Grace Hussey-Burd’s Ebenezer Sneezer, left, and Claire Morley with Cracker the dog at Saturday morning’s performance of Riding Lights Theatre Company’s A Christmas Cracker
AFTER a winter tour of schools, writer and artistic director Paul Birch’s first play since taking the reins of Riding Lights Theatre Company heads home to Friargate Theatre for its finale.
Billed as “an alternative, unusual way into the Nativity story”, this one-hour play for family audiences is rooted in the transformative power of storytelling, delivered with Birch’s trademark comedy plus puppetry aplenty.
CharlesHutchPress attended Saturday morning’s show, when understudy Claire Morley took the role of Cracker the dog’s puppeteer and grouchy farmer Mrs McGinty opposite Grace Hussey-Burd’s “world-famous” storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer.
For the 1pm performance, York actress Morley would be switching to Ebenezer, accompanied by Holly Cassidy in the other roles. “My head is full of words,” she said of the task ahead.
And “full of words” aptly sums up Birch’s playful play, where description and detailed plot progression play a stronger hand than visual, magical wonder under Erin Burbridge’s direction, although a somewhat incongruous climactic bout of fisticuffs with accompanying sound effects hits a physically comical note, as do the sporadic interjections of a “turbulent turkey”.
Hussey-Burd’s Ebenezer, in top hat, tails and multi-coloured waistcoat, is lost at the start, snow in her silver boots, and motley-looking mutt Cracker, her chatterbox canine companion, by her side, head bursting with strange ideas about Christmas, always offering an unpredictable, often cheeky word in the ear like Basil Brush.
Holly Cassidy with Cracker the dog and Ebenezer Sneezer’s story basket. Picture: Tom Jackson
Without permission, as the shed doors open out like the inside of Dr Who’s Tardis, they take shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn. On the wall is a No Singing sign, last seen in York in Shaun Collinge’s long reign as landlord at The Maltings, in Tanner’s Moat, (newly transformed into the Irish pub The Dubliner, replete with live music, by the way).
Mrs McGinty is as grumpy as that other Ebenezer on a winter’s night, Scrooge, but gradually we learn why in a Birch story that champions “the importance of love, the importance of perseverance”, while highlighting the dangers of misinformation, disinformation and misunderstanding.
In doing so, as Birch seeks to “make sense of the world, not by providing answers, but by seeing new opportunities through new ideas”, he passes topical comment on a pernicious planet quick to judge and misjudge, especially on social media. One that puts the extreme into X streams of abuse, for example.
Ebenezer and Cracker will be allowed to stay if the nimble story-spinner can warm flinty Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart with the glad tidings of a tremendous tale. If not, they will be booted back out into the storm.
Mrs McGinty has an even more crotchety fellow villain of the piece in Deadly the dastardly donkey, who puts the unstable in the stable, with a pronounced aversion to festive comfort and joy. Again, do not judge a book by its cover, however, as Mrs McGinty turns storyteller with revelations of her past and Deadly’s too.
Wrapped inside is the story of the Nativity – Riding Lights is a Christian theatre company – and Birch has certainly found an alternative way to tell it, perhaps a tad too complex to sustain the full concentration of the four-year-olds in the audience, but engagingly, entertainingly and energetically told by Hussey-Burd and Morley.
Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, at 11am, 1.30pm and 6pm, today; 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm, tomorrow. Box office: 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/achristmascracker.
Casting a shadow: James Willstrop’s bullying bruiser Bill Sikes in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate
THE myriad delights of Christmas entertainment shine through Charles Hutchinson’s tips to vacate the festive fireside.
Dickens at Christmas, but not A Christmas Carol: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until December 30. 7.30pm performances on December 21, 27, 28 and 30, plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. No performances on December 23 to 26
HELEN Spencer takes the director’s reins and plays Fagin in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s staging of Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, described as a “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”.
Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, it does feature musical arrangements by John Biddle to to complement Dickens’s tale of Oliver Twist being brought up in a workhouse, sold into an apprenticeship and recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld in his search for a home, a family and love. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Harris Beattie andJonathan Hanks in Northern Ballet’s revival of A Christmas Carol at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Christmas ballet of the week: Northern Ballet in A Christmas Carol, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2025
FIRST choreographed by Massimo Morricone and directed by Christopher Gable in 1992, Northern Ballet’s retired landmark production of A Christmas Carol is being revisited by director Federico Bonelli to the glee of longtime supporters and new audiences alike.
“Charles Dickens’s classic Victorian tale of redemption, with its message of human kindness and compassion, is something that resonates with us all, especially at this time of year,” says Bonelli. “Its iconic characters lend themselves so well to ballet”, complemented by Lez Brotherston’s colourful sets and costumes and Carl Davis’s festive score. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Holly Cassidy and Grace Hussey-Burd in a scene from Riding Lights Theatre Company’s winter show A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
Alternative Nativity play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, York, today to Christmas Eve, 11am and 1.30pm each day; 6pm, first three days; 4pm, last day
IN Paul Birch’s first play as artistic director of Riding Lights, world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer is lost, with snow in her wellies and faithful canine companion Cracker full of strange ideas about Christmas.
When caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on the condition that Ebenezer brings her glad tidings with her stories. If so, a hot supper awaits. If not, exit pronto. Ebenezer must triumph over not only Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart but also Deadly, a dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable. Box office: 01904 613000 or ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.
The poster for The Snowman screenings with live orchestra at York Barbican
Christmas film & music event of the week: The Snowman with Live Orchestra, York Barbican, Sunday, 1pm and 4pm
CARROT Productions presents two screenings of Dianne Jackson and Jimmy T Murakami’s animated 1982 film with the accompaniment of a live orchestra of professional musicians.
Raymond Briggs’s story of a young boy’s Christmas snowman magically coming to life for a journey to meet Santa Claus will be shown with The Snowman And The Snowdog at 1pm and The Bear, The Piano, The Dog And The Fiddle at 4pm. Each show includes a fun introduction to the orchestra and a visit from the Snowman himself. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Shed Seven’s Paul Banks and Rick Witter: Performing as an acoustic duo at Huntington Working Men’s Club in the last gigs of their 30th anniversary celebrations this weekend. Picture: David Harrison
Recommended but sold out already: Shed Seven’s Rick Witter and Paul Banks, Huntington Working Men’s Club, York, tonight and Sunday, doors 7pm
AFTER two number one albums in a year, summer shows in York Museum Gardens and their biggest ever tour, Shed Seven end their 30th anniversary celebrations back home in York, where lead singer Rick Witter and guitarist Paul Banks play a weekend of acoustic sets in the intimate setting of a working men’s club.
“We’re finishing the year in the village where Rick and I first met back in 1984, and where all of this began,” says Banks. “What a journey we’ve been on.” Sheds’ bassist Tom Gladwin serves up a DJ set too. Box office for returns only: store.shedseven.com.
