Penny for your thoughts: Jo Patmore’s prison troubadour offers to sing a song – for a price – to Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s highwayman John Swift as he awaits his hanging in John Godber’s The Highwayman
JOHN Godber is making history in more than one way in his new theatrical adventure. After more than 70 plays framed around modern culture and mores, he has gone back in time for his first historical romp.
Here is the background: “The year is 1769, when Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull thriving, and the spa towns full,” says writer-director Godber, now 68.
“Yorkshire was the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation was great.”
Godber, who once lived in the East Riding village where Dick Turpin was arrested, evokes that era with references to Turpin, fellow highwayman John Levison, and Tate Wilkinson (who managed York Theatre Royal for 36 years and opened the Hull Old Theatre, mentioned above).
He also talks of the history of the assizes and public hangings on the Tyburn gallows in York, a spectator sport of its day that could draw crowds of 100,000 [like the old Wembley Stadium].
Caught in the footlights: Dylan Allcock, left, Jo Patmore, Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Matheea Ellerby in The Highwayman
The Highwayman of the title is, however, a fictitious 18th century character, one John Swift (Emilio Encinoso-Gil), whose opening words find him in the ultimate predicament. “I know what you’re thinking. Not a great start.” Here are the noose headlines: Swift is up to his neck in trouble, the hangman’s rope ready to deliver his exit stage left.
Freeze that moment, Godber keeping both you and Swift in suspense as the highwayman goes into flashback mode to tell you his back story, struggling to make ends meet with his forthright wife Molly May (Matthea Ellerby).
This may be a history play but Godber is drawing parallels with the privations of today, the disparity between the wealthy and those in need of a northern levelling up: the York race-goers and the pilfering pickpockets at work in the crowds.
Swift by name, he is swift of hand too, but while he believes he has luck on his side, his proverbial dropped sandwich would land jam side down. Even when he works at Tate Wilkinson’s theatre, he is peed on from the dress circle above, metaphorically as well as physically.
He is torn between doing the right thing, serving in the war against the French, tilling the land, taking that theatre job, but he cannot resist temptation. Just as Turpin was arrested for shooting the Green Dragon landlord’s cockerel, Swift is nabbed for stealing a duck.
John Godber: On the highway to Hull and back
In the play’s best scenes, Encinoso-Gil’s Swift and Ellerby’s Molly are often at loggerheads, exacerbated by time spent apart and their contrasting expectations. Swift would not call himself misogynistic, but his professed deep love does not extend to believing Molly should be working, especially now they have two children.
Her constant concern is to bring more money into the home, and unlike Swift, she does so by showing spunky entrepreneurial flair, first in selling pressed flowers, then in adding scent to candles: an invention greeted by Swift with derision to rival Peter Kay’s bewildered “Garlic bread”.
Godber has described The Highwayman as “very, very different from what I’ve done before”. Indeed it is, and not only on account of its period setting. Humour is in short supply in Act One, Godber in serious mode, even heavy-handed, the pace surely too slow for a highwayman romp despite the rambunctious friction of Swift and Molly.
You might be tempted to call it “ropey” at this stage, if you like a pun, but CharlesHutchPress prefers to share the undaunted positivity of Swift.
Give Godber enough rope and Act Two is anything but a downfall, by comparison. Instead it stands and delivers an upturn, aided by Dylan Allcock and Jo Patmore’s multiple role-playing, especially Patmore’s Irish pirate queen as Swift takes to the seas.
On his high horse: Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s highwayman, John Swift, makes a point in The Highwayman
Her lugubrious troubadour, offering to sing a song – for a fee – before Swift’s hanging adds to Godber hitting his comic stride too, while Allcock especially enjoys playing the grand thespian Tate Wilkinson back in his Theatre Royal home.
The dialogue, by the way, is modern, recalling Blackadder in giving it a more contemporary clout and political resonance. The staging is in economical Godber tradition: four regularly reassembled wooden boxes, a hangman’s noose and woodland screens behind.
In keeping with past Godber shows, snatches of pertinent pop songs set scenes, while the cast savours Allcock’s high-spirited folk songs, sung lustily in the manner of Brecht & Weil’s operas.
