Russell Richardson’s Gerald Mallett, left, and Iskandar Eaton’s Daniel in Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
INTRODUCING his 91st play, writer-director Alan Ayckbourn says: “We have to remember there are still good things floating about in the world today, though it’s often hard to see them. But the good is still there if we look for it.”
You might well put Ayckbourn’s annual world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on that list, but let’s consider his point – and note the Scarborough knight’s reference to “today”.
Latterly, his comedy dramas have tended to reflect on the past or look to the future, but Earth Angel is a play for today and of today, albeit its world of conspiracy theories, the poisonous well of social media and scathing putdowns of anyone deemed “too nice” will only become more omnipresent.
Earth Angel is a mystery wrapped inside a domestic drama set in West Yorkshire. Not for the first time, Ayckbourn and his designer, Kevin Jenkins, give us a kitchen and a sitting room – or, rather, two sitting rooms, one for each half, in an open-plan theatre-in-the-round setting where the front door and inside and outside walls are cut off half way up.
It won’t wash: Elizabeth Boag’s nosey neighbour Norah, perplexed by Daniel’s evasive answers in Earth Angel. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Mystery number one: who is Daniel (British/Malaysian actor Iskandar Eaton, originally from Sheffield, in his SJT debut)? All in Milk Tray Man black, he is helping well-meaning nosey neighbour Norah (Ayckbourn regular Elizabeth Boag) with the washing-up after the funeral wake for Amy, school teacher, former folk singer and hippy spiritualist wife of Gerald Mallett, fellow teacher and 15 years her senior.
Gerald (SJT newcomer Russell Richardson) is sitting alone in the sitting room as Daniel and Norah talk of the lovely service and the vicar’s even lovelier appraisal of Amy as an Earth Angel. Norah, like the audience, becomes increasingly curious as to whom and what Daniel is.
He was there to comfort Gerald, he explains, but admits he did not know Gerald until today, confirming he was not a former pupil. Curiouser and curiouser, thinks Norah, who doesn’t want Gerald to be on his own tonight.
Gerald, however, rather warms to the natural simpatico of Daniel, seeing Norah’s fussing and fretting off the premises. Perhaps Daniel is the Earth Angel? Norah, however, alerts fellow busy-body Hugo (Hayden Wood), who insists on staying on Gerald’s sofa, his laptop his perma-partner, his tunnel vision, as he looks into who Hugo may be. Eyes down for a full house of nonsense.
Wither of discontent: Liza Goodard’s Maxine and Stuart Fox’s Adrian in Earth Angel. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Hugo, a deliciously satirical Ayckbourn character written in frustrated response to those who only have eyes for their screen, is a modern-day irritant who may be in the room and yet is not in the room, his mind elsewhere. In his case, the electronic web of intrigue.
In keeping with today’s self-righteous world, he never listens to anyone, except to the rumours spreading through the internet wildfire. Where once there were Chinese whispers, idle chit-chat and pub gossip, now it is the tap, tap, tap drip-feed of electronica that is all pervasive – and persuasive.
While Hugo is piling up the conspiracies – is Daniel a zombie, a serial killer or maybe an alien? – Gerald’s stuck-up sister, intransigent, insufferable magistrate Maxine (Ayckbourn favourite Liza Goddard) and her grouchy, old-school, know-it-all husband, ex-policemen Adrian (fellow Ayckbourn stalwart Stuart Fox) are turning up from Doncaster to stick their oar in, fanning the flames of the ever more absurd speculation.
Post interval, in Act Three, the sitting room is now the cushion-laden one in Norah’s house, where the co-conspirators are plotting what to do with Daniel – and recoiling at the disgusting coffee made by Norah (a running joke in Ayckbourn tradition).
Who can be trusted? Conspiracist Hugo (Hayden Wood) at odds with Gerald (Russell Richardson) in Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Earth Angel. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
They are making a meal of everything; Daniel, meanwhile, is making the perfect breakfast for a grateful, trusting Gerald, but still the mysteries remain. Who exactly is Daniel and who is the real Earth Angel?
One answer is provided as Ayckbourn’s tone turns darker, as he is wont to do in Ibsen vein, but still he pumps up the farce too in his latter-day theatre of the absurd. The other, you must decide for yourself, but it affirms that opening sentiment of the good still being there if you look for it. It feels a nourishing finale, in more ways than one.
Throughout, you can delight in director Ayckbourn’s mastery of movement around the 360-degree stage amid the shifting sands of his plot. As ever, he has cast superbly, both in familiar faces Goddard, Fox and especially Boag, and in those new to Ayckbourn at the SJT, Richardson’s free-spirited Gerald, Wood’s taciturn meddler and Eaton’s quietly impressive Daniel.
Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 11, then on tour until November 8. Scarborough box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Iskander Eaton, left, and Hayden Wood in rehearsal for Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“WE have to remember there are still good things floating about in the world today, though it’s often hard to see them,” says Alan Ayckbourn. “But the good is still there if we look for it.”
You can do that in the Scarborough knight’s 91st play, Earth Angel, premiering from September 13 to October 11 at his regular seedbed of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where he directs a cast of Elizabeth Boag, Iskandar Eaton, Stuart Fox, Liza Goddard, Russell Richardson and Hayden Wood.
Ayckbourn’s comedy digs deep into one of life’s greatest mysteries: what makes someone a good person, and in this day and age, can you ever really be sure?
Meet Gerald, who has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven-sent, and while it can be tricky thinking of life without her, he must put on a brave face, accept help from fussy neighbours and muddle along as best he can.
Elizabeth Boag rehearsing Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel, opening at the SJT on September 13. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
However, a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake, who seems a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Cue conspiracy theories. Could he be a killer or a man from Mars maybe?
“I invite people to join in the conjecturing in this play because most of us are now conditioned by watching streamed dramas on Netflix and Amazon Prime to look for the bad guys from the start,” says Sir Alan.
“I think that the good sometimes might just fall through the floorboards because it might be mistrusted. No-one is safe now from this intense scrutiny.
“We used to live in a world where we admired someone and thought we could leave the world in their hands because we trusted them, but now, when someone introduces themselves as a politician, we think ‘liar’. It tends to be pillocks that rise to the top and make themselves appallingly visible, though there are still some ‘nice people’ in politics. But we’ve lived through strange times, like Covid, where some people are now saying it was a total con.”
Cup in hand: Liza Goddard in the rehearsal room for Earth Angel. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Amy, once a folk singer, is depicted in the show poster in stained glass, with a microphone, and is described as an “Earth Angel” in the vicar’s eulogy. “One of the guests at the funeral wake says he thought Gerald’s wife was too nice, but when they’re ‘too nice’, you support them, don’t you?” says Sir Alan.
Now 86, he has completed his next play already and is in the process of writing play number 93. “I have trained as a sprinter, but I’m now presented with a marathon course. I’m now restricted to one production a year, directing one play a year, after a year’s worth of preparation, and at last being allowed to breathe life into it in the rehearsal room, hearing it read for the first time by the cast on August 11. I like to hear it, like hearing a bar of music, and you can’t tell if it works until you hear the whole thing.”
After more than 90 plays, Sir Alan says: “I try not to repeat themes, though I do repeat structures – and the next one is totally different: my first venture into a courtroom drama, but not a conventional courtroom drama as it takes place 100 years hence. It’s one of my futuristic plays with a lot of AI in there.
“The concept that androids are inbuilt with the ability to destroy humanity is built into most science fiction, and here an android is being put on trial for the murder of a 13-year-old girl, and on this case all sorts of legal precedence depends.”
Earth Angel writer-director Alan Ayckbourn in his Scarborough garden. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
These days, Ayckbourn tends to write of the past and the future, less so of the present, but Earth Angel bucks that trend. “I once said that, at the age I am, my view has to be either backwards or forwards, but very rarely do I stare straight out of the window, but that’s what I’ve done for Earth Angel,” he says.
“Last year I was looking back [in Show And Tell, his ‘love letter to theatre’]; in next year’s play, I’m looking forward. I’m fascinated by the fact that we’re within a stone’s throw of creating images of ourselves in artificial form but with a totally different outlook, with no sense of life expectancy.”
As for his cast, three – Iskandar Eaton, Russell Richardson and Haydon Wood – are working with Ayckbourn for the first time. “I still contend that 80 per cent of a successful production is the casting,” he says.
“I always try to keep at least a third of the cast for any play new to me. If you go into the rehearsal room each time with the same old faces time after time, there can be a tendency towards complacency and taking it for granted.”
Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from September 13 to October 11, then on tour until November 8. Scarborough box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Roslyn Grant
FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.
Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm
MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.
Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”. “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights
Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm
IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2
After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2
YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar, a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.
The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre
One-off interview comes into view: Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.
FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.
Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season
IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.
July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch.
Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11
STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.
Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17
Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus
THE Waterboys will 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 previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Released on April 4 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.
“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol.
“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”
As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.
Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.
The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4
Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.
The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott, who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.
The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.
Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:
1. Kansas (featuring Steve Earle) 2. Hollywood ’55 3. Live In The Moment, Baby 4. Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights 5. Andy (A Guy Like You) 6. The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher) 7. Freaks On Wheels 8. Blues For Terry Southern 9. Memories Of Monterey 10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras 11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius) 12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues 13. Michelle (Always Stay) 14. Freakout At The Mud Palace 15. Daria 16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen) 17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple) 18. Rock Bottom 19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith) 20. Frank (Let’s F**k) 21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye) 22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper 23. Golf, They Say 24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper 25. Aftermath
