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More Things To Do in and around York? Here come Halloween screams and Noises Off. Hutch’s List No. 44, from The Press

Noises Off: Michael Frayn’s on-stage and off-stage comedy on York Theatre Royal’s main stage from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith

HALLOWEEN films and double bills, classic comedy and a time-travelling York legend, a Disney deep freeze and a punk/jazz collision help Charles Hutchinson leave behind October for November frights and delights.  

Play of the week: Noises Off, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

MATTHEW Kelly, Liza Goddard and Simon Shepherd lead the cast in Theatre Royal Bath’s touring revival of Michael Frayn’s riotous Noises Off, directed by Lindsay Posner, who staged Richard III and Romeo And Juliet for York’s first season of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre productions in 2018.

Structured as a play within a play, this cherished 1982 farce follows the on and off-stage antics of a touring theatre company stumbling its way through the fictional farce Nothing On, from shambolic final rehearsals to a disastrous matinee, seen silently from backstage, before the catastrophic final performance. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Nick Naidu and Imogen Wood in Punch Porteous – Lost In Time at All Saints North Street

York legend of the week: Punch Porteous – Lost In Time, All Saints North Street, York, tonight, 7pm.

HAVE you heard or indeed seen the eccentric, evasive York legend Punch Porteous: soldier, philosopher, worker (when absolutely unavoidable), husbandman, connoisseur of ale and now the subject of poet Robert Powell, creative practitioner Ben Pugh and producer John Beecroft’s “multi-media drama experience”?

York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs Powell, Nick Naidu and Imogen Wood in Powell’s story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary predicament, lost in time in York. While the city shape-shifts around him, he is catapulted unpredictably into different eras of its history from c.70 to c.2023. Box office: yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/punch-porteous-lost-in-time/.

The poster for Navigators Art & Performance’s Punk/Jazz explorations at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York

Music, poetry and comedy bill of the week: Navigation Art & Performance present Punk Jazz: A Halloween Special, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm

COMPLEMENTING the ongoing Punk/Jazz: Contrasts and Connections exhibition at Micklegate & Fossgate Socials, Navigators Art & Performance bring together energetic York punk band The Bricks;  intense improvisers Teleost; the Neo Borgia Trio, formed for the occasion from a University of York big band; grunge-influenced Mike Ambler and the experimental Things Found And Made.

Taking part too will be firebrand polemical poet Rose Drew and comedians Isobel Wilson and Saeth Wheeler. Box office: https://bit.ly/nav-punkjazz.

The Gildas Quartet: Presenting the String! concerts at the NCEM

Children’s concerts of the week: MishMash presents String!, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, tomorrow, 11.30am and 2pm

THE Gildas Quartet lead tomorrow’s double celebration of the string quartet in informal 40-minute performances featuring a diverse programme from Haydn to Jessie Montgomery, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges to Dvorak, and everything in between.

Staged creatively to bring the audience into the music, these fun concerts are suitable for ages seven to 11 and their families. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Community film event of the week: The Witches (PG), Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 2.30pm

MAKE It York and The Groves Community Centre team up for a Halloween screening of Robert Zemeckis’s visually innovative 2020 film The Witches. Based on Roald Dahl’s novel, it tells the darkly humorous, heartwarming tale of an orphaned boy who goes to live with his loving Grandma in late-1967 in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis, where they have an run-in with the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Emily Portman & Rob Harbron: Delving into folk traditions to emerge with a fresh sound

Folk concert of the week: Emily Portman & Rob Harbron, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm

EMILY Portman, from The Furrow Collective, and Rob Harbron, who performs with Leveret, Fay Hield and Jon Boden, have formed an inspired collaboration to delve into English folk traditions with an intricately woven contemporary sound.

Portman (voice, banjo and piano) and fellow composer Harbron (concertina, guitar and voice) released their debut album, Time Was Away, last November, comprising eight English folk songs and two 20th century poems set to music. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Chris Green accompanying FW Murnau’s Nosferatu

Halloween screaming/screening of the week: Nosferatu: Live Silent Cinema, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm

CHRIS Green’s score was commissioned by English Heritage for an outdoor screening of FW Murnau’s 1922 German Expressionist vampire film at Dracula’s spiritual home of Whitby Abbey. Now the composer plays his haunting blend of electronic and acoustic instruments for the first time in York to accompany the first cinematic interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, one that gave birth to the horror movie. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Please Please You’s poster for Steve Gunn’s Rise solo concert

Double bill of the week: Please Please You presents Steve Gunn & Brigid Mae Power, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Wednesday, doors 7.30pm

EXPERIMENTAL Brooklyn guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn’s “forward-thinking” songwriting draws on the blues, folk, ecstatic free jazz and psychedelia, suffused with a raga influence. His website says he is “currently somewhere working on new music”, although York will be the first of 12 solo gigs in Britian, Spain and Poland in November.

Wednesday’s gig will be opened by Irish singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power, whose latest folk-tinged dreampop album, Dream From The Deep Well, arrived in March. Box office: seetickets.com/event/steve-gunn/rise-bluebird/.

Meet York Stage’s young princesses in Disney’s Frozen Jr

Musical of the week: York Stage in Disney’s Frozen Jr, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

IN a story of true love and acceptance between sisters, Disney’s Frozen Jr follows the journey of Princesses Anna and Elsa, based on the 2018 Broadway and West End musical set in the magical land of Arendelle, with all the Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez songs from the animated film.

Producer Nik Briggs directs a cast led by Megan Pickard, Bea Charlton, Matilda Park and Esther de la Pena as the princesses. Malachi Collins plays the Duke of Weselton, Lottie Marshall, Bulda, and Oliver Lawery, King Agnarr. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

In Focus: Say Owt Slam, with special guest Polarbear, The Crescent, tonight, 7.45pm

Spoken word artist and writer Polarbear: Making an apperance at tonight’s Say Owt Slam at The Crescent, York

SAY Owt, York’s loveably gobby gang of performance  poets, take over The Crescent community venue twice a year for a raucous night of spoken word and poetry in the form of a stellar slam.

Fast, frantic and fun, a slam gives each poet three minutes to wow the audience. Regular host Henry Raby enthuses: “We love doing Say Owt on a Saturday night, because it’s a party! A poetry party!

