Tag: Paul Birch

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Riding Lights brings magical storytelling and plant-potting to The Selfish Giant at Friargate Theatre and on autumn tour

Matthew Rutherford, left, and Jared More in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s The Selfish Giant

RIDING Lights Theatre Company steps back into the magical world of the Giant’s garden in this season’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant.

Premiered under the artistic direction of the late Paul Burbridge in 2019, Jon Boustead’s stage adaptation of Wilde’s story from his 1888 collection The Happy Prince And Other Tales is being revived by the York company at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, this week ahead of this autumn’s 18-date tour, all preceded by a performance at The Big Feastival over the  August Bank Holiday weekend on Blur bassist Alex James’s farm in Kingham, Oxfordshire.

Artistic director Paul Birch directs Riding Lights returnees Jared More and Matthew Rutherford in an itinerary that will take in further Yorkshire performances at The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds, September 13 (2pm); Skipton Town Hall, September 18 (11am & 2pm); CAST, Doncaster, September 27 (11am & 2pm); St Edmund’s Church, Roundhay, Leeds, September 28 (5pm); Gate Helmsley Village Hall, October 1 (6.30pm); Junction, Goole, October 4 (2pm), and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 26 (2pm & 6pm) and October 27 (11am and 2pm).

In a 50-minute show full of music, beauty, bird song and stories, the Giant is cross when he returns to find children – children! – playing happily in his beautiful orchard. Every day after school, they laugh and play games under the blossom trees, prompting him to erect a big wall to terminate their fun. Worse still, once winter seizes the garden in its icy fingers, will summer ever come back?

Riding Lights brings a fast-moving combination of storytelling, interactive games, live music and puppetry to The Selfish Giant’s inspirational tale of love and generosity, suitable for children aged three upwards and their families.

Performances at 1.30pm and 4.30pm at Friargate Theatre will be complemented by free craft activities, available each day between 12.30pm and 6pm in the café/bar space, and a meet & greet with Jared and Matthew will follow each performance.

Jared, last seen on Riding Lights duty in Christmas Inn Trouble last winter, will play Jack, the Storyteller, as well as voicing the puppet of a little boy and joining Matthew in playing the daffodils Daffy and Dil and wintry double act Snow and Frost. Matthew will be Smog the Giant on his return to Riding Lights after appearing in Night Falls and As You Like It.

Jared More and Matthew Rutherford’s daffodil duo Daffy and Dil in Riding Lights’ The Selfish Giant

“One of my first jobs after theatre training was appearing in The Selfish Giant in Riding Lights’ Christmas tour in 2019, directed by Paul Burbridge, when we toured mainly around North Yorkshire,” recalls Jared, who bears a distinctive Isle of Man accent. “We them made a film version, filmed in 2020 when Covid restrictions were lifted before locking down again for Christmas that year.”

Paul is delighted that Riding Lights is revisiting The Selfish Giant, a story that shows another side to Oscar Wilde. “He wrote a lot of children’s stories and this one really fits in with those stories being sweet and kind and loving, when we think of Wilde having an acerbic wit in his comedies of manners. The Selfish Giant shows a side of him that people maybe don’t know as well.”

At the same time, the imposition of barriers in The Selfish Giant chimes with his own experiences.  “Wilde knew what it was like to be excluded,” says Paul. “In the story, you have to go to a sad place to then have the redemption arc,” says Jared.

“It’s also about friendship and care, with a message that when someone is feeling sad, it’s best to stick around,” says Paul. “I like how the little boy brings care back to Smog’s life,” says Jared.

“If someone thinks the story is about bereavement, that works,” says Paul. “If they think it’s about lost friendship, that works too.” “Or if they think it’s about bullying, that also works,” says Matthew.

“As it’s a story for age three upwards, we’ve talked about it being about an emotional, rather than intellectual, response,” says Paul. “I love that we can make a work that is playful and celebratory  but it’s also not frightened to tread on emotional territory – and you can really feel that emotional response being experienced together in the room.”

Matthew says: “It’s fun to perform, particularly with it being interactive, so there are these emotional moments that really hit home, but we also get the children in the audience  to plant flowers in the Giant’s garden and later water them – and there’s something magical about that.

The Selfish Giant director Paul Birch

“Those moments connect us and we can honour children being part of the creative process, engaging with them in a way that is a privilege for us, when that would be harder with older audiences.”

Jared says: “One of the things I love about it is the essential ‘liveness’ to the show, where we’re actively inviting involvement. You have to go with how they react, so you are co-creating with the children, collaborating with them, which is something I love with children’s shows.”

Matthew adds: “There are those moments where the children can be complicit in it, like when a child spotted I had the wrong sock on the wrong foot and I could then acknowledge that they’d spotted it.”

This week’s audiences should expect a show delivered at breakneck pace. “That’s not to say it doesn’t have light and shade, but it’s definitely high energy,” says Jared.  

“But we’ve also trimmed it slightly to focus on the storytelling in the slower moments, which then resonate more,” says Matthew.

