Tag: Megan Drury

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 28, from The York Press

Super Furry Animals: Flower power in the botanical gardens at Live At York Museum Gardens. Picture: Ryan Eddleston

NINE comedians on one day in a garden, a mythical tale of a goddess and the dark side of the moon, a near-future re-spinning of the selkie myth and a bothersome briefcase in a love story keep Charles Hutchinson’s head spinning with artistic possibilities.  

Rock gig of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Super Furry Animals, today, gates 4pm

FUTURESOUND’S third season of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts climaxes today with Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals’ headline set. On the bill too are  singer-songwriter Baxter Dury, indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, Nottingham alt-country band Divorce and North Wales psychedelic act Pys Melyn.  Box office: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

The Gesualdo Six: Performing Wishing Tree: A Choral Journey 1 at St Lawrence’s Church, York, on July 14 at 3pm at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Ash Mills

Festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, until July 26

RYEDALE Festival presents 60 events this month in 40 different venues, including Tenebrae, The Gesualdo Six, John Wilson & Sinfonia of London’s An English Summer, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Opera North.

Taking part too are tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Christopher Glynn, Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, Eliza Carthy and The Restitution, soprano Erika Baikoff, cellist Laura van der Heijden, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band. For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: ryedalefestival.com.

Cutting a dash: Russell Kane’s 7.10pm set will last 25 minutes at York Comedy Festival tomorrow

Comedy event of the week: Futuresound presents York Comedy Festival, Live At York Museum Gardens, York, tomorrow, gates 3pm

TOPICAL comedian Russell Howard (9.30pm) and Geordie surrealist Ross Noble (8.35pm) take top billing at the second open-air York Comedy Festival, promoted by Futuresound.

In tomorrow’s line-up too will be Irish stand-up and podcast sensation Joanne McNally (7.40pm); stand-up and presenter Russell Kane (7.10pm); Big Kick Energy podcaster and comedian Suzi Ruffell (6.15pm); Alex Lowe’s 82-year-old comic creation Barry From Watford (5.45pm); cult stand-up hero and viral sensation Jeff Innocent (4.50pm)  and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nabil Abdulrashid (4.20pm), all hosted by Jarred Christmas. Box office: yorkcomedyfestival.com.

Megan Drury in Wright & Grainger’s SELENE, part of Theatre@41’s Halfway To Edinburgh Season

Radical myth revamp of the week: Wright & Grainger and Theatre@41 present Megan Drury in SELENE, Halfway To Edinburgh Season, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 15, 7.30pm; July 16, 8.30pm

AUSTRALIAN actor Megan Drury stars in Easingwold duo Phil Grainger and Alexander Flanagan Wright’s tale of the goddess and the dark side of the moon in a radical explosion of an ancient myth.

A young girl watches the moon landings on repeat. A teenager makes a list of all the things they are not. A young adult starts to discover who they are. Expect a story addressing the light sides of us, the dark sides of us, the things orbiting around us as we grow up and not least the wild stuff inside us. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Silence is golden: Rowan Armitt-Brewster’s Thomas in A Brief Case Of Crazy at York Theatre Royal Studio

Silent love story of the week: Skedaddle Theatre & Shoddy Theatre present A Brief Case Of Crazy, York Theatre Royal Studio, July 16 to 18, 7pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee

INSPIRED by the timeless genius of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mr Bean,Rowan Armitt-Brewster, Samuel Cunningham and Lennie Longworth’s physical comedy A Brief Case Of Crazy is a silent love story with a very loud heart, told through slick choreography, mime, clowning and puppetry.

Meet Thomas, an awkward, introverted office worker with a quiet crush on his equally shy colleague, Daisy. His quest for love must contend with a boisterous boss named Simon and a rather bothersome briefcase that drags an awkward introvert into extraordinary events. Will his quest for love fail? Or will he discover that what’s on the inside counts most? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.

Hannah Davies & Jack Woods: Performing The Ballad Of Blea Wyke at Helmsley Arts Centre on July 17. Picture: Matt Jopling

Dystopian vision of the week: Hannah Davies & Jack Woods in The Ballad of Blea Wyke, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 17, 7.30pm

IN North Yorkshire writer and storyteller Hannah Davies and musician Jack Woods’ dystopian re-imagining of the selkie myth in a not-too-distant future, a young woman wants to see the sea. A stranger stands on a cliff. The last grey seal swims towards the shore. 

