Laura McKeller, left, Michael Cornell, Laura Castle and Jamie McKeller in Neon Crypt Productions’ debut show, Dracula:The Bloody Truth
NEON Crypt Productions is the new theatre enterprise from Jamie and Laura McKeller, ghost-walk purveyors of the Deathly Dark Tour on York’s haunted streets.
They are no stranger to theatrical performance, not least for the Rowntree Players or presentingA Night Of Face-Melting Horror, and so setting up a stage company is not a giant leap for McKellerkind, but more a logical extension of their comedy horror-rooted entertainment empire that also incorporates Neon Crypt Films.
For Neon Crypt Productions, they are joined by like-minded stage cohorts Laura Castle and Michael Cornell, a core company that plans to mount two shows a year, next up November’s premiere of The Wetwang Hauntings to mark Halloween.
The quartet has made a canny choice for this week’s debut: the mishap-strewn comedy of physical theatre troupe Le Navet Bete’s prank and pratfall-filled account of Dracula fits as snugly as a false set of fangs for the Count.
Note the show title: Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Not Bram Stoker’s account of Dracula, but one that will “shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened”. In other words, Stoker’s Dracula sucks. Why, he is even called ‘traitorous” here!
This is Professor Van Helsing’s corrective, corrosive version of Dracula. “It’s a public information seminar, not a show,” insists Jamie McKeller’s exasperated, deeply dischuffed Dutch professor, who takes on the narrator’s role with a disdain for theatre and yet finds himself at the helm of a play within a play. One where Van Helsing and a troupe of multi-role-playing actors strive to enact Dracula in the face of an obstacle course of calamitous impediments on a misbehaving black-and-red set.
McKeller performs the balancing act of playing a humourless character yet eliciting humour aplenty with brio: the importance of being earnest writ large while mayhem abounds around him. Collapsing scenery, role swaps, misplaced props, mistimed sound cues, blows to the head, nothing will deflect him from his cause with so much at stake.
You will know this frantic comedic style from the riotous work of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s Bottom, Lip Service, Mischief Theatre, Oddsocks and Shakespeare-on-a-bike exponents The HandleBards, as well as Le Navet Bete, of course.
Now add Neon Crypt to that list, as the two Lauras, McKeller’s Mina Harker and Castle’s Dracula and Dr John Seward (or C-word as Jamie McKeller’s Van Helsing pronounces it), are joined by Cornell’s increasingly feverish solicitor Jonathan Harker, blonde-wigged Lucy Westenra and wild, fly-munching Renfield.
Under Jamie McKeller’s direction, the energy, the pace, the daftness, never drops, as restless and relentless as Van Helsing, making everything Count in large amounts as they get stuck into Dracula with storytelling relish, theatrical flamboyance and dextrous comic timing.
As much a comedy troupe as a theatre company, welcome to the York stage scene Neon Crypt Productions. This start is bloody good fun!
Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
So much at stake: Laura Castle’s Count Dracula and Jamie McKeller’s Professor Van Helsing in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Picture: Michael Cornell
FROM the York producers of The Deathly Dark Tour and A Night Of Face-Melting Horror, bonded with the mischievous minds of Le Navet Bete, comes the debut production by Neon Crypt Productions, Dracula: The Bloody Truth.
Drawing blood at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tonight to Saturday, a very disgruntled Professor Van Helsing and an accompanying troupe of three very stressed actors will “shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Bram Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened”.
“Van Helsing is looking to repair his reputation and, with the help of the trio of highly talented actors, tell the true story of Count Dracula,” says Neon Crypt co-founder Jamie McKeller. “The show will take the audience from Transylvania to Whitby, the dreaded Borgo Pass to London and beyond!”
Laura McKeller, left, Michael Cornell, Laura Castle and Jamie McKeller in a scene form Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
Exposing the truth behind the fangs, Laura Castle will take the role of Count Dracula, joined by Laura McKeller as Mina and Michael Cornell as Jonathan Harker in the horror-comedy show scripted by Le Navet Bete.
Neon Crypt Productions is the latest venture by ghost tour promoters Jamie and Laura McKeller, who run The Deathly Dark Tour in the guise of Dr Damian Deathly and Dede Deathly, as well as the film company Neon Crypt Films.
Jamie also appeared in Rowntree Players’ pantomimes in 2023 and 2024 and made his return to directing after 15 years with Rowntree Players’ March 2023 production of John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22, followed by another state-of the-rotten-nation Godber comedy, Shakers, co-written with Jane Thornton, in March 2024.
Jamie McKeller’s Professor Van Helsing and Laura Castle’s Dr John Seward in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
The McKellers have set up Neon Crypt Productions with fellow founding members Castle and Cornell. “We all share the same passion for entertaining, high-energy theatre that slaps a smile on the face,” says Jamie. “As well as performing in the shows, we make the sets, props, costumes, market and generally wear about a hundred hats each!”
