What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 8, from Gazette & Herald

Mark Simmons: Expertly crafted one-liners and off-the-cuff jinks with the audience at Pocklington Arts Centre

FISHING community memories, an abbey light installation and an exhibition addressing loneliness make for a diverse week ahead in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations. 

One-liners of the week: Mark Simmons, Jest To Impress, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm

CANTERBURY jester Mark Simmons won Dave’s Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 with this gag: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it”. Now he follows up his 200-date Quip Off The Mark two-year UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand tour with Jest To Impress, a new show packed with one-liners, alongside his trademark off-the-cuff jokes based on random audience suggestions.

Simmons also hosts the Jokes With Mark Simmons podcast, where he invites fellow comics, such as Gary Delaney, Sarah Millican and Milton Jones, to discuss jokes that, for whatever reason, would not work. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The poster for What The Sea Saw’s fishing stories at Helmsley Arts Centre

Rehearsed reading of the week: 1812 Theatre Company presents What The Sea Saw, Helmsley Arts Centre, Jean Kershaw Auditorium, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm

SET in Scarborough’s Bottom End and capturing the verbatim first-hand testimonies of remaining members of the fishing families, Helena Fox’s new play recounts the tragic events of the 1954 Lifeboat Disaster through the eyes of witnesses, as well as capturing the lost cultures and working practices of the coastal community, including the role of women in skeining and baiting.

Directed by Heather Findlay, the fundraising event for Scarborough RNLI features Stamford Bridge’s Big Shanty Crew’s performance of Scarborough 54. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Imitating The Dog light up Selby Abbey for three days of Selby Light 2026

Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, tomorrow to Saturday, 6pm to 9pm

SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?

Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.

The 20ft Squid Blues Band: Combining 1950s’ Chicago style with 1960s’ blues explosion at Milton Rooms, Malton

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The 20ft Squid Blues Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm

THE 20ft Squid Blues Band, from Sheffield, play upbeat, fast, irreverent blues, combining elements of the 1950s’ Chicago style with the more wayward aspects of the 1960s’ blues explosion.

They mix self-penned songs with numbers made famous by Howling Wolf and Little Walter, while throwing in artists not so obviously from the blues tradition, such as Tom Waits and Prince. Expect eye-popping harmonica, thundering bass, intricate beats and choice guitar. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Nick Doody: Topping Hilarity Bites Comedy Club line-up at Milton Rooms, Malton

Comedy bill of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, Nick Doody, Ed Purnell and Will Duggan, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

IN the first Hilarity Bites bill of 2026, Nick Doody will be joined by Ed Purnell and Will Duggan. Doody first performed as a student in the 1990s when he supported Bill Hicks at Hicks’ request, since when he has performed all over the world and written for Joan Rivers, Lenny Henry, Dame Edna Everage and Mock The Week regulars aplenty.

In a clever spin, Purnell, Ecuador’s numero uno comedian, delivers his set in Spanish with a sprinkling of English, whereupon audiences realise they can understand him without speaking his mother tongue. Duggan is a quick and witty host. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Phoenix Dance: Presenting world premiere of Interplay at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth

Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2pm, 7.30pm

LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!) Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin. 

Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Holly Taymar: Performing the best of Eva Cassidy’s back catalogue at Milton Rooms, Malton

Tribute gig of the week: Holly Taymar Sings Eva Cassidy, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 8pm

YORK singer-songwriter Holly Taymar turns the spotlight on Eva Cassidy, one of the most beloved voices of the 20th century. Revelling in Cassidy’s blend of folk, jazz and blues, she performs renditions of Fields Of Gold, Songbird, Over The Rainbow and Autumn Leaves.

“My show show is not an impersonation,” says Taymar. “It’s a heartfelt homage to an artist who left a lasting impact on my development as an artist and on the world of music.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word: Exhibition collaboration between Hannah Turlington and local and wider community at Helmsley Arts Centre

Exhibition launch of the week: Hannah Turlington, Loneliness Is Not A Dirty Word, Helmsley Arts Centre, March 3 to May 1

LONELINESS Is Not A Dirty Word is a collaboration between artist Hannah Turlington and the local and wider community, involving sessions where participants were invited to share their own experiences of loneliness by creating pieces of visual art in a variety of mediums.

The resulting exhibition aims to create space for the viewer to consider their own narratives of loneliness and reduce the stigma associated with being lonely.

Del Amitri’s Justin Currie, left, and Iain Harvie: Cherry-picking from four decades of songs at York Barbican in November

Gig announcement of the week: Del Amitri, Past To Present UK Tour 2026, November 16

GLASGOW band Del Amitri will open their 17-date Past To Present autumn tour at York Barbican, where core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie will mark four decades of songs, stories and live shows. Ticket will go on general sale on Friday at 9.30am at www.gigsandtours.com, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.

The career-spanning set list will chart their early breakthroughs, classic singles such as Nothing Ever Happens, Always The Last To Know and Roll To Me, fan favourites and recording renaissance after an 18-year hiatus with 2021’s Fatal Mistakes.

More Things To Do in York & beyond as greatest showman shows up & abbey lights up. Hutch’s List No. 7, from The York Press

Child’s play: Andrew Renn, Jon Cook and Jess Murray, back row, with Mark Simmonds and Victoria Delaney in York Settlement Community Players’ Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders

FROM Dennis Potter to Stephen Sondheim, showman  P.T. Barnum to Selby Abbey’s light installation, Charles Hutchinson is spoilt for cultural choice.