“Although one poet will be crowned a Say Owt Slam Champion, this isn’t a bitter battle. It’s a celebration as poets bring a variety of styles and forms. In the past, we’ve had tender personal reflections, hilarious laugh-out-loud comedy poems and fiery political tirades.”

Special guest at tonight’s Say Owt Slam in York will be Polarbear. “The last time he graced our city, Polarbear (a.k.a Steven Camden) was supporting Scroobius Pip and Kae Tempest,” says Henry. “He’s an internationally acclaimed spoken word artist and award-winning writer from Birmingham, whose poetry drips with gorgeous storytelling.

“He talks about people and places with a unique ear for language: celebrating the tiny human characteristics.”

Since first stepping on stage in 2004, Polarbear has performed his work and led creative projects from Manchester to Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur to California, as well as featuring on BBC Radio1, 3 and 6Music, attracting 155,000 views on YouTube and releasing a live album on Scroobius Pip’s Speech Development record label.

A few surprises might be in store tonight too. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/say-owt-slam-featuring-polarbear/ or on the door.

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Sweet Baboo, The Crescent, York, September 5

Sweet Baboo’s Stephen Black: “Shimmering, lovely tunes” at The Crescent, York. All pictures: Paul Rhodes

ON supposedly one of the worst nights of the year to put on a gig – new school year just started and all that –Sweet Baboo nevertheless did his best to blow away the Tuesday late-summer torpor that hung over the city. Elsewhere Dexys took up the challenge at York Barbican.

Sweet Baboo is the stage name for Stephen Black, a shining light of Wales’s indie scene. While latterly he has paid his bills as part of better-known bands – he sets off again in October touring with Teenage Fanclub – he periodically resurfaces with his own shimmering, lovely tunes.

The stage name comes from Charles M Schulz and Peanuts. His music shares Schulz’s depths, his shiny and bright melodies carrying darker meanings, as great music tends to. More than one of his 13-strong setlist was written to “keep the s**t world at bay from his son”. The best of these was Clear Blue Skies, a song about father and son blasting melodically into space.

Sweet Baboo with his tape backing contraption at The Crescent

Black was performing solo, but like his friend and collaborator H. Hawkline, he trades a fine line in using tape backing. This contraption, which required a stolen eraser to keep it going, provided enough of the flavour of the rich band music from his latest album Wreckage. This machine was also the means to keep us laughing as Black paused to get the tape in the right place, no back, forward, pause, close enough and on with the song. They acted as a well-oiled double act.

Black played beautifully throughout, performing tunes from across his back catalogue. His feigned innocence, his off-kilter world view and innate romantism recalled Scandinavian performers like Sondre Lerche, another multi-instrumentalist. With his austere haircut and monochrome white outfit, if you squinted and listened to the finger picking on Walking In Tthe Rain, it could have been Paul Simon at the time of his Songbook.

Support act Rowan: “Ramshackle but fun”

Following support act Rowan’s ramshackle but fun opening set (a one-man Violent Femmes), Black was a welcome contrast. Where Rowan’s music sometimes lacks the heft to convey all those ideas, Black can work wonders with little.

New single Werewolves is a case in point; a clever twist on daydreams that could have wide appeal. Rowan’s Skeldergate – written for the saddest street in York – needed to be much glummer, although new song Sail Anywhere would be grand performed with a full band.

A song of farewell was the highlight of Sweet Baboo’s set too. Proving he can make magic of the daily blur, Goodbye is a gorgeous composition about taking a dog for lockdown walks, but so cleverly written and tuneful as to have far wider appeal.

Sweet Baboo’s songs: “Feigned innocence, off-kilter world view and innate romantism”

Expense ruling out touring with a band, Black is one of the very few who doesn’t need one. Adept on assorted instruments, he gave us snatches of flute, and even a temperamental Yamaha wind synthesiser that lent a Bernie Worrell or William Onyeabor-style squelch to Pink Rainbow.

Swimming Wild stretched out with no trappings, then Cate’s Song topped that, touching, funny and both better than the more arranged originals.

In Black’s hands there was no room for gloom, and for 80 minutes, we were in his palm. Catch this original if you can.

Review by Paul Rhodes

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when feeling the earth move. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 37 for 2023, from The Press

Gracing the stage: Grace Lancaster in the role of Carole King in York Stage’s York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

FROM Carole King’s beautiful songs to Velma Celli’s pop queens, an artistic family to a poet’s biscuits, Charles Hutchinson adds to the September sunshine as cause for heading out and about.

Musical of the week: York Stage in Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Friday to September 23

YORK, are you ready to feel the Earth move, asks director Nik Briggs, ahead of the York premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. “This show has taken the world by storm, and for good reason, with its inspiring story of Carole King, a woman who rose to fame in the music industry during a time when female songwriters were few and far between”.

Singer, actress and pianist Grace Lancaster takes the lead role in this celebration of perseverance, passion and the power of music to unite. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Damon Gough: Marking 25 years of Badly Drawn Boy

Treasured songwriter of the week: Badly Drawn Boy, The Crescent, York, Monday, 7.30pm

DAMON Gough is undertaking his Something To Tour About: 25 Years Of Badly Drawn Boy tour, playing a sold-out standing show in York with Liam Frost in support.

Chorlton singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano player Gough, who released Banana Skin Shoes as his first studio album in ten years in May 2020, first made his mark with the Mercury Prize-winning The Hour Of Bewilderbeast in 2000. Eight albums on, he has plenty to tour about.

Rosie Jones: Unadulterated joy in Triple Threat at Leeds City Varieties and York Theatre Royal

Comedy gig of the week: Rosie Jones: Triple Threat, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Wednesday, 8pm; York Theatre Royal, Thursday, 8pm

COMEDIAN Rosie Jones’s show is guaranteed to be full of unapologetic cheekiness, nonsensical fun and unadulterated joy from the triple threat herself.

Theatre@41 honorary patron Rosie has hosted Channel 4’s travel series Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard and Mission: Accessible and made numerous appearances on The Last Leg, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Hypothetical, Mock The Week, The Ranganation and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Jessica Steel: Powerhouse vocals at A Night To Remember

Fundraiser of the week: Big Ian Presents A Night To Remember, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

HUGE frontman Big Ian Donaghy hosts his annual charity fundraiser as George Hall leads a 20-piece All Star House Band with a 12-strong brass section in a night of cover versions of Kate Bush, Bill Withers, Take That, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Queen, Wham!, Elvis and more.

