ALLIE Long is the new theatre director at the Grand Opera Houseon her return to the York theatre.
Allie joined ATG Entertainment in 2017 while studying at the University of York, starting in the front-of-house department before progressing through marketing, operational and management roles across the UK.
She completed ATG’s venue management graduate scheme, with placements in London, Glasgow and Stockton-on-Tees, before returning to the Grand Opera House in 2022 as theatre manager.
This was a pivotal year for the Cumberland Street venue that saw capital investment into the building, a venue re-brand and a re-launch that enabled a new trajectory to bring the best of the West End into York, such as Six The Musical, Dear Evan Hanson, Pretty Woman The Musical and Heathers The Musical.
After a year as theatre director at Richmond Theatre, Surrey, Allie took a year of maternity leave when she and husband Joe had a baby boy in 2025.
Now she has returned home to York to take over the leadership in a year when the Grand Opera House will next present Here & Now – The Steps Musical, Lee Mead in Barnum, The Circus Musical, Jodie Comer in a sold-out February 17 to 21 run of Prima Facie and Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile.
Returning to where her career in live entertainment began, Allie is looking forward to leading one of North Yorkshire’s most cherished theatres. “Atheatre like the Grand Opera House is more than a venue,” she said. “It’s a place where careers, like mine, can begin, local talent have a stage to showcase themselves, and stories and theatre craft are shared live on stage.
“I’m proud to champion career pathways in the creative industries here inYork and to share a programme that has something for everyone.”
Kym Marsh’s Hedy clasping Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated Single White Female, playing Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow. Picture: Chris Bishop
“THIS is my villain era,” proclaims Kym Marsh on the eve of her return to the Grand Opera House, York, in Rebecca Reid’s update of Single White Female for the social-media age.
Last time, the former Hear’Say pop singer and Coronation Street soap star took to the dark side as Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical in November 2024, having earlier played Alex Forrest – the Glenn Close role in the 1987 film – on the UK tour of Fatal Attraction in 2022.
Now, in the world premiere tour of Reid’s London tower-block re-boot of the 1992 New York psychological thriller, Kym cuts a more complex figure as Hedy, where the audience will be less sure whether she is friend or foe.
When recently divorced mum Allie (Lisa Faulkner in her first stage role in 21 years) advertises for a lodger to help make ends meet as she juggles childcare with starting a new tech business, enter Kym’s seemingly delightful Hedy, only for the new friendship to take a sinister turn.
“The last few roles I’ve done have been pretty villainous and I love it,” says Kym, whose back story also takes in 13 years as Michelle Connor in Corrie, partnering Graziano Di Primas on the 2022 series of Strictly Come Dancing, a 2023 to 2025 stint as school canteen worker Nicky Walters on Waterloo Road and presenting BBC One’s Morning Live.
Kym Marsh’s Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in November 2024. Picture: Johan Persson
“It’s so easy to play the typical moustache twiddler, but I want to make Hedy a little bit more layered and actually have people be a bit taken aback, unsure if she’s good or bad right up to the last minute and even feeling sorry for her, particularly near the end. So, it is a bit more complex and nuanced than you might imagine.”
After her Fatal Attraction role as obsessed, mentally unstable editor Alex, Kym began discussions over potential further projects. “We came up with the idea of Single White Female because it had never been done before [on stage],” she says.
“It was also within that kind of genre of those epic, classic films that had a real impact on people at that time. So I’ve been attached to it from the start and it’s really exciting: the character of Hedy is so interesting and challenging to play.
“Without giving too much away to anyone who hasn’t seen the film, the character is very complex and, from an acting point of view, it gives me an opportunity to explore so many different places that you don’t necessarily really go to normally.”
Author, journalist and broadcaster Reid’s new stage version of Single White Female is designed to appeal to a new generation, while giving a new perspective to fans of Barbet Schroeder’s original film, refracted once more through the themes of ambition, identity and isolation.
Kym Marsh’s Hedy raises a glass to Jonny McGarrity’s Sam in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop
Reid applies more than a contemporary spin, suggests Kym. “There obviously wasn’t social media back in the ‘90s, but if you know the essence of the plot and what it’s about, it works very well because we see people trying to imitate people’s lives online all the time,” she says.
“We hear about these stories of people ‘catfishing’ and so on, and I think there are elements of that within Single White Female that make it feel up to date, and its themes are even more relevant today than they were then.
“I think the world of social media is a wonderful place, but it’s also to be handled with care, because there is always that element of danger about it. And when you have a character like Hedy, and then you put social media into her hands, it can be tricky to the point of dangerous.”
Will devotees of the Bridget Fonda-Jennifer Jason Leigh screen clash still recognise the Single White Female they know and love – and will they be treated to the iconic stiletto moment – now that Reid has moved the location from a neo-Gothic New York building to a stark apartment tower block near Elephant & Castle in London?
“The essence is very much still the same,” says Kym. “But the story is slightly changed: as well as being more up to date, it’s based in the UK rather than being in America. So there are differences, but the big, important, epic moments are still in there, and it’s very much still a thriller with a real shock factor. We want to have people on the edge of their seats.
Kym Marsh and Single White Female co-star Lisa Faulkner. Picture: Seamus Ryan
“I think people will still very much love the story whether they’ve seen the film or not. As for the iconic stiletto moment, you’ll have to wait and see!”