“It’s not frenzied storytelling, but when the show’s fast, it really is fast,” says Paul.

Riding Lights Theatre Company  presents The Selfish Giant, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate Theatre, York, until Saturday, 1.30pm and 4.30pm, and then on tour from September 12 to October 29. Box office: ridinglights.org/theselfishgiant.

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Riding Lights revive Dario Fo’s riotous twist on Mystery Plays in subversive comedy Mistero Buffo at Friargate Theatre

Cathy Sara’s Villeyn and Thomas Frere’s Jongleur in rehearsal for Riding Lights’ Mistero Buffo at Friargate Theatre. Picture: John Shepherdson

TWO wild strangers will roll into York today for the 2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe, tasked with telling tales destined to turn the city upside down.

Combining ferocious wit and fearless physical storytelling, artistic director Paul Birch’s production of Mistero Buffo for York’s Christian theatre company, Riding Lights, will tear into faith, power, profit and hypocrisy by turning ancient Bible stories into urgent, humorous modern theatre with a clear spiritual heart.

Translated by Ed Emery from Nobel prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo’s 1969 Communist take on the Mystery Plays, this subversive and unapologetically seditious comedy will be performed by Yorkshire actors Thomas Frere and Cathy Sara.

Premiered by Fo as a solo piece, Mistero Buffo was last performed by Riding Lights with a cast of four in July 2003 under the direction of late founder and artistic director Paul Burbridge, who had once performed the play in solo mode himself. 

Thomas Frere in a scene from Mistero Buffo. Picture Tom Jackson

Now it will be staged as a two-hander. “We’ve taken it that the Jongleur and Villeyn are the two central characters, building our show around that relationship, with the Jongleur – a character who came from commedia dell’arte – being the person who’s empowered to speak out,” says director Paul Birch.

“We’re staging Mistero Buffo 100 years since Dario Fo’s birth, using  Emery’s translation but they’ve let us introduce some more topical satire,” says director Paul Birch. “So we’ve gone from Italian car factories to AI and zero hours contracts. The Jongleur character is speaking truth to power now, rather than to the 1960s. It will be very obvious that’s it’s here and now, in this space, though we’re not doing it in the Yorkshire dialect.”

Paul was drawn to Mistero Buffo by Riding Lights’ long association with the York Mystery Plays and dramas where religion overlaps with politics. “For me personally, because it uses Biblical storytelling, and as a company we’re seeing how religion gets into bed with politics, and we’re faced with seeing that in America now, I see it as a distortion of faith. That’s what’s happening with faith and politics now.”

Thomas Frere says: “When you start to read the script, there are phrases that jump out at you, where you think, ‘it could have been written now with its stories of bosses trying to take advantage of people, though it was written in the 1960s’.”

Cathy Sara says: “People are people, and to me it’s the people who are victims when power is applied; how hopeless they feel, though there is always hope – but who’s going to speak up for you and who’s going to speak out?”

Mistero Buffo designer Ollie Brown, left, and director Paul Birch

Thomas rejoins: “It will be interesting to see how these stories go down because we don’t really know  at this stage. I honestly don’t know how the audience will react.”

Paul says: “The audience for our touring shows is very different from an audience at Friargate Theatre in our home city. With this show, they may come as beloved Mystery Plays followers, who might be shocked by something in Fo’s play, which shifts how you react. One moment you will laugh; the next moment you may feel differently.”

Cathy rejoins: “That’s what’s unsettling about this play, where you now question what’s true, what’s the truth.”

Paul suggests: “The imagined in Mistero Buffo can be truthful, so it’s slippery, but I hope people find the play empowering and feel inspired to make provocative work that criticises as well as celebrates. I think it’s really exciting for Riding Lights to be part of doing that. It certainly floats my political boat!”

Cathy asserts: “Theatre has the chance to ask questions, but where we don’t have to give all the answers. I think theatre is more honest than that, rougher than that.”

Cathy Sara in a vignette from Riding Lights’ Mistero Buffo. Picture: Tom Jackson

Paul  adds: “There’s a lot of direct address in Mistero Buffo, and plenty of audience involvement in the storytelling, so the audiences will become complicit in it and aren’t just witnesses. That’s why this production has a very different feel from when it was last done here – and Ollie Brown’s in-the-round setting will definitely have an impact on that.”

Riding Lights are delighted and excited to be participating in the 2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe. “It’s all part of York being the city of festivals, which has always been a good tourist ploy,” says Thomas. “When they come to the city, there’s always something for them to do – and theatre companies should always reach out to them, as well as playing to local people.”

Paul says: “I feel that ‘festival’ and ‘festivities’ are good words to describe this play, where people can come to the theatre and  see this kind of punky play in a city where things can grow in back alleys.

“With this Fringe production, we really want to see if there’s a way for us to make interesting and provocative work like this that’s not reliant on us touring it.” Watch this space.

Riding Lights Theatre Company in Mistero Buffo, Friargate Theatre, York, today, tomorrow, then July 1 to 4, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees on July 3 and 4. Box office: www.ridinglights.org.