Nun better: Freida Nipples hosts her Baps & Buns burlesque Christmas cabaret at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Feast your eyes on: Freida Nipples’ Baps & Buns Burlesque Christmas Cabaret, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, tonight, 8pm; doors open at 7pm
YORK’S queen of burlesque, Freida Nipples, presents drag, comedy and showgirls in her Baps & Buns Christmas Cabaret with festive good cheer after a joyous year of shows at Rise, Acomb’s answer to Paris’s Folies Bergère.
“Prepare yourself for an evening of debauchery and glamour in Acomb,” says Freida. “The big question is: are you ready for it?!” Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
Central Methodist Church: Hosting City Screen Picturehouse’s pop-up Christmas Cinema at Saint Saviourgate, York
Pop-up film event of the festive season: City Screen Picturehouse presents Christmas Cinema at Saint Saviourgate, The Great Hall, Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, until December 23
CITY Screen Picturehouse, York, has set up a pop-up screen at Central Methodist Church for the Christmas season. Dougal Wilson’s Paddington In Peru (PG) will be shown at 4pm on Sunday, followed by Jon Favreau’s Elf (PG) at 7pm and Monday screenings of Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express (U) at 4pm and Frank Capra’s season-closing 1946 chestnut It’s A Wonderful Life (U) at 7pm. Box office: picturehouses.com/YorkXmas.
Ronan Keating: Playing at York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend next summer. Picture: Supplied by York Racecourse
Outdoor gig announcement of the week: Ronan Keating, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 26
IRISH singer, charity campaigner and breakfast show host Ronan Keating will perform after the Saturday race card as the first act to be confirmed for next summer’s Music Showcase Weekend on Knavesmire. A further act will be announced for the evening meeting on July 25.
Keating, 47, has three decades of hits to call on, from Boyzone boy band days to his solo career, from Love Me For A Reason and When You Say Nothing At All to Life Is A Rollercoaster and If Tomorrow Never Comes. Olly Murs is confirmed already for the new 2025 race day of June 28. For race day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk.
It’s a Cracker:Holly Cassidy with the puppet dog in A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
WRITER and artistic director Paul Birch is staging his first play since taking the reins of Riding Lights Theatre Company at Friargate Theatre, York, in July.
On tour from November 25 to December 18, A Christmas Cracker will conclude its travels with a home run in York from December 21 to 24.
Introducing a magical show packed with comedy, puppetry and seasonal storytelling for all the family, Paul says: “Things are not going well for world-famous storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer. She’s lost. There is snow in her wellies and her wise and faithful dog, Cracker, has some strange ideas about Christmas.
“Caught taking shelter in Mrs McGinty’s barn, she allows them to stay on condition that Ebenezer warm up her Christmas with some of her seasonal stories. If they bring her enough glad tidings, there’s a hot supper on the cards. If not, they will be thrown back out into the storm.
“With Mrs McGinty’s frozen heart in need of a magnificent miracle and Deadly the dastardly donkey ready to kick comfort and joy out of his stable, will Ebenezer triumph? Despite turbulent turkeys and hysterical hay fights, she has a plan and some tremendous tales to turn things around.”
Full of Birch’s trademark humour, “it’s kind of an alternative, unusual way into the Nativity story,” he says. “I would say it’s like a cross between Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run in its tone, and hopefully it pulls off that Pixar trick, where the whole family can sit down and enjoy it together.
Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch, right, with executive director Oliver Brown outside Friargate Theatre
“It’s a play about communicating the importance of love, the importance of perseverance and the wonder and power of storytelling.
“So it’s a re-working of the Christmas story that also recognises that the act of storytelling itself has such a powerful effect on people. Part of the play shows how stories can be harmful too, where we have the ‘villains of the piece’ not actually being villains but playing out roles when they’ve been treated as villains, but then they discover that’s not the true story at all.”
Paul continues: “Stories are not just something we tell to each other but they also shape us. It’s about re-discovering the stories we tell and how we tell them to each other.
“It’s very difficult to live with the cynicism of our age. One of the things I think about the Creation story, whether you think the story is true or not, is that people can be transformed for the better and there is hope in that.
“Christian stories or stories of other faiths have hope embedded in them, and we have to come back to the hope that we can be better, we can make things better. What links His Last Report [next summer’s community play about the life and legacy of Seebohm Rowntree that Riding Lights will be doing with York Theatre Royal] and A Christmas Cracker is the common theme of the power of human beings to change things for the better.
“Maybe that is the case with all theatre: that thing of what happens as a result of that change into a new story. It’s not that stories simply go, ‘here is the message’, but that it is a point of connection between audience members and connection between theatre-makers and their audience.
Grace Hussey-Burd and Holly Cassidy in a scene in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s winter show A Christmas Cracker. Picture: Tom Jackson
“We’re trying to make sense of the world, not providing answers, but seeing new opportunities through new ideas.”
Paul points to the ever-changing shape of theatre being one of its prime strengths. “The difference between film or other recorded media and theatre is that they cannot be changed, but theatre can do that with each performance. It will change and shift, and not only the performers, but the audience too – and when theatre is good, it’s a dialogue between the two. That’s not to say it might not have clear provocations within it, but it always needs to be responsive.”
Paul first wrote A Christmas Cracker more than a decade ago. “I did re-write it for this production and even now I would re-work it again. We are always re-tuning. Watching with a young audience is always really interesting because they will tell you when it’s working and when it’s not.”
Paul’s hour-long play is directed by Erin Burbridge, retaining the Burbridge family involvement in Christian theatre company Riding Lights after the death of company founder Paul in May 2023. Her cast features Grace Hussey-Burd as Ebeneezer Sneezer and Holly Cassidy as Cracker and Mrs McGinty, with York actress Claire Morley on understudy duty.
Time to get cracking to secure tickets.
Riding Lights Theatre Company in A Christmas Cracker, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, December 21 to 24. Performances: 11am, 1.30pm and 6pm, December 21 to 23; 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm, December 24. Box office: 01904 655317or ridinglights.org/achristmascracker.
Leading lights: Riding Lights’ new executive director Oliver Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch outside Friargate Theatre in York
RIDING Lights Theatre Company today announces the appointment of its new artistic director, Paul Birch, and executive director, Oliver Brown.
They will serve as joint chief executive officer of the national touring theatre company, based at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York.
Playwright, sketch writer, improv comedy trailblazer and theatre director Paul Birchrejoins the company as artistic director after holding early roles as its youth theatre director and associate director of education and community.
He succeeds Paul Burbridge, co-founder of the Christian theatre company and artistic director since its foundation in 1977, who died after a short illness in April 2023.