The Highwayman will not go down in history as one of Godber’s era-defining plays, more as a dandy, if acerbic dalliance, a Yorkshire past brought into the present, as ever with hope for a changed, better future.
John Godber Company presents The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, today at 2pm and 7.45pm, SOLD OUT. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Gerard Savva: Leading the York Stage cast as Bobby in Company at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
LOOK out for Godber at the double, Sondheim sophistication, a ground-breaking Black pioneer and Hull humour in the week ahead, recommends Charles Hutchinson.
Musical of the week: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married? Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold, sophisticated and insightful revolutionary musical comedy follows Bobby as he navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily (and unhappily) married friends, exploring the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind.
Nik Briggs directs a York Stage cast featuring Gerard Savva as Bobby, Florence Poskitt, Julia Anne Smith, Alexandra Mather, Joanne Theaker, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Jack Hooper, among others. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for Lightning Seeds’ show at Scarborough Spa Grand Hall tonight
Pure and simply joyful every time: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, tonight; The Welly, Hull, December 4; Leeds Beckett Students’ Union, December 6
TO mark their 35th anniversary, Liverpool singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie leads Lightning Seeds on their Tomorrow’s Here Today tour to accompany a new greatest hits album.
Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al and many more. Tonight doors open at 7pm; Casino play at 8pm, Lightning Seeds at 9pm. Box office: Scarborough, scarboroughspa.co.uk; Hull, giveitsomewelly.com; Leeds, leedsbeckettsu.co.uk.
Tom Gallagher, Annie Kirkman and Laura Jennifer Banks in a scene from John Godber’s revival of Perfect Pitch
Touring play of the week: John Godber Company in Perfect Pitch, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
WHEN teacher Matt (Frazer Hammill) borrows his parents’ caravan for a week on the Yorkshire coast with partner Rose (Annie Kirkman), they are expecting four days of hill running and total de-stressing. However, with a Tribfest taking place nearby, Grant (Tom Gallagher) and Steph’s (Laura Jennifer Banks) pop-up tent is an unwelcome addition to their perfect pitch.
The class divide and loo cassettes become an issue as writer-director John Godber reignites his unsettling 1998 state-of-the-nation comedy, set on an eroding coastline, as Matt and Rose are inducted into the world of caravanning and karaoke. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The Highwayman cast of Dylan Allcock, left, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby and Jo Patmore in John Godber’s new historical play. Picture: Ian Hodgson
New play of the week: John Godber Company in The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday, sold out
AFTER more than 70 plays reflecting on modern life, John Godber goes back in history for the first time in The Highwayman. “It’s 1769 and Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull is thriving, and the Spa towns are full,” he says.
“Everyone is flocking north. Yorkshire is the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation is great.” Enter the highwayman, John Swift and his partner, Molly May. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal
Story of the week: Paterson Joseph, Sancho & Me, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion
CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.
Actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University Paterson Joseph tells his story, accompanied by co-creator and musical director Ben Park, built around his book The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Irish band Adore: Headlining at The Crescent tomorrow. Picture: Fnatic
Indie gig of the week: Road Less Travelled presents Adore, Fuzz Lightyear and Tom Beer, The Crescent, York, tomorrow,7.30pm
RISING stars of the Irish music scene, Adore are a three-piece garage punk band from Galway, Donegal and Dublin, who refract surf, disco and pop through punk sensibilities, grounded in crunchy guitar, drum and bass.
Leeds four-piece Fuzz Lightyear, freshly signed to independent label Nice Swan Records, match the intensity of Idles and Gilla Band while applying wit and a lyrical openness to their songs. Bull frontman Tom Beer kicks off the triple bill with a solo set. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
New York Brass Band: Bringing New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz from old York to Milton Rooms, Malton
Jazz night of the week: Acorn Events presents New York Brass Band and The Ryedale Stray Notes, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7pm
NEW York Brass Band, from York, perform with a seven or eight-piece line-up of sax, tuba, trumpets, trombones, guitar and sousaphone in the New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz band tradition. Formed by James Lancaster in 2010, they are inspired by Rebirth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Hot 8, Youngblood and Brassroots.
