Simon Oskarsson, left, Ewan Wardrop, Katy Owen, Patrycja Kujawska and Mirabelle Gremaud in Emma Rice’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest for Wise Children. Picture: Steve Tanner
FOUR huge wooden moveable revolving doors dominate Emma Rice’s set for Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West. Cocktail glasses and glinting bottles line each panel. Put the two together and heads will spin, and that is very much the feel of the world right now, spinning ever more out of control as Trump plays his hand.
The setting is still 1959, but come one last erudite turn of narration by Katy Owen’s remarkably adroit Professor, and the snap, crackle and pop of Rice’s psychodrama hits the gut as her best work does with a darkness that may some may crave for earlier but gives it a resonance amid the bloody mess of today. It may be the United Nations in Hitchcock’s plot, but it is no less NATO, Trump, Putin, Israel, Gaza and the “Coalition of the Willing”.
On the case: Narrator Katy Owen. “Words dance from her lips, her voice mellifluous, her wit drought-dry, her manner as impish as Puck”. Picture: Steve Tanner
Rice and her cast have bags of fun on the way, especially in Act One, but not for the first time, the show becomes more mechanical, more methodical, over its second act, until that knockout final blow has you feeling as despairing and as angry as Rice.
Our guide is the nimble, balletic Owen’s Professor, in oversized coat and trilby, hectoring the audience to participate as if at a pantomime while equally badgering the cast to crack on too. Words dance from her lips, her voice mellifluous, her wit drought-dry, her manner as impish as Puck.
Through those revolving doors spins advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Ewan Wardrop), all too soon to be mistaken for George Caplan, who doesn’t really exist, yet is the fulcrum of Hitchcock’s Cold War conspiracy thriller.
Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice
You may think of Mischief’s mischievous mishaps or more likely, Patrick Barlow’s four-hander take on The 39 Steps (right down to actors making their coats billow in the wind), but Rice has her own style, a feminist perspective too, a desire too to bring more depth to character and motive, especially for Patrycja Kujawska’s femme fatale, Eve Kendall, with more than a bit of politics too. There is even meta-theatre here, a knowing nod to being in a theatre.
Rice, in her own whimsically witty way, is as stylish as Hitchcock: gorgeous clothes; cocktails agogo; dark glasses and Fifties’ panache; hat after hat, and a long, long row of suits behind those doors,as Mad Men meets bad men.
Rice conducts her six players with an elegant sleight of hand, aided by Etta Murfitt’s fabulous movement, Wardrop’s Thornhill drawing on his Matthew Bourne dancing days, all topped off by cast members miming deliciously to Fifties’ blues and jazz and novelty hits. Being fussy, at least one could be cut for a tighter focus post-interval.
Constantly on the move: Mirabelle Gremaud, left, Simon Oskarsson, Ewan Wardrop, Patrycja Kujawska and Karl Queensborough in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. Picture: Steve Tanner
Her use of newspaper print, with messages in large, bold type, is a regular joy, so too the running joke where tiny writing on a card is immediately accompanied by a larger version held above it. Throughout, suitcases, 75 of them at the last count, act as props, or bear labels to denote a location, or even act as scenery (most memorably Mount Rushmore).
Above all, Rice is at her most inventive and imaginative in re-creating Hitchcock’s cinematic setpieces, especially, the crop duster plane with the flourish of a magician that brings the house down. Glamour, romance, tender truths are promised and delivered, less so the Hitchcockian jeopardy, but the finale makes it all worthwhile.
Wise Children, York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse present Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West, York Theatre Royal, until April 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Katy Owen’s Professor and Ewan Wardrop’s Roger Thornhill in Wise Children’s take on the iconic cornfield scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. Picture: Steve Tanner
Freya Horlsey: Among the 163 artists and makers taking part in York Open Studios
SPRING has sprung, the cue for the arts world to have an extra spring in its step, much to Charles Hutchinson’s joy.
