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Put on your Red Shoes and dance to the September screen season at the SJT

Ballet ho: Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes will be a highlight of the SJT’s September screen and stream season

WEST End musicals, ballet, a waltz king and new and classic British films will be on the big screen at Stephen Joseph Theatre through September.

The Scarborough theatre re-opened its Art Deco cinema at the end of August, with a comprehensive programme of measures for the safety and comfort of cinema patrons, such as limited capacities and aisle access for every pair of seats booked.

The SJT has been awarded the VisitEngland We’re Good To Go industry standard mark, signifying its adherence to Government and public health guidance, and full details can be found at sjt.uk.com/were_back. The films and streams will be open captioned (OC), by the way.

The West End Musical Season presents Kinky Boots (captured live) on September 3 at 7pm. In Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s musical, Charlie has inherited a failing shoe factory and goes into partnership with drag queen Lola to save the business.

The Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of The King & I (captured live) will be shown on September 10 at 7pm. Filmed at the London Palladium in 2018, it tells the story of Anna, hired by the King of Siam to serve as an English teacher in his palace in an attempt to modernise his country. 

Romance 1945 style: Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller in I Know Where I’m Going!

The September film programme opens with Summerland, British writer-director Jessica Swale’s account of a reclusive writer, Alice, who has lived in a small Kent town for years and is regarded by the locals as a witch.

During the Second World War, Alice’s sequestered life is upended when Frank, an evacuee from the London Blitz, is left in her care. Despite initially resolving to be rid of him, Alice finds herself and her emotions reawakened by him.

Alice is portrayed in her younger days in the 1940s by Gemma Arterton and later by Scarborough-born Penelope Wilton. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Tom Courtenay also star in the screenings on September 4 at 7pm, September 5 at 2pm and 7pm, September 8 and 9 (OC) at 7pm and September 10 at 2pm.

In British-writer director William Nicholson’s Hope Gap, Annette Benning and Bill Nighy play Grace and Edward, whose idyllic life in a British seaside town is torn apart when he tells her he is leaving for another woman after 29 years of marriage. 

Showing on September 11 at 7pm, September 12 at 2pm, September 15 and 16 September at 7pm and September 18 at 7pm, Hope Gap also stars Steven Pacey, who played Bertie Wooster in Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves, the first show at the SJT when it moved into the former Odeon cinema in 1996.

The dark side: Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, 40th anniversary remastered edition

Irvin Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back, considered by many to be the finest of all the Star Wars films, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2020 with a remastered edition, to be shown on September 12 at 7pm, September 17 at 2pm and September 22 at 7pm (OC).

Based on a George Lucas story, Star Wars: Episode V of the epic American cinematic space opera is the one where Darth Vader is determined to turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side, Master Yoda trains Luke to become a Jedi Knight, while his friends try to fend off the Imperial fleet.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s cult romantic classic I Know Where I’m Going! will be screened in remastered HD on September 19 at 2pm and 7pm, when WEA film studies tutor George Cromack will give an introduction.

The 1945 film follows the emancipated Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) as she tries to reach a remote Hebridean island for her wedding and meets naval officer Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey) on the way.

Released in January, Robert Eggers’s black-and-white psychological anti-thriller The Lighthouse is still the bleakest film of this bleak, bleak year, as can be witnessed on September 23 at 7pm and September 24 at 2pm and 7pm.

Darkness in The Lighthouse: Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as island lighthouse keepers battling with their
sanity in 1890s’ New England

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson play lighthouse keepers struggling to keep their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

A disparate group of women seeks to disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition in Philippa Gowthorpe’s 2020 comedy-drama Misbehaviour, showing September 25 at 7pm, Saturday 26 September 26 at 2pm and 7pm and September 29 at 7pm (OC).

Held in London, the contest was hosted by comedian Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) and was the first to be won by a black woman, Jennifer Hosten, Miss Grenada (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Keira Knightley, Jessie Buckley, Phyllis Logan, Keeley Hawes, Lesley Manville and Rhys Ifans also join the starry cast.

Music and ballet complete the SJT’s September line-up. First, Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together In Music (captured live) celebrates 15 years of hometown concerts as the King Of Waltz brings the joyous atmosphere of his open-air concerts in Maastricht to the big screen on September 18 at 7pm and September 20 at 2pm.

