Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond, in summer pumps and circumstances. Here’s Hutch’s List No.25 for 2023, from The Press

Opera singer Jennifer Coleman: Soprano soloist on song at York Proms

PROMS, outdoor festivals and carnivals, here comes the sun and summer fun as Charles Hutchinson reaches for the cream.

Outdoor event of the weekend: York Proms, Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates open at 5pm

BRITISH-IRISH soprano Jennifer Colemen, Opera North tenor Tom Smith and West End musical theatre singer, actress and TV presenter Shona Lindsay will be the soloists for Sunday’s York Proms.

Musical director Ben Crick conducts the 22-piece Yorkshire Festival Orchestra in a musical theatre tribute, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story through to Les Miserables and Wicked. The rousing Proms finale will be accompanied by The Fireworkers’ fireworks. Tickets update: sold out; waiting list for returns at yorkproms.com/contact.

Tom Smith: Tenor soloist at Sunday’s York Proms

Shakespeare Shorts: Twelfth Night, Barley Hall Great Hall, Coffee Yard, York, today, on the hour, every hour, from 11am to 3pm

SHAKESPEARE in only 15 minutes presents an immersive re-telling of Twelfth Night, the one with heaps of mistaken identities, cross-dressing and long-lost siblings.

Barley Hall’s costumed storyteller promises to “make simple a story that has even the characters confused, all while exploring themes of gender identity and the history of cross-dressing in theatre”. Barley Hall admission: barleyhall.co.uk.

Shakespeare Shorts: The artwork for the 15-minute Twelfth Night at Barley Hall

Strensall Community Carnival, Strensall Village Hall and Field, Northfields, Strensall, York, today, 12 noon to 5pm

BACK for its 8th year, Strensall Community Carnival has attractions for all the family, with a procession from Hurst Hall, a food court, 30-plus charity and business stalls and entertainment on the outdoor arena.

Look out for Ebor Morris, The Cadet Band, York Karaoke DoJo, Dynamics Band and Generation Groove in the arena; the Robert Wilkinson School Choir and Band and Mark’s Magic Kingdom Puppet Show in the main hall, and the Captivating Creatures animal show, medieval mayhem with the Knights of the Wobbly Table storytellers, Messy Adventures sensory play and Generate Theatre drama games in the outdoor space.

The Grand Old Uke of York: “Almost unplugged” at Stillington

Uke over there: The Grand Old Uke of York, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK collective The Grand Old Uke of York grace the At The Mill stage in an unusual twist to their norm: turning their usual set list on its head to bring gorgeous, pared-back vocals, buttery harmonies and ukuleles played with summery vibes – rather than their usual rock mode – to the garden.

Formed more than ten years ago, they love nothing more than to transform expectations of the ukulele’s bounds. Tonight is a rare chance to see the dynamic group stripped back and “almost” unplugged. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925922

 

Party time: Just Josh celebrates a decade of entertaining children’s parties with a JoRo show

Big kid of the weekend: Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm

AFTER a decade of doing other kids’ parties, York family entertainer, magician and pantomime silly billy Josh Benson has decided he should have his own bash.

Expect all Just Josh’s usual mix of daft comedy chaos, magic, juggling, balloons, dancing and games, plus extra-special surprises. “It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family,” he says. “Yes, even Dad. It is Father’s Day after all!” Ticket update: last few on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for York Printmakers’ summer showcase at Blossom Street Gallery

Exhibition of the week: York Printmakers: A Showcase, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until July 31, open Thursdays to Sundays

SIXTEEN York Printmakers members demonstrate techniques and printing processes that date back hundreds of years through to those that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, with laser-cut plates, digital elements and 3D techniques.

Taking part are: Harriette Rymer; Lyn Bailey; Bridget Hunt; Carrie Lyall; Patricia Ann Ruddle; Jane Dignum; Jo Rodwell; Lesley Shaw; Phill Jenkins; Sally Parkin; Emily Harvey; Gill Douglas; Becky Long-Smith; Vanessa Oo; Sandra Storey and Rachel Holborow.

Two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg”: Terrain Theatre in Helen at Theatre@41

New play of the week: Helen, staged by Terrain Theatre/Theatre  503 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

HELEN is 40 when she loses her husband. Becca is 15 when her dad dies. Now it is only the two of them, what do they do next? From Maureen Lennon, the Hull-born writer of York Theatre Royal’s 2022 community play, The Coppergate Woman, comes Helen, a series of snapshots of their relationship’s joys and traumas, laughs and arguments over the next 40 years.

Presented by new northern company Terrain Theatre and directed by Tom Bellerby, this 85-minute play about love, death, grief, postnatal depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, dementia and cancer, and two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg, explores the thread that binds them together and the different ways they damage and save each other. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster for the return of Mrs. Brown Rides Again: Heading to Hull in October

Comedy booking of the week: Mrs. Brown Ride Again, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27, 7.30pm, and October 28, 2pm and 7.30pm

BRENDAN O’Carroll and Mrs. Brown’s Boys will be back on stage in their “classic play” Mrs. Brown Rides Again from August to November. The only Yorkshire shows of the ten-venue tour with the television cast will be at Hull Bonus Arena in late-October.

Written by and starring O’Carroll as the beloved “Mammy”, the play finds Agnes Brown and her dysfunctional family romping their way through what seems to be her last days at home. After hearing of a plot by her children to have her put into a home, Agnes decides to prove them wrong by displaying a new lease of life. Box office: bonusarenahull.com.

The Prodigy: “Full attack mode, double barrel” at Leeds First Direct Arena this autumn. Picture: Andrea Ripamonti

Gig announcement of the week: The Prodigy, Army Of The Ants Tour, Leeds First Direct Arena, November 18

THE Prodigy’s Liam Howlett and Maxim will play Leeds on night three of their seven-date autumn arena tour after a spring and summer run of international festival headline dates. Support will come from Soft Play, the British punk duo of Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman, formerly known as Slaves. 

