Tag: Engine House Theatre

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REVIEW: Reception: The Wedding Present Musical, at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Holbeck, Leeds, until September 6 ***

Writer-director Matt Aston, left, and The Wedding Present’s David Gedge at the Recepetion: The Wedding Present Musical press night. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

WHEN York writer-director Matt Aston first suggested making a musical from The Wedding Present’s songs of love, loss and longing, Leeds songwriter David Gedge was intrigued.

“I’d never imagined my songs being used in a musical – I know nothing about the format and I’m not even sure I like it – but I loved how Mamma Mia! reimagined ABBA, and I’ve always been up for trying new things,” he said. “I’m excited to see how the show brings the songs to life in a new way.”

Performed by Aston’s cast of predominantly young actor-musicians and a community quintet of dancing waitresses, Reception: The Wedding Present Musical certainly does that.

And maybe we should not be surprised because Gedge already had expanded his template from trademark thrashing guitars to Cinerama’s more cinematic, French-infused pop and a BBC Big Band re-tooling of the Weddoes’ songs. The sudden burst of Rebecca Levy’s saxophone at one point is a nod to that reinvention.

Caught on camera: Rebecca Levy’s Estrella, left, Amara Latchford’s Sally and Zoe Allan’s Rachel in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Can indie rock songs work in theatre? Aston was sure they could: “The BBC Big Band arrangements for the songs were astonishing, as different as you could possibly imagine but David’s lyrical and conversational storytelling still shone through,” he said. “His lyrics are cinematic, emotional and rich with story – they felt naturally theatrical.

“Then later seeing Wedding Present and Cinerama concerts backed with 16-piece orchestras and full choirs helped cement the thought that the songs could work perfectly in a musical.”

Reception is not a jukebox musical. Instead its structure and style is closer To Sunshine On Leith, Stephen Greenhorn’s 2007 show for the Dundee Rep Ensemble that interwove The Proclaimers’ rousing songs into the story of two young Scottish soldiers returning to their families in Edinburgh after serving in Afghanistan. A TMA Award for Best Musical and Dexter Fletcher’s 2013 film version followed. Reception has work to do to match that.

Just as Charlie and Craig Reid’s songs for The Proclaimers are full of acerbic wit, wry observation, lovelorn yearning and narrative detail, so too are Gedge’s arch, romantic yet often disappointed songs of love and loneliness, life’s high hopes and low blows, break-ups and breakdowns, chance and no chance.

When Harry met Rachel: Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings and Zoe Allan in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In the Weddoes’ 40th anniversary year, Matt Aston utilises both Wedding Present and Cinerama songs and a new Gedge composition, Hot Wheels, within his “coming-of-age story of love, friendship, growing up, regret and reconnection that heads back to the sticky dance floors and crimped hair of 1980s’ Leeds”.

That northern story begins at the end in 1990, the rivals at war in an ill-fated love triangle, before heading back to the innocence of 1985, the year when Leeds University mathematics student Gedge formed The Wedding Present.

That summer, a group of Leeds student friends is celebrating the dying embers of university days, with plans afoot, but life’s paths will meet cul de sacs, dead ends, U turns, bumps in the road, as Gedge’s songs know only too well.

Events entangle, unfold and entangle again at a graduation ceremony, funeral, wedding and reception over a span of five turbulent, formative and transformative years. “You should always keep in touch with your friends…or should you,” asks Aston, quoting a Wedding Present song title as he explores how we grow together and apart.

Zach Burns’ Joe and Hannah Nuttall’s Jane in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In creative consultant Gedge’s presence on press night, the audience have taken their seats either at Wedding Guest tables – each delineated with the cover of a Wedding Present album – or on the banks of seating behind, facing Hannah Sibai’s end-on stage that takes the open-plan form of a wedding reception with white decor, dance floor and balloons, complemented by the striking triptych projections of Lee Thacker that mirror his black-and-white illustrations for Gedge’s autobiography Tales From The Wedding Present.

Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings’ Harry is going out with Zoe Allan’s North Easterner Rachel; his best friend, Richard Lounds’s John, is urging him to head to Seattle. Keep an eye on him. Friends Sally (Amara Latchford), Jane (Hannah Nuttall) and Estrella (Rebecca Levy), forever armed with her Camcorder, are always on hand.  

Rachel’s brother Joe (Zach Burns) has a slow-burning thing for Jane in the second love story, while Latchford’s Sally has ‘previous’ with John. Rachel and Joe’s Dad (Matthew Bugg) is the one seasoned adult amid all the young folks with all the life experience of Shakespeare’s young lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Gedge has described his lyrics as “typically little stories”; little, yes, but universal, in the way that love is.  Aston’s anxious characters are everyday types, experiencing teething problems in coltish lives that are more prosaic than poetic. Post-university red-brick students on a learning curve in life.

They are not the gilded youth of Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford spires, but provincial average Joes and Janes. Not particularly bright (unlike Chris Davey’s sometimes intrusive lighting), not particularly witty, nor particularly interesting or enlightening, but we recognise them in kitchen-sink dramas and soaps.

Caitlin Lavagna’s vicar Emma leading the funeral ceremony in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Reception’s combination of storytelling, impactful projection and drama-filled song peaks with the suspense of Act One’s closing scene on Brighton pier, suspense that is broken by the unexpected, rug-pulling opening to Act Two: a funeral that plays out in full, led by vicar Emma (Caitlin Lavagna), to establish a better balance of chat and song.

What Reception does have throughout is a restless energy, to match The Wedding Present in concert, captured in the choreography of York’s Hayley Del Harrison as much as in the fractious exchanges in Aston’s dialogue, where the wittiest moment comes in a late cameo by Jack Hardy’s Keir/Keith/Kevin – no-one is ever sure of his name – who turns out to be Keir Starmer in his Leeds University days.

As you would want from a musical, what works best by far are Gedge’s songs, delivered in myriad settings by musical director Marie McAndrew, from string quartet to piano, accordion to flute, Ukrainian folk band to full-on guitars by instrument-swapping actor-musicians in fine voice, emphasising the melody and diversity of his love songs to accompany his home truths.

My Favourite Dress takes on new poignancy  as a despairing, broken-hearted ballad for Burns’s Joe and Nuttall’s Jane. As John Peel once said: “The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the rock’n’roll era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!” Reception affirms that again and again.

Perfect Blue Productions and Engine House Theatre in Reception, The Wedding Present Musial, at Slung Low, The Warehouse, Crosbt Road, Holbeck, Leeds, until September 6. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk. Wedding Guest table packages are available.

Coming on leaps and bounds: The community ensemble in gymnastic action in Reception: The Wedding Present Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

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REVIEW: The Storm Whale, York Theatre Royal Studio, until Saturday ****

Laura Soper’s Noi with the beached Storm Whale in The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio. Narrator Charlotte Benedict looks on. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

YORK writer-director Matt Aston launched his premiere of The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio in December 2019.