Landmark victory: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, as Jennifer Hosten, Miss Grenada, the first black winner of the Miss World competition, in Misbehaviour

Then, Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes (captured live) dances on to the McCarthy screen on September 30 at 7pm and October 4 at 2pm.

Bourne’s Olivier Award-winning adaptation of Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 film has dazzled audiences across Britain and the United States with its tale of obsession, possession and one girl’s dream to be the greatest dancer in the world.

Cinema tickets at the SJT for films cost £7, concessions £6; Circle members/NHS/under-30s £5; for event cinema, including ‘captured live’, £12; for live streams, £17.

To book, go to sjt.uk.com/whatson or call 01723 370541, Thursday to Saturday,  11am to 4pm, when the box office also is open for in-person bookings.

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Stephen Joseph Theatre to re-open in August but with films and streamings first

The Stephen Joseph Theatre announces its imminent re-opening on its Art Deco frontage

SCARBOROUGH’S Stephen Joseph Theatre will re-open on August 20 but for films and streamings only.

The wait for the return of theatre performances must go on, although the SJT statement does tantalise by saying: “The world-famous theatre is also aiming to announce a programme of live theatre for later in the year shortly.”

The first focus will be on films, including new releases and the streaming of West End shows “captured live”, shown upstairs in The McCarthy.

The SJT is introducing a comprehensive programme of measures for the safety and comfort of cinema patrons, such as limited capacities and aisle access for every pair of seats booked. You can find out more at: sjt.uk.com/were_back.

The SJT has been awarded VisitEngland’s We’re Good To Go industry standard mark, signifying its adherence to government and public health guidance. 

“We’re all absolutely thrilled to be able to welcome audiences back into the building,” says SJT artistic director Paul Robinson. Picture: Richard Davenport

Artistic director Paul Robinson says: “We’re all absolutely thrilled to be able to welcome audiences back into the building after our enforced break, and we’re working hard to ensure everyone feels safe and comfortable in the cinema environment. 

“We’ll be announcing further screenings for September very soon and are also working hard to programme an innovative and exciting programme of live theatre for later this year – watch this space!” 

Films and streamings from August onwards initially will be screened on Thursdays to Saturdays, then Tuesdays to Saturdays – with a few exceptions – from early September.

Back in a Flash, the SJT will mark its re-opening with a 7pm screening of Flash Gordon – 40th Anniversary, a remastered version of Mike Hodges’ “We only have 14 hours to save the Earth” film from 1980, the one with all that Queen music, Sam J Jones as Flash, Max von Sydow as Ming The Merciless and Yorkshireman Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan. A further screening will follow on August 22 at 2pm.

Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 British comedy-drama Emma will be shown on August 21, 22 and 27 at 7pm. Adapted from Jane Austen’s Georgian novel, it casts Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse, a sometimes misguided, often meddlesome matchmaker.

Gordon’s alive again for 40th anniversary celebrations: Brian Blessed and Sam J Jones in Flash Gordon

Peter Cattaneo’sMilitary Wives, on August 28 at 7pm and August 29 at 2pm, stars Kristin Scott-Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Jason Flemyng in a British film inspired by the true story of the Military Wives Choir.

The first streaming of the West End musical season will be 42nd Street, captured live, on August 29 at 7pm, with its story of a theatre director trying to mount a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great Depression.

Dates for September films and streamings will be announced soon. Look out for the West End musicals Kinky Boots and The King & I, Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht – Together In Music and Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, all captured live.

Coming up too will be writer-director Jessica Swale’s new British feminist fable, lesbian love story and wartime drama, Summerland, released this coming Friday.

Meddlesome matchmaker: Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse in Autumn de Wilde’s Emma. Picture: Focus Features

Gemma Arterton plays cantankerous writer Alice, whose reclusive life on the Kent coast is turned upside down when Frank, an evacuee from the London Blitz, is left in her care. Gradually her shut-down emotions are awakened anew by him.

On their way too are The Secret Garden, filmed partly at the Walled Garden in Helmsley, and Michael Ball And Alfie Boe: Back Together.

Cinema tickets at the SJT cost £7 (concessions £6, Circle members/NHS/under-30s £5) for films; £12 for event cinema, including captured live; £17 for a live streaming.

To book, go to: sjt.uk.com/whatson.