Tag: Pride And Prejudice

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 27, from Gazette & Herald

Hats galore: Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre’s guys in Guys And Dolls at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

BE Amazing Arts and more amazing arts besides add up to attractions aplenty for Charles Hutchinson’s list of recommendations

Burgeoning talent of the week: Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre in Guys And Dolls, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

MALTON company Be Amazing Arts Youth Theatre heads to York to present Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ musical fable of Broadway, Guys And Dolls.

Set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City, this oddball romantic comedy finds gambler Nathan Detroit seeking the cash to set up the biggest craps game in town while the authorities breathe down his neck. Into the story venture his girlfriend, nightclub performer Adelaide, fellow gambler Sky Masterson and straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The Wandering Hearts: Introducing new album Deja Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) at Pocklington Arts Centre

Americana gig of the week: The Wandering Hearts, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 8pm

BRITISH Americana and folk band The Wandering Hearts combine enchanting harmonies and heartfelt songwriting influenced by Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and First Aid Kit.

Tomorrow’s set by Tara Wilcox, Francesca “Chess” Whiffin and A J Dean-Revington features songs from 2018’s Wild Silence, 2021’s The Wandering Hearts and 2024’s Mother, complemented by a showcase of new album Deja Vu (We Have All Been Here Before), released on June 20. Norwich singer-songwriter Lucy Grubb supports. Box office:  01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Snow Patrol: More chance of sunshine than snow at Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Friday

Coastal gig of the week: Snow Patrol, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Friday; gates open at 6pm

SNOW Patrol visit Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Friday for the first time since July 2021. The Northern Irish-Scottish indie rock band will be led as ever by Gary Lightbody, accompanied by long-time members Nathan Connolly, lead guitar, and Johnny McDaid, piano. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Danny Lee Grew: 24K Magic at Friargate Theatre, York

Magic show of the week: Danny Lee Grew, 24K Magic, Friargate Theatre, York, Friday, 7.30pm

CLACTON-ON-SEA magician Danny Lee Grew presents his new mind-boggling one-man show of magic, illusion, laughs, gasps and sleight of hand sorcery. 24K Magic showcases the kind of magic usually seen on television, but now live, in the flesh and under the most impossible conditions. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/ridinglights.

Olly Murs: Returning to York Racecourse for Summer Music Saturday

Back on track: Olly Murs, York Racecourse, Summer Music Saturday, June 28, first race at 1.55pm; last race, 5.25pm, followed by concert

ESSEX singer, songwriter, actor and television personality from Olly Murs completes his hat-trick of appearances at York Racecourse this weekend, having played the Knavesmire track in 2010 and 2017.

Performing after Saturday’s race card, his set list will draw on his seven albums and 25 singles, including the number ones Please Don’t Let Me Go, Heart Skips A Beat, Dance With Me Tonight and Troublemaker and Top Five hits Thinking Of Me, Dear Darlin, Wrapped Up and Up. Race day tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Joanna Purslow, Gemma Aston and MaryAnna Kelly in Hotbuckle Productions’ Little Women, on tour at Helmsley Arts Centre

Ryedale play of the week: Hotbuckle Productions in Little Women, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

SHROPSHIRE company Hotbuckle Productions follow up last year’s tour of Pride And with Adrian Preater’s typically inventive make-over of Louisa May Alcott’s American novel Little Women, performed by a cast of only three, Joanna Purslow, Gemma Aston and MaryAnna Kelly.

Hotbuckle explore girlhood, family and female ambition in Alcott’s tale of love, loss and the challenges of growing up in 19th century Massachusetts in a fast-paced, humorous, multi-role-playing adaptation that crosses age and gender traditions as the four March sisters journey from adolescence to adulthood. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Justin Moorhouse: Giving two of the greatest performances of his life at Pocklington Arts Centre this weekend

Comedy gig of the week: Justin Moorhouse, The Greatest Performance Of My Life, Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 3pm and 8pm

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE comedian, radio presenter and actor Justin Moorhouse covers subjects ranging from pantomimes to dreams, how to behave in hospitals, small talk, realising his mum is a northern version of Columbo, and how being a smart-mouthed child saved him from a life of continually being beaten up. Funny, interesting, perhaps it will warm the soul too. Box office:  01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Dawn Landes: Performing at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York

Country gig of the week: Dawn Landes, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, July 2, 8pm

AMERICAN country roots singer-songwriter Dawn Landes showcases The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, her March 2024 album that re-imagines music from the women’s liberation movement.

