Tag: EastEnders

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Say hello to James Bye haunting York not once, but twice this year as he returns to Grand Opera House for Paranormal Activity

Gripping scene: James Bye’s James and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

JAMES Bye is making a habit of spooking theatre audiences in York, the city that trades as “the most haunted in Europe”.

In April he played self-righteous, hyper-opinionated, sceptical but irritatingly always-right scientist Sam in Danny Robins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller  2:22 A Ghost Story.

From tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, he returns to the Grand Opera House to play James in Paranormal Activity, the first British and Irish tour of a new story inspired by the horror film phenomenon, scripted by Levi Holloway, the Chicago writer, director, actor and teacher behind Broadway hit Grey House, and directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett.

When American couple James (Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson, last seen in York as Jess in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at the Theatre Royal) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that rather than places being haunted, people are.

“York is a fantastic city to host this show,” says James. “We’ll fit right in here! I think a theatre [building] definitely brings another dynamic to a performance, and we’re fortunate to be visiting some of the older theatres in the country on this tour. York [the Grand Opera House] is one of the oldest, and everyone will lean into that.”

Who…or what’s there? James Bye’s James in the doorway in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

As he prepares to return to York, how would James compare Paranormal Activity with 2:22 A Ghost Story? “For people who have not seen either or have seen 2:22 and are thinking about coming to Paranormal Activity, I would say 2:22 leans more towards being a thriller with jump scares, whereas with Paranormal Activity what we’re trying to achieve is straight-out old-school horror, where we want the audience to be on the edge of their seats,” says James.

“Not that we don’t want them to enjoy it but we really want to scare them, but it’s done in a more subtle way than in 2:22. This play has a very naturalistic style that is more like television, where the audience feel like they’re in the room with us.”

James continues: “The set design by Fly Davis in incredible: it’s an actual two-storey house, like a doll’s house, with a bedroom, empty bedroom and bathroom upstairs, stairs, and an open-plan kitchen and living area downstairs. We use the whole house, which is lit throughout, which really helps to bring the audience into the ‘room’.

“The audience will see the set before they see any actors and they all just love it! Their breath is taken away before we do anything.”

James joined the tour cast on the back of Paranormal Activity’s hit West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre. “I was asked if I wanted to see it, but I very deliberately said ‘No’ as I didn’t want to copy something subconsciously when it’s such a rich piece in its own right and it becomes very much my own creation,” he says.

James Bye’s Sam takes a vote on a point of debate with Shvorne Marks’s Jenny, Natalie Casey’s Lauren and Grant Kilburn’s Ben in 2:22 A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in April 2026

“It’s one of those shows that’s right up the audience’s street. It’s in the horror genre, but very funny too, keeping them entertained with comedy but then flipping it on its head, so the scares are for real.

“This is the challenge: doing something  scary on stage while keeping the audience with you. which the director [Felix Barrett] has done brilliantly, blurring the line between 2D and theatre.

“The show absolutely has a cinematic element to it, and that’s very deliberate. We definitely want the audience to lean into that.”

Describing his American character in  Paranormal Activity, James says: “He’s like a Labrador: high energy, always fun, trying to make his wife laugh all the time. They’re newly married, they’ve just moved to the UK and they’re super-happy together. He needs her so much and leans on her so much too.

“Then there’s another character, Jimmy’s mum, who’s still in America, so they have moments where they Zoom-call. He’s just a fun-loving guy, but as it progresses, you learn more about him and Lou, and maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought. Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.”

The poster for the 2026 tour of Paranormal Activity

Praising Levi Holloway’s script, James says: “It’s so well crafted: the way the audience laugh genuinely at the start, but then there’s a pitch change, where it becomes nervous laughter. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a show where the audience has been so vocal.

“It’s lovely to get that response from the audience, and I would ask anyone who’s thinking of coming to the show to feel they can vocalise their response , as we’re going on a journey together. You can really embrace being in a room together where it feels like more of an experience.

“Levi brings this super-naturalistic style to the play, where I couldn’t put the script down when I read it. It’s like a work of art how he takes you through the story, one minute making you laugh, the next, sob. I don’t have to force anything. I just have to trust it.”

James is working with Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett for the first time. “It’s very naturalistic style, where a lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that.

“A lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that, working on getting into an emotional state, where it’s all about being in the moment.”

What awaits James Bye’s James on the other side of the door? Find out at the Grand Opera House from tonight until Saturday. Picture: Johan Persson

James continues: “The first scene between Jimmy and Lou, which takes up the majority of Act One, is not blocked, so every night has been different. Sometimes Hannah and I just so playful because they’re such a super-fun couple. When we started, that could be quite scary, but we always trusted each other.