“Army Of The Ants is a calling to The Prodigy peoples,” says Howlett. “We’re comin’ back for u the only way we know, full attack mode, double barrel.” Box office: tix.to/TheProdigy

Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and Marc Almond: Headlining Let’s Rock Leeds

Recommended but general and VIP admission sold out already: Let’s Rock Leeds, Temple Newsam, Leeds, today, gates 11am; 10.30pm finish

HOMECOMING Leeds duo Soft Cell and OMD top the bill at this retro festival. Tony Hadley, Midge Ure, Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom, The Farm, The Real Thing, Roland Gift, Heatwave and Hue & Cry play too. For any form of tickets left, head to: letsrockleeds.com.

In Focus: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 27 to July 1

York Light Opera Company cast member Sanna Jeppsson

RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’s off-Broadway musical comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change looks at how we love, date and handle relationships.

In a revamp of the original 1996 production, York Light Opera Company stage this witty hit show with a cast of seven under the direction of Neil Wood, fresh from his menacing Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. Martin Lay provides the musical direction for the two 7.30pm peformances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

Noted for its insights into human nature and catchy-as-a-Venus-flytrap songs,  I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change explores the joys and challenges of love in songs that chart the heart’s path from dating to marriage to divorce.

Guiding audiences through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson and Mark Simmonds.

Cue shocks, surprises and songs aplenty as our love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box Office tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

The poster for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Posted on

Big kid Benson marks ten years of Just Joshing at children’s parties with afternoon of comedy chaos at Rowntree Theatre

Josh Benson: Sunday party to mark ten years of children’s parties

ALL-ROUND York entertainer Josh Benson performed his first children’s magic show in a kitchen in Fulford.

Now, after a decade of doing other children’s parties, Josh has decided he should have his own bash as a tenth anniversary present to himself.

On Sunday afternoon, this ever-perky purveyor of daft comedy chaos – “daft is cleverer than stupid,” he says – presents Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party! at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

“It’s a big stage, much bigger than a church hall, community centre or school room that I usually do these shows in. I needed to upsize for this one,” he says.

Expect Josh’s usual comedy magic, juggling, “balloonology”, dancing and games, plus some extra-special surprises in a show for “anyone from four to 104”.

“It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family. Yes, even Dad! It is Father’s Day after all!” he says.

“I’m having a huge Just Josh sign made for the stage – by Spectrum Signs in Elvington – as it’s my tenth year of these shows and I can have a sign if I want to! It’s six foot high with lettering that I’m painting blue and red as per my logo.”

Newly confirmed to play Muddles in Darlington Hippodrome’s 2022-23 pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs after three seasons at Halifax’s Victoria Theatre, Josh is equally happy doing magic tricks to children or playing the silly billy to a panto crowd each winter.

Add to that list performing on the P&O Britannia cruise ship, as he was earlier this spring, when his act would be followed by Basil Brush, and being the Corntroller in charge of the summer entertainment at York Maze, at Elvington, Britain’s largest maze attraction.

“That’s why I need a triple-ended candle, not just one that burns at both ends,” says Josh. “As Corntroller since 2019, I write the shows, sing the theme tune, manage the shows and co-host them, and I’m a control freak, so like to be able to do everything.

Josh Benson signs up for York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime in 2020

“I’m overseeing five shows this summer: The Crazy Maze, a big corny game show; Cornula One, which has replaced the pig racing, using converted [should that be cornverted?] shop mobility scooters.

“Then there’s Cobzilla, the dinosaur meet-and-greet experience; Crowmania, the pantomime on wheels that had a big overhaul in 2021, and the Cornival, which is the closest to one of my kids’ parties, being a party more than a show.”

Josh, who will celebrate ten years at “Farmer Tom” Pearcy’s York Maze next year, is in charge of a team of 15 entertainers, with Maia Stroud, Kit Stroud, Sam Wharton and Fiona Baistow among the York names in the Crowmania cast. Charlotte Wood and Annie Donaghy play their part in the stage team too when available.

“The closest comparison to the Crowmania Ride is Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Imagine that with a much more sarcastic, very self-aware writer, lots of one-liners and way more corn and crow-based gags,” he says.

“The 25-minute ride is on a 110-seat trailer, pulled by a tractor, with 25 rides a day, so around 2,500 people can go on it on any one day if we’re full.”

After presenting seven years of children’s parties, “I knew we needed something like that at York Maze, so we introduced the Cornival, with an enormous foam cannon – which I can promise you won’t come out at the Joseph Rowntree show as there’s no grass there!

“But Sunday’s show will feature some of the York Maze characters, like Kernel Kernel, Sweetie Corn, his girlfriend, Russell Crow and Maizey, a pantomime cow with corn cobs around her neck.”

Josh still has first magic show business card, printed in June 2013. “I remember doing shows at Stockton on the Forest Village Hall, Rawcliffe Pavilion and a smaller one in Copmanthorpe for friends of my mum’s,” he says.

“I was 15, a kids’ entertainer who was a child myself and couldn’t drive, so my mum had to drive me to shows with my briefcases of tricks for full-on magic shows. But then I’m still a big kid, as we all know!” A big kid, who now drives a little grey van, as it happens.

Josh Benson, right, with fellow actors Ben Hunter and May Jackson, writer Tim Firth and composer Gary Barlow, promoting the 2015 premiere of The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Matt Crockett

Reflecting on ten years of children’s parties, Josh says: “The thing that I really want to get across is that doing these shows is what’s been massively important to me, providing me with a constant that a lot of performers don’t have.

“There are people who want me to move away from it, which I don’t understand. I’ll go from playing to 1,500 at the panto to playing to 30 children in a village hall on a day off, but work is work.

