Jamie McKeller’s sarky, sceptical Sam in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
YORK spook specialists Neon Crypt tend to put comedy first, but Danny Robins’ smart metropolitan thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story is a chance to “scare the absolute beans out of you”, forewarns actor Jamie McKeller.
You should know that McKeller and his wife, Laura, have another life as Dr Dorian and Dede Deathly, purveyors of the Deathly Dark Tours ghost walks in York, Europe’s self-anointed “most haunted city”.
This week, our city has a new addition to its hauntings in the form of Robins’ psychological drama, now being staged in traverse for the first time in York after two tour productions under the proscenium arch at the Grand Opera House in May 2024 and April this year.
Traverse places the audience in seats either side of the stage, in this case matched by the seating on the mezzanine level too. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” says McKeller, explaining the reasoning behind the design.
Disputatious dinner party:Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
The set runs the full length of Theatre@41’s black box studio, filling the space with the open-plan kitchen and sitting room that is undergoing renovation by Albanian builders after scientist Sam (McKeller) and teacher-on-maternity-leave Jenny (Laura McKeller) moved in with their baby, Phoebe.
Sam has been away all week observing the dark skies on the island of Sark. For four days, he has not been answering his phone, and in that time, in between busying herself with painting and looking after Phoebe, Jenny has been disturbed by the sound of footsteps and adult crying in the child’s room at 2:22am each night, picked up on the baby monitor. She is becoming convinced the house is haunted.
Tonight Jenny and Sam are hosting their first supper party. American Lauren (Laura Castle), Sam’s best friend since university days, has arrived already with new boyfriend Ben (Michael Cornell), a builder who never left. She is stirring the asparagus risotto, but where is Sam? Ah, here he is, at last, to stir things up with his scepticism and know-all sarcasm.
All the while, Robins’ thriller is suffused with unnerving soundscapes, whether the propulsive incidental music before each half and in between scenes, or the cries of Phoebe needing attention, or more piercingly – and definitely louder than in the Grand Opera House tour shows – the yelps and screeches of foxes in flagrante in the garden. Huge glass patio doors and lighting that responds to movement further shred the nerves every time someone suddenly appears on the terrace.
Michael Cornell’s Ben setting up the seance in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
To go with these noises, unnatural, maybe supernatural things keep happening: Why is the window in Phoebe’s bedroom open and why is white spirit suddenly in the basin of the downstairs loo? Jenny decides they must all stay up until 2:22am to resolve who or what is disturbing the house. An electronic clock to either side of the stage will count down to that fateful/fatal time.
From the gleefully wicked imagination of The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Robins, this paranormal thriller is more than a ghost story with Hitchcockian jump scares. He combines the social and cultural wit of a James Graham comedy with a sleight of hand worthy of Derren Brown’s mind games as these bright sparks debate whether they believe in ghosts or not.
Later, Cornell’s Ben, one of those cocksure types who wears no socks, will give both barrels to yuppie intellectual Sam on how the houses where he once lived have been newly gentrified by “posh tw*ts”, who strip out all the interior and make them all look the soulless same. Yet Ben and co are still under the floorboards, he says, like a ghost of the street’s past.
Class warfare plays out between Sam, a non-believer in ghosts, and Ben, who believes in the supernatural. As the trendy wine flows and arguments rise, so too does the sexual heat in an echo of the tensions of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf or a Tennessee Williams play.
Laura Castle’s Lauren putting out the flames in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
2:22 A Ghost Story rivals The Woman In Black for spooks, but now applied with modern technology, not least an unpredictable Alexa, topped off with illusions at the climactic séance conducted by Ben.
Alex King’s cast plays it straight, nothing hammy or Hammer Horror here, to the betterment of Robins’ state-of-the-nation character study: from the choices of wine to Sam’s dinner party playlist (Portishead); from the reference to Sam and Lauren working together for a charity in Africa to the discussion about the lizard, mouse and monkey sections of our brain, and how fear, rather than love, is our most powerful emotion.
2: 22 A Ghost Story is Neon Crypt’s best production yet, satisfying with both its delivery of well orchestrated shocks and alarms and its exposure of uncomfortable truths within the verbal jousting that is as witty as it is revealing. The warring McKellers times two, Cornell’s obdurate Ben and Castle’s whip-smart Lauren make Robins’ dialogue spark and sizzle, all the more intensely within the claustrophobic traverse.
Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.3pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Moving experience: Hands at the ready for the seance in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story. Picture: Emma Warley
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Robert Day
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry to Lady Nade’s songs of identity, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who are staging the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits: Playing NCEM tonight. Picture: jameslascelles.co.uk
World jazz, folk and Caribbean groovesof the week: James Lascelles’ Talking Spirits, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm
LED by Harewood composer, musician and visionary James Lascelles, Talking Spirits is less a band and more a musical convergence of world-class artists whose combined experience reads like a hall of fame of modern music. Performing a lively blend of world jazz, folk and Caribbean grooves, the line-up comprises Lascelles, keys, dulcimer, melodic and percussion; Richard Bailey, drums; Tim Herniman, sax and violin, and Kenny Higgins, bass.
Between them, band members have performed, recorded, and collaborated with the avant-garde Frank Zappa, the pioneering violinist L. Shankar; the rock theatricality of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the soulful songwriting of Joan Armatrading. Brought together, their network of influence spans continents, genres and generations, yet somehow converges in a single, unexpected place. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig this week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, tonight, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man!, tomorrow at York Barbican
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie, who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Latinos: Cuban and Latin music at Milton Rooms, Malton
Havana spirit of the week: York Latinos, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
YORK Latinos return to the Milton Rooms for a night of Cuban and Latin music, bringing the spirit of Havana back to Malton. Inspired by the sounds of traditional Cuba and the golden era of Buena Vista Social Club, the five-piece blends authentic Caribbean rhythms and high-energy performance into a vibrant experience full of salsa, son and Latin classics. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Brian Bilston: Hatching his new poetry collection in Hemsley and Pocklington
Poet of the week: Brian Bilston: How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
THIS autumn, Brian Bilston, a poet with 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside. Prepare for an evening of comic verse as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day. Box office, Helmsley, for returns only, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Alligator Gumbo: Bringing the New Orleans jazz sound to Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Jazz gig of the week: Alligator Gumbo, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm
ALLIGATOR Gumbo’s seven-piece line-up plays jazz from the New Orleans swing/jazz era, in particular the “Roaring Twenties”, when music was raw and largely improvised with melodies and solos happening simultaneously.
Performing extensively for more than ten years, James Paylor, double bass/vocals, Mike Rudland Simpson, guitar/vocals, Chris Lloyd, piano, Greg Surmacz, clarinet/saxophone, Chris Williamson, trumpet, Tim Hurst, trombone, and Jose Williamson, drums/washboard, have performed at international jazz festivals and clubs throughout the country. Expect raucous singalongs. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Lady Nade: Songs of self-expression and self-love in her Identity show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Connection and compassion in tandem: Lade Nade, Identity – Live, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
BRISTOL songstress Lady Nade showcases her fourth album, Identity, self-released on October 2. Blending roots, folk, soul, Americana, jazz, blues and pop, her songs of honesty and vulnerability offer sanctuary, encouragement and a powerful celebration of self-love and self-expression.
Featuring the anthemic BBC Introducing Song of the Week One Of Us, the soul-soothing Rainbow and the retro-infused pop of Sober, championed by Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 6 Music, Identity advocates being seen, being heard and discovering the freedom of fully inhabiting who you are. Special guest Holly Carter is a folk/Americana singer, songwriter, fingerstyle guitarist and pedal steel player. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Martin Roscoe: Piano soloist for York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert at Helmsley Arts Centre
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 3pm
CONDUCTED by music director Simon Wright, York Guildhall Orchestra presents an intimate chamber concert, using a small group of players from the full orchestra. Martin Roscoe will be the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb in an afternoon programme also featuring Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7, Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Symphony 25 in G minor. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Edwina Hayes: Playing Milton Rooms, Malton, on Sunday
Singer-songwriter of the week: Edwina Hayes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm
EAST Riding folk singer/songwriter Edwina Hayes brings together English folk, Americana and the rich northern singer/songwriter tradition to create her own sound. She has toured with Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Loudon Wainwright III and the late Nanci Griffith, who called her “the sweetest voice in England” and covered the title track from her album Pour Me A Drink.
Hayes’s cover of Randy Newman’s Feels Like Home was featured in the Cameron Diaz film My Sister’s Keeper and has since had 20 million plays on Spotify and 50 million plays on YouTube. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Red light spells danger:Neon Crypt’s Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show for the first time in traverse – with audiences to either side of the stage – under the direction of Alex King.
“The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns actor and company co-founder Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know.
“Ready to scare the absolute beans out of you”, here Jamie McKeller discusses Neon Crypt’s latest spooky production with CharlesHutchPress.
What attracted Neon Crypt to presenting 2:22 A Ghost Story, Jamie?
“Nick Hern Books, who we’ve previously worked with on Dracula – The Bloody Truth and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, let us know that the rights were available, so we had a very quick read-through with the four of us to decide if it was the right fit.
“Neon Crypt have a reputation for very silly, very chaotic theatre, so 2:22 is quite a diversion for us. We all agreed that if any of us felt that it wasn’t working, we would abandon the idea.
“We read Act One and it wasn’t great. We had a chat about the tone, the delivery and character. When we read Act Two, it fired into life and we knew it was one we had to do.”
Laura McKeller’s Jenny, left, Laura Castle’s Lauren, Jamie McKeller’s Sam and Michael Cornell’s Ben gather around the dinner table in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
What makes 2:22 such a good modern ghost story…and what makes it distinctive in an already well-stocked market?
“In a time of modern horror, audiences can be somewhat desensitised to shocks and jumps. Theatre cannot do what a 70ft projection screen can, so there’s a magic to figuring out how to deliver those shocks and jumps in the moment.
“2:22 is a ghost story, but it’s also a story about grief, loss and family. The temporary nature of a human life, and how the spaces we inhabit are more fixed and forced to change around the living. Threaded through it all is a great big question: ‘Do ghosts really exist?’”
What are the attractions of staging 2:22 in traverse?
“Theatre@41 is such a diverse space, and we love taking advantage of that. We’ve performed here in end-on, cabaret, thrust and now traverse. Then landscape in July next year for an original show, going back to our comedy chops in The House On The Hill That Is Haunted!”
Jamie McKeller as arch sceptic Sam in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
“Having the flexibility as a company is wonderful. In terms of 2:22, the rights state that we could not emulate the touring productions, urging people staging it to find their own design.
“By building the show in traverse, we’ve moved it as far away from the end-on staging as possible, and for an audience it provides a really immersive experience. They are IN the room with us, and there is nowhere to run.”
What will be the stage design within that traverse staging?
“The whole show is set in one large room in a modernised Victorian house, a space which features a living room and kitchen and great big patio doors. That last element is going to be a headache for smaller companies: actual working patio doors are very expensive, and very, very heavy!
“But we have them (thanks eBay and a miscalculation in measurements by someone) and they look incredible. There’s a real ‘WOW’ moment when people walk in, and then a sense of ‘oh no’ when they realise just how immersed into the horror they will be. What a splendid night out.”
Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
Hands-on-the-table time as tension mounts in Neon Crypt’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
Nick Walters’ Honey Dipper, on show in The Wisdom Of The Desert at the Red Tower, York
FROM Jane Asher as The Queen to honey artworks at the Red Tower, the Aesthetica Film Festival to Neon Crypt’s ghost story, Charles Hutchinson highlights more November gems.
Pop-up art show of the week: Navigators Art presents No Spinoza & Nick Walters, The Wisdom Of The Desert, The Red Tower, Foss Islands Road, York, today, 6pm to 9pm; tomorrow, 1pm to 4pm
GROUNDBREAKING multi-media York artists No Spinoza (Thomas Pearson) and Nick Walters share an interest in the immersive, provocative, multi-sensory experience of film, sound and sculpture, as represented in their joint show in York’s historic Red Tower.
No Spinoza presents Jupiter’s Great Hurricane (2026), a cycle of experimental music and film that broadly explores themes of temptation, progress and inheritance with references to desert spirituality. Walters’ Honey Dipper (2026) passes electrical current through honey to create mysterious and ever-changing textures of sound, while Ex-voto (2026) is a series of small sculptures set in niches in the tower walls that alludes to beeswax votive statues placed in shrines as a gesture of gratitude and devotion.
Victorian Penny Farthing Rider lit up at Ghosts After Dark at York Museum Gardens. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Sculpture trail of the week: York BID and York Museums Trust present Ghosts After Dark, York Museum Gardens, today and tomorrow, 5.30pm to 9.30pm; timed entry slots until 8pm
IN the wake of Ghosts In The Gardens’ free public art trail of 70 wire-mesh sculptures across 32 city-centre locations, Ghosts After Dark brings storytelling, light, smoke and sound to York Museum Gardens, plus King’s Manor courtyard and Library Lawn, the Anglian Tower, Edible Wood, Artists’ Garden, St Olave’s churchyard and the area beside York Art Gallery.
Representing a fascinating person, creature or story connected to York’s history, each sculpture was made by York creative agency Unconventional Design. A new immersive experience (the Witch Encounter) and the inaugural night market are further highlights of the 90-minute trail. Bookings: www.theyorkbid.com/ghosts-after-dark/.
The VR Lab at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, at the Aesthetica Film Festival
Festival of the week: Aesthetica Film Festival, York, until tomorrow
IN its 16th year under the artistic directorship of Cherie Federico, Aesthetica Film Festival welcomes filmmakers, games developers and virtual reality experts from around the world. The five-day programme comprises screenings, VR & games labs, a podcasting lounge, industry masterclasses and workshops, networking sessions, live performances, pitching opportunities, the New Music Stage and much more. For the full programme and tickets, go to asff.co.uk.
Gareth Malone: Inviting you to Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth’s afternoon of movie songs
Instant choir of the week: Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth At The Movies, Grand Opera House, York, today, 4pm
LIGHTS, camera, sing! Choirmaster supreme Gareth Malone returns with a new tour show in an immersive celebration of the greatest songs from the movies and the joy of singing together. Please note, there is a maximum of ten tickets per household and seats in higher levels or with restricted views may not have full visibility of the on-stage screen. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes: Championing flamenco music at the Grand Opera House, York
Flamenco gig of the week: The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes present Viva El Arie, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
THE Gipsy Kings by André Reyes transcend musical borders with their flamenco music and rumba. Led by Gipsy Kings co-founder Andre Reyes, the family project combines the band’s original essence with a renewed energy.
Together with his son and nephews, Reyes still conquers the world’s most prestigious stages after three decades. His dedication celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the gypsy community while ensuring this music continues to resonate with new generations. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Ellie Mackenzie in a montage for Oddsocks Productions’ Motherhood
Maternal matters of the week: Oddsocks Productions in Motherhood, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
REGULAR visitors to the JoRo, Matlock company Oddsocks Productions present an amusing and moving look at the bizarre and downright unbelievable aspects of raising children while running a family business in Motherhood. Actress and writer Elli Mackenzie explores the highs and lows, the frustrations and joys of being a working parent alongside her husband Andy, an orangutan and a giant woodlouse. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Laura Main as The Dresser and Jane Asher as The Queen in Daisy Goodwin’s play By Royal Appointment, on tour at York Theatre Royal
Regal drama of the week: By Royal Appointment, York Theatre Royal, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday & Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
THE late Queen Elizabeth II had one way of expressing what she really thought –through her wardrobe. Daisy Goodwin’s funny, poignant and celebratory By Royal Appointment takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
Here, The Queen (played by Jane Asher) is uninterested in fashion. Instead, her look is managed by her Designer (David Robb), her Milliner (Matthew Cottle) and most powerful of all, her Dresser (Laura Main), a working-class girl who goes from advising Her Majesty on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. Like all royal favourites, however, the Dresser is living on borrowed time. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Author Miles Salter holding a copy of his new book, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83
Book launch of the week: Miles Salter, A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83, Topping & Company bookshop, Museum Street, York, November 10, 7pm (doors 6.30pm)
YORK author, journalist, songwriter, band leader, podcaster, storyteller, festival organiser and poet Miles Salter launches A Dangerous Band: The Pretenders 1978-83 in conversation with poet and author John Goodby at Topping & Co.
“Their remarkable, strange, dark, sad tale was a gift to a writer,” says Salter. “Every time I thought ‘this can’t get any stranger’, something else came up. The more I talked to people, the stranger it became, the darker and darker it became. A story of totally living that rock’n’roll life but to the detriment of band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon as it cost them their lives.” Tickets cost £17.95, including hardback book or £5 “if you just want to come and listen”. To book, go to:https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/york/miles-salter-the-pretenders/
Michael Cornell, left, Laura Castle, Laura McKeller and Jamie McKeller in Neon Crypt’s production of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Supernatural thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in 2:22 A Ghost Story, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 10 to 14, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
AFTER two visits to the Grand Opera House, Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist ghost storyteller Danny Robins’s West End smash 2:22 A Ghost Story falls into the welcoming hands of York spook specialists Neon Crypt, who will stage the modern-day horror show in traverse – with seating to either side of the stage – for the first time. “The audience are a part of the story. There is nowhere to escape,” forewarns director Jamie McKeller.
Jenny (Laura McKeller) believes her new home is haunted, but husband Sam (Jamie McKeller) is having none of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Laura Castle) and new partner Ben (Michael Cornell). Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and ever closer, so they vow to stay up until 2:22am…and only then will they know. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.
The poster for David Ford’s Songbook gig at The Dolphin in Robin Hood’s Bay
If you go to one coastal gig next week, make it: Higgledy Gigs presents David Ford, Songbook, The Dolphin, King Street, Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, November 11, 8pm
EASTBOURNE, singer, songwriter, sage and scribe David Ford’s Songbook tour combines highlights and stories from 25 years of songwriting in a a stripped-back, intimate evening. Part live set, part storytelling, he revisits the songs that have shaped his career, sharing the moments and influences behind them along the way as he moves between raw, powerful performances and quieter, more reflective moments with warmth and humour throughout.
The tour accompanies the release of a special career-spanning retrospective double album on vinyl, bringing together standout songs from his catalogue. Comprising updated recordings and re-mastered originals, Ford’s selection of his most important work is compiled in one place for the first time. Tonight’s show offers the chance to hear those songs as they were meant to be experienced, up close and in the moment. Tickets: trybooking.com/uk/event/110427 or at the bar.
Chris Ramsey: Here, Man, in York on November 12 with the last few tickets still available
Comedy gig of the week: Chris Ramsey, Here, Man!, York Barbican, November 12, 7.30pm
IN response to overwhelming demand (mainly from wife Rosie who is desperate to get him out of the house), South Shields comedian and podcaster Chris Ramsey is on the road this month after selling out his March travels.
You may have seen him on TV on The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show, Strictly Come Dancing and Taskmaster or presenting Children In Need or heard him co-hosting his weekly marital podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed, with the long-suffering Rosie. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
In Focus: Teenage Fanclub, Project House, Leeds, November 9, 7pm. Raymond McGinley in discussion with CharlesHutchPress
Teenage Fanclub on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera when recording Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture Donald Milne
TEENAGE Fanclub head to Project House, Leeds, on Monday (9/11/2026) on their 15-date November tour to promote Do Not Dare To Dream.
“Last time in Leeds we played the Brudenell Social Club, and it’s good when you’ve been doing it for so long, and you’re going a back to cities you’ve been before, to play somewhere new there,” says co-founder and lead guitarist Raymond McGinlay.
Released on October 9 on Merge Records as the follow-up to 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, their 13th studio album was recorded at Black Bay Studio on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera, the Glasgow band’s most remote recording location since their formation in 1989.
This setting helped the five-piece to focus on the work, while putting them in a place of awe, surrounded by the sound of crashing waves and the haunting presence of ancient ruins.
“It was a new studio to us,” says Raymond, who is still at the heart of Teenage Fanclub’s signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting, along with fellow songwriter Norman Blake, after 37 years. “We’re always on the lookout, when we’re making a new record, to find a new place that we’ve never been to before.
“We usually start with fragments of songs, allowing things to happen in the moment, reacting to the surroundings, and when we were looking for a studio, there was this one on an island off the far end of the Isle of Lewis. We looked at pictures and it looked interesting.
“It worked out for us, doing the album in late January and early February, when we thought it would be bleak, but actually it was really beautiful: lovely to walk around, with not many people there and the main inhabitants being sheep. Not many hours of daylight, but at least there was light in the studio.”
Production duties were shared between band members, the band’s studio engineer and the studio owner. “There was no producer as such; it was a collective endeavour,” says Raymond, who “feels lucky that you find people that you connect with”.
Teenage Fanclub in Black Bay Studio when recording 13th studio album Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture: Donald Milne
“From that point of view, experience tells you to let things happen without having too much ego or someone trying to impose an idea. We’re pretty good at working together, with me and Norman presenting ideas, and then it’s all quite instinctive with the band.”
McGinlay and Blake are “the ones sitting up at night, maybe three in the morning, trying to figure out lyrics”. Alongside them for the recording sessions are long-time members Euros Childs (keyboards), David McGowan (bass) and Francis Macdonald (drums).
