Clarke’s Nora, left, and Chloe Pearson’s Nora’s Self rehearsing a scene from Matthew Peter Clare’s The Inner Selves, next week’s premiere by Black Sheep Theatre Productions. Picture: Matthew Peter Clare
Premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Inner Selves, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
BLACK Sheep Theatre Productions present the premiere of director Matthew Peter Clare’s debut play, quick on the heels of the York company’s first Shakespeare show, The Tempest, in March.
Clare charts the declining mental health and marriage of Henry and Nora (played by Dan Poppitt and Charlie Clarke) and the cacophonic assault of their inner thoughts (Josh Woodgate’s Henry’s Self and Chloe Pearson’s Nora’s Self) on one climactic day of mediocrity and boredom. As emotions come to a boil, will this marriage survive, even if only until morning? Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Dara Ó Briain at the double: Playing York Barbican and York Comedy Festival
Comedy gig of the week: Dara Ó Briain, Re:Creation, York Barbican, May 14, 8pm
IRISH comedian, broadcaster and writer Dara Ó Briain will be “doing his favourite thing: standing in a theatre, telling stories and creating madness with the audience” in Re:Creation, his follow-up to 2023’s So, Where Were We?
Should you miss out on Wednesday’s sold-out gig, Ó Briain will be returning to York to co-headline the inaugural York Comedy Festival with Katherine Ryan on July 6 in the finale to Futuresound Group’s second season of Live At York Museum Gardens shows. Box office: futuresound.seetickets.com/event/york-comedy-festival/york-museum-gardens/3288662.
Gizza job: Jay Johnson’s Yosser Hughes in James Graham’s stage adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s Boys From The Black Stuff, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre
Touring production of the week: Bill Kenwright Ltd, Royal Court, Liverpool and National Theatre present Boys From The Black Stuff, Leeds Grand Theatre, May 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
JAMES Graham’s stage adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s BAFTA award-winning television drama Boys From The Black Stuff heads to Leeds with its story of 1980s’ Liverpool, where Chrissie, Loggo, George, Dixie and Yosser are used to hard work and providing for their families, but there is no work and no money.
What are they supposed to do? Work harder, work longer, buy cheaper, spend less? They just need a chance. Life is tough but the lads can play the game. Find the jobs, avoid the ‘sniffers’ and see if you can have a laugh along the way. “Taking it on the road to communities around the country feels like the most important thing we could be doing next with our story,” says Graham.Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican on Thursday
Gig of the week: The Waterboys, York Barbican, May 14, 7.30pm and Leeds O2 Academy, June 15, doors 7pm
THE Waterboys showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Released last month on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.
Back where it all began: David Gedge outside Leeds University Union, where The Wedding Present perform tonight
DAVID Gedge returns to the University of Leeds tonight with The Wedding Present, playing Stylus to mark 40 years since he formed the band in his days of studying Mathematics on campus.
Billed as “Back To Where It All Began”, this Leeds University Union gig brought David back north from his Brighton home on April 14 to re-visit early landmarks in The Wedding Present story to promote both today’s anniversary celebration and York writer-director Matt Aston’s upcoming musical Reception, inspired by Gedge’s songs for The Wedding Present and Cinerama. More on that August 22 to September 6 show at The Warehouse, Slung Low’s theatre space in Holbeck, later.
Tonight will be the first of two Yorkshire engagements for The Wedding Present in quick succession. Tomorrow, Gedge’s band will be hooking up with Peter Hook & The Light (Best of Joy Division & New Order), The Farm and Spear Of Destiny on the Interzone bill at Scarborough Spa.
“We did it in Newcastle last year too. It seems to be Peter Hook’s festival – Interzone is a Joy Division song, isn’t it,” says David, 65. Doors open at 4pm with tickets available at seetickets.com and scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Charles HutchPress met up with David on the day of the photo-shoot, over a light bite in the university student union refectory, the scene of many a gig down the years.
“If I’m honest with you, I studied Mathematics here because I found it quite easy,” he says. “I remember at school finding Maths lessons a doddle. I just clicked with it. My other A-levels were Biology and Physics, and I never knew how I would then use the degree, but I’d always been in bands. It’s what I’d always wanted to do, really from the age of five, where there are photographs of me playing the recorder, pretending to be in a band.
“From schooldays onwards, I was in bands. The simple answer is I never ‘decided’ to do it; it was just always going to be the case. I thought, ‘I’ll go to university, doing Maths will be dead easy and I’ll have a lot of time to do other things’.
“It turned out to be more difficult than I expected, and a lot of work, so I kind of regretted doing it – but I got a 2.2, then started to do a MSc, but then the band took off.”
Rising from the ashes of The Lost Pandas, the band “kind of existed from 1983-84 but with different line-ups”. The first single, Go Out And Get ‘Em, Boy!, emerged in May 1985 – hence tonight’s 40th anniversary gig – with Bramley-born vocalist and guitarist Gedge and bassist Keith Gregory by then being joined by fellow Leeds University alumni Peter Solowka (guitar) and Shaun Charman (drums).
“Actually our first gig was in Allerton Bywater, a mining village half an hour from here, at The Shires Club. The second, third and fourth were here, at the university. We’ve played the Refectory at least once, maybe twice; the Tartan Bar, the R H Evans Lounge and the Riley Smith Hall as we were getting bigger.
“This will be the first time we’ve played Stylus. We haven’t played the university for years, as we usually play either the Leeds O2 Academy or, for a smaller gig, the Brudenell Social Club.”
David has never kept count of how many musicians have passed through the Wedding Present ranks in the past four decades. “I don’t know how you define it, because sometimes you need a stand-in and we’ve had musicians come in as extra players,” he says.
Tonight, David will be fronting the line-up he has had in place for a couple of years: Vincenzo Lammi on drums; Paul Blackburn on bass and Rachael Wood on guitars (and vocals too). “Weirdly, like me, they’re all based in Brighton, though Vinny is from Sheffield, Paul, from Southport, and Rachael, from Derby, so we’re all northerners. Brighton’s a nice place to be, but it’s expensive.”
Playing in The Wedding Present after 40 years “feels the same”. “It hasn’t changed. The strange thing is, if it’s 40 years, you think of The Rolling Stones or Status Quo, but actually, no, it’s The Wedding Present now,” says David.
“Rock’n’roll was a youth culture, but those who who enjoy it now are our age and are still going to gigs, so the whole genre has grown.”
The Wedding Present, Back Where It All Began, Stylus, University of Leeds, tonight, doors 7pm. Box office: leedsunionevents.com.
Josh Woodgate, left, and Dan Poppitt rehearsing their roles as Henry’s Self and Henry in The Inner Selves. Picture: Matthew Peter Clare
BLACK Sheep Theatre Productions director, musical director and producer Matthew Peter Clare will premiere his play The Inner Selves, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 13 to 17.