“I’m very lucky that I’ve built up a reputation where kids really want me to do their parties; they’re adamant that it has to be Josh! That’s so beautiful and lovely, and I don’t feel like an expensive babysitter but an entertainer.

“You’re being booked for your skill set rather than kids just being shoved on to a bouncy castle. Bouncy castles are my Kryptonite! You don’t need to do anything. Just book me and I’ll do it all, no bouncy castle, because how can I compete with an amazing bouncy castle that frankly I’d prefer to be on?! Mind you, bouncy castles have gone up in price, but that’s inflation for you!”

Josh had started his professional theatre career with York Theatre Royal, aged ten, in the 2007 Berwick Kaler pantomime Sinbad The Sailor, later appearing there as John Darling in Peter Pan, and going on to play Little Ernie in the award-winning BBC Morecambe & Wise biopic Eric & Ernie.

He was chosen for the cheeky-chappie role of Yorkshire schoolboy Tommo in Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s The Girls, the Calendar Girls musical, appearing from 2015 to 2017 in the world premiere at Leeds Grand Theatre and The Lowry, Salford, and the subsequent West End run at the Phoenix Theatre, London.

He did four seasons of The Good Old Days at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, taking his magic act down to London for the Players Music Hall at Charing Cross Theatre and Cockney Sing-Along at Brick Lane Music Hall before launching his one-man cabaret act It‘s Not The Joshua Benson Show/Josh Of All Trades.

“Especially when I was living in London, actors were doing kids’ parties because they had to, for the money, but I do them because I haven’t fallen out of love with them,” he says.

 “It’s part of what I do: kids’ parties; the cruise ships; the York Maze summer season and Hallowscream; the panto comic, which I started doing as Buttons in Cinderella at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield in 2018, and the Brick Lane Music Hall adult pantomime in London, mixing panto with Carry On humour, from January to March each year.

“Those shows take a huge amount of thought, written by David Phipps-Davis, a renowned panto dame. The next one will be my third year, Peter Pan And His Loose Boys. Last time it was Goldilocks And The Bare Bears and before that, Robin Hood And His Camp Followers.

Just Josh and WonderPhil: Josh Benson and Phil Grainger’s magical double act at the 2019 Great Yorkshire Fringe in York

“They’re panto for adults, which is cleverer, I think. Not dropping the C-bomb but full of clever lines. With these pantomimes, you have adults that are prepared to be kids for the next couple of hours, where I can be naughtier but with the same energy levels as at a family pantomime.”

Josh bills himself as the “Josh of All Trades, Master of None”, having never trained conventionally in anything, but he has skills aplenty that add up to being “Just Josh” joshing around.

“I may have been doing kids’ parties for ten years but annoyingly I didn’t come up with the ‘Just Josh’ name until I did a double act show with WonderPhil [Easingwold magician, actor, soul singer, guitarist, event organiser and polymath Phil Grainger]. When we first made a show for the Great Yorkshire Fringe in York in 2019 – called Making A Magic Show – we wrote it the night before from 10pm to 4pm, then did the first performance!” he recalls.

Sunday’s audience can expect an appearance by Phil Grainger on Zoom and should look out for the Halifax pantomime drummer, Robert Jane, too. “There’s nothing better than pantomime percussion and no-one better at reading my unpredictability than Robert,” says Josh.

“Frankly he makes me funnier, with his Swanee whistles and an actual slap stick, and he makes the sound of falling down better with a drum roll. Knocking my knees together is funnier with a cowbell accompaniment than without. I think the term ‘punctuating the movements’ is really key to comedy and pantomime, and I learnt a lot about that at Halifax.”

Reflecting on cramming so much into 25 years, Josh says: “I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to doing another West End musical, but the perception that I want to be famous? No. not really. I just want to be good and keep it real.

“I got a little bit of a taste of fame when I was doing The Girls, when I definitely wanted to be a star, the next Bradley Walsh, but I realised that once you get there, it’s the hardest thing to stay normal in showbiz.

“I’m happy to be me in this life, where it’s real. Theatre is my first love and always will be, but I’m just lucky that I can do everything, the kids’ parties, the York Maze, the big family pantomimes at Christmas. I like to tread that line.

“My dad [Josh’s sometime partner in cabaret and former Rowntree Players’ panto dame Barry Benson] drummed into me that while it’s nice to be important, it’s more important to be nice. It’s simple advice, but he’s right.”

Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

Posted on

York Theatre Royal goes on neighbourhood watch for three Travelling Pantomimes UPDATED

Not just Josh: York comic and magician Josh Benson and Patricia the cow team up to to go on the road with the York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime. Picture: Anthony Robling

CINDERELLA, you shall not go to the ball, because no pantomime will run at York Theatre Royal this Christmas. There will, however, be three Theatre Royal pantomimes this winter instead. Yes, three.

Rather than the traditional transformation scene of pumpkin and mice into carriage and horses, this Covid-enforced conversion will be a switch from the still-shut St Leonard’s Place building to the York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime.

In tandem with new pantomime partners Evolution Productions, this pop-up enterprise will take the Theatre Royal on the road to every neighbourhood in York – all 21 wards – during December and January.

Each location, ranging from community halls to social clubs and sports centres, will be Covid-secure, adhering to Government guidance for staging socially distanced performances with capacities ranging from 35 to 50, and at each show, the audience members can vote for whether they want to see Dick Whittington, Jack And The Beanstalk or Aladdin.

The Travelling Pantomime retains the previously announced Cinderella triumvirate of Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird, who oversaw the breaking of the chain from 41 years of Dame Berwick Kaler pantomimes, associate director Juliet Forster as director and award-winning Evolution director and producer Paul Hendy as the writer, who will pen three scripts with York references aplenty.

“We believe that Evolution are the most exciting pantomime company in the country right now,” says York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird

Their first big signing is the pocket-sized bundle of York energy Josh Benson, magician, children’s entertainer, actor and Corntroller of Entertainment at York Maze, who had signed up for a further two years as the daft-lad comedy turn in the Halifax Victoria Theatre pantomime after his debut in Beauty And The Beast last winter.

