Tag: Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough

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How come an Alan Ayckbourn world premiere is being staged in a moorland village institute? The truth on All Lies

Will the truth hurt in Alan Ayckbourn’s All Lies when Luke Dayhill’s Sebastian and Saskia Strallen’s Posy fall in love? Picture: Steven Barber

ESK Valley Theatre is presenting the world premiere production of Alan Ayckbourn’s 86th full-length play in a North Yorkshire moorland village.

All Lies is running at the Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, six miles from Whitby, until August 27, directed by Ayckbourn himself. And yes, that is the truth.

“We were approached by Alan,” says a delighted Mark Stratton, Esk Valley Theatre’s artistic director, who is Ayckbourn’s assistant director for the three-hander, written in the quietude of the pandemic lockdowns.

“All Lies was already booked for two weeks at the Old Laundry Theatre, in Bowness-on-Windermere, in May, but the feeling was that was too short a run for an Ayckbourn premiere.

“Alan has been a big supporter of our work for years and has seen many of our plays, so he said, ‘would you like to take it?’. We thought, ‘well, why don’t we put it on in our regular August slot as the institute is busy for other parts of the year?’.

“The way we’ve done it, the actors signed contracts for Bowness and then contracts for us, with Alan holding two days of rehearsals in Scarborough to help to prepare for the re-start in Glaisdale.”

Initial rehearsals had been conducted at Alan’s Scarborough studio for two weeks from April 19, “before the whole shebang moved over to Bowness” for its debut. “We’re billing our run as the ‘world premiere production’ because it’s the same production,” says Mark.

“Alan’s involvement has been right the way through until he handed over to me in order to start rehearsals for his next play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre [Scarborough], Family Album.

“My role has been minimal, as ‘caretaker’ director, while keeping the production’s Ayckbourn integrity. We’ve been wanting Esk Valley Theatre to be involved as a producer on an Ayckbourn play, without treading on the SJT’s toes, and this has been our opportunity.”

All Lies is set in 1957-1958, when a chance meeting elicits love at first sight! The person of your dreams! But will they feel the same? Once you tell the truth about yourself, will you even be worthy of them? Do you take the plunge and reveal all? Or choose the dangerous alternative and tell them…All Lies?!

Luke Dayhill as Sebastian Goodfellow, Rhiannon Neads as sister Sonia Goodfellow, back, and Saskia Strallen as Posy Capstick in All Lies. Picture: Steven Barber

Questions, questions, so many Ayckbourn questions, in a play of subtle wit and shifting sands where the truth is in there somewhere when a young couple falls in love but the little lies develop into something much bigger.

Can Mark reveal a little more? “Well, the clues are in the title! It’s one of those plays where one thing leads to another, so you don’t want to give too much away, but yes, lies are told, and where do lies lead when you spin a web of deceit?!” he says.

“It’s very much a play about two people wanting to show their best side to each other when they first meet, but what happens when someone exaggerates who they are? What happens down the line?

“It becomes that catalogue of things that happen when lies are told, but it’s also about the fragility of egos and how we want to be seen in the best light when we don’t have the confidence just to be ourselves.”

What is the significance of the Fifties’ setting? “It was the age of letter writing, pre-mobile technology, when people wrote letters to express themselves deeply in a way they don’t show themselves so emotionally now,” says Mark.

“Alan is so good at picking at things, exposing them, and while it’s set in 1957, it reflects on how we’ve changed as a society.”

All Lies is not in Ayckbourn’s darkest vein by any means, suggests Mark. “There are just a few dark undertones. It’s a light and frothy piece in many ways,” he says. “It’s more…it’s not Noel Coward but it has a lovely light comedy quality about it with beautiful wordplay.”

At 83, Ayckbourn is as prolific as ever, so much so that he has a backlog of new work accruing from theatres going into hibernation in lockdown. “Alan’s brain is so brilliant,” says Mark. “You can’t but marvel at him. Most writers would be happy with five plays in a lifetime, but Alan has written five in a matter of months!”

Esk Valley Theatre presents Alan Ayckbourn’s All Lies at Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, near Whitby, until August 27 with a cast of Luke Dayhill, Rhiannon Neads and Saskia Strallen. Box office: 01947 897587.

Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, presents Alan Ayckbourn’s Family Album from September 2 to October 1. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Say cello, wave goodbye? Will love crumble when the truth is out for Sebastian and Posy in Alan Ayckbourn’s All Lies at Esk Valley Theatre?

Copyright of The Press, York

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More Things To Do in York and beyond on not only Bob Dylan’s rough and rowdy days. List No. 91, courtesy of The Press, York

NE Musicals York cast members climb aboard a City Sightseeing bus to publicise their upcoming production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert

AS Madness and Sugababes canter up to York Racecourse, Charles Hutchinson picks his favourites from the upcoming entertainment runners and riders  

Musical of the week: NE Musicals York in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 20 to 24, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees

CREATIVE director Steve Tearle’s cast of 30 features Finley Butler, Tom Henshaw and Tearle himself as three drag queens who take an epic journey from Sydney to Alice Springs across the Australian outback in their bus Priscilla.

“The journey is full of drama and dance routines but also so many laugh-out-loud moments,” says Tearle. “There’ll be costumes – 300 in total – that have never been seen before in York and the star of the show, the bus, will take your breath away.”  Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

John Cale: Rearranging his gig date at York Barbican

Underground movement of the week: John Cale, York Barbican, from July 19 to October 24, 8pm

VELVET Underground icon John Cale, now 80, is moving his first British itinerary in a decade to the autumn. Tickets for Tuesday – the only Yorkshire gig of his seven-date tour – remain valid for the new date in October.