On her 18th birthday, tough care-leaver Cerys breaks the city’s lockdown and travels to the coastal cliffs that birthed her, the crumbling landscape drawing her back to her mythic past. Cue a haunting interweaving of story, music, poetry and song. Box office: Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Dominic Goodwin in a triptych of three of his multiple roles in Twice Nightly at Friargate Theatre

Recalling variety’s golden days: Pyramus and Thisbe Productions present Dominic Goodwin in Twice Nightly, Friargate Theatre, York, July 17 & 18, 7.30pm

RYEDALE writer, performer and pantomime dame Dominic Goodwin is touring his first one-man comedy show, directed by York director and actor Thomas Frere.

Twice Nightly follows the story of struggling comedian Freddie Francis in 1956 as the final curtain hovers over variety. Many acts of the time are highlighted, including Norman “Over The Garden Wall” Evans (said to be an influence on Les Dawson) Stockton comic Jimmy James, wartime star Robb Wilton and the iconic Max Miller. Box office: York, 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/friargatetheatre.

Turning up the heat: North Yorkshire chef Tommy Banks

Culinary event of the week:  An Evening with Tommy Banks: Spinning Plates: Live, York Theatre Royal, July 17, 7.30pm

MICHELIN-STARRED chef, restaurateur and hospitality leader Tommy Banks makes the trip from his Oldstead family farm to York Theatre Royal to bring his extraordinary story to the stage for the first and only time. Told across three intersecting timelines – the past 25 years, the defining 12 months and the opening night for his latest pub —each moment teeters on a knife-edge.

Banks runs the Black Swan at Oldstead (head chef since June 2013), Roots York, in Marygate, York (since 2018) , and the Abbey Inn at Byland (since 2023), as well as co-founding Jeopardy Hospitality, whose first venture is the General Tarleton at Ferrensby, Knaresborough, in 2025.

His debut cookbook, Roots, was published by Orion in April 2018. He set up the food box business Made In Oldstead in 2020, Banks Brothers canned wine company in 2021, Tommy’s Pie Shop in 2024 and Tommy Banks Hospitality, for large-scale events, stadia catering and corporate hospitality nationwide, in 2025.

In 2019, Banks became resident chef at Lord’s Cricket Ground; in 2022, chef partner of Twickenham Stadium; in 2025, chef partner of Sunderland AFC. A lifelong Sunderland supporter, he now leads the culinary offering at Banks on the Wear and oversees corporate hospitality at the football ground.

Exemplified by the three-acre kitchen garden by the Black Swan, sustainability sits at the heart of everything Banks does. His field-to-fork commitment to responsible growing, foraging and low-impact cooking has been recognised with a Michelin Green Star, while his dedication to nurturing future talent continues through apprenticeship programmes and industry partnerships.

For one night only, he combines storytelling and immersive cinema to lift the lid on hospitality service at its most intense, reflecting on a lifetime of ambition, vulnerability, risk and pressure (cookers). 

Set against a turbulent backdrop, where soaring business rates and crushing VAT force three pubs to close every week, Banks exposes the brutal reality of keeping the doors open while revealing the plate-spinning demands of leadership and what it takes to pursue excellence.

Along the way, discover the community of talent he has built in the once-sleepy village of Oldstead, firmly rooted in camaraderie, resilience and Yorkshire grit. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

This Is Torture for Sean Walsh: Anxiety levels rising at Harrogate Theatre, York Theatre Royal and the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Jiksaw

Gig announcement of the week: Sean Walsh, This Is Torture, Harrogate Theatre, October 6, and York Theatre Royal, November 6, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, April 14 2027

I’M A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! 2022 series survivor Sean Walsh has decided to name his latest stand-up tour show after the phrase he says the most: “This Is Torture”.  The dishevelled Camden comedian will be bringing his signature blend of chaos and charm to Harrogate, York and the newly added Scarborough to put himself through an anxiety filled-hour, as he indeed will on no fewer than 71 occasions on a tour now extended by 37 dates.

The ever-observant Walsh’s podcasting portfolio takes in co-hosting Oh My Dog! with Jack Dee, where guests discuss their special canine bonds, and What’s Upset You Now?, putting the world to rights in cathartic trips to the pub with Paul McCaffrey. In addition, on Class Clown, he sits down with the boldest rule-breakers in entertainment to explore the personal battles that shaped them.