Inspired by a 1971 songbook of the same name, Landes breathes new life into powerful songs spanning 1830 to 1970, amplifying the voices of women who fought for equality throughout history. Box office: seetickets.com/event/dawn-landes/rise-bluebird/.

James Sheldon’s Mr Darcy and Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s Lizzy Bennet in Pride And Prejudice at the SJT, Scarborough

Introducing America’s most performed living playwright to North Yorkshire: Pride And Prejudice, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 3 to 26, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

BOLTON Octagon Theatre artistic director Lotte Wakeham directs American writer Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice in a co-production with the SJT, Hull Truck Theatre and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.

Austen’s story of love, misunderstandings and second chances is staged with music, dancing and humour aplenty in a whirl of Regency parties and courtship as hearts race, tongues wag and passions swirl around the English countryside, with a cast led by Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s Lizzy Bennet and James Sheldon’s  Mr Darcy. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Danny Hendrix, Christopher Finn and Sarah Palmer in The Koala Who Could. Picture: Pamela Raith

Children’s show of the week: The Koala Who Could, York Theatre Royal, July 3, 1.30pm; July 4, 10.30am and 4.30pm; July 5, 11am and 2pm 

JOIN Kevin the koala, Kangaroo and Wombat as they learn that “life can be great when you try something new” in this adaptation of Rachel Bright and Jim Field’s picture book, directed by Emma Earle (Oi Frog & Friends!), with music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer (The Lion Inside). 

Danny Hendrix (Wombat/Storyteller 1), Sarah Palmer (Cossowary/Storyteller 2) and Christopher Finn (Kevin/Storyteller 3) perform this empowering story of embracing change – whether we like it or not. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Posted on

Stephen Joseph Theatre to stage Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice in adaptation by USA’s most performed living playwright, Kate Hamill, from July 3 to 26

James Sheldon’s Mr Darcy and Rosetta Hesmondhalgh’s Lizzy Bennett in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith

LOTTE Wakeham’s new production of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice comes to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from July 3 to 26 in an adaptation by American writer Kate Hamill.

This co-production between the SJT, Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Hull Truck Theatre and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in association with Theatr Clwyd, Mold, opened at Bolton on June 5.

Hamill’s witty adaptation brings to life Austen’s story of love, misunderstandings and second chances, with music and dancing aplenty, in a whirl of Regency parties and courtship as hearts race, tongues wag and passions swirl around the English countryside.

Combining sharp humour and sparkling dialogue, Hamill’s re-telling uncovers the absurdities and thrills of finding the perfect (or imperfect) match in life.

Leading Wakeham’s cast at the heart of the love story are Rosa Hesmondhalgh as Lizzy Bennet and James Sheldon as Mr Darcy, joined by Aamira Challenger, Jessica Ellis, Ben Fensome, Joanna Holden, Dyfrig Morris, Eve Pereira and Kiara Nicole Pillai. 

Octagon Theatre artistic director Wakeham says: “As a huge Austen fan, I am delighted to be directing this vibrant, witty and funny production, which has been adapted brilliantly by Kate Hamill. We have a stellar cast and creative team on board to bring this iconic story to life.”

Joining Wakeham and Hamill in the creative team are movement director Jonnie Riordan; composer and musical director Sonum Batra; set and costume designer Louie Whitemore; lighting designer Jamie Platt and sound designer Andy Graham.

New York writer Kate Hamill. Picture: SubUrban Photography

Here Jeannie Swales puts questions to Kate Hamill about her adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.

What is it about Jane Austen, an early 19th-century Englishwoman, who rarely, if ever, travelled more than 100 miles from her rural home, that speaks to you as a 21st -century New Yorker?

“Well, I got interested in her work in a couple of different ways. I just love the novels and have read them many times. I spent a semester in London when I was at university, and I went to Bath and her house and the whole bit.

“But I take a new play approach to adaptations – I really treat it as a collaboration between myself and the original author, who is sometimes currently dead!