The Welsh multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer will be performing songs from a pioneering six-decade career that began in classical and avant-garde music before he formed The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed in New York in 1965. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Bob Dylan’s poster for his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, visiting Hull Bonus Arena

Gig announcement of the week: Bob Dylan, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27

BOB Dylan will play Hull Bonus Arena as the only Yorkshire gig of his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021-2024 this autumn.

The Nobel Prize-winning American singer, songwriter and cultural icon last visited Britain in 2017 on his Never Ending Tour. This time the focus will be on his 39th studio album, June 2020’s chart-topping Rough And Rowdy Ways, his first set of original songs since 2012’s Tempest. Box office: hurry, hurry, to ticketmaster.co.uk.

Resting up: Tears For Fears’ Scarborough concert is cancelled due to Curt Smith’s rib injury

One on, one off, tonight: cheers for Richard Ashcroft, Sounds Of The City, Leeds Millennium Square; tears for Tears For Fears, Scarborough Open Air Theatre

IN the Leeds outdoors tonight, Richard Ashcroft, frontman of Wigan’s Nineties’ rock gods The Verve, performs songs from his chart-topping band days and solo career in the wake of re-recording his prime work for 2021’s Acoustic Hymns Vol 1. Gates open at 6pm; support slots go to DJ Wayne and Cast. Last few tickets: millsqleeds.com .

Shout, shout, let it all out, these are the things they could do without: Curt Smith’s rib injury has forced Tears For Fears to call off tonight’s gig in Scarborough.

Jane McDonald: Letting the light in at York Barbican

Yorkshire favourite of the week: Jane McDonald: Let The Light In, York Barbican, July 22, 7.30pm

WAKEFIELD singer and television star Jane McDonald plays her long-awaited Let The Light In Show in York, rearranged from the lockdown gloom of 2020.

The BAFTA award-winner, Cruising With presenter and Loose Women panellist  will be joined by her band and backing singers for a night of cabaret song, laughter and fabulous dresses. Box office for last few tickets: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Madness this way lies: The Nutty Boys are returning to York Racecourse next Friday

On course for race days: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Madness, July 22; Sugababes, July 23

CAMDEN’S Nutty Boys, Madness, return to the Knavesmire track next Friday, having first gone One Step Beyond there in July 2010. Once more Suggs and co will roll out such ska-flavoured music-hall hits as Our House, Baggy Trousers, House Of Fun, Wings Of A Dove, My Girl and Driving In My Car after the evening race card.

The re-formed original Sugababes line-up of Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy are next Saturday afternoon’s act. The London girl group last appeared in York as long ago as 2003 with a line-up of Buchanan, Buena and Heidi Range at the Barbican Centre, as was.

Here come Freak Like Me, Round Round, Hole In The Head, Push The Button, Walk This Way and About You Now et al. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Low-key festival of the week: Crawfest, Partings Lane, Ebberston, YO13 9PA, off A170, July 22 and 23, noon to midnight

THE line-up is in place for Crawfest, the family-friendly music festival held on farmland near Pickering, in memory of Alan Crawford, a friend of the organisers, who lost his life to Covid in 2020.

Next Friday will be headlined by The House We Built (9.40pm), preceded by Edwina Hayes (2pm); Paint Me In Colour (3.20pm); Nalgo Bay (4.20pm); Sean Taylor (5.30pm); Breeze (6.50pm) and Friday Street (8.10pm).

Next Saturday’s bill toppers will be Big Me (9.40pm), preceded by Kelsey Bovey (12 noon); Bongoman & The Bongomaniacs (1pm); Danny MacMahon (2pm); Beetlebug (3.15pm); Rocketsmith (4.10pm); Nalgo Bay (5.30pm); Red Box (6.50pm) and The Feens (8.10pm). Box office: tickettailor.com/events/crawfest/641880.

Anne-Marie Piazza and Pete Ashmore in rehearsal for Brief Encounter at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Romance of the summer: Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter, in The Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 22 to August 27

SJT artistic director Paul Robinson directs this new co-production of Emma Rice’s playful adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, presented in tandem with Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Octagon Theatre, Bolton.

Rice turns Coward’s film inside out, adding joyous musical numbers and physical comedy while still maintaining the classic love story of the 1945 black-and-white original, where Laura and Alec are married – but not to each other – when a chance meeting at a railway station hurls them headlong into a whirlwind romance that threatens to blow their worlds apart. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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Why Freddie Hayes is feeling chipper about her Faustian puppetry show Potatohead

Shed haven: Puppeteer Freddie Hayes contemplates life as a Potatohead

WHY is “gloriously bonkers” York performer, maker and writer Freddie Hayes a puppeteer?

“I’ve always made puppets from a young age,” she says. “But I lost in a puppet competition at Scarcroft School and it’s been revenge ever since.”

That act of revenge continues with the Edinburgh Fringe-bound Potatohead, her “starch-raving mad” solo adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s cautionary tale Doctor Faustus And The Seven Deadly Sins, directed by Sh!t Theatre.

Combining puppetry, stand-up comedy, physical theatre, film, singing, dancing and a sack of potato puns, Freddie’s hour-long “one-potato show” plays York Theatre Royal Studio on June 10, the McCarthy at the Stepehen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on June 14, and Seven Arts in her adopted home of Leeds on July 20.