Defining the company’s ethos, Jamie says: “Neon Crypt is a collection of unhinged performers with a fiery passion for laugh-out- loud, make-your-belly-ache theatre. We all met in various productions over the years and wanted to produce shows that we would want to see: short, snappy and stupendously silly.
“Our aim is to produce a minimum of two shows a year, sometimes licensed plays from other companies and sometimes our own original work. Our home turf is Theatre@41, which we all have a strong connection with and hope to be performing here for years to come.”
Taking a bite out of Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth: Laura McKeller’s Mina and Laura Castle’s Count Dracula in Neon Crypt Productions’ debut show
The Deathly Dark Tour, now in its fifth year on York’s haunted streets, is noted for its alliance of spooks and dark humour: a combination matched by physical theatre exponents Le Navet Bete in Dracula: The Bloody Truth.
“We had the pleasure of first seeing Le Navet Bete’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula a a few years ago,” says Jamie. “Typically it’s a show that demands space; the sheer volume of scenery, props and costumes alone is bigger than any sensible production in a studio theatre! It’s 100 per cent energy from the first moment and doesn’t stop until the final bows.”
Looking forward to the opening night, director Jamie says: “What a show to choose for our first one! It’s no small feat to pull this one off. Comedy is tricky enough but high-speed farce is probably one of the hardest to accomplish well.
Making it Count: Laura Castle’s Dracula in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth
“But what a cast to work with. I’m credited as the director of the show, but in truth this was a collaborative project. Everyone brought in ideas; there isn’t a piece of the show that isn’t the result of someone having a thought in the rehearsal room. If you think you know the story of Dracula, let us prove you wrong!”
Coming next from Neon Crypt Productions will be November’s staging of The Wetwang Hauntings, a new comedy-horror show penned by Jamie McKeller and two Deathly Dark Tour cohorts, to mark Halloween. Watch this space for more details.
Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Michael Cornell’s dame, Gertrude Gander, making her point to Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose. Picture: Howard Ella
IN the words of director Howard Ella, Mother Goose is “the dame’s pantomime”. Boldly, he casts Michael Cornell in the role of Gertrude Gander in his dame debut after his Ugly Sister double act as Miranda to Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra in last winter’s Cinderella.
These are big boots to fill after the years of Graham Smith and, before that Barry Benson, father of Josh, comedy turn Muddles alongside Su Pollard’s Carabosse and Lee Mead’s Prince Lee in Darlington Hippodrome’s Sleeping Beauty this winter, should you be wondering.
Cornell’s dame is taller, younger, more elegant on initial impression, than his more rumbustious predecessors, his dame style still finding its feet and tone and his voice its pitch. Whether singing or talking, he shows off a wide vocal range, spectacularly so with his singing, full of operatic drama to go with his natural stage presence. He can carry a dress with aplomb too.
Ella likes an eggy pun and a political jab, also parading a meta-theatre awareness that Mother Goose is not exactly thick with plot by mentioning it brazenly, instead building his pantomime around set-pieces, bright-coloured characterisation and songs aplenty, both familiar and less so.
For those about to rock: Jamie McKeller’s guitar-wielding Demon Blackheart and Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong in Mother Goose. Picture: Howard Ella
A topical thread runs through the show’s core as Gertie comes to realise the folly of pursuing fame and fortune, after swapping scratching a living from her Wolds farm’s hen pens for the bright lights of Doncaster’s club scene. Doncaster?!
Meanwhile, co-writer and comic turn Gemma McDonald loves the sound of breaking wind, letting rip at every mention of dishy farmer Kev (principal boy Sara Howlett) being the King of Kale. Her daft lad Jack, with his Billy Bremner hair, strawberry cheeks and looning clown face, is as irrepressible as ever, bonding delightfully with Cornell’s Gertie, Jack mucking about at every opportunity when the dame is seeking to assert motherly authority.
Howlett’s farmer Kev is a classic principal boy, each slapping of a thigh being met with Kev being framed in a spotlight and breaking into a toothpaste-perfect smile. There is a pleasing self-awareness to this handsome performance, coupled with chemistry with Laura Castle’s ever-enthusiastic, humorous Jill, recalling their performance in John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22 at the JoRo in 2023.
Partnerships abound in Ella’s production, always a good resource for engendering humour, and key to this show are two such double acts: Cornell’s Gertie with American Abbey Follansbee’s Priscilla the Goose and Jamie and Laura McKeller, from the Deathly Dark Tour ghost walks, teaming up as the villainous Demon Darkheart and his deadpan sidekick Bob Bingalong.
