Tag: Seeta Wrightson

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when festivals flow and love bites. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 21, from The York Press

Who’s who and what’s what at York Pride 2026 at Knavesmire

FESTIVALS full of Pride, ideas and comedy are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s selection of culture in colourful bloom as May turns to June.

Putting the unity into community, love and equality: York Pride 2026, Knavesmire York, today, 11am to 7.30pm

THE 90-munite York Pride parade sets off from Parliament Street to Knavesmire at 12 noon for a full day of Pride, protest, visibility, music, cabaret, family entertainment and community celebration.

The main stage line-up features Nadine Coyle, Joe McElderry, Urban Cookie Collective, Nicki French, Michael Marouli, Roxanne Cooper, Sweet Like Sabrina, Heavenly Bodies, Jordan Smart, DJ Rory Hoy and York Stage’s cast of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. For full festival details, go to: yorkpride.org.uk. Entry is free.

Alexander McCall Smith: Discussing his books at York Festival of Ideas on June 7 at 6.30pm in Room PZA/103 in the Piazza Building, Campus East, University of York. Picture: Alexander McCall Smith Portraits

Festival of the fortnight: York Festival of Ideas, Place & Space, today until June 12

YORK Festival of Ideas 2026 explores Place and Space in more than 200 mostly free in-person and online events designed to educate, entertain and inspire. 

Led by the University of York, the event features world-class speakers (such as Nicola Sturgeon, Clive Myrie, Dame Kelly Holmes, Alexander McCall Smith, Sally Wainwright and Sian Williams), performances, exhibitions, tours, family-friendly activities, a Michael Morpurgo celebration day and much more, with topics ranging from archaeology to art, history to health, politics to psychology, football to Manchester’s Music Soul. For the full programme, go to:  yorkfestivalofideas.com.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Hosting the finale to Pocklington Arts Centre one-day Comedy Festival today

Comedy event of the week: Pocklington Comedy Festival, today, from 1pm

POCKLINGTON Arts Centre’s Comedy Festival opens with Seeta Wrightson’s work-in-progress (WIP) Fringe Preview of Middling at 1pm, followed by Out Of The Box at 2pm and Brennan Reece’s WIP Fringe Preview of New Jokes at 2.45pm.

Marcel Lucont presents Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children at 4pm. Then come Tom Neenan’s WIP Fringe Preview at 4.30pm; Sarah Roberts’ WIP Fringe Preview at 6.15pm and the Mixed Bill finale at 8pm, bringing together Lou Wall, Marcel Lucont, Tal Davies, Pravanya Pillay and Raj Poojara, hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

“You sit here,” says Pierre Novellie, who will be standing over there at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Novellie idea of the week: Pierre Novellie, You Sit Here, I’ll Stand There, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today, 5pm, tickets available, and 8pm, sold out

IT’S  time for Pierre Novellie to do stand-up! It’s time for you to watch! “Why not just embrace that, for God’s sake?” he ask on his return to Theatre@41, Monkgate. “All earthly glories fade!

Novellie is co-host of the Frank Skinner, Budpod and Button Boys podcasts and has been seen and heard on World’s Most Dangerous Roads (Dave), The Mash Report (BBC2), Stand Up Central (Comedy Central), The Now Show and The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The ELO Experience: Celebrating 50 years of Jeff Lynne songs at York Barbican

Tribute gig of the week: The ELO Experience, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

IN 2025 Jeff Lynne’s ELO performed their last live shows on the Over & Out Tour. Now tribute act The ELO Experience are mounting their own 20th anniversary tour with a set of greatest hits and album gems spanning more than 50 years of Lynne’s music.

Between 1972 and 1986, ELO achieved more combined UK and US Top 40 hits than any other band, including 10538 Overture, Evil Woman, Living Thing, The Diary Of Horace Wimp, Don’t Bring Me Down and Mr Blue Sky. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Molly Whitehouse and Dan Poppitt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ premiere of Love At First Bite

Premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Love At First Bite, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 4 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

JOSH Woodgate directs Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s seductive new work Love At First Bite, wherein dating can be hell, but what if one of them were a creature of the night?” What happens when Alan and Minnie meet at a speed-dating night? A spark flickers. Dates follow. Laughter lingers.