“I’ve always been interested in puppets as objects and creating characters from everyday people you might see in everyday life,” says Freddie, whose absurdist work hovers between childish puppetry and late-night entertainment in its story of humble York spud Charlotte, who dreams of becoming a cabaret superstar but is blighted by a chip on her shoulder.

 “I have quite a dark sense of humour too, and there seems to be something haunting about puppets that intrigues me.

“Puppetry can be very violent, with dark stories like Punch & Judy, where he defeats the Devil and death itself with his powers – so that story has a vague connection with Faust.”

After introducing York and beyond to grouchy pub landlords Fred and Sharon, unhappily married guvnors of a dated York boozer, in Fred’s Microbewery at the 2019 Great Yorkshire Fringe and York Theatre Royal Pop-up Festival, now Freddie switches her attention to the Swiss Army knife of the vegetable world, the potato, in her “unadulterated celebration of silliness”.

Jacket potato! Freddie Hayes in her Potatohead costume on stage

Expect elements of kitsch cabaret and old-school entertainment in her blend of puppetry, clowning and surrealist comedy with room for sexual content and references to religion and the devil, hence the age guidance of 14+.

Why re-tell Faustus, Freddie? “I like the darkness and the idea of being in between life and death, that power struggle, as you try to get your dream to become reality – and in the case of Potatohead, it becomes the struggle of trying to become a stand-up comedian,” she says.

Would that struggle involve selling your soul to the devil? “I’m yet to do so myself! I don’t have to worry about comeuppance! But there is connection between potatoes and Faustus…”

…Really? “The year that the potato arrived in Europe was the same year that Marlowe’s play was premiered,” says Freddie. “Back then, potatoes were very glamorous. They were considered to be exotic and aphrodisiacs too!”

Yes, but why transform Faustus into a potato, or, rather, a couch potato with aspirations of becoming a golden wonder? “What’s great about potatoes is that they can be anything, and I feel like everyone has an inner potato in them. Some days everyone feels a bit like a potato,” says Freddie.

“On top of that, there was the idea that you can become great [not grate!] one day by taking a risk and being brave. That’s the moral of this story.”

Potatoes are even more chameleon than usual in Freddie’s show. “There’s actually a little bit of puppet potato nudity!” she reveals. “They can also fly and shape-shift, disappear and re-appear, so they’re quite magical!

“What’s great is that the potato puppets play these demon spirit characters and they do have this unworldly quality about them, which works well with the narrative of Faustus.”

Spud work: Freddie Hayes’s Potatohead gets digging in the garden. Picture: Amy D’Agorne

Seeking to capture the stupidity of life in her puppetry, she also reflects on her own life through her characters, scenarios and themes. “There’s a part of the show that’s slightly autobiographical in that I talk about my relationship with puppets and how they integrate with my life,” says Freddie, who studied for a BA in puppetry at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama from 2015 to 2018.

“I have this awareness of being dressed as a potato running around with these puppet potatoes, so I give a side-eyed look at the audience, as if to say ‘what am I doing here?’!”

Puppet potatoes abound in Potatohead. “You can probably guess there are seven potatoes for the seven demons [the ‘deadly sins’ in Faustus], and there’s obviously a Mephistopheles, played by Maurice Piper! Beelzebub is a big secret I can’t reveal, though it’s something to do with a popular potato brand,” says Freddie.

Summing up Potatohead’s comedic style, Freddie says: “It’s a very strange one! Imagine if Cilla Black collaborated with The League Of Gentlemen and The Mighty Boosh, all in a one-potato show. Old-school glamour meets general weirdness!” What a mash-up!

As for Freddie’s favourite potato dish, “I love chips,” she says. “Keep it simple. Cheesy chips. Or cheesy chips and gravy if you’re feeling really naughty.”

As part of her debut national tour, Freddie Hayes presents Potatohead at York Theatre Royal, June 10, 7.45pm; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, June 14, 7.45pm; Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, July 20, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com; Leeds, 0113 262 6777 or sevenleeds.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

Question? What is Freddie’s favourite among the seven deadly sins in Doctor Faustus?

“Gluttony. I think I feel I don’t think it’s a terrible sin! It seems quite sweet,” she says.

Freddie Hayes, minus the Potatohead

Freddie Hayes Fact File

Born: York

Lives in: Leeds

Occupation: Performer, writer, puppeteer and maker, crafting bespoke puppets, props and costumes.

Studied for: BA in Puppetry at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2015 to 2018.

Since graduating: Created solo shows Fred’s Microbrewery and Potatohead, performing on UK comedy, festival and cabaret circuit for four years, playing Shambala Festival, Camden Fringe and Leeds International Festival.

Who’s the guvnor here? Puppeteer Freddie Hayes with Yorkshire’s grouchiest pub landlord, Fred, mean host of Fred’s Microbrewery

Home city works: Strut Club cabaret; former artist-in-residence at Southlands Studios; presented Fred’s Microbrewery at 2019 Great Yorkshire Fringe and York Theatre Royal Pop-up Festival; created and filmed short puppet film Fred And Sharon on York’s streets.

Projects: Artist-in-residence at Slung Low Theatre, working with Sh!t Theatre mentors, at The Holbeck, Holbeck, Leeds; associate artist of Slap York; resident puppeteer at Folkestone Puppet Festival.

Debut national PotaTour: Potatohead, May 19 to July 20, playing Leeds, Camden, Brighton Fringe Festival, Bristol, York, Scarborough, Greater Manchester Fringe Festival (July 14, 7pm, 9pm) and Leeds again (Seven Arts, July 20, 8pm).