Her run of stage roles – not least a northern take on tyrannical hostess Beverly Moss in Mike Leigh’s satirical Seventies’ suburban comedy of manners Abigail’s Party in her Royal Exchange Theatre debut in Manchester in April and May – has given Kym a love of the stage while continuing to enjoy her television career.
“I’m so lucky that I am able to enjoy both being in front of the camera and on stage,” she says. “Obviously on stage you get an instant kind of reaction, which is very rewarding. You immediately know how much people are enjoying what you’re doing when you are on stage.
“Television can be very different from that. But there is a real buzz being on stage, you get that atmosphere straight away. And I really like travelling around, seeing different places and some beautiful theatres.
“It’s interesting that everywhere you go, the audience reacts differently to different parts. Then again, in front of a camera you always get to go again.”
Does Kym experience nerves? “Of course I do!” she admits. “Theatre is way more nerve wracking, that’s for sure. My dad passed away last year and I have found myself standing in the wings before I go on stage saying, ‘Come on Dad, come on Dad’.
“I make mistakes and hold my hands up and I think that gives me a girl-next-door feel,” says Kym Marsh. Picture: Nick James
“Because you want to feel that someone is helping you out when you are out there. You really hope that nothing’s going to go wrong, that you give a great performance and people enjoy it.”
Now 49 – she will turn 50 on June 13 – Kym has not stopped working since she auditioned for the TV show Popstars 25 years ago, duly joining the band Hear’Say. “I feel very fortunate and very lucky that I’ve been allowed to have the career that I’ve had and to have been received in the way that I have,” says the Merseyside-born mother of three and grandmother of two.
“I think maybe it’s because I come across as a sincere individual. I’ve never tried to hide anything. I make mistakes and hold my hands up and I think that gives me a girl-next-door feel. Perhaps everyone knows someone a bit like me.
“I was brought up by a family who are very caring and open. My family means everything to me. I absolutely adore my kids and my grandchildren. I think I try to only ever be caring and open, too, when I’m being interviewed or meeting new people, because, to be honest, I don’t know how to be anything else!”
Let it snow, let it snow in Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana. Picture: Snow Johan Persson
THE storm-swelled waters were beginning to recede but the barrier was still in place on the Kings Arms’ door on King’s Staith on Friday night: a weather hazard of the York riverside down the flooded centuries.
That same night – after Wednesday and Thursday’s performances fell foul to cast illness – it was snowing in Havana in Carlos Acosta’s relocation of The Nutcracker to modern-day Cuba.
Snow in Havana? Official records state the only time snow fell in Cuba was in February 1900 in the Sierra Maestra mountain range around Pico Turquino. Not even climate change might change that, but the power of theatrical imagination can.
Cuban-British dance luminary Carlos Acosta CBE, former Royal Ballet favourite, now director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, also directs Acosta Danza in his homeland, where he trained at the National Ballet School of Havana.
His Cuban company is on tour in the dreek UK from October 31 to February 11, turning up the heat on Tchaikovsky/Petipa/Ivanov’s Russian ballet, premiered at the the Mariinsky Theatre, in St Petersburg, Russia, in December 1892.
The story, characters, Christmas setting and transition from house to frosted winter wonderland remain the same, but from set and video designer Nina Dunn’s opening projections of Havana’s Spanish-colonial architecture to Angelo Alberto’s costume designs, from the lush green vegetation to composer and arranger Papa Gavilondo Peon’s Cuban re-boot of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta’s Nutcracker evokes Cuba as much as rum, cigars, vintage 1950s’ cars and the Buena Vista Social Club.
For all that Havana detail – even the flamboyantly moustached mask when the Nutcracker comes alive – Acosta’s choreography is essentially classical ballet, rather than modern, making it the least Cuban transition in the show.
Alexander Varona’s mysterious, magical toymaker Drosselmeyer is the ringmaster, conducting Clara’s wide-eyed journey with sleight of hand and a toreador’s sense of dramatics, as familiar scenes play out in new ways, maybe restricted by the Grand Opera House’s narrow stage, but with humour in toys’ movements and enchantment too.
However, the spectacle (aside from the snowfall scene) and drama fall short of Northern Ballet’s celebrated Christmas staple at Leeds Grand Theatre and Act Two loses momentum.
Dame for a laugh anew: Graham Smith returns to the pantomime stage with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre
A PANTO dame’s return and another’s transformation into a dog top Charles Hutchinson’s cultural picks for early February and beyond.
Pantomime of the week:Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, today, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm
GRAHAM Smith, Rowntree Players’ pantomime dame from 2004 to 2022, pulls on the frocks once more after a three-year hiatus in the York guest house proprietor’s debut for East Riding company Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre.
He plays Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, joined in principal roles by Neil Scott’s King Richard, Toby Jewsen’s Robin Hood, Chris McKenzie’s Little John, Henry Rice’s Will Scarlett, Paul Jefferson’s Friar Tuck, Alison Rosa’s Sheriff of Nottingham and Chloe Jensen’s Maid Marion. Tickets: 07922 443639 or email richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.
Femme Fatale Faerytales: Dark feminist re-telling of age-old classic
A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)
MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.
In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com. Box office: wegottickets.com.
Kym Marsh’s Hedy, left, and Lisa Faulkner’s Allie in Rebecca Reid’s updated version of Single White Female, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York
World premiere tour of the week: Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
SCREEN actress, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, TV presenter, chef and cookery book author Lisa Faulkner returns to the stage for the first time in 21 years in Rebecca Reid’s darkly humorous stage adaptation of psychological thriller Single White Female, now updated to the social-media age.
