Tag: Marmite Theatre

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 48, from Gazette & Herald

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies leading The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan

SUNNY Afternoon’s Kinks songs for dark nights, Dibley comedic delights and drag diva Velma Celli’s frock rock catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye.

Musical of the week: Sonia Freidman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees

RETURNING to York for the first time since February 2017, four-time Olivier Award winner Sunny Afternoon charts the raw energy, euphoric highs, troubling lows, mendacious mismanagement and brotherly spats of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, equipped with an original story (and nearly 30 songs) by frontman Ray Davies.

The script is by Joe Penhall, who says: “As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsider – punk before punk.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Nicki Clay’s Reverend Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Paul Miles

Village drama of the week: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre:41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

NICKI Clay is going doubly Dibley for MARMiTE Theatre in the new York company’s debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley, having played Geraldine Grainger for The Monday Players in Escrick in May.  

Martyn Hunter directs Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s first two TV series, bringing together all the favourite eccentric residents of Dibley as the new vicar’s arrival shakes up the parish council of this sleepy English village. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

N’Faly Kouyaté: Dancing shoes recommended

African rhythms of the week: N’Faly Kouyaté, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm

AFTER gracing stages across the world with Afro Celt Sound System — where Celtic voices and instrumentation met the vibrant heartbeat of African rhythms — avant-garde griot N’Faly Kouyaté embarks on a profoundly personal journey.

This masterful Guinean multi-instrumentalist, inspired vocalist and living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds returns with his album Finishing, whose songs stir the soul, provoke reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving. Bring your dancing shoes! Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Velma Celli: Rock Queen with a nod to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane slash. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography

Drag night of the week: Velma Celli: Rock Queen, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK’S international drag diva deluxe Velma Celli follows up her iconic October 1 appearance in Coronation Street soapland withan “overindulgent evening celebrating and re-imagining the best of rock classics” with her band. 

The alter ego of West End musical star Ian Stroughair, who has shone in Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago, cabaret queen Velma’s live vocal drag act has been charming audiences for 14 years, whether at Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse, her Impossible Brunches at Impossible York, or in such shows as A Brief History Of Drag, My Divas, God Save The Queens and Divalussion (with Christina Bianco). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Beth McCarthy: Heading back home to play Big Ian’s A Night To Remember charity concert. Picture: Duncan Lomax., Ravage Productions

Charity event of the week: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

BIG Ian Donaghy hosts a “night of York helping York” featuring a 30-strong band led by George Hall  with a line-up of York party band HUGE, Jess Steel, Beth McCarthy, Heather Findlay, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Simon Snaize, Annie-Rae Donaghy, fiddler Kieran O’Malley, Samantha Holden, Las Vegas Ken and musicians from York Music Forum, plus a guest choir. 

Proceeds from this three-hour fundraiser go to St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. Tickets update: Balcony seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Staff woes: William Ilkley, left, Levi Payne and Dylan Allcock in John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough

One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 12 to 15, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

ON the glitziest East Yorkshire fundraising night of the year, everyone wants to be there. The Bentleys are parked, the jazz band has arrived, the magician will be magic, but behind the bow ties, fake tans and equally fake booming laughter lie jealousies and avarice, divorces and affairs, as overdressed upstairs meets understaffed downstairs through a drunken gaze. 

The raffle is ridiculously competitive, the coffee, cold, the service, awful, the guest speaker, drunk, and the hard -pressed caterers just want to go home. Welcome to the Brechtian hotel hell of John Godber’s satirical, visceral comedy drama, as told by the exasperated hotel staff, recounting the night’s mishaps at breakneck speed in the manner of Godber’s fellow wearers of tuxedos, Bouncers. Box office:  01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Ensemble 360: Performing works by Shostakovich and Dvořák at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Matthew Johnson and Music in the Round

Classical matinee concert of the week: Ensemble 360, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 2.30pm

ENSEMBLE 360’s chamber musicians Benjamin Nabarro and Claudia Ajmone-Marsan, violins, Rachel Roberts, viola, Gemma Rosefield, cello, and Tim Horton, piano, perform the dramatic intensity and soaring lyricism of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 and the radiant warmth and Czech folk-inspired melodies of Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, a piece cherished for its lush harmonies, spirited dances and seamless instrumental interplay. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Rock’n’roll show of the week: Two Pianos, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 7.30pm

