Tag: Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 34, from Gazette & Herald

Mary Anning Rocks at the Yorkshire Museum, York. Picture: Antony Chappel Ross

DINOSAUR museum adventures and the CBeebies house party, CHIC’s good times on the coast and Sparks’ York return after 52 years offer contrasts aplenty in Charles Hutchinson’s choices for the days ahead.

Last-chance holiday activities: Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York, open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm

AS the school summer holidays enter their final fortnight, the Yorkshire Museum invites visitors to “make the most of the interactive activities, craft sessions and amazing exhibits before term starts again”.

Grab a dinosaur backpack to explore the Mary Anning and Jurassic galleries in dino-themed entertainment for younger ones, while spotting fossils and dino bones on their adventures on August 21, 24 or 28. The final Melsonby Hoard treasure trove crafting session will be held on August 26, although Viking beaded jewellery and bug brooch making are available every day through the summer break. Pay once to receive all these free activities and unlimited return visits for a year. Tickets: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk.

No common ground: Pandora Clifford’s Mags and Liz Garland’s Liz in Handbagged at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The Magic Numbers: Brothers and sisters in unison at The Crescent

Siblings of the week: An Evening With The Magic Numbers, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm

THE Magic Numbers combine two pairs of siblings, Romeo & Michele Stodart and Sean & Angela Gannon, who are known for their unique harmonies, melodic hooks, songwriting craftsmanship and timeless sound, exemplified by Forever Lost, Love Me Like You and Love Is A Game across five albums. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Nile Rodgers: Performing with CHIC at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Coastal gig of the week: Nile Rodgers & CHIC, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Saturday, gates open at 6pm

IN the final Scarborough Open Air Theatre concert of the summer, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner and composer, producer, arranger and guitarist Nile Rodgers returns to the Yorkshire coast for the third time with CHIC, the New York City R&B and soul band he co-founded with Bernard Edwards.

Expect such disco dancefloor fillers as Le Freak, Good Times, We Are Family and I’m Coming Out. Acid jazz combo Brand New Heavies support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Sparks’ Ron and Russell Mael: Playing York after 52-year hiatus on August 25. Picture: Munachi Osegbu

York gig of the week: Sparks, York Barbican, August 25, doors open at 7pm  

CULT Californian pop-rock pioneers Sparks play York for the first time since 1974 on their 2025-2026 world tour, coinciding with this month’s release of latest album Live On The Moon.

The Mael brothers, Ron (keyboards), 81, and Russell (vocals), 77, are lining up a euphoric, career-spanning set, picking from such hits as This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us, Amateur Hour, Something For The Girl With Everything, Looks, Looks, Looks, The Number One Song In Heaven and Beat The Clock. Mr. B  The Gentleman Rhymer supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The poster for CBeebies House Party Live! at York Barbican

Children’s show of the week: CBeebies House Party Live!, York Barbican, August 26, 11am and 2pm

DIRECTED by CBeebies superstar Justin Fletcher, CBeebies House Party Live! is a fun-packed family stage show full of sensational songs, stupendous surprises and mega moments.

Throwing an epic party just for you will be special guest Mr Tumble, Mister Maker, York Theatre Royal pantomime alumni Andy Day and Evie Pickerill, Duggee, Nigel Clarke and George Webster, who promise dancing, singing, streamers, giant jellies, bubbles galore and a CBeebies bedtime story. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Lee Gemmell’s Egyptology student Edward Bellingham in Baron Productions’ The Mummy Lot No. 249

Thriller of the month: Baron Productions presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Mummy Lot No. 249, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, August 28 & 29, 7.30pm

FOUNDED by Daniel Wilmot in 2015, York company Baron Productions presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 one-act play The Mummy Lot No. 249 as its 2026 summer show, in which Oxford student Abercrombie Smith discovers his neighbour, Egyptology student Edward Bellingham, has used ancient magic to reanimate a malevolent mummy to terrorise and attack his rivals.

Wilmot’s cast features Jack McAdam as Smith, Lee Gemmell as Bellingham, M. Alder as Peterson, Lauren Hegarty as Hastie and Ellie Guffick as Monkhouse Lee. Box office: https://www.ticketsource.com/baron-productions.

The artwork for the interactive Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote at Milton Rooms, Malton

Crime detection games ahead: Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 2, 7.30pm  

HOSTED by super-fan, playwright and PopHorror  co-producer Tim Benzie, cult event Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote comes to Malton with an interactive screening of NBC Universal Television’s classic Murder, She Wrote episode A Fashionable Way To Die, wherein Jessica Fletcher visits Paris to support her friend’s fashion show, but soon a murder takes place that only she (or you) can solve.

Combining games, prizes and audience participation, Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote features a race to solve the crime, via the Fameometer and the Suspiciometer; a Cabot Cove quiz; a singalong to the theme tune with new lyrics, plus clips and biographies of the campy guest stars. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com. 

The Snake Davis Band: Heading back to Helmsley Arts Centre

Return upcoming: The Snake Davis Band, Everlasting Love Tour, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 12, 7.30pm

SAXOPHONIST Snake Davis is “so happy to be back at Helmsley Arts Centre yet again”, this time showcasing new tunes and his new album on the Everlasting Love Tour with his four-piece band featuring guitar, bass guitar and drums. 

The set will span “floaty to danceable, soul and Northern Soul to pop, jazz to world”, embracing original material and classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train, as Snake swaps performing arena and stadium gigs with stellar acts for playing intimate venues with his own music choices and favourite musicians.  Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Michelle Yim in The Ballad Of Mulan, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Malcolm Tam

Tour show announcement of the week: Red Dragonfly Productions & Grist To The Mill Productions present The Ballad Of Mulan, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 12, 7.45pm; September 12, 2pm & 7.45pm

COMMISSIONED and performed by West Yorkshire-born British-Chinese actress Michelle Yim, The Ballad Of Mulantells the story of the real woman behind the legendary Chinese female warrior who disguised as a man to join the Empire’s army – and inspired Disney’s animation and live-feature Mulan.

Woman, warrior, legend, for ten years Mulan has fought for the Chinese Empire. Now, after one last battle, she will be going home, but can she return to her old life, becoming a woman again? Yim’s hour-long The Ballad Of Mulan presents a search for identity in a violent world. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 33, from Gazette & Herald

Doubles troubles: Husband-and-wife strife for Helen Clarke’s Margo and Jamie McKeller’s ageing club champ, Lionel, in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders

MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Magpies’ folk festival, Sue Slack’s landscape paintings and The Basement’s new comedy club should outshine this evening’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until Saturday,  6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday show

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax on the Scarborough coast

Coastal gig of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, Friday, gates 6pm

FLAMBOYANT, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill on Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of  Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags (a younger Margaret Thatcher) flicking through the headlines in Handbagged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The Magpies: Hosting their annual folk festival at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest

Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, Friday and Saturday. SOLD OUT

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).

Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway

Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, Saturday & Sunday, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on Saturday

Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, Saturday, 2pm to 10.30pm

ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience. 

As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.

Nice touch: Chloe Petts feeling lippy about playing Basement Comedy Club’s debut gig

Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch gig, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 6pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.

Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale

Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, until August 31

NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.

Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.

Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent

American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 6.30pm

HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.

Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

More Things To Do in York and beyond. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 33, from The York Press, from August 15 onwards

Squash on the tennis court: Effie Warboys’ insufferably spoilt Chessie, front left, pushing around her doubles partner, Alexa Williams’s Belle, in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? In the background are Oscar Langford’s Harry, left, and James Robert Ball’s Tony. Picture: John Saunders

MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Basement’s comedy launch night and Johnny Depp’s Scarborough return spark Charles Hutchinson’s curiosity.