Faulkner’s recently divorced mum Allie is balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up. When she decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, Kym Marsh’s Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Colour & Light: Illuminating Clifford’s Tower and York Castle Museum from February 4
Illumination launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower, February 4 to 22, 6pm to 9pm
YORK BID is bringing Colour & Light back for 2026 on its biggest ever canvas. For the first time, two of York’s landmark buildings will be illuminated together when York Castle Museum and Clifford’s Tower become a combined stage for a fully choreographed projection show, transforming the Eye of York.
Presented in partnership with York Museums Trust and English Heritage, the continuous, looped, ten-minute show will bring York’s historic characters to life in a family-friendly projection open to all for free; no ticket required.
Matt Tapp’s ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Helen Gallagher’s ‘Calamity’ Jane in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Calamity Jane
Musical of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Calamity Jane, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 4 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
HELEN Gallagher’s tough talkin’, gun-totin’ heroine ‘Calamity’ Jane and Matt Tapp’s former peace-officer ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok lead director Sophie Cooke’s cast for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster’s musical Calamity James.
Deadwood’s citizens are content with their ways of life: supporting their fort of soldiers and socialising at the beloved Golden Garter saloon. However, when a new face blows in from the Windy City to create a stir, friendships will be formed, long-time loyalties tested and perhaps even secret love revealed. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Ancient & modern drama of the week: Wright & Grainger in Helios, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 5, 7.30pm
EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger begin their new partnership with Theatre@41 by re-visiting Helios, wherein a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.
In Wright’s story of the son of the sun god, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city. “It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” he says. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Robin Simpson in rehearsal for Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, premiering at York Theatre Royal Studio
Solo show of the week: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 5 to 14, except February 8, 7.45pm, plus Wednesday and Saturday 2pm matinees
ROBIN Simpson follows up his sixth season as York Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame by playing a dog in York Theatre Royal, ETT and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s premiere of Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture, directed by John R Wilkinson.
Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip, and then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn. While you imagine, emotional support dog Sam (Simpson’s character)will be by your side in a play about empathy – its power and limits and what it asks of us – in a story of our shared past, present and the choices we face today. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for Super Furry Animals’ summer concert at York Museum Gardens
Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens presents Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11
FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from nine albums.
Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be special guests Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn. Tickets for SFA, along with Liverpool’s Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark on July 9 and South Yorkshire ’s Self Esteem on July 10, are on sale at futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.
Super Furry Animals: Playing first concerts in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens headline show
In Focus: Norwell Lapley Productions in Tales From Acorn Wood, York Theatre Royal, February 3 to 5
JULIA Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s beloved Tales From Acorn Wood stories are brought to life in an enchanting lift-the-flap experience where poor old Fox has lost his socks. Are they in the kitchen or inside the clock?
Rat-a-tat-tat! Who’s keeping tired Rabbit awake in a children’s show that also invites you to join in with Pig and Hen’s game of hide-and-seek and discover the special surprise that Postman Bear is planning for his friends.
Rabbit’s Nap in Tales From Acorn Wood
Packed full of songs, puppetry and all the friends from Acorn Wood, this show featuring Fox’s Socks, Rabbit’s Nap, Hide-and-Seek Pig and Postman Bear comes from the team behind Dear Zoo Liveand Dear Santa.
Writer Julia Donaldson says: “I am really happy that the Tales From Acorn Wood are now moving to the stage. Fans of the books are bound to enjoy seeing the four main characters, Fox, Bear, Pig and Rabbit, brought to life through Norwell Lapley Productions’ clever staging.
“Live performance and songs are both very close to my heart and I am sure this production will delight children and families.” Performances: Tuesday, 1.30pm; Wednesday and Thursday, 10.30am and 1.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.Age guidance: One plus.
Gunning for her: A tense moment for Lisa Faulkner’s Allie as Kym Marsh’s Hedy reaches trigger point in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop
LISA Faulkner is returning to the stage for the first time in 21 years to appear in Rebecca Reid’s re-imagining of 1990s’ psychological thriller Single White Female, now re-booted for the social media age.
Next stop on the world premiere’s six-month British and Irish tour will be the Grand Opera House from February 3 to 7 in her first visit to York since enjoying the delights of Bettys tea rooms with her grandparents when she was “very young”.
Actor, television presenter, 2010 Celebrity MasterChef winner, cookery book author, chef and mother Lisa will play recently divorced mum Allie, balancing being a single parent with the launch of her tech start-up.
When Allie decides to advertise for a lodger to help make ends meet, the delightful Hedy offers her a lifeline, but as their lives intertwine, boundaries blur and a seemingly perfect arrangement begins to unravel with chilling consequences.
Taking the role of Hedy on the road from January 9 to June 13 is Coronation Street, Waterloo Road and Abigail’s Party actor, TV presenter and Hear’Say pop singer Kym Marsh, who last appeared at the York theatre as villainous Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical in November 2024.
“I’m so full of joy to be taking on another challenge at 53. I feel very lucky,” says Lisa Faulkner
“I’m delighted to be returning to the stage playing opposite the utterly fantastic Kym Marsh,” says Lisa. “I got chills watching Single White Female in the cinema back in 1992, so it’s a real thrill to be part of this bold new production. I cannot wait to bring this fascinating story to life and keep audiences around the UK on the edge of their seats!”