“Yet beneath the rhythms of a familiar rom-com, something waits in the dark,” say Poppitt and Whitehouse, who play the lovers in York company Black Sheep’s premiere. “One of them is a vampire – but the secret shifts. Each night, the actors trade fangs and the audience is left to wonder who is hunter, who is prey.” Blending sharp-fanged wit with a brush of gothic shadow, their play toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites audiences to consider what it means to love…and to hunger! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Charlotte Hanna-Williams, left, Jamie-Rose Monk, Seán Carey, Holly Sumpton and Christian Andrews in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett

Musical of the week: SplitLip in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 2 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

THE year is 1943 and we are losing the war but, luckily, we can gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat, the Olivier and Tony award-winning musical take on the unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us the Second World War.

Bursting at the seams with chaos beyond invention, the question is: how did a dead body, a fake love letter and MI5 operative Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler? Let  Christian Andrews, Holly Sumpton, Seán Carey, Charlotte Hanna-Williams and latest recruit Jamie-Rose Monk tell the tale. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sofia Romano in Silver Stage’s murder mystery Club Mistero, on tour at Helmsley Arts Centre

Immersive murder mystery of the week: Silver Stage & Solent University presents Club Mistero, Helmsley Arts Centre, June 5, 7.30pm

LOSE yourself inside the dazzling but dangerous Club Mistero in 1920s’ New York City, where a flighty barman, outspoken diva, secretive showgirl, neglected wife and an owner with eyes on every corner all become suspects when someone is, seemingly, nowhere to be found. Clutch your pearls, ol’ sport, murder is afoot.

In the heart of a speakeasy, surrounded by deception and secrets, a web of betrayal, revenge and power is spun, whereupon tensions rise as the line between friend and foe is blurred, but who will survive the night? Silver Stage’s Evelyn Foy, George Mclean, Niamh Boyle, Sofia Romano and Borna Vitlov will keep you guessing to the very end. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Navigators Art’s poster for On Location, on show at City Screen Picturehouse from June 7

Exhibition launch of the week: Navigators Art presents On Location, York Festival of Ideas, City Screen Picturehouse, York, June 7 to July 3, from 10.30am each day

ON Location, a free art exhibition of some of York’s finest visual artists, explores ideas of place and space, venturing widely beyond conventional landscapes. Open every day in the cafe and upstairs gallery from 10.30am, the show will be launched officially on June 8 from 6pm to 8.30pm in the gallery (free admission, no booking required, all welcome). 

The Gold brick road leads to York Barbican for Shalamar on their 50th anniversary tour

Gig announcement of the week: Shalamar, The Gold Tour, Celebrating 50 Years, York Barbican, July 2, 7.30pm

FORMED in Los Angeles in 1976, Shalamar became a defining force in late-1970s and 1980s’ R&B, funk and dance music with 18 UK Top 75 hits, 11 Top 40 singles, four Top Ten hits and more than 25 million records sold worldwide.

Body-popping Jeffrey Daniel and Howard Hewett, from the classic 1982 line-up, are joined by Carolyn Griffey, the female lead vocalist since 2001, to perform  A Night To Remember, Take That To The Bank, The Second Time Around, Make That Move, Dead Giveaway, There It Is,  Friends and Dancin’ In The Sheets et al. Special guest will be Gwen Dickey, The Voice of Rose Royce. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

York Opera cast members for Die Fledermaus: back row, David Hartley, Olivia Turnbull and Stephanie Wong; front row, John Soper and Alexandra Mather. Picture: John Saunders

In Focus: York Opera in Die Fledermaus, York Theatre Royal, June 3 to 6, 7.30pm Wednesday to Friday; 4pm, Saturday

YORK Opera is marking not one but two milestones with John Soper and  Elizabeth Watson’s production of Die Fledermaus next week.