Play of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Blue Remembered Hills, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 28, 7.45pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees

FLEUR Hebditch, former Stephen Joseph Theatre dramaturg for a decade, makes her Settlement Players directorial debut with Dennis Potter’s stage adaptation of his 1979 BBC Play For Today drama.

Seven children are playing in the Forest of Dean countryside on a hot summer’s day in 1943. Each aged seven, they mimic and reflect the adult world at war around them, but their innocence is short lived as reality hits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Cole Stacey’s social media posting for his Rise@Bluebird Bakery gig

Folk gig of the week: Cole Stacey, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York tonight, doors 7.30pm

VISCERAL singer-songwriter Cole Stacey weaves together British folk, 1980s’ pop, spoken word and ambient electronics, as heard on last February’s debut album with its symbiosis of “lost” places and forgotten words, stretching back to the 13th century, paired with his lyrical songwriting and field recordings.

“I’d like to invite you to come along with me on the next chapter as I head out to share Postcards From Lost Places in some unique and inspiring settings, beginning in York tonight,” says Stacey. “I loved my time and bread last year playing at Bluebird Bakery, so I’m very delighted to be invited back for an intimate gig in their fully working bakery. It’s a special setting and one I’m thoroughly looking forward to!” Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.

Dnipro Opera in Carmen, on tour at York Barbican

Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera (Ukrainian National Opera) in Carmen, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Dnipro Opera, from Ukraine, performs Georges Bizet’s Carmen in French with English surtitles, accompanied by an orchestra numbering more than 30 musicians. 

Feel the thrill of fiery passion, jealousy, and violence of 19th century Seville in Carmen’s story of the downfall of naive soldier Don José,  who falls head over heels in love with seductive, free-spirited femme fatale Carmen. Whereupon he abandons his childhood sweetheart and neglects his military duties, only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Showman extraordinaire: Lee Mead’s P. T. Barnum in Barnum: The Circus Musical at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith

Touring musical of the week: Bill Kenwright Ltd in Barnum: The Circus Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

MUSICALS leading man Lee Mead plays the most challenging role of his career, stepping into P. T. Barnum’s shoes and on to the tightrope as the legendary circus showman, businessman and politician in Jonathan O’Boyle’s touring production of the Broadway musical.

Mead leads the cast of more than 20 actor-musicians (playing 150 instruments), acrobats and international circus acts as, hand in hand with wife Charity, Barnum finds his life and career twisting and turning the more he schemes and dreams his way to headier heights. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alexandra Mather’s Anne Egerman and Jason Weightman’s Fredrick Egerman in rehearsal for Wharfemede Productions’ A Little Night Music

Sondheim show of the week: Wharfemede Productions in A Little Night Music, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

SET in turn-of-the-20th century Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of love, desire, and regret through Stephen Sondheim’s signature blend of sophistication, humour and hauntingly beautiful music, not least the timeless Send In The Clowns.

Directed by Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ show combines the North Yorkshire company’s hallmark attention to emotional depth, musical high quality and character-driven ensemble storytelling. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, celebrating music from Walt Disney’s animated films at York Barbican

Movie music of the week: Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, York Barbican, February 25, 7.30pm

THE Novello Orchestra’s Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic performance is a symphonic celebration of Disney music, animation and memories, a century in the making, under the direction of creative director Amy Tinkham, music director Giles Martin and arranger and orchestrator Ben Foster. 

Favourite characters and music from across the Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue come to life on the concert hall stage and screen in new medleys and suites on a magic carpet ride through Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Moana, Alice In Wonderland, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Frozen, The Lion King, Fantasia, Encanto, Beauty And The Beast and more. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Homeward bound for Selby Abbey: Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation

Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, February 26 to 28, 6pm to 9pm

SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s  large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?

Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.

Phoenix Dance Theatre in Interplay: World premiere opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday. Picture: Drew Forsyth

Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, February 27, 7.30pm; February 28, 2pm, 7.30pm

LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!), Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin. 

Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Levellers: Levelling The Land anew at York Barbican this autumn

Gig announcement of the week: Levellers, York Barbican, October 29

BRIGHTON folk-rockers Levellers have been among Britain’s most enduring and best-loved bands for nearly 40 years, their success in part built on the anthems that comprised their platinum-selling second album Levelling The Landwhose 35th anniversary falls on October 7.

To mark the occasion, Levellers will head out on a UK and European tour from October 16 to November 21, playing many songs from that album, alongside fan favourites from their extensive catalogue. Hotly tipped Essex punk duo The Meffs will support. Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/levellers-2026/.

There’s no place like this home as Castle Howard goes down the Yellow Brick Road for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz

York actress Maria Gray puts on a dazzling display of green in Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery at Castle Howard. Picture: Tom Arber

CLW Event Design began working on The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz as long ago as January, and now the Yellow Brick Road is stretching through the rooms and corridors of the transformed North Yorkshire country house to dazzling effect.

Headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and York-based Adrian Lillie, working in tandem with Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog, this immersive experience is on the grandest scale yet since Castle Howard first partnered with CLW Design in 2017.

Huge set pieces were fabricated and built on the Castle Howard Estate before being moved into the house in an installation process that took ten days to complete, requiring 30,000 baubles to be put on display, while the creative team has reused and recycled products where possible and favoured more sustainable materials such as paper and glass.