“Then there are parts of the play where it’s very specific that things have to happen at a certain time.”

Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

JAMES Bye played market trader Martin Fowler in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from December 5 2014 to February 20 2025. The long-running character was killed off in a special live episode for the show’s 40th anniversary, dying of a cardiac arrest after a steel beam crushed him during an explosion at the Queen Victoria pub.

He competed in series 20 of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, reaching Week 6, Halloween Week, when he and professional partner Amy Dowden were the fifth couple to be eliminated, beaten in the October 30 dance-off by Fleur East and Vito Coppola.

“Maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought,” says James Bye. “Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.” Picture: Johan Persson

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REVIEW: The Talented Mr Ripley, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

Bruce Herbelin-Earle’s Dickie Greenleaf, left, and Ed McVey’s Tom Riley in The Talented Mr Ripley. Picture: Mark Senior

“HAVE you ever thought you are being watched,” asks Ed McVey’s Tom Ripley, the nobody who wants to be someone else, someone more, at the outset of director Mark Leipacher’s new stage adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley.

As it turns out, the obsessive, evasive, elusive chameleon Ripley is being watched by everyone: not only the audience and the Italian police, but also by Leipacher’s interpretation of novelist Patricia Highsmith’s Eumenides (the Furies of Greek mythology): imaginary figures in pursuit of the haunted Ripley in the book’s closing pages that here become the physical manifestation of his fears, paranoia, guilt and conscience.

Leipacher, however, does not leave their entry to the latter stages of Highsmith’s psycho-drama on the Amalfi Coast in 1950s’ Italy. Instead, from the off, they become a crew filming, editing and interjecting into Ripley’s writing, re-writing and telling of his story as a film, as truth, alternative truth and lies elide.  Amid the restless flow, they transform into Italian denizens and the paparazzi too, flashing their cameras in trilby and raincoat tradition.

What’s more, they don’t make conventional stage entries, but appear as if by sleight of hand as Leipacher maximises the deceptive impact of Holly Pigott’s raised set, behind which Leipacher’s players can “hide” and suddenly pop up.

In its centre is a hole, from which myriad characters appear and disappear, as well as evoking a swimming pool or a boat on the sea. Such is the minimalist theatrical flair of a postmodern production that places faith in imagination – always one of theatre’s prime assets – while still using such utilitarian props as a typewriter and reading light, cocktail glasses and shaker, a huge fridge, suitcases and Ripley’s improvised weaponry of an oar and an ashtray.

The raised stage’s white frame can be transformed by Zeynep Kepekli’s superb tubular neon  light design into differing shades to mirror a scene’s mood, or indeed Ripley’s state of mind, while the shiny black flooring suggests both wealth and Italian elegance, but sinister murkiness too.

Leipacher’s sleek stage version emerges in the wake of Highsmith’s 1955 novel being transferred to the silver screen by University of Hull drama graduate, tutor and playwright Anthony Minghella in 1999 and to Netflix streaming in Steven Zaillian’s eight-part monochrome series starring Andrew Scott  in 2024.

Both left an indelible impression, built on glamour, close-ups, exotic locations, erotic charge. Far from intimidated, Leipacher brings brio and bravura confidence to a meta-theatrical telling that echoes Greek tragedy, serves up both eloquence and elegance, pumps up the homo-erotica, nods to the rival world of cinema and revels in the mind games, even turning the fridge into a surprising mode of entry for Maisie Smith’s Marge Sherwood.

Maisie Smith’s Marge Sherwood: “More of a watercolour than an oil painting” in Mark Leipacher’s adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley. Picture: Mark Senior

Aided by Pigott’s exquisite costume design, an air of dandy decadence yet desolation and destruction pervades Leipacher’s West End-bound account that is as seductive as McVey’s Ripley finds the freewheeling world of trust-fund wastrel charmer Dickie Greenleaf (Bruce Herbelin-Earle), a stylish but empty vessel idling his days away with a paintbrush and casual friendship with Smith’s writer-photographer Marge (a smaller role in every sense here).

Sent by New York shipbuilding magnate Herbert Greenleaf (Christopher Bianchi) to bring home his wayward son, instead McVey’s Ripley inveigles his way into the supremely assured social circuit of Dickie, Marge and writer Freddie Miles (Cary Crankson).

In Andrew Scott’s performance, you found yourself  wanting him to get away with his games of identity theft and murder amid the surfeit of insufferable smugness; McVey, by comparison, is more pitiful than pitiable in this liar’s psychopathic pursuits. Yet there is amusement too in his unguarded asides, a form of disdainful running commentary that recalls Shakespeare’s Richard III in its bravado and is a particular delight of Leipacher’s arch script, heard by the audience but not those around him, adding to his facility for deceit.

