Tag: Juliet Forster

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REVIEW: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, The Odyssey, Her Story, York Theatre Royal ***1/2

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, left, comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s returning Odysseus. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

THE Penelopiad is the heavyweight centrepiece of York Theatre Royal’s autumn programme, Wednesday’s press night being marked by the presence of Arts Council England luminaries.

Creative director Juliet Forster’s plans to mount Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s re-spinning of Homer’s yarn in 2020 were scuppered by Covid’s clenches. Roll on to 2026, when Forster’s all-female production finds its counter-Homer home at last with the self-explanatory full title of The Penelopiad, The Odyssey: Her Story in the city where Actors Of Dionysus and Wright & Grainger’s Greek tragedies have made their mark.

Not only is The Penelopiad “her story” but “their story” too. After The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood delivers a multitude of Maids here, Penelope’s hand-picked slaves’ daughters: wronged, vengeful and constantly meddling in Penelope’s wishes to re-tell her tale, post-death, in the Underworld.

The glacial Penelope may want to miss out chunks, just like Christopher Nolan’s film made no mention of Odysseus’s philandering ways in his 20-year avoidance of coming home from the Trojan Wars, but the Maids have other ideas, and they will do anything to re-route The Penelopiad’s journey, from child puppetry to a rather short tap dance, girl group singing to acrobatic aerial skills, macho masks to more macho masks.

Pena Iiyambo’s Helen goes full Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch mode with the masked Maids in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture:  Pamela Raith Photography

Riot Women actress Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope is still at the core, still an honourable figure of loyalty and  restraint, but the restless riot women of this piece, the Maids, keep breaking her poised rhythm, shattering her sang froid and melancholic air.

Nevertheless, especially in Bullmore’s honeyed tones and elegant white jumpsuit and coat, Penelope’s dry-witted putdowns are the embodiment of Atwood’s own irreverent humour, becoming a particular joy of her ice-queen performance. 

Her spat with Pena Iiyambo’s preening Helen, trollop of Troy, could launch a thousand quips, but one withering epithet suffices, although Iiyambo’s pulchritudinous Helen still has her Marilyn Monroe moment in screen goddess frills in the face of Penelope’s enmity.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, surrounded by her Maids with their macho masks to portray aristo Suitors. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Atwood had been haunted by the fate of the Maids, under Odysseus’s orders, prompting the vengeance of The Penelopiad, where the horror counters the jesting humour that mocks Charlie Russell’s Odysseus for having short legs, much as Eric Morecambe would tease Ernie Wise.

Atwood’s Penelope comes across as “methinks she doth protest too much” with her First World problems, complaints of being busy without being so and eating only asphodel flowers in Hades, while using the Maids’ wiles to stave off the unwanted attentions of the Suitors, whereas the Maids are up against it, putting themselves at risk on her behalf.

They do, however, find common ground when working together to weave and unpick Penelope’s tapestry to ward off those pesky Suitors. Ropes emerge as the motif that weave their way through Forster’s production and Sara Perks’s design, whether in the tapestry, the aerial circus skills of assorted Maids, pulling Penelope’s bed upwards or downwards, becoming a hissing snake or, spoiler alert, a hangman’s mode of execution.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope, right, in discussion on her bed with her Maids. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Bullmore’s Penelope has a stillness and depth of character that contrasts with the Catherine Wheel fizz of the octet of multi-rolling Maids, especially when they play the leery, lecherous aristo Suitors, very much 2D stereotypes. Having women taking these roles is a further way of Atwood taking revenge on Homer’s misogyny, all the more forceful for the choreography of Frantic Assembly’s Michelle Edwards.

These graphic caricatures climax in the form of Russell’s Odysseus, mocked by Atwood not only for short legs, but in no longer being a mighty physical specimen, full stop, but a mendacious trickster with dubious moral values.

The Maids (Iiyambo, Russell, Nell Baker, Danielle Bird, Olivia Burton-Laws, Faye Campbell, Kat Johns-Burke and Syakira Moeladi) achieve both individuality and collective vigour the more they come to the fore, while Bird stands out as Eurycleia, the Odysseus loyalist who besmirches the Maids and cuts Penelope out of nursing her son Telemachus.

The Maids displaying rope and aerial skills in The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

What are the plus points beyond Bullmore’s elegance with Atwood’s eloquence and the Maids’ zest? Perks’s design, described as chic by Bullmore in her interview, is startling, bright, white, modernist and minimalist, but timeless too, countered by Alexandra Stafford’s palette of colours in her lighting, most notably red to evoke the night of the Trojan Horse.

Edwards’s movement direction maximises the physicality of women playing men; Kate Marlais’s compositions, varying from rousing declamations to quieter underscoring and laments, are at their best when haunting.

The negatives? Whereas the humour in Bullmore’s Penelope is assured, polished and consistent in tone, elsewhere it is more erratic, uneven, sometimes pushing too hard. Given the harrowing denouement to come, it is a difficult balancing act for Forster to achieve, especially when comedy has a tendency to undermine tragedy and outrage, rape and execution. Ultimately, this account of The Penelopiad plays more to the head, the senses of sight and sound, than to the heart.

The Penelopiad, York Theatre Royal, unravelling the strands until October 31. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.  