Support: Started work on Potatohead project with Slap York in 2019. “They’re great at helping emerging artists,” says Freddie. “Without them, I don’t think I would have got going on this show.”

Mash of the day: Freddie Hayes in a Potatoheadshot

Funding: Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant to create Potatohead; Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary Award winner to programme show at Brighton Fringe Festival.

Performance style: Hovering between childish puppetry and late-night entertainment. Often autobiographical, reflecting on her life through relatable characters, scenarios or themes.

Pulling strings: Makes all her puppets, costumes and props. “I see it as a sort of sculpture, and I love making props,” says Freddie. “I do a lot of puppet-making commissions, making them for York Maze and Leeds City Varieties and working freelance for Leeds Playhouse for a while.”

Next up: Presenting Potatohead at Below, The Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, at 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 3 to 29, 2pm. Directed by Sh!t Theatre, Freddie’s production will be appearing as a York Theatre Royal supported show with Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnerships. Box office: tickets.edfringe.com/venues/pleasance-courtyard.

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York Theatre Royal Studio season promises queer history, a potato Faustus, a gaming romcom and Woolf’s talk on feminism

York puppeteer and performer Freddie Hayes’s Potatohead: “A starch-raving mad adaptation of Faustus with puppets”. Picture: Sophie Jouvenaar

YORK Theatre Royal’s Studio season will read the Riot Act on June 9 in a show created and performed by Alexis Gregory as part of a Pride Season tour.

Fresh from his success in Sex/Crime at London’s Soho Theatre, Gregory is directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair in his journey through six decades of queer history, told by those who helped to shape it from Gregory’s interviews with a survivor of the Stonewall Riots, a radical drag queen and an AIDS activist.

Ahead of her Edinburgh Fringe run, York puppeteer, performer and writer Freddie Hayes presents Potatohead, her humorously bizarre solo adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus And The Seven Deadly Sins, on June 10.

Directed by Sh!t Theatre, Potatohead is saturated with potato puns from start to finish as Hayes tells the story of a humble spud who dreams of becoming a cabaret superstar.

Elements of kitsch cabaret and old-school entertainment characterise Hayes’s “one-potato show” show that blends puppetry, clowning and comedy in an unadulterated celebration of silliness. Expect sexual content and references to religion and the devil, hence the age guidance of 14+.

Hayes’s debut UK tour of her hour-long “starch-raving mad adaptation of Faustus with puppets” takes in a further North Yorkshire date in The McCarthy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on June 14 at 7.45pm (box office, 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com).

Happy Meal, Tabby Lamb’s joyful queer romcom directed by Blythe Stewart, will be staged by Tadcaster’s Roots and Theatre Royal Plymouth from August 30 to September 3.

What’s the story? Bette, a teenager who knows her Neil Diamond, is into gaming alone, whereas Alec likes Swedish goth rock and multiplayer gaming. In the real world, they would never meet, but online these unlikely best friends can be everything they wanted to be.

Dyad Productions return to the Theatre Royal on October 6 and 7 to present A Room Of One’s Own, a wry, amusing and incisive trip through the history of literature, feminism and gender with a “21st century take on Virginia Woolf’s celebrated pre-TED talk”.

Tickets for these 7.45pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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York Theatre Royal Studio season takes in queer history, a potato Dr Faustus, an online gaming romcom and Woolf feminism

YORK Theatre Royal’s Studio season will read the Riot Act on June 9 in a show created and performed by Alexis Gregory as part of a Pride Season tour.

Fresh from his success in Sex/Crime at London’s Soho Theatre, Gregory is directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair in his journey through six decades of queer history, told by those who helped to shape it from Gregory’s interviews with a survivor of the Stonewall Riots, a radical drag queen and an AIDS activist.

Ahead of her Edinburgh Fringe run, York puppeteer, performer and writer Freddie Hayes presents Potatohead, her humorously bizarre solo adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus And The Seven Deadly Sins, on June 10.

Directed by Sh!t Theatre, Potatohead is saturated with potato puns from start to finish as Hayes tells the story of a humble spud who dreams of becoming a cabaret superstar.

Elements of kitsch cabaret and old-school entertainment characterise a show that blends puppetry, clowning and comedy in an unadulterated celebration of silliness. Expect sexual content and references to religion and the devil, hence the age guidance of 14+.

Hayes’s debut UK theatre tour of her one-potato show has a further North Yorkshire performance on June 14 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (box office, 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com).

Happy Meal, Tabby Lamb’s joyful queer romcom directed by Blythe Stewart, will be staged by Tadcaster’s Roots and Theatre Royal Plymouth from August 30 to September 3.

What’s the story? Bette, a teenager who knows her Neil Diamond, is into gaming alone, whereas Alec likes Swedish goth rock and multiplayer gaming. In the real world, they would never meet, but online these unlikely best friends can be everything they wanted to be.

Dyad Productions return to the Theatre Royal on October 6 and 7 to present A Room Of One’s Own, a wry, amusing and incisive trip through the history of literature, feminism and gender with a “21st century take on Virginia Woolf’s celebrated pre-TED talk”.

Tickets for these 7.45pm performances are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when moments of laughter, sadness and reflection make List No. 66, from The Press

Beth Hutchinson in her monologue in Rowntree Players’ premiere of The Missing Peace. Picture: Duncan Lomax

FROM The Missing Peace to Shed Seven at the races, Charles Hutchinson finds the missing pieces to fill your diary

Premiere of the week: Rowntree Players in The Missing Peace, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 27 to 29, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

ROWNTREE Players director Gemma McDonald has adapted York author, singer, motivational conference speaker and charity champion Big Ian Donaghy’s book The Missing Peace, now billed as “One play…15 endings”.