IN the words of Jerry Lew Lewis, “Two Pianos are awesome rockers”. Tomorrow night, David Barton and Al Kilvo  bring their rock’n’roll piano show to Pocklington for a journey through the golden age of  Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee and, yes, the “The Killer” himself. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Lydia Hough and Joseph Taylor in London City Ballet’s Pictures At An Exhibition, on tour at York Theatre Royal

Dance show of the week: London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion); Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum, a new repertoire that showcases artists rarely seen in the UK. Haieff Divertimento, an early George Balanchine work, was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and remained unseen outside the USA until now. Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at Paris Opera Ballet, combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering in his fluid new work.

Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist in residence, presents Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings. Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score, depicting the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday ****

Always time for chocolate: Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

MARMiTE Theatre’s entire run of The Vicar Of Dibley sold out before opening night. What an achievement for this new York company – and how enviously any number of village churches must look at the full congregation.

New company, yes, but one steeped in names familiar to followers of the York theatre scene, from director Martyn Hunter to Nicki Clay, a third generation York performer with more than 50 shows in 26 years to her name.

Here she is on doubly Dibley duty, having played the Reverend Geraldine Granger in May for the Monday Players in Escrick.

Joining her in Hunter’s company are Florence Poskitt, Neil Foster, Mike Hickman, Adam Sowter, Jeanette Hunter and Helen “Bells” Spencer, all regulars on York’s boards, and Glynn Mills, whose absence of a cast profile in the programme made him a man of mystery to your reviewer.

Who will fill that empty seat? Dibley Parish Council awaits the arrival of the new incumbent in The Vicar Of Dibley. Present are Mark Simmonds’s Owen Newitt, left, Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton, Glynn Mills’s David Horton, Mike Hickman’s Frank Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia Cropley and Adam Sowter’s Jim Trott. Picture: Paul Miles

Research enquiries revealed he had been connected with theatre for 62 years, attending Central School of Speech & Drama, working in repertory theatre, the West End and on UK tours, and doing voiceovers and cabaret too. All that experience shows in a performance full of fire and ire, putdowns and intolerance as council chairman David Horton.

Rich Musk and Martyn Hunter’s set design accommodatesGeraldine’s cosy sitting room cum office with desk and typewriter alongside the tables and chairs of Dibley Parish Hall, permanently laid out for the next meeting.

Above is a screen, on which Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Carpenter’s first two television series opens with the familiar Dibley faces walking through the churchyard. Scene titles, Later, Later Still, Later That Evening, and such like, denote time of day and the change from one day to the next.

To either side of the screen on the mezzanine level is a neon-lit cross; on one occasion up there, Clay’s Geraldine tells one of her shaggy dog tales to Poskitt’s Alice Tinker, the ditzy church verger, but the lighting puts a distracting shadow slash across the vicar’s face from the barrier railing. Hopefully that can be eradicated.

In perfect harmony: Rachel Higgs, Helen “Bells” Spencer, Henrietta Linnemann and Cat Foster on choral duty in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

On more than one occasion, the York vocal harmony group The Hollywood Sisters (“Bells” Spencer, Cat Foster, Henrietta Linnemann and Rachel Higgs) transform themselves into The Holy Sisters to sing hymns in beatific Songs Of Praise manner. Wholly in harmony with the play’s multitude of formal meetings and informal chats, their inclusion is typical of Hunter’s good directorial judgements that see the sitcom flow of short scenes sustain momentum with a twinkle in the eye throughout.

The play opens with Mills’s grouchy parish council chairman David Horton hosting the meeting where the new vicar will make a first appearance. In attendance are his awfully nice son Hugo (Neil Foster); the stickler-for-accuracy minute-noting parish clerk Frank Pickle (Mike Hickman); knitting-on-her-knee Letitia Cropley (Jeanette Hunter) , creator of endless inedible cakes and sandwiches, and no-no-no-no-yes man Jim Trott (a gurning Adam Sowter, left arm in a sling, presumably not for extra comic effect?!).