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope and Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

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After Nolan’s The Odyssey, here comes the women’s side of the story in Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal

Maids and masks: Faye Campbell, left, Nell Baker, Kat Johns-Burke, Pena Liyambo and Olivia Burton-Laws rehearsing for The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

YORK Theatre Royal’s production of The Penelopiad, The Odyssey: Her Story opens on Saturday with a script by novella writer Margaret Atwood and an all-female production team led by creative director Juliet Forster.

In an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous feminist take on an age-old story by the Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Booker Prize winner Atwood gives voice to those left behind when the silenced Penelope’s husband, Odysseus, took 20 years to return home from the Trojan War. Wandering the underworld, perennial weaver Penelope spins a different kind of thread: her side of the story. Cue a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge, interwoven with songs, that exposes the truth behind the myth.

“Homer’s The Odyssey is a fantastic piece of storytelling but sadly there is very little in there about the women’s lives,” says Juliet. “What Margaret Atwood does so brilliantly with The Penelopiad is really upend that and give us the female perspective on a story that is so well known.

“In true Atwood style, she presents that story in a way that is both deeply arresting and witty. We go on a journey with her through to the bitter climax of the women’s story but it’s also done in such an engaging and enjoyable way.

Director Juliet Forster in rehearsal for The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

“Audiences can expect a very physical and visual form of storytelling:  we’ll be drawing on everything from acrobatics and dance to aerial, masks and puppetry.”

Juliet first read Atwood’s novella shortly after its publication in October 2005. “I absolutely loved it,” she says. “I personally have a real interest in the Greek classics and whilst I knew a lot about The Iliad and The Odyssey and the history of the Trojan War, I found it genuinely so delightful and invigorating to read Atwood’s feminist take on the story.

“Quite some years later, in 2019, when myself and the Theatre Royal’s former chief executive [Tom Bird] were exploring potential options for our Summer 2020 programme, we looked at The Penelopiad script and once again I was drawn in by the vibrancy of Atwood’s writing. We were all set to stage it in 2020 when, of course, the pandemic hit and our plans were sadly cancelled.”

Cut to 2025 when the Theatre Royal was looking for the right production for the 2026 season: “I felt strongly that this would be a perfect opportunity to bring this project back to life,” says Juliet. “Ultimately the power of the female voice in Margaret Atwood’s version had always stuck with me and sadly in 2026, women in a time of war, violence against women, double standards and inequality are all the more relevant.

Amelia Bullmore rehearsing her role as Penelope. “I’m thrilled I’m going to be working at York Theatre Royal – such a beautiful theatre – on this fantastic play,” she says. “The Penelopiad manages to be funny, dark, moving and provocative by turns. And it’s Margaret Atwood, so the writing is uniquely brilliant. I think audiences will love how playful it is and how directly it connects with them.” Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

“We then also found out about the Christopher Nolan movie adaptation [of The Odyssey], which was set to hit the big screen, and it felt like an interesting time to stage a production which tells the women’s story from a completely fresh perspective.”

Explaining the casting process for the Theatre Royal show, Juliet says: “The play focuses on Penelope as she tells her version of the story and so casting that role was obviously really crucial. Alongside this, we have the story of the maids, who helped her deceive the suitors and who interject with their own version of events.

“The maids really act as a sort of old Greek chorus but in a way that feels fresh and modern. They take on all the other parts and have a significant role in the play so their casting was also equally important.”

She is thrilled to be working with Happy Valley, Scott & Bailey and Riot Women actor Amelia Bullmore in the role of Penelope. “I’d recently watched Riot Women – another fantastic feminist narrative – and Amelia’s performance in that is excellent,” says Juliet.

York Theatre Royal’s cast for The Penelopiad

“She is a very multi-faceted actor that can really immerse herself in a character and I thought she would be perfect for the role. Amelia is super sharp and funny, and her intelligence and dry sense of humour are so well-matched with Atwood’s style of writing.

“For me, what is so important about the character of Penelope is the very closed-off and hidden side to her nature, and I think Amelia has a real inscrutable quality to her performance which feels so right for this role.”

Once Amelia was cast, Juliet turned her attention to the maids. “It was important to me to have a real range of different women cast in these roles,” she says. “Often the maids are almost lumped together as one – in the original only one of them is named! – and the play really unpicks that narrative, so it was important to get that right in our casting.

“The cast we have are super talented: they are all so different and bring such a diverse range of strengths and individuality. What was the most important for me was to find actors who could bring a sense of humour and playfulness to these roles, which are also very physically demanding, with elements of dance, movement, aerial, singing and more.”

The Maids rehearsing a scene for York Theatre Royal’s production of The Penelopiad: Olivia Burton-Laws, left, Charlie Russell, Syakira Moeladi, Nell Baker, Faye Campbell, Pena Liyambo and Danielle Bird. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Juliet hopes audiences will leave the Theatre Royal feeling they have experienced “a real visual feast”. “It’s going to be witty and funny, powerful and moving – and I think it will give them an insight to the story of The Odyssey from a completely different angle,” she says.

“But it also raises really pertinent questions not just about the past, but also the present. I personally think it’s a great complement to seeing Christopher Nolan’s movie and will give people the chance to dig more into that story and find out more about the characters of Penelope and her maids.

“I hope people will also come away thinking about the power of storytelling – how we balance competing versions of the same events and which narratives end up being the ones that are remembered.”