In 2024, he made his Shakespearean debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Stafford Gatehouse, then played Yvan in a tour of Yasmina Reza’s Art. Tickets: www.seannwalsh.com; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Scarborough,01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

In Focus: Navigators Art presents Moss Glow And Shadow Bloom, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight 7.45pm

York singer Gabriella Hunzinger

YORK arts collective Navigators Art’s final gig before a summer break brings together four Yorkshire performers whose work conjures unique worlds up in a magical programme of electronic, acoustic and vocal sounds, influenced by folk traditions and environmental awareness.

Combining ancient and modern iconography, art, poetry and music, the bill features York singer Gabriella Hunzinger, No Spinoza, previewing forthcoming album Jupiter’s Great Hurricane, Sheffield experimental songwriter Pefkin and Things Found And Made’s lost cinematic folk-tales.

No Spinoza’s Thomas Pearson

GABRIELLA HUNZINGER: Her songs take wisdom from nature’s seasonal cycles and explore connections between ourselves, the earth and what lies beyond our conscious experience. Accompanied by cellist Filipe Massumi and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Webster.


NO SPINOZA: Welcome to the thematic universe of forthcoming album Jupiter’s Great Hurricane, where Thomas Pearson’s songs bridge history and legend, ancient and modern. Featured in session on BBC Introducing.

Pefkin

PEFKIN: Sheffield performing and recording artist. Multi-instrumentalist and experimental songwriter of slowly unfolding psychedelic hymnals, inspired by nature.

THINGS FOUND AND MADE: Lost cinematic folk-tales: imagined histories, half remembered rituals of sound and nature, from York.

Tickets:  https://www.ticketsource.com/navigators-art-performance or on the door.

Things Found And Made

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Wright & Grainger perform Helios at outset of partnership with Theatre@41, Monkgate, ahead of Australia & NZ tour of SELENE

Alexander Flanagan Wright in Wright & Grainger’s Helios

EASINGWOLD theatre-makers Alexander Flanagan Wright and Phil Grainger re-visit the Greek tragedy of Helios on February 5 at 7.30pm as part of their new partnership with Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.

In Wright’s tale of the sun god’s son, Helios transplants the Ancient Greek tale into a modern-day myth wound around the winding roads of rural England and into the everyday living of a towering city.

In a nutshell, a lad lives half way up a historic hill, a teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car and a boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky.

“It’s a story about life, the invisible monuments we build to it, and the little things that leave big marks,” says Alexander.

Theatre@41 has teamed up with Wright & Grainger to co-produce their new show SELENE, an intimate theatre experience with cinematic score and striking storytelling, rehearsed at the Monkgate theatre in December before touring internationally in 2026, ahead of exclusive summer performances in York.

Theatre@41 is an intimate independent theatre, run almost entirely by volunteers, and this partnership with Wright & Grainger is the first of its kind for the organisation.

Wright & Grainger’s Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, and Phil Grainger with Australian theatre maker Megan Drury. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Theatre manager Tom Bellerby says: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Wright & Grainger on SELENE. A key part of our mission at Theatre@41 is supporting the creation of exceptional new work by artists from York and Yorkshire, and we can’t wait for audiences both here at the theatre and around the world to see this new show.

“Throughout the year Wright & Grainger will also be contributing to Create@41, our new artist development programme, supporting emerging artists in the city by sharing their skills and experience.”

The award-winning, globe-travelling Wright & Grainger’s work re-tells stories from Greek mythology as if they were happening today, bonding Wright’s spoken word with Grainger’s music.

Billed as a sibling show to Helios, SELENE is a radical explosion of an ancient myth, wherein a young girl is watching the moon landings on repeat, entranced by those astronauts’ weightlessness. A bunch of teenagers is swimming under a lunar eclipse, lost in what might happen next. A mismatched couple is watching a horror film at a drive-in cinema, soon to step into all the next stuff.

“It’s a story about the Goddess and the dark side of the moon,” says Alexander. “It’s about how we grow up defined by our bodies. It’s about the light sides of us and the dark sides of us. And it’s about the stuff inside us. All the wild stuff inside of us.”