“And Jane Austen is interested in a lot of the same things that I’m interested in. She’s very, very funny, obviously. She’s really interested in how the dictates of our conscience clash with what society expects of us.

“She was very much a proto-feminist. I really wanted to adapt her books in the order that she wrote them – I’ve just finished Emma – so Pride And Prejudice was my second. I wanted to trace her journey and make each of

the plays very different. I also wanted to present them in a totally new way. “I like really irreverent, theatrical shows that treat something as a new play and are in conversation with the original, not just a copy-and-paste version. So I felt like Jane, who I sympathised with a lot and who was interested in a lot of the same things I was, was a great collaborator.”

Joanna Holden and Dyfrig Morris in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith

How do you approach adapting these stories? How do you identify the elements and incidents that you want to keep or lose?

“Jane [Austen] has been adapted a million times, so I’m really interested in what I have to bring to it. The original is always going to be the original; I don’t just want to create a copy. I want to create a work of theatre that is interesting to both people who know the novel and people who don’t know it at all.

“But also I want to create something that’s new and surprising even for people who do know the novel. I read the original and see what it brings out in me, the thematic questions, and then I write it very much as a new play in conversation with the original, cutting out anything that dramaturgically doesn’t work with that new play.

“So, for instance, with Pride And Prejudice, I was really interested in how we know that we’ve found the perfect match in life. Even now, and certainly in Jane Austen’s day, we treat love like a mix between a game and a war – down to tactics and strategies.

“I got very interested in the game theory – there are even [dating] books with titles like The Game and The Rules. So I wanted a play structure that’s very high stakes, and halfway between a game and a war, and I thought, that’s a farce.

“And then I thought, there’s been a bunch of different versions, down to Pride And Prejudice with zombies, and all sorts of loose adaptations like Bridget Jones’s Diary, which I’m a particular fan of, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a farce before.”

Aamira Challenger and Rosa Hesmondhalgh in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith

Talking of the perfect match – the first production of your version of Pride And Prejudice starred you and your now-husband, Jason O’Connell, as Lizzy and Darcy…

“I actually met Jason about five years before I wrote Pride And Prejudice, and at the time I had a boyfriend. I met him and shook his hand, and it was like a bell went off in my head – something I’d never experienced before.

“And I thought, ‘oh, that is trouble and weird’, but I ignored it for about a year until I was single again. When I wrote Pride And Prejudice, we were starting to talk about marriage, and I had historically been someone who’d been frightened of marriage,

“I didn’t think it was for me, and now I’m very happily married. But I think Pride And Prejudice was my way of exploring all the different kinds of matches, and how they go wrong and how they go right. And yes, in the world premiere, I played Lizzy and he played Darcy, so I got to experience all that catharsis live!”

You have been frustrated by the dearth of shows with a feminist gaze, leading to a $100 bet with a friend, and from there to your first play, Sense And Sensibility. Was that bet the crystallisation of a long, slow process, or was it a light bulb moment?

“I think it probably just catalysed something that had been building in me. I think quite often I write from a place of great love, or great anger, and sometimes both.

Rosa Hesmondhalgh, left, Joanna Holden and Aamira Challenger in Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Pamela Raith

“I love the theatre; I think it’s a transformative place, one of the few public spaces left that are sort of public squares, where you can have this live catharsis and you’re not just staring at a screen.

“But at that time, at least in the States, playwriting was very much a male-dominated field. In fact, at that point, the primary adaptor of Austen in the States was a man.

“Not that there’s anything at all wrong with men adapting Austen, of course, but I felt like this is this very important female writer and she’s not even being told through a female gaze.

“I infamously went out with my friend, and we split a couple of bottles of wine, and I wrote her a $100 dollar cheque and said, ‘if I don’t have a first draft to you in six months, you can cash this’.

“At the time I was very poor, so that would have meant not making my rent. So I always highly recommend to writers: write a cheque and give it to a friend you know will cash it!”

Director Lotte Wakeham rehearsing Pride And Prejudice at Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Picture: Bolton Documentary Photography

If you could go back in a time machine to meet Jane Austen, what would you like to discuss with her?

“First of all, I think she would be so fun to talk to! I‘ve read her letters and I’ve put parts of them in some of my adaptations, and she’s so cutting and mean – but in the most delightful way.