After staging such musical theatre works as Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens, Falsettos, Z For Zelda, Nothing & Everything Else, The Last Five Years and Songs For A New World and branching out into Shakespeare for The Tempest in March, the York company breaks new ground by presenting Clare’s four-hander, wherein the decline of two people’s mental health marriage is shown through the woes of Henry and Nora and the cacophonous assault of their inner thoughts.
“The play revolves around one bad day of inadequacy, personal trauma, longing for better things, fear and just trying to survive being the final straw for the pair as emotions come to a boil. Will this marriage survive? Even only until morning?” says Matthew.
“The Inner Selves is an incredibly personal and thoughtful project focusing on the lives of two mismatched individuals in a failing marriage as they have the worst night yet in their ongoing nightmare.”
Married for several years, Henry and Nora have grown tired of each other as well as carrying trauma through being married and through the lives that they have lived.
To explore the impact of burnout, depression and trauma on the couple brought on by the death of a child seven years ago, Clare splits the two characters into four actors. Dan Poppitt and Charlie Clarke portray the physical embodiment of Henry and Nora; Josh Woodgate and Chloe Pearson, portray their mentalities, The Inner Selves of the title.
“The inner selves represent their younger selves as well as all of the various thoughts of Henry and Nora that may never be said,” says Matthew. “The inner selves are products of Henry and Nora, and the lives they have led, but represent more than that.
“They are the lives they didn’t lead, their hopes and dreams, their anxieties, their fear, their self-hatred, their depression, their anger made manifest, and what dwindled care and that last glimmer of love that they may retain for their spouses.”
The play is set in the 1990s. “Henry and Nora are barely escaping poverty, living very ‘90s working-class lives in familiar northern towns, but the inner selves dream of what might have been should they not have ended up as Henry and Nora,” says Matthew.
“The play revolves around one night where tensions boil over but it’s a night that has likely been on the precipice for years and encapsulates the feelings of resentment and misplaced blame that have built up over seven years since their newborn child died.
“We see Henry and Nora at breaking point with their own strengths and weaknesses coming through, while the inner selves back them up or ridicule or tear them apart.”
Matthew Peter Clare: Director, musical director, producer, composer, playwright, poet and putative science-fiction novelist
Here writer-director Matthew Peter Clare discusses mental health, marriage, music and more with CharlesHutchPress.
Is this the first play you have written?
“This is the first play I’ve written that has gotten to production. I have previously penned a musical loosely based on the myth of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods; however, it is yet to be published.
“I’m working on another play focusing on generational trauma and the historic treatment of a child now grown as they’re at an age where their parents want to be more involved with the life of their grandchild.
“I’m a published poet and most of my poetry focuses on my own mental health and struggles as well as my own philosophies and my views on the world. Some of my work is available via the White Rose Anthology (a collection of York-based poets).
“It’s not been possible to publish this poetry en masse; however, I’m in talks with several publishers. I’m also writing a science-fiction novel focusing on philosophy and repairing mental health via analysis of trauma and the world that the character previously occupied.”
What sparked the theme of The Inner Selves?
“I’ve suffered with poor mental health for long over a decade and will likely continue to struggle for years to come. I’ve had my fair share of hardships that I would rather not embellish upon.
“However, The Inner Selves is a deeply personal play with large swathes of dialogue originating from conversations that I’ve either been a part of or overheard via other significant people in my life.
“I wanted the play to be an outlet originally. A place for me to get down my own thoughts and previous feelings, and it started as a series of short diary entries of things that I was either going through or reliving.
“However, there came a point at which the dots could be connected and I made the choice to connect those dots. This play is not necessarily me trying to make something positive out of past traumas or to provide something for society that they can look on as some kind of warning of the impact of poor mental health and poor communication.
“More it’s a very real and very true account of the things that I’ve felt and the things that I’m working on with friends and in therapy put into a play.
“I’ve witnessed several marriages turn sour and have witnessed my own and other people’s mental health decline. The main thing that connects the two in my opinion is that the communication between the couple deteriorates incredibly quickly, leading to further stagnation as people and further problems in the marriage.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ poster artwork for next week’s premiere of Matthew Peter Clare’s The Inner Selves
“A large inspiration for the play was Bojack Horseman’s Stupid Piece Of Shit (S4E6) monologue that focuses on the titular character over-thinking analysis of his own character with a chaotic and cluttered ramble to show how awful Bojack’s self-image and self-thought truly is.
“It’s presented as a stream of consciousness that’s incredibly accurate to my own inner voice and to what I wake up with every morning and have to force myself to fight against just to get out of bed.
“It is a bickering self-assassination that also attacks anything and everyone around you regardless of how gentle and helpful those around you are being that often leads to suicidal thoughts, passed off as just quick one-liners that build into ideation, as well as generating suspicion of those around you to fuel your own isolation.
“A lot of inspiration was taken from this monologue for the play in conjunction with other inspirations.”
The Inner Selves focuses on a single day: a powerful theatrical structure for a play, intensifying its cliff-edge sense of climax. Discuss…
“Large inspirations for this play, in terms of framing, come from the themes of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods, where life goes on past the ‘Happily Ever After’, as well as the ‘talking heads’ segments of Alas Smith And Jones and the 1966 film Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. I wanted the incredibly intimate style of Smith and Jones without the comedic style but keeping the rambling nature of conversation.
“Who’s Afraid Of Virgina Woolf is an incredibly character-driven film and play focusing on an ageing couple’s reality and the illusions that they present to those around them.
“Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor portray a volatile relationship, leaving the audience to wonder what is real and what isn’t over the course of one explosive night.
“I love this as a concept, but I did always wonder ‘what happened on the next day?’. And I think the conclusion that I came up with is that most people in the same circumstance would try to continue in some kind of shell of that which they see as normality rather than actually address their problems.
“They are stagnant as people; they are trapped and cannot move for the quicksand that they have deliberately put themselves in.
Chloe Pearson’s Nora’s Self faces up to Charlie Clarke’s Nora. Picture: Matthew Peter Clare
“The Inner Selves focuses around one night but it is a series of nights that has led up to this moment and a series of nights will follow it. We see a snapshot of a nearly decade-long relationship and it’s reasonable for any audience member to assume that they’re not seeing the very first argument, and nor should they assume that they’re seeing the last.
“It’s possible that they’re seeing the most heated that Henry and Nora ever get, but it’s almost impossible to assume that everything has been perfect for a good long while before the events of the play and post the bows.
“They almost certainly aren’t. Life continues. People suffer. As bleak a prospect as it may be, tomorrow may well be just as bad as today. None of us can know that before going into it.
“So, setting this play across one day is a tool I’ve used to show a glimpse into the lives of the two characters but not necessary write their story in stone. If the audience chooses to believe that the events of the play lead to a positive outcome, they are correct; if the audience chooses to believe they lead to a much less positive outcome, they’re also correct and it’s not for me as the playwright to correct either side of the argument.
