Clifford's Tower – charleshutchpress

Dame for a laugh anew: Graham Smith returns to the pantomime stage with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre

A PANTO dame’s return and another’s transformation into a dog top Charles Hutchinson’s cultural picks for early February and beyond.

Pantomime of the week: Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, today, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm

GRAHAM Smith, Rowntree Players’ pantomime dame from 2004 to 2022, pulls on the frocks once more after a three-year hiatus in the York guest house proprietor’s debut for East Riding company Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre.

He plays Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, joined in principal roles by Neil Scott’s King Richard, Toby Jewsen’s Robin Hood, Chris McKenzie’s Little John, Henry Rice’s Will Scarlett, Paul Jefferson’s Friar Tuck, Alison Rosa’s Sheriff of Nottingham and Chloe Jensen’s Maid Marion. Tickets: 07922 443639 or email richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.

Femme Fatale Faerytales: Dark feminist re-telling of age-old classic

A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)

MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.

In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com. Box office: wegottickets.com.

Kym Marsh’s Hedy, left, and Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated version of Single White Female, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

World premiere tour of the week: Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

SCREEN actress, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, TV presenter, chef and cookery book author Lisa Faulkner returns to the stage for the first time in 21 years in Rebecca Reid’s darkly humorous stage adaptation of psychological thriller Single White Female, now updated to the social-media age.

Faulkner’s recently divorced mum Allie is balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up. When she decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, Kym Marsh’s Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Colour & Light: Illuminating Clifford’s Tower and York Castle Museum from February 4

Illumination launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, February 4 to 22, 6pm to 9pm

YORK BID is bringing Colour & Light back for 2026 on its biggest ever canvas. For the first time, two of York’s landmark buildings will be illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become a combined stage for a fully choreographed projection show, transforming the Eye of York.

Presented in partnership with York Museums Trust and English Heritage, the continuous, looped, ten-minute show will bring York’s historic characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.

Matt Tapp’s ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Calamity Jane

Musical of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 4 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

HELEN Gallagher’s tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s former peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok lead director Sophie Cooke’s cast for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s musical Calamity James.

Deadwood’s citizens are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers and socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon. However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City to create a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Ancient & modern drama of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 5, 7.30pm

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger begin their new partnership with Theatre@41 by re-visiting Helios, wherein a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

In Wright’s story of the son of the sun god, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city. “It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” he says. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Robin Simpson in rehearsal for Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, premiering at York Theatre Royal Studio

Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm, plus Wednesday and Saturday 2pm matinees

ROBIN Simpson follows up his sixth season as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame by playing a dog in York Theatre Royal, ETT and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, directed by John R Wilkinson.

Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam (Simpson’s character)will be by your side in a play about empathy – its power and limits and what it asks of us – in a story of our shared past, present and the choices we face today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for Super Furry Animals’ summer concert at York Museum Gardens

Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens presents Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11

FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from nine albums.

Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be special guests Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn. Tickets for SFA, along with Liverpool’s Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark on July 9 and South Yorkshire ’s Self Esteem on July 10, are on sale at futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

Super Furry Animals: Playing first concerts in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens headline show

In Focus: Norwell Lapley Productions in Tales From Acorn Wood, York Theatre Royal, February 3 to 5

JULIA Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s beloved Tales From Acorn Wood stories are brought to life in an enchanting lift-the-flap experience where poor old Fox has lost his socks. Are they in the kitchen or inside the clock?

Rat-a-tat-tat! Who’s keeping tired Rabbit awake in a children’s show that also invites you to join in with Pig and Hen’s game of hide-and-seek and discover the special surprise that Postman Bear is planning for his friends.

Rabbit’s Nap in Tales From Acorn Wood

Packed full of songs, puppetry and all the friends from Acorn Wood, this show featuring Fox’s Socks, Rabbit’s Nap, Hide-and-Seek Pig and Postman Bear comes from the team behind Dear Zoo Live and Dear Santa.

Writer Julia Donaldson says: “I am really happy that the Tales From Acorn Wood are now moving to the stage. Fans of the books are bound to enjoy seeing the four main characters, Fox, Bear, Pig and Rabbit, brought to life through Norwell Lapley Productions’ clever staging.