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, August 15,  4.30pm, 6pm & 7.30pm

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway

Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 15 and 16, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market has returned for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day on the third of three weekends, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

Cut Capers: Headlining Main Stage at The Magpies Festival on August 15

Folk festival fully booked: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, August 15

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents today’s line-up on the Main Stage of Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm).

The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on August 15

Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, August 15, 2pm to 10.30pm

ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience. 

As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.

Hollywood Vampires: Joe Perry, left, Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper and Tommy Henriksen

Coastal gig of the week: Hollywood Vampires, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, August 15, gates 6pm

NAMED after Alice Cooper’s 1970s’ drinking club, American rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires return to Scarborough after their sold-out 2023 gig with the regular line-up of Cooper, film star and guitarist Johnny Depp, Aerosmith co-founder Joe Perry and Crossbone Skully and Warlock musician Tommy Henriksen. Punk icons The Damned support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.

Sara Barron: Compere for Basement Comedy Club debut gig

Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch show, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, August 16, 6pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.

Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale

Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-e-Hole, until August 31

NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.

Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.

Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent

American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, August 16, 6.30pm

HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.

Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Silent Disco falls even more silent

CANCELLED: Glasswerk presents Day Fever Silent Disco, York Museum Gardens, August 21, 6.30pm

YORK Museum Gardens will no longer be transformed into “the ultimate outdoor dance floor” for Day Fever’s first ever Silent Disco under the stars that would have followed the organisers’ series of York Barbican indoor events.

“It’s really simple,” said Day Fever’s co-organiser, actress Vicky McClure, before the late cancellation. “Everyone gets a pair of headphones. You’ll be connected to a Day Fever DJ, who will be playing non-stop Day Fever anthems from 6.30pm until 10m. Sing as loud as you like – no-one can hear.” Ticket refunds: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/York/Museum-Gardens/Day-Fever-Silent-Disco/42485814/.

Michelle Yim in The Ballad Of Mulan, on tour at York Theatre Royal.

Show announcement of the week: Red Dragonfly Productions & Grist To The Mill Productions present The Ballad Of Mulan, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 12, 7.45pm; September 12, 2pm & 7.45pm

COMMISSIONED and performed by West Yorkshire-born British-Chinese actress Michelle Yim, The Ballad Of Mulan tells the story of the real woman behind the legendary Chinese female warrior who disguised as a man to join the Empire’s army – and inspired Disney’s animation and live-feature Mulan.

Woman, warrior, legend, for ten years Mulan has fought for the Chinese Empire. Now, after one last battle, she will be going home, but can she return to her old life, becoming a woman again. Yim’s hour-long The Ballad Of Mulan presents a search for identity in a violent world. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29 *****

No common ground: Pandora Clifford’s Mags and Liz Garland’s Liz in Handbagged at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

THIRTY six years since her resignation and 13 since she died at the Ritz Hotel, Margaret Thatcher still drew boos and derision from the SJT audience – in a town that only turned red from decades of Tory MPs in 2024.

There was a smattering of cheers too, drawing more boos from the derisive naysayers for a Westminster titan that remains as divisive as ever in an age of increasingly short-lived minnows in Downing Street.

Moira Buffini’s 2013 play – so full of wit, brio and intelligence – is neither biased nor one-sided in its depiction of Mrs T, instead letting her speak, vehemently, vigorously, and even vituperatively, for herself over her 11 years as the UK’s first female  Prime Minister. She stands and – seemingly in many eyes and ears on press night – falls by her words.

Words that were fired off in the direction of the other dominant female presence of the British 20th century, Queen Elizabeth II, in their weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace and beyond.

Director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder in the rehearsal room with Handbagged cast member Simon Darwen. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Revived by the Stephen Joseph Theatre under the directorship of Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder (whose father, Andrew Pinder, received a CBE for his services to Tony Blair’s Labour government), Handbagged is built on the classic political structure of conflict where people talk but don’t engage in conversation.

Born within six months of each other but poles and circumstances apart, albeit that both had to face a patriarchal world, the PM and HM The Queen serve as a double act, or, to be precise, a double double act, on account of Buffini doubling the combat between  a younger Mags (Pandora Clifford) and Liz (Liz Garland), from the weekly audiences, and an older T (Alexandra Mathie, wig too dark) and Q (Meriel Scholfield).

Observing their younger selves, they each say equally quizzically, “I never said that”, as if they have become unreliable witnesses to their earlier sentiments and assertions.

That said, everything Buffini writes of their awkward conflabs behind closed doors can only be conjecture to complement words from public utterances and Mrs Thatcher’s Downing Street Years memoirs.

Alexandra Mathie’s T: Doubling down on her political philosophies in old age in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags flicking through the Sunday paper headlines in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Yet she writes with such cultural savvy, comedic conviction, assiduous detail, such a grasp of her satirical subject, that she brings to mind the mischief-making of  political heavyweights The Thick Of It , House Of Cards or Yes, Prime Minister. It feels all the more truthful for the assured voice of Buffini.

A third double act is at play: our convivial hosts Actor One (Deven Modha) and Actor 2 (Simon Darwen), who spar over who should play Labour Leader Neil “Kinnockio” Kinnock, while allocating themselves such support acts as Denis Thatcher, Prince Philip (only one irascible line), Gerry Adams, Geoffrey Howe, Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Heseltine (all Darwen), and Kenneth Kaunda, Nancy Reagan, Michael Shea, Kenneth Clarke, a Palace footman and protestor (all Modha, while refusing to play Enoch Powell).

Serving as Greek chorus too, both challenge Mrs Thatcher’s tendency to skip over her most controversial policies, only to be forced to confront them anew. Throughout their mimicry of accent and mannerism is spot on.

Multi-rolling Actor I (Deven Modha), left, and Actor 2 (Simon Darwen) playing First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Deven Modha’s No Poll Tax protestor in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

On the surface, you could be inclined to decide that everyone loves the Queen (especially in Garland and Scholfield’s superb caricatures), whereas Maggie, whether younger or older, remains the humourless villainess of the piece in Clifford and Mathie’s characterisation.  Buffini’s writing is far too bright for that, however, all while making Mrs T funny on occasion through jokes at her expense when breaking through that humour dead zone.

Buffin seeks the humanity in both women. Margaret Thatcher is given every chance to state,  re-state and  double down on political philosophies, and we see her change, as her voice does, ironically adopting “we” when she becomes more “I” and isolated as she loses her allies. Always and forever, her favourite word is No. No. No, until no more.

The Queen’s Christmas Day addresses are the cornerstone of her portrayal: one of compassion, a call for kindness, and in essence Socialist principles from the richest woman in the land. Through the years, PM and HM talk but never bond, for all that time and tea consumption together, never finding common ground.

Out of step? Liz Garland’s Liz dancing with Simon Darwen’s Denis Thatcher and Pandora Clifford’s Mags doing likewise with Deven Modha’s Kenneth Kaunda in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

All six performances are top notch, matched by Pinder’s astute direction, using the Round as a battlefield, where she keeps moving the combatants to emphasise the shifting tectonic plates of the relationship.

Katie Scott’s design is circular too, giving the sense of a merry-go-round thanks in part to Aiden Crawford’s movement direction. A museum shelf of named props and costumes on the stage rim works wonderfully well too for speed of character changes before your very eyes.

As the years tick by since the passing of both protagonists, Handbagged becomes an ever better play, one where Buffini’s skill in weaving her own mischievous political commentary into her modern-day comedy of manners is delivered with witheringly witty  aplomb. Bag a ticket pronto.

Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Pandora Clifford’s Mags, Liz Garland’s Liz, Meriel Scholfield’s Q and Alexandra Mathie’s T expressing differing opinions in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Everything stops for tea: Meriel Scholfied’s Q raises a cup and humorous quips aplenty in Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 31, from Gazette & Herald, from July 29 onwards

Christina Bianco’s June Carter Cash and Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny Cash in The Ballad Of Johnny & June. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

JOHNNY and June’s country musical, The Queen and Margaret Thatcher’s handbag clashes, a rare Blueflies gig and The Streets’ masterpiece in full perk up Charles Hutchinson for the week ahead.

Musical of the week: The Ballad Of Johnny & June, The Johnny Cash Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees on July 29 & 30 and August 1

THIS thrilling musical from Jersey Boys director Des McAnuff celebrates the love, music and mayhem of country music couple Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Electrifying chemistry marks the performances of  Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny and Christina Bianco’s June in a story observed through the eyes of Ryan O’Donnell’s John Carter Cash, their son. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The Blueflies, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 30, 8pm

ENDURING and beloved York blues and funk band The Blueflies – Miles Gilderdale, guitar and vocals, Gavin Ewing, bass and co-songwriter, and Paul Stipetic , drums – perform only rarely these days. Expect a night packed with outstanding musicianship, ace songs and the kind of atmosphere that only a combo with 40 years of musical muscle memory can create. Booking in advance is recommended on 01653 696240 or at themiltonrooms.com.

Neil Delamere: If it ain’t broke it, should he fix it at Pocklington Arts Centre? Not the seat, presumably

Tall tales of the week: Neil Delamere, Reinventing The Neil, Pocklington Arts Centre, July 30, 7.30pm

COMEDIC adventurer Neil Delamere returns with a new stand-up show, packed with tall tales and humorous stories. Join The Blame Game panellist and Celebrity Chase contestant as he ponders the eternal question: if it ain’t broke, should he fix it? Box office: 01759 or 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk. 

Stanley Chow’s poster illustration for The Songs of Joni Mitchell at The Citadel, York

Interpreters of the week: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, with Jesca Hoop & Lail Arad, The Citadel, York, Friday, doors 7pm, show 7.45pm

JESCA Hoop & Lail Arad, acclaimed singer-songwriters in their own right, perform intimate interpretations of their favourite Joni Mitchell songs, accompanied by Richard Sears on piano and special guest Naima Bock. Hoop presented Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story, the award-winning six-part BBC radio documentary and podcast on the Canadian singer-songwriter. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

 Liz Garland, left, and Meriel Scholfield in rehearsal for the Stephen Joseph Theatre production of Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew 

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Friday to August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2014 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Four Forty Theatre: Breakneck character changes and mischief-making in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Shakespeare show of the week: Four Forty Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Friday, 7.30pm

FOUR Forty Theatre (or 440 Theatre, as their website uses both names) tackle Shakespeare’s romantic romp of a chaotic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with their trademark irreverence, wit and theatrical ingenuity, directed by Dominic Gee-Burch, formerly of fellow high-speed Shakespeare humorists Oddsocks Productions.

Lovers are enchanted, fairies feud and a troupe of hapless players rehearse their way into disaster, all in a single moonlit night. Inventive staging, breakneck character changes and playful dismantling of tradition mark out Four Forty Theatre’s mischief-making take on Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy: part affectionate homage, part riotous reinvention. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Saxophonist Snake Davis and guitarist Gareth Moulton: Best buddies’ bonding session at Helmsley Arts Centre

Duo of the week: Snake Davis with Gareth Moulton, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

THE Snake Davis and Gareth Moulton duo is back on the road, featuring saxophonist-to-the-stars Davis and Manchester-born, Macclesfield-based  singer-songwriter and guitarist Moulton, his best buddy, with the promise of new material and a new album.

Davis has performed with Paul McCartney, James Brown, Tina Turner, The Eurythmics and Amy Winehouse and has featured on more than 400 recordings by 60 artists, including Lisa Stansfield’s Change, M-People’s Search For A Hero and Take That’s Million Love Songs. Moulton is lead guitarist with Cutting Crew and “moonlighting” singer and guitarist with Wang Chung and has recorded and toured with Heather Small, Jim Diamond, Paul Young and Go West. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Mike Skinner of The Streets: Playing A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, Saturday; Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Sunday, gates 6pm

FOR the first time, The Streets’ Mike Skinner is performing his landmark 2004 album A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full on tour. One of the most influential British records of the 21st century, the multi-platinum-selling chart topper delivered era-defining singles Dry Your Eyes, Fit But You Know It and Blinded By The Lights while taking a cinematic journey through the love, loss, chaos, heartbreak, hope and raw emotion of everyday life with poetic wit and honesty.

Original Sex Pistols members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock are joined by vocalist Frank Turner on Sunday to mark “50 years of chaos and celebration” since the punk iconoclasts’ brace of Summer 1976 gigs at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. The Stranglers and The Undertones are special guests. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Paul Smith: Radiating comic warmth twice in a week at York Barbican

York comedy gigs of the week: Hot Water Comedy Club presents Paul Smith, Happy, York Barbican, Saturday and August 5, 7.30pm

PAUL Smith, resident MC and compere of Liverpool’s Hot Water Comedy Club, is heading to York for two nights in his biggest, boldest tour show, Happy: fearless stand-up at full throttle, brimful of observations, true stories and audience interaction. Pulling tales from  real life, Smith finds joy in the chaos, laughter in the everyday and comedy in absolutely everything. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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When The Queen met Mrs Thatcher each week for 11 years, what was said? Let Handbagged imagine the power play at SJT

Hangbagged director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder working with cast member Simon Darwen. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

THEY met once a week for 11 years. One believed there was no such thing as society. The other committed her life to serving it.

On stage at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from tonight until August 29, Moira Buffini’s comedy Handbagged imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the world’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, clashed.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, this Olivier Award-winning 2014 play asks if HM The Queen and her PM, the Iron Lady, ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme?

The SJT revival is in the hands of director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder, whose later father, Andrew Pinder, served as the UK’s e-Envoy from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Minister Tony Blair,  receiving his CBE from The Queen in 2004.

“He was going to turn it down because of his working-class Yorkshire  roots [he was born in Sheffield] and being a dyed-in-the-wool Labour voter – we grew up never watching The Queen’s Christmas message on TV – but everyone else talked him into it because I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace!” recalls Hannah.

“We just got to stand at the back while Dad got his honour from The Queen, with a proper handshake and a bow, but I do remember us being driven through the palace gates, having our photos taken like we were important.”

Hannah has now come into rather closer contact with The Queen, at least theatrically, in being at the helm of Handbagged, with its two versions of Elizabeth II, Meriel Scholfield’s Q, the older monarch, and Liz Garland’s Liz,  her younger self, playing opposite Alexandra Mathie’s T and Pandora Clifford’s Mags.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be directingHandbagged at the SJT this summer, working with this brilliant company of actors to bring to life some of the most prominent figures from recent history,” says Hannah.

Pandora Clifford, left, and Alexandra Mathie in the SJT rehearsal room. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

“Presenting Handbagged in the Round is so exciting, engaging in an immediate dialogue with our audience, and bringing them face to face with two of the most powerful women of the 20th century.”

Hannah knew SJT artistic director Paul Robinson in his time in the same post at Theatre503, when she was first starting out as Box Of Tricks’ joint artistic director and co-founder, and had worked with Amy Fisher, now the SJT’s head of producing, at Box Of Tricks (where Amy is a board member).