The Penelopiad, The odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, October 10 to 31, Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Olivia Burton-Laws, left, Kat Johns-Burke and Pena Liyambo in the rehearsal room for The Penelopiad. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

One more question for Juliet Forster

How did you prepare for directing The Penelopiad ahead of rehearsals starting?

LOTS of reading! Of course the original novella and The Odyssey but also I read awonderful book called Mythica by Emily Hauser. Emily is a renowned and published classicist who is doing some consultancy with us to help us look at what life for Bronze Age women would have been like, drawing from mythology, history and archaeology – which will be useful for the actors as we delve into their characters.

“Margaret Atwood adapted the script herself but had given me permission to add in some of the original text from the book. So I also spent some time working on fleshing that out and adding some more elements to the script.

“We have a fabulous all-female creative team on board and I really enjoyed meeting with them and shaping how the production is coming together.”

The poster for The Penelopiad, The Odyssey: Her Story, opening at York Theatre Royal tomorrow

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York Theatre Royal launches first ever staging of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs with Tommy at the treble

Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly and Tommy Carmichael’s Muddles at York Theatre Royal’s pantomime launch for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

YORK Theatre Royal’s cast for this winter’s pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, has assembled for the first time.

Present at the launch day were CBBC and CBeebies’ star Richard David-Caine, who will play Herman Von Badapple; regular dame Robin Simpson (Dame Dolly this time) and his fellow returnees Tommy Carmichael and Christian Mortimer, who will take the roles of Muddles and Prince Charming respectively.

In attendance too were the cast’s latest addition, Marcavia McCarthy, who will play Snow White, Jenny Gayner, cast as the Wicked Queen, and Dean Whatton, who will lead the Seven Dwarfs as Sarge. Lucy Blenkiron, Richard Blenkiron, Willie Coppen, StijnKeuleers, Maria Popska and Harrison Taylor will complete the line-up.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is the apt choice for the seventh collaboration between pantomime partners York Theatre Royal and the award-wining Evolution Productions, whose director-producer, Paul Hendy, pens the script.

As ever, Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster will direct the show. “We are so delighted to have such a brilliant cast lined up for the show. It’s the first time Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs has been performed on our stage and audiences can expect something really special. I can’t wait to get started on rehearsals and see this fabulous show come to life with this amazing team.”

Doncaster-born Tommy Carmichael has signed up for a third winter of daft-lad tomfoolery in Snow White after starring as ever-cheerful Charlie in Aladdin in 2024 and Jangles in Sleeping Beauty last Christmas.

“It was confirmed in March. I got two emails in one day, one from the Theatre Royal, one from Evolution!” says Tommy. “I’m so grateful to be asked back, and it’s a lovely team to work with. When you work with Robin [Simpson], it feels so easy and it’s fun – as opposed to hard work – and I love working with Juliet [Forster] as well. It’s always nice to see faces you know.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, and off to work they go: York Theatre Royal’s cast for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs assembles for the first time. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

“Muddles is not far from Buttons as a role. When people think of a comic role in panto, they usually say, ‘oh you’re playing Buttons’ and Muddles is the second one they mention. I’ve never done Snow White before, so it’s going to be fun working with a bigger cast than usual.”

Two years ago, Tommy moved to Livingston, Scotland, where he teaches young actors aged six to 18 at the Proscenium Stage School. “Wonderfully, they gave me the job when I moved north,” he says. “I’d taught at the Pauline Quirke Academy in Doncaster, and Taunton, after I’d trained at Bath School of Music and Performing Arts, at Bath Spa University, where I  was surrounded by cows and fields. Very different to training at a city university!”

Rehearsals for Snow White will begin on November 16. Before then, Tommy will return to Yorkshire on October 1 for a one-off performance of Big Strong Man at the Montgomery Theatre for the Open Works Festival in Sheffield.

Last year he toured in this interactive cabaret show about masculinity with the Doncaster company The Growth House. “It’s like a game show, where four different types of masculinity all fight for who should be ‘the ruler of all men from now until the end of time’. Four Northern men are given the impossible task of fixing the men’s mental health crisis in one night. We took it to spaces where men in various works of life feel more relaxed,” says Tommy.

“I think it’s really important to talk about these things as getting men to talk about their feelings can be a challenge, especially as last year we went into working men’s clubs, where the challenge was to get them to feel comfortable to talk about the subject – which was more likely to be the case than in a theatre.”

Tommy also headed back to Yorkshire a few weeks ago  – “I love the commute,” he says – to film his role in Miles Watts and Maria Gray’s second feature film for North Yorkshire company Outward Films: Drop Dead, a no-budget horror mystery shot on iPhone.

“I play Hugo, this really kind actor who’s in the film within the film, where all the actors had trained at the same theatre school” he says. “He sees below people’s surfaces, so he’s very perceptive. It’s my first feature film, so it was lovely to do, coming about for me through knowing Maria and her husband, Ed, the Theatre Royal pantomime musical director. We filmed my scenes in a wood by a leisure centre in Harrogate.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will run at York Theatre Royal from December 4 to January 3 20927. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Full cast and creative team announced for The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal

The cast for York Theatre Royals’ revival of The Penelopiad

AMID the summer buzz over Christopher Nolan’s film account of The Odyssey, the full cast and creative team is in place for York Theatre Royal’s autumn revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad.

