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What’s on in Ryedale, York and beyond, from highwayman high jinks to brass blasts. Hutch’s List No 41, from Gazette & Herald

Gerard Savva: Leading the York Stage cast as Bobby in Company at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

LOOK out for Godber at the double, Sondheim sophistication, a ground-breaking Black pioneer and Hull humour in the week ahead, recommends Charles Hutchinson.

Musical of the week: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married? Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold, sophisticated and insightful revolutionary musical comedy follows Bobby as he navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily (and unhappily) married friends, exploring the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind.

Nik Briggs directs a York Stage cast featuring Gerard Savva as Bobby, Florence Poskitt, Julia Anne Smith, Alexandra Mather, Joanne Theaker, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Jack Hooper, among others. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster for Lightning Seeds’ show at Scarborough Spa Grand Hall tonight

Pure and simply joyful every time: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, tonight; The Welly, Hull, December 4; Leeds Beckett Students’ Union, December 6

TO mark their 35th anniversary, Liverpool singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie leads Lightning Seeds on their Tomorrow’s Here Today tour to accompany a new greatest hits album.

Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al and many more. Tonight doors open at 7pm; Casino play at 8pm, Lightning Seeds at 9pm. Box office: Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk; Hull, giveitsomewelly.com; Leeds, leedsbeckettsu.co.uk.

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

Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

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

The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling 1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The Highwayman cast of Dylan Allcock, left, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby and Jo Patmore in John Godber’s new historical play. Picture: Ian Hodgson

New play of the week: John Godber Company in The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday, sold out

AFTER more than 70 plays reflecting on modern life, John  Godber goes back in history for the first time in The Highwayman. “It’s 1769 and Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull is thriving, and the Spa towns are full,” he says.

“Everyone is flocking north. Yorkshire is the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation is great.” Enter the highwayman, John Swift and his partner, Molly May. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal

Story of the week: Paterson Joseph, Sancho & Me, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion

CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.

Actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University Paterson Joseph tells his story, accompanied by co-creator and musical director Ben Park, built around his book The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Irish band Adore: Headlining at The Crescent tomorrow. Picture: Fnatic

Indie gig of the week: Road Less Travelled presents Adore, Fuzz Lightyear and Tom Beer, The Crescent, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

RISING stars of the Irish music scene, Adore are a three-piece garage punk band from Galway, Donegal and Dublin, who refract surf, disco and pop through punk sensibilities, grounded in crunchy guitar, drum and bass.

Leeds four-piece Fuzz Lightyear, freshly signed to independent label Nice Swan Records, match the intensity of Idles and Gilla Band while applying wit and a lyrical openness to their songs. Bull frontman Tom Beer kicks off the triple bill with a solo set. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

New York Brass Band: Bringing New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz from old York to Milton Rooms, Malton

Jazz night of the week: Acorn Events presents New York Brass Band and The Ryedale Stray Notes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7pm

NEW York Brass Band, from York, perform with a seven or eight-piece line-up of sax, tuba, trumpets, trombones, guitar and sousaphone in the New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz band tradition. Formed by James Lancaster in 2010, they are inspired by Rebirth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Hot 8, Youngblood and Brassroots.

They have played at Glastonbury for the past eight festivals and at celebrity parties and weddings for Danny Jones, of McFly, Ellie Goulding, comedian Alex Brooker, Liam Gallagher and Jamie Oliver. Support act The Ryedale Stray Notes feature 25 talented young musicians “ready to raise the roof”. Proceeds go to Acorn Community Care to support vulnerable adults with physical and learning disabilities. Tickets: acornevents.org.uk or phone Ali on 07891 3889085.

Paddy Young: Topping the Rye Humour bill at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Lucas Smith

Variety night of the week: Rye Humour, Comedy vs Climate Change, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

RYE Humour’s variety bill of up-and-coming comics will be headlined by Chortle Best Newcomer winner Paddy Young, a stand-up with Scarborough roots. The 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards finalist and Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee has attracted 100 million views online for his sketches with Ed Night. His comedy special, filmed by American record label 800 Pound Gorilla Records, will be released shortly. 

This gig has been developed in collaboration with the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership scheme, as part of a project that uses humour to explore environmental issues based around North Yorkshire’s rivers. Any questions about the evening, or accessibility, will be answered at events@comedyvsclimatechange.org.uk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Lucy Beaumont: Off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood at Grand Opera House, York

Comedy gig of the week: Lucy Beaumont Live, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, 8pm

HULL humorist, BAFTA nominee and Taskmaster star Lucy Beaumont is determined to let loose and let slip on her rollercoaster world with off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood.

