Our Star Theatre Company Archives

March 29, 2025April 1, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond when night-time incidents spark curiosity. Hutch’s List No. 13, from The York Press

Kiki Dee & Carmelo Ruggeri: Heading to All Saints Church, Pocklington on The Long Ride Home tour

FOUR nights of Greg Davies and tenth visit of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s bill for cultural satisfaction.

Acoustic duo of the week: Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, All Saints Church, Pocklington, tonight, 7.30pm

JOIN Bradford-born singer Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri for an acoustic journey through their songs and stories, taking in songs from 2022 album The Long Ride Home, Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra covers and hits from Kiki’s 55 years and more in the music business, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Star, I Got The Music In Me, Loving & Free and Amoureuse. Box office: kikiandcarmelo.com.

Brighouse & Rastrick Band: A blast of brass on Sunday afternoon at Pocklington Arts Centre

Brass concert of the week: Brighouse & Rastrick Band, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 2pm

FOREVER associated with 1977 number two hit and “unofficial encore” The Floral Dance, West Yorkshire’s Brighouse & Rastrick Band presents a concert suitable for casual listener and connoisseur alike.

The majority of premier band championships have been held by ‘Briggus’, most recently becoming the 2022 British Open and Brass in Concert champions. ‘Briggus’ are noted too for collaborations outside the brass band tradition, from the late Terry Wogan to Kate Rusby, classical actor Simon Callow to The Unthanks at York Minster in 2012. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Tom Holland: Hailing Caesars at Grand Opera House, York

History lesson of the week: Tom Holland, The Lives Of The Caesars, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Rest Is History podcaster and storyteller Tom Holland journeys back to the Roman empire to “get up close and personal” with Caesar, Augustus, Caligula and Nero as he spotlights the lives of the first 12 Roman emperors in conversation with Martha Kearney.

In this supreme arena, emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle, as highlighted in Holland’s new Penguin Classics translation of Suetonius’s Lives Of The Twelve Caesars. Expect revelations of the emperors’ shortfalls, sex scandals, tastes, foibles and eccentricities. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman

Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, April 1 to 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

WILLY Russell’s Liverpool musical makes its tenth visit to the Grand Opera House, and despite Sean Jones’s appearance in the 2022 tour being billed as his “last ever” after 23 years on and off as Mrs Johnstone’s son Mickey, here he is once more, still “running around as a seven-year-old in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” at 54.

Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle, who played Mrs Lyons on her previous Blood Brothers visit to York, takes the role of Mrs J in Russell’s moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Curiouser and curiouser: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Play of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 5,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Simon Stephens’s stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone (Jonathan Wells), a 15-year-old boy with an extraordinary brain Exceptionally gifted at Maths, he finds everyday life and interaction with other people very confusing.

Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, hates being touched and deeply distrusts strangers, but everything changes when he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Greg Davies: Milking it in his Full Fat Legend stand-up show

Comedy gigs of the week: Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend, York Barbican, April 2 to 5,

TOWERING comedian Greg Davies plays York Barbican for a full-fat four nights on his Full Fat Legend Tour, his first on British soil for seven years.

The 6ft 8 inch star of Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners, The Cleaner, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Man Down and Cuckoo is undertaking his biggest stand-up tour to date. He last played York Barbican on November 1 and 2 2017 on his You Magnificent Beast tour, his first travels for four years. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, go to yorkbarbican.co.uk. Davies’s Hull Connexin Live shows on June 3 and 4 and at Leeds First Direct Arena on June 20 are sold out too.

Daniel Wilmot’s Count Dracula in Baron Productions’ Dracula at St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York

High stakes of the week: Baron Productions in Dracula, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, April 3 to 5, 7.30pm

FOUNDER and director Daniel Wilmot makes it Count when starring as the mysterious Dracula in York company Baron Productions’ account of Bram Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece in one of York’s most atmospheric churches.

When Jonathan Harker (Jack McAdam) embarks on a business trip to Count Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, little does he know the terror that awaits him. Guided by the wise Professor Van Helsing (Lee Gemmell), a courageous group must gamble their lives, even their very souls, to stop Dracula’s evil plans to enslave the world. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/baron-productions.

Pianist Ian Pace

Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents The Beethoven Project: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, April 5, 7.30pm

IN the second of The Beethoven Project concerts for York Late Music, pianist Ian Pace continues his exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No. 6.

The programme also includes Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (1-3), Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Liszt) and a new work of three musical tributes by Steve Crowther, Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Box office: latemusic.org/product/ian-pace-concert-tickets/ or on the door.