Cathy Sara’s Villeyn, expressing her frustrations as she cleans the floor in Mistero Buffo. Picture: Tom Jackson

REVIEW: Riding Lights Theatre Company in Mistero Buffo, York Mystery Plays 2026 Fringe, Friargate Theatre, York ****

THE York Mystery Plays began as street plays, not the works of the church, but taking Bible stories to the people from dawn until dusk on Corpus Christi Day.

Nobel prize-winning Italian Communist playwright Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo was written as his 1969 update on that form of storytelling, turning ancient texts into startling modern parables suffused with spiritual zeal, while attacking contemporary social ills too.

In York Christian theatre company Riding Lights’ contribution to this summer’s 2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe, artistic director Paul Birch steered a two-hander production where “two wild strangers rolled into York to tell tales destined to turn the city upside down”.

Thomas Frere’s Jongleur spinning a tale in Mistero Buffo. Picture: Tom Jackson

Friargate Theatre was transformed into a theatre in the round – the first time your reviewer has seen a play there in theatre’s most immersive setting – for two highly experienced hands, Yorkshire actors Thomas Frere and Cathy Sara, to play respectively the Jongleur (an itinerant jester/entertainer in medieval Europe) and the honest, persevering Villeyn (representing the downtrodden, working-class peasant).

We arrived to the sight of Sara’s Villeyn forlornly striving to polish the already shiny floor on cleaning duty, but only adding new marks to the surface.

It was exhausting just watching her, talking under her breath, as she went about her variation on painting the Forth Bridge or Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill again and again. Looking on too, from a front row seat, was Frere’s Jongleur in dapper bow tie, hair slicked back, biding his time before playing his travelling satirist’s hand in railing against injustice.

Translated by Ed Emery, Mistero Buffo is a series of visceral vignettes that “takes a satirical swipe at abuses of power and religious abuses”, attacking wickedness and folly, censuring rulers who misuse their powers and turn in to predators.

Cathy Sara’s Mary at the foot of the cross. Picture: Tom Jackson

Between them, Sara and Frere told such vignettes as The Resurrection Of Lazarus, The Wedding At Cana and The Birth Of The Jongleur on Ollie Brown’s set, designed “on a shoestring”, where the cross for Christ’s crucifixion took the form of a set of stepladders.

Jesus’s mother, Mary, speaks in only four passages in the Bible, but here Fo gives her the most devastating scene, pleading to be able to bring her son’s life to a close when he is in so much pain. Sara’s performance was remarkable, heartbreaking in our helplessness to help Mary.

Fo’s vignettes called on Frere and Sara to go from loud to quiet, humorous to gravely serious, chaotic to still at the last, and they did so with fire and grace.

Mistero Buffo was created with “tight constraints, limited budget, limited time and limited resources”, but Birch, Brown, Frere and Sara thrived, and it would be no surprise to see Riding Lights mount such a venture again.

Lighting up the stage: Cathy Sara in Mistero Buffo. Tom Jackson

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Riding Lights vows ‘the show must go on’ after theft of van & set for Night Falls tour

Riding Lights executive director Ollie Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch

YORK theatre company Riding Lights has vowed that the show must go on after the theft of its van and set for 2026 Lent tour show Night Falls.

The van contained the entire set, costumes and technical equipment for artistic director Paul Birch’s fresh, vivid and dynamic retelling of the Easter story.

After weeks of preparation and the 31-date UK tour’s launch at The Lowry, Salford, the sudden, overnight disappearance of almost everything needed to stage Night Falls has left the company devastated at the loss yet determined that the tour will continue despite the setback.

Riding Lights Theatre Company actors Matthew Rutherford and Esther Atkins in Paul Birch’s Night Falls. Picture: Tom Jackson

Cast and crew returned to their Friargate Theatre base in York to begin work on rebuilding the production, sourcing replacement technical equipment, assembling an alternative set from the company’s warehouse and pulling together replacement costumes with support from suppliers and partners.

“The production may look different when it returns to the stage, but its story and message remain unchanged — a message of hope emerging from grief, and the belief that even in difficult moments, joy can follow,” says executive director Ollie Brown.

“We are truly devastated by this loss. Months of work disappeared overnight, but we are determined to pick ourselves up and carry on. The show will go on. We are already working hard to rebuild the production so we can get back on the road. We are moving mountains to make it happen.”

Matthew Rutherford and Esther Atkins in a scene from Riding Lights’s production of Paul Birch’s Night Falls. Picture: Tom Jackson

Riding Lights is asking for support from the public and the theatre community to help sustain the remaining tour dates and rebuild what has been lost. Donations can be made at www.ridinglights.org/donate.

Blending music and powerful drama, alongside space for reflection and worship, Birch’s new Passion Play covers the final four days before an execution that will change everything in a story of three enemies who want to put an end to the so-called Messiah, two strangers torn between faith and doubt, hope and grief, as they try to prevent Jesus of Nazareth from getting himself arrested, and one safe house in Bethany. 

