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.
So much at stake: Laura Castle’s Count Dracula and Jamie McKeller’s Professor Van Helsing in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Picture: Michael Cornell
FROM the York producers of The Deathly Dark Tour and A Night Of Face-Melting Horror, bonded with the mischievous minds of Le Navet Bete, comes the debut production by Neon Crypt Productions, Dracula: The Bloody Truth.
Drawing blood at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tonight to Saturday, a very disgruntled Professor Van Helsing and an accompanying troupe of three very stressed actors will “shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Bram Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened”.
“Van Helsing is looking to repair his reputation and, with the help of the trio of highly talented actors, tell the true story of Count Dracula,” says Neon Crypt co-founder Jamie McKeller. “The show will take the audience from Transylvania to Whitby, the dreaded Borgo Pass to London and beyond!”
Laura McKeller, left, Michael Cornell, Laura Castle and Jamie McKeller in a scene form Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
Exposing the truth behind the fangs, Laura Castle will take the role of Count Dracula, joined by Laura McKeller as Mina and Michael Cornell as Jonathan Harker in the horror-comedy show scripted by Le Navet Bete.
Neon Crypt Productions is the latest venture by ghost tour promoters Jamie and Laura McKeller, who run The Deathly Dark Tour in the guise of Dr Damian Deathly and Dede Deathly, as well as the film company Neon Crypt Films.
Jamie also appeared in Rowntree Players’ pantomimes in 2023 and 2024 and made his return to directing after 15 years with Rowntree Players’ March 2023 production of John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22, followed by another state-of the-rotten-nation Godber comedy, Shakers, co-written with Jane Thornton, in March 2024.
Jamie McKeller’s Professor Van Helsing and Laura Castle’s Dr John Seward in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
The McKellers have set up Neon Crypt Productions with fellow founding members Castle and Cornell. “We all share the same passion for entertaining, high-energy theatre that slaps a smile on the face,” says Jamie. “As well as performing in the shows, we make the sets, props, costumes, market and generally wear about a hundred hats each!”
Defining the company’s ethos, Jamie says: “Neon Crypt is a collection of unhinged performers with a fiery passion for laugh-out- loud, make-your-belly-ache theatre. We all met in various productions over the years and wanted to produce shows that we would want to see: short, snappy and stupendously silly.
“Our aim is to produce a minimum of two shows a year, sometimes licensed plays from other companies and sometimes our own original work. Our home turf is Theatre@41, which we all have a strong connection with and hope to be performing here for years to come.”
Taking a bite out of Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth: Laura McKeller’s Mina and Laura Castle’s Count Dracula in Neon Crypt Productions’ debut show
The Deathly Dark Tour, now in its fifth year on York’s haunted streets, is noted for its alliance of spooks and dark humour: a combination matched by physical theatre exponents Le Navet Bete in Dracula: The Bloody Truth.
“We had the pleasure of first seeing Le Navet Bete’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula a a few years ago,” says Jamie. “Typically it’s a show that demands space; the sheer volume of scenery, props and costumes alone is bigger than any sensible production in a studio theatre! It’s 100 per cent energy from the first moment and doesn’t stop until the final bows.”
Looking forward to the opening night, director Jamie says: “What a show to choose for our first one! It’s no small feat to pull this one off. Comedy is tricky enough but high-speed farce is probably one of the hardest to accomplish well.
Making it Count: Laura Castle’s Dracula in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
“But what a cast to work with. I’m credited as the director of the show, but in truth this was a collaborative project. Everyone brought in ideas; there isn’t a piece of the show that isn’t the result of someone having a thought in the rehearsal room. If you think you know the story of Dracula, let us prove you wrong!”
Coming next from Neon Crypt Productions will be November’s staging of The Wetwang Hauntings, a new comedy-horror show penned by Jamie McKeller and two Deathly Dark Tour cohorts, to mark Halloween. Watch this space for more details.
Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Kiki Dee & Carmelo Ruggeri: Heading to All Saints Church, Pocklington on The Long Ride Home tour
FOUR nights of Greg Davies and tenth visit of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s bill for cultural satisfaction.