From the co-host of the chart-topping podcast Perfect Brains with Sam Campbell and creator of Meet The Richardsons comes a look at life through the Lucy lens. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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How actor Paterson Joseph connects with pioneering Charles Ignatius Sancho in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal

Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject of Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal

CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.

Paterson Joseph, actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, tells his story in Sancho & Me on Thursday night  (14/11/2024) at York Theatre Royal, where he will be accompanied  by co-creator and musical director Ben Park.

Built around his novel The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho, Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British, born to immigrant parents from St Lucia in Willesden Green, London in 1964.

“Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) had a most extraordinary life,” says Paterson. “Born of enslaved African parents, he rose to a position of great influence in British society. A polymath with a talent for music, his vote in 1774 and 1780 made him the first person of African descent to vote in a British Parliamentary election.

“I first came across Charles Ignatius Sancho in 1999. Until then I knew nothing of his story. Born and raised in London, by my mid-thirties I had no idea there were thousands of Black Britons in the UK long before the famous ‘Windrush Generation’ who arrived in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. I cannot overstate the powerful sense of belonging this knowledge brought me.

“My desire is to spread that sense of rootedness through spreading the word far and wide: Britain has always been a multi-ethnic country and Black people have been a major part of that story.”

Paterson found Sancho’s story in Gretchen Gerzina’s book, Black England, first published in 1995 with the subtitle Life Before Emancipation. “The second edition has just been printed [updated as Black England:  A Forgotten Georgian History with a forward by Zadie Smith in 2022],” he says.

It’s a really seminal book, where I found all these people’s stories, including Septimius Severus, the Roman Emperor, who was from Libya and came to Britain in the 3rd century AD, setting up the Imperial court’s headquarters in York, where he died of gout [in 211AD].”

Paterson had been “writing secretly for many years” but Gerzina’s book prompted him to take up Sancho’s tale in a play. Until then the history of the Black experience had “always been a binary story of slavery”, he says. “I realised that Black history in England had been whitewashed, erased, sugar-coated, even suppressed.”

Sancho: An Act Of Remembrance, his debut play as a writer, was first co-produced and performed at Oxford Playhouse in 2015, then twice toured the United States of America, including Kennedy Center in Washington and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.

Paterson presented a revised version at Wilton’s Music Hall in London in 2018 (published by Bloomsbury) that climaxed with Sancho being given the right to vote.

Reflecting on the shifting sands of history, Paterson says: “The brilliant thing is that as history re-writes things, I say, ‘yes, we should do that with Black history because you wrote it very badly’.

“The questions is why would it take a curious person like me, whose origins are Afro-Caribbean, to get to the age of 35 to discover his origin story, when none of those stories had been told? Those who had the right to look at those archives and publish those stories didn’t care to do that – you see what you want to see.”

Believing that ‘this national amnesia can be overcome by having your story told”, Paterson decided he wanted to explore Sancho’s story further, whether as a full-scale play or in a novel. “But I never had any time to make it into more than a dream, but Covid changed that situation. I was filming Vigil [playing Commander Neil Ransome], when we had to stop, and when I knew we wouldn’t go back till August, I sat in my shed and wrote the novel,” he says.

The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho, his debut novel, was published in 2022, charting Sancho’s life through fictionalised diary entries, letters and commentary. Nominated for six literary awards, Paterson won the Royal Society of Literature’s Christopher Bland Prize and Historical Writers Association Debut Novel Prize in 2023.

Now he is taking Sancho & Me on the road. “Each show is ‘for one night only’ because it’s different every night,” he says. In the first half, he performs readings from the novel, interspersed with music; in the second, in the guise of Sancho, he answers audience questions about today as well as yesteryear. “So he’s like an avatar,” adds Paterson.

Composer Ben Park has worked with Paterson on his Sancho projects since Sancho: An Act Of Remembrance. “We’ve constructed this show together. I didn’t want people to get the idea it was the whole book on stage,” he says. Hence the music, the audience questions and Paterson weaving his own life story into the piece.   

Away from Sancho & Me, Paterson has been working on his eighth film – he would like to do more cinema work – filming  They Will Kill You with Patricia Arquette in Cape Town. “It’s due to come out in autumn 2025,” he says.

He has been enjoying his duties as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University since being installed in May 2023. “Talking with students at the graduation ceremonies has been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life, seeing them come out of themselves into a new world,” he says.

“I’ve been trying to get students to see that going to university is not the Holy Grail, but it gives you the breathing space to see what you really want to do.”

Paterson Joseph, Me & Sancho, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

PATERSON Joseph has performed twice previously at York Theatre Royal: in play readings instigated by actor George Costigan, first of King Lear, starring Freddie Jones and Toby Jones; then Antony And Cleopatra with Niamh Cusack. “I have warm feelings for York,” says Paterson.