Whisking up egg puns: Gemma McDonald’s Jack with Laura Castle’s Jill in Mother Goose
Follansbee has graduated from the Cinderella chorus line to being the golden egg-laying goose on the loose, American accent, big bustle, orange leggings et al, and she brings a song-and-dance flourish to Priscilla in tandem with Cornell.
The McKellers spend time aplenty on the dark side in their nocturnal version of a Deathly day job, but always delivered with more than a dash of humour, and that sense of dark comedy infuses both Jamie’s thespian, shock-haired Darkheart, debt collector and purveyor of the dark arts, and Laura’s dogsbody Bob, a Yorkshire spin on Tony Robinson’s Baldrick in Blackaddder, and no less full of dim suggestions. Laura reveals rather a fine singing voice too.
The principal cast is completed by Holly Smith’s Fairy Frittata with her flow of rhyming couplets and perennially perky interjections. Throughout, choreographer Ami Carter keeps principal dancers, senior chorus and junior teams busy with ensemble routines that fill the stage with more buzz than a beehive, while the animated James Robert Ball is a highly watchable, always engaged musical director.
He extracts fantastic musicianship from his players, who include fellow keyboardist Sam Johnson, whose outstanding musical arrangements are surely worthy of a professional production.
Holly Smith’s Fairy Frittata, left, Sara Howlett’s Kev, the King of Kale, Laura Castle’s Jill, Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander, Gemma McDonald’s Jack, Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong and Jamie McKeller’s Demon Darkheart in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose
Out of view but deserving a sustained round of applause are Katie Maloney on reeds, James Lolley on trumpet, James Stockdale on trombone, Micky Moran on guitar, Georgia Johnson on bass and Joel Fergusson on drums. Lena Ella and her costume team deliver the goods as ever.
A quick mention too for a welcome innovation: last Saturday’s matinee was the first interpreted and captioned performance of a panto at the JoRo, presented with interpreter Dave Wycherley and captioner Margaret Hansard in collaboration with York charity Lollipop, Stage Text and ToylikeMe.
Likewise, touch tours for blind and visually impaired theatregoers were provided on Sunday and will be again tomorrow night (10/12/2024). Always a community show, these new additions make it all the more so.
Rowntree Players present Mother Goose at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander and Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose
LET the egg puns get cracking when Rowntree Players launch their rollicking romp of a 2024 pantomime, Mother Goose, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight.
The plot? Meet Jack (Gemma McDonald), head of hens at Chucklepatch Farm, with its newest addition to the coop, Priscilla the goose (American Abbey Follansbee). Joined by mum Gertrude Gander (alias Mother Goose, Michael Cornell) and his sister Jill (Laura Castle), they head out on their panto adventure.
Desperate for the showbiz life, Gertrude gives up the Wolds for the bright lights of Doncaster. However, ever-nasty landlord Demon Darkheart (Jamie McKeller, alias Deathly Dark Tour ghost walk host Dr Dorian Deathly) and his assistant Bob (Laura McKeller) will stop at nothing to collect rent, but dishy farmer Kev, the King of Kale (Sarah Howlett) and Fairy Frittata (Holly Smith) will not let the dark side rule.
Traditional casting, still with a female principal boy, combines with modernity in the Players’ panto. “We’ve gone down the fame and fortune route with Mother Goose; less judgemental on the look, more judgemental on the pursuit of fame and fortune, which is so much part of the modern age,” says director and co-writer Howard Ella.
“Pantomime keeps evolving as the national outlook changes and the politics change, ” says director and co-writer Howard Ella. “It’s that constant dynamic tension between tradition and relevance, and if you get it right, you have a very happy audience – but if you get it wrong, you can upset people.
“It’s not about being right-on; it’s about accessing each particular audience. You have to reach the broadest audience, and that constant challenge is what keeps our show fresh.”
After playing Ugly Sister Miranda to Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra in Cinderella last year, Michael Cornell steps into the dame’s boots vacated by long-serving Graham Smith, who chose not to audition this year.
On the dark side: Jamie McKeller’s Demon Darkheart and Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong in Mother Goose
“It’s a different set-up from Ugly Sister, doing it on his own as the dame,” says Howard. “The joy, the challenge, is that it’s Mother Goose; it’s the dame’s show, whereas Cinderella, for example, is essentially Buttons’ show.
“The fact that Michael is a triple threat – singer, actor, dancer, well, almost dancer! – means it’s a completely different take to Graham’s dame or Barry Benson’s dame before that. He knows it’s the dame’s show and that energy is a real buzz.
“There’s a point where the dame is out there for 30 pages, so she’s the glue, the engine behind the show.”
Abbey Follansbee graduates from the chorus line in Cinderella to play Priscilla the goose. That name? “She’s from the USA,” says Howard. “I don’t want to give too much away, other than to say she’s a tour de force as the goose.