Acoustic duo of the week: Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, All Saints Church, Pocklington, tonight, 7.30pm
JOIN Bradford-born singer Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri for an acoustic journey through their songs and stories, taking in songs from 2022 album The Long Ride Home, Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra covers and hits from Kiki’s 55 years and more in the music business, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Star, I Got The Music In Me, Loving & Free and Amoureuse. Box office: kikiandcarmelo.com.
Brighouse & Rastrick Band: A blast of brass on Sunday afternoon at Pocklington Arts Centre
Brass concert of the week: Brighouse & Rastrick Band, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 2pm
FOREVER associated with 1977 number two hit and “unofficial encore” The Floral Dance, West Yorkshire’s Brighouse & Rastrick Band presents a concert suitable for casual listener and connoisseur alike.
The majority of premier band championships have been held by ‘Briggus’, most recently becoming the 2022 British Open and Brass in Concert champions. ‘Briggus’ are noted too for collaborations outside the brass band tradition, from the late Terry Wogan to Kate Rusby, classical actor Simon Callow to The Unthanks at York Minster in 2012. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Tom Holland: Hailing Caesars at Grand Opera House, York
History lesson of the week: Tom Holland, The Lives Of The Caesars, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE Rest Is History podcaster and storyteller Tom Holland journeys back to the Roman empire to “get up close and personal” with Caesar, Augustus, Caligula and Nero as he spotlights the lives of the first 12 Roman emperors in conversation with Martha Kearney.
In this supreme arena, emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle, as highlighted in Holland’s new Penguin Classics translation of Suetonius’s Lives Of The Twelve Caesars. Expect revelations of the emperors’ shortfalls, sex scandals, tastes, foibles and eccentricities. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, April 1 to 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
WILLY Russell’s Liverpool musical makes its tenth visit to the Grand Opera House, and despite Sean Jones’s appearance in the 2022 tour being billed as his “last ever” after 23 years on and off as Mrs Johnstone’s son Mickey, here he is once more, still “running around as a seven-year-old in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” at 54.
Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle, who played Mrs Lyons on her previous Blood Brothers visit to York, takes the role of Mrs J in Russell’s moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Curiouser and curiouser: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Play of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 5,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Simon Stephens’s stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone (Jonathan Wells), a 15-year-old boy with an extraordinary brain Exceptionally gifted at Maths, he finds everyday life and interaction with other people very confusing.
Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, hates being touched and deeply distrusts strangers, but everything changes when he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Greg Davies: Milking it in his Full Fat Legend stand-up show
Comedy gigs of the week: Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend, York Barbican, April 2 to 5,
TOWERING comedian Greg Davies plays York Barbican for a full-fat four nights on his Full Fat Legend Tour, his first on British soil for seven years.
The 6ft 8 inch star of Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners, The Cleaner, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Man Down and Cuckoo is undertaking his biggest stand-up tour to date. He last played York Barbican on November 1 and 2 2017 on his You Magnificent Beast tour, his first travels for four years. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, go to yorkbarbican.co.uk. Davies’s Hull Connexin Live shows on June 3 and 4 and at Leeds First Direct Arena on June 20 are sold out too.
Daniel Wilmot’s Count Dracula in Baron Productions’ Dracula at St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York
High stakes of the week: Baron Productions in Dracula, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, April 3 to 5, 7.30pm
FOUNDER and director Daniel Wilmot makes it Count when starring as the mysterious Dracula in York company Baron Productions’ account of Bram Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece in one of York’s most atmospheric churches.
When Jonathan Harker (Jack McAdam) embarks on a business trip to Count Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, little does he know the terror that awaits him. Guided by the wise Professor Van Helsing (Lee Gemmell), a courageous group must gamble their lives, even their very souls, to stop Dracula’s evil plans to enslave the world. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/baron-productions.
Pianist Ian Pace
Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents The Beethoven Project: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, April 5, 7.30pm
IN the second of The Beethoven Project concerts for York Late Music, pianist Ian Pace continues his exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No. 6.
The programme also includes Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (1-3), Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Liszt) and a new work of three musical tributes by Steve Crowther, Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Box office: latemusic.org/product/ian-pace-concert-tickets/ or on the door.
