Tag: Leeds Playhouse

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‘This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,’ says writer Lucie Raine as The Flood tours

AKA Theatre Company’s actor-musician cast of Ayana Beatrice Poblete, Katherine Toy, Samantha Richards, Mark Emmons and Jon Bonner in Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain

AKA Theatre Company’s premiere northern tour of Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood heads to Friargate Theatre, York, tomorrow and on Saturday with its blend of live music and heartfelt storytelling based on true accounts of facing up to disaster in West Yorkshire in 2015.

The Leeds company will give further performances at the Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, on May 13, Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, and Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, May 16 and 17.

Already, since April 19, the tour has played Leeds Playhouse; Hebden Bridge Little Theatre; Chester Storyhouse; Georgian Theatre, Richmond; The Atkinson Studio, Southport, and 53Two, Manchester.

On Boxing Day 2015, Hebden Bridge experienced the worst floods in a century, but as the West Yorkshire town submerged, a community emerged, working together to rebuild their sodden streets.

Honest and touching with a dash of northern humour, The Flood is a love letter to a town that refused to give in to the volatility of nature, performed by a quintet of actor- musicians representing the diverse, yet passionate, members of Hebden Bridge’s community, interweaving dozens of personal stories taken from every corner of the town.

As a piece of documentary musical theatre, The Flood draws on interviews conducted in and around the Calder Valley and first-person accounts from people who experienced the flood first hand to explore how vital strong communities are in responding to a changing climate.

The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine

“This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,” says writer-director Raine. “It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people. It’s a celebration for all communities who have faced adversity and emerged stronger.” 

Here Lucie discusses The Flood with charleshutchpress.co.uk.

What drew you to the story of the 2015 flood in the Calder Valley and Hebden Bridge in particular?

“I was studying for a Masters degree in Musical Theatre at Leeds Conservatoire and searching for local stories I felt a connection to that I could perhaps turn into a script.

“I had a close family member living in Hebden Bridge in 2015 and our conversations drifted to memories of the floods. The images she conjured were so vivid, I could immediately see it on stage.

“I travelled to Hebden Bridge to see if anyone would be willing to talk to me about their memories. I was a bit nervous at first, and worried I might be raking over unpleasant memories, but everyone was so willing to engage, it was really moving. 

“While the characters are fictional, every event and story in the show really happened and is taken from first-hand accounts of people who were there.”

Katherine Toy in rehearsal for AKA Theatre Company’s The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain

What made you choose the format of a folk musical? What are its primary theatrical strengths?

“Hebden Bridge has a long musical tradition and the composer Joe Revell and I strongly felt the sound of the show should reflect the people and history of the town. We have everything from traditional mill songs to indie rock foot stompers you might hear coming from The Trades Club in Hebden on a Friday night. The instruments we use – accordion, violin, acoustic guitars etc – go a long way towards creating the sound we wanted.”

Why are actor-musician performances growing ever more popular as a theatrical format?

“The reason musicals are so popular as an art form is because the characters communicate emotionally through the music. I believe eliminating the ‘hidden band’ and allowing the music to emerge entirely from the action on stage doubles this impact.

“It’s also really impressive to see actors sing, dance, act AND play multiple instruments at the same time, (not to mention being a cost effective way of touring).”

“It’s really impressive to see actors sing, dance, act AND play multiple instruments at the same time,” says The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine. Picture: Cian O’Riain

Who is in the cast of five and who do they play?

“All members of the cast play several roles each, as well as playing multiple instruments and creating the soundtrack for the show. Amongst other roles, Katherine Toy plays enthusiastic volunteer Jackie, who finds satisfaction in her role at the heart of the relief effort.

“Company founder Ayana Beatrice Poblete plays Annie, a care assistant desperate to get to work, as well as Gretchen, a carefree bohemian in denial about the flood’s consequences.

“Mark Emmons and Samantha Richards play Gavin and Laura, a married couple struggling with the loss of their family home, and Jon Bonner is Smithy, a shop owner distraught at the loss of both his cat and his stock.”

From Noah’s Ark onwards, floods bring about transition…

“The same way people now talk about ‘before lockdown’ and ‘since the pandemic’, a lot of people in Hebden will measure changes to the town as ‘after the floods’. 2015’s floods were by no means the only floods the area has seen, and there was already infrastructure in place to deal with them. But there’s something about water’s ability to get…well, everywhere… that is utterly devastating.

AKA Theatre Company’s poster for the premiere northern tour of The Flood

“It’s unstoppable. It changes the landscape. And it leaves a hell of a mess. But in cleaning the mess and rebuilding, towns like Hebden find a new life. And when a neighbour loses everything, it’s heart-warming to see the number of people who are there to help.” 

What is the message of The Flood?

“The Flood is a story about community. They dealt with the unimaginable, but just kept pushing forward. There’s a lot of hope there, but we’re also not afraid to look the pain and struggle in the eye.” 

How did AKA Theatre’s partnership with Leeds Playhouse for The Flood come about?

“Leeds Playhouse producer Rio Matchett came to see the graduate shows at Leeds Conservatoire and approached us about supporting the project. From there they hosted a week’s research and development on the project and invited us to pitch to a group of programmers at Venues North to help book a tour.

“Their help has been invaluable and we were lucky enough to be hosted by them for our four-week rehearsal period, as well as previews and press night.”

“It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people,” says The Flood writer-director Lucie Raine. Picture: Cian O’Riain

How important is Arts Council England’s support to AKA Theatre?

“Making theatre in the current financial climate is really difficult, and it would be nearly impossible to tour new work with a cast of five if you were gambling on ticket sales alone. Arts Council England gives us that financial safety net to tell the story the way we want to tell it and take it to the audiences we otherwise couldn’t afford to reach.”

What will be your next project?

“I’ve written Hush Hush!, a musical about Bletchley Park, for Mikron Theatre Company, which debuts at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield tomorrow (9/5/2025) before embarking on a six- month UK tour.

“I’m also writing the 2026 touring production for the same company, this time about cheese-making in the Yorkshire Dales, so the next few months will mainly be spent eating Wensleydale. In addition I continue working as a freelance director and choreographer and teach theatre throughout the region.”

AKA Theatre Company in The Flood, Friargate Theatre, York, May 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, May 13, 7pm; Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, 8pm, and Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, May 16 and 17, 7.30pm. Box office: York, ticketsource.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk; Hebden Bridge, 01422 84907 or hblt.co.uk.

Mikron Theatre Company in Hush Hush!, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, September 21, 4pm. Box office: mikron.org.uk/show/hush-hush-clements-hall.

