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More Things To Do in York and beyond from September 21 onwards. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 39, from The Press, York

Kate Hampson in the matriarchal role of Marmee in York Theatre Royal’s production of Little Women. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

GARDEN ghosts, a coming-of-age classic, a political groundbreaker, astronaut insights and an awful aunt stir Charles Hutchinson into action as autumn makes its entry.  

Play opening of the week: Little Women, York Theatre Royal, September 21 to October 12

CREATIVE director Juliet Forster directs York Theatre Royal’s repertory cast in Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age story of headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy as they grow up in New England during the American Civil War.

Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, the production features Freya Parks, from BBC1’s This Town, as Jo, Ainy Medina as Meg, Helen Chong as Amy and York actress Laura Soper as Beth. Kate Hampson returns to the Theatre Royal to play Marmee after leading the community cast in The Coppergate Woman. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Steve Wynn: A night of stories and songs at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb. Picture: Guy Kokken

York gig of the week: Steve Wynn, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Night Of Songs And Stories, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, September 21, 7.30pm

STEVE Wynn, founder and leader of Californian alt. rock band The Dream Syndicate, promotes his first solo album since 2010, Make It Right (Fire Records), and his new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (Jawbone Press), both released on August 30.

Touring the UK solo for the first time in more than ten years, his one-man show blends songs from and inspired by the book with a narrative structure of readings and storytelling. Expect evergreens and rarities from The Dream Syndicate’s catalogue, coupled with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new record. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Ghosts In The Garden: Returning for fourth season with more locations and more wire-mesh ghosts. Picture: Gareth Buddo/Andy Little

Installation of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, haunting York until November 5

GHOSTS In The Gardens returns with 45 ghosts, inspired by York’s past, for visitors to discover in the city’s public gardens and green spaces, with the Bar walls, St Olave’s Church and York Railway Station among the new locations.

Organiser York BID has partnered with design agency Unconventional Design for the fourth year to create the semi-translucent 3D sculptures out of narrow-gauge wire mesh, six of them new for 2024. Pick up the map for this free event from the Visitor Information Centre on Parliament Street and head to https://www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-in-the-gardens/ for full details

Points Of View, stainless steel, by Tony Cragg, at Castle Howard. Picture: Nick Howard

Last chance to see: Tony Cragg’s Sculptures, Castle Howard, near York, ends September 22

TONY Cragg’s sculptures, the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist to be held in the grounds and house at Castle Howard, closes on Sunday after a successful run since May 3 that has seen a 12 per cent rise in visitor numbers since the equivalent period last year.

On show are large-scale bronze sculptures in the gardens plus works in wood, glass sculptures and works on paper, some being displayed for the first time in Great Britain. Opening hours: grounds, 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm; house, 10am to 3pm. Tickets: 01653 648333 or castlehoward.co.uk.

Making her point: Lauren Robinson as politician Jennie Lee in Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography

Political drama of the week: Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 22, 4pm to 6pm

IN Marsden company Mikron Theatre’s premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not even vote for herself.

Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Scotland and fought with her every breath for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. She was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.

Crime novelists Ajay Chowdhury, left, and Luca Veste team up for The Big Read in York and Harrogate on Monday

Book event of the week: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival presents The Big Read, Acomb Explore Library, York, September 23, 12.30pm to 1.30pm; The Harrogate Inn, Harrogate, September 23, 2.30pm to 3.30pm

THE North’s biggest book club, The Big Read, returns next week with visits to York and Harrogate on the first day, when visitors can meet the festival’s reader-in-residence, Luca Veste, and fellow novelist Ajay Chowdhury, who will discuss Chowdhury’s Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year, The Detective.

More than 1,000 free copies of tech entrepreneur, writer and theatre director Ajay Chowdhury’s 2023 novel from his Detective Kamil Rahman series will be distributed across the participating libraries. Entry is free.

Astronaut Tim Peake: Exploring the evolution of space travel at York Barbican

Travel show of the week: Tim Peake, Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space, York Barbican, September 25, 7.30pm

BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake is among only 610 people to have travelled beyond Earth’s orbit. After multiple My Journey To Space tours of his own story, he makes a return voyage to share stories of fellow astronauts as he explores the evolution of space travel.