On stage, Donaghy’s exploration of life after death takes the form of 15 Talking Heads-style monologues, many drawn from interviews he conducted in York. “It’s not a play about death, it’s a play about life,” he says. “There will be moments of laughter, sadness and reflection throughout.”

Look out for Mark Addy, who has recorded the narrator’s role as the Station Announcer. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes of The Shires: Acoustic show in their regular haunt of Pocklington

Country gig of the week: The Shires – Acoustic, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 26, 8pm

THE Shires, Britain’s best-selling country music act, bring their 2022 intimate acoustic tour to Pocklington on the back of working on their upcoming fifth album.

Award-winning duo Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes have made a habit of playing Pocklington since their Studio debut in 2014, appearing regularly at PAC and playing the Platform Festival at The Old Station in 2016 and 2019. To check ticket availability, go to pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or call 01759 301547. 

Ross Noble: What is a Humournoid? Find out, or maybe not, in his new tour show

Comedy gig of the week: Ross Noble: Humournoid, Grand Opera House, York, January 29, 8pm

WHAT happens when a creature is created and bred to do stand up, asks Geordie comic Ross Noble in his Covid-delayed but finally here new tour show, Humournoid?

“Nobody knows because that isn’t a thing,” says his tour blurb. “What is a thing is Ross Noble doing a show. You can come and see it. This is it.”

As ever with this improviser supreme, it turns out Humournoid has no theme, says Noble, who promises a typically freewheeling performance on his return to one of his five favourite venues in the world. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.

Porridge Radio: Brighton band making waves at The Crescent in York. Picture: El Hardwick

If you discover one band this month, make it: Porridge Radio, The Crescent, York, January 31, 7.30pm

EVERY Bad, their 2020 album released by the super-cool Secretly Canadian label, has propelled Porridge Radio from a word-of-mouth gem of Brighton’s DIY scene to one of the country’s most exciting upcoming bands.

“Last here opening for BC Camplight, we’re very pleased to see them return,” say promoters Please Please You and Brudenell Presents. Pet Shimmers, a new supercharged seven-piece from Bristol, support. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Malaika Kegode: Guest poet at Say Owt Slam’s return to The Crescent

Word wars: Say Owt Slam with guest poet Malaika Kegode, The Crescent, York, February 5, 7.30pm

BRISTOL writer, performer and producer Malaika Kegode will be the special guest at York spoken-word hub Say Owt’s first Slam night for more than two years.

Kegode has appeared at WOMAD and Edinburgh Book Festival, published two poetry collections with Burning Eye Books and created Outlier, an autobiographical gig-theatre with prog-rock band Jakabol. Passionate about cinema, culture and race, her lyrical work journeys through lives and loves, exploring genre, form and the power of the written word made visual.

In the raucous poetry Slam, performers will have three minutes each to wow the audience. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Contrarian comedian Alfie Brown: Emotional moments in his Sensitive Man show

Moral dilemmas: Alfie Brown: Sensitive Man, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 10, 8pm

DOES emotion help us make moral judgments? In his new show, contrarian comedian Alfie Moore will address this question, using jokes.

These jokes will weave together to create something greater than the sum of their parts, answering a question about emotion and its complicated relationship with morality.

“I refute that I am saying things to plainly and wilfully disrupt social progress,” he says. “I am not. I might seem smug, I know, apologies, and I am often misunderstood. So, at this particular point in the unfolding history of meaning, intention, signs and signifiers, I am sometimes going to tell you what I mean.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Florence Odumosu as Nina Simone in Black Is The Color Of My Voice at the SJT, Scarborough

Nina’s blues: Black Is The Color Of My Voice, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 12, 7.30pm

FLORENCE Odumosu plays Nina Simone in Apphia Campbell’s story of the North Carolina-born jazz and blues singer and activist seeking redemption after the untimely death of her father. 

Simone reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy, destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned vocalist and pianist at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

Chasing winners: Shed Seven to play after the May 14 race card at Doncaster Racecourse

Racing certainty…hopefully: Shed Seven, Live After Racing @Doncaster Racecourse, May 14, from 11.15am

YORK band Shed Seven’s day at the races should have taken place on May 15 2021, but Covid made it a non-runner. Now they are under starter’s orders at Doncaster Racecourse for a hit-laden live set after the May 15 race card this spring.

Among the Sheds’ runners and riders will be Going For Gold, Chasing Rainbows, She Left Me On Friday, Disco Down, Dolphin, Where Have You Been Tonight? and fan favourites from 2017’s comeback album Instant Pleasures, Room In My House and Better Days. For tickets for the race-day and concert package, go to: doncaster-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on.

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Nina Simone’s life story as jazz singer and civil rights activist charted in Black Is The Color Of My Voice at Scarborough’s SJT

Florence Odumosu as Nina Simone in Apphia Campbell’s play Black Is The Color Of My Voice

BLACK Is The Color Of My Voice, writer-director Apphia Campbell’s play Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, plays Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on March 12.

After sell-out seasons in Shanghai, New York, Edinburgh and London’s West End, Seabright Productions’ national tour will take in further Yorkshire performances at the Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax, on March 8 and the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, on March 16, all three starting at 7.30pm.

Florence Odumosu will play the North Carolina-born jazz singer and civil rights activist in Campbell’s story of Simone seeking redemption after the untimely death of her father. 

Simone reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy, destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist and pianist at the forefront of the civil rights movement.