Like Banquo or Hamlet’s father, the departed do not exit stage left in Leipacher’s play, and so we see rather more of Herbelin-Earle’s handsome, lithe Dickie than might be expected, appearing on occasion as the deeper-voiced double to Ripley in adopted Dickie guise to haunt him all the more directly. The shadow of death, as it were, in an echo of Act Two opening with Ripley replicating the prone position and clothing of the dead Dickie at Act One’s close: a witty touch typical of Leipacher’s smart direction.

Best known for his Prince William in The Crown, McVey delivers a more complex characterisation here in an outstanding lead performance, ever present yet ever distant, while Herbelin-Earle, entitled yet still charming, is Dickie to the privileged New York manner born.

In her first American stage role, Strictly Come Dancing finalist and EastEnders’ soap star Smith’s smart, intuitive, independent Marge is not so well served by Leipacher’s balance of focus, more of a watercolour than an oil painting, when the role warrants a weightier significance.

Overall, however, after book, film and TV series, The Talented Mr Ripley finds its voice and style anew on stage in Leipacher’s sly, visually alluring, mentally agitated, verbally adroit coup de theatre.

The Talented Mr Ripley, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Maisie Smith takes on first American role as Marge Sherwood in The Talented Mr Ripley, on tour at Grand Opera House, York

“Marge was ahead of her time,” says Maisie Smith, who plays the American writer and photographer in The Talented Mr Ripley. Picture: Mark Senior

THE press release for The Talented Mr Ripley’s visit to the Grand Opera House, York, ends with this question: how far would you go to become someone else?

In the case of the acting world, the answer is the whole way for every change of role. For Maisie Smith that means transforming into Marge Sherwood – the character portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow in  Anthony Minghella’s 2000 film and Dakota Fanning in the 2024 Netflix series – in Mark Leipacher’s touring production. Next stop, Grand Opera House, York, from January 19 to 24.

“I was so, so intrigued when the role came through and it’s very different to any character I’ve played,” says Maisie, who last appeared on a Yorkshire stage as Fran in her musical theatre debut in Strictly Ballroom The Musical at Leeds Grand Theatre in July 2023.

“This time it was a very quick process, at very short notice. I was asked, ‘could you read a scene from the script – and you can pick the scene’. I did it on tape, filming myself when I was on holiday at the time, on a fishing trip with my boyfriend in a little lake cabin.”

Not the ideal audition scenario, especially when Maisie had to evoke living in “the sun-drenched glamour of 1950s’ Italy”. “I was in this wooden cabin, in Shropshire, and I had to drive into the nearest high street to get an internet connection! It’s such a glamorous lifestyle, as they say!”

Nevertheless, the self-tape worked and the role of Marge was hers. “That was in maybe June/July last year, and we started rehearsals in August. The tour began last September [at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, marking the 70th anniversary of Patricia Highsmith’s novel], and we’ve just had a few weeks off [since November 22] for a Christmas break,” says Maisie. “Our first week back is in York.”

Director Mark Leipacher has adapted Highsmith’s psychological thriller for its first major UK tour, casting The Crown star Ed McVey as dangerously charismatic antihero Tom Ripley, who is scraping by in New York, forging signatures, telling little white lies, until a chance encounter changes everything.

When a wealthy stranger offers him an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy to bring home his wayward son, Dickie Greenleaf (Bruce Herbelin-Earle), Tom leaps at the opportunity. However, surrounded by shimmering waters and whispered secrets on the Amalfi Coast, he is seduced by the freedom, wealth and effortless charm of Dickie’s life.

As fascination turns to obsession and his grip tightens on Dickie’s world, the lines between truth and deception begin to blur in Highsmith’s tale of deception, desire and deadly ambition. What starts as an innocent opportunity spirals into a chilling game of lies, identity theft, and murder. 

Maisie has seen the film and the monochrome TV series, but not read the read the book. “I feel a bad actress for not reading it, but I have seen the director’s notes that he wrote years ago as this play has been in the making for six years,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it when Mark said he’d been working on it for so long.”

Maisie Smith’s Marge Sherwood and Bruce Herbelin-Earle’s Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr Ripley. Picture: Mark Senior

Assessing the role of Marge, she says: “I see her as a really interesting character in this play. What I love about her and what I try to drill into is that she is one of the only people who is suspicious and recognises Tom Ripley for what he is, so she’s very valuable person in the story.

“It’s a story that’s ahead of its time because she was ahead of her time: she’s very independent; she’s a writer and photographer and has her own house in Italy. She has a boyfriend but is not in a committed relationship, which was really futuristic for a woman at that time.