The hours are running out, but even as night falls, a strange hope is wrapped in a secret that both strangers share. For this is the house of Lazarus, and under his roof, the impossible has already occurred.

In the weeks ahead, Night Falls is booked to play Dorchester, Gloucester, Camberley, Ash, in Kent, Chelmsford, Lowestoft, Billericay, St Albans, Chiswick, Skegness, Stratford-upon-Avon, Croydon, St German’s Priory, in Cornwall, and Minehead on the tour’s closing day, April 6.

The poster for Riding Lights’ tour of Night Falls

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REVIEW: Riding Lights Theatre Company in Christmas Inn Trouble, on tour, then Friargate Theatre, York, Dec 20 to 24 ****

Jared More and the more-and-more-roles-playing Katie Coen in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s alternative Nativity play, Christmas Inn Trouble. All pictures: Tom Jackson, Jackson Portraiture

CHRISTMAS Inn Trouble is Riding Lights’ second festive show since the York faith theatre practitioners’ 2024 re-launch and the first since artistic director Paul Birch and executive director Oliver Brown teamed up as co-chief executive officers.

As is customary, Riding Lights are heading off around the country, this time taking in Barrow-in-Furness, Mold, Bulwell, Lliswerry, Cheltenham, Chiswick, Hadleigh, Colchester, South Benfleet, St Albans and closer to home, Easingwold, before a five-day finale back home at their Friargate Theatre headquarters.

First up was a brace of performances at St Peter’s Church, Norton, playing to 600 children from Norton Community Primary School, perched two child per chair, in the afternoon before a public show at 5pm, when plenty of children were present again, introduced with delightedly expressive enthusiasm by Reverend Jenny Buckler, who moved to God’s Own Country from Somerset in 2021.

Last winter, Birch wrote A Christmas Cracker, his first play since taking the Riding Lights reins, rooted in the transformative power of storytelling, delivered with Birch’s trademark comedy plus puppetry aplenty.

Katie Coen’s shepherd in Christmas Inn Trouble

Description and detailed plot progression played a stronger hand than visual, magical wonder under Erin Burbridge’s direction. This time, Birch is in the director’s chair, at the helm for Rachell Price’s fast-moving, fun, physical, fizzing two-hander for all the family that is a definite upgrade on A Christmas Cracker in its comedic impact while being as strong as ever on delivering “a magical new twist on the Nativity that turns the traditional tale on its head”.

After soothing the white-noise technical gremlins that stopped the start in its tracks – handled  with admirable aplomb by cast members Katie Coen and University of York-educated Jared More – the hour-long show quickly finds its rhythm as bother aplenty afflicts The Bethlehem Inn and Spa.

The taps are leaking, the rats, squeaking, the rooms, fit to burst as the Bible story meets Fawlty Towers in the sparring of More’s hotel manager and the multi-role playing Coen’s dogsbody, doing all the graft. If she is more Polly than Sybil, More definitely has the flavour of Basil, from moustache, gait and height to oversized tie, temperament and oleaginous air.

His performance, however,  is not mere Fawlty pastiche. Instead, he makes his manager a befuddled, exasperated character of his own as he awaits the arrival of a special guest.

Over-stretched: Jared More’s manager tries to handle multiple phone calls when the inn is already fully booked for Christmas

Given the date, we know who that “guest” might turn out to be, even if the manager is none the wiser, as all the clues build up in Coen’s portfolio of characters, turning herself into a grouchy, rascally Roman guard, Joseph (good with a hammer and wood), Mary (only too happy to take over the cow shed), a shepherd and a “Professor”, Price’s variation on the (un)Wise Men.

All are played with comic zest, all the better for Coen’s interaction with More that clicks instantly. They make for a highly humorous double act, but More reveals another side when, spoiler alert, cradling the baby.

Writer Price is alive to the power of puppetry and pooping noises being guaranteed to bring the young house down, and how they laugh at a cheeky donkey popping out of the myriad cupboards doors to bite More on the backside or grab and eat his bookings diary. The more the donkey does so, the louder the laughs grow. Likewise, the squelching boots of Coen’s shepherd are irresistibly comical, the more she walks.  

Caitlin Mawhinney’s set is colourful and playful. The Spa sign is a loose-fitting add-on for a new facility, sure to fall off; the manager’s desk revolves around the stage at pace; the phone is sky blue, old-fashioned, but with a modern ring tone for the children to recognise. In the tradition of farce, two doors are in constant use; the cupboard ones even more so.

Riding Lights Theatre Company’s co-chief executive officers Oliver Brown and Paul Birch, director of Christmas Inn Trouble

“Our aim is to make theatre make a difference by creating unforgettable, entertaining theatre in response to current issues and the hopes and fears of the world we share,” says Brown. Christmas Inn Trouble does exactly that, not in a preachy, heavy-handed way, but with lightness and a sense of wonder at the abiding message of the magical Christmas story.

Mawhinney’s set and costume design are a joy, complementing the tone of Price’s storytelling with a palette of matching pleasures, while Patrick Burbridge’s songs are as much fun for the performers as they are for the audience.