Taking part will be Jessica Steel, Heather Findlay, Beth McCarthy, Graham Hodge, The Y Street Band, Boss Caine, Gary Stewart, Simon Snaize, Annie Donaghy, Kieran O’Malley, Las Vegas Ken, the Huge Brass Boys, Hands & Voices, musicians from York Music Forum and Jessa Liversidge’s fully inclusive group Singing For All. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

John Hegley: Biscuits all round at Stillington Mill

Poet of the week: John Hegley: Biscuit Of Destiny, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm

POET John Hegley, star of radio, television and school assemblies, heads north with a clutch of new verses, a few older favourites and a cardboard camel with a moving jaw.

The biscuits in the show derive Romantic poet John Keats’s phrase: “a scarcity of buiscuit”. Not the sort of phrase nor spelling you expect from a Romantic poet, notes Hegley, who delves into the more eccentric side of Keats, alongside everyday goings-on in the Hegley homes of now and yesteryear. Expect drawings of elephants, myths, discos, daleks, optional community singing and the search for a sense of self-worth. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/939591.

Velma Celli: Reigning over York Theatre Royal on Friday in a celebration of British pop royalty, God Save The Queens. Picture: Sophie Eleanor Photography

Brit icons of the week: Velma Celli’s God Save The Queens, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK cabaret superstar Velma Celli, the vocal drag diva alter ego of musical theatre actor Ian Stroughair, introduces her new celebration of British pop royalty.

Accompanied by Scott Phillips’s band, Velma’s night of rapturous music, risqué comedy and fabulous entertainment features the songs of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Florence Welch, Leona Lewis, The Spice Girls, Kate Bush, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black and Bonnie Tyler, plus a tribute to Sinead O’Connor.

Katya Apekisheva: Russian-born pianist playing at York Chamber Music Festival, sometimes solo, sometimes in the company of string players

Festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, September 15 to 17

FESTIVAL artistic director and cellist Tim Lowe is joined by John Mills and Jonathan Stone, violins, Hélene Clément and Simone van der Giessen, violas, Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, Billy Cole, double bass, and British-based Russian pianist Katya Apekisheva for three days of concerts.

Highlights include Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13, Dvořák’s String Sextet, Elgar’s late Piano Quintet, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 1 and Schubert’s last Piano Sonata in B flat major. For the full programme and venues, head to: ycmf.co.uk/2023-programme. Box office: 01904 658338 or ycmf.co.uk.

Ewa Salecka: Conducting Prima Vocal Ensemble in Songs From The Heart

Choral concert of the month: Prima Vocal Ensemble, Songs From The Heart, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, September 30, 7.30pm

ARTISTIC director and producer Ewa Salecka leads York choir Prima Vocal Ensemble in an intimate evening of contemporary classical and popular choral music with Greg Birch at the piano.

Works by Randall Thompson, René Clausen, Stephen Paulus and Elizabeth Alexander will be followed by a second half of moving and energetic arrangements of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Freddie Mercury songs. Ahead of their 2024 New York City reunion, Prima perform a Christopher Tin number too. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.

Copyright of The Press, York

Hannah Arnup and Ben Arnup with bowls by Mick Arnup and a bronze dog by Sally Arnup at the Arnup Centenary exhibition, opening today at Pyramid Gallery

In Focus: Exhibition launch of the week

Hannah Arnup, Ben Arnup, Tobias Arnup and Vanessa Pooley, Arnup Centenary, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, 11am today to October 30

THE Arnups, two generations of artists with roots in York, work in pottery, painting, wildlife sculpture, figurative sculpture and ceramic sculpture. The late Mick and Sally Arnup set up home and studio in Holtby in the 1960s, and three of their family, Ben, Hannah and Tobias, have followed careers in the arts.

This exhibition by the three second generation artists and Tobias’s wife, Vanessa Pooley, coincides with the centenary of their father’s birth in 1923. In recognition of their parents’ influence on their own artistic journeys, a few pieces by Mick and Sally will complement the new works.

Gallery visitors can expect to see new work by ceramist Ben Arnup, who specialises in slab-made flattened boxes and vessels that play with the viewer’s sense of form and space, alongside Hananh Arnup’s wheel-thrown bowls and plates with sgraffito decoration and Vanessa Pooley’s gently curvy female forms in ceramic and bronze. On the walls, the still life paintings by Tobias Arnup will sit alongside ceramic wall pieces by Ben and Hannah.

Ben’s intriguing Trompe L’Oeil forms are well known to collectors of ceramics and visitors to Pyramid Gallery. Formerly a landscape designer, he creates shapes that explore drawn perspective using coloured clay slab-constructed stoneware, “having fun with the way we see form”.

After studying sculpture at Kingston Art School and specialising in ceramics at Goldsmith College, London, Hannah has lived and worked for much of her adult life in Ireland where she owns and runs Ballymorris Pottery. Latterly, she has set up a new studio in the family home in Holtby near York, re- purposed as a community of artists’ studios.

Vanessa works with bronze and ceramic to create sculpture of mostly female forms with an individual and distinctive style that takes inspiration from the work of Henri Laurens and his studio assistant Balthazar Lobo, as well as Marino Marinni and the sculptures of Picasso and Matisse. Her work is to be found in collections around the world.

Tobias studied at Camberwell School of Art and went on to teach at Blackheath School of Art before a change in career to be an art therapist.

“I was helping run a course at Blackheath School of Art and I found I was more interested in the people that sat in my office at lunchtime complaining about their fellow students or about their parents or about not getting their art right or wondering what they were going to do, or who were just not really coping with life very well,” he says.

After his training, Tobias started an art therapy department at Holloway Prison, which was in existence until the women’s prison closed in 2016. 

During his 35-year career, he also worked in secure units in mental health hospitals, finding that art could engage traumatised people when other methods of therapy had not.  

In his art, Tobias has evolved an individual style that begins with a black outline of still life objects and flowers, drawn in ink with a goose quill. He then adds colour in gouache, filling the spaces between or on top of the black lines.

Depending on what he feels is necessary, he might add more black ink lines, or redo the original lines, then more colour and maybe finish with more black lines. This layering of lines and colour is done slowly and carefully in a process that he describes as meditative. The result is intriguing, distinctive and joyful, with pastel colours contrasting with the black outlines, that have a bold and purposeful feel mixed with occasional random unevenness.