Now his adaptation of two enchanting Benji Davies stories, The Storm Whale and The Storm Whale In Winter, takes the plunge for a second time in a run that coincides with the Easter holidays in a co-production by Aston’s company, Engine House Theatre, York Theatre Royal, The Marlowe, Canterbury and Little Angel Theatre, London.

Apparently it takes only two and a half minutes each to read Davies’s award-winning works. Put together in one show, they are stretched to 75 minutes, including an interval, with your reviewer’s guarantee that children aged four upwards will have a whale of a time, topped off by a little “mild peril” in Act Two.

Lydia Denno’s original set was metaphorically lost at sea after Covid,  and so she has re-created the delightful sea-front design with its scaled-down versions of a lighthouse and the island home where a little boy, Noi (York-born Laura Soper) lives with his fisherman Dad (Richard Lounds).

So do their six cats with such Kent town names as Deal and Sandwich, the family favourite represented by a puppet that has a habit of leaping onto Dad’s shoulder. The other five occupy picture frames, or more precisely, appear to be bursting out of the frames with playful intent.

The Storm Whale writer-director Matt Aston

The house front seen in miniature is then replicated in full scale, with a washing line, fishing netting, steps, a boat and a porch, from where Soper’s awkward, restlessly inquisitive Noi surveys the waves, craving company when hard-working Dad is fishing at sea.

Noi tries to reassure himself that “it’s OK to be on your own but not OK to be lonely”, but that loneliness is threatening to come crashing over him like a wave.

Loneliness that is shared by Flo, Davies’s narrator, played with a joyous heart by York actress Charlotte Benedict (formerly Charlotte Wood), who begins by looking back on the story from the distance of humorously erratic adult memories.

Childhood days when she would lick her strawberries and cream-coloured lighthouse home in the hope of a sweet flavour. Flo’s own story will flow in and out of Noi’s tale, and she too is often on her own, both back then and 20, 30, 40 years on.

Charlotte Benedict’s Narrator in The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

Aston’s beautifully told production delights in theatre’s time-honoured tools of storytelling and puppetry, coupled with Julian Butler’s acoustic folk songs (one with a hint of The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York, no less), as we encounter the height of a storm and Noi’s subsequent encounter with a little whale, washed up on the sand.

Soper brings comedic physical theatre skills to Noi’s struggle to lift the whale into the   house bath (later to double as Dad’s fishing boat) as the bond of friendship grows and audience hearts swell with the loveliness of it all.

Post-interval, the forewarned “mild peril” takes the form of Dad undertaking his last fishing trip, when his boat becomes stuck in the frozen waters of deep winter. In his enforced absence, Noi desperately wants to see the whale once more, whereupon two storylines overlap with a sense of wonder at the finale, enhanced by the puppetry’s finest moment.

Soper captures the insatiable curiosity of a ten-year-old boy, in movement and facial and vocal expression, depicting a child seeking treasures, experiences and friendship alike, with bountiful love to give, as he comes to terms with the loss of his mother.

Lounds’ widower Dad has a phlegmatic front, necessary for his fishing work, but a jolly disposition too, full of kindness yet burdened by the weight of responsibility of now being Noi’s sole guide on their isolated island.

The poster for Matt Aston’s production of The Storm Whale

You will love the detail in Denno’s set and costume designs, from the cotton-wool snowy rooftops in winter to the starfish “badge” on Noi’s striped jumper.

Hayley Del Harrison’s movement direction flows as pleasingly as the storytelling, and when the lighthouse light switches on as a beacon to guide Dad to safety, it also serves to remember the work of original lighting designer Jason Salvin (whose  torch is now carried by Christopher Flux).

“The Storm Whale was Jason’s last show before he passed away in November 2020,” says Aston. “The show is always now dedicated to him.”

What a magical, moving, beautiful show it is.

York Theatre Royal, Engine House Theatre, Little Angel and The Marlowe, Canterbury present The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio, today and tomorrow, 10.30am and 1.30pm.  Running time: 75 minutes, including interval.  Age guidance: Four upwards. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 16, from Gazette & Herald

Gary Oldman in rehearsal for Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, now in its preview week at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

GARY Oldman’s return to York Theatre Royal tops the bill of Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations and chocolate is in the air too.

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

ONCE the pantomime Cat that fainted thrice in Dick Whittington in his 1979 cub days on the professional circuit in York, Oscar winner Gary Oldman returns to the Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1987.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: New availability of returns and additional seats on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Laura Soper’s Noi with the beached Storm Whale in The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio. Narrator Charlotte Benedict looks on. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

Children’s show of the week: The Storm Whale, York Theatre Royal Studio, until Saturday, 10.30am and 1.30pm

YORK writer and director Matt Aston revives his 2019 stage adaptation of Benji Davies’s tales of loneliness, love and courage, The Storm Whale, in a show built on puppetry, original songs and dialogue.

Noi lives with his dad and six cats by the sea. One summer, while dad was busy at work, Noi rescued a little whale, washed up on the beach. A friendship began that changed their lives forever. The following winter, his dad takes one last trip in his fishing boat. Alone once more, Noi longs to see his friend again. Will it take another storm to bring them back together? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York Chocolate Festival: City centre will be chock-a-block with chocs and eggs for Easter

Festival of the week: York Chocolate Festival 2025, today to Saturday, 10am to 5pm

YORK Chocolate Festival showcases everything sweet and chocolate from independent businesses in Parliament Street and around the city.

Highlights include the York Chocolate Festival Market; Chocolate Taste Trail; Ashley McCarthy’s Chocolate Sculpture and Family Easter Egg Hunt. Entry to the festival and market is free; some activities and events require tickets. Full programme at: yorkfoodfestival.com/programme.

Showaddywaddy: Rock’n’roll revivalists standing under the moon of love at The Grand Opera House, York

Rock’n’roll nostalgia of the week: Showaddywaddy, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

SHOWADDYWADDY make the bold claim to be “the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world”, living up to that title for the past five decades, they say.

Formed in 1973 in Leicester, they have sold more than 20 million records. Here come Hey Rock And Roll,  Under The Moon Of Love, Three Steps To Heaven, When, Blue Moon, Pretty Little Angel Eyes et al. Box office: atgtickjets.com/york.

Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman: Two voices, two guitars, original songs and carefully chosen covers at Pocklington Arts Centre

Duo of the week: Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 8pm

MARK Radcliffe and David Boardman are singing, songwriting, strumming and swigging buddies from Knutsford in the Badlands of the Cheshire Plain. BBC radio presenter and author Radcliffe was a member of folk-rock bands The Family Mahone and Galleon Blast and is now one half of electronic duo UNE and drummer and lyricist for Americana band Fine Lines.

