The last dinner party? Not the in vogue band but York company Griffonage Theatre staging Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Rope

Carly Bednar in rehearsal for her role as Leila Arden in Griffonage Theatre’s Rope. Picture: Ella Tomlin

HALFWAY through her MA in theatre studies, Katie Leckey is directing York company Griffonage Theatre in their Theatre@41 debut in Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Rope from Wednesday to Saturday.

Built around an invitation to a dinner party like no other, against the backdrop of Britain’s flirtation with fascism, this 1929 whodunit states exactly who did it, but the mystery is: will they be caught? Cue a soiree full of eccentric characters, ticking clocks and hushed arguments.

Leckey’s cast comprises predominantly actors aged 21 or 22: Nick Clark as Wyndham Branson; Will Obson as Charles Granillo; Jack Mackay as Rupert Cadell; Carly Bednar as Leila Arden; Peter Hopwood as Kenneth Raglan and Molly Raine as Sabot.

They will be joined by two older actors, Liam Godrey as Sir Johnstone Kentley and Frankie Hayes as Mrs Debenham. Alicia Oldsbury is the set designer; Grace Trapps, the costumier; Margaux Campbell, the fight choreographer.

“We are so excited to have audiences begin to see this show!” says Katie. “It’s been something of a passion project for me and the entire process has been so rewarding already.”

Katie Leckey directing the University of York Gilbert and Sullivan’s Society’s Patience, aloongside production manager Sam Armstrong. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Here, CharlesHutchPress puts questions to director Katie Leckey on staging Rope, the rise of Griffonage Theatre and her plans for the year ahead.

When and where did you form Griffonage Theatre?

“We were formed about a year ago after a University of York Shakespeare Society production of Julius Caesar that I directed and in which my fellow co-artistic director, Jack Mackay, played Caesar.

“We realised that we had very similar creative styles and overlapping interests during that rehearsal process and this sparked a discussion about how we could branch out of university and into the York theatre scene.

Griffonage Theatre co-artistic director Jack Mackay rehearsing his role as Rupert Cadell. Picture: Ella Tomlin

“We were keen to put on plays that are underperformed (like Rope) or a little bit strange, silly or macabre! York is the perfect place to do this as there’s such a wealth of storytelling potential and inspiration everywhere!

“Jack and I like to (half) joke that we would get nothing done without our amazing executive producer, Anna Njoroge, who is basically a wizard at organisation and the main reason our ideas aren’t sitting dormant in our heads!”

How is the University of York involved?

“Like I say, Griffonage wouldn’t have been born had it not been for the university’s performance societies and the experience that we got from being involved in those. Jack is now chair of the Shakespeare Society, and I learnt a lot from directing and performing with and eventually being the chair of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, especially about adapting older texts for audiences today in an accessible way – something that is a real goal of our company.

“Jack is studying English Literature at the uni, and I just finished the same degree for my undergraduate studies, so we’re also very keen to explore new writing and ways of facilitating that being put on in the city, alongside putting on adaptations of more well-established playwrights.”

Molly Raine’s Sabot, left, and Frankie Hayes’ Mrs Debenham. Picture: Ella Tomlin

What is your specialist focus in your MA in theatre studies?

“I’m halfway through my MA in theatre-making and it’s just amazing! I’m very interested in physical theatre and clowning in my individual practice as a performer. As a director, though, I find the juiciest plays are the ones that have darker themes that I can present through the guise of light-heartedness.

“I think the best plays are ones that aren’t easily labelled as one thing or another, which is why I’m drawn to surrealist and absurdist themes and imagery as well. The MA has equipped me so far with lots of practical skills in running rehearsals, workshops and (perhaps most importantly) working with others in an ensemble to create interesting and often experimental art.”

What first brought you to York?

“I’m originally from Northern Ireland – from the rural town of Ballyclare about 20 minutes away from Belfast – and came over here to study for my undergrad degree – I liked it so much that I’ve decided to stay! It’s just the most gorgeous, historic place and I love the fact that everyone knows everyone somehow or other! Also being able to access so much theatre and arts on my doorstep here was definitely a draw as well.

Katie Leckey exercising her comedic chops as Samuel Beckett in University of York Drama Society’s 2023 Edinburgh Fringe show, Dan Sinclair’s The Courteous Enemy. Picture:Tegan Steward 

Where did you take your first steps in theatre?