Meet AKA Theatre Company founder Ayana Beatrice Poblete

Ayana Beatrice Poblete in AKA Theatre Company’s premiere touring production of The Flood. Picture: Cian O’Riain

AYANA undertook her performance training mostly in the Philippines in the field of musical theatre and studied for her Masters at Leeds Conservatoire.

She was last seen on stage in York in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World, directed by Matthew Peter Clare, at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, in October 2024.

She was part of the original cast of The Flood during her MA course’s Leeds Festival Theatre in 2023.

Ayana Beatrice Poblete, with Reggie Challenger, in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World at the NCEM, York, last October

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 19, from Gazette & Herald

Pease talks: John Pease features on the the inaugural bill at Katie Lingo’s Funny Fridays stand-up comedy nights at Patch in the Bonding Warehouse, York

A NEW comedy night in a bygone location and Shakespeare on a council estate stand out in Charles Hutchinson’s picks for cultural exploration.

Laughter launch of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch, Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, May 9, doors 7pm for 7.30pm start

LIVE comedy returns to the Bonding Warehouse for the first time since the days of the late Mike Bennett presenting the likes of Lee Evans and Ross Noble under the Comedy Shack banner. Stand up for Funny Fridays, hosted by York humorist Katie Lingo (alias copywriter Katie Taylor-Thompson) with an introductory price of £6.50.

On her first bill will be Kenny Watt, Tuiya Tembo, BBC New Comedy Awards semi-finalist Matty Oxley, Saeth Wheeler and Edinburgh Fringe Gilded Balloon semi-finalist John Pease. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets.

So much at stake: Laura Castle’s Count Dracula and Jamie McKeller’s Van Helsing in Neon Crypt Productions’ Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Picture: Michael Cornell

Taking their first bite of the week: Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

THE York producers of The Deathly Dark Tour and A Night Of Face-Melting Horror, Jamie and Laura McKeller, get stuck into their debut stage show under the name of Neon Crypt Productions.

From the mischievous minds of physical theatre specialists Le Navet Bete, Dracula: The Bloody Truth reveals the truth behind the fangs, as told by Jamie McKeller’s disgruntled Professor Van Helsing  and a troupe of three very stressed actors, Laura Castle’s Count Dracula, Laura McKeller’s Mina and Michael Cornell’s Jonathan Harker. Together they will shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Bram Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape on his return to York Theatre Royal after 45 years. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979, to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1989.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The young lovers in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Will Parsons’ Lysander, left, Meg Olssen’s Hermia, Amy Domeneghetti’s Helena and Sam Roberts’s Demetrius. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

Reinvented play of the week: York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees

YORK pantomime golden gal Suzy Cooper turns Fairy Queen Titania opposite York-born Royal Shakespeare Company actor Mark Holgate’s Fairy King Oberon in Nik Briggs’s debut Shakespeare production for York Stage.

In his first co-production with the Cumberland Street theatre, Briggs relocates the Bard’s most-performed comedy from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s bumpy path is played out to a new score by musical director Stephen Hackshaw and Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor fillers, sung by May Tether. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Putting the retro into today’s hits at York Barbican

Nostalgia for today: Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Magic & Moonlight Tour 2025, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm

AFTER chalking off their 1,000th show, retro collective Postmodern Jukebox are on the British leg of their Moonlight & Magic world tour. Enter a parallel universe where modern-day hits are reimagined in 1920s’ jazz, swing, doo-wop and Motown arrangements. Think The Great Gatsby meets Sinatra At The Sands meets Back To The Future.  Dress vintage for the full effect. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

Wes Banderson: Transferring Wes Anderson’s film music from screen to concert stage at The Crescent, York

Witty name of the week: Wes Banderson, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm

WES Banderson bring the music of Wes Anderson’s movies to the concert platform in a night of original score and deep-cut soundtracks from the left-field works of the idiosyncratic Texan filmmaker.

Noted for addressing themes of grief, loss of innocence and dysfunctional families, Anderson is the auteur behind The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle Of Dogs and Asteroid City. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

AKA Theatre Company in The Flood, on tour in York, Hull and Leeds

Premiere of the week: AKA Theatre Company in The Flood: A Musical, Friargate Theatre, York, May 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, May 13, 7pm; Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, 8pm

AKA Theatre Company’s premiere of Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood blends live music and heartfelt storytelling based on true accounts of facing up to disaster in West Yorkshire in 2015.

 “This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,” says writer-director Raine, who uses a cast of five actor-musicians. “It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people. It’s a celebration for all communities who have faced adversity and emerged stronger.” Box office: York, ticketsource.co.uk; Hull, hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, leedsplayhouse.org.uk. 

Kate Rusby: Showcasing new album When They All Looked Up at Ryedale Festival. Picture: David Angel

Concert announcement of the week: Ryedale Festival presents Kate Rusby, When They All Looked Up, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 25, 7pm

BARNSLEY nightingale Kate Rusby performs songs from her new studio album, When They All Looked Up, with her Singy Songy Session Band as she weaves new melodies, timeless tunes and heartfelt storytelling into an evening of pure folk enchantment. Box office: ryedalefestival.com/event/kate-rusby.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as laughter returns to waterside landmark. Hutch’s List No. 19, from The York Press

Pease talks: John Pease features in Patch’s new Funny Fridays comedy forum at the Bonding Warehouse

A NEW comedy night in a bygone location and Shakespeare on a council estate stand out in Charles Hutchinson’s picks for cultural exploration.

Laughter launch of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch, Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, May 9, doors 7pm for 7.30pm start

LIVE comedy returns to the Bonding Warehouse for the first time since the days of the late Mike Bennett presenting the likes of Lee Evans and Ross Noble under the Comedy Shack banner. Stand up for Funny Fridays, hosted by York humorist Katie Lingo (alias copywriter Katie Taylor-Thompson) with an introductory price of £6.50.

On her first bill will be Kenny Watt, Tuiya Tembo, BBC New Comedy Awards semi-finalist Matty Oxley, Saeth Wheeler and Edinburgh Fringe Gilded Balloon semi-finalist John Pease. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets.

Sean Heydon: Magical sleight of hand at the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club tonight

Magical comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club presents Sean Heydon, Big Lou, Oliver Bowler and MC Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm

LAUGH Out Loud headliner Sean Heydon has performed to A-list celebrities and blue-chip companies, as well as at comedy clubs, with his combination of madcap comedy,  sleight-of-hand magic and illusions for more than 15 years.