Once confirmed that Victoria devotees would not be amused by Jack And The Beanstalk this winter, however, Josh was available to play his home city, and fresh from performing his Just Josh magic show at the Theatre Royal’s Pop-Up On The Patio festival, he quickly came on board for the panto road show.

‘I’m so chuffed to be able to play a part keeping York’s panto tradition alive, in a year where it feels like the majority of traditions have pretty much gone out the window,” says Benson. “What’s really special for me personally is the ‘full circle’ that’s happened, having actually started my professional career with York Theatre Royal, aged ten, in their 2007 panto Sinbad The Sailor.

“It’ll be so great to be back home for Christmas this year, finding a way to spread some panto joy amongst the current craziness.” 

Details of venues, performance times and further casting – possibly a cast of five, but more likely four, local actors – will be released in the coming weeks.

A sign of the panto times: Josh Benson prepares to travel all over York in December and January

Tom Bird, who has experience of mounting travelling shows when executive producer at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, says: “Our Travelling Pantomime will be a rip-roaring Christmas treat for the whole family. Audiences can expect hilarity and chaos, music and magic as our amazing actors visit every corner of York.

“It’s called the York Theatre Royal Travelling Pantomime because it does exactly what it says on the tin and will travel to every York neighbourhood. It’ll be a small-scale show with a cast of four or five, where we’ll do whatever we need to do to meet the Government guidance at that time.

“We want it to be this generous offer to each community, where the audience gets to choose between three pantomimes, which gives scope for even more comedy. It’s quite a challenge for the designer [yet to be confirmed], having to design a set for three shows, but still having to taking the audience into another world.”

Bird is delighted that the Travelling Pantomime will still mark the debut of the new Theatre Royal and Evolution partnership. “We believe that Evolution are the most exciting pantomime company in the country right now: they won the Best Panto award again [for750 to 1,500-seat theatres] for Cinderella at Sheffield Lyceum in the 2020 Great British Pantomime Awards,” he says.

“Their pantomimes are dynamic, they’re electric, they’re funny and fabulous, and they’re not snooty, and Evolution are a belting company. I remain convinced that we’ll have one of the best pantomimes in the country when we do Cinderella in 2021 and, in the meantime, we have this exciting opportunity this winter.

Pantomime partnership: York Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster and executive director Tom Bird with Evolution Productions producer Paul Hendy

“It’s great that Paul is writing the three scripts: his writing for pantomimes is graceful and funny and his shows are not blue, just good fun, and they’ll have a local flavour too.”

Bird is quick to stress that the Travelling Pantomime shows should not be seen as a Covid-necessitated compromise. “It’s a massive logistical enterprise, taking a show to all 21 York wards,” he says.  “I have a history of doing shows like this, taking small-scale projects around the world for Shakespeare’s Globe.

“It really does give a project an artistic energy when you face logistical challenges, like we are in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Taking the Travelling Pantomime into the York communities is very direct, I hope it’s very democratic and it acknowledges the virus because there may be people that might not want to go into town on a bus but will go round the corner from their home to see a show.”

Bird is delighted to have snapped up the comedic, mischievous nuttiness of Josh Benson. “We’re very excited to have Josh in the show. When we saw him on the patio doing his Just Josh show, we thought, ‘this is exactly what we need’. He’s warm, he’s very engaging, he’s local and he’s loved by people in York, and he’ll help to shape the shows.

“I would really love to be involved in suggesting ‘how about this or how about that?’ for the shows,” says Josh Benson, as full of beans as ever

“It’s also important, coming out of the old panto into the new era, that we should make our pantomime a show for families and Josh helps us to do that.”

Looking forward to leading the Theatre Royal pantomime in his home city, Benson says: “It’s been said of me, ‘if you turn Josh upside down, it says ‘Made In York’, and it’ll be lovely to be in York this winter because I don’t really want to be anywhere else in this strange year.

“I’d signed for one year for the Victoria Theatre panto in Halifax and they then offered me for four more in the comic role, effectively taking over from Neil Hurst, who’d done it for five years before me, and I said, ‘let me do another two’, but when Jack And The Beanstalk had to be postponed, the Travelling Pantomime feels a lovely thing to be able to do and a real  honour too.

“It’s nice to be part of a new beginning for the Theatre Royal pantomime, which I think will be great. What’s good for me is that I can dip my toe in a York panto and they can do the same with me.”

He believes it is important to spread his talent wherever possible when still on a learning curve at 22. “This summer aside, I usually do the whole season at York Maze, so you could have too much of a good thing if I do the winter season as well in panto, doing the same jokes and routines!” he reasons. “I’m very much playing the long game, working up to going to the Edinburgh Fringe with a solo show.”

Benson will have to learn not one, but three pantomime scripts. “But that’s a hugely exciting thing to be doing: a choice of three shows each performance. Tom [Bird] did that at the Globe too, and what’s clever about it is that it’ll have a rough-and ready-feel to it, like a village-hall panto, but as Tom has said, it’ll still be a York Theatre Royal panto, with the award-winning Paul Hendy writing it.

“His writing for pantomimes is graceful and funny and his shows are not blue, just good fun, and they’ll have a local flavour too,” says Tom Bird of Paul Hendy’s award-winning pantomimes

“As a pop-up panto, you can open it in that rough-and-ready style, in a conversational tone, so it’s different from the very start, with me going out there as Josh, just like with the kids’ parties I do, jumping up on stage and just talking, whereas normally with a panto in a theatre, the audience are looking at the stage, thinking, ‘Go on, impress me’.”

Doing three shows throws up extra comedic possibilities too for the comic turn with the potential for daft-lad confusion. “I love the idea that I can go, ‘Right, Dick…Jack…I mean, Aladdin’, so suddenly you’re doing that ‘times three’ thing,” he says.