This year is the company’s 60th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of its first appearance at York Theatre Royal: hence the summer production choice of Johann Strauss II’s party opera, wherein lavish host Prince Orlofsky seeks fresh amusement at his New Year’s Eve party. What better place for disguises, deception and revenge served with chilled champagne?

On an earlier occasion, Doctor Falke had been humiliated by his old friend Herr Eisenstein, who persuaded him to dress for a party as a bat [Die Fledermaus]. After much amusement and ridicule, eventually he was abandoned to wander the streets of Vienna.

Falke plots his revenge with a cocktail of hidden secrets, mistaken identities and a splash or two of champagne that leads to a comedy of errors that soon takes flight. Will the bat be revenged?

For an opera deemed the ideal introduction for those new to the genre, the cast includes an exciting mix of singers new to the group and familiar faces, singing an opera full of memorable tunes and comic moments in English. 

Alexandra Mather and Olivia Turnbull will share the role of Rosalinda; likewise, Stephanie Wong and LaLa Marais both will play Adele, after the decision to double cast the lead roles was made in response to the high calibre of talent displayed at the auditions.

The cast also features Molly Raine (Orlofsky); India Ashberry (Ida); Hamish Brown (Eisenstein); Karl Reiff (Alfredo); Ian Thomson-Smith (Falke); Mark Simmonds (Frank); Alex Holland (Dr Blind);Helen Tomlinson (Melanie); Katie Cole (Faustine) and Lilah Payton (Felicity).

Directors Soper and Watson say: “Prince Orlofsky states ‘when you have seen one opera, you have seen them all’. This is definitely not the case with a York Opera production. Our Die Fledermaus bubbles with lively choruses, memorable music and revenge – served chilled – just like flowing champagne.”

They are joined in the production team by conductor Edward Venn. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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How Lovely for online sketch star Daniel Foxx to play Pocklington Arts Centre, navigating realities of dating in 30s in Oct

Daniel Foxx’s tour poster for How Lovely

ONLINE sensation, comedian and author Daniel Foxx will bring his new stand-up show, How Lovely, to Pocklington Arts Centre on October 31.

Best known for his viral comedy sketches, Foxx has amassed millions of views across social media. His on-screen appearances span BBC One, BBC Three, ITV and Comedy Central and he has appeared live as tour support for Josh Widdicombe, Rosie Jones and Judi Love.

In How Lovely, Foxx reflects on how he was was determined to handle his Big Break-up with the grace of Julia Roberts, but didn’t, as he navigates the realities of dating in your 30s, a rising Le Creuset obsession and the pursuit of the perfect 12-step skincare routine, all while trying hard to emanate love and light.

Foxx’s debut show, Villain, toured internationally, including a sell-out run at New York’s SoHo Playhouse and London’s legendary Clapham Grand. He co-hosts the podcast Welcome To Hell with fellow comic Dane Buckley and is the author of the hit book Bedtime Stories For Privileged Children. His latest tour show will look to build on that momentum.

Foxx’s appearance adds to a packed 2026 comedy programme at Pocklington Arts Centre, where upcoming shows include Andy Parsons’ Please #@!$ To Mars on May 22 (8pm); Rich Hall’s Chin Music, June 10 (8pm), Hal Cruttenden’s Can Dish It Out But Can’t Take It, June 12 and 13 (7.30pm); Neil Delamere in Reinventing The Neil, July 30 (7.30pm) and PAC Comedy Club, featuring Rob Deering, Eleanor Tiernan, Oliver Bowler and Tom Wrigglesworth, October 1 (8pm).  

Daniel Foxx: “Determined to handle his Big Break-up with the grace of Julia Roberts”

Further dates for the diary are: Ignacio Lopez in Nada, October 3 (8pm); Simon Evans in Staring At The Sun, October 21 (7.30pm); Tez Ilyas’s Tez Things I Hate About You, October 23 (8pm) and Brian Bilston’s How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, November 14, 7.30pm.

 Pocklington Arts Centre’s Comedy Festival will take place on May 30, opening with Seeta Wrightson’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview of Middling at 1pm, followed by Out Of The Box at 2pm and Brennan Reece’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview of New Jokes at 2.45pm.