They have played at Glastonbury for the past eight festivals and at celebrity parties and weddings for Danny Jones, of McFly, Ellie Goulding, comedian Alex Brooker, Liam Gallagher and Jamie Oliver. Support act The Ryedale Stray Notes feature 25 talented young musicians “ready to raise the roof”. Proceeds go to Acorn Community Care to support vulnerable adults with physical and learning disabilities. Tickets: acornevents.org.uk or phone Ali on 07891 3889085.
Paddy Young: Topping the Rye Humour bill at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Lucas Smith
Variety night of the week: Rye Humour, Comedy vs Climate Change, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
RYE Humour’s variety bill of up-and-coming comics will be headlined by Chortle Best Newcomer winner Paddy Young, a stand-up with Scarborough roots. The 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards finalist and Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee has attracted 100 million views online for his sketches with Ed Night. His comedy special, filmed by American record label 800 Pound Gorilla Records, will be released shortly.
This gig has been developed in collaboration with the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership scheme, as part of a project that uses humour to explore environmental issues based around North Yorkshire’s rivers. Any questions about the evening, or accessibility, will be answered at events@comedyvsclimatechange.org.uk. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Lucy Beaumont: Off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood at Grand Opera House, York
Comedy gig of the week: Lucy Beaumont Live, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, 8pm
HULL humorist, BAFTA nominee and Taskmaster star Lucy Beaumont is determined to let loose and let slip on her rollercoaster world with off-beat stories, unusual anecdotes and bizarre journeys through modern-day womanhood.
From the co-host of the chart-topping podcast Perfect Brains with Sam Campbell and creator of Meet The Richardsons comes a look at life through the Lucy lens. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Brushing up on her art: Lindsey Tyson, one of the Wednesday Four exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, York
FROM the Wednesday Four to the sold-out Barbican four, a Sondheim musical to John Godber making history, Charles Hutchinson puts the ‘yes’ into November’s calendar.
Last chance to see: The Wednesday Four, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today and Monday, 10am to 5pm
THE Wednesday Four, a group of four artist friends who gather in Scarborough each week – busy schedules permitting – are exhibiting together for the first time in York.
Shirley Vauvelle (ceramic sculpture and paintings), Gillian Martin (paintings and prints), Katie Braida (ceramics) and Lindsey Tyson (paintings) have been meeting for three years but have known each other much longer.
Tarot: Performing sketches in nighties in Shuffle at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: PBJ Management
Sketch show of the week: Tarot: Shuffle, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 8pm
“THEY (our parents, partners, children) say ‘sketch is dead’, but if it’s dead then where’s all our money going?” ask Tarot, a sketch troupe featuring members of Gein’s Family Giftshop and Goose, Adam Drake, Ed Easton and Kath Hughes.
What lies in store in Shuffle? “Joyously silly and uproariously live and in-the-room, we would call it ‘improv’ but we’ve got some self-respect: this is sketch in nighties. Come watch a new tour of big, daft and, above all, live comedy being conjured up in front of your very eyes.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rise Up To Empower Women: Fundraiser for York charity IDAS at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
Fundraiser of the week: Rise Up To Empower Women, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
YORK and Leeds performers come together to “raise the roof to end gender-based violence”, sharing inspiring and moving stories of female survivors of abuse in a night of musical theatre organised by Hannah Winbolt-Lewis. Proceeds will go to IDAS, the Blossom Street, York-based domestic abuse and sexual violence support charity, and to aid the recovery of Leanne Lucas, a survivor of July’s Southport stabbings.
Performing arts student Daisy Winbolt-Robertson
Performing arts students Kate Lohan, Daisy Winbolt-Robertson, Sara Belal, Rose Scott, Chloe Amelie Lightfoot, Erin Childs, Annie Dunbar, Jasmine Lowe, Declan Childs and Oliver Lawery will sing songs from shows that depict survivors’ stories: Heathers, Spring Awakening, Waitress, The Color Purple, SIX The Musical and the newly premiered SuperYou. Donations can be made via idas.co.uk. Box office: O1904 501935, josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk or bit.ly/RiseUpToEmpowerWomen.
Simon Brodkin: Ripping into celebrity culture, social media, the police, Putin, Prince Andrew and God in Screwed Up
Comedy gig of the week: Simon Brodkin, Screwed Up, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 8pm
SIMON Brodkin, world-famous prankster, Lee Nelson creator and most-watched British stand-up comedian on TikTok, brings his outrageous stand-up show back to York.