Joining the already announced Amelia Bullmore in the leading role of Penelope will be Nell Baker (Laertes), Danielle Bird (Eurycleia), Olivia Burton-Laws (Naiad Mother), Theatre Royal pantomime alumna Faye Campbell (Melantho), Pena Iiyambo (Helen), Kat Johns-Burke (Antonius), Syakira  Moeladi (Telemachus) and Charlie Russell (Odysseus).

Directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the production will open on October 14, with previews from October 10, and will run until October 31.

“Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed,” says Juliet. “The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast-paced, visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens. The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we will be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.” 

The Penelopiad writer Margaret Atwood. Picture: Luis Mora, 2020

Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood from her 2005 novella, The Penelopiad’s feminist retelling of The Odyssey reimagines Homer’s epic through the eyes of Penelope and her chorus of maids.  

Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, presents a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths.  Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it is time to hear the story of those left behind. 

Reimagining this ancient tale, Atwood gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her maids. Wandering the underworld, Penelope spins a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge. 

 Forster, director of such York Theatre Royal productions as Little Women and Around The World In 80 Days-ish!, will deliver an exuberant and witty retelling that questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth.

Juliet Forster: Director of York Theatre Royal’s production of The Penelopiad

Juliet says: “It has been such a joy to meet so many brilliant women over the last couple of months, and what a phenomenally talented cast and creative team we have lined up for The Penelopiad. It is clear just how strongly this story resonates with people today, and I am looking forward to a rehearsal room buzzing with excitement and creativity. 

“Margaret Atwood’s powerful script is so rich with wit and humour as she unveils a new feminist perspective on the familiar Odyssey myth. The show is interwoven with songs and exuberant movement and we hope to offer audiences an entirely different way of understanding the story of Penelope and her maids – and most importantly a great night out.”   

Amelia Bullmore will return to the stage to star as Penelope, having last trod the boards in the 2018 revival of Annie Baker’s 2009 play Circle Mirror Transformation at HOME, Manchester.

Amelia says:“I’m thrilled I’m going to be working at York Theatre Royal – such a beautiful theatre – on this fantastic play. The Penelopiad manages to be funny, dark, moving and provocative by turns. And it’s Margaret Atwood, so the writing is uniquely brilliant. I think audiences will love how playful it is and how directly it connects with them.”

Amelia Bullmore: Cast as Penelope in The Penelopiad

Welcoming her to York, Juliet says: “It is wonderful to have Amelia on board to lead the cast for The Penelopiad. Penelope is such a fascinating and complex character in Margaret Atwood’s retelling and I know Amelia will do her justice! I can’t wait to work with her to bring this compelling story to the stage for York audiences.”

Joining Forster in the all-female creative team will be designer Sara Perks, lighting designer Alexandra Stafford, composer, musical director and sound designer Kate Marlais, movement director Michelle Edwards and casting director Ellie Collyer-Bristow.

To ensure as many people as possible can enjoy the show, the first preview on October 10 will be offered on a ‘Pay What You Choose’ basis, allowing audiences to pay as little or as much as they wish. 

The York Theatre Royal Choir will present special foyer performances for audiences on October 10 and press night, October 14, before the 7.30pm shows start.  

Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York Theatre Royal’s poster for The Penelopiad. Concept: Émilie Chen. Photography: Camilla Greenwell

Did you know?


MARGARET Atwood’s The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. York Theatre Royal’s production marks the first major UK revival since that original staging. 

Amelia Bullmore: back story

THEATRE credits include Circle Mirror Transformation (HOME Manchester); A Christmas Carol (Noël Coward Theatre); The Norman Conquests (The Old Vic and Circle in the Square Theatre, New York); The Crucible (Sheffield Crucible); Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre); Road and The Queen And I (Leicester Haymarket, Royal Court Theatre and UK tour).

Also, The Thickness Of Skin (Royal Court Theatre); A View From The Bridge, Romeo And Juliet (Royal Exchange Theatre and UK Tour); All My Sons and How The Other Half Loves (Cheltenham Everyman); Be-Bop-A-Lula (Liverpool Playhouse and UK tour); The Red Balloon (Contact Theatre); The Threepenny Opera (Birmingham Rep);  Major Barbara and Sweet Bird Of Youth (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow);The Way Of The World (Wilton’s Musical Hall) and Ladies In The Lift (Red Stockings Theatre Company.)

Her television credits include Riot Women; The Buccaneers; Happy Valley; Gentleman Jack; Scott & Bailey (as series regular DCI Gill Murray and co-writer); Twenty Twelve; The Crown; Vienna Blood; I’m Alan Partridge; Jam; Big Train; State Of Play; Ashes To Ashes; The Jetty; Marble Hall Murders;The Larkins and Coronation Street (as series regular Steph Barnes).

Her films include Mrs Dalloway, Festival, The Truth, Endgame and What We Did On Our Holiday.

She is an acclaimed writer for TV, radio and stage. Her play Di And Viv And Rose premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London before transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End.

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Jenny Gayner and Dean Whatton join York Theatre Royal pantomime cast for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

Jenny Gayner in the guise of the Wicked Queen

YORK Theatre Royal has signed up two new pantomime recruits for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs’ run from December 4 to January 3 2027.

West End star Jenny Gayner will take to the dark side as the Wicked Queen while Dean Whatton, from Game Of Thrones, will lead the ‘Seven’ in the role of Sarge.  