Marcel Lucont will present Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children at 4pm. Then come Tom Neenan’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview at 4.30pm; Sarah Roberts’ work-in-progress  Fringe Preview at 6.15pm and the Mixed Bill finale at 8pm, bringing together Lou Wall, Marcel Lucont, Tal Davies, Pravanya Pillay and Raj Poojara, hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean.

Tickets for all shows are available from pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

DANIEL Foxx’s How Lovely tour also will visit Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on May 30 at 7.45pm. Box office: 01723 370541 or www.sjt.uk.com.

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REVIEW: Red Ladder Theatre Company in A Proper Merry Christmess, Slung Low Warehouse, Holbeck, Leeds and on tour **

Under pressure: All in need of quick cash, can grotto department workforce Maryam Ali’s Rani, left, Charles Doherty’s Michael and Roo Arwen’s Red win the Christmas bonus in Red Ladder Theatre Company’s A Proper Merry Christmess? Picture: Robling Photography

LEEDS companies Red Ladder Theatre Company and Wrongsemble have joined together to tour the UK with a Christmas double bill this festive season.

The shows opened at fellow Leeds company Slung Low’s cavernous Warehouse, in Holbeck, before venturing out to Stockton Arts Centre, Wakefield Exchange, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle (December 19 to 21), the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (December 22 and 23), and Brighton Dome (hosting “chilled performances”, December 27 to 31).

CharlesHutchPress caught Red Ladder’s riotous, righteous  new comedy A Proper Merry Christmess, whose somewhat perfunctory set was surrounded to either side by presumably the designs for A Town Called Christmas, Wrongsemble’s family show for three year olds and upwards. The effect was to feel like being on one funfair ride, with prospective further rides all around that started to look more attractive.

Alas, Red Ladder’s lustily performed Christmas play turned out to be something of a bumpy ride, one where you could follow the words on a screen above the stage that revealed Charles Doherty’s anything but saintly Michael had developed a progressively worsening habit of adding swear words, as if putting the improper in A Proper Merry Christmess.

He delivers lines with an Australian accent as disdainful as Aussie bowlers and commentators giving their verdict on England’s kamikaze batting in the Ashes.

Roo Arwen’s Red makes her exasperated point to Charles Doherty’s Michael, the grouchy Santa in A Proper Merry Christmess. Picture: Robling Photography

Whether he or first-time playwright Seeta Wrightson and co-writer Leon Fleming called the tune on his potty mouth, who knows, but it had the look and sound of an actor striving too hard for a laugh.

Michael is the resident if reluctant Father Christmas at West Yorkshire’s cheeriest garden centre, where he is a rebel with a Claus, the grouchy Santa of attention, a cross between the Grinch and Billy Bob Thornton’s swindler, Willie Soke, in Terry Twizogg’s 2004 American movie.

As miserable as Ebenezer Scrooge before his Christmas Eve ghost tour, and drawing complaint after complaint for his treatment of children in his grotty grotto, Michael’s mood is only worsened by store announcer Katherine (Kathryn Hanke) declaring the £500 Christmas bonus will be given to only the best-performing department.

Michael needs the money urgently, having overspent massively on his daughter’s wedding, to the point that the four bailiffs of the apocalypse are about to knock on his door.

Doherty’s Michael is “working” with a “positive Christmas tree” and a stressed-out elf, as selfish meets elfish in the dysfunctional Team Grotto. Michael thinks only of himself; Roo Arwen’s Red, an overstretched single mum, is thinking “How can I afford the present” she so desperately wishes to give her young child; Maryam Ali’s Rani is a student, taking odds and sods of part-time jobs to meet the cost of her accountancy degree.

Maryam Ali’s stressed-out student Rami in Christmas tree mode in Santa’s grotto in A Proper Merry Christmess. Picture: Robling Photography

She’s thinking of changing her course to working with animals, as accountancy doesn’t add up to fulfilment and she is only doing it to please her parents.

In Red Ladder tradition, politics plays its part in Leeds writers Wrightson and Fleming’s story, one that evolved from workshops with BITMO (Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation) and St George’s Crypt, an award-winning charity that supports homeless people in Leeds.