Gallery owner Terry Brett has worked with Ben and Hannah for many years, as well as with Mick and Sally, and looks forward to his inaugural showing of paintings by Tobias and bronze and ceramic sculpture by Vanessa.

“‘For me, this is one of the most satisfying moments in my time as an exhibition curator,” he says. “Not only for the quality of the work and diversity of styles, but also because I am pleased to be representing Vanessa and Tobias for the first time.

“To be hosting the family with an exhibition that is paying respect to Mick and Sally in a collective show is a very special moment for both myself and the gallery.”

Tobias Arnup with his gouache and ink paintings

Tobias Arnup on his artistic practice

THE play between line and colour has always been central to Tobias’s work as a painter.
“Undoubtedly my main influence of this has been that of my father, Mick,” he says. “However, I still remember the impact of being taught by the wonderful art master at Pocklington School, Nigel Billington, who encouraged a proper attention to composition and to drawing, particularly with ink.

“It was hardly a surprise when I chose Camberwell School of Art, in London, as the place to study for my Fine Art degree and where I was lucky enough to teach drawing myself for a while.”

Only relatively recently has Tobias experimented more with different media. “For many years my favourite was egg tempera, which I learnt about at Camberwell and used to
mix up myself,” he says.

“Depending on how much it was diluted, tempera has both the ‘gloopy’ quality of gouache and the richness of a watercolour glaze. It was working on paper, though, that has allowed me to work more flexibly.

“Using water-soluble pencil, Indian ink, watercolour and gouache – although not necessarily in that order – I seem to be forever swinging between creating chaos and trying to excerpt some sort of order on the composition.”

He continues: “These days the chaos of my ink marks is being brought under some sort of control by the flat, mat gouache. When things get a bit too tidy, out comes the ink bottle again.

“There cannot have been many options for school teachers at the time. Mr Billington’s huge
set-ups suited me perfectly, however. They were there ready for me – a constant resource,
I realise now, that is currently replicated in my own studio.

“Although they stray into more abstract concerns, I regard all these works as still-lives. When I am a bit stuck, it’s the ink and the goose-feather quills that I turn to, although I have used up my store of Chinese geese quills that I collected up from the garden when I was young.”

Pyramid Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. The displays can be viewed at pyramidgallery.com too.

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Why folk musician Grace Petrie has put down the guitar to take up stand-up comedy in Butch Ado About Nothing. UPDATED & EXTENDED 15/9/2023

Suits you, ‘”sir”: Grace Petrie in Butch Ado About Nothing, her debut stand-up comedy show

FOLK singer, lesbian and checked-shirt collector Grace Petrie has been incorrectly called “Sir” every day of her adult life, she says.

Now, after finally running out of subject matter for her “whiny songs”, she is putting down the guitar at the age of 36 to work out why in her debut stand-up show, Butch Ado About Nothing, as she returns to The Crescent in York on September 17.

Before then, her tour brings Grace to Old Woollen, in Farsley, Leeds, tonight (31/8/2023) and The Leadmill, Sheffield, on September 10.

“I’m definitely out of my comfort zone. Check in with me before the first show for how my nerves are!” she said on the eve of the tour kicking off. “The great thing with songs is that whether they’re good or not, people will clap, but if they don’t find a joke funny, they won’t laugh.

“I have to be honest and say that I’m bricking it much more than with my folk gigs, but it’s good to challenge myself.”

What’s more, Grace has “had a front-row seat for a masterclass in comedy”, from supporting comedians on tour. “I’ve learnt to develop that between-song patter, which I came to enjoy, and as those introductions got longer and longer, I thought, ‘well, I better put my money where my mouth is’ [by doing stand-up].

“Billy Bragg is a huge inspiration, and so was Billy Connolly, who set out to be a folk musician. Victoria Wood too.”

Finding herself mired in an age of incessantly and increasingly fraught gender politics, the Norwich-based Leicester native set about exploring what butch identity means in a world moving beyond labels, pondering where both that identity and she belong in the new frontline of queer liberation.

“I first did the show at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and was really passionate that I wanted to do it in a different way, with no music, over a month of shows,” says Grace.

“I’ve been writing in the months since then because of the need to update it, though it’s basically an autobiographical show, so I guess the bare bones don’t change as it’s about my experiences as a butch woman moving in a patriarchal world and how it treats women who don’t fit into that world.”

In her suits, her hair cropped with a neat side parting, the daily occurrence of being called “Sir” troubled Grace when she was younger, but “I have got used to it,” she says. “It made a change being greeted with ‘monsieur’ at the airport when I was in Canada recently!” she says.

That put a smile on her face, and her show has been doing likewise for her audiences. “I would hope it’s a show for anybody. All kinds of people came to see it in Edinburgh, though there is the draw for queer audiences and especially butch audiences, but I’ve also had messages from straight blokes saying, ‘you gave me something to think about’,” says Grace,

“The best comedy is the comedy that stays with you and makes you think. That’s always what I want to do, whether in concerts or comedy, when you’re trying to put across ideas, you could lecture someone with facts, but if you move someone emotionally, that’s far more powerful.”

Freed from her guitar, reliant on the spoken word, Grace has found her performing style changing too after 15 years on the folk circuit in her transition to comedy. “It’s not only the voice, but also the body, and how you use it on stage, when you’re not playing the guitar,” she says.

“It’s funny how there are a million things that affect how a show will be before you’ve even set foot on stage – and it’s also been amazing how different comedy audiences are, just in terms of expectations, in terms of calling out.

“At a music show, you’re encouraging them to sing along, but at a comedy gig, noise can be derailing, so I have to think about how I use my body, how I use the microphone, and I’ve learned a huge amount being in front of audiences about to control the show.”

For the tour, Grace has chosen to play smaller rooms than she would for her concerts. “That’s deliberate, because comedy is a more intimate artform, where you need people to see your face and your mannerisms,” she reasons.

“Performing the Edinburgh shows last year, the biggest benefit was in facing my fear of doing stand-up. At the end of the day, the worst thing people can do is not laugh. That can happen and it can feel brutal, but you just have to get up and do it again. You just have to go back to the same room, the same stage, and do it again.”

John-Luke Roberts, Grace’s comedian friend, gave her a piece of advice. ” He said that making people laugh is an emotion and it’s no different to any other emotion in that way,” she says.

How Grace triggers that emotion, in a show directed by her partner, fellow performer and writer Molly Naylor, is through a combination of long-form stories and gag-heavy sections.