Guitarist, guitar teacher and visual artist Boardman cut his teeth on the rock circuit with Darktown Jubilee. On board with Radcliffe, they deliver two voices, two guitars, original songs, carefully chosen covers and the occasional rambling anecdote. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Patrick Monahan: The Talkinator fights back against AI at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Comedy gig of the week: Patrick Monahan: The Talkinator, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 8pm

IN 2024, amid much talk of about AI taking over humans, only one man can out-talk the chat-bots and robots. Step forward Irish-Iranian comedian Patrick Monahan for one hour of stand-up comedy written by a human, performed by a human. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Alfie Richards’ Mr Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

Touring show of the week: 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 (Alfie Richards), Aslan, the Lion (Stanton Wright), and the coldest, cruellest White Witch (Katy Stephens). 

Directed by Michael Fentiman, this breathtaking stage adaptation brings magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets to CS Lewis’s allegorical novel. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alex Hamilton: Playing the blues with his trio at Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Alex Hamilton Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, April 24, 8pm

ALEX Hamilton (formerly Lewis Hamilton) has been part of the British blues rock scene for more than ten years, touring Great Britain and Europe. First making his mark as a young guitarist with skills beyond his age, he has matured and developed a technique redolent of Robben Ford and Matt Scofield.

Hamilton’s debut album aged 18 won the Scottish New Music Award in 2011 and his subsequent albums have been nominated for the British Blues Awards. He tours in a trio with his father Nick on bass and Ian Beestin on drums. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

In Focus: 1812 Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 23 to 26, 7.30pm

Jean Sheridan’s Miss Marple, left, and Jeanette Hambidge’s Cherry Baker in rehearsal for Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d. Picture: Joe Coughlan

HELMSLEY Arts Centre’s resident troupe, the 1812 Theatre Company, present Rachel Wagstaff’s stage adaptation of Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, a story of revenge and dark secrets set in late-summer 1962 England, when the wind of change blowing through the land reaches sleepy St Mary Mead.

A new housing estate, The Development, is making villagers fearful of changing times. Stranger still, a glamorous Hollywood movie star has bought the manor house, Gossington Hall, throwing the village into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, Miss Jane Marple (played by Jean Sheridan) has injured her ankle, a temporary impairment that confines her to a chair, making her question if life has passed her by. Enter Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Craddock (Richard Bannister), the son of a very dear friend of the spinster sleuth, after the vicious murder of a woman, poisoned at a party held by film star Marina Gregg (Lucy Wilshaw). Now Miss Marple must unravel a web of lies, tragedy and danger.

All the party guests are suspect; as ever, everyone’s version of events is different. Who would have guessed that a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson would provide the key to the mystery?

Wagstaff’s play is an adaptation of Christie’s 1962 novel The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side, first toured in 2019 with a cast led by Susie Blake as Miss Marple and Simon Shepherd as Chief Inspector Craddock. Blake reprised the role on tour at York Theatre Royal in October 2022.

Lucy Wilshaw rehearsing her role as American film star Marina Gregg. Picture: Joe Coughlan

“The title of the novel, and the shortened version for the play, is taken from the moment when the mirror of ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (from the Tennyson poem) cracks and the curse she’d feared now befalls her,” says director Julie Lomas.

“The novel’s plot was undoubtedly inspired by Agatha Christie’s reflections on a mother’s feelings for a child born with disabilities, and it is thought that she was influenced by happenings in the life of beautiful real-life actress Gene Eliza Tierney.

“There are several themes running through the novel, and the play, covering some of the changes in social history since the Second World War, including the class structure, racism and ageism.”

The novel was made into a film in 1980, with a multitude of star names, includimg Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, Elizabeth Taylor as Marina Gregg and Edward Fox as Chief Inspector Craddock.

All the Miss Marple’novels were adapted for a BBC TV series shown in the 1990s, starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.

For tickets, ring 01439 771700 or book at helmsleyarts.co.uk.  

Who’s in the cast?

Becca Magson’s Lola Brewster and Richard Bannister’s Chief Inspector Craddock in the rehearsal room. Picture: Joe Coughlan

THE Mirror Crack’d was scheduled to be staged by 1812 Theatre Company in 2024, but that old enemy Covid intervened. After a few cast changes under new director Julie Lomas, the production is ready for next week’s run.

Miss Jane Marple: Jean Sheridan

Marina Gregg: Lucy Wilshaw

Cherry Baker: Jeanette Hambidge

Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock: Richard Bannister

Heather Leigh: Michele Hopley

Cyril Leigh: Steven Lonsdale

Jason Rudd: Beaj Johnson

Giuseppe Renzo: Barry Whitaker

Dolly Bantry: Lynn Goslin

Ella Zielinski: Linda Tester

Lola Brewster: Becca Magson

Who’s in the production team?

Jean Sheridan’s Miss Marple, left, and Lynn Goslin’s Dolly Bantry on the phone in rehearsal for 1812 Theatre Company’s production. Picture: Joe Coughlan

Director: Julie Lomas

Production assistant: Julie Wilson

Stage manager/properties: Anna Hare; Marcie Hughes

Technical director: James Bentley

Set design: Julie Lomas; Sue Elm

Set construction: Michael Goslin; Peter Ives; Russell Smith

Set painting: Pauline Noakes; Heather Linley; Denise Kitchin; Liz Ives; John Lomas

Sound design: Julie Lomas; John Lomas

Lighting design: Julie Lomas

1812 Theatre Company’s poster for next week’s production of Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d

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The Storm Whale takes the plunge in Easter holiday return to York Theatre Royal Studio

The poster for the return of The Storm Whale, playing York Theatre Royal Studio from tomorrow to Saturday

YORK writer-director Matt Aston’s revival of his uplifting stage version of The Storm Whale, adapted from Benji Davies’s brace of books, will make a splash at York Theatre Royal Studio from tomorrow.

Premiered in 2019, Aston’s play for ages four to eight combines puppetry, original songs and dialogue in a magical theatrical adventure of loneliness, love and courage rooted in Davies’s books The Storm Whale and The Storm Whale In Winter.

 “It’s so great to bring the show back to York Theatre Royal, where it all began, and to share this beautiful story with a whole new audience of children and their families,” says Matt, ahead of the Easter holiday run. “Benji Davies’s books have such a captivating and heartwarming message, and I think people of all ages will find something to love in the show.” 

In The Storm Whale, Noi  lives with his dad and six cats by the sea. One summer, while dad was busy at work, Noi rescued a little whale, washed up on the beach. A friendship began that would change their lives forever.

When his father takes one last trip in his fishing boat the following winter, Noi is alone once more and longs to see his friend again. Will it take another storm to bring them back together? 

 The Storm Whale writer-director Matt Aston in Rowntree Park. Picture: Livy Potter

“Our show follows the story of a young boy, Noi, and his friendship with a whale and looks at how, through the power of friendship and courage, you can overcome loneliness,” says Matt.  

“Those who know Benji’s books will absolutely believe that his characters have come right off the page and to life on the stage. Lydia Denno’s designs are stunning and the show is a real visual treat with puppets beautifully crafted by Keith Frederick.   

“The music by Julian Butler is also fabulous and there are some gorgeous earworms in there that you won’t be able to stop humming after seeing the show.”