“Euros starts contributing or David does what he feels like doing, Francis joins in on drums, and it just kind of evolves into songs,” says Raymond. “The input of everyone is important.” So, on this occasion, were synthesisers and a Domus church organ found by the band at Black Bay, the organ now heard prominently on many songs, most notably on Over And Over.
“We approach everything kind of the same way each time we make a record,” says Raymond. “Whether you intend things to be different, you just have to be conscious of trusting your instincts in doing our thing. We are the people we are now that we were then, but the subtlety of things changes year to year All you can do is offer something that comes from within yourself.”
Raymond continues: “Sometimes, if you’re going to show something of yourself, you show vulnerability, which exists in everyday life, and I find it’s best to reveal something of yourself, rather than constructing a persona.”
How was the album title chosen? “It’s difficult when it comes to…coming up with a name for an album,” says co-founder Norman. “Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.” In the end, his song I Do Not Dare To Dream was adapted to represent the overriding theme of pushing back on hollow optimism while still embracing a quietly hopeful outlook. “Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” reckons Norman. “I don’t think the world works that way.”
Raymond adds: “Norman came up with the title as a riposte to that soundbite optimism, those completely meaningless expressions.” Instead Teenage Fanclub advocate resilience when facing an increasingly uncertain world, where the need is to find clarity and comfort in the everyday, rather than giving in to despair.
“Now it’s the unknowingness of it that makes it more scary,” he says. “We’re no different to anyone else in presenting introspective reflections on creativity.
“In the place where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago,” says Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinlay. Picture: Donald Milne
“We’re not that different to people before technology, people dealing with difficult circumstances, though most of us had been far less pessimistic before.” That said, Raymond declares: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great”.
Picking a favourite from Do Not Dare To Dream, Raymond says: “I really like Norman’s song Somewhere To Land, the last one of his we recorded, where he added mellotron when we got back to Glasgow.”
Reflecting on Teenage Fanclub’s longevity, Raymond says: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place [Great Bernera] where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.
“What you do with your life, doing this mad thing for 37 years, it‘s a privilege, because most people who want to do this, be in a band, make records, play concerts, most people don’t manage to do that. I don’t think we’re better than others, but somehow we connect with our audience and that has allowed us to continue.
“We started the band in 1989, going into the studio wanting to make a record in our little bubble. Me and Norman had played in the band The Boy Hairdressers, which then fizzled out and we thought, let’s do something, as opposed to just talking about it. Let’s make an album and ask if others are interested in these songs, going from just doing something for yourself, to then having an audience. That’s something you can’t take for granted.”
Four decades have taught McGinlay and Blake that “when you make a record you never presume anyone will be interested”, but that interest has sustained. For proof, Do Not Dare To Dream has just been placed at number 48 in Uncut magazine’s Top 80 albums of 2026.
Futuresound presents Teenage Fanclub at Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on November 9, doors 7pm. Box office: https://www.seetickets.com/event/teenage-fanclub/project-house/3481726.
Track listing for Do Not Dare To Dream:
There Was You; Tomorrow People; Over And Over; Be With You Tonight; The Same Air; I Do Not Dare To Dream; Take Time; Day In The Sun; Somewhere To Land and Young And Wise.
The cover artwork for Teenage Fanclub’s Do Not Dare To Dream, released on Merge Records last month
Florence Poskitt’s Rita and Jamie McKeller’s Frank in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
WILLY Russell’s Educating Rita returns to the York stage in Black Treacle Theatre’s production at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 9 to 13.
Premiered in 1980 and updated in 2003, the Liverpool playwright’s two-hander tells the story of Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, who signs up for an Open University literature course.
There she meets Frank, a disillusioned academic whose passion for teaching has long faded. Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and Frank reckons with his own choices and the possibility of a second chance.
“Frank is so wonderfully brilliant and articulate, but also an absolute disaster,” says Jamie McKeller
As Rita discovers the worlds of art, culture and self-expression, she begins to question the life others expect her to live. Change, however, comes with difficult choices, and both teacher and student must reconsider who they are and who they want to be.
Transformed into a film by Lewis Gilbert in 1983, starring Julie Walters, reprising her stage role as Rita opposite Michael Caine, Educating Rita will be performed in York by Florence Poskitt as Rita and Jamie McKeller as Frank.
Director Jim Paterson says: “Even though Educating Rita was written in 1980, it’s not a period piece in the slightest. The play’s themes of the value and purpose of education, how women’s emancipation is still not universal, and how the choices we have depend so much on our class and background, all still have a lot of relevance today and it felt like a good time to revive it.
Jim Paterson: Director of Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
“Plus it has two brilliantly written characters in Rita and Frank. You worry when staging a well-known play whether you can meet people’s expectations, but I’ve been blown away by how Flo and Jamie have brought a host of different ideas and interpretations to their performances, which I can’t wait for an audience to see.”
Florence says “Educating Rita is such a brilliant, timeless play, and I cannot thank Jim enough for the opportunity to play Rita. Working alongside Jamie is a joy, and not only are we collaborating well as a team, it feels like were creating something really special.”
Reflecting on playing lecturer Frank, Jamie says: “Frank is genuinely a dream for an actor. He’s so wonderfully brilliant and articulate, but also an absolute disaster. A huge challenge to take on, but to face it with Flo and Jim is nothing but a pleasure. It’s possibly one of the saddest, funniest and most heartfelt scripts I have ever read and I feel very lucky to be a part of this production.”
Up to her eyes in books: Florence Poskitt’s Liverpool hairdresser, Rita, in Black Treacle Theatre’s Educating Rita
Jim had just finished directing Black Treacle in Laura Wade’s The Watsons when Florence pitched the idea of staging Educating Rita. “I didn’t say he had to cast me,” she points out.
Last staged in York in September 2021 in Max Roberts’s touring production starring Jessica Johnson and Stephen Tompkinson at the Theatre Royal, Educating Rita became Jim’s choice for Summer 2026 as soon as he read Russell’s script. “The characters grabbed me; the dialogue crackles – and I said to Flo, ‘OK, what are you doing next June?’.
“Then, when I was speaking to Jamie about something else, I happened to mention Educating Rita, and he said it was a play he’d always been keen to look at. I put Flo and Jamie together and – brilliant! – you could see the chemistry between them straightaway.”
Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter, her partner in York musical comedy and children’s theatre duo Fladam
To Flo’s surprise, “Somehow we’ve never performed together before, which feels a bit bonkers because we’re so similar in that we both do lots of comedy,” she says.
“It’s been really nice coming together from comedy backgrounds, doing fun stuff, and because we both run our own theatre companies [Flo’s Fladam, with partner Adam Sowter, and Jamie’s Neon Crypt], flying by the seat of our pants, we know about being in the moment and having each other’s back, which is a good feeling in rehearsals.”
Working with Florence for the fourth time and Jamie for the first, Jim notes: “They’re both very empathetic performers and one of the things you notice is how they dive into their roles, where you’ll think about putting yourself in their situation, and in Frank and Rita’s situation, thinking ‘what might come from this?’. From the director’s point of view, it’s fascinating thinking, ‘what will you guys do here.”