Kym concurs: “I remember being totally gripped by the movie when I first saw it in the cinema and could never have imagined back then that I’d be starring in the world premiere of its life on stage. Get ready to be thrilled, shocked and entertained – and watch out for those stiletto heels!”
The new stage play, adapted by author, journalist and broadcaster Rebecca Reid, reworks the story from John Lutz’s novel SWF Seeks Same and Barbet Schroeder’s 1992 film (scripted by Don Roos), transferring the setting from a neo-Gothic New York building to a starker apartment tower block near Elephant & Castle in London in 2026.
Allison and Hedra are now named Allie and Hedy as Reid retains the dark humour and suspenseful storytelling in the updated tale of ambition, obsession, and the desperate need for belonging in an isolated world.
“It’s been a long time since I was on stage,” says Lisa. “The rehearsals and first couple of weeks were like, ‘oh my god, I’m doing this’, but it’s lovely to be back. I’m so full of joy to be taking on another challenge at 53. I feel very lucky.
“I really think this [opportunity] came from the sky. I have so many wonderful things I do, but there was a sense of timing to doing this. My daughter [Billie] is 19 and doing her own thing, so I don’t necessarily need to be at home, and also I had a conversation in the late summer with my two best friends about doing a theatre show.
Back in the kitchen, but this time Celebrity MasterChef winner Lisa Faulkner is on stage in Single White Female. Picture: Chris Bishop
“Angela [Waterloo Road actor and director Angela Griffin], suggested I should do a tour, though I didn’t say anything to my agent. But two or three weeks later I received the script for Single White Female.”
At first, Lisa felt reticent to read it. Once she did, however, she “really liked it”. “I said to John [husband John Torode], ‘I think I should do this’,” she recalls.
“I think Rebecca has done a very good job bringing it into the modern age, though also if someone has seen the film, there are some big nods to it, but it’s very different. You don’t have to have seen the film to enjoy the play.”
Describing Allie’s character in Reid’s version, Lisa says: “She’s recently divorced from a really rubbish husband and has moved into her best friend Graham’s apartment with her 15-year-old daughter, Bella. She needs a flatmate – enter Hedy, who answers her social media advert, and that’s when it starts unravelling.
“Bella is on social media too, so there’s a new storyline there, but the stilettos are still there, and so is the lift. Listen out for the screeching lift noise.
“It’s a really fun night out. There are a few jump scares but it’s much more of a ‘popcorn’ scare , and now there’s a message to it about thinking about what you put online, which is something we all have to think about. What’s great about it is that you now have Allie’s story, Hedy’s story, Bella’s story and Graham’s story too.”
Kym Marsh and Lisa Faulkner in the poster image for Single White Female
Single White Female promises to captivate, shock and explore “just how far we would go to find – and keep – a family together”. “I just think there’s so much depth to it, especially a depth of character. Hedy is less one-dimensional now; she has her reasons for being how she is, and she’s very dark, whereas Allie is the light.”
Lisa is performing with Kym Marsh for the first time. “We’ve both been in Waterloo Road but at different times,” she says. “Angela [Griffin] has directed her in Waterloo Road and said ‘you will love working with her’. Kym’s been such a joy and a real support too.”
Lisa conducted this interview on Tuesday while travelling to Cardiff Millennium Centre with husband John Torode [the former MasterChef presenter], and the couple are as busy as ever with their culinary commitments.
“We launched our cooking channel, John And Lisa’s Kitchen And Home, just before Christmas on You Tube, doing the filming for that on my days off, and we have some other stuff coming up,” she says. “We have a John and Lisa cookery range coming out – some lovely pots and pans and utensils – that I’m really excited about.”
Single White Female, Grand Opera House, York, February 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
“Inequality is widening, autocracy is rising and political parties are collapsing,” says political comic Nish Kumar. That’s why the time is right for his Angry Humour From A Really Nice Guy tour
POLITICAL comedian Nish Kumar will play the Grand Opera House, York, on September 23 on his Angry Humour From A Really Nice Guy tour.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am tomorrow (29/1/2026) at https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/nish-kumar-angry-humour-from-a-really-nice-guy/grand-opera-house-york/.
“The world is in chaos,” laments Kumar. “Inequality is widening, autocracy is rising and political parties are collapsing. In these divided times, what this country desperately needs is Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy. (In many ways it’s actually the last thing this country needs, but it’s what it’s getting, so tough luck).”
Pod Save The UK podcast co-host, former host of axed BBC Two show The Mash Report and Late Night Mash, and one of Taskmaster’s greatest losers to boot, Wandsworth-born Kumar has entered his 40s (birthdate August 26 1985). His mind is breaking, his body is worse, “but audiences can still expect existential angst and political disquiet from comedy’s cheekiest boy”.
After blending his trademark high-energy with more personal reflections on mental health and modern life on his Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe tour, now Kumar will “tackle big, uncomfortable questions in a bold, fast-paced and unflinchingly smart new show, delivered with fury, intelligence and warmth”.
Kumar says: “I looked out of the window and the world was ending. Stand-up comedy was the only thing that made sense to me – then it was co-opted by charlatans in service of autocrats. I’m going back on tour to try and reconnect with the thing I love more than anything else. I promise the show will be funnier than this.”
Kumar has appeared on such TV shows as Live At The Apollo, QI, Have I Got News For You, The John Bishop Show, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Russell Howard’s Stand-Up Central, Drunk History and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order.