Big Lou offers a modern twist on old-school joke telling in the Les Dawson style; comedian, actor and writer Oliver Bowler discusses life experiences on the mean streets of Bolton; regular host and promoter Damion Larkin keeps order. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Anastacia: Playing York Barbican on her Not That Kind 25th anniversary tour

Anniversary tour of the week: Anastacia, Not That Kind Tour, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.45pm

CHICAGO singer-songwriter Anastacia , 56, heads to York on her European tour marking the 25th anniversary of her debut album Not That Kind and its breakthrough hit  I’m Outta Love.

Further singles Not That Kind, Paid My Dues, One Day In Your Life,  Left Outside Alone and Sick And Tired charted too, as did 2001 album Freak Of Nature (reaching number four) and 2004’s chart-topping Anastacia, 2005’s Pieces Of A Dream, 2008’s Heavy Rotation, 2014’s Resurrection and 2015’s Ultimate Collection Her special guest will be Casey McQuillen. Box office: for returns only, yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Newton Faulkner: Unveiling new songs from his upcoming Octopus album at The Crescent, York

“No technological funny business” of the week: Newton Faulkner, Feels Like Home Tour 3, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

LET Reigate singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner describe his York gig: “Folks, I give you the Feels Like Home Tour 3. We’re talking no technological funny business in my set-up. I love switching my focus back to just playing and singing. I also cannot wait to introduce you properly to the new material and my new head.”

Often Faulkner has found himself in his home studio working solo, but not for this next record, nor for this tour. His new phase is full of collaboration, one where “seeing these songs come to life on stage is going to be nothing short of joyous” ahead of the September 19 release of Octopus. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape on his return to York Theatre Royal after 45 years. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979, to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1989.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York musician Steve Cassidy: Once he worked with John Barry and producer Joe Meek, now he plays with his mates on regular nights at the JoRo

Return of the week: Steve Cassidy Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

YORK singer, songwriter, guitarist and former head teacher Steve Cassidy will be joined by special guests when he lines up as usual with John Lewis on lead guitar, Mick Hull on bass guitar, ukulele, guitar and vocals, Brian Thomson on percussion and George Hall on keyboards.

Expect rock and country songs, as well as instrumental pieces, selected especially for this evening. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Rupert Julian’s 1925 film The Phantom Of The Opera, starring Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin

Film event of the week: 100th anniversary of The Phantom Of The Opera, with pianist Jonny Best, National Centre for Early Music, York, May 6, 7.30pm

BENEATH the opulence of the Paris Opera House, in the darkness of the catacombs, lurks the Phantom, a lonely creature whose only comfort is the sound of the music that drifts down to him from the stage above. When a new soprano arrives, he becomes enraptured by her voice and swears to possess her at any cost in Rupert Julian’s lavish 1925 American silent film.

Both a dark love story and a horror classic, noted for its vast sets and innovative experiments with film colour as well as the skull-like appearance of Lon Chaney’s Phantom, Julian’s film is accompanied by a new improvised piano score by Jonny Best to marks its centenary. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Neon Crypt Productions bite back in Dracula: The Bloody Truth

Taking their first bite of the week: Neon Crypt Productions in Dracula: The Bloody Truth, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 6 to 11 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

THE York producers of The Deathly Dark Tour and A Night Of Face-Melting Horror, Jamie and Laura McKeller, get stuck into their debut stage show under the name of Neon Crypt Productions.

From the mischievous minds of physical theatre specialists Le Navet Bete, Dracula: The Bloody Truth reveals the truth behind the fangs, as told by a disgruntled Jamie McKeller’s Professor Van Helsing  and a troupe of three very stressed actors, Laura Castle’s Count Dracula, Laura McKeller’s Mina and Michael Cornell’s Jonathan Harker. Together they will shatter the lies spoken by the charlatan Bram Stoker and finally shed light on what actually happened. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Mark Holgate’s Oberon and Suzy Cooper’s Titania, centre, with Sam Roberts’s Demetrius, left, Amy Domeneghetti’s Helena, Will Parsons’ Lysander and Meg Olssen’s Hermia in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Reinvented play of the week: York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees

YORK pantomime golden gal Suzy Cooper turns Fairy Queen Titania opposite York-born Royal Shakespeare Company actor Mark Holgate’s Fairy King Oberon in Nik Briggs’s debut Shakespeare production for York Stage.

In his first co-production with the Cumberland Street theatre, Briggs relocates the Bard’s most-performed comedy from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s bumpy path is played out to a new score by musical director Stephen Hackshaw and Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor fillers, sung by May Tether. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Katherine Toy in rehearsals for AKA Theatre’s The Flood, on tour in York, Hull and Leeds. Picture: Cian O’Riain

Premiere of the week: AKA Theatre Company in The Flood: A Musical, Friargate Theatre, York, May 9 and 10, 7.30pm; Godber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, May 13, 7pm; Leeds Playhouse Burton Studio, May 14 and 15, 8pm

AKA Theatre Company’s premiere of Lucie Raine and Joe Revell’s musical The Flood blends live music and heartfelt storytelling based on true accounts of facing up to disaster in West Yorkshire in 2015.

 “This is a story about what it means to come together when everything falls apart,” says writer-director Raine, who uses a cast of five actor-musicians. “It’s not just a play. It’s a tribute to resilience and creativity, inspired by Hebden Bridge and its people. It’s a celebration for all communities who have faced adversity and emerged stronger.” Box office: York, ticketsource.co.uk; Hull, hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, leedsplayhouse.org.uk. 

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Putting the retro into today’s hits at York Barbican

Nostalgia for today: Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox: Magic & Moonlight Tour 2025, York Barbican, May 7, doors 7pm

AFTER chalking off their 1,000th show, retro collective Postmodern Jukebox are on the British leg of their Moonlight & Magic world tour. Enter a parallel universe where modern-day hits are reimagined in 1920s’ jazz, swing, doo-wop and Motown arrangements. Think The Great Gatsby meets Sinatra At The Sands meets Back To The Future.  Dress vintage for the full effect. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

In Focus: York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, Stuart O’Hara & Marianna Cortesi, today at 1pm; Trio Agile and Northern School of Contemporary Dance, today at 7.30pm

Stuart O’Hara & Marianna Cortesi

YORK Late Music plays host to two concerts today, the first featuring bass Stuart O’Hara and pianist Marianna Cortesi  this afternoon as Sounds Lyrical presents settings of poets Hugh Bernays, John Gilham, Richard Kitchen and Alan Gillott by composers Thomas J Crawley, Robert Holden, Jenny Jackson, Katie Lang, Dawn Walters and James Else.

The concert comprises: Elizabeth Lutyens’ Refugee Blues (Auden); David Blake’s Morning Sea (CP Cavafy); Dawn Walters’ Pre-dawn (Richard Kitchen); Jenny Jackson’s Collecting Stones (Richard Kitchen); Robert Holden’s Flaneur (John Gilham) and Katie Laing’s Maker (Richard Kitchen).

Then come Thomas J Crawley’s Leather Heart (Hugh Bernays); James Else’s Retras IV (Alan Gillott); Tim Brooks’s Jeer (Lizzie Linklater); David Blake’s Voices (CP Cavafy) and Stephen Dodgson’s Various Australian Bush Ballads, 2nd Series. The programme also includes music by David Blake and Elizabeth Lutyens.

Northern School of Contemporary Dance dancer Antonio Bukhar Ssebuuma: Performing with Trio Agile tonight

TONIGHT’S concert marks a first collaboration between York Late Music and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Trio Agile and NSCD’s Freedom Dances programme.

Bringing together the freedoms of dance, music and rhythm, Trio Agile combine their experimental flair and improvisatory talent with four dancers from the Leeds school, Antonio Bukhar Ssebuuma, Darcy Bodle, Genevieve Wright and Maya Donne.

The 7.30pm performance blends a range of styles from across the globe in a shared expression of the power and joy of the arts, including new works from Indian composer and performer Supriya  Nagarajan, Angela Elizabeth Slater, David Lancaster, Steve Crowther, David Power, Athena Corcoran-Tadd and James Else.

Curated by James Else in partnership with the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, the programme comprises: Susie Hodder-Williams & Chris Caldwell, Prelude; Angela Elizabeth Slater,  Weaving Colours; Paul Honey, Une Valse Assez Triste; James Else, Freedom Dances and David Lancaster, The Compendium Of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.

Then follow Susie Hodder-Williams & Chris Caldwell, Pas de Deux; Tom Armstrong, Aunt Maria’s Dancing Master; Paul Honey, Pizzìca; Athena Corcoran-Tadd,  To You; Supriya Nagarajan,  Mohanam Raga; Steve Crowther,  Once Upon A Time Harlequin Met His Columbine; David Power,  Something In Our Skies; Susie Hodder-Williams & Chris Caldwell, Light Dances and Athena Corcoran-Tadd , Hope Is A Boat.

The musicians will be: Susie Hodder-Williams, flutes; Chris Caldwell, saxophone and bass clarinet; Richard Horne, vibraphone and percussion; Supriya Nagarajan, voice, and Paul Honey, piano.  

Chris Caldwell, Susie Hodder-Williams and composer James Else will give a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm with a complimentary glass of wine or juice.

Tickets are on sale at latemusic.org or on the door.

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REVIEW: Here You Come Again, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

Tricia Paoluccio’s Dolly Parton in Here You Come Again, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

ON Tuesday, queen of country and philanthropist Dolly Parton announced her new autobiographical stage show, Dolly: An Original Musical, would be opening in Nashville in July, ahead of a Broadway debut in 2026.

Previously, Dolly wrote the music and lyrics for 9 To 5 The Musical, premiered in 2008, having starred as secretary Doralee Rhodes in the 1980 film version.

Here she comes again in Here You Come Again, a musical full of Dolly songs, both familiar and not so familiar (Me And Little Andy), picked with Dolly’s approval for the story of diehard Dolly devotee Kevin, who needs dollops of Dolly advice on life and love in Covid times.

Written by Bruce Vilanch, director Gabriel Barre and Broadway actress Tricia Paoluccio, the show first ran in the United States and is now visiting its 33rd city on its debut British tour, produced by Simon Friend Entertainment and Leeds Playhouse.

The setting is an attic in Halifax in lockdown 2020, not Halifax, Nova Scotia, but now in West Yorkshire, home of the Halifax Courier et al, after Gimme Gimme Gimme writer Jonathan Harvey was entrusted with a British re-write.

Or, as the programme credits put it, “additional material” that brings British humour to the core story, along with Covid references, such as a UK news bulletin, banging a pan for the NHS, singing Happy Birthday twice through when washing hands, and stocking up on loo rolls.

Kevin (Aidan Cutler, understudying very capably for Steven Webb at Wednesday’s matinee) has returned to his parents’ home from London, on furlough from his job at a comedy club. His attic is a chapel of adoration to Dolly Parton, as well housing as the best hi-fi and finest retro turntable, a pink flamingo by his bedside and a pulley system for delivery of meals made by his parents on the floor below.

Only he can enter, by a ladder from the outside. His boyfriend, money-man Jeremy, is keeping more than a six-foot distance. Indeed Jeremy has just sent a message to say the relationship is over.

We need to talk about Aidan Cutler’s Kevin: Impressive understudy for Steven Webb at Wednesday’s matinee

Kevin may play by the Covid rules, but what he needs is an agony aunt angel to lift him out of the doldrums. Who could that possibly be but a fantasy vision of rhinestone splendour. Yes, Miss Dolly Parton, y’all.

Nothing is a barrier to Tennessee’s queen of Dollywood, who enters as if by magic, through a poster turning into a real-life Dolly (Tricia Paoluccio, every inch Dollied up to the max), equipped with quips, bon mots, kind words and a song for every scenario.

They need to talk about Kevin. He does, she does, and only occasionally do we see or hear from the parents (Austin Garrett and Emma Jane Fearnley, popping up on backing vocals too) in a show where the two leads do the heavy lifting, backed by a band of Jordan Li-Smith, keyboards, Luke Adams, guitar, Ben Scott, drums, and Kevin Oliver Jones, bass/harmonica. Sometimes musicians appear in the attic, more often they are behind Paul Wills’s set design.

Paoluccio is the perfect Dolly mixture: wholesome, whole-hearted, glamorous yet home-spun, supportive in her philanthropic way. She sings like Dolly, talks like Dolly, moves like Dolly, but this is no mere 2D impersonation. As her Dolly says, she is not only in 3D, but “make that triple D”, and there are plenty more Dolly one-liners where that one came from.

Favourite moment? After Paoluccio’s Dolly sings the tragic, lachrymose tale of Me And Little Andy, Dolly and Kevin discuss why she has written so many sad, sad songs. To make us all feel better about ourselves, she explains.

By this stage, spoiler alert, Kevin, on the wrong side of 40,  has lost his boyfriend, his job, his home, but the Dolly hits keep coming (after finding a corny excuse to include Jolene early on) as the matinee audience starts chipping in with encouragement for Dolly and Kevin alike. Two Doors Down, 9 To 5, Islands In The Stream, I Will Always Love You and the climactic Light Of A Clear Blue Morning go down particularly well, aided by Lizzi Gee’s fun choreography.