Welcoming the new partnership, Alexander says: “What a treat to be producing a brand-new show with Theatre@41. We make shows that tour around the world and we spend a lot of time on the road. To be making a new show hand in hand with one of our favourite places in our home city is an absolute dream.

Wright & Grainger’s artwork for SELENE

“Theatre@41 is rapidly becoming a flagship venue in the north of the UK as a home for new artists, acclaimed touring work, the offbeat shows, the wilder ideas. We’re so chuffed to be part of that.”

Alexander continues: “We’re making SELENE with Megan Drury, a really amazing and well-respected performer and theatre maker from Australia, and the show will start its life on the other side of the world.

“We’ll be touring SELENE for five months across Australia and New Zealand [produced by A Mulled Whine Productions]  before heading back home and, importantly, back here to Theatre@41. The team at Theatre@41 have just opened up a whole new chapter – we’re damn proud to be working with them, making with them, carving out new ideas and new projects with them.

“We’re excited to take the show out on the road, and then really excited to bring it home. There’s a lot of love and trust and respect in all of it. And there’s a lot of joy in being stood here, at the start of it!”

SELENE will be performed at Theatre@41 as part of the Summer 2026 season on dates yet to be announced. Tickets for Helios are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Megan Drury in the poster image for Wright & Grainger’s SELENE

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Stilly Fringe takes over At The Mill for fiesta of theatre, comedy, music and metaphysics

Mouth-watering prospect: Holly Beasley-Garrigan in Opal Fruits on July 28

THE Great Yorkshire Fringe exited stage left from York in 2019 after five years, 1,200 shows, 9,000 performers and 110,000 visitors.

Frustrated by red tape, impresario Martin Witts pulled the plug on his fiesta of comedy, theatre, spoken word and children’s shows, since when the black hole in York’s summer entertainment calendar has never been filled.

In no way on the same scale, but occupying the same pre-Edinburgh Fringe slot, here comes the Stilly Fringe, out on the fringes of York at Stillington Mill, the home of the At The Mill arts hub, Saturday café and guest-chef supper club nights.

Running from tonight(July 22) until July 31, this is the latest enterprise from newly married Alexander Flanagan Wright, North Yorkshire writer, theatre-maker and visionary facilitator, and Megan Drury, Australian actor, writer and creative artist.

Selkie myth making: Hannah Davies and Jack Woods in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke on Saturday and Sunday night

“It’s come about because a bunch of our dear pals said, ‘can we come and do this?’, like most of the things we do here come about,” says Alex. “There seemed to be a critical mass to make us think these weekends would be a good way to test things out.

“We thought, ‘let’s do it in a communal and convivial way’ with that bond between audiences and performers giving it a different vibe, seeing new work with a chance to chat with the artists. We love doing that here.”

Presented in the mill gardens, either on the open-air stage on the repurposed tennis court or under the cover of the café-bar, the Summer At The Mill programme takes in theatre and spoken-word premieres, comedy, children’s shows, concerts, Gary Stewart’s folk club bills, even silent disco dance nights.

The Stilly Fringe largely mirrors that format but with the added intrigue of giving an early opportunity to see shows bound for the Scottish capital in August. “Six out of nine are going to Edinburgh,” says Alex. “The Lovely Boys, The Gods The Gods The Gods, Invisible Mending, Opal Fruits and Casey Jay Andrews’ double bill, The Wild Unfeeling World and A Place That Belongs To Monsters, are all heading there.”

The Lovely Boys: Opening Stilly Fringe tonight

First up, tonight at 7pm, will be Joe Kent-Walters and Mikey Bligh-Smith’s absurd clown bonanza, The Lovely Boys, followed by Harrison Casswell & Friends, an 8.45pm set of electric spoken word and live music fronted by the Doncaster poet and writer, who Alex first saw on a Say Owt bill in York.

Next will be Say Owt leading light, York poet, actor, playwright and spoken-word slam champion Hannah Davies’s The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, a lyrical re-telling of the selkie myth, set against the Yorkshire coast, complemented by original live music by Jack Woods, in work-in-progress performances at 7pm on Saturday and Sunday.

On both those nights at 8.45pm, and on July 27 and 28 too, Alex and fellow Easingwold School old boy Phil Grainger will give their first Stillington performances of The Gods The Gods The Gods, the third in their trilogy of spoken-word and live music shows rooted in ancient myths after Orpheus and Eurydice.