As a freelance writer-director, his work has been produced in many theatres nationwide, expanding into audio dramas and a practice focused on improvisation, collaborating with improvisers from all over the world.
Paul has developed a track record of applied theatre-making and was artistic director of Out Of Character, a York company comprising artists with lived experience of mental illness, for eight years.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Riding Lights for over 20 years. Paul Burbridge was a great mentor to me and offered me many early opportunities in acting, writing and directing,” he says. His influence and inspirational teaching in theatre-making has had a profound and lasting impact on my work.
“The creativity of Riding Lights has always been about making work with and for all kinds of people in all kinds of places; often those hardest to reach. I’m looking forward to finding new artistic ways to create powerful and joyful theatre in that spirit.”
Riding Lights’ new executive director, Oliver Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch in the black-box studio theatre at Friargate Theatre, York
Oliver Brown FRSA, at present associate director at Riding Lights,takes up the post of executive director after holding senior leadership roles in production and operations at venues including Hull Truck Theatre and CAST in Doncaster. He is the elected vice-chair and trustee director of the Association of British Theatre Technicians.
His first encounter with Riding Lights was in 1999, when the teenage Oliver knocked on the door of Friargate Theatre, soon after it opened, asking for a technical work placement. Over the subsequent decades, he has worked as a freelance technical and stage manager for the company on many occasions.
“After being a part of Riding Lights for nearly 25 years, I am delighted to be joining the company once again as executive director, having spent my summers at its annual residential summer school, my early years up a ladder amongst the lights in Friargate Theatre, and out on national tours,” he says.
“Along with Paul, I am looking forward to Riding Lights’ 50th anniversary in 2027 and planning for the future.
“I am passionate about communicating faith and social justice issues through theatre and community work – a tradition in which Riding Lights is a leader, and one in which I will be honoured to play a part as we develop the evolving vision of Riding Lights.”
Riding LightsTheatre Companyhas been making and touring theatre informed by a Christian faith for 47 years, making it one of Great Britain’s most productive and long-serving independent theatre companies. Its productions have been seen across the world, from the United States of America, through Europe, to Israel and Palestine.
John Emmett, chair of the board of directors, says: “I am delighted that Paul and Ollie have agreed to join Riding Lights. Both of them have a long association with the company and understand well Paul Burbridge’s remarkable legacy. I am confident that they will build on this in fresh and exciting ways to create theatre which entertains, challenges and inspires.”
Friargate Theatre has announced an autumn season of theatre, stand-up and improv comedy, storytelling, music, film and family shows that opens on September 5. For full details and bookings, head to: friargatetheatre.co.uk. Box office: 01904 613000.
Riding Lights is in rehearsal for Cups On A String, a new play by York playwright Bridget Foreman, directed by David Gilbert for an eight-week autumn tour across the UK, to be staged in partnership with Transforming Lives for Good, a charity that brings hope and a future to struggling children.
The brochure cover artwork for Friargate Theatre’s autumn return
Riding Lights: the back story
RIDING Lights Theatre Company was founded in 1977 by Paul Burbridge, Murray Watts and Nigel Forde and has been based in York ever since.
Riding Lights opened Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate, York, in 1999. It has since operated as the company’s office and rehearsal space and has two performance spaces: one a ground-floor cabaret-style space seating around 60 people; the other an upstairs black-box studio theatre seating 100.
World premieres in recent years have includedAfrican Snow, a co-production with York Theatre Royal (York Theatre Royal, West End transfer and national tour); Augustus Carp Esq. by Himself (Friargate Theatre); Dick Turpin (Friargate Theatre) and an adaptation of Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat (national tour, co-produced with Northcott Theatre, Exeter).
In Summer 2012, Riding Lights, in tandem with York Theatre Royal and York Museums Trust, produced the epic-scale, outdoor production of the York Mystery Plays in York Museum Gardens.
Frequently characterised by quirky satire, Riding Lights’ productions challenge audiences to engage with topical themes and issues, often examining the reverberations of historical events in today’s society.
Classic plays such as Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (two national tours), Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist (the inaugural production at Friargate Theatre), Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo (Friargate Theatre and national tour) and Max Frisch’s The Fire Raisers (Bridewell Theatre, London) have found fresh and arresting relevance in Riding Lights productions.
Friargate Theatre’s brochure cover for the Autumn 2024season
THE poster boxes have gone, the windows are clear, the entrance hallway has new seating, all signs of the revival of activities at the Friargate Theatre in York.
Most significantly of all, brochures for the autumn season of comedy, theatre, storytelling, music, film and family shows at the home of Riding Lights Theatre Company are being distributed around the city.
In the wake of the death of Riding Lights founder and director and Friargate Theatre artistic programmer Paul Burbridge last year, the Christian theatre company is in the process of recruiting a new executive director and artistic director.
As the search goes on, the task of overseeing the Lower Friargate theatre and the autumn season falls to associate director Ollie Brown. “This season is all about rebuilding our audience,” he says. “Maybe some people have forgotten us as York’s hidden theatre by the river; we want to be come better known again with a programme that really supports York’s arts scene with shows York wants to see.”
Comedy will be to the fore, led off by the return of Right Here, Right Now, York’s improv comedy night on September 20, October 18, November 15 and December 6, when the merry band of improvisers will turn audience suggestions into chaotic comedy, music, mayhem and joy-filled nonsense.
September 26 marks the launch of Get Up Stand Up, York’s new monthly comedy club, featuring stand-ups from the British comedy circuit, each bill comprising a compere introducing two acts.
Check online at friargatetheatre.co.uk for updates on the 8pm line-ups for the last Thursday of each month, including October 31 and November 28. Steffen Peddie will host the first two shows, Tony Vino, the next two, and Patrick Monahan and Lost Voice Guy (Lee Ridley) will be among the acts heading for Lower Friargate.
Frankenstein (On A Budget), on October 5, combines one man, one monster, one glorious dream to singlehandedly tell the most famous cult horror story of all time on no budget whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong in this comedy musical Hammer Horror homage, replete with new music, cardboard creations and characters inspired by Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff.
Súper Chefs: Interactive musical exploring family, food and gender roles at Friargate Theatre on November 17
Still on the comedy front, ever witty York sketch writer and playwright Paul Birch will be holding workshops at his Improv Gym, some at Friargate Theatre, others at York Theatre Royal.
The autumn season will open on September 7 with the first family show, Welcome To The World, Little Wild Theatre’s interactive entertainment for nought to five-year-olds that takes a journey with Mother Earth’s children, Tide, Ariel and Blaze as they take their first steps in the world.
On September 28, Rhubarb Theatre’s Finding Chester follows the story of Edith Tiddles’ missing moggie when she needs the help of her delivery team to orchestrate the search.