Understudy Aidan Cutler’s Kevin, camp and lovable, crushed but uplifted by Dolly, more than holds his own in such glittering company, with a sweetness to his singing chops too. As for Paoluccio’s Dolly, you will always love her.

Here You Come Again, Grand Opera House, York, runs until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box  office: atgtickets.com/york.

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REVIEW: Harrogate Theatre’s 125th birthday party & Beauty And The Beast *****

Harry Wyatt’s Madame Bellie Fillop, Michael Lambourne’s Baron Bon Bon, Tim Stedman’s Philippe Fillop and Anna Campkin’s Belle in Harrogate Theatre’s Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Karl Andre

HARROGATE Theatre – or the Grand Opera House as it was first called – opened on January 13 1900, squeezing a capacity of 1,300 into Frank Tugwell’s design.

On Wednesday night, Harrogate Theatre marked its 125th anniversary with the launch of a fundraising campaign for the symmetrical sum of £125,000 – although £1.25 million would surely be more welcome – at the 7pm pantomime performance of Beauty And The Beast, played to a capacity of 500.

 “Everything is smaller now,” noted chief executive David Bown. Smaller-scale shows prevail; Victorian melodramas a thing of the past, like the theatre’s ghost, Alice. The days of 40 repertory shows a year are long gone too. Casts are down-sized. Even the theatre name is shorter!

Most significantly, Bown mentioned the post-Covid cut in funding, necessitating the year of “fab and fun” fundraising events, introduced in the new season’s brochure distributed to mayoral party and panto punters alike in the 125th anniversary party bags.

Nothing surely will be more “fab and fun” than Beauty And The Beast, a riotous French fancy of a pantomime enjoyed for a second time this season by CharlesHutchPress, who was left wondering why other theatres have closed their winter big earners already, one as early as December 28.

Written by David Bown, from an original idea by his late writing partner Phil Lowe, with additional material by Michael Lambourne, Marcus Romer and Tim Stedman, Beauty And The Beast is directed by Romer (who has programmed the 125th anniversary season too).

Once the pioneering force behind Pilot Theatre at York Theatre Royal and beyond, Romer brings a playful energy, zest for spectacle, awareness of the power of a knockout pop song old or new, a passion for storytelling and  relish for high-tech panache to an outstanding show that still has five performances to go, as full of Parisian chic as Yorkshire humour.

He has a cracking production team too: from Morgan Brind’s vibrant set and costume designs, especially for Harry Wyatt’s flamboyant dame, Madame Bellie Fillop, to Charlie Brown’s superb sound; from Nick Lacey’s arrangements, all snap, crackle and pop, in his 21st year as musical director, to Alexandra Stafford’s lighting design, at its best in Stedman and Lambourne’s ultraviolet-lit Highway To Hell scream of a motorcycle ride. To top it all, David Kar-Hing Lee’s choreography hits the groove throughout.

From Stedman’s filmed opening in airman’s goggles to Romer’s trademark closing film credits, Beauty And The Beast combines Romer tropes with his canny appreciation of the long-established cornerstones of a Harrogate Theatre pantomime.

Stedman is in his 24th season as the helium-voiced, strawberry-cheeked, idiot-savant buffoon, as vital to the show’s flow and comic spark as Billy Pearce at Bradford Alhambra, and here the subject of an affectionate pre-show dig by Bown about his seemingly ageless programme headshot. He is as delightfully daft as ever as Philippe Fillop, and even the rest of the cast stands in admiration to applaud his piece de resistance: a Catherine wheel blur of sound and vision as he reprises what’s happened in the show so far.

Glory be, however, Stedman is not alone in warranting such applause. Romer has all his cast in superb form. Assistant director Lambourne, he of the booming voice and Edwardian beard, has switched from last year’s dark side to be the grandest of grand actors, even sending up himself for “understatement” as the thoroughly thespian cafe owner Baron Bon Bon. Make that tres bon. Harrogate is growing to love him as much as York Theatre Royal audiences did down the years.

After more than ten years as Sheringham Little Theatre’s dame, Harry Wyatt headed north to play Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittingham last winter and he is even more of a Wyatt riot here as another cook, Madame Bellie Fillop, so at ease in costume and comedy alike, and packing a vocal punch in his songs. He is indeed an eyeful in his Eiffel Tower attire.

Colin Kiyani’s Beast/Prince and Anna Campkin’s Belle are proper romantic leads; no song has more impact than Kiss From A Rose, sung so beautifully that it would surely have received a Seal of approval, justifying Romer’s long-held wish to use the vertiginous ballad in a stage show.

The Beast’s 360-degree rotating transformation scene – flying effects courtesy of Flying By Foy – is a spectacular denouement too; the scene truly moving as Romer gives due weight to the drama at the heart of this torrid fairytale.  

Romer’s six-pack of stellar performances – backed up by an ensemble of dancers – is completed by another actress with “previous” with him: Joanne Sandi, whose Mona Lisa, the Sorceress and Parisian fashion designer, gives off vibes of Wicked and Beyonce too, albeit with a Texan swagger, outwardly incongruous and yet it works!  Her rendition of Freedom, off Beyonce’s Lemonade, makes you go Wow.

Alongside Leeds Playhouse’s fabulous The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, this monster hit is the five-star show of CharlesHutchPress’s winter tour of the north. Make a note in your diary: Bown and Romer will be defying size confines once more next winter in Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein  big, magical things grow from small.  How apt!

Beauty And The Beast, Harrogate Theatre, 7pm tonight; 12 noon and 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond in 2025 Part Two when the ice age cometh. Hutch’s List No. 2 from The York Press

Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Roslyn Grant

FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.

Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm

MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.

Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”.  “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights

Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm

IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by  the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2

After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2

YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar,  a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.

The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre

One-off interview comes into view:  Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.

FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.

Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season

IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia  on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.

July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch. 

Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11

 STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.

Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17

Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus

THE Waterboys will showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.

Released on April 4 on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture. 

“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol. 

“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.  

Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.

The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4

Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.

The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott,  who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.

The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19.  Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.

Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:

1.   Kansas (featuring Steve Earle)
2.   Hollywood ’55
3.   Live In The Moment, Baby
4.   Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights
5.   Andy (A Guy Like You)
6.   The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher)
7.   Freaks On Wheels
8.   Blues For Terry Southern
9.   Memories Of Monterey
10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras
11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues
13. Michelle (Always Stay)
14. Freakout At The Mud Palace
15. Daria
16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple)
18. Rock Bottom
19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith)
20. Frank (Let’s F**k)
21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye)
22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
23. Golf, They Say
24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper
25. Aftermath

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in The Magic Flute, Leeds Grand Theatre, September 28

Opera North in James Brining’s revival of The Magic Flute. Picture: Tristram Kenton

FOR the start of her first full year as general director, Laura Canning is presiding over an autumn of three revivals, of which this production by James Brining is the first.