Art event of the weekend: York Open Studios Taster Exhibition, The Hospitium, York Museum Gardens, today and tomorrow, 10am to 4pm
YORK Open Studios will showcase 163 artists and makers at 116 locations on April 5, 6, 12 and 13 in its largest configuration yet in its 24 years. To whet the appetite, this weekend’s Taster Exhibition showcases works by participating artists to “help you choose which studios you would like to visit”. Full details of the April event can be found at yorkopenstudios.co.uk. Admission is free.
Stevie Hook: Spinning The Wheel Of Nouns
Queercabaret night of the week: York Literature Festival presents Stevie Hook in The Wheel Of Nouns, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 7.30pm
REJOICE…or beware! The Gender Fairy is loose and has found their way to York.What is gender anyway and why should you care? Discover why it may be easier than you think in Hook’s new cabaret comedy: an evening of spinning game show wheels, jokes, bribes, and voluntary audience participation.
Audience interaction and cabaret-style games create a light-hearted, accepting environment to explore key issues around queerness and gender identity in 70 minutes of thought-provoking, mischievous queer cabaret.
The Wheel Of Nouns is presented by York trans, non-binary, neurodivergent mythical creature, writer and cabaret artist Stevie Hook. They are an associate artist with Roots Theatre and uses the pronouns they/them and hehe/hym.
At the heart of everything they create is a passion for subverting expectations, using games and audience interaction mechanics to invite audiences into silly, unapologetically trans worlds. They believe empowering audiences to participate and play in these silly worlds with them can open doors for meaningful change. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Printmaker Pamela Knight: Exhibiting at Bluebird Bakery in Acomb
Exhibition of the week: Three Printmakers, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, until May 7
YORK Printmakers members Pamela Knight, Vanessa Oo and Sandra Storey are taking part in the Three Printmakers: Energy, Atmosphere & Light exhibition. York artist and former theatre set and costume designer Knight specialises in collagraphy, enjoying the textures and effects she creates using this process, often enriched with monoprint and chine colle.
Oo, from York, is displaying monotypes for the first time. “My work is about capturing the magic of the moment; an unseen energy and rhythm,” she says. Harrogate artist Sandra Storey’s work evokes the “talisman-like quality” of plants, birds and natural objects found within the North York Moors landscape. Admission is free.
Close up for Kim Wilde: Songs from Close and Closer at York Barbican
Pop gig of the week: Kim Wilde: Closer Tour, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.45pm
EIGHTIES’ pop star Kim Wilde performs songs from her sixth album, 1988’s Close, complemented by new numbers from Closer, her 15th studio set, released on January 25. Expect the familiar hits too: Kids In America, You Came, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Never Trust A Stranger, Four Letter Word et al. Cutting Crew support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Fiery Angel head to the Grand Opera House from Tuesday with Lucy Bailey’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express
Thriller of the week: Fiery Angel in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, March 25 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
FIERY Angel follow up November 2023’s visit of And Then There Were None with another Agatha Christie murder mystery directed by Lucy Bailey, this time with Michael Maloney on board for a “deliciously thrilling ride” as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.
In Winter 1934, an avalanche stops The Orient Express dead in its tracks. Cue a murder. A train full of suspects. An impossible case. Trapped in the snow with a killer still on-board, can the world’s most famous detective crack the case before the train reaches its final destination?
Meanwhile, Wise Children’s world premiere of Emma Rice’s theatrical take on Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West continues at York Theatre Royal until April 5. Box office: GOH, atgtickets.com/york; YTR, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Mark Simmonds in rehearsal for his role as Prospero in Black Sheep Theatre’s The Tempest at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Shakespeare debut of the week: Black Sheep Theatre in The Tempest, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 26 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER making their mark with musical theatre productions, York company Black Sheep Productions branch out into Shakespeare territory under Matthew Peter Clare’s direction. “Prepare for The Tempest like you’ve never seen it before,” he says, promising magic, music and mayhem in a dark re-telling of the one with “a storm, a shipwreck and the torment of it all”, featuring Mark Simmonds as Prospero, Freya McIntosh as Miranda, Mikhail Lim as Gonzalo, Deathly Dark Tours guide, Kisskisskill singer Gemma-Louise Keane as Ariel, Meg Conway as Antonia and Josh Woodgate as Caliban.