The gig economy, the exploitation of workers, their dissatisfaction with the need to comply to ever-changing management rules, all play their part in the rising tensions of Christmas Eve in garden centreland.

Management is represented by the intrusive Tannoy voice of Hanke’s unseen but increasingly heard Katherine, at first jolly and encouraging in her Christmas sales pitch, but slowly turning to frustration then slurred panic, seemingly under the influence of more than a glass or two as dirty tricks consume the workforce.

All around her, the garden centre is collapsing into chaos in a mini-version of the Titanic going down, with friction to rival Shane McGowan’s tired and emotional lovers in A Fairytale Of New York, as Doherty’s Michael goes rogue and Ali’s Rani and Arwen’s Red grow exasperated, each having their monologue moment in the spotlight.

Be on Red alert: Roo Arwen’s elf loses her rag in A Proper Merry Christmess. Picture: Robling Photography

Red Ladder artistic director Cheryl Martin’s direction gathers ever more pace over the 75 minutes, but the humour does not match that acceleration, feeling too forced, like failed rhubarb.

Carrying an age guidance of 16-plus, A Proper Merry Christmess is billed as a “a chaotic Christmas comedy for grown-ups – an honest festive story, featuring the authentic heartbreak and humour that the Christmas movies usually leave out”. 

Chaotic? Yes. Honest? Earnest, certainly. Authentic heartbreak? Humour? The frantic pursuit of the latter undermines the former, riding roughshod over the pathos in both Rani and Red’s stories.

A Proper Merry Christmess ends up feeling exactly that.

Red Ladder Theatre Company presents A Proper Merry Christmess, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen’s Square, Queen Street, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, December 22 and 23, 6pm. Box office: 01484 430528 or https://www.thelbt.org/what-s-on/drama/a-proper-merry-christmess/.

REVIEW: Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 ****

Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker. Picture: Sophie Beth Jones

2026 will see Leeds company Northern Ballet launch the world premiere of Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre from March 7 to 14.

Already the stuff of biographies, novels and a brace of TV series, the story of adventurous Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall, Halifax, will be staged with a new live score by Peter Salem in a co-production with Finnish National Opera and Ballet.

Exciting times ahead under Federico Bonelli’s artistic directorship, but in the meantime Northern Ballet regulars will be delighted at the latest return of company staple The Nutcracker.

Premiered in 2007, former artistic director David Nixon CBE’s decorative, delightful, dazzling winter wonderland has become his most performed work, bidding farewell to the old year and embracing the new every few years, last doing so in 2022 on tour and back home in Leeds.

Glory be, this latest resurrection comes with a live orchestra (under conductor Yi Wei on press night), when the sight as well as sound of musicians makes the ballet all the more joyous (whereas recorded accompaniment can be so sterile).

What’s more, like singing Christmas Carols or re-visiting Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the familiarity of Nixon’s choreography and costume designs breeds ever more contentment, adding to the emotional impact of a story told so beautifully, with such sparkle, wonder and bravura dancing, against the grain of the 21st century world’s woes and wars.

Once more snow may fail to dust Yorkshire’s hills this festive season, but winter’s white coat is all part of the nostalgic magic of Nixon’s Nutcracker, where snowflakes flutter across the stage front cloth to set the mood for his  Regency England setting of Tchaikovsky’s late-19th century Christmas ballet.

Charles Cusick Smith’s gorgeous designs cast their own spell again, their grand scale sweeping up audience and dancers alike in the fantastical journey from castle drawing-room party to toy battlefield, snowy fairyland and a world above the clouds.

As in every home across the land, Rachael Gillespie’s inquisitive Clara excitedly awaits the chance to unwrap the presents that lie behind the towering, closed doors on Christmas Eve night.

When the clock strikes midnight, Clara is transported to fantasia by Harris Beattie’s noble Nutcracker Prince, her journey through the snow orchestrated flamboyantly by Harry Skoupas’s dandy Herr Drosselmeyer, fleet of foot and full of poised purpose.

Bruno Serraclara’s Mouse King seeks to defy the odds, so brave in dashing defeat, and making an amusing exit to boot, before Act One’s climax mirrors the traditions of pantomime in the outstanding transformation scene, graced with the most beautiful imagery of all, yet more delightful for Mark Jonathan’s lighting: spectacle as big as Yorkshire.

As ever, Act Two is even better, its tempo set by Saeka Shirai’s enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, in tandem with Jonathan Hanks’s Cavalier.

Amid the snow, contrast is provided by the kaleidoscopically colourful pageant of national dances – Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, French, Russian – in a showcase with an amusingly competitive spirit, orchestrated with panache by Skoupas’s Drosselmeyer.   

Throughout, Nixon adorns Tchaikovsky’s rousing score with the poetic eloquence of his elegant choreography, at once beauteous and charming, suffused with romance and drama, always up for mischievous comic interplay too in Puck style.

The Nutcracker is on cracking good form, a winter warmer like no other in Yorkshire this season.

Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2026.  Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com

Review by Charles Hutchinson, 19/12/2025

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No 41, from Gazette & Herald

Joanne Shaw Taylor: Promoting new album Black & Gold at York Barbican

FROM blues guitar to saxophone solos, culinary festivities to Friends on song, Charles Hutchinson finds the ones to entertain you.

Blues guitarist of the week: Joanne Shaw Taylor, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

DISCOVERED by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart at 16, and now 39, West Midlands blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor showcases her tenth studio album, Black & Gold, on her return to York Barbican.

Known for her blazing guitar work and soulful voice, Shaw Taylor fuses blues, rock, soul and pop into her live set of new songs such as Hell Of A Good Time, fan favourites from past albums and nods to blues greats. Support comes from Ferris & Sylvester. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Skosh chef-proprietor Neil Bentinck: Cookery demonstration at St Crux Hall on September 27 at 1pm at York Food & Drink Festival

Festival of the week: York Food & Drink Festival, cooking until September 28

HIGHLIGHTS of this autumn’s York Food & Drink Festival include 70 street food and produce stands in Parliament Street; the Entertainment Marquee on Parliament Street, serving a bill of Live for St Leonard’s Hospice music acts; more live music in St Sampson’s Square, and demonstrations, events, tastings, and sampling at St Crux Hall.

Further events will be two taste trails; Bedern Hall Pork Pie Competition; the Food Factory in St Crux Hall and Museum Gardens; Chocolate Bar Challenge; Jorvik Viking Centre’s activities with an historic twist and the Meet The Makers drinks fair. For the full festival programme, head to: yorkfoodfestival.com.

Katie Spencer: Introducing new album What Love Is at Kirk Theatre, Pickering. Picture: Tom Arran

Folk gig of the week: Friday Folk Night presents Katie Spencer, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, September 26, 7.30pm

RAISED in the East Yorkshire flatlands on the fringes of Hull, Katie Spencer’s music is influenced by the landscapes that shaped her. Her songwriting and guitar playing reflect a sense of space and movement, drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Michael Chapman.

New album What Love Is will be released on October 3. Produced by Matt Ingram, known for his work with Laura Marling, its ten compositions explore themes of love, introspection and personal growth. Her live performances are peppered with humour and storytelling. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Tom Little: Headlining Hilarity Bites Comedy Club bill at Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Alexis Dubus

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club presents Tom Little, Seeta Wrightson and Kieran Lawless, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

TOM Little, 2015 Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year winner and BBC Radio New Comedy Award finalist, plays the well-read fool, taking on diverse facts but refusing to deal with them conventionally.

Bradford-born Seeta Wrightson, 2025 Female Pilot Club winner, spins engaging stories with wit, drawing on her dual Asian and British heritage. From humble beginnings, she has wandered through life wondering exactly where she fits, having adventures aplenty figuring it out.  Nothin’ Butt Funny Comedy award winner Kieran Lawless is an Irish comedian based in Manchester. Doors and bar open at 7pm.Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Snake Davis: Sax to the max at Helmsley Arts Centre

Saxophonist of the week: Snake Davis Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

STILL highly in demand as a session player, cheering up records by Olly Murs and Shania Twain lately, and playing to  crowds of up to 70,000 with Japanese rock god Eikichi Yazawa, saxophonist Snake Davis gains most joy from performing warm, friendly venues such as Helmsley Arts Centre.