In Screwed Up, Brodkin rips into celebrity culture, social media, the police, Putin, Prince Andrew and God. Nothing is off limits, from his own mental health and family to his five arrests and how he once found himself at an underground sex party. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Irish Christmas celebrations in song and dance in Fairytale Of New York
What? Christmas in old York already : Fairytale Of New York – The Ultimate Irish-Inspired Christmas Concert, Grand Opera House, York, November 11, 7.30pm
FROM the producers of Seven Drunken Nights – The Story Of The Dubliners comes a rich tapestry of Irish singers, musicians and dancers performing Driving Home For Christmas, Step Into Christmas, Oh Holy Night, Fairytale Of New York and Irish sing-along favourites The Galway Girl, The Irish Rover, Dirty Old Town and The Black Velvet Band. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sarah Millican: “Lots of stuff about dinners and lady gardens” at York Barbican
Recommended but sold out alas: next week’s shows at York Barbican
BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don kicks off a particularly busy week at York Barbican when he shares his passion for gardens and the role they play in human inspiration and wellbeing on Monday night (7.30pm). Jazz pianist, songwriter and BBC Radio 2 presenter Jamie Cullum will be supported by Northampton pianist and singer Billy Lockett on Tuesday (doors 7pm).
On Thursday (8pm), in her Late Bloomer show, South Shields comedian Sarah Millican mulls over her transition from being quiet at school with not many friends and an inability to say boo to a goose to being loud with good friends and goose-booing outbursts aplenty, “plus lots of stuff about dinners and lady gardens,” she says. On Friday (doors 7pm), in her Rockin’ On show, queen of rock’n’roll Suzi Quatro rolls out Can The Can, Devil Gate Drive, Stumblin’ In, 48 Crash, The Wild One et al. “It’s my 60th year in the business and it still feels like I’ve just started,” she says.
The York Stage poster for their “new version” of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s American musical comedy Company
Musical of the week: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married? Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold , sophisticated and insightful revolutionary musical comedy follows Bobby as he navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily (and unhappily) married friends as he explores the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind.
Nik Briggs directs a York Stage cast featuring Gerard Savva as Bobby, Florence Poskitt, Julia Anne Smith, Alexandra Mather, Joanne Theaker, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Jack Hooper, among others. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The Highwayman cast of Dylan Allcock, left, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby and Jo Patmore in John Godber’s new historical play. Picture: Ian Hodgson
New play of the week: John Godber Company in The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, November 14 to 16, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday, sold out
AFTER more than 70 plays reflecting on modern life, John Godber goes back in history for the first time in The Highwayman. “It’s 1769 and Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull is thriving, and the Spa towns are full,” he says.
“Everyone is flocking north. Yorkshire is the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation is great.” Enter the highwayman, John Swift and his partner, Molly May. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In focus: Paterson Joseph, Sancho & Me, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion
Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal
CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.
Actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University Paterson Joseph tells his story, accompanied by co-creator and musical director Ben Park, built around Joseph’s book The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.
Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British
Joseph says: “Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) had a most extraordinary life. Born of enslaved African parents, he rose to a position of great influence in British society. A polymath with a talent for music, his vote in 1774 and 1780 made him the first person of African descent to vote in a British Parliamentary election.
“I first came across Charles Ignatius Sancho in 1999. Born and raised in London, by my mid-thirties I had no idea there were thousands of Black Britons in the UK long before the famous ‘Windrush Generation’ who arrived in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. I cannot overstate the powerful sense of belonging this knowledge brought me.
“My desire is to spread that sense of rootedness through spreading the word far and wide: Britain has always been a multi-ethnic country and Black people have been a major part of that story.”
The show incorporates Sancho’s compositions and original music by composer and musician Ben Park. In the words of Sancho: “Friendship is a plant of slow growth, and, like our English oak, spreads, is more majestically beautiful, and increases in shade, strength and riches, as it increases in years.”