After talking to Paul about freelance work, he came back with the suggestion of Hannah directing Handbagged in the summer season and liked her ideas on how to stage it. Amy was a useful source too on how to make a play speak to the SJT audience, one steeped in the comedies of Sir Alan Ayckbourn since 1959.

“They’re a lovely audience, where they’re so invested in having a good time and care so much about their theatre and want to have pride in it,” says Hannah.

Ayckbourn’s 92nd play, The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, a futuristic drama exploring what it means to be human in 2194, will open six days after Handbagged concludes its look-back at the recent past.

“I’m surprised that we’ve not seen more versions of Margaret Thatcher on stage because she’s such a fascinating character,  and even though The Queen has left us too, we are still caught up in how she represented us,” says Hannah. “Margaret Thatcher had a similar impact on our psyche: for some people, she was the utmost villain; for others, she was a real inspiration.”

Analysing Handbagged’s theatrical style, Hannah says: “The show is very interesting because it is so meta-theatrical and theatrically literate, dipping into the notion of storytelling and the art of telling the truth. They [The Queens and PM] may say ‘I’m not  a fan of theatre’, but they both enjoyed theatre, they both loved music and went to musical theatre, and they understood the value of art, so there’s a lot to learn about them that way.

“I don’t think they would have been unhappy about being the subject of a play when language was so important to both of them, given how much they had to communicate with words, and with the gaps in between; the nuances that go with that, when there’s so much in between the lines.”

Liz Garland, left, and Meriel Scholfield in rehearsal for the Stephen Joseph Theatre production of Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

In the distinction between politician and monarch, Mrs T could be frank, where The Queen could not. “You can’t fault Margaret Thatcher for her force of vision, when she could have been more collaborative. You don’t have that force now, when politicians try to prevaricate about a subject, where you can’t be certain about what they think,” says Hannah.

“For The Queen, it was a hard role because she repressed so much and had to be in control of what she said.”

Margaret Thatcher’s 1993 book, The Downing Street Years, all 900-plus pages of it, was invaluable to constructing her character in Handbagged. “Whereas The Queen is a much trickier proposition, where we want to know what she was like behind her public appearances, what she was like behind closed doors, because people were so loyal to her, so it’s difficult to get a sense of that voice,” says Hannah,

“But there’s something enjoyable about knowing you can never have the ‘true’ voice but you can bring playfulness and irreverence to it. As a piece of theatre, Handbagged enters a contract with the audience where we suspend disbelief and you’re given licence to say it’s as much about interpretation as it is about what you’re seeing, and with these two women that’s even more enjoyable.”

Hannah grew up in a “very anti-Thatcher household, and not fans of the Royal Family either”, but in working on Handbagged, she has developed “respect for just how much Margaret Thatcher had to deal with the patriarchy – respect for both of them, in  fact.”

“It was so much more difficult for them than if they had been men, particularly for Margaret Thatcher, living in a strict religious community, going to church four times on Sundays, as the daughter of a Methodist lay preacher,” she says.

“She had this sharp, sparky brain that she couldn’t use at first, but she kept fighting to use it, and you have to have respect for that, just as I developed an admiration for Denis Thatcher, how they really supported each other in a loving relationship and were an example of a loving marriage that worked. That’s been a realisation for me.”

Handbagged runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight until August 29. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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More Things To Do in and around York. Hutch’s List No. 30, from The York Press

Tom Grennan: Performing after this afternoon’s race card on Knavesmire

VETERANS James Taylor and Tom Jones on the coast, Knavesmire’s music showcase, York Proms and Johnny and June’s country musical stand out in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for the week ahead.

Race day concert of the week: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, Tom Grennan, today

BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is today’s post-racing performer, drawing on such hits as Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together, Remind Me, Here and How Does It Feel, plus songs from his number one albums Evering Road, What Ifs & Maybes and Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be and top-five debut Lighting Matches. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.

Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre tomorrow

Coastal concerts of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, today; Tom Jones, with Stone Foundation, tomorrow; gates open at 6pm

MASSACHUSETTS singer, songwriter and guitarist, Laurel Canyon folk luminary, six-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame inductee James Taylor, 78, draws on six decades of songs, from his self-titled 1968 debut to 2021’s 19th studio album, American Standard, tonight.

Tom Jones, or Sir Tom Jones since 2006, to be more formal, returns to Scarborough this weekend aged 85 to perform such favourites as It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, Green, Green Grass Of Home, A Boy From Nowhere, Kiss, Mama Told Me Not To Come and Sex Bomb. Joining Sir Tom will be the eight-piece soul collective Stone Foundation. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Hannah Maxwell: Fiercely hopeful exploration of human connection in the Information Age at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Christa Holka

Fringe shows of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, presents Hannah Maxwell: Turn Your ****ing Phones Off (Work in Progress), today,6.30pm; Kate McCabe and Adam Perrott, The Name Of The Dame, tomorrow, 7.30pm

PERFORMED in traverse with an immersive technical design by Benji Huntrods, theatre-maker Hannah Maxwell’s Edinburgh Fringe-bound new performance artwork is a dark, absurd and fiercely hopeful exploration of human connection in the Information Age, expounding playfully on the rise of Big Tech, attention-hacking innovations and surveillance capitalism, while recounting Maxwell’s personal struggles with phone addiction and her bid for a life in analogue.

Dames, detectives, stylish hats and ‘car chases’ combine in comedians Kate McCabe and Adam Perrott’s hour-long film-noir parody. “If you like Airplane and Police Squad, the oeuvre of Mel Brooks, dicey puns and sight gags, this show is probably for you,” they say. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Totally Visible Theatre Company in a scene from Invisible, to be spotted at Friargate Theatre tonight

Bonds of friendship of the week: The Totally Visible Theatre Company in Invisible, Friargate Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

FIVE women meet up on a Saturday morning, as they have done every week for years, but this time they have a plan. Fast forward one year and their lives have changed irrevocably.

Celebrating the bonds of friendship and the fascinations and pitfalls of contemporary life, Invisible is a frank, fast-paced, all-female comedy-drama that ruminates on how older women are perceived in society, the relationships they forge and, most importantly, their “invisibility” in writer-director Jane Barrie’s exploration of sisterhood, motherhood and the effects of upbringing. Box office: 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/friargatetheatre.

Ashley Stillburn: York-born tenor making his York Proms debut tomorrow

Picnic concert of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, tomorrow, 5.30pm

RUN by classical chart-topping York soprano Rebecca Newman and now in its ninth year, York Proms features music from the world of classical and opera, film soundtracks and show songs. Increasing the orchestra size this summer enables the inclusion of John Williams cinema compositions.

The soloists are York-born tenor and West End musical actor Ashley Stillburn in his York Proms debut and British/Irish soprano Jennifer Coleman, making her third appearance. Tickets update: Available today but NOT tomorrow at yorkproms.com/collections/tickets-2026.

Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny Cash and Christina Bianco’s June Carter Cash in The Ballad Of Johnny & June, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, next week. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Musical of the week:The Ballad Of Johnny & June, The Johnny Cash Musical, Grand Opera House, York, July 28 to August 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday matinees

THIS thrilling musical from Jersey Boys director Des McAnuff celebrates the love, music and mayhem of country music couple Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Electrifying chemistry marks the performances of Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny and Christina Bianco’s June in a story observed through the eyes of Ryan O’Donnell’s John Carter Cash, their son. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

In addition, the trio gives a special pop-up performance of songs from the show at Forty Five Vinyl Cafe, the Nashville-inspired concert venue, record store and coffee house in Micklegate, on July 29 at 1pm.