Jamie McKeller in his guise as Dr Dorian Deathly, ghost walk host of Deathly Dark Tours
Florence says: “It’s just so exciting to have the challenge of doing a two-hander, lots of lines to learn, and the Liverpool accent for Rita too, and we’ve loved the experience. One of the things that’s been useful is that Vic [stage technician Victoria Ryan] is from Liverpool; she’s given me some amazing pointers.
“Vic says everything is ‘lazy’ in the Scouse accent, under-pronouncing words and dropping ‘Gs’ from the end of [‘ing’] words and ‘Hs’. I’ve decided to refer to it as ‘theatrical Scouse’ the way I’m speaking it on stage.”
In the educating of Rita in Educating Rita, she changes, but what about the heavy-drinking Frank? “We’ve discussed this a lot,” says Jamie, who will employ a weariness of voice in his performance. “You would hope that Frank has a transformation too, but he doesn’t really change in that there’s only false hope; he talks about tragedy instead.
“Somehow we’ve never performed together before, which feels a bit bonkers because we’re so similar in that we both do lots of comedy,” says Florence Poskitt of appearing on stage with Jamie McKeller for the first time
“In encountering Rita, it doesn’t do anything to redeem or save him. He has a certain lightness in her presence, but then, in her prolonged absence, he is quick to return to the bass line [in his behaviour].”
Jim adds: “Frank’s tragedy is he has the chance to change but he doesn’t like himself enough to make that change permanent.”
Jamie rejoins: “I’m definitely a lighter shade of Frank, but I could see how this situation could happen, but the difference between me and Frank is that I would not allow it to happen to me. Where he is comfortable in these circumstances and is unwilling to make changes, when it comes to ambition, we’re poles apart.”
Florence Poskitt in rehearsal for Educating Rita
Jim is giving Educating Rita an unspecified setting that evokes both the 19080s and 1990s. “It can’t be set in 2026, given how things have changed in education,” he says.
“But the only thing that really dates it is Frank’s drunken rant,” suggests Jamie, “To be that dismissive of that behaviour dates it to earlier times.”
Black Treacle Theatre in Educating Rita,Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Black Treacle Theatre: back story
FOUNDED by Jim Paterson, York company Black Treacle Theatre has produced Nick Payne’s Constellations (March 2022); Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott (March 2023), Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit (November 2023); Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist (October 2024); Laura Wade’s The Watsons (July 2025, co-production with Joseph Rowntree Theatre), and Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn (March 2026).
JIM Paterson is joined in the Educating Rita production team by set and prop designer Richard Hampton, lighting designer Sage Dunn-Krahn and stage technician Victoria Ryan.
Moustaches en masse: Laura McKeller, left, Michael Cornell and Laura Castle in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
AFTER Dracula: The Bloody Truth and The Wetwang Hauntings in 2025, mischief-making York company Neon Crypt put the gothic humour into horror once more for a fright in every comic bite in John Nicholson’s particularly silly take on The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
In the spirit of Patrick Barlow’s The 39 Steps, the late Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding’s Lip Service and indeed Nicholson’s work with Peepolykus and Le Navet Bete, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “consulting detective” Sherlock Holmes is stretched to caricature, if still recognisable in deer stalker and pipe, but now taking on multiple disguises, from hirsute hermit to a hot dog costume. No violin, no recreational narcotics, but plenty of schtick, Sherlock.
What’s more, under Jamie McKeller’s direction, Neon Crypt’s Holmes is played by a woman, Laura McKeller, in ponytails, waistcoat and waxed moustache, but with no change of gender in the aloof brain-box characterisation.
Quick on the draw: Laura Castle’s pistol-packing Dr Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Likewise, Laura Castle follows up her Dracula with Dr John Watson, wearing the same Victorian two-piece that Elexi Walker’s penny farthing-cycling Watson sported in Damian Cruden’s ‘Baskerville’ production at York Theatre Royal in 2016.
Like the other Laura, Castle’s Watson is moustachioed, again with no change of pronouns. The voice is West Riding, the manner no-nonsense amid all the comic nonsense, conducting investigations with earnest rigour, yet all the more humorous for that. Her Watson is quick on the draw too, whether reaching for sketch pad or pistol.
Aside from a West Country rustic, Laura C will put all her eggs in the sterling Watson basket. By comparison, Laura M must navigate more costume changes than Cher in concert, not only Sherlock’s multiple disguises on the moor, but also whizzing between Mr and Mrs Barrymore; the train guard; Cecile Stapleton; Jack Stapleton and Slasher Seldon, “the Notting Hill murderer”.
Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in hot dog disguise in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles as Laura Castle’s Dr Watson looks on, strangely reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin in City Lights!
Michael Cornell, now a cross-dressing fixture as the dame in the Rowntree Players pantomime, is almost as busy as Laura M on the multi-rolling front, switching with alacrity and elasticity from Sir Henry Baskerville to Sir Charles Baskerville, Dr Mortimer to a cabbie, one meat-wielding Yokel to another (in denial of being the same character, distinguished only by the cut of meat in the bag).
All the while, York author and poet Rebecca Payne is lurking in the Theatre@41 shadows for the third time as Neon Crypt’s stage manager, except that this time she steps out of those shadows to appear on stage frequently, silent, but over-worked, handling all the scenery changes and prop exchanges, when not overseeing quick-fire costume changes from the wings.
In a running joke – and she really is on the move all the time – Rebecca accumulates a tidy sum in tips for each prop or scene change, albeit handed over increasingly begrudgingly by Cornell in particular.
Crucial too is the work of sound tech Jess Whitehead, who is called on to engineer all manner of noises, sometimes frightening, more often funny, in the tradition of Foley artists on 1950s’ radio. Listen out for the sax solo from Gerry Rafferty’s hit at every mention of Baker Street, accompanied hastily by Cornell on a blow-up pink saxophone.
Michael Cornwell multi-rolling in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Jamie McKeller conducts the still familiar Conan Doyle thriller with brisk purpose, physical flair and set-piece swagger, giving free rein to his cast to express ridiculous characterisation, comedic camaraderie and comic timing, with room for ad-libbing and smashing down theatre’s fourth wall to revert to being Laura C, Laura M and Michael.
Neon Crypt stay true to the verbal and visual ingenuity of Nicholson and Steven Canny’s script and stage instructions, first staged by Peepolykus at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds in 2007, while applying their own free-spirited comedic style, daft yet deft.
You would be howling mad to miss this Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Neon Crypt Productions in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Stage manager Rebecca Payne, right, joining in the Sherlock shenanigans at the finale to The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Eileen Walsh in rehearsal for her lead role as Sheila Gold in the world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
DYSON and Nyman’s world premiere dark thriller and women sporting Holmes & Watson waxed moustaches tickle Charles Hutchinson’s fancy in his recommendations for the week ahead.
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, until May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed, leading her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Writer-directors Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in the rehearsal room for The Psychic. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Cutting-edge music and art collaboration of the week: York Late Music presents Late Music Ensemble: Picture This!, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate York, tonight, 7.30pm
INSPIRED by the relationship between visual art and music, Picture This! explores how composers have responded to artworks across time, from Modest Mussorgsky to the present day.