Christmas Inn Trouble lives up to its vow to “bring you the Nativity like you’ve never seen it before!”, setting up families so joyfully for Christmas Day.

Riding Lights Theatre Company in Christmas Inn Trouble, The Galtres Centre, Easingwold, December 13,  2pm; Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, December 20, 1.30pm and 4pm, December 21 to 24, 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm. Box office: Easingwold, https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/mbbjvlpojddg; York, 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/christmasinntrouble.

Behind you: The scene-stealing donkey brings a smile to Katie Coen’s Professor, one of the (un)Wise Men by another name in Christmas Inn Trouble

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Riding Lights set off on festive tour of Christmas Inn Trouble. Friargate Theatre shows follow from December 20 to 24

Jared More and Katie Coen in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s Christmas Inn Trouble. Picture: Tom Jackson, Jackson Portraiture

RIDING Lights Theatre Company launches its 2025 festive show, Christmas Inn Trouble, at St Peter’s Church, Malton, today at 5pm.

Billed as “a magical new twist on the Nativity”, the York Christian theatre practitioners’ follow-up to last winter’s A Christmas Cracker is written by Rachel Price and directed by artistic director Paul Birch.

 Set to bring Yuletide joy to families in Yorkshire and beyond, Christmas Inn Trouble promises to “turn the traditional tale on its head”.

Bother aplenty is afflicting The Bethlehem Inn and Spa, where taps are leaking, the rats are squeaking and the rooms are fit to burst. So many guests have arrived that parking your camel is impossible and, if things were not bad enough already, a rascally Roman soldier has come to make sure everything is above board.

Management problems for Jared More in Christmas Inn Trouble. Picture: Tom Jackson, Jackson Portraiture

“Join Riding Lights as we bring a Christmas comedy filled with silly shepherds, some very (un)wise men and a young family who have no idea what they have let themselves in for,” says says Oliver Brown, Riding Lights’ executive director and co-chief executive officer.

“Christmas Inn Trouble is a fast and friendly festive farce and the perfect way to start your holiday cheer! It’s a funny slapstick comedy perfect for telling the story of the Nativity to primary-school aged children and their families.”

Riding Lights is one of Great Britain’s most productive and long-established independent theatre companies. Founded in York in 1977, the company continues to take innovative, accessible theatre into all kinds of communities far and wide.

Katie Coen’s shepherd in Rachel Price’s play Christmas Inn Trouble. Picture: Tom Jackson, Jackson Portraiture

“Our aim is to make theatre make a difference by creating unforgettable, entertaining theatre in response to current issues and the hopes and fears of the world we share,” says Oliver.

Christmas Inn Trouble will be performed by a cast of Jared More and Katie Coen, with set and costume design by Caitlin Mawhinney and compositions and sound design by Patrick Burbridge.

The tour will take in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; Mold, North Wales; Bulwell, Nottinghamshire; Lliswerry, South Wales; Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; Chiswick, West London; Hadleigh, Colchester and South Benfleet, all Essex; St Albans, Hertfordshire, and, closer to home, The Galtres Centre, Easingwold, concluding the travelling itinerary on December 13 at 2pm.

Behind you! Donkey brings a smile to Katie Coen’s (Un)wise Man in Christmas Inn Trouble. Picture: Tom Jackson, Jackson Portraiture

On the home front, Christmas Inn Trouble will play Riding Lights’ headquarters, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, on December 20, 1.30pm and 4pm, then December 21 to 24, 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm.

“We are so excited to bring this fantastically fun and joyful show to the Friargate Theatre this festive season,” says Oliver. “It’s jam packed with puppets, magic, song and story, bringing you the Nativity like you’ve never seen it before!”

Riding Lights prides itself on offering “affordable and accessible arts experiences to everyone”,  so tickets for Christmas Inn Trouble are priced accordingly at £12.50 each or £40 for four people.

To book tickets for the York dates, visit ridinglights.org/christmasinntrouble or call the box office on 01904 655317. Easingwold tickets are on sale at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/mbbjvlpojddg.

Riding Lights Theatre Company’s poster for the festive tour of Christmas Inn Trouble

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REVIEW: York Theatre Royal & Riding Lights Theatre Company, His Last Report, at York Theatre Royal, until August 3 ***1/2

Billy Heathwood’s Riley, left, and Antony Jardine’s Seebohm Rowntree in His Last Report at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

YORK Theatre Royal’s latest summer community play is in keeping with the progressive tenet of York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree’s trio of reports from 1899, 1936 and 1951. Community pulling together in enlightening enterprises. Welfare for the common man. Live well, play well, work well. He would probably have made the tickets free, but that isn’t practical.

“Made with passion, joy and enthusiasm”, in collaboration with York Christian theatre company Riding Lights, His Last Report involves 250 volunteers, from 100-strong cast and 55-larynxed York Theatre Royal Choir and new choir recruits, to wardrobe, props, stage management, hair & make up, technical, marketing, front of house and photography.