Doubtless she had no say in the schedule, but it still looks cautious, especially when viewed in the wake of, for example, Buxton Festival’s five new productions this summer.

Brining operates as artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, just a short walk away from the Grand Theatre, and this had been his first full operatic production. It still shows signs of over-calculation.

Before the curtain we are treated to a welcome designed to embrace newcomers. Old-stagers might have regarded it as patronising but, seen alongside a bare-bones outline in the programme of what constitutes opera in the first place, it is arguably a useful introduction to an artform that too many have found intimidating: an attempt to cast the audience net more widely, in other words.

This process must be treated gingerly, however, if the company’s core audience is not to be deterred. The overture is intended as an introduction, presenting themes and building anticipation.

All of that is dissipated when it is overlaid with a dumb show, based on Bergman’s cinematic view of the whole work being a child’s dream/nightmare, that has little or nothing to do with Mozart. So, overture and dumb show are at odds with one another: in our screen-obsessed age, the eyes take over and the overture goes for naught.

As it was, Christoph Koncz, making his Leeds debut, opened the overture very slowly and followed with an extremely rapid allegro, which the orchestra – now under its new leader Katie Stillman – handled with panache. Thereafter Koncz impresses with the transparency of the textures he conjures.

Egor Zhuravskii has graduated from Fenton in Falstaff to Tamino here, and does so smoothly enough. Narrow at the start, his tone opens out over time but remains a little dry, albeit stylish. There is not much genuine feeling between him and Claire Lees’s admirable Pamina, but she entrances with every appearance and sounds ready for greater things.

Leaning heavily on his Welsh lilt, Emyr Wyn Jones makes an affable dunderhead of Papageno, almost taking the pantomime route, while Anna Dennis makes an imposing Queen of Night, edgy, determined and accurate.

Msimelelo Mbali, as Sarastro, lacks the gravitas shown by Andri Björn Robertsson’s Speaker, but his bass grows in authority in Act 2. Colin Judson offers an apt irritant as Monostatos, in place of the repellent figure we had last time.

Pasquale Orchard makes a charming Papagena, although she is introduced to Papageno early and deprived of her ‘old lady’ disguise. Many of the lesser roles are ably assumed by members of the chorus, proving its versatility.

Colin Richmond’s flexible set proves its worth once again, as does Douglas O’Connell’s high-impact video effects.

Brining envisaged Blakean poles of innocence and experience. He might instead have allowed Mozart and Schikaneder – in Jeremy Sams’s colloquial translation – to speak for themselves. The plot is complicated enough as it is.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Performances: Leeds Grand Theatre, February 12, 13, 15 and 22 2025, 7pm. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com. Hull New Theatre, March 27 and 29 2025, 7pm. Box office: hulltheatres.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Andrew Tymms’s verdict on Paranormal Activity, Leeds Playhouse ***

 Melissa James as Lou and Patrick Heusinger as James in Paranormal Activity at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Pamela Raith

IT is a balmy Summer evening in Leeds but despite the sweltering temperatures, there is a chill in the air as the world premiere of Paranormal Activity arrives at the Playhouse.

A Leeds Playhouse and Simon Friend Entertainment co-production in association with Gavin Kalin, Ken Davenport and Jonathan & Rae Corr, the show is based on a film first released by Paramount Pictures in the UK 15 years ago.

A relatively low budget found-footage film, the original became a word-of-mouth hit and is regarded as being one of the most profitable films ever made.

If you have seen that film (or any of its many sequels), you will be familiar with the basic premise. A young couple are haunted by a strange presence within their home, inspiring them to set up a camera to try and capture evidence. Of course, technology has come on a long way since then…

In keeping with the subject matter, the whole show seems to be shrouded in mystery, with signs outside the theatre reminding us that we are not allowed to take any photographs or breathe a word of what we have seen to others. “SHHH!” instruct the posters, “NO SPOILERS”.

Perhaps, therefore, it is best to play it safe with the synopsis provided by the Playhouse website, which states: “American couple James and Lou move to London to escape their past…we can’t say anything else.”

We may not know what to expect but expectations are still high that this will succeed in maintaining the original spirit of those films and go some way towards re-creating the fear. As with many scary films, the real horror here is less related to the events themselves and more the impact that they are having on their relationship.

Fly Davis’ residential set is on more than one level, and it is worth keeping an eye on what is happening upstairs when the characters are downstairs and vice versa. It manages to be spacious but claustrophobic, cosy yet disconcerting. Several of the home appliances seem to be in desperate need of an electrical safety test. It might be time to call in the professionals to investigate.

Written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett, the artistic director of Punchdrunk, who specialise in creating unsettling immersive theatre, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a sensory experience with a cacophony of disturbing sounds, atmospheric rumblings and frequent blackouts that serve to intensify the impact of what you have just seen.

The sense of impending dread is palpable throughout as we silently scream warnings at the cast (Melissa James’s Lou, Patrick Heusinger’s James, Jackie Morrison’s Ethylene Cotgrave and Pippa Winslow’s Carolanne, James’s mother). You are anxious to know what happens next but genuinely afraid to watch. There were blood-curdling screams, hands over eyes and leaping up from seats…and that was just the audience.

Your overall enjoyment may depend to an extent on your own beliefs regarding the supernatural, but seeing is believing and not everything here is quite what it seems to be. The effect is often disorientating, and like the characters themselves, by the end, we are left uncertain as to who or what to believe – creating an overwhelming sense of paranoid activity that will follow you home afterwards and linger long after the final curtain falls.

Paranormal Activity ran at Leeds Playhouse from July 4 to August 2, featuring illusions by Chris Fisher, lighting designs by Anna Watson and sound design by Gareth Fry.

Review by Andrew Tymms

 

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REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Macbeth’s return to Leeds Playhouse *****

Jessica Baglow’s Lady Macbeth and Ash Hunter’s Macbeth

WHEN shall we meet Amy Leach’s Macbeth again? Only two years to the month since its Leeds Playhouse premiere.

Sixty-nine schools from across Yorkshire attended the 2022 run, “introducing more than 5,000 students to the excitement and lasting resonance of Macbeth – and giving some of them their first electrifying experience of live theatre,” as artistic director and chief executive James Brining recalls in his programme notes.