Jenny and Dean join Richard David-Caine (Horrible Histories, Swashbuckle, Horrible Science) and Theatre Royal panto favourites Robin Simpson and Tommy Carmichael, who return after delighting audiences in last winter’s Sleeping Beauty.  

Jenny Gaynor

Jenny has starred in a wide range of musicals, playing Baroness Bomburst in the UK tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Lina Lamont in Singin’ In The Rain (Sadler’s Wells Theatre and UK/international tour) and as Mum in Gangsta Granny (West End/UK tour).  

Jenny’s credits also include Annie (UK tour); The Girls (West End – Original London cast); Chicago (West End/UK tour); A Chorus Line (Lowry Theatre) and Monty Python’s Spamalot! (West End). Television credits include The Power (Amazon Prime), The Trial (Channel 5), Elysse – Entanglement (Amazon Prime) and Material Girl (BBC). 

After starting in the entertainment business while still at school, Dean will be appearing in his 18th pantomime this winter. His credits include See How They Run (UK tour), Love’s Labour’s Lost and Richard III (Northern Broadsides/UK tour) and Macbeth (Derby Shakespeare Company).  

Dean Whatton’s Sarge

Dean’s film and television credits take in Game Of Thrones (HBO), Call The Midwife (BBC), Life’s Too Short (BBC), Star Wars Episode VII The Last Jedi and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II. 

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is written by regular writer Paul Hendy, directed by Juliet Forster and co-produced with Hendy’s award-winning Evolution Productions, the team behind such Theatre Royal pantomimes as Jack And The Beanstalk, Aladdin and 2025’s Sleeping Beauty. 

Juliet Forster, creative director at York Theatre Royal, says: “Panto season is fast approaching and our cast for this year is shaping up to be truly amazing! Jenny and Dean are both super-talented and are fantastic additions to the show. Tickets are selling fast, with some performances already selling out, so make sure you book your seats early to catch the show.”  

Family tickets are available for all performances with savings of up to £61 on bookings with four tickets. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

 Dean Whatton

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Tommy Carmichael to complete hat-trick of “silly-billy” roles in York Theatre Royal pantomime as Muddles in Snow White

Tommy Carmichael in the poster announcing his return to the York Theatre Royal pantomime in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

THE funny fixtures are in place for both the 2026-27 York Theatre Royal and Grand Opera House pantomimes.

After Jimmy Bryant was confirmed for a second season in UK Productions’ The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan: The Return Of Captain Hook, playing Smee from December 5 to January 3 at the Cumberland Street theatre, now Tommy Carmichael has signed up for a third winter of daft-lad tomfoolery in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Theatre Royal.

After starring as ever-cheerful Charlie in Aladdin in 2024 and Jangles in Sleeping Beauty last Christmas, Doncaster-born Carmichael will play Muddles, reuniting once more with regular panto dame  Robin Simpson. 

Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles with panto dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie in York Theatre Royal’s 2025-26 pantomime Aladdin. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Now based in Livingston, near Edinburgh, Carmichael has played Timternet in Big Strong Man (national tour), Silly Willy in Robin Hood (The Maltings, Ely), Chief Weasel in The Wind In The Willows (national tour), “Himself” in Big Strong Man (CAST, Doncaster), Buttons in Cinderella (The Maltings, Ely), Queen Of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland (national tour) and Bagheera in The Jungle Book (national tour).

Written by Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will be co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the team behind such York pantomimes as Jack And The Beanstalk, Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty.

Juliet says: “We are delighted to have Tommy back with us for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs this year! Robin [Simpson] and Tommy have such a fabulous energy and comedic rapport when they’re on stage together and we know audiences will love having them back to bring all the laughs once again.

Tommy Carmichael: Actor and children’s theatre tutor

“Feedback from last year was just so brilliant and we already have performances which are closing to selling out, so it’s never too early to get your tickets.”

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will run from December 4 to January 3,  with the promise of “lavish costumes, stunning sets, hilarious jokes and dazzling special effects”.

Family tickets are available for all performances with savings of up to £61 on bookings for four tickets. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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York Theatre Royal to stage first major revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, The Odyssey: Her Story

York Theatre Royal’s poster to announce this autumn’s production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

YORK Theatre Royal will stage a major revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, under the direction of creative director Juliet Forster this autumn.

Adapted from the Canadian novelist, essayist and poet’s 2005 novella of the same name, this exuberant feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids. 

Forster’s production will open on October 14, preceded by previews from October 10, and will run until October 24.

“Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive, and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed,” says Juliet. “The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast-paced visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens.

“The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we’ll be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.” 

The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. Now comes the first major UK revival since that production. 

York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster

Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, revisits The Odyssey in a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths. 

Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it is time to hear the story of those left behind.  

Reimagining this ancient tale, The Penelopiad finds Penelope wandering the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge. 

Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Atwood and interwoven with songs, York Theatre Royal’s production will be directed by Little Women and Around The World In 80 Days-ish! director Forster in an exuberant and witty retelling that questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth.

Priority booking for YTR members is under way; general sales will open on February 28 at 1pm on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.  

Margaret Atwood: back story

HER work has been published in more than 45 countries. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale(recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and subsequently adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV series); The Robber Bride; Alias Grace; The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker prize); Cat’s Eye; The Edible Woman; Surfacing;Life Before Man; Bodily Harm; The Testaments (winner of the Booker prize) and The MaddAddam Trilogy.

