OPEN-AIR cinema and myriad concerts, Proms and wild beasts affirm that summer is not yet over for Charles Hutchinson or for you.
Theatre one-off of the week outside York: Casey Jay Andrews in Every Wild Beast, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington, tonight (19/8/2021) at 7.30pm
FRINGE First award-winning theatre-maker and storyteller Casey Jay Andrews weaves folklore and fable into her magical coming-of-age tale of courage, curiosity and running away from big scary things.
What happens? The stars are empty, the moon has fallen from the sky and the mountains are full of monsters, as Barri collects newspaper clippings and listens to vinyl in her grandmother’s attic, while Sam tries to outrun a community support officer investigating the murder of several domestic badgers.
“If you like your storytelling full of beauty, skill, fable and reality, this will be right up your alley,” says Theatre At The Mill programmer Alexander Wright. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill.
Coastal concerts of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Nile Rodgers & Chic, tomorrow (20/8/2021); Keane, Saturday, gates open at 6pm
AFTER Stereophonics, Kaiser Chiefs, Culture Club and Westlife, the Scarborough OAT summer season gathers still more pace by welcoming back Nile Rodgers & Chic, who first played there in 2018, tomorrow night.
Chic co-founder Rodgers and his band will be reactivating such dancefloor fillers as Le Freak, Good Times and Everybody Dance.
Saturday’s headliners, East Sussex chart-toppers Keane, drew a six-year hiatus to a close with their 2019 album Cause And Effect. The Sherlocks will be supporting. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Pomp and circumstance of the weekend: Castle Howard Proms, Castle Howard, Saturday (21/8/2021); gates, 5pm; concert, 7.30pm
YORKSHIRE’S own Forever Tenors, best friends Rob Durkin and Adam Lacey, are confirmed as the opening act at the Castle Howard Proms.
The classical crossover duo joins a bill featuring Welsh tenor Wynne Evans, alias Gio Compario off the telly, soprano Victoria Joyce and the London Gala Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Bell, plus a Spitfire flyover, lasers and a firework finale.
Castle Howard’s concert weekend opens with Café Mambo Ibiza’s sold-out show tomorrow (20/8/2021, gates, 4pm) and concludes with Queen Symphonic on Sunday, when Forever Tenors support again from 5pm. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.
Film event of the week: The Luna Cinema at York Minster, August 24 to 29; doors, 6.45pm; screenings, 8.15pm
BAZ Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet opens five days of Luna Cinema open-air screenings against the backdrop of York Minster on Tuesday.
To follow will be the Elton John story, Rocketman, on Wednesday; The Greatest Showman on Thursday; Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, next Friday; Dirty Dancing next Saturday and Rian Johnson’s American mystery, Knives Out, next Sunday. Tickets are available from thelunacinema.com/york-minster2.
Theatre one-off of the week in York: LS6 Theatre in 90’s Kids Only and Life Below, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm
LS6 Theatre serve up a touring double bill of new theatre: writer-director Spike Woodley and Laurentz Valdes-Lea’s comedy-drama 90’s Kids Only and writer-director Dec Kelly’s gritty mining drama Life Below.
When did the universe begin? 1990. At least according to Ozzy and his friends in 90’s Kids Only, where what starts as a celebration of 1990s’ nostalgia ends in confusion, hysteria and the kidnapping of a beloved TV presenter.
In Life Below, Kelly chronicles two generations of a northern mining family that each had to endure treacherous conditions to stay alive. In 1984, Rosie Gooder fights for her community’s rights under the threat of Margaret Thatcher’s pit closures. Box office: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Magpies in twos: First a North Yorkshire festival, now a York gig for The Magpies next month
FRESH from hosting their sold-out first festival last Saturday at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, contemporary roots trio The Magpies are off on a 16-date tour next month.
York guitarist, banjo-player and singer Bella Gaffney, clawhammer banjo player and singer Kate Griffinand fiddle-player and tunesmith Holly Brandon will be showcasing their June 2020 album, Tidings, and latest single I Will Never Marry, a traditional tale of lost love, handed down from woman to woman over the centuries.
Among the dates will be The Crescent, York, on September 10. Tour tickets are on sale at themagpiesmusic.com.
York exhibition of the week: Matt Bowden’s The Natural Landscape Of Yorkshire, City Screen, York, until September 11
FILM and television location manager and photographer Matt Bowden’s exhibition has re-opened at City Screen, York, after its Covid-enforced premature closure during lockdown.
“Growing up in North Yorkshire, with such natural beauty on my doorstep, meant it was almost inevitable I would develop an appreciation and interest in wildlife from an early age,” says Matt. “My grandfather Eric was a keen bird-watcher, often taking me to local nature reserves for days out, binoculars around our necks.
“But the desire to capture images of wildlife came to me relatively late in life, as my growing interest in photography through my job collided with the joy and fascination I found in the natural world that surrounded me.”
When is The Farewell Tour not the farewell tour? When Pyramus and Thisbe Productions revive Holmes and Watson next month
DOMINIC Goodwin thought he had called time on Stuart Fortey’s Holmes And Watson: The Farewell Tour in 2017, but now his double act with Julian Finnegan will have its miraculous Lazarus reawakening, on tour for 18 dates from September 3 to October 9.
Goodwin once more will play Dr Watson opposite Finnegan’s Sherlock Holmes in Kirkbymoorside company Pyramus and Thisbe Productions’ re-enactment of The Case of The Prime Minister, The Floozie and The Lummock Rock Lighthouse, an affair on whose outcome the security of Europe once hung by a thread.
For full details of a tour with 11 North and East Yorkshire performances, go to: pyramusandthisbeproductions.com