“The past is back. And it’s got something to say,” reads the tagline. It turns out it has a lot to say, arguably too much, over its two-and-three-quarter-hour span that crams in everything from politics to chocolate recipe improvements; cow parlour udder-pulling  to aerial acrobatics; King Lear to Lloyd George and Winston Churchill; Caribbean chocolate trade slavery to the  idyll of New Earswick; moo jokes to a salty dig at Saltaire visionary Sir Titus Salt.

Under the direction of Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch, everything is thrown in, including the kitchen-sink style of British  theatre and films of the gritty, grainy late-Fifties and Sixties, with echoes of Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera too.

Amelia Donkor, one of two professional actors leading Juliet Forster and Paul Birch’s cast, in the role of Gulie Harlock in His Last Report. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s script has the restless, questing energy of York-born professional actor Antony Jardine’s Seebohm Rowntree, his name taken from his mother’s surname of Swedish-German origin, we learn in one of many facts dropped in with humorous relish.

We start at the end, Seebohm despondent post-reports, before heading back to 1890s’ York with personal secretary Gulie Harlock (Amelia Donkor), where his Quaker family’s cocoa works is booming, new Rowntree factory et al, under the noble guidance of father Joseph (Mark Payton, in a performance as bubbly as Aero, with a lightness of humour to match).

But something is not hitting the sweet spot for chemist, industrialist and philanthropist Seebohm. Blue-collar life is bitter, when it needs to be better for the factory workers, housed in the city’s back streets and snickelways. In tandem with Donkor’s perspicacious Gulie, he advocates better working and living conditions, improved wages and the provision of education for all and facilities to bolster both mental and physical health.

He never invented a chocolate bar called Nirvana, but his vision of a promised land of healthier, happier, wealthier workers that in turn benefits the productivity of businesses provides the seed bed for the welfare state, attracting the support of Churchill (Colin Beveridge) and Lloyd George (Andrew Wrenn).

Maurice Crichton’s Frank Benson, centre, in King Lear guise in His Last Report, with principals and ensemble looking on in His Last Report. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Welcome to New Earswick, the model of a village to house the workforce, with a school and a library. Welcome to Rowntree’s world of Yearsley Swimming Pool, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, gymnastics, pageants and plays. All’s well but can it end well?  Ah, there’s the rub. Finance. All the good things cost money.

Jardine’s Seebohm is haunted by the spectral figure of an impoverished child, Riley (Edmund Djimramadji/Billy Heathwood) that only he can see, and all around him the figures don’t add up. The second half turns post-modern, with modern clothing interwoven with period couture, references to writers Misha and Bridget and an in-joke impersonation of the Theatre Royal’s costume department Scottish supremo Pauline.

Rather than ending well it ends Orwellian, Jardine’s despairing Seebohm observing the Britain of today, the Britain of cuts to the arts and libraries, swimming pool and factory closures, robots replacing workers, jargon replacing plain speaking, and being number 52 on  the waiting list when phoning the GP at 8am.

Maurice Crichton gives us his best King Lear in the guise of grandstanding actor Frank Benson railing against the way Shakespeare is taught at schools. You may find yourself thinking, “are we going too far off the beaten track here?”, but Crichton, not for the first time, makes every second in the spotlight count.

There is nevertheless a feeling that His Last Report is preaching to the converted, those of us who do go to the theatre, who know of its value beyond cost. Who needs to listen? Those who don’t go, those who slash and burn.

A modern-day board meeting full of blue sky/dark cloud thinking as His Last Report turns theatre of the absurd. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

You might wish the solution were as simple as waving a magic wand. Seebohm Rowntree tried to do more than that, but the truth is that in this rotten world, the good things increasingly cost too much, when even chocolate bars and tins are forever diminishing in size.

Forster and Birch’s cast and choir, as much as Duncan-Barry and Foreman, make an impassioned, worthy case for wishing that life could be as Seebohm envisaged. The theatrical scale is grand, the humour uneven, the ensemble spectacle impressive, orchestrated by David Gilbert’s movement direction. Edwin Gray’s compositions and sound design, in tandem with Madeleine Hudson’s vocal musical direction, are impactful throughout.

Returning after designing previous Theatre Royal community productions The Coppergate Woman and Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes, Sara Perks’s set design is five-star quality, whether evoking the Rowntree building, factory floor, boardroom, train carriage or cow parlour, complemented by Craig Kilmartin’s lighting and Hazel Fall’s delightful costumes.

One last thought, where is the Seebohm Rowntree of today?

York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights Theatre Company present His Last Report at York Theatre Royal until August 3, 7.30pm except Sundays and Mondays, plus 2pm matinees, July 26 and August 2 & 3. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Gymnastic skill: Christie Barnes’s Brynhild Benson in His Last Report. Picture: Natasha Sinton

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Antony and Amelia team up to lead York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights cast in community play His Last Report

Amelia Donkor and Antony Jardine arrive at York Theatre Royal for their first day of rehearsals for His Last Report. Picture: Millie Stephens

PROFESSIONAL actors Antony Jardine and Amelia Donkor are leading the cast for York Theatre Royal’s 2025 summer community production His Last Report.