Murray Lachlan Young’s epic fairytale for six-year-olds and upwards, The Chronicles Of Atom And Luna, will be performed by Funnelwick Limb on October 29 and October 30, with its story of special twins, one who can talk to the birds, the other who can control the moon.
Further family entertainment follows with Jam Jar Theatre’s puppetry musical How A Jellyfish Saved The World on November 3; Maya Productions’ Súper Chefs, a bi-lingual, interactive Latin American family musical by Betsy Picart, on November 17, and York company Next Door But One’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, a magical voyage across lakes and over mountains based on Philip Pullman’s novel, on November 30.
A season of thought-provoking and dynamic plays will start in a hurry on October 12 when Crew Of Patches present The Shakespeare Jukebox. The rules are simple: “give us the name of a Shakespeare play and we’ll do it…well, a bit of it at least”. History, comedy and tragedy combine chaotically, faced with 37 plays to slay.
Climate change will be the topic on October 12 in Decommissioned, a heart-warming, comical play inspired by the true story of Fairbourne in Wales, with its story of caring for children, falling in love and staying sane while tackling the climate catastrophe.
Frankenstein (On A Budget): Comedy musical Hammer Horror homage with gore & flashing lights on October 5
On October 25, Adverse Camber presents storyteller Phil Okwedy in The Gods Are All Here, a personal story sparked by the discovery of letters from his father in Nigeria to his mother in Wales. Myths, folk tales and legends of the African diaspora feature.
On November 29, Andrew Harrison performs The Beloved Son, a new play written and directed by Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts for Wayfarer Productions that explores hope and longing, family dynamics, sexual and emotional crises and the profound insights of priest and psychologist Henri Nouwen.
Mat Jones brings Charles Dickens’s Victorian story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge to life in his solo performance of A Christmas Carol on December 13.
The autumn’s season’s storytelling sessions promise a busy day for Gav Cross on November 2, presenting Ghastly Stories For Gruesome Gremlins at 2pm and After Supper Ghost Stories, a portmanteau of ghostly tales told by an unreliable narrator, at 7.30pm.
On the music front, on October 19, Saturday Night With The Shakers showcases the hits, misses, B-sides and lost classics from the golden age of Merseybeat. On November 1, Joseph O’Brien pays homage to Frank Sinatra in A Man And His Music.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival will be in residence from November 6 to 10 and a Christmas film double bill of The Muppet Christmas Carol (2.30pm) and Die Hard (8pm) is booked in for December 7.
Riding Lights return home for A Christmas Cracker, Paul Birch’s festive family show bursting with seasonal stories, told by world famous but lost storyteller Ebenezer Sneezer, from December 21 to 24. Comedy, puppetry and storytelling, strange ideas and a dog called Cracker combine in this magical glimpse of Christmas.
To book tickets, head to friargatetheatre.co.uk or ring 01904 613000.
In the line-up for Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios in the York Theatre Royal Studio next March: top row, Sarah Rumfitt, left, Kate Bramley, Connie Peel and Nicola Holliday; second row, Jules Risingham, Tempest Wisdom and Bailey Dowler; third row, Yixia Jiang, Jacob Ward and Claire Morley; bottom row, Paul Birch, Harri Marshall and Livy Potter
AFTER receiving more than four times as many applications as commissions available, York theatre company Next Door But One has assembled the next band of Yorkshire Trios – and a quartet – for March 2024.
“That many applicants is a sign of a few things,” says chief executive officer and artistic director Matt Harper-Hardcastle. “Just the sheer amount of talent that is within the local area; that there’s still a need after Covid for local creatives to be supported to get their own work out there, and hopefully that we as a company are seen as approachable and that people want to connect with us.”
Through a series of micro-commissions, York actors, writers and directors are being supported by NDB1 to produce original, short pieces of theatre that celebrate their individual skill and creativity.
“The brief is to create a five to 15-minute solo performance that in some way responds to the overall theme of ‘Top of the Hill’, so this is already resulting in stories of motherhood, grief, love, war and even Kate Bush!” says Matt.
“The writers are working on their second draft after receiving dramaturgical support from our team, and then rehearsals will begin in the early new year.”
The artists taking part will be Sarah Rumfitt, Kate Bramley, Connie Peel, Nicola Holliday, Jules Risingham, Tempest Wisdom, Bailey Dowler, Yixia Jiang, Jacob Ward, Claire Morley, Paul Birch, Harri Marshall and Livy Potter.
“This version is really building on everything that we learned and achieved from the first time around,” says Next Door But One artistic director Matthew Harper-Hardcastle
They will be working towards a showcase of original performances at York Theatre Royal next March, with more details on performance dates and how to book tickets to be released in the new year.
NDB1’s inaugural 2021 showcase of Yorkshire Trios in the garden performance space of The Gillygate pub marked the first live show in York after the lifting of Covid restrictions.
“At the time, many local performing arts professionals were feeling disconnected from their artistry and were extremely anxious about the future of their careers,” recalls Matt.
“So we listened to their concerns and created a series of micro-commissions to form new collaborative trios of an actor, writer and director, from which original work could be produced.”
One 2021 creative described Yorkshire Trios as “a total lifeline; a lighthouse in a stormy sea”. “Since then, Next Door But One has supported a further 44 creatives with mentoring in such areas as job applications and funding bid writing,” says Matt.
Yixia Jiang: Writing Love Letters Before Dawn for Yorkshire Trios
“We’ve always wanted to be an approachable company where creatives can hang their hat. We really believe in investing in the York cultural ecology, so this new iteration of Yorkshire Trios sits alongside our professional development programme, Opening Doors, and our Company Coaching provision.
“That provision is giving quarterly business and peer mentoring to five arts-based companies, Thunk-It Theatre, Story Craft Theatre, Terpsichoring dance company, Moon Dust and CoCreate, each with a different focus and at different stages of their development.”
Looking forward to next March’s showcase, NDB1 associate director Kate Veysey says: “It was really encouraging and humbling to read people’s honest reflections on what Yorkshire Trios could do for them within the application process.
“Some who had never been able to showcase their work in their hometown, others who had faced challenges in creating a professional network or establishing their careers on their own terms, and others who really respected our work and wanted to align their practice with our values. We feel really confident in being able to offer solutions to these points through this project.”
Emerging writer Yixia Jiang’s play Love Letters Before Dawn will be performed by Claire Morley, directed by Jacob Ward. “Working with this group of amazing people in York gives me a chance to take a glance into the local theatre industry and help establish myself as a playwright here,” he says.
York actor Bailey Dowler will perform Jules Risingham’s Anorak under the direction of Tempest Wisdom. “I wanted to get involved with Yorkshire Trios because there’s a lot of local talent in York and this is a perfect opportunity to widen my creative circle,” says Bailey.
“I cannot wait to work so closely with a writer and director. It’s such a rarity to have a one-to-one experience in the rehearsal room and so I’m excited to collaborate together, creating beautiful theatre, fuelled with passion.
“Next Door But One has a fantastic support system and I’m looking forward to being mentored and learning more about the process of creating a play, from outside the eyes of an actor.”
Fellow actor Nicola Holliday will present Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast, directed by Kate Bramley, artistic director of Badapple Theatre Company, and Connie Peel. “Having heard from friends what an incredible and inclusive company NDB1 was to work with, I was eager for the opportunity and chuffed to bits to be cast in Yorkshire Trios,” says Nicola.
“As an autistic, full-time working parent, finding flexible inclusive work can be a challenge and being welcomed with open arms, kindness and understanding by the whole NDB1 team has been lovely.
Nicola Holliday: Performer for Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast
“Meeting my Yorkshire quartet, such a talented creative and passionate bunch of local folks, I cannot wait to see our piece grow and develop, to be really challenged as an actor and to make some more meaningful connections here in York.”
Writer Sarah Rumfitt says: “Yorkshire Trios has given me an opportunity to explore my own voice within writing, something I have had little time for since becoming a mum.
“Being a creative is incredibly rewarding but also at times lonely. After an initial meeting with NDB1 and the other trios, I already feel more connected and part of an exciting community of Yorkshire-based creatives.”
Co-director Kate Bramley adds: “I’m really delighted to be working with Next Door But One on a brand new short play and mentoring another young director to boot, which makes us a unique four-person ‘trio’! I’ll be very excited to get started in the New Year.”
The fourth Yorkshire Trio comprises writer Paul Birch, actor Livy Potter and director Harri Marshall, combining on Running Up That Hill, the Kate Bush one.
Now that all the Yorkshire Trios have been introduced to one another, they can start creating performances that “really reflect who they are”. “We’ve provided the stimuli of ‘Top of The Hill’,” says NDB1 creative engagement manager El Stannage. “Not only because it then provides an overall theme to the final performances, but also because it brings a bit of the NDB1 ethos into the process.
Writer Sarah Rumfitt: Toast pops up at Next Door But One’s Yorkshire Trios showcase
“As a team, we often talk about what it’s like for us at the ‘top of the hill’; what it looks like when we are at our best, and that’s really what we want to instil in our trios. We want to celebrate each of them and applaud the incredible talent in our area.”
Highlighting how the 2024 Yorkshire Trios will differ from 2021, Matt says: “This version is really building on everything that we learned and achieved from the first time around.
“We’ve scheduled our Opening Doors programme to run alongside Yorkshire Trios this year, so we can offer development workshops for all the actors, writers and directors. We’ve included additional mentoring or adapted roles to suit the desired outcomes of certain creatives.
“The showcase of work will be performed in the York Theatre Royal Studio so we’ll be able to include more aesthetic decisions. And finally, we’ve reduced the number of commissions this time around so that we can increase the commission sum so that it’s more reflective of the work and energy each creative puts into it.”
Matt is delighted that the chosen artists are so diverse in representing York’s arts community in 2024. “As a company we really lead with who we are, and as an LGBTQ+ and disability-led company, we call to others who want to do the same, or want to be in those same spaces,” he says.
“Then the more that happens, the more others see themselves represented in both the industry and on stage, which then calls to more people, and so the process continues. So, it was really important to us that we had a real diversity across our trios, both in terms of identity and also experiences/stages in their career.”
The 2024 Yorkshire Trios – and a quartet
Kate Bramley: Co-directing Sarah Rumfitt’s Toast
Toast by Sarah Rumfitt
Performed by Nicola Holliday and directed by Kate Bramley and Connie Peel
AFTER giving birth, the midwife brings you toast; simple, medium cut, white Hovis that’s done a quick dip in the toaster, barely browned, overly buttered but the best thing Becky’s ever tasted. If only she knew what was coming…she’d have asked for the full loaf. Following a year-long struggle with post-natal depression, Becky and her son set off on their first walk together; they are going to the top of the hill; a place Becky would often walk alone before becoming “Mum”.
Livy Potter: Performing Paul Birch’s Running Up That Hill
Running Up That Hill by Paul Birch
Performed by Livy Potter and directed by Harri Marshall
ALEX is lost. Alex hates running but loves Kate Bush. They know all the facts about Kate Bush. Kate Bush drinks milk before recording and knows Lenny Henry. Alex is
running and Kate’s voice seems to help. Hill running is the worst and one (bastard) hill has them (almost) beat. This is the story of what Alex is running from and what they are running towards.
Prison is behind them as is their escape from a controlling relationship. Running up that hill is presently painful but it’s a different kind of pain from the past; besides, running up that hill might finally give Alex a clear view…
Harri Marshall: Directing Running Up That Hill
Love Letters Before Dawn by Yixia Jiang
Performed by Claire Morley and directed by Jacob Ward
A SOLDIER has been defending a battlefield from a hill for the past 100 days. Today he has given up on all chances to defend this place. All hopes seem lost.
However, the soldier keeps hold of his bravery and pride by remembering his fallen commander’s words: “We don’t persist because there is hope. It’s because of persisting, there shall be hope.”
Jacob Ward: Directing Yixia Jiang’s Love Letters Before Dawn
Anorak by Jules Risingham
Performed by Bailey Dowler and directed by Tempest Wisdom
THOMAS (no relation to The Tank Engine) loves trains. His whole life has been spent chasing trains, and always chasing after him was his partner, Charlie. Charlie did not like trains but loved Thomas. Thomas sits alone in his camping chair, on the top of his and Charlie’s favourite hill, looking down on the valley below, waiting for a train to pass that never seems to arrive.
With little to write about in his journal, he spends this time reflecting on his life with Charlie – and working out how to overcome his newfound grief. Thomas achieves a new understanding of grief, and how to keep living in the absence of our loved ones.
Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Helen Bauer in Madam Good Tit at Theatre@41 in October
NEW partnerships, returning performers, comedy acts aplenty and community theatre regulars make up the autumn and winter season at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
One year on from throwing open its doors post-pandemic, the black-box studio will play host to Yorkshire and national companies and artists alike.
“We’re doing all right, whether by chance or design!” says chair Alan Park. “In the year since we took over the programming, there’s been a nice balance between comedy, music and theatre, with a focus on new writing, as well as continuing our relationships with York Stage, Pick Me Up Theatre, White Rose Theatre, York Settlement Community Players and York Musical Theatre Company.
“The mailing list has gone up from 40 to 2,000 and we feel that people are invested in the building, our charity status, the work we present, and want us to do well. There are plenty of people who run theatres, but we want to run a ‘movement’ and we think we’re getting there.”
Colin Hoult in The Death Of Anna Mann. Picture: Linda Blacker
Looking ahead to the new season, one new partnership finds Theatre@41 linking up with York promoter Al Greaves’s well-established Burning Duck Comedy Club, complementing his programme at The Crescent (and previously at The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse).