Even more school-friendly matinees have been fitted in for the return of GCSE Eng Lit set text Macbeth, supported by a programme of resources and activities to “bring additional depth and breadth to students’ appreciation of this incredible play”.

Striking up a pre-show conversation with the student in the neighbouring back-row seat at Thursday’s lunchtime matinee, she had first seen a version of Macbeth when she was ten and it had since become her favourite play. Now she is studying its psychology on her GCSE course.

And what a psychological thriller to be watching to elucidate those studies, in a theatre full to the brim with excited school uniforms, all enraptured from start to finish by Leach’s vision of all-inclusive theatre-making. Theatre for all the senses, all audiences, all performers, deaf, visually impaired, included. Each performance has integrated audio description.

Think of modern theatrical retellings of historical stories with nods to concert culture, and up pops SIX The Musical, the Spouse Girls’ revenge of Henry VIII’s wives. Another controversial king, Macbeth, is now framed in a setting that would not be out of place in a stadium rock show.

A huge drawbridge hangs heavy over Hayley Grindle’s stage. Searchlights scan the auditorium from metallic towers spread out like a forest. Fog enfolds. Deafening noise bursts through the air. For those about to rock, however, stop. You notice a puddle of water; muddy ground; grit too. Something witchy this way comes.

Enter the weather-watchful Witches (Charlotte Arrowsmith, Karina Jones and Elkanah Wilder, all from 2022), spinning opening words that are re-shaped, re-ordered, with rhythms afresh, their sound as important as their meaning.

What’s this? Macbeth (Ash Hunter, last seen on Yorkshire boards as Heathcliff in Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal) and Lady Macbeth (the returning Jessica Baglow) are cradling a new-born baby, only for the bairn to die within a heartbeat.

In the Playhouse’s wish to “explore the damaging physical, spiritual and psychological effects of treachery on those who seek power at any cost”, Leach has put child loss, lineage and legacy at the heart of the Macbeths’ behaviour, the acts of murder, the need to eliminate all threats to their ill-gotten power.

Leach then takes it even further, Baglow’s Lady Macbeth being pregnant when she beseeches “unsex me here” and later suffering a miscarriage as blood seeps through her nightgown. Come the finale, Leach adds prescient text to give a foretaste of Banquo’s son, Fleance, becoming king as the Witches had prophesied.

Those Witches typify Leach and Brining’s “commitment to accessible and inclusive theatre-making”, as does the participation of the blind Benjamin Wilson as audio description consultant.

Supernatural soliciting: Elkanah Wilder, Karina Jones and Charlotte Arrowsmith’s Witches in Amy Leach’s Macbeth. Picture: Kirsten McTernan

Among the witches, Karina Jones is visually impaired and Charlotte Arrowsmith is profoundly deaf, while Elkanah Wilder “interrogates multifaceted sociopolitical oppressions from a queer and disabled lens”.

Here, Shakespeare’s “weird sisters” are neither weird, nor alien, in the way they are often played, but are as wild as the landscape instead.

Arrowsmith also plays Lady MacDuff, partnered once more by the profoundly deaf Hull actor Adam Bassett as MacDuff. Paul Brown’s Lennox vocally interprets the sign language, complementing the intensity of Bassett’s expressive face, hands and arms with the staccato rhythms of his speech.

Learning of, spoiler alert, his wife and children’s deaths is even more shocking, heart-rending, in this form of news delivery: theatre at its unique best, living and breathing in the rawness of the moment.

Not only do lighting designer Chris Davey’s searchlights induce a sense of paranoia (later turning from white to red after yet more murdering), but relentlessly oppressive natural elements prevail too, along with the sound and fury of machismo war.

These are all big, muscular, mud-and-blood splattered men, ready to rut like stags, except for Aosaf Afzal’s King Duncan; their physicality being emphasised by Georgina Lamb’s movement direction and Claire Lewellyn’s fight direction. Likewise, Nicola T Chang’s sound design adds to the cacophony.

Macbeth’s vaulting ambition may in part be represented by the drawbridge, crowned when on top of it, but broken beneath it, but Leach’s production is deeply human amid the technology.

In the relationship of Hunter’s reactionary Macbeth and Baglow’s more intuitive Lady Macbeth, the shifting sands become less about calculating mind games, controlled initially by her, more about brute physicality and brutal will, imposed by him, as intense love and mutual hopes are snuffed out in the face of ultimate destiny being beyond their control, whether shaped by supernatural witchcraft or the resurrection of natural order.

Hunter’s Macbeth is as physical in his language as in his pugilist’s body, his soliloquies carrying the force of punches amid the fevered actions of his bloody rise and fall. He is so spent – “Enough, enough, I am done” – that he lays down to let Macduff administer the final blow.

Above all, Leach puts Lady Macbeth’s motives under the spotlight, and if purists feel she has gone too far in doing so, the reality is that Baglow’s performance is all the better, more rounded, for it.  

Risk-taking change can be liberating, rather than be judged as taking liberties, as Leach’s emboldened Playhouse productions affirm, from Romeo And Juliet to Macbeth X 2.

What’s more, there is no damned spot to ‘out’ here. Leach’s Macbeth was already beyond blemish in 2022 and is even better in 2024.

Macbeth, Leeds Playhouse, today at 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond from March 9 onwards. Hutch plays his cards for List No. 11 for 2024, from The Press

2023 Strictly champ Ellie Leach’s Miss Scarlett, front right, with her fellow colourful characters in the new whodunit comedy Cluedo 2, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Alastair Muir

A WHODUNIT comedy, mischievous theatre as a team game, a wicked return, cocktail-bar tales, political satire and one-liners and a very muddy pig are Charles Hutchinson’s clues to the best upcoming shows.

Whodunit, with what and where, of the week: Cluedo 2, York Theatre Royal, March 12 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

STRICTLY Come Dancing 2023 champion and Coronation Street star Ellie Leach is making her stage acting debut as Miss Scarlett in the world premiere British tour of Cluedo 2, marking the 75th anniversary of the Hasbro boardgame. Next stop, York.

This follow-up to the original play (based on Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film Clue) is an original comedy whodunit, set in the Swinging Sixties, with a script by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds Of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Dreamboats And Petticoats) and direction by Mark Bell (Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Ash Hunter’s Macbeth and Jessica Baglow’s Lady Macbeth in Amy Leach’s revival of Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Kirsten McTernan

Something wicked this way comes…again: Macbeth, Leeds Playhouse, until March 23

AMY Leach reactivates her 2022 Leeds Playhouse production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with a wickedly good cast, now led by Ash Hunter, who returns to Yorkshire after his terrific Heathcliff in Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal.