“I was so privileged to have a great drama teacher at my secondary school, who put on a musical in our assembly hall every year! My first production was Annie when I was around 13 or so, and I just remember growing in confidence after each rehearsal and the feeling of becoming an entirely different person for a few hours!

“As time went on, I had singing lessons and just kept acting in anything I could on the side of everything else. Obviously, I enjoy the bigger picture of storytelling, because I decided to do an English Lit degree, but it was only when I was given the chance to direct Patience as part of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society in my second year of Uni (after a bit of a hiatus from all things theatre during Covid) that all the stars aligned for me.

“I realised that directing was a way of combining all my passions and interests into one activity! And I’ve been absolutely determined tm make, and be in, as much theatre as I can ever since!”

Katie Leckey as the Duchess in University of York Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s 2023 production of The Gondoliers. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick 

Hence the rise of Griffonage Theatre. Why choose that name?

“If you ask the dictionary, Griffonage means ‘careless handwriting: a crude or illegible scrawl’. Jack and I felt like the word really summed up our creative process – something that’s a little careless, crude (mostly from my end) or even illegible is usually the spark for our ideas, and we are so passionate about how we turn these scrawls into something palpable for audiences to enjoy!

“We also liked how it has connotations with the mythical beast the Griffin, as we’re constantly in awe of things that are inexplicable, fantastical and ancient.”

What is Griffonage Theatre’s mission statement?

“We are a team of York-based storytellers who leap at the opportunity to shock and delight. We revel in the grotesque, in the weaving of new worlds, and in sharing the beauty and terror of humanity’s strangest stories.

“Our ambition is to reveal the dark hearts of stories across a wide range of genres: to galvanise narratives that have been lost and to foster the creation of exciting, original work.”

Griffonage Theatre’s cast for Poe In The Pitch Black at the Perky Peacock cafe. Picture: Lotty Farmer

What has the company done so far?

“We had a sold-out site-specific show, Poe In The Pitch Black, at the Perky Peacock café [in the mediaeval, wood-beamed Barker Tower on North Street]. We adapted three of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and told them in the dark, using age-old practical theatrical techniques to spook our audiences!

“We crammed them in! We were able to get 20 spectators in, along with five actors. It was definitely a squeeze in the lower room!

“A particular highlight of the show was the creation of a puppet for the character of the old man in the Tell Tale Heart (performed by Will Osbon, who is returning to play Charles Granillo in Rope), which we were told sufficiently creeped out a lot of our audience!”

How did the chance to perform at Theatre@41 emerge?

“I had the joy of performing in York Settlement Community Players’ Government Inspector last October and got to know the brilliant Alan Park [Theatre@41’s chair], as he was directing the show!

Katie Leckey’s Dobchinsky in York Settlement Community Players’ Government Inpector. Picture: Sarah Ford

“I approached him with the idea of putting a play on at the theatre and was completely shocked that he didn’t shrug me off right away; in fact he was keen that we got everything sorted as soon as possible!

“It’s truly a privilege to be able to put our show on at all, never mind in a space at the heart of the community in York! It’s just so special!”

What attracted you to Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play Rope?

“It’s just genius. Its readability was the first thing that struck me – the stage directions are a hoot! I really recommend for people to read the play, as well as watching it, as it really is fantastic. Hamilton’s grasp of character is phenomenal.

“The play is at once funny and dark, light but intense, deeply philosophical yet entirely playful. I was also fascinated by the fact that it was so heavily concerned with the rise of British fascism pre-World War Two. It’s such a poignant meditation on war, justice, self-awareness and the value of all human life.

Liam Godfrey as Sir Johnstone Kentley, left, Nick Clark as Wyndham Brandon and Peter Hopwood as Kenneth Raglan in the Rope rehearsal room. Picture: Ella Tomlin

“It’s also genuinely hilarious and includes a lot of delightful witticisms and snarky comments. The fact that it is based on a real murder case also intrigued me greatly. With the growing popularity of ‘true crime’ as a genre, it’s utterly fascinating to see a play that attempts to directly confront its viewers with their own desire to witness violence and its consequences.

“It’s very interesting from a queer perspective as well. Without spoiling too much, I would recommend contemplating what the overt and implied relationships between the characters say about the implications of the story itself.

What does Rope say to a modern audience?