“Tribute” show of the week: Songs Of presents The Songs of Joni Mitchell, with Jesca Hoop & Lail Arad, The Citadel, York, July 31, doors 7pm, show 7.45pm

JESCA Hoop & Lail Arad, acclaimed singer-songwriters in their own right, perform intimate interpretations of their favourite Joni Mitchell songs, accompanied by Richard Sears on piano and special guest Naima Bock. Hoop presented Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story, the award-winning six-part BBC radio documentary and podcast on the Canadian singer-songwriter. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Jesca Hoop: Intimate interpretations of Joni Mitchell songs at The Citadel

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 31 to August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2014 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Alexandra Mathie, left, and Pandora Clifford in rehearsal for Handbagged at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Shakespeare show of the week: Four Forty Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 31, 7.30pm

FOUR Forty Theatre (or 440 Theatre, as their website uses both names) tackle Shakespeare’s romantic romp of a chaotic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with their trademark irreverence, wit and theatrical ingenuity, directed by Dominic Gee-Burch, formerly of fellow high-speed Shakespeare humorists Oddsocks Productions.

Lovers are enchanted, fairies feud and a troupe of hapless players rehearse their way into disaster, all in a single moonlit night. Inventive staging, breakneck character changes and playful dismantling of tradition mark out Four Forty’s mischief-making take on Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy: part affectionate homage, part riotous reinvention. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Four Forty Theatre: Mischief-making in the woods in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Art event of the week: Carolyn Coles & Mike Marshall, Beyond The Nab, St Mary’s Church, Sandsend, near Whitby, today, tomorrow & Monday, 10am to 5pm

ARTISTS and fossil collectors Carolyn Coles and Mike Marshall are sharing their love of the north east coastline in Beyond The Nab at St Mary’s Church, Sandsend, near Whitby.

Held at this beautiful church located at the end of the Sandsend Valley at the bottom of Lythe Bank, the special four-day event takes place in one of Yorkshire’s prettiest valleys, noted for its picturesque, high-end stone cottages, rich local history, tied to the Mulgrave Estate, and ancient woodlands leading to the ruins of Mulgrave Castle.

On show and sale are contemporary paintings with a traditional twist, sculptured fossils, evocative photography, jet jewellery, cards and prints, with both York seascape artist Carolyn Coles and East Coast fossil legend Mike Marshall on hand to guide you through the works.

South Bank Studios artist Carolyn will be demonstrating painting techniques while Mike, who runs Yorkshire Coast Fossils, will be glad to identify any fossil you bring along. A pop-up cafe will serve light refreshment in aid of the church, championed by volunteer Helen Lloyd.

Mike Marshall looking out to sea

Carolyn explains the idea behind the event as a “brilliant medley of art and heritage, combining contemporary art and sculpture with traditional techniques”. “We talked about coming together professionally as our work is a perfect compliment and we have such a shared love of the area,” she says.

Carolyn has had a busy 2026, joining wildlife sculptor Karen Fawcett and PICA Studios ceramicist Emily Stubbs in The Sky’s The Limit exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York, from late-January to mid-March and taking part in York Open Studios in April.

“My dream is to open a studio and gallery and live by the coast, so this event is a huge pleasure to hold,” she says.

York artist Carolyn Coles enjoying painting in plein air at Sandsend

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How Tim Firth revisited Calendar Girls The Musical for staging by actor-musicians in the Round at Stephen Joseph Theatre

Tim Firth: Book writer and lyricist for Calendar Girls The Musical

TIM Firth has returned to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where he first cut his playwriting teeth under Alan Ayckbourn’s artistic directorship.

He is opening the Scarborough theatre’s summer season in tandem with composer and friend-since-Frodsham- schooldays Gary Barlow in a ground-breaking revival of their 2015 musical, Calendar Girls The Musical (first called The Girls in its Leeds Grand Theatre premiere).

For the first time, under  SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s directorial hand, the show is  being staged in the round and as an actor-musician production.

In a joint statement, Firth and Barlow enthused: “As writers, one of the most exciting things that can happen is when someone comes up with a totally new way of staging something you’ve created.

“When Paul described his vision for a new production of Calendar Girls The Musical, it was instantly clear he was talking about something we’d never seen before, never imagined and to be honest never thought possible.”

Explaining the rationale behind this co-production with Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake, the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and the Octagon Theatre Bolton, Robinson said: “Our new in-the-round staging brings the audience into the heart of the Rylstone Women’s Institute, making this true story of friendship and determination feel more personal and immediate.

“This intimate production will create a unique, shared experience, reminiscent of gathering around a community hall or a close friend’s living room, allowing for a deeper connection to the characters and creating a collective, communal atmosphere that fully immerses everyone in the moving story of these ‘ordinary women’ doing something quite extraordinary.”

Quick refresher course: this show is the one about a group of Yorkshire women, from the Rylstone Women’s Institute, who create a nude calendar to raise money for charity after the death of a husband to a blood cancer.

News spreads fast in their community and none of them expects the emotional and personal repercussions, but gradually the making of the calendar brings each woman unexpectedly into bloom.

Recalling the roots of writing play, film and musical versions of Calendar Girls and now bringing the musical to the SJT, Tim says: “Scarborough I always feel to be my home as a writer. Not only was it the first place to give me a main stage but the plays of Alan Ayckbourn embody so much of what I love about theatre.

Sarah Groarke, left, Karen Holmes and Angela Caesar in a scene from the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s actor-musician production of Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

“It was en route to a meeting with him about a new play that I called into a Wharfedale fete and bought a calendar from a WI stall. Now years later, it seems wonderfully fitting to be starting a production of a musical about that story at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.” 

Paul Robinson first put the question to Firth two years ago: “Do you think this is possible: doing Calendar Girls in a theatre of this size and design? Up till then, I’d only seen professional productions in bigger venues, and yet the sheer number of amateur productions made me think we could do it in smaller theatres,” says Tim.

“I wanted this show and these songs to be robust enough to stand up to any setting, whether on a small stage with a piano, in a church hall or a theatre – but in the modern world, it’s become difficult to mount a musical on your own, so we needed three other theatre to align with the SJT to do this new production.”

Analysing the popularity of Calendar Girls, Tim  says. “It’s a ‘group comedy’, and what people seem to respond to right from the start is the bonding of these women, the unity and the camaraderie, and there’s warmth in the comedy.

“We’re tribal and Calendar Girls is a tribal piece of theatre. It’s a poke in the belly of society that makes people rally round. What makes Calendar Girls work and the whole endeavour work in reality was that it was more about friendship than it was ever about nudity.

“What makes the photo-shoot work in Calendar Girls is what the other ‘girls’ are doing around the ‘girl’ being photographed  to make the picture happen because the nudity  is like a fan dance.”

For the SJT production, two factors came into play: how many of the cast would be playing instruments on stage at any one time in a scene and how could the teenage children’s roles be re-introduced (after being jettisoned for a touring version). “It was a shame to have lost them as they’re like a palate cleanser and a real change in tone,” says Tim, delighted by their return.

“The rest of  it, I have done absolutely nothing with, because I grew up writing for this theatre, and I know that  you don’t write for the Round; you let the Round tell the story. I know you can do anything in that set-up, and it’s up to the director and the designer to make it work in the Round, where it’s like a circus.

“That’s why everyone is excited by it as it brings a proximity, immediacy and vibrancy to the story. It’s also why all my plays are prop heavy rather than scenery heavy, as you can’t have any scenery more than two feet high, so it’s all about the floor and putting people together to work on that stage.

“Sometimes, the more ‘production’ you give a musical, the more you move away from its heart. You can do it just with a basket full of props.”