Benson is restlessly creative – he had written and prepared a drive-in show for York Maze, should owner “Farmer Tom” Pearcy have decided to re-open his attraction this summer post-lockdown – and so he will not merely be turning up to rehearsals for the Travelling Pantomime.

“I would really love to be involved in suggesting ‘how about this or how about that?’ for the shows, so I’m going to meet Juliet [director Juliet Forster] in September to talk about  it,” he says.

In the meantime, he will keep busy with children’s party magic shows in gardens – whatever the “Rule of Six” permits – after a multitude of lockdown shows on Zoom and Facebook.

Tickets for York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime will go on sale in November. Oh, and Cinderella, you shall still go to the ball, the glittering party merely postponed from 2020/2021 to 2021/2022.

The box-office team will be in touch with ticket holders with the option of moving tickets to next year, cancelling the booking or donating some or all of ticket cost to York Theatre Royal. Ticket holders are being asked NOT to contact the box office, whose reduced team will contact them as quickly as possible in coming weeks.

Joshing around: Josh Benson in his Just Josh magic and balloon show

Just Josh? Just who is Josh Benson? Let him introduce himself:

“HAVING not conventionally trained in anything, 22-year-old ‘Josh of All Trades, Master of None’ is winging his way through the entertainment industry. But don’t tell his mum…she thinks he’s at university studying for a proper job!

As an actor, Josh’s credits include playing Little Ernie in the award-winning BBC Morecambe and Wise biopic Eric & Ernie; being hit by a car in BBC1’s Casualtyand a cameo in Monroefor ITV. He played Tommo in Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s Calendar Girls musical The Girls from 2015 to 2017, both in the world premiere at Leeds Grand Theatre and The Lowry, Salford, and at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End. 

A huge part of Josh’s work is at York Maze, where he is the Corntroller of Entertainments – genuine job title – for the summer season. There, he writes, manages and co-hosts three live-action experiences: a stage show, tractor trailer ride and pig racing. This role has sprung from Josh being a professional children’s and family entertainer for the past seven years, having proudly entertained at hundreds of children’s parties and events, on cruises and in shows.

He is a professional close-up/stage magician and comedian, having performed four seasons of The Good Old Daysat Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, later taking his act down to the Big Smoke for Players Music Hall and the Cockney Sing-Alongat Charing Cross Theatre and Brick Lane Music Hall respectively. 

Eric and Little Ernie: Josh Benson in sunshine-bringing dance mode alongside a statue of Eric Morecambe when he landed the role of young Ernie Wise in the BBC’s Eric & Ernie in 2010

As a “grown-up”entertainer, Josh last year debuted his first one-man cabaret evening, It’s Not The Joshua Benson Show/Josh Of All Trades, a two-act show of all his “pointless yet entertaining” skills. This show tours the UK constantly, “whenever it can fit in between everything else”!

In pantomime, Josh’s career began in 2007, at the tender age of ten, among the babbies and bairns in York Theatre Royal’s Sinbad The Sailor. He was lucky enough to more festive fun in 2008 for Dick Turpin and in 2011 returned to York Theatre Royal as John Darling in Peter Pan,part of the In The Round summer season. 

Christmas 2018 saw Josh’s panto comic debut as Buttons in Cinderellaat the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield, and last year he took over as comic at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, for Beauty And The Beast.

He was due to return there this year for Jack And The Beanstalk, now postponed until 2021. He is delighted – and feels incredibly lucky! – to have been offered the fantastic alternative of York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime for the winter season.” 

Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond or at home, in or hopefully out of the rain, courtesy of The Press, York. List No. 13

Benched: Lisa Howard as grief-stricken Cathy, coming out of isolation on Easter Sunday 2020 in Matt Aston’s lockdown play, Every Time A Bell Rings, presented by Park Bench Theatre. Picture: Northedge Photography

A BANK Holiday on Monday, the return to schools drawing ever closer, masked or unmasked, the summer calendar is speeding by.

Make the most of the outdoors before the crepuscular Covid uncertainty of autumn and beyond arrives for theatres, concert halls and gig venues alike.

Charles Hutchinson pops outside, then quickly head back indoors in the rain with these recommendations.

Comedy for your living room…from theirs: Your Place Comedy presents Paul Sinha and Angela Barnes, Sunday, 8pm

Paul Sinha and Angela Barnes: The stream team for Your Place Comedy, performing in their living rooms on Sunday night

YORKSHIRE virtual comedy project Your Place Comedy returns after a summer break to deliver a second series of live streamed shows over the next three months, re-starting with The Chase star Paul Sinha and  BBC Radio 4 News Quiz guest host Angela Barnes this weekend.

Corralled by Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones, ten small, independent theatres and arts centres from God’s Own Country and the Humber are coming together again, amid continued unease for the industry, to provide entertainment from national touring acts.

Sunday’s show will be broadcast live to viewers’ homes for free, with full details on how to watch on YouTube and Twitch at yourplacecomedy.co.uk. “As before, viewers will have an option to make a donation to the venues if they have enjoyed the broadcast,” says Chris.

Mucking around: Cassie Vallance enjoying herself in Teddy Bears’ Picnic in the Friends’ Garden, Rowntree Park,
York. Picture: Northedge Photography

Garden theatre part three: Park Bench Theatre in Every Time A Bell Rings, Friends Garden, Rowntree Park, York, until September 5

SAMUEL Beckett’s First Love has left the bench for good. Children’s show Teddy Bears’ Picnic, starring Cassie Vallance, resumes daytime residence from today.  From this week, the premiere of Engine House Theatre artistic director Matt Aston’s lockdown monologue Every Time A Bell Rings occupies the same bench on evenings until September 5.