There really is no place like this home, now dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and soundscapes that culminate in the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery, with its life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York and Malton’s  Shambles (or Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley, if you insist).

The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz creative team in the Great Hall at Castle Howard, led by CLW Event Design’s Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie. Picture: Tom Arber

Look out too for Castle Howard’s famous 28-foot Christmas tree that sparkles in the Great Hall, installed by a team of 30 using a specialist forklift and winch system. 

Unique musical compositions accompany each room in the house, alongside the soundscapes that bring the narrative from the original book to life.

The momentum provided by Wicked and now this week’s opening  of Wicked: For Good made The Wizard Of Oz the ideal choice for the 2025 show; momentum further buoyed by Castle Howard receiving the Historic House Restoration of the Year award at Sotheby’s for its 21st Century Renaissance project, topped off by the unveiling of the lost Tapestry Drawing Room.

The journey down the yellow brick road is all the more magnificent for this once-in-a-generation transformation as Castle Howard enters its busiest time of the year, when as many as 100,000 visitors will enter the building: one third of the year’s total, condensed into the Christmas season.

The Wicked Witch of the West in Christmas at Castle Howard with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Picture: Celestine Dubruel

“We’re very much thinking about the house whenever we decide what to do, and this time we’ve gone back to L Frank Baum’s original 1900 story, which seems to fit really well with the house, designed by playwright John Vanbrugh,” says Adrian.

“So some things will be new to you that differ from the 1939 film. Like the slippers being silver, not ruby, and we feature all four witches [whereas the film combined the Good Witch of the North and Glinda the Good Witch of the South into one character, Glinda].

“We’ve also played with colours, so each territory has a tone, such as blue for the Munchkins, yellow for the Winkies [as opposed to green in the Judy Garland film], red for the Quadlings, and white for Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.”

In the original story too, everything looked green in the Emerald City as everyone was equipped with green glasses to look through, another detail acknowledged amid The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz props.

The Wicked Witch Of The West in an Andy Warhol-style portrait in The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz at Castle Howard. Picture: Celestine Dubruel

CLW Event Design continues to set itself ever bigger challenges for the Christmas season, this year expanding its portfolio from three to six sites: Castle Howard, Bamburgh Castle; Kensington Palace, Polesden Lacey, Beaulieu, and Chiswick House.

Castle Howard remains the jewel in the crown. “We are always developing our team, and in the week leading up to Castle Howard, we had 18 people working here, and 23 on the night before we opened, including the Imitating The Dog team,” says Adrian. “What I’m most proud of is that our team has really delivered. I was nervous at the beginning as to whether we could do it, but we’ve pulled it off.”

Charlotte adds: “I have to say the most spectacular achievement is the Emerald City High Street that transforms the Long Gallery into The Wizard Of Oz’s Shambles.”

Detail is important and so is humour, typified by Imitating The Dog’s soundscape. “We do have our Dorothy with a North American accent, but just as we had a Yorkshire-voiced Peter Pan, we now have a Good Witch of the North with a Yorkshire accent,” says Charlotte.

There’s no place like home: Dorothy’s bedroom in The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz at Castle Howard. Picture: Celestine Dubruel

The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz draws on source material aplenty. “There are more than 14, maybe 17 books in L Frank Baum’s series. I got through four books, then I stopped,” says Adrian. “You have to extrapolate and you have to make sure all the magic parts are in there, but it’s good to go back to the roots and look at how it would fit into the house.

“The thing that we were very clear about from the start was that we really wanted to embrace this year’s redecoration of the house to integrate it into our design and we have certainly done that.”

Summing up this year’s wizard show, and the creativity that went into it, Adrian says. “Out of the six Christmas shows that we’ve done this year, this would always be the project that we would be working on up to the last minute. It’s just the scale of this house and our ambition as artists that demands we do that.”

CLW Event Design’s The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz dazzles at Castle Howard, near York, until January 4. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.  

The poster for Christmas at Castle Howard with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz

Christmas at Castle Howard events

Christmas at Castle Howard with the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, in the House, until January 4

Father Christmas in the Castle, in the House, November 22 to December 24

Santa’s Grotto in the Boathouse, December 6 to 24

Oz Twilight Tours, November 28, December 5, December 12 and December 19

Wreath Making Workshops, in the Garden Centre, available selected Thursdays and Fridays, November 20, 21 and 28; December 11 and 12

Christmas Afternoon Tea, in the House, until December 31

Accessible Events

CASTLE Howard is offering an expanded series of accessible events to open The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz immersive experience to even more people, including British Sign Language- interpreted shows and Calm Sessions.

Calm Sessions

Saturday, November 15, 9.30am to 10.30am

Tuesday, November 25, 2.30pm to 3.30pm

Friday, December 19, 5.30pm to 6.30pm

Thursday, January 1, 3.30pm to 4.30pm

BSL Interpreted Session

Saturday, December 13, 11am and 3pm

Follow the Yellow Brick Road through Castle Howard with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Picture: Tom Arber

Touch Boxes

AVAILABLE in select rooms as part of the Christmas at Castle Howard with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz experience. Touch boxes are sensory objects creatively designed to tell the story of the space and are available for anyone who would like to use them as part of their experience. Available to everyone on the day of their visit.

Father Christmas in the Castle

Relaxed performance: Friday, December 19, 6.30pm

Santa’s Grotto in the Boathouse

Relaxed performance: Saturday,  December 6, 4.40pm

BSL-interpreted performance:  Saturday, December 13, 10am

Did you know?

CASTLE Howard has employed 100 additional Christmas staff from the area to facilitate its Christmas event, on top of their year-round staff. They are supported by a team of 200 volunteers too.

Did you know too?

CASTLE Howard  is hosting a Bettys shop in the Stable Courtyard for the duration of the Christmas event, selling confectionery, chocolates, teas and coffees. alongside Castle Howard’s Farm Shop with Christmas food-to-order service, Courtyard Café with seasonal winter menu, Garden Centre selling British-grown Christmas trees and marshmallow fire pit are open too for Christmas shoppers.

And finally

A DOCUMENTARY film crew has followed the Christmas creative team, CLW Event Design, as they prepare Castle Howard’s Christmas experience. The documentary will be broadcast in the Christmas At… spotlight on Channel 4 this winter on December 9.

More Things To Do in York and beyond as the Vikings take over. Hutch’s List No. 7 for February 10 onwards, from The Press

In with a shout: Jorvik Viking Festival returns to York

INVASION? Installation? Theatre innovation? Half-term challenges? Giants and dinosaurs? Yes, yes, yes. Charles Hutchinson signposts what to catch in the days and weeks ahead.

Festival of the week: Jorvik Viking Festival 2024, invading York from February 12 to 18

NOW in its 39th year, Europe’s largest annual Viking festival will be attracting up to 45,000 visitors of all ages over the week ahead. “We’d always advise booking in for some of the activities – including a visit to Jorvik Viking Centre and the Festival Finale – but many have booking slots available on the day too,” advises event manager Abigail Judge.

Family activities include Monday’s smelly, squelchy Poo Day! at DIG, St Saviourgate, from 11am to 3pm; daily Berserker Camp, family crafting and saga story-telling Arena! shows, and a new event, the Best Dressed Viking, Best Beast and Best Beard competitions, on February 18 at 12.30pm in St Sampson’s Square. For tickets and the full programme, visit: jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk

Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia in rehearsal for the Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse co-production of Frankenstein. Picture: Ed Waring

Yorkshire theatre premiere of the week: Frankenstein, Leeds Playhouse Courtyard Theatre, February 15 to 24

PIONEERING Leeds company Imitating The Dog teams up with Leeds Playhouse for a “visually captivating and psychologically thrilling” multi-media exploration of Mary Shelley’s Gothic tale of fear and anxiety, posing the question “what is it to be human?”.

Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia play all the roles across parallel narratives, threading together the late-18th century’ story of Frankenstein with a contemporary conversation between a pregnant young couple, fearful of what it means to bring life into the world. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or  leedsplayhouse.org.uk.

Ironing 1924 style at Nunnington Hall over half-term. Picture: Arnhel de Serra

Half-term family activity of the week: Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, near Helmsley, February 10 to 18, 10.30am to 4pm, last entry at 3.15pm.

TRAVEL back to 1924 this half-term when families can enjoy being tasked with carrying out activities performed by household servants 100 years ago, from ironing to dusting bannisters, cross stitch to flower arranging.  

The National Trust property has created a fun, interactive trail around the manor house in the form of a CV that guides visitors through the various servant skills. Children can find out if they meet the requirements necessary to fulfil the responsibilities of the desired positions, and then decide which roles, if any, they would choose to accept. Tickets: nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall.

Going Wilde in the country: Tiny & Tall Productions and Soap Soup Theatre’s touring production of The Selfish Giant visits Helmsley

Children’s show of the week: Tiny & Tall Productions and Soap Soup Theatre in The Selfish Giant, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 11, 2.30pm

BRISTOL family theatre companies Tiny & Tall Productions and Soap Soup Theatre head north with their collaborative exploration of Oscar Wilde’s children’s story of an unusual friendship, The Selfish Giant.

In this version, the giant Grinter lives happily alone in her huge icy house, shutting out the world that long ago shut her out. Outside, very little greenery is left. One spring day, the children, tired of playing on hard roads and grey rooftops, climb through a chink in her garden walls, changing the course of their lives forever and Grinter’s too. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyartscentre.co.uk.

Jonathan Pie: Hero or villain? Time for a rant at York Barbican

York comedy gig(s) of the week: Jonathan Pie: Hero Or Villain?, York Barbican, February 14 and 15, 7.30pm

FOR the record, ranting political correspondent Jonathan Pie is a fictional character portrayed by British comedian Tom Walker, scripted by Walker and Irish comedian Andrew Doyle. In his latest slice of Pie, he hopes to answer the question: hero or villain?

Join him, on a St Valentine’s Day date or the night after, as he “celebrates the UK’s greatest heroes (nurses/Gary Lineker/24-hour off licence proprietors), takes a verbal blowtorch to its villains (the Tories/cyclists), kicks in the Establishment’s back doors and rifles through its kitchen cupboards”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jurassic Live: Dinosaur adventures on a musical journey at York Barbican

Swimming dinosaur alert: Jurassic Live, York Barbican, February 16, 5pm; February 17, 11am, 3pm; February 18, 1pm

NEW for 2024 in this interactive theatrical dinosaur show is the Tylosaurus, a genus of Mosasaur: the largest predatory marine reptile to ever grace our oceans and now the largest marine puppet ever made as it swims in its gigantic purpose-built Jurassic tank on stage. Be warned: if you sit near the front, you will get wet!