“Maggie Smales, one of our trustees, reached out to Al,” says Alan. “Initially, comedy promoters were contacting us directly, and we were doing maybe two comedy shows a season, but we got in touch with Al to say ‘we don’t want to tread on your toes, but we’d love to work with you’, and so now we have six shows this autumn through linking up with Al.”
Among those shows will be Lauren Pattinson’s It Is What It Is on September 16; Colin Hoult, from the Netflix series After Life, presenting The Death Of Anna Mann on October 8; the returning Olga Koch, star of her own BBC Radio 4 series, in Just Friends on October 15 and fellow Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Newcomer nominee Helen Bauer’s Madam Good Tit, on October 22. Look out too for Taskmaster winner Sophie Duker next April.
Returning to Theatre@41 will be Dyad Productions, following up the sold-out I, Elizabeth with Christmas Gothic, adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan, on November 26 and 27, and Sarah-Louise Young, building on the sold-out success of Alan’s favourite show so far, An Evening Without Kate Bush, by presenting her charming yet cheeky West End and Off-Broadway cabaret hit Julie Madly Deeply, a tribute to Julie Andrews.
Sarah-Louise Young in her Julie Andrews tribute, Julie Madly Deeply. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Further returnees will be East Riding company Other Lives Theatre Productions in Landmarks, Nick Darke’s environmentally topical story of a farming family feud, and Nunkie Theatre’s Robert Lloyd Parry with two more gripping MR James ghost stories by candlelight in Oh, Whistle on November 25.
“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from artists, such as Olga Koch’s agent,” says Alan. “We know there’s paint peeling off walls, the roof is leaking, but we believe in making the artists welcome, like giving them a little York Gin pack on arrival. We try to be a friendly venue where everyone will want to come back.”
Endorsements for Theatre@41 are spreading, leading to debut visits by Mark Farrelly in his Quentin Crisp show, Naked Hope, on September 7 and Olivier Award-winning actor and director Guy Masterson, staging his one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on November 24.
Seven York companies and performers are booked in. Robert Readman’s Pick Me Up Theatre will stage Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical Jr from September 23 to October 2 and The Sound Of Music from December 16 to 30 in the Christmas slot. York Settlement Community Players will perform Christopher Durang’s Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike from November 3 to 5.
Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Christmas Gothic. Picture: Ben Guest
White Rose Theatre will deliver The Last Five Years, an emotionally charged musical full of upbeat numbers and beautiful ballads by Jason Robert Brown that tells the story of two lovers over the course of five years, with Cathy starting her tale at the end of the relationship and Jamie telling his story from the beginning. Directed by Claire Pulpher, it will run from November 9 to 12.
Barnstorming country-rock band The Rusty Pegs will play Rumours (Again!) in a 45th anniversary celebration of the Fleetwood Mac nugget on October 9, after giving Theatre@41’s re-launch gig post-Covid; Jessa Liversidge will sing Some Enchanted Sondheim on October 9, and York Musical Theatre Company will mark their 120th anniversary with A Musical Celebration on October 13 and 14.
Spookologist and ghost-botherer Doctor Dorian Deathly, a winner in the 2022 Visit York Tourism Awards, will make his Theatre@41 debut with his Halloween show, A Night Of Face Melting Horror!, from October 26 to 31.
“Each night, Dorian will be hot-footing over here after doing his Deathly Dark ghost tour for a cabaret evening with a bar of the dead and cocktails,” says Alan. “He came to us with the idea, and we thought, ‘yeah, let’s do it’. He has a huge following, so we’re delighted he wanted to come here.”
The horror! The horror” The poster for Doctor Dorian Deathly’s Halloween show, A Night Of Face Melting Horror!
Paul Birch, one of the stand-outs in York Theatre Royal’s Green Shoots showcase for new work in June, will bring his improv group, Foolish, to Theatre@41 for the third time. On September 15, he will host a night of ad-hoc comedy improvised from suggestions written in chalk on the stage floor under the title of Cobbled Together.
Seeking to foster a growing relationship with The Groves community, Theatre@41 will play host to the inaugural Groves Community Cinema: a weekend of classic films old and new right on residents’ doorsteps when visitors will be invited to “pay what you feel”, with support from an ARG Events and Festivals Grant in partnership with Make It York and City of York Council.
“Historically, we’re on the edge of The Groves, and maybe The Groves has never quite felt this is The Groves’ theatre, but we hope that putting on a community cinema weekend will make it feel more like it’s part of their community, rather than people just walking past our doors,” says Alan.
Olga Koch: Returning to Theatre@41 to present Just Friends
September 10 will offer Encanto Singalong at 2.30pm and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind at 6pm; September 11, Kes at 2.30pm and Nomadland at 6.30pm.
Three more new additions add to the sense of momentum at Theatre@41. Firstly, £5,000 funding from City of York Council and the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation will ensure the lighting rig “no longer wobbles”; secondly, the theatre will resume being a polling station for elections.
Last, but not least, the Monkgate building will be turned into the rehearsal rooms for veteran dame Berwick Kaler’s Grand Opera House pantomime, Old Granny Goose. “We’re giving them multiple rooms, including the dance studio,” says Alan. “They’ll have the run of the building basically.”
For performance times and to book tickets for the new season, head to: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Copyright of The Press, York
Pantomime dame Berwick Kaler and daft-lad sidekick Martin Barrass will be rehearsing Old Granny Goose at Theatre@41 ahead of its run at the Grand Opera House, York
Send in the clown : James Lewis-Knight in his Love Bite, Staying Connected. Picture: Tom Arber
YORK Theatre Royal has reopened after 427 days. The longest, darkest hiatus since the Second World War at England’s longest-running theatre has ended with a declaration of love.
More precisely, 22 love letters to the power of theatre, a craving for freedom of movement, expression and identity and the need for human connection: a collective, anything-but-cautious hug that was as much a sigh of relief as a breath of fresh York air in the form of a fiesta of five-minute vignettes commissioned from 220 applicants.
Let’s repeat that. 22O applicants for £1,000 commissions from York’s diverse arts community that refuses to accept Rich Boy Risha Sunak’s slight that such talents are non-viable. A community that will laugh off the Beano comic’s laughable Hilarity Report finding that the average York resident laughs only 14 times a day, the second lowest in the country. Are you joking? Laugher aplenty could be heard on Monday night, alongside the joy, the sadness, the uncertainty but hope.
Indeed, The 22 would surely challenge York Mix e-letter writer John Wolfe’s scalding, agent-provocateur assertion that York is a city of “no real festivals or decent venues. No sports centres or entertainment for locals. No chance of change either. Why do you think all of the young people move away? Outside of its history it’s drab and bl**dy awful.”