Paterson Joseph: the back story
Born: Willesden, London on June 22 1964 to parents from St Lucia. Educated at Cardinal Hinsley RC High School. Worked briefly as catering assistant. Trained at Studio ’68 of Theatre Arts, London (South Kensington Library), from 1983 to 1985, later attending London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
Theatre roles: Oswald in King Lear, Dumaine in Love’s Labours Lost and Marquis de Mota in The Last Days Of Don Juan, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1990. Title role in Othello, Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2002. Lead roles in The Royal Hunt Of The Sun and The Emperor Jones, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London, 2006. Brutus, in Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar, set in Africa, 2012. Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Old Vic Theatre, London, 2019 into 2020.
Undertook documentary project My Shakespeare, filmed for Channel 4 in 2004, directing version of Romeo & Juliet that used 20 young non-actors from deprived Harlesden area of London.
On television: Mark Grace in Casualty (1997–1998); Alan Johnson in Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show (2003–2015); Lyndon Jones in Green Wing (2004–2006); Greg Preston in Survivors (2008–2010); DI Wes Layton in Law And Order: UK (2013–2014); “Holy Wayne” Gilchrest in The Leftovers (2014–2015); DCI Mark Maxwell in Safe House (2015–2017); Connor Mason in Timeless (2016–2018); Home Secretary, then Prime Minister Kamal Hadley in Noughts + Crosses (2020-2022); Commander Neil Newsome in Vigil (2021); Samuel Wells in Boat Story (2023).
Films include: Benbay in In The Name Of The Father (1993); Keaty in The Beach (2000); Greenfingers (2001), Giroux in Æon Flux (2005), The Other Man (2009) and Arthur Slugworth in Wonka (2023).
His debut play as a writer, Sancho: An Act Of Remembrance, was first co-produced and performed at Oxford Playhouse in 2015, then twice toured United States of America, including Kennedy Center in Washington and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York. Performed by Joseph in London in 2018 at Wilton’s Music Hall; published by Bloomsbury.
Debut novel The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho was published in 2022 by Dialogue Books in UK and Henry Holt in USA, charting Sancho’s life through fictionalised diary entries, letters and commentary. Nominated for six literary awards, winning Royal Society of Literature’s Christopher Bland Prize and Historical Writers Association Debut Novel Prize in 2023.
First book, Julius Caesar And Me: Exploring Shakespeare’s African Play, published by Bloomsbury.
Appointed Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University in 2022. Installed in May 2023.
Paterson Joseph, Me & Sancho, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Highwayman cast of Lancastrian actor-musician Dylan Allcock, left, Yorkshire actress Jo Patmore, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, last seen in the John Godber Company’s Do I Love You?, and Godber Theatre Foundation member Matheea Ellerby. Picture: Ian Hodgson
JOHN Godber has written more than 70 plays, invariably reflecting present-day concerns, woes and joys with humour as dry as a Yorkshire stone wall.
The Highwayman, riding into York Theatre Royal Studio from Thursday to Saturday next week, is different. “It’s the first time I’ve gone back into history,” says writer-director John, now 68, introducing his theatrical adventure where “history has never felt so modern.”
Before any nay’sayer points out he co-wrote Moby Dick with fellow Yorkshire playwright Nick Lane, that one does not count as it was an adaptation of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel.
This one is all John’s own work, albeit with the heavy hand of history leaning on him. “The year is 1769, when Yorkshire’s population had exploded, the races at York were packed, the new theatre in Hull thriving, and the spa towns full,” says John.
“Yorkshire was the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation was great.”
Cue The Highwayman, “an exciting and exhilarating romp through history, where history has never felt so modern, theft never more attractive”. “I’m so excited to be bringing The Highwayman to the York Theatre Royal,” says John. “I cannot think of a better city to stage a show about highwaymen, this play coming from the region where Turpin was caught and Nevison made his great leap.”
Why head back into history now, John? “OK, two things. Many things actually. Dick Turpin was arrested in the village I used to live in, North Ferriby, [after shooting his landlord’s cockerel and threatening to kill the landlord, allegedly in the Green Dragon pub in Welton], so there is that story.
“I’d always been sure that Dick Turpin was a good subject for an East Yorkshire tour. Secondly, John Nevison was most likely to have been the man who rode from York to London on Black Bess, and Nevison was from Pontefract, just down the road from where I was born in Upton, and one of the main storing points for his booty was in Wentbridge, two miles from where I was born. The great leap he made to get away from the rozzers was across an estuary near Pontefract.”