“Aside from a few 1920s slang terms, Rope is inherently modern in its sensibilities, despite the fact it has nearly been 100 years since its first performance. (Indeed, this isn’t surprising considering Hamilton coined the thoroughly modern word ‘gaslight’).

“This is why we’ve chosen to make the set look like it hasn’t been moved for 100 years – as something of a time capsule, but also a direct reflection of today. The play acts as a warning for what can happen if you let insidious beliefs and attitudes fester, but beyond this it asks the audience to evaluate themselves what justice looks like, and if it is attainable or desirable at all.

“Furthermore, it delights in the small things: dancing, eating, drinking and socialising – reminding audiences that while they should be alert to little cruelties and genuine evils alike, there is still some good in most people, and this can be seen in the most unlikely of circumstances, including an outré dinner party.”

Mollie Raine’s Sabot and Nick Clark’s Wyndham Brandon in a light moment mid-rehearsal. Picture: Ella Tomlin

Have you seen Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking single-take 1948 film version, shot with the camera kept in continuous motion?

“I love this question! Yes! I actually watched it as soon as I finished reading theplay for the first time! I remember turning to Jack in utter amazement at somemoments (mostly when Jimmy Stewart did anything as Rupert – his performance is phenomenal!) and in complete horror at the extraordinarycensorship that the film was subject to!

“The deviation from Hamilton’s originalis masterful in a way only Hitchcock is, and the choice to set it in post-WW2America is also a stroke of total genius, but it does, at least in my opinionremove some of the most unique and interesting qualities of the original.”

When did you last attend a dinner party?

“For my friend Grace’s birthday a few months ago. It was so much fun, we dressed up in formal clothes and had a little boogie afterwards as well!”

Who would be your ideal guests at a dinner party and why?

“This is so tough! I would have to say Oscar Wilde as he was the subject of my dissertation at undergrad and I would honestly love to be the butt of some of his quips. My fiancé Peter Hopwood (who plays Raglan in the show!) because I feel like I always need a wingman to back me up in dinner party-discussion and he certainly knows me best!

Peter Hopwood: Ideal dinner party guest, fiancé and Rope cast member. Picture: Ella Tomlin

I would also love Mary Wollstonecraft [18th century British writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights] to be there just because I feel like she would be so interesting to chat with about philosophy and womanhood.

“I would invite Dolly Parton because she’s just the greatest and my complete idol. I would bring Jack [co-artistic director Jack Mackay] as a scribe, so I could remember what we chatted about. Finally, I think I would invite Samuel Beckett, just to ask him what on earth was he thinking when he wrote his televised play Quad.”

What makes a good dinner party?

“A good host. Unfortunately for the characters in Rope…

“Also some gentle jazz music in the background is a must; it just feels too awkward otherwise!”

Katie Leckey as Jennet Marlin in York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play, Sovereign, at King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York. Picture: James Drury

You participated in York Theatre Royal’s community play, Sovereign, at King’s Manor last summer. In a cast of thousands (!), who did you play?

“I played Jennet Marlin (spoiler alert: she was a baddie!) – and what a great time I had. Playing her was a little bit out of my comfort zone but I grew to love her and her very sour face! The people I met as part of it was definitely the highlight. I also LOVED the costume; it made me feel like a real princess – and as a person who usually plays fools this was a unique occasion!”

What comes next for you and Griffonage Theatre?

“Oh, now that would be telling… but since you’ve pulled my leg – personally I’m going to finish my masters in September and start looking for jobs in the industry and I’m also hoping to get married in the winter!

“Griffonage are making our return to Theatre@41 in July this year, and we can’t WAIT to reveal what we’re up to!”

Griffonage Theatre in Rope, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Gaslight at Harrogate Theatre ****

Giving him back a taste of his own medicine: Bella Manningham (Faye Weerasinghe) turns on husband Jack (Robin Simpson) in HT Rep’s Gaslight

HT Rep in Gaslight, Harrogate Theatre/Phil & Ben Productions, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk

THREE Plays, Three Weeks, One Cast, the HT Rep 2022 season at Harrogate Theatre, is in week two.

First up was Mike Leigh’s riotous Seventies’ comedy of bad manners, Abigail’s Party. Next week, John Godber’s bus drivers are at the wheel of Men Of The World.