Over 15 years, she has enjoyed “many wonderful gigs in York”, from the smallest room at the Black Swan Inn to The Crescent and York Barbican. “I would say my favourite visit was when I did a tour of Labour marginal seats in 2019 and we did one for York Outer with York spoken-word performer Henry Raby at the Crescent,” says Grace. “That was was a really barnstorming, fist-pumping night!”

Butch Ado About Nothing presents her in a different guise on her return there, but looking ahead, she will not be putting her guitar to bed for good. Far from it. “I’ll be recording a new album in October,” she reveals.

Her transition to stand-up is not the only move that Grace has been making. “I’ve bought a house in Sheffield,” she says. “I love Sheffield! I managed one term of studying a course to do with youth work and counselling but it was a bit of Mickey Mouse degree, so I sacked it off, but got a job and stayed there for three years. Now I’m back.”

Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Grace Petrie: Butch Ado About Nothing, The Crescent, York, September 17, 7.30pm, SOLD OUT. Also plays Old Woollen, Farsley, Leeds, August 31, 8pm, and The Leadmill, Sheffield, September 10 7.30pm. Box office: gracepetrie.com; York, thecrescentyork.com; Leeds, oldwoollen.co.uk; Sheffield, leadmill.co.uk.

Grace Petrie’s trinity of checked shirt, guitar and sea

Did you know?

GRACE Petrie is a swimming enthusiast, swimming each day during last year’s Edinburgh Fringe run, for example. Her sea water publicity photos were shot at Happisburgh, on the Norfolk coast.

Did you know too?

GRACE appeared on The Guilty Feminist bill, a live offshoot from the irreverent podcast series, hosted by Deborah Frances-White at York Barbican in May 2022. Part comedy, part deep-dive discussion and part activism, the show “examined our noble goals as 21st-century feminists and our hypocrisies and insecurities that undermine those goals”.

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Nina Nastasia and Before Breakfast, The Crescent, York, August 29

Nina Nastasia: “Going eye to eye with some very difficult issues”. All pictures: Paul Rhodes

NINA NASTASIA is enjoying an overdue creative rebirth. Falling off the music map in 2010, in 2020 she left her controlling partner, who then committed suicide. Her grief drove the creation of 2022’s Riderless Horse, a striking album that goes eye to eye with some very difficult issues. It will likely prove a very hard act to follow.

Yet, in person, the music never felt depressing. Nastasia was jetlagged from her flight and delayed by the annual end-of-school-holiday air traffic system meltdown that nearly did its worst.

As she walked onto the stage alone, she asked for a whisky. Despite the claggy head, she has an unerring ability to connect. “Keep yourself wide awake”, she sang rhetorically. Between songs she talked self-deprecatingly about catastrophising and brain fogs. Such is her way that mistakes add to the set.

Nastasia’s songs don’t seem to be anatomically correct: there are sometimes parts missing, or in unexpected places, they go round and about and often repeat themselves. Musically they are often simple. It adds to their uniqueness.

Before Nina: Support act Before Breakfast, alias Gina Walters, playing solo to The Crescent’s seated audience on Tuesday night

By contrast, opening act Before Breakfast’s material reveals a more traditional musical education, albeit not from the Brill Building. Also performing alone, Gina Walters met her (absent) musical foil in the music department of Sheffield University, and her songs are literate and full of interesting moments, beautifully sung and confidently performed (somehow making the act of setting glasses back on her nose seem part of the choreography).

Without going into their back story, Nastasia played many of Riderless Horse’s songs that tell you enough. There were a number of highlights from that record. Is This Love? had the startling line “Drawing blood until we both see black”, while In The Graveyard tells you how that story ended.

Hard Long Life tunefully stuck two fingers up to tribulation. A tune about a fire and violence in the grasslands was on a par with Nick Cave – a dark ballad that left you breathless. If only the best song of the night has a name!

Leaving to well-deserved cheers, let’s hope it’s not long before we hear Nastasia’s unique voice in York again.

Review by Paul Rhodes

Nina Nastasia: “Tunefully sticking two fingers up to tribulation”
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when everything stops for tea. Hutch’s List No. 35 for 2023, from The Press, York

Night glow: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta to light up Castle Howard grounds

EVERYTHING is up in the air for Charles Hutchinson in his search for cultural entertainment and enlightenment as balloons take to the Yorkshire skies. Tea is on the menu too.

Festival of the week: Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta, Castle Howard, near York, today until Bank Holiday Monday

THE Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta has left the green expanse of York’s Knavesmire for the country air of Castle Howard, its new (stately) home. The family-friendly extended weekend features mass balloon launches, tethered balloons and night-glow displays that light up the evenings against the backdrop of Castle Howard’s grounds and architecture.

Look out for headline 9pm live sets from Sister Sledge tonight, Eurovision star Sam Ryder tomorrow and Joel Corry on Monday. For family entertainment, here come The Raver Tots Big Top each afternoon, Andy And The Odd Socks (tomorrow, 2.30pm); CBeebies’ Justin Fletcher (Monday, 1.30pm); Dick & Dom DJ Battle (Monday, 3pm) and street-dancers Diversity (Monday, 4.30pm).

Activities include a fun fair, TV character meet-and-greets and the world’s largest inflatable assault course, culminating in a spectacular finale on Monday evening. Box office: yorkshireballoonfiesta.co.uk.

Teddy at teatime: Joseph Rowntree Theatre fundraiser takes over a country garden tomorrow afternoon

Tea time part one: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party, Trinity House, Stockton on the Forest, near York, tomorrow, 3pm

FIRST held in 2021, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Summer Garden Party returns this weekend, taking over the private garden of Trinity House. A choice of teas with home-made plain or cheese scones will be on the menu, complemented by a raffle and cake stall. 

Special guests The Notebook, an acoustic duo, will be performing two sets spanning soul, ambient jazz and “live lounge-type” pop. Proceeds will go to the JoRo’s fundraising appeal. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance of Story Craft Theatre: Summer fun in the Stillington Mill garden

Children’s activity of the week: Story Craft Theatre’s Summer Fun Garden Party, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Monday, 10am to 12 noon

STORY Craft Theatre and At The Mill join forces on Bank Holiday Monday for a magical event celebrating the joys of being in the garden. 

Suitable for two to eight-year-olds, York duo Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance’s morning party fun includes craft making, a scavenger hunt, a word search, lawn games and an enchanting interactive theatre show. Box office: athemill.org.

Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ Jack Barak, left, and Fergus Rattigan’s Matthew Shardlake in a legal pickle in Sovereign, York Theatre Royal’s community play at King’s Manor

Film screening of the week: Sovereign, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 7pm, and Thursday, 2pm and 7pm

CAMERAS recorded the July 23 evening performance of York Theatre Royal’s 2023 community play, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set political thriller, Sovereign, at King’s Manor, Exhibition Square. This film can be viewed at three free screenings in the Theatre Royal’s main house with a booking limit of four tickets per person.

In 1541, lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Fergus Rattigan) and his assistant Jack Barak (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) are sent to York to await the arrival of Henry VIII on his mission to sort out northern rebels. Cue intrigue, mystery, murder and North v South shenanigans. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Sleeper: Reviving Britpop hits at The Crescent on Wednesday

Britpop memories of the week: Sleeper, The Crescent, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

THE Crescent has teamed up with the National Lottery and Music Venue Trust for a United By Music summer show with Britpop legends Sleeper.

Louise Wener’s reawakened band are back on the road, where fellow founder members Jon Stewart (guitar) and Andy Maclure (drums) are joined by bassist Kieron Pepper, previously of The Prodigy, to reactivate Inbetweener, What Do I Do Now?, Sale Of The Century, Nice Guy Eddie, Statuesque et al. Honey Moon support. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, check the crescentyork.com.

The Rocket Man: Jimmy Love at the piano for his band’s tribute show to Sir Elton John

Tribute show of the week: The Rocket Man, A Tribute To Sir Elton John, Grand Opera House, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

MISSING Sir Elton after that Glastonbury finale? Step forward Jimmy Love and his band, ready to head down the Yellow Brick Road for two hours of Elton John hits, from Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and Crocodile Rock to Philadelphia Freedom and I’m Still Standing, plus many, many more.

Love’s tribute show takes a journey through Elton’s life and career, the highs and the lows, with many a laugh too. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

How do you do: Millie Robins’ Sophie meets Benjamin Stone’sTiger in The Tiger Who Came To Tea, on tour at York Theatre Royal

Tea time part two: The Tiger Who Came To Tea, York Theatre Royal, September 1, 2pm and 4.30pm, and September 2, 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm

COMMEMORATING the centenary of author Judith Kerr’s birth, The Tiger Who Came To Tea is back on the road in a 55-minute musical production adapted and directed by David Wood.

This slice of teatime mayhem serves up singalong songs, oodles of magic and interactive fun suitable for children aged three upwards when the doorbell rings just as Sophie (Millie Robins) and her mum (Katie Tripp) sit down to tea. Who could it possibly be? Enter a big, furry, stripy, tea-guzzling Tiger (Benjamin Stone). Scott Penrose, former president of the Magic Circle, provides the magical illusion designs. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York jewellery designer Mo Burrows: Demonstrating the Japanese technique of kumihimo braiding at Fangfest next weekend

Art event of the week: Fangfest, Fangfoss, near Pocklington, September 2 and 3, 10am to 4pm each day

NEXT weekend’s Fangfest, the Fangfoss Festival of Practical Arts, features 30 artists and craft makers demonstrating and exhibiting their work, from woodworking, rocking horse-making, felting and painting to wire sculpture, medieval tile techniques, jewellery and peg loom-weaving.  

A mixed-media pattern design workshop and drop-in craft activities, such as children’s card marking, pot-throwing on the wheel, pottery painting and a collaborative mixed-media mural, will be taking place too. A charity sunflower trail, classic car collection, pantomime-themed flower festival in St Martin’s Church, fairground rides, archery sessions and busking spots for ukuleles, a shanty crew, young celloists and a pop choir are further attractions. Entry is free.

Jo Whiley: Revelling in 1990s’ anthems at York Barbican next month

Nostalgia afoot: Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems, York Barbican, September 9, 7.30pm

BBC Radio 2 presenter, DJ and producer Jo Whiley, the voice of a Brit generation, is heading for York after rummaging through her record bag to dig out the very best of 1990s’ anthems.

Whiley was on the cutting-edge, leading the charge as Britpop blew up, dance music exploded and indie went wild. Now comes the chance to re-live those magical memories on a dancefloor, from Oasis to Blur, The Chemical Brothers to The Prodigy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond from festive folk to hot Chilean rhythms. Hutch’s List No. 33 for 2023, from The Press

The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival at Sutton Park today

ART and cinema outdoors, folk and classical festivals, nostalgic gigs and ant adventures on a theatre terrace prompt Charles Hutchinson into arts action.

Heading to the park: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, today. Gates open at 10am; live music from 12 noon

TRANSATLANTIC folk trio The Magpies head into the final day of their open-air festival of music, activities, stalls and food and drink. They will be among today’s main stage acts (at 8pm), along with Liz Stringer, Honey & The Bear, Blair Dunlop, Rachel Sermanni and Edward II.

The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Jack Harris, Megan Henwood, Tom Moore & Archie Moss, Gilmore & Roberts and Bonfire Radicals, concluding with a Ceilidh with Archie Moss. Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk.

York River Art Market: Up to 30 artists and makers per day down by the riverside

Art in the open air: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk by Lendal Bridge, York, today and tomorrow, then August 19 and 20, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its eighth summer as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris. Organised by founder, director and artist Charlotte Dawson, the weekend event showcases a different variety of more than 30 independent artists and makers from all over Yorkshire and beyond each day.

Boom, by Evie Measor, from New Visuality’s exhibition project, Colour, at Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre

Easels at the ready: Sketching in the Garden, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until September 23, 10am to 5pm daily

THE Bar Convent invites artists and those who would like to give it a go to use its easels free of charge in the garden, where art and heritage combine to create an outdoor sketch space.

This opportunity coincides with the Bar Convent’s exhibition run of Colour, featuring works by young York artists, who have used photography skills and innovative AI technology to reinterpret York’s heritage buildings and landmarks. Why not draw inspiration from the exhibition to create your own artistic interpretations?

The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long: Part of the Outdoor Cinema season at Castle Howard

Screen on the green: Outdoor Cinema at Castle Howard, near York today and tomorrow

THIS outdoor cinema experience in the grounds of Castle Howard presents Matilda The Musical (PG) today at 2pm, Grease (PG) tonight at 8pm, The Greatest Showman (PG) Sing-A-Long tomorrow at 2pm and Top Gun: Maverick tomorrow at 7pm.