“With a phenomenal cast, a live six-piece band, our production re-imagines Shakespeare’s tale of power, revenge, and redemption in a truly immersive and unforgettable way.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Public Service Broadcasting: York Barbican debut on March 27
Past meets future in the present: Public Service Broadcasting, York Barbican, March 27, doors 7pm
PUBLIC Service Broadcasting make their York Barbican debut with J. Willgoose, Esq on guitar, banjo, other stringed instruments, samples and electronic musical instruments; Wrigglesworth on drums, piano and electronic instruments; J F Abraham on flugelhorn, bass guitar, drums and vibraslap and Mr B on visuals and set design.
“Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future” for more than a decade, the corduroy-wearing Londoners will select material from their five themed albums, 2013’s Inform – Educate – Entertain, 2015’s The Race For Space, 2017’s Every Valley, 2021’s Bright Magic and 2024’s The Last Flight. She Drew The Gun support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Laura Veirs: Art meets science via geology in her songs at The Crescent, York, on March 27
Folk gig of the week: Please Please You and Brudenell Presents (CORRECT)present Laura Veirs, supported by Lucca Mae, The Crescent, York, March 27, doors 7pm
PORTLAND, Oregon, folk singer, songwriter, children’s author, artist, Midnight Lightning podcaster, Stanford University songwriting teacher and mother Laura Veirs draws on her 14 albums in her Crescent set. Growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she spent summers camping with her family, inspiring her songwriting as much as her fascination with the intersection of art and science from days of studying geology (and Mandarin Chinese) at Carleton College in rural Minnesota.
Her 25-year career has taken in collaborations with Neko Case and kd lang in case/lang/veirs, Sufjan Stevens, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and The Decemberists. Now she is working on new paintings, an instrumental guitar album and a book about creativity. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Freida Nipples: Baps & Buns is backat Bluebird Bakery
Burlesque show of the week: Freida Nipples presents Baps & Buns Burlesque, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, Bakery, March 28, doors 7pmfor 8pm start
YORK’S award-winning queen of burlesque, Freida Nipples, returns to Rise with the first Baps & Buns cabaret bill of 2025. On the menu at York’s regular burlesque night in a bakery will be a collection of sensational cabaret artists, fronted by Freida, of course.
Further Baps & Buns will be on the Rise on May 30, June 27, September 19 and December 13. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.
Will Smith: Off to the seaside to perform at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in August
Gig announcement of the week: Will Smith, Based On A True Story Tour, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, August 24
WILL Smith, the Grammy Award-winning American screen actor, entertainer and recording artist, will promote his first full-length album in 20 years, Based On A True Story, on his debut UK headline travels that will open on the Yorkshire coast.
Songs from his March 28 release will be complemented by such hits as Jiggy Wit It, Miami, and Summertime. “Yo UK, my first ever tour. You got to go get it. I’m on my way,” says Smith, 56. “That’s my airplane. Scarborough, Cardiff, Manchester, London, it’s going to be hot! I’m about to go to the airport. I’m leaving now!” Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
THE world premiere of Emma Rice’s theatrical take on Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West is up and running at York Theatre Royal with a full week of previews before next Wednesday’s press night: a lead-up more associated with West End premieres.
Such is the scale and anticipation that surrounds Frome company Wise Children’s co-production with the Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
“The show’s ready for an audience,” said writer-director Emma last Friday morning, in a brief break from tech-week preparations for Tuesday’s first preview.