Performed by Slung Low and Northern Broadsides regular Lisa Howard and directed by Tom Bellerby on his return to York from London, Aston’s 50-minute play is set in Lockdown on Easter Sunday 2020, when isolated, grief-stricken Cathy searches for solace on her favourite park bench in her favourite park in this funny and poignant look at how the world is changing through these extraordinary times.

Tickets for performances in the Covid-secure Friends Garden must be bought in advance at parkbenchtheatre.com or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Bring picnics, blankets and headphones to tune in to shows delivered on receivers. 

Decked out: Hannah Sibai’s design for the Pop-Up On The Patio festival at York Theatre Royal

Deckchairs will be provided: Pop-Up On The Patio, week three at York Theatre Royal, August 28 and  29

YORK Theatre Royal’s Covid-secure summer festival of outdoor performances on Hannah Sibai’s terrace stage climaxes with five more shows, three tomorrow, two on Saturday.

First up, tomorrow at 4pm, is York company Cosmic Collective Theatre’s cult show Heaven’s Gate, an intergalactic pitch-black comedy starring  satirical writer Joe Feeney, Anna Soden, Lewes Roberts and Kate Cresswell as they imagine the final hour of four fictionalised members of a real-life UFO-theistic group.

York performance poet Henry Raby puts the word into sword to slice up the past decade in Apps & Austerity at 6.30pm; Say Owt, the York outlet for slam poets, word-weavers and “gobheads”, follows at 8pm. On Saturday, York magician, juggler and children’s entertainer Josh Benson is unstoppable in Just Josh at 1pm before York pop, soul and blues singer Jess Gardham closes up the patio at 4pm.

Jo Walton: Rust on show at Pyramid Gallery

York exhibition of the week and beyond: Jo Walton, Paintings and Rust Prints, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until September 30

YORK artist Jo Walton uses rust and rusted metal sheet in innovative ways to create her artworks. Iron filings are applied as ‘paint’ and as they rust, reactions occur, resulting in every painting being unique and unrepeatable.

“Jo’s work is abstract, inspired by horizons,” says Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett. “Her work features enhanced rust-prints on plaster surfaces, combinations of rusted sheet metal with oil painting and painting seascapes on gold-metal leaf.”

The poster for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet

First blockbuster of the summer…at last: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, at York cinemas

THE wait is over. This summer has been more blankbuster than blockbuster, thanks to the stultifying impact of the Covid lockdown and the big film companies’ reluctance to take a chance on a major release in the slow-burn, socially distanced reopening of cinemas.

Step forward Christopher Nolan, director of Memento, Inception, three Dark Knight/Batman movies and Dunkirk to grasp the nettle by releasing the 151-minute psychological thriller/action movie Tenet.

John David Washington (yes, Denzel’s son), Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh ride a rollercoaster plot that follows a secret agent who must manipulate time in order to prevent the Third World War. Apparently, Tenet is a “film to feel, not necessarily understand”, like a Scarborough fairground ride, then.

Bella Gaffney expresses her enthusiasm for taking part in Songs Under Skies in the National Centre for Early Music churchyard garden

Double bills galore outside a church: Songs Under Skies, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, between September 2 and 17

SONGS Under Skies will bring together the National Centre for Early Music, The Crescent, The Fulford Arms and the Music Venues Alliance for an open-air series of acoustic concerts next month in York.

Dates for the diary are: September 2, Amy May Ellis and Luke Saxton; September 3, Dan Webster and Bella Gaffney; September 9,  Kitty VR and Boss Caine; September 10, Wolf Solent and Rosalind; September 16, Polly Bolton and Henry Parker; September 17, Elkyn and Fawn.

Gates will open at the NCEM’s Walmgate home, St Margaret’s Church, at 6.30pm for each 7pm start; acts will perform either side of a 30-minute interval with a finishing time of 8.30pm. 

The artwork for the new album by perennial York Barbican favourites The Waterboys

And what about…

Discovering The Waterboys’ new album, Good Luck, Seeker, Mike Scott’s latest soulful blast, met with universal thumbs-up reviews. Or bunking down with 1981 Ashes-winning captain turned psychoanalyst Mike Brearley’s new book for the end of summer, Spirit Of Cricket.

Posted on

Pop-Up On The Patio heralds return of live shows at York Theatre Royal…outdoors

Top of the Pop-ups: Musician Phil Grainger and writer Alexander Flanagan-Wright in Alex’s back garden at Stillington Mill when performing Orpheus in a week of At The Mill shows. Now they head to Pop-Up On The Patio. Picture: Charlotte Graham

WHO will be popping up at York Theatre Royal’s Pop-Up On The Patio festival from August 14 to 29?

Taking part in a Covid-secure summer season of outdoor performances, on a terrace stage designed by Yorkshire theatre designer Hannah Sibai, will be “Yorkshire’s finest theatre and dance makers”.

Step forward York Dance Space; Mud Pie Arts; Crafty Tales; Fool(ish) Improv; The Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre; puppeteer Freddie Hayes; Cosmic Collective Theatre; performance poet Henry Raby; Say Owt, the York outlet for slam poets, word-weavers and “gobheads”; magician, juggler and children’s entertainer Josh Benson and singer Jess Gardham.

They will perform at one end of the patio, decorated with “Glastonbury-style bunting”, performing to audiences of a maximum of 35 in demarcated bubbles.

“We’re so excited to have been able to bring live theatre back to our city this summer,” says Theatre Royal producer Thom Freeth, who has co-ordinated the festival programme of theatre, dance, music, magic, puppetry, improvised comedy, storytelling and slam poetry.

“Our building may still be closed, but we didn’t want that to stand in the way of entertaining the people of York during this difficult time. Pop-Up On The Patio gives us the opportunity to showcase the work of brilliant home-grown performers, many of whom are part of our freelance family, who have been disproportionally affected by this pandemic.”