“I think I’d enjoy sitting and talking with her. I’d also like to ask her what drove her to write so prodigiously. She partially paralysed her thumb from pressing down so hard – she just wrote and wrote and wrote and eventually developed this thing.

“I read somewhere else that visitors would come and she would hide away so she could carry on writing. It’s so hard to write even now sometimes – and I have computers, and I live in a world where women can take ownership of their own work and get paid some money for it.

“I’m fascinated by what drove her to write so brilliantly at a time when it was all longhand and between social calls. Also, I feel like she’d got pigeon-holed as fusty, romantic, girly literature, and when I started reading her more seriously I was shocked by how funny and how socially smart she is.

Kiara Nicola Pillai, left, Aamira Challenger and Rosa Hesmondhalgh in rehearsal for Pride And Prejudice. Picture: Bolton Documentary Photography

“I think it’s quite sexist when she’s just as brilliant as Dickens, or Hawthorne, or Thackeray or any of those men who are sometimes maybe taken a bit more seriously. I think I would just sit at her feet. And maybe beg her pardon a little bit.”

One final question: what do you think Jane would have made of the Trump family?

“Oh, she would have hated them! I think she would have absolutely loathed them and skewered them. Maybe that’s what I would talk to her about…”

Pride & Prejudice, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 3 to 26, 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday, plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com. Also at Hull Truck Theatre, September 18 to October 11. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.   

Did you know?

KATE Hamill was named 2017’s Playwright of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and was among the ten most-produced playwrights in the United States from 2017 to 2024. She is now the most-produced living playwright in the USA.

Rosa Hesmondhalgh in the rehearsal room

Posted on

Que sera, Sara, whatever will be will be for comedian, writer, TV presenter and mum Pascoe in pursuit of defining Success

“The rule should be, if the audience stops laughing, you have to try something different,” says Sara Pascoe. That’s the beauty of comedy: it’s not pressure, it’s liberating”

HOW does comedian, actor, playwright, author, TV presenter and new mum Sara Pascoe quantify success?

She seeks to provide the answer in her biggest tour yet, Success Story, whose 50 dates in two blocks from November 10 to December 3 2022 and January 26 to April 22 next year take in four Yorkshire gigs: York Barbican on November 24 (7.30pm); Sheffield Octagon, the next night; Hull City Hall, March 17, and Harrogate Royal Hall, April 21.

She is delighted to be returning to the road for the first time since her LadsLadsLads tour of 2018-2019, the one where she contemplated the positive aspects of self-imposed celibacy, exploring love, sex and doing both alone.  ­

This time, expect “name-dropping, personal stories and anecdotes,” says Sara, who will deliver jokes about status, celebrities, plus her new fancy lifestyle versus infertility, her multiple therapists and career failures.

“What I want to explore is how do we define success and when do we define it. Does it change with age? Do we only want things we can’t have? When we attain our goals, do we move the goal posts and become unsatisfied with what we’ve got and want something else instead?

“I’m 41 now and it’s a reflective time; it feels like a very adult age. Looking back on my life to when I was 14, I really wanted to be on television. That’s where I work now but is it what I imagined it to be?”

The trigger for Success Story were her experiences when undergoing IVF after a miscarriage. “When I was going through that with my partner [Australian comedian  Steen Raskopoulos], they kept talking about it in terms of success,” says Sara, who became a mum on Valentine’s Day this year at the age of 40.

“I started thinking about success, what I wanted as a child, and then thinking about what makes you happy, or if you’ve set out on a certain path that makes you unhappy, should you do something else?”

“If you’ve set out on a certain path that makes you unhappy, should you do something else?” ponders Sara Pascoe in Success Story

Deciding she wanted to be famous at 14, Dagenham-born Sara would go on to audition for Barrymore, scare Dead Or Alive’s Pete Burns and ruin Hugh Grant’s birthday, but she would also notch a decade in stand-up comedy and pen the feminist Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female Body in 2016 and her exploration of sex through the medium of evolutionary psychology, sex work, and the role of money in modern heterosexual relationships in Sex Power Money in 2019, spawning an accompanying podcast.