Five weeks of rehearsals at The Lucky Chance, Wise Children’s creative space in a converted Methodist church in Somerset, had preceded moving up to York on March 16.
“There’s a certain percentage of work you can’t do in the rehearsal room, especially when we have a very ambitious set with four revolving doors that are over four metres high and slide over the stage, and the cast has to learn how to move across the stage,” says Emma. “It’s quite mathematical as it’s such a mind-bending plot – and Maths is not my strong point!”
Quick refresher course: Hitchcock’s 1959 American spy thriller, the one starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason from cinema’s Golden Age, finds hapless advertising man Roger Thornhill (now played by Ewan Wardrop) being mistaken for George Kaplan when a mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he is on the run across America, dodging foreign spies, airplanes and a femme fatale, Eve Kendall, who might not be all she seems.
Rice duly turns Hitchcock’s smart thriller on its head in her riotously humorous reworking, replete with six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 1950s’ soundtrack and a heap of hats, clothes, suitcases and newspapers in a topsy-turvy drama full of glamour, glitz, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths.
Where Rice’s vision of North By Northwest meets Hitchcock’s version is “sort of a surprising marriage, but I’ve loved it” she says of the creative process. “I love that it’s an impossible test. North By Northwest has a vast series of impossible problems to solve on stage, from Mount Rushmore to the plane, the crop duster, and you have to work your magic.
“We’ve come up with lots of fun ways to meet those challenges, those setpieces, while also matching Hitchcock’s vision, so it’s very stylish.”
Etta Murfitt’s contribution as movement director has been important. “It’s been fascinating because it’s an odyssey story and the thing you can’t do with the four-door set is travel much, so you have to find the energy to give that sense of travel,” says Emma.
Emma Rice at Wise Children’s creative space, The Lucky Chance, a converted Methodist church in Frome, Somerset
“We do that with fantastic choreography that, like Bob Fosse’s work, gives it humour as well as movement, and you think, ‘is it dance, is it theatre’? We have six actors who are incredibly virtuosic in their acting. Five of them have worked with me before, and the newcomer to the company is Simon Oskarsson, who’s Swedish but has been working in England for a long time.”
North By Northwest may be outwardly familiar, “but I would place a wager now that a lot people will have seen the film but if you ask them to tell the story they probably couldn’t,” says Emma. “I’ve taken months to complete all the beats of the story. I’ve not needed to have too many surprises but I’ve made it easier to understand.
“My experience of the film was that it was baffling, and we’ve been able to tell the story more clearly without losing the tension.”
To help her do so, she methodically made note cards of each plot point, placed on the floor to work through the machinations in her fourth conversion from screen to stage after The Red Shoes, A Matter Of Life And Death and Brief Encounter in her Kneehigh Theatre days.
“Nothing happens in Brief Encounter. Everything happens in North By North West, and it takes every iota of my theatre craft to present it. I have to be on the front of my toes. Like we now have over 70 suitcases in this show, each one with a different label and different things in it, after I swapped having lots of hats for more suitcases, though there are still many hats, but many more suitcases now!”
Emma has homed in on the 1950s’ post-war setting too, not least to bring more depth to Hitchcock’s characters. “I’ve always been really fascinated by the Fifties,” she says. “My parents were small children in the war; my grandparents fought in the war. My parents were my family’s first generation to go university.
“Every character in the film would have just come out of the war; everyone making the film would have experienced it, so it’s been interesting to add that depth to it.”
In particular, she focuses on building up the back story of Eve Kendall, the femme fatale who helps Thornhill to avoid detection after they meet on a train. “I think Hitchcock made a great job of Eve; she’s the heroine of the piece, putting herself on the line with her bravery and her moral judgement when facing the most jeopardy.”
Emma has given the narrator’s role to Katy Owen’s Professor. “I’ve used a lot of Hitchcock’s dialogue in the play, but the Professor’s narration is very much in my language though I’ve also used stage directions from Ernest Lehman’s film script, which was a masterpiece. They’re beautifully written; the language is virtuosic and humorous and elegant too.”
Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West, York Theatre Royal, until April 5, 7.30pm plus2pm, March 26 and April 3; 2.30pm, March 29 and April 5Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for Wise Children’s world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, on stage at York Theatre Royal from this week
York Pop artist Harland Miller with his new work York from his XXX exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: Olivia Hemingway
FROM Harland Miller’s Pop Art to Emma Rice’s theatrical world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, these are exciting times for artistic expression, Charles Hutchinson reports.
XXXhibition of the week: Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery, until August 31, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
YORK-RAISED artist and writer Harland Miller has returned to York Art Gallery to launch XXX, showcasing paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series, including the unveiling of several new paintings, not least ‘York’, a floral nod to Yorkshire’s white rose and York’s daffodils.
Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
Simon Oskarsson’s Valerian, left, Ewan Wardrop’s Roger Thornhill, Katy Owen’s Professor and Mirabelle Gremaud’s Anna rehearsing a scene for Emma Rice’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West. Picture: Steve Tanner
World premiere of the week in York: Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, York Theatre Royal, until April 5, 7.30pm plus 2pm, March 26 and April 3; 2.30pm, March 29 and April 5
IT would be strange if, in a city of seven million people, one man were never mistaken for another…and that is exactly what happens to Roger Thornhill, reluctant hero of North By Northwest, when a mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he is on the run, dodging spies, airplanes and a femme fatale who might not be all she seems.
Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice turns film legend Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller on its head in her riotously humorous reworking. Replete with six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 1950s’ soundtrack and a heap of hats, this dazzling co-production with York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse plays with heart, mind and soul in a topsy-turvy drama full of glamour, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nina Wadia’s Gemma and Sam Bailey’s April in NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith
Musical of the week: NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees, today and Saturday
DIRECTED by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, comedian Pippa Evans’s hit-laden musical is set in Birmingham in 1989 and 2009. Back in the day, school friends Gemma Warner and April Devonshire are planning their lives based on Number One magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley. Twenty years later, Gemma (Nina Wadia) and April (The X Factor winner Sam Bailey) face the most dreaded event of their adult lives: the school reunion.
Drama, old flames and receding hairlines come together as friends reunite and everything from the past starts to slot into place. Sinitta, Eighties’s pop star of So Macho and Toy Boy fame, will be the guest star all week in a show featuring Gold, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Tainted Love, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves et al. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Nearly here: Nearly here: Paddy McGuinness brings his Nearly There tour to York Barbican tomorrow
Comedy gig of the week: Paddy McGuinness, Nearly There, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.45pm
FARNWORTH comedian, television and radio presenter and game show host Paddy McGuinness plays York on his first stand-up itinerary since 2016. Launching the 40 dates last year, he said: “It’s been eight years since my last tour and there’s lots of things to laugh about! I’m looking forward to getting back in front of a live audience, along with running the gauntlet of cancel culture, click bait and fake news.” Tickets update: only a handful of single seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Contemporary jazz gig of the week: Jamie Taylor & Jamil Sheriff, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tomorrow, doors 7.30pm
THE musical association and friendship between guitarist Jamie Taylor, principal lecturer in jazz guitar at Leeds Conservatoire, and Leeds jazz pianist, composer and educator Jamil Sheriff goes back over 20 years of performing together in settings ranging from intimate small groups to large ensembles, such as Sheriff’s own big band.