Campbell, the IASH playwrighting fellow for 2021, is originally from the United States, where she graduated from Florida International University with a BFA in theatre performance.

She wrote Black Is The Color Of My Voice in 2013. In 2017, her show with Meredith Yarbrough, Woke, was presented as part of the Made In Scotland Showcase, where it won a Scotsman Fringe First.

In 2019, she made her West End debut with Black Is The Color Of My Voice at Trafalgar Studios and had a London premiere of Woke at Battersea Arts Centre.

In 2020, her first commission for the BBC, the children’s story Zachary The Zebroid, was aired; she wrote Birdie’s Dilemma for Scenes For Survival (BBC in collaboration with NTS Scotland), and she was among the six writers for the National Theatre of Scotland’s Christmas show, Rapunzel.

Black Is The Color Of My Voice is recommended for age 12 upwards. Scarborough box office: 01723 370 541 or at sjtg.uk.com; Halifax, 01422 349422 or squarechapel.co.uk; Huddersfield, 01484 430528 or thelbt.org.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as something wickedly funny this way comes. List No. 64, courtesy of The Press, York

When shall we three meet again? When the hurlyburly’s done in The HandleBards’ Macbeth at York Theatre Royal

AS the pantomime season draws to a close, Charles Hutchinson turns his focus to new seasons and new reasons to venture out.

The skittish play: The HandleBards in Macbeth, York Theatre Royal, January 25, 7.30pm; January 26, 2pm and 7.30pm

THE HandleBards were the first professional company to play York Theatre Royal after Lockdown 3, lifting the long gloom with a ridiculously funny Romeo And Juliet. Now the three-pronged troupe opens the Spring! Season with an all-female, bewitching, unhinged, bicycle-powered, dead funny take on Macbeth, starring Kathryn Perkins, Natalie Simone and Jenny Smith.

Expect music, mayhem, murders, unusual applications of cycling paraphernalia and more costume changes “than you can Shake a spear at” in this irreverent, skittish romp through Shakespeare’s tragic “Scottish play”. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Charles Court Opera in The Mikado, visiting Harrogate Royal Hall on Sunday. Picture: Bill Knight

Oh, Vienna: International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival’s New Year celebration, Harrogate Royal Hall, today and tomorrow, 7.30pm.

ENCHANTMENT awaits in the Magic Of Vienna New Year Gala Concert today when the National Festival Orchestra, conducted by Aidan Faughey, presents works by Johann Strauss, Mozart and Lehar. International opera stars James Cleverton and Rebecca Bottone will be the soloists.

Charles Court Opera’s London production of G&S’s The Mikado will be performed on Sunday night, accompanied by the National Festival Orchestra. Box office: 01422 323352 or at gsfestivals.co.uk.

One Iota: Debut album launch at the JoRo

York album launch of the month: One Iota, supported by Odin Dragonfly, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 21, 7.15pm

YORK band One Iota are launching their debut album, More Than You Take, recorded at the venerable Abbey Road studios, in London, and Fairview Studios, Willerby.

Adam Dawson, James Brown, Andy Bowen and Phil Everard’s alt-pop group grew out of their three-piece tribute to The Beatles – The Threetles, of course – when they acquired a taste for writing their own songs in lockdown.

One Iota’s debut live show promises a full line-up, featuring live string arrangements for the Fab Four-influenced songs marked by rich vocal harmonies, innovative melodies and “more hooks than a cloakroom”. Box office: josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Jacob George: Soloist for Schumann’s Violin Concerto at the Academy of St Olave’s January concert

By George, he’s back: Academy of St Olave’s Winter Concert, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, January 22, 8pm

THE Academy of St Olave’s Winter Concert features Jacob George, son of musical director Alan George, as soloist for Schumann’s Violin Concerto. He returns to solo duty for the York chamber orchestra after performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in 2019.

The ASO’s first concert since last September’s sold-out resumption also includes two works inspired by Italy: Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style, and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony No. 4. Box office: academyofstolaves.org.uk.

Nunkie Theatre Company’s artwork for the third instalment of their M R James Project, A Warning To The Curious

Ghosts at play: Nunkie Theatre Company in M R James’s A Warning To The Curious, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, January 28, 7.30pm

NUNKIE Theatre Company bring two of M R James’s eeriest and most entertaining ghost stories back to life in Robert Lloyd Parry’s candlelit one-man show. Lost Hearts, an early work, is constructed around one of his most memorable villains, the predatory scholar Mr Abney.

Lloyd Parry pairs it with perhaps James’s most poignant and personal story, inspired by his holidays in Aldeburgh: A Warning To The Curious’s account of a young archaeologist being haunted and hunted by the guardian of an ancient treasure. Has the English seaside ever looked so menacing? Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Yvette Stone’s life-size puppet of The Creature, as first seen in Blackeyed Theatre’s Frankenstein in 2016. The new tour visits Scarborough next month. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown

Monster smash: Blackeyed Theatre in Frankenstein, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, February 9 to 12

NICK Lane has reinterpreted John Ginman’s original 2016 script for Blackeyed Theatre, built around Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, wherein nothing can prepare Victor Frankenstein for what he creates in pursuit of the elixir of life.

Eliot Giuralarocca’s highly theatrical production combines live music and ensemble storytelling with Bunraku-style puppetry to portray The Creature, in the life-size form of Yvonne Stone’s 6ft 4inch puppet, operated by up to three actors at once. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

Four decades of topical songs and glamour: Fascinating Aida’s Liza Pulman, left, Dillie Keane and Adèle Anderson. Picture: Johnny Boylan

Never tire of satire: Fascinating Aida, York Barbican, February 12, 7.30pm

DILLIE Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman’s latest Fascinating Aida tour show features old favourites, songs you haven’t heard before and some you wish you’d never heard in the first place.