From the first forays into the vast potential of space in the 1950s and beyond, to the first human missions to Mars, Peake will traverse the final frontier with tales of the experience of space flight, living in weightlessness, the dangers and unexpected moments of humour and the years of training and psychological and physical pressures that an astronaut faces. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Neal Foster’s Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni’s Stella in Birmingham Stage Company’s Awful Auntie at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet

Children’s show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in Awful Auntie, Grand Opera House, York, September 26 to 29

CHILDREN’S author David Walliams and Birmingham Stage Company team up for the fourth time. Ater adaptations of Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist, here comes actor-manager Neal Foster’s stage account of Awful Auntie.

As Stella (Annie Cordoni ) sets off to visit London with her parents, she has no idea her life is in danger. When she wakes up three months later, not everything Aunt Alberta (Foster) tells her turns out to be true. She quickly discovers she is in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie! Suitable for age five upwards. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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If you have never heard of Jennie Lee, this is the play for you, playing Clements Hall on Sunday afternoon in York

Lauren Robinson in the role of Labour MP Jennie Lee in MIkron Theatre’s world premiere of Lindsay Rodden’s Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography

JENNIE LEE is “the radical MP you have never heard of”, until you venture out to Mikron Theatre Company’s world premiere of Lindsay Rodden’s play at Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, on Sunday afternoon.

Marianne McNamara directs a cast of actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens and Marsden company debutants Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson, and Mark Emmons in Jennie Lee, a play with original songs, wherein writer-lyricist Rodden charts the extraordinary life of the groundbreaking  Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP at 24, so young that, as a woman aged under 30 in 1929, she could not even vote herself.

Tenacious, bold and rebellious, Lee left her coal-mining family in Cowdenbeath and fought with her every breath as the Labour MP for North Lanarkshire for the betterment of all lives, for wages, health and housing, and for art and education too, as the first Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University. Oh, and she was the wife of NHS founder Nye Bevan, but Jennie is no footnote in someone else’s past.

Alongside this formidable couple, Sunday’s audiences will meet Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and a whole host of other characters in a typically entertaining, enlightening and educational show by Mikron, peppered with songs by Sonum Batra in the music hall and Twenties’ Flappers style.

Jennie Lee: Labour MP for North Lanarkshire at 24. Picture: Open University Archive

Introducing her premiere, Lindsay Rodden says: “When I first decided to find out about the remarkable life of Jennie Lee, I knew very little about her. I knew about her commitment to bettering the lives of her class, how striking and fascinating she seemed, and that she was usually known, if she was known at all, as the wife of Aneurin Bevan.

“What I didn’t know then was that this daughter of a coalminer, who became an MP at an age when, as a woman, she couldn’t even vote herself, lived a long and fascinating life, bore witness to all the horror and pride of the 20th century, and made history herself.”

Lindsay continues: “Her life was full of drama and theatre, and I knew I had to put it on the stage. In fact, I could have written three plays from her 88 years of struggle and triumph, and telling her story with a cast of just four – luckily supremely talented! – actors has been quite the challenge.

“Jennie faced down Churchill in the Commons on her first appearance, she travelled all over the world, and she gave us the Arts Council and the Open University as we know them. She was clever, erudite, stylish and funny, stubborn and sharp too. I wish I had known her. Putting her on the stage is the next best thing.”

Jennie Lee playwright Lindsay Rodden

Lindsay was delighted to be invited to write a second play for Mikron after her evocation of the wild and wonderful world of the weather, Red Sky At Night, toured nationwide in 2022.

“It was about six months after the tour that Marianne and I were talking about ideas for the future, and I said I’d love to do another play but with a different approach as one of the things that Mikron is really good at is shining a light on the corners of history that have been ignored,” she says.

Jennie Lee would be that subject, by chance coinciding with Tim Price’s premiere of Nye, the story of Nye Bevan’s dream of the NHS, at the National Theatre, London. “And apparently there’s also going to be another play about Jennie Lee in Scotland towards the end of the year [Matthew Knights’ Jennie Lee: Tomorrow Is A New Day, produced by Knights Theatre]. It’s fantastic that she’s featuring in three plays in one year – and about time too. Her life was so long and so eventful, she really needs three plays to even scratch the surface.”

Mikron is a suitable vehicle for telling Jennie’s story, she says. “There’s something about the Mikron performance style that realty lends itself to leaping on this rollercoaster ride through 80 years, the incredible unfolding of the 20th century, with such zip and music too.

Mikron Theatre Company’s cast of Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmons in Jennie Lee. Picture: Robling Photography

“But there’s no way we could tell every aspect of her life, but one thing I decided not to do was concentrate on her relationship with Nye – they married when she was 24 and he was 31 – though he is in the play.”