“That’s why this story has been told again and again over 70 years because it’s never dated and will never go out of style.”

Marge is new territory for 24-year-old Maisie. “I haven’t played an American before, and the oldest era I’d played before this was Strictly Ballroom, set in the 1980s. Lots of characters I play are of a more juvenile age. Like Tiffany [Butcher], my character in EastEnders, was  only a couple of years younger than me,” she says.

“Tiffany was quite cocky, cheeky, whereas Marge is very intelligent – and I’ve really had to rein in my Southend accent! Once I got the part, they brought in someone to work on the accent with me as Marge has this old-school American accent.”

Maisie, you may recall, finished as a finalist in the 2020 series of Strictly Come Dancing, recorded under Covid conditions. “It was so crazy but I was 19, so I think, looking back on it, it was the first time I’d ever done live TV, and the first time I’d ever been Maisie, rather than playing a character, and I did find the whole experience nerve-wracking,” she says.

“I wish I hadn’t stressed about everything – did people like me; did I do that dance right? – but then I thought, ‘no, just be yourself, who cares what people think!”

She continued to play Tiffany for another year, “but I was itching to do theatre”, a change of tack that has been rewarded with significant roles in Strictly Ballroom and now The Talented Mr Ripley. “This new character, Marge, is the most different from me. Everything about her is different from me. It’s always  a challenge but that’s what you want.”

Hence Maisie will keep asking herself that question: how far would you go to become someone else?

The Talented Mr Ripley, Grand Opera House, York, January 19 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Kara Tointon to star in Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife on tour at York Theatre Royal next January

Kara Tointon in the role of Constance in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of The Constant Wife

THE Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of The Constant Wife is to play York Theatre Royal from January 26 to 31 2026.

2010 Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon will star in Laura Wade’s new version of W Somerset Maugham’s 1926 comedy, directed by RSC co-artistic director Tamara Harvey.

Described as “a sparkling comedy of ill manners”, The Constant Wife is set in 1927. Constance is a deeply unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother. “She eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances.”

Constance is the perfect wife and mother, and her husband is as devoted to her as he is to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend.

The tour poster for the RSC’s The Constant Wife, booked into York Theatre Royal from January 26 to 31 next year

The Constant Wife reunites Olivier Award-winning writer Wade and director Harvey, having worked together on Home, I’m Darling, since when Wade was the executive producer and writer for Rivals, the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel.

Kara Tointon has played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion in London’s West End, Dawn Swann in EastEnders from 2005 to 2009 and Rose Selfridge in the television period drama Mr Selfridge, as well as Bella Manningham in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House, York, in February 2017.

RSC co-artistic directors Harvey and Daniel Evans said: “Our ambition is to bring joy to as many audiences as possible, deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and so we are thrilled to be bringing The Constant Wife to stages across the UK, following its success at the Swan in Stratford.

Kara Tointon as Bella Manningham on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in February 2017

“It will be so exciting to get back into the rehearsal room with our new company, led by the brilliant Kara Tointon, and for us to bring Laura Wade’s razor-sharp script to life.”

The tour is presented by Cunard and David Pugh, five-time Olivier Award and two-time Tony Award winning producer, who said: “I’m delighted to have commissioned Laura Wade to adapt this comedy and to be working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on this new production of The Constant Wife.

“Partnering again with Cunard, with whom I’ve had such a wonderful ongoing relationship, continues to be a joy. For me, in the times that we’re in, there is nothing better than to bring comedy to audiences in theatres all around the UK and to hear people laughing.”

Priority booking for York Theatre Royal members opens today (29/9/2025) from 1pm. Tickets go on general sale on October 4 from 1pm. Box office:  01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/the-constant-wife. Performances will be at 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees.

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Michael Greco relishes doing jury service in 70th anniversary tour of Twelve Angry Men

Gray O’Brien’s Juror 10, left, and Michael Greco’s Juror 7 in the 70th anniversary production of Twelve Angry Men. Picture: Jack Merriman

REGINALD Rose’s claustrophobic study of human nature, Twelve Angry Men, began as a teleplay, then transferred to the stage and finally to the screen in Sidney Lumet’s black-and-white 1957 film.

Now, after a record-breaking West End season, Rose’s courtroom thriller is back in session, on tour in its 70th year, visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from May 13 to 18.

The setting is not the courtroom but the jury deliberating room, where 12 men hold the fate of a young delinquent, accused of killing his father, in their hands. What looks an open-and-shut case, with an initial 11 to 1 guilty vote, becomes a fractious dilemma, where the jurors must each examine their self-image, personality, experiences and prejudices as the art of persuasion plays out.