They take the roles of Seebohm Rowntree and Gulie Harlock respectively, performing alongside the 100-strong community ensemble in Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s play about pioneering sociologist and social reformer Seebohm Rowntree, whose groundbreaking investigation into poverty illuminated the struggles of the working class and laid the foundation for the welfare state.

His Last Report delves into the life and legacy of one of the city’s most influential figures, who not only conducted three social studies in York in 1899, 1936 and 1951, defining the poverty line, but was an industrialist and philanthropist too, making his mark on the Rowntree family’s chocolate company and the development of the model community at New Earswick.

Juliet Forster, creative director of York Theatre Royal and co-director of His Last Report, says: “We are thrilled to welcome Antony and Amelia to the cast. It is so brilliant to work on these kinds of community productions where we bring together the wonderful talents of both professional actors and an ensemble cast of local people.”

Antony grew up in York, first appearing at the Theatre Royal as a “precocious child actor” in John Doyle’s days as artistic director, playing one of the princes in the tower opposite panto villain David Leonard’s Richard III in the War Of The Roses season and in Willy Russell’s Our Day Out.

“I’ve been based in London for 20 years but I did come back to the Theatre Royal in The Secret Garden, which transferred from [co-producers] Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in 2018,” he says.

“My children were born in London, so there’s no Yorkshire in them, apart from encouraging them to eat Yorkshire Pudding and love Yorkshire Cricket Club.”

Amelia is performing at York Theatre Royal for the first time. “I’m finishing my Yorkshire Holy Grail, after playing the Stephen Joseph Theatre [Scarborough] in The 39 Steps, Hull Truck Theatre in James Graham’s The Culture and Leeds Playhouse in The Fruit Trilogy,” she says.

Antony and Amelia joined rehearsals with the ensemble company already deep into their preparations. “It was very different for us coming in that stage, when people say, ‘so this is what this scene looks like’, but everyone has been so welcoming,” says Amelia.

Antony Jardine: Suited for the role of Seebohm Rowntree in His Last Report. Picture: Millie Stephens

“It’s such a powerful piece about community being told by the York community and such a beloved story, and we’ve been really welcomed into it,” says Antony.

Introducing the character of Gulie Harlock, Amelia says: “Originally from Northampton, she worked in the East End of London, working in public health as a member of the welfare committee.

“She came to York with Seebohm originally as his personal secretary but then he realised she had a great understanding of this [social reform] work and so she ran the New Earswick project.

“She was also involved in the framing of the last report and really spearheaded the involvement of women when it was a man’s world, when Seebohm realised how important it was to represent women’s voices.”

Amelia continues “We still don’t know that much about Gulie, but we have a wonderful historical expert, Catherine Hindson,  who’s been working with us, having written a piece about her for the Rowntree Foundation.

“There’s still a lot we don’t know about her, but our writers, Misha and Bridget, have really enjoyed learning about her.”

Exploring Seebohm’s story, Antony says: “He was a chemist, which is where his initial forays lay, with that influencing the chocolate recipes, but then he undertook his reports to implement social change, but to make those changes is not as easy as coming up with a mathematical solution for solving poverty.”

Amelia rejoins: “Seebohm made three reports in total, and in the second act, we deconstruct the legacy of those reports because they had such a huge impact beyond York, as Lloyd George and Churchill both wanted to use his reports as part of restructuring programmes.

“The reports changed the way politicians saw poverty. Seebohm created the concept of the poverty line and the language we use now [in relation to social reform] came through him.”

“There’s still a lot we don’t know about Gulie Harlock, but our writers, Misha and Bridget, have really enjoyed learning about her,” says actress Amelia Donkor. Picture: Millie Stephens

Antony adds: “Seebohm felt that if certain things were lacking in social structures, such as if people didn’t have access to education, leading to skilled employment, they would struggle to lift themselves above the poverty line and so they would continue to struggle.

“This gave rise to the Rowntree family creating New Earswick to address the problem of living conditions not being adequate.”

Amelia picks up that point. “Seebohm created the idea of living well and working well, so that people didn’t just live but could thrive. He understood that if people were thriving, the business would be thriving too.”

Seebohm’s projects led to the establishment of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, the New Earswick library and the primary school, later attended by Antony, by the way.

Misha and Bridget’s play then turns its focus to applying Seebohm’s principles to the modern world, with its cuts to access to the arts and threat of library closures. “What would Seebohm think about those cuts, when all the progression that he brought about has stalled?” says Antony. “The play contemplates how maybe we can affect changes ourselves.

“York does brilliantly with such a thriving cultural scene, and this play could not be a better example of what Seebohm was seeking to achieve.”

Amelia concludes: “We hope people come out feeling entertained, moved and inspired, and feel they could be part of a call to action as Misha and Bridget ask: what might you do?

“You think, ‘maybe I could do this at school, or the local community centre’, so maybe it could cascade. When people know they’re empowered, they can go and do that in the rest of their lives.”