“But the songs are mostly topical and the glamour remains unstoppable,” say the satirists, who have been capturing the political and social fixations of our times for nigh on 40 years, from 1984’s Sweet FA to 2012’s Cheap Flights and beyond. All tickets remain valid from the postponed May 5 2021 date. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Marc Almond fronting The Loveless, headliners at late-October’s Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival in Whitby

Looking ahead to Halloween: Marc Almond’s The Loveless, headlining the Saturday bill at Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival 2022, Whitby Pavilion, October 29

THE Loveless make their Tomorrow’s Ghosts debut with a headline set of their devilishly dark arts at Whitby Pavilion next Halloween.

In a project designed to take its constituent parts back to where they all began, Soft Cell singer Almond, Sigue Sigue Sputnik axeman Neal X, Iggy Pop’s touring rhythm section of Mat Hector and Ben Ellis and haunting Hammond organist James Beaumont “pledge themselves to the pulp appeal of garage rock in its rawest, most gripping guise”.

The Loveless draw material from Almond’s expansive back catalogue, Lou Reed and David Bowie’s canons, warped 1960s’ R&B staples and lost garage-rock gems. Box office: ticketweb.uk/event/tomorrows-ghosts-festival.

Artist Stephen Todd in his Sheffield studio

Weekend opening: Kentmere House Gallery, Scarcroft Hill, York, today and tomorrow

NEW year, New Beginnings and a website “going live again at last” adds up to the start of 2022 for Ann Petherick’s gallery in her home at Kentmere House, York.

Among the works on show today and tomorrow from 11am to 5pm are Allotments In Autumn paintings by featured artist Stephen Todd, from Sheffield.

Kentmere House Gallery also will be open for the York Residents Residents’ Weekend on January 29 and 30, 11am to 6pm each day.

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Blackeyed Theatre to stage Nick Lane’s take on Frankenstein at Scarborough’s SJT

Yvette Stone’s puppet of The Creature for Blackeyed Theatre’s 2016 production of Frankenstein. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown

NICK Lane’s adaptation of Frankenstein will be staged by Blackeyed Theatre at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from February 9 to 12 as part of a national tour.

South Yorkshire playwright Lane has reinterpreted John Ginman’s original 2016 script for the Bracknell touring company, built around Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel set in Geneva in 1816, where Victor Frankenstein obsesses in the pursuit of nature’s secret, the elixir of life itself.

Alas, nothing can prepare him for what he creates, and so begins a gripping life-or-death adventure taking him to the ends of the Earth and beyond.

Blackeyed Theatre’s highly theatrical telling combines live music and ensemble storytelling with Bunraku-style puppetry to portray The Creature. Designed and built by Warhorse and His Dark Materials alumna Yvonne Stone, the 6ft 4inch puppet is operated by up to three actors at any one time, adding a new dimension to the retelling of the Frankenstein story.

Playwright Nick Lane

Director Eliot Giuralarocca says: “For me, the beauty and excitement of theatre is that it’s live, unfolding in front of an audience as they watch, and the decision to make the creature a life-sized puppet – beautifully and painstakingly made by Yvonne Stone – seemed to fit perfectly with this approach.

“Frankenstein is obsessed with re-animating dead matter by finding the spark of creation, the ‘elixir of life’. We bring our creature to life theatrically, animating, manipulating and breathing life into the puppet right in front of the audience, and in doing so, I hope we present a lovely theatrical metaphor for the act of creation in the story itself and give audiences the chance to share in that creation.”

Victor Frankenstein will be played by Robert Bradley (Hedda Gabler, National Theatre, Joe Strummer Takes A Walk, Cervantes Theatre, Encounters With The Past, Hampton Court Palace). 

Max Gallagher (Brief Encounter, Watermill Newbury, War Horse, National Theatre, Richard III, Northern Broadsides) reprises the role of Henry Clerval, while Benedict Hastings(Wolf Hall, Royal Shakespeare Company, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, Kenny Wax) plays Robert Walton.

“We bring our creature to life theatrically, animating, manipulating and breathing life into the puppet right in front of the audience, ” says Blackeyed Theatre director Eliot Giuralarocca. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown

Billy Irving (War Horse Tenth Anniversary Tour, National Theatre) is chief puppeteer and the voice of The Creature; Rose Bruford graduate Alice E Mayer makes her professional stage debut as Elizabeth Lavenza.

Writer Nick Lane, whose SJT winter production of Jack And The Beanstalk can be watched online until January 31 via sjt.uk.com, was associate director and literary manager at Hull Truck Theatre from 2006 to 2014.

Director Eliot Giuralarocca and puppetry creator and director Yvonne Stone are joined in the Blackeyed Theatre production team by composer Ron McAllister, musical director Ellie Verkerk, set designer Victoria Spearing, costume designer Anne Thomson and lighting designer Alan Valentine (whereas the 2016 production was lit by Charlotte McClelland).

Frankenstein is produced by Blackeyed Theatre in association with South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, with support from Arts Council England.