Playing as a duo at Rise, they will channel this shared history and musical empathy, taking inspiration from jazz piano and guitar collaborations such as Bill Evans with Jim Hall and Fred Hersch with Bill Frisell. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Health and happiness hacks at York Barbican
Meet “the architect of health and happiness”: Dr Rangan Chatterjee, The Thrive Tour 2025, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
JOIN Dr Rangan Chatterjee, inspirational host of Europe’s biggest health podcast, Feel Better, Live More, author and star of BBC One’s Doctor In The House, for two transformative hours of learning the skill of happiness, discovering the secrets to optimal health, breaking free from habits that hold you back and discovering how to make changes that last. “Be empowered, be inspired and learn how to thrive,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
James Jay Lewis: Raw garage blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ryedale blues gig of the week: James Jay Lewis, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
SELFT-TAUGHT multi-instrumentalist James Jay Lewis has performed with The La’s and played bass for fellow Liverpool band Cast and now lead guitar in The Zutons, having earlier formed the band Cractilla.
He has written, recorded and produced two solo albums, the acoustic odyssey Back To The Fountain and the lo-fi, rough and ready garage blues of Waiting For The World, on which he plays all the instruments. He has worked with Nile Rodgers at Abbey Road Studios, is involved in the new Zutons album and is venturing into recording, producing and composing for television and film. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Alligator Gumbo: Re-creating New Orleans 1920s’ jazz in 2025 Helmsley on Saturday
New Orleans jazz jive of the week: Alligator Gumbo 2025, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
LEEDS seven-piece band Alligator Gumbo evoke the Roaring Twenties’ heyday of the New Orleans swing/jazz era, when music was raw, fast paced and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously over foot-stomping rhythms. Their repertoire is built around songs made famous by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Jelly Roll Morton, and Billie Holiday, played in the traditional style. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York Pop artist Harland Miller with his new work York from his XXX exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: Olivia Hemingway
FROM Harland Miller’s Pop Art to Emma Rice’s theatrical world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, these are exciting times for arts exploits, Charles Hutchinson reports.
XXXhibition launch of the week: Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery, until August 31, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
YORK-RAISED artist and writer Harland Miller has returned to York Art Gallery to launch XXX, showcasing paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series, including the unveiling of several new paintings, not least ‘York’, a floral nod to Yorkshire’s white rose and York’s daffodils.
Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.
David John Pike: Baritone soloist at York Musical Society’s concert
Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, Bach Mass in B minor, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm
DAVID Pipe conducts York Musical Society’s singers and orchestra in Bach’s epic choral work, replete with magnificent choruses, resplendent fugues, moving arias and soloists Zoe Brookshaw and Philippa Boyle (both soprano), Tom Lilburn (countertenor), Nicholas Watts (tenor) and Canadian/British/Luxembourger David John Pike (baritone), who returned to music after initially training and working as a chartered accountant. Tickets: available from York Minster or on the door.
Tayla Kenyon: Exploring memories and the choices we make in Fluff at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Fringe play of the week: Teepee Productions and Joe Brown present Fluff, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
NOW is the time for Fluff to do the ultimate puzzle: her life. As she navigates her way through her most treasured and darkest memories, she desperately needs to piece together her life, story by story, person by person.
Tayla Kenyon performs solo in her darkly comedic 75-minutre play, co written with James Piercy, as she explores memories and the choices we make, using a non-linear plot line to enable the audience to feel, first hand, the devastating effects of dementia. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Ewan Wardrop in rehearsal for his role as reluctant hero Roger Thornhill in Wise Children’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, premiering at York Theatre Royal from March 18
World premiere of the week in York: Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, York Theatre Royal, March 18 to April 5, 7.30pm plus 2pm, March 26 and April 3; 2.30pm, March 29 and April 5
IT would be strange if, in a city of seven million people, one man were never mistaken for another…and that is exactly what happens to Roger Thornhill, reluctant hero of North By Northwest, when a mistimed phone call to his mother lands him smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy. Now he is on the run, dodging spies, airplanes and a femme fatale who might not be all she seems.
Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice turns film legend Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller on its head in her riotously humorous reworking. Replete with six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 1950s’ soundtrack and a heap of hats, this dazzling co-production with York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse plays with heart, mind and soul in a topsy-turvy drama full of glamour, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nina Wadia’s Gemma and Sam Bailey’s April in NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith
Musical of the week: NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, Grand Opera House, York, March 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees, Wednesday and Saturday
DIRECTED by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, comedian Pippa Evans’s hit-laden musical is set in Birmingham in 1989 and 2009. Back in the day, school friends Gemma Warner and April Devonshire are planning their lives based on Number One magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley. Twenty years later, Gemma (Nina Wadia) and April (The X Factor winner Sam Bailey) face the most dreaded event of their adult lives: the school reunion.
Drama, old flames and receding hairlines come together as friends reunite and everything from the past starts to slot into place. Sinitta, Eighties’s pop star of So Macho and Toy Boy fame, will be the guest star all week in a show featuring Gold, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Tainted Love, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves et al. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
In the Strummer time: Stiff Little Fingers’ Ali McMordie, left, Steve Grantley, Jake Burns and Ian McCallum pay tribute to The Clash punk hero at York Barbican. Picture: Will Byington
Punk gig of the week: Stiff Little Fingers, Flame In Our Hearts Tour, York Barbican, March 18, doors 7pm
NORTHERN Irish punk legends Stiff Little Fingers’ tour title is a nod their 2003 track Summerville, recorded to mark the untimely passing of Joe Strummer of The Clash.
Frontman Jake Burns says: “The opening line to the song is ‘You lit a flame in my heart’ and still stands strong today as it did when I wrote it. Joe was a legend and a huge influence on myself and the band. Calling the tour Flame In The Heart keeps Joe in everyone’s memory.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Meanwhile, Monday’s double bill of The Darkness and special guests Ash has sold out.
Nearly here: Paddy McGuinness brings his Nearly There tour to York Barbican next Thursday
Comedy gig of the week: Paddy McGuinness, Nearly There, York Barbican, March 20, 7.45pm
FARNWORTH comedian, television and radio presenter and game show host Paddy McGuinness plays York on his first stand-up itinerary since 2016. Launching the 40 dates last year, he said: “It’s been eight years since my last tour and there’s lots of things to laugh about! I’m looking forward to getting back in front of a live audience, along with running the gauntlet of cancel culture, click bait and fake news.” Tickets update: only a handful of single seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Health and happiness tips at York Barbican
Meet “the architect of health and happiness”: Dr Rangan Chatterjee, The Thrive Tour 2025, York Barbican, March 21, 7.30pm
JOIN Dr Rangan Chatterjee, inspirational host of Europe’s biggest health podcast, Feel Better, Live More, author and star of BBC One’s Doctor In The House, for two transformative hours of learning the skill of happiness, discovering the secrets to optimal health, breaking free from habits that hold you back and discovering how to make changes that last. “Be empowered, be inspired and learn how to thrive,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ewan Wardrop in rehearsal at The Lucky Chance, Frome, for his role as Roger Thornhill in Wise Children’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, premiering at York Theatre Royal from March 18 to April 5. Picture: Steve Tanner
EWAN Wardrop returns to the Wise Children ranks for the world premiere of Emma Rice’s adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest at York Theatre Royal from March 18.
After appearing in artistic director Rice’s productions of Bagdad Café (Old Vic Theatre, London) and The Buddha Of Suburbia (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Barbican Theatre, London), he will take the lead role of Roger Thornhill in the Somerset company’s co-production with York Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
Mistaken for another man, Thornhill finds himself smack bang in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy after a mistimed phone call to his mother. Now the reluctant hero is on the run, dodging spies, airplanes and a femme fatale who might not be all she seems.
“Emma told me about her production plans getting on for two years ago,” says Ewan. “We did two sets of workshop at The Lucky Chance [Rice’s creation space and venue in the refurbished and repurposed Portway Methodist Church in Frome], where we just threw ideas around because it’s such a filmic Hitchcock film with the setpieces and the plane scene and you’re thinking ‘how do you do that on stage?’.