Gates open at 12 noon for the afternoon screenings; 6pm for The Greatest Showman; 5pm for Top Gun: Maverick. Picnics and drinks are welcome at all screenings but no glassware. Blankets and camping chairs are allowed. Under-16s must be accompanied by an adult. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.

Pianist Katya Apekisheva: One of 30 international musicians playing at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

Classical festival of the week: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Welburn Manor marquee, near Kirkbymoorside, and assorted churches, Sunday to August 26

THE 15th North York Moors Chamber Music Festival ventures Into The Looking Glass for a fantastical fortnight with 30 international musicians, including pianist Katya Apekisheva, French horn virtuoso Ben Goldscheider and violinists Charlotte Scott and Benjamin Baker.

Directed by cellist Jamie Walton, the festival takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s 1872 novel to “explore the psychology of the mind through the prism of music, conveying its various chapters with carefully curated music that takes the audience on an adventurous journey through many twists and turns”. For the programme and tickets, head to: northyorkmoorsfestival.com. Box office: 07722 038990.

The Searchers & Hollies Experience: Sixties’ nostalgia at the double at the JoRo

Tribute show of the week: The Searchers And Hollies Experience, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

IN The Searchers & Hollies Experience: The Best Of Both Worlds, The FOD Band celebrate the magical, haunting hits of these legendary Sixties’ harmony bands from Liverpool and Manchester respectively. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Newen Afrobeat: Chile meets Fela Kuti at The Crescent

Chilean gig of the week…in York: Newen Afrobeat, The Crescent, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

NEWEN Afrobeat, a 13-piece Chilean orchestra, make music inspired by the legacy of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Applying a Latin stamp, they unify the African rhythms with a colourful and energetic staging, embedded in a deep social message that talks about their roots and cultural awareness.

In a ten-year career of four albums and eight international tours, Newen Afrobeat have performed at Montreal International Jazz Festival, WOMEX, Africa Oyé and Felabration Lagos. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Janet Bruce, left, and Cassie Vallance: Hosting Story Craft Theatre’s The Secret Life Of The Garden

Children’s event of the week: Story Craft Theatre in The Secret Life Of The Garden, Friday, 11am and 1pm

HAVE you ever imagined shrinking down to the size of an ant to go on an awesome adventure through a garden? York company Story Craft Theatre’s Janet Bruce and Cassie Vallance provide that opportunity in their magical new show, packed full of fun and wonder on the Theatre Royal patio.

This interactive production for two to eight-year-old children combines visual storytelling tools, such as puppets and Makaton signs and symbols, with games and dancing, plus crafting and colouring sheets beforehand. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Herman’s Hermits: Hits, hits, hits at Pocklington Arts Centre

Retro gig of the week: Herman’s Hermits, Pocklington Arts Centre, August 19, 8pm

FORMED in 1964, Manchester band Herman’s Hermits chalked up 23 hits, hitting the peak straightaway with the chart-topping I’m Into Something Good.

Producer Mickie Most oversaw their glory days with such smashes as No Milk Today, There’s A Kind Of Hush, Silhouettes, Mrs Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter, Wonderful World, I’m Henry VIII, I Am, Just A Little Bit Better, A Must To Avoid, Sleepy Joe, Sunshine Girl, Something’s Happening, My Sentimental Friend and Years May Come, Years May Go. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York & beyond, from musical mischief to hen night shenanigans. Here’s Hutch’s List No.32, from The Press

Bull: Headlining The Boatyard Festival at Bishopthorpe Marina today

SHAKESPEARE in gardens, music and magic by the riverside, an LGBTQ musical premiere and a riotous hen party on stage are among Charles Hutchinson’s eye-catchers for upcoming entertainment.

Festival of the week: The Boatyard Festival, The Boatyard, Bishopthorpe Marina, Ferry Lane, Bishopthorpe, York, today, 10am until late

THIS family-friendly music festival will be headlined by ebullient York band Bull. Look out too for Bonneville, Tymisha, London DJ Zee Hammer, Yorky Pud Street Band, The Plumber Drummer, City Snakes, Rum Doodle and Hutch.

Further attractions will be stilt walkers, a hula-hoop workshop, a giant bubble show, magic, face painting, fayre games, stalls, food and drink, with free admission for accompanied children. Box office: head to the-boatyard.co.uk/events/ for the QR code to book.

Four Wheel Drive director Alfie Howle and cast member Alison Gammon park up at the National Centre of Early Music for a garden of delights in A Midsummer Day’s Dream

Crazy chaos of the week: Four Wheel Drive presents A Midsummer Day’s Dream, National Centre for Early Music, York, today at 11am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm

FOUR Wheel Drive, producers of “off-road theatrical experiences” in York, invite children aged seven to 11 and their families to a musical, magical and mystical diurnal reimagining of William Shakespeare’s romcom in the NCEM gardens (or indoors if wet).

Four Athenians run away to the forest, only for the sylvan sprite Puck to make both the boys fall in love with the same girl while also helping his master play a trick on the fairy queen. Will all this crazy chaos have a happy ending? Anna Gallon and Alfie Howle’s interactive 45-minute adaptation will allow children to engage in the mischief-making Midsummer action, performed by Gallon, Katja Schiebeck and Esther Irving. Grab a boom-wacker and book tickets on 01904 658338 or necem.co.uk.

Three in one: Esk Valley Theatre writer, director and actor Mark Stratton

Debut of the week: Esk Valley Theatre in Deals And Deceptions, Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, Whitby, until August 26

IN artistic director Mark Stratton’s first play for Esk Valley Theatre, Danny and Jen leave London and head to an isolated cottage in the North York Moors. City clashes with country, dark forces are at work and humorous situations arise.

“We may think we know the person we are married to, but do we?” asks Stratton, who is joined in the cast by Clare Darcy and Dominic Rye. “What someone chooses to show the world is not always who they are. If they trade in deals and deceptions, then a day of reckoning will surely come.” Box office: 01947 897587 or eskvalleytheatre.co.uk.

Is this the hen party from hell? Will best friends fall out in Bridesmaids Of Britain? Find out tomorrow night

Hen party comedy heads to hen party haven: Bridesmaids Of Britain, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7pm

BILLED as “the girls’ night out to remember”, welcome to Diana Doherty’s Bridesmaids Of Britain. Becky is the overly loyal maid-of-honour whose life unravels as she leads best friend Sarah on a wild ride down the road to matrimony.