Michael Greco, best known for his role as Beppe di Marco in EastEnders from 1998 to 2002, plays Juror 7 in Rose’s tableau of mid-20th century American angst.

‘I’d watched the film years ago and I loved it,” he recalls. “When I got a call to be in the show, a lot of my friends said, ‘oh my god, this is one of my favourite films, can’t wait to come’.

“It’s an amazing piece of writing, something that is for all ages, really from youngsters to older people who’ve known the show and have loved the film for years. People just love a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, seeing how it unfolds.”

Who is Juror 7, Michael? “In layman’s terms, I would describe him as ‘absolutely gagging to get to this huge basketball game’. It’s in three hours’ time and he can’t wait to go. He’s thinking, ‘yes, yes, yes, I can get there’, but then there’s a spanner in the works. I feel for him,” says the Chelsea fan. “He’s a funny character, a vexed character too.”

“He’s a funny character, a vexed character too,” says Michael Greco of Juror 7, his role in Twelve Angry Men

Preparing for a role, he says: “I think, as an actor, I always do my due diligence about what I would say about the character in the text, and then, secondly, you have to learn the subtext.

“Because he’s just called Juror 7, I give him a name and ask, ‘is he married?’; ‘is he an alcoholic?’; ‘has he been to prison?’, otherwise there’s no substance to him. Especially as I have to bring something new to him after that.”

Reflecting on Twelve Angry Men’s abiding impact in its depiction of men locking horns, Michael says: “It definitely resonates with today’s society. You will recognise some of the characters and the way that people are in their thinking and the way they are in their personalities.

“There are certain scenes where prejudices come out – and that’s still the case today. Like when a racist guy has a rant, he’s brought down very quickly.”

Michael, 53, looks back to his own family’s experiences in the 1950s. “I’m from an Italian immigrant family, who moved to London from Naples in the late-Fifties. They came to England without money, they didn’t speak any English, but they were welcomed with open arms. Prejudices were not so open.”

Michael’s character in Twelve Angry Men does have prejudices. “I decided to go over the top with this character because he’s someone people can associate with. The director [Christopher Haydon] just loved the comedy I brought to it and didn’t cut it back a bit. He’s just let me go with it,” he says.

Michael Greco

“You have to go on this journey with him where you try to get the audience on his side because you can see his frustration, and then he reaches that point where his prejudices come out. But I can play that with openness because, wherever it comes from, this character is a good guy, but the situation brings out the worst in him.”

Putting human behaviour under the microscope, Michael says: “Every human being is the same in that we all get intrusive thoughts, where you think, ‘where did that come from?’, but you then dismiss them.

“But any psychiatrist would tell you it’s natural to have these thoughts coming into your head and to reject them…but some people do act on them.”

Michael rules out changing the configuration of Twelve Angry Men to six men and six women. “It’s very difficult to know what to say, but I don’t think it would work because of the testosterone and the physical reactions in the writing, and because women are not built in the same way psychologically and physically. It would be a completely different play if you did that.

“You can do things with Shakespeare’s plays, but when you write a play called Twelve Angry Men, the clue is in the title. The thing is, we get it in all forms of society, not just in politics, but in the bragging rights of football, for example. I despise the ‘tragedy chanting’. I can’t believe people can sink so low.”

Twelve Angry Men, Grand Opera House, York, May 13 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

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REVIEW: Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, playing mind games until Saturday ****

Neil McDermott’s Milo Tindle, left, and Todd Boyce’s Andrew Wyke in Anthony Shaffer’s thriller Sleuth, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman

AMID the multitude of musicals, concerts and comedians, the arrival of a ‘straight play’ is always welcome at the Grand Opera House, especially when it is such a gem.

Hidden gem, hopefully not, although Monday’s audience was not of the full variety, and word of mouth as much this review will be needed to spread the word.

Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer’s 1970 “thriller about thrillers”, received the Tony Award for Best Play, its Broadway stars, Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter, picking up the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.

The darkly psychological play was adapted for feature films in 1972 and 2007, the first starring Michael Caine as hairdresser Milo Tindle opposite Laurence Olivier’s detective novelist Andrew Wyke. Caine would then take on the older role in 2007, joined by Jude Law’s Tindle.

Star quality, in other words. Make that soap star quality in the case of the 2024 touring production under the Bill Kenwright umbrella. Todd Boyce, formerly “notorious” Coronation Street baddie Stephen Reid, plays Wyke opposite Neil McDermott, once EastEnders’ Ryan Molloy, as Tindle.

Todd Boyce as detective novelist and complex game player Andrew Wyke in Sleuth. Picture: Jack Merriman

Twelve-year runs in the West End and on Broadway are testament to Sleuth’s appeal to theatregoers and devotees of the national pastime of amateur sleuthing alike. Add the directorial elan of Rachel Kavanaugh and it still works waspishly, wittily, wonderfully well.