Leading his four-piece band, featuring guitar, bass guitar and drums, Davis plays “the floaty to the danceable”, from soul to jazz, Northern Soul to pop and world, original material to classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Actors, Audiences And Ayckbourn, It’s All Relative, The McCarthy, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Friday, 7pm

AN evening of Sir Alan Ayckbourn in two halves opens with Ayckbourn archivist Simon Murgatroyd exploring the creation of Relatively Speaking on its 60th anniversary. The second half is a chance to hear stories from a group of actors with years of experience of working with the former SJT artistic director and prolific playwright. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Dame Imogen Cooper: Piano concert at Helmsley Arts Centre on Saturday. Picture: Sussie Ahlburg

Classical concert of the week: Dame Imogen Cooper, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

AFTER playing St Peter’s Church, Norton, at July’s Ryedale Festival, pianist Dame Imogen Cooper returns to Ryedale this weekend to play Bach’s Nun Freut Euch, Lieben Christen G’mein, arranged by Kempff;  Bach’s chorale-prelude Nun Komm’ der Heiden Heiland, arranged by Busoni and Schubert’s Four Impromptus, D. 899 (Op. 90). Post-interval, her programme continues with Beethoven’s Seven Bagatelles (OP. 33) and Schubert’s Four Impromptus, D. 935 (Op. posth. 142). Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Apollo Theatre Company’s merry crew in Round The Horne

Nostalgia of the week: Apollo Theatre Company in Round The Horne, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 29, 7.45pm; September 30, 1.30pm and 7.45pm

FROM 1965 to 1968, no show on British radio was bigger than the ground-breaking Round The Horne. Classic comedy fans will be in their element as Apollo Theatre Company transports the audience back to the anarchic, boisterous atmosphere of the BBC’s Paris Theatre during the recordings, complete with a live band and sound effects.

Combining infamous movie spoofs with regular characters such as Julian & Sandy, Rambling Syd Rumpo and J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, Round The Horne’s merry crew drew up to 15 million listeners per week and made stars of Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick and Betty Marsden. Now take a step back in time to experience this vintage comedy live. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Alicia Belgarde (Monica), left, Daniel Parkinson (Chandler), Enzo Benvenuti (Ross), Eva Hope (Rachel), Amelia Atherton (Phoebe) and Ronnie Burden (Joey) in Friends! The Musical Parody, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith

The one where they sing: Friends! The Musical Parody, Grand Opera House, York, September 30 to October 4, Tuesday to Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

NEW York and Las Vegas hit Friends The Musical Parody is a musical comedy packed with iconic moments from all ten seasons of the beloved television series, complemented by an original musical score. Join Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe, the world’s most famous group of twenty-somethings, as they navigate love, friendship and life’s ups and downs in 1990s’ New York City.

“Whether you’re in a love triangle, trying to make it as an actor, or just can’t quit your day job, you’ll be laughing, crying, and quoting your favourite lines all night long,” the show promises. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sue Ryding, left, recalling her 40-year comedy partnership with the late Maggie Fox (inset) in LipService in Funny Stuff at Pocklington Arts Centre

Reflections on grief: LipService in Funny Stuff, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 2, 7.30pm

SUE Ryding is one half of legendary satirical duo LipService. In March 2022, her comedy partner, York actress and writer Maggie Fox, died and Sue was left with a shipping container full of 40 years of stage props, costumes, wigs, hats, shoes, sheep, you name it.

This show looks at all the “stuff” we accumulate, hoard and hate to let go in her humorous and creative response to grief, wherein Sue struggles to part with a life-sized stuffed sheep, a badger onesie, some ruby slippers, a sinking bog, Charlotte Bronte’s knickers and a host of soft toys. Touring anecdotes are combined with archive footage from LipService shows. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.