Lindsay notes how Jennie was encouraged to become involved in politics through her education. “Her parents decided to set her free from housework and the kitchen to go to university, so that nurturing of her mind began very early on. I could see where the roots everything she achieved came from.

“She grew up with poverty all around her, seeing the treatment of women around her, the terrible health problems that arose from that and the terrible difficulties in finding medicine to deal with those problems. We should all be proud of what Jennie achieved for better health and education.”

Mikron Theatre Company in Jennie Lee, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, Sunday, 4pm to 6pm. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/jennie-lee-clements-hall.

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Mikron head for Scarcroft Allotments with Common Ground, Poppy Hollman’s hike through history of land access

Mikron Theatre cast members Mark Emmons, left, Lauren Robinson, Georgina Liley and Eddie Ahrens in Poppy Hollman’s Common Groud. Picture: Robling Photogrpahy

GRAB boots and a waterproof on Sunday afternoon for a meander to Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, for Mikron Theatre’s outdoor performance of Common Ground.

In their 52nd year, the Marsden company will be touring by canal, river and land throughout the summer with the premiere of Bedfordshire writer and lyricist Poppy Hollman’s third play for Mikron.

This one takes a hike through the history of land access in England – where only eight per cent of land is designated “open country” – at a time when the right to roam and the legal right to access are hot topics amid press stories of the “paywalling” of Cirencester Park and “Access Islands”.

Directed by Gitika Buttoo, Poppy’s outdoor drama tells the tale of the fictional Pendale and District Ramblers, who are looking forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary walk, only to discover that the landowner has blocked the path.

How will they find their way through? Mikron actor-musicians Eddie Ahrens, Georgina Liley, Lauren Robinson and Mark Emmons have to navigate this thorny subject matter with originally composed songs, witty lyrics, silliness, hat swapping and gusto.

Common Ground playwright and lyricist Poppy Hollman. Picture: Molly Hollman

Expect “plenty of laughs and pathos in this look at how we got to where we are now and where we might go next”. The ramblers’ quest for freedom and fresh air will not be easy, as they encounter revolting peasants, wandering sheep and a bull.

“This is my third commission for Mikron and it’s taken me on a wild ramble,” says Poppy. “From Saxon Times to Kinder Scout and beyond, the play explores our connection to the countryside around us. Who is it for, and why should we care?

“As the Right to Roam movement gains ground and there’s growing awareness of the importance of green spaces for our mental and physical health, it felt timely to explore how we access our countryside. The play delves into history to point out how access has been removed from ordinary folk over the years, from the Norman Conquest to the Enclosures Movement and contested Rights of Way.”

Director Gitika Buttoo, who directed A Force To Be Reckoned With for Mikron last year, says: “I’m so excited to be working with Mikron again for a second year running! It’s been a joyous experience working closely with the uber-talented Poppy Hollman on such an important subject matter.”

Ahrens returns from Buttoo’s company for A Force To Be Reckoned With, joined by Mikron debutants Liley, Robinson and Emmons.

Georgina Liley and Eddie Ahrens in a scene from Common Ground. Picture: Robling Photography

The touring production is designed and costumed by Celia Perkins, with musical composition by Dan McGlade (Macbeth and Twelfth Night for Leeds Playhouse) and musical direction and arrangements by Rebekah Hughes (Twitchers for Mikron; The Great Gatsby for Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre).

Mikron are touring by narrowboat and van from May 10 to October 18, no venue too small, as they head to 137 locations in 2024. More than half the performances will be “pay what you feel” after the show, rather than ticketed, and every performance has integrated audio description.

Common Ground is touring in tandem with the premiere of Jennie Lee, Lindsay Rodden’s new play charting the extraordinary life of the radical Scottish politician, Westminster’s youngest MP, so young that, as a woman in 1929, she could not vote.

Mikron Theatre in Common Ground, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday, 2pm. No reserved seating or tickets required; a “pay what you feel” collection will be taken post-show. For Common Ground dates visit https://mikron.org.uk/shows/common_ground/

Did you know?

OVER 52 years, Mikron Theatre have toured 70 productions on board the vintage narrowboat Tyseley and spent 35,000 boating hours on the inland waterways. Performing 5,487 times, they have played to 460,966 people and counting.

Mikron Theatre’s poster for the 2024 tour of Poppy Hollman’s Common Ground