Calendar Girls The Musical runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office:  01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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REVIEW: Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25 ****

Christina Meehan’s Annie and Karen Holmes’s Chris in Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

IT began as The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2015, when plenty of the original Calendar Girls attended the press night in trademark black dresses, pinned with sunflowers.

Roll forward 11 years, when some things have changed, some have not. Four members of the Rylstone and District Women’s Institute, who put the fun into fund-raising by making the risqué alternative calendar in 1999, were in attendance on Wednesday. Black dresses, tick. Sunflowers, tick.

Present too was book writer and lyricist Tim Firth, who cut his playwriting teeth under Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s guiding eye at the SJT – and who should be in the audience too but Sir Alan.

Penned by Firth and composer and Take That mainstay Gary Barlow, friends since childhood days in Frodsham, Cheshire, the show has long since changed its name to Calendar Girls The Musical, while celebrity casts have come and gone and a touring version once  jettisoned the teenage tearaways, but thankfully they are very much restored here, as is the original down-to-earth, everyday, no-nonsense ‘Yorkshireness’ of it all

SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s production breaks new ground as the first staging with actor-musicians and the first in a theatre-in-the-round setting, presenting new challenges in how to choreograph the strip comedy of the calendar shoot and how to evoke the other rising hills, the Yorkshire Dales.

Original designer Robert Jones first crafted a theatrical Yorkshire landscape from towering green-fronted furniture that turned into doors and prop cupboards; then later favoured a God’s Own Country verdant backdrop and a regularly opened gate.

In May, York Musical Theatre Company did likewise when using All In One Productions’ photographic scenery of the rolling dales at their most green and pleasant pastured, with a dry stone wall and gate in front. You could almost smell Yorkshire.

SJT costume and designer Helen Coyston eschews walls and landscape imagery, preferring an open-plan design with parquet village-hall flooring, on which props and furniture are moved with haste, whether chairs, benches, or the uncomfortable Skipton General waiting-room sofa that prompts Knapely Women’s Institute wild card Chris (Karen Holmes) to suggest making the outré calendar.

It makes all the more room for the actor-musicians that fill the stage with movement and energy, right from the start in the crowd-pleasing opening number Yorkshire, with company members playing all manner of instruments, from guitar and whistle to the most evocative Yorkshire sound of all: gleaming brass instruments of every shape and sound under the musical directorship of associate director Alex Weatherhill.

An interval chat with sound  designer and musical supervisor Simon Slater revealed how carefully those brass players needed to be placed, in order not to overpower the overall sound mix, often being posted in the “voms” (the passageways for stage entries and exits). 

The actor-musicianship, especially in the natural amphitheatre of the theatre-in-the-round, brought a heightened intimacy to the already highly emotional or highly humorous songs, where Firth’s sense of pathos and observational comedy dovetail so pleasingly with Barlow’s ear for melody.

The balance of dialogue and song is just right too. After a surfeit of song-heavy shows with workmanlike tunes on reviewing duty in 2026, here is a show where emotion is filtered through conversation, confession and comic collisions, as well as through songs that capture the essence of a situation or character. 

None has more potency in Scarborough than Scarborough itself, the beautiful ballad where Christina Meehan’s Annie contemplates life without John ‘Clarkey’ Clarke (Neil Moors), her rock of a husband, brought down by a blood cancer.

Barlow and Firth give plenty of characters their “big number”, from Alicia McKenzie’s Cora, the organ-playing vicar’s daughter, with her Christmas Carol pastiches in Who Wants A Silent Night?, to Chris’s Act One climax, Sunflower; from Pippa Duffy’s former air hostess Celia’s defiant So I’ve Had A Little Work Done to SJT favourite Annie Kirkman’s vodka-swilling Annie’s My Russian Friend And I, topped by her drunken arrival for her camera-flash moment.

Matt Heslop’s photographer Lawrence is even more timid than past iterations, and all the better for that, while Fenella Norman’s former school teacher, Jessie, Sarah Groarke’s stuffed-shirt new WI chair, Marie, Matt Ian Kelly’s trio of supportive husbands, Rod, Colin and Denis, and Angela Caesar and and Rachel Hammond’s tea-and-coffee double act as the Miss Wilsons all play their part to maximum impact.

In the teen trio, Will Ireland and Charlie Wright are sharing the role of easily distracted head boy-in-waiting Danny; Robyn Chambers and Annie Dunbar  do likewise for the rebellious Jenny and Keane Liley and Jack Pickering will  split the ever-joshing Tommo over the performances ahead. Firth writes so astutely of teen behaviour and adult influence, the young’uns so full of cheek, brio and quick retorts.

The climactic calendar shoot is choreographed by intimacy director Stephanie Dattani with imagination, originality, flair, bags of humour, plenty of surprise too, finding new ways to refresh this comedic set piece with vitality, wit and heart.

Honorary Yorkshiremen Barlow and Firth, in tandem with Robinson – a director at his best in comedy – have delivered the best version of Calendar Girls yet, not least thanks to the leading performances of Holmes’s Chris and Meehan’s Chris, Yorkshire women of such spirit and resilience.

Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com

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

Christina Meehan, left, Karen Holmes and Pippa Duffy in rehearsal for Calendar Girls The Musical at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

THE York Mystery Plays on waggon wheels, Calendar Girls in the round, early music beyond borders and Jim Hacker’s lust hurrah promise high summer times for Charles Hutchinson.

Make a date with: Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25

AS director Paul Robinson reveals: “Our new in-the-round staging of Tim Firth and Gary Barlow’s Calendar Girls brings the audience into the heart of the Rylstone Women’s Institute, making this true story of friendship and determination feel more personal and immediate.

“This intimate production will create a unique, shared experience, reminiscent of gathering around a community hall or a close friend’s living room, allowing for a deeper connection to the characters and creating a collective, communal atmosphere that fully immerses everyone in the moving story of these ‘ordinary women’ doing something quite extraordinary.” Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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

2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in Mistero Buffo, Friargate Theatre, York, today to Saturday, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees on Friday and  Saturday

TWO wild strangers roll into York for the 2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe to tell tales destined to turn the city upside down. Combining ferocious wit and fearless physical storytelling, Paul Birch’s two-hander production for York’s Riding Lights Theatre Company tears into faith, power, profit and hypocrisy by turning ancient Bible stories into urgent, humorous modern theatre with a clear spiritual heart.

Written by Nobel prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo, translated by Ed Emery and performed by Yorkshire actors Thomas Frere and Cathy Sara, this 1969 take on the Mystery Plays will appeal to Fringe theatregoers with a taste for subversive and unapologetic comedy with bite. Box office: www.ridinglights.org.

Kirkgate in floral splendour for summer at York Castle Museum. Picture: Gareth Buddo

Flower power of the week: Summer at York Castle Museum, in bloom until September 6, open Mondays, 11am to 5pm; Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm

YORK Castle Museum is capturing the essence of ‘grand days out’ and celebrating iconic summers across two contrasting centuries this summer season.  Drawing on the breadth of the museum’s social history collection, Victorian York Galas and the Swinging ’60s are the programme’s key focus with games, crafts and seasonal decorations providing nostalgia and summer fun for visitors.

Further highlights include Last Stop Before Kirkgate, Novo Theatre’s immersive experience replicating a 19th century coaching inn and arrival into York, and Yorkshire artist Pippa Dyrlaga’s paper-cut hot air balloons, telling the story of balloon rides during the galas. Tickets: yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.  