John continues the background story. “That’s only part of the reason. The other was Tate Wilkinson [who managed York Theatre Royal for 36 years in the 18th century] . As an actor, he used to tour the northern circuit of Wakefield, Barnsley, Hull, York, Doncaster and Leeds, like my plays do now, and he opened the Hull Old Theatre in Hull, in Lowgate, too,” he says.
“I met up with Dr David Wilmore, the world expert on Frank Matcham’s theatres, who lives in North Yorkshire, to talk about the Assizes, how people went to watch the races at York and the hangings too, and in the late 1780s, you’re talking of 100,000 people watching the public hangings.
“This was the levelling up of a different era, so I then started looking at the £22 billion black hole today and thought, ‘if you had no money, what might you be led to do?’, and that’s when all these factors came into my thinking that I’d like to write a play about highwayman, though my character is an invention…”
…“There’s something else you need to know. You know my interest in Brecht and The Threepenny Opera…and The Beggar’s Opera. That was written by John Gay and produced by John Ridge, who had worked with Tate Wilkinson in the early part of his career.”
Put all this together and you have the model for Godber’s highwayman John Swift and his partner Molly May. “She’s referenced in Thin Lizzy’s hit Whiskey In The Jar, which happens to be a song about highwaymen!” says John.
Writer-director John Godber
The Highwayman was sparked by a request from East Riding Theatre in Beverley. “I was approached by ERT to write a play to mark the theatre’s tenth birthday, and I thought, ‘why not do something quite different and relevant to the district?’,” John says.
“We opened at the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond [North Yorkshire], where Tate Wilkinson played in the 1790s. That theatre was set up by Samuel Butler, who is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Beverley.”
History is piling on history in John’s production. “The Woodland Scene, the oldest existing piece of stage scenery in the world, is in the Georgian Theatre’s museum, so I asked if we could replicate it in The Highwayman as we’re setting the play in Georgian times,” says John.
The resulting play has this period setting but with modern dialogue. “The ‘temptation’ in the play’s story leads the highywayman John Swift to come back from fighting the war in France thinking, ‘how am I going to make a living?’, particularly in the rural north,” says John. “So we’re looking at ‘what would you do if you had nothin’ – and with all the wealth around him, there was a lot of thieving to be done.”
What happens in The Highwayman, John? “The narrative starts with the highwayman’s hanging, which is ‘not a great start to a play’ he says, so he takes us back to when he is about to be hanged. Did you know, many of these hangings were unsuccessful and people sometimes survived? Our highwayman survives and because he does so, he changes his outlook to longer rob and work the land instead, and work for Tate Wilkinson too,” he says.
“But things don’t go to plan as his wife, Molly May, likes to spend, so he he goes up the coast on a ship and comes back with lots of goblets but still not enough to satisfy Molly.”
His story arc takes in pirates, the Royal Navy and highwayman John being sentenced to death again, waiting in Newgate Prison to be hanged for a second time. In the meantime, Molly May progresses from a cottage industry, pressing flowers, to inventing scented candles and becoming extremely wealthy from the perfume business at Floris. Whereas he keeps on running out of luck, Molly May takes advantage of opportunistic entrepreneurship.
“It’s been great fun to research the play, finding things I wasn’t aware of, like when you were about to be hanged, you could request a song, though you had to pay for it” says John.
The play may have an historical setting but “it’s a parable for today, close to an allegory. It’s been fascinating to do because it’s very, very different from what I’ve done before, but people come up to me and day, ‘mate, it’s happening now’.”
Reflecting on the early months of the new Labour Government, John says: “I have always voted Labour but I think this might be the last time. I believe we have lost touch with what people who have nothing are feeling. Also, university student fees going up: what’s that going to do?
“I’m not a Trump fan, but what we’re seeing [in America] is a failing of liberal education and a failure to understand what people on the ground are feeling.”
Looking ahead, John’s daughter, Elizabeth, has arranged a John Godber Company tour next year of his hit Northern Soul play Do I Love You?, booked into York Theatre Royal for June 10 to 14 on its 22-week itinerary. For tickets, go to: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
John Godber Company presents The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, November 14 to 16, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday matinees, SOLD OUT. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