York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights Theatre Company present His Last Report, York Theatre Royal, until August 3, 7.30pm, except Sundays and Mondays, plus 2pm, July 26, August 2 and 3. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“When I met Juliet Forster and Paul Birch for my audition and told them about the Rowntree connections, they couldn’t believe it either,” says York-born-and-educated actor Antony Jardine, who plays Seebohm Rowntree in His Last Report. Picture: David Kessel

Extra, extra. York Theatre Royal’s syndicated interview with Antony Jardine

What is the story behind the community production His Last Report and your character Seebohm Rowntree?

“The show is based on Seebohm Rowntree’s life and his works. He published three reports looking at poverty in York and those reports went on to become the basis of the welfare state.

“They did remarkable things for the quality of life for people and particularly for people that worked at the Rowntree’s chocolate factory at the time and lived in the village of New Earswick. The play tells that story.

“In the second half, the timeline moves around a little bit, and you begin to see what Seebohm Rowntree would make of the modern world and how after the years that have passed his research has come into fruition. The play uses a lens to look at what’s going on in society today.”

You have some interesting personal connections to this summer’s community production. What are your family’s links to the Rowntrees?

“It was quite an interesting phone call with my agent when she said she had an audition for me in York. I thought, brilliant I’d love to be back in York and work in my home city. She sent over the script, and I saw it was about the Rowntrees. I thought, that’s great, I know the Rowntrees well, and then when I read the play, I couldn’t believe all the other connections as that never really happens.

York Theatre Royal’s poster for His Last Report

“I was born and raised a Quaker. I went to New Earswick primary school, which is the
school that the Rowntrees built for the village of New Earswick. I learnt to swim in the
swimming pool which gets name checked in the play.

“I went to the library, which is also mentioned in the play. I went to Bootham School, which is the same school that Seebohm went to, and my dad worked for the Joseph Rowntree Housing trust for 44 years. When I met Juliet [Forster] and Paul [Birch] for my audition and told them about the connections, they couldn’t believe it either.”

Does your approach to character differ when playing a real person?

“It raises questions about what source material you have and how you use it. It’s very
hard to do an accurate imitation and it’s fair to say that a lot of our audience might
not have met Seebohm, so that gives us a bit more freedom to take what we do
know and develop that further.

“We don’t want to turn him into James Bond or anything like that, but we want our audience to invest in every character on the stage and more importantly, the work they are doing. He’s a very beloved son of York and I really want to get it right!

“We are condensing his life down into two hours, so the journey is much more compact, so much more like a rollercoaster ride. Ultimately the source material is so solid and so factual and that underpins as a foundation for the whole piece.”

“He’s a very beloved son of York and I really want to get it right,” says Antony Jardine of his role as Seebohm Rowntree

You last performed at York Theatre Royal in The Secret Garden in 2018. What keeps you coming back to York?

“Well, it’s a pretty nice city to live and work in! The theatre itself has a beautiful auditorium; as a performer it’s a joy to be on that stage. The vibrancy in the building is incredible; there are so many people working and being creative, which I think Seebohm would have approved of enormously.

“There’s just such a lot going on, but everyone is so friendly and welcoming. It’s an absolute treat and a joy to be able to come back here.”


Why book a ticket to His Last Report?

“Trust us, you’ll be in for a great night of theatre. When I first read the script, I was absolutely bowled over by how much is incorporated into it. It’s Shakespearian in its scope; it ticks every box.

“There’s so much joy. There’s going to be a trapeze, Morris dancing, music, it’s such a great story and so specific to York, but on a national and international scale as well.

“The story is about bringing people together and realising that an issue needs to be addressed, but also the production itself is bringing together a large community of people that can express themselves artistically in the theatre. I think all of that coming together is a rare and special thing.

“I would say if you are going to go and see a play, make it this one because you will
learn so much, you will think about yourself in a good, positive way and you’ll laugh
and have fun and maybe even an ice cream at the interval.”



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Chance to sign up for Paul Birch’s Funny Business scripted comedy workshop for Settlement Players on Sunday afternoon

Paul Birch: Leading scripted comedy workshop for York Settlement Community Players on Sunday

FRIARGATE Theatre artistic director, comedy writer and improv supremo Paul Birch is to hold a workshop for York Settlement Community Players on scripted comedy on Sunday (6/7/2025) at Room 1, Southlands Methodist Church, York.

“This Funny Business workshop is a great way to find your funny and explore ways in which to play comedic texts without worrying about getting laughs,” says Paul. “Using a range of scripts and some helpful games and exercises, this session will equip actors and directors to love, rather than fear, the comedic text.”

The charge for Sunday’s 2pm to 4.30pm session is £10 or “a bit more if you can manage it”. “Paul is doing the workshop at no charge to YSCP to help us out of our current financial difficulties because he is a thoroughly decent bloke,” says organiser Maurice Crichton.

To reserve your place (16 maximum), email Maurice at [email protected].

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REVIEW: A Christmas Cracker, Riding Lights Theatre Company, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, today & tomorrow ***

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.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond the last-minute shopping rush. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 52, from The Press, York

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 and Jonathan 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.

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