 Matt had worked previously on a stage adaptation of Davies’s book Grandad. “That was a delight to make,” he says. “The Storm Whale was already published at this point but when Benji later wrote The Storm Whale In Winter, I saw straight away how both stories could work together as a complete story arc to make one show.  

“Bringing stories like these from the page to the stage is really all about pulling out the wider story of what’s going on underneath by developing the characters and their relationships. The book is the starting point and then you look at how you can bring it to life through the music, the puppetry and the sets.  

The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio in 2019. Picture: Northedge Photography

“Whenever I do a show for children, it’s always vital to think about the grown-ups who will be coming with them. It’s important to ensure that the parents, grandparents and carers are not forgotten and that there’s something for them to enjoy. It’s a really moving story about the power of friendship and love overcoming loneliness and both adults and children alike can relate to that.”  

Matt is an advocate for children experiencing theatre from a young age.  “For me, there isn’t anything like the experience of live theatre,” he says. “The power of just sitting in a room and listening to a good story being simply told is truly magnificent. I really believe that the art of storytelling is central to a child’s development, and whether that’s through music, movement or puppetry, it can make such a difference at an early age to have exposure to that.  

“We’ve had some really lovely feedback from parents about how children have been really transported by the stories and going home and acting them out. The power of the live experience of watching theatre is, for me, really special and I can’t wait for a whole new audience of four, five and six-year-olds to come and see it.”   

Finally, why should children and adults alike see this show, Matt? “It’s captivating, heartwarming and has a really good heart. There is something for all ages to love – it’s a theatrical experience for the parents as well as the children. For fans of the books, it’s a great way to see them brought to life on the stage and for those new to the stories, you’ll hopefully find a new favourite.” 

 York Theatre Royal, Engine House Theatre, Little Angel and The Marlowe, Canterbury present The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio,  April 15 to 19, 10.30am and 1.30pm.  Running time: 75 minutes, including interval.  Age guidance: Four upwards. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: The Park Keeper, Park Bench Theatre, Rowntree Park, York

Whistle blower: Sean McKenzie as James ‘Parky’ Bell in Mike Kenny’s The Park Keeper. All pictures: Northedge Photography

The Park Keeper, Park Bench Theatre, The Friends Garden, Rowntree Park, York, until July 17. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

MIKE Kenny has been thinking about retirement but has no thoughts of retiring.

The prolific York playwright has turned 70, and only the other day, as he crossed Millennium Bridge, a teenager chirped up: “You won’t be here in ten years, mush”. Kenny was not offended, instead smiling at what he thought was probably a fair point after a life lived to the full in the allotted span of three score years and ten.

As a writer, save for a sudden shortage of commissions, inspiration or writer’s block, the conventional clocking off with a watch does not apply, but whatever hand is dealt, Kenny nevertheless has been contemplating the impact of retirement.

His landmark birthday has its played, but it is as much to do with the subject matter of his latest commission from Matt Aston, artistic director of Engine House Theatre and director of Park Bench Theatre, the York company Aston set up last summer after the first lockdown to stage three monologues in the socially distanced Friends Garden.

Now, after lockdown three, Park Bench Theatre returns with The Park Keeper to mark Rowntree Park’s centenary with the story of its first park keeper, James ‘Parky’ Bell, who was in charge from 1921 to 1945.

When the cap still fits, but time is up: Sean McKenzie’s ‘Parky’ Bell contemplates a future after being “kicked out of paradise”

July 16 was his retirement day, and as the 55-minute monologue opens, Sean McKenzie’s immaculately dressed and well-groomed Bell is preparing his retirement speech, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall to ask us if he can try it out on us.

At the same time, Bell has his beady eye on the park, quick to blow his famous shrill whistle when he spots a miscreant. “I know where you live,” he shouts. “I don’t,” he admits to the audience.

Where Kenny has a choice whether to retire or not but won’t because the creative juices still flow so zestfully, Bell has no such choice and does not feel ready to concentrate on gardening or whatever.  

Like so many men, he is defined by his job; his validation, even if the physical strength is not what it once was. “I can’t do as much as I once did,” he concedes. Retirement? “I don’t know how to stop. What will I do,” he asks, forlornly. “If I’m not ‘Parky’, who am I? What am I.”

All this is supposition because Kenny has worked from skeletal information. What is known is that Bell and his family did live in the lodge that now houses the Reading Room café; the blast of the Bell whistle was feared by all; he did make a retirement speech.

Bench duty: York playwright Mike Kenny, commissioned to write the play marking the 100th anniversary of Rowntree Park

Kenny fleshes out the story to make Bell a Rowntree cocoa factory worker, a survivor of the First World War (unlike his best friend) and what ensues is a study of the futility and terrible impact of war; the senseless death of so many young men; father-and-son relationships; the value of recreation and public play areas for the ordinary man, woman and child; the denuding effect of retirement.

This is the “what’s it all been for?” moment of reflection for a man who has no faith in religion, for whom hope has been hollowed about by the experience of a war that left him angry at everything and everybody; for whom heaven is empty.

“We all came back with stories. We just couldn’t tell them,” says Bell. That said, in the absence of faith, he found purpose, subsequently loving his work in his “back garden”, Rowntree Park, calling it a “miracle”, where 54,000 plants and trees were planted by the Rowntree family and the park life made him well again.

All the while, The Park Keeper becomes as much a story of Mike Kenny as James ‘Parky’ Bell, who keeps rising from his park bench note-making, still on duty to the last, but suddenly in the grip of a memory, something that troubles, angers or baffles him, and troubles the playwright too. 

Consequently, it is both the most personal piece Kenny has ever written and yet a tribute to a stoical, staunch, hard-working pillar of a bygone time, when as many as 12 gardeners worked at Rowntree Park.

Taking his last stand: Sean McKenzie’s ‘Parky’ Bell in the Friends Garden at Rowntree Park, York.

Kenny’s authorial voice is strong – typified by his townie quip that “in the country[side], everywhere belongs to someone” – but Sean McKenzie’s rounded performance makes Bell’s voice equally strong and opinionated under Aston’s well-balanced direction. “First of all they take all your time, then you get a watch, so you can see all your seconds tick away,” Bell says of his retirement gift. 

McKenzie’s eyes say it all in a performance where he finds the poetry, the profundity, but also the guiding principles of the working man.

Kenny makes reference to cheeky lads calling Bell a “jumped-up  caretaker”, but he has Bell saying, “If we take care of it, it will take care of us”, a message for our times when climate change threatens our future as much as war ever did.

Bell hopes for a fairer world, wishing that something can be done to make this world right. Clearly, Kenny has the same wish. “I’m about to get kicked out of paradise,” bemoans Bell. “On with the future. Cheers,” his speech concludes, but with all the uncertainty whether peace will last after the handshakes in Romeo & Juliet.

Kenny has placed us in the last chance saloon, but who will blow ‘Parky’ Bell’s whistle to stop the pattern of bad behaviour?  