Her “big, bold and funny” stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice played York Theatre Royal in October 2017 and she wrote and starred in the October 2020 sitcom Out Of Her Mind on BBC Two. She has presented television shows too, hosting Comedians Giving Lectures on Dave, Guessable on Comedy Central, BBC Two’s Last Woman On Earth and this year’s BBC One series of The Great British Sewing Bee.

“What quite often happens with stand-up comedy, it doesn’t take up a lot of your time, when it’s your main job. You have a lot of time on your hands, when that main job only takes up an evening five times a week.

“You can do other things, like writing a book, where they aren’t looking for gags, whereas you can’t go half an hour without a joke in a stand-up show,” says Sara.

Hence her diversification. “It’s more about thinking, ‘oh, that would be good to have a go at that’, rather than worrying about being found out at one thing,” she reasons.

How do you judge success in comedy? “I’ve noted that some people, once they get to the top, they then plateau, and that can be hard, as not everyone can be a stadium comic,” says Sara.

She enjoys the expectation of having to come up with fresh material for every new tour, whereas the success of a band’s gig is often judged on which hits they played, which they chose to leave out.

“It’s horrible when a gig becomes dead behind the eyes,” says Sara, outlining what to avoid when seeking comedy success

“That’s the added benefit of doing comedy. I was thinking how boring it must be to always have to play songs from 20 years ago when the bands probably hate them by now, whereas comedians have to move on, just as people do when they can’t keep talking about a divorce or an old girlfriend,” says Sara, who switched from the repetition of performing theatre to the freshly squeezed juice of comedy.

“You’re quite often in a different place by the end of a tour and your set reflects that. It’s horrible when a gig becomes dead behind the eyes.

“I remember being told very early in my career how Bill Bailey always had five minutes of new material each night, working it into shape for the next tour, and it’s true that if you try out new bits after the interval, you’re never dead behind the eyes.”

Sara continues: “The rule should be, if the audience stops laughing, you have to try something different. That’s the beauty of comedy: it’s not pressure, it’s liberating. If you have three nights in a row where people aren’t connecting, throw that material in the bin. Actors can’t do that!

“At the end of a show, you don’t want a crowd going ‘yeah, that was fine’. You want them to say, ‘oh god, do you remember that bit?’. You want an audience to be engaged in what you’re saying.”

At the time of this phone interview, Sara was busy writing a book and filming the latest series of The Great British Sewing Bee. She could reveal that those shows would be broadcast on BBC One next spring; she could say rather less, however, about her next venture into print.

“We’ve not done a proper release yet,” she says. “Put something vague… ‘I’m moving into fiction’. It’s a chance to make some things up for a change.” Watch this space.

Tickets for Sara Pascoe’s Success Story tour are on sale at sarapascoe.co.uk/sara-on-tour; for York Barbican at yorkbarbican.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Posted on

What happens to a rake when he can’t rake anymore? Here is the answer…

Setting the record straight: Adrian Lukis as George Wickham 30 years after Pride And Prejudice in Being Mr Wickham

REVIEW: Adrian Lukis in Being Mr Wickham, Original Theatre Company, Haunted Season, York Theatre Royal, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

TWO years ago, 25 years on from filming the BBC adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, actor Adrian Lukis started thinking about still being Mr Wickham, having “defended his dubious reputation” for so long.

What would have become of Jane Austen’s Georgian rogue George, or “What happens to a rake when he can’t rake anymore,” as Lukis asked himself?

Harper Lee revisited the characters of To Kill A Mockingbird in Go Set A Watchman; Danny Boyle’s 2017 film T2: Trainspotting picked up the story of Mark Renton, Sick Boy and co 20 years on; in this instance, the writing falls to Lukis and Georgian storyteller Catherine Curzon.

Refracting Austen’s vilified character through their shared lens for a one-man character study set 30 years down the line of worn time, Lukis’s Wickham is now 60, still charming, with aching knees and wife Lydia waiting in the bedroom, as he tells his side of the story.

Lukis reimagined him living in reduced circumstances, having gambled his way through his £3,000 pay-off from Darcy, no longer reliant on his looks and his wits, having left behind the dissolute London life. Maybe he was residing in Yeovil, or maybe running a small business in Malmesbury, definitely he was looking out of the window for the tittle-tattle of life across the way, so he told Thursday’s audience in the Q&A after the 75-minute performance.