Crying Wolfe? Well, John, in the city of the York Community Stadium, four state-of-the-art cinemas, myriad theatres, ever more restaurants, café bars, coffee houses, independent galleries and a rising tide of street art, perhaps you should go York Theatre Royal, one of the country’s great theatres, tonight (Tuesday) to see the spread of talent, both young and older.
Some were born in the city and are determined to stay here, when the arts are becoming less London-centric; others have been drawn to the city from, for example, Canada and Zimbabwe, and here they gathered under one rainbow umbrella to express their love for York and their place in it.
Trouble is, John, you can’t buy a seat because, as with the first night, tonight’s Love Bites have sold out at the outset of a Love Season pulsing with life, vigour and, yes, love, topped off by Ralph Fiennes performing T S Eliot’s Four Quartets in late-July.
In the words of chief executive Tom Bird, Love Bites and The Love Season are a chance to “experience again the electric excitement that only live performance can bring. This spring and summer, we’re putting on a season of brave, bold love stories to celebrate the return of human connection. We’re doing it with passion, fervour and heart, as you’d expect.”
Monday night began with the much-loved veteran BBC broadcaster Harry Gration in host mode, toasting his 50-year love affair with the Theatre Royal before making way for the flurry of short pieces.
The screen backdrop could and probably should have been used for announcing each show title, writer and performer, especially as flicking through the e-programme on your phone in the dark would have been distracting for others, even in the socially distanced seating with the capacity reduced from 750 to 340.
Actor Toby Gordon’s hair has grown to Dave Grohl length in locks-down lockdown, but the golden tongue that delivered both Satan and later Jesus’s lines in the York Minster Mystery Plays now glistened anew in the questing, vexed poetry of W H Auden’s O Tell Me The Truth About Love.
Film would feature on several occasions through the night, first in a cinematic riparian soundscape by Ben Pugh to accompany the poetic ebb and flow of Robert Powell and Kitty Greenbrown’s The Angels Of Lendal Bridge, imagining those painted “angels” conversing above the Ouse, recalling so much water that has passed under their iron bridge amid a rising tide of love.
Luella Rebbeck, Jamie Marshall-White and Isla Bowles in The Art Of Losing. Picture: Tom Arber
CAPA College student trio Luella Rebbeck, Jamie Marshall-White and Isla Bowles, in glowing green and pink socks to suit the occasion, were nevertheless in contemplative mood in The Art Of Losing, tempo slow, bodies graceful, in what they emphasised were three “non-love stories”, but instead felt more like a lament; a year’s absence making the heart grow fonder for “what it means to have contact with one another”.
Playwright, poet and slam champ Hannah Davies’s tweets at @davieswords have charted her enervating health frustrations, but no York shaper of words captures a sense, meaning and memory of place so movingly, so evocatively, and what a joy it was to see back on a stage for Love Song To Spring.
Accompanied by Jack “Pascallion” Woods’s exploratory guitar paths, her lockdown love story journeyed through the freshly discovered joys of city walking and spring renewal in York’s myriad green spaces. Listen to Hannah, and you will step into spring with added spring in your step.
New discovery of the night was much-travelled Zimbabwean playwright Butshilo Nleya, who “wondered if my pockets are big enough to carry home with me” as he moved to York.
Explosive bursts of drumming and film imagery by Sunnie Hsia of Butshilo on York streets, stairways and in the dank Leeman Road tunnel formed a triptych with his soliloquy, Ekhaya, Love Them Both?, as he mulled over place, love and self, with humour rooted in observation of York’s idiosyncrasies, but a deeper wish to find his place, wherever he plays his drum, whatever life throws at him. One to watch, definitely.
For aeons, a Nightingale’s nocturnal song has had writers reaching for metaphors for love and beauty. Musician, performance writer and actor Tom Nightingale’s song, Elaine, is to “show everyone my gratitude to the only lady who has ever helped me”, his wife.
In its cautious yet unguarded way it was a song of love and beauty suffused with unshaven, wry, deadpan frankness, delivered in the spirit of John Otway and Jonathan Richman beneath Martin Stephenson’s cocked hat. Nightingale writes as a “therapeutic outlet”, to make sense of life; on Monday, it worked for your reviewer; hopefully it does for Elaine too.
The name in the Love Bites e-programme and in her Q&A answers to CharlesHutchPress is Erika Noda, but the Japanese-English actor and East 15 graduate born in York introduced herself on Monday as Aiaka, the name that a teacher found so difficult, she called her ‘Ai’ and banished her from the classroom for insubordination in challenging her.
So began the journey to Ai, Erika/Aiaka’s semi-autobiographical debut solo-writing work, examining her dual heritage and encounters with racist “microaggression”, growing up in York, (a city once so white it was dubbed “Persil Town”). On the evidence of Ai, this quest for identity remains unresolved, a bumpy ride with such familiar stones in the road as “no, but where are you really from?”.
Even the inventor of Zoom apparently has had enough of all those enervating Zoom-and-gloom meetings, but loveable York musical-comedy double act Fladam (pianist-singer Adam Sowter and funny face-puller and singer Florence Poskitt) found the funny side of this digital bridge to connecting in lockdown-separation in the tartly topical Love Bytes. Aptly, the cheeky, witty, melodious encounter was long-distance, Adam on stage, Flo online, filling the screen with a squelchy face as ripe for comedy as Thora Hird or Victoria Wood.
Surprise of the night? Seeing Paul Birch on stage and then wondering why he does not frequent this space more often. Maybe he is just too busy writing and directing, and running Out Of Character, the York company for artists with experiences of mental illness.
His twisting-and-turning five-minute gem, Lost For Words, was a mind-game in motion as the quicksilver Birch fought to save his most precious relationship in a race against time where a killjoy voice from beyond kept stripping him of the right to use letters from the alphabet, letter by letter. You found yourself joining him in his mental exercise, smugly spotting him still using a ‘V’ when barred from doing so, but cheering him on as he tried to keep his head above water as the wds rn t. Could this be a game show in the making?
All around is frown time, but clown time is never over for the red-nosed James Lewis-Knight, actor and artistic director of Clown Space, purveyor of comical pandemonium amid a pandemic. After a year as the Clown in Lockdown, wandering the busking streets of York turned silent, James unlocked his dusty case to make his mimed plea for Staying Connected. He kept saying “Picnic”, but where Birch was lost for words, James was a little lost for meaning, one punchline short of his Picnic having more bite.
If you heard Dora Rubinstein’s perkily assertive rendition of Gus Gowland’s The Streets Of York blind, you would swear it was from a musical. Sure enough, Gowland, latterly moved to York, is a musical theatre writer/composer with the award-winning Pieces Of String to his name. Gowland’s celebration of Gentleman Jack Anne Lister’s wedding vows in a York church will surely grow from a love letter to a full-blown show, a progression the Theatre Royal should encourage and activate.