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Sean McKenzie unlocks the key to the heart of ‘Parky’ Bell, the Rowntree Park keeper

Sean McKenzie on a Rowntree Park park bench in the lead-up to The Park Keeper opening. The beard has since gone! Picture: Northedge Photography

SEAN McKenzie hasn’t had a job for 18 months. An acting job, that is.

“I have been working, at Thorntons, at their Alfreton factory in Derbyshire, just off the M1,” said Sean, whose lockdown-enforced break from the boards has come to an end in York, the most famous home of chocolate of all, in the role of Rowntree worker ‘Parky’ Bell in The Park Keeper.

“I’ve been learning how to ice at Thorntons; I became one of their main ‘icers’, so if anyone has had any icing from Thorntons in the past year and a half, chances are it’s been my icing. Either me or Paul, the only other bloke doing the icing.”

The cherry on the icing on Sean’s cake is that he has returned to performing at last in York playwright Mike Kenny’s 55-minute monologue about Rowntree Park’s first park keeper, the shrill whistle-blowing James ‘Parky’ Bell, running until July 17 in the Friends Garden at the York park.

“Before this, I was last on stage playing Widow Twankey for Theatr Clwyd, with Hannah Chissick directing, who I’ve done five or six pantomimes for now,” said Sean, still sporting a lockdown beard in rehearsals as he met CharlesHutchPress in the Reading Café at Rowntree Park, beneath the very lodge where ‘Parky’ Bell and his family lived during his 24 tenure as park keeper from 1921 to 1945.

“I won’t lie, it’s scary. If nothing else, I’m honest,” said Sean, as he faced brushing off the ring rust from being out of action for 18 months. “But I’ll say this, and I know every actor says it, when doing a new piece, but it’s a beautiful piece of writing by Mike, based on the real character of James ‘Parky’ Bell.

“Bell’s story is intertwined with Mike’s own story, and there’s so much in there drawn from Mike’s life now and his past relationship with his father, and the big thing in the play is wrestling with all these things: life, death; nature; religion.

“Hopefully, it’s funny in parts, but it’s also really heartwarming, reflective and very poignant. That means, for me, as an actor, it’s an absolute gift and I just hope can deliver the gift.”

“Getting the job as the park keeper, after everything he’d been through, was ‘Parky’ Bell’s paradise on Earth,” says Sean McKenzie

Analysing ‘Parky’ Bell’s character, as depicted by Kenny, Sean said: “He’s obviously very old school; he fought in the First World War; became a corporal, and survived the war, but what suddenly occurred to me when reading Mike’s play was that though Bell survived and came home, can you imagine what he saw in those four years?

“He had all that stuff on his shoulders, but eventually getting the job as the park keeper, after everything he’d been through, was his paradise on Earth, and in a way, he was ‘God’ there: ruling the roost, stopping trouble, stopping the littering.

“He was a strict man, a disciplinarian, who couldn’t talk about what he’d seen in wartime – ‘if you haven’t been through it, you can’t understand it, so what’s the point of telling you?’, he says at one point – but he had found his paradise, though now he’s being asked to leave it after 24 years.

“So there are elements of Prospero in The Tempest, having to let go of the magic, because being the park keeper is his identity.”

Sean has taken on such roles as sleazebag talent agent Ray Say in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre and Leeds playwright Alan Bennett in Bennett’s Lady In The Van for Hull Truck Theatre.

He has handled lines aplenty in myriad comedy roles in the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime, as Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Jim Cartwright’s two-hander Two at Derby Theatre and a long stint in War Horse at the National Theatre and British, Irish and South African tours.

The Park Keeper is, however, his first monologue. “It’s my first play for 18 months, and I’m flying solo. It feels like being Chris Bonnington or Donald Campbell,” he said. “I’ve gone from Two to one! I know an hour ‘on stage’ on your own doesn’t sound a lot, but it is!

“I got a call on the Friday from my agent, saying ‘they want you to read on Monday’, so I had two days to read it before my chat with Matt [Matt Aston, director of producers Engine House Theatre and director of Park Bench Theatre].

Unlocking a character: Actor Sean McKenzie during the rehearsal period for playing James ‘Parky’ Bell in The Park Keeper at Rowntree Park, York. Picture: Northedge Photography

“I’m offered the part and that’s when the adrenaline kicks in and you think, ‘Can I do this?’. There’s a niggling voice going, ‘Can you still do this?’, but once I made the decision that yes, I could, it was a massive weight off my shoulders.”

That still left Sean with a massive pile of words to learn. “Before starting rehearsals, I did five 12-hour days to learn the script, when normally you’d have more like five weeks. So, between line learning and rehearsals, I’m doing everything in 18 days, rather than eight weeks,” said Sean, who brought a bench indoors to help him “get into character” at his village home in Heage, near Belper, in Derbyshire’s Amber Valley. “I called it my ‘Judi bench’, as I love Dame Judi Dench!”

The first week of rehearsals with Matt Aston were conducted on Zoom, focusing on the text, before the two met up in the second week in an impromptu rehearsal room at Southlands Methodist Church, and then transferring to the Friends Garden for final preparations on a park bench.

“Rather than just being a monologue, you have to try to flesh out the characters that ‘Parky’ Bell talks about,” said Sean. “There’s so much in this play, and the language he uses is not how we’d speak today; sometimes sentences would even be the other way round to now! That’s how precise Mike Kenny is.

“This is my first Mike Kenny script, and when you think what a great writer he is, how could I say ‘No’ to such a beautiful piece, with lots of comedy, lots of pathos. I really hope that after lockdown everyone will come out and enjoy it, as we do what we’ve always done, tell stories, like the ancient Greeks did, by the fire. Or in this case, the audiences bringing their own ‘fire’ in the form of Prosecco!”

Sean is “just the other side of 50 now” with a career in performing stretching back to the age of 11, raised in Blackpool, the son of Henry (“Harry”) Joseph Patrick McKenzie, the “Golden Voice Of Ireland”, who himself used the stage name of Sean McKenzie.

“I used to go and see all the Blackpool shows, all the great singers, the variety acts and the great comics, Doddy, Les Dawson and Frank Carson,” said Sean. “My dad was one of seven, I was one of four, and though I came from a singing family – my dad first sang in the group The Gale Brothers – I never wanted to be a singer; I always wanted to be an actor.

“I loved Buster Keaton, Abbott and Costello, Harold Lloyd, The Three Stooges, Will Hay and my particular favourites, Laurel and Hardy. That’s where I learnt about timing. You’ve got to have funny bones; you can’t teach timing, but I did learn it to an extent by watching.”

Laurel & Hardy: Sean McKenzie’s favourite comedy act

Sean trained at RADA but, as this interview encounter over a late lunch revealed, he is naturally humorous company. “Believe it or not, I am shy, and I know it’s a cliché, but there’s something about becoming another self on stage, and after 18 months of doing no acting, this has been a right baptism of fire,” he said.