The meat in the HT Rep sandwich is Gaslight, Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller that gave rise to the now familiar term of “gaslighting”, used in British law and endless accusatory domestic arguments alike.

Written in 1938 and suffused with Freudian psychology, this “Hamilton horror” carries the framework of a Victorian melodrama, realised so evocatively in Geoff Gilder’s dark, stifling furniture design, Stephanie Newall’s gloomy, foreboding lighting and Marcus Hutton’s spooky sound design.

Faye Weerasinghe’s Bella in Gaslight: “On edge, fragile, enervated…and abused, a victim of mental torment”

As the HT Rep flyer puts it: “It’s London in 1880. Bella Manningham (Faye Weerasinghe) is rich with a nice home and servants – yet she’s lonely. She lives far from her family with her husband, Jack (Robin Simpson), who is stern and overbearing. Before long Bella thinks she may be losing her mind. Or is she?”

Couldn’t have put it better. Who doesn’t love a psychodrama, one that is all the more enjoyable for seeing last week’s company in such contrasting roles?! Weerasinghe’s accent has gone from love-a-duck Essex to Received Pronunciation (RP), and if her fidgety neighbour Angela was overawed, overimpressed and overexcited in Abigail’s Party, now her Bella is even more on edge, fragile, enervated…and abused, a victim of mental torment.

Simpson has transformed from put-upon, belittled husband Lawrence to being the one doing the putting down, the humiliating, as the suffocating, controlling, cruel husband, Jack Manningham. If you have seen Simpson in dame or Ugly Sister mode at York Theatre Royal, then the contrast is even more of a treat.

Dig by dig, drip by drip, Jack is driving Bella towards madness with his combination of staying out every night, maligning her in front of the maid, fancy Nancy, and quizzing her about missing pictures, jewellery and lists.

Ian Kirkby’s dapper inspector, looking to administer his brand of Rough justice in Gaslight

Katy Dean, boastful but empty hostess Beverley last week, is the saucy young maid this week, while Janine Mellor has switched from timorous neighbour Sue to assured, reassuring, unflappable housekeeper Elizabeth.

The new face in the company is Ian Kirkby, in his one appearance this season as retired detective Rough, who arrives out of thin air, with Jack out on yet another of his secretive errands. Rough by name, but something of a dapper dandy by nature, he is anxious to finally crack a long-unsolved crime in the house.

Kirkby plays Rough with a magician’s flourish, a stern yet kindly air towards Bella and a feather-light comic touch. He carries an air of mystery too, combined with unbreakable investigative purpose as he seeks to bring Rough justice.

Ben Roddy, one half of the HT Rep co-producers Phil & Ben Productions, directs Hamilton’s dark delight with a Rough-like eye for detail, his Gaslight turned up to full effect, replete with Victoriana, suspense and just the right weight of humour.

Nancy (Kate Dean) adjusts the gaslight in Gaslight, amid the gloom of Jack (Robin Simpson) and Bella (Faye Weerasinghe) Manningham’s domestic blister

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Abigail’s Party at Harrogate Theatre ****

Elvis is in the building: Beverly (Katy Dean) reaches for a Presley platter as the party atmosphere turns ever more awkward in Abigail’s Party. Paul Hawkyard’s Tony, left, and Robin Simpson’s Laurence keep their distance. Faye Seerawinghe’s Angela, seated, left, and Janine Mellor’s Sue, await with trepidation. All pictures: Ant Robling, Robling Photography

Abigail’s Party, HT Rep, Harrogate Theatre/Phil & Ben Productions, at Harrogate Theatre, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk

HARROGATE Theatre’s HT Rep 2022 season of Three Plays, Three Weeks, One Cast opens with Mike Leigh’s caustic comedy Abigail’s Party, written in 1977, the year of The Queen’s Silver Jubilee and now revived in the year of her Platinum Jubilee.

Director Marcus Romer, Harrogate Theatre’s associate producer, had planned to have the Sex Pistols’ 1977 anthem God Save The Queen seeping through the walls from Abigail’s punk and booze-fuelled party next door, but the events of last Thursday afternoon saw a respectful change to Anarchy In The UK.

Romer has form for Abigail’s Party, having steered York Theatre Royal’s 2005 repertory production. Now the spirit of rep theatre is being repeated in a third such autumn season at Harrogate, the cast piggy-backing from one play to the next, rehearsing Abigail’s Party for a week, and now rehearsing Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight by day and staging Leigh’s suburban comedy of awkward social-climbing manners by night.