Today’s audience is invited on a promenade through an imagined exhibition, where works by Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and John Martin, alongside sculpture by Alexander Calder, are reflected in a musical programme featuring a new arrangement of Pictures At An Exhibition, Igor Stravinsky’s miniature tribute to Pablo Picasso, songs by Don van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and David Byrne, plus new works. Nick Williams gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Feeling his collar: Tom Davis in Spudgun, full of freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics
Comedy gig of the week: Tom Davis in Spudgun, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CROYDON comedy turn, actor and podcaster Tom Davis is back on the road, firing out his freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics. Co-host of the Wolf And Owl podcast with Romesh Ranganathan, star of BAFTA and Royal Television Society award-winning comedy series Murder In Successville and BBC One comedy King Gary, he also has his own Sky and NOW TV special, Underdog. “Get ready,” he says. “This one is fully loaded.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Hank, Pattie & The Current: Innovative twist on traditional bluegrass at Selby Town Hall
Bluegrass gig of the week: Hank, Pattie & The Current, Selby Town Hall, tonight, 7.30pm
HARD-HITTING bluegrass pickers who moonlight as symphonic classical musicians, Hank, Pattie & The Current approach their string band much as they would a string quartet. The Raleigh, North Carolina four-piece are led by Hank Smith’s banjo and Pattie Hopkins Kinlaw’s fiddle in an innovative twist on traditional bluegrass flavoured with classical, Motown, jazz and pop. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Steve Cassidy: Leading his band through rock and country numbers at the JoRo
Vintage performance of the week: Steve Cassidy Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE Steve Cassidy Band return to their favourite home-city venue with guests in tow for a night of rock and country music chosen to appeal to all age groups. Steve, a three-time winner on New Faces, recorded with John Barry as a teenager and performed on shows with legends of the music industry. His line-up features John Lewis, guitar, George Hall, keyboards, Mick Hull, bass, guitar and ukulele, and Brian Thomson, percussion. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Katherine Priddy: Showcasing new album These Frightening Machines at Pocklington Arts Centre
Folk gig of the week: Katherine Priddy, Pocklington Arts Centre, Sunday, 8pm
AFTER writing and recording two songs with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and appearing on Later…With Jools Holland, Birmingham folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy released her third album, These Frightening Machines, in March on Cooking Vinyl.
Priddy’s new compositions explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold on to connections in a world that sometimes divides and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves confronting. Northallerton singer-songwriter George Boomsma supports. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Farewell tour for opera impresario and director Ellen Kent
Exit stage left: Ellen Kent, The Farewell Tour, Madama Butterfly, May 3, 7.30pm, and Carmen, May 4, 7.30pm, both at Grand Opera House, York
OPERA impresario and director Ellen Kent is on the road with her farewell tour, presented by Senbla, featuring Opera International Kyiv, from Ukraine, in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s Carmen.
Sung in Italian with English surtitles, Madama Butterfly’s heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant will be led by sopranos Elena Dee and Viktoria Melnyk, mezzo-soprano Yelyzaveta Bielous and tenors Oleksii Srebnytskyi and Hovhannes Andreasyan. Sung in French with English surtitles, Carmen promises passion, sexual jealousy, death and unforgettable arias, performed by Dee, Melynk and Mariia Davydova. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson, left, and Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskerville
Mystery thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOIN York company Neon Crypt for side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror in Jamie McKeller’s staging of Peepolykus co-artistic director John Nicholson’s incredibly high-brow adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes (Laura McKeller) and Dr Watson (Laura Castle) must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body. Look out for Michael Cornell popping up as Sir Henry and Sir Charles Baskerville and Yokel 2. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster artwork for K-Pop All Stars, bound for Grand Opera House, York
Tribute gig of the week: K-Pop All Stars, Grand Opera House, York, May 6, 7pm
RIDE the global K-pop wave with K-Pop All Stars’ explosive live celebration of the music, artists and Korean culture that is taking over the pop world. Feel the power of stadium-sized anthems, razor-sharp choreography and a cast that delivers every beat with precision and passion, performing hits by Blackpink, NewJeans, Katseye, BTS, Itzy, Stray Kids, Twice, Jung Kook and more. Cue light sticks glowing in the crowd. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Dervish: Traditional Irish folk music at National Centre for Early Music. Picture: Tim Jarvis
Recommended but sold out already: Dervish, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, May 6, 7.30pm
LEGENDARY Irish traditional folk music band Dervish, recipients of a BBC lifetime achievement award in 2019, have recorded and performed all over the world, playing at festivals from Rio to Glastonbury. Fronted by singer Cathy Jordan. the line-up of fiery fiddle, flute, bouzouki, mandola, bodhran and accordion delivers vibrant sets of tunes and compelling songs. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Michael Cornell’s Sir Henry Baskerville, Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes, centre, and Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
YORK Gothic humorists Neon Crypt will serve up The Hound Of The Baskervilles with side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 5 to 9.
Expect a relentlessly silly, very funny and very fast-paced show suitable for all ages, albeit with some mild peril, as Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell tackle a typically high-brow, 120-minute adaptation by Peepolykus co-founder John Nicholson, in the wake of staging Nicholson and Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth last May.
Directed by Jamie McKeller, alias York ghost walk supremo Dr Dorian Deathly of Deathly Dark Tours, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes story is given a madcap makeover as Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles.
To do so, they must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, who is found dead on his estate, with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body.
The Hound Of The Baskervilles director Jamie McKeller in Dr Dorian Deathly ghost walk guide mode
“Our memories of The Hound Of The Baskervilles in York go way back to York Theatre Royal doing it with panto villain David Leonard as Holmes [in 2016],” says Jamie. “Within Neon Crypt, there are four of us, and we get together to throw it around the room, saying ‘you read this part’, ‘you read that part’, and it ended up landing the way it has with the two Lauras as Holmes and Watson and Michael playing Sir Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles Baskerville, Dr Mortimer, a cabbie and multiple meat-wielding Yokels.
“We knew one of us would direct the show, and the general feeling was that it would go a certain way, but it didn’t go the way we thought it would! I thought I’d end up as Holmes because he’s so stoic, but then Laura [McKeller] read the part and nailed the arrogance and Basil Rathbone air of ‘Britishness’.
“Laura [Castle] has such an everyman quality to her acting, and she started to read Dr John Watson in an Received Pronunciation English accent, but I said, ‘no, give me Bradford, give me the moors, give me West Yorkshire’, and that’s how she’s now playing him.”
Laura C will focus on Watson and a Yokel, while Laura M will be even busier in her multi-role-playing duties than Cornell. “She’s doing at least ten roles because Holmes is not always present. She’ll be Mr and Mrs Barrymore; the train guard; Cecile Stapleton; Jack Stapleton and Slasher Selden, ‘the Notting Hill murderer’, among others,” says Jamie.
Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in hot dog disguise in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of he Baskervilles
“She has to go off, change character and be back on in a heartbeat – and our stage manager, Rebecca Payne, will be multi-rolling too with all the scenes changes, costume changes and props, so she’s as much a character in the show as the other three. Though she doesn’t say anything, she has to do a lot on stage, with the running joke of the cast tipping her every time she comes on but becoming more and more begrudging about doing that.”