Shy? That leaves Sean once he is on stage, when all that performing energy surges through him. “I think why I’ve survived for so long in this business is that people can rely on me. I will never sell an audience short,” he said. “Whatever I play, they always ‘get me’, even as the dame!”

He and Matt Aston have long wanted to do a show together. “About 15 years ago, I first came to him with an idea after seeing Tom Courtenay in Moscow Stations in the West End, to see if he would do it at the Nottingham Lakeside, when he was there,” recalled Sean.

“It didn’t happen but we’ve remained in contact and he came to see me playing Toad in The Wind Of The Willows. Now we’re doing The Park Keeper together.”

Did you know?

Sean McKenzie played opposite Berwick Kaler’s dame when they starred as the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 1995-1996.

“He asked me to do it after we worked on a film together,” said Swan, who will be “frocking up” again this winter as dame in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre.

“I don’t wear any false eyelashes. Just a bit of red cheeks, a bit of red nose and a bit of mascara to open the eyes.”

Park Bench Theatre in The Park Keeper, The Friends Garden, Rowntree Park, until July 17. Box office: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or on 01904 623568.

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When the Rowntree Park keeper whistled and everyone jumped to attention…

Actor Sean McKenzie at the gates to Rowntree Park, where he will perform Mike Kenny’s monologue The Park Keeper in the Friends’ Garden from July 7 to 17. Picture: Northedge Photography

THE 100th birthday of Rowntree Park, York, will fall on July 16, the penultimate night of Park Bench Theatre’s premiere of The Park Keeper, marking that centenary.

Commissioned from York playwright Mike Kenny by director Matt Aston, the 55-minute monologue will be performed by Sean McKenzie in the Friends’ Garden, the setting for three Park Bench solo plays as the first theatre rainbow across last summer’s skies after the initial release from lockdown.

“I’m delighted that Park Bench Theatre is returning to Rowntree Park in its 100th birthday year,” says Matt, artistic director of Engine House Theatre. “Mike has written a beautiful script that I’m sure will capture the hearts of everyone who has ever been to and loved the park over the years, as well as anyone who might be enjoying their first visit.”

Running from July 7 to 17 with social distancing measures in place, The Park Keeper is set in York in the summer of 1945 when Rowntree Park’s first park keeper, ‘Parky’ Bell, is about to retire after 24 years in post, 24 years with a piercing whistle in mouth.

He must make a speech, but what can he say and how can he close this chapter on his life? Will he be able to lock the gates to his kingdom one last time?

“Inspired by York’s very own ‘Parky’ Bell, this is a heartfelt and poignant one-man show that celebrates 100 years of Rowntree Park while also asking the question, ‘what happens when we’re not needed anymore?’.”

Park Bench Theatre director Matt Aston on a park bench in the Friends’ Garden, Rowntree Park

‘Parky’ Bell, who lived in the Rowntree Park lodge that now houses Explore York’s Reading Café,  took on his post when Messrs Rowntree & Co gifted Rowntree Park to the City of York as a memorial to the cocoa works staff who fell and suffered during the First World War.

“The story is inspired by ‘Parky’ Bell rather than entirely biographical, but the stories about him are legion: the park keeper with his shrill whistle to bring children to attention and kick everyone out by 6pm,” says Matt.

“He was the only ever park keeper at Rowntree Park and he was in post for the years between the wars. What must he have thought when were back at war after only 21 years? We’re getting things wrong now, but they were getting things terribly wring then, not learning lessons in their lifetime, when so many young men had been killed in the Great War.”

Such questions, taking in the value of life, reflections on a life lived, mark out The Park Keeper as Aston and Kenny renew their fruitful partnership. “I’ve worked with Mike five times on new works for children and families – Red Riding Hood, Two Little Boys, Flat Stanley, Beauty And The Beast and Snow White – but this is different and it’s pretty much the best thing he’s done,” says Matt.

He is delighted too to be working with Sean McKenzie, rehearsing on Zoom for the first week and then at Southlands Methodist Church this week.

“I’ve known Sean for years though we’ve never worked together until now. We met a few people for the job and he just read beautifully,” he says.

“In ‘Parky’ Bell’s character, there’s an undercurrent of not wanting to move on, but there’s also that bustling nature that park keepers have to have, yet you have to empathise with him, and Sean really captures that. I’ve wanted to work with him for ages and I’m really pleased that we now are.”

The Park Keeper director Matt Aston, left, actor Sean McKenzie and writer Mike Kenny in Rowntree Park, York

Matt believes the rehearsal process works well too. “With the play being a monologue, it’s good to start by concentrating on text on Zoom before getting it on its feet in week two in the rehearsal room and then in the park,” he says.

The director had contemplated not doing another Park Bench Theatre production this summer, content with the audience response to Samuel Beckett’s First Love, his own lockdown work, Every Time A Bell Rings, and a new adaptation of Teddy Bears’ Picnic, co-created by Aston and actor Cassie Vallance. 

“Last summer went so well; I’ll never forget that emotional feeling when everyone clapped together again for the first time because none of us had done anything together for so long,” he says.

“But then I started thinking, ‘it’s the park’s 100th birthday this year, we really should do something. That’s when I spoke to Mike, who lives only five minutes’ walk from the park, and straightaway his eyes had that glint, saying ‘this one’s for me’.

“He wrote it so quickly, it was astonishing:  like songwriters saying the best songs are written in five minutes!  He’s turned 70 and, like ‘Parky’ Bell, he’s faced thoughts of retirement, but he’s desperate not to do that, and so everything aligned for him to do this play.”

Park Bench Theatre in The Park Keeper, The Friends’ Garden, Rowntree Park, York, July 7 to 17, except July 11; 7.30pm start, bar the July 7 preview at 6pm. Age guidance: 12 plus. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or via parkbenhtheatre.com.

Copyright of The Press, York

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If you go down in the woods today, you’re in for an online delight as Park Bench Theatre streams summer hit Teddy Bears’ Picnic

One sandwich short of a picnic: Cassie Vallance’s Jo clowns around on her Friends Garden park bench at Rowntree Park in a scene from Teddy Bears’ Picnic last summer. Picture: Northedge Photography

PARK Bench Theatre’s hit summertime children’s show, Teddy Bears’ Picnic, will be streamed by producers Engine House Theatre from today (26/2/2021).

Performed by Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre actress and Story Craft Theatre interactive storyteller Cassie Vallance in all weathers last summer, it was one of three solo performances staged in the Friends Garden of Rowntree Park under Covid-safe conditions, with more than 1,000 adults and youngsters seeing the open-air show over 30-plus performances.

Now, director Matt Aston’s company, Engine House Theatre, is to stream the show, suitable for everyone aged three and over, newly bolstered by a Make Your Own Teddy Bear craft workshop video by Cassie, bringing her Story Craft Theatre craft-making skills to the online venture.

Tickets will give access to viewing for the whole event period of February 26 to March 7, priced at £5 at tpetv.com.