Dashing in and out with bodily ablution problems that he loves to describe is blunt dairy farmer Owen Newitt (Mark Simmonds, York’s busiest actor of the moment as he follows his Macheath in York Opera’s The Beggar’s Opera with Dibley, only a month to go to Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes).

 Enter the new vicar, very definitely not a man as irascible chairman Horton expects, but Clay’s Geraldine Granger, drawing attention to her ample bust (matched by her even more ample supplies of chocolate). Whereupon Clay performs in the French style, mirroring the speech rhythms, facial expressions and mannerisms of Dawn’s sitcom vicar but with her own panache.

Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger looks on as Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton and Florence Poskitt’s Alice Tinker kiss at last in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Paul Miles

Clay’s Geraldine is a delight throughout, at once reverent yet irreverent, and her scenes with Poskitt’s ever-slow-off-the-mark, exasperating Alice are a particular joy.

Poskitt, a supremely expressive physical comedian, wins hearts too in her love-struck, tongue-tied bonding with Foster’s equally awkward, inhibited Hugo. Their kissing clench that stretches from Act One finale into Act Two opener is one of the comic highpoints, not least from the nimble-footed input of Clay’s Geraldine, breaking down the fourth wall to play to the audience in providing a running commentary on what’s going on.

Hickman’s Pickle, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia, Sowter’s Trott and especially Simmonds’s brusque Owen all have their moments too in MARMiTE Theatre’s debut that you will surely love, not hate. Don’t swear if you are too late for a ticket; Hunter and co have plans to do further Dibley village capers.

MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. All profits will be donated to Comic Relief.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when Dibley’s vicar is at your service. Here’s Hutch’s List No 48, from The York Press

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies leading The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from next Tuesday. Picture: Manuel Harlan

SUNNY Afternoon’s Kinks songs for dark nights, Dibley comedic delights and drag diva Velma Celli’s frock rock catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye.

Musical of the week: Sonia Freidman Productions and ATG Productions present Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees

RETURNING to York for the first time since February 2017, four-time Olivier Award winner Sunny Afternoon charts the raw energy, euphoric highs, troubling lows, mendacious mismanagement and brotherly spats of Muswell Hill firebrands The Kinks, with an original story (and nearly 30 songs) by frontman Ray Davies.

The script is by Joe Penhall, who says: “As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsider – punk before punk.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

MarcoLooks: Exhibiting at Inspired – York Artists & Designer Makers Winter Fair at York Cemetery Chapel

Christmas presence of the week: Inspired – York Artists & Designer Makers Winter Fair, York Cemetery Chapel, Cemetery Road, York, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm

NINE York artists and designers will be selling their work for the Christmas season in the divine setting of York Cemetery Chapel. Among them will be collagraphy printmaker Sally Clarke, jewellery designer Jo Bagshaw, artist Adrienne French, printmaker Petra Bradley and illustrator MarcoLooks . Enjoy a winter walk in the beautiful grounds too. Free entry, free parking.  

Clive Marshall RIP: York Railway Institute Band and York Opera perform in his memory at The Citadel tonight

Marshalling forces: York Railway Institute Band and York Opera, Clive Marshall Memorial Concert, The Citadel, Gillygate, York, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK Railway Institute Band and York Opera members come together tonight for a charity musical tribute to much-loved colleague Clive Marshall (1936-2025). Expect soaring choruses, heartfelt arias and the very best of operatic overtures in tonight’s programme of popular classics, in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, where Clive spent the final days of his life in March this year. 

He was chairman of the RI band, leading the trombone section for many years, and first performed for York Opera in 1968, going on to play multiple character roles and stage direct myriad productions too. Box office: https://tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera/1793750 or on the door.

At your service, in the French style: Nicki Clay’s Reverend Geraldine Granger in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley

Village drama of the week: MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 11 to 15,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

NICKI Clay is going doubly Dibley for MARMiTE Theatre in the new York company’s debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley, having played Geraldine Granger for The Monday Players in Escrick in May.  

Martyn Hunter directs Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter’s cherry-picking of the best of Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s first two TV series, bringing together all the favourite eccentric residents of Dibley as the new vicar’s arrival shakes up the parish council of this sleepy English village. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Velma Celli: Rock Queen, with a nod to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane slash make-up, at York Theatre Royal

Drag night of the week: Velma Celli: Rock Queen, York Theatre Royal, November 12, 7.30pm

YORK’S international drag diva deluxe Velma Celli follows up her iconic October 1 appearance in Coronation Street soapland with an “overindulgent evening celebrating and re-imagining the best of rock classics” with her band. 