Her poetry collections include Double Persephone, The Circle Game, Power Politics, Morning In The Burned House and The Door. Her essay collections include Negotiating With The Dead and Burning Questions. Her novella The Penelopiad was published in 2005 and adapted in 2007 for the stage, marking her first theatrical work. 

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Fleur blooms in Settlement Players directorial debut with Blue Remembered Hills at York Theatre Royal Studio

York Settlement Community Players director Fleur Hebditch stands outside York Theatre Royal, where her production of Blue Remembered Hills opens on Wednesday

FLEUR Hebditch, former Stephen Joseph Theatre dramaturg for a decade in Scarborough, is making her York Settlement Community Players directorial debut with Blue Remembered Hills.

From Wednesday to February 28, her production of Dennis Potter’s stage adaptation of his 1979 BBC Play For Today drama will run at York Theatre Royal Studio.

This is the Potter one where seven children – five boys, two girls – 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 hard.

“I first saw the play at the National Theatre in the 1990s with Steve Coogan in the role of Willie,” says Fleur. “Without giving the plot away, it just affected me so much that I can still remember images to this day – and I’ve never seen it since.”

On moving to York, her own involvement in theatre took a back seat while looking after her eldest daughter Ariel’s career as a stand-up comedian, who has performed at the Brighton Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe (with Spruce Moose).

“But then last year I spoke with Juliet [York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster] to see if she needed any help with the community production of His Last Report, and I worked as assistant director on that show,” says Fleur.

York Settlement Community Players cast members in rehearsal for Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders

“That’s where I met Helen Wilson and Maurice Crichton, who were in the cast, and they said they were always looking for directors for Settlement Players. ‘Oh, that’s my favourite job,’ I said.”

Fleur duly put forward Blue Remembered Hills for Settlement’s February’s choice of classic play for timely revival. “It’s Potter’s writing that attracted me, the stories he tells, and how he’s at the forefront of being able to be on the edge [as a playwright], which is the same with seven-year-old children in this play and how they’re playing in the fields and the barn,” she says. “I’m also attracted to dark tales, and this is one of them.”

Potter’s play calls on adults to play children who in turn are mirroring adult behaviour. “They’re all so different, and that goes back to the audition process,” says Fleur. “They were so impressive when we started with a workshop where I needed the actors to improvise and have a freedom to get into character, not as children but as human beings. At that point we then read the text.”

As stage manager Helen Wilson notes: “It’s a very, very physical play.” “That’s another reason I like it, as I was a dancer when I was young,” says Fleur, who has had her cast playing games of Tig in the rehearsal room. “There’s a lot of playing around and fighting in the play, and that’s why I’ve stripped away the props so that it’s just about the actors interacting.

“The play is just straight through, no interval, and it’s all over in an hour. That makes it very immediate, and so the audience is in the moment, just as the characters are. It’s very intense as well as really physical, and that helps the actors as they don’t  have a break and their journey through the play is very focused.”

Potter’s dialogue matches that intensity. “He is quite fantastical in a lot of his plays, but this one is more naturalistic, because the language is colloquial, and that helps the actors find their characters. They speak as children without making it a parody,” says Fleur.

Victoria Delaney in the Blue Remembered Hills rehearsal room

“The beauty of his writing is that the words are very simplistic, but as we’ve gone through rehearsals, we’ve realised the depth of what we’ve been given to explore.”

Helen joins in: “Even the bully, Peter [played by Settlement newcomer Rich Wareham, after only four months in York] , you actually see the other side of him through Potter’s writing, so there’s a poignancy to him, even it’s only for a few seconds – and there is empathy with all of the characters.”

Fleur rejoins: “Being children, they have this innocence about them, where they don’t yet know what ‘wrong’ is. I decided to create each of their worlds by working individually with each actor, like working with Rich on bringing out  the reasons for why he’s a bully; making him a more human character, rather than merely two-dimensional where you just think, ‘well, he’s a bully’. Bringing out the individuality has fed into the rehearsals really well.”

Although Aristotle once said, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”, Fleur notes how a seven-year-old child’s behaviour differs from adulthood. “That’s a specific time when  they go from one emotion to another in the blink of an eye, and you just have to put your adult self to one side because that’s how children are. It’s about having that freedom, where they go from being best friends one minute to falling out or pulling their hair. They can be feral.”

Fleur, by day a registrar at York Register Office, has enjoyed her Settlement directorial debut “immensely”. “I’ve been trusted to use my artistry and to be creative in the way I wanted, and having that freedom has been fantatstic,” she says.

York Settlement Community Players in Blue Remembered Hills, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 18 to 28, 7.45pm, except Sunday and Monday; 2pm, February 21 and 28. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 14 ****

Robin Simpson’s Sam, the emotional support dog, in Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

“I CAN’T think of anyone better to play a dog than Robin,” said York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster at Saturday night’s post-show discussion.

She is referring to West Yorkshire actor and storyteller Robin Simpson, best known in York for his six seasons as the Theatre Royal’s pantomime dame – and already confirmed for next winter’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs too.

Simpson’s ability to connect with audiences is “extraordinary”, said director and associate artist John R Wilkinson, an ability needed for both his panto role and now York Theatre Royal, English Touring Theatre and An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s world premiere co-production of Catherine Dyson’s one-act solo play.