Teddy Bears’ Picnic was inspired by the much-loved John Walter Bratton and Jimmy Kennedy song and based on an original idea by Julian Butler, a freelance children’s theatre composer, lyricist and sound designer who has written several musicals with York playwright Mike Kenny and worked regularly with Aston.

Inspired by Butler’s suggestion when musical director for Aston’s production of Benji Davies’s The Storm Whale, starring Cassie at the York Theatre Royal Studio in 2019-2020, the 30-minute show was co-created by performer Vallance and Engine House artistic director Aston over a few weeks last summer.

Cassie Vallance: Craft-making storyteller for Story Craft Theatre’s Crafty Tales

Now, Matt says: “I’m so pleased to be finally joining the 21st century and having Teddy Bears’ Picnic stream online for people to enjoy at home.

“It seems such a long time ago that we all suddenly had to live and work in a very different way to bring live theatre back to York and I’m still extremely proud of the Park Bench Theatre season and of all the wonderful people who worked on it and helped make it happen.

“We didn’t have any plans to stream the shows, but once we’d gone into this third lockdown, we had a look at what footage could be used. We’re still hopeful we can stream the other two shows as well, featuring Chris Hannon in Samuel Beckett’s First Love and Lisa Howard in Every Time A Bell Rings [a play written by Matt in response to the lockdown].”

The director adds: “I’m also thrilled that Cassie has brought her crafting skills from her award-winning company Story Craft Theatre to present a short film so everyone van make a cardboard teddy at home.

“With the announcement of the Government’s roadmap earlier this week, there seems to be light at the end of the Covid tunnel. Hopefully, Teddy Bears’ Picnic will be another of those small treats to help families get through the final days of home schooling.”

In Park Bench Theatre’s Teddy Bears’ Picnic, every year, Jo’s family used to have a big family gathering: a teddy bears’ picnic. It was always brilliant, but then she grew too old and too cool for that sort of thing, so she stopped going. Now she has grown up, however, she wishes she could have those picnic days all over again.

Matt Aston: Park Bench Theatre artistic director and co-creator/director of Teddy Bears’ Picnic on a Friends Garden park bench. Picture: Livy Potter

Recalling the co-writing experience, where technology came in handy, Cassie says: “I’d write a bit, Matt would write a bit, and we’d share thoughts on Zoom. We then started working on the physical aspect of the show from the beginning of August, as I’m much more of an up-and-about physical person, and then we began running it.

“The main thing, when working on it, was to be flexible, with it being for children and an outdoor show. Visually, it had to have lots of big stuff, and our thinking was, ‘if we can say it physically, let’s do that’, but it’s also a play full of memory moments, which we’ve made more intimate.”

Now, Teddy Bears’ Picnic can be enjoyed all over again, online, teddy bear-making craft workshop and all. “Considering how life has changed so dramatically for so many over the past months, I once again find myself feeling very grateful to be able to be part of creating a piece of live theatre for families,” says Cassie. 

Did you know?

The song Teddy Bears’ Picnic combines a 1907 melody by American composer John Walter Bratton with lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, a Dublin University graduate, in 1932.

It has been recorded widely since Peckham crooner Henry Hall’s idyllic version that year, being used in television series, commercials and films. Recordings range from Bing Crosby to The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, while Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan recited the lyrics as a poem at the start of a recording of Bad Attitude.

Any good at the hurdles? Cassie Vallance tries to negotiate the gate to enter the Friends Garden at Rowntree Park. Picture: Northedge Photography

WHAT was the CharlesHutchPress verdict last summer?

REVIEW: Teddy Bears’ Picnic, Park Bench Theatre, Engine House Theatre, Friends Garden, Rowntree Park, York, August 22 to early September 2020. ****

THROUGH stealth and goofy coming timing, Cassie Vallance had stolen Twelfth Night, the Jazz Age hit of last summer’s Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York before the rest of Joyce Branagh’s superb cast could do anything about it.

After that Pop-Up Elizabethan theatre season on the Castle car park, Vallance has popped up again at York Theatre Royal’s Pop-Up On The Patio festival, presenting Crafty Tales with her Story Craft Theatre cohort Janet Bruce last Saturday lunchtime.

She would have done so again this Saturday too at 1pm but for the fact she needs to be at Rowntree Park for the 1.30pm performance of Teddy Bears’ Picnic, her solo performance for this summer’s Park Bench Theatre season.

For all her oodles of comic energy, not even Vallance can be in two places at once and so Janet Bruce will be bringing a picture-book story to life on her own on the patio this weekend.

In between Twelfth Night and Teddy Bears’ Picnic came Vallance’s starring role in director Matt Aston’s adaptation of Benji Davies’s The Storm Whale stories for the York Theatre Royal Studio’s Christmas show for children.

Cassie Vallance in The Storm Whale at the York Theatre Royal Studio. It was during this production that musical director and composer Julian Butler first came up with the idea for a production of Teddy Bears’ Picnic, based on the song

Now, Aston, artistic director of Engine House Theatre, resumes his creative partnership with Vallance for this season’s Park Bench Theatre resurrection of outdoor theatre for the post-lockdown age.

Together, they have co-created a new version of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic story spun from the threads of the popular children’s ditty and an original idea by musical director Julian Butler; Aston directing, Vallance performing with all that impish clowning, physical comedy and pathos that has marked the York actor’s performances over the past year.

If you go down in the Covid-secure Friends Garden tomorrow, or on various dates until September 5, you are in for a children’s show to delight three year olds and upwards. Take a picnic, take a child or two, or more, within a family bubble to sit in socially distanced pods marked out by chalk circles, with room to accommodate your favourite teddy bear too.

On arrival, you will pick up the necessary equipment to listen on a head set to the feed of Vallance’s storytelling, sound effects (from lasers to a send-up of The Six Million Dollar Man intro for the adults present) and reprises of the familiar song, complemented by Julian Butler’s incidental music.

Vallance is playing Jo, struggling with her big case as she tries to negotiate her way through the not very high gates to the Friends Garden on a sunny Thursday afternoon.

Who would name a teddy after a beach? Cassie Vallance’s Jo would do exactly that, holding Filey aloft in Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Picture: Northedge Photography

Eventually, she does so, taking up residence on and around the park bench beneath the linden tree in the garden corner, as a squirrel looks on, front paws in that distinctive squirrel position where they look to be on the cusp of bursting into applause.

Vallance’s Jo is in three quarter-length dungarees with yellow buttons and matching head band and anything but matching pumps (purple instead), her bravura attire denoting a funny woman has just entered the garden.

Jo begins to unpack the case, taking out case after smaller case, as if opening up a Russian doll. She puts up bunting, does a spot of juggling. Vallance has said nothing, as much mime artist or silent movie actor to this point, but once she puts on a pair of spectacles, she “realises” she has an audience and starts talking…excitedly.

She seeks to give this re-telling a context for Covid-19 2020, as Jo talks to the children about the experience of coming out to play again, to see friends again, to be outdoors again, to be enjoying a Teddy Bears’ Picnic again, after being stuck inside in lockdown for an eternity.