Simon Oskarsson’s Valerian, left, Ewan Wardrop’s Roger Thornhill, Katy Owen’s Professor and Mirabelle Gremaud’s Anna rehearsing a scene for Emma Rice’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By North West. Picture: Steve Tanner
“The producers had sought Emma to do this production as she’s the best at doing this kind of adaptation.”
For the rehearsal process, “Emma writes the script with her ideas for stage directions, but it’s moveable, thinking ‘oh, this will work better visually’, where she’ll come in with a better idea overnight,” says Ewan. “Or Etta [choreographer and movement director Etta Murfitt] might come up with a new movement sequence.
“You learn your lines, you do the lines, cuts are made, and Emma is very good at thinking on her feet, making changes right up to the eve of the show, always looking for the best way to portray something.”
The resulting production will become as much Emma Rice’s 2025 North By Northwest as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 North By Northwest in this fifth collaboration between Wise Children and York Theatre Royal after productions of Angela Carter’s Wise Children, Malory Towers, Wuthering Heights and Blue Beard.
Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice
As the Theatre Royal brochure promises: “Emma Rice takes on film legend Alfred Hitchcock in this riotously funny reworking that turns the original thriller on its head. With just six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous ’50s soundtrack and a lot of hats, this dazzling production plays with the heart, mind and soul. Join us for a night of glamour, romance, jeopardy and a liberal sprinkling of tender truths.”
“With this sort of show, it’s about striking the right balance,” says Ewan. “Audiences want to see scenes from the film they recognise, and it would be difficult not to have a nod to those, like the plane swooping down. We’re not re-creating the film but people will be happy to see scenes they love.
“It’s a question of scale how you transfer it to the stage, so for some things you have to rely on the audience’s imagination, which is the most powerful tool theatre has – and I prefer to use the imagination rather than see something where I don’t quite buy it.
“The film is a box of tricks but its emotional heart is maybe quite slight, so Emma has looked into how we present the ‘baddies’, looking deeper into that to make them more three-dimensional.
“Emma is bringing more depth to Roger’s relationship with Eve Kendall,” says Ewan Wardrop, pictured in rehearsal with Patrycja Kujawska. Picture: Steve Tanner
“She’s also bringing more depth to Roger’s relationship with Eve Kendall. In essence, he’s quite a shallow character, but he’s been through the war – like the actors in the film had – so Emma has written new sections to explore that.
“She’s been pretty faithful to the film, to the characters and the dialogue, but she’s added to the dialogue without changing the storyline.”
Ewan is an Alfred Hitchcock devotee. “I’ve always loved his films. They’re visually compelling, and I was a dancer before I was an actor, so I’ve always responded to his visual flair. With Hitchcock, there are so many memorable scenes that go by without dialogue that are beautifully framed,” he says.
Ewan worked previously with choreographer Etta Murfitt in Matthew Bourne’s company and loves the movement element to Wise Children’s shows. “Emma (CORRECT) uses more and more dance in her productions, so she casts actors who aren’t necessarily great dancers but who move well, which can be more interesting than actual dancers.
Leaping into action: Ewan Wardrop, left, and Simon Oskarssonin the Wise Children rehearsal room. Picture: Steve Tanner
“Emma casts really well as she knows people so well and she’s very instinctive to make you do things that I wouldn’t come up with or go as far as that, and you think, ‘how does she know that?’.
“She will use your great strengths and that’s one of her great assets: her emotional intelligence and empathy, as well as her theatricality.”
North By Northwest marks Ewan’s return to York. “I’ve been coming here for years,” he says. “I did my one-man George Formby show, Formby, in the Theatre Royal Studio and I play the baritone ukulele with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, performing at the Theatre Royal,” he recalls.
Wise Children in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, York Theatre Royal, March 18 to April 5, then on tour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