In his grand Wiltshire manor house, Boyce’s wealthy, erudite, insufferable author Wyke is writing his latest St John Lord Merridew mystery. In country suit and tie, he looks and sounds very pleased with himself, awaiting the arrival of a young man of Italian parentage, McDermott’s Milo Tindle.

Ever the devious novelist keen to toy with his audience, Wyke is in the mood for point scoring/mischief making/playing games to match the automata, inventions and games that populate his study in Julie Godfrey’s classically English yet somewhat creepy design. Soon it transpires that Tindle wants to marry Wyke’s heavy-spending, lavish-lifestyle wife, Marguerite. Let the fun and gamesmanship begin in a battle of wills and wits.

McDermott’s Tindle appears to be drawn all too easily into the web of Boyce’s cynical Wyke, dressing up as a clown to stunt the burglary of Marguerite’s jewellery that will fund Marguerite’s expensive tastes and be covered by an insurance claim, but never judge a detective novel by its cover or indeed a novelist by his front.

The sudden appearance of Wyke’s gun changes the playful tone to deathly serious, but how can we be sure what is real and imaginary in his mind games or in what we are seeing?

Sleuth director Rachel Kavanaugh. Picture: United Agents

Rather than giving the game away, let’s say twists, turns and surprises plenty are in store in Act Two, after speculative interval chatter over what might ort might not be going on. Inspector Doppler will appear to make his uncoventional enquiries, later joined by the noises off of Detective Sergeant Tarrant and Police Constables.

Who is one step ahead: Wyke, Tindle or the audience? Not telling. Who’s bluffing? Not telling! Who’s on superb form? Director and cast alike, so too sound designer Andy Graham and lighting designer Tim Oliver.

Boyce and McDermott delight in Shaffer’s wit and authorial chicanery, his turn of phrase and unpredictable humour, his love of the thriller and the craft of writing. Do not let Sleuth slip by this week; it is one of those nights of clever, smart, stylish theatre that makes you love the artform.

The Jolly Jack Tar automata may have the last laugh on stage, but you will be the one wreathed in smiles as you leave the theatre, so glad to have experienced such an intriguing, criminally good drama.

Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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From Corrie villain to detective novelist for Todd Boyce in Shaffer’s dark psychological thriller Sleuth at Grand Opera House

Todd Boyce in the role of detective novelist Andrew Wyke in Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman

CORONATION Street villain Todd Boyce and ex-EastEnders soap star Neil McDermott team up in Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer’s “dark psychological thriller about thrillers”, at the Grand Opera House, York, from next Tuesday to Saturday.

Boyce’s character, wealthy, world-famous detective novelist Andrew Wyke, invites his wife’s lover and adversary (McDermott’s Milo Tindle) to his impressive English home for the deal of a lifetime.

Cue a jewellery heist, insurance fraud and the ultimate revenge as Milo finds himself unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of intrigue and cat-and-mouse gamesmanship, where nothing is quite as it seems.

Directed on tour by Rachel Kavanaugh, who was once at the helm of such plays as Hapgood, His Dark Materials and The Madness Of George III at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Sleuth is a disorientating study of human conflict, jealousy and manipulation that promises to “baffle even the most proficient sleuth”.

Set to make his debut Grand Opera House appearance next week, Todd Boyce says Sleuth has been drawing a “terrific response” since opening at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, on January 31.

Neil McDermott’s Milo Tindle, left, turning tables on Todd Boyce’s Andrew Wyke in Rachel Kavanaugh’s touring procuction of Sleuth. Picture: Jack Merriman

“It’s being really well received; we’ve had ovations with people standing up. We even overheard one chap say, ‘it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen at this theatre’. Neil took a bit of umbrage at that as he’d played there last year!”

Working with McDermott for the first time, Todd says: “We’ve got on really well through the rehearsals and now on stage, which is so important. It’s a play with humour in it and some shocking moments, and it becomes easier to play as you do it more and more, getting into the rhythm and musicality of the piece.

“Neil’s part requires quite a bit of physicality; he’s nearly 20 years younger than me [Todd is 62], so I’ve left that in his department, while I manage to hang on to the furniture!”

Todd is revelling in working with Rachel Kavanaugh. “She’s so bright, so intelligent, and what’s so reassuring for a play like Sleuth is her eye for clarity,” he says.

“She wanted it to be, not a dusted-off old piece, but really relevant to now. In terms of freshening it up, she wanted to make sure it was specific in its rhythm, with the phrasing being right in every line.”