Nish’s Your Power, Your Control tour show was released as a special on Sky Comedy in 2023 and he made a Netflix special as part of the Comedians Of The World series, as well as joining fellow comic Joel Dommett for Comedy Central’s 12-part travelogue Joel & Nish Vs The World and Josh Widdicombe in Sky Max’s Hold The Front Page. On the radio, he has hosted BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz and BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Newsjack.
His 2026 tour will take in further Yorkshire gigs at Leeds Playhouse, October 3, Hull Truck Theatre, October 9, Octagon Centre, Sheffield, November 13, and Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 14. Box office: www.nishkumar.co.uk from tomorrow morning.
Kara Tointon’s “eloquent and elegant” Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. All pictures: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller
OLIVIER Award winner Laura Wade and Royal Shakespeare Company co-artistic director Tamara Harvey open up W Somerset Maugham’s 1926 comedy of well-heeled manners for re-examination in 2026, upping the female ante while retaining the elegant period setting.
First staged at the RSC’s Swan Theatre last June, Wade’s sparky, sparkly adaptation chimes with her hit play Home, I’m Darling’s focus on gender roles, feminism, relationships and life choices while echoing the in-flagrante shenanigans of her Disney + television take on Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel Rivals.
All while staying true to the sceptical satire of Somerset Maugham, such a perceptive observer of human behaviour, exposing our foibles and failings, our uncontrolled urges, in the mire of the moral maze, where deceit and deception play out in different ways.
Philip Rham’s Bentley at the piano in The Constant Wife
He does so with a mischievous air, lighting the touch-paper, then stepping back and watching the fireworks fly, his input mirrored by Philip Rham’s immaculate, piano-playing butler, Bentley, ever alert, ever on hand with the right word or action, yet stoically detached as the heat rises around him.
Bentley remains unflappable, unhurried, a quality shared by Harvey’s direction that lets Wade’s dry-witted dialogue breathe to maximum comic effect, revelling in the chess game of words that fizz like an Alka-Seltzer in water.
Wade’s impact is more reinvigoration (like Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors update of Goldoni’s Italian farce) than reinvention. Whether using “kid” rather than “child”, or “dot dot dot”, she sometimes veers towards modern idioms, but her take on Somerset Maugham’s characters still exudes the high-society 1920s as much as the Art Deco designs and colours of Anna Fleischle’s set for the London flat of Harley Street doctor John Middleton (Tim Delap) and his wife Constance (Kara Tointon, last seen on a York stage in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House in 2017).
Gloria Onitiri’s gloriously carefree Marie-Louise Durham in The Constant Wife. Picture:
Through gauze, movement on stairways and corridors can be seen, informing the audience of who will be entering, and keeping us one step ahead in the tradition of French farce, although the comedy style is more akin to the drawing-room dramas of Noel Coward (and Oscar Wilde too), played out to Jamie Cullum’s jagged new jazz score.
The year is 1927; Constance’s impetuous interior designer sister, Martha Culver (Amy Vicary-Smith, in height-of-Twenties’ fashion Russian boots) is in heated discussion with their cynical mother, Mrs Culver (Jane Lambert understudying gamely – good voice, but stooped demeanour – for Sara Crowe).
We learn that Constance is deeply unhappy. “Nonsense,” counters her mother in Lady Bracknell mode. “She eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances.”
Tim Delap’s John Middleton and Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton not seeing eye to eye in The Constant Wife
Should they tell Constance that they suspect John is being unfaithful? Enter Tointon’s flapper-dressed, poised, gliding Constance and next her best friend, the whirlwind Marie-Louise Durham (Gloria Onitiri), as Wade front-loads the women in Somerset Maugham’s story.
Spoiler alert, it turns out that Constance already knows of cocksure John’s affair, as the play takes a time-out to go back 12 months to when she walked in John and carefree Marie-Louise without them knowing.
That transition is played out with a directorial and design sleight of hand, as the fireplace, wallpaper and door change to before Martha’s interior re-design (topped off with ‘wallpaper’ rolling down to reveal ‘One Year Earlier’). This is typical of the wit of Harvey’s direction.
Sisters doing it for themselves…in different ways: Amy Vicary-Smith’s Martha and Kara Tointon’s Constance in The Constant Wife
Vicary-Smith’s Martha, by the way, is a fusion of two Somerset Maugham characters, the sister and an interior-designer friend, and it works a treat, as Constance takes up an invitation to join her business (hence the re-decoration).
In Wade’s most striking interjection, she plays an ace card with her use of that very fashionable device, meta-theatre, (first by having Constance and still-besotted former beau Bernard Kersal (Alex Mugnaioni) heading off to watch a play called The Constant Wife, then by Martha recapping what unfolded and unravelled in Act One at the outset of Act Two.
Aside from Bentley at the very start, the men have been held back until the play’s conceit has been established. We judge them through Wade, Harvey and the women’s filter, but they are still given a fair hearing, each tall, dapper, buttoned up and not as clever as they think, whether over-confident John, malleable Bernard or Jules Brown’s cuckolded Mortimer Durham.
Jules Brown’s thoroughly duped Mortimer Durham
Fleischle and Cat Fuller’s costume designs, especially for Constance, Martha and John’s suits, delight as much as the central performances as Somerset Maugham/Wade posit the question of what happens when a wronged woman does not react in the expected way, so much so that everyone else then objects to how Constance has responded (not least in confiding only in Bentley, who has a secret of his own) as she seeks her route to freedom and fulfilment against the conventional tide.
At the RSC production’s core is an outstanding performance by Tointon on her return to the stage after moving to Norway. Her Constance is elegant, eloquent, quick of wit and mind, mischievously humorous, yet serious, a woman in a relationship where they still have love for each other but are no longer in love.
David Pugh & Cunard present the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
A scene from Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Tristram Kenton
CUBAN dance luminary Carlos Acosta’s Havana reinvention of The Nutcracker tops Charles Hutchinson’s latest selection of cultural highlights.
Dance show of the week: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
CAST illness has put paid to tonight and tomorrow’s performances, but dance superstar Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana will still turn up the heat in his modern Cuban twist on the snow-dusted 1892 Russian festive ballet on Friday and Saturday. Built on Cuban composer Pepe Gavilondo’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta moves the celebration of joy, life, love and family to modern-day Havana.
More than 20 dancers from Acosta’s Cuban company Acosta Danza perform the familiar story of a young girl transported to a magic world, but one newly incorporating the culture, history and music of his home country. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Tim Delap’s John Middleton and Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller
Play of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal,until Saturday , 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
SET in 1927, The Constant Wife finds Constance as a very unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother, who insists “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances”.
Played by Kara Tointon, she is the perfect wife and mother, but her husband is equally devoted to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend. Tamara Harvey directs the new adaptation by Home, I’m Darling playwright and Rivals television series writer Laura Wade. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry: Easing worries at NCEM, York
Family show of the week: Mishmash: Ruby’s Worry, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Saturday, 11.30am and 2.30pm
RUBY had always been happy, perfectly happy, until one day she discovered a worry. The more she tries to rid herself of that worry, the more it grows and grows. Eventually she meets a boy who has a worry too. Together they discover that everyone has worries, and that if you talk about them, they never hang around for long! Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry is told through live music, song, puppetry and physical theatre, taking the audience on a delightful musical adventure. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Talent showcase of the week: HAC Studio Bar Open Mic Jan 2026, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS social evening in Helmsley Arts Centre’s Studio Bar offers the opportunity to hear Ryedale musicians and artists perform. The bar will be open serving beer from Helmsley Brewery and Brass Castle Brewery, an assortment of gins, wines from Helmsley Wines and more. There is no need to book to listen or participate, just turn up.
Mountaineer Simon Yates, of Touching The Void fame, has sold out his My Mountain Life talk on Friday at 7.30pm. Box office for returns only: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Femme Fatale Faerytales: Telling Mary, Mary’s contrary tale
A homecoming, a haunting, a holy rebellion: Femme Fatale Faerytales present Mary, Mary, Fossgate Social, Fossgate, York, February 1 and 2, 8pm (doors 7pm)
MARY, Mary quite contrary, wouldn’t you like to know how her garden grows? Step into the fairytale world of Femme Fatale Faerytales as Sasha Elizabeth Parker unveils a dark, lyrical, feminist re-telling of an age-old classic. Part confession, part ritual, part bedtime story for grown-ups, Mary, Mary invites you to meet the woman behind the nursery rhyme in all her wild, untamed, contrary glory.
In her York debut, expect enchanting storytelling, poetic prophecy and a subversive twist on the tales you thought you knew on two intimate, atmospheric nights in one of York’s cult favourite haunts. Box office: wegottickets.com.
Packing in the acts for PAC Comedy Club line-up at Pocklington Arts Centre
Comedy gig of the week: PAC Comedy Club, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 5, 8pm
RICH Wilson, winner of the New Zealand Comedy Festival Best International Act award, tops the PAC Comedy Club bill next Thursday. He has performed at all the major UK comedy clubs, as well in New York and Las Vegas and at the Perth Fringe, Melbourne International Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.
Supporting Wilson will be Jonny Awsum, who shot to fame on Britain’s Got Talent with his high-energy musical comedy, and Yorkshireman Pete Selwood, who specialises in observational material with killer punchlines, introduced by surrealist compere and BBC New Comedian of the Year regional finalist Elaine Robertson. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Yorkshire Gypsy Swing Collective: In full swing at Milton Rooms, Malton
Jazz gig of the week: The Yorkshire Gypsy Swing Collective, Milton Rooms, Malton, February 7, doors, 7.30pm
THIS gypsy jazz supergroup with musicians from all around Yorkshire plays music inspired by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli of the Quintette du Hot Club de France.
The collective of Lewis Kilvington and Martin Chung, guitars, James Munroe, double bass, Derek Magee, violin, and Christine Pickard, clarinet, remains true to Django and Stephane’s spirit while pushing the genre of gypsy jazz forward into a modern sphere. Expect fast licks, burning ballads and even some Latin-inspired pieces. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Liz Foster: Exhibiting at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, from February 12
Exhibition launch: Liz Foster, Deep Among The Grasses, Rise:@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, February 12 to April 10
YORK artist Liz Foster’s new series of abstract paintings, Deep Among The Grasses, invites you into rich, expansive imagined spaces where she explores memory, landscape and the childhood feeling of being immersed in wild places.
Full of colour, feeling and atmosphere, this body of work is being shown together for the first time. Everyone is welcome at the 6pm to 9pm preview on February 12 when Leeds-born painter, teacher and mentor Liz will be in attendance.
Super Furry Animals: Playing first shows in ten years in 2026, including Live At York Museum Gardens
Gig announcement of the week: Live At York Museum Gardens present Super Furry Animals, York Museum Gardens, July 11
FUTURESOUND completes the line-up for its third Live At York Museum Gardens season with Welsh art-rock icons Super Furry Animals, celebrating more than 30 years together with multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, lovingly handpicked from nine albums.
Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuanand Guto Pryce are returning to the concert platform in 2026 for the first time in ten years. Joining them in York will be a quartet of special guests, unconventional kindred spirit Baxter Dury, compatriot indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, fast-rising Nottingham alt-country group Divorce and the Welsh Music Prize-nominated woozy, Sixties-inspired psychedelia Pys Melyn.
Futuresound Group project manager Rachel Hill says:“We’re thrilled to announce Super Furry Animals as the final headliner for our third Live at York Museum Gardens series. None of it would be possible without the collaboration, trust and support of the team at York Museums Trust and being able to put together such an incredible line up for the summer makes us excited for the future of our partnership.”
Kara Tointon as Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle and co-costume designer Cat Fuller
LAURA Wade’s new adaptation of The Constant Wife for the RSC leads off Charles Hutchinson’s latest selection of cultural highlights.
Play of the week: Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal,January 26 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
SET in 1927, The Constant Wife finds Constance as a very unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother, who insists “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances”.
Played by Kara Tointon, she is the perfect wife and mother, but her husband is equally devoted to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend. Tamara Harvey directs the new adaptation by Home, I’m Darling playwright and Rivals television series writer Laura Wade. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Aesthetica Art Prize winner Tobi Onabolu’s Danse Macabre, on show at York Art Gallery
Last chance to see: Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Tense: Art in the Age of Transformation, York Art Gallery, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
YORK arts movers and shakers Aesthetica present two landmark exhibitions, the 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Tense: Art in the Age of Transformation, featuring large-scale immersive installations by prize alumni Liz West and Squidsoup.
On show among work by 25 shortlisted entries are main prize winner, London artist-filmmaker Tobi Onabolu’s exploration of spirituality, mental health and the human psyche, Danse Macabre, and Emerging Prize winner Sam Metz’s bright yellow structures in Porosity, reflecting his sensory experience of the Humber Estuary.
Squidsoup’s Submergence immerses audiences in an ocean of 8,000 responsive LED lights, blurring the line between digital and physical space, while Liz West’s Our Spectral Vision surrounds visitors with a radiant spectrum of colour in a sensory encounter. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk/tickets.
Ceramicist Emily Stubbs, left, and seascapes artist Carolyn Coles showcase their new work in The Sky’s The Limit at Pyramid Gallery, alongside Karen Fawcett’s bird sculptures
Exhibition launch of the week: Carolyn Coles, Emily Stubbs and Karen Fawcett, The Sky’s The Limit, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today until mid-March
SOUTH Bank Studios artist Carolyn Coles and PICA Studios ceramicist Emily Stubbs will be on hand from 11.30am to 2.30pm at today’s opening of The Sky’s The Limit, their joint exhibition with wildlife sculptor Karen Fawcett.
Like Carolyn, Emily has been selected to take part in York Open Studios 2026 on April 18 & 19 and April 25 & 26. Look out too for work by Pyramid Gallery’s Jeweller of the Month, Kate Rhodes, from Hebden Bridge. Gallery opening hours are: 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.
Anna Hale: Killer punchlines, musical flair and spiky resilience in Control Freak at The Crescent on Sunday
Comedy gig of the week: Anna Hale: Control Freak, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
ANNA Hale, comedian, singer-songwriter and unapologetic control freak, likes to write the jokes and the songs, plan the lighting cues and even sell the tickets for her gigs. When life spins out of control, however, can one perfectionist keep the show together, and, crucially, not let anyone else have a go?
Find out when encountering the killer punchlines, musical flair and spiky resilience of the 2024 Musical Comedy Awards Audience Favourite winner’s debut tour show. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Glenn Moore: So many Moore jokes at The Crescent on Tuesday
Show title of the week: Glenn Moore: Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore, The Crescent, York, January 27, 7.30pm (doors 7pm)
EDINBURGH Comedy Award nominee Glenn Moore has written too many jokes again, so expect a whirlwind of punchlines from the Croydon stand-up and presenter on Tuesday. Here comes more and more of Moore after appearances on Live At The Apollo, Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, The News Quiz, Just A Minute and his own BBC Radio 4 series, Glenn Moore’s Almanac. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Snow and frost in Cuba: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana brings heat and ice to the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Johan Persson
Dance show of the week: Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana, Grand Opera House, York, now January 30 and 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
UPDATE 27/1/2025: Cast illness has put paid to January 28 and 29’s performances.
DANCE superstar Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana turns up the heat in his modern Cuban twist on the snow-dusted 1892 Russian festive ballet. Built on Cuban composer Pepe Gavilondo’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s score, Acosta moves the celebration of joy, life, love and family to modern-day Havana.
More than 20 dancers from Acosta’s Cuban company Acosta Danza perform the familiar story of a young girl transported to a magic world, but one newly incorporating the culture, history and music of his home country. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mike Joyce: Tales from his drumming days for The Smiths at Pocklington Arts Centre
On the beat: Mike Joyce, The Drums: My Life In The Smiths, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 28, 7.30pm
DRUMMER Mike Joyce has been asked numerous times, “What was it like being in The Smiths?”. “That’s one hell of a question to answer!” he says. Answer it, he does, however, both in his 2025 memoir and now in his touring show The Drums: My Life In The Smiths.