The Choir Of Man: “The best trip to your local you’ll ever have”…at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: The Other Richard

Foot-stomping musical celebration of the week: The Choir Of Man, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow, 7.30pm; Friday, 4pm and 8pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

SET in the The Jungle pub on stage, The Choir Of Man is billed as “the best trip to your local you’ll ever have” as a cast of nine (extra)ordinary guys combine beautiful harmonies and foot-stomping singalongs with tap dance and soulful storytelling in an uplifting celebration of community and friendship.

The debut UK & Ireland tour cast features Gustav Melbardis as Maestro; Oluwalonimi (Nimi) Owoyemi as Poet; Levi Tyrell Johnson as Hard Man; Ben Mabberley as Joker; Rob Godfrey as Beast; Jack Skelton as Handyman; Joshua Lloyd as Barman; Sam Walter as Romantic and Aaron Pottenger as Bore performing Queen, Luther Vandross, Sia, Paul Simon, Adele, Guns N’ Roses, Avicii and Katy Perry hits. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston: Presenting A Gentle Air with tenor Paul Agnew and lutenist Sergio Bucheli on July 9 at 2026 York Early Music Festival

50th anniversary event of the summer: 2026 York Early Music Festival, Beyond Borders, Friday to July 11

THE premier British early music festival marks its 50th anniversary with a celebration of “just how far early music has travelled – beyond the borders of the myriad historic venues of our city to a worldwide audience,” says director Delma Tomlin.

Opening with Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, presented by I Fagiolini, and closing with Solomon’s Knot’s rendition of Bruhns’s St Mark Passion, the festival welcomes The Sixteen, B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort, Imago Mundi, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and NCEM Platform Artists Anacronia and Contre le temps, among others. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk/yemf.

Tribute show of the week: The Rat Pack, Las Vegas Live!, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm

DIRECT from London’s Leicester Square Theatre, The 02 and a Royal Command Performance, David Alacey stars as Frank Sinatra alongside West End favourite Tim Harwood as Dean Martin and former Coronation Street and Hollyoaks star Ashley Campbell as Sammy Davis Jr in the original Rat Pack tribute show, now celebrating its 25th record-breaking year of re-creating their Las Vegas heyday at The Sands. BBC musical director Mac Shone will be at the piano alongside the Buddy Greco All-Stars. Box office:  01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk. 

Bodhan Pitel’s Herod in DSpace Ukrainian Theatre and the Guild of Scriveners’ The Massacre of The Innocents in the 2026 York Mystery Plays. Picture: John Saunders

Theatrical event of the week: 2026 York Mystery Plays, streets of York, Sunday, 10.30am to 4.50pm; Sunset in the Shambles Market, tonight, 7.45pm  

THE four-yearly staging on the York Mystery Plays on pageant waggons takes place at four locations across the city: free viewing at the Minster Refectory Gardens, Deansgate, (from 10.30am) King’s Square (from 11.10am), St Sampson’s Square (from 11.50am) and ticketed seats at Dean’s Park (from 12.30pm). Ten core plays will be complemented by further extracts to tell the story from The War In Heaven to Doomsday. For full details, go to: yorkmysteryplays.co.uk.

A special midsummer performances of five plays will be held in Shambles Market tonight, introduced by the York Waits musicians before Pageant Master Dr Alan Heaven guides the audience through each play, from the Creation sequence to the interactive show Doomsday. Tickets: ticketsource.com/york-festival-trust.

Clive Francis and Simon Rouse in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Michael Wharley

Political drama of the week: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

JIM Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim (Simon Rouse) instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction.

Can Humphrey and Jim outmanoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”? Brimming with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series is written and directed by Jonathan Lynn,co-directed by Michael Gyngell and presented by The Barn Theatre, Cirencester. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 26, from The York Press

Becky Hill: High-energy performance on Knavesmire track

THE York Mystery Plays on waggon wheels, Becky Hill on Knavesmire, Calendar Girls in the round and early music beyond borders promise high summer times for Charles Hutchinson.

Under starter’s orders: Becky Hill, Summer Music Saturday, York Racecourse, today, first race at 1.20pm

BECKY Hill, two-time BRIT Award winner for Best Dance Act, opens the summer of post-racing concerts at York Racecourse, promising a high-energy performance on the “Glastonbury-style stage” after tomorrow’s seven-race card. For her set list, she can pick from such hits as Gecko; Back & Forth; Wish You Well; Lose Control; Better Off Without You; Heaven On My Mind; Remember; My Heart Goes; Run; Crazy What Love Can Do; History and Disconnect. For race-day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Kirkgate at York Castle Museum in full summer bloom with floral displays and new projections. Picture: Gareth Buddo Furmoto Photography

Flower power of the week: Summer at York Castle Museum, in bloom until September 6, open Mondays, 11am to 5pm; Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm

YORK Castle Museum is capturing the essence of ‘grand days out’ and celebrating iconic summers across two contrasting centuries this summer season.  Drawing on the breadth of the museum’s social history collection, Victorian York Galas and the Swinging ’60s are the programme’s key focus with games, crafts and seasonal decorations providing nostalgia and summer fun for visitors.

Further highlights include Last Stop Before Kirkgate, Novo Theatre’s immersive experience replicating a 19th century coaching inn and arrival into York, and Yorkshire artist Pippa Dyrlaga’s paper-cut hot air balloons, telling the story of balloon rides during the galas. Tickets: yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.  

Richard Ashcroft. Picture: Dean Chalkley

Coastal gigs of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Richard Ashcroft, today; Billy Ocean and Marti Pellow, tomorrow, gates open at 6pm

THE Verve frontman, songwriter and producer Richard Ashcroft, two-time Ivor Novello and triple BRIT Award winner, headlines today’s Scarborough bill, joined by DJ Wayne, original Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan and Yorkshire indie rockers Apollo Junction.  

Trinidadian-British soul singer Billy Ocean (real name Leslie Sebastian Charles, by the way) takes top spot tomorrow, airing such hits as Red Light Spells Danger, Love Really Hurts Without You, Caribbean Queen and When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going. His very special guest is former Wet Wet Wet singer and musicals star Marti Pellow; Katie Owen supports too. Box office: scarbroughopenairtheatre.com.

Christina Meehan’s Annie, left, and Karen Holmes’s Chris in Calendar Girls The Musical at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Make a date with: Calendar Girls The Musical, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, today until July 25

AS director Paul Robinson reveals: “Our new in-the-round staging of Tim Firth and Gary Barlow’s Calendar Girls brings the audience into the heart of the Rylstone Women’s Institute, making this true story of friendship and determination feel more personal and immediate.

“This intimate production will create a unique, shared experience, reminiscent of gathering around a community hall or a close friend’s living room, allowing for a deeper connection to the characters and creating a collective, communal atmosphere that fully immerses everyone in the moving story of these ‘ordinary women’ doing something quite extraordinary.” Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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

2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe play of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in Mistero Buffo, Friargate Theatre, York, today, tomorrow, then July 1 to 4, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees on July 3 & 4

TWO wild strangers roll into York for the 2026 York Mystery Plays Fringe to tell tales destined to turn the city upside down. Combining ferocious wit and fearless physical storytelling, Paul Birch’s two-hander production for York’s Riding Lights Theatre Company tears into faith, power, profit and hypocrisy by turning ancient Bible stories into urgent, humorous modern theatre with a clear spiritual heart.

Written by Nobel prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo, translated by Ed Emery and performed by Yorkshire actors Thomas Frere and Cathy Sara, this 1969 take on the Mystery Plays will appeal to Fringe theatregoers with a taste for subversive and unapologetic comedy with bite. Box office: www.ridinglights.org.