Sleuth ran for 12 years in London and New York, winning the Tony Award for Best Play, and became the inspiration for the 1972 film starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.

At gun point: Todd Boyce’s Andrew Wyke makes his point to Neil McDermott’s Milo Tindle in Sleuth. Picture: Jack Merriman

Assessing its continuing appeal to audiences, Todd says: “The play is sophisticated, complex, and it turns darker than Wyke had bargained for, prompting Milo to seek retribution.

“Wyke is a guy with a lot of money and not a lot of empathy for those around him. The two-hour traffic on this stage changes from comfy to Wyke not knowing where he’s going in their interactions that turn everything on its head.”

Todd has his place in the record books for his role as bad guy Stephen Reid in Coronation Street, first in 1996-1997, next 2007 and latterly 2022-2023.

“I think I broke the record for the number of episodes in a one-year period, 193. That was extremely intensive,” he recalls. “Afterwards a lot of my colleagues said, go and have a break, but of course I did panto, didn’t I! Mother Goose at Derby Arena, a velodrome for cycling and concerts that switched into this amazing theatre within it.”

Who did Todd play? “Demon Vanity”. The baddie, of course!

Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, February 26 to March 2, 7.30pm nightly; Wednesday and Saturday, 2.30pm matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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Nina Wadia finds the kooky in Fairy Sugarsnap in Jack And The Beanstalk pantomime at York Theatre Royal

Wanderful: Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap with her arty joke of an artichoke wand in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk

NINA Wadia was confused. Growing up in India and Hong Kong, pantomime was a foreign country to her.

“When I came to the UK from Honk Kong to study classical theatre at the London Theatre School in Wandsworth, I was new to this country,” recalls the EastEnders and Good Gracious Me star.

“I went for an audition for my first ever professional job in Robin Hood at Theatre Royal Stratford East, but I thought pantomime was some form of mime! I auditioned like all the other actors, and when they said, ‘have you got a song?’, I blagged it and said ‘of course’. ‘Do you dance?’. ‘Yes, I tap,’ I said, but I was thinking, ‘why do I need to do this when it’s a mime show?’, as I just didn’t know the pantomime tradition.”

Song and dance? “What kind of mime is that,” she asked. Explanation forthcoming, she was cast as Friar Tuck, and now, more than 30 years later, she will be making her York Theatre Royal tonight (8/12/2023) as the poster face of Jack And The Beanstalk, playing Fairy Sugarsnap.

In the box seating: Nina Wadia at York Theatre Royal

She is forever grateful to Theatre Royal Stratford East, in particular Philip Hedley, artistic director from 1979 to 2004, and his associate director, Jeff Teare. “It’s the most incredible theatre that opens the door for ethnic actors,” says Nina, who will turn 55 during the panto run on December 18.

“It was very hard being an ethnic actor, and if you think of pantomime, I don’t think you’d go to a brown actor in those days. I loved that it was such an open theatre to look at actors regardless of their colour and think if you have potential, they will help develop that.

“Jeff saw something in me, the kind of thing that has made my career: the kind of energy I have, but also the willingness to learn, which I still have, whereas a lot of young actors seem overly confident now.

“I really want to express that to young people coming into the business, where they can stand out at drama school and think they know it all, by I always find that by the end of playing a role I know more than when I started.”

Nina Wadia: Mother, actress, comedian, producer, presenter and charity campaigner

Nina points to her role as Zainab Masood in the BBC’s London soap opera EastEnders from 2007 to February 2013. “I never watched EastEnders before being in it,” she admits. “I signed up for six months but ended up staying on and on, and I got to knowZainab over those six and a half years – and I really liked her.

“They hired me to bring some comedy to EastEnders, and I was the first actor to win an award for best comedy performance in EastEnders. What was really interesting was I was told they wanted me to create a character like Wendy Richards’ Pauline Fowler but funny, so I watched her, and she was so grumpy that I found her funny! Anyway, I found the way to make Zainab funny was to make her very blunt.”

Nina’s gift for her comedy had marked her out from her pantomime bow as Friar Tuck, the beginning of a seven-year involvement with Theatre Royal Stratford East.  “The show was brilliant and the writer Patrick Prior was the real thing. Playing Friar Tuck, I was one of the four ‘merry men’, with a pillow at the front, a pillow at the back and a skull cap put on top of my very long hair. Very glamorous!” she says.

“I had the best actresses to work with straightaway, sharing the dressing room with all the ‘merry men’, all played by women.”

Fairy versus villain: Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap with pantomime baddie James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger in Jack And The Beanstalk

She loved the pantomime humour. “I laughed so much, having grown up with British humour in Hong Kong: Blackadder, Morecambe & Wise and Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em. On. On the American side, there was the stand-up of Joan Rivers, Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy, so I was drawn to the combination of crazy antics and really raw, rude comedy that I wasn’t supposed to watch but I loved, especially Eddie Murphy.”