The poster for the new additions to Lightning Seeds’ Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour

Gig announcement of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, October 9, doors 7pm

LIVERPOOL singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie is extending Lightning Seeds’ 35th anniversary tour with 11 more dates this autumn. Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions and many more from his 20-track Tomorrow’s Here Today: 35 Years Of Lightning Seeds compilation album. This summer, Lightning Seeds will support York band Shed Seven at Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 11. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Our Star Theatre Company’s tour poster for Hannay Stands Fast

In Focus: Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

OUR Star Theatre Company cut a dash at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday and Friday in Hannay Stands Fast, the sequel to The 39 Steps.

Adapted by David Edgar from John Buchan’s novel, this rip-roaring comedy finds dashing hero Richard Hannay back in the fray on a mission to thwart a new and deadly threat to his beloved England.

Engaged on this top-secret case by MI5, Hannay makes his way down to Cornwall to infiltrate a secretive organisation and learn their dastardly plans. Can he save the day to keep the nation safe for another day? Cue derring-do, utter chaos and laughs aplenty in a show replete with a train, motorbike, ambulance, car, police vehicle, even a horse.

“Like for our production of The 39 Steps, Hannay Stands Fast is taken on by four actors playing dozens of characters – 53 to be precise! – set in various locations created through quick and innovative uses of trunks, crates, suitcases, ladders, you name it!” says director Ben Mowbray, who founded the Ledbury, Herefordshire company in 2016.

Our Star Theatre Company are visiting York on the debut UK tour of the British professional premiere of Hannay Stands Fast with a cast of George Cooper as Hannay and Angharad Mortimer in her company debut as Mary Lambington (and others), joined by the multi-role-playing Daniel Davies and Mowbray as First and Second Clown.

Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 3 and 4, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024

What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond when two plays go to sea & AI comes to dance. Hutch’s List No. 39, from Gazette & Herald

*The Whitby Rebels cast on a boat trip in Scarborough’s South Bay: from left, Keith Bartlett, Duncan MacInnes, Jacky Naylor, Jacqueline King, Louise Mai Newberry and Kieran Foster*

A NAUTICAL Yorkshire drama, a scene-stealing Shakespearean dog, a long-lasting folk duo and a “bit of rough” comedian spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest for the week ahead.

World premiere of the week: The Whitby Rebels, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until November 2, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

IN Whitby Harbour, in the summer of 1991, something extraordinary happened. A humble pleasure boat set sail for the Arctic crewed by misfits, pensioners and the vicar for Egton and Grosmont, North Yorkshire.

This motley crew was assembled by Captain Jack Lammiman to complete a daring mission: to erect a plaque honouring Whitby whaling Captain William Scoresby senior on a volcanic island hundreds of miles north of Iceland. Bea Roberts’s new play tells their true story, boat on stage et al. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

*Nick Patrick Jones’s Proteus, left, and Mark Payton’s Duke of Milan in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Picture: John Saunders*

Comedy play of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

‘TWO Gents’: possibly Shakespeare’s first play and definitely the only one with a part for a dog. But can the newly employed performers at Monkgate Music Hall pull off their production?

Under-rehearsed knife throwers, strongmen, musicians and comedians must pool their skills in Tempest Wisdom’s dazzling take on this rarely performed comedy, delivered by York Shakespeare Project. “Book now for the event of the 19th century!” says Tempest. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*York musical actress Rachel Higgs in the poster for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Songs For A New World*

Unconventional musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents: Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

ON the heels of last week’s debut NCEM collaboration with fellow York company Wharfemede Productions, The Last Five Years, Black Sheep Theatre perform another Jason Robert Brown work, 1995’s Songs For A New World.

Defying conventional musical theatre formats, Brown and original director Daisy Prince say the non-linear show is “neither musical play nor revue”, but exists as a “very theatrical song cycle” that explores such universal themes as hope, faith, love and loss in its emotionally charged songs. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/blacksheeptheatreproductions/.

*Our Star Theatre Company cast members outside York Minster on October 15, when the Ledbury company staged Death(s) At Sea at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. On Friday they will be in Pickering*

Sea, sailors and seriously bad acting: Our Star Theatre Company in Death(s) At Sea, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm

A SMALL theatre company is performing its new murder mystery Death At Sea, but despite the cast’s best efforts, everything goes wrong in the telling of a thriller set on a small ship carrying only five passengers and its captain.

When one passenger, Mr Inus, is found dead, the others speculate and turn on each other until the real murderer is caught…but that isn’t how this play (within a play) goes! Props fail, the set falls down, actors get drunk and suffer concussion, and conversations in the wings reveal too much. Can they make it to the end before one of them really kills someone? Find out in Eleanor Catherine Smart’s nautical drama on Friday. Box office: 01751474833or kirktheatre.co.uk.