Family show Jurassic Live undertakes a musical journey as little Amber, Ranger Joe and Ranger Nora strive to save the day from an evil man determined to close the Jurassic facility. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Barrie and the Bard: Barrie Rutter discusses Shakespeare’s Royals at the SJT, Scarborough, Salts Mill, York Theatre Royal and Ripon Theatre Festival

Regal tour of the north: Barrie Rutter: Shakespeare’s Royals, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 1, 7.30pm; Arrival Of Spring Gallery, Salts Mill, Saltaire, April 13, 7.30pm; York Theatre Royal Studio, April 26, 7.45pm; Ripon Theatre Festival, Ripon Cathedral, July 4, 7.30pm

BARRIE Rutter, founder and former director of Northern Broadsides, celebrates the Bard’s kings and queens – their achievements, conquests and foibles – with tales, anecdotes and memories from a career of playing and directing Shakespeare’s Royals.

After being told he could never play a king on account of his Yorkshire accent, Hull-born Rutter, now 77, took the revolutionary step of creating his own theatre company in 1992 in Halifax to use the northern voice for Shakespeare’s kings, queens and emperors, not only the usual drunken porters, jesters or fools. As he says on X: “Lover of language. Awobopaloobopalopbamboom – everything else is Shakespeare”. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com; Salt’s Mill, https://bit.ly/RutterAtSalts;  York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Ripon, ripontheatrefestival.org.

In Focus: Art installation Colour & Light, York Art Gallery, going full frontal until February 25

Colour & Light: Art from the York Art Gallery collection spreads over the gallery facade in Double Take Projections’ installation. Picture: York BID/Double Take Projections

YORK BID links up with York Museums Trust for the return of Colour & Light: an innovative project designed to warm up York Art Gallery’s facade in the cold winter with an art-filled light installation by David McConnachie’s Edinburgh company Double Take Projections.

This “high impact and large-scale visual arts project” uses 3D projection mapping to bring York’s iconic buildings to life, first York Minster last year, now York Art Gallery, where the projection will play every ten minutes from 6pm to 9pm daily in a non-ticketed free event. 

Highlighting York’s UNESCO Media Arts status, this outdoor projection is the work of Double Take Projections, who architecturally scanned the gallery facade to generate a 3D model.

This model served as the template for content application. From there, they used multiple projections to create one seamless image by projecting from different angles and wrapping content on the irregularly shaped frontage.

Viewers can notice something new at each viewing, such as York’s skyline being hidden in different mediums or artistic elements of the gallery’s façade that they may not have spotted previously.

The William Etty statue in front of the gallery, in Exhibition Square, has been brought to life too. Born in Feasegate and buried just around the corner from the gallery in Marygate, Etty is York’s most iconic artist.

Considered the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes, Etty’s 19th century paintings were somewhat controversial at the time, but he also played a role in the conservation of the city walls.  His work Preparing For AFancy Dress Ball features in the Colour & Light display.

Not only York Art Gallery’s paintings are highlighted. Spot the reference to the extensive Centre of Ceramic Arts (CoCA) and the two tiled panels on the side of the building, Leonardo Expiring In The Arms Of Francis I and Michelangelo Showing His Moses

Viewers can pick up exclusive Colour & Light merchandise from the Sketch Box for £2 or less while watching the show, as well as churros, soft serve and hot drinks.

Carl Alsop, York BID’s operations manager, says: “This event is all about making world-class culture more accessible, and it’s been brilliant watching the show from Exhibition Square, traditionally a quiet and reserved space, with children playing, dancing and laughing, and people from all backgrounds enjoying the show together.

“It’s also been great to see people discovering some of the less obvious aspects of the projection on a second viewing. Audiences have enjoyed various buildings from York’s skyline reimagined in different mediums, as well as seeing elements of York Art Gallery, like the mosaics on each side of the building, brought to life.”

Richard Saward, York Museums Trust’s head of visitor experience and commercial, says: “We are thrilled to be involved with York BID’s Colour & Light show. This event kicks off a fantastic season at York Art Gallery, including The Aesthetica Art Prize 2024 exhibition and Claude Monet’s painting The Waterlily-Pond, which will be on display in York from May 10 to celebrate the 200th birthday of the National Gallery.” 

Macbeth meets Blade Runner as Imitating The Dog’s witches fuse theatre and video

Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth and Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

THREE mysterious figures enter the stage, talking of the hurly-burly, thunder and lightning and a young couple hell bent on overthrowing the old regime.

Whereupon they conjure the Macbeths, placing them in a dangerous new world ruled by paranoia, betrayal, and brutality.

Something wicked – but not wholly familiar – this way comes in ground-breaking Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s typically audacious retelling of Shakespeare’s “Scottish Play”, on tour at Harrogate Theatre on February 24 and 25.

Retold and directed by Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks, with set and video design by Simon Wainwright and original music by James Hamilton, Macbeth’s tale of ambition, betrayal and downfall is re-booted as a neon noir thriller wherein Shakespeare’s language collides with “startling new scenes, stunning visuals and a powder-keg intensity”.

“Macbeth is an extraordinary play,” says Imitating The Dog artistic director Andrew Quick. “Shakespeare’s exploration of power, ambition, violence and love seems so relevant to today. 

In the flesh and on screen: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth and Benjamin Westerby’s in Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“We’re excited to be bringing Macbeth to Harrogate Theatre in a unique take on the original play, a Macbeth as you have never seen before, but still with Shakespeare’s story at its heart.”

Fusing live performance with digital technology for 23 years, latterly in Night Of The Living Dead ™ –  Remix and Dracula: The Untold Story, Imitating The Dog turn to Shakespeare after staging Cinema Inferno for the Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela, based on an original concept by creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2022 collection.

“We started off with Romeo & Juliet, working on a version for two actors in their 60s or 70s,” says Andrew. “We did some research, but it felt like a one-idea show that we couldn’t commit to.

“But Macbeth was a play we really liked, and there’ve been a lot of film versions, with two recent ones [Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth, from 2021, and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, from 2015] still fresh in the mind. So, we thought, ‘if we can’t do Romeo & Juliet, let’s do Macbeth’.”

As a contrast with Denzel Washington and Michael Fassbender’s older Macbeths in those two films, Imitating The Dog settled on two young leads (played by Benjamin Westerby, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maia Tamrakar, from Sheffield Crucible’s Rock, Scissors, Paper).

“Out, damned spot; out, I say”: Maia Tamrakar’s Lady Macbeth, filmed by Laura Atherton, who plays one of the witches in Imitating The Dog’s Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“In our adaptation, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are 18-19 years old; they’re kids really, street kids,” says Andrew.

“We’ve set it in a kind of parallel world, a version of London that’s a cross between Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles and London, with a Blade Runner feel to it. Duncan [the king in the original] is a crime lord; Macbeth seizes the moment, suddenly being thrown into the spotlight when he becomes second in line to Duncan, who starts thinking, ‘ooh, this kid is a bit much’.

“When Macbeth murders him, it’s not just about ambition but self-protection, because though he feels he’s really good at his job, he also feels that if he doesn’t kill him now, he could get done in.”

As played by Stefan Chanyaem, Matt Prendergast (from Dracula:The Untold Story) and Laura Atherton (from Night Of The Living Dead™ – Remix), the witches/shape shifters set up the story in Imitating The Dog’s version, playing everyone bar the Macbeths, who have “fallen into this world that is testing them”.

“The witches are like clowns in suits, these grotesques, who do all the live filming on stage, with Macbeth always being filmed close-up, giving almost a forensic quality to the piece, adding to the psychological drama,” says Andrew.

That world is constructed with 70 to 30 per cent division between original text and new text with hints of the Russian, Italian and Japanese language: “little traces of those argots”, as Andrew puts it. “It’s a cosmopolitan city that is multi-racial, international, like lots of big cities nowadays. “It’s a city that the witches set up and the Macbeths descend into,” he says.

Imitating The Dog’s cast of five in a scene from Macbeth. Picture: Ed Waring

“In the back story, they were orphaned when growing up, and Macbeth is looking after her, more like a brother and sister rather than lovers.

“The challenge was: could we make the Macbeths lovable or at least understandable; make them human, whereas Shakespeare’s Richard III is more of a monster under all that Tudor propaganda of the time.”

Exploring the “challenge” further, Andrew says: “Whether you can really like them or not, I don’t know, but I think you can understand their motives in a very brutal world. The Macbeths do things that are terrible, they use extreme violence, like killing Lady MacDuff and the MacDuff children, but we’re not only interested in a story of power and ambition but the context in which that arises too. Right now, looking at monarchy and power feels very relevant.

“In this very violent world, the Macbeths’ love for each other is very important, with everything that Macbeth does being rooted in his need to protect Lady Macbeth. He’s always questioning, always doubting, always reassessing what he should do next, and what’s great about the play is that Shakespeare gives him humanity despite what he’s doing.”

A further reference point is Arthur Penn’s 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. “Even though they do these terrible things, there’s something very attractive about them – and once they start, they have to keep going,” says Andrew.

Imitating The Dog in Macbeth, Harrogate Theatre, February 24 at 7.30pm; February 25, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Further Yorkshire dates: CAST, Doncaster, February 21 and 22, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, 01484 430528 or thelbt.org.

Benjamin Westerby’s Macbeth in rehearsal for Macbeth

Copyright of The Press, York

Horror at the double: Dracula: The Untold Story and The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Rhian Duce as Mina Harker in Imitating The Dog’s Dracula: The Untold Story. Picture: Ed Waring

REVIEW: Dracula: The Untold Story, Imitating The Dog/Leeds Playhouse, Courtyard Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, until Saturday, then touring until November 13; The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Tilted Wig Productions, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, then touring into 2022. Box office: Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.uk; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

THE horror! The horror! O’ the contrasting horror of two new accounts of vintage horror stories, as re-envisioned respectively by perennially cutting-edge Leeds company Imitating The Dog and Philip Meeks, life-long fan of horror and the weird, prolific playwright and pantomime dame.

Last time out, forever in pursuit of marrying technology and theatre in inventive, ingenious harmony, Imitating The Dog set themselves the digital task of re-creating George A Romero’s cult 1968 Zombie movie Night Of The Living Dead – Remix, frame for frame, on stage and screen in synch with the original footage being shown simultaneously. Breathless, breath-taking, dead brilliant.

From one restless story of the undead to another: the Victorian gothic horror of Dracula, here presented as The Untold Story, the story as re-told from Mina Harker’s viewpoint on New Year’s Eve 1965 at a London police station, as she turns herself in, the last surviving witness of Count Dracula’s destruction 70 years earlier.