“We wanted to go hyper-local with the festival to give a platform to York artists,” says York Theatre Royal executive director Tom Bird

Looking forward to staging the first shows on the Theatre Royal premises since March 17, executive director Tom Bird says: “It’s been a short but intense preparation period: we wanted to go hyper-local with the festival, to give a platform to York artists, and we’re absolutely delighted at getting a very local, highly skilled bunch across so many genres.”

Explaining the decision to focus the festival on Friday evenings and Saturdays, Bird says: “We are easing our way back from a total stop, turning everything off in March, so we’re feeling our way in, and we want to make sure that everything is safe, for the audience, performers and staff.

“The world is changing all the time, so we wanted to give ourselves breathing space in what we’re doing by restricting ourselves to three weekends for the festival, but  who’s to say we won’t do more patio shows.”

The Theatre Royal management has implemented extra safety measures to keep visitors and staff safe during the three festival weekends, reconfiguring the patio to allow for a socially distanced audience and stage. These measures will be under constant review and apply to all the performances.

Tickets are on sale at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and must be bought in advance.

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME:

Dance steps: Dance // Shorts launches the Pop-Up On The Patio festival

Dance // Shorts, August 14, 7pm

CURATED by York Dance Space, this evening of live contemporary dance theatre in an outdoor, intimate setting will be a compilation of bite-size solos and duets from “some of the most interesting and exciting young artists from across Yorkshire and the Humber”.

Performances include solo work from Alethia Antonia, from the James Wilton Dance Company; Coalesce Dance Theatre; Daisy Howell, from Brink Dance Company, and Namiuki Dance.

Look out too for a selection of Doorstep Dances from Hull artists Tamar and Jo, spanning contemporary, Northern Soul, jazz dance and physical theatre styles. Suitable for age 12 upwards.

Mud, glorious Mud: Mud Pie Arts duo Nicolette Hobson, left, and Jenna Drury

Mud Pie Arts, August 15, 22 and 29, 11am, for age 4 to 11

“WHAT is easy to get into but hard to get out of?” askMud Pie Arts drama practitioners Jenna Drury and Nicolette Hobson. “The answer? Trouble, of course!

“So, join us for Saturday elevenses in our Silly Summer Stories show. There’ll be interactive storytelling, riddles, games and all kinds of family tomfoolery.”

Have you heard the one about the old woman who lived in a vinegar bottle, or the farmer who fished for sausages? Now is the chance to enjoy those stories. “Come and find us on the patio every Saturday this month to celebrate all things daft,” say Jenna and Nicolette.

Crafty: Story Craft Theatre’s Janet Bruce, left, and Cassie Vallance

Crafty Tales, August 15 and 22, 1pm, for two to six year olds

YORK Theatre Royal’s Story Craft Theatre return with an outdoor version of Crafty Tales, presented by Cassie Vallance and Janet Bruce.

“As always, there’ll be a story to tell plus songs, games and dancing, all designed around a brilliant picture book with interactive and imaginative play,” they say. “Although Crafty Tales is aimed at two to six year olds, all children are welcome.”

Made up: Fool(ish) Improv’s poster since 1793

Fool(ish) Improv, August 15, 4pm 

FOOL(ISH) Improv is a bite-sized comedy show with absolutely no plan or permission, created by York writer and director Paul Birch.

Strap in for 60 minutes of improvised mayhem where you, the audience, provide the suggestions for the actors to make stuff happen. Instantly.

“Taking nothing seriously – and everything for granted – our merry band of charlatans and misfits will bring music, comedy and appalling levels of acting to give you a delightful hour of spontaneous comedy,” says Paul.

“You bring the ideas, we’ll bring the performance, and together we’ll make a joyous family show that has no business being indoors. Now, you have to come. We couldn’t do it without you.”

The poster for The Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre’s Orpheus

Orpheus, The Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre in Orpheus, August 21, 6pm

ALEXANDER Flanagan-Wright and Phil Grainger should have been heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe to present the British premiere of The Gods, The Gods, The Gods this month after its Antipodean premiere before Covid-19 intervened.

Instead, they have been presenting Orpheus in socially distanced performances in back gardens and a week of At The Mill shows in Alex’s own back garden at Stillington Mill, near York, last week.

Written by Alex, with incidental music and songs by Phil, the international award-winning Orpheus is a thoroughly modern, beautifully poetic re-telling of an ancient Greek myth.

Dave is single, stood at the bar; Eurydice is a tree nymph, and Bruce Springsteen is on the juke box in this tale of impossible, death-defying love told through hair-raising spoken word and soaring soul music, where Alex and Phil weave a world of dive bars, side streets and ancient gods.

Eurydice: “A story about a woman” with a Superman costume, a bee tattoo and a sting in the tale

Eurydice, The Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre, August 21, 8pm

LENI is five years old, holding a Superman costume for her first day at school. Eurydice is five years into the rest of her life, sporting a bee tattoo on her wrist, in Alexander Flanagan-Wright’s story of someone defined by someone else’s myth.

This tale of making changes, taking leaps and being a daily superhero is billed as “a story about a woman told by women”.

That was the case when performed by Alex and Phil Grainger’s co-creators, Serena Manteghi and Casey Jane Andrews, to 2019 Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre award-winning success. Now, Alex and Phil take over to weave a world of day-to-day power and beauty and goddesses, told through heart-stopping spoken word and live electronica.

Flat caps at the double: Freddie Does Puppets puppeteer Freddie Hayes with grumpy pub landlord Fred in Fred’s Microbrewery

Freddie Does Puppets in Fred’s Microbrewery, August 22, 4pm

FRED’S Microbrewery is the world’s first Puppet-in-a-Pub theatrical experience, a modern-day Punch and Judy story courtesy of York puppeteer Freddie Hayes.

Grouchy Fred and his bitter and twisted wife Sharon are two very grumpy Yorkshire puppets cum pub landlord and landlady of the Fred’s Microbrewery, where the frank, fractious duo serve beer-infused banter to adult audiences in an afternoon of debauchery and puppet profanities. 