Bodhan Pitel’s Herod in DSpace Ukrainian Theatre’s The Massacre of the Innocents. Picture: John Saunders

Theatrical event of the week: 2026 York Mystery Plays, streets of York, tomorrow and July 5, 10.30am to 4.50pm; Sunset in the Shambles Market, June 30 and July 1, 7.45pm  

THE four-yearly staging on the York Mystery Plays on pageant waggons takes place at four locations across the city: free viewing at the Minster Refectory Gardens, Deansgate, (from 10.30am) King’s Square (from 11.10am), St Sampson’s Square (from 11.50am) and ticketed seats at Dean’s Park (from 12.30pm). Ten core plays will be complemented by further extracts to tell the story from The War In Heaven to Doomsday. For full details, go to: yorkmysteryplays.co.uk.

Special midsummer performances of five plays will be held in Shambles Market on June 30 and July 1, introduced by the York Waits musicians before Pageant Master Dr Alan Heaven guides the audience through each play, from the Creation sequence to the End of Days in the interactive show Doomsday. These shows begin at 7.45pm and end as the dusk is deepening before 10pm. Tickets: ticketsource.com/york-festival-trust.

The Choir Of Man: “The best trip to your local you’ll ever have” at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: The Other Richard

Foot-stomping musical celebration of the week: The Choir Of Man, Grand Opera House, York, June 30 to July 2, 7.30pm; July 3, 4pm and 8pm; July 4, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

SET in the The Jungle pub on stage, The Choir Of Man is billed as “the best trip to your local you’ll ever have” as a cast of nine (extra)ordinary guys combine beautiful harmonies and foot-stomping singalongs with tap dance and soulful storytelling in an uplifting celebration of community and friendship.

The debut UK & Ireland tour cast features Gustav Melbardisas Maestro; Oluwalonimi (Nimi) Owoyemi as Poet; Levi Tyrell Johnson as Hard Man; Ben Mabberley as Joker; Rob Godfrey as Beast; Jack Skelton as Handyman; Joshua Lloyd as Barman; Sam Walter as Romantic and Aaron Pottenger as Bore performing Queen, Luther Vandross,Sia, Paul Simon, Adele, Guns N’ Roses, AviciiandKaty Perry hits. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Solomon’s Knot: Performing at York Early Music Festival on July 10

50th anniversary event of the summer: 2026 York Early Music Festival, Beyond Borders, July 3 to 11

THE premier British early music festival marks its 50th anniversary with a celebration of “just how far early music has travelled – beyond the borders of the myriad historic venues of our city to a worldwide audience,” says director Delma Tomlin.

Opening with Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, presented by I Fagiolini, and closing with Solomon’s Knot’s rendition of Bruhns’s St Mark Passion, the festival welcomes The Sixteen, B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort, Imago Mundi, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and NCEM Platform Artists Anacronia and Contre le temps, among others. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk/yemf.

In Focus: Ripon Theatre Festival, July 5 to 12

Maybe You Like It in Down To Chance: Playing Ripon Theatre Festival at Ripon Arts Hub on July 11 at 8pm

RIPON Theatre Festival 2026 celebrates five years of culture, colour and community spirit from July 5 to 12 with eight days and nights of performances focused on theatre in all its forms, from storytelling and puppetry to cabaret, Shakespeare and circus.

Top talent from Edinburgh & beyond

THE festival welcomes hit shows from the Edinburgh Fringe at Ripon Arts Hub,  including Stephen Smith’s One Man Poe on July 10 at 8pm, fast-paced thriller Down To Chance on July 11 at 8pm The Poetical Life Of Philomena McGuinness on July 12 at 2.30pm.

Quirky & unique

RIPON Theatre Festival makes the most of the city’s venues and open spaces with pop-up events showcasing theatre everywhere. A knitting cabaret from Canada, a one-man show about British pub life, walkabout acts, Pop-up Puppetry and Poetry for Breakfast are among the acts that will appear in friendly cafes, pubs and independent shops. Look out too for a show performed inside a vintage bus.

The Big Weekend for families

SUPPORTED by Arts Council England through the National Lottery for a second year, the Big Weekend of free family entertainment on July 11 and 12 will feature street arts and circus theatre from across the four nations and beyond. Highlights include dance-circus troupe Circo Rumbaba and comedy, cooking and circus with Do What Ya Mamma Told Ya.

Reaching out to all the community

IN the weeks leading up to the festival, activities in care homes, “making and creating” sessions with learning-disabled adults and intergenerational music sessions ensure the event reaches all corners of the community.

This includes a schools’ programme featuring Opera North’s Little Listeners and the madcap Rubbish Shakespeare Company.

Supporting new writing & regional talent

ESTABLISHED  regional artists, such as Victoria Firth and Kathryn Hanke, from Huddersfield, in Batty! at Ripon Arts Hub on July 9 at 8pm, feature alongside up-and-coming artists such as Constance Peel, from Boston Spa, performing the new play Service Please at The Water Rat on July 6 at 6.30pm.

Providing a platform for locally-inspired works-in-progress, the festival offers audiences the first chance to experience York’s Out Of Character Theatre Company in Outcast’s exploration of life in medieval Ripon and Imogen Wood’s work-in-progress, Jord, whose starting point is the petrifying powers of Mother Shipton in a union of live music, poetry and storytelling that challenges the fascination and obsession with women staying young and delaying ageing.

Summer season finale

RIPON Theatre Festival stretches beyond July 12 for a post-festival open-air Shakespeare finale at Ripon Raceourse on July 24, when The Duke’s Theatre Company presents Romeo & Juliet at 7pm (preceded by North Yorkshire Council-supported performances at Prince of Wales Terrace, Scarborough, on July 22 and Valley Gardens, Harrogate, on July 23). Box office: thedukestheatrecompany.co.uk.

Festival director Katie Scott says: “Ripon Theatre Festival is celebrating a five-year milestone birthday and we are proud of all that we have achieved so far.

“Community led, but showcasing some of the best professional touring work alongside an inclusive and lively outdoor and family programme, the festival is hugely valued for its variety and originality. We can’t wait to share our 2026 offering and bring the joy of live performance to an even wider audience.”

For the full programme and tickets, go to: ripontheatrefestival.org.

Amber Topaz in Red, Ripon Arts Hub, July 8, 7.30pm

Amber Topaz in Red

YORKSHIRE-BORN international cabaret and burlesque siren Amber Topaz celebrates redheaded musical theatre stars of stage and screen in her classy, sassy, fabulous musical revue Red.

Her delicious cocktail of Old Hollywood glamour and West End and Broadway classics is “full to the brim with iconic show-stopping numbers, honouring these formidable flame-haired trailblazers that have shaped musical theatre herstory”.

From the golden era of Hollywood to the bright lights of Las Vegas, Red embodyies legendary artists such as Rita Hayworth, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Shirley MacLaine, Gwen Verdon and many more.

As a teenager, Amber left her Yorkshire roots to move to London and enter the world of cabaret and burlesque, since when she has travelled widely with her combination of frivolous and thought-provoking cabaret.

Fladam, Astro Norma, Ripon Library, July 11, 10.30am and 12 noon

Fladam’s Florence Poskitt & Adam Sowter in Astro Norma

YORK duo Fladam, Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter, present their out-of-this-world musical comedy Astro Norma at Ripon Library, where they invite audiences aged three to ten to blast off on a madcap 45-minute quest to find Grandpa’s lost star, but beware, the sneaky Silencer is hot on her trail , ready to silence the tunes.

Packed with awesome aliens, rib tickling robots and interplanetary puppets, this joyful space odyssey will have young theatregoers reaching for the stars.