“We first did the show in Australia in early 2020 before the pandemic forced us home, and we’re going to do a big, loud, bopping version in the garden, different from the indoor production that had a pretty massive lighting set-up,” says Alex.

Three is a magic number: Alexander Flanagan Wright, left, Phil Grainger and Megan Drury in The Gods The Gods The Gods on July 23, 24, 27 and 28. Picture: Tom Figgins

“We’re having to look at how to play it within this landscape and within the Mill’s vibe, rather than trying to pretend we’re in a black-box theatre design. We’re just really excited to be telling these stories that we’ve been living with for three years.

“We’ve been doing loads of work with Megan as our dramaturg, and Phil and Tom (Figgins) have been re-working the music, re-writing some parts and writing plenty of new pieces.

“It feels like a two-year hiatus that has allowed us to think about these different story-telling modes to tell it with greater clarity.”

Why call this Wright & Grainger show The Gods The Gods The Gods, rather than plain old The Gods, Alex? “A lot of things come in threes and a lot of things in this show fall naturally  into threes,” he reasons. “It’s one of those powerful numbers: a triad, with the three of us [Alex, Phil and Megan] telling the story.

Small acts of creativity: Yoshika Colwell combines metaphysics, music and verbatim material in Invisible Mending on July 31

“There are in fact four stories, three of them everyday stories and one story of the Gods. Most of those stories are told in three parts, and we repeat things three times in parts – and it’s just a good title!

“It’s also the third in the series of storytelling pieces we’ve done, taking a big jump on from the first two with a lot bigger soundtrack of Phil’s songs and Tom’s music production and a more complex narrative that we’ve weaved into it.”

The Stilly Fringe also will present Opal Fruits, Holly Beasley-Garrigan’s solo show about class, nostalgia and five generations of women from a South London council estate, on July 28 at 7pm; Casey Jay Andrews’ The Wild Unfeeling World, a tender, furious and fragile re-imagining of Moby Dick, and A Place That Belongs To Monsters, a re-imagining of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, on July 29 at 7pm and 8.45pm respectively.

Lucy Bird, originally from Ampleforth, will head back north with her Birmingham company Paperback Theatre for an “utterly Brummie” re-telling of The Wind In The Willows on July 30 at 2.30pm and 7pm.

Yoshika Colwell will return to the Mill for the Stilly Fringe finale, Invisible Mending, her exploration of power in small acts of creativity through original music, metaphysics and verbatim material, presented in collaboration with Second Body’s Max Barton, on July 31 at 7pm.

For tickets, head to atthemill.org.

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‘Utterly Brummie’ take on The Wind In The Willows heads north to the wild wood of Stillington Mill for Silly Fringe shows

Paperback Theatre’s Mole (Charis McRoberts), left, Toad (Nathan Blyth), Rat (Carys Jones) and Badger (Lucy Bird) in their 2022 tour of The Wind In The Willows

PAPERBACK Theatre’s debut national tour of their “utterly Brummie” The Wind In The Willows will conclude with two Theatre At The Mill performances on July 30 at Stillington, near York.

On the road since June 4, the Birmingham company’s charming outdoor production will be heading to North Yorkshire for its only northern shows, directed by company co-founder Lucy Bird on her return to her roots.

Adapted for the stage from Kenneth Grahame’s book by fellow co-founder George Attwell Gerhards, Toad’s tale played to sell-out audiences at Paperback’s own arts festival, Little But LIVE! 2021, and in the Assembly Festival Gardens at Coventry City of Culture 2021 with Attwell Gerhards playing the irrepressible Toad.

Now Nathan Blyth is pooping Toad’s car horn on the tour, alongside Lucy Bird’s Badger, Charis McRoberts’ Mole and Carys Jones’s Rat.

Introducing the play, Lucy says: “Mole has been stuck inside for far too long. Finally escaping their underground home, they team up with good friends Ratty, Badger and the loveably roguish Toad on an adventure to blow away the quarantine cobwebs.

“Mole and the gang must go head-to-head with a motor car, Her Majesty’s Constabulary and, the greatest challenge of all, a legion of Weasels, Ferrets and Stoats, who have taken up residence in Toad Hall. Can our plucky band of heroes save the day?”

Lucy Bird: Director and Badger

Here, Lucy answers CharlesHutchPress’s questions on Toad and co, the company name and why Paperback Theatre are coming to Stillington.

Why call the company Paperback Theatre, Lucy? 

“As a company, we’re most interested in adaptations. Taking old stories and retelling them for a new age, re-examining them, or just bringing them back to life for modern audiences (as we do with The Wind In The Willows).

“The name Paperback relates to the idea of a well-worn paperback book that has been read again and again, with a bent spine and crinkled pages, because there’s something that keeps drawing us back to those stories.” 

What drew you to staging The Wind In The Willows?

“Pre-pandemic, Paperback made more indoor shows for older audiences, but during the pandemic we pivoted to working outdoors, for Covid safety reasons, and even started producing our own outdoor festival, Little But LIVE!.

“We found that outdoor work attracted more family audiences, and when we came to programming our second version of the festival The Wind In the Willows was touted as the perfect show for an outdoor family festival.

“Moreover, we were interested in the parallels in the tale to hibernation/isolation and our national journey out of lockdown. That said, The Wind In The Willows has always been thrown around our artistic discussions; it’s a book I loved as a child.”

Paperback Theatre take to the great outdoors in their debut national tour

What are your first memories of the story?

“My parents only had a VHS player and no TV licence, and one of the only video sets we had was the stop-motion series from back in the ’80s. Me and my brother watched it on repeat and routinely staged our own productions of it with other children in the village. 

“I’ve run with that memory a fair amount in our staging and tried to create a low-tech, playful production that children could go away and stage themselves if they wanted to. We have sock puppets for ferrets, coconuts for horses’ hooves and a great medley of kazoos to manage our sound effects.”

Outdoor story equals perfect show for performances in the great outdoors. Discuss…

“I think there’s a lot of truth to that; it makes locating the story easier. When we arrive at each venue on tour, we have to agree where the Wild Wood is, where Toad Hall is, or the Riverbank, so we know where to point when we refer to them.

“Normally there’s a copse of trees – or indeed quite often a manor house looming in the distance that we can locate – which brings an extra exciting energy to the show.

“The Wind In The Willows is also a story about exploration and connecting with your local habitats after a long time away from them, so if you’re telling it outside, it feels like a great way to get audiences to start that journey of reconnection themselves. 

“That said, I love the challenge of telling an indoor story outside: the harder you and the audience have to work to commit to imagining that you are in the middle of a palace, or a church, when you are in the pelting rain or blistering sun, the more fun you can have, I think.”

Paperback Theatre co-founder George Attwell Gerhards, who adapted Kenneth Grahame’s book for the stage, is pictured playing Toad in the 2021 production

What is distinctive about George’s adaptation?

“What’s different about this production to others I’ve seen is, firstly, its pace. George has compressed this well-loved tale into just an hour and, as a result, it has a really fast-paced, fluid energy to it, which also informs the great comedy and slapstick that we’ve discovered in the show.

“What’s particularly impressive and interesting is how much of the script has come straight from the book – which I think is really engaging for older audience members who may have a feeling of nostalgia for the original text – and yet how fresh and engaging it is for younger audiences.”

How do you involve the audience in the show?

“It’s an interactive show in the sense that we’re constantly talking directly to the audience, or pretending that they’re different characters in the show, but in a gentle way; we never get anyone up on stage or make them act out.

“We invite audiences to join in on our discoveries, to clap and cheer when the characters win something, or to groan in sympathy when we’re a bit sad. But if they aren’t feeling it that day, we just carry on…though we’ve yet to experience that!” 

Paperback Theatre use recycled materials and bits of rubbish – sock puppets et al – in their design and props for The Wind In The Willows

What is the message of The Wind In The Willows in 2022?

“There’s a message about valuing nature and the countryside. Mainly though, given the last few years, for us it’s about friendship and camaraderie in difficult times, about reconnecting with people you haven’t seen in a while and helping them through the fun times and the tough times.”  

What does an “utterly Brummie” interpretation bring to the show? 

“Accents, mainly! Our Rat and Toad are both from Birmingham originally so they play the characters with their home accents, and then we bring in a plethora of other ones to help distinguish our multi-rolling, also to reflect the diversity of a city like Birmingham.