To reflect on being stationed behind singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr from 1982 to 1987, Joyce will be interviewed by Guardian music journalist Dave Simpson, who lives near York. Audience members can put their questions to Joyce too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The poster for Country Roads’ celebration of Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers et al at York Barbican
Country celebration of the week: Country Roads, York Barbican, January 30, 7.30pm
COUNTRY Roads invites you to a celebration of country superstar royalty featuring such hits as 9 To 5, The Gambler, I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire, King Of The Road, Crazy, Rhinestone Cowboy, Jolene, Dance The Night Away, Walkin’ After Midnight and many, many more as the stars of fellow tribute show Islands In The Stream return in this new production. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Mishmash’s delightful musical adventure Ruby’s Worry, easing worries at the NCEM
Family show of the week: Mishmash: Ruby’s Worry, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, January 31, 11.30am and 2.30pm
RUBY had always been happy, perfectly happy, until one day she discovered a worry. The more she tries to rid herself of that worry, the more it grows and grows. Eventually she meets a boy who has a worry too. Together they discover that everyone has worries, and that if you talk about them, they never hang around for long! Mishmash’s Ruby’s Worry is told through live music, song, puppetry and physical theatre, taking the audience on a delightful musical adventure. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller
KARA Tointon returns to the York stage on Monday for the first time since February 2017.
On that occasion, she appeared as Bella Manningham in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House. Now she takes the title role in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of The Constant Wife at York Theatre Royal.
2010 Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara is starring in Olivier Award winner Laura Wade’s new version of W Somerset Maugham’s sparkling 1926 comedy of ill manners, directed by RSC co-artistic director Tamara Harvey.
“I haven’t done any theatre for a little while, not since I had my second son in 2021, but it doesn’t feel that long as time travels so quickly,” says Kara, 42. “For the last few years, I’ve been focusing on being a mum and moving to Norway in May 2024.
“My partner [Marius Jensen] is Norwegian and has always spoken to the boys [Frey, seven, and Helly, four] in his native tongue and wanted them to understand the language as well as speaking it, so we were spending more and more time there.
Actress Kara Tointon: Back on stage for the first time since having her second son in 2021
“In 2024, because they hadn’t started school yet – they start the year they turn six – we decided to settle in Norway, in the most southern part, where it does get extremely dark by 3.30pm, so you really have to make sure you have your Vitamin D. The sky is so different out there: it’s like nothing you’ve seen over here.”
The Constant Wife returns to Kara to British shores, leading Harvey’s cast from January 16 at The Grand Theatre, Blackpool, to May 16 at Bath Theatre Royal, before embarking on a Transatlantic Crossing aboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.
“I’m back – and it’s a really big role!” says Kara of playing Constance Middleton, who is a deeply unhappy woman in 1920s’ London. “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 may be the perfect wife and mother, but her husband is equally devoted to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend.
“It’s a gift of a part, and I’ve been an avid fan girl of Laura’s work for years, since I saw a friend in her play Posh. She and Tamara are the best of friends, and they’re like a power team [having worked together on Wade’s play Home, I’m Darling]. It’s a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment for me to be working with them. Every time Tamara gives me a note in the rehearsal room, it pushes me to do my best, and that’s exciting,” says Lara.
Tim Delap’s John Middleton and Kara Tointon’s Constance Middleton in The Constant Wife. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic; set and co-costume designer Anna Fleischle; co-costume designer Cat Fuller
“I think what’s incredible with this play is that we’re coming up to 100 years since it was written, but it’s now so relevant that it could be set in 2026, which makes it really relatable. The way Somerset Maugham had written this character as such a powerhouse, she steals the scene in every scene, and it forces us to consider how we make decisions in the moment when sometimes we should take stock.”
In a nutshell, returning home from dropping off her daughter at boarding school, Constance finds her husband disporting himself with her closest friend on the chaise longue. “The play’s about how she deals with that situation, in that pivotal moment, and you think she’s wonderful because she handles it in such a brilliant way,” says Kara.
“It’s incredible that Somerset Maugham wrote such an incredible piece about a female character from a male perspective, and now I’m enjoying being in a room full of female-led vibes, where Laura and Tamara have elevated the play for a modern audience.
“They’ve made the perfect cuts and turned the structure into three parts, where we flashback once, and then we go back to the moment where we left off for the flashback.”
Harvey’s production will be full of 1920s’ style. “When I had the fitting for the gold dress, it felt very, very special. To have something made for you – really made for you – is fantastic,” says Kara. “The sets are fantastic too: it’s a visual feast, so luxurious.”
Kara Tointon in the tour poster for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife
Recalling her experience of reading the first few pages of Wade’s adaptation. Kara says: “I laughed out loud – and that’s a good sign! I would say it’s a comedy, though you wouldn’t say a woman walking in on her husband having an affair should be a comedy, but you find yourself falling in love with these three very strong women in the play with their very different feelings and views.
“You can see that even though they’re very different, they’re very close – and that’s lovely to play, so I would say it’s a comedy with feeling.”
The Constant Wife is billed as a “comedy of ill manners”. “It’s all about humanity,” says Kara. “Everyone is messing up. Even with Constance, no matter how brilliantly she plays it, you could question some of the decisions she makes.
“When we do what we do to survive, everyone has a different way of surviving, and that’s why watching any drama is interesting because it makes you question how you would deal with difficult situations.”
Royal Shakespeare Company in The Constant Wife, York Theatre Royal, January 26 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Also Leeds Grand Theatre, April 13 to 18. 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