Wouldn’t you rather spend a night out with Mr Wickham than Mr Darcy, speculated Adrian Lukis in his post-show question-and-answer session

Lukis constructed an earlier version of this monologue but found his ageing Wickham too sleazy. Lockdown enabled him and Curzon to create Wickham mark two: a rake raking over the coals and setting the record straight. Actors must always empathise with whoever they play, runs the advice to those playing the villain of the piece, and Lukis warms to that task with relish as he reacquaints himself with “my old friend”.

Yes, Wickham was “a bit of player”, yes he behaved badly, even disgracefully on occasion, but as Lukis said afterwards, but wouldn’t you rather have a night out with gorgeous, affable George than Darcy?

Significantly, Lukis said he treated this Wickham as a new character when writing and playing him, rather than as the Austen rogue he played in Andrew Davies’s adaptation. What emerges is a story of loss, exits; his rueful reflections on Elizabeth Bennet, Darcy and Lord Byron; the blood, the smell, the gore, of the Waterloo battlefield. What has Wickham achieved at 60? He has survived, he says. He has survived, he repeated.

Being Mr Wickham is beautifully detailed, from the elaborate Georgian phrasing of Lukis and Curzon to Libby Watson’s faded drawing room design, to Guy Unsworth’s immaculately composed direction and Lukis’s eloquent, elegant performance.

Life with a scandalous scoundrel is never dull and it certainly still isn’t in Being Mr Wickham, even if the heat has gone out of the day and those knees are aching ever more.

One last story from the Q&A: when first meeting for filming, actress Susannah Harker (Jane Bennet) misheard Lukis, thinking he said he was the wig man and promptly asking him to make adjustments. No, he would be playing Mr Wickham, he corrected her, and he is still being Mr Wickham to charming effect all these years later.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

George Wickham, the survivor, in Adrian Lukis’s characterisation in Being Mr Wickham
Posted on

More Things To Do in and around York as records are set straight and dark nights lit up. List No. 53, courtesy of The Press, York

Setting the record straight: Adrian Lukis’s roguish George Wickham in Being Mr Wickham at York Theatre Royal

AUTUMN’S fruits are ripe and ready for Charles Hutchinson to pick with no worries about shortages.

Scandal of the week: Being Mr Wickham, Original Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm, Saturday

ADRIAN Lukis played the vilified George Wickham in the BBC’s television adaptation of Pride And Prejudice 26 years ago this very month.

Time, he says, to set the record straight about Jane Austen’s most charmingly roguish character in his one-man play Being Mr Wickham, co-written with Catherine Curzon.

This is the chance to discover Wickham’s version of famous literary events. What really happened with Mr Darcy? What did he feel about Lizzie? What went on at Waterloo? Not to mention Byron. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Cate Hamer in rehearsal for the SJT and Live Theatre, Newcastle co-production of The Offing. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Play of the week outside York: The Offing, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 30

IN a Britain still reeling from the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on an adventure at 16: to walk from his home in Durham to Scarborough, where he hopes to find work, but he never arrives there. 

Instead, up the coast at Robin Hood’s Bay, a chance encounter with the bohemian, eccentric Dulcie Piper leads to a lifelong, defining friendship. She introduces him to the joys of good food and wine, art and literature; he helps her lay to rest a ghost in Janice Okoh’s adaptation of Benjamin Myers’s novel for the SJT and Live Theatre, Newcastle. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.  

Simon Wright: Conducting York Guildhall Orchestra at York Barbican

Classic comeback: York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, Saturday, 7.30pm

YORK Guildhall Orchestra return to the concert stage this weekend after the pandemic hiatus with a programme of operatic favourites, conducted by Simon Wright.

The York musicians will be joined by Leeds Festival Chorus and two soloists, soprano Jenny Stafford, and tenor Oliver Johnston, to perform overtures, arias and choruses by Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Rossini, Mozart, Puccini and Verdi. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Adam Kay: Medic, author and comedian, on visiting hours at Grand Opera House, York, on Sunday

Medical drama of the week: Adam Kay, This Is Going To Hurt, Secret Diaries Of A Junior Doctor, Grand Opera House, Sunday, 8pm

ADAM Kay, medic turned comic, shares entries from his diaries as a junior doctor in his evening of horror stories from the NHS frontline, savvy stand-up, witty wordplay and spoof songs.