Fred and Sharon have sparred at York’s Great Yorkshire Fringe and had plenty to say at the Edinburgh Fringe, Shambala Festival, Moving Parts Festival and Folkestone Puppet Festival too.  

In lockdown and beyond, Fred and Sharon have been living inside a laundry bag in Freddie’s attic. Now, bag unzipped, she is ready to unleash them once more in a show with an age guide of 15-plus on account of the strong language and adult themes.

Heaven’s above: Anna Soden, Joe Feeney, Lewes Roberts and Kate Cresswell in Cosmic Collective Theatre’s Heaven’s Gate

Heaven’s Gate, Cosmic Collective Theatre, August 28, 4pm

FOUR cups of apple sauce. Four canvas camp beds. One comet. Heaven’s Gate is closing and the Away Team are ready for graduation, but whatever you do, don’t say the C-word.  ‘C’ for ‘cult’, that is.

Presented by the new York company Cosmic Collective Theatre – satirical writer Joe Feeney, Anna Soden, Lewes Roberts and Kate Cresswell – Heaven’s Gate imagines the final hour of four fictionalised members of the real-life UFO-theistic group.

As they prepare for their “graduation” to the “Kingdom of Heaven”, the excitement is palpable, but all too soon the cracks appear. Is the Heavenly Father really waiting for them on a Spaceship? Is Planet Earth soon to be recycled? Is castration compulsory? Isn’t Turkey Potpie an underwhelming last supper?

Cosmic Collective Theatre’s intergalactic pitch-black comedy comes with adult themes and strong language – but no C-word, of course – to give it a 15-plus age guide

Taking the mic: York punk performance poet Henry Raby

Henry Raby: Apps & Austerity, August 28, 6.30pm

“2010-2019. What was going on?” asks York-grown punk performance poet, activist and Say Owt artistic director Henry Raby as puts the word into sword to slice up the past decade.

From the memes and scenes, from riots to Royal Weddings to Referendums, Henry sums up a decade of technology and austerity with attitude, humour and insight.

Slam champ and Deer Shed resident poet Henry has performed across the UK, from festivals front rooms. “This is my fifth solo show, so I must have got something right by now,” he says.

Say Owt Showcase, August 28, 8pm

YORK’S lovable and raucous poetry gang proudly present an assortment of noisy slam-winning performance poets, word-weavers, and gobheads. “Spice up your Friday night with a glass-raising toast to the spoken word,” says host Henry Raby.

Say Owt word-warriors have delighted in ripping up stages at the Great Yorkshire Fringe and the Arts Barge in York, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Ilkley Literature Festival.

Manic magic: All-action York magician Just Josh

Josh Benson in Just Josh’s Ultimate Family Show, August 29, 1pm

CALLING all families! Just Josh is “hugely excited” to be back performing live with his family magic, juggling and balloon show!

If you have encountered Josh Benson previously, you will know that he is one of Yorkshire and indeed the UK’s “biggest kids”, noted for his boundless energy and shameless attempts to do absolutely anything in pursuit of a laugh from a crowd.

Josh, Corntroller of Entertainments at York Maze and regular pantomime silly billy, has taken his magic all over the UK and beyond, returning home from his P&O Cruises stint in February.

“My show is suitable for kids from four to 104, with laughs and, all being well, amazement for the whole family” says Josh.

All roads lead Jess Gardham to…the Pop-Up On The Patio stage at York Theatre Royal

Jess Gardham, August 29, 4pm

YORK pop, soul, blues and acoustic singer-songwriter, musical actress and 2018 MasterChef quarter finalist Jess Gardham closes Pop-Up On The Patio with an afternoon set.

Jess has performed all over Britain, the United States, Europe and Canada and supported the likes of Paul Carrack, KT Tunstall, The Shires, Wilko Johnson and Martin Simpson.

Her songs have been played regularly on BBC Introducing and her debut album, Beyond Belief, was picked up by BBC Radio 2.

Jess has taken lead roles in theatre productions such as Hairspray, Ghost The Musical and Rock Of Ages. “I hope to perform in theatre again when they’re open again,” she says.

SAFETY MEASURES

Arriving
YORK Theatre Royal will open the entrance to the Pop-Up patio a quarter of an hour before every performance starts.

“There will likely be some queueing, but we will do everything we can to keep this to a minimum,” says the festival website. “Please arrive in good time for any performance.”

All tickets will be digital and checked without contact at a social distance at the entrance to the patio area, where refreshments will be available.

Departing
STAFF will be managing the departure from the performance area “so that we don’t have large crowds all leaving at the same time”.

Loos
THE loos in De Grey House next to the patio will be open throughout. All loos will be stocked with anti-bacterial hand soap and stringent hand-washing guidelines are in place.

Social distancing
EACH household or social bubble will be seated at a safe distance from other households or social bubbles, in line with Government guidance at the time of the performance.

“You will be directed to a designated ‘social bubble spot’ by our staff,” says the website. “Please be patient with them and sit where they direct – they know best!”

Food and refreshments
A LIMITED range of soft and alcoholic drinks will be on sale, alongside ice creams and chocolate.

Ticketing policy
IF you have any symptoms of COVID-19, have been diagnosed with the virus or have been in direct contact with a diagnosed individual in the past 14 days, you must not attend the event.

If you are unable to attend as a result of illness, please email boxoffice@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and a ticket transfer can be arranged. Tickets can only be refunded if the booked performance has sold out.

Additional cleaning
THE patio area will be thoroughly cleaned between each performance. “Our already high cleaning standards have been enhanced by a cleaning programme designed to clean and sanitise the high touch points,” assures the website.

More information can be found at: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/be-part-of-it/collective-acts/pop-up-on-the-patio/. 

Garden of delights: Hannah Sibai’s design for Pop-Up On The Patio at York Theatre Royal