The alter ego of West End musical star Ian Stroughair, who has shone in Cats, Fame, Rent and Chicago, cabaret queen Velma’s live vocal drag act has been charming audiences for 14 years, whether at Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse, her Impossible Brunches at Impossible York, or in such shows as A Brief History Of Drag, My Divas, God Save The Queens, Equinox, Velma Celli Goes Gaga, Show Queen and Divalussion (with Christina Bianco). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for Toby Lee’s 2025 tour show, An Evening of Blues & Soul, at The Crescent

Blues gig of the week: Toby Lee & James Emmanuel plus Isabella Coulstock, An Evening of Blues & Soul, The Crescent, York, November 12, 7.30pm

BLUES prodigy Toby Lee’s musical journey started at only four years old when his grandmother bought him a yellow and green ukulele. This little instrument went everywhere with him, and he played it constantly, mainly tunes by Elvis and Buddy Holly. At eight, he received his first electric guitar for Christmas while staying at a Cornish. By chance, staying there too was Uriah Heep’s Mick Box, who duly gave him tips and picks. From that moment, Lee knew precisely what he wanted to do when he grew up.

Now 20, he has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Peter Frampton, Slash, Lukas Nelson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and his hero, Joe Bonamassa, at the Royal Albert Hall, as well as touring as Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra’s special guest. On Tuesday, he is joined by James Emmanuel and Isabella Coulstock. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Beth McCarthy: Heading back home to York to play Big Ian’s A Night To Remember at York Barbican. Picture: Duncan Lomax, Ravage Productions

Charity event of the week: Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, November 12, 7.30pm

BIG Ian Donaghy hosts a “night of York helping York” featuring a 30-strong band led by George Hall  with a line-up of York party band HUGE, Jess Steel, Beth McCarthy, Heather Findlay, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Simon Snaize, Annie-Rae Donaghy, fiddler Kieran O’Malley, Samantha Holden, Las Vegas Ken and musicians from York Music Forum, plus a guest choir. 

Proceeds from this three-hour fundraiser go to St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York, Accessible Arts & Media and York dementia projects. Tickets update: Balcony seats still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Staff woes: William Ilkley, left, Levi Payne and Dylan Allcock in John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough

One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, November 12 to 15, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

ON the glitziest East Yorkshire fundraising night of the year, everyone wants to be there. The Bentleys are parked, the jazz band has arrived, the magician will be magic, but behind the bow ties, fake tans and equally fake booming laughter lie jealousies and avarice, divorces and affairs, as overdressed upstairs meets understaffed downstairs through a drunken gaze. 

The raffle is ridiculously competitive, the coffee, cold, the service, awful, the guest speaker, drunk, and the hard -pressed caterers just want to go home. Welcome to the Brechtian hotel hell of John Godber’s satirical, visceral comedy drama, as told by the exasperated hotel staff, recounting the night’s mishaps at breakneck speed in the manner of Godber’s fellow wearers of tuxedos, Bouncers. Box office:  01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Amit Mistry: Topping the Funny Fridays bill

Comedy gig of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch@Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, November 14, 7.30pm to 9.30pm

AMIT Mistry headlines next Friday’s bill, joined by Lulu Simons, Gareth Harrison, Liam Alexander and Dominique McMillan, hosted by promoter Kaie Lingo. Doors open at 7pm for a night of “back-to-basics comedy fun” and tickets cost £10 at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/funny-fridays-at-patch-tickets-1802236280229?aff=oddtdtcreator.

African rhythms of the week: N’Faly Kouyaté, National Centre for Early Music, York, November 12 , 7.30pm

Guinean multi-instrumentalist N’Faly Kouyaté: Starting his Finishing tour at the NCEM

AFTER gracing stages across the world with Afro Celt Sound System, avant-garde griot N’Faly Kouyaté has embarked on a profoundly personal journey that finds him opening his autumn UK tour in York, playing the National Centre for Early Music for the first time.