His award-winning show, This Going To Hurt, has drawn 200,000 people to sell-out tours, the Edinburgh Fringe and West End runs, and the book of the same name topped the best sellers list for more than a year and is soon to be a BBC drama. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Boyzlife: Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden unite in Boyzone and Westlife songs at York Barbican

Irish night of the week: Boyzlife, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm; doors, 6.30pm

PUT Irish boy band graduates Brian McFadden, from Westlife, and Keith Duffy, from Boyzone, together and they become Boyzlife, as heard on the July 2020 album Strings Attached, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

On tour with a full band, but not the ‘Phil’, they choose songs from a joint back catalogue of 18 number one singles and nine chart-topping albums.

So many to squeeze in…or not: No Matter What, Flying Without Wings, World Of Our Own, Queen Of My Heart, Picture Of You, Uptown Girl, You Raise Me Up, Going Gets Tough, Swear It Again, Father And Son, Love Me For A Reason and My Love. Find out on Sunday. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk

Thumper: Dublin band play Ad Nauseam and much more at Fulford Arms, York, on Tuesday

 Loudest gig of the week: Thumper, Fulford Arms, York, Tuesday, 8pm

THUMPER, the cult Dublin band with two thumping drummers, are back on the road after you know what, promoting a 2021 mix of their single Ad Nauseam: a cautionary tale of repetition, vanity and becoming too close to what you know will eat you.

From the Irish city of the equally visceral Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital, Thumper have emerged with their ragged guitars and “bratty, frenetic punk rock” (Q magazine).

Now their debut album is taking shape after the band were holed up in their home studio for months on end. The Adelphi, Hull, awaits on Wednesday.

At the fourth time of planning: Mary Coughlan, Pocklington Arts Centre, Tuesday, 8pm

Mary Coughlan: Life Stories in song at Pocklington Arts Centre

GALWAY jazz and blues chanteuse Mary Coughlan had to move her Pocklington show three times in response to the stultifying pandemic.

“Ireland’s Billie Holliday” twice rearranged the gig during 2020, and did so again this year in a switch from April 23 to October 19.

At the heart of Mary’s concert, fourth time lucky, will still be Life Stories, her 15th album, released on the wonderfully named Hail Mary Records last September. Box office: 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Spiers & Boden: Resurrected folk duo head to Pocklington on Wednesday

Double act of the week ahead: Spiers & Boden, Pocklington Arts Centre, Wednesday, 7.30pm

AFTER years of speculation, much-loved English folk duo Spiers & Boden are back together, releasing the album Fallow Ground and bringing a live show to Pocklington this autumn with special guests. 

First forming a duo in 2001, John Spiers, now 46, and Jon Boden, 44, became leading lights in big folk band Bellowhead, resting the duo in 2014, before Bellowhead headed into the sunset in 2016. Solo endeavours ensued but now Spiers & Boden return. Box office: 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Matilda takes on Miss Trunchbull in Matilda The Musical Jr

Musical of the week: Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical Jr, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 20 to 24, 7.30pm; 2pm, 4.30pm, Saturday; 2pm, Sunday.

ONLY the last few tickets are still available for York Stage Musicals’ York premiere of the Broadway Junior version of Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s stage adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story.

Matilda has astonishing wit, intelligence, imagination…and special powers! Unloved by her cruel parents, she nevertheless impresses teacher Miss Honey, but mean headmistress Miss Trunchbull hates children and just loves thinking up new punishments for those who fail to abide by her rules. Hurry, hurry to the box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntheatre.co.uk.

KMA Creative Collective artist Kit Monkman studies KMA’s commission for York Mediale, People We Love. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Worth noting too:

PEOPLE We Love, the York Mediale installation, reopening at York Minster from Saturday. York Design Week, full of ideas, October 20 to 26, at yorkdesign week.com; Light Night Leeds 2021, with a Back To Nature theme for this art and lights festival tonight and tomorrow, at whatson.leeds.gov.uk; Live At Leeds gigs across 20 venues with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Sports Team, The Night Café, The Big Moon, Dream Wife, Poppy Adjuda, The Orielles and Thumper, at liveatleeds.com.