Janet-Emily Bruce and Cassie Vallance in Story Craft Theatre’s She Can Go Anywhere. Picture: Tom Arber
In a night of storytelling, butter-rich with words, the shadow puppetry of children’s theatre company Story Craft Theatre silently spoke volumes to the accompaniment of Jonathan Glew’s beautiful score in She Can Go Anywhere. Who knew you could say so much with a sheet, folded and unfolded by Cassie Vallance and Janet-Emily Bruce as if a cotton version of origami, freeing imaginations when the pandemic has shrunk the world to the home, transforming life’s caterpillars into butterflies.
Hannah Wintie-Hawkins was a dancer at the double in her terpsichorean love letter In The Beginning, at once on stage and in digital artist Aaron Howell’s accompanying film, dancing with baby Mabel in her arms. It was as though Hannah, like us, was watching in wonder at the joy of a new arrival: a beacon of hope amid the pandemic turbulence, only in her case it was moving her to break out into a dance. The dual focus, however, was not wholly satisfying, as she danced with herself, the one distracting from the other, rather than intertwining like mother and daughter on screen.
Richard Kay, actor, singer, pantomime writer and Zoom choir leader, asked his choir members two questions: how and why do you like singing? Whereupon he compiled the answers into the composition For The Love Of Singing, a song as nimble on its feet as Fred Astaire and wittily delivered in the crisply enunciated manner of a Richard Stilgoe, with digital choir backing and the projection of words dancing in and out of formation in David Todd’s playful animation. Clever, humorous, warm and briskly energetic, and tuneful to boot, it would sit well in a cabaret revue.
How did it feel to be back in the theatre after 427 days? Actor Maurice Crichton caught those feelings as he cast his net of observations in Where Are We Now, You And I?, and he looked in such a hurry to deliver his thoughts, it was as if he had come straight from a rehearsal room in tracksuit trousers and The Show Must Go On T-shirt, hair unkempt.
Not that he rushed through his sage counsel, instead understanding feelings of anger, advising a policy of gentleness with each other and not expecting too much too soon, while breathing in the wonder of theatre once more. How right he was; how emotional too.
Canadian-born papercut artist Elena Skoreyko Wagner, countertenor and composer James Cave and libretto editor Bethan Ellis promised Magic and delivered it too in a four-minute mini-musical, set in a constantly evolving paper theatre that grew ever prettier under Elena’s delicate guidance.
Elena seeks to discover “magic and meaning in everyday, mundane experiences”, the transcendent magic rising through her imagery and the beauty of James’s singing, and in the stasis of the pandemic, a walk, birdsong, gardening, baking banana bread, have indeed taken on a heightened magical air.
On their Twitter account, non-binary, unapologetically autistic creator Ashleigh J Mills (they/them) calls themselves Angry Black Changeling. Identity and accessibility into theatre lay at the heart of In Progress, their spoken-word exploration of the “interplay between race, self-understanding and the shifting boundaries of gender over the span of a solitary year” when experiencing life on the margins.
Ashleigh has kept a Good Words List for four years, and on the screen behind them, the constant, measured flicking through a book revealed word after word standing proud from the text, each building a picture of Ashleigh’s questing, creative fascination with words.
Those words were knitted together to form their soliloquy, a still-evolving expression of Ashleigh as a work in progress in changing times, and only good words can be said of their poetic candour.
Of all the five minutes, nothing brought a broader smile than the sheer joy in dancing together of Alice Boddy and Leanne Hope, friends since Northern Ballet School days, who burst out of a restricted year of living-room creativity to revel in a Love Letter To Female Friendship on the dancefloor in the face of such trying times. They were so in their moment, they were in their own world, but one we all could recognise and wish to join in.
The title, Mise En Aby-Me, may have been baffling, but life model, milliner and costumier Claire Spooner made a fascinating body of work in her physical theatre piece that testified to her desire to tell a story through the human form, rather than words, in this case aided by Richard Stephenson’s artwork and LEMNIS’s music.
Claire turned herself into a Russian doll, peeling off layers, adding masks, revealing how she presented herself in relationships, love in different guises, until nothing could hide the constant persona within, beauty beyond the eye of the beholder.
Deaf director and “self-proclaimed proactive busy-body” Harri Marshall composed a semi-autobiographical love letter to oneself via cards and correspondence collected over the past year…and then handed over the task of interpreting them aloud to Sarah Huggett, accompanied by the exact wording on the screen behind.
I say “exact” because text and voice did not always say the same lines and you found yourself checking for differences as much as concentrating on Harri’s flow of meaning. What’s more, the rhythm of the language was broken too, screen and voice going in and out of synch. Hopefully, I Often Think Of You had a better second night.
Before Reverie came a nightmare, thankfully only briefly, as a flick of a switch belatedly awoke the somnambulant keyboard for composer, pianist and piano teacher Vanessa Simmons’s retelling of a dream in musical form. Ah, what peace, after the fizzing fireworks, as an unperturbed Vanessa rejoiced in “the beauty, sorrow and power of real love”.
Last, but anything but least and rightly chosen as the finale was 5 Minute Call, penned by esteemed York playwright Bridget Foreman, writer of 30 plays, both large and solo, with another, My Place, on the way.
Chief exec Tom Bird’s Irish-accented actor wife, Laura Pyper, took on the guise of a theatre “techie” five minutes before curtain-up, taking instruction on checking lighting for stage positions while capturing how the theatre itself felt about the return of life on its boards, warming up to the reunion with its lifeblood, both performers and audiences. The feeling of love was mutual, as the Pied Pyper led us back to our spiritual home.
These Love Bites left their mark, so much so, let’s hope York Theatre Royal can look to open further seasons with showcases for the city’s talents, £1,000 commissions et al.
Not sorry to be a nuisance at York Explore tonight
WHISPER it loudly, the word is out that history will misbehave tonight at York Explore Library, Library Square, York, from 7.30pm to 9pm.
Why? Because the air will be thick with Paul Birch’s live audio drama The Nuisance Inspector, wherein a sinister slice of York’s past, the Hungate Clearances, will be re-told.
Birch travels back to the 1930s when York’s newest Health Inspector encounters more than he bargains for in the mysterious and extraordinary alleys and yards of Hungate.
A strange body in the Foss, ghostly goings-on in Carmelite Street and an unlikely romance all feature in this moving tale of love, loss and community spirit.
Based on real events and inspired by letters, maps, books and photographs from the civic archives, The Nuisance Inspector uses drama, comedy and live music to transport the audience into a powerful and poignant past.
Tonight’s immersive performance comes in the wake of two sold-out shows in December. Doors open at 7pm for the 7.30pm start and tickets are FREE. Be sure to arrive in good time for start.