“It’s for them to fill in the blanks of the lives of Henry and Nora and for them to determine what actually happens next. I truly believe that the audience will want Henry and Nora to seek professional help and that that could be the saving of each of them as people. It might not save the marriage, but it might save their lives.
“But whether Henry and Nora ever have a happy ending is entirely up to the audience, as it is for all of us in our own lives.”
Turning inner thoughts outwards towards the audience is one of theatre’s most powerful tools. You have chosen an interesting theatrical device to do this: two sets of actors. Why?
“I’ve chosen to highlight the inner thoughts of Henry and Nora as separate actors to allow the audience to hear and feel the internal thoughts of Henry and Nora in real time.
“Each comment made comes with essays of over-analysis, sympathy, fear, anger, love, hate and joy but that cannot be staged in real time without sacrificing the reality of how an inner monologue works.
“It overlaps with all other sensory input. In other words, as Henry speaks, Nora’s inner self is analysing the previous sentence by Nora whilst processing and analysing the new sentence of Henry in order to prep Nora for a response.
“In this way, we get to feel that which goes on in the heads of Nora and Henry whilst they also fight to try to have normal conversations with their respective spouse. We also get to see why they fail.
“The choice to have Dan Poppitt play Henry, a character that has large amounts of silence to fill through body language alone, was clear,” says writer-director Matthew Peter Clare
“This isn’t to say that Henry and Nora are sympathetic characters but more that they are in some way broken, and the best way for an audience to feel that is to have the audience be overloaded by multiple conversations happening at once in order to cause the question, ‘how would you have dealt with this?’.
“Conversation in this show is fleeting. What we have instead is large amounts of overlapping dialogue when Henry and Nora are on stage at the same time. This is, in my experience, incredibly real as to the ruthless nature of my own mind where hearing my own thoughts and taking in new information simultaneously is near impossible.
“Creating this experience for the audience will hopefully create a very immersive viewing experience of the existence of Henry and Nora, even if not a pleasant one.”
Why can marriage be so difficult?
“I’ve never been married myself but have witnessed several messy divorces, witnessed many more marriages that I think should have ended long before now, and have been in several relationships that have ended in less-than-great ways.
“Marriage is hard. This feels like an obvious statement but I think many people don’t realise it when they get married. Marriage is a life-long commitment to one person that you’ve only known for a certain number of years, which I guarantee is likely going to be less than that which you’re proposing you spend together in the future.
“This means that, inherently, you will not know the person that you are marrying as well as you will in years to come, simply through the passage of time. Sometimes this works well and the couple grows together and they highlight the best qualities of each other whilst mitigating some of the less desirable ones.
“I think, more often than not, this does not happen. I think more often than not, two people that match at the time of dating will go through many changing events and are unlikely to be the same people on the other side.
“Marriage is a commitment of time more than anything else and time is a cruel mistress. Between death, grief, financial hardship, job change, illness, injury and life, marriage dictates that you’re present for all that which your partner goes through in a way that no-one else in your life is.
“It’s incredibly unlikely that those people entering marriage will be the same once life has thrown all that it does at them. I find it much more believable that people come out of life more hardened and jaded and crueller than they were before hardships were thrown at them as a general rule.
“But how can you predict that when you say ‘I do’? You can’t. You’re along for the ride in the marriage with someone that’s changing around you but may not change at anything like the same rate as you, and it’s very possible that you just end up as different people from each other that you could never have predicted when you initially agreed to marry.
“Josh Woodgate’s ability to embody different emotions with his voice so clearly is incredible,” says writer-director Matthew Peter Clare
“It could be that someone has actively hurt the other by cheating or abuse or any manner of cruelties that probably come from a place that might have been visible prior to marriage, but sometimes not obviously and sometimes definitely not.
“These marriages often end, and rightfully so, but due to a climactic event, which often eclipses a lot of the smaller problems which may be present in the psyche of both people for years to come.
“The most successful marriages, I imagine, are those where the couple grows together and sacrifice their individuality but become a functioning unit. This is something I find must be nearly impossible to achieve and must be one of the hardest things that two people can do – to sacrifice themselves for the good of the unit.”
Who’s in your cast and why did you choose each of the four?
“The cast is made up of Dan Poppitt as Henry and Josh Woodgate as Henry’s Self, Charlie Clarke as Nora and Chloe Pearson as Nora’s Self.
“I’ve worked with each of them on multiple occasions over several years. All four were in The Tempest with Dan playing Alonso, Josh, Caliban, Charlie, Trincula, and Chloe, Fernanda.
“The first I cast was Chloe. I worked with her on Tick, Tick, Boom and subsequently on Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens. It was after working with her on her Claudia monologue that really sold Chloe to me as an actress. It was a performance that hurt every night I heard her say ‘she only stopped, when I did too’.
“Chloe was someone I knew I wanted to work with on The Inner Selves all the way back in May 2023. She has a softness to her performance as well as a sadistic hatred that bubbles over and becomes white-hot rage and has been amazing to work with again.
“Charlie Clarke impressed me to no end when she did a reading from the play. I knew her as a comedic performer and used her as Trincula, the jester, in The Tempest for that reason.
“Her audition was hilarious and fast and powerful and I knew that I had the perfect Trincula on my hands when I offered her the role in The Tempest.
“However, I had no idea whether she could do sympathetic, cruel, angry, depressed and broken. Charlie has said on multiple occasions prior to this that she would love to do more serious roles and, after picking a scene in The Inner Selves to perform to me, I suddenly understood that Charlie has been wrongly pigeonholed into comedic performances. A phenomenal comedic actor, but an equally strong serious one.
Josh Woodgate’s Caliban in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Tempest at Theatre@41, Monkgate, in March
“Josh Woodgate was my Caliban in The Tempest and I’d previously worked with him on American Idiot. Josh’s use of his body for Caliban was inspired. The way he was able to move in a sub-human way throughout the show was a spectacle in itself but his voice is his strength.
“From shouting at Prospero to immediately giggling about wine, Josh is able to reach the highest of heights and the lowest of lows with it whilst swapping emotions within a split-second.
“Josh’s ability to embody different emotions with his voice so clearly is incredible. For a character like Henry’s Self that requires strength and conviction, weakness and doubt, fear, anger, loathing, as well as a softness and a calming tone, Josh stood out to me as the perfect choice for the role.
“He’s been a constantly uplifting person to have in a cast and has been a pleasure to work with on four shows now.
“I initially met Dan Poppitt on American Idiot and knew I would be working with again on Rent by the time he auditioned for The Tempest and was subsequently asked to do The Inner Selves.
“I had a thoroughly good time working with Dan on American Idiot, with his incredible vocal range allowing us to strengthen harmony parts or option up on certain lines, creating a unique show that featured some amazing singing.
“Across American Idiot, we saw Dan tackle some of the darker moments of the show (e.g. injury in war and being left wheelchair-bound after the amputation scene). “However, it was in Rent where Dan’s serious acting ability was properly allowed the time to flourish and shine. This is through no fault of Inspired By Theatre’s productions of either, but more just because Roger has more stage time than Tunny.
“It was through working with Dan on character and line delivery in Rent and The Tempest that I really saw how talented an actor he is, and not just an amazing singer, and the choice to have him play Henry, a character that has large amounts of silence to fill through body language alone, was clear.
“All four actors in the play are incredibly intelligent and have brought a lot of their own ideas into the play. It’s been a relatively smooth directing process from my end, with relatively little stress required, because the cast are so strong and so powerful in their performances. Despite the play’s themes, it’s been a delight to work with them on this show.”
The poster artwork for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Tempest
What did you learn from staging The Tempest, as opposed to musical theatre pieces?
“A musical is a very different beast from a play. Musicals have song and dance, which plays tend not to; or plays tend to not have song and dance as a major focus at the very least.
“The Tempest has some song and dance but the added pieces of music were far from the main feature of the piece, unlike in a musical. I tend to enjoy sung-through musicals over more traditional song-and-dialogue musicals; however, I think what I actually enjoy more so is theatre that focuses on character rather than spectacle.
“Plays are an excellent way of focusing on character over spectacle, as a lot of the spectacle of movement and music is largely absent.
The poster artwork for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Tempest
“Something I find that draws a line between the golden age of musical theatre and the productions that followed is the character-driven narrative focusing on ‘real’ people and their problems, rather than having the backdrop of a large dance number in front of an American town in the old Mid-West, like Oklahoma for example.
“This play allows the audience time to really ingratiate themselves with Henry and Nora and to feel the struggle of relatively familiar characters without the option to focus on the wonderful singing or the choreography in order to make them seem, in some ways, larger-than-life heroes of the story.
“The stripped back nature of a play allows you to feel each character, especially when there are only two characters (divided between four actors), more intensely and with a rawness that would have been lost in more traditional musical theatre.”
What part will music play in your production?
“The Tempest was almost an experiment in music being added to a show. Myself and Greg Harper created a score that played on dissonance and used a lot of non-harmonic and non-melodic modes.
“Instead of using the Ionian mode that we see as the major scale or the Aeolian mode that we see as the minor scale, a lot of the music we composed utilised the Dorian, Phyrigian, Locrian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes in order to create music that’s unfamiliar to a Western ear and highlight the strangeness of the island the characters landed on.
“We used an eight-piece band (contrabass, violoncello, viola, violin I & II, guitar, harp and auxiliary percussion) with some unusual instruments (i.e. the waterphone) to really accentuate the horror of the situation; the fear generated by the power of Prospero; the growing romance of Fernanda and Miranda, and the levity of more comedic scenes (e.g. Trincula, Stephana and Caliban).
“Charlie Clarke is a phenomenal comedic actor, but an equally strong serious one,” says The Inner Selves writer-director Matthew Peter Clare
“The Inner Selves is an experiment in silence more so than music. There is music that plays during the opening scene during the prologue, showing the life of Henry and Nora before the events of the play, utilising a portion of a Sonata I composed (Piano Sonata No. 2 – Movement 3 – Elegy).
“This is the only non-diagetic sound that happens during the play, covering the sounds of various life events so that the younger Henry and Nora cannot be heard. The rest of the play exists with no underscore at all so to increase the isolation and abandonment of the characters and to heighten the audience’s anxiety through the remainder of the play.”
What are the features ofAnne Loren Enriquez Comia’s set design? Have you worked with her before?
“Anne worked with Black Sheep Theatre on The Tempest as a stage manager and has previously worked on several productions in theatre and film.
“She’s been instrumental in the design and look of this show. I initially spoke to Anne about this show whilst working on The Tempest and discussed the bleak and unwelcoming atmosphere of the home of Henry and Nora.
“Anne has created a beautiful design and has made my life infinitely easier. The level of detail she has brought to this project has been a godsend.”
Why should we see The Inner Selves?
“The Inner Selves is a play that shows the realness of life. It may well do so through two actors playing one character but it shows the realness of a situation that is all too relatable for many people.
“They have a terrible job, no prospects, no ambition; they’re tired of each day being meaningless whilst carrying around previous hardships and trauma whilst being unable to forget and forgive. This is a very real thing.
“It’s definitely worth noting that not everything in life is good or healthy for you. Many shows out there are unrealistic and show an overly joyful happy ending, whereas life is not like that.
“This show highlights the difficulty and the brutality of dealing with your own thoughts as they present themselves, as harsh as they can be. This play shows that ‘happily ever after’ is so incredibly unlikely but it is possible to try to improve things, so long as you’re strong enough to do so.
Charlie Clarke, left, and Chloe Pearson in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ premiere of Matthew Peter Clare’s The Inner Selves. Picture: Matthew Peter Clare
“I think that the realness of The Inner Selves is why people should see this show. People will see things in the characters of Henry and Nora that they cannot publicly state they recognise in themselves, but I think people will see them and recognise them. For that, it is real.”
The Inner Selves carries the content warning: “Alcohol, Smoking, Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Discussion Around Self-Harm, Marriage, Divorce, Loss Of Child, Suicidal Thoughts, Mental Health, Swearing”. Are there shards of humour amid the trauma? Is there any sense of hope?
“A lot of this play focuses on the reality of the situation. Often that is bleak. There are moments of humour for the audience, but they are more on the awkwardness and the juxtaposition rather that the outright comedy of a scene.
“It’s pithy one-liners that are used to cut at or brutalise their partner, rather than to deliver a cheer of laughter.
“As far as ‘Is there any sense of hope?’, the play closes with the end of the night, Henry and Nora going up to bed. It’s for the audience to decide whether they have a quiet night in bed, whether either character re-enters the stage, or whether they just spent the night arguing.
“I think there is some hope; however, I would want the audience to have a desperate hope that tomorrow is different from today. Praying that either Henry or Nora has learnt from the night of the play that they cannot continue in the way they are and that some kind of action is required. It’s for the audience to decide what that action is and whether any of it actually works.”
What’s next for Black Sheep Theatre Productions?
“After The Inner Selves, we almost immediately start working on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, to run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre from October 8 to 18. Auditions are on May 23 to 25 at Poppleton Methodist Church Hall and details can be found on our facebook page by clicking on the audition link:
“After that, we’re looking at another two-week run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in 2026 and several week-long or two-week long runs at Theatre@41. We have exciting plans and are filling these slots with phenomenal shows from writers such as Ibsen, Kafka, King and Linehan, although details are yet to be confirmed.”
Black Sheep Theatre Productions, in association with AKA Theatre Company, presents The Inner Selves, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 13 to 17, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Age guidance: Parental discretion is advised. Not for young children
The Inner Selves production team comprises: Matthew Peter Clare: playwright, director & composer; Anne Loren Enriquez Comia: set designer; Will Nicholson: lighting designer.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ poster for this month’s auditions for The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Katie Lingo in the main ground-floor room at Patch at the Bonding Warehouse, York, where she will host the monthly Funny Fridays comedy nights
PATCH, York’s new co-working space, will echo to the sound of laughter tomorrow at the Bonding Warehouse for the first time since the days of Michael S Bennett’s Comedy Shack.
Set up to support York’s burgeoning comedy scene, Funny Fridays is the new monthly venture from York comedian Katie Lingo, otherwise known as Katie Thompson, purveyor of copywriting, content strategy, journalism, digital marketing, reporting and data visualisation services at the Raylor Centre industrial park off James Street.
To bring a smile to her face, the debut bill of Kenny Watt, Tuiya Tembo, Matty Oxley, Saeth Wheeler and John Pease has sold out already at an introductory price of £6.50 but tickets are available for the second night on June 13, when admission will rise to £10.
Kenny Watt: Scathing Scottish current affairs commentator
“There will be drinks. There will be swears. There will be laughs,” says Katie Lingo managing director Katie, who will host the event from 7.30pm in Patch’s main room, kitted out with a bar, on the ground floor.
“I’m a member of York Creatives, so, when Patch re-opened the Bonding Warehouse as a co-working space, Thom (site director Thom Feeney) suggested I should put on a comedy night here, harking back to the Comedy Shack days.”
Set up by the late Michael S Bennett in the early 1990s, the club’s first three shows were headlined by rising talents Mark Thomas, Alistair McGowan and Jo Brand, while Bennett asked a then-unknown north-eastern comedian by the name of Ross Noble to compere the bills. A nascent Lee Evans would later appear there too.
“I feel very honoured to have been asked, and to know to know that I’ll be running Funny Fridays where so many of my comic heroes once played,” says Katie Lingo
Now Katie is picking up the comedy baton. “I started performing comedy in January 2024 and the biggest place I’ve done so far is the Comedy Store in London,” she says.
“I’ve performed at Complete Joke Comedy nights in The Den at Micklegate Social, held on the first Sunday of every month, and I’ve played Laughs On Draught at Brew York, off Walmgate, too.
“Soon I’ll be doing the new Rik Mayall Comedy Festival [running from May 31 to June 7] at Droitwich Spa, a lovely little village where I went in March.”
Saeth Wheeler: Performing on the first Funny Fridays bill at Patch
Katie is thrilled to be setting up Funny Fridays, with its format of five acts per bill, each performing 15 minutes upwards to a seated capacity of 120 (or 130, standing).
“Absolutely! I feel very honoured to have been asked, especially to do so at a building that has played its part in York’s history, and also to know that I’ll be running it where so many of my comic heroes once played,” she says.
Katie looks forward to introducing tomorrow’s five acts: Saeth Wheeler, the “rampant socialist lesbian the Daily Mail warned you all about”; Kenny Watt, Scottish export of scathing current affairs commentary; Matty Oxley, BBC New Comedy Awards semi-finalist; Tuiya Tembo, quirky, lively and brutally honest cultural observer, and John Pease, Edinburgh Fringe Gilded Balloon finalist with a touch of southern comfort.
Katie Thompson: managing director of Katie Lingo writing, content marketing, blogging and word research business, podcaster, Funny Fridays host and comedian
How would she describe her own comedy style? “I would say, very physical, loud, energetic and profane. I was very, very inspired by Rik Mayall when I was growing up. Harry Enfield, Jennifer Saunders and Helen Lederer too,” she reveals.
As it happens, she will be interviewing Helen Lederer for an upcoming episode of the My Bottom podcast.
Funny Fridays, at Patch, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, tomorrow, 7pm for 7.30pm start, SOLD OUT. Age restriction: 18 plus. Tickets for June 13 can be booked at eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets.
Tuiya Tembo: Appearing on the Funny Fridays bill at Patch tomorrow
What is Patch?
PATCH invested £900,000 to set up a 12,000 sq ft co-working space in the Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, opening in February. This space aims to accommodate approximately 50 companies and 400 members, offering office and co-working spaces, with a focus on tech, media and education industries. Comedy and live music events are held there too.
AKA Theatre Company’s actor-musician cast of Ayana Beatrice Poblete, Katherine Toy, Samantha Richards, Mark Emmons and Jon Bonner in Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain
AKA Theatre Company’s premiere northern tour of Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood heads to Friargate Theatre, York, tomorrow and on Saturday with its blend of live music and heartfelt storytelling based on true accounts of facing up to disaster in West Yorkshire in 2015.
The Leeds company will give further performances at the Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, on May 13, Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, and Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, May 16 and 17.
Already, since April 19, the tour has played Leeds Playhouse; Hebden Bridge Little Theatre; Chester Storyhouse; Georgian Theatre, Richmond; The Atkinson Studio, Southport, and 53Two, Manchester.
On Boxing Day 2015, Hebden Bridge experienced the worst floods in a century, but as the West Yorkshire town submerged, a community emerged, working together to rebuild their sodden streets.
Honest and touching with a dash of northern humour, The Flood is a love letter to a town that refused to give in to the volatility of nature, performed by a quintet of actor- musicians representing the diverse, yet passionate, members of Hebden Bridge’s community, interweaving dozens of personal stories taken from every corner of the town.
As a piece of documentary musical theatre, The Flood draws on interviews conducted in and around the Calder Valley and first-person accounts from people who experienced the flood first hand to explore how vital strong communities are in responding to a changing climate.
The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine
“This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,” says writer-director Raine. “It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people. It’s a celebration for all communities who have faced adversity and emerged stronger.”
Here Lucie discusses The Flood with charleshutchpress.co.uk.
What drew you to the story of the 2015 flood in the Calder Valley and Hebden Bridge in particular?
“I was studying for a Masters degree in Musical Theatre at Leeds Conservatoire and searching for local stories I felt a connection to that I could perhaps turn into a script.
“I had a close family member living in Hebden Bridge in 2015 and our conversations drifted to memories of the floods. The images she conjured were so vivid, I could immediately see it on stage.
“I travelled to Hebden Bridge to see if anyone would be willing to talk to me about their memories. I was a bit nervous at first, and worried I might be raking over unpleasant memories, but everyone was so willing to engage, it was really moving.
“While the characters are fictional, every event and story in the show really happened and is taken from first-hand accounts of people who were there.”
Katherine Toy in rehearsal for AKA Theatre Company’s The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain
What made you choose the format of a folk musical? What are its primary theatrical strengths?
“Hebden Bridge has a long musical tradition and the composer Joe Revell and I strongly felt the sound of the show should reflect the people and history of the town. We have everything from traditional mill songs to indie rock foot stompers you might hear coming from The Trades Club in Hebden on a Friday night. The instruments we use – accordion, violin, acoustic guitars etc – go a long way towards creating the sound we wanted.”
Why are actor-musician performances growing ever more popular as a theatrical format?
“The reason musicals are so popular as an art form is because the characters communicate emotionally through the music. I believe eliminating the ‘hidden band’ and allowing the music to emerge entirely from the action on stage doubles this impact.
“It’s also really impressive to see actors sing, dance, act AND play multiple instruments at the same time, (not to mention being a cost effective way of touring).”
“It’s really impressive to see actors sing, dance, act AND play multiple instruments at the same time,” says The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine. Picture: Cian O’Riain
Who is in the cast of five and who do they play?
“All members of the cast play several roles each, as well as playing multiple instruments and creating the soundtrack for the show. Amongst other roles, Katherine Toy plays enthusiastic volunteer Jackie, who finds satisfaction in her role at the heart of the relief effort.
“Company founder Ayana Beatrice Poblete plays Annie, a care assistant desperate to get to work, as well as Gretchen, a carefree bohemian in denial about the flood’s consequences.
“Mark Emmons and Samantha Richards play Gavin and Laura, a married couple struggling with the loss of their family home, and Jon Bonner is Smithy, a shop owner distraught at the loss of both his cat and his stock.”
From Noah’s Ark onwards, floods bring about transition…
“The same way people now talk about ‘before lockdown’ and ‘since the pandemic’, a lot of people in Hebden will measure changes to the town as ‘after the floods’. 2015’s floods were by no means the only floods the area has seen, and there was already infrastructure in place to deal with them. But there’s something about water’s ability to get…well, everywhere… that is utterly devastating.
AKA Theatre Company’s poster for the premiere northern tour of The Flood
“It’s unstoppable. It changes the landscape. And it leaves a hell of a mess. But in cleaning the mess and rebuilding, towns like Hebden find a new life. And when a neighbour loses everything, it’s heart-warming to see the number of people who are there to help.”
What is the message of The Flood?
“The Flood is a story about community. They dealt with the unimaginable, but just kept pushing forward. There’s a lot of hope there, but we’re also not afraid to look the pain and struggle in the eye.”
How did AKA Theatre’s partnership with Leeds Playhouse for The Flood come about?
“Leeds Playhouse producer Rio Matchett came to see the graduate shows at Leeds Conservatoire and approached us about supporting the project. From there they hosted a week’s research and development on the project and invited us to pitch to a group of programmers at Venues North to help book a tour.
“Their help has been invaluable and we were lucky enough to be hosted by them for our four-week rehearsal period, as well as previews and press night.”
“It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people,” says The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine. Picture: Cian O’Riain
How important is Arts Council England’s support to AKA Theatre?
“Making theatre in the current financial climate is really difficult, and it would be nearly impossible to tour new work with a cast of five if you were gambling on ticket sales alone. Arts Council England gives us that financial safety net to tell the story the way we want to tell it and take it to the audiences we otherwise couldn’t afford to reach.”
What will be your next project?
“I’ve written Hush Hush!, a musical about Bletchley Park, for Mikron Theatre Company, which debuts at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield tomorrow (9/5/2025) before embarking on a six- month UK tour.
“I’m also writing the 2026 touring production for the same company, this time about cheese-making in the Yorkshire Dales, so the next few months will mainly be spent eating Wensleydale. In addition I continue working as a freelance director and choreographer and teach theatre throughout the region.”
AKA Theatre Company in The Flood, Friargate Theatre, York, May 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, May 13, 7pm; Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, 8pm, and Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, May 16 and 17, 7.30pm.Box office: York, ticketsource.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk; Hebden Bridge, 01422 84907 or hblt.co.uk.
Mikron Theatre Company in Hush Hush!, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 21, 4pm. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/hush-hush-clements-hall.
Meet AKA Theatre Company founder Ayana Beatrice Poblete
Ayana Beatrice Poblete in AKA Theatre Company’s premiere touring production of The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain
AYANA undertook her performance training mostly in the Philippines in the field of musical theatre and studied for her Masters at Leeds Conservatoire.
She was last seen on stage in York in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World, directed by Matthew Peter Clare, at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, in October 2024.
She was part of the original cast of The Flood during her MA course’s Leeds Festival Theatre in 2023.
Ayana Beatrice Poblete, with Reggie Challenger, in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World at the NCEM, York, last October
Suzy Cooper’s Titania, centre, and Ian Giles’s Bottom, right, with the Fairy Queen’s fairies in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
HOT on the heels of fellow York musical theatre practitioners Black Sheep Theatre Productions staging The Tempest, York Stage branches out into performing Shakespeare.
Producer-director Nik Briggs has selected Bill the Bard’s most performed comedy for his company’s first co-production with the Grand Opera House.
This is very much a reinvention of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Out goes the formality of the ancient court of Athens; in comes the modern northern council estate of Athens Court, home to Theseus’s Pad and the Community Payback Centre, peopled with chunky chains, bling galore and shiny shell suits to match the fenced barriers.
As with Black Sheep Theatre’s The Tempest, music plays its part, this time in a combination of incidental music composed by musical director Stephen Hackshaw and performances of Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor fillers arranged by Hackshaw and keys cohort Sam Johnson.
These are predominantly sung in fabulous style by York Stage fledgling-turned-West End performer May Tether, resplendent in silver suit and boots as she makes flying stage entries reminiscent of Kylie Minogue’s concerts. Welcome back, May, for a star turn at the heart of ensemble numbers such as the opening Freed From Desire and climactic We Found Love.
Mather is but one jewel in Briggs’s Dream casting. Suzy Cooper, for so long a golden staple of dame Berwick Kaler’s York pantomimes, returns to the Grand Opera House to play the dual role of Theseus’s southern prize, haughty Hippolyta, and the sensuous, voracious Fairy Queen Titania, her voice notably deepened and as pucker as Joanna Lumley.
For the finale, her Hippolyta re-emerges with a broadly Yorkshire accent, seemingly blending with those around her on the council estate.
Cooper forms a double act at the double with York-born Royal Shakespeare Company actor, who rules the estate and Hippolyta alike in studded leathers as a muscular, volcanic Theseus.
He then transforms into the king of bling, the Fairy King Oberon in cap, animal-print trimmed coat and taut see-through T-shirt, to play games with Cooper’s Titania in the forest with James Robert Ball’s impish Puck as his meddlesome agent of mayhem.
Holgate and Cooper have fused playful chemistry, mystery and magic from intense but limited rehearsal time, topped off by Elizabeth Real’s woodland costume designs for Cooper’s Titania, Kylie golden hotpants et al.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is full of competitive clashes: Athens Court versus the woodland; Oberon versus Titania; the young lovers versus each other; Puck versus the young lovers; Bottom’s ego versus the rest of the Rude Mechanicals, as they mount the play within the play to the shrill whistle of Jo Theaker’s Petra Quince.