In a nutshell, what links the two parts is the requirement for “direct address” to the audience. Here Simpson is playing Sam, an emotional support dog on a Year 9 school trip to a museum (unspecified but the Imperial War Museum in all but name).

Robin Simpson: Storytelling prowess in The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Simpson is not dressed as a canine, nor does he walk on all fours, but his tabard bears the message “Don’t Pet Me I’m Working” and his roll-neck jumper and trousers evoke the colours of a Golden Retriever or Labrador.

This dog talks, taking the narrator’s role, while evoking the school head of history and a particularly sensitive schoolboy, and taking the audience by the hand as he invites us to imagine being in a theatre in 2026,then the group of school children, on the bus trip and in the museum, and most hauntingly, the victims of the Nazi Holocaust  in each Second World War picture.

Writer Dyson decreed only a few stage instructions, the most significant being that the pictures being described by Sam should never be shown. Instead, the images should be formed in our imagination – one of theatre’s most powerful tools – but such is the impact of Kristallnacht  (the Night of Broken Glass), the children’s exodus from Poland, the Jewish ghettos and the concentration camps that, when combined with Dyson’s descriptions and Simpson’s storytelling prowess, we readily draw on imagery from history books, films and documentaries.

Dyson’s structure is methodical, building momentum all the while. A head count is taken as regularly as Simpson’s Sam asks us how we are feeling after each picture. Simpson’s narrator explains how Sam can sense our emotions, our distress, without having the capacity to understand the play’s greater question: Why?

Director John R Wilkinson in rehearsal with actor Robin Simpson for the world premiere of The Last Picture

Gradually, we see teacher, breakaway 13-year-old pupil and dog all break down in reaction to what they are encountering, all  conveyed so expressively by Simpson. 

We learn too of other children’s reactions: wanting to know when lunch will be; wondering why something that happened so long ago in a different country should matter to them as they head from room to room, one marked Escalation, Deportation, Final Solution. They reach for the mobile phones at the earliest opportunity to flick through the latest posts.

Interestingly, contrary to myth, dogs do see in colour, but not in the same way we see colour, and here Wilkinson and set designer Natasha Jenkins complement Dyson’s descriptions of colour used by Sam to sum up the mood of each scene.

The back wall is covered with a plain cloth (an aid for us to build up a picture); the flooring has a metallic black sheen, framed by Isle of Skye lighting designer Benny Goodman’s strip lighting that changes from white to yellow. When the cloth drops suddenly, the stage is bathed in fiery orange.

Natasha Jenkins’s set design for York Theatre Royal’s production of The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

The minimalism stretches to the props: one table to the side, with a water bottle marked Sam (for Simpson’s vocal lubrication) and five lecture hall/school room chairs that Simpson uses in differing ways, most disturbingly to portray dead children when lain on their side.

Every detail has been thought through to the max, honed in four weeks of rehearsals, a research visit to Holocaust Centre North in Huddersfield, and in Wilkinson’s bond with Dyson over the power of abstract, non-literal  theatre and European drama, as well as in Simpson’s remarkably adroit performance.

The Last Picture had begun life as one of 37 new plays picked from 2,000 entries to mark the500th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio in 2023 with a national playwriting initiative, when Wilkinson directed a rehearsed reading at York Theatre Royal and saw its potential for a full-scale production.

Robin Simpson’s Sam in a rueful moment in The Last Picture. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

This is that production, the full picture of The Last Picture, and what a fitting, moving first show for the Theatre Royal to make for the Studio space since the accursed Covid pandemic.

Add Max Pappenheim’s sound design, a devastating use of Mendelssohn’s music – deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis – and movement direction full of circular rhythm by Alexia Kalogiannidis, and Dyson’s play is unique, wholly original, thoroughly theatrical.

The Last Picture is unmissable, unforgettable, urgently needed theatre at its best.

The Last Picture, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 14, 7.45pm plus 2pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees, then on tour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. The tour will visit HOME Manchester, February 18 to 21; Bristol Old Vic, February 24 to 28; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, March 5 to 7;  Mull Theatre, March 11 and 12; Bunessan Village Hall, March 13; Iona Village Hall, March 14.  

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Steve Pratt, journalist and press officer, 1948-2026. Charles Hutchinson’s tribute

Steve Pratt on duty at the York Theatre Royal pantomime press night in December 2018. Picture: York Theatre Royal

THE funeral of York journalist, columnist and theatre, film and television critic and press officer Steve Pratt will be held tomorrow (28/1/2025) at York Crematorium, Bishopthorpe Road, York.

Steve, 77, of Monk Avenue, York, passed away at York Hospital on January 15.  

Born Stephen William Pratt in Watford on April 22 1948 in Watford, he was educated at Garston Primary School and Bushey Grammar School, where he met Lesley when she was 16, Steve two years older.

The childhood sweethearts were married on June 24 1972 at Christ Church, Watford, by the same vicar that tied the knot for Lesley’s parents.

Steve went straight from A-level studies to taking out indentures at the Watford Post, where, as a junior, he was tasked with collecting death notices from undertakers.

He went on to work for the Herts Advertiser, Watford Observer, Northern Echo, in Darlington and Portsmouth News, before returning to the Northern Echo from 1999 to 2014, winning two Tom Corder awards for best arts writer.

“His passion for writing goes back to his early years and he used to cut up magazines and create his own version,” recalled Lesley, who “bounced up and down the country with Stephen before we finally landed in York, where we felt at home”.