Not seen since 1901, she should be 90, but as she confesses to a murder spree over those intervening years, Riane Duce’s Mina looks young, in her 20s. No wonder, Adela Rajnović and Matt Prendergast’s midnight-shift police officers appear so sceptical, even more so when vigilante Mina reveals her supernaturally powered capacity for self-healing and clairvoyance have sustained her through terminating the likes of Mussolini and Hitler before they could wreak their havoc.

All this is delivered with both verbal and visual wit by directors Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks, the outstanding Duce and the multi-role playing Imitating The Dog veterans Rajnovic and Prendergast, with an economy of words to fit into the bubble spaces that graphic novels use.

Ah, the graphic novel: the pop-culture artform that fuels the latest hi-tech innovation of Imitating The Dog’s co-production with Leeds Playhouse. Just as Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s neo-noir thriller Sin City brought the graphic form to cinematic life, so Dracula: The Untold Story is now staged as a live graphic novel cum detective thriller.

Mixed-media theatre took a long time to settle, whether in the pioneering work of Imitating The Dog or York company Pilot Theatre, with words prone to playing second fiddle to the tricksy technology.

Now, however, the sight of actors working cameras on stage, or bending into unusual positions in front of blue screens to appear together, as if by magic, in the graphic novel in motion, no longer has any sense of distraction or gimmickry compromising the live performance.

This is live theatre-making gloriously embracing new possibilities in a constant flow between 2D and 3D, as the cast performs to both camera lens and audience, the visual experience further enhanced by the use of face-recognition technology for the characters being projected on screen.

Dracula: The Untold Story is thrillingly bravura, yet entirely coherent 21st century storytelling, at once pulp fiction in style yet deeply psychological too, still gothic but ultra-modern, humorous yet haunting. Sinking their ever-sharper teeth into Dracula, Imitating The Dog keep on breaking new ground.

Bill Ward and Wendi Peters in The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Philip Meeks’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is a horror story too, but not of the kind intended. Washington Irving’s gothic story from 1820 runs to only 24 pages and should take the average reader 86 minutes to consume at 250 words per minute. Meeks’s play stretches to over two and a quarter hours, and when town teacher Ichabod Crane (Sam Jackson) mocks the legend for being boring, alas audience heads could be seen nodding in agreement.

At the interval, bewildered expressions were commonplace, as first-night attendees sought mutual guidance as to what was going on, a failing of storytelling amid Meeks’ proliferation of florid words and fanciful ideas.

Neither he nor director Jake Smith has settled on a tone or style, caught in a no man’s land between the earnest, the arch, the knowing, and the quagmire of strangely unfunny schlock-horror comedy ripped from the Hammer House playbook, with sporadic folk-dance stomping and religion-bashing to boot. Imagine a cross between Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man, topped off with a gay love story.

The acting is uneven; Wendi Peters’ Widow Mariette Papenfuss, with her gobby parrot, surpasses all around her; fellow Coronation Street big-name Bill Ward hams up Baltus Van Tassel; Jackson’s Ichabod is like a man under water forever trying to reach for the surface; Lewis Cope’s buff blacksmith Brom Van Brunt keeps removing his shirt, as if he has escaped from Heathers The Musical; Tommy Sim’aan’s Joost De Groot and Rose Quentin’s Katrina Van Tassel need better material.

Amy Watts’s set design could be a Bruegel painting but feels lifeless by comparison, while you wish for more of Filipe J Carvalho’s illusions amid the overall delusion and want of suspense.

In the desire to be magical and monstrous, spunky and spooky, everything has the feel of running around like a headless horseman, although “running” is not the right word.

“Don’t pass by. Stay Forever,” comes the never-to-be-repeated invitation to Sleepy Hollow. But what is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? You better ask Philip, although on second thoughts…

Imitating The Dog tell Dracula: The Untold Story, via Mina Harker in 1965 London

She did it her way: Mina Harker recounts her version of events in Imitating The Dog’s Dracula: The Untold Story

IMITATING The Dog directors Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks are staging their production of Dracula: The Untold Story as a live graphic novel.

Their new high-tech hybrid play is inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic gothic horror novel but, in an interesting twist, is told from the perspective of Mina Harker: “in many ways an archetypal late-Victorian woman in the book, but a modern heroine –  some might even say vigilante – on stage,” they suggest.

Running at Leeds Playhouse until October 9 at the outset of a tour to November 13, the co-production with the Playhouse combines cutting-edge digital technology with live performance.

Leeds company Imitating The Dog have made this theatre technique their own, not least in Night Of The Living Dead – Remix,  their 2020 co-production with Leeds Playhouse wherein they lovingly recreated George A Romero’s cult zombie film frame-by-frame live on stage. 

Graphic novels have always influenced Imitating The Dog’s work, where the pulp narratives of detective, sci-fi and horror fiction has provided rich source material for their big screen projections and live camera work.

For Dracula: The Untold Story, they also are utilising the latest face recognition technology to create live, large-scale graphic novel layouts that switch seamlessly between 2D and 3D as the pages turn and the three-strong cast explores – and updates – the classic yarn.  

No longer a 19th century gothic tale, Imitating The Dog’s brash, vivid and fast-moving play is set in Sixties’ London, with pared-back dialogue and bursts of action that will “grab audiences by the throat and not let go”. 

Head back to New Year’s Eve, 1965, London, England. Just before midnight, as revellers celebrate the beginning of another year, a young woman enters Marylebone Police Station and confesses to a brutal murder.  