Things go awry, however, as competition between Becky and Tiffany – Sarah new BFF (best friend forever, obvs) – over who is the bride’s bestie threatens to upend the wedding planning that has been in the making since primary school. Be prepared for dance-offs, sing-offs and eventually shout-offs at the “hen do of the year”, held in a caravan. Will this wedding story have a happy ending, or will these best friends rip each other apart? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s Whizzer and Chris Mooney’s Marvin in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Falsettos, opening at the JoRo on Wednesday

York premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Falsettos, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

YORK company Black Sheep Theatre Productions has been granted an exclusive British licence by Concord Theatricals and composer/lyricist William Finn to stage Finn and James Lapine’s “very gay, very Jewish” musical Falsettos, thanks to the persistence of director Matthew Clare.

In its late-Seventies, early-Eighties American story, set against the backdrop of the rise of Aids, Marvin has left his wife Trina and son Jason to be with his male lover Whizzer, whereupon he struggles to keep his Jewish family together in the way he has idealised. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Pennine Suite: Topping Friday’s bill of York bands at The Crescent

York music bill of the week: Northern Radar presents Pennine Suite, Sun King, Everything After Midnight and The Rosemaries, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm to 11pm

PENNINE Suite play their biggest headline gig to date in an all-York line-up on a rare 2023 appearance in their home city. The five-piece draws inspiration from the alternative rock movements of the 1980s and 1990s, interlaced with shoegaze and pop melodies, typified by the singles Far and Scottish Snow. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Garden secrets: Which character will York Shakespeare Project veteran Frank Brogan play in Sonnets At The Bar? It’s all hush-hush until August 11

Bard convention: York Shakespeare Project in Sonnets At The Bar, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Friday to August 19 (except August 14), 6pm and 7.30pm plus 4.30pm Saturday performances

YORK Shakespeare Project returns to the secret garden at Bar Convent for another season of Shakespeare sonnets, this time directed by Tony Froud. Reprising the familiar format, the show features a series of larger-than-life modern characters, each with a secret to reveal through a sonnet.

Inside writer Helen Wilson’s framework of the comings and goings of hotel staff and guests, the characters will be played by Diana Wyatt, Judith Ireland, Sarah Dixon, Frank Brogan, Maurice Crichton, Nigel Evans, Harold Mozley, Froud and Wilson. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Ceridwen Smith in Next Door But One’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter . Picture: James Drury

Talking elephants of the week: Next Door But One in The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, York Theatre Royal patio, August 12, 11am and 2pm

YORK theatre-makers Next Door But One’s adventurous storyteller travels to Lila’s Firework Festival in this intimate, inclusive, accessible and fun stage adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novel, replete with talking elephants, silly kings and magical creatures.

As Lila voyages across lakes and over mountains, she faces her biggest fears and learns everything she needs to know to become the person she has always wanted to be. Makaton signs and symbols, puppetry and audience participation play their part in Ceridwen Smith’s performance. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Grace Petrie: Switching from folk musician to stand-up comedy act on tour in York, Leeds and Sheffield

Change of tack: Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Grace Petrie: Butch Ado About Nothing, The Crescent, York, September 17, 7.30pm

FOLK singer, lesbian and checked-shirt-collector Grace Petrie has been incorrectly called “Sir” every day of her adult life. Now, after finally running out of subject matter for her “whiny songs”, she is putting down the guitar to work out why in her debut stand-up show, Butch Ado About Nothing, on her return to The Crescent.

Finding herself mired in an age of incessantly and increasingly fraught gender politics, the Norwich-based Leicester native explores what butch identity means in a world moving beyond labels, pondering where both that identity and she belong in the new frontline of queer liberation. Petrie also plays Old Woollen, Leeds, on August 31 (8pm) and The Leadmill, Sheffield, on September 10 (7.30pm). Box office: gracepetrie.com; York, thecrescentyork.com; Leeds, oldwoollen.co.uk; Sheffield, leadmill.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on The Love Band, featuring Johnny Echols, The Crescent, York, July 2

All you need is Love: The Love Band’s Johnny Echols at The Crescent, York

LOVE inspire something close to religious fervour. Seeing how The Crescent’s full house of all ages responded to the closing track of Forever Changes, You Set The Scene, is now an indelible memory: music, message and audience marching as one.

Love has become the story of Arthur Lee, a protean, iconic figure who fell far before enjoying a belated blast of recognition before leukaemia cruelly stole him away. Bryan Maclean, also now dead, is less feted, but his contrasting songs are essential to Love’s ensuring appeal. One listen to Andmoreagain reveals Maclean as every bit as much of a rule breaker as Lee.

“The Love Band” as they are now known were originally called Baby Lemonade, and they toured with Lee as Love before he died. Taking up the mantle of keeping the music alive, since 2005, four have become five thanks to guitarist Johnny Echols, the other key original member coming back into the fold.

You can debate at what point a group becomes a tribute act, but this concert was about far more than nostalgia. Echols provided a key focal point for the concert, providing occasional between-song stories

Forever Changes has, decades after its release, climbed in regard to nestle among the very best albums of all time. Deservedly so. It captures a glorious burst of creativity that neither Lee and Love, nor arguably anyone else, has matched.

The tension and disharmony that surrounded its recording provided a prescient, apocalyptic but ultimately life-affirming set of songs. However transported by visions Lee may have been, the musicianship keeps pace, full of variety, twists, turns and hooks, psychedelic but still retaining the band’s LA garage roots and a disregard of the rulebook that would become the spirit of punk.

The Love Band is very familiar with the music’s twists and turns, and second guitarist Mike Randell is able to fill some of the key spaces left by the absence of strings and brass. Singer Rusty Squeezebox (born David Ramsey) was a gracious host and carried Lee’s words with skill.

The audience knew in advance this would be good – this band had previously blown the roof off the same venue in 2019. Their Sunday setlist centred on Forever Changes but also included some lesser-sung parts of Love’s catalogue. Tunes like Softly To Me weren’t as strong, but Singin’ Cowboy from Four Sail was a glorious first encore, before bowing to 7 And 7 Is (from De Capo), a powerful song about nuclear war that sounds like nothing else.

There was no way to follow that, but the crowd could certainly face the coming days with a smile after this wonderful show.

Review by Paul Rhodes