The poster for the new additions to Lightning Seeds’ Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour
Gig announcement of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, October 9, doors 7pm
LIVERPOOL singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie is extending Lightning Seeds’ 35th anniversary tour with 11 more dates this autumn. Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions and many more from his 20-track Tomorrow’s Here Today: 35 Years Of Lightning Seeds compilation album. This summer, Lightning Seeds will support York band Shed Seven at Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 11. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Our Star Theatre Company’s tour poster for Hannay Stands Fast
In Focus: Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
OUR Star Theatre Company cut a dash at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday and Friday in Hannay Stands Fast, the sequel to The 39 Steps.
Adapted by David Edgar from John Buchan’s novel, this rip-roaring comedy finds dashing hero Richard Hannay back in the fray on a mission to thwart a new and deadly threat to his beloved England.
Engaged on this top-secret case by MI5, Hannay makes his way down to Cornwall to infiltrate a secretive organisation and learn their dastardly plans. Can he save the day to keep the nation safe for another day? Cue derring-do, utter chaos and laughs aplenty in a show replete with a train, motorbike, ambulance, car, police vehicle, even a horse.
“Like for our production of The 39 Steps, Hannay Stands Fast is taken on by four actors playing dozens of characters – 53 to be precise! – set in various locations created through quick and innovative uses of trunks, crates, suitcases, ladders, you name it!” says director Ben Mowbray, who founded the Ledbury, Herefordshire company in 2016.
Our Star Theatre Company are visiting York on the debut UK tour of the British professional premiere of Hannay Stands Fast with a cast of George Cooper as Hannay and Angharad Mortimer in her company debut as Mary Lambington (and others), joined by the multi-role-playing Daniel Davies and Mowbray as First and Second Clown.
Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 3 and 4, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Javier Torres as Dracula and Antoinette Brooks-Daw as Lucy in Northern Ballet’s 2019 production of David Nixon’s Dracula. Picture: Emma Kauldhar
NORTHERN Ballet’s Dracula will be shown on BBC Four on Sunday night in the television debut of artistic director David Nixon’s celebrated 2019 production.
After the 10pm screening, this adaptation of Bram Stoker’s gothic story will be available on BBC iPlayer throughout June as part of the Leeds company’s Pay As You Feel Digital in its 50th anniversary year.
When theatres had to close suddenly under Covid-19 restrictions, Northern Ballet was obliged to cancel the spring tour of the 2020 premiere of Kenneth Tindall’s Geisha after only one performance at Leeds Grand Theatre on March 14.
In response, the company pledged to “keep bringing world-class ballet to our audiences” through a Pay As You Feel Digital Season.
One performance and goodnight: Ayama Miyata as Aiko and Minju Kang as Okichi in Northern Ballet’s Geisha in March. Picture: Guy Farrow
To date, the season has been watched by more than 200,000 people, attracting donations of £20,000.
Northern Ballet’s latest statement reads: “The company is set to face a loss of over £1 million in box-office income due to Covid-19, which may impact its ability to continue to pay its workforce, many of whom are freelancers, as well as its ability to present new ballets.
“While theatres remain dark, the company aims to continue making its performances available online and on TV, encouraging audiences to donate when they watch, if they are able.”
Dracula was recorded at Leeds Playhouse on Hallowe’en 2019 and streamed live to more than 10,000 viewers in cinemas across Europe. Choreographed by Nixon, it stars Northern Ballet premier dancer Javier Torres in the title role.
Jonadette Carpio in EGO, one of Northern Ballet’s Pay As You Feel Digital Season shows. Picture: Emily Nuttall
Northern Ballet’s Pay As You Feel Digital Season also includes Amaury Lebrun’s For An Instant; Kenneth Tindall’s original dance film EGO; Mariana Rodrigues’s Little Red Riding Hood; highlights from Northern Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala and extended scenes from Northern Ballet repertoire, including Tindall’s Geisha.
Premièred in 2019, Lebrun’s For An Instant was part of Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets programme and had only seven performances in Leeds and Doncaster. The full ballet, created, by the French contemporary dance maker with Northern Ballet’s versatile performers, can be viewed online until June 7.
Highlights from Northern Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala,performed at Leeds Grand Theatre in January, include scenes from Tindall’s Casanova, with music by Kerry Muzzey,and Nixon’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
More will be released from this one-night-only spectacular, when Northern Ballet was joined by dancers from The Royal Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Leeds company Phoenix Dance Theatre and Scottish Ballet.