Analysing The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ abiding popularity, Jamie says “It’s a good sleuth story where the audience feels ‘Let’s go sleuthing’. If anything, in this version, the story is on the backburner, so there are moments when the sleuthing is going on, where we have to find the chance to hit the brakes to say to the audience, ‘Are you keeping up?’.
“We’re staging it on a thrust set design, so the audience are invited into the action straightaway. Within 30 seconds, the house lights are up and the audience are involved.
“The show is right up our street in terms of silliness, and though we place it in the late-1800s, with Watson in a Victorian two-piece and Holmes in a deer stalker and cape, the cast can break out of the period setting, like the moment when they pull out a mobile phone.”
No smoke without (gun) fire: Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
The two Lauras wore Holmes and Watson’s waxed moustaches in rehearsal for the first time last night (30/4/2026). “But Laura M is no stranger to having moustaches and mono-brows on stage,” says Jamie. “Laura C likes to do her nails with themed symbols on: bats for her Dracula last time; now moustaches on blue nails for Doctor John Watson!”
From Star Wars music in one scene to the bubbling bromance of Holmes and Watson, anything could happen in Neon Crypt’s show. “I think there’s permission that if anyone ‘cracks’ on stage in a preposterous comedy, it’s not the end of the world,” posits Jamie. “It makes it feel more grounded, and you’re at such close quarters with the audience at Theatre@41 that it’s a really transformative venue, where you can have it anyway you want.”
Jamie has plenty on his thespian plate, by the way. “I’ll be playing Frank in Jim Paterson’s production of Educating Rita for Black Treacle Theatre in June, and with the volume of lines in each show, I couldn’t have done both Sherlock and Frank,” he says.
Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Florence Poskitt: Playing hairdresser and Open University Eng Lit student Rita in Black Treacle Theatre’s June production of Educating Rita
YORK company Black Treacle Theatre will present Educating Rita, Willy Russell’s warm, witty and moving two-hander about the power of education to change lives, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 9 to 13.
Company founder and director Jim Paterson will direct Jamie McKeller and Florence Poskitt in Russell’s tale of Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, signing up for an Open University literature course.
There she meets Frank, a disillusioned academic whose passion for teaching has long faded. Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and heavy-drinking Frank wrestles with his demons and the possibility of a second chance.
As Rita discovers the worlds of art, culture and self-expression, she begins to question the life others expect her to live. Change, however, comes with difficult choices, whereupon both teacher and student must reconsider who they are and who they want to be. Tickets for the 7.30pm performances are on sale attickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Coming next from Neon Crypt
NEON Crypt will stage The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Danny Robbins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in Halloween week.
“Nick Hern Books contacted us to say the rights were becoming available from midday that day and would we be interested?” says Neon Crypt artistic director Jamie McKeller, who will feature in the cast alongside Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell, directed by Alex King.
More details will follow.
Dr Dorian Deathly: Making the Grand Opera House his latest haunt for ghost stories
Deathly Dark Tours to go behind scenes at Grand Opera House on May 25
DR Dorian Deathly, alias Jamie McKeller, is teaming up with the Grand Opera House, York, for a “unique experience on stage and behind the scenes after dark” as visitors investigate the Cumberland Street theatre’s 120-year history with the York ghost walk host on May 25.
Deathly Dark Tourssupremo Dorian will lead ghost-walkers on a backstage tour replete with stories of people connected with the theatre’s past. Tours will start at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kristian Barley’s Adam, left, Steve Tearle’s Bernadette and Matthew Clarke’s Tick in NE Theatre York’s Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
FROM Priscilla in the outback to dark thriller The Psychic, the Romanian Richard III to Neon Crypt’s Holmes and Watson, Charles Hutchinson picks the week ahead’s best shows and gigs.
Musical of the week: NE Theatre York in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
STEVE Tearle, creative director of NE Theatre York, plays Bernadette, joined by Matthew Clarke as Tick and Kristian Barley as Adam, in the adventure of two drag artists and a trans woman embarking on a life‑changing road trip across the Aussie outback in their battered tour bus, discovering the power of love, identity, acceptance and true friendship.
“As they head west through the Australian desert to chase a dream aboard their lavender bus, our three terrific travellers come to the forefront of a comedy of errors,” says Tearle, whose high-energy production also features Helen Greenley as Shirley, Ben Rich as Jimmy, Steve Perry as Bob, the mechanic, Ali Butler-Hind as his wife Cynthia, plus disco divas Perri Ann Barley, Melissa Boyd and Aileen Hall. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for their world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, today to May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Gemma Curry in Hoglets Theatre’s Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre
Children’s show of the week: Hoglets Theatre presents Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre, York International Shakespeare Festival, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, today, 6.30pm
HAGS, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends). These spectres from performances past must retell their stories before they can find peace in the literary afterlife, but are they friends or will we need to be vanquished back into the supernatural suitcase?
Written, crafted and performed by Hoglets Theatre founder, director, writer and performer Gemma Sharp, this funny, energetic children’s theatre experience presents a world of hand-made puppets, music and storytelling, all performed from a single suitcase. “No prior knowledge of Shakespeare is required,” she says. Box office: https://yorkshakes.co.uk/programme-2026/spooky-shakespeare-suitcase-theatre/.
Dirty Ruby: Playing the blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Dirty Ruby, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 8pm
SPECIALISING in sharp-edged blues rock, East Midlands five-piece Dirty Ruby have drawn comparison with 1970s’ acts Stone The Crows and Vinegar Joe with their energetic combination of Hammond organ, beautiful bluesy guitar, tight rhythm section and soulful lead vocals. After a five-track EP and debut single, they are working on completing their debut album. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Paulus The Cabaret Geek in the Victoria Wood tribute Looking For Me Friends
Tribute of the week: Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm
PAULUS The Cabaret Geek and pianist Michael Roulston marks the tenth anniversary of Victoria Wood’s death in Looking For Me Friend. Directed by Sarah-Louise Young (from An Evening Without Kate Bush), the show is filled with Wood’s best-loved songs, such as Ballad of Barry & Freda’ (Let’s Do It) and It Would Never Have Worked. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Sarah McQuaid: Playing Helmsley Arts Centre on Friday
Folk gig of the week: Sarah McQuaid, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
SINGER and songwriter Sarah McQuaid draws on her seven albums of velvet-voiced folk songs, performed with wit and warmth in concert on acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and occasionally drums.
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago, holding dual Irish and American citizenship and now settled in rural England, she brings the eclecticism of her background to her contemplative ballads, playful blues and atmospheric instrumentals, her music inviting reflection, connection and a deep appreciation of the quiet power of a well-crafted song. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Eduardo Martín & Ahmed Dickinson Cárdena
Guitar concert of the week: Eduardo Martín & Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Friday, 7.30pm
GRAMMY nominee composer Eduardo Martín and virtuoso classical guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas combine in an intergenerational duo that celebrates the depth and diversity of Cuban guitar music, weaving together classical, Afro-Cuban, jazz, rock and cinematic influences into a vibrant and emotionally rich dialogue.