“There were so many famous people he interviewed as he covered lots of press junkets for films and television.”

Steve Pratt in his treasured picture with film actress Angelina Jolie, from his journalism files at home, where box upon box of theatre programmes are in need of a new home, says widow Lesley

Among those celluloid star interviewees were Tom Cruise, Arnold Scharzenegger, Leslie Nielsen, Leslie Phillips and Angelina Jolie. “He always went on about his photo with her,” recalled Lesley.

One knight of the realm eluded him, however. “Stephen was refused twice by Sir Alec Guinness for an interview, once in 1997 and again in 1999,” said Lesley. “I have the original handwritten cards Sir Alec sent him: very polite but a ‘No’ nevertheless.”

Nigel Burton, editor of York Press, who worked with Steve on The Northern Echo, said: “He was a superb features writer, someone who would always tackle any job – no matter how outlandish – with a smile and good humour.

“He was an internationally respected critic and his reviews were eagerly awaited by film distributors and theatres alike. Most of all, I will remember him as a much-missed colleague and a lovely human being.”

Peter Barron, former editor of The Northern Echo, said: “I was so sorry to hear of Steve’s passing. He was a gifted writer of a national standard and I always considered The Northern Echo to be very lucky to have him.

“He brought great quality to the paper, with a wry, humorous style and his passion for the arts always shone through. It is also telling that the arts community knew him and respected his opinion.

“A positive review from Steve Pratt in The Northern Echo really meant something, while a scathing review was to be feared. He was prolific, loved his craft, and the many awards he won were testament to his talent.”

Chris Lloyd, features editor at the Northern Echo, who was Steve’s manager for many years, said: “When I worked with Steve, he was so passionate and knowledgeable about all forms of visual entertainment, but especially about his great loves of television and theatre. He knew the stars, he interviewed them all, usually cheekily, and they remembered and respected him. 

Steve Pratt in his Northern Echo days. Picture: Northern Echo

“He was, I think, a great ally of the region’s theatre community, forever supporting and promoting it, and I was in awe of the way he wrote so quickly, so cleanly, and always with a humorous glint in his words.”

Wise Eye Films/ITV Studios creative director and The Yorkshire Shepherdess producer Mark Robinson, who started his career at the Echo with Steve, said: “He was exceptionally kind to me when I moved over from the newsroom to the features desk in the late 1980s, and he became my boss.

“Steve was unbelievably patient and encouraging and gave me the space to grow as a journalist finding his own voice for the first time. It was impossible not to be inspired by his love and passion for TV and the arts in general – and he sent me on many glamorous jobs interviewing celebrities across the UK.

“His impact on my career was so significant that we remained friends long after I left the Echo and I enjoyed our get-togethers in York.”

Viv Hardwick, fellow former Echo television and entertainment editor, said: “Steve always seemed to know the best way of doing things work-wise. His awesome ability and in-depth entertainments knowledge made him one of the most memorable men in journalism.”

On leaving The Northern Echo in 2014, Steve switched to the other side of the Press desk as press officer at Leeds Playhouse and later York Theatre Royal.

Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster said: “The whole team here are incredibly saddened by the news of Steve’s death. His relationship with YTR goes back such a long time, both as a reviewer and staff member and then as a freelancer.

“His dedication and passion to unearthing the stories of this theatre and championing the arts in Yorkshire was truly outstanding. Press nights will not be the same without his sparkly shoes and fabulous sense of humour. We will miss him very much.”  

Nun better: Steve Pratt in sisterhood habit on a press night for Sister Act

Chief executive officer Paul Crewes added: “Steve’s death is such a terrible loss to York’s theatre community and his YTR family are all devastated by this news. He was a much-loved friend and colleague and we will miss him.

“Steve was a first-class journalist and press officer who cared deeply about, and was very successful at, shining a light on the arts in York and beyond.”

Latterly, Steve took up the publicity officer’s post for York company NE Theatre York, whose chair and creative director, Steve Tearle, said: “Steve became involved with us over the past several years by supporting the publicity of our shows. He crafted and created press releases for the company perfectly, like only Steve could do. 

“He was a wonderfully gifted, talented man, with time for everyone, and had such a fantastic personality. He was such an asset to the team and totally believed in what we stood for. 

“I really valued Steve as a person and his passion for theatre. It’s with such a heavy heart I say this.  We spoke last November at length about 2026 and as usual he was so excited to be supporting us. He will be sadly missed by the NE Theatre York team.” 

From his days at Leeds Playhouse, Steve’s brighter-than-Hawaiian shirts became his trademark. “As a child he was dressed very soberly, but when he found his feet at Leeds, the flamboyant side came out, but he did need guidance, so I have to admit it was my fault,” said Lesley, recalling his collection of 30 such shirts. “Please feel free to come to the funeral in bright colours.”

One last memory from Lesley defined his role as a critic. “Getting Stephen to give you a verbal opinion was not easy,” she said. “He would always say ‘read the review’.” We did, line after line, time after time.

Copyright of The York Press and The Northern Echo

DONATIONS at tomorrow’s funeral can be made in aid of York Theatre Royal, where Steve’s contribution to theatre and arts journalism will be marked with a commemorative seat plaque and a bench in his honour on the terrace. A memorial celebration of Steve’s life will held at the theatre on a date yet to be announced.

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