In keeping with his flair for Nineties and Noughties’ signature costume designs, Briggs has cast his young lovers with delightful modernity: Meg Olssen’s exasperated Hermia; Amy Doneneghetti’s no-nonsense Helena; Sam Roberts’s solid northern lad and University of York DramaSoc alumnus Will Parsons, bringing shades of Mick Jagger elasticity to “posh boy” Lysander.
If you could choose one York actor to play Puck/Robin Goodfellow, it would surely be James Robert Ball, a polymath talent who now adds rope work to his skills as a professional musician, published novelist, singing and performance teacher, freelance musical director and pianist.
In gaudy shell suit and perky peaked cap, his diminutive Puck is nimble, mischievous, his voice as flexible as his lithe movement, and he has the ability to drift in and out, sometimes on rope or swing, and then be wrapped around the young lovers as he dispenses Oberon’s love potions.
Titania’s fairies in shimmering silver, have their moments too, while the Rude Mechanicals maximise their badinage, from Theaker’s Quince to Andrew Roberts’s Snout, with his unexpected spherical appendage in the climactic Wall Play. Ian Giles’s Bottom is more avuncular than usual, but still with that I Know Best boastful air that has him making an ass of himself in the company of Cooper’s Titania.
Briggs directs with a flourish, aided by Adam Moore’s superb lighting design, and his set design works a treat: one half metal for the council estate, with a set of steps, fireman’s pole and scaffolding; the other half, bare tree trunks and a wooden seat to denote the forest.
Witty touches include the use of York Stage red tabards to signify the Rude Mechanicals’ status as actors, not least Emily Alderson’s auburn-haired Starveling shaking her head at the colour clash.
If one scene sums up the Shakespeare-meets-Shameless vibe of Briggs’s ‘Dream’, with its rave culture echoes, it is The Seduction Medley in the woodland finale to the first half, where Mather’s Moon is in majestic diva mode singing Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Show Me Love and You Got The Love as Cooper’s Titania seduces Giles’s Bottom and all around her dance in sylvian rapture in silver.
York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, until Sunday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pease talks: John Pease features on the the inaugural bill at Katie Lingo’s Funny Fridays stand-up comedy nights at Patch in the Bonding Warehouse, York
A NEW comedy night in a bygone location and Shakespeare on a council estate stand out in Charles Hutchinson’s picks for cultural exploration.
Laughter launch of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch, Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, May 9, doors 7pm for 7.30pm start
LIVE comedy returns to the Bonding Warehouse for the first time since the days of the late Mike Bennett presenting the likes of Lee Evans and Ross Noble under the Comedy Shack banner. Stand up for Funny Fridays, hosted by York humorist Katie Lingo (alias copywriter Katie Taylor-Thompson) with an introductory price of £6.50.
On her first bill will be Kenny Watt, Tuiya Tembo, BBC New Comedy Awards semi-finalist Matty Oxley, Saeth Wheeler and Edinburgh Fringe Gilded Balloon semi-finalist John Pease. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets.
So much at stake: Laura Castle’s Count Dracula and Jamie McKeller’s Van Helsing in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Picture: Michael Cornell
Taking their first bite of the week: Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
THE York producers of The Deathly Dark Tour and A Night Of Face-Melting Horror, Jamie and Laura McKeller, get stuck into their debut stage show under the name of Neon Crypt Productions.
From the mischievous minds of physical theatre specialists Le Navet Bete, Dracula: The Bloody Truth reveals the truth behind the fangs, as told by Jamie McKeller’s disgruntled Professor Van Helsing and a troupe of three very stressed actors, Laura Castle’s Count Dracula, Laura McKeller’s Mina and Michael Cornell’s Jonathan Harker. Together they will shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Bram Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape on his return to York Theatre Royal after 45 years. Picture: Gisele Schmidt
York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17
OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979, to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1989.
“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The young lovers in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Will Parsons’ Lysander, left, Meg Olssen’s Hermia, Amy Domeneghetti’s Helena and Sam Roberts’s Demetrius. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography
Reinvented play of the week: York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees
YORK pantomime golden gal Suzy Cooper turns Fairy Queen Titania opposite York-born Royal Shakespeare Company actor Mark Holgate’s Fairy King Oberon in Nik Briggs’s debut Shakespeare production for York Stage.
In his first co-production with the Cumberland Street theatre, Briggs relocates the Bard’s most-performed comedy from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s bumpy path is played out to a new score by musical director Stephen Hackshaw and Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor fillers, sung by May Tether. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Putting the retro into today’s hits at York Barbican
Nostalgia for today: Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Magic & Moonlight Tour 2025, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AFTER chalking off their 1,000th show, retro collective Postmodern Jukebox are on the British leg of their Moonlight & Magic world tour. Enter a parallel universe where modern-day hits are reimagined in 1920s’ jazz, swing, doo-wop and Motown arrangements. Think The Great Gatsby meets Sinatra At The Sands meets Back To The Future. Dress vintage for the full effect. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Wes Banderson: Transferring Wes Anderson’s film music from screen to concert stage at The Crescent, York
Witty name of the week: Wes Banderson, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm
WES Banderson bring the music of Wes Anderson’s movies to the concert platform in a night of original score and deep-cut soundtracks from the left-field works of the idiosyncratic Texan filmmaker.
Noted for addressing themes of grief, loss of innocence and dysfunctional families, Anderson is the auteur behind The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle Of Dogs and Asteroid City. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
AKA Theatre Company in The Flood, on tour in York, Hull and Leeds
Premiere of the week: AKA Theatre Company in The Flood: A Musical, Friargate Theatre, York, May 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, May 13, 7pm; Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, 8pm
AKA Theatre Company’s premiere of Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood blends live music and heartfelt storytelling based on true accounts of facing up to disaster in West Yorkshire in 2015.
“This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,” says writer-director Raine, who uses a cast of five actor-musicians. “It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people. It’s a celebration for all communities who have faced adversity and emerged stronger.” Box office: York, ticketsource.co.uk; Hull, hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
Kate Rusby: Showcasing new album When They All Looked Up at Ryedale Festival. Picture: David Angel
Concert announcement of the week: Ryedale Festival presents Kate Rusby, When They All Looked Up, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 25, 7pm
BARNSLEY nightingale Kate Rusby performs songs from her new studio album, When They All Looked Up, with her Singy Songy Session Band as she weaves new melodies, timeless tunes and heartfelt storytelling into an evening of pure folk enchantment. Box office: ryedalefestival.com/event/kate-rusby.
Mark Holgate and Suzy Cooper in rehearsal for York Stage’s reinvention of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
WHY did artistic director and producer Nik Briggs pick A Midsummer Night’s Dream for York Stage’s debut Shakespeare production where the Bard meets the streets?
“As this is our first Shakespeare, we wanted to choose a show that, like our big musicals, appeals to the masses!” he reasons, ahead of the May 6 to 11 run at the Grand Opera House, York. “‘Dream’ is a perfect choice for this with its themes of love, rebellion and reconciliation.