“Live performance and songs are both very close to my heart and I am sure this production will delight children and families.” Performances: Tuesday, 1.30pm; Wednesday and Thursday, 10.30am and 1.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: One plus.

*The new walkways at Clifford’s Tower. Picture: Christopher Ison for English Heritage*

CLIFFORD’S Tower reopens today, re-roofed, its interior transformed, its story to be told anew by English Heritage after a £5 million conservation project that hopefully turns into conversation.

Regularly, the empty shell of the last remains of York Castle, had been voted York’s most disappointing tourist attraction, one that you came, you, saw, you concurred with everyone else after 15 minutes that you would not be going back.

Up against York Minster, the National Railway Museum, the Yorkshire Museum, York Castle Museum and York Art Gallery, let alone York Dungeon, York’s Chocolate Story and myriad ghost walks, Clifford’s Tower was “living with history”, to borrow the city’s former slogan, but not alive with history.

It amounted to 55 steps to what? Awkward, cramped walkways; awkward anti-Semitic associations with the darkest day in York’s past (the Jewish massacre and suicide of March 16 1190 on this site); the awkward misfire of hosting York’s Bonfire Night firework display, thankfully consigned to history.

Then awkward discussions about what to do with the tower, when initial redevelopment plans met with opprobrium, even derision, being deemed a commercially driven act of heresy, rather than heritage, as Councillor Johnny Hayes led the successful 2018 campaign against the English Heritage (and City of York Council approved) plans for a visitor centre on the mound, so out of keeping with LS Lowry’s famous painting.

Roll on to April 2 2022 and welcome to the new but old Clifford’s Tower, the 800-year-old landmark with its new roof deck to provide the best 360-degree views of York – better than York Minster because it takes in York Minster – and hidden rooms, newly revealed and refreshed for the first time since the tower was gutted by fire in 1684.

No visitor centre, no shop, no lift for the disabled, no palatial revamp, only history, unlocked secrets, aerial walkways, stopping points to catch breath when climbing the steps, that breathtaking panoramic rooftop view…oh, and a loo.

*Clifford’s Tower, by L.S. Lowry, from the York Museums Trust collection at York Art Gallery*

Not for public use, and no ordinary loo but the garderobe for Henry the Third (don’t say that with an Irish accent), a rather flash Royal flush from long before the likes of Thomas Crapper got to work on waterworks. All that is missing is the seat for this alternative throne, but the toiletries cupboard is still there.

What is this fascination with ablutions in York’s past? First the olfactory unpleasantries of the JORVIK Viking Centre, now Henry III’s state-of-the-(f)art lavatory, newly given the reverence of a cistern chapel. Read all about it, how radical it was, and the excitement may well be merited.

After Coun Hayes kicked up a stink, English Heritage went back to the drawing board, the focus solely on the tower itself, or “protecting Clifford’s Tower for future generations and inspiring more people to discover its histories,” as the charity’s chief executive, Kate Mavor, put it.

Jeremy Ashbee, head properties curator at English Heritage, calls Clifford’s Tower “one of England’s most important buildings”. “It is almost all that remains of York Castle, the centre of government for the north throughout the Middle Ages up to the 17^th century – the place where the whole of the North of England was ruled from,” he says.

“We not only wanted to preserve this incredible building but also to do justice to its fascinating and multi-faceted history.”

The challenge has been to give Clifford’s Tower a future, one that truthfully can never match its past. What £5 million has done is to tell that past much better, in a city where history is often in the re-making.

Clifford’s Tower is not alone in making the historic headlines at present in York, what with the investigations into whether any part of the ornate street light in Minster Gates can be salvaged after a delivery driver reversed into it on March 21, and the rejection of the second set of York Archaeological Trust, Rougier Street Developments and North Star plans for the Roman Quarter and its Eboracum visitor attraction.

The question now is will visitors make return visits to Clifford’s Tower in such a competitive tourist market? Only time will tell, but for definite, no parties or weddings will be held there. Theatre on the new first floor; concerts on the rooftop? Not ruled out, apparently.

Tag: Clifford's Tower

OPINION. Clifford’s Tower reopens today. What’s the past, present and future hold?