*Company Wayne McGregor in Autobiography, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Andrej Uspenski*

Dance show of the week: Company Wayne McGregor, Autobiography, V102 and V103, York Theatre Royal, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm

GENETIC code, AI and choreography merge in a Wayne McGregor work that reimagines and remakes itself anew for every performance. Layering choreographic imprints over personal memoir and in dialogue with a specially created algorithm that hijacks McGregor’s DNA data,Autobiography “upends the traditional nature of dance-making as artificial intelligence and instinct converge in creative authorship”.

Now, AISOMA, a new AI tool developed with Google Arts and Culture – “utilising machine-learning trained on hundreds of hours of McGregor’s choreographic archive – overwrites initial configurations to present fresh movement options to the performers, injecting unfamiliar and often startling content into the choreographic ecosystem”. “Life, writing itself anew,” explains McGregor. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*While & Matthews: Playing Hunmanby on closing night of 30th anniversary tour*

Folk gig of the week: While & Matthews, Hunmanby Village Hall, near Filey, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE 30th anniversary tour of the longest-lasting female folk duo, singer-songwriters Chris While and Julie Matthews, concludes this weekend at Hunmanby Village Hall, where they sold out two years ago. Together they have played more than 2,500 gigs, appeared on 100 albums, written hundreds of original songs and reached millions of people around the world.

Chris (vocals, guitar, banjo, dulcimer and percussion) and Julie (vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin and bouzouki) released their 13th studio album, Days Like These, on Fat Cat Records last month. Once again they cover a wide range of topics and the full spectrum of human emotions on 12 tracks. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

*Arthur Smith: Grumpy old man of comedy at Helmsley Arts Centre*

Comedy turn of the week: An Audience With Arthur Smith, Helmsley Arts Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm

COMPERE, playwright, panellist, performer and Edinburgh Fringe stalwart Arthur Smith worked previously as a road sweeper, dustman, market researcher and teacher. He even advertised chicken burgers in supermarkets dressed as a fox.

A career in stand-up comedy was the only one that could follow a build-up like that, he decided, since when he has appeared on quiz shows and Loose Ends, been a regular Grumpy Old Man and Countdown wordsmith and presented BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage and Radio 2’s The Smith Lectures. He describes himself as Radio 4’s “bit of rough”. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience: Returning to Milton Rooms, Malton*

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club, Pat Fulgoni Blues Experience, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 31, 8pm

SINGER Pat Fulgoni returns to Ryedale Blues Club with his band of Jacob Beckwith on guitar, Rory Wells on bass, Sam Bolt on keys and Zebedee Sylvester on drums.

Expect soaring soulful vocals over vibey guitar and piano-orientated blues in a set originals complemented by renditions of Ray Charles, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix and Robert Johnson. Box office: 01653 692240 or themiltonrooms.com.

In Focus: The English Civil War comes to Nunnington Hall this half-term

*Nunnington Hall: Recalling the English Civil War over the autumn half-term*. *Picture: Andrew Davies*

VISITORS to Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, can dive back in history to the time of the English Civil War throughout the autumn half-term.

From Saturday, October 26 to Friday, November 1, you can train up to become a soldier, with family games such as archery and hobby-horse races, or become a spy for the Royalist side by cracking the secret message in a code breaker trail.

For one weekend only, on November 2 and 3, the grounds of the National Trust property will be turned into an English Civil War encampment by the United Kingdom’s longest-running re-enactment society, The Sealed Knot.

Families will be invited to try on armour, chat to costumed re-enactors and watch show-stopping musket drills happening throughout the day.

Inside the house, children can enjoy playing with the shadow puppet theatre and the Civil War-themed crafts.

Sarah Nolan, visitor experience officer at Nunnington Hall, says: “We’re delighted to bring the UK’s oldest, and Europe’s biggest, re-enactment society to Nunnington and allow our visitors to experience history at its most immersive.

*The Sealed Knot: Taking part in the English Civil War activities at Nunnington Hall. Picture: Levitt Parkes*

“There’s a fantastic link between Nunnington Hall and the English Civil War, as it’s where Roundhead soldiers lived during the siege of nearby Helmsley Castle, 380 years ago!

“We’ve put together a host of children’s activities to choose from, offering a fun day out for all the family.”

In addition, Nunnington Hall is decorated for autumn and a range of seasonal treats is available in the tearoom.

Normal admission applies for access to the house, gardens and all activities; entry is free for National Trust members and under fives.

Nunnington Hall is open every day until Sunday, November 3, from 10.30am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.15pm. Normal admission applies with free admission for National Trust members and under fives.

For more information or to plan a visit, go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall,