Invitation to the ball: Grand Opera House announces Cinderella for next winter
TICKETS will go on sale at noon on Friday for next year’s Grand Opera House pantomime in York. The Cumberland Street theatre will present Cinderella from December 6 2025 to January 4 2026 in its fourth collaboration with UK Productions.
As with this winter’s panto, Beauty And The Beast, the show will feature a script by Jon Monie, winner of Best Script at the 2019 Great British Pantomime Awards.
Promising side-splitting comedy, lavish settings and adorable miniature ponies, Cinderella will be “more fun than you can shake a pumpkin at”. Star casting is to be announced but “expect stars from the West End and screen”.
Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House theatre director, says: “As we open the spectacular Beauty And The Beast, we’re delighted that UK Productions will be returning next year with the most beloved of pantomimes of all time, Cinderella. I’m sure adults and children alike will be spellbound by this magical new show.”
UK Productions producer Martin Dodd says: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without pantomime, and pantomime wouldn’t be pantomime without Cinderella. We are delighted to be presenting this fabulous story at York’s beautiful Grand Opera House, building on the success of this year’s musical pantomime, Beauty And The Beast.”
To take advantage of early bird ticket savings, book by Saturday, February 1 2025 to save £8 per ticket on select performances and seats.
Beauty And The Beast will run until January 5 2025 with a West End cast featuring CBBC’s BAFTA award-winning Dani Harmer, from Tracy Beaker and Strictly ComeDancing, as Fairy Bon Bon; dameLeon Craig, fromEverybody’s Talking About Jamie, as Polly La Plonk,Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle, andSamuel Wyn-Morris, fromLes Misérables, as The Prince. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Theatre Royal’s promotional poster for dame Robin Simpson’s return in Sleeping Beauty in 2025
ROBIN Simpson will return for his sixth season as the dame in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime for 2025-26, Sleeping Beauty, billed as “an enchanting tale of adventure, fun and spellbinding magic for the whole family”.
Co-produced with regular partners Evolution Productions, the show will run from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026, with “stunning costumes, gorgeous sets, dazzling special effects and all the spectacular magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime”.
The show will be written by Evolution producer Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the team behind Aladdin this winter, Jack And The Beanstalk in 2023, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan in 2022, Cinderella in 2021 and the community-touring Travelling Pantomime in Covid-shadowed 2020.
Forster says: “We’ve been delighted to see so many people returning year after year to enjoy the magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime. We are so proud of the quality of the pantos we make and can’t wait to continue our panto adventures with Sleeping Beauty. It’s so brilliant to have Robin on board again too to bring the hilarity and fun as our dame!”
Hendy says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the fabulous team at York Theatre Royal again for our spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. We are delighted Robin will be returning as our wonderful dame, and we can’t wait to share with you more exciting casting news in the New Year!”
Simpson enthuses: “I am overjoyed to be playing the dame in next year’s Sleeping Beauty. I love the York audiences and it’s such a special place to perform every year at Christmas time. I’m looking forward to all the high jinks the dame will get up to in Sleeping Beauty!”
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Early birds who book before the end of March 2025 can benefit from a price freeze on ticket prices, with options ranging from £15 to £43.50.
Family ticket discounts can be booked for £90 (for three including at least one child) and £120 (for four including at least one child.) Schools discounts are available when booking via the St Leonard’s Place box office.
YTR Members receive an extra ten per cent off up to four tickets. For details of how to join YTR Membership, visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or contact the box office.
Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly with the magnet of love in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
THIS is York Theatre Royal’s fifth collaboration with regular pantomime award winners Evolution Productions. On Tuesday, a sixth was confirmed for next year when Sleeping Beauty will stir from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026 with Robin Simpson once more as the dotty dame and tickets on sale already.
The partnership is well grooved with tropes established in the writing of Evolution’s Paul Hendy and the casting and direction of Juliet Forster. Not only Simpson’s gregarious, teasing dame but also the presence of a CBeebies star each year; animals, whether live with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie last year or in rather more heavy-footed Welly the Elephant puppet form this time; plenty of set-piece spectacle and the obligatory ghost scene (here with the dame’s ghost gag bench).
A profusion of songs across the pop ages shares equal space with a love of putting the pun into punchlines and a preference for verbal wit over physical slapstick, although the latter still has its place.
There is, too, an awareness of changing times and sensitivities, so while we still have a Spirit of the Ring and Genie of the Lamp (both played by CBeebies’ ever-playful Evie Pickerill, chasing her tail breathlessly and singing heartily), now Widow Twankey’s Chinese laundry has made way for Dame Dolly’s Pun shop.
The decision to change ‘Abanazar’ to ‘Ivan Tobebooed’ may be rather more to do with Hendy’s love of a daft name than any PC correctness. Paul Hawkyard, returning to exuberant York villainy after a winter away doing panto in Dubai, had predicted as much at September’s press launch.
Hawkyard has such comic mischief about his burly, volcanic-voiced frame, whether playing Bottom in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mardy to Simpson’s Manky in their Ugly Sister double act in Cinderella, or now Ivan, you find yourself wanting to cheer as much as boo him.
Your reviewer would have liked to have seen more scenes with Simpson’s Dame Dolly in comic combat with and Hawkyard’s Ivan, given their rare stage chemistry, affirmed once more by their will-they-won’t-they-kiss shenanigans, but maybe the plot did not permit more of such golden moments.
The comedy is shared out between Pickerill’s double act, Simpson’s sassy, sometimes saucy Dame Dolly, Tommy Carmichael’s daft son Charlie and physical comedy specialist Rowan Armitt-Brewster’s PC World on his return to York after his dextrous turn as Inspector Fox in Around The World In 80 Days-ish this summer.
Armitt-Brewster’s officious officer rather out-stars the affable Carmichael, with better lines, better gags, funnier body movements too, but the children warm to Carmichael’s cheekiness and he plays his part alongside Armitt-Brewster and Simpson in the show’s best call-and-respond set-piece, as fractious as a rap battle when conducted with presses of a button to release a recorded line from a familiar pop hit to express their feelings.
The dame’s audience pick for humiliation, one Adam from the front row, plays his part in a headset in this scene and has an even bigger moment on stage earlier on when delivering a series of deliberately clunky punchlines in a joke shop routine with ‘Terry-Bull’ timing.
Fresh from playing Sonny in the UK tour of Grease, Sario Solomon is a delightfully ever-positive Aladdin, as uplifting as his carpet ride and singing like a dream too, and he is matched by Emily Tang’s Princess Jasmine, thoroughly modern in outlook in being drawn to the personality, not the bank balance.
Clear storytelling and good values (rather than heavy-handed moral messaging) are always strong features of creative director Juliet Forster’s direction, alongside the abundant humour, complemented by Hayley Del Harrison’s sparky, sparkling choreography.
Morgan Brind’s costumes stand out more than his set designs, especially the dame’s merry-go-round of ever-dafter attire. Look out too for one shop sign: Sherlock Combs, Barber, a cut above the norm.
Hendy’s script finds room for cutting observations on York’s parking and potholes and takes pot-shots at Hull and the Grand Opera House pantomime too, and never has he had more fun with a pun in a show where the second half surpasses the first, as should always be the case. All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk were superior but there is still plenty to enjoy in Aladdin.
Aladdin runs at York Theatre Royal until January 5 2025. Box office:01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
To beard or not to beard? Paul Hawkyard, left, will retain his, but Robin Simpson will shed his to play Dame Dolly in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
IT could be disconcerting interviewing the dame in week two of rehearsals for Aladdin when Robin Simpson’s beard remains in imperial flourish, especially when his playing style is the antithesis of rough and ready.
Be assured, the whiskers will be long gone when the Yorkshireman begins his fifth York Theatre Royal pantomime next Tuesday, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey in a nod to acknowledging modern-day sensitivities and cultural diplomacy.
As ever, Robin’s dame will be lovable. “I’ve never been a big fan, even in normal life, of putting people down. Dames can be quite cruel but I would never do that,” he says. “When I pick out a man in the audience to be in the spotlight at each show, what I want afterwards is for him to go, ‘I’m so glad I was chosen because I had a great time’.
“My dame personality also comes from performing in front of children a lot [Robin does solo storytelling shows too], accepting their offers [suggestions and comments], working with what they give you, incorporating it, making it work. The aim has to be to give everyone a good time, when it can be too easy in pantomimes to make someone feel they’re being picked on. You don’t need to do that. I believe the dame should be nice.”
Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre’s first poster image for Aladdin, released in January
His style epitomises the new age of the York Theatre Royal pantomime crafted since 2020 by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and award-winning Evolution Productions director and script writer Paul Hendy.
“Our panto does appeal to both adults and children,” says Robin. “You have to have something for the adults, nothing too specific, but ‘bum jokes’ too for the children. You need fabulous costumes and you have to do the story properly, while having a side-wink to the audience that says ‘ we know this is all crazy’!
“We always have an eye on being entertaining for children: you can’t have the baddie being too scary or the dame being too rude!”
On the subject of the villain, Robin will be renewing his badinage with fellow West Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, who returns to the dark side at the Theatre Royal as Abanazar after a gap year appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.
Robin Simpson’s Manky, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy, the scheming stepsisters, in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 2021
Simpson and Hawkyard first revelled in their award-nominated panto double act when things turned ugly as stepsisters Manky and Mardy in Cinderella in 2021. “It’s great to have him back,” says Robin, who also played Mrs Smee to Paul’s Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan! in 2022.
“It’s nice to have that familiarity, and to have similar scenes and routines to past shows, like the ghost gag bench but with a different song. Some of the same catchphrases and punchlines too: the more that people come and see the shows, the more they’ll say, ‘that’s the thing they do’, but you don’t want to force them. They have to be natural.
“The audiences have been great since we started, and hopefully we’ve been growing that audience each year with the shows going from strength to strength. However each one is put together by Juliet and Paul, their decision to cast a CBeebies star each time has worked really well: it’s really wonderful to have Evie Pickerill this year. She’s such a delight to work with – and what great singing voice she has too.
“We have a strong ensemble and we’re a team of really committed people. Pantomimes can be lazy but that’s not the case with here, where Juliet and Paul put everything into constantly finding something funny that appeals to the widest audience.”
Robin Simpson in children’s storyteller mode
Robin’s dame loves to be the dispenser of “lots of fun”. “I’ve been playing dame for eight years now, three in Huddersfield [at the Lawrence Batley Theatre] and now five here, and of all the roles in pantomime, it’s certainly the most interesting one for me as you haven’t got the limitations on you that the leading man and the leading girl have.
“I don’t have to carry the show. That’s up to Aladdin and co. They have the emotional story and earnestness. I can just come on, say a few jokes and fall over. At my age, that’s what I like, though I don’t mean to do it a disservice. The gender reversals in theatre have been going on for many years. They’ve always been part of the theatre tradition.”
Robin has returned to York after working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, heading from Scotland to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and OVO, St Albans too on tour. “It’s taken up pretty much my year,” he says. “I did seven months, a proper old-fashioned rep season, with the seventh month at the Wolsey in Ipswich in a co-production of Footloose.
“I was the Reverend and I really enjoyed being put in a musical, which is not something I’m usually considered for. It was good to be out of my comfort zone,” he says.
Robin Simpson having “lots of fun” in rehearsal for his fifth dame’s role at York Theatre Royal in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
“Though I was also in another musical in the season: Beautiful, the Carole King musical, playing Donny Kirshner, Carole’s manager, who managed The Monkees too. We had the same cast for three shows, with me playing Sir John Middleton and Mrs Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility…”
…Mrs Ferrars, you say? “I think they must have heard I played the dame! It was all very much multi-role-playing with only eight of us in the cast. She has only one scene, so none of your pantomime rouge for Mrs Ferrars. We didn’t have time for that.
“She’s really dislikeable! A horrible tyrant of a woman!” Totally unlike Robin’s dame.
York Theatre Royal presents Aladdin from December 3 to January 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Aladdin cast members Tommy Carmichael, left, Paul Hawkyard, Evie Pickerill, Robin Simpson and Emily Tang outside York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ant Robling
STARS of the 2024-2025 pantomime Aladdin have gathered for a launch day at York Theatre Royal.
Present were Robin Simpson, who will return for his fifth panto season as the dame, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey, and fellow Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, renewing his badinage with Simpson as villainous Abanazar after a gap year from the Theatre Royal show, appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.
There too were Evie Pickerill, the latest CBeebies presenter to join the Theatre Royal-Evolution Productions co-production, cast as the Spirit of the Ring; Emily Tang, who will play Princess Jasmine, and Tommy Carmichael, whose role will be Charlie.
Absent from Tuesday’s media event was Saria Solomon, otherwise engaged on tour playing Donny in the musical Grease, but he had attended a launch already in June to promote his title role in the York panto, to be directed once more by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution director Paul Hendy, winner of the Best Script award for Aladdin at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, in the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards.
The first name to be confirmed for Aladdin was Robin Simpson, as early as during last winter’s run of Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein his Dame Trott followed up his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Ugly Sister Manky in a Pantomime Awards-nominated double act with Hawkyard’s Mardy. In the socially distanced first winter of Covid, he had first played the Theatre Royal’s dame in The Travelling Pantomime that toured to community centres around York.
“It’s nice they have that faith in me not to put people off,” he says of being the first poster face of the promotional campaign for Aladdin.
Hello, Dolly: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly, starring in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal this winter. Picture: Ant Robling
After his partnership with Zeus, the scene-stealing Border Collie, in Jack And The Beanstalk, Robin will resume striking comedy sparks with Paul Hawkyard. “Paul’s very uncontrollable,” he says. “He doesn’t follow orders, but he does work for treats. It’s nice to have him back, and it’s always nice to be back at the Theatre Royal.
“A few years ago I wouldn’t have envisaged that I’d be doing panto for ten years now, because before that I didn’t really do panto, as the kids were young and I liked to be at home with them for Christmas.
“I understudied Berwick [Kaler] here one year. The Huddersfield panto came along, and then I started working here with the ‘pandemic panto’ when theatres were in flux, and it’s a joy to be back again for Aladdin.”
Guess who Paul Hawkyard played in his panto season away from York. “I was the dame! I went to Dubai over the Christmas period to appear in Beauty And The Beast there – and it was gorgeous,” he says. “As you’re rehearsing, in between scenes if you’re not in that scene, you can dive into the swimming pool and relax – but make sure to remove your flip-flops before you go back into the rehearsal room.”
Now Paul will be returning to the dark side as Abanazar after playing Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. “It’s great to be back with Robin. We keep in touch with each other, like painting a portrait of his mam’s dog,” says wildlife artist Paul. “It’s lovely to be back working with Juliet [Forster] too, and it’s been so uplifting to have had messages from people saying they’d missed me last year.
“Being welcomed by York is a good feeling, and it’s such a good panto because the standard is so high: the costumes, the scenery, Paul’s script, the speciality acts. It’s another level.
Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar on the York Theatre Royal stage. Picture: Ant Robling
“And the lovely thing about me and Robin is that it’s not just the chemistry on stage. He’ll stay over at my home if he’s passing by when he’s doing his story shows.”
Evie Pickerill, one of the principal presenters on the children’s television channel CBeebies since 2018 and a regular CBBC host too, follows Andy Day, Mandy Moate and James “Raven” McKenzie in joining the Theatre Royal panto ranks. “That’s big shoes to fill,” she says. “Playing the Spirit of the Ring will be my first time on the York stage but I’ve been to York a handful of times and love it here.
“I played Cinderella at The Grand, Wolverhampton, and Leicester de Montford Hall and Snow White at Wolverhampton, and this will be a different kind of role. With the Spirit of the Ring, there’s a bit of comedy, a bit of silliness.
“After doing panto for Imagine and in-house at Wolverhampton, working for Evolution at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto. Apparently we’ll be doing a lot of character work, which is different from the other pantos I’ve done.”
Before rehearsals begin for Aladdin, Evie will be heading up to Edinburgh to record the CBeebies pantomime at the Festival Theatre and then returning to the BBC studio. “I’m playing the Robin in Beauty And The Beast,” she reveals. The Robin, Evie? “She’s Belle’s best friend, and she flies – and I’ve never flown across a stage before. That’s exciting!”
Evie loves pantomime. “I first went when I was seven or eight and straightaway I said to my parents, ‘that’s what I want to do’,” she says. “I left home at 18 to go to drama school in Liverpool, doing the acting course at LIPA, and I’ve never looked back.”
Aladdin will run at York Theatre Royal from December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring. Picture: Ant Robling
HE’S bad and he’s back. Paul Hawkyard will return to the villain’s role in the 2024-2025 York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions pantomime after a year’s hiatus.
The towering Leeds-born actor and wildlife artist will play Abanazar in creative director Juliet Forster’s production of Aladdin, written by Evolution director Paul Hendy in a new York adaptation of the script he premiered at The Marlowe, Canterbury, last winter with Strictly Come Dancing alumnus Kevin Clifton as the baddie.
Clifton, by the way, is among The Marlowe’s record-breaking eight nominations for the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards for Best Newcomer to Pantomime for his debut as Ivan Tochachacha, in essence Abanazar re-booted with a dancing moniker.
Writer Hendy was nominated too for Best Script, alongside Best Pantomime (over 900 seats), Best Dame, Best Lead, Best Magical Being, Best Supporting Artist and Best Contribution to Music.
Leeds-born actor Paul Hawkyard
The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at G Live, Guildford, on June 18, when York Theatre Royal will be represented by Jack And The Beanstalk cast members Mia Overfield and Anna Soden.
Overfield is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre, Manchester.
In her home-city panto, Soden played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that has led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category.
Meanwhile, back to Aladdin in York, where Hawkyard will be renewing his fruitful, feisty pantomime partnership with regular dame Robin Simpson, returning for his fifth successive Theatre Royal panto.
Rev-olution: Robin Simpson and Paul Hawkyard roar onto stage in their irreverent Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella
Hawkyard and Simpson received a UK Pantomime Awards nomination for their Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in 2021-2022’s Cinderella, then bonded in baddie badinage over the next winter as Captain Hook and Mrs Smee respectively in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan.
Hawkyard and Simpson first worked together in the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre company at the Eye of York, sharing a dressing room from the day they started. In 2022, they reunited for Harrogate Theatre’s HT Rep season of three plays in three weeks, Simpson appearing in all three, Abigail’s Party, Gaslight and Men Of The World; Hawkyard in the first and last.
They will be joined in Aladdin by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Further casting will be announced shortly.
Tickets for Aladdin’s run from December 3 to January 5 2025 are on sale on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
She likes to moove it, moove it: Anna Soden’s Dave the talking cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime stars Mia Overfield and Anna Soden are in the running for the 2024 UK Pantomime Awards.
Mia is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut in Jack And The Beanstalk, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre,Manchester.
In her home-city panto, Anna played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category.
Mia Overfield’s Jack with the giant Blunderbore in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor
Anna, who grew up in York, was a member of York Youth Theatre for a decade and was part of the young people’s ensemble for Theatre Royal shows, including The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum and the 2006 panto Cinderella.
In 2020, she appeared as the bass guitar-playing Fairy in York Theatre Royal’s socially distanced Travelling Pantomime, toured to York community centres under Covid restrictions.
The awards ceremony, held in association with Stagecoach, will take place at G Live, Guildford, on June 18 after the 70 judges had their busiest year yet in the awards’ third year, collectively visiting 259 venues to see 728 performances across the UK.
Reason to be cheerful: 2024 UK Pantomime Awards nominees Mia Overfield and Anna Soden. Picture: S R Taylor
Among them, Jack And The Beanstalk was the third pantomime produced on the Theatre Royal stage in partnership with panto specialists Evolution Productions, directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution’s Paul Hendy.
After Cinderella, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk, the team will reunite for the 2024-2025 Theatre Royal pantomime, Aladdin, from December 3 to January 5, when Robin Simpson will return for a fifth winter as the Dame, joined by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring.
Evie, who has guest starred on Blue Peter, has been hosting CBeebies since 2018 and during that time she has performed leading roles in their Christmas and Shakespeare productions too.
Evie Pickerill: CBeebies presenter will reunite with York Theatre Royal pantomime director Juliet Forster for Aladdin
Aladdin director Juliet Forster will be directing her for a second time. “I’m absolutely delighted to be welcoming Evie to York Theatre Royal’s stage this Christmas. I worked with Evie on CBeebies’ Romeo & Juliet– she made a wonderful Juliet and was a joy to work with.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing her bring her unique, lovable style to pantomime. We are so lucky to have her, and York audiences are in for a treat!”
Aladdin writer and Evolution producer Paul Hendy enthuses: “We’re delighted Evie Pickerill will be joining Robin Simpson in our spectacular production. I’ve been lucky enough to see Evie in pantomime before and know that she’s going to bring a sparkle and flare to the show that our audiences will adore! This really is shaping up to be our biggest and funniest show ever!”
Evie is no stranger to pantomime, having played Cinderella and Snow White previously, and she also performed in the musical Shout! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after first appearing in the show during her Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts studies. Last year she hosted her first radio show on Heart North West.
Alongside her passion for the arts, Evie is a supporter of several children’s charities, taking part in fundraising events for Comic Relief and Children In Need and becoming a champion for Place2Be in 2022.
Wise Children “open the bloody door” to Emma Rice’s beguiling but disturbing Blue Beard at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday. Picture: Steve Tanner
PANTO dame tales and a comedian’s first-time memories, a classic thriller and a feminist fairytale, a community choir festival and a prog-rock legend make Charles Hutchinson’s list of upcoming cultural highlights.
Play of the week: Wise Children in Emma Rice’s Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
BLUE Beard meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign as writer-director Emma Rice brings her own brand of theatrical wonder to this beguiling, disturbing tale.
Applying Rice’s signature sleight of hand, Blue Beard explores curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance, all through an intoxicating lens of music, wit and tender truth. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Rick Wakeman: Last return of the Caped Crusader at York Barbican
Catch him while you can: Rick Wakeman, Return Of The Caped Crusader, York Barbican, tonight (24/02/2024), 7.30pm
PROG-ROCK icon and Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman, 76, is to call time on his one-man shows to concentrate on composing, recording and collaborating, but not before playing York. “I always planned to stop touring by my 77th birthday,” he says. “For those of you who wish to send me a card, it’s 18th May!”
Saturday’s show opens with Wakeman’s new arrangements of Yes material for band and vocalists, followed after the interval by his epic work Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Robin Simpson on dame duty in York Theatre Royal’s All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
Pantomime revelations of the week: Robin Simpson: There Ain’t Nothing Like A Dame, Rise, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm
ALREADY confirmed for his return for Aladdin from December 3 to January 5 2025, York Theatre Royal’s resident dame, Robin Simpson, takes a peak behind the wigs into the glitz and glamour of life as a pantomime dame.
Simpson provides an insight into the origins of the character, backstage antics and classic cheeky panto humour as he reveals “what it’s really like to frock up and tread the boards”. Expect cheesy gags, naughty nonsense and even a silly sing-song.
“I’ve run this event before and it was mostly for slightly older children and adults. Ages 7/8 and above really,” says Robin. “The show includes stories, song-sheet sing-alongs and silly poems. It’s not at all serious!
“It’s fun to approach storytelling from the perspective of the dame. It’s a little more anarchic. I also start with a brief history of the pantomime, from Roman times to the modern day.
“I do this while getting dressed and made up into the dame with the idea that, by the time I’m talking about Dan Leno and the Victorian dame, I’m completely changed. There’s room for questions and chat too about being in a panto and what happens on stage and backstage. Like I say, it’s for KS2 and adults really.”
Earlier in the day, at 4.30pm, in an interactive one-hour event for children aged three to six, Robin and Susanna Meese will be spinning the Storywheel to reveal much-loved nursery tales. “It’s a wheel of fortune-style story generator where random fairytales are told and there’s lots of dressing-up, musical instruments, songs, props, puppets and play,” says Robin.
Afterwards, children can delve into story bags full of goodies and stay and play with the hosts, who will have everything needed for the children to tell the tales, including puppets, props, and costumes. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise
Maura Jackson: Public speaker, charity boss and now comedian, playing Theatre@41 tomorrow
Storyteller of the week: Maura Jackson: More O’ Me, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
AT 53 Maura Jackson cannot decide if she is a keynote speaker, charity CEO or comedian. Thanks to “the recklessness of menopause”, she is all three.
After living a life and a half and taking up stand-up in 2022 on a whim, storyteller Jackson takes tomorrow’s audience on a humorous rollercoaster of life-defining moments, good or bad. Despite her professed aversion to drama, she is surrounded by it. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Neil McDermott, left, and Todd Boyce in Sleuth, “the thriller about thrillers”, at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman
Thriller of the week: Sleuth, Grand Opera House, York, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday
TODD Boyce, best known for playing Coronation Street’s notorious baddie Stephen Reid, will be joined by EastEnders soap star Neil McDermott in Anthony Shaffer’s dark psychological thriller about thrillers, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh.
What happens? A young man arrives at the impressive home of a famous mystery writer, only to be unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of intrigue and gamesmanship, where nothing is quite as it seems. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rob Auton: Star of The Rob Auton Show, full of firsts, from memories to girlfriends to jobs
Comedy gig(s) of the week: Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm; Mortimer Suite, Hull City Hall, February 29, 7.30pm; The Wardrobe, Leeds, March 1, 7.30pm
ROB Auton, Pocklington-raised stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returns north from London with his self-titled tenth themed solo show.
After the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, Auton turns the spotlight on himself, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis. Box office: York, thecrescentyork.seetickets.com; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk; Leeds, brudenellsocialclub.seetickets.com.
Skylights: Lighting up York Barbican in November
Gig announcement of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, November 2
YORK band Skylights will play their biggest home-city show yet this autumn, with tickets newly on sale at ticketmaster.co.uk in a week when latest release Time To Let Things Go has risen to number two in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart.
Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the biggest venue in our home city of York, the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here, so to headline will be the perfect way to finish what’s going to be a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.”
In Focus: York Community Choir Festival 2024
Jessa Liversidge: Directing Easingwold Community Singers’ performance at the York Community Choir Festival
York Community Choir Festival 2024, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 25, 6pm; February 26 to March 1, 7.30pm; March 2, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
THE 8th York Community Choir Festival spreads 31 choirs across eight concerts over six days at the JoRo. On the opening evening, Easingwold Community Singers will be premiering director Jessa Liversidge’s arrangement of The Secret Of Happiness from the American musical Daddy Long Legs, with permission of composer and lyricist Paul Gordon.
“Festival organiser Graham Mitchell wanted a choir to perform this song,” says Jessa. “I bought the music but couldn’t find a choral arrangement, so I chanced my arm on contacting the composer to ask if there were any arrangements or could I do one, and he said, ‘yes, you can’.
“It’s a lovely gentle song. Hopefully it will go well, and I can then send Paul a recording.”
Choirs range from York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir to The Rolling Tones, Sounds Fun Singers to York Military Wives Choir, Selby Youth Choir to Track 29 Ladies Close Harmony Chorus. Six choirs from Huntington School perform next Friday, taking up all the first-half programme. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
York Community Choir Festival: the programme
Sunday, 6pm
Selby Youth Choir, Bishopthorpe Community Choir, Eboraca, Easingwold Community Singers.
Monday, 7.30pm
Community Chorus, York Celebration Singers, Euphonics, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir.
Tuesday, 7.30pm
Jubilate, Some Voices York, Sounds Fun Singers, Abbey Belles Chorus.
Wednesday, 7.30pm
Stagecoach Youth Junior Choir, The Garrowby Singers, In Harmony, Stamford Bridge Community Choir.
Thursday, 7.30pm
York Military Wives Choir, Harmonia, Spirit of Harmony Barbershop Chorus, Heworth Community Choir.
Friday, 7.30pm
Huntington School Choirs, Vivace! Aviva York Choir, Main Street Sound Ladies, Barbershop Chorus
Sleuth and sidekick: Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake, left, with Sam Thorpe-Spinks’s Jack Barak in Sovereign at King’s Manor. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Community show of the year: Sovereign, King’s Manor, York, July
YORK Theatre Royal’s best show of the year was not at the Theatre Royal, but across Exhibition Square in the courtard of King’s Manor, the setting for C J Sansom’s Tudor sleuth yarn, adapted typically adroitly by the golden pen of York playwright Mike Kenny.
Henry VIII was given the Yorkshire cold shoulder by a cast of 100 led by Fergus Rattigan and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, complemented by Madeleine Hudson’s choir.
Livy Potter in Iphigenia In Splott at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Solo performance of the year: Livy Potter in Black Treacle Theatre’s Iphigenia In Splott, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March
GREEK myth is smacked in the chops by modern reality in Gary Owen’s scabrous, “horribly relevant” one-woman drama Iphigenia In Splott, a stark, dark 75-minute play, played out on a single blue chair, with no props, under Jim Paterson’s direction.
Livy Potter kept meeting you in the eye, telling you the bruised, devastating tale of Cardiff wastrel Effie, and her downward spiral through a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, with shards of jagged humour and shattering blows to the heart.
Crowded in: Comedian Rob Auton’s artwork for The Crowd Show
Comedy show of the year: Rob Auton in The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24
COMEDIANS tend to play to a room full of strangers, hence the subject matter of Rob Auton’s The Crowd Show, with its discussions of crowds, people and connection.
Except that the crowd for this (London-based) York comedian, born in Barmby Moor and educated in Pocklington, was made up of friends, family, extended family, and loyal local enthusiasts. The home crowd, rather than the in-crowd, as it were. Auton revelled in a unique performing experience, even more surreal than usual.
Honourable mention: Stewart Lee, Basic Lee, York Theatre Royal, March 20. Serious yet seriously amusing dissection of the rotten state of the nation and comedy itself.
Christmas In Neverland at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
Exhibition of the year: Christmas In Neverland, Castle Howard, near York, running until January 7
IS it a Christmas event, an installation or an exhibition? All three, in that Charlotte Lloyd Webber Event Design makes an exhibit of the 300-year-old stately home at Castle Howard each winter.
This time, the theme is a Peter Pan-inspired festive experience, transforming rooms and corridors alike with floristry, installations, props, soundscapes, and projections, conjuring a Mermaid’s Lagoon, Captain Hook’s Cabin and the Jolly Roger with new innovations from Leeds company imitating the dog.
Honourable mention: Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s absurdist sculptures in Trap Of The Truth, his first UK museum show, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, bringing a whimsical smile until April 28 2024.
Kevin Rowland leading Dexys through The Feminine Divine and old hits sublime at York Barbican
Favourite gigs of the year?
SPOILT for choice. At York Barbican: Suzanne Vega, vowing I Never Wear White in droll delight on February 22; James, bolstered by orchestra and gospel choir, hitting heavenly heights, April 28; Dexys’ two sets, one new and theatrical, the other laden with soul-powered hits, September 5; Lloyd Cole’s two sets, one ostensibly acoustic, the other electric, both eclectic, on October 22.
At The Crescent: The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster, performing with his son; March 14; Lawrence, once of Felt and Denim, now channelling Mark E Smith and the Velvet Underground in Mozart Estate, October 7; The Howl And The Hum’s extraordinary, deeply emotional three-night farewell to the York band’s original line-up in December.
The long-dormant Pulp’s poster for their This Is What We Do For An Encore return to performing live
Outdoor experience of the year: Pulp, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 9
THE rain swept in on the Eighties’ electronic nostalgia of Being Boiled at the Human League’s Music Showcase Weekend at York Racecourse on July 28 too, but that was a mere watering can by comparison with the deluge that befell the Open Air Theatre half an hour before fellow Sheffield legends Pulp took to the Scarborough stage. “Has it been raining?”, teased Jarvis Cocker, but huddled beneath hastily purchased sheeting, the night was still plastic fantastic.
Cherie Federico: At the helm of all things Aesthetica in York
Driving force of the year in York: Cherie Federico, Aesthetica
2023 marked the 20th anniversary of Aesthetica, the international art magazine set up in York by New Yorker and York St John University alumna Cherie Federico. The Aesthetica Art Prize was as innovative and stimulating as ever at York Art Gallery; the 13th Aesthetica Short Film Festival, spanning five days in November, was the biggest yet. On top of that came the Future Now Symposium in March and the launch of Reignite to bolster York’s focus on being a fulcrum for the arts, media arts and gaming industry innovations of the future.
A star performance: Andy Cryer in The Comedy Of Errors (More Or Less) at Stephen Jospeh Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Patch Dolan
Best Shakespeare of the year: The Comedy Of Errors (More Or Less), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, April
THE SJT teamed up with Shakespeare North Playhouse, Nick Lane paired up with co-writer Elizabeth Godber, and Eighties’ pop guilty pleasures rubbed shoulders with Shakespeare’s rebooted comedy as Yorkshire clashed with Lancashire and everyone won. This Comedy Of Errors got everything right. Not more or less. Just right. Full stop.
Nuno Queimado and Rumi Sutton in Gus Gowland’s Mayflies at York Theatre Royal
New musical of the year in York: Mayflies, York Theatre Royal, May
YORK Theatre Royal resident artist Gus Gowland deserved far bigger audiences for the premiere of the intriguing Mayflies, as confirmed by no fewer than nine nominations in the BroadwayWorldUK Awards.
O, the app-hazard nature of modern love under Covid’s black cloud, as two people meet up after two years of tentative communication online. In Tania Azevedo’s flexible casting, you could pick any configuration of Rumi Sutton, Nuno Queimado or Emma Thornett for the couple of your choice. Better still, you should have seen all three; the songs, the nuances, the humour, grew with familiarity.
Leigh Symonds’ engineer Winston and Naomi Petersen’s automaton house maid ED in Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Still delivering the goods in Yorkshire
ALAN Ayckbourn’s visions of AI in Constant Companions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough; John Godber’s Northern Soul-powered Do I Love You?, on tour into 2024; Barnsley bard Ian McMillan’s Yorkshire take on The Barber Of Seville, St George’s Hall, Bradford; Robin Simpson’s dame in Jack And The Beanstalk, York Theatre Royal.
Robin Simpson: The dame with the golden pun, confirmed for fifth successive York Theatre Royal pantomime
ACTOR and storyteller Robin Simpson’s diary for 2024 is filling up already.
Now playing Dame Trott in castellated Clifford’s Tower and afternoon tea dresses in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal until January 7, he will return for dame duty for a fifth York winter in succession in Aladdin from December 3 to January 5 2025, once more co-produced with Evolution Productions, written by Paul Hendy and directed by Juliet Forster.
“It’s always lovely to be the first to be announced for the cast, and to be coming back again,” he says. “It’s nice to be wanted!”
On top of that, via social media ahead of official confirmation from Scotland, the Yorkshireman has revealed his audition success to be part of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s company for the 2024 Summer Season from May 31 to September 26.
In the meantime, Robin, who lives near Huddersfield, is revelling in his latest turn at the Theatre Royal. “I’ve been performing here for nearly 20 years now in all sorts of shows,” he says. “My first-ever show in 2005 was Mike Kenny’s The Little Mermaid, which we performed in the Studio.”
After his flexible Dame at the double in a choice of shows on The Travelling Pantomime tour of community venues under Covid restrictions in 2020, followed by his Ugly Sister Manky opposite Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy in Cinderella in 2021 and Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan last winter, his Dame Trott is the classic dame per se.
Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott in York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime under Covid reglations in 2020
“Jack And The Beanstalk is one of the more traditional stories that a pantomime can be based on, being an old English folktale. This is the first year at York Theatre Royal – apart from the Travelling Pantomime in 2020 – that I’m playing a traditional dame character,” says Robin.
“She’s my first ‘proper’ dame here: working class, with a couple of kids. The Sisters in Cinderella are a different concept and Mrs Smee was a henchman for Captain Hook, as Peter Pan doesn’t have a traditional dame, and instead I shared the comic role with Jonny Weldon’s Starkey! Dame Trott is the mother to the title character and that’s a very traditional role for the dame to play.”
Reflecting on the gradual progression of the Theatre Royal partnership with Evolution, Robin says: “You never want to get stale with what you do, and it’s lovely to have new people in the cast. Apart from the one-off Travelling Panto, we’re only in our third year, so it’s still quite a new partnership, and though there’s a house style developing, it will be a while before we fully find our own style.
“The pantomimes have been great, the scripts are excellent and I never worry about the changes in the cast because they’re always cast really well. It’s a joy to work with them.”
This season is not the first time that Robin has Trotted out his Dame Trott in York. How does she differ in 2023-2024 from the simpler version in the 70-minute Travelling Pantomime? “She has a different costume on. Otherwise, she’s very similar as I’m a one-trick pony. She’s slightly older,” he says.
Robin Simpson in storytelling mode
How did Robin spend his 2023? “I did a season of plays in Eastbourne over the summer and I filmed a couple of episodes of Coronation Street,” he says. “I play the vet and I put Maureen Lipman’s dog, Cerberus, to sleep [Note of clarification: Lipman plays Evelyn Plummer]. A few years ago, I put Ken Barlow’s dog, Eccles, to sleep as well. Every few years they ring me up to put a dog out of its misery and make the nation cry.
“I’ve also had my busiest year with regard to my storytelling. I performed at Blenheim Palace and Sledmere House [near Driffield], and over the summer I had a busy time with the Summer Reading Challenge in libraries all over England. I also performed Magic, Monsters & Mayhem at Rise@Bluebird Bakery in Acomb in September, with magical stories of monsters, lots of comedy and audience interaction. The storytelling side of things is getting bigger all the time, which is nice.”
Robin has been cruising too. Work or pleasure? “Oh, work, but only just,” he says. “Classic is a show I did at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 and I thought that that was that, but it was booked by Cunard Cruises for their Mediterranean trip, leaving from Naples, visiting places like Barcelona. Written by Peter Kerry and Lyndsay Williams, it’s very funny and fast paced, racing through the 42 greatest works of literature in one hour. It’s a crazy show but a lot of fun.”
Crazy show? Fun? That would sum up Jack And The Beanstalk too, a show marked by Robin’s skills of comedic interaction and improvisation. “You need to leave your ego at the door, be willing to play and not take yourself too seriously,” he says of the art of playing pantomime.
“It’s a balance between childishness and professionalism. Improvising is a really tricky thing but if you listen to your fellow actor, accept their suggestions and be willing to go with the flow, you shouldn’t go wrong. It keeps things fresh.”
Jack And The Beanstalk runs wild at York Theatre Royal until January 7; Aladdin, December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Aladdin tickets are available from £15; family tickets for the best seats are £81 for a family of three and £108 for a family of four.
Robin Simpson’s Ugly Sister Manky, in the sidecar, and Paul Hawkyard’s Ugly Sister Mardy, at the wheel, in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella in 2021
One final question for Robin
Are you hot to Trott?
“You’d have to ask my wife.”
Did you know?
ROBIN Simpson has played three roles in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
1. Chartered surveyor Graeme Lewis, June 2004.
2. The Surgeon, operating on pregnant Kylie Platt’s ruptured spleen, February 2013.
3. The Vet, putting Ken Barlow’s dog, Eccles, to sleep in April 2020, followed by Evelyn Plummer’s canine, Cerberus, in March 2023.
Did you know too?
PAUL Hawkyard, Robin Simpson’s fellow Ugly Sister in Cinderella and Captain Hook to his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan last winter, has painted a picture for an 80th birthday present for Robin’s mother, featuring a portrait of her dogs.
In Focus: Matthew Curnier on playing Billy Trott and his past careers as a marine biologist and science teacher
Matthew Curnier’s Billy Trott, front, left, with Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott and Mia Overfield’s Jack Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
How did you land the role of dim-witted Billy Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk?
“I’d actually met Juliet [director Juliet Forster] already for an audition for the UK tour of Around The World In 80 Days that she was directing. It may have been in January, and what I then didn’t realise was that Juliet worked at York Theatre Royal.
“It was only later that I learnt that Juliet had asked for my self-tape for the pantomime audition, and not the co-producers, Evolution Productions. I feel very honoured to have been chosen.”
What other roles have you played in pantomime?
“I’ve been doing panto comic for ten years now and love it every time. I’ve always played the panto comic, because I just love being able to play the fool, especially around Christmas when you get to just be a Silly Billy!
“When I’m a little older and a little wiser, I hope that I’ll be able to move onto playing Dame. In the meantime, I’m watching and learning, and only time will tell.”
What are the characteristics of your panto role?
“Hopefully I’m able to bring a lot of silliness and dimwittedness, and there’s the lovely relationship between the comic and the dame too. There’s something wonderful about being the comic, where you can work with the dame, and each time the dynamic is different, depending on who you play opposite. With every dame, there’s not been a single year gone by where I’ve not learned something from them.
“What I tend to do in my performance is a lot of physical comedy, falling over, slapstick, being stupid! That really plays to the kids, and with all that energy, you can bring a lot of competitiveness to the song-sheet too.
“The ‘cleverer’ stuff can grow out of the partnership with the dame. That’s the two-tiered levels of comedy in panto: the children’s stuff and then all those double-entendres that go over the kids’ heads, and the one-liners, but I always lean to the over-exuberant, hapless dimwit.”
Where and when did you see your first pantomime and what was your reaction?
“I remember going to the theatre from time to time as a child. I think we went to see Gilbert & Sullivan shows (because I had an aunt who loved them and often performed in them) and the local village panto. It just always looked like the actors were having a lot of fun. And so I knew pretty early on that I wanted in.”
You were born in Paris, moved to this country at a young age and grew up bilingually. Do you do much work in France/French?
“I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to work in both countries. While most of my work is here in the UK, the last project I did in France was the recording of a beautiful audiobook; an epic novel written in Alexandrine verse – a little bit like Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter but instead of ten beats in a phrase, there are 12, which suits Latin-rooted languages a little better. It was so wonderful.
“It’s helpful being able to speak French and sound French. It also seems to get me seen for some nice projects here in the UK. For example, I often do voice work in French and play French characters. This year I had a role as a French sommelier in Industry series three for the BBC. Mais oui, mais oui!”
Before becoming an actor, you studied marine zoology and marine mammalogy. which took you all over the world. Why make the switch to acting?
“It’s true, my very first career was in marine zoology and mammology. I became a marine biologist and was able to conduct research, primarily in whales and dolphins in fabulous places like Canada, Scotland, Kenya. The results of the research were often for conservation purposes. I absolutely loved doing this work and saw some breathtaking nature.
“After a few years, my other burning passion – which was theatre and acting – started calling very strongly. From the age of 12, I knew that I wanted to be an actor but it never seemed ‘possible’ or ‘realistic’.
“I think I found out a little later than other people that it is, actually, a job and so once I found out that I could go to drama school and get an agent, I thought I would chance my luck, going to drama school at the age of 30.
“I trained at the London Centre, and post-drama school, I did quite a lot at the Actors Class with the wonderful Mary Doherty, who I would consider as my acting mentor, teaching young actors the professional side of being an actor: how to market yourself, how to do auditions, etc. She’s been a real guide to me.”
What prompted you to become a qualified secondary science teacher?
“Well, a very wise person (hiya Mum!) once told me that I could do whatever job I pleased in life, but it did have to permit me to stand on my own two feet financially speaking. I was living in Kenya at the time, working on a marine biology conservation project, when I had an epiphany: I just knew that I had to come home and try to be an actor.
“But as everyone knows, there are no guarantees in finding work as an actor. So, repeating my mum’s words in my mind, I decided to become a secondary science specialist teacher (and use my marine biology background) so that in between acting work, I could earn enough money with supply teaching and/or private tuition.
“I planned to do two years as a teacher; the first would be my teacher-training year, the second would be my probationary year before I became fully qualified. Teaching in secondary schools was utterly fantastic; every day was a rollercoaster and I eventually ended up leaving the classroom after five years.”
Do you have any unusual interests or activities, apart from marine zoology and teaching, away from acting?
“Yes, I love doing algebra. (This is obviously untrue: I’m actually rubbish at maths). This is a great question to ask…and I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and haven’t yet found the time or courage to do this…and so stating it here will commit me…it will force me to do it…one day I’m going to get my paraglider’s licence. Because why not?.There, I’ve said it out loud now!”
Do you have any York or Yorkshire connections?
“Well, not really. Although, having said that, my English grandparents were Yorkshire folk. My Grandad grew up in Huddersfield and my Gran was a Sheffield lass, so maybe there are a few drops of Yorkshire blood in me after all. It’s a pleasure to become acquainted with it this year.
“The panto press launch in September was my first time in York. I walked from York station to the theatre and though I was told it would take 11 minutes, looking at all the sights on the way, it took me half an hour, on such a beautiful day too.”
Jake Lindsay’s Robinson Crusoe and Berwick Kaler’s dame, Dotty Dullaly, in Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse at the Grand Opera House. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
HEADING out of 2023 into 2024, Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations are not out with the old just yet, but definitely in with the new too.
Still time for pantomime: Robinson Crusoe & The Pirates Of The River Ouse, Grand Opera House, York, until January 6; Jack And The Beanstalk, York Theatre Royal, until January 7
DOWAGER dame Berwick Kaler goes nautical in Robinson Crusoe for the first time in his 43rd York panto and third at the Grand Opera House. Jake Lindsay takes the title role alongside the Ouse crew’s regulars, Martin Barrass, David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and AJ Powell. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott, in Clifford’s Tower attire, takes centre stage in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap waves a magical artichoke wand over York Theatre Royal’s fourth collaboration with Evolution Productions, wherein CBeebies’ James Mackenzie’s villainous Luke Backinanger takes on returnee Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott, Anna Soden’s Dave the Cow, Mia Overfield’s Jack and Matthew Curnier’s very silly Billy in Jack And The Beanstalk. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
James Lewis-Knight and Emily Chapple, a teddy bear and a Dickensian ghost in Badapple Theatre Company’s tour of Farmer Scrooge’s Christmas Carol. Picture: Karl Andre
Last chance to see: Badapple Theatre Company in Farmer Scrooge’s Christmas Carol, Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe Village Hall, near Sutton Bank, Hambleton, December 27, 4.30pm; East Cottingwith Village Hall, near York, December 29, 4pm
A GRUMPY farmer? From Yorkshire? Surely not! Welcome to Kate Bramley’s rural revision of Dickens’s festive favourite, A Christmas Carol, now set on Farmer Scrooge’s farm and in his bed in 1959 as Green Hammerton company Badapple Theatre put the culture into agriculture.
York actors James Lewis-Knight and Emily Chattle play multiple roles in a tale replete with local stories and carols, puppets and mayhem, original songs by Jez Lowe and a whacking great dose of seasonal bonhomie. Tickets: Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe, 01423 331304; East Cottingwith, 07866 024009 or 07973 699145.
Navigators Art & Performance’s poster for A Feast Of Fools at the Black Swan Inn
Twelfth Night celebrations: Navigators Art & Performance, A Feast Of Fools, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, January 6, 7.30pm
DEVISED by York arts collective Navigators Art & Performance with White Sail, A Feast Of Fools: Folk Music and Words to Celebrate Old Christmas & Twelfth Night is billed as “the final festivity, when lords become servants, beggars rule and convention goes to the dogs. Summon the Green Man! Hail the Lord of Misrule!”
Taking part in this “seriously different and seriously good” gathering will be: Wiccan singer-songwriter Cai Moriarty; experimental neo-folk band Wire Worms; leftfield story and song dispensers Adderstone; poet, architect and musician Thomas Pearson and multi-instrumental alt-folk legends White Sail. Box office: TicketSource at bit.ly/nav-feast or on the door if available.
Roxanna Klimaszewska: Creative director of Be Amazing Arts
Audition time: Be Amazing Arts, Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, for staging at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 11 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
MALTON company Be Amazing Arts will hold open auditions for the spring production of Disney’s Beauty And The Beast at Huntington School, Huntington Road, York, on Thursday, January 11 from 5.30pm to 9.15pm, when performers aged seven to 18 are invited to attend.
For more information or to book your child’s place, visit beamazingarts.co.uk. “We can’t wait to bring this tale as old as time to life with some of the best young talent in York and beyond,” says creative director Roxanna Klimaszewska. Box office for April tickets: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Album showcase: One Iota, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 13, 7pm
YORK indie band One Iota return to the JoRo to showcase new album Shadows In The Shade. Expect strong melodies, rich harmonies, soaring guitars and epic soundscapes from a full band line-up, including a string section, topped off with a light show. James Merlin supports. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
John Otway, right, and Wild Willy Barrett: Reuniting at The Crescent
50th anniversary cartwheels: Mr H Presents John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett, The Crescent, York, January 13, 7.30pm
TWO “unlikely lads” from Aylesbury reunite for John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett’s Half A Sentry Tour, sure to feature Cor Baby That’s Really Free and Beware Of The Flowers (Cause I’m Sure They’re Gonna Get You Yeh), number seven in a poll of the best lyrics ever, one place behind Paul McCartney’s Yesterday.
Barrett, 73, will be equipped with acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, balalaika and brown wheelie bin; singer and somersault enthusiast Otway, 71, will still be scampering around like an untrained puppy. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Robert Gammon: Playing at three Dementia Friendly Tea Concerts in 2024
New season: Dementia Friendly Tea Concerts, St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, January to December 2024
AFTER raising £2,159 for the Alzheimer’s Society in 2023, the dates for next year’s 45-minute Dementia Friendly Tea Concerts are in place, beginning with organist Chantal Berry on January 18 at 2.30pm.
Further dates are: February 15, Isobel Thompson, trumpet, and Grace Harman, piano; March 21, James Sanderson, piano, and Friends; April 18, Alison Gammon, clarinet, Maria Marshall, cello, and Robert Gammon, piano; May 23, Flaute Felice, flute ensemble; June 20, David Hammond, piano.
Then come: July 18, Hannah Feehan, guitar; August 15, Robert Gammon, piano; September 19, Lucinda Taylor, harp; October 17, Billy Marshall, French horn, and Robert Gammon, piano; November 21, Giocoso Wind Ensemble, and December 12, Ripon Resound Choir. No charge but donations are welcome. Organiser Alison Gammon will be trying out new cake recipes alongside old favourites.
Ben Elton: Warning of the dangers of Authentic Stupidity at York Barbican
Looking ahead: Ben Elton, Authentic Stupidity, York Barbican, September 1, 7.30pm
BEN Elton returned to the live comedy circuit in 2019 after a 15-year hiatus, playing York Barbican that October. Next year, the godfather of modern stand-up will return with his new show, Authentic Stupidity.
“Since my last live tour, a whole new existential threat has emerged to threaten humanity! Apparently Artificial Intelligence is going to destroy us all!” he says. “Well, I reckon our real problem isn’t Artificial Intelligence, it’s good old-fashioned Authentic Stupidity! Forget AI! It’s AS we need to be worrying about.” Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.
In Focus: Kestrel Investigates, Christmas Eve episode of online paranormal comedy with York connection
O Holy Fright: The Christmas Eve episode of Kestrel Investigates
YORK filmmaker Miles Watts, of Zomlogalypse zombie movie fame, is producing the Christmas Eve episode of paranormal comedy Kestrel Investigates.
Entitled O Holy Fright, this festive special edition of the cult web series will feature a guest appearance by Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, himself a cult icon from Channel 4’s 1990s’ show Fortean TV.
“The web series began screening online in 2018 and is now between its second and third season,” says Watts. “It follows inept paranormal investigator Agravain Kestrel (Stephen Mosley) and his reluctant documentarian, Mike, played by writer-director Oliver Semple.”
The pair worked previously on the fantasy comedy film Kenneth, directed and co-written by Peter Anthony Farren, now streaming on Amazon.
Reverend Fanthorpe, now aged 88 and retired, became involved after the idea of A Christmas Carol-style story was pitched to him by the creators. “Filming with the Kestrel team brought me as much fun and excitement as working on Fortean TV – and it made me feel 20 years younger!” says Fanthorpe, who hosted Fortean TV from January 29 1997 to March 6 1998 on Channel 4.
Filmmaker Semple and producer Watts – whose own web series Zomblogalypse has just been given the film treatment – will release online teasers ahead of the Christmas Eve episode that follows Kestrel and cameraman Mike as they are dragged unwillingly through a series of Scrooge-like visions.
Kestrel Investigates on Shambles in York
Semple says: “Kestrel is thinking about quitting his paranormal investigations until he is visited by three ghosts, kicked off by a zoom call from Lionel Fanthorpe in place of Marley’s ghost, with each ghost trying to convince Kestrel that for the good of mankind, he must not give up.
“Kestrel Investigates is very British in that it follows in the footsteps of classic sitcoms like Steptoe & Son or Only Fools And Horses: humour mixed with working-class misery and pathos. I’m also a huge fan of Christmas, so this is our take on the classic Dickens tale.
“Working with the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe has been a dream come true for us, as we were all huge fans of Fortean TV back in the day – and he was an absolute gentleman to work with.”
Both filmmakers have written a slate of feature film scripts and created a new film company, Outward Films, joining forces with producers to pitch a number of film projects for production from 2024 onwards. These include an action-horror, a creature feature and eventually a Kestrel movie.
Reverend Fanthorpe lauds the show’s blend of humour and the paranormal. “It has the same consequences as putting a drop of rum in a mince pie: it produces pleasure and excitement,” he says. “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Kestrel – and the very talented team who created him!”
Watts concludes with a piece of advice: “You can subscribe to watch the episode on the Kestrel Investigates YouTube channel, and by searching for Kestrel Investigates on all social media outlets.”