Performances in The Round at the SJT start at 7.30pm on February 9; 1.30pm and 7.30pm, February 10; 7.30pm, February 11, and 2.30pm and 7.30pm, February 12. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

Blackeyed Theatre’s Bunraku-style puppetry for The Creature in Frankenstein. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown
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Why savvy Jill matters as much as nerdy Jack in Nick Lane’s Beanstalk play at SJT

Alicia Mckenzie, left, Loris Scarpa, Jacob Butler, Sheri Lineham and Jessica Dennis in Jack And The Beanstalk at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

AFTER the all-too-familiar scenario of Covid in the cast scuppering performances up to Christmas Eve, Jack And The Beanstalk is back up and running for its last week of shows at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

What’s more, for those unable to head to the East Coast, Nick Lane’s stage adaptation can be enjoyed at home in a film capture of the Christmas show via the SJT website until midnight on Monday, January 31.

From the SJT team that delivered The Snow Queen, Treasure Island, Alice In Wonderland,  A (Scarborough) Christmas Carol and Pinocchio comes Lane’s typically imaginative take on the beanstalk-climbing story by Benjamin Tabart and others, directed by Gemma Fairlie, with music and lyrics by Simon Slater and a set design by Helen Coyston.

Lane has taken hold of the traditional fairytale, re-envisioning it as a scary rumour going round town of a meaner than mean giant building a castle above the coastal clouds of Scarborough.

Sheri Lineham’s cool and savvy Jill. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

In Lane’s version, Jack had started the rumour by accident, but given that he seems to know more about this monster than anyone else, he is the obvious choice to head up that weird beanstalk he grew in the garden to destroy the beast. No problem, thinks Jack. Go up the most unpopular child in school; come down a hero. After all, it is only a rumour. Isn’t it?

“My thinking is that in an era when kids, even at the age of eight and nine, some have phones, some are on social media, everyone has to grow up so quickly, but Jack is still growing up, still a boy, still using his imagination, left behind by his peer group, as he still lives in his head,” says Nick.

“When he talks about a giant in the sky, no-one believes him. The cool kid at school just thinks he’s a nerd, so the story is that whole zero-to-hero thing.”

Lane has made a significant change in the balance of the story. “It’s quite male, the original story, so I thought, ‘how would you integrate changes relevant for now?’,” he says.

Playwright Nick Lane

“It’s become much more a tale of Jack and Jill, who’s more cool and savvier than Jack in one way, but in other ways is naïve, so they help each other, in the tradition of the buddy-buddy story.”

Two further elements are prominent in Lane’s sixth winter show for the SJT. Firstly, “Jack And The Beanstalk is just a fairytale, not a traditional Christmas show, so I have tried to ‘Christmas it up’,” he says.

Secondly, he likes to emphasise the Scarborough setting of his SJT shows. “I think that came from when I worked at Hull Truck, pushing that sense of place, when people have a long association with a building and a place,” says Nick.

“You recognise that theatre not only challenges people, but it also celebrates its community, and Scarborough is a great community. Here, it first came from A (Scarborough) Christmas, researching what people like to do at Christmas in Scarborough. It’s worth doing that so that a show feels ‘of us’.”

Polly Lister in Nick Lane’s one-woman version of The Snow Queen at the SJT in 2020

Adapting to changing Covid restrictions in 2020, Lane had to re-write The Snow Queen as a solo show for Polly Lister, having first written a script for a cast of five. “I’d done solo shows before, so when the decision came from on high, I was able to re-do it, and Paul [SJT artistic director Paul Robinson] was very understanding that the script would come in a little late,” says the experienced South Yorkshire playwright.

“I’d previously written A Christmas Carol as a solo show for myself and Royal Flush, a one-man play about Thomas Crapper [the South Yorkshire-born businessman, plumber and inventor of such water closet innovations as the floating ballcock and U-bend].”

Robinson directed The Snow Queen but this time he handed the reins to Gemma Fairlie, who shaped the winter play with her cast of Jacob Butler, Jessica Dennis, Sheri Lineham, Alicia Mckenzie and Loris Scarpa. “He chose Gemma after working with her before and seeing her other work, and if Paul says she’s good, then I trust him implicitly,” says Nick.

“I was given the option of contributing to rehearsals, but having directed as well as written plays, I think it’s fairer to hand it over.”

Alicia Mckenzie’s funky chicken in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

As with the rest of the audience, Lane was in for a surprise when seeing how designer Helen Coyston would create the beanstalk for a theatre in the round. “You’re thinking, ‘it can’t go in the middle of the stage, rising up into the lighting rig, blocking everyone’s view, but it’s sure to be a typically beautifully design by Helen’,” says Nick, who had only a “very brief chat” with her.

Coyston’s multi-layered stage design does incorporate a giant footprint, but as for the beanstalk…you must watch the show!

Jack And The Beanstalk runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until December 31. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com. Tickets for the film cost £12 each or £15 for a group at sjt.uk.com/event/1294/sjt_at_home_jack.

Copyright of The Press, York

From zero to hero: Jacob Butler’s Jack in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

COMING UP FROM NICK LANE’S PEN IN 2022

  1. Sherlock Holmes And The Valley Of Fear, for Blackeyed Theatre, touring from September.
  2. A revival of The Goal at The Courtyard, Hereford, marking the 50th anniversary of Ronnie Radford’s famous FA Cup goal for Hereford United against Newcastle United in the February 5 mud at Edgar Street.
  3. Also for The Courtyard, Hereford: a play charting the history and changing landscape of a farming family from the 1950s onwards. “In 2018, when I wrote The Goal, I thought, ‘I know four things about Hereford: cider; home of the SAS; beef farming and that Ronnie Radford goal’,” he says.
  4. Next winter’s play in The Round at the SJT, Scarborough; title to be announced in early February.