Nina’s subsequent career has embraced everything, from radio drama company regular to soap opera , BBC Asian sketch comedy in Goodness Gracious Me to 2021 Strictly Come Dancing contestant, TV roles as Aunty Noor in Citizen Khan and Mrs Hussein in Still Open All Hours to video game voiceover artist and narrator for the animated series Tweedy And Fluff on Channel 5’s Milkshake. Charity campaigner too, honoured with an OBE.

Profiling herself on social media as Mother, Actress, Producer and Presenter, Nina loves to embrace every medium, her latest addition being her online satirical political character, the Conservative councillor and constituency candidate Annie Stone. “She’s a mixture of Suella Braverman and Priti Patel: vile but believable. She’s on TikTok, Instagram and X and she now has proper followers at #VoteAnnieStone!”

From tonight, Nina will be delivering rhymes, mirth and magic as Fairy Sugarsnap in Jack And The Beanstalk. “I was expecting a silly costume. I described it to my husband [Raimond Mirza] and said they’ve dressed me as an aubergine pretending to be an artichoke,” she says. “I’ve made her more kooky than usual, given her more depth, as much as you can give her depth!”

Nina Wadia waves a wand over Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal from today (8/12/2023) until January 7 2024. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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West Country comedian Charlie Baker gets stuck into 24 Hour Pasty People at Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday night

Pasty face: Comedian Charlie Baker at Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday

DEVON comedian, actor, tap dancer and talkSport radio presenter Charlie Baker brings an hour of stand-up drenched in manure, cider and clotted cream to Pocklington Arts Centre on Friday.

Expect comedy with a countryside accent in 24 Hour Pasty People. “Imagine Jethro and Jack Black had a son. Job’s a good’un. Proper job,” he says.

Baker has appeared on The Last Leg, House Of Games, Harry Hill’s Tea Time, Comedy Central at the Comedy Store, The Great British Bake-Off: An Extra Slice, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.

He played Tim Reynolds in BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2016 and took the title role in Harry Hill and Steve Brown’s satirical musical Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera at Park Theatre, north London, in 2022. 

Tickets for Friday’s 8pm gig are on sale on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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EastEnders star Tracy-Ann Oberman to play Shylock in Fascist-era The Merchant Of Venice 1936 at York Theatre Royal

Tracy-Ann Oberman: From EastEnders to Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice set in London’s East End in 1936

WATFORD Palace Theatre’s ground-breaking new production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice will visit York Theatre Royal on tour from November 14 to 18.

Tracy-Ann Oberman, from EastEnders, Doctor Who and Friday Night Dinner, will play Shylock on an autumn itinerary that will open at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from September 21 to October 7.

Developed in association with HOME Manchester and with support from the RSC, The Merchant Of Venice 1936 is adapted and directed by Brigid Larmour from an idea by co-creator Oberman. Their thought-provoking and timely reimagining relocates the action to an electrifying new setting: London in 1936. 

The capital city is on the brink of political unrest, fascism is sweeping across Europe and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists is threatening a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End. Strong-willed single mother Shylock runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street, where Mosley will march.

When charismatic, anti-Semitic aristocrat Antonio comes to her for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge? Who will pay the ultimate price?

“I look forward to sparking debate and enlightening people about a pivotal but largely forgotten part of British history,” says actress Tracy-Ann Oberman

“It has a been a lifelong dream of mine to bring this play to the stage in a new way, reimagining Shylock as one of the tough, no-nonsense Jewish matriarchs I grew up around in Brent,” says London-born actress, playwright and narrator Oberman, 56.

“I’m delighted this project is finally happening and look forward to sparking debate and enlightening people about a pivotal but largely forgotten part of British history – just how close the establishment were to Oswald Mosley and his British Union Of Fascists. I cannot wait to take this important, sharp, sexy and heartfelt production to theatres around the country.”

Oberman played Chrissie Watts in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 2004 to 2005; Yvonne Hartman in a two-part Doctor Who story, Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday, and Valerie Lewis or “Auntie Val” in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner from 2011 to 2020.

Larmour’s production will open at Watford Palace Theatre on February 27 before transferring to HOME Manchester from March 15. Joining her in the production team will be costume and set designer Liz Cooke, lighting designer Rory Beaton, sound design Sarah Weltman and composer Erran Baron Cohen (yes, actor/comedian Sacha’s older brother). 

Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions are producing the tour in association with the RSC, HOME Manchester and Watford Palace Theatre.

Tickets for the York run can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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