Together, Martín and Dickinson Cárdenas embody a powerful artistic synergy. More than a concert, their collaboration is a sonic journey where generations meet, traditions evolve and Cuban identity resonates on a global stage. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Liviu Cheloiu in Richard III – The Man at York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: Teatrul Tony Bulandra
Discontented son of York of the week: Tony Bulandra Theatre in Richard III – The Man, York International Shakespeare Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Friday, 7.30pm
SHAKESPEARE’S “most captivating character” returns to York in Targoviste company Tony Bulandra Theatre’s Richard III – The Man, performed in Romanian with English surtitles by versatile actor and festival director Liviu Cheloiu, celebrated in the Eastern European country for his film roles and theatre work.
Exploring themes of power and its corrupting allure, the nature of evil, the manipulation of language and the thin lines between reality and fiction, the show delves into Richard III’s psyche while attempting to relate the Bard’s description – or character assassination? – with the historical truth about the Yorkist Plantagenet king in a series of scenes inspired by the Bard’s plays, showcasing Richard’s chameleon-like personality to reveal how he utilises those around him to achieve his goals. Box office: yorkshakes.co.uk or tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Laura Castle’s Dr Watson, left, and Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Mystery thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOIN York company Neon Crypt for side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror in Jamie McKeller’s staging of Peepolykus co-artistic director John Nicholson’s incredibly high-brow adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes (Laura McKeller) and Dr Watson(Laura Castle) are summoned to investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles and unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body. Look out for Michael Cornell popping up as Sir Henry Baskerville and Yokel 2. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Jamie McKeller (Captain Hook), second from right, in rehearsal with Gemma McDonald (Barkly), Michael Cornell (Nanny McFlea) and musical director Sam Johnson for Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan
ROWNTREE Players pantomime co-writer and director Howard Ella had always avoided Peter Pan…until now.
“I see it as a bit of a Cinderella, where the story is so familiar to everybody that it’s hard to tell that story, do it justice and make it a panto at the same time,” he reasons ahead of tomorrow’s opening performance at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.
“It’s taken me 16/17 years to find the courage. You can’t just do the book, but I want to be loyal to the[J.M. Barrie] text while making it into a panto, and I think we’ve nailed it.”
By “we” he is referring to co-writer and regular goofing loon Gemma McDonald, cast as eager apprentice Barkly this time. “I’ve had Gemma by my side again, working from a great traditional story with great characters that give you a good foundation to then work out how to bring together the traditional while being forward facing; how you then get that balance right.
“A story like Peter Pan adds another level to that challenge, but we have an exciting cast that meets that challenge with contemporary relevance amid the melee of pantomime traditions.”
Joining Gemma in the principal cast will be Hannah King’s Peter Pan, Sophie Bullivant’s Smee, Claire Horsley, returning from a long hiatus, as Gloria, Sara Howlett’s Tinkerbell, Eva Howe’s Wendy and Neon Crypt theatre company trio Laura Castle as Tiger Lily, Michael Cornell as Nanny McFlea and Jamie McKeller as Captain Hook.
“Hook is the perfect panto villain and to have someone who’s wanted to play that role forever…that’s when serendipity kicks in with Jamie.”
McKeller is a familiar face on York’s haunted streets as ghost-walk host Dr Dorian Deathly, promoter of Deathly Dark Tours, but he has taken to the dark side in Rowntree Players pantomimes too, whether as an Ugly Sister or the Sheriff of Nottingham.
“One of the things I’m most proud of this year is that he’s a real bad guy,” says Jamie. “There’s usually redemption at the end for the villain, a great epiphany, but Hook doesn’t get one –and he shouldn’t. He just says from the get-go, quite unreasonably, that he will kill this child [Peter Pan].”
What’s more, his Hook will have the gravitas of a Shakespearean bad egg. “My first entrance is two pages of what Howard calls ‘elegant prose’,” he says.
Howard rejoins: “Pantos are frivolous and fun on the surface, but there’s no reason to not have a deeper story behind it to add depth. It would be very easy to tell a simple panto story around Peter Pan, where most of it could just be a tale with fairy dust, but then you have to insert a dame and a comic.
“We haven’t gone down that path: rather than Nana the dog, we have Nanny McFlea, with some dog-like tendencies in human form, and Gemma as her comical son Barkly.”
Jamie’s Hook will be attired in de rigueur red coat, hat, scarf, stripey trousers, big boots, hook…and “flamboyant hair”. “He’s wholly evil, but with show-stopping numbers, such as Don’t Rain On My Parade, the Barbra Streisand song from Funny Girl, One Day More and the Survivor/I Will Survive mash-up from Glee.
“As soon as I was told it was Peter Pan this year and that Captain Hook would require some strong singing, I went off and did six months of singing lessons at York Singing Academy in Marygate.
“I’ve always been able to maul my way through a song as the bad guy in a ‘speak-sing’ style but I’d never learned the mechanics of singing, though I knew how to manipulate my voice because of all the voiceover work I’ve done. Sam Johnson tells me I’ve done a good job!”
Howard concurs: “When you end up with the baddie singing as the campest character in the show, then that’s my idea of what a panto should be!”
He is enjoying Michael Cornell’s progression in the dame’s role too (as Nanny McFlea this year). “You grow into this role because no two dames are the same, and you have to own your dame,” he says. “By building relationships, like working around the consistency of Gemma’s character, it all gets layered over the years.”
Jamie, who performed alongside Michael in Neon Crypt and the Deathly Dark Tours’ paranormal investigations of The Wetwang Hauntings – Live in November, says of his panto co-star: “He’s just very fearless, bringing so much to the rehearsal room. He’s not long 30, and look at how still he was on stage in our Wetwang show, his tweedy suit and moustache barely moving.”
Defining why he loves pantomime in the 21st century, Howard says: “Pantomime remains something that is multi-generational. Bringing generations together in any activity is a challenge, but I’m all for multi-generational entertainment that is safe yet challenging at the same time and doesn’t just make you laugh but cry and think as well.
“It’s a unique form of entertainment with audiences that you don’t get with other forms of theatre. And I love the tradition of it all, which is important in the right place. It’s one of the things that drove me to do what I do now, and why wouldn’t you want to pass it on to the next generation? It’s a joyous privilege.”
On the subject of tradition, Howard adds: “You’re fitting pantomime into a world that’s changing all the time, but tradition doesn’t mean unchanging and old-fashioned, but comfortable and recognisable.
“I’m still fond of having a traditional principal boy [played by a female], but it doesn’t mean you can’t sprinkle new things into the pantomime mix. That’s the joy of writing it each year.”
Jamie enthuses: “From an acting/performing point of view, pantomime is so mischievous. I’m not very disciplined, and you know you can do things in panto, like knowing looks or catching each other’s eye on stage, and the audience knows that you’re doing that.
“I always say that doing panto is like a fever dream. I take the week off from everything else, just going around coffee shops.”
Audiences can’t wait. “We’ve had our third successive year of record ticket sales, which is even harder to achieve in this current climate, but we’ve had a strong team for a long time,” says a delighted Howard.
“We laugh a lot in rehearsals and that energy carries through to the performances when you have a bunch of people who love doing these shows.”
Rowntree Players in The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 12, 7.30pm; December 13, 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