“Macbeth investigates the nature of belief, love, ambition and desire, asking us to root for two humans who drive each other to do utterly terrible things,” says Leach. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.   

Let the games begin: Gemma Curry, left, Claire Morley and Becky Lennon in Hoglets Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Mischief at York Theatre Royal Studio

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Hoglets Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Mischief, York Theatre Royal Studio, March 9, 10.30am

EVERYTHING is kicking off as the fairies in the forest start a fight, but which side will you be on? Team Titania or Team Oberon? York company Hoglets Theatre presents an interactive, fun, larger-than-life production for young children, based on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Expect wild characters, raucous singalong songs, puppets, stunts and some frankly ridiculous disco dancing from director/writer Gemma Curry and fellow cast members Claire Morley and Becky Lennon. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Comedian Matt Green: “Trying to make sense of the world”. Picture: Karla Gowlett

Political satire of the week: Matt Green: That Guy, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 10, 8pm

THE debut national tour by That Guy (@mattgreencomedy) is a stand-up show full of jokes both political and non-political after he achieved millions of views for his online satirical videos launched in lockdown.

Green is touring his first show “since the madness of Covid/Johnson/Truss/Lord-knows-what-else began”, trying to make sense of the world in another year of elections and culture wars. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Jake Bugg: Playing our city on his Your Town Tour

Singer-songwriter of the week: Jake Bugg, Your Town Tour 2024, York Barbican, Tuesday, doors 7pm

ON his 15-date tour, Nottingham singer-songwriter Jake Bugg is performing two sets per night, first acoustic, then electric, as he rattles through his biggest hits, plus songs from 2021’s top three-charting Saturday Night Sunday Morning.

Two nights earlier, founder member Graham Gouldman leads art pop and soft rock innovators 10cc on their Ultimate Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour 2024 at 7.30pm. Ticket availability is limited. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out: Songs, muddy puddles and snorts at the Grand Opera House

Children’s show of the week: Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, 1pm and 4pm, and Thursday, 10am and 1pm

PEPPA Pig is joined by her family and friends as they head to the zoo and the beach for a special party, with the promise of a fun-packed day. Prepare to sing with colourful scarecrows, feed the penguins, build big sandcastles and even swim in the sea in a show packed with songs, dancing, muddy puddles, giggles and snorts. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Facing the shift from hell in the worst bar in town: Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter, Holly Smith and Laura Castle in Rowntree Players’ Shakers

Comedy play of the week: Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 14 to 16, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

WELCOME to Shakers, the worst bar in town where everyone wants to be seen. Carol, Adele, Niki and Mel face the shift from hell. The lights are neon, the music is loud, and shoes must be smart. No trainers.

Jane Thornton and John Godber’s 1984 comedy exposes the sticky-floored world behind the bar on a busy Saturday night. Here come the girls, the lads, the yuppies and the luvvies, all played by Sophie Bullivant, Laura Castle, Abi Carter and Holly Smith under the direction of Jamie McKeller, who worked previously with Bullivant and Castle on Godber’s Teechers in 2023. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, scheming at Theatre@41 for two days

Solo show of the week: Dyad Productions in Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 15, 7.30pm and March 16, 2.30pm

FROM the creators of I, Elizabeth, Female Gothic, Christmas Gothic and A Room Of One’s Own comes a new Austen’s Women show, based on Jane Austen’s first full-length work from 1794, performed by Rebecca Vaughan.

Created entirely from letters, this one features the devil-may-care Lady Susan, the coquettish, scheming black widow, hunting down not one, but two, fortunes. Then add oppressed, rebellious daughter Frederica; long-suffering sister-in-law Catherine; family matriarch Mrs De Courcy and insouciant best friend Alicia in this darkly comic tale of Georgian society and the women trapped within it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Shock in shirts: Comedian Milton Jones will be displaying his sartorial eloquence in his Ha!Milton tour show

Gig announcement of the week: Milton Jones, Ha!Milton, Grand Opera House, York, September 7; Sheffield, City Hall, December 4; King’s Hall, Ilkley, December 8

MILTON Jones, the shock-haired master of the one-liner, will take his 2024 tour, Ha!Milton, on the road from September 3 to December 15. “This is not a musical,” says Jones, in a nod to the title.

“I am tone deaf and have no sense of rhythm, but at least I don’t make a song and dance about it. This is a whole new show of daftness. You know it makes sense.” Topics will include giraffes…“and there’s a bit about tomatoes”. Box office: miltonjones.com; York, atgtickets.com/york; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Ilkley, bradford-theatres.co.uk.

In Focus: Navigators Art & Performance, GUNA: Views and Voices of Women, City Screen Picturehouse, York


Collaborative banner by Navigators Art workshop group, including first-time artists, for York International Women’s Week 2024

YORK collective Navigators Art & Performance presents GUNA: Views and Voices of Women, at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York, from March 10 to April 5.

Run in association with York International Women’s Week 2024, this exhibition explores and celebrates the creativity of women and non-binary artists.

On show in the cafe and the upstairs gallery is an array of paintings, textiles, collages, photographs and more by 20 emerging and established York makers, curated by York artist Katie Lewis.

Navigators Art & Performance’s poster for GUNA: Views and Voices of Women


“Women have used textiles as an art form to tell their stories and express views for centuries,” says Katie. “Many of the artists are using recycled fabrics that give further meaning to their work.”

The official launch night event on March 11 offers the chance to meet the artists over a complimentary drink from 6pm.  All are welcome, with no need to book; more details at  https://www.facebook.com/events/6804352783003925

The exhibition is free to enter every day during cinema hours. City Screen is fully accessible.

Suffragette City, by Katie Lewis

NAVIGATORS Art & Performance will co-host GUNA: An Evening of Music, Spoken Word, Performance Art and Comedy to complement the exhibition and further celebrate the creativity of women and non-binary artists in The Basement at City Screen on March 23 from 7pm to 10.45pm.

GUNA is a version of the ancient Greek word for ‘woman’, leading to a line-up of
poets Danae, Olivia Mulligan and Rose Drew; performance artist Carrieanne Vivianette; global songs and percussion from Soundsphere; original music from Suzy Bradley; comedy from Aimee Moon; and a rousing appearance by the multi-faceted singer, author and artist Heather Findlay.

“The venue is small and our shows often sell out, so book soon,” advises Navigators’ organiser, Richard Kitchen. Full details and TicketSource booking are available at https://bit.ly/nav-guna

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