THE Groves Community Cinema returns to Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 5 to 11 for its third film festival with some “pay what you feel” ticket prices.
Looking to build on last year’s success, the event is supported by an ARG (Additional Restrictions Grant) Events and Festivals grant, Make It York and City of York Council.
Next month’s festival promises a wide variety of films, from cult classics and music to drama and animated fun.
“We have nine great films in the programme,” says Theatre@41 chair Alan Park. “Some famous titles and some less-known works…from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator to Sir Ian McKellen’s Hamlet, via Spiderman.”
The grants not only enable the festival to take place but also to keep tickets to a reasonable price, and in the case of the two children’s animated films, “pay what you feel”.
“It means families can come along and watch a great animated film on the big screen without spending a fortune,” says Alan. “There was a wonderful buzz last time and we hope this festival will become a regular event.”
Films showing at the Groves Community Cinema festival will be:
Sunday, May 5
CATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger in action in the 40th anniversary release of his legendary sci-fi classic The Terminator at 6.30pm and stay on for T2 Judgement Day at 8.45pm.
Monday, May 6
FOLLOW the adventures of Marcel The Shell With Shoes On in a big screen debut for this internet sensation at 2.30pm. Pay what you feel.
Rather more serious matters unfold that evening in Anatomy Of A Fall, Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning legal drama that investigates the death of Samuel, found in the snow beneath the secluded chalet he shared with author wife Sandra. Did he fall or was he pushed? Find out if Sandra dunnit at 6.30pm.
Tuesday, May 7
“TO be or not to be” is the question at 7.30pm when the inimitable Ian McKellen appears in Hamlet, filmed using nearly every room of the Theatre Royal, Windsor, to recreate Elsinore Castle, from the basement dungeon to the roof-top battlement.
Wednesday, May 8
IN a 6.30pm programme of Social Cinema shorts from the Yorkshire Film Archive, the films explore everything from social and political issues – including gender equality, homelessness and poverty – to isolation and climate justice. An evening of thought-provoking topics that resonate with the present and question the future.
Friday May 10
HEAR the story of Hedwig’s life through her punk anthems and power ballads and be part of the action by putting your “head in a wig” at the 8pm screening of the cult classic musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch. Free glass of fizz for the most outrageous and inventive wigs!
Saturday, May 11
HOLD tight as Brooklyn teen Miles Morales discovers his new Spidey powers, and the limitless possibilities of the Spider-Verse, where more than one can wear the mask in the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse at 2.30pm. Pay what you feel.
At 7.30pm, Jonathan Demme’s documentary Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense captures David Byrne’s legendary New York band in one of the greatest concert films of all time at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983. What’s more, the music doesn’t stop when the film does. Stay on afterwards for a drink and a dance to the hits of Talking Heads and fellow 1980s’ greats.
Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Helen Bauer in Madam Good Tit at Theatre@41 in October
NEW partnerships, returning performers, comedy acts aplenty and community theatre regulars make up the autumn and winter season at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
One year on from throwing open its doors post-pandemic, the black-box studio will play host to Yorkshire and national companies and artists alike.
“We’re doing all right, whether by chance or design!” says chair Alan Park. “In the year since we took over the programming, there’s been a nice balance between comedy, music and theatre, with a focus on new writing, as well as continuing our relationships with York Stage, Pick Me Up Theatre, White Rose Theatre, York Settlement Community Players and York Musical Theatre Company.
“The mailing list has gone up from 40 to 2,000 and we feel that people are invested in the building, our charity status, the work we present, and want us to do well. There are plenty of people who run theatres, but we want to run a ‘movement’ and we think we’re getting there.”
Colin Hoult in The Death Of Anna Mann. Picture: Linda Blacker
Looking ahead to the new season, one new partnership finds Theatre@41 linking up with York promoter Al Greaves’s well-established Burning Duck Comedy Club, complementing his programme at The Crescent (and previously at The Basement at City Screen Picturehouse).
“Maggie Smales, one of our trustees, reached out to Al,” says Alan. “Initially, comedy promoters were contacting us directly, and we were doing maybe two comedy shows a season, but we got in touch with Al to say ‘we don’t want to tread on your toes, but we’d love to work with you’, and so now we have six shows this autumn through linking up with Al.”
Among those shows will be Lauren Pattinson’s It Is What It Is on September 16; Colin Hoult, from the Netflix series After Life, presenting The Death Of Anna Mann on October 8; the returning Olga Koch, star of her own BBC Radio 4 series, in Just Friends on October 15 and fellow Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Newcomer nominee Helen Bauer’s Madam Good Tit, on October 22. Look out too for Taskmaster winner Sophie Duker next April.