She claims to be Mina Harker, the last living survivor of the intrepid group that witnessed Count Dracula’s destruction 70 years before. But Mina Harker has not been seen since 1901.  And if she was alive, she would be ninety years old.

As Mina confesses to events that are much more terrifying than in the original, she retells the events of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. She claims it is the true story. The untold story. And she must tell it now, before sunrise, before it’s too late, before…October 9, if you want to see it in Leeds. 

Tickets are on sale on 0113 213 7700 or at leedsplayhouse.org.

Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse combine horror movies and carnivals in thriller Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show

Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse in the dress rehearsal for Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show

IN the wake of their stage recreation of George A. Romero’s classic zombie movie Night Of The Living Dead ™- Remix, Leeds company Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse are joining forces again from tonight to stage the première of the raucous and deliciously dark new tale Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show. 

This show will play as part of Leeds Playhouse’s reopening season of work, designed to safely reintroduce audiences to the live theatre experience,  showcasing the vibrancy and resilience of the artists and venues creating work within the Leeds City Region.

Directed and written by Imitating The Dog’s co-artistic directors Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks,  Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show will open outside Leeds Playhouse on Playhouse Square tonight and tomorrow and will then tour until October 24.

Imitating The Dog bring their theatrical and technical acumen to this unique outdoor live theatre experience. Their innovative story-telling skills will create this dark tale of mischief and immorality, drawing on classic horror movies and the traditions of carnival and medicine shows.

Set in a mythical North and made for these strange times of lockdown, Dr Blood and his motley crew tell a tale of the price paid for pursuing ambition, hypocrisy, and greed.

Imitating The Dog co-director Andrew Quick says: “It’s a strange time to be making a new show but we are really looking forward to meeting the new challenges of creating work in the present conditions.

“We felt it was important to keep going and create a piece that was not only magical and entertaining but will abide by social distancing guidance and be COVID 19 safe. It will be a challenge to make but it is a hugely entertaining production that is scary in parts but also full of fun, with some deep and dark themes running through it.

“We’ll be using screen and camera technologies for which we are known and I just can’t wait to share with audiences and venues like Leeds Playhouse that have supported us over the past decade and for us all to come together and experience all the joys of live theatre outdoors.”

Leeds Playhouse artistic director James Brining says: “We are working together with all our theatre partners to make sure that everyone who is coming back to watching live theatre does so in a safe environment.

“It is fantastic to see artists and theatre companies who throughout this time have grabbed the opportunity to create new work and explore different ways to entertain an audience. We are thrilled to be working once again with Imitating The Dog, who are constantly looking at new ways to create theatre and, in this case, will showcase the beautiful new space on Playhouse Square.”

The production’s creative team will feature design by Laura Hopkins (Black Watch and Peter Pan, National Theatre of Scotland; The Divide, Edinburgh International Festival and The Old Vic, and projection and video design by Simon Wainwright (Night Of The Living Dead ™- Remix, Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse and The Kid Stays In The PictureRoyal Court).

Lighting is by Andrew Crofts (Night Of The Living Dead ™- Remix, Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse and Trash Cuisine, Belarus Free Theatre and The Young Vic); original music has been composed by James Hamilton and models made by Matthew Tully.

After Leeds Playhouse, further Yorkshire performances follow at The Courtyard, Piece Hall, Halifax, on October 9 and 10. Plans are afoot to release a filmed version for streaming: watch this space for more details

In line with current Government guidelines, audiences will have a limited capacity with social distancing in place. To check ticket availability for Leeds Playhouse, go to leedsplayhouse.org.uk.

All ticket proceeds from the tour will go to support the tour venues during the lockdown.

Zombie alert! Imitating The Dog’s Night Of The Living Dead – Remix re-surfaces online

Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse in their shot-for-shot remix of Night Of The Living Dead

“THEY’RE coming to get you, Barbara”… from tomorrow morning at 10am when Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse launch the online premiere of their hit 2020 co-production of Night Of The Living Dead – Remix.

In 1968, Night Of The Living Dead started out as a low-budget George A Romero indie horror movie telling the story of seven strangers taking refuge from flesh-eating ghouls in an isolated farmhouse.

Fifty years on, seven performers enter the stage armed with cameras, a box of props and a rail of costumes. Can they recreate the ground-breaking film, shot for shot before our eyes, using whatever they can lay their hands on?

Set the task of re-enacting 1,076 camera edits in 95 minutes, they face an heroic struggle. Knowing success demands wit, skill and ingenuity, what could possibly go wrong?

Imitating The Dog’s poster for their Leeds Playhouse co-production of Night Of The Living Dead – Remix

In their 2020 stage production, Leeds masters of digital theatre Imitating The Dog create a love-song to the cult Sixties’ film in a re-making and re-mixing with a new subtext that attempts to understand the past – the assassinations of JFK, MLK and Robert Kennedy – in  order not to have to repeat it. 

Staged in the Courtyard at Leeds Playhouse from January 24 to February 1, their version is in turns humorous, terrifying, thrilling, thought-provoking and joyous. Above all, in the re-telling, Night Of The Living Dead – Remix  becomes a searing parable for our own complex times.

Presented by courtesy of Image Ten, Inc, Night Of The Living Dead– Remix can be watched online at imitatingthedog.co.uk/watch from 10am tomorrow (April 17). For a behind-the-scenes video, go https://vimeo.com/386234875