“It’s a bit weird,” she says, and who would disagree. “There’s been lots of Zooming,” she notes. “For a word that sounds so fast, it seems to take so long!”

A teddy bear in Park Bench Theatre’s production of Teddy Bears’ Picnic last summer. Now, Cassie Vallance will lead a cardboard teddy bear craft-making video session to accompany the streaming of the show. Picture: Northedge Photography

Picking a banana from her picnic, Vallance’s Jo bounces around the audience, revelling in “just being”, “feeling happy”, “enjoying stuff”, but then her thoughts turn to memories. “All memories are important. They may not be happy, but that’s OK, they can help us learn,” she says.

At this juncture, Jo transforms into her younger self, recalling childhood Teddy Bears’ Picnics in Rowntree Park, surrounded by her teddies, all except her favourite, Kelly, who came off worst in an unfortunate encounter with her father’s Flymo mower.

Vallance’s crestfallen pathos at this juncture is a joy, so too are the Scottish and Welsh accents she adopts for Jo’s mum and dad (even though they are from Welwyn Garden and Fulford!).

Aston and Vallance’s charming short story ends on a positive and reassuring note in these strange times for children and adults alike, Jo saying that things can and always will change…and “change can be really, really good”.

Ironically, the only sting in this tale was, well, not a sting but a horsefly bite suffered by director Matt Aston pre-show. Kelly went to hospital in the story, Aston to A&E with his arm swollen. Is ted not dead? Did both have a happy ending? That would be telling!

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Story Craft Theatre’s Janet and Cassie to raise funds for Shine21 charity for 21 hours

Lift-off: Story Craft Theatre’s Janet Bruce, left, and Cassie Vallance are ready to Shine for York charity. Picture: Lucy Bedford Photography

STORY Craft Theatre’s Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance are to provide 21 hours of craft and storytelling fun this month to raise vital funds for York charity Shine21.

Since Lockdown 1, the pair have moved their interactive storytelling sessions online, attracting audiences from all over the world to their creative and educational classes, held three times a week via Zoom. 

Now, Janet and Cassie will host classes for you to enjoy on Zoom on November 27 and 28, running all day each day from 7am. All the duo ask in return is a donation to Shine21.

Story Craft Theatre’s logo

“There are lots of storybook adventures to choose from: Going On A Bear Hunt, The Gruffalo, Hairy Maclary, Aliens Love Underpants and so many more,” says Cassie. “We’re even providing hour-long interactive craft classes.” 

All the sessions can be booked online at: www.bookwhen.com/storycrafttheatre. “As these classes are interactive, numbers are limited, so we advise you to book in advance to avoid disappointment,” says Janet. “Tickets are now on sale.

“This 21-hour storytelling event is an opportunity for you to help Shine21, where you don’t even need to attend the two-day event to donate. So, please feel free to donate whatever you can.”

Shine on: Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance will be spending 21 hours telling stories and doing interactive crafts for York charity Shine 21 on November 27 and 28. Picture: Lucy Bedford Photography

Donations can be made at: justgiving.com/fundraising/storycraft21. Please note, 100 per cent of the money raised through Story Craft will go directly to the charity. 

Story Craft Theatre is a York children’s theatre company run by professional actors and mums Janet Bruce, who appeared in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street in the West End, and Cassie Vallance, part of the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre company at the Castle car park in 2019 and last seen in Park Bench Theatre’s Teddy Bears’ Picnic in Rowntree Park, York, this summer.

Together, Janet and Cassie have hosted sell-out shows at York Theatre Royal and Goose play centre, at Hornbeam Business Park, Harrogate, and this Christmas, Story Craft Theatre will team up with Matt Aston’s Engine House Theatre at Castle Howard, near York.

Ready, Teddy, go: Cassie Vallance performing in Park Bench Theatre’s Teddy Bears’ Picnic in Rowntree Park in August. Picture: Northedge Photography

From December 4, they will present Stories With Santa In The Courtyard Grotto. “Come and join us for a magical storytelling event here in the historic Courtyard,” they say. “Meet Santa’s helpers as they guide you through into our festive library, where children will get to meet Santa, make their Christmas wishes and settle down to hear a brand new, enchanting winter’s tale, The Snowflake, by popular children’s author Benji Davies.”

Last Christmas, Cassie performed in writer-director Aston’s stage adaptation of Davies’s The Storm Whale at the York Theatre Royal Studio.

The Shine21 charity helps to enhance the lives of children with Down Syndrome and their families. Janet Bruce’s second child was born with Down Syndrome and a heart condition, both being discovered after birth.

Whale meet again: Cassie Vallance in The Storm Whale at York Theatre Royal Studio last December. Picture: Northedge Photography

“The diagnosis was unexpected and at first, scary, but the support and advice offered by Shine21 was phenomenal,” says Janet. “Shine21 have supported me and my family every step of the way and introduced us to others who have been through a similar experience.  

“The charity does invaluable work to help children and their families, but unfortunately, due to the pandemic, they have not been able to raise the vital funds they need this year. So, we’re providing this chance for you to help Shine21.”

For Castle Howard bookings, go to castlehoward.co.uk/whats-on/Christmas for more details.

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Green light for The Wedding Present musical after “Gedge pledges” hit £10,000

David Gedge: Writing new material for Reception, a musical built around his songs of love and loss, break-ups and breakdowns for The Wedding Present and Cinerama

THE Crowdfunder appeal to kick-start work on The Wedding Present musical, Reception, has hit the initial £10,000 target with more than a day to spare.

You can still visit @crowdfunderuk where the @ReceptionSoon page welcomes further contributions today and tomorrow to aid York writer-director Matt Aston start crafting a story of “love, loss, break-ups and breakdowns – everything you’d expect really from a musical based on the songs of David Gedge”.

The Crowdfunder Gedge pledge will facilitate work on the first draft, artwork and branding of a show that will combine Gedge’s songs for his Leeds band The Wedding Present and Cinerama with new material by the 60-year-old songwriter, who now lives in Brighton.

Reception writer-director Matt Aston in his Wedding Present T-shirt when rehearsing Park Bench Theatre’s summer production of Samuel Beckett’s First Love with actor Chris Hannon. Picture: Northedge Photography

Aston and production partner Tony Ereira anticipate beginning research and development in early  2021 to road test their ideas – Covid-19 Government guidance permitting – with a group of actor-musicians, incorporating Gedge’s new songs. The premiere is pencilled in for Leeds in 2022, to be followed by a small tour that would take in Brighton.

Full details on Reception can be found in an earlier CharlesHutchPress article, filed on  September 15.

“The crowdfunding campaign is a chance for fans to get involved from the beginning with a bunch of rewards that are all exclusive to this production, including specially commissioned artwork from Lee Thacker,  illustrator of David’s autobiography, Tales From The Wedding Present,” says Matt, artistic director of Engine House Theatre, who staged the Park Bench Theatre season in the Friends Garden, Rowntree, Park, York, this summer.

To support the project, go to: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/reception-the-musical