Returning to Theatre@41 will be Dyad Productions, following up the sold-out I, Elizabeth with Christmas Gothic, adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan, on November 26 and 27, and Sarah-Louise Young, building on the sold-out success of Alan’s favourite show so far, An Evening Without Kate Bush, by presenting her charming yet cheeky West End and Off-Broadway cabaret hit Julie Madly Deeply, a tribute to Julie Andrews.
Sarah-Louise Young in her Julie Andrews tribute, Julie Madly Deeply. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Further returnees will be East Riding company Other Lives Theatre Productions in Landmarks, Nick Darke’s environmentally topical story of a farming family feud, and Nunkie Theatre’s Robert Lloyd Parry with two more gripping MR James ghost stories by candlelight in Oh, Whistle on November 25.
“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from artists, such as Olga Koch’s agent,” says Alan. “We know there’s paint peeling off walls, the roof is leaking, but we believe in making the artists welcome, like giving them a little York Gin pack on arrival. We try to be a friendly venue where everyone will want to come back.”
Endorsements for Theatre@41 are spreading, leading to debut visits by Mark Farrelly in his Quentin Crisp show, Naked Hope, on September 7 and Olivier Award-winning actor and director Guy Masterson, staging his one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on November 24.
Seven York companies and performers are booked in. Robert Readman’s Pick Me Up Theatre will stage Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical Jr from September 23 to October 2 and The Sound Of Music from December 16 to 30 in the Christmas slot. York Settlement Community Players will perform Christopher Durang’s Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike from November 3 to 5.
Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Christmas Gothic. Picture: Ben Guest
White Rose Theatre will deliver The Last Five Years, an emotionally charged musical full of upbeat numbers and beautiful ballads by Jason Robert Brown that tells the story of two lovers over the course of five years, with Cathy starting her tale at the end of the relationship and Jamie telling his story from the beginning. Directed by Claire Pulpher, it will run from November 9 to 12.
Barnstorming country-rock band The Rusty Pegs will play Rumours (Again!) in a 45th anniversary celebration of the Fleetwood Mac nugget on October 9, after giving Theatre@41’s re-launch gig post-Covid; Jessa Liversidge will sing Some Enchanted Sondheim on October 9, and York Musical Theatre Company will mark their 120th anniversary with A Musical Celebration on October 13 and 14.
Spookologist and ghost-botherer Doctor Dorian Deathly, a winner in the 2022 Visit York Tourism Awards, will make his Theatre@41 debut with his Halloween show, A Night Of Face Melting Horror!, from October 26 to 31.
“Each night, Dorian will be hot-footing over here after doing his Deathly Dark ghost tour for a cabaret evening with a bar of the dead and cocktails,” says Alan. “He came to us with the idea, and we thought, ‘yeah, let’s do it’. He has a huge following, so we’re delighted he wanted to come here.”
The horror! The horror” The poster for Doctor Dorian Deathly’s Halloween show, A Night Of Face Melting Horror!
Paul Birch, one of the stand-outs in York Theatre Royal’s Green Shoots showcase for new work in June, will bring his improv group, Foolish, to Theatre@41 for the third time. On September 15, he will host a night of ad-hoc comedy improvised from suggestions written in chalk on the stage floor under the title of Cobbled Together.
Seeking to foster a growing relationship with The Groves community, Theatre@41 will play host to the inaugural Groves Community Cinema: a weekend of classic films old and new right on residents’ doorsteps when visitors will be invited to “pay what you feel”, with support from an ARG Events and Festivals Grant in partnership with Make It York and City of York Council.
“Historically, we’re on the edge of The Groves, and maybe The Groves has never quite felt this is The Groves’ theatre, but we hope that putting on a community cinema weekend will make it feel more like it’s part of their community, rather than people just walking past our doors,” says Alan.
Olga Koch: Returning to Theatre@41 to present Just Friends
September 10 will offer Encanto Singalong at 2.30pm and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind at 6pm; September 11, Kes at 2.30pm and Nomadland at 6.30pm.
Three more new additions add to the sense of momentum at Theatre@41. Firstly, £5,000 funding from City of York Council and the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation will ensure the lighting rig “no longer wobbles”; secondly, the theatre will resume being a polling station for elections.
Last, but not least, the Monkgate building will be turned into the rehearsal rooms for veteran dame Berwick Kaler’s Grand Opera House pantomime, Old Granny Goose. “We’re giving them multiple rooms, including the dance studio,” says Alan. “They’ll have the run of the building basically.”
For performance times and to book tickets for the new season, head to: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Copyright of The Press, York
Pantomime dame Berwick Kaler and daft-lad sidekick Martin Barrass will be rehearsing Old Granny Goose at Theatre@41 ahead of its run at the Grand Opera House, York