This masterful Guinean multi-instrumentalist, multi-linguist, inspired vocalist and living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds returns with his September 12 album Finishing, whose songs stir the soul, provoke reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving.

Finishing is billed as a “a spiritual call to action – an artistic manifesto shaped by the soul of a griot and the conscience of a world citizen”

Conceived during nine reflective months along the banks of the Bafing River in Guinea, then recorded in Brussels, this album is both a deeply personal reflection and a universal cry for justice, compassion and balance.

“Finishing is my musical answer to a world searching for meaning,” says N’Faly. “It is the echo of my ancestors carried by today’s rhythms, a call to reflection and action. I wanted every note to be a question, every chorus a step towards a fairer, more conscious future.”

Hailing from the illustrious Konkoba Kabinet Kouyaté lineage – he is a member of the Mandingue ethnic group of West Africa; his father was the griot Konkoba Kabinet Kouyaté, who lived in Siguiri, Guinea – N’Faly is a master of the kora and balafon, a genre-defying composer and a cultural custodian with a mission.

His journey has taken him from Guinea to the Royal Conservatory of Belgium in 1994, where he formed the ensemble Dunyakan, onwards to global stages with the Grammy-nominated Afro Celt Sound System and now his solo projects, all speaking to his ability to weave past and future into the sound of now.

Should you be asking “what is a griot?”, let N’Faly explain.”The griot is an advisor to the people and the king in West Africa,” he says. “The griot is from the Mandingue kingdom; Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso.

“The king of this kingdom was the ancestor of Salif Keita, the Malian singer-songwriter. The griot is like the Bard in Celtic culture because we advise the king, the people, and if there’s a war somewhere, the griot comes to make peace.

“I continue the griot social class. I am griot, my father and my ancestors were griots. You can’t become griot; but you are born griot.”

How does this influence Finishing, N’Faly? “We griot, we advise all society. With this album you imagine the  artist finishing his dream to end all these horrible things in the world,” he says. “My dream was that if all these troubles could be finished, we could be happy. What a finishing that would be. For the people, we’re asking for the finishing of all this horror in our world.”

Finishing is an album rooted in a wish for healing. “We can use music to say to the political world ‘what we need is peace and love’,” says N’Faly, who spreads that message by singing songs in Mandinka (the language of Mandingue), Soussou, Pular, French and English as he dares to imagine a world where war, lies, theft and violence suddenly stopped.

The cover artwork for N’Faly Kouyaté’s Finishing album

Each track on Finishing pulses with urgency and purpose. Free Water, a collaboration with reggae luminary Tiken Jah Fakoly, is a passionate plea for water protection, while Khili Kanè condemns the corrosive effects of slander.

Mandela stands as a reverent salute to the late South African statesman and peacemaker, and Kolabana, featuring Senegalese hip-hop icon Didier Awadi, takes aim at global indifference in the face of crisis.

Elsewhere, songs such as Mökhöya, Halala and Kawa reflect on the quiet erosion of human value – mutual aid, dignity and humility – reminding us that these virtues are not nostalgic relics, but essential foundations for a liveable future.

“In my concerts I explain the words of all the songs and I use the job of my ancestors to play traditional music as well as modern,” says N’Faly, whose trademark “Afrotronix” sound is a fusion of AfroBeat, AfroTrap, AfroPop, RnB, Jazz and traditional Mandingue instrumentation as electronica meets djembe and kora.

“I am the protector of culture and tradition, and for me, we can use technology to serve tradition. If you want to interest young people, you have to sing in the language they want to hear and use the instruments and style of who they like – and statistically, much of my audience is aged 18 to 44 and upwards to 66-70.”

N’Faly will be joined on the NCEM stage by his wife, Muriel Kouyaté and Jay Chitul after rehearsing together in Brussels. Bring your dancing shoes,” he advises. Finishing will be on sale at the concert, along with T-shirts. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Did you know?

N’FALY Kouyaté’s collaborators range from Peter Gabriel and Sinead O’Connor to Tayc and Robert Plant, affirming how he is as comfortable in ancient traditions as he is on the modern sonic frontier.

“When I finished my studies in Belgium, I started to work with Afro Celt Sound System, whose albums were produced by Peter Gabriel, and we worked with him many times, recording at Real World studios in Bath and performing on stage with him.” says N’Faly.

He undertook an acting role in William Kentridge’s musical The Head And The Load, performing in Miami, Amsterdam, London and New York.  

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MARMiTE Theatre want you to love debut show The Vicar Of Dibley. They’d hate you to miss out at Theatre@41, Monkgate

More theatre, vicar? Nicki Clay playing Geraldine Granger in The Vicar Of Dibley for the second time in 2025. Picture: Matt Pattison

NICKI Clay is going doubly Dibley for MARMiTE Theatre in the new York company’s debut production of The Vicar Of Dibley at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from November 11 to 15.

“I’ve just played the role of Geraldine Granger for the Escrick Monday Players in May,” she says. “I’ve been in well over 50 plays but I’ve never done the same part twice – until now!

“I was very laissez-faire when Martyn [Hunter, the director] contacted me because I’d ended on a high note. So I was kind of not anxious over the audition because I felt I had nothing to lose. A week later I got a call from Martyn, and that’s when there was a flip in my tummy, and I thought ‘, ‘yup, I’ve got to do this again’ – and it’s been brilliant.

“It’s a different experience, and I’m loving it just as much because I don’t have the extra responsibility as I do with chairing the Monday Players. I can focus entirely on doing the role and I’m enjoying being around different people as well. It’s been hilarious in rehearsals

“We did it with the same script in Escrick, when Martyn’s wife, Jeanette, and assistant director Chris Higgins came to see it and were pretty blown away by the show. It’s the mix of the script and the characters that make it work.”

The poster for The Monday Players’ production of The Vicar Of Dibley, starring Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger, in Escrick, near York, in May 2025

Adapted by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter from Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer’s beloved television series, The Vicar Of Dibley brings together all the favourite characters, the eccentric residents of Dibley, as the arrival of the new vicar shakes up the parish council of the sleepy English village.

Re-meet Jim “No, No, No” Trott, Letitia Cropley, the not-so-gifted Bake Off queen, Owen Newitt, with his infamous ailments, Frank Pickle, the minute-taking bore, Hugo Horton and his cantankerous father David and the delightfully dim Alice Tinker, but is Dibley and its inhabitants ready for the wind of change that is Geraldine Grainger?

“It’s just wonderful to get another chance to play Geraldine,” says Nicki. “I love the play. I love the role, and I’m loving playing opposite new people’s different interpretations of such iconic roles, so it doesn’t feel like going through motions – and I’m doing new things and not just doing the same things I did before.

“Geraldine is enthusiastic, she’s energetic and she’s extremely empathetic, which you have to mix into your performance, and I think you have to be a Dawn French fan as well. I saw her doing her Dear Fatty show [Dawn French In 30 Million Minutes] at York Barbican [in July 2014), and she was wonderful. Dawn has even ‘liked’ one of her Instagram posts for this show.”

How has she approached following in Dawn French’s shoes as Geraldine. “Usually, when you play a role, either you’ve seen the film or the show before, and you then interpret it yourself, but with Geraldine you have to be very faithful to Dawn’s character,” says Vicki. “She definitely has a rhythm how she says things.

Mark Simmonds’s Owen Newitt, left, Vicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger, Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton, and Glynn Mills’s David Horton in rehearsal at St Nicholas Church Hall, Back Lane, Wigginton. Picture: Matt Pattison

“The first time, I studied the sitcoms, as it’s good to have something to work with, but now, because I’ve done it before, I’ve not revisited the TV shows as you don’t want to overdo it or you start second guessing yourself.”

After he directed the Rowntree Players in Glorious! at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in March, The Vicar Of Dibley marks the birth of MARMiTE Theatre under the direction of York amateur stage stalwart Martyn Hunter.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to play many diverse roles over the years and to work with so many talented directors, who have taught me everything I know about amateur theatre. Now feels like the right time to put that experience into practice.

“With The Vicar Of Dibley, we’re setting the tone for MARMiTE Theatre: easy-going, feel-good comedy that lets audiences relax, laugh and leave their worries at the door. We want you to love us or… LOVE US!”

Ah yes, that MARMiTE company title. “I thought it was because of ‘Mar’ in Martyn’s name,” says Nicki. “I don’t think I’ll be able to get away with it forever,” says Martyn. “It came about because, with everything that you want to do, you have to have a company name to apply for the performance rights for a play. I thought about various names and then thought MARMiTE might work by changing it to a lower case ‘i’!”

Love it or hate it, like it or lump it, this is MARMiTE Theatre’s logo!

What if the makers of Marmite hate it, rather than love it, Martyn?  “Worse case scenario, we can say ‘marmite’ is a French casserole dish,” he says.

Two years ago, Martyn was asked to audition for 1812 Theatre Company’s production of The Vicar of Dibley in Helmsley. “But I read the script and was a little disappointed that I didn’t think it was as good as I was expecting, but it piqued my interest and then I discovered there were various different versions of a play script,” he recalls.

“So I contacted Tiger Aspect, who said that was the case and I could do one of those or I could adapt my own version. There’s no licence fee to do it, just the set donation you are obliged to make to Comic Relief.

“Ian Gower, who lives in the beautiful fishing village of Mousehole in Cornwall, sent me the script, and I laid on the bed on a Sunday reading it and constantly laughing out loud. ‘What are you laughing at?’ said Jeanette [Martyn’s wife}. She read it and started laughing as well!”

And so MARMiTE Theatre’s debut production was born, delayed by changes from the original cast but now ready for the November run after Martyn spread his net wider, retaining the original nucleus, now supplemented by two additions.  

Martyn Hunter: Director of MARMiTE Theatre’s debut production, The Vicar Of Dibley

What guidance has Martyn given his cast on playing such familiar characters? “From day one, I told them that everyone had to bring their best impersonation of their character to the auditions,” he says.

“This does bring its own problems, as you don’t have to look for the character when everyone knows the character. That can be difficult to put your own stamp on it, but it has to become the stage version, rather than having a camera in your face.”

Martyn continues: “I’ve no illusions of being some great director. I know that all theatre is subjective, so what I think is good, someone next to me might think is terrible. I’ve purposely stayed away from the TV series, other than having memories of the characters, staying away from everything else, to put my own slant on it.

“We’ve also kept the 1990s’ setting, being as faithful as possible to the characters. Ironically, The Vicar Of Dibley is a bit like Marmite: there are those who say ‘they can’t stand Dawn French’, but the majority of the country are fans!”

Last question, Vicki and Martyn. Marmite. Do you love it or hate it? “Hate it,” says Vicki. “I tried it only once. It’s good for disguising the dog’s medicine in, but that’s about it – but we do love this MARMiTE!.” Martyn? “I think somewhere in the dark and distant past I tried it. I do know I tried tripe once and that was that.”

MARMiTE Theatre in The Vicar Of Dibley, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Supporting Comic Relief.

Mark Simmonds’s Owen Newitt, left, Jeanette Hunter’s Letitia Cropley and Adam Sowter’s Jim Trott in MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Matt Pattison

Who’s in MARMiTE Theatre’s cast for The Vicar Of Dibley?

Nicki Clay as Geraldine Granger

Florence Poskitt as Alice Tinker

Glynn Mills as David Horton

Neil Foster as Hugo Horton

Adam Sowter as Jim Trott

Mike Hickman as Frank Pickle

Mark Simmonds as Owen Newitt

Jeanette Hunter as Letitia Cropley

Helen “Bells” Spencer as Woman

Did you know?

NICKI Clay will be stage-managing the Escrick Monday Players’ production of Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island at Escrick & Deighton Village Hall from October 30 to November 1.

Did you know too?

WHEN Martyn Hunter operated the giant plant Audrey II in the late Clive Hailstone’s production of The Little Shop Of Horrors, who should be the off-stage voice of Audrey II but Nicki Clay’s father, Adrian Clay.

FOOTNOTE: Looking ahead, MARMiTE Theatre has its sights set on further productions in a similar vein, including additional The Vicar Of Dibley scripts, ’Allo ’Allo!, The Good Life, Ladies’ Day and Last Tango In Whitby.

Nicki Clay’s Geraldine Granger, Neil Foster’s Hugo Horton, centre, and Glynn Mills’s David Horton rehearsing for MARMiTE Theatre’s The Vicar Of Dibley. Picture: Matt Pattison