“Mother Goose is fairly light on plot, so the challenge is how do you tell the story and how do you do the goose? “The plot takes you down a line and you just follow it; Abbey’s goose, Priscilla, just becomes livelier and livelier, and cheekier too, and yes, the goose will have an American accent!
“Leni [Ella] and Jackie [Holmes] have been working on the goose’s costume and they’ve created an amazing combo of dress and costume, with a big bustle, flying hat and goggles, so it’s impressionistic.”
Howard is joined for a third year in the writing team by the show’s regular clown-faced comic character, Gemma McDonald. “Gemma is as full of daftness and energy as ever. Where does she get all that energy from?! How she has this unbounding energy, as I get older and older by comparison, is unfathomable.
Laura Castle’s Jill, Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander and Gemma McDonald’s Jack in Mother Goose
“Each writing partnership is different, though I can’t let go of the steering wheel, but you need a bright mind to bounce ideas off, because there’s so much riffing in panto comedy,” he says. “Gemma’s enjoyment of the puerile absolutely counters my more sophisticated comic taste!
“I like a good pun; she likes a ripping fart gag, and you need both. The battle is keeping it fresh, and so much of that comes from the cast because our show has gradually revolved and resolved.”
The 2024 cast features not only Jamie McKeller, alias ghost tour host Dr Dorian Deathly, as the villainous Demon Darkheart, but also his partner in Deathly Dark Tours, Laura McKeller, as his deadpan assistant, Bob Bingalong.
“Playing the villain is Jamie’s natural space but he constantly works on freshening it up and bringing new things to it, developing it in rehearsals. Having Laura there by his side has brought another dynamic to it: a push-and-pull partnership.”
Howard draws attention to the bond of York Mix radio presenter Laura Castle’s Jill and Sara Howlett’s Kev, the King of Kale. “Laura is really good at what she does, with proper comedy bones. She and Sara really bonded in the John Godber play they did together [Teechers in March 2023], and you can feel that on stage, so we milk that chemistry of them knowing each other so well,” he says.
“Holly Smith, who plays Fairy Frittata, was in Shakers with Laura, so it’s like having all the alumni from Jamie McKeller’s Godber productions in this year’s panto. The cast are a real company with no ego, so rehearsals have been an absolute dream.”
The musical director is James Robert Ball, sparking up Sam Johnson’s arrangements to the max. “Sam’s arrangements are phenomenal,” says Howard. “When I find a song that I think will work in panto, I can say to him, ‘Can you ‘panto-fy it with cow bells or whatever?’.
Sara Howlett’s farmer Kev, the King of Kale, and Laura Castle’s Jill in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose. “We milk the chemistry of them knowing each other so well,” says director Howard Ella
“James’s great talent is to get the ‘noise’ out of people when they perform. It’s amazing to watch. He’s one of the most gifted musicians I’ve met.”
Ami Carter provides the choreography once more. “Or ‘the long-suffering choreographer Ami Carter’, I should say, putting up with me interfering left, right and centre!” says Howard.
“Look at the strength of the team we’ve built up over the past 15 years. I might be the Pied Piper at the front, but this pantomime is the sum of all its parts.
“We also remain lucky that we have a workshop and prop store, and we’re very conscious that for a modern am-dram company to have those properties is really rare, enabling us to put on a pantomime as near to professional standards as possible, but, boy, does it rely on teamwork.”
Saturday’s opening matinee marks the launch of a new initiative by the Rowntree Players. “It will be our first-ever captioned and signed performance, spearheaded by Gemma [McDonald] and Abbey [Follansbee], with captions and signing on stage, all being done in conjunction with Lollipop [the York charity that offers opportunities for children and young people with any degree of deafness from mild to profound and their families to meet and build friendships with others].
“We will also have touch tours for blind and visually impaired theatregoers, with an audio introduction to give them a description of the sets and costumes, on Sunday and Tuesday. This is a big step for us and for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre too, and we’re delighted to be doing it.”
Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 7 to 14.Performances: today, 2pm (limited ticket availability) and 7.30pm (limited); Sunday, 2pm (last few tickets) and 6pm (limited); December 10, 7.30pm (limited); December 11, 7.30pm (limited), December 12 (last few tickets); December 13, 7.30pm (limited); December 14, 2pm (sold out) and 7.30pm (last few tickets). Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Holly Smith’s Fairy Frittata, left, Sara Howlett’s Kev, the King of Kale, Laura Castle’s Jill, Michael Cornell’s Gertrude Gander, Gemma McDonald’s Jack, Laura McKeller’s Bob Bingalong and Jamie McKeller’s Demon Darkheart in Rowntree Players’ Mother Goose