Husband-and-wife strife in Abigail’s Party: Robin Simpson’s Laurence and Katy Dean’s Beverly having a difference of opinion…again

The same process will follow next week, when Paul Hawkyard, Robin Simpson and Janine Mellor will knock John Godber’s Men Of The World into shape in the daytime rehearsal room under Amy Burns Walker’s direction before Harrogate-born Faye Weerasinghe, Simpson, Harrogate pantomime regular Katy Dean, Mellor and Ian Kirkby form co-producer Ben Roddy’s cast each night for Gaslight.

In rep tradition, there is a familiarity to the cast, not only Dean, but also Mellor from the 2019 HT Rep season’s On The Piste and Deathtrap and her dual roles as Dandini and a Snugly Sister in last winter’s Cinderella, while rising star Weerasinghe played the lead in Full English at Harrogate Theatre in June.

York audiences, meanwhile, will need no introduction to Hawkyard and Simpson, whether from Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre or their Mardy and Manky double act in Cinderella at the Theatre Royal last winter. Captain Hook and Mrs Darling await them in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan this winter.

Now put them all together in surely one of the most destructive yet indestructible of English comedies. Your reviewer is yet to see a duff production and Romer’s return to Leigh is another winner.

The quiet and the constant noise: Janine Mellor’s Sue and Katy Dean’s Beverly

It is Katy Dean’s turn to behave appallingly in the Alison Stedman-patented lead role of gauche Beverly, dark haired this time rather than bottle-blonde but still over-dressed for cheese and pineapple-stick nibbles in her fuchsia party dress.

Embroiled in a stultifying game of one-upmanship with dyspeptic, workaholic property-agent husband Laurence (Simpson), their latest playground for point-scoring is a soiree for their new neighbours, taciturn ex-professional footballer Tony (Hawkyard) and nervous nurse Angela (Weerasinghe) in their oh-so Seventies’ North London living room.

Joining them with reluctance written all over her face is Sue (Mellor), banished from her 15-year-old daughter’s party, fretful that it will get out of hand. as it inevitably does.

Leigh depicts a Britain heading towards the acquisitive Thatcherite era of material greed. Already the status-symbol fibre-optic lamps, drinks cabinet and brown sofas are in place in Geoff Gilder’s design.

Faye Weerasinghe’s Angela, left, and Katy Dean’s Beverly, standing, attend to Janine Mellor’s Sue after one too many top-ups

Tensions rise, tempers flare, the polite veneer gradually erodes under the influence as Dean’s monstrous Beverly has her sport at the hands of her guests and mocked husband amid the surfeit of gin top-ups and chain-smoked “little cigarettes”, with her recourse to Donna Summer, Demis Roussos and Elvis records failing to break the awkwardness.

For all her restless noise and surface swagger, the tactless and tasteless Beverly is lonely behind the perma-cigarette haze, frustrated by the absence of bedroom action, empty too, for all her superficial possessions and on-trend kitchen gadgets.  Full of aspiration yet desperation.

Simpson’s Laurence is sullen and sunken in Beverly’s loud, crushing shadow, stewing at his shallow wife’s dismissal of his tentative, self-improving interest in art.

New to your reviewer, wide-eyed Weerasinghe is outstanding as the effusive, chatterbox nurse Angela, talking ever looser as the gin kicks in, then dancing as out of time as a stopped clock.

Paul Hawkyard’s taciturn Tony on the turn

Hawkyard, meanwhile, maximises minimum words as the humourless Tony, whose imposing demeanour goes from monosyllabic indifference to not-funny wound-up menace to sudden snapping point.

Mellor’s Sue is Leigh’s quiet voice of excruciating middle-class discomfort, stuck in the middle yet desperate to be elsewhere, having to put up with Beverly’s insensitive inquisition about her marriage breakdown and Angela’s well-meant over-fussing.

Very 1977 and yet full of English characteristics that have not changed, and probably never will, Leigh’s writing is as sharp as a punk safety pin, his contempt unconfined for values so anathema to him, his humour merciless and deeply wounding.

Romer squeezes Leigh’s sour lemon to the max, knowing just how far to go for the juiciest bitter comedy when Beverly keeps going too far. One hell of a party, one hell of a play, one hell of a knockout production.