“There are a few unique references to the city, like bits of dialect or items of costume that are specific to our local area (Rat has a Moseley Folk Festival T-shirt on). 

“Also, because the show was originally made for urban audiences, we’re looking at what urban wildlife is like. Our costumes and set are constructed out of recycled materials or bits of rubbish that we think the animals could have found hanging around to build their homes.

“I guess that also feeds into a message in our production of ecology and preserving the environment.” 

Bird transforms into Badger: Lucy at play in the natural world

You are playing Badger, but is Badger your favourite character?  If not, who is?!!

“Ooo, tricky! I do love Badger and their fieriness! But I think I’m coming round most to Rat. Bit of a curveball but they seem like an animal who’s just trying to be kind and do the right thing, even though they sometimes get it wrong, and I can empathise with that.” 

Finally, Lucy, how did the performances at At The Mill come about?

“I’m actually from North Yorkshire originally, just across the way from Stillington in Ampleforth. When we first started booking The Wind In The Willows on tour I was absolutely determined to book a show near to the home I grew up in.

“My journey into theatre very much started with going to see outdoor performances that were touring to the local area, and I was really keen to try and offer that to the children and families who are living there now. 

“I’d heard of Stillington Mill through family friends who said they had seen a few things there that were great and they felt it was a fab new venue, so I dropped the organisers, Alex [Flanagan Wright] and Megan [Drury], a line and they booked us in.”

Theatre At The Mill’s Silly Fringe presents Paperback Theatre in The Wind In The Willows at Stillington Mill, Stillington, near York, on July 30, 2.30pm and 7pm. Box office: atthemill.org/summer-at-the-mill/  

Paperback Theatre’s tour poster for The Wind In The Willows

Paperback Theatre’s back story

* Formed at University of Warwick by Lucy Bird and George Attwell Gerhards, on the cusp of graduation in 2016. Now based in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. 

* Past work includes thought-provoking original plays We Need to Talk About Bobby (Off EastEnders) and Me And My Doll, plus innovative adaptations of classics.

* In 2020, in response to Covid-19, they set up open-air arts festival called Little But LIVE! in Moseley Park, Birmingham, to give performing platform to Midlands artists who had lost work and to bring community together in period of isolation. Event now produced annually, entering third year in 2022.

* Debut tour of The Wind In The Willows is taking in Birmingham, Northampton, Lichfield, Stafford and Suffolk before Stillington finale.

Did you know?

LUCY Bird hails from the prodigiously artistic Bird family from Ampleforth. Brother Henry is an actor and musician; brother Conrad fronts the Newcastle band Holy Moly & The Crackers.

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More Things To Do in and around York for Grayson Perry’s ‘normal people’. List No. 47, courtesy of The Press, York

What’s up Duck? The Dead Ducks sketch comedy troupe head for Theatre@41 Monkgate, York

CLOWNS, ominous things, Grayson, James, tango, chamber music, horrible British history and watercolours in teamwork add up to shows aplenty for Charles Hutchinson and normal people alike to check out.

Sketch comedy show of the week: The Dead Ducks: Ducks Out Of Water, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, tomorrow (3/9/2021), 8pm

UNIVERSITY of York Comedy Society sketch troupe The Dead Ducks make their Theatre@41 debut with Ducks Out Of Water as a cast of five serves up fun scenes that range from the relatable to the ridiculous.

Be prepared for completely original content in a humorous mix of parody and farce with a delectable side order of top-notch acting.

Look out for pirates, cowboys, clowns and assorted animals, alongside Winnie the Pooh, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse “like you have never seen them before”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/events/.

Sunset Gazing, by Suzanne McQuade, on show at Village Gallery, Colliergate, York

Exhibition of the week: Suzanne McQuade, Touch Of Tranquillity, Village Gallery, Colliergate, York, until Octoger 23; open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm

LEEDS watercolourist Suzanne McQuade quit her long-standing customer service job five years ago to take the plunge and become a full-time artist.

“Using watercolours is like teamwork; I have to allow the watercolour to move and merge, and utilise the patterns it creates,” says Suzanne, who loves how this medium’s translucency enables light to flood into her landscapes and seascapes.

Drawing inspiration from the British countryside and coastline, she paints what she finds captivating, from a dramatic sky to underwater rocks. “I try to make the scene in front of me to be as beautiful as possible,” she says.

Alexander Wright: Performing Small, Small Ominous Things with Megan Drury at Theatre At The Mill, Stillington

Open-air theatre show of the week: Small Small Ominous Things, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington Mill, near York, Saturday, 8pm

LOOK out for a tiny red gun hidden in the grass; a picture of a puppy eating a toy dinosaur; a dull feeling in the pit of your stomach; a bug burrowing into your skin.

Welcome to a late-night mix of stories, tales and unsettling considerations from partners Megan Drury and Alexander Wright, Australian actor, writer and creative artist and North Yorkshire writer, theatre-maker and visionary facilitator respectively.

Gather around the fire as they collaborate for the first time live At The Mill, bringing small, small ominous things out into late-summer’s fading light. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/

Making a splash: The new Normal for artist Grayson Perry, performing on tour at York Barbican

Who-knows-what-to-expect gig of the week: Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm

IN his own words, despite being an award-winning artist, Bafta-winning TV presenter, Reith lecturer and best-selling author, Grayson Perry is a normal person – and just like other normal people, he is “marginally aware that we’re all going to die”.

Cue Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People, where Grayson takes you through an enlightening, eye-watering evening wherein this kind of existentialism descends from worthiness to silliness. “You’ll leave safe and warm in the knowledge that nothing really matters anyway,” his show patter promises.

Grayson asks, and possibly answers, these big questions in a show “sure to distract you from the very meaninglessness of life in the way only a man in a dress can.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Home, James? Briefly, yes, when rehearsing at Broughton Hall, near Skipton. Scarborough Open Air Theatre awaits. Picture: Lewis Knaggs

Gig of the week outside York: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, September 9, gates open at 6pm

WHERE better for James to play a summer show in the wake of releasing their 2021 single Beautiful Beaches than at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.

The Manchester legends will be combining myriad anthemic favourites with selections from their “sweet 16th” album, All The Colours Of You, released in June.

Fronted by Clifford-born Tim Booth, James are completing a hattrick of Scarborough OAT visits after shows in May 2015 and August 18. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com

Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director Ewa Salecka with Misatango composer Martin Palmeri

Well worth the wait: Misatango: Prima’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration, Temple Hall, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, September 11, 7.30pm

AFTER a year’s delay, Prima Vocal Ensemble director Ewa Salecka is thrilled to be holding the York choir’s tenth anniversary concert at last at a socially distanced Temple Hall.

At the concert’s core will be “the fabulous Misa a Buenos Aires, Misatango, an exhilarating fusion of Tango and Latin Mass”, by Argentinian composer Martín Palmeri, performed with the Mowbray Orchestra string quartet, bandoneon virtuoso Julian Rowlands, pianist Greg Birch and mezzo-soprano soloist Lucy Jubb. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.

Tim Lowe: York Chamber Music Festival director and cellist

Festival of the month: York Chamber Music Festival, September 16 to 18

CANADIAN pianist Angela Hewitt plays YCMF’s opening recital on September 16 and joins fellow festival artists Anthony Marwood and Pablo Hernan, violins, Lilli Maijala, viola, and Tim Lowe, cellist, for the closing gala concert on September 18, both at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Marwood, Hernan, Maijala and Lowe play string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schumann at the NCEM on September 17.

Festival director Lowe joins pianist John Paul Ekins for the first 1pm concert at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, on September 17; on the next lunchtime, Ekins plays works that connect Beethoven and Liszt. Box office: tickets@ncem.co.uk.

The Horrible Histories poke fun at Barmy Britain at the Grand Opera House, York, in October

History in the re-making: The Horrible Histories in Barmy Britain, Grand Opera House, York, October 21 to 24

CAN you beat battling Boudicca? What if a Viking moved in next door? Would you lose your heart or head to horrible Henry VIII? Can evil Elizabeth entertain England?

Will Parliament survive gunpowder Guy? Dare you stand and deliver to dastardly Dick Turpin? Escape the clutches of Burke and Hare and move to the groove with party Queen Victoria?

So many questions for The Horrible Histories’ Live On Stage team to answer with the aid of the 3D illusions of Bogglevision as skulls hover, dams burst and missiles fly into the family audience. For tickets for Birmingham Stage Company’s eye-popping, gruesome, scary and unbelievable trip through British history, go to atgtickets.com/york.