“Then there are the magical aspects of the story, which really have allowed us to use the big production values that York Stage are renowned for. Audiences can expect flying fairies, big costumes, sensational music and, of course, lots of high-quality drama.”
York pantomime golden gal Suzy Cooper and York-born Royal Shakespeare Company actor Mark Holgate will lead Briggs’s company in his reinvented version that brings a bold new aesthetic to the 1594-1596 romantic comedy, one where the ancient court of Athens is replaced by Athens Court, a northern council estate, to the accompaniment of a soundtrack of Nineties and Noughties’ club classics, performed live.
Here come northern accents, enchanting extras such as magical, flying fairies and a rave in the woods, propelled by York Stage’s trademark high energy and bursts of explosive theatre inspired by such companies as Frantic Assembly.
Nik Briggs: York Stage producer and director
“Through our transportation to a council estate, we’ve been able to maintain the high dramatic stakes and mayhem that Shakespeare fuelled his story with, whilst reframing the action so a modern audience see the themes of rebellion, love, passion and community as part of a world more reminiscent of cult British dramas such as Shameless and Brassic,” says Nik.
Briggs’s production will, however, stick to Shakespeare’s script and traditional language. “The core of the production is still very much Shakespeare’s beautiful text but that doesn’t mean it’s delivered in RP [Received Pronunciation] or the King’s English. It’s Shakespeare’s text performed in our actors’ accents.
“I very much believe Shakespeare, and the brilliant stories he created, are totally accessible to everyone when told in the right way. The balance of respecting the text whilst keeping story-telling at the heart of our rehearsals means we can create a show that will be enjoyable and entertaining to audience members ranging from those who’ve never seen Shakespeare before to those who regularly pick up the complete works for some light reading.”
Nik continues: “Shakespeare created his shows for the masses from the working classes to the gentry and that should still be the case today. We aren’t making theatre for academics and upper classes; everyone should feel at home watching theatre.
“I remember seeing a brilliant production of the ‘Dream’ by Edward Hall’s Propeller when I was at school. It was the first time I’d seen Shakespeare on stage and it all just clicked for me as a school student who comes from a family who’d never read Shakespeare or been to university.
York Stage’s poster for A Midsummer Night’s Dream with its Dream casting of Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate
“The story I saw on stage just made sense. I may not have understood every word or phrase at that stage but I knew the story clearly by the end and felt every emotion the actors were portraying.”
The comedy in ‘Dream’ will be portrayed in many different layers. “It’s our job to understand what made it funny to an Elizabethan audience and to find ways to connect that to our audience,” says Nik.
“Are there comparisons to the world we’re creating onstage that we can make from the original text etc? Then we look at how to share all this with the audience, whether it’s how we deliver the lines or through visual comedy and occasionally from ad-libs that come about naturally in rehearsals.
“Like a good cheese or wine (or curry from last night’s takeaway), it always tastes better when it’s left to mature and is enjoyed later – the comedy in our show is very much like that.
The choice of Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor fillers emerged from the world of the Athens Court council estate. “It’s the music that would surround that world; the people who live in Athens Court would listen to and love these songs,” says Nik.
“When we shortlisted the songs, we then realised they all come from a similar time period, which we’ve taken forward into other design and cultural choices for this new setting for the show. This has led into some brilliant discoveries and invoked memories of the early ‘chav’ culture of the Nineties and Noughties, which has given us lots to play with in rehearsals.
Suzy Cooper’s Hippolyta in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Cue singing and dancing in Briggs’s ‘Dream’, as seen in York Stage productions aplenty. “Shakespeare’s theatre was filled with music and A Midsummer Night’s Dream has lots of music in it already. We’ve taken this, re-created it so it fits with additional music we’re using in the show. Audiences who know York Stage shows can expect the same high energy and big production numbers we have in our musicals,” says Nik.
“With a whole ensemble of mischievous and ‘chavvy’ fairies, we’ve been able to create some real wow moments that will really excite and amaze our audiences.”
Is York Stage’s show recommended for school pupils studying Shakespeare? “Yes! All ages will love this show. I think school pupils will relish in the mayhem of our production. There are some naughtier aspects but there is nothing that’s not in the original version and indeed the pace and high japes energy we’re bringing to the story will be perfect for the Gen Alpha, TikTok-loving audience.
May Tether, who first made her mark on the York stage before appearing in the West End production and UK tour of Heathers The Musical, will be returning north to sing such songs as Free From Desire and Show Me Love.
“I am so excited to be returning to perform at the Grand Opera House,” she says. “It’s always felt like home for me. To be involved with a Shakespeare production is so exciting and in such a special venue to my heart, I can’t ask for anything more.”
York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees. A 20-minute Q&A with the cast will follow Wednesday’s matinee, ideal for schools. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
What happens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
“IN the mystical twilight of Midsummer’s Night, the realms of reality and fairy blur. Four youthful lovers, grappling with the prospect of a loveless union, flee the confines of Athens, wandering into an enchanted forest.
Meanwhile, a troupe of aspiring actors rehearses a play to commemorate an impending royal wedding. As these unsuspecting mortals cross paths with the tumultuous clash of a fairy King and Queen, chaos reigns in the natural world.
The lines between truth and magic begin to dissolve, leaving only the whimsical Puck privy to the secrets of what is real and what is spun from enchantment.”
May Tether returns to York Stage
May Tether: Reuniting with York Stage to play the singing siren Moon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
MAY Tether, who first made her mark on the York stage before heading to the West End, will be returning north to sing such songs as Free From Desire and Show Me Love in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“I am so excited to be returning to perform at the Grand Opera House,” she says. “It’s always felt like home for me. To be involved with a Shakespeare production is so exciting and in such a special venue to my heart, I can’t ask for anything more.”
May made her professional debut in York Stage’s pandemic pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk, in December 2020 before appearing in the West End smash hit and UK tour of Heathers The Musical, where she played the lead role of Veronica Sawyer many times.
May Tether as Elle Woods in York Stage’s production of Legally Blonde The Musical
She has since performed in Halls The Musical at the Turbine Theatre, York and Boy George’s Taboo at the London Palladium; played Dainty June in Gypsy The Musical In Concert at the Manchester Opera House and performed with the John Godber Company in Moby Dick at Stage@The Dock, Hull.
Her York Stage credits at the Grand Opera House include playing Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical.
York Stage producer Nik Briggs says: “I’m so looking forward to working once again with May. Since meeting her at 16 years of age, I always knew she was set for a brilliant career in performing, and only a few years after graduating she is already doing this!
“Her powerful vocals and huge range, alongside her transfixing performance presence, will be a huge asset in our show. Reuniting her with Stephen Hackshaw, who is arranging and composing the soundtrack for the show, will undoubtedly lead to a sensational musical result.”
May Tether as Jill Gallop in York Stage’s pandemic pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk
